Summary Of Part Two

Abstract

Belief in differentiated fates after death, bliss for the good and punishment for the wicked, was commonly held in Hellenistic and Roman times, as attested in several sources, both pagan and Jewish. This kind of division among the dead forms the basic core of afterlife in Luke’s story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The survey of Greco-Roman sources shows that ideas concerning the afterlife were varied. The earliest evidence, the Homeric epics, depicts an undifferentiated death: everybody dies and shares the equal fate of a shadowy life in Hades. The belief in a personal afterlife becomes a salient feature of apocalyptic eschatology. The very idea of the possibility of transcending death is the most distinct marker between apocalyptic and prophetic eschatology, even though the boundaries between these two categories are not clear-cut. Instead of a sharp polarity, “apocalyptic” and “prophetic” should be understood as being on the same continuum.Keywords: apocalyptic eschatology; differentiated fates; Greco-Roman sources; Hades; Homeric epics; Lazarus; Luke’s story; personal afterlife; Rich Man