John Dekker's Day

9:46AM - Do animals have souls? (continued)

Another way of asking this question, is, "What makes humans different to the animals?" We are different relationally in that we, alone, are created in the image of God – but are we also different metaphysically? That is, are we made out of different sort of stuff?

Perhaps I wasn't entirely balanced in my presentation on the biblical evidence in my last post. I quoted Genesis 2:7, but similar language is also used in a number of place in the Flood account, probably referring to animals – "all flesh in which is the breath of life" (6:17 and 7:15) and "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life" (7:22). Hence, this might suggest that the only difference between man and the animals is the process by which he received the breath of life" – and hence, his relationship to God – and not having the breath of life itself: not his actual composition.

Does this change, however, in the New Testament? Is it an aspect of God's unfolding Revelation? Or is the idea of the soul derived only from Greek philosophical dualism, and not from Scripture?

8:22PM - Do humans have souls?

We also affirm that man consists of two different substances in one person: an immortal soul which, when separate from the body, neither sleeps nor dies, and a mortal body which will nevertheless be raised up from the dead at the last judgement, in order that then the whole man, either in life or in death, abide forever.
– Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter VII.

Do humans have souls? On one level, the answer is No, we don't have souls, we are souls. As Laura noted in a previous comment, Genesis 2:7 describes man as becoming a living soul, rather than being given one. We are embodied souls.

G. C. Berkouwer goes even further than this and suggests that "humanness"in the Bible is always defined in terms of relation rather than being. Yet the Bible does certainly indicate a metaphysical distinction between body and soul (notice that a translation of "life" won't fit here):

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
(Matthew 10:28)

Also, as the quote at the top of this post suggests, the biblical teaching on the after-life points to the separation of body and soul at death. In both Philippians 1:21-23 and 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 Paul contrasts living in the body and being with Christ but without a body (the "naked" of 2 Cor 5:3). Another significant verse is Revelation 6:9, which depicts disembodied souls.

Of course, according to Paul there is something wrong about a soul existing without a body – and that will not be the final state of the Christian.