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Do not fill this in! ==Jewish-Hellenistic background == [[File:5part-icon.jpeg|thumb|Five-part resurrection [[icon]], [[Solovetsky Monastery]], 17th century]] ===Jewish=== {{See also|Jewish eschatology|Resurrection of the dead}} In Judaism, the idea of resurrection first emerges in the 3rd century BC [[Book of Enoch#The Book of the Watchers|Book of Watchers]]{{sfn|Elledge|2017|pp=130ff}} and in the 2nd century BC [[Book of Daniel]],{{sfn|Schäfer|2003|pp=72–73}} the later possibly as a belief in the resurrection of the [[soul]] alone, which was then developed by the Pharisees as a belief in bodily resurrection, an idea completely alien to the Greeks.{{sfn|Schäfer|2003|pp=72–73}} [[Josephus]] tells of the three main Jewish sects of the 1st century AD, that the [[Sadducees]] held that both soul and body perished at death; the [[Essenes]] that the soul was immortal but the flesh was not; and the [[Pharisees]] that the soul was immortal and that the body would be resurrected to house it.{{sfn|Schäfer|2003|p=72}} Of these three positions, Jesus and the early Christians appear to have been closest to that of the Pharisees.{{sfn|Van Voorst|2000|p=430}} [[Steve Mason (biblical scholar)|Steve Mason]] notes that for the Pharisees, "the new body is a special, holy body", which is different from the old body, "a view shared to some extent by the ex-Pharisee Paul (1. Cor. 15:35ff)".{{sfn|Mason|2001|p=169}} The evidence from Jewish texts and from tomb inscriptions points to a more complex reality: for example, when the author of the Book of Daniel wrote that "many of those sleeping in the dust shall awaken",<ref>{{Bibleref2|Dan|12:2}}</ref> religion scholar [[Dag Øistein Endsjø]] believes he probably had in mind a rebirth as [[angel]]ic beings (metaphorically described as stars in God's Heaven, stars having been identified with angels from early times); such a rebirth would rule out a bodily resurrection, as angels were believed to be fleshless.{{sfn|Endsjø|2009|pp=124–125}} Other scholars hold that Daniel exposes a belief in a bodily resurrection.{{sfn|Elledge|2017|pp=21, 23}} Other texts range from the traditional Old Testament view that the soul would spend eternity in the underworld, to a metaphorical belief in the raising of the spirit.{{sfn|Lehtipuu|2015|pp=31–32}} Most avoided defining what resurrection might imply, but a resurrection of the flesh was a marginal belief.{{sfn|Endsjø|2009|p=145}} As Outi Lehtipuu states, "belief in resurrection was far from being an established doctrine"{{sfn|Lehtipuu|2015|pp=32}} of [[Second Temple Judaism]]. ===Greco-Roman=== {{Main|Immortality#Ancient Greek religion}} The Greeks traditionally held that a number of men and women gained physical immortality as they were translated to live forever in either [[Elysium]], the [[Islands of the Blessed]], heaven, the ocean, or literally right under the ground. While some scholars have attempted to trace resurrection beliefs in pagan traditions concerning death and bodily disappearances,{{sfn|Endsjø|2009|pp=54–70}} the attitudes towards resurrection were generally negative among pagans.{{sfn|Wright|2003|p=53}}<ref group=web>{{cite web| url = https://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/jesus-resurrection-and-christian-origins/ | title = Jesus' Resurrection and Christian Origins, N.T. Wright}}</ref> For example, [[Asclepius]] was killed by Zeus for using herbs to resurrect the dead, but by his father [[Apollo]]'s request, was subsequently immortalized as a star.<ref>Emma and Ludwig Edelstein, ''Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies'', Volume 1, Page 51</ref><ref>[[Sabine G. MacCormack]] ''Concise Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology'' p.47</ref><ref>Theony Condos, ''Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans'', p.141</ref> According to [[Bart Ehrman]], most of the alleged parallels between Jesus and pagan deities only exist in the modern imagination, and there are no "accounts of others who were born to virgin mothers and who died as an atonement for sin and then were raised from the dead."<ref>Bart Ehrman (2012), [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bart-d-ehrman/did-jesus-exist_b_1349544.html ''Did Jesus Exist?''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822020811/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bart-d-ehrman/did-jesus-exist_b_1349544.html |date=2018-08-22 }}, ''Huffington Post''</ref> From Hellenistic times on, some Greeks held that the soul of a meritorious man could be translated into a god in the process of [[apotheosis]] (divinization) which then transferred them to a special place of honour.{{sfn|Wright|2003|pp=56; 76}} Successors of [[Alexander the Great]] made this idea very well known throughout the Middle East through coins bearing his image, a privilege previously reserved for gods.{{sfn|Cotter|2001|p=131}} The idea was adopted by the Roman emperors, and in the Imperial Roman concept of apotheosis, the earthly body of the recently deceased emperor was replaced by a new and divine one as he ascended into heaven.{{sfn|Cotter|2001|pp=131, 135–136}} These stories proliferated in the middle to late first century.{{sfn|Wright|2003|p=76}} The apotheosised dead remained recognisable to those who met them, as when [[Romulus]] appeared to witnesses after his death, but as the biographer [[Plutarch]] ({{c.|AD 46|120}}) explained of this incident, while something within humans comes from the gods and returns to them after death, this happens "only when it is most completely separated and set free from the body, and becomes altogether pure, fleshless, and undefiled".{{sfn|Collins|2009|pp=46, 51}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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