Life-force and breath. In earthly creatures, or “souls,” there is both the active life-force, or “spirit” that animates them, and the breath that sustains that life-force. Both spirit (life-force) and breath are provisions from God, and he can destroy life by taking either away. (Ps 104:29; Isa 42:5) At the time of the Flood, animals and humans were drowned; their breath was cut off and the force of life was extinguished. It died out. “Everything in which the breath of the force of life was active [literally, “in which the breath of the active force (spirit) of life [was]”] in its nostrils, namely, all that were on the dry ground, died.”​—Ge 7:22; compare Robert Young’s translation; see SPIRIT.

Transmission of Life-Force. The life-force in creatures, being started into activity by Jehovah in the first of each kind (for example, in the first human pair), could then be passed on by the procreative process to offspring. In mammals, following conception the mother supplies oxygen and other nourishment until birth, when the infant begins to breathe through its nostrils, to nurse, and later to eat.

When Adam was created, God formed man’s body. For that newly created body to live and continue alive, both the spirit (life-force) and breathing were needed. Genesis 2:7 states that God proceeded “to blow into his nostrils the breath [form of nesha·mahʹ] of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” “The breath of life” must refer to more than just breath or air moving into the lungs. God evidently provided Adam with both the spirit or spark of life and the breath needed to keep him alive. Now Adam began to have life as a person, to express personality traits, and by his speech and actions he could reveal that he was higher than the animals, that he was a “son of God,” made in His likeness and image.​—Ge 1:27; Lu 3:38.

The life of man and animals is dependent both on the life-force started off initially in the first of each kind and on breath to sustain that life-force. Biological science testifies to this fact. This is evident by the way that some authorities attempt to categorize the various aspects of the process of death: Clinical death, the cessation of the functions of the respiratory and the circulatory organs; brain death, total and irreversible stopping of brain function; somatic death, the gradual and eventually complete disappearance of vital functions from all organs and tissues of the body. So even after breathing, heartbeat, and brain function have ceased, the life-force lingers for a time in the body’s tissues.