What happend to the people who died before Jesus?

Answer 1

They all went to a place known as Paradise. That is why on the cross Jesus said "Today you will be with me in Paradise" to the thief that was also being crucified. During the three days between his crucifixion and his resurrection he was there in paradise preaching the word to all of the saints who had died in the past. Then, when he arose from the dead on the third day all the saints, such as Adam, Eve, Enoch, Job, Noah, Moses and many more went to heaven to be with him.

Answer 2

According to the Bible, all people regardless if they lived before Jesus or after die and go to their grave or rest. The Scripture makes it akin to sleeping where the dead know nothing anymore:

Ecclesiastes 9:5

For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.

King Solomon was inspired to write about the dead and what happens at death to the body and the human spirit - NOT soul which is just the breath of life in mankind and animal kind:

Ecclesiastes 12:7New King James Version (NKJV)

7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

In the New Testament, Peter was inspired to tell the crowd on the beginning of the Church at Pentecost, that even the beloved King David was still in his tomb awaiting his call to resurrection:


Acts 2:29New King James Version (NKJV)29 �Men andbrethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

In verse 34, it says of King David �For David did not ascend into the heavens" Further in Hebrews 11, called the Faith Chapter of the New Testament, Paul was inspired to list many saints of the past who have not received their reward as yet and await their resurrection. They have already been judged in their lifetimes. Most all others will be called to their resurrection in the Judgment Process after the Millennial Rule of Christ.

Concerning the often misunderstood Scripture about the thief with Christ being crucified. The belief of many Christians is immediate reward or punishment at the moment of death - akin to the Elysian Fields of Greek mythology. When one considers that the Greek language does not have the English grammatical marks of punctuation as a comma etc, and that it wasn't until the Middle Ages that the Bible incorporated these marks into the Scripture, we come to understand how easily an error could have occurred and did with this particular Scripture of Luke 23:43.

Further, as Dr. E.W. Bullinger explains in The Companion Bible: "None of our modern marks of punctuation are found [in Bible texts] until the ninth century . . . The punctuation of all modern editions of the Greek text, and of all versions made from it, rests entirely on human authority, and has no weight whatever in determining or even influencing the interpretation of a single passage" (1990, Appendix 94, p. 136, emphasis in original).

Letting the Bible interpret itself we know that Jesus said He would be in the tomb after His death for 3 full days (see Matthew 12:40). We also note what John tells us about the women who first encountered seeing Jesus after His resurrection (John 20:17) tell them He hadn't ascended to His Father in Heaven as yet - 3 days after His death. Paul confirms the three day scenario in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. So how could He promise the thief something He wasn't going to do. Since He cannot lie, it must be a transcription or grammatical error.

Here is grammatical error in punctuation, "Assuredly I say to you today" was a "common Hebrew idiom . . . which is constantly used for very solemn emphasis" ( he Companion Bible, Appendix 173, p. 192). Examples of this Hebrew phrase, worded very similarly to Christ's statement, can be found in Deuteronomy 30:18 ("I announce to you today that you shall surely perish") and Acts 20:26 ("Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men"�New International Version).

All mankind awaits their call to a future resurrection. We return back to the dust of the Earth sleeping until that moment.