Disembodied souls : the nefesh in Israel and kindred spirits in the ancient Near East, with an appendix on the Katumuwa

Abstract

In this broad-ranging study Steiner presents linguistic, archeological, and sociological evidence about the belief in disembodied spirits and the nature of the human soul from ancient Israel and the ancient Near East. Steiner's thesis is that (at least some) ancient Israelites believed that the soul (נפש or רוח) was separate from the body during life and in death. He bases this argument on his own, new interpretation of Ezek 13:17–21 and the presence of similar beliefs among ancient Near Eastern people in the first and second millennia BCE. In addition, Steiner also provides commentary on the Katumuwa inscription from Zincirli (in an appendix), the conclusions of which form a portion of his argument.