Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 4-14-2020 Life with Yahweh After Death: How the Psalter’s References to Life After Death Cohere Bill Tackmier Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/phd Part of the Biblical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Tackmier, Bill, "Life with Yahweh After Death: How the Psalter’s References to Life After Death Cohere" (2020). Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation. 84. https://scholar.csl.edu/phd/84 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LIFE WITH YAHWEH AFTER DEATH: HOW THE PSALTER’S REFERENCES TO LIFE AFTER DEATH COHERE A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Department of Exegetical Theology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Bill J. Tackmier April 14, 2020 Approved by: Dr. Timothy Saleska Dissertation Advisor Dr. David Adams Reader Dr. John Brug Reader © 2020 by Bill J. Tackmier. All rights reserved. ii CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ....................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... vii ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................................................................... 13 THE CULT OF THE DEAD AMONG ISRAEL’S NEIGHBORS .................................... 13 THE CULT OF THE DEAD IN MESOPOTAMIA ........................................................... 13 THE CULT OF THE DEAD IN EGYPT ........................................................................... 18 THE CULT OF THE DEAD IN THE LEVANT ............................................................... 27 Evidence from Ugarit ................................................................................................ 27 Later Evidence from the Levant ................................................................................ 32 The Katumuwa Stele.................................................................................................. 36 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 42 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................................... 44 BIBLICAL OPPOSITION TO THE CULT OF THE DEAD ............................................ 44 LEGAL PROHIBITIONS .................................................................................................. 45 BIBLICAL NARRATIVES THAT DISPARAGE THE CULT OF THE DEAD ............. 52 PROPHETIC CONDEMNATION ..................................................................................... 58 ISRAEL’S UNDERSTATED REFERENCES TO POST-MORTEM EXISTENCE ........ 68 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 75 iii CHAPTER FOUR ........................................................................................................................ 78 A RELATIONSHIP WITH YAHWEH THAT REACHES BEYOND THIS LIFE .......... 78 PSALM 16 .......................................................................................................................... 78 STANZA 1 .......................................................................................................................... 80 STANZA 2 .......................................................................................................................... 96 STANZA 3 ........................................................................................................................ 103 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 118 CHAPTER FIVE ....................................................................................................................... 121 DEATH: A GULF THAT ONLY YAHWEH CAN BRIDGE......................................... 121 PSALM 49 ........................................................................................................................ 121 HEADING AND INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 124 STANZA 1: NO ONE CAN BUY HIS WAY OUT OF DEATH (VV. 6–12) ................ 129 REFRAIN (VV. 13 AND 21) ........................................................................................... 136 STANZA 2: BUT GOD WILL BUY ME FREE FROM SHEOL (VV. 14–20) .............. 138 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 155 CHAPTER SIX .......................................................................................................................... 157 YAHWEH, MY PORTION FOREVER ........................................................................... 157 PSALM 73 ........................................................................................................................ 157 STANZA 1: THE DILEMMA (VV. 1–12) ...................................................................... 162 STANZA 2: ATTEMPTS BY THE PSALMIST TO RESOLVE THE DILEMMA (VV. 13–17) ............................................................................................................................... 168 STANZA 3: GOD’S SOLUTION TO THE DILEMMA (VV. 18–28) ............................ 173 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 192 CHAPTER SEVEN ................................................................................................................... 195 iv THE SILENCE OF THE DEAD ...................................................................................... 195 PSALM 6:6 ....................................................................................................................... 196 PSALM 30:10 ................................................................................................................... 199 PSALM 88:11–13 ............................................................................................................. 201 PSALM 115:17 ................................................................................................................. 212 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 216 CHAPTER EIGHT .................................................................................................................... 218 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 218 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 228 VITA .......................................................................................................................................... 236 v ILLUSTRATIONS Page Figure 1. Hieroglyph for ka. ........................................................................................................ 20 Figure 2. Sarcophagus of Ahiram, King of Byblos. .................................................................... 33 Figure 3: Close-up of King Ahiram’s Sarcophagus. .................................................................... 34 Figure 4. Large Statue of Hadad with the Panamuwa Inscription. .............................................. 35 Figure 5. The Katumuwa Stele. ................................................................................................... 37 Figure 6: Babylonian Cylinder Seal from the Ur III Period. ..................................................... 179 Figure 7: Hittite Cliff Relief (13th century BC). ........................................................................ 180 Figure 8: Funeral Papyrus from Deir el-Bahari. ........................................................................ 180 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Timothy Saleska and my reader Dr. John Brug for all of their helpful input into this dissertation and for their valuable feedback that helped me in revising it. I would also like to thank Dr. Paul Raabe who pointed me to several valuable sources that have figured prominently in the dissertation. I would like to thank those who helped me locate physical and electronic copies of the sources used in my research—Librarian John