Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

Animals, souls and the afterlife
Genesis 1:24

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." (Genesis 1:24 all use נפשׁחיּה nephesh chayyâh "living soul" to describe animals on land and water, even creeping things. The majority of translations render the Hebrew as "living creatures", although the JPS offers "soul" in verse 30 and Darby consistently has "soul" throughout. Clearly the concept of created disembodied souls sounds a bit ghoulish whereas "creatures" or "beings" feels a better translation. The Hebrew word נפשׁ nephesh (Strong's #5315) can cover everything from the inner man (soul/spirit/mind) to the whole person or simply be an idiom for "I/me/myself". In contrast to נפשׁחיּה nephesh chayyâh "living soul" a nephesh could also be termed נפשׁמת nephesh meth "dead soul" (Numbers 6:6), which the Nazirites were not allowed to approach, and which we normally translate by "dead body", hence the term even covers the physical "body".

So, perhaps, when speaking of the animals in the creation narrative the reference is to whole creatures rather than the animals' possession of souls. However, Genesis 2:7 records man's receipt of the נשׁמתחיּים nish'math chayyîym "breath of life" from God and his becoming a נפשׁחיּה nephesh chayyâh "living soul", using exactly the same terms as used in the previous chapter of the animals. So men and animals are all living souls/creatures.

In Genesis 7:20-21's description of the destruction of all flesh (man and animal) at the time of the Flood, all creatures on dry land are described as "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life". The Hebrew word used here for spirit is רוא ruach (Ecclesiastes 3:21) even more specifically of animals, but in both cases could simply be idiomatic for breath or vitality (cf. Genesis 6:17).

According to Genesis 9:9-16, after the Flood, God made a covenant not only with Noah but also with all the living creatures that emerged from the ark with him. So God considers the animals highly enough to covenant with them and mankind never to destroy them again by floodwater.

At the giving of the Torah Law domestic and working animals were included in the Sabbath injunction, not to work (Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:14). If the Sabbath rest is a picture of eternal rest then it applies to man and beast.

Remember Matthew 6:26 and Luke 12:6-7 and how closely God cares for a small bird? Although we are regarded of greater value than they, it does not undermine the case for their inherent value and worth before God as well. Wesley^F1 was quite apt when he wrote "God regards his meanest creatures much; but he regards man much more".

Man is different because he was made in God's image and given dominion not because his physiological or psychological makeup was necessarily vastly different from animals. In Genesis 2:20 God at first allows man the possibility of a companion from amongst the animals before turning to create Eve, so the difference cannot have been perceived to have been that great.

Whilst man was allowed to eat animals from the time of the Flood onwards, when all vegetation was initially wiped out, Judaism inaugurated rules for the care and slaughter of animals bred for food. Nevertheless, according to some early Jewish traditions, animals were once even closer to man. The Book of Jubilees^F2, a first or second century B.C. commentary on Genesis, and the first century Jewish historian Josephus^F3, report that during the judgement on Adam, Eve and Satan, God also shut the mouths of all animals from communicating directly with mankind. A situation temporarily reversed in the case of Balaam's donkey (Numbers 22:23-34), who, it should be noted, did not simply prophesy God's words when allowed but instead complained in his own words of the poor treatment he had received at the hands of his master indicating a sense of self and awareness of wrong. He was also spiritually aware enough to see the angel that Balaam couldn't.

So if animals can be described in similar terms to man, when the translators are consistent, what is their fate? According to Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 it is the same as man's. "They all have the same breath ... all go to one place ... who knows whether the spirit of man goes up and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?".

In Romans 8:19-22 Paul writes of the longing of all creation for the redemption and in verse 21 specifically that all creation will be delivered into liberty rather than simply destroyed. These verses may, however, refer to the gentiles rather than to creatures according to a rabbinic idiom describing the gentiles who knew not the Law as creatures.^F4 Another verse, though, will cover the same ground, for Colossians 1:15-20 speaks of "all created things" being "reconciled to himself".

Psalm 36:6 says "O Lord, You preserve man and beast". The word "preserve" is actually the Hebrew verb ישׁא yâsha' (Strong's #3467) "to save" but which covers more than moral salvation and includes physical preservation in this life and the next.

Historically, church fathers such as Augustine^F5 , influenced by Greek thinking, thought of man's rational soul as quite distinct from the driven nature of beasts. He regarded man's deliberate action and thought as rising above animals. Yet modern study of animals, whether chimps, dolphins, parrots, crows or rats and squirrels, has shown vast intelligence, communicative ability, occasional tool use and problem solving expertise - all rational behaviours. Calvin^F6 certainly had room in his theology for animals sharing in the glory of the afterlife, as did John Wesley^F7. C.S. Lewis^F7 argued that animals will be considered in their relation to man, as part of man's homestead, in connection with entering the afterlife. However, this appears too narrow a view and whilst embracing the possibility of salvation by household goes against the idea of taking anything with us into the next world.

Whilst we can neither confirm nor deny the future destiny of our pets and livestock we can take heart that God is merciful and just and will save whom he wants to save. It should be remembered that man's destiny is not really heaven, for we shall inherit the earth. Although it probably relates to the millennium, nonetheless, Isaiah 11:6-7 portrays a positive picture of animals in the future:

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox." (Isaiah 11:6-7)

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FOOTNOTES:
F1. Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions, vol. II, (1874), pp. 281-86
F2. The Book of Jubilees; 3:28
F3. Josephus, Antiquities, 1.1.4
F4. Babylonian Talmud, Yoma, 86a
F5. Concerning the City of God against the Pagans, tr. Bettenson, (Penguin, 1980), pp.872-78
F6. Calvin, The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Romans and to the Thessalonians, on Romans 8:21
F7. Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions, vol. II, (1874), pp. 281-86
F8. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, (London: Collins, 1967), pp.125-28

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KJ Went has taught biblical Hebrew, hermeneutics and Jewish background to early Christianity. The "Biblical Hebrew made easy" course can be found at www.biblicalhebrew.com.

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