“…then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Gen. 2:7 Rev. Elbf.
This is the story of the creation of human beings. “Dust from the ground” was the foundation that God used to form man. Then he breathed “breath of life” into his nose. After that it says: “so man became a living soul”.
What is man now? After this section, the answer is clear. Man is a “living soul”. He is much more, of course, but in this narrative that is the essential message. The Bible describes how man became a living soul when God formed his body from earth and breathed into him the breath of life. For many other topics these words are of fundamental importance, especially also for the understanding of life and death as described in the Bible.
Figures of speech
Several figures of speech are used in this sentence:
“The LORD God … breathed into his nostrils…”. This is the figure of speech anthropopatheia, wherein human attributes or actions are attributed to God. It is a figurative way of expression. This is the case here when God “breathes” into the nose of man. We know that God is spirit (John 4:24) and has no body. What happens was written down “humanized” and adapted to our understanding so that we can imagine something about it.
The figure of speech synecdoche describes something with the help of another expression. When our passage speaks of man becoming a “living soul,” the soul as a term stands for the whole man. Man became a soul and is that very essentially. This imprint of the soul is so predominant for the human being that it is summarized sweepingly under the term “soul”. In the same way, persons are called souls (Gen 12:5 Gen 14:21 and many more), or the soul stands in place of one’s own person (“Praise the LORD, my soul” Ps 103:1, which could also be described as “I praise the LORD with all my being” or “with all my humanity”).
What is man made of?
What is man made of now? In this passage in Genesis 2, two “ingredients” are mentioned: His body was formed from earth. The breath of the Spirit of life (Gen 7:21-22) is the spirit of life breathed into the body. More ingredients are not needed. For as soon as the breath of life was breathed into man by God, we read that man became a living soul. Thus, man did not receive a soul, but he became a soul. Soul is not an ingredient in creation, but soul is the result. It is the product, so to speak.
Body + life spirit = living soul
According to the Bible, the soul is formed when the body and the spirit of life come together. A well-known example of this is a light bulb. The light bulb is the body. The electric current is the spirit of life. Now, when the current flows through the bulb, it produces light and heat. Likewise, a living soul comes into being through the breath of life flowing through the body. Spirit is linked by the breath, and when someone blows out the last breath, the body dies and life disappears, just as the light and warmth of a light bulb disappear when the lamp breaks or the power is turned off. These processes are described in different words in Hebrew as well as in Greek also in the Bible in this way.
The “living soul” is what could also be described with the word “living being”. That is why animals are also described as living souls (Gen 1:20 Gen 1:21 Gen 1:24 Gen 1:30). For they also breathe and move (Gen 1:26 Gen 1:28). According to the order of biblical history, it was first the animals, then the human beings, who were created as living souls. So the soul is not something that applies specifically only to humans, or distinguishes us from animals, for example. Animals like humans are both living souls.
The “immortal soul” of the Greeks
The Bible has a different view of man than Greek philosophy, among others. Soul was something different for the Greeks than for the Hebrews. For them, the soul was the highest thing in man. According to Greek philosophy, man “has” (not “was”) a soul. And this soul was immortal. It is amazing how much of this thinking has found its way into Christian theology. It is quite common thought, even among Christians, that man is immortal (death is declared to be another form of life), even though this is in direct contradiction to the Bible. According to the Bible, only one has immortality today, namely Jesus Christ:
“Jesus Christ … who alone has immortality”.
1Tim 6:16
In the Bible, the soul is not the highest thing in man. Man himself is this living soul. Soul is what makes a person human, what shapes our existence today. Because man is alive, he feels and hears, smells, tastes and sees. Man absorbs all this through his senses with his body. These skills define us. We are just “living souls”. We should value this positively, but not overvalue it and certainly not declare it immortal.
Koehler/Baumgartner write in their standard work that the root of the Hebrew word for soul (hb. nephesh) is related to “to widen” and “to breathe”, as the throat widens to be able to breathe, in this sense also “to breathe up, to draw breath, to recover”, further “to breathe deeply, thus gullet opened for breathing, breath, soul, life, self”. Here it is already visible in the language how man became a living soul through the breath of life. They further describe the word nephesh as “breath, breath, what makes man and beast living creatures, Gen 1:20, soul (to be strictly distinguished from the concept of soul among the Greeks) .. .”.
(Koehler/Baumgartner, Lexicon in veteris testamenti libros, 1958, page 626. Emphasis added.)
Mental and spiritual
Let us think a little further about whether the soul is the most valuable thing in man. This sounds quite different in the Scriptures. According to the Bible, the soul is not that which is permanent. On the contrary – the spiritual is to be replaced by the spiritual. Spirit is permanent, soul is not.
“It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. Sown is in perishability, raised in imperishability! Sown in dishonor, raised in glory! Sown in weakness, raised in power! Sown is a spiritual body, raised is a spiritual body!
If there is a spiritual body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written: The first man, Adam, became a living soul, the last Adam became a vivifying spirit. However, the spiritual did not come first, but the soul, and then the spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, from the ground; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As he is of the earth, so are they of the earth; and as he is of the heavenly, so are they of the heavenly. And just as we bear the image of that of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the supernatural.”
1Cor 15:42-49 KNT
The resurrection body will no longer be characterized by soul, but by spirit. Paul emphasizes many differences here and makes it clear that our spiritual body, as we know it today, will one day be replaced by a spiritual body.
Man, who is determined by the soul, sees only what is before his eyes, is filled only with this world, only from his sensation. The person who, carried by God’s spirit, now puts the spiritual in the foreground, however, sees more. This difference is mentioned by Paul in Corinthians:
“But the spiritual man accepts nothing of the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot know them, since they can be explored only spiritually. The spiritually minded man indeed investigates everything, but he himself is not investigated by anyone who is spiritually minded.”
1Cor 2,14-16 KNT
The apostle is not concerned with our soul, but with our spirit.
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Rom 8:14
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Rom 8:16
The soul is what makes us human.
The soul has to do with perception, movement and sensory impressions, with feeling.
The soul is not the “highest” in man.
As living souls, we can live and be in this world. This cannot be appreciated highly enough. But we are in a limited world, we are mortal, we keep missing our target. It is good to always keep in mind that it is the spiritual things that matter, not the spiritual things. While both have their place, we gain much by learning to differentiate. As Paul sums it up over and over again:
“… that He [Christus] may give it to you – according to the riches of His glory – to become steadfast in the inner man through His Spirit in power, so that Christ may fully dwell in your hearts through faith”
Eph 3:16-17
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your dying bodies by His indwelling Spirit.”
Rom 8:11
