Death & Life In Hebrew Religion

I know I have touched on this before in this blog, but I don't think I've reflected on it extensively. There are some theological insights that change everything, that totally open up scripture. Somebody gives you some background information and you never look at the text again. You Biblical education is forever measured in two parts: before this insight and after. And over, and over, you find countless passages that have whole new meanings and you can see them from totally different angles. These kinds of insights will often change the way you look at life as a whole. You learn to "put on" the perspective of the ancient Israelites, and it changes your worldview. Things look different, illuminated with a new truth you'd not been able to access before.

One such insight, discussed quite often, is realizing that water, especially the water of large seas and rivers, is identified as the manifestation of chaos in the world. Another is this: the Jewish religion developed in ideological opposition to the religions of Egypt, which were deeply focused on death, the worship of death gods, and the afterlife. 

Once I realized this, the whole Bible opened up. Judaism is a life-affirming and world-affirming religion. Much of the Law is centered around the idea of keeping symbols of life and symbols of death separate. This is why steak and milk cannot be eaten together. For milk is a symbol of life, meat of death. It is also why Rabbis cannot touch dead bodies. I know of no other religion where the spiritual leader cannot touch the body at a funeral.

This is also why Hebraism developed no concept of the afterlife until around 300 BC. Having spent so long in captivity working on tombs and the statues of dead men, they focused on the meaning of life in this world. The very escape from Egypt, was an escape from death into life.

Think about all the ways in which this insight enlightens different aspects of scripture:

God's name is I AM

God's name El-Shaddai as "the Nursing Lord"

His creative impulse

The focus on Abraham and his desire for descendants

The repeating pattern of barren couples suddenly having children

The crucifixion and resurrection

The personification of death in Paul's letters and in The Book of Revelation

It brings up so much. And looking at the world, it changes one's very existence. Finding God is about finding life, meaningful and enjoyed. Religion is about life-affirmation. Finding joy in just existing, in living and breathing, is what it is all about. Further, belief in the afterlife is not about escaping this life, but about living life with a deeper sense that what we do in this world matters, and matters ultimately. It is all about living life to the fullest, and in the full living, discovering a dimension of divinity, ie, finding God,