On questions of eternal life, Israel espoused that stern and honest realism. It was geographically close to Egyptian territory but intellectually much closer to Mesopotamian theology. And so, for most of its history (up to the last two centuries BCE), Israel could create the majesty of Torah, the glory of prophecy, the beauty of psalmody, and the challenge of wisdom without affirming an eternal afterlife for itself. Israel may have left Egypt, but it never left Mesopotamia.
