YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE LIBRARY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL EXTRACT DECLARATION OF TRUST March i, 1862 I, William Bihny Webster, late Surgeon in the H.E.I.C.S., presently residing in Edinburgh,-Con»idering that I feel deeply interested in the success of the Free Church College, Edinburgh, and am desirous of advancing the Theological Literature of Scotland, and for this end to establish a Lectureship similar to those of a like kind connected with the Church of England and the Congregational body in England, and that I have made over to the General Trustees of the Free Church of Scotland the sum of £2000 sterling, in trust, for the purpose of founding a Lectureship in memory of the late Reverend William Cunning ham, D.D., Principal of the Free Church College, Edinburgh, and Professor of Divinity and Church History therein, and under the following conditions, namely,— First, The Lectureship shall bear the name, and be called, "The Cunningham Lectureship." Second, The Lecturer shall be a Minister or Professor of the Free Church of Scotland, and shall hold the appointment for not less than two years, nor more than three years, and be entitled for the period of his holding the appointment to the income of the endowment as declared by the General Trustees, it being understood that the Council after referred to may occasionally appoint a Minister or Professor from other denominations, provided this be approved of by not fewer than Bight Members of the Council, and it being further understood that the Council are to regulate the terms of payment of the Lecturer. Third, The Lecturer shall be at liberty to choose his own subject within the range of Apologetical, Doctrinal, Controversial, Exegetical, Pastoral, or Historical Theology, including what bears on Missions, Home and Foreign, subject to the consent of the Council. Fourth, The Lecturer shall be bound to deliver publicly at Edinburgh a Course of Lectures on the subjects thus chosen at some time immediately preceding the expiry of his appointment, and during the Session of the New College, Edinburgh ; the Lectures to be not fewer than six in number, and to be delivered in presence of the Professors and Students under such arrangements as the Council may appoint; the Lecturer shall be bound also to print and publish at his own risk not fewer than 750 copies of the Lectures within a year after their delivery, and to deposit three copies of the same in the library of the New College ; the form of the publication shall be regulated by the Council. Fifth, A Council shall be constituted, consisting of (first) Two Members of their own body, to be chosen annually in the month of March, by the Senatus of the New College, other than the Principal ; (second) Five Members to be chosen annually by the General Assembly, in addition to the Moderator of the said Free Church of Scotland; together with (third) the Principal of the said New College for the time being, the Moderator: of the said General Assembly, for the time being, the Procurator or Law Adviser of the Church, and myself the said William Binny Webster, or such person as I may nominate to be my successor : The Principal of the said College to be Convener of the Council, and any Five Members duly con vened to be entitled to act notwithstanding the non-election of others. Sixth, The duties of the Council shall be the following; — (first), To appoint the Lecturer and determine the period of his holding the appointment, the appoint ment to be made before the close of the Session of College immediately preceding the termination of the previous Lecturer's engagement ; (second), To arrange details as to the delivery of the Lectures, and to take charge of any additional income and expenditure of an incidental kind that may be connected therewith, it being understood that the obligation upon the Lecturer is simply to deliver the Course of Lectures free of expense to himself. Seventh, The Council shall be at liberty, on the expiry of five years, to make any alteration that experience may suggest as desirable in the details of this plan, provided such alterations shall be approved of by Hot fewer than Eight Members of the Council. The Cunningham Lectures for 1904 ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS OF THE LAST THINGS ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS OF THE LAST THINGS BY The Rev. H. A. A. KENNEDY M.A., D.Sc. SECOND EDITION LONDON HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27 PATERNOSTER ROW 1904 YALE DIVIHITY »:i '"/ FXG* K^Zs TO DR MARCUS DODS WITH GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION PREFACE The following chapters are a study in the history of early Christian thought. This description fixes the method and the limits of the investigation. When I had the honour of being appointed to the Cunningham Lectureship, I chose the subject here discussed, for reasons which may be briefly summarised. In an investigation of Paulinism, undertaken for another purpose, I had been grow- ingly impressed by the vital bearing of St Paul's eschatological outlook upon his theology as a whole. His conceptions of the Last Things were manifestly factors of supreme importance in the organisation of his religious thought. Yet there seemed to be no department in which greater confusion prevailed as to the precise interpretation of his statements. Evidences of this were patent even in the works of well-equipped students of New Testament theo logy. Further, one was well aware that in the innumerable publications of modern times having the Last Things for their theme, all sorts of argu ments in support of the most conflicting theories " a 2 x PREFACE had been founded on passages selected from the writings of St Paul. Such considerations as these suggested the pro priety of a fresh investigation of the sources, an investigation which should keep in close touch with the genesis of the apostle's thought. From this standpoint, large use has been made of the prophetic books and the later apocalyptic literature, while the developments of the Synagogue-theology have also been kept in view. Two features, pre-eminently, have emerged into prominence for my own mind as the result of the inquiry. The one is the necessity of grasping the great religious conceptions of the Old Testament in their original setting, if we are to penetrate into the texture of the Pauline theology. For the apostle clearly reveals himself as "an Hebrew of the Hebrews," and carries forward in a larger atmosphere the most splendid traditions of the prophets. His new Christian experience, indeed, seems to have quickened within him a finer sensi tiveness to the deeper elements in the earlier revelation. The other feature which impresses one most powerfully is the decisiveness with which St Paul | has laid the foundation of the Christian hope of '[ Eternal Life, not in any vague speculations con cerning human personality in the abstract, but in the relation of the individual soul to the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. He attains his end without PREFACE xi any of those theoretical surmises as to existence which have brought confusion into so many modern discussions. Life in Christ is for him something \ larger than existence. It is existence raised to its \ highest power — the supreme, unsurpassable reality. If these pages contribute in any measure to a clearer vision of the inspiring prospect which the apostle reached through knowing "the power of Christ's resurrection," the labour spent upon them will not have been in vain. In view of what has been said above as to the intimacy of St Paul's relation to the Old Testament, there will be nothing surprising in the acknowledg ment that I owe more than I can tell to the class lectures of my late revered teacher, Dr A. B. Davidson. The published literature to which I am under obligations is referred to throughout.1 I must also express my deep indebtedness to my friend, the Rev. H. R. Mackintosh, D.Phil., Aber deen, who was good enough to read the proofs, for many valuable suggestions and criticisms. H. A. A. KENNEDY. Callander, March 1904. 1 My MS. was in the press before Sokolowski's recently- published monograph, Die Begriffe Geist und Leben bei Paulus in ihren Beziehungen zu einander (Gott., 1903), came into my hands. PAG* CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Place of Eschatology in St Paul's Religious Thought Prominence of Eschatology in all religious systems . i Importance of the Last Things for St Paul and primitive Christianity ...... 2 Eschatological implications of his Christian thought, as exemplified : (a) In his doctrine of Justification ... 7 (b) In his doctrine of the Life in the Spirit . . 14 Limits of the present discussion, as determined : (a) By general characteristics of New Testament Eschatology . . . . .17 (&) By unsystematic nature of St Paul's conceptions of the Last Things . . . .21 CHAPTER II Formative Influences in St Paul's Conceptions of the Last Things Fundamental conceptions in St Paul's eschatological thought. ...... 32 Tendency of eschatological ideas to cling firmly to tradition ...... 35 Even greatest thinkers powerfully affected by traditional influences . .... 36 xiii xiv CONTENTS PASS I. Influence of Old Testament on Pauline Eschatology: In Old Testament, chiefly an eschatology of the nation . ¦ • • • ¦ 3° Predominating elements and influences in pro phetic conceptions of the End . . -39 Book of Daniel . . • • 42 Remarkable kinship of St Paul with the prophetic spirit ...... 43 St Paul's relation to Old Testament teleology . . 46 The Day of the Lord and the Parousia . . 47 The "man of lawlessness" in Daniel . . 49 Late development of Old Testament eschatology of the individual ..... 50 Preparation for doctrine of Resurrection in the craving for unbroken union with God . . 52 Possibility of Old Testament influence on St Paul through eschatology of Jesus . . -55 Unmistakable traces of his intimate acquaintance with LXX. 56 II. Influence of Judaism on Pauline Eschatology : Pharisaic training . . . . .58 Jewish apocalyptic literature . . -59 Origin and general characteristics of Apocalyptic 60 Development towards Resurrection-idea . . 62 Categories in Jewish eschatology familiar to St Paul ...... 65 Developed doctrine of Divine Retribution the distinguishing mark between Old Testament and Jewish eschatology . . . .67 This led to— (a) Transformation of old idea of Sheol . . 68 {b) Doctrine of Resurrection . . .68 Examples of transformation of Sheol in Jewish Apocalypses ..... 69 Existence of nationalistic and transcendental eschatologies side by side . . • ' 73 '^/Recapitulation of facts leading up to idea of Resurrection ..... 75 .Divergence in Judaistic writers as to scope of Resurrection ..... 76 CONTENTS xv All. Influence of St Paul's Christian Experience upon his Eschatology : His Conversion . .... 80 Attempted psychological explanations 1 . 81 Evidence of Epistles . . . .83 Evidence of Acts . . . . -85 St Paul's inferences from his experience . . 87 Bearing of phenomena of his conversion on his eschatological conceptions . . .89 His notion of S6|a as related to exalted Christ . 91 Limits and character of his eschatology probably explained by dominating influence of Christian experience ...... 93 IV. The Christian tradition of the Eschatology of Jesus: Close kinship in use of prophetic imagery . . 96 Remarkable parallelism — (a) As to basis of Future Life . . .98 (b) As to nature of Future Life . . . 100 CHAPTER III St Paul's Conceptions of Life and Death i/Erroneous assumption that St Paul's use of terms is identical with ours ..... 102 Old Testament conception of Death as paralysis of the entire personality ..... 103 Horror heightened by religious cast of Hebrew thought . 107 Idea of connection between sin and death . . 108 Transformation of notion of state after death . .110 Relation of St Paul's view of death to that of Old Testa ment . . . . . . .112 His view synthetic . . . . . .113 His shrinking from death as an experience charged with the issues of sin . . . . .115 His idea of destruction (d7rciXeia) . . . .119 Old Testament background of his conception of Life . 125 Relation of Life to the Divine activity . . .128 Life in later Jewish literature .... 130 xvi CONTENTS Dominant position of idea of life in Pauline thought St Paul's conception of the basis of the new life . Relation of indwelling Spirit to factors of human con sciousness . St Paul's view regulated by Old Testament thought His use of irvev/m . . . . • t Summary of his conception of Life CHAPTER IV St Paul's Conceptions of the Parousia and the Judgment Remarkable prominence of Parousia-expectation in New Testament ..... Evidence from Pauline Epistles The evidence partly explained by special circumstances Synoptic tradition of Jesus' eschatology of high import ance for St Paul .... Statements of Jesus concerning His Parousia Demand of early Christians for perfected Kingdom of God ..... . Powerful effect of prophetic pictures of future The Day of the Lord (i) in the Old Testament . (2) in apocalyptic literature Influence of prophetic delineations on St Paul in language and thought ..... His forecasts affected by contemporary history . Details of his conception of the Parousia . Lack of pictorial embellishments . The Judgment in St Paul .... Relation to teaching of Jesus A universal Judgment .... Comparative reticence as to Judgment probably due to his conception of salvation Difficulty of adjusting the two conceptions The paradox inherent in Christian experience Lack of detail in his conception of Judgment PAGE 135'39 145145 148 154 158 160166 166 169174175176 178180184188190193 194 195 197198 199 201 CONTENTS xvii PAGE 205207209211213215219 Especially, a judgment of the living, and of believers . 202 The process chiefly viewed as a revelation of the depths of character ..... The " man of lawlessness " . Genesis of the Antichrist-idea : Bousset's hypothesis The hypothesis examined .... Hints as to development of idea up to St Paul Factors of importance in his conception . The restraint of the final outburst of wickedness . Caution in estimating St Paul's view of nearness of Parousia ...... 220 Value of Parousia-belief . . . . 22 1 CHAPTER V St Paul's Conception of the Resurrection Elaborate treatment of Resurrection by St Paul . . 222 Greek prejudices against the doctrine . . . 223 Early familiarity of the apostle with the idea . . 226 His craving for life would set it in the forefront . . 227 His first experience of Christ decisive for this conception 229 Resurrection the pledge of eternal life for the complete personality ...... 230 This due especially to his impression of the " spiritual body " of the risen Christ .... 232 His conception of resurrection based on Resurrection of Christ, and regulated by His teaching . . 233 Resurrection of Christ in relation to His cosmic position 235 Resurrection of supreme importance for St Paul as crowning stage in development of the Christian man 236 Effect of Divine irpeO/xa upon the nature of the individual 236 The great resurrection-passage, 1 Corinthians xv. : Parallels to the Corinthian perplexity . . . 239 The analogy employed . . . . .241 " Not the body which is to be dost thou sow " . . 243 The variety of ato/iara ..... 244 Objections to a " spiritual " organism . " Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption " . The natural and the spiritual " body " . 249251 xviii CONTENTS The Kingdom of God and the teaching of Jesus Divergence of definitions . The eschatological element in Jesus' conception Value of the theocratic idea for St Paul . His use of pao-i\eta tov deov . Presence of the conception in other guises Synonyms in St Paul for the Kingdom of God Future condition of believers The likeness of Christ and its cosmic significance The Second Adam and the renewed humanity . PAOK 253254256 His attitude towards the transformation . The origins of ..... 278 Possible traces of growth in Pauline conception . . 279 CHAPTER VI St Paul's Conception of the Consummation of the Kingdom of God 282283283 286287290291 294294 297 CONTENTS xix The "heritage of the saints in light" The "glory" of God .... Prominent place of " glory " and kindred ideas in Christian terminology ..... Pauline use of " glory " . Future condition of unbelievers Has he the notion of universal salvation ? . Investigation of i Corinthians xv. 21-22 and Romans v, 19 ff. St Paul's reserve as to the state of the lost The nature of " destruction "... Its duration ...... al&vcos ...... The Consummation of all things . 1 Corinthians xv. 21-28 .... Does St Paul teach a Millennium ? The abolishing of "rules," "dominions," and "powers" No cosmic dualism in St Paul Vanquishing of Death .... Summing-up of all things in Christ Renewal of the universe .... Subordination of the Son to the Father . 298 299301 3023°7308 3°9 312 3H 316 316 319320322 324328 329 33i333 337 ADDITIONAL NOTE TO CHAPTER II The Pauline Eschatology and Hellenism The Jews and Hellenism ..... 342 Philo ....... 343 The Wisdom of Solomon ..... 344 The supposed relationship between Wisdom and St Paul 345 Hellenic influence and the Pauline antithesis between ., Flesh and Spirit ..... 347 l/The antithesis due to religious experience . . 348 Points of contact between St Paul and Hellenism . 350 xx CONTENTS INDEX PAGE I. Subjects . . . . . .353 II. Authors . . . . . .362 III. References — 1. Old Testament ..... 364 2. New Testament ..... 366 3. Judaistic Writings . . . .369 CHAPTER I THE PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT FEW provinces of religious thought have possessed a more perennial interest for the average man than that which is concerned with conceptions of the Last Things. The religious ritual of primitive races is pre-eminently associated with the events which follow the cessation of earthly existence. The sacred books of ancient peoples are peculiarly rich in eschatological speculations. We have only to recall the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Babylonian epic of the Descent of Istar, the Bundehesh of the Persian Avesta, to realise the remarkable fascination of the unseen world and its experiences for the naive theologians of antiquity. The Nekyia of the Odyssey and the Sixth Book of Vergil's Aineid no doubt reflect the popular beliefs, and also, in their turn, react upon them. The quaint Apocalypses of post-canonical Judaism are almost wholly engrossed with the events of the End. And as the history of religion is traced down the centuries, those periods are rare which do not give evidence of the absorbing attraction with which Eschatology is invested for human thought 1 A 2 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN and imagination.1 The Christian faith has not been exempt from this inherent bias of religious specula tion. The New Testament gives no scanty spaca^ conceptions of the Last Things. And in so doing, it serves itself heir to the spirit of Old Testament. prophecy. It is natural to expect that a man like St Paul, so deeply imbued by nature and training, with the traditions of his nation, and so earnestly absorbed in its Messianic hope,2 would continue even from his Christian standpoint to assign a peculiar prominence to the occurrences of the final epoch. In any case, as we shall presently discover, his course was marked out for him by the evangelic tradition. The teaching of Jesus Himself had contained a remarkable eschatological strain. This reappears in most of the New Testament writings. But perhaps nowhere is it found so closely woven into the texture of the primitive theology as in the Letters of St Paul. Accordingly, a study of his conceptions of the Last Things is of fundamental importance for his whole Christian out look. In them is most fullyrevealed the transformation which Christianity produced in this region of thought. 1 Dr Fairbairn probably does not exaggerate when he says : "To the thinker, the theological is the distinctive side of a religion; but to the multitude, the eschatological . . . Christianity has exercised a greater command over peoples, j though not over individual minds, by its Eschatology than by > its Theology." — Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and History, p. 154. 2 The fact of his devotion to the Law is evidence of this. For the meaning of zeal for the Law in Judaism lay in its con ception of the covenant between God and His people. Devoted observance of the Torah on their part was the condition of God's fulfilment of His promises, notably the inauguration of the Messianic epoch (see especially Marti, Geschichte d. lsraelit. Religion, p. 289). ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT o We can trace the workings of the apostle's religious experience as he starts from the inherited beliefs of Judaism, modifies these under the influence of his new relation to the risen Christ, and transfers the em phasis and the accent from the letter to the spirit. But St Paul has also laid the foundation for the Eschatology of the Christian Church. That has in some important respects deviated from its Pauline basis. It is therefore of value to reach as accurate and comprehensive a view as possible of the form in which his conceptions of the Last Things took shape. Thereby we shall be able to check the accretions of subsequenFecclesiastical theories. And at a time when dTscussiohsof the Future State and kindred topics appear to possess a growing fascination for the public mind, it should help towards sanity of judgment and a due respect for the limits of human knowledge, to aim at a closer acquaintance with the eschatological teaching of one who did not shrink from the frank confession, "At present we see in a mirror only dim outlines, but then face to face. At present my knowledge is a fragment, but then shall I know as completely as I have been known." 1 1 The objection may be brought against our inquiry that it is illegitimate to speak of a specially Pauline Eschatology. Thus, e.g., Wrede : " There is a Pauline doctrine of redemption, a Pauline doctrine of justification, but there is — to speak cum grano salis — no Pauline angelology and eschatology, but only a Jewish or primitive-Christian" {Aufgabe u. Methode d. sogenannten Neutestamentlichen Theologie, p. 66). Even grant ing the general accuracy of this assertion, we should consider it i well worth while to make a careful examination of the Pauline i conceptions as representing the best type of primitive-Christian Eschatology. We will readily admit that the apostle has much 4 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN Perhaps no more important contribution has been made within recent years to the interpretation of the New Testament than the accentuation of the eschato logical strain which runs throughout its literature. The dream of that little group of disciples who formed the nucleus of the Christian Church was a purified theocracy. In this they were true to the highest expectations of Jewish Apocalyptic. When their Master preached the Kingdom of God, a willing echo responded from their hearts. For prophets and psalmists had seen glorious visions of a time when God's purpose for His people should be fulfilled: when the genuine Israel should rejoice beneath the Divine sway : when the holy nation should be a light to lighten the Gentiles. The Baptist had announced that the Kingdom was at hand. When the disciples had reached the point of confessing that Jesus was the Christ, they thereby virtually acknow ledged that the rule of God had already begun : the coming age (alwv fieWonv, Kan D^'ltf) was casting its shadow upon the course of the present. Their con viction was for ever established by their experience of the risen Lord. A momentous problem which pressed upon their minds was the reckoning of the time when the new fiLon should break in. The mysterious hints concerning the future which their Lord had given them were hard to comprehend and adjust. The main impression they had gained was in common with the average beliefs of the earliest Christian communities. But it is precisely the points at which he de viates from these, not only in details and definite representa tions, but still more in general breadth of outlook and caution of judgment, which appear to us of primary importance in the history of Christianity. ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 5 the expectation of His speedy return and the ac companying world-judgment. Perhaps they fore shortened the perspective. Perhaps the wonder of the new Christian movement, with all its amazing experiences, seemed to demand a rapid development of events up to the great consummation of the Parousia. Just as the Old Testament prophets, when they felt the currents of Providence quickening in any direction, looked for the immediate entrance of Jehovah into the world-history, and saw the fortunes of the nations ripening for a final decision, so the phenomena of the dispensation of the Spirit seemed to promise to the ardent hearts of the first Christians the immediate close of the earthly and secular era, and the ultimate separation for glorious ends of the community of believers. Thus an eager upward gaze characterises the New Testament epoch. It will be modified by its immediate environment. When worldly opposition to the Gospel is most stub born, when the persecution of the saints rages most fiercely, the cry, " Come quickly, Lord Jesus," will rise with more piercing intensity. When the wrath of man is restrained, and the Christian society is suffered to expand and flourish, the yearning for the Parousia will take the form of a heightened activity in pre paring the way of the Lord. St Paul shares to the full in the dominant mood of his age. It is evident that the burden of his early missionary preaching was a Christian version of the Baptist's older message : " Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." For he reminds the Thessalonians of their response to his Gospel in these words : " Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the 6 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath" (i Thess. i. 9, io).1 In subsequent chapters the several conceptions of the Last Things which bulk most largely in the pages of the apostle must be dealt with. For the present we shall briefly examine th£^cJ^ologjcal^m^ica. tions which lie deeP,inJii|J^^9£i^gi™^ ' It might be difficult, in the casToTsb many-sided a religious nature as that of St Paul, to attempt to sum up in a single conception that which he regarded as the supreme blessing of the Christian calling. Some might identify it with the forgiveness of sins, some with the condition of the justified person. Some might describe it under the vague term salva tion, others might find it in fellowship with Christ, and others still in eternal life.2 All these statements 1 Of course this conviction of a speedy fulfilment is a commonplace of eschatological expectation, cf. Apoc. Bar., xx, 6, "For they (i.e. the times) will come, and will not tarry"; Rev. i. 1, " Things which must shortly come to pass " ; and Smend (Z.A.T. W., 1885, p. 236), " The essence of Apocalyptic is the certainty of the immediate nearness of the Messianic future." See also Volz, Jiidische Eschatologie, p. 164. 2 Thus Steffen : " At least as strong as, indeed, even more powerful than the experience of the forgiveness of sins, is his joy regarding the certainty of an eternal life . . . Hejighed, as scarcjejy_any other hasjdone, beneathjhe_curse of the transiency of all that is earthly" (Z.N.T.W., i anticipation of the final judgment. But St Paul — who, for all his Christian idealism, is too sadly acquainted with the struggles of the life in the flesh — craves the realisation of that blissful future, when sin and death and judgment are no more to be reckoned with. There is no real inconsistency between the two positions. His outlook is absolutely true to religious experience. The joy of God's favour in the present earthbound life is at best a broken joy. " We were saved by hope ; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what one sees, why does he hope for? But if we hope for that which we do not see, by patient endurance we eagerly expect it" (Rom. viii. 24-25). The believing soul dare not trust itself. It has staked its all upon the grace of God made manifest in Christ. It remains conscious of its extra ordinary debt to that grace. Thus, in the tremulous- ness of such self-distrust, and keeping in view the lofty heights ot spiritual excellence to which he is summoned in the knowledge of the power of Christ's io PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, St Paul speaks with humble caution : " If haply I shall attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have attained already, or have been already per fected, but I follow after, in the hope that I shall indeed grasp that for which I was grasped by Christ Jesus" (Phil. iii. u, 12). Quite plainly, then, from the standpoint of a justified man,Jthe_ja^Qatle!s.gazs is turned eagerly towards the future. He knows hims^To"belongJo.the a-w^ouevoi, but the salvation (£ea-dai. The noun does not occur very frequently in his writings, but its usage is unmistakable. In 2 Cor. vii. io it is contrasted with Odvaros, in Phil. i. 28 with airwXeia. In Rom. xiii. 11, the eschatological character of the conception appears with decisive clearness : " It is time for you now to be roused from sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night has advanced, the day (i.e. of the Lord) is at hand." The same thought lies behind his exhortation to the Philippians : " Work out your own salvation to the end " (a-wTrjplav Karepyd^errOe, Phil. ii. 12). Here the main emphasis falls on the final issue. Salvation is only accomplished, is only, in the complete sense, realised, when Christ shall appear. It seems to us by no means accidental that in the Pauline Epistles the word appears most commonly in the phrase et? (rwrnplav, in which the idea of a goal to be reachecfis quite obvious. An instructive instance is 1 Thess. v. 9 : " For God did not appoint us with a view to wrath (ets dpyw)i hut with a view to the obtaining of salvation." Note worthy, and fully corroborating this position, is the affirm that "the entire function of the Son of God, who has appeared in the flesh, consists in the introduction of this close of the world which leads to the final death of the flesh " (so Holtzmann, N.T. Theol., ii. p. 196). But the side which is here exaggerated has too often been ignored by expositors of the Mew Testament. 12 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN antithesis jaLsaJyation ..to jwrath. For opyr, is an eschatological term, and, in the Epistles, invariably denotes the condemnation of the judgment day.1 Another example worthy of notice is 2 Thess. ii. 13: " God chose you from the beginning with a view to salvation." The phrase eh arwrriptav is explained or supplemented, a few clauses further on, by the words, "with a view to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here again our contention is amply verified, for " glory," as we shall see afterwards, is one of what may be~ealled the technical terms of New Testament Eschatology. It is needless to refer to the contrast several times drawn between ot o-oo&fievot and 01 aTroWvfxevot, a contrast which points self-evidently to the final issues of human character. But it is worth while to lay stress on the remarkable expressions in Rom. v. 9, 10, which have been already quoted : " We shall be saved through Him from the wrath," and " we shall be saved by his life." These statements, which occupy a fundamental place in the apostle's argument, can have nothing in view but the experience of the redeemed believer at the Parousia of Jesus Christ. A further illustration of the position we are emphasising is to be found in the term aTroXvrpwcns, which is a kind of synonym for crooTipla.2 Justification is effected "through the 1 The term has already come to have this application in Judaistic literature. Cf. Jub., xxiv. 30 ; Slav. Enoch, xliv. 2. 2 Titius describes o-wqpla and d-iroXirpuo-ts as being merely negative expressions for equipment with life (p. 54). It is so far true that St Paul regards eternal life as the supreme blessing of the End for believers. The termsj however, may be just as strictly taken as positive expressions for deliverance from sin. And it is easy to trace the connection between the two sides of the conception, when we remember the apostle's ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 13 redemption which is in Christ Jesus " (Rom. iii. 24). When we investigate the full content of " redemption," according to St Paul, we discover that it includes certain remarkable elements. Thus, from Rom. viii. 23, " We also ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly expecting (our) sonship, the redemption of our body," the true scope of aTroXvTpwa-is may be ascertained. "Tt ~i3" not exrratrsted"in the forgive ness of sins, and the deliverance from their guilt and dominion. It stretches into the future, and embraces the transformation of the bodily nature which Christ shall accomplish by changing it " into the likeness of the body of His glory" at the Parousia (Phil. iii. 21). The same idea meets us in Eph. i. 14, where St Paul speaks of the Spirit as " the pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of the purchased possession" (i.e., the entire life and constitution of the believer). This is repeated in Eph. iv. 30, where again he describes believers as being sealed by the Spirit, " with a view to the day of redemption " (eh tlfiepav cnroXvTpaxrem), the day, of course, when Christ shall be revealed.1 statement in Rom. vi. 23, that "the wages of sin is death." 1 On the eschatological aspect of Justification, see especially Kolbing, 5. K., 1895, pp. 1 ff. ; Pfleiderer, Paulinism, i. pp. 227, 228 ; Wernle, Der Christ u. die Siinde bei Paulus, pp. 22, 100 ff. This last suggestive discussion is marred here and there by unqualified statements. Thus, e.g., "The Christian receives through justification the right to all the blessings of the Messianic community, without an ethical transformation being derived from it," as if the faith in Christ which justifies is not ethical from its very raison d'itre. The same paradoxical character is found in the author's main contention, as e.g., p. 112 : "The doctrine of the walk in the Spirit is so enthusi astically set forth, and so completely regulated by the hope of i4 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN It might be felt, however, that the conception of Justification was one which, from its very essence, possessed eschatological bearings.1 The idea of acquittal or condemnation presupposes a judgment. And from the apostolic standpoint, that judgment takes place at the end of the present era, and consti tutes the inauguration of the future Kingdom of God. It is otherwise when we turn to the second focal conception of St Paul's religious thought, the Life in the Spirit. At the first glance it appears as if there were little room here for a relation to the Last Things. "In Paul," says J. Weiss, " the eschatological tension is strongly counterbalanced by his Christ-mysticism, He who, through the Spirit, is united with Christ and lives in Him, has surmounted space and time" (Die Predigt fesu vom Reiche Gottes, p. 61). Nevertheless, in this province also, we discover the very same trend, The Life in the Spirit is the direct result of St Paul's first contact with Christian realities. The revelation to him of the risen Jesus was necessarily the revela tion of the Messiah. The hope of his fathers was actually realised. The ends of the world had come. He was now living in the last time. But this revela tion was not merely to him. It was also Jn him (Gal. i. 16: airoKaKv^at tov viov avrov iv e/xoi, "to reveal His Son in me "). He had not only been con vinced of the existence of that Jesus whom he perse cuted. The living Lord had laid hold on his life (Phil. iii. 12 : Kare\tffjidtiv virb Xpto-rov 'Iijcrov). He had become its energising principle. It was no the Parousia, that no place is left for sin in the life of Christians." s 1 " Righteousness, Judgment, Parousia, are indissolubly con nected " (Cremer, Rechtfertigungslehre, p. 350). ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 15 longer he that lived, but Christ that lived in him (Gal. ii. 20). It was so amazing a transformation for a human experience, that he could, in all soberness, call it a new creation. But this transfigured life, with all its potency, with all its victorious energy, was, of necessity, grievously hampered. Its medium for the present was a fleshly nature, liable to sin and weak ness and decay. Ideally, indeed, the flesh was crucified : annulled through fellowship with the death of Christ (Rom. vi. 6, 1 1 ; Gal. v. 24). That was its ultimate fate — a fate as to which there could be no question. As a matter of real experience, the flesh still warred against the spirit, thwarting its impulses and often defeating its strivings (Gal. v. 16, 17). The law of sin and death had been abolished for those who were in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Him had taken its place (Rom. viii. 2). But that new law, the law of liberty (cf. Gal. v. i) could not have free scope for its workings under present earthly conditions. It was the spirit of sonship which Christians had received, for God had sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that they were now heirs of God, joint- heirs with Christ (Gal. iv. 6, 7; Rom. viii. 15-17). Yet that Spirit was only the first-fruits (atrapxm Rom. viii. 23) of the glorious heritage one day to be possessed. Even for the children of God (Rom. viii. 16) it was a time of waiting, of sighing, of groaning : they must still yearn for the perfected sonship (viii. 23). This relation to God, when consummated, involved a transformation of the whole man, not only of spirit, but of body. And the redemption of the body, which meant its conformity to the glorified body of Christ (Phil. iii. 21), would be the final stage 16 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN of the Spirit's operation. For the present, the life- giving Spirit was possessed only as pledge (appafiw, Eph. i. 14). Such an earnest pointed continually forward. Even the mute creation sympathised with the craving of believers for their future inheritance of bliss (Rom. viii. 22). They were linked together by the ardent yearning to be delivered from the bondage of corruption (0opd, Rom. viii. 21), and to attain to indissoluble life. At this point we can clearly per ceive the eschatological bearing of St Paul's idea of the possession of the Spirit. The peculiar function of the Spirit is to impart life (faoiroieiv, e.g., 2 Cor. iii. 6, rb &e Trvedfua faoirotei, "the Spirit makes alive " ; cf. 1 Cor. xv. 45, 6 earxaT°S 'AoayU eh irvevfia faoirotovv, " a life-creating Spirit "). That gift fortifies its possessor against the doom of death. For, " the gift of God is eternal life (fwij atwvios) in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. vi. 23). Its true significance is revealed in the words of Rom. viii. 1 1 : "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken (faoTrotfoei) also your mortal bodies through His Spirit, which dwelleth in you." Plainly, the full realisation of this life belongs to the events of the End, is finally attained in the Resurrection. We have briefly considered the eschatological trend in the two primary conceptions of St Paul's religious thought. But his wistful yearning for the future, blissful consummation is everywhere visible. The hope that lies in front of him is in very truth the anchor of his soul. It is no casual thought which he expresses in the words, "By hope we were saved" (Rom. viii. 24). When tribulation presses on him, he contrasts " the light affliction which is for a moment" ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 17 with "the exceeding and eternal weight of glory" which is its issue (2 Cor. iv. 17). When he reflects on his own experience, he comes to the conclusion that " the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which is to be revealed in us " (Rom. viii. 18). If the Christians' confidence in Christ belongs only to this life, then are they of all men most miserable. The present is the time of imperfection. "We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the consummation (rb riXetov) shall have come, then that which is fragmentary (rb eV fiipovs) shall be abolished" (i Cor. xiii. 9, 10). The principle of his life, in a word, is to look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal "(2 Cor. iv. 18). Before proceeding to examine St Paul's conceptions of the Last Things, so far as that is possible, in detail, it will be of advantage to observe the form in which these conceptions are presented, and the limits within which the apostle has chosen to move. Such an inquiry will provide us with cautions for our further investigation. It will place us on our guard against illegitimate inferences from the statements of the Epistles. It will supply us with certain regu lating principles for our estimate of St Paul's posi tions. It will suggest to us the kind of questions we have a right to put, and the lines on which we may expect to be answered. The whole treatment of the Last Things jn fhp £Jew Testament is noteworthy for its ^ Jregdom-Jrorn gxag^ratio'n7~its~riabit of abstaining^ Jrom,_ precise definition, "its facft ^c¥nowredgmerit-af-..the mystery B 18 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN of the unseen. ymld.JkUdJ&^.fJi^XS-lifSu This can o^ylBeTealised after a careful study of the parallel Eschatologies in other sacred literatures, and the curious cross-questionings of the future which meet us in modern times.1 The contrast is decisive, when we place, for example, the teaching of Jesus side by side with the speculations of the Jewish Apocalypses. In the former, details are conspicuously absent There is no elaborate delineation of the events which belong to the consummation of all things. There is no highly-coloured portrayal of the bliss of Paradise, or of the doleful gloom of Gehenna. The grotesque pictures of the renewal of nature are altogether lacking : so is the vivid scenery which forms the background of the Judgment and God's final victory over evil.2 A similar antithesis reveals itself if we compare St Paul's conceptions with, say, the Persian 1 " The spirit of man coveteth divination " (Lord Bacon). 2 We fail to see any ground for Holtzmann's sharp polemic against Haupt for laying emphasis on the lack of highly-coloured pictures in the Eschatology of Jesus (JV.T. Theol., i. p. 335, note 3). Haupt would, of course, admit the use of figurative descrip tions. This is all that can be asserted of the "great feast," " eating of bread," " thrones of judgment," etc., which Holtz- mann quotes as examples of "colours." Haupt's statement does not seem to us one-sided : " The conception of fan) in its full meaning — the supra-earthly Divine life — is the central thing for Jesus, which He always keeps in view. He who has that has all, and there is no advantage in laying stress on the peripheral features. So we find in Him no answer to all the questions which are usually treated in connection with the Resurrection. When this fado-rans is to come, how the body of the consummation will be related to the present body, how to the condition in Hades ... all these are questions which do not exist for Him. He believes in the power of God (Mark xii. 12), which can establish life in all directions, and it is enough for Him that this life will be a heavenly one, analogous ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 19 Eschatology, which some scholars regard as an in fluential factor in Jewish beliefs. Here, side by side with remarkable spiritual intuitions, there appears a crude realism. Thus the restraint and caution of St Paul's idea of the life after death are thrown into relief by the minute delineation of the journey of the soul, e.g., in Vendiddd, xix. 27-33, where we read that the pious soul, after he has departed, is met by a beautiful virgin, the incarnation of his own good deeds. She conducts him over the Hara-Berezaiti (the sacred mountain, now Elburz) : she bears him upwards from the bridge Cinvat into the road of the spiritual divinities. Vohu-man6, the good spirit, rises to greet him; then with joy the soul of the faithful passes into the presence of Ahura-Mazda (see Soderblom, La Vie Future d'apres le Mazdeisme, pp. 88-91). Doubtless the explanation of this contrast which we have been emphasising lies in the fact that the normative element of New Testament Eschatology (Gospels and Epistles) is to be found in the religious consciousness of those who gave it shape. The careful and sensitive reader has always the impres sion that Jesus and His apostles, in dealing with the Last Things, are perfectly well aware that they must use imagery derived from human life, as lived under its ordinary earthly conditions, to body forth processes which belong altogether to the supra- sensible world.1 To interpret the picture of judgment to that of the angels and of God Himself" (Eschatolog. Aussagen Jesu, p. 92). 1 One of the chief flaws in Kabisch's Eschatologie des Paulus is the persistently literalistic treatment of metaphorical language. At the same time, it must be remembered that for New Testament writers the boundary lines between fact and symbol were far less rigid than for modern minds. 20 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN in Matt. xxv. by a crass literalism, is to ignore the most valuable instrument of the preacher, the use of impressive figure, to say nothing of the fact that our Lord, as a true man, must constantly have thought in pictures.1 We need only reflect upon our own con ceptions of the events of the End, in order to discover how large a place must be given to metaphor, if we are to deal with that region of religious thought at all.2 Further, the writers of the New Testament must employ language which will find some point of con tact with the minds of their hearers or readers. And so they are content to move more or less among the conceptions of the Last Things current with their audience, modifying these when it is needful to bring into prominence some spiritual aspect of the question which is, as yet, unfamiliar. In the light of this fact, it is almost ludicrous to find St Paul's eschatological ideas discussed at times in a tone of disparagement, because they so frequently harmonise with the teach ings of Judaism. The conceptions of the Parousia and the Judgment must have constituted, as_we shall see, a most powerful element "in~the missionary preaching of the apostle. Then, as now, the solemn issues of life possessed a unique force of appeal to the 1 Cf. Haupt, op. cit, p. 1 59 : " The designedly pictorial character of His utterances, which are only the individualising and plastic expression of religious and ethical ideas, is, in this department, entirely analogous to the manner in which He is wont to express Himself in other provinces." 2 See Paradise Lost, bk. v. 571-577 : — " What surmounts the reach Of human sense, I shall delineate so, By lik'ning spiritual to corporal forms, !As may express them best, though what if Earth Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein Each to other like, more than on earth is thought." ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 21 conscience. Would not that force have vanished if St Paul" had been led to approach his hearers from a more theoretical or philosophical standpoint? We know that he found his most ready converts in the God-fearers (oi o-el36/j.evoi rbv Oeov) who were already acquainted with the Old Testament and the doctrines of the Synagogue. It was in accord with the remark able preparation of the Diaspora for the Christian Gospel that the apostle's affirmations concerning the Last Things should follow the general outlines laid down by the Scriptures and the teaching of post- canonical Judaism. More noteworthy, as we shaU discover, is the freedom witTT which" he deviates from traditional views, or, jrather transforms" them" for use in the service, oXtJlS.fjyth.p£Christ.1 It may be said without exaggeration that St Paul has no Eschatology. By that we mean that he has never approached the subject in a systematic fashion.2 A man of his speculative cast of mind, and one whose supreme hope was bound up with the glorious, unseen future, must often have been borne along in flights of ardent search, if by any means hejnight fierce the dailmejis_lj^jg_round the borders of _the world where Christ now ruled. But while he delights to dwell on certain sides of the eschatological problem, and seems, at first sight, to give these a disproportionate place, he does not even supply the materials for constructing anything in the nature of a scheme, far less does he 1 See especially. Titius. pp. 47-AQ : Reuss, Histoire de la Thiologie Chritienne, ii. p. 211. 2 Cf. Deissmann (Th. L.Z., 1898, Sp. 14): "What is called the 'Eschatology' of Paul has little that is 'eschatological' about it . . . Paul did not write de novissimis - . . One must be prepared for a surging hither and thither of great thoughts, feelings, expectations." / 22 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN attempt to reach such a construction for himself.1 It is difficult, in examining the religious thought of a born theologian like St Paul, to refrain from attempt ing to classify it within the confines of a dogmatic plan. And when an investigator, of set purpose, refuses to deal with his teaching on these lines, he is supposed to be doing an injustice to the apostle. It is surely no discredit to St Paul that he did not attempt to bind himself down to a logical sequence in his views of Christian truth.2 He is 1 This is in harmony with his general theological method, which is aptly described by Prof. Ramsay (Expos., vi. 6, p. 86) : " Paul sees like a man. He sees one side at a time. He emphasises that — not indeed more than it deserves — but in a way that provokes misconception, because he expresses one side of the case and leaves the audience to catch his meaning, to sympathise with his point of view, to supply for themselves the qualifications and the conditions and the reservations which are necessary in the concrete facts of actual life." Cf. A.B Davidson on Heb. xii. I : " Even a writer of Scripture may be allowed to throw out a brilliant ideal conception without our tying him down to having uttered a formal doctrine." In this avoidance of rounded-off system the apostle is true to the traditions of his nation. " You can make a digest and system of their (i.e. the Rabbinic) law, but a system of their theology you can only make with the utmost caution and many reserva tions" (Montefiore, J.Q.R., xiii. p. 171). From this point of view, Weber's well-known work, Die Lehren des Talmud, must be checked by BacheHs admirable collections, Die Agada der Tannaiten, 2 vols., 1884- 1890. 2 Cf. Fairbairn, Philosophy of the Christian Religion, p. 440 : " Paul, as he lives before us in his Epistles, is a man who holds many men within him — so many . . . that we may describe him as the most unintelligible of men to the analytical reason of a critic who has never warmed to the passion or been moved by the enthusiasm of humanity ; but the most intelligible of men to the man who has heard within himself the sound of all the voices that speak in man." ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 23 logical enough when his spiritual experience demands it, but a large part of his affirmations regarding the religious life and destiny of men is thrown off, as occasion prompts, in vague hints, in outbursts of intense spiritual emotion, in pictures set within the framework of his inherited training, in arguments devised to meet the needs of a particular church or a particular group of converts. As Professor Gardner finely expresses it, " His writings do not constitute a philosophic system, because they are not purposefully hammered out, but fused by an intense heat from within. . . . His basis is not only certain principles worked out to their logical results, but also experiences, like flashes of lightning, which lit up the cave of consciousness, and melted its contents into new and sometimes irregular forms " (Historic View of Christi anity, pp. 217, 218). Obviously, therefore, we need never be surprised to find gaps in the hypothetical system for which our minds crave.1 Especially, in a 1 See a most instructive paragraph in Drummond's Philo, i. p. 186: "While a system of thought is still growing, its successive stages and ultimate logical results disclose them selves only by degrees. For a time an explanation may be deemed sufficient which contains, unperceived and unresolved, a variety of problems destined to try the skill of future inquirers : we are not justified in forcing on one of its earliest exponents its implicit contents, which may never have become explicit in his consciousness. The critical historian is apt to be impatient of vagueness, and in a question which appears to him inevitable, and did in fact arise inevitably in the course of the development, he will have it that each writer must have had an opinion one way or the other : whereas to many thinkers the question may never have occurred, and were we able to propound it to them, we should find them unprovided with an answer.'' Pfleiderer, Paulinism, i. p. 259 ff. (E. Tr.), greatly exaggerates the lack of cohesion in Pauline Eschatology. 24 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN department like Eschatology, in which words and images derived from prosaic earthly experiences have to translate for human minds the mysterious events and processes of a life raised above material limita tions, we may expect to move among half-truths, dim symbols of realities, paradoxical statements which refuse to be harmonised.1 We believe, indeed, that St Paul's eschatological conceptions have a far greater mutual congruity than some recent investigators have been willing to recognise. But in an age when the notion of development is regarded as the key to all problems, it is perhaps natural that scholars should use it in explaining certain phenomena which look like antinomies in the Pauline Epistles. This view has been worked to its furthest limit by Sabatier, Pfleiderer, Teichmann, and others. Such a possibility must, of course, be admitted ; but when we consider the very brief space of time within which all the extant letters of the apostle were written, we may well be on our guard against straining this line of argument2 If at any point there appears to be a 1 That perplexities of this kind belong to the very nature of Biblical Eschatology, is well brought out by Laidlaw (Bible Doctrine of Man, p. 223) : " There are two distinct lines~on which . . . these disclosures (i.e. of eschatological truth) are set forth. The first is that which we may call " personal," for in it the future is spoken of as part of the development of an individual human being. . . . The other is that which we may call " dispensational," when these last events are spoken of on the public" scale as moments in the development of the kingdom of heaven, or of the dispensation of redemption in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thoroughly to connect these two in a complete system of eschatology, is a task for which our theology is confessedly incompetent. . . . The Scripture itself does not give us a complete view of these connections." 2 Cf. Denney (Death of Christ, p. 115) : "To suppose that a ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 25 change of view or a modification of statement, it is safer to look for the cause in the immediate occasion of the writing, or in some marked crisis in St Paul's experience which has led him to recast his earlier conclusion. An alteration_of standpoint, for example, regarding the state entered Jmmediately after death, is~bften supposecTto have taken place in the apostle's mind inlhe"ihTervaT between the writing of the .First and Second Epistles" to the Corinthians.1 This is held by some expositors to be the result of theological development. By others it is regarded simply as a more or less arbitrary modification of view. While others still attribute it to the terrible perils through which St Paul had passed during his sojourn at Ephesus.2 If there be any such change of concep tion, a question which must be examined in detail in a subsequent chapter, the last-named hypothesis is certainly the most satisfying. But after all, it must be borne in mind that, as a distinguished theo logian once said in our hearing, a man may have several Eschatologies. That is putting the matter summarily, but the remark is abundantly true to experience. Probably most of us are conscious of the fact in our own religious thought.3 Its real great expansion of his (Paul's) thoughts took place between the letters to the Thessalonians and those to the Corinthians, is to ignore at once the chronology, the nature of letters, and the nature of the human mind." 1 So, e.g., Holtzmann, N.T. Theol., ii. p. 193 ; Teichmann, Die paulinischen Vorstellungen von Auferstehung u. Gericht, p. 39. Cf. also Beyschlag, N.T. Theol., ii. pp. 270, 271. 2 See 2 Cor. i. 8. 3 Account should certainly be taken of the peculiar habit of the Semitic mind. See a luminous statement by Dr E. Caird (Newspaper Report of Gifford Lectures, Glasgow, 1902) : " It 26 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN explanation lies in the nature of the problem with which we are dealing. Our Lord Himself, as we have seen, in place of setting forth any definite instruction as to the unseen world and the future destiny of men, spoke at all times in pictures, only making clear the spiritual side of the mystery, namely, the certainty for the believer of unbroken fellowship after death with the eternally-living God. It was the same with the apostles. They also confine them selves, as a rule, to hints and illustrations. In their missionary preaching they emphasise one aspect or group of aspects of the Last Things. When they come to detailed arguments, dealing with particular diffi culties, a different phase of the subject gains a momentary prominence. It is no concern to them if some of the details do not admit of inclusion in a general scheme. Indeed we need never expect entirely harmonious pictures in this province of thought. For the profoundest imagination is soon baffled when it attempts to depict the inexpressible realities of the heavenly world in terms of earthly experiences.1 No perfect definiteness is attainable; rather a distant adumbration which must be esti mated as nothing more. If we should be confronted at any points in St Paul's eschatological thought by conceptions which seem to overlap each other, or (i.e. the Hebrew mind) lived ... in the consciousness of an unanalysed whole of experience, and represented it now in one aspect and now in another, as one might stand before a sea that was illuminated from moment to moment by flashes of lightning." This seems to us as truly as it is strikingly expressed. It contains the key to many problems of New Testament thought. 1 See Schleiermacher, Der christliche Glaube, iv. pp. 209, 220; Orr, Christian View of God and the World, pp. 334-336 ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 27 images which, if expanded to their furthest limits, appear to leave an unresolved residuum, we must not only bear in mind the cautions already laid down, but we must also endeavour to realise by the use of the philosophical imagination that ideas, which from our standpoint present an aspect of mutual exclusive ness, might seem far more consistent if we could take up our position in that world of thought to which the first Christian writers belonged.1 Further, in attempting to grasp St Paul's concep tions of the Last Things, we must not begin by putting certain definite questions to which we demand an answer. The function pf New Testament theology is to understand the statements of the apostolic writers "from within their ideas and experiences." We must be prepared to recognise that some of those eschatological problems which press most heavily upon us, did not appeal to the apostle at all. Others, on which we care for nothing but a definite decision, St Paul is content to leave on a borderland of mystery. While, occasionally, he takes considerable pains with matters which have come to be more or less remote from our religious interest. These facts are fully explained by the long interval which separates our time from the Apostolic Age. It is a false conception of inspiration which would expect St Paul to satisfy all our questionings even within his own sphere. The inspiration of the apostle is an equipment of 1 See an admirable treatment of assumed contradictions in ' Pauline Eschatology in Bornemann's edition of Meyer on I Thessalonians (Meyer, M 1894), pp. 186, 534-536. Cf. Julicher, Einleitung in d. N.T., p. 27. Deissmann, in an instructive review of Teichmann's Paulinische Vorstellungen von Auferste- hungu. Gericht (Th. L.Z., 1898, Sp. 14), points out the danger of mixing up Nebeneinander with Nacheinander. 28 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN the Spirit for the work he has immediately to do. Certainly much of that work was to be for all time, but its conditions were determined by given historical facts. And one of the fundamental truths of God's operation in history is a gradual change in the mental perspective of nations and individuals. Enough has been said to show that it is impossible to discover anything in the nature of a system of Eschatology, a group of logically related and wholly coherent conceptions of the Last Things, in the Pauline Epistles. We find, indeed, many distinct and momentous affirmations, many fragments of doctrines, respecting certain facts and events of the End. Some of these are an echo of popular ideas, some remain fixed beliefs, fundamental data for the apostle, whenever he chances to deal with eschato logical questions. But however unsystematic they may be in their nature and form, we are not for that reason to imagine that they were only of secondary importance in the judgment of St Paul. The attempt has been made in the earlier part of this chapter to prove that an eschatological element lies in the very centre of his religious thought. But he lays no stress on those scenic features which are so promi nent in most speculations on the Last Things. It is extremely suggestive to observe that in the Imprisonment-Epistles, written apart from the heat of controversy, written when their author has leisure to survey the complete bearings of his Christian knowledge, and is plainly rejoicing with a serene gladness in the solidity and majesty of the Christian certainties, he delights to sum up his forecasts of the Last Things under the general designation of Hope. Undoubtedly this aspect of his thought is prominent ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 29 throughout the Epistles. As early as his letter to the Galatians, we come upon the remarkable affirma tion of his Christian position in these words : " We through the Spirit by faith eagerly expect the hope of righteousness " (eXirtSa Sticaioavvw, i.e., the hope which righteousness brings or guarantees, chap. v. 5). In Romans, side by side with more detailed conceptions of the End, the idea of Hope stands in the fore ground. Apart from the classical passage in chap, viii., which we quoted at the outset in dealing with the eschatological strain in his doctrine of Justification, we find the apostle asserting in chap. v. 5 that " the (i.e. Christian) hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us." The only definition of this Christian hope is that it rests on the assurance of the love of God imparted by the Holy Spirit.1 In the Imprisonment-Epistles he leaves his conception of Hope still more undefined. " The hope laid up for you in heaven " (Col. i. 5), "thejigpe of glory " (Col. i. 27), " the hope of His calling " (Eph. i. 1 8), " one hope of your calling"" (Eph. iv.~4) — these are typical descriptions of the blissful consum mation which awaits the believer.2 It might be an 1 Cf. the hope of enduring life in several Psalms, a hope which was also based on the assurance of God's faithfulness (virtually = His love). A striking parallel is Wisd. iii. 4 : 4 thirls aiTuv &6avao-las ttXt^s. J. Weiss suggestively observes that the fundamental note of the preaching of Jesus was hope, "undoubtedly a hope certain of ,its end, but still always hope" (Die Predigt Jesu v. Reiche G., p. 71). 2 This conception, like all those which are normative for St Paul, has its roots in the Old Testament. " One can see how closely the meaning which life has in the sum of religious thoughts in the Old Testament, coheres with the character of 30 PLACE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN exaggeration to say that at this stage in his Christian career the apostle prefers to turn aside from all statements of detail, and to rest in a blessed certainty around which he leaves a margin of mystery. Yet one feels that such a view lies at least in the direc tion of the truth. Certainly, in those letters which form the climax of his religious thinking, he deals very slightly with the pictorial elements of Eschato logy, choosing rather to select and emphasise those aspects of it which have a directly spiritual value. This is in genuine harmony with the teaching of our Lord Himself. He varies His imagery, He changes the picture, but underlying every metaphor and every illustration are to be found certain, commanding spiritual affirmations which bear with immediate force upon the central issues of human cfesFiny. And the apostle has unquestionably transformecTthe prophetic-apocalyptic traditions of Judaism from which he started, in the spirit of Jesus, and under the influence of His teaching. It is not, of course, to be supposed that St Paul has wholly renounced the original framework of his conceptions. Statements, for example, in Philippians, which is probably the latest of the Imprisonment-Epistles, remind us vividly of his earlier eschatological utterances. But, as the result of advancing Christian experience, and a more complete surrender to the power of the Spirit, he has discovered where to place the accent in his teaching on the Last Things. He is more concerned about the. essential-realities, _and less about their Jternpprary hope, which pre-eminently determines the stamp of this religion. It is not the beginning of things which the Old Testament emphasises : everything stretches into the future. On this is founded the healthiness of their religion" (Kleinert, S.K., 1895, p. 711). ST PAUL'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 31 expression. May we not suppose that the apostle's experience is a picture in miniature of the experi ence of the Christian Church in this dimly-lit and mysterious province of her thinking? May we not believe that, in the purpose of her Divine Guide, she also is led forward from the material vestments of eschatological conceptions to the great spiritual certainties which they enwrap? In this~historical process the teaching of St Paul must prove of permanent value, since, by reason of his Divinely- trained instinct, he remains a master in the delicate and precarious operation of discerning between the letter and the spirit.1 1 Cf. Titius, p. 289 : " The expectation of the Parousia con tinues, and is still, for a whole century, a powerful guarantee for the self-realisation of the Church and a stimulus to more ardent effort, but the distressing effect of its delay has dis appeared. They can look forward to it with calmness. And this altered mood is above all else the life-work of the apostle Paul ... It is his life-work, in spite of the fact that he himself, as regards his personal feeling, is rooted in the eschatological- enthusiastic condition of mind, and abides by that." Mr Myers' beautiful lines are scarcely true to the apostle's outlook : — " Oh that thy steps among the stars would quicken ! Oh that thine ears would hear when we are dumb ! Many the hearts from which the hope shall sicken. Many shall faint before thy kingdom come." — St Paul, p. 24, They bear the impress of a wearier age. CHAPTER II FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN ST PAUL'S CON CEPTIONS OF THE LAST THINGS In the preceding chapter we have attempted to show that St Paul does not possess anything in the nature of a balanced or well-defined system of eschatological beliefs. But from the necessity of his Christian standpoint, as one who holds an ethical view of the world and human life, and as a firm believer in the future of the Kingdom of_God. that Kjnjjdom_which has already begun to take shape, he will often have to deal with the Last Things? For the moral order and purpose of the universe, which have been illumined by the revelation of Jesus Christ, must be clearly vindicated to the Christian consciousness. Hence, although his conceptions of events and processes in this obscure realm find an utterance simply as the occa sion prompts, and although no questions as to the due proportions or the respective prominence of separate subdivisions of Eschatology ever concern the apostle, we may be prepared to discover certain fundamental lines of thought which usually regulate his eschato logical discussions. Thus we are not dealing with casual statements which St Paul has thrown off with out reflection, statements to which he would not assign n FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 33 the weight of firm conviction. Eschatological con siderations, as we have seen, occupy a foremost place within his mental horizon. They must have been constantly emphasised in his missionary preaching, as may be gathered from the letters to the Thessa lonians and Corinthians. Probably the lacunce, which sometimes puzzle us as we read these discussions, could often be filled up by his readers from their recollection of his oral instructions.1 Famous passages like 1 Cor. xv. and 2 Cor. v. 1-10 are sufficient proof that St Paul had devoted careful thought to the events of the End. Accordingly, there are certain clear land marks which serve to guide us through the domain of his Eschatology. These may come into view, at times, in the most isolated fashion. The apostle may never have occasion, at least in his extant Epistles, to follow out his main positions to their logical conclusions. But there is a group of crucial certain ties among the " Things to Come," round which his thought invariably revolves.2 They may be roughly classified as thf» Pafgygia nr Final AHvpnt nf Christ, the Resurrection from the clead, and the Consumma tion of a redeemed and glorified humanity, in which the universe reaches the goal of the Divine purpose. Obviously these great conceptions will draw others in their train. Death and Eternal Life, the State after death, Judgment and Retribution, the Inherit ance of the Saints — all are implicated in the data with which he starts, although we cannot forecast, from 1 Cf. Bornemann on Thessalonians (Meyer, 5"6), p. 534. 2 Titius remarks with justice that St Paul selects for special treatment the two aspects of Eschatology to which a saving interest belongs, the Resurrection and the Judgment (involving, of course, the Parousia). In each of these he can sum up salva tion as a whole (pp. 50, 51). C 34 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN their relative importance to our minds, the proportions which they will assume in the discussions of the apostle. As soon as the primary conceptions of which he treats are stated, we recognise that some of them at least are common to all systems of religion.1 In one shape or other, eschatological beliefs belong to primitive man. In several ancient faiths they occupy the forefront. In all they are necessarily interwoven with men's fundamental religious ideas. And they will usually be linked to these in their cruder forms.2 Accordingly, we ought to mark the essential differ ence in origin between them and other prominent factors in St Paul's theology. Justification may be taken as an instance in point. No doubt it would be true to say that we find the roots of this epoch- making doctrine to some extent in the Old Testa ment, and to a greater still in Judaism. The righteousness of God and His demand for righteous- 1 "Eschatological conceptions seem generally, in all religions, to belong to the most ancient animistic group of ideas " (Schwally, Leben nach d. Tode, p. 6). 2 Cf. Jeremias (Baby Ion.- Assy r. Vorstellungen v. Leben nath d. Tode, p. 107) : " In no province of religious thought has the j original Semitic popular tradition so lastingly endured in the j Old Testament as in the ideas of the fortunes of man after death." See also Davidson on the Old Testament idea of death : " This idea is not strictly the teaching of revelation ... it is the popular idea from which revelation starts ; and revelation on the question rather consists in exhibiting to us how the pious soul struggled with this popular conception and strove to overcome it, and how faith demanded and realised ... its demand that the communion with God enjoyed in this life should not be interrupted in death "(on Job xiv. 13-15). This general consideration is largely normative for the methods of Pauline Eschatology. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 35 ness in men are paramount ideas in prophets and psalmists. And to the Hebrew mind, righteousness " is not so much a moral quality as a legal status " (W. R. Smith, Prophets of Israel, p. 72), a judgment of God that we are right with Him. In the later extra-canonical literature, righteousness according to the law is the chief aim of every devout Jew. His deeds of obedience procure merit for him with God. God weighs his actions in the balances, and one side or other prevails. He is accepted or he is con demned.1 It is easy to discover that in these ideas we have the mental atmosphere in which St Paul's great doctrine originates. But its centre of gravity is wholly changed. So many new factors inter vene, that the transformation of the conception is far more conspicuous than its connections with pre-existing Jewish thought. Faith in Jesus Christ as the sole ground of justification alters so com pletely the older views of the soul's relation to God, that we are ushered into a new world of spiritual phenomena. The very terms employed have been filled with a fresh content. In essential respects, the doctrine has become the converse of its counterpart in Judaism. It is natural that it should be otherwise with the data of St Paul's Eschatology. While a truly recreating power has entered that domain also, we may still expect to deal largely with current beliefs and current imagery. An Eschatology will not call so quickly for change as a Theology or a 1 See, e.g., 4 Ezra iii. 34 : " Now, therefore, weigh our sins and those of the inhabitants of the world on the balance, that it may be discovered to which side the turn of the scale inclines " ; Enoch xii. I, Ixi. 8. Cf. Weber, Lehren d. Talmud, pp. 272, 273 etal. ; Volz, ludische Eschatologie, p. 95. 36 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN Soteriology. It will adapt itself but slowly to the Tiigher""stages of spirituality which may have been reached in the doctrines of God or salvation. The reasons are obvious. Men represent the Last Things to their minds by means of pictures. They possess a kind of eschatological scenery. This stamps itself upon their imagination from childhood. By degrees they may fully recognise that it is crude and imperfect. But it serves as a rough, working in strument of thought. Meanwhile the more central truths within their spiritual vista may have been undergoing a silent but essential modification. It may be long before it is borne in upon them that they must readjust the various positions of their tacitly-held theological system for the sake of con- gruity. For image^yj^jmjjkfu^afesjract thought, is exceedingly flexible! And we unconsciously read into the familiar pictures., the new spiritual signifi cance which has been independenth^jittahjed. Tn the case of St Paul, we cannot, indeed, overestimate the remoulding power of his Christian experience in the province of Eschatology. But we shall be better able to appreciate the range and depth of the trans formation if we endeavour to realise, in brief outline, first, the heritage of belief he carried with him from the Old Testament, and second, the Judaistic back ground which must, to some extent, have affected his conceptions of the Last Things. Before making this attempt (and it can only be done within narrow limits), let us guard against the prejudice which often attaches itself to such methods of investigation. We have no sympathy with those who reduce great factors in the spiritual or intellec tual history of the race to mere bundles of influences ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 37 which can be discovered and classified by minute analysis. This is dull pedantry. The transcending personality is immeasurably greater" than™aIT"those forces^_which have fostered his development. The secret of his mastery" among~his Yellows is just that elusive and yet commanding individuality which refuses to be tracked, which welds together in itself all that is of worth in its environment, repelling, attracting, selecting, transfiguring, impressing upon the" whole mass of its experience the stamp of its own unique power. Yet, on the other hand, it is no dis paragement, even to a master in the science of the Divine like St Paul, to take account of the intellectual habits amidst which his mind received its bent, to try to discover how he dealt with the beliefs and con victions which he found existing, to trace his relation to contemporary thought, in order that we may more accurately estimate the influence of his personal Christian experience. Obviously, the attempt has to be made with delicacy and caution, for the workings of spiritual forces are not mechanical processes. " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Moreover, it has to be remembered that no stage in the religious or ethical development of a people is accidental or unimportant. Some investi gators, for example, seem to assume that when they have referred a particular view or speculation to later Judaism or to the Rabbis, they have thereby proved its worthlessness as a normative element in Christian theology. It appears to us that this is an utterly un scientific procedure. If we believe in any Divine purpose leading on humanity to purer and higher 38 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN apprehensions of spiritual truth, we must assign no secondary place to that movement of thought which was the immediate precursor of the religion of the New Testament. In attempting to estimate the influence of the Old Testament on St Paul's Eschatology, we shall begin by noticing more generally the lines along which such influences may be traced. The Old Testament contains chiefly an Eschatology of the nation. In this is revealed the organic con nection of its Eschatology with its theology. Jehovah is the God of Israel rather than of the individual Israelite. His covenant is made with His people. In the Old Testament, the solidarity of the nation stands always in the forefront. It is the unit with which Jehovah enters into relations. Hence the ful filment of the Divine purpose, the realising of the Divine order, must be looked for on national rather than on individual lines.1 Such facts largely account for the absence of any clear or well-defined utterances on those problems of the End which have a para mount interest for us. The favourite ideal of the prophets is a purified Israel, which, according to some of them, shall be the centre of light for the whole world.2 This regenerated kingdom absorbs their thoughts on the consummation of all things. Israel 1 Probably Prof. Charles does not overstate the truth in asserting, that "never in Palestinian Judaism, down to the Christian era, did the doctrine of a merely individual im mortality appeal to any but a few isolated thinkers" (Encycl Biblica, ii. col. 1347). 2 This is the view ot Micah iv. 1, 2 ; Isaiah ii. 2-4 ; xi. 9, 10. On the other hand, Amos, Hosea, and Joel seem to restrict the future blessedness to their own people. See Drummond, lewish Messiah, pp. 186 ff. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 39 shall become in the fullest sense God's people, and He will be their God. The scene of the perfected theocracy is this earth, often conceived as renewed and glorified (Isa. Ixv. 17, lxvi. 22).1 An era of unbroken felicity fills up the horizon. Probably to their minds it is eternal. For, as Dr Davidson was wont to express it, the events they ascribed to the Messianic age were equivalent to those which we assign to the time following the Second Advent. There is no terminus ad quern in that epoch. From another point of view, the kingdom is really synony mous with heaven. For God's presence is enjoyed in it without let or hindrance. Different writers present varying pictures of the events which lead up to the establishment of the Divine order. In some the figure of the Messianic King occupies a prominent place. This is true, e.g., of Isaiah (xi. 1), Micah (v. 2), and Zechariah (ix. 9). In the second part of Isaiah, the Servant of the Lord is the great instrument of Jehovah's operations. But most of the prophetic writers agree in ushering in the crisis of transformation by a definite event, the Day of the Lord. For Jehovah's own presence and work ing are the most inspiring of all Messianic hopes (so Dr Davidson). This is a day of judgment, and also of vindication. Its character, like all manifestations of Jehovah, is ethical. It comes laden with terror and destruction for the enemies of God : it marks out for favour and salvation His chosen people. It is 1 Such a conception is true to a typical dogma of Apocalyptic which affirms that the end is to be like the beginning. Cf. Barn. vi. 3 ; iSoi, -iroid to\ lo-xara iis rck TrpCyra, See Gunkel on 4 Ezra vii. 1 1 (in Kautzsck), and cf. Enoch xiv. 5 ; Jub. iv. 26 ; 4 Ezra vii. 75 et al. ; and Volz, op. cit, pp. 296, 297. 40 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN the day when the Divine purposes, which have been slowly ripening, come to maturity. From that time forward the new reign of righteousness is firmly established, whether God, or His vicegerent, the Messiah, be directly conceived as Ruler. (On the parallel existence of these two conceptions in O.T., see Davidson, Old Testament Prophecy, pp. 311, 312.) Old Testament writers depict this epoch in glowing colours, but the details are vague, and the outlines more or less fluctuating. It is obvious that we need not expect to find any coherent forecasts of the time when these decisive occurrences shall break in upon the common order of human life. It is characteristic of the prophetic vision, to compress great moments within a brief space (so Dr Davidson). But the prophets had their expectations heightened when they saw rapid and crucial movements shaping themselves in the history of their nation. Sudden revolutions and catastrophes, overwhelming disasters like the Baby lonian invasion and conquest, seemed to portend a speedy intervention of the Divine arm. At such times, when the bulk of their fellow-countrymen had already begun to recognise the punishment of their stubborn sinfulness, the hopes of the prophets were bound up with the righteous remnant (e.g. Isa. vi. 13), the holy kernel of the nation, of whose existence they were assured, and who must ultimately form the nucleus of the realised Kingdom of God. Now, however nationalistic their conception of the Kingdom might be in its earlier stages, such a limitation was bound to be ultimately transcended. Their contact with the great empires of Assyria and Babylon must have immensely widened their conception of the world. And already the germ of universalism was to be ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 41 found in the intimate relation between their Eschato logy ajid theijr_ Theology. The great spiritual fact, which was the basis of their faith, the unity of God, must finally lead them to its corollaryj" the unity of "mankind. And the rule of God being, necessarily, a righteous rule, there must follow the idea of a moral renovation of humanity.1 We can see, there fore, how all along their conceptions of the Last Things contained the potentiality of a world-wide application : how the way was being prepared for more transcendental conceptions of Judgment and Salvation. There is no lack of material, as is evident, for reconstructing in a rough fashion the general pro phetic picture of the End, or rather, final epoch — a picture which, in its main outlines, we can trace also in the Psalms. Its original basis, the conviction that the scene of God's Kingdom will be a regenerated earth ; that its centre will be the holy city Jerusalem ; that from thence God, or His representative the Messianic King,2 will rule in wisdom and righteous ness and mercy over Israel and those Gentiles who have come to the light which shines from Zion — this conviction will necessarily involve the use of imagery derived from human experience.3 No doubt the prophets themselves are often conscious that their 1 Cf. Davidson in H.D.B., iv. 121 ; Drummond, Jewish Messiah, p. 328. 2 It is interesting to note the rarity of the Messianic idea in the literature of the Maccabsean period. Apparently the triumph of the Maccabees satisfied the popular hopes. It was the experience of hardship and calamity that followed, which kindled the Messianic Hope throughout the nation as a whole. Cf. Drummond, op. cit, p. 269. 8 " The moral and religious element is the essential part of 42 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN images are only inadequate approximations to the truth lying within their field of vision, for the trans figured earth and the new Jerusalem will be the home of spiritual forces, expressions of the Divine energy, such as men have never dreamed of. Still, the features of the picture will be essentially anthropo morphic; the sounding of the trumpet, which summons to the great assize ; the Theophany itself, with its awe-inspiring accompaniments of fire and tempest and glowing clouds ; the voice of thunder, which will shake the earth ; the valley of Hinnom, where the bodies of the slain shall be consumed in heaps, or left a prey to the worms. No other setting could so vividly have represented to their contempo raries the terrific realities of judgment and retribution, and the consummation of blessedness for all who have been faithful to their covenant with Jehovah. May we not say that it is almost impossible to give practical value at any time to the conceptions of the final transcendent processes of God's moral order, without calling to our aid the ordinary human realisa tions of penalty and judgment ? The prophecies of the Book of Daniel may be regarded as standing by themselves in this connec tion.1 They belong to that influential department of Jewish literature known as Apocalyptic. They are concerned almost exclusively with the events of the End. They deal in a mysterious, perhaps one might the prophecy, the form in which it is to verify itself is secondary. The form was of the nature of an embodiment, a projection or construction, and the materials of which the fabric was reared were those lying to the hand of the prophet in each successive age" (Davidson, op. tit., p. 126). 1 Closely parallel are the Visions of Zechariah (see Smend, Alttest. Religionsgeschichte, p. 473). ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 43 say, in an esoteric manner, with those movements of history which lead up to the manifestation of the kingdom of the saints of the Most High. In an exceedingly compressed form, the fortunes of the chosen people, as these are moulded by the sway of successive foreign princes, are traced through a group of symbolic visions. In chap, xi., certain remark able characteristics are ascribed to some of the most impious heathen kings, gross irreligion and daring sacrilege and overweening insolence, which appear to the seer's mind as the culmination of an almost super human wickedness. The colours of this picture seem to have made a profound impression on readers of the prophecy, for, as we shall discover, they reappear frequently in the apocalyptic tradition, and supply a setting for some of the most obscure of St Paul's eschatological forebodings. Even from this meagre outline, which will be filled in, more or less, in subsequent chapters, we receive a glimpse of the eschatological background which lies behind the religious thought of St Paul. It is, indeed, a current fashion to minimise his relation to the ancient Scriptures of his people, as compared with his indebtedness to the teachings of post-canonical Judaistic literature, in its various branches. Thus, e.g., Weizsacker : " The same apostle, who freed the oldest Christianity from the limitations of the Jewish people and its religion, has, perhaps, chiefly contributed, on another side, to retain the Jewish spirit in it" (Apostol. Zeitalter, p. 105). We must understand here by the "Jewish spirit," that which prevailed in the Rabbinic circle in which St Paul received his early training. Now, as we shall have frequent occasion to show, his writings reveal every 44 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN here and there affinities with his native environment But the remarkable fact remains that these affinities are largely superficial, that they disclose themselves at the circumference rather than at the centre of his thought It is the spirit of his religion which is essentially" alien to contemporary Judaism and in profound harmony with the prophets and psalmists of the Old Testament. In this he is a true follower of his Master. Jesus also felt in His deepest con sciousness the enduring significance of the Divine revelation as contained in the Old Testament He recognised its permanent elements, and used them in His own presentation of spiritual truth. He found in the spirit of prophetism the genuine evidence of a direct fellowship with God, and hence a discernment of the eternal principles of the Divine operation. St Paul occupies a similar standpoint. We know, indeed, that the apostle employed Scripture proofs, repeatedly, according to the fashion of his time, regarding the original historical sense of passages as of minor importance in comparison with their bearing on the facts of the Christian dispensation (e.g., Rom. iv. 24, xv. 2 ; 1 Cor. x. 1 1).1 But this is a phenomenon of superficial importance as compared with his far- reaching appreciation of the inward vitality of the prophetic religion.2 He is able to lay aside the fantastic imaginations and the pedantic hair-splitting which have obscured so much that is of high ethical worth in Rabbinic theology. As the true successor of the great prophets, who has discovered in the Christian revelation the summing up and attainment of their highest ideals, he is equipped by the very 1 See Clemen, S.K., 1902, p. 178 ff. 2 Cf. Heinrici on 2 Corinthians (Meyer, 8 1900), p. 451. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 45 possession of their spirit for the world-embracing vocation of missionary to the nations. The truth is that his conversion seems to have sent him back with fresh vision to the Old Testament. However ready he shows himself to emphasise the preparatory, psedagogic purpose of the law enshrined in it, he assimilates by an inherent sympathy its most lofty spiritual doctrines, and esteems them with an intensified devotion, just because their deepest and perennial significance dawns upon him in the light of his fellowship with the Lord. Here and there he may make a purely dialectic use of passages for argument's sake, a use so foreign to our habits of thought that we are apt to do injustice to a man whose reverence for the Divine revelation was as profound as his spiritual life. To realise his genuine sympathy with the purest strain in Old Testament religion, we have only to compare him with subtle thinkers like Philo, with ardent enthusiasts like the Jewish apocalyptic writers, or with devout Christians like the Apostolic Fathers. This man, from the vantage-ground which he has found in Christ, recognises in prophet and psalmist real mediators of God's self-disclosure to mankind. While the stream of Divine revelation has been infinitely deepened and broadened, it has not left the rivulets of prophetic inspiration to stagnate in isolated pools. It need hardly be said that the apostle has trans formed the prophetic ideas of the Old Testament under the influence of the new Christian revelation. Thus the culmination of the Providential development is found in Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Son of God, in whom all things are finally summed up (Eph. i. 10). Acceptance in the day of judgment is 46 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN determined by men's attitude to the Gospel of Christ (Rom. iv. 25, v. 8-10, xiv. 9, 18 ; 1 Cor. iii. 11). Hence, of course, it follows that all national restric tions have vanished. For " there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male or female." All are '' one man in Christ Jesus " (Gal. iii. 28). But this higher stage in the knowledge of God to which men have been called in no way conflicts for the apostle's mind with the pro phetic principle. It is the copestone of the great edifice of salvation. Therefore it is not too much, we believe, to assert that St Paul has rediscovered the Old Testament for himself as a Christian, and the Church has inherited the benefits of his discovery. The Old Testament has furnished the apostle with a remarkable teleology. Strangely enough, he makes scanty use of that expression for the new Divine order which crystallised the deepest conceptions of the prophets, and was so frequently found upon the lips of Jesus — the Kingdom of God. Yet the terms in his Epistles which perhaps most nearly express its mean ing, erwrripla and fan, are much more closely linked to the Old Testament standpoint than might at first sight appear. In our next chapter we shall examine the conception of fafi in detail, and its Old Testament basis will then become abundantly clear. We have already observed that eroor^pia and its cognates seem uniformly, with St Paul, to have an eschatological significance. The beginning of the saving process, indeed, may be so described, and any particular stage in its development. But in his use of the term the apostle, as we have sought to show, keeps ever in view the events of the last time, more especially the ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 47 opyh Oeov, " the wrath of God," which must form part of the revelation (aTroKaXv^ts) of the exalted Tord. Salvation, in its full sense, is final deliverance from f the Divine wrath and judgment. For St Paul, asj for all the earliest Christians, the Day of the Lord is as cogent a reality as for the ancient prophets. The Incarnation has by no means made it superfluous. Rather has its meaning received new clearness. For men are now in a position to give definiteness to its conditions. Christ is to be the Mediator of the Divine judgment on sin. Sin culminates in the rejec tion of Him whom God has sent. Salvation is the ultimate deliverance, wrought through faith in Christ as the Redeemer, from the penal consequences of men's disobedience to God. This decisive crcornpia, with all the blissful consequences which flow from it both now and hereafter, may be justly termed a Pauline equivalent for the Kingdom of God. It belongs to the community of believers. It is realised now, so far as that is possible under the conditions of earthly life, in the Christian brotherhood. Already it is their possession ideally. From the Parousia onwards, all restrictions shall have been removed. And the saints will enter on their eternal heritage, which is far) alwvios- Thus the Day of the Lord, which for the prophets was to be the inauguration of the new era, continues to hold its prominence in St Paul. And he has no hesitation, more especially in his earlier Epistles, in using the ancient imagery to describe its accompani ments. Noteworthy instances occur in the Epistles to the Thessalonians. There we find a veritable mosaic of quotations from, and reminiscences of, the Old Testament, the books chiefly drawn upon being 48 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN Isaiah and Daniel. God's Son is to come from heaven with all His holy ones. Cf. Zech. xiv. 5; Dan. vii. 13.1 He is to descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. Cf. Isa. xxvii. 13; Exod. xix. 11, 13, 16, 17, 18.2 The Day of the Lord will surprise them as a thief in the night. Cf. Joel ii. 1-11, especially ver. 9. The Lord Jesus is to be revealed from heaven in flaming fire. Cf. Isa. lxvi. 15; Ps. xviii. 8; Exod. xxiv. 17; Deut. iv. 24. He takes vengeance on them that know not God. Cf Isa. xxxv. 4 ; Jer. x. 25. They are punished with destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Cf. Isa. ii. 10. He shall be glorified in His saints. Cf. Isa. lxvi. 5, xlix. 3 ; Ps. lxviii. ad init? 1 The O.T. parallels throughout our discussion must be examined in the LXX. For, as a general rule, St Paul used the Greek Bible. 2 This parallel is peculiarly remarkable. 3 Bornemann (on 2 Thess. i. 6-10) supposes that verses 7b- 10a are a portion (perhaps altered here and there) of an early Christian psalm or hymn. The following is a remarkable group of parallels which he gives to show the O.T. basis of the passage : — Isa. Ixi. 2 — 2 Thess. i. 6, 7, 10. Isa. lxvi. 4 f., 14 f. — 2 Thess. i. 6, 8. Lam. iii. 63 — 2 Thess. i. 6. Obad. 15 — 2 Thess. i. 6. Isa. lxiii. 4, 7 — 2 Thess. i. 6. Isa. xix. 20 — 2 Thess. i. 6. Isa. lix. 18 — 2 Thess. i. 6. Jer. xxv. 12 — 2 Thess. i. 8. Isa. xxix. 6 — 2 Thess. i. 8. Isa. iv. 2 ff . — 2 Thess. i. 10. Ezek. xxxviii. 23 — 2 Thess. i. 10, 13. . Ezek. xxxiv. 8 — 2 Thess. i. 5, 6. Ps. Ixxviii, 6 — 2 Thess. i. 8. Dan. vii. 9, 21 f. — 2 Thess. i. 10, 1 1. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 49 The portrayal of the " man of lawlessness " in 2 Thess. ii., whatever other elements it may contain, has certainly modelled many of its features on various passages in Daniel. Notable parallels to the passage will be found in Dan. xi. 30 to end, v. 20, 23, vii. 25, viii. 23-25. This last reference is suggestive. In the LXX. of Dan. viii. 23-25 (both versions) we have the picture of a king who shall arise '' when their sins are fulfilled" (irkripovnevwv rwv anaprtuiv avrwv). The filling up of the tale of their sins is the signal for a terrible crisis. Here we come upon one of the most marked points of contact between St Paul's expecta tion of the Parousia and the Old Testament. It is instructive for his whole point of view. At the time when the letters to the Thessalonians were written, the apostle appears to have been peculiarly impressed by the attitude of his own nation towards the Gospel. Not only did they refuse to accept the message of salvation for themselves, but in heathen cities like Thessalonica and elsewhere they stirred up the inhabitants against the Christian missionaries. Their methods were so shameful and their enmity so bitter, that Paul saw in their conduct a sort of concentration of the spirit of evil. In his view, they were wholly Isa. xlix. 3 — 2 Thess. i. 10, 12. Ezek. xxxix. 21 — 2 Thess. i. 10 Ezek. xxxv. 4 — 2 Thess. i. 6. Jer. xv. 25 — 2 Thess. i. 8. Isa: iv. 5 — 2 Thess. i. 9. Isa. ii. 10 — 2 Thess. i. 9. Ezek. xxviii. 22 — 2 Thess. i. 10, 12. Possibly we have here some evidence for Weizsacker's hypo thesis that St Paul " arranged a kind of system of doctrine in the form of proofs from Scripture for use in giving- instruction" (Apost. Zeitalter, p. 113 ; see also p. 119). D 50 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN ripe for judgment : the wrath had come upon them to the full (fyQacrev . . . f, opyh eh tc'Xo?). Everything seemed to await the direct intervention of God. Of course there were other elements in his experience which helped to quicken St Paul's expectation of the Parousia, as we shall discover in chap. iv. The posi tion under review, however, is absolutely true to the prophetic standpoint For to the minds of the prophets the rapid development of spiritual move ments in any direction seemed to presage the Day of the Lord. At the same time, it is important to note that this Christian adaptation of the prophetic outlook is largely confined to the predominantly missionary Epistles. It is much less marked, for example, in the letters to Corinth, where the apostle has to deal with a quick-witted, argumentative community, who have intellectual difficulties on eschatological questions such as the Resurrection.1 No doubt the Mace donians were a simpler people, and St Paul finds it fitting to set the events of the End before them by the help of impressive imagery. Probably in this direction rather than in that of a development of the apostle's views, we may look for an explanation of the diversity in his presentation of eschatological concep tions. We have been considering the influence of the Old Testament upon St Paul in one or two of its aspects, from the side of its Eschatology of the nation. This may perhaps appear to us of secondary interest, as compared with the final condition of the injiiyjdual^ All recent discussions of the subject have taught us how we must approach the Old Testament treatment of immortality and its cognate conceptions. The 1 We do not ignore such passages as i Cor. vii. 25-31. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 51 best scholars are agreed that not until a late date in the history of religious thought in Israel did such questions appeal for discussion.1 At the first glance, a fact like this seems to place the religion of which it is true on a lower level than the faiths of con temporary peoples, which reveal many highly- developed conceptions of the life after death. But such a conclusion is by no means warranted. Other elements in the religion must be taken into account. Thus, in Egypt, as Wiedemann points out, we have " the unique spectacle of one of the most elaborate forms of the doctrine of immortality side by side with the most elementary conception of higher beings ever formulated by any people " (Ancient Egyptian Doct. of Immortality, p. 2). That is the precise converse of the condition of belief in Israel. The prophetic conception of God is marvellously pure and lofty. He is pre-eminently the Living and the Holy One. He fills existence as they know it. The supreme question of religion is their actual attitude towards Him. The enjoyment of His favour, as that was evidenced by a happy and prosperous life, they regarded as their highest boon. Length of days and material blessedness were the rewards of righteous ness and obedience. This earthly life was precious as the scene of fellowship with Jehovah. The dreary, shadowy existence in Sheol 2 meant the privation of 1 Jeremias suggestively points out that, in the case of the peoples of the Euphrates valley, " occupation with the claims of this world absorbed all their religious interest. There is no room for that painful reflection and philosophising as to the Whence and Whither of the soul, which was so characteristic of the Egyptian people " (Babylon.- Assyr. Vorstellungen, p. 2). 2 Probably the original popular notion was that of the family grave, as indicated, e.g., by the recurrence of the phrase, "he 52 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN that and all other privileges. Only the living could praise God. The dead were shut out from access to Him in the land of silence. But as reflection on human life and destiny was deepened, perplexing problems forced themselves on earnest minds. On the one hand, the trials of righteous men, and the good fortune of many who were ungodly, undermined the simple and straightforward theory of religion which had been prevalent. Facts refused to square with it. Thus there arose the intellectual and moral demand for a future order of things, in which the apparent inequalities of the present should be adjusted, in which righteousness should be recom pensed and evil visited with punishment. The reference of this spiritual balancing of accounts to a future life which was ultimately arrived at, is scarcely enunciated in the Old Testament, although in the Book of Job and several Psalms most significant hints and foreshadowings of it are apparent. In the epoch of the canonical writings it seems still to be assigned to a purified State existing under earthly conditions, in which the sway of God is supreme, But from another standpoint, a closer approximation was made to the New Testament conception of immortality. In various Psalms, notably the six teenth, the forty-ninth, and the seventy-third, we find remarkable expressions of confidence in God.1 The godly in Old Testament times had reached a was gathered to his fathers." Gradually there arose the concep tion of a " unified realm of shadows," " the house of meeting for all living" (Job xxx. 23). See Bertholet, Israeliiische Vorstellungen v. Zustand nach d. Tode, p. 18. 1 We are scarcely prepared to believe, with Charles, that for the authors of Pss. xlix. and Ixxiii. Sheol is the future abode of the wicked only, and heaven of the righteous (Eschatology, pp. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 53 marvellously vivid sense of the Divine fellowship. The full emphasis of their piety was laid upon this experience. It determined their philosophy of life.1 They possessed a unique sensitiveness to the Divine presence.2 It was no metaphor in their religion. Now this intense realisation of the nearness of the spiritual world in the present would largely account for their slowness in attaining a full-fledged doctrine of immortality. But it forms also the basis of those yearning utterances in the Psalms which we have mentioned. As they became more self-conscious, more introspective, the horror of death grew upon them. The cessation of all activity, bodily, intellec tual, spiritual ; the nerveless and phantom-like exist ence of the under-world became a grim nightmare. And the deeper their religious consciousness, the more profoundly they were affected. To conceive of a state in which they should be isolated from God, in which communion with Him was impossible — that was the bitterest element in their notion of Sheol.3 And so by the sheer force of their religious vitality they are 73, 74). They do indeed recognise clearly the distinction between the righteous and the ungodly, but the emphasis of their hope is not laid upon the escaping from punishment and the attaining to bliss. It is the thought of overcoming death, the common lot of men, and the conviction that their life of fellowship with God will not be interrupted, which buoys up their souls. The Psalms contain no material for such detailed conceptions as Charles would derive. 1 Cf. the apt words of Dr Salmond : " It (i.e. the O.T.) deals not with what man is, but with what he is to God" (Christian Doct. of Immortality, p. 217). 2 "The consciousness of God (in the O.T.) is God's giving Himself in the consciousness" (Davidson, H.D.B., i. p. 741)- 3 In the Babylonian religion, "the blessedness of the pious is fellowship with the gods : abandonment by the gods is the 54 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN carried past the current, popular beliefs, and crave an unbroken union with God. Not only so, but their deepest experience and their confidence as " covenant members of the theocracy," assure them of such a rela tion. Their forecast of the future may be vague enough, but they refuse to contemplate an interruption of the Divine fellowship by death. Even if God cannot abide with them through death, He will by some merciful provision ransom them from it. This belief is, to all intents and purposes, a belief in immortality.1 It is the inevitable result of their religious develop ment. For " immortality is the corollary of religion. If there be religion, i.e. if God be, there is immortality, not of the soul, but of the whole personal being of man, Ps. xvi. 9 " (Davidson, fob, p. 296). It is easy to see how this conviction prepared the way for the doctrine of the Resurrection on its more spiritual side, There were, indeed, various influences which led to the formation of this great conception. Some of these will come before us in our brief survey of the eschato logical development of Judaism, and among them will be found several elements which do not possess a directly religious value. For there is possible a view of the Resurrection which leaves it little more than a piece of eschatological scenery. Such was not the conception which takes a central place in the teaching of St Paul. It touched his religious life in its deepest essence, communion of life with the punishment of the wicked. . . . The certainty of being snatched from the saving hand of the gods in death is the bitterest drop in the cup of death " (Jeremias, op. tit. pp. 46, 48). 1 It may be truly said that when the ideas of " communion with God " and " life " become synonymous, the religious belief in immortality is already there. See Schultz, O.T. Theol. (E, Tr.), ii. p. 83. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 55 risen Christ. But that experience upon which all his hopes of the future were based, is really the crown ing development of the remarkable conviction which finds expression in the Old Testament psalm : " I have set the Lord always before me : because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth : my flesh also shall dwell in safety. For Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; neither wilt Thou suffer thy godly (or beloved) one to see the pit" (Ps. xvi. 8-10).1 Perhaps enough has been said to indicate generally the lines on which both the direct and the indirect influence of Old Testament conceptions of the Last Things upon the mind and speculation of St Paul may be expected to reveal themselves. Separate details will frequently demand consideration in subse quent chapters. One caution, however, ought to be noted before we pass from this subject. There can be little doubt that St Paul, as we shall try to show later, was powerfully influenced by the apostolic tradi tion of the eschatological teaching of Jesus. This is revealed, for example, with remarkable clearness in those passages which we have singled out as inti mately related to the prophetic teaching. The most striking instance is to be found in 2 Thessalonians ii. The parallels between that chapter and the discourse of Jesus on the Last Things, as reported in Matt. xxiv. (and parallels), are unmistakable. Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 1 with Matt. xxiv. 31, ii. 2 with xxiv. 6, ii. 3 with 1 The sense of vagueness of which we are conscious in the utterances of the above-quoted Psalms, is due to the fact that the eternal fellowship with God to which they point is conceived not so much post-temporally, as rather super-temporally. See Kleinert, S.K., 189$, p." 726, 56 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN xxiv. 12, 4, ii. 4 with xxiv. 15, ii. 9 with xxiv. 24. ^ It is no exaggeration to say that Matt. xxiv. is the most instructive commentary on the chapter before us. It may be difficult to determine in what form this material lay before St Paul, but it is impossible to resist the conclusion that he was familiar with it.1 No doubt the eschatological utterances of Jesus must have constituted a prominent element in the apostolic preaching and instruction. Perhaps no portion of the tradition of His ministry would appeal so powerfully to Christian circles, at a time when to believers the end of the age seemed imminent. Thus there is always the possible hypothesis that St Paul availed himself of the conceptions and the imagery of Old Testament Eschatology partly through the medium of the sayings of Jesus. But many of his applica tions of the earlier ideas are so distinctive, that we may safely attribute them to a patient and careful study of prophets and psalmists in the Greek version of the Old Testament. We lay stress on the version because, to an extent not yet sufficiently recognised, the thought of St Paul, and not merely his language, has been profoundly moulded by the LXX. Perhaps this is most apparent in a noteworthy subdivision of his eschatological speculation ; we mean, the psy chology which lies at its foundation. In the strictest sense, indeed, the apostle has no system of psy chology.2 And it is vain to attempt to construct one.8 1 The curious position has been assumed (e.g. by Bousset), that Matt. xxiv. is to be explained by 2 Thess. ii. (see The Anti christ Legend, p. 23). This is surely one of the paradoxes of New Testament criticism. ' 2 This holds good of the Biblical writers as a whole. As Dr Davidson expressed it, Biblical "Psychology" is a part of its ethics. It is not a physiology of the mind. 8 An example may be found in Simon's Psychologie d. Ap. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 57 But he was deeply interested in the mental and spiritual basis of religious experience. He was obliged to reflect on those functions of the inner life of man to which Divine influences attached them selves. He is in no sense scientific in his use of psychological terms. And if we presuppose or expect a rigorous terminology, we shall often miss his mean ing. But he must employ an analysis of the religious consciousness, and his usage is closely related to the Old Testament, especially as it is interpreted by its Greek translators. In treating of St Paul's funda mental conceptions of the Last Things, we shall require to examine his use of such important terms as yfrvxy, Trvev/j,a, vovs, and others ; and in order to appreciate the special aspects under which he views their content, it will be always needful to keep in touch with the Old Testament, bearing in mind that the apostle has used, for the most part, the Septuagint translation. It seems to us fairly clear that Hellenic and even Hellenistic influences play a small part in his psychological conceptions as compared with the tradition of the Old Testament, slightly modified by its adaptation to a Greek terminology. We have already emphasised the fact, that at times the influence of the Old Testament upon St Paul's eschatological thought must probably be conceived as mediated by the teaching of Jesus. A similar hypothesis might be put forward, as we bring within our view another great epoch of religious thought with which the apostle stood in close contact, namely Paulus, Gottingen, 1897. Simon approaches the Epistles from a definite, philosophical standpoint, and uses their material in accordance with his psychological scheme. The discussion sheds little new light on the thought of the apostle. 58 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN that of fudaism. It may be difficult to decide how far Judaism was a direct channel of Old Testament influence for St Paul. And the question is really of little importance. But it immediately touches our investigation to inquire to what extent the apostle was affected by the conceptions of the Last Things current among his contemporaries.1 It is reasonable to expect that the atmosphere in which he was trained must have had a permanent meaning for his thinking.2 The profoundest spiritual genius is, to some degree, a product of his surroundings. That fact in no sense collides with a genuine inspiration. For the Divine Spirit never works, so far as His operations are disclosed to us, independently of human thought The highest spiritual truth must ever resemble a gem in a setting (of. 2 Cor. iv. 7). The setting cannot possess the same worth as the precious jewel it encloses, yet without it the jewel would be lost, or damaged, or prevented from being worn. We know with some accuracy the nature of St Paul's environ ment. He was educated as a Pharisee. The Rabbi at whose feet he sat as a pupil was Gamaliel, the first 1 The discussion of this subject in Thackeray's Relation of St Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought (London, 1900), pp. 98-135, is rather a collection of notes than a coherent investiga tion. The truth is, that Judaistic influences cannot be treated in severance from the other elements in the Eschatology of the apostle. 2 Dr Bruce appears to us to have overstated the truth when he says : " On no subject, perhaps, was Paul, in his way of thinking, more a man of his time than on that of Eschatology " (Expos., iv. 10. p. 300). This applies almost exclusively to the framework. The spirit and central principles of his eschato logical conceptions were totally divergent from those of ' Pharisaism. We are all men of our time as regards the drapery in which we clothe our ideas of the Last Things. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 59 of the seven famous teachers who were distinguished by the title Rabban (" our Master "), and grandson of the celebrated Hillel. It would be unwise to lay too much stress on Gamaliel's personal idiosyncrasies, in estimating his influence on Paul. Tradition tells us that he was versed in Greek literature, an uncommon accomplishment for a Pharisee. This is borne out, perhaps, by the account of his tolerant attitude towards the Christians in the book of Acts, an account suspected by Baur on the ground of the persecuting zeal displayed by his pupil. A judgment of this kind reveals the dangers to which the critic is exposed in endeavouring to trace the influence of one mind upon another. It is much easier to tabulate probable points of contact under certain definite headings, than to follow out those subtle hints of shaping forces which are the truest indications of indebtedness of thought. It is possible that, under Gamaliel's tuition, St Paul may have moved in a larger air than some of his contemporaries. But at best, there was a Pharisaic tradition which would be normative for his earlier theology. It has been pointed out on a preceding page (p. 49), that the apostle goes back to Daniel for many features in one, at least, of his eschatological pictures. But Daniel belongs to a class of writings which had gained a great vogue in the time of our Lord, and long before that. Jewish apocalyptic literature is a species of the genus prophecy. It is by no means accidental that its products did not appear until after the era of the great prophets. A profound and inspiring religious literature must necessarily be the result of an intense and far-reaching spiritual movement in a nation or community. It is a spontaneous creation. 60 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN It is the expression of a new kindling of spiritual intuition. It endures as a commanding type. But after the movement has done its work, after its vital energy has been diffused, there usually follows a period of greater or less stagnation. There are always earnest minds concerned about the spiritual prosperity of their time, and they attempt, by a pro cess of reflection, to tread in the footsteps of their predecessors. They have a model to imitate. They can copy the phrases, and to some extent, the thoughts of the former days, but the inspiration is lacking. < We are conscious of an artificiality in the whole stand point of the apocalyptic writers. It is prophecy severed from history. The Old Testament prophets follow the track of movements, beginning to reveal themselves in the present, out into the future, inter preting the development by their insight into the eternal moral principles of the Divine operation, which they have gained by their experience of history and their fellowship with God. The apocalyptic writers turn the history of the past and present into prophecy, by mechanical -methods. This they place in the mouth of some seer of the bygone ages, Enoch, or Moses, or Baruch. They recognise the doleful experiences of their own people. They are sadly conscious of their present prostration as a nation. Their political life is gone. They are only a down trodden religious community. As individuals, also, they are exposed to suffering, in spite of their acknow ledgment of the true God. Yet amidst all their depression, the amazing characteristic which has been a permanent possession of this indomitable people, comes to the rescue and asserts itself. Their hopeful ness cannot be quenched. To the ancient seers of the ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 61 Apocalypses has been granted a glimpse into the age-long development of the secret purposes of God. The calamitous experiences of this present world, in which righteousness seems to be crushed and god- lessness to triumph, are not the conclusion of the whole matter. In direct antithesis to this JEon there is the new JEon, " the world to come." In it both the righteous community and the righteous indi vidual will be recompensed according to their deeds. No doubt there is a terrible obverse side to the com ing retribution, for a woeful fate awaits the sinner, and sin is the transgression of the Divine law. But this apprehension is seldom found in the earlier Apocalyptists.1 They console themselves with the hope of eternal life. The apocalyptic writers, to use Prof. Charles's expression, really present "a Semitic philosophy of religion " (Book of Enoch, p. 23). Thus righteous individuals can find comfort in the knowledge that their trials are only part of a universal plan of God.2 1 See Gunkel (in Kaulzsch), pp. 338, 339. He connects with this thought the feelings of St Paul before his conversion. 2 See Gunkel, op. tit., p. 357. Bousset, Offenbarung Johannis (Meyer, 6), p. 5, has the interesting suggestion that the Judaistic conception of the world " as a unified whole, developing accord ing to definite laws, was derived by Judaism from the outlook presented to it through its historical experience by the aris ing of the inwardly-unified world-power and civilisation of Greece. At the moment when Judaism, which had again wakened up to national consciousness, met the dominant power of Greece, there arose with Daniel Jewish Apocalyptic." This idea has to be modified by the recollection that the Jewish con ception of God in its ethical and spiritual transcendence was bound to lead up to a unified view of the world. This would be the main factor : the influence to which Bousset refers could be only secondary. And a further secondary motive in the 62 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN In the new epoch, which will be inaugurated by a stern crisis of judgment, the enemies of Israel and of God will be destroyed or subjugated. God will vindicate Himself and His people. Evil will be extirpated. The sovereignty will belong to the righteous. The End will be brought back into the likeness of the beginning, when "God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good" (Gen. i. 31). Obviously, in this view of the future, a view which was promulgated with enthusiasm, there is a mingling of political with religious elements. And we know how that combination remained influ ential in the later development of the Messianic Hope. It was a momentous step in the history of religion when Jesus stripped the faith He was shaping into universal validity of this hampering constituent. St Paul was the true successor of his 1 Lord when, in nascent Christianity, he gave the deathblow to all thoughts of a national prerogative. It is important to notice that, in apocalyptic literature, the pictures of the Last Things have become far more detailed. The judgment, the torments and destruction of the wicked, the bliss of the righteous — all these are portrayed in forcible colours, and with a bewildering variety of images which are often fantastic and grotesque. And now, for the first time, a conception of vital import is added to Jewish Eschatology. The Resurrection begins to occupy a fixed place among the events of the final period of transition. Probably the actual conception originated directly in the consciousness advance to this position must have been the effect upon the mental outlook of the Jews of their dispersion among the nations. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 63 that the future purified theocracy, the earnestly- desired Messianic Kingdom would be incomplete, were it not to include those godly members of the nation who had not survived to see it established. Such a feeling would be intensified by the events of the cruel persecutions under tyrants like Antiochus Epiphanes. Some of the noblest representatives of Judaism had perished as martyrs. It was impossible to believe that they could never have a share in the glory of their nation, for whose redemption they had suffered.1 Must not God Himself, by the exercise of His almighty power, deliver them from Sheol, and restore them to a life of felicity among their brethren ? Thus the idea of resurrection is prepared for by their confidence in the Divine retribution.2 We can see the originally intimate connection between the hope of Resurrection and the Messianic Hope. It was at a later date, when the reign of Messiah was regarded as preliminary to the final JEon, that the two expecta tions became separated.3 It must not, however, be supposed that this far- reaching conception would be attained along any single line of reasoning or belief.4 We have seen 1 "Tacitus remarks that the Jews only attributed immortality to the souls of those who died in combats or punishments" (Renan, L'Antechrist, p. 467, quoting Hist. v. 5). Can this dictum of the historian have any connection with the view in the text ? 2 Cf. Cheyne on Isa. xxvi. 19. Plato also regards the ideas of retribution and immortality as involved in each other. See Zeller, Plato, p. 408. 8 See Schurer, H.J.P., ii. 2. pp. 175, 176. 4 Gunkel (Schbpfung und Chaos, p. 291, note 2) apparently believes that the emergence of the Resurrection-doctrine in Judaism is due to Babylonian influences. Stave (Ueber d. Einfluss d. Parsismus aufd. Judenthum, p. 203) finds traces of 64 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN how some of the psalmists uttered a religious pro test against the thought of separation from the living God. It may be difficult to discover whether they had a definite idea of resurrection : in any case, they groped eagerly after it We have also to keep in mind the individualistic trend of religious thought which had revealed itself from the days of Jeremiah onwards, and was propagated by the indirect Persian influence. "Precisely the circumstance that the doctrine of resurrection occurs in close union with an apocalyptic view of the world, which has a noteworthy connec tion with Parsism, leads to this conclusion. In this general apocalyptic view, there are several features which more than prove . . . Persian influence. To these belong the universal- historical survey of history, its periods and their restriction to a definite space of time, which ultimately issues in the doctrine of a real world-renewal : the development of the power of evil spirits . . . and their defeat at the last judgment, and finally the doctrine of the beginning of future retribution in Sheol, transferred to Hell, from which resulted the separation of the ungodly from the pious immediately after death." It seems to us that there is little need to have recourse to these extraneous influences for the explanation of the Resurrection-idea. As parallel religious phenomena they are of high interest and value, for they reveal a persistent trend of human thought in the spiritual domain. It is more reasonable to look for the origins of such a conception in the spiritual experience of Judaism itself. It would be absurd to deny the contact between Judaism, on the one hand, and Babylonian and Persian influences on the other, and the cosmological strain which appears in the former may, at least, be partly due to Persian stimulus (see Bousset, Religion d. Judenthums, p. 478), but epoch-making conceptions like the one before us cannot be interchanged like counters. .They rather presuppose a gradual growth from roots fixed deep in the soil of the religious consciousness. That such pre suppositions existed in Judaism we hope to have shown in the text. See also Bertholet, Vorstellungen v. d. Zustand n. d. Tode, p. 27 ; Boklen, Verwandtschaft d. jiid.-christ. mil d, parsisch. Eschatologie, pp. 147-149. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 65 influence of the Diaspora. While the righteous State or community still occupied the foreground, the individuals who composed it could never again be ignored. Hence, in the pseudepigraphal literature of Judaism anterior to and contemporary with St Paul, the fates of godly and ungodly persons in the future world have become a favourite subject of discussion. Partici pation in that eternal life which is attained through the Resurrection, and exclusion from it, are themes which now stand in the forefront of Jewish theology. We need not attempt, within the space of a few pages, to give any adequate sketch of the eschato logical conceptions of Judaism. This for obvious reasons. On the one hand, Eschatology may be said to form the main content of a whole branch, and that perhaps the most important branch, of later Jewish literature, the apocalyptic. On the other, there are so many modifications of the leading conceptions, and these are so frequently presented in a highly pictorial guise, that they could not be summed up under a few general headings. When treating of St Paul's con ceptions in detail, we shall have occasion to discuss their parallels in Judaism. All that can be done at present is to state in a few paragraphs the main categories with which the apostle, from his early training, must have been acquainted.1 1 The following useful table of Jewish literature is compiled from the masterly article by Prof. Charles on " Eschatology," in j Encyclopaedia Biblica : — Writings of Assideans (2nd cent. B.C.). Eth. Enoch, 1-36 . . Sibyll. Oracles : Proemium, and iii. 97- 818. Daniel .... Testaments of XII. Patriarchs (some of its apocalyptic sections). Eth. Enoch, 83-90 . . Judith (?). E 66 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN In endeavouring to sketch even the fundamental positions of Judaistic Eschatology, one is perplexed by the confusing nature of the facts which have to be dealt with. It is impossible to assign a definite eschatological standpoint to many of the writings, as in certain very important instances, such as the Ethiopic Enoch and the Apocalypse of Baruch, there are sections which proceed from various hands and belong to different dates. To add to the compli cation, leading scholars are by no means agreed as to the dividing lines between these various sections. As an example, we may refer to the divergent theories described on pp. 9-20 of Prof. Charles's Book of Enoch. Not only so, but again and again the same writer shows an elasticity in his conceptions of the Last Things which seems to make classification impossible.1 This is altogether natural in such a province of thought We shall find that, to some extent, it holds good for St Paul himself. But it imposes the necessity of extreme caution in any attempt to construct from the extant literature the Authorities for 104-I B.C. Eth. Enoch, 91-104 . . Psalms of Solomon. Eth. Enoch, 37-70 . . Sibyll. Or. iii. 1-62. 1 Maccab. . . .2 Maccab. Authorities for 1st Century A.D. Book of Jubilees . . Apoc. of Baruch. Assumption of Moses . Book of Baruch. Philo ... .4 Ezra. Slavon. Enoch . . Josephus. Book of Wisdom . . 4 Maccab. 1 Cf, for example, the wide variation in the significations of Nan uy\V, as described by Cheyne, Origin of Psalter, p. 414 ; Castelli, J.Q.R., i. p. 320. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 67 current eschatological doctrines of Judaism. Even so able an investigator as Prof. Charles has, in our judgment, not always avoided the danger of making affirmations which are too definite, in stating the positions occupied by individual apocalyptic writers. We must content ourselves here with somewhat broad generalisations. The chief differences between the Eschatology of the Old Testament, if we may apply that name to a group of dim surmises and vague yearnings, and that of Judaism (and to these we mainly confine ourselves), seem to be due to the developments of the doctrine of a Divine retribution.1 Thought still wavers as to the scope of this process. Some writers are inclined, at least, to keep in the forefront the future bliss of Israel as a nation, and the future woes of her heathen oppressors. But individualism steadily makes its way. And while in certain books It has reached full matur ity, it has left its mark, more or less, upon all. Hints have already been given as to the causes which have brought the idea of future retribution into so marked a prominence. The phenomenon reveals a quickened 1 "Already in the Exhortations of Enoch (chaps, xci.-civ.), the belief of retribution in the future has become the shibboleth of the pious. The ungodly receive a new distinguishing mark : they become the deniers of retribution after death, deniers of judgment, and consequently blasphemers and representatives of an Epicurean worldliness. In the opening chapters of Wisdom . . . the conception of judgment forms the essential distinction between the pious and the ungodly" (Bousset, Religion d. fudenthums, p. 174). It is interesting to note the extraordinary , emphasis laid upon the idea of retribution in the Christianity \ of the second century A.D. See, e.g., Von Engelhardt, Das Christenthum Justins, p. 199: "[For Justin] belief in God means belief in retribution." 68 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN sense of the moral order of the universe, backed up by an undying confidence in the Divine purpose for Israel. Separate thinkers, no doubt, would reach the conception in its clearness entirely along the line of reflection on the hard problems of personal life. The godly, whose lot here is one of suffering and sorrow, must some day reap the fruit of their devotion to righteousness. The sinners, who enjoy an unaccount able prosperity on earth, must ultimately pay the penalty for their disobedience. Parallel to this development of the conception would be the other, already manifest enough in the prophets, as we have seen, which was determined by the fortunes of Israel. So far as the present order of things could be judged, their situation was one of paralysing hopelessness. They had been trodden down by heathen foes. They had had to submit to a foreign tyranny. Where was Jehovah, the God of Zion ? And then, at the moment when all seemed lost, God had interposed. The victories of the Maccabaean rising kindled new hopes. There was still to be a future for God's chosen people. Signs were dawning of a new era. The day was hastening on when they should be vindicated before all nations, when their oppressors should be over whelmed with awful judgments. Thus the developed conviction of Divine retribution took a pre-eminent place in their religious thought. Perhaps we may say that the two great eschatological results of the doctrine were : (i) the transformation of the old idea of Sheol, (2) the Resurrection from Sheol. These came to be linked with .the Advent of Messiah, the final Judgment, and the Future State both of righteous and of sinners. In attempting to trace the history of those develop- ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 69 ments, we must bear in mind that the literature with which we are dealing stretches, roughly speaking, from about 200 B.C. to 100 A.D. During this period there must have arisen various alterations in feeling.1 For after the glorious revival of the early Maccabaean age there came that era of decline which ended, after some discreditable episodes, in the submission of the Jews to the hated yoke of Rome. Naturally, there fore, in writings belonging to the latter part of the epoch with which we are concerned, we shall find the centre of interest transferred from the nation to the individual, for there are now national and anti- national parties within Judaism, and the bliss of the End is reserved for those who have remained true to the God of their fathers. As it happens, the writings we possess spring chiefly from the Pharisaic school. Their thoughts all circle around the Messianic Hope, however variously they may conceive of its realisation. The majority of the writers belong to the Quietist wing of the sect, and that standpoint, of course, regulates their eschatological conceptions. We have seen that in the Old Testament, Sheol denotes the under-world, the receptacle of the dead, both righteous and wicked. Its inhabitants possess an existence which cannot be called " life." They are excluded from contact with God and man. No moral distinctions appear to prevail. A striking picture of their dreary plight is set before us in Isa. xiv., in a highly dramatic form. But a change of view begins to be manifest. The currents of thought, which have been briefly described above, make themselves felt. Thus when we come to examine the Book of Enoch, 1 For the vagueness of the Messianic Hope during this epoch, see Drummond, Jewish Messiah, p. 199 ff. 70 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN in some respects the most influential of all Jewish Apocalypses, belonging in its earliest sections to the second century B.C., we are confronted by a remark able development. Sheol has now become, an Inter mediate State. All men enter it at death, but it has a very different significance for various classes. According to chap. xxii. of this work, assigned by Charles to a date, at the latest, anterior to 170 B.C., it has four divisions. The first contains the souls of the righteous who suffered a violent, unmerited death The second also is allotted to the righteous, but to such as have escaped the hard fate of their brethren. The third is for sinners who escaped punishment in this life. " Here their souls are placed in great pain, till the great day of judgment and punishment and torture." The fourth is reserved for sinners who did suffer in this earthly life, and therefore incur a milder penalty afterwards. " They shall be with criminals like themselves, but their souls shall not be slain x on the day of judgment." We have here a more detailed analysis of Sheol as the Intermediate State than is usually to be found, but it reveals the position which has been reached by an authoritative thinker at the beginning of the second century B.C.2 The 1 This " slaying " does not imply annihilation. See Enoch, chap, cviii. 3. 2 This is apparently the first occurrence of the idea of separate compartments in Sheol (cf. Clemen, Niedergefahren zu d. Toten, p. 148). For a fourfold lot in the state after death according to Plato, see Zeller, Plato, p. 394. Contrast the Rabbinic doctrine of the school of Schammai : " The Scham- maites taught that there were three classes : the first two are those mentioned in Dan. xii. 2 ; the third, in whose case merits and guilt are balanced, incur purifying fire, in which those to be purified waver up and down until they rise out of it purified, ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 71 righteous x and one portion of the ungodly rise to be finally judged. The former (see chap. v. 7-9), after their resurrection, are, apparently, to live an un troubled life on this earth. The latter will be con demned to Gehenna, the proper hell, which is thus definitely separated from Sheol. The other group of sinners remains in Sheol for ever. We need not expect to find this view reappearing without alteration in other writings. Indeed, in the remaining sections of Enoch there are important divergences from it Thus, in the section embracing chaps. xci.-civ., which Charles assigns to 134-94 B.C., Sheol appears to be synonymous with Hell. Probably this arises from the circumstance that in this section the writer (as so frequently in Judaism) thinks only of a resurrection of the righteous.2 The wicked continue in the condition which they entered after death. That is a state of misery and condemnation. This writer, however, does not presuppose a temporary abode of the righteous in the place of woe. He possesses the conception, which appears repeatedly in according to Zech. xiii. 9 ; I Sam. ii. 6. The scholars of Hillel, however, gather from the words "rich in mercy" (Exod. xxxiv. 6), that God allows the decision for this third class to incline towards mercy : it must have been with regard to them that David wrote Ps. 116" (Bacher, Agada d. Tannaiten, i. p. 18). Almost exactly parallel to this middle state is the Pehlevi con ception of hamtstakdn, see Soderblom, La Vie Future d'apres le Mazdetsme, pp. 125-128. 1 The idea of Hades as the provisional abode of the righteous after death is the ordinary Pharisaic one. See Schwally, Leben n. d. Tode, pp. 166-168. 2 The expectation of a universal resurrection seems to be taught distinctly, for the first time, in the Similitudes of Enoch (i.e., chaps, xxxvii.-lxx.) ; see especially chap. Ii. 1-3 ; and cf. xxxviii. 1, 6 ; xiv. 1-3 ; lxi. 5. 72 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN Apocalyptic, of certain special chambers, designated in 4 Ezra promptuaria (e.g., iv. 35, 41, v. 37, vii. 32, 95), reserved for the righteous, where they are kept in peace until the final judgment. The same view is to be found in the Apocalypse of Baruch, chaps, xxi. 23, xxiv. 1, xxx. 2 (where see Charles's notes). As an instance of the flexibility of eschatological ideas of Sheol (and the state after death) during the period under review, we may refer to the Slavonic Enoch,1 perhaps written in our Lord's lifetime, in which, to begin with, a portion of the heavenly region is reserved as the place of final torture for the wicked (chap. x.). In a later passage, however, the writer speaks (chap. xl. 12) of seeing " the mighty Hell laid open " in the under-world, the Old Testament Sheol. Thus the earlier and later notions remain side by side in this apocalypse without reconciliation, a phenomenon which is characteristic of eschatological speculation. To sum up on our special question, it may be said with accuracy that the main current of apocalyptic literature ends by recognising two contrasted abodes for the righteous and the wicked. The one is Heaven (occasionally Paradise). The other is Gehenna (sometimes iden- 1 The book, which is held to be a product of Alexandrian Judaism (see Charles, Eschatology, pp. 251-253) departs at this point, in any case, from the ordinary position of Hellenistic Eschatology, which leaves no room for a doctrine of Sheol or an intermediate state, affirming that souls, at death, receive their final reward of blessedness or torment. But Bousset has given good ground for asserting that "a sharp distinction between Alexandrian and Palestinian eschatology does not exist" (Religion d. Judenthums, p. 260). In case the discussion in the text should create misconception, it ought to be noted that up to a late period in apocalyptic literature there are still traces to be found of the idea of a universal realm of the dead. See especially, Volz, fudische Eschatol., p. 289. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 73 tified with Sheol). Our conclusion may seem, indeed, at variance with statements already made as to the hope of a purified theocracy, in which, after the destruction of all their stubborn heathen foes, God or His representative, the Messiah, should rule from Zion over a restored Israel and those Gentiles who had submitted to Israel's dominion. That prospect shines forth clearly in the prophets. And there are many reflections of it in the earlier apocalyptic writings. But while, as truly national, it remains deeply rooted in the popular consciousness, another tendency of thought grows up beside it. This is the larger outlook, so note worthy in Apocalyptic, which is occupied with the coming ALon of glory, as opposed to the present, with its depression and gloom. As the cleft between them becomes deeper, the hopes concerning the future grow ever more transcendent. No doubt we find them blended in strange and bewildering combina tions in some of the writings of Judaism (see Volz, op. cit., p. 2). But gradually the more spiritual ideas press to the forefront. They fit in with the wider view of the world and its destiny which is forced upon the Jews by their contact with other civilisations. Finally the ultimate goal of the world-history assumes a far larger importance in the apocalyptic writings than the crowning destinies of Israel. The righteous and the sinners as such come to occupy as prominent a place as Israel and the heathen. A great extension of categories is manifest. The redemption of Israel is enlarged into the future bliss of the godly. God's judgment upon the foes of the chosen nation becomes the universal judgment in which each individual receives the verdict of the Judge. Instead of a renewal of the Holy Land, a renovation of the world 74 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN is proclaimed. Side by side with the doctrine of the permanence of the Messianic community stands that of the permanence of the individual, which finds its chief expression in the conception of the Resurrection. In this expectation of the new ^Eon, the coming blessedness assigned in the earlier period to Palestine and Jerusalem is associated with Heaven, the future dwelling- place of the saints of God. Of course, all the forces which will constitute the coming ^Eon are already in existence. The supra - mundane order of things and the heavenly world have existed from eternity. As yet that world is veiled, concealed. The main function of the Apocalypses is to penetrate its secrets, to unfold its mysteries. Hence the supra-mundane position of God, His transcendence, and that of all those conditions which await His servants, assert themselves with growing persistence in Apocalyptic. Sometimes it is difficult to determine how far the nationalistic hope preponderates, and how far the transcendental. In 4 Ezra, e.g., the national and universal Eschatologies are found in close conjunction. But the interesting phenomenon may be noted that the doctrine of Chiliasm, the earthly reign of Messiah for a thousand years, is, in its origin, due to the attempt to harmonise the earlier and the later groups of ideas. It is, as Gunkel tersely expresses it, " a compromise between the ancient hope of the prophets which belongs to this world, and the modern, Jewish transcendental hope" (on 4 Ezra vii. 28, in Kautzsch). The inter mediate, Messianic kingdom becomes the scene for the realisation of those earthly blessings so long held in prospect. The great Judgment and the Resurrec- ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 75 tion of the dead usher in the final epoch.1 Hence, when the world is spoken of within the circle of ideas occupied with the coming ^Eon, it is the world as renewed, the " new heaven and new earth." In close correspondence with the widening cleft between the two types of eschatological expectation described above, and the growing predominance of the more spiritual conception of the new ^Eon (Kan DTiJJV is to be found the emergence into clearer view and more authoritative position of the momen tous doctrine of the Resurrection. We have seen how several psalmists passionately demand a continuance of fellowship with God in defiance of death. Probably their strongest expres sions rather imply a miraculous deliverance from death than that which we mean by a resurrection. The idea may have assumed clearer shape under the pressure of the terrible experiences of persecution in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. In Isa. xxvi. 19 (belonging to a section of the book, chaps, xxiv.- xxvii., which most scholars hold to be post-exilic), there is a remarkable utterance, which forms a kind of link between the cravings of Job and the Psalms, and the developed theory of Judaism. Its expres sions, indeed, are not isolated. The way has been prepared for them by imagery like that of Hos. vi. 2, and (more emphatically) Ezek. xxxvii. Here, it seems to be the nation, returned to its desolated land, that is speaking. " Thy dead " (as if addressing the land) " shall live : my dead body shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust : for thy dew is a dew of lights, and the earth shall bring forth (to life) the shades." This bold assertion is doubtless born of 1 See, e.g., Volz, op. tit., pp. 62-67. 76 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN the conviction that God's purpose for the remnant of His people is incomplete, if those who perished in the downfall of the nation, and those whose graves had been left behind in the land of exile, have no share in the final restoration. It is of great signi ficance to trace the leadings of the Divine Spirit in the human consciousness towards the attainment of this remarkable resurrection-hope. It is the claim of the people upon their God. And that continues to be the dominant motive in the formation of the conception. After a further period of depression under the Seleucidse, the Maccabsean rising, as we have noted, again kindles glad expectations. And the demand that those who have died as martyrs for their faith should not be excluded from the felicity of their people, takes this unique shape. It is very difficult to make definite statements as to the precise scope of the Resurrection in the view of the apocalyptic writers. Professor Charles, whose authority in this department is universally acknow ledged, affirms, in a note on Enoch li. i, that "no Jewish book except 4 Ezra teaches indubitably the doctrine of a general resurrection, and this may be due to Christian influence."1 "The whole history of 1 Bousset boldly declares : " We ought at least to say that the Jewish conception of resurrection has developed under the influence of Eranian Apocalyptic into the universal conception of a general resurrection and the world-judgment " (Religion d. ludenthums, p. 480). In our judgment, this statement can neither be affirmed nor denied. For lack of sufficient evidence, the question must be left open. But we are inclined to agree with Soderblom (La Vie Future d'aprfo le Mazdtisme, pp. 316- 318) in holding that such a hypothesis is not necessary. There are elements, that is to say, in Judaism itself, containing the germs of the development in question. The conception of a final ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 77 Jewish thought," he asserts, "points in an opposite direction." No doubt there is much truth in the latter statement, but, unless wc arc permitted to read a great dc;il between the lines, it is precarious to dogmatise upon the question. Dr Charles himself admits that a resurrection of all Israel is assumed, eg., in Dan. xii. 2 ; Enoch 37-70, 83-90, etc. ; 2 Mace. vii., xii. 43-44; Apoc. Bar. 1.— Ii. 6 (see his notes on Enoch li. 1). If that be so (although we are not quite convinced of it), it will require great caution to distinguish in several of the places quoted between a general and an Israelitish resurrection. But it may be frankly acknowledged that the more comprehen sive view was, at least, very limited. Many passages plainly pre-suppose that only the God-fearing will enjoy the high privilege of resurrection. That is to be expected, when we recall the religious basis of the doctrine. And it is natural that members of the chosen community should exhaust the category of the righteous, as, for the writers of that period, in the narrowest sense, salvation was of the Jews. As examples of the restriction in question, we may quote Psalms of Solomon iii. 13-16: "The destruc tion of the sinner is for ever, and he shall not be remembered when He (i.e. God) visiteth the righteous ; this portion of the sinner is for ever. But they that fear the Lord shall rise to everlasting life, and their life shall no more fail in the light of the Lord" (cf. xiv. 6, xv. 15); Apoc. Bar. xxx. : "And it transcendent Divine retribution for the individual, combined with the earlier prophetic idea of the Messianic judgment, as it must often have been, would necessarily give rise to the picture of the world-judgment, in which the ultimate fates of men are decided. With a view to this event, there must be a universal resurrection. 78 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN shall come to pass after these things, when the time of the advent of the Messiah is fulfilled, and He shall return in glory (i.e. to heaven, so Charles, Ryssel), then all who have fallen asleep in the hope of Him shall rise again. And it shall come to pass at that time that the treasuries shall be opened in which is pre served the number of the souls of the righteous, and they shall come forth. . . . But the souls of the wicked, when they behold all those things, shall then waste away the more. For they shall know that their torment has come and their perdition has arrived." So Josephus, Ant., xviii. i (3), in describing the views of the Pharisees, states that they hold that for evil souls " an eternal prison is appointed " (elpy/xbv alSiov TrporlOea-Oat), for the good, " an easy way of coming to life again " (paa-rwvtjv rov avafitovv). This is prob ably, in general, the doctrine current in the Rabbinic literature. Various important passages, quoted by Weber (Lehren d. Talmud, pp. 372, 373), admit of no other interpretation. That there were traces of the wider view, however, is shown by a discussion between Eliezer b. Hyrkanos and Joshua b. Chananja. In an argument on the Resurrection, Eliezer proved the exclusion of the Sodomites from Gen. xiii. 3, while Joshua proved from Ps. i. 5, that "sinners" should rise to judgment, not indeed in the congrega tion of the pious, but in that of the impious (Bacher, Agada d. Tannaiten, i. p. 141 ; see, on the whole question, Volz, op. cit, pp. 246, 247). It is possible that, as Schwally (Leben nach d. Tode, p. 151) and others suppose, the resurrection-hope originated rather as a popular belief, and then, gradually pene trated to the more learned classes. In any case, when the subject became a matter of reflection and study, ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 79 thinkers would attempt to adjust the resurrection- doctrine to their general views of the world and human life. Accordingly when we come to a book like 4 Ezra, written probably within the last twenty years of the first century A.D., it is not unreasonable to expect a wider outlook. This work is peculiarly interesting and important for our inquiry, as originating probably in the same circle of thought as that in which St Paul himself had moved, and forming a kind of compendium of contemporary Juda istic Eschatology (see Gunkel in Kautzsch, p. 348 ; and Volz, op. cit., p. 31). Like the apostle, 4 Ezra despises the fantastic, mythological ideas prevalent in Apocalyptic. He scarcely speculates at all on the fate of sinners, leaving that, as St Paul does, shrouded in darkness. He is content, at times, to allow what one might almost call divergent strains of eschato logical theory to remain side by side, without ap parent consciousness of their discrepancy. Speaking generally, it may be said that his horizon is far wider than that of the earlier apocalyptic writers. And the assertion is exemplified by his references to the Resur rection. According to his conception, it appears to be universal. His language is unmistakable. " The earth restores those who rest in it ; the dust sets free those who sleep therein ; the chambers yield back the souls which were entrusted to them. The Highest appears on the Judge's throne ; then comes the end, and pity passes away ; compassion is remote ; long- suffering has disappeared ; my judgment alone will remain, truth will stand, faith will triumph ; reward follows after ; retribution appears ; good deeds awake ; evil ones sleep no longer. There appears the hollow of pain, and opposite, the place of reviving. The 80 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN oven of Gehenna becomes manifest, and opposite, the paradise of blessedness " (4 Ezra vii. 32-36).1 We have attempted very briefly to trace the main developments of eschatological doctrine in the thought of Judaism as the immediate background and environ ment of St Paul's mental life. Perhaps enough has been said to indicate the nature of the conceptions with which the apostle, from his earliest days, must have been more or less familiar. It ought not to be difficult, when we are dealing with his separate eschatological ideas, to discover approximately how far he accepted and how far he modified the tradi tional theories of his nation. But we must now turn to that factor whose influence was supreme in shaping the eschatological as well as every other element in his religious thought, his personal Christian experience.2 Here we are concerned with one of those mysterious problems which really elude matter-of-fact discussion. The conversion of St Paul has a place among the most remarkable events in all spiritual history. Numerous and ingenious attempts have been made to minimise its significance, or, at least, to account for it on purely natural grounds. Great stress, for example, has been laid upon the psychological preparation of Saul the Pharisee.8 The process is conceived on some such 1 Cf. his many expressions of dread at the thought of the world-judgment. That presupposes a general resurrection. 2 Holtzmann puts the truth expressively when he says: "It (i.e., St Paul's entire system of doctrine, Lehrbegriff) . . . simply means the exposition of the content of his conversion, the systematising of the Christophany " (N.T. Theol., ii. p. 205). 3 See, especially, Holsten's acute discussion, Die Christus- vision d. Paulus in his Zum Evangelium d. Paulus u. Pelrus, pp. 2-1 14. ST PAUL'S CONCEPTIONS 81 lines as these. In the heat of Saul's persecuting zeal his mind has been disturbed. Probably before now he has been tormented, at times, by the consciousness of failure perfectly to keep the Divine law. And thus he is often uncertain as to his standing before God. He cannot help contrasting the calm con fidence and heroism of the followers of the crucified Nazarene with his own experiences of inward turmoil. Their demeanour, their spirit, the triumphant loyalty which does not quail even before death — these things leave an overpowering impression on his ardent and sensitive nature. He envies them their firm assur ance. It has something unique, something super human about it. His opposing faith begins to tremble. He has gained a partial knowledge of the history and claims of Jesus from the preaching of the apostles. As he reflects on these elements in the Christian Gospel, and compares them with the pre dictions of the Old Testament, he becomes inwardly less and less positive concerning his own legal status. At length the crisis comes, when his whole being has been wrought up to high nervous tension by the scheme he has undertaken — a scheme by which he strives to hide from himself the doubts which torture him. " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? " The voice is the echo of his surging thought and feeling. But it attaches itself to the image of that Figure which haunts him night and day. He can hold out no longer. The Crucified has conquered. No doubt there is a measure of truth in such hypotheses. We cannot conceive a nature like that of St Paul remaining indifferent to the evidences of Christian certainty of which he was so frequently a witness. Not only so, but the very words reported F 82 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN in the narrative of his conversion, " It is hard for thee to kick against the goads," are full of significance. They show that deep misgivings concerning his religious position were asserting themselves in his inmost soul. Plainly (and this is borne out by passages, e.g., like Rom. vii.) the painful conviction was pressing itself upon him, that by the deeds of the law no flesh is justified. And his whole nature craved a right standing before God. The very fact that he had to defend his position against a honeycombing doubt, would urge him forward more fiercely than ever as a champion of Judaism. But there is no evidence to prove that he suspected the real truth to lie in the direction of the new sect of the Nazarenes. Their position was a blasphemy against God. Their so-called Messiah had been crucified as a common criminal. What insolence to see in him the culmination of God's revelation to His people ! St Paul had been nurtured on the Messianic Hope of Israel. What a caricature was this of the glorious fulfilment for which devout Jews had yearned ! x They spoke, indeed, of a resurrection of Jesus, their 1 Beyschlag supposes that St Paul's antipathy to the claims of Jesus did not rest on the fact of His shameful death (see Deut. xxi. 23 : " He that is hanged is the curse of God," applied by St Paul to Christ in Gal. iii. 13), but was the result of their oppo site conceptions of SiKa.iovtjs- In xxii. 9 we read, rr)v Se (pwvt)v ovk 1 Had the narrator of the story in Acts ix. been disposed to embellish his history or to draw on his imagination, as some critics have suggested, we can scarcely conceive of his leaving the details in this colourless condition. He had a magnificent opportunity here of supplementing the tradition. 86 FORMATIVE INFLUENCES IN f/tcova-av rov XaXovvros fj-ot. It is possible that this variation, when examined closely, has real signifi cance. They may have heard a vague sound (tovr)s, genitive), and yet not the articulate, intelligible voice (