Journeys to Heaven and Hell: Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition

by Bart D. Ehrman

Overview

A New York Times bestselling scholar’s illuminating exploration of the earliest Christian narrated journeys to heaven and hell
 
“[An] illuminating deep dive . . . An edifying origin story for contemporary Christian conceptions of the afterlife.”—Publishers Weekly
 
From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged. He examines how fundamental social experiences of the early Christian communities molded the conceptions of the afterlife that eventuated into the accepted doctrines of heaven, hell, and purgatory.
 
Drawing on Greek and Roman epic poetry, early Jewish writings such as the Book of Watchers, and apocryphal Christian stories including the Acts of Thomas, the Gospel of Nicodemus, and the Apocalypse of Peter, Ehrman demonstrates that ancient tours of the afterlife promoted reflection on matters of ethics, faith, ambition, and life’s meaning, the fruit of which has been codified into Christian belief today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300257007
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has written or edited thirty-three books, six of which were New York Times best sellers. He lives in Durham, NC.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction The Well-Trodden Paths 1

1 The Realities of Death and the Meaning of Life I: Journeys to Hades in Homer and Virgil 9

2 The Realities of Death and the Meaning of Life II: Jewish and Christian Journeys 51

3 Incentives from the World Beyond: Christian Ethics and Evangelism 99

4 The Afterlife of Afterlives: Editorial Interventions and Christology 144

5 The Justice and Mercy of God in Textual Conflict 177

6 The Power of Christ and the Harrowing of Hell 212

Afterword 233

Notes 237

Bibliography 289

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

02/14/2022

This illuminating deep dive by religious studies professor Ehrman (Heaven and Hell) examines the roots of Christian views on the afterlife. Ehrman studies the cultural contexts in which Christian afterlife stories developed and posits that the stories “emphasize what matters in life, providing insight into the purpose, meaning, and goals of human existence so as to encourage certain ways of being and living in the world.” The author looks back at progenitors of the Christian narratives, including Odysseus’s and Aeneas’s descents into Hades and early apocryphal Jewish texts such as the “Book of Watchers” and the Apocalypse of Zephaniah. Ehrman focuses his study on four noncanonical early Christian texts, explicating how the narratives impart Christian ethics and urge non-Christians to convert by threatening such hellish fates as being “confined in a narrow place, ringed by fire, and forced to gnaw their tongues.” By analyzing these narratives in the context of ancient Christians’ world, lived experiences, and culture, Ehrman revives their “priorities, beliefs, practices, and histories,” crafting a broad but detailed account of early Christian notions of heaven, hell, and purgatory. The result is an edifying origin story for contemporary Christian conceptions of the afterlife. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Named by the New Yorker as a Best Book of 2022

“[An] illuminating deep dive. . . . An edifying origin story for contemporary Christian conceptions of the afterlife.”—Publishers Weekly

“Ehrman shows how Homer’s egalitarian afterlife, where all meet the same fate, gave way to Virgil’s version, where an elect few enjoy eternal rewards while the rest suffer torments. . . . As Ehrman notes, in every era, such tales aimed to teach readers ‘how to live in the here and now.’”—New Yorker

“When the late rapper 2Pac argued in song that we on earth are probably in hell already but don’t know it, and that a crackhead is right now suffering ‘eternal fire,’ he was grappling with weighty biblical and theological issues taken up by Bart D. Ehrman in his brilliant and provocative book Journeys to Heaven and Hell. Ehrman’s work richly informs us about how visions and tours of the afterlife shape our before-death existence—what we should do with our purse, our person, our proselytizing, and how we should view the power and politics of God. This wise and insightful tome by an erstwhile believer, and one of my absolute favorite biblical scholars, stimulates the mind and charges the spirit of a hopeful Black evangelical like me.”—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America

“Bart D. Ehrman explores the Greco-Roman background of Christian afterlife and provides a much-needed reassessment of its Jewish apocalyptic roots. This is an extremely well-documented and well-written book, a real intellectual pleasure to read.”—Pierluigi Piovanelli, University of Ottawa and École pratique des hautes études

“In a characteristically scholarly yet engaging style, Bart Ehrman shines new light on ancient accounts of visits by the living to the realms of the dead. This is an important contribution to the reevaluation of the rich literary heritage of early Christianity.”—Judith Lieu, University of Cambridge

“In Journeys to Heaven and Hell, Ehrman examines a range of apocryphal texts related to the afterlife, but his examinations of such issues as the ethical problem of wealth, conversion, and universal salvation reveal how much the study of these journeys to other worlds can contribute to the study of a wide range of areas of interest in this world.”—Tony Burke, editor of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures
 

From the Publisher