LIFE AND DEATH IN EARLY JUDAISM
(Prior to the Persian and Greek Conquests)


Deut. 32:22 "For a fire is kindled in my anger, and burns to the lowest part of Sheol..."

Numbers 16:31-33 "...the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah, with their possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly."

Job 3:11 "Why did I not die at birth...I would have slept then, I would have been at rest, with the kings and with counselors of the earth...or the princes who had gold, who were filling their houses with silver...or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, as infants that never saw the light. There the wicked cease their raging, and there the weary are at rest. The prisoners are at ease together. They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master."

Job 17:13-16 "If I look for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in darkness; If I call to the pit, 'You are my father'; To the worm, 'my mother and my sister' Where now is my hope? And who regards my hope? Will it go down to Sheol? Shall we together go down into the dust?"

Psalms 30:9 "What profit is there in my blood if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?"

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 "I said to myself concerning the sons of men, 'God has surely tested them in order to see that they are but beasts.' For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the others, indeed, they all have the same spirit and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All came from dust and all return to the dust. Who knows that the spirit of man ascends upward and the spirit of the beast descends downward to the earth?" (Answer: No one does.)

Ecclesiastes 9:2-5, 10 "It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked...This is an evil that is under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten...Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for their is no planning or wisdom in Sheol where you are going."

Ecclesiastes 12:7 "...the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." This verse does not necessarily imply that individual departs to be with God in Heaven. In Genesis God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life. Later on God says, "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return." The "spirit" seems to be an animating force which keeps the individual alive, not the individual's "personal essence" (that is a Greek idea). The individual is identified with his body, not the spiritual force which animates him. When God withdraws the spiritual force, the individual ceases to be and the body turns to dust in Sheol. This verse is followed by an exclamation of "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" hardly an appropriate commentary on a future life with God in Heaven. Interpreting this verse as teaching a spiritual existence in Heaven after death would also seem to contradict the rest of the book and indeed the rest of the Hebrew Bible. For this reason, along with certain stylistic differences, some scholars have theorized this last chapter was tacked on by a later, more pious, less skeptical Jew.

1 Samuel 28 "...[Saul said], 'Conjure up for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall name to you.'...Then the woman said, 'Whom shall I bring up for you?' And he said, 'Bring up Samuel for me.'...and the King said to her, 'Do not be afraid; but what do you see?' And the woman said to Saul, 'I see a divine being coming up out of the earth.' And he said to her, 'What is his form?' And she said, 'An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe.' And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage. Then Samuel said to Saul, 'Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?"

Isaiah 26:19 "Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits." (This is the only verse in the entire Tanakh written before the 2nd Century BC which alludes to the concept of resurrection).

Daniel 12:2-3 "And Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these (those whose names are written in God's book) to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt." (Daniel is a 2nd Century BC work, written after the Jews had been influenced by the Person concept of resurrection and the Greek concept of the immortal soul).

THE PROPHETS

Hosea 6:6 "For I delight in loyalty, not sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

Amos 5:21-24 "I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

Micah 6:7-8 "Does Yahweh take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does Yahweh require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"


THE MESSIAH

2 Samuel 7:10-16 "I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Yahweh also declares to you that Yahweh will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendent after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."

Isaiah 9:6-7 "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on his shoulders; and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this."

Isaiah 11:1-10 "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. And he will delight in the fear of Yahweh, and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins, and faithfulness the belt about his waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. Then it will come about in that day that the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious."

Isaiah 49:1-6 "Listen to me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. Yahweh called me from the womb; from the body of my mother he named me. And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand he has concealed me, and He has also made me a select arrow; He has hidden me in His quiver. And He said to me, 'You are My Servant, Israel, in whom I will show My glory.' But I said, 'I have toiled in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.' And now says Yahweh, who formed me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him (for I am honored in the sight of Yahweh, and my God is my strength), He says, 'It is too small a thing that you should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make you a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.'"

Isaiah 53:1-12 "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? For he grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and aquatinted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried; yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of My people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief; if he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish in his soul, he will see it and be satisfied; by his knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will alot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors."

Daniel 7:13-14 "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed."