THE BOOK OF LIFE

 THE BOOK OF LIFE
Philippians 4:1-5  "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near."

When we think about the Book of Life, most of us automatically think, oh that is the Bible, what else could it be? Nonetheless the very term the Book of Life appears in the Bible eights times only and it's not even evenly distributed. For it appears only once in the old Testament, in Psalm 69, and seven times in the New Testament,  though nowhere in the Gospels. It appears once in the letter to the Philippians and six times in the Book of Revelation, which latter is a prophetical or a so called eschatological, end-time-prophecy book itself, thus it is a bit difficult to understand, what its author is talking about.

However, the meaning of the term of the Book of Life is quite clear even in the case of the Book of Revelation, its meaning, biblically, is based on the Psalm 69, which says that O Lord God, “Charge the wicked with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.” .

Thus the Book of Life is supposed to be a list of the souls, who are alive on Earth or who made it to Heaven. In a similar way it is written in 20th chapter of the Book of Revelation that the author says,  that “I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

The chapter also contains the individual judgment regarding the individual souls in the afterlife, as it is written, that “They were judged, each one according to his works. Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.”
Although the Book of the Revelation is the last book in the New Testament, a highly esteemed book in Christianity, it is still a full fledged Jewish Book regarding culture and historical background.

The tenet of the Book of Life connects with a chain of Jewish holidays usually during September and October, beginnig with the Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year. Beside that the birthday of the universe is celebrated, together with the day God created Adam and Eve, It began in this year at sundown on September 15, 2023 and ended after nightfall on on Sept. 17, 2023.

The New Year Holiday starts a 10 days of period, the so called Days of Awe, which eventually culminates into the Yom Kippur, the so called Day of Atonement, one of the Holiest Day in the Jewish calendar, which in 2023 began before sundown on Sunday, September 24, and ended on the following evening, September 25, after night has fallen.

In this year the next holiday, the weeklong Sukkoth, when people remember, that their ancestor lived in tents in the desert, lasted from sundown on September 29 until nightfall on October 6 in 2023. The end is marked by an other holiday, the so called Simchat Torah, the joyful celebration of the receiving the Books of the Torah from God was held in this year on October 7 and 8 2023, coinciding with the Shabbat day, and was brutally disrupted by the recent tragic events.

It is held in the tradition, that on the Day of The New Year, called Rosh Hashana, every year, the Angels open the Book of Life in Heaven, and a decision is made by God that who will live in the next year and who will not. However, the decision has been staying open for the next ten days, and it is sealed only on Yom Kippur, the Day of the Atonement.

At the end of Yom Kippur, one hopes that they have been forgiven by God, and their names are inscribed in the Book of Life. Of course, repentance, amendments, seeking and giving forgiveness are better to be done every day, because we do not know whether we will be alive tomorrow or not.  
Although forgiveness ultimately effects one’s pursuing of happiness on Earth, yet it also ultimately effects the life in eternity, because whosoever does not repent his or her sins on Earth today and does not seek amendments, that person will not enter Heaven in the Afterlife.

As it is in the 20th chapter of the Book of revelation, which says, that Books were opened.  Then, “Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

It practically means, that beside the Book of Life, which is a judgment book, the other books are chronicles, recording everything in creation. The scribes of the council of the Angels in Heaven are very busy to keep writing the notes of the events, accounting every single thought, speech and deed occurred or occurring or will be occurring in the Universe in all dimensions, in the Galaxy, in the Solar system and on Earth, regarding pre-existence, birth, lifespan, death and Afterlife, even in the quantum realm.

Nonetheless, the Book of Life tenet does not look like an innate part of the Jewish tradition, as it occurs only once in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, something very similar can be founf in the Egyptian tradition, within the religious text of the Book of Dead. It is talkative that it is not the Book of Death, but the dead, and New Testament text also says, that “I saw the dead.”

It is a very Egyptian religious scenery, that the dead line up for judgment, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Books were opened. In Egypt, the passing soul must have done the so called 42 negative confession, resembling the Ten Commandments, but a bit more details, that I did not kill, I did not lie, I did not commit adultery, I did harm my neighbor, and so on, but all the testimonies must have been addressed a different Egyptian god. The judge with the scale weighs the hearts of dead. This scenery has an echo in the New Testament, like a slip of the tongue, which says that in the same chapter, that “I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.”

In the Egyptian judgment the soul is not fully immortal, for the soul of the wicked  can be sentenced to be destroyed, and the devouring demons execute the sentence. That is what the Psalm says, that they are blotted out from the Book of Life, and the New Testament echoes this, that  “The second death is the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.”

We are on Earth in a boot camp to work on ourselves to develop a proper compass of compassion, mercy, empathy in our hearts, which directs us on the right path higher and higher on the ladder of Jacob, to become worthy for entering Heaven in the Afterlife,
AMEN