This essay is concerned with two questions: 1)
How and why the afterlife doctrine (bodily resurrection and immortality
of soul) came into Jewish consciousness and eventually was canonized
through rabbinic literature? 2) How does this afterlife fit within
rabbinic thought and theology?
The
Hebrew Bible mainly concerns this worldly phenomenon. In other words, life in this world is essential
and therefore must flourish on earth as God blessed the first
human family: “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen
1:28). Accordingly,
justice and peace should be established in this world as the 8th
century prophets advocated (Amos 5:21-24).
Reward and punishment also occur only in this world (Deut. 11:16-17; 28:15-68). Death seems to be final in the Bible
except for Enoch and Elijah (Gen 5:21-24; 1 Kings 2:11). At Moses’ death, there is no mention of afterlife
for him (Deut 34:5-8). The dead go to sheol (a deep pit),
a kind of shadowy existence, with no form of life and with complete
separation from the living world (Isa. 5:14; 38:1-10, 18-19; Prov
27:20; Job 7:9-10; 10:10-21; 14:21-22; 17:13-16; Ps 30:9-10; 88:11-13;
139:8; Gen 37:35; 42:38). Thus, bodily resurrection is not explicitly
mentioned in the Hebrew Bible except in Daniel 12:2. The passages
of Isaiah 25:7-8 and 26:18-19 seem to suggest the idea of resurrection,
but they should be understood in the exilic context where people
need hope for a restored Israel.
In the same vein, Ezekiel 37:11-12 is not a reference to the notion
of bodily resurrection but it should be taken as “a metaphor for
the national regeneration of Israel.”
The seed of bodily resurrection
comes from Daniel 12:1-3 during the post-exilic period when enormous
suffering took place among the pious Jews. God’s justice was questioned.
Job is a typical reflection on the problem of theodicy. Job challenges
a system of reward and punishment, suggesting that the righteous
people are not necessarily rewarded in this world. As such, the theodicy problem demanded a deeper
reflection on the reality of suffering. As a result, the notion
of bodily resurrection emerges in Daniel to justify God: resurrection
of some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting abhorrence.
Here resurrection is the means of God’s justice. But only in the
later rabbinic period does bodily resurrection take on the universal
application, based on the rabbinic affirmation of God as source
of life, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Ultimately, this bodily resurrection
is combined with the notion of immortality of soul, which is not
evidenced from the Hebrew Bible but clearly influenced by Greek
thought: for example, in Plato’s dialogue, Phaedo, Socrates
views death as good because the soul can be liberated from the
body at death. But the use of the
immortality of the soul in a rabbinic application is quite
different and creative. In God’s time separated souls will return
to the body, whereas in Greek thought the body is the prison of
the soul, and once the soul departs, that is final: the soul never
returns. But in Jewish thought the body is not necessarily bad;
it only needs God’s redemption. This merging of two separate doctrines
(bodily resurrection and immortality of soul) developed through
the later Pharisees and rabbis who saw the necessity to combine
them in view of their life context and theology. Accordingly, in this essay, firstly, the origin
of the afterlife will be investigated through the Hebrew Bible,
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in conjunction with their social,
cultural, and historical context. Secondly, rabbinic literature
(Talmud, midrashim, Prayer Book) will be examined to find further
evidence of the origin and development of the afterlife. Then,
lastly, an attempt will be made to find a rabbinic paradigm that
made possible the convergence of these two doctrines.
2. The Origin of Afterlife
2.1
Bodily Resurrection
It is hard to draw the line where in the Bible
or when exactly the notion of bodily resurrection came into Jewish
consciousness. A large line can be drawn from the second century
BCE on the one hand, when Daniel
was written in response to “Antiochus IV’s reign and killing of
the pious Jews,” and on the other hand, a small line can be
also drawn from the Hebrew Bible, namely, from the notion of God
as an almighty, source of life, creator, redeemer, and sustainer.
In this thought, bodily resurrection is not impossible with God.
A prominent line can be drawn by the second century BCE,
the beginning of a period of enormous suffering for the pious
Jews. Antiochus IV’s cruel reign of Judea
and his attempt to annihilate the Jewish religion gave rise to
Jewish protests. As a result, many righteous Jews were killed
and persecuted as a result. Daniel was written in response to
this situation of unjustified evil and the suffering of the righteous. Daniel 12:1-3 affirms God’s vindication for
those who died unjustly and His punishment for those who are evil:
Many
of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some
to eternal life, others to reproaches, to everlasting abhorrence.
And the knowledgeable will be radiant like the bright expanse
of sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness will be like
the stars forever. (Daniel
12:1-3)
Daniel’s
affirmation of God’s vindication is clearly understandable in
light of the theodicy that God will certainly reward those righteous
persons, and that God will punish those who are evil. The question
is, why is the second century BCE
a starting point rather than other historically difficult times
in biblical history, for example, the time of exile in Babylonia
(586 BCE). The answer is this:
the Babylonian exile was interpreted as a result of Israel’s
sin. So in this case God’s justice was not questioned;
rather, the problem was the sin of Israelites. This interpretation
was that of the Deuteronomic
School that emphasized
the system of reward and punishment. But the situation of the
second century BCE was different
because of the massive unjust suffering of Israelites caused by
Antiochus IV. The pious Jews then questioned God’s justice and
came up with the idea of God’s justice in the future through bodily
resurrection. Here bodily resurrection became the means of God’s
justice (vindication) for the righteous. The pious Jews had the
conviction that God would take care of them even beyond this earthly
life because “God is omnipotent, compassionate and just.”
Does
that conviction include heaven as a place for the righteous? This
is a difficult question to answer but the possibility of heaven
is not completely ruled out in the apocalyptic context where the
righteous people need an immediate solution and therefore comfort
in the midst of suffering. Daniel 12:2-3 expresses with apocalyptic
language the urgent need for God’s vindication, through which
everlasting life will be given. In this sense, this “everlasting
life” (12:2) could be interpreted as a sort of the immortality
of the soul. But that is not the end. The idea of everlasting
life involves bodily resurrection though the notion of bodily
resurrection is not yet fully developed. For example, Daniel 12:1-3
is not concerned with “the resurrection of masses of Jews, nor
with the resurrection of all the dead, nor the dead of prior generations.” Later in rabbinic Judaism the idea of afterlife
was developed with emphasis on both elements of the everlasting
life: bodily resurrection and immortality of soul.
And the dust
returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God
who gave it (Eccl. 12:7).