Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism, 200 BCE–CE 200 by C. D. Elledge (review)

C. D. Elledge’s treatment of early Jewish conceptions of the resurrection and immortality should prove invaluable for future studies on Jewish theology and early Christianity. Focusing on the latest writings of the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha (i.e., the deuterocanonical texts), Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, and other Hellenistic Jewish authors, E. stresses the diversity of Jewish perspectives concerning the afterlife in the Second Temple era. Furthermore, Jews had multiple understandings of each view of the afterlife. According to E., “Resurrection is to be defined by the new, qualitatively different life into which the dead are raised. . . . This new, exalted existence, however, is reflected in a wide diversity of expressions within early Jewish literature” (p. 3). E. is also concerned with resituating ancient belief in the eschatological resurrection within the literary settings in which it arose and was sustained.

Elledge maintains that some Jews did not understand resurrection as the revivification of the same body that died. Instead, they thought that resurrection was compatible with certain expressions of belief in the immortality of the soul. E. states, “The varied forms in which resurrection is attested indicate that it was not an exclusive belief that banished all other possible conceptions of the afterlife from consideration. While resurrection made a specialized claim, it was still adaptable to belief in the immortality of the soul and a variety of mythological conceptions about the fate of the dead” (p. 4; cf. 5, 6, 16, 41). Diverse perspectives on the resurrection helped to adapt and accelerate beliefs up to and including the time of Jesus and the nascent church. But it should be emphasized that resurrection was one among many options within an array of viable viewpoints. In this context, some Jews denied the possibility of an afterlife.

Although belief in the resurrection remained widespread in the postexilic period, E. argues that it mostly developed from earlier expressions of Judaism and was even spurred on to some degree by external religious influences: “Persian influence may have made it plausible for Judaism to reinterpret the imagery of earlier prophetic texts in a more literalizing way” (p. 53; cf. 58). Similarly, Jews legitimated their belief in the emerging hope of resurrection in several ways. E. summarizes the reasons why it was accepted: “Jews utilized the language of earlier prophecy when describing resurrection . . . they [also] appealed to the paradigm of creation as a precedent for God’s power to ‘re-create’ the human in the resurrection life. . . . Finally, some also insisted that resurrection was an essential, not merely optional, affirmation of divine justice” (p. 66). A major reason why resurrection was promoted and fostered had to do with the experience of hardship, violence, and even martyrdom; resurrection was seen as an answer to the common problem of suffering. Unjustified suffering may seem to have the last word in human affairs, but Jews said that Yhwh would reward and raise the dead.

Toward the end of the book, E. discusses the relevant passages in the Book of Watchers, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Josephus. An analysis of Watchers indicates that physical, earthly conceptions of resurrection developed much earlier than is usually recognized. As he says, “One is likely, therefore, to avoid any tendency to regard the interim state as an exclusively later development. Instead, the interim state in the Book of Watchers suggests a much earlier and more intimate connection to the idea of resurrection itself, as its authors imagined cosmic landscapes for both the present state of the dead and their future judgment” (p. 147).

Finally, E. blends together his lessons on Jewish conceptions of resurrection as background material for understanding the Pauline Epistles. Recognizing the wide range of views on the afterlife that prevailed in Judaism, E. affirms that the NT writers expressed their belief in the bodily resurrection in “strikingly new ways” (p. 202). Resurrection became a focal point of their religious belief; Christians held that one man was raised...