Below is from a Post/Thread at BAS here by Willie Pankey, Retired Academic Librarian.
Some scholarly observations to consider:
“Most scholars agree that the doctrine of bodily resurrection is a fairly late development within the writings of Judaism. The first unambiguous declarations in the OT of resurrection from the dead occur in Daniel 12:2 and (possibly) Isaiah 26:19, although there are antecedents of it in the miracles of resuscitation performed through Elijah and Elisha (1 and 2 Kings), and in images of a national revival within OT prophetic literature (notably Hos 6:1–2 and the vision of the valley of dry bones contained in Ezek 37:1–14). A bodily resurrection from the dead is also proclaimed in a number of Jewish apocryphal and pseudepigraphal texts, including 2 Maccabees, 4 Ezra, 1 Enoch and 2 Baruch. There are also important background materials, at least to do with postmortem life, within the classical tradition of Platonism, usually as an image of the spiritual awakening or the transmigration of the soul (see Perkins, 37–69). The matter has been well researched by scholarship and need not be rehearsed here (see Nickelsburg and Greenspoon for detailed studies of Jewish background texts).
While Paul’s letters are the earliest Christian writings to mention the resurrection of Christ, there is every indication that the idea was part of Jesus’ own belief and expectation. All four Gospels record reference to it in virtually all strata (some may deny it is expressed in ‘Q’). Paul may have taken over the centrality of the resurrection as a theological idea from Jesus himself (see Witherington), although it certainly was present within the Pharisaic party of Judaism of which he was a member.
Kreitzer, Larry J. “Resurrection.” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne et al., InterVarsity Press, 1993, p. 806. (Emphasis mine).
“The Pharisees, along with the Essenes and those at Qumran, believed in resurrection. A twofold pattern of resurrection was suggested by the famous eschatological passages of 2 Esdras 7 and the Apocalypse of Baruch 50–51. Both texts may be as late as the first century ad. In the Similitudes of 1 Enoch, the righteous Jews could generally expect resurrection, but not the wicked (1 Enoch 1:46, 51, 62). But elsewhere in Enoch there is a hint that some wicked may be raised for judgment (vv 22, 67, 90). The resurrection of the righteous in these texts would generally be linked to a spiritual type of body, yet in 2 Maccabees 7:14ff., the view seems less developed and more physical. The ascetics at Qumran expected a resurrection in the great Day of the Lord.”
“In Judaism, there was a growing sense of an eschatological day of resurrection and reckoning.”
Elwell, Walter A., and Philip Wesley Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale House Publishers, 2001, p. 1122.
Addressing the idea of atonement in 2 and 4 Maccabees deSivla writes, “The Christian culture drew on Jewish martyrological traditions, which themselves had roots in the OT, in order to frame its understanding of Jesus’ death. This tradition comes to its fullest expression in 4 Maccabees, which celebrates the death of the martyrs of the hellenizing crisis (166 b.c.) in terms of sacrifice and vicarious atonement.28 Eleazar, an aged priest, remains loyal to the torah to the point of death. On the basis of his voluntary acceptance of martyrdom (since he could have saved his life through transgression of the torah), Eleazar prays: “Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them. Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs” (6:28–29). Near the close of the book, the author reflects on the achievement of the martyrs in terms of sacrificial language and confirms that Eleazar’s prayer and offering was accepted: “the tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified—they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation. And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated” (17:21–22).”
deSilva, David A. Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle “to the Hebrews.” Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000, p. 276.
“These two strands come together in Jewish reflection on the martyrdoms of Eleazar, the seven brothers, and their mother. First, commitment to obey torah (even in the face of overwhelming opposition, even death) is believed to unleash sacral power. This corresponds to the rationalization of sacrifice, where obedience is counted as “better” or “more pleasing” in God’s sight than hundreds of burnt offerings (i.e., for disobedience). Moreover, the metaphorical application of atonement and cultic terminology to human suffering in the Servant Song of Isaiah provides a hermeneutical key to interpret the death of the obedient, righteous ones who suffer ignominiously because they refuse to break faith with God. Whatever the song’s meaning in its original context, Isaiah 53 certainly opens itself to readings (and not only to Christian readers, at the beginning) that cast the death of the righteous person as a sacrifice that restores God’s favor and averts divine wrath. The sufferings and mutilations (Isa. 52:14 and 53:3), the concept of atonement before God through the willing death of the righteous person (Isa. 53:4–6, 8, 10, 12b), the affirmation of the efficacy of this unconventional offering (Isa. 53:10b–11), and the final celebration of the greatness and victory of the suffering servant (Isa. 53:12a) all have counterparts in the way the martyrs are viewed in 4 Maccabees (and, to a slightly lesser extent, 2 Maccabees 7:1–8:6).”
“In 2 and 4 Maccabees it is not, of course, the human blood itself that atones but obedience unto death, which God accepts as a perfect sacrifice. In the context of Deuteronomistic theology, it is obedience (the return to obedience by the people) that effects reversal of the curses (Deut. 30:1–5). 4 Maccabees combines the provisions of Deuteronomy for repentance and renewal of the covenant blessings (Deut. 30:1–5) with the sacrificial terminology of Leviticus concerning the sin offering, which restores the relationship between the sinner and God (Lev. 4:1–5:13). Eleazar’s “obedience unto death,” together with the deaths of his fellow martyrs, was the act that brought reconciliation with God so that Israel was preserved (17:22). It is a representative obedience, an obedience maintained on behalf of others (rather than a collective return to obedience such as Deut. 30:1–5 envisions). Indeed, their deaths take on more of the coloration of a sacrificial act. The martyr stands as a mediator between the people and God; the martyr becomes a broker, who restores the relationship between the wayward clients and the offended patron (17:22).30 While not a sacrifice properly prescribed by the torah, the obedience that remains steadfast even unto death is accepted by God “as” a sin offering. The results of the martyrs’ deaths prove the effectiveness of their deaths as the “dynamic equivalent” of a sin offering (in much the same way as acts of piety are counted “as” cultic acts in Psalm 141:2: “let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.”
“These precedents provide useful material for early Christian reflection on the death of Jesus. The claim that Jesus “offered himself” as an atoning sacrifice by enduring an execution occasioned by his obedience to God’s will to the end is grounded in these deep-running currents of Judaism (resonating also with Greco-Roman conceptions of the noble death, to be sure). Sam K. Williams argues that this observation carries with it an important implication for Christian soteriology. The martyrs’ sacrifice was not merely effective as a cultic act but also as an example that set in motion a return to obedience and zeal for God’s torah.31 Just as the martyrs both reconcile the people to God and revive observance of God’s law, so Jesus’ death would be seen under this dual aspect of an act of atonement and a call back to obedience. Such a dual focus certainly resonates with the NT teaching that Jesus’ death enables obedience, the pursuit of virtue and good works, or, in the language p 278 of the author of Hebrews, the offering of the “sacrifices” of praise, sharing, and doing good (13:15–16). Jesus obedient death leads ultimately to the “people of God” as whole doing “what pleases him.””
deSilva, David A. Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle “to the Hebrews.” Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000, pp. 276–78.
Concepts of the resurrection are also evident in 2 & 4 Maccabees:
“However, 2 Maccabees highlights the resurrection hope of the Jewish martyrs in the struggle against Antiochus Epiphanes (see esp. 2 Macc 7:9, 11, 14, 23, 29; 12:43). Thus a faithful elder named Razis (14:37) disemboweled himself rather than fall into the hands of the Greeks. He flung his entrails at the crowds, “calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to give them back to him again” (14:46).”
Silva, Moisés, editor. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, Second Edition, vol. 1, Zondervan, 2014, p. 319.
“In 2 Maccabees the martyrs express their belief in the resurrection of the righteous (2 Macc. 7:9, 11, 14); allusion is made for the offering of prayers and sin offerings to the dead in hope of resurrection (12:43–45); and physical restoration of a mutilated body is described (14:46).”
Seely, David Rolph. “Resurrection.” Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, edited by David Noel Freedman et al., W.B. Eerdmans, 2000, p. 1121.
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[Willie Pankey, Retired Academic Librarian] found these books to be of special help (forgive the improper citations here but I think you’ll get the drift).
Dahl, Nils Alstrup. Jesus the Christ: The Historical Origins of Christological Doctrine.
De Jonge, Marinus. God’s Final Envoy: Early Christianity and Jesus’ Own View of His Mission.
_____ “Jesus’ Death for Others and the Death of the Maccabean Martyrs,” in T. Baarda et al., eds., Text and Testimony: Essays in Honour of A. F. J. Klijn, now in idem Jewish Eschatology; Early Christian Christology, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Collected Essays.
deSilva David A. The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (chapter 7 “Jewish Martyrology and the Death of Jesus: 2 Maccabees and the Lives of the Prophets”).
Elledge, C. D. Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism: 200 BCE – CE 200.
Hengel, M. The Atonement: The Origins of the Doctrine in the New Testament.
Van Henten, J. W. The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People: A Study of 2 and 4 Maccabees.
Williams, Jarvis J. Maccabean Martyr Traditions in Paul’s Theology of Atonement: Did Martyr Theology Shape Paul’s Conception of Jesus’ Death?
Williams, S. K. Jesus’ Death as Saving Event: The Background and Origin of a Concept.
