Genesis 2:7 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Into his nostrils, and by that door into the head and whole man. This is an emphatical phrase, sufficiently implying that the soul of man was of a quite differing nature and higher extraction and original than the souls of beasts, which together with their bodies are said to be brought forth by the earth, Genesis 1:24. The breath of life, Heb. of lives; either to show the continuance of this breath or soul, both in this life and in the life to come; or to note the various degrees or kinds of life which this one breath worketh in us; the life of plants, in growth and nourishment; the life of beasts, in sense and motion; and the life of a man, in reason and understanding. Man, who before this was but a dull lump of clay, or a comely statue, became a living soul, i.e. a living man: the soul being oft put for the whole man, as Genesis 12:5, Genesis 12:13, Genesis 46:15 Genesis 46:18, 1 Peter 3:20, &c.