Biblical Views: Them Dry Bones

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One of the most intriguing archaeological finds in Israel in recent years is a pair of silver amulets found in a burial cave in Ketef Hinnom, outside of ancient Jerusalem, dating to the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E.¹ On these amulets is a version of the Priestly Benediction (Numbers 6:24–26), preceded by invocations to Yahweh. The two amulets read as follows (the italicized words are those of the Priestly Benediction in Numbers):

Amulet 1:Yahw[eh] … grea[t ] … the covenant, and graciousness to those who love [him] and those who keep … [the] blessing more than any [sna]re and more than Evil. For redemption is in him. For Yahweh is our restorer [and] rock. May Yahweh bless you [and] keep you. May Yahweh make [his] face [sh]ine …

Amulet 2:May [X] be blessed by Yahwe[h], the helper and the rebuker of [e]vil: May Yahweh bless you and keep you. May Yah[w]eh make his face shine [upo]n you and grant you p[ea]ce.

There are many implications to be gathered from these inscriptions—including the date of the Priestly Benediction, the antiquity of covenantal language, and the theology of this period—but I wish to dwell on their find-spot, a burial cave. Presumably these amulets were attached to cords worn around the necks of the deceased. They are prayers on behalf of the dead, asking for Yahweh’s blessing and protection. But protection from what? From Evil (ha-ra, literally “the evil”), according to the amulets. Is this a designation of death or of the shadowy netherworld of Sheol? We don’t know, but it seems to be an evil associated with death.

Death is an unpleasant state, according to the classical Biblical concept. The underworld, often called Sheol, is dark, dusty and wormy (Job 17:13–16). Its inhabitants are ghosts, and if the shade of Samuel is any indication, they are not in a very good mood (1 Samuel 28:15). They cannot praise God (Psalm 30:10 [Hebrew]), and they exist in silence (Psalm 31:18 [Hebrew], 94:17). It’s not a very desirable place to spend eternity.

The prayers on the amulets express a hope that Yahweh’s face will still shine on the deceased and that he will bless them and protect them from evil in the afterlife. They express a desire that death be not so gloomy, that one may dwell in God’s light, not in wormy darkness. In short, one would prefer to live in heaven rather than Sheol. But heaven was traditionally where God dwelled, not the dead.

How did the Biblical idea of the afterlife change? In part it has to do with the desires expressed in the Ketef Hinnom amulets. The hope of dwelling with God transformed the traditional concept of postmortem existence in Sheol. A duality eventually developed, where God would reward the righteous and punish the wicked at the end-time. This concept is first clearly expressed in the apocryphal Book of Enoch and the Biblical Book of Daniel: “Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to everlasting shame” (Daniel 12:2).

An important catalyst of this change—which has to do with the rise of apocalyptic expectations in Second Temple Judaism—was a new way of reading the Bible. As the Book of Daniel shows, interpreters came to view the Bible as a book of secrets, whose 079inner meaning could be revealed by God (or God’s angels) to the righteous (Daniel 9:21–23). So, for example, Ezekiel’s vision of the resurrection of the dry bones, which is a parable for God’s restoration of Israel to its land (Ezekiel 37:11–14), could now be read as indicating an actual resurrection of the righteous dead at the Judgment Day of the end-time. Death had lost its sting, and the righteous could move from Sheol to heaven—after a fairly lengthy wait.

At last God would “make his face shine [upo]n you and grant you p[ea]ce,” as devoutly wished for in the Ketef Hinnom amulets. By this process—a centuries-long mingling of desire and Biblical interpretation—the Biblical view of death was changed utterly.

One of the most intriguing archaeological finds in Israel in recent years is a pair of silver amulets found in a burial cave in Ketef Hinnom, outside of ancient Jerusalem, dating to the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E.1 On these amulets is a version of the Priestly Benediction (Numbers 6:24–26), preceded by invocations to Yahweh. The two amulets read as follows (the italicized words are those of the Priestly Benediction in Numbers): Amulet 1:Yahw[eh] … grea[t ] … the covenant, and graciousness to those who love [him] and those who keep … [the] blessing more than any […]