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the subject; often, indeed, so different from ours, or so vague and shadowy, that it becomes difficult for us to form a clear idea of them. In the Pentateuch we find traces, though partially obliterated through the oversight of our translators, of a place of the dead,' deep under the earth, where they still had a being, separate from their bodies, which were deposited in sepulchres, near the surface. This place they called Sheol; a word which, in our common version is improperly rendered sometimes grave, sometimes pit, and sometimes hell: but which evidently denoted the region of death, though we have no term in our language which perfectly corresponds. At a later period, as we shall clearly discover, the Jews supposed it to be situated in the depths of the earth; and that this was their opinion also in Moses' time, appears from a casual allusion: He introduces the Almighty as saying, 'A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, [Sheol,] and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."4 The very tenor of this figurative representation implies that Sheol was supposed to be at a great depth; it is introduced, moreover, in connection with the roots or foundations of the mountains. With this idea, agrees the description which Moses gives of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram sinking alive into Sheol, through the opening earth: Having arraigned them, for punishment, before the congregation, he says, ' If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men,

4 Deut. xxxii. 22.

then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick [that is alive] into the pit, [Sheol ;] then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, [Sheol,] and the earth closed upon them.'5

Into this subterranean world, mankind were supposed to descend immediately at death, leaving their bodies behind to be buried or otherwise disposed of. Thus, Jacob on being told that Joseph was devoured by wild beasts, exclaimed in the vehemence of his grief, I will go down into the grave [Sheol,] unto my son, mourning." There he expected to meet Joseph; not in the grave; for he thought his body had been devoured, instead of being buried. There, too, it was imagined, were the former generations, all the multitudes of the deceased. Accordingly, when one died, he was said to be gathered unto his people,' whether he was buried with them, or in a distant land: Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years; and was gathered unto his people ;"7

5 Numb. xvi. 29-33.

6 Gen. xxxvii. 35.

7 Gen. xxv. 8. See also, Numb. xx. 24-26.

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though his body was about to be deposited in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron, while those of his kindred slept in the plains of Chaldea and Mesopotamia. Of course, to be gathered unto his people, was something else than to be buried with them; it was to descend into Sheol, and there to join the hosts of the departed. A distinction also seems occasionally to be marked, in another way, between the import of the phrase in question, and the act of sepulture: Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days ;'— and then it is added, as of what took place afterwards, his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.'8 When Jacob was dying, he said to his sons, 'I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in field of Machpelah. . . . And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people."9 Now, the narrative proceeds, and relates that his burial did not take place for seventy days afterwards, when his sons left Egypt in order to carry him up to the cave of Machpelah. From these and similar examples, it appears that the phrase, to be gathered unto one's people, was used to signify the same idea, in a general respect, which Jacob expressed in a particular case, when he said, 'I will go down into Sheol unto my son.' That the dead were suposed to retain some kind of exis

8 Gen. xxxv. 29. See also, xxv. 8, 9.

9 Gen. xlix. 29-33. 1. 1-13.

tence, is evident, moreover, from the circumstance that there were those among the Jews who affected to consult familiar spirits, and to inquire of the dead concerning future events,10 a pretence which could have found no countenance, but from a general persuasion that the deceased were still in being.

Such are the indications, though vague, which we find in the Pentateuch itself. We must here add a circumstance from another quarter. It will be recollected that our Saviour, on a certain occasion, alleged, against the Sadducees, a text from the book of Exodus, as implying, contrary to their sentiments, that the dead still live unto God: But,' says he to them, as touching the resurrection [or, as Dr. Campbell renders it, the quickening] of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you, by God, saying, [Exod. iii. 6,] I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?-God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

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10 Lev. xix. 31. xx. 6, 27. Deut. xviii. 11. A necromancer, mentioned in the text last referred to, is, literally, one who inquires of the dead. That the same was meant, at least afterwards, by one that hath a familiar spirit, may be seen in the account of the witch of Endor, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7—12.

11 Matt. xxii. 31, 32. Paralells Mark xii. 26, 27. Luke xx. 37, 38. For reasons that will appear in the next note, I think that Dr. Campbell's translation of these passages gives. to a reader of the present day, a better idea of the original meaning, than would readily be obtained from our common version. He renders them thus: Matt. xxii. 23–33. The same day came Sadducees to him, who say that there is no future life, and thus addressed him, Rabbi . . &c. ... Jesus answering said &c. . But as to the quickening of the dead, have ye not read what God declared to you,' &c. Mark xii. 18-27. Then came Sadducees to him, who say that there is no future life...

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argument, here, when fully developed, appears to be this: that as God declared to Moses, long after the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he was still the God of those individuals, it is evident that they were still in being; since it would be absurd to say that he was the God of those who did not exist. By this use of the text, Christ silenced the Sadducees. Now, in order to justify him in this procedure, it seems necessary to admit that he regarded the books of Moses as actually recognizing at least some kind of existence after death, such as the Sadducees denied; otherwise, we must suppose that he practised the duplicity of extorting from those writings an idea which he knew they did not contain. If, however, we have taken a correct view of the Pentateuch, it does recognize that very idea; connecting it, to be sure, in many passages, with some fanciful imagery, with which the ignorance of the time had arrayed it, and which our Saviour judiciously avoided, by choosing a text in which the bare fact only of surviving existence was implied. And this fact, we know, the Sadducees of Christ's day disowned. Their denial of it was, indeed, the source of all their errors on the subject; and accordingly our Saviour showed them, from the Pentateuch, that they erred, 'not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.'12

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&c. . . Jesus answering said unto them. . &c. ... But as to the dead, that they are quickened, have ye not read in the book of Moses,' &c. Luke xx. 27-39. Afterwards some of the Sadducees, who deny a future state, came to him with this question.' &c.

12 It may seem, especially from the tenor of our common version, and on account of our fixed usage of some of the terms

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