Main news for 6 March 2019

Reading the Bible, it is easy to notice that the biblical books tell us almost nothing about postmortem existence. The Bible says nothing, or almost nothing, about any life after death or any recompense after death. And the "almost" comes down to the experience that other peoples of the Near Eastern cultural area also had. The issue is the world of shadows, the kingdom of the dead, where a person goes when his life force leaves him. In this gloomy world a person turns into a shadow, and existence there can be called life only with great qualification. A person has neither will nor memory left; his consciousness barely glimmers, so that there can be no talk of any thoughts or feelings. It is no wonder that the author of the book denies the possibility of the dead praising God: existence in this world of shadows (in the Bible it is called "Sheol" in Hebrew and "Hades" in Greek) is incompatible with any spiritual life. Ideas about postmortem recompense and a blessed postmortem existence in the ancient Near East existed only in Egypt and Greece; in both places they appeared late and had no effect on Yahwism. But they had an unquestionable influence on medieval Christian ideas about postmortem existence and postmortem recompense, giving rise to the teaching about heaven and hell. All hope for recompense in Yahwism, and later in Judaism, was connected only with the day of Judgment and the general resurrection, the idea of which already in the Hellenistic era became widespread and generally accepted in the Synagogue. And here there was no talk of any postmortem existence or any "half-life": God returns life to each person in all fullness, if only the person is able to receive it and enter the Kingdom of God, becoming its resident. God agrees to nothing less, even if a person were to agree to half measures. Such is the biblical answer to the question of death: resurrection and complete victory over death, as over the evil that is in principle incompatible with the Kingdom.