The ancient Semitic cultures portrayed their ideas of the afterlife through images of darkness, silence, and dustiness. The Old Testament often refers to the dead as being in sheol (poetic term to refer to the tomb) Sheol can indicate either the realm of the dead or the power behind death. Scripture can depict sheol as:
1. Dark (Job 10:21; 17:13; 18:18; Ps. 88:12; 143:3; Lam. 3:6)
2. Dusty and dry (Job 17:16; 21:26; Ps. 7:5)
3. Silent (Ps. 31:17, 18; 94:17; 115:17; Isa. 47:5)
The Old Testament presents sheol as the place where the dead—both the righteous and the wicked (Job 30:23)—dwell. Only once does it speak of sheol in the limited context of the wicked (Ps. 9:17). Although the dead may be in sheol, they are not beyond His presence (Ps. 139:8; Prov. 15:11; Job 26:6; Amos 9:2). God can ransom the dead from it by restoring them to physical life (Ps. 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 86:13; Job 33:18, 28-30). Scripture often depicted sheol poetically as deep within the earth (Ps. 88:6; Eze. 26:20; 31:15; Amos 9:2). It could be personified as a hungry beast (Prov. 27:20; Isa. 5:14; Hab. 2:5) with an open mouth and insatiable appetite, reminding one of the descriptions of the Canaanite god of death, Mot, but indicating that death is, humanly speaking, unstoppable.
Notice that these images appear as brief allusions in poetic passages, cautioning us not to push their literalness. The same principle applies to longer passages.
In Isaiah 14:9-20 and Ezekiel 32, for example, the writers have the dead making comments about the newly arrived deceased. Neither chapter has as its goal a formal description of the abode of the dead. The goal seems to be the symbolization of the powerlessness of God’s enemies. The passages definitely do not depict the popular understanding of a fiery hell projected into specific passages of the New Testament.
Contrary to the ancient Near East, the Old Testament writers did not believe in a conscious afterlife. Notice the following differences between the Mesopotamian concept of the afterlife and that of the Bible.
1. Mesopotamian religion believed that the gods created death as a natural part of the order of things for human beings. The Old Testament taught that God created human beings with the intent of having them live forever. Death was not part of God’s plan for them.
2. Mesopotamian religion had special gods ruling the world of the dead. The God of Israel governed both the living and the dead.
3. The Mesopotamians considered the living and the dead as dependent on each other. The living had to feed the dead. In turn, the dead could either help or harm the living because they knew what was happening in the world above. The Old Testament clearly emphasizes that the dead know nothing about what happens to the living.
4. Mesopotamian religion knows nothing about the concept of the resurrection of the body. While a god (such as Baal) might escape the underworld, no human being ever did. But the Old Testament does present the doctrine of resurrection.
In addition to these differences, the Old Testament provides clear information about the dead:
1. The dead remember nothing of their human life (Ps. 6:5; 88:12).
2. The dead have no thoughts (Eccl. 9:10; Ps. 146:4).
3. The dead do not speak (Ps. 31:17; 94:17) or praise God (Ps. 6:5; 30:9).
4. The dead know nothing of what happens in the world of the living (Job 14:21; Eccl. 9:5, 6).
5. The dead can no longer work (Eccl. 9:10).
6. The dead can no longer participate in human life or influence what takes place among the living (Eccl. 9:6).
7. Both human beings and animals perish or die in the same way (Eccl. 3:19-21).
If the dead do not think, speak, remember, or know anything, they cannot have any form of consciousness.
The Old Testament writers also recognized the theological implications of death. Genesis 2 and 3 point to sin and rebellion as the reason for death. Elsewhere, the relationship between sin, guilt, and death is discussed (Num. 18:22; Prov. 6:12-19; Jer. 31:29, 30; and Ezek. 18:1-32).