a man would rise in exactly the same clothes in which he had been buried, while others

denied this.17 On the other hand, it was beautifully argued that body and soul must be

finally judged together, so that, in their contention to which of them the sins of man had

been due, justice might be meted out to each - or rather to the two in their combination,

as in their combination they had sinned.18 Again, it was inferred from the apparition of

Samuel19 that the risen would look exactly as in life - have even the same bodily

defects, such as lameness, blindness, or deafness. It is argued, that they were only

afterwards to be healed, lest enemies might say that God had no t healed them when

they were alive, but that He did so when they were dead, and that they were perhaps

not the same persons.20 In some respects even more strange was the contention that,

in order to secure that all the pious of Israel should rise on the sacred soil of Palestine,21

there were cavities underground in which the body would roll till it reached the Holy

Land, there to rise to newness of life.22

But all the more, that it was so keenly controverted by heathens, Sadducees, and

heretics, as appears from many reports in the Talmud, and that it was so encumbered

with realistic legends, should we admire the tenacity with which the Pharisees clung to

this doctrine. The hope of the Resurrection-world appears in almost every religious

utterance of Israel. It is the spring -bud on the tree, stript by the long winter of

disappointment and persecution. This hope pours its morning carol into the prayer

which every Jew is bound to say on awakening;23 it sheds its warm breath over the

oldest of the daily prayers which date from before the time of our Lord;24 in the formula

'from age to age,' 'world without end,' it forms, so to speak, the rearguard to every

prayer, defending it from Sadducean assault;25 it is o ne of the few dogmas denial of

which involves, according to the Mishnah, the loss of eternal life, the Talmud explaining,

almost in the words of Christ - that in the retribution of God this is only 'measure

according to measure;'26 nay, it is venerable eve n in its exaggeration, that only our

ignorance fails to perceive it in every section of the Bible, and to hear it in every

commandment of the Law.