Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

The modern Jewish preference for immortality -- Resurrection in the Torah? -- Up from Sheol -- Are Abraham, Moses, and Job in Sheol? -- Intimations of immortality -- Individual mortality and familial resurrection -- The man of God performs a resurrection -- "Death, be broken!" -- The widow re-wed, her children restored -- Israel's exodus from the grave -- The fact of death and the promise of life -- "He keeps faith with those who sleep in the dust" -- God's ultimate victory -- Epilogue: the two horns of the ram.

This provocative volume explores the origins of the Jewish doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Jon Levenson argues that, contrary to a very widespread misconception, the ancient rabbis were keenly committed to the belief that at the end of time, God would restore the deserving dead to life. In fact, Levenson points out, the rabbis saw the Hebrew Bible itself as committed to that idea. The author meticulously traces the belief in resurrection backward from its undoubted attestations in rabbinic literature and in the "Book of Daniel", showing where the belief stands in continuity with earlier Israelite culture and where it departs from that culture. Focusing on the biblical roots of resurrection, Levenson challenges the notion that it was a foreign import into Judaism, and in the process he develops a neglected continuity between Judaism and Christianity. His book will shake the thinking of scholars and lay readers alike, revising the way we understand the history of Jewish ideas about life, death, and the destiny of the Jewish people