About me: I am a truth seeker. How about you? I believe the Bible, in its original form, is the revealed Word and will of God. Somewhere I heard that the Bible was written so that a child could understand it. I wish I had read it more as a child–but it is never too late.

AI is a wonderful tool if used properly, with quick access to a lot of research material. But we know AI can make mistakes. So can people. Sometimes, I question what I hear being taught in “church.” So don’t take my word for it (or anyone else’s, for that matter). Please check it out for yourself. People can delete words, add words, and change words. Eve did all three before she believed the first lie recorded in Scripture: “You will not surely die.”

So how can we come to a knowledge of “the Truth”– not my truth or your truth, but the Truth? Jesus said that God’s Word is truth. That is the Truth I am looking for. We can do as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11.

I have found that the easiest way to discover what God — through Scripture — says about the meaning of a word is to do a word study. I started in 1978 with Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, which is over 1,000 pages. Today, I use a Strong’s Concordance app that is very easy to use.

I went to Genesis 2:7 and clicked on the word “soul.” It is the Hebrew word nephesh (Strong’s Number H5315), defined as a breathing creature. In the KJV Old Testament, it is translated into English 754 times as follows:

Soul — 416 times

Souls — 58 times

Life — 100 times

Etc. You might want to check that out.

There are many other Bible apps available–such as biblehub.com and blueletterbible.org–that are excellent tools for study. For example, on biblehub.com, you can select “Hebrew” from the drop-down menu next to the search bar, type nephesh, and press Enter. Then click on the first entry (“nephesh”). You will see a Lexical Summary on the left and an Englishman’s Concordance on the right, which looks something like this:

Englishman’s Concordance

Genesis 1:20 (KJV): “the moving creature that hath life”

Genesis 1:21 (KJV): “and every living creature that moveth”

Genesis 1:24 (KJV): “the living creature after his kind”

Genesis 1:30 (KJV): “every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life”

Genesis 2:7 (KJV): “and man became a living soul”

I like to start with the first usage and read it in context to get a sense of what God is communicating. If it’s not clear, keep going. You don’t see the English word “soul” until the fifth occurrence listed above or even later in other translations.

Please note: you will not find even one occurrence of the phrases “eternal soul” or “immortal soul” in the Bible. Nor is there any passage in the Old Testament where the “soul” separates from the body at death.

If you open your Bible and examine all 754 occurrences, I strongly believe you will gain an excellent understanding of what God is telling us about “soul” through His awesome Word that He magnified above all His name (see Psalm 138:2 KJV)

Don’t be overwhelmed. Once you begin using good tools, the work becomes much easier. And yes — it is work.

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

Other Old Testament passages that shed light on this subject include:

• “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers…'”

Deuteronomy 31:16 ESV

• “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers…”

2 Samuel 7:12 ESV

• “Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.”

1 Kings 2:10 ESV

• “And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father…”

1 Kings 11:43 ESV

• “When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.”

Psalm 146:4 ESV

• “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.”

Ecclesiastes 9:5 ESV

• “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.”

Ezekiel 18:4 ESV

• “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Daniel 12:2 ESV

In Scripture, death is repeatedly described as sleep, a metaphor that points to the absence of consciousness rather than continued awareness. Kings such as David are said to have “slept with their fathers,” and the dead are described as knowing nothing and having no thoughts until a future awakening. Just as a person experiences no passage of time between falling asleep and waking, so from the perspective of the dead, the next conscious moment after death will be the resurrection. This is why the Bible consistently places hope not at the moment of death, but at the resurrection, when those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” will awake to life.

One of my goals — and prayers — for everyone — is found in Ephesians 1:17-20. More to follow from the New Testament.

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Mark Rohde can be reached at marklrohde@icloud.com.