Disembodied Souls

Biblical scholars have long claimed that the Israelites could not conceive of a disembodied nefesh [soul]. In this book Richard C. Steiner rejects that claim based on a broad spectrum of textual linguistic archaeological and anthropological evidence spanning the millennia from prehistoric times to the present. The biblical evidence includes a prophecy of Ezekiel condemning women who pretend to trap the wandering souls of sleeping people--a prophecy that has been only partially understood until now because of the obscure technical terms that it contains. The extrabiblical evidence suggests that a belief in the existence of disembodied souls was part of the common religious heritage of the peoples of the ancient Near East.