The expectation of judgment after
death was widespread in the ancient Near East, although some philosophers
rejected it. Biblical and Jewish sources tend to associate judgment with the eschatological
end, rather than with the time immediately after death. Hebrews and the rest of
the New Testament writings belong in this tradition (cf. Heb 12:26-29), but
they are distinguished by tying judgment to the person of Jesus Christ. (Sigurd
Grindheim, The Letter to the Hebrews [The Pillar New Testament
Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2023], 464-65)
On
p. 465 n. 731, Grindheim references Dan 12:2; 1 Enoch 1:7; 4 Ezra 14:35 and Rev
20:12-13:
And many of them that sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt. (Dan 12:2)
And earth shall be rent asunder; and
all that is upon the earth shall perish. And there shall be a judgment upon
all, (including) the righteous. (1 Enoch 1:7)
For after death the judgment will
come, when we shall live again; and then the names of the righteous will become
manifest, and the deeds of the ungodly will be disclosed. (4 Ezra 14:35)
And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God; 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 which were
written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which
were in it; and death and hell delivered to their works. (Rev 20:12-13)
