09-16-2009, 01:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-23-2009, 05:51 PM by Director Michael.)
Pianohero Wrote:Pretty much, the whole thing was incorrect (with all due respect) if we are talking about a strict Biblical basis. The Tenach never mentions anything that soudns like an "immortal soul" , or a punishment after death . In fact, the pagans are the ones that believed these things (immortal soul, alive in death etc) , ie the egyptian, the greeks, etc . If there is no physical resurrection ,then there is no "afterlife" since by definition, a dead person being alive is an oxymoron. The definition of "dead" or "death" isnt "still alive and conscious in spirit form" , but rather "not alive" . When people die, they are dead according to the Tenach. This is why it appears that the Tenach "is more concerned with this life and now" , because this physical life is the only one we have. Even if there would be an "afterlife" , it would have to be a physical life again
"With all due respect," your claim that the Tanach never mentions anything about a soul that continues to live after the death of the body is incorrect. Samuel I 28:3 states very clearly, "Samuel had died and all Israel eulogized him and buried him in Ramah, in his home town." The chapter then goes on to recount in 28:8-19 that King Saul went to a necromancer, and at his request, she called up the living soul of Samuel, who conversed with King Saul, and delivered to him a prophecy of his impending defeat.
Furthermore, there are numerous references in Tanach to the physical resurrection of the righteous in the Era of the World to Come (i.e., the return of the living soul to the recreated body). For example, the resurrection is mentioned in the Books of the Prophets, and it is one of the 13 Fundamental Principle of the Torah. For a listing and discussion of the source verses in the Five Books of Moses, see Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter Cheilek, p. 90a and following (which deals at length with the verse Isaiah 60:21).