What is the soul?

DeclinetoState wrote: "Before they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then, did Adam and Eve not have souls?
Is the soul the same thing as conscience? "most notable is the genesis account (Gen2.7) that says "God blew into his nostrils the 'breath of life' (ru”ach/spirit), and the man 'came to be a living 'soul' (ne”phesh/life)other biblical evidence of what the writers had in mind when they spoke of the soul are found in (2Kings 7:7) “The righteous one is caring for the soul of his domestic animal.” (Proverbs 12:10) “The Son of man came ... to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many.” (Matthew 20:28) “He came quite near to death, exposing his soul to danger.” (Philippians 2:30) In each case, the word “soul” means “life.”simply put...we are souls, we dont have them ... i find this a comforting thought, no hellish afterlife to worry about :-)

i dont know mateit all comes back to the original meaning of that word doesnt it?if you were living in the hebrew's days, and you spoke of the 'soul', the likely hood is that you were talking about your own life

again we are assuming that our english translation of their language is correctYou may recall the Apostle tell a crowd that King David had not ascended to any heavenly realm but, just as Jesus received a resurrection, so King David was in his grave awaiting a resurrection... According to Peter’s words, David’s resurrection is yet future.I agree that the spirit never dies, for the scriptures say that the spirit returns to God and stays there Jesus he was granted a resurrection after 3 days.but King David was still awaiting a resurrection...as was Abraham, Issac and Jacob... and as were the 'great crowd of witnesses' spoken of in Hebrews Chptr 11:39 states "...39And yet all these, although they had witness borne to them through their faith, did not get the [fulfillment of the] promise"So, sure, they are all living in the sense that they are alive in Gods memory, in that way, we never die... but their mortal bodies and minds have died and they are awaiting a resurrection from the dead.Edited by Peg, : scripture reference insertedEdited by Peg, : scripture ref insertedEdited by Peg, : scriptures put in box

wasnt witchcraft and sorcery against Gods law in the bible...do you really believe that God would have approved of this?and why do you think that it was a condemned practice in the law?
Why would God not want his people to contact the 'dead'?If the dead were still alive in some other way, then the scripture here in Eccl is false... but if this scripture is true, then perhaps they were not really contacting the dead, but rather like Eve in the garden of eden, they were talking to Satan who was posing as somebody else Edited by Peg, : fixed quote box