Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Sheila Shiki y Michaels wrote,


>Peter_Kirk AT sil.org writes:
>
><< Israelite religion <...>the more appropriate thought would be
> "only death will part us" rather than "not even death will part us".>>
>
>       I'm not so sure.  In Gen 37:35, Jacob certainly seems to be saying
>"I will go
>down to my son mourning, Sheol-ward."  That line really doesn't seem to be
>saying that mourning will be the death of him; but rather that he will still
>be mourning Joseph when they are joined in Sheol.
>       As Ruth expects to be buried with Naomi, it doesn't look to me as
>if she
>expects death to part them.
>

Dear Sheila,

It seems to me that how a person understands the view of the state of the
dead in the Israelite religion  depends of how much s/he draws a parallel
between the religions around. In Accadian we have for instance  Ishtar's
descent to Eresh-ki-gal, the ruler of the nether world, and in Ugaritic the
people believed that the dead existed as "shadows" just as did the
babylonians, not to speak of the immortal soul of the Greeks.

However, In my study of the OT I have never found a clear statement of a
similar belief on the part of the Israelites. There is harly a book
centering more on death than Ecclesiastes. I once studied all the words in
this book related to death (euphemisms such as "walk" etc) - a very
interesting study. The view of the author is stressed in 9:5,10 (RSV): "For
the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they
have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost. ..Whatever your hand
finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or
knowledge or wisdom in sheol, to which you are going."

It is quite clear that the noun NEPE$ refers to a living creature (or one
who has been living) and portrays such a creature from different angles
(NAPI$TUM in Athrahasis, the account of the Babylonian Noah is used in the
same sense). If we for instance read 1 Kings 17:22 with the view that the
Israelites were influenced by the babylonians or those living in Ugarit, we
find evidence for belief in life after death, but this is definitely not
the case in this instance; the meaning is simply that the boy recovered or
quickened.  In Isaiah 14:9 and a few other places do we find the noun
RE:PF)IM.  RSV translates the word as "the shades". In Ugarit we find a
similar word which is similarly translated. However, the Ugaritic
translation is not certain, and it it were, how can we know that the Hebrew
meaning of the word a millennium later was identical?  Cognate languages
may throw light on the meaning of Hebrew words, but must be used with great
caution. M. Dahood has for instance been severely criticised for his claim
that the Psalms are best understood in the light of Ugaritic (see the Psalm
volumes of the Anchor Bible). We should also keep in mind that in modern
Hebrew may NEPE$ be understood in the sense of an invisible immortal soul,
and the same is true with the modern Arabic NAPS, but as mentioned, this
was not the meaning 2500 years ago.

The account in 1 Samuel 28:8-25 about the medium at Endor may be
interpreted as indicating life after death. However, such an interpretation
is in no way necessary. The transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17:1-8
would also naturally be interpreted as indicating life after death.
However, verse 9 definitely excludes such an interpretation. So, while
Genesis 37:35 *may* indicate a belief in life after death, this is not
necessary, and in my opinion, the cotext will rule it out. I therefore opt
for Peter's suggestion regarding Ruth 1:17.


Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo