Leviticus 17:10-12 "the soul of the flesh is in the blood"

This verse struck me with some questions and I was wondering if I could get help to try to understand it a little better. Now to get started this text is where is Jehovah speaking to Moses regarding some of the laws and regulations to be put before the Israelites. In verse 10 and 12 Jehovah refers to indiviual humans and souls but in verse 11 he says that the soul of the flesh is in the blood. It seems that the word soul seems to refer to a complete system or something that is whole. So I guess what my question would be is does the word soul, when used in the context as in verse 11, still refer to a living creature or organism?

I think its OT idiom, don't read too much into it. Blood represents life after the death of a human or animal. Abel's "blood" cried out from the ground.

The bible also talks about the heart and the kidneys in symbolic ways.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome (((((jonathan8))))) to the forum.  Are you quoting from the NWT?  I agree with Cofty.  The Septuagint has been translated differently by different Bible translators.

I prefer to read an NIV Bible.  I always felt uncomfortable reading from the NWT Bible.  In addition to inserting Jehovah in the NWT Bible translation of the Septuagint, it seems to me that the NWT writers would select words to promote fear of Our Heavenly Father instead of love.  If you would like to compare the NWT to other English translations of the Bible, you can visit www.biblegateway.com.  You can also search the internet for Greek, Hebrew, and English Interlinear translations of the Bible.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

The literal belief that the soul/life is in the blood is an ancient Egyptian belief that got them to drinking blood for immortality. 

Lose any of your vital organs and you will die just the same. 

It's just used as a symbol, and I refuse to die for symbols.

My life, being sacred, is more important than a flucking symbol. 

That's how I feel about it.

Thank you White Dove that was very informative. I did not know that about the Egyptians. Any more information about a more clear, and definite defintion of "soul" will be greatly appreciated.

And yes the qoute is from The New World Translation

It is not hard to understand why the ancients believed that a creature's life is in the blood.  Blood flows, it spurts, it is visibly alive.  And a creature dies if bled for too long.

It was never more than symbolic. The remedy for the error of eating blood, or unbled meat was the simple process of washing one's self and clothes. Not much really to it

Lev: 17:15-16

http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Sheol-Death-Afterlife-Testament/dp/0830826874

Shades of Sheol is an extraordinarily good guide to the development of the thinking of death and the afterlife in the OT.  To drastically over-simplify: the ancient Jews (and Greeks, for that matter) considered the fact that animals all breathe and used the word for "wind" to capture the idea of a living being through their breath.  

You might also find it instructive to read Book 11 of the Odyssey: Odysseus needs to have conversations with the shades of the dead and, in order to summon them, he pours blood in a trench.  The spirits are attracted to the blood and drink it us -- as they do, they have conversations with Odysseus.  The point being that very old cultures see life and blood as related, even to the point of thinking that the spirits of the dead are drawn to the blood of the living because it contains that which they lack.