Biblical scholars have long noted the
disconnect between the finality of death in the Hebrew
Bible and traditional Jewish and Christian dogmas of an
afterlife. Developmental explanations, made in terms of
the growth of the biblical tradition and with recourse to
parallel literature, have won broad support. A neglected
aspect of the problem, however, is the way in which the
Hebrew Scriptures themselves supported later belief in
life’s triumph over death. A few scholars emphasize that
the transformation of death grew from the Bible
organically, but the historic function of the biblical
texts remains largely unexplored. By tracing the
reception of key psalms in the post-biblical period—for
the Psalter is where we find the most extreme statements
of death’s overwhelming power (e.g., Psalms 6, 18, 22,
30, 88, 116)—this study will contribute to an
understanding of how a late biblical idea was
retrospectively read from older language.