12 - The Pseudepigraphic Literature

As noted in the previous chapter, Paul’s ideas about faith were rooted in his personal visionary experiences. Subsequently, hermits and Gnostics stressed knowledge over faith as the means for achieving a transformation through asceticism and meditation, a form of self-martyrdom. The Gospels were created a generation after Paul’s writings and stressed the physical resurrection of the body at the end of time. This resurrection, according to the Gospels, is the fruit of persecution and martyrdom based on the model established by the martyrdom of Jesus. In contrast the Gnostics, like Paul, believed in a spiritual resurrection, one that exempted them from having to suffer a physical martyrdom.

In the Book of Acts, the first Christian martyr, Stephen, forgives his enemies as he dies in imitation of Jesus’ death on the cross. Just before he dies he envisions, along with the reader, a risen Jesus in heaven who is explicitly identified with the Son of Man. In Acts 7:54 it is the hostile bystanders, rather than Stephen himself who are called “martyres” (witnesses). The term martyr had not yet acquired its technical meaning in Christianity. Ironically, a pre-conversion Paul was present at the stoning of Stephen, a foreshadowing of his own pending martyrdom as well as a transition to a vision of Christ he experiences in Acts 9 that leads to his conversion. Based on the description of Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts, Christian martyrs (like the Jewish martyrs that preceded them) could be transported to heaven prior to the end of time. This pattern became extended to qualify every faithful Christian to receive a martyr’s reward. It is also the basis of Islamic beliefs that martyrs wait for the day of judgement in a garden of delights.

The New Testament Book of Revelation also bears the Greek title “Apocalypse of John.”  It is not pseudonymous since it was written by an identifiable person. Along with portions of Books of Daniel, Isaiah, and Zechariah, it is accepted as a “canonical” apocalypse. Some scholars, including the author, dispute the authorship of Revelation. Literal interpreters identify it as a product of the disciple John in his latter years. It was addressed to several small and struggling, but well-established churches located in Anatolia, which is the westernmost region of modern Turkey. A risen Jesus, in angelic form, dictates the prophetic content of Revelation to John during his imprisonment on the island of Patmos. It describes the imminent return of Christ to rescue his beleaguered and persecuted followers. Earlier Jewish apocalypses focused on the transmission of astronomical knowledge by a priestly class, but Revelation reflects the interests of the early Christian community. It represents a tradition that was greatly influenced by Daniel 7 and 12, but rather than reflecting the interests of a disenfranchised priestly class, it served to legitimize a Christian group struggling for recognition among the Jews and gentiles.

Revelation begins with a circular letter intended to be read by seven Christian churches which were experiencing varying degrees of persecution. The epistle states that it is written on behalf of the divine throne of heaven and seven spirits (pneumatōn) who urge the seven churches they protect to remain steadfast. Revelation 1:20 directly equates the spirits, or guardian angels, with stars:

The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Steadfastness, or patient endurance, as descriptive of the determined attitude of martyrs facing persecution had entered the martyrological tradition as early as the Hellenistic story of the sacrifice of martyred Isaac in the 4th Book of Maccabees. The vision of the writer asserts that the resurrection of the Son of Man is a promise that the deaths of those who have been persecuted and martyred are purposeful. Revelation 1:17-19 contains Christ’s reassurance of this:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter…

Martyrdoms can lead to a crisis of faith and confidence, and to a strong desire to exact revenge upon one’s persecutors. Revelation provides solace to the church by affirming that the crucified messiah is still alive, so all who suffer martyrdom for his sake will also be resurrected. Some persecutors are identified as Jews (the “synagogue of Satan” of Revelation 2:9), but persecution by Rome is more frequently cited. The number of the beast, 666, is salient among many indications of Roman hostility toward the Christians. Numerology, which can be applied to Latin, Greek, and Hebrew terms, can be manipulated to extract a multitude of meanings, but it is most probable that 666, when written in Hebrew, is a reference to Nero. This interpretation would also apply to Domitian, whose cruelty and paranoia so equaled that of Nero that he was known as “Nero redivivus” (Nero Reborn). Lutheran pastor and scholar R. C. H. Lenski interprets 666 it as a number symbolic of any human who may possess fatally defective qualities.

In the manner of the Hebrew captives described in the Book of Daniel, Revelation advocates nonviolent resistance for the community that is supported by militant descriptions of the punishments that await the enemies of God when Christ intervenes at his return. Jesus will unleash fearful diseases, famines, wars, and plagues on these enemies. The 6th chapter of Revelation introduces four horsemen that commentators identify as personifications of Conquest (Zelos), War (Martius), Famine (Limos), and Death (Thánatos or Móros). In chapters 5-7, the sequential opening of the seven seals of a sealed document heralds the Second Coming of Christ and the beginning of the Apocalypse. In Revelation 6:9-11 an intriguing vision of martyrdom attends the loosening of the fifth seal:

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 0And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

The Hebrew word for soul, nefesh, would most fittingly describe the intermediate state between death and resurrection of these unrevenged martyrs. In context, it refers to a specific group of Christians who had died, and whose return will signal that God’s justice is accomplished. It might also reflect a synthesis of Hellenistic and Hebrew conceptions about the state of the dead since the setting of Revelation is more Hellenistic than the setting of the Gospels. Revelation is a imaginative narrative, rather than a philosophical discourse, so such a synthesis to better communicate with a Greco-Roman culture would not compromise its fundamentally Christian ethos.

Apocalyptic expectations are difficult to sustain in the absence of the eagerly anticipated end of the world. The survival of Christianity hinged on how it would react to the apparent delay in Christ’s second coming. Two concepts that are antithetical to Christianity as it was originally formulated were introduced, Platonic immortality of the soul and an interim state in which the soul exists until Jesus returns to judge the world. Apocalyptic attitudes about the depraved condition of the world were consolidated into the doctrine of Original Sin, and the condition of human imperfectability led to the introduction of the rite of infant baptism as a countermeasure. The delay of Christ’s return was addressed by both the Church Fathers and the Apocrypha. In the first century, Christians were praying for Jesus’s immediate return, but by the second century Tertullian writes that they were praying “for the emperors, for their deputies, and all in authority, for the welfare of the world, and for the delay of the consummation.” Apocalyptic Judaism also downplayed its millenarian expectations which should have born fruit with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. Most Jews, however, were determined to establish peaceful relations the Roman world order. 

Incorporation of conceptions of the immortality of the soul and of an interim state between life and afterlife led to the creation of a vast body of literature promoting the virtues of Christianity, despite the apparent delay of Christ’s return. Prominent among these works are angelically guided tours of hell. The Apocalypse of Elijah is among the first of these to be written and marks the emergence of beliefs in the punishment of the wicked after death. There are stories of Egyptian Christians assumed the names of prophets such as Elijah, a significant religious figure in the Coptic tradition, to lend credibility to their pseudepigraphic works. Most surviving descriptions of hell, and of paradise, are preceded by descriptions of an ascent through the seven heavens, a pattern which was established by Second Enoch (among others) and thus predates the Egyptian writings. Some are primarily focused on the fate of the dead, including the Apocalypse of Zephaniah and the Apocalypse of Paul. Like pre-Christian such as Second Baruch and the Gedulat Moshe (a Jewish text written sometime around the 13th century that describes Moses visiting hell), the souls of the dead are first taken up to the throne of God for judgement prior to their consignment to paradise or hell.

The author proposes the idea that stories of the horrors of hell became increasingly dominant in Christian apocalyptic literature to confirm, despite appearances to the contrary, the moral nature of the universe. If the end of the world was to occur centuries after Christ’s ascent, then God’s distribution of rewards and punishments needed to happen before the end. Graphic descriptions of punishments for the wicked administered immediately after death gratified the desires of the persecuted for swift vengeance on their enemies. Life became much easier for Christians as they progressed in Roman society, so it is difficult to explain why imagined tortures for the damned became, inversely, even more ferocious over time. Delay in the apocalypse prioritized the fear of hellfire and damnation as evangelical technique, a scourge for sinners and a cautionary tale for the faithful. The more entrenched conceptions of the immortality of the soul became in Christian doctrine, the more fearsome grew the prospect of eternal torment in hell. In the visions of Daniel, only the greatest of sinners was resurrected to face punishment. The novel ascription of an immortal soul to everyone meant that nobody was exempt from the possibility of suffering eternal punishment.

The increasingly unbearable circumstances of the damned as described in apocalyptic literature eventually generated the need for less stringent posthumous environments such as purgatory and limbo. Christian consciousness required that God’s justice be tempered with mercy. Imaginative victory for those sheltered within the various communities became common in later apocalyptic writings. By maintaining their moral and spiritual purity according to the standards of their sects they could continually remind themselves of their elect status. Increasingly, these communities believed (particularly in Europe) that their prayers and offerings could affect the condition of damned souls.

In apocalyptic Judaism, the first century Book of Fourth Ezra describes life after death in the context of the destruction of the Second Temple. It is framed as a discussion between an angel and Ezra, who mourns the destruction of the First Temple in 586/587 BCE. It is the vision of a single writer, is a typical pseudonymous work, and its content is related to the Book of Baruch and the Pseudo-Philo literature. The subject of life after death arises throughout Fourth Ezra, both in apocalyptic descriptions of a world to come and the disposition of the soul after death. It begins with an agitated Ezra praying to the Lord for help. Seven subsequent visions are preceded by a strict regimen of fasting, and visions 3 and 7 are also preceded by “eating of flowers,” reflective of either asceticism or the possible use of mind-altering substances. The first three visions are experienced as nocturnal dreams, similar to the visions of Daniel. In the 4th chapter Ezra is challenged by the angel Uriel to understand several of God’s mysteries. Death is revealed to be solely the result Adam’s sin, and it is suggested that only knowledgeable members of the community are equipped to overcome the death penalty attached to Original Sin and achieve salvation. A noteworthy vision in chapter 7 is related to the content of Daniel 7, but it presents this content in an unusual manner. Below is Fourth Ezra 7:26-44:

For indeed the time will come, when the signs that I have foretold to you will come to pass, that the city that now is not seen shall appear and the land that now is hidden shall be disclosed. Everyone who has been delivered from the evils that I have foretold shall see my wonders. For my son the Messiah shall be revealed with those who are with him, and those who remain shall rejoice four hundred years. After those years my son the Messiah shall die, and all who draw human breath. Then the world shall be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the first beginnings, so that no one shall be left. After seven days the world that is not yet awake shall be roused, and that which is corruptible shall perish. The earth shall give up those who are asleep in it, and the dust those who rest there in silence; and the chambers shall give up the souls that have been committed to them.

The Most High shall be revealed on the seat of judgment, and compassion shall pass away, and patience shall be withdrawn. Only judgment shall remain, truth shall stand, and faithfulness shall grow strong. Recompense shall follow, and the reward shall be manifested; righteous deeds shall awake, and unrighteous deeds shall not sleep. The pit of torment shall appear, and opposite it shall be the place of rest; and the furnace of hell shall be disclosed, and opposite it the paradise of delight. Then the Most High will say to the nations that have been raised from the dead, ‘Look now, and understand whom you have denied, whom you have not served, whose commandments you have despised. Look on this side and on that; here are delight and rest, and there are fire and torments.’ Thus he will speak to them on the day of judgment, a day that has no sun or moon or stars, or cloud or thunder or lightning, or wind or water or air, or darkness or evening or morning, or summer or spring or heat or winter, or frost or cold, or hail or rain or dew, or noon or night, or dawn or shining or brightness or light, but only the splendor of the glory of the Most High, by which all shall see what has been destined. It will last as though for a week of years. This is my judgment and its prescribed order; and to you alone I have shown these things.

This vision of the Messianic end, so different than the Christian view, reveals how fluid Messianic ideas were in the first century. It reflects the attitudes of a group that was struggling to understand the suffering associated with the first Jewish revolt against Rome and the destruction of the Second Temple. Parts of this vision’s language reflects that of Daniel 12:2-3:

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

The righteous are portrayed as deserving of recompense by God, a theme that was crucial for the development of Islamic eschatology. Nations that oppressed Israel are resurrected only to be consigned to perdition. Death is described as a separation of the soul from the body. Fourth Ezra 7:78 states:

Now concerning death, the teaching is: When the decisive decree has gone out from the Most High that a person shall die, as the spirit leaves the body to return again to him who gave it, first of all it adores the glory of the Most High.

Fourth Ezra 7:88-98 describes seven orders of “those who have kept the ways of the Most High when they shall be separated from their mortal body” (Fourth Ezra 7:88). This separation is restated in verses 100-101:

Then I answered and said, “Will time therefore be given to the souls, after they have been separated from the bodies, to see what you have described to me?” He said to me, “They shall have freedom for seven days, so that during this seven days they may see the things of which you have been told, and afterwards they shall be gathered in their habitations.”

As opposed to the selective resurrections described in Daniel 12, the salvation of Fourth Ezra is extended to the entirety of the remnant, and damnation is the fate of everyone else. The higher echelons of heaven are reserved for the abstinent, a divine seal of approval for those who practiced asceticism. Fourth Ezra 7:125 notes that, “…the faces of those that practiced self-control shall shine more than the stars.”  Inconsistencies between the visions of Daniel and Ezra can be attributed to the latter’s need to incorporate a response to first century events in the narrative. Centuries had passed since Daniel and his associates had been led captive to Babylon, but now not just the walls, but the entirety of Jerusalem (and most of its populace) had been destroyed.

The Baruch literature consists of two different Jewish pseudepigraphical texts written in the late first or early second century after the fall of Jerusalem. They are attributed to Baruch ben Neriah, the scribe, disciple, secretary, and friend of the sixth century BCE prophet Jeremiah who is traditionally identified as the author of the Book of Baruch. He is falsely identified as the author of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (contained in the first 77 chapters of Second Baruch) and the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (the subject of Third Baruch). Both books describe the state of Jerusalem after the sack by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC and discuss how Judaism can survive when its Temple no longer exists. It frames this discussion as a mystical vision. Both books reveal that the Temple has been preserved in heaven, is fully functional, and is attended by angels, thus obviating any need for the temple to be rebuilt on earth.

In Second Baruch the theme of angelic transformation is emphasized. Christian influences date it anywhere from the first to third centuries CE. It portrays the ascent and transformation of its narrator as well as the final disposition of the just and the unjust. A vision that begins in the 12th chapter prophesizes disasters that will soon overtake the world followed by an apocalypse that includes the coming of the messiah, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgement. Second Baruch 30:1-5 describes God’s judgement day:

And it will happen after these things when the time of the appearance of the Anointed One has been fulfilled and He returns with splendor, that then all who sleep in hope of Him will rise. And it will happen at that time that those treasuries will be opened in which the number of the souls of the righteous were kept, and they will go out and the multitudes of the souls will appear together, in one assemblage, of one mind. And the first ones will enjoy themselves and the last ones will not be sad. For they know that the time has come of which it is said that it is the end of times. But the souls of the wicked will the more waste away when they shall see all these things. For they know that their torment has come and that their perditions have arrived. 

A later vision contained in Second Baruch 50:1-4 provides details about the resurrection of the dead:

And HE answered and said to me: Listen, Baruch, to this Word and write down in the memory of your heart all that you shall learn. For the earth will surely give back the dead at that time; it receives them now in order to keep them, not changing anything in their form. But as it has received them so it will give them back. And as I have delivered them to it so it will raise them. For then it will be necessary to show those who live that the dead are living again, and that those who went away have come back. And it will be that when they have recognized each other, those who know each other at this moment, then MY judgment will be strong, and those things which have been spoken of before will come 

These verses note that resurrected individuals will be able to recognize others who have been resurrected and are raised in a form that is similar to what they manifested while alive to properly comprehend God’s judgement upon themselves and others. The righteous dead are transformed into a glorious form, the topic of Second Baruch 51:3-5:

Also, as for the honor and splendor of those who proved to be righteous on account of MY Torah, those who possessed intelligence in their life, and those who planted the root of wisdom in their heart; their honor and splendor will then be magnified by transformations, and the shape of their face will be changed into the Light of their beauty so that they may acquire and receive the undying world which is promised to them. Therefore, especially they who will then come will be sad, because they despised MY Torah and stopped their ears lest they hear wisdom and receive intelligence. When they, therefore, will see that those over whom they are exalted now will then be more exalted and magnified than they, then both these and those will be changed, these into the honor and splendor of malakim [the plural form of mal'ach (מלאך) which means "angels" or "messengers"] and those into startling visions and horrible shapes; and they will waste away even more.

Second Baruch 51:10 further describes the angelic transformation of the righteous:

For they will live in the heights of that world and they will be like the malakim and be equal to the stars. And they will be changed into any shape which they wished, from beauty to loveliness, and from light to the splendor of honor. 

In “Life after death : Paul's argument for the resurrection of the dead in I Cor. 15,” Swedish scholar Clemens Cavallin distinguishes four points that this vision shares with Paul’s discussions of the resurrection: the general background of apology for belief in the resurrection (2) the reflection on the nature of the resurrection body, (3) the survival of some until the day of resurrection, and (4) the idea of a transformation and heavenly glorification of the righteous at the resurrection. Cavallin does not venture to identify these similarities as evidence of literary dependency but does describe them both as attempts to refute disbelief in the resurrection through reflection on the nature of the resurrected body. For balance, he provides five dissimilarities between Paul’s views and those of the writer of Second Baruch.

Third Baruch exists in both Slavonic and Greek versions. The Slavonic version probably predates the Greek, as the later exhibits significant Christian influences. The Greek version, however, retains the common Jewish name of Samael for Satan. The Slavonic version features a more elaborate story of the fall of Satan-El, who loses his angelic suffix “El” after his fall. Although the Baruch literature ignores (perhaps intentionally) the Enoch tradition, it does gloss much of the information contained in Genesis 2-11. It expands conceptions of the punishment of sinners in hell, particularly punishments distributed to the builders of the Tower of Babel. The Greek version independently places Hades in the third heaven and interprets the birds that Baruch encounters in the fourth heaven as the “souls of the righteous.” This is reminiscent of Canaanite beliefs and becomes occasionally evident in later Islamic traditions. As is the case in the Gospels and the epistles of Paul, Jewish apocalyptic writings like Baruch are a combination of mystical visionary experiences and straightforward descriptions by those whose state of consciousness remains unaltered.

Second Enoch, which exists in two Slavonic versions, is an extension of the Enoch tradition as modified by Christian doctrines. Many Jewish Christians identified themselves as both Jews and Christians, an approach which offended purists. In the 22nd chapter of Second Enoch, the narrator encounters the Lord face-to-face and is transformed into “one of his glorious ones,” an angel and a star. Second Enoch 22:4-9 describes this encounter:

And I fell prone and bowed down to the Lord, and the Lord with his lips said to me: Have courage, Enoch, do not fear, arise and stand before my face into eternity. And the archistratege [supreme commander of the angels] Michael lifted me up, and led me to before the Lord’s face. And the Lord said to his servants tempting them: Let Enoch stand before my face into eternity, and the glorious ones bowed down to the Lord, and said: Let Enoch go according to Your word. And the Lord said to Michael: Go and take Enoch from out (of) his earthly garments, and anoint him with my sweet ointment, and put him into the garments of My glory. And Michael did thus, as the Lord told him. He anointed me, and dressed me, and the appearance of that ointment is more than the great light, and his ointment is like sweet dew, and its smell mild, shining like the sun’s ray, and I looked at myself, and (I) was like (transfigured) one of his glorious ones.

Transformation is accomplished through a change of clothing, a parallel to Paul’s description of the future glorification of his mortal body found in First Corinthians 15:53-55:

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a work of uncertain origin and date. It could either be a Jewish book reconfigured by a later Christian author or an original Jewish Christian document written in the second century CE. Fragments written in Hebrew and Aramaic recovered from Qumran suggest that at least two of the Testaments (Naphtali and Levi) were originally composed in Semitic languages. Traditions evident in the Testaments are very similar to those of First Enoch, Jubilees, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, so non-Christian material may predate Christianity. The Testaments emphasize the struggle between cosmic forces that is typical of apocalypticism, as well as reflective of the turmoil of Judea in the first centuries of the Common Era. The resurrection of the Patriarchs occurs in the context of a universal resurrection as prophesized by Daniel 12:2:

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Like First Enoch, a vision of ascent in the Testament of Levi interrupts the narrative. An angel guides Levi through heaven, pointing out features that most people of that era assumed existed. Moral mechanisms are positioned higher than meteorological mechanisms such as rain, snow, fire, ice, and brightness. In chapter 5, Levi, founder of the priestly line, sees God sitting on his throne, connecting theophany with the priesthood. The angel gives Levi a shield and sword to execute vengeance on Shechem, a reference to events in Genesis 34, and likely a typological reference to some contemporary circumstance. In the Genesis story Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob, is raped by Shechem, a Hivite prince who subsequently falls in love with her and asks Jacob for permission to marry her. Jacob’s sons agree to this on condition that all Hivite males be circumcised. The Hivites agree to this, but while they are painfully recovering from this procedure Patriarchs Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, slay the Hivites. Dinah's other brothers pillage the town. Jacob is upset by his sons' acts because they permanently alienate the inhabitants of Canaan.

Levi’s vision continues in chapter 8 as he is enthroned as high priest, an effort by the writer to legitimize the apocalyptic community he belongs to. Testament of Levi 8:1-3 commences this process:

There I again saw the vision as formerly, after we had been there seventy days. And I saw seven men in white clothing, who were saying to me, “Arise, put on the vestments of the priesthood, the crown of righteousness, the oracle of understanding, the robe of truth, the breastplate of faith/truth, the miter for the head, and the apron for prophetic power.” Each carried one of these and put them on me and said, “From now on be a priest, you and all your posterity.”

Testament of Levi 8:11-17 provides further information:

And they said to me, “Levi, your posterity shall be divided into three offices as a sign of the glory of the Lord who is coming. The first lot shall be great; no other shall be greater than it. The second shall be in the priestly role. But the third shall be granted a new name, because from Judah a king will arise and shall found a new priesthood in accord with the gentile model/model of the people and for all nations. His presence is beloved, as a prophet of the Most High, a descendant of Abraham, our father. To you and your posterity will be everything desired in Israel, and you shall eat everything attractive to behold, and your posterity will share among themselves the Lord’s table. From among them will be priests, judges, and scribes, and by their word the sanctuary will be controlled.”

Biblical typology involves the symbolic reading of scripture with a later incident in mind. The story of Shechem could be a reference to the lack of acceptance among Jews of Judaized Christians who became circumcised willingly but were nevertheless unjustly attacked.

The Testament of Asher focuses on the continuation of the soul, rather than on resurrection. Verses 4-6 of chapter 6 blend aspects of Jewish and Greek conceptions of the afterlife:

For the ultimate end of human beings displays their righteousness, since they are made known to the angels of the Lord and of Beliar/Satan. For when the evil soul departs, it is harassed by the evil spirit which it served through its desires and evil works. But if anyone is peaceful with joy he comes to know the angel of peace and enters eternal life.

Scholar George Nickelsburg regards these verses as an example of a “two-way theology” that is also evident in the Qumran literature and certain Christian writings. The choice between leading a righteous or wicked life is described as unambiguous, so it is demanded that a person live righteously. The Testament of Asher depicts souls as being capable of separation from the body, while neglecting resurrection entirely. The Testaments of the Patriarchs may have been produced by different writers for differing purposes and various social settings. The Testament of Asher reflects Judeo-Hellenistic conceptions of the afterlife that are absent in the other Testaments.

The Ascension of Isaiah describes the prophet’s ascent through the seven heavens, pausing at each to behold a glorious figure seated on a throne. An encounter between the prophet and God contained in the 6th chapter of canonical Isaiah is reinterpreted through a Christian perspective in the 6th through 11th chapters. The birth of the Messiah is described in the first 21 verses of chapter 11. Ascension of Isaiah 11:34-36 describes Christ’s arrival in the seventh heaven and notes the privileged nature of Isaiah’s vision:

And I saw how He ascended into the seventh heaven, and all the righteous and all the angels praised Him. And then I saw Him sit down on the right hand of that Great Glory whose glory I told you that I could not behold. And also the angel of the Holy Spirit I saw sitting on the left hand. And this angel said unto me: "Isaiah, son of Amoz, it is enough for thee... for thou hast seen what no child of flesh has seen.

The seventh heaven is reserved for the righteous dead, martyrs, and biblical patriarchs (including Abel and Shem). Sufferers become justified, and those who caused them to suffer are either obliterated or consigned to Sheol.

The Apocalypse of Abraham, in which the narrator’s ascension occurs in the setting of the covenant between the pieces contained in Genesis 15, indirectly infers the angelic transformation of the righteous by describing the heavenly vestiture of Abraham and his own transformation. It belongs to a body of Abraham literature that flourished about the time of Christ and is essentially Jewish, displaying features which suggest an Essene origin. From the Essenes it eventually found its way into Gnostic circles, but Gnostic elements in the Apocalypse of Abraham are not very pronounced.

Various Christian versions of the Testament of Abraham are extant which are based on a lost Jewish original that was like the Midrashim of Rabbinic literature. In this book God delegates archangel Michael to inform Abraham that he is about to die. Abraham responds that he wants to see all the wonders of the earth before his transition to the next stage of existence. Michael, with God’s permission, guides Abraham on a world tour that features a multitude of sinners but very few saints. Abraham is then given a tour of heaven where he witnesses the three-stage judgement of the dead; ordeal by fire, by record, and by balance. Section 13 of the Testament describes this tripartite trial:

For every man has come from the first-created, and therefore they are first judged here by his son [Abel], and at the second coming they shall be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, every breath and every creature. But the third time they shall be judged by the Lord God of all, and then, indeed, the end of that judgment is near, and the sentence terrible, and there is none to deliver. And now by three tribunals the judgment of the world and the recompense is made, and for this reason a matter is not finally confirmed by one or two witnesses, but by three witnesses shall everything be established.

Taken together, Abraham’s tours of heaven and earth reveal a belief in the immortality of every soul immediately upon death in contrast to the selective immortality of Daniel 12. In the narrative, Abraham intervenes on behalf of a soul that is neither good nor bad, representative of Jewish beliefs in the ability of meritorious patriarchs to act as intercessors, a privilege that the text warns must be used sparingly. Zekut Aboth, or Merit of the Fathers is the Jewish doctrine of benefits secured for children by the good deeds of their ancestors. Biblical sources stress the value of patriarchal merit in the inheritance of the land of Israel. This theme, however, is downplayed in Rabbinic literature.

Pseudo-Philo is the name commonly used for the unknown, anonymous author of the text commonly known today under the Latin title Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (Book of Biblical Antiquities). It is a selective rewriting of Jewish scriptural texts and traditions from creation to the death of Saul. Although probably originally written in Hebrew, it is preserved today solely through a Latin translation that dates between the 11th and 25th centuries CE. Most scholars beleive that Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities was written sometime between the mid-first century CE and the mid-second century CE. Chapter 3, section 10 pertains to God’s covenant with Noah and contains a prophecy of the resurrection:

But when the years of the world shall be fulfilled, then shall the light cease, and the darkness be quenched: and I will quicken the dead and raise up from the earth them that sleep: and Hell shall pay his debt and destruction give back that which was committed unto him, that I may render unto every man according to his works and according to the fruit of their imaginations, even until I judge between the soul and the flesh. And the world shall rest, and death shall be quenched, and Hell shall shut his mouth. And the earth shall not be without birth, neither barren for them that dwell therein: and none shall be polluted that hath been justified in me. And there shall be another earth and another heaven, even an everlasting habitation.

This passage describes a general, bodily resurrection of the dead, but also implies the influence of developing Christian ideas about the immortality of the soul. Another prophecy is inserted in the Song of Deborah which equates angels with stars. The exaltation of Israel is evident in a sentence from chapter 30, section 5:

And he led you into the height of the clouds, and subdued angels beneath your feet…

The people are instructed to emulate their forebears in chapter 33, section 5:

And Debbora answered and said to the people: While a man yet liveth he can pray for himself and for his sons; but after his end he will not be able to entreat nor to remember any man. Therefore, hope not in your fathers, for they will not profit you unless ye be found like unto them. But then your likeness shall be as the stars of the heaven, which have been manifested unto you at this time.

Resurrected souls will display physical characteristics, as noted by a statement Jonathan makes to David in chapter 62, section 9:

And even if death part us, yet I know that our souls will know one another.

A more detailed description of death and the afterlife is provided by an account of the death of Moses found in chapter 19, section 12:

But there shall not any, of angels or men, know thy sepulcher wherein thou art to be buried, but thou shalt rest therein until I visit the world, and raise thee up and thy fathers out of the earth [of Egypt] wherein ye shall sleep, and ye shall come together and dwell in an immortal habitation that is not subject unto time.

The romance of Joseph and Asenath is a narrative that dates from between 200 BCE and 200 CE. It expands upon a brief mention in Genesis of Hebrew patriarch Joseph’s marriage to Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. This tale is free of eschatology but does describe the mystical transformation of Asenath during her conversion process and her subsequent immortality. This was ostensibly a conversion to Judaism, but typological conversion to Christianity could be an underlying theme of the work. Asenath’s spiritual and mystical journey toward conversion could serve as an allegory for any Hellenistic faith, and represents the middle ground between apocalypticism and later Jewish mysticism. Progressive depictions of the immortality of the soul are provided. The judgement of souls immediately after death and exaggerated portrayals of the horrors of hell connect this narrative to apocalyptic literature despite its absence of descriptions of the end of the world. This is indicative of the evolution of Christianity from an apocalyptic sect to a mainstream, state sanctioned religion which consciously incorporated Hellenistic views regarding the immortality of the soul.

In addition to the various pseudepigraphical apocalypses, Jewish mystical and pagan theosophical literature also relied on descriptions of the afterlife to increase their effectiveness and aura of sanctity. All adopted the literary devices of apprenticeship to a heavenly power who imparts secrets, often during the course of a journey to heaven, that can lead a person to immortality if proper moral, ethical, and ritual preconditions are honored.

Merkabah, or Merkavah mysticism is a school of early Jewish mysticism, circa 100 BCE-1000 CE, that centered on visions such as those found in Ezekiel 1 or in the hekhalot literature featuring stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God. Most Merkabah literature was composed between 200 CE and 700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Ashkenazi Hasidim in the Middle Ages. A major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkabah (Work of the Chariot). The term mysticism presently evokes images of quiet contemplation, but the mysticism of the apocalyptic tradition was based on ecstatic trances, visions, and dreams. Jewish mysticism, and Jewish conceptions of the resurrection of the dead are solely based on Daniel 12:1-3, the only apocalyptic statements accepted in the Hebrew canon. These three significant verses will be replicated below, not for the first time in this summary:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Stories of heavenly ascents demonstrated to the community, through eyewitness accounts, that people go to heaven and receive their just rewards after they die. The goal for every ecstatic ascent was “to gaze on the King in His beauty.” This enigmatic human appearance of God is related to the preeminent angel referred to as the Son of Man, a description of whom is provided in Exodus 23:20-21:

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

The “King in His Beauty” is identified with the Glory of the Lord, the Shekhina, and the Angel of the Lord. Moses witnesses the Glory of God in Exodus 33:18-23:

And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

The exceptional angel designated as the Son of Man is described in Daniel 7:13-14:

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

The Hellenistic era saw the rise of new interpretations of this biblical source material. The various angelic entities were melded into a single principal angelic mediator. The Apocalypse of Abraham designates this being as Yahoel (a combination the Hebrew terms for YHWH and God), and other works employ Melchizedek (Qumran), Metatron (Third Enoch), Adoil, Taxo, or Eremiel (Apocalypse of Zephaniah). Christian works predominately employed Son of Man, or “the manlike figure.” These principal angels are not only chiefs of the heavenly hosts, but often share in the divine nature of God. In dualistic settings, he is the angel who opposes Satan.

Some Jewish apocalyptic-mystical traditions record that selected heroes and patriarchs can be transformed into angels in the course of their ascension, a belief that aligns with similar Christian notions based on the mysticism of Paul. In the 11th chapter of the Testament of Abraham Adam is deified:

And Abraham asked the chief-captain, My Lord chief-captain, who is this most marvelous man, adorned with such glory, and sometimes he weeps and laments, and sometimes he rejoices and exults? The incorporeal one said: This is the first-created Adam who is in such glory, and he looks upon the world because all are born from him, and when he sees many souls going through the narrow gate, then he arises and sits upon his throne rejoicing and exulting in joy, because this narrow gate is that of the just, that leads to life, and they that enter through it go into Paradise.

In the 12th and 13th chapters, Adam’s son Abel becomes similarly deified:

The chief-captain said, Do you see, most holy Abraham, the terrible man sitting upon the throne? This is the son of the first created Adam, who is called Abel, whom the wicked Cain killed, and he sits thus to judge all creation, and examines righteous men and sinners. For God has said, I shall not judge you, but every man born of man shall be judged. Therefore he has given to him judgment, to judge the world until his great and glorious coming, and then, O righteous Abraham, is the perfect judgment and recompense, eternal and unchangeable, which no one can alter. For every man has come from the first-created, and therefore they are first judged here by his son, and at the second coming they shall be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, every breath and every creature.

Enoch and Moses are the most important of the biblical patriarchs portrayed as having experienced an angelic transformation. In the 11th chapter of the Testament of Moses Joshua laments his departed predecessor:

If the enemy have but once wrought impiously against their Lord, they have no advocate to offer prayers on their behalf to the Lord, like Moses the great messenger, who every hour day and night had his knees fixed to the earth, praying and looking for help to Him that rules all the world with compassion and righteousness, reminding Him of the covenant of the fathers and propitiating the Lord with the oath.

Ezekiel the Tragedian was a 2nd century BCE Jewish dramatist who wrote in Alexandria. Fragments of his only surviving play, Exagōgē (Exodus) feature Moses as its main character. Moses, in a dream, envisions the throne of God with a figure seated upon it:

Methought upon Mount Sinai’s brow I saw a mighty throne that reached to heaven’s high vault, whereon there sat a man of noblest mien wearing a royal crown; whose left hand held a mighty scepter; and his right to me made sign, and I stood forth before the throne. He gave me then the scepter and the crown, and bade me sit upon the royal throne, from which himself removed. Thence I looked forth upon the earth’s wide circle, and beneath the earth itself, and high above the heaven. Then at my feet, behold! A thousand stars began to fall, and I their number told, as they passed by me like an armed host: and I in terror started up from sleep.

Heavenly journeys experienced by Enoch are the subject of many of the psueudepigraha. Jubilees 4:16-19 describes a comprehensive vision granted to Enoch:

And in the eleventh jubilee Jared took to himself a wife, and her name was Baraka, the daughter of Râsûjâl, a daughter of his father's brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, and she bare him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee, and he called his name Enoch. And he was the first among men that are born on earth who learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a book, that men might know the seasons of the years according to the order of their separate months. And he was the first to write a testimony and he testified to the sons of men among the generations of the earth, and recounted the weeks of the jubilees, and made known to them the days of the years, and set in order the months and recounted the Sabbaths of the years as we made (them), known to him. And what was and what will be he saw in a vision of his sleep, as it will happen to the children of men throughout their generations until the day of judgment; he saw and understood everything, and wrote his testimony, and placed the testimony on earth for all the children of men and for their generations.

Enoch’s apotheosis is described in Jubilees 4:23-24:

And he was taken from amongst the children of men, and we conducted him into the Garden of Eden in majesty and honor and behold there he writes down the condemnation and judgment of the world, and all the wickedness of the children of men. And on account of it (God) brought the waters of the flood upon all the land of Eden; for there he was set as a sign and that he should testify against all the children of men, that he should recount all the deeds of the generations until the day of condemnation.

The Hekhalot literature (from the Hebrew word for "Palaces") contains visions of ascents into heavenly palaces. The genre overlaps with Merkabah (“Chariot") literature so the two are sometimes referred to together as "Books of the Palaces and the Chariot.” These Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts were produced some time between late antiquity (possibly Talmudic times or earlier) to the Early Middle Ages. Many of the motifs of the later Kabbalah are based on the Hekhalot texts, and the Hekhalot literature is itself based upon earlier sources such as traditions about the heavenly ascents of Enoch found among the Dead Sea scrolls and other Hebrew Bible pseudepigrapha. These stories often feature an adept who is transformed into a heavenly being whose body becomes fire and whose eyes flash lightning.

The Rabbis most frequently designated God’s principal angel Metatron, likely an adaptation of the Greek name Metathronos, meaning “one who stands after or behind the throne,” a dilution of synthronos, the Hellenistic term which denotes equivalency with deity. The Third Book of Enoch, or the Book of Palaces, describes the ascension of Enoch into Heaven and his transformation into the angel Metatron. It is narrated by Rabbi Ishmael, who also serves as narrator of the Merkabah texts Hekhaloth Rabbati and Ma’aseh Merkabah. Ishmael ascends to the last sphere of heaven which is divided into seven concentric Hekhaloth, or palaces guarded by seven intimidating gatekeepers, a layout modeled perhaps on Arsacid Persian capital cities. Arsacid throne rooms, at the center of this series of defenses, featured celestial bodies (drawn by concealed subfloor beasts) rotating about a fixed throne. Upon reaching the throne of God, an overawed Ishmael recovers sufficiently to sing the Kedushah, a term for Jewish daily liturgical prayers which include the recitation of two Biblical verses, Isaiah 6:3 and Ezekiel 3:12. These verses come from prophetic visions in which angels sing praises to God. Subsequent synagogue services, based on the Temple services that preceded them, thus claim their origin in the throne room of God. Metatron, or perhaps Zoharariel, occupy the throne as God’s regent since God is beyond depiction.

In First Kings 18:42, Elijah assumes a distinctive prayer posture:

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.

Merkabah mystics assumed an identical posture to facilitate the altered state of consciousness that would inaugurate visions of heavenly ascent. The angelic transformation of Enoch during his heavenly ascent is questioned by the angels themselves, but God’s approbation silences their objections and, by extension, objections to the teachings of the Jewish mystics that human beings can be transformed into angels. Enoch’s glorification and transformation into the fiery angel Metatron places him in a position that is superior to those of the created angels.

Hekhalot literature features many apocalypses, yet rarely describes divine vengeance on an oppressor class. This leads to speculation that its creators were not experiencing persecution but were inhabitants of a stable Greco-Roman realm. They were a secretive and esoteric subgroup of the Rabbinic movement who employed theurgy, ritual practices used to invoke or evoke the presence of one or more deities with the intent of achieving henosis (unification with the divine) as well as the perfecting of oneself. These practices augmented standard Rabbinical Judaism and offered practitioners a means of ensuring good citizenship and their success within the movement. These purposes continued when the literature became transformed by medieval mystics known as the Haside-Ashkenaz.

The inspiration for the extremely popular mystery religions of late antiquity was the topic of a summary of preceding Chapter 5: “Greek and Classical Views of Life After Death and Ascent to the Heavens.” In the case of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the story of Demeter and Persephone was interpreted in a manner that was descriptive of birth in this world and rebirth into the afterlife. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods this cult gained so much wealth and prestige that other religions refashioned themselves in the image of an Eleusinian model. First to do so was the Cult of Isis which was based on the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris. The version of this cult designed for export was centered on temples called Isea, and Isis became goddess of the salvation of humanity. Celebrations of Isis by parades and processions were featured throughout the Roman Empire. But despite the renown of their public spectacles, the particulars of the mystery religions remain a mystery since their adherents were sworn to secrecy. Secondhand information about the cult of Isis can be gleaned from the 2nd century CE novella by Apeleius titled The Golden Ass. Its hero, Lucius, has been transformed into an ass because of his unbridled libido. This condition is remedied through his conversion to the cult of Isis. In the 11th chapter of this work the high priest of Isis proclaims to the hapless initiate the care and protection that the goddess bestows upon her devotees:

Lucius, after suffering many labors, buffeted by Fortune’s mighty tempests, by the fierce winds of fate, you reach at last the harbor of Peace, the altar of Mercy. Neither your birth and rank, nor your fine education, brought you any aid, as on youth’s rash and slippery paths you plunged into servile pleasures and reaped the perverse rewards of ill-starred curiosity. Yet blind Fortune while tormenting you with imminent danger, has brought you from the throes of evil chance to blessed happiness. Let her vent her rage and fury now on some other object of her cruelty, for hostile fate finds no opening against those whose lives our royal Goddess renders free to serve her.

Some manner of immortalization ritual likely attended the initiation of Lucius, as it did for the author of the novella. The foundational myth of Isis and Osiris linked the immortality of Pharoah to the annual flooding of the Nile and required the priesthood of Osiris to effect this transformation. The salvation of Lucius occurs while he is yet alive, for he is delivered from the capricious consequences of fate to a purposeful destiny under the guidance of Isis.

Rivaling the influence of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Cult of Isis, the Cult of Mithra also promised salvation for its initiates. Its name is drawn from the pre-Zoroastrian Persian god Mithra. In addition to being the god of contracts, Mithra was also the god of the sun, of the shining light that beholds everything and was therefore invoked in oaths. The Greeks and Romans considered Mithra as a sun god. There is little notice of the Persian god in the Roman world until the beginning of the 2nd century, but, from the year 136 CE onward, there are hundreds of dedicatory inscriptions to Mithra. This renewal of interest is not easily explained. The most plausible hypothesis seems to be that Roman Mithraism was created by an individual who infused the old traditional Persian ceremonies with a new Platonic emphasis that appealed to potential converts.

Most adherents of Mithra known to us from inscriptions are soldiers of both low and high rank, officials in the service of the emperor, imperial slaves, and freedmen who probably knew which god would lead them to quick promotion. Mithra was closely associated with the Greek sun god Helios. Plato’s cave provided inspiration for the subterranean centers of Mithra worship. Platonism holds that the task of human life is to liberate one’s soul from the shackles of the body so that it may reascend through the seven spheres to the eternal, unchanging realm of the fixed stars. This ascent to the sky was prefigured by Mithra himself, when he left the earth in the chariot of the sun god. Identification of the Roman Emperor with the sun and his supporting armies with Mithraism explains imperial support for the cult. This support officially ended when Constantine adopted Christianity, but some maintain that he did not completely severe longstanding imperial ties to the Cult of Mithra. Coins minted during the reign of Constantine were inscribed: "Sol Invicto comiti" which means “committed to the invincible sun.” Although Sunday, rather than Saturday (the Sabbath) had already began to be observed as an anti-Judaic Christian day of worship, on March 7, 321, Constantine issued a civil decree making Sunday an official day of rest from labor:

All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable day of the sun. Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short time perish.

The era of Late Antiquity used original agrarian and local religions as the basis for depictions of a new manner of salvation that involved the initiation and transformation (especially into stars) of an adept. Early 20th century scholar Franz Cumont termed this new form of religion “celestial immortality” or “sidereal eschatology.” The 41st page of Plato’s Timaeus (like Daniel 12:3) describes the creation of human souls by the Demiurge and their identity with the stars:

Now so much of them as it is proper to designate 'immortal,' the part we call divine which rules supreme in those who are fain to follow justice always and yourselves, that part I will deliver unto you when I have sown it and given it origin.

For the rest, do ye weave together the mortal with the immortal, and thereby fashion and generate living creatures, and give them food that they may grow, and when they waste away receive them to yourselves again.

Thus He spake, and once more into the former bowl, wherein He had blended and mixed the Soul of the Universe, He poured the residue of the previous material, mixing it in somewhat the same manner, yet no longer with a uniform and invariable purity, but second and third in degree of purity. And when He had compounded the whole He divided it into souls equal in number to the stars, and each several soul He assigned to one star,

In a way typical of 4th-cent. philosophy, Heraclides Ponticus, a student of Plato, combined his interests in science and eschatology in writings about real or invented shamanistic figures such as Empedotimus, Abaris, Pythagoras, and Empedocles. In the vision of Empedotimus the soul is described as substantial light, having its origin in the Milky Way. In a lost dialogue, Empedotimus of Syracuse reports a vision he received at midday that privileged him to “see the whole truth concerning souls.” Heraclides conceived of the soul in physical terms, but the vision he ascribes to Empedotimus may have been entirely psychical. Physical or psychical, the medium whereby these impressions were received is a new fifth element invented by Heraclides, “luminous ether” that links the body, the soul, the cosmos, and whatever lies beyond. It is symbolized by the dodecahedron. The mild noonday fire of Plato, which solely impacted physiological, oracular vision, is supplanted by an ethereal luminance which reveals the inward nature of objects subjected to its light. The visionary identifies three gaps, or gates between the constellations that lead to three distinct pathways through the zodiac. Only one pathway, marked by the rising and setting point of the zodiac is traditionally associated with the route travelled by deceased souls, but tripartite divisions of the night sky were formulated by the Babylonians and are the basis of division of the year into twelve months and the zodiac into twelve signs. Scholars are challenged by attempts to reconcile the three celestial entry points of Heraclides with the Pythagorean-Platonic astronomical constructs of his era. This division may reflect a desire to classify the cosmos as consisting of three distinct realms, a Neoplatonist effort to reconcile the teachings of the Academy with Homeric myth.

Hellenistic Greek and Coptic magical papyri proclaim a connection between stars and souls that is identical to Plato’s and contain stories of angels that are similar to those found in Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature and Merkabah mysticism. The angels of the papyri served, however, a less exalted purpose by achieving material benefits for an adept through “magic.” The following excerpt from a papyrus describes part of a rite that could be performed to obtain a familiar, or assistant. It is contained in “The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation,” edited by Hans Dieter Betz under the title “The spell of Pnouthis, the sacred scribe, for acquiring an assistant.” A star descends and becomes an angel and becomes bound by a spell to do the bidding of an adept:

At once there will be a sign for you like this: [A blazing star] will descend and come to a stop in the middle of the housetop, and when the star [has dissolved] before your eyes, you will behold the angel whom you have summoned and whom has been sent [to you], and you will quickly learn the decisions of the gods. But do not be afraid: [approach] the god and, taking his right hand, kiss him and say these words to the angel, for he will quickly respond to you about whatever you want. But you adjure him with this [oath] that he meet you and remain inseparable and that he not [keep silent or] disobey in any way. But when he has with certainty accepted this oath of yours, take the god by the hand and leap down, [and] after bringing him [into] the narrow room where you reside, [sit him] down. After first preparing the house in a fitting manner and providing all types of foods and Mendesian wine, set these before the god, with an uncorrupted boy serving and maintaining silence until the [angel] departs. And you address preliminary (?) words to the god: "I shall have you as a friendly assistant, a beneficent god who serves me whenever I say, 'Quickly, by your power now appear on earth to me, yea verily, god!"'

Similar rites can be found in the Hekhaloth literature, wherein a bound angel can be exorcised once an adept’s purposes had been accomplished. In some pagan magical papyri, heavenly bodies such as stars or the moon could summoned to earth to perform as divine intermediaries variously termed angels, diamons, or gods depending on the context and preferences of the community. The Mithras Liturgy is the story of a visit by a magician to a divine entity that is superior to angels, necessitating a journey to heaven. The traveler asks the god Helios Mithras to make him immortal and give him a prophecy. The deity agrees to do and becomes resident in the petitioner who ecstatically responds:

“…O Lord, while being born again, I am passing away; while growing and having grown, I am dying; while being born from a life-generating birth, I am passing on, released to death, as you have founded, as you have decreed, and have established the mystery. I am PHEROYRA MIOYRI.”

Pagans who performed these magical rites were reborn (palingenomenos) and then immortalized (apanathananatismos) by the procedure, just as Christians are “born again.” Jewish practitioners already expected to become immortal, so their spells concentrated on more material benefits such as an enhanced ability to memorize Jewish law.

The Hermetic literature similarly features tales of heavenly ascent and transformation. In Poimandres, the first tractate in the Corpus Hermeticum, the narrator envisions the vast, limitless body of a person that appears to dissolve into light. Following a dialogue with this savior figure and an ascent to heaven, he learns that the secret to immortality is knowledge of one’s true nature. Section 19-20 is an excerpt from this conversation:

And he who thus hath learned to know himself, hath reached that Good which doth transcend abundance; but he who through a love that leads astray, expends his love upon his body. He stays in Darkness wandering, and suffering through his senses things of Death.

What is the so great fault, said I, the ignorant commit, that they should be deprived of deathlessness?

Thou seemest, He said, O thou, not to have given heed to what thou heardest. Did I not bid thee think?

Yea do I think, and I remember, and therefore give Thee thanks.

If thou didst think [thereon], [said He], tell me: Why do they merit death who are in Death?

It is because the gloomy Darkness is the root and base of the material frame; from it came the Moist Nature; from this the body in the sense-world was composed; and from this [body] Death doth the Water drain.

Magical papyri reveal a magician’s code of ethics. Rewards are promised only to those who compensate magicians for their services. The value of these secrets entailed that they remain secret among the members of the magicians’ guild. Theurgy was a form of pagan religious magic associated with the Chaldaean Oracles and taken up by the later Neoplatonists. Procedures that would inaugurate a magical ascent, and similar spells, became respectable in Late Antiquity. Theurgy originated with Julian the Chaldean and his son, Julian the Theurgist in the 2nd century CE. Later Neoplatonists, such as Iamblichus and Proclus, highly admired the works of these two pioneering theurgists. The defining ritual of theurgy was the systasis, whereby the soul of the practitioner became identified with divinity for purposes both holy and profane.

Theurgy was prominent in the mid-4th century pagan revival which reconfigured traditional Roman religious practice to the extent that it could be regarded as an entirely new religion, one that focused on piety and salvation to better compete with Christianity. Julian (the “Apostate”), who reigned as emperor from 331-363 CE, rejected Christianity and worked to replace it with a theurgy-dependent version of Neoplatonic Hellenism developed by Syrian philosopher Iamblichus (245-325).  Iamblichus detailed Plotinus' neo platonic formal divisions, applied Pythagorean number symbolism more systematically, and interpreted neo platonic concepts mythically. Unlike Plotinus, who broke from platonic tradition by positing a separate soul, Iamblichus re-affirmed the soul's embodiment in matter and believed that matter was as divine as the rest of the cosmos. Plotinus had theorized that inner experience was the path to divine ascent, but it was Iamblichus who developed theurgic rituals and prayers that could affect the ultimate disposition of the soul. He wrote the following on page 272 of On the Mysteries:

No operation, however, in sacred concerns, can succeed without the intervention of prayer. Lastly, the continual exercise of prayer nourishes the vigor of our intellect and renders the receptacles of the soul far more capacious for the communications of the Gods. It likewise is the divine key, which opens to men the penetralia of the Gods; accustoms us to the splendid rivers of supernal light; in a short time perfects our inmost recesses and disposes them for the ineffable embrace and contact of the Gods; and does not desist till it raises us to the summit of all. It also gradually and silently draws upward the manners of our soul, by divesting them of everything foreign to a divine nature, and clothes us with the perfections of the Gods. Besides this, it produces an indissoluble communion and friendship with divinity, nourishes a divine love, and inflames the divine part of the soul.

Whereas Plotinus had attributed human suffering to the soul’s incomplete descent to the material world, Iamblichus adopted Porphyry’s concept of a “vehicle” that permits souls to shuttle between the material and spiritual realms. Once a star becomes positioned in its vehicle, it can travel downward to become a human soul, or, conversely, travel upward to the astral realm of immortality. Stars and souls share an identical essence that can exist in two potential states. Each soul is connected to its guardian star which directs its earthy existence and can prophesize future events. Soul and star become reunited at death. All is subsumed into an overarching “world-soul,” both the mutable and transient material world and the immortal and unchanging spiritual universe. Iamblichus differed from Proclus and Porphyry in asserting that the vehicle of souls was, like the soul itself, immortal. Applied theurgy could lead a soul upward toward its rightful divine state. Practical magic, intermediated by demons rather than by gods, would only further degrade souls still contained within their corporeal bodies, despite its transient ability to improve the mental and material resources of whomever utilized this resource.

Iamblichus blended Chaldean, Hermetic, and Orphic ideas into a consistent occult ritual that purported to result in immortalization. The priests who superintended this procedure exercised divine powers and were regarded as pure and superior by lesser mortals. Like the Bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism, they were believed to have become freed from the cycle of births and used their enlightened status to help others escape. Theurgists countered claims that Christianity applied specifically for martyrs by asserting that all were qualified to rise above the material realm, escape their fleshly prison, and become united with the gods by using the sacraments that they offered. The intellectual rigor that Iamblichus imposed upon traditional paganism served to strengthen it for its last ditch battle against Christianity, but the dispensation offered by Neoplatonism required a commitment of time and money that Christianity did not. Hermeticism persisted as the popular model for the Late Roman revival of paganism, as well as a model for the abstruse philosophical contemplations as instituted by Iamblichus. The Hekhalot literature, which also offered the potential for mystical ascent was similarly esoteric and exclusive. Christianity, in contrast, was extremely inclusive. It rituals and sacraments were available to all. Julian (the Apostate) attempted to reform paganism based on a Christian model, but his early death in battle against the Persians marked the end of the pagan Neoplatonic revival. Julian was subsequently vilified, and pagan magic, rebranded as demonic and subversive, was relegated to the underground. The philosophical struggle to unite resurrection and immortality for the next centuries was dominated by the Church Fathers. An immense quantity of intellectual capital was expended in a protracted effort to reconcile the Jewish-based apocalyptic dispensation as revealed by Christ with philosophically defined conceptions of the immortality of the soul.