A unique feature of certain faiths, the resurrection of the dead stipulates that any person can be reconstituted by God in a process akin to the creation of the world long after the ultimate physical composition of that person has dissipated. The ancient script of Job puts it this way:
Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I will see God,
Whom I, on my part, shall behold for myself,
And whom my eyes will see, and not another.
Job 19:26-27 NASB
For this to happen, after a person’s death, a complete concept of them must be kept somewhere, something more complete and persistent than the memories of our loved ones, government files, or social media marketing databases. Note that such a record would have everything, outside the part that decays, that comprises a human being – even the appearance of that which is gone. One can easily imagine it is something like this that is described as the “shadows” of the deceased. One may also wonder, “Where is the place these records are kept? What is it called?” I would say “the Memory of God” would suffice, but many traditions locate the place of the Dead below the surface of the earth. If one strips any idea of torment from Hades, Gehenna, or Hell, they would serve, but perhaps the unadorned concept of Sheol comes closest.
There are many stories of people visiting the place of the Dead, but one stands out for me: the scriptural one about the crucifixion of Christ. This instance is sort-of-perversely celebrated in the creed I recited every other Sunday[1] as a child: “he descended into Hell.” Far from getting stuck there in suspended after-animation like everybody else, Jesus changed something[2] and consequently resurrected to Earth a couple days later. Matthew adds a sentence in his version here to assert that other deceased “saints” were also resurrected, to appear in the city of Jerusalem. It saddens me that no more detail is given, but this much can be said: whatever states they had ever been in, from birth to death, they were recognized by those who remembered them. This suggests that resurrection is not simply a reconstruction of a given life state but a transition to an ideal that nevertheless remains inside the boundaries of personhood[3]. Like Jesus, these resurrected did not persist long on the surface of the earth but supposedly also transferred to Paradise.
Which brings me to one last thing: no “non-saints” are recorded as being resurrected with Jesus to ultimately go places other than Paradise. This is a point for recent discussions about the nature of Hell.
[1] We alternated between reading the Nicene and Apostles’ creeds.
[2] Maybe Christ broke the spiritual structure of the world simply by dying. De-creation has to be introduced to purge imperfection from a good creation a good god makes (justice), but incarnation to death to resurrection to redemption is a divinely ingenious mechanism through which Maker’s privilege (grace) may justly be exercised.
[3] I once was afraid to let God change me because I thought it meant I would lose myself. Only later did I realize it is the path to myself.