A00057 - The Resurrection of the Dead

 Transcendental conceptions also exercised a profound influence in other directions.  The older Messianic hope was sublimated.  The golden age promised by the older prophets was lifted up from the place of the present earth sphere, "The contrast between the present and the coming age of two worlds."  This comes to most complete expression in 4 Ezra 7: "The most High hath made not one age but two."

Perhaps the most distinctive advance in doctrine made in the apocalyptic literature is seen in the emergence of the belief -- which became a dogma in later Judaism -- in the resurrection of the dead. This is the most important contribution made by apocalyptic to doctrinal belief.  It first comes to clear expression in the apocalyptic section of Isaiah (chapters 24 to 27), which almost certainly is older than the book of Daniel.  Here the belief is expressed that death will be abolished in the Messianic Age, and that the righteous dead will be raised to share in the coming glory of the nation.

In Daniel the belief assumes a fixed form (see Daniel 12: 2, 3, and 13).  The author has in view more particularly those who have suffered martyrdom for the faith in the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes (168 B.C.T. and following years).  The older view which knows nothing of the resurrection still appears in the older apocalyptic literature.  Thus in 1 Enoch 5:7-9 what seems to be contemplated is not a resurrection to life, but a life on earth unusually prolonged.  It is worth noting that the association of martyrdom with the resurrection persisted and reappears in the New Testament apocalypse (see Revelations 20:4 and following, and 2 Maccabees).

For some time, belief fluctuated as to whether the resurrection should be confined to the righteous only or should embrace righteous and sinners alike. According to Josephus (Antiquities, book xviii, chapter 1, paragraph 3), the former view was that of the Pharisees, as it certainly was of the author of 2 Maccabees (6:26; 7:9, 14, 36; 12:44; and 14:46). It is also represented in the Gospels (see Luke 14:14 and 20:36).  Both theories are contained in the Johannine Apocalypse, where the martyrs are raised first, at the beginning of the millennium, to reign with Christ "a thousand years"; then at the final consummation, after the thousand years have ended, all the dead are raised to be judged (Revelations 20:4 and following and 20:11 and following).

It was inevitable that the question should arise: What is the nature of the resurrection body? (see 1 Corinthians 15).  As a matter of fact, a long passage is devoted to this subject in Baruch.  Here it is said that the dead will first of all be raised in their old bodily form, in such a way as to be recognizable.  Afterward, they will be transferred, the aspect of the wicked changing for the worse, while the glory of the righteous becomes ever more splendid.