of divine help, they felt that the end could not be consummated in a mere 'judgment of the heathen,' but fixed their eyes again upon the faded image of Messiah, and saw their fullest hope only through the strife and trials which should accompany His advent. In the moment of victory they knew that its issue was transient. The temporal glory of a conqueror was insufficient to satisfy the hopes of the nation, and Simon was appointed 'ruler and high-priest for ever until there arose a faithful prophet'.' A corresponding change passed over their literature. The last echo of the prophets passed away in the Book of Baruch, the writer of which, after confession and reproof, describes in the magnificent imagery of Isaiah the future triumphs of Jerusalem2. But now Revelation succeeded to the place of Prophecy. It seemed that the time was come when the veil might be raised from the counsels of God; and the seer pointed to all things working together for the immediate and final crisis". 1 I Macc. xiv. 41. Cf. iv. 46; ix. 27. Yet it is #popýrns, not προφήτης (John i. 21). It is extremely difficult to determine the date of the Book of Baruch. Possibly it was written shortly before or after the war of liberation; but on some accounts I should prefer an earlier date. The first part (i-iii. 8) is evidently derived from a Hebrew original; and the Greek translator of this part probably added the conclusion (iii. 9-end). * A revelation (åπoxáλvis) with its specific purpose, its artificial plan, its symbolic imagery, its angelic ministrations, possessing at once the unity of a poem and the gorgeousness of a dream, is in itself the last step in the development of prophecy. It is also the most attrative form in which hope can be offered to a people which has learnt to feel even in the deepest afflictions that they form the turning point of CHAP. I. CHAP. I. (a) Apocalypses. Henoch. 4 Esdras. In addition to the 'Revelations' of Daniel', two Jewish Apocalypses still remain, the Book of Henoch and the so-called fourth Book of Esdras, which show with singular clearness in what way the writings of Daniel served as the foundation for later dreams. Both exist only in translations, but otherwise, as it appears, with few deviations from their original form. The former is evidently of Eastern, and probably of Palestinian origin, while the latter with equal certainty may be ascribed to Egypt. Both contain numerous data which seem to point to the period of their composition, but, at the same time, these are so ambiguous as to have received the most various explanations. Without entering into the details of the question, it appears most probable that the books were written at periods separated by about a century, Henoch during the later times of the Greco-Syrian empire, and Esdras when the power of Rome was everywhere dominant in the East, and Octavian undisputed master of the empire2. But however this may be, there can be no doubt that both Apocalypses represent purely Jewish notions; and dealing with the problems which Christianity solved, at no great interval from the time when the great answer was given, they yield in strange interest to few records of antiquity. Even in respect of style, as well as of substance, they by its definiteness: its form is hu- 1 This is not the place to enter on the judgment of the Jewish Church, and not on the date of its composition. If it can be demonstrated that it belongs to the Maccabean era, it remains just as much as before a part of Scripture, and a divine comment on history. 2 The general character of the book at first sight suggests a date shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem, and this has been adopted by Gfrörer, Wieseler, and Bauer; but the description of the three heads " (c. XI.) appears to point to the times of the Triumvirates. Cf. Hilgenf 218 ff. repay careful study. The spirit of God's ancient people CHAP. I. is indeed no longer clothed in the utterance of divine prophets, but it is not yet shrouded in a dress of idle fables. There are symptoms of increasing degeneracy and faithlessness in the later book, but when Henoch and Esdras were written, the words of inspiration were still powerful to rein the fancy and shape the visions of seers, and the wildest imaginings which they contain make little approach to the trifling of the Talmudists1. ratives. At the same time that prophetic hopes reappeared under) Didactic narthe form of Revelations, prophetic history gave rise to those striking narratives of individual life, Tobit and Judith, which present the popular ideal of virtue, courage and patience. For these the book of Esther offered a Scriptural model, as that of Daniel for the Apocalypses and Ecclesiastes for the books of Wisdom. Nor can it be unworthy of notice that the latest books in the Canon offer a complete parallel in theme and manner to the works which followed, while they are clearly distinguished from them even by outward marks of power and originality. As time advanced imagination supplied the place of vision, and fiction was substituted for history. The book of Tobit is at once the oldest, the most natural Tobit. and the most beautiful of the scenes of later Jewish life. The legalism of Jerusalem is softened down in the regions of the far East, and it would be impossible to find a more touching image of holiness and piety, according to the current type, than that of the Israelite captives at Nineveh. The various ties of family are hallowed by the presence of pure love. The righteousness of works appears in deeds of affection and mercy rather than in forms of simple ritual. 1 Compare, for instance, the allusion to Leviathan and Behemoth in Henoch lx. 7, with the wellknown Talmudic legend. The book of Esdras contains the legend in a transition state, vi. 49-52. The Apocalypses of Henoch and Esdras will come under notice more particularly in the next chapter. Judith. success. CHAP. I. The power of private prayer is exalted by its manifold The belief in the eternal purposes of God is firm and constant; and hope is proportionately clear and strong. The book of Judith is conceived in a far different strain. The ordinary relations of a household are changed for the most terrible dangers of war: holiness in living for valour in daring. It was written apparently when a season of conflict was still impending, and the memory of deliverance still fresh. A woman, and she a widow, is able to overcome the captain of the king of all the earth' by the power of the God of her fathers. There is none that may gainsay her words' or her confidence; and why should Israel tremble before Syria? Faith can yet do what faith has done1. 1 Maccabees. The first book of the Maccabees is the only Palestinian record of the heroic struggle which was inspired by such a 2 Maccabees. hope, and is simple, natural and accurate. The second book, of African origin, is more ambitious, and at times legendary; but both are destitute of that prophetic insight which elsewhere makes the chronicles of the Jews a commentary on the fulfilment of the Divine counsels. 2. The Jews in Egypt. The Septua gint The relics of the ante-Christian literature of Palestine terminate with the first Book of Maccabees; but meanwhile, the Jewish spirit in Egypt had not been inactive. The Greek Bible had preserved that real union with ancient Israel which the disuse of the Temple-service had threatened to destroy; and from the first the growth of independence and thought was more rapid among the Jews of Alexandria than among those of Palestine. The city itself was stamped with the impress of no distinct nation 1 The numerous recensions in which the Books of Tobit and Judith-like those of Esther and Daniel -exist, is a sufficient proof of the wide popularity which they enjoyed. Cf. Fritzsche, Exeg. Handb. Einl. Tob. $$ 3-8; Jud. §§ 2-5. The Book of Jubilees perhaps may be added, cf. Ch. 11. (i) (8). The Targums were rather the gradual embodiments of tradition than spontaneous literary works. CHAP. I. ality, and controversy was inevitable in a place where every system found its representatives. But the Law and the prophets still continued to guide the philosophy of the Dispersion; and the Greek dress in which they were clothed prepared for after times the means of expressing intelligibly the principles of Christianity. The history of the LXX is obscure and perplexed1. So much, however, at least is clear, that the Pentateuch was translated first, no long time after the first settlement of the Jews, and that the other books were added at various intervals before the middle of the second century B. C.2 The character of the Alexandrine Church has not failed to influence the translation; and, in some respects, it is rather an adaptation than a reproduction of the original. Even in the Pentateuch the traces of a growing refinement are discernible. The most remarkable anthropomorphic phrases are softened, and 'the glory of the modified the Lord' is substituted for His personal presence. Some pre- and paration, at least, is made for the distinction of the Creator from Jehovah; and the narrative of the creation is moulded according to the current conceptions of a primary ideal world and of the constitution of man's nature3. The variations in the prophets are still more remarkable; and it seems difficult to explain the omissions which occur, except by the supposition of some intentional reserve in publishing the expected glories of Messiah1. The work of Hody, De Bibliorum Text. Orig., Oxon, 1705, is still the most important original investigation of the LXX. Frankel Vorstudien zu der LXX. Leipz. 1841) deals well with details of language and orthography. Grinfield (Apology for the LXX. London, 1850) pleads for the authority of the translation. 2 It is a coincidence too remarkable to be left unnoticed, that about the same time at which the translation of the Pentateuch was compicted, Manetho, an Egyptian priest, published in Greek the first authen- 3 Cf. Gfrörer, a. a. O. II. ff. 8 ff.; original text, |