The Eternal Life Series offers a look at eternal life based on John 17:3 and related New Testament scriptures.
Most or all of the New Testament was written in Greek, so Bible students often dissect scripture by minutely examining Greek words and philosophies. This is natural for Americans because the American education and culture is based on Greek ways of thought.
However, Jesus probably taught mostly in Hebrew, with some of his teachings in Aramaic. Jesus and his followers were well educated in the Hebrew Old Testament. For the first couple of decades after his death, the followers of Jesus were mostly practicing Jews. It seems likely that a better understanding of the teachings of Jesus can be attained by looking at them through a Jewish cultural viewpoint and a better understanding of Hebrew words.
The impetus for this series were some of the episodes of the Bema Discipleship podcast, along with personal study times with Hebrew experts Elle Grove Fricks and Brad H. Young. Working with them, we developed a dictionary of some Hebrew words that you can find in Reference 7 of the Reference section of this website.
Although each episode in this series can be approached individually, the Eternal Life Series is written for viewers to watch all of the episodes in the order in which they are presented.
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Any discussion of the afterlife is bound to be controversial, as proven by the numerous views of it as printed in an unending number of books and sermons. For purposes of this episode and study guide, we are going to limit the discussion to the primary views of the afterlife held by Jews and the early Christians until about 50 AD. Keep in mind that prior to this time, none of the teachings of Jesus or the apostles was being circulated in written form.
At the end of the Old Testament (about 400 BC) the Jews had only a small amount of information about the afterlife. They concluded Heaven was the abode of God and spiritual beings, earth was the domain of living humans, and Sheol was the destination for the dead, both good and bad. There was to be a Day of the Lord when God would make things right, but the details for that time were vague. Most Jews didn’t spend much time being concerned about the afterlife.
From about 400 BC (the end of the Old Testament period) until the time of Jesus, the Jews were exposed to the teachings and philosophies of the Greeks, Persians, and Zoroastrians concerning the afterlife. The Jews continued to study the Old Testament, and (likely) God gave them additional insight about the afterlife. Different Jewish groups began to have different understandings.
