III. Ideas of the Jewish Nation. — 1. It has frequently been asserted that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not taught in the O. T. The Socinians in the IGth and 17th centuries took this ground. Some have gone so far as to construe the supposed silence of the O.-T. Scriptures on this subject into a formal denial of the possibility of a future life, and have furthermore fortified their positions by selecting some passages of the Old Testament that are rather oljscure, e. g. Eccles. iii, 19sq.; Isa. xxxviii, 18 ; Psa.vi,6; xxx, 10; Ixxxviii, 11; cxv,17; Job vii, 7-10; x,20-22; xiv,7-12; xv,22. In the most odious manner were these objections raised by the " Wolfenblittel Fragments" (see the fourth frag- ment by Lessing, Beitrdrje z. Gesch. u. Lit. a. cJ. Wolfsn- biittckchen Bibliothek, iv, 484 sq.). Bishop Warburton, on the other hand, derived one of his main proofs of the divine mission of Closes from this supposed silence on the subject of immortality. "jMoses," he argues, " being sustained in his legislation and government by immediate divine authority, had not the same necessity that other teachers have for a recourse to threatenings and punishments drawn from the future world, in order to enforce obedience." In a similar strain argues pro- fessor Ernst Stiihelin in an article on the immortalitv of the soul (in the Foundations of our Faith, Loiii^. and X.York, 1866, r2mo, p. 221 sq.) : "]Moses and Confucius did not expressly teach the immortality of the soul, nay, they seemed purposely to avoid entering upon the sub-
ject; they simply took it for granted. Thus spoke of the tree of life in Paradise, of which if the man took he should live forever, and called God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, thus implying their contin- ued existence, since God could not be a God of the dead, but only of the living ; and Confucius, while in some re- spects avoiding all mention of future things, neverthe- less enjoined honors to be paid to departed spirits (thus assuming their life after death) as one of the chief du- ties of a religious man." Another evidence of the be- lief of the Jews at the time of Moses and in subsequent periods in the immortality of the soid, as a doctrine self-evident, and by them universally acknowledged and received, is the fact that the Israehtes and their ances- tors resided among the Egyptians, a people who, as we have seen above, had cherished this faith from the re- motest ages (comp. Herodotus, ii, 12.3, who asserts that they were the first who entertained such an idea). It is further proved that the Jews believed in immortality, («) from the laws of INIoses against Necromancy (q. v.), or the invocation of the dead, which was very generally practised by the Canaanites (Deut. xviii, 9-12), and which, notwithstanding these laws, is found to have been prevalent among the Jews even at the time of king Saul (1 Sam. xxviii), and later (Psa. cvi, 28, and the prophets) ; (h) from the name which the Jews gave to the kingdom of the dead, pixd (oojjc), which so fre- quently occurs in Closes as well as subsequent writings of the O. T. That Moses did not in his laws hold up the punishments of the future world to the terror of transgressors is a circumstance which redoimds to his praise, and cannot be alleged against him as a matter of reproach, since to other legislators the charge has been laid that they were either deluded or impostors for pursuing the very opposite course. Another reason why IMoses did not touch the question of the immortal- ity of the soul is that he did not intend to give a sys- tem of theology in his laws. But so much is clear from certain passages in his writings, that he was by no means ignorant of this doctrine. Compare Michaelis, Argumenta pro Immortalitate Animi e Mose Collecta, in the Syntagm. Comment, i (Gcittingen, 1759) ; Lilderwald, Unters. von d. Kenntniss eines Iciinftigen Lehens i. A . Test. (Helmstiidt, 1781) ; Semler, Beanticortung d. Fragen d. Wolfciibiittelschen Ungenannten; Seller, Observ. ad p)sy- chologiam sacram (Erlang. 1779).
" The following texts from the \mtings of ]\Ioses may be regarded as indications of the doctrine of immortal- ity, viz. Gen. v, 22, 24, where it is said Respecting Enoch, that because he lived a pious life God took him, so that he was no more among men. This was designed to be the reward and consequence of las pious life, and it points to an invisible life with God, to which he attain- ed without previously suffering death. Gen. xxxvii, 35, Jacob says, ' I will go down to " the grave" (^iXlp) unto my son.' AVe have here distinctly exhibited the idea of a place where the dead dwell connected together in a society. In conformity with this idea we must ex- plain the phrase to go to his fathers (Gen. xv, 15), or to be gathered to his people [more literally, to enter into their habitation or abode^ (Gen. xxv, 8; xxxv, 29; Numb. XX, 24, etc.). In the same way many of the In- dian savages (as we have already seen) express their expectation of an immortality beyond the grave. Paul argues from the text Gen. xlvii, 9, and similar passages where Jacob calls his life a. joui^ney,- that the patriarchs expected a life after death (Heb. xi, 13-16 ; yet he says, very truly, TvoppioQtv ISovric rac t^ayj^Xiac). In IMatt. xxii, 23, Christ refers, in arguing against the Sad- ducees, to Exod. iii, 6, where Jehovah calls himself the God of Isaac and Jacob (i. e. their protector and the ob- ject of their worship), long after their death. It could not be that their aslies and their dust should worship God; hence he concludes that they themselves could not have ceased to exist, but that, as to their souls, they still lived (comp. Heb. xi, 13-17). This passage was in-