QUESTION:
6/27/2009: I would like to know how the Orthodox church interprets verses like Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6 "For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.
Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun." and Psalms 115:17 "The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence."
How do Orthodox Christians reconcile these passages with seeking the intercession of the saints? |
ANSWER:
These verses are quoted by those who believe in complete extinction or soul sleep. There are good reasons however not to conclude that these texts actually teach either view.
(1) The revelation of the blessed hope, both the Messiah and the hope of Life was progressive. As the time drew near ffor the revelation of Christ, so did the understanding of tthe hope of resurrection and the status of the reposed. Ecclesiastes which is a rhetorical expression of pessimistic doubt with a last ray of faith and hope cannot be cited as authoritive, as the overall context indicates:
• ‘life is meaningless’ attitude (Eccl 1:2),
• admonitions to eat, drink, and enjoy life (Eccl 5:18; 10:19),
• indifference about morality (Eccl 7:16-17),
• apparent denial of an afterlife (Eccl 3:19-21; 9:2, 6),
• complete agnosticism about the afterlife (Eccl 3:22).
(2) Regarding the Psalms, one has to understand that a human being is a unity of body in soul. At that time, without a certain revelation regarding the blessed hope, the focus was all the more on the communal here and now. Hence, the dead cannot praise God in the great assembly, with the living; and their plans come to an end. However, this focus on the separation and impotence of those who are ddeparted needs to be seen in the context of the totality of revelation, and indeed progressive revelation. The Israelites did believe that the spirits of the dead could be invoked, as is testified in the story of King Saul and the with of En-Dor. After the exile, as the hope of the resurrection becomes clear (together with the approach of the Messiah), we see the believe that the saints who have reposed can intecede to God (2 Maccabees 15:1). this is echoed in Hebrews 12:22-24 (and Hebrews refers to the accounts of 2 Maccabees).
Finally, our Lord makes references - even a parable, since parable are based on possibilities - to the state of the dead in the story of Lazarus (Luke 16). This is not a state of extinction or soul sleep. This is why Saint Paul could say "I am a Pharisee," since this was the theology of the Pharisees.
However, the state of spirits in the intermediate state is never thought of as being the final state - it is a state of waiting for the resurrection which will return the saints to the fullness of glorified existence, with a glorified body. |
