Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [159]
The sign of the resurrection will be the arrival of the great prince, the archangel Michael. It will be a time of unprecedented, terrible tribulation. But the people whose names are written in the book shall be rescued. This book, which the prophet mentions in such a portentous way, had an ambiguous past in the Bible, though it quickly became part of standard Jewish lore (See e.g., ascension of Isaiah 9:21-22), eventually providing the central metaphor of the Jewish New Year (m. Rosh Hashanah 1:1). Even in the contemporary Jewish service of the New Year, “the Book of Life” has a major role. The book is, likely, to be identified with the mysterious book Moses mentions in Exodus 32:32: “But now, if thou wilt forgive their sin-and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” Whatever the book, the metaphor dramatizes God’s clear and predestined plan for vindication of the earth. Daniel 12:2 promises resurrection to some of Israel, not to all, not even to all those who are righteous, as would be true if Isaiah 26 or Ezekiel 37 were to be understood literally. The presence of the book suggests that God has indicated his intentions in advance, completed an inevitable plan, will hold to it, and that this knowledge is available to prophets like Moses who can read it ahead of time. The writer is, in effect, claiming the credentials of a prophet-not an oral one like the prophets of old, but a new wisdom prophet who can read God’s plan when God choses to show it.
This writer is claiming prophecy and literary tradition at the same time. Besides the revelation of God’s secret plan, he is aware of the previous writing on the subject, primarily the writing we have just reviewed, because his language is based on the metaphors in the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. Some of the language in Daniel 12:1-3 is taken directly from Isaiah 26:19, which says that the dead will “awaken.” The writer of Daniel has taken the ambiguous prophecy of Isaiah in a literal sense, saying that “the sleepers in the dust” will literally arise.11 But he did not take the writing literally in every respect because he has some innovative notions about the identity of the resurrected and the process of resurrection.
Strangely, he goes on to say that resurrection will not be reserved for the righteous alone. Also some whose behavior was reprehensible will be resurrected for eternal contempt and shame. This is totally missing from any of previous references in the Hebrew Bible but it is not totally out of keeping with Zoroastrian notions of resurrection, that promised it eventually to all. However, Zoroastrian influence is unlikely here. The Zoroastrians believed that the time in the grave would absolve all sinners from their sins. In this case, the resurrection promised to evildoers is not to forgive them but to punish them the more. Discussions of resurrection in Judaism only rewarded the righteous until the rise of Rabbinic Judaism which took seriously that all Israel will be saved, as does Paul: “And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob’” (Rom 11:26). Even in this case, the rabbis maintained that all Israel will be righteous.
Another passage that was particularly important to the seer is Isaiah 66. The only other place in the Hebrew Bible where the perplexing word dera’on ((lědor’ōn olām, “eternal abhorance”) of Daniel 12:2 appears is in Isaiah 66:24: “And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” The Septuagint translates the passage