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8 Comments

  1. Dianne Hyde
    2015-05-24 @ 12:26 AM

    What do you mean when you say the dead could no longer speak? How could that change because certain people stopped communicating with them?

    • Julia
      2015-05-24 @ 9:58 AM

      If speaking to the dead meant the loss of your life by stoning in ancient Judah, then presumably few people would attempt it. Unlike everywhere else in the world at that time when communication with the dead was a flowing, ongoing thing, in ancient Judah, it stopped. And it stopped for Christianity too, until the last century. If no one is communicating with the dead, then the dead are no longer heard. They cannot speak to us if we refuse to listen. They are therefore silenced.

  2. Elena H
    2016-10-10 @ 10:57 PM

    necromancy is prohibited by G-d Almighty Himself. It is a prohibition straight from Torah, so it (necromancy) could not be “everflowing and extreamly common” in Judea, or Israel or among Jewish people.

    • Julia
      2016-10-16 @ 10:47 AM

      Elena, as an archaeologist of the ancient Near East, and as someone who has excavated in Israel, I can tell you that most people outside the center of Jerusalem were not influenced by the Torah. We know this from all the artifacts left of god and goddess amulets and such, as well as the household shrines that kept contact with dead ancestors. The Torah and the laws became systemized after the return from Exile.

  3. Arjun L Sen
    2018-09-28 @ 11:33 AM

    Extremely useful and clear explication of the problem of the Jewish confusion over death and immortality. I think it has spilled over to Christian views.

    • Julia Assante
      2019-01-24 @ 4:08 PM

      It has dominated Christian views, but fortunately, less and less over the last decades. Thanks for your approving words! Julia

  4. Fareha
    2019-04-16 @ 3:47 AM

    Islam has a very simple solution to this complexity. According to Quran, the final holy scripture, Adam was created to live on earth and earn heavens as reward for obedience to God. He was put in heavens temporarily by God to show that Satan is his enemy and only sincere repentance can absolve man from sins. And that Satan seduced both of Adam and Eve together. And God forgave them both when they asked for forgiveness.

    • Julia Assante
      2019-05-19 @ 10:49 AM

      Dear Fareha, although I don’t believe in a dualistic universe, good and evil, etc. I am posting your interesting view given by the Quran. Thanks for writing it!

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