What Does the Bible Say About the Afterlife?
The concept of the afterlife, particularly heaven, and hell, has been the subject of fascination and contemplation across various religious and cultural traditions. But, what does the Bible say about these topics?
The afterlife has been the subject of fascination and contemplation across virtually all religions and cultures—particularly the concepts of heaven and hell. Though spoken of with confidence and sometimes a good amount of dogmatism, the Bible actually leaves much room for discussion.
Fortunately, these have been deeply discussed, yielding diverse, sometimes surprising insights while preserving mystery. Echoing the Rabbinic tradition, the New Testament carries forward some of these core assumptions; thus, we will seek to understand some of these perspectives from this tradition.
Where necessary, we will redirect from later traditions that have crept in, sometimes adding only fear and concern, distracting us from the profundity that can inform our daily lives.
Foundation
As discussed previously, much of what we have available to us on topics like; Heaven, Hell, Afterlife, and Messiah¹, have been revealed through the unique framework of Jewish hermeneutics² - balanced between majority and minority opinions. Though some things are more solidly agreed upon, the Sages have left a significant amount of room for diversity of thought and personal experiences.
We might ask, "Why weren't these written about clearly in the Bible?"
