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Course 6 · Lesson 6.3

Development in Jewish thought: angels, resurrection, wisdom and law

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 6 outline

Module 1: Israel in the Ancient Near East

  1. Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan: the world of the Old Testament
  2. What archaeology and ancient texts can and cannot show
  3. Genesis 1 to 3 beside other ancient creation accounts
  4. Ancient cosmology and how Christians and Jews read Genesis

Module 2: Covenant: Abraham and Moses

  1. What a covenant is, and covenant forms in the ancient world
  2. The covenants with Noah and Abraham
  3. The exodus and the covenant at Sinai
  4. The Torah: law, worship and the tabernacle
  5. Covenant in Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed thought

Module 3: Kingship in Israel

  1. From the judges to the first kings
  2. David, Jerusalem and the promise of a lasting house
  3. Solomon, the temple and the divided kingdom
  4. How Samuel and Kings tell the story: sources and purpose

Module 4: The Prophets, Exile and Restoration

  1. What a prophet was in Israel and in the ancient world
  2. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah: justice, loyalty and judgment
  3. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the fall of Jerusalem
  4. The return, Ezra, Nehemiah and the rebuilt temple
  5. How the prophetic books were formed: the debate over Isaiah and others

Module 5: Wisdom and Apocalyptic Writing

  1. Proverbs and the way of the wise
  2. Job and Ecclesiastes: wisdom that questions
  3. What apocalyptic writing is: Daniel and its setting
  4. Reading apocalyptic images responsibly

Module 6: Second Temple Judaism and the Development of Jewish Thought

  1. Persian, Greek and Maccabean periods
  2. Temple, synagogue and the main groups in Jewish life
  3. Development in Jewish thought: angels, resurrection, wisdom and law
  4. Sources: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the deuterocanonical books and Josephus

Module 7: Messianic Expectation and the Shape of the Covenants

  1. Anointed ones in the Old Testament: king, priest, prophet
  2. Messianic texts in the prophets and psalms
  3. How Jews and Christians read the messianic texts
  4. The promise of a new covenant
  5. Mapping the development of covenant across the Old Testament

All courses

Program / Course 6: Old Testament Theology and History / Lesson 6.3

What you will learn

  • Trace the growth of Jewish teaching about angels and evil spirits.
  • Describe how belief in resurrection and in an afterlife developed.
  • Explain how wisdom was identified with the Torah and personified.
  • Discuss the debate over outside influences on Jewish thought and the view that these ideas developed from within.

The big idea

Jewish thought did not stand still after the exile. Teaching about angels and evil spirits grew richer. Hope for the resurrection of the dead became clear, and some writers spoke of the immortality of the soul. Wisdom came to be identified with the Torah, and Torah became the center of religious life. Scholars debate how much of this came from contact with Persian and Greek ideas and how much developed from older Israelite roots. Most agree that both were involved.

Key terms

Angelology
Teaching about angels, their ranks, names and roles.
Resurrection
The belief that the dead will be raised to bodily life by God.
Immortality of the soul
The belief that the soul survives death. It is a Greek idea that appears in some Jewish writings.
Sheol
In older texts the shadowy place of the dead, where little is expected.
Dualism
A view that the world is divided between two opposing forces or powers. Forms of dualism range from moderate to strict.
Pseudepigrapha
Jewish writings of this period attributed to ancient figures such as Enoch, not included in most canons.
Wisdom of Ben Sira
A book also called Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, written about 180 BC in Hebrew by a Jerusalem teacher and translated into Greek by his grandson.

Background

Ideas change in every living tradition, and the Judaism of the Second Temple period was a living one. The earlier books of the Old Testament say little about angels beyond the angel of the Lord and the heavenly court. They speak of the dead as going down to Sheol, and most texts show little hope for life beyond death. Psalm 6:5 asks who will give God thanks in Sheol. Ecclesiastes 9:5 says that the dead know nothing.

By the first century, large parts of Judaism affirmed resurrection, spoke of named angels and spirits, and treated the Torah as the embodiment of divine wisdom. These changes can be traced through texts written between about 300 BC and AD 100, including the late books of the Old Testament, the deuterocanonical books, the pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Scholars debate the causes. Some stress influence from Persian religion with its angels, dualism and final renewal, and from Greek philosophy. Others stress internal development, arising from prophetic hope and from the experience of persecution that made it hard to believe that justice would come in this life. The question remains open, and these influences are not exclusive.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Angels and evil spirits

In Daniel, angels have names and offices: Gabriel explains visions (Daniel 8:16 and 9:21) and Michael is the prince who protects Israel (Daniel 10:21 and 12:1). The book of Tobit, accepted by Catholics and Orthodox, features the angel Raphael as a healing companion. The Book of Enoch, a Jewish work not included in most Bibles, tells of rebel angels called the Watchers who descended to earth and fathered giants, an expansion of the brief story in Genesis 6:1 to 4.

In earlier books, the figure called the satan, or the accuser, is a member of the heavenly court (Job 1, Zechariah 3). In later writings, such as Jubilees and the Qumran scrolls, evil figures like Mastema and Belial lead forces of darkness. The fully developed picture of Satan as the enemy of God appears in these centuries. The New Testament assumes much of this angelology.

Step 2: Resurrection and the afterlife

The roots of resurrection hope lie in the image of national renewal in Ezekiel 37 and in the promise of Isaiah 26:19 that the dead shall live. Daniel 12:2 states plainly that many who sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life. In 2 Maccabees 7, martyrs affirm that God will raise them, and the mother tells her sons that the Creator will give them life again.

Other writers spoke differently. The Wisdom of Solomon, written in Greek in Alexandria, says that the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and that their hope is full of immortality (Wisdom 3:1 to 4). Ben Sira appears to hold to the older view and speaks of the dead as silent. The Pharisees affirmed resurrection and the Sadducees denied it. Different Jews held different views, which the New Testament reflects (Acts 23:8).

Step 3: Wisdom and Torah

Proverbs 8 describes Wisdom as God’s companion in creation. Around 180 BC, Ben Sira wrote that Wisdom came forth from the mouth of the Most High and sought a resting place, and God commanded her to dwell in Jacob. He then states that all this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded (Sirach 24:23, in the traditional numbering). Wisdom and Torah are identified.

The Wisdom of Solomon takes a different path, describing Wisdom as a breath of the power of God and a reflection of eternal light (Wisdom 7:25 and 26). In Alexandria, Philo described the divine Logos, or Word, as an intermediary between God and the world. These streams helped shape the language later used in the New Testament and in early Christian theology about Christ as Wisdom and Word.

Step 4: Law at the center

After the exile, the Torah became the center of Jewish life. Ezra and Nehemiah show the public reading of the law. The Maccabean crisis made keeping the law a test of loyalty to God. Groups developed their own methods of interpreting it: Pharisaic tradition, Essene rules and the legal interpretations found in Jubilees and the Temple Scroll. Some Jewish writings, such as Jubilees, retell Genesis and Exodus with an emphasis on the law’s eternal validity, and say the festivals were observed in heaven.

Scholars sometimes use the phrase covenantal nomism to describe this outlook, meaning that the law was kept in response to God’s covenant and not to earn it. This phrase comes from the modern scholar E. P. Sanders and has been widely adopted and also criticized. It has changed how many interpreters see the Judaism of Jesus’s and Paul’s time.

  1. Which factors might have encouraged the growth of angelology in this period?
  2. Why might belief in resurrection have arisen in a time of persecution?
  3. How do the Wisdom of Solomon and Ben Sira differ about the afterlife?
  4. What does it mean to identify Wisdom with the Torah?
  5. What reasons are given for and against Persian influence on Jewish thought?
  6. What do these developments contribute to the background of the New Testament?

Examples

Michael the prince

In Daniel 12:1 Michael is the great prince who stands up for the people at a time of trouble. In the Qumran War Scroll he leads the forces of light. The Letter of Jude refers to Michael the archangel. The development of named angels in this line of texts is visible.

The righteous in the hand of God

Wisdom 3 speaks to those who think the righteous have died in vain, saying that they are at peace. The language is of the immortality of the soul more than of bodily resurrection, which shows a Greek-influenced way of speaking of hope.

Wisdom pitches her tent

In Sirach 24, Wisdom speaks in her own voice and says that she dwelt in Jerusalem and took root in an honored people. The image prepares for later Christian language in John 1 of the Word who dwelt among us.

Different perspectives

Jewish readers

Rabbinic Judaism affirmed resurrection as a basic belief, and the Mishnah says that one who denies that resurrection is taught in the Torah has no share in the world to come. Jewish thought has also held views of the soul’s survival. Jewish scholars view these developments as growth from within the tradition, in dialogue with surrounding cultures.

Catholic readers

The Catholic Church accepts Tobit, Wisdom and Sirach as Scripture and sees in these books the preparation for Christian teaching on angels, resurrection and the Word. The Church also teaches that revelation developed through history and was completed in Christ.

Orthodox readers

The Orthodox honor Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and read Wisdom texts in the liturgy as pointing to the Mother of God and to Christ. They see the late Old Testament as a true development of revelation under the guidance of the Spirit.

Protestant readers

Protestants do not treat the deuterocanonical books as Scripture but many read them for background. Evangelical scholars often note that the hope of resurrection is rooted in earlier texts such as Job 19, Isaiah 26 and Ezekiel 37, and not just in late influence.

Scholarly views

Scholars emphasize the variety of views in the Second Temple period and caution against single stories of influence. Many accept both foreign influence and internal growth, with disagreement about their proportions.

Why it matters

The New Testament assumes beliefs about angels, resurrection and wisdom that took shape in this period. A reader who thinks the Old Testament says all the same things as the New will be puzzled by the differences. Seeing how the ideas developed shows that Christianity arose from within a changing Judaism, and it also lets Jews and Christians see where they share roots.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Resurrection was invented by Christians.

Correction: The hope of resurrection appears in Jewish writings from at least the second century BC and was held by Pharisees. Christianity took it up and gave it a new center in Jesus’s resurrection.

Misunderstanding: Jewish thought was fixed once the Hebrew Bible was written.

Correction: Jewish ideas continued to develop in the Second Temple and rabbinic periods, as in every living tradition.

Misunderstanding: Foreign influence means the ideas are not authentic.

Correction: Traditions that hold their ideas as revealed also accept that God worked through history and culture. Whether an idea came from outside does not decide whether it is true.

Knowledge check

How did Jewish belief about angels develop?

Earlier books have the angel of the Lord and the heavenly court. Daniel names Gabriel and Michael. Tobit has Raphael, and Enoch and Jubilees tell of rebel angels and spirits of evil such as Mastema. The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of Belial and the sons of light and darkness. Scholars debate how much Persian ideas contributed.

What are two texts that speak of resurrection before the New Testament?

Daniel 12:2 says that many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame. 2 Maccabees 7 tells of martyrs who affirm that God will raise them to life. Isaiah 26:19 and Ezekiel 37 are earlier texts that some read as hope for resurrection or national renewal.

How did Ben Sira identify Wisdom with the Torah?

In Sirach 24, Wisdom describes herself as coming from the mouth of the Most High and making her dwelling in Israel. The author then says that all this is the book of the covenant, the law of Moses. The identification made Torah the embodiment of God’s wisdom, and gave the study of the law a central role in Jewish piety.

Why do scholars debate Persian influence?

Persian religion had angels, a final renewal and a form of dualism, and Jewish ideas on these topics grew during Persian rule. But Israelite roots for each theme exist in earlier texts, and the match is not exact. Scholars disagree about the extent of borrowing and often propose that both internal development and outside contact played a part.

Think it through

  1. How do you tell the difference between a development of an idea and a departure from it?
  2. Why might persecution lead a community to hope for resurrection?
  3. What is gained and lost when wisdom is identified with a written law?
  4. How can a tradition hold that it receives revelation and also that its ideas changed over time?

Independent assignment

Tracing one idea

In your own notebook, choose one idea: angels, resurrection or wisdom and law. Gather four texts in order of date, for example Psalm 6, Isaiah 26, Daniel 12 and 2 Maccabees 7 for resurrection. Write two sentences on each, then write 250 to 350 words on how the idea changes and what may explain the change. Keep it for yourself.

Further study