Athens and Jerusalem

Cypress

Well-known member
According to Jewish Religious scholar Shai Cherry, biblical-era and early first temple Judaism did not have any well formed concept of an afterlife. An afterlife is barely mentioned in the Hebrew bible, other than a couple obscure references to the underworld of Sheol. The pre-Rabbinic emphasis was on how to live life in this world.

After the Greeks acquired hegemony in the Levant and Near East, late second temple Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism acquired a definite concept of a resection and an immortal soul which migrates to a divine realm after death, as a reward for a life of righteousness..

^^ This is straight out of Plato's Republic.

The Jews were undoubtedly incorporating some Platonic philosophy as the Greeks Hellenized those parts of the Near East.
 
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