Untitled article by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · January 7, 1868

Are the Dead Conscious? No. 3.

By Editor

Eccl. iii, 21. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

THIS text is made the basis of an opinion that Solomon believed that man had a spirit capable of a separate, conscious existence in death. But do our friends not perceive that the beasts also are said to have a spirit, and if it follows from that expression, that man’s spirit is conscious after death, the same is also true of the beast? Do they not know, also, that the word rendered spirit in both cases is roo-ach, the very same word that is, in the text but one before, rendered breath: “they have all one breath?” Now let us examine the context. Solomon expresses a desire in verse 18, that the sons of men may see that they themselves are beasts. Not that he intended that man is in no respect superior to a beast; for he is, in many respects; in his organization, in his reasoning faculties, and infinitely so in his future prospects, if righteous. But he simply means, as we learn from verse 19, that in one respect—in respect to death—man possesses no superiority over the other orders of animated existence. “For,” he says, “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 [in this respect] hath no pre-eminence above a beast. All go unto one place, [if, then, men go to Heaven, beasts go there with them] all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” After having thus expressly declared that the life of man and beast, and their condition in death, are exactly alike, can we suppose that he means in the very next verse to contradict all he has said before, and there is a difference? We cannot. It is therefore but reasonable to conclude that the translation of this passage as given by John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, is correct; namely, “Who knoweth the spirit of man (an sursum ascendat) whether it goeth upward,” &c. The Douay Bible renders the passage thus: “Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam ascend upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend downward?” To this agree the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldee Paraphrase, and Syriac version. Also the German translation made by Martin Luther. Such a view, that man’s spirit went up and the beast’s down, was doubtless prevalent in the heathen world, in the days of Solomon. After stating, therefore, the facts in the case, he inquires, Who knows that this heathen sentiment is true, that man’s spirit goes up, and the beast’s down? He had declared that they all went to one place. Who can contradict it?

Ed.