What Happens After Life? E-Book

Matthew O'Neil

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 374

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

What happens to us when we die? It's a question that has been debated for centuries, moulded through time to fit our ever changing views.

Many religions teach that how we act in our life will determine where we will end up after life. If you follow religious teachings and adhere to their ethical standards, you will be rewarded and spend an eternity in heaven. If not, you will be punished and forced to spend forever in hell.

Modern science, however, will tell you a completely different story: fanciful, hopeful tales of an afterlife are both rationally explainable and lacking in evidence.

Theologian Matthew O'Neil demonstrates that the contemporary religious view of the afterlife is far from what our ancestors envisioned. Subjecting both original Scripture and contemporary faith to the rigours of modern science and rational philosophy, he seeks to answer one of humanities most famous puzzles: what happens After Life?

Leseprobe

After Life

Solving Science and Religion’s Great Disagreement

Matthew O’Neil

Copyright © 2016 Ockham Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the publisher.

Published by Ockham Publishing in the United Kingdom

ISBN 978-1-910780-12-1

Cover design by Armend Meha

www.ockham-publishing.com

For my father

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my wonderful wife and our children. Your continual pushing for success, flexibility with my schedule, and assistance with reading and offering feedback was so valuable to me in this process. Thank you for always being with me and loving me unconditionally.

My colleagues Dan Arel, Joshua Kelly, and JD Brucker for offering insight, providing some valuable resources, and always keeping me grounded. I appreciate your friendships, support, and jokes during both the good times and the bad.

Robert Johnson, Sarah Hembrow, David G. McAfee, and Ockham Publishing for finding value in my writing and working tirelessly to ensure excellence in my piece. I appreciate all the effort and good humor along the way.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Heaven

In the Hebrew Bible

Sheol

Heaven in the New Testament

Revelation

After the Bible

Conclusion

Chapter 2: Hell

Hebrew Bible

New Testament

Satan

After the Bible

Conclusion

Chapter 3: Resurrection

In the Hebrew Bible

New Testament

After the Bible

Conclusion

Chapter 4: Soul

In the Hebrew Bible

New Testament

Conclusion

Chapter 5: Philosophical Arguments for the Afterlife

Arguments for the Soul

A Philosophical Argument for Resurrection

Body and Mind

What Do We Want?

Conclusion

Chapter 6: The Science of the Afterlife

What Happens When We Die?

Reincarnation

The Soul

Near Death Experiences

Quantum Field Theory

What Science Says Happens When We Die

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Conclusion

Chapter 7: Facing Death as a Non-Believer

Conclusion

Epilogue

Index

Prologue

On February 4, 1998, I walked into my high school, like I would any other day, into the main lobby. As I turned the corner, making my way toward my locker, I felt a strong discomfort and tightening in my chest. I remember putting my arm up against the door frame, cursing, and then nothing. In what felt like a few seconds, I recall opening my eyes and seeing white walls and a clock. It was nearly noon, but I did not understand why the clock was so wrong, as well as why my vision was fuzzy or why I suddenly was not in school.

A woman peaked at me and I heard her cry out, "He's awake!" My mother, I realized, was standing beside me; her hand on my shoulder.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"The hospital," she said.

"Was it my diabetes or my heart?"

"Your heart."

When I was ten years old, I was diagnosed with a heart condition — hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It was discovered when the doctors noticed I had a heart murmur, and the x-ray that followed revealed I had excessive muscle tissue on the right side of my heart, making it three times larger than it would normally be. This gave me a fun bragging point in conversations, telling others I legitimately had a big heart, but did little else for me. It was a condition for which, as doctors explained, we would not know the full risks until I grew older. I had to give up sports and gym and take some bitter medicine. And suddenly, at the age of 14, we discovered what the big risk we were waiting for was.

My heart went into fibrillation that day at school; instead of beating, my heart went into a flutter, pounding at about three times the speed it should if I were in the middle of heavy exercise. And then it stopped. I was clinically dead for a period of time. I was fortunate, if such a word can be used to describe the circumstances, to have had this episode right outside of the nurse’s office. I was promptly given CPR, by both the nurse and my own father who taught at the school I attended. An ambulance arrived and they took over; using both CPR and defibrillator paddles to resuscitate me. My mother told me later that, when she arrived at the hospital, they were all outside of my room crying, thinking I had died. A lot of people thought I had died that day and, to a degree, they were correct.

The doctors opted to implant an internal pacemaker/defibrillator into my abdomen, and the device has saved my life several times since then (though I have had it replaced twice since I was 14). I am more limited in my physical activity today than I was prior to the event, but, all things considered, being limited is a better option than being completely incapable.

One of the conversations I had after I woke up was with my older brother. He had witnessed me collapsing and sent a friend to get my father. We were both fans of the TV series X-Files and he jokingly asked if I remember being out of my body and visiting strange worlds or seeing any deceased family members. We shared a good, painful laugh, but I remember thinking that I saw nothing. Darkness. It was like waking from a dreamless slumber—nothing like what those paranormal investigation shows like Unsolved Mysteries displayed. And, aside from the uneasiness of remembering nothing, and knowing full well that I had been clinically dead, I had a strong desire to attempt to pursue other means of remembering what happened. Hypnosis, dreams, lucid writing — I was convinced that I must have seen something, but like a night where someone cannot remember what their dream was, it just escaped my memory.

I never made much of an investigation into these "suppressed" memories I was so convinced I had; instead I became more of an example to my friends that we are but fragile lives that can go at any time. However, one question became incredibly important to me after this event: what was the afterlife and how can we know the truth from fiction?

My account of dying, I would say, is very distant from what has been portrayed in popular media. It would be rare to see someone on a talk show, or in a movie, who recalls dying like waking from a dreamless sleep. Instead, we find accounts like Heaven is for Real, which describes a child's visit into Heaven, meeting Jesus, John the Baptist, and some deceased relatives. Or 23 Minutes in Hell where a Protestant man is locked in a cell, encounters "beasts" that speak blasphemous languages, break his bones, tear his flesh, and then Jesus tells him to inform the world that Hell is real. Sadly, there are no books like Purgatory is for Real or A Couple Minutes in Limbo, but they might prove to be a subpar read.

These ideas and "experiences" are limited to the Abrahamic religions, or, more specifically, Christianity. There are certainly accounts by those who have experienced reincarnation, but, in our Western culture, those do not receive the same attention as the aforementioned visits to eternal paradise or punishment. In other words, one culture may have visions specific to their religion, as people in the Middle East having visions of Allah and Mohammed. However, people of the Western world will typically have visions of Jesus and other figures of the Christian faith.

What is very remarkable about these accounts is that they are not biblical accounts. They certainly contain the well-known figures; Satan, God, Jesus, John the Baptist, all those are accounted for. However, these are not the heavenly realm or place of torture as described in scripture.1 In fact, a lot of what these accounts tell us is the subject’s awareness of what the popular, contemporary idea of the afterlife is, even with points originating from the medieval era of Christendom. It is, as with most ideals perpetuated by the larger sects of these faiths, not based on the very book they claim tells them what they need to know to be good, wholesome people in this life, and what they should expect for a reward in the next. Jesus is typically white, as opposed to Middle Eastern, and will speak, if he does, in English rather than his native Aramaic.

Aside from a lack of concern for what their holy text describes, these patients’ reports are also not based on what the scientific evidence says about our bodies, consciousness, and the experiences of the mind. Our bodies, and our minds, react in certain ways under certain conditions and, when we look at the claims made by those who have had these visits to, or experiences of, the afterlife, we can explain why they experienced those things. The same can be said of paranormal visits from those beyond the grave; there is science that explains what we see, and how we feel, when we have these experiences. It does not require a holy text, a religious practice, or any amount of dogma to understand these phenomena. Instead, we have the hard, scientific evidence to show why we experience these things.

My hope is, with your choice to read this book, that I can help you understand how far we have strayed from the biblical authors’ views of the afterlife. More than that, these concepts were not even original to them, but were taken from older traditions and adapted to fit the circumstances of the groups of people, and individuals, who wrote the books of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Bible. I also hope to demonstrate that there is a rational explanation for things like feeling watched when no one is in the room with you, encounters with the deceased, and the concept of reincarnation.

It is with this that we start our journey in a comfortable spot —eternal paradise in Heaven and why the Bible says there is no such thing.

Chapter 1: Heaven

In the Hebrew Bible

Very early on in the Hebrew Bible, we see a mention of heaven. Or, to be more precise, what the authors of the Tanakh accepted as the concept of heaven. In Genesis 1:6-8 it details the creation of the "dome above the earth", in what would be the barrier between earth and the waters that eventually came and caused the flood in Genesis chapter six. In Genesis 7:11, it describes an opening in the firmament, "...and the floodgates of the heavens were opened." Similarly, in Psalm 148:4, "Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!" It has been noted, however, that this Psalm uses Genesis 1 as the example, thanks to the language used.2 In Genesis chapter one, verse eight, it states, "God called the dome 'Sky' ['Sky' derives from the Hebrew shamayim, or shama, which translates to 'heaven' or, literally, 'the high place']."3 Further along in the chapter, at verse 20, it states, "And God said, 'Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky [shamayim]."4 This passage, and in its context up to verse 23, seems to be a story to rebuke other ancient Israelite, or Semitic, religious traditions, like the MesopotamianEnuma Elish, as there are references to "the great sea monsters" in verse 21.5

Though these accounts are at the very start of the Bible, it comes from the Priestly source. In context, there are multiple sources to the authorship of Genesis, as well as the other books of the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). We are able to tell the differences based on language, the name used to refer to God (one author is named "E" for Elohist, as this author referred to God as "Elohim", another is "J" because he referred to God as YHWH [Yahweh] and, as this concept was developed in Germany, YHWH is spelled with a "J" rather than a "Y").6 This theory for the authorship also helps us explain why there are two creation stories (Genesis 1 and Genesis 3) and two flood stories (Genesis 6-9), why Abraham told others his wife is his sister (Genesis 12, 20, and 26), and why there are two accounts for Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert (Genesis 16 and 21). The priestly account is the latest addition to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Tanakh, dating to the end of the exile in Babylon in the sixth century BCE.7

What becomes strikingly obvious, while reading through the Hebrew Bible, is that heaven, or the heavens, were a realm where only God existed. In Psalm 14:2 it reads, "The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind..." Psalm 8:3-4 even questions why God would consider the human race to be worthy of his care, let alone why they would be dominant over all creation: "When I look at your heavens...what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"8 These passages seem to indicate that, not only is heaven a realm that only God occupies, but it is any wonder that God would show any concern with humanity.9 In fact, the only explicit mention of any human being brought into heaven was Elijah, at 2 Kings 2:11.10 This was to emphasize Elijah's importance to the Jewish faith – that he could be inducted into the heavenly sphere where no other soul was permitted. Even the phrase, in verse twelve, "[t]he chariots of Israel and its horsemen" implies power that equated a full cavalry.11 A further example of the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures emphasizing this is found in Malachi 4:5-6.

If we are to take the writings of Josephus into account, Josephus being a late first-century Jewish-Roman historian, later sects of Judaism, specifically the Sadducees, believed in realized eschatology. That meant, in essence, the end of the age was not coming but had already happened or was in progress. More than that, they believed that the soul dissipated at death. For YHWH, the Israelite God, was the God of the living, according to the Sadducees. And, more interestingly, scripture had no assurance of the continuation of the soul after death.12 Why would YHWH be concerned with the souls of the deceased?

Despite the fact that Jews clearly felt that heaven was only reserved for God, there are still clear ideas of what heaven looked like. In the book of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48, it relates the idea of heaven by describing it as a new Jerusalem. This is keeping in mind that Ezekiel wrote during the exile in Babylon during the sixth century BCE – a time when most of the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible, the Nevi'im, was written. As the Temple of Jerusalem housed the Ark of the Covenant, which was believed to contain the Ten Commandments and in some instances the staff of Aaron, Moses' brother, and some manna, it was believed to represent the presence of God. As such, the heavens, God's dwelling place, was depicted in Hebrew scripture to resemble not only Jerusalem, but a New Jerusalem. This is also combined with images of Eden, in Ezekiel's narrative, to create what Judaism would view as the most pristine residence for their God, YHWH. Although it emulated the image of the Jerusalem Temple, it is strange that, in heaven, the concept of sacrifice – the main practice of the temple on earth – is gone. The only accounts of sacrifice in the "new Jerusalem" are in Revelation and 3 Baruch – two books far removed from the date of the written Hebrew scriptures. Even Daniel, the very latest book, was added in the second century BCE.13

Aside from heaven being a dome above the earth, and God's dwelling place, it was not assigned much more significance than that in regards to celestial spheres or the afterlife. And the earliest accounts of biblical belief seem to imply that there was no existence after death.14 Later traditions, like those found in 1 Kings 8:27, felt that the heavens could not contain God; as the faith developed, so did the view that God was far more transcendent than previous generations held. Though prior generations held that God's dwelling place on earth was the Jerusalem Temple, the author of 1 Kings emphasizes that God does not live in the temple, but, instead, in heaven where he receives the prayers of those in the Temple.15 Heaven as the final resting place for the followers of YHWH, as a matter of fact, is not found anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. Instead, as developed by later tradition thanks to the Hellenization of the Jews, we find the deceased descending into the earth. They found an afterlife in the pit known as Sheol.16

Sheol

Many people in the ancient world, the one occupied by the Israelites and others, held the belief that there was a three layer level to the physical and spiritual world. Humans resided in the earthly realm, God was located in the area above the heavens in the celestial sphere, and the dead lived in the netherworld.17 Such a view is reflected in Genesis 42:38, with Jacob and Reuben, "If harm should befall [my son] on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my grey hair down to Sheol in sorrow." This also mirrors Genesis 37:35, "No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning." And Numbers 16:30-33 reads, "So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol..."18 The Hebrew Bible, as it appears, does not have a view of separation, at least at this stage, for separate realms of the land beyond for the righteous and wicked.19 Throughout the Hebrew Bible, there are three different names synonymous with Sheol: Abbadon, which means "ruin" or "destruction,” is used four times through all of Hebrew scripture in Psalm 88:11, Job 26:6, Job 28:22, and Proverbs 15:11. Bor, meaning "the pit," is seen in Isaiah 14:15, 24:22, and Ezekiel 26:20. And shakhat, Hebrew for "corruption," is used in Isaiah 38:17. It should be noted that, in most English translations, there is rarely a distinction made between bor and shakhat, suggesting that there is similarity in the meaning of the two words.20

Life in Sheol appeared rather dark and gloomy, if we look at the Hebrew Scriptures for perspective. Psalm 88:3-12 reads, "I am counted among those that go down to the pit [Sheol]; I am like one without strength...You have put me in the lowest pit, the darkest depths..." Of all the Psalms, this one is the darkest, but it also provides us with the clearest images of Sheol – beyond the care of God, darkness, forgetfulness, and silence from God when begged for help.21 Isaiah 38:18 reads similarly, "For Sheol cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the Pit [Sheol] cannot hope for your faithfulness." And, more explicitly, in Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going." This is included in a passage that also states, "...the same fate comes to everyone...The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost." The Book of Daniel says Sheol is a land of dust (12:2), and Job says it is one of disorder (10:22), it is below the sea (26:5) and without light (10:21). While these perspectives share some similarities, they also have some markedly differing perspectives on the view of the dead and the afterlife.

Sheol was not an idea that was original to the Jewish faith. Judaism took the idea, of a common dwelling for the dead, from Greco-Roman beliefs. It certainly was not the first concept that Judaism took from them, much like how the concept of the Garden of Eden parallels the golden age of Saturn, and it certainly would not be the last.22 If we read the HomericHymn to Demeter,23 one of several collections of Homeric Hymns written in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE,24 we see a shared idea between this piece, at line 16 and in the aforementioned Numbers 16, "And the roads, leading up every which way, opened up under her." The following line makes mention of the abode of Hades, in this circumstance Hades is the god of the underworld rather than the actual name of the location, being the final destination to "many". However, at line 347, Hades is referred to as "King of the dead!" Even in this hymn, the domain of Hades is referred to as "the realms of dark mist underneath," which is reciprocated in the Book of Job 10:21-22, "...before I go, never to return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness, the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness." This section is prefaced by a thought that comes from other ancient Near-Eastern sports: comparing Yahweh to a king and himself to a lion as, in royal sports, a king would hunt ferocious beasts.25 So, as the concepts of the afterlife are not native to the Israelite faith, neither are the metaphors that the characters in the stories use.

As the concept of the afterlife developed, Sheol happened to turn into a depressing concept – even going so far as to say that the dead existed, not only without strength, but without consciousness, either.26 This does not mean it was a place of punishment; on the contrary, being in Sheol was amoral. Though it was believed to be beyond the care of Yahweh, it was similar to the Greek view of Hades, the underworld in the Iliad and the Odyssey: people who were there were neither good nor bad.27 In an Israelite mock-dirge used in Isaiah 14:4-21, a story is told of a king that tyrannized his vassals and ended up in Sheol, covered in mud and worms.28 Job 3:11-19 even says, "Why did I not die at birth...I would be asleep, then I would be at rest with kings and counselors of the earth...There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest...The small and the great are there, and the slaves are free from their masters." What is interesting to note, as before, is that there are other ancient Near Eastern beliefs embedded into this section. When the authors write about Leviathan, the sea monster, in verse eight, there are parallels between Leviathan and Tiamat, from Mesopotamia. Lotan and Yamm from the Ugaritic faith would also be examples of similar myths.29 Once again, these concepts are almost copied and pasted from other ancient beliefs that developed in the same region.

Sheol also appears to model itself after the Babylonian place of the dead, Aralu. Babylonians believed Aralu to be located below the earth, as the Israelites believed Sheol to be, and we can see that in the aforementioned passages. Aralu was also believed to be a cavern, the word to which Sheol translates in English, with gates at the entrance, similar to what Job 16:16 and 38:17 describes, "Will we go down to the gates of death...Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?".30 The Babylonians' view of Aralu and the gates is seen in a poem describing Ishtar's descent into Aralu,

To the house whence those who enter do not return,

To the road from which there is no path leading back,

To the house in which those who enter have no light,

Where dust is their nourishment, clay is their food.

They do not see light, they dwell in darkness...

On door and lock dust has settled.31

Babylonians also believed Aralu was a land of no return, like Job 7:9 repeats, "...one who goes down to the grave does not return." And, similarly to the ideas reflected in Psalm 88, as well as Isaiah 14:9-10, life in Aralu was full of weakness and silence, to the point where the dead could not even praise their deity.32 Given what we have explored already with some of these books from the Hebrew Bible, it should come as no surprise to find these parallels.

Mesopotamians held that a goddess, Ereshkigal, ruled the underworld, called Cutha. Also associated with the Mesopotamians is the "land of no return", or kurnugia, the description of which seems to match the one of Sheol in Job 10:20-21.33 In Mesopotamian myth, there is a recollection of a visit to the heavenly realm of the gods but, similar to the idea of Sheol in the Hebrew Bible, it is a realm strictly for the gods. The story of Adapa, a Semitic Dante, if you will, that was written in the 14th century BCE,34 is a narrative from a first-person perspective about a mortal man ascending into the heavens and convincing the god Anu of his merits. Adapa is offered food and drink, which would give him immortality, but he declines. That is what curses humanity, according to the story, to a mortal life. Regardless, this story and others, including an epic about the King of Kish, Etana, and the Descent of Inanna, all describe a visit to, and acknowledgement of, the land of the dead: the underworld.35 And, much like the belief in Sheol, the underworld, according to the Epic of Gilgamesh, is "the house wherein the dwellers are bereft of light, where dust is their fare and clay their food."36 This is almost a direct parallel to the end of Job 10.

Canaanites, the group of people who inhabited Israel prior to the Israelites, held a very interesting belief. Though it should be noted, the Israelites may have been a group of people that were once Canaanites.37 It is interesting because it is a belief that is almost completely mirrored by the Israelite faith. Their belief was that, after death, the soul, or nps meaning "soul" or "spirit" (nefesh in Hebrew), went to the kingdom of Mot (Hebrew mavet), who was also called "Death".38 The Israelites believed that, once a person was dead, they were cut off from Yahweh's presence by entering the underworld. This belief may have stemmed from an exilic, or even post-exilic, tradition that, while on foreign soil (Babylon in the case of the exile), the Israelites could not sing God's praises.39 As in the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus, a book of the apocrypha), 17:28, "From the dead, as from one who does not exist, thanksgiving has ceased; those who are alive and well sing the Lord's praises." A similar concept is found in several passages in the Hebrew Bible, including Pslam 6:5, 30:9, 88:10-12, 115:17-18, Isaiah 38:18, and Baruch (another apocryphal text) 2:17. For the author of Sirach, this may indicate a level of urgency for the reader, or those in the church to which the book is read, to repent. Lack of an afterlife may also be why the author of the Wisdom of Solomon felt it was necessary to lead a good life; if there is no afterlife, the only chance you get to welcome God's good graces was in this mortal life.40 The inability to praise Yahweh, or the ability to do it only while alive, may also explain the practice of burying the dead, as it was an act to block the view of the celestial god, or gods, and brought the dead into contact with the lowest dominion.41 So, the dead answered to, or worshipped, the infernal gods of the underworld, and Death himself: Mot.

Now, it is not only the Canaanite faith from which Mot is derived; Mot is also present in the Ugaritic belief of the afterlife. Mot is, to be more precise, a Semitic deity that personified death. The Semitic people are a large collection of groups of communities in southwestern Asia – they include, but are not limited to, the Hebrews, Canaanites, Arabs, Akkadians, and Phoenicians.42 So, being that the Canaanites, Hebrews, and the people of Ugarit (which is now an area of northern Syria), were all Semitic people, it makes sense that there is overlap in beliefs, not just inclusive of deities and the afterlife.

Mot is also found in the Book of Job 18:13, where it reads, "By disease their limbs are consumed, the firstborn of Mot consumes their limbs." There is no surviving text of "the firstborn of Mot" in any ancient Near Eastern works, but Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld in Mesopotamian mythology, had a firstborn named Namtar, who was the god of plagues.43 Even in Habakkuk 2:5, "They open their throats as wide as Sheol; like Mot they never have enough." In Ugaritic sources, Mot is the son of 'El (meaning "god"); the Israelite god Yahweh is referred to as "'El" numerous times in Hebrew scripture, like in 2 Samuel 22:31, 33-48, Genesis 14:18-20, and Psalm 89:6. Mot was also an adversary to the rain god Baal, as Mot, at least in Canaanite myth, was a deity that not only ruled the underworld, but represented all that was in opposition to life. In this case, Mot was also a god of drought. Canaanites lived in an area that had no rivers or streams, and so they had to pray to Baal for rainfall to provide healthy crops and water for livestock. It is because of this, that in the Hebrew Bible, we find the story of Elijah who battles with the prophets of Baal at 1 Kings 18. This is actually a story taken from Canaanite myth; Baal and Mot are in a battle to see who is the more powerful deity as God is battling with the prophets of Baal to prove his superiority. There is a drought, which in Canaanite myth is the work of Mot, but Yahweh takes the blame for it in the Hebrew Bible. In verse 24, Yahweh is associated with fire and lightning, as is seen in Exodus 19 and Leviticus 9:24, both of which were connected to the god Baal.44 In Elijah's case, God consumes the sacrifice offered to him with fire, and then replenishes the land with water. The job of two gods was done by the monotheistic, or henotheistic (many gods acknowledged, only one worshipped), God of Israel.45

As bleak as the Israelites, and other Semitic cultures, viewed the afterlife, there was an upside. Judaism taught that, even though people may be sent to a land where there is nothing but darkness, doom, and gloom, they were still reunited with their ancestors. We see examples of this in Genesis 25:8, "Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people." The author(s) of 1 Kings 11:43 wrote that "[King] Solomon slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his father David..." Also buried in David's citadel (1 Kings 2:10) were Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:31), who was Solomon's son, Asa (1 Kings 15:24) the grandson of Rehoboam, Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:51) the son of Asa, and so on. The belief was that being buried in your family grave reconnected you to the society of your ancestors who had passed on before you. It was not, necessarily, a belief that a physical life ended and a spiritual one began, but that a continued existence happened in another realm.46

Ancestral praise and cults of the dead existed prior to, and outside of, Judaism as well. Mesopotamian myth dictated that a spiritual caretaker, paqidu, would watch after the ghost, etemmu, of the deceased. This position entailed funerary offerings, which are replicated in Judaism, and many of the traits affiliated with the Israelite practice of necromancy are reciprocated in Mesopotamian faith. Such things are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Descent of Ishtar.47The people of Ugarit went even further; they constructed pipes that went into the tombs of the deceased so they could provide them with water. We have found evidence of this in archaeological digs and excavations, like the one at Ras Shamra. Blessings were also sought for their king from the dead, as seen in Ugaritic funerary text KTU 1.161. In context, it appears one king, Niqmaddu IV, was recently deceased, and they were also requesting blessings for the newly enthroned king, Ammurapi.48 Even the Canaanites, as can be seen from excavations in the city of Gezer, which was one of the most important cities to them as a people, revered the dead and developed a custom of serving their ancestors food. Egyptians, as well, have funerary art that depicts the departed at banquet tables with food that was given to them by their living family members.49 An example of this can be seen in images like the Stele of Chaywet, which dates somewhere between 2500-2000 BCE and is currently on display in the Seattle Art Museum.50 In the carving is the image of a man and all the food he is buried with to provide him sustenance in the next life.

In antiquity, it was viewed that, if the dead were left regular offerings of food that they enjoyed in life, they would be happy and offer blessings to the family to provide the best fate. However, if the living relatives neglected the offerings, or if the offerings were interrupted, then the deceased became angry and would not offer blessings. In later beliefs, when Sheol became a layered afterlife (more on this soon), if a family member continued to not receive venerations, they would go to the lowest levels of the underworld and, eventually, became an infernal god. It was even believed they would commit harmful acts or place curses on the family; the lives of the living would, in essence, be harmed in a dramatic way.51

Similarly, the living very much depended on the dead, as well as depending on their god, for success and happiness in life. Being that they lived between the two worlds, the living had to appease both Yahweh and their ancestors for prosperity. Funerary offerings of food placed near the tomb, or perhaps wine spilled out for the dead, were given with the intent to keep the dead happy and generous in their blessings. We can see such examples in Deuteronomy 26:14, "I have not eaten of it while in mourning; I have not removed any of it while unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead." This assumes a responsibility of the living to care for the dead, which can also be found in the Ugaritic Aqhat epic.52

Similar sentiments are shared in Hosea 9:4 and Jeremiah 16:6-7. And in Psalm 106:28, "Then they attached themselves to the Baal [god] of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead." The latter of the two passages is somewhat ambiguous, and perhaps implies there is some form of idol worship in the Canaanite faith, but it is a retelling of funerary offerings that were, if not practiced, at least familiar to the Israelites.53 Ben Sirach, in The Book of Sirach, also belittles the practice; 30:18 reads, "Good things poured out upon a mouth that is closed are like offerings of food placed upon a grave." Sirach equated the practice, in subsequent verses, to idol worship, as is also told in the "Bel and the Dragon" story in the Apocrypha.54

While there is physical, archaeological evidence to back this up, it is difficult to determine for a number of reasons. The primary being that food is perishable and evidence of it is difficult to find at burial sites. Secondly, even in instances where it is plausible that there are remnants of food, it is difficult to tell from which section of the Semitic world the corpse originated or what faith the person may have practiced.55 Not to derail the idea, but we need to make the honest statement about beliefs and practices in ancient Judaism to get a clear picture.

Canaanites and Israelites, despite the fact that it is difficult to confirm one hundred percent that we have archaeological finds to support the idea of funerary offerings, had places of cultic worship referred to as bamot, which means "high place". We have archaeological evidence of such high places, like in Tel Gezer, where Canaanites are believed to have practiced cultic worship and child sacrifice.56 We can see examples of this in the Hebrew Bible in 1 Kings 14:23, "They also set up for themselves high places [bamot], sacred stones, and Asherah poles on every hill and under every spreading tree."

It makes sense that Asherah was used in this passage, as she was a fertility goddess and the "pillars" mentioned were phallus shaped and were used in fertility rituals.57 The prophet Hosea (4:1-19) actually condemned the practice of communing with the dead, as he felt it constituted Baal-worship and was a part of a smaller sect of Judaism that was viewed as heresy, or, at least, apostate Judaism. And, as the belief changed from generation to generation, the practice became synonymous with being an apostate in the seventh and sixth generation BCE.58

One of the better examples, at least of necromancy, in the Hebrew Bible is the example of Saul, the king of Israel before David, wishing to speak to the deceased prophet Samuel. In 1 Samuel 28:7-25, "Saul said to his servants, 'Seek out for me a woman who is a medium [baalat eishet ob]...'" And Saul's servants say they know of a woman medium in Endor, so they go to find her. When they do, Saul tells her to bring up Samuel, and that is exactly who appears. Samuel is then able to relay to Saul that Yahweh has given Israel to David and that Saul, and his sons, will "join" him the following day – essentially letting him know that his time on earth was up. Though this is the only story to support the idea of an actual practice of necromancy in the Hebrew Bible, the popularity of the practice can be seen in the numerous accounts that chastise and denounce the practice from the eighth to the sixth century. We see these in places like Leviticus 19:31, "Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 20:6, "I will set my face against anyone who turns to mediums...I will cut them off from their people." Deuteronomy 18:10-14, "No one shall be found among you...who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead." Isaiah 8:9-10 reads similarly. In short, we can know that necromancy was practiced; it was popular because of how frequently it is criticized, and banned from being practiced in Hebrew scriptures.

Even Saul is heavily criticized by the seventh century editor of the books of Samuel.59 Scholarship writes that, right in the middle of the necromancy scene, in verses 3 through 19, we have an insertion by a Deuteronomic author – or one that either worked on, or was a member of the group that is responsible for, the Book of Deuteronomy. This is because of the language used, specifically at 28:7, "Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her." This is believed to be an insertion by the Deuteronomic author to give reason for the prohibition of necromancy; that is because the language used for "inquire", daras, is the same used in Deuteronomy, as opposed to the Levitical phrasing pana, meaning "turn[ing] unto" necromancers.

In spite of that, the story itself gives heavy indication for the reader to infer that the request, and the action, is problematic for Saul. Even when approaching the woman to summon Samuel, she says to him, "Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?" And, it can be argued, after Samuel tells Saul that he and his sons will "join" him the following day, that Saul had sealed his fate by seeking a necromancer and communing with the dead.60 Perhaps because calling on the dead was done, more frequently, by people in higher positions of power during rough political or economic circumstances,61 calling on the dead was viewed as a private matter, done for personal gain. However, calling on God was a communal action; it was something done to benefit the people of a group, or tribe, rather than an individual.62 It should be noted that, while the laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy do not completely ban the practice, they do say that it is, in so many words, inappropriate.63

Just prior to the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, in the eighth and seventh century BCE, a new religious sect surfaced that was called the "Yahweh Alone" movement. This group, breaking away from traditional religious norms both in pagan and the Jewish faiths, sought to ensure that only one god was recognized. This meant no acknowledgement of other deities from other cultures, no concept of worshipping Mot, the god of the dead, in the afterlife, and, in fact, no veneration of the dead either. Rather than henotheism, this was a true breaking away from the traditions of early Judaism into monotheism.64 This did not help to create a more blissful afterlife, but, instead, it meant completely distancing oneself from the deceased. Despite the fact that this movement sought to eradicate the worship and acknowledgement of other deities, believers still insisted that, in Sheol, people continue to worship Yahweh.65 A rather depressing view: worship a deity from which you are completely removed and who cannot hear you. Considering the numerous Psalms that dictate that Sheol keeps the dead from being able to contact the living and God (6:5, 30:8-10, 88:3-12) and the five centuries it was written during, including time in the period of exile, it appears to insinuate an almost total separation from the Israelite God.66

The Yahweh Alone movement also banned necromancy; the ability to commune with the dead. Aside from feeling it was acknowledging others the way Yahweh should be acknowledged, necromancy was also viewed as a magical deviation and it threatened national interests, as worshipping and calling on Yahweh was a communal, political action. As such, worshipping Yahweh was something that took priority over worshipping, or communicating with, the dead.67 We can see the condemnation of necromancy, along with child sacrifice and magic, in Deuteronomy 18:11, and Leviticus 20:27, "A man or a woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death." Even the prophets attempted to end the practice, as Isaiah writes (26:14) "They are dead, they can never live. Rephaim [the inhabitants of Sheol], they can never rise." Psalm 88:10, Job 26:5-6, and Proverbs 9:18, 21:16 all reciprocate this idea of the dead being unable to help the living.68 As such, the living should cease in their attempts to commune with the dead.

Towards the end of the eighth century BCE, the Assyrians laid siege to the northern kingdom of Jerusalem, in Samaria. When this occurred, it gave a clear opportunity for those espousing the views of the Yahweh Alone movement to voice their beliefs. Most notably, those who held strongly to these views taught others that the Assyrians were successful because the Israelites did not worship Yahweh as the one true God. And, if the Book of Job did not emphasize it enough, this was because both punishment and reward were viewed as being given in a persons, or community's, mortal life.69

In Job 4:6-9, Job's friend Eliphaz tells him that, in spite of Job's worship of Yahweh and following of his rules, he must have done something wrong. "It's been my experience that those who plow the soil of iniquity and those who sow the seed of trouble will reap their harvest...they are consumed by the storm that is [God's] anger." Also, in Proverbs 11:31, "If the righteous are repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!" Likewise, because the Yahweh Alonists held such a view, clearly the punishment of the siege by the Assyrians was because of the Israelites' failing to worship Yahweh as the one, true God. But then, thanks to King Josiah in 623 BCE, Yahweh was declared the one true God of Israel and, thanks to this declaration that solidified a national acceptance of the Yahweh Alone movement, the Israelites stopped defining themselves in relation to their ancestors. Instead, they were then defined solely in relation to their God.70

At the end of the eighth century, and into the sixth, things shifted that called for a necessary change of beliefs for the Jews. Aside from the siege by the Assyrians, the Babylonians came and exiled the Israelites from their land. These events then created a concern: if Sheol was a land where everyone ended up after death, how could these cultures, these tribes of Babylon