An Infernal Eschatology

The Afterlife in Rome, 1400 BC – 500 AD

by Katie Anderson
 The ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions had very serious

concerns about their own mortality, and composed their own eschatological theories to account for

these concerns. These ideas easily spread across civilization through commerce, trade, and warfare.

Common views of the afterlife and burial traditions corresponded to each other's affects in the ancient

world. Four major eras exhibited the most profound effects on the shaping of the Roman afterlife: the

Etruscans of the pre-Roman era, the Grecians and Parthians, Judaism and the Biblical Era, and early

Christianity. It is the purpose of this paper to explore Rome as a major center of eschatological

development and to chart the influence of other Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations in Rome

from 1400 BC to 500 AD.

The pre-Roman society was comprised of Etruria, Latium and other nearby tribes. Pre-Roman

society believed that the dead roamed the earth, alongside the living.1 Summarily, Rome exhibited a

belief in souls, or what W F Jackson Knight terms the “manes”, but were behind the Greeks in any

early structural developments of an afterlife. The Etruscan manes was also termed 'the cult of the soul'.

Originally, 'manes' was a general representation of the deceased. This representation became identified

as the ghosts of ancestors for a short time, until they became known as individual ancestors. In pre-

Roman funeral rites, the deceased were referenced as ancestors in a broad, communal sense. Gradually

they became known as a family's ancestor. Finally the deceased became recognized as possessing a

single name, personality and individual soul. These manes represented early Roman belief of life

“within or beyond the grave.”2

1 Knight, W.F. Jackson; Elysion: On Ancient Greek and Roman Beliefs, Concerning A Life After Death. Barnes & Noble,
Inc., 1970, p.108.
2 Knight, Elysion: On Ancient Greek and Roman Beliefs, Concerning A life After Death, p.110.
 Roman festivals were held in honor of the manes. Sacrifices of foodstuffs were thrown into a

pit constructed in the middle of the city as a means of communication between the dead and the living.

The early Roman afterlife was reflective of earthly life. Men and women were buried with objects that

displayed status, suggesting that Romans take their rank and splendor with them as they march into the

afterlife. Each man was supplied for the journey. A powerful lord was thus equipped with horses and

arms; the hunter with his nets and spears; the craftsman with his tools.3

Two waves of Etruscans migrated westward from Asia minor. The first wave occurred in 1400

BC, and the latter occurred between 700 -600 BC. Etruria and Egypt may have been in contact at an

earlier point in history, since both shared a common view regarding the afterlife. Etruria, like Egypt,

also believed in a future life filled with reward and punishment.4 Although at this time, there is no

evidence that Rome had adopted their views on the afterlife from Etruria. By 800 BC, Orphism spread

to Rome. At this time, Etrurian augury was also adopted by Rome. Augury, necromancy, and other

forms of divination became a popular means of communication between the living and the dead in

Rome, most famous of which were the Sibylline Oracles. Knight posits that Nero used necromancy to

communicate with his deceased mother.5 Likewise, A. E. Bernstein cites examples from Old Testament

scriptures that forbade these practices, which would enable the living to communicate with the

deceased, in addition to archaeological evidence to argue that Rome possessed views of life after death

at this time.6

3 Cumont, Franz. After Life in Roman Paganism. Yale University Press., 1922, p. 70-72.
4 Knight, Elysion: On Ancient Greek and Roman Beliefs, Concerning A life After Death, p.111.
5 Ibid, 139
6 Bernstein, A. E. The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds. Cornell
University Press, 1993, p. 137.
 The Grecian afterlife was rooted in Paganism. Orphism and stoicism emerged as a counterpoint

to ancient ideologies of the afterlife mirroring the earthly world. Bernstein presents a Platonic account

of how one's position in the afterlife is directly proportionate to how one's life was lived, but also

compares it to the moral life and social order of one's culture. Bernstein continues by explaining that

according to Plato's cultural social order, judgment and punishment appear in a scene best described as

a crossroads between Elysium and Tartarus – the Grecian equivalent to the modern day Christian

Heaven and Hell.7 Greek writers developed the once innovative concept of the afterlife that divided the

dead from the living, as opposed to the Roman view of death as a communal system. Homer wrote that

the dead existed someplace beyond the sea. Plato, Virgil and Plutarch mapped out a world with separate

regions and treatments for different types of spirits. In contrast, Bernstein argues that the dead were

free to wander, across the land.8

According to Knight, a society's views on the afterlife are reflected through their burial

practices. Greece and Rome, for instance, were more likely to cremate their dead. Conversely

Christians and Zoroastrians, who believed in physical resurrection, were more likely to practice

inhumation.9 Franz Cumont's discourse on the Grecian afterlife inferred that it was filled with rulers,

judges, executioners and a prison filled with people “laden in chains” who suffer great torments. Such

torment is greatly contrasted with the higher realms, where good citizens in delightful gardens enjoy all

the joys and pleasures of human existence. Upon descent, the deceased arrive at a first gate where they

await judgment.

7 Ibid, 56, 69
8 Ibid, 105.
9 Knight, Elysion: On Ancient Greek and Roman Beliefs, Concerning A life After Death, p.44-45.
 According to Cumont, time held no meaning for the deceased. None may pass the gates until

they are judged. Following judgment, the deceased cross the river Styx and a crossroads. Judgment in

the afterlife was uncommon in Grecian paganism. It was borrowed from Egypt, and became an

essential element of Orphic philosophy. The Orphic tablets, for instance, presented “advisory

information regarding the journeys through the underworld, which were later followed by scenes of

Hades, spread among the Italians; information that came much earlier, from Greece. Combined with

indigenous beliefs of the region, the Manes were threatened by horrific demons and beneficient genii.”

Such imagery, Cumont argues, suggests that Hellenic legends of Hades had intermingled with Etruscan

demonology.10

The judges of the deceased became infallible and divided the souls left and right. Those who

were guilty moved left across a river of fire, into the dark land of Tartarus where they were condemned

to eternal chastisement. Those judged as a good or light soul, moved on the right road to Elysian Fields,

a place characterized by flowery meadows and an atmosphere of light where the virtuous may forever

live with the heroes. The deceased who had not obtained perfection had the choice to “reincarnate” to

earth after the removal of the memory of their prior existence.11 Thus began a series of dualistic

metaphors that set the standard plan for the afterlife in Mediterranean antiquity.

Stoicism, originally a Grecian philosophy, became very popular in Roman society. Stoicism

promoted Roman virtus, and promoted certain afterlife-centered ideologies. After death, it was

uncertain if the soul escaped to the universal fire or if it maintained its individuality until the 'final

conflagration of the world'. However, what was certain was that the fiery nature of the soul must

prevent it from falling into the underworld and impels it to rise to higher spheres. According to

Cumont, celestial immortality was mentioned as early as 421 BCE.12

10 Cumont, After Life in Roman Paganism, 74-75.

11 Ibid, 76.
12 Ibid, 77, 95.
 Stoicism was also subject to change. “The doctrine that the Inferi were in the atmosphere”

became part of Stoicism in the time of Posidonius and from the end of the Roman Republic onwards.

Roman philosophers Cicero, Seneca and Juvenal reveal a general consensus regarding the shifting

beliefs in Religio Romana, and by the end of the Republic, only the children of upper class Roman

citizens and the entire body of lower class citizens still believed in the old pagan myths.13

Persian Mazdeism, what is now termed Zoroastrianism, did not deviate much from the doctrine

of celestial immortality. Zoroastrianism also held that “the pious would take residence in the abode of

the gods and the impious would be flung into the darkest recesses of the underground Abyss. This

reached the Roman Empire through the mystery cult of Mithras. Further doctrine expounds on aerial

beings or demons of two classes. The first descends from on high to give support to the faithful. The

second rises from the depths to scatter misery, sin and death among men.” After death, the virtuous join

the celestial ones and the impious join the vicious ones. It is this doctrine that Cumont argues will later

become generally accepted by the Christian Church.14 Zoroastrianism, much like the contributions of

Stoicism, prepared for the arrival of astrology and the division of souls. The advent of astrology

imposed a sun cult upon Roman paganism. The sun was the center of the system, which made it master

of all nature, the creator, and savior of man. Heavenly bodies were related to the immortality of the soul

and given human character through their inherent tendency to “be reborn like man”. Because of its

power and association of the sun to the deceased, it was believed that the sun was the ancestor of the

Emperor. The moon represented the physical life, but the sun represented the intellectual life.15

13 Ibid, 82-3, 87.

14 Ibid, 89, 90.
15 Ibid, 91, 102-3. Many tribes believed the moon was linked to the resurrection of the dead. The moon’s rays were thought
to separate soul from body and enable soul to travel to the moon. Early eastern Church gave sacrifice to the moon to
ensure protection of the souls of the deceased. The Moon was believed to have swelled up by an upsurge of souls.
During the wane it transferred souls to the sun. Because of the swelling it took on he shape of a crescent. Castor of
Rhodes, a philosopher who lived around the time of the end of the Roman Republic though he could interpret Roman
customs through the Pythagorean doctrines, which had been revived by Nigidius Figulus, a noted theosophist who also
lived around that time period. Through the observance of crescent shaped shoes adorned by roman senators, it was
thought that ‘the noble souls inhabited the moon after death and trod on its soil”. Cumont 92, 93, 97.
 Rome, Greece, Israel and other civilizations had made many concessions and adopted much

from the East. Finally the last vestige of Paganism, the final re-organization, a combination of the

Mithraic ladder of metals and Zoroastrian astrology would leave a lasting impression of astrology in

the Mediterranean world, that would remain through the Middle Ages. Judaism adopted Chaldean

astrological theories and borrowed the ideas of the “seven stories of heavens”, which was later

reshaped in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.16

Origen, who lived between 185-254 C.E., theorized on the transmutation of the soul based on

the effects of the four elements, which in later years became the prevailing trend of Medieval

philosophers on whose medical discourse lies the four humors. According to Cumont, Origen argued

that paradise grants terrestrial truths, enabling the deceased to rise to the zone of air where they may

comprehend the nature of the beings at that level. Freedom from material weight would grant them

access to the celestial realms, where they must grasp the nature of the stars and the causes of their

movements in order for the soul to move on. They would ultimately become pure intelligences.17 John

Collins also defends the cosmic order argument as he states that “the wisdom in which the wise

individual participates is the principle of cosmic order, so human destiny is directly related to the

structure of the world.” According to Collins, human destiny is intrinsic to the elements that make up

the world.18 Despite the condemnation by the Church, they kept Origen's ideas. Christian lore

borrowed the ancient conception of the world's structure. Fortunately for Dante, much of the celestial

immortality and structure of the astral world was already laid out for him many centuries in advance.19

16 Ibid, 108.
17 Ibid, 108-9.
18 Collins, John J. The Root of Immortality: Death in the Context of Jewish Wisdom. The Harvard Theological Review. 71
(3/4) (Jul – Oct., 1978), 191.
19 Cumont, After Life in Roman Paganism, 108-9.
 Persian influence brought Paganism to an impasse as Roman belief transformed from a simpler

afterlife, wherein the deceased descended through one major gate and then divided inside the

underworld, to a system where all souls were forever split into two categories that utilize the earth as

the first gate. From the earth, one type ascends to the celestial sky and the other descends to the

subterranean world. This system differed greatly from Grecian Paganism 20.

Judaism received growing influence from other cultures, primarily Greece and Persia. However,

in her earliest stages, Judaism held the belief of an underworld, termed Sheol. This ancient concept was

the Jewish land of the ancestral dead. According to Simcha Paull Raphael, historians lack an

appropriate time frame for the existence of Sheol. However, Raphael does describe Sheol as the “land

of deepest gloom”, and a place deep inside the earth. Entrance to Sheol caused the deceased to lose all

connection with God. R. H. Charles argues that Sheol was a region that stretched outside of Yahweh's

reign. At some point his power extends to Sheol to grant a divine ability to raise the dead and return the

souls from Sheol (1 Kings 27:22 and 2 Kings 4:35; 2 Kings 13:21).21 Sheol describes the place of

nonexistence – where all who enter its gates are no longer attainable by the living. The only case of

communication between the living and Sheol, Neil Gillman argues, is Saul's communication with

Samael through the witch of Endor, in which Samael expresses great disdain for being called up from

his slumber.22

20 Ibid, 89-90.
21 Raphael, Simcha Paull. Jewish Views of the Afterlife. Jason Aronson, Inc., 1994, p. 56. See also Charles, R. H., D.D. D.
Litt. A Critical History of a Doctrine of a Future Life in Israel, In Judaism,and In Christianity, Adam and Charles Black,
1913, p.57.
22 Ibid, 56. See also Gillman, Neil. The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought. Jewish Lights
Publishing, 2000, pp. 65, 68; 72-3.
 “Sheol goes back to a time when Hebrew clans lived in the valley of the Euphrates”.23 Charles

purports that the soul in primitive Heathen eschatology, or “nephesh” was identical with blood.24

Therefore, the spilling of blood that leads to death also signifies the loss of a bond between body and

soul.25

Gillman continues to postulate that at some point, a dualistic view regarding resurrection

emerged in Sheol, and that all people descended to Sheol, and were later resurrected. Of these there are

two groups. The first received eternal life and for the latter, eternal reproach and abhorrence. It is

through resurrection that divine justice appeared. Through the writings of Isaiah and Daniel, historians

began to perceive differences in Jewish thought regarding the afterlife. For instance, Daniel discusses

the resurrection and vindication of both the pious and their oppressors. In contrast, Isaiah only

addresses resurrection for the pious. Gillman estimates that Isaiah wrote around the end of the fifth

century BCE, and that the untreated corpses shall be the lot of the oppressors.26 To leave a corpse

unburied had certain repercussions for the fate of the departed soul.27 Similarly, Charles infers that “an

outrage to the body was also done to the soul, an ancient Judaic view that lasts into Job's time.”28

23 Charles, R. H., D.D. D. Litt. A Critical History of a Doctrine of a Future Life In Israel, In Judaism, and In Christianity.
Adam and Charles Black, 1913, p. 36. Though undated, it is proposed that at that time, Hebrew clans shared the valley
with the Babylonians. Hence, the Hebrew concept of Sheol is often equated with the Babylonian land of the dead, which
was called ‘Aralu.’ Charles suggests that Sheol may have originated from a family or clan grave site.
24 In Hebrew, nephesh meant both soul and blood.
25 Charles, 37.
26 Gilman, 92-3.
27 Davies, Jon. Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity. Routledge, 1999, 146.
28 Charles, 32.
 Due to the cultural infusion of the period between the ninth and second centuries BCE, Gillman

argues that it is more likely that the Israelites were influenced by Persia, the belief of resurrection, and

the divine judgment of Zoroastrianism than Egyptian resurrection. However, Egyptian burial practices

should at least be recognized as a precursor to the beliefs and practices promoted by Zoroastrianism.

Jon Davies suggests that resurrection was originally a Babylonian-Zoroastrian idea, and not a Greek

one, reflecting earlier notions of this idea that point eastward.29 According to Davies, “the Egyptians

believed in the resurrection, as they carefully preserved their dead bodies” with such attentiveness that

they had made them “as durable as brass”.30 Wiedemann31 and Davies both support the idea that Osiris

was a transformative character that Egyptians became, upon descent into the underworld, and following

their descent, they would become resurrected as they had been in the waking world.32

Gillman asserts that the changing views of the afterlife between the end of the biblical era and

the beginnings of Rabbinical Judaism33 focus closely on a material body and non-material soul.

Judaism adopted parts of dualism but still did not adopt the view of the immortal soul.34 Whereas

Collins, through the Wisdom of Solomon, explains how spiritual immortality merged with a bodily

resurrection35: “a perishable body weighs down the soul as this tent of clay encumbers a mind full of

cares”, which became pivotal to Jewish eschatological belief.36

29 Davies, 156.
30 Ibid, 27.
31 Weidemann, A. Ph.D. Ancient Egyptian Doctrine: Immortality of the Soul. H. Grevel & Co., 1895, p.47, 54.
32 Davies, 165. In Egyptian thought, Osiris represented a concept of afterlife, the form in which their souls traveled when it
had divided from the entombed body.
33 Raphael, 156; Rabbinical Judaism appears in 70 AD.
34 Gillman, 105, 108; The soul does not become recognized as immortal until the Talmudic tradition.
35 Ibid, 110-112.
36 Collins, 188.
 Between the tenth and eighth centuries BCE, there was no concept of a postmortem judgment

associated with Sheol, nor any philosophy of individual soul. Seventh century non-monotheistic

elements were repeatedly rejected by the spiritual leaders of Israel and Judah. At this time Sheol

became synonymous with retribution. Sheol punishes those who act against the interests of Israel. In

500 BCE, Sheol represents retribution against wicked nations. The vision of the dry bones symbolize

resurrection on a national scale, in which case the Israelites return “to their homeland”.37 By the fourth

through the third centuries BCE, Sheol transforms from a parallel realm to “a house of the dead who

know nothing that happens outside it”. At which point Sheol became a land of forgetfulness. Drastic

changes transformed Sheol when individual retribution and responsibility later entered Jewish thought.

“In the book of Jeremiah, every person is to be held responsible for his or her own sin.” This revelation

of individual responsibility heralds a personal relationship with God. Therefore all are judged with

respect to their sin or righteousness during their lifetime.38

Third century BC Judaism and Stoicism present similar views about the natural progression of

the soul39. Notwithstanding, Judaism uses the underworld to deter people from descending. “For an

intelligent (righteous) man, the path of life leads upward, in order to avoid Sheol below.” Righteous

reward does not yet occur in the spiritual realm. It is, instead, experienced within the earthly sphere.

Therefore, in Jewish thought, death is a punishment to the wicked.40

37 Raphael, 74.
38 Ibid, 59-60, 61-62.
39 Charles, 141. Similarity in views of the soul was most likely due to the influence of Greek philosophy on Judaism as
early as the third century BC. See also Charles, 308-9. Charles argues that the Book of Wisdom borrowed several
concepts from Stoicism.
40 Ibid, 62-3.
 Although originally part of Zoroastrian influence, resurrection was rapidly integrated into

mainstream Jewish postmortem philosophy. This led to three major developments: the transformation

of Sheol into an intermediate realm, God's divine judgment occurred in a postmortem realm, and divine

retribution became a dualistic structure.41 Divine judgment began on a national scale. “There is no

sense of individual judgment; all the people of the nation merit the punishment or reward collectively.”

Judgment occurs in the earthly realm.42 “For all the sinful give their glory after death will be

punishment and glorious work will achieve a fair and righteous gift of immortality”.43

“And thus consider ye throughout all ages, that none that put their trust in him shall be overcome. Fear not then the words of
a sinful man: for his glory shall be dung and worms. To day he shall be lifted up, and to morrow he shall not be
found, because he is returned to his dust, and his thought is come to nothing. Wherefore, ye my sons, be valiant,
and shew yourselves men in the behalf of the law; for by it shall ye obtain glory.”

Through this passage, Josephus suggests a sense of immortality after death44 and punishment to

the wicked.45 Samuel Shepkaru argues in support of Josephus’ introduction of “the concept of the

immortal soul as a possible reward for voluntary death,”46 with regard to the Maccabean revolt. Collins

reveals the extensive debate of whether the “Wisdom of Solomon adopts the Platonic concept of the

immortality of the soul or presupposes the allegedly more Hebraic notion of the resurrection of the

body.” Solomon contains no reference to bodily resurrection. On the contrary, immortality is

characteristic of the spiritual: “righteousness and the souls of the righteous are immortal. The doctrine

of immortality centers on the existence of this spiritual dimension. Immortality has a strong affinity

with Platonism and is most probably influenced by it,” even though it deviates ever so slightly.47

41 Ibid, 73.
42 Ibid, 67.
43 The Missing Books of the Bible, Media Solution Services, p.371. I Maccabees.
44 Ibid, 440-1. II Maccabees.
45 Ibid, 459. II Maccabees.
46 Shepkaru, Samuel. From after Death to Afterlife: Martyrdom and Its Recompense. AJS Review. 24(1), Cambridge
University, 1999, p. 9.
47 Collins, 188.
 As the individual judgment emerged, Zoroastrianism influenced Judaism to become a more

cosmic, dualistic, transcendental and universalistic system. As a result, the last Judgment and doctrine

of resurrection emerge. The individual, nation, world and entire cosmic order would now be subject to

divine judgment. Because of these changes in theory, Sheol became a temporary abode where the

righteous would await the coming kingdom of Yahweh.48 Apocryphal Jewish writings presented the

notion of spirit, separate from the body. Enoch, dated around the third century BCE, presented new

images of an afterlife. He suggested that there was more than just one death. According to Enoch, the

first death was the physical death. The second death, however, would befall the wicked in Sheol.

“Sheol will open her mouth and [the sinners] will be swallowed up into it and perish.” Enoch, like the

Grecian writers of antiquity, walked on a tour of the underworld and heaven. Enoch introduced Gei

Hennom49 as a place of ritual sacrifices which later became a place of eternal damnation. Gehenna

became identified with fire and burning. The use of scripture reveals the changes made over time, that

transformed Sheol into a place where the souls of the wicked would suffer eternal punishment by fire

(1 Enoch 90: 23-26; I Enoch 99; 11-12).50 Two locations have been identified that house the righteous

and the wicked. In 334 BCE, Isaiah's eschatological writings describe Sheol as a resting place of

intermediate status for the righteous of Israel. Part of the reward, it appears, is in waiting.51

48 Raphael, 68.
49 Gehenna. According to Charles, Gehenna is derived from the “valley of Hinnom” or “valley of the Son of Hinnom”;
Charles, 161.
50 Raphael, 84-5, 86, 88, 90-91.
51 Ibid, 71-2.
 By the turn of the second century BCE, the book of Daniel, an apocryphal text, elaborated on

the mythical speculation on the end of time and history. The doctrine of Resurrection was familiar to

the people of Judea living under Hellenistic rule. However, Raphael argues that this time both the

righteous and wicked of Sheol were resurrected. In the latest resurrection, the righteous will be rescued

and the wicked, further condemned.52 During the second century BCE, three major Jewish subgroups

emerged who differed in their belief of the afterlife: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. During this

time, the Pharisees bridged biblical tradition with the early Talmudic tradition. Gillman states that

Josephus was one of few sources on the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. According to Shepkaru, all

three groups were divided on matters of Jewish eschatology. This division would last well into fourth

century CE Rabbinic Judaism.53

Gillman and Shepkaru argue that the Pharisees believed in the descent and divine judgment – a

dualism that rewards the virutous with reincarnation and punishes the wicked.54 The Sadducees rejected

resurrection, but received only penalties in the underworld. Shepkaru attests that Josephus wrote that

the Sadducees believed that the soul perished with the body.55 The Essenes believed in the immortality

of souls which move upward when set free from the earth. They distinguished between the corruptible

body and the imperishable soul. When the soul departed the body, it was believed that they rose upward

to an “abode beyond the ocean”. Conversely, the wicked souls descended to Hades. Shepkaru claims

there is no definitive concept of resurrection among the Essenes.56

52 Ibid, 72-3.
53 Gillman, p. 117; see also Raphael, p. 82, Shepkaru, 10, 11. Shepkaru sheds more light on Pharisaic concept of
resurrection.
54 Gillman, p. 117; Shepkaru, p. 11.
55 Gillman, p. 117; Raphael, p. 82; Shepkaru, p. 11. Shepkaru has more information on Josephus’ work on the Sadducees
than Gillman.
56 Gillman, p. 117; Raphael, p. 82; Shepkaru, p. 10-12. There is no clear description of the “abode beyond the ocean”, but
based on its location both authors suggest it is an early substitute for celestial paradise or heaven.
 Fourth Maccabees, however, promises its martyred protagonists an eternal existence. The

descriptions of the martyr's destiny thus resembled the Essenes' view on the soul. Similar to the

Essenes, Fourth Maccabees also spoke of a belief in the immortal soul, and offered a clearer picture of

the souls of the martyrs in the beyond. However, the minor theme regarded by Shepkaru in 4

Maccabees is “the prevailing of the nation.”57

“The phrase 'the world to come', which the Pharisees and their rabbinic successors used

extensively later on, appears to represent, in its early stages, a new order in the terrestrial realm which

was attainable by a believer. In contrast, the evildoer would be destroyed.”58 Gillman traces continuous

changes in the imagery of the afterlife. The souls of the righteous, he argues, move on towards heaven

or the treasure house where God preserves souls. The souls of the wicked, in contrast, move on to a

place of fiery torment.59 In a two-fold resurrection, the body has risen from the grave wherein the soul

would join the body and the individual would stand in judgment before God.60 This became standard

doctrine in Judaism.61

A dualistic judgment emerges in which this dualism is the “seed idea” for Heaven and Hell that

will characterize later Jewish and Christian afterlife towards the end of the biblical period.62 “And on

the day of the great judgment every measure and every weight and every scale will be exposed as in the

market; and each one will recognize his measure, and according to measure, each shall receive his

reward (2 Enoch 44:5).”63 The testament of Abraham utters three judgments. First, by another human.

Second, the end of days will serve as a judgment by the tribes of Israel. The third and final will be

divine judgment.64

57 Shepkaru, 15.
58 Ibid, 11.
59 Gillman, 138.
60 Raphael, 73. See also Gillman 104, 126. Resurrection of the dead becomes a divine attribute of God.
61 Raphael, 73. See also Gillman, 121. Bodily resurrection and spiritual immortality become a central belief to Judaism.
62 Ibid, 73.
63 Ibid, 107.
64 Ibid, 109.
 By the second century BCE, Gehenna became the final abode of Jewish apostates whose

sufferings served as a spectacle to the righteous. With the advantageous proscription of the creation of a

new heaven and earth in parables, the wicked, who received punishment in Gehenna, have become

ultimately divided and removed from the sight of the righteous, and, as Charles states, will not be likely

to ever see them again.65

The word 'heaven' originates from the meaning of Paradise, which came from the Persian

“pardes”.66 Pardes was the place where the holy elect reside. 1 Enoch is rooted to the image of the

afterlife by the end of the second century BCE.67 Images of a lush paradise arise around first century

CE.68 In 1 Enoch 6:26, Sheol was described as housing three groups of souls: the wicked, who have

already been punished and will remain in Sheol forever; the wicked who have escaped punishment in

life receive a preliminary exposure to great pain in Sheol, and are later raised to receive eternal

damnation in Gehenna, and the final class, composed of the righteous, rise with their bodies to enjoy

everlasting life in Paradise.69

Out of late Enoch70 , a satanic doctrine developed, wherein sin was traced back to its source –

what is deemed the “Satans” are “the original adversaries of man.”71 It was this set of beings that led

fallen angels and watchers to sin. The abolition of sin leads to the creation of a new heaven and earth,

through the intervention of a Messiah.72 According to Charles, the Sibylline Oracles III73, 2

Maccabees74, and fragments of a Zakodite work,75 all contribute to the eschatology of the first century

BC.

65 Charles, 293-4.
66 Ibid, 92-3. Pardes = Orchard. See also Charles, 291. In 1 Enoch xc-civ, Heaven is mentioned for the first time in
apocalyptic literature. Paradise is defined by Charles as a garden of the righteous, or a garden of righteousness.
67 Ibid, 92-3. See also Charles, 291.
68 Ibid, 95.
69 Ibid, 219; The author estimates the time frame at prior to 170 BC.
70 Enoch, chapter 39.
71 Charles, 264.
72 Ibid, 265; dated at about 94-64 BC.
73 Ibid, 273; Sibylline Oracles III: 1-62, dated prior to 61 BC.
74 Ibid, 273; 2 Maccabees, dated between 100-40 BC.
75 Ibid, 278; Zakodite work, estimated between 18-8 BC.
 Josephus, according to Charles, refers to Sheol as an intermediate abode for the righteous but

the final resting place for the wicked. Here Sheol is Hell. Essene doctrine holds that immortality

awaited the souls of the righteousness but the wicked were destined to resign to a cold, dark place “full

of undying torment.”76 A lasting quality of the first century BC, Hades is mentioned as Sheol or an

intermediate abode of all men, which is structured with two divisions: the first for the righteous, and

the latter for the wicked.77

The Book of Judith, which Charles dates to the first century BC, pays recognition to a national

immortality, in which fire becomes a distinctive characteristic of the imagery of Gehenna.78 Writers of

the first century Jewish texts were undoubtedly inspired by Greek philosophers – by “Plato, Aristotle,

Pythgoreans and Stoics.” 79 Alexandrian Judaism, Charles argues, grants immortality immediately after

death – thus doing away with an “intermediate abode of souls” and “final judgment”; no resurrection of

the body; soared to the ether after death to devote themselves to sublime speculation.80 Undoubtedly

related to the older Zoroastrian celestial thought prior to this time, which also emerges from the east.

In 70 AD, Rabbinic Judaism proposes that the individual soul first enters Gehenna and after 12

months enters Gan Eden81, where it remains until the end of days. However, individual and collective

conceptions of an afterlife are confused in much of the rabbinic period. Individual immortality is not

solely exclusive to Rabbinic Judaism.82 Carl-Martin Edsman hints at the beginnings of the recognition

of the soul in Judaism:

76 Ibid, 354. See also Charles, 293. By the first century, Sheol becomes synonymous with Gehenna.
77 Charles, 357; In 2 Enoch, Gehenna and paradise exist in the same sphere of the third heaven, much like the way in
which Grecian Elysium and Hades coexist in the same underworld. See also Charles, 96.
78Ibid, 272. “Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred.
The Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the Day of judgment.
By putting fire and worms in their flesh,
And they shall weep and feel their pain for ever.”
79 Ibid, 303.
80 Ibid, 304-5.
81 Raphael, 156; Gan Eden is another name for paradise.
82 Raphael, 104.
 “Further developed in rabbinic thought… there is in the human body an imperishable element, originally the caudal
vertebra, later only one of the cervical vertebras. It cannot be annihilated, but in the resurrection the new
body is built up by means of it.”83

In general resurrection and judgment, Hades is the abode of the wicked only. The abode of the

souls of martyrs is beneath the altar.84 At the close of the first century AD, Christians “read new

testament ideology into Old Testament records of the past.” Furthermore, “temporal destruction by fire

of Sodom and Gomorrah became interpreted as eternal punishment by fire beyond the grave.” Other

judgments followed, like that of divine judgment upon angels. (Matt.viii 29; 1 Cor.vi 3; 2 Peter ii).85

The Synoptic Gospels dealt with the consummation of the Kingdom of God, 86 the “community

in which the divine will was to be realized” or “on earth as it is in heaven”. Only by abjuring all self-

seeking individualism would one be admitted. The Kingdom is the common good of man.87 This is

opposite of the views of Judaic liturgy regarding worldly and political views. The kingdom itself is the

highest good attainable by man. To have life or to inherit life are synonymous to the inheritance of the

kingdom.88

83 Edsman, Carl-Martin. Religious Phenomenon. University of Chicago Press, 1990, p. 460.

84 Charles, 410.
85 Charles, 414.
86 Charles, 370; The Kingdom of Heaven in the first gospel.
87 Charles, 370.
88 Charles, 370-1.
 Three essential elements herald the everlasting kingdom: a) parusia89, b) final judgment, and c)

resurrection and consummation of all things.90 On Parusia, Charles addresses the details of the

Christian apocalypse are strikingly drawn from Judaic sources on the emphasis of the interpretations of

omens in nature, of wars between nations, and revealed approach of the messiah.91 The “Antichrist”

emerges at the great judgment to be cast into the lake of fire with false prophets and beasts – in the

Johannine Epistles, antichrist denotes false prophets, whereas in Apocalypse it denotes Rome.92 The

first resurrection and millennium also denotes casting “Satan” into an abyss; this parallels the

overthrow of the earthly realm with the chaining of a dragon, thereby inferring that a name that had not

previously entered the history of epistemology, is an allegory of the earth, and all earthly merit.93

In 2 Peter, “he adduces the Deluge (ii5, iii6), the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (ii6), and

the condemnation of the fallen angels to Tartarus.”94 This does not denote the silent keeping until the

Day of Judgment, as in the days of Sheol’s dark silent safe keeping. Charles states that the “unrighteous

are kept under punishment until the Day of Judgment.” In 2 Peter there is no possibility for

repentance.95 Under final judgment, “the world will perish by fire (iii 7, 10, 12).” Destruction of the

world by fire is found in no other epistle of the New Testament.96

89 The parusia is the second advent, or second coming of the messiah.

90 Charles, 379.
91 Charles 382-4.
92 Charles, 406-7.
93 Charles, 407.
94 Tartarus was originally the place of punishment for the Titans, however in this instance, is an intermediate abode of
punishment, where the Angels shall be “received unto judgment.”
95 Charles, 415.
96 Charles, 415.
 While Richard Bauckham suggests that the Apocalypse of Peter was estimated at about 150 AD,

it didn’t become popular from the 2nd – 4th centuries AD.97 The Apocalypse of Peter addresses several

components that invoke major changes in the development of the afterlife. Such changes involve

further development of Old Testament ideology, in addition to new inventions, such as: “each

according to his deed”, cosmic conflagration, Christ as judge, deeds as witnesses, judgments of evil

spirits, punishments in hell, angels of judgment, unbelievers suffer punishment after death, and the

ascension. Peter draws from Matthew’s ‘false messiahs” to create his own claim of a “single false

messiah.”98

The cosmic conflagration, in which a fire that consumes creation is the judgment of both heaven

and earth99, serves as a type of trial that both the righteous and the wicked must pass through100 in order

to reach the next stage of judgment, Christ the judge. In the Apocalypse of Peter, two conflicting

references to Christ the judge identify him in glory and in a position to wield the power of God

Almighty through the ability to judge the entire world.101 Under Christ’s judgment of the world, the

deeds of both the righteous and the wicked serve as witnesses to the judgment, so that nothing can be

hidden.

97 Baukham, Richard. The Fate of the Dead: Studies of the Jewish and Chrstian Apocalypses. Brill, 1998, p.160.
98 Bauckham, 179; 2 Peter 7-8; 2 Peter 2:12; Matthew 24:24. See also 188-9; Justicn and Jerome both support the claim
that Bar kophba may have been a false messiah (1 Apol. 31.6; Ad Rufin 3.31).
99 Bauckham, 198.
100 Bauckham, 200.
101 Bauckham, 201.
 The ordeal of fire, which follows, is a test in which the righteous pass through unharmed and

the wicked suffer by burning.102 This burning punishment originates in Zoroastrian belief.103 The

judgment of evil spirits continues from the Old Testament tradition of Enoch, which seeks out the

origin of evil to suppress it. According to Enoch and Jubilees, evil is traced back to its origin: fallen

angels, watchers, sons of God of genesis 6, the nephilim.104 These giants were viewed as demons, the

same whereby acts of idolatry are inspired among men of pagan religions. Enoch and Jubilees thus

identify the nephilim as Pagan gods. “Now not only wicked people will be judged, but also the powers

of supernatural evil.”105

Punishment in Hell in the Apocalypse of Peter, according to Bauckham, alludes to three new

classes of sinners, and 21 types of sinners, each of which are measured by deed.106 According to

Bauckham, these three classes are: “the persecutors and betrayers of the righteousness”; “the

blasphemes and betrayers of self righteousness”; and “those who put to death the martyrs with a lie.”107

The 21 types of sinners are as follows: 1) those who blasphemed the way of righteousness are hung by

tongues; 2) those who denied justice are placed into a pit of fire; 3) women who enticed men to

adultery are hung by necks; 4) adulterers are hung by their own genitalia; 5) murderers, by poisonous

animals and worms; 6) women who aborted their children, in a pit of excrement up to their throats; 7)

the perpetrators of infanticides, their milk produces flesh-eating animals; 8) persecutors and betrayers

of Christ’s righteous ones are scourged and eaten by unsleeping worm; 9) those who perverted and

betrayed Christ’s righteousness are destined to bite tongues and have hot irons in their eyes; 10) those

who put martyrs to death with their lies will have their lips cut off and fire in their mouth and entrails.

More of the punishments include: 11) those who trusted in their riches and neglected the poor
102 Bauckham, 202-3.
103 Bauckham, 204.
104 The nephilim were created out of a union between the sons of God, or the angels, and the daughters of man. They had
apparently grown into the size of giants, and could no longer be controlled. Historians disagree as to whether the
nephilim were dispatched before or after the onset of the great Flood.
105 Bauckham, 204-5.
106 Bauckham, 205; Peter 7-12; Bauckham, 195, see also 196; Bauckham suggests that at this point, the whole of
eschatological judgment is concerned with impartial judgments of individuals based on their merits.
107 Bauckham, 184; Peter 9: 1-4.
shall be faced with a fiery sharp column, clothed in rags; 12) usurers, in a pit of excrement up to the

knees; 13) male and females practicing homosexuals fall from precipice repeatedly; 14) makers of

idols will be scourged by chains of fire; 15) those who forsook God’s commandments and obeyed

demons shall burn in flames; 16) those who did not honor their parents shall roll down fiery precipice

repeatedly; 17) those who disobeyed the teachings of their fathers and elders will be hung and attacked

by flesh-eating birds; 18) girls who had sex before marriage shall wear dark clothes and their flesh

will dissolve; 19) disobedient slaves shall bite tongues continuously; 20) those who gave alms

hypocritically shall suffer blindness and deafness, and walk on coals of fire, continuously; and 21)

male and female sorcerers will suffer on the wheel of fire in the river of fire.108 The punishments

outlined in the Apocalypse of Peter are so important because they outline a change in social thinking

at this point in history, paralleled with the developing ideology of the changes in afterlife from late

Judaism to early Christianity.

Angels of judgment, or angels appointed to judge the nephilim, bring them forth to judgment.

While angels are the agents of punishment in hell at this stage in retribution after death, demons will

replace them later on.109 The next stage of the judgment addresses those who did not believe they

would be punished after death. While they are doomed to eternal damnation, the righteous may petition

that the damned be delivered from hell and admitted into paradise. Such a request would be granted

upon the approval of Christ, the world judge.110 A final note on the view of judgment presented by the

Apocalypse of Peter about the ascension. During ascension, according to Bauckham, Jesus ascends

with his retinue. Very indicative of ascension, “paradise in the Apocalypse of Peter is a concern for the

award that awaits the martyr in the next life.”111

Davies cites McCann (1978),“By the mid 2nd c., a deepening belief in life beyond the grave

seems to have led to an increased interest in the care of the dead and to a desire for more elaborate
108 Bauckham, 166-7.
109 Bauckham, 225.
110 Bauckham, 232.
111 Bauckham, 184; Peter 16:5.
personal memorials…and the growing belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the

body emphasized especially by the oriental mystery cults and Christianity.112

Justin113 affirms that true existence for the Christian lies in the next world. The Christian

funeral, from its early beginnings, was meant as a joyous occasion. For a Christian to die would mean

to another Christian that the deceased has entered the good land, and that he has become free from the

earthly realm of bondage. The Pagan view of death was not as positive. At this time the pagan view of

death was very sad, morbid and evil.114 Roman Pagans did not relate much to or about the dead except

on designated holidays. The Pagans of Rome had become very distant from their dead ancestors. Julian

the Apostate saw Christianity as something that would destroy the Empire because under Christianity,

the city of Rome was filled with the bodies of the dead on a daily basis. Davies cites Peter Brown:

“You keep adding many corpses of newly dead to the corpses of long ago. You have filled the whole world with
tombs and sepulchers. The carrying of the corpses of the dead through a great assembly of people, in the midst of
dense crowds, staining the eyes of all with ill-omened sights of the dead. What day so touched with dead could be
lucky?”

The important corpses appear to be saints and martyrs. No longer were the Roman ancestors considered

important.115 Much of the death at this time was from Christian martyrs throwing themselves of the

swords of Roman soldiers.

112 Davies, 157.

113 Justin – 110-165CE.
114 Ibid, 198.
115 Ibid, 195.
 The rise of Christianity in Rome reflects a growing change in belief and burial practice.

Catacomb burials came as part of the changes felt in Rome under the influence of Christianity (late 2nd

– early 5th centuries).116 Christian catacombs bore decoration and the Jewish catacombs, until late, did

not. At the end of the 4th century CE, Christians abandoned catacombs. The appearance of burial sites

above ground proclaimed the new and dominant status of Christianity.117 Because of Christianity, the

dead were brought to remain inside the city walls, which had not happened before.118 Christians were

buried with a single white garment, not the additional accoutrements like their Pagan counterparts.119

Davies points out that, in the early Christian writings, “it was not to the Martyrs alone that He promised

the resurrection, but to all men.”120 According to Bauckham, it wasn't until the fourth century AD that

Satan became the ruler of the dead121.

116 Ibid, 192.

117 Ibid, 193.
118 Ibid, 194.
119 Ibid, 195.
120 Ibid, 196.
121 Ibid, 249.
 The changes in visions of death that occurred throughout the Roman Empire both affected and

were effected by other religions and cultures. The animism and rituals that honored the elements of

nature were compromised by the strict focus on the divinity of the Emperor by the Roman Empire.

Greek philosophy and Zoroastrian emphasis on a celestial immortality brought Rome into a shift from

nature worship towards the worship of a celestial god, Sol Invictus. Judaism and Old Testament

writings push forward the developing ideas of a realm of afterlife, resurrection and judgment. Later

Christian writings progress with Old Testament writings and further develop doctrine of transforming

dark underworlds into abodes of punishment and eternal oppression, in addition to pathways that lead

to righteousness and a righteous afterlife. Specifically in the Apocalypse of Peter, newer developments

formed in the vision of the judgment of man, of evil spirits, false messiahs, and changes in the Christ’s

role in judgment. Eventually a doctrine of Satan becomes intertwined into Christian doctrine.

Progressive views on the changes in religious doctrine throughout the course of the Roman Empire

provide a very intensified understanding of the clash and exchange of cultures and religions between

primitive Roman society and the fall of the Empire.

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