human wisdom, lent him courage and power for further
effort and persistent striving on earth. Since to this suffering hero,
impelled to deeds by his own energy, life is a continuous battle, a
hereafter as a "world of reward and punishment" can hardly solve the great
enigma of human existence in a satisfactory manner for him. The wise
ones--says a Talmudic maxim--find rest neither in this world nor in the
world to come, but "they shall ascend from strength to strength, until
they appear before God on Zion."(897)

5. In the course of time, however, the question of existence after death
demanded more and more a satisfactory answer. Under the severe political
and social oppression that came upon the Jewish people, the pious ones
failed to see a just equation of man's doings and his destiny in this
life. The bitter disappointment which they experienced made them look to
the God of justice for a future, when virtue would receive its due reward
and vice its befitting punishment. The community of the pious especially
awaited in vain the realization of the great messianic hope with which the
prophetic words of comfort had filled their hearts. They had willingly
offered up their lives for the truth of Judaism, and the God of
faithfulness could not deceive them. Surely the shadowy realm of the
nether world could not be the end of all. So the voice of promise came to
them from the book of Isaiah, where these encouraging and comforting words
were inserted by a later hand: "Thy dead shall live; thy (My) dead bodies
shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for Thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the shades."(898) Even
before this time the God of Israel had been praised as "He who killeth and
maketh alive, who bringeth down to Sheol, and bringeth up."(899) So was
also the miraculous power of restoring the dead to life ascribed to the
prophets.(900) Furthermore, the vision of the prophet Ezekiel concerning
the dry bones which arose to new life, in which he beheld the divine
revelation of the approaching event of the restoration of the Jewish
nation,(901) shows how familiar the idea of resurrection must have been to
the people. Hence the minds of the Jewish people were sufficiently
prepared to adopt the Persian belief in the resurrection of the dead.

6. This, however, led to a tremendous process of transformation in Judaism
with a wide chasm between Mosaism and Rabbinism, or, more accurately,
b