A: The deceased do not possess any of the three attributes that define existence: mind, emotions, and will.
In the deceased, there are no cognitive processes: “When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.” Psalm 146:4 ESV.
Therefore, “the dead know nothing.” Ecclesiastes 9:5 ESV.
The deceased have no emotions: “Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 9:6 ESV.
The deceased have no will because after death: “in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 BSB.
Furthermore, the meaning of the word Sheol is “grave” or “burial place” in the sense of the state of death, not a place for the spirits or souls of deceased people.
Death as the “sleep in the dust of the earth” is a direct consequence of the Biblical understanding of the mortality of the soul (nefesh), which is a psychophysical unity of a person."
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