Joseph Saligoe - Death until Resurrection: An Unconscious Sleep According to Luther

E: The Erlangen edition of the works of Luther (in their original language); contains over volumes; published in 1857 plus later revisions; and is also referred to as Luthers Samtliche Werke, Erlangener Ausgabe, or EA.

LW: Luthers Works is an English translation; first published in 1955 with about volumes so far (a few more are expected); and is also referred to as the American Edition. There were at least two other series consisting of an English translation that preceded LW (in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries).

StL: The Saint Louis edition of the works of Luther (in Luthers original language, either German or Latin) was revised in 1885 1910 ; first published in 1740 ; contains volumes; and is also referred to as the Walch Edition, St. Louis-Walch, or the Halle Edition.

WA: The Weimar edition is the most complete set of Luthers works (in their original language); published in 1883 2009 ; contains volumes; and is also referred to as Martin Luthers Werke or Weimarer Ausgabe.

chapter 1

Resolving the confusion on what Luther thought

W hat happens to the soul when people die? What really happens to the invisible aspect of usthat which provides our identity and uniquenessshortly after the moment of death according to Scripture? One good way to approach this question about the literal, constitutional nature of a human being is to start by asking the following three questions:

Since there are so many references to sleep in the context of literal death throughout the Bible, could this repetition be valuable as an important part of the message of God? I have found fifteen passages in the New Testament (NT) and forty-one passages in the Old Testament (OT) that are indicating perhaps (with its use of the words sleep , slept , sleeper , etc.) that death may be similar to the unconsciousness of natural sleep. There are a plethora of other scriptural verses (that dont use these words) that by direct inference or indirect implication are probably saying that the mind of the deceased person is no longer conscious anywhere until the time of resurrection.

Over a very long period of time, this group of fifty-six sleep verses that refer to literal death, or more likely, that describe the nature of death as being similar to sleep is more than enough repetition throughout Scripture to be considered meaningful, and not just an unnecessary addition, based on a variety of good reasons. This amount of repetition must be considered intentional both on an individual level (and Paul is the best example) as well as on a divine level that included the prophets and the apostles (since it is the inspired word of God).