Nephesh ( ''nép̄eš'') is a

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...

word which occurs in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. The word refers to the aspects of

sentience Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings and sensations. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin '':wikt:sentientem, sentientem'' (a feeling), to distinguish it fro ...

, and human beings and other animals are both described as being nephesh. Plants, as an example of live organisms, are not referred in the Bible as being nephesh. The term is literally "soul", although it is commonly rendered as "life", "living being" and "creature" in English translations. One view is that nephesh relates to ''sentient being'' without the idea of life and that, rather than having a nephesh, a sentient creation of God ''is'' a nephesh. In the text is not that Adam was given a nephesh but that Adam "became a living nephesh." Nephesh when put with another word can detail aspects related to the concept of nephesh; with rûach ("spirit") it describes a part of mankind that is immaterial, like one's mind, emotions, will, intellect, personality, and conscience, as in .

Biblical use

The word nephesh occurs 754 times in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. The first four times nephesh is used in the Bible, it is used exclusively to describe animals: (sea life), (great sea life), (land creatures), (birds and land creatures). At nephesh is used as description of man. parallels the words רוח ('' ruah'') and נפׁש (''nephesh''): “In His hand is the life (''nephesh'') of every living thing and the spirit (''ruah'') of every human being.” The Hebrew term, ''nephesh chayyah'' is often translated "living soul". ''Chayyah'' alone is often translated living thing or animal. Often nephesh is used as ''saving your life'', nephesh then is referring to complete person's life as in Joshua 2:13; Isaiah 44:20; 1 Samuel 19:11; Psalm 6:5; 49:15; 72:13. In Greek, the word ψυχή (''

psyche Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή). Psyche may also refer to: Psychology * Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious * ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...

'') is the closest equivalent to the Hebrew ''nephesh''.Compare Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27; Also, SDA Bible Commentary (Review and Herald; Washington DC, 1960), Vol.8, Bible Dictionary, p.1037 notes "The usage of the Greek word psuche in the NT is similar to that of nephesh in the OT." In its turn, the Latin word for ψυχή is ''anima'', etymon of the word ''animal''.

References

* Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (3 Volume Set), March, 1993, by Horst Balz * A.B.Davidson (Professor of Hebrew & O.T. exegesis, Edinburgh), The Theology of the Old Testament, Edinburgh: T.& T. Clark, 1904/25, p.200-201 {{Sister bar, auto=1, voy=Hebrew phrasebook, wikt=Nephesh, s=he:Main Page, iw=he Hebrew words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible Christian anthropology Animals in the Bible Plants in the Bible

Biblical use

See also

References