2 Baruch

Historical printed page 508

49: 2 50: 3 4 51: 2 8 4 - 9 Il BARUCH 49, :---ὃ]. 6 XLIX-LII. The Nature of the Resurrection Body: the final Destinies of the Righteous and the Wicked. ‘Nevertheless, I will again ask from Thee, O Mighty One, yea, I will ask mercy from Him who made all things. “In what shape will those live who live in Thy day? Or how will the splendour of those who (are) after that time continue ? Will they then resume this form of the present, And put on these entrammelling members, Which are now involved in evils, And in which evils are consummated, Or wilt Thou perchance change these things which have been in the world As also the world ?”’ And He answered and said unto me: ‘ Hear, Baruch, this word, And write in the remembrance of thy heart all that thou shalt learn. For the earth shall then assuredly restore the dead, oe it now receives, in order to preserve them]. t shall make no change in their form, But as it has received, so shall it restore them, And as I delivered them unto it, so also shall it raise them. For then it will be necessary to show to the living that the dead have come to life again, and that those who had departed have returned (again). And it shall come to pass, when they have severally recognized those whom they now know, then judgement shall grow strong, and those things which before were spoken of shall come. ‘ And it shall come to pass, when that appointed day has gone by, that then shall the aspect of those who are condemned be afterwards changed, and the glory of those who are justified. For the aspect of those who now act wickedly shall become worse than it is, as they shall suffer torment. Also (as for) the glory of those who have now been justified in My law, who have had understanding in their life, and who have planted in their heart the root of wisdom, then their splendour shall be glorified in changes, and the form of their face shall be turned into the light of their beauty, that they may be able to acquire and receive the world which does not die, which is then promised to them. For over this above all shall those who come then lament, that they rejected My law, and stopped their ears that they might not hear wisdom or receive understanding. When therefore they see those, over whom they are now exalted, (but) who shall then be exalted and glorified more than they, they shall respectively be transformed, the latter into the splendour of angels, and the former shall yet more waste away in wonder at the visions and in the beholding of the forms. For they shall first behold and afterwards depart to be tormented. XLIX. 2. In what shape, &c. Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 35 ‘How are the dead raised up? and with what manner of body do they come?’ splendour, or perhaps ‘ appearance’; also in li. 3, 5. 3. entrammelling members, lit. ‘members of bonds’. L-LI. The nature of the resurrection body. The world in its renewal becomes undying (li. 3), incorruptible (Ixxiv. 2) and invisible to mortal vision (li. 8). This conception of transformation, which is as old as Isa. lxv. 17-Ixvi, was applied in due course to those who were to live in the renewed world. This is done partially in Isa. xv. 17-25, but fully in Dan. xii. 2. Also in 1 Enoch civ. 4,6, &c. Thus the spiritual transformation was a familiar idea to the Pharisees before the writers of Baruch lived; while 1 Cor. xv. 35-50 is in one of its aspects the logical sequel of Isa. liv. 17. Paul was not altogether an innovator, but an able and advanced expositor of some current Jewish views. Opposed to this spiritual view of the future life lay the materialistic one prevalent among people and Rabbis alike, which said the blessed should beget children, and eat the flesh of Leviathan. (Weber 383, 384.) L. 2. See notes on xi. 4; xlii.8; 1 Enoch 11. 1. The resurrection united soul (from Sheol, its abode, xxi. 23) and body (resting in the earth, xlii. 8). Note that here the earth preserves the body intact, as committed to it. 4. The object for which the dead are raised is for common recognition. So also Beresh. rab. 95 and the later Judaism. Contrast the silence of the N.T. LI. 1. This transformation of the living also is mentioned in 1 Cor. xv. 51. aspect. So Ceriani emends the text. 3. justified in My law. See xv. 5, note. root of wisdom. lix. 7; Sir. i. 6, 20; Wisdom iii. 15. their splendour. Their bodies gradually are assimilated to their new environment. 4. rejected, i.e. wicked Gentiles as well as Israelites. stopped their ears, follows Hebrew of Zech. vii. 11; not LXX. 5. waste away, not ‘be annihilated’. Cf. 4 Ezra vii. 87. 508 "Ἅν»---αὕ.