I don't think that is true.
According to the New Testament the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, but it does not specify whether this resurrection included the flesh or not. According to Josephus, who himself was a Pharisee, the Pharisees held that only the soul was immortal and the souls of good people would be resurrected or reincarnated and "pass into other bodies," while "the souls of the wicked will suffer eternal punishment." Paul the Apostle declared himself to be a Pharisee before his belief in Jesus Christ.
-wiki-
Sigh. Paul is from the times after the 2nd Temple Period. Way after. By this time Persian beliefs about resurrection and Greek ideas about heaven and souls had been merged into Judaism and emerging Christianity for over a century?
Did you just disagree with Sanders and Wright and go "I don't think so"???????????? are we past the age of science now, is it all what people "think"?
Regards the belief of Sadducees, they were generally held to have rejected any existence after death.
..so we see that there are / were many different sects with varying beliefs.
You suggest that Jews didn't believe in an afterlife before being hellenised, but I would dispute that.
It is purely an unfounded assumption.
You need to be a student of Torah and associated texts, to understand why the majority of Jews today believe in an afterlife.
Another sigh. I've been studying this only from peer-reviewed scholarship. I did post work from 2 biblical scholars so your assessment of it being an "assumption" is a bit weak? There is actual evidence of Hebrew beliefs from the OT as well as changes that happened during the 2nd Temple Period? So where does this "assumption" thing come from?
Actual students of Torah (like Rabbi Tovia Singer) also say that Christianity is Pagan. Demigods who. Claim to be God are not Jewish concepts. I'm baffled why you think only people who are Torah scholars can understand basic concepts?
In Hebrew cosmology Heaven was only for God. After the 2nd Temple Period the beliefs in souls that can go to heaven were blended into Judaism.
"In line with the typical view of most Near Eastern cultures, the Hebrew Bible depicts Heaven as a place that is inaccessible to humans.
[" - Hundley
"There is almost no mention in the Hebrew Bible of Heaven as a possible afterlife destination for human beings, who are instead described as "resting" in
Sheol."
One or two humans were taken to Heaven as an exception.
Then with Hellenism comes heaven for everyone.
Second Temple Judaism[edit]
During the period of the
Second Temple (c. 515 BC – 70 AD), the Hebrew people lived under the rule of first the Persian
Achaemenid Empire, then the Greek kingdoms of the
Diadochi, and finally the
Roman Empire.
[47] Their culture was profoundly influenced by those of the peoples who ruled them.
[47] Consequently, their views on existence after death were profoundly shaped by the ideas of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans.
[48][49] The idea of the
immortality of the soul is derived from Greek philosophy
[49] and the idea of the
resurrection of the dead is derived from Persian cosmology.
[49] By the early first century AD, these two seemingly incompatible ideas were often conflated by Hebrew thinkers.
[49] The Hebrews also inherited from the Persians, Greeks, and Romans the idea that the human soul originates in the divine realm and seeks to return there.
[47] The idea that a human soul belongs in Heaven and that Earth is merely a temporary abode in which the soul is tested to prove its worthiness became increasingly popular during the
Hellenistic period (323 – 31 BC).
[40] Gradually, some Hebrews began to adopt the idea of Heaven as the eternal home of the righteous dead.
[40]
This is from Sanders and Wrights work but is also echoed in Fransesca Stravopolous work and other OT scholarship.
What you are assuming are historical lies put to the general public by the Church. Study actual history (not apologetics) and you too can have this information.
Hellenistic religion - the main points that are related to modern religious beliefs...
"Each (religion prior to being Hellenized) persisted in its native land with little perceptible change save for its becoming linked to
nationalistic or
messianic movements (centring on a deliverer figure).
and
apocalyptic traditions (referring to a belief in the dramatic intervention of a god in human and natural events) ...
his led to a change from concern for a religion of national prosperity to one for individual
salvation, from focus on a particular
ethnic group to concern for every human. The prophet or
saviour replaced the priest and king as the chief religious figure.
(It wasn't just Judaism that was Hellenized. Petra Pakken has a book that details all the religions in that period that were Hellenized in a similar way)
...The first (or inner circle) was composed of devout, full-time adherents of the cult for whom the deity retained a separate and decisive identity (
e.g., those of Yahweh,
Zeus Serapis, and Isis).
The dominant feature of the concluding period of Hellenistic influence—and shortly thereafter—was the rapid growth of
Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, culminating in the conversion to Christianity of the emperor
Constantine in 313 and the religious legislation of the emperor
Theodosius affirming in 380 the
dogmas of the Christian
Council of Nicaea—...
.....and it was this
primordial act of
salvation that was renewed and reexperienced in the cult.
They strove to regain their place in the world beyond this world where they truly belonged, to encounter the god beyond the god of this world who was the true god, and to awaken that part of themselves (their
souls or spirits) that had descended from the heavenly realm by stripping off their bodies, which belonged to this world.
Other deities, who had previously been associated with national destiny (
e.g., Zeus, Yahweh, and Isis), were raised to the status of
transcendent, supreme deities whose power and ontological status (relating to being or existence) far surpassed the other gods,...
hese techniques for achieving ascent or a divine epiphany make up the bulk of the material that has usually been termed
magical,
theurgic (referring to the art of persuading a god to reveal himself and grant salvation, healing, and other requests), or
astrological and that represents the characteristic expression of Hellenistic religiosity.
Rather than an expression of the alternation of life and death, of fertility and sterility, and a celebration of the promise of renewal for the land and the people, the seasonal drama was homologized to a
soteriology (salvation concept) concerning the destiny, fortune, and salvation of the individual after death. The
collective agricultural
rite became a
mystery, a salvific experience reserved for the elect (such as the Greek
mystery religion of Eleusis). Other traditions even more radically reinterpreted the ancient figures. The cosmic or seasonal drama was interiorized to refer to the divine
soul within man that must be liberated. -"
If one read this article before Christianity you could literally predict how the religion would emerge if you combine these ideas with OT theology. This is exactly what Mark did, using Paul, the OT and a few other sources.
So older versions of agricultural cycles were replaced with salvation of the soul and getting into Heaven. Christianity is one big Hellenized religion.
Prior to Hellenism people were not religious to get into an afterlife. That wasn't a thing. People didn't go to church, they just participated in cultic acts to gain favors like good weather. There was a popular saying that translated into something like "Before I was here I didn't care, now I am here, after I am gone I won't care anymore"
There is a lecture by Bart Ehrman that explains this in detail I can link to. So these are in fact Greek ideas blended into other religions. Savior demigods and afterlife entry are Greek myths.
