Abstract
This article in a scholarly encyclopaedia is devoted to the concept of life in the culture of Ancient Israel and in the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical traditions the complex reality of life is expressed and paraphrased by a number of expressions, usually with the help of relational or polar terms.
Usually it is presented from the perspective of personal experience, not as an object of general reflection. The starting-point is quite clearly the assumption that life is not an inherent quality or native aspect of human beings.
It is God, in a universal, cosmic dimension, who is the giver of life. All life comes from the sovereign initiative of the Creator, and therefore he is also the lord and judge of all living beings.
Since God is the source of life, it is essential for human beings to live close to him and in accordance with his will and his regulations. This is why it is characteristic for both the cultic texts and the Deuteronomistic or wisdom literature that they present the choice between "life and death" as a topical dilemma which relies on human behavior.
Within this concept, "eternal life" is an ideal of lasting and completely unlimited community with God, because life safeguarded by the relationship to God is not threatened by death.