• Cf. Sokolowski's Die Begriffe von Geist und Leben bei Panhis, p. 173 f.
t See, e.g., Jub. v. 17 : ' If they [i.e. the children of Israel] turn to Him in righteousness. He will forgive all their transgressions and i»:irdon all their sins. It is written and ordained that He will show mercy to all who turn from all their g\iilt once each year ' [i.e. at the Day of Atonement].
X A Jew would have quite agreed that God 5i(caiot toi' ao-e^ij if Sijcatoi meant, as it seems O'-casionally to have meant in Attic prose, 'punishes.' What St. Paul means by 'the ungodly' is, of course, the man who, in spite of his sins, has a desire for God and the godly life.
§ Sometimes it is the prayers of the righteous which are able to make His mercy overpower His anger (e.g. T. B. Succah, 14a, Berachoth, 7a).
II The nearest approach to it ia the passing allusion (in Ro 1128) to Israel as ' beloved (by God) for the sake of the fathers.'
his edition of The Ezra- Apocalypse, FjOndon, 1912, pp. 155-156). In the contenipornry Ajtftcalfjpse of liaruch, whir;h Charles describes as 'a good rei)resentative of the Judaism against whicli the Pauline dialectic was directed '(^J90cr^/y/i(ra«rf I'st-nd- epiijrapha of the (>'l\ Oxford, 1913, vol. ii. p. 47')), a similar view is urged (Ixxxv. 12): 'When the Most High will bring to pass all these things, there shall be there no . . . place of sup- plication for offences, no intercession of the fathers, no prayer of the prophety, no Iielp of tlie righteous' (see, further, Charles's note on Slavonic Enoch, liii. 1 [ib. p. 402]). The 2nd cent. Testament of Abraham (cf. M. R. James, in 7^S ii. 2 [lh92)) contains a ylfvxoaTatria., or weighing of souls by anpels, which is singular in Jewish apocalyptic; but even more singular ia the fact that one poor bo\i1 whose fate literally hangs in the balance, since his sins and good deeds (6iKaio(n)vai) hajipen to be exactly equal, ia saved by the intercession of Abraham and Michael. It has to obtain one more Bikch.o<tvvi\ in order to be saved. Abraham proposes to Michael to try what prayer to God will do, and ' when they rose from prayer, they did not see the soul standing there. "Then said Abraham to the angel, "Where is the soul thou wast holding in the midst?" and the angel said, '* It has been saved by thy righteous prayer.'" The absence of any allusion to this, in St. Paul, is the more striking as he was familiar with the icleasot imputed righteousness and imputed sin in current Judaism.
{b) The eschatological background. — The primary conception of righteousness in the earlier prophetic literature naturally pointed to the end, when God would make the issues clear by establishing the triumph of His cause and people over the ungodly. The iinal world-judgment would be the vindicating of Israel by her righteous, loyal Lord, who then would do justice to His own in the sight of pagans. This prevails through the later Judaism as well. The idea of a present justification, especially for individuals, is not absent, as we can see from 1 K 8^^ (' Hear thou in heaven and judge thy servants, condemning tlie wicked and justifying the right- eous, to give him according to his righteousness'), or from the background of an allusion like that in Lk IS'-* (cf. Jui. xxx. 17 f.). But the specific interest of the rigliteousness-craving was focused on the Last Day, the impending crisis when the Lord would intervene in favour of His folk and exhibit openly their rigiit position, which for the time being had been obscured. This predominates not only in the OT, where righteousness is a Messianic boon {e.g. Is IH, Jer 23« SS"', Bar 5-) promised by God, but in tlie apocalyptic piety.* Even where the Law is prominent, the reward of loyalty to the Commandments is steadily regarded as life, to be conferred at the close of this world- age, when the lawless pagan powers will be anni- hilated or reduced to abject submission. To get a footing in the Messianic order, to ensure ' life ' or righteousness in the world to come, the essential condition was to keep the Commandments, for the reign which God was to set up would be over the dutiful and law-abiding.
When we pass into the Pauline view of right- eousness, this eschatological background is still behind both the terminology and the cardinal ideas, however radically tlie latter are modilied by the faith that Jesus had inaugurated the first stage of the Messianic order on earth. The imminent return of the ChrLst will complete this saving work. And, meantime, what are the factors in the situa- tion which make this return .so decisive ? Primarily, we may say, the traditional conception holds true. It is still sin which furnishes the need for right- eousness and the occasion for justification, and sin, as Trapd(3aai^ or afj.dpTT)/j.a or ■jrapdirTwp.a or d/xapria or ddiKia, is conditioned by the Law; it disqualifies for the status of blessing and reward, to be assigned at the end for obedience. The terminology retains its OT associations. Righteousness implies a standard of character and conduct which is ap-
* It reappears in the liturgy of the Shemoiieh Esreh (10-11) : •Sound the great horn for our freedom-; lift tip the ensign to gather our exiles, and gather us from the four corners of the earth . . . reign thou over us, O Lord, thou alone, in loving- kindness and tender mercy, and justify us in judgment' (see, on this point, J. Koberle's Sunde und Gnade im relig. Leben dea I'olkes Israel, Munich, 1906, p. 639 f.).