3. General considerations. — Several points of importance emerge froin our study of these refer- ences in the literature of the 1st century.
(1) The surprisingly few passages in the NT in
HELL
HELLENISM
547
tahich the tcord 'hell' (or even the idea it conveys) occurs. — Outside the Gospels and tlie Apocalypse, there are practically no occasions on which we find it employed. Its absence from the writings of St. Paul, Hebrews, and the Epistles of John is most noteworthy. Our surprise is not lessened by the recollection of the fact that, according to the Rabbis, 'seven things were created before the world — Torah, Gehnnna, the Garden of Eden, the Throne of Glory, the Sanctuary, Repentance, and the Name of Messiah.' In St. Paul at least, six of these are frequently in evidence, and this gives more signifi- cance to his silence about the seventh.
(2) The re.ffrained sanity of the references that do occur. — ^Yhen we compare even the lurid images of the Apocalypse with those we have cited (and even more with those that may be found else- where in the same books) from contemporarj- works of a similar character, we cannot but be impressed with the soberness of the language. There is noth- ing of the morbid curiosity and unpleasant linger- ing on horrors, to say nothing of the sense of gloat- ing over vengeance and cruelty, that we find in so many kindred passages. Terrible imagery is sometimes employed, but it is clearly imbued with a high moral aim, and designed to convey a clearly spiritual purpose. The absence of such allegoriz- ing methods as those of Philo is also noteworthy. Imagery is the method in which the truths are here convej^ed, not allegory.
(3) The obvious dependence on the teaching of the Gospels for all that is said about hell. — It would be hard to point to any passage in the NT that con- veyed any fresh or fuller ideas about the place of punishment, its nature and purpose, than are to be found in words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels. This is certainly noteworthy and significant, even if the Gospel teaching on Gehenna is an echo of current ideas. In form it probably is, but in ethical content it surely goes deeper, and we are made to feel that in the conception of the speaker this place also is founded by the Eternal Love — it too is part of the Father's Universe. Dante, the greatest apocaly ptist of subsequent ages, had caught the true evangelical spirit of this most awful doc- trine when he wrote :
' Justice incited my sublime Creator ; Created me divine Omnipotence, The highest Wisdom and the primal Love '
{Inferno, iii. 4).
(4) The permanent spiritual lessons to be derived from the descriptions of future punishment. — (a) All evil powers — death, sin, and their forces — are to be finally destroyed in the fires of Divine judg- ment (Rev 20i»- i»-i», 2 P 2S Jude ^% According to St. Paul, all powers that make against Christ and His Kingdom are to come to final ruin (cf. 2 Th 28-i», 1 Co 15-^-26).
(b) Evil in the heart of men must entail punish- ment and, if persisted in, eternal loss and shame, and a death that is more than death (Ro 6"°"^, Rev 21*). The terrible nature of moral evil, and of the heart's persistent rebellion against God, is the ap- palling reality that renders these pictures of judg- ment truly significant, and redeems them from being the mere pageantry of a heated imagination. Whatever we may say of their outward form, there is an inexpressible gi'andeur behind them that rests in a true conception and representation of the Divine Holiness. ' The fear of hell ' in these pages is much more than ' the hangman's whip ' ; it is the cry of the soul in the presence of Him who is re- vealed as of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, but who is, nevertheless, the Redeemer of His Universe.
LiTBRATtiRE. — See artt. Hades, Abtbs, Life and Death, etc., in this Dictionary, and also in HDB, DCG, EBr, and EBi. In addition to the works referred to in the body of the article.
the following should be consulted : R. H. Charles's separate editions of the various apocalvpses, the great work edited by hira, The Apocrypha and Pse'udepi(irupha of the OT, Oxford, 1913, and Between the Old and Xew'J'eitcanents, London, 1914 ; E. Hennecke, Seutest. Apokrpphen and Eandhuch zu den ricutest. Apokryphen, Tubingen, 1904 ; J. A. Robinson and M. R. James, The Gospel ace. to Peter and the Revelation of Peter, London, 1&92 ; A. Harnack, tjler das gnost. Buc'h Pistls-Sophia ( = TU vii. 2), Leipzig, 1891; R. H. Charles, A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Fviure Life^, London, 1913 ; S. D. F. Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Imrnor- talityi, Edinburgh, 1901 ; E. C. Dewick, Primitive Christian EschaUAogy, Cambridge, 1912 ; W. O. E. Oesterley, The Doctrine of the Last Things, London, 1908 ; A. Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Eng. tr., do. 1910; G. Dalman, The Words of Jesus, Eng. tr., "Edinburgh, 1902 ; P. Volz, Jiidische Eschatologie, Tiibingen, 1903.
G. CuREiE Martin.
HELLENISM.— The word 'Hellenism,' which in Greek writers stands for Greek civilization, has now come to be used with a four-fold meaning. (1) Since Droysen, it describes a particular period of Greek history and civilization ; (2) it is a name for the influence of this Greek civilization on the Oriental world ; (3) it marks a certain stream in Judaism ; and (4) it denotes a party in primitive Christianity. (1) and (2) are closely related to one another, and so are (3) and (4).