What is Sheol ? Before Heaven and Hell Sheol was the Afterlife of Ancient Israel

Summary

In this thought-provoking video by ESOTERICA, Dr. Justin Sledge delves into the ancient concept of Sheol, the afterlife of Ancient Israel. Unlike the more familiar concepts of Heaven and Hell, Sheol was a shadowy and silent place where all the dead, regardless of moral standing, were thought to go. The exploration highlights how religious ideas of the afterlife have transformed over time, influenced by various cultural exchanges. This journey into the ancient beliefs challenges our understanding of religious perceptions of life after death.

Highlights

• Sheol was the ancient Hebrew concept of the afterlife, a dark, still realm beneath the Earth. ⬛️
• The term 'Sheol' appears 66 times in the Hebrew Bible, highlighting its significance. 🔢
• Everyone, good or bad, was thought to end up in Sheol, an idea contrasting modern-day notions of Heaven and Hell. 👥
• Theological changes post Babylonian exile introduced new concepts of Heaven, Hell, and divine judgment. ⏳
• Unlike other cultures, there are no tales of escaping Sheol in Hebrew stories, making it a unique afterlife concept. ❌

Key Takeaways

• Explore the ancient concept of Sheol, an early form of the afterlife in Hebrew traditions, where all the dead go regardless of their moral standing. 🕵️‍♂️
• Sheol is not a place of punishment or reward but a shadowy, silent realm distinct from the idea of Heaven or Hell. 🌑
• The term 'Sheol' is unique to Israelite religion and appears 66 times in the Hebrew Bible. 📜
• Ideas about the afterlife, including Sheol, have evolved significantly over time due to cultural encounters and theological reinterpretations. 🔄
• Despite its eerie nature, Sheol once offered a kind of equality in death, contrasting drastic Heaven-Hell dichotomies. ⚖️

Overview

In a deep dive into ancient afterlife beliefs, Dr. Justin Sledge explores the concept of Sheol, an enigmatic realm found in the Hebrew Bible. Unlike the dual destinations of Heaven and Hell, Sheol was a shadowy underworld where all went after death, showing no regard for moral standing. This concept challenges modern perceptions of posthumous reward and punishment.

Highlighting the vibrant tapestry of cultural ideas, the video uncovers how Sheol and other afterlife concepts have been influenced by surrounding civilizations. Despite its grim reputation, Sheol represented an egalitarian version of the afterlife, where everyone had the same fate after life ended. This notion offered a stark contrast to later religious ideologies.

Furthermore, Dr. Sledge illustrates how religious beliefs are far from static, demonstrating that ideas about Sheol were replaced and transformed through history. The enriching synthesis of ancient texts not only sheds light on past beliefs but also provides a lens for understanding the dynamic evolution of religious doctrine.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction to Religious Change and Afterlife This chapter discusses the dynamic nature of religious truths and the challenges faced by religious authorities in maintaining traditional beliefs. It highlights the perceived contradiction between the portrayal of religious truths as eternal and the observable changes in religious ideas over time for various reasons.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Sheol in Ancient Israel This chapter discusses the evolution of religious beliefs, particularly focusing on the concept of the afterlife in ancient Israel. It posits that religions do not remain static, evolving both internally and externally over time. The chapter suggests that foundational figures such as Jesus or Siddhartha Gautama might not recognize the religions associated with their teachings today because of these changes. This highlights how the concept of the afterlife, like religion itself, has also undergone significant transformation.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Concept of Sheol and Cultural Context This chapter explores various religious and philosophical interpretations of the concept of Sheol, or the afterlife. It discusses how different belief systems view the possibility of life after death, whether as a state of bliss, punishment, transformation, or reunification with a higher power. The chapter also highlights the dogmatic approach many religions take despite the lack of logical certainty about the afterlife. It touches upon historical perspectives, including the views of Ibn Rushd, who considered radical themes in theological discourse about the literal existence of life beyond death.
• 05:00 - 09:00: Sheol's Description and Interpretation The chapter explores the concept of afterlife in Islam, emphasizing its literal interpretation within the religion, contrary to other doctrines that might be read metaphorically.
• 09:00 - 15:00: Sheol and Israelite Views on Afterlife This chapter delves into the ancient Israelite conception of the afterlife, focusing on Sheol, which existed before concepts like heaven and hell. It investigates the cultural context of Sheol, its inhabitants, and the transition to alternate afterlife theories over time.
• 15:00 - 22:00: Transformations in Jewish Afterlife Beliefs In this chapter, Dr. Justin Sledge introduces the concept of afterlife beliefs in Judaism. The discussion centers on how these beliefs have transformed over time, delving into historical and religious contexts. As always, the exploration is part of Esoterica's overarching theme of examining the arcane aspects of history, philosophy, and religion.
• 22:00 - 24:00: Resources and Further Reading The chapter 'Resources and Further Reading' delves into the fascination of ancient Near Eastern cultures with the afterlife. It highlights various descent to the underworld epics from Mesopotamia, focusing on the well-known tale of Inanna, also known as Ishtar. In this story, Inanna visits her elder sister, Queen Ereshkigal, in the underworld and becomes trapped there. The tale also mentions her husband, Dumuzi, who is linked to the Jewish month named after him.
• 24:00 - 25:00: Conclusion and Additional Insights In this chapter, the narrative explores the story of Tammuz and his sister, who have become alternating hostages, symbolizing a balance between the living and the dead. Inanna manages to escape from the shadowy citadel of the underworld's capital, Gonzir. The underworld is depicted as a dark, distant realm, often linked in the Sumerian mind with the eastern Zagros Mountains. It is frequently referred to as 'Core' or 'Mountain,' a reflection of its mysterious and gloomy nature compared to the land of the living.

What is Sheol ? Before Heaven and Hell Sheol was the Afterlife of Ancient Israel Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 religions or at least religious authorities can find themselves in a bit of a bind on the one hand religious truths are often touted to be well fundamentally true and true for all time however on the other hand what is clear from any sustained analysis of religious ideas is that they change over time for a wide variety of reasons
• 00:30 - 01:00 no religion begins and ends its history without the inner workings and the outer doings of that religion altering considerably i would be shocked if jesus or siddhartha gautama would even recognize the religions founded in their names surprisingly or unsurprisingly depending on what your expectations are this is also true of the concept of the afterlife i say surprising because the question of the afterlife is often taken to be among the most
• 01:00 - 01:30 fundamental for a religion whether that answer is post-mortem bliss or punishment enlightenment transformation unification with the one reincarnation are oblivion religions tend to take a surprisingly dogmatic line on a state we can't logically know that much about ibn rush just to take a rather radical historical theologian held that the literal existence of the
• 01:30 - 02:00 afterlife was one of the few doctrines in islam that could not under any circumstances be read metaphorically that the concept of the afterlife would alter through time is among the most tectonic of religious changes but that is exactly what happened in history of the afterlife for those for whom the hebrew bible called the old testament by christians is sacred scripture rather than finding heaven or hell
• 02:00 - 02:30 in that vast library of ancient israelite texts we find a very different afterlife there she'll in this episode we're going to explore this now extinct afterlife its cultural context its denzens and how it came to be replaced by other theories of the afterlife so before there was heaven or hell there was she ol i hope you'll join me as i explore the afterlife of an
• 02:30 - 03:00 afterlife i'm dr justin sledge and welcome to esoterica where we explore the arcane in history philosophy and religion [Music]
• 03:00 - 03:30 the ancient near east like virtually all cultures was rather taken with the afterlife from mesopotamia we have several different descent to the underworld epics the most famous of which stars inanna are ishtar visiting her older sister in queen aresh kagal and becoming trapped in the underworld only by her husband dizumid now enshrined in the jewish month named
• 03:30 - 04:00 tammuz and his sister becoming kind of twin alternating hostages is inanna able to escape the shadowy citadel of the underworld capital of gonzir the underworld is a dark distant place associated in the sumerian mine with the zagros mountains to the east it's often called core or just mountain and they're a mysterious language and it's a kind of shadowy gloomy version of our land baths and
• 04:00 - 04:30 light of course the egyptian culture also had a terrifically complex afterlife that underwent numerous changes through the eons of that culture's development from the automatic mummification offered by the sands of the desert to the royal deification and the ascent to the stars provided by the pyramid texts to the democratization of the afterlife and custom produce books of coming forth by
• 04:30 - 05:00 day which is also ironically named the book of the dead i i say it's ironically named that because it was actually for people who had precisely survived death and well reached the afterlife the egyptians imagined various afterlives and various means by achieving them by the new kingdom one's heart was actually weighed against the feather of cosmic justice or ma'at and failing to be sufficiently morally pure
• 05:00 - 05:30 one's soul once was consumed by the demonic amit otherwise succeeding one joined the divine osiris in the next life in the glory years prior to the bronze age collapse the people of kanaan told the epic of ba'al who defeated the watery forces of chaos in the form of the sea or yom but also descended to the underworld to engage in battle with mote or death temporarily
• 05:30 - 06:00 killed ba'al is resurrected and here the storm god forever contends with the god of drought and death in the yearly cycle of the winter reigns and the parched earth of the summer all three of these ancient cultures had complex and evolving conceptions of the afterlife thus it will be unsurprising for you to learn that the afterlife of those most famous canaanites the israelites is going to reflect
• 06:00 - 06:30 refract and remix many of their neighbors concepts into their own concept of the afterlife she'll the word die or death my vet in various forms in hebrew appears to occur exactly one thousand times in the hebrew bible with the technical name for the afterlife she'll occurring 66 times these are almost equally distributed in the prophetic
• 06:30 - 07:00 works with 21 times the wisdom works 20 times the prophetic literature shall appears 17 times and with only a smattering in the narrative text there it only appears 8 of the 66 times only 66 mentions in such a wide range of texts with life and death divine judgment and legal adherence being central themes reveals that the afterlife was simply it simply wasn't a major concern of
• 07:00 - 07:30 israelite religious or literary society despite this relative unconcern with the afterlife there is enough data to provide at least a sketch of what the concept of sheol meant to them the word almost always appears without a definite article indicating that it was a proper name though oddly it never occurs in narrative accounts of deaths which happen a lot in the hebrew bible even people killed precisely because of
• 07:30 - 08:00 religious failure we never really see something like and so and so died and they went to sheol further it's never mentioned in the legal sections of the bible as a kind of punishment or reward for obeying or disobeying the divine law those punishments and rewards are almost always this worldly and are typically cashed out in terms of life duration large families and agricultural success finally the term seems to occur through
• 08:00 - 08:30 all the literary periods captured by the hebrew bible and the word only occurs in the hebrew bible with one exception a mention in a letter from the jewish military colony on elephantine island in upper egypt given that the word shaol never appears anywhere else it seems at least reasonable to conclude that it was a uniquely israelite term for the afterlife
• 08:30 - 09:00 now typically with semitic languages etymological analysis provides us at least some clue as to what words mean unfortunately this isn't true with the term cheol scholars have provided nearly a dozen possible origins for this term there are some on the screen now though there's no scholarly agreement on the meaning of this word we just don't know what the word means as you can see we have everything
• 09:00 - 09:30 from a hebrew root or shoresh meaning something like to inquire which seems closest from a phonological point of view though not really conceptually connected to the underworld to a possible connection in acadian with the god shuwala being an epithet perhaps of arish kagal the queen of the dead and thus shall becomes a kind of hebrew place name for the underworld by association although that term only occurs twice in
• 09:30 - 10:00 the entire acadian corpus shall was also associated with terms like pit ditch and grave there are six instances also where it's described as avadon or destruction this actually goes on to become the angel of the bottomless pit in the apocalypse of john though it's also worth noting that shall never gets personified in the hebrew bible like moat in the earlier canaanite mythologies
• 10:00 - 10:30 i have to admit that none of these etymologies are terribly satisfying and that the origin of this word will likely remain mysterious the term shaol is also a great example of when a specific theological concern is brought to bear in translation the presbyterian r laird harris rejected the idea that shaol was the destination of all the dead good and evil and for theological reasons tied to his
• 10:30 - 11:00 christian faith given this he refused to read the term shaol as basically anything other than the literal grave that a corpse has put into in fact he argued that the ancient hebrews couldn't imagine anything deeper than a really deep grave for some reason because you know they never talked about the ocean or anything like that regardless this wouldn't have been a big deal
• 11:00 - 11:30 people have all kinds of let's call them odd ideas about how to do bible translation if he weren't the chairman of the committee on bible translation for the new international version or the niv edition of the bible probably the second most popular translation of the bible into english so this is a case where one guy's very idiosyncratic read of the hebrew bible basically
• 11:30 - 12:00 gutted a hugely popular translation of the bible of an entire israelite religious concept and a concept of no less importance than that of the afterlife it looks like it's going to be an early day for whiskey here at esoterica okay welcome back
• 12:00 - 12:30 so what do we know about this place cheol well the news isn't good but it at least we didn't translate it away one is always said to descend to she all after death and unlike other cultures there are no ancient israelite stories of heroes descending into shaol only to escape triumphant yes yes i know that in christian mythology jesus performs the so-called harrowing
• 12:30 - 13:00 of hell but by then the fully israelite concept of shaol as a kind of afterlife was already a bit of a distant memory i think it's better to understand the theological work in jesus's descent within a larger hellenistic rather than an israelite alone religious context regardless she always an underworld properly speaking it is literally thought to be an underground place and is associated with dirt and darkness
• 13:00 - 13:30 maggots worms stillness and silence we are told that it is the most distant place from the israelite god and that those in shaol know nothing and can offer no further praise of the divine further it appears that everyone regardless of moral righteousness or failure arrives there and that escape is impossible
• 13:30 - 14:00 while there are three accounts of physical resurrection from the dead in the hebrew bible curiously enough all three are actually associated with these shamanic prophetic characters of elijah and his companion elisha all three of those resurrections occur shortly after death and none after the body is entombed of course elijah and enoch are both famous for having never died so they don't have to escape
• 14:00 - 14:30 all but it appears that all that die can't however there are a few fleeting references to the israelite god being able to raise someone out of sheol if god likes so this never occurs in any of the texts of the hebrew bible though it's not a place of punishment there is some sense that the evil are placed in a more deep or more remote section of geographically but this could just be a
• 14:30 - 15:00 kind of poetic flourish we're also told that it is prison-like with gates and bars and that those there are bound with cords or chains there's no activity to speak of in sha'al though sluggish movement seems kind of possible those there are described as weak and inactivity seems to be the norm in the end shaol is a gloomy cave-like
• 15:00 - 15:30 realm of stillness forgetfulness silence and decay it is the eternal twilight after a death which never quite becomes oblivion while sheol represents a kind of postmortem equality there is an earlier stratum in israelite conceptions of the afterlife which more reflects their canaanite forebears in the earlier bronze age text from ugaret we learn of ghost-like
• 15:30 - 16:00 entities called rape uma although the vocalization on this word isn't quite clear these entities seem to have been semi-divine ancestor spirits often previous political leaders and military heroes who can return from the underworld to celebrate certain festivals especially the new year festival with the living at a communal drinking party called a marzic or a marseille we're not again sure of the pronunciation curiously enough
• 16:00 - 16:30 their name seems to come from a root meaning something like to heal though it isn't clear if they're the ones being healed like being healed of life you can think of socrates at the end of the phaedo or perhaps they did the healing through magical intercession or it could just mean something completely else we just don't know it's worth pointing out however that ancient near east medicine was deeply connected to exorcistic rituals to cure various illnesses
• 16:30 - 17:00 precisely caused by various kinds of malevolent ghosts something of these concepts seems to have survived into israelite culture though it appears controversially so in hebrew the rephaim describe a range of different beings though they are usually linked to unusual heroic or kind of gigantic beings like the literal giants such as og of bashan in a few places in the hebrew bible the
• 17:00 - 17:30 term seems to continue to reflect the more archaic canaanite sense of the ancient powerful dead though in the eight times this term occurs to refer to the dead it never occurs with a definite article and it seems that by that time it's entered into hebrew and has become a kind of general term for those that exist in sheol the drinking party or symposium in honor of and
• 17:30 - 18:00 with the dead the marzik or the marseille of ancient canaanite practice also seems to have continued to be practiced by the israelites though seemingly controversially it's only mentioned twice in the hebrew bible and only in the prophets amos and jeremiah and there it's vociferously condemned for various reasons likewise levitical law forbids self-mutilation on account of the dead this becomes the general basis for a
• 18:00 - 18:30 prohibition on tattooing and later rabbinical jurisprudence the only person in all of israelite literature described as having emerged for any time at all from sheol is the prophet samuel who's summoned by the ba'alat ove or the necromancer at andor at the behest of the distraught king saul as you probably know his war with the philistines was going poorly and god had gone silent in
• 18:30 - 19:00 guiding the king which is to say that the legitimate modes of divination had fallen silent out of desperation he turns to a practice that he actually outlawed the rousing of the dead to tell the future just good old-fashioned necromancy the necromancer well here she's a necromantrix look i know it's greek and not latin third declension but i had to do it necromantics is an amazing word
• 19:00 - 19:30 at any rate she is successful and samuel rises out of the earth as an elohim or a god or a divine being now i know that it's weird that the ghost of samuel would be referred to as an elohim but it's worth pointing out that in other ancient near east texts these rethaim are ghosts are often described as being elim are gods so it must have been a common idea in that time well god basically appears and confirms
• 19:30 - 20:00 that saul's been abandoned and he's going to die on the battlefield the very next day sorry saul if you're curious to learn more about israelite magical practices like the necromantrix or the ba'ala of check out my episode on that topic in the card above now whether the prophet samuel's knowledge of the future was because of his former life as a prophet they they kind of sometimes know about the future or because special knowledge is had by
• 20:00 - 20:30 the dead isn't exactly clear but such necromantic practices long predate this story and are practiced widely in various cultures at various times it seems to be a kind of metaphysical commonplace that the dead exist and know of temporal events in a way that we don't or simply can't they seem to know about time or relate to time in the events and time in a way that seems to give them foreknowledge or deep knowledge of the
• 20:30 - 21:00 past in a way that we simply don't have all proved to be the only israelite concept of the afterlife through the entire period of the composition of the hebrew bible however following the babylonian exile and contact with both persian and hellenistic cultures the israelite jewish conception of the afterlife underwent massive renovation with the rise of the apocalyptic mode of judaism in fact it's precisely during this
• 21:00 - 21:30 period that the afterlife is bifurcated into the blissful heavenly ascent a robust concept of physical resurrection and divine judgment and of course a realm of you know unending torment such as gehenna or hell these all become popular in judaism and of course go on to great fame in christianity and islam curiously the afterlife in judaism would
• 21:30 - 22:00 continue to develop with a radically kabbalistic renovation of the concept starting in the 13th century and nothing short of reincarnation being introduced and normalized starting in the 16th century i suspect the afterlife hasn't seen its last renovation if you're interested in magic as a terrorism or the occult make sure to subscribe and check out my other content on topics on esotericism i think you'll find them
• 22:00 - 22:30 interesting also if you want to support my work of providing accessible scholarly and free content on topics and as a terrorism here on youtube i hope that you consider supporting my work on patreon or with a one-time donation you can find those links below and i deeply appreciate your consideration of supporting my work on this channel this episode wouldn't have been possible without consulting the most exhaustive and up-to-date study of cheol that's
• 22:30 - 23:00 philip johnston's shades of shaol this is a wonderfully careful text and takes in a wide range of sources from the ancient near east to synthesize as clear picture as you're going to get of what sha'al was as you might imagine the text can be a little specialized at times but does really manage to be approachable nonetheless if you want an all-around academic study of the afterlife from the ancient near east to the rise of islam
• 23:00 - 23:30 then make sure to check out alan segel's life after death this massive tome which is actually really affordable used covers a profound width and depth of analysis and siegel's scholarship is incredibly top-notch you may actually know him from his study on the so-called two powers in heaven heresy which is also a really fine work of scholarship on its own finally i would also recommend richard
• 23:30 - 24:00 steiner's book disembodied souls if you're interested in that topic and as it appears in the ancient near east while this text is rather technical and it may be a bit inaccessible for the non-specialist it is a solid work of scholarship and it also includes the best analysis i've seen of that weird witches catching souls and net basket passages in ezekiel i've seen sorry that that kind of guy that kind of
• 24:00 - 24:30 got into the weeds there all of a sudden well until next time i'm dr justin sledge and thank you for watching esoterica where we explore the arcane in history philosophy and religion
• 24:30 - 25:00 you