The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The article explores the correlation between the meanings of the Hebrew word Both . ֶנ ֶפשׁ and the Greek word ψυχή used to translate the Hebrew word ֶנ ֶפשׁ words are among the basic concepts of biblical anthropology. The word “dusha” (“soul”) in Church Slavonic and Russian (Synodal) translation of the Old Testamentwasgenerallyusedtorenderthewordsψυχήandֶנֶפשׁ, respectively. The paper defines the religious and cultural context within which the word ψυχή was used to translate the word ֶנ ֶפשׁ when the Septuagint was created. The issues of interpretation of the Greek Bible text containing the word ψυχή are also addressed. The author outlines the approaches to the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible text (containing the word ֶנ ֶפשׁ) used in the times of this translation. The approaches of how the translators of the Septuagint interpreted the target text containing the word ψυχή are reconstructed. The article also outlines the reconstruction of how the first readers and listeners to the Greek Bible text interpreted the Septuagint text containing the word ψυχή. In connection with the problem of “spiritualization” of the Bible, the article studies the examples of the interpretation of the word ψυχή indicating the significant changes in the Old Testament anthropology. The article summarises the results of research on this subject. Within the existent methodology for studying the Septuagint, the author considers the hypothesis that the Septuagint translators did not presume anysemantic shifts and changes intheinterpretation of the wordֶ נֶפשׁ, whereas the meaning of “immortal soul” was not supposed for the word ψυχή in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible.