Category / William Barclay

by James Ross Kelly

THE KINGDOM AND ITS WITNESSES–Barclay’s Commentary


From William Barclay’s Daily Bible Study

Acts 1:6-8

So, when they had met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel at this time?” But he said to them, “It is not yours to know the times and the seasons which the Father has appointed by his own authority. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power; and you will be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria and to the farthest bounds of the earth.”

     Throughout his ministry Jesus laboured under one great disadvantage. The centre of his message was the kingdom of God. (Mk.1:14); but he meant one thing by the kingdom and those who listened to him meant another.

     The Jews were always vividly conscious of being God’s chosen people. They took that to mean that they were destined for special privilege and for world-wide dominion. The whole course of their history proved that humanly speaking that could never be. Palestine was a little country not more than 120 miles long by 40 miles wide. It had its days of independence, but it had become subject in turn to the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. So, the Jews began to look forward to a day when God would break directly into human history and establish that world sovereignty of which they dreamed. They conceived of the kingdom in political terms.

     How did Jesus conceive of it? Let us look at the Lord’s Prayer. In it there are two petitions side by side. “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” It is characteristic of Hebrew style, as any verse of the Psalms will show, to say things in two parallel forms, the second of which repeats or amplifies the first. That is what these two petitions do. The second is a definition of the first. Therefore, we see that by the kingdom Jesus meant a society upon earth where God’s will would be as perfectly done as it is in heaven. Because of that it would be a kingdom founded on love and not on power.

     To attain to that men needed the Holy Spirit. Twice already Luke has talked about waiting for the coming of the Spirit. We are not to think that the Spirit came into existence now for the first time. It is quite possible for a power always to exist but for men to experience or take it at some given moment. For instance, men did not invent atomic power. It always existed; but only in our time have men tapped it. So, God is eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but there came to men a special time when they experienced to the full that power which had always been present.

     The power of the Spirit was going to make them Christ’s witnesses. That witness was to operate in an ever-extending series of concentric circles, first in Jerusalem, then throughout Judaea; then Samaria, the semi-Jewish state, would be a kind of bridge leading out into the heathen world; and finally, this witness was to go out to the ends of the earth.

     Let us note certain things about this Christian witness. First, a witness is a man who says I know this is true. In a court of law, a man cannot give in evidence a carried story; it must be his own personal experience. There was a time when John Bunyan was not quite sure. What worried him was that the Jews thought their religion the best; the Mohammedans thought theirs the best; what if Christianity were but a think-so too? A witness does not say, “I think so”; he says, “I know.”

     Second, the real witness is not of words but of deeds. When Stanley had discovered Livingstone in Central Africa and had spent some time with him, he said, “If I had been with him any longer, I would have been compelled to be a Christian and he never spoke to me about it at all.” The witness of the man’s life was irresistible.

     Third, in Greek the word for witness and the word for martyr is the same (martus, GSN3144). A witness had to be ready to become a martyr. To be a witness means to be loyal no matter the cost.

by James Ross Kelly

10 Quick Facts About Christian Universalism | Matthew Distefano


I. The Early Church Were Universalists:

Okay, not all of the early church were Universalists, but a lot of them were. Clement of Alexandria. Origin. Gregory of Nyssa. A bunch of others. As Augustine once put it, “indeed very many.” In fact, out of the 6 major theological schools, 4 taught universal reconciliation, 1 taught conditional immortality (annihilationism), and 1 taught eternal conscious torment.

II. Universalism Wasn’t Heretical for 500 Years:

A lot of people get confused about whether Universalism is heretical or not. They think because some of Origin’s beliefs were rejected, that means universal reconciliation was also rejected. This isn’t quite true. It’s not until the 6th century when Universalism is declared “anathema,” first by the despot Justinian in 543 CE and then at the Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553 CE.

III. The Final Editor of the Nicene Creed Was an Open Universalist

The Nicene Creed is, for many, the standard of what it means to be a Christian. I personally don’t need you to affirm it in order to consider you a Christian, but no one is really asking me these days. Interestingly enough, however, Gregory of Nyssa, one of the final editors of the Creed, was an unabashed Universalist, and yet no one thought it important enough to bring it up before allowing him to be involved in arguably the most important confession in the history of Christianity.

IV. Universalism Never Went Away

While universal reconciliation became a fringe belief after being declared anathema, it never went away. There were always a handful of Christians who kept the tradition alive throughout the Middle Ages, past the Reformation, and on into the modern world.

V. Your Favorite Fiction May Be Influenced by Universalism

I’m not certain that folks like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien were closet Universalists, but they were certainly influenced by a non-closeted one. Heavily so. In fact, both credit George MacDonald as being a great influence on their thinking, and he was not secretive about his Universalism. In addition, beloved novelist Madeleine L’Engle was a Universalist.

VI. Karl Barth Was Probably a Universalist

This is only speculation, but the most influential theologian of the 20th century was perhaps a Universalist. At minimum, Barth’s theology deemed it logically necessary. And while he never outright said it, he was certainly smart and wise enough to know the implications of his Christology.

VII. William Barclay Was a Universalist

This may come as a surprise to many, given how popular his Daily Study Bible commentaries were and still are, but it’s true. William Barclay was an unashamed Universalist, which means millions of Christians worldwide should gather up the sticks and wood and get ready to burn a whole hell of a lot of books.

VIII. Universalism is Biblical

Universalism is not correct simply because it is found in the Bible. Why? Well, aside from the fact that a lot of untrue stuff is found in the Bible, it’s because eternal torment can be found in there, too. Annihilationism is also there. But you can’t deny all the passages about God reconciling the world, about Jesus dragging all to him, about God being “all in all,” and so on. Again, it’s not to say it is necessarily true (because there are also passages about judgment, punishment, and torment), but it is in fact biblical.

IX. Universalism Comes in Many Forms

Contrary to popular belief, Universalism is not synonymous with “new age” or “liberal.” There are liberal Universalists, sure, but there are also Evangelical Universalists like Robin Parry. There are Universalists like Thomas Talbott who are more aligned with Barth or the Reformed tradition. There are Orthodox Universalists like David Bentley Hart. And so on and so forth.

X. Universalists Believe in Hell

This sounds contradictory, but only if you think hell must be everlasting. Many Christian Universalists believe in a hell of sorts. They just believe it serves an ultimate reconciliatory purpose, In other words, while the restorative effects are eternal, the duration is not.

Source: Patheos

by James Ross Kelly

William Barclay Daily Bible Study: Matthew Chapter 4


  • William Barclay 1907-1978

It may well be that we often go wrong simply because we never try to be alone. There are certain things which a man has to work out alone. There are times when no one else’s advice is any good to him. There are times when a man has to stop acting and start thinking. It may be that we make many a mistake because we do not give ourselves a chance to be alone with God.

William Barclay Daily Bible Study: Matthew Chapter 4
by James Ross Kelly

THE PERIL OF THE EMPTY HEART –William Barclay


William Barclay 1907-1978

Matthew 12:43–5 ‘When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it goes through waterless places, seeking for rest, and does not find it. Then it says: “I will go back to my house, from which I came out,” and when it comes, it finds it empty, swept and in perfect order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and take up their residence there. So the last state of that man becomes worse than the first; so it will be with this evil generation.’

THERE is a whole world of the most practical truth in this compact and eerie little parable about the haunted house. (1) The evil spirit is banished from the man, not destroyed. That is to say that, in this present age, evil can be conquered, driven away – but it cannot be destroyed. It is always looking for the opportunity to counter-attack and regain the ground that is lost. Evil is a force which may be at bay but is never eliminated.

(2) That is bound to mean that a negative religion can never be enough. A religion which consists of shall nots will end in failure. The trouble about such a religion is that it may be able to cleanse people by prohibiting all their evil actions, but it cannot keep them cleansed. Let us think of this in actual practice. People who drink to excess may be reformed; they may decide that they will no longer spend their time in bars; but they must find something else to do; they must find something to fill up their now empty time, or they will simply slip back into their evil ways. People whose constant pursuit has been pleasure may decide that they must stop; but they must find something else to do to fill up their time, or they will simply, through the very emptiness of their lives, drift back to their old pursuits. The lives of these people must not only be sterilized from evil; they must be nurtured to become productive and fruitful. It will always remain true that ‘Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.’ And if one kind of action is banished from life, another kind must be substituted for it, for life cannot remain empty. (3) It therefore follows that the only permanent cure for evil action is Christian action. Any teaching which stops at telling people what they must not do is bound to be a failure; it must go on to tell them what they must do. The one fatal disease is idleness; even a sterilized idleness will soon be infected. The easiest way to conquer the weeds in a garden is to fill the garden with useful things. The easiest way to keep a life from sin is to fill it with healthy action. To put it quite simply, the Church will most easily keep its converts when it gives them Christian work to do. Our aim is not the mere negative absence of evil action; it is the positive presence of work for Christ. If we are finding the temptations of evil very threatening, one of the best ways to conquer them is to plunge into activity for God and for our neighbours.

 

Barclay; William. The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two: 2 (p. 59-60). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.

 

by James Ross Kelly

GOD’S STANDARD OF JUDGMENT–William Barclay



‘When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him

Matthew 25:31–46 ‘When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will take his seat upon the throne of his glory, and all nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate them from each other, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, enter into possession of the kingdom which has been prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you came to visit me; in prison, and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him: “Lord, when did we see you hungry, and nourish you? Or thirsty, and gave you to drink? When did we see you a stranger, and gather you to us? Or naked, and clothed you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?” And the King will answer them: “This is the truth I tell you – insomuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those on the left: “Go from me, you cursed ones, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not gather me to you; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, and you did not come to visit me.” Then these too will answer: “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not render service to you?” Then he will answer them: “This is the truth I tell you – in so far as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go away to eternal life.’

Barclay’s translation of
Matthew 25:31–46

THIS is one of the most vivid parables Jesus ever spoke, and the lesson is crystal clear – that God will judge us in accordance with our reaction to human need. His judgment does not depend on the knowledge we have amassed, or the fame that we have acquired, or the fortune that we have gained, but on the help that we have given. And there are certain things which this parable teaches us about the help which we must give.

(1) It must be help in simple things. The things which Jesus picks out – giving a hungry person a meal, or a thirsty person a drink, welcoming a stranger, cheering the sick, visiting the prisoner – are things which anyone can do. It is not a question of giving away huge sums of money, or of writing our names in the annals of history; it is a case of giving simple help to the people we meet every day. There never was a parable which so opened the way to glory to us all.

(2) It must be help which is uncalculating. Those who helped did not think that they were helping Christ and thus piling up eternal merit; they helped because they could not stop themselves. It was the natural, instinctive, quite un-calculating reaction of the loving heart. Whereas, on the other hand, the attitude of those who failed to help was: ‘If we had known it was you we would gladly have helped; but we thought it was only some insignificant person who was not worth helping.’ It is still true that there are those who will help if they are given praise and thanks and publicity; but to help like that is not to help, it is to pander to self-esteem. Such help is not generosity; it is disguised selfishness. The help which wins the approval of God is that which is given for nothing but the sake of helping.

(3) Jesus confronts us with the wonderful truth that all such help given is given to himself; in contrast, all such help withheld is withheld from himself. How can that be? If we really wish to bring delight to those who are parents, if we really wish to move them to gratitude, the best way to do it is to help their children. God is the great Father; and the way to delight the heart of God is to help his children, our fellow men and women.

There were two men who found this parable blessedly true. The one was Francis of Assisi; he was wealthy and high-born and high-spirited. But he was not happy. He felt that life was incomplete. Then one day he was out riding and met a leper, loathsome and repulsive in the ugliness of his disease. Something moved Francis to dismount and fling his arms around this wretched sufferer; and in his arms the face of the leper changed to the face of Christ.

The other was Martin of Tours. He was a Roman soldier and a Christian. One cold winter day, as he was entering a city, a beggar stopped him and asked for alms. Martin had no money; but the beggar was blue and shivering with cold, and Martin gave what he had. He took off his soldier’s coat, worn and frayed as it was; he cut it in two and gave half of it to the beggar man. That night he had a dream. In it he saw the heavenly places and all the angels and Jesus among them; and Jesus was wearing half of a Roman soldier’s cloak. One of the angels said to him: ‘Master, why are you wearing that battered old cloak? Who gave it to you?’ And Jesus answered softly: ‘My servant Martin gave it to me.’

When we learn the generosity which without calculation helps others in the simplest things, we too will know the joy of helping Jesus Christ himself.

Barclay; William. The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two: 2 Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.

by James Ross Kelly

Jesus believed that so long as a man was away from God he was not truly himself–William Barclay


Jesus believed that so long as a man was away from God he was not truly himself; he was only truly himself wheWilliam Barclay 1907-1978n he was on the way home. Beyond a doubt Jesus did not believe in total depravity. He never believed that you could glorify God by blackguarding man; he believed that man was never essentially himself until he came home to God. William Barclay

by James Ross Kelly

Parable of the Sheep and Goats–William Barclay


St. John One: One

Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and an the angels with him, then he will take his seat upon the throne of his glory, and all nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate them from each other, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, enter into possession of the Kingdom which has been prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you came to visit me…

View original post 924 more words

by James Ross Kelly

Parable of the Sheep and Goats–William Barclay


Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and an the angels with him, then he will take his seat upon the throne of his glory, and all nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate them from each other, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, enter into possession of the Kingdom which has been prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you came to visit me; in prison, and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we gee you hungry, and nourish you? Or thirsty, and gave you to drink? When did we see you a stranger, and gather you to us? Or naked, and clothed you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘This is the truth I tell you—insomuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ then he will say to those on the left, ‘Go from me, you cursed ones, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not gather me to you; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, and you did not come to visit me.’ Then these too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not render service to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘This is the truth I tell you—in so far as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go away to eternal life.”

God’s Standard of Judgment

This is one of the most vivid parables Jesus ever spoke, and the lesson is crystal clear—that God will judge us in accordance with our reaction to human need. His judgment does not depend on the knowledge we have amassed, or the fame that we have acquired, or the fortune that we have gained, but on the help that we have given. And there are certain things which this parable teaches us about the help which we must give.

(i) It must be help in simple things. The things which Jesus picks out—giving a hungry man a meal, or a thirsty man a drink, welcoming a stranger, cheering the sick, visiting the prisoner—are things which anyone can do. It is not a question of giving away thousands of pounds, or of writing our names in the annals of history; it is a case of giving simple help to the people we meet every day. There never was a parable which so opened the way to glory to the simplest people.

(ii) It must be help which is uncalculating. Those who helped did not think that they were helping Christ and thus piling up eternal merit; they helped because they could not stop themselves. It was the natural, instinctive, quite uncalculating reaction of the loving heart. Whereas, on the other hand, the attitude of those who failed to help was; “If we had known it was you we would gladly have helped; but we thought it was only some common man who was not worth helping.” It is still true that there are those who will help if they are given praise and thanks and publicity; but to help like that is not to help, it is to pander to self-esteem. Such help is not generosity; it is disguised selfishness. The help which wins the approval of God is that which is given for nothing but the sake of helping.

(iii) Jesus confronts us with the wonderful truth that all such help given is given to himself, and all such help withheld is withheld from himself. How can that be? If we really wish to delight a parent’s heart, if we really wish to move him to gratitude the best way to do it is to help his child. God is the great Father; and the way to delight the heart of God is to help his children, our fellow-men.

There were two men who found this parable blessedly true. The one was Francis of Asissi; he was wealthy and high-born and high-spirited. But he was not happy. He felt that life was incomplete. Then one day he was out riding and met a leper, loathsome and repulsive in the ugliness of his disease. Something moved Francis to dismount and fling his arms around this wretched sufferer; and in his arms the face of the leper changed to the face of Christ.

The other was Martin of Tours. He was a Roman soldier and a Christian. One cold winter day, as he was entering a city, a beggar stopped him and asked for alms. Martin had no money; but the beggar was blue and shivering with cold, and Martin gave what he had. He took off his soldier’s coat, worn and frayed as it was; he cut it in two and gave half of it to the beggar man. That night he had a dream. In it he saw the heavenly places and all the angels and Jesus in the midst of them; and Jesus was wearing half of a Roman soldier’s cloak. One of the angels said to him, “Master, why are you wearing that battered old cloak? Who gave it to you?” And Jesus answered softly, “My servant Martin gave it to me.”

When we learn the generosity which without calculation helps men in the simplest things, we too will know the joy of helping Jesus Christ himself.

William Barclay 1907-1978

William Barclay 1907-1978–Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow.

Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).

 

by James Ross Kelly

The Equipment of the King’s Messenger by William Barclay


Matthew 10:8b-10 “Freely you have received; freely give. Do not set out to get gold or silver or bronze for your purses; do not take a bag for the journey, nor two tunics, nor shoes, nor a staff. The workman deserves his sustenance.”

This is a passage in which every sentence and every phrase would ring an answering bell in the mind of the Jews who heard it. In it Jesus was giving to his men the instructions which the Rabbis at their best gave to their students and disciples.

William Barclay 1907-1978

William Barclay 1907-1978

“Freely you have received,” says Jesus, “freely give.” A Rabbi was bound by law to give his teaching freely and for nothing; the Rabbi was absolutely forbidden to take money for teaching the Law which Moses had freely received from God. In only one case could a Rabbi accept payment. He might accept payment for teaching a child, for to teach a child is the parent’s task, and no one else should be expected to spend time and labour doing what is the parent’s own duty to do; but higher teaching had to be given without money and without price.

In the Mishnah the Law lays it down that, if a man takes payment for acting as a judge, his judgments are invalid; that, if he takes payment for giving evidence as a witness, his witness is void. Rabbi Zadok said, “Make not the Law a crown wherewith to aggrandize thyself, nor a spade wherewith to dig.” Hillel said, “He who makes a worldly use of the crown of the Law shall waste away. Hence thou mayest infer that whosoever desires a profit for himself from the words of the Law is helping on his own destruction.” It was laid down: “As God taught Moses gratis—so do thou.”

There is a story of Rabbi Tarphon. At the end of the fig harvest he was walking in a garden; and he ate some of the figs which had been left behind. The watchmen came upon him and beat him. He told them who he was, and because he was a famous Rabbi they let him go. All his life he regretted that he had used his status as a Rabbi to help himself. “Yet all his days did he grieve, for he said, ‘Woe is me, for I have used the crown of the Law for my own profit!'”

When Jesus told his disciples that they had freely received and must freely give, he was telling them what the teachers of his own people had been telling their students for many a day. If a man possesses a precious secret it is surely his duty, not to hug it to himself until he is paid for it, but willingly to pass it on. It is a privilege to share with others the riches God has given us.

Jesus told the twelve not to set out to acquire gold or silver or bronze for their purses, the Greek literally means for their girdles. The girdle, which the Jew wore round his waist, was rather broad; and at each end for part of its length it was double; money was carried in the double part of the girdle; so that the girdle was the usual purse of the Jew. Jesus told the twelve not to take a bag for the journey. The bag may be one of two things. It may simply be a bag like a haversack in which provisions would ordinarily have been carried. But there is another possibility. The word is pera(<G4082>), which can mean a beggar’s collecting bag; sometimes the wandering philosophers took a collection in such a bag after addressing the crowd.

In all these instructions Jesus was not laying upon his men a deliberate and calculated discomfort. He was once again speaking words which were very familiar to a Jew. The Talmud tells us that: “No one is to go to the Temple Mount with staff, shoes, girdle of money, or dusty feet.” The idea was that when a man entered the temple, he must make it quite clear that he had left everything which had to do with trade and business and worldly affairs behind. What Jesus is saying to his men is: “You must treat the whole world as the Temple of God. If you are a man of God, you must never give the impression that you are a man of business, out for what you can get.” Jesus’ instructions mean that the man of God must show by his attitude to material things that his first interest is God.

Finally, Jesus says that the workman deserves his sustenance. Once again the Jews would recognize this. It is true that a Rabbi might not accept payment, but it is also true that it was considered at once a privilege and an obligation to support a Rabbi, if he was truly a man of God. Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob said: “He who receives a Rabbi in his house, or as his guest, and lets him have his enjoyment from his possessions, the scripture ascribes it to him as if he had offered the continual offerings.” Rabbi Jochanan laid it down that it was the duty of every Jewish community to support a Rabbi, and the more so because a Rabbi naturally neglects his own affairs to concentrate on the affairs of God.

Here then is the double truth; the man of God must never be over-concerned with material things, but the people of God must never fail in their duty to see that the man of God receives a reasonable support. This passage lays an obligation on teacher and on people alike.

The Daily Study Bible Series/the Gospel of Matthew Volume 1/Revised Edition by William Barclay

 

by James Ross Kelly

The Resurrection and the Life– by William Barclay


The Resurrection and the Life (Jn 11:20-27)

11:20-27 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained sitting in the house. So Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even as things are, I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him: “I know that he will rise at the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live even if he has died; and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him; “Yes, Lord. I am convinced that you are God’s Anointed One, the Son of God, the One who is to come into the world.”

William Barclay 1907-1978

William Barclay 1907-1978

In this story, too, Martha is true to character. When Luke tells us about Martha and Mary (Lk 10:38-42), he shows us Martha as the one who loved action, and Mary as the one whose instinct was to sit still. It is so here. As soon as it was announced that Jesus was coming near, Martha was up to meet him, for she could not sit still, but Mary lingered behind.

When Martha met Jesus her heart spoke through her lips. Here is one of the most human speeches in all the Bible, for Martha spoke, half with a reproach that she could not keep back, and half with a faith that nothing could shake. “If you had been here.” she said, “my brother would not have died.” Through the words we read her mind. Martha would have liked to say: “When you got our message, why didn’t you come at once? And now you have left it too late.” No sooner are the words out than there follow the words of faith, faith which defied the facts and defied experience: “Even yet,” she said with a kind of desperate hope, “even yet, I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered: “I know quite well that he will rise in the general resurrection on the last day.” Now that is a notable saying. One of the strangest things in scripture is the fact that the saints of the Old Testament had practically no belief in any real life after death. In the early days, the Hebrews believed that the soul of every man, good and bad alike, went to Sheol. Sheol is wrongly translated Hell; for it was not a place of torture, it was the land of the shades. All alike went there and they lived a vague, shadowy, strengthless, joyless ghostly kind of life. This is the belief of by far the greater part of the Old Testament. “In death there is no remembrance of thee: in Sheol who can give thee praise?” (Ps 6:5). “What profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise thee? Will it tell of thy faithfulness?” (Ps 30:9). The Psalmist speaks of “the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom thou dost remember no more; for they are cut off from thy hand” (Ps 88:5). “Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave,” he asks, “or thy faithfulness in Abaddon? Are thy wonders known in the darkness, or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?” (Ps 88:10-12). “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any that go down into silence” (Ps 115:17). The preacher says grimly: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” (Ecc 9:10). It is Hezekiah’s pessimistic belief that: “For Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for thy faithfulness” (Isa 38:18). After death came the land of silence and of forgetfulness, where the shades of men were separated alike from men and from God. As J. E. McFadyen wrote: “There are few more wonderful things than this in the long history of religion, that for centuries men lived the noblest lives, doing their duties and bearing their sorrows, without hope of future reward.”

Just very occasionally someone in the Old Testament made a venturesome leap of faith. The Psalmist cries: “My body also dwells secure. For thou dost not give me up to Sheol, or let thy godly one see the pit. Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Ps 16:9-11). “I am continually with thee; thou dost hold my right hand. Thou dost guide the with thy counsel, and afterward thou wilt receive me to glory” (Ps 73:23-24). The Psalmist was convinced that when a man entered into a real relationship with God, not even death could break it. But at that stage it was a desperate leap of faith rather than a settled conviction. Finally in the Old Testament there is the immortal hope we find in Job. In face of all his disasters Job cried out:
“I know that there liveth a champion,

Who will one day stand over my dust;

Yea, another shall rise as my witness,

And, as sponsor, shall I behold—God;

Whom mine eyes shall behold, and no stranger’s.”

(Job 14:7-12; translated by J. E. McFadyen).
Here in Job we have the real seed of the Jewish belief in immortality.

The Jewish history was a history of disasters, of captivity, slavery and defeat. Yet the Jewish people had the utterly unshakable conviction that they were God’s own people. This earth had never shown it and never would; inevitably, therefore, they called in the new world to redress the inadequacies of the old. They came to see that if God’s design was ever fully to be worked out, if his justice was ever completely to be fulfilled, if his love was ever finally to be satisfied, another world and another life were necessary. As Galloway (quoted by McFadyen) put it: “The enigmas of life become at least less baffling, when we come to rest in the thought that this is not the last act of the human drama.” It was precisely that feeling that led the Hebrews to a conviction that there was a life to come.

It is true that in the days of Jesus the Sadducees still refused to believe in any life after death. But the Pharisees and the great majority of the Jews did. They said that in the moment of death the two worlds of time and of eternity met and kissed. They said that those who died beheld God, and they refused to call them the dead but called them the living. When Martha answered Jesus as she did she bore witness to the highest reach of her nation’s faith.

Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).