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By Root 2293 0

is no major discussion of which heinous crimes cause Israelites to be permanently stricken from the rolls of those who will be resurrected. A few general issues are mentioned: denying that the Torah is revelation from heaven, healing by incantation, pronouncing the name of God, becoming an Epicurean (a philosopher who denied divine providence), possibly reading heretical books (the Gospels?). The list is neither long nor involved. Instead, it looks like it was intended to be broadly inclusive and only later suffered a few last-minute qualifications.

Rather, the passage begins to describe those Biblical villains, Israelites or not (Balaam), who will not be resurrected or who will not be judged:

Mishnah 2: Three kings and four commoners have no share in the world to come. The three kings are Jeroboam and Ahab and Manasseh. R. Judah says: Manasseh has a share in the world to come, for it is written, And he prayed unto him, and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom (2 Chr 33:13). They said to him: He brought him again to his kindgom, but he did not bring him to the life of the world to come. The four commoners are Balaam and Doeg and Ahitophel and Gehazi.

The first question which appears to occupy the Mishnah is whether all Israelites are really entitled to life in the world to come. The Mishnah takes the position that not quite all Israelites will inherit the world to come. But it wants to know who will be left out. It picks what are clearly meant to be the most heinous of all Israelite sinners in the Bible and asks whether they have a share. The answer is “no”-except for Manasseh, about whom there is the slightest sliver of evidence that he repented: Second Chronicles is interpreted to mean that he prayed for forgiveness and so was forgiven, although the reading is certainly farfetched from our point of view. From this we learn two things: There are some Israelites who are so evil that they are denied a place in the world to come. Also we learn that “a moment’s repentance can annul the decree,” even for the most vicious of all sinners of all time. The presence of Balaam also implicitly raises the logical question that, although he is to be left out of the life to come because of his personal sins, perhaps the other gentiles can be saved. This topic is not systematically discussed here, though it will be later:

Mishnah 3: The generation of the Flood have no share in the world to come, nor shall they stand in the judgment, for it is written, My spirit shall not judge with man for ever (Gen 6:3). [Thus they have] neither judgment nor spirit. The generation of the dispersion have no share in the world to come, for it is written, So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth (Gen 11:8); so the Lord scattered them abroad-in this world; and the Lord then scattered them from thence-in the world to come. The men of Sodom have no share in the world to come, for it is written, Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly; wicked in this world, and sinners in the world to come. But they shall stand in the judgment. R. Nehemiah says: Neither of them shall stand in the judgement, for it is written: Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous (Ps 1:8). Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment-this is the generation of the flood; nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous-these are the men of Sodom. They said to him: They shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous, but they shall stand in the congregation of the ungodly. The spies have no share in the world to come, for it is written, Even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land died by the plague before the Lord (Num 14) died-in this world; by the plague-in the world to come. The generation of the wilderness have no share in the world to come nor shall they stand in the judgment, for it is written, In this wilderness they shall be consumed and there they shall die