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Sidonins THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 400

Dated the Hebrew and probably the basis of the Coptic Elijah apocalypse, while it was also the period of the editor of books i., ii., and viii. of Commodian's Carmen apologeticum, and the apocalyptic sayings of Lactantius (ut sup.). The Christian sibyllist makes a hero of Odenatus, the Jewish Apocaly ptist makes him an antimessiah. Book xiv. is by an ignorant man who essays to give a sketch of Roman imperial history but is hopelessly confused; possibly he wrote in the awful times which swept over Egypt [sic] after the time of the death of Odenatus and Zenobia, and he was hardly a Jew. His work is a polemic against evil, rapacious, and godless kings. The "holy nation" of line 360 refers not to the Jews but to Christians.

Theophilus of Antioch (Ad AuWycum, ii. 36; Eng. tranal. in ANF, ii. 109) gives two citations from a beginning of the sibylline books which exalt the true God and chide idolatry. The general view is that Theophilus has quoted-from the early intro-

duction to book iii., but Geffcken (ut ro. Other sup.) sees in the fragments an elabora Collections. tion of the present introduction to iii., and would derive them from an an thology from verses devoted to an apologetic pur pose, supporting this by the facts that in the follow ing chapter Theophilus is dependent upon such a work and that Clement of Alexandria cites some verses of this fragment (Strom., V., xiv.), derived from an anthology (Elter, De gnomologiorum Grwcorum historia atque origine, Bonn, 1894-95; university program). There are facts against this conclusion, however, such as the one that "ctan tius must have regarded these verses as belonging to the proem of book iii. And, in spite of Geffcken's claim that they are of Christian origin, there is nothing which goes against a Jewish derivation, though not from the author of book iii. Under the name of the Tiburtine sibyl is a confused mass of sayings from the Middle Ages which has been again and again subjected to the process of editing. The development of this body of material has been worked out well by E. Sackur (Sibyldinische Text and Forschungen, Halle, 1898), the source of the Tibur tine sibyl being traced to a nucleus dating soon after the death of Constantius I. (361 A.D.). But a further history is suggested by R. Basset (]As Apocryphes 4thiopiens, vol. x., La Sagesse de Sibylle, Paris, 1899), who makes it evident that the material which he publishes and the Tiburtine sibyl go back to a common source, dealing with nine ages of the world. The Arabic-Ethiopian sibyl is known also in a redaction of the period of Harun al-Rashid. The basal document may~ back to the end of the third century, the perioc- vchen metrical sibylline oracles passed over into prose. Even in the Middle Ages the sibyl remained a popular figure, cf. the opening lines of the poem Dies ira, dies illa, aolvet sceelum in favilln, teste David cum Sibylda. On Byzantine and medieval sibylline literature cf. F. Kampers, Die deutsche Kaaseridee in. Prophetie and Sage, Munich, 1896. (IV. BOUSSET.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY. The principal texts are noted in ¢ 3 above. Add. P: Heitz s ed., after a MS. of St. Gall, Strasburg, 1903, with Einleitung by W. L. Schreiber; and the Eng. transl. in blank verse by M. S. Terry, New York, 1890.

For questions of introduction and exegesis consult: Bleek, in Theolapiache Zeitachrift, i (1819), 120-246, ii (1820), 172-239; G. Besangon, De 1'emploi que lea p&m de CBglise ont fait des oracles sibyllins, Paris, 1851; A. Hil genfeld, Die jildische Apokaiyptik in ihrer geschichtlichen Entuicklung, pp. 51-90, Jena, 1857; H. Ewald, Abhand lung fiber Entatehung . . . der eibydlinischen Biicher, G5t tinBen, 1858; J. Langen, Das Judenthum in Palastina zur Zeit Christi, pp. 169-174, Freiburg, 1866; B. Badt, De oraculis Sibyllinis, Breslau, 1869; idem, Ursprung, ln halt, and Teat des vierten Buches der atbbyMnischen Orake4 ib. 1878; H. Deehent, Ueber das crate, zweite and elfte Buch der sibyllinischen Weissagungen, Frankfort, 1873; M. Vernes, Hist. des idles messianiques, pp. 43 sqq., Paris, 1874; J. Drummond, Jewish Messiah, pp. 14 aqq., Lon don, 1877; A. C. Bang, Volusph and die sibyllinischen Orakel, Vienna 1880; A. Boucle,-Leclerc, Hist. de la di vination daps rantiquitk, ii. 199-214, Paris, 1880; V. H. Stanton, The Jewish and the Christian Messiah, Edin burgh, 1886; T. Zahn, in TKW, 1886, pp. 32-45, 7787; K. Buxesch, Klaros, Leipsie, 1889; H. Diels, Ssbyllini seAe Blotter, Berlin, 1890; S. A. Hirsch, in JQR(ii (1890), 406-429; W. J. Deane, Pseudepigrapha, 276 eqq., Edin burgh, 1891; J. E. H. Thompson, Books which Influenced our Lord and his Apostles, pp. 167-169, ib. 1891; E. Fehr, Studio in oracula Sibyllina, Upsala, 1893; M. Friedlander, in REJ, xxix (1894), 183-196; idem, Geschichte der ju dischen Apologetik, pp. 31-54, Zurich, 1903; W. Bousset, Der Antichrist, pp. 593 et passim, GSttingen, 1895; idem, in ZNTW, 1902, pp. 23 sqq.; E. Rohde, Psyche, pp. 62-69, 2d ed., Freiburg, 1898; E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen and Pseudepigraphen, ii. 177 sqq., TObingen, 1900 (Germ. tranel. with introduction and notes); O. ZSekler, Die Apokryphen des A. Ts., pp. 477 184, Mu nich, 1901; J. Geffeken, Komposition and Enstehunga zeit des Oracula Sibyllina, Leipsic, 1902; idem, in TU, viii. 1 (1903); E. Oldenburger, De oraculorum Sibyllino rum elocutione, Rostock, 1903 E. Hennecke, Handbuch der neutestamentlichen Apokryphen, pp. 339-350, Tiibing en, 1904; M. Monteiro, " AB David and the Sibyls say," a Sketch of the Stbyle and the Sibylline Oracles, London, 1905; A. Rzaeh, Analekta zur Kritik and Exegese der atby1linischen Orakd, Vienna, 1907; J. Schleiper, Die Ermh1ung der Sibylle. Eine Apocryphische, nach den karachunischen, arabischen and dthiopischen Handachriften zu London, ib. 1908; Schdrer, Geschichte, iii. 421-450, Eng. tranel., II., iii. 271-291 (excellent list of literature at end of German text); Harnack, Litteratur, i. 861--863; ii. 581-589; DB, i. 743, iii. 227, extra vol., pp. 66-68; EB, i. 245-250; JE, xi. 319-323.

SICARII, si-Wri-ai or si-ca'ri-i (Lot. "Assassins"): The term applied to Jewish zealots before and during the Jewish war, whose aim was to drive the Romans from the country. The name comes from sica, "a small dagger," which they concealed under their cloaks, using it during assemblies or pilgrimages to kill their enemies, including Jews who were friendly to the Romans (Josephus, Ant., XX., viii. 10; War, IL, xiii. 3). The most prominent of their victims was the high priest Jonathan, said to have been slain at the instigation of r,elix the governor of Judea.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Scharer, Gesehichte, i. 574 eqq., 584, Eng. tranal., 178 sqq., 189.

SICXENBERGER, sik'en-berH"-er, JOSEPH: German Roman Catholic; b. at Kempten (81 m. s.w. of Munich) Mar. 19, 1872. He was educated at the University of Munich (D.D., 1900) and also studied in Italy, Vienna, and Paris. In 1902 he became privat-docent at Munich, where he was appointed associate professor of patrology and Christian archeology in the following year. In 1905 he was called to W(irzburg as full professor of the same subject, and since 1906 has been professor of NewTestament exegesis and theology at Breslau. He has written Titus von Bostra, Studien zu dessen