Canter Bridge

The author organises this encyclopaedic study under four parts: Death, the Underworld, the Dead, and the Afterlife. An introductory apology for the study confronts the reader with a paradox: death and the underworld are fascinating topics for Judaism, Christianity, and modern scholarship, yet ‘Israel’s religious writers were not particularly concerned with the underworld or with the dead. The related to Yahweh in this life, and were relatively uninterested in the life hereafter.’

In Part A, the manifold figures under which death appears in the Old Testament are exhaustively surveyed, noting that death is sometimes seen as natural while at other moments is viewed as a contradiction and adversary of the life which Yahweh has created. A second chapter reviews practices surrounding death and burial in ancient Israel, concluding that ‘religious rites either did not occur or were of such minimal importance that they have left no trace in any of the varied literary strands of the Old Testament. Little continued interest in the remains of the dead is evident.

In his consideration of the underworld (Part B), Johnston finds an Israelite distinctive in its relative disregard for Sheol, which when it is mentioned is an unwelcome fate, sparsely described, and always in first-person accounts rather than reportage. The argument for late editorial extraction of the theme is discussed, then dismissed.

Arguing that most underworld language is metaphorical, Johnston criticizes studies by Pedersen and Barth that suggested that the Israelite sufferer actually experienced Sheol in this life. Under the questioning heading ‘The Pervasive Underworld?’, Johnston examines uses of earth, water, and similar words which the Dahood school has understood as references to the underworld. He answers the title’s query in the negative, concluding that water and earth are physically associated with the underworld, but never used as names for it. The probability of accidental or intentional minimization of a pervasive underworld by the tradents of the biblical text is dismissed.

In Part C, Johnston turns to the dead themselves, noting biblical texts that show people naming, consulting, and honouring them. Again, his emphasis falls on how unimportant the dead were to living Israelites. Part of his effort is dedicated to deconstructing scholarly reconstructions of practices that involved the dead, usually by observing their tenuous basis.

Unlike related ANE literatures, the Old Testament is largely uninterested in the consultation of the dead. There exist a few prohibitions of necromancy and scattered references to the practice, but just one account. Johnston claims that all literary layers of the witch of Endor story at 1 Sam 28 show the practice to be both effective and illegal.

Johnston find reconstructions of a cult of the dead textually dubious and methodologically spurious. Further, the paucity of censure of such cult speaks for its scarcity or absence. The biblical record and, Johnston judges, Israelites themselves were largely unconcerned with rites that honoured the dead.

In Part D, Johnston discusses the afterlife under the headings of ‘Communion Beyond Death’ (ch. 9, pp. 199-217) and ‘Resurrection from Death’ (ch. 10., pp. 218-239). Some biblical characters escaped death, but they did not become paradigms of subsequent experience. Johnston cautiously analyses possible intimations of hope beyond death in the Psalms, Proverbs, and the crux at Job 19.25-27. While the Proverbs and the Job passage are found not to affirm communion after death, the psalmists do. However, they provide no details beyond the hope of further communion with God. Johnston’s final chapter argues that a `distinctively Israelite’ notion of individual resurrection was not significantly influenced by other faiths.

Rather, this idea—absent in Old Testament witness but present in Second Temple speculation and New Testament assumptions—emerged from ‘Yahweh’s proclaimed power to renew life, its occasional experience in life and in vision, his authority over the underworld, and the desire for unending communion with (Yahweh).’

This book takes its place as an indispensable—because encyclopaedic—guide to the Old Testament discussion of the themes it treats, a feature that is complemented by a welcome layer of sober interpretation.