Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/195

Rh APOCRYPHA 181 to bo read for moral uses, but not to be founded on for doctrine to this class the name ecclesiastical was some times given ; and third, some that are apocryphal. Other writers know of only two classes, embracing both the second and third classes of the former division under the name apocryphal. This difference indicates a milder and a severer use of the term. Besides those books known distinctively as the Old Tes tament Apocrypha, a very large number of apocryphal writings were in existence in the early centuries of our era. Some of these are still extant, but many of them have perished, or are known only through MS. translations lying in our great libraries. Our only information regarding many of them is derived from references to them in eccle siastical writers. These references are sometimes so general that we cannot be sure whether the book referred to was a Jewish or a Christian production. By far the largest number even of those bearing Jewish titles were works by Christian writers. Of the extant writings of this class the most important are fully treated in the article APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE immediately preceding. In addition to those discussed there may be mentioned the very interesting col lection of hymns called the Psalms of Solomon. This small work consists of eighteen poems of varying length, to appearance all by one writer, and existing now only in Greek, though in all probability originally written in a Shemitic dialect. These poems arose in a time of trouble to the Jewish people, most probably in the Greek persecu tion, and they were designed to sustain the nation under its trials, partly by moral considerations, but chiefly by picturing the certain glories of the Messianic kingdom. The hymns are remarkable no less for the vigour of their poetry than for the fervid theocratic hopes and dis tinct faith in the resurrection and kindred doctrines which find expression in them. O. F. Fritzsche has appended this little work, along with other select Pscudepigraphi of the Old Testament, to his edition of the Old Testament Apocrypha. APOCRYPHA OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. The books bear ing this name are not contained in the Jewish or Palestinian Canon, i.e., in the Hebrew Bible, but in the Alexandrian Canon, i.e., in the Greek translation known as theSeptuagint. Considerable obscurity hangs over the date and the circum stances of the close of the Hebrew Canon, and the principles which guided the collectors in their selection of books to be embodied. It is most probable that the three divisions referred to in the New Testament, of law, prophets, and writings (Psalms) are of ancient origin ; that the first two divisions were closed while prophetic men were still living, that is, considerably anterior to the close of the Persian period, while the third still remained open ; and that at whatever time the third was closed, the books added to it were added under the impression that they were books composed before the succession of Prophets had ceased. This is the view expressed by Josephus (Con. Ap., i. 8), and may be considered the general Jewish tradition regard ing all books in the Hebrew Canon. With the Greek or Alexandrian Canon the case was very different. This was, properly speaking, not an eccle siastical, but a literary collection at first, for the tradition that it was commenced under the auspices of Ptolemy Philadelphus cannot be altogether set aside. At first only the books of Moses and perhaps Joshua were translated, the interest felt in the book being confined to the law. Only gradually and at intervals other books were added, for the translations are not only by different hands, but of very different dates. But it is evident that the collection was formed under the guidance of a principle quite different from that which guided the Palestinian collectors. The feeling in Palestine was that prophecy had ceased (1 Mace. ix. 27, comp. ch. xiv. 41), and no books were held worthy of a place in the Canon which were composed after the succession of prophets had come to an end. In Egypt this theory did not prevail, or rather another theory seems to have prevailed. The doctrine of the Wisdom which appears in Proverbs, ch. i.-viii., received a fuller development in successive ages even in Palestine, and naturally much more in Alexandria, where the speculative Jews came under the influence of Greek thought. This Wisdom is spoken of in a way which at times almost identifies it with the Spirit of God, and at other times almost with the Logos or Word. But at any rate this divine Wisdom is all-pervading, and subject to no interruption in the constancy of its influence. The famous passage, Wisdom of Solomon, ch. vii. 22, /., in which the attributes of wisdom are counted up to the number of twenty-one, speaks of her as &quot; going through all things by reason of her pureness,&quot; and at last says of her, that &quot; in all ages entering into holy souls she maketh them friends of God and prophets.&quot; The particularism of Judaism gave way in Alexandria before the universalistic principles of Western speculation. Prophecy was the pro duct of the Wisdom, and Wisdom, was like a subtle element, all-pervasive and incessant in its influence ; and consequently a break in the line of prophets, or any distinction between the productions of one age and those of another except in degree, was hardly to be conceived. Thus to the Alex andrian the varied Jewish literature of the post-prophetic times was precious as well as the books that were more ancient, and he carefully gathered the scattered fragments of his national thought, as far as they were known, within the compass of his Canon. The following books form the Apocrypha of the English Bible. They are given in the order in which they stand there : 1. I. Esdras. 2. II. Esdras. 3. Tobit. 4. Judith. 5. The additions to the Book of Esther. 6. The Wisdom of Solomon. 7. The Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus. 8. Baruch. 9. The Song of the Three Holy Children. 10. The History of Susanna. 11. The History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon. 1 2. The Prayer of Manasses, king of Judah. 13. The First Book of Maccabees. 14. The Second Book of Maccabees. A few statements may be made regarding the general characteristics of the Apocrypha. 1. These books are of very great interest and value as a reflection of the condition of the fragments of the scattered nation, and of the feelings and aspirations which they cherished for a period of several hundred years, and in all the chief countries of the world. Some of the books, such for example as Tobit, belong to the Persian period, and were composed in the East, in Babylon or Persia, and describe the external life as well as the feelings and hopes of the exiles there ; others arose in Palestine, such as Ecclesiasticus, and reflect the condition of life and the shades of religious speculation in the home countiy ; while others, such as the Wisdom of Solomon, originated in Egypt, and afford means of estimating the influence of Greek thought upon the native doctrines of the Old Testa ment ; and perhaps in the 2d Esdras there may even be detected traces of Christian influence. The broad undivided stream of Old Testament doctrine and hope breaks at the era of which we are speaking into three channels. The largest, and that which best preserves its primary direction, continues to run in Palestine, diverging to some extent, and widening under the contributions which time and a very chequered experience and reflection made to it ; while on each side of this another runs, one on the east and one on the west, directed and partly fed by the ideas of Persia and Greece respectively. To a certain extent the streams reunite further on, and pour their united contributions into the great sea of Christian thought. The central stream