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The Resurrection of Christ and of the dead
No.1.
The Witness of the Old Testament.
pp. 21 - 25
The Book of Job.
What has been called "the oldest question in the world" is found in the book of Job:
"If a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14: 14).
This "consummation devoutly to be wished", is denied or explained in all the
philosophies of the Ancient, and in the religious beliefs of those outside the pale of
Christianity. Only within the pages of Scripture has it been found possible to include in
the list of Divine titles, that which is ascribed to Abraham's faith:
"Even God, Who quickeneth the dead" (Rom. 4: 17).
In Athens, the home of philosophy (Acts 17: 18), the attitude of many of the
Apostles' testimony to the resurrection was that they "mocked":
"And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked" (Acts 17: 32).
To Agrippa Paul said:
"Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the
dead?" (Acts 26: 8).
And when the Apostle reached the words:
"He should be the first that should rise from the dead."
Festus, the Roman Governor cried:
"Paul, thou art beside thyself: much learning doth make thee mad" (Acts 26: 23, 24).
Neither Greek `wisdom' nor Roman `power' can contemplate the possibility of
resurrection. Nevertheless, the mind of man was still haunted with the age-old question
"If a man die, shall he live again?" and entertained ideas that involved the immortality of
the soul, reincarnation, the denial of the fact of death, saying with the poet "There is no
death, what seems so is transition". To all such fancies begotten of fear and ignorance,
the Scripture replies with certainty and finality, "Death is an enemy" that cannot be
circumvented.
We return therefore to Job 14: and consider his search and his findings. First let us
remember Job had no Bible. His three friends manifest a wisdom and knowledge that
still holds the best of us in thrall, yet not one made the remotest approach to the answer of
Job's question "If a man die shall he live again?" Although Job had no written revelation