On this Easter Sunday, I thought it appropriate to explore the history and meaning behind the ideas of resurrection and heaven. In modern Christianity, a widespread belief is that the reward for a good life on earth (which can be defined depending on one’s perspective as living morally, having faith in God, or believing in Jesus) is an eternal life in heaven after death.

Does it surprise you that our concepts of heaven and hell as places of reward or punishment where we spend eternity after death are not present in the Bible?

As Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright explains in an interview with Time (click here for the article), these concepts developed over a period of centuries and did not fully take shape until Dante (1265-1321) who vividly described Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell in his Divine Comedy.  In the Bible, heaven is the abode of God and certain select prophets (Enoch, Elijah, Jesus) but not us. So how did our ideas come to be?

In ancient Judaism, the concept of an afterlife did not exist. Humans did not have an immortal soul that survived the body (this concept was later incorporated into the religion from Plato). Instead, like the ancient Sumerians and Canaanites (much older civilizations than the Israelites) who influenced them, the Hebrew people believed that the dead went to a dark, shadowy underworld like the Greek Hades. They called this place “Sheol,” a term used 66 times in the Old Testament.

Because there is no possibility of a beatific afterlife, the Old Testament teaches that the rewards for living a good life are its own rewards. In Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 we read, “For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They have the same breath...All go to one place; all are from dust, and all turn to dust again...So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot.”

In the last writings of the Old Testament, however, we begin to see an evolution from the dust-to-dust view of death to the new concept of resurrection. This concept appears in the Book of Daniel, written 168-165 BCE. How and why does this concept appear?

The ancient Hebrews lived for two centuries under Persian rule (539-333 BCE) after the Persian armies freed them from Babylonian exile. The Persian religion known as Zoroastrianism taught that history would eventually come to an end when the righteous would be judged by the supreme God Lord Mazda who would send his Holy Spirit to the world. At the End Times a resurrection of the dead would occur: “The dead will rise in their lifeless bodies.” (Yasna 54)

It is only after living under Persian Rule for two centuries that this same idea of a resurrection at the end of history appears in Jewish writings. During the second century (BCE) Maccabean war, many Jews were martyred for their beliefs and religious practices. During this period of turmoil, the Book of Daniel was composed. The problem with martyrdom was that the traditional benefits of living according to Jewish law (old age, children, a good life) no longer applied. So why should one give up their life for the religion?

This problem is overcome for the first time in Daniel which prophesies an End Times during which the martyrs will be resurrected in their bodies and return to life on Earth. It appears that the Hebrews in this time of persecution adapted the Persian idea of resurrection to fit their own situation. Not everyone is resurrected – only the martyrs (and some evil people who will be resurrected and then punished). Resurrection becomes a means by which divine justice is served. The loyal and faithful who give up their lives will be rewarded even though they have died prematurely.

Jesus and his first-century followers (all Jews) lived in this context. John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul each taught that the End Times were near – in fact, it would occur while some of those who heard them preach were still alive. When Jesus was martyred, reports of his resurrection would have been taken as an important sign that the apocalyptic age was at hand. (My next post will address Jesus’ resurrection in detail).

Also during this time, the Jewish revolt against the Romans was brutally repressed, the Temple was destroyed, and many early Christians were being martyred for their beliefs. Just as was the case with the Book of Daniel, the authors of the early Christian texts were dealing with a strong sense of injustice.

In the Christian view of the End Times (the Book of Revelation), Jesus will return to Earth, the dead will be resurrected (the concept borrowed from the Persians by the Jews and then adapted again by the early Christians), and a new Kingdom of Heaven (a New Jerusalem to replace the one that has just been destroyed by the Romans) will be established on Earth. There is nothing in this vision about going to heaven when we die.

However, the End Times did not come as expected. Centuries passed; all of those who had witnessed Jesus as well as many generations following them died, and yet the world did not end. As the Platonic idea of the soul begins to be incorporated into Christianity as it does in Judaism, the idea of eternal life of the immortal soul begins to develop (using imagery from the Bible) and fully takes shape in the Middle Ages in the writings of Dante.

Just as the promise of resurrection in an immanent End Times would be a powerful motivation to martyrs during the age of Daniel and Revelation, the promise of eternal life in an Eden-like Heaven as opposed to a fiery damnation in Hell would have served well the Church’s purposes of growing and controlling its congregations.

Next time: Jesus and the meaning of the Resurrection.