The relationship between the Body and Spirit in Daniel 7:15

In Dan 7:15, we read:

 

I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

 

The Aramaic term translated as "body" in this verse is נדן (alt. נדנה). In HALOT, we read the following:

 

Da 7₁₅ בְּגוֹא נִדְנֶה hellip. אֶכְרִיַּת רוּחִי: traditionally ) נִדְנֵהּwith sf.( is read for נִדְנֶה. The meaning is controversial but possible interpretations include.

 

—A. sheath: GenAp ii: 10 נשמתי לגו נדנהא my soul is in their sheath )cf. Fitzmyer Gen. Ap. 78(; Bab. Talmud Sanhedrin 108a e*d. L. Goldschmidt 7: 482(: חוזרת לנדנה שלא תהא נשמתן that their soul should not return to its sheath; cf. also Pliny Nat. Hist. 7: 52/3 donec cremato eo inimici remeanti animae velut vaginam edemerint; Codex Venetus of the Sept. reads ἐν τῷ κολεῷ in the sheath; Theodotion has ἐν τῇ ε]ξει μου e;]ξι῍ = גְּוִיָּה body in Jdg 14₉, so already Gesenius Thes. 854b; Lebram has covering(.

 

Clines gives the definition of נדן as:

Taken from David J.A. Clines, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 8 vols. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2011) 5:626

In his commentary on the book of Daniel, John Goldingay rendered Dan 7:15 as:

 

I, Daniel, was disturbed in spirit at this. The visions that came into my head alarmed me. (John E. Goldingay, Daniel [Word Biblical Commentary 30; Dallas, Tex.: Wordbooks, 1989], 143)

 

In his commentary on this verse, we read an alternative translation of the Aramaic:

 

אתכרית רוחי . . . בגוא שדנה “my spirit was disturbed in the midst of the sheath.” (p. 146)

 

In the theology of this passage, Daniel understood the relationship between his body and spirit as that of a sheath to a sword. Such is consistent with Latter-day Saint and other theologies of the body/spirit but inconsistent with those that hold to a form of soul sleep/soul death.

 

For more, see::

Response to Douglas V. Pond on Biblical and LDS Anthropology and Eschatology