Where Did Old Testament Saints Think They Went When They Died?

Michael Patton asks that question over at Parchment and Pen. He lays out the Biblical basis for believers going to heaven after they die but then adds:

However, it does not seem to be the case with Old Testament believers. They present themselves as those who fear death a great deal more than most of us are comfortable with. In fact, in some cases, it looks like they don’t believe in heaven at all.

He then lays out a number of O.T. verses that he feels supports that view, such as Psalm 6:5

For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?

He then offers three options of how to deal with it:

1. There is no intermediate state
2. Old Testament believes did believe in a conscious intermediate state
3. Old Testament believers did not believe in a conscious intermediate state, but this does not mean that there is not one

I would choose #2. Here's why:

Patton (and others) understands "Sheol" as meaning "death/grave" but Sheol was thought of as the place of the dead. Everyone went there, even if they were an Old Testament saint. It was understood to be under the earth. Other ancient near east texts support this idea of an underworld and Old Testament writers make no attempt to correct this idea. Translators of the Septuagint translate the world "Sheol" as "Hades" and Hades was thought of as an underworld place of the dead. I should note that Hades is not the same as what we think of as hell today.

Samuel seems to be in an intermediate state when the Witch of Endor brings him up "out of the earth" (1Sam 28). This would conform with the idea of an underworld.

New Testament writers also agree that Old Testament saints did not go to heaven:

John 3:13
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man.

Acts 2:34
For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand

However, this all changes when Christ dies. Christ releases the saints from Sheol/Hades when he ascends to heaven. The "Gates of Hades" would not prevail as it were (Mat 16:18). At this point all future saints ascend to heaven at death and we come into alignment of Patton's understanding of the afterlife.