Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/756

APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. wag found for treating of a variety of occult subjects. The ' purpose of these works was to vindicate God's ways to the faithful, who were sorely tried by the apparent triumph of the wicked, i.e., the heathen without and the irre- ligious within Israel. The fundamental ideas represented are those of the Phari.saic .Tudaism of the popular, non-scholastic type — legalistic indeed, but full of passionate earnestness. This literature is pseudepigraphic. The various writ- ings were put forth iinder the name of ancient worthies, long since dead, as Enoch or Moses. Hence the form of statement is largely pre- dictive. But it is not difficult, in most cases, to see that the pretended prediction is but the resumf of past history. Where the pseudo- prophecy ends and the attempt at prediction really begins, the author is seen to be dealing with his own times, and the date of the work is thus betrayed. The tone of these works is one of great assurance, well adapted to deceive the uncritical. They were once widely accepted as genuine prophecies, and as such found a warm reception in the Christian Church during the first four or five centuries. In time they began to be looked upon with suspicion, and were gradually dropped from use, except in the less enlightened circles of the Church. Several of the most important are known to-day only in such translations as the Ethiopic or Syriac, though written originally in Hebrew (Aramaic) or Greek. Tliese works are of value to-day because of the insight they afford us into the growth of esehatological and Messianic doctrines among the Jewish people jiist previous to the rise of Christianity, especially since these doctrines liave, in a purified form, found a permanent place in the Christian system.

The following list contains all the titles about which anything positive can be asserted. Many such works liave probably been lost. ( 1 ) The Book of Enoch is .a compilation from several sources. Nearly all of the book is to be dated before B.C. fi.3. It professes to give revelations to Enoch of the deliverance of Israel and the coming of the Slessianic Kingdom. It also con- tains much about angels and supramundane matters. The book is quoted in Jude 14. (2) The Sibylline Oracles were originally a "Jewish work under a heathen mask," in imitation of the utterances of the heathen Sibyls, but written in wretched Greek hexameter. The present col- lection in fourteen books represents the growth from beginnings made by Hellenistic Jews in the second century B.C. The latter portions are by Christian hands. The oldest and mo.st im- portant parts are in Book iii., lines 97-828. These oracles were highly esteemed and fre- quently quoted by the early Chur<-h Fathers. (3) The Psalms of Holomon. A collection of eighteen patriotic and religious psalms, written originally in Hebrew ( now extant only in Greek) shortly after Pompey made Judsea sub- ject to Kome (B.C. (13). The apocalyptic ele- ment in these is very small. Psalm xvii. con- tains strong Messianic hopes. These psalras are interesting for comparison with the early Christian hymns in Liike i. and ii. (4) The Book of Jubilees, or Leptoijenesis (Little Genesis), purports to be a revelation made to Moses of the course of events from Adam to Moses's own day. The history is divided into fifty periods of fifty years each; hence the name of the book. The outline is, of cour.se, that of Genesis, but groat liberties are taken with the text. Deeds of patriarchs not approved in Genesis are even praised: the patriarchs are all strict legalists. The hook was written near the beginning of the Christian era. (5) The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs gives the dying exhortations of each of the twelve sons of .Jacob to his children. Each testament deals with some virtue or fault which the patriarch exemplified in his life, and also contains predictions relating to the future of his descendants. These predictive portions have been largely worked over by Christian hands. The original Jewish parts belong to the First, possibly the Second, Century B.C. (6) Liber Aniiquitatnm Bibliarum is the title of a pseudo-Philonic work somewhat similar to Fourth Esdras. It is perhaps pre-Cliristian in date. (7) The Secrets of Enoch is a portion of the once extensive Enoch literature. It is extant only in a Slavonic version. It contains a great deal about Paradise, the several heavens, angels, the secrets of creation, the millennium, and similar subjects. The first century a.d. is its most prob- able date. (8) The Assumption of Moses, or Testament of Moses, written shortly after the death of TIcrod (B.C. 4). gives the parting com- munications of Moses to his successor, .Joshua, in which he unfolds the course of Israel's his- torj' down to the time of the successors of Herod. Incidentally the work furnishes a valu- able view of the attitude of the Pharisees toward the Sadducees. (9) The Apoeah/pse of Baruch is one of several Baruch books once current in .Jewish circles. It dates from a.d. ,'50-90, and illustrates the Jlessianic hopes of Pharisaic Judaism just before and after the fall of Jeru- salem, 70 A.D. ( 10) Fourth Esdras [Second Esdras in the English Apocrypha of the Old Testament) contains seven alleged visions of Ezra, the famous scribe. His grief over the hard fate of Zion is relieved by the revelation of the coming Jlessianic era and punishment of the wicked. The book was written by .a .Jew, prob.ably about 81-9fi A.D., but has been revised and added to by Christian hands. ( 11 ) The Ascension of Isaiah is a compilation containing ( 1 ) The Martyrdom, (2) The Vision, and (3) an Apocalypse treating of the history of the Church to the end of the Xeronian persecution. The compilation was made about 100 a.d. Only The Martyrdom is of Jewish origin.

The following apocalyptic works are of minor importance: (12) The variovis Adam books. (13) The Testament of Abraham. (14) The Rest of the ^^'ords of Baruch. (15) The Prophecy of Bystaspes. (10) The Prayer of Joseph. (17) The Prophecy of Eldad and .Vodad. (18) The Apocalypse of Elijah. (19) The Apocalypse of Zevhaniah. (20) The various .Yoa ft books'. (21) The Book of Zoroaster. (22) The Book of Scth. In the foregoing article no mention has been made of the very large number of apocalyptic writings of distinctly Christian origin which were produced from the Second Century onwards, to satisfy an unhealthy craving for the occult and marvelous, or to embellish the stories of the saints. For these and the "She]iherd of Hennas," see Atocbtpha {of the Xew Testament) . For the two canonical apocalypses, The Book of Daniel and The Revelation of St. John, see the special articles treating of the same.

. Deane, Pseudepinrapha (New York. 1891): Schiirer. History of the Jewish People in the Times of Jesus Christ, §§ 32-33