Death and Afterlife

A Theological Introduction

Terence Nichols

• Publisher: Brazos Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781587431838
• eBook ISBN: 9781441212597
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Many people fear dying and are uncertain about life after death. In this engaging book, a Catholic theologian addresses perennial human questions about death and what lies beyond, making a Christian case for an afterlife with God. Nichols begins by examining views of death and the afterlife in Scripture and the Christian tradition. He takes up scientific and philosophical challenges to the afterlife and considers what we can learn about it from near death experiences. Nichols then addresses topics such as the soul, bodily resurrection, salvation, heaven, hell, and purgatory. Finally, he addresses the important issue of preparing for death and dying well.

1

UNDERWORLD, SOUL, AND RESURRECTION IN
ANCIENT JUDAISM

I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

Jonah 2:2

The writings of ancient Judaism—the Hebrew Bible and the so-called intertestamental writings—span a period of about a thousand years.1 Not surprisingly, there is a development in the understanding of death and afterlife during the course of these writings. In the earliest Hebrew texts, there is no notion of heaven or hell; rather, the souls of the dead are believed to sink into an underworld (usually called Sheol) where souls dwell as weak, dim shades with no consolation from God. The only real hope after death was to be remembered by one’s descendants. Thus Abraham was blessed by God in the promise of many descendants (Gen. 22:17–18).

Over time, however, the Jewish prophets developed the idea that God would reward or punish each person for his or her own sins, not for the sins of his or her ancestors (“A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent,” Ezek. 18:20). In later Jewish Scriptures, the belief developed that God would not abandon the righteous to the netherworld. Rather, the righteous individuals would be rewarded and the wicked punished by God in a resurrected life after death, as seen in the book of Daniel (ca. 150 BCE). In the book of Wisdom, about a century later, we find a vision of the souls of the righteous living on with God (Wis. 3:1–9). Both these views of afterlife continued and influenced the thought of Jews and Christians in the time of Jesus.

There was, therefore, a wide range of beliefs about death and life after death in ancient Israel. We will consider specific texts that express these views of afterlife and then summarize our findings in a conclusion.

The Underworld

In earliest writings, the dead were thought to sink into the underworld, which was associated with the grave or a place of darkness.2 There the shades (rephaim) of the dead survive but with no strength, vitality, hope, or worship of God.

For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help, like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. . . . Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? (Ps. 88:3–5, 10)

Another text describing the underworld is given in Isaiah, in which the prophet issues a taunt against the king of Babylon:

Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come [i.e., die];

it rouses the shades [rephaim] to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;

it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.

All of them will speak
and say to you:

“You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!” (Isa. 14:9–10)

The most natural reading of this passage is that the shades retain personal identity in the underworld. They are portrayed in physical terms (as speaking, for example), and this might cause some interpretative problems with the passage, but they certainly are not resurrected. I agree with Robert Gundry that the shades are portrayed in physical terms by way of analogy—how else could the writer portray them?3

There are many other passages in the Old Testament that indicate personal identity continues after the death of the body: “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol” (Ps. 49:15); “You will save his life from Sheol” (Prov. 23:14 RSV). Isaiah 38 gives a moving piece attributed to King Hezekiah, composed after he recovered from an apparently lethal illness. Hezekiah writes:

In the noontide of my
days I must depart;

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
for the rest of my years. . . .

But thou hast held back my life4
from the pit of destruction, . . .

For Sheol cannot thank thee,
death cannot praise thee;

those who go down to the pit cannot hope
for thy faithfulness. (Isa. 38:10–18 RSV)

The most striking account of contact with a dead spirit from the underworld5 is given in the story of Saul visiting a medium at Endor (1 Sam. 28). Though Saul had previously expelled mediums and wizards from the country, he was fearful of an impending battle with the Philistines and sought the advice of the dead prophet Samuel. Saul disguised himself and went to consult a medium, asking her to summon the spirit of Samuel. She did so and said: “‘I see a divine being [elohim] coming up out of the ground.’ He [Saul] said to her, ‘What is his appearance?’ She said, ‘An old man is coming up; he is wrapped in a robe.’ So Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’” (1 Sam. 28:13–15). Saul told him that the Philistines were warring against him and that God did not answer him by dreams or prophets, so he summoned Samuel to tell him what he should do. Samuel’s reply was devastating. Tomorrow, he said, “the Lord will give Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines; and . . . you and your sons shall be with me” (v. 19). And indeed Saul and his sons were killed on Mount Gilboa the next day.6

The underworld, then, is like the grave where the dead survive as shades (rephaim) of their former selves.7 True, Psalm 139:8 declares that God is even in the underworld (Sheol): “If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.” But even if God is present in the underworld, there is no indication that this provides any comfort for the dead, who dwell in darkness, not in the light of God. All who die go to the underworld and do not return; there is no indication of reward for virtue or punishment for misdeeds there. Even the great prophet Samuel dwells in the underworld with the rest of the dead. The underworld, then, is not the fulfillment of human hope. The identity of the dead apparently survives (as can be seen in the episode in 1 Samuel), but their spirits are not comforted by the presence of God nor are the righteous rewarded and the wicked punished. All go to the same place: “the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil” (Eccles. 9:2).

The ancient Hebrew concept of the underworld is very similar to the conception of the dead found in the writings of Homer (ca. 850 BCE). Homer portrays the lot of the dead as dwelling in the underworld—Hades—as insubstantial “shades” who have lost their strength and life force. In a striking chapter of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus sails to the land of Persephone, goddess of the dead (see chap. 11). There he is directed to dig a small pit, sacrifice a black ewe and ram, and let their blood fall into the pit so the shades of the dead can lap it up and thereby have strength to speak. Odysseus performs the rites and addresses the “blurred and breathless dead.” Then the souls of the dead gather: “From every side they came and sought the pit / with rustling cries, and I grew sick with fear.” The lot of the dead is not enviable. The shade of the seer Teiresias tells Odysseus: “Any dead man whom you allow to enter where the blood is / will speak to you, and speak the truth; but those / deprived will grow remote again and fade.” Odysseus sees his own mother among the dead, speaks with her, and tries to embrace her: “I bit my lip, / rising perplexed, with longing to embrace her, / and tried three times, putting my arms around her, / but she went sifting through my hands, impalpable / as shadows are, and wavering like a dream.” The shade of the great soldier Achilles also appears to Odysseus, saying: “How did you find your way down to the dark / where these dimwitted dead are camped forever, / the after images of used-up men.” Odysseus replies to Achilles: “We ranked you with immortals in your lifetime, / . . . and here your power is royal / among the dead men’s shades. Think, then, Akhilleus: / you need not be so pained by death.” But Achilles replies: “Let me hear no smooth talk / of death from you, Odysseus, light of councils. / Better, I say, to break sod as a farm hand / for some poor country man, on iron rations / than lord it over all the exhausted dead.”8

In both early Hebrew and early Greek thought, the shades of the dead, and something of their personalities, survive in the underworld. Odysseus speaks with his mother and she with him; he tries to embrace her, but her shade has no substance. He recognizes Achilles and talks with him. But the shades in the underworld have no life force or strength; they must imbibe blood to have the strength to speak. This seems strikingly similar to the condition of the dead in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Note that the shades of the dead are not immaterial souls. They retain their physiognomies and physical appearances and so are recognizable. Samuel, for example, is described by the medium and Saul recognizes him from the description. What survives is not an immaterial soul but a shade or ghost that lacks the vitality and solidity of the fleshly person but retains personal identity.9

For this reason, the hope of afterlife expressed in the early Hebrew Scriptures was not one of individual survival in the underworld but of the continuance of the people Israel, the land, and one’s descendants.10 Abraham, for example, was blessed by God in his descendants, not by the promise of a happy afterlife: “I will indeed bless you, and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:17–18). Anglican biblical scholar N. T. Wright summarizes:

For the vast majority in ancient Israel, the great and solid hope, built upon the character of the creator and covenant God, was for YHWH’s blessings of justice, prosperity, and peace upon the nation and the land, and eventually upon the whole earth. Patriarchs, prophets, kings, and ordinary Israelites would indeed lie down to sleep with their ancestors. YHWH’s purposes, however, would go forward, and would be fulfilled in their time.11

Belief in Bodily Resurrection

Over time in Israel, the hope developed that God will not let his righteous ones languish forever in the underworld but will raise them from the dead. One of the earliest of these visions is found in the prophet Isaiah:

Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

For your dew is a radiant dew,
and the earth will give birth to those long dead. (Isa. 26:19)

Notice that the vision of afterlife here is not that of individual, disembodied souls dwelling with God in heaven; it is a vision of a restored and embodied afterlife. Israelite thought developed in a different direction than Greek thought. Greek thought after ca. 500 BCE came to hope in the survival of the individual soul, not the body.12 This is fully expressed in the writings of Plato. In his great dialogue Phaedo, which recounts the death of Socrates, Socrates is confident that his soul will go to a better state, comparing the body to a prison. Hebrew thought, however, conceived of afterlife primarily, but not exclusively, in terms of a reanimated and resurrected body living with others in a world of justice and peace that was governed by YHWH.

Another famous text that conveys this idea of an embodied afterlife (or renewed life) in company with the people Israel is found in the book of Ezekiel:

The hand of the Lord came upon me . . . and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. . . . He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. . . . I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.” (Ezek. 37:1–12)

This was written when the people of Israel were in exile (in Babylon, ca. 550 BCE). It anticipates teachings concerning the resurrection of the body but is actually an allegory of the restoration of the people of Israel to their own land. It prophesies the end of their exile, but it closely connects the language of bodily resurrection with the restoration of the Israelites. This theme will be echoed in the New Testament in Jesus’s teaching on the kingdom of God.

At the end of the Old Testament period, we find the clearest statement of the future bodily resurrection of the dead in the book of Daniel.

At that time, [the angel] 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)

This was written when Israel was under Greek control and Greek practices were being forced on the Jews. Antiochus IV Epiphanes forbade the Jewish practice of circumcision; replaced Jewish sacrifices with Greek sacrifices, which included sacrificing pigs; and even set up an altar to Zeus in the temple area. This led to the Maccabean revolt (167–164 BCE). The book of Daniel was written to encourage those Jews who were resisting Antiochus and suffering ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Underworld, Soul, and Resurrection in Ancient Judaism
• 2. Death and Afterlife in the New Testament
• 3. Death and Afterlife in the Christian Tradition
• 4. Scientific Challenges to Afterlife
• 5. Near Death Experiences
• 6. On the Soul
• 7. Resurrection
• 8. Justification and Judgment
• 9. Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell
• 10. Dying Well
• Notes
• Back Cover