Okay. I'm going to start with what I consider the first few civilizations, because that was really the start of established religions. For all intents and purposes, I am going to assume that heaven or paradise is a solely religious idea.
One of the first civilizations is Egypt. Civilizations back then were typically centered around rivers because that made it easier to grow crops. The Nile was central to Egyptian life. It was a river that was so easy to navigate and reliable that when they planted crops, they just had to toss the seeds on the ground and let their animals walk over them to press them into the ground. The fact that the river was safe, navigable and benign made for one of the safest and most fertile agricultural systems in the entire world.
One of the reasons that Egyptians were often buried with possessions and food and things that made them happy and comfortable during life was that the afterlife was seen as a continuation of this life, which was actually not half bad. In fact, one of the defining aspects of Egyptian heaven was the heavenly river Nile. In the beginning of Egyptian civilization, only pharaohs could cross the Nile in Ra's boat to get to the paradise on the other side. Osiris made it so that the boat was open to everyone. Well...everyone who had a light heart. (God, Ashley! Your fat, flabby heart is sinking the boat!) To have a good heart, you had to do good deeds, which is where the idea that doing good deeds will get you into heaven originated pretty much. Heaven itself was called "Duat", "the Land of Two Fields", or sometimes "the Field of Rushes". The Egyptians believed that your soul split onto two pieces (Ba and Ka). Half of you enjoyed the afterlife, and the other half went to watch over your family. At night, you returned to your tomb.
Paradise was a reflection of the life that they had just left. It is categorized by blue skies and the Nile. There were also fields, mountains, iron walls, turquoise trees and lakes of fire. In the afterlife, you were granted a plot of land that you were expected to grow crops on. You could either do it yourself or get these little statues called shabtis to do it.
<----Weighing the heartsThe next civilization is the Indus Valley civilization, which I don't know nearly as much about. We know that they used written language, but unfortunately nobody knows how to read it. However, we are pretty sure that they believed in an afterlife because they used to leave offerings for the dead to use in the afterlife. Also, I can assume that the afterlife was pretty sweet because their lives were comparatively easy ones. The Indus and Sarawati rivers that the civilization was based around flooded really reliably twice a year. This means that they had more available calories per acre than anywhere in the world.
The next civilization is Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamian gods were capricious and, frankly, mean. They were this way because the rivers were this way. The Tigris and Euphrates took a whole lot of slave labor in order to be useful for irrigation. They were hard to navigate and flooded violently and unpredictably. Mercurial rivers=mercurial gods. They believed that graves provided access to the underworld. Spirits traveled to the underworld through the ground. It was horrible and miserable. The dead were constantly thirsty and ate dust. One of the main differences between this afterlife and the previous two was that they left gifts for the dead to use while the Mesopotamians left gifts for the dead to bribe the gods with to make them less miserable. There was no heaven.
After that, there were the Persians and the Greeks. The Greek afterlife is relatively straightforward. There was an underworld ruled over by Hades. You had to have an offering of obols to get Charon to ferry you across the river Styx. Once across, you were sorted into heroes, villains, and...meh. Really, truly evil bad guys (typically only Titans) got sent to Tartarus. Tartarus is the darkest darkness ever known to the universe. Then, there are the Fields of Punishment for those who committed crimes against the gods. It was a place of surprisingly creative methods of torture. Next come the Fields of Asphodel. This was for the mediocre people who didn't really do anything that bad or good. It is bland and boring, but not unpleasantly so. The final level was called Elysium. It was a place for the heroes. Inside Elysium there were the Isles of the Blessed. If you got to Elysium you could either stay, or be reborn. If you were reborn and achieved Elysium 3 times, then you got to go to the Isles of the Blessed. It is usually shown as green pastures and mountains, with a blue sky and flowers. Lots of food. It's a pretty sweet deal.
In Persia, their religion of choice was Zoroastrianism. Good souls went to a place called Vahishta Ahu which means the Excellent Home. It remains unclear whether or not they believed in reincarnation or not. This may have changed with time. Vahishta Ahu, from what I have seen, is not a place as much as it is a state of mind that results from good choices, just as the opposite, Achista Ahu (the Worst Experience) is a state of mind that results from bad choices. I suppose it is like eternal guilt versus eternal feeling good about yourself because you know that you did the right thing.
Hinduism and Buddhism have similar ideas of heaven, but a lot of people don't realize that there are distinct differences too. Buddhists believe in the idea of samsara, which is pretty much just reincarnation. They also believe in multiple heavens. Therefore, their heaven is temporary. You go to heaven and are then reborn as something else according to karma. For Buddhists, their idea of heaven is more of a limbo. Think the limbo in the Matrix. They are more focused on nirvana, which is a state of being. It is the idea of being enlightened. Once you achieve this, you go to paradise. This paradise is tailor made to everyone. Wikipedia actually has a great example. "a warrior who fights for good, and dies for his or her duties will enter the realm of the "devas of passionate delight", while an actor that makes audiences laugh will enter the realm of the "laughing devas"." It depends on how you lived your life.
Hinduism is just your typical paradise. The exception to this idea is that is often shown as a floating island. Not quite clouds and halos, but this is definitely the first heaven that I have found that resides in the sky.
Chinese heaven is also known as Tian. Because the Chinese are so connected to their ancestors, it is pretty much just a place for the ancestors to live until they are called upon to fix problems like drought or famine.
In the really early days of Judaism, the earth was considered to be flat. This meant that the cosmos were like an upturned bowl on top of it. Underneath it was hell.
The place where heaven truly began to mean in the clouds was with the New Testament after the dawn of Christianity. The gospel according to Matthew makes frequent references to heaven as a kingdom, and Revelations 12:7-9 says "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, but he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads t he whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." The mention of being thrown down reinforces the idea that heaven is in the sky. It is mentioned in John 14 that in heaven resides many mansions which some speculated meant that they reside in different places like a city or the oceans. The true reason that we consider it to be the sky is that, in the Greek translation, the word for Heaven (like, the kingdom of) and the word or the heavens (the sky) was the same.
As it turns out, the answer to the question was relatively simple. The modern picture of heaven is almost exclusively rooted in Christianity. There are several characters in the Bible who were able to witness heaven before they died. Fortunately, they wrote it down. In fact, there is a very vivid description of it in Revelations 21:10-27 "
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia[a] in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits[b] thick.[c] 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.[d] 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life."
This is pretty much the reason that we think of heaven as bright, white, and pure. The reason that we think of clouds when we think of heaven is much the same.
Here is some Biblical evidence:
| Revelation 1:7 |
| “BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” |
| 1 Thessalonians 4:17 |
| “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” |
| Matthew 24:30 |
| “And then the |
| Matthew 26:64 |
| “Jesus said to him, ‘You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.’” |
| Mark 13:26 |
| “Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory.” |
| Mark 14:62 |
| “And Jesus said, ‘I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.’” |
| Nahum 1:3 |
| “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means leave [the guilty] unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.” |
| Daniel 7:13 |
| "I kept looking in the night visions, AND BEHOLD, WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN ONE LIKE A SON OF MAN WAS COMING, And He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.” |
| Ezekiel 30:3 |
| “For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time [of doom] for the nations.” |
| Jeremiah 4:13 |
| “Behold, he goes up like clouds, and his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!” |
| Jeremiah 10:13 |
| “When He utters His voice, [there is] a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, and brings out the wind from His storehouses.” |
| “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” |
| Psalms 78:23 |
| “…He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven.” |
| Psalms 97:2 |
| “Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” |
| Psalms 104:3 |
| “He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind.” |
| Psalms 18:11 |
| “He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.” |
| Job 35:5 |
| “Look at the heavens and see; and behold the clouds--they are higher than you.” |
| Job 22:14 |
| “Clouds are a hiding place for Him, so that He cannot see; And He walks on the vault of heaven.” |
| 2 Samuel 22:12 |
| “And He made darkness canopies around Him, A mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky.” |
| “Behold, God is great, and we know him not…Can any one understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?” |
| Job 37:16 |
| “Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?” |
| Psalm 36:5 |
| “Thy steadfast love, O LORD, Extends to the heavens, Thy faithfulness to the clouds.” |
| Psalm 68:4 |
| “Sing to God, sing praises to his name; Lift a song to him who rides upon the clouds; His name is the LORD, exult before him!” |
| Psalm 135:7 |
| “He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth…” |
| Psalm 147:8 |
| “He covers the heavens with clouds…” |
| Proverbs 16:15 |
| “In the light of a king’s face there is life, And his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.” |
| Sirach 35:16 |
| “He whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted And his prayer will reach to the clouds.” |
| Sirach 43:15 |
| “In his majesty he amasses the clouds…” |
| Isaiah 5:5 |
| “I will also command the clouds…” |
| Baruch 6:62 |
| “When God commands the clouds to go over the whole world, they carry out his command.” |
| Exodus 13:21 |
| “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way…” |
| Exodus 16:10 |
| “And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked to the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.” |
| Exodus 19:9 |
| “And the LORD said to Moses, “Lo, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you for ever.”” |
| Exodus 34:5 |
| “And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.” |
| Numbers 11:25 |
| “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him…” |
| 1 Kings 8:10 |
| “And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD…” |
| Sirach 24:4 |
| “I dwelt in high places, And my throne was in a pillar of cloud.” |
| Isaiah 19:1 |
| “Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud…” |
| 2 Maccabees 2:8 |
| “And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated." |
| Matthew 17:5 |
| “He was still speaking. When lo, a bright cloud over shadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’” |
| Mark 9:7 |
| “And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’” |
| Luke 9:34-35 |
| “As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’” |
| Luke 21:27 |
| “And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” |
| Acts 1:9-11 |
| “And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’” |
| Revelation 10:1 |
| “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.” |
| Revelation 14:14 |
| “Then I looked, and lo, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.” |
No comments:
Post a Comment