Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament

137 Pages·2006·13.93 MB·English

by  Jaime Clark-Soles

DEATH AND THE
AFTERLIFE
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
JAIME CLARK-SOLES
·"
t&t clark
NEW YORK • LONDON
To Thad, my true partner
Copyright© 2006 by Jaime Clark-Soles
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, includ
ing photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the
publisher, T & T Clark International.
T & T Clark International, 80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038
T & T Clark International, The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
T & T Clark International is a Continuum imprint.
Cover design: Jennifer Glosser
Except as otherwise specified, the Bible text is from the New Revised Standard Ver
sion Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and is used by permission. KJV refers
to the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
William Sloane Coffin. Credo. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clark-Soles, Jaime, 1967-
Death and the afterlife in the New Testament I Jaime Clark-Soles.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-567-02902-7 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-567-02902-6 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-0-567-02912-6 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-567-02912-3 (pbk.)
1. Death-Biblical teaching. 2. Future life-Biblical teaching. 3. Bible. N.T.
Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BS2545.D45C53 2006
236 '.1 09015-dc22
2006024402
Printed in the United States of America on Recycled
06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . • . . • • • . . . . • . • • • • . . . . • • • • . . . . • • • • . . . • ix
Introduction •.....••.••....••••.••.••••.•...••.•....••• I
I. Backgrounds •....••••..••.••....•.••••.....•.•....•• 9
Death and Afterlife in Ancient judaisms I 9
Postmortem Existence in the OT: Sheol I 18
The Formation of Heaven and Hell I I 9
Functions of Divine judgment in OT Texts I 33
Greco-Roman Material I 35
2. Paul: The Ethics of Death and Afterlife ••••..•••••....••... 60
Six Main Points I 60
Paul's Background and Chronology I 61
Introduction to Pauline Anthropology I 63
The Promises and Puzzles of I Cor 15,
Paul's "Classic" Statement I 70
On 2 Cor 5:1-10 and Phil1:18b-26 I 87
Believers in Heaven I I 02
The Fate of Unbelievers I I 03
Conclusion I I OS
3. Death and Afterlife in the Fourth Gospel 110
Part I: A Conversation with john A. T. Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I 0
The Composition of Human Beings I I 13
The Fate of Human Beings I 123
Conclusion I 13 I
Part 2: "That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I 35
The Problem of Death I 135
The Problem of Death in the Fourth Gospel I 13 7
The Fourth Gospel and Epicureanism I 13 7
Conclusion I 146
vii
viii Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament
4. Death and Afterlife in Matthew .•...•........•.......... ISO
Introduction I IS I
Matthew's Community I 154
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Matthew's Cosmology I !58
Matthean Anthropology I 159
Comparing Anthropological Languages I 160
Language of Death and Destruction I 164
Eschatological Scenario I I 70
Conclusion I ISS
I WOULD LIKE to thank everyone who has helped to bring this book to
life. Grants were generously provided by the Louisville Institute, the
5. Death and Afterlife in the Petrine Texts ................... 192
Catholic Biblical Association, the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning
Introduction to I Peter I 193 in Religion, the Perkins School of Theology Scholarly Outreach Program,
Death and Afterlife in I Peter I I 94 and the Southern Methodist University Research Council. Susan R. Gar
Death and Afterlife in 2 Peter I 2 19 rett, Rebekah Miles, Pat Davis, Harold Attridge, Wayne Meeks, William
Lawrence, and Marjorie Procter-Smith were all instrumental to my procur
6. Conclusions and Directions for Further Research ............ 222 ing said grants.
Numerous colleagues have contributed in multifarious ways. I have pre
Bibliography ..........•.............................. 229 sented related papers at the regional, national, and international Society of
Biblical Literature meetings and received useful feedback from each group.
Index .......•...........................•.......... 250 The national and international Johannine Literature sections were espe
cially productive arenas, as was the national Hellenistic Moral Philosophy
section. Likewise valuable was the Graduate Bible Colloquium at Perkins
School of Theology, which includes my biblical studies colleagues Jouette
Bassler, Abraham Smith, Mark Chancey, Roy Heller, Richard Nelson, Ale
jandro Botta, and Serge Frolov. Robert Foster, one of our graduate students,
provided especially helpful feedback. Special thanks to Richard Nelson,
who gave me more concise language with which to work in my Fourth
Gospel chapter. Melissa Dowling in classics has been a stimulating con
versation partner, particularly around issues of time and eschatology in
the Roman Imperial period. A. Katherine Grieb vetted my Paul chapter
and made it better. Warren Carter and A. ]. Levine did the same for the
Matthew chapter, as did Tom Thatcher and Francisco Lozada for part of
the Fourth Gospel chapter. Valerie Karras provided useful discussion and
bibliography.
Over the years a host of research assistants have worked tirelessly to
move this project along. These include David Watson, Jeremy Bakker, Gena
Anderson, and Ann Willet. Pride of place, however, must be reserved for Ila
Kraft. If I were a Martin Luther or Fyodor Dostoyevsky, she would be my
Kate or Anna. Her attention to detail has augmented my work greatly. But
more important, she is a brilliant exegete and concise writer. She is a sheer
gift to me.
ix
X Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament
The team at T&T Clark is first-rate. Hearty thanks is due to Henry
Carrigan and S. David Garber, whose editing was impressively thorough,
meticulous, erudite, and showed true investment in the success of this book.
I regularly teach a course for seminary students, clergy, and laypeople INTRODUCTION
entitled "Evil, Suffering, and Death in the New Testament," part of which
is devoted to the study of how the various NT authors address death and the
afterlife. My deepest thanks to each participant who shared their insights,
questions, experiences, and enthusiasm for the importance of the topic with
me. I have learned far more than I have taught in each instance. Roman beliefs about life after death were extraordinarily varied.
My church, CityChurch of Dallas, is the closest thing to the reign of God No single orthodoxy dominated; polytheism was supplemented by
I have found to date. They constantly nourish, inspire, love, and challenge philosophical speculation and by individual sects such as Stoicism,
me, and, most important, do their best to keep me honest and grounded. Mithraism, Judaism, and eventually Christianity.
With them the platitudinous, the banal, the simple, the silly, the preachy, the -D. Felton, Haunted Greece and Rome, xiii
evasive, and the inflated do not play well.
Anyone who has attempted a project that takes years knows that one
THE PRECIPITATING QUESTION
needs superlative friendship along the way. And so, to "the crew" I offer
thanks and praise: Teri Walker, Syed Rehman, Mark Chancey, and Tracy I BEGAN THIS PROJECT in order to answer the question "What exactly does
Anne Allred. the New Testament (NT) say about death and afterlife?" It turns out that
Finally, to my family I owe the deepest gratitude. To my dear departed it says both more and less than one might hope or expect. By more, I mean
father-in-law, who made the contents of this book only too urgent and real that every time the subject of death and what happens after death arises, it
to me as he battled cancer for a year and half, dying just before Christ is clear that the authors' interests far exceed answering that single question.
mas 2005, I pay homage. To the Soles and Clark families, thank you for Their comments emerge from the concerns and experiences of living Chris
your ongoing love and support. To my lifelong partner, Thad, and my two tian communities; they relate to a larger theological and pastoral agenda,
amazing children, Chloe and Caleb, I will never be able to express my love and the primary focus remains life on earth and the proper living of it.
adequately. They are a blessing beyond all telling of it. The texts say less than one may have hoped because no author directly
sets out to answer my question. There is no systematic theology in the NT
regarding death and afterlife. Certainly resurrection appears throughout.
Beyond that, the fascinating aspects of the question are in the details of
the texts. Therefore, the appropriate question, as it turns out, is not what
does the NT say about death and afterlife, but rather what do the various
NT texts say about it? In other words, the NT texts say a variety of things
that cannot be construed as a single view. Others have sought to unify the
biblical witness, glossing over the individual pictures presented by the NT
authors. I revel in snapshots of the individuals and am less interested in the
family photo because the latter invariably obscures or marginalizes certain
relatives, leaving the most attractive, assertive, or powerful members of the
family at center stage.
Because the texts differ, the structure of the chapters devoted to each
must differ. Even so, the reader will see some similarities. Of each author, I
inquire after the specific language used with respect to death and life after
death; I explore the anthropology, cosmology, eschatology, and where rele
vant, theology and Christology; finally, I suggest ways that the stated views
2 Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament Introduction 3
function in each situation. Always I assume that each author is bright and gather the wicked together and transport them to their eternal fiery desti
faithful, having ideas the reader should attend with gravity. nation. Matthew's anthropology imagines humans as either good or evil.
The evil will experience the fate just described; the righteous can expect
rewards of various sorts. To understand Matthew's view, I attend to Mat
CHAPTER OUTLINE
thew's social setting. I have found Warren Carter's recent work on Matthew
and empire most useful and largely compelling and so I allow Carter to set
Chap~er 1 sets the investigation against the backdrop of options deployed
that stage. Clearly, Matthew's community stands in tension with outsiders,
by thmkers and cultures that contributed to the discussion before the NT
both those from the parent tradition as well as the Roman Empire. Jus
authors joined it. This includes ancient Near Eastern, ancient Jewish, Second
tice and righteousness, as characteristics of both God and human beings,
Temple Je':i~h, and Greco-Roman materials. I draw upon epitaphs, graves,
are consuming, driving categories for Matthew. Perhaps it is not surpris
Roman rehgwns, mystery religions, consolation literature, classical litera
ing, then, that Matthew is passionate about hell, for it emphasizes God's
ture, b~bl_icalliterature, extrabiblical Jewish literature (Philo, Josephus), and
justice and righteousness and provides a satisfying theodicy in the face of
Hel_lemstic ~h!los?phy. Particular topics addressed include anthropology;
perceived persecution from outsiders, who apparently flourish despite their
notiOns of d!Vme judgment; and the origins of heaven, hell, and Satan.
unrighteousness. Matthew's depiction of death and afterlife functions to en
Cha~ter 2 treats the Pauline literature, using 1 Cor 15 as a primary an
join ethical behavior, encourage faithfulness, and certify God's character as
chor, with 2 Cor 5 and Phil Lplaying crucial roles as well. I begin with
righteous and just.
Paul for a number of reasons. First, Paul's writings comprise no small part
Like all of our authors, Matthew's material on death and afterlife
of the NT. Second, 1 Cor 15 is often considered to be the classic statement
functions to shape community. In particular, I address the ethical, social,
on Christian afterlife. In it Paul speaks not only of resurrection but also of
pastoral, liturgical, and theological functions.
the embodied status it will entail. Third, Paul's eschatology is apocalyptic,
Chapter 5 addresses 1 Peter, famous for its supposed depiction of "Jesus'
and therefore representative of the majority of NT authors. Fourth, Paul's
descent into hell" and the subsequent development of the notion of purga
u~disputed letters contain no hell language, an apparently strange feature
tory. The particular texts under consideration, 3:19 and 4:6, have caused
given the usual delight in hell and the accompanying eternal torment that
ample debate because they are notoriously difficult. The grammatical and
infuses most apocalyptic literature. Though numerous words or phrases for
syntactical issues leave open any number of interpretive possibilities at any
hell appear in the NT-including Hades, Apollyon, Gehenna, "cast into
number of places. For instance, it is not clear who the "spirits" are, why they
Tartarus," and "outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing
are in prison, where they are in prison (no language of "descent" actually
of teeth"-Paul employs none of them. Paul's comments regarding death
occurs), who preaches to them, or what the purpose of the proclamation is.
and afterlife serve his theological, pastoral, apologetic, and ethical agendas.
How does 3:19 relate to the letter as whole, if at all? How does it relate to
Chapter 3 takes up the Gospel of John since it provides points of both
4:6 in particular, if at all? And how does any of it relate to the author's own
comparison and contrast. Unlike Paul's eschatology, the Fourth Evangelist's
community? After exploring 1 Peter's language related to death and afterlife
(FE_'s) eschatology is realized. Although FE employs dualistic language, a
I will argue that the beliefs function ethically, pastorally, theologically, and
typiCal component of apocalyptic theology, he does not stress (and may not
socially.
even entertain) the future, apocalyptic eschatological scenario so fundamen
Finally, in chapter 6 I will summarize my findings and offer concluding
tal to Paul's theology, preaching, and pastoral exhortation. Paul and FE
comparisons and contrasts among the authors, paying consideration to their
agree, howe_ver, in their omission of hell language. Certainly neither depicts
social, cultural milieux. I will then indicate implications for future research.
Satan as rulmg some godforsaken territory for all of eternity. In this chapter
I argue that FE evinces a bestowed, realized immortality.
Chapter 4 is devoted to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew shares a heav CAVEATS
ily apocalyptic worldview with Paul, but unlike Paul, Matthew has a robust
notion of hell. Hell abounds in Matthew in the form of Hades, Gehenna, It is important to state directly what the book will not do. First, I do not
outer darkness, fire, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Numerous characters assume a unified vision among NT authors concerning death and afterlife.
play a role in the eschatological scenario, perhaps most notably angels who Neither do I reject unity a priori.
4 Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament Introduction 5
Second, the chapters on each NT book are devoted solely to the question death, and life after death as a springboard for considering contemporary
of death and afterlife. I do not try to write thorough treatments of Paul, the life and the shape it could and should take.
Fourth Gospel, Matthew, and 1 Peter, as interesting as that would certainly
be. For instance, there is currently disagreement among Matthean scholars
PREVIOUS WORKS
regarding the social situation of the community, the characterization of the
author and audience of Matthew, and numerous other aspects of the Gos Alan Segal's lengthy and wonderful book, Life after Death: A History of the
pel. Here I am not interested in writing a monograph about the Gospel of Afterlife in Western Religion, 1 is vast, covering many centuries, countries,
Matthew; rather, I want to attend solely to death and afterlife in the NT, and three world religions. He aims to provide a sweeping survey and does
and I employ Matthew only with respect to its contribution to such an in it well. Understandably, then, he devotes only brief attention to the NT. In
vestigation. Warren Carter's recent work on Matthew and empire are both contrast, my book will answer the question "What do the NT texts say
provocative and largely compelling, so I have adopted his reconstruction about death and afterlife?" by addressing the detailed, complex question
in the chapter devoted to Matthew. I realize that some Matthean scholars rather than painting a broad sweep of the history of ideas. The fact that
contest some of his theses, but I leave that debate in the footnotes since such Segal's book contains no scriptural index indicates that this is simply not his
debates move us away from an investigation of death and afterlife in the NT primary focus.
and into debates within the Matthean guild. The question "So what did happen on Easter morning?" serves as "the
Third, I have chosen only representative books of the NT since it is simply central theme" of N. T. Wright's august 817-page tome, The Resurrection of
not feasible to canvass every author of the NT in a single book, though it the Son of God. 2 From the outset Wright indicates that the primary purpose
would be a terribly engrossing and worthwhile endeavor. One could imagine of his work is heavily apologetic. On page 6 he lists six aspects of "the
devoting a whole study to the Gospels or to following the Pauline trajectory dominant paradigm" accepted by "mainline churches" that he intends to
from the undisputed epistles to the Deutero-Pauline material. A number of challenge, two of which are these: "The early Christians underwent some
other texts are tantalizing. Take Heb 2:14-15, for example: "Since, there kind of fantasy or hallucination," and "Jesus' body ... was not 'raised from
fore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same the dead' in the sense that the gospel stories, read at face value, seem to
require." On the next page he points out that he has six "positive" aims as
things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power
well, including this one: "To argue that the only possible reason why early
of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in
Christianity began and took the shape it did is that the tomb really was
slavery by the fear of death." Or Luke 23:43: "He replied, 'Truly I tell you,
empty and that people really did meet Jesus, alive again, and that, though
today you will be with me in Paradise,' " not to mention Revelation. I cer
admitting it involves accepting a challenge at the level of worldview itself,
tainly intend to pursue this line of questioning in a future volume, and I
the best historical explanation for all these phenomena is that Jesus was
hope others attend to it as well. For the current study, I include materials
indeed bodily raised from the dead." For my part, I do not have a doctrinal
that (1) add something distinctive to the discussion, (2) highlight some of the
or dogmatic agenda that I will try to prove with my research. I do not intend
variety housed within the NT regarding the topic of death and afterlife, and
to prove that Jesus or anyone else was raised from the dead. I want to know
(3) reveal the ways beliefs function for the community. The authors share
what the NT authors thought about death and afterlife. Insofar as Jesus
many similarities when we consider the category regarding functions.
is one part of that question for our authors, I will use some of Wright's
Fourth, apropos of the above discussion concerning a "snapshot" ap
research.
proach rather than a "red thread" one, I patently do not espouse a theory of
R. Bauckham has explored apocalyptic literature, both canonical and ex
chronological development within the NT regarding attitudes toward death
tracanonicaJ.3 While encyclopedic and impressive, The Fate of the Dead is
and afterlife. To do so seems to me to give in to the chronological urge
limited by its attention to a single genre. Joseph Park has canvassed Jewish
so prevalent among NT scholars, or to phrase it otherwise, to commit a
chronological faux pas.
1. Alan Segal, Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion (New York:
In the end, none of the authors expresses interest in delineating a doctrine Doubleday, 2004).
of death and afterlife, or constructing a mighty tome on systematic theology 2. N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003), 4.
3. Richard Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian
for which all posterity would revere them. They focus upon questions of Apocalypses (NovTSup 93; Leiden: Brill, 1998).
6 Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament Introduction 7
inscriptions primarily to catalog the various conceptions of afterlife alive them within the context of the options already being deployed by other
among Jews in the first century.4 Park's Conceptions of the Afterlife in groups in the Roman Empire. No classicists have studied how the NT texts
Jewish Inscriptions: With Special Reference to Pauline Literature is useful addressing death and afterlife fit into these contexts. On the contrary, the
background reading, but it actually deals little with the Pauline literature. notable classicist Ramsay MacMullen denies that most Romans had any
Longenecker has edited a collection of essays on Life in the Face of Death, serious conception of an afterlife, an opinion based on the fact that one
but it is aimed at lay Christians. As one can detect from its subtitle, The could find on tomb inscriptions the acronym for the tripartite exclamation
Resurrection Message of the New Testament (emphasis added), the book "I was not, I was, I am no more. Who cares?"9 My own analysis of the
intends to isolate a single, unified thread.5 In addition, there are histories of evidence contradicts his argument.
heaven and histories of hell that provide information.6 They tend to cover I will proceed with this investigation by using the tools of a social
many centuries and therefore lack the specificity needed for my project. historian. Overarching goals that guide the study include the following:
H. C. C. Cavallin has done some preparatory work for 1 Cor 15.7 1. To delineate the various constructs of death and afterlife exhibited
within the NT canon. Casual readers and learned scholars alike assume that
the twenty-seven NT books speak univocally about death and afterlife-or
METHOD
at least that one can discern a unifying theme running through them like a
All of the NT texts were forged by and written for people who inhabited red thread. In this book I will show that such an assumption of univocality
a Greco-Roman world.8 To understand fully the texts, then, we must set obscures the rich variety of early Christian ways of constructing the expected
future life exemplified by the NT texts. I will delineate precisely the details
4. JosephS. Park, Conceptions of Afterlife in Jewish Inscriptions: With Special Reference of the major options.
to Pauline Literature (Ti.ibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000). 2. To account for the similarities and differences discovered. What factors
5. Richard Longenecker, ed., Life in the Face of Death: The Resurrection Message of the
help us to account for the similarities and differences in certain NT authors'
New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998). One might include Pheme Perkins, Resur
rection: New Testament Witness and Contemporary Reflection (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, views of death and afterlife? I assume that attention to the interrelated issues
1984) under the category of treatments that take a unitary approach. of the authors' respective social and geographical locations, chosen genres,
6. Alan Bernstein, The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and
anthropological views, and theological beliefs will yield results.
Early Christian Worlds (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993); Jeffrey Burton Russell, A
History of Heaven: The Singing Silence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997); Colleen 3. To explore the views of death and afterlife associated with other re
McDannell and Bernhard Lang, Heaven: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001);
ligions in the Roman Empire in the first century of the Common Era. The
J. Edward Wright, The Early History of Heaven (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
7. Hans Clemens Casesarius Cavallin, Life after Death: Paul's Argument for the Res textual and archaeological evidence points to a vibrant religious culture,
urrection of the Dead in I Cor 15, part 1, An Enquiry into the Jewish Background (Lund, with temples to multiple gods and goddesses clustered close together in ur
Sweden: Gleerup, 1974). Part 2 never appeared. Cavallin expresses his original intentions in
ban centers. In addition to a thriving pantheon and exotic mystery cults, the
the preface (9):
imperial cult was quite in vogue. It may be that elements of these traditions
This volume forms the first part of a larger investigation concerning the Pauline argu
influenced the treatment of death and afterlife themes in the NT.
ment for the resurrection of the dead in I Cor 15 and its background in Judaism, the
Hellenistic culture, the Gospel tradition (above all the controversy with the Sadducees 4. To investigate how various schools of contemporary Hellenistic phi
in Mk 12:18-27 parr), the kerygma and didache of the Primitive Church and Paul's first losophy informed the NT texts on death and afterlife. One stated goal of
sketch of a resurrection teaching in I Th 4:13-18. For practical reasons this study of
the Jewish background is published separately as my doctoral dissertation; yet I want to the project is to investigate how, if at all, various schools of contemporary
stress my intention to see this part of my work as a preparation for the study of I Cor Hellenistic philosophy informed NT views on death and afterlife.10 One may
15. So the dialogue with Jewish texts is carried on by questions formulated in a prelimi
nary examination of I Cor 15. This is sometimes developed into an explicit comparison
between the Jewish texts. But applying the results of this investigation to the study of 9. Ramsay MacMullen, Paganism in the Roman Empire (New Haven: Yale University
Paul will mainly be reserved for the second volume. Press, 1981 ).
10. As renowned classicist A. A. Long avers: "Hellenistic is a term which refers to Greek,
8. In chapter 1, on "Backgrounds," I will quickly review the debate in the late 1950s and and later, Graeco-Roman civilization in the period beginning with the death of Alexander the
1960s instigated by Oscar Cullmann (Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? Great (323 B.C.) and ending, by convention, with the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony
The Witness of the New Testament [London: Epworth, 1958], who made a distinction between at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C. During these three centuries it is neither Platonism nor
the "Jewish" and Christian belief in resurrection of the body and the "Greek" conception of the Peripatetic tradition established by Aristotle which occupied the central place in ancient
the immortality of the soul. As it turned out, of course, such categories were simpleminded and philosophy, but Stoicism, Scepticism and Epicureanism, all of which were post-Aristotelian
served only to veil the nuanced complexities of the subject. developments. These are the movements of thought which define the main lines of philosophy
8 Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament
presuppose that the NT authors were influenced by Hellenistic philosophical
views related to death and the afterlife because in the first century it was not
-ONE-
religion but philosophy that typically addressed questions on the nature of
the body, the soul, and the Divine. How did the Stoics, Platonists, Skeptics,
Neopythagoreans, Cynics, and Epicureans conceive of death and afterlife?
BACKGROUNDS
To what extent did erudite philosophical notions trickle down to the daily
worldviews of ancient people?
I contend that the NT authors were influenced not only by the categories
and contents employed by philosophers, but also by the various func
tions intended by the philosophers. Those functions include the following
Tradition is not repetition, but the transmission of a living reality,
categories:
which must be renewed and rethought as the community develops.
a. Theological. To teach people about the existence (or not) and nature -Claudia Setzer1
of the gods
The fear of death is common to all peoples at all times. -A. A. Long2
b. Pastoral/psychological. To assuage anxiety
c. Ethical. To enjoin proper conduct T o UNDERSTAND and appraise the biblical texts concerning death and
d. Social. To form and maintain a community characterized by a partic afterlife, we must situate them historically and culturally. To that end
ular approach to life and death this chapter will review evidence from a number of areas. We begin with
ancient and Second Temple forms of Judaism and their notions of afterlife
e. Political. To encourage a particular stance toward the state
and anthropology. We will then briefly discuss the history of notions about
f. Apologetic. To aggrandize the authority of the Founder by depicting
heaven and hell to establish the circumambient ideas about each that inhered
him handling his own death in a way commensurate with his teachings
in our authors when they wrote. Are heaven and hell conceived of as states
Each NT author who addresses the matter of death and afterlife evinces of being, tangible places, both, or neither? Why did the ancients mention
some combination of these functions. heaven and hell? How does the literary record align with the archaeolog
5. To articulate what is at stake for each NT author addressed. ical record? We will also study what the philosophers have to say about
What ideas were circulating before the NT authors composed their death and afterlife as well as the associated anthropology and ethics. What
material? Let us briefly survey the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) and major concerns elicit or stimulate their thinking and teaching on the subject?
Greco-Roman scenes. What makes them ask about death and afterlife? How do the philosophers
influence NT authors, if at all?
DEATH AND AFTERLIFE
IN ANCIENT ]UDAISMS
The Old Testament
While there is no robust notion of afterlife in the OT, the idea is not entirely
absent. As is commonly understood, the OT considers a person to be a
unified subject such that whether in life or death, no part of the person
1. Claudia Setzer, Resurrection of the Body in Early judaism and Early Christianity:
in the Hellenistic world, and 'Hellenistic philosophy' is the expression I use in this book to refer Doctrine, Community, and Self-Definition (Leiden: Brill, 2004 ), 17.
to them collectively'" (Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics [Berkeley: University 2. A. A. Long, Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics (2d ed.; Berkeley:
of California Press, 1974], 1). University of California Press, 1986), 50.
9