RABBINICAL DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE.
THE starting point in the Talmud on this subject is with the
effects of sin upon the human race. Man was made radiant, pure,
immortal, in the image of God. By sin he was obscured, defiled,
burdened with mortal decay and judgment. In this representation
that misery and death were an after doom brought into the world by
sin, the Rabbinical authorities strikingly agree. The testimony is
irresistible. We need not quote confirmations of this statement,
as every scholar in this department will accept it at once. But as
to what is meant precisely by the term "death," as used in such a
connection, there is no little obscurity and diversity of opinion.
In all probability, some of the Pharisaical fathers perhaps the
majority of them conceived that, if Adam had not sinned, he and
his posterity would have been physically immortal, and would
either have lived forever on the earth, or have been successively
transferred to the home of Jehovah over the firmament. They call
the devil, who is the chief accuser in the heavenly court of
justice, the angel of death, by the name of "Sammael." Rabbi
Reuben says, "When Sammael saw Adam sin, he immediately sought to
slay him, and went to the heavenly council and clamored for
justice against him, pleading thus: 'God made this decree, "In the
day thou eatest of the tree thou shalt surely die." Therefore give
him to me, for he is mine, and I will kill him; to this end was I
created; and give me power over all his descendants.' When the
celestial Sanhedrim perceived that his petition was just, they
decreed that it should be granted."1 A great many expressions of
kindred tenor might easily be adduced, leaving it hardly possible
to doubt as indeed we are not aware that any one does doubt that
many of the Jews literally held that sin was the sole cause of
bodily dissolution. But, on the other hand, there were as
certainly others who did not entertain that idea, but understood
and explained the terms in which it was sometimes conveyed in a
different, a partially figurative, sense. Rabbi Samuel ben David
writes, "Although the first Adam had not sinned, yet death would
have been; for death was created on the first day." The reference
here is, as Rabbi Berechias explains, to the account in Genesis
where we read that "darkness was upon the face of the deep," "by
which is to be understood the angel of death, who has darkened the
face of man."2 The Talmudists generally believed also in the pre
existence of souls in heaven, and in a spiritual body investing
and fitting the soul for heaven, as the present carnal body
invests and fits it for the earth. Schoettgen has collected
numerous illustrations in point, of which the following may serve
as specimens.3 "When the first Adam had not sinned, he was every
way an angel of the Lord, perfect and spotless, and it was decreed
that he should live forever like one of the celestial ministers."
"The soul cannot ascend into Paradise except it be first invested
with a
1 Schoettgen, Dissertatio de Hierosolyma Coelesti, cap. iii. sect.
9.
2 Schoettgen, Hora Biblica et Talmudica, in Rom. v. 12, et in
Johan. iii. 19.
3 Ibid. in 2 Cor. v. 2.
clothing adapted to that world, as the present is for this world."
These notions do not harmonize with the thought that man was
originally destined for a physical eternity on this globe. All
this difficulty disappears, we think, and the true metaphorical
force often intended in the word "death" comes to view, through
the following conception, occupying the minds of a portion of the
Jewish Rabbins, as we are led to believe by the clews furnished in
the close connection between the Pharisaic and the Zoroastrian
eschatology, by similar hints in various parts of the New
Testament, and by some quite explicit declarations in the Talmud
itself, which we shall soon cite in a different connection. God at
first intended that man should live for a time in pure blessedness
on the earth, and then without pain should undergo a glorious
change making him a perfect peer of the angels, and be translated
to their lofty abode in his own presence; but, when he sinned, God
gave him over to manifold suffering, and on the destruction of his
body adjudged his naked soul to descend to a doleful imprisonment
below the grave. The immortality meant for man was a timely ascent
to heaven in a paradisal clothing, without dying. The doom brought
on him by sin was the alteration of that desirable change of
bodies and ascension to the supernal splendors, for a permanent
disembodiment and a dreaded descent to the subterranean glooms. It
is a Talmudical as much as it is a Pauline idea, that the
triumphant power of the Messiah would restore what the unfortunate
fall of Adam forfeited. Now, if we can show as we think we can,
and as we shall try to do in a later part of this article that the
later Jews expected the Messianic resurrection to be the prelude
to an ascent into heaven, and not the beginning of a gross earthly
immortality, it will powerfully confirm the theory which we have
just indicated. "When," says one of the old Rabbins, "the dead in
Israelitish earth are restored alive," their bodies will be "as
the body of the first Adam before he sinned, and they shall all
fly into the air like birds."4
At all events, whether the general Rabbinical belief was in the
primitive destination of man to a heavenly or to an earthly
immortality, whether the "death" decreed upon him in consequence
of sin was the dissolution of the body or the wretchedness of the
soul, they all agree that the banishment of souls into the realm
of blackness under the grave was a part of the penalty of sin.
Some of them maintained, as we think, that, had there been no sin,
souls would have passed to heaven in glorified bodies; others of
them maintained, as we think, that, had there been no sin, they
would have lived eternally upon earth in their present bodies; but
all of them agreed, it is undisputed, that in consequence of sin
souls were condemned to the under world. No man would have seen
the dismal realm of the sepulchre had there not been sin. The
earliest Hebrew conception was that all souls went down to a
common abode, to spend eternity in dark slumber or nerveless
groping. This view was first modified soon after the Persian
captivity, by the expectation that there would be discrimination
at the resurrection which the Jews had learned to look for, when
the just should rise but the wicked should be left.
The next alteration of their notions on this subject was the
subdivision of the underworld into Paradise and Gehenna, a
conception known among them probably as early as a century before
Christ, and very prominent with them in the apostolic age. "When
Rabbi
4 Schoettgen, in 1 Cor. xv. 44.
Jochanan was dying, his disciples asked him, 'Light of Israel,
main pillar of the right, thou strong hammer, why dost thou weep?'
He answered, 'Two paths open before me, the one leading to bliss,
the other to torments; and I know not which of them will be my
doom.'"5 "Paradise is separated from hell by a distance no greater
than the width of a thread."6 So, in Christ's parable of Dives and
Lazarus, Abraham's bosom and hell are two divisions. "There are
three doors into Gehenna: one in the wilderness, where Korah and
his company were swallowed; one in the sea, where Jonah descended
when he 'cried out of the belly of hell;' one in Jerusalem, for
the Lord says, 'My furnace is in Jerusalem.'"7 "The under world is
divided into palaces, each of which is so large that it would take
a man three hundred years to roam over it. There are distinct
apartments where the hell punishments are inflicted. One place is
so dark that its name is 'Night of Horrors."8 "In Paradise there
are certain mansions for the pious from the Gentile peoples, and
for those mundane kings who have done kindness to the
Israelites."9 "The fire of Gehenna was kindled on the evening of
the first Sabbath, and shall never be extinguished."10 The
Egyptians, Persians, Hindus, and Greeks, with all of whom the Jews
held relations of intercourse, had, in their popular
representations of the under world of the dead, regions of peace
and honor for the good, and regions of fire for the bad. The idea
may have been adopted from them by the Jews, or it may have been
at last developed among themselves, first by the imaginative
poetical, afterwards by the literally believing, transference
below of historical and local imagery and associations, such as
those connected with the ingulfing of Sodom and Gomorrah in fire
and sulphur, and with the loathed fires in the valley of Hinnom.
Many of the Rabbins believed in the transmigration or revolution
of souls, an immemorial doctrine of the Fast, and developed it
into the most ludicrous and marvellous details.11 But, with the
exception of those who adopted this Indian doctrine, the Rabbins
supposed all departed souls to be in the under world, some in the
division of Paradise, others in that of hell. Here they fancied
these souls to be longingly awaiting the advent of the Messiah.
"Messiah and the patriarchs weep together in Paradise over the
delay of the time of the kingdom."12 In this quotation the Messiah
is represented as being in the under world, for the Jews expected
that he would be a man, very likely some one who had already
lived. For a delegation was once sent to ask Jesus, "Art thou
Elias? art thou the Messiah? art thou that prophet?" Light is thus
thrown upon the Rabbinical saying that "it was doubted whether the
Messiah would come from the living, or the dead."13 Borrowing some
Persian modes of thinking, and adding them to their own inordinate
national pride, the Rabbins soon began
5 Talmud, tract. Berachoth.
6 Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, th. ii. cap. v. s. 315.
7 Lightfoot, in Matt. v. 22.
8 Schroder, Satzungen and Gebrauche des Talmudisch Rabbinischen
Judenthums, s. 408.
9 Schoettgen, in Johan. xiv. 2.
10 Nov. Test. ex Talmude, etc. illustratum a J. G. Menschen, p.
125.
11 Basnage, Hist. of Jews, lib. iv. cap. 30. Also, Traditions of
the Rabbins, in Blackwood for April, 1833.
12 Eisenmenger, th. ii. s. 304.
13 Lightfoot, in Matt. ii. 16.
to fancy that the observance or non observance of the Pharisaic
ritual, and kindred particulars, must exert a great effect in
determining the destination of souls and their condition in the
under world. Observe the following quotations from the Talmud.
"Abraham sits at the gate of hell to see that no Israelite
enters." "Circumcision is so agreeable to God, that he swore to
Abraham that no one who was circumcised should descend into
hell."14 "What does Abraham to those circumcised who have sinned
too much? He takes the foreskins from Gentile boys who died
without circumcision, and places them on those Jews who were
circumcised but have become godless, and then kicks them into
hell."15 Hell here denotes that division in the under world where
the condemned are punished. The younger Buxtorf, in a preface to
his father's "Synagoga Judaica," gives numerous specimens of
Jewish representations of "the efficacy of circumcision being so
great that no one who has undergone it shall go down into hell."
Children can help their deceased parents out of hell by their good
deeds, prayers, and offerings.16 "Beyond all doubt," says Gfrorer,
"the ancient Jewish synagogue inculcated the doctrine of
supererogatory good works, the merit of which went to benefit the
departed souls."17 Here all souls were, in the under world, either
in that part of it called Paradise, or in that named Gehenna,
according to certain conditions. But in whichever place they were,
and under whatever circumstances, they were all tarrying in
expectation of the advent of the Messiah.
How deeply rooted, how eagerly cherished, the Jewish belief in the
approaching appearance of the Messiah was, and what a splendid
group of ideas and imaginations they clustered around his reign,
are well known facts. He was to be a descendant of royal David, an
inspired prophet, priest, and king, was to subdue the whole earth
beneath his Jewish sceptre and establish from Jerusalem a
theocratic empire of unexampled glory, holiness, and delight. In
so much the consent was general and earnest; though in regard to
many further details there would seem to have been an incongruous
diversity of opinions. They supposed the coming of the Messiah
would be preceded by ten frightful woes,18 also by the appearance
of the prophet Elias as a forerunner.19 There are a few passages
in the Rabbinical writings which, unless they were forged and
interpolated by Christians at a late period, show that there were
in the Jewish mind anticipations of the personal descent of the
Messiah into the under world.20 "After this the Messiah, the son
of David, came to the gates of the underworld. But when the bound,
who are in Gehenna, saw the light of the Messiah, they began
rejoicing to receive him, saying, 'He shall lead us up from this
darkness.'" "The captives shall
14 Schroder, s. 332.
15 Eisenmenger, th. ii. kap. vi. s. 340.
16 Ibid. s. 358.
17 Geschichte des Urchristenthums, zweit. abth. s. 186. Maimonides
also asserts the doctrine of supererogatory works: see p. 237 of
H. H. Bernard's Selections from the Yad Hachazakah of Maimonides.
18 Surenhusius, Mischna, pars tertia, p. 308.
19 Lightfoot, in Matt. xvii. 10.
20 For a general view of the Jewish eschatology, see Gfrorer,
Geschichte des Urchristenthums, kap. x.; Eisenmenger, Entdecktes
Judenthum, th. ii. kap. xv. xvii.
ascend from the under world, Schechinah at their head."21 Gfrorer
derives the origin of the doctrine that Christ rescued souls out
of the under world, from a Jewish notion, preserved in the
Talmud,22 that the just patriarchs sometimes did it.23 Bertholdt
adduces Talmudical declarations to show that through the Messiah
"God would hereafter liberate the Israelites from the under world,
on account of the merit of circumcision"24 Schoettgen quotes this
statement from the Sohar: "Messia shall die, and shall remain in
the state of death a time, and shall rise."25 The so called Fourth
Book of Ezra says, in the seventh chapter, "My son, the Christ,
shall die: then follow the resurrection and the judgment."
Although it is clear, from various other sources, as well as from
the account in John xii. 34, that there was a prevalent
expectation among the Jews that "the Messiah would abide forever,"
it also seems quite certain that there were at the same time at
least obscure presentiments, based on prophecies and traditions,
that he must die, that an important part of his mission was
connected with his death. This appears from such passages as we
have cited above, found in early Rabbinical writers, who would
certainly be very unlikely to borrow and adapt a new idea of such
a character from the Christians; and from the manner in which
Jesus assumes his death to be a part of the Messianic fate and
interprets the Scriptures as necessarily pointing to that effect.
He charges his disciples with being "fools and blind" in not so
understanding the doctrine; thus seeming to imply that it was
plainly known to some. But this question the origin of the idea of
a suffering, atoning, dying Messiah is confessedly a very nice and
obscure one. The evidence, the silence, the inferences, the
presumptions and doubts on the subject are such, that some of the
most thorough and impartial students say they are unable to decide
either way.
However the foregoing question be decided, it is admitted by all
that the Jews earnestly looked for a resurrection of the dead as
an accompaniment of the Messiah's coming. Whether Christ was to go
down into the under world, or to sit enthroned on Mount Zion, in
either case the dead should come up and live again on earth at the
blast of his summoning trumpet. Rabbi Jeremiah commanded, "When
you bury me, put shoes on my feet, and give me a staff in my hand,
and lay me on one side, that when the Messiah comes I may be
ready."26 Most of the Rabbins made this resurrection partial.
"Whoever denies the resurrection of the dead shall have no part in
it, for the very reason that he denies it."27 "Rabbi Abbu says, "A
day of rain is greater than the resurrection of the dead; because
the rain is for all, while the resurrection is only for the
just."28 "Sodom and Gomorrah shall not rise in the resurrection of
the dead."29 Rabbi Chebbo says, "The patriarchs so vehemently
desired to be buried in
21 Schoettgen, De Messia, lib. vi. cap. v. sect. 1.
22 Eisenmenger, th. ii. ss. 343, 364.
23 Geschichte Urchrist. kap. viii. s. 184.
24 Christologia Judaorum Jesu Apostolorumque Atate, sect. 34, (De
Descensu Messia ad Inferos.)
25 De Messia, lib. vi. cap. v. sect. 2.
26 Lightfoot, in Matt. xxvii. 52.
27 Witsius, Dissertatio de Seculo, etc. sect. 9.
28 Nov. Test. Illustratum, etc. a Meuschen, p. 62.
29 Schoettgen, in Johan. vi. 39.
the land of Israel, because those who are dead in that land shall
be the first to revive and shall devour his years, [the years of
the Messiah.] But for those just who are interred beyond the holy
land, it is to be understood that God will make a passage in the
earth, through which they will be rolled until they reach the land
of Israel."30 Rabbi Jochanan says, "Moses died out of the holy
land, in order to show that in the same way that God will raise up
Moses, so he will raise all those who observe his law." The
national bigotry of the Jews reaches a pitch of extravagance in
some of their views that is amusing. For instance, they declare
that "one Israelitish soul is dearer and more important to God
than all the souls of a whole nation of the Gentiles!" Again, they
say, "When God judges the Israelites, he will stand, and make the
judgment brief and mild; when he judges the Gentiles, he will sit,
and make it long and severe!" They affirm that the resurrection
will be effected by means of a dew; and they quote to that effect
this verse from Canticles: "I sleep, but my heart waketh; my head
is filled with dew, and my locks with drops of the night." Some
assert that "the resurrection will be immediately caused by God,
who never gives to any one the three keys of birth, rain, and the
resurrection of the dead." Others say that the power to raise and
judge the dead will be delegated to the Messiah, and even go so
far as to assert that the trumpet whose formidable blasts will
then shake the universe is to be one of the horns of that ram
which Abraham offered up instead of his son Isaac! Some confine
the resurrection to faithful Jews, some extend it to the whole
Jewish nation, some think all the righteous of the earth will have
part in it, and some stretch its pale around all mankind alike.31
They seem to agree that the reprobate would either be left in the
wretched regions of Sheol when the just arose, or else be thrust
back after the judgment, to remain there forever. It was believed
that the righteous after their resurrection would never die again,
but ascend to heaven. The Jews after a time, when the increase of
geographical knowledge had annihilated from the earth their old
Eden whence the sinful Adam was expelled, changed its location
into the sky. Thither, as the later fables ran, Elijah was borne
in his chariot of fire by the horses thereof. Rabbi Pinchas says,
"Carefulness leads us to innocence, innocence to purity, purity to
sanctity, sanctity to humility, humility to fear of sins, fear of
sins to piety, piety to the holy spirit, the holy spirit to the
resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of the dead to the
prophet Elias."32 The writings of the early Christian Fathers
contain many allusions to this blessed habitation of saints above
the clouds. It is illustrated in the following quaint Rabbinical
narrative. Rabbi Jehosha ben Levi once besought the angel of death
to take him up, ere he died, to catch a glimpse of Paradise.
Standing on the wall, he suddenly snatched the angel's sword and
sprang over, swearing by Almighty God that he would not come out.
Death was not allowed to enter Paradise, and the son of Levi did
not restore his sword until he had promised to be more gentle
towards the dying.33 The righteous were never to return to the
dust, but "at the end
30 Schoettgen, De Messia, lib. vi. cap. vi. sect. 27.
31 See an able dissertation on Jewish Notions of the Resurrection
of the Dead, prefixed to Humphrey's Translation of Athenagoras on
the Resurrection.
32 Surenhusius, Mischna, pars tertia, p. 309.
33 Schroder, s. 419.
of the thousand years," the duration of the Messiah's earthly
reign, "when the Lord is lifted up, God shall fit wings to the
just, like the wings of eagles."34 In a word, the Messiah and his
redeemed ones would ascend into heaven to the right hand of God.
So Paul, who said, "I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee,"
declares that when the dead have risen "we shall be caught up in
the clouds to be forever with the Lord."
We forbear to notice a thousand curious details of speculation and
fancy in which individual Rabbins indulged; for instance, their
common notion concerning the bone luz, the single bone which,
withstanding dissolution, shall form the nucleus of the
resurrection body. It was a prevalent belief with them that the
resurrection would take place in the valley of Jehoshaphat, in
proof of which they quote this text from Joel: "Let the heathen be
wakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I
sit to judge the nations around." To this day, wherever scattered
abroad, faithful Jews cling to the expectation of the Messiah's
coming, and associate with his day the resurrection of the dead.35
The statement in the Song of Solomon, "The king is held in the
galleries," means, says a Rabbinical book, "that the Messiah is
detained in Paradise, fettered by a woman's hair!" Every day,
throughout the world, every consistent Israelite repeats the words
of Moses Maimonides, the peerless Rabbi, of whom it is a proverb
that "from Moses to Moses there arose not a Moses:" "I believe
with a perfect faith that the Messiah will come, and though he
delays, nevertheless, I will always expect him till he come." Then
shall glory cover the living, and the risen, children of Israel,
and confusion fall on their Gentile foes. In almost every inch of
the beautiful valley of Jehoshaphat a Jew has been buried. All
over the slopes of the hill sides around lie the thick clustering
sepulchral slabs, showing how eagerly the chosen people seek to
sleep in the very spot where the first rising of the dead shall
be. Entranced and mute,
"In old Jehoshaphat's valley, they
Of Israel think the assembled world
Will stand upon that awful day,
When the Ark's light, aloft unfurl'd,
Among the opening clouds shall shine,
Divinity's own radiant shrine."
Any one familiar with the Persian theology36 will at once notice a
striking resemblance between many of its dogmas and those, first,
of Pharisaism, secondly, of the popular Christianity. Some
examination of this subject properly belongs here. There is, then,
as is well known, a circle or group of ideas, particularly
pertaining to eschatology, which appear in the later Jewish
writings, and remarkably correspond to those held by the Parsees,
the followers of Zoroaster. The same notions also reappear in the
early Christianity as popularly understood. We will specify some
of these correspondences. The doctrine of angels, received by the
Jews, their names, offices, rank, and destiny, was borrowed and
formed
34 Schoettgen, de Messia, lib. vi. cap. vi. sect. 23; cap. vii.
ss. 3, 4.
35 John Allen, Modern Judaism, ch. vi. and xv.
36 See Abriss der Religion Zoroasters nach den Zendbuchern, von
Abbe Foucher, in Kleuker's Zend Avesta, band i. zweit anhang, ss.
328-342.
by them during and just after the Babylonish captivity, and is
much like that which they found among their enslavers.37 The
guardian angels appointed over nations, spoken of by Daniel, are
Persian. The angels called in the Apocalypse "the seven spirits of
God sent forth into all the earth," in Zechariah "the seven eyes
of God which run to and fro through all the earth," are the
Amschaspands of the Persian faith. The wars of the angels are
described as minutely by the old Persians as by Milton. The Zend
Avesta pictures Ahriman pregnant with Death, (die alte
hollenschlange, todschwangere Ahriman,) as Milton describes the
womb of Sin bearing that fatal monster. The Gahs, or second order
of angels, the Persians supposed,38 were employed in preparing
clothing and laying it up in heaven to clothe the righteous after
the resurrection, a fancy frequent among the Rabbins and
repeatedly alluded to in the New Testament. With both the Persians
and the Jews, all our race both sexes sprang from one original
man. With both, the first pair were seduced and ruined by means of
fruit which the devil gave to them. With both, there was a belief
in demoniacal possessions, devils or bad spirits entering human
bodies. With both, there was the expectation of a great
Deliverer, the Persian Sosiosch, the Jewish Messiah, whose coming
would be preceded by fearful woes, who would triumph over all
evil, raise the dead, judge the world, separate the righteous and
the wicked, purge the earth with fire, and install a reign of
glorious blessedness.39 "The conception of an under world," says
Dr. Roth, "was known centuries before Zoroaster; but probably he
was the first to add to the old belief the idea that the under
world was a place of purification, wherein souls were purged from
all traces of sin."40 Of this belief in a subterranean purgatory
there are numerous unmistakable evidences and examples in the
Rabbinical writings.41
These notions and others the Pharisees early adopted, and wrought
into the texture of what they called the "Oral Law," that body of
verbally transmitted legends, precepts, and dogmas, afterwards
written out and collected in the Mischna, to which Christ
repeatedly alluded with such severity, saying, "Ye by your
traditions make the commandments of God of none effect." To some
doctrines of kindred character and origin with these Paul refers
when he warns his readers against "the worshipping of angels,"
"endless genealogies," "philosophy falsely so called," and various
besetting heresies of the time. But others were so woven and
assimilated into the substance of the popular Judaism of the age,
as inculcated by the Rabbins, that Paul himself held them, the
lingering vestiges of his earnest Pharisaic education and
organized experience. They naturally found their way into the
Apostolic Church, principally composed of Ebionites, Christians
who had been Jews; and from it they were never separated, but have
come to us in seeming orthodox garb, and are generally
37 Schroder, p. 385.
38 Yacna, Ha 411. Kleuker, zweit. auf. s. 198.
39 Die Heiligen Schriften der Parsen, von Dr. F. Spiegel, kap. ii.
ss. 32-37. Studien and Kritiken, 1885, band i., "Ist die Lehre von
der Anferstehung des Leibes nicht ein alt Persische Lehre?" F.
Nork, Mythen der Alten Perser als Quellen Christlicher
Glaubenslehren und Ritualien.
40 Die Zoroastrischen Glaubenslehre, von Dr. Eduard Roth. s. 450.
41 See, In tom. i. Kabbala Denudata, Synopsis Dogmatum Libri Sohar
pp. 108, 109, 113.
retained now. Still, they were errors. They are incredible to the
thinking minds of to day. It is best to get rid of them by the
truth, that they are pagan growths introduced into Christianity,
but to be discriminated from it. By removing these antiquated and
incredible excrescences from the real religion of Christ, we shall
save the essential faith from the suspicion which their
association with it, their fancied identity with it, invites and
provokes.
The correspondences between the Persian and the Pharisaic faith,
in regard to doctrines, are of too arbitrary and peculiar a
character to allow us for a moment to suppose them to have been an
independent product spontaneously developed in the two nations;
though even in that case the doctrines in question have no
sanction of authority, not being Mosaic nor Prophetic, but only
Rabbinical. One must have received from the other. Which was the
bestower and which the recipient is quite plain.42 There is not a
whit of evidence to show, but, on the contrary, ample presumption
to disprove, that a certain cycle of notions were known among the
Jews previous to a period of most intimate and constant
intercourse between them and the Persians. But before that period
those notions were an integral part of the Persian theology. Even
Prideaux admits that the first Zoroaster lived and Magianism
flourished at least a thousand years before Christ. And the dogmas
we refer to are fundamental features of the religion. These dogmas
of the Persians, not derived from the Old Testament nor known
among the Jews before the captivity, soon after that time began to
show themselves in their literature, and before the opening of the
New Testament were prominent elements of the Pharisaic belief. The
inference is unavoidable that the confluence of Persian thought
and feeling with Hebrew thought and feeling, joined with the
materials and flowing in the channels of the subsequent experience
of the Jews, formed a mingled deposit about the age of Christ,
which deposit was Pharisaism. Again: the doctrines common to
Zoroastrianism and Pharisaism in the former seem to be prime
sources, in the latter to be late products. In the former, they
compose an organic, complete, inseparable system; in the latter,
they are disconnected, mixed piecemeal, and, to a considerable
extent, historically traceable to an origin beyond the native,
national mind. It is a significant fact that the abnormal symbolic
beasts described by several of the Jewish prophets, and in the
Apocalypse, were borrowed from Persian art. Sculptures
representing these have been brought to light by the recent
researches at Persepolis. Finally, all early ecclesiastical
history incontestably shows that Persian dogmas exerted on the
Christianity of the first centuries an enormous influence, a
pervasive and perverting power unspent yet, and which it is one of
the highest tasks of honest and laborious Christian students in
the present day to explain, define, and separate. What was that
Manichaanism which nearly filled Christendom for a hundred years,
what was it, in great part, but an influx of tradition,
speculation, imagination, and sentiment, from Persia? The Gnostic
Christians even had a scripture called "Zoroaster's Apocalypse."43
"The wise men from the east," who knelt before the infant Christ,
"and opened their treasures, and gave him gifts, gold,
frankincense, and myrrh," were Persian Magi. We may imaginatively
regard that sacred scene as an emblematical figure of the far
different tributes which
42 Lucke, Einleitung in die Offenbarung des Johannes, kap. 2,
sect. 8.
43 Kleuker, Zend Avesta, band ii. anhang i. s. 12.
a little later came from their country to his religion, the
unfortunate contributions that permeated and corrupted so much of
the form in which it thenceforth appeared and spread. In the pure
gospel's pristine day, ere it had hardened into theological dogmas
or become encumbered with speculations and comments, from the lips
of God's Anointed Son repeatedly fell the earnest warning, "Beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees." There is far more need to have
this warning intelligently heeded now, coming with redoubled
emphasis from the Master's own mouth, "Beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees." For, as the gospel is now generally set forth and
received, that leaven has leavened well nigh the whole lump of it.