Comments on: Resurrection and New Creation (Part 1) – The Jewish Concept of Resurrection

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:03:19 +0000

ahhh…I get your first question now – I thought by “other things” you meant the intermediate state, of which I will not be discussing anytime soon (because the Bible has so little to say about it). Give me time and I’m sure I will talk about all those other realities specifically (e.g., the social, cultural, political, agricultural, ecological aspects of restoration).

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:56:55 +0000

We can speak of all those other realities metaphorically as resurrection. But resurrection literally only refers to re-embodiment, often with the notion of immortality (that was not a universally clear assertion in Second Temple Judaism, although resurrection was clearly understood in terms of immortal bodily existence in early Christianity). However, resurrection functioned as a synecdoche, such that resurrection came to speak emblematically of the entire restoration and renewal program in God’s eschatological purposes. So properly, resurrection is just re-embodiment, but metaphorically came to imply and evoke all the dimensions of God’s eschatological restoration

By: Ben Varner

Ben Varner — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:25:37 +0000

So resurrection does not entail, for example, Israel being regathered to her land, never to be dispersed again? The rains faithfully coming so that the fields yield abundant crops every season? Cypress trees instead of thorns, and myrtle trees in place of briers? Because I guess I was under the impression that these were all examples of resurrection?

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:19:45 +0000

Unfortunately, I will not be covering those other things because resurrection does not mean “life after death” however we construe such, but only refers properly to an embodied “life-after-life-after-death.” And much of the OT does not seem to recognize any form of “life-after-death” aside from one’s posterity. While some parts of the OT hint at some post-mortem hope (although many of these verses are more likely about bodily deliverance in this life), they are not about “resurrection” unless the specifically refer to re-embodiment.

By: Ben Varner

Ben Varner — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:15:04 +0000

I agree that resurrection is not a major OT theme so long as you’re just talking about a person’s physical body, but resurrection entails much more than just that, and the OT gives quite a bit of volume to those other things. Will you be talking about that in a following post? I hope so.