Death and the Afterlife: Biblical Perspectives on Ultimate Questions (New Studies In Biblical Theology Series)

Paul Williamson helpfully compares ancient Near Eastern view of death and the afterlife to the Biblical view, and tracks the developing perception of death and the afterlife from the Old Testament into the New Testament. This is a bit of a technical read, but Williamson gives a robust Biblical understanding of the Christian view of death and the afterlife

This book examines some of the issues related to death and the afterlife--death, heaven, hell, judgment, etc. --and puts the biblical view of these issues within its historical context. It compares the views presented in the Old Testament, New Testament, Ancient Near East, and intertestamental literature. The most important contributions of this book , I think, are that it shows the continuity among biblical perspectives, and raises important questions about how the biblical views interact with the wider culture.