[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN THE BIBLE SAYS RACHEL’S “SOUL WAS DEPARTING”?

[Shelly Duffy]

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN THE BIBLE SAYS RACHEL’S “SOUL WAS DEPARTING”?
October 31, 2021 

Average reading time is about 5 minutes


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Some seek to interpret the word “soul” here to mean some immaterial, ghost-like, conscious entity that floats out of our bodies and up to heaven (or down to hell) when we die. This false teaching crept into the church not through the Bible, but from Greek mythology and thinking. Comparing this Bible verse with many others on the word “soul” helps to clarify that it simply refers to “life.” In other words, when Rachel “was near death,” she gave birth to Benjamin. 

The Hebrew word used here is nephesh and is used 119 times in the Old Testament to refer to a person’s life. “You shall not eat flesh with its life (nephesh), that is, its blood” (Genesis 9:4). Obviously, an immaterial spirit floating around doesn’t have blood. The word also means “breath.” Speaking of a giant sea creature, Job writes, “His breath (nephesh) kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth” (Job 41:21). In fact, God said of the creation, “Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life (nephesh)” (Genesis 1:30). 

Solomon explains both people and animals have “breath” (ruach), which simply returns to God at death. “For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath” (Ecclesiastes 3:19). King David also tells what happens at death: “His spirit (breath) departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish” (Psalm 146:4). 

The Bible teaches that when God created man, He combined the dust of the ground with His divine power by breathing into Adam (Genesis 2:7). These two components make a living soul (being). When a person dies, his body returns to the earth and the power of life returns to God. He ceases to be a soul (living being), and his thoughts perish. 



KEY BIBLE TEXTS 
"And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin."
Genesis 35:18



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Shelley Duffy