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304 DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE
The Pal. Judaism of the Ist cent. A.D. con- tinued virtually to reflect the eschatological posi- tion arrived at in the preceding century. In the Assumption of Moses, as well as in the Apocalypse of Baruch and 2 (4) Esdras (certain sections ex- cepted), there is conserved the idea of a prelimi- nary judgment. The Final Judgment on men and angels is placed at the close of the Messianic kingdom, or, failing the expectation of such a kingdom, at the close of the age (Apoc. of Baruch), or on the completion of the number of the right- eous (2 (4) Esdras),
So far as the doctrine of a Future Judgment is concerned, it would therefore appear from the above that the Apocryphal period witnessed very decided developments. Although the OT idea of judgment through the overthrow of existing hostile powers was to some extent retained (Enoch 90!8-, Assumption of Moses 3, Apoc. of Baruch 72°, 2 Es 13%), this gradually gave way to that of a forensic act. The Judgment was placed for the most part at the end of the Messiah’s reign instead of at its commencement. It tended to assume a growingly personal and individual character. The scope of the Judgment was also extended so as to include all, men and angels alike. Obviously, we have here a distinct approximation to the doctrine of the Judgment as given by Christ Himself. ‘He employs many of the terms which were current, while He relieves the popular beliefs of all that was gross, fantastic, or trivial. He brings to the OT conception the extension and the certainty which it needed. The spiritual principles of His teach- ing, and the things which it adds to the Heb. faith on the subject, make the old doctrine a new one.’ * That He is Himself the Judge, that every man will be judged by Him ‘according to his works,’ and that His judgment is final,—these are the transforming elements by which all the de- ficiencies of the pre-Christian. conception are re- moved, and the doctrine of a Future Judgment is raised to a clear and definite position in the doc- trinal structure of revealed religion.
(2) Realms of the departed.—(a) Sheol.—In Dn 12°, according to the most probable reading, this is designated ‘the ground (land) of dust,’ and seems to be used in its OT sense as denoting a region devoid of moral distinctions. It is repre- sented as the final abode of all mankind save the best and the worst in Israel, of whom the former shall rise to ‘zonian life,’ and the latter be cast into Gehenna. For these two classes Sheol is only a temporary and intermediate abode. The writer appears to have in his mind the faithful and the apostates in the struggle with Antiochus Epiphanes, ©
From the detailed description in Enoch 22 it is manifest that during the 2nd cent. B.c. the conception of Sheol underwent a radical change. From being a place free from moral distinctions it has become a place of retribution, where men are dealt with according to their deserts. Here all souls assemble (223), and await the Judgment in their respective habitations. Of these there are four—two for the spirits of the righteous, (1) for those who have died an unmerited death, (2) for the rest of the righteous ; and two for the spirits of the wicked, (1) for those who have already been punished in this life for their wickedness, (2) for those who escaped punishment in the upper world. From three of these divisions there is a resurrec. tion to final judgment; but from the fourth, the abode of sinners to whom death came as the punishment of their crimes, there is no resurrec- tion, In their case Sheol is equivalent to hell. Ethically, this represents a great advance upon the old Heb. conception, although it is of too cast-
* Salmond, Christian Doct. of Immortality 3, p. 318.
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iron a description to be truly ethical. The soul can neither become better nor worse, and ‘Sheol thus conceived is only a place of petrified moralities and suspended graces’ (Charles, Hschatology, 187).
Soon, however, this fault was to be remedied, for in 2 Mac 12” moral transformation in Sheol is considered possible. Judas is said to have offered sacrifice for the fallen warriors, ‘for if he were not expecting that they that had fallen would rise again, it were superfluous and idle to pray for the dead.’ During the last century B.C. Sheol is regarded (1) as the intermediate abode of the dead, whence all Israelites (2 Mac 675), and possibly all without distinction (Enoch 514), rise to judgment; (2) as the final abode of the wicked, ze. a8 hell (Enoch 568, Ps-Sol 14° etec.), where souls are slain (Enoch 99"), In Enoch 91-104 Sheol is almost synonymous with Gehenna, and in Ps.-Sol. entirely so. The Similitudes conceive Sheol as the preliminary abode of those dying previous to the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. Subsequent to this, however, it becomes the final abode of the wicked (63). This view of Sheol was almost a necessary consequence of the belief that only the righteous would be raised from the dead.
In the Ist cent. A.D. Sheol is represented as the intermediate abode of all the dead prior to the last judgment (Apoc. Bar 235 4816, 2 (4) Es 4%), According to Josephus, the Pharisees taught that the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished under the earth (‘1d yGovés, Ant. XVIII. 1. 3), or in Hades (xaé’ dédov, BJ It. viii. 14), te. in Sheol. The righteous rise again, and possess other bodies; but for the wicked there is no resurrection. Between the righteous and the wicked in Sheol there was, according to the pre- vailing conception of the period, a great gulf fixed. The former inhabited ‘the treasuries’ (Apoc. Bar 21° ete., 2 (4) Es 7%) of restful bliss; the latter dwelt in a place of torment (Apoc. Bar 30°).