What is the human soul according to the Bible?

What is the soul? It is the living, vital part of man, that thinks, desires, feels and loves, the power that directs all the movements of our bodies. If we only had a body, we should have no thinking, no speaking, no seeing, no hearing, and no loving, and what use would that be? But when the soul is in the body, how different everything is. We think, we desire, we speak, we see, we hear, we love. The Bible says, “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). Our every action is a proof that we have a soul, though invisible. How very favoured we are, and responsible, too, for this precious gift of life from God.

Man's constitution is defined in 1 Thess. 5:23 as "spirit, and soul, and body." (Observe the order, for careless folk frequently reverse it when making use of this text). Our English word "spirit" represents the Hebrew word "Ruach," and the Greek word "Pneuma." The spirit of man is the seat of his intelligence and judgement, and for this reason "Ruach" is sometimes rendered "mind and understanding." "What man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" (1 Cor. 2:11). These words show plainly the proper quality and functions of the human spirit. Our English word "soul" is the translation of the Hebrew word "Nephesh," and the Greek word "Psuche." The soul, as distinguished from the spirit, is the seat of the affections and desires. Various Scripture passages show that the soul loves, hates, and lusts. The body is, of course, the outer vessel by means of which the spirit and the soul manifest themselves. The word "mortal" is frequently applied in the Scriptures to the body (Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 4:11, etc.); but the body is the only part of men to which the term is ever applied by God. What is the significance of the divine inbreathing recorded in Gen. 2:7? The birds, fishes, and beasts were called into being by the word of God, but when the moment came for the creation of the man, something very different appears. "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

The body is not the whole man, for he is often said to be in it or absent from it, clothed with it or unclothed. Thus for faith the body is the clothing of the man, and his "tabernacle," which supposes an inhabitant. Paul has a vision of unutterable things, and does not know whether he was in the body or out of the body at the time he saw them. 2. In the language of sense man is identified with the body; for faith, with what dwells in it. The Lord lay in Joseph's tomb, yet confessedly His divine nature did not lie there. 3. Man is spirit and soul and body. 4. Spirit is not an universal principle floating in the atmosphere, but a separate entity in every individual, "spirit of man," "spirits of men." It was formed within him by the Lord, and all his knowledge is ascribed to it This spirit the beast has not. 5. The soul is not the body, but in the body. Beasts have and are living souls, and man is called a soul to distinguish him from the rest of intelligent creatures, who are called "spirits." The soul is the link also between the spirit and the body, the life of the latter while in connection with it; the seat of affection, nay, of appetite, lusts, etc. 6. It thus characterizes the man himself, so as to be identified with him, soul and person being used as the same thing, while in the intermediate disembodied state the general term for him is that he is a spirit. 7. Again the soul is that through which man was seduced and fell, and which characterizes the natural man as led by it. It is thus specially connected in Scripture with will and lust, with sin and with atonement. 8. By the possession of a spirit distinguishing him from beast man is in relationship with God, the Father and God of spirits, and is a moral, responsible being, made for eternity in contrast with the "beasts that perish."

Derived, as Genesis 2:7, informs us, from the inbreathing of the Creator, which raises him far above the beasts, which are said to have “soul” (Gen. 1:30, margin), man is the offspring of God (Acts 17:28), formed to have dominion, in the image and glory of God (1 Cor. 11:7), even though now fallen from his first estate. Man is linked with the inferior creatures by being, as they are, “a living soul,” and distinguished from angels, who are only “spirits” (Heb. 1:7, 14), but not “souls.” While man is alive in the body, he is a “soul” (see Ezek. 18:20 ; Lev. 5:2, 4; 7:20 , where the person—the individual—is clearly meant); when out of the body, he is then called a “spirit” (Heb. 12:23 ). It is the intermediate link between spirit and body, and the life of the latter. To it are ascribed the functions of loving (1 Sam.18:1), hating (2 Sam. 5:8), desiring (Job 23:13 ), longing (Ps. 84:2). Affections, appetites, desires belong to the soul. The soul is said to be the seat or spring of sin—“the sin of the soul” (Mic. 6:7)—for it atonement is said to be made (Lev. 17:11), and as it is by the soul needed, so by it is it made, as we read, “When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isa. 53:10-11).

“The spirit of man which is in him” (1 Cor. 2:11), “formed within him” (Zech. 12:1), a separate entity in each individual, his highest part, linking him with God, who is the “Father of spirits” (Heb. 12:9), and the “God of the spirits of all flesh” (Num. 16:22; 22:16), which is equivalent to saying, of all men (see Gen. 6:12; Luke 3:6), saved and unsaved. This “spirit” which animates and controls the bodily organism is from God Himself, and without it the body is “dead “ (James 2:26 ). At death it returns to God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7). In the case of the believer, it is received by the Lord Jesus (Acts 7:59 ), and exists in consciousness apart from the body (Heb. 12:23 ). To the spirit is ascribed the functions of intelligence, understanding, and judgment. It can “know “(1 Cor. 2:11 ), be “stirred” (Acts 17:16 ), be “provoked” (Ps. 106:33), while by it moral and spiritual qualities may be developed, such as a “right spirit” (Ps. 51:10), a “meek and quiet spirit” (1 Pet. 3:4). “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1: 47) tells of its capability of spiritual joy, while the Spirit of God bearing witness “with our spirit” (Rom. 8:16 ) tells of its capability for intercourse with the Divine.

Man is composed of soul and body, though in certain cases the term 'spirit' is added. Both soul and spirit are put in contrast to the body, as signifying the incorporeal part of man; but there is a distinction between soul and spirit. Soul is often employed to express the moral undying part of man's being, and it is used sometimes to signify the person: as "all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt," Gen. 46:26; "eight souls" were saved in the ark. 1 Peter 3:20. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezek. 18:4, 20.

Let us now briefly consider the human soul. The Hebrew word for ‘soul' in the Old Testament is Nephesh and the Greek equivalent in the New Testament is Psuche (often translated ‘life'). We find that the word Soul does not always allow such a clearly defined meaning as in the case of the word Spirit. Often it is used to indicate the middle part of man between the body and the spirit, but at other times it is used to describe the whole incorporeal part, i.e., soul and spirit together. Sometimes the term includes the whole individual—body, soul, and spirit. This corresponds with popular usage in which man is usually regarded as dual — body and soul — the spirit being included in the term ‘soul'.

It is not denied that a beast has a soul, and even a spirit: only the soul and the spirit, in this case, being simply animal, have an incomparably lower character. In man, personality, self-consciousness, will, is in the soul; capacity is by the spirit. Each has his own soul, and so is personally responsible. The spirit is faculty or power; and so John Baptist was to come in the spirit and power of Elias, not in any other's soul but his own. So all animals have a soul, and show it by a will of their own, as they have a spirit shown in the capacity of their species. Man only has a soul and a spirit immediately derived from God, which may be distinguished, but are inseparable. Hence, man's body only is treated in Scripture as mortal (Rom. 6:12, Rom. 8:11) — never his soul or his spirit. So we read in 2 Cor. 4:11 of "our mortal flesh": flesh, not spirit in man's case, is mortal, whatever may be true of a beast. Again, in 2 Cor. 5:4, "mortality,'' or "what is mortal," applies only to the body which will be swallowed up of life at Christ's coming.

("Soul and spirit" as thus named together can only be the two parts of the immaterial nature of man; which Scripture, in spite of what many think, everywhere clearly distinguishes from one another. The soul is the lower, sensitive, instinctive, emotional part, which, where not, as in man, penetrated with the light of the spirit, is simply animal; and which also, where man is not in the power of the Spirit of God, will still gravitate towards this. The spirit is intelligent and moral, that which knows human things (1 Cor. 2:11). In the "natural man," which is really the psychic man, the man soulled (1 Cor. 2:14), conscience, with its recognition of God, is in abeyance, and the mind itself becomes earthly. Important enough it is, therefore, to divide between "soul and spirit." "Joints and marrow" convey to us the difference between the external and the internal, the outward form and the essence hidden in it" Numerical Bible.)

Hebrews 4:12. Vol. III. 310. — I think that, where distinguished as here, "soul" and" spirit" refer respectively to the seat or source of the feelings, and of the intelligence. Every man has both soul and spirit, and they are so linked and close that the Word of God alone can rightly divide between their sometimes conflicting emotions and judgments. It judges all, searches into the thoughts and intents of the heart." But then we have Christ as our high priest interceding for us, and maintaining us in spite of the sifting process, according to the value of His work.

The Hebrew word commonly translated 'soul' is nephesh: in many instances this is translated 'life' in the A.V., as in Jonah 1:14; "Let us not perish for this man's life," or soul. In the N.T. the word ψυχή stands for both 'life' and 'soul:' "Whosoever will save his 'life' shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his 'life' for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own 'soul'? or what shall a man give in exchange for his 'soul'?" Matt. 16:25-26.

The soul, as distinguished from the spirit, is the seat of appetites and desires. The rich man said, "I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." Luke 12:19. That night his 'soul' was required of him. The salvation of the soul cannot be distinguished from the salvation of the person.