66 THE APOSTLE PAUL Law (the Torah), and as He has given the Law to the Jewish People only, it is to them alone that He has a positive relationship: there is not even the expectation of a later extension of it to all nations, as the prophets had held. According to the Pharisaic view the Jews are for ever the sole People of God, while the heathen, as such, of whatever kind their moral character may be, are enemies of God, and are destined to eternal damnation. In regard to Israel, God’s relationship is completely defined by the Law, which He has given to that People for the very purpose that they may by fulfilling it win for them- selves merit and a claim to reward in this world and the next. In the requital of human action the Divine will is as absolutely bound to the Law as the human will. Thus the Law is exalted as a higher power above God, and became indeed the veritable idol of Pharisaic Judaism ; indeed the Rabbis did not hesitate to represent God Himself as studying the Torah ! The more God was conceived as removed into an inaccessible elevation above the world, the more pressing became the need to fill the gulf between God and the world by interposing intermediate beings. Divine attributes and activities, Wisdom, Word, Spirit, Glory of God, were hypostatised into personal beings who acted as representatives of God and carried out His will, especially in connection with the revelation to Israel. In particular, the old con- ception of angels and demons (originally the friendly and hostile spirits of the animistic religion which had maintained itself in the popular belief alongside of the belief in Jahwe) now received an extension and application which were foreign to the prophetic