![]() This scheme has obvious affinities with the heavenly assumptions of Enoch and Elijah (Gen. There Hercules mounts his own funeral pyre, and, while it is burning, he is assumed into heaven accompanied by a thunderclap. The second quote is from Apollodorus’s account of Hercules’ ascent into heaven. In Aeschylus’s play Eumenides, Apollo speaks at the foundation of the Athenian high court, the Areopagus, and declares that death really is the end: ‘there is no resurrection.’ That is why justice must be done. The first, about the permanence of death and the impossibility of resurrection, is drawn from Greek theatre. The three quotes at the start of this chapter illustrate just how diverse were the ancient views of the afterlife. The same sort of diversity existed in antiquity. And there are of course major variations between different branches or schools of thought in these great religions. There is a world of difference between the Orthodox Jew who believes that all the righteous will be raised to new individual bodily life in the resurrection, and the Buddhist who hopes after death to disappear like a drop in the ocean, losing his or her own identity in the great nameless and formless Beyond. There is a world of difference between the Muslim who believes that a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers goes straight to heaven, and the Hindu for whom the rigorous outworking of karma means that one must return in a different body to pursue the next stage of one’s destiny. Even a quick glance at the classic views of the major religious traditions gives the lie to the old idea that all religions are basically the same. To begin with, beliefs about death and what lies beyond come in all shapes and sorts and sizes. But what does resurrection mean? How does resurrection fit into Jewish hopes for the future? What did the apostles and evangelists mean when they told stories about Jesus coming back to life? What historical value can we give to their accounts, and how best can we present that case? And what differences might it all make for the way we think about mission, discipleship, and human flourishing? Ancient religions and the afterlife The God of Israel resurrected Jesus he did not merely revive him back to mortal existence, but transformed him into a glorious and bodily mode of existence. But it was not the end of the story: according to early Christian testimony, God raised him from the dead. Jesus was crucified no historian doubts that. For Students Pursue a deeper knowledge of God through self-paced college- and seminary-level online courses in Old and New Testament studies, theology, biblical Greek, and more. ![]() For Instructors and School Administrators Enhance your school’s traditional and online education programs by easily integrating online courses developed from the scholars and textbooks you trust.
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