Resurrection from the Dead (2 of 4): Old Testament

The following is part 3 of an intended 4 part series (now longer) which reflects on the resurrection of Jesus. It is, at times, highly technical which is due to the fact that it comes from a three-hour lecture that I gave for a class on the Historical Jesus at Tyndale University College in 2004.

“Christianity was born into a world where one of its central tenets, the resurrection of the dead, was widely recognized as false— except, of course, by Judaism.” --N.T. Wright

We must see the early Christian belief in resurrection not as a strange foreign import coming out of nowhere, but as a re-expression (a mutation) of the ancient Israelite worldview, under new and different circumstances.

To begin with it must be emphasized that: in the OT, ‘the afterlife’, as we would call it, never played a central role. For them, what was important was this life. Like the God of the creation story, they looked at the world and saw that it was very good. In one sense, early in the OT, death is the finale of life— so that at death a person simply returns to the dust.

As time passed and the theology of dying and afterlife evolved within Israel’s history we see that death, though it is the absolute end of this ‘present existence’, after one dies existence continues— at death the person descends to Sheol, a term that became synonymous with death itself.

Sheol, like Hades of the Greeks, was the land of the dead, the final dumping-ground: ideas of oblivion, darkness, the grave, the pit are what Sheol was all about. G.B. Caird says “Its inhabitants were shades, wraiths, pale photocopies relegated to the subterranean filing cabinet.”

Later the Psalms began to interact with both ideas: Sheol on the one hand and not being abandon to death on the other. And from this point in Israel’s history the theology of resurrection began to flourish bit by bit. We can see its progression into the prophets...

The Prophets:

Ezekiel 37

Ezekiel 37 is probably the most famous resurrection passage in the OT. It is clearly metaphorical and speaks of Israel, once again, in her state of exile. Ezekiel is speaking within the Babylonian exile.

Of all the unclean things that a Jew might encounter in life, corpses and unburied bones would top off the list, and this is the state, Ezekiel says, to which Israel has been reduced. But God will deal with this in a great act of new creation. In Ezekiel 37 Ezekiel sees a valley filled with dry bones, and God says that he will “cause breath” to enter them “that they may come to life” (5), and he will restore their skin etc…

Then in the visions explanation, Israel says “Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off” (11). God says “I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves…and I will cause you to come into the land of Israel…and I will put my Spirit within you” (12). So what we have is a highly charged metaphor of the way in which unclean Israel would be cleansed, exiled Israel would be restored and scattered Israel re-gathered, by a powerful and covenant-renewing act of re-establishment.

Daniel 12.3-4

The most clear passage dealing with the topic is Daniel 12.2-3. This is the passage that is most concrete when it comes, not to metaphorical language (which you would expect from Daniel above all others), but in its presentation of a concrete, bodily resurrection. The discussion of ‘sleeping’ is obviously synonymous with death itself and ‘dust’ (in Biblical terms) is the destination of the dead.

So, the “wise” are presently “asleep”, and will “wake up” at some point in the future. That is when they will “shine like the stars”. The righteous will be vindicated and that vindication will not be a literal twinkling in the sky, but these people are here expressed as leaders and rulers in God’s new creation. The imagery here suggests an idea of royalty: it is kings who are spoken of as stars or celestial beings in the OT (see Num.24, 1 Sam. 29, Isaiah 9). These are God-given rulers who are to provide light to the world as the stars did so in Genesis 1 (for this idea see Rev.12.2; where the people of God are seen as stars on the crown the women is wearing).

And so, the righteous will not so much be transformed into beings of light, as set in authority over the world. Daniel 12, adds to the sense then that the resurrection is not simply a resuscitation in which the dead will return to life the same as it was before. But it is the reality of being raised to a state of glory in the world, for which the best parallel is the status of stars, moon and sun within the created order.

As we know, the context of Daniel is a world of great persecution by Babylon and by extension, by Antiochus Epiphanes during the time of the Maccabees. Daniel 12 is a specific promise that Israel’s God will reverse the actions of the wicked pagans, and raise the martyrs and those teachers, who kept Israel on course, during a turbulent time, to a glorious life. At the same time, God will raise her persecutors to a new existence: instead of remaining in the obscurity of Sheol or “the dust” they will face perpetual scorn and “everlasting contempt” (3).

Conclusion

What all of these texts refer to then, is the common hope of Israel: that YHWH would restore her fortunes at last, liberate her from pagan oppression and resettle her, even if it took a great act of new creation to accomplish it.

What is crucial to understand at this point is that resurrection in the OT focuses itself not on the resurrection of an individual, but on the resurrection of the corporate people of Israel, and more precisely the returning of that people from exile: being restored to life after experiencing death.
What is imperative at this point is that: The OT does not focus itself or teach about the resurrection of only individuals. Resurrection is spoken of as relating to Israel, the nation, the people- together, and their hope in the future. Resurrection is an eschatological hope. It is an event that will end Israel’s exile once and for all (which is the direct result of sin) an event that will end ‘the present age’ and thus usher in ‘the age to come’. Resurrection is an eschatological )end-time) hope for the nation as a whole.

In these passages we see resurrection move from being a metaphor, a way of investing this promised restoration event with its full theological significance, to a concrete hope.
So, the nation of Israel has got word from their prophets that God will “take care” of their exile by raising them from the dead. And the OT leaves them in that hope: awaiting the great day, when God, like in the days of the Exodus came to them and did a great act of liberation—suspending the laws of gravity to part the sea. They believed that He would one day reverse the greatest natural law: the law of death and in that act, they as a people would again be set free. That is the great hope of resurrection.