The Wages of Sin Is Death:' The Death of the Soul in Greek, Second Temple Jewish, and Early Christian Authors

The Wages of Sin is Death:' The Death of the Soul in Greek, Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Authors. Abstract by John T. Conroy, Jr. Paul writes, '. . . the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Rom 6:23). As a skilled rhetorician, Paul would not set as opposites physical death and eternal life, since they are not opposites. Hence, he must have meant some kind of death other than physical death. Where else in first century literature is a different kind of death found? Philo of Alexandria has a well developed theory of death of the soul, defined as that state where a person exists in an ontological state of separation from that which identifies a person as essentially human, namely a life of virtue, producing an intimacy with God. But where did this idea come from? Chapter 1 is an Introduction which locates Philo's development of the death of the soul in the work of Heraclitus. This chapter also outlines a division of each subsequent chapter into at least four parts, first isolating the anthropology of each thinker; second, focusing on the meaning of the fullness of life; and subsequently, of its opposite, which is death of the soul. The final focus concentrates on whether such a state of death is irrevocable. Chapter 2 examines a number of the fragments of Heraclitus. While he does not specifically use the phrase 'the death of the soul,' our main inquiry is whether someone who read his fragments could understand them as suggesting such an idea. Further, it is asked if one could understand the fragments as additionally permitting a reversal of such death. The conclusion is that such a reading is possible. Chapter 3 focuses on the works of Philo of Alexandria, and establishes both how he uses the phrase 'death of the soul' and what it means. Does Philo use 'death' metaphorically or ontologically? Is the very humanity of a person affected whose soul has died? The evidence indicates that Philo believed that an irrational person became something less than human. Additionally, it was discovered that for Philo, a person who departed from the life of virtue to the extent that he or she had become less than human was not irrevocably condemned to that state, but could recover true human life through repentance. Chapter 4 concentrates on Paul's Epistle to the Romans and how each occurrence of the word 'death' or its equivalents could be understood. While Paul does not use the phrase 'death of the soul,' it was discovered that the notion of 'spiritual death' fits many expressions of death in that letter. This notion is shown to be parallel to that of Philo, despite the difference in expression. It is also proposed that Rom 7:14-25 can be understood as the recognition of a moral crisis and a cry for help, the first stage of repentance. Chapter 5 examines the work of Clement of Alexandria, and shows that he included the expression 'the death of the soul' in his work, and what it meant. It was discovered that his usage is coherent with Philo's usage, and that he interprets Rom 6:23 as expressing the death of the soul, and not physical death. It was also proposed that Clement visualized death of the soul as something that can be overcome by repentance. Chapter 6 demonstrates that Origen also included the 'death of the soul' in his theological discussions. Indeed, it appears in a good number of cases, and is used in the same manner as Clement and Philo. Further, we find that Origen augmented a theory of repentance by which one could overcome the state of death resulting from vice. In addition to methods of achieving forgiveness based on New Testament texts, he included the expression of repentance to a presbyter, and reception of absolution from him. Chapter 7 summarizes what has been discovered and expresses the long trajectory of the idea from its incipient use in Heraclitus' aphorisms to its development in Origen.