8. Finally, we have still to mention some quite isolated expressions, which (like some even of those above mentioned) belong to the sphere of late apocalyptic expectations. We should hardly include in this category the promise of a new heaven and a new earth (Is 65” 66”). For, although this promise plainly attaches itself to Is 516 (the annihilation of heaven and earth), Trito-Isaiah, as the whole context shows, is think- ing rather of the complete transformation of all conditions than of an actual new creation of the Universe. On the other hand, Is 25° contains an apocalyptic feature in the announcement that death shall be destroyed for ever,* as does also 96” in the hope expressed of the resurrection of the godly dead. In the latter case the form of expression appears to the present writer to exclude a symbolical explanation of this resurrection as referring to the return from exile (as in Bzk 37""*-). ‘They that lie in the dust’ are those actually buried ; the mysterious dew descending from the starry region causes the earth to send forth the shades again. The detiniteness with which the
* We leave the question open whether this clause, which suits neither the rhythm nor the contents of the two following clauses, belonged from the first to Is 258,
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resurrection hope is here put forward can cause us all the less surprise, seeing that the so-called Apocalypse of Isaiah (chs. 24-27) appears to belong to a period from which we possess other witnesses to this expectation (see below, on Dn 128), Else- where, throughout this period we find everywhere assumed the old conception of Shé’6l (see above, p- 668°), the place whence no return is possible. Only, it is questionable whether the description in Is 14°": of the conditions in the kingdom of the dead, after the analogy of the conditions that pre- vail in the upper world, is to be put to the account of bold poetical colouring or of a further develop- ment of the ancient and simpler conception. If the latter must be assumed, yet even in this pas- sage (especially v., cf. Ezk 32%) nothing more than an approach can be discovered to the doctrine of a separation between the good and the bad. On the enigmatic saying in Is 6674 (probably a later addition), cf. above, p. 713°. It would have to be regarded as a clear approach to the doctrine of the pains of hell if there were here any refer- ence to the under world at all, and not rather to the corpses of apostates lying before the walls of Jerusalem.
9. In what precedes we have already had to notice a variety of passages which pass beyond merely eschatological expectations into the sphere of apocalyptic, in so far as their language is pur- posely obscure and veiled, nay enigmatic in form, partly perhaps with the well-founded intention of rendering it unintelligible to outsiders. But apoca- lyptic proper meets us in the extant literature for the first time in the Book of Daniel (c. 165 B.C.). Since this book has found entrance into the OT canon, we cannot pass it over entirely in our present exposition. In reality, however, it belongs to the category of post-canonical (apocryphal and apoca- lyptical) literature, and hence we refer for details to the article DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE IN THE APOCRYPHAL PERIOD (above, p. 272ff.); cf. also P. Volz, Jiidische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba, Tibingen and Leipzig, 1803 ; W. Bousset, Die jiidische Apokalyptik, etc., Berlin, 1903; W. Baldensperger, Die messianisch - apokalyptischen Hoffnungen des Judenthums*, Strassburg, 1903.
The apocalyptic character of the Book of Daniel is already indicated by the command (8% 12%) to Daniel to keep the revelations made to him secret, and to seal the book till the time of the end. But it is seen most clearly of all in the contents of chs, 2. 7. 10 ff. Throughout these chapters events are predicted, some of which had happened within the author’s own experience, while others had long been things of the past : in chs. 2 and 7 the world- empires that succeeded the empire of Bab lon, along with the ten kings of the fourth Mingaow ; in 10ff. the conflicts of the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, with numberless details ; and, most of all, the terrible danger to the religion of Israel threatened by Antiochus Iv. Epiphanes (11°6#-), The purpose is everywhere the same: the author means to encourage his countrymen to uncon- querable endurance amidst the severe persecu- tion to which their faith and their fidelity to the Law were subjected. With this view he shows them, by the example of the young Daniel and his companions (1®:), the blessing of unqualified obedience to the laws about food ; by the example of the three men in the fiery furnace (ch. 3), and by the example of Daniel in the lions’ den (ch. 6), he exhibits how for courageous confessors of the God of Israel wondrous deliverance is wrought, while punishment inevitably overtakes the despisers of this God (372 430% 530 625 (24)). On the other side, the consolation he offers is based upon the prediction— veiled indeed in true apocalyptic fashion, yet on that account exact—of the end of the Oppression.
It is derived (ch. 9) from a mystical interpretation of Jeremiah’s prophecy of a seventy years’ period of rejection for Jerusalem, the years being ex- plained as weeks of years. Even this instance of occupation with the long-canonized Sacred Writ- ings, in order to discover a secret sense, is a char- acteristic mark of apocalyptic. :