Ghosts – Do The Dead Know Nothing?
When discussing ghosts, many Christians say the dead know nothing. The very idea is proof texted against with Ecclesiastes 9:5: ‘The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing’. Scriptures such as Luke 16:26-31 and Hebrews 9:27 are also thrown into the conversation, but as the links to articles on these verses show, there’s more than meets the eye on surface skimming the text. The same applies to this particular verse.
Let’s read it in full, for again, like the Hebrews 9:27 proof-texting, what’s quoted is not the whole story:
The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost.
Ecclesiastes 9:5 (NRSV)
The writer of Ecclesiastes is not saying that ghosts don’t exist, but that not only do the dead know nothing, they have no more reward, and even their memory is lost.
My initial question on just reading the text alone is: ‘Is it really true that they have no more reward? Do the righteous who have died really have no reward in the afterlife?’ The right response, of course is that the righteous do have a reward in the afterlife. Evidence can be seen in the New Testament in Luke 16 and the poor man’s reward by being in “Abraham’s Bosom” (Paradise – see also the Penitent Thief on the cross in Luke 22:39-43 who would be with Jesus in the afterlife that very day of their crucifixion!).
My second question is: Okay, so are they really no longer in the memory of their Maker? Well, Romans 14:8 says that we are the Lord’s whether alive or dead, so God has not forgotten us. Even Jesus says in John 14:1-3 that he has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us, and it would be very remiss of him to forget who he’s prepared a place for, wouldn’t it?
So, perhaps we need to think a bit deeper than mere proof-texting a verse from Ecclesiastes to try and dismiss ghosts from a biblical perspective. It’s very clear from the book of Ecclesiastes that not everything that’s in there is correct theologically… I mean, is everything (including life) really meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1:2)? If you read Ecclesiastes, you find a man who has amassed great riches, lived life to the full, reflecting on the futility of his accomplishments, considering that toil is meaningless, and that the same fate of death comes to those who life life to the full and those who are on the lowest rung of his society. Faced with his own mortality, this fairly stark review on life is framed within a particular understanding of the afterlife at that time:
Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 (NRSV)
A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man— even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
Ecclesiastes 6:3-6 (NRSV)
Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NRSV)
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
Ecclesiastes 12:7 (NKJV)
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
At the time these were written, Sheol (the underworld) was where everyone, good and bad went. Hence the writer’s reflections upon his observations imply it’s best to live one’s life to the full, because after that, you’re in the land of the shadows where life is colourless and not a patch on this side of the veil. The dead received no reward in the understanding of the writer’s understanding of the afterlife. In time, their memory will be lost – from a human perspective. Therefore, perspective is the key to understanding this book – one has to know the cultural beliefs about Sheol and that this passage is written from a human way of reflecting upon the world.
I’ve written briefly about this understanding of Sheol in another article, and will endeavour to write up a series on the evolution of Sheol and the afterlife in a future series.
Suffice to say that when we get to the Second Temple period and the Septuagint, we read in the extended version of Daniel 3, which includes the song of praise by Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego whilst they’re in the fiery furnace:
Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous;
Daniel 3:86 (NRSVCE)
sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever.
Which clearly shows the idea of a conscious afterlife in the spirit realm was understood by that point.
By the time we get to the New Testament, it’s very clearly taught that the departed are sentient in the afterlife:
- The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31),
- Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-8),
- The martyred under the altar in Revelation 6:9-11.
Conclusion
It is not possible to legitimately dismiss ghosts and say the dead know nothing by using Ecclesiastes 9:5. Knowing nothing doesn’t mean literally knowing nothing at all. When the Game of Thrones character, Ygritte, says to Jon Snow: “You know nothing”, she didn’t mean he didn’t know anything; she was saying that, in comparison to her, he didn’t know anything about the particular issues in the discussions.
The book of Ecclesiastes is written for those who are alive, “under the sun” (a phrase it uses 25 times). When the writer of Ecclesiastes 9:5 says that “the dead know nothing”, they’re not saying that the dead are in a state of suspended animation, or annihilated, knowing nothing at all. The writer is implying that, from their perspective, compared to life this side of the veil, the dead know nothing. As such, this verse cannot be used as a silver bullet to destroy arguments regarding the existence of sentience in the afterlife.
To say ghosts don’t exist because Ecclesiastes 9:5 says the dead know nothing and therefore are in a state of unconsciousness, is to join in with the erroneous teaching of ‘soul sleep’ (dealt with in depth in this article), which was proposed by Luther and Tyndale, and later denounced by Calvin in his work Psychopannychia.
