Eschatology (Hastings' Dictionary)

Eschatology gives an account of the final condition of man and the world as this is represented in scripture. The idea of a final condition of man- kind and the world rests on the other idea that history is a moral process, with a jjoal towards which it is moving.

In scripture this moral pro- cess is specifically a redemptive process, of which the author and the finisher is God, He Himself being the end towards which mankind is being dra\vn, for the perfection of man lies in full fellowship with God ; and the perfection of man is reflected in, and subserved by, a new condition of the world, which is transfigured with his redemption. In this view • Ewald. nist. 0/ /«r. bk. i. sec. i. O ; Kuenen, Rfl. of 1st. oh. ii. ; more moderately. Kittel, UiKt.

of Hebrews, Enu'- tr. i. li;9. \ See instances collected by Wetetein, on He 1210, and bj Stanley, Jewish Church, i. p. 47. ESCHATOLOGY ESCHATOLOGV r35 the Messianic idea and hope becomes an important element in eschatology ; but in OT, at least in its earlier portions, tlie Alessianic is not yet so de- veloped as to be a constant feature in the eschato- logieal picture, much less that which gives its whole colour to the picture.

The redeemer is God — 'salvation belongetn unto the Lord' (Ps 3) ; and if the Messiah anjwhere be redeemer or king of the redeemed people, he is so in virtue of the divine in him, as bein" in some way God in mani- festation (Is 9-'').

Tne nomenclature, therefore, of some writers, who employ eschatological and Messianic as synonymous terms, is somewhat confusing; for, though this terminology be more and more justified as revelation advances, there are many eschatological passages even in late writings in which there is not only no mention of the personal Messiah, but in which there is no reason to suppose that the idea of a personal Messiah lay a.s a presupposition in the background of the autlior's thought.

The OT reveals its con- ceptions piecemeal. Its writers are like subordin- ate workmen, each absorbed in his own particular task, in polishing a comer or carving a chapiter or WTeathing a pillar ; it is only when the master- builder appears, with the full idea of the house in his mind, that each of the separate parts takes its place in the building. While, therefore, every Messianic passage i.s eschatological, there are many eschatological pa.isages not Messianic.

Besides exliibiting the scripture views of the final condition of tilings, eschatology may take notice of the phenomen.a, the physical convulsions, or the national commotions amidst which the final condition is ushered in ; or it may go a step farther back and refer to the moral forces bringing about these manifestations and revealed in them. In OT physical nature has no meaning of its own ; it U a mere medium for the transmi.

ssion and mani- festation of moral impulses ; and the same is true in a sense of human history, for, though men and nations act voluntarily, ultimately all their move- ments are inspired and led by God, the First and the Last (Is 41'' 4S'-).

Tlie final condition of men and the world is therefore regarded in OT less as the perfect issue of a gradual ethical advancement in tne mind of men and the nations than as the result of an interposition, or a chain of inter- positions, on the part of God, though these inter- positions, under whatever external forms they may De revealed, are of cour.se all moral. The Eschatology op OT may be treated under two heads : The eschatology of the People, and the eschatology of the individual Person.

As the People in their final condition have necessarily some relation to the nations, the eschatology of the People widens out in many passages to be an eschatology of mankind and the world ; while, on the other hand, owing to the idea prevalent in OT, particularly in the prophets, that the religious •ubject in relation with God is the People, the eschatology of the individual Person in distinction from the I'eonle is little developed, and some of the passages tliat appear to relate to it are uncer- tain in meaning.

In other words, the eschatology of the People is the doctrine of the j)erfection of the kingdom of God upon tlie eartli, while the e-schatology of the individual Person is the doctrine of Immortality. I. EsCHATOLOoy OK TKE PEOPLE.

— Though fonnally the peojile cnme into existence only at the Exodus, yet ideally it already existed in the patriarchal familj' from Abraham downwards (Is 41"), and some of the widest hopes and aspira- tions cherished by the people in later times in regard to their place in the religious history of mankind are alrea<iy expressed in connexion with Abrahanx.

But previous to the time when, by a process of divine selection, the religious destinies of mankind were entrusted to his family, some eschatological intimations were given. It is char- acteristic of all these earlj' intimations that they are general both in meaning and in regard to time. The earliest of tliem, tlie promise that the seed of the woman would liruise the head of the serpent (Gn 3"), bears upon the family of mankind uni- versally.

It may not be easy to say what sense our first parents or even Israelitish readers put into these words. The fulness of meaning which we are now able to express by them, and the indi- vidual application of ' the seed of the woman ' whicli we can make, can hardly have been sug- gested to thum.

But they would be assured tliat the family of mankind would have the upper hand in the struggle against the author of their calami- tous transgression ; and as the meaning and consequences of what had befallen them became clearer, so would their conception of what vas meant by bruising the serpent's head, and how alone that could be d(me.

Equally universalistie, though more definite in regard to the means of its accom- plishment, is the promise given to Abraham, ' In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed ' (Gn 12^).

Such a promise could not soon be ful- filled, and there might be room for conjecture even as to the manner ol fullilment ; j'et tlie patriarch, knowing wherein his own blessedness lay, in his knowledge of God and fellowship with Him, would surmise that through his seed this true kaowledge of Go<l would reach all peoples. The sense is little altered if for 'be blessed' we render 'bless themselves,' i.e. wish for themselves the same blessings as Abraham and his seed are seen to enjoy (cf.

Nu 23'"). Some other passages, such as the Blessing of Noah (Gn 9^"-), are international, religious prominence being given to the family of Sliem ; while others, such as the Blessing of Jacob and Moses (Gn 49, Dt 33), are more national, having respect to the place of the tribes in Canaan. The phra.se 'the last days' (C'5;n n-ins*) describes the farthest future into which the eye of the seer reaches, and may have dirt'erent senses.

In Gn 49' it refers to the final disposition of the tribes in Canaan (though 49'" may have a wider outlook ; see PuorilIXY) ; while in Is 2^ it refers to the final condition of the family of mankind, when all nations shall appeal to the God of Jacob as the righteous arbiter in all international causes. J)t 32 ends with the hope of the victory of Israel over all its enemies, and in his Last Words (2 S 23) David expresses the assurance that under his family a kingdom of Righteousness will arise.

The Day of the Lord.— In the 8th century n.C. the faith of Israel was virtually complete. Amos taught that God is Righteousness ; llosca, that He is Love J I.saiah, that lie is the Lord the King, who has founded His kingdom in Zion, on the throne of which shall sit for ever one of the house of Da\id, the Prince of Peace, filled with the fulness of the Spirit of God (Is 9. 11).

But besides this Messianic eschatology belonging to the second period of Isaiah's career, there is another belonging to the earliest period (clis. 2. 3), which he calls ' the D.'iy of the Lord.' The prophet does not expressl\ combine the two, though they are jirobably to be regarded the one as the dark side and the other as the light side of the same cloud of judgment. In the earlier chapters he moves more among prin- ciples, moral necessities ; in the second period (cli. 7fr.

) the actors are already on the scene who shall carry out the programme which in his first days he perceived to be inevitable. The pliri-sc ' the Day of the Lord ' is first heard in the mouths of the people (Am S'""). The term 'day' is much used in Arabic of a battle day, as the day of Badr, Ohod, and the like, and so in Heb. 'the day o) 736 ESCHATOLOGY ESCIIATOLOGY Midian ' (Is 9*), and this may be its primary mean- ing.

The day of the Lord to the popular mind would be the day when J" their God would interpose in their "behalf to deliver them. Tlie deliverance would be primarily from external hostile oppression, but internal social miseries might also be included. The idea and the phrase maj' tlius be very ancient, though they appear lirst in Amos.

All that the phrase connotes in tlie mouth of the people is the sense of misery and oppression, the belief that only their God can deliver them, faith in His power, and a hope or conviction of His approaching intervention, though on what this conviction was founded does not appear. But to the prophets of this age J" is a purely ethical Being, the moral ruler of Is'ael and the nations, and the sin of Israel and the world demands His intervention.

Hence the first aspect of the day of the Lord is always a day of judgment. But judgment is not an end in itself ; it is only in order to redemption, and behind the storm of judgment there always rises clear the day of salvation. The conception of the sin of the world which compels the intervention of the Judge ditters in different prophets.

In Amos it is social and civil unrighteousness ; in Hosea, religious un- faithfulness ; m Isaiah, insensibility to the majesty of the great King, who must interpose to bring the sense of Himself home to men's minds. ' The day of the Lord ' is an eschatological idea ; the phrase cannot be rendered ' a day of the Lord,' as if any great calamity or judgment felt to be impending might be so named ; the ' day ' ia that of the final and universal judgment.

But, of course, a prophet's presentiment of its nearness might not be realized ; the crisis which he saw impending and deemed the great ' day ' itself, or the beginning of it, niiglit pass over and the ' day ' be deferred. But this fact should not lead us to suppose that the prophets call any great visitation of God by the name of 'the daj' of the Lord.' Again, the terra ' day,' if it originally meant battle day, suggests the presence of some foe whom God uses as His in- strument of judgment.

This feature, however, is not always present in descriptions of the day. Sometimes the terrors of the day of the Lord are represented as due to His manifestation of Himself and the convulsions of nature that accompany His appearing, ' when He arises to shake terribly the earth ' (Is i^"'^).

But at other times, besides the supernatural gloom and terrors that surround Him when He appears, He is represented as using some fierce, distant nation as the instrument by which He executes His judgment (Is 13, Zeph). The judgment of the day of the Lord is a judgment on the Known world, and the nation that executes the judgment is some wUd people emerging from the dark places of the earth lying beyond tlie confines of the known world.

* Once more, when the pro- phets speak of the day of the Lord they always regard it as near (Is 13', Jl 1"> 2'). The coming of the ' day ' itself was a settled belief, but of its time knew no man ; the presentiment of its nearness was awakened in the mind of the prophet by what he saw ot the moral condition of mankind or of the operations of God in the world.

To one prophet the insensibility of men to the niiijesty of the Lord the King seems so frightful that He must interpose to cast down everything that is high, so that He alone shall be exalted in that day (Is 2. 3) ; to another He is so visibly operating in the convulsions of the nations that His full manifestation of Him- self seems at hand (Is 13, Zeph) ; while to a third the severe natural calamities with which He is visiting His people seem the tokens and heralds of His final judgment (Jl 1.

2). The prophets' hearts • Davidson, Nah^ Hob, and Zeph in ' Cambridge Bible,* p. U8 ; Driver, Joei and Amos in same series, p. 185. were filled with gieat religious issues, with pre- sentiments of the future of the world in God's hand. These presentiments were so vivid in their hearts that they were constantly looking for the fulfilment of them.

And thus when the currents of providence, often too sluggish to their eager eyes, received a sudden quickening, when great events were moving and J" visibly interposing in the atl'airs of the world, they felt that He was taking to Ilim His great power. It was but a st«p or two when the kingdom would be the Lord's. (1) In the pre-exilic prophets the day of the Lord is a judgment primarily on Israel (Am 3'-), though it also embraces the nations.

It is Israel's national dissolution, though the dissolution is only in order to a new reconstruction. The sinners of the people shall be destroyed, and a poor and humble people left behind (Zeph 3", Is 2. 3, Hos 4> 2'»«-). (2) With the Exile the judgment on Israel seemed to have been fulfilled, and during the Exile and at the period of the Restoration the judgment of the day of the Lord is represented as falling on the heathen world, and its issue is Israel's redemption (Is 13, Hag, Zee 1-S).

And this feeling is often expressed in passages where the dav of the Lord is not formally mentioned (Is 40 ff.," Ps 93-99). (3) Butafter the Restoration, when Israel was again a people, and the old internal antagonisms and wrongs once more manifested themselves, prophets have to threaten it anew with the refiner's fire of the Day of the Lord (Mai Z^). Still, though in the post- exilic literature the judgment is also a sifting of Israel itself (e.g.

Ps 50), it is mainly regarded as falling on the heathen world, and issues in Israel's deliverance and the restoration of the Diaspora (Dn 7-"^). This idea largely pervades the later Psalms. Psalms differ from prophecy. Like the hymns of all peoples, they are not creative but representative. They give back, in- thanksgiving, in praise, and often in prayer, the faiths and hopes already contained in the mind of the community and long cherished.

And these hopes and faiths are in the main eschatological. When the Psalms speak of the judgment (1° T""" 35'-^ etc.), and of the meek inheriting the earth (37"), of the nearness of the day of the wicked (37''), of seeing God's face in righteousness (17"), of the upright having dominiin speedily over the unrighteous (49"), and much of the same kind, they are not uttering vague hopes never before expressed, but reflecting the certainties of a faith as old at least as the prophets of the 8th cent.

, the certainty of a judgment of God (Is l-^^- 2. 3), and of the rise behind it of a kingdom of righteousness (Is l"* 9' 1 1-""), and peace (Is 2' 9' 11"), and everlasting joy (Is 9', Hos 2'™-). To follow tlie scripture statements regarding the Day of the Lord through the three periods just mentioned would lead to much repetition : it will be enough to state some general points con- nected with the Day.

The Day of the Lord is Hi^ time for manifesting Himself, for displaying His character, for performing His work. His short and strange work upon the earth. ' The Lord of Hosts hath a day upon every one that is proud and lofty, and he shall be brought low . . and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day ' (Is 2'', "). 1.

As it was a day of the manifestation of J', God of Israel, in His fulness and tlierefore in a way to realize His i)urposes, which with Israel and even with the world were those of grace, it is funda- mentally a day of joy to Israel, and even to the world—' the Lord is king, let the earth rejoice, let tlie multitude of the Isles be glad thereof. Say among the nations. The Lord is King ; let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ' (Ps 96).

That J" should reign, and that He should come to the earth as king, must, in spite of all the terrors that might attend His comint:, bring to the wor'-* ESCHATOLOGY ESCHATOLOGY 737 I 1: a pervading gladness. For the falsehood and in- justice thit had cursed the earth so long would disappear, and tlie lon^'ing of men, who were ever in words or sighs saying, Show us the Father, would be satisfied.

But it would be a day of joy above all to Israel, His people, when lie should plead her cause, for the day of vengeance was in His neart and the year of His redeemed was come. Naturally, an accompaniment of the manifestation of J" was tlie disappearance of the idols — ' On that day men shall cjist their idols of silver and their idols of gold to the moles and to the bats ' (Is 2-").

Hut in the view of the prophets those gigantic oppressions, the empires of Assyria and Baliylon, were but projections of their idolatry, with its cruelties and licentiousness and pride. The later prophet Daniel expresses this idea in a grapliic ^/ure when he represents the heathen monarchies ander the symbol of various savage beasts, while the kingdom of God is represented under the image of a man. 2. To those in I.

srael who looked for His coming, apart from the natural terrors of it, it was unmi.xed 'oy (Hab 3). And it would have been so to all 'srael had fidelity to their God been universal. But this was far from being the condition of Israel. There were many who belonged to Israel only in race. They were filled from the East, and sooth- sayers like the Philistines. They imitated the idolatries and jjractised the sins of the nations.

Hence the prophets warn the people against a superficial conception of the Day of tiie Lord, as if it would be a mere interference of J" in behalf of His people as a nation, and not a revelation of His righceous judgment — ' Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Wherefore will ye have the day of the Lord 7 It is darkness and not light ; as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him ' (Am 5"). Hence the Day is first of all judgment, and only through this salvation.

Sometimes one si<le is made iironiinent and sometimes another, (he side of judgment (as has been said) in the pre- exile prophets, and the other side in prophets later down {e.g. Ob "). It is around the Day as one of judgment that all the terrible pictures of gloom and the dissolution of nature are gathered (Is 2. 3. 13. 24, Hos 10», Am 5", Jl 2'- '» 3, Zcph 1).

These convulsions in nature which accompany the Day of the Lord may not be all to be explained in the same way, but the general idea seems this : the universe is a human world ; man is the head of creation, and creation is virtually the earth ; the heavens are a more appendage of the earth, sub- serving the moral life of mankind — being for signs and seasons, and days and years. Hencu in man's judgment the world suilers dissolution, and in his redemption it is renewed and transfigured. 3.

As has been said, the coming or the Day was an article of faith as much as our belief in the Last Day, but the presentiment of its nearness was awakened by what the prophet perceived around him : the moral condition of the world (Is 2. 3, Mic 3), God's ojierations among the nations of the earth (Is 13, Zeph 1), His judgments on His people (Jl 1. 2), or the beginnings of their redemption alreaily experienced at the Restoration, which led to the hope of His full manifestation to dwell in His Hou.

se when it should be prepared (Hag, Zee). Naturally, though the Day of the Lord was a crisis, and itself ofbrief duration, the phrase ' that day ' is often used to cover the period nshered in by the day. This is the period of final perfection and blessedness. It is identical witli what in other pa.s,Mages is the Messianic Bge, and with the ideal condition following the Kestoration as conceived by such prophets as Deutero • Isaiah (Is 00). It is a period entirely homogeneous.

There are no occurr^uices w'thin vol.. I. — At it. It has characteristics, but no internal de- velopment. It is a period of light and peace and the knowledge of God, which covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. Subsequent revelation has broken up the coming of the Messiah into a coming and a coming again, and history has intercalated between tlie two an age full of developments and vast changes. But the prophets embrace all in one period over which there hangs a divine light.

Ihe characterisLics they assign to the Messianic age or the period introduced by the Day of the Lord are m the main those characteristics which we assign to the age which the second coming shall introduce. These characteristics are the issue of the first coming, the natural expansion of its principles ; and to the prophets the principles and theii realization all seem condensed into one point. 4.

The prophets are not interested in giving mere predictions of external events or conditions of the world, but in setting before the people the moral development and issues of the kingdom ; and just as the Day of the Lord seems to them to issue out of the conditions of the world of their own day, so they sometimes bring down the moral issues of the kingdom upon an external condition of the world such as it was in their own time.

There is perfect realizing of moral principles, but the condition of the world in its kingdoms and the like remains unchanged. But ordinarily this is not the case. (a) A constant feature in the eschatological picture is Israel's restoration to its own land. The Lord will say to the North, Give up ; and to the South, Keep not back : bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth ; even every one that is called by my name (Is 43').

And in tliis land all earthly blessings attend the peojilf (Am Q""") ; they attain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall nee away (Is 35'° 65"") The people are also truly the people of God— 'Thy people shall be all righteous' ; ' In the Lord shall all tlie seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory ' (Is 45"). The people's restoration to ever- lasting felicity and their righteousness are but dilleront sides of the same thing.

Cast out because of their sins, they are restored because of their righteousness, although the righteousness be one bestowed on them by God (Is 43'-'°") ; and tlieir restoration is the outer side of their justification, the token to their own heart and to the eyes of the nations that they are in truth now the people of God (Is 01" 65""). The question how in our day we are to interpret such prophecies is a double one. It is a question, first, of wliat the prophets meant.

And to this question there can be but one answer — their meaning is the literal sense of their words. They spoke of tlie people Israel and of the land of Canaan, and predicted the restoration of the people to their land, and their everlasting abode there with their God in the midst of them. Tliis was their view in tlieir day of the final con- dition of the people. Of course, to the prophets the es.scntial tning was the spiritual perfection and bles.

sedness of the people 'given by the presence among them of their God in His fulness, but thej' were unable to conceive this except as rellected in an external condition of the people. The other question is hnw we iii.iy exjiect these OT prophecies to bo fulfilled now that the NT disi)ensatioii is come. There is no question as to the meaning ol the OT prophecies; the nnestion is how far this meaning is now valid.

Tlic question is not one to bo dogmatic on, but wo should naturally say that it is to be decided by the principles of the NT ilis]iensation. The only NT writer who seems formally to argue the question is St. Paul (Ko 0-11). Now, he argues only on the aoix'tual side 738 ESCHATOLOGY ESCHATOLOGY of the Abrahamif covenant, or ratlier he regards tlie covenant as an exclusively spiritual or redemp- tive instrument (see art. COVENANT, last par.)

Those, therefore, who, in advocating the idea of the Restoration of Israel to their own land, think themselves entitled to reason on the material side of the covenant (the promise of the land), cannot plead the apostle's authority nor his example. It may be made a question, indeed, whether his reasoning does not exclude theirs, for his view appears to be that the covenant from the moment it took ell'ect was a purely spiritual and redemptive deed.

To his mind the covenant guarantees the final salvation of Israel. The church of God is historical and continuous. It was planted in Abraham, and it is perennial. Israel was the church, and continues to be ; and if the Gentiles be in it, they have been grafted in ; and if some of the natural branches be meantime broken off, God is able to graft them in again ; and this He will do, 'and 80 all Israel shall be saved.' This is St.

Paul's manner of stating the idea of Deutero-Isaiah, that the true knowledge of the true God has been given once for all to Israel, and given to be the heritage of mankind. If the OT prophecies are to be brought into the argument, the order in which they place tilings must be observed. That order is, first, righteousness and faith, and then restora- tion to Canaan.

A return of Jews to Canaan whUe stUl in unbelief, however interesting a thin" in itself, does not come into contact with OT prophecy. (6) Another feature in the eschatological picture is the relation of the nations to Israel and their God. In some prophecies, especially those that are apocal3ptic in their character, there is the idea of a final attack on Israel by the nations, and a great conflict near Jerusalem or in Canaan, in which the nations are overthrown and destroyed (Ezk 38.

39, Jl 3, Zee 14, Ob v.", Dn).

But usually the nations are represented as attaching themselves to Israel, drawn either by the right- eousness and humanity of the Messianic King (Ps 72), or convinced that the God of Israel is God alone (Is 2) — a conviction which they receive in various ways, as through J"'s terrible revelation of Himself (Zeph S-', Is GG'"), but chiefly through the teaching of Israel, the servant of the Lord, who becomes the light of the nations, and tlie peoples wait on His arm (Is 42» 49» 50"'- SI""- 60).

But while already in the OT the Gentiles are fellow, heirs of salvation with Israel, the racial distinction is not obliterated. Jews and Gentiles do not amalgamate into one people or church — Israel • inherits the Gentiles ' (Is 54^), ' the king- dom is given to the people of the saints of the Most High' (Dn 7"). The nations occupy a subordinate place. There may be different shades of view in diiierent passages.

Of course, when the prophets ^vrote, Israel alone possessed the knowledge of the true God, and its place was that of benefactor of the nations, while theirs was that of recipients of blessing from Israel. Therefore the nations do homage to Israel, but it is to Israel as having the only true God within it — ' they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee ; and there is none else, no God ' (Is 45" 49'', cf. 14^ 60» 61»). 5.

From what has been said, it can be seen what general conceptions the OT contributes to Christian Eschatology.

They are such as these : (I) the manifestation or advent of God; (2) the universal judgment ; (3) behind the judgment the coming of the perfect kingdom of the Lord, when all Israel shall be saved, and when the nations shall be partakers of their salvation ; and (4) the finality and eternity of this condition, that which constitutes the blessedness of the saved people bein" the Presence of God in the mid.st of them — this last point corresponding to the Christian idea of heaven.

All this is said of the people as a people. The people is immortal and its life eteni.al ; and this life is conceived as lived in this world, though this world transfigured — a new heavens and a new earth (Is 05").

But are the individuals of the people immortal, or is their life, however prolonged and blessed, yet finally closed by deatli 1 It is probable that in most passages the prophets have in view the destinies of the people as a unity, the ultimate fate of individuals not being present to their mind.

In some passages, however, the destiny of the in- dividual is referred to, and a progress of idea may be observed, though, owing to the uncertain authorship of tlie passages, it may be precarious to infer at once that the more advanced are the later. In Is do^"- only a very prolonged life appears promised, ' the days of a tree,' ne that dieth at a hundred years shall die a chUd (cf. Zee 8*).

But in the apocalyptic passage Is 24-27 death is represented as abolished, 'the Lord will swallow up death for ever ' (25') ; and the promise extends to the nations as well as to Israel (ver.'^). The conception of a resurrection first appears in the prophets, who speak of a resuscitation of the dead nation (Hos 6, Ezk 37). In Is 26'», however, the literal resurrection of individuals is predicted. This is the complement of the Restoration of the living members of the people.

And in Dn 12 a resurrection both of the just and unjust is pro- phesied, though it remains somewhat uncertain whether the resurrection be universal, or be only of those who, in the preceding troublous times, had been specially prominent, wnether on the side of righteousness or of evU. II.

ESCHATOLOGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL PERSON — One of the strangest things in OT is the little place which the individual feels he has, and his tendency to lose himself in larger wholes, such as the tribe or the nation.

When in earlier times th« individual approached death, he felt that he had received the olessing of life from God and had enjoyed it in His communion ; his sojourn with God had come to an end, he was old and full of days, and he acquiesced in death, however strange his acquiescence may seem to us. He consoled himself with the thought that he did not all die — ' The memory of the righteous is blessed ' (cf. Is 56^- '). He lived, too, in his children and in his people.

He saw the good of Israel ; his spirit lived, and the work of nis hands was established. The great subject was the people, the nation j J" had established His covenant with the nation, and the individual was blessed in the blessing and fortune of the whole. And he was content to have poured his little stream of life and service into the tide of national life, and in some degree to have swelled it. This was particularly the case, so far as can be judged, in earlier times.

But when the nation came to an end with the Captivity, when national life and religion no more existea, the individual rose to his own proper place and rights, and felt his owTi worth and responsibility. Though the nation had fallen the individuals remained, and J" and religion remained, though religion remained only in the heart of the individual.

The religious unit, formerly the people, now became more and more the single person, and the truths regarding duty and responsibility, and the hopes of the future, enunciated by the prophets in regard to the people, were appropriated uy the individual to himself. In regard to the Eschatology of the individual person there are two things wliich require to lie carefully distinguished.

There are, first, certain ideas regarding death and the state of the dead lying in the popular mind, though cherished by ESCIIATOLOGY ESCHATOLOGY 739 all classes, the righteous as well as otliers, alike. Thene ideas are common to Israel with some other Sheaiitic peoples. They have in themselves no moral 8if,Tiilicance.

But some of them, such as the idea that the person, though he died, was not extinguished, but still subsisted as a person, how- ever shadowy the state of subsistence was ; and the other idea, that the dead person, though still gnbsistiiic, was in death cut oil from all fellowship with the living, whether men or God, — these ideas formed points to which the aspirations of the pious might attach themselves, whether in the way of development, as of the first idea, or protest, as against the second idea.

And, secondly, there are the aspirations, intuitions, or inferences of the pious mind itself. It is only these that can pro- perly be called OT teaching. Such aspirations and intuitions may be either intellectual or emo- tional, that is, virtually, either ethical or religious, thougli the basis even of the religious is ethical.

The fundamental idea is the moral one : God and man are moral beinjjs, their relation is moral ; the universe is a moral constitution, the stage where God displays His righteousness, and where man Bees God's face in righteousness. Righteousness must win, and righteousness is eternal (Is 51'). This Is the idea tiiat underlies the Book of Job and such Psalms as 37. 49. and 73.

There are thus three things to look at: (1) Death and the state of the dead ; (2) Life ; and (3) the Reconcilia- tion of Death and Life. (1) By death OT means what we mean when we nse the word. It is the phenomenon which we observe. Now, all parts of OT indicate the view that at death the person is not annihilated; he continues to subsist in She61, the place of the dead, tliough in a shadowy and feeble form occa- sioned by the withdrawal of the spirit of life.

In this condition of subsistence, whicn is not life but death, in Sheol, the common abode of all dead perwns, there is no distinction in destiny between the righteous and the ungodly. OT does not name those in Shebl either souls or spirits, they are persons. It is possible that they were conceived as retain- ing a shadowy flickering outline of their former personality, for in Is 14 they sit on thrones, from which they rise up and speak.

Subsistence in Sheol Is a feeble, nerveless reflection of life on earth. These conceptions, as has been said, are not pro- perly scripture teaching, only the popular notions from which its teaching starts. Illustrations of them are such pas-sages as these among others, Ps 6. 30, Is 14. 38, Job 3. 10. Thus, to ■tart with, OT is not materialistic, death is not the extinction of the formerly living person. Neither is it philosophic, regarding the body as the pri.

son- honse of the soul, released from which it can spread its wings and soar unfettered into regions of pure and perfect life. Nor is it, to begin with at least, Christian in the sense that the spirit attains to perfection at death. (2) As by death so by life OT means what we mean by it. It starts from the idea, not of the soul, but of the person. Life is what we so call when we see it, the subsistence of the complete personality in the unity of its parts, body and soul.

An essential part of man's being is tlie body ; and life is life in the body, sucli a.s it is before trie analysis which we call death, and corresponds therefore to the Christian synthesis called the re.surrection life. Hence Job, wtien the idea of a second life first dawns npon him, can conceive it only as a renewal of the natural life — ' If a man die, shall he live again?' (ch. 14).

But as life was due to the com- munication by God of the sjiirit of life, and death to the withdrawal of this sjiirit, these operations came under the moral idea, and ' life ' meant moral life in the favour of God (Ezk 33) — ' in the way of rightecmsness is life'; ' righteou-sness delivereth from deatli.' OT .

scriptures occupy themselves chiefly with the condition of man on this side of death, and they teach that whatever principles are involved in the relations of men to God tliey come always to light in this life ; death does not change these relations ; on the contrar}-, by its iiiaMiier or circumstances it reveals them (Ps 37. 73). (3) Now, this conception of life naturally came into collision with the fact of death.

And OT doctrine of immortality, when death is had in view, consists of the efforts made by the faith of pious men to gain for the idea of life just referred to the victory over the fact of death. These efforts are of two kinds : one consists of an appeal against the fact of death, a demand for immortality or not dying, a protest against the fellowship of the living man here with God being interrupted, or a lofty assurance that it cannot be interrupted.

It is quite possible that the examples of this may have to be referred to particular circumstances, when death might be actually threatening ; but tlie language used, the demand made for the con- tinuance of life, the lofty assurance of faith that the relation of the person to God cannot be inter- rupted, rise to the expression of principles, and are by no means merely tlie expression of an assurance that God would save from death on this particular occasion.

This is the meaning of Ps 16, ' I have set the Lord always before me ; because he is at my ri^,'ht hand, 1 shall not be moved. Thou wilt not leave my soul over to SlieM ; thou wilt not let thine holy one see the pit.' What the speaker is assured of is deliverance from death. But his assurance has an absoluteness in it. It expresses principles. In his ecstasy of life in God he feels life to be eternal. The tie between him and J" is indis- soluble.

With our more reflecting habits of thought this ecstasy of faith is hard to conceive. To us the fact of death is so inevitable that we cannot imagine any one resisting it. We accept the fact, and rest on what lies beyond. But the resistance of the pious Hebrew was due just to his not kno^ving what lay beyond, and was but a mode of making a demand for that which we now know to lie beyond.

The other line of thought was somewhat diflerent ; it was not so much a protest against dying, as a protest that dying was not death ; it was a denial that death was to the saint of God that which the popular mind regarded it to be — a separation from God and descent into SheM. The fellowsliip with God had in life, and which was life, would remain unbroken in death. This amounted to the faith that the godly soul would overleap SheM and pass to God.

This appears to be the faith exi)reHsed in Ps 49 and 73, and in a certain sense in Job 19. Before these poetical passages, which are obscure, are briefly looked at, sometliing must be said of Shc6I and the state of the dead; though, as has been said, OT statements about She(M chiefly re- flect the popular sentiments, and have little positive value. It might be surmised from the strong expressions used many times of death in the OT that in dcatli existence absolutely came to an end.

Thus Ps 14G* ' his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish ' ; Ps 39" ' O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go lience, and be no more.' And perhaps most strongly of all Job 14'"- 'for a tree hatii liojje, if it be cut down, it will sprout again ; but man lieth down, and riseth not ; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep ' (cf. 7^").

Hut these are only the strong expres,sioii8 of despondency and regret over a life mournfully soon ended, and that never returns to be lived on this earth again. The conception of 740 ESCHATOLOGY ESCHATOLOGY Bhebl is sufficient answer to the apparent doctrine ■which they teach. The word Slie61 (S'lx;^, twice written defectively, and usually fern., as nouns of place mostly are), is of uncertain derivation.

Its root has been supposed to be a softened form of another root (Syc*, represented by "^yy the hollow hand, Is 40") signifying perhaps 'to be hollow,' in which case it woulcl have the same meaning as our word ' hell ' (Germ. Holh) ; and the name ' pit ' with which it is interchanged in OT [ijiuaaos in NT) might seem to favour this derivation. A cor- responding Assyrian Sudlu (Fried. Del., Jeremias) is denied by Jensen.

Shebl is the opposite of the upper sphere of light and life ; it is ' deep Shebl ' (Ps 86" 03°), the region of darkness, ' a land of darkness as darkness itself, without any order, and where the light is as darkness ' (Job 10"). There is no strict topography to be sought for Shebl ; it is in great measure the creation of the imagination, deep down under the earth or under the waters (Job 26').

It is not to be identified with the grave, though the grave be often regarded as the mouth of it ; and it is sometimes represented as a vast burying-place (Is 14", Ezk 32==).

Shebl is the place of departed personalities ; the generations of one's forefathers are there, and he who dies is gathered unto his fathers ; the tribal divisions of one's race are there, and the dead is gathered unto his peoples, and if his descendants have died before him, they are there and he goes down to them, as Jacob to his son, and David to his child (Gn 37*° 42^, 2 S 122»). (1) The state of those in Shedl.

— As death con- sists in the withdrawal by God of the spirit of life, the source of energy ana vital power, the person- alities in Shebl are feeble and flaccid. They are shades (o'i<5T Job 26°, Is 14'). Their abode is called ' silence ' (Ps 94") ; it is ' the land of forgetf ulness ' (Ps 88") ; ' the living know that they must die, the dead know not anything ' (Ec 9°) ; ' his sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not ; and they are brought low, and he perceiveth it not of them' (Job M'^').

But other pa.ssages represent the existence of the dead in Shebl as a dreamy re- flection of life on earth, in which self-consciousness and ability to recognize others stUl remain — ' Art thou become weak as we ; art thou become like unto us ? ' is the language addressed by the Shades to the prince of Babylon when he descends among them. (2) There is no distinction of good and evil in Shedl. — All must go into Shebl, and all alike are there (Job 3").

Sheol itself is no place of punish- ment nor of reward (Ec 9*), neither IS it divided into compartments having this meaning : ' To-morrow,' said Samuel to the king whom God had rejected, • to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me ' (I S 28"). The idea of a deeper or darker Shebl in anj' penal sense cannot be verified.

' The farthest recesses of the pit ' into which the prince of Baby- lon is thrust in death forms a mere antithesis to the 'farthest recesses of the North,' the abode of the gods, where he aspired to seat himself when alive (Is 14">). If the ' prison ' referred to Is 24" be Shebl, incarceration m Shebl, i.e. death, is re- garded as the penal issue of the judgment.

And tlie state of the dead being a reflection of life on earth, any dishonour done to one on earth, such as being deprived of sepulture, ma^ still cleave to him when he descends into the Underworld (Is 14, Ezk 32). The language of Is 66*" 'their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched,' refers to the Imdies of the ungodly, which are cast out upon earth, an abhorring to all flesh, and not to the ungodly themselves in Shebl. (3) All connexion with the world of the living is broken off.

— The dead can neither return to earth, nor does Tie know anything of the events passing there (Job 7' 14'^ Ec 9°). Yet with the strong belief in the existence of the persons in Shebl, there was naturally • popular superstition that they could be reached. This belief^ gave rise to the necromancy practised among the Hebrews, as among most peoples, though it is proscribed in the law and ridiculed by the prophets (Is 8'*).

The practice probably did not repose on any general idea that the dead must have a wider knowledge than the living, that 'there must be wisdom witli great Death,' but on the idea that great personages continued still to be in death that whicli they had been in life. This appears to have been the idea of Saul in seeking unto Samuel. There is no record of any one answering from the dead except Samuel.

The question whether any connexion was thought to exist between the person in Shebl and his body can hardly be answered. No such connexion existed as to interfere with the passage of the person into Shebl, whatever befell the body. The want of burial was in itself dishonouring, and the dishonour continued to cleave to the person among the dead, but it did not, as among some nations, prevent his descent to the world of the dead.

There are some passages which seem to speak of a sympathetic rapport still existing between the body and the person in Shebl, but probably they hardly go further than to suggest the idea that the body, though thrown off, was still part of the man, and not mere common unrelated dust. (4) The main point is that the relation between the dead person and God is cut off. This is what gave death its significance to the religious mind.

Fellowship ■rnth God ceases — 'In death there is no remem- brance of thee ; in Shebl who shall give thee thanks ? ' ' For Shebl cannot praise thee ; they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth ' (Is 38^«). The passages relating to the eschatology of the individual person are mostly poetical, and they are in some points obscure. They are such passages as Ps 16. 17. 22. 37. 49. 73, and many fragments of others, and Job.

Now, with regard to these pas- sages several things must be said : first, they are all late, later at all events than the prophetic faith of the 8th cent. This faith — belief in the coming manifestation of God, in the judgment, and in the eternal rest of the people in God's perfect kingdom — was the faith of tlie writers. Again, all the passages repose upon an acknowledged distinction among men, the distinction of the righteous and the ungodly.

This distinction is visible, men are difl>;rently related to God. But the problem arose from the fact that men's destinies in the world were not seen to correspond to this distinction : in a moral world morality was not triumphant, in the government of the righteous God righteous- ness was not acknowledged.

No doubt, the pious mind sometimes composed itself by a deeper analysis of that wherein true prosperity or felicity lay — the portion falling to it, even God Himself, was a pro- founder good tlian all earthly possessions ( Ps 17. 73). Nevertheless, the problem remained and demanded solution. The smution was always an eschato- logical one, and was just the distinction between the righteous and the ungodly truly realizing itself.

In other words, immortality or eternal life is the corollary of religion, as Christ, summing up the whole OT teaching, said, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living ; it might even be said to be the corollary of morality — if tha universe be a moral world there is everlasting life. The general position of OT saints, with their faitli in the advent of God to judge, was very similar to tliat of tlie early Cliristians, who looked for the speedy coming of Clirist.

This coming would change the world and tlie Church, but the Church would pass living into perfect blessedness ; and, of course, individuals would share the change- 'We ESCHATOLOGY ESCHATOLOGY 741 »hnll not all die, but we shall all be changed.' Now, this was very like the feeling of OT saints. The individual would share the transition of the eomraunity, the Day of the Lord would break, and the living would enter into fulness of life without tasting death.

True individualism is little seen in OT. It is real to this extent : the individual realized keenly his own personal life, and longed earnestly to share for himself in the bles-sings upon which the community would enter when God appeared to abide for ever among them. He longed that he, the living man, should see with his people the glory of Uie Lord revealed, and enter with his people into life.

It was, perhaps, only the prospect of death, or reflection on it, tliat rounded off individualism and revealed its energies. The life of the community wa-s perennial, but with death before him the individual could not share this life, and he sought to forecast his own personal destiny. Thus there may be two classes of passages: (1) pa.s.

«ages which, though spoken perhaiis by in- dividuals, express the hope of the living people, and refer to that great change which the Day of the Lord shall introduce, and which the individual, as part of the people, shall experience without tasting death ; and (2) pas.saj'es where the in- dividual contemplates death, nut expresses the a-ssurance that he will not, like the ungodlj-, fall into SheM, but see life. Ps 37 belongs to the fir.'it cl.a.ss, and po.

ssibly Ps 73, though the phrase ' take me ' might, as in Ps 49, refer to escaping SheM at death. Ps 49 has two peculiarities : lirst, its open- ing verses imply that its teacliing on immortality is no more an aspiration, but a firm conviction ; and secondly, it seems to start from the assumption that death is universal. If this be the ca.se, the words, 'God will redeem my soul from Shehl,' must refer to the Psalmist's hope in death.

This interpretation may certainly be supported by reference to the parable of Lazarus in Abraliam s bosom, which shows that the idea of a blessedness of the spirit at death had been reached before the time of our Lord. It is enough here to state some general principles and give a classification of pas- sages ; for details the commentaries must be con- sulted.* The prophets and saints of the OT were not speculative men.

They did not reason that the soul was immortal from its nature, — this was not the kind of immortality in which tliey were interested, — though, for all tnat appears, the idea that any human person should become extinguished or be annihilated never occurred to them. They did not lay stress in a reflective way on man's instinctive hopes of immortality, though they may be oViserved giving these instinctive desires expression. So far as they rea.

soned, their assurance was ba-ned on the moral idea— Righteousness is eternal. So far as they experienced and felt, their assurance was immediate — religion is reciprocal, the conscious- ness of God is God's giving Himself in the con- iciousne.ss. It has ilways been felt strange that the Penta- teuch, which gives the constitution of the people of God, should be silent on death and immortality, or only refer to the popular idea of Sliehl.

in explanation it may be said tliat tlie earliest part of the Pent, is anterior to the pro])licts of the 8lh cent., while the later portions are the reflection of the prophetic teaching. Deut. reposes on Isaiah and the prophets of the Assyrian age, and the Priests' Code on Kzekiel. The constitution which they furnish for Israel is the embo<linient of the prophetic conceptions.

Hut the concejitions of the prophets are ideal, their pictures of the true Israel are pictures of Israel of the future, Israel of •See particularly the Auhamj to Sluilcr's Dot Iluch Uiob, Bremen, Ib^l. the perfect and final state ; in other words, of Israel in what may be called its condition of immortality. The legislation seeks to impose this ideal on Israel of the present.

Of necessity, when applied to the conditions of the actual Israel, the ideal was iniperfeetl}' realized, and was anew pro- jected into the future. LiTSRATtnti. — Von Orelli, Prophecies of the C(mtumnuition oS the Kirujdom ; Bertheau, ' Die Altt. Weiiisagung von Israel't Reichaherrlichkeit in seinem I-ande,' Jahrbb. fiir Deutiche Theul. vols, iv. V. The older literature on Immortality is piven in Boettcher, De Iiyferis, 1846. and particularly in W. R.

Alger, A Critical U v^tory of ths Doctrine of a Future Life, with a Com- plete Biblifxjrajihy tty Ezra Abbot, New Vork, 1871. Besides the relative sections in the Bib. Theolofjles, useful works are : Oehler, Vet. Test. Sententia de rebuji jtost mortem futurin, 1846; Perowne (Bp.), Immortality (Uulsean Lecture), 1SG9 ; Schultz, I'orauesetzuTujen der Chrmt. Lfhre v. d. Ungterblich- keit, 18411 ; Stode, Die Alttest. Vorstdlunnen vom Zustatid nach dem Tode, leG8, and relative section in Hist. vol.

i.; .leremioB, Die Babyt.-Assyr. Vorgtellungen voin Zustand nach dem Tode-, 1887 ; Schwally, Dae Leben nach dem Tode, 1892 ; A. B. Davidson, * Modem Relitdon and OT Iiiunortality,' Expositor, Mav 189.") ; especially Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of ymmOTtoiity, 3rd ed.,' 1897. A. B. DAVIDSON. ESCHATOLOGY OF THE APOCRYPHAL AND