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Apocalyptic Literature

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

the "Alplmluts of H. Akiba" ami "Otot" or "MilMckk lui'Mashiah " for tlii' Noo-Hcbrew. Filially, the Xeo-Hei>rew apocalypses likewise show all the external eharacteristies of the older. Like these, they claim to be revelations made ihrouirh the medium of anfrels, and their authors conceal their real identity by pseudonyms, borrowing for this purpose the names of celebrated holy men of the past hence the name Pseu(U'pi<jniph(i for the

^aiiiot

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writiiiirs. The authors skilfully add plausibility to the claitu that their writinirs are ancient luophecies, by making a review of contemporary, and frequently also of past, hisExternal tory. in the guise of a vision of the Characfuture. In this way every apocalypse contains the key to the date of its oriteristics. gin, this date coinciding with that period at which such " prophecy after the event breaks off, and the real iirophecy of the future begins, the prediction i>f the immediate approach of judgment for the wicked and of salvation for the

apocalyptic

This pious deception on the part of the wrifor the purpose of awakening in the hearts of their readers, wlio were living in a period of good. ters

was

gloom and

bitter trial, that belief in the blissful future promised them. which filled theirown souls. For in times of oppression and persecution theapocalypse was essentially the literary mediinu through which the minds of the faithful were a]>pealed to. and it could attain such power only through an alleged sanctity as an ancient revelation. This leads to the corollary that every age of great political agitation had its apocalypses, and that it would seem impossible that all productive activity in this sphere should have lain utterly dormant during the Talmudic i>eiiod. The oldest apocalyptic monument, the IJook of Daniel, is the direct fruit of the fanatical religious persecution exercised by Antiochus Eiiiphanes (see Apocalypse). When the Jews came into conflict with the Roman empire, a conflict lasting for two centuries, every phase of this varying drama was accompanied by apocalypses, from the concjuest of Jerusalem by Pompey to the despotic rule of Antony and Cleopatra in Egypt, and down to the last des]K'rate struggle and bloody jierIn like manner, as will be sccution under Hadrian. mentioned, there arc apocalypses contemporaneous with the great political vicissitudes of the Sassanian period (227-642). But apart from intlepcndent apocalypses themselves, the Talmud contains much apocalyptic matter that not only attests In the Tal- the interest with which the jews folmudic Age. lowed the wars against Rome waged by Sapor I. (died 271) and Sapor II. (died 379), believing that these wars were the unmistakable signs of the inmiinence of God's kingdom, but proves also bej'ond doubt that apocalyptic writing flourished no less in Talnuidic than in postTalnuidic times. For example, a passage in Yoma, 10(7, for which Joshua b. Levi, a contemporary of Sapor I., is mentioned as the authority, shows how, in the face of the victorious wars of Sapor I. against Rome, the prophecy contained in Dan. viii. (about the war between the Medo-Persian and the Grecian kingdoms) was believed to refer to Sapor's wars with Rome. To determine the ultimate issue of these wars, an old and familiar apocalj'ptic tradition was there cited, according to which, before the advent of the Jlessiah, Rome, the fourth and last world-monarchy, would extend her godless dominion over the whole world for the space of nine months. Similarly, in Shebu. 64 there is a passage dating from the time of Sapor II. 's wars with Rome, in which the statement in Dan. vji. 23 about the fourth world-monarchy is

676

(juoted to show conclusively that no other outcome possible than that Rome should triuinphover Persia. In Sanh. U7((-i)84 there are preservt-d a number of apocalyptic calculations of those times; also, among other things, excerpts from revelations which the above-mentioned R. Joshua b. Levi who also figures as the author of an apocalypse (see below) was siipi)osed to have received from the mouth of the prophet Elijah as well as from the very Messiah himself. The entire Apocalyptic Literature is of great historical value. Toward the close of antiquity and through the Middle Ages it exercised exten.sive and permanent influence on the thought of the times. It reflects the hopes and fears which swayed the masses for over fifteen himdred years, and reflects them more directly than any other class of contemporary literature. All the strange erratic thotights which seem now but the otitgrowth of a morbid fantasy, so is

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grotesqtieand unmeaning do they appiar were once full of life and keen signiticance, and had the power to move the readers to the depths of

Historical their being. The imea.siness and solici'Value. tude about the approaching end of the world, which were of constant recurrence during the Middle Ages, were nothing more than the impression made by the threats and promises of the apocalypses upon minds already susceptible and excited by external events. And in the history of the Jews in particular, the apocalypse was one of the most telling factors, contributing, as it did in such large meastire, to determine the uni(|Ue course of

its

development until long after the close of the Middle Ages. The courage and persistency in their belief which the Jews have shown from the time of the Maccabees

down

to nindern

times,

their indomitable

hope under persecution, their scorn of death, were The all nourished by the Apocalyptic Literature. darker their present grew, the more desperate their condition in the later medieval period, the more eagerly did their minds turn to the comfort offered by the apocalyptic promises which predicted the end of their suffering and the dawn of their delivery.

The followingoutlinesof

the separate apocalypses

will illustrate the characteristics of the Neo-Hebrew apocalyptic. Only certain general points, however, are treated here, as the preliminary investigation, upon which any exhaustive treatment would have to be based, has not yet been made in this branch of Apocalyplir Literature.

Enoch

(Hanok), lljn ISO: Even 1. Book of to the ]ir(scnt day this book has been confounded with " Pirke llekalot.'' also sjiid to have been written

up

by R. Ishmael, and hence has been called erroneously That the "Book of Enoch" is the original title is established by a manuscript in the Bodleian Lil)rary. and by the fact that the apocalypse is quoted under that name in the older medieval literature. There are two editions of this book, one by Jellinek, bearing the title Nnpjl nhz'^n "ISD ni^3'n "ISD-

"Iljn

-IDD

p

DJ ("Bet ha-Midrash," 1873,

v.

170-

iriving the text of the Munich Codex, Ko. 40, f. 1214-132 (not f. 94-102. as there described by JelliUtil).

nek). The other appeared under the title ni73'n "ISD ^na pa fjsyoc" 'l X:nnD (printed together with a prayer attributed to R. Ishmael), in fjemberg. 1864, and was reprinted in Enoch. Warsaw, 187.5. According to the titlepage, the latter gives the textof a very old manuscript, and in many cases has better readings than Jellinek's edition. An unedited manuscript of this apocalypse is in the Bodleian Library (Op-

Book

of

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