An Extract out of Josephus's Discourse to The Greeks Concerning HadesJosephus, Flavius
Religion
An Extract out of Josephus's Discourse to The Greeks Concerning Hades
Josephus, Flavius
Jews -- Antiquities; Jews -- History
4. But as to the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand by
the angels allotted for punishment, no longer going with a good-will,
but as prisoners driven by violence; to whom are sent the angels
appointed over them to reproach them and threaten them with their
terrible looks, and to thrust them still downwards. Now those angels
that are set over these souls drag them into the neighborhood of hell
itself; who, when they are hard by it, continually hear the noise of
it, and do not stand clear of the hot vapor itself; but when they have
a near view of this spectacle, as of a terrible and exceeding great
prospect of fire, they are struck with a fearful expectation of a future
judgment, and in effect punished thereby: and not only so, but where
they see the place [or choir] of the fathers and of the just, even
hereby are they punished; for a chaos deep and large is fixed between
them; insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them cannot be
admitted, nor can one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt
it, pass over it.
5. This is the discourse concerning Hades, wherein the souls of all men
are confined until a proper season, which God hath determined, when
he will make a resurrection of all men from the dead, not procuring
a transmigration of souls from one body to another, but raising again
those very bodies, which you Greeks, seeing to be dissolved, do not
believe [their resurrection]. But learn not to disbelieve it; for while
you believe that the soul is created, and yet is made immortal by
God, according to the doctrine of Plato, and this in time, be not
incredulous; but believe that God is able, when he hath raised to life
that body which was made as a compound of the same elements, to make it
immortal; for it must never be said of God, that he is able to do some
things, and unable to do others. We have therefore believed that the
body will be raised again; for although it be dissolved, it is not
perished; for the earth receives its remains, and preserves them; and
while they are like seed, and are mixed among the more fruitful soil,
they flourish, and what is sown is indeed sown bare grain, but at the
mighty sound of God the Creator, it will sprout up, and be raised in a
clothed and glorious condition, though not before it has been dissolved,
and mixed [with the earth]. So that we have not rashly believed the
resurrection of the body; for although it be dissolved for a time on
account of the original transgression, it exists still, and is cast into
the earth as into a potter's furnace, in order to be formed again, not
in order to rise again such as it was before, but in a state of purity,
and so as never to be destroyed any more. And to every body shall its
own soul be restored. And when it hath clothed itself with that body, it
will not be subject to misery, but, being itself pure, it will continue
with its pure body, and rejoice with it, with which it having walked
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