Board index ‹ Heaven and Hell

[Kylo Ren]

Did David believe that God saves those who trust in Him just from bodily death or did he believe that God saves those from eternal death and sent them to Heaven? It seems that in the Psalms David always says that God will allow those to stay away from sin to prosper and will live a long life but never from eternal death. Did the Israelites believe in an afterlife? I don’t see much mention of one in the Torah or any book prior to Psalms. Thanks for any help!

[jimwalton]

In the ancient Near East, their hope for the future was tied to peace and prosperity in the next generation. The aim of every family was to perpetuate itself and live in peace. In the Bible (Old Testament), there is little information to guide us. All people (godly and ungodly) went down to the grave (Sheol): a place of death and decay, and yet also of continuing existence on some level (A shadowy, gloomy existence). It was a place of neither reward or punishment, but such of post-death subsistance. Most hoped and prayed that their "life" in sheol would be peaceful (Job 3.20-22). The Israelite writers of the Bible express a hope that something better is coming.*

There is no praise of God in sheol (Ps. 6.5; 115.17). Though God is there (Ps. 139), it is not a place where his presence dwells in any significant way (Ps. 88.5, 10-12; cf. Isa. 38.18). The Israelites had no hope of Heaven and no fear of Hell—just Sheol, a place of negation outside of the ordered world of life. They did hope in a resurrection, however, that after a period of being dead they would be raised to new life (Isa. 26.19; Dan. 12.1-2). It was a murky, mysterious kind of hope, though, with no particular or specific concept of personal resurrection.


* Hints that Israel hoped for something better:
1. Seeing God's face (Ps. 63.2; 27.4)
2. Redemption from sheol (Ps. 16.9-11)
3. Being received by God (Ps. 49.15)