BODY, SOUL,

and

LIFE EVERLASTING

Biblical Anthropology

and the Monism-Dualism Debate

JOHN W. COOPER

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 1989 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

All rights reserved

This edition published 2000

in the United States of America by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cooper, John W., 1947–

Body, soul, and life everlasting: biblical anthropology

and the monism-dualism debate / John W. Cooper.

p. cm.

Includes indexes.

ISBN 978-0-8028-4600-6

1. Man (Theology)—Biblical teaching.

2. Man (Christian theology). I. Title.

BS661.C68 1989

233′.5—dc2089-35058

CIP

www.eerdmans.com

To my children,

John and Catherine,

who are not their own,

but belong, body and soul,

both in life and in death,

to their faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

(heidelberg catechism, answer one)

And to my mother,

Beatrice,

who is away from the body

and at home with the Lord.

(2 corinthians 5:8)

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface to the Second Printing

introduction

The Body-Soul Question: Still A Vexing Problem

One Traditional Christian Anthropology and Its Modern Critics

I. Early Christian Views of the Afterlife

II. Dualistic Anthropologies

A. Augustine

B. Thomas Aquinas

C. John Calvin

D. René Descartes

E. Conclusion

III. Nondualistic Philosophical Anthropologies

A. Thomas Hobbes and Materialism

B. Baruch Spinoza and Dual-Aspect Monism

C. Conclusion

IV. The Scientific Challenge to Dualism

V. The Challenge to Dualism from Biblical Scholarship

VI. The Historical-Theological Challenge to Dualism

VII. The Challenge to Dualism from Christian Orthopraxis

VIII. Conclusion

Two Old Testament Anthropology: The Holistic Emphasis

I. Introduction: The State of the Debate

A. Traditional Christian Dualism

B. Modern Christian Antidualism

C. Some Questions

II. The Holistic Emphasis of the Old Testament

A. Antidualist Emphases

B. Old Testament Anthropological Terms

C. Preliminary Results for the Holism-Dualism Debate

III. Philosophical Reflections

A. The Old Testament, Holism, and Monism

B. The Old Testament and Philosophical Anthropology

Three Old Testament Anthropology: The Dualistic Implication

I. The Old Testament View of Existence after Death

A. Introduction: The Rephaim in Sheol

B. Sheol

C. Existence in Sheol

D. Terminology for the Dead

E. Hope Beyond the Grave; Resurrection

II. Philosophical Reflection: Holistic Dualism

A. Clarifying the Anthropological Image

B. Dualism: The Inescapable Implication of Existence in Sheol

C. Holistic Dualism: Philosophical Implication of Old Testament Anthropology

Four The Anthropology of Intertestamental Eschatology

I. Introduction

II. Intertestamental Views of the Afterlife

A. Old Testament Background

B. Sheol and the Sadducees

C. The Immortality of the Soul

D. Varieties of Resurrection

E. The Intermediate State

F. Hellenistic Dualism?

G....