Testament of "being gathered to the fathers,"

(69 שכב

(лas DV, or "to his people" (b), proves what hold this sentiment had upon the people.

69 Gen. 15:15 (JE).

70 Gen. 49:29-33 (P); Num. 27:13 (JE).

CHAPTER VI

MESSIANISM IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Throughout the Old Testament there is no ethical significance attached to life after death, nor is a hopeful view of life after death' to be found, except the passage in Daniel 12:2. Everywhere it is the old Semitic conception of a cheerless existence in Sheol, a gloomy underworld. Sheol was first conceived as a combination of the graves of the clan or the nation, and thus as a final abode. Man's destiny ends in Sheol; into its precincts all men alike find admittance: "

3

1 George Adam Smith in his Lectures on Hebrew Poetry at the Johns Hopkins University (1895-96), stated that the Semites had no genius for immortality because they lacked a sustained sense for speculation. Cf. Jastrow: Study of Religion, London, 1901, p. 223.

2 Cf. Jeremias: Hölle und Paradies, Lpzg., 1900, p. 31; also Charles: A Critical Hist. of the Doctrine of a Future Life, London, 1899, p. 34, note. (pit) corresponds exactly with the Assyrian suâlu. Both denote the place under the ground where the dead reside. In Assyrian the term is explained as the place of judgment, among the Jews as the place where every living being shall finally be demanded; (the root means to ask, to demand), a place of ingathering. Thus Habakkuk (2:5) compares the vicious man's desire to Sheol or death, who cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all peoples. Cf. Carus: "The Babyl. and Hebrew view of man's fate after death," in Open Court, June, 1901, p. 346.

3 Isa. 14:9, 10 (c. 550 B. C.); cf. Cheyne's crit. notes on Isa. in P. B. (Engl. transl.) in loc.; comp. Ez. 31:14-17; Job 30:23; 26:5; Ps. 16:10 (167 B. C.).

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Sheol beneath is startled because of thee, expecting soon thine arrival;

It makes arise from their thrones all the kings of the

nations,

They all address thee

and say to thee:

Thou, too, art made strengthless as we are to us hast thou been leveled!"

Just as one desired burial in the family sepulchre that he may join the circle of his ancestors, so honorable interment was a prerequisite to an honorable place in Sheol, i. e. to a union with his people there. Otherwise, he is thrust into the lowest and outlying parts of the pit. Sheol has different divisions or chambers

(Prov. 7:27); it is also provided with gates (Job 38:17), and these are secured with bars (ibid., 17: 16). It was located in the lowest parts of the earth (Ps. 63:9), below the sea (Job 26: 5), yet above the subterranean waters (Ps. 71: 20). It is, therefore, without light. Job speaks of it as "the land of darkness." Upon the whole, the outlook beyond the grave is dreary. The Psalmists assure us again and again that JHVH enjoys life and not death. Man must praise Him while living, for the dead cannot praise God:

"Wilt thou for the dead work a wonder?
Will shades rise to render Thee thanks?
Do they tell in the grave of Thy goodness?

Of Thy faithfulness, in the world down below?
Can Thy wonders be made known in the darkness?
And Thy righteousness in the land of oblivion? " •

Ez. 32:22 f.

Ps. 88:10-12 (c. 536 B. C.).

5 10:21 f; comp. Jonah 2:7.

"It is not the dead who praise JAH,

Nor all those who are gone down to the silent land,
But it is we who bless JHVH,

From this time forth for ever and ever."7

In Ecclesiasticus we read:

"I hate idolatry with all earnestness;

Who will praise the Most High in Sheol?

For all the living can praise, but the dead that are no

longer cannot praise.

Therefore praise the Lord whilst thou livest and art whole." 7a

Two cases are on record of men who were not doomed to abide in Sheol-Enoch and Elijah. But these exceptions are nowhere mentioned as indicative of hope for other mortals to escape the doom of a retention in Sheol. For the mass of mankind Sheol remains a monster whose maw is constantly open to devour life with all its pomp, noise and confusion:

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Therefore Sheol gapes ravenously, and opens the mouth to its widest;

And the splendor of Zion, and her busy throng, and all who are joyous within her, plunge headlong into it." "

"Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,

And whole, as those that go down into the pit." 10

And yet the very conception of Sheol warrants the belief that some vague idea of a future state was cur

'Ps. 115:17 f (167 B. C.); comp. Ps. 6:5.

Ta 17:24-27.

8 Gen. 5:24 (P); II K. 2:11 (c. 830 B. C.).

Isa. 5:14 (c. 735 B. C.).

10 Prov. 1:12 (c. 200 B. C.); cf. Driver: Introd. 6th ed., p. 405; comp. Prov. 30:16.

rent among the Hebrews. The mere fact that the dead followed with much interest and sympathy the fate of those left behind on earth " led to conjuration and necromancy. The classical example is the story of the Witch of Endor." The appearing of Samuel to Saul did not admit complete cessation of the life of the spirit after death. The consultation of the occult powers by Saul throws a flood of light upon the Eschatological belief of his countrymen." A sharp distinction is drawn between body and soul, or, rather, the spirit, which after the dissolution of the body was believed to continue as a ghost." Samuel's spirit was in

12 I Sam. 28:7-16 (about 950 B. C.); comp. Isa. 65:4; 57:9; 29:4; 8:19.

13" The O. T. supplies us with an admirable illustration of the method of obtaining oracles through the dead. Saul, when he desires to know what the outcome of a battle will be, seeks out a sorceress and through her calls up the dead Samuel (I Sam. 28:11) and puts the question to him. Similarly, in the Gilgamish Epic, the hero, with the aid of Nergal, obtains a sight of Eabani and plies him with questions. It is natural, therefore, to find the Babylonian term suâlu paralleled by the Hebrew sheol." Jastrow: The Rel. of Babyl. and Assyria, Boston, 1898, p. 560. 14 Cf. Briggs: Semitic Studies (in Kohut's Memorial Vol., Berl., 1897, pp. 94-105) on the use of and in the O. T.; also Goodwin: "On the use of and Καρδία in the O. and N. T.," in Journal of Bibl. Lit., vol. I, pp. 67 ff; also Ges. Buhl (13th ed.), p. 765a, 2; also Wohlgemuth: Die Unsterblichkeitslehre in der Bibel, Berl., 1900, pp. 5 ff. 'According to the primitive Hebrew view, man was composed not of three essentially distinct elements-a trichotomy-spirit, soul and body, but only of two-a dichotomy-spirit, or soul, and body. Spirit and soul were one

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