fiction

Professor Gillman gives us an excellent history of the origin and development of two doctrines relating to the afterlife, bodily resurrection and the concept of the immortal soul. In the use of Hebrew biblical reference, (before reading his book I never realized there were so few), he reviews the seeming contradictions between the more numerous texts which describe immediate human fate after death versus bodily resurrection. He also reviews the Platonic/Hellenist origin of the immortal soul doctrine which has high influence on current Jewish thought in reformed and conservative circles to this day. He reveals however that there is recent development among Jewish scholars challenging this concept and reviews these arguments as well. There are various interesting side topics touched on such as the Noahide commandments and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. As a non-Jew, I found it refreshing that in Prof. Gillman's conclusions he finds the doctrine to be universally applicable to all peoples; not a salvation exclusive only to one who is born Jewish. This book is certainly worth reading to anyone interested in the subject. The only area I found somewhat scanty was the time period from Daniel to Josephus as far as the doctrinal position of the developing pharisaic movement (perhaps because there is not much available writing on the doctrine from that time).

As another reviewer pointed out, this book's great strength is its tracing of the evolution of Jewish thought relating to the afterlife. Not only does Gillman discuss the differences between Biblical, Talmudic, and post-Talmudic Jewish thought, but he also offers plausible explanations as to WHY Jewish thought evolved as it did.

Some quibbles: based on Gillman's discussion, I didn't really understand why the concept of "soul immortality" made so much more sense to modern commentators than (a) bodily resurrection (the Talmudic view) or (b) total repudiation of the idea of an individual afterlife. And Gillman's arguments for bodily resurrection aren't that persuasive -- but only, I suspect, because no argument as to an issue so far beyond our experience can possibly be entirely persuasive.

Rabbi Gilman starts out with the proposition that an afterlifeis a Jewish concept but that the development of this concept is postbiblical. In other words, for the most part, the Jewish Bible implies that the soul does not live on after death with the possible exceptions of references made in the books of Daniel and Ezikiel. However, in post Biblical tradition, the concept of after life takes two forms, first, the body and soul die but are later resurrected. The second concept is that of the soul living on in an afterlife. Rabbi Gilamn concludes his fascinating study by giving a view of each of the branches' of Judaism stands on the issue. Each branch, even the Reform, acknowledge some form of afterlife. This book is fascinating and I highly recommend it to those interested in the subject.