126
PAROUSTA
PAROUSIA
tration of interest upon the working of the prin- ciple of ' life,' wliicli embraces both moral cliaraeter anJ physical change, the two forming one correlated process of transformation, consummated at the Parousia.
(2) In Cor. we have a number of important and explicit passages requiring careful examination. The most important passage in 1 Corintliiiins is the 15th chapter. But there are a few shorter passages that must be noted in passing — 1 Co 1''* : the Corinthians are awaiting the revehition of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will establish them blame- less in His day, ' the day of our Lord Jesus Christ ' ; 3"'" : ' the day ' will try every man's work with fire. There will be rewards for those whose work abides, and those whose work is con- sumed will themselves be saved, but as through fire ; 4' : when tlie Lord comes, in contrast with man's day (d^ffpuirfi/Tjs ijM^pas) tlie secrets will be revealed, and praise will be from God; 5°: the incestuous man is delivered to Satan for the destruction of the iiesh, that his spirit may be saved in ' the day of the Lord Jesus ; 6-" ' : a time is coming when the saints will judge the world, and even the angels; 7^: 'the time is short' (6 KCLipis avvejTaX/j.ifO! iarl), probably meaning that tlie interval of waiting for the Parousia has been shortened ; cf. Mt 24-^ but the phrase is obscure ; 11^5.26. tijg sacrament of the Lord's Supper is directly connected with the Parousia, as it is in the Synoptic account of the Institution.
These passages all point to the same background of expectation, but offer very little basis for the reconstruction of a definite Pauline scheme of escliatology. In ch. 15, however, we have more detail, and once more the whole conception is dominated by the Resurrection. The first passage is lo™-''^. The order is — first, the resur- rection of Christ, who is the dirapx'fi, the firstfruits of the working of the new principle of life, in con- trast with the results of the principle of death introduced by Adam (cf. Ro 5'^'"). Then those wlio are Christ's rise at His Parousia if they are dead, or are changed if they remain alive (cf. v.""). This leads up to the consummation (t6 tAos) when Christ hands over the Kingdom to God the Father. The duration of the three stages is left undefined. The interval between the resurrection of Christ and that of believers is indirectly limited to one generation (' we shall not all sleep '), but the dura- tion of the interval between this event, evidently the Parousia of 1 Th 4'*"-°, and the complete subjugation of every enemy, including death itself, is left quite undetermined. This interval may be filled in by the events implied in previous passages, the coming of the day of the Lord, testing of every man's work, assigning of rewards, judgment of the world and of angels, destruction of Antichrist. But so far tlie distinction between the Parousia proper and the day of the Lord, suggested in 1 Thess., seems to be maintained. The description of the Parousia is more fully developed in vv.^""*', mtli a fairly clear indication of the logical con- nexion between the account of the event and St. Paul's view of Christ's post- Resurrection state. Christ's present state is spirit, incorruptible, not flesh and blood. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Hence the point left unde- fined in 1 Thess. must be worked out here — the question of tlie form of existence of the living and the dead at the Parousia. The authority for the transference of ov in v." to the second clause is strong, but not so strong as that for the generally received text ; and it is more than probable that the change was due to the diflSculty that arose out of the non-fulfilment of the expectation. But the sense of the passage, and the supporting parallel in 1 Th 4, require the reading ' we shall not all
sleep.' The solution of the jiroblem is that all are changed, both dead and living. 'The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we (the living) shall be changed.' The change is instantaneous {iv arbiiif) and takes place at the last trump. But no mention is made here of a rapture into the air, as in 1 Th 4. Hence it would seem that St. Paul's interest was turning to the manner of the Parousia, to the application of the principle displayed in Christ's resurrection, as he had apprehended it. It is a spiritualization, arising not from the ditli- culty of squaring eachatological predictions with their non-fulfilment, but from the inner logic of a view of the Resurrection which compelled St. Paul to cast his eschatological conceptions into that mould.
In the Second Epistle Charles sees an advance on the First. The interval is very sliort, but it is po.ssible that between the two letters the Apostle had grasped more clearly the conseqiiences of his own reasoning in ch. 15 of the First Epistle. The probable order and date of the three Epistles is :
1 Cor., spring of A.D. 56 ; 2 Cor., autumn of the same year ; and Rom., early in A.D. 57. Of course the point cannot be debated here. The reader must refer to the abundant literature on the subject, especially Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul ; Sanday - Headlam, Commentary on Romans; andRobertson-Plummeroni Corinthians. But the main point is that the three Epistles are all very close together in time, making the view of development somewhat difficult, though it is not impossible. In Charles's view the Apostle in