After Death
Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Genesis 50:2 NASB
The physicians – The NASB translation of the Hebrew ha-rof’im misdirects us. David Fohrman points out that the word actually means “healers.” The fact that we think of healers as physicians means that our conception of the medical arts is superimposed on this Egyptian description. As Fohrman asks, “What healing, after all, could one provide to a corpse? But in Egypt, that was the whole point: the dead could be healed. The Egyptians wanted to ensure that the body would not decompose; as they saw it, the body still had work to do after death.”[1] Jacob is embalmed because Egyptians believed in the existence of continuous embodied life in the afterworld. Strikingly, Hebrews do not. In Hebrew thinking, the body rots away. It does not continue into the afterworld. There may be resurrection, but that is not the same as the body that dies and goes back to the earth. In this account, Jacob is treated as an Egyptian.
Why should we care about this small detail? Eventually Jacob is transported to Canaan to be buried. Does it really matter that his corpse undergoes Egyptian funeral rituals? Of course, it is interesting that Joseph commands his father’s body to be embalmed, but that could be explained on the basis that it needed to be preserved long enough to get it to Canaan. So what? It’s not really that important.
Why should we care? Because this small detail helps us realize that the context of the story is the culture of Egypt. In fact, a lot of the Genesis and Exodus story is bound up in the culture of Egypt. When we read the text, we are reading the context of Egyptian thinking, Egyptian attitudes, Egyptian practices and Egyptian gods. In fact, it’s hard to imagine that we really understand the story without knowing something about Egypt. And that’s the problem. Even the translation of rof’im as physicians rather than healers resets the stage. It replaces the actual cultural context with our cultural context. That changes the story. In this particular case, it changes the way we think about death, the afterlife and the role of the body. In the larger picture, it changes the way we think about Joseph, Pharaoh, Joseph’s children, Jacob, Jacob’s other sons and, eventually, the exodus from Egypt. Perhaps our understanding of the opening biblical accounts requires a great deal more Mesopotamian and Egyptian exposure. Perhaps we have read the Bible as a Western history book far too often.
Let’s suppose for a moment that you grew up in a culture that believed your body merely transitioned from this life to the next when you “died.” Death becomes nothing more than a door to the next world. You expect to be recognized in the afterlife. You imagine you will have bodily needs. You think that healing will occur for all those aliments you had to endure in the present life. Your funerals verge on celebrations. You wait to be reunited with others. Now ask yourself, “Isn’t this Egyptian?”
Topical Index: death, healers, rof’im, afterlife, Genesis 50:2
[1] David Fohrman, The Exodus You Almost Passed Over, p. 218.
Oh, but the problem is that we DO think far too much Egyptian! The standard accepted belief in what happens after we die is so little lined up with the Hebrew understanding, and so much with the pagan, it is virtually indistinguishable from Egypt in many churches. There is so much falsehood propagated at funerals (which is about the only church function so many nominal believers attend), no wonder they are left with such a bad taste in their mouths about the rest of it they don’t come back. I have often thought that.
My impression is that Hebrew thought leaves the door wide open for the afterlife. And because of that it is exactly why you have Jews that believe in everything from reincarnation, all the way to you die and your dead. I thought the reason for this wide open thought process was because 1) There isn’t much talk about it in Torah 2) Point of Torah isn’t about what’s coming next but happening now – this life 3) Why would God try to explain something that we (mortals) could not even imagine because it is out of our scope of understanding.
Am I wrong?
You aren’t wrong. Judaism today, and perhaps since the 4th century BCE, has been affected by Hellenism, which was affected by pagan thought from the Near East at least as early as the 8th C. BCE. But that doesn’t mean the text is aligned with current thought. It’s quite a mess. Does leave a lot for speculation.
Wow! What a wild and crazy ride I have been on this past two weeks. I was “born” into a new way of thinking from Greek to Hebrew thanks to meeting healing physician Skip on a ship (I like that rhyme) four years ago. He correctly diagnosed my condition as Greek thinking and prescribed an appropriate “medicine”; Hebrew Word Study.
Today’s post “After Death” to me is like “dying” having “completed” my four year undergraduate biblical education studies that I knew nothing about, not surprising for an R.C. (reformed Catholic), to begin a new life on the other side. How one simple word can bring about a diploma in Spirituality is transcendental. Today I have crossed the Hellespont appropriately like a Hebrew, backwards, from Greece to Asia to begin a new life with my Greek named faithful wife Penelope. My odyssey if over but life is just beginning. Hallelujah.
I was thinking of Yeshua and the scriptures surrounding his death. In John 19:38-42 is speaks of embalming with myrrh and aloes. Would this be the same type of embalming used in Egypt?
Probably not since the idea in Egypt was to prevent decay.
I was also thinking of the scripture in Psalms (16:10) that points to Messiah??? stating that …”God would not abandon (me) to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.” But as I just read a couple of translations, I realize that this word “decay” can mean many other things. Also, now that I’m re-routing my thinking, would the embalming be similar to what we call mummification?
In Egypt, yes. Embalming is the process of making a mummy. After removing what they considers inessential (some of which were placed in jars), eventually the body dried out and became what we call a mummy. It was wrapped (very intricately with runes and small trinkets and treasures of the person could afford them) and placed in its tomb or cave or whatever place the person had prepared.
Interestingly, the preparation process was usually a process that took 40 days.
Skip. I understand that bodies were left to dessicate for a year or more, then the bones were collected and placed in a small box, or ossuary, and either kept in a special place or interred. Was this a practice current in Israel at that time?
I am not sure if it was a regular practice. Obviously Jacob and Joseph were involved some way
A deep subject about which we know so little. I guess I tend to stand with Paul and am looking through a glass darkly but “then” I shall see clearly. I can wait. I have a bunch of years ahead of me in this world yet, please god!
I find comfort in the words of Yeshua found in John 14:1-3:
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Maybe Skip could elaborate on this and hopefully more on the topic of the afterlife. Personally, I don’t doubt an afterlife. I’m just not sure what it is going to look like.
Fortunately, we will eventually all find out what it is like. 🙂
I see a lot of walking zombies in our world. They are physically alive but dead in every other way. We’ve been sold a bill of goods, and I see disillusionment all around me. I bought into it for so long, it almost killed me! Today as I share a celebratory time with a loved one, I see it in my own family. People numbing themselves be it food or sports or whatever. But today, I also found myself being hurt by a young relative I love as I experienced a perceived slight. I found tears coming into my eyes and wondered what on earth was being triggered in me. It was triggering strong sadness that was out of proportion to the situation. But it made me realize why people including myself choose to numb out. I choose not to numb out today! I choose today to remain committed to being alive in all ways.
Thumbs up! Amein! So good to be alive in His ways. Shalom!
INTERESTING: Saul claimed that when our life line is cut and the earth vessel falls to the ground the spirit/soul returns to God who gave it… Yeshua used the parable of the rich man and Lazaret. Lazaret was carried by the angels to the lap of Abraham… The rich man opened his eyes in hell…
Both eternal “homes” are very close to each other as they could speak…
Yeshua came as the great physician to heal and bring life… Bringing healing in this life instead of seeking eternal preparation after dying…
For this reason Yeshua said we cannot trust anyone coming from the afterlife as only God knows what awaits us there and what will an eternal spiritual life that favours God actually comprise of, except if we go with Revelations prophesy that 24 elders next to the throne, 144 000 souls resting peacefully and the rest of the multitude bring praise and glory to God…
I do agree that our purpose is to understand and adhere to the guidelines in the Bible… The Torah per se may be a transition phase guideline in this life. From our current thinking be it Egyptian, Greek, pagan, Hellenistic, Christian, Catholic, Apostolic etc to Yeshua the anointed… Genesis (Calling from Egypt), Exodus (Taking out of Egypt), Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (Adaptations needed to enter the Promised Land) without this transition being fulfilled we cannot enter the Kingdom of God and manifest the teachings of Yeshua in our lives.
And it is only when we become an anointed for others (Love thy Neighbour and parable of neighbour) that we stop living for the now and live for the eternal. In doing this the eternal and its definition does not matter… We are here to find the right route as no matter how we try we cannot see beyond the now and here. We can only assume which is the worst thing that we can do for then we may be disappointed…
Our only task seems to be; Rom 10:9 says: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Y’shua, and shalt believe in thine heart that YHWH hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה רֹפְאֶֽךָ׃ I am יְהוָ֖ה Who heals you.. Exo 15:26 רֹפְאֶֽךָ = to cure, heal, repair.
“…wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury” (John 19:40)
No embalming, only anointing with spices. No desecrating of bodies.
After death, the spirit/soul/nephesh leaves the physical body, which will return to dust, and we get a new body, incorruptible! No more death!! Exciting, but first, we have to desire to be kadosh, to be set-apart to His ways, living in YHWH’s Presence, distinctly different from the world, in it, but NOT of it.
Hello Skip and all,
I enjoyed both comments by Seeker and Ester for they bring balance to the here and now and shed some light on what we know of after death. I guess in terms of making one’s will – going before the LORD and seeking His direction on burial arrangements and such is in order.
David R