Day of the Lord, The New Schaff-Herzog Bibliography
DAY OF THE LORD (Heb. Yom Yahweh, "Da of Yahweh "): A complex prophetic concept brought into connection with Hebrew Mesaianis and later .used with eschatological significance The full expression " day of the Lord " is not always used, the terms " the day," °` that day," " the day of trouble," " the great and terrible day," " that
time," and other like phrases being interchangeable with it. Indeed, the word " day " itself, in Hebrew as in Arabic, often had a sinister content and was equivalent to " day of battle " (cf. Isa. ix. 4). The idea undergoes so great development in the history of Messianism that no general description of it applies to any one period. Its fun-damental and abiding characteristic is that it is the time of the manifestation of Yahweh as savior of (the actual or the ideal) Israel by the punishment of his enemies, when his benign purposes for that people will be accomplished. In its physical aspects it is a day of terrifying phenomena, all nature partaking of the awe inspired by the presence of the Creator and showing that awe in heaven by the darkening or falling of the heavenly bodies and on earth by quakes and cataelysms and by the unbounded terror of the nations. The idea seems to have originated in the popular mind as a nationalistic ideal, founded not in ethics but in the crude religious ideas concerning the effect of the covenant by which Yahweh was conceived as bound to help his people simply because they were his people and served him alone.
This day bad from the very beginning and always retained two sides (cf. Mal. iv. 1-2), judgment (of Israel's and therefore of Yahweh's enemies, later of the wicked) and redemption (of Israel, later of the righteous). It was taken into the circle of prophetic ideas by Amos, who lifted it out of the nationalistic and, unethical by the startling announcement that the day involved pot (as the people assumed) the punishment of Israel's enemies, but of Israel itself because of its offenses against a righteous God. Sinners were the enemies of Yahweh and not the Gentiles.as Gentiles, and on them the troubles of the day would fall. With this representation Hosea agreed, and Isaiah and Micah applied the same reasoning to Judah. In these cases the precedent, ever faithfully followed, was set of stating the purpose of the day to be the establishment of a righteous people. While the ethical element thus introduced remained dominant, it was frequently united with the nationalistic element, so that while the judgment was to discriminate between Israel and its enemies, it did so on the assumption that Israel was righteous while the enemy was wicked. The exact form which the conception took fluctuated according to the external conditions and the view of the individual prophet. Thus in Nahum and Habakkuk, dealing with times when Israel was oppressed, the view-point is national and the judgment is to be against the (wicked) Assyrians and in favor of (righteous) Israel. In ono- Zephaniah an advance is made, and the day of the 1°a'' Lord becomes a world-judgment; but this is a corollary of the conception of Yahweh as not merely God of Israel, but God of the whole earth (i. 8-13, ii. 1-6, iii. 8). In the later prophets this is accom plished by an assembling of the peoples (Isa. xlv. t20; Zech. xii. 3; Joel iii. 2), when judgment is mmeted upon them. In Jeremiah the day is once more primarily against Judah, though other na- ystions are involved (i. 18, xxv. 15-24; xxv. 27-33 is ya later interpolation). Already in Jeremiah the tidea is becoming denationalized and individualized, the cause of judgment being not collective or na tional, but individual, and in Ezekiel this is fully accomplished. The Messianic kingdom was to be introduced by this day, and a regenerate Israel was to survive. According to the exilic prophets, the day inaugurated the Messianic kingdom, but the guilt was largely individual. Haggai (chaps. ii.- iii.) and Zechariah (i. 15, ii.) returned again to the nationalistic ideal, but their position was reversed by Malachi. Up to this point the judgment was conceived as taking plate and the kingdom being established on the earth, and this kingdom was earthly in character. This was changed in Isa. Lev.-lxvi. (before 400 B.C.), where a new heaven and a new earth is introduced-a fruitful suggestion for further development. Joel (c. 350 B.C.) exhibits the day in ail its terror (ii. 30,31), but returns to the nationalistic view-point (iii. 1-2, 9-21), and the same idea prevails in Zech. xii.-xiv. (of about the same date as Joel). In Isa. xix. (c. 300) a univer salism of worship of Yahweh (which is merely illus trated by mention of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel) is ushered in by " that day." In Daniel (186-165) the result of the coming of the day is the overthrow of the world-kingdoms, the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, in which will share the righteous dead of Israel, raised from the grave. Here first appears the resurrection of the individ ual, Ezekiel's resurrection (chap. xxxvii.) being national. In the earlier Paeudepigrapha (q.v.) a great development takes place, in part through the doctrine that Sheol (see HADES) is a place of punish ment for the wicked, heaven appearing by contrast as the abode of the blessed (foreshadowed in the Old Testament in Ps. xlia. 15, lxxiii. 24). The resurrection is generalized, the wicked being raised for final condemnation, the righteous for partici pation in the new kingdom. Complete tranacen dentalizing does not take place, since sometimes the new Jerusalem is localized on earth, at other times it is a heavenly city. In these earlier books " the day " ushers in the Messianic kingdom. In the later Pseudepigrapha the earthly Messianic rule is only the temporary prelude to the real kingdom of God, and " the day " with the final judgment comes at its close. While the representation varies in different books, development takes place on the whole along these lines. In the Gospels the day is implicit, and is involved in the paruaia (Mark viii. 38 and parallels) which is to be heralded by the same cataclysmic phenomena as accom pany the day of Yahweh in the Old Testament (Mark xiii. 7-8, 24-27). In Paul the " day of Yahweh " has become the " day of our Lord of the Lord 389 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Deacon Jesus Christ" (I Cor. i. 8). See FaaaAToLOOy; and HADES. GEo. W. GILmORB.
[ Go Back ]
Planetpreterist.com Copyright © by Planet Preterist - (473 Reads) |
