OT
Development of Faith in Resurrection
In verse 19 of these week's
study, we read: "But your dead shall live, their corpses shall
rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust. For your dew
is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth." This
is one of several places in the OT Bible where resurrection
of the dead is clearly expressed.
We know that the doctrine
of resurrection is central to the Christian faith. But what
place does this belief hold in the OT tradition?
And how does this verse from Isaiah fit into this tradition?
This article will attempt a review of these questions, and look
at the stages of development of belief in resurrection in the OT.
As we grapple with the question
of what the OT believed and when, it's important to note
that the resurrection of the dead can be conceived in two ways.
The first is to see the bringing back of a corpse to life
as we now know life. This involves people who were considered dead
and were wondrously brought back to the life they had just had.
In the OT, this kind of resurrection a can be found
in the stories of Elijah (1Kg 17:17-24) and Elisha (2Kg 4:18-37;
13:20f). The events in which Jesus raised the son of the widow
of Nain (Lk 17:11-17), the official's daughter (Mk 5:22-42), and
Lazarus (Jn 11:1-44) fall into this category.
The other way to view resurrection
is: the conferring upon the deceased of a completely new and permanent
form of life. This is the resurrection which is truly the
object of biblical belief leading from the OT to NT.
And this is the understanding that concerns us.
This earliest text to speak
of resurrection of the body is from the prophet Isaiah (Is
26:19) who lived in the early 8th century BC. Another is from
Ezekiel whose prophesy is set between 593 BC and 571. Ezekiel
37:1-14 uses the image of bones reuniting with sinew and flesh to
refer to the restoration of Israel from exile: "Thus says the
Lord my God: I will open your graves and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know
that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from
them, O my people" (12-13).
There is no evidence to
suggest that faith in resurrection of the bodies of individuals
had yet taken form in these years. Thus the New American
Bible observes that both of these verses from Isaiah
and Ezekiel use the resurrection image to refer "to
the restoration of Israel" as a people.
Some Psalms (16,
49, and 73) seem to express a yearning for what Resurrection brings
us: "Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever" (Ps 16:10-11).
Belief in resurrection of
the body to an after life clearly makes a biblical appearance in
the Maccabean period. We see this stage of faith in resurrection
reflected in verses of Daniel and Second Maccabees.
In Daniel we read: "Many of those who sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake; Some shall live forever, others shall
be an everlasting horror and disgrace" (Dn 12:2). Daniel,
composed during the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes (167-164
BC), was written to console a people suffering like this. For many
dying for their faith, a teaching about resurrection to new life
inspired hope.
The Second Book of Maccabees,
written near 100 BC, also very clearly expresses faith in resurrection:
"At the point of dying, he said: your accursed fiend, you are
depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will
raise us up to live again forever. It is for God's laws that
we are dying" (7:9); "Since it is the Creator of the universe
who shapes each person's beginning . . . God in divine mercy will
give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves
for the sake of God's law" (23).
The Book of Wisdom
(3:1-5), written around 100 BC, is strong in expressing faith in
immortality: "But the souls of the just are in the hand of
God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the
view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought
an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace. For if before men, indeed, they be
punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little,
they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found
them worthy."
The origins of OT
belief in resurrection of the body are not clear. Authors
of the exilic period employed the language of death and resurrection
as metaphor for Israel's revival and return from exile. Although
dead in captivity, the people, as a people, will arise from their
Babylonian graves.
But, at a time we cannot
determine, a faith breakthrough occurred. Jews began to assert
that physical death does not nullify God's justice or the covenantal
relationship, and they began to believe in resurrection to new life
for individuals.
|