Resurrection in Early Jewish Texts

In most of the Hebrew Bible, death is final; the deceased descend forever to Sheol, the underworld. While some prophetic sections may be understood to predict the eventual resurrection of the dead (consider Isaiah 26 and Ezekiel 37), these passages may also be read as metaphors for a national revival. Similarly, various psalms extolling God for raising the psalmist from Sheol should be read as figuratively thanking God for saving the psalmist from near death. The Jewish belief in the literal resurrection of the dead first appears in the Book of Watchers, in the third century BCE. Its most famous expressions are echoed in the later books of Daniel and 2 Maccabees. It is not always clear whether the resurrected entity refers to the soul, the body, or both together.

A central question debated in ancient Jewish sources is whether resurrection serves as a necessary condition for God’s ultimate judgment—and thus whether both the righteous and the wicked are resurrected (as in Daniel and 1 Enoch) or whether resurrection itself is a reward exclusively for the righteous (as in 2 Maccabees).

According to Josephus, Second Temple–period Jewish sects debated the reality of bodily resurrection. While the Sadducees and Essenes rejected the notion, the Pharisees adopted it (see Beliefs of Pharisees and Sadducees). In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is said to have supported the Pharisaic view against that of the Sadducees.

Among those Jews who affirmed resurrection, the question naturally arose as to what the resurrected body would look like. This is the subject of 2 Baruch and 1 Corinthians. How would it differ from the body before death? Would the body return as young or old? Bright or dark? Corruptible or incorruptible?

As some Jewish “heretics” (or sectarians) rejected a belief in the resurrection of the body, the rabbis were keenly interested in showing how the Torah itself contained the idea. The rabbis also debated whether, upon resurrection, a person would be the same or different.