Part 25 (1/2)

[Footnote 3: Matt xxv 34 Comp John xiv 2]

[Footnote 4: Matt viii 11, xiii 43, xxvi 29; Luke xiii 28, xvi

22, xxii 30]

[Footnote 5: Luke xiii 23, and following]

[Footnote 6: Matt xxv 41 The idea of the fall of the angels, detailed in the Book of Enoch, was universally admitted in the circle of Jesus Epistle of Jude 6, and following; 2d Epistle attributed to Saint Peter, ii 4 11; _Revelation_ xii 9; Gospel of John viii 44]

[Footnote 7: Matt v 22, viii 12, x 28, xiii 40, 42, 50, xviii 8, xxiv 51, xxv 30; Mark ix 43, &c]

[Footnote 8: Matt viii 12, xxii 13, xxv 30 Cos will be eternal Paradise and Gehenna will have no end An impassable abyss separates the one froht hand of God, will preside over this final condition of the world and of humanity[2]

[Footnote 1: Luke xvi 28]

[Footnote 2: Mark iii 29; Luke xxii 69; _Acts_ vii 55]

That all this was taken literally by the disciples and by the master himself at certain s of the tieneration had one profound and constant belief, it was that the world was near its end,[1] and that the great ”revelation”[2] of Christ was about to take place The startling proclamation, ”The time is at hand,”[3] which commences and closes the Apocalypse; the incessantly reiterated appeal, ”He that hath ears to hear let hiee A Syrian expression, _Maran atha_, ”Our Lord cometh!”[5] becast thethen their faith and their hope The Apocalypse, written in the year 68 of our era,[6] declares that the end will come in three years and a half[7] The ”Ascension of Isaiah”[8] adopts a calculation very similar to this

[Footnote 1: _Acts_ ii 17, iii 19, and following; 1 _Cor_ xv 23, 24, 52; 1 Thess iii 13, iv 14, and following, v 23; 2 Thess ii

8; 1 Tim vi 14; 2 Tim iv 1; tit ii 13; Epistle of James v 3, 8; Epistle of Jude 18; 2d Epistle of Peter, iii entirely; _Revelations_ entirely, and in particular, i 1, ii 5, 16, iii 11, xi 14, xxii

6, 7, 12, 20 Comp 4th Book of Esdras, iv 26]

[Footnote 2: Luke xvii 30; 1 _Cor_ i 7, 8; 2 Thess i 7; 1 Peter i 7, 13; _Revelations_ i 1]

[Footnote 3: _Revelations_ i 3, xxii 10]

[Footnote 4: Matt xi 15, xiii 9, 43; Mark iv 9, 23, vii 16; Luke viii 8, xiv 35; _Revelations_ ii 7, 11, 27, 29, iii 6, 13, 22, xiii 9]

[Footnote 5: 1 _Cor_ xvi 22]

[Footnote 6: _Revelations_ xvii 9, and following The sixth e, is Galba The dead eures (xiii

18)]

[Footnote 7: _Revelations_ xi 2, 3, xii 14 Comp Daniel vii 25, xii 7]

[Footnote 8: Chap iv, v 12 and 14 Coed in such precise details When he was interrogated as to the time of his advent, he always refused to reply; once even he declared that the date of this great day was known only by the Father, who had revealed it neither to the angels nor to the Son[1] He said that the tidom of God was most anxiously expected, was just that in which it would not appear[2] He constantly repeated that it would be a surprise, as in the tiuard, always ready to depart; that each oneprocession, which arrives unforeseen;[3] that the Son of man would come like a thief, at an hour when he would not be expected;[4] that he would appear as a flash of lightning, running from one end of the heavens to the other[5] But his declarations on the nearness of the catastrophe leave no rooeneration,” said he, ”shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled There be so here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of dom”[7] He reproaches those who do not believe in hido, ye say, It will be fair weather; for the sky is red And in the , It will be foul weather to-day; for the sky is red and lowering O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the tireat reforined the end to be much nearer than it really was; he did not take into account the slowness of the ht to realize in one day that which, eighteen centuries later, has still to be accomplished

[Footnote 1: Matt xxiv 36; Mark xiii 32]

[Footnote 2: Luke xvii 20 Comp Talmud of Babyl, _Sanhedri; Mark xiii 32, and following; Luke xii 35, and following, xvii 20, and following]

[Footnote 4: Luke xii 40; 2 Peter iii 10]

[Footnote 5: Luke xvii 24]

[Footnote 6: Matt x 23, xxiv, xxv entirely, and especially xxiv