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may be more reasonably held to have its true historical connection in document MK 10:31.

§14. THE PASSING AWAY OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

DOCUMENT P 851

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the law to fall.

This saying seems to be the assertion, in the strongest terms, of the abiding validity of those moral and religious demands which are given expression in the Old Testament law. As a figure for those things which are stable beyond all tremor or removal, heaven and earth, the whole visible universe, is chosen. Men and their works may come and go, but heaven and earth remain unchanged and unchangeable. So is it with the law. Not one tittle of it shall fall. To think that it will fall is to conceive of an event less credible even than the suggestion that heaven and earth may pass away.

The same saying is preserved in another form by

DOCUMENT M 83

Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.

The repeated "Till . . . . till” in this report gives rise to a question. Apparently both are not needed for the sense. Indeed, the use of both obscures the sense, obtainable if either alone is used. Thus the meaning is complete and intelligible if the saying be supposed to have been delivered in this form:

Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law.

The same is true if the form as it came from Jesus was:

The

One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law till all things be accomplished. There are two distinct ideas united in the verse as it stands. one sets the time limit for restraint through law as reached when "all things be accomplished." The other sets no time limit, but simply affirms that it is easier to conceive of the stable universe as going into dissolution than to believe that the law will become abrogated. Which of these is the more precise report of the thought of Jesus seems already unquestionably indicated by the document P report of the same saying. Placed in parallelism after the proposed reduction of the Matthaean record, they stand:

DOCUMEHT M 83

Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law.

DOCUMENT P 851

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the law to fall.

The accretion "till all things be accomplished" seems to be the expression of an expectation of some consummation to be reached ere long, a thought elsewhere summed up in the Matthaean phrase "the consummation of the aeon." It supposes that the present is a critical time, an era of transition, a time of the ripening of events, of the fruition of all history.

The placing of the phrase "till all things be accomplished" in conjunction with the more nearly original phrase "Till heaven and earth pass away" shows that the accomplishment of all things was taken to include the phenomena of the passing away of heaven and earth. Indeed, the turn given to the Matthaean report, by which Jesus' original words "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away" lost their character of incredulity toward such an event, and took on an almost prophetic cast in the form, "Till heaven and earth pass away," shows that the passing away of heaven and earth stood for the Matthaean circle as a part of the programme in the accomplishment of "all things." The original meaning of Jesus is too obvious, however, to be obscured even by the Matthaean modification and addition. The purpose of Jesus was clearly to show the inviolability of the law by pronouncing its demands to be even less liable to annulment than is the universe to ultimate dissolution.

The tendency which has been at work for the remolding and enlarging of the Matthaean report of this saying is seen apparently with greater influence in a saying credited to Jesus, by which he is made to affirm the passing away of heaven and earth, and to pronounce one thing as more stable than even that universe to the permanency of which he formerly made appeal in grounding the eternal validity of the law:

DOCUMENT MK 13:31

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

Here Jesus is represented as asserting that his words are more permanent than the universe of nature, which universe he is elsewhere reported to have chosen as the symbol of that which is abiding beyond all else. That which he treats in document P§51 as so improbable that its suggestion forms the foundation for the firmer basing of Old Testament moral law he is here reported as asserting to be one of the commonplaces of expectation-"Heaven and earth shall pass away."

It is to be asked how far the particular form of words here attributed to Jesus about the future of the heaven and the earth is the product rather of that mode of thought about the future which gave origin to the programme in

II PETER 3:10-13

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

In the light of the above facts, it seems reasonable to raise the question whether the saying of Jesus in document MK ought not to be conformed to that mode of view which similar thoughts in documents P and M show. If so, it would stand thus:

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for my words to pass away.

$15. THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN There have been brought under review in preceding studies all of the references, in the Synoptic Gospels, credited to Jesus concerning the state of men after death, except those contained in one parable. Before considering the thoughts on that subject which are presented by the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, there may profitably be called to mind the results of study in all other passages: If the gospel LK additions to the document MK record of the crucifixion are regarded as trustworthy, Jesus spoke once in his career of the “spirit (πveûμa)” as something persistent after the death of the body, that is, at least his own "spirit (πveûμa)." He did not explicitly so speak of the "soul (vxn)," but did use terms about the "soul (vxn)" which indicate that he did not think of it as static but as potential, as capable both of self-destruction and of self-realization." The word "life (Son)" with future content appears seldom in Jesus' sayings, either alone or in the phrase "eternal life," the most certain and notable instance being in document M §13-"For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life (Con), and few be they that find it." If document MK 10:29, 30 reports the precise phraseology of Jesus, he distinguished on one occasion, in a large untechnical way, between "now in this time (kaιpós)" and "the age I See pp. 269, 270. 3 See pp. 270-72.

2 See pp. 267-69.

(alov) to come."

Though other passages in which appears the notion of the Two Aeons and of "the consummation of the aeon" seem not to be from him, he did speak of the resurrection in terms which put beyond doubt that he believed that death does not necessarily end the career of a man, that men may persist beyond "now in this time," that in "the age to come" they will be "as angels in heaven." Certainty about his thought as to the extent of the resurrection, that is, whether it is inclusive of all men, may not be attained from his words.

Perhaps his conception of the fate of the unrighteous is suggested by the single passage where he employs antithesis-"Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby."3 It appears that he is not portraying the future life of the wicked in his references to Gehenna, but is talking of the present and near future of the body; he would have men avoid those courses of conduct that lead to a fate like condemnation to the valley of Hinnom.4 It seems that it is to others, not to Jesus, that we must trace those apparent accretions in the gospels where the future is conceived under the form of Fire and Torment.5 Hades (adns) is used by Jesus as a synonym for nethermost; and "the gates of Hades" appears in one passage as a mode of conveying the idea of persistent and malignant opposition. It is not spoken of as an abode for the departed spirits. If one presses the inquiry as to the abode or mode of life of those who "when they shall rise from the dead . . . are as angels in heaven," it has to be answered that Jesus did not impart information with precision on that theme. He spoke in general of "the eternal tabernacles," and in the opening of the Sermon on the Mount used other vague but suggestive figures about the future. Apparently he did not speak, even in a vague and figurative way, of "Heaven" as the abode of the blessed. The references to his own future in "Paradise" or in "glory" seem exceedingly difficult historically to sustain as from him.10 Apparently we must rest content with the clear and strong conviction and assertion X

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of Jesus that there is a resurrection, and that those who deny that fact "know not the scriptures nor the power of God."

Our search for precision and definition in statement about the future condition of the righteous as conceived by Jesus probably deserves the rebuke given by him to the men of his day and circle when he was endeavoring to sketch in the large a conception of the Day of the Son of man which should neutralize the future influence upon his disciples of current Zealot fanaticism:

In that night there shall be two men on one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
There shall be two women grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
And they answering say, Where, Lord?

And he said unto them, Where the body is, thither will the vultures also be gathered together.

That which is lacking of definiteness in the whole body of other utterances from Jesus on the future state of wicked and righteous seems fully supplied by the content of the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man:

DOCUMENT P $53

Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day: and a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; yea, even the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us. And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house; for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham saith, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one go to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead.

This parable presents a complete outline of life beyond death. Its elements seem to be the following:

1. At death the unrighteous simply are buried. But the righteous are carried away by the angels into the place of bliss.

2. The place of abode after death for both sinner and righteous one is Hades. But Hades has positions separated widely and differing vastly from one another. To the blissful portion, the righteous are assigned; elsewhere abide the unrighteous.

3. Righteous and unrighteous are within sight of one another; may converse with one another; but it is beyond possibility for the one to cross over to the other from either location.

4. To the one, the state of Hades is comfort; to the other, it is anguish. For the sinner it is a place of torment, made such by a consuming thirst awakened by a perpetual torture in flame. The

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