I. Preliminary Discussion. | Contents and Composition (§ 1). | 10-11. The Baruch Apocalypses. |
Name and Place in Study (§ 1). | Date (§ 2). | 12-21. Other Apocalypses. |
Object and Character (§ 2). | 5. The Slavonic Enoch. | 22-23. Protoplasts and Twelve Patriarchs. |
Varied Interests Touched (§ 3). | 6. The Assumption of Moses. | 24-32. Other Testaments. |
Transmission (§ 4). | 7. II (IV) Ezra. | IV. Historical Pseudepigrapha. |
lI. Poetic Pseudepigrapha. | Texts, Editions, and Character (§ 1). | 33. Jubilees. |
1-3. The Psalms of Solomon, etc. | Contents and Date (§ 2). | 34. The Martyrdom of Isaiah. |
III. Prophetic Pseudepigrapha. | 8. V and VI Ezra. | 35-41. Other Historical Pseudepigrapha. |
4. The Ethiopic Enoch. | 9. The Logos of Ezra. | V. Philosophical Pseudepigrapha. |
By Pseudepigrapha is commonly understood in the Protestant Church a series of writings having a Biblical cast of character which in some ecclesiastical regions have been held in more or less regard, but which, so far as is known, are not found in the manuscripts of the Greek Bible or in the Vulgate. "Pseudepigrapha" is not altogether a happy title, since in both canonical writings and in the Apocrypha there are books which bear a name not that of the author; yet since
334 |
These writings, so far as they are Jewish in origin, are a product of the late period in the development of that religion, partly belonging to 170-135 B.C. They have a polemic purpose against heathenism both within and without the Jewish fold, and the key word is separation from the Gentiles. On another side the purpose was a strongly framed Jewish propaganda. The writings constitute a national theodicy, the apotheosis of a Judaism that was hastening to its fall. Bound up with an inherent apology for Judaism was the intent to strengthen believers in their faith. Since the persecutions by the Greek overlord, the Jew had been prepared to suffer and to die for the Law which had been the ground of the persecution, expecting his reward in the blessedness of the final eon attained through resurrection. The chief concern of these writings is, therefore, revelation concerning this final state, and many of them bear the name apocalypse or revelation of the end. This is true whether the method is haggadic-midrashic or philosophic. In the eschatological treatment of the future the varied hopes of preexilic prophecy become magnified into gigantic illusion, furthered in part by the magnitude of the world powers concerned. While the predictions of Amos and his contemporaries seemed to have been ended by the exile, the hopes of the Deutero-Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Joel for a Jerusalem which was to be the world-city of the future were seized upon, and the thought of the times pictured a future beyond a final conflict which was to end the present age and usher in a new one born of heaven. This heaven, however, was not the old one, but a new and spiritualized one already foreshadowed in Isaiah xl. sqq. The world of the then present belonged to the heathen; God had given it up to angels to govern, and was permitting the evil to rule. This dualism was to come to an end in the final day, and Satan was to be shut up in hell; the kingdom of darkness was to give way to the kingdom of light. Then Israel was to come into its own as the dominant nation, though as a newborn Israel of such character that its triumph was to be that of the good over the bad. In some of the minor apocalypses alone did the preexistent Messiah figure; elsewhere God was in the foreground. In order to gain strength to endure the last period of distress, the reawakened hopes of Israel for a better world drew upon the most varied sources, including a mythological and esoteric philosophy of nature, by which to solve the riddle of the past and the future. As Saul sought the witch of Endor to read for him what the future held, so the new seers sought answer to their questioning even in heathen mantic. They underwent a course of discipline to gain the position of adepts in the unraveling of the future. The apocalyptic therefore takes on a half heathen, half monotheistic dress, and out of this come the imagery of beasts, and predictions made by means of secrets and riddles and numbers (see APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE, JEWISH). This apocalyptic became the new medium of the propaganda, the new wisdom. As a result, such literature as, e.g., the Book of Enoch, reads like a narrative of great wonders in nature and history, serving curiosity rather than edification. It satisfied, however, the taste of the times for the grotesque. But the form required was that of prophecy, and pseudonymity naturally took the form of apocalyptic. The new prophecy put on the mantle of the old in order to veil itself from the observation of the overlords. The names of Biblical heroes became the designation of communities of disciples, who probably revered saintwise the hero whose name they took. The past was portrayed in the dress of the future, and this feature is sometimes of value in determining the date of the writing. The seer receives readier credence because he is believed in his spiritual state to read the records in heaven, where all is recorded, and to traverse all space and all regions with angels as his guides. The apocalyptic of these writings assumes to be the successor of the earlier prophecy, continues the prediction of the final judgment and of the era of salvation in which this judgment issues, but with the added elements of the transcendental and the universal as constituents of the total presentation.
The character of these books, therefore, makes them appeal to varied interests. They contain indications of facts in the realm of the history of culture and religion; they teach much concerning the character of later Judaism, supplementing the canonical writings of the Old Testament and revealing the receptivity exhibited by Jews toward ethnic influences in the period of the creation of these books; they bridge the gap between the Old Testament and the New, heralding the new ideas which appear in the latter. The ideas and imagery of the pseudepigraphic writings influenced not only the Christians of the first generations, but they continued to be reflected in the productions and thought-world of the Middle Ages. The profounder knowledge gained by the present age of the culture of the ancient East has shown that even the culture of the present is ringed about and conditioned by what appears in the writings under consideration;
335 |
The number of Jewish and Christian pseudepigraphic writings must once have been great. Jewish legend ascribes to Enoch no fewer than 366, the Mohammedan legend only thirty. The
The eighteen Psalms of Solomon which sometimes are found in manuscripts of the Septuagint and are reckoned among the Antilegomena (see CANON OFSCRIPTURE, II., 7) or the Apocrypha, were first edited by the Jesuit De la Cerda in 1626, after which editions by Fabricius (1722), Hilgenfeld (1868-69), Geiger (1871), Fritzsche (1871), Wellhausen (transl., 1874), and Pick (Eng. transl., Presbyterian Review, 1883) were patterned. A new edition on critical principles was issued by Ryle and James (1891), Swete (in his ed. of the Septuagint, vol. iii., 1894), Von Gebhardt (TU, xiii. 2, 1895), and Kittel (1900). The psalms were originally in Hebrew, and were translated into Greek for the Greek-speaking Jewish diaspora. Solomonic authorship is excluded by internal evidence. Of the two hypotheses, that they were written in his name or were afterward given the name, the second is the more likely. The nucleus of the collection is traceable to the time of the overthrow of the Maccabean rule by Pompey, whose death in Egypt was known to the writer. Pompey is frequently referred to (
To be treated here are the apocalypses (nos. 4-21 below) and the testaments (nos. 22-32). 4. The Ethiopic Enoch: The Book of Enoch, cited in Jude 14-15, known in whole or in part to the author of Jubilees and mentioned in the Apocalypses of Ezra and Baruch, enjoyed a popularity little less than canonical in the ancient Church until the time of Jerome, and even beyond that was treasured in the Greek, particularly the Alexandrian, Church. It came to the knowledge of European scholars in the eighteenth century, when in 1773 Bruce acquired three manuscripts from Abyssinia, and the editio princeps was published by Laurence in 1838. Important investigations have been made by Dillmann, Schodde, Charles, Beer, and Fleming. While the Ethiopic text is based upon a Greek original, the question of a Hebrew or Aramaic text back of this is still under debate. In its present form the book divides into three principal parts: an introduction on the imminent world-judgment, 336
translation and reception as son of man; (c)
Among the oldest strata must be placed the apocalypse of the ten weeks,
5. The Slavonic Enoch: This was published by Popow in 1880, in a shorter recension by Nowakowitch in 1884, by Charles and Morfill, Oxford, 1896, in German translation by Bonwetach, Göttingen, 1896. The Slavonic is derived from a Greek text, and is not dependent upon the Ethiopic Enoch. Enoch's travels through the seven heavens are narrated in
6. The Assumption of Moses: This work was known from Origen's De principiis (III., ii. 1) as the source of the quotation in Jude 9. A large fragment was found by Ceriani in the Ambrosian Library at Milan in 1861 and by him published. It has since been published or translated by Hilgenfeld 1866, 1876, Volkmar 1867, Schmidt and Merx 1868, Fritzsche 1871, Charles 1897, and Clemen, in Kautzsch's Apokryphen, Tübingen, 1902. A Hebrew or Aramaic origin is probable. According to chap. i., Moses when 120 years old and in the year of the world 2500 gave this secret book to Joshua; it contains the story of Israel's experiences till the establishment of the Messianic kingdom (i-x.), after which Israel was to undergo severe sufferings for its sins (xi.-xii.). The close of the book, including the Assumption of Moses and the part quoted by Jude, is lost. The tradition concerning the book discriminates between a Testament of Moses (which corresponds to the extant portion) and an Analepsis Mouseos, two names which correspond to the two parts of the book, the first of which'is Ceriani's, while the second is extant only in patristic citations. In vi. 1 sqq. the Hasmoneans are referred to as the evil and blasphemous priest-kings. The king who follows them and reigns for thirty-four years is naturally Herod the Great. The mighty king of the West who sends his cohorts and general (Quintilius Varus) into Palestine is Augustus (vi. 8-9). But vi. 7 shows that the author must have written before the death of Philip and Antipas, and the time must have been soon after the death of Herod, though some have placed the book all the way down to 138 A.D. On account of his attacks upon Hasmoneans, the Herodians, and the Pharisees, the author has been taken for an Essene or a Zealot; but the recognition of the sacrifice in ii. 6, iv. 8, and the view of the future in chap. x. do not tally with Essenic notions, while the presentation of chap. ix. does not fit in with the teachings of the
337 |
7. II (IV) Ezra: This name comes from the Latin, in which the canonical Ezra (Esdras) and Nehemiah are reckoned as I and II Ezra, and the apocryphal Ezra is III Ezra. The original name seems to have been "Ezra the Prophet" or "Apocalypse of Ezra." It is extant in Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian, and two Arabic renderings. The corrupt Latin text was printed by Fabricius 1743, by Van der Blis 1839, by Volkmar 1863, by Hilgenfeld 1869, and by Fritzsche 1871, and it often appears in the Vulgate printed after the New Testament. A new text which supplies a large gap in the text as hitherto known was prepared by Bensly and published after his death by James, on the basis of Codex Sangermanensis and three other manuscripts (TS, iii. 2, 1895). This supersedes all previous texts. Under the name "Confession of Ezra" the section viii. 20-36 circulates as a separate piece and is found in independent translation and in copies. The Syriac was published in 1868 and 1883 by Ceriani, preceded by a Latin rendering in 1866. Laurence issued the Ethiopic in 1820 with a Latin and an English translation, and Dillmann published a critical text on the basis of newer material in 1894. A translation in English of one of the Arabic texts was issued by Ockley on the basis of Codex Bodleianus in 1711, an Arabic edition by Ewald appeared in 1863; he also made available the other Arabic text in part, though it was first issued in full by Gildemeister in 1877 after a Vatican manuscript. The Armenian was issued in the Armenian Bible of 1805, and is in the collection of Old-Testament Apocrypha issued by the Mechitarists in 1896. While these texts rest upon the Greek, it is evident from internal testimony that back of this lay a Hebrew original, which has been lost. The exceedingly abundant citations and references in patristic writings testify to the diffusion and popularity of the work in the early Church, a popularity which lasted down into the Middle Ages. The Latin is nearest to the original, after which follow the Syriac and Ethiopic. Renderings into modern languages by Volkmar 1863, Ewald 1862-63, Bissell 1880, Lupton 1888, and Zöckler 1891, are superseded by that of Gunkelchen, 1900. The occasion of the book was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans (spoken of as Edom, iii. 15-16, vi. 7-10), and the purpose is to unroll a brighter future for the Jews. So Ezra, thirty years after the destruction of the city by the Chaldeans (the Romans), has seven visions. The first three are speculative, the next three eschatological, and in the seventh are found the close of Ezra's life and the genesis of the apocalypse.
In the first three visions (iii. 1-ix. 25) the present calamity of Israel is a particular example of a more general disaster. Israel's misfortune is severer than its guilt, hence.the mystery in the fact that those who are greater sinners oppress Israel (iii. 28, 31-32, v. 23 sqq.). The riddle is difficult, but reason is man's gift to employ, hence the attempt to solve it. The coming age will show that God loves his people (v. 33), and this age is near (iv. 44, v. 48); God himself is bringing the end when the Roman rule will cease (v. 3, vi. 6, 9) amid signs and wonders in heaven and earth, though but few will share in the results (vii. 45 sqq.). At the judgment sinners will be condemned, the judgment being one of righteousness and not of mercy (vii. 33 sqq.). The punishment of sinners is painted in fearsome colors. In the fourth vision (ix. 26-x. 59) is represented the expectation that Zion's time of sorrow is soon to be over, and then Jerusalem will be rebuilt. In the fifth vision (x. 60-xii. 50) is seen an eagle with twelve wings, three heads, and eight subordinate wings, which rises in the sea and flies over the land. After twelve wings and six subordinate wings have ruled and vanished and only one head and two wings are left, a lion comes out of the wood and pronounces judgment on the eagle. The eagle is the last of the four kingdoms of Dan. vii. In the sixth vision (xiii. 1-58) a man arises from the sea and flies with the clouds, and as men come to fight with him, he destroys them with flames from his mouth. The explanation shows that this man is God's son, the savior of the world, who restores the ten tribes to their home. In the seventh vision Ezra prepares for his end and dictates his visions for forty days in ninety-four books. The book is in dialogue, in which the angel Uriel is one of the speakers. Too little is known of the popular traditions to permit tracing the separate parts to their origins or to decide upon the interrelations. But the author evidently belonged among the patriotic visionaries. He holds that for the Jews was the world created, and that to them, as masters, must it come. The direr their present misfortunes, the greater the reward that shall be theirs. The difference between the author's utterances and those of Jeremiah in a like situation is vast. There are similarities between Ezra and Paul, yet for Ezra the interest is in the national theodicy and in Jewish apologetic, while Paul's desire is release from the power of sin. Paul represents the early prophets as a personal witness; Ezra covers himself under pseudonymity and takes refuge in occultism and esoterism. The date before which the book could not have been written is 70 A.D., since the author has outlived the fall of Jerusalem. A more exact dating is hard to discover. Wellhausen sees in v. 1-12 a suggestion of Neronic times, and in v. 8 a reference to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Others discern in this last only general apocalyptic features. But the book does not seem to have been written under the immediate influence of the fall of the capital, and a considerable period of subsequent misfortune seems to have been experienced, perhaps thirty years had elapsed (iii. 1). The eagle is quite certainly Rome. Possibly the first wing represents Caesar, the second
338 |
8. V and VI Ezra: Into the Christian Church the Jewish Ezra-Apocalypse came with many changes. Since the first Latin Bible of 1462, the book has been enlarged by two chapters prefixed and two added at the end, these being of Christian origin, the first section appearing both as IV Ezra i.-ii. and as V Ezra and the second as IV Ezra xv.-xvi. and as VI Ezra. At any rate these are to be distinguished both from the Apocalypse of Ezra and from each other. The first is complete in itself, and separates into two parts: (1) i. 5-ii. 9 is a threat against the early people of God, the Jews, who are rejected by God because of their unthankfulness; (2) ii. 10-47 consists of promises to the present people of God, the Christian, to whom the heavenly kingdom belongs. It was written in Greek, uses abundantly Old-Testament prophecy, is vigorous in style, and reminds one of Stephen's speech and of the Letter of Barnabas by its polemics. Its relations with the Shepherd of Hermas and with the Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas suggest the year 200 A.D. as the lowest date for its composition, and the West as the place. VI Ezra threatens the heathen (
10-11. Baruch Apocalypses: Besides the Apocryphal Baruch, a series of Jewish and Christian writings have appeared under the name of Baruch, the friend and helper of Jeremiah. (10) The best known and worthiest of these is that discovered by Ceriani in a Syriac manuscript of Milan and by him published in the original (Monumenta sacra et profana, 1871, and Translatio Syra Pescitto, iv. 257 sqq., 1883), and in Latin translation (Monumenta sacra et profana, i. 2, pp. 73 sqq., 1866). The letter of Baruch to the nine and a half tribes, standing at the end, was known earlier and printed in the Paris and London polyglots. A new English translation of the Apocalypse by Charles appeared in 1897, and one in German by Ryssel in 1900. The Syriac is from a Greek original of which xii. 1-xiii. 2 and xiii. 11-xiv. 3 were found by Grenfell and Hunt. The Greek goes back to a Hebrew original. In i.-v. it appears that in the twenty-fifth year of Jeconiah God announced to Baruch the imminent fall of Jerusalem. The next day the Chaldeans appear before the city, and angels have concealed the sacred vessels and destroyed the walls (vi.-viii.). Baruch fasts seven days and receives further revelations, and Jeremiah accompanies the captives to Babylon (ix.-xii.). After another fast Baruch learns that judgment awaits the heathen; Zion is thrown down that the world's end may the sooner come (xiii.-xx.). The first destruction of Jerusalem is to be followed by a second, which ushers in the time of blessedness (xxi.-xxxiv.). Then follows a series of visions, some of them preceded by fasts, in the first of which the Messiah appears and establishes his kingdom. One reveals the history of Israel from Adam on, the sea appears as of alternating dark and clear waters, each having its significance; and then come the two letters, one to the nine and a half tribes, the other to the two and a half (xxxv.-Ixxvi., where the text breaks off). This book was written after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, as is shown by the characterization of the destroyers (as Chaldeans, a mask which the author employs) and by clear reference to the defilement of the temple by Pompey (the first destruction). Sections appear which seem to indicate for parts a date earlier than this, e.g., xxxix.-xl., lxix.-Ixx. Relations exist between this book and IV Ezra; one must have used the other, though which is the earlier is doubtful, and the scholars are nearly equally divided upon the question. Other data for settling the time of composition than comparison with IV Ezra and the general historical background do not exist. While 70 A.D. is the terminus a quo, the apparent use of it by Papias in the depiction of the fruitfulness of the millennial kingdom fixes the terminus ad quem. The author was an adherent of Judaism, but his residence is not determinable. (11) A Greek Apocalypse of Baruch was discovered by Butler in a manuscript in the British Museum in 1897 and published by James (TS, v. 1), accompanied by an English translation of the Slavonic text by Morfill; German translation after James' text by Ryssel in Kautsch's Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (1900). The Slavonic text is an extract from the Greek, which is shorter than the original known to Origen —he speaks of seven heavens, the Greek has five, the Slavonic only two. It sets forth that Baruch, grieving over the fall of Jerusalem, is comforted by the promise that he shall learn deep secrets, and he journeys through the five heavens in company with an angel. The narrative reminds one of the Slavonic Enoch. The basis is Jewish, but there are Christian interpolations. Other Baruch literature exists, but of Christian origin, one writing picturing the fortunes of the Church, especially the Ethiopic Church; another is a Slavonic Vision of Baruch, and there is a Latin Apocalypse of Baruch.
339 |
12-21. Other Apocalypses: Nicephorus, Ambrosiaster, and Jerome mention (12) an Apocalypse of Elijah or a book of his, and Origen seems to make I Cor. ii. 9 a citation of it, though Jerome combats this, and he seems to refer it to an Ascension of Isaiah. A Hebrew Apocalypse of Elijah, placed by one editor in the post-Talmudic period and by another in the third century, was published by Jellinek in 1855 (Bet-ha Midrasch III., xvii. 65 sqq.) and by Buttenwieser in 1897. (13) The Apocalypse of Zephaniah, a work "of the Prophet Zephaniah," is mentioned by Nicephorus, and was known to Clement of Alexandria, who mentions it as containing both an "Ascension of Isaiah" and descriptions of a journey in the heavens and hells; the seer is caught up and led up through the various heavens, in the fifth of which he sees the angels called by him kurioi, "lords." Possibly to this Zephaniah apocalypse are to be traced a writing extant in two Coptic dialects, also two others mentioned by Steindorff (see IBLIOGRAPHY) which deal with an establishment of a Messianic kingdom to last a thousand years upon a renewed earth. The unity of the first part (i.-xviii.) appears in the general relations. So the anonymous apocalypse of Steindorff and his fragment of a Zephaniah book together agree with the character of the apocalypse known to Clement of Alexandria. The second part, though it speaks of Elijah (in the third person), is not really an Elijah apocalypse, and goes well with the first part to complete a Zephaniah apocalypse. The whole is either a Christian work or a Jewish production worked over by a Christian, and in its present form is probably later than Clement of Alexandria, possibly of the second half of the third century. (14) From an Apocalypse of Jeremiah Jerome derives Matt. xxvii. 9, while Origen ascribes it to a Secreta Eliæ. The Coptic Bible contains a short prophecy ostensibly by Jeremiah. Eph. v. 14 is by Epiphanius attributed to an Apocalypse of Elijah, but others—e.g., Euthalius and Syncellus—ascribe it to an Apocryphon Jeremiæ. (15) An Apocalypse of Zechariah is named by Nicephorus, a Christian writing based on Luke i. 67. (16-18) Nicephorus speaks also of a Habakkuk writing, one of Ezekiel, and one of Daniel. (19) An Apocalypse of Moses is named by Syncellus as the basis of Gal. v. 6, vi. 15. (20) In the anonymous list of canonical books a writing of Lamech finds mention. (21) Nicephorus speaks of a writing of Abraham, possibly the Slavonic Apocalypse of Abraham published by Bonwetsch in German in 1897, in which Abraham is taught by an angel to offer an acceptable sacrifice, is taken to heaven and there receives revelations regarding the history of his people. It is of Jewish origin, is used by the Clementine Recognitions, before which therefore it was composed. Possibly to be distinguished from this is the book of the same name used by the Sethite Gnostics (Epiphanius, Hœr., xxxix. 5), possibly the Inquisitio Abrahamæ of Nicetas; also the Testament of Abraham published by James in 1892 (TS, ii. 2) and by Bassilyew in 1893 (Anecdota Græco-Byzantina, i.) in Greek, English in ANF, of which Slavonic, Rumanian, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions are extant.
22-23. Protoplasts and Twelve Patriarchs: Anastasius Sinaita makes mention of a (22) Testament of the Protoplasts which said that Adam on the fortieth day after his creation went to Paradise. This report is in both the Book of Jubilees and in the Book of Adam and Eve. (23) The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs is cited by Origen, is probably referred to in Nicephorus and the synopsis of Athanasius. The Greek text was edited by Grabe, 1698, 1714, repeated by Fabricius 1713, Gallandi 1788, and Migne 1857; comparative edition by Sinker 1869, 1879, critical edition by Charles, London, 1908, also English translation of the same. The book is known in Old Slavonic, Armenian, and Latin versions. The contents are in substance the history told by each of the morbescent patriarchs to their descendants, with warnings and exhortations which fit with the character of the person speaking, and are drawn from the personal experience of the speaker as revealed in the Old Testament. With curious unanimity nearly all the patriarchs speak of the leadership of Judah and Levi. There seems to be a reference to Christ as savior, and one to Paul as the apostle to the heathen; consequently, since 1810 it has been customary to attribute this work to a Christian, the only controversy being over the type of Christianity represented. The author has been called an Essene, an Ebionite, a Nazarene, a Pauline Christian, and so on. But the work has a ground work of Jewish provenance; the Christian references are interpolations. While special emphasis is not laid upon the Law, and when spoken of it is rather as morals than as ritual, yet the development is in general such as would interest only a Jew. The Christian interpolations, on the other hand, are very definite, and the Christology is patripassian. There appear, however, at least two strata of these interpolations, and the Jewish basis is not a unit, traces of a double recension appearing. The work had probably a long history in the synagogue before it came into the possession of the Church. The time of composition is indicated by portions which are closely parallel with passages in the Book of Jubilees. The earlier author is clearly a partizan and adherent of the Maccabean house, especially in its phase of priest-princes, on account of which it of right rules the other tribes, as well as because of its success in its conflicts with the heathen in which it won religious and political liberty. Other parts show as clearly the breach between the Hasmoneans and the Pious —thus the stock of Levi has through its wickedness led astray the whole of Israel (Testament of Levi, xiv. sqq.). The times of Aristobulus II. and of Hyrcanus II. are clearly referred to. The love for the Maccabees which in some parts of the book shines out has in others turned to hate. Thus it appears that the origin of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs must be placed along the way from c. 166 to 64 B.C. For the Christian interpolations therein the terminus ad quem is Irenæus, to whom the reference to Christ as sprung from the tribes of Judah and Levi was known.
24-32. Other Testaments: Only the title is known of (24) a book Of the Three Patriarchs. (25) On a Coptic Testament of Abraham cf. I.
340 |
IV. Historical Pseudepigrapha: These are the product for the most part of the Hellenistic Jews who busied themselves in the second and first centuries before Christ in narrating and adorning the Biblical stories as a part of their propaganda.
33. Jubilees: For the patriarchal history Epiphanius, many of the Byzantine writers, and others relied upon a book cited as Jubilees, Little Genesis, and under like titles. Either a like work, or one excerpted from this, was known as the Apocalypse of Moses, the Life of Adam, the Testament of Moses, or Book of the Daughters of Adam. In the thirteenth century it was lost to knowledge, and reappeared in the middle of the last century in an Ethiopic "Book of Jubilees," published first by Dillmann from two manuscripts in 1859, by Schodde in translation (Oberlin, 1888), by Charles from four manuscripts in 1895, in translation in 1902 from further material, and by Littmann in 1900 (in Kautzsch, Apokryphen). Ceriani discovered fragments of a Latin translation containing about one-third of the matter in the Ethiopic text in a manuscript in the Ambrosian library in Milan, which he published in 1861; Rönsch edited them in 1874 and Charles in 1895. There are indications of a Syriac translation, though whether of excerpts or of the whole is not decided. The Ethiopic text goes back to a Greek version, which is derived from a Hebrew, as is shown by the traces of plays on words which require for explanation a Hebrew (not an Aramaic) original (cf. iv. 15, 28). Tendencies to a use of New Hebrew are shown in the use of Mastema for Satan (e.g., in x. 8). On the whole, the Ethiopic text is reliable and in good condition, though gaps, probably having a purpose or "tendency," are indicated. The contents run parallel to Biblical history from the creation to the institution of the Passover (
34. The Martyrdom of Isaiah. Origen frequently mentions an apocryphal Jewish writing in which
341 |
35-41. Other Historical Pseudepigrapha: To be mentioned first is (35) Paralipomena Jeremiæ. The kernel of this book, interpolated by Christians and Jews, is found in the Abyssinian Bible with the double title Reliquiæ verborum Baruch and Reliquiæ verborum Jeremiæ, put with the other Baruch and Jeremianic writings. It exists in Ethiopic, Greek (Menœum Græcorum), Armenian, and Slavonic. It begins, like the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, with the days before the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the securing by Jeremiah of the temple furnishings. Baruch stays in Jerusalem, Jeremiah goes to Babylon. Abimelech, sent by Jeremiah to the vineyard of Agrippa for figs, falls asleep and wakes up sixty-six years later, returns to the city, finds all changed, seeks Baruch, who is ordered to write Jeremiah a letter to the effect that if the people separates itself from the heathen, it shall be led back to the city. An eagle carries the letter to Jeremiah, together with the figs which are still fresh, and Jeremiah leads the people back. Jews who have brought along Babylonian wives are not admitted to the city; they then found Samaria. Jeremiah falls as dead in the city, revives after three days and praises God for salvation in Christ, and the people stone him to death for his prophecy. The terminus a quo is determined by the use of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch; the terminus ad quem is possibly the first decade of the second century. (36) The book Joseph and Asenath, belonging to the midrashic propaganda against mixed marriages, employs the romance, widely diffused, that Asenath became the wife of Joseph after eating with him the "blessed bread of life," drinking a "potion of immortality," and being anointed with the "oil of incorruption." A book dealing with the contest between Moses on the one side and the Egyptian sorcerers (37) Jannes and Jambres (cf. Ex. vii. 8 sqq.; II Tim. iii. 8) is mentioned by Origen (on Matt. xxiii. 37, xxvii. 9) and is compared by Schürer with the "Penitence of Jamnes and Mambres" of the Decretum Gelasii. Pliny (Hist. nat., XXX., i. 11) knows of a book under the name of Jannes, which may therefore go back to pre-Christian times. A book other than the Prayer of Manasses (cf. APOCRYPHA, A, IV., 4) was known in Jewish circles under a title like (38) "The Conversion of Manasseh" (cf. Fabricius, Codex pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, i. 1100-02). (39) The Books of Adam are of interest in that they deal with speculation regarding original man; the Genesis narrative is fused with foreign sources. A Jewish Book of Adam is known to the Talmud, and an apocryphal Adam is known to the Apostolic Constitutions (vi. 16). A haggada, originally Jewish but worked over by a Christian, exists under the misleading title "Apocalypse of Moses," published by Tischendorf in 1866, by Ceriani in 1868, and in a Latin Vita Adæ et Evæ (published by Meyer, 1878), which goes back to a Greek original. The two texts, found in Kautzsch's Pseudepigrapha, correspond in part verbally, but each has sections not found in the other. An Ar-
342 |
V. Philosophical Pseudepigrapha: Mention may be made of (42) IV Maccabees or "The Supremacy
of Reason," which was falsely attributed to Josephus. The book is based upon
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Collections and translations are:
J. A. Fabricius, Codex pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, vols. i.-ii., Hamburg, 1722-23;
A. F. Gfrörer, Prophetæ veteres pseudepigraphi, Stuttgart, 1840;
Migne, Dictionnaire des apocryphes, Paris, 1856;
A. Hilgenfeld, Messias Judæorum, Leipsic, 1869;
O. F. Fritzsche, Libri apocryphi, ib. 1871;
O. Zökler, Die Apokryphen nebst einem Anhang über die Pseudepigraphenlitteratur, Munich, 1891;
J. Winter and A. Wüsche, Die jüdische Litteratur seit Abschluss des Kanons, vol. i., Berlin, 1894;
E. Kautzsch, Die Apocryphen and Pseudepigraphen des A. T., Tübingen, 1900;
the Uncanonical Writings of the Old Testament found in the Armenian MSS. of the Library of St. Lazarus, Eng. transl. by J. Issaverdens, Venice, 1901 (contains the Book of Adam, History of Assenath, History of Moses, Deaths of the Prophets, Concerning King Solomon, History of Prophet Elias, History of the Prophet Jeremiah, Vision of Enoch, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, III Esdras, and other fragments).
Discussions introductory and explanatory will be found in
DB, i.109-110;
EB, i. 213-250;
Schürer, Geschichte, vol. iii., Eng. transl., II., iii. 1-250;
JE, i. 669-685;
E. Reuss, Geschichte der heiligen Schriften des A. T., Brunswick, 1890;
W. J. Deane, Pseudepigrapha, Edinburgh, 1891;
J. E. H. Thomson, Books which Influenced our Lord and his Apostles, ib. 1891;
E. de Faye, Les Apocalypses juives, Paris, 1892; and
the works on O. T. introduction by König, Bonn, 1893,
H. L. Strack, Munich, 1895, and
C. Cornill, Tübingen, 1905, Eng. transl., London, 1907.
Further illustrative material will be found in
A. Hilgenfeld, Die jüdische Apocalyptic, Jena, 1857;
J. Langen, Das Judenthum in Palästina zur Zeit Christi, Freiburg, 1866;
A. Hausrath, Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte,Heidelberg, 1873;
M. Vernes, Hist. des idées messianiques, Paris, 1874;
J. Drummond, The Jewish Messiah, London, 1877;
H. Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos, Göttingen, 1895;
O. Holtzmann, Neutestamentliche Zetlgeschichte, Freiburg, 1895;
W. Bossuet, Antichrist, Göttingen, 1895;
idem, Die Religion des Judentums, Berlin, 1903;
E. Hühn, Die messianischen Weissagungen des jüdiachen Volkes, Tübingen, 1899;
Schrader, KAT;
P. Volz, Jüdische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba, Tübingen, 1903;
W. Baldensperger, Die messianischen apokalyptischen Hoffnungen des Judentums, Strasburg, 1903;
M. Friedländer, Geschichte der jüdische Apologetik, Berlin, 1903;
L. Conrad, Die religiösen und sittlichen Anschauungen der . . . Pseudepigraphen, Götersloh, 1907;
DCB, iv. 506-510.
On the Psalms of Solomon the one book for the English reader is the ed. of Ryle and James, Cambridge, 1891, which gives the earlier literature. Further consult
A. Carrière, De psalterio Salomonis, Strasburg, 1870;
Vernes, ut sup., pp. 121-139;
J. Wellhausen, Pharisäer und Sadducäer, pp. 112-164, Greifswald, 1874;
Drummond, ut sup., pp. 133-142;
P. E. Lucius, Der Essenismus, pp. 119-121, Strasburg, 1881;
Deane, ut sup., pp. 25-48;
J. Girbal, Essai sur les psaumes de Solomon, Toulouse, 1887;
Thomson, ut sup., pp. 268-296, 423-432;
E. Jacquier, in L'Université catholique, new series, xii (1893), 94-131, 251-275;
Levi, in REJ, xxxii (1896), 161-178;
W. Frankenburg, Die Datierung der Psalmen Salomos, Giessen, 1896.
For the Ethiopic Enoch the one edition is that of Charles, Oxford, 1906 (gives the Greek text, the Ethiopic from the use of twenty-three manuscripts, and the Latin fragments; a new translation is promised). The Greek fragments from Akhmim were published by
Lods in Mémoires publés par les membres de la mission française au Caire, ix. 1, 3, 1892-93; by
Lods, Le Livre d'Hénoch fragments découverts, Paris, 1892; by
Swete in his ed. of the Septuagint, iii. 789 sqq., 1899. The Latin fragment is in
TS, ii. 3 (1893). English translations are by Laurence, London, 1821;
Schodde, Andover, 1882; and
Charles, Oxford, 1893. The best discussion is by Charles in his edition of the text. Descriptions of the material and ideas may be found in the general works of Vernes, Drummond, Deane, Faye, and Thomson named above. An excellent Fr. transl. is by F. Martin, Paris, 1906, with notes; a phase of the discussion is by
H. Appel, Die Komposition des æthiopischen Henochbuches, Gütersloh, 1906. A very full list of literature is given by Schürer, Geschichte, iii. 203-209. For the Slavonic Enoch the ed. by Morfill and Charles named in the text is best; cf. Harnack, Geschichte, ii. 1, pp. 564 sqq.; and Charles in DB, i. 708-711. On the Assumption of Moses consult: The discussion of Schürer, Geschichte, iii. 213-222 (excellent list of literature), Eng. transl., II., iii. 73-83; Drummond, ut sup., pp. 74-84; Lucius ut sup., pp. 111-119, 127-128; Deane, ut sup., pp. 94-130; Thomson, ut sup., pp. 321-339, 440-450; Faye, ut sup., 67-74, 222-224; DB, iii. 448-450. For IV Ezra consult: B. Violet, Die Esra-Apocalypse, Leipsic, 1910; Gunkel in Kautzsch's Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen, ut sup.; Schürer, Geschichte, iii. 232-250, Eng. transl., II., iii. 93-114; A. Le Hir, Ètudes bibliques, i. 139-250, Paris, 1869; Wieseler, in TSK, xliii (1870), 263-304; Gutschmid, in ZWT, iii (1860), 1-81; E. Renan, in Revue des deux mondes, March 1, 1875, pp. 127-144; idem, Les Èvangiles, pp. 348-373, Paris, 1877 (also in Eng. transl., London, n.d.); Drummond, ut sup., pp. 84-117; O. Kabisch, Das vierte Buch Ezra, Göttingen, 1889; Faye, ut sup., pp. 14-25, 35-45, 103-123, 155-165; C. Clemen, in TSK, Ixxi (1898), 237-246. In the case of the Baruch Apocalypse note should be taken of the edition of the Greek fragments by Grenfell and Hunt in the publication of the Egypt Exploration Fund, Oxyrhynchos Papyri, vol. iii., 1903, and of the Germ. transl. by Ryssel in Kautzsch's Apokryphen and Pseudepigraphen, 1900. For discussion consult: J. Langen, De apocalypsi Baruch, Freiburg, 1867; Schürer, Geschichte, iii. 223-232, Eng. transl., II., iii. 83-93; E. Renan, in Journal des savants, April, 1877, pp. 222-231; idem, Les Évangiles, pp. 517-530, Paris, 1877; Drummond, ut sup., pp. 190-198; A. Hilgenfeld, in ZWT, xxxi (1888), 257-278; Deane, ut sup., 130-162; Thomson, ut sup., pp. 253-267, 414-422; O. Kabisch, in JPT, xviii (1892), 66-107; Faye, ut sup., pp. 25-28, 77-103, 192-204; J. R. Harris, in Expositor, April, 1897, pp. 255-265; C. Clemen, in TSK, lxxi (1898), 227-237. On the Apocalypses of Zephaniah and Elijah consult: Bouriant in Mémoires publiés par les membres de la mission archéologique française au Caire, i. 2 (1885), 260 sqq.; Stern, in Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, xxiv (1886), 115 sqq.; G. Steindorff, Die Apokalypse des Elias, in TU, ii. 3 (1899; gives Coptic text, Germ. transl., and glossary). For the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs the best book is the translation by Charles,
343 |
Calvin College. Last modified on 06/03/04. Contact the CCEL. |