Question | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 29, 1868

Question.

BRO. SMITH: Does the original of 1 Kings xvii, 21, 22, read the same as in our version? Does it read, Let this child’s soul come into him again? or, let the child’s life or breath come into him? Will you please answer this in the REVIEW? W. H. WILD.

ANSWER.

The Hebrew word translated soul, in 1 Kings xvii, 21, 22, is neh-phesh. Of its use in this passage, Parkhurst, author of a Greek and a Hebrew lexicon, says: “As a noun neh-phesh hath been supposed to signify the spiritual part of man, commonly called his soul. I must for myself confess that I can find no passage where it hath undoubtedly this meaning. Gen. xxxv, 18; 1 Kings xvii, 21, 22; Ps. xvi, 10, seem fairest for this signification. But may not neh-phesh in the three former passages, be more properly rendered breath, and in the last a breathing or animal frame.” To this testimony we may add that of Taylor, author of a Hebrew concordance, who says: “Neh-phesh signifies the animal life, or that principle by which every animal according to its kind lives.” It is translated life and lives 118 times. The corresponding Greek word in the N. T., is psuche, the primary meaning of which is life.