WHAT IS A SOUL? OLD TESTAMENT
BEFORE YOU WATCH:
How would you define what a “soul” is?
Why do you think it might be important to be able to define what a soul is?
AFTER YOU’VE WATCHED:
How is what the Old Testament teaches about a soul different or similar to how you defined it earlier?
If the literal word for soul means “throat”, what might that picture be telling us about our souls?
DOCUMENTS FOR DOWNLOAD:
There are a lot of ideas that come to mind when we hear the word “soul.” For most people, those ideas have been highly influenced by ancient Greek thinking. We tend to think of the soul as the spiritual part of us that lives on for eternity after our bodies die.
However, this is very different from what the Bible has to say about our souls.
We’re going to talk about what a soul is, and why it’s so important.
Let’s start with…
WHAT DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT SAY ABOUT OUR SOUL?
The Old Testament word in Hebrew for soul is “nepes” [nef-fesh]
The literal meaning of the word is “throat”. Our bodies depend on what comes in through our throat like air and food. Our throats are crucial to our being. The very first time this word shows up in the bible is in…
Genesis 2:7
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature [soul]
· Our soul is the combination of both the seen material parts and the unseen immaterial parts of ourselves. We see that when God forms flesh from the ground, and adds his Spirit to it, it becomes a “soul.” So, we learn that the soul includes both flesh and spirit. Next, in…
Genesis 46:15
15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah; altogether [souls together] his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three.
· The word soul is used as a synonym for a person, not just the unseen part of who we are. Soul is used as a wholistic description of us as people. We are souls. Another example is in…
Numbers 31:19
19 Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person [soul] and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day.
· Killing someone’s body is described as soul murder. The term soul includes the body.
When you take these particular passages from the Old Testament along with all the other passages about the soul, we come to the conclusion that…
WHEN THE OLD TESTAMENT TALKS ABOUT A SOUL: IT IS TALKING ABOUT THE WHOLE HUMAN BEING (BODY, APPETITES, DESIRES, MIND, THOUGHTS, AND EMOTIONS. BOTH THE SEEN MATERIAL PARTS OF US AND THE UNSEEN IMMATERIAL PARTS OF US)
In the New Testament, Jesus builds on this same understanding of the soul. In our next video we will see what Jesus had to say about our soul.
