Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>]

Rolf wrote:

"I teach Accadian, so I know that the answer is negative.  I would
just point out that in the Hebrew cognate language Accadian where
they have the word ETEMMU  referring to the spirit of a dead person
(the word can also denote a necromancer, ( cf. Hebrew (I++YM), even
there NAPISTU  did not refer to an immortal soul.  There is no word
in Hebrew denoting any immortal part of man, as there is in Accadian
and Ugaritic."

Dear Rolf,

You are quite right that in the Mesopotamian myth, AFTER the god was
slaughtered and his body was MIXED into the "clay" making man, that the
myths speak of a ETEMU or "spirit" of  a God being IN Man, animating him.

But please note, a God's BODY was KILLED, SLAUGHTERED and GROUND UP and
mixed into the clay.  It IS THIS BODY WITH ITS SPIRIT or life-force that
gives life to man.  The texts do NOT say a God's spirit was given man
without a body.

So, I understand that the Hebrew notion that man is a living NEPHESH, is
rather like Liz has argued, a LIVING FLESHLY BEING is a combining of Etemu
if you will, and FLESH. Etemu doesn't exist apart from the flesh. If it did,
there would have been no need to mix the God's flesh into the clay. The
Etemu could have been bestowed upon the clay without the God's flesh. Do you
understand my point ?

Regards, Walter
Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld, M.A. Ed.
Millbury, Massachusetts
www.bibleorigins.net