Transformations of Primitive Beliefs Concerning the World of the Dead in the Hebrew Bible Against the Background of the Near East Beliefs
Abstract
The author of the article describes two basic conceptions of the biblical world of the dead. The first of them, emphasized in traditional articles, perceives Szeol as a gloomy, dark and passive world. On the other hand, the second one gives the dead more activity and knowledge. This latter conception is derived from old Syro-Cananite beliefs. The author thinks that it was gradually replaced by the passive image of the other world accepted in the orthodox Yahwistic circles. It only survived in folk beliefs. However, after the catastrophes of the years 722 and 586 and in the face of the crisis of the traditional teaching about mundane retribution in the Hellenistic times, the beliefs − pushed to the margin − were used in the formation of the new conception of resurrection. Hence the sources of resurrection may be looked for in the old pagan beliefs of Syro-Canaan, whereas Yahwisn's consistent, rigid images of the world of the dead disappeared along with the Sadducees.
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