cient, yet contain ancient stories some of which underlie the Bible books.1

1 As do also such books as were published in a volume bearing the title The Uncanonical Writings of the Old Testament, found in the Armenian Manuscripts of the Library of St. Lazarus, translated into English by the Rev. Jacques Issaverdens, Venice, 1901. In this book are found the following:

The Book of Adam.

The History of Assaneth.

The History of Moses.

Concerning the Deaths of the Prophets-Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.

Concerning King Solomon.

A Short History of the Prophet Elias.
Concerning the Prophet Jeremiah.
The Vision of Enoch the Just.
The Seventh Vision of Daniel.

The Testaments of the XII Patriarchs.
The Third Book of Esdras.

Inquiries made by the Prophet Esdras.

CHAPTER III

THE BACKGROUND OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

BACK of the New Testament is the Old Testament, and not only this, but an extensive literature that came into existence after the latest events of which the Old Testament treats. The Old Testament Scriptures are concerned, except for the opening chapters of Genesis, with the personages and events of about seventeen hundred years, from Abraham to Nehemiah; the New Testament, except perhaps the book of Revelation, with the personages and events of probably less than one hundred years. The Old Testament, while containing many biographies, falls much of it in the domain of national history, political as well as religious, though chiefly the latter. The New Testament, some of which falls in the domain of history, belongs rather to biography, containing as it does, except Revelation, accounts of the birth, life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the efforts to promulgate and interpret those teachings, and to organize a Church founded upon them. The Revelation, a type of literature represented in the Old Testament in Daniel, and in the Apocrypha in II Esdras, sets forth the events of the future as visions; there are to be a new heaven and a new earth, in which God shall dwell with man, and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more." Revelation 21:4.

To the period between the Old Testament and the New belong some of the books of the Apocrypha. The

books of the Maccabees give us the history of the reaction against Greek power and influences. The Persian gave way to the Greek who was succeeded by the Roman. These changes from the conditions in the time of Ezra bring us to the Palestine of Jesus and his disciples. The four centuries immediately preceding the Christian era saw not only changes in the political conditions, but also the development of certain ideas which are later more clearly set forth in the New Testament. It is in the Wisdom of Solomon that we find expressed such thoughts as these on personal immortality:

"But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, And no torment shall touch them.

In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died;
And their departure was accounted to be their hurt,
And their journeying away from us to be their ruin:
But they are in peace.

For even if in the sight of men they be punished,
Their hope is full of immortality;

And having borne a little chastening, they shall receive great good;

Because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself,

As gold in the furnace he proved them,

And as a whole burnt offering he accepted them. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine forth, And as sparks among stubble they shall run to and fro, They shall judge nations, and have dominion over peoples; And the Lord shall reign over them for evermore." Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-8.

In Daniel we read:

The

"They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Daniel 12:3.

Not as new ideas then came these words in the New Testament:

"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Matthew 13:43.

"When the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matthew 19:28.

"Or know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" I Corinthians 6:2.

The immortality of the soul is set forth in the Old Testament in a number of passages, such as the following:

"For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol;

Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life:

In thy presence is fulness of joy;

In thy right-hand there are pleasures for evermore.' Psalm 16:10, II.

"But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; For he will receive me." Psalm 49:15.

"As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness;

I shall be satisfied when I awake, with beholding thy form." Psalm 17:15.

"But as for me I know that my Redeemer [Heb. goel, vindicator] liveth,

And at last he will stand up upon the earth:

And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,

Then without my flesh shall I see God;

Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger." Job 19:25-27.

1 Critics express doubts as to whether such passages do not refer rather to national deliverance, or to individual escape from danger or sickness. There is danger of attributing to Old Testament writers views, derived from the New Testament, which the Old Testament writers may never have held.

The doctrine of the resurrection of the body is a clear and definite belief of the mother and her seven sons, who suffered death rather than eat swine's flesh at the King's command. We read that the second son said to his murderer:

"Thou, miscreant, dost release us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise up us, who have died for his laws, unto an eternal renewal of life." II Maccabees 7:9.

The fourth son said:

"It is good to die at the hands of men and look for the hopes which are given by God, that we shall be raised up again by him; for, as for thee, thou shalt have no resurrection unto life." II Maccabees 7:14.

This last is the idea in the Gospel of John:

"They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." John 5:29.

This idea is expressed also in the Old Testament:

"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." Daniel 12:2.

Compare the ideas of national, and also personal, resurrection contained in the following passages:-1

"Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew

1 A distinction must be recognized between resurrection of the body and immortality of the soul, which are quite separate ideas. See also the vision of the valley of dry bones, Ezekiel, ch. 37.