Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 17/11/2005 23:58, Robert Newman wrote:

> ... Your comment as respects "soul" for nephesh surprises me. Afterall the bias in this case is 
> toward the source language. Ask someone very familiar with NWT what "soul" means and they will 
> likely describe the range of meaning of nephesh. Ask a general Bible reader and they will likely give the 
> principle English definition, they are only familiar with Bible texts where translators have judged it be 
> the intended meaning. Is "soul" a bad English equivalent to nephesh? ...

Well, Rob, I am not sure which part of Essex you are from, but in my 
part, Chelmsford, if you ask an ordinary person what "soul" means their 
understanding wouldn't be anything like the biblical concept or concepts 
of nephesh. If they didn't think of a type of music, they would probably 
think of the part of the human which survives death - which is 
definitely NOT a sense of Hebrew nephesh. And probably a "general Bible 
reader" here would have little better idea of the meaning of "soul", 
depending of course on what version they read.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/