Chapter XXII.—Belief of
the Esseni in the Resurrection; Their System a Suggestive
One.
Now the doctrine of the resurrection has also
derived support among
these
; for they acknowledge both that the
flesh will rise again, and that it will be immortal, in the same manner
as the soul is already imperishable.
And they maintain
that the soul, when separated in the present life, (departs) into one
place, which is well ventilated and lightsome,
where
, they say,
it
rests until judgment. And this locality the Greeks were
acquainted with by hearsay, and called it “Isles of the
Blessed.” And there are other tenets of these which many of
the Greeks have appropriated, and thus have from time to time formed
their own opinions.
1031
For the disciplinary system in regard
of the Divinity, according to these (Jewish sects), is of greater
antiquity than
that of
all nations. And so it is that the
proof is at hand, that all those (Greeks) who
ventured to make assertions concerning
God, or concerning the creation of existing things, derived their
principles from no other source than from Jewish legislation. And
among these
may be particularized
Pythagoras especially, and the
Stoics, who derived (their systems)
while resident
among the
Egyptians, by having become disciples of these
Jews
.
1032
Now they
affirm that there will be both a judgment and a conflagration of the
universe, and that the wicked will be eternally punished. And
among them is cultivated the practice of prophecy, and the prediction
of future events.
1031
[Important corroborations of Justin and other Fathers, vol. i. p. 286;
ii. p. 338, also 81, 117, 148.]
1032
Thus
Plato’s “Laws” present many parallels to the writings
of Moses. Some have supposed that Plato became acquainted with
the Pentateuch through the medium of an ancient Greek version extant
prior to that of the Septuagint.