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NASB | Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth? |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knows if the spirit of man ascends upward and the spirit of the animal descends downward to the earth? |
Subject: Do animals have souls? |
Bible Note: Hi Country Girl, Confussion comes when we read or hear non-Biblical based ideas. The Bible clearly tells us what the soul is. Ge 2:7 "Man can to be a living soul". Man is a soul. Nothing is said about his "having" a soul. Don't you agree that if we have "believed" something that conflics with what the Bible says, then we would be confussed until atleast we re-evaluate our thinking. Notice what the Bible says: We notice that the initial occurrences of nephesh (Hebrew word for soul) are found at Genesis 1:20-23. On the fifth creative “day” God said: “‘Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls nephesh and let flying creatures fly over the earth . . . ’ And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul nephesh 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” nephesh is applied to the “domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth” as “living souls.”—Ge 1:24. Precisely the same Hebrew phrase used of the animal creation, namely, nephesh chaiyah (living soul), is applied to Adam, when, 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) As you say, man was distinct from the animal creation, but that distinction was not because he was a nephesh (soul) and they were not, nor because man wasn't to be offered as a sacrifice. Rather, the record shows that it was because man alone was created “in God’s image.” (Ge 1:26, 27) He was created with moral qualities like those of God, with power and wisdom far superior to the animals; hence he could have in subjection all the lower forms of creature life. (Ge 1:26, 28) Man’s organism was more complex, as well as more versatile, than that of the animals. (Compare 1Co 15:39.) Likewise, Adam had, but lost, the prospect of eternal life; this is never stated with regard to the creatures lower than man.—Ge 2:15-17; 3:22-24. After man’s creation, God’s instruction to him again used the term nephesh with regard to the animal creation, “everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul [literally, in which there is living soul (nephesh).” (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 psykhe to animals, as at Revelation 8:9; 16:3, where it is used of creatures in the sea. The Bible clearly shows that nephesh and psykhe are used to designate the animal creation lower than man. The same terms apply to man. email me if you have any question on this at tara015015@yahoo.com |