Nephesh

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For other uses, see Nefesh (disambiguation).

Nephesh (נֶפֶש) is a Biblical Hebrew word which occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The word refers to the tangible aspects of life, and human beings and higher animals are both described as having a nephesh.[1][2][3] The Hebrew term נפש is literally "living being", although it is commonly rendered as soul in English translations.[4] A different view is that nephesh relates to being without the idea of life and that rather than having a nephesh a creation of God is a nephesh. In Genesis 2:7 the text is that Adam was not given a nephesh but "became a living nephesh." Nephesh then is better translated as person or being, seeing that Numbers 6:6 speaks of a dead body which in Hebrew is a nephesh mooth, a dead nephesh. [5]

Biblical use

The word nephesh occurs 754 times in the Hebrew Old Testament.[6][7][8] The first four times nephesh is used in the Bible, it is used exclusively to describe animals: Gen 1:20 (sea life), Gen 1:21 (sea life), Gen 1:24 (land creatures), Gen 1:30 (birds and land creatures). At Gen 2:7 nephesh is used as description of man.

Job 12:7-10 offers a distinct similarity between רוח (ruah) and נפׁש (nephesh): “In His hand is the life (nephesh) of every living thing and the spirit (ruah) of every human being.” Although this passage could indicate that only humans have a spirit, while animals are only imbued with life, Levison asserts that this passage actually implies that every living creature, including animals, is endowed with the spirit (ruah) of God.[9][10]

The Hebrew term, nephesh chayyah is often translated "living soul".[11] Chayyah alone is often translated living thing or animal.[12] The Hebrew word tsiyyi is translated wild animal.[13]

The Greek the word ψυχή (psyche) is the closest equivalent to the Hebrew nephesh.[14]

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See also

References

  1. ↑ Hoffman, Joel M. And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning, Chapter 4.
  2. ↑ biblehub.com, Nephesh
  3. ↑ ecclesia.org
  4. ↑ http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/nephesh.html biblestudytools.com lexicons, Hebrew word Nephesh use count]
  5. ↑ http://www.varady.org/prvSR/writings/biblical/thoushall.cfm
  6. ↑ The first occurrence of nephesh in the Bible is Gen. 1:20, "the moving creature that hath life (nephesh)".
  7. ↑ Dan. 3:64
  8. ↑ Job 12:10
  9. ↑ Archie T. Wright, “The Spirit in Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation: Examing John R. Levison’s Filled with the Spirit,” Pneuma 33(2011) 37.
  10. ↑ [1]
  11. ↑ biblehub.com, Living Creature
  12. ↑ Strong's Lexicon #2421b
  13. ↑ biblehub.com Strong's Concordance, tsiyyi
  14. ↑ Compare Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27; Also, SDA Bible Commentary (Review and Herald; Washington DC, 1960), Vol.8, Bible Dictionary, p.1037 notes "The usage of the Greek word psuche in the NT is similar to that of nephesh in the OT."
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Numbers come from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and Zondervan’s Exhaustive NIV Concordance.
  • Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (3 Volume Set), March, 1993, by Horst Balz
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