In thinking about Sheol and death in the Hebrew Bible, it is worth reflecting on passages where the dead come back to life or are contacted by the living.  This does not happen much at all – a couple of instances of resuscitation and one of necromancy. Probably the most famous resuscitation – the bringing [...] The post What About People Who Come Back From the Dead in the Hebrew Bible? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

The Jewish scriptures contain a variety of different views about what happens to a person at death.   Most commonly, a person who dies is simply said to have gone to “death” – a term used some thousand times in the Bible.   Better known, but far less frequent, a person’s ultimate destination is sometimes called “Sheol,” [...] The post More on Sheol: Was it an Actual Place? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

I was recently asked what the Old Testament teaches about "hell" and whether that's what "Sheol" refers to.  If not (or if so), what it the view of the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible?   This is a topic I dealt with in my book Heaven and Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020) and I posted on [...] The post What Is Sheol in the Hebrew Bible? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

I quote: “You need to realize that death is nothing to us.   Everything that is good and bad in our lives comes from the experiences of our senses.  But death brings an end to our senses/experiences.  And so having the right understanding – that death is nothing to us – makes our mortality enjoyable, not [...] The post “Death is nothing to us.” What Do YOU Think? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

In my previous post I discussed one of the passages of the New Testament that has traditionally been used to support the idea of Purgatory, the place that most of the “saved” go after death to be purged of their sins (Matt 5:26  “you won’t get out of there until you have paid the last [...] The post What If I Commit the Unforgivable Sin? Can It Be Purged in Purgatory? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

Yesterday I began to talk about the Martyrdom of Perpetua, one of the most interesting and moving texts to come down to us from early Christianity.  It is an account of a 23-year old Roman matron who is willing to die a gruesome death for her Christian faith.  Among other things, the text shows that [...] The post Dreaming of Purgatory appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

I was recently asked about "purgatory, a concept misunderstood by most people I've ever met, including nearly every Protestant (!) but also some lifelong Catholics.  I had done a series of posts on the issue years ago, while I was doing research for my book on Heaven and Hell.  I had just read an interesting [...] The post The Martyrdom of Perpetua and the Rise of Purgatory appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

Last Week I published the first of three guest posts by blog member Daniel Kohanski, based on a book that he recently published that will be of interest to many blog readers.  Here now is the second post. ******************************             Apocryphile Press has just published my latest book, A God of Our Invention: How Religion [...] The post Why Would Evolving Beliefs about Sin Lead to the Idea of an Afterlife? Guest Post by Daniel Kohanski appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

In my previous post I started to discuss the famous doctrine of the “Harrowing of Hell,” where Christ is said to have descended to Hades after his death (since he was a human, after all, and when humans die, they go to Hades.  Part of the reason for the doctrine, then, is that if he [...] The post Did Christ Save *Everyone* When He Descended to Hades? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

Someone on the blog recently asked me about the idea that after Jesus’ death, and before his resurrection, he “descended into hell.”  This is an affirmation found in the Apostle’s Creed, and so continues to be recited by millions of Christians still today.  But what does it mean? Throughout the history of the church it [...] The post Did Jesus Descend to Hell After He Died? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more