In the Old Testament they believed in life after death:
Job 19:25-27 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
Isaiah 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Daniel 12:2 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.
Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
Before the Lord Jesus died on the cross, The Unbeliever died, body was buried, soul & spirit went to Sheol, Hades, Hell, Tartarus. — The believer died, body was buried, soul & spirit went to Paradise. Luke 16:19.
As the Lord Jesus hung on the cross, He made a promise to the thief (Luke 23:43) “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise“.
The Lord Jesus died and his body was put into a tomb, His soul and spirit went to paradise (with the thief).During the next 3 days and nights the Lord preached to them in Paradise (1 Peter 3:19 (By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;).) Then he came out of the tomb, appeared to Mary (John 20:11-17) and then ascended to heaven (vs 17). He also took Paradise and all of those in Paradise with him.
The location of Paradise was in the center of the earth:
Matthew 12:40 (For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.),
Ephesians 4:9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?). He went there to set free those who dwelt there:
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