IV. The Pauline type of early Christian
ESCHATOLOGY, AND THE ESCHATOLObrY OF THE
Gentile-Christian churches.— i. The escha- tology of St. Paul.— In view of the trend of recent criticism, it seems reasonable to accept as a work- ing hypothesis the view that all the 'Pauline' Epistles of the NT are genuine letters of the Apostle, though in the case of the Pastoral Epistles the verdict can hardly be regarded as decisive. This long series of letters is of unique value as an illustration of the history of early Christian doctrine, as taught by one of its greatest exponents. Several problems of considerable im-
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ESCHATOLOGY
ESCHATOLOGY
portance demand consideration in connexion with St. Paul's eschatology.
(1) The development of thought in St. Paul's Epistles. — Several recent writers, approaching the subject from widely different standpoints, have urged that the supposed change in St. Paul's outlook as time went on is mainly a phantom of the critical imagination {e.g. Schweitzer, Paul and his Interpreters, p. 75 f. ; S. N. Rostron, The Christology of St. Paul, 1912, pp. 23-28). To the present writer, however, the signs of a real development of doctrine are unmistakable, if the Epistles are studied broadly in their generally accepted chronological order. The divergence of opinion regarding the date of Galatians — before or after the Thessalonian Epistles — does not seriously atiect the problem, because Gal. is dominated by one problem of immediate urgency, and does not deal at length with other topics, such as eschato- logy. In Gal. the supreme emphasis is laid on moral virtues, faith and love (5*^ ; cf. 2'° 3-- ^®) ; neither ' dramatic eschatolog^y ' nor ' eschatological sacraments ' receive any detailed notice. But if we study the rest of the Pauline Epistles under the four main groups — [a] 1 and 2 Thess. ; [b) 1 and 2 Cor., Ptom. ; (c) Col., Eph., Phil. ; [d) 1 and 2 Tim., Tit. — the outlines of St. Paul's change of standpoint seem clear beyond doubt.
(a) 1 and 2 Thessalonians. — In these Epistles the outlook is as purely and consistently Judaeo-Chris- tian as in the earlier chapters of Acts. The hope of an immediate Second Coming of the Lord holds the front place in the interests of both St. Paul and his readers. The ' wrath ' of the Last Crisis is impending (1 Th P" 2"^) ; the Christians are waiting for the Son of Man to descend on the clouds of heaven, while they are yet alive on earth (1 Thli» 413-18 51-11. 23^ 2 Thl=-i» 21-"). The language which St. Paul uses in these Epistles to describe the Second Coming is such as any Jewish apocalyptist who accepted the Messiahship of Jesus might have used ; there is no trace of Gentile influence, and he himself expects to be 'in the body ' at the time of the Return (1 Th 4^ ; cf. 5^). Again, the eschatological problems discussed in these Epistles are such as would present themselves to Jewish minds ; and St. Paul answers the difficulties as a Jew speaking to Jews. The problem of the faith- ful departed (1 Th 4i2"i8) was one that inevitably arose as soon as some of the ' brethren ' had died before the Lord returned. How would they be enabled to siiare in the joy of the Parousia ? St. Paul's answer is that tliey will be raised in time to join in the Lord's Coming (1 Th 4i«). That such a question should have already come to the front is significant, because it marks perhaps the earliest of the many perplexities which arose in the minds of the faithful when the Lord did not return at once, and when consequently the simple scheme of the primitive Christian esciiatology no longer sufficed to solve every difficultj'. The gradual change of doctrinal outlook which resulted from this ati'ected the whole Cliurch, and there is no reason to doubt that St. Paul himself was in- fluenced by it.
In 2 Thess. the perplexity caused by the delay has become much graver, and St. Paul counsels patience. Again he adopts a thorougiily Jewish line of argument : his language still implies that the Return will be comparatively soon ; but he reminds his readers that certain of the ' signs of the end ' have not yet been fulfilled ; and these must precede the final consummation. The ' signs ' which he mentions are: (a) tlie falling away (r) dTToaTaala, 2 Th 2^), (^) the revealing of the 5lan of Sin (2 Th 23'- ^-S), (7) tlie taking away of 'the Restrainer ' (6 Karix^v, or rb Karixo", 2 Th 2®). St. Paul implies that he is speaking of ideas familiar
to his readers (2 Th 2^^-), and similar phrases are found in tlie descriptions of the signs of the end in the Jewish apocalypses; e.g. an 'apostasy' is part of the Messianic woes in Jubilees, 23 ; Test. XII. Pair. (Levi 10, Dan 5), etc. Again, the de- scription of the ' ]\Ian of Sin ' offers close parallels to the figure of Antichrist [alias ' Beliar ' or Satan) in many of the apocalypses [e.g. in the contemporary writings of the Ap. Bar. xxxix. and ^^'^ra v. 6, and also in the later Christian apocalypses, notably Asc. Is. iii. and iv., and Sib. Oracles [see above]). (For fuller details, see article Man OF SlN, and Kennedy, St. Paul's Conceptions of the Last Things, pp. 207- 221.) For the 'taking away of the Restrainer' it is not easy to find an exact parallel in Jewish apocalyptic ; but from Daniel onwards we find that the close of a dynasty is often regarded as one of the signs of the end ; and so the use of 6 narix'^^ might well suggest to St. Paul's readers the idea of Imperial Rome, whose downfall would surely mark the close of a world-epoch. The important point to realize is that in this passage, so obscure to us, St. Paul is not inventing a new doctrine of the Last Things, but is taking familiar phrases and ideas and applying them to the problems which were then confronting the Christian community.