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Bible Dictionaries
Book of Life
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or The actual phrase occurs in six passages only of the NT: Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:12; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:27 (in Revelation 22:19 the evidence for the reading ‘book of life’ [Authorized Version ] instead of ‘tree of life’ [Revised Version ] is negligible). Of these passages the most important for the purpose of determining the meaning is Revelation 20:12; Revelation 20:15, because there the book of life is distinguished from certain other books: ‘and the books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works … and whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire,’ The natural implication here is that the other books were records of works, but that the book of life was simply a register of the names of those destined for life-an interpretation which fits all the above-noted passages.
An interesting exegetical point comes up in connexion with Revelation 13:8. The words ‘from the foundation of the world’ may grammatically refer either to ‘written’ or to ‘the Lamb which hath been slain.’ But in Revelation 17:8, where the same phrase occurs, the only natural way to take it is as referring to ‘written’; and this is practically decisive for Revelation 13:8 also (so Swete, Apoc. of St. John 2, London, 1907, and Revised Version ). The phrase thus carries a suggestion of predestination; but this is not thought of as absolute, since the idea of blotting out a name from the book of life occurs quite freely.
With the above-noted passages there fall into fine a number of others where the same conception is clearly implied: Luke 10:20, Daniel 12:1, Psalms 69:28, Exodus 32:32-33. The conception of a register found in all these passages seems to be based on the analogy of citizen-lists, registers of the theocratic community, such as are referred to in Isaiah 4:3 : ‘He that is left in Zion shall be called holy, every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem’ (cf. Nehemiah 12:22-23, Ezekiel 13:9) To be written in the heavenly counterpart of such a list meant to be assured of being a sharer in the blessings destined for the true Israel. Other passages which associate themselves more or less closely with this conception are 1 Samuel 25:29, Psalms 87:6; Psalms 139:16, Isaiah 48:19, Jeremiah 22:30, Hebrews 12:23.
The conception of a heavenly record of man’s actions, which we found clearly distinguished from the above in Revelation 20:12; Revelation 20:15, appears equally distinct in Daniel 7:10 as compared with Daniel 12:1. See also Psalms 56:8, Isaiah 65:6, Malachi 3:15.
Different again is the conception of the Book with the Seven Seals in Revelation 5, for that is thought of as the book of destiny-the prophetic history of the world.
All three conceptions appear in the Book of Enoch. When the Head of Days ‘seated Himself on the throne of His glory, and the books of the living were opened before Him’ (En. xlvii. 3), the context makes it clear that the purpose of the opening of the books is not a great assize, it is a vindication of the righteous that is at hand, and ‘the living’ means, not all living, but the righteous. Charles remarks that ‘books of the holy ones’ in En. cviii. 3 has practically the same meaning. The complementary conception ‘The book of those that shall be destroyed’ appears in Jub. xxx. 22.* [Note: It is interesting to note that the Old Latin (Donatist) text in Jeremiah 17:13 has ‘recedentes a te scribantur in libro mortis’ (see Burkitt, Old Latin and Itala [TS iv. 3 (1896)], p. 87).] The second conception, that of a record, appears in En. lxxxix. 70ff., where the evil deeds of the shepherds are recorded and read before the Lord; cf. xc. 17, 20, xcviii. 7, 8, civ. 7 (a daily record). The idea of a book of fate or prophetic history, is represented by the ‘heavenly tablets,’ lxxxi. 1, 2, xciii. 1ff.; but this should be kept separate. See, further, following article.
As regards the origin of the conception, if we take the heavenly book in the wider sense of a record of men’s actions or a prophetic world history, it is obviously one of those conceptions for which it is not easy to establish a relation of dependence between one religion and another, since it is likely to arise independently in various places. A. Jeremias (Babylonisches im NT, Leipzig, 1905, p. 69ff., and article ‘Book of Life.’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics ) has pointed to the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] New Year’s Festival, at which it was conceived that an assembly of the gods determined the events of the year, and especially the duration of men’s lives, which was written down in a ‘tablet of life.’ For the narrower conception of the book of life as set forth above, the most interesting literary parallel is that cited by Jeremias from the Akhmim fragments of the Coptic Apoc. of Sophonias (Zephaniah), translation L. Stern, in Zeitschr. für ägypt. Sprache, xxiv. [1886], There the seer inquires about two angels whom he sees, and is told by his angel guide: ‘These are the angels of the Lord Almighty who inscribe all the good works of the righteous in His scrolls, sitting at the gate of heaven. They give these scrolls to me, to take them to the Lord Almighty, in order that He may write their name (sc. names of the righteous) in the Book of the Living,’ This passage is not of any value as evidence for the source of the conception, for the work shows in many places dependence upon Rev., but it probably indicates correctly how the relation of the book of life to the other books in Revelation 20:12 is to be conceived. As Alford there explains it, on internal grounds, the other books are, so to speak, the ‘vouchers’ for the book of life.
In the Apostolic Fathers the conception occurs in 1 Clem. xlv. 8: ‘Those who remained faithful, inherited glory and honour, were exalted and were inscribed by God in His memorial for ever’; Hermas, Vis. i. 3, 2: ‘Cease not to admonish thy children, for I know that if they shall repent with their whole hearts they shall be inscribed in the books of life with the saints,’ and Sim. ii. 9: ‘He that does these things shall not be abandoned by God, but shall be inscribed upon the books of the living’; cf. Mand. viii. 6: ‘Refrain thyself from all these things, that thou mayest live to God, and be enrolled with those who exercise self-restraint therein.’
Among homiletic expositions of the passage Revelation 20:12 one of the moat impressive is that of St. Augustine in de Civ. Dei, xx. 14. Taking the book of life as a record of men’s deeds, he observes that it cannot be understood literally, since the reading of such a record would be interminable. ‘We must therefore understand it of a certain Divine power by which it shall be brought about that every one shall recall to memory all his own works, whether good or evil, and shall mentally survey them with a marvellous rapidity, so that this knowledge will either accuse or excuse conscience, and thus all and each shall be simultaneously judged.’
Literature.-R. H. Charles, The Boot of Enoch2, Oxford. 1912, note on xlvii. 3; H. Zimmern, KAT [Note: AT Zimmern-Winckler’s ed. of the preceding (a totally distinct work), 1902-03.] 3 [Note: Zimmern-Winckler’s ed. of the preceding (a totally distinct work), 1902-03.] Berlin, 1903, p. 401ff.; A, Jeremias, article ‘Book of Life’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics ; W. Bousset, Com. (Göttingen, 1896) on Revelation 3:5; B. Duhm, Com. (Göttingen, 1902) on Isaiah 4:3; A. Bertholet, Stellung der Israeliten u. der Juden zu den Fremden, Freiburg and Leipzig, 1896.
W. Montgomery.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Book of Life'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/b/book-of-life.html. 1906-1918.
