Did the Israelites hope for a life beyond the grave?\u00a0 I have been reading through some of the Psalms with this question in mind, and am struck by the number of places where the Psalmist expresses hope for life after death.\u00a0 For example, the last phrase of Psalm 23 reads:<\/p>\n
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever (leorech yamim<\/em>). (Psa 23:1 ESV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Some expositors take issue with the word “forever” and think it would better be translated “the rest of my life.”\u00a0 While the the Hebrew phrase leorech yamim<\/em> literally means ‘length of days’ and therefore does not necessarily mean forever, it often does refer to eternity. \u00a0 They further argue that the Israelites viewed death with finality and despair.\u00a0 The souls of the dead inhabit a shadowy underworld where none of the pleasures of this world are known or experienced.\u00a0 This view is typified by J. Assman,<\/p>\n
In fact, not only was there no meaningful afterlife in the Old Testament world, but also no sacred space of duration in this world, such as the Egyptians achieved by means of stony monumentality.\u00a0 The divine and death were kept as far apart as possible, man was close to the divine only during his earthly existence<\/span>, and all the accounts of righteousness had to be settled in this life; there could be no talk of immortality, yet the life of the individual was surrounded by a mighty horizon of recollections, by a promise that extended not into the afterlife, but into the chain of generations.”\u00a0 (Jan Assman, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt 11)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Lets say, for the sake of argument, that the Psalmist only hoped for a blessed existence during the days that he lived on the earth.\u00a0\u00a0 Already he is conceiving of his days on earth in terms of a metaphor that sounds very much like the Christian view of heaven.\u00a0 He wants to be with God – in his temple (cf. Psalm 15).\u00a0 \u00a0It is absurd to think that the Psalmist then envisions that when he dies, he enters the shadowy world of Sheol.<\/p>\n
Moreover, there is good reason to think that the Psalmist is referring to more than just the days of his life on earth.\u00a0 The final two clauses of Psalm 23 are in parallel, with the 2nd clause building on the first.\u00a0 The goodness and mercy <\/span><\/span>of the Lord experienced in this lifetime<\/span> (all my days) becomes the all surpassing hope of dwelling with the LORD<\/span> in his house forever<\/span> (length of days).\u00a0 This is how most translations understand it, but it is nevertheless surprising how many commentators go with Gesenius. [See Note 1]<\/p>\n
It is with this in mind that we read in the book of Isaiah of a certain overseer of the house named Shebna whom the prophet condemned for building an elaborate tomb as “a dwelling in the rocks.”\u00a0 The word Isaiah uses for ‘dwelling’ is ‘mishcan<\/em>‘ – the same word used for the Temple.\u00a0 Shebna built an impressive tomb to dwell in, which was a perfectly reasonable thing to do if one believes, as the Egyptians did, that the tomb was an important staging point for the soul on its journey to the afterlife.\u00a0 But Israelite belief and ritual does not give place for a cult of the dead.<\/p>\n
I have heard it said, “There is no resurrection in the Hebrew Bible!!!\u00a0 None!” with an added caveat about Daniel, which is late.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While it is true that the resurrection of the body is not made explicit in the OT –\u00a0 belief that the dead will go to be with the LORD is expressed clearly and directly in a number of places.\u00a0 One could argue that this is the central idea behind the temple – it is the stairway that connects heaven and earth as revealed in Jacob’s vision.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many of the Psalms express hope for life after the grave and relate this hope to the temple, just as Psalm 23 does.<\/p>\n
It is interesting that, in light of these OT references, the Lord Jesus referred\u00a0to heaven as ‘my Father’s house’.<\/p>\n
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms<\/span>; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?\u00a0\u00a0 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.\u00a0\u00a0 (Joh 14:1-3 NIV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Notes: <\/strong><\/p>\n
(1)\u00a0 Gesenius argued that ‘I will dwell in the house of the LORD’ should be translated ‘I will frequent the house of the LORD’.\u00a0 Hengstenburg responds, “… it is impossible that the expression can be applied to literally abiding in the external temple, and it is altogether arbitrary to substitute, as Gesenius does, frequenting<\/em>, instead of abiding<\/em>.\u00a0 Moreover, the possibility opened up by God of frequenting the temple, if occurring at all in a Psalm which extols so well what is great and glorious in God, is least of all to be expected at the conclusion, where there ought to have come in some comprehensive significant expression, and where it serves no other purpose except to weak the impression of the whole.\u00a0 As parallel to goodness and love follow me all the days of my life<\/em>, the words, I dwell in the house of the for ever<\/em>, sound exceedingly feeble and cold, if they relate to a frequenting of the sanctuary.” \u00a0 (Hengstenberg, E. W. (1842). The Psalms. Edinburgh, T & T Clark.)<\/p>\n
(2) Forevermore (leorech yamim<\/em>) in the OT:<\/p>\n
Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore (leorech yamim<\/em>). (Psa 93:5 ESV)<\/p>\n
He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days (orech yamim<\/em>) forever and ever. (Psa 21:4 ESV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The phrase also appears in Akkadian texts,<\/p>\n
I will give you long days and eternal years in the City, O Essarhaddon, in Arbela, I will be your good shield.\u00a0 (Esarhaddon and Ishtar of Arbela, Foster 2005, 814)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did the Israelites hope for a life beyond the grave?\u00a0 I have been reading through some of the Psalms with this question in mind, and am struck by the number of places where the Psalmist expresses hope for life after death.\u00a0 For example, the last phrase of Psalm 23 reads: Surely goodness and mercy shall … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5641,"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/5641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}