A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible

A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible

Postmortem existence in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was rooted in mortuary practices and conceptualized through the embodiment of the dead. But this idea of the afterlife was not hopeless or fatalistic, consigned to the dreariness of the tomb. The dead were cherished and remembered, their bones were cared for, and their names lived on as ancestors. This book examines the concept of the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible by studying the treatment of the dead, as revealed both in biblical literature and in the material remains of the southern Levant. The mortuary culture of Judah during the Iron Age is the starting point for this study. The practice of collective burial inside a Judahite rock-cut bench tomb is compared to biblical traditions of family tombs and joining one's ancestors in death. This archaeological analysis, which also incorporates funerary inscriptions, will shed important insight into concepts found in biblical literature such as the construction of the soul in death, the nature of corpse impurity, and the idea of Sheol. In Judah and the Hebrew Bible, death was a transition that was managed through the ritual actions of the living. The connections that were forged through such actions, such as ancestor veneration, were socially meaningful for the living and insured a measure of immortality for the dead. "Suriano has produced a nuanced, yet accessible study of the history of death in the Hebrew Bible that astutely intertwines insights from material culture of Iron Age Judah and from relevant bibli-cal texts. It will help scholars, theologians, and pastors reflect on the role of rituals that relate to death, the significant place that the body occupies in mortuary practices, and the relational layers that surround death in which the family and the individual, the dead and the living, relate to one another and to the Deity." -- Safwat Marzouk, Bible and Theology "This is a well-written, erudite book that explores a subject of great interest to most of humanity..." -- Philip S. Johnston , University of Cambridge, Review of Biblical Literature "I recommend the book to biblical scholars, archeologists, as well as those interested in various ancient understandings of death." -- Tyler Mayfield, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Religious Studies Review "Anyone acquainted with the problem of death in the HB will know how formidable and tortuous a task it is to write about it. In this recent contribution to the subject, S. provides a fresh and detailed look at Judahite mortuary practices with special emphasis on the Iron Age bench tomb...S. has proffered some interesting ideas in a valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on this topic, and one that will likely generate further research." -- Seth Cole, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament "Suriano is to be commended for this effort to bring social and archaeological questions to bear on the meaning of the Hebrew text. He has made an impressive contribution to the study of death in ancient Israel." -- Matthew McAffee, Welch College, Bulletin for Biblical Research Matthew Suriano is an Assistant Professor in the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on the history and culture of ancient Israel through the integration of biblical literature, Northwest Semitic inscriptions, and the archaeology of the Levant. He received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.