Scripture Commentaries

Life after Death? What does the Old Testament say?

Irene Nowell, OSB

Originally published in God’s Word Today
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As Christians we are so accustomed to hoping for life in heaven with God that we forget the Christian origins of our belief. We tend to assume that everyone in the biblical stories had the same expectation that we do concerning what happens when we die. That is not true. Hope for real life after death grew slowly among our ancestors in the faith.

Sheol

Through most of the Old Testament period the common belief was that everyone who died—the just and the unjust—went to a place called Sheol. “What mortal can live and not see death? Who can escape the power of Sheol?” (Ps 89:49). Sheol was not a place of punishment, just a place of rest. It could be described as a place of suspended animation. There was no pain, but there was also no joy. There was no condemnation, but there was also no memory. There was no conflict, but there was also no communication. The best that can be said of Sheol is that it was not non-existence! Job gives a good description:

There the wicked cease from troubling,
there the weary are at rest.
There the captives are at ease together,
and hear not the voice of the slave driver.
Small and great are there the same,
and the servant is free from his master (Job 3:17-19).

Sheol was thought to be under the ground and the entrance to be the grave. Sheol swallowed up everyone who died:

Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her (Isa 5:14).

The poet of Psalm 88 argues with God to keep him alive because he will no longer be able to praise God in Sheol:
Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the shades arise and praise you?
Is your love proclaimed in the grave,
your fidelity in the tomb?
Are your marvels declared in the darkness,
your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? (Ps 88:11-13).

The assumption is that God can rescue one from Sheol (Pss 16:10; 30:4; 49:16; 86:13), but is not present there: “For who among the dead remembers you? Who praises you in Sheol?” (Ps 6:6). But a later psalmist wonders if indeed God might even be found in that place of the dead: “If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too” (Ps 139:8). Here we begin to see a glimmer of hope. If God is there, perhaps Sheol is not all there is awaiting us.

Resurrection

In the middle of the second century B.C., this hope for more began to take shape. The Jews were suffering a terrible persecution at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, ruler of the Seleucids in Syria. Many faithful people were martyred because of their faith. (You can read their stories in Second Maccabees.) It seemed unthinkable that these heroic martyrs simply went to Sheol. So the idea of resurrection began to develop. Judas Maccabeus, leader of the people’s revolt, arranged for a sacrifice to be offered for soldiers who had been killed “with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness” (2 Macc 12:45). The valiant mother, who encouraged her seven sons to remain faithful and was then martyred after them, spoke eloquently of her hope in resurrection:

I do not know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed. Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man’s beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law (2 Macc 7:22-23).

The hope for a life after death that was more than Sheol was not universally accepted, however. It is not evident in the writing of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) or the Book of Judith, both from the second century. We do find it, however, in another book from the same period, the Book of Daniel:

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 (Dan 12:1-3).

The argument continues into the New Testament period. The Pharisees did believe in resurrection, but the Sadducees did not. So the latter tested Jesus with what they considered an impossible question: In the resurrection, who will be the husband of the woman who has been married to seven brothers? Jesus tells them they have completely misunderstood the idea of resurrection and asserts that God “is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matt 22:23-32; Mark 12:18-27). Paul took advantage of the dispute when he was brought before the Sanhedrin. He said, “I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.” The Pharisees and Sadducees got into a heated argument and Paul escaped (Acts 23:6-11).

How will we be raised? Who will be raised?

Even those who did believe in resurrection, however, were not in agreement about how this would happen. Would we be raised body and soul? Or would just our soul enjoy eternal life while the body decayed? Nor was there agreement about who would be raised. Would everyone be raised, some to go to heaven and some to go to hell? Or would only the righteous be raised, while the wicked continued to decay in death?

The passage quoted above from Daniel 12 suggests that both the righteous and the wicked will be raised, “some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2). Ben Sira’s grandson, who translated his grandfather’s book from Hebrew into Greek, agrees. The grandfather, who did not hope for anything but Sheol, had written: “More and more, humble your pride; what awaits man is worms” (Sirach [Ecclesiasticus] 7:17). The grandson, who believed in resurrection and thus in heaven and hell, rewrote his grandfather’s saying: “Humble yourself to the utmost, for the punishment of the ungodly is fire and worms” (emphasis mine). Ben Sira thought that none of us could hope for more than the grave and its worms. His grandson believed that the wicked would be punished in hell: a place of fire and worms.

The seven sons of the courageous mother, however, are convinced that only the righteous will be raised. The fourth son says to the king, ““It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life” (2 Macc 7:14). The author of the Book of Wisdom agrees. He says of the wicked: “They shall afterward become dishonored corpses and an unceasing mockery among the dead. . . . They shall be utterly laid waste and shall be in grief and their memory shall perish” (Wis 4:19).

How will we be raised? Will we go into eternal life as bodily persons? Or will only our souls be saved? The seven brothers believe that we will rise as whole persons. As the third brother put out his tongue and his hands for the torturers he said: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again” (2 Macc 7:11). The author of the Book of Wisdom, however, is focused on the immortality of the soul. He declares, “the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns” (Wis 9:15).

What do Christians Believe?

Christian faith is based on the resurrection of Jesus. We believe that he is the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18; Rom 8:29-30) and that we who have been baptized in his death will also be raised with him to glory (Rom 6:3-5). Jesus’ parables and the visions in the Book of Revelation indicate that the wicked will be raised along with the righteous (Matt 25:40-41; Luke 16:23-25; Rev 20:13-15). The stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances all assume that he was raised as a whole person, body and soul. His body is missing from the tomb (Matt 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6; John 20:2). He eats with the disciples; he invites them to touch him (Luke 24:30-31, 36-43; John 20:27; 21:13). He declares that he is not a ghost, that is, not just a soul but a body too (Luke 24:39). He ascends into heaven (Luke 24:50-51). Based on the New Testament tradition we declare in the Apostles Creed: I believe in the resurrection of the body. May we take as our prayer the encouragement given to the Ephesians: “May the eyes of our hearts be enlightened that we may know what is the hope to which we have been called, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe” (Eph 1:18-19).