Apocalyptic literature

These words occur most frequently and with most special significance in the two books of the Wisdom Literature in the Apocrypha, viz. those of Wisdom and Sirach. In the former {w occurs in several interesting con- nexions, ef. Wis 113 ‘Court not death in the error of your life’ (cf. Pr 855 and 21°); 1318 ‘for life he beseecheth that which is dead,’ where reference is made to idolatry; cf. also 14% ‘the invention of them (i.e.

idols) was the corruption of life’; 16” ‘for thou hast authority over life and death, and thou leadest down to the gates of Hades, and leadest up again,’ ? In the Book of Sirach ζωή occasionally means sustenance, e.g. 41 ‘My son, deprive not the poor of his living,’ 3421 ‘The bread of the needy is the life of the poor.’ The general use is that of the figurative and absolute sense we have found in Pr and elsewhere, e.g. 413 ‘He that loveth her (ἐκ. 6 Wisdom) loveth life,’ cf.

Pr 3:8: 6'° a faithful friend 116 LIFE AND DEATH is a medicine of life,’ 15" ‘before men is life and death’ (cf. Dt 3019), For the special phrase πηγὴ ζωῆς, see 21 ‘The knowledge of a wise man shall be made to abound as a flood, and his counsel as a fountain of life’ (cf. Pr 13* and 14%). An instruc- tive contrast is found in 40” ‘A man that looketh unto the table of another, his life is not to be counted for a life.’ ψυχή has also one or two usages that may be noted here.

Itis, of course, poeenly translated soul in the general sense of that word, as in Wis 3! ‘the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,’ but frequently comes near to its NT significance, e.g. Wis 9 ‘a corruptible body weigheth down the soul’ (cf. 2 Co 5'*), cf. 155 ‘when he is required to render back the soul (life) which waslent him.’ Two verses bring the several terms into close conjunction, Wis 15"!

‘He was ignorant of him that inspired into him an active soul (ψυχή), and breathed into him a vital spirit (πνεῦμα ζωτικόν). But he accounted our very life (ζωή) to be a plaything, and our lifetime (βίος) a gainful fair’; cf. also 16}4, In Sirach we may note two passages: 10” ‘Who will justify him that sinneth against his own soul (ux)? and who will glorify him that dishonoureth his own life (ζωή) ?’ and 16” ‘ the soul of every living thing’ (ψυχὴν παντὸς ζῴου). In 2 Esdras, ch.

7, there is a very important passage, mainly contained in the portion re- covered by Bensly, a translation of which is to be found in the RV. It is a vision of the last judgment, which is to be preceded by seven days of such silence as was before the Creation ; then follows the general resurrection, and the seating of the Most High in majesty as judge.

The seer understands how few can stand in the judgment, and exclaims, ‘An evil heart hath grown up in us, which hath led us astray from these statutes, and hath brought us into cor- ruption and into the ways of death, hath showed us the paths of perdition, and removed us far from life ; and that not a few only, but well-nigh all that have been created’ (738). Thereafter follows a vision of the various stages through which the wicked and the righteous pass after death.

The day of judgment is declared to be ‘the end of this time and the beginning of immortality’ (though et initium is omitted in the Lat. MS) (7 015), Again, in the 8th chapter the Most High declares to the seer, ‘ Unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life is planted, the time to come is prepared... weakness is done away for you, and [death] is hidden ; hell and corruption are fled into forgetful- ness . .

and in the end is showed the treasure of immortality’ (8°: 8), In the Psalms of Solomon a few passages deal with the resurrection, e.g. 315 ‘They that fear the Lord shall rise again to lite everlasting. And their life shall be in the light of the Lord, and shall fail no more’; 1310 ‘The life of the righteous is for ever, but sinners shall be taken away for destruc- tion’; 145- 5 «The holy of the Lord shall live in him for ever; the paradise of the Lord, the trees of life, are his holy ones.

The holy of the Lord shall in- herit life in gladness.’ For sinners the lot is also e¢pointed in accordance with their deeds; thus 34 “We fell, because evil was his fall, and he shall not rise again; the destruction of the sinner is for everlasting’; and 15" ‘Sinners shall perish in the day of the Lord’s judgment for ever, when God shall visit the earth in His judgment, to re- pay sinners for everlasting.’ n the Book of Enoch (chs.

38-44) occurs a pas- sage resembling the one quoted above from 2 Esdras, in which are seen in vision the celestial abodes prepared for the righteous, where they bless and magnify the Lord for ever and ever. Similar passages on the judgment are found in chs. 51. 61. LIFE AND DEATH 92. 103. and 108, from which we learn that the resurrection of the body pertains only to the right- eous.

In the Apocalypse of Baruch we have the uni- versal resurrection foretold, and the punishment of the wicked, as, ¢.g., in ch. 30 ‘And the secret places shall be opened wherein have been kept the souls of the righteous, and they shall come forth but the souls of sinners shall languish the | more, for they know that their punishment has come.’ C. NT TEACHING.—(1) The Synoptics.—In the first three Gospels these words are used with con- siderable fulness and variety of meaning.

We have ‘life’ (ζωή) used absolutely as an equivalent for salvation in its fullest sense, as in Mt 7 ‘ For narrow is the gate and straitened the way that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it’; and in the repeated phrase ‘to enter into life,’ Mt 18° ete., Mk 9* ete.; once (Lk 16%) the word is used of ‘lifetime on earth.’ ‘Eternal life’ (ζωὴ αἰώνιος) occurs a few times, cf.

Mt 1929, Mk 103, yuh is wig ore used for the natural physical ife in the body, as in Mt 2” ‘the young child's life,’ Mt 6 ‘Be not anxious for your life.’ Yet these are separable, and are commonly spoken of as ‘body’ and ‘soul.’ Thus Mt 10% ‘ Be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

’ This double sense of the word, as denoting the higher and lower life,—that inherent in the earthly body, and that which remains when the union is broken, —lends itself to what may be almost called a play upon the word, as in the recurring thought, e.g. t 1039 ‘ He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it,’ cf. Mt 16% and the parallels.

In the same sense is life used in such passages as ‘rest unto your lives’ (EV ‘souls’), Mt 1155; ‘In your patience ye shall gain possession of your lives’ (EV ‘souls’), Lk 2110, ii one case fw is used with a similar meaning, viz. Lk 12 ‘a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,’ ψυχή is also used of our Lord’s offer- ing of Himself, as in Mk 10* ‘to give his life a ransom for many.

’ βίος is used of ‘living’ in the sense of mainten- ance, and only occurs once outside of Luke, and that in a parallel passage quoting our Lord’s own words, viz. ‘all her living,’ Mk 124, ef. Lk 214 See also Lk 151" 89 and 853, In one case it denotes the earthly existence, viz. Lk 8 ‘cares and riches and pleasures of this life.

’ θάνατος in the Synoptics denotes death as the termination of this earth] life, as Mt 16% ‘shall not taste of death,’ M 10* ‘condemn him to death,’ Lk 22% ‘I am ready to go to death,’ etc. (2) The Johannine Writings.—(a) The Gospel.— The idea of life (ζωή) is a favourite one with the writer of the Fourth Gospel, and has a special sig- nificance.

‘Life’ in the absolute sense (with or without the epithet ‘eternal’) in which he uses it is the special possession of God, of which He makes men sharers when they believe in Him through His Son. Thus Jn 14 ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men’; 3!

‘that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life’; 3° ‘he that be- lieveth not the Son shall not see life’; 5° ‘as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself’; 175 ‘This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ’; 1010 ‘I came that they may have life,’ etc. Specially noteworthy are the phrases Christ uses to describe Himself and His mission.

‘The bread of life,’ 6%; ‘the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life,’ 6%; ‘he ’ LIFE AND DEATH that followeth me shall have the light of life,’ 8! ; ‘T am the life,’ 11% 148; cf. also 4". ψυχή is used in similar senses as above noted, but of special value is the form of our Lord’s word in 12% ‘He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

’ θάνατος in this compel forms a distinct contrast to ζωή, as above illustrated, e.g. 5% ‘He that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me . . hath passed out of death unto life’ (cf. Pauline use below); but it is also frequently used in the ordinary signification. (6) The First Epistle.—The special signification of ἕωή and θάνατος that we have noted in the Gospel recurs in the first Epistle, and receives new applications.

Thus 1 Jn 1} ‘That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard . concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested . . and we declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father)’; ‘we know that we have passed out of death into life,’ 34; ‘God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son,’ 5". Special note must be taken of the verses (5!

17) that deal with ‘sin unto death’ (ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον), probably ‘tending towards’ death (see Westcott’s Commentary, in Zeco, and Add. Note, p. 209). (c) The Apocalypse.—This mystical book has many references to life, particularly in figurative phrases, such as ‘the tree of life,’ 2’ 22? (in which return is made to the imagery of the early tradi- tions of Genesis, ef.

Ezk 47"); ‘the crown of life,’ 2; ‘the book of life,’ 3° 13°; ‘waters of life,’ 717 21° 227, ψυχή is used of the life separated from the body, hence rendered ‘souls’ in our version in 6° and 204, Very Hebraic are its uses in 89 and 16°, being an obvious imitation of the language of Gn 1 (πῇ w53). A striking use is that in 18%, where ψυχὰς ἀνθρώπων are reckoned among the merchandise of the traders, sprobabl meaning slaves (cf. Ezk 273; also Nu 31%: 10. 46 [Heb)). (3) The Epistles of St. Paul.

—In addition to uses of ψυχή similar to those already given, the follow- ing are noteworthy : peas. the will of God ἐκ ψυχῆς (‘from the heart,’ EV),’ Eph 6°; obviously it means ‘ putting all the power of one’s life into it’; ef. Col 3%. The threefold partition of human nature is given in 1 Th 5“ ‘may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire.’ St. Paul’s use ot ζωή in the absolute sense is very much akin to St. John’s. The phrase ‘eternal life’ is common, cf.

Ro 27 5% 6”, Gal 68, 1 Ti 1° ete. Illustrations of the use of ζωή as fully expressing the highest possible life are found in Ro 5" ‘the . reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ’; Ro 64 ‘we also might walk in newness of life’; Ro 7” ‘the commandment which was unto life’; Ro 8” ‘the Spirit is life because of righteous- ness’; 2 Co 2 ‘a savour from life unto life’; 2 Co 4 ‘that the life also of Jesus may be mani- fested in our body’; 2 Co 5* ‘swallowed up of life.

’ In the same way he τα απ ΒΥ uses the verb ζῆν, 4.0. 2 Co 6° ‘as dying, and, behold, we live’; Ph 1*! ‘to me to live is Christ’; 1 Th 38 ‘for now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord.’ The Heb. form ‘7 5x, in its LXX equivalent, θεὸς ζῶν, is frequent, not only in direct quotations, but in St. Paul’s own writing, e.g. Ro 955 (from LXX), 2 Co 3° 68, 1 Th 1°, 1 Ti 8:5 41, In the case of the word θάνατος, while frequently used in its common signification, as, ¢.g., Ro 8, 1 Co 154, Ph 28 etc.

, it bears in the Pauline writings very deep and wide-reaching meanings. Some- times it is personified (as in the OT), e.g. Ro δι" ‘Death reigned from Adam until Moses’; 1Co 15% ‘the last enemy that shall be abolished is death.

’ LIFE AND DEATH 11i describe the putting away of sin, as in Ro 6**, where we read of being ‘baptized into Christ's death,’ of ‘him that hath died’ being ‘justified from sin,’ and so on; or, on the contrary, Ro 7 speaks of the commandment being ‘found unto death,’ for ‘sin, finding occasion through it, slew’ Paul. The sinful flesh is called ‘this body of death’ (Ro 7%). ‘The mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life’ (Ro 85).

‘Death’ in its ugurative sense is further illustrated in 2 Co 19:10 ‘we ourselves have had the answer of death within ourselves . . God who delivered us out of so great a death.’ The messengers of the Cross are ‘in them that are peuning asavour from death unto death’ (215), The law is ‘the ministration of death’ (2 Co 37, cf. 7°). Death as a dissolution is spoken of as a present power in 2 Co 4"? ‘we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake . .

so then death worketh in us, but life in you.’ In 2 Ti 1” we read of Christ ‘who abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.’ (4) The Rest of the NT.—In He 716 we read of ‘the power of an endless life (ζωῆς ἀκαταλύτου-τε indissoluble).’ In Ja 1 we have the figure of the ‘crown of life.’ In 1 P 37 we read of ‘the grace of life,’ and in 2 Ρ 18 of ‘all things that pertain unto life,’ obviously in the absolute sense.

In Jude” there is the striking phrase ‘looking unto the merey of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.’ In 1 ψυχή is of frequent occurrence in Hebraic senses, and might sometimes be rendered ‘life,’ as in 4! ‘commit their souls in welldoing unto a faithful Creator’; cf.

He 10° 12° 1317, The most important passages on ‘death’ are in He 29-1415 which tells of « Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour ; that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man .. that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage’; and He 9-18.

See also Ja 1° ‘Sin, when it is full- grown, bringeth forth death’; and 1 P 315 of Christ “being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit.’ iii. CONCLUSIONS TO BE DRAWN FROM SCRIP- TURAL USE OF THESE WorDs.—(a) Doctrinal.— God isin Himself the source of all life, physical, moral, and spiritual. He has not only called it into being, but sustains it. Life is God’s gift, and can have no other origin. It is therefore a direct offence against God to destroy even physical life.

This sentient life is, in the OT, represented as inhering in, and inseparable from, the blood of the animal. Hence blood becomes sacred. It is a symbol of the mystery of life with which it is identified. Blood thus becomes the most sacred and solemn sacrificial offering. Sin is rebellion against God, and so involves separation from Him, which culminates in death. Thus death is the final punishment of sin. By death, then, can it alone be destroyed.

Therefore sacrifice was necessary; and in the sacrifice the victim and offerer become identified, so that the latter’s sin is cleansed through the acceptance of the offered life of the victim. Not only so, but this sacrifice must be continual, in order to main- tain the fellowship that is being daily broken. Life is possible only through sacrifice. Yet ‘death is common to the race.’ What then? Death in the OT means a land of gloom and shadow, where intercourse with God isimpossible.

The inhabitants of that realm can neither pray nor praise. Their life is joyless and colourless. That this could not be the end forall gradually became clear, so there arose It is frequently used in a figurative sense to! a doctrine of a double meaning both in ‘life’ and LIFE AND DEATH LIFE AND DEATH eat basis of Ezekiel’s appeal. One of the greatest essons of the Book of Jonah is to enforce the value of life in the eyes of God.

He had pity on the great city of Nineveh because it had within it ‘sixscore thousand persons ... and also much cattle.’ Life, even that of animals, is precious ir His eyes, and all that is possible must be done to save it. Life must be guided by moral precepts, and these are clearly set forth as the condition of a long and honoured career, e.g.

Ps 15, which states the char- acteristics of the man ‘that shall never be moved’; Ps 16, which contains the assurance of flowy with God, continued after Sheol has been passe through; Ps 916 119, Pr passim, but specially 832-36 1016-25 198. 16. 20-23 When we turn to the NT we find these ideas much more clearly emphasized and enforced by additional considerations. Jesus in His teaching re-sets the moral law, and renders it more stringent by His interpretation.

Murder is no longer con- fined to an outward act, but is an attitude of the soul; lust is in thought as well as in deed. And these standards are to be the guide of the new life He bestows. A man can live only by obeyin; these statutes in their spirit. To be an inheritor of the kingdom of God one need only keep the first and second commandments,—love God and love one’s neighbour ; but their interpretation and out- reach is very wide; they are not to be understood in the letter but in the spirit.

If His conditions are understood, then His command gives the promise, _ ‘This do, and thou shalt live’ (Lk 10%). ‘ Eternal life’ is not only the gift of God, but the condition of maintaining it is to be in constant communion with God. ‘He that eateth me, he also shall live because of me,’ are Christ’s mystical words in Jn 6°”. And again, in Jn 10 we read, ‘I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly (καὶ περισσὸν ἔχωσιν). This links our Lord’s teaching closely with that of St.

Paul, who is very clear on the ethical side of the doctrine of the divine life. Thus in Ro 5 he argues that ‘if we were recon- ciled to God through the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.’ From this thought springs the whole con- ception of the new life in Christ, with its powers, rivileges, and responsibilities. It is not the man himself who lives, but Christ who lives in him. The controlling force is Christ.

‘To me to live is Christ,’ says the apostle. A new code of ethical conduct therefore emerges, ‘We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh ; for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the spirit x mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live’ (Ro 812.18)" Hence there is a mortal conflict in the man who is ‘alive unto God’ between the flesh] law and the spiritual.

The tragedy of Calvary is re-enacted in eack individual soul, which has both to be crucified with Christ and to rise with Him. The evidence of this new life isin the production of the ‘fruits of the Spirit,’ of which we have a list, as contrasted with the ‘works of the flesh’ in Gal 519-93. Thus the great doctrine of the resurrec- tion becomes the central power in daily Christian living, and affords not ony. the assurance of a life beyond the grave, but renders possible the advance ἐν Boe!

without which no man can see <he ord. ‘death.’ True life meant conscious and purposed fellowship with God; true death was not the dis- solution of body and soul, but the separation of sin persisted in. Thus we find Job and the Psalmists rising to the conception of escape from Hades, and to the assurance of an endless life in God’s presence. The way to ensure this is to walk in God’s statutes, and love and honour Him with all one’s heart. He will vindicate His chosen against all enemies.

Thus, through the more definite teaching on im- mortality of later Judaism, was paved the way for the doctrine of the New Testament. Our Lord did not have to explain the meaning of ‘ eternal life’ and its opposite, but to show how they were respectively to be avoided and won. Fellow- ship is once more the prominent and central idea. words point to it. To ‘know,’ to ‘love,’ to ‘eat,’ to ‘drink,’ to ‘keep words and command- ments,’ to ‘have’—these constitute the language of the eternal life.

The intimacy of union with God through Christ becomes its one essential con- dition; and, on the contrary, the lack of that union entails eternal death. In the teaching of St. Paul we find that the lower life is purified and transformed into the higher. All that is sensual, sinful, earthly, dies, and only the spiritual elements remain.

But life is one and undivided, so that even the body has its spiritual protoplasm (so to say), like the germ within the seed, which develops into the spiritual body, and so gives reality to the resurrection. It is the resurrection that crowns the work of faith, ‘if in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable.’ It is no unreal, shadowy, or partial life that lies beyond the grave, but life in all its fulness and perfection—‘ the life that is life indeed.

’ The NT is consistent in presenting Christ as the sole mediator of life. is life inheres in God, and the life He isenabled to communicate to men inheres in Him. Even the life of the physical universe as possible only in Him—‘all things have been created through him and unto him’ (Col 158, 1Co8*). In St. Paul and in St. John we find the fullest presentation of these teachings, but all agree in the primary conceptions. St.

John’s teach- ing on the eternal life is very full and varied, and is thus admirably summed up by Dr. Westcott: ‘Tt is a life which, with all its fulness and all its porns, is now : a life which extends beyond the imits of the individual, and preserves, completes, crowns individuality by placing the part in con- nexion with the whole: a life which satisfies while it quickens aspiration ...

a life which gives unity to the constituent parts and to the complex whole, which brings together heaven and earth, which offers the sum of existence in one thought’ (Comm. on Epp. of John, pp. 217, 218). (Ὁ) Ethical.—Because life is God’s unique gift, it is held to be sacred.

Hence all crimes against life, that lessen its value by maiming the body’s physical powers or purity, by rendering life burden- some through oppression, or still more by destroying it altogether in the act of murder, are reckoned as amongst the most heinous. The sacredness of life ja all these forms is safeguarded in the command- nents cf the Decalogue, and in the various elaborate provisions of the Jewish legislation.

The ethical value of life is distinctly felt by all the prophets, so that their most severe denunciations are levelled against those who oppress or debauch the poor, und by acts of injustice render life hard and bitter. In this same thought the OT finds its strongest arguments for immortality. Life is too great to be destroyed, therefore God will either save His servants trom Sheol altogether, or will rescue them eventually from its thraldom.

God is interested that men shall live and not die ;—this makes the (Paris, 1891-2); Farrar, Eternal Hope, and Mercy and Judg- ment; Salmond, Christian Doctrine Immortality, 1897 ; Beet, The Last Things, 142 ff.; Hort, The Way, the Truth, and the Life, 1893 (Hulsean Lect. for 1871); Sanday-Headlam, Com on Romans (on 68 79 86 105 121); Stevens, Johannine Theology. | LIGHT LIGHT, LIGHTNESS 119 812 ff.; Hyde, Social Theology, 149 ff.; Dahle, Life after Death ; Macpherson, art. ‘The New Test.

View of Life’ in Expos. 1st Ser. v. 72 ff.; Massie, art. ‘Two New Test. Words denoting Life’ in Expos. 2nd Ser. iv. 380ff.; Matheson, art. ‘Pauline View of Death’ in Expos, 2nd Ser. v. 40 ff. See also the authorities cited under the three articles on EscHaTo.oey in vol. i.; the Ozford Concordance to the LXX ; and the comm. on the books quoted. G. C. MARTIN. LIGHT (Heb. ix, 7\x>, the latter of the sun and moon as the abode of light, Gn 115 15. Gr. ¢&s).*— i.

With the Jews, as among other Oriental peoples, there was a feeling of sanctity connected with the idea of light. It was, according to Gn 15, the first thing shaped by God out of chaos, and after- wards located in the sun and moon. In Job 38” the original source of light is a mystery known only to God. ii. By very natural processes of thought many secondary ideas became attached to the word.

(1) In Job 3” it is a synon of life, contrasted in 315 with the darkness of the womb, and in 10” with the shadow of death. (2) It is associated very fre- quently with joy and prosperity, as in Est 8°, Job 185: 6. where the light of the wicked is to be put out, whereas in Job 22% the light shines on the EYE of the righteous. In Is 9 the joy of Israel under the government of the ‘Prince of Peace’ is to be like the shining of a great light in contrast to the preceding misery (cf. 2S 234).

(3) It is used as a symbol of moral excellence, as in Pr 418, where progress in goodness is compared with the dawning ‘that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’ This use is very frequent in NT, as in Mt 65:3 (Lk 11%), often with the collateral thought of the influence which the light has upon others, as in Mt 5'*!

8 (Lk 816 11%) ; so of Christianity in con- trast with the darkness of heathendom, as in Eph 5% 12) Col 22-18 1 P 2% In Ro 132" 1 Th 54%, in connexion with this thought there is a contrast between the active duty of a soldier’s life by day and the debauchery of night. (4) The term is also sputied to spiritual knowledge. Thus in Lk 168 the ‘sons of light’ are contrasted with the ‘sons of this world’ in point of wisdom.

In 2 Co4*® the lory of Christ’s revelation illumining the hearts of ΝΣ και is beautifully compared with the light on Moses’ face in Ex 347%, See also iii. (3) (a) below. (5) In a more intellectual sense the word is used of the occult wisdom of the sage in Dn 2” 54-14, iii. By far the most important uses of the word are those connected more definitely with theology. That the Hebrews, like other Sem.

peoples, origin- ally worshipped the sun and moon may perhaps be considered pene but cannot be proved from OT. In the earliest historical records they appear, on the contrary, as believing in an intensely personal God, as in Gn 3° 8}, Ex 4%. At the same time the idea of God was frequently associated with light.

How far such conceptions of the Deity were the expression of definite theological belief, how far they were merely the language of poetic metaphor, cannot always be determined with any- thing like certainty. In all probability the one passed into the other by imperceptible gradations, the thought of an earlier becoming gradually the poetry of a later age. (1) In Ex 24" the place under God’s feet was like ‘a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness.

’ In Ezk V8 the heavenly beings who bear the throne of J” are ‘like burning coals of fire,’ and in 1% ‘the appearance of the likeness of the glory of J”’ is like ‘ the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rair.’ In Ps 104? He is described as at the Creation covering Himself with light as with a garment,’ and in 1 Ti 6" as dwelling ‘in light unapproach- able.

’ In Is 60'- the presence of J” when ite comes to visit His people is described as a glorious sunrise in contrast to the darkness which covered the earth See under art, LANTERN, as a whole ; and in 6019. 39 His perpetual presence is as a sun which never sets, so that His people have no need of the sun and moon, ef. Rey 217 22°, (2) In other passages God is described as Himself Light.

In Is 10” He is called the ‘ light of Israel,’ the main thought of the passage being that He who is properly the glory of Israel becomes a con- suming fire burning up the ungodly, οἵ. Hos 6° (RVm). In Is 51‘, on the contrary, God’s judgment of Israel, in the sense of His merciful acts of justice, is a beacon light to the Gentiles, cf. 60°.

“In the words ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all’ (1 Jn 15), the intention is to express the ‘awful urity’’ of God, which makes it impossible to have ellowship with God and walk in darkness. (3) In NT the word ‘light’ is frequently applied to Christ a usage suggested by such passages as Is 9!-?

, as ir Lk 2, Jn 1*-%® 319 06 12%, especially (a) with the idea of imparting light, in the sense of spiritua: and moral knowledge, to others, as in Jn 19 34-2 (6) As a source of safety to Himself (Jn 11%) and others (8}3 12: 86), the ight making it possible to walk in what would be otherwise darkness, and therefore dangerous. (c) On the analogy of ii. (1) it is associated with spiritual life, as in Jn 15 8”; οἵ. Eph δ᾽. ‘ Awake . . and Christ shall give thee light.’ (d) Although St.

John speaks both of the Father (1 Jn 15) and of the Son as Light, there is nothing to show that he himself conceived of Light as suggesting the relation of the Son to the Father; on the contrary, Jn 1}. 18 would seem to imply a leaning towards a more anthropomorphic con- ception of the Divine Persons.

But a step in the direction of the Nicene conception of ‘ Light out of Light’ had already been made by the writer of the Wisdom of Solomon, who speaks of wisdom as an ἀπαύγασμα φωτὸς ἀϊδίου, καὶ εἴσοπτρον ἀκηλίδωτον τῆς τ. θεοῦ ἐνεργείας, ‘An effulgence of everlasting Light, and an unspotted mirror of the energy of God’ (Wis 7”). The writer of the Ep. to the Heb.

boldly applies this thought to Christ, whom he calls the ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ (θεοῦ), ‘the effulgence of (God’s) glory, and the impress of his substance’ (He 1), and thus introduces the familiar thought of Catholic theology, made all the more natural and easy by the language of St. John. (4) The word was applied also in a less degree to others: as John the Baptist, who lighted up the way to Christ (Jn 17-8 5835), and St.

Paul, who carried out Christ’s work among the Gentiles (cf. Lk 953 with Ac 13:7). It is needless, perhaps, to add that the ideas of light derived from the Bible have in all ages been reflected in the prayers and hymns, as well as in the creeds, of Christendom. We have familiar illustra- tions of them in the collect ‘ Lighten our darkness,’ and the hymn ‘ Lead, kindly light.’ F. H. Woops.