Mesopotamian/hebrew/greek Worldviews

Job 14:14a reads, "If a man die, shall he live again?" Immortality and life after

death is a central point in every person's life, no matter what the time period,

no matter where they're from. Examining The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish,

Job, and Socrates, the result is three very different views of the answer

to this conundrum. Job, in 14:12, says, "So man lies down, and rises not: till

the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their

sleep." This verse shows that the ancient Hebrews did believe in life after

death, and man will rise again--in due time.

But if you are searching for a unique analysis of this question, in my

opinion, there is no better person to turn to than Socrates. Let's examine the

Phaedo. In this short work of literature written by Plato, Socrates is minutes

away from drinking the fatal hemlock. While on the brink of death, he begins

to discuss his view of the soul and life after death. Socrates states that "To

fear death . . . is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not . . . No

one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man,

yet men fear it as if it were the greatest of all evils" (Plato 34). Some people

have a peace about life after death but still the majority of people today fear

death. Would Socrates call our society today ignorant, body-loving cowards?

Now to contrast the Greek view of afterlife with the Mesopotamian view:

Socrates' beliefs about death differ so greatly from those expressed in The

Epic of Gilgamesh that Socrates would probably refute every claim about

afterlife that Gilgamesh presents. When Crito asks Socrates how he would

like to be buried, Socrates answers, "I do not convince Crito that I am this

Socrates talking to you here and ordering all I say, but he thinks that I am the

thing which he will soon be looking at as a corpse" (Plato 153). Socrates

believes that after death all that is left is the body, and "the self" is in the soul,

which has departed. For Socrates the soul is the immortal part of the person,

while the physical body simply turns back to dust. Job says, in chapter 14,

verse 13, "O that you would hide me in the grave, that you would keep my

secret, until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and

remember me!" In this verse, the inner man is going to Sheol, while the

physical body is going to be resurrected in due time. This is an example of

how Job believed, as did Socrates, the separation of the inner man from the

body. Gilgamesh sees no distinction between the soul and the physical body.

After the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh tells Scorpion-man, "I have wept for him

day and night, I would not give his body up for burial. I thought my friend

would come back because of my weeping." (Gilgamesh 98). Gilgamesh

believes death is a punishment from the gods. "Because they have killed the

Bull of Heaven, and because they have killed Humbaba who guarded the

Cedar Mountain one of the two must die" (Gilgamesh 89). Socrates, on the

other hand, says philosophers, "must escape from the body and observe

matters in themselves with the soul by itself" (Plato 103). "Wisdom itself is a

kind of cleansing . . . he who arrives [in the underworld] purified and initiated will

dwell with the gods" (Plato 106). If Socrates believes that wisdom can only be

obtained at death, and wisdom is purification, then I believe Socrates would

disagree with Gilgamesh that death is a punishment from the gods.

As a way of rationalizing his view of the afterlife, Socrates draws a

connection between afterlife and wisdom. "When the soul investigates by

itself it passes into the realm of what is pure, ever existing, immortal and

unchanging . . . its experience then is what we call wisdom" (Plato 118). By

drawing parallels between the two, Socrates explains that the soul, like

wisdom, is immortal. Although there is not a great deal about the afterlife

mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, we can infer that their vision of death

and the afterworld is not as peaceful as Socrates'. Gilgamesh says, "Now that I

have toiled and strayed so far over the wilderness, am I to sleep and let the

earth cover my head for ever?" (Gilgamesh, 100) Gilgamesh,