The meaning of the original words "soul and spirit" in the Bible shows the error of the immortality of the soul.

The original-language terms (Hebrew: neʹphesh [נֶפֶשׁ]; Greek: psy·kheʹ [ψυχή]) as used in the Scriptures show "soul" to be a person, an animal, or the life that a person or an animal enjoys.

The connotations that the English word "soul" commonly carries in the minds of most people are not in agreement with the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words as used by the inspired Bible writers. This fact has steadily gained wider acknowledgment. Back in 1897, in the Journal of Biblical Literature (Vol. XVI, p. 30), Professor C. A. Briggs, as a result of detailed analysis of the use of neʹphesh, observed: "Soul in English usage at the present time conveys usually a very different meaning from נפש [neʹphesh] in Hebrew, and it is easy for the incautious reader to misinterpret."

More recently, when The Jewish Publication Society of America issued a new translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), the editor-in-chief, H. M. Orlinsky of Hebrew Union College, stated that the word "soul" had been virtually eliminated from this translation because "the Hebrew word in question here is 'Nefesh.'" He added: "Other translators have interpreted it to mean 'soul,' which is completely inaccurate. The Bible does not say we have a soul. 'Nefesh' is the person himself, his need for food, the very blood in his veins, his being." — The New York Times, October 12, 1962.

What is the origin of the teaching that the human soul is invisible and immortal?

The difficulty lies in the fact that the meanings popularly attached to the English word "soul" stem primarily, not from the Hebrew or Christian Greek Scriptures, but from ancient Greek philosophy—specifically, pagan religious thought. The Greek philosopher Plato, for example, quotes Socrates as saying: "The soul, . . . if it departs pure, dragging with it nothing of the body, . . . goes away into that which is like itself, into the invisible, divine, immortal, and wise, and when it arrives there it is happy, freed from error and folly and fear . . . and all the other human ills, and . . . lives in truth through all after time with the gods." — Phaedo, 80, D, E; 81, A.

In direct contrast with the Greek teaching of the psy·kheʹ (soul) as being immaterial, intangible, invisible, and immortal, the Scriptures show that both psy·kheʹ and neʹphesh, as used with reference to earthly creatures, refer to that which is material, tangible, visible, and mortal.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: "Nepes [neʹphesh] is a term of far greater extension than our 'soul,' signifying life (Ex 21.23; Dt 19.21) and its various vital manifestations: breathing (Gn 35.18; Jb 41.13[21]), blood [Gn 9.4; Dt 12.23; Ps 140(141).8], desire (2 Sm 3.21; Prv 23.2). The soul in the O[ld] T[estament] means not a part of man, but the whole man — man as a living being. Similarly, in the N[ew] T[estament] it signifies human life: the life of an individual, conscious subject (Mt 2.20; 6.25; Lk 12.22-23; 14.26; Jn 10.11, 15, 17; 13.37)." — 1967, Vol. XIII, p. 467.

The Roman Catholic translation, The New American Bible, in its "Glossary of Biblical Theology Terms" (pp. 27, 28), says: "In the New Testament, to 'save one's soul' (Mk 8:35) does not mean to save some 'spiritual' part of man, as opposed to his 'body' (in the Platonic sense) but the whole person with emphasis on the fact that the person is living, desiring, loving and willing, etc., in addition to being concrete and physical." — Edition published by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York, 1970.

Neʹphesh evidently comes from a root meaning "to breathe," and in a literal sense, it could be rendered as "a breather." Koehler and Baumgartner’s Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (Leiden, 1958, p. 627) defines it as: "the breathing substance, making man a[nd] animal living beings Gn 1, 20, the soul (strictly distinct from the greek notion of soul) the seat of which is the blood Gn 9, 4f Lv 17, 11 Dt 12, 23: (249 X) . . . soul = living being, individual, person."

As for the Greek word psy·kheʹ, Greek-English lexicons give definitions such as "life," "the conscious self or personality as the center of emotions, desires, and affections," and "a living being," showing that even in non-biblical Greek works the term was applied "of animals." Of course, such sources, treating primarily of classical Greek writings, include all the secular meanings that pagan Greek philosophers gave to the word, including "departed spirit," "the immaterial and immortal soul," "the spirit of the universe," and "the immaterial principle of movement and life." Evidently because some pagan philosophers taught that the soul emerged from the body at death, the term psy·kheʹ was also applied to the "butterfly or moth," which undergo a metamorphosis from caterpillar to winged creature. — Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, revised by H. Jones, 1968, pp. 2026, 2027; Donnegan’s New Greek and English Lexicon, 1836, p. 1404.

Ancient Greek writers applied psy·kheʹ in various inconsistent ways, heavily influenced by their personal and religious philosophies. Regarding Plato, to whose philosophy the common Western ideas about the "soul" are generally attributed, it is stated: "While he sometimes speaks of one of [the alleged] three parts of the soul, the 'intelligible,' as necessarily immortal, while the other two parts are mortal, he also speaks as if there were two souls in one body, one immortal and divine, the other mortal." — The Evangelical Quarterly, London, 1931, Vol. III, p. 121, "Thoughts on the Tripartite Theory of Human Nature," by A. McCaig.

In view of such inconsistency in non-biblical writings, it is essential to let the Scriptures speak for themselves, showing what the inspired writers meant by their use of psy·kheʹ as well as neʹphesh. Neʹphesh occurs 754 times in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Scriptures, while psy·kheʹ appears by itself 102 times in the Westcott and Hort text of the Christian Greek Scriptures, giving a total of 856 occurrences. This frequency makes possible a clear concept of the sense these terms conveyed to the minds of the inspired Bible writers. An examination shows that, while the scope of these terms is broad with various shades of meaning, there was no inconsistency, confusion, or disharmony among the Bible writers regarding man’s nature, unlike the contradictions found among the Grecian philosophers of the Classical Period.

Earth’s First Souls. The initial occurrences of neʹphesh are found at Genesis 1:20-23. On the fifth creative "day," God said: "'Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls [neʹphesh] and let flying creatures fly over the earth . . .' And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul [neʹphesh] that moves about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind." Similarly, on the sixth creative "day," neʹphesh is applied to the "domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth" as "living souls." — Ge 1:24.

After man’s creation, God’s instruction to him again used the term neʹphesh with regard to the animal creation: "everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul [literally, in which there is a living soul (neʹphesh)]." (Ge 1:30) Other examples of animals being so designated are found at Genesis 2:19; 9:10-16; Leviticus 11:10, 46; 24:18; Numbers 31:28; Ezekiel 47:9. Notably, the Christian Greek Scriptures coincide in applying the Greek psy·kheʹ to animals, as at Revelation 8:9 and 16:3, where it is used of creatures in the sea.

Thus, the Scriptures clearly show that neʹphesh and psy·kheʹ are used to designate the animal creation lower than man. The exact same terms apply to humans.

The Human Soul. Precisely the same Hebrew phrase used for the animal creation, namely, neʹphesh chai·yahʹ (living soul), is applied to Adam. After God formed man out of dust from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, "the man came to be a living soul." (Ge 2:7) Man was distinct from the animals, but that distinction was not because he was a neʹphesh (soul) and they were not. Rather, the record shows it was because man alone was created "in God’s image." (Ge 1:26, 27) He was endowed with moral qualities like those of God, with power and wisdom far superior to the animals; hence, he could hold in subjection all lower forms of creature life. (Ge 1:26, 28) Man’s organism was more complex and versatile than that of the animals (compare 1Co 15:39). Likewise, Adam had, but lost, the prospect of eternal life—a prospect never stated regarding creatures lower than man. — Ge 2:15-17; 3:22-24.

It is true that the account says 'God proceeded to blow into the man’s nostrils the breath of life,' whereas this is not explicitly stated in the brief summary of animal creation. Clearly, however, the account of the creation of man is much more detailed. Moreover, Genesis 7:21-23, in describing the Flood’s destruction of "all flesh" outside the ark, lists the animal creatures alongside mankind and says: "Everything in which the breath of the force of life was active in its nostrils, namely, all that were on the dry ground, died." Obviously, the breath of life sustaining animal creatures also originally came from the Creator, Jehovah God.

So, too, the "spirit" (Heb., ruʹach; Gr., pneuʹma), or life-force, of man is fundamentally the same active force found in animals, as shown by Ecclesiastes 3:19-21, which states that "they all have but one spirit [weruʹach]."

Soul — A Living Creature. As stated, man "came to be a living soul"; hence, man *was* a soul, he did not *have* an independent soul residing inside him. The apostle Paul shows that Christian teaching did not differ from the earlier Hebrew understanding, for he quotes Genesis 2:7, saying: "It is even so written: 'The first man Adam became a living soul [psy·khenʹ zoʹsan].' . . . The first man is out of the earth and made of dust." — 1Co 15:45-47.

The Genesis account shows that a living soul results from the combination of the earthly body with the breath of life. The expression "breath of the force of life [literally, breath of the spirit, or active force (ruʹach), of life]" (Ge 7:22) indicates that it is by breathing air that the life-force, or "spirit," in all creatures is sustained. This life-force animates the cells of the creature's body.

Since the term neʹphesh refers to the creature itself, we find the normal physical functions of fleshly creatures attributed to it. Neʹphesh (soul) is spoken of as eating flesh, fat, or blood (Le 7:18, 20, 25, 27; 17:10, 12, 15; De 23:24); being hungry for or craving food and drink (De 12:15, 20, 21; Ps 107:9; Pr 19:15; 27:7; Isa 29:8; 32:6; Mic 7:1); being made fat (Pr 11:25); fasting (Ps 35:13); touching unclean things, such as a dead body (Le 5:2; 7:21; 17:15; 22:6; Nu 19:13); being kidnapped (De 24:7); doing work (Le 23:30); being refreshed by cold water when tired (Pr 25:25); being purchased (Le 22:11; Eze 27:13); being given as a vow offering (Le 27:2); being put in irons (Ps 105:18); being sleepless (Ps 119:28); and struggling for breath (Jer 15:9).

In many texts, reference is made to "my soul," "his soul," "your soul," and so forth. This is because neʹphesh and psy·kheʹ can mean one’s own self as a soul, and can often be expressed in English by personal pronouns. Thus, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros (p. 627) shows that "my neʹphesh" means "I" (Ge 27:4, 25; Isa 1:14); "your neʹphesh" means "you" (Ge 27:19, 31; Isa 43:4; 51:23); and "his neʹphesh" means "he, himself" (Nu 30:2; Isa 53:10).

The Greek term psy·kheʹ is used similarly. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (1981, Vol. 4, p. 54) notes it can be used as "the equivalent of the personal pronoun, used for emphasis and effect: — 1st person, John 10:24 ('us'); Heb. 10:38; 2nd person, 2 Cor. 12:15; Heb. 13:17," and so forth.

Represents life as a creature. Both neʹphesh and psy·kheʹ are also used to mean life—not merely as an abstract force—but life as a concrete creature, human or animal.

Thus, when Rachel was giving birth to Benjamin, her neʹphesh ("soul," or life as a creature) went out from her and she died. (Ge 35:16-19) She ceased to be a living creature. Similarly, when the prophet Elijah performed a miracle regarding the dead son of the widow of Zarephath, the child’s neʹphesh ("soul") came back into him and "he came to life," becoming a living creature once again. — 1Ki 17:17-23.

Because a creature’s life is so inseparably connected with and dependent on blood (shed blood standing for the life of the person [Ge 4:10; 2Ki 9:26; Ps 9:12]), the Scriptures speak of the soul as being "in the blood." (Ge 9:4; Le 17:11, 14; De 12:23) This is, obviously, a figurative expression, inasmuch as the Scriptures also speak of the "blood of your souls" (Ge 9:5; compare Jer 2:34).

Notably, neʹphesh (soul) is never used with reference to vegetation created on the third day, since plants are bloodless.

Examples of the Greek psy·kheʹ meaning "life as a creature" can be found at Matthew 6:25; 10:39; 16:25, 26; Luke 12:20; John 10:11, 15; 13:37, 38; 15:13; Acts 20:10. Since God’s servants have the hope of a resurrection, they have the hope of living again as "souls," or living creatures. For that reason Jesus could say: "whoever loses his soul [his life as a creature] for the sake of me and the good news will save it. Really, of what benefit is it for a man to gain the whole world and to forfeit his soul?" (Mr 8:35-37) These texts clarify Jesus’ words at Matthew 10:28: "Do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." While men can kill the physical body, they cannot extinguish the person permanently, because they live in God’s memory and purpose (compare Lu 20:37, 38), and God will restore them through a resurrection. Loss of their "soul" is temporary, not permanent. — Compare Re 12:11.

Mortal and destructible. On the other hand, Matthew 10:28 states that God "can destroy both soul [psy·khenʹ] and body in Gehenna." This proves that psy·kheʹ does not refer to something inherently immortal. There is, in fact, not a single case in the entire Scriptures where the words neʹphesh or psy·kheʹ are modified by terms like immortal, indestructible, imperishable, or deathless. Instead, scores of texts speak of the soul as mortal and subject to death (Ge 19:19, 20; Nu 23:10; Jos 2:13, 14; Eze 18:4, 20; Mt 2:20; 26:38; Mr 3:4; Jas 5:20); as dying, being "cut off" or destroyed (Ge 17:14; Ex 12:15; Le 7:20; Ac 3:23; Re 16:3), whether by the sword (Jos 10:37; Eze 33:6) or by suffocation (Job 7:15); and as going down into Sheol (Job 33:22; Ps 89:48) or being delivered from it (Ps 16:10; Pr 23:14).

Dead soul. The expression "deceased or dead soul" also appears a number of times, meaning simply "a dead person." — Le 19:28; 21:1, 11; Nu 6:6; Hag 2:13.

Desire. At times, neʹphesh expresses the intense desire of an individual. Proverbs 13:2, for example, says of the treacherous that 'their very soul is violence,' meaning they are completely given over to violence. Israel’s false shepherds are called "dogs strong in soul[ful desire]," who know no satisfaction. — Isa 56:11, 12.

Serving With One’s Whole Soul. As shown, "soul" basically means the entire person. Yet certain texts exhort us to love and serve God with 'all our heart and all our soul' (De 4:29; 11:13), while Deuteronomy 6:5 says: "You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your vital force." Jesus added "with your whole mind." (Mr 12:30; Lu 10:27) Why are these facets distinguished if the soul embraces them all? To illustrate: A person might sell himself (his soul) into slavery, becoming the possession of his master. Yet he might not serve wholeheartedly, with true motivation to please him, failing to use his full physical strength or mental capacity for his master. Hence, these distinct facets are mentioned to focus our attention on giving comprehensive devotion to God. "Whole-souled" service involves the entire person—no capacity, intellect, or desire left out. — Compare Mt 5:28-30; Col 3:23, 24.

Why Are "Heart," "Soul," and "Mind" Distinguished?

Jesus, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). This section explains the distinctions between “heart,” “mind,” and “soul” based on the original biblical vocabulary.

Biblical Vocabulary

The Hebrew and Greek terms used in Deuteronomy and Matthew are as follows:

• Heart: לֵב (lev) / καρδία (kardia)
• Soul: נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) / ψυχή (psyche)
• Mind: — / διάνοια (dianoia)

The following table summarizes the biblical meaning and role of each element:

The Soul as the "Core of a Person"

The “soul” is not merely the seat of passing emotions or intellect, but a term that emphasizes a person’s absolute essence. For example, even if a clone were to share identical genetic information, each individual would still possess a distinct soul with unique thoughts, experiences, and a separate nature. The soul signifies something beyond the automatic functioning of the physical body—it reflects the ultimate core of human identity.

The roles of the “soul” in Scripture include:

• The source of life: “And man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)
• The seat of love, sorrow, and desire: Expressing deep personal longings (Psalm 42:5; Deuteronomy 12:20).
• The center of personal essence: “His soul was strongly attracted to her.” (Genesis 34:3)
• The ultimate object of salvation: “The saving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:39)

The soul encompasses the heart (personality, emotions, will) and the mind (reason, intellect), serving as the comprehensive core of human existence. If the soul is wounded, the entire person suffers; when the soul turns toward God, the heart and mind naturally follow.

Why List All Three?

The reason the Bible lists “heart,” “soul,” and “mind” together is because in this specific context, the soul signifies one's unique individuality, which has the capacity to direct all other human faculties. To love God with all one's soul is to respond with the absolute fullness of one's life, pouring out every internal resource, not just superficial feelings or passing thoughts.

Soul and Spirit Are Distinct. The “spirit” (Heb., ruʹach; Gr., pneuʹma) should not be confused with the “soul,” for they refer to different concepts. Hebrews 4:12 speaks of the Word of God as ‘piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and their marrow’ (compare also Php 1:27; 1Th 5:23). As demonstrated, the soul is the creature itself. The spirit, on the other hand, generally refers to the life-force that animates the living creature or soul.

Illustrating this distinction further is Paul’s discussion of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians. He contrasts “that which is physical [psy·khi·konʹ, literally, soulical]” with “that which is spiritual [pneu·ma·ti·konʹ].” He shows that Christians until death have a "soulical" body, like Adam; whereas, in the resurrection, anointed believers receive a spiritual body like the glorified Christ (1Co 15:42-49). Jude makes a similar comparison, speaking of “animalistic men [psy·khi·koiʹ, literally, soulical men], not having spirituality [literally, not having spirit].” — Jude 19.

God as Having a Soul. In view of the foregoing, scriptures where God speaks of “my soul” (Le 26:11, 30; Ps 24:4; Isa 42:1) are instances of anthropomorphic usage—attributing human characteristics to God to facilitate human understanding, just as when God is spoken of as having eyes or hands. By saying ‘my neʹphesh,’ Jehovah simply means “myself” or “my person,” since "God is a Spirit [Pneuʹma]." (Joh 4:24) (Source material cited here)