Texts in Conversation
Revelation follows a Jewish tradition in Pseudo-Philo and other apocalyptic writings where Hades and Gehenna are treated as figures that must release the dead and fall silent at the end of the age, showing that death itself will lose its power.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 3:10
Classical
10 “But when the years of the world are fulfilled, then the light will cease and the darkness be quenched, and I will bring the dead to life and raise up from the earth those who sleep. Hell will pay its debt and destruction give back what was entrusted to it, so that I may repay each person according to his works and according to the fruit of his thoughts, until I judge between the soul and the flesh. The world will rest, death will be quenched, and Hell will shut its mouth. The earth will not be without offspring nor barren for those who dwell in it; and no one who has been justified in me will be defiled. There will be another earth and another heaven, an everlasting dwelling.”
Revelation 20:12
New Testament
10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 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.
Search:
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 Baruch 42:8), command Sheol to release the souls of the dead (2 Baruch 42:8), abolish death (LAB 3:10), close the mouth of Sheol (LAB 3:10) or seal it up (2 Baruch 21:23). 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 Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 15:44-45; Revelation 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 ..."
Bauckham, Richard
The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses
(pp. 269-289) Brill, 1998
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.