Gen 2:7
...the LORD God...
Breathed "INTO" his nostrils the "Breath of Life"
A SOUL, IS MADE BY God. And HAS Gods LIFE in it.
A LIVING SOUL, IN a man, the "man" is Living.
A LIVING SOUL, OUT of a man, the "man",
(Formed body) IS physically dead.
A body and soul, are called by the SAME identity. (Name).
A body IS the mans. It's form comes from Dust. It's Life is it's Blood. It comes into a LIVING State, when God gives the body Life.
God gives the body LIFE (Gods life, ie His Breath), via a SOUL with Gods Life in the SOUL)
God IS Life.
All souls are MADE BY God.
All souls BELONG to God.
All Living souls IN a body, the body is Living.
All Living souls DEPARTED out of the body,
The body is physically dead.
The departed Living Soul, continues Living, (until such time God departs His Life out of the soul).
God Bless,
Taken
Sorry but as Barney stated the "
breath of life" is not the soul, it is simply the power of life which comes from the source of all life.
One more time let us walk through this, the scriptures are quite clear on the issue of the soul, i.e. what it is, and what it consist of.
Gen 2:7, with Strong’s numbers added.
“
And the LORD <3068>
God <430>
formed <3335>
man <120>
[of] the dust <6083>
of <4480>
the ground <127>,
and breathed <5301
> into his nostrils <639>
the breath <5397>
of life <2416>;
and man <120>
became a living <2416>
soul <5315>”
This scripture shows quite clearly that there are
TWO elements necessary to the composition of a living soul or sentient being:
1) First we have the organism or body, which the Word of the Lord states He formed of dust from the ground (soil, earth),
2) And secondly He breathed into the nostrils of that formed organism the
spirit of life, called the "
breath of life," Once these two elements were joined, and only then did the man
BECOME a living soul (or individual).
“This is very simple, and easily understood. It shows that
the body (or organism) is not the soul,
nor is the spirit or breath of life the soul; but that when these two were united by the Lord, the resultant quality or condition was a living man, a living being or soul, possessed of perceptive powers.” There is nothing mysterious or complicated about this to one who uses his God given ability to reason things out.
“
And so it is written, the first man Adam WAS MADE a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”
1 Cor 15:45
This scripture also, clearly states that the first man
WAS MADE or
BECAME a living soul, no mention is made of a soul (some sort of separate entity) being placed into the man.
The confusion with many, seems to be that some have misinterpreted the “
breath of life” as representing the [soul] that was communicated to man, however you need to read
Genesis 2:7 over and over again several times, to get the proper thought.
The “
breath of life” was infused into the lifeless form of dust, and the two
united produced a living sentient being,
a living SOUL.
Let us now break it down and examine some of the words and their particular meanings as they are used in our text of scripture.
“
And the Lord God formed (“
yatsar” Strong’s # 3335,
fashion, framed, as a potter with clay)
MAN (“
adam” Strong’s # 120,
a human being, an individual)
Of the DUST (“
aphar” Strong’s # 6083,
clay, earth, mud, mortar)
Of the GROUND (“
adamah” Strong’s # 127,
soil [from its general redness], earth)
And breathed into his nostrils (“
naphach” Strong’s # 5301,
inflate, kindle, [impart, communicate], breath)
The breath (“
neshamah” Strong’s # 5397,
a puff, i.e. wind, vital breath, spirit)
Of LIFE (“
caiyah” Strong’s # 2416,
alive, a living thing, creature, and from Strong’s # 2421,
to live, life, quicken, and from Strong’s # 7307, “
ruach”,
wind; by resemblance, breath, figuratively, life)
Note that the Hebrew word here is used in the masculine sense, and is thus
PLURAL, i.e. the “
breath of lives”, the same breath common to every living creature, as is noted in the following, (
Eccl. 3: 21)
"
Who knows [who can prove] that the spirit [ruach-- spirit of life] of man goes upward and that the spirit [ruach--spirit of life] of the beast goes downward to the earth?"
Solomon's answers his own question in the preceding verses, saying: "
That which befalls the sons of men [death] befalls beasts; even one [the same] thing befalls them: as the one dies so dies the other; yea they have all one breath [ruach--spirit of life, breath of life]; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast"
(
Also compare Gen 6:17; 7:15, 22, 23)
The difference between Adam and the other creatures is not in the
breath, or
spirit of lives. Man has the same kind of spirit of life. However, the difference is in that man has a finer organism.
And man became (“The New Oxford American Dictionary”, a past participle of become, begin to be, turn into. “Made”, made to be, formed in a particular place or by a particular process)
A living soul ( “
nephesh” Strong’s # 5315,
a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental),
a person or individual, self) And as we had previously stated in another post (under the thread “Our Soul”), the term “
living soul” as used in the Hebrew language, applies equally well to the lower animal creation as well, as can readily be seen by a careful examination of several texts found in Genesis (
Gen 1:21,30; 2:19; 9:3,4,9,10)
Note that this scripture clearly states, that man
BECAME a living soul, NOT that man was given a soul, the thing that was given or imparted to man was the “
breath or spirit of life” the
SAME, which is given to all the lower creation.
“
The spirit of God (i.e. the invisible influence or power)
hath made me (formed me),
and the breath (or “spirit”)
of the Almighty hath given me life.” (
Job 33:4)
Literally speaking, Job had the “
spark of life”, which came from the Life Giver Himself, God, imparted to him through his parents at conception, this was the beginning of the creature, and upon birth, God breathed into his nostrils the “
breath of life” and he became a living soul.
First you have the creation of the organism, “
Thy hands (power)
have made me, and fashioned me together roundabout; thou has made me as the clay.”
Job 10:8, 9 and secondly upon birth you have infusion of “
wind”, “
breath”
of life, thus we have a soul.
