Early Attestation to the Afterlife
(addai - found this today so might as well add it to what I posted yesterday from communityfirst.cc/chris/documents/docs/universalism.htm sorry, couldnt give link without it messin up my format.)
At this point, we have seen that the major texts uses for proof of universalism in the Bible seem to crumble in their context. The next problem we shall deal with is the afterlife, specifically the belief in a torturous hell. There are several early Jewish and Christian witnesses to the afterlife. We shall briefly look at a few of these texts, but I must concur with Alfred Edersheim here that the Jewish writings are not authoritative but give much insight into the Judaism from which Christianity arose. First of all, we have “Against Plato, On the Cause of the Universe” by Hippolytus. This work is also known as Josephus' “Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades". However, current scholarship attributes this work to Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus, who lived from about 170 until 236. To Hippolytus, as well as Jesus in his story of the rich man and Lazarus, hades is the abode of the just and the unjust until the final judgment. In this first section of his work, Hippolytus speaks of “a certain place set apart, as a lake of unquenchable fire, whereinto we suppose no one hath hitherto been cast; but it is prepared for a day afore-determined by God, in which one righteous sentence shall deservedly be passed upon all men.” This is the place described further below:
“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.”
Note that this is still speaking of the time before the final judgment. The early Jewish take on the final judgment is seen in section six:
“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.”
At the very least, within 200 years of Christ's death, we see in a fairly detailed account of an eternal punishment in an unquenchable fire of the “unjust” men. Josephus, the 1st-Century Jewish historian, will now be consulted for 1st-Century Jewish beliefs. In his Second Book of the Jewish War, chapter 8, section 14, Josephus speaks of the Pharisees. He states that “They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, - but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment.” In that same section, we read that the Sadducees do not believe in an afterlife for the soul. In section 11 of the same chapter, we read of the Essenes “the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained, by the fear and expectation they are in, that although they should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer immortal punishment after their death.” These are the beliefs of the three main Jewish sects at the time the New Testament was written. The sects who believe in an afterlife reflect the Jewish belief that there is “eternal punishment” for men in that afterlife.
(addai - found this today so might as well add it to what I posted yesterday from communityfirst.cc/chris/documents/docs/universalism.htm sorry, couldnt give link without it messin up my format.)
At this point, we have seen that the major texts uses for proof of universalism in the Bible seem to crumble in their context. The next problem we shall deal with is the afterlife, specifically the belief in a torturous hell. There are several early Jewish and Christian witnesses to the afterlife. We shall briefly look at a few of these texts, but I must concur with Alfred Edersheim here that the Jewish writings are not authoritative but give much insight into the Judaism from which Christianity arose. First of all, we have “Against Plato, On the Cause of the Universe” by Hippolytus. This work is also known as Josephus' “Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades". However, current scholarship attributes this work to Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus, who lived from about 170 until 236. To Hippolytus, as well as Jesus in his story of the rich man and Lazarus, hades is the abode of the just and the unjust until the final judgment. In this first section of his work, Hippolytus speaks of “a certain place set apart, as a lake of unquenchable fire, whereinto we suppose no one hath hitherto been cast; but it is prepared for a day afore-determined by God, in which one righteous sentence shall deservedly be passed upon all men.” This is the place described further below:
“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.”
Note that this is still speaking of the time before the final judgment. The early Jewish take on the final judgment is seen in section six:
“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.”
At the very least, within 200 years of Christ's death, we see in a fairly detailed account of an eternal punishment in an unquenchable fire of the “unjust” men. Josephus, the 1st-Century Jewish historian, will now be consulted for 1st-Century Jewish beliefs. In his Second Book of the Jewish War, chapter 8, section 14, Josephus speaks of the Pharisees. He states that “They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, - but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment.” In that same section, we read that the Sadducees do not believe in an afterlife for the soul. In section 11 of the same chapter, we read of the Essenes “the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained, by the fear and expectation they are in, that although they should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer immortal punishment after their death.” These are the beliefs of the three main Jewish sects at the time the New Testament was written. The sects who believe in an afterlife reflect the Jewish belief that there is “eternal punishment” for men in that afterlife.
posted by Addai | 5:56 PM
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