Book of Life

Depiction of the book of life

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the Book of Life (Hebrew: ספר החיים‎, transliterated Sefer HaChaim; Greek: βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς Biblíon tēs Zōēs; Arabic: Kitab al-Amal) is the book in which God records, or will record, the names of every person who is destined for Heaven and the world to come.^[1][2] According to the Talmud, it is opened on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, as is its analog for the wicked, the Book of the Dead. For this reason, extra mention is made for the Book of Life during amidah recitations during the High Holy Days, the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the day of atonement (the two High Holidays, particularly in the prayer Unetanneh Tokef).

In the Hebrew Bible

In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Life records those people considered righteous before God.^[3] To be blotted out of this book signifies death.^[4] To be in this book ensures one of life on the day of judgment.^[5] Even before birth, those who will be born are written in this book.^[6]

A related concept appears in Ezekiel 9:4, where an angel marks the righteous on their foreheads for life, while the remaining inhabitants of Jerusalem are doomed.

In apocrypha

The apocryphal Book of Jubilees^[7] speaks of two heavenly tablets or books: a Book of Life for the righteous, and a Book of Death for those that walk in the paths of impurity and are written down on the heavenly tablets as adversaries (of God). Also, according to Jubilees 36:10, one who contrives evil against his neighbor will be blotted out of the Book of Remembrance of men, and will not be written in the Book of Life, but in the Book of Perdition. In Daniel 12:1 and Enoch 47:3 "the Ancient of Days" is described as seated upon his throne of glory with "the Book" or "the Books of Life" ("of the Living") opened before him. So are, according to Enoch 56:1, the righteous "written before the glory of the Great One," and, according to Enoch 108:3, the transgressors "blotted out of the Book of Life and out of the books of the holy ones." Reference is made also in The Shepherd of Hermas (Vision i. 3; Mandate viii.; Similitude ii.); in Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12–15, where "two Books" are spoken of as being "opened before the throne, the Book of Life, and the Book of Death, in which latter the unrighteous are recorded together with their evil deeds, in order to be cast into the lake of fire." It is the Book of Life in which the apostles' names are "written in heaven" (Luke 10:20), or "the fellow-workers" of Paul (Phil 4:3), and "the assembly of the first-born" (Hebrews 12:23; compare I Clem. 45). Allusion is made also in Enoch 81:4, 89:61–77, 90:17–20, 98:6-15, 104:7; 2 Baruch 24:1; Ascension of Isaiah 9:20.

In the New Testament

The text of the Book of Revelation (one of the books of the New Testament, attributed to John of Patmos) refers to the Book of Life seven times (3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27, 22:19). As described, only those whose names are written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, and have not been blotted out by the Lamb, are saved at the Last Judgment; all others are doomed. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15 - King James Version). "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works" (Revelation 20:12 - King James Version).

The Book of Life is also mentioned in Paul's letter to the Philippians:

Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.^[8]

The eschatological or annual roll-call

While the prevailing tendency among apocryphal writers of the Hasidean school was to give the Book of Life an eschatological meaning, the Jewish liturgy and the tradition relating to the New Year and Atonement days adhered to the ancient view, which took the Book of Life in its natural meaning, preferring, from a practical point of view, the worldliness of Judaism to the heavenliness of the Essenes. Instead of transferring, as is done in the Book of Enoch, the Testament of Abraham, and elsewhere, the great Judgment Day to the hereafter, the Pharisaic school taught that on the first day of each year (Rosh Hashanah), God sits in judgment over his creatures and has the Books of Life together with the books containing the records of the righteous and the wicked.^[9]

The origin of the heavenly Book of Life must be sought in Babylonia, where legends^[10] speak of the Tablets of Destiny and of tablets containing the transgressions, sins, wrongdoings, curses and execrations of a person who should be "cast into the water"; that is, blotted out.^[11] The living are the righteous,^[12] who alone are admitted to citizenship in the theocracy, while the wicked are denied membership and blotted out of God's book (Ex. xxxii. 32 et seq.).^[13] The life in which the righteous participate is to be understood in a temporal sense, as temporal life is apparently prayed for in the liturgical formula: "Inscribe us in the Book of Life."^[9]

In Daniel xii. 1, however, those who are found written in the book and who escape the troubles preparatory to the coming of the Messianic kingdom are they who, together with the risen martyrs, are destined to share in everlasting life. Eternal life is certainly meant in Enoch xlvii. 3, civ. 1, cviii. 3, and frequently in the New Testament, especially in Revelation. The Targum (Isa. iv. 3; Ezek. xiii. 9) speaks of the "Book of Eternal Life." The Mishnah states that the deeds of every human being are recorded in a book (Abot, ii. 1; see iii. 16). The Sefer Ḥasidim (xxxiii) pointedly adds that God is in no need of a book of records; "the Torah speaks the language of man."^[9]

Fundraising

A book of life motif is frequently found in Jewish houses of worship. It is both a decorative feature and fundraiser. Some synagogues have raised money by inscribing congregation member's names in a "book of life" as a tribute to their financial generosity.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Moirai
• Parcae
• Predestination
• Tree of life
• Water of Life (Christianity)

Notes

References

• Charles, Book of Enoch, pp. 131–133
• Gustaf Dalman, Worte Jesu, p. 171.
• JAL, "The Book of Life."

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