Question

When does the soul enter a person ... at the moment of conception, at sometime following conception, or do we really not know?

Answer

There is a limit to what God has told us in the Scriptures about our souls. Yet he has made plain to us certain facts, some of which I believe address your question. I’d like to direct you to three texts which should be read in context, rather than grabbed as proof texts.

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. (Gen. 2:7)

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Eccl. 12:7)

Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. (Zech. 12:1)

Greek philosophers taught that a soul was eternal, that is it had no beginning or end. The Bible teaches the contrary truth; namely that souls are created, and thereafter never cease to exist.

You might have noticed that the first and second texts quoted above present God as breathing or expirating the spirit or soul into man. According to Genesis 2:7, this is when the first man became a living being. Undoubtedly much anthropomorphism is employed in these verses. Ecclesiastes 12, quoted above, makes a similar point, albeit from the “other end” of life. Good and necessary reasoning flowing from Genesis 2:7 and Ecclesiastes 12:7 should lead us to understand Zechariah 12:1 in similar manner. We can therefore conclude that the giving of the soul either brought life or was contemporaneous with the giving of life. In fact the Hebrew noun for life and soul are the same—yes, other verbs and such are used, but the noun found here is used for both soul or spirit and life. Therefore, in answer to your question, the soul enters into a person when life begins—at conception—and leaves the person when life ends: death. It is this which separates humans from animals.

Related to this, Scripture teaches that we are created with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. God makes man and God gives each man a spirit or soul. The spirit or soul is a reasoning, ethical, and intellectual aspect of a person. The wise Job said, “But there is a Spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding” (Job 32:8). In fact, man’s reasoning, ethical and intellectual soul is a necessary part of personhood. Elihu when addressing Job said, “No one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’ ” (Job 35:10–11) Man’s soulishness is what gives him his human personal existence, distinct from the animal creation. A person cannot be human and not have a soul.

Scripture teaches us more than the little I have presented here, and to be fair, more could have been extracted from these passages than I have. I hope this has helped and would encourage you to study these portions (and all of God’s Word) further.