_The Resurrection of the Body_


ANIMISM--the doctrine of the continuous existence, after death, of the
disembodied human spirit--has a place in the majority of religious
systems; but belief in the resurrection of the body is almost peculiar
to the Christian faith. In Old Testament times the hope of immortality
for body and soul seldom found expression. Job seems to have had at
least a glimpse of the doctrine, although his words in the original do
not express it so strongly as those of the English version: "I know that
my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh
shall I see God."[213] In the Psalms there are various intimations that
faithful servants of God looked for a future life in which the body as
well as the spirit should find place. Isaiah prophesied, "Thy dead men
shall live, my dead body shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in
dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out
the dead."[214] Daniel still more emphatically declares, "Many of them
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."[215] The story in the
second book of Maccabees of the seven martyr-brothers, who would not
accept life from the tyrant on condition of denying their God, proves
that they were strengthened to endure by the sure hope of "a better
resurrection." One of them thus confessed his faith: "Thou like a fury
takest us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall
raise us up, who have died for His laws, unto everlasting life." Another
of the brothers, about to have his tongue plucked out and his hands cut
off, "holding forth his hands manfully, said courageously, These I had
from heaven ... and from Him I hope to receive them again." Their
mother, who is thought to have been one of the saints that in the