How can Akkadian napištu shed light on Hebrew nep̄eš? File this brief in “The Ancient History of the Soul.” Such word studies can help us more richly appreciate ancient concepts of personhood, embodiment, and health.

A word cloud (of sorts) for Akkadian napištu — This is more than just a careless romp through the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. What follows lays a first step towards a corporeal philological method for studying Hebrew nefeš that attunes the modern, critical imagination to the possibilities in ancient bi-lingual poetics. (Bilingual Scribes, e.g. Victor Hurowitz’s discussion of nefeš/napištu).

As health terminology, Hebrew nefeš (and often Akkadian napištu) fall within the domain of scribal medical knowledge especially, and for Hebrew scribes, physiognomic knowledge as well (this is a claim I want to make and interrogate). Therefore, nefeš would have been understood, along with other features of inscribed bodies, as subjects of linguistic omina in want of observation, diagnosis, prognosis, and scribal therapy.

[Unfinished — more later…]

napṣu (adj) — crushed, broken, hit; settled [OB, SB]

napsamu — nose bag [Mari, MA, SB] — e.g., “Marduk put a feed bag(?) on the mouth of the lion who was about to eat me” (Lambert, BWL 56 line q, 58:14, Theodicy)

naprušu (adj) — flying [SB]

napraḫtu — fermenting vat for beer [OB, SB, NB]

napraku — bolt, bar; obstacle, obstruction [SB]

napillu — caterpillar [SB]

nappilu — battering ram e.g., “I besieged the city, I conquored the city by mites, battering rams, and towers”; person digging a tell [OB, SB]

nappītu — sieve; a snake [OB, NA, NB]

nappû — sieve [OB, SB, NB]

napāḫu — [from OB on]

• to blow (something), to hiss

• to light a fire, a stove, a brazier, to set fire to a pyre

• (stative) to be bloated, swollen, blown up

• to become visible, to rise, to glow (said of stars, moon, sun)

• nappuḫu to blow gustily, to hiss,

• nappuḫu to light fires

• nappuḫu (stative) to be bloated, swollen

• II/2 to be kindled

• III/2 to blow on each other(?)

• IV to be kindled, to flare up, to become bloated(?)

• IV/3 to be kindled again and again, to flare up repeatedly

• IV/3 to become swollen, to become bloated again and again

naparšudu — (verb) to escape, to flee; to fall into disuse, oblivion; [from OB, MA, on]

napāṣu (nabāṣu/nabāšu) — to kick, strike, flop about, thrash around(?); to kick, to hurl, to dash down; to smash, to crush; to tear down, to demolish; to clear accounts [OB]; [OA, OB, MB]

napāšu — (verb) to breath freely, to relax; to expand, to become abundant; to make a claim; nuppušu to let respire, to make feel easy; nuppušu to air

napištu (napuštu, napultu, napaštu, na=paltu, napšatu, *nupšatu) — [from OAkk on]

• life, vigor, vitality, good health

• living beings

• person, somebody (negated) nobody

• capital case

• personnel, persons of menial status, animals counted in a herd

• body, self

• breath

• livelihood

• provisions, sustainence

• throat, neck

• opening, air hole

• neckerchief

napištu in bēl napišti — protector, life-giver; one who has a right to vengeance (OB, MA)

napištu in ša napišti — pendant [OB]

nāpištu — woman carding wool [B]

napīšu — breath, breathing, breeze; smell [OB, SB]

napīšu in ša napīšu — a censor [SB, NB]

nappaḫu — bellows, as in the fire of a metalsmith (SB, NB)

nappāḫu (adj) — ever-rising [OB]

nappāḫu — smith, metalworker [from OAkk on]