the human soul, what is it?

[Sec]

[The human is made up of body and soul, the only spirit, is the Holy Spirit. That's it, there is no other answer,
no point in pushing your false theology any further.]

1 The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens,
and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.


I believe these verses says the spirit of man, not Gods spirit.

all man has this spirit, not all have Gods power of the Holy Spirit

As I explained, you are reading the understanding of the translator, not the author, the translator had NO clue what the spirit was, and the author did not understand it, because nobody could until today.

Man does not have a spirit, there is only one spirit, the Holy spirit, man is composed of body and soul, period !!

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God

 

[prove-all]

The author was inspired to write what he was told,

it does not mater if he understood it or not.


my translation is from kjv, yes translations can be wrong.


i can not read hebrew or greek yet.

what does the origanal language say ?

and why could no one understand untill today ?

 

[The_highwayman]

Let me use a Psalm to illustrate something about Bible interpretation: part of the 23 psalm
4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
That is from the KJV, which I prefer, but it is not correctly translated, in the Hebrew it does not read "thy rod and thy staff" and some translations, remove one of them because of that, the Hebrew word used to get the word "rod" is "shin,bet, teth, ending kaph " the Hebrew word for Rod, is written "mem, teth, he" now agreed, both words have a "teth" in them, but it is obvious, that the word for "rod" is not present. It is also the same main word for "Staff" I say "main" word, because this is what I call a "wild card word" Wild cards, because like deuces in poker they can be used for almost any word the translator needs, in order to come up with the translation he wants. The Hebrew word translated as "Staff" does not have "mem, teth, he" in it either. Unfortunatly, this is so common in Hebrew, and in the Greek, that most translators do not attempt to do word for word, they use a Lexicon, which is a book that makes the statement "we can't get the traditional understanding of the words out of them so this is what it says." It doesn't, and no one can translate it and get it to come anywhere close to what the traditional reading is. So forgive me if I don't drop on my knees and worship at the altar of alln knows how to read an English Bible, because some of the time it doesn't say in the English, what it says in the Hebrew. That is not a problem for me, because I KNOW There IS A God, which is why God revealed Himself to me, before He showed me this. I could tell you what it says in the original Hebrew, but you wouldn't understand it. The translators of the Bible did not have a clue what a "spirit" was and the translators, not the authors, are who you're dealing with in the English. To get to the author you have to dig into the Hebrew or Greek, and every teacher of Hebrew and Greek are hopelessly lost in the fantasy world of "Lexicon," as are all modern Hebrew speakers.
The human is made up of body and soul, the only spirit, is the Holy Spirit. That's it, there is no other answer, no point in pushing your false theology any further.

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God

Your wrong and the Bible clearly refutes you

 

[Sec]

Highwayman you're, not your. oh to finish, you're wrong, I proved it in my statement. your defense of a false theology is poorly thought out, poorly planned and poorly executed. After 18 years of extensive Biblical study, only one thing is clear in the Bible, and that is that NOTHING, is clear in the Bible.

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God

 

[Ukorin]

After 18 years of extensive Biblical study, only one thing is clear in the Bible, and that is that NOTHING, is clear in the Bible.

If the Word is not clear, then God is a deciever.

Also, 18 years is not extensive. I myself can claim 11 years of intense study, and would never claim superiority with it.
SolidGround has 32 years of nonstop study, and I have yet to hear him use that as a soapbox.

What I see in you is what I see in many in my youth group: the desperate need for differentiation from their peers to fulfill an inner desire to be found "special", "important", or at least "useful".
This is a heavy burden, and I see that it has weighed you down, and brought you into unfirm doctrine. The Epistles make it clear that we are to stay with the firm doctrines, and to not delve into mysticism and the doctrines of angels.

I am sorry to be blunt with you. It hurts me to see anyone struggling like this. I will pray that the Lord leads you to straight paths, and removes the veil from your eyes when it comes to Scripture, so that the Spirit can lead you rather than your own mind.

 

[know1]

It is actually simple. The human soul is your mind. Not your brain, that is the hardware, your mind, is the software that runs the brain, stores all your files (memories) and runs your body.
When you die, God, through the Holy Spirit, uploads your mind, which is composed of your consciousness, and all your memories, and saves it for the resurrection.

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
with knowledge on loan from God

I have come to a similar conclusion in my personal studies. I believe the soul of man is the conscious part of him, but not the mind. According to scripture, the mind is separate.
Mar 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
If the soul is the conscious part of man then what part controls the subconscious mind?

 

[know1]

As I explained, you are reading the understanding of the translator, not the author, the translator had NO clue what the spirit was, and the author did not understand it, because nobody could until today.

Man does not have a spirit, there is only one spirit, the Holy spirit, man is composed of body and soul, period !!

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God

You are very wrong on this one sir. There are many spirits, not just the Holy Spirit.
Man not only has a spirit but a heart as well.
Man is not body unless you count the heart as the body.
Man is made in the likeness of the triune God. The body is flesh, and our makeup is not flesh. When we die, we leave this body behind.
The spirit of man as a being or person, and has functions unique to the heart and soul. And in like manner, the heart and soul, also a being or person within us separate from each other, have unique functions that their counterparts don't.
The soul is a person, the heart is a person, the spirit of the man is a person.
The bible is very clear about man having a NEW MAN or HIDDEN MAN OF THE HEART, and so on.
In Ezek 26:36 God shows clearly that God put another spirit in us aside from His Spirit.

 

[4enlightment]

Let me use a Psalm to illustrate something about Bible interpretation: part of the 23 psalm
4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
That is from the KJV, which I prefer, but it is not correctly translated, in the Hebrew it does not read "thy rod and thy staff" and some translations, remove one of them because of that, the Hebrew word used to get the word "rod" is "shin,bet, teth, ending kaph " the Hebrew word for Rod, is written "mem, teth, he" now agreed, both words have a "teth" in them, but it is obvious, that the word for "rod" is not present. It is also the same main word for "Staff" I say "main" word, because this is what I call a "wild card word" Wild cards, because like deuces in poker they can be used for almost any word the translator needs, in order to come up with the translation he wants. The Hebrew word translated as "Staff" does not have "mem, teth, he" in it either. Unfortunatly, this is so common in Hebrew, and in the Greek, that most translators do not attempt to do word for word, they use a Lexicon, which is a book that makes the statement "we can't get the traditional understanding of the words out of them so this is what it says." It doesn't, and no one can translate it and get it to come anywhere close to what the traditional reading is. So forgive me if I don't drop on my knees and worship at the altar of alln knows how to read an English Bible, because some of the time it doesn't say in the English, what it says in the Hebrew. That is not a problem for me, because I KNOW There IS A God, which is why God revealed Himself to me, before He showed me this. I could tell you what it says in the original Hebrew, but you wouldn't understand it. The translators of the Bible did not have a clue what a "spirit" was and the translators, not the authors, are who you're dealing with in the English. To get to the author you have to dig into the Hebrew or Greek, and every teacher of Hebrew and Greek are hopelessly lost in the fantasy world of "Lexicon," as are all modern Hebrew speakers.
The human is made up of body and soul, the only spirit, is the Holy Spirit. That's it, there is no other answer, no point in pushing your false theology any further.

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God

The shepherd crook is the staff that the shepherd uses to help pull a sheep from out of the pits, and the rod is for to chase away the enemies like a wolf or any other type of predators. What they had called it during the time of David, that's what David was referring to these items, and which these items brings comfort to the sheep.

The Habiru

It was at this point in time that I discovered the Habiru. Even though I was a professional historian, I had never heard of them until I began to study Jewish history. A hot topic in the small world of “Biblical scholarship,” their existence had remained almost completely unknown to everyone else. For 100 years, archaeologists had been unearthing clay tablets in the Middle East which made reference to a group of people variously described as “Habiru” or "Apiru” in the scholarly literature. Hundreds of such references were found, all dating from the 2nd millenium BCE. None of these clay tablets discussed the Habiru at length but rather made reference to them in passing in some larger context. Sometimes the Habiru were described as mercenaries, other times as day laborers, yet other times as bandits. The Biblical scholars were in general agreement that the reality behind these different descriptions was that of bands of armed men, most of them fugitives, who camped on the outskirts of the more settled areas and made a living as best they could. References to such Habiru bands were found in many different parts of the Middle East, making it clear that they did not constitute a tribe or nation but rather a social class, one that was generally viewed by the scribes who mentioned them with a mixture of fear and contempt. http://www.newenglishreview.org/Robert_Wolfe/From_Habiru_to_Hebrews%3A_The_Roots_of_the_Jewish_Tradition/

During the time of the Patriarchs, shepherding was a noble occupation. Shepherds are mentioned early in Genesis 4:20 where Jabal is called the father of those living in tents and raising livestock. In nomadic societies, everyone—whether sheikh or slave—was a shepherd. The wealthy sons of Isaac and Jacob tended flocks (Genesis 30:29; 37:12). Jethro, the priest of Midian, employed his daughters as shepherdesses (Exodus 2:16).
When the twelve tribes of Israel migrated to Egypt, they encountered a lifestyle foreign to them. The Egyptians were agriculturalists. As farmers, they despised shepherding because sheep and goats meant death to crops. Battles between farmers and shepherds are as old as they are fierce. The first murder in history erupted from a farmer’s resentment of a shepherd (Genesis 4:1-8).
Egyptians considered sheep worthless for food and sacrifice. Egyptian art forms and historical records portray shepherds negatively. Neighboring Arabs—their enemy—were shepherds, and Egyptian hatred climaxed when shepherd kings seized Lower Egypt.
Pharaoh’s clean-shaven court looked down on the rugged shepherd sons of Jacob. Joseph matter-of-factly informed his brothers, “Every shepherd is detestable to the Egyptians” (Genesis 46:34).


Read more: Shepherd's Status - Resources - Eternal Perspective Ministries


Genesis 12:2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Luke 6:22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

The Biblical scholars are still trying to understand the ancient language which it is hard to learn when there is any teacher that know how to speak the language that Abraham had spoken. Even in this verse show that the people didn't know what language that Jesus was speaking at the cross, they were trying to decipher whether if He was trying to call on Elijah, because Eloi does sound like Elijah that if you doesn't know how to speak the language that Abraham had spoken.

33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).( This was interpret by the scribes of the time of His death)


35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”


Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Luke 16:23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

Luke 15:20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

 

[Mac4Yuma]

The soul both human and animal is the life in the body,this is the short version.
Mac.

 

[Allin]

The soul both human and animal is the life in the body,this is the short version.
Mac.

Yes, that's right. And both humans and animals have souls, just different types of souls.

 

[Allin]

I want to add this to the above as it relates to the soul of humans and of animals:

Solomon talks in Ecclesisates about the spirit of an animal, therefore, it seems like he is saying that animals have a spirit (without a soul or with a soul). But the Bible merges both words-- spirit and soul-- often, so it can be difficult to know what is actually being said. Here's a short version of what the Bible shows us regarding the matter of spirit, soul, and body as regards all living things, visible and invisible:

1. God is Three in One. From this pattern, He created the only other being that is also three in one: human beings. Only God and human beings are made up of three parts which is what it means to have been created in His Image. Though angels can take on flesh and evil spirits can take over a physical body, only a human being has a spirit, soul, and body all within the same package.

2. Angels, principalities & powers (both good and bad), and all other spirit beings can take on bodily form or invade bodies that are alive (humans, animals, and plant life) but are made up only of two parts: spirit and soul.

3. Animals are made up of two parts: body and soul.

4. Plant life is made up of two parts: body and soul.

5. Every created physical thing that is inanimate (rocks, etc.) is made of two parts: body and soul.

There are passages throughout the Bible for all the above. Just as a human's soul is different from God's soul, so an animal's soul is different from a human soul; so the soul of plant life is different from an animal's soul; so the soul of inanimate creation is different from the soul of plant life. The soul is where emotion and affection come from; it is also the center of language or speech. The Bible shows that animals can talk, that plant life speaks, that rocks can cry out, and that the whole Creation expresses emotions of sadness and joy. When God created earth, it says He created everything according to its kind, not just on the outside but also on the inside. It makes sense that God who gives life would create everything with life in it, and the life is in the soul. If anyone wants me to provide passages for the above, please ask.

 

[RickyZ]

I want to add this to the above as it relates to the soul of humans and of animals:

Solomon talks in Ecclesisates about the spirit of an animal, therefore, it seems like he is saying that animals have a spirit (without a soul or with a soul). But the Bible merges both words-- spirit and soul-- often, so it can be difficult to know what is actually being said. Here's a short version of what the Bible shows us regarding the matter of spirit, soul, and body as regards all living things, visible and invisible:

1. God is Three in One. From this pattern, He created the only other being that is also three in one: human beings. Only God and human beings are made up of three parts which is what it means to have been created in His Image. Though angels can take on flesh and evil spirits can take over a physical body, only a human being has a spirit, soul, and body all within the same package.

2. Angels, principalities & powers (both good and bad), and all other spirit beings can take on bodily form or invade bodies that are alive (humans, animals, and plant life) but are made up only of two parts: spirit and soul.

3. Animals are made up of two parts: body and soul.

4. Plant life is made up of two parts: body and soul.

5. Every created physical thing that is inanimate (rocks, etc.) is made of two parts: body and soul.

There are passages throughout the Bible for all the above. Just as a human's soul is different from God's soul, so an animal's soul is different from a human soul; so the soul of plant life is different from an animal's soul; so the soul of inanimate creation is different from the soul of plant life. The soul is where emotion and affection come from; it is also the center of language or speech. The Bible shows that animals can talk, that plant life speaks, that rocks can cry out, and that the whole Creation expresses emotions of sadness and joy. When God created earth, it says He created everything according to its kind, not just on the outside but also on the inside. It makes sense that God who gives life would create everything with life in it, and the life is in the soul. If anyone wants me to provide passages for the above, please ask.

I tend to believe what you are saying, but the scriptures would be nice to have to back it up.

Thanks

 

[Sec]

plant life, and rocks, do not have minds, no brain to store them in, therefore they have no soul.

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God

 

[Ukorin]

Are all souls actually angels, or just people? Or just some people?

 

[RickyZ]

plant life, and rocks, do not have minds, no brain to store them in, therefore they have no soul.

<><===><>
Gary Sechler
With knowledge on loan from God

And yet all creation groans... does it not require a soul to truly groan?

 

[RickyZ]

Are all souls actually angels, or just people? Or just some people?

Humans are tripart - they have flesh and spirit, and the soul is formed from the interface of the two. When the flesh dies the soul passes, to be restored on the other side by the marriage of the new flesh to your eternal spirit.

 

[Allin]

I tend to believe what you are saying, but the scriptures would be nice to have to back it up.

Thanks

Thanks for asking.

1. God is Three in One. Jesus distinguishes the Holy Spirit from Himself and the Father: "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (Jn. 14:26). Those are three very distinct Persons: the Father sends the Holy Spirit who reinforces and expounds on the teaching of Jesus. God created man in His own Image (tripartite) which made man "a little lower than the angels", and God "crowned him with glory and honor", putting "everything under his feet" and giving him rulership over all Creation (Ps. 8:5, Heb. 2:7): "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Thess. 5:23). Amen.

2. Angels (good and bad), evil spirits, and spirits have a soul and a spirit. They are spirit beings with souls (the emotions, life, attitudes, etc.) but no physical bodies. "Are not all angels ministering spirits" (Heb. 1:14) and "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).

3. Animals are made up of body and soul. The body is the animal's physical body; the soul is what allows animals to learn and understand! Some animals migrate to and fro and know what to do, when to hibernate, etc. This isn't something imprinted in their brains alone but in their souls. God made everything after its kind, so all act alike. If you see triplets (or more) or watch a litter of puppies or kittens, you will see that they all have different personalities or character and are often distinct from each other though all alike; the character or personality of human and animal are in/from a soul. The soul is where speech comes from also (or where speech is formed). In the instance of Balaam's donkey, it's noteworthy that the Bible doesn't say that the angel standing there spoke though he should have been the one to speak. (The donkey's ability to see the angel proves that the soul of an animal is a sort of spirit-soul union in one, because spirits are perceived only by or in the spirit.) The Bible doesn't say that God spoke through the donkey nor that the angel spoke through the donkey. It instead says that the donkey itself spoke, and the words that the Bible uses are telling: after Balaam abused the donkey several times for not obeying his orders, "then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, 'What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?'" (Num. 22:28.) "Opened the mouth" may be better translated as "loosed the tongue". Many changes went into effect at the time of the Fall.

Men and women can't understand each other because at the Fall, God caused a divide between them partially for safety purposes (knowing that both sides would use knowledge of each other against each other). At that time, He also caused a divide between humans and animals (for the same reasons, since we were now bent toward evil) so that where we once communicated with animals (in the Garden), we no longer can. (Some animals, I believe by God's wisdom and His constant desire to teach us His ways, still retain the ability to speak human languages though in limited measures: parrots, cockatoos, cockatiels, some dogs and cats, etc.) But God gives and doesn't take away: He didn't take away the ability of animals to communicate with humans (vice versa); He rather bound it (sort of detained it so it won't be used for evil which would be the natural fallen bent), and it will be restored when things become perfect again (maybe this is why the lion and lamb can lie down together in the future: they can finally talk and make peace treaties with each other. Lol). We know the communication is bound, because He recorded the Balaam instance to show us that the donkey's ability was always there but that He "opened (loosed) the mouth of the donkey". Balaam's response is also telling: rather than hopping off his talking donkey and skating off across the plain, he immediately replied to it that he hit it "because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!" Only madmen talk to animals like that today; but Balaam's reaction, and lack thereof, to a talking donkey says a significantly great deal.

4. Plant life is body (the plant) and soul (the life of the plant). Plant life is often described in the Bible as having soul life (the ability to feel, sing, rejoice, grieve, be sad, etc.): "You will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands" (Isa. 55:12). Amen.

5. All created inanimate objects have a body and soul. When the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke His disciples for basically calling Him the Messiah, Jesus responded, "I tell you, if they keep quiet the stones will cry out" (Lk. 19:40). Some translations say the stones He spoke of were not the ones out in nature but the ones that lined the street He was on. What He was saying there was that whether it was humans or trees or stones, something must praise Him because He is praiseworthy. We see this truth in Heaven where especially a certain class of angels praises God day and night every single second.

And of course, Paul said, "The earnest expectation of the Creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God... For we know that the whole Creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now" (Rom. 8:19, 22). The underlined words express the presence of a soul or will and desire. "The whole Creation" means every created thing inside and outside planet earth. They "labor... together" which means that where humans may not agree about peace on earth, etc., there is solidarity in the Creation, agreement for this earth and world be restored to the former peace (or a greater peace). "Until now" means they have been laboring or feeling the pain of sin since the Fall. There are many more passages for these if you need them.

 

[Mac4Yuma]

Yes, that's right. And both humans and animals have souls, just different types of souls.

Not a different kind of soul the same kind man has BUT man has a Spirit that they are born with and animals do not have such.

Mac.

 

[Allin]

Not a different kind of soul the same kind man has BUT man has a Spirit that they are born with and animals do not have such.

Mac.

It's a different kind of soul. The intelligence and desires are in the soul, and animals, plants, and humans have different types of intelligence and desires. God said He created everything according to its kind. However, when it comes to spirit, it is apparent that while animals don't have three parts like humans, their soul has within it a spiritual ability to perceive spirit, spirits, and spiritual things.

As for animals with souls but not spirits, Balaam's donkey didn't just perceive the presence of the angel; she saw the angel which requires spirit (because the angel was not yet visible; if he was visible, the donkey wouldn't need a spirit to see him). The whole Creation also perceives spiritual things, therefore, it is apparent that, as I told someone before, in spiritual mathematics, two can equal three and one can equal one thousand. I.e. while a human is three distinct parts, the rest of physical Creation, having just body and soul, also has spiritual ability. So, it looks something like this:

1. Human beings: body + soul + spirit is 3 = 1.

2. Animals: body + soul-spirit is 2 = 1.

Again, this is what we see in Eph. 4:11 where five ministries are named but some say there are only four. Are there five or four? Yes. Then in 1Cor. 12:28, only three ministries from Eph. 4:11 are named, but five more are added. Author Bob Sorge used to asked a 'which one is it' question and said that God would answer "Yes" to both. Is there one ministry or three or five or eight or thousands of ministries? Yes.

In short, this isn't something we in our own intelligence can break down. 1+1 never = 3 for us nor does 1 ever = 1,000 or 1,000 = 1. But in spiritual things, all of this is possible, therefore, to understand spiritual things, we must 'enter' or 'remain' in the spirit. They cannot be grasped from our natural intelligence. (1Cor. 2:13-14.)

 

[RickyZ]

Thanks for asking.

1. God is Three in One. Jesus distinguishes the Holy Spirit from Himself and the Father: "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (Jn. 14:26). Those are three very distinct Persons: the Father sends the Holy Spirit who reinforces and expounds on the teaching of Jesus. God created man in His own Image (tripartite) which made man "a little lower than the angels", and God "crowned him with glory and honor", putting "everything under his feet" and giving him rulership over all Creation (Ps. 8:5, Heb. 2:7): "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Thess. 5:23). Amen.

2. Angels (good and bad), evil spirits, and spirits have a soul and a spirit. They are spirit beings with souls (the emotions, life, attitudes, etc.) but no physical bodies. "Are not all angels ministering spirits" (Heb. 1:14) and "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).

3. Animals are made up of body and soul. The body is the animal's physical body; the soul is what allows animals to learn and understand! Some animals migrate to and fro and know what to do, when to hibernate, etc. This isn't something imprinted in their brains alone but in their souls. God made everything after its kind, so all act alike. If you see triplets (or more) or watch a litter of puppies or kittens, you will see that they all have different personalities or character and are often distinct from each other though all alike; the character or personality of human and animal are in/from a soul. The soul is where speech comes from also (or where speech is formed). In the instance of Balaam's donkey, it's noteworthy that the Bible doesn't say that the angel standing there spoke though he should have been the one to speak. (The donkey's ability to see the angel proves that the soul of an animal is a sort of spirit-soul union in one, because spirits are perceived only by or in the spirit.) The Bible doesn't say that God spoke through the donkey nor that the angel spoke through the donkey. It instead says that the donkey itself spoke, and the words that the Bible uses are telling: after Balaam abused the donkey several times for not obeying his orders, "then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, 'What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?'" (Num. 22:28.) "Opened the mouth" may be better translated as "loosed the tongue". Many changes went into effect at the time of the Fall.

Men and women can't understand each other because at the Fall, God caused a divide between them partially for safety purposes (knowing that both sides would use knowledge of each other against each other). At that time, He also caused a divide between humans and animals (for the same reasons, since we were now bent toward evil) so that where we once communicated with animals (in the Garden), we no longer can. (Some animals, I believe by God's wisdom and His constant desire to teach us His ways, still retain the ability to speak human languages though in limited measures: parrots, cockatoos, cockatiels, some dogs and cats, etc.) But God gives and doesn't take away: He didn't take away the ability of animals to communicate with humans (vice versa); He rather bound it (sort of detained it so it won't be used for evil which would be the natural fallen bent), and it will be restored when things become perfect again (maybe this is why the lion and lamb can lie down together in the future: they can finally talk and make peace treaties with each other. Lol). We know the communication is bound, because He recorded the Balaam instance to show us that the donkey's ability was always there but that He "opened (loosed) the mouth of the donkey". Balaam's response is also telling: rather than hopping off his talking donkey and skating off across the plain, he immediately replied to it that he hit it "because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!" Only madmen talk to animals like that today; but Balaam's reaction, and lack thereof, to a talking donkey says a significantly great deal.

4. Plant life is body (the plant) and soul (the life of the plant). Plant life is often described in the Bible as having soul life (the ability to feel, sing, rejoice, grieve, be sad, etc.): "You will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands" (Isa. 55:12). Amen.

5. All created inanimate objects have a body and soul. When the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke His disciples for basically calling Him the Messiah, Jesus responded, "I tell you, if they keep quiet the stones will cry out" (Lk. 19:40). Some translations say the stones He spoke of were not the ones out in nature but the ones that lined the street He was on. What He was saying there was that whether it was humans or trees or stones, something must praise Him because He is praiseworthy. We see this truth in Heaven where especially a certain class of angels praises God day and night every single second.

And of course, Paul said, "The earnest expectation of the Creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God... For we know that the whole Creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now" (Rom. 8:19, 22). The underlined words express the presence of a soul or will and desire. "The whole Creation" means every created thing inside and outside planet earth. They "labor... together" which means that where humans may not agree about peace on earth, etc., there is solidarity in the Creation, agreement for this earth and world be restored to the former peace (or a greater peace). "Until now" means they have been laboring or feeling the pain of sin since the Fall. There are many more passages for these if you need them.

I'm with you in that all creation has life; for all the good reasons you list above. It all groans for redemption and shall be redeemed, not just us. But I still hold that the soul is created by the interaction of the flesh and the spirit. The mind, which I agree is part of the soul, is a combination of a brain of flesh and a spirit that gives it life. The same goes with every other aspect of the soul. Ezekial 18:4, Ezekiel 18:20 the soul that sins shall die? Sin is of flesh - the flesh that dies in sin takes with it it's soul. But the flesh that accepts Christ, tho it dies it's soul lives on in the new spiritual 'flesh' made perfect by Christ.

All creation has flesh and spirit and therefore has a soul. It is only the flesh that dies in sin that looses it's soul. Without body and spirit, the soul dies too.