The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

ÉMILE PUECH 255
the spiritual guides and transposed upon the plan of a new world of the
just revived and glorified, similar to the saints in Daniel 7. Although there
is no reason to imagine an astral immortality promised to these just martyrs
or instructors, their future life does not appear simply to be a pure
and simple continuation of present existence—just as the world to come is
not in continuity with the present. The divine judgment at the time of the
eschaton marks a rupture between the two. As far as the resurrection and
glorification are reserved for the end time, what is expected is not a mere
reanimation of a cadaver, but the reuniting of the resurrected with the
group of survivors, however upon a different plane of reality as is indicated
by the metaphors, “they will be as brilliant as the light of the firmament”
and “…as the stars forever and ever.” Here is indicated the
novelty of the mode of life of the resurrected—particularly that of the elite
in the company of the astral beings in glory. In this passage, what is
important is first of all that the just, dead or living at the moment of the
time of the tribulation, arrive together at the establishment of the kingdom
(see Daniel 7). But since the stars are often mentioned along with
the angels as partaking in the same divine glory and that, sometimes they
(the stars) are identified with the angels (cf. Dan 8:10, 1 En. 104:1–2, 6),
this connection helps us better to understand the celestial glory and
angelic company of the revived, which are linked to the resurrectiontransformation
at the time of divine judgment’s final retribution. 10
Daniel himself is seen as being promised resurrection for eternal life at
the end of days, after a time of repose in death, being counted among the
just inscribed in the Book (Dan 12:13). This chapter of Daniel elaborates
upon the message of the fourth Servant Song of Isaiah and of Isaiah 26
where the promise of resurrection underlines the power of God as creator
and judge of the world, his lordship over history and over both the living
and the dead.
2 Maccabees
The story-parable of the seven brothers, martyrs for the sake of obedience
to the Laws of the Fathers, dating without doubt from about the
time of the persecutions of Antiochus IV, shares this belief in
resurrection—a faith easily assimilated at the core of a group of believers.
11 The martyrdom of old Eleazar indicates that it is preferable to go
10. See ibid., 82–85.
11. For the questions answered by this subject and this book, see ibid., 85–92.