Task 1:
1. Resurrection is when the person will be given a renewed spiritual body in which
they will continue their journey into the next life.
2. The verse in Genesis 25:8 is “Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a
good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.”
This is interesting because it emphasises three times that Abraham has lived
out the full extent of a human life.
3. The phrase he was “gathered to his people” means people”. It does not refer to
the body being returned to family land or a family grave, The bible does not tell
us, but there are certainly hints that something of the original man was going to
continue and going to join others with whom he was familiar
4. The book of Daniel is one of the last Jewish scriptures, as a way of encouraging
Jews who were persecuted for their faith. It is important because it gave Jews
hope to keep perusing their faith even though they were facing death and
prosecution.
Task 2:
1. The ancient Greeks had a considerable influence on Christian ideas about life
after death and Plato’s dualist beliefs influenced that we have a non-physical
soul which is capable of surviving death
2. Christianity life after death is much more certain than the ideas in Judaism
because of the conviction that Jesus’ death by crucifixion was not the end of the
story. Christians believe that after Jesus dies. Jesus rose from the dead so we
will as well
3. Christians believe that after Jesus dies on the cross, he was resurrected, and
they also believe that
4. The word in Greek used to describe the second coming of Christ is Parousia,
kingdom of God. The role of Parousia is to judge the world and select those who
have lived a good life to live eternally in the world
Task 3:
1. In the gospel accounts, after Jesus’s resurrection - Jesus was then seen as a
physical person, walking around. Jesus could be heard and touched, his closest
friends did not always recognise him immediately, suggesting that his
appearance had changed in some way.
2. Gospel stories left many questions unanswered because these gospel stories
provide the basis for Christian belief about the afterlife.
3. In 1 Corinthians 15 it addresses some of these issues as Paul was adamant that
Christ had risen from the dead and took this to be the central fact of Christian
faith. He was also quite clear that the resurrection of Christ was a promise for all
Christians that they too would be resurrected and was not unique to Jesus.
, Task 4:
1. Paul uses the metaphor of a seed to explain how life after death can be
understood
“But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised?’ With what kind of body will
they come?’ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps
of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he determined, and to
each kind of seed he gives its own body. So will it be with the resurrection of the
dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in
dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”. (1 Corinthians 15:35 – 39).
Paul’s suggestion here, with the ides of the seed, is that the body will be
transformed and radically changed, although it is not clear how.
2. The metaphor still leaves some puzzles as it doesn't explain what spiritual
bodies are.
3. Paul’s use of the idea of a tent being replaced by a more solid house suggests
an idea that now we “live in” the bodies that we have now but they are not truly
us, and that we will be given a more substantial and eternal home in the
afterlife. Paul seems to be echoing a Platonic way of understanding this physical
life on this earth as temporary and fragile, in contrast with the permanent solid
certainty of life in another realm.
KEY WORDS:
▫ Resurrection: Living on after death in a glorified physical form in a new realm
▫ Purgatory: a temporary place where people go after death to be cleansed from sin before they are fit
to live with God.
▫ Parousia: used in Christianity to refer to the second coming of Christ
▫ Disembodied existence: existing without a physical body
▫ Original Sin: the state of wrongdoing in which people are born with because of the sin of Adam and
Eve
▫ Limited election: God only chooses a small number of people for heaven
▫ Election: Predestination, chosen by God for heaven and hell
▫ Beatific Vision: a face-to-face encounter with God
▫ Parable: a story told to highlight a moral message
1. Resurrection is when the person will be given a renewed spiritual body in which
they will continue their journey into the next life.
2. The verse in Genesis 25:8 is “Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a
good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.”
This is interesting because it emphasises three times that Abraham has lived
out the full extent of a human life.
3. The phrase he was “gathered to his people” means people”. It does not refer to
the body being returned to family land or a family grave, The bible does not tell
us, but there are certainly hints that something of the original man was going to
continue and going to join others with whom he was familiar
4. The book of Daniel is one of the last Jewish scriptures, as a way of encouraging
Jews who were persecuted for their faith. It is important because it gave Jews
hope to keep perusing their faith even though they were facing death and
prosecution.
Task 2:
1. The ancient Greeks had a considerable influence on Christian ideas about life
after death and Plato’s dualist beliefs influenced that we have a non-physical
soul which is capable of surviving death
2. Christianity life after death is much more certain than the ideas in Judaism
because of the conviction that Jesus’ death by crucifixion was not the end of the
story. Christians believe that after Jesus dies. Jesus rose from the dead so we
will as well
3. Christians believe that after Jesus dies on the cross, he was resurrected, and
they also believe that
4. The word in Greek used to describe the second coming of Christ is Parousia,
kingdom of God. The role of Parousia is to judge the world and select those who
have lived a good life to live eternally in the world
Task 3:
1. In the gospel accounts, after Jesus’s resurrection - Jesus was then seen as a
physical person, walking around. Jesus could be heard and touched, his closest
friends did not always recognise him immediately, suggesting that his
appearance had changed in some way.
2. Gospel stories left many questions unanswered because these gospel stories
provide the basis for Christian belief about the afterlife.
3. In 1 Corinthians 15 it addresses some of these issues as Paul was adamant that
Christ had risen from the dead and took this to be the central fact of Christian
faith. He was also quite clear that the resurrection of Christ was a promise for all
Christians that they too would be resurrected and was not unique to Jesus.
, Task 4:
1. Paul uses the metaphor of a seed to explain how life after death can be
understood
“But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised?’ With what kind of body will
they come?’ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps
of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he determined, and to
each kind of seed he gives its own body. So will it be with the resurrection of the
dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in
dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”. (1 Corinthians 15:35 – 39).
Paul’s suggestion here, with the ides of the seed, is that the body will be
transformed and radically changed, although it is not clear how.
2. The metaphor still leaves some puzzles as it doesn't explain what spiritual
bodies are.
3. Paul’s use of the idea of a tent being replaced by a more solid house suggests
an idea that now we “live in” the bodies that we have now but they are not truly
us, and that we will be given a more substantial and eternal home in the
afterlife. Paul seems to be echoing a Platonic way of understanding this physical
life on this earth as temporary and fragile, in contrast with the permanent solid
certainty of life in another realm.
KEY WORDS:
▫ Resurrection: Living on after death in a glorified physical form in a new realm
▫ Purgatory: a temporary place where people go after death to be cleansed from sin before they are fit
to live with God.
▫ Parousia: used in Christianity to refer to the second coming of Christ
▫ Disembodied existence: existing without a physical body
▫ Original Sin: the state of wrongdoing in which people are born with because of the sin of Adam and
Eve
▫ Limited election: God only chooses a small number of people for heaven
▫ Election: Predestination, chosen by God for heaven and hell
▫ Beatific Vision: a face-to-face encounter with God
▫ Parable: a story told to highlight a moral message
