Daniel 12:3

Hebrew Bible

1 “At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning up to that time. But at that time your own people, all those whose names are found written in the book, will escape. 2 Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake—some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 3 But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse. And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. 4 “But you, Daniel, close up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will dash about, and knowledge will increase.”

4 Ezra 7:125

2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha

123 What good is the revelation of paradise and its imperishable fruit, the source of perfect satisfaction and healing? 124 For we shall never enter it, since we have made depravity our home. 125 Those who have practiced self- discipline shall shine with faces brighter than the stars; but what good is that to us whose faces are darker than the night? 126 For during a lifetime of wickedness we have never given a thought to the sufferings awaiting us after death.’

 Notes and References

"... It should also be noted that the judgment follows the resurrection in both 4 Ezra 7:32 and Daniel 12:2, although only 4 Ezra clearly states that this judgment will be universal. Both 4 Ezra and Daniel divides the resurrected into two groups, people with righteous deeds and people with unrighteous deeds. The first group will awake to eternal life while the other to eternal contempt (Daniel 12:2). The judgment language of 4 Ezra is reminiscent of Daniel 7:9-10. 4 Ezra refers to the Most High on the seat of judgment, while Daniel, refers to the Ancient of Days who takes his seat and opens the books in order to convene the judgment. The punishment and reward given to the wicked and the righteous as a result of the judgment are expanded upon in 4 Ezra 7:79ff. The sixth reward foretold to the righteous is directly based on Daniel 12:3 which promises that they will shine like the sun, and be made like the light of the stars (4 Ezra 7:97). 4 Ezra 7:125 takes it even a step further by noting that the faces of the righteous shall shine more than the stars. This may suggest that the righteous will become like angels (compare Job 38:7) or that the glorified bodies will radiate light as a result of seeing God face to face (4 Ezra 7:98). The latter understanding would be similar to the case of Moses when he had to cover his face since it was radiant after he had spoken to the Lord on Mt. Sinai. Both understandings are expressed in the New Testament (be like the angels in heaven [Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:36] and radiate light [Matthew 13:43; 1 Corinthians 15:35-42]), Pseudepigrapha [and Deuterocanon] (e.g. Sirach 16:14-16; 1 Enoch 51:4-5; 104:2; 2 Enoch 1:5; 2 Baruch 51:3, 10; Pseudo-Philo 12:1, and early Rabbinic material (e.g. b. Berakhot 17a; Sifre Deuteronomy 10; Genesis Rabbah 20:12; 23:6) ..."

Sigvartsen, Jan A. The Afterlife Views and the Use of the Tanakh in Support of the Resurrection Concept in the Literature of Second Temple Period Judaism: The Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha (pp. 85-86) Andrews University, 2016

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