Ancient Jewish story of creation

“In the ancient Jewish story of creation, God created life in the man, Adam, when God "breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life and this creature became a living being" (Gen. 2:7). So the mighty wind, the ruach, we discover, was also sometimes understood to be the very breath of God. Hence, God’s breath, or the divine nephesh, came to be thought of as the very source of all life, and nephesh or breath was identified with the vitality and animation found in every living being . . . That is how nephesh, the breath of God within us, came to be identified with that nonmaterial part of our reality. Thus nephesh would later be translated as "soul" or "spirit." But at its inception and at its heart, it referred to the breath of God dwelling within us, calling us to life itself.”

John Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change Or Die: A Bishop Speaks To Believers In Exile, HarperCollins Publishers, 1998, p. 105


 

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