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APOCALYPTIC

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APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE the Society of Bill. Archaeology, 1896, pp. 208-222, 259- and Arabic versions. It deals with Abraham’s reluctance 271 ; 1897, pp. 27-38, have no more claim to represent to die and the means by which his death was brought about. James holds that this book is referred to by the original than those above referred to. Place and Date.—The book was most probably written Origen {Horn, in Luc. xxxv.), but this is denied by Schiirer, in Egypt subsequently to the Maccabean rising and before who also questions its Jewish origin. With the exception of chaps, x.-xi., it is really a legend and not an apocalypse. the building of the Herodian temple 25 B.c. On the literary connexion with the story of Achikar, An English translation of James’s texts will be found in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Clark, 1897, pp. 185see art. “ Achiacharus ” in Ency. Bill. 201. The Testaments of Isaac and Jacob are still pre(ii.) Apocalyptic Literature. served in Arabic and Ethiopic (see James, op. cit. 140Slavonic Book of Enoch ; or, the Book of the Secrets of 161). Sibylline Oracles.—We must here content ourselves in Enoch. This new fragment of the Enochic literature has only recently come to light through five MSS. discovered the main with referring the reader to Ency. Brit. ii. 177in Russia and Servia. Since about a.d. 500 it has been 179, xxii. 13-14, for the treatment of this subject. Not lost sight of. It is cited without acknowledgment in the much has been done for the exegesis of this book of recent Book of Adam and Eve, the Apocalypses of Moses and Paul, years. The most important contributions are those of the Sibylline Oracles, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Epistle Zahn, “ Ueber Ursprung und religiosen Charakter der of Barnabas, and referred to by Origen and Irenseus (see Sibyllinischen Bucher, iv.; v. ; viii. 1-216; xii.; xiii. ” in Charles, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, 1895, pp. the Zeitschrift fur kirchl. Wissensch. und kirchl. Leben, xvii.-xxiv.). For Charles’s editio princeps of this work, 1886, pp. 32-45, 77-87 ; Hirsch, Jewish Quarterly Review, in 1895, Professor Morfill translated two of the best MSS., 1890, pp. 406-429; Deane, Pseudepigrapha, 1891, pp. as well as Sokolov’s text, which is founded on these and 276-344; Harnack, Gesch. der altchristl. Litteratur, i. other MSS. In 1896 Bonwetsch issued his Das slavische 762, 861-863 ; ii. 31, 581-589 ; Charles, Ency. Biblica, i. Henochbuch, in which a German translation of the above 245-250; Schurer, in. 421-450; Blass in Kautzsch’s two MSS. is given side by side, preceded by a short intro- Apok. u. Pseud, ii. 177-184. The best edition of the text duction. The main part of the book was written in Greek. is that of Rzach, Oracula Sibyllina, 1891. A Latin This follows from the fact that in xxx. 13 it is said that translation is appended to Alexandre’s edition of the text Adam’s name is derived from the four quarters of the and a German to that of Friedlieb. A translation in earth: that is, from the initial letters of civuroAr/, Sixm, English blank verse has been made by Terry, The Sibyldp/cxo?, pea-gylSpia. This derivation is impossible in line Oracles, 1899. A literal prose rendering, with Semitic. Portions of the book, however, go back to a some exegetical notes and a critical introduction, is a Semitic original, seeing that it is quoted in the Test. XII. desideratum. Patriarchs, which was written in Semitic and belongs to (iii.) Wisdom Literature. the 2nd and 1st centuries B.c. The book in its present 4 Maccabees.—This book (see Ency. Brit. xy. 131) form was written in Egypt, for many of its speculations are characteristic of Philo and other Hellenistic writers : its bears a distinctly philosophic character. It has the form account of the creation, xxv. sq., betrays Egyptian elements, of a sermon of the synagogue; for, as Freudenthal points as well as its description of such creations as the Phoenixes out, it presumes the presence of an audience (i. 1, xviii. 1). and Chalky dries. Since this book quotes Ecclesiasticus, On the other hand, it was undoubtedly composed with the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, and Wisdom (f), the terminus a view to publication in Jewish circles (xviii. 1), for its a quo cannot be earlier than 30 B.c., and the terminus ad abstruse style is unfitted for an ordinary congregation. quern must be assumed as earlier than a.d. 70, for the temple The author is a Hellenistic Jew, but his conception of is still standing. The author was an orthodox Hellenistic Judaism is strongly influenced by Stoicism. He teaches Jew, who lived in Egypt. Thus he believed in sacrifices, that the true Stoic ideal is possible only in Judaism : the xlii. 6, lix. 1, Ixvi. 2; in the law, Hi. 9, 10 ; and in an passions are to be mastered, not exterminated, by reason; immortality of the blessed, in which the righteous should that is, by pious reason. Besides the Hellenistic view that be clothed in “ the raiment of God’s glory,” xxii. 8. The only the soul can attain to a blessed immortality (xiii. 16, writer is an eclectic. Platonic (xxx. 16), Egyptian xv. 2, xvii. 18) this writer teaches that the martyrdom of (xxv. 2), and Zend (Iviii. 4-6) elements are incorporated the righteous atones for the sin of the people (vi. 29, xvii. in his system. 21). Eusebius’s ascription of the book to Josephus (//. E. Oracles of Hystaspes.—See under IST. T. Apocalypses. III. x. 6) is certainly wrong. The more recent literature Testament of Job.—This book was first printed from on this book comprises Bensly’s edition of the Syriac one MS. by Mai, Script. Vet. Nov. Coll. 1833, vii. i. 180, version of this book, The Fourth Book of Maccabees. . . and translated into French in Migne’s Diet, des Apocryphes, in Syriac, first edited ... by the late R. L. Bensly, with an ii. 403. An excellent edition from two MSS. is given by introduction and translations by Barnes, 1895; Swete’s M. R. James, Apocrypha Anecdota, ii. pp. lxxii.-cii. 104- Old Testament in Greek, 1894, iii. 729 sqq. Swete gives 137, who holds that the book in its present form was the text of A and variants from N, the Cod. Yen., and written by a Christian Jew in Egypt on the basis of a certain fragments of Tischendorf. A German translation Hebrew Midrash on Job in the 2nd or 3rd century a.d. based on the above materials will be found in Kautzsch, It is a cleverly-written work, but not of much value. Apok. u. Pseud, ii. 152-177. Testaments of the III Patriarchs.—For an account of 5 Maccabees.—See Ency. Brit. xv. 131. these three Testaments (referred to in the Apost. Const, vi. Wisdom of Solomon.—This pseudepigraph claims to have 16), the first of which only is preserved in the Greek and been written by King Solomon (vii.-ix., cf. ix. 7-8). The is assigned by James to the 2nd century a.d., see that writer shows a close acquaintance with the canonical books scholar’s “ Testament of Abraham,” Texts and Studies, ii. bearing the name of Solomon. Siegfried (Kautzsch, Apok. 2, 1892, which appears in two recensions from six and u. Pseud, i. 476) is of opinion that this work is a deliberate three MSS. respectively, and Yassiliev’s Anecdota Grceco- polemic against the Epicurean-minded author of EcclesiByzantina, 1893, pp. 292-308, from one MS. already used astes, and seeks to present Solomon as an example by James. This work was written in Egypt, according to of Jewish piety. The book was written in Greek by James, and survives also in Slavonic, Roumanian, Ethiopic, an Alexandrian Jew. Though the Greek has many