Our contemporary views of death and the afterlife are largely influenced by ancient Greek philosophy and not by the Hebrew tradition. When we speak of the immortality of the soul, salvation as the soul's escape from the body, or when we picture the afterlife as a purely spiritual, non-corporeal reality, we reveal our Greek influences. None of these concepts are found in the ancient Hebrew tradition.

Why is this important? Because it is the Hebrew tradition, and not the Greek tradition, that should inform our understanding of resurrection. If we wish to investigate the apostles' claim that Jesus was raised from the dead "it is important to locate their claim where it belongs, within the worldview and language of second-Temple Judaism."[1] Second Temple Judaism focuses on religious developments during the time of the second Temple.

The second Temple was completed in 516 B.C. following the Jewish exile from Babylonian captivity and destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans. This is a fascinating period of religious development in the Jewish tradition. Moreover, it provides the context for Jesus' ministry. Without the context of the beliefs and practices of Second Temple Judaism, it is difficult to understand Jesus' beliefs and behaviors.

When we begin to look at Second Temple Judaism, we discover a variegated landscape. Many different types of Judaism existed. We find a sampling of these differences in the four gospels when they name the various Jewish parties: Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots. There were other groups, such as the Essenes. In spite of the various views, there were mainstream beliefs that were held by the majority - beliefs that allow us to speak of Second Temple Judaism in general. One of these mainstream views was the belief in the resurrection of the body - a unique belief in the ancient world. However, this conviction developed over time in the Hebrew tradition, coming to maturity only during the Second Temple period.

Prior to this time, the dominant Hebrew picture of the afterlife was far from appealing.

Sheol

The dominant image of the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible is that of Sheol (Hebrew) or Hades (Greek). Sheol represents the lowest place imaginable in contrast to the highest heavens. Its synonyms include abaddon, the pit, the grave, the netherworld, the land of the forgotten, and the dark regions.

These almost interchangeable terms denote a place of gloom and despair, a place where one can no longer enjoy life, and where the presence of YHWH himself is withdrawn. It is a wilderness: a place of dust to which creatures made of dust have returned. Those who have gone there are 'the dead'; they are 'shades', rephaim, and they are 'asleep'.[2]

"In biblical Jewish thought the dead do not vanish and turn into nothingness. They become emptied and weakened shades (the rephaim)."[3] The "living soul" (nephesh hayah) turns into a "dead soul" (nephesh met). "The person remains identifiably the same, but enters a different, diminished, inferior state of existence."[4] Sheol holds no comforts or prospects of future life. It is a dreary, shadowy, monotonous, even terrifying experience. Companionship is absent, joy and laughter are no longer heard, and eternal silence pervades. A sampling of passages from the Hebrew Bible will suffice to make this point clear:

Do you work wonders for the dead?
   Do the shades rise up to praise you?

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
   or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
   or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? (Psalm 88:10-12)

For Sheol cannot thank you,
   death cannot praise you;
those who go down to the Pit cannot hope
   for your faithfulness. (Isaiah 38:18)

For in death there is no remembrance of you;
   in Sheol who can give you praise? (Psalm 6:5)

This was the common perspective on the afterlife in the ancient Hebrew tradition. It is hardly a positive picture. It bears little resemblance to our popular culture's view of the afterlife. Our culture, more influenced by Greek perspectives on the afterlife than Hebrew perspectives, naturally assumes that death releases one's "immortal soul" from the body to dwell in a spiritual non-corporeal reality. This is not the Hebrew view. For the ancient Israelite, individuals enter into a silent shadow-life that possesses none of the joys of human existence above the grave.

We now are in a position to step back and consider how the Hebrew view of Sheol would affect the outlook on life of a pious Jew? The answer is simple and unavoidable: "All good things happen to man between his birth and his death." [5]

"Death itself was sad, and tinged with evil. It was not seen, in the canonical Old Testament, as a happy release, an escape of the soul from the prison-house of the body."[6] One's present existence was "as good as it gets." Only in this life could one know God's salvation. Only in this life could one praise God. In view of one's destiny in Sheol, it was quite reasonable for God's people to cry out to God, "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?" (Psalm 30:9)

This posed a problem for faithful Israelites. The fact that death offered little more than a shadowy half-existence brought a seed of discontent to a theology otherwise pervaded by a thorough embrace of creation and embodied existence. How, in view of Sheol, could one really believe that God meant it when God declares "I put before you death and life... so choose life"? (see Deuteronomy 30:15-20)

What good was it to "choose life" if ultimately the choice proved empty in view of one's immanent death? And what did this say of God's proclamation through the prophets that "the soul that sins shall die" - especially when all die? (Ezekiel 18:4; Jeremiah 31:30). Was it even worth it to obey God's law?

The problem was exacerbated by the possibility that one could live a righteous life and still suffer, as evidenced by the book of Job. The question the book of Job puts forth is simple: Do we serve God simply for what we get out of it, so that God is merely a means to an end? The answer in Job is that those who are truly faithful do not merely serve God for the good it brings in this life. Why, then, do the faithful serve God, especially when one's lot in life may be no different because of it, and indeed, may be worse?

The book of Ecclesiastes provides the most cynical response to this dilemma. What good is it whether one is righteous or wicked if both paths lead to the same end? The wise author writes,

All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them is vanity, since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath. This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of all are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun.

Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. (Ecclesiastes 9:1-10)

The author's conclusion is that it is best to "eat, drink, and be merry" during the short time one is given on this earth. This conclusion is not offered by the author of Ecclesiastes as a reasonable alternative, but as an accommodation to an absurd reality. Death is an absurd end to a largely absurd existence where righteousness is not rewarded and evil goes unpunished.

This element of Israel's wisdom tradition reveals the inherent contradiction in Israel's theology. If all roads lead to the same miserable end, why be righteous? Why sacrifice for others? Why not live it up while one is alive? It would seem that faithfulness is not nearly as important as one's own happiness, even if this happiness is only short-lived and, in the end, futile. It is in this context that we must understand the repeated refrain in Ecclesiastes: "Vanity of vanities. All is vanity."

These questions are largely unanswered in the Hebrew Bible, primarily because the reality of Sheol effectively cuts short any possibility of a hopeful end to one's life.

This leads to the questions: Does the Old Testament offer any hope beyond the grave? Does the Hebrew Bible have a theology of resurrection? Or, is resurrection in conflict with the dominant message of the Old Testament?

We will come back to these questions. But in the meantime, we must examine the period in which the doctrine of resurrection arose in prominence. It is during the period of Second Temple Judaism - what we often refer to as the intertestamental period - that the doctrine of resurrection gained prominence. Only by understanding this period can we place Jesus' teaching in its proper context.

Intertestamental Developments

The apocryphal or deuterocanonical documents record the rise of a doctrine of bodily resurrection. It is during this period in Israel's history where, for the first time, individuals experienced martyrdom for their faith. The possibility of having to die for one's beliefs changed Jewish attitudes on life and death.

One prominent account of this shift is found in 2 Maccabees 7, the martyrdom of the seven brothers:

The context is that of pagan persecution. The Syrian tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, as part of his drive to bring Judaism into line with his imperial ambitions, is attempting to make loyal Jews disobey their god-given laws (specifically, the prohibition on eating pork), under pain of torture and death. The story focuses on a mother and her seven sons, who refuse to eat the unclean food, and are tortured one by one.[7]

The account reads as follows:

It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and thongs, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh. One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."

The king fell into a rage, and gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song that bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, 'And he will have compassion on his servants.' "

After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, "Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?" He replied in the language of his ancestors and said to them, "No." Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done. And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."

After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again." As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

After he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way. When he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of mortals and to cherish the hope God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"

Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him. But he looked at the king, and said, "Because you have authority among mortals, though you also are mortal, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people. Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!"

After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, "Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened. But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!"

The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Although she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She encouraged each of them in the language of their ancestors. Filled with a noble spirit, she reinforced her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them, "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws."

Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his ancestors, and that he would take him for his Friend and entrust him with public affairs. Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself. After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son. But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native language as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: "My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you. I beg you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. And in the same way the human race came into being. Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again along with your brothers."

While she was still speaking, the young man said, "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our ancestors through Moses. But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God. For we are suffering because of our own sins. And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants. But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all mortals, do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes, when you raise your hand against the children of heaven. You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God. For our brothers after enduring a brief suffering have drunk of ever-flowing life, under God's covenant; but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance. I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our ancestors, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by trials and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God, and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation."

The king fell into a rage, and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn. So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord.

Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.

Let this be enough, then, about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures.

The moral of the story of the martyrdom of the seven brothers is that it is more important to obey God's law than to live. If forced to choose between life or disobedience to God's laws, the faithful Jew must choose death. How, then, would God vindicate the righteous? By overruling the world's verdict and raising the righteous to life.

This was the predominant belief of the majority of faithful Israelites. But it was not held by all Jews.

The Exception of the Sadducees

The Sadducees rejected belief in the resurrection. They viewed it as a recent innovation in Israel's theology, not taught in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which they elevated above all other books in the biblical canon.

It is not surprising that the Sadducees rejected the resurrection. They were the aristocrats of the Jewish world - a priestly ruling class in Jerusalem that favored Hellenism. Being more influenced by Greek thought than any other Jewish group, they were more interested in power and political stability than with the fine points of religious law. Because of their position, the Sadducees had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. They were few in number, but wielded a disproportionate political power since they controlled the high priesthood.

Claiming that only the five books of Moses were authoritative, they rejected belief in angels and demons, the spiritual world, and resurrection (see Mark 12:18; Matthew 22:23-33; Luke 20:27 and Acts 23:6-10). Along with this biblical testimony, the Jewish historian, Josephus, also records their beliefs: "The Sadducees hold that the soul perishes along with the body."[8] "As for the persistence of the soul after death, penalties in the underworld, and rewards, they [the Sadducees] will have none of them."[9] It is interesting to note that, in order to support his case for the resurrection, Paul plays off this disagreement between the Sadducees and the majority of Israel (Acts 23:6). This proves to be an effective argument in his favor because it was in line with the majority view.

Why were the Sadducees so committed to resisting the majority of Israel in their beliefs? As aristocrats, they sought to preserve the status quo - which worked in their favor because the subversive belief in resurrection threatened their own position and power. "The real problem [for the Sadducees] was that resurrection was from the beginning a revolutionary doctrine. For Daniel 12, resurrection belief went with dogged resistance and martyrdom."[10]

For the average Jew, resurrection was not escapist theology, but was concerned about the present world and its renewal. It supported the belief that God was working within history to put right that which is wrong. Faithfulness to one's beliefs mattered - both now and for eternity. The message of resurrection was clearly linked to the call for justice, regardless of how the world responded to the faith of God's people.

Contrary to the Sadducees, the majority of Jews held that resurrection was at least implicitly taught in the Hebrew Bible. Daniel 12 is the most explicit passage. In the context of national upheaval, God promises deliverance to the righteous in the form of resurrection:

At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

Other passages in the Hebrew Bible offer hints of resurrection:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-26)

I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. (Psalm 16:8-10)[11]

Such is the fate of the foolhardy, the end of those who are pleased with their lot. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away; Sheol shall be their home. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. (Psalm 49:13-15)

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26)

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. (Isaiah 25:6-9)

Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near her time, so were we because of you, O Lord; we were with child, we writhed, but we gave birth only to wind. We have won no victories on earth, and no one is born to inhabit the world. Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead. (Isaiah 26:17-19)

It is vital to note that these glimmers of hope are not "based not on anything in the human make-up (e.g. an 'immortal soul'), but on YHWH and him alone."[12]

By the time of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead was firmly embedded in Jewish theology. The Tefillah, the "prayer" of all prayers, also known as the Shemoneh Esre or "Eighteen Benedictions" dates back to the first century. It is still incorporated in Jewish worship and reflects the popular belief in resurrection among Jews of Jesus' day. The Second Benediction reads:

You are mighty, humbling the proud; strong, judging the ruthless; you live for evermore, and raise the dead; you make the wind to return and the dew to fall; you nourish the living, and bring the dead to life; you bring forth salvation for us in the blinking of an eye. Blessed are you, O Lord, who bring the dead to life.[13]

Jesus on the Resurrection

In contrast to the Sadducees, and in agreement with the majority of Jews, Jesus held to the hope of the resurrection.

He warns of a judgment to come that begins with the general resurrection of the dead (Matthew 12:41-42). He elaborates in John 5:28-29: "Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

Those who follow him experience blessings "now in the present age" but "in the age to come, eternal life" (Mark 10:30).

Since righteousness will be rewarded and evil punished, Jesus teaches that we should do good works for those who cannot repay us in the present, "for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (Luke 14:14).

Jesus spoke often of his upcoming death and his belief in his own resurrection (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33). In John, he is explicit. He challenges the religious leaders, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). The religious leaders assumed he was talking about the physical temple and thus threatening violence to their way of life. But John explains, "he was speaking of the temple of his body" (John 2:21).

Jesus also declared, "And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day" (John 6:39-40; cf. 40, 54).

When Martha laments the loss of Lazarus, Jesus comforts her,

"Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:23-26)

During his final week of ministry in Jerusalem Jesus confronted the Sadducees' rejection of resurrection. The Sadducees attempt to trick Jesus by posing a hypothetical situation where a woman is married to seven husbands over the course of her life. They feel their argument against the resurrection is watertight when they ask him, "In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her?" Jesus answers,

"Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong." (Mark 12:24-27)

Jesus is unambiguous in his response to the Sadducees. They have misread the Hebrew Bible and underestimated the power of God. He couldn't be more blunt: "you are quite wrong."

What the Sadducees failed to realize was that resurrection was true, and more importantly, resurrection involved a transformation into a completely new type of existence. It is not simply a resuscitation or reanimation to one's former state. It involves both continuity and discontinuity. To use Paul's metaphor in 1 Corinthians 15:35-58: Like a seed to a tree, we shall be raised; but we shall be changed, transformed, glorified. Death shall be swallowed up by life. God is a God of the living, not the dead.

Conclusion

We have placed bodily resurrection in its appropriate context, within the worldview and language of Second Temple Judaism. Jesus upheld the popular belief in bodily resurrection that developed during the intertestamental period. He clearly rebuked those who denied the validity of resurrection.

The Jews affirmed the goodness of God's creation, and could not fathom that God would discard God's creation. Instead, they believed that God's saving work would renew and restore all things. Because they affirmed creation, they could say with joy, "L'chayim! To Life!" Belief in the resurrection is the ultimate joyous refrain. In the end, life wins! God is the God of the living, not the dead!

We are given a faint glimpse of what this abundance of life consists of in 1 Corinthians 15:35-58. It is to this passage we now turn.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2008