2. Job.— It is not certain how this revelation of the triumph over death was evolved into a clear belief in the resurrection of the body. All at once we come upon that belief in its full evolution about the 10th century ac. Our wit ness is the dramatic epic called the Book of Job. Without any prospect of human comfort, the patient sufferer looks forward to the un ending joy of an eternal reunion of his soul and body. The Masoretic, Septuagint and Vul gate traditions of the text are slightly vari ant, though substantially the same. To the scepticism of Bildad and the Shuhite, Job makes reply: I know that my Redeemer liveth: And on the Last Day from the dust shall I rise. Yea. again shall I be clothedmy skin; And in my flesh shall I see Wod.
Him I shall see for myself, Yea, mine eyes shall look on, not fraught is this hope in my bosom.
(Job lit: 25-27) 3. Hosea.— During the dreadful times that preceded the Assyrian exile, Hosea, a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel, about ac 750, foretold the triumph of the chosen people in terms that clearly refer to the resurrection, especially to that of the Messias: Come, let us go back to Jahweh.
For He hath bruised, that He may heal us; He bath smitten, that He may cure us.
After two days He will quicken us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live before His face. (Hosea vi, 1-2) The triumph of Israel over death is a resur rection hope, bound up in the promise of national redemption that Jahweh makes through His prophet: From thepower of She'ol shall I free them; '— From death shall I redeem them.
Where is thy sting. 0 death? Where is thy doom, 0 She'ol? (Hosea riu. 14) This prophecy, Saint Paul tells the Cor inthians (1, Cor. xv, 54-55), is to be fulfilled at the resurrection of the flesh.
4. Isaiah.— Shortly before the fall of Sa maria s.c. 722, Isaiah, a prophet of the southern kingdom of Judah, intermingled thoughts of the resurrection with his Messianic prophecies. By means of the Messianic triumph Jahweh of hosts °shall cast death down headlong for ever* (xxv, 8). In that day of complete re demption, Thy dead shall come to life again; My slain shall rise up again. Awake and shout for soy, Ye that dwell in the dust.
For thy dew is a dew of Yea. the earth shall forth her dead.
The earth shall unveil her blood; She shall cover her slain no more. (Is. Ravi, 19-21) In the prophets of both the Assyrian and the Babylonian period the redemption of Israel from thraldom in Assyria, and of Judah from Babylonian bondage, is a type of the resurrec tion of the world from slavery to sin. The sacred manumission of the slave to sin, by means of the mediatorship of the Messias, is completed in the glorious resurrection of the body. That is why Isaiah now and then is in
spired to shift his thought from the salvation of Israel or of Judah to that of the soul of man by reunion with its body in glory.
5. Ezechiel.— Coming to the Babylonian period of prophecy, we find Ezechiel (s.c. 592 586) foretelling the salvation of Judah in terms that vividly picture the resurrection. The prophet in vision stood in the midst of a vast plain °full of bones . . . and, lo, they were very Then Jahweh prophesied to the bones: Lo, And ye live you I sh all put spirit,.
I shall grant you sinews.
I raise up for you &eh, I shall set over you skin, Within you I shall put spirit, And ye shall live.
(Beech. anvil, 5,6) Straightway erthere was a noise . . . and a rattling; and the bones moved nigh, each bone to its own bone.' Lastly °came into them the spirit; and they lived, and they stood upon their feet. They were an army exceeding great' (xxxvii, 10). The belief in the resurrection must have been real and universal in Judah; else Ezechiel would not have received and set forth, in terms of that figure, the revelation of the ultimate triumph of his people.
6. Daniel.— Throughout the Babylonian Ex ile (b.c. 586-536) and thereafter, the prophet Daniel is a clear witness to that part of Jewish eschatology, which has to do with the fact of a future resurrection of the body. At that time Michael, the great leader, who stands for the sons of thy folk, will rise up; and there will be a time of anguish, such as never has been since nation was even until then. At that time shall thy folk be saved,— all that are found to be written in the book. And the multitude of those that sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake,— some unto life eternal, others unto reproach and unto shame eternal. Yea, they that teach wisdom shall shine like the reful gence of the firmament; they that bring many to justice shall be like stars forever and be yond)) (xii, 1-3).
7. The Psalms.— The Book of Psalms, in its present state, is likely the result of a series of inspired redactions, dating from the time of David (s.c. 1017-977) up to the time of the close of the canon of Esdras (ac. 444). The soul's longing for immortality is clear, and the resurrection-hope at least faintly glimmers throughout this long period of liturgical evolu tion of Israelitic hymnody. The Davidic Psalm 16 (15) :9, 10 proclaims the immortality of the pious: Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue exults; Surely my flesh now abides in hope.