I came to the conclusion that Jewish people had no reason to ignore life after death. They lived about 400 years in Egypt as slaves where a very important activity for them was building pyramids and tombs for the Pharaohs.
There is some evidence that the Hebrews picked up at least something from Egyptian mortuary customs: the descriptions in Genesis of the embalming of Jacob and Joseph. But they still expected resurrection of the body rather than a continuation of life after death in a different phase.
- Jewish Burial Must Be Within Hours of Death, Even If On The Sabbath
- Effect of long term slavery on psychology of slave groups - Large parts of Deuteronomy are devoted to an effort to turn the people against the customs and beliefs of their former Canaanite masters.
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