Good day, good readers! I hope these days are treating you well. Recently, the daughter of a member of my Sunday School class began asking some questions about the nature of Hell, and – not knowing what my next few blog posts were going to feature – I thought it would be excellent to trace the history of such a belief. First, I’ll trace it throughout the days of ancient Israel. Next, I’ll explain how the concept of Hell arose and was disseminated in Christian dogma. Lastly, I’ll share my own, personal experience and its aftermath, an experience which I have shared with very few people in my life. But the time has come, I think, to share that story. Before we begin, however, I want to make it clear that I’m making no definitive statements on what the afterlife actually entails; rather, I’m tracing the history of what others have believed about it over the past three millennia.
Basic Background
Before we dive into the afterlife, you must first be aware of two distinct eras which scholars have defined for ancient Israel. The first is called the “Pre-Axial Age.” This is the time from undated prehistory (Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua and the like) all the way until the days of King David. The Pre-Axial Age is defined by a very worldly focus in regard to religious belief. People back then did not necessarily possess what we today call a “personal relationship with God,” though there were some exceptions like Abraham and Moses. Instead, the people saw God the way they saw kings: as distant rulers to whom they owed great honor and loyalty. They believed that if they served God in the appropriate ways, then he would reward them with health, agricultural success, large families and protection from danger. They followed rigid traditions and engaged in cultic practices like sacrifice, and they prayed often, but God was not a best friend to them; he was a king to be appeased, who would reward them for their worship.
Following the days of King David, scholars have defined what has been called the “Axial Age,” in which the people began to view God in a very different context. No longer a distant overlord to be appeased in exchange for blessings in this life, God was now a much closer and more intimate being, one who cared deeply for his people and who would bless them with greater riches like wisdom and an afterlife. While the idea of having a “personal” relationship with God was still a long way off, the Axial Age was a giant step toward that. And King David, for too many reasons to get into right now, seems to have bridged the gap – or initiated the transition – between the two ages.
The Afterlife in the Ancient World
It may be startling to hear, but there’s very little evidence that Israelites or their precursors had beliefs about the afterlife during the Pre-Axial Age. Yes, they did believe in Heaven (a concept going back to the first verse of Genesis), but it was mostly viewed as a dwelling place purely for God and his angels, not for humans. It was, essentially, like his White House. For humans, however, the only mention of an afterlife was the euphemism of “sleeping with one’s fathers” (2nd Samuel 7, 1st Kings 1). And in a Pre-Axial mindset, wherein humans want blessings from God in this life, the idea of living on in another life held little meaning or importance. You lived and you died, and that’s that.
A change came about during the time of Kings Saul and David, however, in a concept called Sheol. This strange word is used only seven times in the Pre-Axial days before King David, but another 58 times in the Axial Age after David. To explain why it’s used in the Pre-Axial days would require a lengthy discussion on how the Bible was written, so I’ll avoid that rabbit hole for now. In any case, the concept of the afterlife came to be defined in the days around Kings David and Saul as Sheol.
Sheol was not exactly what we would picture the afterlife to be like today. A vague, mysterious, shadowy realm, it was seen as the place where everyone went after death, regardless of how good or bad you were. At death, a shadowy echo of you, called a Shade, was said to depart from the body and thereafter roam around in Sheol for eternity. A few notable exceptions are Enoch and Isaiah, both of whom were taken up to Heaven without dying. Sheol is even featured prominently in the last days of King Saul (1st Samuel 28). Bothered by the death of the prophet, Samuel, and needing to know how his battle would go the following day, King Saul seeks out a woman known as the Witch of Endor (not the Endor with Jedi and ewoks, but an actual place in ancient Israel). Contrary to the Law at the time, Saul has the witch conjure Samuel’s shade up from Sheol to speak with them. After first asking why he has been disturbed, Samuel then prophesies that Saul will join him in Sheol on the following day as a punishment from God. The next day, Saul’s army is defeated by the Philistines and both he and his son, Jonathan, die in battle.
The concept of Sheol existed for a long time in Israel’s – and later Judah’s – history, and it’s interesting to note its similarity to the Greek concept of Hades, where all but the most noble of heroes are to spend eternity, not in punishment or in reward, but in general gloominess. Now with that happy thought, I’ll end our current discussion and return to you again in two weeks for the next step, in which we explore how the afterlife changed from Sheol into the divergence of Heaven and Hell.
Until next time, friends…
The Outside View 