I

addressed to him. The verb "to live (Saw)" appears in one saying which also was the result of a similar question about "eternal life." The single, unmodified word "life (Swn)" occurs in two passages, once with a reference solely to the present,3 once with a clear future, and possibly also present, meaning. It will be realized, therefore, that, as a term to cover the conception of future destiny, the word had, at the most, an inconsiderable place in the mode of expression of Jesus.

$9. THE ETERNAL TABERNACLES

Within one of the parables there is imbedded a reference of the most general kind to the future. It is a part of the parable of the Unrighteous Steward recorded in

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And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.

The particular phrase here chosen by Jesus to cover the general conception of something lying beyond the present was suggested apparently by the necessities of the case. For, having started with the idea of a steward seeking some procedure by which he might retain the favor of his lord's debtors, especially so "that they might receive him into their houses," Jesus naturally set forth the eternal reality which corresponds to this human hospitality in an expression of similar form. This he did by setting over against "their houses" the phrase "the eternal tabernacles," his parallelism standing thus:

"that they may receive me into the eternal tabernacles."

There is derivable from this particular phrase, therefore, nothing other than the general conception, involved in many other sayings of Jesus, that there is possible a future of indefinite duration for man. Neither its place nor its form is defined in this passage.

$10. PARADISE AND GLORY

Among the sundry references to the future credited to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, there are two brief sayings which deal with the future of Jesus himself. Each of them brings into view a new mode

1 Document MK 10:30. 2 Document P $10.

3 Document P §23.

4 Document M $13.

of conceiving his life beyond his earthly career. One of them is said to have been spoken on the cross:

Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise (gospel LK 23:43).

The other belongs to the post-resurrection period:

Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory (gospel LK 24:26)?

It will be observed that both sayings are in passages peculiar to the Lukan passion and post-resurrection history.

GOSPEL LK 23:39-43

A And of one the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, Art not thou the Christ? save thyself and us. B But the other answered, and rebuking him said, Dost thou not even fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom. And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with with me in Paradise.

To that attitude of both malefactors reported by document MK, an attitude consistent with the trend of popular feeling at that hour, the Lukan report takes exception, by recording that it was quite otherwise with one of them. He credits one of them with expressing an estimate of Jesus which surely was held by very few men, and these few were among those of finer moral and religious discernment. In the portion B, Luke makes record of more than one particular which creates difficulty to the historical interpreter.

Perhaps most prominent among these is the request of the malefactor: "Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom." Such a request presupposes several beliefs of a most fundamental nature: (1) It involves the faith that Jesus is the Christ. (2) By its utterance under these circumstances, it eliminates the supposition of any temporary shadowing of that faith by the apparent denial of messiahship involved in death on the cross. (3) In it there is bound up the belief that Jesus was to come again, at which time, and then alone, he could be truly said to come "in his kingdom" or "into his kingdom." Stated otherwise, within this short sentence there is involved a complete messianic programme (1) of a kind unknown

before Jesus, (2) not outlined in public by him even though the records be taken as they stand, but spoken, if at all, only to his own circle of disciples, (3) not apprehended, even if spoken, by those disciples during his lifetime with any such clearness as is credited to this man who during the days in which Jesus is reputed to have revealed his coming again had languished in prison beyond the reach of Jesus' voice, (4) not spoken even to them if the evidence has been correctly interpreted in preceding studies.

Though it be assumed that Jesus taught his second coming, it is to be held that none of his disciples saw in his death anything other than the absolute denial of his messianic worth, and that, therefore, this malefactor stood alone among men in regarding, in this dread hour, the death of Jesus as a stage in the movement toward his kingdom. In other words, one of the robbers (1) thoroughly knew the supreme moral blamelessness of Jesus-"this man hath done nothing amiss," (2) had a full knowledge of reputed words (thirteenth chapter of document MK) spoken to the Twelve or perhaps to four only of the disciples (MK 13:3), and (3) had so estimated the significance of Jesus' life, so interpreted the bearings of his words, so harmonized new and stubborn facts with inherited expectations, so unified the past, present, and future of the career of Jesus, and so overreached the most intimate disciples in outlook and insight, that to him the crucifixion of the Christ was a mere incident in his progress toward the sure goal of his imminent kingdom, participation in which he desired and requested in that hour when all others saw naught but the inglorious close to either an infamous or a disappointing career. Surely it is not arbitrary to conclude that such a request from such a one in such an hour addressed to a Christ apparently so inglorious is historically and psychologically highly improbable, is from every standpoint anachronistic in the last degree.

In support of the contention that such a request would place the malefactor in a class by himself, as the single individual who retained faith in Jesus as the Christ and clearly foresaw and looked forward to the kingdom of power which should emerge from the present obscuration, no better evidence can be adduced than that body of tradition as to the apologetic activity of Jesus in the post-resurrection period of which the second saying, "Behoved it not the Christ to suffer

these things, and to enter into his glory?," forms the central idea. It is the synoptic representation that hope and faith in Jesus went out for his disciples with his death. That dire event shook the foundations of the faith that he was the Christ; it dissipated the hope that he was the one set for the redemption of Israel. The remnant of valuation lay in a backward look-"we hoped that it was he which should redeem Israel." It ought to be added that the apologetic vindication of Jesus' death by the Twelve from Old Testament Scripture followed upon the fundamental conviction that he had risen from the dead; while for the malefactor there was no such removal of the sting of Jesus' death, by which removal alone he could estimate rightly the apparent stigma of crucifixion.

If these considerations seem valid, it will be concluded that the single instance of reference by Jesus to "Paradise" as a place of abode for the righteous dead ought not to be regarded as other than a later addition to the record taken by Luke from document MK. The second passage, "Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory ?," is an integral part of the Lukan record of the post-resurrection apologetic activity of Jesus. It cannot be considered adequately without the complete study of the nature of that activity as a whole, and the examination of the attitude of Jesus throughout his ministry toward the forecasts of the Old Testament. These studies require and receive independent attention at a subsequent point in the present work.1

§11. HEAVEN

In the usage of Jesus, one of the senses in which he employed "heaven" was as the counterpart of the earth, heaven and earth constituting the natural universe. Such is the apparent meaning in the following sayings:

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

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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.

DOCUMENT MK 13:31

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

Heaven stood for Jesus as the upper position in the whole, while earth was the nether. Hence, when a vivid antithesis was desired for the nethermost regions, the word "heaven" was chosen:

1 See pp. 342-52.

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And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt be brought down unto Hades.

Over both parts of this twofold universe of nature, Jesus conceived God to dominate:

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I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

Jesus teaches that God is lord of heaven and earth, that is, rules as master of all the universe, not only by direct assertion as above, but by his figurative conception of both parts as under his service:

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Swear not at all; neither by the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet.

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And he that sweareth by the heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon

As opposed to the earth, which is the home of man, Jesus talks of the heaven as the natural sphere of the birds:

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The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests.

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Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns.

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When it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all the herbs and putteth out great branches; so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof.

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And it grew, and became a tree; and the birds. of the heaven lodged in the branches thereof.

Upon the face of the heaven men look for the forecasts of the weather:

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When it is evening, ye say. It will be fair weather: for the heaven is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the heaven is red and lowring. Ye know how to discern the face of the heaven; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times.

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When ye see a cloud rising in the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it cometh to pass. And when ye see a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and the heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret this time?

But the heaven is more than an ditions which may be expected. rain pours down. Across its face the flash travels; when it is shut up there is drought:

indicator of the meteorological conFrom it lightning shoots forth, and

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As the lightning, when it lighteneth out of the one part under the heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall the Son of man be in his day.

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I beheld Satan fallen, as lightning from heaven.

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There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land.