twot stands for theological wordbook of the old testament

TWOT STANDS FOR THEOLOGICAL WORDBOOK OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SERIES

Nothing less than all of humanity will satiate it (Proverbs 30:15 Habakkuk 2:5). Speaking of meals, the Old Testament speaks of Sheol as one who is never satisfied, always attempting to fill its belly but never achieving its goal. The place of the dead is enemy territory, ruled by the first and greatest enemy of humankind, the accuser. The dragon, the great serpent, has been cast down to eat dirt for the rest of his days, and the dirt he eats is that of his realm, the grave (Genesis 3:14). Humanity’s accuser, Satan, is prince over this house of the dead. This is even personified in Proverbs 1–9, where Lady Folly’s house, and the meal she serves there, is characterized by death. It is the realm of the dead, where all the dead go. In the Old Testament, the most common way of describing Sheol is as the house of death. 3 In what follows, we will see that, yes, Sheol is a place of darkness, but it is also a place where God still remembers his people and where he is still King. Sheol is typically viewed as under the rule of God’s enemy, Satan (“The Enemy’s Bunker”), and it is a place outside the land (“The Exilic Wilderness”).īut contrary to much modern biblical scholarship, the Old Testament also has more positive things to say about the intermediate state, and modern critical scholarship’s conclusions regarding the lack of affirmation of an afterlife in ancient Israel, and more particularly a positive vision of the afterlife, are overstated.

2 In what follows, I categorize the Old Testament’s language about Sheol in three ways, the first two of which are indeed primarily negative. The biblical writers don’t usually go into exorbitant detail about Sheol or its inhabitants, and when they do describe it, it is often pictured as dark, dusty, and gloomy (Psalm 88:6, 12 143:3). The biblical picture of Sheol in much of the Old Testament is rather shady, both in terms of the lack of specificity and in terms of actual descriptions of the place. “Sheol is a place of darkness, but it is also a place where God still remembers his people and where he is still King.” Given all the difficulty, what can we learn about Sheol from the Old Testament? And how should we think about it as Christians? 1 This critical consensus has given supposed biblical warrant to some contemporary Christian philosophers and theologians who do not believe an intermediate state is a tenable position. Further, the current consensus among biblical scholarship is that ancient Israel did not care much about the afterlife, leading many to conclude that they did not affirm an intermediate state. The Old Testament witness to Sheol is a difficult topic, made more difficult by the relative lack of explicit mention or discussion in Israel’s Scriptures of an intermediate state after death. “Sheol” is one of those unusual Old Testament words that easily confuses modern Bible readers.

TWOT STANDS FOR THEOLOGICAL WORDBOOK OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SERIES

In Jesus, God did just that: he entered the realm of the dead himself, defeating death and the grave, and filling the darkness of Sheol with the light of his resurrection.įor our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Matthew Emerson, associate professor of religion at Oklahoma Baptist University, to explain the meaning of Sheol in Scripture.

Yet Sheol is also under God’s authority, and Old Testament saints testified to his power to raise people up from the depths of Sheol. The Old Testament portrays Sheol as the bunker of humanity’s enemy, the devil, and the exilic wilderness away from the Promised Land. ABSTRACT: Several dozen times throughout Scripture, the word “Sheol” appears with reference to the afterlife.

Twot stands for theological wordbook of the old testament