Afterlife and Resurrection Beliefs in the Pseudepigrapha by Jan A. Sigvartsen

Abstract

Reviewed by: Afterlife and Resurrection Beliefs in the Pseudepigrapha by Jan A. Sigvartsen Glenn B. Siniscalchi jan a. sigvartsen, Afterlife and Resurrection Beliefs in the Pseudepigrapha (Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies 31; London: T&T Clark, 2019). Pp. xxiv + 331. $39.95. This volume was deliberately written as a companion to Sigvartsen's earlier book, Afterlife and Resurrection Beliefs in the Apocrypha and Apocryphal Literature (see preceding review). Together these books constitute two of the most penetrating studies on the ways in which Jews of the Second Temple era understood the afterlife; they also help to bring the study of Jewish eschatological visions (including the resurrection) to center stage as a major area of biblical scholarship. S.'s books should also be consulted by NT specialists for information about the religious background for the earliest Christians' belief in Jesus's resurrection. The origins of mainstream belief in the resurrection are often traced back to the Second Temple period. During this time, after the Jews came into contact with surrounding religious cultures, they began to synthesize and amalgamate different views of the afterlife as part of their own religious framework. Thus, "multiple afterlife beliefs developed and appeared in their literature, in an attempt to solve the problem of theodicy. By the end of this period, a belief in bodily resurrection had become the mainstream belief in both surviving strands of Second Temple Judaism" (p. 3). In particular, S. exposits the Pseudepigrapha for the purposes of understanding ancient Judaism, resurrection, and the afterlife. These writings include all books of the Second Temple period apart from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, the NT, and other rabbinic material. They are characterized as Testaments, expansions on the Tanakh, wisdom and philosophical literature, prayers, psalms, and odes. Apocryphal writings might also be considered pseudepigraphical, but S. covered these writings in his previous volume. In the first few chapters, S. observes that pseudepigraphical writings that either state or imply a belief in the resurrection refer or allude to the Tanakh as the basis of their faith. Jews rephrased, reshaped, and repurposed the Hebrew Bible to clarify and expand their belief in resurrection. This pattern is found repeatedly throughout the pseudepigraphical writings. S. also considers the ways in which Jews conceived of the posthumous body and how their understandings compare with those in the NT. Sigvartsen is highly organized in outlining the relevant passages that speak about the afterlife and eschatological resurrection. For example, "Each literary work containing a 'life-after-death' view seems to present a unique perspective. … This study identified eighteen distinct and complete views" (p. 209). To be sure, the book provides the reader with several tables to organize the various Jewish understandings of the afterlife. The thesis is that "there is no progression from a basic to a more complex death and resurrection view as multiple levels of complexity are attested throughout this period. … [T]here is no linear [End Page 339] development of the resurrection belief; rather, multiple views co-existed, although an eschatological bodily resurrection belief became the central tenet for both Rabbinic Judaism and the Christian Church" (p. 209). This book is extremely helpful in organizing ancient Jewish conceptions of the afterlife (including the resurrection). One is bound to develop a comprehensive grasp of the entire panoply of Jewish viewpoints concerning the afterlife after reading S.'s two books. Glenn B. Siniscalchi Saint Meinrad Seminary and Graduate School of Theology, Rockport, IN 47577 Copyright © 2022 The Catholic Biblical Association of America