Os que dormem no pó da terra: O percurso histórico-teológico do imaginário da ressurreição no Antigo Testamento

Abstract

This paper deals with the Hebrew notions of resurrection present throughout the whole trajectory of the Old Testament. The hypothesis is that the notions of resurrection are present in all of the Old Testament but they only gain more consistency around the 8th century b.C. and evolve for six centuries until they become more mature concepts. It is possible that this more mature concept of a belief in the resurrection of the dead in the Old Testament could be the result of a trajectory within the history of Israel, where first there was the belief in the resurrection of Israel and then came the belief in the resurrection of the Israelites. However, it is not possible to understand what the resurrection of the dead is about without understanding how the people of Yahweh understood death and this, in its turn, cannot be understood without understanding life. That is why this work deals with life and death in the Old Testament, as well as brings reflections on the origin of death and the types of death, the destiny of the dead and Sheol, the funeral rites and the historical trajectory of the imagining of the resurrection in the Old Testament based on the pre-state Israel going through the monarchy period, the Psalms, the exile up to the post exilic period, which, in its turn, contemplates the Persian and Greek periods besides the Roman period, but of this last period we do not have records in the Old Testament. Alongside the historical aspects, the religious aspects will also be dealt with as also the influence and contribution of the other peoples into the religious world of the people of Israel with regard to life, death and resurrection in the Old Testament.