by Ezekiel, at the time of the exile (chap. xxxvii.).[1] These passages, however, are not very clear in their intimations." Certainly not; the first and only passage in the Old Testament which is considered to bear on the point, is cited from Daniel: "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."[2] But a little reflection will show that the prophet is not treating of the general resurrection of the body. His phrase, many of, plainly excepts some. How, then, can it be employed to uphold a doctrine which demands the resurrection of all? The exceptions which are implied plainly show that the material resurrection is not the subject of his teachings.
- ↑ This chapter describes the vision of dry bones: it refers to the deliverance of the Israelites from their bondage in Babylon; and not the collection of scattered particles of matter, their reorganization and revivification by the re-introduction of the soul into them. The people had been complaining of their hard bondage, and saying, "Behold our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts" (ver. 11). These bones are said to have been the whole house of Israel, and their deliverance from captivity is spoken of, as causing them to come up out of their graves, and bringing them into the land of Israel (ver. 12). The subject treated of then, is not the resurrection of the dead bodies of all men, but the restoration of a particular people from the grave of their captivity, and their re-introduction into their own land. Dr. Faber, in commentating on some passages of a similar import in Hosea, makes use of these words, in which we agree, namely, "to express the political revivification of the house of Israel, Hosea, like Isaiah and Ezekiel, uses the allegory of a resurrection."
- ↑ Dan. xii. 2.
aspect. The fourteenth verse speaks of those who, being in the death of sin, will not rise into the life of righteousness; and the nineteenth verse treats of those who, though in the death of sin, are willing to be regenerated, and thus will rise into the life of righteousness. Hence the two passages beautifully harmonize with each other, and each presents us with a fact for the deepest consideration.
