Is it true that Golem can be translated as body without soul?

Question

I've been doing some research into Golems and stories about them. I came across a website that said, "The word "golem" appears only once in the Bible (Ps. 139:16), and from it originated the talmudic usage of the term – something unformed and imperfect. In philosophic usage it is matter without form. Adam is called "golem," meaning body without soul, in a talmudic legend concerning the first 12 hours of his existence (Sanh. 38b). " Is this true? Every other source I've come across says Golem means something unfinished among other things, but not "Body without soul."

Answer 1

This is a really interesting question!

The word "golem" comes from an Aramaic root word meaning to roll up or to unshape. From this comes the meaning of something being unshaped or formless--a blob or a lump. From that we get the more figurative meaning of something being unformed or imperfect.

The story they're talking about in Sanhedrin is about the formation of Adam over the course of the day. It imagines that his dust was gathered in the first hour. Then, in the second hour, "a golem was made." In the third hour, his limbs were stretched out. In the fourth hour, a soul was cast into him. (There's more to the story, but that's enough for our purposes.)

So I can see how this source is getting the idea that a golem is a body without a soul. If Adam's soul wasn't given to him until the fourth day, then the golem form of the second day didn't have a soul. But I think the plain meaning of this text is contrasting the golem form and the form with limbs--meaning that Adam was a shapeless lump at this point.

I wouldn't be surprised if later myths about golems and the associated sense developed from this story, but I don't think it's the plain meaning of the original source in the Talmud. It's pretty far from the original root meaning of the word.