The Reformed Olive Press

  Alive to God: How Jesus Reframed Covenant and Death Part 2 When Jesus debated the Sadducees about the resurrection in Matthew 22:32, he reframed the discussion around covenant and belonging: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” For Jesus, the patriarchs are not “alive” because they exist in a ghostly realm, but because their covenant with God endures. God’s promises do not dissolve at death. To belong to Him is to be held in an everlasting relationship that transcends the grave. This covenantal lens challenges both Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) and Greek assumptions about the afterlife. ANE Views of the Dead In Mesopotamia, Ugarit, and Egypt, the dead continued in a shadowy existence sustained by the living: Mesopotamia: The dead relied on food and drink offerings. If forgotten, they languished or “died again.” Egypt: Names and rituals sustained the dead. Inscriptions pleaded, “Say my name so that I may l...

Alive to God: How Jesus Reframed Covenant and Death Part 1 When Jesus told the Sadducees, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32), He was making a radical claim in the context of both Israel’s Scriptures and the wider Ancient Near Eastern world. His point was simple but profound: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still “alive to God” because His covenant promises did not expire with their physical deaths. But what did this mean in its cultural setting?  Ancient Near Eastern Views of the Dead In the broader world of the Ancient Near East (ANE), the dead were rarely thought of as truly gone. They continued to have a role, and often needed to be sustained by ritual or remembered through cultic practices. Mesopotamia (Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XII): Enkidu, speaking from the underworld, describes the condition of the dead based on family and lineage. The dead still had awareness and relationships, with their fates tied to how they were honored by the living. Ug...

Paul, Martyrdom, and the Misreading of Jesus When we read Paul, we have to remember that he stood at the crossroads of Jewish tradition and Greco-Roman philosophy. His letters are filled with imagery borrowed from Jewish martyr texts like Maccabees and Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocrypha, but also reshaped by the Platonic and mystery-cult categories of his time. Paul interpreted Jesus through this lens—casting him as a cosmic redeemer whose death functioned as a universal ransom. But here we need to pause: Paul, influenced by Hellenism, got Jesus wrong. Jesus was not teaching a Greek-style immortality of the soul or an afterlife realm in the sky. He was a Jewish apocalyptic prophet announcing the kingdom of God—the renewal of Israel, the vindication of the oppressed, and an enduring life rooted in covenant faithfulness. Martyrdom as Communal Atonement in Jewish Tradition Jewish martyr texts provide the backdrop.  In 2 Maccabees 7 , brothers die under torture, claiming their deaths ...

R esurrection Language Idioms in the Ancient Near East: Nations Rising from the Dust When most readers hear the word "resurrection," they immediately think of individuals being raised from the dead. But in the Ancient Near East (ANE), the language of resurrection often worked as an idiom for national restoration, vindication, and renewal. Cities and peoples that had been destroyed, shamed, or conquered were poetically described as “dead,” while their rebuilding and return were portrayed as a kind of “resurrection.” The Hebrew prophets tapped into this shared cultural imagery, including Isaiah, who used it to describe Israel’s return from exile. Let’s explore some examples. 1. Mesopotamian City Laments The Sumerian laments after the fall of cities like Ur (c. 2000 BCE) describe destruction in death-like terms: “Ur is destroyed, its people lie in the dust.” Yet hope of renewal is voiced: “May the city rise from its ruins, may the people live again.” Here, the fate of a city is ...

  Did Jesus Ever Say We Must Believe in Him as a Sacrifice? When people talk about Christianity today, it’s often assumed that the gospel boils down to this: “Believe that Jesus died as a sacrifice for your sins, and you’ll be saved.” But when we step back and look at the Gospels themselves, the story is much more layered. Jesus’ own words and the way each evangelist presents Him don’t line up neatly with this later doctrinal formula. Instead, the idea of salvation through belief in Jesus as a sacrifice seems to emerge later, shaped by Greek-influenced theology more than by the Hebraic roots of Jesus’ teaching. The Synoptic Gospels: Repentance and Following, Not Sacrificial Belief Matthew and Mark preserve Jesus’ saying that the Son of Man came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45). At the Last Supper, Jesus speaks of His blood as the covenant poured out for many. These texts use sacrificial imagery, but notice: Jesus never commands His disciples, “You...