The Bible Indicates Animals (and Humans) Have Immortal Souls

The Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek term psuché are used interchangeably in the Bible, and both carry a ‘personhood’ designation. In the Bible, humans (Gen 2:7; 1 Cor 15:45) and animals (Gen 1:20–21, 1:24–25, 1:30, 2:19–20; Rev 8:9, 16:3) are both considered ‘persons’ because they share the labels nephesh and psuché. ‘Person’ and ‘soul’ are traditionally linked words. For instance, in the nautical and aviation senses, ‘souls on board’ means how many persons are on a boat or plane, respectively. Fittingly, both nephesh (Gen 35:18; 1 Kgs 17:21–22) and psuché (Matt 10:28, 16:26–27) are translated elsewhere to English as ‘soul,’ meaning the immortal essence of a human. Animals are also designated as nephesh and psuché, which indicates that, like humans (Dan 12:2), animals have immortal souls. It would make sense that animals possess immortal souls because Hebrews 4:12 implies that the spirit and the soul are coupled but separable. Since animals have eternal spirits (Ecc 3:18–21, 12:7), it would indicate they also have immortal souls. The animals residing in heaven (Rev 5:13, 8:13) are most likely the immortal souls of animals that once lived on earth. After the Second Coming (Matt 16:27), the souls of these heavenly animals will be reunited with their resurrected everlasting bodies (1 Cor 15:20–57), where they will live forever on the New Earth without harm or death for all eternity (Isa 11:6–9; Rom 8:18–25; Rev 21:1–4).