(3) In Rev 2' as in 4 Ezra Paradise is presented as a reward in the future age for the righteous.
The probable reason for the scanty reference to Paradise in the NT has been pointed out in the art. Heaven. The movement of thought was clearly away from the sensuous and material side of Jewish eschatological expectation, even though in the later development of thought in the Church there was a return to this element, and a corre- sponding loss of the vitality and freshness character- istic of Pauline and Johannine eschatology. This return, however, lies beyond our period, and begins to be seen in the references of Irena^us and Tertullian.
LrrBKATURE.— See under art. Hbavkh. S. H. HOOKE.
PARCHMENT.— See Writing.
PARDON.— See Forgiveness.
PARENTS.— See Family.
PARMENAS. — Parmenas bore a Greek name, a shortened form of Parmenides. He is one of the ' Hellenist' Seven ordained to minister to the Hellenist widows (Ac 6»). W. A. Spooner.
PAROUSIA. — 1. General considerations. — In
earlier literature on this subject the relation be- tween the conceptions of the Parousia in Jewish apocalyptic and those in the NT is treated as an open question. Further study and research have made this attitude impossible. It is certain that the whole of the eschatological and apocalyptic backgrovmd of primitive Christianity is due to its Jewish source. The question for modem scholar- ship has assumed a different form. It is necessary to attempt a S3'steniatic reconstruction, if this be possible, of the eschatological scheme underlying primitive Christianity in general, and each of the apostolic writers in particular. It is also necessaiy to discover, if possible, the direction in which those elements peculiar to Christianity have modilied the original lines of the Jewish apocalyptic. Thirdly, it is necessary to form some estimate of the place of the eschatology, and especial I y of its central conception, the Parousia of Christ, in the essential nature of Christianity. In his Paul
124
PAROUSIA
PAROUSIA
and his Interpreters (^^. 240 f.) Scliweitzer has the followint; pertinent remarks :
' Not until Pauline escliatolo(ry gives an anewer to all the *' idle " questions of this kind which can be asked \vill it be really understood and explained. And it must be somehow possible, by the discovery of its inner logic, to reconstruct it from the scattered statements in the documents. We have no right to assume that for Paul there existed in his expectation manifest obscurities, much less that be had overlooked contradictions in it.'
The attitude here indicated toward.s Pauline escliatology is necessary towards the wliole of primitive apostolic esuhatology. At the same time, It must be recognized tliat the various apocalypses of the 1st cent, before and after the birth of Christ do not by any means present a coherent sclierae of eschatology, and it is possible that the same vagueness and inconsistency in detail will be found to characterize the early Christian apocalyp- tic, including the Pauline.
For supplementary discussion of various points connected with the subject of the Parousia the reader is referred to the articles in this Dictionary on Immortality, Kesuerection, Heaven, etc. For fuller discussion of the stage of eschatological belief represented by the Synoptic Gospels see the relevant articles in the DCG.
2. The Parousia in the literature of the Apos- tolic Age. — i. The Acts. — In Acts we come closest jierhaps to the practical working of the eschatological beliefs in the early Church, and find the most direct expression of them in the early apostolic preaching. Whatever may be the opinion as to the literary tradition at work in the speeches of Acts, and the accuracy with which the words of the various speakers have been reported, there can be no doubt that they are a faithful representation of the kind of preaching that marked the early stages of the growth of the Church. These speeches are almost wholly eschatological.
In the first two addresses attributed to St. Peter, the Parousia is regarded as imminent, and baptism is the only way of escape for those who desire to flee from the coming woes and participate in the ' times of refreshing.' The rapid growth of the Church is represented as the filling up of the number of those destined to be saved (2'"). Salva- tion is not merely from sin and its consequences, though that is never out of sight, but from coming wrath and for the enjoyment of future blessings. In Acts salvation has always an eschatological colouring.
In the Pauline speeches it appears in the same way. In the speech at Athens the final appeal is em- phasized by the announcement of an appointed day in which God will judge the world by Christ, and the resurrection of Christ is assigned as tlie pledge of the truth of this announcement. In the Miletus address the apostasy before the end is referred to. In the address before Agrippa the hope of the Kesurrection is represented as the hope of the Jewish nation. Moreover, the practical effect of this immediate expectation of the Parousia upon the life of the Church is clearly seen in its abandon- ment of property and in its communistic organiza- tion. It was the particular form of their Messianic expectation that marked out the Christians among their own countrymen as a sect (ai/ wis, 24'*). But it is not easy to find any trace of the special line of development which we shall follow out in St. Paul's correspondence. In St. Luke's repre- sentation of St. Paul's eschatology we see only the orthodox Pharisee, believing in the resurrection of just and unjust. The nature of the Book of Acts, and its object, make it unfair to expect more than a reflexion of the external current of feeling and action in the early years of the Church. This the book gives us with fidelity, and we cannot expect an insight into the deeper streams of thought that