The tendency of this double working of the inter- pretation of the death and resurrection of Christ was to disturb the outline of the old eschatology. We can see in 1 Thess. the stress laid on the first resurrection, that of believers to the likeness of Christ ; then in 1 Cor. the outline of the eschato- logical scheme is adjusted to this new emphasis : first Christ's resurrection, then the resurrection of those that are Christ's at His Parousia— clearly the first resurrection — then the end, when the Kingdom is delivered to the Father. No mention is made of what happens in this third stage, whether another resurrection takes place or not.
Thus St. Paul's doctrine of the resurrection, as far as it can be reconstructed from the Epistles, becomes limited to a resurrection of believers only, in the likeness of Christ ; and further, this likeness is conceived of more and more as ethical and spiritual, and the whole ensuing state of blessing as a spiritual state rather than as a concrete king- dom on earth. But the latter never wholly dis- appeared from St. Paul's thinking ; it only fell into the background. It is difficult to believe that St. Paul ever reached the point of abandoning entirely the resurrection of the body, although his conception of the doctrine was extremely spiritual. But the ditt'erence between a mere life of the spirit after death, even in full communion with God, and St. Paul's doctrine of a spiritual body is much more than a ditt'erence of words. It involves two fundamentally ditt'erent views of redemption. The Oriental view, which influenced Alexandrian eschatology, regarded redemption as the separa- tion of matter from spirit, tlie dissolution of an evil and unnatural union. The Pauline view, which was based on the Palestinian, and which ultimately passed into the distinctively Christian point of view, was the deliverance of the body from corruption, the corruptible and mortal element in it due to sin, and its true union with the spirit in an incorruptible form. No doubt metaphysical speculation may find practically no ditterence be- tween a spirit preserving personal identity and a spiritual body, but it is more than doubtful whether St. Paul ever reached such a point of view.
Before leaving the subject of the Pauline doctrine of resur- rection it may be of intf rest to add a note on the special doc- trine of the spiritual body. The Kabbala reflects a theory
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which goes back to very early Jewish times, possibly earlier than R. Meir, that unfallen man in the t^arden of Eden was clothed in a t'artnent of li^'ht, which after the Fall changed into Acoverintjof skin (Zo/iar, ii. 2'206j. In the Bardesanian Hymn of the Moid, contained in the Syriac Acts of Jndas Thomas, we have Also a full and striking account of the Light-Form, or spiritual counterpart of man, which remains in heaven during man's slay on earth, and is reunited to him when he casts off his earthly body and returns to his home in heaven. Likewise, in the recently discovered Odes of Solomon occur several refer- ences to the same belief, closely connected with the sacrament of baptism. Burkitt {Early Kastern Christianity, London, 1904, Lecture iv. p. 124 f.) has shown that in early Syriac Christi- anity the sacrament of baptism was believed to have a special efficacy in relation to complete physical resurrection, and was limited to celibates. Hence the Pauline doctrine of a spiritual body seems to have its roots in early Jewish metaphysical and cosmological speculation, although considerably modified by his views of the ethical and spiritual element in the resur- rection of Christ.
There is also a remarkable resemblance between the theory of resurrection put forward in 2 Bar 49-.51 and St. Paul's doc- trine of the spiritual body. According to Baruch, all who have died are first raised in precisely the same physical form in which they were buried (502); they are then transformed, the righteous into the likeness of angels, and the wicked into some worse or baser aspect (Sl^-S). In St. Paul's doctrine transfor- mation holds good only of the living who remain until the Parousia ; the dead are raised in their new and glorious form. Charles would also add that the believing dead receive their glorious form or state immediately after death, according to his view of 2 Co 5. In St. Paul's teaching there is no place for the resurrection of the wicked, or for any such change as is taught in 2 Bar 50'. The only e.xception is Ac 23^.
2 Timothy is the only one of the Pastorals that contributes anything of importance to our subject. dipdapaia., 'incorruptibility,' is one of the elements of the Pauline gospel (l'"'"). The elect are to obtain salvation with eternal glory (2'"). Those Avho share the death will also share the life, those who sutler will reign (2"), There were some who taught that the resurrection had already happened (2'*), but no answer to this heresy is deemed neces- sary by the author of the Epistle, showing that the belief in a future resurrection already formed a part of the orthodox faith. Christ is to judge both living and dead (4'). But there is little or nothing of the distinctively Pauline teaching on the resurrection.
3. The'Catholic Epistles. — (a) .ffeirews is impor- tant for our inquiry. The resurrection of Christ is held firmly as a historical event. God brought Christ again from the dead (13™). Yet the resur- rection-state of Christ seems to be conceived of as purely spiritual, and the same term ' perfected,' Tei-eXeiw/x^cos, is used of Christ's present condition (7^) as is used for the present state of the righteous, ' the spirits of just men made perfect' (12'-''). 'A better resurrection' is spoken of in 11^^ as the object of the hope of the martyrs.