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1.1.2 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
The Origin of Christianity
Judaism - Hope for the Messianic Age
As the Jewish people changed their concept of righteousness, so too they changed their concept of the covenant with God. The convenant, entered into by God with His chosen people, took on a commercial sense. It became a mutual agreement whereby both parties were legally bound: the nation to observe the law given by God; God to pay the promised recompense in proportion to its performances.
Not only did their religious and ethical ideals change; likewise, their hopes inherited from the prophets took on many new developments. These hopes were playing an increasing part of the national conscieness as evidenced by the numerous apocalyptic writings that arose during the rein and terror of Antiochus Epiphanes. [see: 1st chapter of I Maccabees] The thinking of the Jews took an eschatological turn.
To a greater degree, the Jews began thinking about the relationship between the individual and the coming messianic age. Earlier in Jewish history, the prophetic hope for better times to come had reference to the nation as a whole. A Jew would find his personal reward in health, happiness and long life. He would see the future Israel as glorious, but he would not participate in it.
But after the exile, under the pressure of misfortune, there arose a desire in sharing in the future blessings. There came a belief in the resurrection of pious Israelites, in order that they might enjoy the bliss of the messianic age. With that belief came the expectation of a judgement to determine the future of each individual. For the wicked Israelite, there was no hope. Only the righteous Jew would be judged worthy. The unrighteous Jew was generally regarded as no better than a Gentile with no hope for the future.
Another belief arose that not only would the righteous Jew be resurrected, but that the unrighteous, too, would be resurrected for judgement and would suffer the penalty for their sins in the fires of Gehenna.
The growing emphasis on the individual’s relationship to the future meant a larger connection between performance and reward. To secure one’s participation in the future blessing meant strict adherence to the law not to show gratitude to God, or because or thirst for righteousness, or, as in earlier days, to promote the righteousness of the nation but in order to secure the promised reward for one’s self.
Righteousness in order to future happiness now became more and more generally the watchword of believing Israelites, and the commercial idea of the covenant between God and his people had full scope to work out the to the uttermost its baleful effect. It is clear that the observance of the law must become increasingly a matter of pure calculation; not how much can I do for the God that loves me and has so signally blessed me, but how little may I do and yet secure the reward I seek.
The controlling conception is that of creditor and debtor, and the inevitable tendency is for the debtor to regard his creditor not with love and devotion but with fear, and almost repulsion; to push him as far away as possible, and to pay him only so much as may be exacted. This tendency is clearly revealed in the efforts of the scribes to make to observance of the law easier, without neglecting or violating its letter.
This spirit was of course not absolutely universal in the Judaism of the period with which we are dealing. There were undoubtedly many who were thoroughly in earnest in their effort to serve God, not merely for the sake of reward, but because of their love for him and their innate desire to do his will. But they were certainly the exception, not the rule; and even such faithful souls found commonly in the observance of the law the only expression for their devotion. Many passages in Jewish literature show that it was possible for the people in general, to meet and satisfy the religious needs of many devout souls and to nourish a profound type of piety. [Compare, e.g. Psalms 1, 19, 119].
Concerning the nature of the future happiness and blessedness for which all pious Israelites were looking, opinions differed more or less widely; but all agreed that the blessings were to be national blessings, that God was to establish his kingdom, and that in that kingdom, and in it alone, the promised bliss was to be realized. Other peoples might sometimes be thought of as sharing in the national happiness, but only as they recognized the God of Israel and observed his law and became incorporated into the elect race.
That happiness was pictured in the most glowing colors by the apocalyptic writers of the period with which we are dealing. Not only were the Jews to be freed from all foreign domination and to be raised to a position of supremacy over all the earth, the Messianic age, the age of the kingdom, was to be a period of unexampled fruitfulness, of unmeasured health and prosperity, of unbroken peace and joy.
But more than that, it was to be a time of perfect holiness and righteousness, when law and temple service should be observed with scrupulous and unvarying exactness, and all should be pure and upright in God’s sight. Upon this feature of the coming kingdom the greatest stress was naturally laid, and it was widely believed that such perfect and permanent holiness would be secured through the influence of the divine Spirit, who would then be poured out upon the faithful and would guide and control all their activities. The presence of the Spirit is represented in many Jewish writing a s a characteristic mark of the Messianic age, which was thus to be distinguished from the present eon with its merely human powers and energies.
Used by permission of the publisher.
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