The fifth day may seem simple enough to us, but it is filled with interesting details. Here is the furthering of our chart:
On day 5, God fills the things that he formed in day 2. He gives life over to the waters that they may abound with sea monsters and other sea creatures, and he fills the firmament with flying birds.
Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living souls, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea monsters and every living soul that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. (Genesis 1:20-23 NKJV using footnotes)
I have used the footnotes of my Bible to translate the Hebrew word nephesh as soul. Most translators are reluctant to do this as they do not want to wade into the “Do animals have souls?” debate. Yet, this same word is the word that David uses when he speaks to his self, “Bless the LORD, O my soul [nephesh], And all that is within me, bless His holy name” (Psalm 103:1). It’s also the same word used in that famous command of Deuteronomy 6: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul [nephesh] and with all your might” (v. 5). The word can refer to one’s lifeforce, one’s inner-person, a living person in general, or the inner desires of a person. If one insists that animals do not have souls, then I must ask, what do we understand the soul to be? If we get the concept from the Bible, and the Old Testament uses the word nephesh to refer to that concept but also uses it to describe animals, then we must say that animals have souls, right?
One answer would be to review our understanding of what a soul is. Perhaps what we think we mean by soul is actually spirit. Well the word for spirit is ruach, which also means wind or breath. It is associated with God’s divine breath in us. Surely animals do not have that. Well . . .
“they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.” (Genesis 7:14-16)
The animals are also given commands to be fruitful and multiply as we first see in verse 25. This can leave us wondering what is so special about humankind. For that, we’ll have to wait until day 6. But on return to the subject of soul, we can make one clear explanation: the soul is associated with blood.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its soul, that is, its blood. Surely for your blood of soul I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the soul of man. (Genesis 9:3-5)
Blood=Soul=Life. There is so much to say to explain this, but I’ll limit myself to a few observations. 1) Note that blood “cries out” (cf. Genesis 4:10). 2) During the OT, animals acted as substitutionary offerings for humanity. The death of the animal was taken by God to be a temporary replacement for the death of his people. The blood of the animal was used to cleanse the elements of the temple and the altars so that God would receive the flesh of the animal as a pleasing aroma/feast.
For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ (Leviticus 17:11)
The rest of the blood was then poured at the base of the altar (cf. Leviticus 4). God required the soul-blood of an animal as substitution for the soul-blood of sinful humanity. 3) In connecting these two Scriptural ideas, we see in Revelation, the souls of the martyrs “underneath the altar,” “crying out” to the Lord for vengeance on the people of earth who spilled their “blood” (Revelation 6:9-10). Martyrs are life/soul-sacrifices to God, the explanation of which would require a different blog series.
So, do animals have souls? Well, they have blood don’t they?
gonna need a martyrs series now...