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Well of God Index APPENDICES: Greek Thoughts on
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Eternal Life: Gift of God or Man's Inherent Nature?by Inge Anderson |
The Testimony of Scripture 1God Created Man Whole -- Not as Separable PartsAt man's creation, "the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being" (NIV) or "a living soul." (KJV)1 The Hebrew word nephesh, here translated as soul, refers to a "breathing creature, i.e. animal or (abstr.) vitality," according to Young's Concordance. Almost every instance of the English word soul occurring in the Old Testament is translated from this same Hebrew word here quite accurately translated as living being by the NIV. In fact, the NIV is fairly consistent in translating this Hebrew word as referring to individuals, rather than as "souls," which, to most modern ears, implies entities capable of existing independent of a body. The KJV, by contrast, fairly consistently translates nephesh as soul. In several texts, however, where heart is joined with nephesh the NIV translates it as "heart and soul."2 "But . . . you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul," (Deut 4:29 NIV) could just as easily be translated as "But . . . you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your being." The phrase "with all your heart and with all your being" is an example of parallelism, a literary device common in Hebrew literature. Scholars have named this as "synthetic" parallelism (to distinguish it from synonymous parallelism and antithetical parallelism), as the second phrase intensifies or adds to the first phrase. It does not necessarily imply a total distinction from the first phrase. Moreover, in a similar phrase in Deuteronomy 11: 18, "Fix these word of mine in your hearts and minds (NIV)," the word nephesh is translated as mind rather than soul. The Hebrews Saw Death as SleepThe doctrine of a soul as a separate entity is foreign to the Hebrew Scriptures. Instead of the English idiom "to pass away" (leaving room for the idea of passing to another state or place), meaning "to die," the Hebrews spoke of going to "sleep with the fathers." 3 Consistently, they used the metaphor of sleep for death.4 In a retributive prophecy against Babylon, the "King, whose name is the Lord Almighty" declares that "her governors, officers and warriors as well . . . will sleep forever and not awake."5 In harmony with the concept of unconsciousness in sleep, Psalm 146:4 states that "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the earth; on that very day his thoughts perish" (KJV) or "their plans come to nothing." The spirit that "departs" is the Hebrew ruwach, meaning wind or breath. Thus the KJV correctly translates the first part of the text as "When his breath goeth forth ... " Psalm 104: 29 makes clear that when the Lord takes away the ruwach, or breath, "they [the creatures of His creation] die and return to the dust."6 Jesus Referred to Physical Death as SleepJesus Himself consistently referred to death as sleep. He dismissed the mourners in Jairus's house by telling them that his daughter was not dead but only sleeping because he knew he would resurrect her.7 On the other hand, after He told the people, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep," and His disciples took Him to mean literal sleep, He told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead."8 Referring to a special resurrection of some of God's saints coincident with the resurrection of Jesus, Matthew writes that "the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised."9 When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he explained to them that as a result of abusing the Lord's supper many among them were "weak and sick" and several had "fallen asleep."10 He called the resurrected Christ the "first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep."11 And in teaching the believers to look forward to the resurrection, he referred to the intervening state as sleep.12 In contradiction to the teachings of Jesus, in the doctrine of the "immortal soul," death is anything but sleep; the soul, released from the body has no more need of sleep! According to most people's understanding of the soul apart from the body, the soul now knows more and is more alive than ever! Christians who base their beliefs on the Bible alone must decisively reject such heresy. Christ Resurrects the Sleeping Dead at His Second Coming
Here, in what many biblical scholars regard as the most ancient book of the Bible, we have an affirmation of the resurrection in the ringing words of Job who, though wishing for death in the depth of his suffering, could still look forward to the day when "You will call and I will answer you." While the Jews at the time of Christ (such as the Sadducees) may have lost and corrupted much of the truth originally entrusted to them, the resurrection was once the firm hope of all those who knew God. Though the Scriptures do not explicitly say so, it is most likely that Enoch who saw that "the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone"14 had the same vision as Paul revealed in his letters to the Thessalonians and Corinthians. To those in Thessalonica who were discouraged because some of their loved ones had died without seeing the second advent of Christ, Paul gave this assurance:
When Paul wrote the same reassuring truth to the Corinthians, he wrote, "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."15 This is consistent with the well-documented metaphor of death as a sleep. God gives breath and life to each person at birth. Death is a time of unconscious sleep until Jesus, the original Life-giver calls His own awake at His coming in the "first resurrection,"16 while the "rest of the dead" sleep on until they are resurrected to receive their judgment.17 Next: Jesus Is the Source of All Life References1) Genesis 2:7 2) Deuteronomy 4:29; 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 13:3, etc. 3) See Deuteronomy. 31: 16; 1 Ki. 11: 21 and the rest of the genealogies in Kings and Chronicles 4) See Job 7:21; 14:12, Ps. 13: 3; 76:5; 90:5; Jer. 51:39, 57 6) An interesting text, from the viewpoint of differences in translation is Job 27:3. The KJV translates it thus: "All the while my breath [neshahmah, a puff, wind, or breath] is in me, and the spirit [ruwach, wind or breath] of God is in my nostrils." The NIV translates it thus: "as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils . . ." This seems to be a clear example of synonymous parallelism, a device that, to Hebrew poetry, is what rhyme and other sound devices are to English poetry. "While my breath is in me" and "[while] the spirit of God is in my nostrils" are just two ways of saying, "While I have life." The parallelism adds emphasis to the thought and forms a kind of thought rhythm that creates beauty with words. 7) Mathew 9: 24 8) John 11: 11 - 14 9) Mathew. 27: 52 NKJV The NIV correctly translates this as "the bodies of many holy people who had died," but the word for had died is the same word koimaomai translated as sleep in other passages. (See Young's Concordance) 10) 1 Corinthians 11: 30 12) 1 Corinthians 15:51; 2 Thessalonians 4: 14 13) Job 42: 7 14) Jude 14, 15 16) See Revelation 20: 4, 5 John says that those "who had not worshiped the beast or his image ... came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years," while the rest of the dead did not. The last part of verse 5 calls this "the first resurrection." A "first resurrection" implies a "second resurrection." 17) Again, Revelation 20: 5 provides the key. Those who do not come to life in the first resurrection will come to life after the thousand years are completed. This is the second resurrection. And at the same time (when the thousand years are completed), Satan will be released from his "prison" (a prison of circumstance in that he had no one to deceive) "to deceive the nations" which have just been resurrected. |