@ronandcarol Belief in an afterlife, (i.e. a continuation of life after the death of the body) was not a Jewish belief originally. Around the second century BCE, Jews, under influence from Platonic Greek teachings about an immortal soul, gradually changed their view about life after death.
How the Major Religions View the Afterlife - Dictionary definition of How the Major Religions View the Afterlife | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary
Christianity is one of many religions that adopted this pagan notion which is nothing more than a perpetuation of the first lie that the devil told in Eden....
"you surely will not die". It was God who told them that they would "surely die" if they disobeyed his only command....so who lied? (Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:4)
It is clear from the scriptures that Solomon and his father, King David wrote about death from the ancient Jewish perspective.
Animals are called "souls" in the OT and yet, they are not promised everlasting life.
Solomon noted that sin made humans just like the animals, with an expectation of death. Humans were not created to die but to lenjoy everlasting life on earth. (Genesis 3:22-24) God took away the only means to keep on living. (Genesis 3:22-24)
Animals and humans breathe the same air and die the same death.
He wrote at Ecclesiastes 3:18-20:
"I also thought to myself, “It is for the sake of people, so God can clearly show them that they are like animals.
19 For the fate of humans and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath.
There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting.
20 Both go to the same place, both come from the dust, and to dust both return."
Also at Ecclesiastes 9:5-6;10:
"...because the living know that they will die. But the dead know nothing at all. There is no more reward for them; even the memory of them is lost. 6 Their love and their hate, as well as their zeal, are already long gone. They will never again have a stake in all that happens under the sun.
10 Whatever you are capable of doing, do with all your might because there’s no work, thought, knowledge, or wisdom in the grave [sheol], which is where you are headed."
The grave was "sheol" but the definition of this word changed meaning with the adoption of later Hellenic beliefs. Once a person stopped breathing, all consciousness ceased. People "slept" in their graves awaiting a resurrection.
King David likewise stated:
Psalm 146:4:
"His spirit [breath] departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish."
The Hebrew word "spirit" here is ruʹach, which corresponds with the Greek pneuʹma. It means breath or air. (pneumonia and pneumatic are familiar English words taken from the Greek)
God breathed "spirit" (pneuma) into Adam causing him to become a "nephesh" (a living soul)
The word "soul" in Hebrew always meant a living, breathing creature.....it was never used to describe a disembodied spirit. The only spirits mentioned in the Bible were angels....either those faithful to God or those who became demons. As demons can impersonate the dead, the Israelites were forbidden to practice spiritism. (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)
Since Christ was Jewish, he never taught about an immortal soul, quite the contrary. When he was informed that his friend Lazarus was gravely ill, he did not hurry to cure him, even though he could have.....why? Because he wanted to demonstrate something more wonderful....a full bodily resurrection. He waited for Lazarus to die before he made his way to their home. Read the account in John 11:11-14 and ask where Jesus said Lazarus was? If Lazarus was somewhere better, then why would Jesus bring him back to this life only to die again later?
When God created humans, there was no mention of an afterlife at all......no heaven or hell.....just life or death.
Genesis 2:7:
"The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. [nephesh]"
Genesis 3:19
"By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”
The Bible's teaching of a resurrection was replaced with the pagan notion of life after death. There is no teaching of an afterlife in Jewish scripture. And Jesus by his own resurrection showed that there are two kinds of resurrection, both requiring a restoration to life, but in different kinds of bodies. For those chosen to rule with Christ, they will experience a resurrection like his. They were to be resurrected "first". (Revelation 20:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17) Jesus was given a spirit body so that he could return to his Father in heaven. (1 Peter 3:18) His co-rulers also are given an immortal spirit body in order to dwell in the presence of God.
But Jesus also promised that "the meek shall inherit the earth" so the kingdom that will rule from heaven will have earthly subjects. (Revelation 21:2-4) This was God's first purpose which he has never altered. (Isaiah 55:11)
Our beliefs about a lot of things have to be molded by scripture in the original language, not from the teachings of an apostate church rendering scripture with biased pagan notions that were introduced centuries after the scriptures were written.
