Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | Oktober/2020 |
Spalte: | 933–934 |
Kategorie: | Neues Testament |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Ehrman, Bart D. |
Titel/Untertitel: | Heaven and Hell. A History of the Afterlife. |
Verlag: | London: Oneworld Publications 2020. XXI, 326 S. Geb. £ 20,00. ISBN 978-1-78607-720-2. |
Rezensent: | J. K. Elliott |
»Death« has never been an easy concept. Even modern readers of the In Memoriam columns of a contemporary newspaper, note that very few people actually »die«. Instead they »pass«, »cross (over)«, »fall asleep« or are »called« by God to join him. Likewise, the ubiquitous plaques on benches and trees in municipal parks display the hope or belief that those remaining assume that their loved-ones are awaiting them in Paradise (= Heaven). »R.I.P.«, carved on headstones as an epitaph, implies the belief that prayer is considered to cause even God (of all people) to change his theological intentions!
What Bart D. Ehrmann does in this book is to examine the growth of such ideas. As an exegete and Neutestamentler, he obvi-ously spends much ink analyzing the development of these ideas in the Old Testament, where there is precious little about Afterlife, and also in the Christian scriptures in which some sayings and teachings that allegedly may come from the historical Jesus (but where, again, the later ideas about death and dying are absent) are usually expanded by Paul and, especially, by the Book of Revelation – where the concepts are already taking the shapes later followed and believed by religious adherents in the mediaeval and modern worlds. E. also looks at non-religious writings from Homer, Virgil and the Gilgamesh epic to find what (if anything) we may learn of earlier concepts about death and/or immortality. He has, as a consequence, written a provocative and thought-provoking monograph. There are fourteen chapters where each is headed with titles such as »Guided Tours of Heaven and Hell« (that looks at the an-gelic tours beloved by writers of the Christian apocryphal texts, where the eponymous heroes are shown what awaits the Good and the Bad in Heaven and, increasingly, in Hell), »The Fear of Death« and »External Life in the Flesh« etc. etc. There are no footnotes but there are helpful and short End Notes. The book ends with useful indexes. This is therefore a scholarly text.
The distinctively Christian beliefs about what occurs either at the point of death for each individual or at a distant End of Time are well covered. Other topics and questions are unanswered or are unanswerable. What about those who had died prior to Jesus’ Incarnation? One may well also ask: Are all to be judged? and Is there any justice awaiting those who have been wrongly accused in their life-times? These are all huge issues and they are faced in this history, even if some remain as queries. But »History« is a word chosen by E. on his title-page, even though in part his book is clearly what in differing contexts may be named as an Introduction to the Bible and to apocryphal texts like the Apocalypse of Peter and that of Paul. One reads here of The Passion of Perpetua as well as the texts now found in the so-called Apocryphal New Testament, where many nascent beliefs found in earlier sources, are fleshed out, especially in writ-ings such as The Acts of Thomas, the various apocryphal apoca-lypses and patristic texts right up to the 4th.- and 5th.-century A. D. with St. Augustine.
The New Testament apocrypha themselves often pad out al-leged gaps in what became canonical texts. Those apocrypha tended to look to Jesus’ formative years; his mother’s birth and background, often asking why this woman (of all) came to bear the Son of God; the Holy Family’s sojourn in Egypt; how Jesus was gainfully employed between his death and the finding of his (resurrected !) body on Easter Day. This latter theme is, obviously, E.’s main focus. As is typical of much of his recent writings, E. becomes highly personal and – rarely for academics – he describes his own beliefs, Never neutral, him! His cards are clearly displayed on the table.
He has read widely, albeit we are told that his learning is »lightly worn« – to copy a common euphemism. Would that he had also attempted to unravel those tricky terms »sin(ner)« and »saint«, alongside the dualism in the title. Is »sin« a mere deviation from a set of rules in a divine law-book? And is the latter its opposite? Likewise, we ought to read here and consider if suicide and judicial death are ever justifiable. E.’s fluency is occasionally hampered by odd English, such as the neologism »witchy« on p. 37. He seems very pleased to have discovered the term »ventriloquist«; he uses it on several occasions to describe Socrates’ words being »spoken« by Plato! We may blame strange English usage partly on his, inevitable, American English but partly also on his addressing a »popular« audience. Usually, exclusively N. American spellings abound, although »unfavourable« occurs inconsistently alongside many examples of »favor« and the like (passim).
Different interpretations abound regarding those who die unexpectedly before their allocated three score years and ten. In today’s world, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19, one inevi-tably considers the role of fatal and painful deaths. E.’s book may well serve as a useful vade mecum there. This is therefore a timely book as the current epidemic sweeps its way through the universe (addressed here several times as the »planet« – twice in the Acknowl-edgements alone!). Like mediaeval copies of John’s Book of Revela-tion, with many of them containing only that apocalypse amid their richly illuminated editions; these seem to have been popular as the Black Death and other plagues ravaged Europe at the time, E. has also written a »best-seller«.
In his Afterword E. could and should have referred to the de-ceased John Brown whose soul »kept marching on« and later remembered by those who claim to have been touched by him when he was alive. E.’s book itself will indeed keep marching on.