IMMORTALITY
516
EVIMORTALITY
terpreted in the same way by the Jews after Christ ( Wetstein, ad loc). In the subsequent books of the (). T. the texts of this nature are far more numerous. Still more definite descriptions are given of l^iX^, and the condition of the departed there ; e. g. Isa. xiv, 9 sq. ; also in the Psahns and in Job. Even in these texts, however, the doctrine of the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked in the kingdom of the dead is not so clearly developed as it is in the N. T. ; this is true even of the book ol' Job. All that we find here with respect to this point is only obscure intima- tion, so that the Pauline TvoppioBev iJcivrfc is appUca- ble, in relation to this doctrine, to the other books of the O. T. as well as to those of Moses. In the Psahns there are some plain allusions to the expectation of re- ward and pmiishment after death, particularly Psa. xvii, 15; xlix, 15, 16; Ixxiii, 24. There are some passages in the prophets where a revivification of the dead is spoken of, as Isa. xxvi, 19; Dan. xii, 2; Ezek. xxvii; but, although these do not teach a litei-al resurrection of the dead, but rather refer to the restoration of the nation and land, stiU these and aU such figurative rep- resentations presuppose the proper idea that an invis- ible part of man survives the body, and will be here- after united to it. Very clear is also the passage Ec- cles. xii, 7, ' The body must return to the earth from whence it was taken, but the spirit to God who gave it,' evidently alluding to Gen. iii, 19. See Siieol.
" From all this we draw the conclusion that the doc- trme of the immortality of the soul was not unknown to the Jews before the Babylonian exile. It appears also from the fact that a general expectation existed of rewards and punishments in the future world, although in comparison with what was afterwards taught on this point there was at that time very little definitely known respecting it, and the doctrine, therefore, stood by no means in that near relation to religion and morality into which it was afterwards brought, as we find it often in other wholly uncultivated nations. Hence this doctrine is not so often used by the prophets as a motive to right- eousness, or to deter men from evil, or to console them in the midst of suffering. But on this very account the piety of these ancient saints deserves the more regard and admiration. It was in a high degree unpretending and disinterested. Although the prospect of what lies beyond the grave was, as Paul said, the promised blessing which they saw only from afar, they yet had pious dis- positions, and trusted God. They held merely to the general promise that God their Father would cause it to be well with them even after death (Psa. Ixxiii, 26, 2i^, 'When my strength and my heart faileth, God will be the strength of my heart, and my portion forever'). But it was not until after the Baliylonian captivity that the ideas of the Jews on this su1)ject appear to have be- . come enlarged, and that this doctrine was brought by the prophets, under the divine guidance, into a more immediate connection with religion. This result be- comes very apparent after, the reign of the Grecian kuigs over Syria and Egypt, and their persecutions of the Jews. The prophets and teachers living at that time (of whose writings, however, nothing has come • down to us) must therefore have given to their nation, time after time, more instruction upon this subject, and must have explained and unfolded flic alhisirms to it in the earlier prophets. Thus we find tliat aficr tliis time, more frequently than before, the Jews si.uglit and found in this doctrine of immortalit}' and of future retribution, consolation, and encouragenunt under their trials, and a motive to piety. Such discourses were therefore fre- quently put in the mouths of the martyrs in the second book of Maccabees, e. g. vi, 26 ; vii, 9 sq. ; comp. xii, 43- 45 ; see also the Book of Wisdom, ii, 1 sq. ; and especial- ly iii, 1 sq., and the other apocryphal books of the 0. T. At the time of Christ, and afterwards, this doctrine was universally received and taught by the Pharisees, and was, indeed, the prevailing belief among the Jews, as is well known from the testimony of the N. T., of Jose-
phus, and also of Philo. Tacitus also refers to it hi his history, 'Animas pra^Uo aut suppliciis peremptorum ajternas putant.' Consult an essaj-^ comparing the ideas of the apocryphal books of the O. T. on the subjects of immortality, resurrection, judgment, and retribution, with those of the N. T., written by Frisch, in Eichhorn'a Bibliothek der Biblkchen Litei-atiir, b. iv ; Ziegler, TkeoL A bhandl. pt. ii. No. 4 ; Flugge, Geschichte des Glaiihens an UnsterUichkeit, etc., pt. i. The Sadducees, boasting of a great attachment to the O. T., and especially to the books of Moses, were the only Jews who denied this doctrine, as well as the existence of the soul as distinct from the body" (Knapp, Theology, § cxlix). (See Jo- hannsen. Vet. Heb. notiones de rebus post viortem, Hafn. 1826.) See Eesuiirection.