Second Meditation: What Is Judgment? 95
within the embrace of an extravagant apocalyptic imagery
that, in itself, has no strictly literal elements? How did some
images become mere images in the general Christian imagina-
tion while others became exact documentary portraits of some
final reality? If one can be swayed simply by the brute force
of arithmetic, it seems worth noting that, among the appar-
ently most explicit statements on the last things, the univer-
salist statements are by far the more numerous. I am thinking
of such verses as, say:
Or:
Romans5:18-19:J1.paovvwsoi' Jvos1rapa1TTWfJ,aTOS
, , , 0 , , , ti ,
ELS 1TaVTas av pw1rovs ELS KaTaKptμa, OVTWS Kat
oi' €VOS OtKatwμaTOS ELS 7TO.,VTas av0pw1TOVS ELS
OtKatwaiv (wijs· WG1TEp yap Ota T"f}S 1rapaKoijs
TOV ~ EVOS ' ' ' av 0 pw1rov ' aμapTW/\Ol ' ' ' KaTEGTa '0 YJGav
Ol 1TOAAo[, OVTWS Kal Ota Tijs V1TaKoijs TOV €VOS
OtKawi KaTaaTa0~aovTat o[ 1roAAo[. (So, then,
just as through one transgression came condemna-
tion for all human beings, so also through one act
of righteousness came a rectification of life for all
human beings; for, just as by the heedlessness of the
one man the many were rendered sinners, so also
by the obedience of the one the many will be ren-
dered righteous.)1 Corinthians 15: 22: WG1TEp yap EV T({J )1odμ 1TO.,VTES
a1ro0vflaKovaiv, OVTWS Kai EV T({J XptaT({J 7TO.,VTES
(wo1roiYJ0~aovrni. (For just as in Adam all die, so
also in the Anointed [Christ] all will be given life.)