the-book-of-enoch-r-h-charles - Fallen Angels

128 Tlie Booh of Enoch [Sect. II
11. And after that their faces shall be filled with darkness
And shame before that Son of Man,
borne different meanings at different
periods and also different meanings
during the same period, owing to the
coexistence of different stages in the
development of thought. As these
different meanings are to be found
in Enoch, a short history of the con-
ception will be the best means of ex-
planation. (1) Sheol in the O.T. is the
place appointed for all living. Job SO'''
from its grasp there is never any possi-
bility of escape. Job 7°. It is situated
; : :
beneath the earth, Num. 16'" ; it is the
land of darkness and confusion, Job
X021, 22 ; of destruction, forgetfulness, and
silence, Pss. 88". " 94" 115". Never-
theless the identity of the individual
is in some measure preserved. Is. li^"
Ezek. 32" 1 Sam, 28i==ii-: but the
existence is joyless and has no point
of contact with God or human in-
terests, Pss. 6"* 30» Is. 38". 18. In the
conception of Sheol there is no moral
or religious element involved ; no
moral distinctions are observed in it
good .ind bad fare alike. But the
family, national, and social distinctions
of the world above are still reproduced,
and men are gathered to their fathers
or people, Gen. 258. o 3529 gzek. 32"-s2
kings are seated on their thrones even
there. Is. ll'. i» Ezek. 3221, 24. Thus
the 0. T. Sheol does not differ essen-
tially from the Homeric Hades, Odyss.
xi. 488, 489. This view of Sheol was
the orthodox and prevailing one till
the second century B. 0. ; cf. Sir. 14i»
1722, 23 3017 1 Bar. 311 Tob. SI" 132
1 Enoch 102" (i. e. where Sadducees are
introduced as speaking). Individual
voices indeed had been raised against
it in favour of a religious conception
of Sheol, and finally through their
advocacy this higher conception gradu-
ally won its way into acceptance.
(2) This second and higher conception
of Sheol was the product of the same
religious thought that gave birth to
the doctrine of the Resurrection—the
thought that found the answer to its
difficulties by carrying the idea of
retribution into the life beyond the
grave. The old conception thus under-
went a double change. Firstly, it
became essentially a place where men
were treated according to their deserts,
with a division for the righteous, and
a division for the wicked. And,
secondly, from being the unending
abode of the departed, it came to be
only an intermediate state ; cf. En. 22
511 1026 (!) Luke 16^2 (1). (3) The
conception underwent a further change,
and no longer signified the intermediate
state of the righteous and of the wicked,
but came to be used of the abode of
the wicked only, either as their pre-
liminary abode, cf. Eev. lis 6* 20", ",
or as their final one, En. 631° 99" 103'.
This was probably due to the fact that
the Resurrection was limited to the
righteous, and thus the souls of the
wicked simply remained in Sheol,
which thus practically became hell or
Gehenna; cf. Pss. Sol. 146 1511. j^
631° the kings are cast into Sheol, but
into Gehenna in 541-2. ^hat tliis
conception of Sheol appeared in isolated
cases in the Persian period, see Cheyne,
Origin of the Psalter, 381-412. Cf.
on the question generally, Oehler,
Theol. des A. T. i. 253-266 ; Schulz,
A. Tliche. Theol. 697-708; Charles,
The Doctrine of a Future Life, passim.
In the Talmud Sheol has become syn-
onymous with Gehenna, Weber, Jiid.
Theol. 341-342. 11. "With dark-
ness : cf. 468 6218. Sword. Used
figuratively here; cf. 6212. Bousset
suggests that this verse is aa interpola-