It certainly can simply mean “a person,” such as when we today say something like “you poor soul.” In the creation account, for example, the Bible does say: Similarly, the word “soul” holds more than one meaning in Scripture. The sentences are nearly identical, but the words “exercise,” “right,” and “arms” all have completely different meanings derived from the context in which they are being used. If I am teaching a class at a gym and instruct a group of men to exercise their right arms, I mean something very different than a militia leader who urges his men to exercise their right to bear arms. The same word can have different meanings in different contexts.
This is, of course, one way the biblical authors use the word “soul,” though hardly the only way. They claim that the soul “is the entire creature, not something inside that survives the death of the body.” 1 (accessed 6/13/17) Man (according to the Watchtower) does not have a soul, man is a soul, and “soul” simply means a living, breathing, physical being. They deny that humans have a “soul” or any spiritual component to their being. They insist that human beings entirely cease to exist at the moment of physical death. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that there is no part of a man that continues to exist consciously after death.
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