The Valley of Dry Bones and the Resurrection of the Dead

Originally an allegorical vision about the future return of Judeans to their land, Ezekiel’s vision (ch. 37) becomes one of the cornerstones for the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead. The early stages of this development are made clear in a little-known Qumran scroll called Pseudo-Ezekiel.

SBL Style

Click to copy

"The Valley of Dry Bones and the Resurrection of the Dead." TheTorah.com. Accessed November 3, 2026. https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-valley-of-dry-bones-and-the-resurrection-of-the-dead.

APA Style

Click to copy

"The Valley of Dry Bones and the Resurrection of the Dead" (n.d.). TheTorah.com. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-valley-of-dry-bones-and-the-resurrection-of-the-dead

Prof. Devorah Dimant
The Valley of Dry Bones and the Resurrection of the Dead

Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones (1979), courtesy of Richard McBee

View Footnotes

Published 2018-04-03

  1. The material about resurrection in the Bible and Rabbinic Literature was expanded by TheTorah.com’s editors with permission from the author.

  2.  As will be discussed later in the Pseudo-Ezekiel section, this image of resurrected people standing up and bursting into song is likely inspired by Isaiah 26:19.

  3. For a detailed description, and slightly different view of the biblical attitude toward individual resurrection, see Jon D. Levenson, Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (New Haven: Yale, 2008).

  4.  Most scholars consider this section to be a later supplement to Isaiah 1-39.

  5. See, for example, Targum Yonatan (ca. 2nd-3rd cent. C.E.) to this verse:

    אַתְּ הוּא מְחַיֵי מֵיתִין גַרְמֵי נְבֶלְתְּהוֹן אַתְּ מֵקִים יֵחוּן וִישַׁבְּחוּן קֳדָמָךְ כָּל דַהֲווֹ רְמָן בְּעַפְרָא אֲרֵי טַל נְהוֹר טַלָךְ לְעָבְדֵי אוֹרַיְתָךְ וְרַשִׁיעַיָא דִי יְהַבְתָּא לְהוֹן גְבוּרָא וְאִינוּן עֲבַרוּ עַל מֵימְרָךְ לִגְהִנָם תִּמְסַר:
    It is you who resurrect the dead, the bones of their corpses you raise, they will live and speak praises before you, all who were lying in dust. For your dew is radiant dew for those who keep your Torah, but to the wicked, whom you have given might but who violated your commands, you will hand over to Gehinnom [hell].

  6.  The phrase in the second blessing of the Amidah prayer, “who maintains his faithfulness with those who sleep in the dust” (ומקים אמונתו לישני עפר) derives from this verse.

  7. See also his Jewish War ii, 163-165.

  8. For other references to the resurrection controversy in the New Testament, see Matt 22:23; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27; Acts 24:15.   

  9.  This first line does not appear in all the manuscripts of the Mishna and may have been added later.

  10. See also ’Abot R. Nat. A, 5

  11. The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 91b-92a) contains a list of such proofs. For example:

    תנו רבנן: אני אמית ואחיה יכול שתהא מיתה באחד וחיים באחד כדרך שהעולם נוהג – תלמוד לומר מחצתי ואני ארפא, מה מחיצה ורפואה באחד – אף מיתה וחיים באחד. מיכן תשובה לאומרין אין תחיית המתים מן התורה…
    Our Rabbis taught: ‘I put to death and bring to life’ – perhaps this means he puts some to death and others to life? The verse teaches: ‘And make sick and I heal’ – just like illness and healing is the same person, so too death and life is the same person. From here there is a response to those who say there is no resurrection according to the Torah…
    אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי: מניין לתחיית המתים מן התורה – שנאמר אשרי יושבי ביתך עוד יהללוך סלה, היללוך לא נאמר אלא יהללוך – מכאן לתחיית המתים מן התורה….
    R. Yehoshua ben Levi said: “How do we know there is resurrection according to the Torah? For it says (Psalms 84:5): “Happy are the dwellers in your tent, they will praise you, selah.” It does not say “they praised you” but “they will praise you” – from here there is proof of resurrection according to the Torah…”

  12. The relationship between Messianic Apocalypse and the sectarian community is debated, but in my view it is not sectarian. Similarly, Pseudo-Ezekiel, which does not carry any sectarian markers, is generally not believed to be sectarian.

  13. Cf. Devorah Dimant, Parabiblical Texts, Part 4 Pseudo-Prophetic Texts; Qumran Cave 4. XXI, DJD XXX (Oxford: Clarendon 2001), 7-88.

Prof. Devorah Dimant is Professor (Emerita) of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa. She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University and is a leading Qumran scholar. She is the author of Connected Vessels: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the… Read More
Related Topics:ResurrectionDead Sea ScrollsPhariseesSadduceesEssenesEzekielApocalypseHaftarah

Essays on Related Topics: