2. Rise and development of the conception. — The Jews at first had no thought of any change in the present order of things : ' One generation goeth, and another generation Cometh ; and the earth abideth for ever' (Ec l') ; 'Who laid the founda- tions of the earth, that it should not be moved for ever ' (Ps 104^) ; ' The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved ' (93' W) ; ' He hath also stab- lished them [the heavens] for ever and ever' (148"). The heavens and the earth formed an established order of things that would be eternal in duration. According to the prophetic teaching, the scene of the Messianic Kingdom was to be the present earth, and that Kingdom was to last for ever ; cf. Is l'-^'- : ' And I will . . . throughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thj' tin : and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning : afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, the faithful city'; Zeph 3'^'- : 'But I will leave in the midst of thee an aftlicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The renmant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies . . . for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid ' ; Jer 23^'- : ' IJehold ... I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely. . . . In his days Judali shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; 12'*: 'After that I have plucked them [the hostile nations] up, I will return and have compassion on them ; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land ' ; Ezk 37^'"' : ' I will place them [Israel], and nmltiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle al.so shall be with them ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' Is 2-'- ( = Mic 4"- ) : ' The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall How unto it . . . for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord fiom Jerusalem.' The advent of the Kingdom at first was to synchronize with the return from exile, but with that event the hopes of the people were not fulfilled. Haggai and Zechariah expected, how- ever, that whenever the Temple was rebuilt, the Messianic Kingdom would be ushered in (cf. Hag 2''*, Zee 2'-*). With Joel, who introduces us into the apocalyptic atmosphere, we find the same con- ception, as in the Prophets, of the eternity of the Messianic Kingdom with .Jerusalem as its centre : ' So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain : then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. . . . But Judah shall abide for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation ' (3"- '*• °"). But this conception gradu-
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ally underwent a change that can already be traced in two late passages of the OT, viz. Is 65" 66", where the scene of the Messianic Kingdom is no longer this present world but a new h('a\en and a new earth. Jerusalem will be transformed as the metropolis of the new earth, but not yet created anew as the New Jerusalem : ' For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people : and the voice of weeping shall be no more beard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days : tor the child shall die an hundred years old, and the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. . . .The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox : and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord ' (eS'*'"^). The two late passages above imply a gradual transformation of the world — moral and physical— an idea which probably betrays Persian influence (cf. T. K. Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter [BL, 1889], London, 1891, p. 405). The same idea is perhaps present also in Is 5P' : ' And I have put mj' words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people,' but if so, it is a foreign element adopted in eclectic fashion from Zoroastrianism (cf. B. Duhm, Das Buck Jesaia \_ = '!:io'xa,c\CsHandkoinmentar zum AT,\n.\ Gottin- gen, 1892, p. 359). Nowhere else in the OT is the Messianic Kingdom conceived of otherwise than as eternal on this present earth. The change is, how- ever, prepared for in certain post-Exilic passages, e.g. poeticall}' in Is 51^ : ' Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner : but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished ' ; also in 34"'- : ' Their slain also shall be cast out, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll : and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf fadeth from oil' the vine, and as a fading leaf from the fig tree ' ; and finally in Ps 102-^'-, which, however, may simply be a reflexion of the new conception from the Mac- caba-an age (cf. C. A. Briggs, ICC, 'Psalms,' Edinburgh, 1907, ad loc.) : ' Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure : yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.'