Sola Fide

[Bengalzona]

(04-27-2016, 09:01 AM)fredtoast Wrote: But they clearly believed that there was a "soul" that survived as an individual after death.  The concept of the dead dwelling in sheol appears in the original Torah.

True.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to have said that their concept of a before life or an after life was undefined. The Sadduccees preferred this lack of definition. The Pharissees sought further definition, such as the reference to the Guff (repository of unborn souls) in the Talmud, etc. 

There has been this overall trend over time in Judeo-Christian theology to determine what an afterlife would be like. What started out as a vague concept of the soul living on after death (which probably had roots with the Egyptians) has been further defined by successive sects and denominations. It is a "selling point" among religions: "If you follow these rules, you get Heaven!!" But the original concept among the Sadduccees was "We don't know what is there. But there is a Hell (Sheol). And it must be better than that! Don't worry about it. Do what God says and you'll be okay in the end."