Introduction
What is death—and what becomes of us after we die? Answers to such questions have been numerous and varied, but the only authoritative words on the subject are those of God as revealed in the Bible. This article will therefore examine how scripture describes death—and what that means for those who die.
All scripture quotations are taken from the ESV.
Death as Separation
Generally speaking, the Bible defines physical death as the disintegration of a person into their component parts. The first and highest level of separation occurs when a person’s immaterial component—their soul—separates from their material component—their body—at the very moment of death.
Some scholars have argued that this separation of body and soul is a purely New Testament concept, and that the Israelites of the Old Testament period could not have conceived of a distinction between a person’s material and immaterial parts. But several Old Testament passages militate against this strict anthropological monism. First of all is the account of the death of Abraham:
Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.
In ancient Israel, to be gathered to one’s ancestors was a euphemism for death. Some have argued that it means to be buried with them in the family tomb, but such cannot be the case here. For one, Abraham’s ancestors were buried in Ur or Haran (Gen. 11:28, Gen. 11:32), not Canaan. But more telling is that the passage says Abraham was gathered to his people before he was buried. This sequence requires that Abraham’s true self—his soul—be considered separately from his body; otherwise, he could not be simultaneously gathered to his people and interred somewhere they were not.
Next is the death of Rachel:
Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.” And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.
The phrase “her soul was departing” could be interpreted as nothing but a cultural euphemism. However, the existence of such a euphemism indicates that the separation of the soul from the body at death was a known concept.
The next example is different in that it describes the separation in reverse:
After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.
Where this passage speaks of life re-entering the child, the Hebrew word translated in the ESV as life may also be translated as soul. If the return of the soul to the body brings it to life, then death, by contrast, must be the departure of the soul.
Next is another example of being gathered to one’s ancestors, this time in reference to King Josiah’s future death:
But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.
The idea of being gathered to one’s ancestors has already been discussed in relation to the death of Abraham. Here is another instance of said “gathering” considered separately from the act of burial, thus requiring a separation of the person from their body.
Ecclesiastes provides a straightforward distinction between the fates of the body and the soul:
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Finally, Ezekiel provides a rather unusual piece of evidence for the separation of body and soul:
“And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own minds. Prophesy against them and say, Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls! Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive? You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to my people, who listen to lies. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds. Your veils also I will tear off and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”
This is a prophecy against Israelite witches who claimed to be able to capture people’s souls. The “magic bands” were most likely more akin to pillowcases sewn from the intended victim’s clothing. The souls, it was claimed, would be attracted to the familiar cloth and be trapped inside. The witches would then tell the victim that they would die unless they paid the witch to release their soul (Steiner, Richard C. Disembodied Souls).
As is clear in the passage above, the witches did not in fact possess any of the power they claimed—but this is irrelevant to the point at hand. All that matters is that ancient Israelites believed that their souls could be separated from their bodies and captured, and that this separation, if left unaddressed, would result in death.
All of these passages together demonstrate that the Old Testament does indeed reflect a belief in the separation of the body and soul at death. The New Testament then, after the pattern of progressive revelation, goes on to make this separation clearer, beginning with the teachings of Jesus:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
If the body dies, but the soul lives on, that necessarily implies a separation of the two at death.
When Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead, scripture describes it as her spirit rejoining her body:
And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat.
When Jesus died, scripture plainly says that his spirit separated from his body:
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
Then, after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples, who feared that he was a ghost. To lay their concerns to rest, Jesus said:
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
Therefore, Jesus could not have been a ghost, because he had been reunited with his body. The implication for the current discussion is that the soul of a dead person has been separated from their body.
After the gospels, the epistles go on to make this separation undeniable. Paul says in 2 Corinthians:
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
The “tent that is our earthly home” is obviously the body, and its destruction represents physical death. The fact that the soul can then go on to live in heaven requires a separation between the two. The possibility of being absent from the body drives this point home even further.
Paul expresses a similar thought in Philippians:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
The flesh here represents the body. To depart the flesh is to die, and to remain in the flesh is to live.
Other writers outside of Paul echo the theme of separation. James states it quite plainly:
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
And Peter, in anticipation of his own death, says:
I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
To “put off” one’s body necessarily implies a separation of the person (i.e., their soul) from their body.
Therefore, the definition given at the start of this section holds: physical death is the separation of the soul from the body.
The Fate of the Body
After this first separation, the body remains in the physical world and continues to separate further into its constituent molecules through decomposition; thus is the body destroyed. This fact is readily observable, but it is also attested in scripture:
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?
One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.
“What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?
You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
At a glance, these verses seem to equate the disintegrated body with the person themself, and some have used this to argue against the idea of death as a separation of body and soul. However, the fuller context of scripture must be borne in mind. It has already been shown that the Old and New Testaments together demand the definition of death given earlier. Therefore, when these verses speak of the person becoming dust, it must be understood that they refer only to the physical body, not the entire person. This is not a contradiction, but rather a result of the fluid nature of human language; words can mean different things in different contexts.
The Fate of the Soul
The soul, in contrast to the body, is neither a composite of individual parts nor a divisible substance; it is simple. This property of the soul is proved by the following observations:
-
The Unity of Perception
When a person perceives an object, they don’t perceive a collection of disconnected attributes. An apple is experienced as an apple, not redness and roundness as two separate experiences. This implies that something is collecting all the isolated data points and compositing them into a single, cohesive experience. If this compositor were itself composed of separate parts, then one would perceive not a single holistic experience, but multiple isolated experiences. Therefore, another compositor would be required in order to unify these experiences. If this higher compositor were also composite, then the problem would repeat ad infinitum. The only way to escape this infinite regress is to conclude that the soul is simple. -
The Indivisibility of Thought
Mental acts—such as thoughts or acts of will—have no distinct parts; they are indivisible wholes. If two people think the same thought, the result is not one unified thought, but two separate yet identical thoughts. Likewise, if each part of a composite mind produces a thought, the result is a myriad of thoughts rather than one cohesive thought. Therefore, the source of a mental act cannot itself be composed of parts, for otherwise the resulting act would also be composed. Since mental acts arise directly from the soul, it follows that the soul must be simple. -
The Immutability of Self-Identity
The body, because it is composed of parts, undergoes constant change as those parts are rearranged or replaced. Likewise, if the self were composed of parts, it would be subject to the same kind of change as the body. However, a person retains a consistent sense of self throughout time. Furthermore, this sense of self is not of a conglomerate “us”, but a monolithic “I”. Therefore, the seat of the self—the soul—must be simple.
Once the simplicity of the soul is established, another significant fact emerges:
- Composite entities depend upon their parts for their existence.
- When a composite entity loses a part essential to its structure, it ceases to exist in its original form.
- As demonstrated earlier, physical death is the separation of a person into their component parts.
- The physical part—the body—is a composite, and so continues to dissolve and is thus destroyed. However…
- The soul, being simple, cannot be further divided, and thus survives physical death.
This conclusion is supported by some of the passages already examined (Gen. 25:8–10, 2 Kings 22:20, Eccles. 12:7, 2 Cor. 5:1–9, Phil. 1:21–24), and further evidence will be examined throughout this article. Thus arises the doctrine of the intermediate state—the period of time between a person’s death and their eventual resurrection, during which their soul survives and goes elsewhere.
Disembodiment
Given that…
- physical death is the separation of body and soul,
- the body remains on earth to decay, and
- the soul survives elsewhere,
…it follows that humans exist during the intermediate state as disembodied souls.
Some have objected to the idea of disembodiment, asserting that the soul cannot be separated from the body; this argument has already been addressed in the previous sections. Others hold that the dead possess new post-mortem bodies. Scripture, however, does not allow for this.
Firstly, the passages that describe the post-resurrection Christ as the firstborn from the dead exclude the possibility that those who died in the Old Testament period received new bodies:
that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
Scripture records three ways in which the dead may be said to rise. The first, rarest, and least impressive is the temporary visitation by a departed spirit to the physical world—in other words, a ghost (1 Sam. 28:3–20, Luke 9:28–36). The second—more impressive, but still temporary—is revivification, in which the soul is reunited with its mortal body to live out its days on earth (1 Kings 17:17–24, 2 Kings 4:18–37, 2 Kings 13:20–21, Luke 7:12–15, Luke 8:49–55, John 11:38–44, Acts 9:36–41, Acts 20:9–12). But neither of these are in view here. All who had risen prior did so only for a moment or a brief lifetime, still under the rule of death. But Christ’s resurrection was a rise to permanent life, no longer subject to death’s reign. Thus, although spirits and bodies had been raised prior to Christ’s resurrection, none had ever before truly broken death’s grasp. Therefore, Jesus was the first to rise not just from the dead but above death itself; thus he can truly be called the firstborn. And this had to be the case, because:
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
If Old Testament saints rather than Jesus had been the first to receive their glorious post-mortem bodies, then—in this one area at least—they would be preeminent over Christ. Therefore, the dead prior to Christ’s resurrection had to be disembodied.
Secondly, the fact that the resurrection of the dead is taught as an end-of-history event demands that the dead after Christ’s resurrection also be disembodied. Not until Christ’s return will they receive their new, post-mortem bodies. Scripture is quite clear on this point, with Jesus himself stating that it will occur on “the last day”:
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
Martha expressed her belief in the end-time resurrection when speaking to Jesus of Lazarus:
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Paul echoes this teaching when he writes:
But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
“At his coming” refers to Christ’s return. Thus, a clear chronology is established: Jesus will return, and only then will the dead be raised. An identical chronology is presented in Colossians:
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
And Paul provided a more detailed timeline when he wrote to the Thessalonian believers:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Jesus will return from heaven, and then the dead will be resurrected. It should go without saying that the dead cannot receive their new bodies at the end of history if they have already received them sometime prior.
Finally, John writes that the righteous dead will receive bodies like Christ’s when Christ returns:
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
Therefore, since the dead both before and after Christ’s resurrection have not yet received their post-mortem bodies, it follows that they must exist in a disembodied state.
Disembodiment, it should be observed, is a state neither natural nor desireable in and of itself. Paul hints at this when he says:
For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
While disembodied existence in the presence of God is indeed an improvement over bodily life in a fallen world (2 Cor. 5:8, Phil. 1:23), still the dead yearn to be embodied once more—not in mortal bodies prone to injury and disease, but in glorified, immortal bodies impervious to the effects of sin.
Conclusion
In summary, death is the disintegration of a person into their component parts. The body and soul are separated, and the body continues to dissolve and is thus destroyed. The soul, however, lives on in a disembodied state. For those who are righteous in the eyes of God, this is a state of comfort, as well as of anticipation for the day when they receive glorious, immortal bodies.
Therefore, for the righteous, death is neither the end nor anything to be feared. And how can one know whether or not they are counted righteous by God? By believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by repenting of their wickedness and trusting in Jesus to save them.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Resources
- Holy Bible. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2021.
- Berkhof, Louis. Systematic Theology. Banner of Truth, 2021.
- Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Zondervan Academic, 2020.
- Johnston, Philip S. Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament. IVP Academic, 2002.
- Steiner, Richard C. Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East. Society of Biblical Literature, 2015.
- Williamson, Paul. Death and the Afterlife: Biblical Perspectives on Ultimate Questions. InterVarsity Press, 2018.