Outstanding post. If I may be so bold...
Background ..see
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Hebrew/heb.cgi?number=05315&version=kjv
Also see pneuma and pneumatikos for New Testament verses
1) We might associate this with animals and above
2) Also the same animal life reproduced itself.
3) Man became a living soul,...particular note might be made in that Scripture is written from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through human writers. The sense and language provided is consistent and provides enormous insight to the nature or essence of understanding Christ. Consider the point communicated in each verse in context and then consider the dual of the argument, how it wasn't said to help in discernment. The understanding will arise from the walk with Him.
4) Life of the flesh is in the blood. Note that when a believer sins, falls out of fellowship with God, then the only rightoeus, holy life available to him is in the blood or body to offer for atonement, as the spiritual life is separated by sin from perfect Righteousness of God.
5) Dead body. Death frequently in Scripture is better understood as separation,...separation from God, separation of soul from body, separation of spirit from body. They became defiled by touching that which had been separated from God, in this case in particular a fleshly body separated from the soul.
6) Separation of soul and Spirit. Note here the importance of understanding a continual consciousness, separate from the body associated with the person, awareness, yet linked to a God created spirit or life. The importance is that from Scriptural perspective inspired by Spirit, the same indwelling nature of man by the Holy Spirit may be separated from the consciousness or awareness of man. There may also be a separation of the spiritual domain from man's soul leaving him only to perceptions of the flesh, wherein he has lost his flesh. A scarring of the soul from while he was alive may remain with the soul upon separation of the body and without spirit, unable to endure except for an eternal torment.
7) Every living soul died... Perhaps more closely associated with the separation of soul from body rather than soul from spirit, closer in nature to the frst use of the Word in describing creation of whales.
Hope that helps a little,...I'm stil learning and growing on this one.
Thanks for the compliment and the time you took to lay out your points.
I'm thinking however, that the examples I gave were not spiritual symbolisms, but instead relating to the physical. Excepting the "asunder" verse. Which is precisely why I chose those specific verses. It is interesting at least, that the same word is used to describe aspects of what we call the soul, as that for animals, the physical life that blood gives, life in the sea, and even a dead body.
I'm not seeing much of a spriritual element there, and I do see spiritual elements clearly expounded upon elsewhere.
Using strictly the bible as its own dictionary, it's easy to conclude that a soul is not what the prevailing assumption is. And let's face it, it's definitely a big assumption that society applies to the concept of a soul.
A definition which is used often and rarely investigated
Most people have this vagure idea of what a soul is. Often times seeing it as a physical and a spiritual thing, when no one confuses the phyiscal with a spirit. If a spirit is clearly and only a spirit, then what really is a soul?
I'm asking rhetorically because I do not believe a soul is spiritual in any sense, except the modern usage and most probably misusage of the word.