Biblical & Theological Issues

by John W. Cooper –

The Christian Majority Tradition

The source of Christian belief in life after death is divine revelation in Scripture, not wishful thinking, spiritual intuition, or philosophical deduction. Throughout Christian history, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and historic Protestant churches have affirmed the same general narrative. At death, the human soul or spirit is separated from the body and exists in a mode that anticipates its eternal destiny with God or separated from him. At the return of Christ, all humans are resurrected bodily and undergo final judgment. Thereafter the blessed dwell eternally with God in the renewed heaven and earth, and the damned suffer eternal punishment with the Devil and his angels. Details of this narrative have varied. But the general picture of temporary disembodied existence followed by everlasting bodily resurrection—what N. T. Wright has called a “two-stage view of life after life”¹—has been the large majority position of ecumenical Christianity about the teaching of Scripture.

Ancient and Modern Alternatives ———–

But there are other historical perspectives. A variant of the two-stage narrative is soul sleep, held mostly by some Anabaptist Protestants, which denies that souls are conscious between death and resurrection.² A one-stage alternative is the immortality of the soul. At death the soul immediately finds its eternal destiny in heaven or hell with no further role for the body.³

The traditional two-stage view has been challenged during the past century by many Christian intellectuals because of doubt that human souls or persons can exist without bodies. They reject the body-soul dualism that this view assumes because they are convinced that evolutionary biology and neuroscience have undermined the idea of a separable soul. They claim that body-soul dualism is not taught in Scripture but was imported into Christian thought from Greek philosophy.⁴ Theologians have proposed two alternatives to the traditional narrative. The non-existence/ resurrection view holds that humans cease to exist at death and come into being again when God recreates them as bodily beings at the return of Christ—the soul is not only unconscious but non-existent between death and resurrection.⁵ The immediate resurrection view holds that we acquire our final resurrection bodies immediately at death so that there is no time during which souls could be without bodies.⁶

In sum, there are five views of life after death held by Christians: the traditional two- stage view–disembodied soul/resurrection— two two-stage variants–soul-sleep/resurrection and non-existence/resurrection—and two one- stage views, immortal soul and immediate resurrection.⁷

The Biblical Teaching ————-   

This article presents an overview of what Scripture as a whole teaches about life after death in order to evaluate how well these five views reflect it. (It does not address the philosophical and scientific debate about the soul and body-soul dualism.) Our survey of the Bible moves from the Old Testament to the New Testament, including intertestamental Jewish beliefs engaged by Jesus and Paul. I argue that the two-stage doctrine of the ecumenical Christian tradition is the most tenable interpretation of biblical teaching as a coherent whole.⁸

The Old Testament

By and large the Old Testament focuses on life in this world rather than what follows death. Its interest is the history and destiny of God’s covenant people for the sake of the nations in his worldwide kingdom. It begins with the creation of heaven, earth, and humanity in Genesis and climaxes with the Lord establishing the new Jerusalem in the new heaven and earth at the end of Isaiah. What little the Old Testament says about the afterlife of individual humans must be understood in that context.

What it does say is enough to establish a two- stage scenario. The deceased exist minimally in Sheol, the underworld place of the dead. But the Lord promises to raise his people to new bodily life when he returns to establish his everlasting kingdom.

When humans die, they descend to Sheol, the gloomy place of the dead far beneath the grave, under the earth.⁹ (Exceptions are Enoch and Elijah, whom God took, and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who went to Sheol alive.) The dead do not cease to exist. The very same individuals who lived on earth—Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, Saul, David, Job, and Hezekiah—continue on in Sheol.

Their existence is minimal. In general the dead are depicted as lethargic, inactive, and possibly unconscious. God is present in Sheol (Ps. 139:8), but the dead do not know him or praise him (Ps. 88:10-12, Ps. 115:17- 18, Isa. 38:18). They are at rest, asleep, and forgetful of life (Job 3:13ff). In Sheol there is “neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom” (Eccl. 9:10). However, the dead are sometimes conscious and active. Samuel appears from Sheol to prophesy that Saul will soon join him (1 Sam. 28:11-19). The victims of the king of Babylon recognize and taunt him in Sheol (Isa. 14:9-10). God forbids contacting the dead through mediums, which assumes that people believed they could respond (Lev. 19:31, 20:6, Isa. 8:19).

The appropriate English word for this description is ghost—a shade or spirit that retains the person’s bodily form but is no longer material. The Old Testament terminology is diverse. Sometimes the dead are called rephaim, which also refers to Canaanite giants. The witch of Endor refers to Samuel as elohim, perhaps ec hoing the Canaanite belief that deceased rephaim become gods. Nephesh also refers to the dead several times (Gen.35:18, Ps. 16:10, 30:3, 49:15, 86:13, 139:8). It is traditionally translated as soul, but it does not mean soul in the Platonic sense of body-soul dualism—a spiritual-mental being distinct from the body and separated from it. Normally nephesh refers to the whole living bodily person. In Genesis 2:7 God makes the man from the dust of the ground, breathes into him the breath of life, and he becomes a nephesh chayah, a living soul or living being. Humans are whole beings made of earth and spirit (ruach, neshamah), not souls and bodies conjoined. At death the spirit—ruach—returns to God (Eccl. 12:7). Ruach never refers to a dead person in the Old Testament. All this implies that a nephesh in Sheol is a human being, minus spirit (ruach) and matter (dust of the earth), yet with an ego (selfhood, personal identity) and some residual capacity to act. A precise analysis is difficult.

Sheol is only the first stage, however, at least for God’s people. (God might destroy the wicked, Ps. 73:27, or leave them in Sheol.) Psalms 16:10, 23:6, 49:15, and 73:26 envision everlasting life with the Lord beyond Sheol. The Old Testament’s few resurrection texts are more specific about the second stage. Job 19:25- 27 is plausibly read as bodily resurrection, although it might also mean earthly healing. Ezekiel 37, the Valley of Bones, may refer to the national restoration of Judah but is just as likely predicting individual resurrection as well. In any case, it is an account of the resurrection of individuals. More certain is Isaiah 26:19: “Your dead will live, their bodies will rise…the earth will give birth to her dead.” The term for the dead is rephaim, those who inhabit Sheol. On the day of the Lord, they will rise bodily. This is indisputably a two-stage view of life after life. Daniel 12:2 also predicts the resurrection of the dead, some to everlasting life, others to everlasting contempt.

In sum, the Old Testament as a whole eventually teaches a two-stage history of the afterlife—interim existence in Sheol and resurrection in God’s kingdom.

Intertestamental Judaism

In order to understand the relevant New Testament texts, it is important briefly to consider Jewish views after the Old Testament. One doctrine held by Sadducees (Acts 23:8). and expressed in the book of Sirach, is a minimal view based on the pessimistic Sheol texts. For all practical purposes, there is no afterlife. The dead cease to exist or fade away.

But most Jews affirmed versions of the Old Testament’s two-stage view: awaiting the Day of the Lord and what follows thereafter. 1 Enoch 22 depicts four places in which the souls or spirits (an extension of OT terminology) of the dead await judgment. They are active– crying out to God for justice. 2 Esdras 7:75 and following is a detailed account of the souls and spirits of the blessed and the damned awaiting resurrection and final judgment. Even though they are said to be “asleep” (v. 32), both groups are active and aware of their destiny.

Resurrection meant different things in Judaism. For some, it is complete restoration of the very same earthly body (Sibyline Oracles, 4, 181-82, 2 Macc. 7:11, 14:46). For others, it is transformation of the earthly body into a heavenly, spiritual, or astral body (1 Enoch 104, 2 Esdras 7, 2 Baruch 51). For a few, resurrection means the soul leaving the body permanently and rising up to eternal life with God (Jubilees 23:30-31).

The latter position is a one-stage view influenced by Plato’s doctrine of the immortal soul. There is no record of a one-stage immediate bodily resurrection or a two-stage non-existence/resurrection sequence. The Sadducees’ denial of the afterlife is a no- stage view. Most traditions of Jewish doctrine affirmed two-stages: the souls or spirits of the dead exist until resurrection, final judgment, and eternal destiny. Some may have believed that souls are unconscious. But for others, souls are conscious and active even if the dead are said to be asleep. (Dreaming is the analogy.) The conscious two-stage account is certainly the teaching of the Pharisees (cf. Acts 23:8), who figure prominently in the New Testament.

The New Testament

Approaching the New Testament in terms of its background in Second Temple Judaism and encounters with Greco-Roman perspectives, it seems clear that NT authors adopt and build on the two-stage view that emerges from the Old Testament. This conclusion has been affirmed by the vast majority of churches throughout the history of the ecumenical Christianity. It is the “plain meaning” most obvious to non-academic Bible readers. And although many contemporary academics disagree, it is the most reasonable conclusion of biblical scholarship.¹⁰

What follows makes the case by first considering the time and nature of the resurrection and then what occurs between death and resurrection. Consideration of relevant texts is not exhaustive, but it is representative and not selected to favor the outcome.

Bodily Resurrection

All four Gospels emphasize the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The dead body that was taken from the cross and buried came to life again on Easter morning. Jesus assures the disciples that he is not a ghost but has flesh and bones, and he eats food (Luke 24:37- 43). He invites doubting Thomas to touch his wounds (John 20:27). Jesus’ resurrection is physical and corporeal, not a spiritual resurrection or immortal soul.

Jesus’ resurrection is not  unique. He is the “first fruit” of the dead (Col. 1:18). What happened to him will happen to us. Our resurrection bodies will be like his. Paul directly grounds our resurrection in Christ’s in 1 Corinthians 15 (12-28). He emphasizes the identity and continuity of the earthly and resurrection body as well as its transformation from one nature to the other (36-54). The earthly, mortal, natural body (soma psychikos) that is buried will be raised as a heavenly, immortal, glorious, spiritual body (soma pneumatikos) (42-49). Commentators debate whether the contrast is between physical and spiritual “stuff” of which the body consists, or between contrasting sources of life—Adam’s “soulish” body was animated contingently and fallibly, whereas Christ’s resurrected body is animated eternally and perfectly by the Holy Spirit. Either way, Paul affirms bodily resurrection, not disembodied spiritual existence.

The Time of Resurrection

Paul concludes 1 Corinthians 15 by locating the resurrection “at the end, when Christ hands the kingdom to the Father” (23-24), “at the last trumpet” (52). He reiterates this point in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Philippians 3:20-21, and Romans 8:21-23, where he correlates the redemption of our bodies with the redemption of the whole creation. In Acts 24:15 he refers to a future resurrection of the righteous and wicked. Other New Testament writers agree. John 5:28-29 teaches a future resurrection to judgment, and John 6:39, 40, 44, 54 and 11:24 locate the resurrection “at the last day.” Revelation 20:5 speaks of a first resurrection of the martyrs and a second resurrection of everyone else after a thousand years, after which the final judgment takes place (12-13). Although Christians disagree on the nature and scope of the first resurrection, a final general resurrection is beyond dispute.¹¹ Whatever the variations of terminology and detail, the consistent testimony of the New Testament writers affirms a final, general, bodily resurrection at the end of this age, when Christ returns. There is no text that locates the resurrection of individuals immediately when they die, although they are immediately “with the Lord.”

Existence between Death and Resurrection

If the resurrection is future, what happens to the dead in the meantime? Jesus is the pioneer through death—the first fruit. He was neither immediately resurrected nor non-existent between his death and resurrection. He was in Paradise while his body was in the grave, welcoming the crucified thief (Luke 23:43). Thus he established a two-stage sequence as a pattern for believers. The first stage has traditionally been called the intermediate state between bodily existence in this life and the life to come.

Paul likewise anticipates immediate fellowship with the Lord when he dies. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 he writes about death, being with Christ, and having to give him an account. Verses 1-5 speak metaphorically about putting off the earthly tent, being naked, and being clothed with a heavenly dwelling. Commentators disagree about whether the heavenly dwelling means the resurrection body and whether nakedness means disembodiment. Verses 6-9 are more literal and clear. They contrast being “at home in the body (soma) and away from the Lord” with being “away from the body and at home with the Lord.” Philippians 1:22-23 presents the same alternative, mentioning flesh instead of body: remaining in the flesh (sarx) away from the Lord, or departing from the flesh to be with the Lord. It is indisputable that Paul believes he can exist without his body.¹² He eagerly anticipates fellowship with the Lord without it.

Neither a resurrection body nor an interval between death and resurrection are explicitly mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5 or Philippians 1. Taken by themselves, therefore, they are not decisive about two stages. But in other letters, indicated above, Paul clearly affirms the resurrection of the body at the return of Christ. Thus it is most reasonable to interpret 2 Corinthians 5 as affirming immediate fellowship with Christ without a body without a clear affirmation of the resurrection, just as 1 Corinthians 15 speaks of future bodily resurrection without mentioning immediate fellowship with Christ. These texts each focus on one stage of Paul’s two-stage view, rather than giving two incompatible scenarios.¹³

Acts 23:6-8 supports the conclusion that Paul embraced the two-stage view. During his trial before the Sanhedrin, he divides the house by identifying with the Pharisees against the Sadducees about the afterlife.¹⁴ Luke explains in verse 8 that the Pharisees not only believe in the resurrection but also in angels and spirits, the latter almost certainly referring to deceased humans. The writings of the Pharisees clearly teach the two-stage view based on the Old Testament: the spirits of the dead await the coming of the Lord, judgment, and their final destiny.

Finally, the Transfiguration of Jesus involves the presence of Moses and Elijah (Matt. 17, Mark 9, Luke 9), which implies that they exist even though the resurrection has not occurred. Jesus also refers to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as alive to God although the resurrection is future (Luke 20:38, 27-38; also Matt. 22; Mark 12). Both these texts entail that the dead exist between this life and the resurrection.

Activity or Soul Sleep?

A minority of Christians endorse the two-stage narrative but affirm soul sleep and deny that the dead are conscious and active. They do so because Scripture sometimes refers to death as sleep (Matt. 9:24; Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:13). They may also have intellectual doubts that souls can function without bodies even if they can exist without them.

However, we have noted a few Old Testament texts in which the dead are conscious and active. Several Jewish texts refer to the dead as asleep but at the same time depict them as conscious and active. The correlation of death as sleep and spiritual activity is found in pagan religion as well. The key analogy is dreaming: a person who is asleep and physically motionless can at the same time be conscious and active in his dreams. For these reasons, it is a fallacy to infer unconsciousness from the metaphor of death as sleep.

Caution is warranted on the other side as well. The New Testament does portray the dead as conscious. But it does not elaborate or give details, and most texts are figurative. Luke 16:19-31 is a parable in which the poor man is in Abraham’s bosom (in Paradise) and the rich man is in Hades, pleading with Abraham, awaiting the final judgment (his brothers are still alive). Most Jewish believers regarded this picture as true, but it is a parable. In Revelation, the souls of the martyrs cry out for justice (6:10), they reign with Christ (20:4), and the great multitude in heaven surround God’s throne, praising him (7:9-10) before the resurrection takes place. These texts are figurative, so details should not be taken as literally true.

Christian theologians have also inferred a conscious and active intermediate state from those texts, such as 2 Corinthians 5, Philippians 1, and Luke 23:43, which affirm our presence with the Lord immediately after death. The reason is that throughout Scripture, being in God’s presence means  a reciprocal relationship, which rules out unconscious inactivity. Romans 8:38-39 states that death cannot separate us from God’s love in Christ, and love likewise implies a reciprocal relationship. Hebrews 12:26 refers to the spirits of righteous men made perfect (in the heavenly Jerusalem, awaiting resurrection), which implies activity because righteousness and perfection are active, not passive properties. In John 11:28-29, Jesus says that if we have eternal life, we will not die [spiritually] even though we die [physically], which entails unbroken fellowship with him. The inferences to a conscious intermediate state from these texts are more likely true than false, given biblical teaching about God’s relationship with his people.

In sum, although certainty is impossible, there is significant textual basis for conscious and active existence between death and resurrection, which seriously undermines soul sleep. Beyond a few generalities, however, Scripture discloses no details of what it is like to be dead.

Souls, Spirits, Selves?

It is worth noting the New Testament terminology for the dead because doubt about souls is a major reason for modern alternatives to the traditional two-stage view. Some Christians claim that science and philosophy undermine belief in separable souls, and that this notion comes from Platonic philosophy, not from the Bible.

The notion is biblical, however. Although the Old Testament uses nephesh (soul) for the dead infrequently and never uses ruach (spirit), both terms are common in Hebrew and Greek (pneuma, psyche) texts of Judaism. The New Testament follows suit. Matthew 10:28 distinguishes body and soul and states that humans can only kill the body, whereas God can destroy both in Gehenna (the place of final destruction). Hebrews 12:26 mentions the spirits of righteous men made perfect in the heavenly Jerusalem. Revelation 6 and 20 refer to the souls of the martyrs. The disciples thought they saw a spirit when Jesus appeared on Easter evening (Luke 24:37). These examples demonstrate that the idea of a disembodied soul or spirit is at home in the New Testament as derived from the Old Testament.

The fact that Paul does not use soul and spirit for the dead does not invalidate the texts that use them or his own affirmation of immediate disembodied fellowship with Christ. Instead Paul uses the personal pronoun, I. “I am present in the body…I will depart from the body and be present with the Lord.” Paul’s language justifies the conclusion that the soul, spirit, and ego—the core person or self—are synonyms and correlative realities. At death, persons—real enduring selves, the same beings who lived on earth—continue to exist and will be resurrected. The truth of this promise does not require philosophical explanation or scientific validation in order for Christians to affirm it. However God makes it happen, human selves can survive and enjoy God without their bodies. Thus there must be a real distinction between persons (souls, spirits) and bodies—some kind of ontological duality. But these are topics for other articles.

Conclusion —————

The purpose of this article is to survey what the Bible teaches about life after death in order to evaluate several views held by Christians: the traditional two-stage view—disembodied soul/resurrection—two two-stage variants— soul-sleep/resurrection and non-existence/ resurrection—and two one-stage views, immortal soul and immediate resurrection.

The two-stage view of the ecumenical Christian tradition turns out to be the most tenable. It emerges from the Old Testament view of Sheol and future resurrection and becomes the basis for the New Testament consensus through Second Temple Judaism, especially the Pharisees and rabbis.  It  is the only position consistent with a coherent interpretation of all the relevant New Testament texts. Some texts speak only of resurrection, or only of immediate disembodied fellowship with Christ, or of death as sleep. Alternatives to the traditional two-stage account can be constructed by isolating or conjoining only some of these texts. But taken as a whole,¹⁵ the Bible teaches that at death humans appear before God, some remain in fellowship with him, all are resurrected at the return of Christ, all are judged, and all spend eternity either with him or with the Devil and his angels.

The modern claim that the two-stage view of the afterlife is not biblical turns out to be false. I leave it to others to show that the traditional view, including an interval of disembodied personal existence, cannot be defeated or undermined by science or philosophy.

John W. Cooper is Professor of Philosophical Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary. He is the author of Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate (Eerdmans, 1989, 2000).

From the Bible: Texts on Life After Death

Job 19:25-26

For I know that my  Redeemer lives, and  at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

Eccl. 12:7

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Matt. 22:31-33

But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not

the God of the dead but of the living.” When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

Luke 23:42-43

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

1 Cor. 15:3-4, 20-22, 50-55

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . . But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

. . . Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Cor. 5:6-8

Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

Phil. 1:21-24

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

1 Thes. 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Notes

1 N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003). My book, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989, 2000) also defends this position, as does Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life (Catholic University of America, 1988), German original 1977.

2 A recent statement is Samuele Bacchiocchi, Immortality or Resurrection? A Biblical Study on Human Nature and Destiny (Biblical Perspectives, 1997).

3 This view is perennially popular among lay Christians and was the target of Oscar Cullmann’s, famous 1956 article, “Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?”

4 Joel Green is a New Testament scholar who advocates this position. See his Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008).

5 Nancey Murphy is a Christian philosopher who promotes this position because she denies that souls are separable. See her Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (Cambridge University Press, 2006). 6Joel Green affirms immediate resurrection, as does John Hick, Death and Eternal Life (Westminster/John Knox, 1994).

7 Some Premillenialist Protestants posit two resurrections, based on Revelation 20: a resurrection of believers who rule with Christ for 1000 years and later a resurrection of the wicked, but I do not consider this variation. It is a version of the traditional two-stage narrative.

8 I do not reference works giving different interpretations of specific biblical passages. Books by Green, Wright, and Cooper, noted above, contain discussions of relevant texts in the Christian Bible and Second Temple Judaism.

9 The Jewish translators of the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, chose the Greek term, Hades, for sheol because of their similar characteristics.

10 I refrain from engaging the scholarly debates about specific biblical texts. Such discussions and bibliographies can be found in the books by Wright, Green, and Cooper noted above.

11 I do not enter the debate between Pre-millenialists and other Christians about the rapture or multiple resurrections. This is a debate within the traditional two-stage view of life after death.

12 In 2 Cor. 12:2-4 Paul even reports a possible out- of-body experience of Paradise in the Third Heaven during his life. Obviously he believes he can exist apart from his body.

13 One scholarly tradition claims that Paul changed his mind from future to immediate resurrection between 1 and 2 Corinthians. However, this thesis is difficult to reconcile with all the evidence that Paul, like other New Testament writers, affirms a future general resurrection. The traditional reading is more coherent with all the texts.

14 Paul’s teacher was Gamaliel, the grandson of Hillel, the greatest Pharisee leader.

15 Christians take Scripture as a whole, in spite of the fact that there are individual texts in individual books by individual authors, because we believe that the Holy Spirit is the single inspirer of the entire canon and intends to teach the church the content of the canon as a coherent whole. Much modern biblical scholarship proceeds without assuming the unity of the canon (or its inspiration by the Holy Spirit).

(First published in the Areopagus Journal Vol. 11 No. 4 – Life After Death)