there was a protest against death itself, and a demand for immortality
(Ps. xvi. 9-11), or death was conceived as something different for the
saint and for the sinner; fellowship with God would not and could not be
interrupted (Ps. xlix. 14, 15, lxxiii. 17-28). The vision of God is
anticipated after death's sleep (Ps. xvii. 15; Job xix. 25-27). This
belief in individual immortality is expressed poetically and obscurely:
it is later than the eschatology of the people. It assumes the moral
distinction of the righteous and the ungodly, and seeks a solution for
the problem of the lack of harmony of present character and condition.
Its deepest motive, however, is religious. The soul once in fellowship
with God cannot even by death be separated from God. The individual
hoped that he would live to share the nation's good, and thus the two
streams of Old Testament eschatology at last flow together.
Apocryphal and Apocalyptic books.
It is in the apocryphal and apocalyptic literature of Judaism that the
fullest development of eschatology can be traced. Four words may serve
to express the difference of the doctrine of these writings and the
teaching of the Old Testament. Eschatology was _universalized_ (God was
recognized as the creator and moral governor of all the world),
_individualized_ (God's judgment was directed, not to nations in a
future age, but to individuals in a future life), _transcendentalized_
(the future age was more and more contrasted with the present, and the
transition from the one to the other was not expected as the result of
historical movements, but of miraculous divine acts), and _dogmatized_
(the attempt was made to systematize in some measure the vague and
varied prophetic anticipations). Only a very brief summary of the
conceptions current in these writings can be given. The coming of the
Messiah will be preceded by the Last Woes. The Messiah is very variously
conceived: (1) "a passive, though supreme member of the Messianic
Kingdom"; (2) "an active warrior who slays his enemies with his own
hand"; (3) "one who slays his enemies by the word of his mouth, and
rules by virtue of his justice, faith and holiness"; (4) a supernatural
person, "eternal Ruler and Judge of Mankind" (R.H. Charles in Hastings's
_Bible Dictionary_, i. p. 748). In some of the writings no Messianic
kingdom is looked for; in others only a temporal duration on earth is
assigned to it; in others still it abides for ever either on earth as it
is, or on earth transformed. The dispersion among the nations is to
return home. Sometimes the Resurrection is narrowed down to the
resurrection of the righteous, at others widened out to the resurrection
of all mankind for the last judgment. A blessed immortality after
judgment, or even after death itself, is sometimes taught without
reference to any resurrection. Retribution in human history is
recognized, but attention is specially concentrated on the final
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