Paul and Jesus

Apparently the author has heard other views here and there, perhaps from Greek influence, but he skeptically concludes, “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21).

Like the Greeks, the Hebrews had a concept of an underworld of the dead that they called Sheol, somewhat akin to Hades, but it was primarily a metaphor for the grave, and was often referred to as the “pit” (Psalm 30:3). Sheol is described as a land of silence and forgetfulness, a region gloomy, dark, and deep (Psalms 115:17; 6:5; 88:3-12; Isaiah 38:18). All the dead go down to Sheol, and there they make their bed together—whether good or evil, rich or poor, slave or free (Job 3:11–19). The dead in Sheol are mere shadows of their former embodied selves; lacking substance they are called “shades” (Psalm 88:10).¹⁰ There is one “séance” story in the Hebrew Bible in which the infamous medium of Endor conjures up the “shade” of the dead prophet Samuel at the insistence of King Saul, who wants to communicate with him. When Samuel appears, rising up out of the earth, he asks Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” (1 Samuel 28:8–15). But even Samuel must then return to Sheol. Death is a one-way street; it is the land of no return:

But man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, so man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake, or be aroused out of his sleep. (Job 14:10–12)

It is surprising to most people to realize that this starkly realistic view of death is consistent throughout the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament. Whether Abraham, Moses, or David, one dies, is buried, and descends into Sheol. The body returns to the dust, the life-breath or spirit returns to God, who gave it, and the “soul” or shade of the former person rests in the underworld (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Nothing is ever said about any kind of a blessed or vital afterlife, much less the notion of an immortal soul leaving the body and joining God in heaven.¹¹ The Hebrews understood the cosmos as tripartite: the heavens were the spiritual realm of God and the angels; the earth was the domain of humans and all living creatures; and below the earth was Sheol, the realm of the dead. For humans the good earth was the designated place to be. They were forever cut off and banished from the Tree of Life, in the middle of the Garden of Eden, that would have allowed them to be like gods and live forever (Genesis 3). Psalm 115 puts things succinctly:

The heavens are Yahweh’s heavens,

But the earth he has given to the sons of men.

The dead do not praise Yahweh,

nor do any that go down into silence.

But we, the living, will bless Yahweh

from this time forth and for evermore. (verses 16–18)

The notion of resurrection of the dead has to do with a very obvious and simple question—will the dead, resting in Sheol, ever return to life? Death is death and life is life, but is it possible that one who has died and returned to dust might be raised up, escaping the grip of Sheol? And if so, in what sort of body would one come?

TWO IDEAS OF RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

There are two related but separate concepts of resurrection of the dead in the Bible. The first involves the rare case where a prophet or holy man resuscitates the corpse of one who has recently died, so that the person has a reprieve on death, but eventually grows old and dies like anyone else. The other concept affirms that at the end of time those in Sheol, or Hades, will come forth, newly embodied in a transformed immortal form. Though both can be called “resurrection,” these two concepts have little in common.