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Is the soul naturally immortal, or can it die?

Inferred

No single verse settles it; the conclusion is assembled across texts and leans one way.

The soul is not described anywhere in scripture as naturally or inherently immortal; the texts consistently treat immortality as belonging to God alone and as something humans receive, and the soul can die, according to God's own direct speech in Ezekiel 18.

God's own words in Ezekiel 18 state twice that the soul that sins "shall die"; Genesis 3:22 shows God barring the tree of life to prevent man living forever; and Paul states that God alone possesses immortality (1 Timothy 6:16), with humans needing to "put on" immortality at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:53). No text states the soul is naturally immortal; the one text that comes closest (Matthew 10:28, where humans cannot kill the soul) attributes that protection to God's exclusive power to destroy it, not to the soul's own indestructibility.

Key texts:
Genesis 2:7Tier 5 · Other
“Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Genesis 3:22Tier 1 · God
“Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—””
Ezekiel 18:4Tier 1 · God
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he shall die.”

…and 19 more verses weighed in the full analysis.

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Original-language words behind this answer:
géenna (Greek G1067)nᵉshâmâh (Hebrew H5397)timḗ (Greek G5092)mónos (Greek G3441)râshâʻ (Hebrew H7563)ʼaph (Hebrew H639)ʻêts (Hebrew H6086)ʼêsh (Hebrew H784)ṭôwb (Hebrew H2896)raʻ (Hebrew H7451)

SAM answers from primary-source texts only, weighing each verse by its authority tier. Every quotation is verified word-for-word. How the method works →

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