Sheol, received welcome confirmation by the springing
up of the belief that he had been again seen upon the face of the earth.
Applying the imagery of Daniel, it became a logical conclusion that he
must have ascended into the sky, whence he might shortly be expected to
make his appearance, to enact the scenes foretold in prophecy. That
such was the actual process of inference is shown by the legend of the
Ascension in the first chapter of the "Acts," and especially by the
words, "This Jesus who hath been taken up from you into heaven, will
come in the same manner in which ye beheld him going into heaven." In
the Apocalypse, written A. D. 68, just after the death of Nero, this
second coming is described as something immediately to happen, and
the colours in which it is depicted show how closely allied were the
Johannine notions to those of the Pharisees. The glories of the New
Jerusalem are to be reserved for Jews, while for the Roman tyrants
of Judaea is reserved a fearful retribution. They are to be trodden
underfoot by the Messiah, like grapes in a wine-press, until the gushing
blood shall rise to the height of the horse's bridle.

In the writings of Paul the dogma of the resurrection assumes a very
different aspect. Though Paul, like the older apostles, held that Jesus,
as the Messiah, was to return to the earth within a few years, yet to
his catholic mind this anticipated event had become divested of its
narrow Jewish significance. In the eyes of Paul, the religion preached
by Jesus was an abrogation of Mosaism, and the truths contained in
it were a free gift to the Gentile as well as to the Jewish world.
According to Paul, death came into the world as a punishment for the
sin of Adam. By this he meant that, had it not been for the original
transgression, all men escaping death would either have remained
upon earth or have been conveyed to heaven, like Enoch and Elijah, in
incorruptible bodies. But in reality as a penance for disobedience, all
men, with these two exceptions, had suffered death, and been exiled to
the gloomy caverns of Sheol. The Mosaic ritual was powerless to free men
from this repulsive doom, but it had nevertheless served a good purpose
in keeping men's minds directed toward holiness, preparing them, as a
schoolmaster would prepare his pupils, to receive the vitalizing truths
of Christ. Now, at last, the Messiah or Christ had come as a second
Adam, and being without sin had been raised by Jehovah