According to the Bible, what's the difference between "soul" and "spirit"?

Question

Please refrain from answering if you guys can't do it through the scriptures. Thanks.

Answer 1

Soul basically means breather.

The Hebrew and Greek words for soul are also translated as beings, person, creatures.

Everything that makes you a person is the same as your soul. The bible talks about live souls and dead souls, hungry souls and well fed souls.

spirit basically means wind.

So when God blew the breathe of life into Adam,

he was breathing his spirit into him.

When the soul dies, this spirit or breathe of life returns to God, who gave it.

Ecc. 3: 18 I, even I, have said in my heart with regard to the sons of mankind that the [true] God is going to select them, that they may see that they themselves are beasts. 19 For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity. 20 All are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust

Answer 2

Soul - Gen 2:7 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

This, to me, shows that the soul is the body + the "breath of life" (which I have been told by many Jews is the Spirit)


There is really nothing specific about what a spirit is in the Bible. It speaks of spirits and "the" spirit of God and mankind, but never gives a full description. I guess you could call this one of the mysteries of the Bible as it leaves the idea open to interpretation to the individual reader.

Answer 3

What is a Soul?
Right in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, we are told that the soul is not something you have, it is something you are. We read of the creation of Adam, the first human being: “The man came to be a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) The Hebrew word used here for soul, ne'phesh, occurs well over 700 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, never once conveying the idea of a separate, ethereal, spiritual part of man. On the contrary, the soul is tangible, concrete, physical.

Look up the following cited texts in your own copy of the Bible, for the Hebrew word ne'phesh is found in each of them. They clearly show that the soul can face risk, danger, and even be kidnapped (Deuteronomy 24:7; Judges 9:17; 1 Samuel 19:11); touch things (Job 6:7); be locked up in irons (Psalm 105:18); crave to eat, be afflicted by fasting, and faint from hunger and thirst; and suffer from a wasting disease or even insomnia as a result of grief. (Deuteronomy 12:20; Psalm 35:13; 69:10;) In other words, because your soul is you, your very self, your soul can experience anything you can experience.

Does that mean, then, that the soul can actually die? Yes. Far from being immortal, human souls are spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures as being “cut off,” or executed, for wrongdoing, being struck fatally, murdered, destroyed, and torn to pieces. (Exodus 31:14; Deuteronomy 19:6; 22:26; Psalm 7:2) “The soul that is sinning—it itself will die,” says Ezekiel 18:4. Clearly, death is the common end of human souls, since all of us sin. (Psalm 51:5) The first man, Adam, was told that the penalty for sin was death—not transfer to the spirit realm and immortality. (Genesis 2:17) And when he sinned, the sentence was pronounced: “For dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19) When Adam and Eve died, they simply became what the Bible often refers to as ‘dead souls’ or ‘deceased souls.’

Some people think that “spirit” is just another word for “soul.” However, that is not the case. The Bible makes clear that “spirit” and “soul” refer
to two different things. How do they differ?


Bible writers used the Hebrew word ru´ach or the Greek word pneu´ma when writing about the “spirit.” The Scriptures themselves indicate the meaning of those words. For instance, Psalm 104:29 states: “If you [God] take away their spirit [ru´ach], they expire, and back to their dust they go.” And James 2:26 notes that “the body without spirit [pneu´ma] is dead.” In these verses, then, “spirit” refers to that which gives life to a body. Without spirit, the body is dead. Therefore, in the Bible the word ru´ach is translated not only as “spirit” but also as “force,” or life-force. For example, concerning the Flood in Noah’s day, God said: “I am bringing the deluge of waters upon the earth to bring to ruin all flesh in which the force [ru´ach] of life is active from under the heavens.” (Genesis 6:17; 7:15, 22) “Spirit” thus refers to an invisible force (the spark of life) that animates all living creatures.

Answer 4

body= flesh
1 Corinthians 3:16
16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
2 Corinthians 5
Our Heavenly Dwelling
1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.


soul= mind, will, emotions
Revelation 18:13 (New King James Version)
New King James Version (NKJV)
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
13 and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.


spirit= who we truly are.
..we are a spirit living in a fleshly body with a soul that consists of our mind will and emotions....
Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Answer 5

Soul=mind. In most translations this is true.

Spirit is the essence of something (I.E. "Holy Spirit" also known as the Spirit of God).

Answer 6

Your soul is the the spirit and the body together.

Answer 7

Spirit is from God or Satan. Soul means body. They are synonymous.

Answer 8

i may not have the scriptures to back up what i am saying but i will give you a real good book to look up so you can find out for your self..........it is written by watchman nee.................it is called
- the spiritual man........................the soul is the emotions and intellect - the spirit is the real person.

Answer 9

We all have a soul, and when we die, are soul is now Spirit

Answer 10

James Brown has "soul"

Cheerleaders have "spirit"