Psalm 49 and the Path to Redemption

Smith

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532606984
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

In Psalm 49 and the Path to Redemption, Janet Smith revisits her PhD dissertation, Dust or Dew: Immortality in the Ancient Near East and in Psalm 49, reconfiguring the book for a general audience and expanding it to focus on a theme of biblical redemption. The new work takes the reader through the development of Israel's belief in an afterlife, both the positive hope but also the negative fate of those who are spiritually impoverished. Beyond that, Psalm 49 takes the reader into the mind and heart of the sages and priests who wrote many of the psalms. There we find how much we share with them emotionally and spiritually. Since Christianity is a movement with roots in the Old Testament, the reader is introduced to some important redemption concepts as expressed by Jesus Christ. Finally, the book reviews a few modern near-death experiences to ask if the Scriptures regarding afterlife have relevance today. This book is thought provoking and should cause anyone reading it to think about their own personal path to redemption.

1

In the Beginning

About the New Edition

As stated in the Preface, this is a rewrite of Dust or Dew, the 2010 publication of my PhD dissertation, with the hope of accessing the general audience. There are several excellent books and articles that cover some of the same material that I discuss in both books. Like the original Dust or Dew, they are academic works and present the information more systematically, either focusing on relevance for the Jewish nation of Israel today, or the archaeology of ancient burial practices, or the theology of death and life passages. My purpose is to follow the growth of the people of Israel and the development of their afterlife theology, as understood through the writings of scribes, prophets, and psalmists. Rather than just focus on theology, this volume focuses on the transition of the new nation’s beliefs, with an emphasis on the viewpoint of the levitical writers. We work our way to Ps 49, a priest’s invective against the wealthy elite who live carelessly, trusting in their own self-importance. From there we examine the development of concepts of heaven and hell for any and all as expressed through the Hebrew prophets and in the New Testament. It turns out that the entire Bible has some particular things to say to the rich and powerful.

The early descendants of Abraham naturally had fears, superstitions, and doubts about afterlife. For hundreds of years the family lived by the ancient law codes of Mesopotamia. Trusting only in Abraham’s revelation of God, they lacked their own literary compass to aid them as they journeyed through this life and passed from the material world to the eternal.

They began as one family from northern Syria, then became a union of clans, then a “people,” then a nation, so naturally, many of their original concepts were borrowed from the world around them. They progressed from vague descriptions of being gathered to one’s ancestors, to a new hope as revealed by God to Abraham and to his monotheistic descendants.

The culmination of that transition is found in various passages that promise a release from the gloom of Sheol—a “taking out” of the soul by God to be wherever he exists in eternity. Psalm 49 encapsulates the desire for ultimate, eternal justice. Ethics were not entirely new to Israel. Early law codes admonished the kings of Mesopotamia and Babylon to be just and to protect vulnerable citizens like widows and orphans. Civil codes guided neighborly relationships, treatment of concubines, inheritance between the children of wives, punishments for bodily harm to others, the sale of slaves, etc. Much that is in the Torah (the Law of Moses, comprising the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy) was drawn from cultural norms of the day. In spite of every human effort, however, justice can be elusive. The final appeal for wrongs to be righted is when the soul of the departed stands before an eternal Judge, one that knows the thoughts of every heart and who cannot be bribed.

Death in the Garden

The Hebrew Bible introduces the issue of life, death, and immortality in the earliest chapters. In the book of Genesis, two newly formed humans, Adam and Eve, were introduced to this complex topic almost immediately. In chapter 1, all is goodness. God blessed the man and woman with dominance over nature, fruitful multiplication, and unity in their relationship. Both were swept into existence (“created”) in the same manner as were the stars, simply by the word of God. This is Homo sapiens in full maturity and glory, reflecting the image and likeness of God. They have exquisite, agile bodies and minds to invent language, math, and literature.

In chapter 2, we read that Adam was “formed” from dirt or dust. He is set in a Garden wherein lurks a strange, immortal, inter-dimensional, reptilian entity—a cunning, ready-made adversary. In verse 8 Adam is “set” or “placed” in the Garden. In verse 15, he is “settled” there. The gap between the two verses could indicate an unknown amount of time going by. The location of the Garden is described as being “in the east,” probably east of Assyria, the one region mentioned in the description. Assyria was northeast of ancient Sumer, often called the Cradle of Civilization; both were located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers which flow into the Persian Gulf. This whole region lies in today’s nation of Iraq. The author of Genesis calls the south-eastern region “Shinar” rather than Sumer (Gen 10:10; 11:2). Whether one takes the stories of creation and the Garden literally or metaphorically, the cities and rivers of Gen 1–11 are verifiably real.

The Bible genealogies transport Adam and Eve back to the Chalcolithic Age, the Age of Copper, c. 4500–3500 BCE (Before the Common Era, which is usually called BC, Before Christ). There would be primitive pottery, domestication of animals, agriculture, fishing, mining of copper, and hunting of game. Their names wouldn’t have been Adam and Eve because those are Hebrew words and there was no Hebrew at that time. In fact, there were no great Sumerian cities yet, no baked clay tablets with cuneiform letters, because writing hadn’t been developed yet, so the names of a literal, historical couple would sound very strange to us today and would be lost to history without some kind of visionary revelation.

The new humans were innocent and childlike, too naïve and limited in their understanding to perpetrate great evil or conquer nature. There was no sense of the existence of death. However, without death, there can be no birth. Imagine a material planet where mosquitoes, rats, rabbits, and birds breed but don’t die. The human population of the earth today would be in the tens of billions. A literal planet without death would have to be completely static and magical, with no seasons or environmental catastrophes, unlike the gritty world in which we live today. If an immortal parent did have a child, it would be difficult to teach that child to make right choices in life if the parent has no understanding of good and evil. So, the irony of the two creation stories in chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Genesis is that the peaceful naivety of the second chapter thwarts the fulfillment of chapter 1.

Some readers view the authors of Genesis as revealing literal history; others dismiss the narratives as myths and fables. I understand them to be inspired legends written to convey specific information about mankind and our relationship with God. The creation stories contained important lessons for the people of Israel in their own era who were accosted on every side with the temptation to look to foreign deities for help. For example, widely recognized Mesopotamian compositions, which we will discuss in the next chapter, described humans as having been created from the DNA of a monster. Other stories claimed that we were created to provide the labor to relieve lower gods of providing food for a higher class of deities. Listeners were told that the great Flood was brought upon mankind because humans were too boisterous. The Israelite version emphasized the wickedness and violence of humans. Their destruction in the Flood story was the result of God’s justice. Humans are special but also dangerous.

The early chapters of Genesis may have been composed in the great city of Assur or Nineveh after the author had been taken there as a captive by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. Through such narratives, perfected by the holy scribes, Israelites of that era would learn about the nature and purpose of humans, their value in the sight of their Creator, the relationship between men and women, the dangers of heeding the promises of foreign deities, and the inevitability of death.

The threat of death lies at the heart of the Garden story. When Eve is confronted by the reptilian entity in chapter 3, he assures her that if she eats of the fruit of the tree, she will not die and she will become like God. One of the great puzzles of the story is what is meant by “you will die” and “you will not die” and “you will be like God, knowing good and evil?” Adam and Eve were naked primitives living in an enclosed and protected space. Their destiny according to Gen 1 was to be a reflection of God (1:26). This similarity would give them dominance over all the creatures of the earth and over nature itself. In chapter 1, there is no hint that the two are unprepared for that role. One problematic belief that could arise from reading chapter 1 alone is the idea that humans are hybrid creatures, part human, part god. Israel’s foreign neighbors had already written epics with such beings as heroes. The Genesis mandate to rule and dominate the earth could be construed as permission to be despots. In chapter 2, however, the early humans are like children, only potentially immortal and subject to temptation. How then could they be the progenitors of the sentient creatures that established the first great cities, who created writing and literature, and waged wars? How could mankind live in communities without a law code, and how could they formulate law codes with no understanding of ethical behavior?

Putting the two chapters together, we see that the couple cannot fulfill Gen 1 without being disobedient, or without waiting for God himself to say, “It’s time to grow up and go out into the world.” To eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree without permission was disobedience. We say that Adam and Eve sinned, but a three-year-old cannot actually sin if it doesn’t have the full power of choice. Surely this capacity was always their ultimate destiny, but when and how would they acquire it?

Genesis 1—2:4a and chapters 2:4b—4 are actually separate documents with different authors:

• The name of God changes from Elohim to Yahweh-Elohim. (Today’s translators substitute LORD, all caps, for the four-consonant name of God. Vowels were absent in the original manuscripts. Yahweh-Elohim is usually translated “the LORD God.”)

• In chapter 1, everything is “created.” In chapter 2, things are “formed” or “made,” never “created.” Things don’t just appear as God speaks. Even the beasts of the field and the birds of the air are “formed” from the ground (2:19). They appear to have been made after man has been alone f...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: In the Beginning
• Chapter 2: Afterlife in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan
• Chapter 3: The Davidic Revolution in Worship
• Chapter 4: Who Were the Korahites?
• Chapter 5: A Pilgrimage through the Korahite Psalter
• Chapter 6: Translation and Commentary of Psalm 49
• Chapter 7: The Struggle for Orthodoxy
• Chapter 8: Irrepressible Life or Certain Doom
• Chapter 9: Shared Semantic Fields
• Chapter 10: Serpents, Goddesses, and Gardens
• Chapter 11: Redemption, Resurrection, and Social Justice
• Chapter 12: The New Testament Paradigm of Kindness
• Chapter 13: Afterlife Today
• Appendix: Brain Twisting Genealogies
• Bibliography