The Afterlife: A Reflection of the Fundamental Nature of Christianity

This is an essay I wrote for an “Understanding the Bible” class I took my junior year of college. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed to write an effortpost this week, and its too early for another Spanish update, so this is what you guys are gonna get.

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

In the Hebrew Bible, the concept of an afterlife is of little concern to the writers, if it even exists at all. In chapter three of Genesis, God tells Adam:

“‘By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread

until you return to the ground

for out of it you were taken;

you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.’”(Gen 3:19).

This passage implies that there is no existence after death, as Adam will merely return to dust after he dies. It also serves to highlight the separation between the divine and the mundane: God is immortal and present for both the creation and death of Adam. His existence is timeless and beyond human conception.

Sheol is envisioned as sort of a permanent purgatory

Later, during the reign of the Davidic kings, the concept of an underworld, Sheol, is…