Board index ‹ Soul, Souls, and Ensoulment

[Prior]

I know a lot of Christians believe that the soul enters at conception, but is there any Bible to back that up?

[jimwalton]

There is biblical justification to say life begins at conception (deep inside the womb).

1. Humans bear God's image, marred by sin, from conception on (Ps. 51.5; 58.3). It would indicate humans are ensouled from conception (Gn. 1.26-27).

2. The OT Law sought to protect the life of the mother and of the fetus (Ex. 21.22-25). A high value was placed on both. The fetus is given both "image of God" (Gn. 9.6; cf. Gn. 1.26-27) and nephesh status (Gn. 1.26-27; see also Lev. 24.17-18). Furthermore, the fetus was not considered "a potential life or person" because it was still in the womb. From the perspective of Heb. 7.11, "potential life" is in the loins of the father. See also Amos 1.13b. Once an egg was fertilized, it seems to have "image of God" status.

3. The NT paints a pictures of the value of babies and children (Mt. 11.25; 19.13-15; 21.16), but these passages speak of already-born babies or children, not fetuses. Luke, however, uses the same Greek word, brephos, of the fetus in the womb (Lk. 1.41, 44) as he does of the newborn child (Lk. 2.12, 16; Acts 7.19; cf. 1 Pet. 2.2). Since the Bible sees children as having souls, so also do fetuses.

4. Conception is seen as a blessing (Mt. 1.20; Lk. 1.24-25, 30. 31; Jn. 16.21; 1 Tim. 2.15; 5.14). Pregnancy is viewed in a positive light.

5. God took on human flesh, which removes any doubt as to human dignity (Jn. 1.14; Phil. 2.6-7). He was who he was from the moment of conception. It would indicate a conception is the start of life, and hence ensoulment.

6. The NT teaches personal continuity from womb to grave, with no mention of any change in soul status.

7. There is nothing in Scripture that even remotely suggests that the unborn child is anything less than a human person from the moment of conception.

[Dude]

So your answer is: "at conception?"

[jimwalton]

My answer is that the Bible never speaks of a soul entering or leaving a body. The Bible says we are souls, not that we have them. Any human being, from the point at which they are human (which would be conception, with 23 pair of chromosomes and therefore a distinctly human genome) would be a soul. As I said in my first sentence, the Bible indicates that human life (and therefore ensoulment) begins at conception.

[Dude]

Right, but you believe that we persist after our body dies.

Therefore there must be something non-material about us that coincides with the material.

At what point does this non-material thing coincide with the material?

> with 23 pair of chromosomes

Unless you have a genetic condition. Like Downs syndrome or Klinefelter syndrome.

I assume you still consider people with genetic conditions human?

[jimwalton]

> Right, but you believe that we persist after our body dies.

In the Bible, death is not a cessation but a transition. Yes, we do persist when our physical biological body dies. So, yes, there is something non-material about us. Later, according to the Bible, our non-material self will be reunited with a transformed physical self, so that our separation into non-material and material will be resolved. In other words, there is something unnatural and incomplete about the two (non-material and material) not being one unity. Even though the Bible doesn't say, there even though there is a kind of temporary "separation," there still may be some kind of entanglement, like superposition in quantum mechanics, that binds the two together in separate places.

> At what point does this non-material thing coincide with the material?

According to the Bible, humans are a body/soul from the moment of conception, as I showed.

> I assume you still consider people with genetic conditions human?

Yes, I do, as does everyone, as far as I know.