This article concerns itself with Jewish, Christian and Islamic interpretation of the concept of the resurrection of the dead.

Jewish biblical views of the afterlife

Most of the Tanakh (Old Testament) makes no mention of any resurrection of the dead. Rather, the family tomb is the central concept in understanding biblical views of the afterlife. When Jacob dies, he says "I am about to be gathered to my kin. Bury me with my forefathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite." All the Jewish patriarchs (except Rachel) were buried in the family cave, and so were many other biblical personalities, including King Saul and King David. Herbert Brichto notes that it is "not mere sentimental respect for the physical remains that is..the motivation for the practice, but rather an assumed connection between

The early Israelites apparently believed that the graves of family, or tribe, united into one. This unified collectivity became known as Sheol. Although not well defined in the Tanakh, Sheol was a subterranean underworld where the souls of the dead went after the body died. The Babylonians had a similar underworld called Aralu, and the Greeks had one known as Hades. For biblical references to Sheol see Genesis 42:38, Isaiah 14:11, Psalm 141:7, Daniel 12:2, Proverbs 7:27 and Job 10:21,22, and 17:16, among others. Other Biblical names for Sheol were: Abbadon (ruin), found in Psalm 88:11, Job 28:22 and Proverbs 15:11; Bor (the pit), found in Isaiah 14:15, 24:22, Ezekiel 26:20; and Shakhat (corruption), found in Isaiah 38:17, Ezekiel 28:8.

However, there are a few passages in Old Testament that refer to the resurrection of the dead:

• 1 Sam. 2: 6 - "he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up"
• Job 19: 26 - "after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God"
• Isa. 26: 19 - "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise"
• Ezek. 37: 12 - "I will open your graves, and cause you to come up"
• Dan. 12: 2 - "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake"

The afterlife in the Tanakh

See: Jewish eschatology: Biblical verses

Christian views of resurrection

Most denominations of Christians believe in the concept of eternal life after death. It is generally believed that after a person's body dies, their soul still exists forever. The term resurection of the dead is generally used to refer to the idea that the dead bodies of all humanity will be reformed and rejoined with the soul at the end of the world.

Various Christian sects disagree on the exact nature of the resurrection.

Different beliefs concerning the timing

• simultaneous both of the just and the unjust
• the just are resurrected before the unjust
• only the just are resurrected
• timed with the Rapture

Different beliefs on the method

• the qualities of the resurrection body will be different from those of the body laid in the grave
• but its identity will nevertheless be preserved; it will still be the same body which rises again

Different beliefs on the end state of resurrected person

• only spiritual, a body adapted to the use of the soul in its glorified state, and to all the conditions of the heavenly state
• physical and spiritual resurrection
• glorious, incorruptible, and powerful
• like unto the glorified body of Jesus

Islamic views on the resurrection

According to Islamic beliefs, all humans are resurrected simultaneously, in the flesh, not just the spirit, since the spirit is eternal and resurrection is meaningless without referring to carnal resurrection. Humans and other creatures of Allah are then made to account for all their deeds, and their final abode — Jannah or Jahannam — is determined by Allah's Grace and justice during the Islamic Day of Judgement.

Resurrection of the dead and mythology

Many times elements of religion have a background in mythology. In the case of Resurrection of the dead, there are many who hold to the belief as fact, and see the scriptural account as the basis for this belief, but many do not necessarily regard the account as accurate, as measured by modern standards of history. Some consider the account as purely poetic; but nevertheless a true portrait of humanity's condition. The idea of myth, as used by scholars, does not presume the absence of historical basis. However, the way that the story is told, and the use to which the story is put as an explanation of the way things are, and especially the fact that a very sizeable majority of those who believe the story do not regard it as necessarily historical in order to be true, is a classic use of the Bible as myth (according to the modern scholarly use of the term).

See also

• Zombie
• Reincarnation