Belief in Qiyahmah (Judgement Day) and resurrection of the dead, is a very powerful part of the Qur’an’s teaching. Yet, as Prof. Devorah Dimant a Professor (Emerita) of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa points out that the concept of resurrection of the dead is almost absent in the Hebrew Bible.

She says that one passage in Isaiah may refer to resurrection: (Isaiah 26:19) “Oh, let Your dead revive! Let corpses arise! Awake and shout for joy, you who dwell in the dust! For Your dew is like the radiant dew; You make the land of the shades come to life.” The verse appears in a section in Isaiah (24-27) discussing the end of days. Whether speaking metaphorically or literally, the rabbis understood it to be a literal description of resurrection.

The only biblical passage that unambiguously refers to resurrection is found in the final chapter of the book of Daniel. The chapter opens with a description of the future redemption, which will take place during the worst time the world will ever have experienced. The text continues by describing other wonders that will occur at that time: Daniel 12:2 “Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to ongoing life, others to ongoing abhorrence.

Daniel is the latest biblical book, the final version of which is dated to around 167 B.C.E. And thus, we can say with confidence that by the second century B.C.E., the concept of resurrection clearly entered Jewish discourse, though how widely it was accepted is less clear.

I would point out that this development of the concept of resurrection of the dead, that is almost absent from the Hebrew Bible, is called by Islamic scholars Tahrif (corruption of an original holy text) which is incorrect because Christians and Muslims both became believers of the same basic resurrection Rabbinic beliefs.

Prof. Devorah Dimant shows how the Rabbis, despite the paucity of biblical evidence for resurrection, or perhaps because of it, were raising the question of whether resurrection of the dead will occur, was the focus of intense debate during the last centuries of the Second Temple era. The Jewish Priest Josephus, the historian, writes that the Pharisees accepted resurrection while the Sadducees rejected it (Josephus, Antiquities, xviii; Whiston trans.): Now, for the Pharisees… They also believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again… But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the bodies…”

This view is confirmed in an anecdote recorded in the Christian book of Acts about how Paul defended himself against charges of heresy when he was preaching in a synagogue about the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 23:6-9; NRSV):........

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