What happened to people who died before Jesus was born?

Question

Did they go to hell? Are they prayed for retroactively, even though they prayed to other gods? Will they be given another chance?
Did they go someplace else? Is there another place? If Jesus is the only answer, why did he wait so long?

Answer 1

same thing as now...their heart stopped....

seriously, God has always been around, he didn't change his mind about what to do with peoples souls because he sent Christ to be among us, (die for us)

Answer 2

Ecclesiastes 9 :5 6, 10:

"For the living are conscious thazt they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the rememberance of them has been forgotten. Also thier love and their hate and thier jealousy have already perished, and they have no portionanymore to time indefinate in anything that has to be done under the sun. All that your hands find to do, do with your very power for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going."

What is the truth about Sheol???
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Sheol last updated: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:25:14 -0500

In Hebrew, Sheol (????, Sh'ol) is the "abode of the dead", the "underworld", "the common grave of mankind" or "pit".Metzger & Coogan (1993) Oxford Companion to the Bible, p277. In the Hebrew Bible, it is a comfortless place beneath the earth, beyond gates, where both the bad and the good, slave and king, pious and wicked must go after death to sleep in silence and oblivion in the dust. Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job.

Answer 3

Good question. Certainly many people never had the chance to hear about Jesus and the Christian God, even after Jesus was born *cough Native Americans cough*.

There are answers from within the Christian mythos that say "Jesus went to Hell and saved all the deserving Pagans". This doesn't work for me, for the following reasons.

Let's say you're in Hell, or the "bosom of Abraham" if you prefer. It's reasonable to assume that at that point, having entered the afterlife, you have SEEN the reality of the afterlife and of Hell/God.

Therefore, when Jesus comes to ask you to come with Him, any sensible person, presented with that evidence, would agree to follow Him. (The same argument applies if you assume that this event still lies in the future, by the way.)

Now let's compare that to the state of affairs with human beings today. We are in a world where the the proof of Hell/God is obviously NOT as evident as it was to those pre-Christian Pagans who were already in the afterlife when Jesus came to them. How can it be fair to ask us to make that same choice and come to the "right" decision, based on our relative lack of evidence?

What it amounts to is that the Pagans in Hell/the bosom of Abraham had (or will have) a monstrous advantage over us, the people of the modern era. Therefore, this version of God is at best unfair, at worst capricious.

Personally, I prefer to believe that God (if God exists) loves His creation and will turn away no one. I think that the concept of a Hell for unbelievers is a projection of the hopes and fears of His followers rather than a true reflection of His nature.

Answer 4

The time was set by Him for His reason.
They went to a place called Sheol.
There was two compartments.
One called Abraham Bosom and the other Hades.
There is a sort of depiction of it here.
Luke 16:19 "Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day.
Luke 16:20 "And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
Luke 16:21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
Luke 16:22 "Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
Luke 16:23 "And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw^ Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luke 16:24 "And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.'
Luke 16:25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
Luke 16:26 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'
When Jesus died on the cross he decended to this place and preached to those now in prison.
1 Pet 3:19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,
1 Pet 3:20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
Once this was done. There became Heaven and Hell.
I hope that this was informative.
CP

Answer 5

People before the comming of Jesus were still required to follow God and the laws of the lands usually through the High Priest. This is what is sometimes called before the despensation of Jesus.

Answer 6

Great Question:
It's funny how these Christian finatics who think that Jesus is the only way...and think that all others who don't believe go to hell....
That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
What the hell are they talking about....do they even have any brains at all?.....Come on people ...Are you that Ignorant...
that you think we are judged by our religious beliefs?....unbelievable
For those of you who think there is an outside source judging us
then consider that it is by our actions not by our beliefs.
But for the smart spiritual ones out there....you know the truth about your higher self.

Answer 7

They went to heaven. Jesus was sent as a messenger of God. God waited to send Jesus because he thought people would figure it out on their own. Most people before Jesus' time believed in God but just needed a guidance.

Answer 8

I thought that the apostle Paul answered your first question already. Apparently the atoning sacrifice of Jesus was applied retroactively to anyone who had faith in the God of Abraham.

Only God knows why he took so long.

As for people who didn't know about God, then god judges them based on what they knew.

Answer 9

ALL THE WORLD FROM EDEN WILL BE IN 1000 YEAR REIGN OF CHRIST

Rev.20:1-6,12,13; They were dead and we were not yet born when Jesus came and
we did not get the word or truth until the last days passing down to the endtimes.

Heb.9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

1Cor.15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Answer 10

Before Jesus people look forward to the Cross in Faith, after Jesus we look back at the Cross in Faith, they were saved the same way as people today, The Blood of Jesus.

Answer 11

According to Dante, they live in the first circle of hell with all the other pagans that "didn't know any better". Chances are nothing happened to them, just like nothing happens to people who die now.