# What does this mean?



## ambush80 (Apr 14, 2017)

Genesis 2:7 King James Version: "And 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."

Is it talking about when the soul enters the body?


----------



## Artfuldodger (Apr 14, 2017)

Some folks think God puts an already existing spirit in us. I don't believe that is what this verse is telling us. It's saying that God created man out of the same elements as the earth. That he more or less created us out of nothing or basic elements that already existed.

The rest of the verse is that God gave his creation life. It's just a fancy way of describing it. God being a spirit can't literally breath into one's nostrils. Yet he is the source of life. When he did this the inanimate body made of the same elements everything else is made of became a living soul or being. It has nothing to do with a spiritual soul. He gave man breath.(life)

became a living being.
became a living person.
became a living creature.
became a living soul.


----------



## ambush80 (Apr 14, 2017)

Artfuldodger said:


> Some folks think God puts an already existing spirit in us. I don't believe that is what this verse is telling us. It's saying that God created man out of the same elements as the earth. That he more or less created us out of nothing or basic elements that already existed.
> 
> The rest of the verse is that God gave his creation life. It's just a fancy way of describing it. God being a spirit can't literally breath into one's nostrils. Yet he is the source of life. When he did this the inanimate body made of the same elements everything else is made of became a living soul or being. It has nothing to do with a spiritual soul. He gave man breath.(life)
> 
> ...




Why not?

King James Bible

_Exodus 15:8
And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea._


----------



## hobbs27 (Apr 14, 2017)

ambush80 said:


> Genesis 2:7 King James Version: "And 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."
> 
> Is it talking about when the soul enters the body?



In the old testament,    soul is simply a living breathing body.  This changes in some places in the New Testament with language and cultural changes.


----------



## Artfuldodger (Apr 14, 2017)

ambush80 said:


> Why not?
> 
> King James Bible
> 
> ...



You're thinking of Anemoi or Old Man Wind.

Does the sea have a heart? Many descriptions of God in scripture give him physical attributes for us to picture the meaning of the story better. Such as the hands of God, the eyes of God, at the feet of God, etc.

So a mental picture of God as Old Man Wind blowing the waters apart forms a better picture in our minds.


----------



## Artfuldodger (Apr 14, 2017)

Job 12:10
In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

Job 27:3
as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,

or

as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

Interesting one having the spirit of God in his nostrils as a way of describing "breath."  But it isn't the Spirit of God in his nostrils.
I still think it's just describing breath meaning life. 

When one dies their ability to live and breath returns to God. Their spirit of God in their nostrils returns to God. It's just a way of explaining that God is taking their life back as he is the one of gave it.


----------



## gordon 2 (Apr 14, 2017)

ambush80 said:


> Genesis 2:7 King James Version: "And 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."
> 
> 
> 
> Is it talking about when the soul enters the body?



 This becoming a soul means the event when life spiritual and physical came into being as man--- as human beings are today. So at this point in creation is when God breathed life into the man we know today. Man is a spiritual being with spiritual life and with biological life formed from planet earth. In spiritual terms God is the creator of the autonomic nerve impulse that moves the chest diaphragm and the read between the lines diaphragm(s) in man's brain.


----------



## Artfuldodger (Apr 14, 2017)

Wait, I just read the other thread. I didn't know I was an expert.


----------



## Israel (Apr 15, 2017)

ambush80 said:


> Genesis 2:7 King James Version: "And 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."
> 
> Is it talking about when the soul enters the body?



The question you ask, or by the very nature of asking anything at all, prompts in me...a question. Is it because you see _a something_? 
Perhaps even a seeing of a thing (once) subtle that has, perhaps at one time, led to a general assumption...that now, by that seeing, has highlighted assumption, and by that highlight made assumption intolerable?
(And yes, I remember you said you saw the movie Arrival)


----------



## gordon 2 (Apr 15, 2017)

In Acts 17-28 Paul says something which pretty well sums up what spiritual people understand to be a soul.

28 For in Him ( God) we live and move and have our being.


----------



## ambush80 (Apr 16, 2017)

Israel said:


> The question you ask, or by the very nature of asking anything at all, prompts in me...a question. Is it because you see _a something_?
> Perhaps even a seeing of a thing (once) subtle that has, perhaps at one time, led to a general assumption...that now, by that seeing, has highlighted assumption, and by that highlight made assumption intolerable?
> (And yes, I remember you said you saw the movie Arrival)



What I see are words and now I see what some people think they mean.


----------



## ambush80 (Apr 16, 2017)

hobbs27 said:


> In the old testament,    soul is simply a living breathing body.  This changes in some places in the New Testament with language and cultural changes.



Where in the New Testament?


----------



## hobbs27 (Apr 16, 2017)

ambush80 said:


> Where did you have in mind?



Soul in kjv Gen. 2:7 
http://biblehub.com/text/genesis/2-7.htm
Throughout the old Testament Soul simply means a living breathing body. 

Most of the New Testament also means living breathing body (psyche)  , but there's a couple of places that living body and soul contrast with one another. 

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in heii.

There's another couple of places we found recently and I can't remember now,  but soul is represented as spirit in new testament sometimes.


----------



## Artfuldodger (Apr 16, 2017)

Maybe when we are saved our soul transfers from our flesh to our spirit. when it was part of our flesh, it would die. Now that it is part of our spirit, it lives forever.

Just thinking outside the box a bit. This thought just came to me. We were discussing what part of the body does sin originate. I don't know if this could be related to the OP as to what a living soul is.

I think it's as Hobbs suggests, it's just a living, breathing, person in the Old Testament.


----------



## marketgunner (Apr 16, 2017)

Can there be a "dead" soul?

Does every body have or are a "soul"?


----------



## Israel (Apr 17, 2017)

ambush80 said:


> What I see are words and now I see what some people think they mean.





			
				Marketgunner said:
			
		

> Can there be a "dead" soul?
> 
> Does every body have or are a "soul"?



Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” 

“Are you saying this on your own, Jesus asked, “or did others tell you about Me?” 

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?”…



> "And 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."



Man...

and man, becoming something

For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

So He said to them again, “Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.


----------



## gordon 2 (Apr 17, 2017)

marketgunner said:


> Can there be a "dead" soul?
> 
> Does every body have or are a "soul"?



Yes to all.


----------



## ambush80 (Apr 17, 2017)

So when does the soul enter the body?  At conception?


----------



## Artfuldodger (Apr 17, 2017)

If the soul is created then it doesn't "enter the body" as that would mean it pre-existed. 
I'm not sure when one's zygote gains a soul.


----------



## gordon 2 (Apr 18, 2017)

Don't forget that "living" as in living soul needs defining as in "alive to what?" regards the spiritual definition of soul.


----------



## formula1 (May 2, 2017)

*re:*

Simply talking about what man was formed of (dust), who formed him (God), and who made him alive (God).  A living soul refers to the life that was given to him by God.  The passage basically is pointing out that God gave life to every man and woman!


----------

