Mesopotamian Roots for the Belief in the Resurrection of the Dead

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4299580
AutoresBenjamin Studevent‐hickman (Harvard University Press, autor correspondente)
Ano2009
Volume3
Fascículo4
Páginas524-536
Data de publicação2009-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoReligion Compass (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1749-8171 • E-ISSN: 1749-8171
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00152.x
OpenAlexW2083363262
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas19

The belief in the resurrection of the dead, a defining element of the Christian faith, did not begin with Christianity. At the time of the earliest Christians, several factions of Judaism held some form of the belief, disagreeing on whether it was physical or spiritual in nature. For the physical resurrection, evidence already appears in later writings of the Hebrew Bible; as a result, many scholars place the origin of the belief in the post-exilic period, attributing it to foreign influence, generally from Canaan or Persia. But there is earlier evidence, both in and outside the Hebrew Bible, in those cases where a corpse returns to life, even temporarily. As argued here, it isthisphenomenon, above all, that forms the basis of the belief in the physical resurrection in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and, whereitis concerned, a stronger cross-cultural parallel is ancient Mesopotamia. In ancient Mesopotamia, there was clearly a belief that the dead could return from the netherworld to the land of the living, and it was part of a conceptual framework that integrated death, disease, medicine, and healing - as it was in the Hebrew Bible. For the history of religion, this dates the early roots of the belief in the physical resurrection of the dead centuries earlier than scholars have recognized

Ancient history · Art · Belief system · Biblical studies · Christianity · Faith · Faith healing · Hebrew · Hebrew Bible · Judaism · Literature · Mesopotamia · Superstition · Theology · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · History · Philosophy · Religious studies