Faith Seeking Understanding

Share this post
Your Good Read for Saturday, May 29, 2021
allanrbevere.substack.com

Your Good Read for Saturday, May 29, 2021

The New Testament Doesn’t Say What Most People Think It Does About Heaven

Allan R. Bevere
May 29, 2021
Comment
Share

by N.T. Wright

One of the central stories of the Bible, many people believe, is that there is a heaven and an earth and that human souls have been exiled from heaven and are serving out time here on earth until they can return. Indeed, for most modern Christians, the idea of “going to heaven when you die” is not simply one belief among others, but the one that seems to give a point to it all.

But the people who believed in that kind of “heaven” when the New Testament was written were not the early Christians. They were the “Middle Platonists” — people like Plutarch (a younger contemporary of St Paul who was a philosopher, biographer, essayist and pagan priest in Delphi). To understand what the first followers of Jesus believed about what happens after death, we need to read the New Testament in its own world — the world of Jewish hope, of Roman imperialism and of Greek thought.

Continue with today’s Good Read here.

___

Check out my blog allanbevere.com

CommentComment
ShareShare

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Allan R. Bevere
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing