Emily C. requested that I post what I have learned regarding the Biblical meaning of soul and spirit and that is what I will attempt to present here. Emily, this is for you.

When studying scripture, it is important to understand that the people whom God inspired to write His Word were all Jews and that Jesus Himself walked the earth as a Hebrew. To understand the scriptures in depth, it is important to gain some understanding of Hebrew thought and culture. God gave His chosen people much more than the Ten Commandments. He gave them Laws that dealt with all the minutia of life. He also gave them incredible knowledge that was far beyond their capabilities as a nomadic people to gain unaided. Many things written in the Old Testament such as, stars singing and the earth being round and 'hung upon nothing', as well as the concept of dimensional time and space, have been proven true by science only in recent times but were long ago held as truth by God's chosen people. Their view of the world was quite different from the Pagan cultures that surrounded them and this is also true of the Hebrew concept of soul and spirit.

[More:]

Although gaining an understanding of Hebrew thought and culture is of great benefit in clarifying many concepts in scripture, it is not necessary for becoming a Christian. Neither is it required for maintaining one's state of salvation. Christ is for the non-Jew as well as the Jew and no knowledge is required to become a Christian but only faith in Jesus Christ. It is also not necessary to practice the Christian faith as the Jewish faith was practiced. This controversy was settled long ago by the church as recorded in the 15th chapter of Acts.

Acts 15:5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses."

At the point of this controversy, a council was formed and the following, regarding the keeping by the saints of the Old Testament Law was decided:

Acts 15:8-11 "So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, "and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefor, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they. AND Acts 15:19-10 "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God. "but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.

Though we as Christians are not required to keep the Old Testament Law that doesn't mean that the Law is evil. The Law is very good and the Law itself is Spiritual for it comes from God Who is Spirit. Also, Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it and indeed, He did fulfill the entire Law of God during the time He walked the earth, died a sacrificial death on the cross, and rose again. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law for all who believe in His Name. However, Jesus did not believe as a Pagan believes and during His time on earth, He remained Hebrew in His thinking and practice of faith. Jesus did not change anything that God had taught His people in regards to the nature of man, the afterlife, the future prophecies, or the resurrection and the judgement. None of these things, set down by God, changed with the establishment of the New Covenant in His blood.

The idea of man possessing an eternal soul is a Greek and Pagan concept and not Biblical at all. To gain insight into the Hebrew concept of soul and spirit, it is good to begin by examining the Hebrew words and all of the ways that they have been translated into English. Hebrew is a simpler language than English and as all less complex languages, a single word contains many concepts within the whole. English, on the other hand, is a highly descriptive language and in looking at the various ways the Hebrew words of soul and spirit are translated, we will gain a good description of the whole Hebrew concept contained in two simple words.

The word for soul in the Old Testament is 'nephesh' and it is translated in the following ways and number of times: appetite 2, beast 2, body 4, breath 1, creature 9, dead 5, dead body 4, desire 4, fish 1, ghost 2, himself 8, life 117, lust 2, man 3, mind 15, mortally 1, myself 1, one 1, own 1, person 29, pleasure 3, soul 475, thing 2, themselves 3, thyself 1, will 4, would have it 1, yourselves 6.

When I read the list above, I am struck that within it is described the entirety of a human being in all of our contradictory complexity. Everything pertaining to our physical and mental nature is expressed here and I can't help but notice that the words, immortal or immortality are not present.

The word for spirit in the Old Testament is either ruach or neshamah. Ruach is translated in the following ways: air 1, anger 1, blast 4, breath 27, cool 1, courage 1, mind 6, quarters 1, side 6, Spirit or spirit 240, wind 94, vain 2. Neshamah is translated in the following ways: blast 3, breath 17, inspiration 1, souls 1, spirit 2.

Again in the preceding descriptions of the spirit of man and woman there is no mention of anything eternal. We truly are completely made of dust, the elements of the earth and there is nothing in us that can live apart from the breath of God. Genesis 2:7 says, "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 being." This is from the NKJV and in the KJV, 'living being' is simply translated 'living soul' which I find to be a more accurate description in light of the above. We do not possess an immortal soul, we are living souls and without the breath of God animating us, we are nothing but dust.

The second step of this study is to look at all the different ways the words for soul and spirit are used in scripture. By this method, we will gain contextual understanding that is objective rather than subjective as when we read the Bible and twist what we read there to our own cultural understanding. This list is by no means exhaustive but only meant to give an overall view. For more in depth usage, simply google "Hebrew Words Soul and Spirit" and a wealth of information will be at your fingertips.

The Hebrew word for soul is used in the Old Testament 94 times.

"And God created great whales, and every living creature (nephesh, psuche) that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good" (Gen. 1:21). "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature(nephesh, psuche)after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so" (Gen. 1:24) [According to the Bible, animals are "souls"]

"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 (nephesh, psuche)(Gen. 2:7) [Again notice, that Adam became a soul, he did not receive a soul.]

"But flesh with the life(nephesh, psuche)thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of you lives(nephesh, psuche) will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life (nephesh, psuche) of man" (Gen. 9:4,5) [Either the "soul" is in the blood, or the blood is the "soul".]

"Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul (nephesh, psuche) shall live because of thee" (Gen. 12:13) [Souls can die.]

"And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life(nephesh, psuche)" (Ex. 4:19) [Someone can take someone else's "soul."]

"And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man (nephesh, psuche)must eat, that only man be done of you" (Ex. 12:16). [Souls can eat.]

"Whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the dead(nephesh, psuche), or a man whose seed goeth from him" (Lev. 22:4) [A dead body is a soul.]

"The slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person (nephesh, psuche) at unawares" (Num. 35:15). ["Souls" can be murdered.]

"All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul(nephesh, psuche)" (Ps. 22:29) [The "soul' cannot be kept alive, humanly speaking.]

"The soul (nephesh, psuche) that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4). [The sinning soul shall die.]

There are 27 verses in the Old Testament using the Hebrew words for spirit (neshamah, pnoe, ruach).

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshamah, pnoe) of life; and man became a living soul: (Gen. 2:7). [God put the 'spirit' into Adam's nose.]

"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath (ruach, pneuma) of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die: (Gen. 6:17). [Animals have the "spirit' in them too.]

"And as soon as we had heard these thing, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage (ruach, pneuma) in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath" (Josh. 2:11). [Their 'spirits' were all gone, but they were still alive."]

The Spirit (neshamah, pnoe) of God hath made me, and the breath(ruach, pneuma) of the Almighty hath given me life" (Job 33:4) [God's Spirit gives us life.]

"If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit (ruach, pneuma) and his breath (neshamah); all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust: (Job 34:14,15). [Man cannot live without his 'spirit']

"So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts...Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: though takest away their breath(ruach, pneuma), they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit (ruach, pneuma), they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth" (Ps. 104: 25,29,30) [They don't get their own 'spirit' back again when they are recreated. Instead, it's God's spirit that enters into them.]

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit (ruach, pneuma) shall return unto God who gave it' (Eccl. 12:7) [The 'spirits' of all, both good and bad, go back to God.]

All of this and more to prove what God so nicely sums up Ecclesisastes 9:5-6

For the living know that they will die; BUT THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished: Nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun.

All that lives is dependent upon the Author of Life for said life and there is nothing in any of us that can live apart from Him. A Jewish friend of mine described the concept of soul being that of our life as it is extended to us by God. It is He Who made us unique and He Who fills us with life and gives us our being. There simply is no 'soul' apart from Him. Even if there were a hell of eternal torture, there is nothing in a dead man to suffer. The only thing immortal about our soul is in the memory of God, Who has the power to resurrect each of us to stand before Jesus on that final day. Only He has the power to truly destroy us body and soul if He should choose to cease remembering. Satan has no power to hurt us in eternity and truly, Satan is the one who will suffer eternal torment not man. After the judgement, when death swallows itself, the nature of all things will be changed. The old mortal nature folded up and put away as the eternal state unfolds and is revealed to us all at the end of time. Oh, glorious day!