BibleDaily Readings
cog

Settings

OLD TESTAMENTNEW TESTAMENT
Genesis
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950
Exodus
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940
Leviticus
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627
Numbers
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536
Deuteronomy
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334
Joshua
123456789101112131415161718192021222324
Judges
123456789101112131415161718192021
Ruth
1234
1 Samuel
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
2 Samuel
123456789101112131415161718192021222324
1 Kings
12345678910111213141516171819202122
2 Kings
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425
1 Chronicles
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
2 Chronicles
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536
1 Esdras
123456789
Ezra
12345678910
Nehemiah
12345678910111213
Tobit
1234567891011121314
Judith
12345678910111213141516
Esther
12345678910111213141516
Maccabees 1
12345678910111213141516
Maccabees 2
123456789101112131415
Psalms
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150
Job
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142
Proverbs
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
Ecclesiastes
123456789101112
Song of Songs
12345678
Wisdom of Solomon
12345678910111213141516171819
Wisdom of Sirach
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051
Hosea
1234567891011121314
Amos
123456789
Micah
1234567
Joel
123
Obadiah
1
Jonah
1234
Nahum
123
Habakkuk
123
Zephaniah
123
Haggai
12
Zechariah
1234567891011121314
Malachi
1234
Isaiah
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566
Jeremiah
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152
Baruch
12345
Lamentations
12345
Epistle of Jeremiah
1
Ezekiel
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748
Daniel
1234567891011121314
Prayer of Manasseh
1

Genesis 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.
Read Chapter 2

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
Therefore the soul is not blood, because blood is of the flesh; nor is the soul a harmony, because harmony of this sort is also of the flesh; neither is the soul air, because blown breath is one thing and the soul something else. The soul is not fire, nor is the soul actuality, but the soul is living, for Adam “became a living soul,” since the soul rules and gives life to the body, which is without life or feeling. Isaac, or the Soul
< 1 min1/21
Go to Commentary

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
First of all, the fact that God formed man from the mud of the earth usually raises a question about the sort of mud it was or the kind of material the term mud signifies. Those enemies of the Old Book [the Manichaeans], looking at everything in a carnal manner and therefore always being in error, bitingly find fault with this point as well, namely, that God formed man from the mud of the earth. For they say, “Why did God make man from mud? Did he lack a better and heavenly material from which he could make man, that he formed him fragile and mortal from this earthly corruption?” To begin with, they do not understand how many meanings either earth or water has in the Scriptures, for mud is a mixture of earth and water. Also we say that the human body began to waste away and to be fragile and mortal after sin. But the Manicheans abhor in our body only the mortality that we merited as punishment. But even if God made man from the mud of this earth, still what is there that is strange or ...
1 min2/21
Go to Commentary

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
After his resurrection, when he first appeared to his disciples, he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” About this giving, then, it was said, “The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” “And he breathed upon their face.” The One who first gave life to man by breathing and raised him up from the mire and by breathing gave a soul to his members is the same One who breathed upon their face that they might rise up from the slime and renounce filthy works. .
< 1 min3/21
Go to Commentary

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
We ought to understand this passage so that we do not take the words “he breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul” to mean that a part, as it were, of the nature of God was turned into the soul of man…. The nature of God is not mutable, does not err and is not corrupted by the stains of vices and sins…. Scripture clearly says that the soul was made by the almighty God and that it is therefore not a part of God or the nature of God. .
< 1 min4/21
Go to Commentary

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
Scripture says, “And he breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” If up to this point there was only the body, we should understand that the soul was at this point joined to the body. Perhaps the soul had been already made but was still as if in the mouth of God, that is, in his truth and wisdom. But it did not depart from there as if separated by places, when it was breathed forth. For God is not contained by place but is present everywhere. .
< 1 min5/21
Go to Commentary

Basil the Great

AD 379
“And he breathed into his nostrils,” that is to say, he placed in man some share of his own grace, in order that he might recognize likeness through likeness. Nevertheless, being in such great honor because he was created in the image of the Creator, he is honored above the heavens, above the sun, above the choirs of stars. For which of the heavenly bodies was said to be an image of the most high God? Homily on Psalm
< 1 min6/21
Go to Commentary

George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
Breath of life or a soul, created out of nothing, and infused into the body to give it life. (Haydock)
< 1 min7/21
Go to Commentary

Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
Others, on the contrary, marking the order of the making of man as stated by Moses, say that the soul is second to the body in order of time, since God first took dust from the earth and formed man, and then animated the being thus formed by his breath. By this argument they prove that the flesh is more noble than the soul, that which was previously formed [more noble] than that which was afterward infused into it…. Nor again are we in our doctrine to begin by making up man like a clay figure and to say that the soul came into being for the sake of this, for surely in that case the intellectual nature would be shown to be less precious than the clay figure. But as man is one, the being consisting of soul and body, we are to suppose that the beginning of his existence is one, common to both aspects, so that he should not be found to be antecedent and posterior to himself, as if the bodily element were first in point of time and the other were a later addition. .
1 min8/21
Go to Commentary

Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
“God took of the dust of the earth and fashioned man.” In this world I have discovered the two affirmations that man is nothing and that man is great. If you consider nature alone, he is nothing and has no value; but if you regard the honor with which he has been treated, man is something great. .
< 1 min9/21
Go to Commentary

Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
God made the inner person; he molded the outer. “Molding” is suitable for clay, but “making” is [fitting] for an image. So on the one hand, he “molded” flesh, but on the other, he “made” the soul. .
< 1 min10/21
Go to Commentary

Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
Above, the text says that God created; here it says how God created. If the verse had simply said that God created, you could have believed that he created [humanity] as he did for the beasts, for the wild animals, for the plants for the grass. This is why, to avoid your placing him in the class of wild animals, the divine word has made known the particular art which God has used for you: “God took of the dust of the earth.” .
< 1 min11/21
Go to Commentary

Gregory the Theologian

AD 390
The soul is the breath of God, a substance of heaven mixed with the lowest earth, a light entombed in a cave, yet wholly divine and unquenchable…. He spoke, and taking some of the newly minted earth his immortal hands made an image into which he imparted some of his own life. He sent his spirit, a beam from the invisible divinity.
< 1 min12/21
Go to Commentary

Hippolytus of Rome

AD 235
And God formed man of the dust of the ground. And what does this import? Are we to say, according to the opinion of some, that there were three men made, one spiritual, one animal, and one earthy? Not such is the case, but the whole narrative is of one man. For the word, Let us make, is about the man that was to be; and then comes the word, God made man of the dust of the ground, so that I he narrative is of one and the same man. For then He says, Let him be made, and now He makes him, and the narrative tells how He makes him.
1 min13/21
Go to Commentary

Hippolytus of Rome

AD 235
“And God formed man of the dust of the ground.” And what does this import? Are we to say, according to the opinion of some, that there were three men made, one spiritual, one animal, and one earthy? Not such is the case, but the whole narrative is of one man. For the word, “Let us make,” is about the man that was to be; and then comes the word, “God made man of the dust of the ground,” so that the narrative is of one and the same man. For then He says, “Let him be made,” and now He “makes him,” and the narrative tells “how” He makes him.
1 min14/21
Go to Commentary

John Chrysostom

AD 407
Thus when you hear that God “breathed into his face the breath of life,” understand that just as he brought forth the bodiless powers, so also he was pleased that the body of man, created out of dust, should have a rational soul which could make use of the bodily members.
< 1 min15/21
Go to Commentary

John Chrysostom

AD 407
It was pleasing to God’s love of humanity to make this thing created out of earth a participant of the rational nature of the soul, through which this living creature was manifest as excellent and perfect. “And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” that is, the inbreathing communicated to the one created out of earth the power of life, and thus the nature of the soul was formed. Therefore Moses added “And man became a living soul”; that which was created out of dust, having received the inbreathing, the breath of life, “became a living soul.” What does “a living soul” mean? An active soul, which has the members of the body as the implements of its activities, submissive to its will.
1 min16/21
Go to Commentary

John Chrysostom

AD 407
But I don't know how I strayed from the thread of the sermon on to these matters. Come now, let us return at this late stage to the preceding point, and let us see what else this blessed author wants to teach us today. You see, after saying, "This is the book about the origins of heaven and earth," he presses on and describes further for us with great detail the creation of the human being. Since he had briefly said above, "God made the human being; in God's image he made them," [ Gen 1:26 ] he now says, "God shaped the human being from the dust of the earth, (102c) and breathed into him a breath of life; the human being became alive." [ Gen 2:7 ] A mighty saying, giving rise to great wonderment, and beyond the limits of human under standing: "God shaped the human being," it says, "taking dust from the earth." Just as in the case of all the visible creatures I kept saying that the Creator of all performs everything in a manner contrary to human nature so as to demonstrate his ineffable...
9 mins17/21
Go to Commentary

John of Damascus

AD 749
From the earth he formed his body and by his own inbreathing gave him a rational and understanding soul, which we say is the divine image…. The body and the soul were formed at the same time—not one before and the other afterward, as the ravings of ORGN would have it.
< 1 min18/21
Go to Commentary

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
Thus you read the word of God, spoken to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” If God forms us in the womb, he also breathes on us as he did in the beginning: “And God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life.” Nor could God have known man in the womb unless he were a whole man.
< 1 min19/21
Go to Commentary

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
Since God forms us in the womb, He also breathes upon us, as He also did at the first creation, when "the Lord God formed man, and breathed into him the breath of life." Genesis 2:7 Nor could God have known man in the womb, except in his entire nature: "And before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you." Well, was it then a dead body at that early stage? Certainly not. For "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." [Treatise on the Soul 36] Besides, what else is man than flesh, since no doubt it was the corporeal rather than the spiritual element from which the Author of man's nature gave him his designation? "And the Lord God made man of the dust of the ground," not of spiritual essence; this afterwards came from the divine afflatus: "and man became a living soul." What, then, is man? Made, no doubt of it, of the dust; and God placed him in paradise, because He moulded him, not breathed him, into being—a fabric of flesh, not of spirit. [Against Marcion 1.24] In f...
2 mins20/21
Go to Commentary

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
The soul has its origin in the breath of God and did not come from matter. We base that statement on the clear assertion of divine revelation, which declares that “God breathed the breath of life into the face of man, and man became a living soul.”
< 1 min21/21
Go to Commentary
About Privacy Policy Donate

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

App Store LogoPlay Store Logo