hatsoff

Some say the Sadducees believed that when you died you simply ceased to exist, while others point out (erroneously? correctly?) that most Jews of Jesus' day believed in a sort of Heaven/Hell system. My question, therefore, is what do we know about their beliefs, and how do we know it?

I'm a newbie to this topic, so take it easy on me.

Thanks in advance, guys!

Steven Carr

I'm sure we don't know the entire range of beliefs that Jews had.

Toto

A major source for information is Flavius Josephus, the first century turncoat Jewish fighter and lauthor of books explaining Judaism for the Romans. He said that the Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife, while the Pharisees did. He also said or implied that there were numerous schools of thought among Jews, but only discussed three of them.

Jewish life and theology did not center around the question of the afterlife.

stuart shepherd

Ezekiel 37:12-14 (King James Version)
12Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

Daniel 12:2 (King James Version)
2And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

stuart shepherd

Diogenes the Cynic

For the most part they had adopted the Zorastrian eschatological belief in a resurrection of the dead and a day of judgement. The righteous would be given eternal life (the nature of which I think is somewhat variable. Sometimes it sounds like they'retalking about a literal, physical immortality in a restored Eden on Earth, at other times it sounds more otherworldly). The unrighteous would be annihilated (spoken of literally and/or figuratively as being cast into the flames of Gehennon.

Before judgement, people waited in Sheol, which evolved from being essentially a reference to oblivion or the grave to being a temporary underworld like Hades. By the 1st Century, there were some Hellenistically influenced concepts of "good" and bad" parts of Sheol, with temporary punishment or reward, but Sheol was not eternal -- neither Heaven nor Hell but more like a temporary holding tank while the dead waited for judgement.

BALDUCCI

OK but that was clearly on earth, not in a woogie-woogie heaven

stuart shepherd

The Question that started this thread was.....""What did the Jews of Jesus' day believe about the afterlife?""

I only quoted what is written in the Hebrew Scriptures about the afterlife. I assumed that the Jews of Jesus' day had a Bible just like mine and knew the Scriptures I quoted.

But do you think that they believed in an afterlife in Heaven?
What about this Scripture....
Psalm 37:9-11 (King James Version)
9For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

10For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

11But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

I think you can see that Jesus endorsed this Scripture.

stuart shepherd

BALDUCCI

Exactly...they will inherit the earth, not a woogie-woogie heaven

hatsoff

The Scriptures do lend insight, sure, but remember that members of a given religion often have wacky, non-literal and illogically-derived beliefs concerning them. That is to say, the Scriptures used by a group are by no means the end of the story when it comes to that group's collective beliefs.

Thanks for the responses so far, everyone. Keep 'em coming!

stuart shepherd

Dead or Alive?
Are the dead..dead? Or are the dead..alive?

Mark 12:26-27 (King James Version)
26And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

27He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.


stuart shepherd