[Footnote 1:  Matt. xiii. 38, and following, xxv. 33.]

[Footnote 2:  Matt. xiii. 39, 41, 49.]

[Footnote 3:  Matt. xxv. 34.  Comp.  John xiv. 2.]

[Footnote 4:  Matt. viii. 11, xiii. 43, xxvi. 29; Luke xiii. 28, xvi. 22, xxii. 30.]

[Footnote 5:  Luke xiii. 23, and following.]

[Footnote 6:  Matt. xxv. 41.  The idea of the fall of the angels, detailed in the Book of Enoch, was universally admitted in the circle of Jesus.  Epistle of Jude 6, and following; 2d Epistle attributed to Saint Peter, ii. 4. 11; Revelation xii. 9; Gospel of John viii. 44.]

[Footnote 7:  Matt. v. 22, viii. 12, x. 28, xiii. 40, 42, 50, xviii. 8, xxiv. 51, xxv. 30; Mark ix. 43, &c.]

[Footnote 8:  Matt. viii. 12, xxii. 13, xxv. 30.  Comp.  Jos., B.J., III. viii. 5.]

This new order of things will be eternal.  Paradise and Gehenna will have no end.  An impassable abyss separates the one from the other.[1] The Son of man, seated on the right hand of God, will preside over this final condition of the world and of humanity.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Luke xvi. 28.]

[Footnote 2:  Mark iii. 29; Luke xxii. 69; Acts vii. 55.]

That all this was taken literally by the disciples and by the master himself at certain moments, appears clearly evident from the writings of the time.  If the first Christian generation had one profound and constant belief, it was that the world was near its end,[1] and that the great “revelation"[2] of Christ was about to take place.  The startling proclamation, “The time is at hand,"[3] which commences and closes the Apocalypse; the incessantly reiterated appeal, “He that hath ears to hear let him hear!"[4] were the cries of hope and encouragement for the whole apostolic age.  A Syrian expression, Maran atha, “Our Lord cometh!"[5] became a sort of password, which the believers used amongst themselves to strengthen their faith and their hope.  The Apocalypse, written in the year 68 of our era,[6] declares that the end will come in three years and a half.[7] The “Ascension of Isaiah"[8] adopts a calculation very similar to this.

[Footnote 1:  Acts ii. 17, iii. 19, and following; 1 Cor. xv. 23, 24, 52; 1 Thess. iii. 13, iv. 14, and following, v. 23; 2 Thess. ii. 8; 1 Tim. vi. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 1; Tit. ii. 13; Epistle of James v. 3, 8; Epistle of Jude 18; 2d Epistle of Peter, iii. entirely; Revelations entirely, and in particular, i. 1, ii. 5, 16, iii. 11, xi. 14, xxii. 6, 7, 12, 20.  Comp. 4th Book of Esdras, iv. 26.]

[Footnote 2:  Luke xvii. 30; 1 Cor. i. 7, 8; 2 Thess. i. 7; 1 Peter i. 7, 13; Revelations i. 1.]

[Footnote 3:  Revelations i. 3, xxii. 10.]

[Footnote 4:  Matt. xi. 15, xiii. 9, 43; Mark iv. 9, 23, vii. 16; Luke viii. 8, xiv. 35; Revelations ii. 7, 11, 27, 29, iii. 6, 13, 22, xiii. 9.]

[Footnote 5:  1 Cor. xvi. 22.]