Texts in Conversation
Revelation depicts Death and Hades being thrown into the lake of fire, similar to 4 Ezra that describes death being abolished at the final judgment. Both reflect an apocalyptic tradition where death is a hostile power that must be eliminated.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4 Ezra 8:53
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
51 But understand for yourself, and for those who inquire concerning the glory of those like you, 52 because paradise is opened to you. The tree of life is planted. The time to come is prepared. Plenteousness is made ready. A city is built. Rest is allowed. Goodness is perfected, and wisdom is perfected beforehand. 53 The root of evil is sealed up from you. Weakness is done away from you, and death is hidden. Hell and corruption have fled into forgetfulness. 54 Sorrows have passed away, and in the end, the treasure of immortality is shown. 55 Therefore ask no more questions concerning the multitude of those who perish.
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Revelation 20:14
New Testament
12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.
Date: 92–96 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... "the idea of Christ's defeat of the powers of Hades is sufficiently explained from the Jewish apocalyptic expectation that at the last day God would 'reprove the angel of death' (2 Bar 42:8), command Sheol to release the souls of the dead (2 Bar 42:8), abolish death (LAB 3:10), close the mouth of Sheol (LAB 3:10) or seal it up (2 Bar 21:23; compare TeachSilv 103:6-7). In the expectation of resurrection there was a sense of death and its realm as a power which had to be broken by God (compare also Matt 16:18; 1 Cor 15:44-45; Rev 20:14; 4 Ezra 8:53). These ideas were transferred to the context of Christ's descent to Hades because of the early Christian belief that Christ's death and resurrection were the eschatological triumph of God over death. The details, as we have seen, derived from that process of Christological exegesis of the Old Testament which supplied so much of the phraseology and imagery of early Christian belief ..."
Richard Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, NovTSup 93 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 43.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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