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The first usage of the word in connection with man is in Gen. 2: 7, and again the
passage, as it deals with creation, will be using the word in a primary sense, "man
became a living soul".
We note that the passage does not say that man received a soul, it says that man
became a living soul. Before the breath of lives entered his nostrils man was a lifeless
shape, formed of the dust of the earth. While man lives he is a living soul, and when he
dies Scripture says that he is a dead soul (Numb. 9: 6, 7, 10, rendered "dead body").
From this primitive meaning there are of course various derivations. The word soul
means an individual, a person (Exod. 1: 5; Gen. 14: 21).
While man himself, at his creation, is spoken of as becoming a living soul, Scripture
uses the expressions, "my soul", "thy soul", etc. This must not be taken to indicate some
separate entity, as would be understood if one said "my book", but is a figurative usage of
the word to convey the meaning "myself", "thyself".
Samson said, "Let me (Hebrew nephesh, my soul) die with the Philistines". He did
not use the word soul in a theological sense, he simply meant himself. Psalm 105: 18,
speaking of Joseph, says, "he (nephesh, his soul) was laid in iron". Job says in
36: 14, "they (their soul) die in youth". Isa. 5: 14 says, "Hell hath enlarged herself
(her soul)". The soul is associated with all the appetites, desires and functions of this
present life; with the feelings, affections, passions and mind. (See a good Concordance
for this, also Appendix 13 of Companion Bible, sections 5: and 6:).
The soul is connected with the blood, "for the life (soul) of the flesh is in the blood"
(Lev. 17: 11).
The N.T. usage of the equivalent word for soul is very much the same as that of the
O.T. Psuche is twice used of the lower creation, "The third part of the creatures which
were in the sea, and had life (soul) died" (Rev. 8: 9); "and every living soul died in the
sea" (16: 3). The word is used of the creation of Adam, and being an inspired comment
upon Gen. 2: 7 demands most careful attention.
"There is a natural body (soma psuchikon, a soul-ical body), there is also a spiritual
body, and so it hath been written, the first man Adam became a living soul, the last Adam
a life-giving spirit. . . . the first man was out of the earth earthy; the second man, out of
heaven" (I Cor. 15: 44-47).
Here it will be seen that the record of Gen. 2: 7 teaches not the spirituality of the
"soul", but rather the reverse.
"The natural (soul-ical) man receives not the things of the spirit of God" (I Cor. 2: 14).
Again, the word psuche stands for the natural life.
"Take no thought of your life (soul) what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet
for your body, what ye shall put on" (Matt. 6: 25).