An Understanding of Death in the Bible Many Christians Might Not Like
One of the ancient concepts we've discussed here is the various levels of gods that existed before and during the alleged time of Jesus. There were local gods not known elsewhere and some more famous ones. Bart Ehrman is confident Jesus had a low level or local ranking as a god until years after he was dead. Then the tales began circulating he had come back to life and he hit the big time.
Scholars of the Bible have recognized for many decades that during the ancient times of the Bible the concept of death or being dead was different than the way we use it today. Today we see a human as being "dead or alive." The ancients, at least those who wrote the Bible, did not see it so clearly. People were for a while in the area of being dead, not arrived yet. They might proceed to become dead or they might return to being fully alive.
It was as if there was a "mud room", a room some houses have to leave shoes and boots, you entered before death. You might proceed to death or reverse and be alive. The term "twilight zone" might describe it. No doubt humans always have been in comas or otherwise unconscious for long periods but recovered. Why would they not attribute this to some other-world explanation?
Several places in the Bible there is discussion of binary death, a both dead and alive state. The Psalms 69;1-2 and 14-15 go into this. There is Jonah in the whale for three days (why was it always three days). In the New Testament Paul carries on this binary death concept. He gets flogged, shipwrecked, stoned and canned. "We had the sentence of death within ourselves..." but God would bring us back to life. Paul then talked with Jesus who, apparently, was still in the mud room of death and available for best friend chats.
What did a "resurrection" story mean to the ancients? Did it mean the Jesus character in the tale was really a smelly dead corpse or a person not yet dead but not alive and waiting in the Green Room for a big stage entrance?
Having said all this, I'd advise taking it with a grain of salt. In fact, I'd advise taking all interpretations of what the ancients said or meant as well as the quotes of Jesus with salt as well. It was all meant to convince some group in a long ago time of something. We don't really know who or why.
And, what they thought or meant doesn't really matter anyway.
“Mud room” Twilight Zone”
ReplyDeleteThis is probably a lame analogy describing most current vs some ancient ideas of death. Now a days life is binary like a classic computer bit, either a 1 or a 0. You are either alive or dead, on or off. Some ancient notions of death you described seem like a quantum computer bit, a qubit, a superposition of 1 and 0, neither alive or dead but some state in between, a twilight zone.¹ Perhaps the afterlife preached to so many is a superposition. “You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop — [Heaven]."
It’s no surprise there are discussions about the state of Jesus after his “resurrection”. Some debate whether the resurrected Jesus was a zombie (a corpse revived by witchcraft) or a lich (an undead wizard). Then of course there’s, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Then off he goes into the clouds.
¹ “Contrary to a classical bit that can only be in the state corresponding to 0 or the state corresponding to 1, a qubit may be in a superposition of both states. This means that the probabilities of measuring 0 or 1 for a qubit are in general neither 0.0 nor 1.0, and multiple measurements made on qubits in identical states will not always give the same result.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition
quantum computing aside, the historical reality is that at least some ancient cultures had an idea of a kind of twilight post death state. down under (not Australia) in something of a stupefied state, a kind of shade/ghost, whatever. some, as you know, went further, sending along food, weapons, animals, to serve the deceased in the afterlife. for the Israelites, the Pharisees eventually came to believe in a bodily resurrection. and then there is reincarnation, karma and all that. or simply becoming a drop absorbed in the ocean of Being: no personal survival. gets a little complex doesn't it old chap? that said I don't recall much about "mud rooms" as such.
DeleteAnonymous, “quantum computing aside”
DeleteA lot of pharmacological influence in the historical reality. Thanks.