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SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 6, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 22.

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SCRIPTURE REFERENCES.

SOUL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

THE word soul, in the Old Testament, is translated principally from the Hebrew word, neh-phesh, which occurs 745 times, and is translated soul about 473 times.
Neh-phesh—Soul. The texts in which this word is translated soul are so numerous that we will not take space for them here. The reader, however, will have no difficulty in determining its use, when we state the fact that the word soul in every instance in the Old Testament comes from neh-phesh, with the following exceptions; Job xxx, 15, where soul comes from n'dee-vah, and Isa. lvii, 16, where it comes from n'shah-mah.
Appetite. Prov. xxiii, 2; Eccl. vi, 7. Total, twice.
Lust. Ps. lxxviii, 18; Ex. xv, 9. Total, twice.
Thing. Lev. xi, 10; Eze. xlvii, 9. Total, twice.
It is translated forty-three different ways. Besides the above, it is rendered by the various pronouns, and breath, beast, fish, creature, ghost, pleasure, desire, etc. Neh-phesh is never rendered spirit.
Neh-phesh in Gesenius' Heb. Lex. is defined as follows : "1. Breath. 2. The vital spirit, as the Greek psuche, and Latin anima, through which the body lives, i. e., the principle of life manifested in the breath." To this is also ascribed "whatever has respect to the sustenance of life by food and drink, and the contrary. Here the Eng. version often renders it by soul, but improperly." "3. The rational soul, mind, animus, as the seat of feelings, affections and emotions." "4. Concr., living thing, animal, in which is the neh-phesh, life."
Soul, in Job xxx, 15. "They pursue my soul [margin, my principal one] as the wind," is from the Hebrew word n'dee-vah which does not occur elsewhere in the Bible, and evidently has no such meaning as soul. Gesenius' Heb. Lexicon defines it thus : "Nobility; tropically, elevated and happy state, excellency."

SOUL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

The word soul in the New Testament is rendered from psuche, and that only, and occurs 105 times. It is translated soul, life, mind, heart, us, and you, as follows:—