ABSTRACT
The resurrection was undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of the Christian ideas about the ‘life everlasting’, but what about the other aspects? Although the New Testament offers only a few clues to the views of Jesus and his earliest followers about the afterlife, later Christians had much more to say, and their views have often been studied.1 Unfortunately, these analyses are rarely satisfactory from a historical perspective, since the leading surveys and dictionaries usually provide the reader with enumeration of these views rather than with analysis offering explanation by attempting to trace historical connections. Therefore, I would like to try to answer three questions which, as far as I can see, have been rarely posed in combination.2 First, how did the views on afterlife develop among the early Christians in the first centuries of its existence? Secondly, from where did the early Christians derive their ideas: from Judaism, from the surrounding Greco-Roman society, or from their own community? Thirdly, is it possible to identify contributing factors to this rapid development of the idea of an afterlife?
