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5) The Resurrection in Context
The ancient belief of the Hebrews separated them from the people around them. They did not build magnificent tombs. They believed they could take nothing with them in death (Ecclesiastes 5:15). Their concept of the soul was that it could die, or perish (Ezekiel 18:4).
Jesus, being a Jew, shared this belief saying that both the soul and the body are destroyed in hell.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
Many cultures, however, say that the soul lives after death. This is like lie of the serpent in Eden.
Adam and Eve are told if they eat of a specific tree “dying they shall die”.
And the serpent said unto the woman, “You shall not surely die”: (Genesis 3:4)
The Hebrew scriptures say with finality
And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years: and he died. (Genesis 5:5).
That is, in other words, his soul died.
There is no part alive in death, only the memory of them before God. The Prophet Malachi at the very end of the Old Testament puts it like this:
Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, said the LORD of hosts, in that day
when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not. (Malachi 3:16-18 )
The ancient Hebrew understanding that in death there is no consciousness is now supported by modern science. Consciousness has been linked to physical parts of the brain. Studies of the changes found in brain damaged people show that 'who we are', in other words 'our soul', is made by electrical impulses to and from physical places in brain tissue. Damage to the tissue of certain places in the brain changes our personality and character, can cause loss of the 'sense' of limbs and loss of many sensations. The electrical impulses require the brain tissue, destroying either causes the end of all conciousness of self and the end of our sense of identity, character and personality.
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