957 there, and Meshech, and Tubal, and Edom, and Zidon, with all their perished multitudes. When Job wished to die, in order to rest from his anguish, he prayed, O that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol'; 56 and in the consciousness that death, how long soever delayed, must be his doom at last, he says, if I wait, Sheol is mine house, they shall go down to the bars of Sheol, where our rest is together in the dust." He also describes the supposed scenery of that world, and the condition of the dead there: 'Cease, then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.'58 There, says he, the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest; there the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor: the small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.' 6 Why died I not from the womb? . . . . For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept; then had I been at rest, with kings and counsellors of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves,' &c.59 Of any ultimate raising of the dead from this dark and silent state, to a more active life, we discover no anticipations among the writers under review, unless there be some broken hints in the following passage of Job, (we quote it as it stands 56 Job xiv. 13. 57 Job xvii 13. 16. 59 Job iii. 11-19. in our common version) : I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.' 960 Whatever we may think the real meaning of this obscure text, we presume that no one, acquainted with the opinions and habits of expression among the Jews of that age, can suppose it definite enough to have suggested to them the idea of a resurrection; and accordingly we find that the authors of the Septuagint version, at a much later period, gave it no such allusion, though they evidently knew not how to interpret it. Without taking upon ourselves the task of explanation, in which the best commentators are so much at variance, we may observe, that the tenor of Job's language, in other places, seems to exclude all cognizance of the idea in question. There is hope, says he, of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, even though its root wax old in the earth, and its stock die in the ground; but man dieth, and 60 Job xix. 25-27. 1 subjoin Rosenmuller's rendering of this passuge, who nevertheless applies it to a future life; For I know that my vindicator liveth, and is at last to stand upon my dust; and although after my skin is dissolved, yet from my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and not another. My reins are consumed in my bosom,' i. e. with desire to behold him. Scholia in comp. redact. in loco. 61 At the end of our copies of the Septuagint Version of Job, there is indeed affixed a remark that It is also written that he is to rise again, with those whom the Lord raiseth up.' But that this, as well as the fictitious genealogy which follows, was added after the Septuagint Version was made, is evident from 62 where is he? As the waters dry up, so man lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be no more; he shall not awake nor be raised out of his sleep. If a man die, shall he live again? Thou prevailest forever against him, and he passeth; thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. Such are the expressions in which he freely indulges. Was he acquainted with the doctrine of a resurrection to a state of glory and blessedness? It is remarkable, too, that amid all his afflictions, and strivings after consolation, he never looks forward to that bright and happy scene, even where the train of his reflections would naturally have suggested the topic, had it been familiar to him. We find, then, that from Moses to the Captivity, the same general idea concerning the state of the dead, prevailed among the Jews, that was previously entertained; though it was rather more clearly and practically delineated, and perhaps more definitely formed. Sheol, the pit, in the depths of the earth, was still the universal receptacle of the departed. The ghosts or manes, (Hebrew, Rephaim,) rested there in weakness, silence, and darkness; but were vulgarly supposed to have the power, when summoned forth by necromancers, of imparting a knowledge of futurity. They were subject neither to rewards nor punishments. It is evident, that a belief in their resurrection was not common; and the reader the fact that the Greek translator himself never favors the idea of a resurrection, in his manner of rendering the book. 62 Job xiv. 7-20. See also vii. 9, 10. will judge whether we have clear proof that it was entertained in any case. To go down to the lower parts of the earth, to Sheol, to the gates or bars of Sheol, to the pit, to be swallowed up in it, and to be turned into it, were popular phrases, signifying to die, or to be killed; including, however, the additional idea which was then invariably associated, of descending to the supposed world of the dead. To go to the generation of one's fathers, and to be gathered to one's fathers, were also of the same purport. III. From the Babylonish Captivity, to the Birth of Christ ; From 605 B. C. to A. D. 1. Daniel and Obadiah wrote during the captivity; Zechariah and Hagai, at its close. The books of Kings and Chronicles were composed afterwards; and their phraseology may be referred to this time, though they are a history of a former period. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi follow, and complete the canon of the Old Testament, at about the year 400 before the Christian era. From Malachi to the birth of Christ, our authorities are, the Septuagint Version, the books of the Apocrypha, (excepting the second of Esdras, which has been forged by some Christian,) and a few statements of Josephus, the Jewish historian. 605 B. C. 400 B. C. Notwithstanding the great change of circumstances, in which the captivity involved the Jews, their religion and sentiments do not seem to have undergone a corresponding modification. It is true, that for about seventy years, they dwelt far from their native institutions, under foreign skies, in subjection to a foreign people, among other customs, morals, views, and modes of thinking; but if we may judge from the writings of their cotemporary and succceding prophets, they imbibed little of the religious and philosophical notions peculiar to the Babylonians. Their preservation may be ascribed, among several causes, to the uninterrupted labors, first of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, then of Daniel, Obadiah, and other devoted teachers, and to the favorable circumstance also, that in their exile, they remained a distinct people, as jealous of their conquorers, as anxious for the honor of their nation.63 None of the prophets of this century, unless we except Daniel, has any thing that relates to our subject; and all the historical books belonging here, except those of Kings, are likewise silent with regard to it. From the books last named, which were written at this time, we perceive that the well known phrase, to sleep with one's fathers, was still used in the same sense as formerly: So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David,' 64 or Zion; though the sepulchre of his ancestors was probably at Bethlehem. This is the only sentence, in all the later writings of the Old Testament, in which we find a decided allusion to the state of the dead. But there is a noted passage in Daniel, which, 63 See Jahn's Heb. Commonwealth. ch. vi. sec. 44, 45, who differs from some authors, as Eichhorn, (Einleitung in die apoka ryphischen Schriften des A. Test. S. 1, 2,) and Buhle, (Lehr buch der Geschichte der Philosophie, 4 ter Th. § 503.) 64 1 Kings ii. 10, 11. See also xi. 43. |