Probably many of them were popularly entertained, and afterwards further developed -
as we believe, with elements distorted from Christian teaching.
28. This confirms St. John vii. 26, and affords another evidence that it cannot have been
of Ephesian authorship, but that its writer must have been a Jew, intimately conversant
with Jewish belief.
29. But here opinions are divided, some holding that they will never be restored. See both
opinions in Sanh. 110 b.
30. Yalkut on Is. vol. ii. p. 42 c; Siphra, ed. Weiss. 112 b.
31. Sanh. 113 a.
32. Kethub. 111 a.
33. iv. Esd. vi. 23 &c.
34. On the Resurrection-body, the bone Luz , the dress worn, and the reappearance of
the former bodily defects, see previous remarks, pp. 398, 399.
35. In this extremely condensed abstract, I have thought it better not to cumber the page
with Rabbinic references. They would have been too numerous, and the learned reader
can easily find sufficient to bear on each clause in books treating on the subject..
We have now reached the period of the 'coming age' (the Athid labho, or sęculum
futurum). All the resistance to God would be concentrated in the great war of Gog and
Magog, and with it the prevalence of all the wickedness be conjoined. And terrible would
be the straits of Israel. Three times would the enemy seek to storm the Holy City. But
each time would the assault be repelled - at the last with complete destruction of the
enemy. The sacred City would now be wholl y rebuilt and inhabited. But oh, how
different from of old! Its Sabbath-boundaries would be strewed with pearls and precious
gems. The City itself would be lifted to a height of some nine miles - nay, with realistic
application of Is. xlix. 20, it would reach up to the throne of God, while it would extend
from Joppa as far as the gates of Damascus! For, Jerusalem was to be the dwelling -
place of Israel, and the resort of all nations. But more glorious in Jerusalem would be
the new Temple which the Messiah wa s to rear, and to which those five things were to
be restored which had been wanting in the former Sanctuary; the Golden Candlestick,
the Ark, and Heaven-lit fire on the Altar, the Holy Ghost, and the Cherubim. And the
land of Israel would then be as wide as it had been sketched in the promise which God
had given to Abraham, and which had never before been fulfilled - since the largest
extent of Israel's rule had only been over seven nations, whereas the Divine promise
extended it over ten, if not over the whole earth.
Strangely realistic and exaggerated by Eastern imagination as these hopes sound,
there is connected with them, a point of deepest interest on which, as explained in
another place,36 remarkable divergence of opinion prevailed. It concerns the Services of
the rebuilt Temple, and the observance of The Law in Messianic days. One party here
insisted on the restoration of all the ancient Services, and the strict observance of the
Mosaic and Rabbinic Law - nay, on its full imposition on the Gentile nation.37 But this
view must have been at least modified by the expectation, that the Messiah would give
a new Law.38 But was this new Law to apply only to the Gentiles, or also to Israel? Here