There are three different words in the Greek that identify “life”: (1) bios (2) psuche (3) zoe.
They all describe life but express very different meanings.
Bios has reference to the means of life or living. Our Lord Jesus used this word when He commended the woman who cast into the temple treasury her whole living. (Mark 12:44)
Luke 8: 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity
Zoe is the highest life, the life of the newborn spirit. Whenever the Bible speaks of eternal life it uses this word.
Psuche refers to the animated life of man, his natural life or the life of the soul. The Bible employs this term when it describes the human life.
Take notice that the words “soul” and “soul life” in the Bible are one and the same in the original language.
In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for “soul”: nephesh: is used equally for “soul life.”
The New Testament uses the Greek word psuche for both “soul” and “soul life.”
So, we know “soul” is not only one of the three parts of man but also is man’s life, his natural life. In many places in the Bible, “soul” is translated as “life.”
“Only you shall not eat flesh with its life (soul), that is, its blood” Gen. 9:4, 5
“The life (soul) of the flesh is in the blood” Lev. 17:11
“Those who sought the child’s life (soul) are dead” Matt. 2:20
“Is it lawful on the sabbath: to save life (soul) or to destroy it?” Luke 6:9
“Who have risked their lives(souls) for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ” Acts 15:26
“I do not account my life(soul) of any value” Acts 20:24
“To give his life(soul) as a ransom for many” Matt. 20:28
“The good shepherd lays down his life (soul) for the sheep” John 10:11, 15, 17
The word “life” in these verses is “soul” in the original manuscript. It is so translated because it would be difficult to understand otherwise.
The soul is the very life of man.
As we have mentioned, “soul” is one of the three parts of man.
“Soul life” is man’s natural life, that which makes him exist and enlivens him. It is the life whereby man today lives; it is the power whereby man becomes what he is.
Since the Bible applies nephesh and psuche both to soul and to man’s life, it is evident to us that these two, are not separable. They are distinguishable since in certain places psuche (for example) must be translated either as “soul” or as “life.” The translations cannot be interchanged.
For instance, “soul” and “life” in Luke 12:19–23 and Mark 3:4 is the same word in the original, yet to translate them with the same word in English would be meaningless.
They are inseparable, however, because these two are completely united in man.
A man without a soul does not live. The Bible never tells us that a natural man possesses a life other than the soul.
The life of man is but the soul permeating the body. As the soul is joined to the body it becomes the life of man. Life is the phenomenon of the soul.
The Bible considers man’s present body a (psychikos-the root of the word is psyche “soulical body”) (1 Cor.15:44), for the life of our present body is that of the soul.
Soul life is man’s natural life.
That the soul is man’s life is a most important fact to recognize for it bears greatly upon the kind of Christian we become, whether spiritual or soulish.