It is common to hear from some groups and individuals that hold to psychopannychism or thnetopsychism ("soul-sleep" and "soul-death," respectively—often labelled “mortalism”) that the "soul" (Hebrew: נפשׁ; Greek: ψυχη), in the theology of the biblical authors, does not survive death. However, recent scholarship and textual discoveries have called this claim (held by a number of scholars, such as the late Oscar Cullmann) into question. A recent volume by Richard C. Steiner, Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East, with an Appendix on the Katumuwa Inscription (Society of Biblical Literature, 2015) has shown that, in the worldview of the Hebrew Bible and its environment, the נפשׁ could survive independently of the body.
The SBL offers this book for free as a .pdf download here.
