Jesus explained that his suffering and entry into glory was clearly implied and ‘necessary’ in ‘Moses and all the prophets … and all the Scriptures’ (Luke 24:26-27).

Which raises the obvious question: where exactly?

The Old Testament contained two clear expectations: a general resurrection, and the resurrection of the Messiah.

The Apostles Knew Where to Look

In his Pentecost sermon Peter declared that David’s prophetic expectation included speaking ‘about the resurrection of the Christ’ (Acts 2:31). It was a direct prophecy: ‘For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption’ (Psa 16:10).

Paul taught that after his death ‘for our sins,’ Christ was ‘raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures’ (1 Cor 15:4), and preaching at Antioch identified three Old Testament prophecies of the resurrection as fulfilment of God’s messianic promises (Acts 13:32-37).

So although not generally recognised at the time, according to Jesus and his Apostles the Old Testament contained two clear expectations: a general resurrection, and the resurrection of the Messiah.

Death Was Always Treated as Wrong

The prospect of existence beyond death was glimpsed in various ways.¹See Philip S. Johnson, Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament (Apollos, 2002). In one sense death was reckoned the end of life, returning human beings to dust (Gen 3:19). But the creation of humanity in God’s image carried certain assumptions with it.

Chief among them: death itself was unnatural. The conditions of Sheol — deep shadow, forgetfulness, a dark underworld devoid of hope and relationships — were less than human (Job 10:20-22).

Some texts even worry that Sheol lies outside Yahweh’s dominion: ‘Is your steadfast love declared in the grave?’ (Psa 88:11). But that worry never becomes permanent; Sheol does not prevent God’s action and presence, for he is said to be there somehow (Job 14:13; Psa 139:8).

Sometimes it surfaces as a puzzled question: ‘If a man dies, shall he live again?’ (Job 14:14). The conundrum stands, because despite death’s finality this cannot be the last word. The hope was that although Sheol was dreadful, God will not forget but remember those hidden there. ‘All the days of my service, I would wait,’ said Job, ‘till my renewal should come.’

Hints Scattered Through the Story

Beyond death, a tangible experience of God’s presence was plainly expected as ultimate human destiny (Psa 73:24; 139:7-8). Early on, the deaths of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are described as being ‘gathered to their people’ (Gen 25:8; 35:29). Hannah’s song puts God’s power plainly: ‘The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up’ (1 Sam 2:6).

Then there are the cases that break the pattern outright. Enoch and Elijah are translated from earthly life into God’s presence without dying (Gen 5:24; 2 Ki 2:11) — ‘taken up’ (Heb 11:5) in a manner assumed to mean entry into eternal life.

Three others die and come back: the widow of Zarephath’s son, the Shunammite’s son, and the Moabite thrown into Elisha’s grave (1 Ki 17:17-22; 2 Ki 4:18-37; 13:20-21). These anticipate resurrection — indicating God’s presence in death, his power over it, his purposes beyond it.

Notice what surrounds those episodes. Elijah and Elisha raise the dead, heal the leprous, preach good news, feed the poor (2 Ki 4:1–5:15) — the very pattern paving the way for Christ’s ministry (Matt 11:5), and signalling the final fate of the dead.²Bruce Waltke, An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach (Zondervan, 2007), 967.

Some have identified types, examples which point ahead, ‘which in some way are congruent with the resurrection of Christ and which can be applied to it.’³Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:631. These include people delivered from death — Isaac, Joseph, Samson, Daniel and his friends (Heb 11:3; Gen 41; Judg 16; Dan 3, 6) — and also animals and objects symbolising life out of death (Lev 16; Num 17).

Because God Keeps His Promises

There’s also an expectation of ultimate victory after failure, suffering and death (Psa 22), resting on the conviction that Yahweh — Creator, Deliverer, Redeemer — would remain faithful to his covenant promises, remaking the world and recreating his people.

Divine-human fellowship would persist, unbroken by death, because that’s why God created and delivered his people. The vision of God in creation and covenant — his power, love, faithfulness — would overcome ‘all opposing forces, including finally death itself.’⁴N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (SPCK, 2003), 127. God had ‘bound up his people with himself in the same bundle of life, so that his covenant faithfulness undergirds and supports them beyond anything they are capable of in themselves in life and death.’⁵Thomas F. Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection (T&T Clark, 1976), 28.

The Texts That Say It Outright

Two passages certainly teach the resurrection of persons — we know, because Paul cites them both in the conclusion of his great discourse (1 Cor 15:54-55). ‘I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death’ (Hos 13:14). ‘He will swallow up death forever’ (Isa 25:8).

These may include Israel’s national vindication. But statements this radical aren’t limited to a this-worldly promise of corporate restoration. They visualise the physical resurrection of individuals: ‘Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!’ (Isa 26:19). The relevance is both individual and collective.⁶Waltke, Old Testament Theology, 968.

And the most explicit statement in the whole Old Testament on the double resurrection of the dead:

‘At that time … your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever’ (Dan 12:1-3).

Add the expectation that God would redeem his covenant people (Psa 34:22), ultimately even from death. Under extreme pressure to expect the opposite, Job looked past death to vindication in a future bodily state: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives … And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God’ (Job 19:25-26).

The Shape of the Expectation

The bigger picture is straightforward. Death cannot undo communion with God, nor break the promise of life in his presence.

How this would be achieved was unknown. But the confidence that it would be is persuasive precisely because it rests on nothing besides the Creator’s goodness, wisdom, and superior power over death. Death marks the ‘return’ of the human spirit to an ‘eternal home’ with God (Eccl 12:5, 7).

So faithful defiance in the face of death rests on one conviction: God can intervene and deliver his people whatever happens. Read those texts in light of the whole canon and they articulate a vivid expectation of future personal bodily resurrection.

—

• 1
  See Philip S. Johnson, Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament (Apollos, 2002). ↩︎
• 2
  Bruce Waltke, An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach (Zondervan, 2007), 967. ↩︎
• 3
  Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:631. ↩︎
• 4
  N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (SPCK, 2003), 127. ↩︎
• 5
  Thomas F. Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection (T&T Clark, 1976), 28. ↩︎
• 6
  Waltke, Old Testament Theology, 968. ↩︎