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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 succeeding 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.

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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 apokryphischen Schriften des A. Test. S. 1, 2,) and Buble, (Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie, 4 ter Th. § 503.)

64 1 Kings ii. 10, 11. See also xi. 43.

if taken literally, announces distinctly, a partial, not a general, resurrection from the dead: And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.'65 A question, however, naturally arises, whether, in the Babylonish captivity, the Jews had indeed advanced so far beyond their former views on the subject, as to adopt the belief of an actual resurrection from the dead; or, whether such was the case with Daniel himself? The question is not, whether he expected a general resurrection, such as the gospel teaches; for this, he evidently does not mean, howsoever we interpret his language. And there is a difficulty in supposing that he intended to assert literally a resurrection, even of any extent; for how, then, could we satisfactorily account for the instant disappearance of so novel and striking an idea? Among all the succeeding prophets of the Old Testament, down to Malachi, a hundred and thirty years afterward, we find no recognition of it, in any form. Did it merely burst into view, in a solitary passage in Daniel, and then go out, like a flash, from all the thoughts and reccollections of a whole nation? If we pursue our research still later, and trace the books of the Apocrypha, we must descend nearly four hundred years after the time of Daniel, before we again meet with anything of the kind. Such are the difficulties, of a historical nature, attending the literal interpretation. We shall add only three remarks: 1. The langnage itself, though to us it seems quite too strong for a figure, would

65 Dan. xii. 2.

not so appear to the Jews, at a time when their prophets were accustomed to represent a political restoration of the people, as a ransom from Sheol, as a reanimation of dry bones in the valley, as a resurrection out of their graves;66 and when it was a favorite hyperbole with their sacred poets to descride their own deliverance from danger or dejection, as a recovery from the dead. 2. Whatever be the awakening, whether literal or figurative, to which Daniel alludes, it is evident, from the tenor of the chapter, that it was to take place among the Jews, and to embrace only a part of them. 3. He fixes it, by the context, to the period when there should be, among the Jews, 'a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time;' when God should have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people; when the daily sacrifice should be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up.' From these considerations, added to the historical circumstances, there would seem to be little room for doubt of the figurative character of the text. The reader, however, must decide between this conclusion, and the supposition, on the other hand, that it was intended literally to assert a resurrection of the dead, but confined to the Jews, partial even among them, and occurring at the period described.

967

Here we pass from the Old Testament, and enter on the times of the Apocrypha. In this transition, we take a final leave of Hebrew au

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thorities; for the subsequent Jewish works were composed, some of them, originally in Greek, and the rest have descended to us only in that language, and in later translations.

330 B. C.-B. C. 150.-We are now to contemplate the Jews under an influence, to them entirely new that of the Greek literature and philosophy. From their temporary contact with the Babylonian and Persian sentiments, we have seen them escape, with no very deep infection. Their exposure to the Greek doctrines, was of far longer duration, and followed by much greater effect. It was about the year 330 before Christ, that Alexander the Great passed through Syria and Palestine, and subjected them, as well as all the western part of Asia, and the adjacent country of Egypt, to the Macedonian empire. To the Jews, however, he is said to have shown peculiar favor, which must have won their sympathy, to some degree. After his death, and after the partition of his conquered dominions, his successors on the rival thrones of Syria and Egypt, held constant intercourse with them, sometimes in the way of patronage, sometimes of oppression. Placed midway between these two contending powers, they were subject alternately to each; and they were obliged to mingle with both, at different times, in peace and in war. A large colony of them was early transplanted into Alexandria and the neighboring parts of Egypt, where they long flourished, in the very focus of all the philosophisms under heaven; and the communication which those of Egypt maintained with those of the parent country, tended rather to corrupt the

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