The concept of life after death was at best "fuzzy" in the Old
Testament. The Hebrews used the word sheol to denote a realm
of the dead, which seemed to be a subterranean world to them, because
different passages spoke of sheol as
a place "beneath" (Is. 14:9; Pr. 15:24) or a place that one went down
into (Ps. 55:15). That the English words pit (Num. 16:30,33; Job 17:16)
and grave (Ps. 49:15; Job 21:13) were sometimes used to translate sheol
is further recognition that to the ancient Hebrews this realm of the
dead was somewhere beneath the earth.
In addition to its vagueness about the realm of the dead known
as sheol,
the Old Testament in some places even seemed to deny the possibility of
life after death. One such passage is Job 14:14, which is often
distorted at funerals to leave the opposite impression of what the
writer had really meant to say: "If a man dies, shall he live again?"
This question is usually read out of context and then associated with a
symbol of revivification that had been used several verses earlier in
this chapter.
- For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut
down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the
ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches
like a young plant (vs:7-9).
As the passage continues,
however, one can clearly see that the writer was saying that what is
true of a tree that has been cut down is probably not true of a person
who has died.
- But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where
are they? As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries
up, so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no
more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep. Oh, that you
would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath
is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me (vs:
10-13)!
Only
then did the writer ask the question about living again, and the
context in which he asked it plainly indicated that he did not have
much hope of living again.
- If mortals die, will they live
again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should
come. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the
work of your hands. For then you would not number my steps, you would
not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed up in a
bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
- But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the
rock is removed from its place; the waters wear away the stones; the
torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope
of mortals. You prevail forever against them, and they pass away; you
change their countenance, and send them away. Their children come
to honor, and they do not know it; they are brought low, and it goes
unnoticed. They feel only the pain of their own bodies, and mourn only
for themselves (vs:14-22).
If a man (mortal) dies, will he
live again? Job's answer was that he seriously doubted it, yet
preachers will often use part of this text to make the mourners at
funerals think that Job was expressing a hope of living again.
The same skepticism toward an afterlife was expressed in
Ecclesiastes.
- I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is
testing them to show that they are but animals. For the fate of
humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the
other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no
advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place;
all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
- Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the
spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?
So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their
work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be
after them (3:18-22)?
Not until the end of the Old Testament
period, after the Jews had been exposed in their exile to the idea of a
general resurrection, was the hope of life after death clearly stated
in the Bible. Biblical inerrantists, of course, object to the mere
suggestion that an important doctrine like this was borrowed from other
cultures rather than having been revealed to the Jews by their god, but
even a biblical reference work as conservative as Eerdmans Bible
Dictionary
recognizes that the idea of resurrection to eternal life was a concept
that the Jewish captives had brought back with them when they returned
to Judea from their exile. The clearest such reference to a
resurrection would be Daniel 12:1-3.
- 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.
Zoroastrianism
taught the concept of a general resurrection, and this religion
flourished in Persia at the time of the Jewish exile. After the Jews
had been repatriated, this concept, which had been unknown prior to the
exile, became a widely held belief in postexilic Judaism. The fact that
Daniel is the only book in the Jewish canon to make such a clear
reference to a general resurrection, although not conclusive, is
certainly one more indication that this book was compiled some time
after the captivity.
