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