Ancient afterlife beliefs

  Annihilationism in Arnobius of Sicca and other Ancient Jewish and Christians texts Arnobius of Sicca (255 – 327 AD) was a early Christian that is often interpreted as being an annihilationist (or a conditionalist), i.e. someone who believed that immortality is only given to the saved and the lost will be annihilated (and it is not hard to see why in the case of Arnobius):  "Do you dare to laugh at us when we speak of hell, and fires which cannot be quenched, into which we have learned that souls are cast by their foes and enemies? What, does not your Plato also, in the book which he wrote on the immortality of the soul, name the rivers Acheron, Styx, Cocytus, and Pyriphlegethon, and assert that in them souls are rolled along, engulphed, and burned up? But though a man of no little wisdom, and of accurate judgment and discernment, he essays a problem which cannot be solved; so that, while he says that the soul is immortal, everlasting, and without bodily substance, he vet say...

   Lesser known doctrines of reincarnation Reincarnation without Karma: Pythagoras and the Native Americans In the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy article about Pythagoras, written by Carl Huffman, we read that the ancient Greek philosopher might have believed in a version of reincarnation in which there was no correlation between the conduct of one’s life and the conditions of future lifetimes: “There are significant points of contact between the Greek religious movement known as Orphism and Pythagoreanism, but the evidence for Orphism is at least as problematic as that for Pythagoras and often complicates rather than clarifies our understanding of Pythagoras (Betegh 2014; Burkert 1972a, 125 ff.; Kahn 2002, 19–22; Riedweg 2002). There is some evidence that the Orphics also believed in metempsychosis and considerable debate has arisen as to whether they borrowed the doctrine from Pythagoras (Burkert 1972a, 133; Bremmer 2002, 24) or he borrowed it from them (Zhmud 2012a, 2...

  On Cyril of Alexandria’s reading of the ‘Harrowing of Hades’ and his eschatological views According to what is found in the blog Fr. Kimel, the Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev wrote the following about the views of Cyril of Alexandria - a Church Father venerated as saint in Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Oriental Orthodoxy – about the Harrowing of Hell (or, rather, Hades/Sheol): “The doctrine of the descent of Christ into Hades occupies an essential place in the works of Cyril of Alexandria. In his ‘Paschal Homilies’, he repeatedly mentions that as a consequence of the descent of Christ into Hades, the devil was left all alone, while hell was devastated: ‘For having destroyed hell and opened the impassable gates for the departed spirits, He left the devil there abandoned and lonely'[19]. In his ‘Festive Letters’, Cyril of Alexandria elaborates on the theme of the preaching of Christ in Hades, popular in the Alexandrian tradition since Clement. He vi...

Bart Ehrman on St. Augustine's views about the Harrowing of Hell "Many early theologians who wanted to affirm universal salvation that Christ brought at his descent but also the judicial need for eternal damnation simply claimed that Christ made salvation available to everyone in Hades—even the worst of sinners—but that not everyone accepted the offer. Even this idea was often challenged by orthodox thinkers; surely sinners would not be given a second chance after death. And so, we have the polemic of Filaster of Brescia: “There are some heretics who say that the Lord descended to Hades and announced to all who were there after death that if they confessed their faith there they would be saved” (Liber de Haeresibus 125.1). It is somewhat odd that Filaster reacts to this view by insisting that sinners would indeed be condemned, a point that so far as we know his opponents never denied. But he did indeed attack a “universalizing” view (all could be saved) by discounting universa...

  Catholic and Eastern Orthodox texts on the absolute necessity of baptism for salvation By the end of the Middle Ages, it appears that the belief that baptism in this life in the 'right denomination' is absolutely essential to be saved in the Catholic Church. In the texts of the  Council of Florence (sources: https://www.catholic.com/qa/the-council-of-florence-on-hell , https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum17.htm ) “The souls of those who depart this life in actual mortal sin, or in original sin alone, go down straight away to hell to be punished, but with unequal pains” (Session 6 — July 6,1439). “[The holy Roman church] firmly believes, professes, and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Catholic Church before the end of their lives...

  Buddhist sutta on the rarity of being reborn as a human being and hearing the Dharma "“Mendicants, suppose the earth was entirely covered with water. And a person threw a yoke with a single hole into it. The east wind wafts it west; the west wind wafts it east; the north wind wafts it south; and the south wind wafts it north. And there was a one-eyed turtle who popped up once every hundred years. What do you think, mendicants? Would that one-eyed turtle, popping up once every hundred years, still poke its neck through the hole in that yoke?” “It would be an anomaly, sir.” “That’s how anomalous it is to get reborn as a human being. And that’s how anomalous it is for a Realized One to arise in the world, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha. And that’s how anomalous it is for the teaching and training proclaimed by a Realized One to shine in the world. And now, mendicants, you have been reborn as a human being. A Realized One has arisen in the world, a perfected one, a fully a...

 Bart Ehrman on the Acts of Pilate, version Latin A "The earliest Latin witness to the Acts of Pilate, Vindobensis 563, the “Vienna palimpsest,” dates to the fifth or sixth century but lacks the descent narrative. The account is found, however, in the other Latin forms of the text: Latin A, B, and C, the Troyes Redaction, and their various subgroups and intermediaries. As indicated, Latin A provides us with the earliest version. Regrettably, no critical edition yet exists, and so I follow standard practice by citing the text as found in one of the oldest and best witnesses, the tenth-century Codex Einsidlensis (Einsiedeln Stiftsbibliothek, MS 326). It has been widely recognized that this account does indeed present a complete Harrowing of Hell, achieved by the unstoppable power of Christ who robs Hades of all its human inhabitants and sends them to heaven. As Gounelle and Izydorczyk emphatically stated in their popular 1997 introduction to the text, the account narrates “the d...

Hope vs justice XIII: the case of Gregory of Narek Gregory of Narek (fl. 10 th -11 th centuries) was an Armenian theologian who is venerated in the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Catholic Church. By chance I came upon this link: https://oxfordpatristics.blogspot.com/2019/02/michael-papazian-universal-salvation-in.html . In the link it is argued that Gregory of Narek anticipated some elements of the position of Hans urs Von Balthasar (see: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/06/quotes-from-hans-von-balthasars-dare-we.html ), and the author apparently called Gregory of Narek’s   ‘penitential universalism’. I didn’t manage to find the referenced paper of Michael Papazian, ‘Universal salvation in the works of Gregory of Narek’. However, his book ‘The Doctor of Mercy: The Sacred Treasures of Gregory of Narek’ can be bought (e.g.: https://www.amazon.it/Doctor-Mercy-Sacred-Treasures-Gregory/dp/0814685013 ). As we shall see the textual evidence is ambiguous.  I...

  Mar Isaac of Nineveh and Theodore of Mopsuestia on God’s mercy and chastisements In this post, I’ll provide some quotes from the First and Second Parts of Isaac of Nineveh’s discourses in which the influence of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the matters of God’s mercy and chastisements seems to be clear (‘blessed commentator’ and ‘blessed interpreter’ are references to Theodore). “Though David called Him just and righteous, still His son has made it clear to us that He is good and kind. For He is kind towards the evil and the miscreant. How callest thou God just when thou comest across the section on the hire of the workmen? Friend, I do thee no wrong. I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Or is thy eye evil because I am good? How can any one call God just if he come across the story of the prodigal son? When he had spent all in fornication, it was only on account of the contrition he showed that [the father] ran to throw himself at his neck and made him lord of all his p...

  The dynamic view of 'Heaven' in Irenaeus of Lyons and Gregory of Nyssa Irenaeus of Lyons (fl. 2nd century) " If, therefore, even with respect to creation, there are some things [the knowledge of] which belongs only to God , and others which come within the range of our own knowledge , what ground is there for complaint, if, in regard to those things which we investigate in the Scriptures (which are throughout spiritual), we are able by the grace of God to explain some of them, while we must leave others in the hands of God , and that not only in the present world, but also in that which is to come, so that God should for ever teach, and man should for ever learn the things taught him by God ? As the apostle has said on this point, that, when other things have been done away, then these three,  faith , hope, and charity, shall endure.   1 Corinthians 13:13 For faith , which has respect to our Master, endures unchangeably, assuring us that there is but one true God ...