afterdeath

What Follows Death? Some Jewish and Christian answers.
Selections from Deuteronomy, Daniel, Revelation, and First Corinthians. The first two are part of the Hebrew Scriptures (The Old Testament); the second two from the Christian New Testament.
After each reading there are questions, 10 altogether. The quiz questions will be taken from those 10 questions. Each question is designed to call your attention to something worth remembering.

Summary of what each of the selections has to say about after-death.
Deuteronomy: no life after death; live long and prosper
Daniel: some of those asleep in the dust will be raised to new life by the Son of Man
Revelation: after Armageddon the heavenly city will descend from the sky
Paul, I Corinthians: our whole selves will be transformed into "spiritual bodies"

[Introduction to Deuteronomy:
    In the passages from Deuteronomy below you will recognize the 10 commandments. Look carefully at the specific things God promises his people if they keep these commandments. The scene takes place sometime before 1200 B.C. The scholars think the version we have here in Deuteronomy was written in this form around 720 B.C., but based on an early tradition. This was addressed to a people living in an archaic culture. This and other pre-axial ages parts of the Hebrew Scriptures hope for God's rewards here on earth, not in a life to come after death. ]
EARTHLY REWARDS: DEUTERONOMY. Chapter 5
1. Moses called together all Israel and said to them, Hear O Israel the laws and decrees that I announce in your hearing today so that you may learn them and observe them. . . .
6. I am the Lord [Yahweh] your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out from that realm of slavery.
7. You shall not have any other Gods besides me.
8. You shall not make carved images in the form of anything in the skies above or the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth.
9. You shall not bow down to them or offer them service, for I the Lord [Yahweh] your God am a jealous God, who inflicts punishments on the children of those who hate, for their fathers' sins, down to the third and fourth generations,
10. but who has mercy down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord [Yahweh] your God, for the Lord [Yahweh] will punish those that do so.
12. Observe the sabbath day as sacred, as the Lord [Yahweh] has commanded you.
13. For six days you may labor and do all your work.
14. But the seventh day is the sabbath day of the Lord [Yahweh] your God. You shall do no work on it, not you or your son or daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox or ass or any of your animals, not the stranger staying with you. Your slaves should all rest as you do.
15. For remember that you yourself were once a slave in Egypt, and the Lord [Yahweh] your God reached out his long arm and strong hand and brought you out of there. That is why the Lord [Yahweh] your God commands you to keep the sabbath.
16. Honor your father and mother as the Lord [Yahweh] your God has commanded you, that you may live long and prosper in the land which the Lord [Yahweh] your God is giving you.
17. You shall not kill.
18. You shall not commit adultery.
19. You shall not steal.
20. You shall not bear lying testimony against your neighbor.
21. You shall not desire your neighbor's wife, nor set your heart on your neighbor's house or land or slaves or cattle or anything that is not yours. . . .
Chapter 7
9. Know then that the Lord [Yahweh] your God is truly God, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant to the thousandth generation of those who love him and keep his commandments.
10. And he repays directly those who hate him; he does not delay with those who hate him but makes them personally pay for it.
11. You shall therefore keep these commandments carefully, these laws and decrees that I give you today.
12. If you do listen to these commandments and keep them carefully the Lord [Yahweh] your God will keep the merciful covenant which he vowed to your fathers.
13. He will love and bless you and grant you to increase in numbers; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and oil, the offspring of your herds and the young of your flocks, in the land he vowed to your fathers he would give you.
14. You will be blessed above all people; no man or woman will be infertile nor your livestock barren.
15. And the Lord [Yahweh] will remove all illness from you and will afflict you with none of the sicknesses of Egypt, but will lay them on all those who hate you.
16. Devour all the nations whom the Lord [Yahweh] your God will deliver up to you. Do not look on them with pity; this could snare you into accepting their gods....
20. The Lord [Yahweh} your God will send hornets on them, until the survivors who have hidden from you are destroyed....
22. He will tear apart these nations before you little by little. You cannot exterminate them all at once, because then the wild beasts would be able to become too numerous.
23. The Lord [Yahweh] your God will deliver them up to you and will disrupt them entirely until they are destroyed.
24. He will deliver their kings into your hands, so that you may make their names perish from under the skies. No one will be able to stand up to your; you will be able to destroy them all.
25. You must destroy by fire all the images of their Gods.
Questions 1) name three things that God will do for the Israelites if they keep the commandments. 2) name two things God will do to their enemies.

Some who are dead will be raised to new life.
      By the time of the writing of the Book of Daniel (ca. 165 B.C.), the Jews had experienced more defeat than triumph; some of them had begun to believe that happiness can only come after the current world order was shaken apart and torn down so that it could be rebuilt. The first clear appearance of a belief in resurrection from the dead appears in a passage in Daniel included here. There are hints that this will be a resurrection into a world so radically reconstructed that it is a different sort of world, one ruled entirely by God: "the Kingdom of God." But there is no suggestion that this kingdom will be anywhere except here on earth and perhaps extending into the skies ("heavens"). This brief selection from the Book of Daniel, written ca. 165 B.C., represents the beginnings of apocalyptic thought in Judaism (though some find similar ideas in Ezekiel and other earlier prophets). Note especially three expressions: "the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven" (7:13), the reference to names written in the book (12:1), and "the abomination that makes desolate" (12:11). These entered into the vocabulary of later apocalyptic writings. Note also the reference to those asleep in the dust awakening. The Hebrew notion of death at this time was that death was the death of the whole person, the whole living body, without any immortal soul to keep living on. So "awakening" here is a true resurrection of the whole person from the dead.
      Note that what Daniel has to say is what he dreamed. This is the meaning of the phrase "night visions."
THE BOOK OF DANIEL: selections Chapter 7.
1. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions in his head while he slept in bed. He wrote down the visions; this is how the story went:
2. Daniel said, "I have been seeing night visions. I saw a great wind of the skies stir up the sea;
3. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
4. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I saw that the wings were torn off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on its legs like a human being, and a human heart was given to it.
5. And I saw a second beast that was like a bear, and it raised up a side of itself and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And it was commanded to get up and eat much flesh.
6. Then I saw another like a leopard, which had on its back four wings like a bird. It had four heads; and it had much the power to rule.
7. In these night visions I saw a fourth beast, fearsome and terrifying and extremely strong. It had great iron teeth, and what it devoured it broke into fragments and stomp it into the ground. It was different from all the other beasts; it had ten horns.
8. While I watch the horns I saw that there grew up from among them another small horn. Three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots [to make room for the new one]. And I saw that in this new horn there were eyes like human eyes, and a mouth that spoke great things. . . .
11. . . . the great beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
12. The rest of the beasts had their power taken away from them, though their lives were prolonged for a season or so.
13. Then in the night visions I saw one like the Son of man come with the clouds of heaven, and he came to the Ancient of Days [someone very old], and they brought him [the Son of man] into his presence.
14. And there was given to him [the Son of man] power and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is that which shall not be destroyed.
Question: 3) What will be given to the Son of man by the Ancient of Days
[Chapters 10-11 then recount the vision of Daniel of wars to come between kings of Persia and Alexander and then Alexander's successors in Egypt and Syria. In the time of the actual writing of the Book of Daniel, c. 165 B.C., the king hated by the Jews was Antiochus Epiphanes IV, descendent of one of Alexander's generals, King of Syria. He put statues of his pagan gods in the temple in Jerusalem. This was the "abomination of desolation" referred to later (and in Matthew's gospel). But then, says the vision, supposedly taking place in the time of Darius, king of the Persians in the sixth century B.C., the King of the North--Antiochus--will be defeated.]
Chapter 12.
1. At that time Michael [a godlike "prince"--like an archangel] will stand up, the great prince who stands up for the children of Israel. And there will be a time of trouble such as there never was . . . . And at that time your people will be delivered, every one that will be found written in the Book.
2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3. And those that are wise will shine like the lights of the sky above, and those who turn others towards righteousness will glow like the stars everlasting. But you, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, to the time of the end ....
8. Then I [Daniel] said, what will be the ending of all these things?
9. And he said, go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.
10 Many will be purified and made clean and well-tested, but the evil will do evil and none of them will understand; but the wise will understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice [in the temple] will be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there will be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Question: State precisely what is wrong with this sentence: 4) The Book of Daniel claims that everyone who is dead will be raised to everlasting praise and glory."

The Destruction of the skies ("heavens") and the Earth, followed by new Skies and Earth.
     The Book of Revelation ("Apocalypse") is the last book of the Christian scriptures.
THE BOOK OF REVELATION
     The most famous of all apocalyptic writings is the last book of the Christian scriptures, called "The Revelation of John the Divine" (The Greek word "apocalypse" means "revelation.") It is a difficult text, because of obscure symbolism and because of inconsistencies. It may have been written ca. 90 A.D. in the time of the persecution of Christians by emperor Domitian, though some think that the form we have is a reworking of a document from the time of Nero, 25 years earlier, and that the confused order of things in the book is the result of haphazard conjoining of new text material to older. Like the book of Daniel, it is based on a "night vision" (a dream), given to one who identifies himself as John. A tradition said this was Jesus's disciple, so 2nd century Christians eventually accepted it as part of the New Testament canon (list), though some had doubts about it. It alludes to the book of Daniel. The book of Revelation is written in an archaic mythological story-telling style, but within the framework of historic belief in a single God over all history.
      The Book speaks of a messiah who is coming soon. He will have God's power to overthrow the present world order and establish a new one. He will reign for a 1,000 years, apparently on this earth. Then after a final defeat of Satan (perhaps following the battle at Armageddon referred to in Rev. 16:16) the heavenly Jerusalem will descend from the sky in physical splendor. Those who belong to God will live in this blessed city. Throughout these pages the images are not those of a purely spiritual (non-physical) existence in an unearthly heaven, but rather in an earth made perfect, a physical world with a new sky ("heaven") and new earth. The brief passage included here can give you a taste of the flavor of the Book of Revelation.   Notice the physical characteristics of the new city of Jerusalem at the end.
THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE
Chapter 20
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Questions: 5) How long will Christ reign. 6) What will happen to the devil during that time?
Chapter 21
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof.
24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Questions: 7) Name some of the materials out of which the new Jerusalem will be made. 8) Where does this new Jerusalem come from?
[Other sections of the Book of Revelation contain passages that have inspired novelists, movie writers, cult leaders, television evangelists and many who predict the end of the world. These are passages which speak of four horsemen, war, hunger, pestilence, and death. They speak of seven seals to be broken and the books opened to reveal what will happen when the catastrophes begin. They speak of a beast whose number is 666. Countless images today can be traced back to apocalyptic literature.]

First Corinthians, Ch. 15: 35-44
      The first letter of the Christian Apostle Paul to the community at Corinth was written around AD 55 or so, maybe 25 years after Jesus' death.   People there had all sorts of questions about resurrection from the dead, including even doubts that there will be resurrection for them. Paul tries to answer them. Note the last two words in this brief selection." The word for "spiritual" in this Greek text is "pneumatikos," a word which still echoes in English in "pneumonia" and "pneumatics." One might translate the last two words as "airy body" [soma pneumatikos in Greek].
35. But some one will ask, "how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? 36. You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39. For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40. There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.
Questions: 9) Name some of the different kinds of bodies that Paul mentions in I. Cor. 15.   10) Name two of the differences in the human body, before death and after it is raised from the dead.