Jewish tradition denied the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. In the Old Testament there is little hope of life after death. It was believed that all men went to Sheol after death. Sheol was a gray land beneath the world, where men would be cutoff from God. The Old Testament is full of bleak, grim pessimism regarding the afterlife.
For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in Sheol who can give thee praise. Psalm 6:5
For Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for they faithfulness. Isaiah 38:18
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going. Ecclesiastes 9:10
Paul insists that if the Resurrection of Jesus was not a fact the whole Christian message was based on a lie, and that many thousands had died trusting in a delusion, and that without it the greatest values in life have no guarantee. "Take away the Resurrection, " he said, " and you destroy both the foundation and the fabric of the Christian faith."
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