THE LAST JUDGMENT (a must-read for all who are taking part in it)

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IX. THE LAST JUDGMENT

 

In the apocalyptic thinking the event toward which everything else

points is the last judgment. At the heart of apocalyptic thinking is

the problem of theodicy. How can the all-powerful and just God allow

righteous people to suffer? Apocalyptic solves the problems by

deferring the full manifestation of God's power and righteousness to

the last judgment. Then the righteous will be vindicated and the

wicked punished.8

 

According to LAB 3,10 at the time determined by God, all the dead –

righteous and wicked alike – will be raised and will come before the

judgment seat of God. The purpose of the last judgment is that

God " may render to each according to his works and according to the

fruits of his own devices " . The criterion for the last judgment is

fidelity to the Torah. God tells Moses as he gives him the Law on

Mount Sinai: " I have given an everlasting law in your hands, and by

this I will judge the whole world " (LAB 11,2).

 

In the last judgment scene in 4 Ezra 7,33-43 the judge is God: " And

the Most High shall be revealed upon the seat of judgment " (7,33). At

the last judgment – where the justice of God is also on trial – there

can be no more room for compassion or patience on God's part.

Rather, " judgment alone shall remain, truth shall stand, and

faithlessness shall grow strong " (7,34). The judgment will

include " the nations " , and they will be convicted for their lack of

faith and wicked behaviour: " Look now, and understand whom you have

denied, whom you have not served, whose commandments you have

despised! " (7,37).

 

The author of 2 Baruch contrasts the delight with which the souls of

the righteous approach the last judgment and the fear with which the

souls of the wicked approach it (see 30,2). At the last judgment the

Most High " will truly inquire into everything with regard to all

their works which were sins… and make them manifest in the presence

of everyone with blame " (83,2-3). In the final substantive message in

the concluding letter (chaps. 78-87), Baruch affirms that " there is

one Law by One, one world and an end for all those who exists "

(85,14). And he ends with a reference to the last judgment: " Then he

will make alive those whom he has found, and he will purge them from

sins, and at the same time he will destroy those who are polluted

with sins " (85,15).

 

The judgment scenes in these three first-century Palestine Jewish

works provide the master narrative for the parables of judgment in

the Synoptic Gospels. In Mt 18,23-35, the king first shows mercy to

his servant but then exacts strict justice from the unforgiving

servant. In the parables of the talents (Mt 25,14-30) and the pounds

(Lk. 19,11-27), the master judges the third servant harshly but

justly because he failed to increase the master's assets beyond what

had been given to him. And the great judgment scene in Mt 25,31-46

gives the role of the judge to the Son of Man, involves " all the

nations " ' and rewards those who have done acts of kindness for those

in need and punishes those who have not.

 

X. REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS

 

The last judgment according to LAB 3,10 is to be followed by dramatic

changes: " And the world will cease, and death will be abolished and

hell will shut its mouth… and there will be another earth and another

heaven, an everlasting dwelling place " . Whereas for the righteous the

last judgment will mean " life eternal " (23,13), for the wicked it

means annihilation or eternal punishment…

 

After the last judgment that is to be illumined solely by " the

splendour of the glory of the Most High " and will last " about a week

of years " , the eschatological scenario in 4 Ezra 7,33-43 describes

two places where those who have been judged will experience their

versions of eternal life: " Then the pit of torment shall appear, and

opposite it shall be the place of rest, and the furnace of Hell

(lit., Gehenna) shall be disclosed, and opposite it the Paradise of

delight " (7,36). When Ezra expresses his disturbance that so few

humans will be saved, his angelic interpreter instructs him that " the

Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come

for the sake of the few " (8,1). He goes on to state that " many have

been created, but few will be saved " (8,3). As Ezra continues to

obsess over the " more who perished than those will be saved " (9,15),

he is advised that God is more interested in " the righteous, their

pilgrimage also, and their salvation, and their receiving their

reward " (8,39) and in saving " one grape out of a cluster, one plant

out of great forest " (9,21).

 

In 2 Baruch a major concern is the eternal happiness that the

righteous will enjoy. Those who have acted righteously in this world

possess " a store of good works which is preserved in treasuries "

(14,12) and so they " are confident of the world which you have

promised to them with an expectation full of joy " (14,13). While the

righteous may have experienced this world as " struggle and an effort

with much trouble " , for them the world to come will be " a crown with

great glory " (15,8). The coming world will be given to those

who " have preserved the truth of the Law " (44,14), while

the " habitations of the many others will be in the fire " (44,15). In

the present time of suffering the righteous are exhorted to " make

ready your souls for the reward which is preserved for you " (52,7).

The eternal reign of God according to 2 Bar 73,1-7 will be a time for

perfect joy and rest in which all that makes human existence

difficult (illness, fear, untimely death, pain in childbearing, etc.)

will cease, and the " peaceable kingdom " of Isa 11,6-9 will become a

reality…

 

In their statements about rewards and punishments after the last

judgment, these three first-century Palestinian Jewish works manifest

common perspectives on many issues. They also raise questions that

are debated among biblical and systematic theologians today. For

example, LAB envisions two possible punishments for the wicked –

annihilation in the case of Korah, and eternal torment in

inextinguishable fire in the case of Doeg. 4 Ezra with its special

concern for the very small number of those who will be saved provides

a stark contrast to the position of those who look for what

approaches universal salvation or who see no need for salvation at

all. And the vision of the world to come for the righteous in 2

Baruch offers striking parallels to the depiction of the New

Jerusalem in Rev 21,1-22,5. It also prompts questions about the nature

of eternal life with God: Is it a better form of human existence as

we know (life in the " new earth " ), or an entirely different kind of

existence (life in the " new heaven " )?

 

Daniel J. Harrington

Weston Jesuit School of Theology

3 Phillips Place

Cambridge, MA 02138

U.S.A.

 

 

8. D.J. Harrington, Why do we suffer? A Scriptural Approach to the

Human Condition, WI, Sheed & Ward, 2000, pp. 71-86.