1 Heaven, Hell, and the Text of the New Testament By Peter R. Rodgers From its earliest days the church has wrestled with the question of universalism: the belief that all people will ultimately be saved. This view had an early champion in Origen, whose teaching was eventually condemned by the church and became a chief feature of what was called Origenism. But as Richard Bauckham has noted, the doctrine of the final restoration of all souls seems to have been not uncommon in the East during the fourth and fifth centuries (Bauckham, 1978, 48). Bauckham cites Gregory of Nyssa, Diodorus of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and some of the Nestorian theologians as teaching this doctrine. The doctrine of universal salvation, however, has not been the dominant view throughout the history of the church, especially in the West. Both the condemnation of Origin s errors, including Apokatastasis, the final salvation of all, and the enormous influence of Augustine, with his vigorous defense of the doctrine of hell and eternal punishment, insured that this nonuniversalist view would dominate throughout much of the church s history. Origen (ca. 185-254 CE) is usually cited as the foremost exponent of universalism in the early church. But his view had antecedents. Clement of Alexandria, who preceded Origen as director of the Alexandrian catechetical school, anticipated the views of his distinguished student, although his universalism is less clear than Origen s (Bauckham, 1978, 54, n.5). Some have suggested something of this doctrine in Irenaeus (late second century) through his vision of anakephaliosis (God s summing up of all things in Christ, cf. Eph. 1:10) and of his supposed view of the anonymous Christian (Rahner, 1979). However, much in the work of this great early theologian of the church suggest that he did not, in fact, hold this view (Thiessen, 1993). These early Christian explorations concerning universal salvation carry us back to the end of the second century. The question we will ask in this chapter is whether there is evidence for a discussion, perhaps a lively one, prior to the patristic writers who discuss or hint at it. My proposal is that we can find in the textual tradition of the New Testament some evidence of an already developed discussion on the question in the second century and perhaps before. To make this probe we will consider the textual variations in 1 Corinthians 15:51. 1 Corinthians 15 is Paul s famous discussion of the resurrection. Toward the end of this chapter Paul wrote: We shall not all sleep (die) but we shall all be changed. At least this is what we find both in the King James Version and in our modern translations. But if we turn to our critical editions of the Greek New Testament, or any critical commentary, we find an interesting variety in the wording of the mystery that Paul states here. Gordon Fee has helpfully laid out the different textual options and the primary support for each. I repeat it here with additions and expansions (Fee, 1997, 796). 1. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed (B majority) 2. We shall all sleep but we shall not all be changed (Sinaiticus, C) 3. We shall not all sleep and we shall not all be changed (P 46 A c ) 4. We shall all sleep
2 and we shall all be changed (A*) 5. We shall all be raised but we shall not all be changed (D* Marcion, Tertullian) The primary purpose of New Testament textual criticism is to establish the original text of the New Testament, and to determine from among the available variations what the author originally wrote. In the case of 1 Cor 15:51 there is no doubt among modern editors and commentators (Holmes, 2010, 360). Undoubtedly Paul wrote, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. But a secondary goal of New Testament textual criticism is to discern the causes of corruption of the text and to understand the factors in the life of the early church that influenced these changes in the text. Many of the changes are accidental, since scribes often misread, misheard, or misunderstood the words of the exemplar. But a number of changes to the text are demonstrably intentional, and this is as true for the text of the Hebrew Bible and LXX as for the New Testament (Tov, 2011, 242-262). In recent years such research in the text of the New Testament has advanced due to the pioneering and at times provocative work of Eldon Jay Epp, Bart D. Ehrman, and D. C. Parker (Rodgers, 2011, 5-9). What can the textual variations in the New Testament tell us about early Christian thought and debate of that time? In particular, we ask here, can the variations in 1 Cor 15:51 provide for us a window into the earliest Christian discussions and debates about the question of universal salvation? In 1 Cor 15:51 we note that three of the five options presented by the textual data share the same form for the second half of the couplet: we shall not all be changed. At least three of our witnesses to the text make it clear that this form may be traced at least to the second century, if not earlier. These witnesses are as follows: P 46 is a collection of Paul s epistles (minus the pastorals), which is dated by most scholars to around 200 CE. It regularly conforms to the Alexandrian type of text and is considered of the highest quality in determining the original text of Paul (Aland & Aland, 1987, 155; Metzger & Ehrman, 2005, 54-55). G. Zuntz noted that here, at 1 Cor 15:51, as at 2 Cor 10:8, the corrector of P 46 has failed to correct what he found in the manuscript (Zuntz, 1953, 255). And since it is more likely that P 46 will have omitted words and phrases than added them (Royse, 2007), we may assume that this is what the scribe of the papyrus found in the exemplar. This is a case of exemplaric variation, to use the helpful terminology of Edgar Ebojo, a specialist on P 46 at the University of Birmingham (Ebojo, 2012). In this particular instance it is worthy of note that P 46 is joined by witnesses of the Western type of text (D* Marcion Tertullian). This suggests a geographical diversity for this reading in the second century. Marcion (ca. 160 CE) was an early heretic who taught, among other things, that his followers would be raised and rewarded, but not others. This is according to the testimony of Irenaeus (A.H. 1.27.3, Hill, 2001, 187). The reading at 1 Cor 15:51, We shall not all be changed, would have suited his theological agenda. Tertullian, writing just after the year 200 CE, also gives the text in this form: We shall all indeed rise again (though we shall not all undergo the transformation) (Ante-Nicene Fathers, III.575). It is clear that these are three independent witnesses to the same form of the text, We shall not all be changed. P 46 is from Egypt, Marcion from Sinope in Asia Minor, and Tertullian from North Africa. Had Marcion invented the reading, it is unlikely to have been adopted either by P 46 or by Tertullian. It almost certainly was widely current in the church s copies of 1 Corinthians 15 prior to the year 150 CE.
3 Can we probe behind the early second century to explore the origin both of Paul s thought in 1 Cor 15:51 and the likely cause of alteration of the text? I believe that this is possible, and that the key for this exploration is to be found in Paul s creative use of the Old Testament in 1 Cor 15:54-55. As Paul closes his argument and this particular paragraph on the mystery of the resurrection body, he draws together two passages from the scriptures of Israel (Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14): 54 When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55 Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Both the combination of texts and the textual variants in this quotation are fascinating. But what is of special interest for our inquiry is the first line, taken from Isaiah 25:8. The whole oracle, Isaiah 25:6-8, has a bearing on Paul s thought in 1 Corinthians 15: 6. On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations. 8. He will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, And the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, For the Lord has spoken. It is especially interesting to notice the repeated use of the word all in this Isaianic oracle. It indicates a universalist strand in Old Testament teaching (Goldingay, 2001, 144). It is likely that Paul has not simply lifted and changed an expression from the context of Isaiah 25, but that he has meditated long and deeply on this oracle, which is surrounded by oracles of judgment. The oracle has not simply contributed a phrase to cap off Paul s argument but has also shaped the language and logic of the whole chapter. This seems evident if we note that the other two Old Testament passages cited in 1 Corinthians 15 include the term all in the form in which Paul cites them (1 Cor 15:25/Psa 110:1; 1 Cor 15:27/Psa 8:7). Garland has pointed out that Paul finds all things (panta) as a key word in Psalm 8, and he inserts it in the allusion to Psalm 110:1 in 1 Cor 15:25 (Garland, 2003, 713). But the combination of Psalm 8 and Psalm 110 is found elsewhere in the New Testament (Eph 1:20-22; Heb 1:13, 2:5-9). This combination may already be an established tradition before Paul (Hays, 1989, 84). The principle in Jewish exegesis that has drawn these two Psalms together is gezerah shavah (comparing similar expressions). Paul likely found both psalms with the term all (panta) and linked them with Isaiah 25:6-8, in which the word all is a key word. So the universal scope of God s reign and salvation becomes a theological theme, according to the scriptures, that undergirds Paul s argument throughout 1
4 Corinthians 15. The word all of this exegetical trope has likely influenced Paul s statements in verse 22, for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. Similarly it may have shaped the language of verse 28, that God may be all in all. In addition to gezerah shavah, Paul is following another common Jewish interpretive procedure called Midrash Pesher. The term was coined from the practice at Qumran of applying prophetic scriptures, line by line, to the contemporary situation of the community, with the assumption that the scriptures were being fulfilled in their own time. The clearest example is the Habakkuk commentary, 1QpHab. (Vermes, 2004, 509-516). The pesher was the explanation of the mystery.it was assumed that the text spoke of and to the Qumran community, and that it spoke of eschatological events about to unfold (Evans, 2005, 383). Earle Ellis considered 1 Cor 15:54-55 to be perhaps the most notable instance of pesher quotation in Pauline literature (Ellis, 1978, 178). These exegetical conventions would have been familiar to the Jewish readers in Paul s congregations, and for them would have reinforced the universal scope of Christ s resurrection, which is a major concern in the passage. But alongside this universal thrust there were other ways of seeing Isaiah 25:6-8 in Second Temple Judaism. If the Targum of Isaiah may be traced to the Judaism of pre-70 CE, then it bears witness to a different interpretation of the passage (italics indicate targumic additions or alterations to the text of Isaiah): 6. On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all a feast and a festival; they think that it is of glory, but it will be to them for shame, strokes from which they will not be rescued, strokes by which they will come to an end. And the face of the great one who is master over all the peoples, and the face of the king who rules over all the kingdom will be annihilated on this mountain. 8. They will forget death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces and the reproaches of the people he will take away from all the earth, for by the Memra of the LORD it is so decreed. (Chilton, 1999, 49-50) Whether or not this particular targumic tradition can be traced, as many certainly can, to the Judaism of pre-70 CE, it bears witness to an alternative understanding of eschatology during the era. The conviction of blessing for Israel and judgment for the nations was current in Israel in the Second Temple period (see, for example, 11Q Melchizedek at Qumran). It is within the context of this variety of eschatological teaching in Judaism that Paul penned his inclusive vision in 1 Corinthians 15, as he does so from Isaiah 25:6-8. Elsewhere Paul expresses different aspects of Jewish eschatology (see especially Rom 2:8-9). But in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul s affirmation we shall all be changed expresses universal hope, according to the scriptures. With regard to the variety of eschatological vision without Judaism and Christianity in the first and second centuries, Oskar Skarsaune has observed: There was no one standard and normative Jewish eschatology in the first and second centuries CE. On the contrary, this period is characterized by a varied and intense effort to create eschatological scenarios that could give meaning to and comfort in the dramatic and epoch-making events of this era. The same pluriformity and variety is to be observed in the Christian writings of the first two centuries and beyond. (Scarsaune, 2007, 326-327)
5 In conclusion, I suggest a transmission history for the expression we shall all be changed in 1 Cor 15:51. In line with his vision of the universal scope of God s salvation, Paul wrote this phrase here. Early in the second century (before 150 CE) a copyist accidentally transferred or repeated the negative to the second clause, creating the alternative reading found in P 46, Marcion and Tertullian. Scribes coming across the alternative in later centuries and faced with a choice of readings might easily have preferred the negative in this clause, lest Paul should seem to be advocating a universal salvation of all. This was an increasingly unpopular view, and in the West it disappeared almost entirely. Nevertheless, both readings were known, and when Jerome comments at length on this variation he is aware of its relevance to the debates about the scope of Christ s salvation (Metzger, 1979, 185; Donaldson, 2009, 479-488). Such choice of text would have been the case increasingly as scribes of a gentile background failed to understand or appreciate Paul s Jewish exegetical methods and his application of the scriptures in light of the resurrection of Jesus. For Paul the scriptures affirm: for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive and we shall all be changed. REFERENCES Aland, Kurt, and Aland, Barbara. The Text of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. Bauckham, Richard. Universalism, a Historical Survey. Themelios, 4.2 (1978) 47-54. Chilton, Bruce D. The Aramaic Bible: The Isaiah Targum, Translation, Apparatus and Notes. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1999. Donaldson, Amy M. Explicit References to New Testament Variant Readings Among Greek and Latin Church Fathers, 2 Volumes, PhD Dissertation, Notre Dame University, 2009, available online. Ebojo, Edgar. Private email correspondence, May 5, 2012. Ellis E. Earle. Prophecy and Hermeneutic in Early Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978. Evans, Craig A. Jewish Exegesis, pp. 380-384 in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005. Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987. Garland, David E. 1 Corinthians. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003. Goldingay, John. Isaiah. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2001. Hays, Richard B. Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Hill, Charles E. Regnum Caelorum. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Holmes, Michael W. The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010. Metzger, Bruce M. St. Jerome s Explicit References to Variant Readings in Manuscripts of the New Testament, pp. 179-190 in Text and Interpretations: Studies in the New Testament presented to Matthew Black, eds. E. Best and R. McL. Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Metzger, Bruce M., and Ehrman, Bart D. The Text of the New Testament, Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Rahner, Karl. The One Christ and the Universality of Salvation, pp. 199-224 in Theological Investigations, 16. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1979. Rodgers, Peter R. Text and Story. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2011. Scarsaune, Oskar. Fragments of Jewish Christian Literature Quoted in Some Greek and Latin Fathers, pp.325-378 in Jewish Believers in Jesus, eds. Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007. Thiessen, Terrance L. Irenaeus and the Salvation of the Unevangelized. Metuchen and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1993. Tov, Emanuel. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3 rd ed. revised and expanded. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011. Vermes, Geza. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. London: Penguin, 2004. Zuntz, Gunther. The Text of the Epistles: A Disquisition upon the Corpus Paulinum, Schweich Lectures, 1946. London: British Academy, 1953. 6
Originally published in Heaven, Hell, and the Afterlife: Eternity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Volume 2 End Time and Afterlife in Christianity (2013) 1-7 and is subject to applicable copyright laws. This edition is for the author s personal website. Do not reproduce without permission. 7