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This article concerns itself with Jewish, Christian , Islamic and other religious interpretations of the concept of the resurrection of the dead.

The term resurrection is used in the literal sense to mean either the religious concept of the reunion of the spirit and the body of a dead person, or the return to life of a dead person. It is used in a figurative sense about broken or discontinued things which were never alive, but which have been restored to a functional state; for example a company which had failed but is reopened by a new owner. Rebirth is a different but analogous religious concept. The word resuscitation is used for return to life after clinical death by medical procedures.

Today, the word is sometimes also used to indicate the resuscitation/revival of some thing or idea from a death-state, such as ruin, disinterest, obscurity, etc.

Mesopotamia and the classical world

In the literal sense of the word, resurrection refers to the event of a dead person returning to physical life. Thus it is not to be confused with things like Hellenistic immortality in which the soul continues to live after death "free" of the body.

"Centuries before the time of Christ the nations annually celebrated the death and resurrection of Osiris, Tammuz, Attis, Mithra, and other gods" *. A dying-and-rising god motif was prevalent throughout ancient Mesopotamian and classical literature and practice (eg in Syrian and Greek worship of Adonis; Egyptian worship of Osiris; the Babylonian story of Tammuz; rural religious belief in the Corn King).

Judaeo-Christian

Despite the Mesopotamian concept of resurrection, belief in personal resurrection (before the Common Era) was known among only one culture: the Hebrews.

From the time of its development from within Judaism during the second-Temple period to the incipient decades of Christianity, the meaning of the word acquired sharper edges and mutations, to include differentiating the common quality of the premortem body from the new glorious quality of the postmortem body (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35-54 and the Gospel accounts of Easter). It held to a permanent unification of physical body and soul.

Resurrection was used figuratively as a metaphor both for the national restoration of Israel (Ezek. 37) in Judaism, and for the regenerate life (the Apostle Paul) in Christianity.

Judaism

Most of the Tanakh (Old Testament) makes no mention of any resurrection of the dead. Rather, the family tomb is the central concept in understanding biblical views of the afterlife. When Jacob dies, he says "I am about to be gathered to my kin. Bury me with my forefathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite." 49:29 All the Jewish patriarchs (except Rachel) were buried in the family cave, and so were many other biblical personalities, including King Saul and King David. Herbert Brichto notes that it is "not mere sentimental respect for the physical remains that is...the motivation for the practice, but rather an assumed connection between proper sepulture and the condition of happiness of the deceased in the afterlife" Chanon Brichto "Kin, Cult, Land and Afterlife - A Biblical Complex", Hebrew Union College Annual 44, p.8 (1973)

The early Israelites apparently believed that the graves of family, or tribe, united into one. This unified collectivity became known as Sheol. Although not well defined in the Tanakh, Sheol was a subterranean underworld where the souls of the dead went after the body died. The Babylonians had a similar underworld called Aralu, and the Greeks had one known as Hades. For biblical references to Sheol see Genesis 42:38, Isaiah 14:11, Psalm 141:7, Daniel 12:2, Proverbs 7:27 and Job 10:21,22, and 17:16, among others. Other Biblical names for Sheol were: Abbadon (ruin), found in Psalm 88:11, Job 28:22 and Proverbs 15:11; Bor (the pit), found in Isaiah 14:15, 24:22, Ezekiel 26:20; and Shakhat (corruption), found in Isaiah 38:17, Ezekiel 28:8.

In the Tanakh ("Old Testament"), Elijah’s raising of a young boy from death (1 Kings 17-23), and, Elisha’s duplication of the feat (2 Kings 4:34-35), were viewed within the scope of Jewish worldview and theology more as resuscitations than bona fide resurrection which, for the Hebrews at least, came to denote the final 'rising' of all people to irreversible continuation of (some kind of) bodily life.

Other common associations are the biblical accounts of the antedeluvian Enoch and the prophet Elijah being ushered into the presence of God without experiencing death. These, however, are more in the way of ascensions, bodily disappearances , translations or apotheoses than resurrections.

And there is Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones being restored as a living army: a metaphorical prophecy that the house of Israel would one day be gathered from the nations, out of exile, to live in the land of Israel once more. The actual doctrine of a bodily resurrection is found in the book of Daniel, where a mysterious angelic figure tells Daniel, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 12:2)

Other passages in the Old Testament referring to the resurrection of the dead are:

  • 1 Sam. 2: 6 - "he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up"
  • Job 19: 26 - "after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God"
  • Isa. 26: 19 - "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise"
  • Ezek. 37: 12 - "I will open your graves, and cause you to come up"

In the First Century B.C.E, there were debates between the Pharisees who believed in the future Resurrection, and the Sadducees who did not, over whether or not there was an afterlife. The majority of Jews seemed to have embraced the belief that there was an afterlife, evidenced by their volatile tendency to revolt for YHWH's kingdom and its privileges, one of which was resurrection (cf. the narratives of the Maccabees, Josephus' Wars of the Jews).

Formalized in the First Century C.E., the second blessing of the central daily Jewish prayer is called Tehiyyat ha-Metim ("the resurrection of the dead") and closes with the words m'chayei hameitim ("who gives life to the dead") i.e., resurrection.

Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism reject Resurrection. Accordingly, they have modified the text to read m'chayei hakol ("who gives life to all").

Conservative Judaism has some thinkers who support the concept; though its prayer books overwhelmingly include the traditional Hebrew text, many use an ambiguous translation into English that leaves open the possibility, but not the requirement, to believe in resurrection. *

Orthodox Judaism insists that belief in the Resurrection of the Dead is one of the cardinal principles of the Jewish faith. A famous Jewish halakhic-legal authority, Maimonides, set down thirteen main principles of the Jewish faith according to Orthodox Judaism which have ever since been printed in all Rabbinic prayer books. Resurrection is the thirteenth principle:

  • "I believe with complete (perfect) faith, that there will be techiat hameitim - revival of the dead, whenever it will be God's, blessed be He, will (desire) to arise and do so. May (God's) Name be blessed, and may His remembrance arise, forever and ever."
The afterlife in the Tanakh
See: Jewish eschatology: Biblical verses

Christianity

Since Christianity was born out of Jewish praxis and worldview, it is worthwhile to point out that Christianity's doctrine of resurrection is an outgrowth of the Jewish beliefs. Jesus himself, in this matter, appears to have been in general agreement with the Pharisees. Early Christianity is closest to the Pharisaic view of the resurrection, rather than the Sadducees who believed in no afterlife. Most Christian churches continue this tradition: that there will be a general resurrection of the dead at "the end of time", as prophesied by Paul when he said, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (KJV, 1 Corinthians 15:22) Most teach that this a gift to mankind through the atonement of Christ. Many of the early Church Fathers cited the Old Testament examples listed above as either foreshadowing Jesus' resurrection, or foreshadowing or prophesying a future resurrection of all the dead. The Nicene Creed concludes that Christians "look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus is said to have raised several persons from death, including the daughter of Jairus shortly after death, a young man in the midst of his own funeral procession, and Lazarus, who had been buried for four days. According to the Gospel of Matthew, at the moment of Jesus' death, tombs opened, and many who were dead awakened. After Jesus' resurrection, many of the dead saints come out of their tombs and enter Jerusalem, where they appear to many.

Similar resuscitations are credited to Christian apostles and saints. Peter raised a woman named Dorcas (called Tabitha), and Paul restored a man named Eutychus who had fallen asleep and fell from a window to his death, according to the book of Acts.

Islam

According to Islamic beliefs, all humans are resurrected 3 times simultaneously. 1. after the soul is created and the promise is given till to the day of born 2. after earth living till to the death 3. after waking up for the judgement day when everyone is sent to final destination (heaven /hell)[exp. ones who believe in Allah and did good deeds in his life will go to heaven and live there for eternity. One who did not believe in Allah and did bad deeds in his life will burn in hell for enternity. Believing in Allah means "Say he Allah is one and only" he is our creator and benefector. Humans and other creatures of Allah are then made to account for all their deeds, and their final abode — Jannah or Jahannam — is determined by Allah's Grace and justice during the Islamic Day of Judgement.--

Modern India

Other accounts of resurrections are as follows:

  • 1Lahiri Mahasaya raised Rama a friend of Sri Yukteswar to life.
  • 2 Lahiri Mahasaya himself resurrected.
  • 3 A guru by the name of Swami Sri Yukteswar.
  • 4 While attending a conference, Walter Cowan was pronounced dead on the morning of December 25, 1971 of a heart attack. Later in the day, he was found sitting up in a hospital bed alive raised to life by Sai Baba. Walter recounts witnessing Sai Baba convincing a council to let him live again to perform a purpose.

Bodily disappearances

As the knowledge of different religions has grown, the bodily disappearance of Divine Heroes has been found to be common. In ancient times pagan similarities were explained by the early Christian writers, such as Justin Martyr, as the work of demons and Satan, with the intention of leading Christians astray. Gesar, the Savior of Tibet, at the end, chants on a mountain top and his clothes fall empty to the ground. The bodies of the Divine Gurus of Sikhism vanish after their deaths. There is a traditional spot in Jerusalem whence, while mounted, Muhammad and his horse both ascend into the sky. This shows a variety in traditions, for Muhummad's famous tomb in Mecca is visited every year by the faithful.

Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern lists many Divine Heroes whose bodies disappear, or have more than one sepulchre. B. Traven, author of The Treasure of Sierra Madre, wrote that the Inca Divine Hero, Virococha, walked away on the top of the sea and vanished. It has been thought that teachings regarding the purity and incorruptibility of the Divine Hero's human body are linked to this phenomenon. Perhaps, this is also to deter the practice of disturbing and collecting the hero's remains. They are safely protected if they have disappeared. In Deuteronomy (34:6) Moses is secretly buried. Elijah vanishes in a whirlwind 2 Kings (2:11).

See also

Additional reading

External links

References

  1. N.T. Wright. The Resurrection of the Son of God Fortress Press: 2003
  2. William Foxwell Albright, From Stone Age to Christianity: Monotheism and Historical Process
  3. B. Traven, The Creation of the Sun and Moon, 1968
  4. Alexandra David-Neel, The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling ( While still in oral tradition, the Divine Hero of Tibet and Asia is discovered and recorded for the first time, by an early European traveler.)
  5. New Testament, Acts 19:23-40, St. Paul confronts the craftsmen of Artemis in Ephesus.
  6. Edwin Hatch, Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church (1888 Hibbert Lectures)
  7. Ronald F. Hock, The Favored One: How Mary Became the Mother of God, Bible Review, p. 12-25, June 2001

Citations

1 Cited from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, page 336.

2 Ibid, p.396.

3 Ibid, p.475.

4 from My Baba and I by Dr. John S. Hislop, pages 28-31.

Christian theology | Christian eschatology

Vzkříšení | Auferstehung | Resurrección | Résurrection | Uskrsnuće | 부활 | Resurrezione | Rezurekcija | Opstanding | 復活 | Oppstandelse | Zmartwychwstanie | Ressurreição | Воскресение из мёртвых | תחיית המתים | Васкрсење

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Resurrection".

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