2. Messianism of Earlier Part of Enoch
probably be referred to about 110
B.C.
The Messiah appears
in chaps. lxxxv.
xc. For the period between the de
struction of Jerusalem and the erection
of the
Messianic kingdom, Israel will
be placed by
God under seventy shep
herds (lxxsia. 59). The seventy years of servitude
of Jeremiah become seventy heathen rulers, who
each reign for one hour, as in Daniel for seventy
weeks of years. The shepherds are not human
kings but angels of the peoples (Von Hofmann,
Schürer), each feeds his flock for one hour. The
first
(Aseyrio-Babylonian) period comprises twelve
hours (lxxaix. 72), the second twenty-three hours
(Cyrus to Alexander; the reading of the text,
"thirty-five," includes the preceding twelve); this
is the central point of the era (xc. 1). After this
follow other twenty-three hours (Alexander to Antiochus Epiphanes, xc. 5) and twelve still
remain
from Antiochus to the time of the writer (xc. 17).
If the great horn (xc. 9) refers to Hyrcanus, then
the time of this ruler must be looked upon as that of
the author. After this goat with the great horn has
been sorely beset by all nations, the saving angel appears and causes the destruction of the enemies. The
nations fall beneath the sword of the obedient sheep,
that is, the faithful Israelites. God sets up his throne
in the holy land and holds his judgment there over
the fallen angels, and also over the seventy shepherds; they are found guilty and cast into a fiery
abyss. Into a similar fiery pit, which opens up at
the right of the house of God (Gehinnom), come the
blinded sheep, that is, the apostate Jews. Thereupon God erects a new temple wherein he dwells in
the midst of the good sheep, before whom the remaining nations bow down in adoration. The scattered and slain sheep are also gathered together
again in this house. Then a white steer is born,
the Messiah, to whom all nations do homage, and
thereupon all the sheep change into white steers,
that is to say, into men resembling patriarchs (for
the first men from Adam on have appeared to the
seer as white and black steers, h=v. 3 sqq.). This
first-born steer of the new race, however, the Messiah, changes into a buffalo [wild ox] with large
black horns. Since then the tried companions of the
kingdom become like the Messiah, he himself is exalted and becomes a superior being. The vision closes
harmoniously with the untroubled joy of God in all
men. Here the Messiah does not erect the kingdom of God on earth and also does not hold the
last judgment, but only appears at the end, after
the earth has been purified and subjected to God,
as the keystone of the edifice.
3. The Psalms of Solomon
It is otherwise in the Psalms of Solomon (see
Pseudepigrapha),
which show that in the middle
of the last century before Christ a vigorous interposition in history for the salvation of his people
was expected
from the Messiah. These
may be more exactly assigned
Psalms
to about the period 63-45
B.C.
The
Messianic hope must have penetrated
deeply into the popular mind at that
Period, especially among the Pharisees (cf., e.g.,
iii. 8 sqq.), and the idea that eternal salvation was
promised to Israel was firmly held (xi. 7, xii. 6,
xiv. 4-5, 9-10, xv. 12-13). More definitely, a salutary action was awaited from the "Son of David,"
the "anointed of the Lord," whom God will raise
up, that he may conquer the heathen rulers, purify
the desecrated land of the Lord, gather together
the members of his people and reestablish their
nationality, while the heathen do homage to him
(xvii. 21 sqq.). He is just and sinless and brings to
his people eternal peace and eternal salvation, so
that to live beneath his rule will be a blessed condition.
Much more highly developed is the conception
of the Messiah contained in the later portion of the
Book of Enoch, chaps. xxxvii.-hnti., written after
38
B.C.
While in the older book the
