With Our Inquirers by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 1, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 27.

With Our Inquirers

By Editor

“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the word. Such questions only will be answered which, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

2545.—The Word “Soul.”

Will you be so kind as to define the word “soul”? Is it proper to use it in so many different forms? R. J. R.

The word “soul” in the Old Testament generally comes from the Hebrew word nephesh, that, from a primitive root meaning “to breathe.” That word is translated in the Old Testament by “any,” “appetite,” “beast,” “body,” “breath,” “creature,” “dead,” “desire,” “discontented,” “fish,” “ghost,” “greedy,” “he,” “heart,” “life,” “lust,” “man,” “mortally,” “one,” “own,” “person,” “pleasure,” “self,” “mind,” “slay,” “soul,” “tablet,” “they,” “thing,” “will,” etc., etc. This certainly is confusing. It would seem to any one that there ought to be a great deal more uniformity in the translation of the word nephesh; but it is never called immortal, deathless, or never dying. The Revised Version has endeavored to help this; but on the ground of not departing more than necessary from the Common Version, it has not been able to reduce greatly the number of English terms.

In the New Testament the word “soul” comes from psuche, from psucho, meaning “to breathe,” and is defined as the animal, sentient principle only, corresponding to the Hebrew nephesh. It is translated in the New Testament by the words: “heart,” “life,” “mind,” “soul,” “us,” and “you.” The term “soul” can generally, however, be held to these three meanings:

1. A person or persons. “Man became a living soul;” that is, a living person. Gen. 2:7. Eight souls were saved in the ark, that is, eight persons. 1 Peter 3:20. “Every living soul died in the sea;” that is, every living creature. In the same way we have “dead souls” spoken of in the Scriptures, that is, dead persons. For instance, in Num. 6:6 in our Common Version “dead body” is literally “dead soul.” Also in Num. 9:6, 7, 10; 19:11, 13, 16. All these texts clearly show the truth of the scripture, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

2. It may mean simply “life”—the life which every living creature has, the vital breath of the physical organism, as in 1 Kings 17:21, “Let this child’s soul come into him again.” A little before in the same chapter we read that there “was no breath left in him.” In other words, the vital breath was given back by the Lord. The same thought is in Matt. 16:26, “Gain the whole world and lose his own soul;” that is, “life,” so rendered in the Revised Version.

3. Sometimes “soul” is taken to stand for the emotions, affections, ambitions, etc., of the heart, as in Ps. 103:1, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” and many other passages.

It certainly will be seen that these three meanings are necessary, but these three will probably include all the others.

2546.—“What Shall This Man Do?”

Will you please explain John 21:21, 22? In the 21st verse what did Peter mean, and in verse 22, whom is Jesus talking about? Whom did He mean when He said: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me?” H. F. W.

Verse 20 tells us that Peter saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, and it was concerning this disciple that Peter asked, “What shall this man do?” This disciple was John, as he states in the 24th verse. The Lord had told Peter what to do—feed His sheep; feed His lambs; live for Him; teach His truth. Peter, with curiosity, like many at the present time, wanted to know about John. “Lord, what shall this man do?” Jesus did not tell him. He did not satisfy his curiosity; He as much as said, It is none of your affairs, Peter, as to what this man shall do, or what shall become of him; there is simply one thing for you to do—“Follow thou Me.” The answer that Jesus gave did not state anything at all. “If I will that he tarry till I come,” in other words, if it is My will that he live till I come again, “what is that to thee?” Note that John expressly says that Jesus did not say, “He shall not die,” but simply, “If I will that he tarry till I come;” in other words, He told Peter that his curiosity could not be satisfied. Peter was to die, John also was to serve Him even as Peter did. If John should die, that was the Master’s business; if he should live on till Christ came the second time, that was the Master’s business. That is all that is meant by it.

The one lesson, however, which we ought to get from it is this, that God gives us each work to do, and it is our privilege to know that work. If He gives our brother a different work than He does us, leave that with God; “to his own Master he standeth or falleth.”

2547.—Work on the Sabbath Day.

In the sixteenth chapter of Exodus we are told that the children of Israel should gather manna six days; on the seventh day, the Sabbath, they should not gather it, but remain in their place; implying that they should do no work. In Num. 15:32 we read that a man was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath day and they stoned him to death, showing there was a penalty for violating the Sabbath law. In Ex. 20:10 we are commanded: “Thou shalt not do any work.” The question is, Was this penalty removed? Does the taking away of the penalty change the law? If so, would that be a jot or tittle passed from the law? C. F.

God’s commandments are never designed to work hardship to humanity, but benefit. The Sabbath was made, not against man, but for man; not to be a cross, not to be a yoke of bondage, but always a helpful benefit. God does prohibit work upon that day—work for our own selfish purposes, or selfish pleasures, but He does not prohibit anything that is necessary for the maintenance of human existence or comfort. The prohibition, or the story in the fifteenth chapter of Numbers, was the story of not an ordinary transgression, not an infraction of the Sabbath law in order to meet one’s need, but a presumptuous sin. That is shown in the fact that Moses did not know what to do. He had to place the man in ward until the Lord had specially declared what ought to be done. Now if it had been given as a general law in Israel that men were to be stoned to death for building fires or cooking food, Moses would have known just what to do. But he did not understand this case. This one case is given to illustrate what is stated in verse 30, “The soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.”

In the warm weather of the wilderness journeying, the children of Israel needed no fires. Their food, given of God, was prepared the day before according to His direction; and to build fires during that time in the wilderness was presumptuous sin against God. We have no record whatever that the prohibition against fire-building had to do with any other part of their existence as a nation, save in the wilderness wandering.

Isa. 58:13 and the example of our Lord Himself as recorded in Matt. 12:1-12 and other places are God’s own divine comments on the meaning of the Sabbath law as given in Ex. 20:8-11. This shows that the work that should not be done is our own work, for our own profit and pleasure, but it also shows that the Lord does not ask us to deprive ourselves of necessary food, or that we should not do work that would minister to the needs of those who are sick and suffering.

The penalty of the transgression of all God’s laws is found in the very transgression itself. “The wages of sin is death.” “Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” The laws which God gave to Israel as a nation while in this world did not take from, nor add to, the spiritual law which is given to every soul upon earth. In the transgression of that spiritual law is death.

2548.—Baptized for the Dead. 1 Cor. 15:29.

One of our correspondents, G. W. G., suggests the following translation and comment from Martin Luther: “Else what shall it profit them who are baptized in the place of the dead; that is, the subjects of baptism were taken to the cemeteries and baptized there, thus showing their faith in the resurrection.”

Dr. Adam Clarke, whose comment we have before quoted, remarks: “(1) The doctrine of the resurrection of our Lord is a grand doctrine among the apostles; they considered and preached this as the demonstration of the fruits of the Gospel. (2) The multitudes which embraced Christianity became converts on the evidence of this resurrection. (3) This resurrection was considered the pledge and proof of the resurrection of all believers in Christ, to the possession of the same glory into which He had entered. (4) The baptism which they received they considered as an emblem of their natural death and resurrection. This doctrine St. Paul most pointedly preaches. Rom. 6:3-5. (5) It is evident from this that all who died in the faith of Christ died in the faith of the resurrection; and therefore cheerfully gave up their lives to death, as they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Heb. 10:34. (6) As is the body, so the members; those who were properly instructed, and embraced Christianity, believed that as all who had died in the faith of Christ should rise again, so they were baptized in the same faith.”

Then after referring to the martyrs and those who were living in imminent danger of death, baptism being used as an emblem of sufferings, Dr. Clarke sums up as follows: “If there be no resurrection of the dead, those who, in becoming Christians, expose themselves to all manner of privations, crosses, severe sufferings, and a violent death, can have no compensation, nor any motive sufficient to induce them to expose themselves to such miseries. But as they receive baptism as an emblem of death, in voluntarily going under the water; so they receive it as an emblem of the resurrection into eternal life, in coming up out of the water; thus they are baptized for the dead, in perfect faith of the resurrection. The three following verses seem to confirm this sense.”

2549.—Least in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Please explain Matt. 5:19. It would seem one could enter heaven even tho he did break the least command and teach men so. Which one could be considered least? B. A. M.

If our inquirer will read the text carefully he will see that it does not say that such ones will enter the kingdom of heaven, but “He shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” Those who look upon loyalty to God in the right way and who only are prepared to give correct estimation will estimate that man the least of all. The Syriac version renders: “Shall be called little in the kingdom of heaven.” Another version: “Shall be counted of no esteem in the kingdom of heaven.” Doctor Albert Barnes in his comment on the text declares that they “are unworthy of the kingdom of heaven,” and that is the thought of the text. Doctor Adam Clarke understands the meaning to be: “He who, by his mode of action, speaking, or explaining the word of God, sets the holy precept aside, or explains away its force and meaning, shall be called least—shall have no place in the kingdom of Christ here, nor in the kingdom of glory above. That this is the meaning of these words is certain enough from the following verses.”