>T \C ANNEX 069 ETERNAL PUNISHMENT AFTER DEATH IN THE NEXT WORLD. SATAN AND HELL. PREDESTINATION. BY H. GUEDALLA. LONDON : PKIXTED BY WEKTHEIMER, LEA & CO., CIBCUS PLACE, LONDON WALL, B.C. 1890. University of California Southern Regional Library Facility PREFAC E. IN my recent pamphlet on the Jewish Ritual, whilst suggesting enormous curtailments in the shape of omission of repetitions and also in various other ways, I expressed an opinion that there should be augmentations in Psalms and other prayers relat- ing to the Resurrection of the dead. In further- ance of this view I have translated two chapters of the celebrated work of Menasseh Ben Israel " De la Resurreccion de los Muertos," Amsterdam, at the house and cost of the author (1636), being the first time they have appeared in an English garb ; and the same remark applies to the English transla- tion of the celebrated prayer from the 14th chapter of " Tachkemoni," every word of which work should at once appear in print, considering that the various chapters treat of poets, poetry, cities, citizens, travellers, men, women, sons, fathers, husbands, wives, teachers, pupils, and many scien- tific subjects. The splendid Aftorah, read only on the Saturday of the middle days of Passover, ought to be read daily. nrvn The power of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and sat me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of A 2 20924 4 r* IV bones. And caused me to pass by them round about : and behold, there were very many in the open valley : and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live again ?* and I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy unto these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live again. I will lay sinews upon you, I will bring up flesh upon you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you, that ye shall live : and acknowledge that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded : and as I prophesied there was a tempest, and behold, a shaking the bones came together, and were joined each bone to his proper bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews, and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above ; but there was no breath in them. Then God said unto me, Prophesy unto the spirit; prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four parts of the * According to Abrabanel " Are these bones worthy to be resuscitated ? i.e., were the people whose bones lie here worthy that they should be resuscitated ? If we adopt this interpreta- tion, we shall find the answer of the Prophet, 'O Lord God thou knowest,' applicable to the question put to him, and the following observation of the Lord that these were the bones of those who denied a Kesurrection and said, ' Our bones are dried, our hope is lost,' etc., will be in harmony with the context, which is not the case if we render it ' Can these bones,' etc." Vide AbrabaneVs Comm. ad literam. v world, O spirit, and animate these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the spirit came into them, they lived, and stood upon their feet, and formed an exceeding great host of people. Then God said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel : behold they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to rise from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land : then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed zV, saith the Lord. Another prayer might contain the following references : 1 Samuel i., where Hannah says, . " The Lord killeth and maketh alive ; he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up." Isaiah xxvi., " Thy dead men shall live together with my dead : for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Shall not the dead rise again in captivity. Shall they not see the salvation of the Lord." " Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust." Isaiah iii., " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that publisheth good tidings of good ; that publisheth salvation ; that VI saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy watch- man shall lift up the voice ; with the voice together they shall sing, for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." Psalm civ., " These wait all upon thee ; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather : thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled : thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created : and thou renewest the face of the earth." P.S. June^ 1890. I contemplated treating these subjects much more in extenso, when a sudden domestic bereavement overtook me, and caused me to break off abruptly. My remarks about " Eternal Punishment after death in the next world " have been translated into Hebrew, and although not entirely meeting the views of the Jerusalem Rabbins, were highly commended for their erudition, and even several liberal Catholics were enthusiastic in their praise, especially my late esteemed friend Mrs. Milner Gibson. RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL. CHAPTER II. In which are set forth the passages in which the Prophets treat of the Resurrection, THE first passage in the Prophets in which we find the Resurrection of the dead mentioned, is in the first book of Samuel, c. i, in the speech of the prophetess and wise woman, Hannah, where she says : " The Lord killeth, and maketh alive : He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up " : in which of a certainty the Resurrection is alluded to, because, if this were not so, it would have been more just to commence with the act of mercy, which is to give life ; but the signification of the passage is that He again giveth life to whom so He killeth. And in order that it might not be under- stood that he was treating only of the power of God, in that He gives life to some and death to others, he goes on to say : " He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up," that is to say, in the Resurrection. And therefore, with regard to the resuscitated people of Ezekiel, according to Joshua, they sang this hymn " God killeth and maketh alive." II. The Prophet Isaiah treats expressly and 8 clearly of this miracle, and thus speaks in chap. xxvi. : " Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust : for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." The prophet was lamenting, four verses before, that other Lords had had dominion over the people of Israel, but that they had still remembered the Divine name ; and because many had died martyrs for their sanctification, he says in surprise " Shall not the dead rise again, in captivity, shall they not see the salvation of the Lord ? " To which question, answer is made Do not believe, O prophet, that which thou sayest, but rather 4l Thy dead men shall live," that is, those of thy people who have died a natural death, "And my dead body shall arise," that is, those who have died for the sanctifica- tion of my name, and therefore, he says with the affix (" my dead body"). "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust ": he calls the dead sleepers, because as such they will awake from the sleep of death, and they will sing in hymns the salvation of the Lord, and this because " Thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead," that is to say, that for this Resurrection there shall fall from Heaven a dew which shall take place of the seed of man, and then the dust being in fitting condition it casts miraculously as it were the seed of the female, and the clay will be mixed and form the bodies as Adam was formed, casting out from itself the dead. With these verses R. Gamliel tried to convince the Sadducees, but they did not admit the proof, saying that this might be under- stood as referring to the dead whom Ezekiel brought to life, from which it appears that the immortality of the soul was not denied by all the Sadducees, but only the future Kesurrection. In the Tanhuma, where we translate into Spanish the word " Calabrina " (called above " dead body"), the ancients say (those who make themselves vile for my cause, one is strangled because he circumcised his son ; another burnt because he kept the Sabbath ; another beheaded because he meditated on the Law,) the ancients derive that word (TP33) from the word (?D3) vile, which is a very correct meaning, and is almost the same as what we have said, namely, that by that word reference is made to those who are injured or killed for the sanctification of the name of the Lord, as many were in those ancient times, and are now, by the unspeakable and tyrannical cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition. III. The third passage is from the same Prophet Isaiah, in which when speaking of this miracle in chap, lii., he says as follows : " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace : that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation : that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy watchman shall lift up the voice, with the voice together they shall sing, for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." The A5 10 ancient sages maintain that by this bringer of good tidings, the Prophet Elias is meant, who shall come before the salvation, in order to give news thereof, as is also testified by the Prophet Malachi and Nahum. This one, he says, " shall publish peace," namely, the universal peace, which there shall be at that time, and the salvation of those risen from the dead : in which days the voice of the watchmen or prophets shall be lifted up, and they will together sing the salvation of the Lord, all together having arisen from the earth. From this passage R. Hijor bar Aba proves the Resurrection, saying (they will sing together, not they have sung, whence follows the Resurrection of the dead ones of the Law. And he said further, all the prophets are made ready to sing with one voice, which is thus expressed " Thy watchman shall lift up the voice, with the voice together they shall sing, &c.") ; from which it is seen that this passage was understood as referring to the Resurrection of the dead. IV. The passage of the Prophets which proves this truth to demonstration is that of Ezekiel, chapter xxxvii., where, having been carried to the valley of bones, and having seen them all come to life again, the Lord says at the end : " Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God : Behold, O my people, 1 will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel," " And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and 11 brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land : then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord." This is an express and infallible test, which beyond any doubt proves the Resurrection. And although, as regards this passage, the wise men of the Talmud dispute as to whether it was merely a parable, or whether Ezekiel literally brought those dead bones to life, still, taking it either one way or the other, there can be no doubt that in that vision and in that act, the future Resurrection was signified ; and thus the ancients with R. Eliezer say (Israel was weeping at that time and saying, We were hoping for the light and darkness came ; at that time the Lord said to the prophet : "I the Lord God am alive, who will cause you to be in the resurrection of the dead and come to Israel, as it is said, I will open your graves," etc.) it is undoubtedly evident herefrom that this prophecy represented the future Resurrection. i V. R. David Kimchy, and other authors, prove this from chapter xliii. of the same prophet, where the Lord, speaking of the third temple (as we shall show afterwards), says : "And thou shalt give to the priests, the Levites, that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord God, a young bullock for a sin offering, and thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, &c." This, 12 without doubt, has to be accomplished, and it was not so in the second temple, as Ezekiel did not go up to Jerusalem, but died in Babylon, and was buried there : the Lord must, therefore, fulfil this promise, raising him from the dead in that future age. This is what, according to the ancients, we find regarding this question in the prophets. CHAPTER III. In which those passages in the sacred Books are adduced which treat of the Resurrection, IT now remains for us to prove this article by the rest of the Sacred Books, and coming thus to the sacred writers, the first passage is from the royal prophet in Psalm Ixxii., where, speaking of the Messiah, who without war, and with much peace, should rule from sea to sea, and before whom all kings would prostrate themselves, whom all nations would obey, and in whose time there would be great abundance, saying at last, " And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth," which is certainly meant for those risen from the dead, who shall flourish from the earth like grass ; and it cannot be understood of fruits, because they do not flourish in the city but in fields, and thus it is brought forward in the Gemara de Sanhedrin, that Cleopatra, expressing to R. Meyr a certain doubt as to the Resurrection, he confessed this point, saying, " I know that the dead will rise again, 13 because it is written, ' and those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.' ' II. The ancients also infer it from Psalm Ixxxiv., where it is written : " Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be still praising thee. Selah," pointing out that the word (lfc?) still, signifies a praise in addition to previous praise, and as it is said, " will still be praising," they say that the fresh praise will be at the Resurrection (it does not say, have praised, but will praise thee, hence the Resurrection of the dead of the Law) . III. This Resurrection is inferred very clearly from Psalm civ., where David speaks as follows : " These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather : thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled ; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth." It is here seen how after the spirit has been takeu away by God, and the body has returned to the dust, he will send forth his spirit again, and renew the earth, which will be at the Resurrection. IV. This article is also gathered from the Proverbs, namely, from chapter xxx., where speaking of those things that are insatiable, and which are A7 14 never filled, he places among them the grave and the womb ; the ancients, therefore, ask what affinity can there be between the grave and the womb, unless he means that as the womb receives and gives forth, so does the grave receive and give forth. That is, as the womb receives the seed and gives forth the living creature, so the grave receives the dead body and will afterwards, at the Resurrec- tion, give it forth alive, which similitude is a very good one, and although not quite a proof, still it is ingenious. V. In Daniel the Resurrection is put more clearly than in any of the above-mentioned passages, namely, in chap, xii, where it is written, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt," from which it clearly appears that the dead who are sleeping in the dust of the earth shall, at the Resurrection, awake from their sleep, some to be rewarded, and others punished, whence Rubina says this article is-proved. VI. Rab Asse infers it from the end of the same chapter, and he says (he infers it from this : " But go thou thy way till the end ; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days ") that the angel here, without doubt, promises him two things ; first, that on arriving at the end, which is death, the end of all mortals, he shall rest, that is, that his soul shall then enjoy the happiness which, in the world of spirits, is reserved only for the first ; 15 second, that he shall rise at the end of the days at the Resurrection, and not for any other end than that of enjoying the place allotted to him with the other just and pious men. These are all the passages from which the ancient sages, either with likelihood or with certainty, infer the Resurrection */ / of the dead from the divine writings, and they are in all twenty-three in number. And as it is easy to make additions, we will add one more proof, which to me is equal to the others. VII. Job, when cursing the day on which he was born, in the end cries out (" For now I should have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept ; then had I been at rest"). He calls death to lie still and sleep, which certainly cannot be understood of the soul ; because the soul does not sleep, nor does it cease from its functions on the death of the body, but rather, being then free from matter, it then exercises its true and proper functions : it must therefore have reference to the body, the death whereof is called sleep, and with reason, because then like one asleep who awakens, thus the body after some time will awaken, and this will ,be at the Resurrection. For the same reason, referring to the death of the just, the sacred writings employ the phrase " To lie down," as when Jacob said " And will lie down with my fathers," and in (all) another place, " And David lay down with his ancestors," and it is found in other passages, which proves not only the immortality of the soul, but 16 also (as above shown) this article of the Resurrection of the dead. I have not brought forward as a proof of this point the verse of Job xix 26 (" For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth"), because cer- tainly it has nothing to do with the Resurrection, and there is no Hebrew who understands and ex- plains it in that sense ; because the intention there is to say, I know and believe that the Redeemer of my soul, and who will lead it to happiness, is living and for ever eternal ; and I know that he will remain the last after all earthly beings ; and it is the same as when Isaiah says that the Lord is the first and the last. Or it may be explained in another way, but not as referring to the Resurrection ; nor by the word " last " is the last day understood, nor does it say Dlptf " I will rise again," according to the Latin version, but Dip 1 * " He will rise again " in the third person, according to the Hebraic truth, as was remarked learnedly in his Theological questions, by the famous and incomparably learned Senor Gerardo I. Vossius. The twenty-five passages already quoted are sufficient for the present. ETERNAL PUNISHMENT AFTER DEATH IN THE NEXT WORLD. IT appears to me that there is no fixed belief enter- tained by ancient or modern Jews on this important subject, and as a matter of necessity, where opinions cannot be anything more than surmises, much may 17 be urged pro and con. I therefore put to paper various views and thoughts, gathered from different sources. With regard to everlasting punishment in the next world, to which view I am greatly opposed, may be urged : 1st. In the Psalm xcii. (the one for the Sabbath day) verse 7, we find " When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish ; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever" The Hebrew word Hy in this verse may have the same significa- tion as in Exodus chap. xxxi. v. 6. " Then his master shall bring him unto the judges ; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post ; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl ; and he shall serve him for ever" 2nd. In Daniel, chap. xii. v. 2, we find, " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 3rd. The Mischna pSft indicates a category of sinners, who by their faults do not take part in a future life. Against eternal punishment in the next world the following powerful arguments, by various authorities of different creeds may be adduced. Moses, our greatest prophet, has never spoken of a place of eternal torments in the depths of the earth, where the most cruel punishment awaits weak sinners. We only find in the Pentateuch a menace of terrestrial chastisements. Our immortal legislator has been often accused of not having taught the belief of a future life ; but it is doing him an in- 18 justice to attribute to him such a fatal obliviousness. The idea of another world always entered into his mind, and was always presented to his people as a dogma or as a simple lesson. Moses received from God a notice that he would be reunited after death with his ancestors, as with his brother Aaron, and as with the patriarchs long previously, who had received a similar notice from heaven. We read in the Talmud (Pesahim 54 a), " God in creating the world prepared for the righteous the delightful garden of Gan Eden, and for the impious the Guehinam, where he placed fire and instruments of torture, reserved for the wicked." These words, like several others extracted from the same source, are pure metaphorical ideas, and it would be detracting from the good sense of our learned rabbis to take all these expressions exactly as they stand. We also find there, " nothing can resist repentance," which signifies that when even infernal punishments are an actual reality, repent- ant souls will be always removed from thence to be admitted into heaven to enjoy their eternal bliss. We read in confirmation in the Midrasch on Kohelet. It is asked, why God has created Paradise and hell ? and the answer is, in order that the one may save from the other. But what is the distance which separates them ? According to Johanam, a wall, according to Aha, a palm, and according to other rabbis, only a finger. Oh how short is the passage from hell to heaven for a soul decayed by its sin ; and how easy it will be to leave its sufferings 19 to throw itself into eternal felicity ! A sincere repentance which atonement brings about will be sufficient to end its torments, and thus the guilty will be regenerated by their return to duty. Maimonides affirms distinctly that hell is only a word expressive of griefs and moral tortures. Abarbanel teaches that the soul, after leaving its terrestrial abode, arrives, if it is pure, at a place appropriated to its nature a place of reward called figuratively by the Rabbins Garden of Eden, because in this word is contained the idea of joys ; and if it is guilty, to a place the reverse of this a place of punishment called Guehinam, where it suffers for a time proportionate to the extent of its faults. Mipholat Elohim viii. 6. Albo gives a rational explanation of hell. He says the punishment of hell and the torments of the soul consist essentially in the following, viz : the soul of man who has during its terrestrial life given way to voluptuous pleasures, which going away from Divine will and degrading the finest part of himself, gives itself up to the impulses of its body ; it has even after its separation from it the same wishes as before for the objects which were previously indispensable to it ; and although it no longer possessed of bodily organs to satisfy such desires, and on the other side prompted by its spiritual nature, it aspires to approach the divine attributes of beauty, which are detached from all material essence, and towards which it is irresistibly attracted, but from which it has become estranged, because the principles of 20 wisdom and the practice of the Holy Law are want- ing, it wavers and oscillates in a manner between the two points, not attaining either of the objects. This incessant incertitude causes it more torments than all the actual pains, and makes it suffer more than the greatest tortures. Such is the actual pain of a guilty soul ; fire will not affect it, as it is a spiritual being. Ikarim iv. 33. Menasseh Ben Israel's work on the resurrection of the dead is an orthodox view of the subject, but he only believes the pious of all nations will be saved. This, however, is a much more liberal belief than that entertained by orthodox Christians, who have the preposterous idea that none will be saved except those who die in their belief. A learned and conscientious writer Mons. Pierart, in the " Eevue Spiritualiste," endeavoured even to show that the New Testament, and several Chris- tians of the first Church, did not believe in ever- lasting punishments. Nevertheless, it has become in the present age one of the tenets of modern Catholicism. It is true, that nothing has been decided about the nature of hell-fire if it is painful, or other- wise, nor if the intensity of suffering that is endured there is always equal : but it is authoritatively affirmed, that the torments are there everlasting, and this has been renewed some years back in the provincial Council of Perigueux, relative to the book of Jean Raynaud, which had combatted this pitiless dogma. 21 The injustice, not to say anything of the cruelty, of such a doctrine, which closes the door to repent- ance, to atonement, by guilty souls, and to all possibility of their return to a good and merciful God, must be palpable to the reflective of all creeds. Those who now admit it derive it by inheritance from paganism, from which the Roman and other churches have borrowed, besides this, so many other things, whilst applying themselves ingeniously to disguise them by explanation and by new names. They rely upon two or three passages of the Evan- gelists, and principally upon the verse in chapter xxv. v. 46 of St. Matthew, where Jesus assures that the wicked will go away to everlasting punish- ment, and the righteous to eternal life. The ex- pression which is translated by everlasting, has not always this signification in the New Testament. It signifies very often nothing but "a temporary epoch," " a long time," " a long duration of years," " the actual time," " that which passes," " the world," "present period." Such is in effect the signification of the Hebrew word D^iy which can be seen in faithful translations of the Old and New Testament, particularly in the following chapters, Joshua xxiv. 2, Isaiah Ixv. 16 19, Paul's Epistle to Corinthians I. chap. ii. 6, 7, Eph. iii. 9, Coloss. i. 26, Heb. xi. 3, where these words signify "the age," " before the ages," " the age to come," &c. Refer on this subject, to the best translations of the New Testament particularly those of Rilliet, of Lausanne, and the work of Locke, entitled, " A Paraphrase 22 and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul, &c." London : 1707, T. Churchill. Lamennais having to translate this passage, St. Mat. chap. xxv. v. 41 and 46, where Christ is made to say, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," has thought proper to add by a note : "In Hebrew, as in Greek, the words that we translate by everlasting have not the same metaphysical sense. They signify a " long duration of time," " a period," from whence these expressions of the Bible, " during these perpetual eternities and beyond ! " The eternal punishment, the eternal fire of which Christ speaks, adds Lamen- nais, is the suffering which the violation of its laws engenders in every being, and this suffering, of which the duration is measured by the cause, would be without end, if the evil had not its necessary termination. These words of the illustrious Lamennais show us, that if in the Bible the Hebrew words Olam, Meholam signifies sometimes " the world," "a space of time indeterminable," it signifies oftener, a determined period, the age, ages, a limited space ; and according to all appearances, the words of Jesus ought to be translated in the following manner : "Go to eternal fire which will last ages." Everyone knows that the dogmas taught by Christ, his contemporaries and disciples, were altered Mosaical doctrines, and since the return of the Jews from Chaldea, and their intercourse with Persians, strongly impregnated with Masdeism. Persian tradition teaches the following on the chastisements 23 of the next world, and the resurrection. " It believes that it will flourish again, both the good and wicked ; the good, restless in the midst of their celestial felicity, will weep upon the darwands (wicked) ; and the darwands, opening their eyes on their errors, will weep also ; that the wicked will pass before the good in the midst of a purifying flame and come out purified, on account of their repentance coming from the heart ; that their chief Ahriman (Satan) will also come out purified from the " entourage of the earth's impurities, to come with Serosch, and kneel at the feet of Ormusd, and commence an eternal Izeshni (Hozanna) to the Sovereign God, just Judge. When the hour of judgment has arrived, says the Zend Avesta, Ormusd will have without doubt a hand to strike, but he will have one also to bless. Supreme judgment will not be a day of anger and vengeance, it will be a day of pardon. The darwand will not be annihilated ; yes, even Satan will become celestial, saintly and excellent. This cruel one who only breathed impurity, will publicly make a sacrifice to the Eternal and then participate in the eternal beatitude. If rebellious angels are thus reinstated, with much greater reason will frail mortal be forgiven and pardoned." SATAN AND HELL. A belief in the devil is a perfect delusion. It detracts from the honour due to the Infinite Source of power. Can any one rationally entertain the notion of a Spiritual Being, who was hurled into the lowest depths as a punishment for his rebellion, and who is still allowed the satisfaction of corrupt- ing mankind ? The Authorised Version has render- ed the Hebrew words " Singeereem" and " Shadeem " by devils ; whereas " Singeereem," as its root denotes, means " goats," and not " fallen angels " or " rebellious spirits." Our grammarians do not at all agree respecting the derivation of " Shadeem ;" but though the difficulty of forming a correct opinion of it is increased by the few times that expression is met with in Holy Writ, still the first passage where- in it is employed palpably draws a marked dissimi- larity between " Shadeem " and the factious spirits that are imagined to have been banished from Heaven, but which, nevertheless, hold sway upon earth. Moses, in his last memorable song, thus expressed himself : " They sacrifice unto Shadeem and not to God." I may assert, without fear of contradiction, that the Hebrew Scriptures do not contain a single phrase that can be interpreted as countenancing the belief in a spiritual tempter who inveigles men away from the duties they owe their Creator. I do not even consider the first verse of 1 Chron. chap, xxi., as by any means contradictory of this assertion : " And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.'' Compare it with that in 2 Samuel chap. xxi. It may be argued that whatever constitution be given to the preface of that sublime production, Job, 25 the doctrine of the existence of " Satan," or of a spiritual adversary of human felicity, obtains from it strong support. But such reasoning, which at first blush appears very plausible, is, nevertheless, fallacious. According to Nazarene theology, the devil is an outcast from the abode of bliss. He is a rebel against God, condemned to dwell in " adamantine chains and penal fires." Satan in the book of Job is an inmate of Heaven, bound to obev * */ the command of God, from which he does not swerve. The devil is supposed maliciously to entangle man in sin in order to frustrate the design of the merciful Creator ; the Satan of Job accuses man, but only to manifest that the adoration the latter tenders his Maker is prompted by interested motives ; that it ceases when the benefits received are also at an end. But why draw the contrast any farther ? Surely, it does not require great acumen to discriminate between a divine messenger and a fiendish opponent. Maimonides has exclusively devoted a chapter in his philosophical work, called " A Guide to the Perplexed," to the book under consideration. The sons of God who presented themselves before the Eternal, are the natural faculties of the mind that raise it above ; Satan is the evil inclination growing from worldly enjoyments. We read, that he "ffoeth to and fro on the earth, and walketh o ' up and down thereon," signifying that our vices are our accusers before the throne of the Most High. In support of this thesis, Maimonides cites i the famous apothegm of the sages : " Satan, evil imagination, and the angel of death are exactly the same thing." At the house of mourners I have heard (much to my disapprohation) six portions of a Psalm com- mencing by the initials ]{? yip (Karah Satan) and which are found in Psalm cxix. alphabetically arranged in Hebrew. The same initials are found in the second verse of the prayer ni33 ri3N, and, according to tradition, both have the virtue of keeping off Satan or the Devil. PREDESTINATION. Is the doctrine of predestination, of which fatalism is but an offshoot, contrary to the fundamental tenets of the Jewish religion ? After all it matters but little in a social sense, seeing that, without any pretension to decide one way or the other, and without excluding the possibility of a direct inter- ference of God in wordly affairs, it is evident that our actions are generally determined by our dis- position and capacity, subject to the influence exterior events might exercise on our will, that, practically, we have but little liberty left, whether in private or political life. If fatalism were adopted as a creed, would it serve as a plea for acquitting criminals, seeing that they could not be responsible for their actions ? I contend that, if so, the judge who hangs a culprit must be equally held in so doing to be urged on by irresistible fate ; but after all, 27 whether he be so or not, or whether a man might suffer for a crime he had not committed, it is infinitely more likely that, under such a theory, an assassin would escape punishment, and in that case there is no telling how many innocent victims he might make. The Heavenly volumes teem with passages which emphatically teach that obedience and disobedience to the law are the effects of one's own free will. Maimonides, discussing this theme, wrote as follows : " Let none be led astray by the idea prevailing among the ignorant of all creeds, that God decides at the hour of birth whether an individual shall be righteous or wicked ; for it is not so. Each person has it in his power to become as righteous as Moses dur pre- ceptor, or as wicked as Jeroboam ; learned or illiterate ; kind or cruel ; niggardly or liberal. In like manner regarding other moral qualifications." His deeds are not in any way compulsory or pre- destined ; no means are employed to draw him in either way, save those to which he himself resorts ; for, as Jeremiah exclaims : " Out of the mouth of the Most High proceed not the evil and the good," which means, that the Creator does not decree that man shall follow what is right or what is wrong. Again, he says of the subject at issue, " This is a great moral principle in the law ; it is the pillar of our religion." Except as an allegory, how can otherwise be explained the rapid succession of so many misfor- tunes as those which befel Job, and the remarkable FEB 2 3 1994 EMS LIBRAHY exferior^e vents might exercise on our will, that, practically, we have but little liberty left, whether in private or political life. If fatalism were adopted as a creed, would it serve as a plea for acquitting criminals, seeing that they could not be responsible for their actions ? I contend that, if so, the judge who hangs a culprit must be equally held in so doing to be urged on by irresistible fate ; but after all, 27 whether he be so or not, or whether a man might suffer for a crime he had not committed, it is infinitely more likely that, under such a theory, an assassin would escape punishment, and in that case there is no telling how many innocent victims he might make. The Heavenly volumes teem with passages which emphatically teach that obedience and disobedience to the law are the effects of one's own free will. Maimonides, discussing this theme, wrote as follows : " Let none be led astray by the idea prevailing among the ignorant of all creeds, that God decides at the hour of birth whether an individual shall be righteous or wicked ; for it is not so. Each person has it in his power to become as righteous as Moses dur pre- ceptor, or as wicked as Jeroboam ; learned or illiterate ; kind or cruel ; niggardly or liberal. In like manner regarding other moral qualifications." His deeds are not in any way compulsory or pre- destined ; no means are employed to draw him in either way, save those to which he himself resorts ; for, as Jeremiah exclaims : " Out of the mouth of the Most High proceed not the evil and the good," which means, that the Creator does not decree that man shall follow what is right or what is wrong. Again, he says of the subject at issue, " This is a great moral principle in the law ; it is the pillar of our religion." Except as an allegory, how can otherwise be explained the rapid succession of so many misfor- tunes as those which befel Job, and the remarkable 28 circumstance that at each recurrence of a calamity only one individual should alone escape to report the woful tidings ? In fact, some of our sages did regard it in that light when they declared that " Job was not a created being, but he was offered to us as an example." These wise instructors of our people did not purpose to deny by that the existence of the personage himself, for the prophet Ezekiel names him in conjunction with Noah and Daniel ; but they entertained the opinion that, as he was renowned for his integrity, he was chosen as the hero of a poem in which the knotty question about the prosperity of the wicked and the unhappi- ness of the righteous is debated by its unknown author.