APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE

two centuries before Christ. It was probably written In Hebrew or Aramaic, and then translated into Greek, and from that into Ethiopic and Latin. As it now exists, the collection is a survival of a wide-spread Enoch Uterature, and its constituent sections have been to a considerable extent edited by both Jews and Christians. Critics, while varying as to details, are fairly well agreed as to the main component sources, each probably representing a different author or school.

(i.) The original ground-work of the present book is to be found in chs. 1-36 and 72-104, in the midst of which are, however, numerous interpolations (see iv. below). These chapters were probably written befores.c. 100. Chs. 1-36 deal chiefly with the portrayal of the punishment to be awarded the enemies of the Jews and sinners generally on the Day of Judgment. The esohatology of these chapters is somewhat sensuous as regards both the resurrection and rewards and punishments. In them we have probably the oldest piece of Jewish literature touching the general resur-rection of Israel and representing Gehenna as a place of final punishment (see Gehenna).

The dream visions (chs. 83-90) were probably written in the time of Judas Maccabaeus or John Hyrcanus. By the use of symbolic animals — sheep, rams, wild beasts — Hebrew history is traced to the days of the Hasmonsean revolt. The years of misery are represented by a flock under seventy shepherds, who, in the new age about to dawn, are to be east with the evil men and angels into an abyss of fire. The Messiah is then to appear, although his function is not definitely described. In en. 91 the future is somewhat more trauscendentally described.

In the later chapters of this oldest section the new escha-tology is more apparent. In them are to be found repre-sentations of the sleep of the righteous, the resurrection of the spirit of the Messiah, though human, as God's Son (1052), the Day of Judgment, and the punishment of the wicked in hell.

(ii.) Whether ornotthesecondgroupof chapters (37-71), or the Similitudes, is post- or pre-Christian has been thoroughly discussed. The general consensus of recent critics, however, is that the Similitudes were probably written somewhere between B.C. 94 and 64: at all events, before the time of Herod. The most remarkable characteristic of these Similitudes is the use of the term 'Son of Man' for the Messiah. But it is not possible to see in the use of this term any reference to the historical Jesus. More likely it marks a stage in the development of the term from the general symbolic usage of Dn V^ to the strictly Messianic content of the NT. In the Similitudes we find described the judgment of all men, both alive and dead, as well as of angels. Yet the future is still to some extent sensuous, although transcendental influences are very evident in the section. The Messiah pre-exists and is more than a man. The share which he has m the reorganization of the world is more prominent than in the older sections.

(iii.) Interspersed throughout the book are sections which Charles calls the book of celestial physics.' These sections are one of the curiosities of scientific literature, and may be taken as a fair representative of the astronomical and meteorological beliefs of the Palestinian Jews about the time of Christ.

(iv.) Interpolations from the so-called Book of Noah, which are very largely the work of the last part of the pre-Christian era, although it is not possible to state accurately the date of their composition.

The importance of Enoch is great for the understand-ing of the eschatology of the NT and the methods of apocalyptic.

(6) The (Slavonic) Secrets of Enoch probably had a pre-Christian original, and further, presupposes the existence of the Ethiopic Enoch. It could not, there-fore, have been written much prior to the time of Herod, and, as the Temple is still standing, must have been written before a.d. 70. The author (or authors) was probably a Hellenistic Jew living in the first half of the 1st cent. A.D. The book is particularly interesting in that in it is to be found the first reference to the millennium (xxxii. 2-xxxiii. 2), which is derived from a combination of the seven creative days and Ps 90'. At the close of the six thousand years, the new day, or Sabbath of the thousand years, was to begin. The Secrets of Enoch is a highly developed picture of the coming age and of the structure of the heaven, which, it holds, is seven-fold. Here, too, are the Judgment, though of

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APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE

individuals rather than of nations, the two seons, the complete renovation or destruction of the earth. There is no mention of a resurrection, and the righteous are upon death to go immediately to Paradise.

2. The Book of Jubilees is a Haggadist commentary on Genesis, and was probably written in the Maccabsean period, although its date is exceedingly uncertain, and may possibly be placed in the latter half of the last cent. B.C. In this writing angelology and demonology are well developed. While there is no mention of the Messiah, the members of the Messianic age are to live a thousand years, and are to be free from the influence or control of Satan. The book contains no doctrine of the res-urrection; but spirits are immortal. While there is punishment of the wicked, and particularly of evil spirits and the enemies of Israel, the Judgment is not thoroughly correlated with a general eschatological scheme. The chief object of the book is to incite the Jews to a greater devotion to the Law, and the book is legalistic — rather than idealistic.

The 'new age' was to be inaugurated by wide-spread study of the Law, to which the Jews would be forced by terrible suffering. Certain passages would seem to imply a resurrection of the dead and a renewing of all creation along with the endless punishment of the wicked.

3. The Psalms o£ Solomon — a group of noble songs, written by a Pharisee (or Pharisees) probably between B.C. 70 and 40, the dates being fixed by reference to the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the death of Pompey (Ps-Sol ii. 30, 31). The collection is primarily a justification of the downfall of the Maccabiean house because of its sins. Its author (or authors) was opposed to monarchy as such, and looked forward to the time when the Messiah would really be king of Judaea. The picture of this king as set forth in Psalms xvii-xviii is one of the noblest in Jewish literature. He is to be neither sufferer nor teacher, pre-existent nor miracu-lously born. He is not to be a priest, or warrior. He is to be sinless, strong through the Holy Spirit, gaining his wisdom from God, conquering the entire heathen world without war, 'by the word of his mouth,' and to establish the capital of the world at Jerusalem. AU the members of the new kingdom, which, like the Messiah, is miraculous, are to be 'sons of God.' These two Psalms are not of a kin with the ordinary apocalyptic literature like the Enoch literature, and probably represent a tendency more religious than apocalyptic. At the same time, the influence of the apocalyptic is not wanting in them.

4. The Assumption of Moses was probably written in the opening years of the 1st cent, a.d., and narrates in terms of prophecy the history of the world from the time of Moses until the time of its composition, ending in an eschatological picture of the future. As it now stands, the writing is hardly more than a fragment of a much larger work, and exists only in an old Latin translation. The most striking characteristic is the importance given to Satan as the opponent of God, as well as the rather elaborate portrayal of the end of the age it narrates. The Judgment is to be extended to the Gentiles, but no Messiah is mentioned, the Messianic kingdom rather than He being central. Further, the writer, evidently in fear of revolutionary tendencies among his people, says distinctly that God alone-is to be judge of the Gentiles.

5. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a com-posite work purporting to preserve the last words of the twelve sons of Jacob. It was probably written during the first two centuries of the Christian era, although some of its material may be earlier. As it now stands, it is full of Christian interpolations, and it has little apocalyptic material, being rather of the nature of homilies illustrated with much legendary matter, including eschatological pictures and references to demons and their king Beliar. The new age is not