C
Chrysostom324
Guest
The idea of Hell in the Old Testament is very fascinating. People frequently speak of what Jesus and his disciples, and by extension, the early church thought about the afterlife without taking the time to think that their ideas would have to have been at least HEAVILY shaped by the traditional Hebrew ideals. In fact, Jesus rarely speaks of the afterlife in the New Testament, and neither do the other writers. For this reason, I have found it an interesting piece of discussion for the Sacred Scripture Apologetics Board to mull over.
As I suspect of many of us here, my knowledge of the Old Testament leaves much to be desired, especially in comparison the functional knowledge we all have of the New Testament. But as the old aphorism states, “You have to know where you have come from to know where you are going…” I have selected a few scholars whose view I would like to share.
R.H. Charles-Anglican minister from the (d. 1931)
"In the view of Dr. Charles, Yahweh (Yahweh), who under Moses became the God of the Hebrew tribes, was, till the time of the prophets, simply a national God, bound up with the land and with this single people; therefore, “possessing neither interest nor jurisdiction in the life of the individual beyond the grave. … Hence, since early Yahwism possessed no eschatology of its own, the individual Israelite was left to his hereditary heathen beliefs. These beliefs we found were elements of Ancestor Worship”–NETBible
Interesting. I always suspected early Judaism of a curiously non-existent eschatology.
In contrast to this Donald E. Gowan states that much of OT belief in the afterlife came after the return from the Babylonian Exile. He explicitly states this in his chapter 1, Zion, by examining Zechariah 8. Most of this chapter is concerned with utopianism, the idea that God is going to come back and shield Judah from her many oppressors/conquerors. While Gowan states that this is reflective of the true nature of the passage, the eventual heaven in store for Judah’s, I believe (after reading the chapter, in my own untrained belief) that while this is eminently true, there is a valid possibility that the passage may have just minimal eschatological overtones. He sums up this belief in the final piece of his book, “Eschatology in the Old Testament.”
“Old Testament Eschatology is a worldly hope. The Old Testament does not scorn, ignore , or abandon the kind of life which human beings experience in this world in favor of speculation concerning some other, better place or form of existence, to be hoped for after death or achieved before death through meditation or spiritual exercise. This sets the OT in sharp contrast to Gnosticism, the otherworldy emphases that often have appeared in Christianity, and to the concepts of salvation in Hinduism and Buddhism. Whether it is better or truer than those other forms of hope, or is just irredeemably “unspiritual,” remains, of course, a matter of faith to decide.” (Gowan 122)
I would like to provide some insight into the words for afterlife “places” not including, of course, Heaven.
a. Righteous-Jacob mourns for the reported death of Joseph in Genesis 37:35 saying, “I shall go down to my son a mourner unto Sheol.”
b. Nevertheless, it isn’t exactly desirable. The Psalm 86:13: “Your love for me is great; you have rescued me from the depths of Sheol.”
Thanks
As I suspect of many of us here, my knowledge of the Old Testament leaves much to be desired, especially in comparison the functional knowledge we all have of the New Testament. But as the old aphorism states, “You have to know where you have come from to know where you are going…” I have selected a few scholars whose view I would like to share.
R.H. Charles-Anglican minister from the (d. 1931)
"In the view of Dr. Charles, Yahweh (Yahweh), who under Moses became the God of the Hebrew tribes, was, till the time of the prophets, simply a national God, bound up with the land and with this single people; therefore, “possessing neither interest nor jurisdiction in the life of the individual beyond the grave. … Hence, since early Yahwism possessed no eschatology of its own, the individual Israelite was left to his hereditary heathen beliefs. These beliefs we found were elements of Ancestor Worship”–NETBible
Interesting. I always suspected early Judaism of a curiously non-existent eschatology.
In contrast to this Donald E. Gowan states that much of OT belief in the afterlife came after the return from the Babylonian Exile. He explicitly states this in his chapter 1, Zion, by examining Zechariah 8. Most of this chapter is concerned with utopianism, the idea that God is going to come back and shield Judah from her many oppressors/conquerors. While Gowan states that this is reflective of the true nature of the passage, the eventual heaven in store for Judah’s, I believe (after reading the chapter, in my own untrained belief) that while this is eminently true, there is a valid possibility that the passage may have just minimal eschatological overtones. He sums up this belief in the final piece of his book, “Eschatology in the Old Testament.”
“Old Testament Eschatology is a worldly hope. The Old Testament does not scorn, ignore , or abandon the kind of life which human beings experience in this world in favor of speculation concerning some other, better place or form of existence, to be hoped for after death or achieved before death through meditation or spiritual exercise. This sets the OT in sharp contrast to Gnosticism, the otherworldy emphases that often have appeared in Christianity, and to the concepts of salvation in Hinduism and Buddhism. Whether it is better or truer than those other forms of hope, or is just irredeemably “unspiritual,” remains, of course, a matter of faith to decide.” (Gowan 122)
I would like to provide some insight into the words for afterlife “places” not including, of course, Heaven.
- Sheol-the old Hebrew battle-axe. The origins of this term are unknown. The current scholarly consensus upon its root is divided between “to burrow” and “to ask.” The Jewish Encyclopedia states:
“With the body in the grave remains connected the soul (as in dreams): the dead buried in family graves continue to have communion (comp. Jer. xxxi. 15). Sheol is practically a family grave on a large scale. Graves were protected by gates and bolts; therefore Sheol was likewise similarly guarded. The separate compartments are devised for the separate clans, septs, and families, national and blood distinctions continuing in effect after death. That Sheol is described as subterranean is but an application of the custom of hewing out of the rocks passages, leading downward, for burial purposes.”
a. Righteous-Jacob mourns for the reported death of Joseph in Genesis 37:35 saying, “I shall go down to my son a mourner unto Sheol.”
b. Nevertheless, it isn’t exactly desirable. The Psalm 86:13: “Your love for me is great; you have rescued me from the depths of Sheol.”
- Hades-in Greek mythology, this place was the TOTAL abode of the dead. Everybody went there and it was subdivided into torment, paradise, and in between (e.g. Elysian Fields) Since we all know that the early Christians were influenced by and spoke Greek, it should come as no surprise that Hades, much like Sheol, is relatively neutral and inapplicable to most present day discussions of the afterlife, and Psalm 16:10 is translated in the Septuagint with a substitution of “hades” for “sheol.” However, unlike Sheol, Hades was a complete abode of the dead. The imaginations of the Greeks ran wild with thoughts of Elysian Fields and other inventive occupations for those dead. In contrast, Sheol developed from the literal concept of the grave, and is pedestrian in description by comparison.
- Gehenna-no surprise. Valley of Hinnom, place where children were sacrificed to the pagan gods. Obviously, used in the New Testament for TOTAL hell. Evil people getting bashed around and hurt. e.g. gnashing of teeth. In the New Testament, it is obvious that a sharp distinction is being drawn between the usage of Gehenna and Hades/Sheol, one as hell, and the other of an intermediate state.
- Tartarus-not really important. I just thought it was interesting how a virtual synonym for Gehenna was tossed into the NT just once, in 2 Peter 2:4–“God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tartarus, delivered them into pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment.” The authorship/audience of this epistle is notoriously questionable (As it was one of the latest NT writings), so one can only assume that the environment could have been predominantly Greek, but once again, just an assumption. It also has a connotation of “abyss,” used throughout the Bible.
- “Prison”-“fulakh”-mentioned most prominently in 1 Peter 3:19. Seems to be mostly a literal prison. Connection with Limbo is possible and certainly not ruled out by the text. That verse has been disputed historically, and due to its vagueness, I would not expect to see any consensus upon its meaning at any time.
Also mentioned in Purgatorially-relevant passages of Matt. 5:25, Luke 12:58, and perhaps more.
Thanks