Views of the Afterlife in Ancient Rome

In the 15th chapter of Corinthians, Paul spends a great deal of time affirming the belief in a physical resurrection. In the modern Christian world the idea of a physical resurrection is, if not universally accepted, at least a common belief. Not so in ancient Rome. Here are some of the different ideas of the afterlife that Paul had to confront.

Ancient Greek: Much of the mythology of ancient Greece originated in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. In book 11 of the Odyssey, Odysseus approaches the realm that separates the living world from Hades, the home of the dead, and makes a sacrifice so he can speak to the prophet Teiresias. The ghosts from Hades approach Odysseus hoping to drink the blood of his sacrifice, but he prevents them until Teiresias approaches. He also speaks to the ghost of his mother who explains what it is like to be dead. "this is the way it is with mortals after death. The sinews no longer bind flesh and bone, the fierce heat of the blazing pyre consumes them, and the spirit flees from our white bones, a ghost that flutters and goes like a dream." In Homeric Greek mythology all the dead go to live in Hades where they flutter around as shadows of their former self.

 
Ancient Rome: The Roman epic, the Aeneid in book VI shows an afterlife where the righteous/valiant spirits go to Elysium, which is a kind of paradise. They eventually cross over the river Lithe, loose their memories and reborn into new bodies. The wicked go to Tartarus where they are eternally tortured.

Classic Philosophers/ Socrates faces death in his Apology of Phaedo, he says he does not fear death because he does not know what will happen when he dies. He hypotheses that he will either be completely extinguished, and therefore have an end of suffering, or he will go to an afterlife overseen by the gods, which he supposes will be better than mortal life.

 
Jewish beliefs: We learn from the New Testament that the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection, but that the Pharisees did (Acts 23:8). There is some evidence in the Old Testament about an afterlife, specifically in the book of Job and Isaiah, but the overwhelming focus of the Old Testament was obedience to God to ensure continued support from God in the mortal world.

The idea of a physical resurrection was almost completely foreign to the people Paul taught. It was the thing that early Christians could site that made Jesus different than other Jewish prophets. Elijah and Elisha healed the sick as Jesus did. Moses and Joshua controlled the elements and talked with God. But only Jesus was physically resurrected. That, in Paul's mind, was a fact that confirmed that Jesus was, not only a prophet, but the Messiah that would take away the sins of the world. (1 Corinthians 15:17)