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Rh APOCRYPHA

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APOCRYPHA

prophecy on its luiman side had its springs, its occa- sions, and immediate objects in the present; the propliets were inspired men who found matter for comfort as well us rebuke and warning in the actual conditions of Israel's theocratic life. But when ages had elapsed, and the glowing Messianic promises of the prophets had not been realized; when the Jewish people had chafed, not through two or three, but many generations, under the bitter yoke of foreign masters or the constantly repeated pressure of hea- then states, reflecting and fervent spirits, finding no hope in the actual order of things, looked away from earth and fixed their vision on another and ideal world where God's justice would reign unthwarted, to the everlasting glory of Israel both as a nation and in its faithful individuals, and unto the utter destruction and endless torment of the Gentile op- pressors and the unrighteous. Apocalyptic literature was both a message of comfort and an effort to solve the problems of the sufferings of the just and the apparent hopelessness of a fulfilment of the prophe- cies of Israel's sovereignty on earth. But the inev- itable consequence of the apocalyptic distrust of everything present was its assumption of the guise of the remote and classic past; in other words, its pseudonymous character. Naturally basing itself upon the Pentateuch and the Prophets, it clothed itself fictitiously with the authority of a patriarch or prophet who w-as made to reveal the transcendent future. But in their effort to adjust this future to the historj' that lay within their ken the apocalyptic wTiters unfolded also a philosophy of the origin and progress of mundane things. A wider view of world- politics and a comprehensive cosmological speculation are among the distinctive traits of Jewish apoca- lyptic. The Book of Daniel is the one book of the Old Testament to which the non-inspired apocalypses bear the closest affinity, and it evidently furnished ideas to several of the latter. An apocalyptic ele- ment existing in the prophets, in Zacharias (i-vi), in Tobias (Tobias, xiii), can be traced back to the visions of Ezechiel which form the prototype of apocalj-ptic; all this had its influence upon the new literature. Messianism of course plays an im- portant part in apocalyptic eschatology and the idea of the Messias in certain books received a very high development. But even when it is transcendent and mystic it is intensely, almost fanatically, national, and surrounded by fanciful and often extravagant accessories. It lacks the universal outlook of some of the prophets, especially the Deutero-Isaias, and is far from having a uniform and consistent physiog- nomy. Sometimes the Messianic realm is placed upon the transfigured earth, centring in a new Je- rusalem; in other works it is lifted into the Heavens; in some books the Messias is wanting or is apparently merely human, while the Parables of Henoch with their pre-existent Messias mark the highest point of development of the Messianic concept to be found in the whole range of Hebrew literature.

Drcmmoni), The Jetmth Messiah (1877); Porter, The Message of the Apocalyplic Writers (New York, 1905); Charles, Apocalyptic Literature, in Hastings. Diet, of the Bible; Baldens- PF.RGER, Die mcssianiseh-apokalyplischen Hoffnungen des Judenthums (Strasbiirg, 1903); Bourset, Die jiidische Apok- ulyptik (Berlin, 1903); Volz, Jiidiache Eachatologie (WUrtem- burg, 1903).

(1) Jcvnsh Apocalypses. — (a) The Book of Henoch {Elhlopic). The antediluvian patriarch Henoch ac- cording to Genesis "walked with God and was seen no more, because God took him". This walking with God W!Ls natiirally understood to refer to spe- cial revelations made to the iialriarch, and this, to- gether with the mysterj' surrounding his departure from the world, made Henoch's name an apt one for the purposes of apocalyptic writers. In consec|uence there arose a literature attributed to him. It in- fluenced not only later Jewish apocrypha, but has

left its imprint on the New Testament and the works of the early Fathers. The canonical Kpistle of St. Jude, in verses 14, 15, explicitly quotes from the Book of Henoch; the citation is found in the Ethiopic version in verses 9 and 4 of the first chapter. There are probable traces of the Henoch literature in other portions of the New Testament. Passing to the pa- tristic writers, the Book of Henoch enjoyed a high esteem among them, mainly owing to the quotation in Jude. The so-called Epistle of Barnabas twice cites Henoch as Scripture. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and even St. Augustine suppose the work to be a genuine one of the patriarch. But in the fourth century the Henoch writings lost credit and ceased to be quoted. After an allusion by an author of the beginning of the ninth century, they disappear from view. So great was the oblivion into which they fell that only scanty fragments of Greek and Latin versions were preserved in the West. The complete text was thought to have perished when it was discovered in two Ethiopic MSS. in Abyssinia by the traveller Bruce in 1773. Since, several more copies in the same language have been brought to light. Recently a large Greek fragment comprising chapters i-xxxii was imearthed at Aklimln in Egypt. Scholars agree that the Book of Henoch was originally composed either in Hebrew or Aramaic, and that the Ethiopic version was derived from a Greek one. A comparison of the Ethiopic text with the Akhmin Greek fragment proves that the former is in general a trustworthy translation. The work is a compila- tion, and its component parts were written in Pales- tine by Jews of the orthodox Hasidic or Pharisaic schools. Its composite character appears clearly from the palpable differences in eschatology, in the views of the origin of sin and of the character and importance of the Messias found in portions other- wise marked off from each other by diversities of subject. Critics agree that the oldest portions are those included in chapters i-xxxvi and (broadly speaking) Ixxi-civ. It will be seen that the work is a voluminous one. But the most recent research, led by the Rev. R. H. Charles, an English specialist, breaks up this part into at least two distinct con- stituents. Charles's analysis and dating are: i- xxxvi, the oldest part, composed before 170 B. c; xxxvii-lxx, Ixxxiii-xc, written between 166-161 B.C.; chapters xci-civ between the years 134-95 B. c; the Book of Parables between 94-64 B. c; the Book of Celestial Physics, Ixxii-lxxviii, Lxxxii, Ixxix, date undetermined. Criticism recognizes, scattered here and there, interpolations from a lost apocalypse, the Book of Noe. Expert opinion is not united on the date of the composite older portion, i. e. i-xxxvi, Ixxi-civ. The preponderant authority represented by Charles and Schiirer assigns it to the latter part of the second century before Christ, but Baldensperger would bring it down to a half century before ourEra.

In the following outline of contents, Charles's an- alysis, which is supported by cogent reasons, has been adopted. The various elements are taken up in their chronological sequence. — Book I, chapters i- xxxvi. Its body contains an account of the fall of the angelic "Watchers", their pimishment, and the patriarch's intervention in their history. It is based upon Gen., vi, 2: "The sons of God seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to them- selves wives of all they chose." The narrative is intended to explain the origin of sin and evil in the world and in this connection lays very little stress on the disobedience of our First Parents. This por- tion is rcni;irkal)lc for the entire absence of a Messiivs. — Book II, Ixxxiii-xc, contains two visions. In the first, Ixxxiii-lxxxiv, is portrayed tlie dreadful visi- tation of the flood, about to fall upon the earth. Henoch suijplicates God not to annihilate the human