[Death according to old-Israeli beliefs]

In Palestine the Neanderthal men and fossil contemporary men treated the dead kinsmen in a special way which can be observed in his intentional burials. They are the evidence of the belief in life after death that probably was imagined as a continuation of earthly life. In the Bible thanatology issues do not assume the crucial importance; the descriptions of dying and posthumous continuance of a man are brief and subject to a certain development. Death is not glorified, the dead cult is forbidden, the corps are treated in a ritual context as impure objects, contaminating people and environment. Death was not considered as boundary, temporary phenomen but as a gradual outflow of life. Only in the later fragments of the Old Testament there appears the concept that in death there takes place the ultimate separation between two constituent elements of a man i.e. between body that turns into dust and soul that goes back to God. The Bible distinguishes various types of death and its causes; but it is God who is the ultimate master of life and death. The other life is considered to be a manifestation of God's blessing. The Holy Scriptures pays special attention to the words spoken by the dying man, occasionally ascribing a prophetic sense to them. Although the funeral ceremony was not ostentatious it was most of the time excessive. The funeral was organized immediately after death, usually after 8 hours and the same day if it was possible. The corpse was wrapped up in linen and buried in hewn in the rock caves or terrestrial graves; bodies were neither burnt nor mummified. "Weeping" and mourning for the deceased lasted quite short - 7 days, seldom longer. Any forms of communicating with the soul of the dead person were severely forbidden and prosecuted; they were considered as discordant with the Jahweh cult. Some of the texts seem to reveal personification of death; it is never considered, however, as a being or power independent of God.