What is the breath of life spoken of in Genesis 2:7?

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The understanding for this is actually quite simple - as long as you don’t ‘add’. Add ‘meaning’ that isn’t actually there. Let’s look a little closer ...

GEN 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

First, it says man, not Adam. (Yes I know the Hebrew for ‘man’ is ‘a-dam’’).

And ‘man’ is....

GEN 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

... both male and female.

This is why Eve had to ‘come’ out from/of Adam. Had to be ‘formed’ from ‘out of Adam’. (Side note: ‘RIB is an unfortunate translation in some Bibles. What’s needed is a Hebraic understanding of what the translated word means, not just what it is).

Now, also important - God ‘breathed’ on man, not animals. You can’t find this ‘said’ anywhere. Because He didn’t. So - The ‘breath of life’ does not come as a result of God breathing. The result of God breathing on Man was that man became a ‘living soul’. A ‘living soul’ [does not equal] a ‘living creature’!

A living creature is referring to a physical body. (Beast). A physical body has breath, the breath of life, until it doesn’t anymore. Man soul does not get life from whichever ‘body’ it’s in - it gets ‘life’ from what God breathed.

So God ‘breathing’ equates to imparting mans spirit. We see this, can learn this from John 20, where Jesus ‘breathed’ on the disciples.

And you need to understand your spirit, and it’s [crucial] role - especially believers! - BUT - you also need to understanding our uniqueness, that the ‘you’, comes from, ‘is’ your soul. And that ‘you’ live ‘in’ a body, for as long as your ‘body’ has breath - but - the bodies ‘breath’ is not Gods. It’s yours. Gods ‘breath’ is spirit.

Upvote:2

In Hebrew thinking/usage "breath" is what separates animals from plants. Plants have no "breath," but animals do.

This same phrase is used in the account of the flood.

Genesis 7:15 (KJV)
And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

This phrase is used of everything that got on the ark (Ge 7:15), as well as the animals and humans that didn't get on the ark (Ge 7:22).

Hebrew writers liked to employ parallelism, and it seems that the way things are phrased in Genesis 2:7 is little more than an example of that: saying two things that essentially mean the same thing but are stated in different ways.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Ps 119:105)

O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? (Ps 15:1)

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