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and become earth; for it is profitable for me to die rather than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and have much sorrow: command, therefore, that I may now be delivered out of this distress, and go into the everlasting place,”79 meaning, perhaps, Hades. From several descants, which he introduces, on the rewards of piety, and the motives to virtue, it is evident that he did not trace the retributions of Heaven beyond the present life; and it is probable, from his silence, that he had no knowledge of a resurrection. We may add, that, on other subjects, his book betrays the influence of Greek and oriental no

tions.

It was within the period last marked out, (between the years 230 and 150 before Christ,) that the Septaugint Version of most, if not all, of the remaining books of the Old Testament, was probably composed by different individuals among the Jews of Egypt. The same remarks that we have made with regard to the version of the Pentateuch, may be repeated, with little modification, here: Sheol, in the original, is still translated by the corresponding Greek term, Hades with one exception, however, where it is rendered death. It is indeed true, that six or seven circumlocutions in the Hebrew, are likewise contracted into that term; but in all these cases, the original reference to Sheol is too plain to be mistaken; as in the expressions, the stones of the pit, the gates of death, the pit,' the way of death.280 It would seem, also, that the translators had not yet become acquainted with the doctrine of a resurrec

79 Tobit iii. 6.

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80 See Trommii Concordantiæ,

tion from the dead; for, notwithstanding the liberties which they not unfrequently take with the text, they never favor that idea, even in those figurative passages the most likely to suggest it. On the contrary, they often give them a different turn. For reasons that will at once appear, it is important to observe, that they use the compound Hebrew word Gehenna, or, as they spell it, Gaihenna, as the name of the valley of Hinnom'; and another word, compounded in the same way, Gebenhinnom, to express the valley of the son of Hinnom.' 81 Aionios commonly occurs in those texts in which our authorized English version exhibits the word everlasting.

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It was within the same period, also, that the Jewish sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, arose in Palestine; since the earliest notice of them is about the year 150 before Christ, when they were already flourishing.82 The two former were probably of native growth; the last was, perhaps, a branch of the Jewish Therapeute of Egypt. Judging from the account of Josephus, our sole authority, they were, at present, divided only on three questions: the authority of traditions, or the obligation barely of the written law; the doctrine of fate, or that of free-will; and the social, secular life, or solitude and abstinence.

81 Josh. xviii. 16, 2 Chron. xxviii. 3, xxxii. 6. See Universalist Expositor, vol. ii, Art. xxxiv. pp. 355-359.

82 Joseph. Antiq. B. xiii. ch. v. 9, is the earliest notice. Jahn, who is usually very careful and correct, says (Bib. Archæol. § 317,) that Josephus remarks, that even then they had existed for a great while. This is a mistake: Josephus makes the remark when treating of the Jewish affairs, about A. D, 11. Antiq. B. xviii. ch. i. 2.

These are the only points of distinction, mentioned by Josephus, in his statement of the peculiarities of those sects, such as they were at this time.83 At a later period, the Pharisees and Essenes held the doctrine of immortality and future retribution; while the Sadducees went so far, on the contrary, as to deny all surviving existence, and to say that there was neither angel nor spirit. But, as yet, it would seem that none of the sects had introduced their respective innovations on this subject, and that they still retained the ancient views with regard to the state of the dead. Mattathias, the Jewish leader, who evidently belonged with the Pharisees, calls his sons around him, while dying, and proposes the hope of immortality, as an incentive to sacrifice their lives, if necessary, in defence of their religion; but it is only an immortality of renown, not of future happiness, such as the occasion and the subject were so likely to suggest; 'Your bodies,' says he, are mortal, and subject to fate ; but they receive a sort of immortality by the remembrance of what actions they have done. And I would have you so in love with this immortality, that you may pursue after glory; and that when you have undergone the greatest difficulties, you may not scruple for such things to lose your lives.'84 Had he any idea of such an immortality as the Pharisees of a later period taught?

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The

Sadducees, on the other hand, appear, at this time, to have believed that the ghosts of the deceased continued to exist; for when the princess

83 Antiq. B. xiii. ch. v. 9, ch. x. 6. 84 Antiq. B. xii. ch. vi. 3.

Alexandra had put several to death, and threatened the rest, they called on her husband's ghost for commiseration of those already slain, and those in danger of it.'85 Aristobolus, also, who was probably reckoned among the Sadducees, speaks of appeasing the ghosts of his murdered parent and brother.86 Such was the state of the sects, at this period, in Palestine: in Egypt, the distinction of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, does not seem to have obtained; though the generality of the Jews there, resembled the Pharisees, and the Therapeutæ answered in many respects to the Essenes.

The

Several of the apocryphal books, whose dates are altogether uncertain, may be introduced in this place, with a notice of the little they contain, that falls within the scope of our purpose. History of Susannah, and the book of Baruch, were of Greek, probably Egyptian, original; and perhaps likewise the book of Judith, Bel and the Dragon, and the Song of the Three Children. They afford no direct allusion to the state of the dead, except in two or three passages. The three worthies are represented as giving thanks to God, after their miraculous preservation in the fiery furnace Bless ye the Lord; praise and exalt him above all, forever; for he hath delivered us from Hades, and saved us from the hand of death: 87 he had rescued them from a most imminent death, and prevented them from going down to Hades. The dead,' says Baruch, 'that are in Hades, whose spirit is taken from their car

85 Antiq. B. xiii. ch. xvi. 2, 3. 86 Antiq. B. xiii, ch. xi. 3. 87 Song of the Three Children, 66.

cases, will give unto the Lord neither praise nor righteousness;'88 and he says that the Israelites, while oppressed and dejected in the Babylonish captivity, were ' counted with them that are in Hades 89 expressions, which imply the inactive and languid state of the dead. Several traces of the Greek notions on other topics, we pass over. It is worthy of remark, that the metaphor of fire is repeatedly used to signify temporal judgments or trials. The destruction of Babylon is thus predicted fire shall come down upon her from the Everlasting, long to endure. '90 The several hardships which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sustained, are called their trial in the fire.'91 Rejoicing in her victory over the Assyrians, Judith Says, 'Wo unto the nations that rise up against my kindred! the Lord almighty will punish them in a day of judgment, putting fire and worms in their flesh; and they shall feel and weep forever.'92 These expressiens, compared with those we have quoted from Ecclesiasticus, show the peculiar character of the Jewish phraseology.

150 B. C. 100 B. C. In this period, the two books of Maccabees are supposed to have been written. The former does not allude to a future state; and places the motives to faithfulness, as well as its rewards, in the fortune of the present life, especially in an honorable reputation, that shall descend to succeeding ages.93 But the second book, the work of some Egyptian Jews,

88 Baruch ii. 17.
91 Judith viii. 26, 27.

89 do. iii. 11.

90 Baruch iv. 35.

92 do. xvi. 17,

93 1 Macc. ii, 50–64. iii. 7, vi. 44, vii. 41, 42, ix, 10, 11.

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