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
righteously now in this world, and never having had it as a snare, it
will receive it again with great gladness. But as for the unjust,
they will receive their bodies not changed, not freed from diseases or
distempers, nor made glorious, but with the same diseases wherein they
died; and such as they were in their unbelief, the same shall they be
when they shall be faithfully judged.
6. For all men, the just as well as the unjust, shall be brought before
God the word: for to him hath the Father committed all judgment: and he,
in order to fulfill the will of his Father, shall come as Judge, whom
we call Christ. For Minos and Rhadamanthus are not the judges, as
you Greeks do suppose, but he whom God and the Father hath glorified:
Concerning Whom We Have Elsewhere Given A More Particular Account, For
The Sake Of Those Who Seek After Truth. This person, exercising the
righteous judgment of the Father towards all men, hath prepared a just
sentence for every one, according to his works; at whose judgment-seat
when all men, and angels, and demons shall stand, they will send forth
one voice, and say, Just Is Thy Judgment; the rejoinder to which will
bring a just sentence upon both parties, by giving justly to those that
have done well an everlasting fruition; but allotting to the lovers of
wicked works eternal punishment. To these belong the unquenchable fire,
and that without end, and a certain fiery worm, never dying, and not
destroying the body, but continuing its eruption out of the body with
never-ceasing grief: neither will sleep give ease to these men, nor
will the night afford them comfort; death will not free them from their
punishment, nor will the interceding prayers of their kindred profit
them; for the just are no longer seen by them, nor are they thought
worthy of remembrance. But the just shall remember only their righteous
actions, whereby they have attained the heavenly kingdom, in which
there is no sleep, no sorrow, no corruption, no care, no night, no day
measured by time, no sun driven in his course along the circle of
heaven by necessity, and measuring out the bounds and conversions of
the seasons, for the better illumination of the life of men; no moon
decreasing and increasing, or introducing a variety of seasons, nor will
she then moisten the earth; no burning sun, no Bear turning round [the
pole], no Orion to rise, no wandering of innumerable stars. The earth
will not then be difficult to be passed over, nor will it be hard to
find out the court of paradise, nor will there be any fearful roaring of
the sea, forbidding the passengers to walk on it; even that will be made
easily passable to the just, though it will not be void of moisture.
Heaven will not then be uninhabitable by men, and it will not be
impossible to discover the way of ascending thither. The earth will not
be uncultivated, nor require too much labor of men, but will bring forth
its fruits of its own accord, and will be well adorned with them. There
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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