Was the doctrine of the ressurection of the dead influenced by Platonic writings?

Question

The idea of heaven and hell was not introduced into Judaism until late in its development. Even at the time of Jesus, according to the gospels the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. From my understanding Christian doctrine was heavily influenced by the writings of Plato, from the Hellenistic Greeks. Did this influence also come into play in the development of Jewish doctrine? This is a serious question.

Answer 1

You probably consider me to be a biased source, but then again, who isn’t when it comes to religion?

The short answer would be that there is no direct evidence of any kind of Platonic influence on the teachings of Jesus himself.

Of course, if one were to speculate without any evidence, then looking for similarities and/or differences between the various ancient religions and philosophies is like an ink blot test; I noticed that one sees what he or she wants to see.

Christian tradition traces its belief in the resurrection of the dead in the fact that Jesus himself predicted that he would return from the dead, and then apparently pulled it off, because it is hard to explain why many of the disciples of Jesus were willing to be tortured to dead for their faith if they didn’t believe the resurrection to be true. A liar would surely tell the truth to save his own life.

Not the answer that you were looking for, I know, but you weren’t getting too many responses, so I thought that I would toss in my two cents worth.

Answer 2

Actually, Platonic writings favor immortality of the soul, not resurrection of the dead.
That is one of the reasons Jesus hated the Sadducee's, is because they strayed from the truth, and chose to be influenced by outside beliefs, which at that time was the Hellenistic ways and philosophical teachings carried by the Romans.

But you are right about one main thing---the teachings developed after the death of the apostles was tainted by Platoism, the Hellenestic beliefs and the way of Constantine the Great, a man that was pagan, but liked christianity.
Again though, these changes took place a long time after the lives of those that first established the christian congregation.

As Gibbons book, 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' put it, a monk had to go to a school of Plato first, then he could study christianity.
See how the tainting began?

Answer 3

Resurrection of the dead as a religious tenet has a long history pre-dating the Hebrew bible. In the Egyptian pantheon, there were several gods who were killed and then resurrected, also in Sumerian theology, we find the same concept of Resurrection of both gods and man.

The Greek influences were themselves influenced by earlier religions, so the annexation of the concept of Resurrection of the dead by Christians is just another link in chain going back at least eight thousand years.

Answer 4

The doctrine precedes any Greek influence on Judaism,which occurs at a much later date. It probably originates in Zoroastrianism,which was contrary to popular belief the dominant religion in Palestine during so-called "Biblical" times.