What Is a Soul? A Biblical Understanding of Human Nature

When conversations turn to death, heaven, or hell, one assumption often sits quietly in the background: that every human being has an immortal soul.

For many readers, this idea feels almost self-evident. It is embedded in sermons, hymns, literature, and popular spirituality. Yet when we pause and ask a simple question—Where does the Bible actually define the soul this way?—The answer is less obvious than we might expect.

Few theological questions are more important—or more misunderstood—than this one: What is a human being?

Closely related is the question, What is the soul?

How we answer these questions determines what we believe about death, the afterlife, judgment, hell, and even the character of God. Many popular Christian ideas about heaven and hell rest not on Scripture itself, but on assumptions about the soul that the Bible never actually teaches.

Rather than starting with tradition or philosophy, this article takes a different approach. It asks a more basic question: 

How does the Bible itself describe what a human being is?

To answer that, we need to begin at the beginning.

Humanity at creation: Reading Genesis carefully

The first explicit description of human life in Scripture appears in the creation narrative:

“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” (Genesis 2:7, KJV).

This verse is foundational. Notice carefully what it says, and what it does not say. This verse is familiar, but it is worth slowing down and reading it closely.

Three elements are present:

1. The body — formed from the dust of the ground
2. The breath of life — given by God
3. The result — a living soul

Notably, the text does not say that God gave the man a soul. It says the man became a soul.

In other words, the soul is not described as a separate, conscious entity inserted into the body. The soul is the whole living person, animated by God’s life-giving breath.

If we were to put it mathematically, it would look like:

Body + Breath of Life = Living Soul

This definition is not a one-off. It sets the pattern for how Scripture uses the word soul throughout the Bible.

What the bible means by “Soul”

In modern usage, the word soul often refers to an invisible, immortal part of a person that survives death. However, this idea does not arise from the Bible itself. Scripture uses the word much more concretely.

In Scripture, the word translated soul (Hebrew nephesh, Greek psuchē) most often means:

• A living being (Genesis 2:7)
• A person (Ezekiel 18:4)
• Life itself (1 Samuel 18:1)
  

For example:

“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father, as well as the soul of the son, is Mine; the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4, NKJV).

Here, “souls” clearly means people, not disembodied spirits.

Even animals are described as “living souls” in the creation account (Genesis 1:20, 24, KJV/NKJV margin), further confirming that “soul” refers to living creatures, not immortal essence.

Now, let us address the mother of all questions about the soul’s mortality.

Do souls die?

If the soul is a living being, a crucial question follows: Can a soul die?

The Bible answers plainly, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20, NKJV). This statement is unmistakable. Souls are not inherently immortal. They are subject to death.

The New Testament agrees:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, NKJV).

Notice the contrast:

• Sin results in death
• Eternal life is a gift, not a natural possession

If all souls were immortal by nature, death would not truly be death, and eternal life would not be a gift; it would be automatic.

Yet God is immortal, and He alone can grant it. Let us see how and when. 

God alone is immortal

Scripture explicitly states that immortality belongs to God alone:

“I urge you in the sight of God…who alone has immortality” (1 Timothy 6:13-16, NKJV).

Human beings are mortal. Immortality is not something humans possess naturally. It is something God grants at the resurrection, as Paul writes, “This mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53, NKJV).

The language is decisive. Mortality is our present condition. Immortality is future, conditional, and Christ-centred.

If we are mortals, where did this idea of an immortal soul originate from? Let’s explore that next. 

Where did the idea of an immortal soul come from?

If the Bible does not teach the natural immortality of the soul, where did the idea originate?

Scripture traces it back to the very beginning of human rebellion. The first recorded lie in the Bible is found in the Garden of Eden:

“Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die’” (Genesis 3:4, NKJV). 

God had warned that sin would result in death (Genesis 2:17). Satan contradicted God’s word by denying death itself.

Every belief system that teaches human beings do not truly die—whether through immortal souls, reincarnation, or conscious existence after death—echoes this original deception in one form or another.

But why does it matter what we believe regarding the soul and the human nature?

Why this matters

For many readers, this biblical picture may feel unfamiliar, not because it is obscure, but because it challenges a long-held assumption.

Much Christian teaching about the afterlife begins with the idea that the soul cannot die. The Bible, however, consistently begins elsewhere: with mortal creatures sustained by God’s breath, dependent on Him for life, and offered immortality as a gift rather than a given.

This is not a merely academic debate. What we believe about the soul shapes:

• Our understanding of death
• Our interpretation of hell
• Our perception of God’s justice and love
• Our vulnerability to spiritual deception

If the soul cannot die, then eternal torment becomes almost unavoidable. If the soul can die—as Scripture repeatedly affirms—then death is exactly what God says it is: the opposite of life.

The Bible presents a clear, consistent message:

• Humans are mortal
• Souls are living beings
• Immortality is a gift, not an assumption
• Eternal life is found only in Christ

Looking ahead

In the next article, we will ask the natural follow-up question: What happens when a person dies?

Does anything remain conscious? Where does the “spirit” go? And what does the Bible really mean when it says the dead are asleep?

Those answers will build directly on the foundation we have laid here.