BibleProject - Let's Get Physical

Episode Date: November 22, 2017

According to the Bible, we don’t have souls, we are souls. And people will live forever not in a disembodied existence as a soul, but in an embodied existence. So what do we do with physical/body desires like hunger and sex? In part 1 (0-9:00) Tim outlines some other uses of the word "nephesh" in the Old Testament including translating the word as “person” or “people” and calling kidnappers and murderers “nephesh thief” and “nephesh slayer.” In part 2 (9:00-17:25) the guys discuss the uses of “nephesh” when referring to the human physical desires for food or water (like in Psalm 42) and sex. In Song of Solomon, the erotic love poetry book in the Old Testament, in the original Hebrew, the writer expresses physical desire for their lover using the word “nephesh.” Tim and Jon discuss why we’ve spiritualized the physical sexual desires of people. In the third part (17:25-end) of the episode, Tim explains that animals and immigrants are described as “nephesh” in the Bible and the “righteous” people are called to respect their “nephesh.” Tim outlines Psalm 35 and explains that the author uses the word “nephesh” in seven different ways in this Psalm. Tim says it’s a great example of the diversity and depth of the word. You can view our video on the word Nephesh here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_igCcWAMAM&index=5&list=PLH0Szn1yYNeclOdfwWBawnNT5ZkGFHxBf Thank you to all our supporters! Check out more free resources on our website: www.thebibleproject.com Produced by: Jon Collins and Dan Gummel Show Music: Defender Instrumental- Rosasharn Music The Darkest Night - Alert 312 Pop Romantic - The Bluest Star

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

This is John from the Bible Project, and today on this episode of the podcast, we're going to continue a conversation that we began in our last episode. We're talking about the Hebrew word nefesh and how this word is often translated in the Bible as soul. Now, what do you think of when you think of a soul? Well, if you're like me, you probably think of some sort of eternal, disembodied existence, some part of you that continues on after death. People often assume that the idea of an eternal, non-physical

existence, humans living on after death, apart from their bodies, disembodied souls forever and ever. Many people assume that that's a really important idea in the Bible or a main teaching of the Bible. And I certainly thought that, and then as I learned more, I realized what most people mean by the word soul is actually hardly ever the meaning of soul in the Bible. So that's a pretty wild claim that might be coming out of left field for you, in which case you could go back and listen to us unpack that idea in the first half of this conversation in the last episode. But if you don't want to do that, here's what you need to know.

The story of the Bible isn't about becoming a disembodied soul. The story of the Bible is about becoming resurrected people in a new creation. Now, this doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't talk about life after death and what happens before the resurrection. It's just that it rarely talks about it. There is a category that this word can be used for to describe the enduring human person after death. It's very rare. These words occur hundreds of times in the Bible, and there's a small handful of times where it seems pretty clearly referred to a person, a living being, through death, always in the hope of resurrection, of re-embodied men.

God made us from the dirt, and He called it good. He made us living naffesh. Being a naffesh is all about the embodied life. Naffesh is capturing your body, which is you, essentially you, the living you, your life, your physical embodied existence. So in this next episode, we're going to get physical. Song of Songs, right? The erotic left poetry in the Bible. All night long, on my bed I looked for the one my Nephash loves.

Your Nephash can long for your lover. The song of songs is a book that makes a lot of us blush. It seems really carnal and unspear-tool. But for Hebrew thinkers, having your body, your physical existence long for another, that's good thing. On page one of the Bible, the physical world is good. As we're going to see, it's compromised, but it is in its essence, good. If I'm talking about hunger or sex,

as in this case, that's good. But somehow we've spiritualized this biblical mindset. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Okay, this is a very uncommon use. This is the top of page six. So your nefesh, calling somebody a living nefesh is a way to refer to them just as a living creature. In Leviticus 21, one of the things that you, if you touch it, you become ritually impure for a time. And sometimes it's just called corpse. But one time the corpse is called a dead nefesh. If you touch a dead nefesh, you become ritually impure.

And so very clearly it means a nefesh that's no longer alive. Yeah, right. So here, it's talking about a human who is a nephish and they're dead. A dead. So all their English translations say a dead body but literally it says a dead, a dead nephish. So there you go. Nowhere in the Old Testament you get this concept of humans as souls trapped in bodies. It's a very opposite that humans are what they are and then through their bodies.

Okay, so this opens up a whole bunch, probably a hundred or more uses of nephish, that just get translated as person. Your nephish is your person. Your nephish is your person. So when Jacob takes his family down to Egypt in Genesis chapter 46, he takes all his sons and daughters were 33 nephishes. Just people, these are my favorite.

In the book of Numbers, a murderer is called a nephish slayer. And a kidnapper is called a nephish thief. To kidnap a human is to steal their nephish. A nephish thief. Yeah. There you go. What's his person? You steal people, you kill people.

It just means person. What's the word for when you use, there's a word for using a part of something to mean the whole thing? Oh yes. Is that metanami? Yeah, it's two nerdy words. Metanami and sennecta key. Sennecta key is where you use a part of something to refer to a whole. So yeah, nefesh is a sennecta key. You're using this idea of a neck to refer to your whole being.

Mm-hmm. And then what's the other one? Metanomy where you use something closely associated to refer to that. Okay, so here's what's interesting. Here's what I think's happening in my brain. Mm-hmm. So when I read something like nefesh slayer, right? And I think of that as a soul slayer.

Oh, man. I think of it as like a metanami or metanee, and that I'm using something related to your body. I'm really meaning I'm slashing your body, but I'm using something related, which is your soul, which is actually more like important, more essential, and more essential. And I'm really slashing that. I'm using metanami. So I read that and I think oh It's a metanomy, but it's really a synectomy Sinectokie. Sinectokie. Yes, I should have this in front of me part for the whole. That's the English phrase

Mm-hmm. I don't know if this is helping. Ah, synectokie. It's helping me. Okay. Yeah, sure. You can call your car My wheels. Yes. Oh Refer to people by a particular body part. Did you get a head count? Yeah. How many heads? How many heads? That's a synectic key. So, nefash, how many throats do we got here? Meaning how many living beings? That's a synectic key. Yeah. That's right. But now let's think of the the word soul the way we're used to it. This disembodied, more central part of you. If you say how many souls on board and you mean they're disembodied parts, really refer

to their physical part, or you say I'm a soul slayer, meaning I kill people, you're using it as a metanomy. So that's what's so confusing to me is I can read all these things as metanamies and they still make sense. Yeah, sure, yeah, that's right. And I have to kind of flip it. And I'm so used to reading it that way. So I read Neffesh Slayer and I think, oh yeah, it's a, it's just a metanomy.

I don't use that word in my head because I don't even know how to pronounce it. But that's the category I'm using. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. Totally. Yeah, it's actually really helpful for me. Oh, good. I've never thought about it that way.

Yeah. Yeah. But to be a netfish layer is to say, it's also interesting just like slaying someone's neck, that's a very common way to kill someone too. Yeah. So. Yes. Yeah. So... Yes. Yeah.

To be after someone, to seek someone's neffesh, to seek their life, it's just a very... It makes sense. Yeah. It's very intuitive way. Yeah. It's actually more intuitive. That's right. It's actually a really intuitive way of saying life.

Yeah. A living person. So instead of saying soul slayer, I'm a next slayer. Yeah. That actually just sounds more grim. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So where we start, we went throat, then we went to living physical being. Now we're to, it's the, their layers of getting more and more general.

Then it can just be person, just human person. And then we go out further and that's the broadest, most broad. And it's the use of nefesh that you'll never see it in your English translations. Because it usually, it's a way of referring to oneself. So you can, there are different, there are Hebrew words for I, you, me, me, he, her, them. But in Hebrew, when you want to emphasize them and their whole physical self, you use, you say, my nefesh or her nefesh or their nefesh and it's very common So Isaiah one God says my nefesh is kind of ironic my nefesh hates your religious festival is Sabbath new moon

So he could just said I hate your religious festival. Yes. Yeah, he says my nefesh So to pick in God as hate your religious festival. Yes. This is my message. So, depicting God as physically angry, my whole being hates this thing you're doing. In Genesis 27, Isaac says to Esa, hey, give me some of that tasty food that I love. Give it to me to eat so that my nephish may bless you before I die. That can go both ways.

It's about food. So, yeah, well, exactly. Exactly. And you'll often see that it's using context where my physical existence and things necessary for my physical existence. And so give me food. My Neffish will bless you.

Mm-hmm. Oh, this happens over 40 times in the book of Psalms, where the poet will say, my nephish cries out to you. Oh, so let's go all the way back to these famous Psalm 42, as the deer pants for the water sell my nephish pants after you. My nephish thirsts. So you can see actually he's doing a wordplay on the double meaning of nephish. What thirsts, what part of your body gets thirsty?

Well, you're throat. But my soul thirsts for what? For God. So my body, my whole physical existence is what longs for God who gave me life in the first place. So you can use both senses. My nethesh can mean me. But me is kind of a weakened tweak,

because they have perfectly good Hebrew words for just me. So when they say my nethesh, they're emphasizing. My being, my existence. Yeah. Yeah, what would we say? I think sometimes we use the word soul to mean that. my existence. Yeah. Yeah. What would we say? I think sometimes we use the word soul to mean that. I actually think that's true.

You're not necessarily talking about the part of me that survives after death. What you mean is me and my core. The things I care about the most, my deepest passions, the sense of self is my soul. That's right. Yeah, my soul was felt alive. My soul was awakened, really spoke to my soul. Yeah, that's right. That's an English usage of the word that doesn't mean.

It could also mean, and I think that's what's confusing is when you say that, you're not saying that because you're thinking about the disembodied part of yourself necessarily, but we've been trained with that framework. That's right. So it's connected to that. So then we think, oh, well, the most important part of me is that non-material. Right. Eternal. Yeah.

That's right. Yes. But again, it's more intuitive in this context. And there's so many examples of the song of songs, right? The erotic love poetry in the Bible. All night long, on my bed, I looked for the one my nethesh loves. I mean, need I say more?

Yes. It's very clear what that means. I don't know, I can read it either way in my head. Huh. But I'm still straddling these categories very closely. Right, my soul loves my bride. Yeah, sure.

Okay, yeah. But where does my nephish want to love all night long on my bed? It's very clear that we're referring to our physical relationship. Yeah. Yeah. Or he's just being spiritual while also being...

The female beloved. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. She's just a very spiritual woman. Right. So funny. Yeah.

Nah, so common. I really... And this is a very earthy physical image, a physical desire. My nephish, so your nephish can long for God. Psalm 42, your nephish can long for your lover. Song of songs, chapter three. Yeah, but granted, that can work for just soul

and the old category of like my deepest most, okay, sure. The things apart of me that I care the most about longs for you. Yeah, that's right. Because I love you. Sure, sure. But I think what we do then is we screen out, there's a whole world view getting screened out here.

And it's that if you don't import these Greek categories onto the Bible, you find yourself on page one of the Bible that the physical world is good. As we're going to see, it's compromised, but it is in its essence, good, which is why it needs to be redeemed and brought to the next stage of what God has planned for it. And so, if I'm talking about hunger or sex as in this case, that's good. And so, but somehow we've spiritualized, I don't know, we've spiritualized this biblical mindset. And so, what we really think it means to love is for my, I don't know, the core of me, which is not physical.

Right, physical is just, right? It's just, yeah, that's carnal. It's just, it's carnal or it's temporary. It's second rate. Right. And that's so foreign. So if I were to communicate that I'm a good Christian and I'm on a bed with my lady,

I would say, not like, hey, babe, I really want it. My body really wants you. Yes. I would, that wouldn't sound very spiritual. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, right. I would be like, hey, you know, like, I love you, and I feel, you're my soul mate.

Yeah. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, you take this reallymates. Yeah. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, you take this really seriously. Yes. But you're telling me and Hebrew is just kind of the same word. Yeah, well, like my nephage longs for you, like my body, which is the most important part of me. It is me.

It's me. Me wants you. Me. And in this instance, it's going gonna get a little physical. That's right That's the and that's good and that's good like that's page one of the Bible It's good. It's so funny like we're both like kind of dancing around both well. Yeah, we're kind of getting squirmy But it's because we've been trained to somehow think that this is

inappropriate Or because it's physical, it's not spiritual, or it's not, and that's just so foreign. There's a lot of hip-hop songs that are now a lot more religious. I'm not saying that, I'm just saying. You get the point. I get the point.

Yeah, there's a whole book of the Bible. Yeah, we don't read that book. So there you go, there's many, many get the point. I get the point. Yeah, there's a whole book of the Bible. Yeah, we don't read that book. So there you go. There's many, many uses of this. Neffesh to refer to your whole physical being. Oh, here's the interesting one, Proverbs 1210. The righteous person knows the nephysh of their animal, but the wicked, even their mercy is cruel.

So good. The righteous person knows the nephysh of their animal. I don't know what that means, the nephysh of their animal. Well, so I think farming culture. They just, they, you're domesticated animals. Okay. So you care for your animals?

I'm caring for my animals. Yeah, they're nephysh. You take care of animals. Okay. So you care for your animals. I'm caring for animals. Yeah, they're nephish. You take care of them. Yeah. Yeah. But nephish, this is emphasis on their physical existence. You like brush your horses, mane. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. And like you clean them up there, whatever, they're pinned so they don't have to walk in their own poop all the time. Got it. And then the wicked, so they don't have to walk in their own poop all the time. Got it. And then the wicked, so notice this is treatment of animals. Treatment of animals is one of the criteria for being the right jester of the wicked.

Yeah, yeah. How you treat your animals. Yeah. They're nephish, that's fascinating. Yep. Exodus 23, don't oppress the immigrant. For you know the nefesh of the immigrant. You used to be immigrants in the land of Egypt. You know like the identity of the immigrant.

You know the being. And again, the essence of being enslaved under forced labor. That's a very physical, right? Forum of oppression. You know what it's like to have the body of an immigrant. Yes, the body of a slave. You know that embodied existence. And so don't you ever repeat that in the history of Israel?

All of a sudden these passages, in my mind, they just get more rich than they already were in the first place. And so in all of these passages, there's different words for Nefesh being translated, I'm sure. Yeah, depending on the translation. Yeah, like grab Exodus 239. Okay. All of you know the nephys of the immigrant. New international version says, you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner.

How it feels? ESV. Ooh, this is an English standard version. You know the heart of the sojourner. Hmm. So that's why I was translated heart sometimes. I was wondering about that. The heart.

Yep. New American standard, you know the feelings of a stranger. So NRSV has the heart. So notice, this is fascinating then. What they've done is they've taken the body part that we use from modern western conceptions of the body and replaced it replaced it which is what a translator has to do. Yeah, that's right. So it yes, that's right. Yes.

Yeah, I mean, I guess what would be you know the what embodied existence. In the yeah, you know the clunky. Yeah, so there's a chance. You know what it's like to be an immigrant. You know what it's like. You know the life. You know the life of an immigrant. But that even that doesn't get you to empathy here in a way.

It's like you that's right. Yes, yeah. I think feeling is a good. What was the NIV? You know what it feels like. You know what it feels like. Yeah, I think that gets to what they're trying to say. Going back to the song of songs all night long on my bed, I looked for the one, my heart

loves says the new international version. English Standard version says I looked for the one my soul loves. So that's a spiritual version. The English spiritual version. The ESV English spiritual version. The English spiritual version. Yeah. And so again, just to clarify, all these translations are incredible, produced by brilliant people. And what they're all doing is struggling with how to best render into English. This very plastic work. Yeah. And a foreign concept to us. I mean, who, I mean, who can blame them?

Yeah. We just, we don't have, so not only do we quite have the right words in English, we just lack even the very categories of the human person, but these authors had, and that these words express. Okay. So, is this too many examples? No, not for me. So here's what I want to do.

I want to read most of Psalm 35 together. And what this poet has done is use the word nafesh seven times in the poem. And the poet is exploiting different nuances of nafesh. And it brings this richness to the poetry. Okay. Psalm 35, contend O Lord with those who contend with me, fight against those who fight against me. Take up shield and armor, arise, come to my aid, brandish, spear and javelin, say against

those who pursue me. Say to my nefesh, and then quote, so he's asking, God, say this to me, I am your salvation. So this is a good example where my nefesh gets translated as me, say to my nefesh. But you know, if we're in this metaphorical thing of you're getting chased by armed assassins, your nephysh, it's pretty important. Yeah, so my whole nephysh needs to hear that you're my savior right now. May those who seek my nephysh, so now I want God to speak to my nephysh, but now these enemies, they're seeking my nephish. That's a very standard phrase for seeking.

So that gets translated usually in my life. So there's two uses of nephish in back-to-back sentences. In English, they get translated differently. May those who seek my nephish be disgraced, put the shame, may those who plot my ruin be turned back into smay. Like chaff before the wind, the angel of the Lord driving them away, may their path be slippery, the angel of the Lord pursuing them. Because they hid their net for me without cause, and without reason they dug a pit for

my nephish. My body. Yeah, or me, specifically from my whole body to fall into. So the idea is they don't just want to kill me. They want my whole being. We don't have an English way of doing this. No, we don't. We're trying to think like a body doesn't work. Yeah. If I want to emphasize my body while I'm talking about myself, I just don't really have an easy

way to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Neffish is capturing your body, which is you, essentially you, and it's the living you, your life, your physical embodied existence. Yeah, neffish. Get off my back. It's the perfect word, neffish. Neffish. Neffish. What about like, get off my back?

That's like referring to me, my back. Yeah, okay, yeah. Well, that's a good synectic key. Synectic key. So refer to you putting a burden on myself. But your back just means, get off my case. Like leave me alone. Yeah, leave me alone.

Yeah, and so saying, you can say, leave me alone, and say you're saying, get off my back. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, me and back become interchangeable there. Yeah. Just like nephish and me. Interchangeable here. Right, okay.esh and me. You're interchangeable here.

So they dug a pit for my nefesh. May ruin overtake them, may the net they hid for me, and tangle them, may they fall into the pit. Then my nefesh will rejoice in the Lord, and delight in his salvation. So my whole being bad guys rise up They ask me things I don't know they repay me evil for good in order to bring loss to my nefesh So here they want to do damage to my nefesh

But as for me when these guys, so here's these guys. They're treating me bad to damage my nefesh But me when these guys were sick're treating me bad to damage my nephish. But me, when these guys were sick, my clothing was set cloth. And I deprived my nephish with fasting. Oh, Lord, how long will you look on? Restore my nephish from their ravages. These last three are so interesting. So they want to damage my neffesh, my life. But when these guys were sick, I was praying for them, and I fasted. Right? He says, I didn't eat food. And the phrase he used to describe that is depriving my neffesh. And here we're pretty close to throat. Yeah.

Literal throat. I didn't put anything down my gullet. And then we're back to restore my nephish. So this is the, now you see the complexity of this word for this poet is not confusing. It's like a treasure trove. He can just use this word in so many different ways. Yeah. He can just use this word in so many different ways. Yeah. And in every line he uses it, it would become extra rich.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project podcast. We released our video on the Hebrew word nefesh. You could find the link to it in the show notes, or you could go to our YouTube channel, youtube.com. Slash the Bible project and watch it there. The Bible project is a nonprofit in Portland, Oregon. We create free resources that show the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We believe the Bible has wisdom for the modern world and we're committed to letting the Bible talk to us on its terms. This project is crowdfunded, so thank you for being a part of this with us.

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