Q. Where does the idea that David was taken up into heaven, or went there at death come from? 2 Kings is clear enough that he was gathered to his ancestors, i.e. like the prophet Samuel he was in Sheol, the land of the dead, not in heaven like Enoch or Elijah.
A. I think it probably comes from Ezekiel 36, where “my servant David” could very naturally be understood as David himself, not a descendant. No one thought that David did not die. Joshua and Hezekiah also unequivocally died. So did Moses (there really isn’t much evidence for the view that Moses didn’t really die) but there he is at the transfiguration. Jeremiah appears ina vision in 2 Maccabees. Exactly how this was understood I don’t know.
Q. In reading your excellent chapter on Josephus it made me wonder if you had ever read Klaus Koch’s treatment of the OT Prophets. He shows that there is a pattern of what he calls redemptive-judgment, by which he means not only that judgment begins with the house of Israel but is disciplinary not punitive or final, but also he means that this action prepares for and is in a sense the first act of the redemption and restoration of Israel which comes after the punishment. Koch finds this pattern in various of the prophets, and it made me wonder if this is not also the case with Josephus. What do you think?
A. Maybe something like that. He certainly thinks of the fall of Jerusalem as analogous of the fall to the Babylonians. That Israel could ever perish or cease to be God’s people would be inconceivable to him.
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