The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-05-03
SUNDAY IN HE'LL,
The Origin OF the Belief In Day Of Res
pite for Lost Souls.

From the Revue des Etudes J1ives.
Every Jew who has received any in
structions in his religion knows that at
the end of the Sabbath it is customary to
prolong the recitation of certain prayers,
in order to lengthen the respited granted
on that day to the damned, for as long
as the faithful have not terminated the
evening service the wicked are not OBJ
liged to return to Gehenna, in order to
take up again the course of their punish
men ts.
The first casuist who mentions the rite
is Rab Amram in the ninth century, who
speaks of it as popular usage. The cas-
uists themselves have never taken as &c.
riously as might be believed the motives
alleged for this religious usage, for they
have never tried to abolished the rule
which prescribes the suppression of these
prayers in certain cases, as, for instance,
when festival occurs in the week which
begins at the end of the Sabbath,
thus running the great risk of con-
demning sinners to return sooner to &c.
henna.
1t can be shown, however, that the be.
lief in the Sabbath repose of the damned
is much older than the rite which ex-
presses it, and this belief, it is nearly Ger.
tain, was widely spread in the third cen
tury, at least, of our era.
What were the objects of establishing
this rite2 From desire to soften the
dogma of endless punishment Dogma
is word unknown in the Talmudic the
ology, especially in archaeological ques
tions. The Mischna does declare that
those who deny the resurrection of the
dead will be excluded from the future
world, but it takes good care not to be
precise in regard TO what it means by
the culture world" The collection of
Talmudic doctrines in regard to life be-
yond the tomb Is veritable chaos, the
most dissimilar conceptions being admit.
ted. The belief in the Immortality of
the soul does not exclude faith in an ex-
istence half terrestrial, half spiritual, for
those who are no more. The Talmud, or
to speak more precisely, the editors of
that collection record, without hesitation,
anecdotes which takes US back to nearly
prehistoric times, when the corpse, at the
moment of being consigned to the grave,
received objects of value which we're car
ried by the dead to the subterranean
world for the use of themselves or their
companions.
The only possible hypothesis Of the orr
gin of the rite I am discussing is that it
flows naturally from the sauctity with
which the institution of the Sabbath was
invested. If God allotted to mortals one
day of repose every week, He could not
refuse that to the damned, whosoever
they might be. The Sabbath is too holy
to be restricted to the terrestrial world
the whole universe, visible and invisible,
shares therein.
Our rabbis of the middle ages would
have been not little astonished that 8
like telief exists among Christians, with
this difference, naturally, that Sunday is
substituted for Saturday. Not that the
Church has ever officially sanctioned this
belief-the theologians have always treat.
ed it as heresy-but all the efforts of the
fathers have not prevented such belief
becoming popular. Long would be q list
of the writings in which this belief is
mentioned without objection. The most
ancient witnesses of ita existence
are St. Augustine anc Pruden-
thus, that is, in the fourth century Of oul
era.
It is admitted, without contradiction,
that the notion Of Sunday respite 70,
damned entered Christian literature by
the circulation of little work entitled
Apocalypse, or Vision of st. Paul
This writing has come down to US under
different forms, 10 Greek, in Syriac, and
in Latin. Neither of these visions rep
resents the original, which seems to have
been composed in Aramiac. However.
by collating them and supplementing one
by another, it is easy to reconstruct the
first edition of the work, which has beer
done with great success by Mr.. Herman
Brandes, in a book published at Halle, il
1885.
According to this "Vision," St. Pau
accompanied by the Archangel Michael
visits first the abode of the blessed and
contemplates their felicity, and then re-
pairs to hell to witness the torments in
hicted on the damned. He hears the la
mentations of those unfortunate crea-
lures, whose suferings never stop, and
moved by pity, he supplicates his Lord tt
grant them at least one day of respite ir
memory of his resurrection. The prayer
fist. Paul was granted, and ever since
the sinners in hell can rest from their tor
ment from Saturday evening to the begin.
ming of Monday.
The question arises whether the belle
indicated in the "Vision" came to the
Christians from the Jews. My own opin-
ion, after careful study of al! the au-
thorities and sources, is that the belle
did come from the Jews in the second
half of the fourth century. The "Vision,
I believe, was invented by monk, who
was either born Jew or else thoroughly
instructed in the ideas and rites of the
Jews in regard to death. In this way
thanks to gentle romancer, the Jewish
idea has made jts way into the world. Il
has seduced the imagination of poets auo
writers of fiction in the middle ages while
quietipg those who were terrified by the
dogma of endless punishment.