Once upon a time, the bible tells us, Abraham the great patriarch of the Hebrews was visited by God. The story says that God came to Abraham in the form of three 'men' (who were, in fact, divine messengers or angels) and without knowing who these three men were, Abraham welcomed them into his home and fed them. This was a sign of Abraham's holiness and generosity of spirit. If he had known who it was he was entertaining and was lavish with his hospitality then that would be unremarkable. Everyone would put on a special spread for God! But Abraham didn't. What made the story so special was in being hospitable to three complete strangers Abraham was in fact being hospitable to God. And so the story became the basis for a whole tradition of seeing God in 'the stranger', which we find again in the New Testament story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, who unwittingly entertained Jesus, and which in the last century found it's best known moral expression in the work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who famously said that when she took care of the destitute in Calcutta she saw in each one 'Jesus in disguise'. For the rest of us mere mortals, we are reminded by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews that when that unwelcome knock comes on the door, late on a friday night when we are ready to go to bed or entertaining friends Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13.1-2) But this story also became the basis for a wonderful comedy-fantasy adventure based on Abraham's life (or more precisely, his death) called the Testament of Abraham. It was written sometime in the first or second centuries A.D. by a Jewish writers for a Jewish audience, but the story also found a home in Christian groups and it was in fact they who preserved the story so that it reached us today. The story is about God's desire to prepare Abraham for his death. Most of us assume that we would appreciate the chance to know when we are going to die so that we could come to terms with the fact and put all our affairs in order. But I wonder if that's really true. Wouldn't most of really prefer just to go quickly, peacefully and unexpectedly? Wouldn't we prefer ignorance? Well, despite his best intentions, that's what God discovers in this wonderful, irreverent and hilarious story. First of all God discovers that it's almost impossible even to tell Abraham (how do you tell someone you love that they are going to die . . . many of us have been there and know how hard that is!). Next he discovers that even the godly Abraham doesn't want to leave his life behind and God is forced to grant him a 'last wish' which turns out to be a disaster and has to be cancelled. And then, thirdly, when eventually God sends Death (yes a figure called Death . . . . and with a scythe!) to wrap things up, he discovers that Death just isn't up to the job! This whole idea of telling his friend he is going to die to allow him time to come to terms with it gradually unravels as the story goes on and begins to look like a very bad idea! The reader is left with the impression that God made a big mistake by telling his friend the news of his impending death. The story is really about how messy death is (I don't mean blood and gore but socially and psychologically). We talk about a 'good death' and 'preparing ourselves' and 'letting go', but in reality death is chaotic and terrible. We poor human beings hold on to life for as long as we can and even the best laid plans (even God's, it seems) can go terribly awry in the face of the grim reality that faces all of us. When faced with the prospect of leaving 'all this behind' even the best of us can become irrational, fearful, angry and manipulative. Even the greatest of the great heroes of faith, Abraham is no exception. We don't like death. It's not natural. There is something deeply wrong about it. The story is a great insight into this struggle between the reality we all face and our stubborn, powerful hold on life. But the story (because it is about death) is also a fascinating insight into the attitudes of some Jews in the first two centuries after the birth of Christ (and possibly before) towards the afterlife. Here in the Testament of Abraham souls leave their bodies and face immediate post mortem judgement. Here the writer imagines that post mortem judgement in terms of passing through either the broad or the narrow gates, being weighed in the balance by angels and having our works 'tested by fire'. It is a story that reveals that in this era some people believed that the righteous find eternal life in paradise if the weight of their good deeds is greater than the weight of their bad deeds and that if they don't, their destiny lies in hell, a place of everlasting fire and torture. We discover here that it is possible for God to restore the lives of some who have died before their time and send them back to their lives on earth. In other words it is a story that shows that around the time the New Testament was being written, God-fearing Jews (and the Christians who valued and preserved this story) believed in most of the things that went on to form the popular view of death and afterlife that people believe today! Now of course if you have been following these posts you will realise that I think most of those things just mentioned are not part of the biblical picture of death and afterlife. But the reason for writing about the story (apart from the sheer joy I have found reading this wonderfully witty story) is my fascination in finding so many of these ideas already in currency in such an early story from the Jewish tradition. The point of the blog is not (just) to attack views I think are wrong but to try to understand how we got from the biblical perspective to the place we are today and I think stories like these show that the powerful influence of Greek thought was already having on Jewish (and so christian) thinkers and writers of faith at this time. In the Greek, Hellenistic word-view, souls could be detached from bodies, people could exist in a meaningful way after death and the worth of your soul could be discovered by placing it on a set of scales. None of these ideas is found in the Hebrew bible. But they are found here, in this fantastical Jewish 'fairy story'. Yes all these things are possible here . . . . but before we are tempted to think that this story is a reflection of the authentic biblical tradition we should also remember that the story also asks us to believe that Abraham lived to the age of a thousand years, that he could take a tour of the entire creation in the divine chariot in the space of half a day and that our lives are ended by the arrival at our houses one day of a tall, scary figure holding a scythe! Or maybe it doesn't ask us to believe any of these things. Maybe it is just a wonderful story about an old man who loved his life and didn't want to give it up! Maybe these popular motifs about the afterlife are just the tools the writer uses to tell a far more meaningful story about the tenacity of human life and its deep seated resistance to death. The hospitality of AbrahamThe Testament of Abraham begins by introducing Abraham to the reader. Abraham is the friend of God. He is righteous and generous, especially renowned for his hospitality to everyone. Those familiar with the bible story in Genesis would remember the famous story of Abraham unknowingly entertaining three 'angels' (Genesis 18). The story reminds the reade rof this and embelishes it. Abraham lived the measure of his life, 995 years. Having lived all the years of his life in quietness gentleness and righteousness, the righteous man was exceedngly hospitable. Pitching his tent at the crossroads of the oak of Mamre, he received everyone, rich and poor, kings and rulers, the maimed and the helpless, friends and strangers, neighbours and travellers. All alike did the devout all-holy, righteous and hospitable Abraham entertain. Translations throughout from The Testament of Abraham translated by W.A. Cragie (adapted) But Abraham's life is drawing to its end. According to the Testament he is 995 years old. In the original Genesis story it is stated that Abraham lived a mere 175 years (Genesis 25.7) but here in this 'fairy tale' version of Abraham's 'further adventures' he is a fantastical age. Of course being such an age (a significant percentage of the age of the world!) now he must die and out of his deep sense of affection for Abraham, his friend, God wants to give Abraham time to prepare himself and his affairs for death and so he sends his 'right hand angel', Michael, to break it to Abraham gently. But, even upon this man, there came the common, inexorable bitter lot of death and the uncertain lot of life. Now Master God, summoning his archangel Michael, said to him 'Go down commander-in-chief Michael, to Abraham, and speak to him concerning his death, so that he may set his affairs in order. For I have blessed him as the stars in heaven and as the sand by the seashore. He has a prosperous life and many possessions and he is exceedingly rich. Yet, above all people, he has been righteous in every goodness, hospitable and loving to the end of his life. You, archangel Michael, go to Abraham, my beloved friend. Announce his death to him and assure him in this manner: 'At this time you are about to depart from this vain world and about to quit the body and you shall go to your own Master among the good'. And so Michael goes down to earth and finds Abraham. Abraham of course doesn't realise who Michael is. On the basis of the famous story in Genesis the reader will expect this but it is given a comic twist here because Abraham is pretty well the only one who doesn't realise who Michael is. Even a tree they pass shouts out a greeting to Michael! Anyway, blissfully and sweetly ignorant of the identity of his guest he welcomes the beautiful 'stranger' into his home. He tells his son Isaac (who strangely is s till a boy despite being some 900 years old himself!) to decorate the guest room beautifully and to prepare a lavish meal for the visitor. The story tells us Abraham couldn't do more to make Michael feel 'at home', and Michael the commander in chief of the Lord's armies (i.e. a really 'tough cookie', used to slaying the wicked in large numbers) is so moved by the generosity and hospitality of Abraham that he finds he can't tell Abraham the terrible news that his 'time is up'. Making the excuse that he needs to nip outside for a pee, Michael flies back to heaven and tells God he can't do it! He can't tell the wonderful Abraham that he is out of time. He stood before the Lord and said to him: 'Master, Lord let your power know that I am unable to remind that righteous man of his death. For I have not seen upon the earth a man like him - merciful, hospitable, righteous, truthful, devout, refraining from every evil deed. Know now Lord that I cannot remind him of his death'. Oh dear.What to do? God wants to prepare Abraham for his death by giving him due warning to let him prepare himself and put his affairs in order, but his messenger, Michael, can't bring himself to do it. Everyone loves Abraham too much to break the terrible news to him! Any dream will doGod solves the problem by letting Michael off the hook. Instead of Michael telling Abraham directly, God will send a symbolic dream to Isaac about his father's death, which Michael will then interpret for Abraham. In other words God excuses the hard-as-nails angelic general, and makes the young boy, Isaac, responsible for telling Abraham! So, Michael goes back, (presumably time is shortened or speeded up for angelic flights to heaven and back, otherwise it would have seemed like an exceedingly long pee) and Isaac duly has a dream in which his 'sun' us take away from him. Waking in distress he tells everyone about his terrifying dream. This is the first time we have met Sarah in the story and of course, being a woman, she immediately knows what is going on and who the stranger is. She tells Abraham: Sarah therefore signalled to Abraham to come out towards the door and said to him "My lord Abraham, do you know who this man is . . . . . you know, my Lord, the three men from heaven who were entertained by us in our tent beside the oak of Mamre when you killed the kid without blemish and set a table before them . . . this is one of those three holy men'. Now that Abraham knows who it is who has come to visit him things are a bit different. He realises that there is some kind of divine 'plot' in operation. Michael explains the dream and tells Abraham that he, Abraham is the 'sun' of Isaac's dream, and that the dream means he will soon die (i.e. be taken away). But Abraham, now aware of who Michael is what he is trying to do, decides not to co-operate with the divine plan. He refuses to accept God's decision He is not going to 'come quietly'. MIchael reports Abraham's refusal back to 'Head Office', and God is understandably peeved. He sends Michael back with the following message Tell me why you have rebelled against me and why there is grief in you and why you rebelled against my archangel Michael The answer of course is blindingly obvious - Abraham doesn't want to die! He might have had nearly one thousand years of full and (largely) happy life but in those thousand years he has accumulated a lot of good things and he doesn't want to leave it all behind . . . not just yet. Life is too good! But Abraham knows he is 'up against it' by standing up to God. He is aware that just saying 'no' won't get him very far and eventually after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing between heaven and earth he makes a deal with God. He has one dying request, one 'last wish'. He will accept that his days on the earth are over, and accept his end if only God will allow him to see the creation. Like many of us Abraham longs to travel, to see those things he never got round to seeing before he dies. He wants to see the wonders of the world before he 'shuffles of this mortal coil'. If only he can see everything God has made before he has to leave it all behind, then he will die a happy and fulfilled man. Or so he says. The reader is left with a suspicion that he is just playing for time - after all, the creation is an awfully big place. Now Lord I do not request your power, for I know that I am not immortal but mortal. Since to your command all things yield and fear and tremble at the face of your power, I also fear. But I ask one request of you; now, Lord and Master, hear my prayer, for while I am still in my body I desire to see all the inhabited earth and all the creations that you established by one word. When I see these, then when I shall depart from life, I shall be without sorrow. God agrees and sends Michael to get the divine chariot ready. Although new to Abraham, to the first or second century Jewish reader of the story this chariot is a well known piece of heavenly equipment. This is the chariot that took Elijah up to heaven (2 Kings 2.9-12) and the same chariot that Ezekiel saw in his famous vision of God by the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1) a vision which in turn inspired a whole tradition of mystical contemplation (the so-called 'Merkabah' or 'chariot' mysticism). The Merkabah mystics believed that by 'contemplating' Ezekiel's vision of God on his chariot, they could, in certain circumstances, ascend to heaven itself. Abraham doesn't need such any such 'airy fairy' spiritual techniques. He's got the use of real thing and with Michael as pilot off he goes to see the world! Stop the tour!But it's not long before the tour encounters problems. What Abraham sees as he tours God's creation doesn't entirely please him. Wherever he goes he sees people engaged in all sorts of acts of wickedness, a couple having illicit sex in a field, a gang preparing to break into someone's house etc. etc. Naturally Abraham, the truly righteous man and 'friend of God', calls down God's punishment upon these ungodly souls and God, who always answers Abraham's prayers, duly obliges. The sinners are killed and justice is done. The ground opens up under the copulating couple and and fire rains down on the burglars. The trouble is this doesn't stop; everywhere the chariot goes Abraham calls down God's judgement and God quickly realises that at this rate soon there will be nobody left alive! God cancels the tour and decides that his friend needs a lesson in the nature of divine mercy. Straightaway there came a voice from heaven saying 'Commander in chief command the chariot to stop! Turn Abraham away so that he will not see all the earth for if he beheld all who live in wickedness he would destroy all creation. For behold, Abraham has not sinned and has no pity on sinners. I have made the world. I desire not to destroy any one of them, but I delay the death of the sinner so that he may repent and live. Rather take Abraham up to the first gate of heaven so that he may see there the judgements and recompenses and so that he may repent of the souls of the sinners he has destroyed. Abraham has to see the consequences of sending souls to face their eternal judgement. Then he will understand how terrible and inexorable true justice really is and realise that God demonstrates mercy all the time by letting people live so that they can discover His love and find repentance and righteousness. He is taken to the 'East', that far-away land of endless possibilities where heaven and earth are joined. Remember that in the world view of the people writing and reading this story heaven, the home of God, was set like a huge bowl over the flat disc of the earth. At some places (well all around theoretically but not practically) therefore heaven and earth met. This is one of those places - the gate of heaven in the East. There are two paths you can go byWhat Abraham sees in the East, at 'heavens gate', is in fact two gates and two paths leading to them. As any reader of the bible might expect, one gate and the path leading to it are wide and the other gate and the path leading it are narrow. As they approach the boundary between this world and heaven the dead enter through either one of these gates, passing, as they do so, a strange and very beautiful creature seated on a golden throne. Abraham sees that this person falls from his throne and weeps when he sees people passing him on the broad path and entering through the wide gate and gets back up on his throne and looks happy when people head along the narrow path and pass through the narrow gate. He wonders why. Abraham saw two ways, the one narrow and contracted, the other broad and spacious. There he saw two gates, the one broad on the broad way and the other narrow on the narrow way. Outside the two gates he saw a man sitting on a gilded throne and that man's appearance was fearsome, like the Master's. They saw many souls driven by the angels and led in through the broad gate and other souls few in number that were taken by the angels through the narrow gate. When the wonderful one who sat upon the golden throne saw few entering through the narrow gate and many entering through the broad one, straightaway that one threw himself on the ground from his throne weeping and lamenting. But when he saw many souls entering through the narrow gate then he arose from the ground and sat upon his throne in great joy, rejoicing and exulting. Michael explains that the figure on the throne is Adam, the first human being and ancestor of all humanity. Adam is watching as his children's children, his progeny, have their eternal fate determined. He is deeply involved in what he sees and understandably he rejoices when he sees people passing through the narrow gate, because that is the gate to paradise, and he is distraught when people pass through the wide gate because that is the gate to eternal punishment. The incorporeal one said "This is the first created Adam who is in such glory. and he looks upon the world because all are born from him. When he sees many souls going through the narrow gate he arises and sits upon his throne rejoicing and exulting in joy because this narrow gate is that of the just which leads to life. They who enter through it go into paradise. For this then the first created Adam rejoices because he sees the souls being saved. When he sees many souls entering through the broad gate however, he pulls out the hairs of his head and casts himself on the ground weeping and lamenting bitterly, for the broad gate is that of sinners which leads to destruction and eternal punishment. For this the first-formed Adam falls from his throne weeping and lamenting for the destruction of sinners since they are so many who are lost and few who are saved. In seven thousand there is scarcely one soul saved, being righteous and undefiled." The point as far as Abraham is concerned is that he has to realise that when he prayed for the destruction of sinners he simply hastened their path to judgment and 'damnation'. Soon he will see what that means and how sinners are judged. He will see one of those whose destruction he called for and he will repent of his hastiness. Unlike God, he wanted the unrighteous to die. God on the other hand wants everyone to live! God doesn't want one human soul to be lost and so He waits, giving them time to see the error of their ways and repent. God knows what the strict demands of justice mean far better than Abraham does. If only Abraham realised the full horror of facing the righteous judgement he would have pitied the poor souls he saw committing their wicked acts rather than hastening their path through the wide gate to destruction. I will try to describe what Abraham finds through the 'broad gate' in part #2. But before moving on to what Abraham finds when he goes through those gates, I want to reflect on the some of the ideas and questions the story has already raised. The Hellenisation of AbrahamGenesis describes Abraham's death like this This is the length of Abraham’s life, one hundred seventy-five years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah. After the death of Abraham God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi. Genesis 25.7-11 NRSV This is how people die 'well' in the Hebrew Bible. They (hopefully) have a good, long and full life in fellowship with God and then they stop breathing, in other words they die. In Abraham's case (according to Genesis), it was a very good life and a very long one. But all things come to an end. Even the life of the founder of the Hebrew nation. But it is not described as a tragedy or as a failure. It is what happens. We never hear anything from Abraham again. In his Testament on the other hand Abraham has been transformed. No longer is he dying a 'Hebrew' kind of death; rather strangely he has developed a completely different outlook on dying and it seems as if his 'prospects' have altogether changed! We are no longer reading about Abraham the Hebrew but about Abraham the Hellenistic Jew! The story is fascinating partly because of the many parallels with familiar biblical stories and images, eg of Abraham unknowingly entertaining the angels, the divine chariot, the 'broad and narrow paths' familiar to Christian readers from Jesus' use of the picture in the gospels (Matthew 7.13-14), and the image of Adam enthroned in glory, to which some other Jewish writings refer. It's also interesting to see the idea of strict justice (as epitomised by the sinless Abraham) contrasted with divine mercy. This may be a wonderfully witty and entertaining 'fairy story' but it is also a serious theological work making the point that God is more merciful that we are and that strict righteousness can look very unlike the divine nature. Christians are often told that Judaism is all about 'an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth' whereas Christianity is about 'love your neighbour'. Apart from the fact that this forgets that Jesus himself was a Jew it also misses the point that 'an eye for eye' was intended to restrict retribution for crimes to what was strictly necessary and also that there was a long and deep stream of teaching within Judaism about the mercy and patience of God, a tradition reflected powerfully here. But for me its real fascination lies in what it tells us about how traditional biblical ideas about the afterworld were being shaped by ideas derived mainly from the Hellenistic world view. Here in the Testament of Abraham we find souls detached from bodily life. In the Hebrew Bible itself there is no concept of a human soul as something that has a life of its own, that can be detached from the body. For the biblical writers a human being is a unitary thing, body and soul combined. The very most that can be said is that at death a person descends to the realm of Sheol, sometimes pictured as a devouring beast. There is no meaningful life there, just darkness and forgetfulness. They are shades. These are not disembodied souls - they are merely vague shadows of what a person once was. Sheol was to be avoided at all costs. The biblical hope, for the most part, was for a peaceful death surrounded by family and burial in or near the ancestral home. Later when peaceful deaths and burial at home became impossible because of the persecution of God's people, war or dishonour there arose a hope for bodily resurrection to life in the New Creation. Nobody in the Hebrew bible wanted to die or thought that dying meant that they would 'be with God'. Nobody expressed a hope that beyond death lay an endless life of bliss in heaven. Rather the godly wished for long life, many children and a good end. This was 'salvation'. They didn't worry about going to hell (because it didn't exist) or about going to heaven (because as a human you couldn't). They worried about what life meant for them in the here and now, in the present. Because of that they valued life and fought to preserve what was important. When they couldn't, they depended on God to do it. Here in the Testament of Abraham we find the souls being judged and rewarded or punished immediately after death. This too is quite remarkable. In contrast 2 Enoch, which I wrote about in a previous post, Enoch is taken to the third heaven where he sees paradise prepared for the righteous and place of punishment (fully equipped and staffed!) awaiting the arrival of the unrighteous. So 'heaven' and 'hell' have been invented. But it is important to realise that when Enoch sees them these are empty. They will be filled at the end, after the judgement. Similarly in the scene where the sheep and the goats are separated in Matthew's gospel (Matthew 25.31-46), the separation and judgement happens at the end when Christ returns (noting too that the blessedness of the righteous here does not seem to involve entering a heavenly paradise but rather finding their enjoyment of 'paradise restored' on the re-created earth). Here in the Testament of Abraham things are different. The souls face judgement at once! That's why Abraham has to stop calling down God's judgement upon them! Of course that's not the point the story is trying to make, but in so far as the story makes use of these ideas which presumably were commonplace among its audience it reveals how Hellenistic ideas about the immortality of the soul were gaining traction in Judaism and how that in turn shaped ideas about judgement. If souls survived death they must go somewhere and deciding where they go must involve some kind of judgement, so obviously, that must happen after death. We will see in the next part what that judgement looked like and how final judgement at the end was still reserved for God but it's clear (to me at least) that the idea of going to paradise or 'hell' after death was a necessary consequence of the immortality of souls. The Testament of Abraham is a window into the thought world of first or second century Judaism. The Hellenistic influence was becoming stronger. Of course it wasn't a linear progression (2 Enoch might have been written after The Testament of Abraham) but we can see in these writings different expressions of the same ideas working to varying degrees to shape the biblical hopes about 'the end' and the future of humanity into something quite new, quite different from the biblical hope. The Testament of Abraham reflects those changes and is part of the story of how we got to where we are today. You might also be interested in . . . .
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Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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