Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel

Anyone familiar with Levenson's previous works will discover that yet again he throws new light on regnant scholarly views and offers fresh insight into widely read biblical stories, and yet again his tour de force is elegant and accessible to specialists in all areas of religious studies. Engaging and shot through with a steadfast commitment to serious, critical theological thinking, his latest work demonstrates that the classical rabbinic expectation of resurrection is more continuous with the Bible than previously thought. Challenging the consensus that the resurrection of the dead has no early roots or sources in the Hebrew Bible, he argues that the origins of resurrection are by and large found therein and are not a foreign import. In other words, Zoroastrianism is not a major source of the Jewish belief in resurrection, and furthermore, despite the contention of many, it did not develop because of the theological crisis martyrdom posed. Resurrection of the dead, Levenson maintains, was not “a total novum” (218), born out of crisis or out of a burning need to address a specific matter. Rather, it emerged “out of a convergence of a number of biblical themes” and the coalescence of several traditions over “a centuries-long process.” It drew most centrally, but not exclusively, “on the long-standing conviction that God would yet again prove faithful to his promises of life for his people and that he had the stupendous might it would take to do so” (xiii).

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