Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JUDGMENT

In the OT “judgment” (Heb. mišpāṭ) carries both legal and theological meanings, which reflects the embeddedness of the concept in the covenant traditions of Israel (Deut. 1:9-18, esp. v. 17). God, who is “Judge of all the earth” (Gen. 18:25), is not merely a distant magistrate but one whose judgments express the continual unfolding of the covenant relationship (Exod. 21:1; 24:3a; NRSV “ordinances”). Judgments, like commandments (miṣwôṯ) as expressions of the covenantal relationship, are also to be kept by the people (Exod. 24:3b; Lev. 18:4; Deut. 11:1; 26:17). In both human and divine manifestations, judgment is closely associated with another term bearing both legal and theological meanings, ṣeḏeq or ṣĕḏāqâ, usually translated “justice” or “righteousness.” As God’s judgment goes hand in hand with God’s justice (Gen. 18:25; Jer. 9:24; cf. Deut. 10:18), so does covenant-faithful human judgment lead to justice on earth (Lev. 19:15; 2 Sam. 8:15; Jer. 23:5; Amos 5:11-15).

For the Deuteronomist, the early prophets, and the early wisdom writers, the workings of divine judgment are predictable: the wicked are punished and the righteous rewarded (Deut. 8:11; Prov. 29:25-27). Some writers, however, motivated by times of extreme national crisis, begin to lose confidence in the accustomed order of divine judgment and justice. The later prophets, Job, Ecclesiastes, and the postexilic psalmist witness the profound shift worked in biblical consciousness by the persistence of suffering among the righteous. One response, characteristic of the prophets, is to push judgment forward in time. Not only the nations but Israel herself awaits the coming “Day of the Lord” (Isa. 10:20; Hos. 1:5), to be followed by a new age of blessings and a restoration of the divine order (Isa. 65:17-25; Zech. 14:9-11).

Another response is found in Job, where the longed-for judgment and justice of God is pushed beyond earthly life to the resurrection (Job 19:25-27; cf. Isa. 26:19; Wis. 2–5). The theme of resurrection judgment becomes standard in the late Second Temple period, the time of Israel’s oppression under the Syrians and the Romans (Dan. 12:1-2; 2 Macc. 12:41-45). In the apocalyptic thought of this period, the hope for a restoration of justice on earth is gone and a cosmic last judgment is in view. At the cataclysmic end of the old order, God or God’s agent (“one like a Son of Man,” “Messiah,” “Righteous One”) will come to judge the living and the (resurrected) dead. In some texts, those who die before the last judgment are resurrected and judged immediately upon death; in others, the dead rest in Sheol (in agony or peace, depending on their status as wicked or righteous) until the judgment at the last day (2 Bar. 36:11; 4 Ezra 7:95).

The NT shares in and adapts Jewish eschatological and apocalyptic notions of judgment. The English meaning of “judging” or “judgment” is carried in Greek by the verb krínō and the nouns krísis and kríma, but texts that imply the last judgment often do not employ these Greek terms. Other relevant vocabulary includes “the day,” “those days,” and terms describing the coming of the Messiah or the Son of Man at the end time. While there is considerable disagreement about Jesus’ own expectations and those of his earliest followers concerning the end time, the NT authors generally look forward to a future eschatological judgment.

In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is the divine agent, often “Son of Man,” who announces and/or effects the advent of God’s rule. His second coming will bring the consummation of God’s kingdom, including the final judgment of the wicked and the righteous. This judgment is variously depicted as imminent (Mark, Matthew) or delayed (Luke), but in the Synoptics it has clear future reference. The classic depiction of this future judgment is Matt. 25:31-46, where the enthroned Jesus separates the sheep from the goats (cf. 19:28, where the disciples are given authority to judge the 12 tribes of Israel). As in Jewish apocalyptic texts, the coming judgment is presaged by affliction, persecution, and cosmic catastrophe (Mark 13:3-37 par.). John’s Gospel displays a heightened use of the vocabulary of judgment, but now the judgment is a decidedly present and not merely future reality. The moment of judgment may coincide with the act of belief or unbelief (John 3:19; 5:22-24, 27), and yet the eschatological reference has not disappeared: “on the last day, the word (lógos) . . . will serve as judge” (12:48; cf. 5:28-29).

Paul also expects an imminent judgment, the “day of the Lord” (1 Thess. 5:2; 1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14; Phil. 1:6, 10). On that day, believers will be saved from the wrath of God and given eternal life (Rom. 2:7) while those who “obey wickedness” will suffer wrath and fury (v. 8). God is the ultimate judge who knows and judges the secrets of human beings (Rom. 2:16). God has appointed Christ to the judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10; cf. Rom. 14:10) and the saints to judge the world (1 Cor. 6:2; cf. Matt. 19:28). Although God has made certain criteria of judgment known, God’s judgments are finally “unsearchable” (Rom. 11:33). For Paul, divine judgment may function as a corrective (1 Cor. 11:32): even the excommunication of an immoral person from the Church may bring the salvation of his spirit in the day of the Lord (1 Cor. 5:5; cf. 3:15). There is also a sense in which for Paul the judgment of God, like the end time and the new creation, has already come upon the world. Believers and unbelievers are already being saved or destroyed insofar as they perceive or do not perceive God’s saving action in the Christ event (1 Cor. 1:18; 10:11).

Judgment in the Revelation of John is highly reminiscent of Jewish apocalyptic judgment. In the present evil age of Roman domination, divine justice is inscrutable; the people cry out for God’s avenging judgment on their enemies (Rev. 6:10) and are shown visions, revealed from heaven, of the coming “hour of judgment” (14:7; 18:10; cf. 11:18). In the cataclysmic end time, the “true and righteous judgments of God” (16:7; 19:2, 11) will restore justice. The Word (Logos) of God personified, mounted on a white horse, will judge and make war (Rev. 19:11). The dead will be resurrected for judgment (Rev. 20:4-5), and the saints will be rewarded in the splendor of the new heaven and new earth (21:1-4).

Bibliography. S. G. G. Brandon, The Judgment of the Dead (New York, 1969); P. D. Hanson, The Dawn of Apocalyptic, rev. ed. (Philadelphia, 1979); V. Herntrich, “krínō: The OT Term mishpat,” TDNT 3:923-33; G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology 2 (New York, 1965): 119-25; D. S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic. OTL (Philadelphia, 1964).

Alexandra R. Brown

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JUDGMENT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)