The earlier books of the Old Testament — as well as the archaeological evidence we have — indicate that the Israelites believed in an afterlife. That’s not surprising, because belief in an afterlife is a human universal — something that appears in all cultures.
However, the nature of this afterlife is not fully clear. It appears that they believed most people had a shadowy kind of existence in the next world, about which not much was known.
As the centuries progressed, however, the afterlife came into clearer focus, manifesting in a belief in bodily resurrection on the last day.
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