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Differences between people and animals

Differences:

  1. Though both people and animals possess life, only man possesses a soul. Genesis 2:7 (ESV) then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. In the ESV version of Genesis 2.7 the word “creature” translates the Hebrew nepesh, which according to Strongs Concordance predominantly means “soul.”
    1. Note the word’s usage as reported by Strongs: soul 475 uses, life 117, person 29, mind 15, heart 15, creature 9, body 8, himself 8, yourselves 6, dead 5, will 4, desire 4, man 3, themselcves 3, any 3, appetite 2, miscellaneous uses 47, total 753. [James Strong, “‏נֶפֶשׁ‎,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).].
    2. God’s creation of all other living creatures was different. He did not breath His life into them as He did to man.
  2. Only mankind was made in God’s likeness and image.
    1. Genesis 1:26–28 (ESV) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
    2. Being in God’s image gives peoples’ lives higher significance and priority than animals’ lives. A person is allowed to kill an animal, such as for food or protection; but an animal is not allowed to kill a person. If an animal kills a person the animal forfeits its life. If a person kills another person for a reason not sanctioned by God (e.g. murder) the killer forfeits their life. Genesis 9:3–6 (ESV) Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
  3. God gave people the right and the duty to subdue the animal kingdom and rule over it. Genesis 1:26–28 (ESV) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”