Death and Afterlife

Abstract

This chapter surveys what is known about ancient Israel’s beliefs and practices relating to the end of life, the experience of death, and one’s transformation into the life thereafter. The results were gleaned from the integration of material cultural data, epigraphic sources, and the critical assessment of biblical texts. Ancient Israelites placed significant emphasis on living the good life and experiencing the good death. In addition to the conventional mourning and burial rites performed on behalf of the deceased, both medium-range and long-term rituals were also observed. These comprised such rites as the care and feeding of the dead, who apparently possessed a post-mortem sentience and also a ghostly existence in the netherworld (see the references in 1 Sam 28 to the ʾôb “ghost” and ʾereṣ “earth”—a synonym of Sheol). These rites also included the commemoration of the dead in which the legacy and exemplary lives the dead had formerly led were ritually remembered, recalled, and passed forward. As such, these commemorative rituals also constituted a form of immortality of the dead; one that was perpetuated cross-generationally in the minds of family and community survivors.