Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Nether World in the Old Testament

This study intends to show how the application of the fruits of Ugaritic scholarship can make a valuable contribution to the study of Israelite conceptions about Death and the Hereafter. In the first place this contribution is of a linguistic nature: it attempts to use the results of philological research on the Ugaritic texts and its application to biblical literature. Secondly, it tries to obtain a better perspective of Israelite views on death and the beyond with the help of conceptions found in these texts. This study is limited to mythical motives. This limitation implies that the theme treated is Death and Sheol as the Israelite eschata. The problems of immortality and resurrection are not discussed.