Nephesh in the Rest of the Hebrew Scriptures (2): Sellers on the Soul—Part VIII

[Previous installments: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII.]

Sellers notes how the King James translators, who knew that the Hebrew for “life” is ח (chay), not נֶֽפֶשׁ (nephesh), nevertheless often translated the latter as “life.” Perhaps they feared rendering it “soul ” would expose the absurdity of their commitment to a quasiplatonic (nonbiblical) notion of the soul as a substance that temporarily inhabits the body. For example:

Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life (נַפְשְׁךָ֔, naphsheka) as the life (נַפְשְׁךָ֔, kenephesh) of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. 1 Kings 19:2-3

That is, Sellers writes, “Elijah had slain the prophets of Baal, and Ahab threatened to make the soul of Elijah as the soul of one of them. Elijah flees in order to save his soul”—the very center of his experience of life—”from such a fate.”

In 1 and 2 Chronicles נֶֽפֶשׁ (nephesh) occurs nine times, and eight times King James’ translators rendered it “soul”; when to 1 Chronicles 5:21, they left it untranslated:

And they took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand, and of (וְנֶ֥פֶשׁ, wenephesh) men (אָדָ֖ם, adam) an hundred thousand.

“In a number of these passages,” Sellers notes, “heart and soul are used together, but heart always comes first. The heart is connected with the motives and the soul with the actions. God’s ideal is perfect actions springing from perfect motives.”

“God breathed the word nephesh (נֶֽפֶשׁ) six times in the Book of Esther”—4:13, 7:3, 7:7, 8:11, 9:16, 9:31—“but who would know this from reading the Authorized [i.e., the King James] Version?,” Sellers asks. In the Book of Job, he finds the translators alternating between “soul” and “life” even when “soul” as that which is capable of delight is obviously meant.

It will be a surprise to many to discover in this familiar passage [Job 2:4] that Satan said, “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his soul (נַפְשֽׁוֹ, napshaw).” All Job’s possessions were gone, but he still had power to enjoy his food, his rest, his life, his God. Satan’s reasoning is that if Job’s power to enjoy these is removed, he will curse God.

The KJV for Job 2:6 is “And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life,” that is, his soul (נַפְשׁ֥וֹ, naphshaw). “Satan is permitted to touch Job’s soul until every sensation and experience that should be sweet becomes bitter, but he is not permitted to destroy Job’s soul,” that is, his capacity for enjoyment.

Sellers finds the KJV version of Job 10:1 instructive: “My soul (נַפְשִׁ֗י, naphsi) is weary of my life (בְּחַ֫יָּ֥י, behayyay; root: ח [chay]). I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (נַפְשִֽׁי, naphshi).”

This passage proves beyond all question that nephesh does not mean life. If so, we would have Job saying, “My life is weary of my life.” In this verse the word life is used in relationship to Job’s conscious existence more than in relationship to what God gave. Job was weary of the things that came upon him that made up his unhappy life.

In What Is the Soul?, the subject of this series of posts, Sellers cites all of the many occurrences of נֶֽפֶשׁ (nephesh) in the Psalms, too many for us to address here.

The word nephesh occurs 144 times in the Psalms, and it is translated “soul” 133 times. In the eleven remaining occurrences it is translated nine different ways. There can be no defense of this, and such translating cannot be justified.

He calls attention to five of those other ways.

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 16:10.

Sellers bids the reader to consult his “notes on Acts 2:27 for the exposition of this passage” later in What Is the Soul?, that is, when he studies the occurrences of ψυχή (psyche), the Greek equivalent of נֶֽפֶשׁ (nephesh). As he puts it, “the Holy Spirit uses these two words interchangeably, a fact that would overrule the contrary opinion of any scholar.” (See my posts on what Sellers calls the “divine interchange principle.”) In Acts 2:27 the Apostle Peter’s cites Psalm 16:10, but the “full exposition of this passage does not come under the question of ‘What is the Soul?’ … it properly belongs to the question, ‘What is sheol or hades?’ My present treatise concerns the soul.” Sellers does, however, drop a hint:

The Lord Jesus Christ had life in Himself. Just as the Father had life in Himself, even so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself. (John 5:26) This life was His spirit. On the Cross He commended His spirit into the hands of the Father, and we are told that He gave up His spirit. (Luke 23:46) His body was placed in Joseph’s tomb. From this many deduce that His spirit went to God, His body to the grave and His soul to sheol or hades. But those who affirm this hesitate to give any definition of the soul. They are confident that it represented the real man the true man. Yet they would not dare say that the spirit and the body were not essential parts of the man Christ Jesus.

That will have to do until we can take up Sellers’s other studies.

Psalm 17:9 in the KJV reads:

From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly (בְּ֝נֶ֗פֶשׁ, benephesh) enemies, who compass me about.

The root of the Hebrew word for “my deadly” is נֶֽפֶשׁ (nephesh). Sellers believes “[t]his should be ‘the enemies of my soul.’”

Psalm 27:12:

Deliver me not over unto the will (בְּ֝נֶ֗פֶשׁ, benephesh) of mine enemies ….

There again is a derivative of nephesh. Here, Sellers notes, “‘soul’ is put for desire.”

Psalm 35:25:

Let them not say in their hearts (בְ֭לִבָּם, belibam), Ah, so would we have it (נַפְשֵׁ֑נוּ, naphshenu): let them not say, We have swallowed him up.

Sellers prefers: “Let them not say in their hearts, Aha, to our soul! Let them not say, We have swallowed him up.”

Psalm 119:175 (KJV):

Let my soul (נַ֭פְשִׁי, naphshi) live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

Can an “immortal soul” do anything but live? Of course not; it needs no permission. A living soul, however, the one that sins, can die (Ezekiel 18:20). “Popular theology,” Sellers remarks, “is certainly out of harmony with the truth expressed in this passage.”

In examining Proverbs, Sellers emphasizes the “connection of the soul with the senses and emotions.” In Proverbs 12:10, for example, the KJV refers to the mere life of the beast.

Correctly translated, this passage is full of meaning and becomes more impressive. A righteous man does not care just to keep his beast alive. It is the comfort, sustenance, and strength of the beast that is the object of his care. He will not leave it out in wintry weather; he will not overload it; he will not underfeed it. He cares for its soul.

Proverbs 23:2 (KJV):

And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite (נֶ֣פֶשׁ, nephesh).

Sellers writes: “In eating, some men are ruled by the soul , and all rules of temperance and good manners disappear when food is before them. The soul is not the seat of our highest spiritual faculties. A man swayed by his soul is ruled by the delight of physical sensations.”

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, (נֶ֣פֶשׁ, nephesh) soul is clearly related to the joys of life: “should make his soul enjoy good” (2:24), “bereave my soul of good” (4:8), “he wanteth nothing for his soul” (6:2), “and his soul be not filled with good” (6:3), “the appetite (נֶ֣פֶשׁ, nephesh) is not filled” (6:7), “the wandering of the desire (נֶ֣פֶשׁ, nephesh)” (6:9), “Which yet my soul seeketh” (7:28).

Ecclesiastes 2:24:

There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul (נַפְשׁ֛וֹ, naphshaw) enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.

“Enjoyment is related to the soul.”

Ecclesiastes 4:8:

For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul (נַפְשִׁי֙, naphshi) of good?

“He [i.e., Ecclesiasticus (קֹהֶלֶת, qōhelet] denies his soul legitimate pleasures in order to pile up wealth. He does not even have an heir with which to leave it.”

Ecclesiastes 6:2:

A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul (לְנַפְשׁ֣וֹ, lenaphshow) of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

“Riches, wealth and honor are related to the soul. These things satisfy the soul, but leave the spirit destitute.”

The seven occurrences of nephesh in Song of Solomon–1:7 (“Tell me, O thou whom my soul (נַפְשִׁ֔י, naphshi ) loveth,” that is, whom I love], 3:1, 3:2, 3:3, 3:4, 5:6, 6:12–all refer to the human capacity to love and be loved. “In these references the emotion of love is connected with the soul. Man can love because he is a living soul.”