life: the individual life that animates a creature, the life a person can keep, lose, risk, or give up.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
At its most basic this word is life itself, the breath of life that makes a body a living being. In the Gospels it is most often:
the life a person can lose or save
the life a martyr lays down
the life a king or a mob is trying to take
When Jesus says a person can gain the whole world but forfeit his life, this is the word, and English Bibles there often print soul, though what is meant is the one life each person has.
Because this is life as something a creature possesses, the same word can cover the life of animals and sea creatures, not only people. So the boundary between this meaning and the deeper inner self is not a wall. The New Testament can speak of laying down one's life and of the soul's rescue with the same word, because in the Hebrew way of thinking the writers inherited, a living person simply is an animated life, not a body with a soul bolted on.
Nuances
1athe physical life a person has and can lose, risk, give up, or have taken.
1bthe life of a living creature, including animals and creatures of the sea.
Rev 8:9Rev 16:3
2
the inner self: the whole person as the seat of feeling, desire, love, and will.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
Here the word names the inner life of a person:
where joy and grief are felt
where love and longing live
the self that worships and chooses
Mary's soul magnifies the Lord, Jesus says his soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, and the great command is to love God with all your heart (καρδία) and all your soul.
This is not a separate spiritual part tucked inside the body. It is the living person seen from the inside, as a center of feeling and devotion. To do something from the soul, as the New Testament urges servants to work, is to do it from the whole self and not for show. The line between this inner self and plain life is thin on purpose: the same Greek word holds both, which is why English needs life in one verse and soul in the next.
Nuances
2athe inner self as the seat of emotion, love, longing, and devotion to God.
2bthe whole self as the source of wholehearted, sincere action, doing something from the soul.
Act 4:32*Act 14:2*Eph 6:6Php 1:27Col 3:23
3
person: a human being counted as an individual, a living soul, somebody.
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The word is also simply a way of counting people:
three thousand were added that day
two hundred seventy six were aboard the ship
eight were saved through the flood
every person must obey the governing authorities
In each case the word means a human being, one head, one individual.
This goes back to a Hebrew habit of speaking of so many souls (נפשׁ) where English would say so many people, and the New Testament keeps it through its Greek Old Testament. It is not a claim that a person has a soul as one part among others. It is the person himself, counted as a living individual.
the self that outlasts the body: the life God can keep through death, save, or destroy.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
In a number of passages the word names the self of a person that physical death does not simply end. Jesus warns not to fear those who kill the body (σῶμα) but cannot kill the soul, and rather to fear the One who can destroy both soul and body. Peter quotes the promise that God will not abandon the soul to the grave. The souls of the martyrs are seen alive under the altar after they have been killed.
This is where the New Testament comes closest to the later idea of an undying soul, but it gets there carefully. It does not picture the soul as naturally immortal on its own. It pictures a life that God keeps: a rescue of souls, a self that can be preserved through death or finally destroyed by God. Whether these verses describe a self that consciously survives the body, or are vivid pictures of a martyr's hope and of God's power over the whole person, is genuinely debated, so the exact force of the word here is the one place in its range scholars most disagree.
What the pairing of soul and body in this verse implies about the make-up of a person, and whether the soul it names is naturally immortal.
contestedSoul and body are two real, distinct parts: people can kill the body but the soul survives, and only God can destroy both in final judgment.; D. A. Carson, Matthew, Expositor's Bible Commentary; Donald A. Hagner, Matthew, Word Biblical Commentary 33A
contestedSoul and body together are a Hebrew way of naming the whole person; the contrast is between humans, who can only kill on earth, and God, who is sovereign over the entire self, with no claim about separable parts.; Joel B. Green, Body, Soul, and Human Life (2008)
contestedBecause the verse says God can destroy the soul, the soul is destructible and not inherently immortal, which counts against the idea of an undying soul.; Edward W. Fudge, The Fire That Consumes, 3rd ed. (2011); Eduard Schweizer, "ψυχή," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament 9:646
the Greek word covers plain physical life and a countable human being as easily as the inner self, so it often means simply the life a person can lose or one more person on a list.Mrk 8:35Act 27:37
Both
both can name the inner self that feels, loves, and worships.Luk 1:46Mat 22:37
Only soul
English soul suggests an immaterial inner part distinct from the body, often an immortal one. The Greek word does not by itself draw that body-versus-soul line and frequently just means a living person or a life.
this word is the individual life a particular creature has and can lose or lay down, the breath in one body, not life as a general gift or quality.Jhn 10:11Mat 16:25
Both
both name the life a person lives and can risk or forfeit.Mrk 8:36
where English Bibles render this word mind, the Greek still means the whole inner self that loves and wills, not the reasoning faculty in particular.Act 14:2Php 1:27
Both
—
Only mind
English mind narrows attention to thought and intellect, which the Greek word does not single out; it names the feeling, willing self as a whole.
How psuchē differs from similar Greek words
πνεῦμαspirit or breath: the life breath and the part of a person open to God and the Holy Spirit. It leans toward a person's God-ward dimension, where this word leans toward the living self with its feelings and its bodily life.
Names the living self as the seat of natural life, what a person stands to lose in death or gain back in deliverance, often simply translated life.Mat 2:20Mrk 8:35
Stands for the whole person, a human being you can count, where πνεῦμα would not fit.Act 2:41Act 27:37
Marks the person as a creature with appetites and feelings that can be set against the body, the natural living being rather than the God-facing depth.Mat 10:28Luk 12:19
Both
Both name the inner immaterial life of a person, the part of someone that is troubled, stirred, or rejoices, and the two are sometimes paired side by side as near the same thing.1Th 5:23
Both can name the inner stirring of strong feeling, the place where a person is deeply moved.Jhn 13:21Jhn 12:27
Names the part of a person that reaches toward God and receives God's own life, the side of us that worships and prays.Jhn 4:24Rom 8:16
Used for God's own Spirit, the active presence and power of God given to his people. ψυχή is never used this way.Mat 1:18Act 2:4
Used for non-bodily beings other than God, both unclean spirits and angels, a sense ψυχή does not carry.Mrk 1:23Heb 1:14
καρδίαheart: the inner core where one thinks, decides, and believes. It overlaps with the inner-self use of this word but stresses the seat of thought and the will rather than the animating life itself.
Names the hidden inner self where thoughts, plans, and reasoning happen, the place people argue and decide inside themselves.Mrk 2:6Luk 5:22Mat 9:4
Is the seat of moral character, where good or evil is stored and from which conduct flows.Luk 6:45Mat 15:19Mat 5:8
Is the part God uniquely sees and tests, hidden from other people who judge by the outside.Luk 16:15Rom 8:271Th 2:4
Is where belief, conviction, and the response to God's word take root or harden.Rom 10:9Heb 3:8Act 16:14
ζωήlife as a state or quality, above all the unending life God gives. This word, by contrast, is the individual life a particular creature has and can lose, the breath in a given body.
Names the living self, the inner person of feeling and will, who can be troubled, sorrowful, or made glad.Mat 26:38Luk 1:46Jhn 12:27
Means the natural life a creature has, the one thing a person can spend, surrender, or have taken away.Mrk 10:45Jhn 10:11Jhn 15:13
Stands for the whole individual person, counted as a head, so that it can be numbered like people in a crowd.Act 2:41Act 7:14Act 27:37
Both
Both can name a person's own life held in the balance, so the same verse plays one off the other: the natural life one clings to (ψυχή) is lost or kept for the lasting life (ζωή) that outlasts it.Jhn 12:25
Both touch the bare fact of being alive, joined in the phrase for a living creature: a soul that has life in it.Rev 16:3
Names life as a quality or principle one possesses, above all the divine, never-ending life God gives, rather than a particular creature's existence.Jhn 3:16Jhn 17:3Rom 6:23
Set against death as the contrasting power or state, so it points to sharing in God's own aliveness rather than to a self that can be killed.Jhn 5:24Rom 5:211Jn 3:14
Used absolutely, with no person attached, for life itself as a thing that can be given, entered, or inherited.Jhn 1:4Mat 7:14Act 11:18
σάρξflesh: the body's physical substance, and in Paul human nature in its weakness and pull toward sin. It names the outward, mortal creature, where this word names the living self and the life within it.
names the body's physical substance, the soft tissue and outward creature you can see and touch1Co 15:39Luk 24:39
in Paul, names human nature in its weakness and pull toward sin, set against God's SpiritRom 8:5Gal 5:19
σῶμαbody: the whole person in bodily, physical existence. It is paired with this word as the outward, killable part set against the self that God can keep or destroy.
Names the inner life or self that a person can lose, save, hate, or lay down: the very life one gives up or clings to.Mat 16:25Mrk 8:35Jhn 10:11
Names the seat of feeling, will, and devotion, the part of a person that loves God, rejoices, or is troubled.Mat 22:37Luk 1:46Jhn 12:27
Stands for a person counted as a living individual: souls numbered in a crowd or a household.Act 2:41Act 7:14Act 27:37
Both
Both can name the whole living person, so they are paired to cover the entire self, the outer and the inner together, with nothing left out.Mat 10:281Th 5:23
Both stand for what daily life needs and depends on, so Jesus pairs them when he tells people not to worry about food for the one or clothing for the other.Mat 6:25Luk 12:22Luk 12:23
Names the physical, tangible flesh-and-bones person: the thing that can be touched, anointed, buried, and raised. It is the corpse Joseph asks Pilate for and lays in the tomb.Mat 27:58Luk 23:52Mrk 14:8
Stands for the whole self as a living organism with members working together: the parts of the body united under one head, used as the picture of the church.Rom 12:4Rom 12:51Co 6:15
Marks the person as an instrument of moral action that can be offered to God or surrendered to sin: a living sacrifice presented in worship.Rom 12:1Rom 6:121Co 6:20
It names the life itself that a person can lose, save, or lay down for someone else, so it is what is at stake when someone dies.Mat 16:25Mrk 8:35Jhn 10:11Jhn 15:13
It names the inner self that feels and wills, the place where grief, gladness, and love for God are located.Mat 26:38Luk 1:46Jhn 12:27Mat 22:37
It can stand for a whole human being, so people are counted by it the way we would count heads.Act 2:41Act 7:14
It reaches past the death of the body: it is what remains in God's hands when the body itself has been killed.Mat 10:28Act 2:27
Both
Both are commonly translated "life" in English, and both can name everything a person has to give, handed over with nothing held back.Mrk 12:44Mrk 10:45
Both appear in warnings that a life absorbed in wealth and comfort is a life quietly being lost.Luk 8:14Luk 12:19
It can mean the resources a person lives on, so it is countable wealth that can be spent, divided up, or squandered.Mrk 12:44Luk 8:43Luk 15:12Luk 15:301Jn 3:17
It names the outward course of a life, the way daily existence is actually conducted and the business that fills it.1Ti 2:22Ti 2:41Pe 4:3
Because it looks at life from the outside, it can carry a tone of worldly display and comfortable self-sufficiency, which is why it turns up in lists of what the world offers.1Jn 2:16Luk 8:14
Names the life a person actually has, the thing that can be kept, thrown away, or handed over for someone else. Jesus lays his down for the sheep, and whoever tries to hold onto his own loses it.Mrk 8:35Jhn 10:11Jhn 15:13
Can stand for a whole person, so people can be counted as "souls": three thousand were added in one day, seventy five came down to Egypt, two hundred seventy six were on the ship.Act 2:41Act 7:14Act 27:37
Names the inner place where feeling registers, so it can be crushed with grief, stirred up, or lifted in praise.Mat 26:38Jhn 12:27Luk 1:46
Carries no criticism at all, and is often the highest word available: God says of his chosen servant that his own is well pleased, and the great command asks for love with the whole of yours.Mat 12:18Mat 22:37Mrk 12:30
Both
Both point to the ordinary created life of a breathing creature rather than to the Spirit of God, and Paul puts them side by side to make that point: Adam became a living one of these, and the body suited to that life is described by the matching word.1Co 15:451Co 15:44
Both can size up a human being by what he or she is simply by birth: people can be tallied as "souls", and a person with only that natural equipment is called "natural".Act 2:411Co 2:14
Never neutral: every time it appears it faults someone or something for having nothing but human resources, whether that is the person who cannot receive what God gives, wisdom that is not from above, or people who cause splits.1Co 2:14Jas 3:15Jud 1:19
Describes what a thing is like rather than naming a thing, so it always attaches to something else: a kind of body, a kind of person, a kind of wisdom.1Co 15:441Co 2:14Jas 3:15
Marks the present, perishable order as the earlier and lower stage: the body buried is of this kind, the body raised is of the Spirit, and Paul insists the lower one comes first.1Co 15:441Co 15:46
Always sets up a contrast with the Spirit of God, either by naming the opposite in the same breath or by saying outright that the Spirit is missing.1Co 15:44Jud 1:19
psuchē in the other biblical languages
נֶפֶשׁHebrew“soul”the Hebrew word this one regularly translates in the Greek Old Testament: the living self, life, appetite, and person. The Greek inherits its whole range, which is why both words stretch from the breath of life to the inner self to a countable person.
An inner soul that can be distinguished from the body and survive its death, a step Hebrew does not take.Mat 10:28Rev 6:9
The true, eternal self set over against bodily life, what a person must lose in order to save and would gain nothing by trading the whole world for.Mat 16:26Mrk 8:36
Both
ψυχή is the regular Greek rendering of נֶפֶשׁ, and both name life itself, the life a person can lay down or have taken away.1Ki 19:4Jhn 10:11
Both serve as the inner self, the seat of strong emotion that is troubled, grieved, or magnifies God.Psa 42:5Mat 26:38
Both can stand for a countable person, a "soul" you number among a group.Gen 46:27Act 2:41
The seat of bodily appetite, the self that is physically hungry and thirsty, a concrete craving that Hebrew readily locates in this word.Pro 13:25Isa 29:8
A dead body or corpse, the lifeless person: Hebrew can use this word for the dead, a use Greek ψυχή does not carry.Lev 21:11Num 6:6
What scholars say about psuchē
The standard lexica (BDAG, Louw-Nida, LSJ) and the major theological dictionaries (Schweizer's article in TDNT 9; Sand in EDNT) agree that New Testament ψυχή carries the broad range of its usual Hebrew counterpart נֶפֶשׁ rather than the sharply dualistic, immortal soul of Platonic philosophy. BDAG distinguishes four senses that the entry follows: earthly life in its animating aspect; the seat and center of inner human life; an entity with personhood, i.e. a person; and the seat of life that transcends earthly existence. The Septuagint rendered נֶפֶשׁ with ψυχή in well over 85 percent of its occurrences, so Greek-speaking Jews and the early Christians inherited a ψυχή anchored in Hebrew usage; Wolff's Anthropology of the Old Testament is the foundational treatment, and Schweizer's summary that the New Testament never speaks of an eternal or immortal ψυχή but only of one given and kept by God is widely cited. James Barr (The Semantics of Biblical Language, 1961) dismantled the older "Hebrew thought versus Greek thought" contrast, so most now treat the relevant difference as conceptual rather than built into the words. The live debate is anthropological: whether the New Testament implies a soul that survives death (holistic dualism, John Cooper; Gundry on Pauline σῶμα), or treats the human as an embodied whole (non-reductive physicalism, Joel Green and Nancey Murphy; the aspective reading of Bultmann, Dunn, and Schnelle in which ψυχή, σῶμα, and πνεῦμα name the one person under different aspects). Cullmann's classic essay contrasting resurrection of the body with immortality of the soul, Dunn's and Wright's treatments of Paul, Jewett's Paul's Anthropological Terms, and on Revelation 6:9 the apocalyptic readings of Bauckham and Beale, map the field. Matthew 10:28 and Revelation 6:9 carry the heaviest weight and are where placement requires the most care.
Where scholars disagree about psuchē
Whether the New Testament's use of ψυχή implies a soul that consciously survives bodily death between death and resurrection, or treats the human being as an embodied whole with no separable soul.
contestedHolistic dualism: normal human life is integrated and whole, but certain texts require an immaterial, separable self that persists between death and resurrection.; John W. Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting, 2nd ed. (2000); Robert H. Gundry, Soma in Biblical Theology, SNTSMS 29 (1976)
contestedNon-reductive physicalism: the human is fully embodied with no immaterial soul, and resurrection is God's re-creation of the person rather than the survival of an inner part.; Joel B. Green, Body, Soul, and Human Life (2008); Nancey Murphy, Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (2006)
contestedAspective reading: ψυχή, σῶμα, and πνεῦμα are not parts of a person but aspects under which the whole person is viewed, so the question of separable substance is set aside as functional rather than metaphysical.; James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (1998); Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, vol. 1 (1951)
In-depth research
This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.