Mort et Espérance selon la Bible Hébraïque

Sammanfattning: In this thesis I analyse various texts referring to death and hope in the Hebrew Bible. The purpose of this study is twofold : a) to analyse certain selected texts in order to clarify Old Testament beliefs concerning three different aspects of death and hope in the face of death, and b) to show that death and hope formed a “dialectical unity” in the prevailing belief system.The thesis is divided into two main parts, which form the dialectial unity. Each part is comprised of three sub-sections or chapters of unequal length. The first part considers death as the end of earthly existence and as separation from the Creator God. Death is described using metaphors such as sleep, and using personification which graphically illustrates its power to destroy. The second part is a dialectical response to the first part. It addresses three aspects of hope in the face of death: immortality, communion with God and resurrection. My analysis shows that this hope is theocentric.I have adopted a synchronic approach to the biblical material. However, given that death is an issue of universal importance, I have also included comparative studies of the chosen texts with other texts from the Ancient Near East.