Publisher's Synopsis
This work argues that the sleep of death metaphor in New Testament usage is compatible with an approach to a model of the intermediate state called 'wholistic dualism'. Focusing mainly on the New Testament witness, this book looks at the historical progression of the use of the term 'koimaomai' and its minor semantic associates from the time of Homer to the early church fathers. The time frame includes a consideration of non-Christian Greek and Latin sources; the hellensitic period including LXX, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus; the semantic domain in Hebrew and Aramaic incorporating the Old Testament and the literature of Second Temple Judaism, and the early post-biblical reaction.
