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THE  PUBLISHERS' 

COMPLIMENTS, 


BOOKS  WHICH   INFLUENCED   OUR  LORD 
AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 


PRINTED   BY   MORRISON   AND   GIBB. 


T.     &    T.     CLARK,     EDINBURGH. 

LONDON, HAMILTON,  ADAMS,  AND  CO. 

DUBLIN GEORGE  HERBERT. 

NEW  YORK, CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS. 


BOOKS 

WHICH  INFLUENCED  OUR  LORD 
AND  HIS  APOSTLES: 


BEING  A  CRITICAL  REVIEW  OF  APOCALYPTIC 
JEWISH  LITERATURE. 


JOHN    E.  H.  THOMSON,   B.D., 


EDINBURGH: 

T.    &    T.    CLARK,    38    GEORGE    STREET. 
1891. 


TO  THE   MEMBERS 
OF  THE 

e 

CLUB, 
TO  WHOSE  SUGGESTION   IT  OWES   ITS   ORIGIN, 

Ws  gook 

IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 

BY  THEIR  BROTHER 

THE 

AUTHOR. 


2017286 


PREFACE. 


nPHE  present  work  owes  its  origin  to  a  paper  read 
by  the  author  to  a  Theological  Club — a  society 
in  which  a  few  friends  discuss  theological  questions. 
The  subject  seemed  to  the  members  one  of  interest, 
and  at  the  same  time  one  very  little  known,  and  they 
suggested  the  advisability  of  enlarging  the  paper  into 
a  volume.  Notwithstanding  the  advice  given,  the 
author  still  hesitated,  as  the  field  he  would  occupy  had 
to  a  great  extent  been  already  filled  by  Schiirer's 
Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Jesus  Christ  (transl.,  5 
vols.  and  Index  vol.  :  T.  &  T.  Clark,  Edinburgh) ; 
Hausrath's  New  Testament  Times  (transl.,  2  vols.  : 
Williams  &  Norgate,  London) ;  Langen's  Judenthum 
in  Paldstina  zur  Zeit  Christi,  among  Germans ;  and 
by  such  works  as  Drummond's  Jewish  Messiah  (Long- 
mans, London),  and  Stanton's  Jewish  and  Christian 
Messiah  (T.  &  T.  Clark,  Edinburgh),  for  English 
readers.  But  on  further  consideration  the  thought  of 
the  many  points  on  which  he  had  found  himself  com- 
pelled to  differ  from  his  predecessors  in  this  field,  and 
of  the  important,  if  only  indirect,  bearing  the  contents 
of  the  apocalyptic  books  had  on  evangelic  history,  led 
him  to  listen  to  the  advice  so  kindly  tendered. 

The  primary  object  of  the  present  work  was  to  give 

vii 


viii  PREFACE. 

an  analysis  and  description  of  the  little  known  Jewish 
apocalyptic  books.  But  to  make  this  analysis  really 
intelligible,  it  was  imperatively  necessary  also  to  give 
the  setting  of  these  books  and  their  origin.  This 
further  involved  the  study  of  the  peculiarly  intimate 
connection  they  had  with  early  Christianity.  The  more 
these  Apocalypses  were  studied,  the  more  clearly  did 
the  writer  seem  to  see  that  our  Lord  and  His  apostles 
must  have  stood  in  a  close  and  intimate  relation  with 
the  school  from  which  these  books  proceeded.  The 
primary  object  now  became  subsidiary  to  another, 
viz.  to  show  the  links  connecting  the  Jewish 
Apocalypses  with  Christianity. 

In  pursuance  of  this  design,  it  was  the  author's 
intention  to  have  given  a  full  digest  of  the  doctrinal 
standpoint  of  the  different  books  here  taken  under  con- 
sideration, and  to  have  shown  how  this  formed  a  bridge 
from  the  position  of  old  Judaism  to  Christianity ;  but 
time  and  space  both  failed.  He  has  simply  devoted 
a  single  chapter  to  this  subject,  and  gives  in  it  merely 
the  outlines  of  what  he  had  purposed. 

As  the  doctrinal  evolution  of  the  books  in  question 
implied  a  knowledge  of  the  order  in  which  they  were 
written,  it  was  necessary  to  subjoin  to  the  analysis  and 
description  of  them  a  criticism  of  their  date,  language, 
and  probable  place  of  origin.  In  this  part  of  his 
inquiry  the  writer  thought  that  it  would  be  merely 
confusing  to  carry  on  the  investigation  by  calling 
together  all  the  theories  he  objected  to,  and,  by  dint  of 
combating  them,  establish  his  own.  It  seemed  better 
to  lay  down  canons,  and  work  rigidly  in  accordance 
with  them.  These  canons,  although  not  stated  in  so 


PKEFACE.  IX 


many  words  by  any  one  of  the  numerous  writers  on 
this  subject,  so  far  as  the  present  writer  is  aware,  are 
implied  in  the  criticism  of  every  one  of  them. 

Instead  of  loading  the  pages  with  references,  which 
few  persons  verify,  but  which  would  have  increased 
unduly  the  bulk  of  the  present  volume,  it  has  been 
deemed  better  to  give  a  vidimus  of  the  reading 
advisable  for  one  who  would  master  the  subject. 

If,  from  the  perusal  of  this  volume,  any  one  is  led  to 
have  a  fuller  comprehension  of  the  character  of  Christ, 
and  a  deeper  reverence  for  it,  the  utmost  hopes  of  the 
writer  will  be  fulfilled.  If  the  reader  is  only  led  to  a 
line  of  study  which  is  fitted  to  produce  this  reveren- 
tial feeling,  the  writer  will  regard  himself  as  not  having 
laboured  for  naught  or  in  vain. 

The  writer  must,  in  closing,  tender  his  thanks  to  Dr. 
John  Hutchison,  of  the  High  School,  Glasgow,  and  to 
David  Jerdan,  Esq.,  Greenock,  for  their  kindness  in 
correcting  the  proofs ;  to  the  Eev.  Andrew  Carter,  for 
general  literary  counsel ;  and  to  the  Eev.  W.  B.  R. 
Wilson,  Dollar,  for  his  kindness  in  preparing  an  index. 
He  has  also  to  thank  Professor  Calderwood  for  kindly 
permitting  him  to  use  his  page  in  the  Library  of 
Edinburgh  University.  His  thanks  are  also  due  to 
the  Librarians  of  the  University  Libraries  in  Glasgow 
and  Edinburgh,  for  kind  advice  and  assistance  in  con- 
sulting authorities. 


LITERATURE    OF   THE   SUBJECT. 


SOUKCES. 


ENOCH. 
Laurence  —  Ethiopic    and    Latin, 

English. 

Dillmann— German. 
Schodde— English. 
De  Sacy— Latin  (first  16  chapters). 

BARUCH. 

Ceriani — Syriac. 
Fritzsche — Latin. 

PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON. 
Hilgenfeld— Greek. 
Frabicius —      do. 
Fritzsche —      do. 
De  la  Cerda — Latin. 
Wellhausen — German. 

BOOK  OF  JUBILEES. 
Dillmann — Ethiopic. 
Schodde— English. 
Ceriani  (Ronsch) — Latin. 


ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES. 
Volkmar — Latin. 
Fritzsche —  do. 
Hilgenfeld— Greek. 
Volkmar — German. 

ASCENSION  OF  ISAIAH. 
Dillmann — Ethiopic. 
Do.      — Latin. 

FOURTH  ESDRAS. 
Hilgenfeld— Greek  (v.). 

Do.      — Latin. 

Do.      — Arabic  (v.). 

Do.      — Syriac  (v.). 

Do.      — Armenian  (v.). 

Do.  —Ethiopic  (v.). 
Apocrypha — English  translation. 

TWELVE  PATRIARCHS. 
Fabricius — Greek  and  Latin. 
Sinker — Greek. 

Clark's     Ante  -  Nicene     Christian 
Library  (Lactantius,  vol.  ii.). 


PHILO— 

Keviere,  Geneva — Greek  and  Latin. 
Bohn's  translation — English. 

JOSEPHUS — 

Oberthiir,  Leipzig — Greek  and  Latin. 
L'Estrange's  translation — English. 


Xll  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

SIBYLLINA.  ORACULA — 

Alexandra —Paris — Greek  and  Latin. 

FRAGMENTS  OP  JEWISH- ALEXANDRIAN  WRITERS — 

Clemens  Alexandrinus — Heinsius  (Paris  1629)— Greek  and  Latin. 

(English  transl.,  Ante-Nicene  Fathers  :  Clark's  ed.) 
Eusebius,  Preparatio  Evangelica— Greek  and  Latin — Vigne's  (Cologne 
1688). 

Historia  Ecclesiastica,  Bright:   Clarendon   Press— English 

(Bohn's  Series). 
Plinius  Secundus,  Historia  Naturalis  (Frankfort  A/M.  1682). 

GENERAL  HISTORIES  OF  THE  PERIOD. 

Ewald's  History  of  Israel.    Transl.,  Longmans. 

Do.     Antiquities.  do. 

Milman's  History  of  the  Jews.     Murray. 
Gra'tz,  Geschichte  der  Juden. 
Stanley's  Jewish  CJiurch.     Murray. 
Jost,  Geschichte  des  Judenthums. 
Wellhausen,  History  of  Israel.     Transl.,  Longmans. 
Hengstenberg's  Kingdom  of  God  under  the  Old  Dispensation.      T.  &  T. 

Clark. 

Kenan's  Histoire  du  peuple  Israel. 
Derenbourg,  Histoire  de  la  Palestine. 

SPECIAL  HISTORIES  OF  THE  PERIOD. 

Schiirer's  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Jesus  Christ.    Transl.,  T.  &  T. 

Clark. 

Hausrath's  New  Testament  Times.    Transl.,  Williams  &  Norgate. 
Morrison,   The  Jews  under  the  Romans.    Story  of  the  Nations.     Fisher 

Unwin. 

Langen,  Judenthum  in  Palastina  zur  Zeit  Christi. 
Nicolas,  Doctrines  religieuses  des  Juifs. 

LIVES  OF  CHRIST. 

Lange,  Life  of  Christ.    Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Farrar,  Life  of  Christ.    Cassels. 

Geikie,  Life  of  Christ.     Hodder  &  Stoughton. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  Xlll 

Edersheim,  Jesus  the  Messiah.     Longmans. 

Keim,  Jesus  of  Nazara.     Transl.,  Williams  &  Norgate. 

Jesus  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth.     Kegan  Paul. 

Kenan,  Les  Origines  du  Christianisme. 

Weiss,  Life  of  Christ.    Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Beyschlag,  Leben  Jesu. 

Neander,  Life  of  Christ.    Bohn. 

Pressense,  Jesus  Christ. 

ON  THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  IN  THE  APOCALYPTIC 
BOOKS,  INCLUDING  DANIEL. 

Drummond's  JewisJi  Messiah.     Longmans. 

Stanton's  Jewish  and  Christian  Messiah.    T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Colani,  Croyances  Messianiques. 

Vernes,  Histoire  des  Ide'es  Messianiques. 

Anger,  Der  Messianische  Idee. 

Hitzig,  Messianische  Weissagungen. 

Biehm,  Messianic  Prophecy.     Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Delitzsch's  Messianic  Prophecies.     Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Hilgenfeld's  Judische  Apocalyptik. 

Hengstenberg's  Christology.    Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Pusey,  On  Daniel.     Murray. 

Keil's  Daniel.     Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Philippi,  Dos  Buch  Henoch. 

Lticke,  Offenbarung  Johannis. 

Kuenen,  Prophets  of  Israel.     Transl.,  Triibner. 

INTKODUCTION  TO  BOOKS  OF  OLD  AND  NEW 
TESTAMENTS  AND  APOCRYPHA. 

Keil,  Introduction  to  Old  Testament.    Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 
Bleek,  Introduction  to  Old  Testament.     Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 
De  Wette,  Einleitung. 

SECTS  OF  THE  JEWS. 

Montet,  Les  Pharisiens  et  les  Sadduce'ens. 

Cohen,  Les  Pharisiens. 

S.  de  Sacy,  Correspond,  avec  les  Samaritains. 

Wellhausen,  Pharisaer  und  Sadducaer. 

Hanne,  Pharisaer  und  Sadducaer  als  politische  parteien. 

Lucius,  Essenismus. 


xiv  LITEKATUEE  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

ON  THE  VIEWS  OF  PHILO. 

Bitter,  Geschichte  der  Philosophic,  vol.  iv. 

Ueberweg,  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.     Transl.,  Hodder  &  Stoughton. 
Zeller,  Philosophic  der  Griechen,  Division  iii.,  2nd  Section,  vol.  ii. 
(This  volume  contains  also  an  account  of  the  Essenes.) 

JEWISH  WOEKS. 

Targums — Several  old  folio  editions.  For  particulars,  see  Peterman's 
Chaldee  Grammar.  Winer  has  published  extracts. 

Talmud — Also  several  folio  editions.  A  good  recent  edition  is  that  of 
Cracow.  A  French  translation  was  recently  in  course  of  publication  ; 
whether  it  is  now  completed  the  writer  is  not  aware.  A  translation 
of  the  Mishna  into  English  was  published  some  few  years  ago  in 
London.  A  large  number  of  sections  were  omitted,  as  they  plaintively 
remark,  because  they  would  not  suit  "  the  English  taste."  Several 
articles  commendatory  of  the  Talmud  have  from  time  to  time  been 
published,  especially  that  of  the  late  Emanuel  Deutsch.  It  is  easy 
from  such  a  mass  of  material  as  the  Talmud  consists  of  to  extract 
something  good. 

Eisenmenger,  Entdecktes  Judenthum,  gives  a  great  mass  of  information. 

TOPOGKAPHY  OF  PALESTINE. 

Tristram's  Tlie  Land  of  Israel     S.P.C.K. 
Picturesque  Palestine.     Virtue. 
Thomson's  The  Land  and  the  Book.     Nelson. 
Bitter's  Geography  of  Palestine.     Transl.,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 
Henderson's  Palestine :    Its  Historical  Geography.     With  Topographical 
Index.    T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Further,  there  are  articles  in  various  German,  English,  and  American 
theological  periodicals;  articles  in  Herzog's  Real- Encyclopadie  ; 
Wetzer  und  Welte,  Kir chen- Lexicon ;  Ersch  und  Grube's  Encyclo- 
paedia ;  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica ;  Smith  and  Wace's  Dictionaries, 
which  are  too  numerous  to  particularise. 


The  writer  would  not  he  held  as  asserting  that  this  is  all  or  nearly  all 
that  is  written  on  the  subject;  but  what  is  mentioned  above  he  has 
perused  more  or  less  carefully  as  seemed  necessary  from  the  nature  and 
importance  of  the  several  works. 


CONTENTS, 


PACK 

INTRODUCTION,  .  .  .       'V          .  .  .        1 


BOOK  I. 

BACKGROUND   OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

CHAP. 

I.  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  EELIGIOUS,  .  21 

II.  THE  SAMARITANS,     ......  41 

III.  THE  SADDUCEES,       ......  50 

IV.  THE  PHARISEES,       ......  58 

V.  THE  ESSENES,  .  .  .  .  .  .  75 ' 

VI.  THE  ESSENES  :   THEIR  EELATION  TO  THE  APOCALYPTIC 

BOOKS,   ...'....  93 

VII.  THE  ESSENES  :  THEIR  RELATION  TO  OUR  LORD,      .  .  110 

VIII.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD — THE  APOCRYPHA,         .  123 

IX.  ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE,  .  .  147 

X.  NON- APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE,       .  .  170 

BOOK  II. 

EVOLUTION   OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

I.  THE  NATURE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE,         .  .  193 

II.  THE  HOME  OF  APOCALYPTIC,  ....  213 

III.  THE  ENOCH  BOOKS,  ......  225 

IV.  THE  ELEVENTH  OF  DANIEL,  .....  249 
V.  THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH,         ....  253 

VI.  THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON,  .....  268 

VII.  THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES,      .  .  .  '        .  .  297 

VIII.  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES,  ....  321 

IX.  POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES,       .  .  .    ,       .  340 


Xvi  CONTENTS. 

BOOK  III. 

CRITICISM   OP  APOCALYPTIC. 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  RISE  OP  APOCALYPSE,  .....  363 

II.  THE  BOOK  OP  ENOCH  :  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE,  .  .  389 

III.  THE  ELEVENTH  CHAPTER  OF  DANIEL  :  ITS  DATE,  .  .  412 

IV.  THE    LANGUAGE  AND    DATE    OP    THE    APOCALYPSE   OP 

BARUCH,            ......  414 

V.  THE  LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OP  THE  PSALTER  OP  SOLOMON,  .  423 

VI.  THE  LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES,      .  433 

VII.  THE  LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES,  440 

VIII.  THE  CRITICISM  OF  THE  POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES,     .  451 

IX.  VISCHER'S  THEORY  OF  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE 

OF  ST.  JOHN,      .  .  .  .  .461 

BOOK  IV. 

THEOLOGICAL  RESULT. 
THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS,       .        475 

INDEX,         .  .  .  .  .     •       .  .  .        489 


BOOKS  WHICH  INFLUENCED  OUR  LORD 
AND  HIS  APOSTLES. 

INTRODUCTION. 

~Y¥THEN  we  think  of  Christ,  when  we  attempt  to 
^  *  comprehend  in  any  small  degree  the  mystery 
of  His  Person,  we  instinctively  shrink  from  too  close 
inspection.  It  was  lest  they  should  be  guilty  of  irrever- 
ence that  the  command  was  given  to  warn  the  people 
of  Israel  to  keep  back  from  Mount  Sinai  when  God 
descended  upon  it,  "  lest  they  should  break  through  to 
gaze."  We  feel  as  if  there  were  something  of  the  same 
irreverence  in  too  closely  contemplating,  even  in 
thought,  a  human  nature  that  had  been  made  awful  by 
the  personal  presence  of  Deity  within  it.  We  feel  we 
must  take  the  shoes  from  off  our  feet,  for  it  is  holy 
ground. 

Many  shrink  back  from  any  delineation  of  His 
form  as  tending  to  lower  the  awful  majesty  that 
ought,  even  in  thought,  to  encircle  Godhead  when 
tabernacling  with  men,  and  veiled  in  flesh.  If  this 
awe  fill  us  when  we  contemplate  the  earthly  form 
which  our  Lord  wore,  do  we  not  feel  it  even  more 
when  we  attempt  to  pierce  within  the  veil  of  flesh, 
and  think  of  the  soul  of  Him  who  knew  no  sin  ?  We 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

feel  doubly  the  need  of  putting  the  shoes  off  our  feet 
and  veiling  our  faces,  when  we  attempt  to  think 
Christ's  thoughts  after  Him. 

If  even  to  contemplate  Christ,  actual  man  and  true 
God,  very  man  of  very  man,  and  very  God  of  very 
God,  fill  us  with  wonder,  and  overwhelm  us  with  a 
sense  of  mystery,  does  not  the  idea  of  growth  prove 
more  trying  for  us,  as  it  seems  to  contradict  the  idea 
of  Deity  even  when  incarnate  ?  When  we  allow  our 
minds  to  dwell  upon  it,  we  feel  as  if  we  were  lifting 
that  innermost  veil,  behind  which  dwells  the  Shechinah 
of  God's  presence,  and  that  forth  from  that  awful 
glory  the  fire  of  God  may  come  and  consume  us  in 
a  moment.  If  that  be  the  case  with  regard  to  the 
growth  of  the  body,  do  we  not  feel  it  to  be  much  more 
KO  in  regard  to  the  mind  ?  To  think  of  growth  in 
regard  to  that  mind  and  spirit  which  were  drawn  into 
such  intimate  union  with  Godhead,  and  to  attempt  to 
realise  the  process  of  that  growth  in  thought,  seems  as 
much  of  the  essence  of  desecration  as  to  have  pierced 
within  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  laid  hands  upon  the 
Ark  itself. 

Yet  may  there  not  be  an  opposite  danger  here  ? 
It  may  seem  hardly  possible  to  imagine  such  a  thing 
as  an  excess  in  reverence.  Yet  when  Isaiah  offered 
Ahaz,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  a  sign,  "  either  in  the 
depth  or  in  the  height,"  and  when  he  refused  it,  say- 
ing, "  I  will  not  ask,  neither  will  I  tempt  the  Lord,"  we 
feel  that  the  reverence  here  is  not  true,  it  is  excessive, 
and  therefore  unreal.  The  Jews  hedged  the  law  about 
with  a  reverence  that  extended  even  to  the  parchment 
on.  which  it  was  written ;  yet  in  that  very  reverence 


INTRODUCTION:  3 

for  the  outer  vehicle  of  the  law  they  lost  all  real 
reverence  for  its  spirit. 

Christ  has  come  down  to  dwell  among  us,  to  be  a 
man  among  men,  to  be  "  the  Son  of  man,"  to  be  our 
brother;  surely  we  must  regard  that  reverence  as 
excessive  that  would  deprive  us  of  this  nearness  to 
Him,  and  drive  Him  away  from  us.  We  feel  that 
Peter's  reverence,  though  true,  was  mistaken  when  he 
said  to  our  Lord,  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful 
man,  0  Lord."  Our  reverence  may  be  as  real  as 
Peter's,  and  yet  as  much  mistaken  in  its  mode  of 
expression,  when  we  absolutely  shun  the  contemplation 
of  the  humanity  of  Christ  in  all  its  completeness. 

There  are  signs  of  a  reaction,  there  are  pictures  of 
the  early  life  of  our  Lord,  in  which  He  is  represented 
as  the  infant,  the  child,  and  the  young  man — pictures 
in  which  the  artist  has  endeavoured,  with  all  the  help  of 
recent  knowledge,  to  realise  what  Jesus  actually  was. 
We  have  the  growth  of  the  human  frame  depicted,  and 
we  are  not  shocked  by  it.  When  \ve  think  a  moment 
we  remember  that  His  body  .had  all  the  sinless 
infirmities  of  humanity.  We  know  that  He  might  be 
wearied  with  journeying,  that  His  body  had  to  be 
built  up  with  food,  and  had  to  be  refreshed  with  sleep, 
and  finally,  that  that  body  died  and  was  buried. 
Growth  is  as  real  an  attribute  of  an  organic  body  as 
sleep  or  death.  And  we  are  told  that  He  "  grew  in 
wisdom  and  in  stature."  It  would  have  been  the 
most  impious  desecration  to  have  pierced  within  the 
Holy  of  Holies  when  once  the  Ark  was  placed  there, 
yet  we  have  an  elaborate  account  of  how  part  after 
part  of  the  framework  of  that  dwelling-place  of  God 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

was  made,  and  of  how  curtain  after  curtain  that 
covered  it  was  woven.  It  cannot  be  more  irreverent 
to  contemplate  the  upbuilding  by  vital  and  physical 
forces  of  that  human  frame,  in  which  God,  manifest 
in  the  flesh,  was  to  dwell. 

But  man  "  liveth  not  by  bread  alone,"  but  rather  by 
the  words  of  God.  The  body  is  not  all,  it  is  really 
because  it  is  the  instrument  of  the  spirit  of  man  which 
is  in  him.  As  the  true  analogue  of  the  Tabernacle  is 
not  so  much  the  outward  frame  as  the  inner  spirit, 
where  the  Second  Person  of  the  adorable  Trinity 
found  His  dwelling-place,  surely,  then,  it  does  not 
necessarily  savour  of  irreverence  to  contemplate  the 
growth,  mental  and  spiritual,  of  Jesus.  To  exclude 
from  reverent  contemplation  the  mental  and  spiritual 
character  of  Christ  is  really  to  fall  into  the  heresy  of 
Apollinaris,  who  denied  to  our  Lord  the  possession  of 
any  spiritual  nature  apart  from  indwelling  Godhead. 

This  growth  implies  education  and  amassing  of 
information,  the  general  effects  of  surroundings, 
physical  and  mental.  Many  of  the  writers  of  the 
lives  of  Christ  which  abound  have  dwelt  on  the 
scenery  of  Nazareth,  the  swelling  hills  and  the  breezy 
uplands  that  surround  it,  and  have  endeavoured  to 
indicate  the  effect  that  this  scenery  would  have  on  the 
exquisitely  sensitive  nature  of  Christ.  Certainly  it 
is  impossible  that  He  who  had  adorned  the  world 
with  so  much  beauty  should  not  love  to  contemplate 
the  beauty  He  had  made.  It  is  impossible  that  the 
human  nature  framed  to  be  the  instrument  of  His 
divine  sacrifice  should  not  have  been  peculiarly  open 
to  everything  lovely  and  beautiful.  If  any  ordinary 


INTRODUCTION".  5 

child,  with  some  slight  modicum  of  poetry  in  his 
nature,  is  impressed  almost  unconsciously  by  the 
symbolism  of  nature,  surely  much  more  He  who  was 
the  dwelling-place  of  that  God  who  made  nature  and 
man,  and  made  them  so  related  to  each  other  that 
man  sees  in  nature  the  mirror  of  his  thoughts,  and 
that  which  gives  these  thoughts  language. 

The  fact  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  does  not  oblige 
us  to  assume  that  He  knew  this  fully  from  the  first. 
He  could  only  gradually  have  attained  the  full  con- 
sciousness of  His  mission.  We  must  assume  that  His 
apprehension  of  the  fact  that  He  was  the  Messiah,  and 
the  character  that  the  Messiah's  office  ought  to  have, 
would  be  defined  by  a  study  of  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures,  and  the  prophecies  there  concerning  the 
Messiah.  As  with  Timothy,  His  teacher  was,  in  all 
likelihood,  His  mother.  There  that  bright-eyed  boy 
stood  at  His  mother's  knee,  and  began  His  knowledge 
of  the  law,  the  prophets,  and  the  psalms.  Then  came 
the  synagogue  school,  taught  by  the  old  hazzan.1  By 
him  He  would  be  taught  to  read  Hebrew  and  to  write 
it.  Of  course  no  book  had  so  much  influence  on  our 
Lord  as  the  Bible — the  prophecies  in  which  the  Spirit 
of  God  had  foretold  His  life  and  sufferings  must  of 
necessity  have  filled  His  mind.  We  cannot  know, 
cannot  even  more  than  faintly  imagine,  what  His  feel- 
ings must  have  been  as  gradually  it  was  forced  home 
upon  Him  that  He  was  the  Messiah,  and  that  He  was 
to  suffer,  not  to  be  happy ;  to  die,  not  to  possess  an 
earthly  kingdom. 

1  An  official  of  the  synagogue  who  united  the  functions  of  a  Scotch 
beadle  to  those  of  a  parish  schoolmaster. 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

We 'would  unduly  lessen  the  culture  of  our  Lord  and 
of  Palestine  generally  did  we  imagine  that  Hebrew 
was  the  only  tongue  He  knew.  Aramaic  had  been  the 
commonly  spoken  language  of  the  Jewish  people  from 
the  days  of  the  later  Persians  till  the  influence  of  the 
Lagid  princes  made  Greek  popular.  Gradually  was 
Aramaic  dispossessed  of  its  pre-eminence,  and  the 
language  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  became  more  and  more 
spoken.  In  regard  to  these  two  languages  we  have 
several  proofs  of  our  Lord's  familiar  acquaintance  with 
both.  When  He  comes  to  raise  Jairus'  daughter  He 
addresses  her  in  Aramaic,  Talitlia  cumi — a  phrase  we 
once  heard  well  paraphrased  by  an  aged  Scottish 
minister,  "  My  wee  lammie,  get  up."  When  He  opens 
the  ears  of  the  deaf  man  He  says  Ephphatha,  also 
Aramaic.  But  in  the  most  trying  circumstances  of  all, 
when,  hanging  on  the  cross,  the  great  darkness  swept 
into  His  soul,  and  His  agony  found  expression  in  the 
words  of  the  twenty-second  Psalm,  He  does  not  quote 
it  in  Greek  nor  in  the  original  Hebrew,  but  in  Aramaic, 
Eloi,  Eloi,  lama  sdbachthani.  This  last  fact  is  full 
of  meaning,  as  it  affords  proof  that  our  Lord  knew 
Hebrew  as  well  as  Aramaic.  No  Aramaic  version  from 
the  Hebrew  was  then  in  use.  He  must  have  translated 
for  Himself. 

The  question  in  regard  to  Greek,  however,  is  more 
interesting,  for  the  literature  laid  open  by  the  posses- 
sion of  Aramaic  was  relatively  small  compared  with 
that  of  which  one  was  made  free  by  the  possession 
of  Greek.  It  seems  indubitable,  however  contrary  to 
ordinary  statements  in  regard  to  this  matter,  that  not 
only  did  our  Lord  know  Greek,  but  it  was  the  language 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

which  He  customarily  used.  To  a  religious  people — as, 
for  instance,  to  the  Highlanders  in  Scotland — there 
may  be  little  objection  to  carry  on  business  transactions 
in  a  foreign  language,  but  the  offices  of  religion  must 
be  in  their  own  tongue ;  above  all,  the  Bible  must  be 
quoted  in  the  language  sacred  to  them  by  the  recollec- 
tions of  childhood.  Unless  the  foreign  tongue  has 
completely  got  the  mastery,  this  is  always  the  case  in 
similar  circumstances.  Now  what  do  we  find  ?  Our 
Lord  invariably  is  represented  as  quoting  the  Scripture 
in  the  words  of  the  Septuagint,  or  only  with  such  small 
variations  as  may  be  due  to  a  copyist. 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  that  our  Lord  was  master 
of  three  languages,  Hebrew,  Aramaic,  and  Greek. 
Acquaintance  with  a  language,  however,  is  a  different 
matter  from  acquaintance  with  its  literature ;  yet 
knowledge  of  a  language  makes  the  possessor  of  that 
knowledge  free  of  the  whole  literature  of  that  language. 
What  books  then  do  we  find  traces  of  in  the  language 
of  our  Lord?  We  have  seen  that  He  had,  speaking 
of  Him  as  a  man,  an  accurate  acquaintance  with  the 
Septuagint  version,  but  before  we  proceed  further  we 
must  look  at  what  indirect  light  may  be  thrown  on 
the  probable  culture — to  apply  this  word  with  all 
reverence  to  our  Lord's  human  nature— of  Christ.  In 
regard  to  this  the  knowledge  of  books  manifested  by 
the  apostles  and  by  His  brethren  is  an  important 
element  of  proof.  Even  the  Apostle  Paul  may  be 
brought  in  evidence,  though  from  the  fact  that  he 
belonged  to  the  Pharisaic  sect  his  culture  is  less 
conclusive,  yet  does  it  afford  some  proof  in  regard  to 
the  books  generally  known  and  read  among  the  Chris- 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

tians  of  the  first  century.  Paul  quotes  the  heathen 
poets  as  if  his  hearers  ought  to  know  them.  The 
circle  of  believers  was  so  small  and  so  closely  united 
that  their  knowledge,  as  at  the  beginning  their  goods, 
might  be  said  to  be  in  common. 

Another  way  in  which  we  may  form  some  estimate 
of  the  literary  influences  to  which  our  Lord  was  subject, 
is  to  consider  what  opportunities  a  youth,  situated  as 
was  our  Lord,  would  have.  Books  certainly  were  very 
much  rarer  and  more  expensive  in  the  days  of  our 
Lord  than  now,  yet  this  difference  may  easily  be 
exaggerated.  Though  the  publisher  of  those  days 
had  no  printing-presses  at  his  service,  slave  labour 
was  cheap,  and  many  slave  scribes  might  write  to 
the  reading  of  one.  School  books,  if  such  they  could 
be  called,  were  mere  fragments  of  books ;  but  in  the 
synagogue  schools  these  fragments  were  portions  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  therefore  precious. 

But  the  private  individual  was  not  left  wholly  to  his 
own  resources  in  the  matter  of  books.  We  learn  from 
Justin  Martyr  in  his  Dialogue  ivith  Trypho  that  the 
synagogues  had  each  a  complete  copy  of  the  Scriptures  ; 
indeed,  they  must  have  had  a  nearly  complete  copy  of 
the  Old  Testament  for  the  liturgic  Sabbath  readings. 
If  Epiphanius  is  to  be  trusted,  they  had  other  books 
also,  though  that  may  be  more  doubtful.  We  may 
imagine  the  studious  Youth,  when  the  toil  of  the  day 
was  done,  wending  His  way  into  the  synagogue,  and 
with  covered  head  reading  what  the  prophets  said  con- 
cerning Himself.  Far  into  the  night  He  read,  while  the 
flickering,  uncertain  light  of  the  pendent  lamp  threw 
strange  shadows  on  the  walls  of  the  silent  synagogue. 


INTKODUGTION.  9 

Not  improbably  He  had  besides  the  synagogue  roll, 
with  its  sacred  wrappings,  also  the  Greek  translation. 

Of.  Hebrew  literature  beyond  the  Scriptures,  there 
certainly  was  not  much.  The  First  Book  of  the 
Maccabees  and  the  book  of  the  History  of  John  Hyr- 
canus,  which  has  disappeared  —  these  for  historical 
books.  There  were  also  the  stories  of  Tobit  and  Judith. 
Then  there  were  the  Wisdom  books,  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon  and  the  Ecclesiasticus  of  the  Son  of  Sirach. 
That  was  all,  if  we  except  the  apocalyptic  books,  of 
which  we  shall  speak  shortly.  Some  writers  would 
assert  that  the  Mislma,  or  at  least  part  of  it,  had  been 
already  composed.  This,  however,  is  in  direct  contra- 
diction to  the  assertions  of  Jewish  tradition,  that  not 
till  the  days  of  Jehudah  Haqqodesh  was  the  Mishna 
committed  to  writing.  Indeed,  much  later  than  this 
it  still  seems  to  be  merely  oral.  Hence  the  actual 
Hebrew  open  to  a  youth  in  the  early  days  of  our 
Lord's  sojourn  upon  earth  was,  so  far  as  the  books 
have  come  down,  merely  what  we  have  mentioned. 

As  for  Aramaic,  it  is  doubtful  whether  from  the 
period  preceding  our  Lord  any  works  have  come  down 
to  us  written  in  that  tongue.  The  Targums,  though 
they  may  have  been  handed  down  by  tradition  from  a 
respectable  antiquity,  yet  as  committed  to  writing  are 
not  of  earlier  date  than  the  end  of  the  second  century 
after  Christ ;  not  impossibly  much  later. 

As,  however,  our  Lord  knew  Greek,  is  there  any  trace 
that  the  splendid  literature  of  that  language  was  known 
in  His  circle  ?  The  Apostle  Paul  certainly  makes  three 
quotations  from  Greek  poetry,  but  that  is  all  the  effect 
that,  as  far  as  appears,  Greek  literature  had  on  the 


1 0  INTRODUCTION. 

apostle  who  passed  his  boyhood  in  what  may  be  called 
a  Greek  university  town.  With  all  its  formal  beauty, 
we  cannot  feel  sorry  that  there  is  no  association  that 
unites  in  one  thought  the  literature  of  Greece  and  our 
Lord.  Aristophanes  could  never  by  any  process  be 
baptized  into  Christ.  Even  the  sublimities  of  Homel- 
and JEschylus  are  so  far  below  Job,  Isaiah,  and  the 
Psalms  that  we  can  have  no  sense  of  loss.  But  there 
is  one  slight  hint  of  the  presence  of  philosophic 
influences  in  Palestine.  When  the  rich  young  ruler 
asks  our  Lord  what  good  thing  he  should  do  in  order 
to  inherit  eternal  life,  He  answers  him  according  to 
Matt.  xix.  17,  in  the  best  reading,  "  Why  askest 
thou  me  concerning  the  good?  One  there  is  who  is 
good."  This  seems  an  assertion  of  the  Platonic  doctrine 
that  "  the  good  "  is  God.  One  may  parallel  this  with 
our  Lord's  greeting  to  Nathanael,  telling  him  of  his 
retirement  under  the  fig-tree.  There  in  his  closet  the 
youth  may  have  pondered  the  words  of  the  great  philo- 
sopher, and  for  this  reason  it  is  that  Christ  couches  His 
answer  in  terms  that  are  fitted  to  make  the  young  man 
recognise  in  the  omniscience  displayed  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh.  Indeed,  the  question  concerning  the  good 
was  one  discussed  by  most  of  the  Greek  philosophers, 
Platonists,  Aristotelians,  and  Cynics,  but  was  not  a 
marked  subject  of  dispute  among  the  Eabbins. 

It  is  perhaps  less  likely  that  the  works  of  Plato 
would  be  directly  studied  than  that  some  early  treatise 
of  Philo  or  of  some  similar  writer  had  reached  the 
young  Jew.  The  intercourse  between  Egypt  and 
Palestine,  always  considerable,  was  greater  at  the  time 
of  our  Lord  than  before,  now  that  both  were  united 


INTRODUCTION.  1 1 

under  the  power  of  Rome.  We  admit  that  the  influence 
of  Alexandrian  thought  is  not  very  manifest,  and  that  it 
would  be  easy  to  exaggerate  the  evidence  contained  in 
this  saying  if  it  stood  alone.  But  along  with  this  we 
must  take  the  prologue  of  the  Gospel  of  John.  No  one 
who  has  read  Philo  would  dream  of  identifying  the 
Philonian  doctrine  with  that  of  John.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  one  can  read  Philo  and  the  prologue  to  the 
fourth  Gospel  without  feeling  that  the  apostle  has 
taken  advantage  of  the  phraseology  of  Philo  as  a 
suitable  vehicle  for  conveying  truth  higher  and  deeper 
than  it  had  been  originally  framed  for.  It  was  the 
language  of  Philo,  but  the  thoughts  of  the  beloved 
disciple. 

If  we  may  deduce  from  Luke  iv.  18  that  in 
Nazareth  they  were  accustomed  to  read  the  Septua- 
gint  in  the  synagogue,  it  is  not  an  unlikely  thing  that 
some  of  the  works  of  the  Alexandrian  Jews,  especially 
of  Philo  the  great  Alexandrian,  would  be  found  in  the 
library  of  the  synagogue.  For  Philo  was,  though  the 
contemporary  of  our  Lord,  considerably  His  senior, 
probably  by  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  century.  If  they 
were  within  His  reach  Christ  might  with  rapid  eyes 
scan  them.  Their  teaching  only  at  one  point  touched 
His  system,  and  therefore  only  at  that  point  operated 
as  a  preparation  for  the  gospel.  What  our  Lord  read 
was  not  all  that  influenced  His  teaching.  What  those 
who  were  His  audience  read  and  were  moved  by,  that 
He  made  His  own  by  His  divine  insight.  Thus  any 
books  commonly  read  in  Judea  at  the  time  might  be 
said  to  have  influenced  Jesus;  as  knowing  "what  was 
in  man,"  He  modified  His  teaching  to  meet  the  know- 


1 2  INTRODUCTION. 

ledge  or  ignorance  of  His  audience;  thus,  whatever 
the  books  read,  our  Lord's  teaching  would  of  necessity 
be  modified  by  them,  even  though  He  might  not  have 
read  them. 

It  is  a  different  matter  with  another  class  of  books, 
of  acquaintanceship  with  which  there  are  many  traces 
in  the  Gospels.  The  Apocalyptic  books  were,  as  we 
shall  show,  the  product  of  that  mysterious  sect,  the 
Essenes.  One  thing  is  clear,  they  were  the  product 
of  one  school,  which  was  clearly  neither  that  of  the 
Pharisees  nor  of  the  Sadducees.  They  could  not  have 
proceeded  from  the  latter,  as  they  affirm  the  doctrines 
of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  the  existence  of  angels — doctrines  which  the 
Sadducees  denied.  The  Talmud  is  the  product  of  the 
Pharisaic  school,  and  its  whole  method  is  different 
from  that  of  the  Apocalypses.  There  is  almost  no 
sign  in  the  Talmud  that  these  books  were  known  at 
all  to  the  writer,  and  what  signs  there  are,  are  probably 
due  to  the  fact  that  in  Christian  hands  these  books 
were  open  to  the  world.  These  books  were  secret, 
sacred  books  of  a  sect.  That  this  sect  was  Jewish, 
even  a  cursory  study  of  the  books  suffices  to  prove. 
They  are  not,  as  we  saw,  Sadducean  or  Pharisaic. 
The  only  sect  that  meets  the  requirements  of  the  case 
is  the  Essenes. 

Our  Lord  meets  the  Pharisees  very  frequently,  has 
a  Zealot  among  His  chosen  band  of  disciples,  en- 
counters the  Sadducees  not  seldom,  and  the  Herodians, 
a  sect  otherwise  unknown,  at  least  once  ;  but  He  never 
meets  an  Essene.  They  were  numerous  enough,  and 
were  spread  all  over  the  country.  If  they  were  less 


INTRODUCTION.  1 3 

numerous  than  the  Pharisees,  they  were  much  more 
numerous  than  the  Sadducees,  and  incomparably  more 
so  than  the  Zealots  or  Herodians.  How  was  it,  then, 
that  our  Lord  never  encountered  the  Essenes  ?  Is  it 
not  the  simplest  solution,  that  it  is  for  the  same  reason 
that  a  man  cannot  meet  himself  ?  If  He  belonged  to 
one  of  the  outer  circles  of  this  wide-spread  sect,  then 
one  can  understand  His  silence. 

It  is  clear,  however,  that  our  Lord  did  not  belong 
to  that  order  of  Essenes  who  maintained  themselves 
in  solitude  by  the  Dead  Sea.  There  seem  to  have 
been  many  orders.  According  to  Ginsburg,  there 
were  eight  classes  of  Essenes ;  but  this  opinion  is  based 
on  his  view  of  the  name  under  which,  as  he  supposes, 
they  are  referred  to  in  the  Talmud.  This,  of  course, 
is  not  equivalent  to  a  demonstration ;  and  his  further 
assumption,  that  they  were  merely  a  stricter  sect  of  the 
Pharisees,  is  contradicted  by  Josephus.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  these  orders  were  superimposed  one 
upon  the  other,  so  that  a  man  proceeded  from  one  to 
another,  as  in  the  case  of  academical  degrees.  Further, 
our  Lord  must  be  regarded  as  thoroughly  and  divinely 
original  in  His  own  views,  not  in  any  true  sense 
borrowing  them  from  any  school.  Hence  it  is  no 
disproof  of  our  view  to  find  our  Lord's  doctrines  at 
variance  with  the  opinions  attributed  to  the  Essenes 
by  Josephus  or  Philo.  In  the  matter  of  Sabbath 
observance,  especially,  He  went  directly  in  the  teeth  of 
the  teaching  of  the  Essenes  according  to  Josephus. 

What  traces  are  there  that  these  Apocalyptic  books 
were  known  to  our  Lord  and  His  apostles  ?  Leaving 
more  careful  consideration  of  this  question  till  we 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

discuss  the  books  themselves,  we  may  now  note 
some  points  which  press  themselves  upon  us  at 
the  risk  of  having  to  repeat  ourselves  later.  The 
title  by  which  our  Lord  most  frequently  describes 
Himself  is  "the  Son  of  man."  Only  in  Dan.  vii.  13 
is  there  any  application  of  this  title  to  the  promised 
Messiah.  In  Daniel,  however,  the  term  is  simply 
descriptive  ;  the  passage  merely  asserts  that  the  Judge 
at  the  Last  Day  would  be  one  that  wore  a  human 
form,  or,  at  all  events,  a  form  like  the  human.  It  is 
not  at  all  used  as  an  appellation.  Our  Lord  uses  it 
regularly  as  an  appellation,  and  as  one  that  conveys 
to  the  initiated  the  claim  to  Messiahship.  No  one 
could  leap  from  the  solitary  use  of  the  phrase  in 
Daniel  to  the  general  use  of  it,  and  the  use  of  it,  too, 
in  a  more  developed  and  definite  sense,  without  some 
intermediate  steps.  These  must  have  occurred  in 
the  four  centuries  that  divide  the  canon  of  the  Old 
Testament  from  that  of  the  New.  In  the  Book  of 
Enoch,  as  we  shall  see,  this  title  is  regularly  used 
of  the  Messiah.  Other  examples  might  be  brought 
forward.  ;•••:;  L 

To  turn  to  the  apostles,  we  find  them  influenced  by 
these  very  books  ;  Jude  quotes  avowedly  from  Enoch, 
and  by  implication  from  the  Assumption  of  Moses,  and 
the  Apostle  Peter  in  liis  Second  Epistle  (assuming  it 
to  be  genuine)  implies  a  knowledge  of  the  former  of 
these  works.  The  Apostle  Paul  uses  phrases  that 
occur-  in  those  Apocalyptic  books,  and  the  Book 
of  Revelation  is  full  of  tokens  of  an  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  them.  As  for  the  early  Church,  no 
one  can  deny  that  the  Christians  of  the  first  two 


INTRODUCTION'.  1 5 

centuries  were  well  acquainted  with  these  books,  as 
we  find  express  reference  to  them  in  many  of  the 
Fathers. 

What  facilities  for  reading  these  sacred  books  of 
the  Essenes  would  one  have,  situated  as  was  our 
Lord?  The  Essenes  were  dispersed  all  over  the 
country,  as  we  shall  see  presently,  and  had  their 
houses  of  call  in  most  of  the  towns  and  villages  of 
Judea  and  Galilee.  There  would  almost  certainly  be 
one  in  Nazareth.  In  it  nightly,  after  their  work  was 
done,  the  inmates  would  assemble  round  the  table  to 
their  evening  meal,  and  would  listen  while  they  ate 
their  simple  repast  to  portions  of  these  sacred  books 
read.  This  meal  was  a  sacred  office  with  the  Essenes, 
as  the  Lord's  Supper  is  with  ourselves.  Indeed,  to 
carry  the  parallel  further,  they  regarded  this  feast  as 
a  veritable  sacrifice,  as  the  Roman  Catholics  have 
changed  the  Lord's  Supper  into  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass. 

But  it  may  be  urged  that '  strangers  would  not  be 
permitted  to  be  present  at  tliese  sacred  evening  feasts. 
While  this  is  certainly  true,  another  fact  ought  also 
to  be  borne  in  mind.  There  were  several  different 
kinds  of  Essenes.  While  there  was  a  nucleus  that 
kept  the  Essene  vows  with  the  greatest  strictness,  there 
was  around  this  a  large  mass  of  sympathisers  who 
were  connected  more  or  less  loosely  with  the  Essene 
society,  and  from  these  the  central  brotherhood  was 
recruited.  They  came  themselves,  and  took  on  the 
vows,  or  they  devoted  their  children  to  the  Essenes  to 
be  brought  up  by  them.  If,  then,  Joseph  and  our 
Lord's  mother  belonged  to  this  outer  circle  of  Essenes, 


1 Q  INTEODUCTION. 

His  acquaintanceship  with  the  Essene  books  becomes 
easily  understood. 

It  would  derogate  from  His  divine  insight  to  hint 
that  He  believed  that  these  pseudo-prophecies  had  come 
from  His  Father,  yet  what  an  interest  they  must  have 
had  as  revealing  how  the  thoughts  of  men  were  dwelling 
on  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  and  how  attribute  after 
attribute  was  being  unveiled  to  those  who  were 
anxiously  looking  for  His  appearing  !  It  would  only 
be  perhaps  as  a  special  act  of  favour  that  the  sacristan 
would  admit  this  strange  Youth  to  see  those  sacred 
books  and  peruse  their  contents.  But  He  "grew  in 
favour,"  and  the  privilege  once  granted  would  never  be 
recalled.  Seeing  thus  the  anticipations  of  His  people, 
and  feeling  within  Him  the  stirrings  of  His  mighty 
destiny,  He  would  grow  more  and  more  mighty  in 
spirit.  In  the  eventide,  when  perhaps  there  were  no 
guests  in  the  dwelling  of  the  Essenes  in  Nazareth,  the 
Youth,  with  His  lustrous  eyes  full  of  thought,  would 
stop  before  the  narrow  green  side-door  that  breaks  the 
white  surface  of  the  wall  of  the  flat-roofed  house  near  the 
gate  where  the  Essenes  had  their  lodging.  It  is  opened 
to  Him  by  the  guardian,  an  old  man,  most  likely  with 
long  beard,  clad  in  pure  white  garments,  who  leads 
Him  away  to  the  inner  room,  where,  in  a  scrinium  or 
two,  the  scanty  but  precious  library  of  the  house  is 
kept.  The  swinging  lamp  is  lit,  and  there  He  sits  and 
reads  far  into  the  night  the  strange  visions  recorded  in 
the  Books  of  Enoch,  or  of  Baruch,  about  the  Son  of  man 
who  was  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  His  glory,  and  before 
whom  all  shall  appear,  and  of  the  blessings  of  the  days 
pf  the  Messiah. 


INTRODUCTION.  1 7 

One  tiling  that  intensified  at  once  the  Messianic 
hopes  of  the  Jews  and  the  importance  they  attached 
to  the  discussion  of  academic  questions,  was  the  Roman 
supremacy.  It  was  only  after  Athens  came  under  the 
sway  of  the  Macedonian  kingdom  that  she  devoted 
herself  fully  to  philosophy.  It  was  not  in  the  days 
of  Pericles  that  the  garden,  the  porch,  the  academy, 
and  the  Lyceum  flourished,  but  when  freedom  was  ex- 
tinguished ;  so  it  was  with  Judaism.  The  sceptre  had 
departed  from  Judah ;  even  the  Herodians  no  longer 
reigned  when  the  Jews  devoted  themselves  more  and 
more  to  the  study  of  the  Law,  with  an  eagerness  that 
only  deepened  when  Jerusalem  was  captured  and  their 
nation  had  ceased  to  be.  But  though  the  sceptre 
had  disappeared,  the  hope  that  it  would  be  again 
possessed  by  Judah  in  a  way  it  had  never  been 
before  became  all  the  more  intense.  Those  Messianic 
hopes  founded  on  the  prophecies  of  the  greater 
prophets,  and  raised  even  higher  by  the  study  of  the 
Apocalyptic  writers,  became  a  dominant  factor  in 
Jewish  life  in  the  days  of  our  Lord. 

Hence  to  understand  the  time  when  Christ  was  in 
the  world,  and  the  influences  then  at  work,  we  must 
master  the  Apocalyptic  books.  They,  above  all,  are 
full  of  the  hope  of  Messianic  times  and  the  glories 
of  the  Messianic  king ;  but  to  understand  them, 
we  must  realise  the  background  they  had.  It  is 
necessary,  therefore,  as  a  preliminary,  to  study  the 
times  during  which  these  books  were  written,  all  the 
more,  that  no  class  of  literature  is  more  affected  by 
such  influences  than  the  Apocalyptic  writings  —  few 
classes  of  literature  nearly  so  much  so.  The  background 


1 8  INTRODUCTION. 

of  historical  events,  and  of  constitution,  civil  and 
religious,  however  important,  would  give  an  incom- 
plete idea  of  things  as  they  then  were ;  we  have  to 
consider  along  with  it  the  contemporary  literature  of 
Judaism. 

We  shall,  then,  in  the  sequel  consider — 1st,  The 
Background  of  Apocalyptic  ;  and  2nd,  The  Historic 
Evolution  of  Apocalyptic.  As  the  documents  are  of 
importance,  we  shall  add,  3rd,  The  Criticism  of 
Apocalyptic. 


BOOK   I. 


THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   CONSTITUTION    OF    PALESTINE,  CIVIL   AND   RELIGIOUS. 

R  Empire  in  India  gives  us  many  illustrations 
of  a  state  of  matters  similar  to  that  existing  in 
the  Empire  of  Rome  at  the  time  of  Herod.  From  this 
fact  we  can  piece  together  the  information  that  we  get 
from  Josephus  and  the  New  Testament,  fragmentary 
as  it  is,  and  form  the  result  into  a  consistent  whole. 
Round  the  avowed  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
administered  by  procurators  and  proconsuls,  were 
numerous  small  States  administered  in  the  name  of 
native  rulers,  who  had  a  certain  limited  authority  as 
allies  of  the  Roman  Empire,  very  much  as  the  Nizam 
is  an  ally  of  Great  Britain,  and  has  a  certain  inde- 
pendent authority,  but  dare  not  be  the  ally  of  any 
other  power  on  pain  of  deposition.  When  we  learn 
that  Herod  got  into  trouble  with  the  emperor  because, 
becoming  impatient  at  the  Syrian  procurator's  delay, 
he  took  the  law  into  his  own  hands  and  attempted  to 
wreak  vengeance  on  those  Arabs  whose  inroads  had 
led  him  to  appeal  to  the  Roman  governor,  we  realise 
this  clearly.  He  might  be  called  a  king,  and  might 
be  permitted  to  maintain  a  standing  army,  but  he 
was  not  to  be  permitted  to  break  at  will  the  "pax 
Romana."  Suppose  Scindia  or  Holkar  in  India  were 
to  attempt  anything  similar,  he  would  need  all  his 


22  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

parliamentary  interest  to  avoid  deposition.  When 
we  read  of  the  deposition  of  Archelaus  or  Herod 
Antipas  for  misgovernment,  we  remember  as  a  parallel 
incident  the  trial  of  the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda,  and  the 
deposition  of  the  King  of  Oudh.  There  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  an  actual  Kesident,  such  as  we 
have  in  the  courts  of  our  various  subject  allies,  but 
through  the  publicani  very  accurate  information 
reached  the  nearest  Koman  governor  of  all  that  was 
transacted  in  any  of  these  semi -independent  States. 
Herod  was  in  the  position  of  Scindia  or  Holkar, 
with  this  difference,  that  the  territory  did  not  pass 
from  father  to  son  without  the  distinct  consent  of  the 
emperor ;  whereas  we  admit  of  the  right  of  inherit- 
ance, and  allow  it  to  take  effect,  unless  there  is  some 
definite  reason  to  the  contrary. 

The  rise  of  the  dynasty  of  Herod  was  one  of  those 
cases  frequent  in  all  history  where  the  mayors  of  the 
palace  became  the  rulers  of  the  kingdom.  When  the 
two  sons  of  Alexandra — the  weak  Hyrcanus  and  the 
energetic  Aristobulus — quarrelled  after  her  death,  the 
former  had  Antipater  as  his  friend.  At  first  this  was  to 
his  advantage  to  all  appearance.  Certainly  Antipater 
secured  in  the  first  instance  the  victory  of  Hyrcanus  by 
calling  in  the  help  of  Pompey.  Pompey  captured  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem  from  the  hands  of  the  party  of 
Aristobulus,  and  led  Aristobulus  captive  in  his  triumph. 
Judea  now  became  really  a  province  of  Home,  and  the 
transference  of  the  throne  from  Hyrcanus  to  Herod 
only  deepened  this  dependence.  Many  parallels  to 
the  history  of  Judea  at  this  time  may  be  read  in  the 
annals  of  our  conquest  of  India, — a  disputed  succession, 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  RELIGIOUS.       23 

the  side  of  the  one  taken  who  is  least  popular ;  then  the 
necessity  soon  arises  to  administer  his  affairs  for  him. 

Under  the  Lagid  and  Seleucid  dynasties  there  was 
no  princely  house  over  the  Jewish  people ;  they  were 
directly  subject  to  the  king  who  reigned  in  Alexandria 
or  in  Antioch,  as  the  case  might  be.  There  was,  how- 
ever, an  element  of  this  Hellenic  government  which  we 
are  apt  to  neglect.  Hellenism  even  when  united  to 
monarchy  in  the  Macedonian  rule  expressed  itself  natur- 
ally, and  indeed  necessarily,  in  the  autonomous  city. 
Wherever  the  successors  of  Alexander  set  up  their  power, 
there  these  autonomous  cities  were  established.  Right 
into  the  centre  of  the  Holy  Land  ran  the  territory  of 
the  Decapolis — ten  cities  united  together  by  some  sort 
of  league.  Many  of  these  cities  had  been  conquered 
by  Alexander  Jannseus ;  but  Pompey,  acting  as  the 
representative  of  the  supreme  power  of  Rome,  deprived 
the  sovereign  whom  he  set  up  at  Jerusalem  of  all  rule 
over  these  Hellenic  cities.  Some  of  them  were  given 
afterwards  to  Herod ;  but  the  authority  permitted  the 
sovereign  over  these  cities  was  always  precarious,  and 
their  existence  formed  a  fruitful  occasion  of  Roman 
interference  in  the  affairs  of  subject  allies. 

One  marked  difference,  however,  there  was  between 
the  Roman  method  of  governing  even  its  provinces  and 
that  in  which  Britain  governs  India.  Only  higher 
matters  were  brought  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Roman 
magistrate,  whereas  in  India  practically  all  the  magis- 
trates are  of  British  birth,  though  bound  to  judge  in 
accordance  with  Indian  or  Mohammedan  law,  as  the 
case  may  be.  Every  little  town  in  Judea  had  its 
judges,  twenty-three  in  number ;  and  every  petty  dis- 


24  THE  BACKGEOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

pute  was  settled  by  the  intervention  of  three  arbiters. 
There  was,  as  final  Court  of  Appeal,  the  Sanhedrin  in 
Jerusalem,  with  its  seventy-one  members.  Even  after 
Judea  had  become  a  Eoman  province,  and  the  last  sign 
of  royalty  and  independence  had  departed  from  Jeru- 
salem with  Archelaus,  the  Sanhedrin  had  still  judicial 
functions,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  trial  of  our  Lord. 
Their  power  of  life  and  death  was  limited ;  but  even 
in  regard  to  such  matters  it  seems  probable  that 
unless  the  action  contained  some  elements  which  in- 
volved the  elastic  Icesa  majestas,  the  Roman  authority 
took  little  cognisance  of  their  doings.  From  the  trial 
of  the  Apostle  Paul  we  learn  that  the  Romans  con- 
sidered themselves  at  liberty  to  intervene  in  a  trial 
at  any  point  that  seemed  good  to  them,  though  it 
may  be  noted  that  the  action  of  Claudius  Lysias  was 
protested  against  by  the  Jewish  representatives  at 
Csesarea. 

At  the  head  of  this  court  sat  the  high  priest,  as 
president  or  Nasi.  There  was  also  a  vice-president, 
Ab-beth-din,  "  father  of  the  house  of  judgment."  How 
he  was  chosen  we  have  really  no  means  of  knowing,  as 
the  information  to  be  derived  from  the  Talmud  is  too 
late  to  be  worth  anything,  and  neither  Josephus  nor 
the  New  Testament  gives  us  any  hint.  The  whole 
Talmudic  representation  goes  on  the  assumption  that 
the  Sanhedrin  was  really  an  assembly  of  scholars,  and 
consequently  the  leading  Rabbins  of  the  opposed 
schools  were  respectively  president  and  vice-president. 
It  is  little  likely  that  the  Sadducean  priestly  party 
would  allow  the  principal  court  of  the  nation  to  pass 
so  completely  out  of  their  hands,  that  the  high  priest 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  KELIGIOUS.       25 

should  become  merely  an  ordinary  member.  That  he 
was  present  at  most  of  the  meetings  of  the  Sanhedrin, 
and  presided,  seems  clear  from  many  facts  in  the 
Gospels  and  the  Acts.  Although  the  high  priest 
presided,  and  was  usually  a  Sadducee,  the  Pharisaic 
party  seem  to  have  had  considerably  the  preponder- 
ance. It  goes  without  saying  that  the  members 
of  the  Sanhedrin  did  not  attain  their  position 
through  election  by  any  body  of  constituents.  Such 
a  method  of  securing  a  governing  body  it  was 
reserved  for  later  days  to  develop.  Men  became 
members  of  the  Sanhedrin  by  the  method  of  co- 
optation,  a  method  fitted  to  maintain  the  supremacy 
of  the  Pharisaic  party  in  the  court  when  once  they  had 
secured  it. 

Eound  the  Sanhedrin  gathered  all  the  hopes  and 
aspirations  of  the  national  party,  alike  Pharisaic  and 
Sadducean.  All  the  legal  knowledge  of  the  scribes  was 
there  ;  and  all  the  authority  with  the  multitude,  which 
resulted  from  their  acquaintance  with  the  sacred 
treasure  committed  to  the  Jewish  people,  was  united 
with  the  ceremonial  reverence  drawn  from  the  presence 
in  their  midst  of  the  high  priest. 

Although  chosen  by  the  ruler  for  the  time  being, — 
Herod  or  the  Roman  governors, — the  Jewish  priest,  evil 
as  .he  might  be,  seems  never  to  have  sunk  during  the 
time  immediately  preceding  the  Lord  to  be  the  mere 
tool  of  the  Romans  or  of  Herod,  in  short,  never  occupied 
to  these  later  rulers  over  the  land  the  purely  subservient 
position  occupied  by  Jason  and  Menelaus  during  the 
time  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  Seleucids.  The  very 
frequency  of  the  changes  in  the  high  priesthood  is 


26  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

indirect  evidence  of  this.  We  see  also  how  Caiaphas 
manoeuvred  against  Pilate  at  the  trial  of  the  Lord,  and 
how  he  baffled  the  wish  of  the  governor  to  set  Him 
free. 

While  the  national  hope  gathered,  as  we  have  said, 
round  the  Sanhedrin  as  its  natural  centre,  the  hopes 
of  the  Hellenising  and  Romanising  party  gathered 
round  the  palace  of  Herod.  At  first  sight  it  is  difficult 
to  imagine  the  existence  of  a  Roman  party  among  the 
Jews,  their  national  pride  and  exclusiveness  being  so 
prominent  in  all  records  of  the  time.  But  if  their  king- 
were  an  alien,  or  at  all  events  asserted  to  be  so,  if  Roman 
money  formed  their  ordinary  coinage,  and  the  Roman 
publicani  and  their  underlings  formed  quite  a  marked 
part  of  the  population,  the  Jews  had  still  in  some 
limited  sense  "  their  place  and  their  nation."  All  those 
who  had  had  any  opportunity  of  estimating  the  power  of 
Rome  must  have  recognised  that  any  attempt  at  inde- 
pendence was  foredoomed  to  ignominious  failure.  They 
would  know  that  any  such  attempt  after  having  been 
put  down  would  be  punished  by  denuding  the  nation  of 
many  of  the  national  privileges  they  still  retained. 
Moreover,  they  might  claim  the  example  of  Jeremiah, 
who  counselled  submission  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  of 
Isaiah,  who  rebuked  Hezekiah  for  his  joining  Merodach 
Baladan  in  his  league  against  Nineveh.  Besides,  there 
were  not  a  few  who  managed,  as  did  Josephus,  to  reap 
personal  advantages  from  the  Roman  rulers.  Rome 
never  seriously  attempted  to  Latinise  the  East,  hence 
the  Roman  party  joined  with  the  Hellenic.  All  those 
who  maintained  any  close  relations  with  Alexandria,  or 
with  the  flourishing  Jewish  communities  of  Asia  Minor, 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  RELIGIOUS.       27 

would  naturally  unite  themselves  with  the  Herodian  or 
Roman  party.1 

These  two  parties  stood  like  hostile  armies  facing 
each  other,  both  eager  for  the  combat,  but  both  afraid 
to  begin  it.  Here  and  there  Zealots  might  gather 
together  in  bands  that  united  ardent  patriotism  with  a 
desire  for  plunder,  and  the  Sanhedrin  would  in  a  covert 
way  manifest  their  sympathy  with  the  outlaws ;  but 
they  dared  not  openly  commit  themselves  to  a  conflict 
with  Herod,  backed  as  he  was  by  all  the  military 
power  of  Imperial  Rome.  Herod  might,  in  his  fits 
of  ungovernable  rage  and  suspicion,  slay  prominent 
members  of  the  Sanhedrin,  but  it  must  be  as  indi- 
viduals for  individual  crimes,  not  as  members  of  the 
sacred  council.  Herod  knew  well  that  an  appeal  might 
be  made  from  him  to  the  emperor,  and  that  however 
he  might,  by  dint  of  intrigue  and  bribery,  maintain 
some  influence  in  Rome,  yet  anything  like  wholesale 
massacre  was  likely  to  be  followed  by  deposition.  Thus 
there  was  in  Judea  a  state  of  unstable  equilibrium  that 
could  not  be  permanent. 

The  Roman  influence  produced  many  changes  in 
Jewish  manners.  Slavery  had  never  been  an  institution 
that  flourished  in  Israel.  The  Mosaic  law  was  too 
merciful  to  encourage  such  an  institution,  and  under 
the  Mosaic  restrictions  it  was  not  advantageous  to 
have  slaves.  Now  slaves  became  common,  so  that 
many  of  our  Lord's  illustrations  are  drawn  from  the 
relationship  of  master  and  slave.  From  the  Mosaic 
regulations  in  regard  to  inheritance,  the  possession  of 

1  Epiphanius  (Hcer.  xx.  vol.  i.  p.  268,  Abbe  Migne)  records  the  opinion 
that  the  Herodians  were  a  party  that  saw  in  Herod  the  promised  Messiah. 


28  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC 

large  estates  was  discountenanced ;  but  now  not  only 
the  Herodian  family,  but  the  great  priestly  houses 
were  possessed  of  large  estates.  Some  of  our  Lord's 
parables  turn  on  this  also.  The  fact  that  the  final 
court  of  appeal  was  in  every  instance  Koine,  pro- 
duced a  growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish 
nobility  to  spend  much  of  their  time  in  Rome.  If 
they  wished  advantage  for  themselves,  or  desired  to 
wreak  vengeance  on  their  adversaries,  intimacies  with 
those  who  were  themselves  intimates  of  the  emperors 
were  absolutely  necessary.  And  such  intimacies  could, 
as  could  anything  else,  be  bought  in  Rome. 

The  high  priest  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  titular 
head  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and  as  such  the  head  of 
the  national  party.  This,  however,  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  high  priest  was  the  ceremonial  head 
of  the  whole  nation  in  its  religious  aspect.  In  the 
earlier  pre-exilian  days,  the  Davidic  monarchy  over- 
shadowed the  high  priesthood.  The  anointed  of  the 
Lord  had  as  sacred  an  office  in  the  hierarchy,  for  the 
whole  state  was  really  a  hierarchy,  as  the  priests. 
The  prophetic  office,  too,  was  in  all  its  glory ;  men 
like  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  were  statesmen  and  poets 
as  well  as  moral  teachers  and  organs  of  the  Divine 
Spirit.  Kept  in  the  background  alike  by  the  kingly 
and  the  prophetic  office,  the  high  priesthood  only 
occasionally  came  to  the  front,  as  when  Hilkiah 
planned  and  carried  out  the  revolution  that  overthrew 
the  usurpation  of  Athaliah.  Whenever  Joash  grew  up 
we  see  that  he  put  his  foster-father  Hilkiah,  high  priest 
though  he  was,  into  the  background.  Royalty  in  the 
house  of  David  ceased  with  the  Exile,  prophecy  ceased 


THE  CONSTITUTION   OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  RELIGIOUS.       29 

with  Malachi ;  but  the  priesthood  still  continued,  and 
thus  drew  to  itself  all  the  respect  and  reverence  that 
had  formerly  been  shared  with  the  kingship  and  the 
prophetic  college.     We  see  in  the  rapturous  description 
given   by   Siracides  of  the  appearance  of  Simon  the 
high  priest  to  how  great  an  extent  this  had  taken  place. 
Some  of  Simon's  successors  were  anything  but  worthy  of 
their  office,  and  were  ready  to  yield  to   the  flood  of 
Hellenism  that  seemed  about  to  sweep  away  Judaism 
bodily.     With  the  persecution  of  Epiphanes,  and  the 
retirement  of  Onias  into  Egypt,  there  was  a  break  in 
the   succession.     Then   came   the   gallant  struggle   of 
Judas  Maccabseus  and  his  brethren,  and  the  consequent 
change  of  the  high  priesthood  to  the  Hasmonsean  line. 
When  at  length   Judea   secured   independence   under 
Simon  the  Hasmonsean,  the  civil  supremacy  was  added 
to  the   sacred.      He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  John 
Hyrcanus ;  even  he,  however,  did  not  assume  the  title 
of  king,  but  his  sons  did.     The  Hasmonsean  dynasty 
continued  to  unite  kingship  and  priesthood  until  John 
Hyrcanus  II.  was  deposed  and   slain   by  Herod,  the 
husband  of  his  grand-daughter.     After  the  failure  of 
the  Hasmonsean  line,  the  high  priesthood  ceased  to  be 
hereditary,  and  further,  ceased  to  be  a  life  office.    Some- 
times, indeed,  the  high  priest  occupied  the  place  for  little 
more  than  a  single  year.     Although  the  office  was  not 
hereditary,  the  choice  seems  to  have  been  practically 
restricted  to  a  few  families. .   It  seems  the  most  natural 
explanation  of  the  liigli  priests  we  see  repeatedly  men- 
tioned in  the  Acts,  that  these  were  members  of  those 
families  that  had  practically  a  monopoly  of  the  high 
priesthood. 


30  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Besides  the  high  priest,  there  were  a  large  number 
of  other  priests.  These  were  arranged  in  twenty-four 
courses,  which  each  took  their  turn  in  ministering  in 
the  temple  ;  and  thus  twice  in  a  year  the  turn  of  each 
course  came  round  in  which  it  had  to  supply  ministrants 
for  the  sanctuary.  Zacharias,  the  father  of  John  the 
Baptist,  belonged  to  the  eighth  course,  that  of  Abia ; 
whereas  Josephus  tells  us  with  evident  pride  that  he 
belonged  to  the  first  course,  that  of  Jehoiarib.  These 
courses  had  been  originally  appointed  by  David,  but 
after  the  exile  to  Babylon  they  naturally  got  broken  up. 
Only  four  of  the  original  courses  returned,  and  they 
divided  themselves  so  that  each  family  became  reckoned 
as  six,  and  in  this  way  the  twenty-four  courses  were 
restored.  Notwithstanding  that  they  had  lost  so  many 
by  the  Exile,  for  the  great  majority  preferred  to  remain 
in  Babylon,  these  were  now  far  too  numerous  for  all  to 
come  up  to  the  temple  when  the  turn  of  their  "  course  " 
came  round.  We  do  not  know  how  the  selection  of  those 
who  were  to  represent  in  the  ministration  of  the  sanctu- 
ary the  house  of  their  father  was  affected,  but  it  prob- 
ably was  by  lot.  When  their  week  of  service  was 
ended,  the  priests  returned  to  their  homes,  whether  in 
Jerusalem,  in  Jericho,  or  in  the  hill  country  of  Judea,  as 
in  the  case  of  Zacharias,  to  whom  we  have  referred. 
There  were  many  priestly  cities  ;  but  if  Eabbinic  tradi- 
tion is  in  this  case  to  be  trusted,  a  third  of  the  priest- 
hood was  resident  in  Jericho ;  there  was  also  a  large 
number  in  Jerusalem,  hence  the  number  in  the 
country,  exclusive  of  these  two  cities,  must  have  been 
relatively  small. 

Besides  the  priests  there  were  also  Levites — sons  of 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  RELIGIOUS.       31 

Levi — who  could  not  claim  descent  from  Aaron.     The 
assertion  that  the  Zadokite   priests  were  merely  the 
priests  of  the  sanctuary  in  Zion,  while  the  Levites  were 
the  priests  of  those  local  sanctuaries  called  "  the  high 
places,"  which  were  put  down  finally  by  Josiah,  and  that 
while    the    Zadokites    maintained    their     superiority, 
the  other  priests  were  supported  by  putting  them  in 
inferior  offices  in  the  temple,  may  have  a  grain  of  truth 
in  it.      The  story  of  Micah  and  his  teraphim  shows 
how  anxious  those  proprietors  of  local  shrines  were  to 
gain  a  quasi  sanction  for  their  sanctuaries  by  getting 
"  a  Levite  for  their  priest."     That  being  so,  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  priests,  especially  of  the  Judean  high 
places,  would  be  Levites.    It  would  not  follow  from  this 
that  "  Levite  "  was  merely  a  class  name  for  those  dis- 
possessed priests  irrespective  of  any  blood  connection 
with  Levi.    These  Levites,  like  the  priests,  were  divided 
into  twenty-four  courses,  and  also  served  by  weekly 
turns.     One  thing  ought  to  be  noted,  comparatively 
few  Levites  came  back  from  the  Babylonian  captivity. 
The  inferior  ceremonial  position  they  would  occupy  in 
the  temple  worship  formed  no  inducement  to  leave  the 
peace  and  plenty  of  Babylon  for  the  privation  of  Judea. 
The  sacrifices  of  the  temple  necessarily  employed  a 
large   number   of  priests.      There   were   the  morning 
and  evening  sacrifices  on  the  great  altar  daily.     The 
victim,    a   lamb,    was  fastened   to   a   ring,    and   then 
the  priest  approached  from  behind,  in  order  not  to 
frighten  it,  and  with  a  knife,  sharpened  and  tested  with 
special  care,  slaughtered  it.    The  body  was  then  divided 
into  due  portions  on  a  marble  table,  and  washed  pre- 
paratory to  being  burnt  upon  the  great  altar.      Each 


32  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

part  of  the  operation,  from  the  clearing  out  of  the 
fireplace  on  the  great  altar,  was  arranged  by  lot.  One 
special  duty  which  a  priest  only  once  in  his  life  was 
permitted  to  perform,  was  that  of  burning  incense  on 
the  altar  as  representative  of  the  people.  Mean- 
time the  Levites,  as  singers,  chanted  the  sacred  psalm 
for  the  day,  and  two  priests  blew  with  the  silver 
trumpets  as  the  people  assembled  for  prayer.  This 
morning  and  evening  sacrifice  was  offered  for  the 
whole  nation ;  and  the  Levites,  as  the  representatives 
of  all  the  people,  raised  the  song  of  praise.  The 
whole  idea  of  the  temple  and  its  worship  was  that 
here  the  nation  had  its  sacred  hearth,  and  here  con- 
tinual atoning  sacrifice  was  offered  and  intercessory 
prayers  were  presented.  The  priests  and  Levites  as 
connected  with  this  of  necessity  had  a  prominent  place 
in  the  national  life  ;  the  more  centralised  the  worship, 
in  some  respects,  the  more  prominent,  as  the  imagina- 
tion was  the  more  impressed  by  it  The  representa- 
tive character  of  the  priesthood  came  to  its  acme  in 
the  solemn  Day  of  Atonement,  when,  bearing  the 
blood  of  the  sacred  victim,  the  high  priest  entered 
into  the  Holiest  of  All  and  made  atonement,  "  first  for 
himself  and  then  for  the  people." 

The  representative  character  of  the  priesthood  is 
brought  out  by  its  institution.  In  every  patriarchal 
or  primitive  family  the  father  was  the  priest,  and  next 
after  him  his  eldest  son.  Thus  the  first-born  became 
peculiarly  sacred  to  the  service  of  Deity,  especially 
among  Semitic  nations.  When  a  sacrifice  was  to  be 
offered  of  special  value  to  appease  the  gods  when  some 
terrible  calamity  was  impending,  then  the  father  offered 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  RELIGIOUS.       33 

his  son  upon  the  altar,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  Mesha, 
king  of  Moab,  when  Jehoram  of  Israel  and  Jehoshaphat 
of  Judah  were  pressing  in  upon  him,  and  threatening 
to  take  his  capital.  In  the  earlier  history  of  Israel,  the 
way  was  opened  for  Levi  gaining  the  place  of  the  first- 
born by  the  sin  of  Reuben  against  his  father ;  the  sin 
of  Simeon  and  Levi  both  against  the  Shechemites  had 
transferred  the  place  of  first-born  to  Judah,  a  place  that 
he  occupies  in  the  interview  with  Joseph  in  the  matter 
of  Benjamin.  The  Levites  regained  the  dignity  of 
priesthood  by  their  zeal  for  the  Lord  in  the  matter  of 
the  golden  calf.  Again,  the  additional  fact  that  Moses 
and  Aaron  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and 
had  led  the  nation  out  from  the  house  of  bondage, 
aided  the  Levites  in  maintaining  their  priestly  rank. 
But  the  most  prominent  historical  incident  in  the 
early  history  of  the  tribe  was  the  redemption  of  the 
first-born,  when,  instead  of  the  first-born  of  all  Israel — 
the  family  priests  that  is  to  say — the  family  of  Levi 
were  taken.  The  house  of  Levi  represented  thus  the 
national  first-born, — the  first-born  of  Jacob,  and  then 
the  family  first-born, — as  each  first-born  had  been  re- 
deemed by  the  consecration  of  the  Levites.  The  diffi- 
culty of  disentangling  the  actual  and  historical  from 
the  symbolic  becomes  very  great  in  regard  to  this 
matter.  In  the  Book  of  Jubilees  we  see  the  influence 
of  the  priestly  predominance  very  obvious.  Levi  and 
Judah  are  always  put  forward ;  but  of  the  two  a 
great  prominence  is  assigned  to  Levi,  who  is  repre- 
sented as  family  priest  even  during  the  life  of  his 
father.  This  view  is  emphasised  by  the  Testaments 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs. 


34  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

While,  on  the  one  hand,  the  return  from  exile  had 
made  the  Jewish  people  value  especially  the  regular 
service  of  the  temple,  on  the  other  hand  the  seventy 
years  during  which  the  temple  had  lain  desolate  had 
made  the  people  depend  for  the  maintenance  of  their 
religious  life  on  other  ordinances  than  that  of  sacrifice  or 
temple  ritual.  They  had  no  city  which  represented  the 
political  life  of  the  nation,  no  temple  to  be  the  symbol 
of  its  home,  no  altar  to  be  the  national  sacred  hearth. 
Any  such  assembling  of  themselves  together  on  the 
part  of  these  deported  captives  would  have  been  looked 
at  askance  by  the  Babylonian  authorities.  Yet  unless 
they  met  together  they  would  soon  lose  altogether 
the  sense  of  being  one  nation.  If  they  could  no  longer 
sacrifice  they  could  still  pray,  and  in  that  way  maintain 
some  form  of  religious  life.  Above  all,  they  had  their 
law,  with  its  enactments,  pervading  every  nook  and 
cranny  of  their  lives.  This  threefold  necessity  led 
naturally  to  the  synagogue  worship.  In  every  city 
where  there  was  a  Jewish  community  they  fixed  on 
some  place  where  they  met,  most  likely  the  dwelling 
of  some  one  of  the  wealthier  captives.  There  they 
read  the  law  and  offered  up  liturgic  prayers ;  and  if 
they  could  not  offer  sacrifice,  they  sang  at  least  the 
psalms  that  had  been  wont  to  accompany  these 
sacrifices.  It  became  a  city  in  miniature,  a  city  of 
Jews  within  this  Gentile  city  in  which  they  dwelt. 
As  in  the  city  the  main  authority  rested  in  the  council 
of  the  elders,  so  here  the  elders  of  the  synagogue  had 
the  authority,  not  merely  in  matters  of  worship,  but 
also  in  civil  matters.  To  a  great  extent  in  a  huge 
heterogeneous  empire  like  that  of  Babylon  every 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  RELIGIOUS.       35 

nationality  was  left  very  much  to  itself,  to  be  governed 
by  its  own  laws  and  in  its  own  way.  And  what  was 
true  of  nations  was  true  also  of  those  small  com1 
munities  of  captives  which  were  found  in  many  of 
the  Babylonian  cities — they  were  let  alone. 

When  the  captives  returned  to  their  own  land,  they 
introduced  the  synagogue  worship,  and  spread  it  among 
the  descendants  of  those  who  had  never  left  Judea.  At 
first  sight  it  might  be  thought  that  on  their  return 
to  Judea  the  synagogue  worship  would  have  been 
abandoned, — if  not  immediately,  at  all  events  when  the 
temple  was  rebuilt.  But  the  very  fact  that  a  consider- 
able interval  elapsed  before  the  temple  could  be  rebuilt, 
and  that  during  that  time  their  only  mode  of  maintaining 
the  worship  of  their  faith  was  by  the  mode  of  service 
they  had  learned  in  Babylon,  would  lead  to  the  forma- 
tion of  a  habit  of  synagogue  worship  even  in  Palestine 
— and  a  habit  of  two  generations'  growth  is  difficult 
to  root  out  at  any  time.  We  have  to  add  to  this  nearly 
another  generation  before  the  temple  could  be  rebuilt, 
if  we  would  see  the  whole  period  during  which  this  habit 
was  being  formed  and  strengthened.  Had  the  temple 
been  already  built  when  they  returned,  the  change 
of  habits  involved  in  transferring  themselves  from 
Babylon  to  Palestine  might  have  combined  with  the 
presence  of  the  temple  to  induce  the  abandonment 
of  the  worship  of  the  synagogue.  Once  it  had  been 
transplanted  to  Palestine,  it  of  necessity  took  root 
there  and  flourished.  With  the  founding  of  Alexandria 
this  new  mode  of  worship  spread  into  Egypt.  Indeed, 
the  conquests  of  Alexander  may  be  said  to  have 
opened  the  world  to  the  Jews ;  and  wherever  the 


36  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Jews  went,  there  they  erected  their  synagogues.  If 
the  number  of  Jews  was  too  small  for  a  synagogue,  at 
least  a  proseucha  was  built  near  some  river  bank, 
where  the  people  might  assemble  for  prayer,  and  for 
the  performance  in  quiet  of  the  various  ablutions 
ordained  by  the  law. 

The  officials  of  the  synagogue  were  somewhat 
numerous.  Besides  the  elders  of  synagogue — who  were 
at  the  same  time  elders  of  the  city,  or,  at  all  events, 
for  the  Jewish  community  in  the  city,  if  it  were  a 
Gentile  one — there  was  an  archisynagogus,  a  ruler  of 
the  synagogue,  whose  duty  was  specially  connected 
with  the  right  ordering  of  the  worship.  Further, 
there  were  certain  Gabaei  tzadiqah,  receivers  of  alms 
(righteousness),  and  ten  batlanim,  men  who  were  paid 
to  be  present  at  every  service  in  order  that  there 
might  always  be  a  sufficient  number  to  constitute  a 
congregation.  There  was  also  the  minister  (hazzan 
hakkenneseth),  nearly  equivalent  to  our  "  beadle," 
whose  duty  it  was  to  put  the  books  of  the  Law  or 
the  Prophets  before  the  reader  for  the  day,  and  to 
replace  them  in  the  sacred  ark  again  after  service. 
He  had  to  administer  scourging  to  those  to  whom  it 
was  adjudged.  He  taught,  as  we  have  already  said, 
the  children  of  the  congregation. 

In  the  synagogue  the  main  service,  as  we  have 
already  stated,  was  reading  the  Law,  repeating  liturgic 
prayers,  and  singing,  or  rather  chanting  psalms.  The 
Law  and  the  Prophets  were  divided  off  into  portions  for 
each  several  day,  so  that  the  whole  Law  might  be  read 
over  in  the  course  of  three  years.  Originally  only  the 
parashoth,  or  portions  of  the  Law,  were  read;  but  during 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  EELIGIOUS.       37 

the  time  of  the  persecution  under  Epiphanes,  when  the 
reading  of  the  Law  was  forbidden,  they  read  hapli- 
taroth,  or  portions  of  the  Prophets.  When  the  time  of 
tribulation  had  passed  away,  they  continued  the  read- 
ing of  the  Prophets  along  with  the  Law,  as  we  see  in  the 
case  of  our  Lord  in  the  synagogue  in  Nazareth.  The 
reading  of  the  Law  led  naturally  to  the  explanation  of 
the  Law,  and  the  enforcement  of  its  precepts.  There 
was  a  considerable  divergence  in  Babylon  between  the 
sacred  Hebrew  in  which  the  Scriptures  were  written 
and  the  Aramaic  in  which  the  ordinary  business  of  life 
had  to  be  carried  on.  The  difference  between  Dutch 
and  German  may  convey  some  idea  of  the  extent  of 
the  difference  between  the  two  cognate  tongues.  The 
Hebrew  of  the  home  of  necessity  gradually  became  con- 
taminated by  the  Aramaic  of  the  market-place,  so  that 
translation  was  soon  necessary.  Mere  interpretation 
was  not  enough,  however;  the  Law  had  not  only  to  be 
understood,  but  also  to  be  obeyed.  In  consequence  of 
this,  there  were  a  vast  number  of  distinctions  devised  to 
meet  the  difficulties  of  distressed  consciences.  These 
often  became  means  of  evading  the  Law.  The  Law  of 
eruth  is  an  example  of  this.  One  might  only  walk  a  very 
limited  distance  on  a  Sabbath  day — a  distance  which 
seems  to  have  varied  at  different  times.  At  all  events, 
there  was  permitted  a  walk  of  some  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  beyond  the  walls  of  the  city  in  which  a  man 
dwelt.  But  should  a  man  desire  to  go  farther,  all  he 
had  to  do  was  to  go  the  night  before  within  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  of  the  place  to  which  he  wished  to 
go  and  eat  some  food,  deposit  as  much  as  would  serve 
for  another  meal,  and  return  to  his  own  house.  On 


38  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  following  day  lie  could  reckon  his  starting-point 
from  that  place,  the  whole  intervening  distance  being 
regarded  by  legal  fiction  as  part  of  his  house.  This  is 
an  example  of  what  are  called  the  Halachoth. 

Incitement  to  duty  was  needed,  and  interest  in  the 
Law  required  to  be  excited.  This  was  accomplished 
by  stories,  expansions  of  the  text,  additions  to  it,  or 
illustrations  of  the  principles  supposed  to  be  contained 
in  it.  These  were  called  the  Hagadoth.  The  apocry- 
phal additions  to  Daniel  give  examples  of  this.  Still 
better  is  the  Book  of  Jubilees.  They  were  otherwise 
called  Midrashim. 

This  necessitated  a  class  of  persons  who  had  a  pro- 
fessional acquaintanceship  with  the  sacred  books. 
This  class  was  the  scribes.  There  were  scribes  in  the 
days  even  of  David,  and  all  through  the  time  of  the 
kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel ;  but  they  seem  merely 
to  have  written  out  decrees,  and  kept  the  records  of  the 
kingdom.  They  had  no  special  connection  with  the 
sacred  books.  There  must  have  been  sacred  scribes 
too,  but  they  do  not  come  into  prominence.  The 
inscriptions  in  the  conduit  from  Solomon's  pools  prove 
the  general  diffusion  of  writing  among  the  people  to 
have  been  greater  than  some  would  imagine.  The  fact 
that  an  upper  workman  could  thus  commemorate  the 
success  of  the  excavators  in  meeting  underground, 
though  starting  from  opposite  points,  is  a  proof  that 
writing  was  at  least  somewhat  common.  With  the 
captivity  and  the  growth  of  the  synagogue,  the  office 
of  scribe  came  into  greater  prominence.  Every  syna- 
gogue required  to  possess  a  book  of  the  Law, — that 
had  to  be  written  by  the  scribe.  Generally  also 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  PALESTINE,  CIVIL  AND  RELIGIOUS.        39 

they  had  copies  of  some  of  the  prophets  ;  that  implied 
further  writing.  As  writing  was  a  matter  of  some 
labour,  there  was  a  long  training  required,  in  order 
that  an  adequate  knowledge  might  be  attained.  It 
is  probable  that  at  first  there  would  not  be  those 
puerile  exactnesses  that  we  find  in  the  present 
Masoretic  text ;  yet  there  would  be  in  all  probability 
some  germs  of  what  was  to  come. 

From  the  all  -  prevailing  character  of  the  Jewish 
Law  the  influence  of  these  interpreters  of  it  was  very 
great.  There  were  so  many  ways  of  falling  into  sins 
of  ignorance,  and  so  many  ways  of  evading  the  Law, — 
of  doing  the  thing  one  wished  to  do  and  yet  not 
breaking  the  Law, — that  the  counsels  of  these  scribes 
were  held  as  invaluable.  In  fact,  latterly,  their 
decisions  in  explanation  of  the  Law  were  regarded 
as  being  more  valuable  than  the  Law  itself;  while 
the  Law  itself  was  as  water,  the  commentary  of  the 
scribes  was  as  wine.  What  made  them  of  yet  greater 
import,  if  not  importance,  was  the  political  position 
they  secured  in  the  Sanhedrin.  The  members  that 
were  added  to  that  court  by  co-optation  were  almost 
all  drawn  from  the  class  of  scribes. 

The  existence  of  a  learned  class  like  the  scribes 
implies  the  means  of  attaining  this  learning.  The 
scribe,  in  short,  implies  the  school.  In  every  town 
there  was  a  teacher  of  the  Law,  to  whom  children  were 
sent  from  the  age  of  seven.  At  first  the  children  were 
under  the  charge  of  that  functionary  whom  we  have 
paralleled  with  our  beadle.  Then  the  child  was  sent  to 
a  higher  school.  What  was  mainly  taught  in  the  first 
school  was  the  reading  of  the  Law  and  the  recitation 


40  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  certain  prayers.  When  the  child  proceeded  to  the 
higher  school,  he  was  taught  the  Mishna.  At  length 
the  pupil  was  sent  to  Jerusalem,  where  were  the  special 
academies  in  which  the  Gemara  was  taught.  Such 
is  the  account  we  get  from  the  Jewish  tracts  of  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  and  downwards. 
It  is  probably,  while  incorrect  in  form,  not  far  from 
the  truth  in  the  matter.  It  would  certainly  be  the 
tradition  of  the  fathers  the  youth  was  taught  when- 
ever he  passed  beyond  childhood.  From  these 
academies  in  Jerusalem,  presided  over  by  men  like 
Hillel  or  Shammai  or  Gamaliel,  the  leading  members 
of  the  Sanhedrin  came. 

There  is  certainly  much  in  the  synagogue  worship 
which  is  preparatory  to  the  worship  of  the  Christian 
Church.  Above  all  is  the  use  of  preaching,  which 
became  the  great  instrument  of  evangelising  the  world. 
In  his  Hibbert  Lecture,  Dr.  Hatch  maintains  that 
preaching  came  from  the  Greek  philosophic  schools; 
but  the  proof  is  deficient. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    SAMARITANS. 

TT  has  been  thought  one  of  the  peculiar  felicities 
"^  of  our  British  Constitution  that  there  should 
be  always  two  leading  political  parties, — the  party 
of  advance  and  the  party  of  stability.  Between  the 
extreme  wings  of  each  party  there  is  an  infinite  grada- 
tion of  changing  opinion,  and  according  as  that  middle 
portion  swings  forward  or  falls  back,  do  we  advance 
or  stand  still.  So  great  was  this  advantage  thought 
to  be,  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  introduced  a  similar  element  into  it. 
There  is  the  party  that  would  broaden  State  rights,  as 
against  those  of  the  central  government ;  and  there  is 
the  party  that  would  increase  the  function  of  the 
central  authority  at  the  expense  of  State  rights. 
Every  form  of  government,  except  absolute  despotism, 
has  in  these  days  political  parties,  and  all  these  parties 
represent  tendencies  pointing  to  the  future. 

In  the  Greek  cities  there  were  also  parties.  The 
oligarchic  and  the  democratic  factions  strove  each  to 
get  the  mastery  over  the  other,  and  the  long  and  fierce 
Peloponnesian  war  was  really  a  conflict  between  oligarchy 
and  democracy.  Here  it  was  two  theories  of  the  State 
that  were  at  war.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  when  savagery 
in  some  respects  came  back  upon  the  world,  there  were 

41 


42          THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

factions  that  had  no  basis  of  thought  or  theory,  it  was 
simply  an  individual's  name  or  claim  that  formed  the 
point  of  union.  This  affected  even  the  republics  of 
that  period,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  history  of  the 
Italian  Republics,  with  their  feuds  between  Montagues 
and  Capulets,  between  Bianchi  and  Neri. 

After  the  Greek  cities  became  subject  to  the  Mace- 
donian rule  they  ceased  to  have  sufficient  political  life 
to  have  parties.  They  had  factions  certainly,  but  these 
expressed  themselves  in  riots  and  no  more.  The  real 
life  of  Greece  went  out  into  philosophy,  and  the  conflict 
of  opinion  occupied  the  minds  of  those  whose  ancestors 
had  debated  the  questions  of  peace  and  war,  and  had 
entertained  the  envoys  of  the  great  king.  This  conflict 
of  opinion  was,  however,  in  the  region  of  the  purely 
abstract,  and  these  parties  had  no  political  meaning. 
In  our  own  day  we  have,  in  religious  matters,  sects 
and  parties  that  have  mainly  a  basis  of  thought  and 
opinion,  and  have  certainly  some  political  significance  ; 
but  a  significance  that  results  from  causes  external  to 
these  sects  themselves. 

Sects  among  the  Jews  were  unlike  our  political 
parties  and  unlike  our  denominations,  and  yet  they 
had  points  which  bring  them  in  line  with  both.  They 
were  unlike  the  Greek  political  parties  and  unlike 
philosophic  schools,  and  yet  they  had  many  points  of 
resemblance  to  both. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  each  of  the  four  sects  of 
the  Jews  occupied  the  position  it  did  in  relation  to  its 
fellows  from  reasons  peculiar  to  itself  alone.  There  was 
no  hard  and  fast  line  of  logical  division  on  one  side  of 
which  every  one  said  "  yes,"  and  on  the  other  every 


THE  SAMARITANS.  43 

one  said  "  no "  to  certain  questions.  They  were  not 
so  much  like  separate  branches  of  one  and  the  same 
tree,  as  like  separate  trees  in  the  same  soil.  The 
mention  of  the  soil  brings  to  remembrance  the  fact 
that,  unlike  our  religious  sects,  which  may  roughly  be 
said  to  embrace  among  them  the  whole  population, 
those  sects  left  the  Am  haaretz,  the  people  of  the 
land,  greatly  unaffected.1  This  is  true  of  the  strictly 
Jewish  sects.  It  is,  however,  necessary,  if  one  wishes 
to  gain  a  notion  of  what  really  the  tendencies  of 
thought  in  Palestine  were,  to  know  not  only  the  three 
sects,  whose  doctrines  Josephus  expounds  to  us,  but 
also  the  doctrines  of  the  Samaritans. 

We  have,  then,  to  consider  four  different  sections  of 
those  who  inhabited  Palestine,  all  claiming  the  same 
ancestry,  all  using  the  same  sacred  books,  at  least  so 
far  as  the  Pentateuch  was  concerned,  and  all  claiming 
to  worship  the  same  God  and  in  the  same  way.  We 
have,  first,  the  Samaritans,  geographically  distinct  from 
the  Jews,  and  distinct  also  from  them  in  race,  if  the 
evidence  of  the  Jews  is  to  be  received  ;  next,  we  have 
the  Sadducees,  the  party  of  the  priestly  aristocrats, 
holding  views  more  by  way  of  negation  to  those  of  the 
Pharisees,  simply  because  the  Pharisees  advanced  them, 
than  as  having  been  associated  in  order  to  defend  those 
anti-Pharisaic  views ;  next,  we  have  the  Pharisees  or 
legal  Puritans,  who  carried  out  to  logical  completeness 
the  law  as  the  people  in  general  interpreted  it.  Last 
of  all,  we  have  the  mysterious  party,  the  Essenes,  who 
represent,  if  their  views  have  been  correctly  described, 

1  Most  people  who  desired  to  be   thought  religious  seem  to  have 
belonged  to  one  or  other  of  the  sects  as  adherents. 


44  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

a  development  of  Jewish  thought  totally  unlike  any- 
thing else  in  Judaism,  and  manifesting  peculiarities 
which  bring  them  specially  within  our  sphere  as  in- 
vestigating the  origin  of  the  apocalyptic  writings. 

When  the  ten  tribes  broke  off  from  the  Davidic 
kingdom  they  betook  themselves  to  the  old  tribal 
worship  which  preceded  the  temple  worship  at  the 
one  great  altar  of  the  nation  but  with  modifications ; 
Jeroboam,  falling  back  on  some  tradition  of  the  golden 
calf,  introduced  image  worship, —  an  addition  which 
not  improbably  continued  to  shock  religious  people 
even  among  his  own  subjects,  as  we  see  from  Hosea.1 
The  Northern  kingdom,  despite  its  apostasy  and  the 
repeated  revolutions  to  which  it  was  subject,  became 
very  much  more  powerful  than  its  southern  neighbour, 
though  it,  by  the  continuance  of  the  Davidic  dynasty, 
was  free  from  civil  overturns.  Powerful  though  Israel 
was  as  compared  with  Moab,  Ammon,  or  Edom,  it  was 
still  very  inferior  to  the  great  empires  of  Assyria  and 
Egypt.  The  latter  had  sunk  from  the  warlike  to  the 
diplomatic  stage,  and  endeavoured,  by  means  of  in- 
trigues carried  on  in  all  the  petty  courts  of  Syria,  to 
hamper  the  advance  of  its  vigorous  rival  from  the  banks 
of  the  Tigris.  After  a  season  of  comparative  decrepi- 
tude, under  Shalmaneser  II.,  Syria  was  assailed  by  the 
Ninevite  power.  Ahab  joined  Benhadad  to  repulse  the 
invader  ;  but  at  length  under  a  later  monarch,  Tiglath- 
pileser,  a  large  portion  of  the  country  was  overrun, 
and  its  principal  inhabitants  deported, — a  process  that 
was  carried  out  to  greater  completeness  by  Shalma- 
neser IV.  and  Sargon. 

1  viii.  5,  x.  8,  xiii.  2. 


THE  SAMARITANS.  45 

Into  a  country  left  desolate  thus  by  the  tramp  of 
Eastern  armies  and  by  the  deportation  of  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  survivors,  colonists  from  distant  parts 
of  the  Assyrian  empire  were  sent  by  the  conqueror 
to  Samaria.  During  the  interval  between  the  final 
deportation  and  the  sending  the  new  colonists,  the 
country  had  become  savage,  and  wild  beasts  had 
multiplied.  In  their  terror  at  the  wrath  of  the  god 
of  the  land,  whom  they  considered  they  had  excited 
against  themselves,  they  prayed  the  Assyrian  monarch 
to  send  them  a  priest  to  teach  them  "  the  manner 
of  the  god."  At  first  they  mingled  the  worship  of 
Jehovah  with  the  worship  of  their  former  gods ;  but 
gradually,  through  association  with  the  inhabitants  left 
in  the  land,  they  abandoned  their  idolatry  wholly,  and 
became  worshippers  of  Jehovah  alone.  When  the 
Jews  of  the  Southern  kingdom  commenced  to  rebuild 
their  temple,  the  Samaritans  evidently  had  passed 
beyond  the  tribal  standpoint,  and  were  anxious  to 
unite  with  the  Southern  kingdom  in  the  worship  of 
Jehovah.  Until  Ezra  came  it  would  appear  that  the 
Jews  had  no  special  objection  to  this  idea,  indeed  they 
seem  to  have  contemplated  a  complete  fusion  of  the 
peoples.  How  far  the  action  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  in 
resisting  this  was  wise  or  right  may  be  doubted.  The 
result  of  it  was  that  ere  very  long  a  temple  was  built 
in  Mount  Gerizim,  to  which  the  Samaritans  attributed 
all  the  sanctity  that  the  Jews  ascribed  to  Mount  Zion. 

Of  the  history  of  the  Samaritans  during  the  later 
Persian  period  as  little  is  known  as  concerning  that  of 
the  Jews  during  the  same  time.  Josephus  represents 
them  as  trying  to  secure  the  favour  of  Alexander  the 


46          THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Great  for  themselves,  and  to  envenom  the  conqueror 
against  their  neighbours ;  and  this  failing,  they  declared 
themselves  Jews.  In  this  there  is  no  inherent  improb- 
ability. Under  the  Lagid  princes  the  hatred  between 
Jew  and  Samaritan  seems  to  have  continued  unabated, 
but  no  overt  acts  of  special  malevolence  are  recorded. 
Both  Samaritans  and  Jews  had  representatives  among 
the  colonists  in  Alexandria,  and  their  feuds  sprang  out 
afresh  there  on  the  occasion  of  the  Septuagint  transla- 
tion being  made.  The  Samaritans  had  interpolated 
into  the  Pentateuch  a  statement  that  Mount  Gerizim 
was  the  place  where  God  was  to  be  worshipped.  This 
statement  was  not  found  in  the  Septuagint,  hence  the 
quarrel.  During  the  Maccabean  struggle  the  Samari- 
tans were  against  the  Jews;  and  when,  finally,  the 
cause  of  the  Jews  prevailed  under  John  Hyrcanus,  he 
wreaked  the  national  vengeance  on  them  by  burning 
Samaria  and  overturning  the  temple  in  Mount  Gerizim. 
The  power  of  the  Maccabean  kingdom  went  down 
before  the  Romans  in  little  more  than  a  generation 
from  this  time,  and  the  Samaritans  had  to  some  extent 
their  national  position  restored  to  them  by  Gabinius ; 
but  only  for  a  little  while,  for  by  Augustus,  Samaria 
was  added  to  the  dominions  of  Herod.  After  Herod's 
death  Samaria  along  with  Judea  formed  the  dominion 
of  Archelaus.  When  Archelaus  was  deposed,  and  Judea 
became  a  procuratorship,  Samaria  was  still  united  to 
Judea.  Sometimes  the  bitter  hatred  of  the  one  against 
the  other  expressed  itself  in  outrage,  as  when  the 
Samaritans  defiled  the  temple  during  the  feast  of  the 
Passover  by  scattering  dead  men's  bones  in  the  holy 
place. 


THE  SAMARITANS.  47 

On  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  which  resulted  in  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem,  they  did  not  maintain  their  separation 
from  the  Jews,  and  thus  did  not  escape  altogether  the 
destruction  that  befell  their  southern  neighbours.  In 
his  march  towards  Jerusalem  from  Galilee,  the  fact  that 
3000  Samaritans  had  taken  up  a  position  on  Mount 
Gerizim  necessitated  Vespasian  to  send  a  detachment 
to  capture  the  place,  which  they  did.  The  Samaritans 
are  little  heard  of  during  the  long  period  that  followed. 
They  are  little  referred  to  by  the  Fathers.  Justin 
Martyr,  geographically  a  Samaritan,  takes  no  note  of 
their  religious  position.  He  himself  was  a  heathen  by 
birth,  but  still  their  neighbourhood  to  his  birthplace 
would  lead  one  to  expect  him  to  know  something  of 
them.  Simon  Magus,  mentioned  in  the  Acts,  if  we 
may  trust  Irenseus,  had  a  considerable  following  among 
the  Samaritans.  After  this,  with  the  exception  of 
Hippolytus  and  Epiphanius,  the  Samaritans  may  be 
said  to  disappear.  There  were  edicts  against  them 
issued  by  several  of  the  Christian  emperors,  and  in 
consequence  they  were  scattered  over  the  Levant. 

In  the  Jewish  writings  there  are  several  accounts 
of  the  Samaritans,  all  disrespectful,  and  none  of  them 
trustworthy.  Among  other  things  they  are  accused  of 
worshipping  a  dove,  and  disbelieving  in  angels  and  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  resurrection  of  the 
body.  In  the  beginning  of  this  century  M.  Sylvestre  de 
Sacy  opened  communications  with  the  small  surviving 
remnant  of  the  Samaritans,  and  discovered  that  these 
Jewish  accusations  were  utterly  false.  The  only  excuse 
for  the  assertion  that  they  worshipped  a  dove  seems 
to  have  been,  that  a  dove  was  embroidered  on  the 


48          THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

cloth  that  covered  the  ark  where  they  kept  the  book 
of  the  law.  They  believed  in  good  angels,  but  not  in 
an  Archangel.  They  reckoned  the  obligation  to  sacrifice 
had  ceased  with  the  disappearance  of  the  tabernacle. 
Like  the  Jews,  they  had  Messianic  hopes ;  but  it  was 
of  necessity  not  an  anointed  king,  a  descendant  of 
David,  but  an  anointed  prophet,  "one  like  unto 
Moses,"  that  they  expected.  They  still  remain  a  small 
remnant  in  the  neighbourhood  of  their  old  sacred 
place,  still  going  through  the  rites  of  their  old  worship, 
and  still  maintaining  their  claim  to  be  descendants  of 
Israel.  It  seems  their  main  points  of  difference  from 
the  Jews  are  now  on  matters  of  phylacteries  and  fringes. 
They  have  a  version  of  the  Pentateuch  and  of  Joshua 
which  differs  in  several  points  from  the  Masoretic  text. 
The  claim  made  for  this  by  the  Samaritans  themselves 
is,  as  may  be  supposed,  that  it  has  come  to  them 
directly  from  the  ten  tribes.  It  is  asserted  that  ap- 
pended to  the  ancient  manuscript  preserved  by  the 
remnant  of  the  Samaritans  in  Sichem,  is  a  declaration 
that  it  was  the  work  of  Abisha,  the  son  of  Phinehas, 
the  son  of  Eleazar,  the  son  of  Aaron,  in  the  thirteenth 
year  after  taking  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  but 
the  scroll  with  these  words  has  not  been  seen  by  any 
of  the  many  scholars  who  have  examined  this  ancient 
codex.  There  is  no  question  that  if  such  an  inscription 
were  found  it  would  be  a  forgery.  Not  only  is  the 
manuscript  much  later  than  the  date  implied  in  this 
alleged  inscription,  but  the  recension  itself  is  evidently 
of  much  later  date.  When  it  was  first  brought  to 
Europe,  scholars,  especially  belonging  to  the  Eomish 
Church,  were  inclined  to  put  a  high  value  on  the 


THE  SAMARITANS.  49 

readings  of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  regarding  that 
recension  far  above  the  Masoretic.  Closer  examination 
destroyed  any  idea  of  superior  antiquity,  although  the 
arguments  from  the  mistaken  letters  which  would  go 
to  prove  that  it  was  copied  into  the  present  Samaritan 
characters  out  of  the  square  Hebrew  may  not  be 
worthy  of  implicit  credit.  One  thing  may  be  noted, 
that,  with  the  exception  of  the  assertion  above  referred 
to,  that  Gerizim,  not  Zion,  was  the  place  where  God 
would  put  His  name,  there  is  no  evidence  to  be  drawn 
of  the  opinions  of  the  Samaritans  from  their  recension, 
of  the  Pentateuch.  Some  writers  have  seen  traces  of 
Samaritan  influences  in  the  Book  of  Jubilees ;  but  this 
view  is  a  mistaken  one. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    SADDUCEES. 

E  class  we  have  just  been  considering  was 
separated  from  the  Jews  proper  by  a  quasi 
national  difference.  The  two  nationalities  were  both 
worshippers  of  Jehovah,  but  difference  of  nationality 
meant  no  real  essential  difference  in  mode  of  worship. 
But  now  in  taking  up  the  Sadducees,  we  enter  the 
region  of  Judaism  properly  so  called.  The  origin  of 
the  Sadducean  party  is  one  that  has  been  much  dis- 
cussed, and  on  which  no  thoroughly  reliable  opinion  can 
be  formed.  A  certain  Antigonus  of  Socho,  said  to  be 
a  scholar  of  Simeon  the  Just,  and  thus  a  younger  con- 
temporary of  Alexander  the  Great,  is  recorded  to  have 
warned  men  against  following  righteousness  merely 
for  the  reward  of  Heaven.  He  was  alleged  to  have  had 
a  disciple  named  Zadok,  and  from  him  the  Sadducees 
are  said  to  have  taken  their  rise.  The  existence  even 
of  Antigonus  the  master  is  sufficiently  doubtful,  seeing 
it  is  only  vouched  for  by  late  Talmudic  authority,  and 
therefore  that  of  his  disciple  Zadok  is  also  doubtful. 
The  fact  that  he  has  a  Greek  name  makes  it  almost 
certain  that  at  all  events  Antigonus  belonged  to  a  later 
time.  It  was  not  until  the  time  of  Philadelphus  that 
it  became  common  in  Palestine  for  Jews  to  assume 
Greek  names.  A  considerable  number  of  writers  have 


THE  SADDUCEES.  51 

adopted  this  old  Rabbinic  view.  Another  view,  sup- 
ported by  Cohen,  is  that  the  name  is  descriptive,  and 
means  simply  the  righteous.  To  this  it  may  be  ob- 
jected that  the  word  Sadducee  seems  to  be  derived, 
not  from  zaddik  (?*??),  but  from  zadtik  or  zadok 
(pro),  the  name  of  the  Davidic  high  priest.  Since  the 
days  of  David  one  of  the  family  of  Zadok  always  ful- 
filled the  function  of  the  high  priest,  and  from  this  the 
priests  were  spoken  of  as  "  sons  of  Zadok."  According 
to  some,  it  is  from  this  old  Zadok  that  the  name  of 
Sadducee  comes,  and  it  is  held  to  mean  a  member  of 
the  priestly  party.  While  it  is  certainly  true  that  as  a 
matter  of  history  the  Sadducees  were  the  sacerdotal 
party,  still  it  is  not  improbable  that  there  was  a  certain 
play  on  the  resemblance  of  the  words,  which  had  this 
excuse,  that  the  name  itself  was  evidently  intended 
when  applied  to  the  person  to  mean  "  righteous." 
They  most  probably  claimed  respect  on  the  plea  that 
they  represented  in  their  adhesion  to  the  law  the  mean- 
ing of  the  name,  while  they  claimed  the  emoluments 
and  immunities  connected  with  the  priesthood  from  the 
fact  that  they  were  the  descendants  of  Zadok,  the 
priest  of  the  days  of  David. 

Mere  questions  of  etymology  are  less  important  in 
matters  such  as  we  are  here  considering  than  historical 
facts.  In  investigating  the  history  of  Sadduceeism  there 
is  the  difficulty  to  be  encountered  that  in  earlier  times 
the  name  does  not  appear  at  all.  Not  only  so,  but 
even  the  events  themselves  are  lost  in  obscurity.  The 
space  of  nearly  a  century  elapsed  between  the  death  of 
Artaxerxes  Longimanus  and  the  invasion  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  yet  of  it  Josephus  chronicles  nothing ;  in 


62          THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

fact,  he  seems  unaware  that  there  was  more  than 
one  Artaxerxes,  and  appears  to  imagine  that  Darius 
Codomannus  succeeded  Artaxerxes  Longimanus.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  to  believe  that  he  does  not  confound 
Sanballat  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Nehemiah  with  one 
alleged  to  live  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great.  In 
these  circumstances,  it  is  not  surprising  that  we  know 
nothing  of  Jewish  history  during  the  missing  century. 
At  the  end  of  the  period,  the  high  priest  seems  to 
occupy  without  rival  the  principal  place  in  the  nation. 
The  position  is  one  to  be  intrigued  for,  and  even  is  one 
for  the  attainment  of  which  some  would  shrink  from 
no  crime. 

Of  the  early  Greek  period  we  are  nearly  as  ignorant  as 
of  the  later  Persian  period ;  we  know  more  of  the  ex- 
ternal vicissitudes  of  the  Jewish  nation,  but  as  little  of 
its  internal  condition.  This  much  is  clear,  the  heredi- 
tary priestly  class  ruled  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
nation.  We  see  in  this  class  a  great  desire  to  adopt 
Greek  manners,  and  even  abandon  those  portions  of 
the  law  that  most  marked  the  Jewish  nation  off  from 
all  others.  The  priestly  party  was  thus  at  the  same 
time  the  aristocratic  party  and  the  Hellenizing  party. 
That  it  should  be  the  former  is  not  extraordinary ;  but 
that  it  should  be  the  latter  is  more  strange,  but  is  due 
doubtless  to  the  contact  with  the  Greeks  imposed  upon 
them  by  their  position  as  the  civil  heads  of  the  nation. 

While  the  Lagid  princes  left  the  Jews  very  much  to 
themselves,  the  Seleucids  wished  to  hurry  the  process 
of  Hellenization  :  especially  Antiochus  Epiphanes  did 
so,  in  order  that  he  might  weld  his  empire  into  one, 
and  thus  be  able  to  present  an  undivided  front  to  the 


THE  SADDUCEES.  53 

encroachments  of  Rome.  The  aristocracy  yielded  in  the 
main ;  only  the  Hasidim  resisted,  headed  by  Mattathias 
the  priest  of  Modin  and  his  sons.  As  the  struggle  pro- 
gressed, the  sacerdotal  party  joined  the  patriots  and  got 
some  control  in  its  councils,  with  the  result  that  the 
Hasidim  moved  off  from  Judas  Maccabseus.  He  died  in 
battle,  and  was  succeeded  by  Jonathan  first,  then  Simon, 
each  of  them  more  and  more  associating  themselves  with 
the  party  to  which  by  descent  they  naturally  belonged. 
The  Hasidim  held  that  the  sacred  people  were  not 
merely  to  keep  themselves  separate  and  free  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  law  of  their  fathers,  but  that  they 
must  also  make  no  treaties  with  Gentiles,  and  take  no 
part  in  the  intrigues  of  the  court  of  Antioch.  The 
priestly  party  were  past-masters  in  the  arts  of  diplo- 
macy, and  would  have  none  of  these  puritanic  notions. 
While  this  went  on  there  was  no  violent  outbreak  of 
dissatisfaction  with  the  Hasmonsean  rule.  So  long  as 
Simon  lived,  gratitude  for  what  he  and  his  brothers  had 
done  and  suffered  for  the  cause  was  strong  enough  to 
keep  down  dissatisfaction.  Simon  was  made  high  priest 
and  prince,  and  these  honours  were  to  be  hereditary. 
John  Hyrcanus  was  still  more  of  the  politician,  therefore 
more  of  the  Sadducee, — for  we  may  now  begin  to  use 
this  term, — than  his  father.  The  process  begun  by 
circumstances  was  precipitated  by  the  insult  offered 
to  the  memory  of  his  mother  at  his  table  by  a  Pharisee. 
The  result  was  that  John  Hyrcanus  threw  himself  into 
the  arms  of  the  Sadducees. 

The  sons  of  John  Hyrcanus  carried  their  favour  for 
the  Sadducees  even  further,  Alexander  Jannseus  even 
going  the  length  of  instituting  a  severe  persecution 


54  THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  the  Pharisees.  The  events  of  his  reign  somewhat 
modified  his  views  ;  and  his  widow,  who  succeeded  him, 
threw  herself  into  the  arms  of  the  Pharisaic  party. 
Certainly  the  persecution  of  Alexander  Jannseus  had 
been  fierce  :  he  had,  it  is  said,  crucified  eight  hundred 
of  the  Pharisaic  party.  Now,  when  they  had  the 
power,  every  one  that  had  had  any  part  in  that 
tragedy  suffered  death.  How  far  the  proscription  of 
the  Sadducean  party  would  have  gone  it  is  impossible 
to  say  ;  but  Aristobulus  interposed,  and  his  mother, 
recognising  the  services  in  military  and  civil  matters 
which  the  Sadduceans  had  rendered  the  State,  used 
her  influence  to  stop  the  persecutions.  Not  long  after 
Alexandra  Salome  fell  sick,  and  died.  After  the  death 
of  Salome,  her  two  sons,  Aristobulus  and  John  Hyr- 
canus,  represented  the  two  parties,  and  they  brought 
the  difference  between  the  parties  to  the  arbitrament 
of  the  sword.  Always  the  party  of  business  and 
diplomacy,  the  Sadducees  gained  the  mastery  at  first ; 
but  rougher  methods  prevailed. 

Their  relation  to  the  law  must  be  noted.  They  took 
the  text  of  the  Pentateuch  as  it  came  to  them,  and 
rigidly  opposed  themselves  to  all  changes.  From  the 
fact  that  they  were  the  sacerdotal  party,  the  terms  in 
which  any  set  of  ceremonies  was  enjoined  was  enough 
for  them.  Religion  among  the  Greeks  had  become 
merely  ceremonial  observance,  and  the  Sadducees,  the 
party  most  associating  with  the  Greeks  and  having 
most  to  do  with  sacrifices,  naturally  reduced  Judaism 
to  the  same  level.  But  to  ceremonial  the  mode  of 
doing  anything  is  the  all-important  matter,  hence  the 
statements  of  the  law  were  not  to  be  tampered  with  or 


THE  SADDUCEES.  55 

explained ;  everything  must  stand  still.     Religion  was 
merely   an   external    thing,    useful    for   amusing   the 
masses  and  keeping  them  in  check,  but  not  for  any 
educated   man   really  to   believe  in  seriously;    hence 
any  change  from  within  was  to  be  deprecated.     They 
themselves,    however,    moved   by   their   contact   with 
Greek   thought,    had    not   been   unfruitful,  and  they 
took  more  to  Greek  philosophy  than  to  Greek  religion. 
It  is  to  be  noted  as  a  singular  thing  that  popularly 
the  greater   philosophies  of  Plato  and   Aristotle   had 
fallen  into  the  background  as  compared  with  Stoicism 
and  Epicureanism.     The  latter  form  of  thought,  if  we 
are  to  believe  Josephus,  had  influenced  them  more  than 
the  former.     The  latter  enabled  them  to  talk  glibly 
about  sacred  matters,  but  had  no  moral  earnestness. 
They   met  the   Pharisaic   dogmas,    drawn  from  inter- 
pretations of  the  law  and  the  prophets  asserted  to  be 
handed  dowTn  by  tradition,  by  demanding  verbal  proof 
from  the  law  that  such  was  enjoined,  and  by  casting- 
ridicule    on    these    traditions.       It   may   be    doubted 
whether  they  held  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  they 
certainly  did  not  hold  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 
They   did   not   believe   in   Divine   Providence ;    with 
them  Jehovah  was   like  the  Greek  deities ;  according 
to  Epicurus,  He  lived  apart  from  the  world  and  care- 
less of  mankind.     They  could  not  therefore  believe  in 
a  God  that  continually  guided  His  people  in  the  world, 
as  of  old  Israel  had  been  guided  through  the  desert 
by  a  pillar  of  fire  and  cloud.    The  affairs  of  the  nation 
were   to   be   guided  on   principles   of   earthly   policy 
without  any  dependence  on  Providence. 

While  they  held   by  the  legislative   portions,  they 


56  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

evidently  treated  the  historical  portions  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch rationalistically.  We  are  told,  Acts  xxiii.  8, 
that  the  Sadducees  did  not  believe  in  angels.  If 
this  is  to  be  taken  absolutely,  then  the  account  of 
angelic  appearances  which  we  find  in  the  Pentateuch 
must  all  have  been  explained  away.  It  might  have 
been  that,  while  believing  in  angels  having  appeared 
in  ancient  times  to  the  fathers,  they  disbelieved  all 
alleged  appearances  in  their  own  day.  The  narrative 
referred  to  does  not  necessarily  imply  more  than  this, 
for  the  Pharisees  proclaim  their  willingness  to  acknow- 
ledge that  Paul  might  have  been  addressed  by  an 
angel. 

The  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  does 
not  stand  on  that  footing.  It  is  most  probable  that 
intercourse  with  the  Greeks  had  to  do  with  their 
repudiation  of  this  doctrine.  To  the  Greeks,  as  we 
learn  from  what  took  place  when  Paul  preached  on 
Mars  Hill,  it  was  foolishness ;  they  could  not  com- 
prehend what  was  meant  by  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  and  thought  the  word  Anastasis  was  the  name 
of  a  new  goddess  whom  Paul  proposed  to  introduce  to 
the  worship  of  the  Athenians.  Associating  continually 
with  those  who  thus  regarded  the  very  notion  of  the 
resurrection  as  incomprehensible,  it  was  but  natural 
that  the  Sadducees  should  not  believe  in  it  themselves. 

Another  thing  that  followed  from  their  political  pre- 
occupations, was  a  total  neglect  of  the  Messianic  hopes 
of  Israel.  The  coming  of  a  Messiah  would  be  the 
destruction  of  the  whole  fabric  they  had  been  building 
up.  It  would  be  the  introduction  of  an  incalculable 
factor  in  the  problem  of  Jewish  politics.  Not  less  was 


THE  SADDUCEES.  57 

it  to  be  objected  that  their  opponents  the  Pharisees, 
and  still  more  the  Essenes,  looked  for  the  Messiah ; 
hence  the  triumph  of  the  Messiah  would  be  their 
definite  overthrow.  Sacrifices  and  all  the  temple 
worship  might  be  changed  if  the  prophet  like  unto 
Moses  should  arise,  and  then  they,  the  priestly  party, 
would  be  deprived  of  the  functions  that  had  given 
them  importance.  But  chiefest  of  all  the  motives  that 
influenced  them  was  the  fear  expressed  by  Caiaphas, 
that  the  Romans  would  come  and  take  away  their  place 
and  their  nation. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    PHARISEES. 

rflHERE  are  few  but  have  pretty  distinct  notions 
"•-  of  what  is  meant  when  a  man  is  declared 
to  be  a  Pharisee.  Literature  is  full  of  characters 
that  express  the  common  view  by  what,  it  cannot 
be  denied,  is  caricature.  It  seems  to  some  that 
in  the  New  Testament  we  have  the  highest  evidence 
for  the  truth  of  this  view,  which  may  roughly  be 
stated  as  identifying  Pharisee  and  hypocrite, — the 
difference  between  the  two  being  that,  if  anything, 
the  Pharisee  is  the  worse.  If  there  be  an  element 
of  unconsciousness  in  the  Pharisee, — unconsciousness, 
to  a  certain  extent,  that  he  is  insincere, — there  is 
a  further  element  of  censoriousness  in  regard  to 
others  on  the  one  hand,  and  self-complacency  on  the 
other,  with  regard  to  himself  in  very  small  outside 
accuracies  of  conduct.  Such  is  very  much  the  notion 
we  have  when  we  speak  of  Pharisaism,  or  hear  a 
Pharisee  referred  to. 

Our  Lord  certainly  has  denounced  the  Pharisees  in 
the  severest  terms  as  "whitened  sepulchres,"  as  "say- 
ing and  not  doing,"  as  "devouring  widows'  houses," 
and  "for  a  pretence  making  long  prayers."  In  the 
parable  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  publican,  we  have  the 
self-complacent  nature  of  the  Pharisee  presented  to  us 


THE  PHARISEES.  59 

forcibly,  and  his  desire  to  be  seen  of  men — to  get  all 
the  credit  he  thought  he  deserved.  Such  is  the  picture 
presented  to  us  by  one  that  could  not  lie,  and  who 
knew  what  was  in  man. 

Such  a  result,  however,  is  not  the  natural  product  of 
Judaism ;  it  means  a  long  course  of  decadence  from  a 
high  moral  elevation.  If  hypocrisy  is  but  pinchbeck 
virtue,  were  there  no  gold  there  would  be  no  pinch- 
beck. In  the  seventeenth  century,  plays  and  satires 
assailed  hypocrites — as  of  necessity  from  their  function 
they  were  obliged  to  do.  The  hypocrites  of  the  play- 
wright were  the  Puritans.  While,  on  the  one  hand, 
no  one  can  deny  the  wonderful  power  the  Puritans  had 
of  doing  and  daring  when  they  were  at  their  best, 
nor  their  courageous  suffering  for  righteousness'  sake 
when  that  was  required  of  them,  it  can  scarcely  be 
denied  that  there  were  false  Puritans  as  well  as  true, 
else  the  satires  would  have  had  no  point.  In  Scotland 
we  had  the  Covenanters,  who  supplied  a  later  genera- 
tion with  their  models  of  hypocrites.  Later  still  in 
England  the  Quakers  and  the  Methodists  were  pilloried 
in  the  same  way. 

Every  class  associating  much  together  gets  certain 
tricks  of  manner  in  common,  certain  tones  of  voice,  and 
certain  pet  phrases.  These  have  been  unconsciously 
adopted,  one  person  from  another,  and  when  one  of 
the  sect  thinks  of  those  serious  matters  which  unite 
him  to  his  fellow-sectarians,  he  naturally  by  association 
assumes  the  tones  and  mannerisms  of  the  society.  All 
that  is  outside  and  connected  with  manner  is  easily 
imitable,  hence  any  one  who  wishes  to  gain  the  advant- 
age of  being  reputed  to  possess  its  virtues  imitates  the 


60  THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

mannerisms  of  the  sect.     This  seems  to  have  been  the 
history  of  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees. 

In  the  First  Book  of  the  Maccabees  (ii.  42)  we  are  told 
that  in  the  beginning  of  his  conflict  against  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  Mattathias  was  joined  by  a  company  of 
"  Assidaeans  who  knew  the  law,"  and  "  were  men  of 
valour."  The  meaning  of  the  term  "  Assidsean  "  (D'Tpn) 
is  pious.  This,  then,  was  a  company  of  pious  men  of 
valour.  When  they  are  mentioned  as  joining  the  Has- 
monseans,  it  is  not  as  a  new  and  previously  unknown 
class  of  persons.  They  were  connected,  according  to 
some,1  with  the  older  scribes  and  students  of  the 
law.  They  came  from  their  studies,  threw  away 
roll  and  stylus,  and  manifested  their  zeal  for  the  law 
by  grasping  sword  and  spear  in  its  defence.  Their 
actions  and  their  tenets  so  far  as  we  know  them  make 
them  parallel  very  much  with  the  Cameronians  in 
Scotland — those  implacable  hill-folk  that  took  to  the 
"  bent "  rather  than  acknowledge  an  uncovenanted 
king.  During  the  earlier  part  of  the  struggle  against 
Antiochus  they  were  with  Judas,  and  formed  the  flower 
of  his  army. 

Their  zeal  for  the  law  sometimes  led  them  into 
difficulties.  When  Bacchides  came  bearing  with  him 
Alcimus,  a  legitimate  descendant  of  Aaron,  they  were 
anxious  to  make  peace  with  him  ;  and  paid  the  penalty 
of  their  legalism  with  their  lives,  for  sixty  of  them 
perished  through  the  treachery  of  that  unworthy  de- 
scendant of  Aaron.  Zealous  as  they  were  for  the  cause 
of  national  independence  with  which  the  Hasmonseans 
had  identified  themselves,  their  zeal  was  somewhat 
1  Cohen. 


THE  PHARISEES.  61 

dashed  by  the  fact  that  the  political  Sadducean  party 
began  to  secure  an  influence  in  the  councils  of  Judas 
Maccabseus.  Led  by  these  hereditary  diplomats,  Judas 
made  a  treaty  with  the  Eomans.  One  easily  sees  how 
the  Hasidim  would  regard  such  a  treaty  by  recalling 
the  attitude  assumed  by  the  Cameronians  to  the  Prince 
of  Orange.  This  feeling  of  suspicion  against  Judas 
produced  bitter  fruit  at  the  battle  of  Eleasa,  where 
these  Hasidim,  who  had  formerly  been  such  valiant 
soldiers,  deserted  him,  and  so  Judas  was  defeated  and 
slain.  Their  conscience  was  injured  by  this  treaty 
with  a  heathen  power,  and  conscience  makes  cowards 
of  us  all  (1  Mace.  ix.  4).  After  the  death  of  Judas, 
the  Hasmonaeans  became  more  and  more  politically 
wise,  and  learned  to  balance  one  claimant  to  the 
Syrian  throne  against  another,  and  entered  into  en- 
tangling alliances  with  heathen  potentates, — with  the 
result  that  the  Hasidim  fall  more  and  more  into  the 
background,  and  mercenary  troops  are  employed  in 
war. 

We  have  here  assumed  that  the  Hasidim  and  the 
Pharisees  were  really  the  same  party.  The  evidence  for 
this  is  mainly  the  fact  that  the  parties  occupied  much 
the  same  relation  to  the  Hasmonsean  rulers  on  the  one 
hand,  and  to  the  external  nationalities  on  the  other. 
Further,  the  names  Pharisees  and  Hasidim  regarded 
etymologically  are  not  really  different ;  the  Hasidim 
mean  the  "  saints,"  the  Partishim  mean  the  "  separate." 
A  similar  historic  change  of  name  occurs  in  our  own 
country  in  the  case  of  those  who  were  called  Puritans 
in  the  seventeenth  century  being  now  called  Noncon- 
formists. In  their  first  appearance  they  were  zealous 


62  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

for  the  law,  and  were  called  "saints"  on  account  of 
their  reverence  for  it ;  but  when  the  Hasmonaeans 
associated  themselves  with  the  priestly  aristocracy, 
then  the  Hasidim  separated  themselves  from  them  and 
became  Partishim,  "separate."  The  word  might  be 
rendered  "dissenters"  without  straining  the  meaning 
greatly.  The  Pharisees  "  dissented "  from  the  policy 
and  practices  of  the  governing  party,  and  from  the 
form  of  religion  established  by  law. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Sadducean  party  was  essenti- 
ally a  political  one,  and  that  what  religious  notions  it 
defended  against  the  Pharisees,  it  was  led  to  assume 
out  of  antagonism  to  them  and  in  self-defence.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Pharisees  were  essentially  a  religious 
party  to  begin  with,  and  were  compelled  to  take  political 
action  by  necessity  of  their  position.  Thus  the  Puritans 
in  England  and  the  Presbyterians  in  Scotland,  during 
the  seventeenth  century,  while  primarily  religious 
parties,  ere  the  century  had  reached  the  middle  of  its 
course,  were  triumphant  political  powers.  The  history 
of  the  Pharisaic  party  seems  to  have  been  very  similar  ; 
in  the  first  place,  they  are  eager  for  a  reformation 
purely  puritanic  and  precisian  in  its  character ;  then, 
on  finding  that  their  views  were  not  followed  in  regard 
to  alliances  and  other  matters,  they  broke  away,  and, 
like  the  Presbyterian  clergy  in  Scotland  with  James  L, 
rebuked  their  rulers  to  the  face.  In  some  cases, 
notably  that  in  which  the  final  breach  occurred  between 
Hyrcanus  and  them,  the  Pharisees  were  clearly  in  the 
wrong.  On  the  vamped-up  story  that  his  mother  had 
once  been  a  captive,  Eleazar,  a  Pharisee,  demanded  that 
John  Hyrcanus  surrender  the  high  priesthood.  The 


THE  PHARISEES.  63 

sting  of  this  lay  in  the  implication  that  she  had  yielded 
her  honour  to  her  captor.  John  Hyrcanus  became 
avowedly  a  Sadducee. 

While  Wellhausen  regards  it  as  laughable  (Idcherlich) 
to  call  the  Pharisees,  as  Cohen  does,  the  democratic 
party,  there  yet  is  a  sense  in  which  it  is  true.  There 
is  no  natural  connection  between  puritanism  and 
republicanism ;  yet  in  the  great  struggle  between 
Charles  I.  and  his  Parliament  it  is  well  known  on  which 
side  the  Puritans  were.  That  they  were  the  ecclesi- 
astical opponents  of  the  aristocratic  Sadducees  neces- 
sitated their  being  democratic.  While  thus  politically 
democratic,  no  aristocrat  held  the  "people"  in  pro- 
founder  contempt  than  did  the  Pharisee, — they  were 
the  people  of  the  earth  (am  haaretz),  n?P"°V,  the 
"  people  that  know  not  the  law,"  and  are  cursed 
(John  vii.  49).  Even  contact  with  one  of  the  despised 
common  people  defiled.  Were  the  wife  of  one  of  them 
left  alone  in  a  room  of  a  Pharisee's  house,  all  within 
her  reach  was  reckoned  unclean.1  At  first  sight  it 
seems  strange  that  such  contempt  of  the  people  should 
be  repaid  by  them  with  unbounded  respect,  but  we  see 
the  same  thing  with  regard  to  the  Popish  clergy  in 
Ireland.  In  Ireland,  also,  we  see  the  members  of  the 
ofticial  aristocracy  of  the  priesthood  allying  themselves 
with  the  democratic  party. 

They  were,  moreover,  in  sympathy  with  the  people 
in  their  Messianic  hopes.  In  every  time  of  deepest 
depression  Israel  always  had  an  outlook  to  the  future ; 

1  Tins,  however,  rests  simply  on  the  evidence  of  the  Talmud.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  the  am  haaretz  meant  simply  the  non-Jewish  inhabitants 
of  the  land--  Judea  or  any  other  country  where  the  Jews  were. 


64  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

there  was  always  the  Messianic  time  and  the  Messianic 
King  to  be  hoped  for, — the  King  who  would  right 
their  wrongs  and  break  the  yoke  of  the  oppressors, 
who  should  bring  in  the  time  of  universal  joy  and 
peace.  To  this  hope  the  Pharisees  gave  scientific 
precision,  and  supplied  it  with  scriptural  proof.  While 
this  made  them  popular  with  the  people,  it  of  necessity 
exposed  them  to  the  wrath  of  the  aristocracy,  and  of 
the  aristocratic  Hasmonsean  kings. 

The  assumption  of  kingship  by  the  sons  of  John 
Hyrcanus  was  a  violence  done  to  the  Messianic  hope, 
which  declared  for  a  king  only  in  the  lineage  of 
David.  Since  the  Pharisees  denounced  the  assumption 
of  regal  honours  by  Alexander  Jannseus  as  usurpation, 
it  was  but  natural  that  the  haughty  high  priest  and 
king  should  respond  with  a  wasting  persecution,  which 
resulted  in  a  rebellion  that,  fostered  by  the  heathen 
powers  outside,  \vorked  disastrously.  At  his  death  he 
was  succeeded,  as  we  have  said  above,  by  his  wife 
Salome,  or  to  give  her  the  Greek  name  by  which  she 
is  more  generally  known,  Alexandra.  As  a  legacy  he 
had  left  her,  with  the  kingdom,  the  advice  to  trust 
herself  to  the  Pharisees.  The  Pharisees  showed  them- 
selves as  willing  to  tyrannise  as  their  predecessors,  so 
a  reaction  set  in,  and  the  Herodian  family  finally  seated 
themselves  on  the  throne.  When  this  was  accom- 
plished, of  necessity  the  Pharisees  were  the  popular 
party.  Herod  they  opposed,  because  he  was  not  only 
not  a  descendant  of  David,  but  was  not  even  an 
Israelite.  If  the  Hasmonseans  had  allied  themselves 
with  Eome,  Herod  subjected  himself  to  Rome,  and 
toadied  to  Roman  fashions  and  Roman  wishes.  All  this 


THE  PHARISEES.  65 

hatred  against  Rome  as  the  real  oppressor — against 
Herod  as  the  tool  of  Rome — concentrated  itself  in  the 
Pharisees,  and  found  expression  through  them.  As  the 
exponents  of  popular  feeling,  the  Pharisees  were  thus 
the  popular  party. 

Another  thing  that  gives  a  democratic  complexion 
to  the  Pharisaic  sect,  is  the  fact  that  many  of  their 
most  famous  teachers  came  from  the  lowest  ranks,  and 
wrought  with  their  own  hands  for  their  support,  even 
while  influencing  the  opinions  of  their  countrymen. 
This  was  the  case  with  Hillel,  according  to  the  account 
in  the  Talmud.  Although  of  Davidic  descent,  he  was 
so  poor  that,  to  support  himself,  he  had  to  act  as  a 
day-labourer,  and  found  it  difficult  to  get  money  to 
pay  the  porter  for  admittance  to  the  Beth-Midrash 
or  school ;  sometimes  he  failed  to  get  enough ;  then, 
in  his  eagerness  for  learning,  he  took  advantage  of  a 
window  and  listened  at  it ;  and  on  one  occasion  he  sat 
there  during  a  winter's  night  in  the  snow,  and  was 
taken  down  the  following  day — the  Sabbath — half- 
frozen.  This  exploit  made  him  free  of  the  schools. 
He  repaid  his  teachers  by  his  diligence,  so  that  his 
learning  became  marvellous.  He  was  made  president 
of  the  Sanhedrin,  and  enjoyed  that  honour  as  long 
he  lived,  till  he  was  one  hundred  and  twenty.  Our 
only  authority  for  his  existence  is  the  Talmud;  and 
evidently  many  features  in  this  account  of  him  and 
his  history  are  false.  He  probably  did  exist,  and  was 
a  teacher  of  some  note,  though  Josephus  does  not 
mention  him ;  that  he  was  not  president  of  the 
Sanhedrin  is  certain.  The  assertion  is  merely  a 
specimen  of  the  vagaries  of  the  Talmud.  The  fact 


66  THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

that  the  accounts  of  Hillel  and  other  Pharisees  in- 
culcating high  moral  precepts  were  written  some  four 
centuries  after  Christ,  disposes  effectually  of  the  pre- 
tence that  our  Lord  borrowed  from  Hillel. 

Another  fable  of  the  Talmud  is  that  there  were  pairs 
of  teachers  at  the  head  of  the  Sanhedrin — respect- 
ively president  and  vice-president.  Of  these,  that 
composed  of  Hillel  and  Shammai  was  the  most  famous, 
that  is  to  say,  the  most  spoken  of  in  the  Talmud.  They 
are  contrasted  characters,  who  probably  existed;  whether 
they  spoke  any  one  of  the  numerous  speeches  assigned 
to  them  in  the  Talmud  is  very  doubtful.  In  these 
Talmudic  legends  Hillel  is  represented  as  always  gentle 
and  ready  to  take  the  merciful  view  of  things,  whereas 
Shammai  always  took  the  more  strict  and  severe  view 
of  matters.  Each,  so  runs  the  Talmud,  had  a  school 
or  following.  This  is  so  far  probable  that  there  is  a 
constant  reference  to  the  stricter  and  freer  views  on 
given  points ;  and  these  are  attributed,  the  first  to  the 
B'ne  Shammai,  and  the  second  to  the  B'ne  Hillel.  One 
thing  that  throws  suspicion  on  the  whole  matter  is 
that  neither  in  Josephus,  the  New  Testament,  nor 
Philo  is  there  any  reference  to  these  disputes.  In  both 
Josephus  and  the  New  Testament  there  is  reference  to  a 
class  of  Zealots  who  may  be  the  followers  of  Shammai. 
The  Talmud,  however,  makes  no  reference  to  the  blood- 
thirsty violence  of  the  Shammaites, — a  characteristic 
that  is  the  leading  one  of  the  Zealots  in  Josephus. 

Josephus  in  one  place,  indeed,  speaks  of  these  Zealots 
as  if  they  were  quite  separate  from  the  Pharisees,  and 
formed  a  fourth  philosophic  school.  Such  an  aspect 
is  eminently  unsuitable  to  the  real  facts  of  the  case. 


THE  PHARISEES.  67 

No  set  of  persons  could  be  less  like  a  philosophic 
sect  than  those  wild  fanatics.  If  one  had  only 
Josephus'  account  of  the  wars  of  the  Jews,  one  would 
be  apt  to  regard  these  Zealots  as  taking  their  origin 
with  the  trouble  which  immediately  preceded  the  cam- 
paigns of  Vespasian  and  Titus  ;  but  the  fact  that  one 
of  the  apostles  of  our  Lord  belonged  originally  to  this 
class,  proves  the  incorrectnesss  of  this  view.  Paul  also, 
if  we  may  follow  Ewald's  interpretation  of  Gal.  i.  14, 
in  which  the  apostle  says  he  "  was  exceedingly  zealous 
for  the  traditions  of  the  fathers,"  may  have  been  a 
Zealot.  The  movement  began  evidently  much  earlier. 
In  his  Antiquities  Josephus  attributes  the  rise  of  this 
sect  to  Judas  the  Galilean,  whose  rising  took  place 
A.D.  6.  But  the  movement  may  really  be  dated  back 
to  the  time  when  the  Eabbin  Judas  and  Matthias 
headed  their  scholars  in  hewing  down  the  eagle  Herod 
had  caused  to  be  placed  over  the  gate  of  the  temple. 

The  account  Josephus  gives  of  their  manners  and 
methods  reminds  one  of  the  Nihilists  in  Russia  at  the 
present  time.  They  sat  in  secret  tribunal,  and 
doomed  to  death  those  whom  they  imagined  to  be  in 
their  way.  The  execution  of  the  sentence  was  com- 
mitted to  certain  members  of  the  sect,  and  by  them 
was  carried  out.  In  the  history  of  Scotland  we  have 
the  rise  of  a  sect  that  bore  considerable  resemblance 
to  these  Zealots.  The  Presbyterians  were  practically 
subdued  by  the  dragoons  of  Claverhouse,  except  the 
Cameronians,  to  whom  we  have  already  referred ;  and 
though  not  to  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath 
with  such  men  as  Simeon  ben  Gamaliel  or  John  of 
Gischala,  yet  they  condemned  to  death  those  who  were 


68  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

obnoxious  to  them,  as  we  see  in  the  murder  of  Arch- 
bishop Sharp  on  Magus  Moor.  Other  lesser  criminals 
were,  we  know,  condemned  by  them  and  executed  in 
a  similar  summary  fashion.1  Indeed,  to  men  with  the 
Pharisaic  belief  in  a  coming  Messiah,  who  would 
deliver  Israel  from  all  their  enemies,  the  quiet  stand- 
ing still  that  was  required  of  them  would  be  very 
difficult  to  maintain.  The  more  thoroughly  they  were 
imbued  with  the  certainty  of  the  coming  Messianic 
times  and  Messianic  glory,  the  more  difficult  would  it 
be  for  them  to  wait.  They  would  be  prone  to  hasten 
the  approach  of  the  Lord  by  coming  to  His  help  against 
the  mighty.  Springing  from  the  Pharisees,  they  had 
really  the  same  general  tenets.  But  while  the  school 
of  Hillel  was  contemplative,  the  Zealots  were  essentially 
men  of  action. 

Of  course,  as  the  disorder  increased,  the  Zealots  came 
more  and  more  into  prominence.  A  fever  of  excite- 
ment seized  the  nation,  and  this  was  aggravated  by 
outrages  perpetrated  on  their  countrymen  in  the 
Greek  cities  where  they  were  resident.  Murders  of 
the  cruellest  sort  took  place,  and  wholesale  massacres, 
of  which  the  victims  were  Jews.  Each  successive 
governor  was — with  the  sole  exception  of  Festus,  who 
lived  but  a  short  time  —  worse  than  Jiis  predecessor. 
Each  procurator  was  ravenous  for  money,  and  justice, 
like  everything  else,  was  sold.  Every  now  and  then 
Roman  contempt  for  everything  Jewish  was  made 
cynically  manifest  by  deeds  in  which  Jewish  national 
feelings  were  outraged.  All  this  tended  to  make  the 

1  The  relation  of  the  German  reformers  to  the  Anabaptists  somewhat 
resembles  that  of  the  Pharisees  to  the  Zealots. 


THE  PHARISEES.  69 

Zealots  prominent,  who  declared  that  as  they  were 
God's  people,  fighting  for  God's  cause,  God  would  pro- 
tect His  own,  and  they  would  thus  be  sure  of  victory. 
The  milder  school  that  ordinarily  represented  the 
Pharisees  in  the  Sanhedrin  were  overborne ;  even  the 
priestly  Sadducean  party,  whose  whole  strength  lay  in 
adherence  to  Rome,  were  swept  away  by  the  torrent 
of  popular  feeling.  When  the  Roman  conqueror 
pressed  on  to  Jerusalem,  and  shut  in  the  various 
contending  Jewish  sects  within  the  walls  of  Jeru- 
salem, there  was  a  perfect  carnival  of  slaughter. 
The  terrible  story  is  too  familiar  in  the  pages  of 
Josephus  to  need  repetition.  The  remnant  of  the 
milder  schools  betook  themselves,  before  the  final 
struggle,  to  Jabne,  and  devoted  themselves  to  the 
composition  of  those  restrictions  and  definitions  which 
in  a  century  and  a  half  later  formed  the  Mishna.  But 
the  Zealots  did  not  wholly  disappear  in  spirit,  though 
the  party  externally  was  annihilated.  It  took  another 
rising  and  another  series  of  terrible  sieges  and  over- 
throws to  convince  the  Jews  that  they  were  not  so 
favoured  by  God  as  to  be  able  to  throw  off  the  Roman 
yoke — that  they  had  ceased  to  be  the  inheritance  of 
the  Almighty. 

Their  lofty  Messianic  expectations  and  the  confidence 
they  had  in  divine  angelic  aid,  despite  all  their  blood- 
thirsty cruelty,  make  them  more  akin  to  the  class  who 
wrote  the  Apocalypses  than  the  Sadducees,1  or  even 
the  quieter  Pharisees  of  the  school  of  Hillel.  An 
excitable  fanatic  sect  like  the  Zealots  was  the  very 

1  Montet's  idea,  that  the  Zealots  were  half  Sadducean,  is  untenable  on 
the  face  of  it.  (Les  Sadduceens  ct  Us  I'harisiens.) 


70  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

public  to  devour  with  avidity  the  tales  of  strange  visions 
of  Messianic  times  as  seen  by  this  or  that  great  prophet 
of  the  past.  But  there  is  a  want  in  them  of  that  con- 
templative faculty  so  prominent  in  these  books. 

This  Messianic  hope  seems  to  have  attracted  these 
fanatics  to  our  Lord,  however  unlike  fanaticism  His 
teaching  was.  Some  have  even  credited  Judas  with 
having  their  wild  hopes,  and,  eager  to  force  his  Master 
into  the  violent  career  he  desired  Him  to  take,  betrayed 
Him,  as  the  only  means  that  seemed  likely  to  secure 
his  end. 

The  relation  of  our  Lord  to  the  Pharisees  is  one  full 
of  interest.  The  Messianic  hopes  they  cherished  and 
inculcated  made  them  feel  an  interest  in  one  who 
claimed  to  be  the  Messiah.  The  fact  that  in  many,  nay 
most,  points  where  they  differed  from  the  Sadducees 
He  was  on  their  side,  though  He  had  not  sprung  from 
their  schools,  must  have  tended  to  attract  them  almost 
as  much  as  His  denunciation  of  the  false  Pharisees 
tended  to  drive  them  away.  His  great  influence  with 
the  multitudes  had  a  double  effect  on  them.  His 
influence  on  the  people  might  be  regarded  as  antagon- 
istic to  theirs,  and  that  might  well  move  them  to 
oppose  Him ;  but,  again,  the  great  resemblance  there 
was  between  their  doctrinal  position  and  His  would  be 
prone  to  make  them  imagine  that  it  might  be  easy  to 
win  over  the  Galilean  peasant  Eabbi  to  them,  and  make 
Him  their  tool  in  strengthening  their  power  over  the 
masses.  These  two  tendencies  are  observable  in 
almost  every  chapter  of  the  gospel  history.  The  one 
tendency  leads  them  to  lie  in  wait  for  His  words,  in 
order  that  they  may  twist  them  to  His  disadvantage, 


THE  PHARISEES.  71 

especially  with  the  multitude,  or  failing  that,  with  the 
Sanhedrin.  The  other  leads  them  to  invite  Him  to 
their  houses,  and  entertain  Him  at  feasts.  Every 
now  and  then  His  wonderful  sayings  attracted  them 
by  their  breadth  and  beauty,  and  anon  the  way  He 
brushed  aside  the  web  of  finical  refinements  they  had 
wrapped  round  the  law — refinements  that  had  come 
down  to  them  from  the  fathers — roused  their  bitterest 
wrath.  They  were  always  hoping  that  He  would 
become  the  Messiah  they  expected,  and  lead  the 
people  victoriously  against  the  Romans ;  and  always 
were  their  hopes  disappointed.  It  may  be  that  Lange 
is  right,  that  even  in  the  taunt  to  our  Lord  while 
hanging  on  the  cross,  "  If  He  will  come  down  from  the 
cross,  then  will  we  believe  in  Him,"  there  was  latent 
half- despairing  hope  that  He  would  put  forth  His 
miraculous  power,  and,  saving  Himself  from  the  death 
of  shame,  be  the  Messiah  promised  to  the  fathers. 
The  general  thesis,  that  the  opposition  of  the  Pharisees 
to  Jesus  was  rather  scholastic  than  political,  more 
like  that  within  their  own  schools,  is  maintained  by 
Cohen  with  great  plausibility.  One  thing  is  obvious, 
it  was  the  Sadducees,  not  the  Pharisees,  who  delivered 
Him  up  to  the  Romans,  and  forced  Pilate  to  condemn 
Him  to  be  crucified.  The  Sadducees  had  no  Messianic 
hopes,  and  were  sure  that  the  troubles  that  must 
follow  a  rising  against  the  Romans  would  be  neither 
small  nor  few.  The  Sadducean  hate  was  founded  on 
self-interest,  and  therefore  deadly  and  implacable. 
However  plausible  the  view  advocated  by  Cohen, 
the  statements  of  the  Gospels  certainly  represent  the 
Pharisaic  hate  of  our  Lord  to  be  far  deeper  and  more 


72  THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

venomous  than  he  would  admit.  If  we  admit  that  the 
Talmud  represents  Pharisaic  thought  and  feeling  at 
the  time  of  our  Lord, — which  to  a  certain  extent  is 
doubtful, — we  find  there  how  little  of  that  respect  for 
Jesus  attributed  to  them,  these  later  Pharisees  pos- 
sessed. We  need  not  refer  in  proof  of  this  general 
assertion  to  the  later  book  the  Toldoth  Jeshu, — the 
ordinary  names  by  which  He  is  referred  to  are 
enough.  It  may  well  have  been  that  the  milder 
school  of  the  Pharisees,  the  followers  of  Hillel, — if 
there  was  a  Hillel,  and  he  had  a  school, — were  averse 
to  go  the  length  the  Sadducees  and  the  more  extreme 
Pharisees  wished  to  go ;  and  that  may  explain  the 
reason  of  the  falling  back  of  the  Pharisees  at  the  time 
of  our  Lord's  final  trial  and  the  prominence  of  the 
Sadducees.  The  fact  that  Christ's  claims  to  Messiah- 
ship  tended  to  excite  a  conflict  with  Rome,  was  reason 
enough  for  the  Sadducees  to  wish  Him  put  down. 
His  unsparing  unmasking  of  their  hypocrisy  earned 
the  hatred  of  the  Pharisees ;  a  hatred,  though  not  so 
envenomed  as  that  of  the  Sadducees,  that  might  still 
be  deep  —  all  the  deeper  for  the  many  points  of 
resemblance  between  His  doctrines  and  theirs. 

If  we  now  proceed  to  consider  the  doctrines  of  the 
Pharisees,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  first  place  obliged 
to  decide  the  relation  in  which  scribes  and  Pharisees 
stood  to  each  other.  The  last  occasion  in  which  the 
scribes  appear  in  the  history  of  the  New  Testament 
is  at  Paul's  trial  before  the  Sanhedrin,  when  (Acts 
xxiii.  9),  on  Paul's  declaring  himself  "  a  Pharisee,  a 
son  of  a  Pharisee,"  "  the  scribes  that  were  of  Pharisees' 
part  arose,  and  strove,"  etc.  This  statement  would 


THE  PHARISEES.  73 

seem  naturally  to  imply  two  things — first,  that  all  the 
scribes  were  not  Pharisees ;  and  further,  though  not 
so  necessarily,  that  all  the  Pharisees  were  not  scribes. 
The  fact  really  seems  to  be  that  "  scribe  "  was  merely 
the  name  of  an  employment ;  and  of  the  members  of 
this  profession  some  were  Pharisees  and  some  Sadducees, 
though  it  might  well  be  that  most  of  the  scribes 
adhered  to  the  Pharisaic  party.  When  the  priests 
had  become  followers  of  Greek  learning,  and  adepts  at 
foreign  politics,  the  scribes  who  studied  the  lawr  for  its 
own  sake  came  into  greater  prominence.  When  the 
transference  of  the  high  priesthood  from  the  direct 
line  to  that  of  the  Hasmonseans  lowered  the  sanctity 
of  the  office,  although  it  gave  it  outward  splendour, 
the  influence  of  the  scribes  tended  to  increase. 
Hence  they  became  most  important  functionaries  in 
the  State,  and  practically  all  the  members  of  the 
Sanhedrin  were  scribes.  The  other  passages  where 
there  seems  to  be  a  distinction  made  between  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  really  asserts  that  all  the  Pharisees 
were  not  scribes. 

The  Pharisaic  form  of  doctrine  was  essentially 
founded  on  "  scribism."  They  were  all  full  of  reverence 
for  the  Law  down  to  the  smallest  and  most  unim- 
portant peculiarities  even  of  the  writing.  The  Law  as 
they  had  received  it  from  the  fathers  had  to  be  made 
commensurate  with  the  needs  of  a  much  later  time. 
Their  ingenuity  was  shown  in  deducing  from  the 
arrangement  of  the  words  in  some  passage  in  the  Law 
an  authoritative  decision  in  regard  to  some  new 
matter  that  in  fact  was  unforeseen  by  the  original 
writer.  Doctrinally,  also,  the  people  had  advanced, 


74  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

and  these  doctrines  generally  held  by  the  people  had 
to  be  defended  by  passages  in  the  Law,  and  again  their 
ingenuity  was  shown. 

The  doctrines  that,  according  to  the  New  Testament, 
most  distinguished  the  Pharisees,  were  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the 
existence  of  angels.  Josephus  adds  a  doctrine  of 
"fate"  or  providence.  In  all  these  points  it  is 
obvious  enough  that  the  Pharisees  held  the  same 
doctrines  that  were  afterwards  held  in  the  Christian 
Church. 

The  direction  their  ingenuity  took  of  finding  pro- 
found meanings  in  odd  shapes  of  letters,  and  of  drawing 
deductions  from  the  numerical  value  of  the  letters 
that  go  to  form  a  given  sentence,  was  widely  different 
from  the  spirit  of  the  Apocalyptists.  Even  when  they 
indulged  in  imaginative  Hagada,  and  took  good-bye  of 
history  in  the  most  summary  fashion,  they  did  not  pry 
into  the  future.  They  had  Messianic  hopes,  but  did 
not  dare,  as  did  the  Apocalyptist,  to  portray  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    ESSENES. 

"YVTHO  were  the  Essenes?  whence  did  they  spring  ? 
What  were  their  relations  to  Judaism  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  Christianity  on  the  other  ?  These 
are  questions  that  meet  us  when  we  enter  upon  the 
study  of  Essenism.  How  difficult  this  investigation, 
how  doubtful  its  results,  may  be  understood  when  we 
mention  that  Hilgenfeld  says,  Jildische  Apocalyptik, 
p.  245  :  "Essaism  is  the  most  enigmatical  phe- 
nomenon of  later  Judaism  ; "  and  Lucius  (der  Essenis- 
mus,  p.  63)  makes  a  remark  precisely  similar.  The 
very  name  is  subject  of  dispute.  Sometimes  we  find 
them  called  'Ea-aaloi,  sometimes  'Eo-o-fjvot ;  and  if  Epi- 
phanius  is  included  among  our  authorities,  we  have 
several  further  variants.  The  etymology  of  the  name 
is  to  the  last  degree  enigmatical.  There  are  some 
Greek  etymologies  suggested ;  all  of  these,  however, 
may  be  neglected,  save  that  which  seems  to  have 
been  favoured  by  Philo.  Both  in  Quod  Omnis 
Probus  Liber  and  in  the  fragment  of  the  Apology  he 
refers  to  the  resemblance  between  the  name  Essene 
and  the  word  oo-tot ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
he  seriously  meant  to  assert  that  there  was  any 
etymological  connection  between  them.  It  is  need- 

75 


76  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

less  to  say  that  whatever  was   Philo's  real  opinion, 
the  derivation  is  impossible. 

The  probability  is,  that  the  name  "Essene"  is 
derived  from  some  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  word.  It  is, 
however,  a  very  difficult  process  to  argue  back  from 
Greek  to  Hebrew.  As  may  be  seen  from  the  form 
Hebrew  names  assume  in  the  Septuagint  and  Josephus, 
Hebrew  letters  have  no  fixed  equivalents  in  Greek. 
The  result  of  this  is,  that  the  etymologies  proposed 
are  practically  numberless.1  The  number  of  these 
proposed  derivations  may,  however,  be  somewhat 
lessened  if  one  assumes  that  in  transferring  the  name 
from  Hebrew  to  Greek,  Philo  and  Josephus  used  the 
most  ordinary  equivalents.  This  at  once  disposes  of 
the  impossible  suggestion  that  the  name  is  derived 
from  w,  Jesse.  While  none  of  the  four  gutturals  are 
impossible  as  the  first  letter  of  the  original  Hebrew 
word,  we  may  rule  out,  as  at  least  improbable,  all  those 
that  are  represented  in  several  different  ways.  Since 
Philo,  Josephus,  and  Epiphanius  give  different  Greek 
versions  of  the  name,  —  indeed,  the  last  named  gives 
us  two  forms  of  it,  —  the  probability  is,  if  the  guttural 
in  question  was  liable  to  be  represented  in  two  different 
ways  in  Greek,  both  ways  would  have  come  down  to 
us.  If  we  are  correct  in  this,  all  those  derivations 
which  assume  that  y  is  the  first  letter  must  be  dis- 
missed, as  that  guttural  was  fully  as  frequently  repre- 
sented by  P  as  by  a  simple  vowel,  e.g.  FoOokla,  ^bnj?5 
for  Athaliah;  and  TojjLoppa,  rnbg,  for  Gomorrah.  Further, 
although  'nun  becomes  'Evd>x,  yet  |i~>3n  becomes 


1  Any  reader  desirous  of  information  on  this  matter  should  consult 
Bishop  Lightfoot's  dissertation  appended  to  his  Commentary  on  Colossians. 


THE  ESSENES.  7*7 

hence,  though  with  scarcely  so  near  an  approach  to 
certainty,  we  can  put  aside  those  derivations  which 
have  n  as  their  first  letter.  In  this  case  the  etymology 
suggested  by  Bishop  Lightfoot — namely,  that  Essene 
is  derived  from  N'f?,  "to  be  silent" — must  be  regarded 
as  improbable,  on  the  grounds  suggested  above.  It  is 
further  improbable  from  the  fact  that,  though  the 
Essenes  had  a  silent  period  of  probation,  it  was  not 
a  characteristic  that  would  strike  the  public  in  regard 
to  them.  Josephus  tells  us  of  many  appearances  of 
individual  Essenes,  and  it  is  usually  as  proclaiming 
the  future,  not  maintaining  an  obstinate  silence.  The 
first  letter,  then,  was  probably  either  N  or  n.  The  case 
of  'Ie£a/3e\  (Jezebel)  from  ^rx}  compared  with  'leo-o-ato? 
of  Epiphanius,  would  be  in  point  here ;  but  evidently 
we  have  not  the  original  name,  as  the  meaning  shows ; 
however,  we  have  a^«,  To>/3.  This  would  indicate  that 
x  is  the  initial  letter.  As  to  the  second  radical  of  the 
five  sibilants,  we  may  be  sure  it  cannot  have  been  r,  as 
that  is  invariably  represented  by  Z. 

This  excludes,  among  others,  the  suggestion  of 
Ewald,  that  Essene  is  derived  from  Ijn,  to  be  strong ; 
thus  I^DN  becomes  'O^o^W,  and  up,  Keveg.  Either  of 
the  other  letters  may  be  represented  by  a-.  Thus  NDX 
becomes  'Aa-d,  and  ^V?,  Baaad  ;  WIX,  'Aftea-o-d  ;  E^'?*5, 
'A/3ea-<rd\ofj, ;  ^'yp^,  '^//.eaWa?.  It  seems  probable  that 
the  v  is  merely  a  modification  necessary  to  the  Hellen- 
isation  of  the  word ;  but  the  long  vowel  which  is  present 
in  all  the  forms  the  name  takes  which  terminate  in  VOL, 
taken  along  with  the  fact  that  in  the  diphthongs  atot 
occurs  in  the  other  forms,  makes  it  probable  that  the 
third  radical  was  \  If  we  combine  all  these  together, 


78  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  the  many  etymologies  suggested,  the  most  likely 
appears  to  be  that  of  Gfrorer,  Baur,  and  Dahne,  ^DS, 
asi',  "  healers."  The  meaning  would  suit,  as  their 
magical  incantations  and  invocations  of  the  names  of 
the  angels  were  used  to  heal  the  sick.  Further, 
Josephus  expressly  mentions  that  the  Essenes  paid 
special  attention  to  the  healing  qualities  of  herbs  and 
minerals.  The  only  difficulty  is  the  reduplication  of 
the  a-,  and  this  might  suggest  some  such  form  as  NT'?, 
ashi',  "  foundation,"  were  the  meaning  more  suitable. 
Bishop  Lightfoot,  moreover,  records  the  form  evyvos  as 
occurring  in  Hippolytus. 

A  number  of  the  derivations  suggested  imply  that 
the  sibilant  is  the  first  radical,  as  Frankel's,  that  the 
name  is  derived  from  V^y,  tzanua',  "  retired."  This 
suggestion  proceeds  on  the  supposition  that  the  Greeks 
had  an  objection  to  begin  a  word  with  a  sibilant,  and 
therefore  inserted  a  vowel  before  it ;  a  supposition  that 
is  contradicted  by  the  regularity  with  which  names 
beginning  with  v  have  5"  as  their  first  letter  when 
transferred  to  Greek :  as,  n^??,  Zofyovias  (ZephaniaTi) ; 
N3D,  Sapd  (Sela)-,  torafc,  Sapovfa  (Samuel).  Among 
the  Rabbinists  there  was  a  tendency  to  soften  an 
initial  consonant  by  prefixing  an  Aleph  ;  but  there  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  any  such  tendency  among  the 
Hellenists.  Those  etymologies,  also,  that  transpose 
the  letters  are  to  be  put  aside,  e.g.  that  of  Gratz,  NHD, 
"to  bathe."  To  some  extent  this  search  for  the 
etymology  of  the  name  may  be  regarded  as  lost  time. 
As  among  ourselves  with  the  names  we  give  to  our 
sects,  there  may  be  little  descriptive  or  explanatory  in 
the  name.  Nothing  of  the  views  of  the  Friends  could 


THE  ESSENES.  79 

be  deduced,  either  from  their  nickname  "  Quakers,"  or 
from  the  name  they  assume  to  themselves,  "  Friends." 
The  same  might  be  said  of  the  "  Methodists." 

We  must  endeavour  to  find  what  information  we 
can  get  concerning  their  habits.  At  first  sight  we 
seem  to  be  especially  fortunate,  as  we  have  no  less 
than  three  contemporary  authorities  who  are,  to  all 
appearance,  independent  of  each  other  :  Philo  Judseus, 
Josephus,  and  Pliny  the  elder.  Let  us  examine  these 
in  chronological  order. 

The  earliest  witness  for  the  existence  of  the  Essenes 
is  Philo  Judseus.  In  his  treatise,  Quod  Omnis  Probus 
Liber,  "  That  every  virtuous  man  is  free,"  he  gives  an 
account  of  them ;  and  further,  there  is  a  fragment  of 
an  "Apology  for  the  Jews,"  supposed  to  be  part  of  a 
work,  De  Nobilitate,  quoted  in  Eusebius,  Preparatio 
Evangelica,  in  which  he  gives  a  further  account  of  them. 
Over  and  above  these,  which  are  accounts  of  the  Essenes 
by  name,  there  is  a  treatise  ascribed  to  Philo,  in  which 
an  account  is  given  of  the  Therapeutae,  a  sect  resembling 
the  Essenes  in  many  features.  This  last  treatise  "  on 
the  contemplative  life  "  may  be  put  aside,  first,  because 
it  does  not  profess  to  describe  the  Essenes,  with  whom 
we  have  to  do  ;  and  second,  because  its  authenticity  is 
exceedingly  doubtful.  Some  critics  have  doubted  the 
authenticity  of  the  Quod  Omnis  Probus  Liber,  as 
Frankel,  but  on  reasons  that  seem  insufficient.  We 
assume  always  that  when  a  work  has  come  down  to 
us  ascribed  to  a  given  author,  this  ascription  is  true 
unless  there  is  clear  evidence  to  the  contrary.  People 
do  not  take  the  trouble  to  lie  unless  for  good  reason. 
If,  then,  Frankel's  objections  are  met,  we  are  at  liberty 


80  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

to  assume  the  book  in  question  to  be  the  genuine  work 
of  Philo.  Frankel  objects  to  the  respect  with  which 
the  writer  speaks  of  great  philosophers  as  unlike  Philo. 
This  argument  is  a  strange  one  when  we  know  the 
high  respect  in  which  Philo  regarded  Plato.  Further, 
he  quotes  Pythagoras,  Pansetius,  Critolaus,  and  other 
Greek  philosophers  in  other  works.  Next,  Frankel 
objects  to  the  lax  position  the  writer  assumes  in  regard 
to  heathenism.  But  in  other  works  Philo  repeatedly 
refers  to  heathen  myths.  For  the  difference  of  his 
attitude  to  heathenism  from  that  of  Isaiah  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  Christian  apologists,  one  has  only  to  read 
his  treatise  on  the  Ten  Commandments.  He  assumes 
a  certain  lower  truth  in  heathenism ;  and  even  where  he 
declares  it  wrong,  he  does  not  pour  upon  it  the  scorn 
which  saints  and  prophets  do.  Again,  Frankel  objects 
that  the  writer  stands  outside  Judaism.  But  so  Philo 
sometimes  appears  to  do  in  his  other  works.  As  for 
the  difference  of  literary  style,  that  may  easily  be 
explained,  if  this  work  was  written  in  Philo's  youth. 
This  work,  then,  not  improbably  was  written  at  some 
date  B.C.  There  seems  no  reasonable  ground  for  doubt- 
ing the  authenticity  of  De  Nobilitate,  from  which  the 
fragment  in  Eusebius  is  supposed  to  be  taken.  Though 
we  have  put  aside  De  Vita  Contemplative*,  as  beside 
our  purpose,  and,  moreover,  under  suspicion  in  regard 
to  its  authenticity,  we  may  mention  that  Edersheim 
makes  out  a  strong  case  for  it  in  his  article  "  Philo  "  in 
Smith  and  Wace's  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography. 
The  account  of  the  Essenes  in  Quod  Omnis  Probus 
Liber  is  somewhat  rhetorical,  and  intended  to  prove  the 
existence  of  philosophers  of  a  high  order  of  merit  in 


THE  ESSENES.  8 1 

Philo's  own  nation.  He  declares  that  the  Essenes  dwell 
in  villages,  avoiding  the  towns  ;  that  they  avoid  trade 
and  everything  connected  with  covetousness ;  they 
shun,  further,  everything  connected  with  war.  They 
are  students  more  of  moral  science  than  of  logic  or 
metaphysics,  save  so  far  as  the  latter  relates  to  God 
and  the  universe.  In  regard  to  property  he  says  : 
"  There  is  no  one  who  has  a  house  so  absolutely  his 
own  private  property  that  it  does  not  in  some  sense 
also  belong  to  every  one."  They  dwell  together  in 
companies,  and  eat  at  a  common  table.  "  Whatever 
they  receive  as  their  wages  they  do  not  retain  as  their 
own,  but  bring  it  into  the  common  stock."  He 
further  states  that  even  tyrants  could  bring  nothing 
against  them, — the  obvious  reference  is  to  Antiochus 
Epiphanes, — and  the  implication  is  that  they  escaped 
the  tortures  so  liberally  inflicted  on  others  by  the 
tyrant.  It  has  been  objected  that  this  description 
occupies  a  disproportionate  space  in  the  treatise  ;  but 
a  good  deal  can  be  allowed  to  a  Jew  anxious  to  glorify 
his  faith  before  the  Gentiles,  who  were  politically  his 
masters. 

The  next  passage  is  considerably  shorter.  It  is 
preserved  to  us  by  Eusebius  as  wre  have  said,  and 
differs  from  it  somewhat  in  details.  "  They  dwell," 
he  says,  "  in  many  cities  of  Judaea,  and  in  many 
villages,  and  in  great  and  populous  communities."  A 
statement  which,  it  will  be  observed,  contradicts  his 
previous  assertion  that  the  Essenes  "avoid  towns." 
He  gives  the  further  feature  that  "  there  are  neither 
children  nor  youths  among  the  Essenes."  This  leads 
to  the  assertion  that  the  Essenes  eschewed  marriage ; 


82  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

for  this  lie  assigns  reasons  eminently  disrespectful 
to  the  female  sex :  "  Woman  is  a  selfish  creature, 
addicted  to  inordinate  jealousy  —  always  studying 
deceitful  speeches ;  if  she  has  children  she  becomes 
full  of  pride.  A  man  thus  becomes  enslaved  from 
being  free."  Yet  a  sentence  slips  in  which  seems 
to  contradict  his  previous  statements.  "  Old  men, 
even  if  they  happen  to  be  childless,  are  accustomed 
to  end  their  lives  in  a  carefully  attended  old  age." 
In  the  account  of  the  settlements  of  the  Therapeutse 
in  De  Vita  Contemplativa,  given  that  that  is  genuine, 
there  are  women  present  along  with  the  men,  and  these 
join  in  chorus  at  their  feasts.  One  feature  of  the 
Essenes  which  Philo  here  mentions  must  be  referred 
to.  He  says :  "  Before  the  sun  rises  they  betake 
themselves  to  their  daily  work,  and  do  not  quit  it 
until  some  time  after  it  has  set."  This  statement 
has  important  bearings  on  the  allegation  that  they 
were  worshippers  of  the  sun ;  as,  if  they  worshipped 
the  sun,  they  certainly  would  not  have  delayed  their 
acts  of  worship  till  the  sun  had  set,  nor  have  begun 
before  he  rose.  Such,  then,  is  the  account  of  the 
Essenes  given  by  Philo. 

In  Josephus  we  have  many  more  details  given,  but 
details  that  do  not  always  harmonise  with  the  features 
supplied  by  Philo.  Of  course  there  elapsed  between 
the  one  and  the  other  a  period  of  something  like  forty 
years  ;  but  the  differences  are  not  precisely  such  as 
are  explicable  by  the  supposition  of  change  through 
course  of  time.  Josephus  gives  us  several  accounts 
of  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  Essenes.  In  fact,  the 
Essenes  and  their  habits  are  a  subject  of  continual 


THE  ESSENES.  83 

recurrence  with  him.  He  gives  an  account  of  them 
both  in  his  Wars  of  the  Jeivs  and  his  Antiquities. 
The  former  of  these  is  considerably  the  fuller.  He 
says,  book  ii.  8.  2  :  "  They  have  an  aversion  to  pleasure 
as  to  vice.  They  have  no  great  reverence  for  marriage  ; 
but  other  people's  children  they  take  under  their  care 
when  they  are  young,  and  tend  them  and  train  them  up. 
Yet  they  are  not  against  marriage ;  but  being  aware  of 
the  frailty  and  iritemperateness  of  the  sex,  they  shun 
association  with  women.  They  contemn  riches,  and 
have  all  things  in  common.  They  will  not  suffer  oil 
on  their  bodies  ;  they  have  no  certain  place  of  abode ; 
they  disperse  themselves  up  and  down ;  they  have 
not  one  city,  but  many  dwell  in  every  city.  (Mia  Se 
OUK  ea-riv  avrwv  -rroXt?  d\\'  eV  eicda-rr)  tcaroLKovcri,  -jroXkoi.) 
Before  the  sun  rises  they  speak  nothing  profane ;  they 
use  certain  traditional  forms  of  prayer  entreating  the 
sun  to  shine  on  them.1  After  having  wrought  hard 
and  studied  till  the  fifth  hour,  they  then  wash  "  them- 
selves for  purification."  They  now  retire  each  to  his 
cell,  and  after  a  little  they  meet  in  the  refectory,  where 
the  baker  and  the  cook  bring  each  man  his  plate.  "  The 
priest  then  blesses  the  food."  .They  are  opposed  to  all 
forms  of  oath,  regarding  an  oath  as  worse  than  perjury. 
They  have  "  a  great  reverence  for  the  writings  of 
antiquity,"  especially  what  concerns  the  soul.  One  is 
passed  "  through  a  probation  should  he  wish  to  enter 
their  society."  When  received,  he  is  provided  with  a 
pickaxe,  a  girdle,  and  a  white  robe.  "  They  bind  them- 
selves by  an  oath  of  obedience,  and  of  abstinence  from 

1  Here  we  cannot  but  note  the  contradiction  that  is  implied  to  what 
above  we  saw  stated  by  Philo. 


84  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC 

all  forms  of  vice."  They  use  the  pickaxe  as  the  paddle 
was  directed  to  be  used  in  Deut.  xxiii.  1 3.  They  believe 
the  soul  to  be  "  incorruptible,"  but  "  shut  up  in  the 
flesh  as  a  prison."  They  believe  in  a  place  of  bliss  for 
the  righteous  beyond  the  ocean ;  for  the  wicked  there 
is  "a  place  of  tempests  and  everlasting  pains."  They 
foretell  things  to  come,  as  those  from  their  youth 
acquainted  with  the  sacred  books  and  the  prophets. 
There  were  certain  Essenes  who  did  not  oppose  wed- 
lock, and  looked  upon  those  who  did  as  wishing  the 
extinction  of  the  race.  They,  however,  proceeded  with 
caution,  and  admitted  a  woman  only  after  a  three  years' 
probation.  In  the  Antiquities,  bk.  xiii.  5.  9,  it  is  said  : 
"  The  Essenes  hold  that  all  things  are  in  the  power  of 
fate ;  nor  can  anything  happen  to  man  except  it  is  decreed 
by  fate."  Again,  bk.  xv.  10  :  "  The  Essenes  are  a  class 
of  men  who  follow  a  mode  of  life  very  like  that  of  the 
Pythagoreans."  Bk.  xviii.  1,  he  says  of  the  Essenes : 
"  Their  opinion  prefers  to  regard  all  things  as  left  with 
God.  They  regard  the  soul  to  be  immortal,  and  that 
people  ought  to  follow  justice.  They  send  gifts  to  the 
temple  without  going  thither,  as  they  have  sacred 
observances  of  their  own.  They  are  the  most  excellent 
of  men,  and  addict  themselves  to  husbandry.  They 
have  their  goods  in  common  ;  they  have  neither  wives 
nor  servants."  Over  and  above  these  passages  there 
are  several  in  which  Essenes  are  referred  to  in  passing, 
from  which  deductions  may  be  made  as  to  their 
habits  and  customs,  somewhat  at  variance  with  what 
we  have  just  seen  Josephus  narrates  at  length.  In 
the  Wars,  bk.  i.  3.  5,  telling  of  the  murderous 
jealousies  which  disfigured  the  history  of  the  family 


THE  ESSENES.  85 

of  John  Hyrcanus,  he  mentions  that,  when  Antigonus, 
the  younger  brother  of  Aristobulus,  was  crossing  the 
court  of  the  temple,  Judas,  an  Essene,  was  present, 
and  seeing  him,  Judas  exclaimed  to  his  followers  that 
he  was  proved  a  false  prophet,  as  he  had  predicted 
that  in  that  day  Antigonus  would  die  at  Strato's 
Tower  (the  name  of  the  city  afterwards  called  Csesarea), 
and  here  Antigonus  was  well,  and  six  hundred  stadia 
from  Csesarea.  While  he  was  yet  lamenting  to  his 
disciples,  the  tidings  were  brought  that  the  youth  had 
been  assassinated  by  his  brother's  orders  in  a  passage 
under  a  tower  that  formed  part  of  the  fortifications 
of  Jerusalem,  which  also  bore  the  name  of  Strato's 
Tower.  The  story  is  also  told  in  nearly  identical 
terms  in  the  Antiquities,  bk.  xiii.  11.  2.  Whereas 
Josephus  tells  us  elsewhere  that  the  Essenes  avoided 
the  temple,  here  we  find  a  leading  Essene  in  the 
temple,  surrounded  by  disciples  who  listen  to  his 
teaching.  There  is  another  story  told  of  a  certain 
Menahem,  who,  seeing  Herod  the  son  of  Antipater 
playing,  prophesied  that  he  would  be  king.  While 
he  thus  prophesied  he  said  he  had  a  conviction  that 
he,  Herod,  would,  though  prosperous,  be  far  from  just, 
and  that  his  end  would  be  miserable.  After  the 
prediction  was  fulfilled  Herod  sought  him  out,  and 
asked  him  if  he  would  reign  ten  years.  He  told  him 
that  he  would  reign  more  than  thirty.  Menahem 
afterwards  was  specially  favoured  by  Herod  ;  indeed 
he  seems  to  have  been  in  the  Sanhedrin,  though  this 
is  more  doubtful.  In  the  Wars,  Josephus  further 
gives  an  account  of  the  interpretation  which  Simon, 
an  Essene,  gave  to  the  dream  of  Glaphyra,  the  wife 


86          THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  Archelaus,  the  son  of  Herod  —  an  interpretation 
which  had  a  speedy  fulfilment.  These  would  indicate 
that,  at  that  time,  the  Essenes  did  not,  of  necessity, 
shun  the  purlieus  of  the  court,  for  Antipater  was  even 
in  Herod's  boyhood  the  intimate  of  John  Hyrcanus. 
Such  are  the  majority  of  the  references  made  by 
Josephus  to  the  Essenes. 

The  remaining  contemporary  witness  is  Pliny  the 
elder.  The  fifth  book  of  his  Natural  History  is  taken 
up  with  the  description  of  various  places  in  the  western 
parts  of  Asia,  and  among  the  rest  he  takes  notice  of 
Palestine  ;  in  the  course  of  it  he  is  led  to  speak  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  and  to  describe  the  Essenes  who  stay  near  it. 
The  passage  is  as  follows  (bk.  v.  17)  :  "On  the  west 
the'  Essenes  avoid  the  shores  so  far  as  these  are  hurtful. 
These  are  a  solitary  race,  marvellous  above  all  others 
in  the  whole  world.  They  avoid  marriage,  and  have  no 
women  among  them ;  they  have  no  money ;  they  are 
a  race  associate  of  the  palms  (soda  palmarum). 
Every  day  they  are  joined  by  those  whom,  wearied 
with  life,  the  waves  of  fortune  drive  to  their  customs. 
Thus  through  thousands  of  ages  (per  seculorum 
millia)  this  race  in  which  no  one  is  born  endures 
eternal.  So  beneficial  to  them  is  the  disgust  of  life 
(vitx  pcenitentia)  of  others.  Below  them  was  Engaddi, 
with  its  groves  of  palms  second  to  Jerusalem  in  fertility 
— nowr  another  tomb."  It  will  be  observed  that  in  this 
rhetorical  account  the  only  reliable  element  is  that 
they  were  solitaries  who  stayed  by  the  side  of  the 
Dead  Sea.  That  they  had  lasted  thousands  of  ages,  is, 
of  course,  nonsense ;  though  their  antiquity  must  have 
been  more  than  respectable,  or  such  a  statement  could 


THE  ESSENES.  S? 

not  have  been  made.  The  fact  is,  Pliny  is  riot  likely 
to  be  a  first-hand  observer.  Alexander  Polyhistor  is 
suggested  as  his  informant ;  but  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
Josephus  might  in  conversation  inform  him  about  the 
peculiarities  of  this  sect  which  he  admired  so  much. 

Epiphanius  is  the  last  witness  we  would  call  in,  but 
do  so,  fully  recognising  of  how  little  worth  his  evidence 
is.  He  lived  some  two  centuries  and  a  half  after  the 
latest  notice  we  have  of  the  Essenes  as  an  actually 
existing  sect.  He  is  further  credulous  and  inaccurate 
in  the  highest  degree.  He  declares  the  Essenes  to  be 
a  sect  of  Samaritans,  a  statement  to  which  Abbe 
Migne  adds  the  note,  "  Quod  in  mentem  Epiphanio 
venerit  ut  Essenes  Samaritanis  accenseret  divinare  non 
possum."  He,  however,  gives  no  description  of  their 
doctrines  or  practices  under  that  head,  but  associates 
them  a  little  later  with  the  Gortheni,  another  Sama- 
ritan sect.  As  a  nineteenth  heresy  he  reckons  as  a 
Jewish  sect  'Oa-oyvot  or  'Oa-craioi.  These,  from  the 
places  of  abode  assigned  to  them,  seem  to  be  our 
Essenes.  In  discussing  the  Nazarenes,  Epiphanius 
refers  to  certain  who  were  called  'JTecroWoi  :  following 
Bishop  Lightfoot  we  think  it  probable  that  he  really 
designates  the  Essenes  by  this  name.  He  makes  an 
assertion  which,  if  it  had  any  basis  of  proof, — and  it 
surely  must,  or  he  would  not  have  made  it, — would 
be  important.  After  saying  that  all  Christians  were 
called  Nazarenes,  he  adds,  "  It  happened  that  for  a 
little  time  they  were  called  'Ie<r<ralot."  This  implies  a 
wholesale  passage  of  the  Essenes  over  to  Christianity, 
such,  as  will  be  seen  below,  we  contend  for. 

We    have    taken  no  notice  of  Talmudic  sources  of 


88  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

information  in  regard  to  the  Essenes,  because  we 
think  them  valueless.  First,  because  of  the  lateness 
of  the  date  of  the  Talmud.  The  Rabbinic  decisions 
that  form  the  Mishna  were  not  gathered  together  till 
late  in  the  second  century  by  Rabbi  Jehudah  the  Holy, 
if  even  then.  Next,  because,  as  Lucius  l  (Essenismus) 
says,  "the  interest  of  the  Rabbins  lay  in  quite  a 
different  region  from  the  historic."  Facts  were  of  little 
moment  to  them,  hence  they  take  comparatively  little 
note  of  anything  outside  their  own  circle,  and  con- 
sequently what  information  they  give  is  usually  in- 
accurate. It  has  been  found  impossible  to  identify  any 
of  the  classes  of  persons  mentioned  in  the  Talmud  with 
the  Essenes.  If,  however,  the  Essenes  dissappeared  in 
the  Christian  Church  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  then 
it  is  probable  that  the  Q*?o,  ""Ip,  etc.,  usually  identified 
with  the  Christians,  may  be  really  the  Essenes. 

Such  is  the  evidence  we  have  of  the  customs  of  the 
Essenes.  When  we  gather  into  one  picture  all  the 
features  presented  to  us,  it  does  seem  strange  and 
enigmatical — a  Jewish  sect,  and  highly  esteemed  for 
sanctity,  yet  departing  from  the  Jewish  ideal  in  a  great 
many  different  directions.  The  Jew  looked  forward  to 
a  family,  yet  they  are  declared  to  be  celibates.  Of 
course  the  universality  of  this  assertion  is  met  by 
other  statements,  such  as  that  some  of  them  permitted 
marriage.  While  the  Jews  reverenced  the  temple, 
they  avoided  it ;  though  again  the  case  of  Judas 
necessitates  a  certain  amount  of  modification.  The 
Jewish  "religion  consisted  in  certain  sacrifices  where 
blood  was  shed ;  but  they,  it  is  alleged,  offered  only 

J  P.  34.    See  Wellhausen,  Pharisaes,  to  the  same  effect,  p.  124. 


THE  ESSEN  ES.  89 

meat-offerings  of  flour,  etc. ;  though  the  frequenting 
of  the  temple  on  the  part  of  men  like  Judas  may  even 
make  this  doubtful.  The  Jew  reverenced  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Law,  and  the  Essene  had  sacred  books  of 
his  own  to  which  he  showed  reverence.  The  Jew  bowed 
in  reverence  to  God  toward  the  temple ;  the  Essene  at 
the  Dead  Sea  turned  his  back  on  the  temple,  and 
in  his  prayers  bowed  towards  the  rising  sun. 

It  seems  almost  impossible  to  combine  into  one 
consistent  whole  all  the  contradictory  features  attri- 
buted to  Essenism.  We  confess  to  having  been  so 
much  impressed  with  this  impossibility,  that  we  doubted 
the  very  existence  of  the  Essenes  altogether.  Yield- 
ing without  examination  to  such  arguments  as  those 
of  Frankel,  the  writings  of  Philo,  which  treat  of  the 
Essenes,  we  dismissed  as  unauthentic,  and  Pliny  was 
regarded  as  borrowing  from  Josephus,  who  thus 
became  the  one  sole  witness.  His  character  does  not 
stand  so  high  that  his  evidence  can  be  looked  upon 
as  unimpeachable  if  any  advantage  were  to  accrue  to 
him  from  making  one  statement  rather  than  another. 
A  more  careful  study  of  Josephus  compelled  us  to  re- 
cognise that  his  method  of  treating  of  the  Essenes  does 
not  look  like  the  work  of  one  drawing  on  his  imagin- 
ation for  his  facts.  In  the  first  place,  one  does  not 
know  what  advantage  it  was  to  him  to  maintain  that 
these  existed.  Then  the  references  to  the  Essenes 
are  so  frequent  and  so  incidental.  The  incidents  into 
which  he  introduces  Essenes  are  not  those  that  are 
fitted  to  bring  out  the  peculiar  tenets  he  ascribes  to 
them ;  an  inventor  would  have  been  careful  on  this 
point.  Further,  from  his  Life  we  learn  that  Justus, 


90  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

another  Jewish  historian,  impeached  the  accuracy  of 
his  accounts  of  various  matters,  yet  did  not  assail  that 
about  the  Essenes.  Investigation  of  Quod  Omnis 
Probus  Liber  led  to  accepting  it  as  Philonian.  Hence 
in  the  mouth  of  two  witnesses  everything  was 
confirmed. 

While  the  fact  of  their  existence  seems  indubitable, 
it  seems  still  difficult  to  realise  of  what  sort  really  the 
association  was  which  they  formed.  Some  of  the 
representations  we  have  suit  a  conventual  society ; 
they  have  common  meals,  common  labour,  and  a 
common  purse ;  they  do  not  associate  with  any  one 
outside  their  society ;  they  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  sacrifice  of  the  temple,  never  go  there,  but  have 
their  own  sacrificial  meals ;  they  shun  everything  con- 
nected with  arms  or  war  ;  they  are  absolutely  celibate. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  are  scattered  over  the 
country.  One  says  they  avoid  the  large  towns  and 
stay  in  the  villages  ;  another  says  they  frequent  the 
cities.  We  have  seen  several  of  the  many  contradic- 
tions presented  to  us  in  the  various  accounts  of  the 
Essenes.  We  might  multiply  these  to  a  considerable 
extent,  till  it  would  seem  impossible  to  affirm  anything 
of  them  without  being  liable  to  be  met  by  a  counter 
statement  based  on  as  good  authority. 

It  seems  to  us  a  concrete  example  may  show  how 
this  may  be  explained.  Were  a  historian  of  the 
Victorian  era  to  give  an  account  of  the  religious 
denominations  of  England,  as  an  episode  in  his  narra- 
tive he  might,  after  describing  the  constitution  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  of  the  Nonconformist  bodies, 
proceed  to  deal  with  the  Methodists.  As  it  is  the 


THE  ESSENES.  91 

largest  body  of  Methodists,  he  would  naturally  describe 
the  Wesleyan  Church.  Among  other  features  he  would 
mention  that  they  were  Arminian  in  doctrine,  had  no 
fixed  pastors,  and  did  not  permit  women  to  preach. 
Incidentally  in  his  narrative  he  might  refer  to  the 
Calvinistic  Methodists,  to  fixed  pastors  in  the  Metho- 
dist New  Connection,  and  to  female  preachers  among 
the  Primitive  Methodists. 

There  was  something  of  this  kind  among  the  Essenes, 
as  Josephus  intimates  when  he  tells  of  four  sorts  of 
Essenes,  and  mentions  that  certain  of  them  did  not 
abjure  wedlock.  Some  have  asserted  that  these  were 
of  the  outer  circle  that  had  proceeded  up  the  succes- 
sive steps  to  perfection  ;  but  Josephus,  our  supposed 
authority  for  the  four  stages,  has  no  word  of  this. 
He  distinctly  asserts  that  they  are  opposed  to  those 
who  are  celibate,  "  regarding  them  enemies  of  the 
race."  In  fact,  Josephus  does  not,  when  he  speaks  of 
the  four  classes,  imply  that  they  are  superimposed ; 
they  may  as  well  be  quite  separate.  They  differ  in 
the  nature  of  the  vows  they  have  taken.  Dr.  Ginsburg 
mentions  eight  classes  of  Essenes  which  he  regards  as 
occupying  successive  stages  in  the  progress  toward 
perfection.  These,  however,  may  not  be  so  distin- 
guished, but  rather  as  the  different  forms  of  Method- 
ism are  distinguished  from  each  other.  His  view  is 
founded  on  an  identification  of  the  Essenes  with  cer- 
tain persons  referred  to  in  the  Talmud  ;  but  this  view 
is  baseless.  The  fact  that  there  was  a  denominational 
distinction  in  one  direction  in  Essenism  renders  it 
probable  that  the  other  "  sorts  "  were  distinguished  in 
the  same  way.  There  is  nothing  in  Josephus  against 


92  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

this,  and  the  fact  that  there  was  the  one  separation  of 
this  kind  renders  it  probable. 

As  to  the  internal  condition  of  the  society,  there 
seems  to  have  been  the  most  absolute  brotherhood 
among  the  members.  They  had  their  meals  in  common, 
presided  over  by  the  head  of  the  society.  We  do  not 
know  whether  the  various  "houses"  of  the  society  in  the 
different  cities  were  related  to  the  central  dwelling  at 
Engedi.  We  do  not  know  whether  the  head  of  the 
Engedi  community  was  head  of  all  the  Essenian  com- 
munities throughout  Palestine.  We  have  no  informa- 
tion to  guide  us  as  to  the  mode  they  followed  in  elect- 
ing a  head  for  the  whole  society,  nor  whether  he,  once 
elected,  selected  the  heads  of  the  various  subordinate 
communities,  or  whether  each  of  them  chose  for 
itself.  The  probability  is  that  the  synagogue  was  the 
model  followed  with  the  common  dwelling-place  and 
common  meal  subjoined.  There  seems  little  doubt, 
from  the  statements  of  Philo  and  Josephus,  that  the 
"houses"  of  the  Essenes  were  scattered  all  over  the 
country  ;  so,  in  all  likelihood,  every  town  of  importance 
in  Palestine  had  its  "  house  of  the  Essenes,"  as  well  as 
its  synagogue. 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

THE   ESSENES:    THEIR   RELATION   TO   THE   APOCALYPTIC 
BOOKS. 

"VT7E  have  seen  that  the  Essenes  had  certain  sacred 
books  which  they  reverenced.  Josephus  refers 
to  these  in  a  way  that  indicates  that  he  does  not  mean 
the  canonical  Scriptures.  These  books  are  concerning 
the  soul  and  concerning  angels.  Starting  with  this 
scant  amount  of  information  concerning  the  books 
themselves,  we  can,  with  the  help  of  what  we  know 
of  the  sect  to  which  they  belonged,  make  some  deduc- 
tions as  to  the  probable  character  of  these  books. 

In  the  first  place,  there  would  of  necessity  be  a 
strong  family  resemblance  between  the  different  books. 
They  were  the  products  of  one  school,  and  as  that 
school  kept  itself  very  much  apart,  each  successive  book 
would  depend  on  those  which  had  preceded  it.  We 
further  learn  that  the  sect  were  accounted  inspired 
prophets,  who  could  foretell  events  and  interpret 
dreams.  We  should  then  expect  the  books  to  be 
books  of  prophecy.  We  should  find  in  them  a  history 
of  what  was  coming  on  the  earth.  But  as  they  were 
essentially  pious,  God-fearing  people,  the  progress  of 
the  Divine  kingdom  would  be  the  thing  uppermost  in 
their  minds.  Woes  would  be  denounced  on  sinners 
unflinchingly.  As  they,  or  at  least  most  of  them, 


94  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

if  not  absolutely  abjuring  wedlock,  yet  regarded  it  as 
an  inferior  condition  to  that  of  being  free  from  the  ties 
of  marriage,  we  should  expect  to  find  many  indications 
that  the  married  state  was  inferior  to  that  of  celibacy. 

Have  any  books  come  down  to  us  that  suit  this,  and 
are  the  products  of  Palestinian  religious  life  ?  None  of 
the  books  of  the  extant  Apocrypha,  with  the  sole  ex- 
ception of  Fourth  Esdras,  whose  place  within  this 
secondary  canon  is  very  questionable,  at  all  fit  the 
requirements.  The  Books  of  Wisdom  and  Ecclesias- 
ticus  assume  the  existence  of  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes, 
but  nothing  more.  They  have  no  prophetic  elements 
in  them,  and  there  is  nothing  of  the  angels.  Ecclesias- 
ticus,  at  all  events,  could  not  be  written  by  a  recluse. 
The  Prophecy  of  Baruch  is  an  evident  imitation  of  the 
old  prophets,  but  stands  in  no  relation  to  anything 
that  would  suggest  it  as  the  work  of  one  of  a  school. 
This  equally  applies  to  the  stories  of  Judith,  Tobit,  and 
Susanna,  and  to  the  historical  books  of  the  Maccabees. 
The  Sibylline  books  would  to  some  extent  suit,  but 
they  are  of  Egyptian,  not  Palestinian  origin. 

There  is,  however,  a  series  of  books  which  do  suit 
the  requirements  in  every  particular,  and  are  of  Pales- 
tinian origin  :  we  mean  the  Apocalyptic  books.  When 
we  study  them,  we  feel  that  we  have  to  do  with  succes- 
sive works  of  one  school  of  thought.  In  ordinary  cases 
it  is  enough  to  prove  that  books  belong  to  the  same 
school,  to  show  that  thought  and  expression  are 
identical.  In  the  present  instance  we  have  not  only 
this,  but  each  book  implies  a  dependence  on  those  that 
have  preceded  it  in  time.  They  all  assume  as  their 
starting-point  the  canonical  Book  of  Daniel ;  it  is  the 


THE  ESSENES.  95 

model  according  to  which  all  the  later  Apocalypses  are 
constructed.  It  is  the  ideas  to  be  found  in  Daniel  that 
are  developed  or  added  to  by  those  that  followed  after. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  Book,  or  rather  the  Books  of 
Enoch.  "We  shall  show  in  the  sequel  how  part  after 
part  of  this  composite  book  was  framed  and  added  to 
the  rest,  each  building  on  what  he  had  received  from 
his  predecessors.  This  process  went  on  through  prob- 
ably nearly  a  century  and  a  half.  This  process  of 
growth  implies  the  work  of  members  of  one  school, 
imbued  with  the  same  set  of  ideas,  and  working  in 
circumstances  closely  similar.  Throughout  there  is 
perpetual  falling  back  upon  the  ideas  and  expressions 
to  be  found  in  Daniel. 

If  we  are  right  in  our  conjecture,  the  Apocalypse  of 
Baruch  was  composed  shortly  after,  if  not  even  before, 
the  last  addition  was  made  to  the  Book  of  Enoch. 
Daniel  is  evidently  well  known  to  the  writer,  and  also 
the  Book  of  Enoch.  There  are  the  same  fundamental 
conceptions  and  repeated  implied  references  to  matters 
to  be  found  more  at  length  in  the  Book  of  Enoch.  At 
first  sight  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  differs  from  the  other 
books,  but  it  implies  the  strong  Messianic  hope  which 
is  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  the  other  wrorks.  From 
the  fact  that  the  writer  has  made  the  Book  of  Psalms 
his  model,  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  may  be  regarded  as 
an  aberrant  member  of  the  group.  Some  fifty  years 
later  the  Assumption  of  Moses  was  written,  and  it  takes 
for  granted  that  the  readers  of  it  know  the  Books  of 
Enoch.  Almost  simultaneously  the  Book  of  Jubilees 
was  written,  which  indeed  seems  to  be  the  other  side 
of  the  same  movement.  It  assumes  the  Book  of  Enoch 


96  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

in  its  references  to  the  tablets  of  the  heavens.  After 
the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  and  the 
consequent  founding  of  Christianity,  Apocalypse  still 
continued.  Besides  the  inspired  Apocalypse  of  St. 
John,  we  have  the  Ascension  of  Isaiah,  which  depends 
on  the  Assumption  of  Moses,  and,  above  all,  on  the 
Books  of  Enoch.  The  so-called  Fourth  Book  of  Esdras, 
the  Second  Book  of  Esdras  of  our  Apocrypha,  is  closely 
related  to  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  and  to  the  Books 
of  Enoch  and  Daniel.  And  the  Testaments  of  the 
Twelve  Patriarchs  assume  pretty  much  all  that  has 
gone  before.  It  is  undeniable  that  this  is  the  produc- 
tion of  a  school,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  last 
work,  the  production  of  a  Palestinian  school.  The 
history  and  scenery  implied  all  prove  this. 

Further,  these  books  are  esoteric  books.  While  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  works  of  the 
Christian  Fathers  show  evident  traces  of  their  influence, 
none  of  the  later  Apocryphal  books,  as  the  Books  of 
the  Maccabees,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  Baruch,  or 
Judith,  show  any  traces  of  the  writers  being  influenced 
by  the  Apocalypses.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Philo 
and  of  Josephus. 

On  the  one  side  we  have  a  Palestinian  school,  of 
which  we  know  this,  that  it  produced  certain  books 
which  were  strictly  esoteric — a  school  that,  if  Bishop 
Lightfoot l  is  to  be  believed,  invaded  Christianity,  and 
with  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  became  practically  incor- 
porated with  Christianity.  On  the  other,  we  have  a 
series  of  works,  the  productions  of  one  school,  which 
largely  affected  the  literature  of  early  Christendom. 

1  "  Dissertation  on  the  Essenes,"  Commentary  on  the  Colossians. 


THE  ESSENES.  97 

When  one  walks  along  the  side  of  a  rocky  fissure,  and 
sees  protuberant  angles  of  rock  on  the  one  side,  always 
opposed  by  re-entrant  angles  on  the  other,  he  at  once 
comes  to  the  conclusion  that  these  two  were  once 
united,  and  formed  one  surface.  By  parity  of  reasoning 
we  feel  we  should  not  be  going  too  far  did  we  assume 
that  the  school  whose  works  were  a  wanting,  and  the 
works  produced  by  a  school  that  was  awanting,  fitted 
into  each  other,  that  without  further  arguments  we 
might  assume  the  school  of  the  Essenes  to  have 
produced  the  Apocalyptic  books. 

When  we  look  back  at  the  features  which  we  deduced 
from  the  school  would  be  present  in  its  books,  we  find 
each  one  of  these  present  in  the  Apocalyptic  books. 
They  depend  closely  the  one  on  the  other.  They  are 
all  more  or  less  prophetic.  They  all  pronounce  for  a 
high  morality,  and  denounce  sin  and  sinners.  It  may 
be  said  that  there  is  nothing  of  the  shunning  of  marriage 
in  the  Apocalyptic  books.  That  is  true  ;  but  they  one 
and  all  date  the  fall  of  the  angels  from  their  unlawful 
commerce  with  the  daughters  of  men.  They  have  that 
relation  to  sexual  sin  which  is  so  often  seen  in  monastic 
orders — they  loathe  it,  yet  it  possesses  their  imagina- 
tion. Hence  it  is  that  the  sin  of  the  angels  is  perpetu- 
ally coming  to  the  front  in  the  Apocalyptic  books.  We 
are  told  by  Josephus  that  they  shun  everything  con- 
nected with  arms  or  war.  One  of  the  disastrous  effects 
of  this  commerce  of  heaven  and  earth  is,  that  the  angels 
show  how  weapons  may  be  forged.  Taking  all  these 
things  into  consideration,  it  seems  impossible  to  deny 
that  the  Essenes  were  the  writers  of  the  Apocalyptic 

books. 

G 


98  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Strong  as  this  evidence  is,  we  can  make  it  yet 
stronger.  We  have  seen  that  these  Apocalyptic  books 
are  the  work  of  one  school.  The  Samaritans  could  not 
have  produced  them,  because  the  Samaritans  did  not 
believe  in  archangels;  whereas  one  of  the  characteristics 
of  these  books  is  an  elaborate  angelic  hierarchy.  Had 
they  a  Samaritan  source,  some  of  the  names  under 
which  the  prophecies  were  published  would  certainly 
have  belonged  to  the  northern  tribes.  Of  all  that 
have  come  down  to  us  none  are  attributed  to  men  of 
the  northern  kingdom,  whereas  three  belong  to  the 
southern  kingdom — Isaiah,  Baruch,  and  Ezra.  There 
was  an  Apocalypse  of  Elijah,  which,  however,  has  dis- 
appeared ;  but  he  is  such  a  marked  figure  in  the  history 
of  Israel  that  that  is  scarcely  an  exception.  Moreover, 
the  books  refer  to  Jerusalem  and  its  history.  The 
school  cannot  be  that  of  the  Sadducees,  for  we  know 
they  believed  neither  in  angel  nor  spirit.  The  most 
noticeable  feature  in  these  books  is  their  elaborate 
angelology,  and  the  full  account  they  give  of  the  spirit 
world.  The  Sadducees  had,  as  we  have  seen,  no  great 
favour  for  the  Messianic  hopes  of  the  people.  The 
Messianic  element  is  markedly  present  in  these  books. 
In  some  respects  the  Pharisaic  school  would  suit ; 
their  opinions  are  in  harmony  in  the  main  with  the 
Apocalyptists.  When  we  turn  to  the  Mishna,  in  which 
we  have  the  work  of  the  Pharisaic  school,  of  a  later 
age,  certainly,  still  undeniably  Pharisaic,  and  claiming 
to  be  the  continuance  in  unbroken  descent  of  the  old 
Pharisaic  School,  we  find  no  resemblance  whatever  to 
the  Apocalyptic  books  in  method  and  little  in  contents. 
The  Talmud  is  a  series  of  decisions  on  questions  of  law 


THE  ESSENES.  99 

and  casuistry.  Even  the  Hagadoth  and  Midrashim, 
preserved  mostly  in  the  much  later  Gemara,  are  more 
extravagant  than  the  visions  of  the  Apocalyptists. 
What  is  more  striking,  the  Talmudists  manifest  practi- 
cally no  knowledge  of  these  books.  It  clearly,  then, 
cannot  be  the  Pharisaic  school  to  which  we  owe  the 
Apocalypses.  It  has  been  suggested  that  while  the 
ordinary  Pharisaic  schools  could  not  compose  these 
books,  the  Zealots  might.  They  had  the  high  Messianic 
hopes  which  are  so  prominent  in  the  Apocalyptists, 
and  therefore  are  so  far  suitable.  But  there  is  an 
atmosphere  of  calm  and  contemplation  that  pervades 
these  books  that  is  totally  unsuited  to  these  furious 
fanatics.  The  only  school  that  remains  is  that  of  the 
Essenes.  Thus,  from  the  method  of  exclusion,  we 
have  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion  as  that  we 
arrived  at  by  direct  comparison  of  the  school  and 
the  books. 

Zeller  objects1  that  there  is  no  trace  in  the  doctrines 
of  the  Essenes  of  the  Messianic  hope  which  is  so 
prominent  in  the  Apocalyptic  books.  That  they  shared 
in  the  Messianic  hopes  of  the  nation  follows  from  the 
fact  that  they  addicted  themselves  to  the  study  of 
prophecy.  The  evidence  on  which  Zeller  rests  his 
negative  conclusion  is  the  silence  of  Josephus  and 
Philo  on  the  question.  We  know  how  cautious 
Josephus  is  in  regard  to  Messianic  prophecy  from  the 
way  he  treats  the  prophecy  of  the  image  in  Daniel ; 
he  says  (Antiq.  x.  10.  4),  "  It  is  my  business  to  write 
of  things  that  are  past,  not  of  things  to  come."  Even 
the  favour  of  Titus  would  not  have  delivered  him  if  he 

1  Philosophic  der  Griechen,  iii.  2.  271. 


100  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

had  been  found  cherishing  hopes  of  the  overthrow  of 
the  Roman  empire  by  a  Jewish  Messiah.  In  all  his 
writings  he  had  to  remember  the  sensibilities  and 
suspicions  of  his  Roman  masters.  He  had  pretended 
to  find  in  Vespasian  the  promised  Messiah  ;  the  Essenes 
had  suffered  the  severest  persecutions  rather  than  sub- 
mit to  Vespasian.  To  have  mentioned  their  Messianic 
hopes  would  have  made  the  Romans  suspicious  as  to  the 
honesty  of  his  interpretations  of  Messianic  prophecy. 
Philo  had  no  Messianic  hopes,  and  had  therefore  no 
sympathy  with  those  who  had.  It  would  have  marred 
his  panegyric  of  the  Essenes  to  have  mentioned  that 
they  entertained  hopes  so  visionary  and  so  unphilosophic. 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  many  different  origins  should 
be  suggested  for  these  Essenes.  The  whole  subject  is 
complicated  by  the  fact  that  both  Josephus  and  Philo 
were  under  strong  temptations  to  Hellenize  their 
accounts  of  the  Essenes.  They  both  addressed  a 
Hellenic  audience,  and  so  it  behoved  them  to  arrange 
their  statements  to  suit  Hellenic  understandings.  As 
the  guests  at  the  banquet  provided  by  Philo  and 
Josephus  were  Greeks  and  Romans,  the  dishes  had  to 
be  seasoned  to  suit  their  palates. 

With  the  additional  sources  of  information  supplied 
us  by  the  Apocalyptic  books,  we  can  enter  the  question 
of  the  origin  of  the  Essenes  with  greater  hope  of  being 
able  to  reach  some  solution. 

We  have  seen  how  different  their  ideal  of  life  was 
from  that  of  the  rest  of  the  Jews.  At  first  sight  it 
seems  impossible  to  deduce  these  peculiarities  from 
Judaism.  These  unwonted  features  suggest  that  they 
have  sprung  from  a  non-Jewish  source.  On  the  other 


THE  ESSENES.  10 1 

hand,  we  have  the  exaggerated  respect  they  attached 
to  certain  portions  of  Judaism,  and  the  high  veneration 
with  which  they  were  regarded  by  the  people,  to  lead 
us  to  the  opinion  that  their  views  were — however  dis- 
cordant they  may  seem  to  us — not  really  out  of 
harmony  with  Judaism  as  popularly  apprehended. 
This  twofold  aspect  of  Essenism  would  be  intelligible 
if  we  regard  Judaism  itself  modified  by  foreign 
elements,  and  look  upon  the  Essenes  as  simply 
drawing  upon  these  more  than  the  other  sections  of 
the  community. 

The  first  idea  that  strikes  one  is  that  the  foreign 
element  is  Hellenic.  The  picture  of  the  Essenes  has 
come  down  to  us  painted  in  Grecian  colours  by  men 
almost  as  much  Greeks  as  Jews.  This  Grecian  colour- 
ing has  induced  Zeller  in  his  history  of  Greek  philoso- 
phy1 to  maintain  that  the  Essenes  were  followers  of 
the  Neo-Pythagoreans.  In  this  he  may  be  regarded  as 
following  a  hint  given  by  Josephus  (Antiq.  xv.  10.  4), 
where  he  says  that  the  Essenes  follow  a  mode  of  life 
similar  to  the  Pythagoreans.  In  defence  of  his  view 
Zeller  draws  out  a  formidable  list  of  resemblances. 
Both  were  ascetics  ;  both  avoided  animal  food,  and 
denied  the  validity  of  sacrifices  which  involved  shed- 
ding of  blood ;  both  formed  themselves  into  com- 
munities, entrance  into  which  was  only  got  after  a 
lengthened  probation.  In  both  forms  of  community 
there  was  subordination  of  ranks  and  community  of 
goods.  To  complete  the  external  picture,  both  pre- 
ferred white  linen  clothing  to  any  other,  and  are 
addicted  to  frequent  washings,  but  avoid  the  more 

1  Philosophic  der  Griechen,  iii.  2.  278-292. 


102  THE  BACKGEOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

luxurious  warm  baths  with  its  consequent  anointings. 
He  sees  resemblances  of  a  more  essential  kind  in  the 
doctrines  both  profess.  Both  are  essentially  dualistic 
in  regard  to  the  relation  of  spirit  and  matter,  —  to  the 
soul  the  body  is  a  prison  with  both,  and  with  both 
God  affects  the  material  world  by  means  of  lower 
spirits,  called  angels  in  the  one  case  and  demons  in  the 
other.  Both  were  addicted  to  magic.  Both  clothed 
their  doctrines  in  symbolic  language,  and  defended 
their  views  by  forging  works  alleged  to  be  old.  These 
latter  features  suggest  that  Zeller  was  unconsciously 
influenced  by  Hilgenfeld's  view,  and  imported  into  his 
idea  of  the  Essenes  elements  from  the  Apocalyptic 
books.  The  Pythagoreans  and  the  Essenes  held 
similar  views  as  to  the  state  after  death.  This  latter 
alleged  resemblance  is  not  borne  out  by  his  references. 
Josephus  tells  us  that  according  to  the  Essenes  the 
wicked,  though  they  escaped  during  life,  would,  in 
the  future  life,  "  suffer  eternal  punishment  "  (aOdva-rov 


Formidable  as  these  resemblances  appear  at  first 
sight,  close  inspection  shows  them  all  to  be  more  or 
less  superficial.  Some  resemblances  alleged  we  have 
not  mentioned,  as  we  doubt  their  validity,  as  the 
worship  of  the  sun,  which  may  be  doubted  in  regard  to 
both.  Zeller  has,  which  is  more  important,  failed  to 
get  over  the  very  striking  points  of  difference  between 
the  two.  The  first  objection  that  suggests  itself  is  that 
neither  in  Josephus  or  Philo,  nor  in  the  Apocalyptic 
books,  is  there  any  sign  that  the  Essenes  reverenced 
numbers  in  the  way  the  Pythagoreans  did.  The  way 

1  Bell.  Jud.  ii.  8.  11. 


THE  ESSENES.  103 

Zeller  would  evade  this  difficulty  is  by  saying  that  the 
dependence  of  Essenism  on  Pythagoreanism  did  not 
imply  that  the  former  adopted  all  the  doctrines  of  the 
latter.  This  doctrine  of  number,  however,  was  the 
very  essence  of  Pythagoreanism.  Further,  the  trans- 
migration of  souls,  which  was  an  essential  doctrine  of 
the  Pythagoreans,  is  directly  opposed  to  the  view 
ascribed  by  Josephus  to  the  Essenes  in  regard  to  the 
future  state,  as  we  saw  above.  This  is  all  the  more  to 
be  noted  that  Josephus  was  not  averse  to  attribute 
something  like  this  to  the  Pharisees. 

Although  from  the  Hellenization  that  went  on,  as 
we  saw  above,  during  the  rule  of  the  Lagid  princes,  it 
is  not  a  priori  improbable  that  Greek  philosophic 
notions  did  take  root  even  among  the  Palestinian  Jews, 
yet  there  is  no  proof  that  at  that  time  Pythagoreanism 
was  at  all  prominent ;  in  fact  our  evidence  goes  to  show 
that  at  that  time  it  was  extinct.  If  we  are  correct 
in  the  opinion  at  which  we  have  arrived  as  to  the  date 
of  the  earliest  portion  of  the  Book  of  Enoch,  then  the 
Essenes  must  have  been  formed  into  a  community 
about  the  end  of  the  period  of  the  Lagid  supremacy  in 
Palestine.  Chronology  is  thus  decidedly  adverse  to 
Zeller's  view,  that  the  peculiarities  of  Essenism  are  due 
to  the  influence  of  Neo-Pythagoreanism.  The  rise  of 
Neo-Pythagoreanism  proper  is  probably  post-Christian. 
Apollonius  of  Tyana  is  a  mythic  personage,  and 
Moderatus  of  Gades  nearly  unknown.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  it  really  came  into  existence  until 
the  age  of  the  Antonines.  By  this  time  the  Essenes 
had  disappeared  in  Christianity.  Bishop  Lightfoot 
shows,  further,  that  there  are  geographical  difficulties 


104  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

in   the   way   of  the   Jews   being  early  influenced  by 
Pythagorean  speculation. 

Some  have  seen  traces  of  the  origin  of  Essenism 
in  Buddhism ;  but  here  again  Bishop  Lightfoot  is 
convincing.  The  assertion  that  large  numbers  from 
Alasanda  the  capital  of  Javana  were  present  at 
a  Buddhist  festival,  in  the  second  century  B.C.,  is  not 
necessarily  true  at  all,  as  the  whole  record  is  exag- 
gerated to  a  high  degree ;  and  if  true,  applied  not 
to  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  but  to  that  in  Bactria,  for 
between  Bactria  and  India  there  was  then  a  very 
close  connection.  Clement  of  Alexandria  is  the  earliest 
writer  that  mentions  Buddha.  The  general  state  of 
knowledge  concerning  Buddhism  was  so  vague  and 
incorrect  in  the  pre-Christian  centuries,  that  it  is 
impossible  the  Essenes  could  be  much  influenced  by 
it.  If  they  had  been,  knowledge  concerning  Buddhism 
would  have  been  much  more  diffused.  Parsee  elements 
are  also  recognised  by  some ;  but  these,  notwith- 
standing the  weight  Bishop  Lightfoot  attaches  to  them, 
are  not  quite  convincing.  One  might  argue  that  by 
having  their  morning  prayers  over  before  sunrise,  and 
delaying  their  evening  prayers  until  after  sunset,  the 
Essenes  wished  to  turn  aside  any  possible  accusation  of 
Parseeism.  The  fact  that  Judaism  as  a  whole  seems 
to  have  been  so  much  modified  by  Parseeism,  certainly 
gives  a  plausibility  to  the  contention.  We  know  that 
the  Eabbis  said  "  the  people  brought  back  the  names 
of  the  angels  from  Babylon."  Dr.  Kohut  ("  Asmodai  ") 
has  wrought  out  the  parallelism  to  the  full ;  but  gives 
greater  evidence  of  his  own  ingenuity  than  of  the 
correctness  of  his  theory.  He  takes  each  of  the 


THE  ESSENES.  105 

Amhaspands  and  compares  him  with  one  after 
another  of  the  higher  angels,  and  makes  out  an 
identity  in  function.  This,  however,  is  difficult  to  see, 
as  the  functions  attributed  are  on  both  sides  some- 
what vague.  He  endeavours  in  one  case  to  make 
out  an  identity  even  in  name ;  but  for  our  part  we 
prefer  to  derive  pooo,  Metatron,  from  perd  Opovov 
rather  than  from  Mithras.  Bishop  Lightfoot  does 
not  seem  to  mean  any  such  wholesale  adoption  of 
Parseeism  as  is  implied  in  the  theory  of  Dr.  Kohut. 
Against  any  direct  influence  of  Parseeism  on  the 
Essenes,  is  the  fact  that  we  have  no  evidence  from 
any  source  which  would  tend  to  ascribe  to  them  the 
belief  in  two  nearly  equal  principles  of  good  and 
evil,  Ahuramazda  and  Angromainyus,  opposed  to 
each  other.  This,  one  would  have  thought,  would 
have  manifested  itself  in  Essenism  if  it  had  come 
from  Persia.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  Apocalyptic 
books  the  evil  principle  is  always  inferior  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  shade  off  into  the  Gnostic  Demiurge. 
Another  essential  doctrine  of  the  Parsees  is  the 
worship  of  fire,  and  of  this  there  is  no  sign  among 
the  Essenes. 

Even  if  we  grant  this  theory  has  something  in  its 
favour,  still  if  the  elements  may  be  found  in  Judaism 
itself,  there  does  not  seem  any  necessity  for  asserting 
that  Essenism  was  a  special  product  of  Parseeism  in 
conjunction  with  Judaism. 

In  the  first  place,  when  we  begin  to  look  into  the 
question  of  the  nature  and  origin  of  this  sect,  we 
must  remember  that  it  is  not  Judaism  of  the  time 
of  the  prophets  we  have  to  deal  with,  but  Judaism 


106  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

that  has  been  in  Babylon,  and  has  still  a  large  section 
of  its  nationality  there.  It  had  been  two  centuries 
under  Persian  rule ;  and  this  rule  was,  if  indirect 
in  the  Holy  Land,  pretty  direct  over  that  larger  section 
of  the  nation  which  remained  in  Babylon.  But  this 
part  of  the  nation  had  continual  intercourse  with 
their  brethren  in  Judea.  They  had  had,  moreover,  alike 
in  Babylon  and  in  Judea,  by  the  time  the  earliest 
notice  of  the  Essenes  occurs  in  literature,  experience  of 
nearly  a  century  of  Hellenic  supremacy.  It  is  probable, 
as  we  have  seen,  that  they  existed  at  a  date  much 
earlier  than  the  earliest  notice  Josephus  gives  of  them 
would  imply.  In  this  wray,  while  we  may  doubt  any 
direct  influence  of  Zoroastrianism  or  Pythagoreanism 
on  the  Essenes  as  a  separate  sect,  yet  these  influences 
were  in  the  air,  and  there  may  easily  have  been  an 
assimilation  by  the  Essenes  of  these  elements  to  a 
greater  degree  than  by  the  other  section  of  the  Jewish 
people.  The  common  mass  of  the  nation  had  assimi- 
lated certain  foreign  elements,  and  from  this  again  the 
Essenes  drew  the  special  elements  which  made  them 
what  they  were. 

Further,  it  must  be  noted  that  in  perusing  the 
descriptions  we  have  from  the  pens  of  Josephus  and  of 
Philo,  we  must  avoid  laying  weight  on  the  reasons 
they  assign  for  this  or  that  feature  of  Essenism.  The 
reasons  adduced  are  due  to  the  desire  of  these  authors  to 
make  their  nation  stand  well  with  the  Greek  foreigners, 
and  hence  are  such  as  might  have  moved  a  Greek,  and 
are  not  necessarily  those  that  did  influence  the  Essenes. 
This  especially  applies  to  the  reasons  assigned  for  their 
general  avoidance  of  marriage,  and  also  to  the  reason 


THE  ESSENES.  107 

put  in  the  mouth  of  those  who  did  not  shun  matrimony. 
Sometimes  reasons  are  not  so  much  stated  as  implied, 
not  put  in  the  form  of  doctrines  held  by  the  Essenes, 
but  placed  in  connection  with  certain  observances  of 
theirs,  so  that  one  is  led  to  deduce  the  doctrines  for 
himself.  Thus  we  would  not  be  inclined  to  put  much 
weight  on  the  assertion  of  Josephus,  that  the  Essenes 
regarded  the  body  as  a  prison.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  Hellenic  dualism  had  somewhat  affected  them ; 
but  that  it  should  have  taken  such  a  definite  shape  is 
improbable. 

If  we  look  at  the  matter  historically  we  shall  find 
reasons  to  make  the  evolution  of  Essenism  from  Juda- 
ism less  surprising  to  us. 

If  the  foreign  alliances  entered  into  by  the  Mac- 
cabeans  were  against  the  views  of  the  Essenes,  as  they 
probably  were,  still  more  must  the  assumption  of  the 
regal  dignity  have  been  offensive  to  them.  Their 
Messianic  hopes  pointed  to  another  kingship  than  that 
of  Alexander  Jannaeus.  They  would  regard  his  wearing 
the  crown  as  a  distinct  usurpation  of  the  rights  of  the 
coming  son  of  David.  This  view  of  the  wrongfulness 
of  his  regal  title  might  extend  to  his  assumption  of  the 
priesthood  also.  The  story  Josephus  tells  of  Eleazar  the 
Pharisee  declaring  that  John  Hyrcanus  had  no  right  to 
be  priest  because  of  the  alleged  captivity  of  his  mother, 
might  easily  be  extended  to  his  son.  Further,  we  know 
that  by  his  mode  of  offering  sacrifice  Alexander  roused 
the  wrath  of  the  Pharisaic  party,  indeed  of  the  pious 
generally,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  persecution. 
Before  that  time  we  find  Judas  the  Essene  in  the  temple 
surrounded  by  his  disciples  ;  whereas  we  find  Josephus 


108  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

saying  the  Essenes  avoid  the  temple.  One  can 
readily  understand  if  the  sacrifices  were  not  properly 
offered,  and  if  the  priest  was  not  a  lawful  priest,  that 
they  would  cease  to  take  part  in  the  temple  worship. 
They  had,  however,  priests  of  their  own,  whose  sole 
function  seemed  to  be  to  lead  their  prayers  and 
to  prepare  their  food.  The  prolonged  residence  of 
the  Jewish  nation  in  Babylon  had  led  them  to  have 
a  lower  estimate  of  the  efficacy  of  bloody  sacrifices, 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  a  higher  faith  in  the  efficacy  of 
prayer. 

It  seems  not  impossible  that  their  worship  toward 
the  rising  sun,  if  they  did  so  worship,  which,  however, 
Philo's  description  seems  to  contradict,  was  at  once  a 
protest  against  the  state  of  matters  in  Jerusalem 
and  an  assertion  of  their  hope  of  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah,  "  the  Sun  of  righteousness,  who  was  to  arise 
with  healing  under  His  wings." 

At  first  sight  their  extreme  ascetic  position  strikes 
one  as  utterly  unlike  Judaism ;  yet  the  high  esteem 
extended  to  the  Nazarite  shows  that  in  Judaism  there 
was  a  place  for  asceticism  in  regard  to  food  and  cloth- 
ing. Celibacy  was  certainly  not  Jewish ;  but  the  com- 
mand which  enjoined  abstinence  from  marital  pleasure 
on  the  people  of  Israel,  when  God  was  about  to 
reveal  Himself  to  them  on  Sinai,  Ex.  xix.  15,  implies 
greater  sanctity  in  the  celibate  state.  The  same  idea 
is  suggested  by  1  Sam.  xxi.  5.  From  this  it  is  an 
easy  step  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  celibacy 
is  the  higher  and  purer  condition.  The  conventual 
cenobitic  life  had  been  inaugurated  by  the  schools  of 
the  prophets,  and  a  proof  of  the  connection  may  be 


THE  ESSEN ES.  109 

seen  in  the  fact  that  women  were  admitted  to  one  of 
the  Essenian  orders  as  wives  of  the  members.  Thus 
all  the  essential  elements  of  Essenism  were  really 
present  in  Judaism,  or  were  the  natural  results 
of  pure  Judaism  in  the  presence  of  impurity  of 
worship. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    ESSEXES  :    THEIR  RELATION    TO    OUR   LORD. 

approach  this  part  of  our  subject  with  much 
diffidence.  Many  of  those  to  whom  Christ  is 
a  mere  man  have  endeavoured  to  minimise  His 
supreme  originality ;  and,  to  prove  Him  merely  a 
Jewish  teacher,  have  declared  Him  to  be  an  Essene. 
We,  for  our  part,  hold  His  Divinity  most  firmly, 
but  do  not  see  that  these  opponents  of  the  truth 
have  made  good  their  point  by  this  assertion.  No 
one  can  deny  that  there  is  a  verisimilitude  in  the 
statement  that  He  was  an  Essene.  For  our  part  we 
think  that  He  was  so  in  a  certain  limited  sense. 
We  have  seen  that  there  were  four  different  sorts  of 
Essenes  according  to  Josephus,  and  that  these  came 
under  different  obligations.  We  further  find  from 
Josephus,  at  least  by  implication,  that  all  religious 
people  regarded  themselves  as  adherents  of  one  or 
other  of  these  sects.1  The  household  at  Nazareth 
must  have  belonged  to  some  one  of  these — to  which 
was  it  ?  We  hold  it  was  to  the  sect  of  the  Essenes. 

Our  first  argument  for  this  is  the  negative  one,  that 
the  Essenes  are  not  once  mentioned  in  the  Gospels. 
Our  Lord,  who  seems  to  have  met  every  other  class  of 

1  Dr.  Ginsburg  would  go  further,  and  assert  that  every  Jew  was  obliged 
to  belong  to  one  or  other  of  the  sects. 


THE  ESSENES.  Ill 

the  community, — the  priests,  the  Zealots,  the  Pharisees, 
the  Sadducees,  the  Herodians,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans, 
the  publicans,  the  harlots,  the  Samaritans,  the  Syro- 
phoenicians, — yet  never  once  meets  with  an  Essene. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  Essenes  were  a  solitary, 
retiring  race,  haunting  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
for  they  were  much  in  Jerusalem  and  other  cities,  not 
to  speak  of  villages,  and  had  houses  of  call  all  over  the 
country.  In  fact,  one  of  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  was 
called  the  gate  of  the  Essenes.  Nor  can  it  be  urged 
with  any  degree  of  force  that  they  were  few  in  number. 
Josephus  and  Philo  tell  us  that  they  numbered  above 
four  thousand ; l  and  we  know  that  the  sect  of  the 
Pharisees  numbered  only  six  thousand.  Of  course  it 
may  be  objected  that  the  Pharisees  had  a  large  popular 
following,  and  that  the  followers  were  at  times  con- 
founded with  the  Pharisees  proper.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  evidence  that  the  Essenes  had  a 
like  numerous  following ;  indeed,  the  story  Josephus 
tells  of  the  Essene  Judas  seems  to  imply  this. 
Further,  that  they  had  a  large  circle  of  those  who 
wished  them  well,  is  proved  by  the  fact  which  Josephus 
mentions  that  they  were  recruited  by  adopting  the 
children  of  others.  Parents  would  necessarily  know 
and  respect  the  Essenes  before  they  handed  their 
children  to  them.  How  then  does  it  come  that  our 
Lord  never  came  in  contact  with  the  Essenes  ? 

The  reverence  we  have  for  the  memory  of  Bishop 
Lightfoot  makes  us  sorry  that  he  should  have  treated 

1  Philo,  indeed,  in  the  fragment  of  his  Apology  for  the  Jewish  people, 
speaks  of  the  Essenes  being  tens  of  thousands  (pvpt'w;) ;  that,  however, 
may  be  rhetoric. 


112  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

this  argument  so  cavalierly  as  he  does.  He  answers 
it  by  demanding  why  there  is  no  mention  of  the 
Essenes  in  the  Talmud.  He  knew  that  the  Mishna, 
the  oldest  part  of  the  Talmud,  was  not  compiled 
till  a  full  century  after  Essenism  had  disappeared,  as 
he  himself  shows  (Com.  on  Coll.  Diss.  p.  499),  mainly 
in  Christianity.  The  silence  of  the  Talmud  in  regard 
to  the  Essenes  as  distinct  from  Christians  really  is  an 
indirect  proof  of  the  truth  of  our  allegation.  Among 
ourselves  when  a  sect  changes  its  name  we  are  apt 
in  speaking  of  the  past  to  carry  the  present  name 
back  into  the  past.  To  speak  of  the  Socinian  con- 
gregations in  and  around  London  as  Presbyterian 
is  thus  highly  confusing.  The  Essenes  had  merged 
in  the  Christian  by  the  time  the  Talmud  was  written, 
much  as  the  old  Presbyterians  have  merged  in  the 
Socinians.  Another  thing,  Bishop  Lightfoot  knew 
the  notorious  inaccuracy  of  the  Talmud :  neither  its 
silence  nor  its  speech  has  any  evidential  value. 

If  our  Lord,  without  being  an  Essene  in  the  strictest 
sense  of  the  term,  found  many  of  His  followers  in  that 
outer  circle  of  semi-Essenes  which  we  have  mentioned, 
this  silence  is  explicable.  Have  we  any  evidence  that 
he  did  so  ? 

While  they  are  not  mentioned  by  name,  is  there 
not  a  class  of  persons  referred  to  that  may  be  the 
Essenes,  but  under  another  name  ?  We  have  already 
adverted  to  the  fact  that  the  name  Essene  was 
probably  a  name  by  which  they  were  called  by  out- 
siders, not  one  they  had  called  themselves ;  probably, 
therefore,  not  the  one  by  which  the  members  of  the 
Essene  sects  spoke  of  each  other.  Thus  the  sect 


THE  ESSENES.  Il3 

called  among  us  Plymouthists  do  not  speak  of  each 
other  among  themselves  as  Plymouthists,  they  are 
"  Brethren."  Is  there,  then,  any  set  of  persons  referred 
to  in  the  Gospels  that  may  be  the  Essenes,  though 
under  another  designation  ?  When  Joseph  and 
Mary  bring  the  infant  Saviour  into  the  temple, 
Simeon,  a  prophet,  under  the  Spirit  of  God  comes  into 
the  Temple  also,  and  takes  the  Holy  Infant  into  his 
arms  and  sings  his  "  Nunc  Dimittis."  We  are  told 
of  him  that  he  is  one  that  "  waited  for  the  consolation 
of  Israel."  Anna  the  prophetess  follows,  joins  in  the 
praise,  and  speaks  of  this  wonderful  Child  that  has 
been  born  to  those  that  "waited  for  the  redemption 
of  Israel."  Her  action  implies  a  sect  that  took  that 
title  to  themselves.  All  the  Jews,  with  perhaps  the 
exception  of  the  Sadducees,  professed  to  be  looking 
for  the  redemption  of  Israel.  But  she  went  only  to 
certain  persons  who  are  described  as  those  that 
"  waited  for  the  redemption  of  Israel."  At  the  very 
end  of  our  Lord's  career  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who 
begged  His  body  from  Pilate,  was  one  that  "  waited 
for  the  kingdom  of  God."  If  Joseph  and  Mary 
belonged  to  this  sect,  the  'action  of  Simeon  has  a 
double  significance.  His  attention  ps  drawn  to  those 
who  were  offering  the  purification  sacrifices.  Not 
improbably  their  dress  informed  him  that  they  were 
"  waiters  for  the  consolation."  Anna  also  would  be 
drawn  to  the  same  spot  by  the  same  reason.  Here 
then  we  find  a  sect  which  welcomed  our  Lord's 
coming,  which  He  never  meets  again,  never  has  to 
rebuke,  and  which  never  endeavours  to  entangle  Him 
in  His  talk.  All  seems  to  point  in  one  direction,  that 


114  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  Essenes  were  those  who  waited  for  the  consolation 
of  Israel.  But  is  there  any  evidence  that  they  did 
this  ?  On  the  supposition  that  from  the  Essene  com- 
munities issued  the  Apocalyptic  books,  there  is. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  show  that  these  works  are  as 
a  class  permeated  with  the  Messianic  hopes  of  the 
nation.  This  characteristic  is  most  manifested  by  the 
Book  of  Enoch,  the  most  important  part  of  the  col- 
lection. The  contents  of  these  books  may  then  be  used 
as  subsidiary  proof  of  the  connection  of  our  Lord  with 
the  Essenes.  This,  however,  we  need  not  dwell  on  at 
present.  We  may  mention  one  thing,  the  last  of  these 
Apocalyptic  books  are  unmistakably  of  Christian  origin, 
and  the  transition  from  the  one  class  to  the  other  is  not 
observable  in  style  or  method,  simply  in  contents.  By 
the  events  of  the  first  "Good  Friday"  and  the  first 
"Easter  Sunday"  the  school  had  become  Christian.  So 
close  is  the  connection  between  the  Christian  and  the 
pre-Christian  Apocalypses,  that  most  of  the  pre-Chris- 
tian Apocalypses  have  been  by  some  critic  or  other 
declared  to  be  the  work  of  Christians.  And  all  the  post- 
Christian  ones  have  had  pre-Christian  dates  assigned 
them  by  some  critic.  This  intimate  relationship  is  only 
possible  on  the  supposition  that  during  the  course  of  the 
composition  of  these  works  the  school  in  which  they 
originated  had  become  Christian  as  a  body.  This  again 
implies  a  very  close  connection  between  Christ  and  His 
disciples  and  this  school.  The  change  on  no  other  sup- 
position would  have  taken  place  precisely  in  the  period 
between  the  deposition  of  Archelaus  and  the  Neronian 
persecution — the  period  of  the  founding  of  Christianity. 

Our  last   argument  was   a  deduction  of  the  close 


THE  ESSENES.  115 

relationship  between  Essenism  and  Christianity  from 
the  phenomena  presented  by  Essenism.  We  saw  the 
presence  of  those  we  identify  with  the  Essenes  at  the 
beginning  and  end  of  His  earthly  career.  The  peculi- 
arities manifested  by  the  Essenian  books  bore  out,  we 
saw,  our  conclusion.  But  the  connection  may  be 
further  shown  by  the  phenomena  we  see  in  the  history 
of  the  early  Christian  Church.  In  this  part  of  our 
argument  we  shall  freely  avail  ourselves  of  the  material 
collected  by  Bishop  Lightfoot  in  his  dissertation  on  the 
Colossian  heresy  (Com.  on  Col.  pp.  73-113),  and  the 
conclusions  he  draws  from  it,  all  the  more  freely,  indeed, 
that  he  is  strongly  opposed  to  our  main  contention. 
We  accept  in  the  main  the  conclusion  he  comes  to  as 
to  the  character  of  the  Colossian  heresy,  that  it  was 
Essenian,  and  that  the  Gnostic  elements  in  it  really 
came  from  the  Essenes.  We  further  agree  with  him 
that  Gnosticism  generally  may  be  said  to  have  sprung 
from  Essenism.  We  cannot  pass  over  his  identification 
of  those  "  strolling  exorcists,"  with  whom  Paul  came 
in  contact  in  Ephesus,  with  the  Essenes ;  nor  can  we 
omit  noting  how  this  contradicts  his  argument,  that  our 
Lord  never  met  the  Essenes,  because  of  "  their  small 
numbers  and  retired  habits."  He  recognises  in  the 
fact  that  these  exorcists  used  •  the  name  of  Christ,  an 
evidence  of  "  overtures  of  alliance  on  the  part  of 
Essenism."  Let  us  now  make  some  deduction  from 
his  conclusions.  Within  thirty  years  from  the  founda- 
tion of  Christianity  the  Churches  of  the  Lycus  are 
infected  with  Essenism  to  such  an  extent  that  they 
seem  ready  to  fall  away  wholly  from  the  simplicity  of 
the  original  faith.  Surely  the  leaders  of  the  Church  in 


116  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Colosse  must  have  recognised  a  strong  affinity  between 
themselves  and  these  teachers,  or  they  would  not  have 
allowed  them  to  get  a  position  of  such  predominance. 
This  affinity  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  resem- 
blance of  doctrine  in  the  face  of  Paul's  denunciations. 
The  affinity,  then,  must  have  been  some  historic 
connection  such  as  we  contend  for.  Assuming  the 
correctness  of  his  conclusion,— and  we  see  no  reason  to 
doubt  it, — that  Gnosticism  sprang  in  the  main  from 
Essenism,  then  the  widespread  prevalence  of  Gnosticism 
in  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  only  strengthens 
our  argument.  We  for  our  part  would  go  much  further, 
and  recognise  in  the  whole  Judaising  party  Essenes. 
The  head  of  that  party  was  James,  the  Lord's  brother ; 
and  the  account  we  have  of  him  from  Hegesippus1 
has,  as  admitted  by  Bishop  Lightfoot,  many  Essenian 
features.  He  puts  aside  the  evidence  of  Hegesippus, 
because  he  wrote  about  a  century  after  the  event,  was 
of  the  Judaic  party,  and  borrowed  his  account  from  an 
early  heretical  work,  the  "  Ascents  of  James."  These 
assertions — which  we  grant  to  be  true — tell  in  precisely 
the  opposite  way  from  that  in  which  Bishop  Lightfoot 

1  The  account  Hegesippus  gives  of  James  is  as  follows  (Euseb.  ii.  23)  : 
"  He  was  holy  from  his  mother's  womb  ;  he  drank  neither  wine  nor 
strong  drink,  nor  ate  animal  food,  nor  did  razor  ever  pass  upon  his 
head.  He  never  used  the  sumptuous  bath  (fia.hotvsia).  He  never  wore 
woollen,  but  only  linen.  On  account  of  his  exceeding  righteousness  he 
was  called  '  the  just,'  and  '  Oblias,'  which  is  in  Hebrew,  '  rampart  of  the 
people  and  righteousness.' "  The  bath  here  does  not  refer  to  the  Jewish 
and  Essene  washings  for  purification ;  these  were  called  ftx7rriTft.o7j  Heb. 
ix.  10  ;  fiaTTTiaftetTcc,  Epiph.  i.  255  (Abbe  Migne).  In  regard  to  the  word 
'  Oblias '  there  is  great  difference  of  opinion.  Renan  (Saint  Paul,  80  ; 
L'Antechrist,  68)  suggests  the  Hebrew  to  have  been  Djrittri-  Several 
other  suggestions  might  be  mentioned  ;  but  there  is  no  certainty  as  to 
what  was  the  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  in  the  mind  of  Hegesippus. 


THE  ESSENES.  117 

believes  them  to  do.  We  have  here  a  Judaic  Christian 
resident  in  Judea  in  the  beginning  of  the  latter  half  of 
the  second  century  describing  the  first  president  of  the 
Church  in  Jerusalem,  James,  the  Lord's  brother,  as  an 
Essene.  We  find,  further,  that  he  drew  his  account 
from  an  earlier  document  of  the  same  school.  The 
probability  seems  to  be  great  that  his  account  of  James 
is  correct.  If  so,  then  we  have  the  brother  of  our  Lord 
an  Essene.  This  would  not  only  prove  the  close  per- 
sonal connection  of  our  Lord  with  the  Essenes,  but 
also,  as  James  was,  as  we  have  said,  the  head  of  the 
Judaisers,  the  size  and  importance  of  the  Essene 
elements  in  the  early  Church.  Despite  what  Bishop 
Lightfoot  says,  nothing  in  the  Acts  or  the  Epistles 
really  contradicts  this.  It  is  from  his  personal  habits 
as  described  to  us  by  Hegesippus  that  we  deduce  his 
Essenism,  and  there  is  not  a  word  either  in  the  Acts  or 
Epistles — his  own  or  those  of  Paul — that  bear  upon  this. 
We  hold  he  was  a  true  Christian,  but  "  zealous  for  the 
law  "  after  the  manner  of  the  sect  of  the  Essenes.  The 
points  where  he  is  supposed  to  differ  from  the  Essenes 
are  simply  those  where  one  Essene  school  differs  from 
another.  Further,  Bishop  Lightfoot  holds  that  after 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  the  Essenes  bodily  became 
Christians.  If  so,  there  must  have  been  some  historic 
affinity  to  overcome  the  points  of  difference  between 
the  Essene  teaching  and  that  of  Christianity. 

The  truth  seems  to  have  been  that,  recognising  the 
points  of  resemblance  between  themselves  and  the  early 
Christians, — their  common  meals,  and  their  desire  to 
have  all  things  in  common, — the  Essenes  pressed  into 
the  Church.  The  same  thing  that  led  to  their  desire 


1 1 8  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

to  enter  the  Church  in  great  numbers,  made  the  apostles 
prone  to  receive  them  without  careful  enough  scrutiny. 
Hence  the  presence  in  the  Church  of  that  large  Juda- 
ising  section  who  so  keenly  opposed  Paul.  Perhaps 
the  fact  that  Paul  was  a  Pharisee  had  something  to 
do  with  this  opposition.  If  we  are  correct  that  our 
Lord  belonged  to  the  order  of  Essenes  in  whatever  way, 
then  the  passage  from  Essenism  to  Christianity  would  be 
all  the  more  easy,  and  the  dividing  line  which  separated 
the  one  from  the  other  less  visible. 

Another  singular  phenomenon  of  early  Christianity 
is  the  rise  of  Monasticism.  Monasticism  certainly  is 
foreign  to  Pauline  Christianity,  and  foreign  also  to  the 
Christianity  of  Christ.  How  did  it  spring  up  ?  The 
legendary  history  of  St.  Anthony,  falsely  attributed 
to  Athanasius,  even  if  it  contained  any  grains  of 
truth,  which  is  sufficiently  doubtful,  explains  nothing. 
St.  Anthony  is  represented  as  being  the  founder  of  the 
monastic  system  ;  but  at  the  same  time  early  solitaries 
instruct  him.  The  movement  had  its  origin  in  Syria 
and  Egypt — precisely  the  quarter  where  the  Essenes 
and  the  Therapeutse  flourished.  Monasticism  is  really 
Essenism  baptized  unto  Christ.  The  presence  and 
persistence  of  an  Essenian  element  in  the  Christian 
Church  implies  a  certain  external  connection  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Church's  history. 

Another  argument  suggests  itself.  Our  Lord  is 
always  addressed  as  Rabbi  or  Master,  not  only  by  His 
own  disciples,  but  also  by  those  without.  Were  this  done 
by  the  multitude,  it  would  mean  very  little.  Were  a 
quack  to  be  addressed  as  "  doctor  "  by  any  one  of  the 
people  he  was  treating,  or  even  by  one  of  the  general 


THE  ESSENES.  119 

public,  it  would  mean  no  more  than  the  fact  that 
courtesy  makes  persons  fonder  of  avoiding  giving 
offence  than  of  being  punctiliously  accurate  as  to  matters 
of  title  or  graduation.  If,  however,  a  deputation  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  sent  to  question 
him  addressed  him  as  "doctor,"  then  we  should  be 
compelled  to  recognise  him,  whatever  his  conduct,  as, 
at  all  events,  a  duly  qualified  medical  practitioner  ;  in- 
deed more,  as  a  Doctor  of  Medicine,  having  the  diploma 
of  some  acknowledged  university.  Now  the  Pharisees 
come  to  Him  to  question  Him  about  the  tribute- 
money,  and  they  commence  by  addressing  Him  as 
"  Master."  Immediately  thereafter  the  Sadducees 
wish  to  baffle  Him  with  their  difficulties  in  regard 
to  the  matrimonial  position  in  the  resurrection  of 
the  woman  who  had  been  seven  times  a  widow ;  and 
they,  too,  address  Him  as  "  Master."  Individual 
scribes  so  address  Him,  and  the  young  ruler  of  the 
synagogue  does  so.  If,  however,  we  are  to  receive 
the  accounts  in  the  Mishna,  even  to  become  a  scholar 
to  the  Rabbins  required  a  special  ordination,1  much 
more  was  this  required  to  be  a  teacher  or  a  Rabbi. 
From  neither  the  Pharisees  nor  the  Sadducees  could 
He  have  received  that  title.  The  only  other  sect 
that  remains  is  the  Essenes. 

Our  conclusion  is  not  upset  by  the  transaction  in  the 
synagogue  at  Nazareth.  Their  objection  to  Him  is  not 
His  want  of  Rabbinic  ordination,  but  that  He  took  up 
a  position  in  relation  to  tradition  totally  unlike  the 

1  Schiirer,  Div.  II.  vol.  ii.  22,  note  (Eng.  transl.,  Clark).  Hausrath, 
New  Testament  Times,  i.  91  (Eng.  transl.,  Williams  &  Norgate).  The  proof 
here  is  certainly  Talmudic,  but  in  this  matter  of  the  internal  constitution 
of  their  schools  the  evidence  of  the  Rabbins  k  good. 


120  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

other  Rabbins,  "  He  taught  as  with  authority,  and  not 
as  the  scribes."  This  divinity  He  claimed  they  would 
not  admit,  because  all  his  relatives  were  perfectly  well 
known.  If  it  had  been  His  want  of  Rabbinic  ordination 
that  was  objected  to,  He  would  not  have  been  permitted 
to  teach  in  the  synagogue  at  all.  We  hold  that  John 
the  Baptist  was  also  a  Rabbi,  as  he  is  called,  by  the 
same  Essenian  ordination. 

We  have  thus  endeavoured  to  prove  that  our  Lord 
was  in  some  sense  a  member  of  the  sect  of  the  Essenes. 
We  have  seen  that  the  fact  that  our  Lord  now  encoun- 
ters or  rebukes  the  Essenes  implies  some  relationship 
to  them.  That  the  appearance  at  the  presentation  in 
the  temple  and  at  the  tomb  of  those  connected  with 
the  sect  implies  a  connection  with  Christ  that  is  borne 
out  by  the  Essen e  Apocalyptic  books.  The  presence  in 
the  Church  very  early  of  a  strong  Essenian  element 
proves  a  historical  connection  with  its  founder.  Further, 
the  ascription  of  the  title  Rabbi  to  our  Lord  implies 
that  He  had  received  Rabbinic  ordination  from  the 
members  of  one  of  the  recognised  sects,  and  the  Essene 
sect  is  the  only  one  from  which  He  can  have  received  it. 

When,  however,  we  say  that  our  Lord  was  an  Essene, 
we  do  not  assert  that  He  was  so  in  the  same  sense 
as  St.  Paul  was  a  Pharisee.  We  do  not  mean  that  He 
was  bound  down  by  the  maxims,  or  formed  wholly  by 
its  teachings.  He  was  Divine,  and  therefore  stood  in  a 
perfectly  free  relation  to  the  school  and  its  tenets.  In 
.order  to  enter  into  brotherhood  with  men,  He  con- 
descended to  be  born.  In  order  that  He  might  unveil 
most  fully  and  perfectly  that  brotherhood,  He  chose 
that  race  that  had  been  educated  by  centuries  of  Divine 


THE  ESSENES.  12 1 

training.  Born  a  Jew,  He  declared  it  His  purpose  to 
fulfil  all  righteousness.  The  high  priests  of  His  day 
were  men  far  from  being  worthy  of  their  high  office, 
yet  He  honours  the  priesthood,  and  sends  the  cleansed 
leper  to  show  himself  to  the  priest.  Although  He  had 
no  need  of  the  baptism  of  repentance,  yet  He  was  bap- 
tized of  John ;  although  as  a  son  there  was  no  claim  on 
Him  to  pay  the  half-shekel  for  the  sanctuary,  yet  He 
paid  it.  All  that  we  hold  is,  that  as  the  ordinary  way 
of  becoming  a  teacher,  which  to  fulfil  His  office  He  had 
to  be,  was  to  belong  to  one  of  the  received  sects,  He 
chose  that  to  which  He  was  most  akin.  Of  the  four 
sorts  of  Essenes  we  may  be  sure  that  He  belonged  to 
that  which  was  likest  to  Him  and  trammelled  Him  least. 
Still,  there  must  have  been  a  Divine  freedom  in  His 
connection  with  the  order  as  well  as  the  sect.  He 
broke  away  from  them  in  many  points  ;  yet  from  their 
respect  for  Himself,  and  from  the  relative  freedom  of 
the  sect,  there  does  not  seem  to  have  been  ever  serious 
collision  between  Him  and  the  Essene  sect.  We  have 
sometimes  thought  that  the  attempt  His  brethren  made 
to  stop  His  teaching,  "saying,  He  is  beside  Himself,"  was 
really  the  action  of  the  Essenes.  With  that  doubtful 
exception  they  left  Him  to  teach  and  to  preach  as  His 
own  Divine  nature  dictated  to  Him.  Thus  He  attended 
weddings  though  some  of  the  Essenes  abjured  wedlock, 
and  allowed  His  feet  to  be  anointed  with  ointment, 
although  many  of  the  members  of  His  sect  abhorred  it 
as  pollution.  In  this  sense  only  do  we  hold  Christ  to 
have  been  an  Essene.  He  was  divinely  original,  but 
chose  as  the  starting-point  of  His  self-manifestation 
one  of  the  orders  of  the  Essene  sect. 


122  THE  BACKGKOUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

We  have  not  taken  any  notice  of  De  Quincey's 
theory,  that  the  Essenes  were  merely  the  early  Chris- 
tians disguised  as  members  of  a  secret  society.  This 
view  does  not  need  serious  refutation  to  any  one  who 
knows  anything  of  the  literature  of  the  subject.  His 
idea,  that  Christianity  would  fall  in  ruins  if  the 
morality  of  the  Essenes  was  proved  to  precede  that  of 
Christ,  is  a  hallucination  founded  on  a  misconception 
of  the  essence  of  Christianity,  and  of  the  nature  of  the 
morality  of  the  Essenes.  The  originality  of  our  Lord 
lay  not  so  much  in  His  precepts  as  in  the  impulse  He 
gave  men  to  strive  to  fulfil  them,  and  in  the  vital 
power  He  imparted  to  enable  them,  in  some  measure, 
to  accomplish  what  they  strove  after.  The  essence  of 
Christianity  is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  but  in  the  resurrection  from  the  dead.  The 
former  is  the  solvent  of  Judaism ;  the  latter,  the 
foundation  of  a  new  life.  It  was  as  witnesses  for  the 
latter,  not  the  former,  that  the  martyrs  died.  We 
need  not  do  more  than  refer  to  his  misconception  of 
the  views  of  the  Essenes.  The  morality  of  the  inner 
sects  of  the  Essenes  was  far  from  being  that  of  Christ. 
It  was  the  morality  of  monasticism ;  and  naturally 
resulted  in  such  combinations  of  dirt  and  divinity  as 
St.  Simon  Stylites,  not  in  a  healthy  Christian  life. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD — THE  APOCRYPHA. 

~TN  His  parable  of  the  sower  our  Lord  shows  how  im- 
-*-  portant  is  the  question  of  soil  in  regard  to  the 
hopes  of  a  harvest.  It  is  no  denial  of  the  vitality 
of  the  seed,  that  it  needs  a  suitable  soil  before  it  can 
spring  up  and  bring  forth  fruit,  in  some  thirty,  in  some 
sixty,  in  some  an  hundred  fold.  There  is  no  implied 
assertion  that  the  soil  can  of  itself  produce  the  harvest 
without  the  seed.  Our  Lord's  parable  really  shows 
that  it  is  alike  needful  that  there  be  a  soil  suitable — 
that  it  be  prepared ;  and  further,  that  into  that  soil  a 
living  seed  be  cast.  It  seems  to  us  that  too  little  atten- 
tion has  been  directed  to  the  nature  and  composition 
of  this  spiritual  soil  in  which  Christianity  was  sown. 

The  external  history  of  the  period  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  times  of  our  Lord  has  been  more  thoroughly 
investigated  than  have  the  traces  of  its  religious 
thought.  It  is  certainly  important  to  know  the  his- 
tory, for  otherwise  the  setting  of  events  is  in  dark- 
ness. But  after  that  is  known,  the  reader  may  be  said 
to  have  got  rather  the  equivalent  to  the  meteorological 
tables, — the  record  of  the  storms  and  frosts  that  have 
passed  over  the  soil,  than  the  constitution  of  the  soil 
itself.  This  table  is  good,  but  not  all.  To  get  a 
knowledge  of  the  soil,  it  is  further  necessary  to  examine, 


124  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

so  far  as  they  have  come  down  to  us,  its  products — 
the  religious  works  that  have  been  produced  outside 
the  pale  of  inspiration.  While  to  us  the  Apocalyptic 
works  seem  by  far  the  most  important,  to  estimate 
them  aright  we  need  to  have  a  certain  acquaintance 
with  other  adjacent  literature.  We  know  more  of  the 
climate  and  soil  that  suits  a  plant  when  we  know  the 
other  plants  that  flourish  in  its  neighbourhood. 

In  commencing  our  general  survey  we  naturally 
meet  first  with  the  collection  of  works,  which,  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  other  works  nearly  similar  that 
have  not  been  admitted  into  it,  may  be  called  the 
Canonical  Apocrypha.  We  mean  those  works  that  are 
commonly  known  by  the  name  "  the  Apocrypha,"  and 
were  till  the  beginning  of  this  century  usually  bound 
up  with  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  but  separated 
from  them  by  a  different  title-page.  This  separation 
from  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  yet 
inclusion  in  the  sacred  volume,  was  due  to  the  specially 
halting  form  in  which  the  Reformation  was  carried  out 
in  England.  These  books  were  recognised  not  to  be 
the  Bible  in  any  authoritative  sense ;  yet  as  many 
worthy  people  had  been  accustomed  to  them,  they 
were  included  in  the  sacred  volume,  though  excluded 
from  both  Testaments.  In  the  Septuagint,  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  books  became  latterly  pretty  nearly  fixed 
according  to  a  combined  logical  and  chronological 
system,  and  this  order  pre-Tridentine  editions  of  the 
Vulgate  follow.  With  the  Council  of  Trent  the  books, 
while  still  generally  admitted  into  the  canon,  were 
treated  in  a  different  way.  The  Tridentine  Fathers 
so  far  yielded  to  the  Protestant  position  that  the  Third 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.         125 

and  Fourth  Books  of  Esdras — the  first  and  second  of 
our  English  Apocrypha — and  the  Prayer  of  Manasses 
were  relegated  to  the  end  of  the  New  Testament. 

The  history  of  the  formation  of  this  supplemental 
canon  is  exceedingly  obscure.  The  majority  of  the 
writings  have  been  admitted  into  their  present  posi- 
tion by  the  influence  of  the  Jewish  community  of 
Alexandria.  Some,  however,  noticeably  the  Fourth 
Book  of  Esdras,  were  not  in  the  original  Septuagint 
canon.  Indeed,  speaking  of  the  Fourth  Book  of  Esdras, 
we  may  note  that  it  has  not  come  down  to  us  in 
either  sacred  language,  though  all  the  versions  show 
signs  of  having  been  evidently  translated  at  all  events 
from  a  Greek  original.  We  have  only  very  few  frag- 
ments of  this  Greek  original  preserved.  We  shall,  how- 
ever, reserve  consideration  of  this  book  till  we  take  up 
the  apocalyptic  class  to  which  it  certainly  belongs. 

While  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  collection  as 
a  collection  is  beside  our  purpose,  a  more  detailed 
survey  of  the  individual  books  may  not  be  without  profit 
to  us.  Formerly  it  was  deemed  enough  to  decide  that 
a  book  was  apocryphal  to  excuse  its  complete  neglect. 
It  is,  however,  becoming  every  day  more  and  more  dis- 
tinctly recognised  that  these  apocryphal  and  pseud- 
epigraphic  books  may  be  replete  with  interest  and 
information  for  us.  They  may  not,  and  do  not,  give  us 
any  sure  information  concerning  the  time  they  assume 
as  that  of  their  origin,  but  incidentally  they  do  give 
us  a  great  deal  concerning  that  from  which  they 
have  actually  sprung.  We  shall  consider  them  in  the 
order  in  which  they  occur  in  our  English  Apocrypha. 

The  Apocrypha  begins  with  the  two  books  of  Esdras, 


126  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

which  are  both  excluded,  as  we  have  already  said,  from 
the  Tridentine  canon.  First  Esdras,  or,  to  give  it  the 
name  by  which  it  is  best  known  among  Continental 
critics,  Third  Esdras,  is  really  a  compilation  of  scraps 
from  Chronicles,  Ezra,  and  Nehemiah,  with  a  Midrash 
about  Zerubbabel  thrown  in.  There  are  traces  in  the 
Midrash  of  two  recensions.  Three  youths  declaim  each 
before  King  Darius  on  what  they  consider  the  strongest 
in  the  world  :  the  first  says  wine ;  the  second,  the  king  ; 
the  third,  Zerubabbel  first  declares  woman  to  be  the 
strongest,  and  then  awkwardly  adds  that  truth  is 
strongest  of  all.  The  date  of  the  compilation  is 
uncertain,  save  that  it  must  be  before  the  days  of 
Josephus.  He  quotes  at  length  the  story  of  Zerub- 
babel, and  follows  the  apocryphal  in  preference  to  the 
canonical  Ezra.  The  compilation  must  also  have  been 
made  somewhat  late  in  the  Grecian  period,  when  such 
chronological  blunders  were  possible  as  that  Darius, 
under  whom  Zerubbabel  lived,  should  be  asserted  to 
have  succeeded  Artaxerxes — the  grandfather  succeed- 
ing the  grandson.  There  is  no  trace  of  the  apostles 
having  any  knowledge  of  this  book.  Second  Esdras 
being  an  Apocalypse,  we  shall  retain  it,  as  we  have 
said,  for  future  consideration. 

The  Book  of  Tobit,  it  is  needless  to  say,  has  no 
historical  basis.  It  seems  to  have  been  written  while 
the  Persian  empire  was  still  standing ;  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem  had  by  this  time  been  built,  and  hopes  were 
entertained  of  a  widespread  conversion  to  Judaism. 
Had  the  Greek  power  been  already  in  the  predominant, 
there  would  have  been  some  signs  in  Tobit's  prophecy, 
which  we  find  in  the  last  two  chapters,  that  the  powers 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.         12? 

under  which  Nineveh  was  to  fall  were  not  to  be  per- 
manent. As  even  during  the  reign  of  the  Lagid  princes 
the  Jews  were  compelled  to  recognise  the  inferior  posi- 
tion they  held  in  relation  to  their  masters  in  a  way 
that  they  never  had  to  do  under  the  Persian  rule,  the 
note  of  exultation  with  which  the  book  closes  may  be 
held  as  confirming  this  view  of  its  date.  It  has  been 
argued  by  Bertholdt  that  the  mention  of  Eages,  which 
he  asserts  was  founded  by  Seleucus  Nicanor,  proves 
Tobit  to  have  been  written  in  the  age  of  the  Seleucids  ; 
but  "  Rages "  was  really  much  older,  and  Seleucus 
merely  rebuilt  it.1 

Of  course  nothing  is  known  of  the  authorship  of  the 
book.  Literary  fame  was  not  so  much  valued  during 
the  fifth  century  B.C.  as  it  is  in  the  nineteenth  A.D. 
The  fact  that  the  first  two  chapters  and  a  few  verses 
of  the  third  chapter  are  written  in  the  first  person, 
while  in  the  rest  of  the  book  the  third  person 
is  used,  may  seem  to  point  to  a  double  authorship. 
The  language  in  which  Tobit  was  originally  written 
is,  if  we  have  to  look  merely  at  the  text  before  us, 
somewhat  difficult  to  decide.  If  we  are  right  in 
following  Ewald's  date,  350  B.C.,  Greek  the  language 
certainly  would  not  be  ;  the  question  is  really  between 
Hebrew  and  Aramaic.  The  free  use  of  the  article  may 
be  regarded  as  an  evidence  in  favour  of  the  former 
being  the  original  tongue.  The  present  Hebrew  and 
Aramaic  versions  are  translations  from  the  Greek. 
Notwithstanding  the  authority  of  Ewald,  it  would 

1  Arrian  (Anab.  iii.  20)  mentions  Rhages,  and  evidently  regards  it  as 
having  been  of  some  importance  in  the  days  of  his  hero,  for  he  names  it 
as  the  termination  of  an  eleven  days'  march,  and  reckons  its  distance 
from  the  Caspian  Gate. 


128  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

seem  not  to  have  had  its  place  of  origin  in  the  far 
East,  but  in  Palestine.  The  writer  is  greatly  occupied 
with  the  duty  of  worshipping  regularly  at  the  temple 
in  Jerusalem,  a  thing  a  Jew  in  Palestine  would  be 
much  more  likely  to  emphasise  than  one  resident  on 
the  banks  of  the  Euphrates. 

The  moral  standpoint  of  Tobit  corresponds  generally 
with  that  of  the  Jews  in  the  days  of  our  Lord.  We  find 
almsgiving  exalted  as  practically  the  sum  of  righteous- 
ness (iv.  16),  "  Because  that  alms  do  deliver  from  death 
and  will  not  suffer  to  enter  into  darkness."  The  belief 
in  demoniac  possession  is  also  to  be  noted.  In  the  Old 
Testament  the  nearest  approach  to  demoniac  possession 
was  the  case  of  Saul,  of  whom  it  was  said  that  an  evil 
spirit  from  the  Lord  troubled  him.  But  there  are 
marked  points  of  difference  between  the  case  of  Saul 
and  the  cases  of  the  possessed  healed  by  our  Lord.  In 
the  case  of  Sara  the  daughter  of  Kaguel,  the  possession 
is  similar  in  nature  to  those  we  find  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  childish  mode  of  exorcism  does  not  destroy 
the  validity  of  the  parallel. 

The  angelology  of  the  Book  of  Tobit  requires  to  be 
noticed,  as  the  introduction  of  Raphael  prepares  us  for 
the  more  elaborate  angelology  of  the  Book  of  Enoch 
and  of  the  apocalyptist  generally.  Raphael  declares 
himself  to  be  (xii.  15)  "  one  of  the  seven  holy  angels 
which  present  the  prayers  of  the  saints,"  and  which  go 
in  and  out  before  the  glory  of  the  Holy  One.  It  is 
impossible  to  deny  the  influence  of  Persian  religious 
conception  in  this,  or  to  fail  to  recognise  the  resem- 
blance these  seven  angels  bear  to  the  seven  Amhaspands 
of  the  Zenda- Vesta.  That  Raphael  is  the  angel  of 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.       129 

"  healing,"   is   a   collateral  proof  that   the   book   was 
written  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic. 

Like  Tobit,  Judith  is  a  story  with  a  moral  point; 
but  there  are  many  points  of  difference.  The  state  of 
matters  which  occasioned  the  two  books  must  for  one 
thing  have  been  widely  different.  Renan  l  declares  it 
to  have  been  written  in  the  year  80  A.D.,  and  uses  his 
wonted  skill  in  fitting  it  into  the  background  he  has 
chosen.  Volkmar 2  (followed  by  a  number  of  critics), 
wrho  seems  to  regard  the  time  of  Barcochba,  since  wre 
practically  know  nothing  about  it,  as  a  sort  of  waste- 
basket  into  which  everything  can  be  thrown  that  is 
not  definitely  proved  to  belong  to  another  age,  thinks 
that  Judith  was  written  then.  To  one  who  does  not 
belong  to  this  class  of  critics,  the  age  of  Barcochba 
is  simply  impossible  for  Judith,  and  improbable  gene- 
rally for  writings  of  any  importance.  Renan  advances 
very  conclusive  reasons  against  the  opinion  that 
Barcochba  had  possession  of  Jerusalem,  or  that  in  his 
day  Jerusalem  was  much  more  than  a  heap  of  ruins 
with  a  fort  garrisoned  by  Roman  soldiers.  If  the 
Jewish  community  was  scattered  in  a  number  of  incon- 
siderable towns  and  villages,  there  was  little  likelihood 
that  great  literary  activity  would  spring  up  among  them. 
But  more,  the  Book  of  Judith  is  referred  to  by  Clement ; 
and  if  we  take  his  date  as  approximately  95,  then  that 
definitely  decides  against  the  Barcochba  date.  But 
even  if  the  Epistle  of  Clement  be  held  to  be  spurious, 
and  not  to  have  been  written  till  A.D.  140,  still  it  was 
impossible  that  a  book  proceeding  from  a  Jewish  com- 
munity at  a  time  when  the  hatred  between  Jew  and 

1  Les  Eranyiles,  p.  29.  2  Mose  Prophetic. 


130  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Christian  was  intense,  should  have  been  received  by 
the  Christian  Church  as  Scripture  within  fifteen  years 
of  its  composition.  If  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  of 
Clement  was  a  Jewish  freedman,  his  knowledge  of  the 
book  would  be  combined  with  a  knowledge  of  its  Jewish 
origin ;  he  would  know  it  then,  but  only  to  hold  it  in 
abhorrence  and  contempt. 

In  the  book  itself  there  is  no  trace  that  there  was  a 
race  of  heretics  who  had  separated  from  the  rest  of 
Judaism,  a  fact  of  which  we  find  abundant  traces  in  the 
Talmud.  The  most  probable  date  would  seem  to  be 
about  100  B.C.  The  fact  that  Josephus  does  not  quote 
it  is  no  evidence  against  its  existence  before  his  day, 
nor  is  it  even  indubitable  evidence  that  he  did  not 
know  of  its  existence.  The  background  of  history  it 
assumes  plays  such  fearful  pranks  with  actual  events 
that  no  historian  of  Josephus'  reading  could  for  a 
moment  regard  it  as  worthy  of  credit.  As  none  of 
the  features  of  the  story  could  have  been  taken  with- 
out taking  the  background,  he  naturally  abandons 
the  whole.  Eegarded  as  an  allegory  of  the  position 
of  the  Jewish  Church  surrounded  by  the  powers  of  the 
world,  it  is  not  without  its  beauty.  It  probably  was 
written  in  Aramaic. 

The  additions  to  the  Book  of  Esther  arc  valueless, 
though  they  must  date  at  least  earlier  than  the  days 
of  Josephus.  Where  they  were  written,  and  in  what 
language,  seems  doubtful ;  but  the  probability  is  that 
they  were  written  in  Egypt,  and  that  the  language 
was  Greek.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  addi- 
tions to  Esther  were  not  originally  collected  together 
as  they  are  now,  but  were  inserted  at  special  points  of 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.       131 

the  narrative.  Save  that  they  were  known  to  Josephus, 
these  additions  seem  to  have  produced  no  effect  on 
thought  in  Palestine. 

After  these  books,  which  it  would  be  a  misrepre- 
sentation to  call  legends,  come  a  pair  of  books  which 
were  united  with  the  Hagiographa  in  the  Septuagint. 
The  first  claims  to  be  a  writing  of  Solomon  ;  the  latter 
makes  no  such  claim,  but  its  author  has  taken  the 
Solomonic  works  as  his  model.  They  are  the  latest 
memorials  of  the  Hochma1  literature  of  the  Hebrew 
which  has  come  down  to  us. 

The  first,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  does  not  take  the 
proverbial  form  which  has  been  associated  with  the 
name  of  Solomon,  but  is  rather  a  treatise  which  at 
times  rises  to  a  high  degree  of  eloquence.  It  contains 
a  splendid  encomium  of  wisdom  in  terms  that  make  it 
an  intermediary  between  the  Almighty  and  His  works. 
In  this  way  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  prepares  the  way 
for  Philo,  as  he  again  for  the  Apostle  John.  The  Logos 
of  Philo  is  nearer  personality  than  the  "  Wisdom  "  of 
the  present  book.  One  marked  point  of  difference 
between  the  Logos  of  Philo  and  the  "  Wisdom  "  in  the 
book  before  us  is  that  while  the  Logos  suggests  the 
second  person  of  the  Christian  Trinity,  the  "Wisdom" 
here  suggests  the  third.  Thus  in  Wisd.  vii.  22  it  is 
said  "  in  her  (Wisdom)  is  an  understanding  spirit ; " 
again  (ix.  17)  God  is  entreated  to  send  forth  His  Holy 
Spirit.  Of  course,  this  eulogium  of  Wisdom  is  sug- 

1  Hochma,  ncpn,  is  the  Hebrew  word  for  "  wisdom,"  and  the  Hochma 

literature  consists  of  those  books  that  have  to  do  with  wisdom.  The 
Hebrew  term  is  used  rather  than  the  English,  because  the  Hebrew  had  a 
very  special  connotation  which  the  English  has  not.  The  Hochma  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Job. 


132  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

gested  by  the  opening  chapters  of  Proverbs.  In  many 
of  the  writings  of  the  Apostle  Paul  there  are  traces 
of  familiarity  with  this  book,  or,  at  all  events,  with 
the  lines  of  thought  common  in  it.  Thus  the  com- 
parison of  the  potter  making  one  vessel  to  honour 
and  another  to  dishonour,  is  found  in  Rom.  ix.  21 
and  Wisd.  xv.  6.  The  use  made  of  the  comparison 
is  very  different,  but  still  the  comparison  is  there. 
Even  more  striking  is  the  resemblance  between  Eph. 
vi.  13-17  and  Wisd.  v.  17-19.  In  both,  the  figure 
of  armour  is  used  to  show  the  defence  the  saint  has 
against  the  assaults  of  evil.  Several  other  passages 
might  be  brought  forward  where  the  resemblance  is 
more  in  the  thoughts  than  the  words.  There  is  an 
interesting  passage  in  this  book  which  shows  a  progress 
of  doctrine  towards  the  Christian  position.  In  the 
Book  of  Genesis  there  is  no  hint  given  that  Eve 
was  tempted  by  anything  else  than  an  ordinary  ser- 
pent, the  agency  of  the  devil  is  not  even  suggested ; 
but  Wisd.  ii.  24  says,  "Through  envy  of  the  devil 
came  death  into  the  world." 

Hitherto  it  has  been  received  almost  as  axiomatically 
true  that  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  was  written  in  Greek, 
but  Professor  Margoliouth's  investigation  seems  to  prove 
that  it  was  written  in  Hebrew.  This  being  granted,  it 
would  follow  almost  necessarily  that  it  was  composed 
in  Palestine,  for  Philo's  limited  knowledge  of  Hebrew 
proves  how  incapable  even  the  most  learned  men  of 
the  Jewish  community  of  Alexandria  were  of  writing 
a  treatise  in  that  tongue.  It  would  further  explain  the 
resemblance  to  be  traced  between  the  thoughts  of  Paul 
and  those  of  the  Book  of  Wisdom  without  there  being 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.       133 

any  corresponding  similarity  in  language.  It  has 
been  used  against  this  book  having  a  pre-Christian 
date,  that  Philo  does  not  make  use  of  it ;  but  it  might 
not  have  been  translated  into  Greek  when  he  wrote. 
Further,  we  must  remember  that  Philo  is  occupied 
mainly  with  the  Books  of  Moses. 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  even  to  approximate  to  the 
probable  date  of  this  book.  If  we  may  deduce  any- 
thing from  the  fact  that  there  is  no  reference  to  per- 
secution in  order  to  compel  men  to  become  idolaters, 
we  might  judge  the  time  to  be  probably  far  removed 
from  the  times  of  Epiphanes.  There  is  also  nothing 
which  can  be  regarded  as  a  reference  to  the  fratricidal 
struggles  which  disgraced  the  later  Hasmonseans.  It 
may,  then,  have  been  written  during  the  reign  of 
Alexander  Jannseus,  100  B.C.  The  influence  of  Gentile 
thought  may  be  traced  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  show- 
ing that  Platonism  and  Pythagoreanism  were  not  so 
foreign  to  the  habits  of  the  Jewish  thought  as  the 
Pharisee  Eabbins  would  have  us  believe. 

In  the  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus  we  have  a  book  that 
takes  us  directly  into  the  line  of  the  old  Jewish 
Hochma  literature.  The  author  wrote  evidently  with 
the  Books  of  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes  before  his  eyes. 
There  is,  however,  more  effort  at  something  like 
arrangement  and  classification  in  Ecclesiasticus  than 
in  either  of  his  models  ;  at  the  same  time,  it  must  be 
recognised  that  this  is  not  carried  so  far  as  in  the 
Book  of  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon.  There  are  fewer 
traces  in  the  matter  of  acquaintance  with  Greek  habits 
of  thought.  Schiirer  (Herzog,  Real-Enc.  i.  509)  says 
of  this  book,  "it  is  the  extra  -  canonical  shadow 


134  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

(doppelgang&r)  of  the  canonical  Book  of  Proverbs ; 
and,  as  this  is  the  result  of  a  practical  wisdom  derived 
from  ordinary  life,  expressed  in  poetic  form."  The 
first  eight  or  ten  chapters  follow  in  a  certain  rough 
fashion  the  order  of  the  Ten  Commandments ;  then 
he  takes  up  special  duties,  but  interspersed  in  each 
of  these  classes  there  are  proverbial  sayings  that 
seem  not  to  have  much  bearing  on  the  immediate 
context.  There  is  a  description  of  wisdom  which 
challenges  comparison  with  that  in  the  preceding  book, 
but  is  much  more  prosaic  and  abstract,  though  still 
fine.  It  contains  a  great  many  valuable  hints  as  to 
the  ethical  and  theological  position  of  the  Jews  at  the 
time  it  was  written.  The  importance  ascribed  to  alms- 
giving, it  may  be  noted,  is  greater  than  we  find  even 
in  the  Book  of  Tobit.  In  the  present  book,  the  duty 
of  almsgiving  occurs  in  almost  every  page,  presented 
in  ever- vary  ing  aspects.  In  iv.  5  it  is  said,  "  Reject 
not  the  supplication 'of  the  afflicted,  neither  turn  away 
thy  face  from  a  poor  man."  At  the  same  time,  it  is 
not  indiscriminate  beneficence  that  is  recommended,  but 
to  the  godly.  "  Do  good  to  the  godly  man,  and  thou 
shalt  find  a  recompense "  (xii.  2).  Again,  "  Give  to 
the  good,  help  not  the  sinner"  (ver.  7).  That  this  view 
of  the  importance  of  almsgiving  was  prominent  in  the 
days  of  our  Lord  is  proved  by  the  various  reading 
since  received  in  Matt.  vi.  1,  "  Do  not  thy  righteous- 
ness before  men,"  where  "almsgiving"  and  "righteous- 
ness "  are  made  equivalents.  How  much  in  the  altruistic 
developments  of  morality  the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus 
is  behind  the  teaching  of  Christ  may  be  seen  in  his 
advice  (xii.  10),  "never  trust  thine  enemy."  In  regard 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.      135 

to  sexual  morality,  there  may  be  seen  a  preparation  for 
the  deeper  morality  of  our  Lord,  but  far  from  a  fore- 
stalling of  it.     The  incidence  of  the  law  is  recognised 
fully.     One  of  the  precepts  is,  "  Fear  the  Lord,  honour 
the  priest,  and  give  him  his  portion  as  it  is  commanded 
thee.    The  first-fruits,  the  trespass-offering,  the  gifts  of 
the  shoulders,   and  the  sacrifice   of  sanctification,  and 
the  first-fruits  of  the   holy  things"  (vii.   31).     Again, 
"  My  son,  according  to  thy  ability  do  good  to  thyself, 
and  give  the  Lord  His  due  offering."     Self-denial  is 
inculcated,  not  in  the  broad  searching  way  in  which 
Christ  inculcates   it,  but  piecemeal.       "Go  not  after 
thy  lusts,  but  refrain  thyself  from  thine  appetites.     If 
thou  givest  thy  soul  the  desires  that  please  her,  she 
will  make  thee  a  laughing-stock  to  thine  enemies  that 
malign  thee  "  (xviii.  30,  31).    Several  other  passages  to 
the  same  purport  may  be  found,  all  exhibiting  a  cer- 
tain  bourgeois,  or,  as    Schlirer   calls  it,   "  homespun " 
(hausbacken)  morality  of  a  purely  utilitarian  type — 
consisting  mainly  of  rules  for  action,  so  that  life  on  the 
whole  may  be  prosperous.     The  only  element  above 
this  is  the  love  of  wisdom,  which  is  enjoined  as  of  more 
value  than  all  possessions.     There  is  hardly  any  hint 
of  a  belief  in  a  future  life  ;  in  this  the  son  of  Sirach  is 
much  inferior  to  the  writer  of  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon. 
In  fact,  in  one  passage  (xli.  1-4)  there  seems  almost 
to  be  an  entire  exclusion  of  the  thought  of  immortality. 
Yet  in  his  praise  of  the  fathers  (xlviii.  11)  there  ap- 
pears to  be  an  assertion  of  the  resurrection  ;  although 
earlier  in  the  book  (xliv.   14,  15)  immortality  in  the 
memory   of  friends,    and   of  the   people  at   large,   is 
all   that   he   attributes    to   these   fathers.      It   might 


136  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

also  be  said  that  he  has  lost  all  the  national  hope 
of  the  coming  Messiah,  save  for  one  passage  in  that 
same  hymn  to  the  fathers  in  which  he  speaks  of  the 
coming  of  Elias.  He  acknowledges  a  spirit  -  world, 
though  it  has  not  the  prominence  which  this  assumes 
either  in  the  Apocalyptists  or  in  Tobit.  He  believes 
that  an  angel  smote  the  host  of  the  Assyrians  (xlviii. 
21);  further,  he  believes  (xxxix.  28)  there  are  spirits 
created  for  vengeance  which  lay  on  sore  strokes.  As 
to  the  constitution  of  man,  the  spirit  (-m/eD/ia)  is  the 
intellectual  part  of  his  nature,  nearly  equivalent  to 
(tcap&ia)  "  heart ; "  V^x7?  *s  the  appetitive  nature  : 
there  is  in  this  a  preparation  for  the  New  Testament 
psychology  with  the  tripartite  nature  it  ascribes  to 
man.1 

The  authorship  of  this  book  seems  never  to  have 
been  disputed ;  but  nothing  further  is  known  of  the 
author  than  that  he  is  called  Jesus,  and  is  the  son  of 
Sirach.  He  gives  us  one  autobiographical  note  in  the 
prayer  with  which  the  book  concludes.  He  says : 
"  By  an  accusation  to  the  king  from  an  unrighteous 
tongue  my  soul  drew  nigh  even  unto  death."  Were 
the  period  of  the  rule  of  the  Lagid  princes  over  Pales- 
tine more  known,  we  might  be  better  able  to  understand 
Siracides.  This  much  is  certain,  he  must  have  been 
of  some  political  importance  in  the  nation  to  be  accused 
to  the  king.  This,  conjoined  with  the  weight  he  gives 
to  the  ceremonial  offerings,  might  be  supposed  to  give 

1  Dr.  Plummer  in  his  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  of  James  (Expositor's 
Itible, — Hodder  &  Stoxighton),  shows  a  number  of  parallels  between  James 
and  Ecclesiasticus.  In  the  light  of  them  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that 
the  apostle  was  acquainted  with  the  work  of  Ben  Sirach,  and  took  for 
granted  that  his  fellow-believers  had  a  like  knowledge. 


THE  LITERATUBE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.       137 

colour  to  the  idea  that  he  was  a  priest ;  an  opinion  that 
may  be  said  to  be,  if  only  slightly,  yet  slightly  sup- 
ported by  the  glowing  description  he  gives  of  Onias  the 
high  priest.  Although  Jason  was  the  received  Greek 
equivalent  of  Joshua  or  Jesus,  we  cannot,  on  these 
grounds,  proceed  to  identify  him  with  the  Jason  of 
2  Mace.  iv.  7,  as  this  would  bring  him  down  too  late. 
He  must  have  been  a  man  of  some  considerable  wealth, 
as  he  seems  to  have  possessed  slaves,  and,  on  the  whole, 
to  have  been  a  somewhat  severe  master  (xxx.  24—31). 
He  seems  personally  to  have  been  more  enlightened 
than  most  of  his  day,  for  he  despises  dreams  and 
auguries  :  "  Dreams  lift  up  fools  :  whoso  regardeth 
dreams  is  like  him  that  catcheth  at  a  shadow  and 
folio  weth  after  the  wind ;  for  dreams  have  deceived 
many,  and  they  have  failed  that  have  put  their  trust 
in  them  "  (xxxiv.  1-7). 

There  is  some  dubiety  about  the  date  intended  in 
the  prologue,  but  it  seems  most  natural  to  hold  that  it 
was  during  the  reign  of  the  first  Euergetes  that  the 
translator  came  down  into  Egypt.  Of  course  this 
assumes  that  the  thirty-eighth  year  is  the  year  of  the 
writer's  life,  not  the  year  of  the  reign  of  the  king.  He 
came  down  to  Egypt  then  somewhere  between  247-222 
B.C.,  probably  225.  Ben  Sirach,  if  we  assume  with 
De  Wette  fifty  years  as  the  interval  between  grandson 
and  grandfather,  would  be  thus  living  at  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  Philadelphus,  a  date  which  suits  with 
that  of  Simon  the  son  of  Onias.  It  seems  hardly  likely 
that  the  inconspicuous  Simon  II.  should  be  intended, 
and  Simon  the  Just  totally  excluded  from  the  list  of 
great  ones.  The  idea  that  as  he  was  thus  a  later  con- 


138  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

temporary  of  Simon  he  would  not  raise  him  to  the 
honour  of  being  a  peer  with  the  mighty  men  of  old, 
may  be  proved  to  be  a  mistake  by  what  happens 
every  day.  If  this  view  be  correct,  the  book  before 
us  shows  us  the  state  of  Palestine  under  the  earlier 
Lagids.  The  wealth,  the  comfort,  the  possession  of 
slaves,  all  suit  that  period  better  than  any  later 
period. 

There  is  practically  no  divergence  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  the  language  in  which  the  original  treatise 
was  written.  It  is  acknowledged  to  have  been 
Hebrew.  Recently,  however,  a  flood  of  new  light 
has  been  shed  on  this  by  Professor  Margoliouth.  He 
has  proved  that  the  Hebrew  in  which  it  was  written 
was  not  the  Hebrew  of  Ecclesiastes,  or  Nehemiah,  or 
Ezra,  but  Rabbinic  Hebrew.  Further,  he  has  proved 
that  the  versification  is  different  from  that  of  Proverbs 
or  Ecclesiastes ;  it  is  not  the  usual  parallelism  of  the 
old  Hebrew  poets,  but  a  measured  verse.  In  fact,  if 
we  take  language  and  versification  together,  this  would 
imply  as  great  a  change  linguistically  between  Ezra 
and  Ecclesiasticus  as  between  Piers  the  Ploughman 
and  Pope's  Essay  on  Man.  Professor  Margoliouth 
compares  the  verse  in  Ecclesiasticus  to  an  Arabic  form 
of  verse ;  but  the  influence  of  classic  models  is  per- 
haps more  to  be  traced  in  this  matter  than  those  of 
Arabia. 

In  some  respects  Ben  Sirach  resembles  the  Saddu- 
cean  party  ;  there  is  the  same  reverence  for  the  merely 
ceremonial  parts  of  the  law,  and  the  same  doubt  of  a 
future  life,  the  same  disregard  of  the  spiritual  wrorld,  and 
of  the  Messianic  hopes  of  Israel.  If  he  belonged  to  the 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.      139 

priestly  family,  his  Sadducean  attitude  is  all  the  more 
natural.  On  the  other  hand,  he  does  not  restrict  him- 
self to  the  law,  but  evidently  regards  the  prophets,  as 
well  as  the  law,  as  of  high  importance.  The  fact  that 
several  of  his  proverbs  are  quoted  in  the  Talmud 
proves  his  relation  to  the  Pharisaic  school ;  it  proves  him 
at  all  events  to  share  in  the  movement  that  ultimately 
resulted  in  the  setting  up  of  this  school.  It  may  well 
be  that  the  two  schools  had  not  been  formed  then — 
certainly  the  schools  historically  known  by  the  names 
Sadducee  and  Pharisee  had  not  then  risen. 

It  may  well  be  regarded  as  singular  that  these  two 
books  we  have  just  been  considering  were  not  included 
in  the  canon.  It  seems  impossible  to  assign  any  other 
reason  than  that  they  were  composed  after  the  date 
when,  as  Josephus  informs  us  (Contra  Apionem),  the 
canon  was  closed,  that  is,  the  time  of  Artaxerxes 
Longimanus.  If  it  be  answered  that  it  was  only  the 
fact  that  Ben  Sirach  honestly  put  his  name  to  his 
work,  and  did  not  assume  the  name  of  any  earlier 
worthy,  which  occasioned  the  exclusion  of  Ecclesi- 
asticus,  then  that  only  confirms  the  evidence  of 
Josephus  as  to  the  existence  of  some  such  principle 
as  that  which  he  asserts.  This  objection,  moreover, 
does  not  apply  to  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon.  Why 
was  Daniel  included  and  it  excluded,  if  they  were 
composed  at  nearly  the  same  time  ?  This,  however, 
is  a  side  question. 

While  the  two  books  we  have  just  been  considering 
represent  the  Hochma  literature  of  Judaism,  the  Book 
of  Baruch  is  an  imitation  of  the  prophets.  It  cer- 
tainly has  little  of  the  fire  of  the  old  prophets.  Its 


140  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

introduction,  extending  to  chap,  in.,  purports  to  be 
a  letter  sent  to  Jerusalem  from  the  captivity  in 
Babylon.  There  are  plentiful  quotations  from  Jere- 
miah, Ezra,  and  Daniel, — in  fact,  it  is  little  more 
than  a  rather  tasteless  cento  from  these  books.  The 
fact  that  it  expressed  no  Messianic  hope  rendered  it 
little  likely  to  have  any  influence  on  the  apostles 
and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament.  The  balance 
of  opinion  seems  to  be  in  favour  of  the  idea  that 
the  original  language  of  this  compend  was  Hebrew ; 
and  De  Wette  refers  to  several  blunders  which  seem 
to  have  had  their  origin  in  Hebrew  letters  mistaken 
one  for  the  other,  as  Meppov,  misreading  i  instead 
of  i,  mistaking  the  meaning  porin,  translating  f]  /3o/z- 
PIJO-IS  instead  of  o  6'^Xo?.  The  second  case  is  so 
obvious  a  blunder,  that  both  in  the  Vulgate  and  the 
English  the  correction  is  made  without  note.  The 
former  case  is  more  doubtful  ;  it  may  be  the  writer 
had  a  remembrance  of  Ezek.  xxvii.  10,  when  he 
speaks  of  the  merchant  of  Dedan  (FT?.),  and  the  pas- 
sage in  Jer.  xlix.  7,  where  the  wisdom  of  Teman  is 
spoken  of.  The  only  thing  against  its  having  been 
written  in  Hebrew  is  its  slavish  quotations  from  the 
LXX.  version  of  Jeremiah.  The  blunders  of  the 
writer  in  chronology  are  very  astonishing.  In  the 
first  chapter,  second  verse,  we  are  told  that  the  city 
of  Jerusalem  had  been  taken  by  the  Chaldseans,  and 
burned  with  fire ;  yet  in  the  tenth  verse  of  the 
same  chapter,  a  collection  is  made  among  the  captives 
to  be  sent  to  Jerusalem,  in  order  to  supply  the  burnt- 
offerings  for  the  altar.  Here,  it  may  be  remarked, 
occurs  a  most  amusing  blunder,  nrop,  an  oblation,  is 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.      141 

mistaken  for  !»,  manna.  Nebuchadnezzar  is  supposed 
to  have  associated  Balthasar  (Belshazzar)  with  him 
on  the  throne.  Bil-sar-usur  was,  as  we  now  learn, 
the  son  of  Nabunahid,  and  possibly  the  grandson  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.  If  one  may  judge  of  the  time  of  a 
writing  by  its  leading  motive,  then  the  leading  motive 
of  the  Book  of  Baruch  is  to  call  upon  the  Jews  to 
submit  themselves  to  the  Babylonians.  Unless  it 
be  a  mere  rhetorical  exercise,  we  might  imagine  it 
written  either  during  the  reign  of  the  Lagids,  dis- 
suading from  rebellion  against  them,  or,  during  the 
time  of  the  Herodians,  dissuading  from  rebellion  against 
the  Eomans.  The  latter  seems  the  more  probable 
in  the  light  of  the  fact  that  Bar.  v.  is  a  distinct 
imitation  of  the  eleventh  of  the  Psalms  of  Solomon. 
In  regard  to  this  book,  we  must  beware  of  confusing 
it  with  the  Apocalypses  of  Baruch,  either  earlier  or 
later,  both  of  which  are  more  original  productions 
than  the  present. 

Appended  to  the  Book  of  Baruch  there  is  usually 
the  Epistle  of  Jeremy  the  Prophet,  as  it  is  called, 
which  purports  to  be  written  by  the  prophet  to  the 
captives  in  Babylon.  It  is  a  rhetorical  declamation  on 
the  folly  of  idolatry,  of  no  great  value.  It  is  probably 
of  different  date  from  the  Book  of  Baruch,  but  there 
are  really  no  data  on  which  to  form  a  conclusion. 
There  is  a  palpable  imitation  of  Jer.  x.  in  the  matter  of 
the  declamation,  although  the  time  assumed  is  during 
the  captivity.  De  Wette  holds  that  without  doubt 
the  original  language  of  this  Epistle  was  Greek,  and 
there  seems  nothing  against  this  view.  Its  language 
being  Greek,  its  place  of  origin  was  almost  certainly 


142  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Alexandria ;  hence  it  had  no  effect  on  the  religious 
thought  or  language  of  Palestine.  There  seems  to 
be  a  reference  by  name  to  this  production  in  2  Mace, 
ii.  1 ;  but  it  is  uncertain,  for  there  is  no  notice  in 
the  Epistle  of  Jeremiah  of  the  command  to  the  Jews 
to  take  fire  with  them  to  Babylon. 

The  additions  to  Daniel,  the  mythic  stories  of 
Susanna  and  the  Elders,  and  Bel  and  the  Dragon, 
are  unmistakably  written  in  Greek,  and  proceed  from 
one  hand ;  but  the  Prayer  of  the  Three  Hebrew 
Children  is  formed  on  a  different  model.  De  Wette 
has  endeavoured  to  prove  an  Aramaic  original  for  all 
of  these  additions ;  but  his  arguments  do  not  seem 
conclusive  in  the  case  of  the  two  stories.  In  the 
case  of  Susanna  and  the  Elders  the  play  on  the  words 

a-^lvov   and   cr^tcrat,    and   Trpivov  and   Trpia-at,   are   difficult 

to  understand  save  on  the  hypothesis  that  they  were 
written  in  Greek.  It  is,  however,  not  impossible  that 
the  Prayer  may  have  an  Aramaic  original,  as  the  writer 
seems  to  be  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Psalms.  Al- 
though the  myths  have  affected  the  art  and  literature 
of  Christendom  they  have  no  dogmatic  value,  and  do 
not  seem  to  have  been  known  in  Palestine.  The  latter 
part  of  the  story  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon  seems  to  be  a 
variant  of  the  story  of  Daniel  and  the  lions'  den.  The 
introduction  of  Habakkuk  is  grotesque  in  the  extreme. 
The  Prayer  of  Manasses  seems  to  be  a  rhetorical 
exercise  written  not  improbably  in  one  of  the  Alexan- 
drian schools  in  which  Jewish  edification  was  combined 
with  Grecian  culture.  The  writer  has  drawn  largely 
from  the  penitential  Psalms,  but  there  is  nothing 
original  in  the  production. 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.       143 

The  four  books  of  the  Maccabees  occupy  a  different 
position  from  the  rest  of  the  Apocrypha.  Occupying  a 
position  in  that  collection  similar  to  that  of  Chronicles 
in  the  Jewish  canon,  they  seem  to  be  intended  to  be 
the  authentic  history  of  the  period  of  which  Tobit  and 
Judith  are  merely  legends.  In  the  Old  Testament, 
where  we  have  two  books  bearing  the  same  name,  one 
called  First  and  the  other  Second,  we  always  understand 
that  the  one  is  the  continuation  of  the  other,  as  1  and 
2  Chronicles.  In  the  Septuagint  and  Vulgate,  in 
which  Samuel  and  Kings  were  united  in  the  four  books 
of  Kings,  we  have  1st,  2nd,  3rd,  and  4th  Books  of 
Kings,  each  continuing  the  story  of  that  which  preceded 
it.  In  regard  to  the  Maccabees  this  is  not  the  case. 
1  Maccabees  is  a  complete  account  of  the  Maccabean 
struggle  ;  2  Maccabees  is  a  fuller  account  of  the  earlier 
portion  of  this  struggle,  with  the  events  that  prepared 
for  it ;  3  Maccabees  is  an  account  of  events  before  the 
struggle  began  at  all ;  and  4  Maccabees  is  the  account 
of  certain  resolute  Jews  who  preferred  martyrdom  to 
abjuring  their  faith.  These  books  are  thus  neither 
continuous,  nor  are  they  by  the  same  hand,  still  less 
are  they  of  at  all  equal  value.  The  First  Book  is 
historically  the  most  valuable.  There  is  throughout 
it  a  constant  fire  and  vigour,  without  any  rhetorical 
nourishing  of  trumpets.  There  is  an  earnest  zeal  for 
the  cause  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  a  certainty  that 
His  cause  is  that  which  shall  prosper.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  no  expectation  of  direct  Divine  aid, 
in  the  shape  either  of  suggestion  or  of  miraculous 
interposition.  The  original  language  in  which  it 
was  written  was  Hebrew  ;  for  this  we  have  not  only 


144  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  character  of  the  Greek  in  which  it  has  come  down 
to  us,  but  the  direct  evidence  of  Jerome.  The  Greek 
translation  must  have  been  made  early,  as  there  are 
traces  in  Josephus  that  he  has  used  it.  Since  it  was 
written  in  Hebrew,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
Palestine  was  the  place  where  it  was  composed,  — 
which  might  also  be  gathered  from  such  a  local  trait 
as  the  description  given  of  the  seven  pyramids  erected 
by  Simon  over  his  father,  and  mother,  and  his  four 
brethren.  It  contains  few  indications  of  doctrine,  but 
it  may  be  noted  that  the  author  represents  Mattathias 
referring  to  Daniel  and  his  deliverance  from  the  den 
of  lions,  and  to  the  deliverance  of  his  three  companions 
from  the  fiery  furnace.  The  date  of  this  book  can  be 
fixed  within  fairly  narrow  limits.  It  must  have  been 
written  after  the  death  of  John  Hyrcanus  and  before 
the  interference  of  the  Komans  under  Pompey,  pro- 
bably at  the  very  beginning  of  the  first  century  before 
Christ. 

The  Second  Book  of  the  Maccabees  is  much  more 
rhetorical,  and  has  more  of  the  marvellous  in  it  than  the 
First  Book.  Unlike  the  First  Book,  it  is  not  an  original 
work,  but  the  epitome  of  the  work  of  one  Jason  of 
Cyrene,  of  whom  nothing  is  known*  The  history  begins 
with  the  adventure  of  Heliodorus  when  he  attempted 
to  rob  the  treasures  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and 
goes  on  till  the  victory  of  Judas  Maccabaeus  over 
Nicanor.  The  audience  the  writer  contemplates  seems 
to  be  the  Jewish  community  in  Alexandria,  and  so  its 
evidence  as  to  the  nature  of  Palestinian  thought  is 
of  only  secondary  value.  The  time  when  Jason's 
work  was  composed  was  probably  about  the  same  time 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  PERIOD THE  APOCRYPHA.       145 

as  that  in  which  First  Maccabees  was  written.  When 
the  epitomiser  wrote  is  more  difficult  to  determine.1 

The  Third  Book  of  the  Maccabees  has  no  place  in 
our  English  Apocrypha,  nor  in  the  Vulgate,  but  is  found 
in  some  copies  of  the  Septuagint.  It  is  a  highly 
rhetorical  account  of  a  persecution  endured  by  the 
Jews  of  Alexandria  at  the  hands  of  Ptolemy  Philopator. 
It  is  introduced  by  an  account  of  an  attempt  Ptolemy 
made  to  see  the  interior  of  the  Most  Holy  Place,  after 
he  had  defeated  Antiochus  the  Great  at  Kaphia. 
Hindered  from  this  sacrilegious  attempt,  he  went  down 
to  Alexandria  determined  to  wreak  vengeance  on  the 
Jews  there,  but  was  mysteriously  baffled.  The  book  is 
Alexandrian,  and  for  our  purpose  practically  valueless. 

There  is  usually  bound  along  with  the  works  of 
Josephus  a  small  work  generally  called  the  Fourth  Book 
of  the  Maccabees.  It  is  an  enlargement  of  the  account 
given  in  the  Second  Book  of  the  Maccabees  of  the 
sufferings  endured  by  Eleazar,  and  by  seven  sons  and 
their  mother  rather  than  abjure  their  faith  by  eating 
food  ceremonially  unclean.  It  is  more  of  a  scholastic 
declamation  than  history,  and  does  not  contain  much 
worthy  of  notice  save  the  firm  faith  the  author  evinces 
in  immortality.  It  is  written  in  Greek,  but  the  place 
of  its  composition  seems  doubtful.  Langen  holds  that 

1  It  is  impossible  to  accept  the  view  urged  by  M.  Cohen  (Les  Phari- 
siens,  ii.  2),  that  the  Second  Book  of  the  Maccabees  is  a  Pharisaic 
document  contemporary  with  the  events  it  describes,  while  the  First 
Book  represents  the  Sadducean  standpoint,  and  later.  Whatever  may  be 
the  correctness  of  the  view  in  regard  to  the  dogmatic  standpoint  of  the 
two  books,  and  a  good  deal  can  be  said  for  it,  chronologically  it  is  im- 
possible. Jason  of  Gyrene  could  not  be  informed  by  contemporary 
witnesses  of  the  progress  of  the  struggle  ;  while  it  was  going  on  he  was 
too  far  removed  geographically  from  the  scene  of  conflict  for  this  to 
take  place.  Still  less  can  his  epitomiser  be  regarded  as  a  contemporary. 
K 


146  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

it  is  of  Palestinian  origin,  and  written  in  the  first 
century  after  Christ. 

There  is  also  what  has  been  called  the  Fifth  Book  of 
the  Maccabees ;  it,  however,  is  merely  an  epitome  of 
-the  First. 

We  have  thus  rapidly  summarised  the  contents  of 
the  Apocrypha  as  ordinarily  understood,  and  have  seen 
that  while  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  value  to  be 
ascribed  to  them,  many  of  these  books  represent,  not 
Palestinian  thought,  but  that  of  the  Jews  who  had 
become  colonists  in  Egypt,  and  therefore  throw  little 
light  either  on  Christianity  or  on  the  Apocalyptic 
books. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

ALEXANDRIAN   THOUGHT   AND   LITERATURE. 

rpHROUGHOUT  the  whole  history  of  Israel  the 
connection  between  Egypt  and  Palestine  was 
close  and  intimate.  The  great  event  in  Israel's  early 
history  had  been  the  way  in  which  they  had  been 
brought  up  out  of  Egypt  with  a  strong  hand. 
Solomon,  we  know,  made  affinity  with  Egypt,  and  had 
a  continual  traffic  with  that  country  for  horses.  From 
Egypt  came  up  Jeroboam,  who  led  the  rebellion  against 
Rehoboam;  and  from  Egypt,  too,  came  up  Shishak, 
who  seems  to  have  rendered  that  rebellion  successful. 
Egypt  was  always  the  reed,  broken  though  it  was,  on 
which  the  politicians  in  Judah  and  Israel,  who  were 
opposed  to  Assyria,  leant.  It  was  Pharaoh-Necho 
who  at  the  battle  of  Megiddo  broke  the  strength  of 
Judah.  It  was  into  Egypt  that  the  fugitives  of 
Judah  fled  from  the  wrath  of  Nebuchadnezzar  when 
Gedaliah  was  killed.  From  the  absolute  darkness  that 
rests  on  the  history  of  Israel  under  the  Persian  rule, 
we  cannot  affirm  that  there  was  as  much  intercourse 
between  Palestine  and  Egypt  during  this  period  as  before 
and  after  it ;  but  as  we  know  no  cause  for  the  cessation 
of  that  intercourse,  we  may  presume  it  did  continue, 
though  probably  in  a  lessened  degree,  when  the  centre 
of  authority  was  removed  beyond  the  Euphrates. 


148  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

With  the  advent  of  Alexander  on  the  scene,  the 
history  of  south-western  Asia  becomes  once  more  clear 
and  intelligible.  There  seems  little  doubt  that  the 
tradition  that  Alexander  transferred  a  number  of  Jews 
to  Alexandria,  his  newly-founded  capital,  is  authentic. 
The  rights  the  Jews  claimed  as  equal  with  the  other 
inhabitants,  and  the  special  privileges  they  enjoyed, 
seem  to  prove  this.  Ptolemy  Lagi,  we  know,  brought 
a  multitude  of  Jewish  captives  from  Judea  that  swelled 
the  number  of  the  already  large  Jewish  population. 
It  is  little  likely  that  Ptolemy  would  at  once  give 
special  immunities  to  these  captives,  unless  there  was 
a  considerable  community  already  in  the  enjoyment 
of  them.  From  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Lagi  to  the 
death  of  Philopator,  a  period  of  rather  more  than  a 
century,  Coelo-Syria  and  Palestine  belonged  to  Egypt, 
and  the  intercourse  between  the  two  countries  was 
very  considerable. 

One  result  of  this  was  the  translation  of  the  Law, 
and  afterwards  of  the  other  sacred  books,  into  Greek. 
There  seems  no  real  reason  for  doubting  the  ordinary 
tradition  that  this  translation  was  made  in  the  reign 
of  Philadelphus.  The  grandson  of  Ben  Sirach  must 
have  found  the  custom  of  translation  existing  before 
he  set  about  translating  the  proverbs  of  his  ancestor 
into  Greek.  If  it  were  in  the  days  of  Euergetes  the 
First  that  he  went  down  to  Egypt,  this  would  prove 
certainly  that  at  latest  in  the  reign  of  his  predeces- 
sors was  the  Septuagint,  or  at  all  events  the  Penta- 
teuch, translated.  If  by  Euergetes  we  are  to  under- 
stand Physcon,  the  change  in  our  calculation  is  not 
very  great,  for  the  translation  must  at  all  events 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  149 

have  existed  before  the  days  of  Philometor,  to  whose 
reign  Gratz  would  assign  it.  Of  course  the  fables  of 
Aristeas  are  to  be  put  aside.  After  the  translation  of 
the  Law,  the  remaining  books  seem  to  have  followed 
successively.  By  the  days  of  Philo  practically  the 
whole  of  the  Septuagint  was  translated.  This  may  be 
proved  by  the  references  and  quotations  which  he 
makes.  The  only  books  he  does  not  quote  are  Esther 
and  the  Song  of  Solomon.  To  these  may  be  added 
Ecclesiastes  and  Daniel,  with  both  of  which  a  trace 
may  be  seen  of  some  acquaintanceship,  although  there 
is  no  direct  quotation. 

The  great  interest  to  us  in  regard  to  the  Septuagint 
flows  from  the  fact  that  our  Lord's  quotations  from 
the  Old  Testament  are  invariably  made  from  it.  The 
correctness  of  this  assertion  may  be  proved  by  any 
one  who  takes  the  trouble  to  compare  the  quotations 
made  by  our  Lord  with  the  LXX.  and  the  Hebrew 
respectively. 

It  might  perhaps  be  answered  to  our  conclusion,  that 
as  in  translating  a  theological  book  from  French  or 
German  into  English,  passages  of  Scripture  are  not 
translated,  but  are  given,  where  that  is  at  all  possible, 
according  to  the  Authorised  Version,  so  it  might  be  in 
regard  to  the  quotations  from  the  Old  Testament  in  the 
New.  It  might  be  thought  not  an  impossible  thing 
that  the  evangelists,  writing  Greek  as  they  did,  when 
they  had  to  record  a  passage  as  quoted  from  the  Old 
Testament,  instead  of  translating  for  themselves  from 
the  Hebrew,  would  transfer  to  their  own  manuscript 
the  words  as  they  occurred  in  the  version  presumably 
familiar  to  those  for  whom  they  were  writing.  If, 


150  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

however,  this  had  been  the  case,  we  should  find  that, 
except  when  something  important  depended  on  the 
actual  words,  all  quotations  would  be  given  impartially 
in  the  words  of  the  Septuagint.  This,  however,  is 
not  the  case.  The  phenomena  presented  are  in- 
structive. Almost  invariably  in  Matthew  when  the 
evangelist  speaks  himself  he  quotes  from  the  Hebrew, 
and  translates  for  himself ;  with  as  great  regularity  when 
he  narrates  quotations  as  made  by  our  Lord  the  ver- 
sion of  the  Septuagint  is  followed.  In  the  Gospel  of 
John  quotations  in  the  evangelist's  narrative  are  gene- 
rally, though  not  as  in  Matthew  all  but  invariably,  from 
the  Hebrew ;  but  as  invariably  as  Matthew  does  he 
represent  Jesus  quoting  the  Septuagint.  In  Mark  and 
Luke  the  quotations  from  the  Old  Testament  are 
throughout,  to  put  it  generally,  transferred  from  the 
Septuagiiit.  Did  it  stand  alone,  it  might  be  regarded 
as  pressing  matters  too  far  to  deduce  from  the  fact 
that  Luke  gives  from  the  Septuagint  the  passage  our 
Lord  read  in  the  synagogue  in  Nazareth,  that  the  copy 
of  the  Scripture  used  in  the  synagogues  was  generally 
the  Septuagint ;  yet  taken  along  with  the  facts  already 
mentioned,  it  becomes  highly  probable,  at  least  with 
regard  to  the  synagogues  in  Galilee. 

Our  Lord's  argument  with  the  Sadducees  seems  to 
turn  on  the  use  of  dpi  in  the  present  tense  instead  of 
the  past, — quoting  in  this  practically  verbatim  from 
the  Septuagint.  As  every  one  knows,  the  substantive 
verb  in  Ex.  iii.  6  is  omitted,  as  usually  is  the  case, 
in  the  Hebrew.  There  is,  of  course,  a  deeper  meaning 
to  the  phrase,  which  makes  the  argument  independent  of 
any  mere  play  of  words  ;  but  certainly  the  Greek  of  the 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  151 

Septuagint  brings  out,  by  its  insertion  of  the  verb,  the 
meaning  of  our  Lord  so  obviously,  that  it  is  difficult 
to  imagine  that  it  was  not  from  it  that  He  was 
quoting.  The  Apostle  Paul  argues  from  the  text  of 
the  Septuagint  in  Gal.  iii.  16  in  referring  to  the  fact 
that  it  is  a-Trepfjuan,  not  a-jrepfjiaa-iv,  that  is  written.  The 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  writing  avowedly 
to  Jews,  quotes  invariably  from  the  Septuagint, 
generally  with  verbal  accuracy.  The  points  where  the 
quotations  differ  from  the  passages  as  they  appear  in 
the  Septuagint  simply  prove  that  the  writer  quoted 
memoriter.  That,  again,  proves  very  great  familiarity 
with  the  translation  in  question  on  the  part  of  the 
writer,  and  an  assumption  that  his  readers  were  equally 
well  acquainted  with  it.  The  point  of  his  argument  not 
unfrequently  seems  to  turn  on  the  precise  phraseology 
of  the  Septuagint,  e.g.  iv.  5.  We  might  go  over  all 
the  quotations  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  New,  and 
compare  them  with  the  Hebrew  and  the  Septuagint, 
and  we  shall  find  that  in  the  great  majority  of  instances 
the  correspondence  between  the  Septuagint  passage 
and  the  New  Testament  is  so  close  as  to  necessitate  the 
supposition  of  direct  quotation.  As  mentioned  above, 
Matthew  and  John,  however,  more  frequently  in  the 
narrative  portions  of  their  Gospels,  quote  from  the 
Hebrew  and  translate  for  themselves.  This  fact,  in 
regard  to  John,  has  a  bearing  on  the  alleged  late  date 
of  the  fourth  Gospel.  The  knowledge  of  Hebrew  was 
very  rare  among  Christians  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
second  century,  and  it  is  not  conceivable  that  any  one 
writing  for  a  Hellenic  audience,  acquainted  with  the 
Septuagint,  would  translate  from  the  Hebrew.  If, 


152  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

however,  he  were  one  like  the  Apostle  John,  born  a 
Jew,  accustomed  to  hear  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  read, 
and  equally  acquainted  with  Greek,  Aramaic,  and 
Hebrew,  translation  would  probably  be  easier  to  him 
than  verbal  quotation  from  the  Greek  version.  When 
the  proof  of  the  use  of  the  Septuagint  by  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament  is  so  clear,  and  its  influence 
upon  them  so  obvious,  it  is  necessary  to  devote  some 
attention  to  it. 

While  it  has  influenced  the  apostles'  minds,  it  is 
strange  that  its  linguistic  effect  is  not  greater  than  it 
seems  to  be.  There  are  certain  peculiarities  of  the 
language  of  the  Alexandrian  version  which  neither  the 
New  Testament  nor  Josephus  presents,  e.g.  making  the 
third  person  plural  of  the  second  Aorist  end  in  oa-av, 
and  using  the  first  Aorist  from  ewro  rather  than  the 
second  Aorist  elirov  when  the  first  person  singular 
is  used.  There  are  several  other  grammatical  and 
lexical  peculiarities  which  distinguish  the  language 
of  the  Alexandrian  version  from  that  of  the  New 
Testament. 

As  the  version  was  made  at  different  times  and  by 
very  different  hands,  it  is  difficult  to  make  general 
statements  with  regard  to  it  as  a  whole.  The 
Pentateuch  is  most  carefully  translated.  In  Samuel 
the  translator  seems  to  have  had  a  different  text  before 
him  from  that  adopted  by  the  Masoretes  ;  but  further, 
there  is  a  greater  tendency  to  leave  difficult  words 
untranslated.  In  the  case  of  the  poetical  books,  as  the 
difficulties  are  greater,  the  failures  to  represent  the 
original  are  more  frequent  than  in  the  historical  books. 
In  some  of  the  prophets  the  version  became  at  times 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  153 

unintelligible.  Not  infrequently  it  is  clear  the  trans- 
lator had  a  reading  different  from  that  we  now 
have. 

In  regard  to  a  translation  which  aims,  as  the  Septua- 
gint  does,  at  being  literally  faithful,  it  is  difficult  to 
trace  any  doctrinal  tendency.  Yet  there  are  evidences 
of  a  desire  to  soften  down  anthropomorphisms,  e.g.  in 
Gen.  vi.  6  the  translator  shrinks  from  attributing  grief 
or  repentance  to  God.  Sometimes  there  are  traces  of 
theories  held  at  the  time,  e.g.  Deut.  xxxii.  8.  In  the 
Authorised  Version  this  verse  is  rendered,  "  When  the 
Most  High  divided  to  the  nations  their  inheritance, 
when  He  separated  the  sons  of  Adam,  He  set  the 
bounds  of  the  people  according  to  the  number  of  the 
children  of  Israel ;  "  the  last  clause,  which  is  somewhat 
difficult  to  understand,  is  rendered  by  the  LXX., 
"  According  to  the  number  of  the  angels  of  God." 
This  view  is  in  accordance  with  the  angelology  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  and  is  further  developed  by  the  later 
Apocalyptists.  Dahne  recognises  traces  of  Platonism 
in  several  parts  of  the  translation,  where  perhaps  it  may 
be  regarded  as  a  little  doubtful.  In  Gen.  ii.  5,  like  the 
Authorised  Version,  the  Septuagint  renders,  "  (The  Lord 
God  made)  every  plant  of  the  field  before  it  was  in 
earth,"  instead  of  "  before  there  was  any  plant  in  the 
earth."  The  rendering  of  the  LXX.  seems  to  indicate 
a  belief  in  the  Platonic  ideas,  which  the  translator 
regards  as  having  been  created  before  the  actual  plants 
of  the  field  appeared.  There  are  several  other  points 
that  might  be  noticed ;  but  whatever  influence  this 
version  had  in  promoting  a  philosophic  view  of  the 
faith  delivered  to  the  fathers,  it  was  intensified  in 


154  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

other  hands,  and  we  shall  have  the  opportunity  to 
consider  it  further. 

The  same  influences  that  were  at  work  leading  to 
the  translation  of  the  Law  into  Greek,  manifested 
themselves  in  other  directions.  There  were  numerous 
writers  whose  names  have  come  down  to  us  in  quota- 
tions from  Polyhistor,  and  in  the  pages  of  Josephus, 
and  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers.  One  of  the  most 
important  of  these  was  Ezekiel,  a  poet  who  wrote  a 
tragedy — 'E^aytayrj — in  Iambics,  on  the  departure  of 
the  children  of  Israel  from  Egypt.  Some  passages  are 
quoted  in  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and  more  in  Eusebius, 
and  one  in  Epiphanius.  The  poem,  judging  from  the 
extracts,  did  not  attain  any  very  high  degree  of  excel- 
lence ;  but  yet  the  effort  to  write  a  tragedy  in  Greek 
proved  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  author  to  make  his 
national  faith  known  to  the  Greeks  by  whom  he  was 
surrounded.  It  also  proved  that,  while  remaining 
true  to  the  belief  of  his  fathers,  he  had  been  much 
influenced  by  the  literature  of  Greece.  There  are  no 
traces  of  the  apostolic  writers  being  influenced  by 
him. 

Eusebius  has  preserved  to  us  fragments  of  a  number 
of  other  writers, — Artapanus,  Eupolemus,  Theodotus, — 
but  these  are  of  little  value,  and  certainly  had  no 
appreciable  effect  on  the  thoughts  of  the  early  Church. 
They  all  represent  the  tendency  of  Alexandrian  Judaism 
to  assimilate  itself  externally  to  the  surrounding 
Hellenism,  and  at  the  same  time  to  commend  its 
doctrines  to  the  acceptance  of  outsiders.  Theodotus 
has  a  certain  interest  attaching  to  him,  as  he  seems 
to  have  been  a  Samaritan,  and  endeavoured  in  a  poem 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  155 

he  wrote  to  urge  the  claims  of  Gerizim  as  superior  to 
those  of  Jerusalem. 

While  the  writers  to  whom  we  have  been  referring 
endeavoured  to  produce  an  apologetic  for  Judaism  on 
the  side  of  poetry  and  history,  Philo  put  before  him 
the  higher  object  of  reconciling  the  philosophy  of 
Greece  to  the  theology  of  Palestine.  By  position 
and  education  he  was  eminently  suited  for  this  office. 
Brought  up  in  Alexandria,  a  city  second  only  to 
Athens  as  a  centre  of  intellectual  activity,  second  only 
to  Kome  in  commerce ;  surrounded  at  the  same  time  by 
the  largest  and  most  influential  Jewish  community  out 
of  Palestine,  he  was  in  a  position  at  once  to  receive  all 
the  influences  exerted  by  Roman  power  and  Hellenic 
culture,  and  at  the  same  time  was  kept  true  to  his 
ancestral  belief  by  the  fact  that  he  was  not  solitary. 
An  ardent  student  alike  of  Platonism  and  Judaism,  he 
wished  to  mediate  between  the  two,  to  show  the  Greek 
philosophers  that  in  Moses  was  contained  what  they 
had  endeavoured  to  reach  by  reasoning  only,  exhibited 
in  a  historical  parabolic  form ;  and  to  deliver  his 
countrymen  from  their  suspicion  of  Gentile  thought 
and  learning — to  show  to  the  Jew  that  the  methods  of 
Greek  philosophy  only  served  to  reveal  the  profound 
depths  that  were  in  the  law. 

We  know  little  about  his  life ;  but  from  the  fact  that 
he  was  an  old  man  at  the  time  of  the  famous  embassy 
to  Caligula,  he  must  have  been  born  at  least  twenty 
years  before  our  era.  He  belonged  to  a  famity  of 
wealth  and  influence ;  his  brother  (or  nephew),  Alex- 
ander, was  Alabarch,1  that  is  to  say,  head  of  the  Jewish 

1  See  Ewald,  Hist,  of  Israel,  vii.  195,  and  Ederslieim  in  Smith's  Diet.  "Philo." 


156  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

community  in  Alexandria.  He  was  wealthy  enough  to 
lend  money  to  Agrippa  when  he  was  in  financial  diffi- 
culties, and  respected  enough  to  have  the  estate  of 
Antonia,  the  mother  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  under 
his  charge.  Philo  himself  must  have  been  wealthy,  or 
the  story  of  his  wife  saying,  when  the  remark  was 
made  on  the  plainness  of  her  attire,  "  The  true  orna- 
ment of  a  wife  is  the  fame  of  her  husband,"  would  have 
been  pointless ;  if  Philo  had  been  poor  there  would 
have  been  no  need  of  remonstrance.  The  fact  that  he 
was  employed  in  the  embassy  to  the  Emperor  Caligula 
suits  this  view — a  poor  man  could  not  have  borne 
the  expense  of  this.  He  is  asserted  to  have  been  of 
Levitical  descent, — a  circumstance  not  improbable  in 
itself,  but  neither  confirmed  nor  negatived  by  anything 
in  his  writings. 

The  works  that  have  come  down  to  us  from  his 
pen  are  numerous  and  of  great  value.  In  no  case 
have  we  his  system  set  forth  at  length,  but  only  piece- 
meal in  his  various  treatises.  He  generally  takes  as  the 
starting-point  for  his  philosophical  disquisition  some 
event  related  in  the  books  of  Moses,  and  allegorises 
this  in  order  to  make  it  convey  a  Platonic  mean- 
ing. In  short,  the  great  mass  of  his  writings  are 
sermons  on  texts  from  the  Pentateuch.  Thus  he 
starts  with  the  text,  "  And  Cain  said  to  Abel  his 
brother,  '  Let  us  go  to  the  field.'  And  it  came  to  pass 
that  while  they  were  in  the  field,  Cain  rose  up  against 
Abel  his  brother  and  slew  him."  Taking  the  word 
field  as  his  point  of  departure,  he  shows  that  fields 
are  where  conflicts  take  place.  Next  he  passes  on  to 
speak  of  Jacob,  who  leads  his  two  wives  into  the  field 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  157 

to  tell  them  of  his  plans  in  regard  to  their  father ;  that 
next  leads  him  to  speak  of  Joseph  being  sent  after  his 
brethren.  From  this  he  makes  the  deduction,  "It  is 
evident  they  "  (the  sons  of  Jacob)  "  make  halt  in  the 
plain  of  their  irrational  faculties.  Joseph  is  sent  to 
them  because  he  cannot  bear  the  austere  wisdom  of  his 
father."  He  now  devotes  himself  to  the  story  of 
Joseph  and  his  brethren,  and  by  dint  of  giving 
explanation  of  the  names  of  the  persons  and  places 
involved,  manages  to  introduce  a  great  deal  of  Platonism 
into  the  narrative.  Jacob  sends  Joseph  to  Sichem, 
because  the  name  means  "  shoulder,"  and  that  again 
is  the  symbol  of  labour.  He  sees  meanings  in  the 
name  Hebron,  and  in  the  fact  that  "a  man  found 
Joseph  working  in  the  field."  The  latter,  it  seems, 
shows  that  labour  by  itself  is  not  intrinsically  good, 
but  labour  with  skill.  After  this  he  gets  back  to  Cain 
and  Abel.  Abel,  we  are  told,  refers  everything  to  God, 
and  is  "the  God-loving  opinion."  Cain,  whose  name 
means  "  acquisition,"  refers  everything  to  himself,  and 
is  "  the  self-loving  opinion."  He  takes  his  departure 
from  them  again  to  speak  of  Moses'  encounter  with 
the  Egyptian  "  Sophists,"  and  Rebecca  advising  Jacob 
to  flee.  He  then  returns  to  his  text  to  endeavour  to 
prove  that  Cain  really  killed  himself,  not  Abel.  But 
we  cannot  pursue  all  the  sinuous  windings  of  his  dis- 
course ;  let  it  suffice,  that  after  every  excursion  he 
returns  to  the  subject.  Reverting  to  the  idea  he 
throws  out  of  Cain  killing  himself  while  thinking  he 
kills  Abel,  he  then  apostrophises  Cain  and  those  who 
are  like  him :  "  What  hast  thou  done,  oh  wretched 
man  ?  Does  not  the  God-loving  opinion  which  you 


158  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

flatter  yourself  you  have  destroyed,  live  in  the  presence 
of  God." 

These  sermons,  as  they  may  be  called,  although  they 
form  the  bulk  of  his  works,  are  by  no  means  the  whole 
of  what  Philo  has  left  us.  There  are  also  philosophical 
treatises,  e.g.  "That  every  good  man  is  free,"  and 
"concerning  the  contemplative  life,"  already  referred 
to.  Also  there  is  an  account  of  the  struggles  of  the 
Judseo- Alexandrian  community  against  the  tyranny  of 
Flaccus,  the  Roman  governor,  and  the  madness  of  the 
Emperor  Caius  Caligula. 

From  this  mass  of  literature  we  have  to  discover 
the  philosophical  thoughts  assumed.  The  primary 
thought  with  Philo,  as  with  all  really  great  thinkers, 
is  God.  Alike  a  Jew  and  a  Platonist,  he  is  diametrically 
opposed  to  Pantheism.  To  him  God  is  the  Absolute 
Being,  the  One  who  cannot  so  much  as  be  named. 
No  qualities  were  to  be  attributed  to  Him,  as  all 
names  and  qualifications  implied  limitation.  He  was 
thus  beyond  human  comprehension ;  but  still  He  was 
absolutely  distinct  from  the  universe.  Here  appears 
the  dualism  which  characterises  the  philosophy  of 
Philo.  Over  against  God,  the  active  cause  of  the 
universe,  there  is  a  passive  cause  (alriov  TradrjTiKov). 
This  matter,  the  v\rj  of  Plato,  is  the  material  on 
which  the  active  power  of  God  is  exercised.  Matter 
was  regarded  as  the  source  of  all  finitude — that  is 
to  say,  negation  or  non-existence.  It  is  impossible 
that  the  Absolute  One  should  directly  intervene  in 
regard  to  matter.  Even  when  the  world  was  in  a 
state  of  confusion  and  disorder,  when  Chaos  reigned, 
it  would  be  self  -  contradictory  to  believe  that  God 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  159 

should  intervene  to  produce  order.  It  may  be  noted 
here  that  there  is  no  question  of  absolute  creation ; 
probably  Philo  felt  that  to  maintain  that  matter  was 
created  by  God,  would  be  to  make  God  the  author 
of  evil.  He  did  not  see  that  this  dualism  of  making 
matter  an  externally  existent  something  over  against 
God,  really  made  God  not  to  be  God.  This  dilemma 
was  seen  afterwards  by  the  Gnostics,  and  met  in  the 
mythological  fashion  so  well  known.  The  successive 
aeons,  each  further  from  the  Absolute  than  its  pre- 
decessors, at  length,  though  with  difficulty,  rendered 
the  creation  of  matter  possible.  This  Gnostic  method 
was  really  a  carrying  out  of  the  device  suggested  by 
Philo.  Philo  supposes  that  there  are  certain  emana- 
tive  potencies  (SwdfAeis)  who  effect  the  will  of  God : 
these  are  the  angels.  This  view  is  implied  in  the 
pseudepigraphic  Apocalypses,  especially  in  the  Book 
of  Enoch ;  it  is  also  found  in  the  Book  of  Eevelation, 
where  we  have  angels  of  the  winds  and  of  the 
waters.  In  this  view  there  is  nothing  either  un- 
scientific or  unphilosophical,  still  less  anything  really 
opposed  to  Scripture.  Above  those  powers,  though 
sometimes  appearing  almost  a  combination  of  them, 
is  the  \0705,  the  reason  of  the  Almighty.  While, 
if  we  take  the  word  as  it  stands,  it  might  seem 
we  have  to  do  merely  with  the  attribute  of  reason 
in  God,  a  little  more  careful  reading  shows  us  that 
logos  hypostatised  and  become  personal.  He  is  the 
"second  God,"  Sevrepo?  0e'o9,  "the  first-born,"  "the 
archangel  of  many  names."  He  comes  forth  and 
reduces  the  disorder  and  confusion  of  the  world 
into  cosmic  order  and  beauty. 


160  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

It  seems  impossible  to  deny  that  in  a  lesser  degree 
Philo  was  being  made  a  schoolmaster  to  lead  men  to 
Christ.  The  points  of  resemblance  between  the  phrase- 
ology of  Philo  and  that  of  Paul  and  John,  especially 
of  the  latter,  are  too  numerous  to  be  merely  accidental. 
It  may  be  that  this  phraseology  and  these  thoughts 
were  the  common  property  of  the  Jewish  nation  at 
the  time ;  but,  at  all  events,  it  was  the  product  of 
Jewish  Alexandrian  thought  in  contact  with  Hellenism, 
and  this  contact  and  its  effect  were  used  by  the 
Divine  Spirit  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  gospel.  When  Philo  calls  the  Logos 
TrapdK\T)To<;,  and  the  Apostle  John  in  the  First  Epistle, 
ii.  1,  applies  the  same  title  to  Him  whom  in  his 
Gospel  he  calls  Logos,  we  can  scarcely  think  this 
resemblance  due  merely  to  accident ;  and  as  John 
wrote  not  impossibly  half  a  century  later  than  Philo, 
the  most  natural  supposition  is  that  the  later  writer 
adopted  the  phraseology  of  the  earlier.  It  is  quite 
true  that  the  development  of  the  doctrine  in  the 
hands  of  John  is  very  great — that  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  there  is  a  depth  of  meaning  given  to  the 
title  which  was  only  shadowed  forth  in  Philo  ;  yet 
still  we  do  find  this  forth-shadowing  in  Philo.  We 
must  also  bear  in  mind  that  Philo  in  this  represents 
only  one  step  in  a  process  of  which  the  "  wisdom " 
in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  may  be  regarded  as  the 
lowest  step  ;  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  with  its  personi- 
fication of  Wisdom,  a  further  advance  ;  upon  this  Philo 
advances  yet  another  step.  Thus  we  see  by  gradual 
steps  men  were  educated  to  receive  the  doctrine  of 
the  "word  of  God."  As  has  been  shown  by  Eders- 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  161 

helm,  the  object  of  the  Logos  of  Philo  was  to  keep 
God  apart  from  the  world ;  that  of  the  Logos  of  John 
was  to  reconcile  the  world  with  God.  The  nin^  jntp'p  of 
the  Targum  proves  that  this  way  of  regarding  creation 
in  relation  to  God  was  in  the  air,  though  not  improbably 
the  Targum ists,  writing  nearly  a  couple  of  centuries 
after  Philo,  may  have  borrowed  from  him.  He  declares 
the  Logos  to  be  the  High  m  Priest  of  men.  Writing 
some  thirty  or  forty  years  after  our  author,  the  writer 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  applies  the  title 
High  Priest  to  the  second  Person  of  the  Trinity.  The 
resemblance  becomes  all  the  more  striking,  that  in 
proving  Christ's  exaltation  the  writer  of  the  Hebrews 
compares  Him  with  the  angels  with  whom  the  Logos 
of  Philo  is  associated.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  that 
the  later  writer  is  not  influenced  in  his  phraseology 
by  the  earlier.  Thus  what  may  be  called  with  little 
violence — the  Christology  of  Philo,  prepares  the  way 
for  that  of  the  gospel.  The  angelology  of  Philo,  we 
have  seen,  is  like  that  of  the  New  Testament.  In 
neither  case  had  Philo  fully  thought  himself  out. 

The  anthropology  of  Philo  presents  points  of  analogy 
to  that  of  Christianity.  Although  the  phraseology 
is  different,  there  is  a  trichotomy  closely  analogous  to 
that  of  Paul.  In  Philo  it  is  the  vote  that  is  the 
highest  part  of  man,  the  animal  soul  is  the  region 
of  sensuous  perception  and  impulse.  Paul  distin- 
guishes between  vovs  and  Trvevpa  where  he  speaks  of 
"  praying  with  the  spirit  and  with  the  understanding 
also"  (1  Cor.  xiv.  15) ;  but  the  functions  he  attributes 
to  spirit  are  nearly  akin  to  what  Philo  attributes  to 
the  vow.  In  one  point,  certainly,  there  is  a  marked 


162  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC.       ; 

distinction  between  the  Christian  standpoint  and  that 
of  Philo.  With  the  latter  the  body  as  matter  is  bad, 
and  in  it  the  soul  is  imprisoned,  and  once  set  free 
from  the  body  the  spirit  never  wishes  to  be  fettered 
with  it  again.  With  Paul,  although  the  spirit  groans, 
being  burdened,  and  looks  for  deliverance,  that  deliver- 
ance is  "adoption"  (vtoBetrta),  to  use  Paul's  term — not 
the  destruction  of  the  body,  but  its  redemption.  With 
Paul  the  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This 
latter  view  is  the  necessary  correlate  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection.  Yet  with  all  this  Philo  was  even 
here  an  intermediary,  preparing  the  way  for  Chris- 
tianity. To  the  Jew  the  body  originally  occupied — as 
we  may  say — too  important  a  place.  All  the  blessings 
promised  him  by  God  were  temporal ;  all  that  he 
hoped  for  was,  to  live  long  in  the  land  which  the 
Lord  his  God  had  given  him.  It  is  true  that  higher 
spirits  grasped  loftier  views ;  yet  still  the  disembodied 
state  was  one  to  be  dreaded,  not  longed  for.  Philo 
presented  the  other  side  with  such  force,  that  Paul's 
longing  "to  depart  and  be  with  Christ"  found  a 
sympathetic  chord  in  the  breasts  of  listeners ;  and 
his  fervent  declaration  that  this  was  "  far  better," 
was  cordially  re-echoed.  Philo  brings  the  Logos  into 
close  relationship  with  man.  He — the  Logos — is  the 
type  according  to  which  man  is  made ;  and  in  course 
of  this  he  makes  use  of  the  term  ^apa/m;/?,  the  very 
term  applied  by  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  to  Christ.  Philo  makes  a  distinction  between 
avOpwiros  ovpdvios  and  avOpwiros  yrjivos,  which  is  found 
also  in  Paul's  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians.  With  Philo 
the  heavenly  man  is  he  whose  creation  is  narrated  in. 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  163 

Gen.  i.  27.  When  he  comes  into  union  with  earth 
he  becomes  earthly,  whereas  the  earthly  (^ot/co?)  man  is 
Adam.  With  Paul,  on  the  other  hand,  as  we  all  know, 
the  heavenly  Adam  is  the  Lord  from  heaven.  Thus 
Paul  really  carries  out  Philo's  doctrine  to  its  logical 
issue.  Here,  again,  we  have  Philonian  doctrine  taken, 
transformed,  and  deepened  by  being  baptized  unto 
Christ,  yet  still  fundamentally  the  Philonian  doctrine. 

Closely  akin  to  Anthropology  is  Ethics.  Funda- 
mentally Philo  is  a  Platonist  in  thought,  so  in  Ethics 
we  find  he  makes  the  fourfold  division  of  the  virtues 
which  we  find  in  the  Republic.  The  four  virtues  of 
prudence,  temperance,  courage,  and  justice  he  sees 
symbolised  in  the  four  rivers  of  Eden.  These  four 
virtues  maintain  a  warfare  against  the  sensuous  nature. 
Although  we  do  not  find  any  such  classification  of  the 
virtues  in  Christianity,  yet  they  all  find  place,  and  the 
conflict  between  the  higher  and  lower  nature  is  clearly 
recognised,  the  "  war  in  the  members,"  as  Paul  calls  it. 
This  conflict  is  not  seen  in  Judaism.  Certainly  the 
psalmists  and  prophets  manifest  longings  which  yet 
they  recognise  themselves  unable  to  gratify,  but  never 
is  the  figure  of  conflict  used.  The  predestinationism  of 
Christianity,  especially  in  the  Pauline  presentation  of 
it,  has  seemed  to  some  to  contradict  this  conflict ;  yet 
the  same  contradiction — if  contradiction  it  be — is  found 
in  Philo.  Thus  the  points  in  which  Philo  was  the  fore- 
runner of  Christ  are  numerous.  In  regard,  however, 
to  the  great  distinctive  doctrine  of  Christianity — the 
resurrection — he  is  defective. 

From  his  broad  philosophic  view  of  things  he  had 
lost  sight  to  a  great  extent  of  the  Messianic  hopes  of 


164  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Israel.  He  certainly  looked  forward  to  a  Messianic 
state  of  things,  but  he  was  too  cosmopolitan  to  unite 
this  with  the  coming  of  a  Messiah  of  the  house  of 
David.  In  this  broad  view,  looking  upon  all  mankind 
as  sharers  of  the  glories  of  the  Messianic  times,  Philo 
may  be  regarded  as  preparing  the  way  for  the  Pauline 
doctrine,  that  in  Christ  the  Messiah  there  was  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,  barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  nor  free. 
Philo  had  not  the  insight  given  him  to  recognise  the 
possibility  of  a  Messiah,  such  as  our  Lord  was,  an- 
nointed  to  suffer,  and  by  suffering  to  rule  over  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  men — not  over  their  bodies. 
Such  a  Messiah  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been 
dreamed  of  among  the  Jews,  and  we  cannot  blame 
Philo  that  he  did  not  rise  above  his  age.  Israel  with 
Philo  is  to  have  a  preference ;  but  the  symbolic  is  so 
much  mixed  up  with  the  actual  that  it  is  difficult  to 
make  sure  that  the  earthly  Israel  is  meant  and  not  the 
true  Israel,  the  wise  who  have  conquered  their  passions. 

Philo  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  come  in  contact 
with  Christianity.  He  must  have  heard  of  it ;  but  to 
one  whose  philosophic  system  was  all  made  up,  any 
change  would  be  a  matter  of  difficulty.  He  praised 
the  Essenes,  who,  we  have  seen,  had  a  close  connection 
with  Christianity ;  but  it  was  because  they  seemed  to 
him  to  represent  the  contemplative  life  which  Plato 
had  commended.  The  mixture  of  activity  and  con- 
templation which  was  manifested  by  such  Christians  as 
Paul,  was  foreign  to  Philo's  whole  nature. 

We  have  postponed  till  now  the  consideration  of 
Aristobulus  for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  his 
date  is  doubtful.  If  it  be  granted  that  the  work, 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  165 

references  to  which  have  come  down  to  us  under  this 
name,  was  genuine,  the  Ptolemy  under  whom  he  wrote 
is  doubtful,  though  probably  the  balance  may  be  in 
favour  of  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Philometor  ;  but  further, 
Eichhorn,  Gratz,  and  others,  with  at  least  a  show  of 
reason,  have  doubted  his  existence  altogether.  But  our 
second  reason  is  more  important,  he  seems  to  us  the 
first  falsarius  of  the  peculiar  type  which  became  so 
prevalent  in  Alexandria.  His  work,  to  judge  by  the 
fragments  preserved  to  us  in  Clement  of  Alexandria 
and  in  Eusebius,  is  a  defence  of  the  thesis  that  all  the 
learning  and  culture  of  Greece  was  borrowed  from  the 
Jews ;  and  this  is  defended  by  quotations  from  the 
works  of  ancient  Greek  poets,  the  great  mass  of  which 
quotations  are  arrant  forgeries.  It  is  true  Schlircr 
thinks  that  he  did  not  actively  forge  these  quotations, 
but  that  he  found  them  already  done  by  some  earlier 
falsarius,  and  merely  passed  the  false  coin  unwittingly. 
The  simplest  supposition  is,  in  such  circumstances, 
the  best,  and  that  is  that  Aristobulus  did  his  own 
forgery.  His  forgeries  imposed  upon  the  Christian 
Church  for  long.1  He  seems  to  have  been  reckoned 
a  Peripatetic  (Clem.  Alex.  i.  15),  but  he  not  unlikely 
was  largely  an  Eclectic.  He  must  have  occupied  a 
place  of  considerable  prominence  in  the  Jewish  com- 
munity in  Alexandria. 

The  letter  of  Aristeas  we  need  only  refer  to  as 
containing  a  specimen  of  a  falsarius'  work  of  the  kind 
produced  by  Aristobulus.  It  purports  to  be  the 

1  These  forgeries  have  not  yet  exhausted  their  influence.  In  a  work  in 
defence  of  the  Sabbath  which  we  recently  saw,  sentences  in  support  of  the 
observance  of  a  seventh  day  are  quoted  as  from  Homer,  whose  certainly 
they  are  not.  Aristobulus  was  really  their  author. 


166  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC.      • 

account,  by  a  Gentile,  Aristeas  by  name,  of  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Septuagint.  It  is  only  one  of  a  series  of 
marvellous  accounts  of  that  work. 

There  are  several  other  works  that  might  be  men- 
tioned from  which  Josephus,  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
and  Eusebius  quote — Orphic  poems,  poems  of  Linus, 
etc.,  all  barefaced  forgeries  to  which  we  need  not 
further  refer. 

Much  more  important,  both  from  their  bulk  and 
their  effect  on  later  times,  are  the  so-called  Sibylline 
books.  They  are  poems  in  hexameter  verse,  arranged 
in  fourteen  books,  some  of  which,  however,  are  totally 
lost,  and  some  remain  in  the  merest  fragments.  The 
ninth  and  tenth,  according  to  Alexandre,  have  totally 
disappeared,  and  the  sixth  is  represented  only  by 
twenty-eight  lines.  However,  it  is  misleading  to  speak 
of  separate  books  ;  that  statement  conveys  to  most 
minds  the  idea,  erroneous  so  far  as  the  Sibyllines  are 
concerned,  that  there  is  really  a  unity  of  which  these 
several  books  are  portions.  This  is,  however,  not  the 
case.  The  different  books  have  really  no  connection 
with  each  other.  Further,  it  ought  to  be  said,  the 
books  even  taken  individually  are  not  unities,  they 
have  been  subjected  to  interpolations  of  all  kinds. 
Indeed  it  sometimes  seems  to  one  reading  any  one 
of  the  longer  books,  as  if  a  number  of  disconnected 
fragments  of  different  authorship  and  date  had  been 
strung  together  and  put  under  one  title. 

The  origin  of  these  books  was  a  peculiar  one.  The 
story  is  told  in  Pliny,  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  and 
Aulus  Gellius,  of  a  Sibyl  bringing  sacred  books  to  one 
of  the  Tarquins,  who  bought  them,  after  they  had  been 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  167 

diminished  by  two-thirds,  at  the  same  price  at  which  he 
would  at  first  have  got  the  whole  number.  These  books 
were  preserved  beneath  the  temple  of  the  Capitoline 
Jove,  and  were  consulted  from  time  to  time  during  the 
earlier  days  of  the  Koman  Eepublic.  In  B.C.  85  the 
Capitol  was  burnt,  and  in  the  conflagration  perished 
the  Sibylline  books.  By  order  of  Sulla  all  Sibylline 
fragments  that  could  be  found  were  gathered  together, 
and  a  new  collection  was  made  to  take  the  place  of  the 
old.  This  was  added  to  by  Augustus,  who  caused  a 
further  search  to  be  instituted  for  Sibylline  fragments. 
At  this  time,  not  improbably,  began  the  fabrication  of 
these  pseudo-Sibylline  books.  Originally  Jewish,  they 
have  been  extensively  interpolated  by  Christian  hands. 
The  first  book  to  the  306th  line  gives  an  account  of 
the  history  of  the  world  till  its  division  among  the 
three  sons  of  Noah.  Then,  by  a  leap  over  the  inter- 
vening space  of  time,  the  coming  of  Christ  is  narrated, 
evidently  by  a  Christian  hand.  He  is  described  as 
the  Son  of  the  great  God,  made  like  to  man  on  earth ; 
that  His  name  should  have  four  vowels  and  two 
consonants  ('I^o-ofo)  ;  and  that  the  sum  of  these 
letters  would  be  888,  a  mode  of  signifying  a  person, 
interesting  from  its  resemblance  to  the  666  of  Revela- 
tion. The  second  book  is  exclusively  Christian,  giving 
an  account  of  the  last  judgment,  in  which  Elijah  is  to 
play  a  prominent  part.  In  the  third  book,  after  a 
preamble  which  seems  for  the  most  part  to  be  of  Christian 
origin,1  the  story  of  the  beginning  of  the  first  book  is 

1  There  are  some  portions  that  seem  to  point  to  an  earlier  date,  46-48, — 
Avreip  ivil  PuftYi  x.etl  Ai-yi/Trrov  fictoi'hivafi 
E/f  tv  idv'jovact  TOTt  (iij  Petaiheix  ftf/loTTi 
' 'Ad»v»Tav  fixyihyo;  lii  tivdpu-foiisi  (ftetveirett. 


168  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

resumed  ;  the  history  of  the  race  from  the  building  of 
Babel,  is  carried  on  with  a  wide  sweep  to  the  founding 
of  the  Solomonic  kingdom.  This  leads  the  writer  to 
give  an  account  (215)  of  the  Jewish  nation.  There 
is  an  interpolation  here  of  a  hundred  lines  about  the 
Macedonian  power.  The  next  portion  of  this  third 
book  is  devoted  to  the  prophecy  of  desolation  to  fall 
on  Home  and  Asia  Minor,  borrowed  to  appearance  from 
the  Apocalypse.  The  further  portion  from  489  to 
the  end  is  the  most  interesting,  as  exhibiting  Jewish 
Messianic  hopes.  After  describing  the  woes  to  fall  on 
the  heathen  nation,  it  refers  to  the  coming  of  a 
king  from  the  same  (653)  sent  by  God,  who  would 
make  the  Jews  everywhere  victorious.  Then  follows 
a  description  of  Messianic  times  :  — 

neti  TOTS  S'  f%sytpti  fiotafaytov  tig  etfai/et; 

rws  etytcv  voftov  o$  ifvr  *  fbuxey 


Then  shall  He,  who  formerly  gave  the  holy  law  to  the  pious,  take  the 
kingdom  for  ever  over  all  men. 

After  this  there  is  a  description  of  lambs  and  wolves 
playing  together,  and  tigers  and  kids  feeding  in  one 
herd,  evidently  drawn  from  Isaiah.  The  rest  of  the 
books  may  be  regarded  as  Christian. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  there  is  any  sign  of  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  being  influenced  by  the 
Sibylline  books.  The  third  book  is  quoted,  according  to 
Alexandre,  by  Josephus,  Antiq.  i.  4  ;  but  the  sense 
merely  is  given,  not  the  words.  After  that  time 
references  to  the  Sibyl  are  frequent  among  Christian 
writers.  At  last  the  Sibyls  share  with  the  prophets 

1  Reading  thus  after  Alexandre,  instead  of  O'WTTOT',  the  common  reading. 


ALEXANDRIAN  THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE.  169 

the  honour  of  being  painted  on  the  roof  of  the  Sistine 
Chapel  by  Michael  Angelo.  However  great  the  interest 
one  may  have  in  these  works  on  account  of  the  influence 
they  have  exercised  on  Christian  thought,  yet  still  for 
our  present  purpose  they  have  not  much  importance. 
The  third  book  may  have  been  known  in  a  vague 
way  in  Palestine ;  but  the  quotation  Josephus  makes 
does  not  prove  this.  As  the  Antiquities  were  not 
written  till  he  had  lived  a  score  of  years  in  Rome, 
he  might  easily  have  met  this  book  among  his  Jewish 
friends  there,  especially  those  who  had  Hellenised. 
That  the  third  book  was  composed  in  Egypt  in  the 
reign  of  Augustus — at  least  that  certain  portions  of 
it  were  —  seems  incontestible,  and  therefore  that  it 
might  have  influenced  Jewish  thought  in  Palestine 
is  not  impossible.  It  is  of  interest  to  us  as  exhibiting 
the  apocalyptic  spirit  transferred  from  Palestine  to 
Alexandria,  and  doffing  its  Hebrew  dress  for  the  robe 
of  the  Hellenist. 


CHAPTER    X. 

NOX-APOCALYPTTC    PALESTINIAN    LITERATURE. 

E  Alexandrian  translation  of  the  Scripture, 
although  the  most  famous  and  the  one  which 
had  most  influence  on  the  evolution  of  Christian  thought, 
was  not  alone.  From  the  fact  that  Hebrew  had 
gradually  sunk  out  of  knowledge  even  in  Palestine,  it 
became  necessary,  when  the  Scripture  was  read,  to 
have  one  to  interpret.  In  some  cases  the  difficulty 
seems  to  have  been  got  over  by  using  the  Greek 
version  in  the  synagogue ;  but  this  could  scarcely  be 
always  the  case.  Most  likely  this  practice  of  using 
the  Greek  version  would  be  most  common  in  those 
portions  of  the  Holy  Land  where  the  Hellenic  towns 
were  most  numerous,  and  therefore  the  Greek  tongue 
most  generally  known,  as  in  Galilee  and  Decapolis. 

The  tongue  that  had  taken  the  place  of  Hebrew  was 
what  is  somewhat  inappropriately  called  Chaldee.  It 
differs  considerably  from  the  language  spoken  in 
Nineveh  and  Babylon,  but  seems  to  have  been  regarded 
as  the  language  in  which  international  business  could 
be  transacted,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  request  Eliakim 
and  Shebna  addressed  (2  Kings  xviii.  26)  to  Rabshakeh, 
to  speak  to  them  in  Aramaic  or  Chaldee,  not  in  Hebrew. 
If  the  Chaldees  wTere,  as  seems  not  improbable,  Accadians, 
then  the  language  they  used  was  very  far  removed 

170 


NON-APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  171 

from  what  is  called  Chaldee,  as  Accadian  is  not  even  a 
Shemitic  language.1  Aramaic  is,  on  the  whole,  a  better 
term,  as  it  unites  the  two  dialects,  Syriac  and  Chaldee, 
under  one  name.  Dwelling  in  Mesopotamia  during  the 
time  of  the  captivity,  the  Jews  got  a  mastery  of  this 
common  tongue.  When  they  came  back  to  their  own 
land  they  found  colonists  from  all  quarters  occupying 
large  portions  both  of  the  Southern  and  Northern 
kingdom,  and  with  them  intercourse  could  only  be 
carried  on  by  means  of  Aramaic ;  thus  more  and  more 
was  the  habit  introduced  of  speaking  in  this  somewhat 
limited  and  simple  language.  At  first,  purists  like 
Nehemiah  and  Ezra  fought  against  this,  and  en- 
deavoured to  check  the  introduction  of  the  language 
of  Ashdod  among  the  chosen  people ;  but  the  current 
was  too  strong  to  be  in  the  long  rim  successfully 
stemmed.  Tradition,  veering  round,  credits  Ezra  with 
the  introduction  of  the  Targum,  or  interpretation  of 
the  Hebrew  Scripture,  into  the  current  Aramaic. 

There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  when  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  were  read  in  the  synagogue  they  had 
to  be  interpreted,  and  that  these  interpretations  were 
called  Targums.  When  these  Targums  were  reduced 
to  writing  seems  extremely  doubtful.  About  the 
middle  of  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  some  of  them 
seem  to  have  been  extant,  but  how  long  before  is  not 
to  be  settled  authoritatively ;  but  the  probability  is 
that  the  written  form  originated  not  very  long  before 
the  date  above  mentioned.  That  being  so,  these 
Targums  might  at  once  be  dismissed  as  valueless  for 
our  purpose,  were  it  not  that  there  are  indications  that 

1  The  Ninevite  tongue  is  more  closely  akin  to  Hebrew  than  to  Aramaic.  • 


172  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

in  these  collections  we  have  the  traditional  rendering 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  into  Aramaic.  No  one  needs 
to  be  told  how  certainly  anything  connected  with  a 
liturgic  service  becomes  stereotyped.  The  parashoth 
of  the  law  and  the  haphtaroth  of  the  prophets  were 
read  regularly  day  after  day,  so  that  the  Scriptures 
were  read  through  in  three  years ;  thus  the  interpreta- 
tion would  be  repeated  year  after  year  and  handed 
down  from  reader  to  reader. 

The  most  important  of  these  Targums  are  those  of 
Onkelos  on  the  Pentateuch,  and  of  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel 
on  the  prophets.  These  two  are  practically  translations 
into  Aramaic  of  these  portions  of  Scripture,  and  good 
honest  versions  they  are.  Of  Onkelos,  positively 
nothing  is  known  for  certain.  There  is  repeated  men- 
tion in  the  Talmud  of  Oukelos  the  proselyte,  but  there 
is  no  evidence  that  he  had  anything  to  do  with  this 
Targum,  rather  there  is  evidence  that  Onkelos  was 
simply  a  Rabbinic  mode  of  writing  Aquila.  He,  we 
know,  wrote  a  Greek  version  intended  to  correct  the 
inaccuracies,  real  and  pretended,  of  the  Septuagint. 
The  crediting  of  this  Targum  of  the  law  to  Onkelos 
seems  to  have  proceeded  from  the  stupendous  ignor- 
ance and  wilful  inaccuracy  to  be  met  with  in  every 
page  of  the  Talmud.  It  was  known  that  Aquila  had 
translated  the  law  into  some  language,  and  that  this 
translation  was  regarded  as  being  scrupulously  accur- 
ate. Greek  was  looked  on  with  suspicion  by  the 
time  these  traditions  wrere  fabricated,  therefore  this 
highly  -  respected  interpreter  must  have  written  the 
Targum  in  Aramaic.  There  are  also  many  traditions 
about  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel  which  are  of  equal  value 


NON- APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  173 

as  those  in  regard  to  Onkelos.  It  was  boldly  asserted 
that  he  had  heard  Zechariah,  Haggai,  and  Malachi  ; 
that  he  would  have  proceeded  after  making  a  version 
of  the  prophets  to  make  one  of  the  Kethubim,  but 
he  was  warned  by  a  heavenly  voice  not  to  proceed 
with  it.  Although  he  was  declared  to  have  written 
his  version  at  the  mouth  of  the  last  three  prophets, 
at  the  same  time  he  was  asserted  to  have  been  a 
disciple  of  the  elder  Hillel.  Although  Jonathan  ben 
Uzziel  was  warned  not  to  proceed  with  the  Targum 
of  the  Hagiographa,  Joseph  the  Blind  rendered  several 
of  them  into  Aramaic,  or  at  least  got  the  credit  of  doing 
so  :  these  are  Job,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  the  five 
Megilloth — two  Targumim  on  Esther  are  ascribed  to 
him.  Besides  Onkelos'  Targum  on  the  Pentateuch  there 
is  another  attributed  to  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel ;  but  from 
the  greater  number  of  additions  and  variations  from 
the  original,  it  is  generally  recognised  not  to  be  by  the 
same  hand  as  that  on  the  prophets.  It  is  usually 
known  as  the  Targum  of  the  pseudo-Jonathan.  There 
is  what  may  be  called  a  third  Targum  on  the  Penta- 
teuch, yet  more  paraphrastic  than  the  last  named, 
known  as  the  Jerusalem  Targum ;  it  seems  really  a 
recension  of  that  of  the  pseudo- Jonathan.  Such  are 
the  principal  Targums  that  have  come  down  to  us. 
There  are  further  Targums  on  Chronicles  and  Daniel, 
but  these  are  of  even  less  value  than  those  we  have 
named. 

It  is  thus  only  a  very  indirect  light  they  can  throw 
on  opinions  in  Palestine  during  the  days  of  our  Lord 
or  the  time  of  the  Apocalyptic  writings.  Both  Onkelos 
and  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel  when  they  make  deviations 


174  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

from  the  text,  not  to  be  attributed  to  difference  of 
reading,  do  so  usually  to  remove  anthropomorphisms  in 
regard  to  God  to  soften  down  the  crimes  of  the  patri- 
archs, or  by  paraphrase  to  explain  difficulties.  In  these 
instances,  of  course,  we  may  be  able  to  trace  the  effect 
of  opinions.  Thus  those  passages  where  it  is  said 
"Jehovah  went  down"  are  changed  into  "Jehovah 
revealed  Himself."  This  abhorrence  of  anthropomor- 
phism proves  the  higher  idea  of  God  prevalent  at  the 
time  the  Targum  was  written.  Sometimes  we  have  a 
translation  which  is  really  an  exegesis  of  the  passage. 
Thus  in  the  blessing  of  Jacob,  Onkelos  translates  n>K> 
as  KrrtHp,  thus  interpreting  that  difficult  title.  There 
are  several  other  instances  that  might  be  mentioned. 
The  Targum  of  Jonathan  is  considerably  more  para- 
phrastic than  that  of  Onkelos. 

Keally,  however,  it  is  exceedingly  doubtful  how  far 
the  Targums  reveal  much  of  Jewish  opinion.  The 
probability  certainly  is  that  to  some  extent  there  was 
a  close  family  resemblance  among  the  Aramaic  ver- 
sions given  by  each  successive  reader  in  the  synagogue 
from  the  earliest  times,  yet  nothing  can  be  rested 
on  this.  As  these  versions  were  not  written,  a  change 
in  the  popular  mood  of  thought  would  excuse  a  slight 
variation  in  the  words,  and  would  be  almost  imper- 
ceptible. While  each  change  individually  might  be 
very  small,  successive  changes  might  involve  in  the  end 
the  greatest  difference  between  the  first  version  and 
the  last.  Of  course,  against  this  is  the  tendency  of  the 
liturgies  to  become  stereotyped  even  when  handed  down 
by  tradition.  While  this  applies  to  a  certain  extent  to 
Onkelos  and  Jonathan  ben  Uzziel,  much  more  does  it 


NON-APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  175 

apply  to  Joseph  Csecus,  the  pseudo- Jonathan,  and  the 
Jerusalem  Targum.  One  usage  in  the  Targums  must 
be  referred  to  which  has  been  examined  by  Winer,  De 
Onkeloso.  Instead  of  using  **,  the  Aramaic  equivalent 
of  nirr,  very  frequently  the  Targumists  write  instead 
K'jo'o,  "word."  This  suggests  certainly  the  "  Word  "  of 
the  prologue  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  the  connection  of 
which  with  Philo  has  been  already  noted.  Whether 
this  practice  on  the  part  of  the  Targumists  was  due 
to  the  influence  of  Philo,  or  whether  it  sprang  up 
independently,  is  difficult  to  say.  While  the  Platonic 
ideas  gave  a  starting-point  for  the  Philonian  ^0709, 
no  similar  source  can  be  suggested  in  regard  to 
Babylonian  Judaism  of  the  fourth  century ;  hence  the 
balance  of  probability  seems  decidedly  in  favour  of  this 
usage  being  borrowed  from  Philo.  This  transference 
of  influence  from  Hellenic  thought  to  Judaism  in  an 
indirect  way  may  be  seen  in  the  confusion  of  Aquila 
with  this  fabled  Onkelos.  It  does  not  invalidate  this 
to  take  Szinessy's  view,  that  the  meaning  of  the  title 
Targum  of  Onkelos  is  one  "  after  the  manner  of  Aquila." 
Another  work,  or  rather  collection  of  works,  requires 
to  be  looked  at.  The  Talmud  occupies  in  the  Baby- 
lonian and  Jerusalem  recension  something  like  twelve 
or  thirteen  volumes,  folio  or  quarto  according  to  the 
edition.  When  one  opens  a  volume,  the  page  that  he 
sees  presents  a  strange  appearance.  Kather  nearer 
the  top  than  the  centre  of  the  page  is  a  quadrangular 
patch  of  clear  printing,  in  ordinary  Hebrew ;  the  letters 
are  of  the  ordinary  size  of  character  to  be  found  in  an 
octavo  Hebrew  Bible,  the  size  of  the  page  to  which 
the  quadrangular  patch  we  spoke  of  approximates. 


176  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Around  this  on  every  side,  above  and  below,  is  a  mass 
of  printing  in  much  smaller  type,  late  Hebrew — this 
is  a  dialect  abounding  in  Aramaisms,  and  printed  in 
Rabbinic  character.  The  quadrangular  patch  is  the 
Mishna,  and  the  black  mass  round  it  is  the  Gemara  or 
commentary  on  it.  There  are,  further,  considerable 
appendices.  Other  pages  present  other  peculiarities, 
but  this  is  the  most  general  appearance. 

The  Mishna,  as  its  name  indicates,  is  the  repetition 
of  the  Law.  It  is  mainly  composed  of  Halachoth,  or 
decisions  of  successive  Rabbins  on  points  regarded  of 
importance  by  the  Pharisaic  party.  It  is  asserted  to 
have  been  committed  to  writing  somewhat  late  in  the 
second  century  by  Rabbi  Jehudah  the  holy,  but  it 
professes  to  contain  the  decisions  of  the  fathers  back 
to  the  days  of  the  great  synagogue.  Rabbinic  scholars 
have  been  prone  to  represent  these  decisions  as  of  high 
value ;  and  they  might  be  so  were  there  any  evidence 
that  they  were  accurately  recorded ;  but  the  exaggera- 
tions, trivialities,  and  absurdities  that  abound  render 
it  extremely  difficult  to  imagine  that  those  who  had 
so  completely  lost  the  sense  of  the  credible  and  seem 
never  to  have  possessed  the  instinct  of  accuracy,  should 
be  credited  with  scrupulous  accuracy  in  regard  to  the 
opinions  of  those  who  had  preceded  them.  The  way 
that  certain  names  recur  and  re-recur  is  in  itself  highly 
suspicious,  even  if  there  were  no  other  grounds  of 
suspicion.  Even  the  date  at  which  it  was  committed 
to  writing  is  very  doubtful.  The  fourth  century  is 
almost  as  probable  a  date  as  the  second  for  the  origin 
of  the  written  Mishna. 

The  Mishna  is  divided  into  six  Sedarim  or  sections, 


NON- APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  177 

each  of  these  into  ten  tracts  on  an  average,  or  sixty-one 
tracts  in  all,  and  each  of  these  into  rather  less  than 
nine  chapters  on  an  average.  The  first  section  is  in 
regard  to  "  seeds,"  the  second  in  regard  to  "  festivals," 
the  third  in  regard  to  "  women,"  the  fourth  in  regard 
to  "damages,"  the  fifth  in  regard  to  "holy  things," 
and  the  sixth  in  regard  to  "justification."  This 
general  summary  gives  an  idea  of  the  nature  of  the 
subjects  taken  up.  The  whole  subject  is  in  each  case 
treated  from  the  low  level  of  ceremonial,  and  the 
reasons  for  the  decisions  come  to  are  absurd  to  the  last 
degree.  The  numerical  value  of  the  letters  composing 
a  phrase  is  equal  to  the  numerical  value  of  the  letters 
composing  another  phrase,  and  from  this  a  deduction  is 
made.  A  phrase  vocalised  one  way  means  one  thing, 
vocalised  another  way  means  another  thing  ;  these  two 
meanings  are  made  to  limit  each  other.  Again,  a 
verbal  turn  is  made  to  serve  as  the  foundation  for  a 
principle.  Unwitting  that  it  is  the  greatest  condem- 
nation of  themselves  and  their  methods,  the  Rabbins 
assert  that  the  law  concerning  the  Sabbath  is  like 
a  mountain  suspended  by  a  hair.  A  favourable 
example  is  the  question  with  which  the  Mishna 
opens  —  "When  may  the  Israelite  say  his  evening 
stima,  (Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  thy  God  is  one 
Lord)  ? "  one  Rabbi  gives  one  decision  and  another 
gives  another,  through  some  half  a  dozen,  till  at  length 
Rabbi  Gamaliel's  opinion  is  given,  with  the  occasion  of 
it.  His  sons  had  been  at  a  banquet,  and  they  came 
home  after  midnight  and  appealed  in  distress  to  their 
father  whether  they  could  still  repeat  their  evening 
confession  of  faith.  Gamaliel's  answer  was,  "You 


178  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

can  do  so  till  the  pillar  of  day  appears  in  the  sky." 
In  many  instances  fantastic  reasons  are  added  for  each 
of  the  decisions.  Little  as  the 'value  of  these  decisions 
may  be  in  themselves,  they  would  have  some  value 
as  evidences  of  thought  and  feeling  in  Palestine  at 
a  given  time,  could  we  have  any  confidence  that  the 
successive  Eabbins  whose  names  are  connected  with 
the  several  decisions  had  really  given  them.  But 
this  confidence  we  certainly  cannot  have. 

The  Talmud  is  literally  saturated  with  falsehood. 
Thus  we  have  the  fiction  of  two  schools  with  always 
parallel  masters,  the  most  famous  pairs  being  Abtalion 
and  Shemaiah,  and  Hillel  and  Shammai.  To  say  that 
this  invariable  parallelism  was  highly  improbable  is  to 
put  it  very  mildly,  when  we  remember  that  Hillel  is 
asserted  to  have  lived  over  the  century.  Was  it  likely 
Shammai  was  head  of  the  opposing  school  as  long  as 
his  long-lived  rival  ?  As  unlikely  is  it  that  in  the  long 
line  of  pairs  there  would  occur  no  case  where  the 
teacher  in  the  one  school  overlived  two  successive 
teachers  in  the  other.  This  brings  up  another  mis- 
representation of  which  the  Talmud  is  guilty.  These 
teachers  in  what  we  may  call  the  Pharisaic  academy 
were  represented  as  being  the  president  and  vice- 
president  of  the  Sanhedrin.  A  view  of  matters 
nearly  as  absurd  as  if  an  Oxonian  of  future  genera- 
tions were  to  maintain  that  the  late  T.  H.  Green 
and  Professor  Jowett  were  members  of  Her  Majesty's 
Government ;  or  as  if  a  Cantabrian  of  the  present  time 
were  to  hold  that  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons 
in  the  days  of  Queen  Anne  was  Eichard  Bentley.  We 
find  a  similar  growth  of  unreliable  legends  among  the 


NOX-APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  1*79 

monks  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Jews,  at  the  time 
when  the  Mishna  was  compiled,  were  shut  off,  like  the 
monks,  from  all  opportunity  of  healthy  ambition  or  -any 
hope  of  influencing  history.  They  retired  therefore 
into  their  imagination,  and  invented  a  history  of  the 
past.  This  characteristic  appears  most  in  the  Hagadic 
portion  of  the  Mishna,  and  is  therefore  more  noticeable 
still  in  the  Gemara. 

The  Gemara  is  a  commentary  on  the  Mishna ;  and 
some  would  restrict  the  term  Talmud  to  the  Gemara, 
as  does  Schiller- Szinessy.  The  Hagada  is  an  enlarge- 
ment or  extension  of  some  precepts  in  the  Mishna.  In 
some  instances  there  are  beauties  to  be  found  among 
these  ;  in  so  many  folio  volumes  it  is  scarcely  possible 
but  that  something  precious  should  be  found;  but 
it  is  little  in  comparison  to  the  numerous  trivialities. 
The  childishness  of  the  mass  of  these  tracts  is  their  most 
striking  characteristic.  Later  Jewish  tracts  carry  into 
yet  greater  excess  all  the  worst  qualities  of  the  Talmud. 
Were  it  not  that  the  reader  is  impressed  with  this 
childishness,  he  would  at  times  be  horror-struck  at  the 
hideous  blasphemy  of  representing  the  Almighty  as 
arguing  in  the  schools  with  their  legal  doctors,  and 
by  no  means  with  success  ;  in  fact,  the  Almighty  is  re- 
presented as  needing  to  be  informed  by  these  Eabbins 
of  what  actually  was  in  His  own  law.  Thus  in  Avoda 
Sara,  Rabbi  Jehuda  said  that  Kaf  has  said,  "  The  day 
has  twelve  hours  ;  in  the  first  three  God  sits  and  studies 
the  law,  in  the  next  three  He  sits  and  judges  the 
whole  world,  in  the  third  three  He  sits  and  nourishes 
the  whole  world,  and  the  last  three  He  sits  and  plays 
with  Leviathan."  This  may  be  regarded  as  bad  enough; 


180  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

but  another  of  these  wonderful  stories  narrates  how 
there  were  discussions  in  heaven  as  to  the  question 
of  ceremonial  uncleanness  in  regard  to  blisters  and 
whitening  of  the  hair  in  leprosy,  and  in  this  matter 
God  Almighty  maintained  one  opinion,  and  the  rest  of 
the  "  academy  "  of  heaven  maintained  the  opposite.  In 
order  to  settle  the  dispute,  the  angel  of  death  was  sent 
for  a  certain  Rabbi  ben  Nachmani,  and  when  brought 
ben  Nachmani  graciously  took  the  side  of  God  Almighty, 
who  blessed  him  in  consequence.  Sometimes  even 
they  go  the  length  of  representing  the  Almighty  as 
defeated  in  argument.  Nay  more,  they  relate  that 
when  the  temple  was  burned,  the  Almighty  sat  still, 
complaining,  till  Asaph  came  and  ordered  Him  to  leave 
off;  and  that  when  He  buried  Moses  He  became 
ceremonially  unclean. 

Of  course  there  are  numerous  and  nameless  blas- 
phemies of  Christ,  which,  horrible  as  they  are,  may 
be  regarded  as  the  endeavour  to  excuse  their  unbelief 
to  themselves.  Yet  there  is  a  childishness  in  their 
most  venomous  statements  that  induces  contempt  rather 
than  hatred.  We  need  not  waste  any  more  time  witli 
this  really  worthless  collection  of  tracts ;  at  least  they 
are  worthless  for  our  purpose.  They  do  give  us  some 
information  of  the  opinions  of  the  Jews  in  the  earlier 
portion  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  as  to  the  state  of 
opinion  in  Palestine  in  the  days  of  our  Lord,  or  while 
the  Apocalyptic  books  were  written,  their  evidence  is 
simply  worth  nothing. 

The  proofs  that  are  brought  forward  that  our  Lord 
borrowed  from  Hillel,  rest  on  the  resemblance  between 
the  maxims  attributed  to  Hillel  in  the  Talmud  and  the 


NON- APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  181 

sayings  recorded  of  our  Lord.  The  whole  evidence  for 
Hillel's  sayings  is  this  Talmud,  written  at  the 
earliest  some  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  Hillel's 
death, — more  probably  actually  committed  to  writing 
a  couple  of  centuries  later  still.  In  any  other  matter 
such  evidence  would  be  reckoned  absolutely  worthless. 
If  Hillel  were  such  an  important  personage  as  the 
Talmud  represents  him  to  be,  why  does  Josephus 
never  so  much  as  mention  him  ?  Fear  and  hatred 
alike  might  keep  him  silent  about  our  Lord,  if  silent 
he  was,  but  these  reasons  cannot  be  advanced  to 
account  for  his  silence  in  regard  to  Hillel. 

While,  as  we  saw  in  regard  to  the  Targums  and  the 
Septuagint,  the  object  of  the  writers  was  to  soften 
or  remove  everything  savouring  of  anthropomorphism 
in  regard  to  God,  in  the  Talmud  the  writers  seem 
to  delight  in  the  absurdest  anthropomorphisms.  The 
same  tendency  to  remove  anthropomorphism  may  be 
seen  in  the  Book  of  Jubilees,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
and  also  in  Josephus,  which  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  discuss  immediately.  The  strange  fantastic  mood  o'f 
mind  manifested  by  the  Talmudists  was  thus  diametri- 
cally opposed  to  that  exhibited  by  the  writers  whose 
dates  we  know  fall  within  the  period  with  which  we 
have  to  do.  This  would  indicate  that  these  sayings 
belong  to  a  totally  different  period,  and  prove,  even  if 
there  were  nothing  else,  how  valueless  is  the  evidence 
of  the  Talmud  for  our  present  purpose. 

In  regard  to  the  Messianic  hopes  of  Israel  also, 
the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  Talmud,  unlike  that  of 
our  period,  is  that  of  disappointment  and  the  sense  of 
failure.  "  The  times  have  all  flowed  past  when  the 


182  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Messiah  was  to  come,"  and  this,  although  they  in- 
terpret Messianically  the  reference  in  the  blessing  of 
Jacob  to  the  coming  of  Shiloh,  and  also  many  of 
the  prophecies.  Notwithstanding,  their  imagination 
runs  riot  over  impossible  glories  to  be  experienced 
when  He  does  come.  Such  flights  are  really  a  reductio 
ad  impossibile  of  the  national  hopes.  What  other  is 
it  when  it  is  asserted  that  each  Israelite  should  have 
two  thousand  eight  hundred  servants?  This  latter 
statement  is  from  the  Jalkut  Shimoni,  but  still  it 
represents  the  same  movement. 

Still  less  can  any  value  be  assigned  to  the  Kabbala. 
This  system  of  theosophic  doctrine  is  mainly  known  to 
us  through  the  book  Zohar,  which  claims  to  be  written 
by  Rabbi  Simeon  ben  Jochai,  who  is  traditionally  re- 
ported to  have  lived  in  the  end  of  the  first  century  of 
our  era — to  have  flourished,  in  short,  just  after  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem.  It  further  claims  that  he  has  embodied 
in  it  the  esoteric  wisdom  that  had  been  revealed  to 
prophet  after  prophet  from  Adam  downwards.  Taking 
the  text  of  the  books  of  Moses,  this  book  applies  to  the 
words  all  manner  of  absurd  methods — methods  already 
in  use  in  the  Talmud.  Sometimes  a  word  is  treated  as 
a  cipher,  and  atJibash  or  albam  applied  to  it,  and  new 
meanings  are  extracted.  Again  gematma  is  used — a 
method  we  have  already  referred  to,  by  which  the 
numerical  value  of  two  clauses  being  equal,  they  are 
regarded  as  equivalent  in  meaning.  About  the  period 
of  the  Renascence,  the  doctrines  of  the  Kabbala  had 
considerable  influence  among  Hebrew  scholars  both  in 
church  and  synagogue,  and  the  veritable  existence  of 
Simeon  ben  Jochai  was  believed  in.  Subsequent  in- 


NON- APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  183 

vestigation  has  proved  that  the  book  in  question  was 
not  written  till  about  A.D.  1300.  It  may  or  may  not 
contain  elements  as  old  as  the  date  it  claims  as  that 
of  its  author,  but  there  are  no  means  of  testing  it, 
and  most  of  its  contents  are  worthless,  whatever  their 
date. 

We  thus  see  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  we 
have  any  remains  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  of  the  first  or 
of  even  the  second  century  of  our  era,  still  less  of  the 
period  of  the  Apocalyptists.  If  Professor  Roberts' 
theory  is  correct,  that  the  language  of  business,  and 
therefore  of  literature,  and  even  of  worship,  was  Greek, 
it  is  but  natural  that  there  should  be  few  Hebrew 
remains  from  that  period.  We  shall  see  that  we  have 
the  fragments  of  works — more  or  less  copious — that 
were  originally  composed  in  Hebrew  and  Aramaic.  It 
is,  however,  only  the  translations  and  retranslations  of 
these  that  have  reached  us. 

We  shall  now  turn  to  Greek  historical  works  of 
Palestinian  origin.  The  earliest  of  these  of  which  we 
have  any  notice  is  the  history  of  the  reign  of  John 
Hyrcanus  the  First.  It  is  referred  to  in  the  end  of  the 
First  Book  of  the  Maccabees.  We  have  no  fragments 
of  it  surviving.  While  we  assume  it  to  have  been 
written  in  Greek,  it  may  have  been  written  in  Hebrew 
or  in  Aramaic.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  Josephus 
has  made  use  of  it  in  his  account  of  the  reign  of 
Hyrcanus. 

Nearly  as  voluminous  as  Philo,  Josephus  has  been 
much  more  generally  read  and  studied ;  partly,  no 
doubt,  because  his  works  are  in  the  main  narrative,  but 
greatly  because  by  the  account  he  gives  of  the  siege 


184  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  Jerusalem,  the  fulfilment  of  our  Lord's  prophecy  is 
seen  in  all  its  terrible  reality  narrated  by  an  eye- 
witness. While  in  regard  to  Philo  our  information  is 
in  the  last  degree  scanty,  in  regard  to  Josephus  it  is 
singularly  full,  as  he  has  left  us  his  autobiography. 
He  was  of  the  seed  of  Aaron,  and  belonged  to  the 
course  Joiarib,  the  first  of  the  twenty-four  courses  ; 
his  mother  was  of  the  race  of  Hasmonseans.  He  thus 
could  claim  to  belong  to  the  highest  caste  of  his  nation. 

He  was  born  in  the  year  A.D.  37,  the  first  year  of  the 
Emperor  Caligula,  and,  along  with  his  brother,  was 
carefully  educated.  In  order  to  attain  a  knowledge  of 
the  different  sides  of  Judaism,  he  became  a  follower 
of  one  Banus,  who  seems  to  have  been  an  Essene,  or 
perhaps  a  Judaising  Christian.  He  became  a  Pharisee 
after  having  been  three  years  with  Banus.  As  one 
of  priestly  caste,  he  would  be  acquainted  with  the 
Sadducean  party ;  indeed  that  is  the  party  to  which  he 
naturally  belonged.  Josephus  may  then  be  regarded 
as  having  gone  the  round  of  the  Jewish  sects,  and  thus 
is  in  a  position  to  say  what  their  respective  peculiarities 
were.  It  must  be  noted  here  that  in  his  accounts 
there  is  a  tendency  to  parallel  the  Jewish  religious 
sects  with  the  Greek  philosophic  sects.  Thus  he 
declares  the  Pharisees  to  be  like  the  Stoics,  and  the 
Sadducees  like  the  Epicureans.  This  so  far  militates 
against  the  absolute  accuracy  of  what  he  says. 

At  a  comparatively  early  age  he  was  sent  to  Eome, 
and  after  suffering  a  shipwreck  on  his  way  thither, 
in  which,  like  the  Apostle  Paul,  he  was  a  night  and 
a  day  on  the  deep,  he  landed,  again  like  Paul,  at 
Puteoli,  and  thence  proceeded  to  Rome,  and,  securing 


NON-APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  185 

Aliturus  as  advocate  with  Nero,  got  a  favourable 
presentation  at  the  Imperial  Court.  He  gained  the  ear 
of  the  Empress  Poppsea,  and  by  her  influence  with  the 
emperor  succeeded  in  having  the  priests  released 
whose  imprisonment  by  Felix  was  the  cause  of  his 
mission. 

Not  long  after  his  return  the  war  broke  out  in 
Judea,  and  he  was  appointed  to  a  command  in  Galilee. 
At  first,  according  to  his  own  account,  he  was  exposed 
to  considerable  intrigue  on  the  part  of  John  of 
Gischala,  from  which  he  successfully  extricated  him- 
self. When  the  campaign  against  Galilee  was  actually 
commenced  by  Vespasian,  Josephus  threw  himself 
into  Jotapata,  and  defended  it  long  and  vigorously, 
only  surrendering  when  the  supply  of  water  was  cut 
off.  When  he  was  made  prisoner  by  the  Romans  he 
was  taken  into  the  favour  of  Vespasian  by  prophesying 
that  he  should  become  emperor,  a  vaticination  which 
he  declares  he  made  from  the  old  prophets.  He  made 
out  Vespasian  the  Messiah  promised  to  the  fathers. 
He  thus  sold  the  birthright  of  his  people,  the  hope  of 
a  Messiah  the  son  of  David,  for  a  mess  of  pottage. 

After  the  capture  of  Jerusalem,  Josephus  went  to 
Rome  with  his  patron,  Titus,  the  son  of  the  Emperor 
Vespasian,  and  partook  in  the  glories  of  his  triumph. 
It  must  have  been  with  mingled  feelings  that  he 
looked  on  the  spectacle  which  signalised  the  suppression 
of  his  nation  and  the  overthrow  of  its  worship  after 
unheard-of  sufferings.  Nevertheless  he  set  himself  to 
perpetuate  that  triumph  by  writing  his  first  literary 
work,  TJie  History  of  the  Wars  of  the  Jews,  an 
account  of  the  conflicts  of  the  Jews  with  the  Romans. 


186  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Some  twenty  years  after  the  publication  of  this  work, 
when  Vespasian  and  Titus  his  son  were  both  dead, 
Josephus  published  his  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,  an 
account  of  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people  from  the 
earliest  times.  In  the  beginning  the  Scriptures  are 
drawn  upon,  and  later  he  draws  on  the  First  Book  of 
the  Maccabees  and  the  history  of  John  Hyrcanus  I. 
In  regard  to  the  Persian  period,  after  the  Biblical 
record  fails  him,  his  account  is  decidedly  defective. 
Reading  his  account  one  would,  as  we  have  remarked 
above,  be  left  with  the  impression  that  Darius 
Codomannus  succeeded  immediately  to  Artaxerxes 
Longimanus.  He  certainly  does  not  say  that  the  last 
king  of  Persia  succeeded  directly  to  the  grandson  of 
Darius  Hystaspis,  but  that  as  certainly  is  implied.  He 
next  wrote  a  defence  of  this  work  against  Apion. 
Apion  seems  to  have  been  an  inveterate  opponent  o£ 
Judaism.  This  book  contains  a  fuller  exhibition  of  the 
theological  views  of  Josephus  than  his  histories  do. 
Last  of  all,  he  wrote  the  book  usually  called  his  life, 
but  which  is  really  a  defence  of  himself  against  the 
accusations  of  one  Justus,  who  wrote  a  history,  no  part 
of  which,  however,  has  come  down  to  us.  The  account 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  Jewish  Maccabean  martyrs, 
commonly  known  as  the  Fourth  Book  of  the  Maccabees, 
is  sometimes  attributed  to  him,  and  is  usually  bound 
along  with  his  works.  Its  authorship,  however,  is 
extremely  doubtful.  The  year  of  his  death  is  not 
known,  but  he  seems  to  have  lived  to  the  reign  of 
Trajan. 

As   a  youth,  he  probably  learned  both  Greek  and 
Aramaic.     The  first  edition  of  his  work  on  the  wars 


NON-APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  187 

of  the  Jews  was  in  Aramaic ;  but  afterwards,  finding 
possibly  that  his  work  was  not  popular  with  the 
limited  public  to  which  it  alone  was  open,  he  trans- 
lated it  into  Greek.  In  this  work  he  owns  he  had 
the  help  of  certain  assistants,  na-l  a-wepyois,  in  translat- 
ing it  into  Greek.  This  explains,  probably,  the  way 
in  which  he  has  succeeded  in  avoiding  all  Hebraisms. 
To  see  the  difference  of  writings  composed  under  such 
auspices,  and  truly  Hebraistic  writings,  one  has  only  to 
compare  Josephus  with  the  Septuagint.  He  probably 
knew  Greek  as  well  as,  or  better,  than  the  apostles ; 
but  living  among  those  who  were  greater  purists  in 
Hellenic  style,  he  felt  his  need  of  assistance. 

It  may  be  noted  in  support  of  our  view,  that  he 
most  generally  is  guided  by  the  Septuagint  where  it 
differs  from  the  Hebrew ;  that  in  regard  to  the  ante- 
diluvian patriarchs,  the  numbers  he  gives  are  accord- 
ing to  the  Septuagint,  save  in  the  case  of  Lamech, 
where  he  follows  the  Hebrew.  He  evidently  used  the 
Hebrew  as  well  as  the  Septuagint,  as  may  be  seen 
when  he  tells  the  story  of  David  and  Goliath ;  the 
parts  omitted  in  the  Septuagint  are  evidently  used. 
Edersheim  notes  cases  where  his  Hebrew  is  at  fault, — 
a  fact  which  contradicts  the  statement  that  the  doctors 
of  the  law  came  to  consult  him  when  he  was  a  boy 
of  fourteen.  As  to  his  dependence  on  the  Kabbins, 
a  good  deal  of  what  is  brought  forward  in  support  of 
this  may  be  explained  the  other  way.  Great  as  was 
the  Rabbinic  hatred  of  him,  some  of  these  matters,  in 
which  he  agrees  with  them,  may  have  come  from  him 
to  them.  Dr.  Edersheim's  view,  that  Josephus  has 
been  influenced  by  the  Essenes,  is  extremely  probable, 


188  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  more  so  as  he  relates  that  he  was,  as  we  have 
already  said,  at  one  time  the  disciple  of  the  Essene 
Ban  us.  After  the  temple  was  laid  in  ruins,  the  Essene 
position  of  the  worthlessness  of  sacrifices  was  the 
natural  one  for  a  person  situated  as  was  Josephus  to 
take  up. 

One  cannot  leave  Josephus  without  taking  notice  of 
his  well-known  testimony  to  the  character  of  Christ. 
It  seems  impossible  that,  seeing  he  mentions  the  death 
of  the  Apostle  James  and  the  preaching  of  John  the 
Baptist,  he  can  totally  omit  all  reference  to  our  Lord. 
If  strictly  analysed,  there  is  nothing  in  the  passage 
which  is  absolutely  impossible  for  a  Jew  to  have 
written  and  yet  remained  a  Jew.  Even  the  phrase,  "if 
man  he  could  be  called,"  etye  avSpa  avrbv  \€<yetv  xprf,  may 
simply  have  reference  to  His  claims,  meant  to  be  taken 
seriously  or  sarcastically  as  the  reader  chose.  The  story 
of  Paulina  that  immediately  follows  renders  the  latter 
probably  the  sense  in  Josephus'  mind.  The  other  diffi- 
cult phrase,  "this  was  the  Christ"  (o  Xpiaro?  OVTO?  fy), 
may  mean  simply,  this  is  the  author  of  Christianity 
that  we  are  all  hearing  about  now.  The  assertion  of 
the  resurrection  may  be  merely  meant  to  indicate  what 
was  the  assertion  of  the  Christians.  If  there  is  any- 
thing in  the  tradition  that  the  cousin  of  Domitian  had 
become  a  Christian,  Josephus  might  endeavour  to 
trim  his  sail  to  any  breeze  that  might  come.  A  good 
deal  can  be  said,  however,  for  the  position  that  the 
sentence  has  been  modified  by  a  Christian  hand. 

The  main  advantage  accruing  to  us  from  Josephus' 
writings  at  present  is  the  view  he  gives  of  the  state  of 
religious  opinion  in  Palestine  in  his  own  time,  which 


NON-APOCALYPTIC  PALESTINIAN  LITERATURE.  189 

was  so  nearly  the  time  of  our  Lord ;  especially  valu- 
able, as  we  have  said,  is  his  account  of  the  then  great 
sects  of  the  Jews.  His  views  with  regard  to  the  Canon 
are  also  important,  as  showing  the  definite  way  in 
which  the  sacred  books  are  regarded,  marked  off  from 
all  other  writings.  His  quotations,  we  must  admit, 
rather  lessen  the  value  of  his  testimony,  for  he  quotes 
the  whole  of  the  Midrash  in  First  (Third)  Esdras  about 
Zerubbabel  and  his  contest  as  to  what  was  the  strongest 
thing  in  the  world.  He  quotes  also  the  additions  to 
Esther,  and,  evidently  misled  by  the  blunder  of  the 
Septuagint,  calls  Ahasuerus  Artaxerxes.  Singularly 
enough  he  does  not  make  any  use  of  any  of  the  Apo- 
calyptic books  save  Daniel. 

The  value  of  Josephus  is  very  considerable,  but  is 
somewhat  lessened  by  the  fact  already  adverted  to, 
that  he  wrote  with  a  view  to  ingratiate  himself  with 
the  Romans.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  made  himself 
prominent  against  the  Christians. 


BOOK   II. 


EVOLUTION    OF    APOCALYPTIC. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    NATURE   AND    OCCASION    OF   APOCALYPSE. 

1/1 EW  persons  of  literary  sensibility  can  fail  to  be 
charmed  with  the  exquisite  beauty  of  those 
latter  chapters  of  Isaiah,  which  are  called  by  critics 
"  the  second  Isaiah," — "  the  prophecies  of  the  Great 
Unknown."  From  the  lovely  song  of  consolation  with 
which  the  prophecy  opens,  and  which  has  been  glorified 
to  us  by  the  music  of  Handel,  to  the  solemn  description 
of  the  end  of  the  enemies  of  God  with  which  it  closes, 
it  is  full  of  beauty.  If,  now,  the  reader,  with  his  ear 
full  of  the  cadences  of  the  evangelical  prophet,  and  his 
mind  thrilling  with  the  emotions  that  have  been  stirred 
by  them,  turns  to  the  Book  of  Daniel,  he  will  at  once 
feel  he  is  in  a  distinctly  different  plane,  and  also 
a  distinctly  low^er  plane  of  poetic  inspiration.  This 
feeling  is  strengthened  if  we  take  parts  of  Isaiah  and 
compare  them  with  corresponding  parts  of  the  pro- 
phecies of  Daniel.  In  Isaiah  there  is  the  utmost 
variety  of  mood ;  there  is  bitter  and  contemptuous 
sarcasm  of  idol  worship  ;  there  is  sublime  recognition  of 
the  greatness  and  purity  of  Jehovah ;  there  is  tender- 
ness ;  there  is  wonder  in  the  description  of  the  suffering 
yet  glorified  Messiah ;  there  is  dignified  rebuke  of  the 
enemies  of  the  people  of  God,  sometimes  even  wild 
exultation  in  the  thought  of  the  coming  of  Jehovah  in 


194  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

His  power  to  tread  down  these  enemies  in  His  fury ; 
there  are  wailing  confessions  of  sin,  and  songs  of 
ecstatic  rejoicing. 

When  we .  turn  to  Daniel  we  find,  on  the  other 
hand,  little  or  no  variety  of  feeling — indeed,  rarely 
any  feeling  at  all.  Visions  and  events  are  described 
in  simple  prose ;  and  very  rarely  does  the  grandeur 
and  beauty  of  what  he  sees  move  the  narrator  even 
to  a  style  rhetorically  ornate.  Never  by  any  chance 
does  the  narrator  in  Daniel  assume  the  parallelism 
of  Hebrew  poetry,  the  characteristic  method  of  Isaiah. 
When  we  compare  the  part  of  Daniel  which  is  most 
ornate  with  the  part  of  Isaiah  on  a  similar  subject, 
the  difference  of  treatment  is  evident.  The  descrip- 
tion of  Belshazzar's  feast  in  the  fifth  chapter  of 
Daniel  may  be  regarded  as  much  a  rebuke  of  idolatry 
and  its  folly  as  Isa.  xliv.  6-20.  In  Daniel  we  have 
the  young  king  flushed  with  wine  and  proud  in  his 
surrounding  of  nobles  and  lords,  excited  by  the  bright 
eyes  of  the  wives  and  the  concubines  looking  on  the 
scene.  He  commands  the  golden  vessels  of  the  house 
of  the  Lord  from  Zion  to  be  brought,  that  he  may  drink 
wine  from  them ;  and  he,  his  nobles,  his  wives,  his  con- 
cubines, drank  from  them.  Then  "  they  praised  their 
gods  of  gold,  of  silver,  of  brass,  of  iron,  of  wood,  and  of 
stone."  The  blasphemy,  the  madness  of  the  scene,  is  all 
put  before  us  with  the  most  telling  power.  The  awful 
calmness  of  the  narrative  adds  to  its  terrific  force. 
When  it  goes  on  to  tell  how  the  finger  of  a  hand  came 
out  of  the  void  and  wrote,  the  reader  sees  the  king's 
terror,  of  which  the  writer  tells ;  sees  the  turmoil  of 
the  interrupted  feast,  of  which  the  writer  has  not  a 


THE  NATUEE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  195 

word.  The  stately  queen  -  mother,  the  daughter  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  comes  in  and  gives  counsel  that 
Daniel  be  sent  for.  Then  Daniel,  with  all  the 
dignity  of  the  ambassador  of  Jehovah,  and  all  the 
solemnity  of  a  judge,  reads  the  writing  upon  the 
wall ;  brushing  away  as  valueless  the  rewards  of  the 
king,  he  tells  him  his  doom.  Belshazzar,  king  to  the 
last,  will  not  bate  one  jot  of  his  promised  reward 
because  of  the  nature  of  the  interpretation  Daniel  has 
given,  or  of  his  contempt  for  the  dignities  he  has  to 
bestow.  Undismayed  by  the  prospect  of  dethronement 
and  death,  "  Belshazzar  commanded  to  clothe  Daniel 
with  purple  and  put  a  chain  of  gold  about  his  neck, 
arid  make  proclamation  concerning  him,  that  he  should 
be  the  third  ruler  of  the  kingdom."  After  this,  it  is 
almost  with  sadness  we  read,  "  in  that  night  was 
Belshazzar  king  of  the  Chaldeans  slain."  In  this 
narrative,  feeling  is  only  shown  by  the  choice  of  the 
objects  of  description — the  narrator  seems  almost  awful 
in  his  impassivity.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  nothing 
in  the  message  which  indicates  that  in  writing  this  the 
seer  is  the  messenger  of  Jehovah.  What  he  sees  he 
describes,  that  is  all. 

When  we  turn  to  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  we  find, 
first  of  all,  that  instead  of  being  in  a  written  style,  it 
suggests  speech  with  attendant  accessories  of  tone  and 
gesture.  The  prophet  is  pre-eminently  a  messenger 
of  Jehovah ;  the  burden  of  the  Lord  is  upon  him,  and 
his  tidings  are  delivered  with  "  thus  saith  the  Lord." 
Acting  as  the  messenger,  the  mouthpiece,  so  to  say, 
of  Jehovah,  he  declares  "  the  glory  of  the  Lord,"  that 
"  beside  Him  there  is  no  God."  Then  he  looks  into  a 


196  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

workshop  where  they  are  making  gods.  He  shows  the 
utter  folly  of  the  whole  process  by  implying  more  than 
describing.  There  the  smith  by  the  forge  is  beating 
the  iron  to  a  white  heat,  turning  with  the  tongs  and 
fashioning  with  the  hammer  till  a  sharp  tool  is  made, 
axe  or  chisel.  A  weak  mortal  like  his  neighbours,  that 
must  eat  and  drink  or  he  will  die,  is  making  that  which 
will  make  a  god.  Another  scene  is  presented  to  us — a 
carpenter  is  marking  off  the  drawing  of  the  god  accord- 
ing to  which  he  is  to  work.  Then  we  see  him 
shouldering  his  axe ;  away  to  the  forest  he  goes  and 
chooses  a  tree  to  suit  his  purpose,  cuts  it  down  and 
brings  it  home,  and  then  working  with  chisel  and 
hatchet  he  forms  an  image,  a  god,  and  falls  down 
and  worships  it.  And  then  from  the  fragments  that 
are  left  he  makes  him  a  fire  and  cooks,  roasts  flesh 
and  eats.  With  part  of  that  from  which  he  has  just 
made  his  god,  from  whom  he  shall  ask  help  in  prayer, 
with  part  of  that  same  material  he  actually  makes  a 
fire  to  warm  himself  and  to  cook  his  victuals.  Here 
the  sarcasm  is  prominent  through  every  picture.  He 
imagines  us,  his  hearers,  looking  at  the  man  whom  he 
sees  and  makes  remarks  upon ;  but  the  while  he  does 
not  describe.  He  rather  assumes  that  we,  too,  are 
peering  through  the  doors  at  the  workmen.  These 
two  modes  of  composition,  the  prophetic  and  the 
apocalyptic,  are  as  widely  distinct  from  each  other, 
on  a  merely  literary  ground,  as  is  the  novel  of  the 
present  day  distinct  from  the  drama  of  the  days  of 
Elizabeth.  In  this  statement,  of  course,  we  refer 
merely  to  the  literary  envelope  which  enwrapped  the 
message  of  revelation. 


THE  NATUKE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  197 

We  shall  probably  bring  out  more  clearly  what  we 
mean  if  we  take  a  prophecy  of  Isaiah  and  show,  though 
with  all  reverence  and  humility,  the  difference  of  the 
method  that  would  have  been  followed  had  the  writer 
been  Daniel.  When  Isaiah  says,  "  How  beautiful  upon 
the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good 
tidings  ! "  we  at  once  feel  this  is  prophetic ;  there  is  a 
picture  implied  but  not  described ;  the  feelings  that  it 
arouses  find  expression,  but  the  scene  is  merely 
assumed.  Had  an  apocalyptist  had  such  a  vision  he 
would  have  begun  somewhat  thus  :  "  Behold,  I  had  a 
vision,  and  in  my  vision  I  saw  great  mountains,  and 
they  were  round  about  Jerusalem  ;  and,  lo  !  the  people 
were  altogether  gone  to  the  house-tops  to  gaze  on  the 
mountains ;  and  behold,  as  I  looked  I  saw  one  like  a  Son  of 
man  coming  over  the  mountains,  and  he  was  all  glorious 
in  his  apparel."  We  feel  how  much  weaker  a  vehicle 
this  is  than  that.  We  might  take  Isa.  xiii.  and  xiv. 
as  the  companion  picture  in  another  aspect  of  the 
subject  to  Belshazzar's  feast ;  yet  apocalyptic  is  not  at 
its  strength  in  such  limited  incidents.  While  we  could 
imagine  Isaiah  translating  into  song  Daniel's  vision  of 
the  monster  that  came  out  of  the  sea,  yet  we  could 
not  imagine  such  a  vehicle  conveying  as  intelligible 
an  idea  of  the  course  of  future  history  as  does  the 
simple,  somewhat  arid  description  which  we  have  in 
Dan.  vii. 

Having  thus  seen  that  Apocalypse  is  distinct  from 
prophecy,  let  us  look  a  little  more  closely  at  the 
peculiarities  of  the  former.  One  characteristic  that 
is  specially  observable,  if  we  take  Daniel  as  our 
representative  of  Apocalypse,  is  the  breadth  of  view 


198  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

implied.  It  is  not  the  fate  of  one  man,  even  of  a 
monarch,  that  comes  within  the  scope  of  the  apoca- 
lyptist,  it  is  widespread  world  empires.  Thus  alike 
in  Nebuchadnezzar's  vision  of  the  golden  -  headed 
statue  and  Daniel's  own  vision  of  the  four  beasts 
coming  out  of  the  sea,  we  see  the  whole  course  of 
human  history  laid  bare  before  us.  When  we  turn 
to  the  Book  of  Revelation  we  see  the  same  thing. 
The  book  with  its  seven  seals,  each  of  which,  when 
opened,  reveals  a  new  picture,  also  lays  open  the 
whole  course  of  history. 

In  Daniel,  if  the  traditional  interpretation  is  to 
be  believed, — and  for  our  part  we  believe  it, — we 
have  represented  to  us  the  successive  world  empires 
from  the  Babylonian  to  the  Roman,  and  to  the  yet 
lower  kingdoms  that,  following  the  last,  have  been 
manifested  as  the  earth.  And  this  evolution  shall 
go  on  until  the  end,  when  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
shall  come  in  its  power.  In  like  manner,  in  the 
Book  of  Revelation  we  have  the  whole  course  of 
history  portrayed,  if  some  interpreters  are  correct,1 
through  the  Holy  Roman  empire,  the  revolutionary 
period,  the  commercial  period  until  the  socialistic 
period  comes,  and  with  it  the  break  down  of  all 
monarchical  or  indeed  of  all  civil  authority  together. 
In  each  of  these  cases  human  history  is  summed  up 
as  a  totality,  whether  correctly  or  not. 

If  we  turn  to  the  Book  of  Enoch  as  the  best 
known  of  the  uncanonical  Apocalypses,  we  find  the 
whole  history  of  the  people  of  God  carried  down 
from  the  days  of  Adam  to  those  of  Judas  Macca- 

1  Bonnar,  The  Great  Interregnum. 


THE  NATURE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  199 

bseus,  or,  as  some  think,  to  those  of  Hadrian ;  and 
then  it  appears  the  writer  expects  the  history  of  the 
world  to  come  to  an  end.  He  places  the  last  judgment 
immediately  after  the  days  of  Judas  Maccabaeus. 
So  of  the  others.  The  Assumption  of  Moses  is 
equally  far-reaching  in  its  scope.  It  traces  the  course 
of  universal  history,  and  terminates  it  a  little  after 
the  hoped  for  deposition  of  the  sons  of  Herod  the 
Great.  The  Ascension  of  Isaiah,  after  carrying  history 
down  to  the  coming  of  the  matricide  emperor,  shows 
him  destroyed  by  the  second  appearance  of  our  Lord. 
We  need  not  examine  any  more,  as  those  considered 
are  sufficient  for  our  purpose. 

For  this  evolution  of  a  new  form  of  prophecy 
there  must  be  a  reason,  and  it  does  not  seem  far  to 
seek.  With  the  Babylonian  captivity,  Israel  was 
brought  into  contact  with  the  world  in  a  geographical 
sense  much  more  extended  than  ever  before.  That  very 
extension  of  the  view  of  the  world  in  space  increased 
their  idea  of  the  time  involved  in  the  Divine  plans. 
As  when  by  astronomy,  and  the  astronomical  use  of 
the  telescope,  the  universe  was  seen  to  be  much  vaster 
than  before  had  been  dreamed,  men  began  to  feel 
that  centuries  and  even  millennia,  were  really  very 
short  spaces  of  time  after  all.  So  from  Babylon,  a 
centre  of  an  empire  that  on  one  side  looked  out  on 
Cyprus  with  its  Greek  culture,  and  on  the  other  per- 
haps came  in  contact  with  India,  the  world  was  bigger 
and  the  destinies  involved  more  important  than  all 
that  could  be  seen  from  the  mountain  fortress  of 
Jerusalem. 

Still  more  was  this  the  case  when  the  Babylonian 


200  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

gave  place  to  the  yet  more  extended  empire  of  Media 
and  Persia.  The  empire  of  Cyrus  stretched  from  the 
JEgean  to  the  east  of  Persia,  north  to  the  Oxus,  and 
south  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  The  empire  of  Darius 
Hystaspis  was  yet  more  extensive,  containing  Egypt, 
India  to  the  Punjaub,  and  Thrace  in  Europe.  This 
gave  a  yet  wider  vision  of  possible  futurity.  But  when 
by  the  defeats  inflicted  on  Antiochus  the  Great  and 
the  checks  inflicted  on  Epiphanes,  the  city  seated  on 
the  Tiber  became  recognised  as  imperial,  a  vaster  sweep 
was  given  to  apocalyptic  vision.  The  other  empires 
had  merely  abutted  on  the  great  sea;  it  alone  sur- 
rounded it,  and  made  it  a  Koman  lake.  It  stretched 
from  the  pillars  of  Hercules  on  the  west  to  beyond 
the  river  Euphrates  on  the  east,  including  at  once  the 
western  Tarshish  and  the  eastern  Havilah. 

Indirectly,  this  extended  geographical  horizon  tended 
to  give  broader  views  in  other  ways.  Although  in 
one  direction  Judaism  became  more  exclusive  when 
Ezra  returned  from  the  captivity,  yet  in  thought 
the  Jews  became  broadened  immensely.  Although 
Zoroastrianism  had  many  points  of  resemblance  to 
Judaism,  yet  it  did  not  affect  it  so  much  as  Hellenism 
did.  It  certainly  served  to  strengthen  the  Jews  in  their 
monotheism  that  the  ruling  power  was  monotheistic ; 
but  save  in  the  matter  of  angelology,  Persia  did  com- 
paratively little  for  the  development  of  Judaism  on  the 
positive  side.  On  the  negative  side  it  was  more  pro- 
ductive by  breaking  down  the  intellectual  barriers  that 
separated  the  Jews  from  their  neighbours.  Hebrew, 
their  native  tongue,  more  and  more  gave  place  to 
Aramaic,  the  language  of  commerce  and  of  diplomacy. 


THE  NATURE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  201 

But  to  the  Jew  contact  with  Hellenism  was  the 
opening  of  a  new  world.  We  have  seen  how  the 
conquests  of  Alexander  impressed  the  stamp  of  Hellen- 
ism on  Asia.  It  seemed  as  if  Asia  had  been  waiting 
for  the  conquerors.  There  had  been  preparatives  in 
the  use  of  Greek  mercenaries  and  of  Greek  physicians, 
but  these  had  merely  acted  as  preparatives.  It  was 
the  empire  of  Alexander  and  of  the  Diadochi  that 
really  opened  the  mines  of  Hellenic  thought  to  the 
Eastern  world.  Syria  became  Hellenic,  Egypt  became 
Hellenic  ;  indeed  they  became  in  some  respects  more 
Hellenic  than  Greece  itself.  Surrounded  with  Greek 
influences,  it  was  impossible  but  that  Judea  should  be 
Hellenised.  This  process  went  to  such  a  length  that 
men  became  ashamed  of  their  old  national  significant 
names,  and  chose  for  themselves  either  similarly 
sounding  Greek  names,  or  names  that  in  Greek  had 
significations  similar  to  those  of  their  own  old  Hebrew 
names.  In  some  cases  the  connection  seems  purely 
arbitrary. 

Greek  habit,  Greek  thought,  and  even  Greek 
worship  spread  among  the  people  with  the  Hellenised 
names.  But  more,  the  habit  of  travel  was  induced 
by  the  spread  of  the  empire.  Although  the  Persian 
empire  was  large,  yet,  from  the  habit  of  the  people, 
travel  was  not  so  much  suggested.  Most  of  the 
travelling  done  in  the  Persian  empire  seems  to  have 
been  done  by  Greeks  like  Herodotus  and  Hecatseus. 
The  Jews  had  thus  under  the  Greek  supremacy  the 
opportunity  of  seeing  many  cities,  and  marking  the 
manners  of  many  men.  But  further,  it  was  a 
broadened  Hellenism  with  which  they  came  in  con- 


202  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

tact.  The  old  restricted  Hellenism,  that  saw  bar- 
barians in  every  one  who  did  not  belong  to  the  few 
small  republics  that  formed  the  Amphictyonic  league, 
had  passed  away  with  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the 
Great.  Their  internecine  struggles  and  intrigues  had 
disappeared,  and  the  local  dialects  had  given  place  to 
a  common  tongue,  mainly  Attic,  but  not  purely  so. 
The  Greece  that  was  thus  spread  was  not  the  Greece  of 
Herodotus  or  Thucydides,  of  Pindar  or  Aristophanes, 
of  Pericles  or  Demosthenes ;  it  was  more  the  Greece 
of  Plato  and  of  Aristotle,  more  still  the  Greece  of  Zeno 
of  the  porch  and  of  Epicurus  of  the  garden.  While 
these  two  latter  philosophers  seem  to  have  impressed 
themselves  most  generally  on  the  extended  world 
now  opened  up  to  Greek  culture,  and  the  former  of 
these  most  of  all  on  the  East,  as  may  be  seen  by 
the  number  of  teachers  of  that  school  who  came 
from  the  far  East ;  to  the  Jews,  Platonism  seems  to 
have  been  the  most  fascinating  form  of  Greek  philo- 
sophy, if  we  may  judge  from  the  influence  it  had  on 
Philo  of  Alexandria,  There  was  very  considerable 
intercourse  between  Egypt  and  Palestine  during  the 
time  of  the  Lagid  supremacy  when  the  Pentateuch 
was  translated  into  Greek.  This  makes  a  knowledge 
of  Greek  philosophy  more  probable.  Above  we  have 
seen  that  an  indication  of  this  may  be  seen  in  our 
Lord's  interview  with  the  rich  young  man,  when 
He  demands,  "  Why  askest  thou  m'e  concerning  the 
good  ?  "  (vepl  rov  ayaOov).  But  this  knowledge  of  philo- 
sophy compelled  a  broader  view  of  life  and  of  the 
Divine  plan.  Plato,  with  his  profession  of  borrowing 
from  Egyptians,  Armenians,  and  other  foreign  races, 


THE  NATURE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  203 

led  his  followers  to  feel  that  wisdom  was  not  restricted 
to  one  favoured  race.  Hence  it  seems  to  us  one 
natural  result  of  the  Hellenic  supremacy  and  the 
spread  of  Hellenic  thought  was  the  prevalence  of 
Apocalypse  among  the  Palestinian  Jews,  and  the 
preference  manifested  for  it  over  the  older  form  of 
prophecy. 

One  element  prominent  in  apocalyptic  writings  is 
not  derivable  from  Hellenic  sources.  The  utmost  that 
Plato  (Rep.  Bk.  IV.)  could  imagine  in  the  way  of  a 
perfect  state  was  a  limited  republic,  and  its  very  limi- 
tation was  to  be  an  element  in  its  perfection.  It  not 
only  could  not  be  conceived  as  being  universal,  but  did 
it  pass  a  certain  size  it  would  be  unwieldy  as  incapable 
of  unity  of  action.  And  this  follows  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  autonomous  city.  All  its  citizens  must 
be  able  to  assemble  together  in  ekklesia,  in  order  to 
settle  the  course  of  action  to  be  followed  by  the  state. 
A  monarchy  starting  from  a  more  limited  ideal,  that  of 
the  family,  was  capable  of  more  indefinite  extension. 
Hence,  that  the  ultimate  kingdom  should  be  one  that 
should  fill  the  whole  earth  was  out  of  the  region  of 
Greek  thought,  yet  quite  conceivable  to  those  whose 
ideal  was  a  monarchy.  But  further,  the  whole  notion 
of  an  ultimate  ideal  state  is  foreign  to  Greek  speculation. 
Plato  and  Aristotle  alike  can  only  imagine  a  constant 
cycle  of  change,  in  which  the  better  form  of  government 
gives  place  to  the  worse,  and  that  in  turn  again  to  the 
better.  The  Jew,  however,  had  inherited  from  the 
prophets  the  hope  of  a  time  when  the  mountain  of  the 
Lord's  house  should  be  raised  above  the  hills,  and 
should  draw  all  nations  unto  it.  Not  merely  is  this 


204  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

empire   to   be  coextensive   with   the  world,  but  it   is 
to  be  eternal — the  ultimate  state. 

Further,  —  an  idea  derived  from  the  prophets,  — 
it  was  to  be  ideally  perfect  morally.  Isaiah  had 
said  there  should  be  nothing  to  hurt  or  to  defile  in 
God's  holy  mountain.  In  the  Book  of  Daniel  this 
kingdom  is  to  be  the  possession  of  the  saints,  and 
by  inference  it  might  be  declared  that  it  would  be 
the  abode  of  righteousness.  In  the  Book  of  Enoch 
this  is  distinctly  stated,  chap.  x.  21:  "And  all  the 
children  of  men  shall  become  just,  and  all  the  nations 
shall  worship  me  as  God.  22.  And  the  earth  will  be 
cleansed  of  all  corruption,  and  all  sin,  and  all  punish- 
ment, and  all  torment."  It  must  be  confessed  that  often 
this  kingdom  of  heaven  is  supposed  to  be  merely  for 
the  glorification  of  the  children  of  Israel.  As  in  the 
Assumptio  Moysis  it  is  said,  "  Then  thou,  Israel,  shalt 
be  happy,  and  shalt  ascend  upon  the  necks  and  wings 
of  eagles.  And  God  shall  exalt  thee,  and  shall  place 
thee  in  the  heavens  of  the  stars ;  and  thou  shalt  look 
from  the  height,  and  thou  shalt  see  thine  enemies  on 
the  earth,  and  thou  shalt  recognise  them,  and  wilt 
rejoice  and  give  thanks,  and  shalt  confess  thy  Creator." 
Sometimes  the  more  physical  side  has  also  a  prominence 
given  to  it  which  seems,  if  taken  literally,  to  be  undue. 
For  this,  too,  the  apocalyptists  had  the  example  of  the 
prophets,  especially  of  Isaiah,  to  justify  them  in  the 
course  they  followed;  thus  chap.  Ix.  5:  "The  abundance 
of  the  sea  shall  be  turned  unto  thee,  the  wealth  of  the 
nations  shall  come  unto  thee.  9.  Surely  the  isles  shall 
wait  for  me,  and  the  ships  of  Tarshish  first,  to  bring 
thy  sons  from  far,  their  silver  and  their  gold  with  them ; 


THE  NATURE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  205 

for  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  for  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel,  because  He  hath  glorified  thee.  17.  For 
brass  I  will  bring  gold  ;  and  for  iron  I  will  bring  silver ; 
and  for  wood,  brass  ;  and  for  stones,  iron."  In  this  case 
these  tokens  of  physical  prosperity  are  obviously  sym- 
bols of  spiritual  glory  and  prosperity  ;  for  not  only  is 
the  climax  of  this  wealth  and  grandeur  found  in  the 
promise,  "  and  thy  people  shall  be  all  righteous,"  but  to 
make  yet  more  clear  the  symbolic  poetic  nature  of  the 
whole  picture  Jehovah  says,  ver.  17:  "I  will  also  make 
thine  officers  peace  and  thine  exactors  righteousness ; 
18.  thou  shalt  call  thy  walls  salvation,  and  thy  gates 
praise.  19.  The  sun  shall  also  no  more  be  thy  light 
by  day,  neither  for  brightness  shall  the  moon  give  light 
unto  thee ;  but  the  Lord  shall  be  unto  thee  an  ever- 
lasting light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory." 

When  we  pass  to  the  Book  of  Enoch  we  feel 
that  we  have  descended  to  a  distinctly  lower  plane, 
though  still  the  symbolic  view  is  present ;  and  indeed 
one  might  even  defend  the  idea  that  it  is  all  sym- 
bolism.1 x.  18  :  "In  those  days  shall  the  whole  earth 
be  worked  in  justice,  and  will  all  be  planted  with 
trees,  and  will  be  full  of  blessings.  19.  And  all 
the  trees  of  desire  will  be  planted  on  it,  and  vines 
will  be  planted  on  it ;  and  the  vine  planted  on  it  will 
bear  fruit  in  abundance.  And  of  all  the  seed  sown 
on  it,  one  measure  will  bear  ten  thousand,  and  one 
measure  of  olives  will  make  ten  presses  of  oil."  In  the 
Apocalypse  of  Baruch  (chap,  xxix.)  the  physical  delights 
of  the  millennial  time  are  presented  with  even  less  show 
of  having  a  symbolic  reference  to  spiritual  benefits  to 

1  Sehodde's  transl.  p.  71. 


206  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

be  then  enjoyed.  There  is  peculiar  interest  in  the 
passage  in  Baruch,  because  Papias  quotes  the  saying  as 
by  our  Lord  Himself :  "  In  one  vine  shall  be  a  thou- 
sand branches,  and  every  branch  shall  bear  a  thousand 
clusters,  and  each  cluster  shall  have  a  thousand  grapes, 
and  one  grape  shall  produce  a  cor  of  wine."  In 
immediate  connection  with  this  we  have  the  Jewish 
fable  of  Behemoth  and  Leviathan,  "which"  in  this 
chapter  God  says,  "  I  created  on  the  fifth  day  of  crea- 
tion, and  reserved  them  for  that  time  ;  these  shall  be 
for  food  for  all  who  shall  remain."  "  And  those  who 
were  an  hungered  shall  rejoice,  and  again  shall  they  see 
wonders  daily."  "  And  at  that  time  shall  the  treasure 
of  manna  again  descend  from  above ;  and  they  shall  eat 
from  that  in  those  years,  because  these  are  they  who 
have  come  to  the  end  of  time." 

One  easily  sees  the  occasion  of  the  prominence 
given  to  the  glories  of  the  millennial  times  in  the 
degradation  that  fell  on  Israel  in  the  days  of  the 
Persian  supremacy,  and  yet  more  in  the  succeeding 
ages  of  the  Macedonian  rule,  whether  under  the 
Lagid  or  the  Seleucid  princes.  In  the  writings  of 
the  period  of  the  return  from  captivity  there  is  the 
pervading  sense  of  poverty  and  straits  ;  they  are  always 
hindered  through  the  act  of  this  governor  or  the 
jealousy  of  that.  From  this  period  of  sordid  care 
and  mean  difficulties,  when  Israel,  that  under  David 
had  borne  rule  from  the  great  sea  even  to  the  River 
Euphrates,  was  hampered  and  hemmed  in  on  every  side, 
the  land,  denuded  of  inhabitants  by  successive  invasions, 
was  devastated  and  impoverished,  and  the  poverty  of 
the  poor  was  deep.  .  Then  it  was  but  natural  that  the 


THE  NATURE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  207 

apocalyptist  should  take  refuge  in  the  future,  and 
make  that  future  the  complement  of  the  present,  sup- 
plying all  that  was  lacking  in  it.  Instead  of  a  period 
of  poverty  this  is  to  be  a  period  of  inordinate  plenty, 
when  the  ground  should  bring  forth  superabundantly. 
Instead  of  Israel,  and  especially  Judah,  being  in  a 
condition  of  humiliation,  trampled  under  the  feet  of 
the  satraps  of  heathen  kings  or  the  governors  of  the 
Eoman  power,  they  were  to  rule  over  all  nations. 

One  side  of  their  visions  of  this  future  time  we  have 
not  yet  adverted  to,  and  one  that  most  obviously 
springs  from  their  actual  degradation  under  a  foreign 
power :  many  of  the  prophecies  of  these  Apocalypses 
represent  the  Jews  as  exulting  over  the  fate  of  their 
foes.  Thus  in  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  chap.  Ixxii.  6  : 
"  But  all  those  who  ruled  you,  or  knew  you,  even  they 
shall  be  delivered  over  to  the  sword."  The  apoca- 
lyptists  took  advantage  of  their  power  of  imagination 
and  constructed  a  future,  when  the  people  of  Israel 
would  be  able  to  take  full  vengeance  on  all  their 
enemies. 

By  way  of  contrast  and  comparison  one  must  place 
the  great  Christian  Apocalypse.  In  it  the  ideal — the 
millennium — is  merely  referred  to  as  to  come.  The 
only  element  in  the  felicity  of  that  time  that  the 
apostle  thinks  worthy  of  being  noticed,  is  the  fact 
that  Satan  will  be  bound  throughout  that  whole 
period.  The  saints  certainly  are  represented  as  exult- 
ing and  singing  "  halleluia "  over  the  overthrow  of 
Babylon.  It  is  almost  terrible  to  read  how,  after  this 
halleluia,  "  her  smoke  rose  up  for  ever  and  ever,"  and 
after  this  again  a  renewed  "  halleluia."  One  marked 


208  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

contrast  is,  that  while  the  earlier  apocalyptists  have  a 
doubt  whether  this  millennium  shall  precede  or  follow 
the  last  judgment,  the  Apostle  John  has  no  doubt  in 
the  matter.  All  that  he  says  in  regard  to  the  bliss 
of  the  time  of  the  days  of  the  millennium  is  simply 
that  Satan  should  be  bound,  as  we  have  said ;  further, 
that  the  saints  are  to  live  and  reign  with  Christ  a 
thousand  years.  Then  at  the  expiry  of  the  thousand 
years  Satan  is  to  be  loosed.  After  he  has  deceived 
the  nations  comes  the  battle  of  Armageddon,  and  then 
after  all  the  horrors  of  that  battle  comes  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Son  of  man  to  judgment,  and  the  setting 
up  of  the  great  white  throne.  Then  follows  the  descent 
from  heaven  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  the  descrip- 
tion of  all  its  glories.  The  apostle  makes  thus  a  clear 
distinction  between  the  coming  of  Christ  to  reign  on 
the  earth  and  His  coming  to  judgment.  This  growing 
apprehension  of  difference  in  time  between  two  events, 
both  future,  is  one  of  the  characteristics  observable  in 
prophecy  at  all  times.  Indeed,  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah  to  suffer,  to  reign,  and  to  judge  are  identified, 
or  at  all  events  not  distinguished,  in  the  earlier 
prophets ;  as  in  Isa.  liii.,  where  the  account  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  Messiah  concludes,  without  any  marked 
or  appreciable  interval  of  time,  with  the  statement 
that  He  should  "  see  His  seed  and  prolong  His  days, 
and  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  should  prosper  in  His 
hand." 

Another  subject  which  is  suggested  by  the  point 
we  have  just  reached  is  the  Messianic  character  of 
the  Apocalyptic  books.  Throughout  the  whole  Old 
Testament  there  is  the  presence  of  this  Messianic 


THE  NATURE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  209 

hope,  from  the  promise  in  the  garden  and,  associated 
with  Judah,  from  Jacob's  blessing  and  prophecy  that 
the  sceptre  should  not  depart  from  Judah  "  till  Shiloh 
come,"  till  the  last  words  of  Malachi.  Even  after 
Jerusalem  had  fallen  before  the  Romans  this  hope 
has  continued  in  the  hopes  of  the  Eabbins  till  almost 
the  present  day.  It  is  a  hope  that  was  in  most  cases 
closely  united  with  the  coming  ideal  kingdom — the 
king  of  that  coming  kingdom  was  to  be  the  anointed 
son  of  David.  David  was  "  never  to  want  a  man  to 
sit  on  his  throne"  (Jer.  xxxiii.  17),  the  branch  of 
David  (Jer.  xxiii.  5).  Sometimes  David  himself  was 
promised  to  be  the  king ;  the  people  of  Israel  were  "  to 
seek  the  Lord  their  God,  and  David  their  king  "  (Hos. 
iii.  5).  Isaiah  adds  the  strange  element  of  suffering 
of  which  the  Messiah  is  to  have  a  superabundant  share 
before  the  ideal  kingdom  can  be  attained.  Into  the 
inheritance  of  the  prophets  the  apocalyptists  entered, 
and  in  Daniel  we  find  "  one  like  a  son  of  man "  (~>?3 
VM)  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  to  judge  the 
world,  to  whom  a  universal  and  eternal  dominion  is 
to  be  given.  Dr.  Drummond  asserts  that  this  has  no 
Messianic  reference.  It  seems  difficult  to  imagine  the 
grounds  of  this  assertion.  This  "one  like  a  son  of 
man  "  is,  if  not  the  Messiah  the  anointed  of  the  Lord, 
at  all  events  one  to  whom  the  Ancient  of  Days  gives 
royal  and  universal  dominion,  such  as  is  ascribed  to 
the  Messiah.  If  there  is  nothing  about  His  being 
"  anointed,"  His  practical  kingship  is  asserted.  By 
implication  here  this  ruler  is  not  man,  but  a  super- 
natural being  who  assumes  human  form.  These  world 
empires  gave  a  breadth  to  this  conception  of  the 


210  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Messiah's  kingdom  that  intensified  their  desire  for  it, 
and  their  realisation  of  it  in  imagination. 

Angelology  was  a  subject  specially  dear  to  the  apoca- 
lyptists  as  distinct  from  the  prophets.  In  the  earlier 
prophets  angels  are  not  introduced  at  all  as  instru- 
ments of  revealing  the  will  of  God.  In  fact,  the 
word  ^P  only  occurs  thrice  in  exilic  or  pre-exilic 
prophecy,  and  in  two  of  these  cases  it  is  of  a  theo- 
phany  that  the  prophet  speaks  (Hos.  xii.  4 ;  Isa. 
Ixiii.  9),  and  the  remaining  case  is  in  the  historical 
portion  of  Isaiah  (xxxvii.  36),  concerning  the  destruc- 
tion of  Sennacherib.  Certainly,  in  Isa.  vi.,  we  have  an 
account  of  the  seraphim,  and  in  Ezekiel  repeated 
accounts  of  the  cherubim,  but  we  have  no  right  to 
identify  these  with  the  angels.  Even  though  we 
should  do  so,  yet  the  function  these  beings  fulfil,  if 
they  are  really  separate  independent  beings  at  all,  is  not 
that  of  revealing  the  message  of  God  to  the  prophets, 
but  of  enhancing  the  glory  of  the  Divine  manifestation. 
The  word  of  the  Lord  comes  to  the  prophet  without 
any  intermediary ;  among  the  apocalyptists,  again,  the 
message  is  frequently  brought  by  an  angel  to  the  seer. 

In  Daniel,  the  earliest  of  the  apocalyptists,  it  is 
Gabriel  who  is  commissioned  to  reveal  to  him  the 
things  that  are  about  to  come  to  pass.  In  the 
Apocalypse  of  John  we  find  the  apostle  has  always  an 
angel  beside  him  to  explain  to  him  the  meaning  of  the 
vision  he  sees.  The  angelology  of  the  Book  of  Enoch 
is  very  extensive  and  complex.  The  revelations  of  the 
Book  of  Jubilees  are  also  made  by  angelic  agency. 
The  prominence  given  to  angels  by  the  apocalyptists 
will  be  made  clear  when  we  consider  them  separately. 


THE  NATUEE  AND  OCCASION  OF  APOCALYPSE.  211 

Although  a  belief  in  angels  was  part  of  the  faith 
of  Israel  before  the  captivity,  it  became  much  more 
defined  afterwards.  It  has  been  usual  to  recognise  in 
this  the  influence  of  Zoroastrianism.  The  alleged 
discovery  that  Cyrus  was  not  a  Zoroastrian,  however, 
militates  against  this.  It  seems  somewhat  hasty  to 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  Cyrus  was  an  idolater, 
because  in  his  proclamation  to  the  Babylonians  he 
assumes  the  rdle  of  a  worshipper  of  their  national 
gods.  He  seems  to  have  got  possession  of  Babylon  by 
a  conspiracy  of  priests  and  nobles,  and  hence  was 
obliged  to  appear  as  the  worshipper  of  the  national 
gods  of  Babylon.  Napoleon  assumed  the  tone  of  a 
Mohammedan  when  he  took  possession  of  Egypt. 
More  nearly  a  contemporary  of  Cyrus,  we  find  Sen- 
nacherib claiming  that  it  is  in  obedience  to  the 
command  of  Jehovah  he  comes  against  Jerusalem. 
It  seems  natural  to  think  that  the  theology  of  Persia 
would  have  an  effect  on  the  Jews.  Contact  with  the 
idolatry  of  Babylon  might,  however,  have  a  tendency 
to  develop  a  doctrine  of  a  hierarchy  of  holy  spirits. 
There  was  an  elaborate  hierarchy  of  gods,  whom  they 
recognised  as  evil  beings  ;  over  against  these  it  was  not 
unnatural  that  they  should  elaborate  an  opposing 
hierarchy  of  spirits,  who  would  defend  the  worshippers 
of  Jehovah  from  the  power  of  these  gods  of  the 
nations. 

Between  two  markedly  distinct  claims  in  nature 
there  are  often  transitional  classes  that  unite  the 
characteristics  of  both  the  others ;  thus  birds  and 
mammalia  are  in  nature  as  distinct  from  each  other 
as  classes  can  well  be,  yet  between  these  two  is  the 


212  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

paradoxical  ornithorhynchus  in  which  the  characteris- 
tics of  both  classes  are  mingled.  We  have  seen  how 
distinct  prophecy  and  apocalypse  are,  yet  between 
these  two  are  the  opening  chapters  of  the  prophecies  of 
Zecharia,h.  In  these  chapters  we  have  many  char- 
acteristics of  Apocalypse  mingled  with  those  that  are 
peculiarly  prophetic.  To  Zechariah,  all  revelations 
are  made  by  the  angel  "  that  talked  with  him." 
Frequently  he  tells  us  his  visions  in  the  manner 
of  the  apocalyptist ;  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 
frequent  references  to  his  message  as  direct  from  God, 
"  thus  saith  the  Lord,"  and  at  times  there  are  bursts  of 
song  that  remind  us  of  Isaiah  and  the  earlier  prophets. 
Had  we  the  prophecy  of  Haggai  in  a  complete  form, 
instead  of  what  seems  to  be  merely  the  headings  of  his 
prophecies,  we  should  probably  have  had  another 
example  of  this  transitional  form  of  prophecy.  This 
transitional  form  is  itself  prepared  for  by  the  pro- 
phecies of  Ezekiel.  If  we  accept  the  traditional  date 
of  Daniel,  this  state  of  transition  is  quite  intelligible. 
It  would  naturally  be  some  time  before  a  startling 
innovation  in  the  method  of  prophecy  would  be 
accepted  by  the  prophetic  schools,  yet  it  would  not 
be  without  its  effect ;  hence  the  transitional  forms  like 
those  of  Zechariah's  opening  chapters. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   HOME   OF   APOCALYPTIC. 

are  few  more  desolate  places  in  the  whole 
•*•  world  than  the  immediate  shore  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  Save  at  special  spots,  the  whole  shore  is  lifeless, 
with  huge  blocks  of  salt  standing  up  square  and  piti- 
less from  the  sand ;  it  is  all  sad,  hopeless,  and  dead. 
Not  that  the  sea  itself  is  always  sullen  or  leaden ; 
sometimes  its  contrast  to  its  surroundings  is  almost 
startling.  Its  surface,  gleaming  like  emerald  in  the 
sunlight,  may  give  it  a  look  of  beauty ;  wavelets  even 
may  laugh  on  its  surface,  and  chase  each  other  to  the 
shore,  moved  by  the  breeze  that  is  sucked  down  by 
the  heat,  and  may  give  it  a  look  of  life — but  it  is  dead. 
The  waters  are  edged  round  with  a  glittering  incrusta- 
tion that  is  the  very  frost  of  death.  The  heat  round 
the  lake  is  oppressive,  even  when  a  breath  of  wind  does 
agitate  the  air  that  stagnates  in  this  the  deepest 
depression  on  the  earth's  surface.  Nothing  lives  in 
the  lake  save  at  the  very  mouth  of  some  of  the  streams 
that  come  down  from  the  hills ;  nor  wherever  its 
unhallowed  waters  come  can  there  be  life.  Rising 
around  it  are  bare  and  castellated  cliffs  of  limestone 
that,  by  their  height,  give  some  idea  of  the  depth  of 
the  depression.  These  cliffs  in  the  fierce  sunlight 
glare  in  orange  and  tawny  yellow,  but  every  here  and 


214  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

there  the  bright  coloured  rock  gives  place  to  crags 
of  black  basalt  and  trap.  The  harshness  of  the 
contrast  gives  the  whole  scene  a  weird  aspect. 
Brooding  over  the  scene  are  strange  memories  from 
sacred  history,  and  strange  legends,  the  product  of 
Arab  fancy.  Somewhere  beneath  those  silent  waters 
sleep,  according  to  common  belief,  the  ruins  of  the 
cities  of  the  plain,  which  God  overthrew.  Somewhere 
on  the  waste  rises  a  melancholy  pillar  of  salt  —  the 
monument  and  winding-sheet  of  Lot's  wife.  Eye  may 
never  have  seen  it,  but  firmly  is  its  existence  believed 
in,  and  towering  pillars  of  limestone  have  been  identi- 
fied with  that  weird  story.  Strange  tales  of  the  ex- 
halations from  this  mysterious  lake  causing  death 
mingle  with  the  sad  facts  of  history — that  of  prisons 
with  dungeons  dark  with  tragedies. 

It  is  not,  however,  all  death  and  desolation.  The 
sky  sends  down  rain ;  and  that  rain  falling  on  the 
mountains,  and  taken  into  their  bosoms,  is  given  forth 
in  streams.  Wherever  the  healing  waters  of  those 
streams  come  there  is  fertility  and  beauty.  Down 
those  bald  white  cliffs  descend  ravines,  and  in  winter 
through  those  ravines  rush  torrents  which,  though 
their  courses  are  nearly  dry  in  summer,  carry  healing 
with  them.  From  the  mouth  of  those  ravines  the 
ground  slopes  gradually  to  the  mysterious  lake,  and 
on  this  slope  tropical  plants  flourish  in  tropical  beauty 
and  luxuriance.  Even  in  these  streams  the  element 
of  mystery  is  not  wanting ;  they  all,  or  almost  all, 
spring  from  fountains  of  warm  water.  This  warmth 
tells  of  central  fires  that  may  now  be  beneficent,  but 
may  anon  be  kindled  into  fierceness  of  destroying 


THE  HOME  OF  APOCALYPTIC.  215 

heat  should  a  mission  of  judgment  be  entrusted  to 
them.  But  the  warmth  adds  to  the  tropical  luxuriance 
of  those  dells.  These  fountains  had  healing  virtues 
ascribed  to  them,  as  Josephus  tells ;  to  one  of  these, 
that  called  Callirrhoe,  Herod  betook  himself  in  his 
last  illness.  Near  Engedi,  too,  where  was  another 
of  those  healing  streams,  grew  balsam,  whose  medicinal 
properties  are  told  us  by  Josephus. 

In  olden  days  Engedi  must  have  been  much  more 
beautiful  than  now.  It  still  is  beautiful,  with  its 
fertile  strip  of  ground,  its  streams  shining  and  clear 
unless  when  in  mid-summer  the  thirsty  soil  drinks 
them  all  in,  and  its  luxuriant  vegetation.  In  all  it  is 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  north  to  south,  and 
slopes  gently  down  from  the  mountains  that  rise  up 
towards  Hebron  to  the  edge  of  the  sea.  It  is  formed 
by  the  confluence  of  two  "  Wadys "  or  streams  with 
the  ravines  cut  by  them.  The  streams  in  this  case  are 
perennial,  though  lost  in  the  sand  during  the  dry 
season.  Well  up  on  the  face  of  the  sloping  hill 
between  these  two  ravines  rises  the  Ain  Jidy,  the 
fountain  of  the  kid,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  place. 
It  gushes  out,  leaps,  and  gambols  down  to  the  sea  a 
perennial  stream — a  line  of  white  foam  that  sparkles 
in  the  sunlight.  Like  most  of  the  fountains  in  the 
neighbourhood,  it  is  a  warm  spring,  though  not  hot, 
and  so  promotes  the  tropical  luxuriance  around.  Engedi 
is  now  absolutely  void  of  permanent  inhabitants, — the 
shifting  tent  -  living  Arabs  cannot  be  reckoned  in 
that  category, — but  there  are  traces  of  an  abundant 
population  in  long  past  times.  There  are  the  remains 
of  terraces  on  which,  in  the  days  of  the  Hasmonseans 


216  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

and  the  Herodians,  luxuriant  vines  were  trained.  If 
there  is  now  not  a  single  palm-tree  to  justify  the  old 
name  Hazazon  Tamar,  there  are  petrified  by  the 
water,  which  is  impregnated  with  lime,  numerous 
fronds  of  the  palm.  Numerous  cisterns  are  found  all 
over  the  face  of  the  slope  with  conduits  reaching 
up  the  "  Wadys "  evidently  for  the  irrigation  of  the 
gardens  that  had  bloomed  here  in  those  old  days. 

Not  only  is  it  beautiful  from  its  luxuriant  vegeta- 
tion, but  it  is  relatively  cool.  Not  only  does  green 
luxuriance  contrast  with  the  barrenness  all  around, 
but  also  the  comparative  moderateness  of  the  tempera- 
ture makes  it  a  more  pleasant  abode  than  almost 
any  other  place  in  that  sultry  region.  The  richly 
oxygenated  air  has  an  exhilarating  effect  on  the 
system,  affording  capacity  for  physical  exertion  un- 
wonted in  so  hot  a  climate.  The  very  weight  of  air 
itself  gives  a  physical  buoyancy  that  reacts  on  the 
spirits.  Such  is  the  home  of  apocalyptic  as  it  is 
now.  But  in  old  days  its  vineyards  were  famous, 
for  Solomon  mentions  them  in  his  Song  of  Songs. 
Interspersed  with  the  vineyards  were  groves  of 
fragrant  henna,  called  camphire  in  our  Authorised 
Version.  Towering  around  were  the  palms  from  which 
the  place  got  its  other  name  of  Hazazon  Tamar,  "  the 
pruning  of  the  palms."  Josephus,  too,  tells  us  how  the 
palm  groves  beautified  this  spot  among  the  scene  of 
surrounding  desolation. 

From  it  the  spectator  has  a  striking  view  of  the 
Salt  Sea  and  its  surroundings.  Across  the  green 
waters  rise  the  mountains  of  Moab,  with  threatening 
precipices  that  go  sheer  down  into  the  depth  of  the 


THE  HOME  OF  APOCALYPTIC.  217 

sea.  Up  the  lake  the  eye  can  see  the  gorge  of  the 
Jordan  and  the  flat  plain  of  Siddim ;  but  rising  over 
it  is  the  range  of  Abarim,  one  of  the  peaks  of  which 
was  Pisgah,  from  which  Moses  had  his  first,  last  look 
at  the  land  promised  to  his  fathers,  and  for  the  posses- 
sion of  which  he  had  led  the  people  of  Israel  all  these 
forty  years  of  the  wilderness  journey.  Somewhere 
there,  in  those  deep  gorges  that  seem  black  by  contrast 
of  the  brilliant  sunlight  which  beats  upon  the  bright 
rocks  around,  is  the  secret  tomb  of  Moses,  the  man  of 
God.  And  from  these  mountains,  too,  ascended  to 
heaven  another  man  of  God.  There  Elijah,  having 
cleft  the  waters  of  the  Jordan  with  his  mantle,  mounted 
those  heights,  and  then,  swept  away  in  a  fiery  chariot, 
was  borne  up  to  the  presence  of  God.  Beyond  these 
mountains,  too,  had  been  the  terrible  sacrifice  of  Mesha 
king  of  Moab,  when  Jehoram  king  of  Israel  and  Jehosha- 
phat  king  of  Judah,  with  the  king  of  Edom,  came  against 
him.  All  these  memories  clung  to  those  mysterious 
mountains.  The  masses  of  black  basalt  that  break  in 
upon  the  orange  coloured  limestone  seem  the  very 
embodiment  of  the  mystery  that  hangs  around  these 
mountains. 

Memory  colours  imagination,  and  solitude  quickens 
in  this  spot  of  bright  beauty.  By  this  Ain  G'di,  "  the 
well  of  the  kid,"  did  there  dwell  for  many  generations 
a  mysterious  race  of  solitaries — in  this  region  suited  at 
once  for  solitude  and  for  mystery.  They  were  solitary 
at  least  in  this,  that  they  separated  themselves  from 
all  other  race  and  sects,  and  lived  apart  from  civil 
society.  Denying  themselves  the  business  of  every- 
day life,  they  supported  themselves  by  agriculture  of  a 


218  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

simple  sort.  Their  mode  of  life  was  simplicity  itself, 
every  comfort  was  shunned,  much  more  every  luxury, 
as  if  it  were  a  sin.  They  observed  the  law  of  Moses 
with  great  exactness,  save  in  some  particulars  which  are 
to  be  noted ;  they  avoided  bloody  sacrifices,  and  what 
sacrifices  they  allowed  they  did  not  offer  in  the  temple. 
They  had  priests  of  their  own,  who  presided  at  the 
simple  meals  they  had  in  common,  and  led  their 
devotions. 

While  they  reverenced  the  law,  they  did  not,  as  did 
the  scribes,  restrict  themselves  to  the  canonical  books  ; 
for  they  had  visions  of  their  own  which  they  noted 
down,  and  secret  sacred  books  which  they  cherished. 
Solitaries  dwelling  at  the  side  of  the  Dead  Sea  were 
the  very  people  to  have  strange  apocalyptic  visions. 
The  very  absorption  in  their  own  states  of  feeling, — the 
natural  result  of  the  solitude  in  which  they  lived, — in 
which  there  was  nothing  to  show  the  true  perspective 
of  things,  and  above  all  the  contrast  of  fact  and  fancy, 
made  their  minds  peculiarly  ready  to  assume  any 
delusion  to  be  true.  And  that  strange  sluggish  sea, 
and  those  sombre  mountains,  with  their  mysterious 
memories,  were  specially  fitted  to  give  these  delusions 
an  apocalyptic  colour.  Let  us  picture  a  day  at 
Engedi,  and  give  its  history.  When  the  clear  sky  over 
the  mountains  of  Moab  had  begun  to  assume  a  faintly 
silver  tone,  softening  down  the  blue  of  the  night,  the 
community  was  awakened  possibly  by  the  weird  sound 
of  the  ram's  horn  trumpet.  After  a  baptismal  bath 
has  consecrated  them  for  the  service  of  the  day,  they 
stand  before  their  small  flat-roofed  houses  and  wait 
for  the  dawn.  The  sky  to  the  east  is  all  covered  with 


THE  HOME  OF  APOCALYPTIC.  219 

a  flush  of  pink,  and  the  gleam  from  the  sky  fells  upon 
the  faces  of  the  worshippers  who  stand  with  their  faces 
towards  the  sunrise  and  their  backs  towards  Jerusalem, 
with  its  temple  polluted  by  unholy  priests  who  offered 
unworthy  offerings  on  the  altar,  and  lights  up  with  a 
rosy  tint  the  white  cottages  that  peep  from  among 
the  vineyards  and  oliveyards  of  Engedi,  and  the  white 
garments  of  the  waiting  brethren.  The  morning  breeze, 
precursor  of  the  dawn,  tosses  the  great  leaves  of  the 
palms  that  sway  gracefully  over  Hazazon  Tamar. 
Then  as  the  first  dazzling  gleam  is  seen  above  the 
heights  opposite,  from  all  the  row  of  worshippers  who 
are  standing  with  mantles  over  their  heads  rises  a 
hymn  to  God  who  has  caused  morning  to  arise  upon 
the  earth.  Then  the  brethren  disperse  to  their  various 
labours  ;  one  shouldering  his  mattock  goes  to  break  up 
the  clods  of  the  field ;  another  with  pruning  knife,  it 
may  be,  goes  to  the  groves  of  fragrant  henna;  yet 
another  retires  into  his  cell  to  further  some  indoor 
work  for  the  benefit  of  the  community.  The  sun 
becomes  high  in  the  heaven,  work  is  no  longer  possible, 
and  once  more  the  brethren  assemble  and  slowly — 
their  robes  girt  about  them  again  after  being  laid  aside 
for  their  second  lustral  bath — they  defile  into  the  large 
upper  chamber  where  their  simple  mid-day  meal  is 
eaten.  While  they  rest  during  the  heat  of  the  day, 
the  reader  takes  one  of  their  sacred  books  and  reads  to 
the  listening  brethren.  After  he  has  finished,  another, 
possibly  the  chief  of  the  community,  expounds. 

When  the  afternoon  is  still  warm,  about  two  as  we 
reckon,  they  resume  their  labours,  and  continue  until 
the  sun  has  sunk  in  golden  glory  behind  the  hills  of 


220  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Judah,  gilding,  it  may  be,  with  its  farewell  rays  the 
mountains  that  are  round  about  Jerusalem.  While  the 
bright  stars  are  beginning  to  rush  out  from  the  ever 
deepening  blue  of  the  sky,  the  brethren  may  be  seen 
returning  to  their  cells  from,  it  may  be,  labouring  as 
hired  servants  to  rich  men  around.  After  again  a 
delay  for  the  sacred  ablution,  they  assemble  in  their 
refectory.  Those  who  had  been  labouring  as  hirelings 
deposit  their  earnings  in  the  hand  of  the  chief  of  their 
brotherhood.  They  all  recline  on  the  rough  benches 
round  the  wall.  A  simple  prayer  is  offered  and  a 
hymn  sung,  and  then  the  ministers  enter,  bearing  each 
a  dish,  one  for  each  member.  These  ministers  pass 
round  and  set  before  the  members  each  his  dish.  This 
meal  is  a  sacrifice ;  it  is  prepared  at  the  time  when  the 
priest  at  Jerusalem  slays  the  evening  sacrifice ;  and 
these  priests,  whose  duty  it  was  to  see  the  meal  pre- 
pared, solemnly  bless  it  and  the  worshipping  brethren. 
After  the  meal,  once  more  are  these  Sacred  Scriptures 
read  and  expounded,  and  then  the  assembly  breaks 
up  ;  each  member  of  the  community  retires  to  his  cell 
for  work,  for  reading,  for  meditation  and  prayer,  and 
then  the  twinkling  lights  one  after  one  go  out.  The 
moon  in  a  cloudless  heaven  shines  down  upon  a  silence 
that  is  only  broken  by  the  yelping  howl  of  the  jackal, 
the  bleating  of  the  sheep  from  the  folds,  and — if  it  is 
not  mid-summer  —  the  rush  of  the  Sudeir  down  the 
rocks. 

While  we  say  of  these  Essenes — for  it  is  of  them 
we  speak — that  they  were  solitaries,  we  ought  to  men- 
tion that  this  was  only  true  of  the  main  body  ;  they  had 
houses  dispersed  over  the  whole  land  of  Palestine, 


THE  HOME  OF  APOCALYPTIC.  221 

where  any  travelling  brother  of  the  order  might  be 
entertained  in  the  simple  fashion  they  permitted  them- 
selves. Indeed,  Josephus  says  they  were  "  many  in 
every  city."  They  appear  on  the  scene  of  public  events 
as  recorded  by  Josephus,  and  disappear  from  it  with  the 
unaccountableness  of  Elijah,  whose  translation  from  the 
opposite  mountain  will  be  prone  to  come  into  their 
thoughts  when  with  the  central  society.  Like  him, 
they  intervened  in  politics  at  times,  and  did  so  with 
force,  but  only  for  a  moment. 

From  this  solitary  place  of  observation  the  central 
society  kept  itself  informed  of  the  progress  of  events ; 
and  they  must  have  watched  at  times  with  eager 
interest  the  changes  that  passed  over  men  as  dynasty 
after  dynasty  rose  and  toppled  and  fell.  True,  new 
generations  arose,  each  succeeding  the  other ;  new- 
members  came  in  wearied  with  life,  or  taken  as  children 
grew  up  among  them  ;  but  the  spell  once  on  them  they 
grew  into  the  traditions  of  the  sect  till  the  whole 
community  assumed  a  solidarity  which  is  only  seen  in 
such  monastic  orders  as  the  Jesuits.  To  an  outside 
spectator  these  Essenes  seem  like  one  person  :  they 
appear  and  declare  approaching  judgment  or  dignity, 
and  then  disappear,  unlike  the  fussing  Pharisees  and 
diplomatic  Sadducees.  Their  very  reticence  inspires 
awe. 

Among  the  books  of  the  canon  one  book  was  especi- 
ally to  their  taste — the  Book  of  Daniel.  The  strange 
tales  of  empires  rising  and  falling  it  related  in  its  mys- 
terious symbolism,  and  the  fuller  angelology  it  implied, 
all  were  fitted  to  affect  a  community  like  that  of  the 
Essenes.  The  interpretation  of  the  symbols  and  numbers 


222  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  Daniel  would  occupy  them,  as  later  they  occupied  the 
monks  of  the  Middle  Ages.  What  were  the  monarchies 
that  were  one  after  another  to  dominate  the  Holy  Land  ? 
to  what  point  had  they  now  come  in  the  evolution 
of  history  ?  The  question  was  one  that  might  well 
affect  them.  They  had  for  more  than  a  century  been 
under  Greek  domination,  mainly  as  represented  by  the 
Lagid  princes  of  Egypt.  These,  on  the  whole,  had 
treated  the  Jews  with  kindness,  and  given  them  a 
place  in  Egypt  of  equal  rights  with  native  born 
citizens  of  the  country.  Sacrifices  were  offered  in 
the  temple  in  the  name  of  each  successive  Ptolemy. 
Meantime  the  progress  of  change  had  been  rapid. 
The  very  kindness  with  which,  on  the  whole,  they  had 
been  treated,  had  made  the  Jewish  people  look  without 
their  usual  hatred  of  idolatry  at  the  graceful  heathenism 
of  Greece.  From  gazing  without  reprobation  to  gazing 
with  admiration  was  an  easy  step  when  the  attractive 
power  of  Greek  art  aided  the  advance.  From  admira- 
tion to  imitation  the  descent  was  as  easy,  the  more 
so,  that  in  a  Hellenic  state  Hellenic  manners  always 
gave  alike  civil  and  social  advantage.  All  throughout 
Palestine  was  this  process  going  on,  accelerated  by  the 
number  of  Hellenic  cities  that  had  sprung  up  and  had 
received  autonomy.  To  be  received  into  citizenship 
in  these  cities  was  advantageous ;  to  be  so  received 
practically  implied  a  certain  amount  of  Hellenisation. 

In  Jerusalem  itself  the  influence  of  Greek  life  was 
already  becoming  marked.  The  old  Jewish  Hebrew 
names,  with  their  sacred  associations,  were  giving  place 
to  Greek  names,  which  had  either  a  somewhat  similar 
sense  or  sound.  Even  high  priests  were  called  Menelaus 


THE  HOME  OF  APOCALYPTIC.  223 

and  Alkimus  rather  than  Joseph  or  Jaddua,  names  that 
sufficed  their  fathers.  The  Palaestra  was  instituted, 
and  youths,  out  of  shame  lest  their  religion  might  be 
recognised,  put  themselves  under  painful  surgical 
treatment  to  erase  the  mark  of  circumcision.  It  was 
a  period  that  seemed  to  portend  universal  national 
apostasy.  Along  with  this,  and  closely  connected 
with  it,  were  the  extravagances  resulting  from  the  new 
luxurious  habits  and  the  artistic  acquirements  of  the 
new  civilisation ;  and  this,  as  a  natural  consequence, 
produced  the  oppression  of  the  poor  by  the  rich. 

Outside  the  circle  of  Judaism  signs  of  change  were 
manifesting  themselves.  Young  Antiochus,  the  son 
of  Seleucus  Callinicus,  had  succeeded  his  brother 
Seleucus  Ceraunus.  Unlike  those  monarchs,  Antiochus 
was  energetic ;  and  if  not  a  military  genius,  was  yet 
a  man  of  very  considerable  military  talent.  The 
Parthians  had  rebelled  against  his  father,  and  Arsaces, 
their  leader,  had  inflicted  a  disastrous  defeat  on  Cal- 
linicus, his  brother.  Rumours  of  those  disasters  must 
have  reached  Palestine,  and  even  pierced  the  solitary 
habitation  of  the  Essenes.  Again,  with  the  early  man- 
hood of  Antiochus,  there  were  reports  of  disturbances 
on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates.  Away  to  the  East 
flew  the  young  monarch,  overthrew  the  revolt  of  the 
Medes,  hurried  west,  dashed  into  Syria  to  drive 
Ptolemy  Physcon  out  of  Palestine.  At  first  he  was 
successful,  but  at  length  at  Raphia  he  sustained  a 
defeat,  which  left  Palestine  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
Lagids.  After  a  rest  of  a  year  or  two  again  there 
were  rumours  of  conflicts  in  the  far  east;  again  the 
Median  provincials  had  risen,  this  time  openly  backed 


224  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

by  the  Partliians,  and  secretly  supported,  it  was  sup- 
posed, by  treasure  from  Egypt.  Then  came  news  of 
the  young  king  being  again  triumphant  over  his  eastern 
enemies  ;  and  the  idea  was  rife  that  as,  after  his  former 
victory  in  the  east  he  had  retraced  his  steps,  he 
would  again  at  once  fall  upon  the  Egyptian  territory. 
As  before  Jerusalem  had  escaped  without  direct 
assault,  so  it  was  hoped  it  would  happen  now. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE   ENOCH   BOOKS. 

"VfTHEN  the  tidings  we  have  just  referred  to  were 
brought,  they  caused  speculation  among  the 
recluses  of  the  community  at  Engedi.  One  among 
them,  probably  old,  and  certainly  affected  by  Greek 
physical  speculations,  is  much  moved  by  the  intelli- 
gence as  it  comes.  As  he  broods  in  his  cell,  it 
seems  to  him  that  a  prophet  earlier  than  Elijah,  and 
even  greater  than  he,  is  present  with  him  in  his 
cell,  —  a  prophet  who,  like  Elijah,  had  been  trans- 
lated, that  he  should  not  see  death.  He  felt  that 
these  visions  of  nature  in  its  inmost  core  that 
were  revealed  to  him,  and  the  denunciations  of  the 
evil  of  the  world,  really  proceeded  from  Enoch,  not 
from  himself.  Unnatural  conditions  of  life  produce 
unnatural  forms  of  thought  and  perverted  views  of 
right  and  wrong,  so  that  such  strange  hallucinations 
as  those  we  speak  of,  far  from  being  unnatural,  become 
to  this  false  unnatural  condition  really  natural — the 
natural  results  of  these  conditions. 

In  the  name,  then,  of  Enoch  was  written  the  book 
of  "  the  three  parables,"  or  rather  pictures.  Enoch 
tells  how  "  a  cloud  and  a  whirlwind  seized  him  from 
the  face  of  the  earth  and  carried  him  to  the  end  of  the 

heavens ; "  there  he  saw  the  dwellings  of  the  just  and 
p 


226  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  abiding-places  of  the  holy  ones.  While  there  he 
tells  what  he  sees  in  this  abiding-place  of  the  saints, 
"  under  the  wings  of  the  Lord  of  spirits,"  and  a  great 
longing  fell  on  him  to  be  in  this  place ;  happy  and 
peaceful  as  might  be  the  glade  of  Engedi,  and  sweet 
the  society  of  the  brotherhood,  this  was  far  better. 
In  comfort  to  his  soul  there  was  brought  in  the  con- 
solation that  his  portion  was  there.  And  as  he  thought 
of  this,  he  breaks  forth  into  a  song  of  blessing  and 
praise,  and  he  calls  upon  all  the  angels  to  join  him 
in  his  song  of  praise.  And  he  heard  the  song  of  the 
watchers  of  heaven — "  Blessed  art  Thou,  0  God,  and 
blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord  for  ever."  As  he 
gazes  he  sees  an  immense  multitude  of  spirits,  "ten 
thousand  times  ten  thousand,  and  thousands  of  thour 
sands."  In  the  midst  of  this  is  seen  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  of  spirits,  and  the  awful  glory  shapes  itself  into 
four  faces.  From  these  four  faces  that  shone  out  of 
the  glory  there  came  voices.  The  first  praised  the 
Lord  of  spirits,  the  second  voice  praised  the  Chosen 
One,  the  Messiah,  the  third  was  an  entreating 
prayer  for  the  saints  of  God  upon  the  earth,  and  the 
fourth  pealed  forth  in  warning  against  the  Satans,  the 
accusers  of  the  saints.  And  these  four,  he  learned, 
had  each  names ;  the  first  was  Michael,  the  merciful .; 
the  second  was  Rufael,  the  healer;  the  third  was 
Gabriel,  the  mighty ;  the  fourth  Phanuel,  who  is  over 
the  penitence  of  those  who  shall  inherit  eternal  life.1 
.Next,  all  the  secrets  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  are 
shown  him,  and  the  weighing  of  all  the  deeds  of  men. 
All  nature,  too,  is  unveiled  to  him, — the  pathway  of  the 

1  Schodde,  pp.  112-115  ;  Dillmann,  p.  20  ;  Laurence,  p.  42. 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  227 

stars  and  of  the  sun  and  the  moon,  and  how  through  it 
all  there  is  praise  to  the  God  of  spirits.  But  in  all 
these  Wisdom  did  not  find  a  place  to  dwell ;  she  came 
to  earth  and  found  no  rest  among  men,  and  so  she 
returned  to  be  with  the  angels  again.  This  is  the 
conclusion  of  the  first  parable. 

In  the  second  parable  Enoch  is  still  in  the  dwelling- 
place  of  the  holy,  but  is  shown  the  fate  of  those  that 
will  not  obey.  The  main  subject  of  this  second  parable 
is  the  judgment  of  all  before  the  Chosen  One,  the 
Messiah.  He  sees  in  his  vision  the  Ancient  of  Days, 
whose  head  was  white  as  wool,  and  with  Him  was  a 
second  whose  countenance  was  full  of  gentleness,  who 
was  like  a  man,  and  yet  like  one  of  the  holy  angels. 
Enoch  asked  who  this  was  that  thus  went  with  the 
Ancient  of  Days,  and  he  was  told  it  was  the  Son  of 
man  "  who  hath  righteousness,  and  all  righteousness 
dwelleth  with  Him,  and  all  secret  treasures  of  hidden 
knowledge  He  revealeth,  because  the  Lord  of  spirits 
hath  chosen  Him."  Here  appear  the  Messianic  hopes, 
the  cultivation  of  which  was  such  a  marked  charac- 
teristic of  the  Essenes.  It  is  no  merely  spiritual 
Messiah  that  the  writer  expects  or  imagines  that 
Enoch  reveals  through  him,  but  a  warlike  Messiah 
who  will  "  arouse  kings  from  their  couches,"  will  expel 
them  "  from  their  thrones  and  from  their  kingdoms 
because  they  do  not  exalt  Him  and  praise  Him,  nor 
humbly  acknowledge  Him  by  whom  the  kingdom  is 
given  unto  them.  He  will  confound  the  countenance 
of  the  strong,  and  fill  their  faces  with  shame  who  lift 
their  hands  against  the  Most  High,  and  tread  down 
the  earth  whose  deeds  are  all  unrighteousness  and 


228  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

who  manifest  unrighteousness,  whose  power  resteth  in 
their  riches." 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  it  is  not  persecuting 
monarchs  he  fears,  but  rich  men  "whose  trust  is  in 
gods  whom  they  have  made  with  their  own  hands, 
and  who  have  denied  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  spirits." 
These  are  not  heathen  who  are  so  by  birth,  for  they 
could  not  be  said  to  "deny"  God's  name,  since  they 
had  never  known  Him.  Further  proof  of  this  may  be 
drawn  from  the  fact  that  these  people  are  "to  be  cast 
out  of  the  houses  of  His  congregation,  the  synagogues 
that  is  to  say,  and  "  out  of  the  assemblies  faithful  that 
hang  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  spirits," — congrega- 
tions and  assemblies  into  which  the  heathen  never 
dreamed  of  entering. 

His  vision  still  continues,  and  he  sees  the  throne  set 
and  the  books  opened,  as  we  see  in  the  Book  of  Daniel. 
Then  comes  a  remarkable  sentence:  "Then  the  saints 
shall  rejoice  because  the  number  of  righteous  ones  is 
fulfilled,  and  the  prayers  of  the  just  have  been  heard, 
and  the  blood  of  the  Just  One  has  been  demanded 
before  the  Lord  of  spirits."  This  does  not  necessarily 
imply  that  the  writer  recognised  that  the  Suffering 
One  was  also  the  Messiah  who  was  crowned  in  the 
heavens.  He  knew  from  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah 
that  the  Holy  One  was  to  be  cut  off,  but  he  felt  it 
difficult  to  reconcile  this  with  the  idea  that  was 
becoming  growingly  more  distinct  among  his  sect, 
that  the  Messiah,  to  fulfil  all  that  was  prophesied  about 
Him  and  hoped  from  Him,  must  be,  if  not  quite 
Divine,  at  least  more  than  human.  In  the  Talmud 
there  is  the  theory  of  two  Messiahs — one  the  son  of 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  229 

Joseph  who  shall  suffer,  the  other  the  son  of  David 
who  shall  reign. 

Beside  the  throne  of  judgment  the  writer  "  saw  a 
fountain  of  righteousness,  and  around  it  many 
fountains  of  wisdom ;  and  all  the  thirsty  drank  of 
them  and  were  filled  with  wisdom,  and  had  their 
dwelling  with  the  righteous  and  the  holy  and  the 
chosen  ones."  While  he  was  gazing  at  this,  "  the  Son 
of  man  was  called  before  the  Lord  of  spirits."  Here 
the  reference  is  to  the  Messiah ;  and  the  title  given  is 
one  which,  as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  show,  our 
Lord  regularly  uses  of  Himself,  not  unlike  in  reference 
to  the  usage  in  the  Essene  school  of  which  this  book  is 
a  product.  The  natural  interpretation  of  our  Lord's 
use  of  the  title  is  that  He  regarded  it  as  equivalent  to 
an  assertion  of  Messiahship.  It  might  not  be  so  re- 
garded by  the  Pharisaic  school  or  the  Sadducean  ; 
it  would  be  enough  if  it  were  in  accordance  with  the 
custom  of  the  Essenes. 

High  honour  is  to  be  done  to  this  Son  of  man : 
"All  that  live  upon  the  earth  shall  fall  down  before 
Him,  and  shall  bend  the  knee  to  Him." l  This, 
however,  is  not  all,  the  resurrection  comes,  when  "  the 
earth  shall  return  that  entrusted  to  it,  and  Sheol 
shall  return  that  entrusted  to  it  which  it  has  received, 
and  hell  shall  return  again  what  it  owes.2  And  He 
shall  choose  the  just  and  holy  from  among  them,  for 
the  day  has  come  that  they  shall  be  saved.  At  this 
there  is  universal  joy  and  jubilation.  This  joy  is  de- 
scribed in  terms  drawn  from  the  Psalms ;  we  are  told 
of  mountains  skipping  like  rams,  and  hills  like  lambs. 
1  Vide  Phil.  ii.  10.  2  Vide  Rev.  xx.  13. 


230  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

From  this  scene  of  joy  Enoch  is  carried  away  by  a 
whirlwind,  and  is  brought  to  a  region  very  different 
in  character — away  to  the  east  were  the  mountains  of 
Moab,  with  their  mystery.  But  the  writer  had  not 
always  dwelt  in  Engedi ;  time  was  when  he  had  stood 
on  the  mountains  above  Joppa,  and  looked  away  out 
across  the  great  and  wide  sea.  As  he  gazed  he  saw 
the  grey  clouds  gathering — the  portent  of  storm — 
around  the  gates  of  the  west.  But  the  sun  descended 
towards  them,  and  the  clouds  became  transformed  into 
mountains  that  glowed  in  metallic  splendour;  there 
was  gold  and  silver,  ruddy  copper  and  black  iron ;  at 
the  edges  there  was  the  blue  grey  of  dull  lead,  lighted 
up  by  sparkles  that  spoke  of  quicksilver.  His  fancy, 
taught  by  vision,  constructs  on  the  model  of  it  the  land 
to  which  he  is  brought. 

As  the  evening  rapidly  deepens  and  the  mountains 
disappear,  in  place  of  these  golden  mountains  dark 
clouds,  bearing  in  their  bosom  lightning,  thunder,  and 
whirlwind,  quickly  cover  the  sky.  The  roll  of  the 
thunder  sounds  like  the  careering  wheels  of  weighty 
chariots  rushing  to  battle.  The  lightning,  that  flashes 
from  the  cloud,  seems  the  gleam  of  the  armour  of  the 
warriors  who  man  the  chariots.  It  is  the  hosts  of  the 
Lord  hurrying  to  battle.  Some  such  vision  as  this 
he  had  seen  from  the  mountain  above  Joppa.  His 
imagination  taught  by  this,  on  the  remembrance  of  it 
in  days  long  after  it  may  be,  constructed  on  the  model 
of  it  the  land  to  which  he  is  now  brought,  and  the 
events  that  happen.  It  is  a  land  where  he  sees  a 
group  of  six  mountains,  each  composed  of  a  different 
metal — one  of  iron,  one  of  copper,  one  of  silver,  one 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  231 

of  gold,  one  of  quicksilver,1  and  one  of  lead.  These 
mountains  are  away  to  the  west  beyond  the  great 
sea,  in  the  region  of  the  setting  sun.  They  are  to 
vanish  at  the  coming  of  the  Messiah. 

Near  these  mountains  there  appeared  a  vast  open 
valley,  into  which  all  nations  poured  their  gifts  to  the 
Messiah,  yet  it  was  not  filled. 

Another  valley  he  saw  lit  up  with  lurid  fire.  This 
is  the  place  of  punishment.  There  is  introduced  here, 
somewhat  inconsequentially,  the  prophecy  of  the  Flood 
among  the  scenery  of  the  last  judgment.  But  this  is 
quite  in  accordance  with  the  ordinary  usage  in 
prophecy ;  the  absolutely  last  things  are  brought  into 
close  juxtaposition  with  things  in  the  immediate 
future.  It  is  again  in  close  proximity  to  this  message 
concerning  the  Flood  that  Enoch  tells  of  the  angels  of 
punishment  going  to  stir  up  the  kings  of  Media  and 
Parthia — a  conjunction  that  did  not  happen  later  than 
the  days  of  Antiochus  the  Great.  This  parable 
concludes  with  a  mysterious  vision  of  "a  host  of 
chariots  "  borne  on  the  wings  of  the  wind,  in  which  men 
were  riding.  The  noise  of  the  chariots  was  heard ; 
the  holy  ones  observed  it,  and  the  pillars  of  the  earth 
were  moved  from  their  place,  and  the  noise  was  heard 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  the  end  of  the  heavens ; 
and  with  this  final  overthrow  of  the  wicked  the 
second  similitude  ends. 

1  I  have  followed  here  Hoffmann's  rendering.  Archbishop  Laurence 
renders  the  word  "JfTlrfl'Tlrtl  nafatydb,  which  indicates  the  material  of 
the  fifth  mountain  by  " fluid  metal"  and  Dillmann  by  "  Tropfmetall" 
Schodde  by  "soft  metal."  It  is  quite  true  that  in  Hi.  6  this  metal  is 
represented  as  being  melted  as  by  heat ;  but  we  must  not  test  the  visions 
of  the  apocalyptists  by  our  notions  of  accuracy.  Something  may  be  said 
for  translating  natabtdb,  "  tin,"  as  may  be  seen  by  referring  to  Hi.  8. 


232  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

The  third  similitude  has  come  down  to  us  in  a  frag- 
mentary condition.  It  would  seem  that  it  was  a  vision 
of  bliss  that  he  intended  to  leave  to  his  brethren,  but 
either  he  died  or  his  writing  was  damaged,  so  that — as 
has  so  often  happened — the  last  leaf  has  been  lost. 

Another  Enoch-book  may  be  regarded  as  beginning 
with  chap.  xcii.  The  writer  of  the  nucleus  is  impelled 
to  map  out  the  history  of  the  world,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  the  oppression  of  the  poor  by  the  rich  moves 
him  to  wrath.  There  in  his  cell  he  is  prepared  to 
denounce  them.  In  his  wanderings,  it  may  be,  he  has 
seen  this  oppression,  if  it  may  not  even  be  that  the 
oppression  of  the  rich  has  driven  him  to  Engedi ;  but 
when  he  denounces  them,  he  must  do  so,  he  feels,  under 
figure  of  Enoch.  So  the  seer,  who  had  been  in  heaven 
and  had  read  the  tablets  there,  in  the  first  place, 
relates  to  his  children  the  history  of  the  world  in  ten 
weeks.  The  first  of  these  is  occupied  by  the  history  up 
to  his  own  time,  and  the  rest  by  all  history  then  future  ; 
the  second  week  ends  with  the  Flood ;  the  third  with 
the  call  of  Abraham ;  the  fourth  week  records  the 
giving  of  the  law  to  Moses,  and  the  formation  of  the 
nations  ;  the  fifth  week  terminates  with  the  dedication 
of  the  Solomonic  temple ;  in  the  sixth  week  there  is  a 
compendious  history  of  the  Jewish  nation  down  to  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar ;  the  seventh 
week  is  the  time  when  a  rebellious  race  will  arise,  and 
many  will  be  their  deeds — all  their  deeds  will  be  re- 
bellious. In  this  the  seer  points  to  the  Hellenisers 
among  the  Jews ;  but  in  the  end  a  plant  of  wisdom  is 
to  spring  up  for  them.  This  part  of  the  vision  seems 
certainly  to  have  been  written  before  the  Maccabean 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  233 

struggle.  The  coming  of  the  Messiah  proves  the  history 
of  apocalyptists  to  have  ended  and  the  fancy  to  be 
beginning.  In  the  eighth  week  judgment  is  to  be 
executed  on  the  heathen  by  the  saints.  The  ninth 
week  declares  that  righteousness  shall  be  revealed 
to  the  whole  world  —  a  uuiversalism  utterly  unlike 
the  attitude  assumed  by  the  Pharisees.  When  the 
tenth  week  comes  the  final  judgment  takes  place. 
It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  judgment  takes 
place  after  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  has  been  long 
past. 

After  this  vision  of  history,  the  seer  proceeds  to 
exhort  his  descendants  to  follow  righteousness  and 
truth.  The  sins  of  his  time  seem  to  be  those  of  a 
relatively  peaceful  period  ;  though  a  time  of  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  saints  by  the  wealthy  Hellenisers,  they  are 
exhorted  not  to  fear,  for  their  enemies  will  be  destroyed 
before  them.  He  denounces  woes  on  the  sinners  with 
the  fervency  of  one  of  the  old  prophets.  "Woe  to 
you,  sinners,  for  your  riches  make  you  appear  righteous, 
yet  you  are  sinners.  Woe  to  you  who  devour  the 
marrow  of  the  wheat  and  drink  the  power  of  the  root 1 
of  the  fountains," — seize  on  the  clearest  water, — "  and 
tread  the  lowly  with  violence  under  your  feet !  Woe 
to  you  who  gain  silver  and  gold  without  righteousness, 
yet  say,  '  We  have  become  rich,  we  have  treasure  and 
possess  everything  we  desire !  And  now  we  will  do 
what  we  purpose,  for  we  have  gathered  silver  and  our 
treasuries  are  full,  and  as  water  so  many  are  the  work- 
men of  our  houses.'  Like  water  shall  your  lies  float 

1  So  Schodde  and  Uillmaim  ;  Laurence,  "  the  strength  of  the  deepest 

spring." 


234  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

away,  your  wealth  will  not  remain  to  you,  ye  shall  be 
given  once  to  a  great  condemnation." 

Those  whom  the  seer  denounces  with  so  much  force 
seem  to  be  fond  of  wealth  and  of  gaudy  apparel,  but 
there  is  no  distinct  mention  of  idolatry  as  among  their 
sins.  It  is  difficult  to  decide,  but  it  would  seem  to 
have  been  written  about  the  time  of  the  nucleus, 
before  the  addition  of  the  Noachian  fragments. 

Inspired  by  the  strange  record  left  by  this  brother 
who  regarded  himself  as  the  amanuensis  of  Enoch, 
another  later  brother  assumed  the  name  of  Noah.  It 
is  somewhat  uncertain  whether  there  ever  was  a  com- 
plete Noah-book  or  not.  If  there  was,  it  must  have 
been  slavishly  dependent  on  the  Book  of  Enoch.  It 
seems  more  probable  that  the  second  visionary  brother, 
desirous  of  completing  the  work  of  his  comrade,  as  he 
was  unable  to  claim  the  inspiration  of  Enoch,  feigned 
that  he  was  the  amanuensis  of  Noah,  who  in  his  youth 
had  seen  and  talked  with  Methuselah,  indeed,  had 
been  contemporary  with  him  for  nearly  five  centuries. 
Further,  there  is  suggested  that  after  his  translation 
Enoch  revealed  to  Noah  what  he  saw  in  the  heavenly 
places. 

There  is,  however,  a  sad  falling  off  in  the  Noachian 
fragments  as  compared  with  the  original  Book  of  Enoch. 
The  fragment  begins  with  a  date,  the  five  hundredth 
year  of  the  life  of  Noah  (by  a  mistake  Enoch  appears 
instead  of  Noah).  Next  he  proceeds  to  give  an  account 
of  the  creation  of  Leviathan  and  Behemoth,  very  much 
after  the  fashion  we  have  it  in  the  Talmud  and  other 
Jewish  tracts.  It  may  be  noted  that  Noah  is  under 
the  impression  that  Enoch,  not  Methuselah,  is  his 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  235 

grandfather.  A  great  deal  of  time  is  spent  in  elaborate 
physical  speculation,  and  functions  are  assigned  to  the 
angels  in  the  physical  world.  The  spirit  of  the  sea  is 
masculine  and  strong ;  the  spirit  of  the  hoar  frost  is  his 
own  angel ;  the  spirit  of  hail  is  a  good  angel,  who  has 
left  the  spirit  of  snow  on  account  of  its  strength.  He 
is  most  excellent  in  his  account  of  thunder  and  light- 
ning. He  tells  us  the  treasury  of  flashes  is  like  sand, 
and  the  spirit  makes  equal  divisions  between  them. 
There  are,  it  seems,  places  for  the  thunder  to  rest,  and 
then  it  utters  its  voice  and  the  flash  is  let  out,  "  and 
the  spirit  causes  a  rest  during  the  flash."  There  is  a 
certain  picturesque  revelation  here  of  what  from  their 
nest  in  Engedi  the  Essenes  saw  of  thunderstorms.  When 
thunderstorms  break  over  the  Dead  Sea  the  re-echoing 
of  peal  upon  peal,  caught  up  now  by  one  range  of 
mountains  now  by  another,  would  seem  an  almost  cease- 
less roar,  and  in  the  momentary  brilliance  of  the  flash, 
attention  being  directed  to  it,  the  thunder  would  be 
unheard.  One  striking  passage  in  the  Noachian  frag- 
ment must  not  be  omitted,  in  which  the  Messiah  is 
spoken  of,  not  as  Son  of  man,  but  as  "  Son  of  woman," 
who  is  "  sitting  on  the  throne  of  His  glory."  There  is 
greater  complexity  in  the  angelology  of  this  Noachian 
fragment  than  in  the  genuine  Book  of  Enoch.  In 
Enoch  angels  are  numerous,  but  not  classified ;  in  the 
Noachian  fragment  we  have  seraphim,  cherubim,  and 
ophariim,  the  last  name  being  derived  from  the  wheels 
in  the  prophecies  of  Ezekiel.  This  greater  elaboration 
is  a  sign  of  a  later  period. 

A  Noachian  fragment  occurs  at  chap,   cvi.,  to  all 
appearance  of  a  similar  date  to  that  we  have  been 


236  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

considering.  In  the  period  of  comparative  peace  fancy 
might  go  out  to  speculate  on  the  birth  of  such  an 
extraordinary  person  as  Noah.  This  whole  passage 
has  more  the  aspect  of  Hagada  than  of  apocalypse  :  it 
would  thus  seem  to  be  the  work  of  some  Pharisee  who 
had  come  over  to  the  Essenes.  The  same  mood  of 
exaggeration  is  also  found  in  the  gospel  of  the  infancy 
and  such  like  documents  of  a  period  slightly  later. 
Monastic  writers  have  similar  legends,  due  not  impos- 
sibly to  the  fact  that  they  lived  under  similar  con- 
ditions. 

After  the  Noachian  additions  were  made  to  the  Book 
of  Enoch,  stirring  times  ensued,  the  bruit  of  which 
pierced  the  solitudes  of  Engedi.  When  Antiochus  the 
Great  had  died,  he  was  succeeded  by  Seleucus  Philo- 
pator,  and  he  again  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes  his 
brother.  Even  more  brilliant  and  talented  than  his 
father,  he  made  war  against  Egypt,  and  seemed  in  a 
fair  way  to  subdue  it  wholly,  when  envoys  appeared 
from  Rome  and  ordered  him  to  desist  on  pain  of  war 
with  the  Republic.  Enraged  at  this  check  to  his 
victorious  career,  Antiochus  returned  homewards 
towards  Syria.  Whether  it  were  policy — a  desire  to 
have  a  homogeneous  empire  should  he  have  to  confront 
the  terrible  Republic — or  whether  it  were  merely  irrita- 
tion, he  entered  Jerusalem  with  the  determination, 
as  it  seemed,  to  Hellenise  completely  the  Jewish 
nation.  Sacrifices  were  offered  to  the  Olympian  Zeus 
in  the  Temple  court,  and  men  were  compelled  to  defile 
themselves  with  unclean  food.  The  most  terrible 
persecution  was  set  on  foot  to  abolish  Judaism.  In- 
stead of  producing  the  effect  intended,  it  roused  the 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  237 

nation  to  fury.  The  whole  country  was  like  a  powder 
magazine,  and  it  needed  only  the  gallant  act  of 
Mattathias,  the  priest  of  Modin,  to  burst  into  a  flame. 
When  the  Maccabean  struggle  began,  the  whole 
religious  feeling  of  the  country  went  with  the  patriots. 
It  would  seem  not  improbable  that  the  Essenes,  though 
usually  peaceful,  took  to  arms  at  this  time  and  joined 
the  Maccabeans.  At  all  events,  they  must  have 
watched  the  struggle  with  intense  interest.  The 
persecutor  seems,  if  we  may  make  what  appears  to 
be  a  reasonable  deduction  from  the  words  of  Philo, 
to  have  visited  the  Essenes  with  his  persecution,  after 
surrounding  them  with  flatteries,  probably  suggested 
by  the  external  resemblance  they  bore  in  belief  to  the 
Greek  philosophic  sects. 

The  struggle  was  a  sublime  one,  and  makes  the  blood 
stir  within  one,  even  at  the  end  of  more  than  twenty 
centuries,  —  Judas  the  Maccabean,  with  little  more 
than  three  thousand  men,  overthrowing  in  battle  after 
battle  all  the  might  of  the  Syrian  monarchy,  recaptur- 
ing Jerusalem  from  the  oppressors,  and  purifying  the 
Temple.  Ever  as  marvellous  victory  after  marvellous 
victory  was  won  in  spite  of  all  adverse  chances,  the 
feeling  of  hope  seemed  mingled  with  something 
almost  akin  to  despair.  It  seemed  impossible  that 
this  could  last,  or  that  the  struggle  could,  by 
merely  human  means,  be  brought  to  a  successful 
issue.  The  Messiah  would  surely  appear  to  deliver 
His  people. 

Scenes  of  persecution  have  a  tendency  to  produce 
seers.  "  The  killing  time,"  as  it  was  called,  in  the 
days  of  the  Scottish  Covenanters  produced  Alexander 


238  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Peden.  This  "  killing  time  "  produced  its  prophet  in 
the  writer  of  the  first  and  third  portions  of  the  Book  of 
Enoch.  His  relation  to  the  nucleus  of  the  book  is 
much  less  slavish  than  that  of  the  writer  of  the 
Noachian  fragments.  One  may  almost  imagine  that  he, 
too,  regarded  himself  as  used  as  a  pen  by  the  spirit 
of  the  ancient  patriarch.  He  is  occupied  with  the 
angels  and  with  the  physical  universe,  much  as  is  the 
author  of  the  Noachian  fragments  ;  but  the  names 
of  the  angels  are  different,  and  the  physical  theories 
suggested  are  even  more  elaborate  than  those  of  the 
Noachian  fragmentists. 

The  prophet  of  the  Antiochian  persecution  begins 
with  a  general  exordium,  which  in  the  course  of  pro- 
claiming judgment  on  all  sinners,  intimates  also  that 
he,  the  seer,  had  all  the  secrets  of  nature  unveiled  to 
him.  In  the  course  of  this  exordium  occurs  the  passage 
quoted  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude.  The  physical  portion 
appears  to  be  an  interruption  of  the  course  of  solemn 
apocalyptic  denunciation  with  which  the  seer  begins. 
Not  impossibly  this  exordium  was  written  after  the 
additions  were  made  to  the  original  nucleus,  and  the 
author,  aware  that  these  speculations  were  to  occupy 
a  good  deal  of  space  in  his  works,  gives  this  intimation 
in  the  beginning  as  a  preparation  for  what  is 
coming. 

After  this  general  overture,  to  use  a  musical  equiva- 
lent to  exordium,  the  seer  now  proceeds  historically. 
He  proceeds  to  give  an  account  of  the  fall  of  the  angels, 
which  he  dates  at  the  time  preceding  the  Flood,  when 
the  sons  of  God  loved  the  daughters  of  men.  In 
preparation  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  love,  a  large 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  239 

number  of  the  angels  "  left  their  own  place,"  as  Jude 
says,  and  came  to  Ardis,  which  was  called,  on  account 
of  the  oath  they  swore  to  each  other,  Hermon,  from  the 
Hebrew  ton,  a  curse.  Next  followed  the  birth  of  the 
giants,  and  the  increase  of  sin  in  the  world ;  for  the  angels 
taught  men  astrology  and  the  manufacture  of  weapons 
of  war,  and  the  art  of  making  and  using  cosmetics. 
At  this  point  the  holy  ones,  Michael,  Gabriel, 
Surjan,  and  Urjan  looked  down  upon  the  earth  ; 
they  call  to  the  other  angels  concerning  the  evil 
wrought  upon  the  earth.  In  answer  to  the  call  of  the 
four,  the  angelic  host  raises  a  song  that  is  also  a  prayer 
to  the  Most  High.  In  answer,  the  Almighty  sends 
forth  Kufael  to  heal  the  earth,  and  to  bind  Azazel  hand 
and  foot,  lay  him  among  rocks,  and  cover  him  with 
darkness.  Michael  is  sent  to  bind  the  other  angels 
who  had  sinned,  and  place  them  under  the  hills  for 
seventy  generations,  until  the  day  of  judgment, — a 
state  of  matters  that  Jude  evidently  has  in  his  mind 
when  he  speaks  of  the  rebellious  angels  being  "  reserved 
in  everlasting  chains  unto  the  judgment  of  the  great 
day."  It  may  be  noted  that  sin  in  the  angelic  sphere 
is  regarded  by  the  writer  in  this  passage  as  following 
the  introduction  of  sin  into  the  world,  and,  indeed, 
in  some  sense  as  the  result  of  it. 

But  Enoch  does  not  narrate  what  thus  happened 
merely  for  the  sake  of  narrative ;  he  introduces  his 
further  function  of  messenger  to  those  angels  thus  con- 
signed to  imprisonment.  When  he  came  to  them  he 
found  the  watcher  sitting  and  lamenting  at  the  meadows 
of  Jael,1  which  is  near  Lebanon  and  Seneser.  He  re- 

1  Ublesgdel,  Ethiopia.     De  Sacy  transliterates  Oubilsalayel 


240  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

buked  them,  and  yet  he  promised  to  present  a-  petition 
to  the  Most  High,  although  he  warned  them  that  it 
would  be  unsuccessful.  He  saw  in  his  sleep  what  he 
scarcely  dared  describe  with  tongue  of  flesh.  The 
vision  appeared  to  him  ;  the  white  mist  beckoned  him 
to  follow ;  the  stars  in  their  courses  impelled  him  on  ; 
and  the  flashing  lightning  seemed  ever  driving  him 
forward.  And  the  wind  on  its  mighty  wings  bore  him 
on  till  he  came  to  the  palace  of  the  great  King.  He 
came  to  a  mighty  house  built  of  shining  crystal,  and 
round  it  played  a  flame  of  fire ;  foundation  and  floor 
and  walls  were  all  of  crystal,  and  its  ceiling  showed 
the  course  of  the  stars  and  of  the  lightning,  and  there 
were  the  cherubim  between.  This  was  not  the  true 
palace  yet,  it  was  at  once  cold  as  ice  and  hot  as  fire ; 
and  fear  enshrouded 1  the  prophet,  and  trembling  seized 
hold  of  him. 

Through  this  house  he  passed,  and  a  second  house 
more  glorious  and  magnificent  appeared  to  him.  It 
was  all  built  of  fire ;  its  floor,  its  ceiling,  and  its  walls 
were  all  of  fire.  In  the  centre  was  a  great  white 
throne,  gleaming  like  hoar  frost.  All  about  was  dazz- 
ling light,  as  of  the  sun  shining  in  his  strength ;  and 
from  out  the  glory  came  the  voice  of  the  cherubim, 
from  under  the  throne  came  floods  of  flaming  fire. 
On  the  throne  One  sat  whose  garments  shone  brighter 
than  the  sun,  and  neither  man  nor  angel  could  look 
upon  His  face.  Ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand 
stood  before  Him,  but  came  not  nigh  Him.  He  needed 
not  counsel  of  any.  As  Enoch  was  in  great  fear 
a  voice  called  him,  "  Come  hither,  Enoch,  and  to  my 

1  De  Sacy  renders,  timor  obtexit  me. 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  241 

holy  word  ; " 1  and  Enoch,  despite  his  fear,  approached 
the  door  that  stood  open  before  him.  The  voice  of  the 
Almighty  then  declared  to  him  the  irrevocable  doom 
of  the  fallen  ivatchers.  While  so  much  of  this  looks 
forward  and  is  caught  up  by  the  Book  of  Eevelation, 
the  title  watchers  looks  back  to  Dan.  iv.  13,  where 
Nebuchadnezzar  saw  one  of  the  "  watchers  "  descend 
to  order  the  tree  that  represented  himself  to  be  hewn 
down. 

After  he  has  received  this  message  for  the  fallen 
angels,  Enoch  is  guided  by  Uriel  (Urjan)  to  the  place 
of  woe, — it  was  away  to  the  west,  where  fire  receives 
the  setting  sun, — and  went  on  to  the  great  darkness, 
where  all  flesh  wanders.  There  are  gathered  all  the 
black  clouds  of  winter.  The  corner-stone  of  the  earth 
he  saw,  and  the  treasures  of  the  wind.  Then  he  came 
to  the  abyss  which  had  no  firmament  of  heaven  above 
it,  and  no  foundation  of  earth  beneath  it.  No  water 
was  in  it,  and  no  birds  cleft  the  awful  gloom  with  their 
wings.  But  over  it  rolled  stars  on  fire,  and  Uriel  said, 
"  These  are  they  that  have  transgressed  the  command  of 
God,  wandering  stars  that  came  not  in  their  season." 
In  this  awful  void  were  seven  stars  bound  together  in 
fetters  of  fire.  These  were  angels  who  were  bound  for 
ten  thousand  ages,  till  their  sin  has  been  ended.  And 
he  saw  in  this  abyss  great  columns  of  fire  that  rose 
and  fell  back  in  the  vast  abyss  that  was  full  of  lurid 
fire.  Ever  and  anon  out  of  the  gloom  flickered  blue 
flashes  of  lightning,  and  Uriel  said,  "  This  is  the  place 
of  pain,  this  is  the  prison  of  the  angels." 

1  Schodde,  De  Sacy,  ad  vocem  meam  sanctam ;  Laurence,  "at  my  holy 
word  ; "  Dillmann,  zu  meinem  heiligen  Worte. 
Q 


242  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

After  he  had  visited  the  place  of  woe,  Enoch  pro- 
ceeds to  the  intermediate  state,  where  the  souls  of  men 
await  judgment.      The   whole    scene   was    beautiful ; 
spots  of  beauty  among  hard  rocks,  much  like  Engedi 
in  the  wilderness  of  the  mountain  of  Judea.     Along 
with   the    signs   of   happiness    there   were   voices    of 
lamentation   and  woe ;   and    one   voice   especially   he 
noted — the  voice  of  Cain.     From  this  place  of  mingled 
joy  and  sorrow  he  proceeds  to  the  place  of  the  blessed. 
Like  Dante,  Enoch  proceeds  from  the  Inferno  to  the 
Purgatorio,  and  thence  to  the  Paradiso.     His  Paradise, 
like  his  intermediate  state,  is  modelled  on  what  he  saw 
around  him.     Mountains  are  the  ruling  figure  in  the 
picture.     In  his  Paradise  are  seven  great  mountains, 
with  magnificent  rocks  that  are  beautiful  to  look  upon. 
One   can   easily   see   how   his   imagination   had  been 
educated  by  the  visions  of  the  mountains  of  Moab  all 
glowing  in  the  golden  lights  of  sunset.      South  and 
north  these  mountains  rose  one  above  the  other  till 
the  centre  was  reached  on  which  was  the  throne  of 
the  Most  High.     There  was  all  the  pomp  of  groves 
there,   and  deep  shady  ravines.      Above  all  was  the 
tree  of  life  of  delectable   fragrance.     At   the   end  of 
time   its  fruits  shall  be  given  to  the  chosen  ones  — 
the  just    and  the   humble.      As   John   Bunyan   saw 
the   gateway  of  hell  not  far   from  the  very  gate  of 
heaven,  so  among  those  beautiful  mountains  is  a  deep 
and  sterile  valley.     This  sterile  valley  was  a  place  of 
punishment  for  men  who  had  spoken  insolently  con- 
cerning  the   Most  High.      After   this   follow  further 
wanderings    through    mountains    covered   with    trees 
from  which  nectar  and  galbanum  flowed.     There  were 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  243 

trees  that  exhaled  sweet  odours,  sweeter  than  ever 
had  been  felt  before.  One  tree  especially  drew  his 
admiration — it  was  like  the  carob  tree,  but  its  fruit 
was  like  the  grape.  Rufael  told  him  this  Was  the 
fatal  tree  of  knowledge.  He  proceeded  on  to  the  end 
of  the  earth,  and  saw  the  portals  from  which  the  sun 
issued  in  different  days  of  the  year.  Also  he  saw 'the 
treasury  of  the  winds,  and  the  portals  from  which  they 
burst  forth  upon  the  earth.  Such  is  the  first  portion 
of  the  Book  of  Enoch. 

After  the  portion  which  we  regard  as  the  nucleus,  the 
writer  of  this  first  part  resumes  his  physical  speculations. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  portion  there  was  reference  to 
the  portals  out  of  which  the  sun  issued  at  certain  times  ; 
this  becomes  more  elaborate.  The  moon's  movements 
are  also  accounted  for  in  the  same  way.  It  may  be 
noticed  that  the  year  is  assumed  to  be  only  three 
hundred  and  sixty-four  days.  It  would  seem  as  if  the 
author,  knowing  something  of  Greek  speculation,  wished 
to  propound  a  theory  more  elaborate  than  anything 
devised  by  these  heathens.  Hence,  not  only  are  the 
portals  of  the  sun  given  more  elaborately  than  in  the 
Noachian  fragment,  but  also  the  portals  of  the  winds 
are  shown  to  Enoch,  and  the  seven  mountains  from 
whence  came  hoar  frosts.  Uriel  acts  as  interpreter  in 
regard  to  these  things ;  Rufael  and  Michael  are  the 
main  interpreters  earlier  in  the  book.  All  these 
movements  of  the  heavens  Enoch  is  taught  to  regard 
as  due  to  the  influence  of  the  angels. 

Leaving  his  physical  speculations,  he  proceeds  to  tell 
of  a  dream  he  had  of  seeing  the  heavens  fall  upon  the 
earth,  and  all  the  mountains  plunging  into  the  abyss. 


244  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

His  grandfather,  Mahalaleel,  when  told  of  his  dream, 
at  once  recognised  the  impending  calamity  of  the 
Flood.  Seeing  the  distress  of  his  grandfather,  he 
prays  to  God  not  to  annihilate  the  human  race.  In 
this  prayer  the  acquaintance  of  the  writer  with  the 
Psalms  and  prophets  is  obvious  to  the  most  careless 
reader. 

He  had  a  second  vision,  which  is  very  interesting  as 
containing  several  notes  of  time.  It  is  singular  when 
we  think  of  the  turmoil  of  the  time,  of  the  death  and 
life  struggle  in  which  the  Maccabees  were  engaged 
with  the  Syrians,  that  the  writer  is  so  much  occupied 
with  the  course  of  the  luminaries  of  the  heavens.  It 
may  have  been  that  this  struggle  occurred  while  he 
was  composing  his  additions.  However  that  may  be, 
this  second  vision  is  full  of  the  struggle.  It  gives  an 
account  of  the  history  of  the  people  of  God  from  the 
creation  downwards.  Till  the  time  of  Abraham  the 
saints  are  symbolised  as  white  bullocks,  after  that  the 
saints  are  a  flock  of  white  sheep.  This  latter  symbol 
bridges  over  the  distance  that  separates  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New.  In  the  Old  Testament  there  is 
the  twenty-third  Psalm,  with  its  assertion  of  confidence 
in  God  as  the  Shepherd.  In  the  New  Testament  Christ 
declares  Himself  to  be  the  Good  Shepherd  who  giveth 
His  life  for  the  sheep,  and  says  to  His  disciples,  "  Fear 
not,  little  flock,  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to 
give  you  the  kingdom." 

Again  is  introduced  the  sin  of  the  angels.  They  are 
figured  as  stars  that  assume  sex  in  consequence  of  their 
inner  fall.  The  giants,  their  progeny,  are  symbolised 
as  elephants,  camels,  and  asses.  Eager  to  tell  of  the 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  '245 

Flood,  yet  not  wishful  to  change  the  figure  too  soon, 
Noah  is  mentioned  as  a  bullock  which  became  a  man 
and  built  an  ark.  It  is  mentioned  that  of  the  three 
bullocks  that  accompanied  this  bullock  which  had 
become  a  man,  one  was  red,  another  black,  and  a 
third  white.  This  would  seem  to  show  that  in  the 
days  when  this  part  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  was  written 
it  was  the  recognised  opinion  that  the  negro  race  was 
of  Hamitic  descent.  It  may,  however,  be  the  moral 
symbolism  of  the  colours  that  is  intended  to  be  pro- 
minent, black  wholly  evil,  white  wholly  good,  and  red 
between  the  two,  neither  wholly  good  nor  wholly  evil. 

This  history  does  not  display  imagination,  but 
occasionally  some  little  fancy.  If  the  description  of 
Ishmael  as  a  wild  ass  be  regarded  as  a  reminiscence  of 
the  blessing  given  by  the  oracle  before  Ishmael  was 
born  that  he  should  be  a  "  wild  ass  man,"  the  de- 
scription of  Esau  as  a  wild  boar  seems  a  fit  symbol  both 
of  the  man  and  of  the  race  which  proceeded  from  him. 
Jacob  is  symbolised  by  a  sheep.  When  Israel  went 
clown  to  Egypt  they  were  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves 
— a  figure  that  is  repeated  by  our  Lord  (Matt.  x.  16)  in 
sending  forth  the  apostles  :  "  Behold,  I  send  you  forth 
as  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves."  It  would  be  needless 
waste  of  time  to  follow  the  whole  course  of  Israelitish 
history  thus  symbolised.  The  only  change  is  that  the 
writer  begins  to  particularise  Saul,  David,  and  Solomon 
as  rams  that  rise  up  to  defend  the  sheep.1  But  the  true 
apocalyptic  spirit  has  not  wholly  deserted  him.  He 
sees  behind  this  great  flock  of  sheep,  prone  to  wander 

1  Schodde  say  "  bucks,"  but  the  meaning  seems  unsuitable.  I  make  use 
of  Laurence  and  Dillmann  here. 


246  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

on  evil  ways,  seventy  angelic  shepherds  who  one  after 
the  other  guide  the  sheep,  but  not  always  wisely. 
Indeed,  when  as  angels  of  judgment  it  was  their  duty 
to  slay  the  evil,  the  seer  declares  that  they  slew  more 
than  they  ought  to  have  done.  These  angels  represent 
the  seventy  nations,  into  which,  according  to  Jewish 
belief,  the  Gentile  portion  of  the  human  race  was 
divided.  This,  therefore,  refers  to  the  various  heathen 
nations  that  were  used  by  God  to  discipline  His 
people. 

One  half  of  the  shepherds  had  finished  pasturing  the 
flock  when  the  advent  of  the  Hellenic  power  changed 
everything.  The  Egyptians  are  wolves,  the  Assyrians 
and  Babylonians  lions  and  tigers,  but  the  Greek  power 
is  symbolised  by  birds, — eagles,  vultures,  ravens,  and 
kites,1  a  symbol  chosen  to  represent  the  greater 
rapidity  of  motion.  Now  the  writer  dwells  with 
evident  earnestness  on  the  struggle  of  Maccabean  times. 
Judas  the  Maccabee  is  symbolised  as  a  notable  ram, 
against  whom  the  kites  and  vultures  came  and  at- 
tempted to  saw  away  his  horn ;  but  the  Lord  of  the 
sheep  helped  him.  The  struggle  seems  to  the  seer  a 
hopeless  one,  and  he  sees  the  Lord  of  the  sheep  give  a 
great  sword  to  the  sheep,  and  all  these  destructive 
breeds  are  cast  down  to  the  earth,  and  the  throne  of 
the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  is  set  up  near  the  Holy  City, 
and,  in  full  accord  with  the  representation  in  Daniel 
and  in  the  nucleus  of  the  present  prophecy,  the  "  books 
are  opened."  In  full  harmony  with  the  apocalyptic 
tendency  to  put  angels  in  a  place  of  prominence,  the 
angels  are  judged  first ;  the  stars,  those  angels  who 

1  Crows  and  buzzards,  Schodde.    We  follow  Dillmann  here. 


THE  ENOCH  BOOKS.  247 

had  been  guilty  with  the  daughters  of  men,  and  the 
shepherds,  those  who  had  been  appointed  to  guide  and 
govern  the  nations  under  whom  Israel  had  lived  subject, 
and,  if  need  be,  oppressed  are  judged,  and  condemned 
for  their  sin  and  shortcomings.  Away  beyond  this 
scene  of  judgment,  with  its  great  throne,  the  vision  of 
the  seer  pierces,  and  he  sees  the  coming  of  the  Messiah, 
whom  he  figures  as  a  white  bullock  with  large  horns, 
before  whom  all  the  beasts  of  the  earth  and  birds  of 
the  air  were  to  fear.  In  a  mysterious  passage  he  says 
this  is  "that  word."  This,  however,  is  probably  due 
to  blunder  on  the  part  of  the  Ethiopic  translator  from 
the  Greek,  and  ignorance  on  the  part  of  the  Greek 
translator  from  the  Hebrew.1 

After  the  vision  comes  an  exhortation.  Methuselah 
is  called  upon  to  summon  all  the  sons  of  Enoch  in 
order  to  hear  his  parting  counsels.  In  course  of  giving 
advice  he  becomes  prophetic.  He  tells  of  oppression 
and  wrong,  but  he  sees  also  the  approach  of  the 
Messiah,  when  the  just  one  who  now  sleeps  shall  awake. 
He  sees  Him  not  only  subduing  all  Israel  to  Himself, 
but  also  the  Gentiles,  who  will  also  be  all  brought  into 
subjection  to  Him.  His  sword  will  destroy  injustice 
and  unrighteousness  down  to  the  roots.  The  Messiah 
the  writer  looks  forward  to  is  a  conqueror  who  will  be 
judge  of  all  men  in  virtue  of  His  victories.  One  might 
be  almost  inclined  to  regard  this  (chap,  xci.)  as  the 
work  of  a  different  hand  from  that  which  wrote  the 
chapters  immediately  preceding,  from  the  fact  that 
these  roots  of  unrighteousness  are  cut  by  the  Messiah  ; 
but  the  appearance  of  the  Messiah  of  chap.  xc.  is  after 

1  Translated  "unicorn,"  Ps.  xxix.  6  ;  Deut.  xxxiii.  17. 


248  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  judgment.  The  writer  therefore  does  not  contem- 
plate the  end  of  the  world's  history  when  the  great 
judgment  is  over. 

There  was  thus  now  a  considerable  mass  of  tracts, 
all  connected  with  Enoch,  in  the  hands  of  the  com- 
munity at  Engedi,  and  read  by  them  with  great 
interest.  It  occurred  to  some  one  of  the  members 
that  it  might  be  well  to  have  them  all  together,  so  he 
combined  all  the  portions,  and  added  the  last  chapter, 
which  is  somewhat  colourless. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    ELEVENTH    OF    DANIEL. 

"TlfT'HILE  the  Book  of  Enoch  was  thus  being  slowly 
compiled,  another  writer  also  was  impressed 
with  the  suffering  of  his  people.  The  book,  however, 
that  most  affected  him  was  the  canonical  Book  of 
Daniel.  The  solitaries  in  Engedi  had  necessarily  a 
peculiar  reverence  for  Daniel  as  a  person.  He  had 
abjured  all  animal  food,  and  ate  only  pulse  and  drank 
only  water.  In  fact,  in  his  mode  of  life  he  was  their 
great  example.  This  simple  mode  of  life  was  regarded 
as  being  specially  conducive  to  Divine  revelation, 
since  to  Daniel,  who  lived  on  pulse,  the  dream  was 
revealed  that  was  hid  from  all  the  wise  men  of 
Babylon.  When  thus  their  whole  system  rested  on 
Daniel,  why  should  they  go  away  back  to  Enoch  ? 
Would  not  the  spirit  of  Daniel  be  ready  to  descend 
upon  them  ?  The  Book  of  Daniel  was  not  the  special 
property  of  the  solitaries,  as  was  the  Book  of  Enoch, 
for  it  was  much  more  generally  known,  as  may  be 
perceived  by  the  quotation  from  it  in  the  First  Book 
of  the  Maccabees,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  really 
a  Sadducean  book.  At  the  end  of  the  reign  of  John 
Hyrcanus  the  first  Daniel  was  recognised  as  canonical, 
and  so  indisputably  so  that  the  writer  imagines 
Mattathias  quoting  for  the  encouragement  of  his  fellow- 


250  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

countrymen  the  case  of  the  three  Hebrew  children  in 
the  fiery  furnace,  and  of  Daniel  in  the  lions'  den.  To 
the  inhabitants  of  the  cells  in  Engedi,  the  revelation 
of  the  future  in  the  canonical  Daniel,  though  grand, 
was  not  nearly  particular  enough.  The  imagination 
could  not  fail  to  be  filled  with  the  majestic  visions 
which  Daniel  himself  saw,  or  which  he  interpreted 
for  his  master  Nebuchadnezzar,  their  wide  sweep, 
and  the  glory  of  the  Messianic  kingdom  toward  which 
all  history  was  travelling ;  but  still  it  lacked  some- 
what for  them.  That  to  the  Persian  empire  the  Greek 
had  succeeded,  as  the  Persian  had  followed  the  Baby- 
lonian was  true ;  that  another  empire  should  succeed 
the  Greek,  was  also  probable  and  very  grateful  to 
them.  Still  as  that  deliverance  was  in  remote 
futurity,  their  minds  dwelt  longingly  on  the  more 
immediate  struggle  and  difficulties.  Surely  Daniel 
must  have  foreseen  all  this  conflict,  all  this  elaborate 
network  of  diplomacy.  The  next  step  is  to  think 
how  Daniel  would  have  told  the  tale  of  the  struggle 
of  Egypt  with  Syria  for  the  possession  of  the  Holy 
Land.  Brooding  over  the  position  of  past  and  future, 
and  having  his  thoughts  defined  by  the  movements 
of  the  armies,  one  of  the  solitaries  as  by  a  flash 
seemed  to  see  it  all, — how  now  an  army  from  the 
north  would  enter  Palestine  from  the  way  of  Hamath, 
and  spread  over  Galilee  and  on  toward  Egypt ; — how 
again,  crossing  a  river  of  Egypt,  an  army  from  the 
south  would  pass  along  the  Philistine  cities  of  the 
sea  coast ; — how  sometimes  it  was  the  one  that  con- 
quered, sometimes  it  was  the  other.  Syria  and  Egypt 
were  too  local,  and  merely  temporal  names  for  the 


THE  ELEVENTH  OF  DANIEL.  251 

lofty  regions  of  prophecy.  To  him,  the  new  Daniel, 
they  were  kings  of  the  north  and  kings  of  the  south. 
The  first  beginning  of  the  vision  is  the  founding  of 
the  Lagid  dominion  of  Egypt,  followed  by  the 
founding  of  that  of  the  Seleucids  of  Syria,  The 
next  step  is  the  marriage  of  the  daughter  of 
Philadelphus  to  Antiochus  Theos,  who  soon  repudi- 
ated her,  and  she  was  slain.  Her  brother,  Ptolemy 
Euergetes,  took  vengeance  on  Syria  and  Seleucus 
Callinicus  for  what  had  been  done  to  his  sister.  But 
the  swing  of  the  pendulum  brings  Antiochus  the  Great 
down  upon  Syria.  At  first  he  is  defeated,  "  all  his 
multitude  are  given  into  the  hands  of  Philopator," 
who  makes  tens  of  thousands  fall.  Though  defeated, 
Antiochus  returns  and  defeats  the  Egyptians.  All, 
however,  is  but  preparing  the  way  for  the  advent  of 
that  portent  of  wickedness,  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the 
son  of  Antiochus  the  Great.  He  did  what  neither  his 
father  nor  his  father's  father  had  done ; — he  invaded 
Egypt  successfully,  and  in  all  probability  would  have 
conquered  it  had  not  the  Eoman  power  intervened. 
All  this  is  seen  by  the  seer,  and  then  follows  the 
terrible  time  of  persecution.  When  he  was  grieved 
by  the  arrival  of  "  the  ships  of  Chittim,"  he  "  had 
indignation  against  the  holy  covenant."  The  death 
of  Onias  III.  seems  to  have  filled  the  hearts  of  men 
with  peculiar  horrors,  and  thus  not  only  is  the  death  of 
the  prince  of  the  covenant  referred  to  here,  but  it 
is  also  in  the  Book  of  Enoch.  The  general  godlessness 
of  Epiphanes  is  described  ;  even  the  heathen  deities 
whom  he  professed  to  honour,  he  robbed.  His  worship 
of  Jupiter  Capitolinus  is  well  indicated  by  saying 


252  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

that  he  worshipped  the  god  of  forces  whom  his  fathers 
knew  not.  What  probably  Epiphanes  meant  was  to 
sedulously  honour  Eome  under  cover  of  Jupiter  Capi- 
tolinus,  although  he  had  been  snubbed  by  the  Roman 
envoys  so  badly  in  Egypt.  It  may  be,  however, 
that  with  that  strange  mingling  of  superstition  with 
godlessness  so  often  observed,  he  had  the  idea  that 
Jupiter  Capitolinus,  the  deity  of  Rome,  was  somehow 
the  cause  of  her  commanding  greatness,  and  therefore 
he  sought  by  sacrificing  to  the  Capitoline  Jupiter 
to  gain  the  talisman  which  secured  victory.  But  the 
prophet  watches  the  progress  of  his  devastation,  sees 
the  tyrant  planting  his  tents  in  the  glorious  and  holy 
mountain,  and  then  he  is  smitten.  It  must  have  come 
upon  the  Jews  with  a  sense  of  relief  when  their 
adversary  fell  in  Persia.  It  would  seem,  however, 
that  the  chapter  before  us  was  written  before  the 
event.  The  seer  in  his  full  trust  in  a  God  who  judges 
righteously  is  confident  that  the  tyrant  who  has 
thus  insulted  the  Lord  of  Hosts  shall  fall,  and  it  shall 
not  be  in  the  power  of  any  one  to  help  him.  If  we 
may  understand  Epiphanes  as  leading  the  persecution 
against  the  Essenes,  there  would  be  an  additional 
horror  in  the  presence  of  the  camp  of  Epiphanes  some 
twenty  miles  off,  and  therefore  an  additional  certainty 
that  he  would  fall  by  the  hand  of  God. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    APOCALYPSE   OF   BARUCH. 

A  POCALYPSE  is  the  result  of  some  crisis  in  the 
T^-  spiritual  history  of  the  people  of  God,  when, 
either  from  internal  faithlessness  or  external  violence, 
the  cause  of  truth  is  endangered.  The  Maccabean 
struggle  ended  in  victory,  and  in  the  establishment  of 
a  new  dynasty.  To  those  visionaries  who,  by  the 
silent  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea,  maintained  the  old  hope 
of  a  Messiah  of  the  house  of  David,  this  assumption  of 
the  throne  and  crown  by  the  Hasmonseans  must  have 
been  shocking,  and  naturally  made  them  withdraw 
even  more  and  more  from  all  participation,  or  even 
interest,  in  public  affairs.  When  Alexander  Jannseus 
persecuted  the  Pharisees,  or  when  his  widow,  Alex- 
andra, favoured  them,  it  was  equally  without  interest 
to  the  Essenes.  Alexander  had  usurped  the  crown 
which  belonged  alone  to  the  son  of  David,  and  the 
Pharisees,  with  all  their  minute  objection  to  lesser 
matters,  had  condoned  that  greater  fault — they  had 
not  protested  against  his  marriage  with  his  brother's 
widow.  He  was  high  priest,  therefore  might  not  marry 
a  widow,  and  therefore  the  levirate  law  did  not  hold. 
Hence  the  persecution  the  Pharisees  endured  at  the 
hand  of  Alexander,  and  that  they  in  turn  inflicted 
on  the  Sadducees  under  his  widow,  were  equally 


254  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

unimportant  to  them.  The  "  society  people  "  in  Scot- 
land, from  whom  the  later  Reformed  Presbyterians 
sprang,  stood  aloof  in  the  same  way  from  the  struggles 
of  the  Marrow  men  and  the  Moderates  of  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Both  parties  alike  had 
acknowledged  an  uncovenanted  king,  and  the  differ- 
ence between  the  guilt  of  the  one  and  the  guilt  of 
the  other  was  of  little  importance.  The  Essenes, 
as  we  have  seen,  certainly  had  their  dwellings  here 
and  there  in  the  various  cities  of  the  country;  but 
though  they  did  at  times  appear  as  prophets,  and  they 
seem  to  have  given  isolated  forecasts  of  the  future 
of  individuals,  the  circumstances  were  not  such  as  to 
prompt  a  manifestation  of  the  apocalyptic  spirit. 

With  the  death  of  Alexandra,  and  the  terrible 
fratricidal  struggle  between  John  Hyrcanus  II.  and 
his  younger  brother  Aristobulus,  a  new  era  dawned. 
It  was  always  in  seasons  of  trouble  and  distress  that 
apocalypse  flourished,  so  we  may  imagine  how  the 
news  of  these  bloody  conflicts  between  the  two  sects 
must  have  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  solitaries.  Their 
attitude  in  the  conflict  was  probably  that  of  Onias, 
who,  when  desired  by  the  adherents  of  Hyrcanus, 
who  was  besieging  his  brother  in  Jerusalem,  to  pray 
against  him  and  his  followers,  prayed  to  the  Almighty 
to  grant  to  neither  of  them  their  desires  against 
their  brethren.  Hyrcanus  and  Antipater,  his  friend, 
had  called  in  the  Arabs ;  but  now  Rome  appeared 
on  the  scene,  and  after  some  diplomatic  vacillation, 
Pompey  entered  Jerusalem  and  took  the  temple  with 
great  slaughter.  This  was  worse  than  anything  that 
had  befallen  the  people  since  the  days  of  Epiphanes. 


THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH.  255 

As  the  terrible  tidings  came  that  the  Romans  had 
made  this  and  that  new  advance  towards  the  south, 
the  excitement  of  the  Essene  rose  higher  and  higher, 
till  at  length  the  tidings  arrived  that  Jerusalem  was 
surrounded  by  the  armies  of  Rome,  led  by  the 
invincible  Pompey.  Day  by  day  did  tidings  come 
that  the  city  had  opened  its  gates — the  people  had  shut 
themselves  in  the  temple — it  was  besieged ;  then 
came  daily  news  of  the  progress  of  the  siege.  There 
is  a  delay,  for  the  conqueror  has  no  battering  train  ; 
it  has  to  be  brought  from  Tyre.  At  last  the  battering 
train  arrives,  the  rams  and  catapults  are  set  up  and 
begin  work.  Then  at  last  a  breach  is  effected — the 
temple  is  taken — the  people  of  God  slain.  The  last, 
most  terrible  tale  comes — the  Holy  Place  is  desecrated. 
Into  the  Holy  of  Holies  has  entered  Pompey,  attended 
by  his  officers.  A  horror  in  some  respects  even  greater 
than  that  which  attended  the  much  worse  deeds  of 
Epiphanes  greeted  this  act  of  Pompey.  It  was  as  if 
the  whole  sanctity  of  the  temple  had  been  taken  away. 
To  those  who,  in  the  valley  of  Engedi,  had  retired 
from  the  struggles  of  the  political  world,  it  seemed 
like  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 
As  Zedekiah  and  his  sons  had  been  removed  to  Baby- 
lon, so  Aristobulus  and  his  family  were  taken  to 
Rome,  the  new  Babylon,  to  adorn  the  triumph  of 
the  conquerors.  The  similarity  of  the  circumstances 
suggested  that  Baruch,  the  secretary  of  Jeremiah, 
must  have  looked  with  similar  feelings  on  the  earlier 
scene.  One  of  the  community  who  had  studied,  not 
only  the  sacred  apocalyptic  books,  but  also  the 
prophets,  commenced  to  write. 


256  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

The  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  him  as  he  feigns  it 
in  the  twenty -fifth  year  of  Jeconiah  (Jehoiakin),1 
and  tells  him  of  the  impending  fate  of  Zion.  He  is 
told  to  proclaim  this  to  Jeremiah  and  those  like 
himself.  As  the  writer  casts  his  mind  away  back 
to  the  past — he  knew  of  the  schools  of  the  prophets — 
he  imagines  that  the  prophetic  community  was  like 
the  society  of  which  he  was  a  member — that  the  sons 
of  the  prophets  gathered  round  Elijah  or  Elisha,  or 
whoever  it  was  who  was  prophet,  to  get  his  counsels 
and  commands,  and  that  every  one  obeyed  the 
prophets,  as  the  Essenes  submitted  to  the  head  of 
their  order.  In  consequence  of  this  message  that 
he  is  appointed  to  deliver  to  Jeremiah,  Baruch  is 
represented  as  carrying  on  a  dialogue  with  the 
Almighty.  He  laments  that  he  is  appointed  to  see 
the  distress  of  "his  mother"  Jerusalem.  In  answer, 
the  Almighty  assures  him  that  this  is  only  for  a  time, 
for  a  chastisement ;  that  His  promise  to  keep  Zion, 
since  its  name  was  engraven  on  the  palms  of  His 
hands,  still  held  good ;  but  He  points  Baruch  to 
the  more  glorious  Zion  which  is  above,  concerning 
which,  in  truth,  His  promise  really  was  given  —  the 
city  which  had  been  revealed  to  Adam  before  he  fell, 
to  Abraham  when  God  made  His  covenant  with  him, 
and  to  Moses  in  Mount  Sinai.2  The  new  Jerusalem 
which  John  in  Patmos  saw  descending  out  of  heaven 

1  Evidently  a  blunder  either  of  the  copyist  or  of  the  original  writer.    If 
the  latter,  it  presupposes  an  amount  of  ignorance  of  the  national  history 
that  is  difficult  to  understand.     This  latter  supposition  seems  indeed  in- 
comprehensible when,  as  we  see  below,  Chap.  VIII.,  the  writer  is  quite 
aware  that  it  was  Zedekiah  that  was  bound  and  carried  to  Babylon. 

2  Comp.  Heb.  xi.  16. 


THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BAKUCH.  257 

from  God  is  evidently  derived  from  this,  and  also  the 
heavenly  city  mentioned  by  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  as  the  hope  of  the  ancient  patriarchs. 
When  Baruch  pleads  in  the  words  of  Moses  for  the 
people,  "  What  wilt  Thou  do  for  Thy  great  name  ? " 
he  is  told  that  God's  name  is  eternal.  He  then  leads 
Jeremiah  and  the  rest  down  to  the  valley  of  the  Kedron. 
— the  stream  that  falls  into  the  Dead  Sea  a  little  to  the 
north  of  Engedi, — and  proclaims  the  unwelcome  tidings 
that  Zion  was  to  be  taken  by  her  enemies. 

When  the  Chaldean  army  closed  around  Zion,  in 
vision  he  saw  four  angels  with  torches  standing  in  the 
towers  of  Mount  Zion,  but  another  angel  descended  from 
heaven  to  commit  the  holy  vessels  to  the  custody  of 
the  earth.  The  earth  at  the  command  of  the  angel 
opened  her  mouth  and  swallowed  down  the  ark,  the 
ephod,  the  altar  of  sacrifice,  the  altar  of  incense,  and 
the  sacred  ephod,  to  guard  them  from  the  heathen  till 
the  time  when  she  should  be  called  upon  to  restore 
them.  Then  the  angels  said,  "  Let  us  overturn  the 
walls,  even  to  the  foundation,  lest  the  enemies  boast 
themselves  and  say,  '  We  have  overturned  the  wall  of 
Zion  ;  we  have  burned  the  place  of  the  mighty  God  ; ' " 
and  thus  it  befell,  "  because  He  that  guarded  the  house 
had  deserted  it."  The  seer  knew  that  in  mistaken 
obedience  to  Sabbatic  law  the  defenders  did  not  main- 
tain such  vigorous  sorties  on  Sabbath  as  on  other  days, 
and  so  the  Romans  advanced  their  approaches  most  on 
the  Sabbath.  It  seemed,  then,  as  if  the  God  to  whom, 
the  city  and  all  that  it  contained  belonged  had  deserted 
it.  It  was  as  if  its  walls  had  been  undermined  by 
other  than  mortal  hands. 


258  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

After  the  city  has  fallen,  Jeremiah  is  commanded  to 
accompany  the  captives  to  Babylon  to  strengthen  them 
while  Baruch  remains.  Baruch  returns  to  Jerusalem, 
and  seats  himself  at  the  gate  of  the  temple  and 
laments  over  Zion.  He  then  denounces  judgment  on 
Babylon,  by  which  he  evidently  means  Rome.  At 
this  point  the  dialogue  between  Baruch  and  God  is 
resumed.  There  is  an  echo  of  the  prophets  and  the 
Psalms  in  the  profound  reverence  of  Baruch's  words, 
"Who,  0  Lord  Jehovah,  may  comprehend  Thy 
judgments,  or  search  out  the  depths  of  Thy  way ;  who 
may  reckon  the  weight  of  Thy  path,  or  who  is  able  to 
think  Thine  incomprehensible  counsel ;  or  who  even  of 
the  sons  found  the  beginning  or  end  of  Thy  wisdom  ; 
and  we  all  are  as  a  breath  ? "  Baruch's  difficulty  is  that 
the  world  was  created  because  of  the  righteous,1  and 
now  the  world  remains  and  the  righteous  are  taken 
away.  God  answers  him  that  the  world  which  now  is, 
is  only  a  strife  and  a  pain  to  the  saints,  but  they  shall 
possess  the  future  world,  and  in  it  a  crown  and  great 
glory.  Where  Baruch  complains  of  the  shortness  of 
life, — a  natural  thing  to  one  who  thought  of  the  study 
of  the  law,  with  a  Jew's  reverence  for  it  and  a  Jew's 
belief  in  its  endless  possibilities, — God's  answer  is,  that 
He  does  not  reckon  "  time  much  or  years  few."  He 
does  not,  in  fact,  reckon  by  time  relations  at  all ;  how- 
ever, he  further  promises  that  the  times  of  blessing  will 
come  and  will  not  tarry.  Baruch  then  departs  from 
the  threshold  of  the  ruined  temple  to  the  valley  of  the 
Ivedron,  and  there  in  a  cavern  of  the  earth  he  hides 
Himself  and  purifies  his  soul  to  receive  the  revelation 

1  Assumption  of  Moses. 


THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH.  259 

of  the  future  by  fasting,  neither  eating  bread  nor 
drinking  water,  yet  suffering  from  neither  hunger  nor 
thirst. 

After  he  had  prayed  the  heavens  opened,  and  he 
hears  a  voice  admonishing  him  that  undue  haste  ruins 
all.  The  Almighty  proceeds  to  lay  down  the  doctrine 
of  original  sin  in  a  form  that  suggests  the  theology 
of  the  Apostle  Paul.  There  is  a  marked  distinction, 
however — the  death  that  follows  the  sin  of  Adam,  and 
is  inherited  by  his  descendants,  is  death  physical,  not 
moral  or  spiritual.  It  is  further  added,  that  when 
Adam  sinned  the  number  of  those  that  should  be 
born  was  fixed,  and  the  place  of  the  dead  was  prepared 
also.  To  the  apocalyptist  the  final  judgment  always 
appeared  in  the  not  distant  future.  The  great  throne 
and  the  books  of  judgment  are  here  also.  In  the 
book  there  is  a  notion  which  reminds  the  reader  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  treasury  of  the 
Church  ;  there  are  treasures  in  which  the  righteousness 
of  those  who  are  justified  is  collected.  Baruch  is  told 
that  he  shall  be  preserved  till  the  time  of  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah.  The  sign  when  that  time  approaches 
is  given  him,  "  when  astonishment  shall  lay  hold  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  they  shall  fall  into 
many  tribulations,  and  again  into  great  torments." l 
Baruch  puts  a  question,  whether  this  time  of  tribu- 
lation shall  be  long — a  question  that  seems  to  be  im- 
plied, or,  at  all  events,  is  answered  by  implication  by 
our  Lord,  when  he  says,  "  Except  those  days  should  be 
shortened,  no  flesh  should  be  saved."  The  answer  in 

1  The  reader  can  scarcely  fail  to  note  the  resemblance  to  what  our  Lord 
says  of  His  own  second  coming,  Matt.  xxiv. ;  Luke  xxi. 


260  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

this  case  is  that  these  times  of  tribulation  are  divided 
into  twelve  parts,  in  which  there  are  successive  woes 
manifesting  themselves  on  the  people.  It  is  added, 
"  the  measure  and  computation  of  that  time  will  be  two 
parts-weeks  of  seven  weeks."  The  ordinary  meaning  of 
this  would  be  fourteen  weeks,  or  little  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  year;  but  the  probability  is  that  the 
reference  is  to  the  jubilees,  and  this  assertion  is,  that 
the  coming  of  the  Messiah  would  be  two  jubilees  after 
the  time  of  Baruch, — a  time  that  was  long  overpast  by 
the  time  the  Essene,  who  here  feigns  himself  Baruch, 
was  writing.  It  is,  however,  difficult  to  put  any 
interpretation  on  this  that  is  perfectly  satisfactory. 

Another  portion  is  interesting  as  revealing  the  influ- 
ence of  Rabbinic  tradition  even  among  the  Essenes. 
Behemoth  and  Leviathan  were  created  in  order  that 
they  should  be  meat  for  the  saints  of  God  in  Messianic 
times.  Behemoth  comes  out  of  his  place  and  Leviathan 
from  the  sea.  These  are  regarded,  not  as  species,  but 
as  individual.  Next  follows  a  still  further  description 
of  the  bliss  of  Messianic  times  which  is  full  of  interest, 
as  it  is  quoted  by  Papias,1  and  attributed  by  him  to  our 
Lord.  "  The  earth,"  we  a"re  told,  "  will  bring  forth 
fruit,  one  producing  ten  thousand ;  in  the  vine  there 
will  be  a  thousand  branches,  and  every  branch  a  thou- 
sand clusters,  and  every  cluster  a  thousand  berries,  and 
every  berry  will  yield  a  cor  of  wine." 

The  coming  of  the  Messiah  was  closely  associated  in 
the  minds  of  the  Essenes  with  the  resurrection.  "  After 
these  things,  when  the  time  of  the  coming  of  the  Messiah 
is  fulfilled,  and  He  shall  return  in  glory,  then  all  who 

1  Irenasus,  Adv.  Hcer.  v.  33. 


THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH.  261 

have  fallen  asleep  in  hope  shall  arise," — a  sentence  that 
certainly  recalls  the  exhortation  Paul  addresses  to  the 
Thessalonian  Christians,  that  they  should  not  sorrow 
as  others  who  had  no  hope,  seeing  "  them  which  sleep 
in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  Him."  He  proceeds  to 
tell  how  the  souls  of  the  just  shall  come  out  of  the 
repositories  in  which  they  had  been  guarded,  and  all 
the  souls  of  men  shall  appear  also ;  "the  former  shall 
rejoice,  and  the  latter  shall  be  sad."  "  The  souls  of 
the  impious,  when  they  see  these  things,  shall  waste 
away."  For  they  know  that  the  time  of  their 
judgment  has  come,  and  that  their  perdition  is  at 
hand. 

A  change  now  is  introduced.  After  this  fasting  in 
the  cave  of  the  earth,  the  seer  goes  to  the  people  in 
Zion.  Evidently  no  such  utter  ruin  as  befell  Jerusalem 
after  the  capture  by  Titus  is  before  the  mind  of  the 
writer.  Neither  after  the  capture  of  the  city  by  the 
Chaldeans,  nor  after  that  by  the  Romans,  was  there 
so  much  of  civil  or  municipal  life  left  that  there  wrere 
ciders  of  the  people.  Yet  Baruch  calls  the  people  to 
"  assemble  unto  him  their  elders."  He  then  tells  them 
what  will  befall  the  city  and  the  temple.  He  tells 
them  that  the  temple  will  be  rebuilt  again  to  be  over- 
turned and  left  desolate  for  a  season,  after  that  it  shall 
be  crowned  with  perpetual  glory.  This  is  the  classical 
passage  of  those  who  place  Baruch  late  ;  but  it  seems  to 
us  that  this  opinion  under-estimates  the  horrors  that 
thrilled  through  the  people  of  Judah  when  Pompey 
pierced  into  the  Holy  of  Holies. 

The  writer  places  unconsciously  his  meeting  with  the 
elders  at  Jerusalem  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kedron,  near 


262  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Engedi,  and  so  he  represents  Baruch  telling  his 
audience  that  he  would  depart  to  the  Holy  of  Holies 
and  pray  God  for  their  sake,  for  the  sake  of  Zion,  that 
he  should  have  further  illumination.  In  consequence, 
he  has  a  vision  of  a  vine  with  a  quiet  fountain  beneath 
it,  surrounded  by  a  great  wood.  A  flood  carries  away 
all  the  trees  of  this  wood  but  one  lofty  cedar.  It 
stands  for  awhile ;  then  it,  too,  falls,  and  is  swept  towards 
the  vine,  which  dooms  it  to  destruction.  There  is  an 
interpretation  given,  from  which  we  learn  that  this 
forest  of  trees  is  the  last  world-empire,  that  of  Rome, 
and  the  lofty  cedar  which  survives  all  the  rest  is  the 
last  Roman  leader.1  It  is  not  a  king,  as  may  be 
noted,  who  thus  survives.  It  is  evidently  Pompey 
that  is  in  the  mind  of  the  seer,  who  then  was 
towering  over  the  heads  of  all  others,  and  who,  he 
imagines,  will  be  swept  in  the  catastrophe  of  time 
to  the  feet  of  the  Messiah,  who,  along  with  the 
Jewish  people,  is  the  vine  and  the  quiet  fountain 
beside  it.  The  Almighty,  who  shows  him  the  vision, 
tells  him  that  some  of  his  people  will,  at  that  time,  cast 
themselves  free  from  the  yoke  of  the  law,  and  that 
others,  heathens  presumably,  should  leave  their  vanity 
and  flee  under  the  wings  of  Judaism, — a  state  of  matters 
which  began  to  be  marked  about  the  time  of  Pompey. 
God  further  commands  him  to  leave  his  people  and 
fast  seven  days,  in  order  that  he  may  be  in  a  fit  state  to 
receive  a  further  revelation. 

After  this,  Baruch  returns  to  his  people  and  makes 
known  to  certain  of  them  the  things  he  has  heard  and 
what  has  been  commanded  him.  Those  that  are  chosen 

1  Dux  Ceriani   iJDiO,  leader. 


THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCII.  263 

for  this  revelation  are  his  own  eldest  son,  Gedeliah,1 
and  seven  from  the  elders  of  the  people.  They  protest 
against  this  desertion,  but  he  persists  and  goes  to 
Hebron.  When  there,  he  prays,  interceding  for  his 
people,  "  Protect  us  in  Thy  mercy,  and  in  Thy  pity  aid 
us ;  look  to  the  children  who  have  been  subject  to  Thee, 
and  save  all  those  that  approach  unto  Thee,  neither 
take  away  the  hope  of  our  people,  nor  remove  the 
time  of  their  help.  For  this  is  the  people  whom  Thou 
hast  chosen,  these  are  the  folk  to  whom  Thou  hast  not 
found  the  like."  But  the  answer  is,  "  My  judgment 
requires  its  own,  and  my  law  demands  its  right ; "  then 
follows  the  sin  of  the  people,  and  hence  the  necessity 
of  wrath  being  poured  forth  upon  them.  When  he 
hears  this,  Baruch  exclaims,  "  0  Adam,  what  hast 
thou  done  to  all  those  springing  from  thee ;  and  what 
shall  be  said  of  Eve,  who  first  hearkened  to  the 
serpent  ?  Because  this  whole  multitude  has  gone  to 
torment,  nor  can  those  be  numbered  whom  the  fire 
devours."  Emboldened,  he  renews  his  petitions  for  his 
people,  and  receives  the  promise  of  the  resurrection. 
"  The  earth  shall  certainly  restore  the  dead  which  now 
it  has  received  that  it  may  guard  them,  for  I  have 
delivered  them  to  it  that  it  may  raise  them."  Then 
follows  all  the  splendour  into  which  the  righteous 
shall  be  changed, — a  statement  that  reminds  one  of  the 
Pauline  declaration,  1  Cor.  iii.  18,  that  believers  "  shall 
be  changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory." 
But  there  is  also  the  astonishment  that  shall  fall  on  the 
wicked  when  they  see  this.  "  At  the  sight  they  shall 

1  Ceriani  renders  "  Godalm?  amicos  meos,"  which  would   seem  to  be 
a  blunder  of  some  copyist,  who  has  added  the  sign  of  the  plural. 


264  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

very  much  melt  away ;  and  afterwards  shall  depart; 
that  they  may  be  tormented."  This  theme  is  soon 
left  and  the  more  pleasing  theme  of  the  glory  of  God's 
people  is  dwelt  upon  :  "  They  are  forced  from  this 
world  of  tribulation,  and  have  laid  down  the  weight 
of  distress."  "  In  what  then  have  those  men  lost  their 
life ;  and  for  what  have  they,  that  have  been  in  the 
earth,  exchanged  their  soul  ? "  1  When  he  hears  this 
Baruch  implicitly  confesses  his  error,  for  he  says, 
"  Wherefore  do  we  give  an  account  of  those  who  die, 
or  weep  for  those  that  go  into  the  grave  ? " 

When  he  had  heard  these  things  he  fell  asleep,  and 
another  vision  was  granted  to  him.  In  his  vision  he 
sees  "  a  cloud  which  crossed  the  heaven  swiftly  in  its 
hasty  career  and  covered  the  whole  earth ;  then  it 
happened  after  these  things  that  the  cloud  began 
to  rain  water  upon  the  earth."  He  then  noticed  a 
peculiarity  in  the  waters  that  came  down  from  the 
cloud.  First  the  waters  came  down  very  black,  then 
after  a  time  they  came  down  bright  and  clear.  Some 
such  phenomenon  would  be  seen  when  a  thunderstorm 
swept  over  the  regions  about  the  Dead  Sea.  First, 
the  heavy  black  cloud  covering  the  whole  heaven  and 
the  rain  seem  black  as  ink ;  then  a  "  rift "  behind  the 
cloud  lets  the  light  shine  through,  and  the  rain,  which 
seemed  so  black  before,  now  seems  to  be  bright  and 
shining.  This  process  of  alternate  darkness  and  light 
went  on  for  twelve  times,  and  then  came  these  two  addi- 
tional times  of  darkness  and  light.  Filled  with  the 
mystery  of  this  vision,  Baruch  prays  to  God.  His 
prayer  is  largely  adoration,  and  his  request  occupies 

1  Comp.  Mark  viii.  37. 


THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH.  265 

but  a  small  space  in  the  many  words  he  uses.  In 
course  of  his  prayer  he  gives  a  statement  of  doctrine 
in  regard  to  Adam's  sin  and  its  effects,  which  is  almost 
Calvinistic,  though  the  doctrine  of  election  is  different : 
"  For  if  Adam  the  first  sinned  and  brought  death  too 
soon  upon  all ;  so  of  those  born  from  him,  one  has 
prepared  future  torment  for  his  soul,  and  another 
chooses  for  himself  future  glory ;  for  certainly  he  who 
believes  shall  receive  the  reward." 

After  his  prayer  he  rests  under  a  tree,  and  Ramiel 
is  sent  to  explain  the  vision  to  him.  These  differing 
showers  are  different  periods  of  history.  The  first, 
dark  waters,  the  history  up  to  the  Flood  ;  the  second, 
clear  waters,  the  call  of  Abraham.  So  on  down  the 
course  of  history  till  the  twelfth  represents  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Jews  by  Cyrus.  Then  came  the  other 
black  waters,  which  seem  to  be  the  time  of  the  Epi- 
phanes.  Next,  there  are  waters  that  are  neither  black 
nor  bright ;  this  represents  the  times  of  the  later 
Maccabees,  when  there  was  mingled  glory  and  disgrace. 
Thus  the  last  black  waters  were  the  coming  of  Pompey, 
and  beyond, — behind  were  the  bright  and  glorious 
times  of  the  Messiah.  The  times  of  the  Messiah  are 
described  in  terms  which,  though  somewhat  conven- 
tional and  prolix,  are  not  deficient  in  beauty.  "  Then 
health  shall  descend  in  dew,  and  weakness  leave,  and 
care  and  sorrow  and  groaning  shall  depart  from  men, 
and  joy  shall  walk  about  the  whole  earth  ;  nor  shall 
any  die  till  he  is  of  full  age,  nor  shall  any  adversity  fall 
suddenly  on  any  man.  And  judgments,  and  accusa- 
tions, and  contentions,  and  revenges,  and  blood,  and 
coveting,  and  envy,  and  hatred,  and  whatsoever  things 


266  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

are  like  to  these,  shall  depart  into  condemnation.  And 
wild  beasts  shall  come  out  of  the  forest  and  shall 
minister  to  men,  and  serpents  and  dragons  shall  come 
from  their  holes  and  submit  themselves  to  a  little 
child.  And  it  shall  be  in  those  days  that  the  reapers 
shall  not  weary  nor  the  builders  toil ;  for  work  shall 
go  on  freely  with  them  who  do  those  things  in  much 
tranquillity."  After  Baruch  has  acknowledged  grate- 
fully the  vision,  it  is  announced  to  him  that  he  shall 
"  depart,  but  not  to  death,  but  to  the  resurrection  of 
time."  He  is  then  ordered  to  ascend  up  into  a  lofty 
mountain  that  he  may  see  "  all  the  regions  of  the 
earth  in  order  that  he  may  learn  what  shall  happen 
in  the  last  times."  We  are  not  told  what  he  saw,  for 
immediately  thereupon  he  assembles  all  his  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  urges  upon  them  the  duty  of  serving 
the  Lord  by  reminding  them  what  the  Lord  had  done 
to  Sion.  The  people  then  gave  a  hearty  response  to 
his  exhortation,  and  desired  him  to  write  to  their 
brethren  in  Babylon.  He  answers  with  a  praise  of 
the  law  :  "  There  are  shepherds  and  lights  and  fountains 
from  the  law ;  although  we  depart,  yet  the  law  re- 
mains. If,  therefore,  ye  shall  have  respect  to  the 
law,  and  be  prudent  in  wisdom,  ye  shall  not  want  a 
lamp ;  a  shepherd  will  not  depart  from  you,  nor  your 
fountain  become  dry." 

After  having  thus  spoken,  Baruch  sat  him  down 
under  an  oak  and  wrote  two  Epistles.  Then  he  sum- 
moned an  eagle,  and  commanded  him  to  bear  one  of 
these  letters  to  the  nine  tribes  and  a  half,  the  other 
he  sent  by  the  hands  of  three  men  to  Babylon. 

In  this  letter  to  the  nine  tribes  and  a  half  he  tells 


THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH.  267 

them  of  the  disasters  that  had  befallen  Sion ;  how  it 
had  been  surrounded  by  armies  and  taken,  and  most 
of  its  inhabitants  led  into  captivity.  After  having 
told  this  sad  part  of  his  message,  and  sending  it  home 
by  telling  them  that  what  they  and  their  brethren 
were  suffering  was  but  according  to  their  deserts,  he 
proceeds  to  open  up  to  them  the  promise  of  the  future. 
"  Now  the  righteous  are  gathered  together,  and  the 
prophets  have  fallen  on  sleep.  We,  too,  have  gone  out 
from  our  own  land.  Sion  is  taken  from  us,  nor  have 
we  anything  more  now  but  the  Almighty  and  His 
law.  If,  then,  we  shall  have  directed  and  disposed 
our  hearts,  we  shall  receive  again  all  that  we  have  lost,, 
and  things  more  excellent  than  those  we  have  lost, 
and  more  in  measure.  What  we  have  lost  was  cor- 
ruptible, what  we  shall  receive  shall  never  be  cor-, 
rupted."  Again,  the  words  suggest  those  of  Paul,  of 
the  "  body  sown  a  natural  body,  it  is  raised  a  spiritual 
body ;  it  is  sown  in  corruption,  it  is  raised  in  glory. 
When  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incorruption, 
then  shall  death  be  swallowed  up  of  victory."  In  a 
similar  way  he  testified  to  his  brethren  in  Babylon. 

Having  written  these  Epistles,  he  bound  the  one  on 
the  eagle's  neck,  and  committed  the  other  to  faithful 
messengers.  Thus  ends  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   PSALTER   OF    SOLOMON. 

rpHE  Essenes  did  not  stay  only  in  Engedi,  but  had 
•^  all  through  Palestine  houses  where  they  dwelt 
when  occasion  called  them  to  leave  their  retreat  at 
Engedi.  In  Jerusalem  there  was  one  of  these  houses 
near  one  of  the  gates,  which  from  this  fact  got  the 
name  of  the  Gate  of  the  Essenes.  In  the  Middle  Ages 
the  preaching  friars  were  thus  accommodated  in  the 
houses  of  their  order  wherever  they  happened  to  find 
themselves.  In  those  houses  dwelt  certain  persons 
appointed  to  keep  them — members  of  the  order  who 
thus  dwelling  in  cities  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been 
of  them.  They  were  Essenes  first,  citizens  afterwards — 
were,  in  fact,  more  spectators  than  actors  in  the  events 
that  transpired. 

About  the  time  when  the  struggle  between  the  sons 
of  Queen  Alexandra  was  reaching  an  acute  stage,  there 
seems  to  have  dwelt  in  the  Essene  house  in  Jerusalem 
one  who  chose  as  his  favourite  study,  not  Daniel  or 
Isaiah,  but  the  Book  of  Psalms.  But  while  the  cadence 
of  David,  of  Asaph,  and  of  later  psalmists  kept  ringing 
in  his  ear,  still  the  apocalyptic  leaven  was  in  him. 
His  eye  was  fixed,  not  so  much  on  the  present,  with 
its  miserable  intrigues  and  hatreds,  its  roi  faineant 
John  Hyrcanus  II.,  its  coxcomb  pretender  Aristobulus 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  269 

II.  ,  its  cunning  mayor  of  the  palace  Antipater,  as  on 
the  future,  —  the  Messianic  times  and  the  Messianic 
glories.  Although  others  have  named  the  composi- 
tions in  which  he  expressed  his  feeling  the  Psalter  of 
Solomon,  he  never  claims  such  a  title,  nor  ever  gives 
a  hint  to  lead  one  to  make  the  deduction.  He  seems 
rather  to  be  at  pains  to  tell  us  what  manner  of  man 
he  is,  and  in  what  circumstances  he  is  living. 

The  first  of  these  psalms  shows  a  saint  vexed  with 
the  ungodly  deeds  of  sinners.  He  calls  to  God  in  his 
trouble  when  sinners  assailed  him.  Suddenly  he  heard 
the  sound  of  war,1  and  he  heard  the  sounds  "  because 
he  was  filled  with  righteousness,"  the  warning  sound 
came  to  him  because  of  his  righteousness.  He  heard 
away  across  the  mountains  the  tread  of  the  advancing 
armies  of  Rome.  He  thought  himself  righteous  from 
the  thoroughly  Hebraistic  reason  that  he  had  prospered 
and  had  many  children.  This  leads  us  to  see  that  the 
writer  belonged  to  that  section  of  the  Essenes  who  did 
not  eschew  matrimony.  But  after  he  has  assigned 
this  reason  for  his  conviction  of  his  righteousness,  he 
meditates  on  the  matter,  and  finds  that  though  the 
honour  of  the  rich  may  be  to  the  very  end  of  the  earth, 
and  one  may  be  sure  they  never  can  fall,  yet  they 
may  have  secret  sins  that  will  destroy  them.  Nay,  he 
seems  to  imply  that  the  wealthy  in  his  own  days  were 
so  bad  that  for  a  man  to  be  wealthy  was  in  all  pro- 
bability to  be  wicked.  ic  Their  iniquities  are  beyond 


1  Greek  firxxovafTcti  pw,  evidently  from  Hebrew  •>#££>  ;  the  translator 
has  read  this  3  preterite  with  suffix  instead  of  infinitive  with  suffix. 
Wellhausen  translates  this  second  verse,  Plotzlich  drang  mir  Kriegsgeschrei 
zu  Ohren  "er  erhort  mich  weil  ich  voller  gerechtigkeit  bin"  making  the 
latter  clause  the  war-cry,  which  seems  absurd. 


270  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

those  of  all  the  heathen  before  them — beyond  those  of 
nations  that  God  cast  out  before  the  children  of  Israel. 
They  utterly  profaned  the  holy  things  of  Jehovah." l 

He  begins  his  second  psalm  by  stating  the  occasion 
of  it :  "  When  the  arrogance  of  sinners  overturned  the 
strong  walls  with  their  battering  rams,  and  Thou  didst 
not  hinder."  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realise  the  horror 
that  must  have  filled  the  heart  of  a  pious  Jew  dwelling 
in  Jerusalem  at  what  took  place  during  the  time  that 
Pompey  held  possession  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem  and 
besieged  the  temple.  All  through  the  day  was  heard 
the  heavy  crash  of  the  ram  with  its  iron  head  as  it 
thundered  against  the  wall.  How  every  blow  must 
have  gone  through  the  heart  of  each  Jewish  saint  when 
the  silence  of  the  Sabbath  was  continuously  broken  by 
the  hideous  clangour !  Every  now  and  then  would 
be  heard  the  sharper  crash,  when  now  one  part,  now 
another  of  the  sacred  building  fell  in  under  the  blows 
dealt  by  some  stone  from  a  catapult.  Although  they 
were  Sadducees  who  were  thus  besieged,  yet  it  was  the 
house  of  God  in  which  they  were  besieged,  and  the 
priests  on  whose  heads  had  been  poured  the  anointing 
oil  were  there  offering  undismayed  and  unceasing 
sacrifice  to  the  Most  High.  How  often  must  the  cry 
have  been  ready  to  rise  from  the  lips  of  our  psalmist, 
"  Why  sleep  the  thunders  of  Sinai  ?  WThen  will  the 
arm  of  the  Lord  awake  ? "  The  siege  and  capture  of 
the  temple  by  Pompey  was  an  event  specially  trying 
for  the  faith  of  the  Jews.  In  their  reverence  for  the 


1  Wellhausen  assumes  without  hint  at  proof  that  the  religious  com- 
munity in  Israel  is  personified  in  this  first  psalm.  He  does  the  same 
with  the  second  psalm  with  as  little  justification. 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  271 

Sabbatic  law,  the  Jews  in  the  temple  did  not  make 
sorties  on  the  Sabbath,  and  the  Romans  taking  ad- 
vantage of  this  pressed  on  their  approaches  most  on 
the  Sabbath.  Yet — and  this  was  the  mysterious  thing 
— God  did  not  interpose  to  hinder.  So  that  these 
foreigners  in  their  arrogance  ascended  the  very  altar 
and  trode  it  under  foot.  More  terrible  than  all — that 
altar  is  defiled  with  the  blood  of  the  sacred  priests 
of  the  Lord  who  are  slain  while  ministering  at  it. 
The  only  explanation  he  can  give  of  this  mystery 
is  that  "  the  sons  of  Jerusalem  had  defiled  the  holy 
things  of  Jehovah,  and  by  their  iniquities  had  pro- 
faned the  gifts  of  God."  It  was  on  account  of  these 
crimes  that  God  has  "  cast  them  from  Him,  and 
declared  He  would  have  no  pleasure  in  them"- 
"  brought  their  glory  to  nought."  What  affects  him 
most,  as  most  clearly  giving  evidence  that  God  is 
against  them,  is  the  fact  that  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  his  people  are  sent  into  evil  captivity.  The  Baby- 
lonian captivity,  however  terrible  in  many  aspects  at 
the  time,  had  been  softened  by  distance.  The  sorrows 
of  four  hundred  years  ago  are  not  felt  very  keenly. 
Now  Babylon  had  become  a  second  home  of  Judaism, 
where  it  flourished  even  more  than  in  Palestine.  But 
the  crossing  of  the  great  and  wide  sea  to  Rome  to  be 
sold  in  the  slave  market,  that  was  a  far  more  terrible 
captivity  than  the  deportation  inflicted  on  their  fathers 
by  Nebuchadnezzar.  Yet  he  acknowledges  that  it 
was  because  none  had  ever  acted  as  they  had  done. 
God  had  set  Jerusalem  for  a  mockery  on  account  of 
their  impurity,  "  because  they  had  sinned  had  He 
destroyed  them."  Although  he  acknowledges  the 


272  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

justice  of  God,  yet  his  bowels  are  pained  within  him 
for  all  these  things.  "  I  will  justify  Thee,  0  God,  in 
Tightness  of  heart,  because  in  Thy  judgment  is  Thy 
righteousness,  0  God,  because  Thou  hast  rendered 
to  sinners  according  to  their  works,  according  to  their 
exceedingly  vile  sins.  Thou  hast  unveiled  their  sins, 
in  order  that  Thou  mightest  manifest  Thy  judgment." 
Speaking  of  Jerusalem  he  says  :  "  She  put  on  sack- 
cloth instead  of  a  beautiful  garment,  and  had  a  rope 
upon  her  head  instead  of  a  diadem.  She  laid  aside  the 
mitre  of  glory  which  God  gave  her.  Her  beauty  is 
cast  in  dishonour  on  the  ground." 

But  he  prays  and  entreats  God  to  be  merciful,  that 
what  had  befallen  might  be  regarded  as  sufficient. 
It  was  true  that  the  heathen  had  been  the  messengers 
of  Divine  vengeance,  yet  they  acted  in  wrath  and 
passion,  and  therefore  he  prays  that  they  may  not 
be  unpunished,  that  God  delay  not  to  pour  out  upon 
their  own  heads  the  reward  of  their  arrogance. 

Thus  far  we  may  suppose  the  writer  to  have  pro- 
ceeded with  his  psalm  in  the  year  62  B.C.  For  years, 
Pompey,  great  as  no  other  Roman  had  ever  been  before 
him,  seems  to  be  above  the  judgments  of  God,  but 
then  comes  the  civil  war.  Great  as  Pompey  is,  there 
is  a  greater  in  the  field — Pompey  is  overthrown  at 
Pharsalia.  What  a  thrill  the  strange  tidings  must 
have  sent  into  the  heart  of  this  Jew,  who  had  seen 
the  horrors  of  the  siege.  At  last  vengeance  is  over- 
taking the  man  of  pride.  Defeat  and  death  are  not 
all  that  is  in  store  for  Pompey ;  to  have  died  on 
the  field,  that  would  not  have  satisfied  the  demand 
for  retributive  justice.  But  God  showed  him  Pompey, 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  273 

a  fugitive  landing  on  the  shores  of  Egypt,  slain  by 
those  he  had  benefited,  and  his  body  left  there  a  prey 
until  some  kind  hands  gave  him  the  rites  of  Roman 
sepulture.  It  seems  that  Pompey  himself  must 
confess  his  pride  as  the  reason  of  his  fate.1  "  J  said, 
'  I  will  be  lord  of  earth  and  sea,  and  I  recognised  not 
that  God  is  great  and  mighty  in  His  great  power. 
He  is  the  King  of  the  heavens,  and  judgeth  kings 
and  rulers,  raising  me  to  honour,  giving  over  the 
arrogant  to  eternal  destruction  because  they  did  not 
know  Him.' " 

He  ends  his  psalm  with  an  exhortation  to  rulers 
and  great  ones  to  remember  that  God  is  great,  and 
to  the  saints  to  bless  God  because  He  is  always 
mindful  of  His  people,  and  that  He  is  good  to  them 
that  call  upon  Him  in  patience.  He  ends  with  a 
doxology.  Blessed  be  the  Lord  for  ever,  before  His 
servants. 

The  third  psalm  begins  with  praise  :  "  Wherefore 
dost  thou  sleep,  0  my  soul,  and  dost  not  bless  the 
Lord  ?  Sing  a  new  song  to  the  God  who  is  worthy  to 
be  praised."  Having  thus  introduced  the  psalm,  he 
describes  the  just  as  those  who  always  remember  the 
Lord  in  confessing  and  justifying  His  judgments. 
"  Being  chastened  by  the  Lord,  the  just  does  not  regard 
as  a  light  matter ;  his  satisfaction  is  always  before 
the  Lord.  The  righteous  stumbleth  and  justifieth  the 
Lord ;  he  falls,  and  looks  to  see  what  God  will  do  unto 
him,  and  he  looks  steadily  whence  his  salvation 
cometh."  One  side  of  repentance  is  here  exhibited ; 
the  righteous  man  falls  into  sin,  but  from  the  depth 


Reading  uxov  instead  of  tiT 
S 


274  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  his  sin  lie  looks  up  to  God  his  Saviour  and 
acknowledges  his  sin  and  submits  to  Divine  chas- 
tisement. 

But  the  truth  of  his  contention  is  exhibited  by  this, 
"  sin  upon  sin  does  not  dwell  in  his  habitation."  He 
watches  over  his  dwelling  to  cast  out  transgression 
from  it.  The  Essenian  character  of  the  book  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  the  just  makes  atonement  by  fasting 
for  sins  of  ignorance,  and  thus  "  shall  he  humble  his 
soul."  The  psalmist  recognises  Divine  sovereignty, 
declaring,  "Jehovah  purifies  every  holy  man  and  his 
house." 

The  psalmist  proceeds  now  to  contrast  the  sinner 
with  the  righteous.  "  The  sinner  stumbles  and  curses 
his  life,  the  day  of  his  birth,  and  his  mother's  birth 
pangs."  No  one  can  fail  to  see  a  reference  here  to 
the  Book  of  Job ;  yet  it  is  strange  that  thus  by 
implication  censure  is  passed  upon  Job.  Perhaps  the 
psalmist  would  make  the  difference  depend  on  the  fact 
that  Job  had  not  stumbled  consciously,  whereas  the 
sinner  has.  The  parallelism  with  the  righteous  is 
carried  on  yet  further ;  they  fall,  and  "  their  corpse  is 
evil,  and  shall  not  be  raised  up."  That  conditional 
immortality  is  intended  here  may  be  regarded  as 
confirmed  by  the  next  statement,  "  The  destruction  of 
the  wicked  is  for  ever,  and  they  shall  not  be  remem- 
bered when  God  looks  upon  the  just."  The  psalmist 
concludes  by  declaring,  "Those  who  fear  the  Lord 
shall  rise  again  to  life  everlasting,  and  their  life  shall 
be  in  the  light  of  the  Lord,  and  shall  never  be 
quenched." 

The  psalmist  having  thus  contrasted  the  righteous 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  275 

and  sinners,  proceeds  in  the  fourth  psalm  to  assail 
some  one  in  high  place  who  is  unworthy  of  it,  demand- 
ing of  him  why  he  sits  in  the  Sanhedrin.  "  Thy 
heart  is  far  from  the  Lord,"  he  says ;  "by  thine 
iniquities  thou  enragest  the  God  of  Israel."  It  is 
impossible  not  to  think  that  the  writer  had  an  indi- 
vidual before  his  eyes,  "excessive  in  words,  exces- 
sive above  all  in  pride ; 1  harsh  in  his  words  when 
condemning  sinners  in  judgment,  and  as  if  from 
zeal  his  hand  is  among  the  first  upon  the  culprit." 
The  reference  here  evidently  is  to  the  punishment 
of  stoning,  especially  as  inflicted  on  one  guilty  of 
adultery,  "and  he  himself  is  guilty  of  manifold  sins 
and  excesses."  Such  a  man  must  have  been  the 
lineal  ancestor  of  those  who  brought  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery  before  our  Lord.  They,  one  and 
all,  convicted  by  their  own  conscience,  by  going  out 
confessed  themselves  as  guilty  as  the  woman  was. 
"  His  eyes  are  upon  every  woman  without  exception 
— a  tongue  that  perjures  itself  in  covenants.  In  the 
night  and  in  secret  he  sins  when  he  is  not  seen. 
With  his  eyes  he  speaks  to  every  woman  for  sin ; 
yet  swift  in  entering  in  every  house  with  joy,  as  if 
innocent."  Modern  life  presents  us  with  a  similar 
spectacle — magistrates  who  from  the  bench  in  the 
morning  unctuously  rebuke  those  sins  in  others  of 
which  nightfall  shall  certainly  see  themselves  guilty. 
We  know  the  Sadducean  party  were  very  harsh  in 
their  judgments,  especially  in  the  matter  of  adultery, 

1  Greek :  ayfitiuoi; ;  this  may  mean  secret  signals,  as  nods  or  winks. 
Wellhausen  translates  the  clause  iiberrayend  in  Worten  iihcrragend  in 
Hoffahrt  sie  alle. 


2*76  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

and  common  report  made  the  whole  priestly  party 
flagitious  to  the  last  degree. 

Some  have  thought  that  Antipater,  the  father 
of  Herod,  is  here  intended.  We  do  not  know  enough 
of  his  private  character  to  be  sure  whether  he  would 
suit  this  portrait ;  there  are,  however,  none  of  the 
features  that,  judging  the  father  from  the  son,  are 
at  all  unlikely.  There  are  two  objections  that  seem 
fatal :  there  is  no  hint  that  the  person  the  Psalmist  is 
assailing  is  of  alien  birth  as  Antipater  was,  at  all  events, 
alleged  to  be ;  further,  the  description  seems  intended 
for  one  of  the  Sadducean  party,  and  Antipater  was 
the  friend  of  Hyrcanus,  who  was  supported  by  the 
Pharisees. 

The  psalmist  cries  to  God  to  remove  those  who  live 
in  hypocrisy  with  the  saints ;  prays  that  their  works 
be  held  up  to  mockery  and  contempt ;  that  the  saints 
shall  justify  the  judgments  of  their  God  when  He 
takes  away  sinners  from  the  presence  of  the  just. 
They  are  full  of  envy,  and  make  use  of  sophistries  to 
destroy. 

Having  described  the  evil-doer,  the  writer,  his  mind 
evidently  full  of  the  words  of  the  109th  Psalm,  prays 
down  curses  on  the  wicked  doer :  "  Let  his  outgoing 
be  with  groans,  and  his  entrance  with  a  curse.  Let 
sleep  forsake  his  eyes  in  the  night,  and  success  his 
hands  in  the  day.  Let  his  old  age  be  in  the  solitude 
of  childlessness,  and  his  flesh  scattered  by  men-devour- 
ing beasts."  In  assigning  a  reason  for  his  demand  for 
judgment  on  the  sinner,  the  psalmist  passes  rapidly  from 
the  individual  in  question  to  the  class,  "  because  they 
desolated  many  houses  in  contempt  and  squandered 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  277 

in  lust.  They  did  not  remember  God  ;  in  nothing 
did  they  fear  Him." 

He  ends  with  a  song  after  his  denunciation:  "  Blessed 
are  they  who  fear  the  Lord  in  their  innocency  ;  the 
Lord  will  save  them  from  men  of  craft  and  from 
sinners,  and  will  save  us  from  every  stumbling-block 
of  transgression.  Let  Thy  mercy,  0  Lord,  be  upon 
all  those  who  love  Thee." 

An  enlightened  trust  in  God,  even  while  suffering 
affliction,  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  psalmists 
of  the  canon  ;  in  his  fifth  psalm  our  psalmist  assumes 
the  same  attitude.  He  commences  by  praising  God 
for  His  goodness  and  extolling  His  might.  This,  how- 
ever, is  but  the  prelude  to  the  statement  of  his  trust 
in  God.  "  When  we  are  afflicted  we  will  call  to  Thee 
for  help,  and  Thou  wilt  not  turn  away  our  prayer,  for 
Thou  art  our  God.  Let  not  Thy  hand  be  heavy  upon 
us,  lest  we  be  forced  to  sin.  If  I  am  hungry  I  will 
cry  to  Thee,  0  God,  and  Thou  wilt  bestow  upon  me. 
Thou  feedest  the  birds  and  the  fishes  ;  Thou  givest 
rains  in  the  desert  for  the  springing  of  grass  ;  Thou 
preparest  herbage  in  the  desert  for  every  living  thing. 
Thou  feedest  kings  and  rulers  and  peoples  ;  who  is  the 
hope  of  the  poor  and  the  needy  except  Thee,  0  Lord  ? 
The  goodness  of  a  man  to  his  friend1  endures  for  a 
day  ;  should  he  repeat  it  without  murmuring,  thou 
mayest  marvel  at  it.  Upon  all  the  earth,  0  Lord, 
is  Thy  mercy  in  goodness." 

As  in  former  cases  the  psalmist  ends  with  a  song  : 
"  Blessed  is  he  whom  the  Lord  remembereth  on  account 


1  Hilgenfeld  reads  <p»/£.      There  is,  however,  no  suggestion  of  the 
deceitfulness  of  human  kindness,  but  rather  its  want  of  continuance. 


278  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  his  self-control ;  those  that  fear  the  Lord  rejoice  in 
good  things ;  Thy  goodness  is  upon  Israel,  Thy  king- 
dom ;  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  to  be  praised,  for  He  is 
our  King." 

In  the  following  psalm  there  is  a  continuation  of 
this  hymn  of  praise  :  "  Blessed  is  the  man  whose  heart 
is  ready  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord.  When  he 
remembers  the  name  of  the  Lord  he  shall  be  saved." 
The  blessings  of  this  psalm  form  a  contrast  to  the 
curses  of  the  fourth.  Of  the  righteous  it  is  said,  "  His 
ways  shall  be  made  straight  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
works  of  His  hands  preserved.  Visions  of  evil  dreams 
shall  not  afflict  his  soul.  He  shall  arise  from  his  sleep, 
and  shall  bless  the  name  of  the  Lord."  It  ends  with 
the  doxology,  "  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  who  doeth  mercy 
to  those  that  love  Him  in  truth." 

The  seventh  psalm  is  an  entreaty  that  God  would 
not  remove  His  tabernacle  from  among  them.  He 
prays  God  to  chastise  them  according  to  His  will,  but 
not  to  give  them  over  to  the  Gentiles.  His  entreaty 
turns  into  exultant  confidence.  "  We  have  called  upon 
Thy  name,  and  Thou  wilt  hear  us.  Thou  wilt  be  mer- 
ciful to  the  seed  of  Israel  for  ever ;  and  Thou  wilt  not 
cast  us  off,  for  we  are  under  Thy  yoke  always,  and  the 
scourge  of  Thy  chastisement." 

While  some  of  these  psalms  have  been  written  in 
times  of  what  seem  comparative  peace,  others  of  them, 
like  the  eighth,  commence  at  once  with  the  presence  of 
war  in  the  country  :  "  My  ear  heard  the  sound  of 
affliction  and  the  noise  of  war,  and  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet  bearing  slaughter  and  destruction.  The 
sound  of  much  people,  like  the  sound  of  exceeding 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  279 

much  wind ;  like  a  hurricane  of  much  fire  borne 
through  the  wilderness."  In  the  use  of  such  figures — 
the  rush  of  the  wind,  the  crackling  of  the  fire  as  it 
leaps  from  one  dried-up  tuft  of  herbage  to  another, 
which  seems  to  be  in  the  mind  of  the  psalmist — we 
have  evidence  that  the  psalm  is  the  product  of  one 
who  had  lived  in  the  wilderness,  and  only  came  into 
the  city  because  he  was  sent.  Once  seen,  the  spectacle 
implied  in  the  figure  of  the  psalmist  would  never  be 
forgotten.  Perhaps  some  morning  in  the  days  gone 
by  he  had  been  roused  from  slumber  in  his  cell  at 
Engedi  by  the  news  that  the  desert  pasture  had  taken 
fire.  With  his  comrades  he  mounts  the  heights  above 
their  retreat,  and  there,  away  to  the  south-west,  is  seen 
the  conflagration  advancing — tossing  its  fiery  locks  to 
the  sky,  and  filling  the  whole  heaven  with  its  fiery 
glow.  A  high  wind  has  risen,  and,  increased  by  the 
conflagration,  is  driving  it  ever  nearer  and  nearer  the 
palm-trees  and  vineyards  of  Engedi.  The  wind  that 
whirls  round  the  mass  of  flame  that  now  crackles  and 
now  roars  onward,  and  the  flame  it  feeds  and  bears 
along,  seem  one  terrible  agency  of  evil.  Only  after 
long  struggle  is  the  enemy  repulsed,  and  destruction 
averted  from  Engedi.  To  the  psalmist  the  advance 
of  Pompey  suggests  that  old  night  of  terrors  when 
with  difficulty  they  had  rescued  their  nest  from  de- 
struction. The  heavy  tramp  of  the  soldiery,  their 
hoarse  shouting,  reminds  him  of  the  rush  of  the  hurri- 
cane and  the  roar  of  the  flame.  This  resemblance 
seemed  all  the  closer  when  all  night  long  from  the 
Roman  camp  to  the  south  of  the  city  rose  up  the 
hum  of  the  soldiery,  the  tramp  and  shout  of  the 


280  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

sentinels,  and  the  red  flare  of  the  camp  fires.  Terror 
filled  him  because  of  the  sound;  his  knees  were 
loosed,  and  his  bones  trembled  "like  flax."  This 
latter  is  a  picturesque  phrase  belonging  to  one  accus- 
tomed to  the  sights  of  the  country  rather  than  the 
town.  He  sees  God's  judgments  coming,  and  acknow- 
ledges their  justice  because  of  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
of  the  people.  Impurity  seems  to  have  been  especially 
rife  among  them.  "  Therefore  God  filled  them  with 
the  spirit  of  wandering,  and  made  them  drink  wine 
unmixed,  even  to  drunkenness."  Then  follows  an 
account  of  Pompey's  campaign  in  Judea,  presenting 
somewhat  a  contrast  to  the  account  given  in  the  second 
of  these  psalms.  From  the  ends  of  the  earth  God  "  led 
him  who  smote  mightily."  He  determined  war  upon 
Jerusalem  and  upon  her  land.  The  rulers  of  the  land 
met  him  with  joy.  They  said,  "  Thy  march  is  longed 
for ;  enter  in  peace."  They  opened  the  gates  of 
Jerusalem  and  crowned  her  walls.  He  destroyed  her 
rulers,  and  every  one  wise  in  counsel.  He  poured  forth 
the  blood  of  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  like  water 
of  uncleanness.  He  led  away  captive  their  sons  and 
their  daughters.  He  did  unto  them  according  to  their 
uncleanness. 

True  to  his  invariable  custom,  the  psalmist  bursts  out 
into  a  song  of  praise  to  God  on  account  of  His  judg- 
ments. One  would  have  expected  that  the  judgments 
executed  upon  Jerusalem  would  have  been  in  his  mind, 
but  it  is  God's  judgments  on  the  heathen — the  nations 
of  the  earth.  It  would  seem  that  the  writer  felt  he 
had  some  compensation  for  the  sorrows  inflicted  on 
Sion  in  the  sufferings  endured  by  other  nations  at  the 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  281 

hands  of  Pompey.  A  striking  statement  follows  which 
would  seem  at  first  to  indicate  that  the  reference  to 
the  heathen  was  to  the  Greek  city  communities  that 
had  multiplied  in  the  Holy  Land.  Only  Pompey 
treated  them  with  special  favour  at  the  expense  of 
the  Jews.  The  phrase,  "  Thy  saints  are  as  lambs  in 
the  midst  of  them."  His  song  of  praise  is  partly  a 
prayer  that  God  would  gather  again  the  dispersed  of 
Israel,  but  always  he  falls  back  upon  praise.  "  Thou 
art  our  God  from  the  beginning,  and  upon  Thee  we 
hope,  0  Lord  ;  upon  us  and  upon  our  children  is  Thy 
good  pleasure  to  everlasting,  0  Lord  our  Saviour. 
We  shall  never  be  moved :  for  ever  and  ever  praised 
be  the  Lord  for  His  judgments  by  the  mouth  of  His 
saints ;  thou  art  blessed,  0  Israel,  by  the  Lord  for 
ever." 

A  large  number  of  Israelites  had  been  taken  captives 
by  Pompey,  partly  to  grace  his  triumph,  and  partly  to 
afford  by  their  sale  a  largess  for  his  soldiers.  This 
event  forms  the  occasion  of  the  ninth  psalm.  The 
psalmist  recognises  that  this  banishment  from  their 
own  land  was  the  due  reward  of  their  sins.  There  is 
a  clear  statement  of  the  omniscience  of  God :  "  Thou 
art  the  judge  of  all  the  earth,  and  no  one  that  doeth 
evil  is  hid  from  Thy  knowledge  ;  and  the  righteousness 
of  Thy  saints  is  before  Thee,  0  Lord ;  and  where  is 
the  man  that  is  hid  from  Thy  knowledge  ?  "  Our  author 
is  also  equally  certain  and  clear  on  human  responsi- 
bility that  it  is  in  the  power  and  choice  of  the  soul  to 
do  justice  or  perpetrate  injustice.  "He  that  doeth 
righteousness  treasureth  up  life  to  himself  before  the 
Lord ;  he  that  doeth  unrighteousness  dooms  his  own 


282  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

soul  to  destruction."  God's  mercy  is  extolled.  "  Thou 
blessest  the  righteous,  and  dost  search  carefully  about 
sins.  Thy  goodness  is  about  sinners  for  repentance." 
He  continues  his  prayer:  "Now,  0  God,  we  are  the 
people  whom  Thou  has  loved  ;  behold,  and  be  merciful, 
0  God  of  Israel,  for  we  are  Thine.  Thou  didst  make 
a  covenant  with  our  fathers  concerning  us,  and  wre  hope 
in  Thee  for  the  conversion  of  our  soul.  Let  the  mercy 
of  the  Lord  be  upon  Israel  for  ever  and  ever." 

No  one  reading  the  canonical  psalms  can  fail  to 
observe  the  frequency  with  which  suffering  is  regarded 
as  chastisement  inflicted  to  produce  moral  purity ; 
e.g.  Ps.  xciv.  12:  "Blessed  is  the  man  whom  Thou 
chastenest,  0  Lord,  and  teachest  him  out  of  Thy  law." 
cxix.  67  :  "  Before  I  was  afflicted  I  went  astray,  but 
now  I  have  learned  Thy  law."  71.  "It  is  good  forme 
that  I  have  been  afflicted,  that  I  might  learn  Thy 
statutes."  Other  parts  of  Scripture  present  the  same 
features.  This  has  evidently  impressed  the  writer  of 
the  Psalter  of  Solomon.  In  the  tenth  psalm  he  says  : 
"  Blessed  is  the  man  whom  the  Lord  remembereth 
with  trial  (eV  eXly^p),  who  is  turned  (e'/cuKXoofl??)  from 
the  way  of  evil  by  the  scourge,  and  is  purified  from 
sin  that  he  may  not  be  filled  with  it."  l  The  writer 
even  exaggerates  the  submission  with  which  one  ought 
to  bear  the  afflictions  sent  upon  him  by  God.  "He 
who  prepareth  his  back  for  the  scourges  shall  be 
purified,  for  the  Lord  is  good  to  those  who  submit 
to  discipline."  The  reader  of  the  Psalter  of  Solomon 

1  One  might  be  tempted  to  read  ita^vdn  instead  of  lx.vx*u&v  if  there 
were  any  MS.  authority  for  it.  Hilgenfeld  thinks  there  is  a  reference 
in  this  word  to  sx.vx.'haoiit,  Deut.  xxxii.  10,  LXX.,  where  it  is  used  to 
translate 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMOX.  283 

cannot  fail  to  notice  a  preparation  here  for  the  gospel. 
This  willing  submission  to  God's  dealing  with  us  is  of 
the  nature  of  Christian  faith.  This  progress  is  ex- 
hibited also  in  another  way.  While  fear  or  reverence 
is  the  prominent  attitude  of  the  saint  toward  God  in 
the  old  economy,  love  is  the  prominent  attitude  in  the 
new.  In  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  there  is  a  preparation 
for  this  :  Love  has  become  greatly  more  prominent  than 
fear,  while  in  Ps.  ciii.  12  :  "  Great  is  His  mercy  toward 
them  that  fear  Him/'  a  sentence  that  is  nearly  exactly 
parallel  with  ver.  42  of  the  psalm  before  us  :  "  The 
mercy  of  the  Lord  is  upon  them  that  love  Him  in 
truth."  Further,  after  speaking  of  the  testimony  of 
the  Lord  being  in  the  law  of  His  covenant,  and  prais- 
ing Him  for  the  judgments,  the  psalmist  says  :  "  And 
the  saints  shall  confess  (Him)  in  the  assembly  (e'/ctfX^ov'a) 
of  the  people ;  God  will  show  mercy  to  the  poor  for 
(eV)  the  joy  of  Israel."  Again  the  psalmist  turns 
more  immediately  to  praise  God,  because  "His  mercy 
and  goodness  are  for  ever,  and  the  congregations 
(ffwaywyal)  of  Israel  shall  glorify  the  name  of  the 
Lord."  It  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  by  the 
collocation  of  the  church  and  the  synagogue  in  this 
passage.  Evidently  the  first  term  is  used  for  the 
national  assembly  of  all  the  people  in  their  civil 
capacity,  like  that  at  which  Simon  was  elected  high 
priest,  whereas  crwwyaxyif  must  have  meant  simply 
synagogue.  "The  salvation  of  the  Lord  is  upon  the 
house  of  Israel  for  everlasting  joy." 

One  of  the  almost  invariable  characteristics  of  the 
apocalyptic  books  is  the  prominence  of  the  Messianic 
hope.  This  hope  assumes  two  forms :  there  is  the 


284  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

hope  of  the  Messiah's  coming,  the  hope,  that  is  to  say, 
of  One,  the  Anointed  of  the  Lord,  who  was  to  lead 
them  to  victory,  and  to  usher  in  and  be  the  personal 
symbol  of  a  time  of  joy  and  happiness.  Again,  there 
is  the  hope  of  Messianic  times,  without  the  Messiah 
Himself  being  made  prominent.  Much  as  at  present 
the  millennium — the  reign  of  Christ  for  a  thousand  years 
— is  closely  connected  in  some  minds  with  the  idea  of  a 
pre-millemiial  advent  and  a  personal  reign,  while  with 
others  these  two  events  are  quite  distinct,  Christ  may 
reign  in  spirit  and  in  power  without  being  present  in 
the  flesh.  In  the  eleventh  psalm  we  have  a  psalm  of 
the  Messianic  time,  the  return  of  the  captive  and  the 
banished  of  Israel  from  north,  south,  east,  and  west. 
With  the  prophecies  of  Joel  evidently  in  his  mind  the 
psalmist  begins  :  "  Blow  the  signal  trumpet  in  Zion, 
announce  (fcrjpv^are)  in  Jerusalem  the  voice  of  one 
proclaiming  good  news  (evary<yeXi£op,evov)"  To  us,  with 
Christ  already  come,  these  Messianic  views  are  always 
interesting,  but  doubly  so  when  the  words  "  preach " 
(Krjpvaaw)  and  "  evangelise "  (evayyeXlfrnai)  occur  in 
this  connection.  Jerusalem  is  addressed  :  "  Behold, 
thy  sons  shall  be  gathered  to  thee  by  the  Lord  at 
one  time  from  the  east  and  the  west,  from  the  north, 
too,  they  shall  come  in  the  joy  of  their  God,  from 
the  islands  afar  off  shall  God  gather  them."  Now 
the  psalmist  sees  them  approaching :  "  The  lofty 
mountains  He  brought  low  to  the  plain  for  them, 
the  hills  fled  away  at  their  approach,  oaks  over- 
shadowed them  in  their  way.  God  raised  up  every 
sweet  -  smelling  tree  for  them  in  order  that  Israel 
might  pass  in  the  visitation  of  the  glory  of  their 


.  THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  285 

God.  Put  on,  0  Jerusalem,  thy  glorious  garments, 
make  ready  the  robe  of  thy  holiness ;  for  God  hath 
spoken  good  concerning  Israel  for  ever  and  ever.1 
Let  the  Lord  do  what  He  hath  spoken  concerning 
Israel,  and  in  Jerusalem  let  the  Lord  raise  up  Israel 
by  His  glorious  name.  The  mercy  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  Israel  for  ever  and  ever."  The  picture  of  the 
captives  freed  from  their  chains  returning  to  the 
blissful  land  and  enjoying  the  shade  of  the  spreading 
oak  and  terebinth,  while  sweet  odours,  so  dear  to  the 
Oriental,  are  exhaled  from  every  shrub  on  the  wayside, 
is  full  of  tender  beauty  and  full  of  suggestions  of  the 
palm-trees  and  balsam  of  Engedi. 

One  of  the  great  difficulties  in  regard  to  the 
canonical  psalms  is  the  presence  among  them  of  the 
psalms  of  imprecation.  Here,  too,  the  Solomonic 
psalmist  follows  his  predecessors.  The  twelfth  psalm 
is  very  like  several  of  the  psalms  in  the  canonical 
psalter.  The  writer  seems  to  have  had  Ps.  cxx.  especi- 
ally before  him  when  he  said,  "  Save  my  soul  from 
the  transgressor  and  the  evil  man,  from  the  tongue 
of  the  transgressor  and  the  slanderer,  which  speaketh 
lies  and  deceit."  The  canonical  psalmist  would  punish 
the  false  tongue  with  burning  coals  of  juniper ;  but  the 
present  psalmist  compares  the  words  of  the  wicked  to 

1  In  the  apocryphal  Book  of  Baruch,  not  the  Apocalypse,  there  is  a 
passage  (iv.  36,  37,  v.  5-9)  which  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  this.  In 
it,  too,  the  sons  of  Jerusalem  are  gathered  from  the  four  winds  of  heaven, 
and  Jerusalem  is  called  upon  to  look  and  see  their  approach.  The 
smoothing  of  the  way  by  the  bringing  down  of  the  hills  is  also  mentioned. 
In  both  Jerusalem  is  called  upon  to  put  on  her  glorious  garments,  in 
order  in  full  festive  joy  to  welcome  the  return  of  her  sons.  The  writer 
of  Baruch  is  most  probably  the  imitator,  but  both  may  have  drawn  from 
Isa.  xlix.  19-22  in  connection  .with  xl.  3,  4. 


286  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

fire.  "  In  making  perversions,"  presumably  of  the 
words  of  others,  "  the  words  of  the  tongue  of  the 
evil  men  are  like  fire  in  a  threshing-floor  kindling  its 
corn."  It  is  impossible  not  to  think  of  Jas.  iii.  6,  "the 
tongue  is  a  fire."  The  wicked  men  that  vexed  the 
soul  of  the  psalmist  were  possibly  Sadducees.  Their 
wickedness  consisted,  not  in  a  flagitious  life,  but 
in  the  fact  that  they  were  Sadducees.  If  we  had  an 
account  of  Archbishop  Leighton  from  the  pen  of  a 
Cameronian,  we  might  find  the  blameless  prelate 
accused  of  numberless  crimes.  In  the  whole  of  the 
present  psalter  the  wicked  are  the  Sadducean  Hellenis- 
ing  party,  who  certainly  were  lax  in  their  morals ;  but 
their  main  crime  was  that  they  were  Hellenisers  and 
Sadducees. 

After  picturing  how  even  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
transgressor  feels  the  effect  of  his  deceitful  tongue, 
the  psalmist  prays  again  for  deliverance  from  its 
effects,  not  for  himself  only,  but  also  for  the  saints  of 
God.  "  The  Lord  put  far  from  the  innocent  in  their 
distress  the  lips  of  the  transgressors,  and  scatter  the 
bones  of  flatterers  far  from  those  that  fear  the  Lord." 
In  his  imprecation  the  psalmist  comes  very  close  to  the 
1 20th  Psalm  :  "  In  flame  of  fire1  let  the  flattering  tongue 
be  destroyed  from  the  saints.  The  Lord  guard  the 
tranquil  soul  that  hateth  the  unjust ;  the  Lord  guide 
the  man  who  makes  peace  at  home.  Would  that 
sinners  were  destroyed  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
at  once,  and  that  the  saints  might  inherit  the  promise 
of  the  Lord."  This  last  phrase  suggests  the  parallel 
phrase  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  vi.  12,  be 

1  Fire  of  flame. 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON".  287 

"  followers  of  them  who  through  faith  and  patience 
inherit  the  promises."  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  most 
probably  had  read  the  Psalter  of  Solomon,  and  retained 
this  phrase  in  his  mind. 

Since,  from  the  days  of  Job  downward  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  righteous  have  been  a  problem  difficult  to 
solve,  it  is  not  wonderful  to  find  that  it  drew  the  atten- 
tion of  our  psalmist.  He  commences  Ps.  xiii.  with 
thanksgiving  that  God  had  spared  him  and  those  who 
like  him  were  saints  of  God :  "  The  arm  of  the  Lord 
saved  us  from  the  piercing  sword,  from  famine,  and 
the  death  of  sinners."  He  proceeds  to  contrast  with 
his  deliverance  the  fate  of  sinners :  "  Evil  beasts  run 
upon  them,  with  their  teeth  they  tear  their  flesh,  in 
their  grinders  they  grind  their  bones :  from  all  these 
things  the  Lord  saved  us."  It  is  possible  that  the 
gladiatorial  combats  with  wild  beasts  may  be  in  the 
eye  of  the  psalmist.  A  famous  passage  in  the  Epistles 
of  Ignatius  is  very  like  this,  Ep.  ad  Rom.  ix.  :  "  I  am 
the  corn  of  God,  and  by  the  teeth  of  wild  beasts  am  I 
ground,  that  I  may  be  found  pure  bread."  The  figure 
— a  daring  one — is  precisely  the  same  as  in  the  psalm 
before  us,  though  the  application  is  widely  different. 
The  most  natural  supposition  is  that  Ignatius  had  read 
the  Psalter  of  Solomon.  If  this  verse  may  be  regarded 
as  suggested  by  the  scene  in  the  arena,  it  would  readily 
enough  come  up  to  the  thoughts  of  Ignatius  travelling 
towards  death  in  that  way. 

The  psalmist,  however,  endeavours  to  prove  that  the 
latter  end  of  the  wicked  is  evil ;  the  saints  are  chas- 
tened, but  spared  ;  the  wicked  are  destroyed.  "  He 
will  admonish  the  righteous  as  a  son  of  His  love,  and 


288  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

His  chastisement  is  that  of  a  first-born  son  ;  for  the  life 
of  the  righteous  is  to  everlasting,  but  sinners  shall  be 
carried  away  to  destruction,  and  their  remembrance 
shall  not  be  found  for  ever  ;  but  upon  the  saints  is  the 
mercy  of  the  Lord."  Here  again  seems  to  be  an 
indication  that  conditional  immortality  was  the  view 
of  the  writer  of  these  psalms. 

The  same  contrast  we  have  seen  the  psalmist  pur- 
suing in  this  psalm  he  continues  in  Ps.  xiv.  He 
declares  the  saints  of  the  Lord  shall  live  with  him  for 
ever.  The  paradise  of  the  Lord,  the  trees  of  life  are 
His  saints  ;  their  plants  are  rooted  for  ever,  they  shall 
not  be  plucked  up."  He  proceeds,  "  not  thus  are 
sinners  "  on  account  of  their  sins,  "  their  inheritance 
is  Hades  and  darkness  and  destruction,  they  shall  not 
be  found  in  the  day  of  the  mercy  of  the  righteous.'' 
The  use  of  paradise  for  heaven  is  to  be  noted,  conse- 
crated as  it  was  afterwards  by  our  Lord.  Also  the 
plants  that  were  not  to  be  plucked  up  suggests  Matt, 
xv.  13,  and  by  contrast  Jude  12. 

The  psalmist  continues  still  the  same  theme  in  Ps. 
xv.,  but  in  it  laying  more  emphasis  on  the  privileges  of 
the  righteous.  There  is  one  bold  statement,  "  Why  is 
a  man  strong,  but  to  confess  Thee  in  truth  ? "  while  the 
sign  of  God  is  upon  the  just  for  salvation,  the  sign  of 
destruction  is  upon  the  forehead  of  the  wicked — a 
statement  that  calls  up  Rev.  xiii.  17,  when  the  servants 
of  the  beast  are  marked  in  their  forehead.  The 
psalmist  looks  forward  to  a  day  of  judgment :  "  sinners 
shall  be  destroyed  in  the  day  of  the  judgment  of  the 
Lord  for  ever,  when  God  looks  upon  the  earth  in  His 
judgment  to  render  unto  sinners  to  eternal  duration 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  289 

(et9  al&va  xpovov)."  This  passage  would  almost  imply 
the  eternity  of  punishment.  It  certainly  does  imply  a 
day  of  judgment. 

The  following  psalm  has  an  introspective  character, 
which  reminds  one  more  of  the  mediaeval  monks,  or 
perhaps  still  more  of  the  quietists.  "  When  my  soul 
became  drowsy  away  from  the  Lord  little  by  little, 
I  glided  into  destruction.1  When  I  was  far  from  God 
little  by  little  my  soul  was  poured  out  to  death  ;  I 
approached  the  gates  of  death  with  the'  sinner."  He 
puts  it  more  strongly,  "my  soul  was  at  variance  with 
the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  except  the  Lord  had  laid  hold 
of  me  in  His  eternal  mercy."  He  showed  how  this 
was  done  :  "  He  pricked  me  as  with  a  spur  to  watchful- 
ness ;  my  Saviour  and  my  helper  at  all  times  delivered 
me."  He  recognises  that  even  the  thoughts  of  the 
human  heart  are  due  to  God.  "  Do  not  put  thy  mercy 
away  from  me,  0  God,  nor  the  remembrance  of  Thee 
from  my  heart,  even  to  death."  By  implication  he 
informs  us  that  the  beauty  of  women  was  the  snare  he 
most  dreaded.  "  Let  not  the  beauty  of  a  sinful 
woman,"  he  prays,  "  cause  me  to  go  astray."  It  is 
possible  that  the  woman  in  question  belonged  to  the 
Sadducean  party.  We  might  imagine  such  a  prayer 
offered  up  by  a  reformer  of  Knox's  time  when  he  had 
to  negotiate  matters  with  the  fascinating  Queen  of 
Scots.  He  continues  his  prayer  :  "  Direct  the  work  of 
my  hands  in  Thy  fear,  and  keep  my  steps  in  remem- 
brance of  Thee."  Much  as  a  modern  Christian,  the 
psalmist  prays  to  be  delivered  from  murmuring  and 

1  Beading    with    the    cod.    x.KTct$6opoi    instead    of  netret^opA,  lethargy 
(Fritzsche) ;  Wellhausen  :  in  den  Tod,  de  la  Cerda,  correpticne  somni. 
T 


290  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

faintheartedness  when  he  is  afflicted.  If  only  his  soul 
is  strengthened  with  joy,  that  gift  will  suffice  him.  He 
holds  that  the  soul  is  convicted  by  its  own  rottenness. 
"  In  submission  shall  the  righteous  receive  mercy  from 
the  Lord  in  these  things." 

The  seventeenth  psalm  is  the  longest  in  the  whole 
collection,  and  is  the  most  interesting  from  its  Messianic 
character.  It  begins  with  the  general  and  political 
creed  of  the  true  Israelite,  "  the  Lord  is  our  King 
for  ever  and  ever,  because,  in  Thee,  0  Lord,  doth 
our  soul  make  its  boast.  We  hope  on  God,  our 
Saviour,  because  the  power  of  our  God  is  for  ever  and 
ever,  and  the  kingdom  of  our  God  is  to  everlasting 
upon  the  heathen."  The  phrase  "the  kingdom  of 
God  "  cannot  fail  to  bring  to  memory  Christ's  parables, 
of  which  that  formed  the  subject.  He  now  proceeds 
to  the  exposition  of  this  kingdom  of  heaven :  "  Thou, 
0  Lord,  didst  choose  David  to  be  king  over  Israel ; 
Thou  didst  swear  to  him  concerning  his  seed  for  ever 
and  ever,  that  Thou  wouldst  not  exclude  his  kingdom 
from  Thy  sight."  But  sinners  had  come  in.  "  They 
laid  desolate  the  throne  of  David  with  shouting.'"  He 
calls  upon  God  to  take  vengeance  on  them,  to  render 
judgment  upon  them,  and  ends,  "  faithful  is  the  Lord 
in  all  the  judgments  which  He  doeth  upon  the  earth." 
There  seems  to  be  a  reference  to  Antipater  when, 
in  the  course  of  the  passage  above  referred  to,  he 
speaks  of  a  foreigner  being  raised  up  against  "  them." 
It  may,  however,  be  Pompey  that  is  meant,  and  he 
suits  the  description  given  below ;  but  to  call  him 
a\\oTpios  seems  needless ;  there  is  point  in  calling 
Antipater  foreign,  because  he  wished  to  be  reckoned 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  291 

a  Jew.       "The  lawless  one   made   our   land  desolate 
from  its  inhabitants,  and  caused  to  disappear  from  it 
the  young  man,  and  the  old  and  children  at  once ; 
in  his  wrath  and  his  pride1   he  sent   them  away  to 
the  west.     He  set  the  ruler  of  the  land  for  a  mockery, 
and  he  did  not  spare.     In  his  alienation  the  enemy 
did  proudly,  for   his   heart  was  alien  from  our  God. 
And    all    such    things    he    did  in    Jerusalem,  as   the 
Gentiles    do    in    their    cities    to   their   gods."      That 
Pompey  should  act  as  a  Gentile  would  need  no  re- 
mark ;   but  if  this   could  be  truly  said  of  Antipater 
there   was  cause,   for   he   professed   to   be   a   Jew  in 
faith.      Meantime  there  was  much  sin  in  Jerusalem ; 
the  psalmist  says  :  "  There  was  not  among  them  in 
the  midst  of  Jerusalem  one  that  did  mercy  and  truth." 
A  mode  of  escape  is  afforded  the  saints   of  God. 
"Those  that  love  the  synagogue  of  the  saints  shall 
ftee  from  them,  like  sparrows  shall  they  take  to  flight 
from  their  assembly ;  they  wandered  in  deserts  that 
their  souls  might   be   saved  from   evil  (etrXavtovTo  ev 
e/^'/ioi?).      This  phrase  has  the  same  ring  about  it  as 
the  phrase,  Heb.  xi.  38  :  eV  eprjftlai?  TrXaixwyueiw,  wander- 
ing in  deserts.     What  difference  in  wording  there  is 
might  be   accounted  for  if  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to   the   Hebrews   used   the    Hebrew   original    of  the 
Solomonic   Psalter.      When   the   saints   are   removed, 
then    "  the    heaven    shall    withhold    the    rain    from 
dropping  upon  the  earth,  the  eternal  fountains  from 
the  depths  of  the  lofty  mountains  shall  be  restrained, 
because  there  is   none  that  doeth  righteousness  and 
judgment ;  from  their  ruler  to  the  least  of  the  people 

1  Following  here  the  rendering  of  Wellhausen. 


292  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

they  are  in  every  sin, — the  king  in  transgression,  the 
judge  not  in  truth,  the  people  in  sin."  Such  is 
the  picture  of  the  state  of  matters  in  Jerusalem. 

The  contemplation  of  this  leads  the  psalmist  to 
pray  God  to  send  the  true  King,  the  son  of  David,  to 
rule  the  people;  to  "  purify,1  in  wisdom  and  in  righteous- 
ness, Jerusalem  from  Gentiles  walking  in  destruction ; 
to  cast  out  sinners  from  the  inheritance;  to  break 
down  their  pride  as  vessels  of  the  potter;  to  break 
all  their  substance  with  a  rod  of  iron."  This  affords 
a  clear  proof  that  in  the  days  of  the  later  Maccabees 
the  second  canonical  psalm  was  interpreted  of  the 
Messiah.  He  is  "to  destroy  the  Gentiles  by  the 
word  of  His  mouth,"  which  suggests  the  vision  of  the 
Apocalypse,  where  the  Son  of  man  is  seen  with  a  sharp 
two-edged  sword  proceeding  out  of  His  mouth.  The 
next  clause,  which  shows  that  when  He  curses  the 
Gentiles  shall  flee  from  His  face,  also  suggests  the 
Apocalypse.  "  He  shall  gather  together  the  holy 
people ;  for  He  shall  know  them,  for  they  are  all  of 
them  the  sons  of  God.  He  shall  distribute  them  in 
their  tribes  over  the  land.  The  sojourner  and  the 
foreigner  shall  not  dwell  among  them  any  more." 
The  psalmist  sees  all  the  Gentile  cities  in  Palestine 
emptied  of  their  Hellenic  inhabitants  and  filled  with 
Jews.  After  his  conquest  of  Jerusalem  Pompey  liber- 
ated all  those  Hellenic  cities  that  had  been  subjugated 
by  Alexander  Jannaeus,  hence  the  presence  of  these 
heathens  must  at  this  time  have  been  doubly  dis- 
tasteful to  the  Jews.  "  He  shall  judge  peoples  and 
nations  in  wisdom  of  this  righteousness.  Selah." 

1  Reading  x,u,da,p!aeii. 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  293 

But  he  proceeds  to  show  the  extent  of  the  Messiah's 
dominion.  "  He  shall  have  the  peoples  of  the  Gentiles 
to  serve  Him  under  His  yoke;  He  shall  glorify  the 
Lord  as  a  sign  to  all  the  earth,  and  He  shall  purify 
Jerusalem  in  holiness  as  at  the  beginning."  The 
Messiah  here  is  not  merely  the  conqueror,  but  also 
the  one  "whose  fan  is  in  His  hand,  who  will  thoroughly 
purge  His  floor."  He  describes  the  coming  of  the 
nations  to  Sion  bearing  their  "weakened  sons  as 
gifts,"  to  see  the  glory  of  the  Lord  with  which  God 
hath  glorified  her.  There  shall  be  no  injustice  in  the 
midst  of  them  in  those  days  of  His,  because  they  shall 
be  all  holy,  and  their  king  Christ  the  Lord."  This 
last  passage  is  a  very  striking  one,  suggesting  at  first 
sight  a  Christian  interpolation  ;  but  there  seems  no  jar 
in  this  verse  as  it  comes  in.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  Kvptov,  not  tcvpios,  is  the  proper  reading,  in  which 
case  we  should  render  the  words,  "  Their  king  is  the 
anointed  of  the  Lord."  Still  with  the  Book  of  Enoch 
before  us,  and  the  superhuman  dignity  ascribed  to 
the  expected  Messiah,  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary 
to  hold  to  that  reading  or  believe  the  phrase  an 
interpolation  by  Christian  hands. 

The  description  that  follows  is  an  indirect  proof 
that  this  was  written  shortly  after  Alexander  Jannseus 
had  ended  his  eminently  unspiritual  rule.  Speaking 
of  the  Messianic  King  :  "  He  will  not  trust  in  horse,  or 
rider,  or  bow,  nor  will  he  multiply  to  Himself  gold 
and  silver  for  war,  nor  collect  panoplies  of  arms  as 
His  confidence  in  the  day  of  battle.  The  Lord  Himself 
is  His  king.  He  has  the  hope  of  the  mighty  God  for 
confidence,  and  He  shall  place  all  the  nations  in  fear 


294  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

before  Him ;  for  He  shall  smite  the  earth  with  the 
word  of  His  mouth  for  ever."  When  one  remembers 
how  Alexander  wras  perpetually  collecting  mercenary 
soldiers  and  engaging  in  wars,  now  in  this  direction 
now  in  that,  and  how  his  son  Aristobulus  II.  had  been 
ready  to  do  the  same  thing,  we  see  that  this  descrip- 
tion of  the  Messianic  King  was  an  implied  rebuke  to 
the  military  arrangements  of  the  Hasmonsean  monarchy. 
Still  more  unlike  was  it  to  the  Herodian.  That  the 
aim  of  Antipater  and  of  his  family  was  to  get  the 
supreme  power,  would  be  perfectly  obvious  by  the  time 
this  psalm  was  written.  Herod's  high-handed  conduct 
in  Galilee  in  regard  to  the  Zealots,  whom  Josephus 
calls  robbers,  and  his  insolence  to  the  Sanhedrin  when 
called  to  account  for  it,  were  sufficient  evidence  that 
the  young  Idumean  considered  himself  practically 
king.  The  kind  of  king  he  would  be  when  he 
actually  sat  on  the  throne,  might  be  easily  foreseen, 
— he  would  be  a  worse  Alexander  Janneeus.  From 
Josephus  we  learn,  as  above  related,  that  the  Essenes 
expected  that  Herod  would  be  king.1  The  might  of 
the  Messianic  King  was,  however,  to  have  a  Divine 
source.  "  On  account  of  His  God  He  shall  not  be 
weak,  because  God  shall  make  Him  mighty  in  His 
Holy  Spirit."  Here  again  we  find  a  relationship 
between  the  Gospel  and  the  Psalter,  because  we  are 
informed,  John  iii.  34  :  "  God  giveth  the  Spirit  by 
measure  unto  Him  (Christ)."  A  further  resemblance 
may  be  found  in  ver.  45  :  "  He  shall  feed  the  nock  of 
the  Lord ;  He  shall  not  leave  any  among  them  to  be 
weak  in  their  pasture."  There  may  be  a  reference  to 

1  Joseph,  xv.  10.  5. 


THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.  295 

Isa.  xl.  11,  but  at  all  events  if  so,  there  is  also  a 
reference  to  Isaiah  from  John  x.  He  adds :  "In 
holiness  He  shall  lead  them,  and  there  shall  not  be 
among  them  any  one  arrogant  to  exercise  authority." 
This  sentence  suggests  our  Lord's  advice  to  the  dis- 
ciples not  be  called  Master. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  teaching  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  functions  that  the  psalmist  expects  from 
the  Messiah.  "  His  words  have  been  purified  by  fire 
(7T€TTvp(a/jL€va)  beyond  the  most  precious  gold.  He  shall 
judge  in  the  synagogues  the  peoples,  the  tribes  of 
the  sanctified.  His  words  shall  be  as  words  of  the 
saints  in  the  midst  of  the  sanctified  people.  Blessed 
are  those  who  shall  be  in  those  days,  to  see  what 
good  things  God  will  do  for  Israel  in  the  gathering 
together  of  the  tribes."  As  he  says  this,  the  psalmist 
cannot  refrain  from  expressing  his  longing  for  the 
speedy  coming  of  the  time  when  all  his  hopes  will  be 
realised,"  Let  God  send  speedily  His  mercy  upon  Israel ; 
save  us  from  the  impurity  of  our  profane  enemies  ;  the 
Lord  Himself  is  King  for  ever  and  ever." 

This  whole  psalter  closes  doxologically  in  the 
eighteenth  psalm.  It  begins :  "  0  Lord,  Thy  mercy 
is  over  the  works  of  Thy  hands  for  ever,  Thy 
goodness  with  rich  bestowal  upon  Israel."  But  the 
psalmist  still  recognises  the  great  doctrine,  that 
"  whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth,  and  scourge th 
every  one  that  He  receiveth." x  So  he  says,  "  Thy 
love  is  upon  the  seed  of  Abraham,  the  sons  of  Israel. 
Thy  chastisement  of  us  is  of  a  first-born  son."  His 
thoughts,  however,  are  always  directed  to  the  coming 

1  Heb.  xii.  6  ;  Prov.  iii.  12,  LXX. 


296  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  the  Messiah,  and  his  prayer  for  the  purification  of 
Israel  is  "  for  the  day  of  election  in  the  rule  of  His 
anointed.  Blessed  are  they  who  shall  be  in  those 
days  to  see  the  good  things  of  the  Lord  which  He 
shall  do  for  the  generation  to  come,  under  the  rod 
of  the  instruction  of  the  Lord  Christ  in  the  fear  of 
His  God."  This  phrase  shows,  that  while  the 
Messiah  was  in  some  sense  of  the  word  wpios  (or 
Jehovah),  He  is  yet  in  some  way  distinct  from  God. 
The  Messiah  was  to  do  this  "  in  the  spirit  of  wisdom 
and  of  righteousness  and  of  might."  The  psalm  ends 
with  a  doxology  after  the  model  of  the  eighth  of  our 
canonical  psalms :  "  Great  is  our  God  and  glorious, 
who  dwelleth  in  the  Highest,  who  arrangeth  in  their 
course  the  lights  of  heaven,  according  to  their  seasons 
from  day  to  day,  and  they  passed  not  from  the  path 
which  Thou  didst  command  them."  They  have  not 
swerved  from  their  path  from  the  day  that  God  cre- 
ated them,  and  shall  not  for  ever  "  except  God  shall 
command  them  by  injunction  of  His  servants."  The 
psalmist  sees  Joshua  causing  the  sun  and  moon  to 
stand  still,  and  Isaiah  sending  the  shadow  backward, 
and  recognises  that  this  does  not  lessen  the  proof  of 
God's  power,  but  enhances  it. 

We  have  delayed  longer  over  the  Psalter  of  Solomon 
than  would  seem  necessary  from  its  relative  size, 
because  of  the  many  points  of  contact  with  the  New 
Testament  which  appear  in  feeling  and  diction. 
The  Psalmist  must  have  been  emphatically  one  of 
those  that  looked  for  the  redemption  of  Israel. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    BOOK    OP   JUBILEES. 

E  writer  of  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  we  saw, 
modelled  his  work  on  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah 
and  Jeremiah,  with  some  elements  drawn  from  more 
directly  apocalyptic  works.  The  writer  of  the 
Psalter  of  Solomon  followed  in  the  track  of  the 
canonical  psalms,  with  apocalyptic  elements  added.  In 
the  Book  of  Jubilees  we  have  to  do  with  a  writer  who 
followed  a  model  different  from  that  of  either  of  the 
former  two.  He  takes  as  his  basis  the  old  historical 
books,  especially  the  Pentateuch,  and  he  enriches 
and  adorns  the  history  of  these  books  with  all  the 
fruits  of  a  bizarre  fancy.  The  writer  of  the  Psalter, 
we  saw,  was  in  Jerusalem,  and,  like  him,  the  writer 
of  the  Book  of  Jubilees  is  a  dweller  in  cities.  Unlike 
the  other  writers  we  have  had  to  consider,  the  writer 
of  the  Book  of  Jubilees  has  regard  to  an  external 
adverse,  or,  at  least,  critical  public,  and  consequently 
his  work  has  very  much  the  character  of  an  apologetic. 
He  foresees  objections  that  might  be  urged  against 
the  possibility  of  certain  events  narrated  in  the 
Mosaic  record ;  or,  again,  he  knows  that  in  some 
points  the  morality  of  his  own  age  has  advanced 
beyond  that  of  the  days  of  the  patriarchs ;  but  he 
cannot  admit  that  in  so  many  words  he  must  soften 

297 


298  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  record,  so  that  the  moral  delinquency  may  be 
minimised.  In  fact,  the  Book  of  Jubilees  is  very 
much  made  up  of  midraskim — moral  stories  made 
upon  sacred  characters. 

Like  other  Essenes,  the  writer  is  well  acquainted 
with  the  earlier  sacred  and  secret  books  of  the  sect, 
especially  with  the  Book  of  Enoch.  At  the  same  time, 
he  must  have  been  accustomed  to  the  methods  pursued 
in  the  Pharisaic  schools.  Not  improbably  from 
being  educated  as  a  Pharisee  he  had  become  an 
Essene ;  but,  from  his  apologetic  efforts,  another 
deduction  may  be  made, — he  was  one  who  did  not 
look  askance  on  the  learning  of  the  Greeks.  Josephus 
has  told  us  that  the  Essenes  were  influenced  by  the 
Pythagoreans.  It  is  quite  in  harmony  with  this 
to  find  that  such  importance  is  attached  to  numbers, 
especially  to  the  number  seven.1  Further,  as  the 
Greeks  had  arranged  their  chronology  according  to 
Olympiads,  he  thought  that  among  themselves,  as 
Hebrews,  they  had  a  much  more  complete  and  com- 
prehensive mode  of  calculation  than  that  adopted  by 
the  Greeks  in  the  jubilee,  or  period  of  forty-nine  years 
divided  into  seven  periods  or  weeks  of  years. 

To  appreciate  fully  the  nature  of  this  Book  of 
Jubilees  and  its  aims,  one  must  endeavour  to  realise 
the  circumstances  in  which  in  all  likelihood  it  was 
written.  The  perpetual  presence  of  some  of  the 
Herodian  family  in  Rome  made  Judaism  a  subject  of 
curiosity  among  the  literati  of  the  city.  This  curi- 

1  At  the  same  time,  while  numbers  are  important  in  the  Book  of 
Jubilees,  this  importance  has  not  the  character  of  that  ascribed  to 
numbers  among  the  Neo- Pythagoreans. 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  299 

osity  was  not  likely  to  be  decreased  by  the  progress 
which  the  "  pernicious  superstition "  made  among  the 
maids  and  matrons  of  the  Roman  aristocracy.  More- 
over, Rome  was  not  the  only  part  of  the  Western 
Gentile  world  visited  by  the  Herodians.  Schtirer 
gives  inscriptions,  chronicling  the  munificence  of 
Herod  Antipas,  that  had  been  put  up  in  Delos  and 
Cos.  This  grandeur  of  the  Herodians  naturally 
spread  yet  further  the  curiosity  above  suggested. 
It  led  to  Gentiles  visiting  Jerusalem,  and  criticising 
the  faith  and  worship  there  as  freely  as  an  English- 
man does  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  Hindoos. 
Moreover,  there  was  a  gathering  of  such  men  as 
Nicolaus  of  Damascus  round  the  Herodian  court, 
and  their  sneering  scepticism  would  have  to  be  met. 
One  can  easily  imagine  how  the  polished  taunts  of  those 
Greeks  would  rankle  in  the  minds  of  the  Jews,  espe- 
cially of  those  who  had  any  tincture  of  Hellenism. 
It  would  be  hard  to  endure  when  some  Greekling,  with 
arching  eyebrow  and  a  contemptuous  adjustment  of 
his  philosophic  gown,  hinted  that  surely  they  must  be 
very  credulous  to  believe  that  miracles  could  have  been 
wrought  for  them.  In  an  age  infected  with  illumina- 
tion, as  was  the  age  of  our  Lord,  no  taunting  accusa- 
tion was  more  difficult  to  bear  than  that  of  credulity. 
The  object  of  the  writer  is  thus  not  that  of  Philo  to 
commend  Judaism  to  those  outside,  but  rather  to  meet 
the  effects  of  their  scepticism  as  witnessed  in  the 
younger  followers  of  the  Jewish  faith,  who  were  moved 
by  the  brilliance  of  these  strangers  to  have  doubts 
as  to  the  truth  of  what  had  been  told  them  of  the 
history  of  their  forefathers,  and  of  the  nobility  of 


300  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

those  characters  they  were  called  upon  to  admire  so 
much. 

In  similar  circumstances  in  our  day,  one  who  was 
moved  by  the  state  of  matters  would  perhaps  write  a 
treatise  to  defend  his  view  of  things.  If  the  person 
were  a  lady,  she  would  write,  not  a  treatise,  but  a 
novel,  in  which  her  own  opinions  were  either  advocated 
or  exemplified,  and  the  doleful  results  in  character 
and  circumstance  of  not  holding  with  her  duly  set  forth 
by  woful  example.  Dry  and  distasteful  as  learned 
treatises  are  to  the  youth  of  the  present  day,  the 
Jewish  treatise  of  the  time  of  which  we  speak  was 
even  more  fitted  to  be  distasteful,  if  we  may  take 
the  Mishna  as  giving  anything  like  a  fair  sample  of 
what  the  doctors  of  the  law  wrote.  Nothing  could 
be  less  fitted  to  work  conviction  in  the  heart  of  any 
youth  infected  by  the  philosophy  and  art  of  Greece 
than  these  elaborate  quotations  of  traditional  opinions 
grounded  on  hairsplitting  interpretations  of  texts. 
The  religious  novel  is  not  an  invention  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  nor  the  historical  either ;  so  the 
apologist,  who  felt  that  treatises  after  the  manner 
of  the  Sedar  Olam  would  be  worse  than  ineffective, 
could  betake  himself  to  Hagada.  In  fact,  his  most 
natural  plan  was  to  give  a  Hagadic  Targum  of  the 
events  on  which  doubt  was  thrown,  and  insinuate 
interpretations  that  would  turn  aside  the  force  of 
adverse  criticism,  or  suggest  additional  circumstances 
that  were  fitted  to  alter  the  moral  complexion  of  an 
action. 

All  this  is  attempted  in  the  Book  of  Jubilees. 
After  giving  the  title  of  the  book  in  full,  according 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  301 

to  the  genuine  Oriental  style,  the  author  proceeds  to 
give  an  account  of  its  origin.  Moses,  in  the  first  year 
of  the  Exodus,  the  third  month  and  the  sixteenth 
day  of  the  month,  went  up  into  Mount  Sinai.  God 
declares  to  him  generally  the  principles  of  His  moral 
government  much  as  we  find  these  given  in  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy.  Then  God  addressed  the 
"  angel  of  the  presence,"  and  commanded  him  to  write 
out  for  Moses  a  history  of  creation,  and  of  everything 
that  had  taken  place  up  till  the  time  then  present. 
We  may  note  that  "  the  angel  of  the  presence  "  is 
referred  to  in  Isa.  Ixiii.  9  :  "  the  angel  of  His  presence 
saved  them."  By  later  Judaism,  the  angel  of  the 
presence  was  identified  with  the  Metatron,1  by  others 
with  the  Archangel  Michael,  who  again  is  identified 
with  the  Metatron.  Later  Christian  interpretation 
sees  in  this  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity.  Cer- 
tainly it  suits  what  we  feel  to  be  the  function  of  the 
Son  in  the  economy  of  redemption.  In  the  Book  of 
Jubilees,  however,  it  is  merely  the  highest  of  the 
angels  that  is  in  the  thought  of  the  writer.2 

The  source  from  which  the  angel  of  the  presence  draws 
the  information  he  imparts  to  Moses  is  the  "  Tablets 
of  the  Heavens,"  which  are  referred  to  in  Enoch,  and 
still  more  in  the  later  apocalyptic  books.  The  writer 
of  the  book  before  us  had  evidently  the  notion  that 
there,  away  up  in  the  presence  of  God,  everything  that 
took  place,  or  was  to  take  place,  was  solemnly  recorded, 
— a  view  we  ourselves  in  these  days  hold,  though  in  a 


1  Rabbi  Elias,   Tishbi,    in    Eisenmenger's    Entdecktes    Judenthum,    ii. 
chap.  vii. ;  Jalkut  Rubeni. 

2  Compare  also  the  Memra  Jehovah  of  the  Targunis,  and  Philo's  Logos. 


302  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

form  externally  slightly  different ;  we  recognise  that 
every  event  has  an  effect  at  once  on  the  moral  con- 
dition of  the  intelligent  agent  producing  or  witnessing 
it,  and  on  external  nature,  and  that,  given  sufficient 
acuteness  of  vision  and  intellect,  the  story  of  the 
world  may  be  read  back,  and  everything  that  has 
occurred  fully  reconstructed.  We  can  understand 
this  suggestion  of  revelation  to  Moses  as  brought 
forward  to  explain  how  Moses  knew  what  took  place 
on  the  day  of  creation,  or  even  in  those  early  pre- 
diluvial  days  when  men  upon  the  earth  were  few,  and 
from  whom  the  present  days  were  cut  off  by  the 
catastrophe  of  the  Flood. 

The  angel  of  the  presence  then  proceeds  to  give 
an  account  of  the  events  of  creation — not  merely  the 
creation  of  external  nature,  but  also  of  the  angels. 
In  the  main,  the  story  of  creation  agrees  in  this  latter 
point  with  the  Rabbinic  ideas  of  the  prevalence  of 
which  we  see  some  traces  in  the  Book  of  Revelation. 
Angels  of  the  elements  are  created,  angels  of  praise, 
"  the  angels  of  hoar  frost,"  and  "  the  angels  that  cry 
'  Holy.' "  At  the  same  time  there  seems  something 
of  confusion ;  the  angel  of  the  presence,  himself  thus 
created,  speaks  of  seeing  God's  works  and  praising 
Him. 

It  may  be  that  this  old  Jewish  idea,  that  every  force 
in  nature  has  its  own  angel,  is  not  so  far  amiss.  After 
all,  when  we  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  all  force  is 
really  spiritual,  and  may  it  not  be  that  individual 
spirits  direct  special  forces  ?  They  may  act  freely  and 

1  For  the  Rabbinic  view,  see  Eisenmenger,  Entdecktes  Judenthum,  ii. 
chap.  vii. 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  303 

intelligently,  and  yet  their  acts  be  calculable  as  accord- 
ing to  law.  In  fact,  the  wiser  a  man  is,  the  more  are  his 
actions  calculable  arid  the  more  his  whole  life  is  under 
law. 

The  writer  continues  his  narrative  in  the  person 
of  this  angel  of  the  presence,  and  narrates  the  works 
created  on  each  successive  day  in  accordance  with  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis.  Only  when  he  comes  to  the 
creation  of  light  on  the  fourth  day,  he  asserts  that 
these  lights  were  for  Sabbaths  and  festivals  as  well  as 
for  the  more  ordinary  measurements  of  time.  He  is  so 
thoroughly  a  Jew,  that  every  festival  has  for  him  its 
origin  in  the  heavens,  and  is  written  down  on  the 
tablets  there.  On  the  sixth  day  he  relates  the  creation 
of  Adam ;  and,  anticipating  Darwinism,  regards  the 
first  pair  as  contained  in  the  individual. 

In  thoroughly  Eabbinic  fashion  he  informs  us  that 
there  were  twenty-two  kinds  of  works  created  by  the 
end  of  the  sixth  day.  Further,  he  notifies  the  fact 
that  there  were  twenty-two  generations  of  men  before 
the  founding  of  Israel  as  a  nation.  The  real  reason  of 
this  twenty-two  fold  arrangement  is  probably  the  fact 
that  there  are  twenty -two  letters  in  the  Hebrew 
alphabet.  After  narrating  this  he  dwells  some  time 
on  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  blessedness 
that  follows  Sabbath  observance. 

In  the  third  chapter  the  creation  of  woman  is 
reached.  The  facts  are  stated  very  much  as  in  the 
Bible,  with  some  ornamentation.  One  very  charac- 
teristic addition  is  made  to  this  part  of  the  narrative. 
After  narrating  that  woman  was  created  during  the 
second  week,  "  therefore,"  says  our  author,  "  was 


304  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  command  given  to  observe  their  defilement,  seven 
days  for  a  male  child  and  fourteen  days  for  a  female." 
The  writer  does  not  show  any  logical  connection  to 
justify  the  use  of  the  word  "  therefore."  Even  the 
minutest  Levitical  injunction  is  in  the  mind  of  the 
writer  of  the  highest  import,  and  transcribed  from 
the  tablets  in  the  Heavens.  Thus  the  eighty  days 
of  seclusion  enjoined  by  Lev.  xii.  at  the  birth  of  a 
female  child  were  symbolised  by  the  eighty  days 
that  were  said  to  elapse  between  the  creation  of  Adam 
and  that  of  Eve. 

Having  laid  down  these  ceremonial  explanations  of 
things  alleged  to  have  happened,  our  author  now  pro- 
ceeds to  show  what  was  the  employment  of  our  first 
parents  in  the  garden.  In  regard  to  this  it  may  be 
noted  that  Adam  has  to  watch  the  garden  and  keep  it 
from  being  assailed  by  beasts  of  the  field,  which  implies 
that  in  the  author's  opinion  the  lower  animals  were 
not  absolutely  innocuous  before  the  fall  of  man.  This 
view  of  matters,  one  may  remark,  is  amply  confirmed 
by  geology,  which  proves  that  the  strong  preyed  upon 
the  weak  away  back  in  those  early  geologic  days  when 
the  ichthyosauri  swam  in  the  oolitic  sea.  The  story 
of  the  Fall  is  related  with  little  addition  but  the  apolo- 
getic note,  that  before  the  Fall  all  animals  could  speak. 
It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  protevangelium  is  not 
mentioned  at  all.  There  is  nothing  of  the  solemn 
driving  out  from  the  garden  of  our  first  parents,  nor 
of  the  presence  of  the  cherubim  with  the  fiery  sword 
that  guarded  every  way  to  the  tree  of  life. 

Scripture  omits  to  tell  us  what  was  Adam's  age  when 
Cain  or  Abel  was  born,  or  what  was  the  name  of  his 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  305 

eldest  daughter  ;  but  these  omissions  are  supplied  in  the 
Book  of  Jubilees.  It  was  between  the  63rd  and  the 
70th  year  of  Adam's  life  that  Cain  was  born,  and  be- 
tween the  70th  and  the  77th  that  Abel  was  born,  and 
between  the  77th  and  the  84th  that  Aw  an,  his  eldest 
daughter,  was  born.  When  the  story  of  the  death  of 
Abel  is  given,  the  solemn  cursing  is  omitted,  and  the 
whole  matter  is  condensed.  Cain  it  seems  married 
Awan.  After  a  season  of  mourning  for  Abel,  prolonged 
as  befitted  those  who  had  nigh  a  millennium  to  come 
and  go  on,  Seth  is  born,  and  then  a  sister  Azura  to  be 
his  wife.  Another  fact  not  generally  known  which  our 
author  conveys  to  us  is  that  Adam  and  Eve  had  nine 
other  sons.  Having  mentioned  the  birth  of  Cain's  son 
Enoch,  he  carries  down  the  genealogy  of  the  line  of 
Seth  to  the  birth  of  the  Sethite  Enoch.  In  the  course 
of  this  genealogy  he  is  able  to  tell  us,  not  only  the 
name  of  the  wife  of  each  successive  antediluvian, 
but  also  her  father's  name.  As  to  the  date  of  the 
birth,  of  course  that  is  given  in  the  Scriptures,  but 
it  is  arranged  according  to  jubilees.  The  descent 
of  the  "watchers"  is  referred  to  in  passing.  In 
regard  to  Enoch,  the  writer  naturally  becomes  elo- 
quent. He  is  the  great  father  of  all  apocalyptic 
learning.  His  wife,  we  are  told,  is  Edna,  daughter  of 
Daniel.  The  name  of  Enoch's  father-in-law  is  to  be 
remarked  as  being  the  same  as  that  of  the  apocalyptist 
of  the  Old  Testament.  From  that  point  on  to  the 
history  of  Noah  events  follow  simply  in  accordance 
with  the  Bible  narrative.  After  this  we  are  told  of 
the  death  of  Adam  ;  and  after  remarking  that  he  lacked 
seventy  years  of  the  thousand,  "  A  thousand  years 


306  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

are  one  day  in  the  testimony  of  Heaven  ;  and  therefore 
was  it  written  concerning  the  tree  of  knowledge,  On 
the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die." 
About  the  same  time  Cain  also  died — a  stone  fell  on 
him  from  the  roof  of  his  house  and  slew  him,  because 
he  had  killed  Abel  with  a  stone. 

With  the  fifth  chapter  begins  the  account  of  the 
events  which  led  to  the  Flood.  The  mysterious  subject, 
the  relationship  between  the  sons  of  God  and  the 
daughters  of  men,  was  an  unfailing  object  of  specula- 
tion to  the  apocalyptists.  The  corruption,  begun  thus 
by  those  "watchers"  who  were  sent  to  lead  men  in 
ways  of  justice  and  truth,  spread  through  all  the 
creatures ;  even  animals  are  said  to  have  corrupted  their 
way  before  the  Lord.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  this 
is  introduced  to  explain  why  all  the  animals  perished 
in  the  waters.  The  writer  naturally  dwells  a  good  deal 
on  the  preaching  of  Noah. 

The  birth  and  fate  of  the  giants  are  enlarged  upon. 
The  natural  interpretation  of  the  narrative  in  Genesis 
is  certainly  that  the  giants  or  nephalim  were  the  same 
as  the  mighty  men  who  were  of  old  the  progeny  of  the 
mysterious  union  of  the  sons  of  God  and  the  daughters 
of  men,  though  there  is  at  least  a  possibility  that  a 
distinction  is  implied.  The  writer  of  the  book  before  us 
has  no  doubt  that  the  giants  are  the  sons  of  the  angels. 
"  When  God  saw  that  all  flesh  had  corrupted  its  way 
before  Him,  He  did  not  leave  the  Flood  to  cleanse  the 
earth,  but  sent  a  sword  into  the  midst  of  the  inhabit- 
ants, and  so  each  one  of  those  giants  slew  his  neigh- 
bour. And  those  angels  who  had  left  their  own  ranks, 
whom  He  had  sent  upon  the  earth  to  instruct  men, 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  307 

them  He  caused  to  be  bound  in  the  depths  of  the  earth 
until  the  coming  of  the  great  day  of  judgment.  Their 
sufferings  were  aggravated  by  seeing  their  sons  slaying 
each  other.  This  representation  of  the  fate  of  these 
rebellious  angels,  and  the  reason  of  that  fate,  is  in  strict 
harmony  with  the  statement  in  the  Book  of  Enoch 
quoted  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude.  To  this  is  added  the 
peculiarly  Calvinistic  doctrine,  "  and  the  judgment  of 
all  is  ordained  and  written  in  the  tablets  of  heaven." 

Little  is  added  to  the  actual  account  of  the  Flood ; 
but  when  Noah  comes  out  of  the  ark,  we  are  told  that 
he  took  "  a  young  kid  and  atoned  by  its  blood  for  all 
the  guilt  of  the  earth,  because  everything  that  had 
been  in  it  was  destroyed."  Somehow  the  author 
regards  the  earth  as  guilty  of  this  slaughter.  This 
was  really  the  heathen  idea  that  homicide,  however 
unwitting  it  might  be,  demanded  an  atonement.  The 
very  idea  of  the  cities  of  refuge,  while  it  implied 
this  fundamental  notion,  also  implied  a  conflict  with 
it.  Noah's  sacrifice  is  fully  described  as  in  every 
particular  in  accordance  with  the  approved  Levitical 
method.  The  Lord's  smelling  a  sweet  savour  has  no 
moral  meaning  given  to  it ;  it  is  simply  the  effect  of 
the  odour.  On  smelling  this  sweet  savour  the  Noachian 
covenant  is  announced  and  the  Noachian  precepts  given. 
This  leads  to  a  long  digression  as  to  eating  with  blood, 
— one  of  the  Noachian  prohibitions, — and  how  certain 
of  Noah's  descendants  were  guilty  in  this  matter ;  but 
the  "  angel  of  the  presence  "  renewed  the  covenant  with 
Abraham.  In  passing,  the  "angel  of  the  presence" 
intimates  that  the  feast  of  first-fruits  was  observed  by 
Noah.  The  feast  of , new  moon  had  its  origin  in  various 


308  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

facts  in  Noah's  experience  during  the  days  of  the  Flood. 
The  author  considers  the  month  to  have  only  twenty- 
eight  days,  and,  reckoning  thirteen  months  to  the  year, 
calculates  it  to  be  364  days.  A  few  verses  further  on 
the  angel  announces  it  to  Moses  as  a  crime  of  which  the 
Israelites  of  the  future  would  be  guilty,  that  they  would 
"make  the  year  only  364  days;"  it  is  probable  that 
we  should  read  here  354  days,  the  ordinary  lunar  year 
still  in  use  among  the  Mohammedans.  The  Greeks — 
and  following  them  the  Kornans  till  the  changes 
introduced  by  Julius  Csesar — had  made  use  of  a  lunar 
year  corrected  by  intercalary  months,  hence  the  obvious 
reference  is  to  the  abandonment  of  the  old  vague  year 
of  about  360  days,  which  the  Jews  had  brought  with 
them  from  Egypt,  for  the  year  of  the  Greeks. 

The  drunkenness  of  Noah  and  the  sin  of  Ham  which 
followed  are  narrated  as  in  Scripture.  We  are  further 
informed  that  Ham,  displeased  because  his  father  had 
cursed  his  son  Canaan,  separated  himself  from  his 
father  along  with  his  sons.  Japheth  followed  his 
example.  When  his  descendants  were  thus  beginning 
to  separate  themselves,  Noah  gave  them  his  parting 
counsels,  which  consist  very  much  in  reiterating  the 
covenant  God  had  made  with  him,  and  repeating  to 
them  the  course  of  the  history  of  the  race,  laying  par- 
ticular stress  on  the  sins  of  the  "  heavenly  watchers  ;  " 
and  it  he  uses  as  a  warning  against  fornication.  He 
enjoins  also  a  year  of  release,  but  places  it  in  the  fifth, 
not  the  seventh  year. 

After  this  there  is  an  account  of  the  division  of  the 
race  evidently  founded  on  the  scriptural  account,  but 
made  obscure  by  additions  and  by  the  change  names 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  309 

have  undergone  in  being  transferred  from  Hebrew,  or 
Aramaic,  to  Ethiopia,  through  the  medium  of  Greek. 
In  the  course  of  his  narrative  the  writer  is  unable  to 
conceal  his  patriotic  prejudice  for  Jerusalem.  "  Mount 
Sion  is  the  centre — the  omphalos  of  the  earth  ; "  pre- 
sumably to  explain  the  early  knowledge  of  astronomy 
his  narrative  implies,  he  informs  his  readers  that 
Kainan  the  son  of  Arphaxad  "  found  a  writing  which 
his  forefathers  had  engraved  upon  a  rock,"  which  he 
translated  and  found  to  contain  the  astrology  taught 
to  men  by  the  "watchers."  In  the  Book  of  Enoch 
this  wisdom  taught  by  the  "  watchers  "  is  regarded  as 
sinful. 

Evil,  however,  multiplied  upon  the  earth,  and  the  sons 
of  Noah  who  had  left  him  came  to  him  to  make  known 
their  evil  case,  how  they  were  led  astray  by  demons. 
He  prayed  for  them  to  the  Lord  of  spirits.  His  prayer 
would  have  been  answered  by  the  binding  of  all  those 
evil  spirits,  but  Mastema  (Satan),  their  chief,  pled  that 
they  had  a  function  in  regard  to  men  who  were  cor- 
rupting their  way,  so  there  is  still  left  to  his  sway  one- 
tenth  of  his  followers,  and  these  he  promised  to  keep  in 
strict  discipline.  In  order,  further,  to  limit  the  power 
of  the  demons,  the  "  angel  of  the  presence  "  explained 
to  Noah  the  use  of  medicines.  All  disease  was  thought 
to  proceed  from  demoniac  influence,  hence  medicine 
must  have  a  spiritual  source  also. 

Mastema,  however,  led  men  to  sin,  to  build  the 
tower  of  Babel,  and  to  worship  graven  images.  This 
leads  to  the  introduction  of  Abraham,  who  manifests 
his  spiritual  prowess,  first,  in  securing  the  fields  of  his 
father  from  birds  sent  by  Mastema.  Abraham  became 


310  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

convinced  of  the  falsity  of  idols,  and  strives  to  convert 
his  father  ;  but,  so  far  as  practice  was  concerned,  in 
vain.  Abraham  then  burned  the  house  of  idols,  and 
his  brother  Haran  was  consumed  in  the  conflagration. 
After  this  the  command  came  to  Abraham  to  depart ; 
and  before  his  actual  departure  God  sent  the  "  angel  of 
the  presence"  to  open  his  heart  to  make  him  know 
wisdom.  He  spoke  to  him,  he  says  in  Hebrew  ;  a 
statement  which  seems  to  imply  that  it  was  not  in 
Hebrew  our  book  was  written. 

Lot  accompanies  Abraham  to  Palestine.  All  the 
occurrences  in  the  history  of  Abraham  are  given  with 
comparatively  small  variation  from  the  Bible  narrative. 
One  thing  to  be  noted  is,  that  the  writer  is  careful  to 
insert  little  remarks  on  the  fulfilment  of  Levitical 
ceremonies  which  evidently  are  regarded  by  him  as 
more  important  than  anything  else  in  the  Divine  Law. 
This  tendency  has,  of  course,  full  play  in  regard  to  the 
rite  of  circumcision.  Among  other  matters  he  informs 
us  that  the  holy  angels  are  created  circumcised.  It 
seems  that  in  consequence  of  Israel  thus  being  a  nation 
consecrated  to  God,  while  other  nations  were  put 
under  the  control  of  separate,  angelic  rulers,  God  Him- 
self was  the  ruler  of  Israel, — a  view  of  matters  that  is 
somewhat  at  variance  with  that  in  Daniel.  Notwith- 
standing the  honour  which  this  ordinance  secured  to 
them,  it  was  announced  to  Abraham  that  his  descend- 
ants would  abandon  it — an  evident  reference  to  the 
Hellenists. 

After  Hagar  and  Ishmael  were  dismissed,  Mastema 
came  into  the  presence  of  God,  as  Satan  does  in  the 
prologue  to  Job,  to  move  God  to  try  Abraham.  In 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  311 

Mastema's  approach  to  God  there  is  not  the  sneering 
contempt  exhibited  by  Satan  in  Job.  He  makes  no 
suggestion  that  Abraham  is  not  honest  and  true  in  his 
love  of  God,  but  only  that  it  would  be  a  test — a 
crowning  test  of  his  love  to  God — to  demand  that  he 
offer  up  his  son  upon  the  altar.  As  we  all  know, 
Abraham  stood  the  test.  But  the  writer  regards  many 
other  events  in  Abraham's  history  as  trials ;  for  after 
the  death  of  Sarah  he  says,  "  This  is  the  tenth  trial 
with  which  Abraham  was  tempted,  and  he  was  found 
faithful."  Before  his  death  Abraham  addressed  advices 
to  his  son  Isaac,  after  warning  him  against  idolatry ; 
in  passing,  he  devotes  his  time  to  explaining  the  proper 
mode  of  offering  sacrifice. 

The  account  of  the  death  of  Abraham  is  made  the 
occasion  for  more  ceremonial  tradition.  The  event 
itself  is  rather  strikingly  told.  He  called  his  grandson 
Jacob  to  him,  and  after  exhorting  him  he  took  Jacob's 
fingers  and  with  them  closed  his  own  eyes  and  stretched 
himself.  Jacob  remained  leaning  on  his  grandfather's 
bosom  with  his  fingers  on  his  eyes,  and  in  that  position 
fell  asleep.  When  he  awoke  he  found  that  Abraham 
was  cold  and  dead. 

How  Jacob  bargained  for  the  birthright  is  narrated 
with  no  sense  of  the  unfairness  of  the  dealing.  His 
obtaining  the  blessing  by  deceiving  his  father  is  told, 
but  there  is  an  attempt  to  minimise  his  guilt.  When 
Jacob  comes  in  with  the  mess  of  savoury  meat  to  his 
father,  in  answer  to  his  question,  "  Who  art  thou,  my 
son?"  Jacob  says,  "  I  am  thy  son."  When,  afterwards, 
Esau  receives  from  his  father  the  modified  blessing, 
Isaac  adds,  after  saying  that  he  would  break  Jacob's  yoke 


312  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

from  his  neck,  "  thou  shalt  commit  a  sin  unto  death, 
and  thy  seed  shall  be  rooted  out  from  under  heaven  ;  " 
a  statement  that  evidently  has  reference  to  the  usurpa- 
tion of  the  throne  of  Judea  by  the  Herodians. 

The  story  of  Jacob's  life  and  journey  to  Padanaram 
is  given  much  as  it  is  in  Scripture,  with  certain  addi- 
tions. On  the  return  of  Jacob,  accompanied  by  his 
family,  we  have  more  additions  to  the  sacred  narrative. 
The  sin  of  Shechem  is  increased  by  the  assertion  that 
Dinah  was  only  twelve  years  old.  And  there  is  no 
mention  of  the  Shechemites  being  circumcised,  so  that 
the  treachery  of  the  action  of  Simeon  and  Levi  is 
quietly  passed  over.  Levi  is  of  necessity  prominent 
in  the  narrative  ;  he  has  a  dream  of  the  future  exal- 
tation of  his  tribe  to  be  priest  to  all  Israel.  And 
when  the  family  went  to  Bethel,  Jacob  called  upon 
Levi  to  exercise  the  priest's  office  and  offer  sacrifice. 
On  going  to  visit  his  father  Isaac,  too,  the  two  sons 
whom  Jacob  takes  with  him  are  Judah  and  Levi. 

There  are  two  incidents  narrated  fully,  both  of  which 
may  be  looked  upon  as  having  an  apologetic  aim,  but 
in  different  directions.  In  the  account  of  Joseph's 
visit  to  his  father  (Gen.  xlviii.  22),  Jacob  says  to  his 
favourite  son,  "  I  have  given  thee  one  portion  above 
thy  brethren  which  I  took  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
Amorite  with  my  sword  and  with  my  bow."  The 
full  account  of  this  transaction — not  mentioned  else- 
where— is  given  in  the  book  before  us.  While  Jacob, 
accompanied  by  Levi,  Judah,  and  Joseph,  was  with 
his  father,  news  was  brought  to  him  that  seven  kings 
of  the  Amorites  had  assembled  their  forces  to  assail 
his  sons  and  rob  them  of  their  flocks  and  herds. 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  313 

"  And  he  arose  from  the  house,  and  his  three  sons  and 
the  young  men  of  his  father,  and  went  forth  and  went 
against  them,  eight  hundred  men  that  drew  sword ; 
and  they  slew  them  in  the  fields  of  Shechem,  and 
pursued  those  that  fled,  and  slew  them  with  the  edge 
of  the  sword."  Then  we  are  told  that  Jacob  was  more 
powerful  than  his  neighbours,  and  laid  a  tax  upon 
them.  The  tradition  that  thus  localised  the  conquest 
of  Jacob  in  Shechem  is  evidently  followed  by  the 
Apostle  John  in  the  fourth  Gospel  (John  iv.  5),  in 
which  he  describes  the  well  at  Sychar  as  "  near  to 
the  parcel  of  ground  which  Jacob  gave  to  his  son 
Joseph." 

The  other  event  alleged  to  have  taken  place  has  no 
justification  in  the  text  of  Scripture.  It  is  very  pro- 
bable that  non-Israelites  would  not  be  slow  to  express 
greater  admiration  for  Esau,  the  bold,  frank  warrior, 
than  for  Jacob,  the  sly,  unwarlike  shepherd.  Every 
Jewish  apologist  surrounded  by  heathens  would  require 
to  meet  this  in  some  way.  The  most  obvious  way  to 
the  Jew  of  that  period  was  to  invent  a  Midrash  in 
which  Esau  appeared  sly  and  cowardly,  and  Jacob 
open  and  chivalrous.  This  evidently  is  the  reason 
which  has  prompted  the  invention  of  the  tale  we  find 
in  chap,  xxxvii.  Before  the  death  of  Isaac,  Rebecca, 
then  a-dying,  endeavoured  to  render  future  quarrel 
between  her  sons  impossible  by  making  them  swear 
friendship.  They  both  did  so ;  Esau  was  profuse  in 
his  protestations.  Isaac  on  his  death  urged  the  same 
thing  on  them,  ending  with  "my  judgment  shall 
come  upon  the  man  who  desires  to  do  evil  against  his 
brother."  Notwithstanding,  the  funeral  obsequies  were 


314  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

barely  over  when  the  sons  of  Esau  urged  their  father 
to  break  his  oath  and  assail  Jacob.  After  a  weak, 
half-hearted  protest  he  yielded  to  his  sons,  and  com- 
menced to  prepare  to  assail  Jacob  and  his  sons.  The 
sons  of  Esau  hired  to  themselves  a  thousand  chosen 
warriors  from  Aram,  a  thousand  from  Moab  and 
Ammon,  from  the  Philistines  one  thousand  fighting 
men,  from  the  Edomites  and  Horites  one  thousand 
fighting  men,  and  also  from  the  Hittites.  When  they 
approached,  Jacob  was  lamenting  over  the  death  of 
Leah  his  wife.  He  was  warned  of  their  approach  by 
the  men  of  Hebron,  and,  mounting  on  a  tower,  he  re- 
minded Esau  of  his  promise ;  but  Esau  repudiated  the 
promise,  and  declared  lasting  hatred  against  Jacob  and 
against  his  seed.  Then  Judah  called  upon  his  father 
to  shoot  with  his  bow.  And  he  shot  with  his  bow, 
and  his  first  arrow  killed  his  brother  Esau,  his  second 
arrow  killed  Adoran,1  the  leader  of  the  Arameans. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  consternation  caused  by  this 
slaughter  of  the  chiefs,  the  sons  of  Jacob  came  out 
from  each  of  the  four  sides  of  the  tower  in  which  they 
had  taken  refuge,  accompanied  by  their  servants,  and 
discomfited  their  enemies,  and  pursued  the  Edomites 
to  Mount  Seir.  And  Jacob  buried  his  brother  Esau  in 
Mount  Aduram.  "And  in  the  mountain  of  Seir  the 
sons  of  Jacob  overcame  the  sons  of  Esau,  and  made 
them  bend  their  necks,  so  that  they  became  the  ser- 
vants of  the  sons  of  Jacob."  They  were  permitted 
to  become  tributaries  to  the  sons  of  Jacob.  Ex- 

1  This  name  appears  in  the  Ambrosian  Latin  as  Adoramaronumenon, 
a  form  that  suggests  that  the  writer  of  the  Ambrosian  had  the  Aramaic 
before  him. 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  315 

aggerated  as  this  is,  it  is  reasonableness  itself  com- 
pared with  later  Jewish  legends.  Actual  armies  had 
been  seen,  and  the  space  they  must  occupy  had  been 
estimated ;  armies  of  fifty  or  sixty  thousand — common 
enough  numbers  in  later  Midrashim — were  recognised 
to  be  out  of  the  question.  Judaism  had  not  become 
monastic. 

The  fate  of  Joseph  is  narrated,  but  the  envy  and 
cruelty  of  his  brethren  are  quite  omitted  from  the 
story.  All  that  we  have  is  the  colourless  statement, 
"  When  Joseph  was  seventeen  years  old  they  took 
him  to  Egypt  and  sold  him  to  Potiphar,  a  eunuch  of 
Pharaoh,  chief  of  his  cooks."  Potiphar  really  seems  to 
have  been  chief  of  the  bodyguard,  who,  as  in  Eastern 
courts,  was  also  ex  eo  officio  chief  of  the  executioners. 
The  story  of  Joseph's  temptation — of  his  false  im- 
prisonment— of  his  interpretation  of  Pharaoh's  dreams 
and  his  consequent  release — is  related  much  as  the 
narrative  of  the  inspired  books  gives  it  us.  One 
peculiarity  that  should  be  noted  is,  that  Joseph's 
father-in-law  is  identified  with  his  first  master.  He 
is  called  "  sacrificer  of  Heliopolis,  chief  of  the  cooks  ; " 
the  second  title  is  precisely  that  we  saw  was  given  to 
Joseph's  first  master.  From  this  it  follows  that  the 
writer  regarded  eunuch  as  simply  equivalent  to  officer. 
It  may  be  remarked  that  among  the  Essenes  the  priests 
were  the  cooks.  There  are,  of  course,  some  additions 
and  exaggerations.  Thus  we  are  told  that  such  was 
the  plenty  in  Egypt  in  the  years  of  plenty,  that  for 
one  measure  there  were  eighteen.  Further,  that  in  the 
same  year  that  Joseph  stood  before  Pharaoh,  Isaac  died. 

After  this  comes  the  shameful  story  of  Judah's  sin 


316  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

with  his  daughter-in-law.  It  is  true  the  writer  makes 
Judah  repent  of  his  sins ;  but  he  is  sorry  not  for  the 
fornication  of  which  he  was  guilty,  but  because  it  by 
accident  happened  to  be  also  incest.  Thus  commences 
the  account  of  the  events  that  led  the  sons  of  Israel 
and  their  fathers  to  go  down  to  Egypt.  In  the  main, 
the  tale  is  the  same  as  that  in  Genesis.  We  must  give 
one  noticeable  example  of  the  apologetic  aim  of  the 
author  which  appears  in  regard  to  Joseph's  meeting 
with  his  brethren.  He  cannot  imagine  that  Joseph 
can  swear  "  by  the  life  of  Pharaoh,"  nor  that  he  will 
claim  the  power  of  divination.  The  former  phrase  is 
simply  omitted,  the  latter  is  softened  down :  "  Think 
you  not  that  one  who  drinks  out  of  a  cup  values  it  ? " 
There  is  an  account  given  of  the  descendants  of  Jacob 
that  went  down  with  their  father  to  Egypt  which  has 
an  indirect  interest,  as  it  reveals  the  changes  the  names 
assumed  in  filtering  through  Aramaic,  Greek,  and 
Ethiopic.  The  fact  that  the  Ethiopic  translator  had 
before  him,  not  an  Aramaic  or  Hebrew  text,  but  a 
Greek  one,  is  made  clear.  Some  little  touches  of  in- 
formation are  given  us.  Dan,  it  seems,  had  five  sons, 
four  of  whom  died  the  year  they  went  down  into 
Egypt.  Another  son  more  than  is  given  in  the 
Hebrew  is  ascribed  to  Naphtali  —  he  also  died  un- 
married in  Egypt.  In  consequence,  the  number  of 
the  souls  that  went  down  into  Egypt  has  to  be  amended 
accordingly.  Evidently  the  seventy  sons  of  Israel 
were  regarded  as  having  a  reference  to  the  seventy 
nations  into  which  the  Gentile  world  was  supposed  to 
be  divided. 

When  the  author   comes  to   narrate   the  death  of 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  317 

Jacob,  he  merely  tells  us  that  he  blessed  his  sons, 
but  gives  no  particular  account  of  the  blessing  as 
differentiated  to  each  of  the  several  sons.  In  writing 
this  the  author  seems  either  not  to  have  himself  held 
the  Messianic  hope  of  his  nation,  or,  like  Josephus, 
feared  to  bring  it  before  strangers.  The  latter  seems 
the  more  probable.  Around '  the  court  are  those 
scoffing  Greek  sophists ;  and  the  youth  are  so  en- 
amoured of  them  and  of  their  methods  that  any 
suggestion  he  makes  will  be  tried  by  these  Gentile 
methods.  Now,  if  one  thinks  of  the  Messianic  hopes 
of  Judaism  as  commonly  held  by  the  Jewish  people 
at  the  time,  one  easily  sees  how  utterly  absurd  they 
might  be  made  to  appear.  The  Jews  were  a  small 
despised  nation,  and  had  been  subject  to  one  empire 
after  another  for  more  than  half  a  millennium ;  that 
they  should  have  a  king  who  not  only  would  be  able 
to  deliver  them  from  the  Koman  yoke — a  thing  un- 
likely enough — but  would  enable  them  to  tread  all 
Gentile  nations  under  foot,  the  very  statement  of 
such  a  belief  would  be  enough  to  evoke  ridicule ; 
so  the  Messianic  hopes  of  the  Jews  are  kept  in  the 
background ;  yet  there  are  not  wanting  indications 
that  the  author  himself  believed  in  a  future  more 
glorious  than  the  past. 

When  the  author  comes  to  the  death  of  Joseph,  he 
mentions  some  events  not  otherwise  known,  but  which 
seem  like  the  echoes  of  real  traditions.  When  Joseph 
made  his  brethren  promise  to  carry  his  bones  with 
them  into  Canaan,  the  author  adds :  "  For  he  knew 
that  the  Egyptians  would  not  again  bring  out  his 
bones  and  bury  them  in  the  land  of  Canaan ;  for 


318  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Memkeron,  the  king  of  Canaan,  while  lie  dwelt  in 
Asur,  made  war  in  the  valley  with  the  king  of  Egypt, 
and  killed  him  there,  and  pursued  the  Egyptians  to 
the  gates  of  Eromon.  But  he  was  unable  to  enter, 
for  a  second  new  king  ruled  over  Egypt,  and  he 
was  more  powerful  than  he ;  and  he  returned  to  the 
land  of  Canaan,  and  the  gates  of  Egypt  were  locked, 
and  no  one  entered  Egypt."  This  looks  like  an 
account  of  some  disastrous  campaign  undertaken  by 
the  last  shepherd  king  against  the  Hittites.  It  is 
implied  that  this  overthrow  in  Palestine  was  followed 
by  revolution,  and  the  Eamesside  sovereigns  suc- 
ceeded to  the  Hyksos  dynasty.  Eameses  II.  has 
so  thoroughly  mutilated  and  destroyed  the  monuments 
of  the  dynasty  preceding  his  own,  that  we  really  know 
nothing  of  what  happened. 

The  oppression  endured  by  the  Israelites  is,  of 
course,  described,  but  in  a  very  condensed  way.  It 
may  be  presumed  that  the  Egyptian  bondage  was 
not  a  thing  that  these  later  Jews  would  look  back  on 
with  pride.  A  passage  from  Manetho  declares  that 
the  Israelites  were  cast  out  of  Egypt  as  being  leprous. 
It  may  be  that  the  writer  had  got  access  to  Manetho, 
and  found  the  story  quoted  by  Josephus,  and  also 
an  account  of  this  early  war  against  the  Hittites. 
When  the  records  of  the  Hittite  kingdom  are  read, 
it  is  not  impossible  that  some  more  light  may  be 
thrown  on  the  event  here  referred  to. 

The  account  of  the  oppression  leads  naturally  to 
the  saving  of  Moses  by  Tarmuth,  the  daughter  of 
Pharaoh.  Josephus  calls  her  Thermuthis  —  another 
proof  that  the  writer  of  the  Book  of  Jubilees  and 


THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.  319 

Joseplius  were  using  the  same  set  of  authorities. 
The  present  writer,  differing  from  the  Scripture, 
assigns  Hebrew  maidens  to  the  princess.  In  the 
account  of  Moses'  own  life,  which  is  related  to  him 
by  the  angel  of  the  presence  as  if  it  were  the  life 
of  a  third  party,  save  that  the  second  personal  pronoun 
is  used,  Moses  has  not,  according  to  the  Book  of 
Jubilees,  the  splendid  and  romantic  history  attributed 
to  him  by  Josephus.  This  difference  shows  that  the 
one  author  did  not  copy  from  the  other.  Most 
readers  of  the  Scripture  have  felt  a  difficulty  in  com- 
prehending the  transaction  related  in  Ex.  iv.  24, 
where  it  is  said  that  the  Lord  met  Moses,  "  and  sought 
to  slay  him."  The  author  endeavours  to  simplify 
the  matter  by  attributing  this  desire  to  slay  Moses 
to  Mastema.  "Thou  knowest  what  the  prince 
Mastema  desired  to  do  with  thee  when  thou 
returnedst  to  Egypt."  The  object  of  Mastema 
is  to  save  the  Egyptians  from  the  hands  of 
Moses.  All  through  the  plagues  of  Egypt  Mas- 
tema was  present  resisting  Moses.  He  helped  the 
sorcerers  in  their  imitation  of  Moses'  miracles,  and 
strove  to  throw  Moses  into  the  hands  of  Pharaoh. 
The  angels  of  God,  however,  interposed,  and  bound 
Mastema  for  five  days,  so  that  he  should  not  accuse 
the  children  of  Israel.  Then  he  was  let  loose,  in 
order  that  he  should  induce  the  Egyptians  to  pursue 
the  Israelites.  The  story  of  the  death  of  the  first- 
born of  Egypt — their  falling  before  the  sword  of  the 
destroying  angel  —  is  told  in  accordance  with  the 
Scripture  narrative,  but  in  a  way  incomparably  more 
bald  and  less  sublimely  impressive.  Very  striking  is 


320  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  fact,  that  while  the  scriptural  accounts  mention 
the  death  of  the  son  of  Pharaoh  that  sat  on  his  throne, 
— and  that  such  an  event  occurred  is  proved  by  the 
inscriptions, — the  present  writer  does  not  know  of  the 
famous  Seti  II.,  the  son  in  question.  Although  the 
scriptural  description  of  the  institution  of  the  Pass- 
over gives  one  the  feeling  that  this  act  of  worship 
at  any  rate  might  be  done  wherever  the  worshippers 
happened  to  be,  in  the  Book  of  Jubilees  it  is  expressly 
enjoined  on  the  children  of  Israel  that  the  lamb  be 
slain  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle. 

The  last  chapter  is  wholly  occupied  with  an  explana- 
tion and  enforcing  of  the  Sabbath  law.  The  strict- 
ness of  the  observance  enjoined  is  more  than  Pharisaic, 
and  suggests  all  that  Josephus  said  of  the  Essene 
strictness  in  regard  to  this  matter :  "  Whoever  lights 
a  fire,  rides  upon  a  beast,  or  travels  by  ship  upon 
the  sea,  who  contends  or  engages  in  war  on  the 
Sabbath  day :  the  man  that  does  any  of  these  things 
on  the  Sabbath  day  shall  die."  Such  a  fanatical 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  would  have  been  impossible 
even  for  the  Pharisees  ;  it  would  only  be  possible  for  the 
Essenes  in  their  solitude.  Probably  there  were  ways 
of  granting  dispensations  for  those  who  were  in  cities. 

Such,  then,  is  the  Book  of  Jubilees. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    ASSUMPTION   OF   MOSES. 

those  that  dwelt  in  the  quiet  seclusion  of 
Engedi,  it  was  but  natural  that  as  they  gazed 
on  the  mountain  of  Moab,  now  black  against  the 
rosy  sky  of  the  morning,  and  now  all  golden  in  the 
fading  glories  of  evening,  they  should  think  of  Moses 
the  man  of  God,  who  somewhere  in  the  clefts  of  those 
mountains  had  been  laid  to  rest  by  God  Himself. 
How  often  must  they  have  fancied  they  saw  the 
great  lawgiver  gazing  with  undimmed  eye  on  the 
lovely  land  he  was  not  permitted  to  enter.  To  him 
to  whom  so  much  had  been  revealed,  they  would 
be  prone  to  believe  that  yet  more  than  they  read 
of  had  been  made  known.  If  God  had  unveiled  to 
him  the  mystery  of  creation,  and  had  shown  him  the 
earth,  without  form  and  void,  under  the  Divine  plastic 
hand  assuming  beauty  and  grace,  surely  the  future 
would  not  be  hid  from  him.  As  God  had  shown  him 
the  vision  of  creation,  would  He  not  also  show  him  the 
completion  of  creation  in  the  Messianic  glories  of  the 
new  heaven  and  new  earth  ?  He  had  seen  the  Holy 
Land  from  Lebanon  on  the  north  to  the  mountain  of 
Edom,  would  the  future  fate  of  that  land  be  hid  from 
him  ?  Such  thoughts  as  these  would  often  be  present 
in  the  minds  of  those  secluded  worshippers. 


322  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Remove  the  trammels  of  prose  and  fact,  and  dreams 
may  become  reality,  possibility  may  become  inex- 
tricably mixed  up  with  actuality ;  that  which  is  not 
becomes  as  though  it  were.  The  thought  of  Moses 
mounting  up  that  lonely  hill  grew  in  clearness  as 
they  contemplated  it ;  they  see  him,  they  hear  his 
voice.  As  Elisha  had  followed  Elijah  up  those  same 
slopes,  they  could  not  believe  but  that  with  Moses 
went  up  also  Joshua  his  faithful  friend  and  servant ; 
and  if  Joshua,  would  not  Caleb  also  follow,  if  only 
afar  off  ?  And  as  usual  one  more  than  another  would 
have  his  imagination  excited  by  these  thoughts.  His 
imagination  might  receive  a  further  spur  if,  as  we 
suppose,  the  "  Little  Genesis,"  the  "  Book  of  Jubilees," 
had  already  been  written,  and  was  being  used  for 
the  education  of  the  younger  members  of  the  Essenian 
community.  The  result  of  these  thoughts  and  dreams 
was  the  Assumption  of  Moses. 

When  Moses  was  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  old, 
and  four  hundred  and  seventy  years1  had  elapsed 
since  their  fathers  had  gone  down  to  Egypt,  Moses 
had  repeated  the  law  given  in  Sinai  with  such 
alterations  as  suited  the  altered  circumstances  into 
which  the  nation  was  soon  to  pass.  The  people  of  Israel 
were  now  gathered  on  the  banks  of  Jordan  ;  before 
them  lay  the  land  promised  to  the  fathers.  Moses 
had  blessed  them  tribe  by-  tribe,  and  encouraged  them 
to  look  forward  to  a  glorious  time  in  the  future  ;  there 
is  one,  however,  whom  he  must  specially  strengthen, 

1  All  that  is  in  the  MS.  at  this  point  is— mus—mus— mus.  We 
would  read  I.  mus,  LXX.  mus,  CCCC.  mus.  Volkmar's  suggestion  of 
XL.  mus  and  XXX.  mus  has  little  in  its  favour. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  323 

Joshua,  who  is  to  succeed  him  in  the  leadership. 
Moses  knows  that  he  himself  is  straightway  to  die, 
but  there  is  no  jealousy  for  his  own  fame  lest  it 
should  be  lost  in  that  of  Joshua.  God  in  the  taber- 
nacle had  singled  out  Joshua  to  lead  the  people  into 
the  land  He  had  promised  to  their  fathers,  and  that  is 
enough. 

Now  Moses  addresses  and  exhorts  him  to  be  strong, 
and  to  play  the  man ;  and  having  done  so,  assigns  a 
reason  for  this  exhortation,  "  because  God  has  created 
the  world  on  account  of  His  people.1  He  did  not 
begin  His  creation,  or  from  the  beginning  make  it 
manifest,  that  the  heathen  might  be  converted,  and 
humbly  convince  themselves  in  their  arguments  with 
each  other."  The  world  only  existed  for  Israel.  These 
heathen  philosophers,  whom  some  of  the  solitaries 
studied,  spoke  about  the  world  beginning  with  water 
or  air ;  but  the  world  was  not  created  for  their  specu- 
lation, but  for  the  sake  of  Israel.  He  might  well  then 
be  bold  and  play  the  man.  Moses,  however,  has 
another  argument — he  himself  had  been  chosen  and 
formed,  thought  out  (excogitavit),  in  order  to  be 
the  mediator  (/ueo-tV?/?)  of  the  covenant.  God  fore- 
saw (7r/ooe0eao-aTo)  him  from  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world  (TT/>O  /cara/SoX^?  *oo>iot>).  He,  Moses,  had 
been  so  chosen  and  strengthened ;  and  now  Joshua, 
having  been  chosen,  might  have  good  confidence  in 
playing  the  man,  for  God  would  be  on  his  side.  We 
see  here  the  absolute  preordination  implied  in  this, 
a  hyper-Calvinism,  in  short,  that  has  something  of 
the  sublimity  of  reach,  that  all  Calvinism  has.  This 

1  Baruch. 


324  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

suits  thoroughly  the  representation  which  Josephus 
gives  of  the  theological  position  of  the  Essenes.1 

But,  further,  he  announces  to  Joshua  his  approach- 
ing death,  and  tells  him  that  he  will  relate  the  things 
that  are  to  come  to  the  consummation  of  all  things. 
He  requires  of  him  to  arrange  and  embalm  (hedriabis)  2 
the  writings  which  he  shall  give  him,  and  "  put  them 
in  a  vessel  of  earth,  and  hide  them  in  a  place  prepared 
for  them  from  the  creation,  that  his  name  might  be 
called  upon  —  laid  up  for  the  day  of  repentance  —  when 
God  shall  look  upon  His  people  at  the  end  of  the 
days."  The  writer  evidently  adds  this  to  explain 
the  discovery  of  this  prophecy.  We  can  imagine  the 
strange  mingling  of  fanatical  piety  and  a  taste  for 
forgery  which  led  the  man  to  write  out  in  crabbed 
characters  what  really  was  the  solemn  exhortation  to 
his  fellows,  and  then  wander  away  up  those  Moabite 
mountains  and  hide  the  writing  in  an  earthen  vessel 
in  some  cranny  of  the  rock.  After  sufficient  time  had 
elapsed  to  make  the  earthen  vessel  look  mouldy 
and  old,  and  the  parchments  grow  musty,  —  though  he 
had  prepared  for  them  being  found  fresh  by  the  em- 
balment,  —  he  allures  some  of  his  fellow  solitaries  away 
up  the  mountain,  and  as  arranged  by  this  pious  man, 
they  find  the  Book  of  the  Prophecy  of  Moses.  It  is 
brought  back  to  Engedi  with  great  triumph,  and 
opened  with  reverence  and  read  with  awe. 

The  prophecy  proper  commences,  "  Behold,3  now 
they  shall  by  thee  enter  into  the  land  which  God 


1  Antiq.  xiii.  5.  9.  2  Hilgenfeld, 

3  The  words  here  are  awanting  ;  they  are  supplied  by  Hilgenfeld 
*.*\  vvv  ;  Fritzsche,  et  mine.  We  have  followed  Volkmar,  as  his  sug- 
gestion is  more  in  accordance  with  Hebrew  usage. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  325 

decreed  and  promised  to  give  to  their  fathers."  This 
revelation  was  itself  fitted  to  encourage  Joshua.  But 
Moses  now  looks  farther  into  the  future,  "  And  thou 
shalt  bless  them,  and  shalt  divide l  to  each  tribe  his 
portion,  and  confirm  them  in  their  lot,  and  assure2 
to  them  the  rule;3  and  thou  shalt  in  judgment  and 
righteousness  hand  over  the  local  authority  to  them, 
according  to  what  shall  please  their  God.4  But 
they,  after  they  have  been  in  the  land  [five]5 
years,  shall  be  then  ruled  over  by  judges  and  kings 
for  eighteen  and  nineteen  years."  It  is  obvious 
enough  that  it  is  not  merely  ordinary  years  that  are 
here  intended ;  the  time  would  be  too  short.  The  most 
diverse  opinions  have  been  held  as  to  the  space  meant 
by  this  "  year."  If  we  were  to  judge  merely  a  priori, 
seven  years  might  be  thought  a  probable  number ;  it 
would  certainly  harmonise  with  the  representation 
in  the  Book  of  Jubilees,  so  far  at  least  that  a  week  of 
years  is  one  of  the  units  in  that  book.  It  will  not, 
however,  suit  the  period  to  be  occupied.  Langen 
suggests  that  the  period  intended  is  ten  years.  In 
that  case  the  first  period  of  five  years  may  be  regarded 
as  indicating  the  period  of  Joshua  and  of  the  elders 
that  outlived  Joshua.  From  the  death  of  Joshua  to 
the  death  of  Samson,  the  period  embraced  in  the 
history  of  the  Book  of  Judges  is  370  years,  that  is  to 
say,  thirty-seven  decennial  periods,  or  eighteen  and 
nineteen  decennial  periods.  But  on  that  principle 
there  is  no  time  assigned  for  Eli,  Samuel,  Saul,  David, 

1  Dabis.  2  ConstaUlibis.  s  Regimen. 

4  Reading  illi  with  Fritzsche. 

5  The  number  is  awanting  ;  this  is  Volkmar's  suggestion. 


326  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

or  Solomon ;  and  these  must  come  in,  for  immediately- 
after  the  nineteen  years  is  mentioned  we  are  told  that 
the  ten  tribes  would  break  away  from  the  centre  of 
worship.  Again,  only  twenty  years  are  allowed  for 
the  continuance  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  after  the 
revolt  of  the  ten  tribes.  If  we  take  the  period 
indicated  to  be  twenty  of  those  decennial  periods  sup- 
posed by  Langen,  then  we  have  a  period  of  in  all  200 
years — much  too  short,  for  the  actual  time  that  elapsed 
must  have  been  over  400  years.  From  the  syn- 
chronism that  exists  between  Jewish  history  and  the 
Babylonian  canon,  we  learn  that  the  Jewish  chronology 
is  somewhat  too  long.  The  difference,  however,  is  not 
at  all  equal  to  the  task  of  reducing  467  to  200. 
Another  difficulty  suggests  itself  in  regard  to  the 
number  ten.  We  have  no  indication  that  it  had  any 
sacred  significance  which  would  suggest  its  employ- 
ment, it  is  purely  arbitrarily  chosen.  Much  more  may 
be  said  for  Volkmar's  view,  that  by  "year"  a  reign  is 
intended.  The  fifteen  judges  and  the  three  kings 
make  up  eighteen,  and  the  nineteen  may  be  merely  the 
inclusion  of  Eehoboam.  We  are  then  told  that  for 
twenty  years  offerings  would  be  presented.  Strangaly 
enough  there  were  nineteen  sovereigns  in  both  king- 
doms, with  the  possibility  of  counting  in  one  more  in 
both  cases,  Athaliah  in  the  southern  kingdom,  and 
Tibni,  the  son  of  Ginath,  in  the  northern.  The 
reference  probably  is  to  the  Davidic  kingdom.  The 
author  makes  Moses  prophesy  that  seven  would 
surround  themselves  with  walls,  and  that  him  God 
Himself  would  guard,  and  they  should  agree  to  His 
covenant.  This  sentence  clearly  proves  that  the  period 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  327 

called  a  year  has  a  personal  reference.  If  we  reckon  in 
Athaliah's  reign,  there  were  sixteen  sovereigns  from 
the  accession  of  Rehoboam  to  the  death  of  Josiah.  In 
regard  to  seven  of  these  it  is  recorded  they  "  did  evil 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,"  and  of  nine  that  they  "did 
good  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord."  After  these  kings  had 
ended  their  reign,  then  would  the  people  begin  to 
pollute  themselves,  and  God  would  bring  upon  them 
"  a  king  from  the  east,  who  would  cover  the  land  with 
his  cavalry ; "  the  reference,  of  course,  here  is  to  the 
invasion  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  but  the  writer  evidently 
has  in  his  mind  the  terrible  Parthian  invaders,  who 
after  the  defeat  of  Crassus  had  burst  into  the  Holy 
Land,  had  driven  Herod  out  of  Jerusalem,  and  had 
set  Antigonas,  the  son  of  Aristobulus  on  the  throne ; 
and  this  colours  his  description  of  the  earlier  invasions. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  although  in  the  Ninevite  and 
Babylonian  armies  cavalry  soldiers  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  word  are  represented,  there  are  more  charioteers, 
and  the  vast  majority  of  the  army  was  always  infantry, 
spearmen,  and  slingers.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Parthian  armies  were  almost  wholly  cavalry. 

After  the  people  of  the  southern  kingdom  are 
carried  away  captive,  they  invoke  the  help  of  their 
brethren,  who  are  in  the  same  case.  They  humble 
themselves  before  God,  and  remember  how  Moses,  who 
had  led  them  out  of  Egypt,  had  prophesied  "  that 
so  it  would  happen  to  them  if  they  forsook  God." 
Then  after  about  seventy-seven  years  they  are  returned 
to  their  own  land.  Here  the  years  are  literal  years, 
and  the  number  taken  from  Jeremiah.  The  writer 
connects  the  return  with  the  prayers  of  Daniel. 


328  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

"  Then  one  who  was  over  them  went  within  and 
spread  out  his  hands  and  fell  on  his  knees  and  prayed 
for  them,  saying,  '  0  Lord  of  all  (Domine  omnis), 
King  in  the  height,  who  didst  choose  this  people,  and 
desirest  to  be  called  their  God,  according  to  the 
covenant  which  Thou  didst  make  with  their  fathers, 
they  have  even  gone  into  captivity  with  their  wives 
and  their  children  into  a  strange  land  and  are  about 
the  gate  of  the  heathen.  And  where  is  (Thy)  great 
majesty  ? 1  Have  respect  unto  them,  and  pity  them, 
0  heavenly  Lord/  "  It  was  as  an  answer  to  this 
prayer  that  God  remembered  His  covenant  and 
replaced  the  two  tribes  in  their  own  land ;  the  ten 
tribes  grew  and  multiplied,  however,  where  they  were. 
The  two  tribes  fortifying  the  city  and  renewing  the 
Jewish  state,  yet  groaned  because  "they  could  not 
offer  sacrifices  to  their  God."  It  would  seem  that  the 
sect  to  which  our  author  belonged  did  not  believe 
that  in  the  second  temple — possibly  because  there  had 
been  no  descent  of  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  in  its 
dedication,  as  at  that  of  the  Solomonic  temple — 
acceptable  sacrifices  could  be  offered.  This  explains 
the  abstention  of  the  Essenes  from  the  temple  worship 
in  Jerusalem.  He  looks  forward  to  a  general  restitu- 
tion of  Israel,  when  all  would  be  as  the  saints  desired, 
when  all  the  people  would  be  united  again  "  in  the 
time  of  the  tribes." 

The  author  now  overleaps  all  the  intervening  history 

1  Here  we  follow  Volkmar  ;  maiestas  is  in  the  text.  If  taken  as  an 
affirmative  statement  and  not  a  question,  the  clause  is  evidently  nonsense  ; 
hence  Hilgenfelcl  and  Merx  would  read  mastitia,  and  Fritzsche  molestia 
instead  of  maiestas.  It  seems  simpler  to  imagine  tua  has  dropped  out, 
and  that  the  clause  is  to  be  read  interrogatively. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  329 

between  the  return  of  the  Jews  under  Cyrus  to  the 
later  Hasmonseans.  This  he  regards  as  the  time  of 
punishment,  when  men  assumed  the  priesthood  who 
were  not  of  the  true  priestly  race,  but  were  "  slaves 
born  of  slaves."  Evidently  the  writer  had  every 
sympathy  with  Eleazar  the  Pharisee  when  he  demanded 
that  John  Hyrcanus  I.  should  give  up  the  high 
priesthood,  because  he  alleged  his  mother  had  been 
a  captive  in  a  Syrian  camp.  The  tendency  the  Has- 
monseans had  of  following  Hellenic  ways  was  evidently 
much  blamed  by  him.  We  have  no  means  of  knowing 
that  this  Hellenising  fashion  went  further  than  assum- 
ing Greek  names  and  using  them  rather  than  the 
Hebrew,  with  perhaps  a  liking  for  Greek  manners  and 
Greek  philosophy  and  arts ;  but  our  author  sees  in  it 
the  worship  of  false  gods.  A  Puritan  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  would  have  extended  no  toleration  to 
works,  however  beautiful  artistically,  that  depicted 
sacred  subjects,  and  would  have  regarded  as  an 
indubitable  sign  of  a  Homeward  tendency  the  intro- 
duction of  anything  of  that  sort  into  a  place  of 
worship.  It  is  well  known  that,  recently  in  Scotland, 
the  question  of  purity  of  worship  was  regarded  as  inex- 
tricably involved  with  that  in  regard  to  the  exclusion 
of  instrumental  music  from  congregational  praise. 

Not  only  did  they  assume  the  priesthood,  but  more, 
they  would  even  mount  the  throne.  This  was  an 
additional  act  of  guilt  —  the  throne  belonged  to  the 
seed  of  David.  The  people  acquiesced  in  this  usurpa- 
tion, and  so  they  had  to  endure  punishment.  Bad  as 
those  priest -kings  were,  a  worse  thing  befalls  the 
nation,  a  "  petulant  king,  not  of  the  priestly  race," 


330  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

ascends  the  throne.  "  He  is  rash  and  evil,  and  will  slay 
their  nobles  with  the  sword.  He  will  cast  out1  their 
bodies  into  unknown  places,  and  no  one  shall  know 
where  their  bodies  are.  He  will  slay  old  and  young, 
and  will  not  spare."  To  make  it  perfectly  certain  whom 
he  means,  the  author  informs  us  how  long  this  tyrant 
is  to  reign — "  thirty-five  years."  The  picture  of  Herod 
is  clearly  drawn,  evidently  by  the  hand  of  a  con- 
temporary. How  Langen  can  imagine  it  can  refer 
to  Aristobulus  it  is  difficult  to  comprehend.  He 
extends  his  ten  year  period  to  this  also,  and  is 
necessitated  to  change  the  reading,  so  far  as  one  can 
see,  gratuitously.  The  author  goes  on,  "  He  shall 
have  sons  who  shall  succeed  him  and  rule  for  a  short 
while."  This  is  literally  true ;  Herod  was  succeeded, 
not  by  one  son,  but  by  three.  Archelaus  was  made 
ethnarch  of  Judea,  and  Philip  tetrarch  of  Iturea, 
and  Herod  Antipas  tetrarch  of  Galilee.  Now  comes 
a  point  at  which  our  author  breaks  away  from  his- 
tory. He  expects  that  the  reign  of  the  Herodian 
princes  would  be  cut  short  by  the  arrival  of  a 
powerful  king  of  the  West,  whose  cohorts  would 
assail  and  capture  the  city,  burn  it  with  fire,  and, 
in  addition,  crucify  certain  of  them  about  the  city. 
This  fate  had  befallen  Aristobulus,  and  the  city  in 
consequence,  at  the  hands  of  Pompey.  Later,  the 
same  thing  had  occurred  when  Herod  was  replaced 
on  the  throne  by  Sosius.  A  more  recent,  and  in  some 
sense  more  tremendous,  example  of  the  power  of  Rome 

1  Cod.  singuli  et ;  instead  of  this  Fritzsche  suggests  stranyulabit,  for 
which  there  seems  no  justification.  Volkmar  and  Hilgenfeld,  sepelit. 
Might  not  ejiciet  suit  ?  The  tyrant  was  little  likely  to  take  the  trouble  of 
burial. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  331 

was  the  expedition  of  Varus,  in  consequence  of  the 
uproar  that  took  place  during  the  absence  of  Archelaus 
in  Kome.  Then  the  Koman  general  crucified  no  less 
than  two  thousand  rebelling  Jews.  We  do  not  think, 
however,  that  this  is  used  for  more  than  suggestion. 
The  author  was  under  the  impression  that  the 
Herodians  would  all  be  dispossessed,  and  similar 
disasters  would  befall  their  followers. 

He  tells  his  readers  that  the  end  approaches;  that 
when  the  four  hours  shall  have  come,  then  the  end 
will  be.  To  find  what  the  writer  means  by  hour 
we  must  bear  in  mind  that  in  Greek  a>pa  does  not 
generally  mean  an  hour,  but  any  definitely  fixed 
period  of  time — a  year,  a  season,  or  a  day.  As  we  are 
in  the  region  of  symbol  and  pseudo-prophecy,  not  of 
prose  and  fact,  we  must  expect  to  find  an  hour  have  a 
much  more  indefinite  meaning.  Unfortunately,  all 
attempts  to  fix  definitely  what  the  writer  means  here 
are  rendered  all  but  futile  by  the  number  of  lacunce 
that  occur  here  in  the  manuscript.  The  intelligible 
fragments  are  few,  and  these  intelligible  only  as 
fragments.  Volkmar  has  the  idea  that  the  four 
hours  are  four  imperial  dynasties  that  had  one  after 
the  other  occupied  the  imperial  throne.  So  far,  how- 
ever, as  can  be  deciphered,  there  is  nothing  about 
the  imperial  dynasties  at  all.  It  is  rather  more  than 
can  be  expected,  that  suggestions  which  supply  a  word 
from  a  letter  should  be  treated  as  if  they  were  clearly 
words  legible  in  the  manuscript.  From  the  fact  that 
the  writer  commences  at  once  with  the  signs  of  the  last 
times,  and  these  four  hours  are  part  of  these  signs,  it 
would  seem,  at  all  events,  a  possible  solution  that  the 


332  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

"hour,"  instead  of  meaning  a  definite  space  of  time, 
means  a  mood  of  the  time  in  which  he  was  living.  Our 
Lord  addressing  those  who  had  come  to  arrest  Him, 
says  (Luke  xxii.  53) :  "  This  is  your  hour,  and  the 
power  of  darkness." 

If  one  may  deduce  the  meaning  of  the  whole  from 
the  fragments  that  have  come  down  to  us,  it  would  seem 
that  these  hours  were  characterised  by  the  presence 
of  certain  moral  features.  Thus  we  have  immediately 
after  these  lacunce  a  description  of  certain  persons 
that  seem  to  have  been  the  Pharisees ;  at  all  events 
they  are  accused  of  the  very  things  of  which  our  Lord 
accuses  the  Pharisees,  and  in  nearly  the  same  terms : 
"Then  shall  men,  pestilent  and  impious,  bear  rule  on 
account  of  these  things,1  who  yet  shall  say  that  they 
are  righteous."  This  seems  a  description  of  the 
Pharisees ;  they  certainly  had  secured  the  majority 
in  the  Sanhedrin,  but  their  opponents,  the  Sadducees, 
are  also  sketched  with  an  equally  steady  hand.  These 
shall  excite  wrath  in  their  minds,  who  are  men  of 
craft,  living  to  please  themselves,  unreal  in  all  their 
relations ; 2  loving  banquets  every  hour  of  the  day ; 
throats  that  are  devourers  :  this  is,  or  was,  evidently 
directed  against  the  Sadducees,  the  party  of  the  priestly 
nobility,  who  above  all  were  men  of  affairs,  and  played 
chicanery  against  power,  as  may  be  seen  in  their 
dealings  with  Pilate  in  our  Lord's  trial. 

1  De  his;  Volkmar  renders  unter  diesen,  saying  that  the  Greek  was 
probably  \K\  -tovrav,  though  the  German  and  the  Greek  do  not  seem  pre- 
cisely similar.     If  we  take  the  usage  of  the  Vulgate  as  our  guide,  de 
represents  e*,  Matt.  xiii.  41  ;  John  iii.  31  ;  dm,  Matt.  xiv.  29;  the  genitive 
simply,  xviii.  28  ;  mpt,  xxvi.  24. 

2  Ficti  in  omnibus  suis. 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  333 

There  follows  here  another  passage,  where  time  has 
left  us  only  detached  letters  and  syllables  which 
cannot  with  any  degree  of  real  probability  be  filled  up. 
When  we  again  reach  an  intelligible  portion  of  the 
manuscript,  we  find  ourselves  now  in  company,  not  of 
the  Pharisees,  as  we  think,  but  of  the  publicans.  The 
persons  are  described  thus  :  "Devourers  of  the  goods 
of  the  poor,  saying  that  they  did  these  things  for 
mercy's  sake;"  i.e.  take  away  the  goods  of  the  poor 
for  the  Eoman  taxes,  and  pretend  that  they  are  merci- 
ful because  they  do  not  take  much  more ;  "  they  are 
exterminators,  ready  to  lodge  complaints  and  untrue 
statements ;  concealing  themselves  lest  they  should  be 
known ;  impious  in  crime,  full  of  iniquity  from  east  to 
west."  Wherever  these  publicans  were  there  were  works 
of  iniquity  and  wrong.  They  rejoiced  in  all  manner 
of  chambering  and  wantonness  ;  and  as  they  think 
of  the  wealth  they  have  amassed,  say,  "we  shall 
be  princes."  With  hands  and  teeth  they  drag  unclean 
things  to  them.  They  speak  great  things  beyond 
measure.  As  he  thinks  of  their  actions  full  of  horror, 
Moses  says,  "  Touch  me  not,  lest  you  defile  me." 
Again  there  comes  a  passage  that  is  little  more  than 
a  series  of  lacunce  marked  off  by  disjointed  syllables 
and  detached  letters.  As  it  seems  to  us,  the  Sad- 
ducees  and  Pharisees  formed  one  of  these  portents 
which  we  hold  to  be  symbolised  by  the  "hours;"  the 
publicans  another. 

Now  there  comes  a  third  persecution,  such  as  the 
Jews  had  endured  under  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  only 
worse,  as  crucifixion  was  the  penalty  meted  out  to 
those  who  confessed  their  circumcision.  Those  who 


334  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

denied  it  were  betrayed  and  sent  to  prison,  their 
wives  given  to  the  Gentiles,  and  their  sons  cut  by 
physicians  to  efface  the  mark  of  circumcision.  These 
horrors  never  could  happen  literally.  Rome  never 
much  cared  to  make  a  nation  abandon  its  faith. 
Rome  persecuted  Christianity  because  her  statesmen 
suspected  a  political  meaning  in  the  secret  evening 
meetings  of  the  Christians,  and  could  not  comprehend 
a  religion  that  was  not  an  affair  of  state.  Could  any 
one  imagine  even  the  fantastic  Commodus  or  the 
cruel  Caracalla  paying  medical  practitioners  to  remove 
from  Jewish  children  the  sign  of  their  faith  ?  And  still 
less  would  Augustus  or  Tiberius  have  done  so.  Is  it 
not  rather  more  likely  that  this  is  an  exaggerated  re- 
presentation of  the  action  of  the  Herodians  ?  Those  who 
confessed  their  circumcision  by  hewing  down  the  eagle 
over  the  gate  of  the  temple  suffered  the  last  penalty  of 
the  law ;  those  who  denied  their  faith  suffered  im- 
prisonment, in  order  that  some  lewd  Roman  might 
dishonour  the  wives  of  their  prisoners.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  though  the  Jews  were  as  a  rule  freed  from 
the  obligation  of  military  service,  sometimes,  how- 
ever, they  were  pressed  into  it,  and  the  writer  antici- 
pates that  this  will  become  general.  Jews  will  be 
punished  for  military  disobedience  with  torture  and 
fire  and  sword.  What  he  regards  as  worse  than 
torture,  is  being  compelled  to  bear  the  standards  with 
their  heathen  emblems.  The  military  oath  is  full 
of  untold  horrors  for  him ;  "by  those  tormenting 
them"  these  Jews  "shall  be  compelled  to  enter  a 
secret  place,  and  be  forced  by  goads  to  blaspheme 
the  law  and  the  altar  and  what  is  upon  it." 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  335 

The  fourth  sign  or  hour  that  will  intimate  the 
coming  of  the  end  is  the  appearance  of  a  Levite,  whose 
name  is  Taxo,  who  with  his  seven  sons  retires  to  a 
cave  in  utter  despair  at  the  state  of  the  holy  people. 
When  he  assembles  his  seven  sons  he  says,  "  See,  my 
sons,  there  is  yet  another  cruel  vengeance  to  be  exacted 
from  the  people — betrayal  of  the  princedoms  *  without 
mercy  or  clemency  ;  for  what  race  or  what  land  or  what 
people  of  those  impious  against  God,  who  have  com- 
mitted so  many  crimes,  who  have  endured  so  many 
evils  as  those  which  have  fallen  upon  us  ?  Ye  see  and 
know  that  never  have  they  tempted2  God,  nor  their 
parents,  nor  their  grandparents,  that  they  shall  lay 
aside  the  commandments."  These  other  nations  never 
were  in  any  covenant  relationship  with  God,  and  have 
therefore  cast  aside  His  commandments.  There  is 
only  one  way  that  Israel  can  be  saved, — physical 
might  will  avail  nothing  in  such  a  conflict.  Let  them 
but  die  for  God,  and  God  will  come  forward  as  their 
avenger.  True  to  the  legal  ideal,  shared  by  Pharisees 
with  the  Essenes,  they  determine  to  fast  three  days  and 
then  retire  into  a  cave  to  die.  Whether  they  intended 
to  starve  themselves  to  death,  or  whether  they  were  to 
take  more  active  means  against  their  lives,  does  not 
appear.  Who  it  is  that  is  designated  by  the  name  Taxo 
is  the  great  problem  of  the  book.  Volkmar,  who 
places  the  date  of  this  book  as  late  as  the  days  of 
Hadrian,  will  believe  it  to  stand  for  Rabbi  Aqiba. 
His  proof,  though  ingenious,  is  scarcely  convincing ;  it 


1  Reading  with  Fritzsche  principatuum  instead  of  princepatum  (Cod.), 
dementia  (Merx)  instead  of  eminent! 

2  Reading  with  Hilgenfeld  temptnrunt  instead  of  temptans  :  Cod. 


336  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

involves  among  other  things  the  assumption  that  the 
number  of  the  Beast  in  Revelation  is  the  name  of 
Nero,  and  that  the  153  great  fishes  in  John  xxi. 
designates  Simon  Peter.  Hilgenfeld  has  another 
theory  ;  he  holds  the  original  Greek  to  have  been  T£<?— 
366,  and  that  the  letters  are  equivalent  to  Messiah. 
One  suggestion  of  Volkmar's  which  may  be  looked  at,  is 
that  the  original  Greek  was  ragic*.  If  that  conjecture  is 
correct,  it  might  be  represented  in  Hebrew  by  ^Dns. 
This  could  easily  arise  by  mistake  from  nwnp,  the 
name  of  the  father  of  Judas  Maccabseus.  It  may  be 
urged  that  he  had  only  five  sons,  whereas  Taxo  has 
seven  ;  but  Simon  the  son  of  Mattathias  caused  seven 
pyramids  to  be  erected  at  Modin  to  the  memory  of 
his  father  and  brethren,  and  that  would  easily  give 
rise  to  the  change  in  the  number  of  sons  assigned  to 
him.  It  may  be  that*  the  author  here  means  to 
indicate  that  what  Mattathias  did  was  not  to  be 
repeated,  that  a  man  with  his  spirit  in  him  would  now 
retire  into  a  cave  and  die. 

After  this  Moses  bursts  into  song  : — "  Then  shall 
appear  God's  kingdom  in  all  His  creation ;  then  shall 
the  devil  (Zabulus)  have  an  end,  and  sadness  be  taken 
away  with  him.  Then  shall  be  filled  the  hands  of  the 
messenger  appointed  by  the  Highest,  who  quickly  shall 
vindicate  them  from  their  enemies.  The  heavenly  One 
shall  rise  from  the  throne  of  His  kingdom  and  shall  go 
out  from  His  holy  habitation  with  indignation  and  wrath 
on  account  of  His  sons,  and  will  cause  the  earth  to 
tremble,  and  shake  it  to  its  boundaries.  And  the  lofty 
mountains  shall  be  brought  low  and  shaken  together, 
and  the  valleys  shall  .be  filled."  Then  follows  a  proof 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  337 

of  his  use  of  Joel  iii.  4.  It  is  striking  that  in  Acts  ii. 
20  the  same  passage  is  made  use  of  as  if  in  expectation 
of  an  immediate  literal  fulfilment.  He  ends  his  song 
with  an  exalted  congratulation  of  Israel.  "  Then  happy 
shalt  thou  be,  0  Israel ;  thou  shalt  ascend  on  the  necks 
and  wings  of  eagles,  and  shalt  be  full  :l  for  God  shall 
exalt  thee  and  seat 2  thee  in  the  heaven  of  stars,  in  the 
place  of  their  habitation ;  and  thou  shalt  look  down 
from  the  height  and  shalt  see  thine  enemies  in  the 
earth,  and  shalt  recognise  them,  and  rejoice  and  give 
thanks,  and  confess  thy  Creator." 

Having  finished  his  song,  Moses  addresses  Joshua, 
and  requires  him  to  guard  the  words  he  has  spoken  till 
the  end  of  the  250  times.  On  Langen's  interpreta- 
tion this  would  be  2500  years  after  the  entrance  into 
the  promised  land.  We  are  thus  told  that  when 
Joshua  heard  these  words— which  as  soon  as  heard 
were  written,  it  is  parenthetically  added — he  tore  his 
garments  and  fell  down  at  the  feet  of  Moses,  and  wept 
and  lamented  at  his  approaching  departure ;  and 
although  Moses  strove  to  comfort  him,  he  would  not  be 
consoled,  but  demanded,  "  Who  will  nourish  the  people 
or  lead  them  against  the  Amorites  ? "  He  says  :  "  How 
am  I  able  to  lead  this  people  as  a  father  an  only  son,  or 
as  a  lady  a  virgin  daughter ;  how  can  I  supply  them  at 
will  with  food  and  drink  according  to  the  manner  of 
their  liking  ?  "  He  sees,  too,  that  the  enemies  whom 
they  are  to  encounter  will  be  emboldened  when  they 
learn  that  Israel  has  lost  his  great  defender,  who 
guards  him  by  his  prayers  to  God.  These  nations 
knew  that  every  night  and  all  night  long  Moses  had 

1  Beading  impleleres.  2  Faciet  te  hoerere. 


338  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

his  knees  fixed  on  the  ground  praying  and  looking 
up  to  the  Omnipotent  that  He  might  visit  the  earth. 
Now  he  is  to  depart,  "and  now  what  shall  happen  to 
their  people  ?  "  There  is  one  really  sublime  sentiment 
to  which  Joshua  gives  utterance,  somewhat  aside  from 
the  argument  of  his  speech.  -Speaking  of  his  master's 
approaching  descent  into  the  grave,  he  says,  "  The  whole 
world  is  thy  tomb."  x 

Moses  answers  his  weeping  follower,  and  tells  him 
that  God  had  created  all  the  nations  of  the  world 
along  with  Israel;  that  He  had  foreseen  everything  from 
the  beginning  even  to  the  end  of  time  ;  that  He  had 
sent  him  to  pray  and  entreat  for  their  sins.  "  Not  on 
account  of  my  virtue  or  of  my  weakness,"  he  says,  "  but 
from  His  mercy  and  long-suffering."  Then  addressing 
Joshua  he  says  :  "  I  tell  thee,  not  on  account  of  the 
piety  of  this  people,  thou  ehalt  exterminate  the 
nations."  He  shows  him  how  weak  they  are,  but  that 
in  fulfilling  the  commands  of  God  they  would  be  strong. 
Further,  he  says  :  "  For  God  will  come  forth  who  has 
foreseen  all  things  in  the  world,2  and  His  covenant  is 
established  by  an  oath. 

So  ends  the  manuscript  of  the  Assumption  of  Moses 
without  narrating  to  us  the  event  from  which  it  takes 
its  title.  However,  it  is  easily  seen  what  course  it  must 
have  taken  after  this  point.  In  Clemens  Alexandrinus  3 
we  find  a  reference  to  this  portion  of  the  book  which 
has  not  come  down  to  us.  With  Joshua  was  Caleb, 


1  Compare  Pericles'  funeral  oration,  Thuc.  ii.  43,  dv^pav  y»p  tTrttpetvav 
vAiret  yq  rxQog.  May  this  be  regarded  as  a  proof  of  the  study  of  Greek 
literature  in  Engedi  ? 

8  Sceculo  instead  of  saecula. 

8  Stromateis,  Bk.  vi.  (vol.  ii.  p.  385,  transl.,  Clark,  Edinburgh). 


THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.  339 

only  the  latter  stood  further  down  the  mountain,  and 
were  both,  though  in  different  degrees,  witnesses  of 
the  translation  of  Moses — for  so,  according  to  our 
author,  it  must  have  been.  In  order  not  to  contradict 
Scripture,  the  author  imagines  a  double  vision  vouch- 
safed to  Joshua.  He  saw  at  the  same  time  his 
master  borne  up  by  angels  into  heaven  and  honoured 
with  burial  in  the  ravines  of  the  mountains.  The 
passage  referred  to  by  the  Apostle  Jude  must  have 
occurred  rather  later  in  the  narrative.  It  may  have 
told  how  the  mysterious  conflict  in  the  heavenly  places 
between  the  archangel  and  the  archfiend  was  revealed 
to  Joshua  in  vision,  and  how  that  too  was  committed 
by  him  to  writing.  In  some  of  the  Fathers  we  are 
told  that  the  murder  of  the  Egyptian  was  brought 
against  Moses  by  Satan. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

POST-CHRISTIAN    APOCALYPSES. 

E  great  tragedy  of  the  world's  history  had  been 
accomplished.  Jesus  had  been  betrayed  and 
crucified ;  had  risen  again  the  third  day  according  to 
the  Scriptures,  and  now  was  preached  among  the 
Gentiles.  But  many  Jews  joined  themselves  to  the 
faith  of  Jesus  who  were  not  willing  to  cease  to  be 
Jews  because  they  had  become  Christians. 

Among  those  who  came  over  were  not  only  Phari- 
sees and  Sadducees,  but  also,  and  even  more,  Essenes. 
Though  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  applicable  only 
to  the  solitaries  of  Engedi,  it  seems  our  Lord  had  never 
been  an  Essene,  yet  the  fact  remains  that  His  mother  and 
brothers  belonged  to  that  freer  order  of  the  sect  which 
did  not  enjoin  abandonment  of  family  life,  and  that  not 
improbably  He  Himself  belonged  to  this  order,  and 
had  received  Rabbinic  ordination  in  connection  with  it. 
Although  so  many  of  His  teachings  were  contrary  to 
the  views  maintained  by  the  solitaries  of  Engedi,  the 
Essenes  were  very  favourably  disposed  to  Christianity. 
Indeed,  as  we  have  already  shown,  it  would  seem  as  if 
they  had  come  over  to  Christianity  nearly  in  mass,  and 
formed  in  the  Church  that  Judaising  section  of  the 
believers  that  were  zealous  for  the  law,  against  whom 
Paul  had  to  maintain  such  a  constant  conflict. 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  341 

This  explains  the  tolerance  manifested  by  the  Jews 
of  the  days  of  Paul  towards  the  Jewish  Christians. 
The  Judaising  Christians  seem  hand  in  glove,  so  to 
speak,  with  the  rulers,  and  really  appear  to  have 
excited  them  against  Paul.  We  learn  also  from 
Josephus  the  respect  in  which  James  the  brother  of 
our  Lord  was  held.  From  these  things  we  may 
deduce  that  the  Jewish  people  had  no  controversy 
with  Christians  as  Christians.  The  Christians  must 
thus  have  come  under  one  of  their  known  classes  or 
sects  in  order  so  to  escape.  But  the  only  sect  with 
which  they  could  be  allied  was  that  of  the  Essenes. 

We  have  seen  reason  to  identify  the  Judaisers  in 
general  with  the  Essenes,1  in  this  going  further  than 
Bishop  Lightfoot,  who  would  only  regard  the  Judaisers 
of  Colosse  as  Essenes.  We  have  here  to  look  at  the 
effect  of  their  presence  in  one  special  Church. 

These  Jewish  Christians  spread  themselves,  as  we 
see  in  the  New  Testament,  all  over  the  Gentile 
Churches,  and  among  the  Churches  they  visited  was 
that  of  Eome.  The  Christian  community  in  Kome  was 
composed  of  two  distinct  portions,  one  Gentile,  chiefly 
Greek,  the  other  Jewish.  These  seem  to  have  re- 
mained separate  like  the  Arve  and  the  Rhone,  each 
with  its  distinct  pastor.  This  supposition,  at  all  events, 
affords  the  most  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  peculiar 
traditions  and  phenomena  of  the  Church  of  Rome.2 

1  See  above,  p.  115. 

2  The  first  thing  one  observes  in  regard  to  the  Roman  Church  is  the 
variety  in  the  order  of  its  alleged   earliest  bishops  with  a  practical 
identity  in  the  names.     According  to  Euseb.  Eccl.  His.  iii.  4.  and  15,  the 
order  is  Linus,  Anencletus,  Clemens ;  according  to  the  Liberian  catalogue, 
following  St.  Augustine,  it  is  Linus,  Clemens,  Cletus ;  while  Tertullian 
declares  Clement  to  have  succeeded  Peter.      Cave's  hypothesis  is  that 


342  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Over  the  Church  thus  divided  swept  a  terrible 
tempest,  that  forced  the  Christians  to  cling  together. 
The  Neronian  persecution  cemented  with  blood  the 
upbuilding  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  If  tradition  is  to 
be  trusted,  both  Peter  and  Paul  suffered  in  that  per- 
secution. 

In  the  midst  of  these  scenes  of  horror  there 
wandered  one  from  Judea  who  belonged  to  the  sect 
that  had  their  headquarters  at  Engedi  by  the  Dead 
Sea.  Into  the  great  colluvies  of  nations  by  the  Tiber 
had  been  floated  one  of  the  Christian  Essenes. 
He — like  so  many  before  him — had  had  visions,  and 
upon  him  had  rested — so  had  he  dreamed — the  spirit 
and  power  of  Isaiah.  He  felt  all  the  more  akin  to  the 
evangelical  prophet  that  he  was  himself  a  Christian, 
and  to  him  all  the  prophecies  of  the  son  of  Amoz  were 
full  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  It  seemed  to  him  that 
Isaiah  must  have  seen  more  than  he  had  related  in 
the  prophecies  that  have  come  down.  And  as  he 
dwelt  in  thought  upon  this,  he  too  seemed  to  be  swept 
away  up  into  heaven  after  heaven,  and  saw  mighty 
marvels.  The  spirit  of  Isaiah  had  come  down  upon  him, 
and  had  carried  him  away  up  into  the  seventh  heaven. 

This  was  what  he  had  seen  and  revealed  in  the  manu- 
script he  had  left  in  the  sacred  library  at  Engedi. 

Each  heaven  grew  in  splendour  as  he  ascended.  In 
each  there  was  a  throne  on  which  one  sat,  and  on 
either  side  were  angels  singing  praises  to  the  Most 

suggested  in  the  text.  But  further,  only  in  Rome  and  Alexandria — in 
which  as  in  Rome  there  was  a  large  Jewish  population — were  there  con- 
gregations with  special  pastors  (Neander,  Life  of  Chrysostom).  Bellinger's 
theory  of  Hippolytus  being  an  anti-pope  seems  to  bear  out  the  same 
view  (Dollinger— Hippolytus  and  GalHstus—Transl.,  Clark). 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  343 

High.  Such  was  the  case  in  the  first  five  heavens. 
But  in  the  sixth  there  was  no  throne,  but  all  the  angels 
had  an  equal  glory.  Still  upward  he  had  been  swept 
in  his  vision  until  he  reached  the  seventh  heaven,  where 
God  was  in  all  His  glory.  "  I  beheld  one  standing  whose 
glory  surpassed  that  of  all,  whose  glory  was  great  and 
wonderful.  And  Adam?,  and  Abel,  and  Seth,  all  the 
saints  of  old  approached  and  worshipped  Him,  and 
glorified  Him  with  united  voice.  I  also  myself  glorified 
with  them,  and  my  song  was  like  theirs."  Immediately 
all  the  angels  approached,  and  worshipped  and  sang 
praises.  And  he  was  transformed,  and  became  like  an 
angel.  "  Then  the  angel  who  was  with  me  called  upon 
me  to  worship  Him,  and  I  worshipped  Him  ;  and  the 
angel  added,  '  This  is  the  Lord  of  all  glory  which  thou 
hast  beheld ; '  and  while  I  was  yet  conversing,  I  per- 
ceived a  second  glorious  being  similar  to  Him  in 
appearance,  whom  the  saints  approached  and  wor- 
shipped. And  again  I  saw  another  in  great  glory;  and 
walking  I  asked  the  angel,  '  Who  is  this  ? '  and  he  said 
to  me,  '  Adore  Him,  for  He  is  the  angel  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  that  speaketh  in  them  and  in  all  the  righteous.' 
Immediately  there  was  revealed  an  ineffable  glory,  and 
straightway  I  ceased  to  be  able  to  look  because  of  the 
glory  ;  nor  could  any  of  the  angels  look  on  that  glory, 
only  the  saints."  After  this  glorious  vision  he  was 
shown  the  gospel  history.  He  saw  the  Second  Person 
in  the  Trinity  descending  through  heaven  after  heaven 
till  He  came  to  the  earth.  He  saw  the  mystery  of 
the  conception  and  birth.1  He  saw  the  wonders  of 

1  This  part  is  omitted  in  the  Venetian  Latin,  of  which  see  below  in 
the  following  book. 


344  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

His  life — the  shame  of  His  death,  yet  its  surpassing 
glory  through  the  resurrection.  He  saw  the  apostles 
sent  forth  to  proclaim  the  gospel.  He  saw  Him 
ascending  up  through  heaven  after  heaven  until  He 
had  seated  Himself  on  the  throne  of  God.  Here  we 
have  all  the  essentials  of  the  Gospel  history  and 
doctrine  veiled  in  vision.  There  are  elements  here 
that  speak  of  the  coming  heresy  of  the  Gnostics. 
These  five  heavens  had  each  its  presiding  archon : 
beneath  them  was  the  firmament  where  Satan  rules  : 
he  and  his  angels  are  in  a  state  of  constant  conflict. 
This  reminds  one  of  the  Demiurge  and  his  kingdom, 
which  forms  so  large  an  element  in  Gnosticism.  This 
latter,  however,  is  not  out  of  harmony  with  the  repre- 
sentation of  Scripture.  Our  Lord  (John  xiv.  30)  says 
"the  prince  of  this  world  cometh,  and  hath  nothing  in 
me."  At  the  temptation  Satan  claims  to  have  this 
world  and  the  kingdom  thereof,  and  his  claim  our 
Lord  does  not  disallow.  Only  here  in  the  Ascension 
of  Isaiah,  as  in  the  New  Testament,  it  is,  in  contrast 
with  Gnostic  representation,  Satan,  not  the  Demiurge, 
the  God  of  the  Jews,  who  presides  over  the  lower  world. 
Bearing  this  mysterious  vision  in  his  memory,  one 
of  the  Jewish  Essenes  had  been  swept  away  by  the 
force  of  circumstances  and  conveyed  to  Rome.  When 
he  arrived,  Rome  was  to  a  great  extent  a  mass  of 
smouldering  ashes.  The  golden  house  of  Nero  needed 
more  free  space,  in  order  that  it  might  attain  its  full 
proportions,  and  hence  the  fire.  Even  emperors, 
however,  dare  not  outrage  public  opinion  with  im- 
punity. To  escape  the  odium  he  had  incurred  by  his 
recklessness,  Nero  laid  the  blame  of  this  incendiarism 


POST-CHKISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  345 

on  the  Christians.  Then  came  the  fearful  orgies  of 
cruelty,  when  old  men  and  maidens,  young  men  and 
even  children,  were  tortured,  not  accepting  deliver- 
ance. Men  were  wrapt  in  pitch  and  made  torches  to 
light  up  the  gardens  of  the  tyrant,  or  were  thrown 
to  the  lions,  or,  especially  innocent  maidens,  were 
tossed  by  bulls ;  while  the  debauchee  criticised 
on  aesthetic  principles  the  various  attitudes  they 
assumed  through  shame  or  agony.1 

No  wonder  when  he  saw  these  things  that  the  man 
on  whom  the  spirit  of  Isaiah  rested  felt  his  heart  grow 
hot  within  him.  Another  tyrant  there  had  been,  who 
in  Jerusalem  had  made  the  blood  of  the  saints  to  flow 
like  water.  He  thought  of  the  great  prophet  arraigned 
before  Manasseh,  the  son  of  Hezekiah.  Jew  and 
Gentile  alike  hated  the  Christians,  because  their  life 
was  a  perpetual  rebuke  to  the  self-seeking  hypocrisy 
of  the  one,  and  the  lust  and  cruelty  of  the  other. 
Such  a  fact  could  not  prove  a  basis  of  accusation  ; 
they  must  be  accused  by  the  Jews  of  blasphemy  ;  by 
the  Gentiles  of  nameless  crimes  against  the  very 
nature  of  morality.  Such  an  accusation,  he  imagined, 
must  have  been  urged  against  Isaiah.  "  Whereas, 
Moses  tells  us  God  said  to  him,  '  No  man  shall  see  my 
face/  Isaiah  says  he  has  seen  the  face  of  God."  Such 
was  the  accusation  brought  against  Isaiah  by  Balkira 
the  Samaritan  when  the  spirit  of  Berial  had  entered 
into  him.  Berial  was  wroth  with  Isaiah  because  he 
had  revealed  the  descent  of  the  Son  from  the  seventh 
heaven,  and  therefore  determined  that  he  should  be 
put  to  death. 

1  Renan,  L'Antechrist. 


346  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

He  tells  us,1  "  And  it  came  to  pass  after  the  death  of 
Hezekiah  that  Manasseh  reigned.  And  he  did  not 
remember  the  precepts  of  his  father,  but  forgot  them. 
And  Sammael  dwelt  in  Manasseh,  and  clung  to  him." 
Then  follows  an  account  of  his  evil  deeds,  his  idolatry, 
his  magic,  and  his  cruelty.  "Now  when  Isaiah  the 
son  of  Amos  saw  the  iniquity  of  Jerusalem,  that  it  was 
much,  he  fled  from  the  city  and  dwelt  in  Bethlehem 
of  Judah.  But  there  also  was  much  iniquity,  there- 
fore he  retired  into  a  mountain  in  a  desert  place," 
and  "  hid  himself  with  Micah,  and  Habakkuk,  and 
Joel,  and  Ananias,  and  Josheb  ( Shear- Jashub)  his  son." 
They  could  not  be  found  until  Balkira  the  Samaritan 
pointed  out  their  hiding-place.  This  Balkira  was  a 
descendant  of  that  Zedekiah  who  deceived  King  Ahab, 
and  smote  Micaiah  the  son  of  Judah. 

When  Isaiah  is  brought  before  Manasseh,  after  he 
has  been  accused,  he  bursts  in  somewhat  inconsequen- 
tially with  the  history  of  the  twelve  apostles.  Eightly 
has  Dillmann  declared  this  portion  an  interpolation, 
but  not  therefore  the  work  of  a  further  falsarius. 
After  the  general  statement  in  the  13th  verse,  with 
the  14th  verse  begins  a  portion  which  the  writer, 
fresh  from  the  bloody  scenes  of  the  Neronian  persecu- 
tion, intended  to  add  to  his  Vision  of  Isaiah.  It, 
however,  he  had  left,  as  we  have  seen,  with  his  fellows 
in  Judea  in  the  quiet  retreat  of  Engedi, — a  view  that  is 
supported  by  the  occurrence  of  Hezekiah  and  Josheb 
at  the  beginning  of  chap.  vi. 

He  continues  his  narrative  down  to  the  point  when 
"  the  time  being  ended,  Berial  the  great  angel,  the 

1  Following  partly  Laurence  and  partly  Dillmann. 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  347 

king  of  this  world,  shall  descend  in  the  shape  of  a  man, 
of  a  king  of  iniquity,  a  matricide.  He  is  the  king  of 
this  world."  Then  follows  a  description  of  what  Nero 
did,  which  is  not  to  be  taken  literally,  but  figuratively, 
not  impossibly  of  his  theatrical  performances.  "  At  his 
command  the  sun  shall  rise  by  night  and  the  moon 
shall  appear  at  the  sixth  hour,"  l  that  is  to  say,  at 
mid-day.  The  deification  of  the  emperor  even  in  his 
lifetime,  struck  every  pious  Jew  with  horror,  still 
more  every  Jew  whose  piety  had  been  quickened  by 
contact  with  Christ. 

The  reign  of  this  incarnation  of  Berial  is  to  be  three 
years  seven  months  and  twenty-seven  days.  This  is 
not  improbably  the  exact  duration  of  Nero's  reign  from 
the  persecution  of  the  Christians  to  his  suicide  on 
June  9th,  68.  The  short  reign  of  Galba,  followed 
by  the  yet  shorter  reign  of  others,  gave  a  sense  of 
instability  to  everything ;  men  were  looking  for  what 
was  coming  upon  the  earth.  The  writer  expects  a 
delay — a  pause  in  events  for  332  days.  Then  Christ 
shall  come  with  His  angels  and  the  holy  power  of  the 
seventh  heaven,  and  shall  drag  Berial  and  his  powers 
into  Gehenna."  Then  follows  the  account  of  the  glory 
of  the  blessed  and  the  destruction  of  the  wicked. 
"  Now  the  remainder  of  this  vision  is  written  in  the 
Vision  of  Babylon." 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  vision  we  are  told  how 
Isaiah  was  sawn  asunder  with  a  wooden  saw. 

A  later  hand  seems  to  have  added  the  introduction, 
telling  of  the  interview  of  Isaiah  with  Hezekiah  and 

1  This  may  be  a  reference  to  the  great  eclipse  of  the  sun  mentioned 
by  Dio  Cassius  as  occurring  after  the  death  of  Agrippina. 


348  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Manasseh  in  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  the 
former. 

THE    FOURTH    BOOK   OF    ESDRAS. 

After  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  the  armies  of 
Titus,  one  of  those  Jewish  Christians  who  believed  in 
Christ  and  yet  was  zealous  for  the  law  had  been 
carried  away  to  Rome.  In  all  probability  he  was  not 
a  captive  ;  our  Lord's  command  to  retire  from  the  city 
seems  to  have  been  generally  obeyed,  and  the  Chris- 
tians as  a  body  departed  to  Pella.  This  Jew  had  left 
Jerusalem  desolate,  and  came  to  Rome  full  of  sadness 
for  the  fate  of  the  city  of  his  fathers'  solemnities. 
To  his  mind,  mourning,  lamentation,  and  woe  is  the 
only  attitude  befitting  Jews.  When  he  comes  to  Rome 
he  finds  that  many  Jews  are  in  high  place,  enjoying 
the  favour  of  the  emperor ;  there  is  Josephus,  Justus  of 
Tiberias,  and,  above  all,  Agrippa.  He  marvels  at  the 
woe  that  has  befallen  the  people  of  God,  on  whose 
account  the  world  itself  was  created.  He  fancies  how 
Ezra  would  have  felt  in  Babylon  among  wealthy  Jews 
who  cared  not  how  Zion  lay  desolate,  and  it  seems  to 
him  as  if  the  spirit  of  Ezra  was  upon  him.  He  seemed 
to  realise  the  consolation  given  to  Ezra.  While  he  is 
thus  complaining,  and  more  and  more  identifying  him- 
self with  Ezra,  the  archangel  Uriel,  one  of  the  four 
named  by  Enoch,  comes  to  comfort  him  by  showing 
him  that  to  everything  there  is  an  appointed  time  ;  that 
the  souls  in  Sheol  are  as  children  in  the  womb. 
Again  Uriel  comes  when  Ezra  had  renewed  his  com- 
plaint, and  shows  him  that  God  has  fixed  the  time 
of  everything,  and  that  relief  will  come.  He  feels  that 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  349 

to  Ezra  the  coming  of  Christ  would  be  the  great 
consolation.  So  he  is  sure  that  to  Ezra  this  would  be 
revealed.  Hence  in  his  vision  Uriel  comes  to  announce 
that  at  the  expiry  of  400  years,  Jesus  the  Son  of  God 
would  come,1  and  would  die,  and  then  there  should 
be  silence  seven  days.  Then  follows  the  last  judg- 
ment, much  as  it  is  described  in  other  apocalyptic 
books,  only  in  a  more  succinct  form.  Then  Ezra 
represents  that  intercession  had  always  been  potent 
with  God  ;  and  is  answered  that  this  life  is  not  all. 
The  connection  here  is  somewhat  difficult  to  follow. 
The  announcement  of  the  woes  to  come  leads  Esdras  to 
inveigh  against  the  sin  of  Adam.  When  he  continues 
his  complaint  the  angel  tells  him  that  such  is  the 
condition  of  the  battle  men  are  born  to  fight  in  the 
world.  He  still  continued  to  plead  with  the  angel. 
When  looking  round  he  saw  a  stately  woman  mourning 
in  the  deepest  distress.  Her  distress  was,  that  having 
born  a  son  after  thirty  years  of  barrenness,  that  son 
had  fallen  down  dead  on  the  night  of  his  wedding. 
Ezra  endeavours,  first  to  console  her  and  then  rebuke 
her.  Afterwards  he  is  told  that  the  woman  he  saw 
was  Mount  Zion.  For  three  thousand  years  had  there 
been  no  sacrifice  offered.  At  length  Solomon  came  and 
the  Davidic  race.  This  race  had  been  cut  off,  and  so 
she  mourned. 

1  The  words  are  annis  quadringentis,  which  Hilgenfeld,  Liicke,  Langen, 
and  others  translate  and  comment  on  as  if  accusative.  While  it  is  true, 
"  course  of  time  "  is  sometimes  put  in  the  ablative,  yet  it  also  may  in  such 
a  connection  be  translated  as  in  the  ordinary  English  version,  "  within 
four  hundred  years"  (Roby,  Latin  Gram.  1182).  There  may  have  been 
some  misconception  of  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  or  of  the  original 
Hebrew.  The  Syriac  has  xxx.  years,  the  Ethiopic  and  Armenian  omit 
the  numerals  altogether  ;  only  the  Arabic  agrees  with  the  Latin. 


350  .  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

This  brings  us  to  the  most  celebrated  part  of  the 
whole  prophecy — the  eagle  vision.  Ezra  saw  a  mighty 
eagle  come  up  out  of  the  sea  ;  it  had  twelve  wings  and 
three  heads, — a  vision  of  the  Roman  empire  under  the 
Flavian  emperors.  Domitian,  under  whom  he  was 
writing,  was  the  twelfth  emperor,  the  last  survivor 
of  a  dynasty  of  three,  who  had  the  unenviable  reputa- 
tion of  having  murdered  his  brother.  There  are  eight 
lesser  wings,  that  may  not  improbably  be  the  procura- 
tors or  proconsuls  that  ruled  in  Syria  or  Palestine. 
Under  the  eagle  were  gathered  all  the  winds  of  heaven, 
and  they  bore  her  up.  Then  a  lion  appeared  upon  the 
scene  and  addressed  the  eagle ;  then  the  head  and  the 
wings  of  the  eagle  disappeared,  and  its  whole  body 
was  burned  with  fire. 

Esdras  marvelled  what  this  mysterious  vision  could 
mean,  and  he  prayed  to  God  to  have  the  vision  ex- 
plained to  him.  In  answer  to  his  prayer  God — for  there 
is  no  word  of  an  angel  intermediary  —  tells  him  that 
this  marvellous  eagle  with  its  twelve  wings  represents 
the  fourth  monarchy  of  Daniel,  the  empire  that  had 
exceeded  all  the  preceding  monarchies  in  extent  and 
power — the  empire  whose  symbol  was  the  eagle,  the 
empire  of  Eome.  Each  of  the  wings  was  one  of  the 
rulers  of  this  great  empire,  and  the  second  of  these, 
Augustus,  was  to  reign  longer  than  any  of  those  that 
succeeded  him.  The  whole  representation,  however, 
interpretation  included,  is  very  difficult  of  compre- 
hension. It  seems  impossible  that  even  in  apocalyptic 
vision  the  contradictory  elements  present  could  be 
harmonised.  It  would  almost  seem  that  some  one  had 
overwritten  the  vision  at  a  later  period,  probably 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  351 

under  the  Septimian  dynasty.  The  lion  is  the  Messiah 
who  was  to  come  in  His  power  and  destroy  the  empire 
of  the  Flavians.  Christ,  who  formerly  came  as  the 
man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,  comes  now 
as  the  lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah. 

In  continuation,  practically,  of  this  vision  Esdras 
saw  a  mighty  tempest  on  the  sea,  and  a  man  rising  out 
of  the  sea,  at  whose  presence  all  things  trembled. 
Against  him  were  gathered  a  great  multitude  from 
the  four  winds  of  heaven  to  fight  against  the  man 
who  had  come  out  of  the  sea.  But  he  went  up 
into  a  high  graven  mountain  (sculptus  mons,  Lat.). 
He  lifted  up  against  this  multitude  no  instrument  of 
war,  but  from  his  lips  came  a  flaming  fire,  and  from 
his  tongue  came  sparks  and  tempests.1  And  they 
were  mixed  together ;  the  tempest  fell  upon  the  multi- 
tude with  the  fire,  so  that  of  the  great  host  prepared 
to  fight  "  nothing  was  to  be  perceived  but  only  dust 
and  smell  of  smoke."  Then  the  man  coming  down 
from  the  mountain  called  unto  him  a  peaceable  multi- 
tude. On  Esdras  entreating  to  be  shown  the  inter- 
pretation, he  is  told  as  follows :  "  The  man  who  thus 
appears  is  Christ  the  Messiah  at  His  second  coming." 
It  is  evident  that  the  writer  of  the  Book  of  Esdras  had 
not  forgiven,  and  could  not  forgive,  the  Romans  for  the 
destruction  of  his  native  city.  He  thinks  it  but  reason- 
able that  all  the  multitude  of  those  who  rise  against 
the  Messiah  should  be  burnt  up  with  fire.  He  is  like 
the  sons  of  Zebedee,  who  would  have  called  down  fire 

1  JElli.  His  tongue  was  emitting  coals  of  fire  like  a  whirlwind.  Arab. 
He  threw  from  his  tongue  sparks  of  a  tempest.  Syr.  He  threw  out  from 
his  tongue  coals  of  a  tempest. 


352  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

from  out  of  heaven  on  the  Samaritan  village  that 
refused  to  receive  their  Master  and  themselves.  His 
Israelitish  hopes  are  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  peaceable 
multitude  that  assemble  to  the  Messiah  after  all  His 
enemies  are  destroyed  are  the  ten  tribes  that  had  been 
carried  away  captive  by  Shalmanasar.  These  ten  lost 
tribes  are  referred  to  in  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch ;  there, 
however,  they  are  reckoned  to  be  only  nine  tribes  and 
a  half;  and  in  the  Assumption  of  Moses,  where  it  is 
said,  chap,  iii.,  that  the  two  tribes  would  call  upon  the 
ten  lost  tribes  to  come  and  unite  with  them.  Israel 
was  always  desiring  to  restore  the  unity  of  the  nation 
as  it  was  at  first.  Yet  the  Samaritans,  who  were 
partially  the  descendants  of  these  ten  tribes,  were 
hated  by  them  with  a  perfect  hatred.  The  Talmud 
and  other  Jewish  tracts  are  full  of  exorbitant  hopes  of 
what  would  befall  when  the  ten  tribes  returned. 

After  the  interpretation  of  this  last  vision  God  calls 
upon  Esdras,  and  commits  to  him  further  duties.  He 
is  to  write  down  all  that  he  has  seen.  He  is  warned 
that  the  world  has  lost  its  youth ;  that  of  the  twelve 
parts  of  which  its  life  was  to  be  made  up,  ten  and  a 
half  have  already  passed,  and  the  days  that  remain  are 
to  be  full  of  sorrows.  Esdras  accepts  the  commission, 
and  further  volunteers,  as  the  law  has  been  burnt,  to 
restore,  by  the  help  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  all  that  had 
been  written.  He  is  told  by  God  to  retire  forty  days, 
and  to  take  with  him  Sarea,  Dabria,  Selemia,  Ethanas, 
and  Asiel,  five  who  write  swiftly,  and  then  he  is  to 
come  into  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  who  shall  light  a 
candle  of  understanding  in  his  heart. 

Then,  when  he  and  his  scribes  have  written  out  what 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  353 

he  has  been  appointed  to  write,  part  he  is  to  publish, 
and  part  he  is  to  reveal  only  to  the  wise,  and  that 
secretly.  This  is  added,  not  only  to  explain  the  later 
appearance  of  this  prophecy  of  Esdras  as  compared 
with  the  other  books  that  bore  the  same  name, 
but  also  to  explain  and  justify  the  secret  books 
possessed  and  used  by  the  Essenes  as  a  sect.  Having 
assembled  the  people  of  Israel  who  were  in  Babylon, 
Ezra  addresses  them  on  their  past  history,  and 
tells  them  of  the  final  resurrection,  and  of  the 
judgment  to  come.  He  and  his  five  friends  who 
were  to  act  as  his  amanuenses  then  retired  into  the 
field  apart. 

The  day  following  their  arrival  in  the  field,  a  voice 
(tailed  to  Esdras,  and  a  hand  offered  him  a  cup,  whereof 
he  drank  and  was  filled  with  wisdom,  and  spoke  and 
dictated  for  forty  days  to  these  five  men ;  they  only 
had  time  to  take  food  during  the  night,  when  he 
rested.  In  this  way  he  dictated  ninety  -  four  books. 
Of  these,  the  twenty  -  four  first  dictated  were  to  be 
published  by  Ezra,  the  last  seventy  were  to  be  kept 
and  shown  only  to  the  wise.  Probably  the  number 
intended  by  the  seventy  was,  as  usual  among  the  Jews, 
seventy  -  two.  If  that  be  so,  then  the  number 
published  would  be  exactly  the  received  twenty -two 
of  ordinary  Jewish  calculation.  Some  Jewish  writers, 
however,  give  the  number  of  the  books  in  the 
Scriptures  as  twenty-four.1 

So  much  for  the  original  book  of  the  prophecy  of 

1  The  authorised  Vulgate,  and  also   some   editions  earlier  than   the 
Clementine,    have    ducenti  quatuor ;    this    is    followed   in  the  English 
Apocrypha.     All  the  other  versions  give  ninety-four. 
Z 


354  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Ezra  as  it  is  found  in  the  various  versions,  Arabic, 
Ethiopic,  Syriac,  and  Armenian. 

In  the  Latin  version  which  is  represented  in  the 
Second  Esdras  of  the  Apocrypha  of  our  English  and 
German  Bibles,  and  of  the  supplemental  canon  of  the 
Vulgate,  there  are  four  chapters  more,  two  added 
at  the  beginning  and  two  at  the  end.  Some  one, 
writing  several  years  after  the  original  writer,  writes 
a  series  of  moral  reflections  and  denunciations  of 
sinners  modelled  on  the  prophet's  prophecy  so-called. 
It  is  not  apocalyptic,  and  really  is  of  little  interest 
to  us. 

We  find  in  the  Jewish  tracts  traces  of  the  tradition 
that  Ezra  had  written  down  the  whole  of  the  sacred 
books.  This  tradition  may  be  explained  if  Ezra  was 
editor  of  the  book  of  the  law. 

In  the  Ethiopic,  Syriac,  Arabic,  and  Armenian 
versions  we  find  a  portion  which  is  omitted  in  the 
ordinary  Latin.  A  larger  part  of  it,  however,  is  to 
be  found  quoted  in  Ambrose,  De  Mortuis.  Esdras 
lias  a  vision  given  him  of  the  state  of  the  dead,  both 
of  the  bliss  of  the  saved  and  the  misery  of  the  lost. 

He  gives  a  description  of  the  day  of  judgment  as  a 
day  in  which  there  was  to  be  "  neither  sun,  nor  moon, 
nor  cloud,  nor  thunder,  nor  lightning,  nor  wind,  nor 
water,  nor  air,  nor  darkness,  nor  evening,  nor  morning," 
only  the  glory  of  God  was  to  be  visible.  It  was 
to  last  seven  years.  One  may  note  the  difference 
between  this  and  the  account  of  the  last  judgment 
in  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John. 

Esdras  seeing  few  saved,  inquires  the  reason,  and 
the  answer  is  that  there  is  more  clay  in  the  world  than 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  355 

lead,  more  lead  than  iron,  more  iron  than  brass,  more 
brass  than  silver,  and  more  silver  than  gold ;  so  the 
righteous  are  fewer  than  the  wicked.  He  is  shown 
the  places  of  the  saved  and  the  lost,  and  the  reasons 
of  the  joy  of  the  one  and  the  sorrow  of  the  other  are 
narrated  at  length. 

THE   TESTAMENTS    OF   THE   TWELVE    PATRIARCHS. 

After  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  not 
a  few  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  of  Palestine 
made  their  escape  into  Egypt.  To  a  great  extent 
Egypt  lay  aside  from  the  marching  and  counter- 
marching of  the  imperial  armies.  In  the  peace  and 
quietude  that  they  are  experiencing,  a  Nazarene — an 
Essene  who  had  become  a  Christian — has  his  mind 
directed  back  to  the  old  fathers  of  his  race,  who  had 
dwelt  so  long  in  the  land  of  Goshen.  Himself  a 
Christian,  though  none  the  less  intensely  a  Jew,  he  is 
eager  to  lead  those  who  are  his  kinsmen  according 
to  the  flesh  to  recognise  in  Jesus  the  Messiah 
promised  to  the  fathers. 

Revolving  the  matter  in  his  mind,  he  thinks  how 
the  patriarchs  had  died  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  and 
is  certain  that  they  must  have  seen,  however  far 
off,  the  future  glories  of  their  seed  in  their  Saviour. 
The  more  he  thinks  of  it  the  more  clear  it  grows  to  him. 
Me  sees  patriarch  after  patriarch  of  the  sons  of  Jacob 
laid  down  on  beds  of  sickness  and  of  death,  and,  looking 
forward  to  their  departure,  calling  their  children  and 
their  brethren  around  them.  In  each  case  he  feels  there 
would  be  thanksgiving  for  mercies  received  during 


356  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  life  past,  and  in  the  case  of  most,  confession  of 
sin  and  shortcoming,  and  consequent  earnest  exhorta- 
tion to  his  descendants  to  avoid  like  sins.  Then  a 
word  of  prophetic  revelation.  This,  he  felt  sure, 
would  be  the  general  plan.  Knowing  as  he  did  the 
sins  into  which  each  had  fallen,  he  had  no  difficulty 
in  imagining  the  line  each  respective  patriarch  would 
take  in  rebuking,  warning,  or  exhorting. 

Evidently  he  was  well  acquainted  with  preceding 
Apocalyptic  literature.  Especially  one  can  observe  the 
writer's  knowledge  of  Enoch  and  the  Book  of  Jubilees. 
Enoch  indeed  is  repeatedly  referred  to,  and  the  revela- 
tions he  had  given.  The  connection  with  the  Book  of 
Jubilees  may  be  seen  in  the  pre-eminence  given  to  the 
tablets  of  the  Heavens,  on  which  all  the  events  of  the 
history  of  the  world  are  chronicled  beforehand.  The 
softening  down  of  the  sins  of  the  various  patriarchs 
is  quite  in  the  manner  of  the  Book  of  Jubilees,  though 
sometimes  the  matter  of  the  defence  is  somewhat 
different.  Thus  the  incest  of  Keuben  is  intended  to 
be  lessened  by  saying  that  Bilhah  was  drunk.  The 
murder  of  the  Shechemites  by  Simeon  and  Levi  is 
condemned  by  Jacob  because  the  Shechemites  had  been 
circumcised,  but  excused  by  Levi  on  the  ground  that 
he  had  been  decreed  in  the  tablets  of  the  Heavens 
to  slaughter  the  Shechemites. 

Another  striking  peculiarity  which  the  Testaments 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs  shares  with  the  Book  of 
Jubilees,  is  the  way  in  which  Judah  and  Levi  are 
associated  and  marked  off  from  the  other  tribes.  To 
a  Jew,  the  priestly  and  the  royal  offices  stood  apart 
from  all  others  in  solemnity.  In  early  ages  kingship 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  357 

and  priesthood  in  most  nations  were  offices  filled  by 
one  person ;  gradually  in  classic  lands  they  became 
separated,  and  the  priesthood  sank  to  be  a  matter 
of  mere  ceremonial,  and  kingship  became  an  elective 
magistracy.  In  Judaism  both  priesthood  and  king- 
ship were  hereditary,  and  both  retained  a  great  deal 
of  their  original  sacred  character  in  the  mind  of  the 
people.  The  Messiah  was  somehow  expected  to  be 
a  priest  and  a  king — a  priest  upon  his  throne — a  son 
of  David,  yet  a  priest  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek. 
This  hope  of  the  people  was  mocked,  not  satisfied, 
when  the  Hasmonsean  priestly  family  assumed  the 
royal  title  and  dignity.  The  writer  of  the  present 
work  wishes  to  show  how  Christ  fulfilled  the  desire  of 
the  Jews ;  but  he  does  not  take  the  way  taken  by  the 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The  writer  of 
the  Epistle  explains  the  priesthood  of  Melchizedek  as 
one  that,  being  higher  and  older,  was  to  supersede 
the  later  and  inferior  Aaronic  priesthood ;  he  conse- 
quently assumed  that  our  Lord  had  no  claim  to  an 
Aaronic  descent.  The  writer  of  the  Testaments  asserts 
that  by  His  mother  our  Lord  could  claim  a  Levitical, 
if  not  also  a  priestly  descent ;  a  claim  which  in  some 
degree  is  countenanced  by  the  consanguinity  subsisting 
between  Mary  and  Elizabeth.  At  the  same  time  he 
evidently  does  not  regard  the  sanctuary  in  Mount 
Zion  necessary  to  legitimate  worship,  for  he  represents 
Rachel  after  purchasing  the  mandrakes  from  Leah  not 
eating  them,  but  offering  them  "  to  the  priest  of  the 
Most  High  who  was  at  that  time." 

The  most  marked  advance  in  the  position  occupied 
by  the  writer  as  compared  with  his   predecessors   is 


358  EVOLUTION  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

seen  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  the  Gentiles  to  the 
covenant.  Thus  Simeon  says  :  "  The  Lord  shall  raise 
up  from  Levi  a  priest,  and  from  Judah  a  king.  So 
shall  He  save  all  the  Gentiles  and  the  people  Israel." 
In  the  Testament  of  Levi  it  is  said  :  "  The  third — a  new 
name  shall  be  called  over  Him,  because  He  shall  arise 
as  a  king  from  Judah  and  shall  establish  a  new  priest- 
hood after  the  fashion  of  the  Gentiles  (Kara  TOV  TVTTOV  rwv 
eQv&v)  to  all  the  Gentiles."  In  Judah's  Testament : 
"  There  shall  the  sceptre  of  my  kingdom  shine  forth, 
and  from  your  roots  shall  arise  a  stem,  and  in  it  shall 
arise  a  rod  of  righteousness  to  the  Gentiles."  It  is 
needless  to  increase  the  evidences  of  the  purpose  in  this 
book  to  effect  an  eirenikon  and  heal  the  division  in  the 
Church  on  the  one  side  between  the  Judaisers  and  the 
followers  of  Paul,  and  on  the  other  to  induce  his 
brethren  of  the  Jewish  faith  to  embrace  Christianity. 

No  one  was  more  markedly  hated  by  the  Jews  and 
the  Judaisers  than  the  Apostle  Paul.  To  meet  this 
hatred  the  writer  represents  Benjamin  on  his  death-bed 
congratulating  his  descendants  that  from  among  them 
should  spring  up  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 

So  ends  the  latest  of  the  Apocalyptic  writings  that 
we  shall  occupy  ourselves  with.  Somewhat  later  an 
Apocalypse  of  Adam  was  written,  but  it  contains  mainly 
a  description  of  the  glories  of  heaven.1  It  is  modelled 
very  much  on  the  Apocalypse  of  Isaiah.  There  were 
also  an  Apocalypse  of  Peter  and  another  of  Paul.  But 
all  these  works  have  disappeared.  Among  Christians 
such  books  as  Pastor  Hermas  contained  an  apocalyptic 

1  It  is  given  in  a  Syriac  text  with  a  French  translation  by  Kenan, 
Journal  Asiatique,  1853. 


POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.  359 

element.     Apocalypse  among  the  Jews  hardened  into 
the  Cabbala. 

There  is,  however,  another  Apocalypse  of  which  we 
have  not  treated,  that  of  St.  John.  .Regarding  it,  as 
we  do,  as  an  inspired  book  written  by  an  apostle  who 
was  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  do  not  feel  it  fitting 
to  occupy  merely  a  few  final  pages  in  considering  its 
sublime  revelations.  At  the  same  time,  any  one  study- 
ing the  Apocalyptic  books  we  have  taken  up  will  be 
in  a  much  better  position  to  understand  the  great 
Apocalypse  of  St.  John  the  Divine. 


BOOK   III. 


CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   RISE   OF   APOCALYPSE. 

T3ERIODS  in  literature  are  distinguished  from  each 
other,  not  only  in  vocabulary  and  grammar,  but 
also  in  the  kind  of  composition  that  prevails.  Thus  the 
vocabulary  of  the  age  of  Shakespeare  and  Spenser  did 
not  differ  more  from  that  of  the  age  of  Congreve  and 
Pope  than  did  the  modes  of  composition  in  the  two 
periods.  Compare  either  or  both  with  the  present  day, 
when  the  drama  may  be  said  to  be  nearly  dead,  and 
pastoral  and  didactic  poetry  wholly  so,  and  we  find 
the  contrast  is  yet  more  marked.  As  great  a  contrast 
is  there  in  Hebrew  literature  between  the  age  of  Isaiah 
and  Jeremiah,  and  that  of  the  period  between  the 
conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great  and  the  fall  of 
Bar-Cochba.  The  principal  literature  of  the  former 
period  is  prophecy,  of  the  latter,  Apocalypse. 

We  have  already  discussed  elsewhere  the  difference 
between  Apocalypse  and  prophecy. 

When  any  new  form  of  literature  rises,  its  prevalence 
is  usually  occasioned  to  some  extent  by  the  appear- 
ance of  some  genius  who  has  made  this  new  form  the 
vehicle  of  his  thoughts.  But  the  rise  of  a  genius  is  an 
effect  which  must  be  explained  ;  and,  moreover,  ere  he 
can  be  recognised,  a  suitable  surrounding  must  be 
found  for  him.  A  great  part  of  the  excellence  of  a 


364  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

genius  is  due  to  external  recognition  of  his  powers. 
Applying  this  to  the  rise  of  Apocalypse,  we  have  to 
inquire  what  were  the  circumstances  which  occasioned 
the  passing  away  of  prophecy  and  the  rise  of  Apo- 
calypse. Jewish  tradition  assigns  the  beginning  of 
this  movement  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  before  the  arms 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  A  large  number  would  assign  it 
to  the  days  of  the  Maccabean  struggle,  and  some  would 
postpone  it  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  under  the  reign 
of  Vespasian.  It  may  be  regarded  as  fixed,  at  all 
events,  that  some  such  crisis  brought  forth  the  earliest 
Apocalypse. 

It  seems  difficult  to  imagine  any  one  maintaining  the 
Book  of  Daniel  to  have  derived  its  inspiration  from 
any  later  Apocalypse ;  certainly  it  is  impossible  to 
imagine  any  of  those  that  have  come  down  to  us 
affording  the  starting  -  point  of  the  movement. 
Enoch  is  obviously  dependent  on  Daniel,  as  we  have 
seen. 

In  the  middle  portion  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  there 
is  a  description  of  the  books  of  Judgment  evidently 
derived  from  the  similar  description  in  Daniel ;  and 
according  to  Ewald l  the  middle  of  Enoch  is  the  oldest 
part.  Daniel  cannot  be  derived  from  the  Book  of 
Enoch,  because  in  every  point  of  resemblance  Enoch  is 
the  more  elaborate,  Daniel  the  more  simple.  Given 
Dan.  vii.  13,  one  can  understand  the  writer  of  the 
Book  of  Enoch  adopting  the  title  "  Son  of  man  "  as  an 
appellation  of  the  Messiah  ;  but  one  cannot  imagine  the 

1  Ueber  des  athiopischen  B,  Henoch  Entstehung,  Sinn  und  Zusammenzet- 
zung  (Abhandl.  der  L  Gesellsch.  der  Wissmschaft  zu  GSttingen.  Hist.  Phil. 
Klasse,  vi.  116). 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  365 

author  of  Daniel,  if  "  Son  of  man  "  was  a  received  title 
of  the  Messiah,  introducing  the  words  in  the  tentative 
fashion  he  does.  In  the  same  way,  if  we  compare  Dan. 
vii.  9,  10  and  Enoch  xiv.  22  and  chaps.  xxxviii.-xliv., 
we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  writer  of  Enoch  had  our 
Book  of  Daniel  before  him.  To  refer  to  no  more,  there 
is  an  obvious  connection  between  the  angelology  of 
Enoch  and  that  of  Daniel.  Two  of  Enoch's  four 
archangels  occur  in  Daniel,  and  no  other  angels  are 
named  in  Daniel  but  these  two.  The  very  elaboration 
of  the  angelic  hierarchy  in  Enoch  as  compared  with 
its  relative  simplicity  in  Daniel  is  a  proof  that  Daniel 
is  the  more  ancient  of  the  two. 

We  have  also  seen  that  the  Book  of  Jubilees  and 
the  Assumption  of  Moses  imply  the  existence  of  Enoch  ; 
and  Jude,  Hebrews,  Galatians,  and  Ephesians  imply 
the  existence  of  the  Assumption  of  Moses.  We  need 
not  devote  more  time  to  proving  this,  but  may  assume 
this  much  at  all  events,  that  the  Book  of  Daniel  is  the 
first  of  the  Apocalypses.  The  approximate  dates  of 
some  of  these  works  are  universally  admitted,  and  of 
most  are  beyond  all  reasonable  cavil.  From  these  one 
might  argue  the  date  of  Daniel  to  be  at  the  latest  early 
in  the  Hellenic  period. 

The  book  itself  is  one  well  fitted  to  mark  a  new  era 
in  a  literature.  It  is  full  of  pictures,  at  once  tender 
and  majestic.  We  are  first  shown  the  young  children 
of  the  seed  royal  of  Judah  brought  as  captives  to 
Babylon,  and  brought  up  to  be  the  counsellors  of  the 
conquerors  of  the  kingdom  of  their  fathers  and  the 
destroyers  of  the  temple  of  their  God.  Even  then, 
in  these  unfavourable  circumstances,  they  maintain 


366  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  faith  of  their  fathers.  In  their  faithfulness  they 
prosper  and  gain  the  favour  of  all  with  whom  they 
come  in  contact.  But  this  season  of  prosperity 
threatens  to  come  to  a  sudden  and  violent  conclusion. 
The  king  has  dreamed,  has  forgot  his  dream,  and 
now  demands  of  his  astrologers  to  reveal  to  him  this 
forgotten  dream.  As  they  cannot,  utter  destruction  is 
decreed  by  the  unreasonable  despot  on  the  soothsayers. 
In  this  destruction,  it  is  implied,  Daniel  and  his  com- 
panions would  have  shared,  although  they  had  had  no 
opportunity  of  manifesting  the  wisdom  that  was  in 
them.  Daniel,  however,  conies  forward  and  declares 
the  dream,  and  his  interpretation  thereof,  and  in  doing 
so  lays  the  foundation  of  the  science  of  history.  The 
succession  of  four  great  world  empires  is  presented  to 
the  imagination  under  the  figure  of  a  statue  with 
golden  head,  silver  arms,  brazen  thighs  and  iron  legs, 
and  feet  of  clay.  The  close  of  the  course  of  history  is 
represented  by  a  stone  which,  cut  out  of  the  mountain 
without  hands,  smites  the  image  on  the  feet,  so  that  it 
falls  and  becomes  as  chaff;  and  the  stone  became  a 
great  mountain,  and  filled  the  earth. 

Daniel  and  his  friends  are  advanced  to  be  principal 
counsellors ;  but  the  idolatrous  king  will  have  all  his 
people  worship  an  image  he  has  erected.  Daniel's 
three  friends  resist,  and  are  thrown  into  a  fiery  furnace, 
but  come  forth  unhurt ;  and  the  fire  that  was  harmless 
to  them  burns  those  that  bound  them.  King  Nebu- 
chadnezzar decrees  honour  to  the  God  of  Israel  without 
abandoning  his  own  idolatrous  worship.  The  kiug 
again  dreams,  and  now  a  terrible  madness  is  predicted 
to  be  about. to  fall  upon  him,  and  does  so.  He  recovers, 


THE  1USE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  367 

and  again  praises  the  God  of  heaven.  The  scene 
changes,  and  the  curtain  rises  on  a  spectacle  that  has 
tempted  painters  and  poets  in  every  age.  Belshazzar, 
the  king,  makes  a  feast  to  a  thousand  of  his  lords.  In 
the  midst  of  the  revelry  a  fiery  message  is  seen  blazing 
on  the  wall  of  his  banquet-hall ;  and  when  none  of  the 
court  soothsayers  can  read  it,  again  Daniel  is  called, 
and  reads  in  it  the  discomfiture  and  overthrow  of  the 
king  by  the  Persians.  The  tale  ends  with  sublime 
brevity,  "and  in  that  night  was  Belshazzar,  king  of  the 
Chaldeans,  slain."  Another  monarch  occupies  the 
throne,  Darius  the  Mede,  and  now  Daniel  is  exposed  to 
the  same  danger  from  which  his  friends  had  suffered 
under  Nebuchadnezzar.  Darius  forbids  prayer,  and 
Daniel  persists  in  prayer,  and  is  thrown  into  a  den  of 
lions,  but  is  delivered ;  while  the  conspirators,  who  as  a 
punishment  are  cast  into  the  den,  are  devoured  one 
and  all.  So  far  the  book  has  been,  with  the  exception 
of  Nebuchadnezzar's  vision,  historical,  or  rather  bio- 
graphical ;  now  it  becomes  distinctly  apocalyptic. 
Daniel  tells  first  his  vision  of  five  beasts  coming  out  of 
the  sea,  each  fiercer  than  that  which  preceded  it,  till  one, 
fierce  and  destructive  above  all  the  others,  arises  that 
is  smitten  by  the  Messiah  coming  to  His  kingdom  after 
the  judgment.  Again  there  is  a  change  ;  now,  however, 
the  change  is  in  the  language  employed.  Up  to  this 
point,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  chapter  and  the 
opening  verses  of  the  second,  the  language  employed  has 
been  Aramaic  or  Chaldee,  but  now  it  is  Hebrew,  and 
along  with  this  change  there  is  greater  directness  of 
statement.  The  Persian  monarchy  is  but  newly  founded , 
and  yet  Daniel  points  out  the  power  before  which  it  is 


368  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

to  fall — "  the  prince  of  Grecia."  Again,  Daniel  lias  a 
vision  of  the  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  and  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah,  and  the  time  is  indicated  by  weeks. 
A  mysterious  vision  is  given  him  of  a  contest  in  heaven 
between  Michael,  the  angelic  prince  of  Israel,  and  the 
prince  of  Persia.  Next  follows  a  chapter  that  seems  to 
us  intruded,  which  tells  of  the  wars  of  the  kings  of  the 
north  and  the  south  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  namely, 
under  the  Seleucid  and  Lagid  princes  respectively.  The 
prophecy  ends  again  with  a  picture.  There  by  the  river 
Heddekel  stands  Daniel,  and  he  sees  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Michael  the  great  prince  and  other  holy  angels  ; 
and  holy  angel  answers  holy  angel  in  responsive  song, 
the  one  entreating  to  know  when  these  things  should 
be,  and  the  other  answering  in  true  apocalyptic  manner 
by  mysterious  numbers  and  symbolical  statements. 

In  considering  the  question  of  the  age  of  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  we  must  divest  ourselves  of  the 
notion  that  they  were  written  and  published  in  the 
form  we  have  them.  The  prophets  seem  to  have 
written  down  their  prophecies  after  declaiming  them  to 
the  people,  and  these  separate  leaflets  were  then  com- 
bined. In  the  case  of  Jeremiah,  the  arrangement  of 
these  leaflets  in  the  copy  which  guided  the  Masoretes 
differed  considerably  from  that  from  which  the  Septua- 
gint  translator  made  his  version.  All  the  prophets 
show  signs  of  having  been  arranged  by  an  editor  on 
principles  which  it  is,  to  say  the  least,  difficult  to  com- 
prehend at  this  time  of  day.  Whatever  the  principle 
of  arrangement  was,  it  was  never  chronological,  and 
rarely  does  the  editor  seem  to  have  been  critically 
fastidious  to  exclude  the  work  of  interpolators.  In  the 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  369 

case  of  Daniel  the  editor  is  probably  the  author,  at  all 
events  of  the  Hebrew  introduction.  The  Aramaic 
narratives  which  follow  may  have  proceeded  from 
Daniel  himself,  only  they  are  disconnected  ;  each  has  a 
certain  completeness  in  itself  which  precludes  the  idea 
that  it  was  written  as  a  portion  of  a  larger  whole.  The 
marked  change  of  method  when  the  prophet  begins  to 
speak  in  his  own  person,  first  in  the  Aramaic  seventh 
chapter  and  then  in  the  following  chapters,  is  to  be 
noted.  The  eleventh  chapter  is  of  a  different  character 
from  the  rest.  The  fact  that  Daniel  is  always  spoken 
of  in  the  third  person  in  the  historical  portion  does  not 
necessarily  invalidate  the  assertion  that  Daniel  is  the 
author  ;  for  in  the  historical  fragment  published  in  the 
prophecies  of  Isaiah,  and  also  forming  part  of  the  Book 
of  Kings,  usually  attributed  to  the  authorship  of  Isaiah, 
the  writer  speaks  of  himself  in  the  third  person  ;  so,  too, 
with  Jeremiah  in  the  historical  part  of  the  book,  and 
indeed  with  all  the  prophets  in  the  beginning  of  the  book 
of  their  prophecy.  While  prophetic  usage  in  ordinary 
narrative  was  to  put  the  narrator  in  the  third  person, 
in  regard  to  vision  it  was  different ;  the  narrator  is  in 
the  first  person,  as  may  be  seen  in  Isa.  vi.  1  and 
Zechariah  and  Ezekiel  throughout.  This  would  explain 
the  change  from  the  third  person  of  the  sixth  chapter 
of  Daniel  to  the  first  in  the  seventh.  The  change 
of  language  from  Chaldee  to  Hebrew  which  occurs  in 
the  succeeding  chapters  requires  another  explanation. 
The  combining  of  the  Chaldee  and  Hebrew  portions, 
however,  is  probably  the  work  of  an  editor. 

There  seems  no  reasonable  doubt  that  there  was  a 

person  who  bore  the  name  of  Daniel.     Ezekiel  (chap. 
2  A 


370  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

xxviii.  3)  refers  to  his  wisdom,  and  (chap.  xiv.  14,  20) 
mentions  him  along  with  Job  and  Noah  as  a  model 
of  holiness.  And  of  Ezekiel's  authenticity  it  is  admitted 
there  is  no  reasonable  doubt.  Of  course  the  mere  fact 
that  a  man  named  Daniel  occupied  a  prominent  place 
in  the  captivity  does  not  prove  that  the  book  which 
goes  by  his  name  was  written  by  him.  Yet  unless 
there  is  good  reason  shown  to  the  contrary,  we  may 
presume  that  people  would  not  put  themselves  to  the 
trouble  of  lying.  This  possibility  will  be  almost  a  pro- 
bability if,  further,  it  can  be  shown  that  the  book  was 
written  in  the  period  when  its  alleged  author  lived.1 

If  Professor  Margoliouth  is  right,  that  the  Hebrew  in 
which  the  original  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus  was 
written  was  Eabbinic,  and  if  from  this  it  may  be 
deduced  that  this  was  the  ordinary  Hebrew  of  literature, 
then  not  only  Ecclesiastes,  but  also  Daniel,  must  have 
been  composed  in  an  age  greatly  earlier.  However 
striking  Professor  Margoliouth's  discovery  may  be,  it 
is  perhaps  wiser  not  to  lay  too  much  stress  on  it  till 
the  accuracy  of  his  method  and  conclusions  are  tested 
by  being  applied  to  the  Psalter  of  Solomon.  Similar 

1  Kenan  (Histoire  du  peuple  Israel,  iii.  p.  139)  admits  that  Daniel  lived, 
Imt  asserts  it  to  have  been  long  before  the  traditional  date.  He  regards 
the  late  Alexandrian  addition  of  "Susanna  and  the  Elders"  as  contain- 
ing a  veritable  tradition.  The  criticism  that  involves  accepting  "  Susanna 
and  the  Elders"  as  genuine  is  not  to  be  trusted.  Renan  asserts  that 
Daniel  would  only  be  twelve  years  old  when  Ezekiel  (xiv.  14,  20)  refers 
to  him  in  terms  of  such  high  respect.  We,  for  our  part,  were  not  aware 
that  the  chronology  of  Ezekiel's  prophecies  was  so  clearly  fixed,  or  the 
implied  date  of  Daniel's  captivity  so  certain,  that  this  deduction  could 
be  made.  Daniel  might  already  have  been  twenty  or  thirty  even  when 
he  was  taken  to  Babylon.  No  one  knows  better  than  M.  Renan  how 
indefinite  is  the  meaning  of  •&.  Rehoboam  was  forty-one  when  he 

ascended  the  throne,  yet  (2  Chron.  x.  8)  those  who  were  brought  up  with 
him  are  called 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  371 

linguistic  peculiarities  have  been  found  by  Professor 
Margoliouth  in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  though  he 
says  nothing  of  the  versification  ;  but  there  is  the  doubt 
whether  it  is  a  translation  or  a  work  composed  in 
Greek,  a  doubt  much  lessened  by  his  article  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society.  If  there  is  any  truth 
in  Mr.  Margoliouth's  method,  Dauiel  must  have  been 
written  long  before  the  Maccabean  struggle,  the  date 
ordinarily  fixed  upon  by  critics.  Certainly,  while  not 
yet  prepared  to  adopt  it  as  clearly  proved,  we  admit 
a  verisimilitude  in  his  method  which  deserves  considera- 
tion. One  thing  is  certain,  that  the  Aramaic  of  Daniel 
is  much  more  akin  to  the  Aramaic  of  Ezra  than  to  that 
of  Onkelos. 

There  are,  however,  other  arguments  in  regard 
to  Daniel,  the  force  of  which  is  obvious  even  to 
those  who  are  not  able  to  translate  Greek  into 
Eabbinic.  There  are  a  number  of  references  to 
the  habits  and  customs  of  the  Babylonians  which 
have  been  confirmed  by  recent  discoveries.  For  the 
majority  of  these  we  must  direct  the  reader  to  Dr. 
Pusey  on  Daniel ;  but  there  is  one  the  full  force  of 
which,  as  it  seems  to  us,  Las  not  been  estimated.  It 
was  assumed  that  the  writer  of  Daniel  had  made  a 
blunder  when  he  declared  that  Belshazzar  was  the  last 
king  of  Babylon,  as  Herodotus  had  called  the  last  king 
Labynetus.  Berosus,  in  Greek  transliteration,  had 
named  him  Nabonedus.  This  name  has  been  confirmed 
by  the  cylinder  inscriptions  from  Babylon.  Here  very 
early  authorities  name  only  Nabunahid,  under  one  form 
or  other  of  his  name,  as  the  last  king  of  Babylon  ;  every 
trace  of  any  other  had  disappeared  a  couple  of  centuries 


372  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

or  so  after  the  capture  of  Babylon.  Yet  cylinders  have 
been  found  that  couple  the  names  of  Nabunahid  and 
Bil-sar-usur  together,  regarding  the  latter  as  co-regent 
with  the  former.  We  know  from  Berosus  that  Nabu- 
nahid was  defeated  in  the  open  and  fled  to  Borsippa, 
leaving  the  city  to  its  fate.  His  son  being  king  along 
with  him,  there  would  be  a  centre  given  to  the  defence 
that  would  have  been  otherwise  wanting.  One  indirect 
proof  from  the  Book  of  Daniel  showing  that  the  writer 
was  aware  that  Belshazzar  was  not  sole  monarch  must 
be  noted.  The  reward  promised  to  the  interpreter  of 
the  inscription  which  mysteriously  appears  on  the  wall 
of  the  banqueting-hall  is,  that  he  shall  be  made  the 
third  person  in  the  kingdom — not  the  second,  as  was 
the  case  in  regard  to  Joseph  in  Egypt.  An  inventor 
would  have  felt  bound  to  explain  why  it  was  the  third 
position  that  was  thus  offered.  Even  one  writing  long 
after  the  event,  but  who  happened,  amid  the  general 
ignorance  of  his  contemporaries,  to  know  historically 
what  the  real  state  of  the  case  was,  would  have  been 
under  the  necessity  of  narrating  the  fact  of  Nabunahid's 
raising  his  son  to  share  his  throne  on  his  own  defeat 
and  retirement  to  Borsippa.  Only  a  contemporary,  to 
whom  the  events  were  so  familiar  that  he  expected 
every  one  else  to  know  them,  would  have  neglected  to 
give  the  necessary  information,  namely,  that  Belshazzar 
being  himself  only  the  second  person  in  the  kingdom, 
the  third  place  alone  was  open  to  him  to  bestow  on  any 
other.  It  is  impossible  that  a  forger  should  blunder  so 
luckily.  The  name  of  Nabunahid  was  known  alike  in 
Berosus  and  in  the  Greek  historians,  but  Belshazzar 
appeared  nowhere ;  yet  the  writer  of  Daniel  is  aware 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  373 

of  his  existence,  and  that  he  is  only  colleague  with  his 
father;  and  so  well  aware  of  it,  that  he  implies  but  does 
riot  state  the  fact.  This  is  an  argument  for  the  author 
being  contemporary  of  the  events  he  relates  which 
would  need  very  strong  counter  proof  to  invalidate. 

This  argument  for  the  authenticity  of  Daniel, 
which  we  have  advanced  above,  has  been  met  some- 
times by  asserting  that  some  true  tradition  may 
have  been  preserved  among  the  Jews  of  the  name 
and  fate  of  this  last  king  of  Babylon.  But  this  is 
inherently  improbable  for  several  reasons.  A  tradi- 
tion of  a  person  of  note  may  be  kept  up  through 
centuries  in  connection  with  some  place  that  has  been 
made  famous  through  his  deeds.  Or  a  race,  even  in 
migration,  may  retain  in  memory  the  name  and  fame 
of  some  one  of  their  own  worthies.  But  in  the  case 
of  Belshazzar,  a  name  forgotten  in  Babylon  and  its 
neighbourhood — forgotten  by  the  descendants  of  the 
Babylonians — is  retained  by  an  alien  race  that  some 
score  of  years  after  began  their  migration  from  Babylon 
back  to  their  former  land.  It  seems  highly  improbable 
that  a  race  separated  from  him  by  place  and  lineage 
should  perpetuate  the  name  of  Belshazzar  through 
three  centuries.  Josephus  confounds  Belshazzar  with 
his  father,  and  asserts  that  Belshazzar  "  was  called 
Naboandel  by  the  Babylonians."  Thus,  according  to 
the  opinion  above  combated,  a  tradition  that  had  sur- 
vived the  fall  of  two  dynasties,  a  migration  of  some 
600  miles,  a  revolutionary  war,  die  out  in  less  than 
two  centuries.  Usually  when  a  tradition  has  lived 
three  centuries,  it  takes  a  catastrophe  to  abolish  it 
wholly  ;  but  no  catastrophe  had  happened  between 


374  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  times  of  Judas  Maccabseus  and  the  childhood  of 
Josephus.  Any  student  of  the  Talmud  sees  how  little 
the  Jewish  nationality  valued  historic  facts  as  facts. 
The  Jews  thus  were  a  nation  the  least  likely  to  have 
preserved  through  three  centuries  a  name  and  a  his- 
tory that  had  otherwise  been  forgotten.  The  fact, 
which  Herodotus  and  Xenophon  mention,  of  a  great 
national  feast  being  held  when  the  city  was  taken,  is 
not  narrated  by  Daniel, — a  thing  which  an  ordinary 
historian  would  certainly  have  mentioned, — although 
it  is  implied  in  the  solemn  feast  being  held  in  which 
Belshazzar  assembled  "a  thousand  of  his  lords,  and 
drank  wine  before  the  thousand."  The  whole  atten- 
tion is  directed  to  that  one  scene,  and  not  a  gleam 
of  light  is  thrown  on  the  revelry  that  fills  the  city 
with  drunkenness  and  leaves  the  river  gates  open ; 
still  less  any  hint  that  conspiracy  and  treachery  con- 
joined with  the  carelessness  of  festivity  to  produce 
the  catastrophe.1  As  few  beside  himself  could  know 
what  took  place  in  that  banqueting-hall,  the  prophet 
narrates  that ;  all  knew  that  the  city  had  been  taken 
and  how — that  he  leaves  untold. 

The  main  objection  to  the  authenticity  of  Daniel  is 
the  belief  that  prophecy,  like  other  miracles,  is  impos- 
sible. We  do  not  assert  that  all  those  who  have 
doubted  the  authenticity  of  Daniel  have  done  so  for 
this  reason ;  we  do,  however,  assert  that  the  majority 

1  Nothing  in  Daniel  militates  against  the  fact  implied  in  the  recently 
discovered  proclamation  of  Cyrus,  that  the  priests  and  many  of  the 
dignitaries  of  the  Babylonian  empire  had  entered  into  treacherous  negotia- 
tions with  Cyrus.  It  is  implied  that  Daniel  is  not  one  of  the  members 
of  the  court ;  it  is  not  impossible  that  alike  as  a  Jew  and  as  a  member  of 
the  old  court  party,  he  may  have  had  some  privity  of  the  negotiations,  if 
not  share  in  them. 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  375 

of  the  critics  who  deny  the  authenticity  of  Daniel  do 
so  as  part  of  a  general  assertion  that  all  prophecy 
is  post  eventum.  Leaving  aside  the  general  belief 
in  prophecy,  which  renders  it  certain  that  true  pro- 
phecy must  have  existed  somewhere  and  at  some 
time,  to  account  for  it  even  in  the  Book  of  Daniel 
itself  there  are  portions  that  tax  the  powers  of 
rationalistic  exegesis  to  the  utmost  to  show  that  they 
are  not  prophetic.  We  are  told,  first  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream,  chap,  ii.,  then 
in  Daniel's  own  vision,  chap,  vii.,  that  there  are  to  be 
four  great  monarchies,  beginning  with  the  Assyrian 
monarchy  in  Babylon.  The  fourth  monarchy  has  been 
most  generally  recognised  to  be  the  Roman  empire, 
which  as  yet  has  had  no  successor.  If  Daniel  wrote 
B.C.  160,  he  must  have  had  an  amount  of  prescience, 
that  can  really  be  called  nothing  less  than  prophecy, 
if  he  foresaw  the  coming  power  of  Rome.  To  recognise 
in  the  Republic  that  had  but  recently  staggered  beneath 
the  blows  of  Hannibal,  and  had  with  difficulty  subdued 
Philip  of  Macedon,  the  power  that  was  to  tread  down 
every  other  power — to  be  an  oppressor  of  Israel  yet 
more  terrible  than  Epiphanes,  who  was  even  then,  if 
Daniel  was  written  in  160,  persecuting  the  Jewish 
people  fiercely  and  relentlessly,  required  a  power  of 
foresight  more  than  human.  That  the  Romans  ever 
could  prove  oppressors  was  not  in  the  thought  of  the 
Jews  of  that  time,  as  may  be  proved  by  the  treaty 
which  Simon,  the  brother  of  Judas  Maccabseus,  made 
with  the  Roman  Senate.  They  were  welcomed  as 
deliverers  from  the  oppressions  of  the  Seleucid  princes. 
There  are  only  two  ways  of  escape  open :  either  on 


376  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  one  hand  to  deny  that  this  fourth  monarchy  is  the 
Roman,  or  to  assert  that  Daniel  lived  after  the  capture 
of  Jerusalem  by  Titus.  But  the  latter  hypothesis 
is  impossible,  because  Josephus  (Antiq.  Book  xi.) 
quotes  Daniel,  in  fact  transfers  a  large  portion  of 
Daniel  to  his  own  pages.  His  belief  was,  then,  that 
Daniel  was  part  of  the  original  Canon  ;  and  we  know 
(Contra  Apionem)  that  he  believed  all  the  books  of 
the  Jewish  Canon  to  have  been  written  previous 
to  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus.  Parallel  with 
this  is  the  fact  that  the  evangelists  represent  our  Lord 
quoting  Daniel  the  prophet.  It  seems  difficult  to  put 
the  Synoptists  later  than  the  last  quarter  of  the  first 
century,  and  so  contemporary  with  Josephus.  Thus, 
at  a  time  when  Daniel,  according  to  this  hypothesis, 
was  but  freshly  written  and  had  had  no  time  to  spread, 
it  is  yet  acknowledged  to  such  an  extent  among  Jew 
and  Christian  alike  that  its  discovery  had  ceased  to  be 
remembered.  But  we  have  earlier  testimony  in  the  First 
Book  of  Maccabees,  for  the  author  represents  Mattathias 
quoting  the  stedfastness  of  Daniel  and  of  his  three 
companions.  The  date  of  First  Maccabees  is  usually 
put  shortly  after  the  death  of  John  Hyrcanus  I.  (circa 
110  B.C.). 

As  to  the  other  alternative.  It  is  impossible  to 
dispute  that  the  first  monarchy  is  the  Babylonian. 
As  to  those  which  follow,  there  are  three  theories  put 
forward  by  those  who  deny  that  the  fourth  monarchy 
is  the  Roman  empire.  The  first  is  that  the  Medo- 
Persian  empire  is  the  second  and  the  empire  of 
Alexander  is  the  third.  The  fourth,  according  to  this 
theory,  is  the  empire  of  the  Seleucids.  This  view  is 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  377 

held  by  Bertholdt  and  Zockler  on  this  hypothesis  : 
The  first  three  monarchies  each  differed  in  language, 
institutions,  and  laws  from  that  which  preceded  it, 
and  each  occupied  a  considerably  larger  portion  of  the 
earth's  surface  than  its  predecessor.  We  should 
expect  then  that  the  fourth  empire  would  differ  in 
these  very  respects  from  the  empires  that  had  gone 
before.  This  expectation  would  be  rendered  all  the 
stronger  by  the  express  statements  (Dan.  vii.  7)  : 
"  The  fourth  beast,  terrible,  and  powerful,  and  strong 
exceedingly — and  it  was  diverse  from  all  the  beasts 
that  went  before  it."  It  was  then  stronger  than  any 
of  the  beasts  before  it,  and  differed  more  from  them 
than  they  differed  from  each  other.  This  admirably 
suits  the  Roman  empire  as  compared  with  the  Mace- 
donian, Persian,  or  Babylonian  empires.  It  certainly 
was  stronger  than  they,  and  had  a  larger  dominion, 
and  it  was  republican  in  theory,  even  while  ruled  over 
by  an  emperor ;  while  those  were  monarchical  in  theory 
as  well  as  in  fact.  The  iron  discipline  of  the  legions 
which  broke  the  phalanx  and  turned  aside  the  charge 
of  chariots,  was  certainly  like  iron,  the  metal  which 
breaks  everything  else  in  pieces.  Can  this  description 
by  any  possibility  apply  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Seleucid 
princes  ?  Their  empire  was  notoriously  less  exten- 
sive than  that,  not  only  of  Alexander,  but  than  that  of 
Darius  Hystaspis,  and  than  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 
It  did  not  possess  Egypt,  which  all  the  others  had 
possessed.  It  had  been  forced  to  abandon  Media, 
Bactria,  and  Parthia,  and  its  possession  of  Palestine 
even  was  only  some  fifty  years  old,  and  secured  after 
a  struggle  in  which  the  Seleucids  had  received  several 


378  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

crushing  defeats.  They  were  not  diverse  from  the 
powers  which  preceded  them ;  the  language,  methods 
of  government,  institutions,  all  were  their  inheritance 
from  Alexander  the  Great.  It  is  impossible  to  main- 
tain with  anything  like  reasonableness  that  the  fourth 
monarchy  can  be  the  empire  of  the  Seleucid  princes. 

The  second  theory  is  that  advanced  by  Professor 
Drummond  (Jewish  Messiah),  that  while  the  first 
monarchy  is  the  Babylonian  empire,  the  second  is  the 
Median,  and  the  third  the  Persian.  This  view  is  also 
held  by  Bleek,  Eichhorn,  Ewald,  Delitzsch,  and  West- 
cott.  Delitzsch  argues  that  the  second  kingdom  is 
said  to  be  inferior  to  the  former,  but  that  this  in- 
feriority is  not  predicted  of  the  other  two,  and  that  this 
inferiority  would  be  quite  applicable  to  the  kingdom 
under  Darius  the  Mede.  But  if  inferiority  is  not 
asserted  in  words,  it  is  implied  in  the  lower  and  ever 
lower  character  of  the  material,  until  the  kingdoms  that 
form  the  toes  are  of  iron  mingled  with  miry  clay.  The 
inferiority  stated  of  the  first  is  implied  with  regard  to 
the  others.  Whatever  the  nature  of  the  inferiority  it 
was  not  extent,  for  the  Persian  empire  exceeded  the 
Babylonian  ;  and  the  Macedonian,  at  least  under  Alex- 
ander, exceeded,  though  it  may  be  not  much,  the 
Persian.  The  fact  that  the  second  and  third  did 
not  differ  from  each  other  so  much  as  the  second 
from  the  first  and  the  fourth  from  the  third,  may 
be  merely  adverted  to.  The  main  objection  to  this 
view  is,  that  it  is  at  war,  not  only  with  fact,  but  with 
the  other  ideas  of  the  book,  as  to  the  character  of  the 
Medo-Persian  monarchy.  It  may  be  urged  that  the 
author  of  Daniel  might  not  unlikely  be  ignorant  that 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  379 

the  Median  monarchy  occupied  chronologically  the 
same  period  as  the  Babylonian ;  but  he  could  not  be 
ignorant  of  what  he  said  when,  in  the  following 
chapter,  he  himself  represented  the  Persian  monarchy 
as  a  ram  with  two  horns,  one  higher  than  the  other, 
and  the  higher  coming  up  last, — a  representation  that 
will  be  consistent  only  if  the  Medo-Persian  power 
is  regarded  as  one,  and  the  Persian  as  the  later  rising 
but  more  powerful  element  in  the  monarchy. 

In  Belshazzar's  feast  the  inscription  written  on  the 
wall  asserts  merely  that  the  empire  would  be  given  to 
the  Persians, — upsetting  by  the  way  the  notion  that 
Medes  alone  succeeded  the  Babylonians, — but  Daniel 
adds  the  Medes  to  the  interpretation.  When,  further, 
Darius  wishes  to  save  Daniel  from  the  effects  of  his  own 
decree,  he  is  answered  by  an  appeal  to  the  unchange- 
able character  of  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians. 
Throughout  the  whole  book,  the  empire  of  the  Persians 
is  regarded  as  a  joint  possession,  which  they  shared 
with  the  Medes.  It  is  not  to  be  conceived  as  possible 
that  the  author,  who  so  persistently  united  them 
elsewhere,  would  split  the  joint  monarchy  into  two 
successive  empires  in  the  vision  he  ascribes  to  Nebu- 
chadnezzar and  that  he  ascribes  to  Daniel.  On  the  ordi- 
nary supposition  that  the  silver  arms  and  shoulders  of 
the  image  represent  the  joint  Medo-Persian  empire,  the 
duality  of  the  monarchy  is  clearly  suggested  by  the 
two  arms.  At  first  sight,  the  duality  of  the  monarchy 
is  not  hinted  at  in  any  part  of  the  description  of  the 
second  of  the  four  beasts ;  but  the  bear  raises  up  one  of 
its  sides.  There,  it  seems  to  us,  is  the  duality  of  the 
two-sided  monarchy  suggested,  and  also  the  fact  that  one 


380  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  the  portions — the  Persian,  to  wit — is  the  more  power- 
ful. This  splitting  up  of  the  Medo-Persian  monarchy 
into  two,  a  Median  and  a  Persian,  is  as  groundless  as 
separating  the  empire  of  the  Seleucids  from  that  of 
Alexander. 

But,  again,  if  the  Macedonian  empire  is  the  fourth 
empire,  then,  according  alike  to  the  fourth  chapter 
of  Daniel  and  the  seventh,  this  empire  is  to  be 
split  up  into  ten  portions ;  but  this  contradicts  what 
is  expressly  stated  in  the  eighth  chapter,  that  the 
Macedonian  empire  was  to  be  split  into  four.  As 
if  to  make  certain  that  the  third  beast  is  the  Mace- 
donian empire,  it  has  four  heads  and  four  wings, 
which  answer  to  the  four  horns  of  the  goat ;  and 
in  the  eleventh  chapter,  third  and  fourth  verses, 
Alexander  the  Great  is  referred  to  as  a  great  king 
whose  dominion  should  be  divided  toward  the  four 
winds  of  heaven.  Fourfoldness  is  the  characteristic 
mark  of  the  Macedonian  monarchy,  as  duality  is  of  the 
Medo-Persian.  At  the  risk  of  being  thought  utterly 
unscholarly,  or  what  is  worse,  utterly  uncritical,  we 
would  compare  the  history  of  the  Roman  empire, 
splitting  into  two  portions,  eastern  and  western, 
and  then  finally  splitting  up  into  numerous  smaller 
monarchies  that  may  be  roughly  reckoned  as  ten,  ten 
being  merely  a  symbol  for  a  considerable  number. 
That  supposition  does  not  contradict  what  the  author 
says  elsewhere,  as  does  the  supposition  that  the  Mace- 
donian is  the  fourth  monarchy.  On  the  supposition 
that  the  Seleucid  monarchy  is  the  fourth,  the  division 
into  ten  is  even  more  inexplicable. 

Another  scheme  which  we  must  notice  is  Hitzig's. 


THE  KISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  381 

It  regards  the  head  of  gold  to  be,  not  Babylonia,  but 
Nebuchadnezzar ;  the  silver  shoulder  and  arms  to  be 
Belshazzar,  the  belly  and  thighs  of  brass  to  be  the 
Medo-Persian  monarchy,  and  the  legs  of  iron  to  be 
the  Macedonian  empire.  Why  the  first  two  divisions 
should  represent  individuals,  while  the  two  latter 
represent  dynasties,  does  not  appear.  We  have  shown 
good  reason  for  believing  that  the  writer  of  the  Book 
of  Daniel  knew  quite  wTell  that  Belshazzar  was  not  the 
immediate  successor  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  knew, 
further,  that  he  was  not  an  independent  monarch  at 
all ;  this  would  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  disbelieving 
this  hypothesis,  even  if  there  were  nothing  else. 
Further,  in  the  other  symbol  of  the  Persian  empire, 
the  ram,  we  have  the  duality  of  race  strongly  expressed 
in  the  two  horns ;  this  duality  would  be  present  in  the 
image  vision  only  if  the  shoulder  and  arms  represented 
the  Medo-Persian  empire.  So  far  as  we  know,  there 
was  no  duality  to  be  symbolised  in  Belshazzar's 
personal  reign,  unless  it  is  acknowledged  that  he  was 
Nabonnanid's  son  ;  then,  of  course,  there  would  be  that 
amount  of  duality ;  but,  in  that  case,  why  should  the 
kingships  of  Evil-Merodach  and  Neriglissa  be  omitted  ? 
Hitzig  has  to  bring  forward  another  explanation  for  the 
tour  beasts. 

The  main  point  of  attack  is  the  fourth  monarchy. 
All  these  theories,  however  much  they  may  differ 
otherwise,  are  agreed  in  identifying  the  fourth 
monarchy  with  the  Macedonian,  or  at  all  events  with 
the  Seleucid  portion  of  it.  This  really  amounts  to  the 
identification  of  the  fourth  beast,  with  iron  teeth  and 
claws,  and  the  iron  legs  of  the  image,  with  the  he-goat 


382  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

and  his  horn  that  became  four.  "Whereas,  the  tradi- 
tional view  identifies  the  he-goat  with  the  third  beast, 
which  had  four  heads  and  four  wings,  as  the  he-goat 
had  four  horns.  The  really  strongest  argument  is  that 
advanced  by  Delitzsch,  that  the  little  horn  that  springs 
out  of  one  of  the  four  horns  is  like  the  eleventh  horn 
that  sprang  up  and  cast  down  three  of  the  former 
ten  horns.  But  when  looked  at,  the  identity  is  not  so 
strong  as  Delitzsch  would  make  out.  The  Macedonian 
horn  made  war  against  the  stars  of  heaven,  but  the  horn 
of  the  fourth  beast  does  not ;  it  is  against  these  other 
horns  that  it  makes  war.  There  is,  further,  no 
explanation  of  the  tenfoldness  exhibited  in  both  the 
symbols  of  the  fourth  monarchy,  in  the  history  of  the 
Macedonian  monarchy,  nor  any  hint  of  a  tenfoldness 
in  the  symbol  of  the  he-goat.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  fourth  kingdom  is  regarded  as  the  Eoman,  and  the 
ten  toes  and  ten  horns  the  separate  monarchies  that 
have  sprung  from  it,  the  eleventh  horn  may  not  be  yet 
manifested.  If  the  fourth  monarchy  means  the  Eoman, 
then  Daniel  must  have  been  a  prophet,  at  least  to  this 
extent,  that  he  foresaw  its  power.  If  this  be  granted 
to  Daniel  at  all,  the  extent  of  it  can  be  settled  on 
grounds  of  exegesis ;  but  alleged  prophecy  can  never 
be  brought  forward  to  discredit  the  authenticity  of  the 
rest  of  it.  That  prophecy  has  been  proved  in  regard 
to  a  portion  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,  makes  it  not 
improbable  that  the  other  events  alleged  to  be  foretold 
have  really  been  so,  and  hence  that  the  dates  alleged 
when  the  visions  appeared  to  the  prophet  are  probably 
accurate. 

Chronological    difficulties    alleged    as    to    the   date 


THE  KISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  383 

of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  when  Daniel  was  taken 
prisoner l  are  easily  got  over ;  and  even  though  they 
had  proved  invincible,  yet  errors  in  numbers  are 
easily  made ;  and  if  the  editor  of  Daniel's  works  was 
some  later  scribe,  he  might  be  erroneously  informed, 
and  might  have  made  the  mistake  in  question  without 
thus  any  real  suspicion  being  thrown  on  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  book  itself.  That  no  Assyrian  equivalent 
to  Ashpenaz,  Meshach,  and  Shadrach  has  been  yet 
discovered,  does  not  prove  much,  as  what  has  not 
yet  been  discovered  may  be  discovered  at  some  future 
time.  Further,  the  names  may  not  be  Assyrian,  but 
Persian  or  some  other  tongue,  if  the  astrologers  were 
usually  foreigners.  Many  singers  with  Italianized 
names  appear  among  us  who  have  no  connection  with 
Italy.  This  supposition  is  rendered  all  the  more  likely 
by  the  fact  that  Amuhia,  the  favourite  wife  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, to  gratify  whose  taste  he  built  the  hanging 
gardens,  was  a  Mede.  It  might  be  part  of  the  same 
process  to  surround  her  with  those  who  bore  Median 
names.  These  gardens  were  intended  to  suggest  the 
mountains  of  Media  ;  it  would  make  the  suggestive- 
ness  greater  to  associate  these  imitative  mountains 
with  men  with  names  from  mountainous  Media.  The 
alleged  error  of  speaking  of  Casidim  or  Chaldeans, 
when  these  are  never  known  to  be  so  spoken  of  in 
the  monuments  is  another  difficulty.  In  the  first 
place,  few  monuments,  comparatively  speaking,  have 
come  down  to  us  from  Babylon ;  and  further,  we 
know  that  in  later  days  "Chaldeans"  was  a  name 
given  to  astrologers ;  the  copyist  or  editors  might 

1  Vid.  Keil,  Commentary.     T.  &  T.  Clark. 


384  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

add  this  as  an  explanatory  or  illustrative  note.  We 
must  remember  that  the  device  of  footnotes  was 
unknown  to  antiquity  even  at  a  date  much  later  than 
this.  Herodotus  (Bk.  i.  181)  tells  us  the  Chaldeans 
were  "  priests  of  the  nation  ; "  this  makes  it  the  more 
likely  that  the  editor  would  add  a  note  to  explain  who 
those  referred  to  were.  A  great  deal  has  been  made  of 
the  presence  of  musical  instruments  with  Greek  names 
at  the  feast  Nebuchadnezzar  commanded  in  honour 
of  the  image  he  had  erected.  Here  again  we  see 
editorial  work.  At  the  time  the  collection  of  Daniel's 
writings  was  made,  or  subsequently,  when  copies  were 
being  taken  of  them,  the  old  names  had  sunk  into 
desuetude,  and  the  copyist  made  what  he  would  no 
doubt  consider  the  necessary  alterations,  and  gave,  in- 
stead of  obsolete  words,  the  then  current  Greek  names. 
The  spinnet  was  essentially  the  same  instrument  as 
the  pianoforte ;  a  similar  change  of  name  would  easily 
occur  in  the  East,  slow  to  change  as  it  is.  We  know 
printing  is  much  less  liable  to  introduce  changes  into 
works  than  manuscript  is,  yet  there  have  been  quite 
a  number  of  changes  introduced  into  our  English  Bible 
(Authorised  Version)  since  it  was  first  printed,  and  a 
still  larger  number  are  introduced  into  texts  as  they 
are  customarily  quoted. 

Dr.  Drummond  (Jewish  Messiah,  p.  20)  argues  that 
all  the  dates  in  Daniel  point  to  the  time  of  Epiphanes, 
and  beyond  that  is  nebulous  hope.  But  we  have  seen 
that  the  prophetic  element  in  regard  to  the  fourth 
empire  is  incontestible.  Moreover,  the  objection  that 
he  hints  at  from  the  fact  which  he  alleges  is  obvious 
that  the  descriptions  of  the  scenes  of  the  vision  grow 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  385 

more  and  more  distinct  as  the  time  of  Epiphanes  is 
approached  is  not  so  conclusive  as  he  believes  it  to  be. 
This  allegation,  however,  is  true  only  if  we  do  assume 
the  eleventh  chapter  not  to  be  the  work  of  an  inter- 
polator; if  it  be  so,  then  this  objection  falls  to  the 
ground.  With  the  fifth  verse  of  the  eleventh  chapter 
begins  a  narration  which  extends  to  the  end  of  the 
fourth  verse  of  the  twelfth  chapter.  It  comes  in 
abruptly  and  interrupts  the  vision  narrated  in  the 
tenth  chapter.  There  is  no  hint  at  the  beginning  of 
the  chapter  that  there  are  two  monarchies  especially 
to  spring  from  that  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  it  is  ab- 
ruptly assumed. 

By  some  the  theory  is  carried  further,  and  Nebuchad- 
nezzar is  supposed  to  be  equivalent  to  Antiochus 
Epiphanes.  It  is  supposed  that  this  prophecy  was 
composed  to  encourage  the  Jews  in  their  struggle 
against  their  oppressor.  It  is  difficult  to  understand 
what  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  is  to  be  regarded  as  so 
encouraging  to  the  Jews.  The  three  companions  of 
Daniel  will  not  bow  down  to  the  image  raised  by 
Nebuchadnezzar,  and  for  their  reward  they  are  cast 
into  a  fiery  furnace  ;  from  that  death  they  are  miracul- 
ously delivered.  That  could  be  no  encouragement  to 
men  to  fight  valorously  so  as  to  turn  to  flight  armies 
of  aliens.  The  three  Hebrew  children  simply  sub- 
mitted to  the  tyrant's  executioners.  Passive  resistance 
was  all  that  they  opposed  to  the  tyrant's  force.  Active 
conflict  was  what  the  Maccabees  and  their  followers 
were  to  be  encouraged  to.  The  same  lesson  of  passive 
resistance  in  the  hope  of  miraculous  deliverance  might 

be  deduced  from  Daniel's  deliverance  from  the  lions' 
2  B 


386  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

den,  from  his  miraculous  discovery  of  the  king's  for- 
gotten dream,  and  the  deliverance  by  that  means,  not 
only  of  himself,  but  also  of  all  the  magicians ;  all 
these  narratives  would  encourage  a  fatalistic  spirit 
and  a  non-resistance  policy.  We  do  not  deny  that 
Mattathias  is  represented  as  quoting  these  instances 
given  above,  but  they  are  quoted  as  proofs  that  God 
would  help.  The  fact  that  they  were  well  known  made 
it  natural  to  refer  to  them,  but  this  does  not  make  them 
the  natural  product  of  imagination  directed  to  produce 
encouragement.  Josephus'  tales  of  the  victories  of 
Moses  in  Ethiopia  would  have  been  more  to  the 
purpose.  If  the  writer  had  made  Nebuchadnezzar 
perish  miserably  under  his  lycanthropy,  it  might  be 
urged  that  this  might  encourage  the  Jews  to  hope  that 
in  like  manner  Epiphanes  would  die.  One  has  only 
to  read  the  Talmudic  account  of  the  alleged  miserable 
fate  of  Titus,  the  conqueror  of  Jerusalem,  to  see  how 
Jewish  imagination  thus  took  revenge  on  those  who 
had  oppressed  or  vanquished  them.  Jewish  hatred 
grows  more  and  more  venomous  as  time  separates  the 
sufferers  from  the  actual  wrong-doer.  Josephus  can, 
not  only  tolerate,  but  even  admire  Titus  and  Vespasian. 
The  Talmudists  tell  the  most  frightful  stories  of  their 
sufferings  and  death.  The  Book  of  Daniel  treats 
Nebuchadnezzar  with  a  very  considerable  amount  of 
respect,  at  least  as  compared  with  his  grandson 
Belshazzar. 

One  of  the  most  insoluble  of  the  riddles  connected 
with  Daniel  is  the  identification  of  Darius  the  Median. 
This  is  a  difficulty  which  even  the  most  strenuous 
upholder  of  the  late  date  of  Daniel  cannot  escape 


THE  RISE  OF  APOCALYPSE.  387 

solving  in  some  way.  When  Lenormant  bears  such 
emphatic  testimony  to  the  fidelity  with  which  the  author 
records  Babylonian  customs,  he  could  be  guilty  of  no 
such  obvious  blunder  as  mistaking  the  nationality  of 
Darius  Hystaspis  and  the  chronology  of  his  reign. 
There  must  have  been  some  traditions  as  to  some  one 
at  that  period  set  as  satrap  or  king  over  Babylon 
whose  name  was  translatable  into  Darius.  Xenophon 
in  his  Cyropaedia  seems  to  follow  some  such  tradition 
of  the  uncle  of  Cyrus  Cyaxares  the  Mede  being  on 
the  throne.  Delitzsch  holds  that  this  hypothesis 
contradicts  the  book  itself ;  that,  however,  seems  doubt- 
ful. Throughout  the  book  the  Medo-Persian  power 
is  regarded  as  one,  though  dual.  Although  Darius  the 
Mede  is  said  to  have  taken  (^?i?)  the  kingdom  (v.  31,  A. 
vi.  l),  yet  again  (ix.  1)  it  is  said  he  was  made  king 
(i£»n)  over  the  realm  of  the  Chaldeans,  which  would 
imply  some  other  authority  which  made  him  king. 
But,  moreover,  ^ap  really  means  rather  to  "receive" 
than  to  "  take,"  so  that  the  very  words  of  Daniel 
imply  another  actively  employed  in  making  him  king 
or  satrap.  Delitzsch's  objection,  that  vi.  28  implies 
that  the  reign  of  Darius  the  Mede  and  that  of  Cyrus 
the  Persian  must  have  been  separate  and  successive, 
though  plausible,  is  not  absolutely  conclusive.  If 
Darius  were  merely  a  satrap,  yet  he  had  a  reign  during 
which  Daniel  prospered,  while  there  was  another  reign, 
that  of  Cyrus  the  over-lord,  during  which  also  Daniel 
prospered.  But  if  Cyaxares — according  to  Xenophon, 
the  uncle  of  Cyrus — is  Darius  of  Daniel — if  he  was 
made  by  his  nephew  king  over  Babylon,  so  as  to  enjoy 
if  only  the  semblance  of  supreme  authority,  while  Cyrus 


388  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

retained  the  succession  to  himself,  we  should  have 
a  state  of  matters  that  would  fully  meet  the  case. 
Cyrus  might  even  reckon  himself  king  of  Babylon 
while  his  uncle  occupied  nominally  the  supreme  seat. 
Certainly  a  man  seventy-two  years  old  was  scarcely 
at  a  time  of  life  to  carry  out  such  an  expedition  as  that 
against  Babylon.  It  must  be  regarded  as  an  unsolved 
problem ;  but  a  few  more  inscriptions  from  Babylon 
may  turn  up  and  alter  its  whole  complexion. 

The  question  of  the  different  languages  is  one  that 
may  perhaps  be  settled  by  referring  it  to  the  work  of 
the  editor ;  but  it  would  seem  more  likely  that  the 
editor  would  leave  that  in  Aramaic  which  he  found  in 
Aramaic,  and  present  that  in  Hebrew  which  he  found 
in  Hebrew.  Moreover,  there  seems  to  be  something 
like  a  probable  reason  for  some  of  the  prophecies  at  all 
events  not  being  written  in  Aramaic.  Writing  in  the 
time  of  Cyrus  to  proclaim  that  Greece,  in  contact  with 
which  Cyrus  had  but  comparatively  recently  come,  was 
ultimately  to  overthrow  the  empire  he  was  founding, 
was  a  thing  not  to  be  communicated  to  the  large 
public  who  could  read  Chaldee,  but  revealed  only 
to  that  smaller  number  who  knew  and  could  under- 
stand Hebrew. 

To  sum  up  rapidly,  there  seems  great  probability 
that  the  main  portions  of  this  prophecy  were  written  by 
Daniel  himself,  and  that  the  book  that  goes  by  his  name 
was  made  up  by  an  editor,  probably  at  the  end  of  the 
Persian  period,  when  it  was  possible  to  interpret  and 
put  a  name  to  the  monarchy  which  was  to  overthrow 
the  Persian  empire. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   BOOK   OF   ENOCH  :   ITS   DATE   AND   LANGUAGE. 

^VVTE  have  already  indicated  pretty  clearly  our  own 
opinion  as  to  the  date  and  language  of  the 
Book  of  Enoch,  but  it  is  needful  to  lay  before  our 
readers  the  reasons  which  have  induced  us  to  come  to 
these  conclusions. 

As  to  the  language  in  which  it  was  written,  it  will  be 
observed  we  have  assumed  it  to  be  Hebrew  or  Aramaic. 
It  is  not  a  very  easy  matter  to  settle  this,  as  may  be 
realised  when  one  thinks  of  the  actual  state  of  the  case. 
The  Book  of  Enoch  is  quoted  in  Jude,  and  cited  in 
the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  as  if  Scripture.  Further,  it  is 
referred  to  by  several  of  the  Church  Fathers.  The  last 
trace  of  real  knowledge  of  it  is  the  fairly  copious 
extracts  made  from  it  by  George  Syncellus  in  the 
eighth  century.1  After  this  the  book  may  be  said  to 
have  disappeared  till  near  the  last  quarter  of  last  cen- 
tury. Bruce  the  African  traveller  brought  home  three 
copies  with  him  from  Abyssinia  ;  one  of  these  he  pre- 
sented to  the  Royal  Library  in  Paris,  another  to  the 
Bodleian  in  Oxford,  and  the  third  he  retained  in 
Kinnaird  House.  Though  they  were  brought  to 
Europe  thus  in  1773,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  they  were  as  little  used,  one  may  say,  as  if 

1  Fabricius,  Codex  Pseudepigraphicm  Veteris  Testamcnti. 


390  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

they  had  still  been  in  Abyssinia.  M.  Sylvestre  de 
Sacy  in  1800  published  an  article  on  the  Book  of  Enoch 
in  the  Magasin  Encyclopedique,  i.  368,  to  which  he 
appended  a  translation  of  the  first  sixteen  chapters ; 
but  the  article  excited  no  notice.  In  1821  Archbishop 
Laurence  published  a  translation,  and  seventeen  years 
afterwards  published  an  edition  of  the  text.  Further 
discoveries  of  manuscripts  have  superseded  the  work 
of  Laurence,  but  still  to  him  the  honour  belongs  of 
reintroducing  to  Christendom  the  Book  of  Enoch. 

We  have  the  book  now  in  Ethiopic ;  but  that  version 
must  be  a  translation  from  Greek,  as  the  quotations 
from  Enoch  by  the  early  Fathers  clearly  prove.  But  is 
even  the  Greek  the  original  language  ?  The  extracts 
preserved  for  us  by  George  Syncellus  show  that  the 
language  of  the  Greek  recension  of  Enoch  was  very 
much  Hebraized.  While  that  certainly  affords  a  pre- 
sumption in  favour  of  regarding  the  Greek  as  the 
translation  of  a  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  original,  still  this 
does  not  afford  us  anything  like  absolute  certainty,  as 
the  forger  might  imitate  the  Greek  of  the  Septuagint. 
Still  the  probability  that  it  is  such  a  translation  is 
high  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  critical  skill  was 
not  likely  to  be  great  among  the  Alexandrian  Jews. 
But,  further,  the  fact  that  the  names  of  the  angels 
are  all  susceptible  of  Hebrew  etymologies,  makes 
the  probability  yet  greater.  What  seems  conclusive, 
however,  is  that  etymological  reasons  are  assigned 
which  have  force  only  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic.  Thus 
chap.  vi.  :  "The  angels  descended  on  the  summit 
of  Mount  Hermon,  and  they  called  it  Mount  Hermon 
because  they  had  sworn  on  it  and  bound  them- 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH:  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    391 

selves  by  a  curse."  This  statement  has  no  meaning 
unless  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic,  in  both  of  which 
tongues  Bnn5  herem,  is  "a  curse."  In  chap.  Ixxvii.  the 
names  of  the  winds  are  explained  from  Hebrew 
derivations.  In  the  following  chapter  "  the  names  of 
the  sun  are  these,  the  first  Orjares  and  the  second 
Tomas."  Orjares  is  equivalent  to  Dnn-nte,  Ori  heres, 
the  light  of  the  sun  ;  and  Tomas  is  as  clearly  Btotf , 
Shemesh,  the  sun.  So  also  the  moon  has  four  names, 
all  of  which  have  obvious  Hebrew  representatives.  A 
more  striking  proof  that  Enoch  was  written  in  Hebrew 
or  Aramaic  is  found  in  chap.  xc.  ver.  38  :  "  They  all 
became  white  bullocks,  and  the  first  one  was  the  word  ; 
and  that  word  was  a  great  animal,  and  had  on  its  head 
large  and  black  horns."  As  the  reference  here  is  to  the 
Messiah,  one  is  tempted  to  regard  this  as  an  assertion 
that  the  Messiah  was  the  essential  word  of  God.  But 
the  Ethiopic  word  here  is  not  the  equivalent  of  the 
Greek  ^070?,  but  of  pijfta.  This  makes  it  almost  certain 
that  the  Greek  translator  had  before  him  nan,  reem, 
"  wild  ox,"  and  not  having  an  easy  Greek  equivalent 
he  transliterated  it  £%*,  which  the  Ethiopic  translator 
thought  stood  for  /3%ta.  We  may  then  assume  that 
the  original  language  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  was  one  or 
other  of  the  two  Semitic  tongues  in  use  in  Palestine. 
This  conclusion  carries  with  it  the  further  conclusion 
that  the  book  was  written  in  Palestine  ;  a  view  that 
is  borne  out  by  the  topographical  allusions  and  the 
general  atmosphere  of  the  book. 

The  next  question  to  settle  is  the  structure  of  the 
book.  Is  it  one  book  written  by  one  author  at  one 
time  ?  or  is  it  a  congeries  of  books  put  together  by  an 


392  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

editor  ?  or,  again,  is  it  a  work  in  which  there  is  an 
original  nucleus  around  which  accretions  have  grown  ? 
Even  a  cursory  reading  enables  us  to  lay  aside  the  first 
of  these  views  as  untenable.  We  find  portions  in 
which,  not  Enoch,  but  Noah  is  the  speaker.  Again, 
even  in  those  parts  where  Enoch  is  the  speaker,  there 
are  portions  that  imply  a  different  state  of  matters  in 
the  world  around  from  what  is  implied  in  others.  In 
one  portion  certain  names  are  given  to  the  principal 
angels,  but  these  do  not  agree  with  those  in  other 
parts  of  the  book.  Further,  there  are  certain  passages 
that  indicate  a  new  departure.  The  first  chapter 
begins :  "  The  words  of  the  blessing  of  Enoch  where- 
with he  blessed  the  chosen  and  the  just,"  etc.  ;  chap, 
xxxvii.  again  begins :  "  The  second  vision  of  wisdom 
which  Enoch  the  son  of  Jared,  the  son  of  Mahaleleel, 
the  son  of  Cainan,  the  son  of  Enos,  the  son  of  Seth, 
the  son  of  Adam  saw."  Chap.  Ixxii.  begins  :  "  The  book 
of  the  courses  of  the  luminaries  of  the  heaven."  Then 
at  chap.  xcii.  we  have  the  words,  "  written  by  Enoch, 
the  scribe,  all  this  doctrine  of  wisdom."  These  opening 
formulae  indicate  a  new  beginning ;  and  when  special 
peculiarities  present  themselves  along  with  this,  we  are 
at  liberty  to  conclude  these  portions,  thus  separated,  to 
be  by  different  authors.  Further,  it  may  be  stated 
that  from  the  beginning  of  the  book  to  chap,  xxxvi. 
seems  to  be  the  work  of  the  same  author  who  has 
written  Ixxii.  to  xci.  To  mention  no  more,  the  angel- 
ology  is  the  same  in  both.  The  intermediate  section, 
that  from  xxxvii.  to  Ixxi.,  called  the  Book  of  Similitudes, 
seems  to  have  been  written  by  the  author  of  the  fourth 
section,  xcii.  to  cvii.  The  resemblance  here  is  not  so 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH  :  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    393 

striking,  yet  both  parts  have  this  in  common  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  the  rest  of  the  books — in  both  are 
Noachian  fragments. 

Before  we  can  discuss  the  question  as  to  whether  our 
present  Book  of  Enoch  is  the  result  of  accretion  or 
editing,  we  must  fix  the  relative  age  of  the  parts.  In 
regard  to  this  Liicke  (Einl.  in  die  Offenb.  Joh.), 
Schiirer  (Jewish  People),  Vernes  (Hist,  des  Idees 
Mess.),  Schodde  (The  Book  of  Enoch),  and  many 
others  think  the  groundwork  of  the  Book  of  Enoch 
is  the  portion  from  the  beginning  to  chap,  xxxvi. 
along  with  chap.  Ixxii.  to  the  end,  and  that  the 
Book  of  Parables  or  Similitudes  is  a  later  addition. 
Ewald,  almost  alone,  maintains  the  opposite  view.  A 
matter  of  this  kind  is  not  one  in  which  opinions  are  to 
be  decided  by  show  of  hands.  The  reasons  advanced 
must  be  considered  and  weighed.  But  when  looked 
at  they  consist  mainly  in  assumptions  of  a  certain 
doctrinal  development  exhibited  in  the  one  portion 
above  the  other.  Nothing,  however,  is  more  uncertain 
than  such  subjective  reasoning.  Other  reasons  are 
drawn  from  the  assumed  late  date  of  Daniel  and  the 
obvious  dependence  of  this  book,  and  especially  of  this 
part  of  it,  on  Daniel.  But  the  age  of  Daniel  is  not 
necessarily  so  late  as  some  critics  allege.1 

If  we  pass  away  from  these  views  to  consider  the 
book  itself,  in  the  first  place  it  is  generally  admitted 
that  the  middle  section — that  of  the  parables — is  the 
finest.  A  writer  is  usually  sufficiently  aware  of  the 
merit  of  his  works,  and  would  be  little  inclined  to 
sacrifice  his  own  independent  fame  to  furthering  the 

1  See  above. 


394  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

fame  of  another.  It  is  clear  that  if  the  portion  from 
chaps,  xxxvi.  to  Ixxi.  were  the  older,  and  gained  some 
popularity,  the  idea  of  adding  to  that  portion  other 
chapters  to  set  forth  the  writer's  own  views  would 
easily  occur  to  the  mind,  and  the  temptation  to  give 
that  idea  actuality  might  be  strong  if  the  book  to  be 
added  to  was  very  popular  and  opinion  running  high. 
It  may  be  replied,  however,  that  in  matters  of  taste 
there  is  always  an  element  of  doubt,  and  if  we  rest  our 
argument  on  the  superior  beauty  of  this  middle  portion 
our  conclusion  will  be  to  some  extent  uncertain. 

Let  us,  however,  look  at  the  passages  themselves. 
In  the  middle  sections — that  is,  the  section  with  the 
parables  and  the  section  of  the  weeks — we  find  Noachian 
additions  made.  The  Noachian  fragments  are  later 
than  the  part  to  which  they  have  been  added,  for  there 
is  no  trace  of  a  complete  book  of  Noah  having  been 
ransacked  for  portions  to  be  tagged  on  to  the  Book  of 
Enoch.  They  seem  more  like  portions  invented,  and 
added  by  some  one  who  wished  to  give  greater  com- 
pleteness to  the  revelations.  But  if  so,  the  question 
comes  up,  why  did  he  not  make  additions  to  the  other 
portions  as  well?  Is  not  this  the  simplest  solution, 
that  the  first  and  third  sections  were  not  yet  in  exist- 
ence. This  might  well  be  held  as  conclusive  evidence. 
Another  argument,  however,  may  be  advanced,  more 
constructive  in  character.  It  is  a  received  tenet  in 
criticism  that  the  more  elaborate  form  of  a  prophecy, 
vision,  etc.,  is  the  later  one.  If  we  find  a  scene  merely 
indicated  in  one  book,  and  in  another  full  and  worked 
out,  and  details  awanting  in  the  other  supplied,  we 
regard  this  second  form  as  the  later.  We  have  in  the 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH:  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    395 

two  portions  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  two  examples  of 
this.  If  we  turn  to  chap.  xli.  we  find  a  description  of 
physical  things  as  under  the  command  of  the  Lord  of 
spirits.  Ver.  3 :  "  And  these  mine  eyes  saw  the  secrets 
of  the  lightning,  and  of  the  thunder,  and  the  secrets  of 
the  wind,  how  they  are  divided  to  blow  over  the  earth, 
and  the  secrets  of  the  clouds  and  of  the  dew ;  and  1 
saw  there  the  places  whence  they  proceed,  and  how  they 
saturate  the  dust  of  the  earth.  4.  And  there  I  saw 
the  closed  receptacles  whence  the  winds  are  divided  out, 
and  the  receptacles  of  the  hail,  and  the  mist,  and  the 
clouds."  He  then  proceeds  to  describe  the  courses  of 
the  sun  and  moon,  and  ends  with  the  declaration  : 
"  For  no  angel  hinders,  neither  can  any  power  hinder  ; 
for  the  Judge  sees  them  all,  and  sees  them  all  before 
Him."  In  chap.  lx.,  which  is  a  Noachian  addition  to 
the  Book  of  Parables,  we  find  far  greater  elaboration. 
Noah,  as  Enoch,  sees  the  receptacle  of  the  winds,  etc., 
but  he  has  a  much  more  detailed  account  of  thunder 
and  lightning,  and,  as  we  saw  above,  tells  how  a  spirit 
directs  the  flashes  and  the  rests  between  them.  Angels, 
far  from  being  excluded,  as  in  chap,  xli.,  have  quite 
a  list  of  services  that  they  fulfil  in  regard  to  nature. 
Then,  ver.  21 :  "And  when  the  spirit  of  the  rain  moves 
himself  out  of  its  receptacle,  the  angels  come  and  open 
the  receptacles  and  lead  him  out,  when  he  scatters  the 
rain  over  the  earth,  and  as  often  as  it  is  joined  to  the 
waters  of  the  earth."  We  need  not  proceed  further,  or 
describe  the  angels  flying  each  with  a  long  cord  in  his 
hand  "  to  measure  withal."  Enough  has  been  given  to 
show  greater  elaboration  in  this  Noachian  portion  than 
in  the  earlier  portion  of  the  Book  of  Parables. 


396  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

When,  however,  we  turn  to  the  section  beginning 
with  chap.  Ixxii.,  known  commonly  as  "the  book  of 
the  luminaries  of  the  Heaven,"  we  find  an  amount  of 
detailed  elaboration  which  puts  the  portions  previously 
considered  completely  in  the  shade.  Thus,  ver.  3  : 
"And  I  saw  six  doors,  out  of  which  the  sun  ascends, 
and  six  doors  into  which  the  sun  descends ;  the  moon, 
too,  rises  and  sets  through  these  doors,  and  the  leaders 
of  the  stars,  and  those  also  whom  they  lead.  Six  in 
the  east  and  six  in  the  west  in  definite  order.  There 
are  also  many  windows  to  the  right  and  left  of  those 
doors.  4.  And  first  goes  forth  the  great  light 
named  the  sun ;  his  circle  is  the  circle  of  the  heavens, 
and  it  is  wholly  filled  with  lightning  and  warming  fire. 
5.  The  chariots  on  which  he  mounts  are  driven  by 
the  wind."  We  need  not  occupy  space  and  time  quot- 
ing the  way  in  which  the  author,  by  means  of  these 
doors,  explains  the  lengthening  and  shortening  of  the 
day,  nor  how  the  phases  of  the  moon  are  treated  with 
equal  minuteness  of  detail.  The  stars  also  are  con- 
sidered, though  not  so  fully.  Having  occupied  four 
chapters  with  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  in  chap.  Ixxvi.  the 
writer  takes  up  terrestrial  meteorology.  For  the  winds 
there  are  also  twelve  doors,  from  which  they  issue  to 
blow  upon  the  earth  :  "  three  in  the  front,  three  in  the 
setting,  three  to  the  right  side  of  heaven,  and  three  to 
the  left."  In  other  words,  there  are  three  doorways  in 
each  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens.  The  east 
wind  comes  from  the  first  doorway  in  the  east,  but 
inclining  toward  the  south  ;  out  of  it  comes  destruction, 
drought,  heat,  and  death.  Through  the  second  door, 
in  the  midst,  comes  the  right  mixture,  rain  and  fruit- 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH  :  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    397 

fulness,  welfare  and  dew  ;  and  through  the  third  door, 
that  lying  toward  the  north,  comes  forth  cold  and 
drought."  Thus  each  of  the  twelve  doorways  are 
spoken  of,  and  their  meteorological  products  character- 
ised. There  would  seem  no  further  proof  needed  to 
show  that  there  is  greater  elaboration  in  the  physical 
theory  of  the  universe  in  this  portion  than  even  in  the 
Noachian  fragment,  and  therefore  a  fortiori  more  than 
in  the  Book  of  Parables  or  Similitudes. 

The  other  example  of  greater  elaboration  assumes 
that  chap,  xcii.,  with  the  latter  part  of  xci.,  has  been 
written  by  the  same  hand  as  the  Book  of  Similitudes. 
In  the  portion  we  have  indicated,  the  course  of 
universal  history  is  rapidly  sketched  out  in  twelve 
symbolic  weeks,  in  each  of  which  one  event  is  made 
prominent.  When  we  compare  this  with  the  long 
account  given  of  bullocks  and  rams  in  the  section 
lxxxv.-xc.,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  there  are  far 
more  details  given  in  the  latter  than  in  the  former, 
If,  then,  greater  elaboration  proves  a  more  recent  date, 
then  the  Book  of  Similitudes  is  older  than  the  rest  of 
Enoch. 

The  order  of  composition  would  then  seem  to  be 
first  the  nucleus,  the  Book  of  Similitudes,  chaps,  xxxvii.- 
lix.,  Ixi.-lxiv.,  Ixix.  25  possibly,  Ixx.,  Ixxi.,  xcii.,  xcix. 
Next  the  Noachian  fragments,  lx.,  Ixv.-lxix.  24.  Then 
the  book  of  the  fall  of  the  angels,  with  not  impossibly 
the  exordium — that  is  to  say,  from  chaps,  i.  to  xxxvi., 
and  by  the  same  hand  Ixxii.-xci.  11,  c.-cvii.,  the  last 
chapter  being  added  by  another  hand  still. 

Having  fixed  the  relative  age  of  the  different  portions 
of  the  Book  of  Enoch,  it  will  now  be  our  duty  to 


398  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

endeavour   to  find    out    the   absolute    age    of    these 
respective  portions. 

In  doing  this  we  must  bear  with  us  certain  prin- 
ciples. Pseudepigraphic  apocalyptists  not  infrequently 
give  a  sketch  of  universal  history,  or,  at  all  events,  of 
that  of  the  people  of  God  from  the  date  of  the  person 
whose  name  they  have  assumed.  The  general 
phenomena  of  such  sketches  are  growing  fulness  and 
clearness  to  the  time  of  the  actual  author,  and  then 
sudden  confusion  contradictory  of  the  facts  of  history. 
Not  infrequently  the  writer  posits  immediately  after 
the  time  he  is  writing  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  and 
the  last  judgment.  This  leads  one  to  lay  down  as  a 
canon  that  the  time  of  the  composition  of  an  Apocalypse 
is  between  the  latest  event  clearly  described  in  it  and 
its  first  unmistakable  break  from  the  actual  facts  of 
history.  Further,  students  of  these  pseudepigraphic 
Apocalypses  observe  that  there  are  indications  more  or 
less  clear  of  the  background  of  circumstances  implied 
in  the  visions.  If  persecutors  are  denounced  who  have 
shed  the  blood  of  the  saints,  then  there  is  clear  evidence 
that  the  state  of  matters  in  which  the  book  was  com- 
posed was  one  of  violent  persecution.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  rich  men  who  are  accused  of  oppressing  the 
poor,  we  easily  See  that  the  time  cannot  be  one  of 
persecution  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  So, 
too,  we  may  see  evidences  of  a  time  of  actual  conflict 
in  the  very  wording  of  the  Apocalypse,  when  the 
armies  of  the  enemies  of  God  are  referred  to.  Our 
second  canon  would  be:  "the  time  of  the  composition 
of  a  book  is  that  which  affords  the  most  suitable  back- 
ground to  it." 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH  :  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    399 

Having  laid  down  those  canons,  let  us  now  apply 
them  to  the  different  portions  of  the  Book  of  Enoch. 
And  in  doing  so  we  would  consider  our  canon  in 
relation  to  the  Book  of  Similitudes  or  Parables,  and 
as  being  the  more  general,  would  apply  to  it  our 
second  canon  first. 

It  has  been  noted  by  most  writers  on  Enoch,  that 
the  circumstances  of  the  people  presupposed  in  the 
one  are  quite  different  from  those  presupposed  in  the 
other.  In  the  middle  section  those  denounced  are  the 
rich,  the  powerful,  who  have  a  tendency  towards 
heathenism.  This  might  apply  to  the  period  of  the 
Lagid  princes.  Under  these  Egyptian  princes  wealth 
spread  among  the  people  of  Judea,  and  with  wealth  a 
tendency  towards  idolatry  and  Hellenism.  A  period 
not  unlike  it  occurred  nearly  a  hundred  years  later 
under  Queen  Alexandra ;  but  religious  people  would 
have  said  nothing  against  the  princes  and  those  in 
power,  for  the  Pharisaic  party,  that  most  akin  to  the 
Essenes,  had  completely  the  confidence  of  Alexandra.1 
But,  further,  there  is  a  note  of  time  which  is  of  some 
importance.  In  chap.  Ivi.  5,  it  is  said : 2  "In  those 
days  the  angels  will  assemble  and  turn  their  heads 
towards  the  east,  toward  the  people  of  Parthia  and 
Media,  in  order  to  cause  a  movement  among  the  kings 
there,  so  that  a  spirit  of  unrest  may  come  upon  them ; 
and  they  will  be  roused  from  their  throne,  so  that  they 
shall  break  out  of  their  camps  like  lions  and  like  hungry 
wolves  amidst  their  flocks.  And  they  shall  come  up 

1  One  may  remark  it  is  utterly  unlike  the  state  of  matters  in  the  war 
of  Barcochba,  so  far  as  we  know  anything  of  it. 
8  Dillmann. 


400  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

and  tread  the  land  of  their  elect,  and  the  land  of  his 
elect  shall  be  before  them  a  threshing-floor  and  a  path. 
But  the  city  of  my  saints  will  be  a  stumbling-block  to 
their  horses.  And  this  battle  shall  they  set  against  each 
other,  and  their  claims  of  right  will  be  made  strong 
against  themselves,  and  no  one  will  recognise  neighbour 
or  brother,  nor  the  son  his  father  or  mother,  till  there 
are  dead  bodies  enough  through  their  death ;  and  the 
punishment  on  them  will  not  be  in  vain."  It  is  to  be 
observed  here  that  both  Parthians  and  Medes  are  re- 
ferred to,  and  if  we  would  identify  the  point  of  time  indi- 
cated, we  must  discover  some  incident  in  which  both  of 
these  nationalities  were  involved.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  reign  of  Antiochus  the  Great,  two  brothers,  Molo  and 
Alexander,  governors  respectively  of  Media  and  Persia, 
rebelled,  and  defeated  the  armies  sent  against  them. 
Antiochus  himself  marched  against  them,  and  subdued 
them.  From  this  campaign  he  dashed  into  Syria,  and 
wrested  it  from  the  hands  of  Ptolemy,  but  at  length 
was  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Raphia.  Shortly  after 
this  there  was  another  revolt  on  the  part  of  the  Medes, 
this  time  aided  by  the  kings  of  Bactria  and  Parthia, 
and  against  them  Antiochus  marched.  This,  then,  is  a 
case  in  which  Medes  and  Parthians  were  joined  together 
in  one  uprising,  and  it  was  the  case  in  no  later  conflict. 
We  hold  that  the  writer  of  the  middle  portion  had  this 
event  in  his  mind  when  he  penned  this  chapter.  It 
may  be  objected  to  this  view,  that  Antiochus  did  not 
immediately  on  his  victory  in  the  East  again  at  once 
swoop  down  upon  Egypt ;  but  the  writer  expected  him 
to  do  so,  and  in  this  expectation  wrote  what  he  did. 
The  account  of  the  campaign  in  the  Holy  Land  is 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH  :  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    401 

unhistorical,  and  fits  with  no  expedition  of  Parthians, 
Medes,  or  anybody.  In  fact,  as  the  Seleucids  and 
Lagids  were  always  ready  enough  to  fly  at  each  other's 
throats,  it  was  but  natural  to  expect  that  this  new 
victory  of  Antiochus  would  bring  him  down  upon 
Egypt  again.  In  later  times  the  Parthians  did  invade 
the  Holy  Land, — once  when  they  compelled  Herod  to 
flee ;  but  the  Medes  were  not  with  them  as  a  separate 
power.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  Horace  uses  Medus 
instead  of  Parthus  repeatedly.  The  fact  that  Horace 
was  a  Roman,  educated  in  Hellenic  literature,  made 
him  congenitally  liable  to  misunderstand  the  Eastern 
nationalities.  Persians  were  often  spoken  of  as  Medes 
among  the  Greeks;  hence  when  the  Parthian  empire 
appeared  occupying  much  the  same  territory  as  Persia 
had  done  among  the  Greeks,  Medes  and  Persians  were 
often  mingled  ;  so,  as  a  more  musical  word,  Horace 
often  preferred  Medus  to  Parthus.  The  writer  of 
Enoch  was  under  no  such  temptation  to  imitate  the 
Greek  confusion  of  names.  Herodotus  had  compara- 
tively little  meaning  for  him,  and  he,  moreover,  had  no 
Augustus  to  flatter  with  subtle  implied  references  to 
Alexander  the  Great.  The  probability  then  is  that  the 
Book  of  Parables  was  written  just  after  the  news 
reached  Palestine  of  the  successful  campaign  which 
Antiochus  had  carried  on  in  the  East,  and  while  his 
movements  in  the  immediate  future  were  still  un- 
certain—  that  is  to  say,  approximately,  in  the  year 
B.C.  210.  If  we  are  right  in  our  view  that  the  Book 
of  Weeks,  xcii.-xcix.  (including  a  portion  of  xci.),  is 
part  of  the  nucleus,  and  therefore  written  by  the  same 

hand  as  the  Book  of  Similitudes  which  we  are  now 
2c 


402  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

considering,  we  have  confirmatory  evidence  of  our 
contention  as  to  the  date  of  this  portion  of  the  Book 
of  Enoch.  The  seventh  week  is  the  one  in  which  the 
writer  himself  is  living.  He  denounces  the  rebellious- 
ness of  the  people,  —  their  rebelliousness  evidently, 
not  in  a  political,  but  in  the  religious  sense  of  the 
word ;  they  were  rebellious  against  God  and  against 
His  law.  It  was  this  rebellion  against  the  restriction 
of  God's  law  that  was  the  main  character  of  Judaism 
as  it  would  strike  a  solitary  zealous  for  the  law.  Had 
the  gallant  struggle  of  Judas  the  Maccabee  been  even 
inaugurated,  that  struggle  would  have  been  mentioned 
in  the  weeks  of  the  world's  history.  The  nearness  of 
that  event,  the  presence  of  the  Hasmonseans  on  the 
throne,  all  would  have  tended  to  make  that  struggle 
more  prominent  than  even  it  had  a  claim  to  be,  not 
less  so.  We  may  safely,  therefore,  hold  that  the 
date  of  this  part  of  Enoch  is,  at  all  events,  before  the 
Maccabean  struggle. 

In  regard  to  the  Noachian  fragments,  it  would  be 
more  difficult  to  come  to  a  decision  if  they  were 
standing  isolated  and  alone ;  but  approximately  their 
date  can  be  fixed  in  relation  to  the  other  portions. 
Their  composition  must  be  later  than  the  Book  of 
Parables  to  which  they  have  been  appended,  else  they 
could  not  have  been  so  appended;  and  earlier  than 
the  book  of  "  the  fall  of  the  angels,"  or  "  the  Book  of 
the  luminaries,"  else  they  would  been  appended  to 
some  extent  to  them  also. 

It  remains  now  to  fix  the  date  of  "  the  book  of  the 
fall  of  the  angels"  and  that  "of  the  luminaries  of 
Heaven."  These,  as  has  already  been  said,  are  by 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH:  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    403 

one  and  the  same  hand ;  hence  to  fix  the  date  of  the 
one  is  to  fix  the  date  of  the  other. 

We  have  a  most  important  note  of  time  in  the 
section,  chaps.  Ixxxv.-xc.  In  that  section  we  have 
the  history  of  the  world  narrated,  as  we  have  already 
said.  Practically,  our  interest  is  concentrated  on  the 
ninetieth  chapter,  in  which  the  writer  gives  us  an 
account  of  his  own  time,  and  his  visions  of  futurity. 
We  shall  quote  a  few  verses  of  the  most  interesting 
part  of  this  chapter.  "  After  that  I  saw  all  the  birds 
of  heaven  coming,  the  eagles,  the  vultures,  the  kites, 
and  the  ravens  ;  and  they  began  to  devour  the  sheep, 
and  to  pick  out  their  eyes,  and  to  devour  their  flesh ; 
and  the  sheep  cried  out  because  their  bodies  were 
devoured  by  the  birds ;  and  I  cried  and  lamented  in 
my  sleep.  And  I  looked  till  those  sheep  were  devoured 
by  dogs,  by  eagles,  and  by  kites ;  and  they  left  on  them 
neither  flesh,  fell,  nor  muscle,  till  only  their  skeletons 
were  left  standing;  and  their  skeletons  fell  to  the 
earth,  and  the  sheep  became  few.  And  small  lambs 
were  born  to  those  white  sheep,  and  they  began  to 
open  their  eyes  and  to  see,  and  to  cry  to  the  sheep." 
The  lambs  here  mean  the  &*?&?  (Hasidim),  who  called 
to  their  rulers ;  but  in  vain,  because  the  rulers  had 
given  themselves  over  to  Hellenism.  The  sheep  "  did 
not  hear,  because  they  were  exceeding  deaf,  and  their 
eyes  above  all  terribly  blinded.  And  I  saw  that 
the  ravens  flew  on  those  lambs  and  took  one  of  them." 
This  probably  refers  to  Onias  III.  "  And  I  looked  till 
horns  grew  on  these  lambs,  and  the  ravens  threw  down 
these  horns.  And  I  looked  till  One  great  horn  came 
forth,  and  One  of  those  sheep,  and  their  eyes  were 


404  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

opened.  And  the  ravens  fought  and  strove  with  this 
ram  to  break  his  horn,  and  he  strove  and  cried  that 
help  might  come  to  him.  And  I  looked  till  the  Lord 
of  the  sheep  came  and  took  the  rod  of  anger  in  His 
hand  and  smote  the  earth  that  it  rent  asunder,  and 
all  the  beasts  and  birds  of  the  air  fell  down  from  the 
sheep  and  sank  into  the  earth." 

The  point  to  be  decided  here  is  who  is  the  ram  with 
the  notable  horn.  It  turns  to  some  extent  on  the 
war  indicated  by  the  birds  of  heaven  flying  on  the 
lambs  and  the  ram  fighting  against  them.  Volkmar,  of 
course,  asserts  it  to  be  the  war  of  Barcochba.  We 
know  very  little  historically  of  the  events  of  that  war, 
and  whatever  is  asserted  to  have  taken  place  then  is  at 
least  pretty  safe  from  the  danger  of  being  definitely 
disproved.  At  the  same  time  there  is  small  possibility 
of  affirmative  proof.  What  we  do  know  of  the  circum- 
stances does  not  induce  us  to  imagine  that  period  to 
have  been  one  likely  to  produce  great  literary  activity. 
The  great  and  decisive  objection  is  that  on  this 
hypothesis  the  Maccabean  struggle  which  bulked  so 
largely  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  Judea — at  least 
shortly  before  the  Barcochba  period,  as  we  see  from 
Josephus  —  is  utterly  unnoticed.  Another  objection 
equally  decisive,  if  one  holds  the  authenticity  of  the 
Epistle  of  Jude,  is  the  fact  that  the  Book  of  Enoch  is 
quoted  in  that  Epistle.  Schwegler  and  several  others 
doubt  the  authenticity  of  Jude.  However,  the  fact 
that  it  finds  its  place  in  the  Muratori  Fragment  as  one 
of  the  recognised  books  of  Scripture,  seems  to  render 
its  authenticity  probable.  Further,  the  writer  of 
Revelation — we  do  not  presume  to  say  at  this  stage 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH:  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    405 

that  John  wrote  it — has  many  descriptions  and  phrases 
that  recall  those  of  the  Book  of  Enoch.  The  fact  is 
that  there  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that  these  two 
portions  are  pre-Christian  in  date.  The  real  point 
at  issue  is  whether  it  is  John  Hyrcanus  or  his  uncle, 
Judas  Maccabseus,  that  is  meant  by  the  ram  with 
the  large  horn,  which  the  eagles,  the  vultures,  the 
ravens,  and  the  kites  strove  to  break.  Both,  certainly, 
were  assailed  by  outside  foes,  but  Judas  much  more 
than  his  nephew.  Judas  in  the  beginning  of  his 
career  was  the  representative  of  the  Hasidim.  John 
Hyrcanus  was  always  suspected  by  the  Pharisees, — that 
same  party  under  another  name, — and  was  finally  so 
insulted  by  one  of  them,  that  he  broke  with  the  whole 
sect.  But  as  we  saw,  the  lambs  whose  eyes  are  open, 
whose  leader  this  ram  became,  are  the  Hasidim.  An 
Essene  writer  could  write  of  a  Hasid  in  the  way  the 
author  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  writes  symbolically  of 
this  leader,  but  could  not  of  a  Sadducee  like  John 
Ilyrcanus.  Another  and  fatal  objection  to  the  theory 
that  it  is  John  Hyrcanus  that  is  symbolised  by  the 
one-horned  ram,  is  the  fact  that  in  this  hypothesis 
Judas  Maccabseus  is  not  taken  notice  of  at  all ;  yet 
without  Judas  there  could  have  been  no  John  Hyr- 
canus. It  is  evident  that  the  conflict  is  still  going  on 
while  this  is  written ;  for  while  fighting,  the  hero  is 
crying  for  help  to  God,  who  appears  to  deliver  him. 
This  portion  cannot  be  later  than  160  B.C. 

An  alleged  note  of  time  which  has  caused  great 
difficulty,  and  led  many  writers  to  place  the  Book  of 
Enoch  much  later  than  its  true  date,  is  "  the  seventy 
shepherds "  of  chaps.  Ixxxix.,  xc.  These  have  been 


406  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

taken  by  several  writers,  as  Hilgenfeld  and  Volkmar, 
to  represent  successive  rulers  or  successive  periods. 
It  is  clear,  however,  see  Gebhardt  (Merx's  Archiv, 
ii.  2,  pp.  163-246),  Schodde  (Enoch,  p.  231),  that  the 
shepherds  must  be  angels,  and  neither  periods  nor 
rulers,  heathen  nor  Jewish.  Light  may  be  thrown  on 
this  by  the  fact  that  the  Jews  regarded  the  Gentiles 
as  being  divided  into  seventy  nations,1  and  over  each 
of  these  nations  was  an  angel  supposed  to  be  placed. 
That  each  nation  was  governed  by  a  special  angel  is 
a  doctrine  implied  in  Daniel  (chap.  x.).  When  the 
statement  is  made  (Enoch  Ixxxix.  70),  that  the  Lord 
of  the  sheep  "  called  thirty  shepherds  "  after  His  flock 
had  been  assailed  by  "  lions,  and  tigers,  and  wolves, 
and  jackals,"  to  "  put  away  the  sheep  in  order  that 
they  may  pasture  them,"  it  means  that  all  heathendom 
would  supply  pasturage  for  the  Jewish  people.  The 
time  when  this  special  assault  took  place  was  at  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the 
captivity  ensuing  was  the  first  pasturing  of  holy 
people  by  the  angelic  shepherds  who  ruled  over 
the  Gentile  nations.  After  this  captivity  the  Jews 
were  scattered  abroad  over  all  the  East.  The  deliver- 
ance of  the  nation  from  the  oppression  of  Babylon 
merely  opened  the  way,  under  the  Persian  rule, 
for  their  spreading  on  every  side.  This  general  dis- 
persion of  the  Jewish  nationality  is  implied  in  the 
Book  of  Esther.  The  author  of  Enoch  regards  his 
nation  as  placed  by  God  under  the  charge  of  the 

1  Eisenmenger,  Entdecktes  Judenthum,  vol.  i.  chap,  xviii.  In  Deur,. 
xxxii.  8,  LXX.,  it  is  said,  "  The  Highest  set  bounds  to  the  nations 
according  to  the  number  of  the  angels  of  God." 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH:  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    407 

angels  of  the  heathen  nations.  This  dispersion  was 
to  be  a  discipline ;  certain  were  to  be  cut  off,  but  the 
Gentile  nations  would  ever  be  exacting  more  than  was 
meet.  He  regards  the  Persian  empire  as  a  congeries  of 
nations  as  it  were,  and  reckons  their  number  as  thirty- 
six  (five).  Then  the  Greek  empire  followed,  and  the 
Lagid  princes  are  reckoned  as  having  twenty -three 
nationalities  under  them.  Therefore,  while  the  Jews 
were  under  those  twenty-three  angels,  the  remaining 
twelve  shepherds  represent  the  period  of  the  Seleucid 
domination.  It  will  thus  be  seen,  that  while  there  is 
no  very  definite  indication  of  time,  what  indication 
there  is  points  to  the  time  of  the  Seleucidse  as  the 
date  of  the  composition  of  this  portion  of  the  book. 

The  date  of  the  composition  of  the  other  portions 
cannot  be  fixed. 

We  have  reserved  consideration  of  one  feature  in  the 
Book  of  Enoch  which  has  been  used  as  an  argument 
for  diametrically  opposite  conclusions.  The  feature  we 
mean  is  the  Christology  of  the  book,  and  especially  the 
use  of  the  title  Son  of  man.  On  the  one  hand,  it  has 
been  urged  that  such  an  advanced  Christology  implied  a 
Christian  authorship,  and  that  the  title  "  Son  of  man  " 
given  to  the  expected  Messiah  only  confirms  the  more 
this  view.  The  opinion  that  these  features  are  due  to 
Christian  influences  has  assumed  different  forms.  Thus 
J.  C.  K.  Hoffmann  and  Philippi  declare  it  to  be  written 
in  the  second  century.  Vernes  claims  the  Christology 
of  the  book  as  Christian,  and  dates  it  about  the  end  of 
the  first  century  A.D.  A  number  of  other  writers,  as 
Hilgenfeld,  Fellmann,  and  Stan  ton,  while  regarding 
the  rest  of  the  book  as  pre-Christian,  have  declared 


408  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC, 

the  Book  of  Parables  to  be  of  Christian  authorship. 
Drummond  (Jewish  Messiah)  holds  that  while  "  the 
Book  of  Parables"  is  as  a  whole  pre-Christian,  it  is 
largely  interpolated.  We  shall  consider  Dr.  Drum- 
mond's  position  first.  He  declares  all  those  passages 
to  be  interpolations  where  the  Messiah  is  indicated  by 
the  title  Son  of  man,  and  endeavours  to  prove  his 
position  by  showing  how  the  passage  reads  after  these 
passages  have  been  left  out,  and  then  professes  to  find 
a  better  connection  than  before.  Certainly  to  us  it 
does  not  seem  convincing,  because  in  Semitic  writing 
generally  there  is  not  the  close  logical  sequence  that  is 
found  in  the  works  of  Western  peoples  ;  there  is  far 
more  repetition  and  redundance.  Therefore  it  is  no 
proof  that  a  passage  in  a  Semitic  writing  is  an  inter- 
polation that  it  can  be  left  out  without  materially 
injuring  the  sense.1  Moreover,  a  theory  that  implies 
that  a  forger  went  over  a  document,  and  inserted 
words  here  and  clauses  there,  is  one  to  be  received 
with  a  great  deal  of  caution. 

The  main  argument  lies  really  in  the  use  of  the 
title  "  Son  of  man "  as  designating  the  Messiah.  If 
our  Lord  introduced  the  title,  it  would  be  done  with 
solemnity,  with  some  indication  that  the  title  He 
was  assuming  was  new.  So  far  from  that,  our  Lord 
always  takes  for  granted  that  His  auditors  knew  that 
He  designated  Himself  as  Messiah  by  this  title.  He 
seems  to  have  chosen  it  as  one  that  did  not  so 
obviously  excite  the  suspicion  of  the  Romans  as  would 
the  title  Messiah  or  Anointed  One.  The  Jews, 
however,  evidently  recognised  the  title  as  one  implying 

1  See  above,  Rise  of  Apocalyptic. 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH:  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    409 

the  assumption  of  Messiahship.  When  our  Lord 
announced  to  the  multitude  His  approaching  death 
by  crucifixion,  they  express  their  confusion  by  saying, 
"  We  have  heard  out  of  the  law  that  Christ  abideth 
ever,  and  how  sayest  thou  the  Son  of  man  must  be 
lifted  up  ?  Who  is  this  Son  of  man  ?  "  Evidently 
the  thought  of  the  multitude  is  this,  "  The  Son  of 
man  is  the  Messiah,  and  the  Messiah  is  everlasting ; 
but  this  Son  of  man  of  whom  thou  speakest  is  to  die  ; 
this  must  be  some  one  else.  Who  is  this?  the  Son 
of  man."  Unless  on  the  supposition  that  they  under- 
stood "  the  Son  of  man "  to  mean  the  Messiah,  the 
whole  sentence  is  inexplicable.  An  objection  has 
been  urged,  that  the  construction  O£TO<»  o  implies  the 
title  to  have  been  a  new  one :  this  would  have  force 
were  English  syntax  an  exact  guide  to  Greek,  but 
(vid.  Liddell  and  Scott)  the  article  is  often  added  to 
strengthen  the  demonstrative  force  of  the  pronoun. 
The  phrase  really  means  "  who  is  this  special  Son  of 
man  ? "  i.e.  who  is  this,  who  is  Son  of  man  and  yet  not 
Messiah  ? — for  Messiah  he  cannot  be,  seeing  he  is  to 
be  crucified.  It  was  in  all  probability  somewhat  of  an 
esoteric  title  of  the  hoped  for  Messiah  in  use  among 
the  Essenes,  and  one  that  was  known  to  the  outer 
fringe  of  Essenism  from  which  our  Lord  drew  His 
disciples.  The  fact  that  our  Lord  assumes  the  title 
"  Son  of  man "  without  explanation,  implies  it  to  be 
already  known ;  and  if  known,  that  is  at  all  events 
probable  evidence  that  this  book  is  the  source.  On 
reading  carefully  the  passages  alleged  to  show  a  too 
advanced  Christology  for  a  pre-Christian  date,  we  think 
the  statement  exaggerated.  If  the  position  of  the  Book 


410  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  Enoch  be  compared  with  that  of  Philo,  the  views  are 
nearly  identical,  due  regard  being  had  to  the  meta- 
physical Platonising  attitude  assumed  by  Philo  to  all 
questions,  and  the  want  in  him  of  any  strong  Messianic 
hope.  If  the  reader  compares  also  what  is  said  of 
Metatron,  of  Sandalfon,  of  Michael  among  late 
Jewish  writers,  he  will  see  that  in  all  that  is  said  there 
is  no  necessary  ascription  of  supreme  divinity  to  the 
Messiah. 

In  regard  to  Enoch  it  is  interesting,  as  showing  how 
slight  an  impress  this  book  left  on  later  Judaism,  to 
note  some  of  the  opinions  expressed  as  to  the  person 
of  Enoch.  Enoch  was  a  centre  of  legend,  but  there  are 
few  traces  of  familiarity  with  our  book. 

The  Rabbinists  declare  that  there  is  one  angel  who 
is  above  all  the  other  angels,  He  is  called  Metatron, 
jhtponp,  pera  Opovov,1  and  most  extraordinary  things  are 
said.  "  He  is  the  ruler  over  all  rulers,  and  king  over 
all  kings.  He  is  the  beginning  of  the  ways  of  God. 
He  is  the  prince,  the  angel  of  the  countenance,"  who  is 
continually  before  God ;  "  the  angel,  the  prince  of 
strength  and  wisdom ;  the  angel,  the  prince  of  all  the 
lofty,  much  exalted  and  august  prince,  who  is  over 
the  heaven  and  the  earth.  He  is  the  old  and  the 
young,  the  Lord  of  the  world."  These  are  titles  that 
suggest  Christ  to  the  Christian  reader  at  once,  yet 
they  are  the  product  of  Judaism  which  had  become 
bitterly  hostile  to  Christianity.  Singular  as  is  the 
light  thrown  on  the  Christology  of  Enoch,  a  yet  more 
singular  thing  is  the  identification  of  Enoch  with  this 

1  Dr.  Kohut  suggests  a  connection  with  ftwirw;,  but  holds  a  still  closer 
relationship  to  Mitheas  the  Persian  demi-god. 


THE  BOOK  OF  ENOCH:  ITS  DATE  AND  LANGUAGE.    411 

Metatron.  In  the  Targum  of  the  Pseudo-Jonathan 
we  are  told  that  after  God  took  Enoch  He  changed  his 
name  to  Metatron.  A  number  of  wonderful  things 
are  said  of  him,  how  his  bones  became  coal,  and  his 
veins  were  filled  with  fire.  Perhaps  the  most  grotesque 
part  of  the  description  is  the  assertion  that  he  is  so 
much  taller  than  his  fellows,  that  it  would  take  a  man 
five  hundred  years  to  walk  the  distance  representing 
the  difference.  Nay,  his  absolute  size  is  given  as  seven 
hundred  million  miles  in  height  and  breadth.  Some  of 
the  sayings  put  in  his  mouth  seem  to  be  free  quotations 
of  the  book  before  us,  but  such  as  may  have  been  filtered 
to  the  Eabbins  from  Christian  sources.1 

1  For  more  particulars,  see  Eisenmenger's  Entdecktes  Judenthum,  vol.  ii. 
chap.  vii. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    ELEVENTH    CHAPTER   OF    DANIEL  :    ITS   DATE. 

cannot  fail  to  notice  the  sudden  change  of  style 
when  one  passes  from  the  fifth  verse  of  this  chapter 
to  the  sixth.  Before  this  point  everything  is  indicated 
in  the  vague  symbolic  way  peculiar  to  Apocalyptic 
prophecy;  after,  it  becomes  almost  as  definite  as  history. 
In  no  other  portion  of  prophetic  literature  is  there  any 
fine  stating  of  history  in  a  similar  way.  Again,  the 
writer  of  1  Maccabees  knew  Daniel,  and  put  references 
to  it  into  the  mouth  of  Mattathias.  If  this  chapter  of 
Daniel  had  then  been  commonly  incorporated  with 
Daniel,  when  the  first  book  of  Maccabees  was 
written,  it  would  have  been  impossible  not  to  have 
represented  Mattathias  referring  to  the  certainty  that 
ultimately  their  enemy  would  be  overthrown,  although 
the  struggle  would  be  a  long  and  arduous  one.  The 
fact  that  our  Lord,  Matt.  xxiv.  15,  refers  to  Dan. 
xi.  31,  and  quotes  it  as  from  "Daniel  the  prophet,"  is 
at  first  sight  a  difficulty ;  but  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  our  Lord  did  not  regard  it  as  His  mission  to  teach 
Biblical  criticism.  Nothing  depended  on  the  words 
being  those  of  Daniel  and  not  of  some  other,  More- 
over, even  grant  that  this  chapter  is  by  Daniel,  it  was 
not  of  the  coming  of  the  Romans  that  this  prophecy 
was  written,  but  of  Epiphanes.  Foreign  standards 


412 


THE  ELEVENTH  CHAPTER  OF  DANIEL:    ITS  DATE.  413 

with  their  idolatrous  symbols  were  "the  abomination 
that  maketh  desolate,"  whether  the  standards  so  adorned 
were  those  of  Epiphanes  or  of  Titus.  Our  Lord  used 
the  description  here  of  the  camp  of  an  invading  force, 
but  did  not  thereby  lend  His  authority  to  the  forgery 
of  this  Essene  of  the  second  century  B.C.  It  seems 
clear  that  this  chapter  was  not  recognised  as  part  of 
Daniel  by  the  author  of  1st  Maccabees,  yet  it  is  recog- 
nised as  such  by  our  Lord.  The  probability  is  it  was 
one  of  the  esoteric  writings  that  only  gradually  got  to 
the  public. 

Mr.  Margoliouth's  theory,  that  the  literary  language 
of  Palestine  at  this  time  was  new  Hebrew,  seems  to 
militate  against  the  view  suggested  above ;  but  the 
falsarius  would  naturally  imitate,  so  far  as  he  could, 
the  language  of  his  author. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE  OF 
BARUCH. 

E  question  of  the  language  of  the  Book  of  Baruch 
is  not  very  easily  decided.  The  great  portion  of 
it  exists  at  present  in  Syriac.  The  common  opinion  is 
that  this  is  a  translation  from  Greek.  Certainly  the 
form  the  names  assume  confirms  this  view,  e.g.  Sedekias 
Godolias.  The  occurrence  of  the  word  1A^>»  L,  splendour, 
in  places  where  #007*09  would  suit,  but  which  do  not  suit 
the  notion  of  splendour  as  in  iii.  7,  implies  that  the 
translator  took  the  wrong  meaning  of  #007-109.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  seems  evidence  that  the  Greek  recen- 
sion was  itself  a  version  of  a  Hebrew  original,  e.g. 
labisc  -  ••">  - ;  this  almost  certainly  represents  'lyafiris 
of  the  Septuagint,  1  Chron.  iv.  9,  10  (Heb.  P3JP,  Syriac 

^AiJl).1  The  probability  then  is  that  we  have  a  Syriac 
translation  of  a  Greek  translation  of  a  Hebrew  original. 
Given  that  this  conclusion  is  a  correct  one,  the  question 
of  place  may  be  regarded  as  settled,  for  there  seems 
little  probability  that  such  a  book  would  be  written  in 
Hebrew  in  any  place  out  of  Palestine.  As  we  have 

1  Harvey,  the  editor  of  Irenseus,  argues  that  the  Greek,  of  which  the 
passage  in  Irenseus  is  a  Latin  version,  must  have  had  a  Syriac  original. 
This  argument,  however,  would  suit  with  a  Hebrew  original. 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BAKUCH.   415 

said  elsewhere,  our  opinion  is  that  it  was  probably 
written  in  Engedi,  the  main  seat  of  the  Essenes. 

The  Syriac  version  by  which  alone  we  know  this 
Apocalypse  was  discovered  by  Ceriani  in  the  Ambrosian 
Library,  Milan,  a  treasure-house  that  has  rivalled 
Abyssinia  in  restoring  to  us  books  that  had  disappeared 
from  the  knowledge  of  Christendom.  In  1866,  Ceriani 
published  a  Latin  version  of  the  Syriac  original ;  five 
years  later  this  was  followed  by  the  Syriac  text.  There 
have  been  several  editions  since  that  date. 

It  seems  hardly  needful  to  prove  that  the  writer 
is  a  Jew.  Everything  is  Jewish,  and  Jewish  only. 
Further,  there  is  no  reference  to  the  Christians.  At 
first  sight  xli.  3  might  seem  to  apply  to  them,  but 
other  things  make  this  reference  less  probable.  The 
date  of  this  book  is  of  necessity  a  question  of  more 
importance  than  the  language  in  which  it  was  written 
or  the  place  where  the  writer  was  dwelling  when  he 
wrote.  Externally  we  find  one  of  our  termini  in  the 
fact  that  Papias  quotes  a  sentence  from  it,  but  attri- 
butes it  to  our  Lord.  That  is  to  say,  it  certainly  was 
written  some  time  before  A.D.  130,  the  approximate 
date  of  Papias.  If  any  stress  is  to  be  laid  on  the  fact 
that  he  ascribed  it  to  our  Lord,  then  the  date  of  Baruch 
must  be  placed  much  earlier.  It  is  a  possible  thing 
that  our  Lord  might  have  quoted  it  much  as  He  has 
made  other  quotations,  as  Matt.  v.  43,  and  as  Jude 
has  quoted  from  Enoch,  without  assigning  any  sanctity 
or  inspiration  to  the  work.  Indeed,  from  the  careful 
way  Papias  went  to  work,  however  little  respect  may 
be  had  for  his  judgment,  it  may  be  regarded  as  pro- 
bable that  our  Lord  did  use  the  words  attributed  to  Him 


416  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

by  Papias,  that  is  to  say,  did  quote  from  Barucli.  We 
certainly  have  not  the  work  of  Papias,  but  this  state- 
ment of  his  is  quoted  by  Irenseus,  adv.  Hcereseos, 
v.  33  ;  further,  Irenaeus  at  this  point  has  not  come 
down  to  us  in  the  original  Greek,  but  only  in  a  Latin 
version.  Still  it  may  be  regarded  as  fairly  certain  that 
Papias  did  attribute  to  our  Lord  Barucli  xxix.  Even 
though  we  do  not  regard  Papias'  assertion  as  proving 
that  our  Lord  had  quoted  these  words  descriptive  of 
the  millennial  glory,  yet  the  fact  that  the  source  of  the 
words  was  not  known  seems  to  imply  that  the  book  by 
this  time  had  practically  disappeared.  But  to  have 
even  a  sentence  made  common  property,  proves  it  to 
have  at  least  had  a  certain  vogue.  If  it  had  gained 
that,  and  then  had  so  utterly  disappeared  that  no  one, 
until  the  book  turned  up  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
knew  that  the  sentence  in  question  had  been  quoted 
from  it,  this  proves  that  some  considerable  time  must 
have  elapsed. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  have  been  written  after 
Enoch,  for  Ivi.  12,  13  evidently  refers  to  the  sin  of  the 
angels  in  regard  to  the  daughters  of  men,  with  which 
the  Book  of  Enoch  opens.  This  leaves  a  pretty  wide 
margin,  A.D.I 30  and  B.C.  160.  It  has  been  thought  by 
Langen,  Renan,  Stahelin,  Hilgenfeld,  Drummond,  and 
others,  that  this  book  was  borrowed  largely  from  Fourth 
Ezra.  Schiirer's  Jewish  People,  sec.  ii.  vol.  iii.  89,  shows, 
however,  pretty  conclusively  that  what  dependence  there 
is  may  easily  be  the  converse  of  the  supposition  above 
referred  to.  Moreover,  dependence  in  regard  to  doctrine 
is  a  very  uncertain  matter,  especially  when,  in  the  case 
both  of  Baruch  and  Esdras,  the  doctrine  is  a  thing 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH.   417 

indirectly  introduced.  As  has  been  well  shown  by 
Schiirer  (loc.  cit.),  the  sadness  in  Esdras  is  far  deeper 
than  in  Baruch.  Baruch  has  a  certainty  that  the 
temple  will  be  restored  after  a  time,  but  Esdras  has  no 
such  hope. 

One  peculiarity  of  Apocalyptic  books  is,  that  as  a 
rule  they  bear  signs  of  the  time  of  their  composition 
more  unmistakably  than  any  other  class  of  work. 
That  being  so,  it  behoves  us  to  direct  our  attention  to 
the  contents  of  this  Book  of  Baruch.  Let  us  apply  the 
canons  we  have  laid  down  in  regard  to  the  Book  of 
Enoch.  If  we  take  our  first  canon,  "  the  time  of  the 
composition  of  an  Apocalypse  is  after  the  latest  event 
clearly  described,  and  before  the  first  distinct  break 
with  actual  history,"  and  apply  it  to  the  book  before 
us,  we  find  several  notes  of  time  of  this  schematic 
form.  There  are  the  twelve  showers, — these  twelve 
terminate  with  Cyrus.  After  this  comes  a  period 
of  terrible  blackness,  unlike  anything  that  had  been. 
This,  as  we  have  already  said,  represents  the  period 
of  the  Maccabean  struggle.  Then  there  is  a  period 
when  the  black  is  neither  united  with  the  black  nor  the 
white  with  the  white.  This  suits  the  representation  of 
the  lightning  that  healed  the  corruption  caused  by  the 
latter  dark  rain.  Then  come  twelve  rivers  wThich 
quench  the  healing  lightning.  The  interpretation  goes 
further,  it  not  only  has  the  "  last  black  waters,  aquse 
nigrse  postretnse"  which  may  be  supposed  to  be 
equivalent  to  the  rivers  that  quenched  the  healing 
lightning,  but  away  beyond  them  are  bright  waters 
which  represent  the  Messianic  times.  After  the  Macca- 
bean period  there  are  two  periods,  one  when  the 
2  D 


418  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

flashing  lightning  is  healing  what  the  black  rain  is 
corrupting,  and  the  other  when  the  corrupting  waters 
have  prevailed.  The  first  evidently  refers  to  the  reigns 
of  John  Hyrcanus,  Aristobulus  I.,  Alexander  Jannseus, 
and  Alexandra,  when  there  were  efforts  made  by  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  the 
law  and  increase  the  reverence  for  it.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  was  a  constant  spreading  of  Hellenistic 
habits  and  customs.  These  habits  and  customs  were  in- 
timately associated  with  the  moral  corruption  of  heathen- 
ism. Then  came  the  terrible  time  of  Aristobulus  II. 
and  John  Hyrcanus  II.,  the  time  of  the  last  corruption 
(chap.  Ixx.),  when  brother  went  to  war  with  brother,  and 
where  the  mean  man — the  Edomite  Antipater — exalted 
himself  over  the  rich  Aristobulus.  All  this  was  ended 
with  Pompey's  capture  of  Jerusalem  when  the  rising  sea 
quenched  the  light  of  Judah.  In  the  near  future  after 
this  the  writer  expected  the  advent  of  the  Messiah. 

Another  scheme  of  history  is  presented  to  us  in 
chap,  xxxix.  taken  in  connection  with  chap,  xxxvi. 
As  we  saw  above  in  chap,  xxxvi.,  the  writer  gives  an 
account  of  a  vision  he  had  of  the  last  times  in  which 
the  Messiah  and  His  kingdom  are  symbolised  as  a  vine 
with  a  quiet  fountain  flowing  from  beneath  it.  Eound 
this  vine-covered  fountain  is  a  vast  wood  of  many 
trees,  and  especially  one  towering  cedar.  A  flood 
comes  and  carries  away  this  wood  gradually,  the 
towering  cedar  being  the  last  to  be  swept  off.  In 
chap,  xxxix.  the  explanation  of  this  vision  is  given. 
We  learn  that  there  are  to  be  four  world  empires, 
— a  thought  borrowed  from  Daniel, — and  the  forest 
is  the  fourth  empire.  It  needs  no  seer  to  tell  us 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BA11UCH.       419 

that  Rome  is  this  fourth  empire.  One  thing  that 
must  be  noted  is,  that  to  outsiders  at  the  time  when 
the  book  before  us  was  written,  the  Roman  executive 
presented  the  appearance  of  multitudinousness  — 
leaders  numerous  as  trees  in  a  wood.  Such  an  im- 
pression might  be  conveyed  by  the  contemplation  of 
Republican  Rome,  but  not  at  all  by  Rome  as  Imperial. 
Imperial  Rome  was  represented  by  Csesar,  and  prac- 
tically Caesar  alone,  and  therefore  to  appearance 
differed  in  kind  but  little  from  such  monarchies  as  that 
of  the  Seleucids ;  but  Republican  Rome  produced  a 
very  different  impression,  as  may  be  seen  on  looking  at 
the  description  of  the  Roman  Senate  found  in  the  First 
Book  of  the  Maccabees.  We  find  the  change  of  leading 
magistrates,  a  thing  that  was  well  fitted  to  impress  the 
Jews  with  a  feeling  of  multitudinousness  in  regard  to 
the  rulers  of  the  Romans.1  The  last  cedar  that  sur- 
vives all  the  others  is  "the  last  leader  (ultimus  dux) 
of  the  Romans."  It  is  noticeable  that  the  term  king  is 
not  used,  but  leader.  The  Imperial  dignity  became 
confounded  with  the  regal  in  the  East  in  the  days  of 
Tiberius  and  downwards.2  Yet  it  is  a  leader — a  tree 

1  In  1  Mace.  viii.  we  have  an  account  of  how  the  Roman  mode  of  govern- 
ment impressed  the  Jews.  After  describing  the  deeds  of  the  Roman,  the 
account  proceeds,  "  yet  for  all  this  none  of  them  wore  a  crown  or  was 
clothed  in  purple  to  be  magnified  thereby.  Moreover,  they  had  made  for 
themselves  a  Senate-house  in  which  320  men  sit  in  Council  daily  con- 
sulting alway  for  the  people,  to  the  end  they  might  be  well  ordered  ;  and 
they  committed  their  government  to  one  man  every  year  who  ruled  over 
all  their  country,  and  that  all  were  obedient  to  that  one,  and  that  there 
was  neither  envy  nor  emulation  among  them."  Here  the  great  number 
of  the  rulers  and  the  repeated  changes  are  evidently  the  matter  most 
remarkable  in  the  eyes  of  the  narrator. 

8  Especially  is  this  the  case  in  the  Apocryphal  books.     Nero  is  called  a 

matricide  king,  Ascension  of  Isaiah.     The  Syriac  is  ]i;«^  VQ 


420  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

greater  certainly  than  its  neighbour,  but  simply  a  tree 
like  them.  This  would  certainly  be  an  accurate  de- 
scription of  Pompey.  If  the  terrible  disaster  which 
befell  the  army  of  Crassus  had  recently  happened,  one 
might  understand  the  expectation  of  the  flood  even 
better  than  otherwise.  The  exulting  contempt  with 
which  this  last  leader  is  addressed  implies  some  special 
cause  of  hatred  against  him ;  —  a  state  of  feeling 
thoroughly  explicable  in  regard  to  Pompey. 

A  different  view  of  the  date  is  generally  held.  This 
opinion  is  based  on  chap,  xxxii.  :  "After  a  little  time 
the  building  of  Zion  shall  be  shaken  down,  that  it  may 
be  built  again ;  but  that  building  will  not  remain,  but 
again  after  a  time  it  will  be  rooted  out  and  remain 
desolate  for  a  season."  Certainly  at  first  sight  this 
indicates  a  complete  overturn,  such  as  fell  upon  Zion 
when  Titus  took  Jerusalem.  But  in  this  view  we  are 
forgetting  the  absolute  desecration  that  had  fallen  upon 
the  temple  when  the  eyes  of  a  heathen  general  had 
with  curious  gaze  pierced  into  the  Holy  of  Holies.  Its 
sanctity  had  to  appearance  been  rooted  out,  and  it  was 
desolate.  We  admit  that  did  this  passage  stand  alone, 
we  should  feel  ourselves  compelled  to  admit  a  late 
date  ;  but  the  other  passages  seem  to  us  to  more  than 
counterbalance  the  weight  of  this  isolated  passage, 
which  may  be  an  interpolation. 

Our  second  canon  was  :  "  The  date  of  an  Apocalypse 
is  that  which  affords  a  background  which  harmonises 
best  with  that  implied  in  the  book."  What  is  the  state 
of  matters  taken  for  granted  in  Baruch  ?  Jerusalem 
certainly  has  been  taken  and  the  temple  desolated,  but 
still  the  mourning  worshippers  can  seat  themselves  on 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE  OF  BARUCH.       421 

the  steps  of  the  Temple.  The  city  has  suffered  severely, 
and  the  people  are  reduced  to  poverty  ;  many  of  them 
have  been  carried  away  captive,  but  still  they  have  an 
organised  community,  with  elders  of  the  people  to  rule 
over  them  as  in  the  time  of  their  prosperity.  This 
was  a  state  of  things  precisely  like  that  after  the 
capture  of  the  city  by  Pompey,  but  utterly  unlike  the 
thorough  destruction  and  overturn  that  was  wrought 
by  Titus.  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.  v.  70,  speaks  of  Jerusalem 
as  having  completely  ceased  to  be.  In  the  war  of 
Barcochba  the  Jews  never  possessed  Jerusalem  at  all. 
The  whole  city  seems  to  have  lain  desolate  for  half  a 
century.  There  was  no  possibility  of  elders  of  the 
people  assembling  together,  still  less  of  the  whole 
people  being  gathered  together. 

On  all  these  grounds  we  feel  that  the  date  of  this 
book  cannot  be  much  after  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by 
Pompey  in  the  year  63  B.C.  It  must,  however,  have 
been  before  the  death  of  Pompey  or  the  rise  of  Herod, 
the  date,  therefore,  may  be  approximately  fixed  as 
59  B.C. 

There  is  another  much  later  treatise,  called  some- 
times "  the  rest  of  Baruch"  and  sometimes  "  the  rest  of 
the  words  of  Jeremiah."  While  in  some  respects  it  is 
related  to  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  we  have  been 
considering  above,  in  other  respects,  it  contradicts  it. 
In  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  only  one  eagle  is  employed 
and  sent  to  the  nine  tribes  and  a  half;  whereas  to 
Babylon  the  message  is  sent  by  the  hand  of  three  mes- 
sengers. In  this  book  the  eagle  carries  the  message  to 
Babylon  and  returns  again  with  an  answer.  There  is  a 
fuller  account  of  the  destruction  of  the  city  by  the 


422  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

angels,  and  more  is  made  of  the  eagles  who  act  as  the 
carriers  of  the  Epistles  than  in  the  Apocalypse.  A  good 
part  of  the  book  is  taken  up  with  the  story  of  Abimelech. 
In  order  to  spare  him  a  sight  of  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  Jeremiah  sends  him  for  figs  to  the  vineyard 
of  Agrippa,  and  on  his  way  back  he  falls  asleep,  and 
only  awakes  after  the  return  from  the  captivity.  The 
mention  of  the  vineyard  of  Agrippa  proves  it  at  any 
rate  to  be  late — probably  it  may  be  late  in  the  second 
century.  At  all  events  a  Christian  community  is  now 
in  Jerusalem.  There  is  an  account  given  of  the 
founding  of  Samaria,  which  is  interesting  as  revealing 
the  deficient  attention  bestowed  upon  the  sacred  records 
by  Jews  and  Jewish  Christians.  The  writer  declares 
that  Samaria  was  founded  by  those  who  returned  from 
Babylon  with  Jeremiah  (!);  but  having  Babylonian 
wives  and  not  wishing  to  divorce  them,  they  would 
have  returned  to  Babylon,  but  were  not  suffered  to  do 
so,  and  hence  they  built  Samaria. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE   LANGUAGE   AND   DATE   OF   THE    PSALTER   OF 
SOLOMON. 


Enoch  and  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch 
only  became  known  to  modern  scholars  during 
this  century,  for  the  years  during  which  the  Ethiopia 
manuscripts  of  the  former  book  were  lying  untranslated 
in  the  various  libraries  cannot  be  regarded  of  any 
account,  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  was  edited  so  far 
back  as  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  In 
1626,  De  la  Cerda,  a  Jesuit,  printed,  with  a  Latin  trans- 
lation, these  eighteen  psalms  from  a  manuscript  which 
had  been  brought  from  Constantinople  to  the  library  at 
Augsburg  in  1615.  Several  times  have  they  been  pub- 
lished since,  and  several  additional  manuscripts  collated. 
Although  not  quoted  by  any  of  the  ancient  Fathers,  — 
a  fact  adverted  to  by  Fabricius,  —  yet  in  the  Stichometry 
of  Nicephorus  the  length  of  the  Psalter  is  given. 

In  the  Catalogue  of  the  contents  of  the  Codex  Alex- 
andrinus  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  occurred  after  Clement. 
In  other  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  it  occurs  among  the 
Solomonic  and  pseudo-Solomonic  books.  It  is  a  singular 
irony  of  fate  that  while  the  Book  of  Baruch  should  be 
received  into  something  like  canonicity,  the  Psalter  of 
Solomon  has  never  been  placed  even  in  the  position  of 
quasi-canonicity  assigned  to  First  and  Second  Esdras. 

423 


424  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

In  fact,  too  little  attention  has  been  directed  to  these 
psalms ;  only  seven  years  ago  was  the  first  English 
translation  of  them  given  in  the  Presbyterian  Revieiv.1 
The  manuscripts — some  five — are  all  Greek.  The 
first  question  that  must  be  decided  is  then,  Is  this  the 
original  tongue,  or  have  these  psalms  been  translated 
from  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  ?  For  the  Greek  being  the 
original  language,  the  only  name  of  note  is  Huet.  In 
fact  it  seems  difficult  to  imagine  any  one  reading  over 
the  Greek  of  these  psalms  and  coming  to  any  other 
conclusion  than  that  they  are  translations  from  Hebrew 
or  Aramaic.  The  traces  of  a  Hebrew  original  are 
numerous — e.g.  the  frequency  of  the  noting  of  time  by 
eV  with  the  infinitive  (=f)  for  ore.  There  is  further  the 
comparatively  rare  occurrence  of  the  substantive  verb. 
In  the  whole  eighteen  psalms  it  only  occurs  about  a 
dozen  times.  This  characteristic  is  observable  in  the 
Septuagint  version  of  the  Psalms,  but  not  in  the  New 
Testament.  When  one  remembers  how  comparatively 
seldom  the  verb  to  be  requires  to  be  used  in  Hebrew, 
the  feature  we  have  named  will  seem  easily  explicable 
on  the  assumption  that  the  Greek  Psalter  is  a  transla- 
tion from  the  Hebrew  or  Aramaic.  The  title  of  the 
Psalm  ro5  2o\o/j,(t)v  answering  to  ribbp^  supports  the 
same  view.  The  comparative  rarity  of  the  article 
might  seem  to  point  to  an  Aramaic  original,  but 
some  other  constructions  seem  more  to  suggest 
Hebrew.  Moreover,  the  writer  in  imitating  the 
structure  and  subject  of  the  psalms  of  the  canon 
would  naturally  imitate  their  language. 

1  We  have  not  had  the  benefit  of  that  translation.     We  refer  to  it  on 
the  authority  of  Schiirer. 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.        425 

The  language  being  determined  to  be  Hebrew,  it 
follows  that  the  original  author  was  a  Palestinian  Jew. 
Hebrew  was  but  little  known  outside  of  Palestine,  and 
even  those  who  knew  it  had  little  motive  to  compose  in 
it.  We  have  assumed  that  these  psalms  are  all  by  one 
hand ;  the  perpetual  recurrence  of  similar  phrases  proves 
this  clearly.  As  wre  have  seen  from  attentive  perusal, 
the  writer  was  in  all  likelihood  one  accustomed  to  the 
sight  of  the  country  and  of  the  desert.  This  makes  it 
probable  that  he  was  one  of  the  Essenes.  But  then 
his  knowledge  of  what  was  taking  place  in  the  city, 
especially  in  the  Sanhedrin,  renders  it  almost  certain 
that  he  was  a  resident  in  Jerusalem.  But  we  know 
that  the  Essenes  had  a  house  in  Jerusalem  where 
brethren  of  the  order  stayed.  Drummond's  hypothesis 
(Jewish  Messiah,  p.  134),  that  it  is  a  Palestinian  Jew 
resident  in  Egypt,  has  little  to  support  it.  He  rests 
his  conclusion  on  xvii.  6  :  "  On  account  of  our  sins, 
sinners  rose  up  against  us,  and  assailed  and  put  us 
out,"  this  is  certainly  a  description  of  the  action  of 
the  Sadducean  party  against  the  Pharisaic  ;  but  the 
"  thrusting  out "  was  simply  out  of  the  city,  not  out  of 
the  country.  The  Essenes  seem  after  the  days  of  Aris- 
tobulus  II.  to  have  been  much  less  frequent  in  the  cities. 

There  remains  still  further  the  question  of  the  date 
when  the  Psalter  was  written.  No  one  holds  the 
opinion  advocated  by  De  la  Cerda,  that  Solomon  actu- 
ally was  the  author.1  Fabricius,  in  recoil  from  the  above- 

1  For  the  alleged  Solomonic  authorship  there  is  simply  nothing  to  be 
said.  The  writer  never  suggests  that  he  is  a  king  ;  he  speaks  of  kings  as 
belonging  to  a  class  quite  apart  from  himself.  The  titles  to  the  psalms 
may  have  been  added  at  any  time.  Fabricius  suggests  that  the  dative 
(equivalent  to  the  Hebrew  ^)  simply  means  after  the  manner  of  Solomon. 


426  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

mentioned  view,  held  the  Psalter  to  be  of  Christian 
origin.  This  view  was  afterwards  espoused  by  Gratz, 
though  later  again  abandoned  by  him.  The  sole  argu- 
ment in  defence  of  such  a  position  is  the  use  of  %/OIO-TO$ 
tcvpios,  xvii.  36  ;  XP-  K-ov>  xviii.  8.  In  the  first  place,  in 
xvii.  36,  K.OV  is  suggested  as  a  reading;  if  so,  the  whole 
peculiarly  Christian  complex  of  the  passage  vanishes 
(Drummond,  Jeivish  Messiah,  p.  283).  But  further, 
Kvpto?  may  represent  V"1^  as  well  as  rtn\}  and  hence 
more  nearly  akin  to  the  ordinary  classical  usage  of 
the  word.  Even  though  the  word  represented  be 
nj'T,  which  certainly  suits  the  analogy  of  the  Septu- 
agint,  yet  Zech.  iii.  3  shows  that  the  name  Jehovah 
may  be  given  to  one  who  yet  says  to  Satan,  "Jehovah 
rebuke  thee."  "We  saw  how  nearly  Divine  the  Messiah 
becomes  in  the  Book  of  Enoch.  As  has  been  well 
pointed  out,  the  whole  complexion  of  the  passages 
where  these  phrases  occur,  while  Messianic,  and 
tending  to  exalt  the  Messiah's  office,  is  yet  essentially 
Jewish.  The  Messiah  is  to  have  the  peoples  of  the 
Gentiles  in  slavery,  e'£«  \aovs  e6vwv  Bov\evetv  avra>  VTTO 
%v<yov  CIVTOV.  The  maintenance  of  the  Jewish  sanctu- 
ary and  the  purification  of  it  is  one  of  the  works 
assigned  to  Him.  Further,  the  whole  tone  of  the 
psalms  is  that  of  one  whose  ideas  of  righteousness 
were  modelled  on  the  Mosaic  law,  although  there  are 
other  elements  no  doubt  introduced — precursors  of 
Christianity.  When  we  have  proved  that  in  the 
Psalter  of  Solomon  there  are  no  elements  distinctly 
borrowed  from  Christianity,  we  have  further  proved 
that  it  was  pre-Christian  in  date.  There  have  been 
many  assertions  that  certain  Jewish  works,  post- 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.        427 

Christian  in  date,  have  been  adopted  by  the  Church 
but  rejected  by  the  Jews ;  but  with  all  this  a  priori 
assertion  there  has  not  been  a  single  atom  of  anything 
approaching  scientific  proof.  There  is  no  trace  of  the 
use  of  this  Psalter  among  the  Jews,  and  there  is  evi- 
dence in  the  Stichometry  of  Nicephorus  that  it  was 
used  among  Christians.  If  the  Psalter  was  written 
by  the  Jewish  sect  that  was  most  akin  to  Christianity, 
and  a  sect  which  disappeared  practically  in  Christianity, 
both  phenomena  are  easily  explicable.  Had  the 
Psalter  been  written  by  Jews  after  the  time  of  Christ, 
in  the  first  place,  instead  of  the  few  phrases  that  bear 
a  distinctly  Christian  look,  there  would  have  been  a 
number  which  would  bear  an  aspect  distinctly  anti- 
Christian.  And  in  the  next  place,  containing  such 
phrases  and  sentiments,  it  would  not  have  been 
received  in  the  Christian  Church. 

Assuming  that  it  is  post-Solomonic  and  pre-Chris- 
tian, it  remains  now  to  see  whether  we  can  fix  the  date 
within  any  narrower  limits.  Ewald  held  that  it  was 
written  about  170  B.C.,  after  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by 
Epiphanes  (Hist,  of  Israel,  v.  301,  Eng.  tr.).  In  the 
earlier  work,  The  Prophets  of  the  Old  Covenant,  iii.  269, 
he  suggested  even  an  earlier  origin  to  this  Psalter. 
He  thought  the  siege  referred  to  might  be  that  when 
Ptolemseus  Lagi  took  Jerusalem.  The  main  argument 
for  this  view  is  that  the  assailant  is  spoken  of  as  a 
king,  xvii.  22.  The  king  referred  to  in  this  passage 
is  not  the  assailant,  but  the  king  actually  reigning  in 
Jerusalem ;  he  it  is  who  is  in  transgression,  for  only  in 
this  way  can  the  parallel  be  maintained  between  "  the 
king  in  transgression,  the  judge  who  is  not  in  truth 


428  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

(who  does  not  judge  truly),  and  the  people  who  are  in 
sin."  The  wealth  that  had  raised  some  up  to  heaven 
seems  to  indicate,  not  the  period  of  distress  like  that 
of  Epiphanes,  or  that  of  Ptolemy  Soter,  but  a  peaceful 
time  when  wealth  could  accumulate.  The  fact  that  a 
king  is  mentioned,  moreover,  restricts  the  period  of 
the  composition  of  the  Psalter  to  that  between  the 
accession  of  Aristobulus  I.  and  the  death  of  Herod 
the  Great.  Before  the  time  of  Aristobulus  I.  no  Jew 
had  assumed  the  royal  title  :  royalty  was  regarded  as 
the  appanage  of  the  house  of  David.  That  house  had, 
however,  disappeared  from  the  political  arena.  With 
Herod  died  the  last  claimant  to  the  title  "King  of 
Judea."  We  have  now  to  discover  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
salem occurring  between  these  dates  which  best  suits 
the  circumstances  implied.  Movers  ( Wetzer  und  Welte 
Kirchenlexikon,  i.  340),  Delitzsch  (Psalms,  ii.  381),  and 
Keim  (Jesus  von  Nazara,  i.  243)  maintain  that  the 
period  of  this  composition  is  that  of  Herod  the  Great, 
and  therefore  the  siege  is  that  in  which  he  was  helped 
by  Sosius  to  capture  it.  But  in  the  siege  referred  to 
in  the  Psalter  the  doors  are  opened  peaceably  —  the 
oppressor  enters  into  the  land  and  into  the  city  as  a 
father  into  the  house  of  his  sons,  viii.  20.  Then  after 
this  commences  the  siege.  The  use  of  the  battering- 
ram  was  specially  advantageous  to  the  Romans. 
This  does  not  at  all  agree  with  the  events  of  the 
Herodian  siege  of  Jerusalem.  There  was  no  opening 
of  the  gates  peacably  to  him.  Further,  the  result 
of  the  Herodian  siege  was  to  put  a  king,  however 
unworthy,  on  the  throne,  not  to  lead  one  captive. 
Many  certainly  were  slaughtered  by  the  Romans  at 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.        429 

the  Herodian  siege,  but  there  was  no  large  carrying 
away  of  captives. 

The  other  opinion  is  that  this  book  was  written 
shortly  after  the  siege  and  capture  of  Jerusalem 
under  Pompey.  This  is  the  view  advocated  by 
Langen  (Paldst.  z.  Zeit  Christi,  66),  Hilgenfeld 
(Messias  Jud.),  Drummond  (Jewish  Mess.  136  £), 
Stanton  (Jewish  and  Christian  Messiah,  77),  Schiirer 
(Hist,  of  Jewish  People,  Div.  ii.  vol.  iii.  17  f.),  and 
the  majority  of  critics.  The  more  carefully  one  ex- 
amines the  Psalter,  the  more  convinced  one  must  be 
of  the  truth  of  this  conclusion.  The  fact  that 
there  was  a  titular  king,  who,  being  of  the  seed 
of  Aaron,  and  having  no  right  to  the  throne, 
which  was  the  inheritance  of  David,  hence  was  "  in 
transgression,"  is  an  important  point  in  identifying 
the  time  of  the  composition  of  the  Psalter.  We  need 
not  say  that  this  was  the  case  in  Pompey's  siege. 
The  transgression  of  the  king  referred  to  may  be  the 
assumption  of  the  throne  by  Aristobulus,  although 
John  Hyrcanus  was  the  elder  son ;  a  sin  that  would 
be  less  likely  to  be  condoned  to  one  like  Aristobulus, 
a  Sadducee.  It  was  a  period  of  great  outward  wealth, 
when  the  Sanhedrin  were  extremely  powerful,  and  yet 
when  there  was  great  immorality.  This  also  suits  the 
facts  of  history.  One  was  called  from  the  far  west  who 
smote  strongly — Pompey,  to  wit.  He  was  welcomed 
by  the  rulers.  John  Hyrcanus  II.,  Aristobulus  II., 
and  the  representatives  of  the  people  who  were  against 
either  having  the  rule  over  them  appeared  before 
Pompey  in  Damascus.  When  he  offered  to  march  to 
Jerusalem  to  examine  things  there,  his  proposal  was 


430  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

welcomed.  Certainly,  Aristobulus  suddenly  left  and 
organised  a  defence  against  a  siege,  but  becoming 
afraid,  surrendered  himself.  The  gates  of  the  city 
were  opened  by  the  adherents  of  John  Hyrcanus,  and 
Pompey  entered  peaceably.  The  followers  of  Aris- 
tobulus  had  shut  themselves  up  in  the  temple,  and 
then  the  battering-ram  was  brought  into  play,  and 
the  blood  of  the  people  of  God  flowed  like  water, 
and  the  temple  was  taken  with  great  slaughter.  As 
a  consequence  of  this  capture  of  the  temple,  a  large 
number  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Zion  went  into 
"  an  evil  captivity."  All  this  fits  the  Pompeian  siege. 
But  more,  the  treading  the  sacred  courts  in  arrogancy 
was  a  natural  description  of  the  action  of  Pompey 
intruding  into  the  Holy  of  Holies. 

The  crowning  proof  that  the  siege  referred  to 
is  that  of  Pompey,  is  the  description  of  the  death 
of  the  oppressor.  The  psalmist  tell  us  that  God 
showed  him  the  insolence  of  this  dragon  pierced 
"  upon  the  coasts  of  Egypt,1  set  at  nought  both 
on  land  and  sea,  his  body  dashed  about  by  the 
waves  with  much  dishonour,  and  there  was  none 
to  bury."  If  we  compare  this  with  the  actual 
account  of  the  death  of  Pompey,  it  is  impossible  to 
deny  that  the  writer  of  the  Psalter  intended  to 
describe  the  event.  We  can  read  in  Plutarch  the 
miserable  story  of  the  treachery  of  Septimius,  Achillas, 
and  Pothius — how  Pompey  was  murdered  while  land- 
ing from  the  galley  in  which  he  had  escaped  from  the 
defeat  of  Pharsalia.  His  head  was  cut  off  and  after- 
wards presented  to  his  great  rival,  who  turned  away 

1  Reading  tpiuu  instead  of  opiuv. 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  PSALTER  OF  SOLOMON.   431 

from  the  sight  in  sorrow.  The  body  was  left  upon 
the  shore ;  but  his  freedman  Philippus  improvised 
funeral  obsequies  for  the  great  conqueror,  now  fallen 
so  low. 

The  whole  background  is  in  complete  harmony  with 
this  theory — the  opposition  to  the  Hellenisers — the 
reverence  for  the  law  of  God,  for  His  sanctuary. 
Although  it  may  be  remarked  that  there  is  no  reference 
to  sacrifices, — an  omission  eminently  characteristic  of 
the  Essene  tendency  we  have  seen  in  our  author, — 
we  have  reference,  however,  to  the  altar.  As  we 
have  already  mentioned,  it  is  a  time  of  considerable 
wealth,  when  the  Sanhedrin  have  great  power, — they 
have  power  of  life  and  death. 

While  thus  it  seems  pretty  clear  that  the  date  of 
these  psalms  must  be  near  that  of  the  Pompeian 
siege,  we  think  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  put  them 
all  so  far  down  as  to  be  after  the  death  of  Pompey. 
The  sense  of  the  shame  and  distress  endured  by  that 
siege  are  expressed  too  keenly  to  be  the  remem- 
brance of  fifteen  years  past.  It  seems  more  pro- 
bable that  these  psalms  were  written  at  different 
times,  and  that  additions  were  made  to  them  as  events 
suggested.  Thus  the  second  psalm  seems  to  have 
been  written  with  the  dishonour  of  the  desecration 
of  the  temple  and  of  the  captivity  of  the  people  still 
fresh  in  the  mind  of  the  writer ;  yet  the  description  of 
the  death  of  Pompey  must  have  been  written  possibly 
in  the  year  47  or  46  B.C.  These  psalms,  then,  may 
be  regarded  as  having  been  written  at  various  times 
between  B.C.  64,  the  year  before  the  Pompeian  siege, 
and  the  year  46  B.C. 


432  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

While  there  is  a  close  resemblance  between  the 
Greek  of  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  and  that  of  the 
Canonical  Psalms  in  the  Septuagint, — a  resemblance 
indeed  so  close  that  imitation  is  suggested, — yet  there 
are  points  of  difference  ;  there  is  the  presence  of  efc  for 
et,  and  there  is  the  want  of  those  peculiar  Macedonisms 
which  are  the  note  of  the  Septuagint  Greek.  The 
Greek  was  not  impossibly  written  in  Palestine,  like  the 
Hebrew  from  which  it  was  translated.  Greek,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  commonly  spoken  in  Palestine,  and  the  Sep- 
tuagint was  in  common  use  even  in  synagogues.  That 
being  so,  the  imitation  of  the  Greek  of  the  Septuagint 
Psalms  was  but  natural.  The  Greek  version  of  the 
Psalter  of  Solomon  was  probably  made  not  long  after 
the  latest  addition  to  the  text,  sav  about  45  B.C. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   LANGUAGE    AND    DATE    OF    THE   BOOK    OF   JUBILEES. 

TN  Jerome  and  Epiphanius  there  are  references  to 
a  Jewish  account  of  the  events  narrated  in 
the  Pentateuch.  It  is  called  sometimes  fUKpoyevea-is, 
sometimes  TUTTT^ yevea-is,  sometimes  TO,  'IwfirjXala.  Ex- 
tracts from  it  occur  in  George  Syncellus,  Zenaras, 
Glycas,  and  Cedrenus,  which  are  collected  by  Fabricius 
in  his  Codex  Pseudepigrapliicus,  and  by  Ronsch 
in  his  articles  in  Hilgenfeld's  Zeitschrift,  1874. 
After  the  twelfth  century  the  book  disappears  from 
knowledge  altogether.  In  1844  a  German  mis- 
sionary from  Abyssinia  presented  the  University  of 
Tubingen  with  an  Ethiopic  version  of  the  long  lost 
work.  Six  years  after  a  German  translation  of  this 
was  made  by  Dillmann ;  and  in  1859,  when  a  second 
MS.  had  been  found,  an  edition  of  the  Ethiopic 
text  with  a  Latin  version  was  issued  by  the  same 
scholar.  Two  years  after  this,  in  1861,  Ceriani,  the 
librarian  of  the  Ambrosian  Library,  Milan,  issued  in  the 
first  part  of  his  Monumenta  sacra  et  profana  frag- 
ments of  an  old  Latin  version  of  the  same  work.  This 
has  been  republished  by  Ronsch,  with  a  Latin  version 
of  the  corresponding  part  of  the  Ethiopic.  This 
affords  an  important  additional  evidence  for  the  original 

language  of  the  book. 

2  E 


434  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

There  seems  no  reasonable  doubt  that  both  the 
Ethiopia  and  the  Latin  version  have  been  made  from 
the  Greek  version  of  which  so  many  extracts  have 
come  down  to  us.  Names  in  which  B>  occurs  in  the 
Hebrew  Bible  are  represented  both  in  the  Ethiopic  and 
Latin  by  the  simple  s.  Thus  in  the  account  of  the 
building  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  it  is  mentioned  that 
the  building  took  place  in  the  plain  of  Senaar,  precisely 
in  accordance  with  the  Septuagint.  "W>?>,  Shinar,  the 
Hebrew  name,  could  easily  have  been  transliterated 
into  Ethiopic.  There  are,  further,  several  other  accom- 
modations to  the  peculiarities  of  the  Greek  tongue 
which  all  go  to  prove  the  same  thing.  Another  matter 
is  its  agreement  with  the  Septuagint  even  in  points 
when  it  is  at  variance  with  the  Hebrew.  There  is,  be- 
sides, knowledge  of  the  authorities  quoted  by  Josephus, 
e.g.  Manetho,  which  certainly  were  extant  in  Greek. 
It  may  be  assumed  then  as  certain  that  the  book  as 
it  has  come  down  to  us  is  from  a  Greek  source,  be  it 
the  original  or  a  translation. 

Is  the  Greek  the  original  ?  or  is  it  also  a  translation 
from  a  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  original  ?  It  seems  clear 
that  it  was  a  translation  from  a  Semitic  original.  In 
both  the  passages  in  which  Jerome  refers  to  it,  the 
occasion  of  his  doing  so  is  the  use  in  it  of  some 
Hebrew  word  that,  occurring  only  once  in  Scripture, 
was  therefore  uncertain  in  meaning,  ana^  Xeyopevos. 
Only  this  difficulty  remains,  that  one  cannot  recog- 
nise the  passages  in  the  Book  of  Jubilees  to  which 
he  refers  as  containing  the  words  in  question.  In 
the  book  as  we  have  it  there  is  evidence  apparently 
incontestible  that  there  was  a  Hebrew  original  behind 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.         435 

the  Greek.  Then  in  chap.  xi.  3,  "  and  Ur  the  son  of 
Kesed  built  Esa  of  the  Chaldees,  and  called  its  name 
after  his  own  name  and  the  name  of  his  father," — the 
reference  evidently  here  is  to  the  Hebrew  name  of  the 
Chaldees,  Q*]'^?  (cas'dim).  Other  instances  might  be 
brought  forward  which  would  prove  the  same  thing. 

But  between  the  two  Semitic  tongues,  Hebrew  and 
Aramaic,  the  question  is  more  difficult  of  decision. 
The  fact  that  the  Book  of  Jubilees  is  of  the  nature 
of  a  Targum,  and  that  the  Targums  were  written  in 
Chaldee,  would  render  it  to  a  certain  degree  probable 
that  it  also  was  written  in  Aramaic.  Against  this 
may  be  urged  the  fact,  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
Apocalyptic  writings  have  been  presumably  written  in 
Hebrew.  It  somewhat  weakens,  however,  the  probative 
force  of  this,  that  the  evidence  on  which  in  each  case 
the  decision,  that  it  was  written  in  Hebrew,  rests,  is 
purely  a  balance  of  probabilities.  The  strongest 
affirmative  evidence  is  that  of  Jerome ;  but  there  is 
nothing  in  the  passage  to  show  that  the  distinction 
between  Hebrew  and  Aramaic  was  before  his  mind. 
Hebrew  and  Aramaic  are  continually  confounded  by  the 
Fathers.  One  of  the  words,  ncn  at  any  rate,  is  common 
to  Hebrew  and  Aramaic,  for  it  occurs  in  Onkelos  as 
well  as  in  the  Hebrew  Bible.  In  the  New  Testament 
when  such  an  adjective  as  'E/fyai'/eo?  is  used,  we  know 
that  it  means  Aramaic,  as  John  xix.  13,  'Eftpala-rl  Se 
rafifiada.  As  Jerome  certainly  was  a  greater  scholar 
than  any  other  of  the  Fathers,  we  cannot  presume 
that  the  popular  confusion  would  be  perpetuated  in 
his  language;  thus  the  balance  of  Jerome's  evidence 
is  slightly  in  favour  of  Hebrew  being  the  language. 


436  CKITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Against  this  may  be  put  two  facts.  The  name  given 
to  Satan  is  Mastema.  This,  however,  is  simply  the 
participial  noun  from  the  Aphel  of  &tpb>}  to  accuse, 
with  N  the  sign  of  the  status  emphaticus;  while  &9f 
is  the  Aramaic  equivalent  of  the  Hebrew  Jt?fe>,  meaning 
the  same  thing,  from  which  19^,  Satan,  is  derived. 
Further,  in  chap.  xii.  28,  the  angel  of  the  presence 
informs  Moses  that  he  spoke  to  Abraham  in  Hebrew, 
"  in  the  tongue  of  creation  ;  "  he  further  says  that 
"Abraham  took  the  books  of  his  father,  and  they 
were  written  in  Hebrew."  Had  Hebrew  been  the 
language  in  which  the  rest  of  the  book  was  written, 
there  would  have  been  no  occasion  to  make  such  a 
statement.  On  the  whole,  the  balance  of  probability 
is  that  this  book  was  written,  not  in  Hebrew,  but  in 
Aramaic. 

Elsewhere  we  have  in  passing  shown  our  belief  that 
the  Book  of  Jubilees  was  written,  as  were  the  other 
Apocalyptic  books,  by  an  Essene.1  The  great  reverence 
for  the  Sabbath  is  one  characteristic  which  our  author 
manifests  in  common  with  the  Essenes.  Further, 
Josephus  mentions  that  the  priests  of  the  Essenes  were 
their  cooks.  Our  author  speaking  of  the  father-in-law 
of  Joseph  says  :  "  He  was  sacrificer  at  Heliopolis,  chief 
of  the  cooks."  Certainly,  as  the  Essenes  probably  had 
members  who  had  greater  affinity,  now  with  the 
Sadducees,  now  with  the  Pharisees,  the  Essene  who 
wrote  the  Book  of  Jubilees  was  more  akin  to  the 
Pharisees.  There  seems  little  to  recommend  the 
opinion,  supported  by  Beer,  that  it  is  the  work  of  a 
Samaritan.  Although,  on  account  of  his  romantic 

1  This  is  the  opinion  advanced  by  Jellinek. 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.         437 

history,  Joseph  is  prominent,  he  is  not  so  prominent  as 
Judah  and  Levi. 

The  question  of  the  date  is  an  important  one,  though 
somewhat  difficult  to  determine  definitely,  as  we  can 
only  apply  one  of  our  canons.  As  the  author  gives  no 
sketch  of  history  to  the  end  of  the  world,  we  cannot 
identify  his  period  by  that  means ;  but  there  are  several 
indications  of  a  background  that  may  enable  us  to 
make  a  decision.  One  element  in  the  background 
seems  clearly  to  show  that  there  was  a  special  reason 
for  hating  Edom.  There  was  certainly  an  apologetic 
reason  for  it,  but  the  attack  is  carried  on  with  a  bitter- 
ness that  implies  a  point  in  the  present  state  of  matters. 
This  might  indicate  Herod  to  be  on  the  throne,  carrying 
on  his  cruelties  at  the  expense  of  the  best  of  the  Jewish 
people.  It  would,  however,  equally  apply  to  Archelaus 
who  was  not  less  cruel,  but  only  less  able  and  less 
magnificent  than  his  father.  In  the  Talmud,  Edom  is 
the  received  symbolic  name  for  the  Roman  power, 
as  Babylon  is  the  received  name  for  Rome  as  a  city. 
It  might  therefore  be  suggested  that  the  hatred 
exhibited  to  Esau  was  covert  hatred  of  Rome,  and 
therefore  might  mean  that  Jerusalem  was  destroyed ; 
but  it  is  not  absolutely  certain  that  this  was  so  early 
in  vogue.  The  fact  that  he  distinguishes  between  the 
sons  of  Esau  and  the  Edomites  (xxxvii.  12),  implies, 
that  if  he  had  the  symbolic  meaning  of  Edom  in  his 
mind,  he  intended  to  distinguish  from  them  those 
whose  evil  deeds  he  was  describing.  The  Edomites  are 
represented  in  the  passage  to  which  we  referred  above 
as  called  to  the  help  of  the  sons  of  Esau ;  this  would 
suit  admirably  the  position  of  the  Herodian  rulers 


438  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

over  the  Jews  by  the  grace  of  the  emperor  and  of  the 
Senate  and  people  of  Kome.  Further,  the  fact  that 
the  author  enjoins  that  the  Passover  be  slain  before 
the  doors  of  the  temple  or  tabernacle,  proves  the 
temple  still  to  have  been  standing.  Such  a  command 
never  would  be  given  if  the  temple  was  in  ruins. 
Another  indirect  proof  that  the  country  was  not  under 
Roman  power  is,  that  the  author  blames  his  countrymen 
for  making  use  of  a  calendar  with  a  lunar  year  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty-four  days.  This  was  the  year  used 
during  the  Greek  supremacy,  and  only  displaced  by  the 
Eomans  after  Judea  became  a  province  of  the  empire. 
Throughout,  Josephus  makes  use  of  the  Greek  calendar. 
Roman  governors,  however,  would  and  did  make  use 
of  the  Roman  calendar  in  regard  to  courts  and  such 
state  business  as  came  under  their  immediate  superin- 
tendence. The  year  he  advocated  was  almost  identical 
with  the  Roman,  and  this  he  scarcely  would  have  done 
had  the  Romans  been  in  possession  of  the  land  of 
Palestine.  The  probability  therefore  is  that  this  book 
was  written  before  the  deposition  of  Archelaus. 

A  passage  that  may  possibly  contain  a  note  of  time 
is  to  be  found  in  chap,  xxxix.  taken  in  common  with 
John  iv.  4  ;  the  narrative  then  fits  into  the  statement 
in  the  Gospel.  We  know  that  Jacob  gave  to  Joseph  a 
portion  of  ground  which  he  had  taken  with  his  sword 
and  with  his  bow.  We  know  also  that  he  purchased 
from  the  Shechemites  a  parcel  of  ground  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Shechem.  Only  in  the  Gospel  of  John 
and  the  Book  of  Jubilees  are  we  informed  that  the 
conquest,  as  well  as  the  purchase,  were  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Shechem.  From  this  we  may  deduce  that  the 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  JUBILEES.         439 

Book  of  Jubilees  was  composed  before  the  fourth 
Gospel.  As,  despite  the  assertion  of  certain  critics, 
we  venture  to  hold  the  fourth  Gospel  to  have  been 
composed  in  the  last  decade  of  the  first  century,  that 
may  be  regarded  as  a  terminus  ad  quern,  though 
an  earlier  date,  as  we  have  seen,  is  more  probable. 

If  we  may  hold  that  it  was  written  before  the  end  of 
the  first  century  A.D.,  we  may  also  show  that  it  was 
written  after  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  B.C. 
The  large  space  occupied  by  Enoch  in  the  narrative, 
the  reference  to  the  tablets  of  Heaven,  and  the  fact  that 
special  astronomical  knowledge  is  attributed  to  him, — 
a  characteristic  fitting  the  representations  in  the  Book 
of  Enoch, — render  it  probable  that  the  writer  of  the 
present  book  has  borrowed  from  the  Book  of  Enoch ; 
a  view  that  becomes  a  certainty  when  we  read  the 
account  of  the  fall  of  the  angels,  and  find  it  identical 
with  that  given  in  the  Book  of  Enoch. 

What  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  note  of  time  is  found 
in  chap.  xxvi.  36,  in  the  blessing  which  Isaac  gives  to 
Esau  after  Jacob  had  stolen  his  main  blessing :  "  It 
will  happen  when  thou  art  great,  and  shalt  break  his 
yoke  from  off  thy  neck,  that  thou  shalt  commit  a  sin 
unto  death,  and  all  thy  seed  shall  be  rooted  out."  The 
sin  unto  death  may  almost  certainly  be  regarded  as  the 
assumption  of  the  Hasmonsean  throne  by  the  Edomite 
race  in  the  person  of  Herod  the  Great.  The  slaughter 
that  Herod  wrought  among  his  own  family  might 
well  induce  the  hope  that  they  would  soon  all  be 
killed  off. 

The  probable  date  of  the  Book  of  Jubilees  is  from 
B.C.  5  to  A.D.  6. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE   LANGUAGE   AND   DATE   OP   THE   ASSUMPTION   OF 

MOSES. 

TN  the  Epistle  of  Jude  there  is  a  reference  to  a 
-•-  mysterious  conflict  between  the  archangel  Michael 
and  Satan  concerning  the  body  of  Moses.  Origen  tells 
us  that  this  is  derived  from  a  book  which  he  calls 
avdXijtyis  Mwvo-eW  Earlier  than  Origen,  Clement  of 
Alexandria  gives  an  account  of  Joshua  and  Caleb  see- 
ing, what  seems  to  have  been  really,  the  translation  of 
Moses  —  "one  Moses,"  the  spirit  "taken  by  angels, 
one  on  the  mountains  honoured  by  burial."  This  was 
seen  by  Joshua  and  Caleb,  but  not  equally,  as  the 
former  was  the  more  spiritual.  This  seems  certainly 
borrowed  from  the  same  writing.  There  are  also  other 
references  to  this  book.  Didymus  Alexandrinus  in 
his  commentary  on  Jude  refers  to  it.  (Ecumenius 
some  six  centuries  later  also  mentions  the  Assumption 
of  Moses  in  his  commentary  on  the  same  Epistle.  He 
adds  that  in  the  contention  about  the  body  of  Moses 
the  point  of  the  devil's  plea  was  the  murder  of  the 
Egyptian.  Evodius,  a  contemporary  of  Augustine, 
mentions  this  book,  and  refers  to  the  fact  quoted 
by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  in  the  Stromateis  of 
whom  there  is  a  story  of  considerable  length,  drawn 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.       441 

from  the  Assumption.  After  that  time  the  book 
may  be  said  to  have  disappeared,  till  about  thirty 
years  ago  Ceriani  published  in  his  Monumenta  sacra 
et  pro/ana  a  fragment  of  a  Latin  version  of  this 
Assumptio  Mosis.  The  quotation  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Second  Nicene  Council  enabled  men  to  identify  it 
with  the  work  referred  to  by  the  Fathers.  As  it  is 
unfortunately  only  a  fragment,  we  cannot  point  to  the 
passages  from  which  Jude  drew  his  illustration,  nor 
verify  the  quotation  in  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  Yet 
the  point  at  which  the  book  stops  indicates  that  in 
what  followed  the  references  made  by  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus and  by  Jude  would  have  been  found. 

As  we  have  said,  the  fragment  is  in  Latin.  It  is  full 
of  blunders  in  transcription,  indicating  that  the  last 
copyist  had  by  no  means  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
tongue  he  wrote.  Many  of  the  blunders  go  deeper,  and 
show  that  the  translator  was  by  no  means  perfect  in 
the  grammatical  structure  of  the  Latin  language  ;  and 
perhaps  his  knowledge  of  Greek  is  defective.  Such 
a  common  word  as  6\fyis  he  does  not  know,  but 
endeavours  to  transliterate  it,  and  fails  in  the  attempt, 
for  he  renders  it  clibsis.  He  is  equally  at  sea  as  to  an 
equivalent  for  d\\6(f)v\oi,  "  foreigners,"  the  term  com- 
monly employed  in  the  Septuagint  for  the  Philistines, 
and  again  transliterates  allqfile.  So  he  deals  with 
afctjvr).  Finding  in  his  Greek  original  some  such  verb 
as  /eefyjow,  and  unable  to  find  an  equivalent,  he  forms  a 
new  Latin  verb,  chedriare,  to  preserve  with  cedar  oil. 
Another  failure  in  adequate  transliteration  occurs  near 
the  beginning,  where  we  have  the  mysterious  word 
fynicis,  which  may  either  stand  for  faivueo?  (Hilgen- 


442  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 


feld)  or  fyoivUw  (Volkmar),  the  latter  being,  on  the 
whole,  the  more  probable. 

Another  translation  requires  to  be  noticed.  We  have 
the  phrase  arbiter  testamenti  evidently  standing  as  a 
representative  of  o  ^ea-Lr^  TT)?  BiaO^K^.  In  regard  to 
this  phrase,  we  happen  to  have  the  sentence  quoted  by 
the  Second  Council  of  Nicsea  from  this  work  where  the 
terms  occur,  and  we  can  thus  prove  the  Latin  equi- 
valents for  the  Greek  words.  In  this  the  translator 
does  not  follow  Jerome,  who  renders  the  equivalent 
phrase,  Heb.  viii.  6,  testamenti  mediator.  In  this 
Jerome  evidently  is  following  the  Itala,  as  Tertullian, 
De  Came  Christi,  quoting  1  Tim.  ii.  5,  renders  /neo-tV?;?, 
mediator,  as  also  in  Gal.  iii.  20.  Another  phrase  in 
the  passage  in  question  is  irpo  Kara/3o\ij<i  KOO-/J,OV,  "  from 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world."  This  is  rendered, 
both  by  Jerome  and  in  the  Itala  as  found  in  Tertullian, 
a  constitution  mundi;  but  the  translator  here  renders 
the  words  ab  initio  orbis  terrarum.  Cyprian  renders 
ab  origine  mundi,  Matt.  xiii.  34;  De  Orat.  Dom.  13  ; 
de  Zel.  et  Liv.  15;  ante  constitutionem  mundi,  John 
xvii.  24;  Testim.  iii.  58;  also  paraphrased,  De  Mortal. 
22,  priusquam  mundus  fieret.  It  is  clear,  then,  the 
translator  was  not  intimately  acquainted  with  any 
of  the  Latin  versions  in  use.  The  translation  seems 
the  work  of  a  monk,  probably  of  barbarian,  possibly 
Jewish,  birth,  who  knew  something  both  of  Latin  and 
Greek  —  probably  better  acquainted  with  the  latter 
than  the  former.  Not  unlikely  he  had  taken  refuge  in 
some  Latin-speaking  monastery,  and  translated  for  the 
benefit  of  the  inmates  this  secret  Mosaic  book. 

It  is  certainly  from  a  Greek  original  that  the  Latin 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.       443 

we  have  has  been  translated.  But  a  further  question 
has  to  be  considered — Is  the  Greek  itself  not  also  a 
version  from  a  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  original  ?  Maintain- 
ing that  the  Greek  was  the  original,  we  have  Hilgenfeld 
and  Volkmar,  who  are  followed  by  Drummond.  Ewald 
and  Langen  regard  the  Greek  as  a  translation  from  a 
Hebrew  original.  Schmidt,  Merx,  and  Colani  hold  the 
original  to  have  been  Aramaic,  Between  the  two  latter 
it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  decide,  from  the  fact  that  the 
genius  of  the  respective  languages  is  so  similar.  The 
main  thing  to  decide  is,  Is  the  Greek  the  original 
language,  or  is  it  a  translation  ? 

The  arguments  for  a  Greek  original  are  the  presence 
of  peculiarly  Greek  terms,  such  as  calling  the  fifth  book 
of  Moses  Deuteronomium,  using  colonia  for  city,  plays 
of  words  wThich  Hilgenfeld  thinks  he  finds  on  translat- 
ing back  from  Latin  into  Greek,  as  rjp^aro — airapx^v 
and  Ovcrova-i — Qrja-ova-i.  He  also  rests  something  on 
his  own  reading  back  of  the  enigmatical  Taxo  to  r£y. 
Much  stronger  than  the  last  is  allofile  (a\\o$v\oi)  for 
foreigners.  He  adverts  to  constructions  which  he 
regards  as  impossible  in  Hebrew,  as  sancta  vasa 
omnia  toilet,  a  form  of  words  which  he  declares  to 
be  impossible  in  Hebrew — eine  hebraische  unmogliche 
Wortstellung,  a  statement  that  seems  totally  incorrect. 
Another  phrase  of  the  same  kind  is  niagistri  sunt 
(et)  doctores  eorum,  where  there  is  no  pronoun  to  the 
former  substantive.  In  this  case,  Hilgenfeld  argues 
that  as  the  genitive  of  the  pronoun  is  represented  in 
Hebrew  by  the  pronominal  suffix,  and  this  suffix  is 
added  of  necessity  to  every  noun  to  which  it  applies, 
the  word  in  Hebrew  representing  magistri  would  have 


444  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

had  the  suffix ;  and  if  it  had  the  suffix,  the  Greek 
translator,  and  following  him  the  Latin,  would  have 
represented  this  suffix  by  the  genitive  of  the  pronoun. 
This  objection  might  have  some  validity  were  it  a 
matter  of  certainty  that  this  translation  accurately 
represents  the  Greek  of  which  it  is  a  version. 
There  is  a  doubt  whether  Hilgenfeld's  retranslation 
accurately  represents  the  original  Greek,  a  doubt 
which  renders  invalid  the  argument  he  adduces  from 
plays  on  words  ;  we  do  not  positively  know  that  in  the 
actual  Greek  text  these  plays  on  words  were  present. 
The  only  real  argument  is  that  deduced  from  the  words 
D enter onomium  and  allofile.  As  for  colonia  used  as 
equivalent  for  city,  its  argumentative  force  is  somewhat 
doubtful.  It  is  true  that  Ko\wvia  is  used  (Acts  xvi.  12) 
of  Philippi,  but  not  at  all  as  an  equivalent  to  77-0X45,  but 
simply  describing  its  municipal  position.  If  the  writer 
was,  as  we  think  not  impossible,  a  Jew,  so  many 
important  cities  were  known  as  colonies  that  he  would 
have  come  to  use  the  word  colonia  as  equivalent  to 
city.  This,  however,  must  have  been  an  individual 
characteristic,  and  therefore  proves  nothing  as  to  the 
original  language  of  the  book  before  us. 

The  fact  that  the  LXX.  have  not  translated  or  trans- 
literated the  Hebrew  names  of  the  books,  and  that  one 
of  these  Greek  names  appears  here,  is  susceptible  of 
more  than  one  explanation.  Although  Bn:nn  nta  is 
the  name  Deuteronomy  is  commonly  known  by,  and 
was  even  in  the  days  of  Origen  (Euseb.  Ecc  Hist.  vi. 
25),  yet  it  had  another  name  (n'ltti  rwb)  of  which  the 
name  Deuteronomy  may  be  regarded  as  a  translation. 
Hence  the  writer  of  the  Assumption  of  Moses,  if  he 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.      445 

did  write  in  Hebrew,  might  have  called  the  fifth  book 
of  Moses  by  this  less  used  though  not  quite  uncommon 
name.  If  so,  Deuteronomium  was  quite  a  natural 
translation.  Even  though  the  original  Hebrew  writer 
— given  that  there  was  such  a  person — used  the  more 
common  designation,  still,  one  translating  into  Greek 
might  transfer  the  name  from  the  Septuagint  to  his 
own  pages  as  being  more  likely  to  be  intelligible  to  his 
audience  than  either  a  translation  of  the  name  or  a 
transliteration  of  it  such  as  Origen  gives.  The  same 
thing  may  be  said  in  regard  to  allofile.  A  translator 
into  Greek  from  Hebrew  might  be  prone  to  adapt  his 
style  as  far  as  possible  to  that  of  the  Septuagint ;  just 
as  Archbishop  Laurence  adapts  the  language  of  his 
translation  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  to  the  English  of 
the  Bible. 

Mere  negative  proof  does  not  amount  to  much  ;  but 
when  from  other  grounds  a  certain  view  is  primd  facie 
probable,  to  destroy  the  cogency  of  arguments  against 
that  view  has  some  worth.  It  is  generally  acknow- 
ledged that  the  book  in  question  was  written  in 
Palestine  ;  and  although  the  inhabitants  all  could  speak 
Greek,  yet  most,  indeed  we  may  say  practically  all, 
Jewish  Palestinian  writings  were  originally  in  Aramaic 
or  Hebrew.  Even  Josephus  wrote  his  book  of  The 
Wars  of  the  Jews  in  Aramaic  first  and  then  translated 
it  into  Greek.  Moreover,  we  have  seen  that  in  the  case 
of  all  the  other  Apocalyptic  books  the  balance  of  pro- 
bability was  decidedly  in  favour  of  Hebrew  or  Aramaic 
being  the  original  tongue.  Along  with  this  there  are 
some  peculiarities  in  the  diction,  which,  as  Langen  says, 
prove  the  language  of  the  book.  In  chap.  v.  we  have 


446  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  phrase  personas  cupiditatum,  which  Hilgenfelcl 
retranslates  trpoa-wjra  eVt#u/u«i>.  For  our  part,  we  think 
that  unlikely  to  have  been  the  Greek  of  this  phrase  ; 
Trpoo-wTTov  was  but  rarely  used  in  this  sense — only  once 
is  it  so  used  in  the  New  Testament.  There  is  certainly 
a  plausibility  in  Langen's  suggestion  that  it  represents 
the  Hebrew  nnion  ivh&t  were  it  not  that  there  is  no 
Biblical  example,  for  Dan.  xii.  is  scarcely  in  point. 
His  suggestion  for  the  Greek  is  more  natural,  avOpcoiroi 
eTTiQvfuwv,  only  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the 
translator  did  not  translate  homines ;  though  all  vagaries 
are  possible  to  one  who,  having  mediator  as  a  good 
(ecclesiastically)  classical  equivalent  for  ^eo-m;?,  chose 
to  translate  it  arbiter.  Langen  brings  forward  another 
example  of  a  Hebrew  construction,  sub  nullo  dextrse 
illius  sunt,  taking  dextrte  as  nominative  to  sunt,  and 
regarding  it  as  a  translation  —  PPJ  through  Se&ai. 
However,  Volkmar,  Hilgenfeld,  and  Fritzsche  read  sub 
annulo  dextrse,  etc.,  making  dextrse  genitive  and  omnia 
coeli  Jirmamenta  nominative  to  sunt.  It  seems  a 
somewhat  violent  reading  to  find  nullo  and  read  annulo, 
the  more  so  that  the  letters  involved  are  very  distinct 
in  the  manuscript. 

Altogether  the  question  is  difficult  of  decision.  For 
our  part,  from  the  relation  in  which  it  stands  to  the 
Book  of  Jubilees  we  feel  inclined  to  regard  it  as  having 
been  probably  written  in  Aramaic;  a  view  that  is 
confirmed  by  the  occurrence  of  the  word  horas  itself, 
there  being  no  equivalent  to  this  in  Hebrew,  while 
there  is  in  Aramaic,  Dan.  iv.  19. 

Nicephorus  in  his  Stichometria  gives  the  length  of 
the  avdXrjn^  Mwvaiws  as  1400  (rrtot.  As  there  are  in 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.       447 


Ceriani's  manuscript  fragments  766  lines  (o-rt^ot),  we 
may  say  we  have  about  the  half  of  the  original  work. 
Of  course,  as  the  <ni%ot  are  very  short  in  the  Ceriani 
MS.,  it  is  not  impossible  that  Drummond's  estimate 
may  be  correct,  that  we  have  only  the  third  of  it. 
His  judgment  is  grounded  on  the  fact  that  Nicephorus 
makes  the  Apocalypse  of  John  also  consist  of  1400 
lines  ;  and  the  Assumption  of  Moses  as  we  have  it  is 
little  more  than  the  third  of  the  length  of  the  Book  of 
Revelation. 

A  very  important  question  to  be  decided  is  the  date 
at  which  the  Assumption  of  Moses  was  written. 
Langen  thinks  it  must  have  been  composed  shortly 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus.  The  pre- 
supposition on  which  this  conclusion  rests  is  that  the 
narrative  is  to  be  regarded  as  continuous.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  to  be  assumed,  for  neither  in  Daniel, 
Enoch,  Baruch,  nor  Revelation  does  the  narrative 
proceed  continuously.  There  is  in  all  four  a  return 
from  a  later  to  an  earlier  part  of  the  history  ;  indeed 
historic  continuity  is  not  congenial  to  the  nature  of 
Apocalyptic.  Of  course  there  might  be  evidence  from 
the  narrative  itself  that  might  prove  that  the  As- 
sumption of  Moses  was  peculiar  in  this  respect,  but  the 
frequent  lacunas  that  occur  in  the  book  fall  on 
junction  points  —  points  where  we  should  find  a  new 
beginning  did  such  occur  in  the  narrative.  Schmidt, 
Merx,  Fritzsche,  and  Lucius  place  its  date  some  ten 
or  fifteen  years  earlier  than  the  date  preferred  by 
Langen.  Most  of  these  rest  their  conclusions  on  a 
definite  meaning  which  they  assign  to  "horse  IV;" 
but  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  definite  temporal 


448  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

meaning  is  to  be  assigned  to  this  phrase.  They  also 
lay  stress  on  the  continuity  of  the  narrative,  holding 
that  what  is  early  in  the  narrative  happened  earlier 
in  actual  chronology  than  what  is  mentioned  later ; 
an  assumption  which  we  have  just  seen  is  not  to  be 
defended.  Hausrath  prefers  some  fifteen  years  later 
than  the  date  assumed  by  Langen.  Volkmar,  with 
that  strange  prediction  from  the  misty  period  of 
the  last  Jewish  revolt,  maintains  that  the  book  was 
written  in  the  time  of  Barcochba.  His  somewhat 
elaborate  calculations  rest  on  the  false  assumptions 
above  referred  to.  He  rests  a  good  deal  also  on  an 
identification  of  Taxo  of  the  Assumption  with  Eabbi 
Aqiba,  an  identification  that  seems  utterly  without 
foundation.  We  have  no  account,  in  the  few  authentic 
records  of  that  time,  of  Aqiba  retiring  into  a  cave  with 
seven  disciples.  As  for  the  application  of  gematria 
to  a  word  the  original  form  of  which  we  do  not  know 
but  must  assume,  and  the  grounding  anything  on  this, 
it  is  mere  absurdity.  Hilgenfeld,  assuming  the  "  four 
hours"  to  be  the  four  emperors  after  Herod, — Augustus, 
Tiberius,  Caius,  and  Claudius, — fixes  the  date  at  44  A.D. 
He  is  certain  that  it  was  written  before  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem.  But  it  would  seem  doubtful  on  what 
principle  Augustus,  whose  course  had  only  some  six- 
teen years  to  run  at  the  death  of  Herod,  should  be 
included  in  "  the  four  hours."  It  assumes  the  continu- 
ousness  of  the  history,  which  we  have  seen  is  not  even 
doubtful.  Philippi  has  placed  the  date  of  the  Assump- 
tion and  that  of  the  Book  of  Enoch  late  in  the  second 
century,  and  ascribes  their  composition  to  a  desire 
to  form  a  place  for  the  references  in  Jude.  This 


LANGUAGE  AND  DATE  OF  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  MOSES.       449 

extraordinary  theory  scarcely  needs  refutation.  The 
great  mass  of  students  of  this  period  have,  how- 
ever, agreed  in  regarding  the  date  of  the  Assumption 
of  Moses  as  about  A.D.  6.  If  we  apply  our  canons 
we  shall,  it  seems  to  us,  come  to  a  similar  con- 
clusion. If  we  take  our  first  canon,  "the  time  of  the 
composition  of  our  Apocalypse  is  between  the  latest 
event  clearly  described  and  the  first  unmistakable 
break  away  from  history,"  the  reign  of  Herod,  its 
character  and  length,  his  own  descent  (qui  non  erit 
genere  sacerdotum),  are  accurately  portrayed.  Even 
Langen,  after  asserting  the  rex  petulans  to  be  Aristo- 
bulus,  came  to  admit  the  correctness  of  the  identifica- 
tion above  given.  Herod  is  succeeded  by  his  sons,  who 
reign  but  a  short  time.  This  latter  point  is  only  true 
of  Archelaus  ;  Antipas  and  Philip  reigned  long.  Here 
two  things  may  be  noted,  the  accuracy  which  states 
that  this  rex  petulans  would  be  succeeded,  not  by  his 
"  son,"  but  by  his  "  sons,"  and  the  inaccuracy  which 
ascribed  to  them  but  a  short  reign.  Here,  then,  is  a 
break  from  the  facts  of  history,  clear  and  unmistak- 
able. At  this  point  we  may  note  that  the  four  hours 
may  not  be  indications  of  successive  times,  but  that 
four  marked  periods  began  with  the  fall  of  the  rex 
patulans — in  other  words,  four  reigns  began  at  the 
conclusion  of  his — the  monarchy  was  split  up  into  four 
tetrarchies.  All  that  follows  this,  so  far  as  we  can  make 
it  out  from  the  fragmentary  condition  of  the  manu- 
scripts, is  still  further  away  from  actual  history.  Harsh 
as  the  Romans  undoubtedly  were,  they  never  employed 
surgeons  to  remove  from  children  the  mark  of  cir- 
cumcision, and  the  description  of  the  horrors  of  the 
2  F 


450  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Roman  siege  and  conquest  was  imagined,  not  drawn 
from  observation.  This  leads  us  to  fix  the  date,  as 
we  have  said,  about  the  time  of  the  deposition  of 
Archelaus,  while  there  was  yet  hope  that  the  fate  that 
had  befallen  him  would  also  befall  his  brothers. 

The  background  of  intense  hatred  of  the  Herodians 
is  also  in  complete  harmony  with  what  we  know  of  the 
time  in  question  from  Josephus.  Later,  the  Herodians 
became  favourites,  not  only  with  the  Sadducean,  but 
also  with  the  Pharisaic  party,  as  we  can  learn  from  the 
Talmudic  accounts  of  Herod  Agrippa,  and  from  the 
account  given  by  Josephus,  and  even  from  the  short 
notice  of  him  which  we  have  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles ;  and  later  still  King  Agrippa  was  a  defender 
of  the  Jews,  as  we  learn  from  Josephus,  and  for  this 
reason  he  was  popular  with  the  Jews,  if  we  except  the 
Zealots.  By  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
the  Herodian  family  had  ceased  to  be  regarded  by  the 
Jews.  By  the  time  of  Domitian  they  had  wholly 
disappeared. 

We  are  thus  led  to  place  the  date  of  the  book  at 
A.D.  6. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

CRITICAL   NOTES    ON   POST-CHRISTIAN   APOCALYPSES — 
THE   ASCENSION    OF    ISAIAH. 

T  IKE  so  many  other  Apocalyptic  books,  the  Ascen- 
-^  sion  of  Isaiah  after  having  been  lost  sight  of 
for  centuries  was  discovered  in  Abyssinia.  It  had 
been  referred  to  by  Origen  and  Epiphanius.  The 
former  seems  to  refer  solely  to  the  Martyrdom,  not 
to  the  opao-is  ;  but  this  latter,  under  the  title  avafianrcov, 
was  known  to  Epiphanius.  Jerome  refers  to  the 
Ascensio  Isaiae.  In  the  list  edited  by  Pitra,  the 
eleventh  Apocryphal  work  is  'Ha-aiov  o/?acr*9.  After 
this  the  work  disappeared,  until  in  1819  Archbishop 
Laurence  published  an  Ethiopic  version  from  a 
manuscript  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  It  is  scarcely 
a  contradiction  of  this  to  mention  that  in  1522  the 
latter  half  of  this  book  was  printed  at  Venice  in  a 
Latin  version.  Printing,  however,  is  not  always 
publication ;  it  disappeared  as  utterly  as  if  it  never 
had  been.  Dr.  Gieseler,  seeing  a  reference  to  it  in 
Panzer's  Annales  Typographiques,  instituted  a  search 
for  the  book,  and  got  it  at  last  in  Copenhagen  and 
in  Munich.  From  these  two  copies  he  published  an 
edition  of  the  Vision  of  Isaiah  in  1831.  The  Abys- 
sinian war  brought  several  new  MSS.  to  Britain. 
Cardinal  Mai  published  some  fragments  found  in  the 


452  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Vatican  Library.  With  the  help  of  these,  Dillmann 
published  his  edition  in  1877.  It  contains  the  text 
of  the  Ethiopic  version  with  a  Latin  translation ;  as  an 
appendix,  the  Latin  Venetian  version  and  the  two  frag- 
ments published  by  Cardinal  Mai.  The  Latin  Venetian 
version  seems  on  the  whole  to  represent  an  older  text. 

As  the  book  has  come  down  to  us  it  seems  to  be 
two  distinct  and  separate  works,  the  Martyrdom  of 
Isaiah  and  his  Ascension.  From  the  fact  that  we 
have  not  any  part  of  the  original  Greek  or  Hebrew, 
one  cannot  decisively  say  whether  or  not  it  was  the 
work  of  one  hand.  There  are  traces  of  sameness  of 
views,  however,  which  seem  to  us  to  point  to  this 
very  distinctly.  Langen  holds  that  the  author  of  the 
"  Martyrdom "  is  a  different  person  from  the  author 
of  the  "  Ascension,"  because  the  name  given  to  the 
devil  is  different :  Serial  in  the  "  Martyrdom,"  and 
Sammael  in  the  "  Ascension."  This,  however,  is  a 
mistake.  The  devil  is  only  twice  referred  to  in  the 
"  Ascension,"  and  in  one  he  is  called  "  Sammael " 
in  the  Ethiopic  and  "Satan "  in  the  Venetian  Latin,  in 
the  other  Sammael-Satan  ;  but  in  the  "  Martyrdom " 
Satan  has  four  or  five  names,  Berial,  Sammael,  and  Satan 
being  three  of  them.  Another  point  that  seems  to 
imply  difference  of  origin,  is  the  fact  that  while  Origen 
knew  only  of  the  "  Martyrdom,"  Epiphanius  shows  no 
sign  of  knowing  anything  but  the  "  Vision."  This, 
however,  may  be  explained  in  the  way  we  have  indi- 
cated above.  If  the  author  of  the  "  Vision  "  had  come 
to  Rome  and  seen  the  Neronian  persecution,  he  might 
.easily  be  moved  to  make  addition  to  his  work;  but 
if  he  had  left  it  in  the  hands  of  the  community  at 


CRITICAL  NOTES  ON  POST- CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.        453 

Engedi,  the  addition  would  at  first  have  to  form  a 
separate  work.  As  most  likely  he  would  have  no 
opportunity  of  editing  his  own  work,  what  seems  the 
blunder  of  putting  what  is  really  the  end  of  the 
"  Vision  "  or  "  Ascension  "  at  the  end  of  the  trial,  and 
before  the  Martyrdom,  is  easily  explained.  The  most 
marked  proof  of  unity  of  authorship  is  the  reference 
back  and  forward  from  the  one  part  to  the  other. 

As  to  the  relative  age  of  these  different  portions, 
as  will  be  seen,  we  regard  the  "  Ascension "  as  the 
oldest  portion.  The  reference  back  from  xi.  41  does 
not  necessarily  imply  a  knowledge  of  the  contents 
of  the  "  Martyrdom,"  but  only  a  knowledge  of  the  fact 
which  is  related  there,  but  had  already  long  formed 
part  of  the  current  tradition  in  regard  to  Isaiah ; 
whereas  iii.  13  obviously  refers  forward  to  the  actual 
contents  of  the  "  Vision."  This  applies  much  more  to 
the  addition.  It  is  inconceivable  that  to  the  Martyr- 
dom the  part  from  iii.  14  to  the  end  of  iv.  could  have 
been  added  save  by  one  who  knew  of  the  existence  of 
the  Vision,  but  had  not  the  opportunity  of  adding  it 
at  its  proper  place.  The  first  chapter  is  evidently  the 
work  of  a  later  hand,  the  hand  probably  of  the  editor 
who  put  the  two  parts  together. 

The  language  in  which  this  book  was  written  is 
also  doubtful.  There  is  no  question  that  the  three 
versions  which  we  have  —  in  the  case  of  the  two 
Latin  ones  certainly  in  fragment  only — are  made  from 
the  Greek.  All  the  quotations  in  the  Fathers  are 
also  made  from  the  Greek.  Is  the  Greek  the  absolute 
original,  or  is  it  a  translation  ?  The  indications 
are  not  very  numerous,  but  there  is  one  that  seems 


454  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  considerable  weight.  In  iv.  15  we  have  a  reference 
to  Isa.  xxiv.  23  :  "  the  sun  shall  be  ashamed."  The 
Septuagint  has  a  totally  different  rendering  here : 
"The  bricks  shall  be  melted,  and  the  wall  shall  fall." 
This  seems  to  make  it  certain  that  the  writer  had 
the  Hebrew  before  him,  and  therefrom  probably  wrote 
in  Hebrew, — a  probability  that  is  all  the  greater  from 
the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  Apocalypses  were  written 
in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic. 

More  important  than  the  language  is  the  date  of 
the  Apocalypse  before  us.  The  canon  we  have  laid 
down  concerning  what  is  really  the  internal  evidence 
applies  here  with  the  greatest  force.  Nero  has  died. 
There  is  no  reasonable  doubt  Nero  is  intended  by 
the  "  matricide  king ; "  but  there  are  to  elapse  332 
days,  at  the  expiry  of  which  Christ  is  to  come  a 
second  time,  and  the  last  judgment  to  take  place. 
By  our  first  canon  this  book  must  have  been  written 
between  the  death  of  Nero  and  the  332  days.  The 
objection  of  Langen,  that  this  is  the  apocalyptic  Nero, 
not  the  historic  Nero,  is  not  of  any  value,  for  the 
effort  of  the  writer  is  evidently  to  make  the  reader 
feel  he  has  to  do  with  Nero  the  matricide,  who  lived 
after  the  massacre  of  the  Christians  three  years  seven 
months  and  twenty  -  seven  days.  The  background 
implied  in  the  Apocalypse  would  lead  us  to  this  same 
date ;  it  is  one  when  the  Lord's  second  coming  was 
expected  to  be  immediate ;  and  we  know  that  expecta- 
tion had  greatly  faded,  even  by  the  days  of  Justin 
Martyr,  and  indeed  in  those  of  Clement  of  Rome. 
Justin  regards  the  coming  of  the  Lord  as  near,1  but 

1  Justin,  Trypho,  28.     Clement  does  not  notice  the  second  coming  at  all. 


CRITICAL  NOTES  ON  POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.         455 

not  so  immediate  as  the  writer,  who  looks  forward 
to  the  second  advent  at  the  end  of  nine  or  ten  months. 

The  objection  urged,  that  there  are  Gnostic  elements 
and  Montanistic  elements,  is  as  inept  as  that  of  Langen. 
Gnosticism  reached  its  highest  elaboration  in  the 
systems  of  Basilides  and  Valentinus,  about  A.D.  130 
and  140  respectively.  Montanism  may  be  said  to 
have  risen  about  170.  These  two  movements,  the 
Gnostic  and  the  Montanistic,  were  directly  antagonistic 
to  each  other.  To  find  a  potent  state  of  thought  where 
the  two  movements  can  be  combined,  one  must  go 
back  in  the  history  of  primitive  Christianity  to  the 
first  century  at  all  events. 

There  is  no  reference  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem, 
an  event  that  could  not  but  have  been  referred  to 
had  it  already  occurred.  It  must  have  been  written 
then  before  70  and  after  68.  We  may  fix  the  date 
with  almost  absolute  certainty  at  the  year  69.  This 
Apocalypse  is  interesting  as  the  earliest  non-canonical 
Christian  document. 


FOURTH    ESDRAS  I    DATE,    LANGUAGE,    ETC. 

Unlike  the  other  Apocalyptic  books,  the  Fourth 
Book  of  Esdras  has  been  known  continuously  in  the 
Church  from  the  days  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus ; 
only  in  a  Latin  version  for  several  centuries,  how- 
ever. In  the  beginning  of  last  century  an  Arabic 
version  was  discovered  and  translated  by  Dr.  Simon 
Ockley.  In  the  beginning  of  the  present  century 
Archbishop  Laurence  discovered  an  Ethiopic  version, 
which  he  translated.  Rather  earlier  than  Archbishop 


456  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

Laurence's  publication  was  the  publication  in  Venice, 
by  the  monks  of  the  Armenian  convent  there,  of  the 
Armenian  Scriptures,  and  in  the  volume  was  a  version  of 
Fourth  Esdras.  Ceriani  first  adverted  to  the  difference 
from  the  Latin  which  existed  in  it.  This  was  brought 
before  the  public  by  Ewald  in  1865.  Ceriani,  in  his 
Monumenta  sacra  et  prof  ana,  had  published  four  years 
before  this  a  Syrian  version  from  the  archives  of  the 
Ambrosian  Library,  Milan.  All  these  are  versions 
from  a  Greek  original,  of  which  only  two  fragments 
remain,  quotations  in  Clemens  Alexandrinus  and  in 
the  Apostolic  Constitutions.  Its  non-existence  in  the 
Greek  resulted  in  its  being  put  in  all  editions  of  the 
Vulgate,  since  the  Council  of  Trent,  after  Revelation, 
along  with  Third  Esdras  and  the  Prayer  of  Manasses. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  the 
Greek  itself  may  be  a  version  of  an  earlier  Hebrew  or 
Aramaic  original,  and  Bretschneider  thought  he  saw 
traces  of  the  Hebrew  shining  through  the  Latin  in 
several  instances.  None  of  these  appear  absolutely  con- 
clusive. But  the  inability  to  produce  conclusive  evidence 
that  the  Greek  from  which  the  extant  versions  were  taken 
was  itself  a  translation,  does  not  prove  that  it  was  an 
original  document.  If  we  had  the  Greek  we  should  be 
in  a  different  position.  Certainly  the  fact  that  the 
other  Apocalypses  were  written  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic, 
renders  it  on  the  whole  probable  that  Fourth  Esdras 
also  was  so  written.  Moreover,  although  the  instances 
of  alleged  mistaken  translation  are  not  absolutely  con- 
clusive, yet  they  have  a  certain  weight.  We  must, 
therefore,  leave  the  question  of  language  doubtful. 
To  our  eyes,  the  place  where  Fourth  Esdras  was 


CRITICAL  NOTES  ON  POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.        457 

written  seems  to  be  Rome.  Rome  is  the  Babylon 
of  the  Apocalyptists,  and  the  state  of  matters  in  the 
Babylon  of  the  book  before  us  admirably  describes  the 
condition  of  things  in  Rome,  in  regard  to  its  Jewish 
community  especially,  in  the  decade  that  succeeded  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem. 

The  date  of  Fourth  Esdras  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 
settle.  If  we  take  the  implied  background  as  our 
guide,  we  shall  be  sure  that  it  was  written  after  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus.  There  is  the  utter 
despair  of  the  future,  which  indicates  a  period  of  super- 
lative national  depression.  Another  note  of  time  is  the 
famous  "  eagle  vision  "  of  the  eleventh  chapter.  It  is 
not  easily  comprehensible,  and  the  interpretation  does 
not  improve  matters.  This  eagle  represents  the  Roman 
power,  and  it  has  twelve  heads,  which  represent  twelve 
successive  monarchs.  It  has  three  heads,  which  repre- 
sent three  reigns  which  shall  come  in  the  last  time  of 
the  eagle,  therefore  coincident  with  the  last  three 
wings.  That  these  last  three  are  the  Flavians,  is  made 
certain  by  the  fact  that  the  second  is  Augustus,  who  is 
pointed  out  by  the  fact  that  he  reigned  more  than  twice 
as  long  as  any  of  the  other  monarchs.  His  reign,  if 
reckoned  from  the  death  of  his  uncle,  was  fifty-seven 
years;  whereas  Tiberius,  the  longest  reigning  of  his 
successors,  only  reigned  twenty-three  years.  The  main 
difficulty  is  with  the  eight  opposing  feathers.  These 
seem  to  us  to  be  the  various  opponents  of  the  successive 
emperors,  the  Pompeys,  father  and  son,  Brutus  and 
Cassius,  Antony,  Piso,  Nymphidius,  and  Vindex. 

Hilgenfeld  would  apply  the  vision  to  the  Greek 
monarchy.  But  the  fact  that  the  second  monarch 


458  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

reigns  so  much  longer  than  any  of  his  successors, 
upsets  that  hypothesis.  Further,  it  is  impossible  to 
explain  the  three  heads. 

Liicke  holds  that  the  twelve  wings  apply  to  the 
history  of  Rome  before  Sulla,  and  the  eight  feathers 
to  the  period  after,  and  the  three  heads  to  the  three 
triumviri.  There  are  several  variations  on  this  theory  ; 
but  all  fail  in  this,  that  the  Jews  knew  too  little  of  the 
history  of  Rome  before  Sulla  to  put  it  in  their  picture, 
and,  further,  there  were  no  twelve  men  that  stood  out 
as  monarchs  above  their  fellows.  It  seems  impossible 
on  any  other  hypothesis  than  the  one  we  have  adopted 
to  explain  the  statement  that  the  second  would  reign 
more  than  twice  as  long  as  any  of  his  successors. 

Another  theory,  that  the  three  heads  represent  the 
Septimian  dynasty,  would  be  exceedingly  plausible 
were  it  not  that  Clemens  Alexandrinus  quotes  the 
work  before  us.  It  is  conceivable  that  some  hand  may 
have  added  features  at  a  later  date  to  fit  the  dynasty 
of  Septimius  Severus  and  his  sons  Caracalla  and 
Geta. 

The  date,  excluding  the  efforts  of  the  interpolator, 
would  thus  seem  to  be  somewhere  about  94  or  95  A.D. 


TESTAMENTS    OF    THE   TWELVE    PATRIARCHS. 

Unlike  some  of  the  books  we  have  just  been  consider- 
ing, "the  Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs"  has 
been  known  more  or  less  for  a  long  time.  It  is  more 
than  six  hundred  years  since  Hugh  Grosseteste,  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  discovered  these  Testaments  in  Athens,  yet 
before  that  time  they  had  been  lost  sight  of  for  several 


CRITICAL  NOTES  ON  POST-CHRISTIAN  APOCALYPSES.         459 

centuries.  After  Hugh  Grosseteste's  discovery  of  them 
they  sank  into  oblivion  again.  In  1698,  Grabe  edited 
them  from  a  manuscript  he  found  in  Cambridge. 
Several  other  editions  have  followed  since. 

There  is  no  trace  of  any  language  behind  the  Greek. 
There  are  plays  of  language  which  have  a  meaning  in 
Greek  alone,  and  mistakes  in  derivations  due  to  a 
predominance  of  Greek  in  the  mind  of  the  writer.  An 
example  of  the  former  is  (Jud.  xxiii.)  V^TTL^V  avaipea-is 
Kal  <rv/ji(3ia>v  dfaipea-is.  The  word  (Lev.  vi.)  aairLt  is 
given  as  the  derivation  of  the  name  of  a  mountain 
in  Palestine  called  Aspio.  No  mountain  of  that  name 
is  known,  but  it  is  certain  no  Palestinian  place  name 
would  have  a  Greek  etymology.  The  name  of  the 
books,  SiaOrffcr),  is  used  in  its  ordinary  classical  meaning 
of  testament  or  will,  not  in  its  scriptural  meaning  of 
covenant  (=rp")3),  which  was  the  only  meaning  it  could 
have  to  the  Jews,  as  they  had  no  testaments  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word. 

The  country  assumed  is  Egypt,  and  there  is  nothing 
to  indicate  that  this  is  not  where  it  actually  was 
written.  It  was  written  where  Greek  was  the  spoken 
language,  and  yet  where  there  were  many  Jews.  It 
was  written  away  from  Palestine,  yet  near  enough  to 
cherish  a  hope  of  a  return  ;  all  of  which  features  suit 
Egypt  fully  as  well  as  any  other  country. 

As  to  the  date — the  data  are  somewhat  scanty. 
There  are  few  internal  proofs,  since  the  writer  gives  no 
view  of  universal  history,  as  do  so  many  apocalyptists. 
We  can  see,  however,  from  the  state  of  matters  implied, 
that  while  it  has  been  written  after  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem  by  Titus,  and  before  the  utter  subversion  of 


460  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  Jewish  nationality  on  occasion  of  the  overthrow  of 
Barcochba  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian, — that  is  to  say, 
somewhere  between  70  and  130  A.D., — in  all  likelihood 
it  was  composed  in  the  course  of  the  first  decade  of  the 
second  century  of  our  era. 


CHAPTEK   IX. 

VISCHEH'S   THEORY   OF   THE   ORIGIN   OF   THE    APOCALYPSE 
OF    JOHN. 

E  of  the  features  in  the  evolution  of  Biblical 
Criticism  that  strikes  a  spectator,  is  the  com- 
pleteness with  which  it  reverses  its  relation  to  the 
questions  at  issue  in  the  course  of  a  few  years.  Forty 
years  is  not  long  in  the  life  of  a  science.  Some  forty- 
five  years  ago  Schwegler  published  his  Nachaposto- 
lische  Zeitalter.  It  was  then  regarded  as  the  most 
scientific  statement  of  the  results  of  New  Testament 
Biblical  Criticism,  and  for  thirty  or  forty  years  has  it 
been  so  regarded  by  the  advanced  school  of  critics. 
In  that  work  he  says  of  the  Apocalypse  (i.  66) :  "  No 
writing  of  the  New  Testament  canon  has  so  continuous 
a  line  of  such  old  and  such  satisfactory  witnesses  to 
produce  for  itself."  Again  (ii.  249) :  "It  is  the  only 
one  of  the  collected  New  Testament  Scriptures  that  can 
rightly  lay  claim  to  be  composed  by  an  apostle  who 
was  an  immediate  disciple  of  Christ."  And  this  view 
is  held  also  by  the  author  of  Supernatural  Religion.1 
Given  the  authenticity  of  the  Apocalypse,  then  it  was 

1  Supernatural  Religion,  ed.  i.  Part  iii.  vol.  ii.  p.  392  :  "  The  external 
evidence  that  the  Apostle  John  wrote  the  Apocalypse  is  more  ancient  thaii 
that  for  any  book  of  the  New  Testament,  excepting  some  of  the  Epistles 
of  Paul."  See  also  Reuss,  Geschichte  der  heiligen  Schriften  News  Testament, 
p.  249. 


462  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

argued  the  fourth  Gospel  could  not  have  been  written 
by  John. 

Now,  however,  a  comparatively  young  student,  Vischer 
by  name,  has  overturned  all  that,  and  his  opinion  is 
being  rapidly  received  in  advanced  circles.  The  view 
he  brings  forward  is,  that  the  Apocalypse  of  John  is  a 
Jewish  Apocalypse,  written  over  by  a  Christian.  This 
process  of  writing  over  is  a  different  one  from  mere 
interpolation.  The  writer  is  supposed  to  have  gone 
over  the  whole  book,  adding  a  word  here  and  a  clause 
there,  till  he  has  modified  the  whole  character  of  the 
book.  No  one  can  deny  that  this  process  is  a  possible 
one.  It  has  been  done  in  regard  to  the  Ignatian 
Epistles,  as  the  Long  Recension  abundantly  testifies. 
The  question  :  Has  the  Apocalypse  been  treated  in  this 
way  ?  is  not  without  pertinence.  Having  thrown 
doubt  on  the  Apocalypse,  one  wonders  whether  the 
critical  school  will  hasten  to  admit  the  fourth  Gospel 
to  the  place  of  honour  from  which  the  Apocalypse  has 
been  ousted.1 

No  one  who  reads  Vischer's  tractate  can  fail  to  be 
struck  with  its  great  cleverness  and  ingenuity.  In  the 
first  place,  he  throws  off  as  Christian  the  first  three 
chapters,  and  the  last  chapter  with  the  exception  of  the 
first  five  verses.  Then  he  carefully  goes  over  the 
whole  book,  marking  off  words  and  clauses  that  are 
necessarily  Christian.  It  further  must  be  admitted 
that  in  many  cases  the  construction  is  made  simpler 
by  the  omission.  Such  cases  where  we  see  an  expres- 

1  Martineau,  Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,  p.  227  :  "The  Apocalypse 
is  put  out  of  court  altogether  as  a  witness,  and  the  old  argument  against 
either  from  its  contrast  with  the  other  can  no  longer  be  pressed." 


VISCHER'S  THEORY  OF  ORIGIN  OF  APOCALYPSE  OF  JOHN.     463 

sion  by  implication  of  the  unity  subsisting  between 
the  Father  and  the  Son, — between  God  and  the  Lamb, 
— to  use  the  phraseology  of  the  Apocalypse,  he  sees 
simply  grammatical  confusion  caused  by  the  work 
of  the  Christian  Ueberarbeiter ;  as,  for  instance, 
xxii.  3  and  4,  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb 
shall  be  in  her,  and  His  servants  shall  serve  Him,  and 
shall  see  His  face ;  and  His  name  shall  be  upon  their 
foreheads.  So  too,  in  the  sixth  chapter,  when  the 
kings  and  rulers  and  rich  men  call  upon  the  mountains 
and  rocks  to  fall  upon  them,  it  is  to  hide  them  "  from 
the  face  of  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and 
from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb ;  for  the  great  day  of 
His  wrrath  has  come."  While  this  is  very  ingenious, 
we  cannot  help  feeling  that  equal  ingenuity  expended 
on  Macaulay's  History  might  prove  it  written  by  an 
ardent  Tory  but  over-written  by  a  zealous  Whig.  It 
seems  strange  that  the  Christian  who  has  over-written 
this  Apocalypse  did  not  put  the  grammar  right.  The 
interpolator  of  Ignatius  would  never  have  hesitated 
in  such  a  case.  The  fact  that  it  does  by  implication 
express  a  truth  that  is  above  logic,  and  therefore  above 
grammar,  is  explanation  enough  for  us. 

But  even  on  his  own  hypothesis  his  theory  does 
not  hold.  Given  that  it  is  a  Jewish  Apocalypse, 
then  the  probability  is  that  it  would  be  written  in 
Hebrew,  —  a  view  that  might  be  held  even  by 
those  who  maintain  it  to  be  the  work  of  the 
Apostle  John.  If  so,  there  would  be  a  perpetual 
liability  to  drop  into  parallelism,  especially  in  passages 
where  there  is  any  passion.  Now,  there  are  cases 
where  the  alleged  Christian  additions  complete  the 


464  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

parallelism,  which  would  otherwise  be  left  incomplete. 
Thus  xxi.  23— 

The  city  had  no  need  of  the  sun, 
Neither  of  the  moon  to  shine  upon  it ; 
For  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it, 
[And  the  Lamb  was  the  lamp  thereof]. 

We  see  that  the  fourth  line  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
complete  the  verse.  It  is  a  parallelistic  passage, 
as  is  proved  by  the  relation  of  the  first  two  lines, 
and  so  we  necessarily  expect  the  third  line  to  be 
followed  by  a  fourth.  Yet  by  Vischer's  hypothesis 
this  fourth  line  is  the  work  of  the  Ueberarbeiter. 
Other  similar  instances  might  be  adduced. 

But  Vischer's  arguments  are  not  wholly  verbal  or 
grammatical,  but  also  logical.  He  is  unable  to  under- 
stand how,  in  the  fifth  verse  of  the  fifth  chapter,  the 
apocalyptist  is  informed  that  "  the  lion  of  the  tribe 
of  Judah  "  is  to  open  the  book  ;  and  the  sixth  verse  sees 
that  information  made  good  "by  a  lamb  as  it  had 
been  slain."  Nor  can  he  understand  how  the  lamb 
could  stand  and  appear  to  have  been  slain.  He 
suggests  that  the  Hebrew  word  was  *?»,  and  the  sound 
was  like  apvlov,  so  the  Christian  Ueberarbeiter  changed 
the  one  into  the  other.  It  seems  strange  that  Herr 
Vischer  should  fail  to  advert  to  the  two  aspects  of  the 
Messiah's  history,  the  conquering  and  the  suffering  to 
be  seen  in  the  prophets,  and  to  some  extent  in  the 
apocalyptists.  This  at  once  harmonises  the  lion  and 
the  lamb.  He  surely  must  have  been  but  a  careless 
student  of  apocalyptic  wTritings  to  have  ever  brought 
as  an  objection  to  "  the  lamb  as  it  had  been  slain,"  that 
ist  es  rein  unmoglicli  ein  Lamm  vorzustellen  das 


VISCHER'S  THEORY  OF  ORIGIN  OF  APOCALYPSE  OF  JOHN.     465 

dasteht  wie  geschlachtet.  Had  Herr  Vischer  been 
better  acquainted  with  the  Jewish  Apocalypses  he 
would  have  known  that  impossibility  of  representing 
pictorially  or  presenting  clearly  before  the  imagination 
is  no  barrier  to  the  formation  of  an  apocalyptic 
symbolic  figure.  These  figures  are  built  up  by  the 
judgment,  not  by  the  imagination.  Certain  elements 
have  to  be  present,  whether  they  form  when  put 
together  a  creature  conceivable  by  the  imagination 
or  not.  It  would  be  beyond  the  power  of  any  artist  to 
represent  the  beast  of  the  present  Apocalypse,  or — 
not  to  speak  of  the  fourth  beast  of  Daniel — the  living 
creature  of  Ezekiel's  vision,  or  the  eagle  of  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  Fourth  Esdras. 

Had  he  been  a  little  better  acquainted  with  apoca- 
lyptic writings,  Herr  Vischer  would  never  have  brought 
the  objection  he  does  to  the  ordinary  interpretation  of 
the  woman  "  bringing  forth  the  man  child."  He 
agrees  with  us  that  this  must  refer  to  the  birth  of 
the  Messiah,  but  asserts  that  it  cannot  refer  to  Christ, 
as  the  book  professes  to  be  about  the  future,  and  our 
Lord  was  already  born,  if  the  writer  was  a  Christian. 
Surely  he  never  can  have  read  the  Book  of  Enoch,  or 
he  would  not  have  made  that  assertion.  In  the  first 
chapter  of  that  book,  second  verse,  Enoch,  telling  of  the 
vision  he  saw,  says,  they  were  "  not  for  this  generation, 
but  for  far  off  generations  which  are  to  come  ; "  yet  in 
chap.  vi.  he  relates  the  fall  of  the  angels  through 
women, — an  event  already  past  in  his  day,  for  he  visits 
the  angels  in  their  condemnation  "  between  Lebanon 
and  Seneser."  He  had  also  failed  to  understand  the 
close  and  intimate  connection  between  the  first  and 

2G 


466  CKITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

second  coming  of  their  Lord  in  the  minds  of  the  early 
Christians.  It  was  necessary  to  explain  Satan's  wrath 
against  the  Church ;  and  this  the  writer  does  by 
showing  that  Satan,  baulked  in  his  attempt  to  destroy 
Christ  upon  earth,  and  expelled  from  heaven,  would 
destroy  the  Church  that  has  the  testimony  of  Jesus. 
Satan  is,  however,  to  be  overthrown  by  the  second 
coming  of  our  Lord.  We  may  also  add  that  the 
woman  is  not  the  virgin  mother  of  our  Lord,  but  the 
Church,  Old  Testament  and  New  regarded  as  one. 

He  seems  to  have  failed  to  remember  the  late  origin 
of  the  Talmud,  or  to  realise  its  utter  untrustworthiness, 
when  he  appeals  to  it  to  explain  this  twelfth  chapter  in 
the  light  of  the  Talmudic  statements  given  by  Schiirer. 
The  statement  in  the  Talmud  was  in  all  likelihood 
borrowed  from  Christian  sources,  not  improbably  from 
this  very  passage. 

We  would  not,  however,  be  thought  to  occupy 
merely  a  defensive  position  in  this  question,  and  to  be 
able  only  to  meet  the  arguments  advanced  against  the 
Apocalypse,  but  have  no  positive  arguments  to  bring 
forward  on  the  other  side  in  favour  of  its  authenticity. 
As  to  interpolations,  we  have  seen  that  parallelism 
proves  that  some  of  the  instances  of  alleged  interpola- 
tion belong  to  the  original  document ;  and  as  these  are 
Christian,  the  whole  case  is  broken  down  if  one  of  these 
clauses  is  proved  to  have  a  necessary  connection  with 
the  context.  But  more :  although  the  marriage  rela- 
tionship was  one  frequently,  in  certain  aspects,  used  by 
the  old  prophets  to  show  forth  Jehovah's  relation  to 
Israel,  yet  never  is  the  marriage-feast  used  as  a  symbol 
of  Messianic  times,  and  of  the  bliss  of  those  times.  It 


VISCHER'S  THEORY  OF  ORIGIN  OF  APOCALYPSE  OF  JOHN.     467 

is  used  more  than  once  by  our  Lord,  e.g.  in  the  parable 
of  the  Marriage  Supper.  Now,  one  of  the  parts  of  the 
Apocalypse  that  Herr  Vischer  acknowledges  to  be 
genuine  is  the  conclusion  in  chaps,  xx.  and  xxi. 
This  is,  then,  an  exclusively  Christian  element  which 
involves  in  it  that  the  bride  be  "  the  Lamb's  wife." 

A  point  that  the  author  thinks  he  makes  is  with 
regard  to  the  measurement  of  "  the  temple  of  God  and 
the  altar,  and  those  that  worship  therein."  That  he 
declares  can  only  be  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  We,  for 
our  part,  would  bring  forward  this  as  proof,  absolutely 
conclusive,  that  it  could  not  be  the  actual  temple  at 
Jerusalem ;  because  not  only  is  the  temple  to  be 
measured,  but  also  "  the  worshippers."  We  opine 
that  no  ordinary  measuring  -  rod  yet  framed  could 
measure  the  worshippers  in  the  sense  of  the  Apocalypse. 
Measurement  applied  to  them  must  have  a  spiritual 
meaning.  Moreover,  "  the  court  which  is  without  the 
temple  "  was  not  to  be  measured,  "because  it  is  given 
unto  the  Gentiles,  and  the  holy  city  they  shall  tread 
under  foot  forty  and  two  months."  When  the  Romans 
had  the  city  after  the  capture  by  Titus,  the  whole 
temple  was  trodden  under  foot — not  the  outer  court 
merely.  It  must  then  be  a  spiritual  temple  that  is 
referred  to.  The  holy  city  is  certainly  Jerusalem,  now 
taken  by  Titus ;  the  temple  is  the  Church,  Jewish  at 
starting,  with  an  immeasurable  outer  court  of  Gentiles. 

But  we  will  go  further,  and  maintain  that  in  the 
light  of  external  evidence  this  hypothesis  is  impossible. 
Our  author  makes  no  attempt  to  solve  the  number  666. 
The  names  of  none  of  the  three  Flavians  will  suit ;  yet 
Harnack,  in  his  note  to  Vischer's  tractate,  declares  that 


468  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  Jewish  Apocalypse  was  written  under  Domitian. 
More  important,  as  hostile  to  this  view,  is  the  impossi- 
bility of  finding  any  place  where  this  alleged  Jewish 
Apocalypse  could  be  composed  pace  Herr  Harnack  and 
his  conclusion. 

He  is  correct :  the  Apocalypse  must  have  been 
written  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  at  all  events,  if  it  is 
not  prophetic.  The  city  is  being  trodden  under  foot  of 
the  Gentiles ;  yet,  singularly,  the  temple  and  the  altar 
are  still  there  to  be  measured.  Laying  aside  this  little 
difficulty,  which  it  is  not  open  to  him  to  meet  by  a 
spiritual  interpretation,  grant  that  it  was  written  be- 
tween 81  and  96,  then  how  is  the  fact  to  be  explained 
that  Papias,  the  disciple  of  John,  wrote  a  commentary 
on  it — evidently  understanding  it  to  be  by  his  master  ? 
This  commentary  must  have  been  written  about  120, 
at  no  great  distance  from  Ephesus,  to  which  the  pro- 
logue refers.  Would  a  falsarius  have  succeeded  in 
palming  off  a  work  of  some  unknown  Essene  on  the 
Christian  community  as  the  work  of  the  apostle  who 
had  stayed  so  long  among  them  ?  Some  twenty  years 
later,  in  his  dialogue  with  Trypho  in  this  very  city  of 
Ephesus,  Justin  cites  the  Apocalypse  as  by  John.  Before 
120  the  Christianised  version  had  got  vogue  as  written 
by  John.  But  before  this  date  the  Jewish  Apocalypse, 
alleged  to  be  the  Grundschrift,  must  have  been  written. 
Within  little  more  than  thirty  years  this  double  process 
has  to  take  place.  Moreover,  by  the  later  date  the 
Apocalypse  is  so  universally  recognised  to  be  by  John, 
that  one  of  his  disciples  writes  a  commentary  on  it. 
Leaving  for  the  moment  the  utter  improbability  that 
Papias  could  be  mistaken  in  that,  it  must  be  seen  that 


VISCHER'S  THEORY  OF  ORIGIN  OF  APOCALYPSE  OF  JOHN.     469 

the  thirty  years  or  so  that  are  left  between  the  reign 
of  Domitian  and  the  time  of  Papias  for  the  Jewish 
Apocalypse  to  be  so  composed  is  too  short.  But  before 
the  Flavians  the  Jews  were  enduring  no  persecution, 
and  the  Christians  were.  So  far  from  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  Poppsea's  favour  for  the  Jews,  as  we  learn 
from  Josephus'  Life,  they  enjoyed  something  of  the 
sunshine  of  the  court  favour.  Later  than  Domitian 
it  could  not  be,  for  the  difficulties  would  only  be 
increased. 

Although  we  admit  the  accuracy  of  Harnack's  con- 
clusion as  to  the  date  of  the  Apocalypse,  we  doubt  the 
correctness  of  the  reasons  by  which  he  reaches  it,  on 
the  assumption  that  it  is  a  Jewish  Apocalypse.  He 
makes  Domitian  the  eighth,  who  is  one  of  the  seven. 
He  attains  this  number  by  starting  with  Augustus,  and 
excluding  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius.  But  Fourth 
Esdras  reckons  the  emperors  to  be  twelve,  and 
Augustus  to  be  the  second.  On  that  assumption 
Otho  would  be  the  eighth.  If  we  take  the  common 
reckoning  of  Jewish  Apocalyptic,  not  Domitian,  but 
Otho  would  be  the  emperor  under  whom  this  alleged 
Jewish  Apocalypse  was  written ;  but  Otho's  reign  was 
so  short,  and  his  authority  had  such  a  limited  acknow- 
ledgment, that,  unless  he  wrote  in  Eome,  the  author 
would  not  have  given  Otho  such  a  place  of  prominence. 
We  thus  see  how  impossible  it  is  to  find  a  time  when 
this  alleged  Jewish  Apocalypse  could  be  written. 

It  has  been  urged  by  Vischer  as  an  argument  for 
regarding  Eevelation  as  an  "  over-written  "  document, 
that  all  other  Apocalypses  have  undergone  this  process. 
The  accuracy  of  the  statement  we  doubt.  The  "  Psalter 


470  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

of  Solomon,"  the  "Book  of  Jubilees,"  and  the 
"Assumption  of  Moses"  are  not  usually  reckoned  as 
"  over- written."  Even  the  Book  of  Enoch,  extensively 
interpolated  as  it  is,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  "  over- 
written." But  grant  the  premises  to  be  true,  and  there 
would  certainly  be  some  little  force  in  the  argument. 
Let  us  now  turn  the  argument  another  way.  A 
universal  peculiarity  of  those  pseudo-apocalyptic  writ- 
ings is  that  the  alleged  author  is  one  living  in  an  age 
remote  for  its  antiquity.  The  books  are  attributed  to 
Moses,  Enoch,  Elijah,  Solomon,  by  writers  really  living 
in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees.  Here  is  a  work  by  a 
Jewish  scribe  which  is  over- written  and  ascribed,  not  to 
some  old  Jewish  prophet,  but  to  John,  a  man  whom 
many  of  those  living  at  the  time  the  book  in  its 
baptized  shape  was  published  had  known  well.  Apply 
the  same  sort  of  argument  here,  and  we  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  this  cannot  be  like  those  pseudonymous 
Apocalypses  which  were  so  plentiful  in  that  age.  It 
might  be  answered  that  this  might  apply  equally  to 
the  Apocalypse  of  Peter  and  the  Apocalypse  of  Paul, 
works  acknowledged  to  be  apocryphal.  There  was 
also  an  apocryphal  Apocalypse  of  John  distinct  from 
our  canonical  Book  of  Revelation.  These,  however, 
were  the  product  of  a  considerably  later  date.  Further, 
as  counterfeit  coin  implies  the  existence  of  true,  these 
false  Christian  Apocalypses  imply  one  at  least  that 
is  true  and  genuine,  and  all  these  must  have  been 
composed  after  the  canonical  Book  of  Revelation.  Of 
course,  if  it  were  proved  that  behind  the  present  Book 
of  Revelation  there  was  a  Jewish  Apocalypse,  we  would 
not  be  obliged  to  abandon  the  Johamrine  authentica- 


VISCHEU'S  THEORY  OF  ORIGIN  OF  APOCALYPSE  OF  JOHN.       47 1 

tion  of  the  book.  If  John,  finding  a  Jewish  Apocalypse 
that  represented  the  future  as  he  was  enabled  by  the 
Spirit  to  see  it,  took  it,  "  over-wrote,"  and  so  baptized 
it  unto  Christ,  we  might  still  hold  it  to  be  Johannine. 
There  would  certainly  be  the  difficulty  that  John  asserts 
the  vision  to  be  revealed  to  him  personally,  and  this 
would  seem  to  us  an  insuperable  difficulty.  This  is 
not  on  a  par  with  the  relation  between  Second  Peter 
and  Jude,  where  one  writer  has  evidently  borrowed 
from  another.  We  are,  however,  not  under  any  likeli- 
hood of  having  to  discuss  this  question  seriously. 

The  phenomena  that  have  led  to  the  evolution  of  the 
latest  critical  results  are  really  due,  as  it  seems  to  us, 
to  other  causes.  John  was  a  Jew  with  strong  Essenian 
leanings.  He  had  studied  the  Apocalypses  in  which 
the  Essenes  had  expressed  their  hopes  and  fears  con- 
cerning the  future  ;  and  when  God  revealed  the  future 
to  him,  the  figures,  imagery,  and  style  of  the  works 
he  had  studied  in  earlier  days  came  back  to  him  and 
formed  the  natural  vehicle  by  which  he  could  express 
the  message  God  had  given  him.  In  this  way  would 
we  explain  the  difference  of  the  styles  of  the  Apoc- 
alypse and  the  Gospel.  When  wrapt  in  apocalyptic 
vision  John  naturally  thought  in  Hebrew  ;  and  even  if 
he  wrote  in  Greek,  it  was  really  translation  from  a 
Hebrew  original  in  his  mind.  Whereas  in  the  Gospel 
he  wrote  simply  the  language  which  he  most  generally 
spoke.  If  we  were  compelled  to  make  the  choice 
between  the  Gospel  of  John  and  his  Apocalpyse,  if  the 
admission  of  the  one  being  true  and  authentic  imposed 
necessarily  the  repudiation  of  the  other,  we  think  no 
Christian  would  have  any  hesitation.  Much  as  we  value 


472  CRITICISM  OF  APOCALYPTIC. 

the  Apocalypse,  we  value  more  the  Gospel  of  John. 
But  we  are  not  reduced  to  this.  Both  books  are 
evidenced  in  a  way  that  would  be  regarded  as  over- 
whelmingly convincing  were  they  the  works  of  any 
classical  author.  The  difference  of  style,  though  great, 
does  not  present  an  insuperable  difficulty. 

It  would  be  amusing  were  it  not  somewhat  sad  to 
see  how  little  flutters  the  critical  schools.  A  young 
German  privat-docent  is  anxious  to  earn  promotion, 
and  brings  out  some  startlingly  new  theory.  If  he  is 
a  classical  scholar  he  maintains  that  Juvenal  did  not 
write  the  Satires  that  go  by  his  name,  or  Xenophon 
his  Anabasis.  If  his  study  is  history,  he  may  demon- 
strate that  Herod  was  kindly  and  magnanimous,  or 
that  Charles  the  Bold  was  chicken  -  hearted  ;  if  it  is 
philosophy,  that,  generally  speaking,  everything  is 
everything  other  than  it  is. 

The  sad  and  at  the  same  time  the  amusing  thing 
is  that  such  performances,  which  deserve  certainly  to 
be  often  highly  commended  for  the  cleverness  and 
erudition  displayed,  when  the  subject  is  Biblical 
criticism,  are  taken  au  serieux,  and  anger  or  jubilation, 
as  the  case  may  be,  is  excited  by  them. 


BOOK   IV. 


THEOLOGICAL    EESULT. 


478 


THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS   OF  THE 
APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS. 


^PHOUGH  God  is  one  and  unchangeable,  men  are 
many  and  perpetually  changing.  This  change  is 
not  like  the  cyclic  change  of  the  tides,  which  rise  and 
fall  with  unfailing  regularity  to  the  same  points  on  an 
average  year  after  year.  Still  less  is  it  like  the  boiling 
and  bubbling  of  a  caldron,  a  movement  that  tends  in 
no  one  direction  more  than  another.  It  is  rather  like 
a  stream  that  broadens  and  deepens  as  it  advances 
towards  the  infinite  ocean.  There  is  a  perpetual 
evolution  which  is  not  the  effect  of  chance,  but  takes 
place  under  the  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  who 
educates  the  race  more  and  more  "to  be  able  to  com- 
prehend with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length 
and  depth  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ 
which  passeth  knowledge."  Each  age  has  something 
which  those  before  it  had  not,  but  which  it  has 
attained  because  those  preceding  it  had  attained  so  far. 
Every  age  builds  on  the  foundation  its  predecessors 
have  laid,  and  without  these  foundations  its  own 
further  advance  would  be  impossible. 

Even  inspiration  does  not  supersede  this  educative 
preparation.  Our  Lord's  teachings  implied  a  certain 
kind  and  degree  of  culture  toward  which  His  exhort- 
ations were  directed.  This  doctrinal  soil  on  which  the 
great  sower  was  to  sow  the  precious  seed  of  the 

475 


476  THEOLOGICAL  RESULT. 

kingdom  was  of  necessity  the  product  of  the  apo- 
calyptists.  In  order  then  to  understand  Christianity 
itself  in  its  first  publication,  we  must  endeavour  to 
estimate  the  theological  position  exhibited  in  these 
Jewish  Apocalypses. 

If  we  begin  with  Theology  proper, — the  doctrine  of 
God, — we  find  a  change  in  progress  which  is  perfected 
in  Christianity.  In  the  Old  Testament  we  find  a  con- 
stant anthropomorphism,  certainly  merely  figurative 
in  the  inspired  prophets  and  psalmists,  but  in  all  pro- 
bability representing  the  non-figurative  belief  of  the 
common  people.  When  the  psalmist  hears  in  the 
thunder  the  roll  of  the  mighty  chariot  of  Jehovah  as  it 
careers  along  the  sky ;  and  sees  in  the  dazzling  gleam 
of  the  lightning  the  flashing  descent  of  His  glittering 
spear,  in  the  lips  of  the  psalmist  it  is  poetry ;  but  it 
was  believed  in  sober  earnest  as  literally  true  of  the 
common  people  P^C1"0^-  The  doctrine  of  the  prophets, 
that  Jehovah  was  in  some  sense  God  of  the  Gentiles  as 
well  as  of  the  Jews,  disturbed  the  notion,  that  God  was 
only  an  Almighty  Israelite  sitting  in  the  clouds  ;  but  it 
always  recurred.  Moreover,  with  Him,  according  to 
the  prophets,  moral  delinquency  was  not  condoned  on 
account  of  ceremonial  accuracy,  as  the  people  were 
anxious  to  believe.  Hence  it  was  that  they  were  so 
prone  to  apostatise  and  worship  other  gods.  The 
gods  of  the  nations  were  more  easily  pleased  and  more 
thoroughly  partisan  in  the  favour  of  their  worshippers 
than  was  Jehovah. 

But  even  taking  the  Old  Testament  prophets  as  the 
examples  of  the  spiritual  development  of  their  time, 
and  their  language  as  its  gauge,  there  is  an  immense 


THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS.       477 

advance  in  the  New  Testament  in  regard  to  the  lofty 
spiritual  views  of  God  presented.  Compare  the  de- 
scription of  Deity  in  Ezekiel's  vision,  Ezek.  i.  26-28, 
sublime  and  reticent  as  it  is,  with  the  still  sublimer 
and  more  reticent  description  in  Kev.  iv.  3. 

Between  these  two  we  find  the  description  in  Enoch 
xlvi.  1.  There  is  certainly  none  of  the  sublimity  of  the 
two  seers  who  possessed  the  genuine  inspiration  of  the 
Divine  Spirit,  but  there  is  more  of  the  reticence  which 
we  have  seen  to  be  the  characteristic  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament than  we  find  in  Ezekiel.  In  Enoch,  God  as 
judge  is  shown  "  as  one  who  had  a  head  of  days,"  but 
no  form  nor  feature  is  alluded  to. 

Another  element  in  the  conception  of  God,  where 
the  contrast  between  the  Israelitish  and  Christian 
position  is  marked,  is  the  universality  of  the  Divine 
relationship.  God  is  the  God,  not  only  of  the  Jew,  but 
"also  of  the  Gentile"  in  the  theology  of  Paul.  Al- 
though sometimes  the  breadth  of  God's  loving-kindness 
is  taught  by  the  prophets,  as  in  the  story  of  Jonah 
to  them,  yet  the  general  aspect  is  one  of  particularism. 
Israel,  and  Israel  alone,  is  God's  inheritance  ;  and  God  is 
entreated  by  Jeremiah  to  "  pour  His  fury  upon  the 
heathen  that  know  Him  not ; "  and  Isaiah  apostrophises 
God  :  "  We  are  thine  :  Thou  never  barest  rule  over 
them  ;  they  were  not  called  by  Thy  name."  In  Enoch 
the  idea  that  every  nation  was  under  the  care  of  a 
special  angel,  Israel  included, — a  view  which  is  implied 
in  Daniel, — is  developed,  where  the  seventy  shepherds, 
the  angels  of  these  heathen  nations,  are  represented 
as  ruling  over  Israel.  In  Baruch  (xli.)  we  see 
that  some  of  the  heathen  would  see  the  error  of 


478  THEOLOGICAL  EESULT. 

their  ways  and  take  refuge  under  the  wings  of  the 
Almighty. 

But  Christianity  is  not  only  more  universal  than 
Judaism,  it  is  also  more  particular.  God  is  not  only 
the  God  of  every  nation  that  dwells  upon  the  face  of 
the  whole  earth,  but  also  of  each  individual  saint. 
"  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  His."  Above  all, 
we  are  taught  to  pray  and  to  say,  "  Our  Father,"  to 
trust  Him,  and  realise  that  "  our  Father  knoweth  what 
things  we  have  need  of  before  we  ask  Him."  This 
finds  its  fullest  expression  in  the  doctrine  of  election, 
which  regards  each  individual  believer  chosen  by  God 
from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.  To  a  certain 
extent,  certainly  in  the  prophets,  and  still  more  in  the 
psalms,  the  saints  of  God  express  a  deep  personal  trust 
in  God  which  has  resulted  from  a  personal  covenant 
with  Him ;  but  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  as  reflected 
by  the  history  of  Israel  and  by  other  prophetic  utter- 
ances, Jehovah  was  the  covenant  God  of  the  people, 
Israel,  not  of  the  individual  Israelite.  The  nation  sins 
and  the  nation  is  punished ;  the  nation  is  faithful,  and 
is  rewarded.  In  Christianity  the  nation  has  dis- 
appeared ;  the  nation,  in  short,  is  not  a  Christian  entity. 
"  In  Christ  Jesus  there  was  neither  Jew  nor  Greek 
barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  nor  free ;  but  all  are  one  in 
Christ  Jesus."  When  we  turn  to  the  Apocalyptic  books, 
we  find  in  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  the  personal  relation 
of  the  saints  to  God  strongly  emphasised.  And  in  the 
Apocalypse  of  Baruch  we  find  the  doctrine  of  election, 
or  something  like  it,  indicated. 

The  point  where  the  progress  towards  the  Christian 
position  is  most  marked  in  these  Apocalyptic  books,  as 


THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS.       479 

compared  with  the  earlier  standpoint  of  the  prophets 
and  psalmists,  is  in  Christology.  There  is  in  the  old 
prophets  the  purely  human  view  of  the  Messiah ;  He 
is  to  be  the  new  David,  the  new  Moses.  He  is  to  rule 
the  nations  as  with  a  rod  of  iron.  Certainly  there  are 
mysterious  accounts  of  how  He  was  to  suffer  for  the 
sins  of  the  people.  Still  the  royal  prerogatives  were 
most  dwelt  upon,  although  there  are  statements  that 
in  the  light  of  Christian  knowledge  we  can  see,  imply 
that  the  anointed  of  the  Lord  should  be  more  than 
man,  as  the  passage  in  the  110th  Psalm,  appealed  to  by 
our  Lord  Himself  in  that  connection,  and  that  in  the 
ninth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  which  has  afforded  words  for 
Handel's  chorus  in  the  Messiah.  Yet  all  these,  even 
the  last,  are  capable  of  an  explanation  which  makes  the 
Messiah  simply  human. 

In  the  Christian  position  the  Divinity  of  Christ  is  an 
essential  doctrine,  and  the  regal  dignity  is  regarded  as 
flowing  really  from  this,  and  not  from  His  Davidic 
descent. 

In  preparation  for  this  we  have  the  Messianic 
passages  in  the  Book  of  Enoch,  in  which  One  like  the 
Ancient  of  days  is  beside  Him  on  the  throne  of  judg- 
ment. And  God  calls  Him  "  My  chosen  One."  There 
is  also  the  passage  in  the  Psalter  of  Solomon,  Ps.  xvii. 
36,  in  which  the  hoped-for  Messiah  is  called  X/^O-TO? 
Kvpios.  It  is  true  that  the  regal  aspect  of  the  expected 
Messiah  is  very  prominent  in  the  Psalter,  but  pitched 
so  loftily  that  the  step  to  the  Divine  is  not  great.  The 
27th  verse  of  the  same  psalm  says  the  Messiah  is 
appointed  by  God  "  to  destroy  the  lawless  nations  by 
the  word  of  His  mouth  ;  at  His  rebuke  the  heathen  shall 


480  THEOLOGICAL  EESULT. 

flee  from  His  face  ;  and  to  convict  sinners  in  the  reason- 
ing (Xo'76))  of  their  heart."  In  the  prophecy  of  Baruch 
the  coming  of  the  Messiah  is  associated  with  marvels 
that  imply  Him  to  be  more  than  human.  Further,  we 
are  told  that  when  the  Messiah  returns  in  His  glory, 
then  "  all  who  have  slept  in  hope  of  Him  shall  rise." 

When  we  turn  to  the  functions  of  the  Messiah  in 
the  prophets,  we  find  that  while  He  is  the  representative 
of  the  Almighty,  He  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  the 
"mediator"  between  God  and  man.  It  is  needless  to 
note  how  prominent  this  idea  is  in  the  New  Testament. 
In  the  Apocalyptic  books  we  certainly  have  not  the 
mediatorial  function  of  the  Messiah  stated  in  terms, 
but  it  is  present  by  implication.  Moses  was  recog- 
nised as  the  type  of  the  coming  Messiah,  promised  in 
the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  The  promise  is  twice  referred 
to  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  In  the  Assumption  of 
Moses  the  title  "  Mediator  "  is  again  and  again  assumed 
by  Moses  as  given  to  him  from  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world. 

In  one  aspect  of  the  Messiah's  work  there  is  a  distinct 
retrogression  in  the  apocalyptists  from,  at  all  events, 
the  highest  point  reached  by  the  prophets  as  compared 
with  the  Christian  view.  The  atonement  made  for  the 
sins  of  the  world  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental  of 
Christian  doctrines.  Although  it  is  perhaps  scarcely 
likely  that  the  full  meaning  of  their  words  was  compre- 
hended by  their  Jewish  contemporaries,  it  seems  difficult 
to  believe  that  some  of  the  truth  conveyed  by  the 
prophets — in  what  we  feel  to  be  such  clear  language — 
did  not  pierce  into  the  minds  of  their  hearers.  When 
the  evangelical  prophet  proclaimed  the  coming  of  Him 


THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS.       481 

who  "  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities,"  and  upon  whom 
"  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  laid,"  "  by  whose 
stripes  we  were  healed,"  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the 
hearers  could  escape  some  knowledge  of  the  atoning 
work  of  the  Messiah.  Although  there  is  a  sense  of 
sin  as  sin  expressed  in  the  Apocalypses,  there  is  no 
recognition  of  the  need  or  possibility  of  an  atonement 
being  offered,  much  less  the  faintest  hint  that  they 
expected  that  the  Messiah  they  looked  for  should  offer 
such  an  atonement.  In  the  Psalter  of  Solomon  the 
psalmist  indicates  that  in  his  view  atonement  for  sin 
was  attained  by  welcoming  the  afflictions  of  the  Lord. 
Although  the  sacrifices  of  the  temple  might  have  taught 
them  this  great  need,  yet  the  Apocalyptists  have  dis- 
tinctly receded  from  the  position  of  the  prophets  in 
regard  to  it.  It  is  possible  that  as  the  unholy  lives  of 
the  priests  had  led  the  Essenes  to  withdraw  very  much 
from  the  temple  worship,  these  scandalous  lives  might 
have  a  further  effect.  The  Essenes  had  already  been 
convinced  by  them  that  the  sacrifices  of  the  law  had 
no  intrinsic  efficacy,  and  from  this  the  step  was  easy 
to  deny  that  they  had  any  symbolic  or  sacramental 
efficacy  as  the  types  and  emblems  of  a  greater  sacrifice 
yet  to  come.  Whatever  teaching  the  sacrifices  of  the  law 
were  fitted  to  afford  men  as  to  the  nature  of  the  atone- 
ment was  thus  lost  to  the  Essenes ;  hence  their  retro- 
gression. Yet  they  had  the  idea  that  somehow  the 
Messiah  was  to  purify  the  house  of  Israel  from  their 
sins. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  writer  of  the  Book 
of  Enoch  fully  recognised  the  import  of  the  title  he 
gave  the  Messiah  when  he  spoke  of  Him  as  "  Son  of 

2  £1 


482  THEOLOGICAL  RESULT. 

man  ; "  but  there  must  have  been  some  notion  of  it,  for 
it  is  associated  with  the  idea  of  His  presiding  along 
with  the  "  Head  of  days  at  the  last  judgment."  This 
title  "  Son  of  man "  is  never  really  given  to  the 
Messiah  in  the  Old  Testament ;  the  passage  in  Daniel 
being  merely  descriptive,  intended,  as  we  have  said 
above,  to  convey  the  notion  that  one  wearing  the 
human  shape  would  judge  the  world  at  the  last.  This 
we  may  regard  as  a  distinct  preparation  for  the  gospel. 
The  advance  in  anthropology  is  very  marked  in  some 
directions,  and  chiefly  in  regard  to  immortality.  While 
at  times  the  prophets  and  psalmists  rise  to  what  seems 
a  recognition  of  this  doctrine  in  general  before  the 
captivity,  there  was  no  clear  belief  in  immortality. 
Some  of  the  statements  even  in  the  psalms  seem  almost 
hopeless  in  their  outlook :  "  The  dead  praise  not  the 
Lord,  neither  such  as  go  down  into  silence."  Other 
instances  might  be  brought,  too  numerous  to  be  noted 
here.  When  we  turn  to  the  apocalyptists  we  find  not 
only  immortality,  but  also  the  resurrection  of  the  body 
assumed  as  true,  and  regarded  as  universally  acknow- 
ledged. This  is  specially  prominent  in  the  Book  of 
Enoch  and  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch.  Thus,  in  the 
former,  chap,  xxiii.,  Enoch  is  shown  the  apartments 
where  the  souls  of  the  dead  are  separated,  the  good 
from  the  bad,  until  the  day  of  judgment.  This  repre- 
sentation is  assumed  in  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  chap. 
xxx.,  in  which  we  are  told  that  when  the  Messiah 
comes  the  receptacles  for  the  souls  of  the  just  shall 
be  opened.  There  was  also  a  great  assembly  of  souls. 
All  this  proves  that  the  doctrine  of  immortality  was 
held  generally,  at  least,  by  the  Essenes.  In  regard  to 


THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS.       483 

this  we  have  the  testimony  of  Josephus  as  confirmatory 
of  this  view.  But,  further,  with  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  is  invariably  conjoined  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  in  the  apocalyptists,  a  Christian  doctrine  adum- 
brated in  the  Old  Testament,  but  sedulously  ignored 
by  Josephus,  who  knew  how  incomprehensible  such  a 
doctrine  would  be  to  his  Hellenized  Koman  masters.1 

Another  question  which  belongs  to  anthropology  is 
freedom.  According  to  Josephus,  only  the  Sadducees 
held  the  absolute  freedom  of  the  individual.  The 
Pharisees  and  Essenes  both  believed  in  elpapnevr),  the 
latter  in  its  most  absolute  sense.  In  studying  the 
apocalyptists  we  find  no  trace  of  such  absolute  fatalism. 
Throughout  the  Book  of  Enoch  certainly  the  saints  are 
called  "the  elect,"  "the  chosen  ones."  In  the  Book  of 
Jubilees  there  is  a  much  nearer  approach  to  this  view, 
though  even  in  it  the  references  to  the  tablets  of 
Heaven  do  not  imply  so  much  that  they  have  written 
on  them  the  account  of  what  is  to  happen,  as  that  they 
contained  the  ceremonial  laws  that  are  valid  to  the 
children  of  Israel.  This  becomes  much  more  decided 
in  the  Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs.  In  the 
Testament  of  Levi  we  are  told  that  it  was  written  on 
the  tablets  of  the  Heavens  that  Levi  and  Simeon  should 
slay  the  Shechcmites.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  we  may 
say  that  nothing  like  the  absolute  fate  indicated  by 
Josephus  as  believed  by  the  Essenes,  or  even  that  more 
modified  form  ascribed  by  him  to  the  Pharisees,  is 
found  in  the  Apocalyptic  books. 

The  doctrine  in  which  there  was  most  development 

1  The  doctrine  of  pre- existence  which  we  find  asserted  in  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon  is  not  maintained  in  the  apocalyptists. 


48'4      .  '     THEOLOGICAL  RESULT. 

in  the  period  of  the  apocalyptist  was  that  of  angel- 
ology  and  its  cognate  subject  demonology.  While  in 
the  Old  Testament  there  are  frequent  references  to 
angels,  and  in  the  Pentateuch  to  one,  "the  angel  of 
the  presence,"  yet  only  in  Daniel  are  any  of  the 
angels  named.  In  Daniel  two  of  the  angels  are  made 
known  to  us  by  name,  Michael,  the  angelic  prince 
of  the  house  of  Israel,  and  Gabriel.  In  this  matter 
the  New  Testament  adds  nothing  to  the  doctrine 
of  Daniel.  Michael  and  Gabriel  are  named  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  they  alone.  In  Tobit,  which  is  pro- 
bably the  oldest  of  the  Apocryphal  books,  another 
angel  is  named,  Raphael.  But  in  the  Book  of  Enoch 
the  names  of  the  angels  are  numerous  beyond  all 
easy  reckoning.  All  this  bears  out  the  statements  of 
the  Rabbins,  that  the  Jews  brought  the  names  of  the 
angels  with  them  from  Babylon. 

In  Daniel  we  find  reference  to  angelic  princes  of 
certain  nations.  In  Christianity  the  nation  has  dis- 
appeared, and  instead  of  the  nation  we  have  the 
Church,  and  in  the  Book  of  Revelation  every  Church 
has  its  angel.  In  the  Book  of  Enoch  all  the  Gentile 
nations  of  the  world  are  regarded  as  seventy-two,  and 
certain  of  these  have  dominion  over  Israel  during 
the  course  of  its  history.  In  Daniel,  however,  there 
is  no  mention  of  special  angels  being  over  special 
physical  forces ;  this  we  find  in  Revelation.  There 
is  the  angel  of  the  sun,  the  angel  of  the  four  winds, 
the  angel  of  the  waters.  This  physical  function  we 
find  largely  assigned  to  angels  in  the  Book  of  Enoch, 
especially  in  the  Noachian  fragments.  Another  set 
of  angels  merely  referred  to  in  Daniel  are  prominent 


THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS,       485 

in  Enoch,  the  "  watchers  ; "  these  do  not  recur  in  the 
Johannine  Apocalypse. 

There  is,  however,  a  more  mysterious  subject  in 
regard  to  which  the  Apocalyptic  books  have  formed 
a  point  of  transition  between  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New.  In  the  sixth  chapter  of  Genesis  there  is 
a  reference  to  unions  between  the  sons  of  God  and 
the  daughters  of  men.  When  we  turn  to  the  Epistle 
of  Jude,  we  find  in  close  connection  with  a  quotation 
from  Enoch,  a  reference  to  the  angels  leaving  their 
own  dwelling-place  (oUirrrpiov)  and  not  guarding 
their  rule  (apxn).1  The  punishment  inflicted  on  the 
angels  is  referred  to  as  "  everlasting  chains."  It  seems 
hardly  possible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  Jude  re- 
ferred to  the  transaction  in  Gen.  vi.  2  through  Enoch. 

In  regard  to  demonology,  the  Apocalyptic  books 
represent  an  aberrant  movement.  The  function  of 
Satan,  as  exhibited  in  Job,  Zechariah,  and  Chronicles, 
is  certainly  to  some  extent  fulfilled  by  Mastema  in 
the  Book  of  Jubilees.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  Satan's 
share  in  the  fall  of  man  is  not  at  all  alluded  to.  In 
fact,  in  his  account  of  the  history  of  the  race,  Enoch, 
though  he  mentions  the  murder  of  Abel,  does  not 
mention  the  sins  of  Adam.  The  fact  that  Adam 
sinned,  and  by  his  sin  brought  death,  is  certainly 
made  prominent  in  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  but 
there  is  no  reference  to  Satanic  temptation.  In  the 
Book  of  Jubilees  the  Fall  is  described,  but  the  tempter 
seems  to  be  regarded  merely  as  a  serpent.  The 

The  view  we  indicate  is  that  maintained  by  most  commentators, 
Huther,  Fronmuller,  etc. ;  others  admit  the  reference  to  Gen.  vi.  2, 
Alford,  Delitzsch,  etc. 


486  THEOLOGICAL  KESULT. 

doctrine  of  the  New  Testament,  asserted  by  Paul  and 
implied  in  the  Revelation,  that  the  serpent  was  but 
the  instrument  of  another  higher,  more  subtle  and 
more  wicked  being,  is  nowhere  stated  in  the  Apocalyptic 
writings  save  in  Baruch,  where  the  envy  of  the  devil 
is  regarded  as  the  cause  of  man's  fall. 

We  should  have  wished  to  consider  those  mysterious 
beings,  the  Cherubim,  who  disappeared,  so  far  at  least 
as  the  name  is  concerned,  from  the  New  Testament. 
To  us,  Cherubim  and  Seraphim  alike  seem  to  be 
symbols  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  Book  of  Enoch 
not  only  have  we  Cherubim  and  Seraphim,  but  also 
Ophanim.  This  last  denomination  is  borrowed  from 
Ezekiel's  vision,  and  is  nothing  else  than  "wheels." 

The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  in  Justin 
Martyr  so  closely  identified  with  that  of  the  angels, 
would  also  repay  more  careful  elucidation  than  we  can 
now  give  to  it. 

One  of  the  aspects  which  most  strikes  the  student 
on  entering  upon  the  study  of  the  apocalyptists  is  the 
frequency  of  general  views  of  history,  terminating  in  a 
final  judgment.  The  earliest  clear  statement  of  a  final 
judgment  is  in  the  earliest  of  the  Apocalypses,  the  Book 
of  Daniel.  From  him  downward  it  is  a  frequent 
feature  of  Apocalyptic  writings ;  noticeably  this  is  the 
case  in  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  Apocalypses,  that  of 
the  Apostle  John.  Certainly  his  description  of  the  awe- 
inspiring  concomitants  of  that  day  of  final  assize  is  full 
of  a  grandeur  nothing  in  any  of  the  pseudo-Apocalypses 
can  equal.  Following  the  last  judgment,  of  course,  is 
the  state  of  rewards  and  punishments.  It  is  not  easy 
to  discover  how  far  the  Jews  held  this  doctrine  in 


THEOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  APOCALYPTIC  BOOKS.       487 

prophetic  times.  Of  course  there  are  grandly  poetical 
descriptions  of  the  descent  into  Sheol  of  such  as 
Pharaoh,  yet  still  there  is  no  proof,  at  least  no  indis- 
putable proof,  that  this  represented  the  common  belief 
of  the  Jewish  people.  Certainly  their  nearness  to 
Egypt,  and  their  constant  intercourse  with  it,  rendered 
it  all  but  certain  that  some  views  on  the  momentous 
subject  of  the  future  state  must  have  been  prevalent. 
In  the  New  Testament  there  is  no  equivocal  sound 
given  on  this  question.  From  our  Lord's  parable  of 
Dives  and  Lazarus,  down  to  the  visions  of  the  Johan- 
nine  Apocalypse,  the  future  condition  of  saints  and 
sinners  is  clearly  portrayed. 

In  the  apocalyptists  of  the  inter-Biblical  period  we 
find  considerable  space  occupied  with  pictures  of  the 
future  state.  In  Enoch  we  have  the  place  of  the 
punishment  of  the  fallen  angels  which  we  have  already 
referred  to,  the  place  also  where  the  wandering  stars 
(«&-Te/>e9  irXavrjrat)  are  punished,  and  also  places  where 
the  wicked  are  kept  to  the  day  of  judgment.  These 
last  are  away  to  the  west.  As  he  saw  the  fiery  sun 
sinking  in  the  blazing  sea,  it  was  not  unnatural  that 
he  should  think  of  rivers  of  fire  away  beyond  the  verge 
of  the  horizon ;  perhaps  there  was  something  of  the 
Grecian  ideas  of  Styx  and  Phlegethon  in  his  views  as 
well.  In  Baruch  also  there  is  mention  of  the  state  of 
the  lost;  xlviii.  38,  39,  "Because  they  oppressed,  and 
walked  every  one  in  his  own  works,  and  did  not 
remember  the  law  of  the  Mighty  One ;  on  account  of 
this  fire  shall  devour  their  souls,  and  in  flames  shall 
the  care  of  their  reins  be  examined  :  for  the  judge  will 
come,  and  will  not  tarry." 


488  THEOLOGICAL  RESULT, 

But  the  future  life  has  not  only  its  place  of  woe, 
but  also  its  place  of  joy.  This  is  dwelt  on  lovingly 
by  the  writer  of  the  nucleus  of  the  Book  of  Enoch. 
He  evidently  closely  associates  it  with  the  earthly 
paradise.  In  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  the  glory 
of  Messianic  times  is  closely  associated  with  the  state 
of  future  bliss  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  righteous.  We  all 
know  what  a  large  space  the  bliss  of  heaven  occupies  in 
the  New  Testament,  and  how  relatively  small  is  the 
space  occupied  by  the  same  subject  in  the  Old.  It 
seems  probable,  then,  that  the  apostles  and  their  con- 
temporaries were  prepared  for  receiving  the  truth  con- 
cerning the  future  by  the  writing  of  the  apocalyptists. 


INDEX. 


Abraham,    history   of,    in   Book   of 

Jubilees,  309,  310. 
Adam    and    his    family    history    in 

Book  of  Jubilees,  305. 
Adam,  Apocalypse  of,  858. 
Alexander,  conquests  of,  opened  the 

world  to  the  Jews,  35,  36. 
Alexander     Polyhistor     and     Pliny 

quoted,  87. 
Alexandre  on  the   Sibylline  Books, 

166-168. 
Alexandrian  Thought  and  Literature, 

147-169 ;  influence  of,  on  Christ 

and  His  apostles,  12. 
Ambrose,   reference  by,    to   Fourth 

Esdras,354. 
Angelology  of  Apocalyptic  writings, 

127,  210,  211,  239,  484. 
Angels  disbelieved  in  by  Sadducees, 

56  ;  fall  and  judgment  of,  account 

of,  239,  245,  306,  307. 
Anna  the  prophetess  an  Essene,  113. 
Anthropomorphism  of  Old  Testament 

modified  in  the  Apocalyptic  books, 

476,  477. 
Antigonus,  Esseue  prophecy  of  death 

of,  85. 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  "Wars  of,  against 

Jews,  236-238,  251,  252. 
Antipater,  father  of  Herod,  noticed 

in  Psalter  of  Solomon,  276. 
Apion  answered  by  Josephus,'  186. 
Apocalypse  distinguished  from  pro- 
phecy,   197;    rise    of,    363-368; 

theme    generally    world  -  history, 

197,  198. 
Apocalypse  of  John,  Vischer's  theory 

of,  461-472;  refutation  of,  463- 

468. 
Apocalypses,  notes  on  post-Christian, 

451-460. 
Apocalyptic   Books,  authorship   and 

origin  of,  12,  94-114;  canons  for 

ascertaining    the    date    of,    398 ; 

Christ's     possible     study    of,     in 

Kazareth,  16;  doctrine  of  atone- 


ment omitted,  480 ;  home  of, 
213-224;  ideal  representation  of 
perfect  state,  204,  205  ;  known  to 
our  Lord  and  His  apostles,  12- 
14  ;  Messianic  character  of,  208  ; 
nature  and  occasion  of,  193-212  ; 
relation  to  Essene  schools,  12,  94- 
97 ;  study  of,  necessary  to  a  full 
understanding  of  Christ's  time, 
17. 

Apocrypha,  Canonical,  account  of, 
123-146. 

Apostles,  culture  of,  8. 

Aqiba  Rabbi  identified  with  Taxo, 
448. 

Aramaic  distinguished  from  Hebrew, 
37  ;  language  of  Palestine  in  our 
Lord's  time,  6,  107,  171 ;  nature 
and  origin  of,  170,  171 ;  use  in 
portions  of  Daniel,  reasons  for,  388. 

Archisyna(;o(/us,  duty  of,  36. 

Aristeas,  letter  of,  165,  166. 

Aristobulus,  result  of  rivalry  with 
Hyrcanus  II.,  22 ;  struggle  with 
Hyrcanus,  254,  255;  work  of,  164, 
165. 

Ascension  of  Isaiah,  composed  of  two 
separate  works,  452 ;  discovered 
in  Abyssinia,  451 ;  Gnostic  and 
Montanistic  elements  in,  455 ; 
Hebrew  probably  the  language 
in  which  it  was  written,  454 ; 
period  of  composition  determined, 
455,  456 ;  version  first  published 
by  Laurence,  451. 

Asceticism  of  Essenes,  108. 

Assideans,  and  their  relations  to  the 
Pharisees,  60,  61. 

Assumption  of  Moses,  analysis  of, 
321-339;  date  fixed,  with  reasons, 
447-450;  Jude's  acquaintance  with, 
14  ;  language  and  date  discussed, 
440-450 ;  reasons  for  thinking  it 
an  Aramaic  work,  441-445;  refer- 
ence in  early  Christian  literature, 
440,  441. 


490 


INDEX. 


Atonement,  doctrines  of,  absent  from 

Apocalyptic  books,  480. 
Augustine,  Saint,  on  bishop  of  Roman 

Church,  341. 
Autonomous     Cities,    a    feature     of 

Hellenic  government,  23. 

Babylonian  Captivity,  its  influence 
on  the  Apocalyptic  books,  199. 

Balkira,  the  Samaritan,  his  accusa- 
tion of  Isaiah,  345. 

Baruch,  Apocalypse  of,  additions  to, 
421,  422;  analysis  of,  253-267; 
date  fixed,  with  reasons  for  the 
same,  417-421 ;  language  and  date 
discussed,  414-422  ;  passage  from 
it  quoted  by  Papias  as  from  our 
Lord,  415,  416 ;  Syriac  version 
found  iu  Milan,  415;  published 
by  Ceriani,  415. 

Baruch,  Apocryphal  Book  of,  account 
and  analysis  of,  94,  139-142,  285. 

Beer  on  authorship  of  Book  of  Jubi- 
lees, 436. 

Behemoth  and  Leviathan  in  Apocalyp- 
tic books,  261. 

Bel  and  the  Dragon,  account  of,  142. 

Bertholdt  quoted,  126. 

Bible,  changes  introduced  into  Eng- 
lish Authorised  Version  by  printers 
and  others,  384. 

Bleek  on  the  four  world-empires  of 
Daniel,  378. 

Blessedness  of  God's  people,  version 
of,  232. 

Bonnar,  Dr.,  on  the  Great  Interreg- 
num, 198. 

Books  known  to  Christ,  8 ;  known 
to  Paul,  9 ;  making  of  books  in 
Christ's  time,  9. 

Bruce,  the  Abyssinian  traveller,  brings 
Book  of  Enoch  to  Europe,  389. 

Bretschneider  on  language  of  Fourth 
Esdras,  456. 

Buddha  and  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
104. 

Buddhism,  its  relation  to  Essenism, 
104,  105. 

Canon,  date  of  the  close  of  the,  139. 
Cave    on    bishops    of    the    Roman 

Church,  341. 

Celibacy  of  the  Essenes,  108. 
Cerda,  De  la,   editor  of  Psalter  of 

Solomon,  423. 
Ceriani,    discovers     and     publishes 


Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  414,  415 ; 
publishes  Book  of  Jubilees,  433 ; 
publishes  Fourth  Esdras,  456. 

Cherubim,  symbology  of,  486. 

Christ,  Essene  relations  of,  13,  110- 
121 ;  humanity  of,  now  a  common 
theme  of  Christological  discussion, 
3,  4  ;  Josephus  as  a  witness  to, 
188,  189  ;  Messianic  consciousness 
of,  gradually  reached,  5  ;  Nazareth, 
scenery  of,  its  influence  on,  4,  5  ; 
the  true  priest  king,  356-358 ; 
student  of  Scripture  in  the  syna- 
gogue of  Nazareth,  9,  10;  His 
teaching  modified  by  reading  and 
culture  of  His  hearers,  11,  12; 
second  advent  of,  349 ;  shrinking 
of  a  Christian  from  the  discussion 
of  the  nature  of  Christ's  person 
and  development,  1,  2. 

Christology  of  Book  of  Enoch,  407- 
410;  of  Apocalyptic  books,  479- 
482. 

Clement,  Epistle  of,  refers  to  Book  of 
Judith,  128. 

Clement  of  Alexandria  and  Buddha, 
104  ;  quotes  Assumption  of  Moses, 
338,  440. 

Ccenobitism  of  Essenes,  108. 

Cohen  on  cause  of  Pharisaic  hostility 
to  Christ,  71. 

Colani  on  the  language  of  the 
Assumption  of  Moses,  443. 

Colossian  heresy  of  Esseue  origin, 
115. 

Communism  of  Essenes,  81. 

Cyaxares  identified  with  Darius, 
387,  388. 

Cypriani  referred  to,  442. 

Cyrus,  proclamation  of,  374. 

Ddhne  on  the  Platonism  of  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  153. 

Daniel,  Book  of,  arguments  for  its 
authenticity,  371-375;  for  early 
date,  385,  386 ;  contrasted  with 
Isaiah,  193-196  :  explanation  of  a 
Chaldee  portion  of  the  book,  363- 
369  ;  the  true  origin  of  apocalyp- 
tic, 95,  365-368;  prized  by  the 
Essenes,  221 ;  quoted  in  the  Book 
of  the  Maccabees,  and  by  Christ 
and  Josephus,  376,  385,  386; 
language  and  authorship,  388. 

Daniel,  Eleventh  Chapter  of,  249- 
252,  368  ;  its  date,  412,  413  ;  the 


INDEX. 


491 


work  of  an  interpolator,  384,  412, 
413. 

Darius  and  the  Medo-Persian  em- 
pire, 379,  380;  difficulty  of  ex- 
plaining his  relation  to  Cyrus,  386, 
387 ;  his  place  in  history  exhibited, 
387,  388. 

Dead  Sea,  The,  and  the  Essenes, 
86,  217 ;  description  of  scenery 
of,  213-224. 

Decapolis,  governed  by  Roman  vice- 
roys, 23. 

De  la  Cerda,  edits  Psalter  of 
Solomon,  423. 

Delitzsch  on  four  world-empires, 
378  ;  on  Darius,  387. 

Demoniacal  possession  in  Book  of 
Tobit,  127. 

Demonology  of  the  Apocalyptic 
books,  484,  485. 

De  Sacy,  translation  of  Book  of 
Enoch,  241. 

Didymus,  Alexandrinus,  and  Assump- 
tion of  Moses,  440. 

Dillmann  on  Book  of  Enoch,  233, 
241-246  ;  on  Ascension  of  Isaiah, 
346. 

Doilinger  on  bishops  of  Roman 
Church,  342. 

Drummond,  Professor,  on  four  world- 
empires,  378,  379 ;  on  date  of 
Book  of  Enoch,  408. 

Eagle,  TJie,  vision  of,  and  the  Roman 

empire,  350. 
Eccksiasticus,  Book  of,  94 ;  analysis 

of,   133-136 ;   date  and  style  of, 

137-139. 
Edersheim,  Dr.,  on  Josephus,  187  ; 

on  Philonic  authorship   of    Quod 

Omnis  Probus  Liber,  80. 
Egyptian   and  Syrian   conflicts,  de- 
scribed   in    eleventh    chapter    of 

Daniel,  250-252. 
Egypt,  influence  on  Palestine,  147- 

149. 
Eichhcrn,    on    four    world-empires, 

378;    on    work    of    Aristobulus, 

165. 
Eisenmenger  quoted,  301,  302,  406, 

411.     " 

Election,  Doctrine  of,  taught  in  Apo- 
calypse of  Baruch,  478. 
Elijah,  Apocalypse  of,  98. 
Engedi,  central  home  of  the  Essenes, 

92  ;  description  of,  215,  216. 


Enoch,  Book  of,  95, 103, 108;  analysis 
and  account  of,  225-248  ;  attempt 
to  fix  its  order  of  composition, 
397  ;  Book  of  Similitudes  dated, 
399-402  ;  Book  of  the  Fall  of  the 
Angels  dated,  402-405  ;  Christo- 
logy  of,  407-410 ;  cited  as  Scrip- 
ture by  the  Fathers  and  by  Jude, 
14,  389;  date  and  language  of, 
389-411;  dependent  on  Daniel, 
384,  385;  explanation  of  the 
Seventy  Shepherds,  405-407; 
Noachian  fragments,  date  of,  402  ; 
published  and  translated  by  Arch- 
bishop Laurence,  390  ;  reasons  for 
thinking  a  Palestinian  work  in 
Aramaic,  390,  391  ;  and  the  pro- 
duction of  several  hands,  391-396; 
title  Son  of  man  in,  14,  408-410  ; 
trifling  influence  on  later  Judaism, 
410. 

Epiphanius  on  books  found  in  syna- 
gogues, 9. 

Esau  and  Jacob,  story  of,  313,  314. 

Eschatology  of  the  Apocalyptic 
books,  486,  487. 

Esdras,  Fourth,  94,  96,  124  ;  analysis 
of,  348-355 ;  date  and  language 
of,  348,  455-458 :  manner  of  com- 
position, 352,  353 ;  probably  writ- 
ten at  Rome,  457. 

Esdras,  Third,  124. 

Esdras,  first  two  books  of,  124,  125. 

Essene,  etymology  of  name,  75-78, 
112,  113  ;  Christ  probably  an,  13, 
34. 

Essenes,  account  and  criticism  of, 
75-92 ;  authois  of  the  Apocalyptic 
books,  12,  93-109;  aversion  of, 
to  oil  and  oaths,  83 ;  avoidance 
of  the  temple,  85-88 ;  avoidance 
of  the  sacrifices,  89  ;  became  con- 
verts to  Christianity,  87 ;  Christ's 
relation  to,  12,  110-121 ;  contra- 
dictory accounts,  89-91  ;  celi- 
bacy and  communism  of,  81,  83, 
86,  88 ;  description  of  by  contem- 
poraries, 79-87 ;  dispersed  over 
Palestine  and  in  Jerusalem,  15, 
288 ;  dress  of,  83 ;  evening  meal 
sacred  to,  15  ;  fate,  their  doctrine 
of,  84;  first  established  under 
Lagid  dynasty,  103 ;  four  classes 
of,  13  ;  gate  of  the,  268 ;  Judais- 
ing  Christians,  all,  341 ;  manner 
of  life  of,  217-224;  Maccabeau 


492 


INDEX. 


and  later  Jewish  government 
odious  to,  253,  254 ;  marriage 
relation  to,  83 ;  number  of,  111; 
not  a  sect  of  Pharisees,  13  ;  Sab- 
batic doctrines  denounced  by 
Christ,  13 ;  sacred  books  of,  89  ; 
sympathisers  numerous,  15,  111; 
Talmudic  references  valueless,  88  ; 
women,  how  admitted  to  the 
order,  84. 

Essenism  and  Buddhism,  104 ;  modi- 
fied by  Hellenism,  101 ;  account 
of,  75. 

Esther,  Apocryphal  additions  to  Book 
of,  130,  131. 

Eupolemiits.  a  Jewish  Alexandrian 
writer,  154. 

Eusebius  quotes  Philo,  81. 

Evodius  quotes  Assumption  of  Moses, 
440. 

Ewald  on  etymology  of  name  Essene, 
77,  78 ;  on  Book  of  Enoch,  364 ; 
on  four  world-empires,  378 ;  on 
Tobit,  126. 

Ezekiel,  the  Jewish  poet  and  his 
work,  154. 

Ezra,  reputed  author  of  all  the  Jewish 
books,  354. 

Falricius  quoted,  389. 

Fate,  doctrine  of,  and  the  Apocalyptic 
books,  483. 

Fellmann  on  date  of  Enoch,  407. 

Flood,  The.  account  of,  307  ;  vision 
of,  231-244. 

Frankel  on  etymology  of  name 
Essene,  78. 

Freedom  of  the  Will  in  the  Apocalyp- 
tic books,  483. 

Fritzsche  on  the  Assumption  of  Moses, 
328. 

Future  State,  doctrine  of,  in  Apoca- 
lyptic books,  487,  488. 

Gebhardt  on  the  seventy  shepherds 

of  Book  of  Enoch,  406. 
Gemara,   analysis    and    account  of, 

179,  180. 

Gfrorer  on  etymology  of  Essene,  78. 
Gicseler,  Dr.,  version  of   Ascension 

of  Isaiah,  451. 

Ginsburg,  Dr.,  on  the  Essenes,  15, 19. 
Glaphyra,  Dream  of,  interpreted  by 

an  Essene,  85,  86. 
Gnostic    elements    in    Ascension    of 

Moses,  455. 


Gnosticism,  Essene  in  origin,  115. 

Grabe,  edits  Testaments  of  Twelve 
Patriarchs,  459. 

Gratz  on  authorship  of  Psalter  of 
Solomon,  426. 

Greek  language  and  literature  known 
to  Christ,  6,  7  ;  power  symbolised 
by  birds  in  the  Apocalypses,  246. 

Grosseteste,  Hugh,  discovered  Testa- 
ments of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs, 
458. 

Hacjadoth,  definition  of,  38. 

Halachoth,  The,  illustrated,  37,  38. 

Harnack  on  date  of  the  Apocalypse 
of  John,  468. 

Harvey,  editor  of  Irenaeus,  quoted, 
414. 

Hasidim  and  the  struggle  for  Jewish 
independence,  53. 

Hasmonieans,  history  of,  329,  330. 

Hatch,  Dr.,  on  the  origin  of  preach- 
ing in  the  Church,  40. 

Hausruth  on  the  date  of  the  Assump- 
tion of  Moses,  448. 

Hazazar  Tumar,  216. 

Hazzan  denned,  36. 

Hebrew,  The  Three,  Children,  Prayer 
of,  142. 

Hebrew  Literature  in  Christ's  time, 
10. 

Htbreie  Scriptures  quoted  by  Matthew 
in  Gospel,  7. 

Hebrew  Language,  reasons  for  its 
use  in  parts  of  Daniel,  388. 

Hebrews,  Epistle  to  the,  and  Psalter 
of  Solomon,  286,  291. 

Hegesippus  on  Essene  character  of 
James  the  Lord's  brother,  116, 
117,121. 

Hell,  vision  of,  241,  242. 

Hellenising •,  influence  of  the  Seleucid 
monarchs  on  Jewish  religion  and 
its  sects,  52-54  ;  party  among  the 
Jews,  its  policy,  26  ;  proclivities 
of  Josephus  and  Philo,  and  the 
effect  on  their  writings,  99,  100. 

Hellenism,  influence  on  Jewish 
thought,  201. 

Hernias,  Apocalyptic  character  of 
Pastor  of,  353. 

Herod,  re;gn  of,  prophesied  by  Men- 
shem  the  Essene,  85 ;  rise  of  dynasty 
of,  22. 

Herodotus  on  the  capture  of  Babylon, 
374. 


.INDEX. 


493 


High    Priest,   Rise   of,   to    political 

power,    289 ;   not  subservient   to 

Romans  in  time  of  Christ,  25. 
Hilgenfeld  referred  to,  102,  277,  282, 

324,  406,  443,  444. 
Hillel,   notice   of,    65 ;    relation    to 

Christ,  180,  181. 
Hitzig  on  four  world-empires,  380, 

381. 

Hochma  Literature  described,  131. 
Hoffmann  referred  to,  231,  407. 
Holy,  Dwelling  place   of  the,  vision 

of,  225,  226. 
Huet    on    language    of    Psalter   of 

Solomon,  424. 
Hyrccmus,  John,  becomes  a  Sadducee, 

53  ;  history  of,  183. 

Ignatius,  Epistles  of,  relation  to 
Psalter  of  Solomon,  287. 

Immortality,  Conditional,  taught  in 
Psalter  of  Solomon,  274-288 ;  doc- 
trine of,  in  Apocalyptic  books,  482, 
483. 

India,  English  empire  in,  analogous 
to  Roman  empire  in  Asia  Minor, 
21 ;  difference  in  methods  of 
government  between  English  in, 
and  Romans  in  Asia,  23,  24. 

Jrenxus  quoted,  260,  416. 

Isaiah  and  Daniel  contrasted  as  pro- 
phets, 193-198. 

Isaiah,  Ascension  of,  96,  199  ;  ac- 
count of,  342-344 ;  discovered  in 
Abyt-sinia,  451. 

Israelite  captives  led  to  Rome  by 
Pompey,  281,  282. 

Israelite  Kingdom,  origin  of,  44 ; 
origination  of  idol-worship  there, 
44,  45 ;  fall  of,  44,  45. 

Jacob,  history  of,  in  Book  of  Jubilees, 

311-314. 
James  the  Lord's  brother  an  Essene, 

116. 
Jannaeus,      Alexander,       persecutes 

Pharisees,  54  ;  kingship  of,  odious 

to  Essenes,  107. 
Jellinek  referred  to,  436. 
Jeremy,  Epistle  of  the  Prophet,  141, 

142. 
Jerome,   St.,  on  Book  of   Jubilees, 

433. 
Jerusalem  captured  by  Pompey,  278- 

280. 
Jesus  $on  of  Sirach  author  of  Ecclesi- 


asticus,  136,  137 ;  character  and 
date  of,  136-139. 

Jeu's,  Manners  of,  affected  by  Roman 
influences,  27. 

John,  Apocalypse  of  St.,  359 ;  reasons 
for  not  treating,  359 ;  Gospel  of, 
and  Psalter  of  Solomon,  294,  295. 

Jonathan  ben  Uzziefs  Targum,  172, 
173. 

Joseph  and  Mary  Essene  in  sym- 
pathy, 15,  113. 

Joseph,  story  of,  in  Book  of  Jubilees, 
315-317. 

Josephus,  account  and  analysis  of 
his  works,  183-189;  Antiquities 
of  the  Jews,  186  ;  Daniel  refers  to 
prophet,  376 ;  History  of  Wars  of 
the  Jews,  185 ;  Life  of,  sketched, 
184-186;  priestly  family  of,  30; 
testimony  to  Christ,  188,  189; 
treats  Essene  habits  and  doctrines, 
79. 

Jubilees,  Book  of,  analysis  of,  297- 
320 ;  copy  of,  brought  from  Abys- 
sinia to  Germany,  433 ;  edited  by 
Dillmann,  433 ;  language  and 
date  discussed,  433-439;  lan- 
guage Aramaic,  why,  434-436  ; 
date  fixed,  95,  437-439 ;  a  speci- 
men of  Hagadoth  or  Midrashirn, 
38. 

Judaising  Christian  Essene?,  116-118. 

Judaism  modified  by  Hellenic  influ- 
ences, 101 ;  evolved  Essenism 
without  foreign  aid,  107. 

Judas  the  Essene  and  the  temple 
service,  107,  108. 

Judas  the  Galilean  and  the  Zealots, 
67. 

Jwie,  Epistle  of,  quotes  Book  of 
Enoch,  238 ;  Assumption  of  Moses, 
440,  441 ;  knowledge  of  Apo- 
calyptic books,  14. 

Judea,  its  autonomous  powers  in 
Roman  period,  24. 

Judith,  Bonk  of,  account  of,  128- 
130 ;  criticised  by  Ren  an  and 
Volkmar,  128;  referred  to  by 
Clement,  128. 

Judgment,  doctrine  of  final,  in 
Apocalyptic  books,  486,  487; 
vision  of  general,  227-231. 

Justus  the  Jewish  historian  and 
Josephus,  89. 

Kablala,  account  of,  182,  183. 


494 


INDEX. 


Keim  on  date  of  Psalter  of  Solomon, 

4'28. 
Kohut,  Dr.,  on  Parsee  influence  on 

Judaism,  104,  105 ;  quoted,  410. 

Laqid  Rulers,  relation  to  the  Jews, 
52. 

Langen  on  the  Assumption  of  Moses, 
325. 

Languages  known  by  Christ,  5,  6,  8, 
li. 

Laurence,  Archbishop,  on  Book  of 
Enoch,  231-241,  246;  translation 
of  Book  of  Enoch,  890;  pub- 
lished Ethiopia  version  of  Ascen- 
sion of  Isaiah,  452 ;  published 
edition  of  Fourth  Esdras,  455, 
456. 

Law,  Jewish,  strictness  and  minute- 
ness of,  39 ;  importance  of  its 
interpretation,  39. 

Leighton,  Archbishop,  criticised  by 
Cameronian,  286. 

Lenormant  on  the  fidelity  of  Daniel's 
narrative  to  the  customs  of  Baby- 
lon. 

Leviathan  in  the  Apocalyptic  books, 
261. 

Levitts,  courses  numbered,  31 ;  few 
of  the  tribe  returned  from  Baby- 
lon, 31  ;  relation  of,  to  priests,  30, 
81. 

Lightfoot,  Bishop,  etymology  of 
Essen e  name,  76,  77  ;  holds 
Colossian  Judaisers  to  be  Essenes, 
341 ;  origin  of  Essene  doctrines 
illustrated,  104;  Parsee  influence 
on  Essenes  considered,  105 ;  views 
on  Essenes  criticised,  112 ;  views 
on  their  relation  to  Christianity 
criticised,  115,  116. 

Literature,  Hebrew,  in  Christ's  time, 
9  ;  stylistic  differences  of  Hebrew 
literature  at  different  periods, 
363,.  364 ;  a  new  form  of,  must 
originate  in  a  man  of  genius,  363, 
364. 

Logos  -  Doctrine,  relation  of,  to 
Philo  and  to  the  Wisdom  of  Solo- 
mon, 132. 

Lucius  on  date  of  Assumption  of 
Moses,  448. 

Liicke  on  the  groundwork  of  Enoch, 
393. 

Luminaries  of  Heaven,  Book  of,  ap- 
proximate date,  403-405. 


Maccabees,  four  Books  of,  analysis 
of,  143-146. 

Macedonian  empire  and  Daniel's 
vision,  380,  381. 

Mai,  Cardinal,  published  Ascension 
of  Isaiah,  452. 

Manasses,  Prayer  of,  142. 

Manetho  on  the  cause  of  the  exodus, 
318. 

Margoliouth,  Professor,  on  author- 
ship and  language  of  Daniel,  413  ; 
on  the  literary  language  of  Pales- 
tine, 413 ;  on  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  132,  133,  370,  371. 

Martineau,  Dr.  James,  quoted,  462. 

Martyr,  Justin,  on  use  of  Scripture 
in  the  synagogue,  9. 

Mastema,  Apocalyptic  name  of  Satan, 
309  ;  endeavours  to  slay  Moses, 
319. 

Matthew's  Gospel  chiefly  quotes 
from  original  Hebrew,  7. 

Mediatorial  Function  of  Messiah 
present  in  the  Apocalyptic  books, 
480,  481. 

Medo-Persian  Empire  and  Daniel's 
vision,  378-380. 

Menahem  predicts  Herod's  reign, 
85. 

Merx  on  the  Assumption  of  Moses, 
329. 

Messiah,  absence  of  expectation  of, 
among  Sadducees,  56,  57  ;  vision 
of  the  coming  and  kingdom  of, 
247,  248,  265,  266,  336,  337. 

Messianic  Character  of  Apocalyptic 
books,  208;  of  Psalter  of  Solo- 
mon, 283-285 ;  hopes  of  Jews 
deepened  by  Roman  supremacy, 
17. 

Metakon,  the,  account  of  the 
angel  called,  410,  413  ;  identified 
as  the  Angel  of  the  Presence,  301. 

Midrashim,  account  of,  38. 

Millennial  Glory  described  by  Apo- 
calyptic writers,  205-208. 

Mishtia,  analysis  and  account  of, 
176,  179  ;  date  of  its  compilation, 
10,  176;  valuelessness  of,  178, 
179. 

Mvnasticism,  origin  of,  and  relation 
to  Essenism,  118. 

Montanistic  elements  in  Ascension  of 
Isaiah,  455. 

Mosaic  Lair,  relation  of,  to  slavery 
and  large  landed  estates,  28. 


INDEX. 


495 


Moses,    Assumption    of,    95,     1 99 ; 

story  of,  in  Book  of  Jubilees,  318- 

321. 
Moivrs  on  date  of  Psalter  of  Solomon, 

428. 

Nabunahid,   last    king  of  Babylon, 

identified    with     Belshazzar,    arid 

epigraphic  proof  of  the  authenticity 

of  Daniel,  371,  372. 
Nazarenes  described  by  Epiphanius, 

and  identified  with  Essenes,  87. 
Neander    on     bishops    of     Roman 

Church,  342. 
Ntro    identified    with    Berial,    and 

supposed   to  be   his  incarnation, 

347  ;   the  matricide  king  of  the 

Ascension  of  Moses,  454. 
Aeronian    persecution,    account    of, 

344,  345 ;  influence  of,  342. 
Kicephorus,  Stichometry  of,  referred 

to,  423,  427,  446. 
Nicolaus  of  Damascus  and  the  Her- 

odian  court,  299. 
Noachian  Fragments,  account  of,  234- 

236,  394,  395  ;  date  of,  402-405. 
Nobles,  Jewish,  why  they  spent  much 

time  at  Rome,  28. 

Ockley,  Dr.  Simon,  discovered  Arabic 
version  of  the  Ascension  of  Isaiah, 
451  ;  published  Arabic  version  of 
Fourth  Esdras,  455. 

(Ecumenius  on  the  Assumption  of 
Moses,  quoted,  440. 

Oil  Testament,  a  school  -  book  in 
synagogue  schools,  9. 

Onkelos,  Targum  of,  172. 

Uriqen  quotes  Assumption  of  Moses, 
440. 

Palace  of  the  Great  King,  vision  of, 
240,  241. 

Palestinian  Literature,  non-Apoca- 
lyptic account  of,  170-189 ;  of 
Greek  origin,  183-189. 

Papias,  quoting  Apocalypse  of 
Baruch,  ascribes  it  to  Christ,  260, 
415 ;  eA'idence  for  authenticity  of 
the  Apocalypse  of  John,  4G8. 

Paradise,  vision  of,  242. 

Parsee  influence  on  the  Essenes,  104, 
105. 

Parables,  Book  of,  or  Similitudes, 
393  -397  ;  denounces  the  rich,  399  ; 
date  fixed,  399-402. 


Parthian  invasion  of  Palestine,  327. 
Particularity  of  Providence  taught  in 

Apocalyptic  books,  478,  479. 
Party,  relation  of,  to  government  in 

ancient  and  modern  times,  41,  42. 
Parties,  philosophic,  contrasted  with 

religious  sects,  42. 
Patriarchs,  Testaments  of  Twelve,  96 ; 

analysis  of,  355-359;  on  Eirenikon 

between    Judaisers  and    Pauline 

party,  358. 
Patriotic     and    Romanising    parly, 

jealousy  of  each  other,  27. 
Paul,  Apocalypse  of,  358. 
Paul,  St.,  quotes  thrice  Greek  poets, 

Peden,  Alexander,  compared  to 
Jewish  apocalyptist?,  238. 

Pentateuch  and  Joshua,  Samaritan 
version  of,  48. 

Persian  Empire,  influence  on  Apo- 
calyptic books,  200. 

Peter,  Apocalypse  of,  358. 

Pharisees,  account  of,  58-74  ;  demo- 
cratic party,  63-65 ;  denounce 
kingship  of  Alexander  Jannaeue, 
64 ;  doctrines  of,  72-74 ;  etymo- 
logy of  name,  61 ;  Messianic  hopes 
of,  64  ;  opposed  Herodian  family, 
64,  65  ;  relation  to  Christ,  70-72  ; 
relation  to  the  scribes,  72,  73  ; 
religion  essentially  the  bond  of 
their  union,  62. 

Philippi  on  date  of  Book  of  Enoch, 
407. 

Philo  and  the  Fourth  Gospel,  11  ; 
anthropology  of,  161,  162;  ethics 
of,  1 63  ;  on  the  Essenes  and  their 
habits,  75,  76,  79,  81 ;  harmoniser 
of  Greek  and  Hebrew  thought, 
154-156;  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  relation  to  it,  164  ; 
Messianic  hope  not  present  to  his 
mind,  100,  163,  164;  philosophy 
of,  158-161 ;  works  of,  157,  158  ; 
some  of  them  possibly  known  to 
Christ,  10,  11. 

Physics  of  Book  of  Enoch,  243,  244. 

Plato,  suggestion  of  a  knowledge  of 
his  writings  in  our  Lord's  inter  view 
with  the  young  ruler,  10 ;  repre- 
sentation of  the  perfect  state,  203. 

Pliny  on  habits  of  the  Essenes,  79. 

Pompey,  capture  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  temple  by,  22,  254,  255,  270- 
272 ;  carries  Jews  to  Rome,  280, 


496 


INDEX. 


281 ;  death  and  doom  predicted 
in  Psalter  of  Solomon,  272,  273, 
430  ;  relation  to  the  Apocalypse  of 
Baruch,  261,  262 ;  relation  of,  to 
Psalter  of  Solomon,  270-272. 

Preaching,  Christian,  origin  of,  40. 

Priests,  cities  of  the,  30  ;  courses  of 
the,  30 ;  origin  of  their  power 
in  Jerusalem,  28,  29  ;  predomin- 
ence  of,  as  seen  in  Apocalyptic 
hooks,  33  ;  relation  of,  to  temple, 
31,  32  ;  representative  of  the 
nation,  32,  33. 

Prophecy,  a  general  belief,  implies 
existence  of  true,  375. 

Prophecy,  Old  Testament,  known  to 
Christ,  and  led  to  the  development 
of  His  Messianic  consciousness,  5. 

Psalm  cix.,  imitated  in  Psalter  of 
Solomon,  276,  277.  _ 

Psalms  teaching  suffering  as  purify- 
ing, 282. 

Psalter  of  Solomon,  analysis  of,  268- 
296 ;  date  and  language  of,  423- 
432  ;  edited  by.  De  la  Cerda,  423  ; 
imprecatory  psalms  in,  285,  286 ; 
paradise  referred  to  in,  2^9 ;  written 
in  Hebrew,  424-432  ;  no  Christian 
elements  in,  426. 

J'tolemy,  conflict  between  Antiochus 
and,  223. 

Purgatory,  vision  of,  242. 

Pnsey,  Dr.,  on  the  authenticity  of 
Daniel,  371. 

Pythagoreans  and  Essenes  contrasted, 
102,  103  ;  influence  of  doctrines  of, 
in  Book  of  Jubilees,  298. 

Rabbinic  Ordination  of  both  John 
Baptist  and  Christ,  118,  119. 

RapUa,  battle  of,  223. 

Renan  on  Judith,  Book  of,  128 ;  on 
Neronian  persecution,  345. 

Resurrection  of  body  taught  in  Apo- 
calytic  books,  263,  483  ;  rejected 
by  the  Sadducees,  56. 

Revelation,  Book  of,  shows  know- 
ledge of  Apocalyptic  books,  14. 

Reverence,  when  excessive,  as  dan- 
gerous as  too  great  freedom,  2,  3. 

Roberts,  Professor,  on  language  in 
common  use  in  Palestine  in 
Christ's  time,  183. 

Roman  influence  on  Jewish  manners, 
27 ;  supremacy,  influence  of,  on 
Messianic  hope,  17. 


Romanising  party  among  Jews,  policy 

of,  26. 
Rome  the  Fourth  Empire  of  Daniel's 

vision,  375-379. 

Rdnsch  on  the  Book  of  Jubilees,  433. 
Ruler  and  Christ  in  the  Gospels,  and 

the  knowledge  of  Plato  suggested 

by  their  conversation,  11. 

Sabbatic  Doctrines  of  Essenes  con- 
tradicted by  Christ,  13;  law  in 
Book  of  Jubilees,  320. 

Sacy,  Sylvestrede,&ud  the  Samaritans, 
47,  48 ;  on  Book  of  Enoch,  390. 

Sadducees,  account  of,  50-57  ;  Christ 
delivered  to  Romans  by,  71 ;  Epi- 
cureans in  principle,  55 ;  history 
of,  51-57  ;  origin  of,  50,  51  ;  rela- 
tion to  Greek  philosophy,  55  ;  rela- 
tion to  the  law  of  Moses,  54,  55. 

Samaritans,  account  of,  43-49 ; 
composed  of  Assyrian  colonists 
and  native  Israelites,  45;  dis- 
appearance of,  after  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem,  47 ;  Jewish  charges 
against,  47  ;  history  under  Per- 
sian, Greek,  and  Koman  govern- 
ment, 45,  46;  their  temple  de- 
stroyed, 46;  remains  of  this  people 
still  linger  in  Palestine,  48. 

Sanhedrim,  Account  of,  and  its  func- 
tions, 25. 

Schodde  on  Book  of  Enoch,  231-233, 
246. 

Schools,  Jewish,  in  our  Lord's  time,  39. 

Scribes,  nature  and  office  of  the,  38, 
39 ;  relation  of,  to  Pharisees,  72, 73. 

Schurer  on  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus, 
134,  135 ;  on  Apocalypse  of  Baruch, 
410;  on  Aristobulus,165;  on  Rab- 
binic ordination,  119. 

Scriptures,  complete,  found  in  every 
synagogue,  8. 

Sects,  four  Jewish,  nature,  origin, 
and  relations  of,  42-44. 

Septuagint  Version,  date  of,  148; 
peculiarities  of,  152-154 ;  always 
quoted  by  Christ,  7,  149,  156 ; 
quoted  in  Epistle  to  Hebrews,  151 ; 
read  in  Galilean  synagogues,  and 
probably  in  Nazareth,  8. 

Seventy  Gentile  nations  assumed  by 
the  Apocalyptists,  246. 

Shammai,  notice  of,  66. 

Shammaites  identified  with  Zealots, 
66. 


INDEX. 


497 


Sibylline  Books,  analysis  of  167-169; 

nature  and  origin  of,  166,  167. 
Simeon  the  prophet  an  Essene,  113. 
Similitudes,  Book  of,  date  of,   399- 

402. 
Slavery  opposed  to  the  genius    of 

Israel,  27  ;  Mosaic  law  discouraged 

it,  27. 
Solomon,  Psalter  of,  analysis  of,  95, 

268-296  :  Messianic  hope  in,  290- 

295. 
Solomon,    Wisdom    of,   account    of, 

181,  132. 

Son  of  man  as  title  of  Messiah  de- 
rived from  Apocalyptic  books,  14, 

229.  408-410,  482. 
Son  of  woman  as  title  of  Messiah,  229. 
Stahelin  on  date  of  Apocalypse  of 

Baruch,  416. 
Susanna  and  the  Elders,  account  of, 

142. 
Stanton  on  date  of  Book  of  Enoch, 

407. 
Synagogue,  nature  of  worship  in,  34; 

introduced  from  Babylon,  35;  offi- 
cials of,  36  ;  spread  of,  35. 
Syncellus,     George,    and    Book     of 

Enoch,  389. 
Szinessy  Schiller  on  the  Targum   of 

Onkelos,  175 ;  on  the  Gemara,  179. 

Tablets  of  the  Heavens,  source  of  in- 
formation to  the  apocalyptists,  301. 

Talmud  ignorant  of  Apocalyptic 
books,  99;  and  of  the  Essenes, 
112  ;  work  of  the  Pharisees,  13. 

Targums,  date  of,  9,  171 ;  criticism 
of,  173, 174  ;  nature  and  origin  of, 
171,  172  ;  number  of,  172,  173. 

Tarmuth,  Pharaoh's  daughter  and 
Moses,  318,  319. 

Taxo  the  Levite  and  his  sons,  335. 

Teaching  of  Christ  modified  by  read- 
ing and  culture  of  His  hearers, 
12, 13. 

Tempest  in  the  Sea,  vision  of,  and 
the  second  coming  of  the  Messiah 
350-352. 

Ten  tribes,  restoration  of,  352. 

Tertullian  referred  to,  341,  442. 

Testaments  of  Twelve  Patriarchs, 
language  and  date  of,  458-460. 

Theodotus,  a  Jewish  Alexandrian 
author,  154. 

Theological  features  of  Apocalyptic 
books,  475-488. 


Therapeutas  and  Essenes,  118,  criti- 
cism of,  175-182. 

Titus  and  Vespasian's  deaths  in  Tal- 
mud, 386. 

Tobit,  account  of  Book  of,  125-127  ; 
date,  etc.,  127. 

Universality  of  God,  relation  to  the 
world  and  men,  as  taught  in  Apo- 
calyptic books,  477,  478. 

Vernes  on  the  groundwork  and  date 

of  Book  of  Enoch,  393,  407. 
Vespasian  identified  with  theMessiah, 

100. 
Vischer's  theory  of  the  origin  of  the 

Apocalypse  of  John,  461. 
Vulkmar  on  Book  of  Judith,  128 ;  on 

Assumption  of  Moses,  322-324, 328. 

Wellhausen,  views  of,  criticised,  269, 

270,  275,  289-291. 
Westcott  on  four  world-empires  of 

Daniel,  378. 
Winer  on  the  Targum  of  Onkelos, 

175. 

Wisdom,  Book  of,  94. 
Wisdom    of   Solomon,    account    of, 

131-133  ;  influence  of,  on  Apostle 

Paul,  132. 

Woman,  Creation  of,  803,  304. 
World- History,    vision    of,    in    ten 

weeks,  232,  233. 
World-History,  vision  of,  in  twelve 

storms  and  sunshines,  264-267. 

Xenophon  on  the  capture  of  Babylon, 
374 ;  on  Darius  the  Mede,  387. 

Zealots,  Account  of,  66,  67;  com- 
pared to  Nihilists,  67,  to  Came- 
ronians,  67,  6b ;  Judas  Iscariot  one 
of  the,  70;  part  played  by  them 
at  siege  of  Jerusalem,  68,  69. 

Zechariah  a  transition  to  Apocalypse, 
211,  212. 

Zeller  on  the  Essene  relation  to  the 
Apocalypse,  99 ;  on  Neo-Pytha- 
gorean  origin  of,  101. 

Zerubbabel,  story  of,  125. 

Zockler  on  four  world-empires  of 
Daniel,  377. 

Zo7mr,Book  of,  and  the  Kabbala,  182, 
183. 

Zonaras  quotes  Book  of  Jubilees,  434. 

Zoroastrianism  and  Judaism,  106. 


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far  has  Dr.  Schaff  succeeded  with  Luther?  We  will  not  say  that  he  has  overcome  the 
difficulty  of  adequately  representing  that  extraordinary  servant  of  Christ.  But  we  do 
not  remember  to  have  met  anywhere  with  so  impartial  and  fair  a  narrative  of  Luther's 
life ;  we  have  never  seen  the  various  aspects  of  his  character  brought  into  view  more 
naturally  or  more  vividly ;  and  we  have  met  with  few  accounts  of  him  more  interesting 
to  read.  ...  No  feature  of  the  book  has  struck  us  more  than  the  way  in  which  it 
combines  learned  accuracy  with  popular  writing.  Students  can  rely  on  the  volume, 
and  will  find  what  they  want  in  it.  ...  The  reader  is  all  along  in  contact  with  a  lively, 
various,  progressive  story,  full  of  interest  and  of  movement.' — Principal  EGBERT 
RAINY,  D.D. 

'  The  clearest,  fairest  view  we  have  seen  of  the  life  and  work  of  Luther  and  his 
colleagues.  .  .  .  The  volumes  are  a  most  valuable  addition  to  our  ecclesiastical  histories.' 
— Freeman. 

4  We  have  read  those  volumes  with  the  most  unmingled  satisfaction.  .  .  .  For  the 
student,  who  wants  to  get  at  facts,  to  understand  the  rationale  of  the  facts,  and  to  have 
the  means  of  verifying  them,  there  is  no  book  so  good  as  this.' — Church  Bells. 


T.  and  T.  Clark's  Publications. 


In  demy  8vo,  price  10s.  Qd., 

THE    REDEMPTION    OF    MAN. 

DISCUSSIONS    BEARING    ON    THE    ATONEMENT. 
BY    D.    W.    SIMON,   D.D., 

PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY,   CONGREGATIONAL  THEOLOGICAL  HALL,    EDINBURGH  ; 

AUTHOR  OF  'THE  BIBLE,  AN  OUTGROWTH  OF  THEOCRATIC  LIFE.' 

PRINCIPAL  FAIRBAIRN,  Mansfield  College,  writes — '  I  wish  to  say  how  stimulating 
and  helpful  I  have  found  your  book.  Its  criticism  is  constructive  as  well  as  incisive, 
while  its  point  of  view  is  elevated  and  commanding.  It  made  me  feel  quite  vividly  how 
superficial  most  of  the  recent  discussions  on  the  Atonement  have  been.' 

'A  thoughtful,  able,  and  learned  discussion.  .  .  .  The  author  is  full  of  his  subject, 
and  handles  the  literature  of -it  with  the  facility  which  comes  of  sound  and  laborious 
application  of  his  mind  to  it.  There  is  no  student  of  theology  who  would  not  be 
benefited  by  a  careful  and  respectful  study  of  this  volume.' — Literary  Churchman. 

'  A  book  of  interest  and  importance.  ...  Dr.  Simon  throws  his  heart  into  his  work, 
and  his  book  is  warmed  throughout  by  deep  feeling.  ...  It  is  elaborated  by  Dr.  Simon 
with  singular  power.  Oxford  undergraduates,  reading  for  the  theological  school,  will 
find  themselves  unable  to  neglect  this  work.' — Saturday  Review. 

'Dr.  Simon  has  produced  a  series  of  discussions  of  great  value,  vigorous,  com- 
prehensive in  their  grasp,  philosophical  in  tone,  and  rich  in  theological  scholarship.  It 
is  lucidly  written,  and  is  full  of  suggestive  force.' — Baptist  Magazine. 

In  demy  8vo,  price  12s., 

AN   INTRODUCTION   TO   THEOLOGY: 

Ets  principles,  Ets  Branches,  Ets  Results,  anto  Its  ^Literature. 
BY  ALFRED  CAVE,   B.A.,   D.D., 

PRINCIPAL,    AND  PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY,   HACKNEY  COLLEGE,   LONDON. 

'  I  have  just  seen  your  excellent  "  Introduction  to  Theology,"  and  feel  prompted  to 
thank  you  for  this  excellent  help  to  students.  I  have  been  lecturing  on  this  subject  for 
forty  years,  and  long  wished  for  some  such  substitute  for  Hagenbach  (too  German  to  be 
translated  or  even  reproduced),  which  I  could  recommend  to  my  students.' — PHILIP 
SCHAFF,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

'  Years  of  diligent  research  must  have  preceded  the  production  of  a  work  like  this.  It 
surveys  the  whole  field  of  Theology,  and  offers  to  the  student  the  guidance  of  which  he 
stands  most  in  need,  carefully  mapping  out  the  ground  to  be  traversed,  showing  the 
approaches  to  its  several  divisions,  and  specifying  their  peculiar  features,  their  relations, 
and  inter-relations,  putting  us  in  possession  of  results  which  have  been  obtained,  and 
indicating  also  the  processes  by  which  they  have  been  reached.  His  long  lists  of  books 
recommended  to  students  at  the  end  of  each  section  are  a  tribute  to  his  erudition  and 
good  judgment.  He  knows  precisely  the  books  which  are  of  most  service,  and  expresses 
in  a  few  terse  sentences,  and  often  in  a  few  words,  his  estimate  of  them.  We  can  only 
say  that  we  have  rarely  read  a  book  with  more  cordial  approval.' — Baptist  Magazine. 

'  A  marvel  of  industry,  and  simply  invaluable  to  theologians.' — Clergyman's  Magazine. 

By  the  same  Author. 

Just  published,  in  demy  8vo,  New  Edition,  revised  throughout,  price  10s.  6d., 

THE  SCRIPTURAL  DOCTRINE  OF  SACRIFICE 
AND  ATONEMENT. 

'  Every  page  in  this  edition  has  been  carefully  revised  in  the  light  of  the  latest 
relative  researches.  The  literary  references  have  also  been  brought  down  to  date.  .  .  . 
In  the  New  Testament  section  there  is  considerable  variation.  Upon  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Atonement  especially,  conclusions  upon  which  affect  so  materially  the  presentation 
of  Christian  truth,  the  author's  views  have  been  steadily  ripening,  as  he  believes,  during 
the  thought  of  years.  Consequently  more  than  half  of  the  New  Testament  portion  has 
been  re- written.' — Extract  from  the  Preface. 

'  We  wish  to  draw  particular  attention  to  this  new  work  on  the  important  subject  of 
Sacrifice.  If  we  can  induce  our  readers  not  only  to  glance  through  the  book,  but  to  read 
every  line  of  it  with  thoughtful  care,  as  we  have  done,  we  shall  have  earned  their 
gratitude.' — Church  Bells. 


T.  and  T.  Clark's  Publications. 


HERZOG'S  ENCYCLOPEDIA. 

In  Three  Volumes,  imperial  8vo,  price  24s.  each, 

ENCYCLOPEDIA    OR    DICTIONARY 

OF 

BIBLICAL,  HISTORICAL,  DOCTRINAL,  AND 

PRACTICAL  THEOLOGY. 

BASED  ON  THE  REAL-ENCYKLOPADIE  OF  HERZOG,  PLITT,  AND  HAUCK, 
EDITED  BY  PHILIP  SCHAFF,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

PKOFKSSOB  IN  THE  UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY,  NEW  YORK. 

'As  a  comprehensive  work  of  reference,  within  a  moderate  compass,  we  know 
nothing  at  all  equal  to  it  in  the  large  department  which  it  deals  with.' — Church  Bella. 

'  The  work  will  remain  as  a  wonderful  monument  of  industry,  learning,  and  skill.  It 
will  be  indispensable  to  the  student  of  specifically  Protestant  theology ;  nor,  indeed,  do 
we  think  that  any  scholar,  whatever  be  his  especial  line  of  thought  or  study,  would 
find  it  superfluous  on  his  shelves.' — Literary  Churchman. 

'  We  commend  this  work  with  a  touch  of  enthusiasm,  for  we  have  often  wanted  such 
ourselves.  It  embraces  in  its  range  of  writers  all  the  leading  authors  of  Europe  on 
ecclesiastical  questions.  A  student  may  deny  himself  many  other  volumes  to  secure 
this,  for  it  is  certain  to  take  a  prominent  and  permanent  place  in  our  literature.' — 
Evangelical  Magazine. 

'  It  is  with  great  pleasure  we  now  call  attention  to  the  third  and  concluding  volume 
of  this  work.  ...  It  is  a  noble  book.  .  .  .  For  our  ministerial  readers  we  can  scarcely 
wish  anything  better  than  that  every  one  of  them  should  be  put  in  possession  of 
a  copy  through  the  generosity  of  the  wealthy  laymen  of  their  congregation;  such  a 
sowing  of  good  seed  would  produce  results  most  beneficial  both  to  those  who  preach 
and  to  those  who  hear.  But  this  Cyclopaedia  is  not  by  any  means  for  ministerial 
students  only ;  intelligent  and  thoughtful  minds  of  all  classes  will  discover  in  it  so  much 
interest  and  value  as  will  make  it  a  perfect  treasure  to  them.' — Christian  World. 

SUPPLEMENT  TO  HERZOG'S  ENCYCLOPEDIA. 

In  imperial  8vo,  price  8s., 

ENCYCLOPEDIA    OF    LIVING    DIVINES 
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EDITED   BY 

PHILIP  SCHAFF,  D.D.,  AND  KEV.  S.  M.  JACKSON,  M.A. 

'  A  very  useful  Encyclopaedia.  I  am  very  glad  to  have  it  for  frequent  reference.' — 
Right  Eev.  Bishop  LIGHTFOOT. 

'  The  information  is  very  lucidly  and  compactly  arranged.' — Eev.  Canon  DRIVER. 

'  Very  useful,  and  supplies  information  not  elsewhere  obtained.'— Kev.  Dr.  HENRY 
ALLON. 

In  Two  Volumes,  8vo  (870pp.),  price  21s., 

LIVES  OF  THE  LEADERS  OF  THE  CHURCH 
UNIVERSAL. 

FROM  IGNATIUS  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 
EDITED  BT  DR.  FERDINAND  PIPER. 

1 A  very  interesting  and  useful  hagiology.  .  .  .  The  collection  is  one  of  remarkable 
value  and  interest.' — British  Quarterly  Eeview. 
'  A  really  new  idea,  executed  with  commendable  care  and  skill.' — Freeman. 


T.  and  T.  Clark's  Publications. 


FOREIGN    THEOLOGICAL    LIBRARY. 


'  No  preacher  who  values  his  ministry  can  afford  to  be  a  non-subscriber  to  the  "  Foreign 
Theological  Library."  The  subscription  is  almost  ridiculously  small  in  comparison  to 
the  value  received.' — Homilist. 


M 


ESSRS.  CLARK  beg  to  invite  the  attention  of  Clergymen  and  educated 
Laymen  to  this  Series. 

Forty-five  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  commencement  of  the  FOREIGN 
THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY,  and  during  that  time  Four  Volumes  annually  (or  180 
in  all)  have  appeared  with  the  utmost  regularity. 

It  is  now,  however,  difficult  to  preserve  this  regularity ;  and,  whilst  the 
Publishers  Avill  continue  to  issue  translations  of  the  best  German  and  French 
works,  they  will  do  so  as  occasion  offers,  and  thus  the  publications  will  be  even 
more  select. 

In  completing  the  FOREIGN  THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY  as  a  series,  they  desire 
anew  to  express  their  grateful  thanks  to  the  Subscribers  for  their  support. 

They  trust  and  believe  that  the  whole  series  has  exercised,  through  the 
care  with  which  the  books  have  been  selected,  a  healthy  influence  upon  the 
progress  of  theological  science  in  this  country  and  the  United  States. 

In  order  to  bring  the  FOREIGN  THEOLOGICAL  LIBRARY  more  within  the  reach 
of  all,  it  has  been  decided  to  allow  a  selection  of 

EIGHT  VOLUMES  at  the  Subscription  Price  of  TWO  GUINEAS 

(or  more  at  the  same  ratio),  from  the  works  issued  previous  to  1888,  a  complete 
list  of  which  will  be  found  on  the  following  page. 

N.B. — No  duplicates  can  be  included  in  such  selections. 


The  Volumes  issued  during  1888-1890  were : — 

1888.—  CASSEL'S  COMMENTARY  ON  ESTHER. 

EWALD'S  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTAMENT  THEOLOGY. 
KEIL'S  BIBLICAL  ARCHAEOLOGY.    Vol.  II.  (completion). 
DELITZSCH'S  NEW  COMMENTARY  ON  GENESIS.     Vol.  I. 

1889.—  DELITZSCH'S  NEW  COMMENTARY  ON  GENESIS.    Vol.  II.  (completion). 
ORELLI'S  COMMENTARY  ON  ISAIAH. 
ORELLI'S  COMMENTARY  ON  JEREMIAH. 
LUTHARDT'S  HISTORY  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS.     Vol.  I. 

1890—  SCHURER'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWISH  PEOPLE  IN  THE  TIME   OF  JESUS 

CHRIST.    First  Division.    2  Vols. 
DELITZSCH'S  COMMENTARY  ON  ISAIAH.     New  Edition.     2  Vols. 

N.B.— To  complete  Sets,  any  of  the  above  Yearly  Issues  may  be  had  at  the  Subscription     ! 
Price  of  Twenty-one  Shillings. 


FOREIGN    THEOLOGICAL    LIBRARY. 

The  following  are  the  Works  from  which  a  Selection  of  EIGHT  VOLUMES  for  £2,  2s.  (or  more  at  the 
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Alexander— Commentary  on  Isaiah.    Two  Vols.    (17s.) 

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Bleek-Introduction  to  the  New  Testament.    Two  Vols.    (21s.) 
Christlieb— Modern  Doubt  and  Christian  Belief.    One  Vol.    (10s.  6d.) 
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Commentary  on  the  Psalms.    Three  Vols.    (31s.  6d.) 

Commentary  on  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon.    Two  Vols.    (21s.) 

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