Abstract
The Hebrew Bible often portrays Sheol in a manner evocative of the tomb. In texts such as Psalm 88 the tomb is a dreary and isolating symbol. Yet this contrasts with the positive role of the family tomb where the dead are reunited with their ancestors. The ritual analysis of Judahite bench tombs, however, reveals a dynamic concept of death. This suggests that the varying images of the tomb in biblical literature were not contradictory, but reflective of a process of dying that began with burial.
Highlights
It is well recognized that the modern concept of immortality is generally incompatible with ancient concepts of death, dying, and the dead
The journal is archived by Library and Archives Canada and is accessible for consultation and research at the Electronic Collection site maintained by Library and Archives Canada
It is not possible to analyze every occurrence of Sheol in the Hebrew Bible; Ps 88 will serve as a test case, because of its enigmatic nature
Summary
Understood to be the biblical place of the dead, Sheol is described in various ways in biblical literature. Barr reviewed the poetic descriptions of death and questioned the nuance of the word in biblical literature, coming to the tentative conclusion that the term was inconsistent with the modern biological definition of death.[19] Influenced by the important work of Christoph Barth,[20] Barr stated,21 “the conceptual boundaries of ‘death’ are serious but description of interment practices Rather, it is reflective of the ideology generated by communal burial customs, where the collective presence of the dead inside the family tomb is consonant with the evocation of collective ancestors. In the social process of dying,[28] beginning with biological death, the physical changes in the corpse demarcated conceptual boundaries (the living and the dead) and reorganized social contexts (the individual and the collective) The contours of this process can be traced through the application of ritual-theory to the Judahite bench tomb, which in turn can shed further light on the symbolic significance of death and interment in the Hebrew Bible.[29]. Geertz; see The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 89–91
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