THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
resume his interrupted study of theology in 1835, and three years later he was ordained to the ministry. For a time he acted as assistant preacher, visited Bonn and Berlin in 1840, and in 1845 was appointed pastor at Buren-on-the-Aar, whence he was called, four years later, to the chair of New Testament exegesis and dogmatics at the University of Bern. He sought to serve both science and the Church by allowing his pupils full freedom of belief, but while he won the confidence of the students, he failed to meet with sympathy among those who considered piety inseparable from confession of faith. As a consequence he was attacked in various periodicals, and wrote in his own defense two pamphlets: Die theologische Fakultat und ihre Gegner, and Was wir glauben und lehren, eine Verivahrung gegen Missverstandnisse, both of which appeared at Bern in 1864. Two years later he opposed the demands of the so-called reform party that the results of scientific researches be made known to the people from the pulpit as well as in the schools, and was accordingly accused of deserting his fundamental principles, whereas his attitude was really due to the fact that his concepts of God and revelation deviated from those held by the party.
Immer was the author of a Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments (Wittenberg, 1873; Eng. transl., Hermeneutics of the New Testament, by A. H. Newman, Andover, 1S77) and a Theologie des Neuen Testaments (Bern, 1877), besides several collections of lectures. In 1852 he was appointed rector of the University of Bern. (E. BLOSCHf.)
Bibliography: F. Trechsel, Der Gottesgelehrte H. A. Immer, Bern, 1899; E. Miiller, in Volksblalt fur die reformirte Kirche der Schweiz, 1884, pp. 105 sqq.; R. Steck, in Protestantische Kirchenzeitung, 1884, no. 17; R. Riietschi, in Theologische Zeitschrift aus der Schweiz, i. 359-362.
IMMERSION. See Baptism.
IMMORTALITY.
I. Biblical Views.
Old-Testament Teaching (§ 1). Apocryphal and Later Jewish Views (§ 2). New-Testament Teaching (§ 3). II. Ethnic Doctrine of Immortality.
III. In Dogmatics.
IV. Proofs of Immortality. V. The Original Motives.
VI. The Principal Elements of the Christian Idea of
Immortality. VII. The Truth of These Forms of Experience. VIII. Additional Note.
I. Biblical Views : Existence after death, when not directly denied, is problematical (Ps. Ixxxviii. 11-13). Yahwism found in ancient Israel, as part i. Old- of the traditional Semitic religious be- Testament liefs, the idea of a shadowy world (see Teaching. Sheol,, and cf . C. Gruneisen, Der Ahnenkultus und die Urreligion Israels, Halle, 1900; Smith, Rel. of Sem.). But neither the promises which inspired the patriarchal, nor the motives of the Mosaic, legislation contain clear indications of the endurance of the individual. The account of Elijah's translation is indecisive, as are the case of Enoch and the saga concerning Moses's death. Loss of immortality consequent on sin is presented only in Gen. ii. 17, iii. 22; cf. Wisdom i. 13, ii. 24.
Near the close of the exile faith in immortality is /•expressed in poetic-rhetorical fashion: " deliverance from Sheol " or from " death " (Ps. xxxiii. 19, ciii. 4) ; " eternal life " is " length of (earthly) days " (Ps. xxii. 26, xxx. 3, xxxvii. 28, xli. 12). In communion with God the pious one has life and happiness, and neither heaven and earth nor death and transitoriness can disturb him (Ps. Ixxiii. 22-25)s God is the "life" of the pious (Deut. xxx. 20). So far as death is regarded as the punishment of sin, the Hebrews sought to overcome this by the doctrine of resurrection. Previous to the time of the Maccabees, hope of a new and perfect form of existence beyond the grave is rarely met. The chief passage is Job xix. 25 sqq., which may signify either God will finally justify the dead (H. Schultz), or God will indemnify him in another life (Dillmann), or " God will after my death appear as my advocate " (G. Runze, Studien zur vergleichenden Religionswissenschaft, ii. 199-203, Berlin, 1894), or, in spite of his hopeless condition, God will yet snatch him from death. In prophetic teaching, as Hos. xiii. 14; Isa. xxv. 8, xxvi. 19; I Sam. ii. 6; Ezek. xxxvii., the ideal of national regeneration was transferred to individual renewal, and the ethicizing of the personal relationship to God led to more distinct hopes of a future life — the " resurrection of many " (Dan. xii. 2). Denial of a hope of resurrection in Ecclesiastes does not indicate an opposite tendency at this time; the judgment there referred to (xi. 9-10, iii. 22) is not future; the spirit of life is the breath of God which returns to him. Hope for the future was also bound up with the Messiah, yet not without mythological features (Dan. x. 13). The relation of this post-exilic doctrine of the resurrection to the ancient Persian religion is not yet cleared up (A. Kohut, Ueber die judische Angelologie und Daemonologie, Leipsic, 1866; E. Stave, Einfluss des Parsismus auf das Judentum, ib. 1898). The works of Hubschmann, Wunsche, and P Grobler (Die Ansichten uber Unsterblichkeit und Auferstehung in der judischen Litteratur der beiden letzten Jahrhunderten vor Christus, in JSK, 1879, pp. 651 sqq.) give an insight into the Persian, the pre-Christian Jewish (Apocryphal, pseudepigraphical, and Talmudic) doctrine of immortality. The resemblances are striking, the historical connection not certain. Kohut thinks that Parseeism owes more to Judaism than Judaism to Parseeism; e.g., the doctrine of the seven paradises, and hell, and that at the end of the world grievous plagues will precede the coming of the Savior.
The Jews before Christ took a threefold attitude toward the doctrine of immortality, in general corresponding to the views of Phar- 2. Apoc- isees, Sadducees, Essenes. The preryphal and dominant Daniel-Pharisaic view re- Later Jew- suited in II Maccabees, in which belief ish Views, in the resurrection of all Israelites l^fas regarded as a moral obligation (xii. 43-45). Death was punishment for sin (vii. 18, 32, 38); but God will raise the bodies of the pious. The torment of sinners is strongly emphasized in IV Ezra. Baruch, Sirach, Tobit, and I Maccabees still represent the old Mosaic doctrine