Etcetera
February 25th 2003, 03:37 PM
1.
The purpose of this post is to present the general Jewish expectation of the revolution of the ages. I submit that the Jews, from the days of the second temple until the time of the rabbis who compiled the Talmud, believed in the following three propositions.
1. This age will come to an end.
2. The age to come will not. It is everlasting.
3. There is a resurrection of the dead that will take place at the changeover between this age and the next.
As you read along you will no doubt notice many parallels to the wording of certain passages in the New Testament. I hope to explore some of them in another post.
1 Enoch was written well before the days of Christ:
1 Enoch 16:1-2: From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants, from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgment, thus shall they destroy until the day of the consummation, the great judgment in which the age shall be consummated, yea, over the watchers and the godless shall be wholly consummated.
1 Enoch 71:14-16: And he said unto me: “He proclaims unto you peace in the name of the age to come, for from hence has proceeded peace since the creation of the world, and so shall it be unto you for ever and for ever and ever. And all shall walk in his ways since righteousness never forsakes him. With him will be their dwelling places, and with him their heritage, and they shall not be separated from him for ever and ever and ever. And so there shall be length of days with that son of man, and the righteous shall have peace and an upright way in the name of the Lord of spirits for ever and ever.”
The first passage speaks of a complete consummation at the end of the age. The second passage speaks of peace in the name of the age to come, then insists that the righteous will have peace forever and ever. Clearly, the peaceful days of the age to come are to go on forever. The age to come is conceived of as everlasting.
The life of Adam and Eve was written sometime in the first century B. C. or first century A. D., but definitely before the destruction of the temple in 70:
Life of Adam and Eve 51:1-3: When they had been mourning four days, Michael the archangel appeared and said to Seth: “Man of God, mourn not for your dead more than six days, for on the seventh day is the sign of the resurrection and the rest of the age to come; on the seventh day the Lord rested from all his works.”
Notice that the resurrection precedes the age to come, and that the age to come is characterized by rest, symbolized by the sabbath. The age to come is the age of the resurrected dead. It is eternity.
4 Ezra was written not too long after 70:
4 Ezra 2:34ff: Therefore I say to you, O nations that hear and understand: “Await your shepherd; he will give you everlasting rest, because he who will come at the end of the age is close at hand. Be ready for the rewards of the kingdom, because the eternal light will shine upon you for evermore. Flee from the shadow of this age, receive the joy of your glory; I publicly call on my savior to witness. Receive what the Lord has entrusted to you and be joyful, giving thanks to him who has called you to heavenly kingdoms.”
This passage associates the beginning (“he will give you”) of everlasting rest with the end of this age.
Josephus wrote in the 90’s of our era:
Josephus, War of the Jews, book 3, chapter 8: Do not you know that those who depart out of this life according to the law of nature, and pay that debt which was received from God, when he that lent it us is pleased to require it back again, enjoy eternal fame? That their houses and their posterity are sure, that their souls are pure and obedient and obtain a most holy place in heaven, from whence, in the revolution of ages, they are again sent into pure bodies?
At the revolution of the ages the righteous will be resurrected. One very fine scholar has this to say about this very passage:
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, page 324: [Josephus, War of the Jews, book 3, chapter 8] is as clear a statement of one mainline Jewish view as we could wish for. The righteous dead are presently in ‘heaven’, the domain of the creator god; but there is coming a new age,ha-‘olam ha-ba’ [literally, the coming age], in which the creation will be (not abolished, but) renewed; and the righteous dead will be given new bodies, precisely in order that they may inhabit the renewed earth.
The Talmud was written long after Christ. However, it consciously represents traditions that are much, much older. Much light has been shed on the words and deeds of Jesus and the apostles by this invaluable resource. I myself tend to treat it in this manner: Isolated traditions that are confirmed neither by the rest of the Talmud nor by the New Testament record are probably late. But traditions to which all the rabbi contributors seem to subscribe throughout the Talmud are probably early.
The fact that the age to come was supposed to be everlasting is one of the latter traditions. I myself have not read the entire Talmud. But I have searched out as many references to the age to come as I can, and they all seem to agree that it is everlasting. I have not yet found a dissenting voice.
Below are also some references to the Targums.
The age to come is the age of eternal rewards:
Aboth de Rabbi Nathan: Rabbi Judah ben Elai said: “One who makes the words of the torah primary and other matters secondary will be made primary in the age to come. But one who makes the way of the world primary and the words of the torah secondary will be made secondary in the age to come.”
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a: Rabbi Joshua ben Levi met Elijah standing at the door of Rabbi Simeon ben Yo‘hai’s tomb. He said to him: “Will I inherit the age to come?” [Elijah] said: “If the Lord here [adon hazeh] is willing!” ...then he said to [Elijah]: “When will the messiah come?” Elijah said to him: “Go ask him yourself!” ....[Joshua] came back to Elijah, who said to him...: “He promised you and your father the age to come!”
Midrash, Bereshith Rabba 62.2: All the reward intended for the righteous is ready for them in the age to come; and, while they are still in this age, the holy one (blessed be he!) lets them see the reward that he is prepared to give them in the age to come. And their souls are satisfied, and they fall asleep.
Mishna, Aboth 3.12: Rabbi Eleazar of Modi’im said: He who profanes holy things and spurns the set times, he who exposes his colleague in public, he who voids the covenant of our father Abraham, he who discovers parts of the torah contradicting halakah, he has no share in the age to come, even if he has a grasp of torah and good deeds.
Targum, [pseudo-] Jonathan on Genesis 3:24: The torah is better than the fruit of the tree of life to one who observes it and walks in the paths of the way of life. For the word of Yahweh prepared it for man to keep so that he may settle in the age to come.
The age to come is everlasting:
Targum, [pseudo-] Jonathan on Exodus 15:18: When the people of the house of Israel saw the signs and wonders which the Holy One (may his name be praised!) did at the Red Sea and the power of his hand between the waves, they responded and said to one another: “Come! Let us put the crown of majesty on the head of our redeemer! For his is the crown of the kingdom! He is the king of kings in this age and his is the kingdom for the age to come! His it is and his it shall be forever and ever!”
Notice the parallelism of that last line:
1A. He is the king of kings in this age....
1B. ...and his is the kingdom for the age to come.
2A. His it is ....
2B. ...and his it shall be [in the future] forever and ever.
The kingdom for the age to come is thus parallel to the kingdom that will belong to God forever and ever. The age to come is everlasting.
The age to come is the time of the great eschatological banquet:
Midrash, Shemoth Rabba 25.7: Likewise, in the age to come he will spread a table for them, and they will recline and eat in the garden of Eden. And the star-worshippers shall see their customs and laws, as it says: “See, my servants shall eat and you shall hunger!”
Berakoth 17a: A familiar word in the mouth of Rab: “In the age to come there is no eating and drinking, no propagating or multiplying, no bearing or giving birth, no envy, no hatred, no strife. But the righteous rest, wearing crowns on their heads, and share in the glory of the [I]shekinah, of which it is said: ‘And they saw God and ate and drank.’”
If anyone reading this post can find or has already found a Jewish text that discusses eschatological history in terms of, for instance, three ages or what-not, please let me know. I have been researching the two ages for a few months now, and would really like to know that I am sifting all the available data.
Nota bene: I have concentrated in this post only on those passages that actually mention an end of the age or an age to come. There are many, many more passages that are most intelligible on the premise that there are only two ages, but do not actually use that terminology.
I conclude this post with a few words from historical Jesus scholar N. T. Wright:
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, pages 299-300: One of the central ways of expressing this hope [of Israel] was the division of time into two eras: the present age and the age to come. The present age was a time when the creator god seemed to be hiding his face; the age to come would see the renewal of the created world. The present age was the time of Israel’s misery; in the age to come she would be restored. In the present age wicked men seemed to be flourishing; in the age to come they would receive their just reward. In the present age even Israel was not really keeping the Torah perfectly, was not really being YHWH’s true humanity; in the age to come all Israel would keep Torah from the heart.
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, pages 331-332: Resurrection is the divine reward for martyrs; it is what will happen after the great tribulation. But it is not simply a special reward for those who have undergone special sufferings. Rather, the eschatological expectation of most Jews of this period was for a renewal, not an abandonment, of the present space-time order as a whole, and themselves within it. Since this was based on the justice and mercy of the creator god, the god of Israel, it was inconceivable that those who had died in the struggle to bring the new world into being should be left out of the blessing when it eventually broke upon the nation and thence on the world.... To write this seems almost uncontroversial as a historical summary of Jewish belief. Dozens of texts of the period point this way; we are on absolutely firm ground.
For your informed consideration.
Etcetera.
:read:
The purpose of this post is to present the general Jewish expectation of the revolution of the ages. I submit that the Jews, from the days of the second temple until the time of the rabbis who compiled the Talmud, believed in the following three propositions.
1. This age will come to an end.
2. The age to come will not. It is everlasting.
3. There is a resurrection of the dead that will take place at the changeover between this age and the next.
As you read along you will no doubt notice many parallels to the wording of certain passages in the New Testament. I hope to explore some of them in another post.
1 Enoch was written well before the days of Christ:
1 Enoch 16:1-2: From the days of the slaughter and destruction and death of the giants, from the souls of whose flesh the spirits, having gone forth, shall destroy without incurring judgment, thus shall they destroy until the day of the consummation, the great judgment in which the age shall be consummated, yea, over the watchers and the godless shall be wholly consummated.
1 Enoch 71:14-16: And he said unto me: “He proclaims unto you peace in the name of the age to come, for from hence has proceeded peace since the creation of the world, and so shall it be unto you for ever and for ever and ever. And all shall walk in his ways since righteousness never forsakes him. With him will be their dwelling places, and with him their heritage, and they shall not be separated from him for ever and ever and ever. And so there shall be length of days with that son of man, and the righteous shall have peace and an upright way in the name of the Lord of spirits for ever and ever.”
The first passage speaks of a complete consummation at the end of the age. The second passage speaks of peace in the name of the age to come, then insists that the righteous will have peace forever and ever. Clearly, the peaceful days of the age to come are to go on forever. The age to come is conceived of as everlasting.
The life of Adam and Eve was written sometime in the first century B. C. or first century A. D., but definitely before the destruction of the temple in 70:
Life of Adam and Eve 51:1-3: When they had been mourning four days, Michael the archangel appeared and said to Seth: “Man of God, mourn not for your dead more than six days, for on the seventh day is the sign of the resurrection and the rest of the age to come; on the seventh day the Lord rested from all his works.”
Notice that the resurrection precedes the age to come, and that the age to come is characterized by rest, symbolized by the sabbath. The age to come is the age of the resurrected dead. It is eternity.
4 Ezra was written not too long after 70:
4 Ezra 2:34ff: Therefore I say to you, O nations that hear and understand: “Await your shepherd; he will give you everlasting rest, because he who will come at the end of the age is close at hand. Be ready for the rewards of the kingdom, because the eternal light will shine upon you for evermore. Flee from the shadow of this age, receive the joy of your glory; I publicly call on my savior to witness. Receive what the Lord has entrusted to you and be joyful, giving thanks to him who has called you to heavenly kingdoms.”
This passage associates the beginning (“he will give you”) of everlasting rest with the end of this age.
Josephus wrote in the 90’s of our era:
Josephus, War of the Jews, book 3, chapter 8: Do not you know that those who depart out of this life according to the law of nature, and pay that debt which was received from God, when he that lent it us is pleased to require it back again, enjoy eternal fame? That their houses and their posterity are sure, that their souls are pure and obedient and obtain a most holy place in heaven, from whence, in the revolution of ages, they are again sent into pure bodies?
At the revolution of the ages the righteous will be resurrected. One very fine scholar has this to say about this very passage:
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, page 324: [Josephus, War of the Jews, book 3, chapter 8] is as clear a statement of one mainline Jewish view as we could wish for. The righteous dead are presently in ‘heaven’, the domain of the creator god; but there is coming a new age,ha-‘olam ha-ba’ [literally, the coming age], in which the creation will be (not abolished, but) renewed; and the righteous dead will be given new bodies, precisely in order that they may inhabit the renewed earth.
The Talmud was written long after Christ. However, it consciously represents traditions that are much, much older. Much light has been shed on the words and deeds of Jesus and the apostles by this invaluable resource. I myself tend to treat it in this manner: Isolated traditions that are confirmed neither by the rest of the Talmud nor by the New Testament record are probably late. But traditions to which all the rabbi contributors seem to subscribe throughout the Talmud are probably early.
The fact that the age to come was supposed to be everlasting is one of the latter traditions. I myself have not read the entire Talmud. But I have searched out as many references to the age to come as I can, and they all seem to agree that it is everlasting. I have not yet found a dissenting voice.
Below are also some references to the Targums.
The age to come is the age of eternal rewards:
Aboth de Rabbi Nathan: Rabbi Judah ben Elai said: “One who makes the words of the torah primary and other matters secondary will be made primary in the age to come. But one who makes the way of the world primary and the words of the torah secondary will be made secondary in the age to come.”
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a: Rabbi Joshua ben Levi met Elijah standing at the door of Rabbi Simeon ben Yo‘hai’s tomb. He said to him: “Will I inherit the age to come?” [Elijah] said: “If the Lord here [adon hazeh] is willing!” ...then he said to [Elijah]: “When will the messiah come?” Elijah said to him: “Go ask him yourself!” ....[Joshua] came back to Elijah, who said to him...: “He promised you and your father the age to come!”
Midrash, Bereshith Rabba 62.2: All the reward intended for the righteous is ready for them in the age to come; and, while they are still in this age, the holy one (blessed be he!) lets them see the reward that he is prepared to give them in the age to come. And their souls are satisfied, and they fall asleep.
Mishna, Aboth 3.12: Rabbi Eleazar of Modi’im said: He who profanes holy things and spurns the set times, he who exposes his colleague in public, he who voids the covenant of our father Abraham, he who discovers parts of the torah contradicting halakah, he has no share in the age to come, even if he has a grasp of torah and good deeds.
Targum, [pseudo-] Jonathan on Genesis 3:24: The torah is better than the fruit of the tree of life to one who observes it and walks in the paths of the way of life. For the word of Yahweh prepared it for man to keep so that he may settle in the age to come.
The age to come is everlasting:
Targum, [pseudo-] Jonathan on Exodus 15:18: When the people of the house of Israel saw the signs and wonders which the Holy One (may his name be praised!) did at the Red Sea and the power of his hand between the waves, they responded and said to one another: “Come! Let us put the crown of majesty on the head of our redeemer! For his is the crown of the kingdom! He is the king of kings in this age and his is the kingdom for the age to come! His it is and his it shall be forever and ever!”
Notice the parallelism of that last line:
1A. He is the king of kings in this age....
1B. ...and his is the kingdom for the age to come.
2A. His it is ....
2B. ...and his it shall be [in the future] forever and ever.
The kingdom for the age to come is thus parallel to the kingdom that will belong to God forever and ever. The age to come is everlasting.
The age to come is the time of the great eschatological banquet:
Midrash, Shemoth Rabba 25.7: Likewise, in the age to come he will spread a table for them, and they will recline and eat in the garden of Eden. And the star-worshippers shall see their customs and laws, as it says: “See, my servants shall eat and you shall hunger!”
Berakoth 17a: A familiar word in the mouth of Rab: “In the age to come there is no eating and drinking, no propagating or multiplying, no bearing or giving birth, no envy, no hatred, no strife. But the righteous rest, wearing crowns on their heads, and share in the glory of the [I]shekinah, of which it is said: ‘And they saw God and ate and drank.’”
If anyone reading this post can find or has already found a Jewish text that discusses eschatological history in terms of, for instance, three ages or what-not, please let me know. I have been researching the two ages for a few months now, and would really like to know that I am sifting all the available data.
Nota bene: I have concentrated in this post only on those passages that actually mention an end of the age or an age to come. There are many, many more passages that are most intelligible on the premise that there are only two ages, but do not actually use that terminology.
I conclude this post with a few words from historical Jesus scholar N. T. Wright:
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, pages 299-300: One of the central ways of expressing this hope [of Israel] was the division of time into two eras: the present age and the age to come. The present age was a time when the creator god seemed to be hiding his face; the age to come would see the renewal of the created world. The present age was the time of Israel’s misery; in the age to come she would be restored. In the present age wicked men seemed to be flourishing; in the age to come they would receive their just reward. In the present age even Israel was not really keeping the Torah perfectly, was not really being YHWH’s true humanity; in the age to come all Israel would keep Torah from the heart.
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, pages 331-332: Resurrection is the divine reward for martyrs; it is what will happen after the great tribulation. But it is not simply a special reward for those who have undergone special sufferings. Rather, the eschatological expectation of most Jews of this period was for a renewal, not an abandonment, of the present space-time order as a whole, and themselves within it. Since this was based on the justice and mercy of the creator god, the god of Israel, it was inconceivable that those who had died in the struggle to bring the new world into being should be left out of the blessing when it eventually broke upon the nation and thence on the world.... To write this seems almost uncontroversial as a historical summary of Jewish belief. Dozens of texts of the period point this way; we are on absolutely firm ground.
For your informed consideration.
Etcetera.
:read: