Several answers have been given. In his statements about dying, Paul would have been influenced by Hellenism. The Greek notion of the immortality of the soul would have had an impact on the apostle here.1 Gnilka, on the other hand, denies that Paul would have been influenced by Hellenistic ideas about the afterlife.2 He has suggested that Paul’s idea of the afterlife has an apocalyptic-Jewish origin. This would have led him to the idea of being with Christ after his death. In the latter case, however, it makes more sense to accept that the apostle’s conviction, so interconnected with the Old Testament as it was, was based on what he encountered in the Psalms; for example, Psalm 16:10–11 and Psalm 73:23–24.3 Still, in seeking a background for Paul’s firm conviction, we should first of all pay attention to the unique experiences he and other believers had in the first century AD. The hateful persecutor of Christians had heard the voice of Jesus straight from heaven; as if by a flash of lightning he had suddenly realized that Jesus’ world would never be conquered by death. From then on he knew with absolute certainty that the life of Jesus is real in the invisible world. His fellowship of faith with this Saviour and the direct revelations he had been granted supported him in the awareness that he was living before an open gate of heaven.4
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.