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AFTERLIFE, AFTERDEATH

Western, or more specifically, Judeo-Christian, preoccupation with humanity’s physical fate or destiny beyond death has provided the impetus underlying much of the modern study of death and afterlife in ancient Israel. Unfortunately, Judeo-Christian notions regarding the material aspects of life beyond the grave have dominated Western treatments of other cultures to the neglect of other aspects often present in the primary data themselves. In those rare cases where the evidence from a given culture has resisted a Judeo-Christian reinterpretation, that cultural tradition has been characteristically deemed “primitive,” whether in terms of its “inferior intellectual merit” or its “deficient religious virtue.” This tendency also perpetuates early modern Eurocentric intellectual assumptions concerning the evolution of cultures and religions wherein ancient and foreign cultures were characterized as primitive, and so were thought to uphold primitive religious beliefs and observe archaic religious practices. Among the primitive elements detected in the traditions of the OT and in the archaeological record were those practices and beliefs associated with death cults and ancestor cults which, as typically defined by early moderns, presupposed a morbid fear of and superstition regarding ghosts. More generally, early moderns typically viewed this fear and its attendant cult as providing the original impetus underlying the development of religious modes of thought by early humanoids.

The consensus of earlier studies underscores the fact that the world of ancient Israel was very different from that of later Judaism and Christianity, and this pertains also to their respective beliefs and rituals associated with death and the afterlife. Disparity in scholarly opinion now arises over more minor questions such as whether transformations in afterlife beliefs took place early or late in the history of Israelite/Jewish religious history; whether the catalysts for such transformations were internal or foreign influences; and if foreign, from the local region or further afield: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or Persian.

For the longest time the consensus was that preexilic Israel had no afterlife beliefs worthy of note, at least not in the sense that later Jews and Christians eventually came to conceptualize the matter: a blessed, material, physical existence for the pious (and conversely a perpetual horrid experience for the wicked). The following will consider what constituted a fulfilling life and an “acceptable” death in ancient Mediterranean West Asia and ancient Israel in particular.

Abode of the Dead

In the OT various Hebrew terms like šĕʾôl (“Sheol”), māweṯ (“death”), ʾereṣ (“earth”), šaḥaṯ (“pit”), bôr (“pit”), and ʿăḇaddôn (“place of destruction”) could refer to the netherworld or abode of the dead. Some of these terms are further qualified by taḥtît or its various forms signifying “the lowest parts.” Sheol most often designates the netherly regions, although it has few, if any, cognates in the ancient Near East, making its etymological origins all the more obscure. Of course, even if we were able to uncover its full etymological history, it would not necessarily clarify the significance or function of Sheol.

Like its Near Eastern counterparts, the netherworld in ancient Israelite tradition is typically portrayed as a place to which one must descend. It is dark, dusty, and a place of silence. It can be connected with the waters of chaos over which one typically traveled to enter the netherworld. Sheol is described as possessing bars, gates, ropes, and snares, all of which suggest the unlikelihood of completely escaping from the netherworld — at least not in the full capacity one possessed before death — and approximates what we know to be the case in Mesopotamian tradition wherein the netherworld is depicted as the “land of no return” (to the land of the living in one’s former full capacity). The netherworld also overlapped with the various OT terms for “grave,” suggesting that the grave was regarded as incorporated into the larger realm of Sheol. One could enter Sheol from one’s grave, indicating that it could function as an entryway to the netherworld. In poetic contexts, the netherworld is personified as having an insatiable appetite by which it swallows up everything. It can grasp one with such relentless force that it never releases its victim. These elements convey something of the permanence and pervasiveness of death in early Israelite society.

Inhabitants of the Netherworld

Those who inhabit the netherworld in ancient Israel are called mēṯîm (“dead ones”) and rĕpāʾîm (“weak ones”; cf. esp. Ps. 88:11[MT 12]; Isa. 26:14). The term “rephaim” (or rpʾm) is used in two 6th-century Phoenician texts to denote simply the dead (KAI 13.7-8; 14.8-9). The ghosts of the dead are repeatedly designated as “the knowing ones” (yiddĕʿōnîm) and “the ones who return” (ʾōḇôṯ) in rather late biblical texts when the practice of necromancy is also taken up for the first time as an adaptation from Mesopotamia. In Isa. 19:3 they are called the ʾiṭṭîm (“ghosts”), probably the Hebrew equivalent of Akk. eṭemmu. It is often claimed that the dead could be referred to as “gods” (ʿĕlōhîm) based on a questionable translation of the Deuteronomistic text 1 Sam. 28:13-14 and the dubious assumption that ghosts and gods were equated in Mesopotamian and Israelite tradition. Although some Akkadian texts appear to depict two classes of otherworldly beings, the family or personal gods (ʾilu) and the ghosts of deceased relatives (eṭemmu), their exact connection remains elusive.

Heb. mēṯîm (“dead”) and ʾĕlōhîm (“gods”) likewise occur in close proximity in Isa. 8:19, which in turn has led to their erroneous equation. The two terms more likely refer to two distinct groups of otherworldly beings; the chthonic gods summoned to assist in the retrieval of a conjured ghost and the ghost itself attested in Mesopotamian necromantic traditions. With these considerations in mind, an alternative translation of 1 Sam. 28:13-14, a 6th-century composition concerned with necromancy, is possible. In the first half of King Saul’s inquiry the woman refers to the appearance of the gods from the netherworld (“chthonic gods [ʾĕlōhîm] coming up from the earth”) that were typically invoked in Mesopotamian necromantic rituals for their ability to assist in the retrieval of particular ghosts. In the second part she refers to the ghost of Samuel that the gods have brought up for the woman of Endor to consult. The “gods” here are not to be equated with Samuel’s ghost as a reference to its divine status (= the deified dead). Rather, the text preserves an echo of the two groups of otherworldly beings that typically participated in necromantic rituals.

The term rĕpāʾîm (“Rephaim”) appears in two contexts in the OT, in the narrative texts of the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history as giants and as representatives of the autochthonous populations of Palestine/Israel, and in the prophetic and poetic texts as the weakened dead. The similarity in form has led to speculation of some organic connection between the two uses. Like their Ugaritic counterparts the rpʾim qdmym (“the ancient Rephaim”), the biblical Rephaim of the netherworld are powerless (in biblical tradition they have been democratized to include the commoner as well as the elite). Nowhere are they identified as superhuman, warrior heroes of hoary antiquity, whether living or dead as often assumed. The Rephaim of the narratives, however, do take on mythic and heroic dimensions as the most ancient inhabitants of Palestine, and in this respect find their analogues in the rpʾum traditions at Ugarit. In KTU 1.161 the Ugaritic rpʾum (unqualified by qdmym) represent a living warrior and nobility elite who adopted that designation as a means of identifying themselves with the mythic or heroic traditions regarding the Rpʾum and Ditanu. Any supposed connection between the two biblical Rephaim traditions, the heroic traditions of the narratives and the postmortem traditions of the poetic and prophetic texts, remains enigmatic. Nowhere are the Rephaim attributed supernatural postmortem powers, although such powers are not disparaged. The biblical polemic against the Rephaim traditions is restricted to their mythic, heroic stature as living inhabitants of the land of Canaan or yĕlîḏê hārāpâ ("descendants of the Weak One”).

Transformations in Late Israelite Traditions

Following the Babylonian Exile of 586/7 b.c.e., significant transformations took place vis-à-vis Israelite/Jewish beliefs about death and the afterlife. These have been explained as the result of a combination of factors, foreign religious influence — Persian, Greek or otherwise — social and individual crises, and the inadequacy of conventional constructs of theodicy.

The resurrection of the body becomes a pervading expression of a blessed afterlife in Second Temple Judaism. Dan. 12:2, composed following the persecution of the Jews in 165, is generally recognized as indicative of this concept. Other passages have been cited as examples of the existence of this belief in earlier Israelite tradition (e.g., Ezek. 37; Isa. 26:19; 53), but opinion is divided as to whether these passages presume a belief in bodily resurrection or whether they employ “dying-and-rising-god” or fecundity imagery to refer metaphorically to the historical restoration of the nation. Most likely these passages informed developments that eventuated in the belief given clear expression later in Dan. 12. Furthermore, they might very well have derived their impetus from the dying-and-rising-god imagery in a much earlier text, Hos. 13–14, which in turn might indicate dependence upon older Canaanite imagery. These factors coupled with the possible influence of Persian religion, particularly the Zoroastrian belief in bodily resurrection during the postexilic period, might have culminated in the later Jewish belief in bodily resurrection as expressed in Dan. 12 and other Jewish apocalyptic sources.

Notions about ascension and immortality also find their way into Jewish traditions and texts in this period, from roughly the 6th century onward. Passages like Gen. 5:24 — a late Priestly text — and 2 Kgs. 2:1-12 — a Deuteronomistic production — preserve traditions concerning the bodily ascension to heaven without passing through death, as in the cases of such heroic figures as Enoch and Elijah. Enoch shows a number of amazing parallels with figures known from Mesopotamian sources — Enmeduranki, an antediluvian king, and Utnapishtim, a flood hero — who were either directly admitted into the presence of the gods or translated bodily into heaven. While notions of immortality were possibly afloat in various periods of Israelite religious history, only with the passage of time were certain forms selected for fuller elaboration and development.

Second Temple Jewish wisdom literature preserves elements of the immortality of the soul as a reward for the righteous. Works like 4 Maccabees, Jubilees, and 1 Enoch all point in this direction. The Wisdom of Solomon (ca. 100 b.c.e.) repeatedly addresses the topic of immortality (Wis. 1:15; 3:4; 4:1; 8:17; 15:3) while never explicitly taking up the topic of resurrection; some see a strong influence from Greek Platonic philosophy here. The immortality of the soul has also been identified in two postexilic wisdom Psalms, Pss. 49 and 73. Ps. 49:16 (“God will redeem my life from the clutches of Sheol”) poses a direct contrast to vv. 8-10, where it is claimed that no one can redeem himself so as to live forever and never see the grave; God should be viewed here as attributed that power which no one can exercise for himself: the power to bestow immortal life.

Summary

The evidence indicates that prior to the Exile the Israelites, like many of their ancient Near Eastern neighbors, placed primary, if not sole, emphasis on the perpetuation of the memory of the family dead and on making the best of life on this side of the grave. Both commoner and elite went to some length to insure that the family name epitomized by the multigenerational graves containing the bones of family dead and located on family land would never be neglected, let alone forgotten. By regularly performing various communal and public rituals the names and memories of deceased kin were preserved from oblivion. The associated words and deeds comprised what has been described by anthropologists as the commemoration of the dead. Worship, veneration, or morbid fear of the dead had no necessary part in this complex of rites as so long assumed. The idea that the ancient Israelites observed a longstanding death or ancestor cult as conventionally understood (to include the worship or veneration of the dead) simply has no basis. It was founded upon outmoded anthropological assumptions, cultural biases, and questionable or forced interpretation of texts. What the ancient Israelite did fear was the dreaded “death after death” — the possibility that the memory of his name and the recollection of his deeds accomplished while living might be forever forgotten by his descendants, his community, or, in the case of the royalty, even his nation.

To be sure, there apparently existed the belief that in the case of neglect, one might expect the angry reprisal of the deceased’s ghost, but this hardly necessitated or presumed that the living should worship or venerate the dead. Rather, it demanded persistence in caring and feeding of the dead as part of their commemoration and, should negligence have taken place, the initiation of rites to ward off or appease the ghost — i.e., exorcistic rituals might be enacted (unfortunately, the primary data on this score for ancient Israel are lacking). Furthermore, only in the latter stages of preexilic Israelite religion was the practice of necromancy introduced, which explains its occasional mention in late texts of the Holiness code, wisdom traditions, and later prophetic and Deuteronomistic additions. The mention of necromancy (e.g., Deut. 18:11; 1 Sam. 28:3-25; 2 Kgs. 21:6; 23:24; Isa. 8:19; 19:3; 29:4) finds impetus in the adaptation of Mesopotamian necromancy in Iron Age pluralistic Israelite religion. Now the otherwise feeble ghosts possessed the power that comes with knowledge concerning the future. This practice was outlawed in later Deuteronomistic and related biblical traditions by artificially attributing to it a “Canaanite” origin as a polemical strategy aimed at disparaging competing Israelite religious practices and avoiding the consternation of their Mesopotamian overlords.

A handful of other texts have been identified as pertaining to death and ancestor cult practices, but these concern mourning and so contribute nothing to the question as to whether or not the ancient Israelites observed death and ancestor rites. Deut. 14:1; 26:14 refer not to death or ancestor cult practices, but to mourning rites of tonsure and gashing and the prohibition against using the tithe as a gift of consolation for those in mourning. Similarly, Amos 6:7; Jer. 16:5 mention the marzēaḥ, which concerns an association organized for the purpose of advancing economic transactions among the upper echelons of society. In the exceptional instance this association might also seek to acknowledge the death of one of its members, and some attendants might indulge themselves to the point of inebriation during such a funerary ritual. However, the marzēaḥ has nothing to do with death and ancestor cults and only an occasional connection with funerary concerns.

Conclusion

All indications are that the dead of ancient Mediterranean West Asia and ancient Israel were perceived as weak and frail, and their material persistence beyond this life was characterized at best by a shadowy and silent existence and at worst by neglect on the part of the living. In Mesopotamian tradition, such neglect might result in the ghost’s maleficence requiring exorcistic rituals to counter such behavior. Similarly, the ghosts of those who died an untimely or violent death might require ritual forms of control on the part of the living. Nonetheless, in Mediterranean West Asian sources such ghostly malevolence remains unattested. To be sure, there are instances wherein demons of various and sundry sorts must be averted by ritual means, but incantations and the like that were directed specifically toward hostile ghosts of the human dead are nowhere to be found in the archaeological, epigraphic, or literary sources (cf. the Arslan Tash incantations and some recently discovered Ugaritic incantations). Indeed, the evidence suggests that what occupied a more central place in the thought and action of ancient Israelites as they contemplated their prospects beyond the grave was the concern to perpetuate the memory of the deceased in the minds of the living. This coupled with an emphasis on making the best of life on this side of the grave — a long and healthy life span; sufficient material resources; many children, relatives, and friends; minimal pain and suffering — presented one with the prospect of obtaining a significant measure of fulfillment in this life.

Bibliography. J. Day, “The Development of Belief in Life after Death in Ancient Israel,” in After the Exile, ed. J. Barton and D. J. Reimer (Macon, 1996), 231-57; B. B. Schmidt, Israel’s Beneficent Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition, rev. ed. (Winona Lake, 1996).

Brian B. Schmidt

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

AFTERLIFE, AFTERDEATH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)