Study on the word נֶפֶשׁ | ψυχή | Soul
נֶפֶשׁ (ne’phesh)
"'Throughout the period of their dedication to the LORD, the Nazirite must not go near a dead נֶפֶשׁ (Numbers 6:6)
Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living נֶפֶשׁ (Genesis 2:7)
Then God said: “Let the waters swarm with living נֶפֶשׁ (creatures),* and let flying נֶפֶשׁ (creatures) fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” (Genesis 1:20)
that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them--and that you will save נַפְשֹׁתֵ֖ינוּ (us) from death."
His נֶפֶשׁ (heart) was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her (Genesis 34:3)
Moreover the נֶפֶשׁ (soul) that shall touch any unclean thing, asthe uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. (Levi 7:21)
"The things that my נֶפֶשׁ ( soul ) refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat" (Job 6:7)
For נֶפֶשׁ (everyone) belongs to me, the parent as well as the child--both alike belong to me. The נֶפֶשׁ (one) who sins is the one who will die. (Ezekiel 18:4)
He must not enter a place where there is a dead נֶפֶשׁ (body). He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother (Leviticus 21:11)
The word is used heavily in the Hebrew scriptures to denote “beings” and the context would suggest interchangeable terms such as “life”, “heart”, “you”, “people” and several other words that it translates to. In fact, the word is only translated to soul 10% of the time.
ψυχή (psyche)
The equivalent for soul, used in the Greek Scriptures.
Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. ψυχή ("He's alive!") (Acts 20:10)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of ψυχή (soul) and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
For whosoever will save his ψυχή (life) shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his ψυχή (life)for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 16:25)
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your ψυχή (soul) and with all your mind.' (Matt 22:37)
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, ψυχή (soul) and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
It carries the semantics of “being” from נֶפֶשׁ , however, various texts acknowledge ψυχή as synonymous with terms such as “breath” i.e. spirit, and can be understood “abstractly or concretely”. Thessalonians is an interesting scripture that draws division between body, spirit and soul. Elicott explains
The πνεῦμα (spirit) is the part by which we apprehend realities intuitively--i.e., without reasoning upon them; with it we touch, see, serve, worship God (John 4:23-24; Romans 1:9; 1Corinthians 6:17; Revelation 1:10, et al.); it is the very inmost consciousness of the man (see, e.g., 1Corinthians 2:11); it is the part of him which survives death (Hebrews 12:23; 1Peter 3:19; comp. Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59).
The ψυχή (soul) includes the intellect, the affections, and the will: and it is of the very essence of the gospel to force sharply upon men the distinction between it and the spirit (Hebrews 4:12).
The ψυχή belongs altogether to the lower nature, so that when St. Paul uses the two-fold division, "body and spirit," the soul is reckoned (not, probably, as Bishop Ellicott says on our present passage, as part of the spirit, but) as part of the body; and when St. Paul describes the "works of the flesh," he includes among them such distinctly soul-sins as "heresies" (Galatians 5:20)
Simply put, the soul is described in all Biblical contexts as something physical. It is the spirit, that is non physical. Soul is physical.
Ideas that the soul is a separate spirit, one that lives within each human stem from Greek ideas such those presented by De Anima, Aristotle (350 BCE) Greek ideas permeated Christianity and warped the biblical meaning of soul.
Sources
StudyLight
Revolvy
BlueLetterBible
Bible Project
Jw.org
Pickle Publishingesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
