In Christian theology, soul sleep is a minority belief that the soul sleeps unconsciously between the death of the body and its resurrection on Judgment Day. Soul sleep is also known as psychopannychism (from Greek psyche (soul, mind) + pannuchizein (to last the night)).

A similar belief is thnetopsychism (from Greek thnetos (mortal) + psyche (soul, mind)), the view that the soul dies with the body to be recalled to life at the resurrection of the dead, or that the soul is not separate from the body and so there is no "spiritual" self to survive bodily death.

In both cases, the deceased does not begin to enjoy a reward or suffer a punishment until Judgment Day.

The more common Christian belief about the intermediate state between death and Judgment Day is particular judgment, that the soul is judged at death. In Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, the soul is judged to go to heaven or hell immediately after death. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the soul waits in the abode of the dead until the resurrection of the dead, the saved resting in light and the damned suffering in darkness.^[1] This Eastern Orthodox picture of particular judgment is similar to the 1st-century Jewish and early Christian^[2] concept that the dead either "rest in peace" in the Bosom of Abraham or suffer in Gehenna. This view was also promoted by John Calvin in his treatise attacking soul sleep.

Soul sleep was promoted by some Reformation leaders and survives today mostly among Restorationist sects, such as Jehovah's Witnesses.

Supporters

Famous historical psychopannychites and thnetopsychists have included:

• William Tyndale (1484-1536), English Bible translator
• "And ye, in putting them [the departed souls] in heaven, hell and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection...And again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be ? And then what cause is there of the resurrection ?" - William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue (1530)
• Martin Luther (1493-1546), German reformer and Bible translator
• "Salomon judgeth that the dead are a sleepe, and feele nothing at all. For the dead lye there accompting neyther dayes nor yeares, but when they are awaked, they shall seeme to haue slept scarce one minute." - Martin Luther, An Exposition of Salomon's Booke, called Ecclesiastes or the Preacher (translation 1573)
• John Milton (1608-1674), English poet and Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell
• "Inasmuch then as the whole man is uniformly said to consist of body, and soul (whatever may be the distinct provinces assigned to these divisions), I will show, that in death, first, the whole man, and secondly, each component part, suffers privation of life...The grave is the common guardian of all till the day of judgment." - John Milton, De Doctrina Christiana (never published)
• Isaac Newton (1643-1727), English physicist

Present-day defenders of these doctrines include the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, and the Church of God Abrahamic Faith.

Opponents

Opponents of psychopannychism and thnetopsychism include the Roman Catholic Church, most mainline Protestant denominations, and some conservative Protestants, Evangelicals, and Fundamentalists. The Roman Catholic Church has called soul "mortality" a serious heresy:

Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the sacred council do condemn and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal, seeing, according to the canon of Pope Clement V, that the soul is [...] immortal [...] and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous assertions shall be shunned and punished as heretics. Fifth Council of the Lateran (1513)

Calvinism and Eastern Orthodoxy both affirm a conscious interim state, and both deny that the interim state of rest or suffering is the final state of 'heaven' or 'hell'.

• John Calvin
• "As long as (the soul) is in the body it exerts its own powers; but when it quits this prison-house it returns to God, whose presence, it meanwhile enjoys while it rests in the hope of a blessed Resurrection. This rest is its paradise. On the other hand, the spirit of the reprobate, while it waits for the dreadful judgment, is tortured by that anticipation. . ."

Contemporary opponents include Millard Erickson.^[3]

Supporting Bible verses

Supporters of these doctrines claim that biblical support is given by both the Old and New Testaments.

• Genesis 3:19. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
• Job 3:17. "There (the grave) the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest."
• Psalms 6:5. "For in death there is no remembrance of thee:in the grave who shall give thee thanks?"
• Psalms 146:3-4. "Trust not in princes -- in a son of man, For he hath no deliverance. His spirit goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, In that day have his thoughts perished."
• Psalm 13 "Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;"
• Job 7:21 "And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be."
• 2 Samuel 7:12 "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom."
• Isaiah 14:17-19 "All the kings of the nations, All of them, sleep in glory, Everyone in his own house;"
• Daniel 12:2 "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
• Daniel 12:13 "But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."
• Ecclesiastes 3:19-20. "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts: even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust and all turn to dust again."
• Ecclesiastes 9:4-6,10. "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die ; but the dead know not anything [...] also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished [...] Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave (sheol), whither thou goest."
• 2 Peter 3:4 "For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
• Acts 13:36 "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers."
• Acts 2:34 "For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,"
• John 11:11-14. "These things said he (Jesus): and after that he said unto them (the disciples), Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I might awaken him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spoke of his death; but they thought he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. The said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead."
• John 20:17. "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."
• 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

Contradicting Bible verses

• Genesis 35:18 "And it came to pass, as her soul (nephesh^[4]) was in departing^[5], (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin."
• Ecclesiastes 12:5-7 "Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit (literally "wind"^[6]) shall return unto God who gave it."
• Matthew 22:23-33. "The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine."
• Luke 16:19-31. "There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
• Luke 23:43. "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." The placement of the comma, however, not indicated in the Greek, can totally alter the meaning of this text. Hence: "I say unto thee today, you shall be with Me in paradise." ^{[7] [8]}
• Acts 7:59. "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
• 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
• Philippians 1:21-25. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;"
• Revelation 6:9,10. "When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying,"How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

Historical-critical view

Historians using the historical-critical method analyze the Bible the same way they would analyze any other ancient religious text. These scholars often link the doctrine of soul sleep to the ancient Hebrew concept of sheol. According to these scholars, the ancient Hebrews did not have the concept of an immortal soul. This is, for example, why the book of Job never mentions that Job will receive rewards for his faithfulness in the afterlife. Any reference to the dead being rewarded or punished refers to a physical resurrection instead of to a spiritual life after death. The concept of the dead enjoying a reward or suffering a punishment after death doesn't appear until the Pharisaic tradition of Second Temple period, which in turn influenced Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.

References

Recommended resources

• Bultmann, Rudolf (1953). Theologie des Neuen Testaments (in German). Tübingen: Mohr, 189–249.  (English translation Theology of the New Testament 2 vols, London: SCM, 1952, 1955). The leading scholarly reference supporting a holistic anthropology (similar to soul sleep)
• Jewitt, R. (1971). Paul's Anthropological Terms. Leiden: Brill.Leiden"> 
• Kümmel, W. G. (1948). Das Bild des Menschen im Neuen Testament (in language???). Zürich: Zwingli.  (English translation Man in the NT. London: Epworth, 1963)
• Ladd, George Eldon (1974). A Theology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 457-78. 
• Cullmann, Oscar. Immortality of the soul or resurrection of the dead?: the witness of the New Testament.  More readable; supports holistic anthropology
• Burns, Norman T. (1972). Christian Mortalism From Tyndale to Milton. USA: Harvard. ISBN 0674128753.  Covers all major strands of psychopannychism and thnetopsychism in English Reformation and Revolution.

Possibly:

• http://www.abu.nb.ca/courses/Pauline/Human.htm