The Rich Man and Lazarus
-the intermediate state-
 

WHAT IS LIFE?

And if we ask what life is, the answer from God is given in Gen. 2:7:

�The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.�

So that the body apart from the spirit cannot be the man; and the spirit apart from the body is not the man; but it is the union of the two that makes �a living soul.� The Hebrew is nephesh chaiyah, translated soul of life or living soul. What it really means can be known only by observing how the Holy Spirit Himself uses it. In this very chapter (Gen. 2:19) it is used of the whole animate creation, generally; and is rendered  "living creature.� Four times it is used in the previous chapter (Gen. 1.):

1) In verse 20 it is used of �fishes,� and is translated �moving creature that hath life.�
2) In verse 21 it is used of the great sea monsters, and is translated �living creature.�
3) In verse 24 it is used of �cattle and beasts of the earth,� and is again rendered �living creature.�
4) In verse 30 it is used of �every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, and every living thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is (i.e. �to� which there is) life. Margin �Heb. living soul.�

Four times in chapter 9 it is also rendered �living creature,� and is used of �all flesh.� See verses 10, 12, 15, 16.

Twice in Leviticus 11 it is used: in verse 10 of all fishes, and is rendered �living thing.� In verse 46 of all beasts, birds, and fishes, and is translated �living creature.�

Only once (Gen. 2:7) when it is used of man, has it been translated �living soul� - as though it there meant something quite different altogether.

Surely one rendering should serve for all these passages, and thus enabled Bible students to learn what God teaches on this important subject.

This then is God's answer to our question, what is life? The teaching of Scripture is (as we have seen) that man consists of two parts: body and spirit; and that the union of these two makes a third thing, which is called �soul� or �living soul.� Hence the word �soul� is used of the whole personality; the living 'organism' e.g. Gen. 12:5:

Abram took Sarai his wife...and the souls (i.e. the persons) whom they had gotten in Haran.� (Genesis 12:5)
 �And Esau took his wives...and all the persons (margin. Hebrew - souls) of his house.� (Genesis 36:6)
�All the souls (i.e. persons) which came with Jacob into Egypt.�(Genesis 46"15.26)

 As persons, souls have blood:

 �In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents.�(Jeremiah 2:34)

Hence, souls (as persons) are said to be destroyed: Lev. 5:1, 2, 4, 15, 17; 6:2; 17:11, 12. Numbers 15:30. See also Joshua 10:20, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39.

The soul, being the person, is said to be bought and sold. See Lev. 22:11, and Rev. 18:13, where the word �soul� is used of slaves.

Hence, also, when the body returns to dust and the spirit returns to God, the person is called a �dead soul,� i.e. a dead person. That is why it says:

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4)
He spared not their soul from death. (Psalm 78:50)

What �the breath of life� is in Genesis 2:7, is explained for us in Gen. 7:22, where we read that every thing died, �all in whose nostrils was the breath of life.� Margin, �Hebrew - the breath of the spirit of life,� which is a still stronger expression, and is used of the whole animate creation that died in the flood.

But such are the exigencies of traditionalists, that often the word nephesh (soul) is actually rendered "body.

"Neither shall he go in to any dead body (Hebrew - soul) (Leviticus 21:11)
He shall come at no dead body (Hebrew - soul). (Numbers 6:6)

It is the same in Numbers 9:6,7,10; and 19:11, 13. It is also used of the "dead" in Leviticus 22:4 and Hagai 2:13. In none of these passages is there a word in the margin of either the A.V. or R.V. to indicate that the translators are thus rendering the Hebrew word nephesh (soul) by the word "body".

Again, Sheol is the Hebrew word used in the Old Testament for the grave, or death-state, and Hades is the corresponding Greek word for it in the New Testament. It is Hades in Luke 16:23; and not Gehenna, which means hell.

Hades a place of silence>           <What is Death?