PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

Wisdom of Solomon 3:8
They [that is, the immortal souls of the once-persecuted righteous] will judge the
nations, and rule over peoples, and the Lord will rule over them for eternity.
The Epistle of Enoch looks ahead to the blessed survival of good souls after death:
1 Enoch 103:1-3
I swear to you: I understand this mystery…. That goodness and joy and honour have
been prepared and written down for the souls of those who have died while godly.
Similarly, Josephus appears to hold to the immortality of the soul, as opposed to the (initial)
temporality of the body:
Josephus, Against Apion 2.203
For [in the act of sex] the soul is divided, departing to another place; for it suffers
when being implanted in bodies and similarly at death when it is divided from them.
Therefore purifications for all of these things are commanded.
According to Josephus, even the Pharisees, like the Essenes, held to a “Greek-like” idea of an
immortal soul for all people. Unlike the Essenes, they held that good souls would also receive
new bodies: 79
Josephus, Jewish War 2.154-5
For this is their doctrine [that is, the Essenes]: that bodies are mortal, and their
material is not permanent; but that souls are immortal and endure forever; and that
79 Of course, it should be kept in mind that Josephus may have had a significant rhetorical
purpose in presenting the views of the “sects” in such a way. C.D. Elledge suggests:
“Josephus… has translated these underlying beliefs [about the afterlife] into a Hellenistic
philosophical synthesis that has obscured their original forms”. C.D. Elledge, Life After Death
in Early Judaism: The Evidence of Josephus (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006), 98.
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