VoodooChild

I did a search of the archives and couldn't find what I was looking for. If anyone could answer my questions or point me to a website, it would be greatly appreciated. Here they are:

What was Judaisms view on the afterlife, before the spread of Hellenism?

Was the Platonic world view the foundation for Christian view of heaven, the afterlife and mythology?



Thanks to those who can help.

Chris Weimer

Well, there was sheol, aka grave, where all went. And there was the sky, where Yahweh dwelt, and where people like Elijah and Enoch where taken up to.

Roland

From what I understand, it was the Persians, in the form of Zoroastrianism, who brought the idea of heaven as a place of reward and hell as a place of punishment to the Mideast.

CJD

Firstly, note that even the NT has precious little to say about a place called 'heaven'. And when it does, it is hardly the wispy, ethereal, wings-and-harps business of pop culture. Indeed, as Weimer points out, all went to sheol. But I'm not sure he presupposes the two-tiered cosmogony taken for granted in ANE culture (the divine realm served as the archetypal blueprint for the created realm). YHWH's abode was not "up" as in "up there in the sky"; his place was "up" in the transcendent sense — his place was great and holy, on a higher plane. Note too that when the word heaven appears in the TNK and beyond, it most often refers to the literal sky. Finally, the 'Christian view of heaven', in its popular form from the dawn of the Middle Ages onward, was not derived from either the TNK or the NT, but from an admixture of Greekish philosophy.

Best,

CJD

Dharma

The concept of heaven and hell in what we know to be Judaism at the time was very underdeveloped in comparison to surrounding cultures.

Satan is neither Hellenic nor Zoarastrian. Many ancient traditions had a concept of the underworld and heaven...and we must remember that the middle east was one of the most 'multicutural' regions on earth.