Thus, in spite of the obvious development of thought in this group, the Parousia still remains to the Apostle what it had become in 1 Th 4 and 1 Co 15, the central point of hope. The principal difficulty, however, as to whether the dead receive their ' body of glory ' after death or at the Parousia must be left undecided. The present writer inclines to the latter view, but the weighty authority of Charles in favour of the former shows that it has strong grounds of support.
The general conclusion to which an examination
of St. Paul's teaching on the Parousia brings us may be given as follows.
The Pauline view of the Parousia is taken over from current Jewish-Palestinian apoc^alyptic, but is progressively modified by his view of the resurrection of Christ.
The process of modification leaves traces of unreconciled positions. The demand for a logical and self-consistent scheme of eschatology fails. The direction in which the view of the Parousia undergoes development appears in the increasing importance attached to tlie working out of the ' law of life,' first in Christ and then in believers, resulting finally in a complete moral and physical transformation expressed by the word 'glory.' Along with this stress on the transformation we find a gradual disappearance of the outlines of the traditional scheme of apocalyptic. The Parousia remains central all through the Pauline correspond- ence, but it becomes increasingly the consummation of the victory of life, rather than an act among a series in the passage of the great eschatological drama. With this change in the view of the Parousia comes a change in the conception of the drama ; it becomes the working out of a great moral purpose of world-wide extent, embracing heavenly, earthly, and infernal existence, and summing up all life and all activities in Christ. But it would not be true to say that the catastrophic element, the idea of a final act of Divine intervention, is entirely eliminated in the closing Epistles.
Space forbids a fuller discussion of many import- ant points in the summing up of Pauline doctrine, and we must pass to the Catholic Epistles, which do not add nmch to the development of the subject, and then to the most important of all — the Fourth Gospel.
iii. Catholic Epi.stles and Pastorals.— The Catholic Epistles, with the possible exception of Hebrews, do not show development. They rather exhibit the tendency which appears more markedly at the beginning of the 2nd cent, to lay stress on the Jewish and material side of the Parousia, and to emphasize its literal fulfilment as the expectation grew fainter in the Church.
(a) Hebrews presents a double tendency at work. There is the evident insistence on the nearness of the Parousia as a stimulus to those who were losing heart (cf. 9'-' 10"). But on the other hand there is the view, characteristic of Alexandrian Judaism and of St. Paul's later eschatology according to Charles, that the spirits of the righteous are already perfected, if we may so interpret 12^^, the same expression being used of the present state of Christ (cf. 5° 7^*). Hence the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to offer the same perplexing appearance of the existence of contradictory positions side by side, the fact being probably, as with St. Paul, that the catastrophic view of the Parousia was not felt to conflict with the view that the believers entered upon their glorious and perfected state immediately after death. The Parousia was still needed as a theodicy, a manifestation of the triumph of the Kingdom.
(6) James has the phrase ' the coming of the Lord ' tvifice — 5'- * — as the hope of those who sufier oppression. The coming of the Lord is the time of judgment and vindication. The point of view is that of 2 Th 1, but there is no indication of the special place of the Parousia in the eschatological scheme. It is regarded as near.
(c) 1 Peter has the Parousia far more prominent. The general outline is the same as that of 2 Thess. Those to whom the Epistle is addressed are sulier- ing severe persecution, but ' the revelation of Jesus Christ' — the writer's phrase for tlie Parousia — is at hand, expected in the lifetime of the writer (5'-*). It will bring salvation, glory, and reward to the
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rigliteous, and judgment to the sinner (4"). The fjencral judgment seems to be associated with tlie Parousia. It is the end of all things (4'). The Parousia and the day of the Lord are identified, and there is no such separation suggested as that in 1 Th 4. The sutferings of believers are a sign that the day of the Lord is setting in ; it is the last time ; judgment must begin at the house of God. The principal interest in the Parousia is wholly diflierent from tliat of St. Paul, and there is no sign of any independent development, or of the influ- ence of St. Paul's thinking, as far as eschatology is concerned. The Parousia is the crisis of the com- ing of the Kingdom of God.
(d) 2 Peter and Jude.—The author of 2 Peter connects the Transfiguration and the words ad- dressed to Christ at that time with the Parousia. Prophecy relating to the Parousia there received its confirmation (1"). The Parousia is identified with the ' day of God.' At the Parousia all things will be destroyed by fire, and the righteous will receive new heavens and a new earth (3") ; it will come as a thief (v.'°) ; the apparent delay is due to the longsull'ering of God. The author of Jude quotes the description of the Parousia from 1 En. i. 9, and agrees with 2 Peter in his description of the apostasy of the ' last days. '