THE JEWISH MESSIAH.

BOOK I.

SOURCES.

GENERAL REMARKS.

As the sources from which our information respecting Jewish belief is drawn are not very familiar to the English reader, and as some of them are still the subjects of critical discussion, it is necessary to prefix to our account of the Messianic idea a sketch of the literature on which we must rely as we unfold its successive phases. We need not, indeed, pause upon those writings of which an adequate knowledge may readily be obtained from English works, but content ourselves with referring, when occasion requires, to some of the leading authorities respecting them. This remark applies chiefly to the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, with the exception of II. Esdras. These, though not wholly devoid of interest in the present connection, yet throw so little light upon our inquiry, that a discussion of their probable origin and date would be out of place. In the case of some other compositions, in regard to which the results of criticism are

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sufficiently established for our purpose, the most essential points will be laid briefly before the reader, while a more complete investigation will be reserved for those productions about which a wide difference of opinion prevails. With these preliminary observations, we may proceed at once to the consideration of an important class of literature the apocalyptic.

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CHAPTER I.

THE APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE.

SECTION I. Introductory.

THE name of Apocalyptic Literature has been applied in recent times to a series of writings connected together by the possession of common characteristics, which find their earliest type in the Book of Daniel, and most of which reappear in the Apocalypse of John. This last circumstance has suggested a designation for the entire group; and the term apocalyptic may be fitly used to distinguish compositions of this class from the prophetical writings, to which, in some of their aspects, they are closely akin. It was impossible to treat all these works together as forming one literary species, so long as canonical and extra-canonical books were separated by an impassable line; and it was, therefore, reserved for the freer thought of modern days, and indeed for the researches of the present century, to draw forth to light the curious treasures which they contain. Fabricius made the earliest, and necessarily a very imperfect, collection of the apocalyptic writings in his Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti,' published at Hamburg in 1713. Semler, Corrodi, Eichhorn, and others, made valuable advances towards a more thorough study of the subject; but the honour of giving the most marked impulse to the investigation of this class of literature belongs to an English

scholar. In 1819, Richard Laurence (afterwards Archbishop of Cashel) published the Anabaticon or Ascension of Isaiah, in Æthiopic, along with an English and a Latin translation. In the following year he issued the Æthiopic text of 4th Ezra, accompanied also by translations into English and Latin.. But the most important work appeared in 1821 in the form of an English translation of the Book of Enoch from an Ethiopic manuscript. In the earliest of these years, 1819, the investigations of Bleek (to be more fully referred to further on) threw an unexpected light upon the Sibylline Oracles. From this time several German theologians, enriched by these new materials, have directed especial attention to the apocalyptic literature. Their most important works will be mentioned as we proceed.

We must now glance at the historical origin and leading characteristics of this literature. After the destruction of Jewish independence the creative prophetic impulse gradually died away, and was superseded by study and interpretation. While the exposition of the Law strengthened the people's attachment to their monotheistic faith, and deepened their aversion to heathenism, the triumph of the great pagan empires over the afflicted. Israelites must have appeared a strange reversal of the old ideal of the prophets. The disposition of a number of the people to submit quietly to hellenizing influences, stirred the grief and zeal of those who valued the principles of the ancient religion; and at last the violence of Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated the Temple with a heathen altar, in 168 B.C., drove the patriotic party into armed revolt under the leadership of the Maccabees. The forces of heathenism recoiled before the shock; and when, in the year 165 B C., Judas purified the Temple, it might well seem that the long-promised reign of the chosen

people could not be far off. Out of this conflict sprang the apocalyptic literature, the strange product of blended political and religious enthusiasm. It attached itself to ancient prophecy, on which its hopes depended, and from the interpretation of which it sought to anticipate the fulfilment of times and seasons. Its process of interpretation is, however, for the most part concealed, and it speaks not in the style of an expositor, but of a prophet, and accordingly couches its language, not in the past, but in the future. This may explain the fact that it generally chooses as its mouthpiece some ancient worthy, who lived before the period which it undertakes to survey. Enoch, Moses, Ezra, Baruch, and even the heathen Sibyl are pressed into the service. The Apocalypse of John can hardly be treated as an exception to this rule, because it does not deal with old-world history, and the author might therefore speak in his own person. In some cases the retrospect extends over the whole course of mundane events, and a sort of divine plan of human affairs (perhaps the first vague anticipation of a philosophy of history) is sketched out. The object of this retrospect was to prepare the way for what to the real writer was still predictive. God's righteous judgments were to come speedily upon the world, and the most glorious hopes of Israel to be fulfilled. This kind of composition proceeds, not so much from the matter-of-fact intellect, as from a dreamy and imaginative enthusiasm, from that mystic frame of mind which sees a permanent conflict of principles amid the unsubstantial forms of a transient world; and it is, therefore, quite in keeping with their whole purpose that the writers so often clothe their thoughts in the drapery of curious symbols, such as present themselves in dreams. and visions.

The eschatological portion of these books is what