Quick Answers on Soul Sleep

A Secret Information Club member who I will codename Agent Great White North writes and says:

Do you have any info on soul sleep?  One of my friends believes the body and soul sleep in the grave until Christ comes back.  Some Scripture “appears” to support this.  How do I refute this claim?

The idea of soul sleep has appeared in a number of different forms in Church history. For a pretty good discussion of some of the terms and variants, see this Wikipedia entry.

It is also true that there are a number of passages in Scripture that can appear to support this view, which is one reason it periodically crops up.

Many of these passages depict death as sleep, and there are two reasons for this:

1) Death is an unpleasant topic, and people naturally look for euphemisms to soften discussions of the subject. Thus in contemporary English, for example, we may talk about someone “passing” or “passing away” or “passing on” or having “departed” or similar things. In the biblical world they often used the euphemism “sleep” to refer to death, and the reason is pretty obvious . . .

2) Dead people often look like they are sleeping. They are often encountered lying down and not moving, just like a sleeping person. In fact, as part of softening the blow of death, they are often deliberately made to look like they are asleep, and so it is customary to close their eyes if they have died with their eyes open. This happened in the biblical world also, and so the biblical patriarch Jacob is told:

And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here am I.” ³ Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation. ⁴ I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again; and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes” [Genesis 46:2-4].

Given the human desire to euphemize about death and the way death often looks like sleep, it is natural for sleep to be used as a euphemism for death. Thus even today some parents may tell their very young children that “Granma has gone to sleep” or similar things.

To refer to something according to its appearances is known as “phenomenological language,” and both in the Bible and elsewhere death is often depicted as sleep as a form of phenomenological euphemism.

These facts are undeniable, and so when we read St. Paul talking about those who sleep in Christ or Daniel talking about those who sleep in the dust, we must be prepared to acknowledge that these passages may be just contain phenomenological euphemisms and are not making a fundamental statement about the condition of human consciousness between death and resurrection.

We must thus press on to ask the question: Do we have any evidence of human consciousness after death and before resurrection?

Indeed, we do.

There are a variety of passages in both the Old and New Testaments that suggest continued consciousness after death.

First, there is the story of the witch of Endor (which gave the Bewitched character Endora her name), in which the medium or “witch” summons the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 28; see also Sirach 46:20).

Next, there is the passage in 2 Maccabees where it is revealed that the prophet Jeremiah is dead but nevertheless “loves the brethren and prays much for the people and the holy city” (2 Macc. 15:14).

Then there is Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31), in which Jesus depicts Lazarus, the rich man, and Abraham as conscious in the afterlife. One could object that this is a parable, but this does not affect the depiction of consciousness in the afterlife. Jesus’ parables are filled with commonplace, real things, like kings, sons, kingdom, talents, winepresses, mustard seeds, pearls, and all manner of things that actually exist. He doesn’t tell parables about wholly unreal or unfamiliar things. Thus the depiction of departed souls that are still conscious (and experiencing either torment or comfort) must be something we take seriously.

Finally, the book of Revelation depicts the souls of the departed as experiencing consciousness prior to resurrection. One of the most notable passages in which it does so is found in Revelation 6:

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. ¹⁰ They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Moving past the biblical age, the Church continued to recognize the consciousness of souls after death, which is why the Church has always recognized the practice of asking departed Christians for their prayers. You can read about that in my book The Fathers Know Best or online here.

If Agent Great White North’s friend is Catholic, the matter has been infallibly settled. This was defined by Pope Benedict XII:

[From the edict “Benedictus Deus,” Jan. 29, 1336]

530 By this edict which will prevail forever, with apostolic authority we declare: that according to the common arrangement of God, souls of all the saints who departed from this world before the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; also of the holy apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, virgins, and the other faithful who died after the holy baptism of Christ had been received by them, in whom nothing was to be purged, when they departed, nor will there be when they shall depart also in the future; or if then there was or there will be anything to be purged in these when after their death they have been purged; and the souls of children departing before the use of free will, reborn and baptized in that same baptism of Christ, when all have been baptized, immediately after their death and that aforesaid purgation in those who were in need of a purgation of this kind, even before the resumption of their bodies and the general judgment after the ascension of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, into heaven, have been, are, and will be in heaven, in the kingdom of heaven and in celestial paradise with Christ, united in the company of the holy angels, and after the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ have seen and see the divine essence by intuitive vision, and even face to face, with no mediating creature, serving in the capacity of an object seen, but divine essence immediately revealing itself plainly, clearly, and openly, to them, and seeing thus they enjoy the same divine essence, and also that from such vision and enjoyment their souls, which now have departed, are truly blessed and they have eternal life and rest; and also [the souls] of those who afterwards will depart, will see that same divine essence, and will enjoy it before the general judgment; and that such vision of the divine essence and its enjoyment makes void the acts of faith and hope in them, inasmuch as faith and hope are proper theological virtues; and that after there has begun or will be such intuitive and face-to-face vision and enjoyment in these, the same vision and enjoyment without any interruption [intermission] or departure of the aforesaid vision and enjoyment exist continuously and will continue even up to the last judgment and from then even unto eternity.

531 Moreover, we declare that according to the common arrangement of God, the souls of those who depart in actual mortal sin immediately after their death descend to hell where they are tortured by infernal punishments, and that nevertheless on the day of judgment all men with their bodies will make themselves ready to render an account of their own deeds before the tribunal of Christ, “so that everyone may receive the proper things of the body according as he has done whether it be good or evil” [2 Cor. 5:10]. [Taken from The Sources of Catholic Dogma in my edition of Logos Bible Software.]

If Great White North’s friend is not Catholic then some of these sources will not be considered authoritative, but hopefully this will provide a basic response.

Good luck, Agent Great White North!

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