gests one particular which may probably be received as a literal expression of the popular views, at that time the dead say to the descending monarch, Art thou also become weak as we?" They were supposed to be powerless. And that this impotence extended, in some degree, to thought, as well as to action, seems to be intimated by Hezekiah: Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit, cannot hope for thy truth.'49 We may add, however, that there are allusions to a still existing pretence of consulting the dead.50 Such was their condition in Sheol. Isaiah says, 'death shall be swallowed up in victory' ;51 and Hosea speaks of a ransom from the power of Sheol, a redemption from death, and even a destruction of Sheol.52 But the context of these two passages show that the language is figurative, and that the prophets were treating of a temporal restoration of Judah and Israel, instead of a literal deliverance from the state of the dead. Of this event, they discover no knowledge nor expectation. 700 B. C.-600 B. C.-Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, Job, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, are the writers of this time; though, in order to embrace all the prophecies of the two last named, we must extend our limits nearly twenty years later, reaching so far into the Babylonish captivity. As they were brought up, however, in Judea, and had formed their views and habits of 49 Isa. xxxviii. 18, 50 Isa. xix. 3; xxix. 52 Hosea xiii. 14, expression among the Jews before the exile, they belong properly to this period. It is only in Job and Ezekiel that we find any decided and significant references to the state after death; but that the popular notions on the subject, remained about the same as formerly, will be seen in the following passages: Of the divine perfection, Job says, ' It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? 53 Ezekiel, speaking of the king of Egypt, and other heathen monarchs, under the metaphor of lofty trees, says, they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down into the pit. Thus saith the Lord God, In the day when he went down into Sheol, I caused a mourning; I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof; . . . I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol, with them that descend into the pit ; they also went down into Sheol with him, unto them that be slain with the sword.'54 'Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. . The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Ashur is there, and all her company ;'55 and the prophet adds, that Elam is also 53 Job xi. 8. 55 Ezek. xxxii. 18-22. 54 Ezek. xxxi, 14—17, 6 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.'57 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. 58 Job x. 20-22. 59 Job iii. 11-19. 6 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.' 60 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. I subjoin Rosenmuller's rendering of this passuge, who nevertheless applies it to a future life; For 1 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 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." 62 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. |