Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Parallel Translations
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Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
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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.
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And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Daniel 12:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 5:28-29 Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
- Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.
- Matthew 25:46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
- Ezekiel 37:12 Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
- 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
- Revelation 20:12 I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
- Acts 24:15 having hope toward God, which these also themselves look for, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
- Ezekiel 37:1-4 Yahweh’s hand was on me, and he brought me out in Yahweh’s Spirit, and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I answered, “Lord Yahweh, you know.” Again he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, ‘You dry bones, hear Yahweh’s word.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
- Job 19:25-27 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh, whom I, even I, will see on my side. My eyes will see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.
- 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
- Isaiah 66:24 “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
- Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
- John 11:23-26 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
- Jeremiah 20:11 But Yahweh is with me as an awesome mighty one. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they won’t prevail. They will be utterly disappointed, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which will never be forgotten.
- Matthew 22:29-32 But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain As to the translation of the first words, it…
As to the translation of the first words, it is literally, many who sleep in the earth of dust, or who are in earth and dust; for the genitive is used as an epithet, though it may be read as if in opposition with the former word sleep, meaning those who are reduced to earth and dust.
The angel seems here to mark a transition from the commencement of the preaching of the gospel, to the final day of the resurrection, without sufficient occasion for it. For why does he pass over the intermediate time during which many events might be the subject of prophecy? He unites these two subjects very fitly and properly, connecting the salvation of the Church with the final resurrection and with the second coming of Christ. Wheresoever we may look around us, we never meet with any source of salvation on earth. The angel announces the salvation of all the elect. They are most miserably oppressed on all sides, and wherever they turn their eyes, they perceive nothing but confusion. Hence the hope of the promised salvation could not be conceived by man before the elect raise their minds to the second coming of Christ. It is just as if the angel had said, God will be the constant preserver of his Church, even unto the end; but the manner in which he will preserve it must not be taken in a carnal sense, as the Church will be like a dead body until it shall rise again. We here perceive the angel teaching the same truth as Paul delivers in other words, namely, we are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ; it shall then be made manifest when he shall appear in the heavens. (Colossians 3:3.) We must hold this first of all, God is sufficiently powerful to defend us, and we need not hesitate in feeling ourselves safe under his hand and protection. Meanwhile it is necessary to add this second point; as long as we fix our eyes only on this present state of things, and dwell upon what the world offers us, we shall always be like the dead. And why so? Our life ought to be hid with Christ in God. Our salvation is secure, but we still hope for it, as Paul says in another passage. (Romans 8:23, 24.) What is hoped for is not seen, says he. This shews us how completely seasonable is the transition from this doctrine respecting God’s elect to the last advent of Christ. This then is enough with respect to the context. The word many seems here clearly put for all, and this is not to be considered as at all absurd, for the angel does not use the word in contrast with all or few, but only with one. Some of the Jews strain this expression to mean the restoration of the Church in this world under themselves, which is perfectly frivolous. In this case the following language would not be correct, — -Some shall rise to life, and others to disgrace and contempt Hence if this concerned none but the Church of God, certainly none would rise to disgrace and condemnation. This shews the angel to be treating of the last resurrection, which is common to all, and allows of no exceptions. I have lately explained why he calls our attention to the advent of Christ. Since all flyings in the world will be constantly confused, our minds must necessarily be raised upwards, and gain the victory over what we observe with our eyes, and comprehend with our outward senses.
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Those who sleep in the earth and the dust; meaning, wherever the earth and dust exist, nevertheless they shall rise, implying the hope of a resurrection not founded on natural causes, but depending upon the inestimable power of God, which surpasses all our senses. Hence, although the elect as well as the wicked shall be reduced to earth and dust, this shall by no means form an obstacle to God’s raising them up again. He uses earth and dust In my judgment אדמת, admeth, “of the earth,” is the genus, and עפר, gnepher, “dust,” is the species, meaning, although they are only putrid carcasses, yet they shall be reduced to dust, which is minute particles of earth. God, then, is endued with sufficient power to call forth the dead to newness of life. This passage is worthy of especial notice, because the prophets do not contain any clearer testimony than this to the last resurrection, particularly as the angel distinctly asserts the future rising again of both the righteous and the wicked. Eternity is here opposed to those temporal miseries to which we are now subjected. Here we may notice the admonition of Paul, that those momentary afflictions by which God tries us, cannot be compared with that eternal glory which never shall cease. (Romans 8:18.) This, therefore, is the reason why the angel so clearly expresses, that eternal life awaits the elect, and eternal disgrace and condemnation will be the lot of the ungodly. He afterwards subjoins, —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, all shall rise at the general resurrection, which…
Meaning, all shall rise at the general resurrection, which thing he here nameth because the faithful should have ever respect to that: for in the earth there shall be no sure comfort.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in…
Dan 12:2 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.
Ver. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust.] "Many" for all; {as Rom 5:18-19} these are said to sleep, which denoteth the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. (The soul liveth in the sleep of death, as it doth in the sleep of the body in this life). And this the poor Jews, when to lose land and life for the truth, are here seasonably and plainly told of (amidst other things that are but darkly delivered) to bear up their sinking spirits. Awake they shall as out of of a sweet sleep, those that are good, and then be full of God’s image. {Psa 17:15} The wicked also shall "come forth," but by another principle, and for another purpose; they shall come out of their graves like filthy toads against this terrible storm, &c.
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Some to everlasting life.] Which is here first mentioned in the Old Testament. See Mat 25:45 Joh 5:29.
And some to shame and everlasting contempt.] Christ shall shame them in that ample amphitheatre, and doom them to eternal destruction. Gravissima poenarum pudor est, saith Chrysostom. Oh, when Christ shall upbraid reprobates, and say, Ego vos pavi, lavi, vestivi, &c., which way will they look? or who shall say for them? They shall look then upon him whom they have pierced and lament, but all too late, οψονται, κοψονται; they shall be sore ashamed of their sinful practices, which shall all be written in their foreheads; and this shall be as a bodkin at their hearts, that ever they turned their backs upon Christ’s bleeding embracements, while they refused to be reformed, hated to be healed.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain So enamoured are some of their notions, though found…
So enamoured are some of their notions, though found false and ill-grounded, that they will pertinaciously hold them, and seek still to prove one absurdity from another, as Grotius doth here, still expounding all of Antiochus, and so makes this resurrection metaphorical, and not the real ultimate one; whereas the most learned Jews themselves are against him, as the late Manasseh Ben Israel in his book de Resurrectione.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And many of them that sleep in the dust…
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,.... Which is not to be understood in a figurative and metaphorical, sense, as by R. Jeshuah the Jew, Porphyry the Heathen, and by some Christian writers; neither of the deliverance of the Jews from the troubles of Antiochus, or their present captivity; nor of the spiritual resurrection of them, or others, from their state of infidelity to a profession of the Gospel, which in some is real, in others only hypocritical; but, in a literal sense, of the resurrection of the dead at the last day, which, with respect to the righteous, will take place upon the personal appearance of Christ at first, Th1 4:16, for, as death is oftentimes compared to "sleep", in which the senses are bound up, and the body is in a state of inactivity; see Joh 11:11, so the resurrection from the dead is expressed by awaking out of sleep, when the body shall rise fresh and vigorous, in full health and strength, as a man out of a comfortable sleep; see Psa 17:15. The word "many" is used, either because, as all will not sleep, so all will not be awaked; there will be some that will be alive and awake at Christ's coming, Co1 15:51, or, as it signifies, a multitude, Psa 97:1 and so here the innumerable multitude of the dead, who are afterwards distributively considered; and indeed the word is sometimes used for "all"; see Rom 5:15,
some to everlasting life; to the enjoyment of everlasting life and happiness with Christ in the world to come; a phrase often used in the New Testament, though never before in the Old; expressive of that felicity and bliss which the saints enjoy in heaven after this life is over, first in the separate state of the soul, and then, at the resurrection, in soul and body, and of the everlasting continuance of it; they that shall enjoy this are those that are written in the Lamb's book of life, or are ordained unto eternal life; who are redeemed by the blood of Christ, regenerated by his Spirit and grace, justified by his righteousness, adopted into the family of God, are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; these are the dead in Christ, which rise first:
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and some to shame and everlasting contempt; wicked men, who lived in a course of sin in this world, without any remorse or shame; but, when they shall rise from the dead, they will rise with all their sins upon them, and with a full conviction of them in their consciences; and will be ashamed of them, and to appear before God the Judge of all; and will be had in contempt by the Lord, by elect angels, and all good men; and this reproach shall never be wiped off; see Isa 66:24. Our Lord seems manifestly to have respect to this passage, when he speaks of men coming out of their graves at the last day, "some unto the resurrection of life, and others unto the resurrection of damnation", Joh 5:28 and upon these words it may well be thought the Apostle Paul grounded his faith of the resurrection of the dead, both just and unjust, Act 24:15, and though the resurrection of both is spoken of here and elsewhere together, yet it will be at distinct periods of time; the resurrection of the just at the beginning of the thousand years, and that of the wicked at the end of them, Rev 20:5, between which will be the intermediate state of the saints dwelling with Christ on earth; where they will be favoured with his presence, and the rewards of his grace, to which the following verse has respect.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. Many of them that sleep in the…
Verse 2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth] This prophecy has been referred to the future restoration of the Jews. It will be also true of the state of mankind at the general judgment.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Dan 12:2. And many that sleep in the dust…
Dan 12:2. And many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake — This may be understood, 1st, Of those saints who rose from the dead immediately upon the resurrection of Christ, spoken of Mat 27:52-53, where we read that the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 2d, It may be interpreted figuratively of the mystical resurrection of Jews and Gentiles from spiritual death to spiritual life, by the preaching of the gospel, or of their conversion to true Christianity. Calmet thinks that this, without all question, is the primary sense of the verse, and that it is only in a secondary sense that it can be understood of the resurrection of men’s bodies. Most commentators, however, are of a different opinion, and consider the words as being primarily intended of the general resurrection which will take place at the last day. And they think, that the next clause, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt, requires this application of the words, and does not admit of any other interpretation. The Lord Jesus certainly seems to have referred to this passage, Joh 5:28, where he speaks of the resurrection of life, and the resurrection of damnation; and upon the ground of it chiefly, the Jews are said by St. Paul, Act 24:15, to expect a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. And nothing could be brought in more seasonably than this doctrine is here; for under Antiochus’s persecution some basely betrayed their religion, others bravely adhered to it. Now it would be a trouble to the upright and faithful among the Jews, that they could neither reward the one nor punish the other; this therefore would be a satisfaction to them, that they would both be recompensed at the general resurrection. And the apostle, speaking of the pious Jews that suffered martyrdom under Antiochus, tells us, that though they were tortured, yet they accepted not deliverance, (namely, deliverance offered them on terms they could not conscientiously comply with,) because they hoped to obtain a better resurrection. In accordance with this sense of the words, which seems evidently to be that primarily intended, it must be observed, that the word many in the first clause of the verse must include all mankind, as it does in Rom 5:19, where St. Paul says, By one man’s disobedience MANY were made sinners.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And many of them - The natural and obvious…
And many of them - The natural and obvious meaning of the word “many” (רבים rabı̂ym) here is, that a large portion of the persons referred to would thus awake, but not all. So we should understand it if applied to other things, as in such expressions as these - “many of the people,” “many of the houses in a city,” “many of the trees in a forest,” “many of the rivers in a country,” etc. In the Scriptures, however, it is undeniable that the word is sometimes used to denote the whole considered as constituted of many, as in Rom 5:15-16, Rom 5:19. In these passages no one can well doubt that the word many is used to denote all, considered as composed of the “many” that make up the human race, or the “many” offences that man has committed. So if it were to be used respecting those who were to come forth from the caves and fastnesses where they had been driven by persecution, or those who sleep in their graves, and who will come forth in a general resurrection, it might be used of them considered as the many, and it might be said “the many” or “the multitude” comes forth.
Not a few interpreters, therefore, have understood this in the sense of all, considered as referring to a multitude, or as suggesting the idea of a multitude, or keeping up the idea that there would be great numbers. If this is the proper interpretation, the word “many” was used instead of the word “all” to suggest to the mind the idea that there would be a multitude, or that there would be a great number. Some, as Lengerke, apply it to all the Israelites who “were not written in the book” Dan 12:1, that is, to a resurrection of all the Israelites who had died; some, as Porphyry, a coining forth of the multitudes out of the caves and fastnesses who had been driven there by persecution; and some, as Rosenmuller and Havernick, understand it as meaning all, as in Rom 5:15, Rom 5:19. The sum of all that can be said in regard to the meaning of the word, it seems to me, is, that it is so far ambiguous that it might be applied
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(a) to “many” considered as a large portion of a number of persons or things;
(b) or, in an absolute sense, to the whole of any number of persons or things considered as a multitude or great number.
As used here in the visions of the future, it would seem to denote that the eye of the angel was fixed on a great multitude rising from the dust of the earth, without any particular or distinct reference to the question whether all arose. There would be a vast or general resurrection from the dust; so much so that the mind would be interested mainly in the contemplation of the great hosts who would thus come forth. Thus understood, the language might, of itself, apply either to a general arousing of the Hebrew people in the time of the Maccabees, or to a general resurrection of the dead in the last day.
That sleep - This expression is one that denotes either natural sleep, or anything that resembles sleep. In the latter sense it is often used to denote death, and especially the death of the pious - who calmly slumber in their graves in the hope of awaking in the morning of the resurrection. See the notes at 1Th 4:14. It cannot be denied that it might be applied to those who, for any cause, were inactive, or whose energies were not aroused - as we often employ the word sleep or slumber - and that it might be tints used of those who seemed to slumber in the midst of the persecutions which raged, and the wrongs that were committed by Antiochus; but it would be most natural to understand it of those who were dead, and this idea would be particularly suggested in the connection in which it stands here.
In the dust of the earth - Hebrew, “In the ground, or earth of dust” - ארמת־עפר 'ademath ‛âphâr. The language denotes the ground or earth considered as composed of dust, and would naturally refer to those who are dead and buried - considered as sleeping there with the hope of awaking in the resurrection.
Shall awake - This is language appropriate to those who are asleep, and to the dead considered as being asleep. It might, indeed, be applied to an arousing from a state of lethargy and inaction, but its most obvious, and its full meaning, would be to apply it to the resurrection of the dead, considered as an awaking to life of those who were slumbering in their graves.
Some - One portion of them. The relative number is not designated, but it is implied that there would be two classes. They would not all rise to the same destiny, or the same lot.
To everlasting life - So that they would live forever. This stands in contrast with their” sleeping in the dust of the earth,” or their being dead, and it implies that that state would not occur in regard to them again. Once they slept in the dust of the earth; now they would live for ever, or would die no more. Whether in this world or in another is not here said, and there is nothing in the passage which would enable one to determine this. The single idea is that of living forever, or never dying again. This is language which must have been derived from the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and of the future state, and which must imply the belief of that doctrine in whatever sense it may be used here. It is such as in subsequent times was employed by the sacred writers to denote the future state, and the rewards of the righteous. The most common term employed in the New Testament, perhaps, to describe true religion, is life, and the usual phrase to denote the condition of the righteous after the resurrection is eternal or everlasting life. Compare Mat 25:46. This language, then, would most naturally be referred to that state, and covers all the subsequent revelations respecting the condition of the blessed.
And some to shame - Another portion in such a way that they shall have only shame or dishonor. The Hebrew word means reproach, scorn, contumely; and it may be applied to the reproach which one casts on another, Job 16:10; Psa 39:8 (9); Psa 79:12; or to the reproach which rests on anyone, Jos 5:9; Isa 54:4. Here the word means the reproach or dishonor which would rest on them for their sins, their misconduct, their evil deeds. The word itself would apply to any persons who were subjected to disgrace for their former misconduct. If it be understood here as having a reference to those who would be aroused from their apathy, and summoned from their retreats in the times of the Maccabees, the meaning is, that they would be called forth to public shame on account of their apostasy, and their conformity to pagan customs; if it be interpreted as applying to the resurrection of the dead, it means that the wicked would rise to reproach and shame before the universe for their folly and vileness. As a matter of fact, one of the bitterest ingredients in the doom of the wicked will be the shame and confusion with which they will be overwhelmed in the great day on account of the sins and follies of their course in this world.
And everlasting contempt - The word “everlasting” in this place is the same which in the former part of the verse is applied to the other portion that would awake, and like that properly denotes eternal; as in Mat 25:46, the word translated “everlasting” (punishment) is the same which is rendered “eternal” (life), and means what is to endure forever. So the Greek here, where the same word occurs, as in Mat 25:46 - “some to everlasting life,” εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον eis zōēn aiōnion, “and some to everlasting contempt,” εἰς αἰσχύνην αἰώνιον eis aischunēn aiōnion - is one which would denote a strict and proper eternity. The word “contempt” (דראון derâ'ôn) means, properly, a repulse; and then aversion, abhorrence. The meaning here is aversion or abhorrence - the feeling with which we turn away from what is loathsome, disgusting, or hateful. Then it denotes the state of mind with which we contemplate the vile and the abandoned; and in this respect expresses the emotion with which the wicked will be viewed on the final trial. The word everlasting completes the image, meaning that this feeling of loathing and abhorrence would continue forever. In a subordinate sense this language might be used to denote the feelings with which cowards, ingrates, and apostates are regarded on earth; but it cannot be doubted that it will receive its most perfect fulfillment in the future world - in that aversion with which the lost will be viewed by all holy beings in the world to come.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Many. This shews the great number. All shall rise…
Many. This shews the great number. All shall rise again. In a figurative sense, the Jews who seemed buried shall appear and fight. --- To see. Hebrew: "everlasting." (Calmet) --- St. Jerome has not seen a d (Haydock) in the word. This text is express for eternal happiness or misery. (Calmet) --- Some have understood, deraon, "stench," or contempt, to denote the ignominy of the damned; but the prophet speaks of the times of the Machabees. (Houbigant.) --- All shall rise in their bodies, but all shall not be changed for the better. (1 Corinthians xv. 51.) (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain many . . . that sleep--"many from among the…
many . . . that sleep--"many from among the sleepers . . . these shall be unto everlasting life; but those (the rest of the sleepers who do not awake at this time) shall be unto shame" [TREGELLES]. Not the general resurrection, but that of those who share in the first resurrection; the rest of the dead being not to rise till the end of the thousand years (Rev 20:3, Rev 20:5-6; compare Co1 15:23; Th1 4:16). Israel's national resurrection, and the first resurrection of the elect Church, are similarly connected with the Lord's coming forth out of His place to punish the earth in Isa 26:19, Isa 26:21; Isa 27:6. Compare Isa 25:6-9. The Jewish commentators support TREGELLES. AUBERLEN thinks the sole purpose for which the resurrection is introduced in this verse is an incitement to faithful perseverance in the persecutions of Antiochus; and that there is no chronological connection between the time of trouble in Dan 12:1 and the resurrection in Dan 12:2; whence the phrase, "at that time," twice occurs in Dan 12:1, but no fixing of time in Dan 12:2-3; 2 Maccabees 7:9, 14, 23, shows the fruit of this prophecy in animating the Maccabean mother and her sons to brave death, while confessing the resurrection in words like those here. Compare Heb 11:35. NEWTON'S view that "many" means all, is not so probable; for Rom 5:15, Rom 5:19, which he quotes, is not in point, since the Greek is "the many," that is, all, but there is no article in the Hebrew here. Here only in the Old Testament is "everlasting life" mentioned.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. Contempt — Rather, abhorrence.
2. Contempt — Rather, abhorrence.
Many — The idea is that of multitudinousness. It neither asserts nor excludes the thought that all shall rise (Thomson). It was left for him who could say, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” to make the clear, full, and final revelation of the general and universal resurrection.
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This is one of the most astonishing verses in Daniel. As Behrmann says, we have here the “very last word” on Old Testament eschatology. What may be hinted in Isa_26:14; Isa_26:19; Isa_25:8, is here clear as sunlight. Not only will the Israelites who live in the Messianic era be blessed, but the martyrs and pious ones who defended the faith in former ages will be brought to life again, and with this resurrection the condition of each individual is fixed for evermore. That all the nations surrounding the Hebrews believed in a future existence, from the earliest times, no one will now deny.*
[* On the coffin of Amam — supposed to have been a contemporary of Abraham — which is now in the British Museum, is inscribed these affecting words, “He lives, he lives, lives this Amam. He dies not. He passes not away. This Amam passes not away. He lives, this Amam lives, he dies not, dies not.” This could be paralleled in hundreds of texts, both Egyptian and Babylonian. The power of the magical words and elaborate death ceremonial in both cults lay largely in their supposed influence in opening the eyes and mouth of the departed and giving back to him life and protecting him from the monsters of the future world. The difference between the Hebrew and the heathen ideas of the future lay chiefly in the conception of Jehovah as merciful and gracious, and able to protect his chosen ones in this world or any world. As Goethe wrote: —
Abraham for his sire Jehovah
Chose, the Lord of star and sun;
Moses, deserts passing over,
Grew to greatness by the One.]
* * * * * * * * * *
But that future abode was dark and comfortless or filled with earthly ideas which were not the holiest. (See notes Eze_26:20; Eze_32:18.) Tiele confesses that the Mosaic prophetism alone was an exception to the “gloomy misanthropy combined with voluptuous sensuality which was a characteristic of all other Semitic religions.” But this doctrine of a resurrection, though hinted before (see note as above and Ezekiel xxxvii), is here for the first time seen in a developed state. While the idea of the punishment of the wicked is found previously (Isa_66:24, etc.), here for the first time we find a double and distinct resurrection for both good and bad. These views of Daniel are widened out in Enoch and 2 Macc. (See particularly our Introduction, II, 9.) The New Testament conception of the resurrection is much larger and more advanced than that of Daniel; but blessed was the generation which first heard from human lips the utterance of this splendid hope!
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. The resurrection. The doctrine of a future life…
2. The resurrection. The doctrine of a future life is not fully developed in the O.T.; it is nascent; and the stages in its growth are clearly distinguishable. The idea of a resurrection appears first, though in a national, not in an individual sense, in Hos_6:2 : it appears next, also in a national sense (see Davidson’s note, p. 267), in Ezekiel’s famous vision of the Valley of dry bones (xxxvii. 1–14): the resurrection of individuals appears first in the post-exilic prophecy of Isaiah 24-27, viz. Isa_26:19 (see Skinner’s note), though, as in Ezek. (Eze_37:11), it is still expressly limited to Israel (it is denied, Eze_37:14, of Israel’s foes): in the present passage, a resurrection of the wicked, as well as of the righteous, is taught for the first time, and the doctrine of a different future reserved for each is also for the first time enunciated. See further the Introd. p. xcii.
many] The resurrection is still limited implicitly to Israel. It is not said who are to compose the ‘many’: perhaps the author thinks in particular of the martyrs, and apostates, respectively, who, on the one side or the other, had been prominent during the reign of Antiochus.
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sleep] in death: cf. Jer_51:39; Jer_51:57; 1Th_4:14; 1Th_5:10.
in the dusty ground] lit. the ground of dust. The expression is peculiar, and occurs only here. ‘Dust’ is often said of the grave, as to ‘lie down upon the dust’ (Job_20:11; Job_21:26), and ‘they that go down to the dust’ (Psa_22:29).
shall awake] cf., in the same sense, Isa_26:19; also (where it is denied) Job_14:12, and (of the Babylonians) Jer_51:39; Jer_51:57.
some to everlasting life] The expression occurs only here in the O.T., but it is frequent in post-Biblical Jewish writings: e.g. in Enoch (xxxvii. 4, xl. 9, lviii. 3, lxii. 14); Psalms of Sol. 3:16 (cf. 13:9); 4Ma_15:3 (cf. 2Ma_7:9; 2Ma_7:36); and in the Targums (in which passages of the O.T. relating really to the present life are often interpreted as referring to a future life)[394]. A more common synonym is ‘the life of the age to come’ (חיי העולם הבא), Aboth ii. 7, &c. (Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, p. 129).
[394] See examples in the writer’s Sermons on the O.T. (1892), pp. 83, 88–91; Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, p. 128.
some to reproaches (Psa_69:9-10 [Heb.]) and everlasting abhorrence] the last word (only once besides) from Isa_66:24 ‘And they [the carcases of the transgressors, slain outside Jerusalem] shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.’ Cf. in the N.T., Mat_25:46; Joh_5:29.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) Many . . . that sleep in the…
(2) Many . . . that sleep in the dust.—Literally, Many sleepers in the land of dust. The word “sleep” is applied to death (Jer_51:39; comp. 1Th_4:14); while “dust” is used for the grave (Psa_22:29). Some difficulty is presented by the use of the word “many” where “all” would have been expected. Theodoret explains it from Rom_5:15, where he observes “many” stands for “all.” It is, however, more in accordance with the language to suppose that by the word “many” some contrast is implied, which is apparently between the many who sleep in the dust and the comparatively small number of those who “are alive and remain.” (See Joh_5:28, &c.) It should be noted that this passage not only teaches the doctrine of a general resurrection, which had already been incidentally revealed by Daniel’s contemporary, Ezekiel (Eze_37:1-4), but also the facts of eternal life, and a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just.
Shame and everlasting contempt.—The latter word occurs only in this passage and Isa_66:24, where see the Note. For the use of the word “shame,” comp. Jer_23:40.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And many of them that sleep in the dust…
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. The Septuagint rendering is, "And many that sleep in the breadth (platei) of the earth shall arise, some to life eternal, and some to reproach, some to dispersion (diasporan) and eternal shame." These terms, "reproach" and "dispersion," are different attempts to render twOprj (haraphoth), "reproaches." The differences between the above and Theodotion are merely verbal; "dispersion" is omitted, cwmati, "dust," is instead of platei, The rendering of the Peshitta is, "And many of those that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to life everlasting, and some to destruction and contempt of their friends for ever." The Vulgate has a somewhat singular version of the last clause, "And many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to life eternal, and some to contempt, in order that they may always see it ( ut videant semper)." Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth. Sleep, as a symbol of death, is frequent, both in the Old Testament and the New: Psa_13:3; Job_3:13; for the New Testament, Act_7:20; 1Co_15:6. "Dust" is a common phrase for the grave: Job_7:21; Psa_22:30 Psa_30:10; Gen_3:19. The reference here is to those who are not only dead, but buried. The phrase translated, "dust of the earth," literally means "earth of dust." The phrase is so singular that Professor Robertson Smith has suggested that instead of reading admath aphar, we should read armath aphar aram in Arabic meaning a "cairn" or "mound." There is, however, as Professor Bevan remarks, no instance in Hebrew or Aramaic of such a word being in use. It is assumed that the reference here (Behrmann, etc.) is to the Jews alone; but for this assumption there is no justification. While, on the one hand, one cannot prove from this that others besides Israel shall partake in the resurrection; on the other, as little can we assert that "the Jews," at the period when this verse was written, excluded all but Jews. We cannot deduce that" many" here excludes "all." The idea suggested is rather multitudinousness. Shall awake, sores to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. This is a distinct reference to the resurrection of the body; it is those that "sleep in the dust" that shall thus "awake." It is to be noted that at the resurrection the condition of each is fixed frailly it is to "everlasting life" and "overlasting contempt" This resurrection is individual, not national, as shown by the contrasted fates. The doctrine of the resurrection is thus clearly stated. There is no need to examine how much the Jews of the time of the Maccabees understood of this doctrine. Isa_26:14-19, as clearly asdoes this passage, proclaims the same belief. Eze_37:1-14 shows that resurrection was to the Israelites not such an incongruous or impossible idea as it was to the Greeks. But when is this? We might be led by the juxtaposition of this to the account of the sufferings of the Jews under Antiochus, to think that the writer believed the end of the world would take place immediately on the fall of Antiochus. But in the first place we must remember that we have not the vision given to Daniel; it has been replaced by the eleventh chapter. Further, the method of prophecy must be borne in mind. The future was made known in vision. If, as seems probable, distance in space from the apparent standpoint of the prophet represented distance in time from his actual or assumed chronological position, then, if the description of the vision proceeded from one side of the picture to the other, those things would be in close juxtaposition which were to be far removed from each other chronologically. Thus an astronomer may place in the same constellation stars inconceivably distant from each other nay, may even unite as one binary star two suns, the one nearer the earth than the other by thousands of millions of miles. So our Lord correlates the destruction of Jerusalem with the end of the world.
Moreover, the misery endured by the Jewish saints under Antiochus was a type of the sufferings of the people of God of every age.
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Ver. 2.
The resurrection.
I THERE WILL BE A RESURRECTION. For us the Jewish notion of a resurrection is equivalent to the idea of a future life.
1. The yearning for a future life is involuntary and apparently instinctive; the belief in a future life is almost universal amongst people in all degrees of civilization, and with all varieties of religion; the need of a future life for the execution of justice and the development of the hopes and promises of this life is such that we might expect a righteous God to secure it. Providence would be a mockery if it permitted the holiest aspirations of the most spiritual men of all ages and creeds to grow to noble fruits by feeding on one huge delusion. (1Co_15:19)
2. In addition to these presumptions in favour of a future life, we have thefollowing direct evidences:
(1) Scripture, backed up by the three of all that goes to prove its inspiration and truth, plainly teaches that there will be a resurrection, and this with a development of clearness and positiveness which is parallel to that of self-evidencing spiritual ideas.
(2) Jesus Christ taught the same. To reject this teaching, we must believe that our Lord was in complete error on one of the most fundamental doctrines of his religion (Mat_22:23-33; Joh_11:25, 26 14:2)
(3) The fact of the resurrection of Christ amply established on historical evidence which is irresistible when once the supposed presumption against it founded on the testimony of experience in regard to miracles, is balanced by the presumption in favour of it founded on grounds of moral and religious truth is one instance sufficient in itself to prove that there is a life beyond the grave.
II THE RESURRECTION WILL RESULT IN A JUDGMENT AND DIVISION OF DESTINIES.
1. It will be an occasion of revelation. Men"s past history will be rehearsed, their secret thoughts exposed, their true character made known. (Rom_2:16)
1. It will result in justice to all. Now we see justice hindered and delayed, so that the wicked often prosper and the righteous seem to fail. (Psa_73:3) Then men will receive according to their deserts. (Psa_83:17) To those, however, who have repented and sought forgiveness and newness of life in Christ, the justification will consist, not in their meritorious works, but in their faith in the grace of God. (Rom_4:5)
2. The conditions of life thus brought about will be seen to be the natural fruits of the life on earth. The judgment will really only bring to light inevitable natural processes. Its results will be the development of natural law the fruit-bearing of character. (Gal_6:7, Gal_6:8)
III THE RESURRECTION WILL ISSUE IN TWO MAIN COURSES.
1. Eternal life. Life is the issue of godliness not indolent rest, nor selfish pleasure, but glad, restful living. This implies not only continued existence, but
(1) the exercise of faculties and energies;
(2) growth and development larger being, increased knowledge, nobler activities; (1Jn_3:2)
(3) nearer communion with God, who is true Life and the Source of all life. (Joh_17:3)
2. Eternal shame and contempt. This implies suffering spiritual, but most bitter. It is the. degradation of life as opposed to the fuller development of life in God"s people. This is more terrible than physical torture. (Isa_66:24) Note:
1. It implies continued existence not annihilation and also the preservation of conscience. The lowest degradation is where conscience is extinguished, and shame becomes impossible.
2. The eternity of the suffering implies, at least, its duration beyond anyknown bounds. Such a prospect is unspeakably awful, whatever the consideration of other aspects of truth may suggest in regard to the final issues of all punishment.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Some to everlasting life, and some to shame.
Dan_12:2
Some to everlasting life, and some to shame.
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Unto Life or Death--Which?
Death is not annihilation; the grave is not the end of man. Two facts are indisputable among those who receive the Scriptures.
1. The fact of a general resurrection anterior to the Judgment Day.
2. The righteous will be raised to life eternal; the wicked to damnation. The point in the lesson we would enforce--and it is a tremendous point in the matter of personal interest--is embraced in one word which? One or the other of these experiences lie before each and every child of Adam. Do what we will, and neglect what we will, we shall have a part in this resurrection; we shall hear the voice of the Son of God then, whether we hear it now or not; and we shall live, and come forth either to be caught up into Heaven, or be banished to hell! In that hour of infinite power and display there will be no place of retreat, no possible concealment of evasion. In the dazzling light of the resurrection day it will be made clear as the noonday sun that there are but two characters, two ways, two destinies in Gods universe, and that an eternal gulf divides them, and on whichsoever side of that abyss we find ourselves then and there, there we shall remain as long as the throne of the Almighty endures. Which? O my soul! Which? (J. M. Sherwood, D.D.)
The Resurrection and its Consequences
I. THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. The word many, in view of other Scriptures, must he understood as meaning all, or the many, the whole collective body of mankind. Our corrupted bodies may, to all human appearance, be lost among their kindred dust; but God hath declared that those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. The churchyard that surrounds us is filled with earth that once had breath and life. It seems, when you walk among the graves, as if eternal night had closed over them; as if they would never he seen or heard of again. But wait awhile. Their night will have an end. Death itself must at last be swallowed up in victory. If we should inquire no further, this grand promise of fire resurrection might seem to he a doctrine of unmixed comfort and satisfaction. But Consider:
II. THE CERTAIN AND IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. The final issue is, everlasting life to some; shame and everlasting contempt to others.
1. Some shall awake to everlasting life. What is that life? Does it merely mean that their bodies will revive, and never die again? That cannot be the exclusive meaning of the word Life. It is the life of which St. Paul speaks, Your life is hid with Christ in God. Everlasting life is not first begun when the Christian wakes from the grave; it begins here upon earth. The Holy Ghost, who is the Lord and Giver of life, implants it in the heart of every believer at his conversion. Heaven is but a completion of that state into which a Christian is first brought while here below. All mankind are by nature dead--dead in trespasses and sins. When the heart is softened and humbled, the spirit becomes broken and contrite, and the will subdued and compliant, you are passing from death unto life. You become, by faith, united to Jesus Christ, as the branch is united to the vine, and in consequence of this blessed union you partake of the nature of the tree on which you are engrafted. Being a branch in Him, bring forth good fruit.
2. Some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt. These words describe the end of the wicked and ungodly. But this description does not give, by any means, a full account of their future misery. The wicked man rises from the grave, and the first objects which be meets are shame and everlasting contempt. These are the consequences of the resurrection to him. Even in this life, sinners are extremely anxious to escape the shame which naturally attends upon transgression. In this, by the help of Satan, they partly succeed. But, how will they appear when, at the resurrection, they awake up from their long sleep? Then the secrets of all hearts will be revealed, and that by One who has seen your life from the beginning to the end. The shame of the wicked will be still further increased by a clear discovery of the mercies which they might have obtained by a penitent faith in Christ. Men pretend that true piety could have no effect but to make them miserable. But when that eternal day shall dawn, the truth will burst upon them at once, and they will learn that godliness is great again; having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. And he will awake to everlasting contempt. Nothing but an assurance of Gods favour and love can fully reconcile a man to the contempt and sneers of the world. Is the contempt of an avenging Judge the whole of what sinners must look for in that day? No; the saints of God will also unite with Him in condemning His enemies. (J. Jowett, MA.)
Eternal Life
Describe the familiar picture of St. Augustine and his mother Monica. It depicts two beings aspiring in heart and soul after eternal life, and thinking for a moment that they have hold upon it. These two human beings--outward bound, as they say; bent on a voyage, preparing to cross the sea, to reach an earthly home, and, meanwhile, preparing for another voyage, across that other sea, whose further shore no living human being has ever seen--how does this illustrate our own position on the road to eternal life? We all are preparing to cross the sea. All who have realised the voyage that is to be, begin to ask themselves what there is on the other side. Treat these two points of Scripture.
1. There is eternal life. There is no distinction between the two words, eternal and everlasting; the original word that each of them translates is exactly the same. The text in Daniel is the first in the Bible in which the words everlasting life occur. There are only three other passages in the Old Testament where the same meaning, if not quite the same words, is to be found. That is all, so far as I can find, that the Old Testament contains about everlasting life. In the New Testament, everlasting life is everywhere. It is the whole purport of the Gospel to make it possible for human beings to reach life eternal. That was the good news for them.
2. What is eternal life? To know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Christ is the life eternal, the spring and source of it to others, the essence and substance of it in Himself. How is it obtained? He that believeth on the Son hath life eternal. The gift is spoken of in the present tense. As soon as the water that Christ gives reaches a human heart, in it the spring of living water bursts forth and flows. Eternal lifo begins here. It consists in the union of the soul through Christ with God. A life in union with God--the selfish will submitted to His will--loving the things that He loves--hating the things that He hates--this wrought by faith in Christ, and the spirit that He has sent--this is what I imagine to be eternal life according to the Scripture idea. (Canon Rawstorne, M.A.)
Moral Distinctions Emphasised at the Resurrection
Men will be sorted yonder. Gravitation will come into play undisturbed; and the pebbles will be ranged according to their weights on the great shore where the sea has cast them up, as they are upon Chesil beach down there in the English Channel, and many another coast besides; all the big ones together and sized off to the smaller ones, regularly and steadily laid out. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Resurrection--the Embodiment of Mind
There be two principles at work in the resurrection of the dead. The glorified body is not the physical outcome of the material body here; but is the issue and manifestation, in visible form, of the perfect and Christ-like spirit. Some shall rise to glory and immortality, some to shame and everlasting contempt. If we are to stand at the last, with the body of our humiliation changed into a body of glory, we must begin by being changed in the spirit of our mind. As the mind is, so will the body be one day.
Future Permanence of Character
You and I write out our lives as if on one of those manifold writers which you use. A thin, filmy sheet here, a bit of black paper below it; but the writing goes through upon the next page. And when the blackness that divides the two worlds is swept away there the history of each life, written by ourselves, remains legible in eternity. (A. Maclaren.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain As regards the religious views of the Book of…
THE THEOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL
As regards the religious views of the Book of Daniel some of them at any rate are in full accordance with the belief in the late origin of the Book to which we are led by so many indications.
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I. Thus in Dan_12:2 (for we may here so far anticipate the examination of the second section of the Book) we meet, for the first time in Scripture, with a distinct recognition of the resurrection of the individual dead. This, as all know, is a doctrine of which we only find the faintest indication in the earlier books of the Canon. Although the doctrine is still but dimly formulated, it is clearer in this respect than Isa_25:8, Isa_26:19.
II. Still more remarkable is the special prominence of angels. It is not God who goes forth to war, {Jdg_5:13; Jdg_5:23} or takes personal part in the deliverance or punishment of nations. {Isa_5:26; Isa_7:18} Throned in isolated and unapproachable transcendence, He uses the agency of intermediate beings. {Dan_4:14}
In full accordance with late developments of Jewish opinion angels are mentioned by special names, and appear as Princes and Protectors of special lands. {Dan_4:14; Dan_9:21; Dan_10:13; Dan_10:20} In no other book in the Old Testament have we any names given to angels, or any distinction between their dignities, or any trace of their being in mutual rivalry as Princes or Patrons of different nationalities. These remarkable features of angelology only occur in the later epoch, and in the apocalyptic literature to which this Book belongs. Thus they are found in the LXX translations Deu_32:8 and Isa_30:4, and in such post-Maccabean books as those of Enoch and Esdras.
III. Again, we have the fixed custom of three daily formal prayers, uttered towards the Kibleh of Jerusalem. This may, possibly, have begun during the Exile. It became a normal rule for later ages. The Book, however, like that of Jonah, is, as a whole, remarkably free from any extravagant estimate of Levitical minutiae.
IV. Once more, for the first time in Jewish story, we find extreme importance attached to the Levitical distinction of clean and unclean meats, which also comes into prominence in the age of the Maccabees, as it afterwards constituted a most prominent element in the ideal of Talmudic religionism. {#/RAPC 1Ma 1:62 2Ma 5:27 6:18-7:42} Daniel and the Three Children are vegetarians, like the Pharisees after the destruction of the Second Temple, mentioned in "Baba Bathra," f. 60, 2.
V. We have already noticed the avoidance of the sacred name "Jehovah" even in passages addressed to Jews, {Dan_2:18} though we find "Jehovah" in 2Ch_36:7. Jehovah only occurs in reference to Jer_25:8-11, and in the prayer of the ninth chapter, where we also find "Adonai" and "Elohim."
Periphrases for God, like "the Ancient of Days," become normal in Talmudic literature.
VI. Again: the doctrine of the Messiah, like these other doctrines, is, as Professor Driver says, "taught with greater distinctness and in a more developed form than elsewhere in the Old Testament, and with features approximating to, though not identical with, those met with in the earlier parts of the Book of Enoch (B.C. too). In one or two instances these developments may have been partially moulded by foreign influences." They undoubtedly mark a later phase of revelation than that which is set before us in other books of the Old Testament. And the conclusion indicated by these special features in the Book is confirmed by the general atmosphere which we breathe throughout it. The atmosphere and tone are not those of any other writings belonging to the Jews of the Exile; it is rather that of the Maccabean "Chasidim." How far the Messianic "Bar Enosh" {Dan_7:13} is meant to be a person will be considered in the comment on that passage.
We shall see in later pages that the supreme value and importance of the Book of Daniel, rightly understood, consists in this-that "it is the first attempt at a Philosophy, or rather at a Theology of History." Its main object was to teach the crushed and afflicted to place unshaken confidence in God.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain SECT. XLVI.—THE RESURRECTION. (Chap. Dan_12:2.)
HOMILETICS
SECT. XLVI.—THE RESURRECTION. (Chap. Dan_12:2.)
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We come to a most precious and important part of the angel’s communication. It is that in which he declares more distinctly than had ever been done before the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, and that in connection with retribution, which had not previously been done. The object for which the statement concerning this great truth is now so distinctly made, is obviously to comfort Daniel and his faithful though suffering people, and especially to sustain and encourage those who should be called to lay down their life in the maintenance of God’s truth and worship. That the statement produced this effect in the case of those who suffered under Antiochus in the Maccabæan age, we have historical evidence in the first book of the Maccabees; and more especially in the narrative there given of the Jewish mother and her seven sons, who chose rather to endure a horrible death than renounce their religion, under the assured hope of “the better resurrection.” [348] The statement is made here in connection with the promise of deliverance to an elect remnant during the last great attack upon Israel from the hostile world-power, in which so many should miserably perish; and it is there made apparently with the view of assuring them that at that period of deliverance those who had fallen in maintenance of the truth, or had died in the faith and service of Jehovah, should also receive their reward. The comfort intended appears similar to that designed by the Apostle when he assures believers, who are mourning the departure of those who had fallen asleep in Jesus, that when the Lord should come again to take His people to glory, He would not glorify those who should then be found alive till He had first raised from the dead those that slept in Him (1Th_4:15-17).
[348] “It is good,” said one of these seven sons, when his body was lacerated by the scourge “being put to death by man, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by Him.”
In connection with the passage before us, we have to notice—
I. The fact of the resurrection. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” There should be little doubt that a true physical and literal resurrection of the body is here intended, and not a moral, spiritual, and figurative one, such as that described in Ezekiel 36. [349] If a resurrection of the body is not here declared, it will be difficult to find where it is, or to imagine words in which it can be so. Although the doctrine may be found in earlier inspired writings, yet it is doubtless on this passage that the Jewish martyrs more especially based their hope, and from this that the Jews in general drew their assurance that there should be a resurrection of the dead, and that both of the just and the unjust (Act_24:15). [350] It is justly believed also that to this passage the Saviour’s words had reference when, announcing Himself to be the Lord and Giver of life, He declared, “The hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation” (Joh_5:28-29). Of this resurrection Jesus Himself rose as a specimen and firstfruits, in whom, as the second Adam and Head of redeemed humanity, those who died literally and physically in the first Adam, should in the same sense be “made alive.” Accordingly after His resurrection, Matthew relates, that many of the bodies of the saints which slept arose, and “went into the holy city and appeared unto many” (Mat_27:52-53). To such a resurrection Paul referred in his appeal to Agrippa and his audience at Cæsarea when he asked, “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Act_26:8). It is the resurrection of the body that sleeps in the grave, or “in the dust of the earth,” [351] the same, yet changed. In respect to the bodies of believers at least, “it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory” (1Co_15:42-44). The expression of the angel, “them that sleep in the dust,” though a similar one had been already used by Isaiah (Isa_26:19), and even by the Psalmist (Psa_17:15), and still more in the book of Job (Job_14:12), that which more especially gave occasion to the practice of speaking of death as a sleep (Act_7:60; 1Co_15:6; 1Co_15:51; 1Th_4:13-14). More than from the mere resemblance between the state of death and sleep, which even the heathen recognised, the expression derives its significance from the fact that out of that sleep there is an awaking, which mere natural reason seems never to have been able to anticipate, and still less to obtain the certainty of; although the transformation of insects might well suggest the possibility, if not the probability, of a similar change for man.
[349] Grotius referred the resurrection in the text, in the first instance, figuratively, to the deliverance of the Jews in the time of Antiochus, as Porphyry had done before him; and in the second instance, to the literal resurrection of the body, as rather hinted at than explicitly declared. He has had, however, but few followers in the Christian Church. Brightman understood the resurrection here as pointing to the victories of the Jewish nation, and their being called to the faith in Christ, as Joh_5:25; Eph_5:15; Rom_11:15; Eze_37:1, &c. Some, he thinks, partaking of the deliverance predicted, shall yet persist in their wickedness, and shall rise indeed, but to eternal destruction.
[350] It was a saying of Rabbi Eleazar of Capernaum: “They who are born are to die, and the dead to live, and the living to be judged; that we might know, and understand, to be informed, that He is God the Former, the Creator, the Intelligent One, the Judge.… Let not thine imagination persuade thee that the grave shall be a house of refuge for thee; for against thy will thou wast formed, and against thy will thou wast born, and against thy will thou dost live, and against thy will wilt thou die, and against thy will must thou hereafter give in thine account.”—Pirke Abhoth, Dan_4:23.
[351] “In the dust of the earth.” אַדְמַת־עָפָר of dust, the dusty ground; the expression formed after Gen_3:19, and denoting the grave, as in Psa_22:30, “the dust of death.”
II. The time of it. This apparently indicated by the place which the statement occupies, and its connection with the preceding one, expressed by the copula “and.” [352] The angel appears to intimate that when the Jewish remnant experience the promised deliverance, this other deliverance shall also take place in reference to those that shall have slept the sleep of death. These two events, Israel’s conversion and restoration, and the resurrection of the dead, are elsewhere brought together in the Scriptures, as taking place soon after each other. The resurrection is coincident with the Lord’s second appearing: “Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” But Israel’s conversion and restoration is connected with the same glorious advent. Peter exhorts the Jews to repent and be converted, not only that their sins may be blotted out, but “that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached” unto them, and whom “the heavens must receive till the restitution of all things” (Act_3:19-21, R.V.) The Jews were not to see Jesus again until they should say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat_23:39). The promise that they should look on Him whom they had pierced and mourn because of Him, is viewed by the Apostle John as pointing to the Lord’s visible appearing: “Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him” (Rev_1:7). The Apostle Paul appears to connect the conversion of Israel with the Redeemer’s coming: “There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob;” or, as it stands in Isaiah, “The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them that turn from transgression in Jacob” (Isa_59:20; Rom_11:26). The destruction of Antichrist, too, when he has “planted the tabernacles of his palace between the seas on the glorious holy mountain,” in the great gathering at Armageddon connected with Israel’s conversion, is also apparently represented in the Apocalypse as speedily, if not immediately, followed by the first resurrection (Rev_19:19-20; Rev_20:4-5). Paul also appears unmistakably to connect the destruction of the Man of Sin or Son of perdition, doubtless the same Wicked or Lawless One of whom Daniel prophesied, with the personal and glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus: “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit (breath) of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness (manifestation) of His coming” (2Th_2:1-2; 2Th_2:8, R.V.) Daniel 7 seems also plainly to connect the destruction of the fourth beast and the little horn with the coming of the Son of Man with the clouds of heaven.” The destruction of Antichrist, the conversion and restoration of Israel, the resurrection of the just, thus appear closely connected with each other, and all with the Lord’s glorious appearing.
[352] “And many,” &c. “Keil remarks that the copula ו(and) connects this verse with the preceding one, and indicates the continuance of the thought in the latter half of that verse, i.e., the further representation of the deliverance of God’s people, namely, of all those who are written in the book of life. Auberlen and some others separate the resurrection from the predicted time of tribulation, simply because they refer that time to the persecution under Antiochus. He believes, however, that the resurrection will follow immediately after the period of Antichrist, and be contemporary with the coming of the Messiah in glory. Calvin thinks that the angel passes over the intermediate state between the preaching of the Gospel and the final resurrection, because the salvation of the church is connected with that event, it being till then like a dead body. Bishop Newton connects the resurrection with the tribulation as taking place immediately after it. Dr. Chalmers, on Isa_26:11-21, remarks that “it will take a time even after they (the Jews) are set upon enlargement, ere the deliverance can be wrought, and their enemies have fallen. But it will come at length, and come gloriously. Then will there be the first resurrection.”
III. The subjects of the resurrection. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth.” Although the Scriptures, and probably this very passage, assure us that all the dead shall rise again, both just and unjust; yet this does not appear to be expressly declared by the angel in the words before us. Not all that sleep, but many of them, shall awake. [353] “Many” are not here equivalent to “all,” as in Rom_5:15; Rom_5:19; both because of the absence of the article, and because the “of,” or from among, that follows gives what is called a partitive signification,—indicating a part, and not the whole. The “many” who shall awake are the godly,—the “some,” or literally “these,” who shall awake to everlasting life, and of whom it is the angel’s special object now to speak. That the rest of the sleepers, or the ungodly, shall also awake, appears to be also intimated; these being the second “some,” or literally “those,” who shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt. It being the angel’s object rather to speak of the future blessedness of the faithful, it is their resurrection which is here especially declared as taking place in connection with the predicted deliverance. The resurrection of the rest or the ungodly, not being here especially intended to be spoken of, though plainly intimated, was apparently indicated as taking place at a period posterior to that of the others. Such we find to be in accordance with the manner in which the resurrection is generally spoken of in the New Testament. The “resurrection of the just” is spoken of by the Saviour as a thing by itself. “Thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just” (Luk_14:14). “In the resurrection”—that is, the state which it introduces—“they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God” (Mat_22:30). Still more expressly in Luke: “The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection” (Luk_20:34-36). The resurrection here spoken of obviously includes only the godly,—the “resurrection of the just,” which only some shall be accounted worthy to obtain, even the children of God, who are therefore also called “the children of the resurrection.” This is that which the Epistle to the Hebrews represents the ancient martyrs as being so eager to obtain, called “a better,” or rather “the better, resurrection” (Heb_11:35). This also apparently that which in the Apocalypse is called “the first resurrection,”—that, namely, of the martyrs and faithful followers of Jesus; the rest of the dead not living again till the thousand years’ reign of Christ and His saints is finished (Rev_20:4-5). The Apostle also only speaks of them that are Christ’s being raised at His coming, this being according to the appointed order: “Every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1Co_15:23). So when Christ shall descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, it is “the dead in Christ” that “rise first,”—before the living saints are changed (1Th_4:15-17). It is, however, only in the Apocalypse, which closes the canon of Scripture, that we seem to learn anything of the length of the interval elapsing between the resurrection of the just and that of the unjust. [354] It is thus that, according to the Psalmist, the upright “have dominion” over the ungodly “in the morning” (Psa_49:14); theirs being not merely a resurrection of the dead, but a resurrection from, or from among, the dead (Luk_20:35), where it is literally and emphatically “the resurrection, that from the dead.” This general mode of representing the resurrection is not really at variance with the Saviour’s words in Joh_5:28, though apparently so. The resurrection of both classes is not said to be simultaneous; the “hour” in which that of both shall take place being simply the time when it shall happen, without defining it to be either at the same moment, or with a lengthened interval between. This was to be learned from other testimonies of Scripture. It may be added that, in like manner, Jewish doctors generally spoke of the resurrection as peculiarly belonging to the righteous; though they also taught that at some period or other the bodies also of the wicked should be restored to life.
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[353] “Many of them that sleep,” &c. וְרַבִּים מִיּשְנֵי (verabbim miyoshene). Keil remarks that רַבִּים (rabbim) does not mean all, and that the partitive interpretation of מִן (min), “of or from among,” is the only simple and natural one, and therefore with most interpreters he prefers it. Some, as C. B. Michaelis, following the Masoretic accentuation, separate רַבִּים from מִיּשְׁנֵי, “And [there shall be many]; of them that sleep, some, or these, shall awake,” &c. Brightman reads the word as equivalent to all, meaning the Jewish nation. Broughton understands it of the universality of them that sleep. Calvin, also, after Augustine, understands the word to mean all. Keil thinks that it is not the object of the angel to give a general statement regarding the resurrection of the dead, but only to give the information that the final salvation of the people shall not be limited to those who shall be living at the end of the great tribulation, but shall include also those who have lost their lives during that period. He thinks, however, that the Israel of the time of the end, who are here referred to, consist not merely of Jews or of Jewish Christians, but embraces all peoples who belong to God’s kingdom of the New Covenant; in which respect the resurrection of all is implied, as it is explicitly declared by Christ when speaking in Joh_5:28, with unmistakable reference to this verse. He adds: “As with the living (at that time), so also with the dead, not all attain to blessedness. Also among those that arise there shall be a distinction, in which the reward of the faithful and of the unfaithful shall be made known.” He considers the word “many” used only “with allusion to and in contrast with the small number of those who shall then be living, and not with reference either to the universality of the resurrection of the dead or to a portion only of the dead;” the object being merely “to add to the multitude of the dead, who shall then have part with the living, the small number of those who shall experience in the flesh the conclusion of the matter.” Osiander, Bullinger, and Vatablus understand the word many to be chosen instead of all, as some believers will be alive at the Lord’s coming.
[354] On Rev_20:4, Bishop Newton remarks: “The martyrs and confessors of Jesus,—not only those who were beheaded or who suffered death under the heathen emperors, but also those who refused to comply with the idolatrous worship of ‘the beast and his image,’—are raised from the dead, and have the principal share in the felicities of Christ’s kingdom upon earth.… This is the first resurrection,—a particular resurrection preceding the general one at least a thou and years.” Auberlen, on the same passage, says: “Among the saints who are called to reign with Christ, the martyrs of ancient and modern times are mentioned first; because, most like to the Lord Jesus in their suffering and death, they are therefore nearer Him in His life and reign.… Next to the martyrs are mentioned all who had not worshipped the beast, be it in more remote times or in the last days;—all they who refused to take the power of this world as a reality, and to serve it instead of looking to the things invisible and future” (2Co_4:17). This he says is “the ‘first resurrection,’ as distinguished from the general one, which is mentioned in Dan_12:12.” A Jewish tradition of the school of Elias is quoted by Bishop Newton, which states that “the righteous whom God shall raise up shall not again be turned to dust, but shall live a thousand years, in which the Holy and Blessed One shall renew His world.” The early fathers in general held the same view. Justin Martyr, in the second century, says: “A certain man among us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, in a revelation made to him, did prophesy that the faithful believers in Christ should live a thousand years in the New Jerusalem, and afterwards there should be a general resurrection and judgment.” Tertullian, in the third century, speaks of it as the belief of himself and the general Church, that “there shall be a resurrection for a thousand years in the New Jerusalem, and after that the destruction of the world, and the general judgment.” Lactantius, in the following century, speaks to the same effect. Mosheim, treating of the third century, says: “Long before this period, an opinion had prevailed that Christ was to come to reign a thousand years among men before the entire and final dissolution of this world. This opinion, which had hitherto met with no opposition, was differently interpreted by different persons; nor did all promise themselves the same kind of enjoyments in the future and glorious kingdom. But in this century its credit began to decline, principally through the influence and authority of Origen, who opposed it with the greatest warmth, because it was incompatible with some of his favourite sentiments. Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, endeavoured to restore this opinion to its former credit, in a book written against the Allegorists; for so he called, by way of contempt, the adversaries of the millennarian system. This work and the hypothesis it defended was extremely well received by great numbers in the canton of Arsinoë; and among others by Colacion, a priest of no mean influence and reputation. But Dionysius of Alexandria, a disciple of Origen, stopped the growing progress of the doctrine by his private discourses, and also by two learned and judicious dissertations concerning the divine promises.” Mr. Miles (Lectures on Daniel) observes, after Mede, that we have strong evidence that so late as the Council of Nice (a.d. 325) the current of public opinion was in favour of the orthodox primitive belief. “New heavens and a new earth,” says that Council, “we expect according to the sacred writings, when there shall shine forth the appearance and kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; and then, as saith Daniel, the saints of the Most High shall receive a kingdom, and the earth shall be pure and holy, an earth of the living and not of the dead.” After the fourth century, as the same author observes, “the leading fundamental doctrines of the Gospel were eclipsed by the rapid growth of error, tradition superseding the authority of Scripture. ‘The doctrine,’ says Bishop Burnet in his Sacred Theory of the Earth, ‘was always uneasy, and gave offence to the Church of Rome, because it does not suit to that scheme of Christianity which they have drawn. They suppose that Christ reigns already by His Vicar the Pope.’ ” Auberlen also remarks: “Chiliasm—the doctrine of the thousand years’ reign of Christ—disappeared in the Church in proportion as Roman papal Catholicism advanced.… The papacy, with its fundamental tendency to seek power and external glory, is, in its innermost essence, a false anticipation of the millennial kingdom. Bengel says: ‘When Christianity became a worldly power by Constantine, the hope of the future was weakened by the joy over the present success.’ ” The doctrine appears, however, to have revived with the Reformation. John Bradford the martyr, quoted by Mr. Miles, says: “Methinks it is the duty of a godly mind simply to acknowledge, and thereof to brag in the Lord, that in our resurrection all things shall be so repaired to eternity, as for our sin they were made subject to corruption.” And again: “Now every creature travaileth and groaneth with us; but we being restored, they also shall be restored; there shall be new heavens and new earth, and all things new.” Auberlen observes: “The Reformation protested successfully against the harlot (the papal Church) by opposing to it the original Christian principle of faith, which is opposed, not only to the works of the law, but to living by sight, and to a false externalisation of the Church.… The fundamental principle of apostolical Christianity, viz., of faith, is inseparable from apostolical Chiliasm.… The Reformers did not carry out their principle far enough to attain biblical Chiliasm.… Scholastic priestly tyranny, Cæsaropapism, besides the papacy, brought Antichiliasm.… The conscience of the Reformation protested against this new corruption of the Church in the person of Spener.” In the time of the commonwealth the ancient doctrine seems to have revived in England. Baillie in his Letters says: “The most of the chief divines here (in the Westminster Assembly), not only Independents, but others, such as Twisse, Marshall, Palmer, and many others, are express Chiliasts.” Peter Sterry, one of Cromwell’s Censors, says of the premillennial advent and the thousand years’ reign: “Like a rich coin, which hath been long buried in the earth, and lately dug up again, it begins to grow bright with handling, and to pass current with great numbers of saints and learned men of great authority.” Joseph Caryl, the author of the commentary on Job, his fellow-censor, speaks similarly in his Recommendation of Holmes’s book on the resurrection, in which pre-millennarian views are strongly advocated. “Though I have not skill enough in the exposition of hard prophecies,” says the spiritually minded Baxter, “to make a particular determination about the thousand years’ reign of Christ on the earth before the final judgment, yet I may say that I cannot confute what such learned men as Mr. Mede, and Dr. Twisse, and others (after the old Fathers) have hereof asserted.” John Bunyan expresses his views thus: “The world therefore beginning thus, doth show how it will end, namely, by the reign of the Second Adam, as it began with the reign of the first. These long-lived men, therefore, show us the glory that the Church shall have in the latter day, even the seventh thousand years of the world, the Sabbath when Christ shall set up His kingdom upon earth, according to that which is written, They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” “Christ,” says Dr. Gill, “will be in His kingdom not only by His Spirit and the effusions of His grace, but He will personally appear in all His glory; hence His appearing and kingdom are put together as contemporaneous in 2Ti_4:1. This glorious and visible kingdom will not take place till after the resurrection of the just and the renovation of the world. As soon as He personally appears, the dead in Christ shall rise first; this is the first resurrection, in which they who have a part shall reign with Christ a thousand years. This kingdom of Christ will be bounded by two resurrections.” Delitzsch, quoted by Auberlen, marks the general prevalence of the doctrine among believers in Germany, and traces it to the influence of Bengel and his writings. “To whom also,” he asks, “do we owe it that the orthodox Church of the present time does not brand the Chiliastic view of the Last Times as a heterodoxy, as is done in almost all old manuals of dogmatics; but, on the contrary, has allowed it to enter into her innermost life, so that there is scarcely a believing Christian now (that is, in Germany) who does not take this view?”
IV. The results of the resurrection. “Some (or these) to everlasting life; some (or those) to shame and everlasting contempt.” The results in the two cases infinitely opposite to each other. In regard to the faithful, of whom the angel particularly speaks, the result is everlasting life. Life the term employed in the Scriptures to express happiness of experience and holiness of character, and likeness to God in both; that happiness being especially found in the enjoyment of His favour, friendship, and fellowship, and that holiness in the possession of His own nature and character. “In His favour is life.” Sin is “alienation” or estrangement “from the life of God.” The term “everlasting” life, so often used in the New Testament, doubtless taken from this very passage, is here met with for the first time. It is everlasting life, as enjoyed in that kingdom of Christ and of God, which is for ever and ever (chap, 7.) It is everlasting, in contrast to the same life enjoyed in Paradise, but which came to an end through Adam’s transgression. Believers who have this life are “saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” It is found only in, or in vital union with, the Lord Jesus Himself, who is the Life. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1Jn_5:12). It is obtained in believing on, or accepting of and trusting in, the Lord Jesus as a Saviour for lost sinners. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh_3:36). The “shame and contempt” of the rest of the risen dead is that which properly belongs to sin, the abominable thing that God hates, and which makes all those abominable in whom it dwells. The first mark of true repentance is to see this to be the case, and to loathe ourselves for our iniquities. “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” (Rom_6:21). One part of the punishment of sin is, to be made a loathing to others as well as ourselves. “They shall be an abhorring to all flesh” (Isa_66:24). That shame and abhorring also everlasting. “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still,” as true as, “He that is holy, let him be holy still” (Rev_22:11). Continuance, and perhaps growth and intensification, but no change.
Let us, from the subject before us, learn—
1. To have our minds deeply and permanently impressed with the truth and reality of the resurrection. It was for this that the statement was made to Daniel by the angel. It is one of the truths most plainly revealed and most frequently referred to in the Word of God. Christ’s resurrection is to be the object of our faith; our own resurrection the object of our hope. It was in the hope and expectation of the resurrection that the Apostle exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man. It was the source of his joy and triumph, that this corruption should put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. In this blessed hope he cheerfully renounced the world and died daily, ready, “after the manner of men,” to “fight with beasts at Ephesus.” It was this hope that enabled the Jewish martyrs to dare all the rage of their furious persecutors; and will enable us, though not martyrs, to look not at the things that are seen and temporal, but at those that are unseen and eternal. It is our comfort when we part with beloved ones who fall asleep in Jesus, and commit their bodies to the dust of the earth, to know that that body, now sown as a precious seed-corn in weakness and dishonour, shall be raised in power and glory, the same voice of Jesus that comforted Martha and Mary speaking to us at the side of that open grave, “Thy brother shall rise again.” “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1Th_4:14; 1Th_4:18).
2. To regard everything in the light of the resurrection. It is our wisdom to view things now as they will appear on that day. Everything will then stand forth in its true character. Things often appear quite otherwise now. “That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination with God,” and will so appear at the resurrection. Paul and his fellow-apostles were regarded on earth as “the filth of the world and the offscourings of all things.” In the resurrection they will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Men tike Herod Agrippa, who had shed their blood and put them in prison to please the Jews, and who, while seated on his throne in gorgeous array, and delivering his oration to the people, was applauded as a god and not a man, will on that day be the objects of “shame and everlasting contempt.” Dives and Lazarus will then change places. Lazarus, with his ulcered body changed and transfigured into the fashion of Christ’s glorious body, will have his place among the princes of God’s people, inheriting the throne of glory, on which he will reign with Christ for ever and ever, in the enjoyment of an everlasting felicity. The rich man, appearing in a body allied to his unrenewed and sin-polluted soul, will be “an abhorring to all flesh.” The “mighty,” who only lived to the gratification of their own pride and passions, will be “put down from their seats;” while those “of low degree,” who in their poverty trusted in God and, possessing their blood-washed souls in thankful patience, waited for the coming of His Son from heaven, shall be exalted to the position of kings and priests unto God, in mansions of unfading joy and a kingdom of righteousness and peace, with the Lamb for their companion and God for their everlasting light and glory.
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Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 12:2 Everlasting life is completely without shame or disgrace…
12:2 Everlasting life is completely without shame or disgrace (cp. Gen 2:25; 3:7).
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