3500—The Word "Nephesh"
By Editor
In "Topical Bible Studies," published at your office, page 17, paragraph 2, we read, "Nephesh occurs in the Old Testament 745 times." Now I wish to know if the editor of this tract himself looked up these 745 occurrences of the word "nephesh" in the Old Testament, and if he is sure, and absolutely certain, that it does occur 745 times. As to how this was with the first editor of the tract we do not know. Later editors we are sure have not counted all the occurrences of the word. It is not an easy matter to do this; one needs an absolutely accurate concordance in order to do it, or else to read through the entire Hebrew Bible, marking its occurrences. We will, however, give you what is considered excellent authority: first, "The Companion Bible," issued by the Oxford Bible Company. They say that the word nephesh occurs 754 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The following classifications are given: (1) It is used of the lower animals only, in 22 passages, translated in 9 different ways: creature, thing, life, the life, beast, the soul, breath, fish, her. (2) It is used of the lower animals and man, in 7 passages, rendered in 3 different ways: creature, the life, soul. (3) It is used of man as an individual person, in 53 passages, translated by 6 different words: soul, person, persons, any, man, and; and in one case (Num. 31:35) not rendered. (4) Of man as exercising certain powers or performing certain acts, in 96 passages, with 11 different renderings: soul, man, any, one, yourselves, person, themselves, himself, he, herself, Himself. (5) Of man as possessing animal appetite and desires, in 22 passages, in 5 different ways: soul, pleasure, lust, appetite, greedy. (6) Of man as exercising mental faculties, and manifesting certain feelings, affections, and passions, in 231 passages, rendered in 20 different ways: soul, mind, heart, hearty, will, desire, pleasure, lust, angry, discontented, thyself, myself, he, his own, him, himself, herself, yourselves, man, so would we have it. (7) Of man as being cut off by God and as being slain or killed by man, in 54 passages, in 8 different ways: soul, person, any, any person, him, mortally, life, thee. (8) Of man as being mortal, subject of death of various kinds, from which it can be saved and delivered and life prolonged, in 243 passages, in 11 different ways: soul, life (lives), ghost, person, tablets, deadly, himself, me, they, themselves, yourselves. (9) Of man as actually dead, in 13 passages, in 3 different ways: the dead, dead body, body. (10) In 13 passages all rendered "soul," as going to a place described by 4 different words: the grave, grave, hell, pit. This seems to be as accurate as any list we have found, as the passage is given in every instance in which the word occurs. Upon this we think our inquirer can depend.