The Old Testament teaching
about the future life was insufficiently developed and could not fully comfort,
encourage and soothe. However, the idea of immortality was contained in it,
without a doubt, even though this is disputed by some materialistic
investigators. Their mistake can be explained by their paying attention only to
the letter and not to the spirit of Old Testament religion. Biblical opinion of
man as an image and likeness of God, without doubt already contained in itself
also the idea of immortality, since God Himself was understood, first of all,
as an immortal Being. God created man for
immortality and made him the image of His Own eternal existence (Wisdom of
Solomon 2:23).
The
very outlook of Old Testament religion on the origin of death, so different
from naturalistic views, says that death is not a necessary phenomenon but only
an accidental phenomenon as a punishment for sin. The influence of death
extends only over the bodily composition of man, created from the dust of the
earth for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, (Gen. 3:19), but is not concerned
with the spiritual side of man’s nature (Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7).
In
Old Testament religion there is doubtless the belief in retribution beyond the
grave. Although, for the encouragement of a good moral life of the Hebrew
people (insufficiently ethically developed and as yet unprepared for the
perception of the loftiest ideas about eternal life), the Old Testament
religion chiefly indicated the well-being of the earthly life of the righteous;
nevertheless, an indication can be found of the possibility of retribution only
after death. For I was
jealous of the transgressors, when I beheld the peace of sinners. For they make no sign of refusal in the
time of their death, and they have steadfastness in the time of their scourging
(Psalm 72:3-4).
The
teaching about the future life in Old Testament religion is imbued with a sad
tone which, however, is softened by the hope of future redemption and
improvement of the future destiny of the dead. The dwelling-place of the dead
was called “sheol,” which meant Hades or the lower
regions. This pit of hell was most often represented as a kind of “region of
darkness and shadow of death” in contrast to heaven. All those who died went to
the lower regions, even the righteous. Concerning the state of those departing
to another world, there is very little information in the Old Testament. There
is no doubt, however, that even in the lower regions, the righteous had
consolation in the future hope of deliverance. Yet God shall redeem my soul out of the hand of hades
(Psalm 48:16).
This
hope received the most vivid expression in the prophecies of Isaiah about the
advent of the Messiah: then, says the prophet, He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces (Isaiah 25:8). Thy
dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise (Isaiah
26:19). But in the Old Testament religion, hope in the future resurrection did
not yet have the full assurance which was manifested and became triumphant only
after the Resurrection of Christ. For this reason, the Old Testament righteous
person of even such a spiritual loftiness as the prophet Ezekiel, in regard to
the question asked of him by God: Can
those bones live? could only answer: O Lord God, thou knowest
(Ezekiel 37:3).