What is a soul?

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trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
10,684
794
113
#1
How would you define a soul:

a) theologically (biblically)

b) philosophically (theoretically)

c) biologically (how it can be seen in our material universe - for example in bodies), how would you show/prove it to an atheist
 
D

dalconn

Guest
#2
Gen 2:7
And God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


...whatever it is it only comes from one source
 
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Lucy-Pevensie

Senior Member
Dec 20, 2017
9,263
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#3
Do you mean soul or spirit?
 
Mar 28, 2016
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#4
How would you define a soul:

a) theologically (biblically)

b) philosophically (theoretically)

c) biologically (how it can be seen in our material universe - for example in bodies), how would you show/prove it to an atheist

Not one of those things a person van put his finger on other that God's finger.

I would suggest the soul is the communication authority between what a man thinks and does . In that way God is described as being of one mind and always does whatsoever His soul pleases .It is Him who does make our hearts soft, if they do become softer .

Two souls comune together as if they were one. (soul brother, soul sister ) With God the created soul that violates His soul or law , dies and the communication stops.. Guarded by the flaming double edged sword of the Spirit

Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

When new creatures are born again they receive a new spirit that will never die, a new softer heart and a new soul as a line of communication between them and our faithful Creator, not seen .

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The discerner again points to the sword of the Spirit it cuts both ways .To kill or heal as in open heart softening.

I would suggest looking as Ezekiel also to help understand the creating of a new soul

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.Eze 36:27

You could say I believe, as a imputed righteous as he does work in us to both will and do His god pleasure. .
 

MarcR

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2015
5,486
183
63
#7
In Hebrew both nefesh soul and ruach spirit are associated with the concept of wind or breath.

rouach, spirit denotes life force or empowerment.

nefesh, soul denotes will or decision making.
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
24,418
12,903
113
#8
How would you define a soul:

a) theologically (biblically)...
That's the only way to define the soul. YOU are your soul. If a person is saved their spirit (within the soul) is alive. If not, the spirit is dead, and body, soul, and spirit will face the Second Death (eternal damnation).
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#9
How would you define a soul:

a) theologically (biblically)

b) philosophically (theoretically)

c) biologically (how it can be seen in our material universe - for example in bodies), how would you show/prove it to an atheist
I believe the soul is the interface between the Spirit and the body. The Spirit is the breath of life God gives us and will return to Him upon our death. Our Soul only came into existence when we were conceived in our mothers womb and is our conscience....what psychologist call the ego...it is closely connected to our mind, our brain and nervous system.

Thought can be transferred through electrical impulses. We know our nervous system uses both electrical and chemical signals to communicate with the rest of our body.

Our Soul/spirit operates in a higher plane then the one we can observe and the laws of matter don't apply.

If you examine an atom the majority of it is "empty space" and only a small part is actually mass.

****

Our Soul makes decisions to follow God's will or be selfish and go a different path.
 

Deade

Called of God
Dec 17, 2017
16,724
10,530
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77
Vinita, Oklahoma, USA
yeshuaofisrael.org
#10
Gen 2:7
And God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


...whatever it is it only comes from one source

In Genesis 2:7 the word soul = H5315


נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
neh'-fesh

From H5314; properly a breathing creature, that is, animal or (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental): - any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, X dead (-ly), desire, X [dis-] contented, X fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart (-y), (hath, X jeopardy of) life (X in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortality, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (X she) will, X would have it.

Simply speaking a soul is an animal. We typically confuse soul with spirit = H7307

רוּחַ
rûach
roo'-akh

From H7306; wind; by resemblance breath, that is, a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions): - air, anger, blast, breath, X cool, courage, mind, X quarter, X side, spirit ([-ual]), tempest, X vain, ([whirl-]) wind (-y).
 
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trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
10,684
794
113
#11
So, how would you define soul for a materialist. Without quotations and lexicons.

Everything you mentioned can be explain on just natural basis (personality, decision making, energy).
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
24,418
12,903
113
#12
Simply speaking a soul is an animal.
According to Scriptures, the animals are clearly distinguished from mankind, or mankind is clearly distinguished from animals. God said "Let us make man is our image, after our likeness. And let them have DOMINION... (over all animals). Animals do not have spirits, which means they cannot communicate with God or understand spiritual things. However, Animists claim that animals have spirits, when these are simply evil spirits visiting Animists.
 
M

Miri

Guest
#13
Personally I think of my body as being this 5’ 1” of
stuff which allows me to run for the bus and trip up,
will or won’t fit into certain size clothes on demand
and which houses my gray cells, which I wished worked
better!

My soul is my personality, that part that laughs, cries,
comes up with funny strange replies and which
generally amuses people or rubs them up the
wrong way.

My spirit was dead but now it’s alive and allows me
to have a proper relationship with God. It’s a new
part of me and now I can work on that renewing
of the mind stuff - ie my soul.

My current body will be worm food some day but
I look forward to a nice perfect, fat free, illness free,
pain fee body some day.

Ps it would also be nice if my new body still
liked chocolate! :D
 

trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
10,684
794
113
#14
Dec 4, 2017
906
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0
#15
How would you define a soul:

a) theologically (biblically)

b) philosophically (theoretically)

c) biologically (how it can be seen in our material universe - for example in bodies), how would you show/prove it to an atheist
one of the most beautiful Creations of the Father of Lights.
A place where all the children of the Lord may be a witness and minister to the Son of God.

Blessings Always.
 
Dec 9, 2011
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#16
The soul Is the part of man that man can control like your mind,will power,personality,Its the part of us that we renew to the WORD of GOD after our spirits have been made perfect by GOD the spirit gives the body life.


Without a body we would have to leave earth.
 
J

joefizz

Guest
#17
Gen 2:7
And God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


...whatever it is it only comes from one source
Very good yes it is from God.
 
Mar 10, 2013
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13
0
#19
My concise definition of Soul is, EVERY part of a person that is not their body. This in my opinion is completely true and accurate to the word of Our God.

Soul and spirit are intrinsically combined. consider the example from the word, where the sword of the spirit is sharper than any two edged sword, capable of separating bone from marrow and spirit from soul. Think about bone and marrow. Just as the spirit is within the soul, the marrow is also within the bone. The point of that verse was to express the precision of the word, which is truth, and it is a very infinitely precise thing. But it also clearly shows, two things very hard to separate because one is contained within the other in both cases.

We know God as Father Son and Spirit. Literally SOUL BODY SPIRIT. As God's creation this is but one way we are created in his image. If you think of three circles, Our body is the outer shell, within our body is our soul, within our soul is our spirit. We all understand what our body is. Its the physical part of us, that is obvious. Our soul is everything else. It is our personality, it is who we are, what we think what we do, what we love what we hate, it is every choice we make and every decision. Our spirit, is actually everything that animates our body. It is described in the word as, blood, breath, heart beat, and also emotion. If you think of spirit as a path, or river, it is the flow of energy that our soul uses to interact with the world outside itself. Currently our spirit animates our bodies, and we use it every day we live, we use it to create and destroy and communicate, just as God does except God doesnt actually destroy, only corruption does that so, thats us and evil that do that part.



Now, considering what a soul is, it doesnt really matter if a person believes in God or not to understand, Soul is every part of us that is not physical and our spirit is within it. It is not spirit, it is not emotion, it is the essence of who we are. I can explain very clearly why emotion is spirit and show that from scripture, however this isnt within the scope of the op's questions.

All this being said, I really dont see much point in using soul or such discussions to try to show evidence to a non believer. The most powerful evidence is in God's word. Remember the parable of Lazarus? Its in a couple of the gospels. Luke chp 16 i think, the end of the chapter, The last verse of this parable is what brought me to God. It made me search and test and come to understand, the Bible has fulfilled prophecy that are accurate and can actually be proven in a court of law today. The verse is as follows: “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Scripture is the only written provable fulfilled prophetic book in this world. There are prophecies written of Jesus from nearly a thousand years prior to his birth, and with accuracy down to the day. This is simply not possible by any means we can prove, yet here is the evidence of it in scripture. We can prove when the books were written. We can prove the historical accuracy of the text. No power we know of besides the God that scripture describes can have such knowledge of events precisely and accurately before they happened. It is indeed more powerful than words spoken from a man who died and came back. Which by the way guys, if you had a friend who died, or family member, and they came back...imagine that. How freaky would that be. How powerful would those words be to you? What Jesus said is true, if they havent believed Moses and the prophets neither will they believe a man raised from the dead. When I deal with people who do not believe, first I get them to agree with me on things they do believe. I believe in and worship, TRUTH, LOVE, HUMILITY, LIFE and SPIRIT, because all of these IS GOD. IF you know the word you know in scripture you can find, God is truth, God is Love, God is humble, God is LIVE, God is SPirit, I can quote each of those verses if you need but you should each find them for yourselves.

May God's abundance of peace and love and joy be with each of you as you walk the path God has set before you doing HIs will in this world.
 
A

Ariel82

Guest
#20
[TABLE="class: maintext, width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: strongsnt"]4151 [e][/TD]
[TD="class: translit"]pneumati[/TD]
[TD="class: greek2"]πνεύματι[/TD]
[TD="class: eng"]spirit

Greek[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

psuché: breath, the soul
Original Word: ψυχή, ῆς, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: psuché
Phonetic Spelling: (psoo-khay')
Short Definition: the soul, life, self
Definition: (a) the vital breath, breath of life, (b) the human soul, (c) the soul as the seat of affections and will, (d) the self, (e) a human person, an individual.

http://biblehub.com/greek/5590.htm


5315 [e]
nap̄·šāh
[FONT=&quot]נַפְשָׁהּ֙[/FONT]
her soul
 
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