Jacob and Joseph die at the end of
Genesis. Sorry, spoilers. We have an interesting passage at the end where Jacob
dies, where he “breathed his last, and was gathered to his people,” (Gen 49:33).
His people are not his family. They were already gathered around him in life,
so what is going on with this description?
Curiously, during this whole
adventure with Joseph, a new word appears in Genesis, most often used by Jacob
himself: Sheol. The word is always capitalized, like a proper place noun, but
this is no physical place. Sheol is the Jewish underworld, where all spirits
go. The concept of heaven and hell has not come about, yet. At this point in
time, there is only the underworld where all spirits go.
Sheol appears with no fanfare or
expectation, but the casual use to it indicates, much like Jacob’s multiple
wives, that this is something accepted, at least at the time of the writing.
The audience has no need for a description or story regarding Sheol’s origins,
it is simply the place where spirits go, a perfectly natural idea, even though
it was not previously explored.
Very little is specified about this
place, but for the fact that almost every time Jacob or his sons mention it, it
is always in the phrase “with sorrow to Sheol,” (Gen 42:38, 44:29, 44:31). So
this may not be hell, but it’s not heaven, either. Now, it could very possibly
be that the death is what is sorrowful since at Jacob’s death it states that he
was gathered by his people.
So while not happy, it may not be
sad except in relation to the fact that Jacob will be separated from his living
family. Regardless, this is a huge cosmological shift. For the first time in
the Bible, we have the idea that the spirit survives the body and will go on to
another destination. Previous to this people simply die, and the only solace
someone can have is that their family line might survive them in a great
legacy, which was the initial promise God made to Abraham.