ABSTRACT
Until long after the exile, the Jewish people shared the view of the entire ancient world that the dead continue to exist in a shadowy realm of the nether world where they live a dull, ghostly existence. According to Biblical theodicy human beings were promised rewards for obeying God's law and punishments were threatened for disobedience. On the basis of the discussion of the categories in the Babylonian Talmud and the remarks of sages elsewhere in rabbinic literature, Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed drew up a different list of those who have no share in Heaven, which has been regarded by many as authoritative. On the basis of the scheme of eternal salvation and damnation, which was at the heart of rabbinic theology throughout the centuries, it might be expected that modern Jewish theologians of all shades of religious observance and opinion would attempt to explain contemporary Jewish history in the context of traditional eschatology.
