Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/71

 THE FUTURE LIFE. 53

deserving of mention here, because the fact that in the Talmud elephant is used seems to confirm the ordinary translation of the Greek word in the Gospels, and the Arabic word in the Quran, and to remove the doubt as to whether they might not be better rendered " cable."

Given the pure conception of immortality viz., that the life of the soul never ceases, it becomes unnecessary to fix a time at which the judgment shall take place ; and so in most Talmudic passages a future world is pictured 1 in which every thing earthly is stripped away and pious souls enjoy the brightness of God's Presence. 2 Echoes of this teaching are to be found in the Quran. In one passage 3 we read of a soul gazing on its Lord, and in another 4 the condition of a perfectly peaceful soul is beautifully described. But this entirely spiritual idea was not thoroughly carried out. Rather by the side of the pure conception of a continued life of the soul after the death of the body, 5 there existed that of the quickening of the dead. 6 Thus because the man cannot receive the requital

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3 Sura LXXV. 23. f^G \% J\

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4 Sura LXXXIX. 21 S.

5 Take e. g. the Rabbinical saying :

Qs*n D^-nj? Dnn^5 ^D D^Vfj Even in their death the right- ecus are called living; " and in Suras II. 149, III. 163, ifc is ordered that

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those who fall in holy war shall not be called u^\y\ dead, but oL^ living.

6

The view that by the expression Teohiyath Hammethim the future world or the (spiritual) continued life of the (bodily) dead is meant, is given clearly in the explanation which a Baraitha adds to the quoted utterance of the -Mishna. To the words : " he who asserts that the belief iu Techiyatb. Hammethim is no part of the Jewish religion has no part in