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religion · Shared topic · Revision 0

Where Did the Idea of Bodily Resurrection Come From?

Where Did the Idea of Bodily Resurrection Come From?

Starting explanation, not independently reviewed

The current answer

How Israel went from the silence of Sheol to bodies that rise, and why the Persian question stays open.

What remains uncertain

This starting summary presents the original essay’s position. It has not received independent topic review. Its citations have been imported, not checked. Competing explanations and important objections may still be missing.

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Claims & evidence

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Bodily resurrection appears clearly in Jewish texts only late: Daniel 12:2 (c. 165 BCE) is the first unambiguous statement that the dead will rise.

Imported citation, not independently checked: Daniel 12:2; J. J. Collins, Daniel (1993)

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Likewise Hosea 6:2 ("after two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up") is national restoration language.

Imported citation, not independently checked: Hosea 6:2

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The Avestan texts describing resurrection survive in manuscripts a millennium younger than the Persian Empire, and the Bundahishn is a 9th-century-CE compilation.

Imported citation, not independently checked: Yasht 19.89-96; Bundahishn 30

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Mary Boyce argued the underlying oral doctrine is genuinely ancient; Albert de Jong (Traditions of the Magi, 1997) is more cautious about reconstructing what Persians actually taught and when.

Imported citation, not independently checked: M. Boyce; A. de Jong, Traditions of the Magi (1997)

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