Imagining Resurrection in the Old Testament
Jesus has a dialogue with the Sadducees in which we learn that they did not believe in the resurrection (Matthew 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-40). Since resurrection is such an important theme in the New Testament, it seems odd that they would doubt this belief. But for those who read the Old Testament carefully there are few clear texts that refer to the belief in resurrection and many scholars date these texts rather late. In light of this one might think that we should use only the New Testament when we want to preach and teach about resurrection.
Still, New Testament writers do use language from Old Testament texts when they describe resurrection. Later Christians and Jews have also used some of these texts when they speak of resurrection. It is hard to imagine a more popular text related to resurrection than Ezekiel 37 that speaks about dry bones that come to life after Ezekiel preaches to them. Even though this text is a report of a vision in which resurrection is a metaphor for bringing the Jewish people back to life, the language is powerful and memorable.
While this text among others had an original meaning for a particular setting, later usage shows how adaptable for life such texts were, and they continue to offer potential for present readers. Their original meanings as well as later re-readings of these texts may still speak to us today. They may also help us as we reflect about our own view of resurrection.
Many of the texts that use resurrection language are poetic and metaphorical. They are not doctrinal belief statements. They are not expressions of static piety or assertions of firm beliefs about life after death. Instead such texts express the hopes and dreams of their authors who dare to imagine the possibility of the impossible. They challenge us to expect God to intervene in peoples’ lives and to change their circumstances radically.
I suggest there are ways of reading these texts as helpful pointers to resurrection while still not using them as proof texts. It is helpful to ask what these texts meant when they were first written, as well as to ask how these texts provide images that may help guide our own reflections about resurrection.
Old Testament Views About What Happens After Death?
God tells Adam that if he eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he will die. Adam and Eve do eat of it, and as a consequence they are banned from the Garden of Eden, and they cannot live forever. God places an angel at the entrance of the garden to block entry. Adam, created out of dust from the ground, works the soil to produce food, but when he dies he will return as dust of the ground. In Genesis 3:19 God says “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Allusions to this language are in the book of Ecclesiastes (3:19-21): “For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?” Ecclesiastes 12:7: “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.” There appears to be no hope of the resurrection here.
There is little mention of life after death in most of the Old Testament. People live, die, and are buried. There are many death reports of individuals throughout the Old Testament. Philip S. Johnston in his book Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament (InterVarsity Press, 2002) provides a detailed study of texts related to death and the afterlife in the Old Testament. There are many more texts about death than texts about the afterlife. In this book eight chapters are devoted to death (173 pages) and two chapters to life after death (41 pages).
Some Exceptions in the Old Testament
There are a few exceptions to this. Enoch and Elijah did not die but were “taken” by God assumedly to be with God in heaven. They do not die, so they are not resurrected from the dead. Yet these are special cases and there is little sense that others can share their same fate. It is possible that the belief about the “rapture” of Christians alive when Jesus returns may be linked to this tradition (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
There were three reports of people who died and were brought back to life through the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Elijah brings a boy back to life (1 Kings 17:17-24). Elisha brings a child back to life (2 Kings 4:31-37). In 2 Kings 13:20ff a body touches the bones of Elisha and comes back to life. Those who were brought back to life would eventually grow old and die though so this is not the same thing as resurrection. Such texts indicate that God has power over death and may work through prophets to revive the dead.
Two texts mention that God kills and makes alive. In 1 Samuel 2:6 we find “The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.” In Deut 32:39 God says “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand.” Such texts indicate that God has control over life and death. Still this does not lead to a belief in resurrection for most people.
Resurrection of Groups
In Ezekiel 37, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision of a valley filled with bones. He is told to preach to these bones, and they will come to life. Ezekiel preaches and the bones come together, and sinews and flesh and skin appear on them. Then he must prophesy to the bones so that they come alive. The bones clearly are dead and God brings them back to life. Later God tells Ezekiel that these bones are the whole house of Israel. God quotes a lament of the people who said that “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely” (Ezek 37:11). Finally God tells the people that he will open their graves and bring them back to life.
We should not overlook the power of the idea of the resurrection of groups of people. There may well be groups who need this message of hope. For instance, if one reads the Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins we hear about many Christian groups in northern Africa and across Asia that experienced great loss and disaster. Some of these groups no longer exist or have only a remnant left. Such groups might look to hopeful passages of resurrection for a group. The African American spiritual “Dem Bones” arose out of the struggles of slaves and this gave hope for the future for those singing this song. Those of us who are members of mainline denominations that are seeing declines in our membership may lose hope and think that we are like bones scattered over the ground. Many speak of Europe as a post-Christian society. Could those bones rise again? If God could raise up the Jewish people who were scattered and exiled in Babylon, could he not do this again with other groups?
This resurrection language draws upon the language of creation and makes a brand new human being. When God creates Adam in Genesis 2, he takes dust from the ground, fashions a body and then breathes life into the earthling. Genesis 2:7 “then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” In Ezekiel 37 there are two stages of resurrection: first the bones come together, sinews and flesh come upon them and then secondly the spirit gives them life. What happens during resurrection is similar to what happened at creation. So resurrection is a kind of new creation.
While Ezekiel 37 relates first to social resurrection of the people of God, the text speaks metaphorically of scattered bones of individuals. It is hardly surprising that later believers would find the imagery of this text irresistible in thinking about the resurrection of individuals. After humans die, it is not long before their bodies deteriorate and only bones remain. So if God could raise up the bones of a people who felt themselves dead, why could he not raise up individuals in the same way? If God could create humans in the first place, why could he not re-create or resurrect them once again?
Resurrection Texts of Individuals
The clearest text about resurrection of individuals is found in Daniel 12:1-3. Chapters 10-12 are a survey of events that will happen at the end of time. The people of God undergo much suffering. Some even die. At the end there will be a time of judgment and those whose names are written in a book will be delivered. Then “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).
This text speaks about the resurrection of two different groups—one will be rewarded and the other punished. In context this resurrection may be limited to those who are being persecuted for their faith and those who are persecuting them. If this text does not yet envision a general resurrection of all people at the end of time, the tradition will later be understood in this way–some will be rewarded and some will be punished.
Isaiah (26:19) uses resurrection language: “your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead.” The context of this passage is not clear, but this is a message of hope for a people who have been suffering and crying out to God for help. It may be a message related to corporate resurrection of the people of God, but it speaks of individual corpses that shall rise. Even if corporate resurrection is the main point of the text, such resurrection also includes individuals.
Those who are described as dead are referred to as those who sleep. Those who are raised up are called to wake up from their sleep. The language of sleep implies that death is not permanent but will come to an end even as a person wakes up in the morning. The place of death is understood to be in the dust. The image of dust reminds us of the creation of humans in Genesis 2 as well as the death of humans and the return to dust. If God could create humans out of dust at the beginning he could recreate them out of dust in the future as well.
Poetic Language in Psalms
Poetic language in the psalms is used both for indicating that some psalmists are already experiencing death in their suffering and that when God removes their suffering he brings them back to life. In both cases this is metaphoric language describing how the psalmist feels but is neither an indication of literal death or literal resurrection.
When people cry out for help and justice they expect God to intervene soon in their lives. They are not just appealing to some future hope that God will make things right after they die. That could be seen as merely a resignation to hopelessness that God cannot do anything in the present. Those who want help are desperate, and they feel that they are already dead and unless God intervenes there is no help at all for them in the future.
Since most Israelites did not believe in much of an afterlife and thought there was little hope for any such future, it makes allusions to such a reality intriguing. These texts do not emerge from memorized statements of faith that affirm resurrection is true. They represent words of those who are imagining what might be possible. They push the envelope of what God might do because they realize that faith in God is open ended. Such statements arise from the hope of salvation and hope in what God can do in spite of seemingly impossible circumstances.
John Goldingay provides a good model for interpreting resurrection language in the psalms in his commentary (Psalms Volume I: Psalms 1-41; Baker, 2006). In the introduction, he indicates that most psalm texts are concerned about life, and there is relatively little interest in the afterlife. Some psalmists may describe experiences of sickness and oppression as being dead, and then say how God brings them back to life. They are not speaking about literal resurrection after death. In Psalm 16:10-11a one finds: “For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. You show me the path of life.” In Goldingay’s commentary on Psalm 16, he explains how this was understood when it was written. Then he has a section “Theological Interpretations” where he explains how this text was later understood to refer to the resurrection of Jesus in Acts 2:25-31; 13:35. While he does not challenge that reinterpretation he also argues that it is important that the original meaning is not lost. When one reads the text only in terms of a future resurrection this might mean that present situations are overlooked as unimportant. He says, “The trouble is that once people believe in a positive afterlife, they can easily cease to take this life seriously, as Christians often have” (John Goldingay, Psalms Volume I: Psalms 1-41; Baker, 2006).
Even though the text is applied to Jesus in the New Testament this hardly exhausts the potential of this text for other believers. The psalm is one of confidence that the writer expresses in God, but the text remains available for other believers to sing it as their song. For those of us who believe in the resurrection, verses 9-10 can express our trust that after we die God will care for us as well. He will remember us and not allow us to disappear.
There are other psalm texts that have been interpreted in similar ways. Probably the most influential psalm for modern believers is Psalm 23. It is a song of trust in God who is the shepherd who provides nourishment for his sheep and also guards them from danger during their travels. The psalm ends with God as host at his house where he provides food for the psalmist.
While the psalm does not include resurrection language, it has become popular at funerals and some interpret it in light of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who after death will take the believer to live with God in heaven. Such an interpretation was assisted by the way that the King James Version translated this psalm such as verse 3 “Yea though I walke through the valley of the shadowe of death” (KJV, 1611 reprint). Here the “shadow of death” is describing the valley and is not referring literally to death but later readers have allegorized the expression to refer to death. Furthermore, Psalm 23:6 in KJV (1611 reprint) is “Surely goodnes and mercie shall followe me all the daies of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for euer.” The translation “forever” is understood by later readers as eternal life. The expression is parallel to the previous “all the days of my life” and is better rendered as in the NRSV as “my whole life long” or as noted in the footnote to this phrase: “Heb for length of days.”
Psalm 23 is a wonderful psalm of trust in God who provides for our needs and guards us during times of danger. It refers to God providing for physical needs of food and drink. It is about God caring for us in our present life. When the text becomes allegorized to refer to death and the afterlife it is pushed to the future but becomes no longer relevant for the present life. Such a reading can neglect the daily concerns of life and the possibilities of experiencing God’s presence with us in this life.
Conclusion
While most of the texts which relate to resurrection language in the Old Testament should not be read as proof texts for resurrection, they are powerful texts that imagine the possibility of resurrection and can challenge us to think of new ways that God can work in the world. They can encourage us to have hope in the future because God is Lord of the future as well as the past and the present. Some writers of Old Testament texts can imagine the possibility of resurrection, some can hope for this, and a few can affirm this.
In our modern world, people have doubts about many things, including beliefs. While many affirm a belief in resurrection and want to believe in it strongly, some may have doubts and uncertainty. Death makes people feel uncomfortable and people do not like to think about it. It has been said that the United States is a death-denying society. Some Old Testament texts produced by writers who only hope for the resurrection may be precisely the texts that we need when we have doubts and uncertainties about this belief.
For those who have no doubts about resurrection, these poetic texts provide helpful imagery for understanding resurrection. They may help us to think about what resurrection can mean in our own lives. In times past, some Christians felt that bodies should not be cremated so that God could resurrect our bones. Perhaps this was based on Ezekiel 37. In the modern world much information is being digitized and stored in memory in computers. Science fiction writers can even imagine how human brains can be scanned and preserved in computers. Perhaps this can be a new way that we can imagine God preserving us when we die. We may hope and believe that God is quite capable of storing us in memory until he decides to download us into new bodies. But even if we prefer new metaphors for thinking about resurrection, many of the old ones can still speak to us.
