The Dead מתים, the Rephaim רפאים (Giants/Shades), and Demons
The Hebrew Bible speaks about the dead (מתים/mētîm) alongside the enigmatic Rephaim (רפאים) and a spectrum of spirits that later readers call demons. Ancient Israel’s neighbors—Ugarit, Mesopotamia, Egypt—imagined complex afterlives populated by active ancestor-spirits and hungry ghosts. Israel knew those ideas yet consistently redirected attention to the holiness, sovereignty, and revelation of the Lord. In Scripture the dead are real, Sheol is real, and the Rephaim appear both as ancient giants and as shades—but God’s people are forbidden to seek their counsel or barter with their power. The Gospel then clarifies and climactically answers the Old Testament’s questions: Christ defeats death and disarms the powers, securing hope that neither giants of old nor spirits of the night can overcome.
1) The Biblical Vocabulary of Death: What Are We Talking About?
The Old Testament uses a rich set of terms for the dead and for corpses, reflecting the gravity of mortality in Israel’s world.
The dead (mēt/mētîm): the standard word for those who have died, regardless of cause (Jer 11:22; Num 12:12).
Corpses: terms like peger, gĕwiyyâ, nĕbēlâ, and nepeš mēt describe bodies, with ritual implications (Lev 21:11; Num 6:6).
Shades and spirit talk: Israel occasionally uses words that elsewhere mean “gods” to describe the preternatural appearance of the dead (e.g., “I see an elohim coming up,” 1 Sam 28:13), but this does not sanction worship; it marks the otherness of death.
Sheol: the realm of the dead—dust and silence, bars and gates (Job 7:9; Ps 88:3–6). It is not an Egyptian “Field of Reeds,” but the land of no return, apart from the Lord’s saving action.
Key insight: The Bible’s realism about bodies, graves, and Sheol restrains speculation. Israel speaks soberly: death is an enemy, and God—not the dead—holds knowledge and future.
2) Rephaim: Giants of the Land and Shades of the Underworld
The Rephaim (רפאים) appear in two intertwined ways.
Ancient peoples—giant clans
Passages recall the Rephaim as towering pre-Israelite groups (Gen 14:5; Deut 2:10–11). Their memory clusters with other “giants” (e.g., Nephilim, Num 13:33). These texts remember mighty ones whose presence terrified the living.
Shades of the dead—underworld denizens
In poetry and prophecy, Rephaim refers to the dead: “Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the Rephaim rise to praise you?” (Ps 88:10–11; Isa 26:14; Prov 2:18; 21:16; Job 26:5).
The dual use likely reflects a deep memory of royal heroes who, upon death, became proverbial shades—a pattern echoed in Ugaritic where rapiʾuma can denote the illustrious dead.
Why it matters: The Bible collapses swaggering human pretension into dust. The “giants” who once strode the land become Rephaim in Sheol—no longer a threat, stripped of their power, awaiting God’s verdict.
3) Demons, Ghosts, and Forbidden Knowledge
Israel’s Scriptures engage the spirit-world with clarity and restraint.
Neighboring cultures:
Mesopotamia feared malevolent ghosts (eṭemmu)—often the unburied or violently dead—requiring rituals and exorcisms.
Ugarit portrayed active rpum, summoned in royal rites for blessing.
Egypt knew complex post-mortem categories (ka, ba, aḫ) and sometimes sought help from the dead.
Israel’s prohibitions:
Necromancy is banned (Deut 18:9–11). Israel must not feed a cult of the dead (Deut 26:14), slash themselves for the dead (Deut 14:1), or “consult” the underworld as if wisdom lives there (Isa 8:19).
Practice persists nevertheless (2 Kgs 21:6; 23:24), culminating in Saul’s visit to the medium of Endor (1 Sam 28). The narrative acknowledges the apparition but does not approve the method; it underscores Saul’s spiritual collapse.
Demons and unclean spirits:
The Old Testament rarely systematizes “demons,” yet it knows unclean spirits and lying spirits (e.g., 1 Kgs 22:19–23). In the New Testament, Jesus confronts unclean spirits directly; His authority over them is never in doubt.
Pastoral thrust: The living seek God’s counsel, not the counsel of the dead. The dead are not destiny’s gatekeepers; the Lord is.
4) Wisdom, Worship, and the Reframing of Power
Two biblical correctives reshape how we think about the dead, giants, and demons.
Wisdom’s denial of necromantic payoff
“The dead know nothing” (Eccl 9:5), “there is no work or knowledge in Sheol” (Eccl 9:10), and Job insists the dead do not track our affairs (Job 14:21). Against Near Eastern hopes of savvy ancestors, Israel’s wisdom literature turns hearts back to God’s Word.
Worship’s boundary lines
Prophets mock necromantic whispers (Isa 8:19; 29:4) and condemn marzēaḥ-style feasts when they shade into death-cults (Jer 16:5).
Israel’s liturgy teaches lament, hope, and holiness—not bargaining with shades. Bones can be holy reminders of God’s power (2 Kgs 13:20–21), but they are never oracles.
Rephaim neutralized
In Israel’s theological grammar, the mighty dead are reduced to shades; the “giants” who terrified scouts now do not rise to rule (Isa 26:14). That is polemic and comfort: human greatness ends; God reigns.
Outcome: Scripture de-mystifies the dead and re-centers revelation, prayer, and covenant loyalty as the path of life.
5) The Gospel’s Announcement: Christ Over Death, Giants, and the Powers
Anthony Delgado emphasizes the Gospel as God’s public reign in Jesus. That reign addresses the whole matrix of death, Rephaim, and demons.
Christ over death
Where Sheol is “no return,” Jesus goes down into death and rises, breaking the bars. The question “Do the Rephaim rise to praise you?” (Ps 88) meets its answer at the empty tomb: Yes—because He lives.
Christ over giants
The terror of the giants is the terror of mortality writ large: greatness without God ends in Sheol. Christ’s kingdom relativizes legendary might; the meek inherit the earth.
Christ over demons
Jesus binds the strong man, drives out unclean spirits, and through the cross disarms rulers and authorities. The church resists the devil by steadfast faith, not by trafficking in the dead.
Life together, here and now
Because Christ reigns, the church practices truthful mourning, refuses necromancy, renounces fear, and proclaims resurrection. Our hope is not in ancestral leverage but in the Lord of life who calls the living and the dead to Himself.
Bottom line: The Old Testament’s sober view of the dead and its strict boundaries around the spirit-world are not superstition; they are preparations for the Gospel, where the true King defeats death, humbles giants, and casts out demons.
Bible verses on the dead, the Rephaim, and the powers
“Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the Rephaim rise to praise you?” (Psalm 88:10–11)
“The dead do not live; the Rephaim do not rise.” (Isaiah 26:14)
“Can the shades be roused… to greet you?” (Isaiah 14:9)
“The woman said, ‘I see an elohim coming up out of the earth.’” (1 Samuel 28:13)
“There shall not be found among you… a medium or necromancer.” (Deuteronomy 18:10–11)
“They ate the sacrifices of the dead.” (Psalm 106:28)
“Even the tallest cannot reach heaven… his days are numbered.” (echoed theme; cf. Job 14:5; Psalm 90:10)
“The Nephilim… we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers.” (Numbers 13:33)
“The dead know nothing… there is no work or knowledge in Sheol.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10)
“He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame.” (Colossians 2:15)
