u/Comfortable_Tie_272

Could the fact that the Hebrew word Ruah originally meant wind or action while Nephesh meant physical life explain why the Arabic equivalents Ruh and Nafs became so confused within the Islamic text? If Muhammad was working with a late sixth century understanding influenced by Roman and Christian thought does it mean he mistakenly turned what used to be a description of divine action into a separate personified soul? How can we ignore the evidence from scholars like Dan McClellan who show that ancient Jews did not even have a body soul dualism and instead viewed a person as a single whole? If the Quran uses Ruh to mean both the breath of life and a distinct personified entity standing in ranks is it because the author was conflating two different historical concepts without realizing they were distinct? Does this linguistic evolution prove that the Islamic God is a man made vision built on a misunderstanding of ancient Near Eastern literature and the shifting definitions of divine personhood?