Words the Bible translates as life
English uses one word here. The Bible uses 7 words, and they do not mean the same thing. Each is listed with what it actually means, most frequent first.
- psuchēψυχήlife: the individual life that animates a creature, the life a person can keep, lose, risk, or give up.
+3 more meanings
- the inner self: the whole person as the seat of feeling, desire, love, and will.
- person: a human being counted as an individual, a living soul, somebody.
- the self that outlasts the body: the life God can keep through death, save, or destroy.
- nepheshנֶפֶשׁthe living self: a person or creature as a breathing, needy, feeling whole, and so by extension their life, their longing, and their very self.
- ḥayחַיalive, living: having life rather than being dead.
+3 more meanings
- as surely as someone lives: the fixed opening of a sworn oath.
- a living thing: an animal, most often a wild one.
- life: being alive, and the full, flourishing life that God gives.
- zōēζωήlife as opposed to death: the condition of being alive, the span of a person's existence.
+1 more meaning
- the life that comes from God and never ends: real, full, unending life, often called eternal life.
- troposτρόποςthe manner in which something is done or happens, and so also the manner in which a person lives
- biosβίοςthe earthly life a person actually lives: its stretch of years, its course, and the way it is spent
+1 more meaning
- the means of living: the property and resources a person has to live on
- ḥayחַיalive: living rather than dead. It describes God as the one who is genuinely alive, names people as "the living," and in the plural stands on its own for life itself.
Keep looking
Every English meaning beginning with L is on its letter page, and the whole index starts at Browse.