In contrast with the fulness and explicitness of Christ's declarations on the Parousia, the Judg- ment, and the Resurrection, is the reserve of His teaching on the subject of the Intermediate State. This is the more remarkable in view of the position given to that topic in the theology and the popular thought of the Jews of the time. The OT idea of bheol, originally that of an uniler- .yorld forming the final abode of men, in course of time passed through changes which are indi- cated to some extent in the canonical books themselves, but which took larger ellect at a later period, and are known to us from the non- canonical literature. These changes followed diti'erent directions, and various ideas of Sheol continued to prevail. In part the old conceiition sur'dved, with some modilication (e.g. Sir 17-8-»> 41i-«, Bar 2", To 3«- ■» 13^ 1 Mac 2* U**) ; in part the term came to denote a place of relative retribu- tion (Wis 3'-"> 5'-" 6"» 17", 2 Mac 7»- "• "• •» 12«-*>
etc.). Most particularly in the Apocalyptic books it is found to have assumed the sense of an inter- mediate state with relative rewards and penalties (Enoch 10" 22. 100» 103'; cf. Jubilees 5^ 7"" 22-n 24"- >«, 2 Es V"- «>, Apoc. Bar 52''). Jewish thought seems thus to have occupied itself largely with the idea of the period between death and judgment, and with the conditions and the possi- bilities of an intermediate state. Of all this there is little or no recognition in Christ's words. He uses, it is true, the word Hades, the Greek equiva- lent to the Heb. Sheol, thrice. But in two of thest cases the application is obviously metaphorical (Mt 11^ 16'») ; and in the third (Lk 16=*) the term forms part of the imagery of a parable intended to teach the broad moral lesson of the penalty of a selfish life, the retribution that pursues it and changes its conditions in the other world. In the same parable He uses the term Abraham's bosom (Lk 16-"^), but in a connexion that does not suggest a definite doctrinal intention. He also uses the term Paradise, a term with which various and uncertain ideas had been associated in Jewish thought. But He uses it only once (Lk 23"), and in a large and general sense, as a word of hope and comfort ; in which sense also He uses the word sleep, — not to inculcate the doctrine of an inter- mediate state as a space of unconsciousness, or as a place for the detention, the recompense, or the purification of souls. Some of His words appear to point rather to the hope of an immediate entrance of the just dead into the Father's house and the Father's glory (Jn 14^-' 17**). But in general His attitude to the question of the condition between death and judgment is one of reserve, and His words convey nothing approaching to a doctrine of the intermediate state.
It is otherwise with the question of what follows the resurrection and the judgment. The escha- tology of NT as it is given by Christ Himself has a pronounced doctrine of the Moral Issues of life. It speaks largely and distinctly of final reward for the good, and final penalty for the evil. These are expressed by a great variety of suggestive terms. The recompense of the righteous is described as an inheritance, entrance into the kingdom, treasure in heaven, an existence like the angelic, a place prepared, the Father's house, the joy of the Lord, life, eternal life, and the like ; and there is no intimation that the reward is capable of change, that the condition is a termin- able one. The retribution of the wicked is described as death, outer darkness, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, the undying worm, the quench- less fire, exclusion from the kingdom, eternal punishment, and the like. Different measures of reward and of penalty are intimated, according to different degrees of merit and demerit (Lk 12^'- ''*). In Christ's o^vn words there is no certain declara- tion of the terminableness of the penalty of the finally impenitent, no indication either of an intermediate purgatorial process or of an ultimate universal restoration. In the Synoptic Gospels, and in the groundwork of their narrative, the term Gehenna, Hell, is applied to the future condition of the lost (Mt 5==*-*' 10=» 18» 23'5-» Mk 9«- •»••", Lk 12°). Tliis term, though in the later Judaism it had at times the sense of an intermediate con- dition, whether as a temporary purgatory or as a place of punishment, appears to have been in the earlier Judaism and in our Lord's time a term for the retributive state after judgment (cf. e.g. Enoch 27^.8 90M-2« etc., which are probably its first occur- rences in this sense ; cf. also 2 Es 6''* 7**). The question whether Christ teaches the permanence of tlie penal condition resulting from the judgment is variously answere i. Certain of His sayings are taken to point to a terminable penalty. 'These,
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