tion for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin." But here it is evident that the prayers and sacrifices were offered for the deliverance of the slain from sin in the far-off day of resurrection, rather than for the immediate repose of their souls in Sheol. Moreover, the Second Book of the Maccabees is of late date, written probably at the close of the second or early in the first century B.C.1 When we turn to the Jewish apocryphal books2 written before or soon after the beginning of the Christian era, we find that different states of disembodied souls are mentioned. The wicked are for the first time represented as already tormented, and the place or state of torment is named Gehenna. On the other hand, the righteous are spoken of as 1 The emphasis on the doctrine of the Resurrection suggests sympathy with the Pharisees. The book is considered very inferior to I Macc. See Grim's Commentary, 1857, and Speaker's Commentary. An attempt has been made by some Protestant writers to nullify the argument in favour of prayers for the dead that is often based upon this passage. It is said that the Egyptian Jews were schismatic in their practices, and hence the “opinion of the Egyptian Jews-when unsupported by other evidence -cannot be regarded as satisfactory evidence in proof of the doctrine or practices of the Jews in Palestine." See The Intermediate State, by C. H. WRIGHT, D.D. As, however, it is admitted that "the Jews have for centuries offered up prayers for the dead," and no sort of evidence is forthcoming to prove that the Jews are mistaken in maintaining that the practice is "one of the institutions handed down by the Jewish fathers" (p. 150), all that can be said is that the passage confirms the statement made by the modern Jews as to the antiquity of their prayers for the departed. 2 Among these Pseudepigraphic writings are: The Book of Enoch, quoted by St. Jude (verses 14, 15); Sibylline Oracles; 4th Esdras; Apocalypse of Baruch; the Targums; the 3rd and 4th Books of Maccabees. The writings of Josephus also contain information as to the prevalent Jewish beliefs. enjoying their reward. As there was no dogmatic teaching given by the Synagogue, we find endless grotesque beliefs and theories put forward by different Rabbis, but the consent of those who believed in the survival of the soul gathers around the two divisions of Hades-the place of torment and the place of enjoyment. In other words, Hades is the whole realm of the dead, and its two main divisions are called Gehenna and Paradise.1 Heaven was not thought of as the abode of the disembodied souls of the righteous: it was reserved for the Jews after the final resurrection of the body. The Book of Enoch-the earlier part of which dates probably from the second century before Christ, and the remainder from the Christian era 2-has been called the "Divina Commedia" of Judaism. In chapter xxii. of that book, which resembles the Inferno of Dante, the seer is shown "the castigation and torment of those who eternally execrate, and whose souls are punished and bound there for ever and ever." The Valley of Hinnom and its ghastly associations were ready to supply images to the Jew, terrible beyond any that the mind of heathen poet or philosopher had conceived. Already known as the perpetual abode of corruption and fire, "the place where lie the corpses of those who have transgressed against Jehovah," of which 1 Paradise was also called Gan Eden, and Abraham's Bosom. 2 See Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Dr. EDERSHEIM's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. ii. p. 653. 1 it was said, "their worm shall not die, neither shall the fire be quenched," it had become the symbol of utter moral ruin and depravity. But it was the unknown author of the Book of Enoch who first saw it as the accursed of the accursed for ever," who first placed in that dark ravine one of the mouths of hell, and thus, from the emblem of moral ruin attending sin, made it the actual place of punishment for sinners. Henceforth Gehenna became known as part of Hades or Sheol. The Book of Enoch declares that the "accursed valley is for those who are accursed to eternity: here must all be collected who speak unseemly speeches towards God, and speak insolently of His glory here they are collected, and here is the place of their punishment, and in the last time there shall the spectacle of a righteous judgment upon them be given before the righteous to eternity for evermore.” 2 Again, "I saw then how a deep was opened in the midst of the earth, full of fire, and they brought thither those blinded sheep; and they were all judged and found guilty and were cast into that fiery pit and they burned." 3 . . . This torment is spoken of frequently as that which "lasts to eternity," 4 " for ever and ever," 5 "for all eternity," "for all generations into eternity."7 In the Fourth Book of Esdras-written about the end of the first century after Christ-we read, “A lake of fire shall appear, and over against it a place of rest: 5 Ibid., vi. 2 Book of Enoch, xxvii. 1 See Encyc. Britt., viii., p. 536. 3 Ibid., xc. 4 Ibid., xci. and the oven of Gehenna shall be shown, and over against it a Paradise of delight . . . here is pleasure and rest, and there fire and torments." These passages are typical of a multitude that might be quoted to the same effect from other books already mentioned. Passing from the apocryphal writings, we may conIclude with a reference to the doctrine of the future life put forward by the two great Jewish schools of Shammai and Hillel. In their teaching we notice the possibility both of penal suffering, of which no end is seen, and also of purgatorial pain, that is only for a time. The school of Shammai “arranged all mankind into three classes the perfectly righteous, who are 'immediately written and sealed to eternal life'; the perfectly wicked, who are immediately written and sealed to Gehenna'; and an intermediate class, 'who go down to Gehinnom, and moan, and come up again,' according to Zechariah xiii. 9, and which seemed also indicated in certain words on the Song of Hannah.1 The careful reader will notice that this statement implies belief in Eternal Punishment on the part of the School of Shammai. For (1) the perfectly wicked are spoken of as 'written and sealed unto Gehenna'; (2) the School of Shammai expresssly quotes, in support of what it teaches about these wicked, Daniel xii. 2, a passage which undoubtedly refers to the final Judgment after the Resurrection; (3) the perfectly wicked, so punished, are expressly 1 I Sam. ii. 6. distinguished from the third, or intermediate class, who merely go down to Gehinnom,' but are not 'written and sealed,' and 'come up again.' "Substantially the same, as regards Eternity of Punishment, is the view of the School of Hillel. In regard to sinners of Israel and of the Gentiles it teaches, indeed, that they are tormented in Gehenna for twelve months, after which their bodies and souls are burnt up and scattered as dust under the feet of the righteous; but it significantly excepts from this number certain classes of transgressors 'who go down to Gehinnom and are punished there to ages of ages.' That the Niphal form of the verb used, , must mean 'punished' and not 'judged,' appears, not only from the context, but from the use of the same word and form in the same tractate (Rosh haSh, 12 a, lines 7, etc., from top), when it is said of the generation of the Flood that they were punished'-surely not 'judged '-by 'hot water.' However, therefore, the School of Hillel might accentuate the mercy of God, or limit the number of those who suffer Eternal Punishment, it did teach Eternal Punishment in the case of some. And this is the point in question. "But since the Schools of Shammai and Hillel represented the theological teaching in the time of Christ and His Apostles, it follows that the doctrine of Eternal Punishment was that held in the days of our Lord, however it may have afterwards been modified."1 1 EDERSHEIM'S Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. ii. 789. |