The Library

_ SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

AT CLAREMONT

_ WEST FOOTHILL AT COLLEGE AVENUE

CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

Vi \ A

COMMENTARY

ON

THE APOCALYPSE.

BY

MOSES STUART,

PROFESSOR OF SACRED LITERATURE IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT ANDOVER, MASS.

SECOND THOUSAND.

VOLUME I.

NEW-YORK : VAN NOSTRAND & TERRETT, 123 Fuutton STREET.

1851.

See or emer # Eulered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by : * 2» a eae 4 as MOSES STUART, t mes In the Olerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. & _ ;

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a “ie a » z - Vig ot , us. § , + » é. , dis P R E F A C E ® {% vg. re « te ~ - ® ¥ . + ) if Tuar the Apocalypse is a book replete with ifficulties, not only for the

common reader but also for the critic and i terpreter, no one will deny who has earnestly applied himself to the study of it. The sources of dif- ficulty, in respect to the prophetic part of it, are obvious, and may easily be ‘stated. ‘The book is made up of one continued series of symbols, unae- companied for the most part by such plain and explicit declarations with | regard to their ing, as are generally to be found in like cases among the prophetic writings of the Old Testament. The original and intelligent readers of this book, beyond all reasonable doubt, could understand the meaning of the writer; else why should he address his work to them? Their acquaintance with the circle of things in which he moved, and their familiarity with the objects to which he refers, superseded the use of all the critical apparatus which we must now employ. »

Not long, however, after the death of John, the Apocalypse appears to have been regarded as a wonderful and mysterious book, and to have given occasion to many strange and very discrepant interpretations. From that time down to the present, a similar state of things has existed in regard to

the exposition of this work. And even with all the light which recent crit-

ical study has thrown upon the Scriptures in general, there yet remains, as

is esmerclly confessed, not a little of obscurity resting upon the Apocalypse. Must this state of things always continue? This is a question of great

2 ono f Scripture. Hitherto, scarcely any two original and independent expositors have been agreed, in respect to some points very important in their bearing upon the interpretation of the book. So long as the Apoca- lypse is regarded principally as an epitome of civil and ecclesiastical his- tory, this must continue to be the case. Different minds will make the ap- plication of apocalyptic prophecies to different series of events, because there is something in each to which more or less of these prophecies is seemingly applicable. Such has always been the case, in past times, when- ever this method of interpre n has been followed; and why should any- thing different from this be expected for the future? The consequence however has of course been, to create a kind of general distrust in the pub-

‘lic mind, with regard to every effort made in order to explain the book in question. At a period somewhat early, the Apo se was excepted by

IN-349 2S a See a

to those, who believe that the Apocalypse rightfully belongs to the »

iv PREFACE: t

some of the churches from the Canon of books to be publicly read for edi- fication. And even after this exclusion ceased, it was still practically ab- stained from, or disregarded, by the great mass of Christians, from a con- sciousness that they were unable with any certainty to discover its true meaning, and from want of confidence in the expositions of. it which had already been given.

Such, I regret to say, is still the state of things extensively, with regard to the book of Revelation. Practically, the prophetic parts of it are almost, if not entirely, excluded from the Scriptures. In spite of all which those

. recent interpreters have done, who find in it an epitomized civil and eccle- siastical history of ages remote from the time when it was written, confi- dence in their expositions has been, and is, generally withheld. As itseems to me, it must still continue to be withheld, so long as this method of in- terpretation is pursued,

But is it necessary that this method should be still pursued, and thus the

book be virtually lost to the churches? I would hope not. The Apoca- lypse certainly brestles a precious, yea a-most noble Christian spirit. In- deed there are few, if any, of the books in the New Testamcdiiiiich are better adapted to animate and foster the spirit of primitive Christiani oe : this, when it is rightly understood. It is the belief of this, which odin ced me to bestow so much time and pains as the present work has cost me, upon the exposition of it, r _ The ground on which I stand, or at least on which I aim to stand, is the same that I would occupy, in case I should endeavour to prepare myself for the interpretation of any or all other books of Scripture. I take it for granted, that the writer had a present and immediate object in view, when he w the book; and of course I must regard him as having spoken in- telli F Siapee whom he addressed. In order to find out his meaning, I

_haye endeavoured to resort, as I would in all other cases, to the idiom ; to

_ the times e which the author lived ; to the events then passing or speedily about to take place; to the circumstances in which he and his readers were placed, and which called forth his work ; to the adaptation of the book to these circumstances ; and (in a word) t@ all that is local and belongs to the times in which it was written, whether it be peculiarities in the mode of expression, thought, reasoning, or feeling, or anything else which would in- fluence an author’s style or manner of arranging his composition. My aim has been to abide by this method of interpretation, throughout. the work. At the same time I have never forgotten, that the author is virtually a poet also a prophet; for my belief is, that he is truly both, and therefore I

aye aimed never to lose sight of either character. | now these principles of interpretation, which I have admitted, and by ae I have invariably designed to be guided—principles from which, no one can swerve without the certainty of ornggieeif these are not right and just and well established, \

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PREFACE. v

“then I have only to say, that I have hitherto Wholly mistaken the science of interpretation, and have yet to learn its first and constituent elements.

I am aware that such as have become attached to the methods of inter- preting the Apocalypse that are most current in the English an‘ American churches, will probably, at least at first view, disagree with some of my re- sults. I will not find fault with them for this; but they will allow me to entreat them to have patience with me, and not to decide at once on dif_i- cult points, but to make the book of the Revelation a subject of thorough and often repeated study. My own views, I mean such as I once had, have been changed by such a course. When I began my official duties in my present station, I had no other knowledge of the book, than what the read- ing of bishop Newton on the Prophecies, and of others who were of the like cast, had imparted to me. The Classes of Pupils under my instruction soon began to importune me to give them some information respecting the Apocalypse. I commenced the study of it, with a design to comply with their request. I soon found myself, however, in pursuing the way of regu- lar inter ion as applied to other books of Scripture, completely hedged in; md at the same time that to pursue my former method of inter- pretin the book, would cast me inevitably upon the boundless ocean of mere De secsunea exposition. I frankly told my Pupils, therefore, that I knew

nothing respecting the hook which could profit them, and that I could not attempt to lecture upon it. After still further examination, I came to a re- solution, not to attempt the exegesis of the Apocalypse, until a period of ten years had elapsed, which should be devoted, so far as my other duties would permit, to the study of the Hebrew prophets. I kept my resolution. After this period had passed, I began, with much caution, to say a few things, in the Lecture-room, respecting the book in question. Every three years, these Lectures, such as they were, I repeated, with some additions and al- terations. — In process of time I began to go through the whole book. This — I have done several times; and the present work is the result of these often repeated and long continued labours.

I do not give this history of my undertaking, with a view to recommend my work to the confidence of the Christian public. It must stand or fall by its own merits. What I have now said, has been said rather in the way of apology for having engaged in an undertaking so hazardous as that of writing and publishing a Commentary on the Revelation. I have been led along “a by step to my present position, without having originally designed to publish anything at all concerning the Apocalypse. /

It will naturally be expected + at I should state a few things, in regard to” the plan and manner of my work. m

Most of the Inrrovuctron, although arranged first in order, and first

ted, was composed after the Commentary was completed. An obvious reason for this, was the necessity of the knowledge acquired by exegesis, in order to compose with any propriety the introductory part of the work.

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Ws. PREFACE.,

» My reasons for saying so much as I have respecting apochryphal Apoca- lypses, are given ih their appropriate place, and I hope they may satisfy my

well be over-estimated. :

eaders,. The value of these auxiliaries to exegesis and illustration, cannot <. oe

By far the severest task which I have had to perform, has been that of discussing the objections against the apostolic origin of the Revelation, drawn from the style, manner, and diction of the book, and from the doc- trines which it contains. This has cost me more time and labour than the composition of the whole commentary. To state particularly the grounds: and reasons of this, would be inapposite here. I will merely say, that those who haye never performed such a task, cannot well have any adequate con- ception of it. It is literally true, that in some cases the results of a month’s labour, or even more, occupy only a page or two, as exhibited by me. _How- ever, there is some comfort in the reflection, that what is established by - appeal to facts, cannot well or speedily be overthrown.

_ My design has been to compose.a work which should aid, in a particu- lar manner, the young interpreter, and also that class of readers, who, al- though more advanced in life, have not enjoyed the requisite facilities ar advantages for the more thorough exegetical study of the Scriptures. this ground I have not felt at liberty to imitate the extreme brevi compression of some distinguished recent interpreters in Germany ; e. g. De Wette in his Exegetical Manual for the N. Testament, and Knobel in his Exegetical Manual for Isaiah. Such books are designed mainly for those already well versed in the business of interpretation. They are very ap- opriate and desirable in their place, and within the sphere in which they ed to circulate. But much of my design, in. the present case, been defeated by sucha tathod of composition. I have sought ner, by laying before him, and explaining, so far as In my 1atical phenomena of every kind, peculiarities of idiom, pe- entertained in ancient times and specially by the Hebrew na-

tion, and generally whatever might contribute to lead him to a right and

full understanding of the author. On this ground, I have occasionally ad- mitted, into. the body of the commentary, discussions or monograms on subjects. particularly obscure and difficult, e. g. on the two , Rev. 11:33 .0n Gog and Magog, 20: 8, etc. In other cases, avhere m ample space and time were requisite for discussion in order to illustrate or con- firm anything which the text presents to view or to which it adverts, I have remitted the discussion to the end of the volume, a into the form of an Excursus. If I am not tami

ave thrown it there own views and

judgment, most readers will feel as much interé e which the Excursus exhibit, as they will in ed of n ich is contained in the body of the work itself. It is impossible to do any a quate justice

_ to such a difficult book as the Apocalypse, without pursuing a ‘course sub-

stantially. like to this, ~ ~

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PREFACE. ix

unable to perform any mental labour. What I could do in such a state, in the. way of correction, I have done. But there are portions of my work that I should have compressed, had it been possible for me to do it. There may be also some incongruities, at least in some things of minor impor- tance, that have escaped me, while in such a state. The reader who feels ‘Kindly, will be disposed to put the best construction upon them that he can. I regret more than he can 1 do, that i am obliged to make such an apology. But it is my duty to bow in submission to Him, who directs all things according to the counsel of his own will.

There may be some who will think, that under these disadvantages I ought not to have ventured on the publication of my work. It may be/so; but I sought the best counsel I could obtain, and have acted in conformity with it. Ifthe work were to be published at all, (and the public had been given to understand, by some well-meaning but rather unwary friends, that it would be), it was best that it should be accomplished so far as it might be, while I could keep my eye upon it. I had much ? to expect, that the time in which I could do this would not be lo And n s a kind Providence has spared my life to see the completion pri » what am I to hope for, or to expect, from the publication of

nk: a st ’

ope for a patient hearing. I hope that the bcos of the work will make a thorough examination. of the whole matter, before they decide that I am in the wrong. I hope that all, who have never made the Hebrew pro- phets and the figurative and symbolical representations of the Scriptures a subject of special study and investigation, will be slow and cautious in de- ciding what meaning should be attached to the symbols of the Ap I hope that a lively fancy, or an oma in guessing, will not b ered as the best helps to the exegesis -of such a book. Hearti the mummery, and knavery, and superstition, and pollution, so W shail church; and much as I disapprove of all its hiera tions, still hope that a mere spirit of opposition ) Papal abomin

not be regarded as the proper and authorized exponent of what tome has said respecting the beast and the false prophet. I hope that in respect to this as well as other matters of difficulty in the Apocalypse, my readers will not mee ny expositions, merely with the accusation of departure from opin- ions lo wrent in the English and American churches. The proper question is not, whether I haye broached any opinions which seem new or strange to this reader or to < whether what I have said will abide the test of a hermeneutical t that such readers as have been led merely or principa RE alley interpretations of former days which they have perus feel that they are adequately prepared to pro- nounce ‘- i | Sentence of condemnation at once on the views which Ihave advanced. I hope, also, i in case they do, that I shall be ena-

bled to bear with a ecad degree of equanimity the censure of judges, either A “

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x PREFACE.

few or many, who possess no other qualifications than these to decide upon

such matters. Ready as poltig: may be to condemn, I must still cherish the

hope that due allowances will be made by most readers, for the great diffi-

culties which I have had to encounter, in the exposition of such a book as

“the Apocalypse. That errors may be found in “my work, I do not question. To err is human. I claim no exemption from the common frailty, and only

hope that I may be forgiven, where my errors are discovered. Iam con- scious of no party-purposes in publishing my work. Ihave sought for truth earnestly and sincerely on the present occasion, if I ever did or could do so; and where I have failed to obtain it, I hope the mantle of charity and kindness will be thrown over my failures. If the reader of my work gets any assistance from it, which will help him better to understand the Scrip- tures in any respect, he will be disposed to deal gently with me as to things ich he cannot approves with whieh a

he cannotyagres.. As to what I expect ; i anticipation

] re not ¢ 1 sanguine or overween- ing east. I know that after so long a period, in which darkness has brood- ed over this book, it is not the work of one man, or even of one on to arrive at establisl d conclusions in all matters that pertain to the Apoca- lypse, Consequently I do not expect that my work will complete this task. But I do expect, at st I hope, t that if it should accomplish nothing more, it may be the means of exciting more attention to the book of Revelation, - and of calling forth some new and more successful efforts for its nae tation. Should wh: I have written be the means of calling forth li else but animated opposition, there is hope, even in this, of arriving sooner or later at something better “than we have hitherto obtained. Should it serve, in any good measure, to give somewhat of a new direction m our churehes to the method of studying the book, this may lead on to some im- peat results, and I shall not have written i in vain.

nd now with a trembling hand and a heart full of solicitude, I commit

oahis work to the churches, and to the Great Head of them. Whatever im-

-perfections it has, itis still the result of an effort to vindicate the wounded honour of the Ap lypse, and to render the book once more, in all its parts, intelligible and useful and edifying t well-meaning readers. ~ haps I cannot reasonably expect: to live Jon enough to vindicate such por- tions of my work as may be assailed ; but so far as probability and teuth are on my side, there are others whan see that ach is the case, and who will so far defend what I have advanced <¥

Beyond this, I would hope for no defence. My only wish is, that the pbnreigee may sooner or later come to regard the po sy in question in the ie manner as its primitive readers regarded i oa - once

more be placed before the churches in the — itd ‘mg originally designed to pl;

i * et OM. ‘st Theological a ) he. ee.

Andover, Feb. 1845, § me we * " z

*

¥ ’ + ¥ * » we Pi” ‘ Sr # ¥ Page § 1. General Remarks ]* - : 9 § 2. Comparison of the Apocalypse wih wie ir piral prophe-

cies : é : il § 3. Are similar views to i aa among the er : * 26

§ 4. — of the apocalyptic style, at the t when - e. pocalypse wa posed. . _—" 31

§5. Apocryp! Apocalypses which have re ms = 37 § 6, Apocryphal Revelations still extant . - , oo. ; : 40

(2) The Ascension of Isaiah . ail 40 (f) pipe Shepherd of Hermas 4 113

(6) The book ofEnoch . . a e apocryphal Apocalypse — (¢) Fourth book of Ezra. . ie). of Jo tn dian 122 _ (d) Sibylline Oracles eG a (i)! General Re arks on all these (e). ‘Testament of the twelve Pa- - compositio e 124 triarchs. * iy ager Se ee ti

°* Peculiar sempiaceystt of the Apocalypse : e) thet ; N umerosity : 22 ~~

(2) Trichotomy . ..- . 131 (e) Decades. vibration: a ae (6) Heptades’ . °. .. . 144 ® Parallelisms “2. a 47 (c) Groupsoffour . . . be (g) Gerendly Remarks on "ihe (d) Groups of twelve : 46 | rosity” fo eS 149 § 8. Is the Apocalypse a er ‘ it * . Ft §9. Object of the book . y . Me : fie

§ 10. Economy of the Apocalypse, or manner of devoliiiing the § 11. Aesthetical character of the Apocalypse oP yee - ; 2. Hermeneutical principles applicable to the Apocalypse « si vss Eo inal re 3 of the Apocalypse, and thelgap tence s.. 216 ori language of the. Apocalypse a ig 228

§ Peculiar characteristics of age and style e Apocalype 232 ‘ Place and cakes ing cia - 257

» ° 283 - AL oe yes un favour the apostle John. 288| (7) Of Apollonius sai. 4 aes 300] (8) Phe Baas é b 313 302} (9) 7 sails of Vienne and 30 316 te (10) Clement o lexandria « ueld 312 ti) Of Tame an eerie 23'S

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CONTENTS TO VOL. I.

xii (12) Other early witnesses . 320 | (23) Of Epiphanius 328 (13) Of ippoly tuts 321 | (24) Of Basil 329 (14) Of Origen” a: 322 | (25) Of Gregory Nazianzen 329 (15) Of Nepos andi acion . 324/ (26) Of Chrysostom. 330 (16) Of Cy, . 824] (27) Of Ambrose and others 331 (17) Of Vic inu s Fe eos) 4f pan, ae of Bong 2, (18) Of Methodius} ..1)1) 4 ‘B25 (2% F 331 (19) Of Lactantius . . . 326 (29) OF Abdustine ‘ 332, (2) Of Athanasius . . . 326/ (30) Of Jerome Pe hi 332 21) Of Ephrem & ses is a aed Gl) Later testimonies . 334 (22) Of Hilary . sme nes II. Alleged testimony against John as the author. (1) Opposition by the Alogi. 336| (4) Doubts of Eusebius . 304 : (2) By Caius the Presbyter . 339] (5) Of later writers 307 * (3) By i aie of Alexan- (6) Omitted in the Old d Syriac dria 344 Version . 365 § 18. Result of historical testimony — . 3 . 368 § 19. Indirect and internal Pr idosice a, ainst apostolic origin: Gene- = P S a val Remarks 4 : ) ae ‘ 371 § 20. Principles which should shitde us in judging the iyi? edt . diction ; 3 a : 374 . Examination of particular sieeve dedtedatrom the diction, style, and manner of the Apocalypse ; é inlet 26 Also from the doctrines and modes of thought , : a fave § 22. Internal evideticetin favour of the apostle Jobn as author Ss teaaplec. 11159 §23. REsuntT . 4s a ee §24. Examination of the itary of iachbebip by Schott snl Liieke 422 (25, Umely of the Book. a Gaweer | lC 427 § 26. Etouicel rank and credit . : , : i ~ © 437 tch of the Exegesis of ae ae = 2 - 450 es, the J ocalypse intended for the use of the church in 427 every age? . : " . ‘ : ~ 475 I loes the plan of the ro eens anachronism? . s: | 484 oF : APPENDIX,

2 Extracts from the Commentary of Victorinus ~ : «= A9l Specimen of the Ascension of Isaiah a . . -, wae Specimens of the book of Enoch : — Ni, ane)

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WITH OTHER SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES. 25

The obvious meaning is, that the heathen on all sides shall come and participate in the blessings of the gospel.*

(41) In Matt. 28:19, 20. Mark 16:15, the disciples of Jesus are commanded to go and teach all nations, to go and preach the gospel to every creature.

(42) John 3:16, 17, tells us, that God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life; and that God sent his Son, in order that the world through him might be saved.

(43) In John 10: 16 we are told by the Saviour, that he has other sheep which are not of the Jewish fold; that they must hear his voice ; and that there will be one fold and one Shepherd.

(44) In John 12: 382 it is said, that when Jesus is lifted up, he will draw all men unto him.

(45) John 17: 20, 21. Jesus prays not for his disciples only, but for all who would believe on him through their word, that they all might be one.

(46) In Acts 1:8, the apostles are told by the Saviour, that they should be witnesses for him, not only in Judea and Samaria, but in the uttermost parts of the earth.

(47) In Acts 10: 34, 35, Peter declares, after a divine vision so in- structing him, that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.

(48) In Acts 15: 16, 17, James declares, that according to ancient prophecy, the tabernacle of David is to be again built, that the residue of men... and all the Gentiles might seek after the Lord.

(49) Acts 17:30. God now commands all men, everywhere, to re- pent. ;

(50) Acts 28:28. The salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen to it.

(51) In the epistle to the Romans, the fact that salvation belongs equally to the Jews and Gentiles is one of the main themes of discus- sion. Comp. 1: 18—16. 3: 29,30. 4:16, 17. 5: 18—21. 10: 11—21. In chap. 11: 25—32 are most specific declarations, that the Jews, with the fulness of the Gentiles, will be brought in, and so all Israel shall be ' saved, Here is the germ of the whole Apocalypse, or at least the same kind of germ as that from which the Apocalypse sprung.

(52) Everywhere, in Paul, the like sentiments are to be found. It would be superfluous to cite them. Let the reader compare Gal. 3: 7—9, also vs. 22—29. Eph. 1:10. 2: 11—22, which is very full and

* | have purposely omitted Matt. xxiv. here; because | have, in the sequel, | drawn it and the parallel passages in the other Evangelists more particularly into comparison with the Apocalypse.

VOL. I. 4

26 COMPARISON WITH HEATHEN PREDICTIONS

express. See also Heb. 8: 8—13. Many other places of the like tenor might easily be quoted.

(53) In 1 John 2: 2, he will find the beloved disciple echoing the sen- timents of his Lord and Master, by declaring that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world; and again (4: 14), that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

Many of the texts in the New Testament, to which I have now re- ferred, do not indeed directly assert the universality of the actual spread of the Gospel, but only the universality of its design. But that it will ultimately be made to accomplish its design, yea, that it will fully ac- complish it, who that confides in the promises of the Saviour will ven- ture to doubt ?

We have then here the same idea everywhere presented, as that which forms the basis of the Apocalypse, viz. the wniversality of the Christian religion, and of course its final triumph over all the spirits of error and all the powers of darkness. As this idea evidently pervades the plan of redemption, so it also pervades the Scriptures which have revealed that plan. The benevolence of God stands pledged for the accomplishment of it.

§ 3. Are views similar to these to be found among the heathen ?.

We may answer this question in the affirmative, or in the negative, according to the sense which we assign to the word similar, contained in the title of this section. If we mean to ask: Whether a Messiah, a Sa- viour of men from the power and penalty of sin by the offering up of his own body as an expiatory sacrifice, and thus procuring eternal re- demption for sinful men, has been proclaimed by the heathen ; whether the pure, spiritual, holy, catholic religion taught by him, and designed to be spread among all nations in order to make them converts, and also to produce its full influence upon them, has been published by the unen- lightened heathen ; then the answer is plain. The Gospel, as contain- ed in the Scriptures, old and new, but specially in the new—the Gospel only makes such disclosures as these. The wisdom of God, as exhibi- ted in this, was “hidden from ages and from generations ;” so that “the world by wisdom knew not God.” There is nothing among all the de- velopments of unenlightened heathen, which has any tolerably strict resemblance to the highly important truths that have just been men- tioned.

But our inquiry may well be modified so as to express a view of this subject which is more generic. We may refer, in our question, to the simple wish or hope of future deliverance from evils such as the present to which our race are exposed; and then we may answer in the affirma-

* OF A MILLENNIAL STATE. ys

tive, at least to a certain extent and within limits which are of a some- what moderate compass. ' There is in the breast of man a consciousness of dependence and of ill desert, accompanied by a desire to propitiate the Being, or those Su- perior Powers, on whom he feels himself to be dependent, and whom he believes himself to have offended. Witness the expiatory sacrifices, the penances, and all the ascetic rites and usages to which the heathen world have in some form or other resorted. Every man of thought and reflection is conscious of his own weakness and woes, and conscious also that-he is capable of enjoying something higher and nobler than that which he now possesses and enjoys; he therefore naturally, as a rational being made in the image of God, looks forward with hope to something better than what he now possesses. Evils are pressing constantly upon him. From the moment in which he opens his eyes upon life to that in which he closes them in death, they do not cease to urge him. To pain, sickness, pestilence, hunger, thirst, the inclemency of the elements, the changes of seasons, storms, tempests, earthquakes—to the loss of friends and of estate, yea to innumerable other woes from without, he must be continually exposed in his present state. From within his sufferings are not less. His immortal mind is so connected with his bodily frame, that almost every evil which assails the latter, must also affect the former. And besides; what a mass of inconsistencies does he find within himself! So much wisdom linked with so much folly ; so much consideration joined to so much rashness ; such exalted conceptions followed by such low and groveling desires ; such lofty aspirations after something purer and more satisfactory to the nature of the soul, and yet quickly followed by a retinue of appetites that may degrade him below the brutes which perish! What a mystery, what an inexplicable enigma, is man when viewed merely in such a light! ere have been minds in every age and nation, which have reflected

ol subjects such as these, and have, as it were instinctively, been led to indulge hopes or expectations of deliverance at some future period, from a condition in which: such things must be suffered. But without light from. above, specially in regard to the mode and time of deliverance, re- demption from such evils could scarcely be regarded as attainable; and all that could be argued in favour of believing in it was, that the benevo- lence of the Godhead and the nature of man seem to require it. It would follow, of course, that where the light of revelation had not been shed, con- jecture in relation to this great subject would move in various directions, and be guided very much by the circumstances of the individual who indulged it.

As an example, however, of the manner in which the hopes or wishes of a heathen could be expressed, in regard to some future deliverance

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28 COMPARISON WITH HEATHEN PREDICTIONS

from the evils of the present world, we may appeal to the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, inscribed to the consul Pollio ; specially to the passage which begins thus:

Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas ; Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo; etc.

The passage is too familiar to need further quotation or description. That Virgil has here copied from the ancient Cumaean Sibyl, and that the composition before us contains a real Messianic prediction, is an opinion at least as old as Lactantius (Instt. Vik, and. Constantine the Great (Orat. ad Sanct. in Euseb. Vita Constant. c. 19). In recent times, Chandler, Whiston, Cudworth, and many others, have been he like persuasion ; and even Bishop Lowth (Lect. XXI. on Hebrew Poetry) seems hardly able to refrain from the belief of a divine inspiration in this beautiful piece of composition. I cannot but observe, however, that it lies on the face of Virgil’s whole representation, that his poetic hopes were limited merely to civil and social prosperity and happiness. How different the whole tenor of this is, from the view presented by the Apocalypse where all is moral and Christian, no sensible reader needs to be informed.

But we may go further back than Virgil, and find among some remote- oriental nations the idea of a general ezoxatdoracig. The books of Zoroaster, so long spoken of by Greek, Roman, and Christian writers, before and after-the birth of Christ, but known to them only by report, have at last been in. part rescued from their obscurity and brought be- fore the world, in a translation by Anquetil du Perron of the last gene- ration. Zoroaster, the far-famed author of these books, written in the Zend language, i. e. the language of ancient Media, in all probability flourished about the middle of the 6th century before Christ, a little be- fore, or during, the reign of Darius Hystaspes. The sum of his éoxa- taotacts, as exhibited in the Zend Avesta, and in the Bun Dehesh, which is a commentary on it written some 1100 or 1200 years ago, I will briefly state in a note, for the satisfaction of the reader.*

* Before all things existed Zeruane kerene, i.e. Time without Limits, or endless eternity (ewige Ewigkeit, as Kleuker translates it). This infinite Being produced two others, Ahriman and Oromasd. Both were good at first; but Ahriman fell from his primitive holy state, and became essentially malignant. The Supreme Being assigned to these two beings, who after the fall of Ahriman became rivals and enemies of each other, a cycle of 12,000 years in which they were to act. The first 3000 was assigned exclusively to Oromasd or Ormusd for predomi- nance; and in this period he created Feruers, i. e. the essences (like the Platonic idsow) of all beings. During the second 3000 years, Oromasd was employed in creating all that is good, and: Ahriman (in opposition to him) in creating all that is bad. When Ormusd at length brought the race of man into existence, Ahri- man, and the evil angels and genii whom he had created, entered into contest

OF A MILLENNIAL STATE. 99

It would lead me aside from my present object, to dwell on the points of resemblance between Zoroaster’s scheme of religion and that exhibit- ed particularly in the latter part ‘of the Apocalypse. It’must be admit- ted that there are some striking points of resemblance ; and some there are, also, of difference equally striking. That Zoroaster makes his czo- narceracis universal and complete, springs necessarily from the nature. of his Dualism, and from the promise of Time without Limits to Ormusd, at the commencement of the great cycle, that his triumph should at last be certain and complete. John, in the Apocalypse, presents us with a view of the final condition of the beast and false prophet, together with Satan and his adherents, which. is very different. The second death which they are sentenced to undergo, admits of no restoration. If the writer of the Apocalypse knew anything of the doctrines of the Zend- Avesta, (which has of late been strenuously asserted), he has at least taken the liberty often and widely to depart from them.* But still, must we say now that the author of the Apocalypse has, in common with the heathen, merely adorned a general principle which is spontaneous as it were to our nature, by inventing a sublime and beautiful allegory for this purpose? The attentive and judicious reader will hardly say this. The difference between the moral hue of the Apocalypse, and that of all the heathen fables which bear any general resemblance to parts of it, is exceedingly great, and lies indeed upon the very face of the book.

It may not be out of place here to remark, that it is no objection to the doctrine of one only living and true God as taught in the Scriptures, that many of the heathen had exalted conceptions of the Divinity, which

with Ormusd and his good angels and genii; the first aiming to corrupt and de- stroy everything good, the last striving to defend and preserve it. This contest continued in a doubtful state for the third period of 3000 years, sometimes Or- musd and sometimes Ahriman prevailing. During the fourth’ or last period of 3000 years, Ahriman is to have the predominance, although opposition to him on EE part of Ormusd and all good beings is never to cease. At the end of this period, when the great cycle is completed, comes the general a&roxardoracs. The dead are all to be raised and brought to judgment. The earth is to be burn- ed up, and thus to be purified from all the remains of evil which Ahriman and his agents had mingled with it. A new heavens and a new earth is to come forth from this conflagration of the old. The wicked, who had been the adhe- rents and followers of Ahriman, are to be punished in a dreadful manner, along with him, until finally all will become penitent, and the triumph of Ormusd be universal and complete.

* The reader of the Classics, who has so often found in them descriptions or references to the four ages, will naturally be led to inquire, whether there is not some close affinity, as to origin, between them and the four great periods of Zoro- aster. Many resemblances may easily be found. The great period, moreover, of the 12,000 years—may not this correspond with Virgil's magni menses in Ec. LV, and with the magnus annus of Servius, who comments on the passage in Virgil? More light will yet be thrown on some of these matters.

&

80 COMPARISON WITH HEATHEN PREDICTIONS.

in some respects approached very near to those in the Bible. It is no objection to seriptwral morality, that. Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Plu- tarch, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and many others, cherished not a few right notions respecting morality. Nor is it any proof against the in- spiration of the Scriptures, that many doctrines of naiutel, theology, (so to speak), are assumed by the sacred writers, instead of being formally proved by them, or established by mere dint of authority. Even the existence of the Godhead itself is eee ed, and nowhere de-_ monstrated by argument. Why may we not say, then, that the top her made sure the poet the hope: that the reign of sin and

is not to be conseiaién as ibd and pire a natural principle of ‘he hu- man heart adorned by ingenious fiction, and presented as such in this book because such hope is congenial with our nature? That it is con- genial, may be fully conceded. But from the very fact, that there is such a principle implanted in our breasts, I would argue, that the great Author of our nature has caused such a book as the Apocalypse to be written ; for by it the wants which spring from the natural desire of de- liverance from evil may be fully satisfied. The book now presents a consolation the need of which we feel. Itis adapted to our case. And — how can this be turned into a legitimate argument against its high ori- gin and authority ?

.From a survey of the Scriptures in general, and of some prevalent views in the heathen world, we now venture to say, that John has not produced, in the Apocalypse, any important doctrme which is wholly new or strange, and therefore incredible. His book cannot be rejected on such a ground, by.any intelligent or candid reader.. The world was filled with hopes, more or less distinct, of a nature like to those encour- aged and rendered sure by the Apocalypse, at the time when this book was written. It was doubtless no matter of surprise to the Christians who were contemporary with the author, to find in the Revelation the leading truths which it inculeates. Ages and generations had hoped and sighed for deliverance from sin and sorrow. The work of John opened and made bright the prospect of realizing what had so long been desi- red. His style and manner, the costume ‘of his book, many rt his sym- bols, his plan and mode of development, were in some respects new, certainly very striking. But the churches of early times do not seem to have thought that the Revelation was either so peculiar or so obscure, that it ought to be rejected from a place among the sacred books. When modern critics have thought and reasoned in this way, have they not displayed some want of proper attention to the history of opinions that belong to the early ages of Christianity ?

APOCALYPTIC STYLE OF PROPHECY. 81

§ 4. Estimation in which the apocalyptic style of prophecy was held, at the time when the Revelation was composed.

Whoever reads with care the prophecies of the Old Testament re- specting the Messianic reign, and the future prosperity and glory of the church—such as have been offered to the view of the reader in a pre- ceding section of this can searcely fail to observe how gradually the manner * them is ed, while the matter or substantial basis of them remain ‘ Nothing can be more general and brief than the REE fei “ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” “Shiloh shall come, and unto him the gathering of the people shall be.” “In Abraham’s seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” ‘Who the individual deliverer was to be; what his office or condition ; when or where he should make his appearance ; by what means he was to become a blessing to all nations as well as to the Jews; all:these and other things of a similar nature were held as yet in reserve. It was only down so late as the time of David, when the intimation was plainly given, that the expected Deliverer and King would spring from his progeny. ‘David, therefore, in prophetic antici- pation of what was to take place, exhibited him before the public eye as an all-powerful King, an irresistible Conqueror, whose reign would be universal, and fill the earth with blessings. Other writers, of the same age and of succeeding times, animated with the like spirit, re-echoed the strains of this immortal bard, and widely proclaimed the victories of the King of kings and Lord of lords. The 45th Psalm, the ninth chapter of Isaiah, and other pieces of the like tenor, are striking examples of what I have just stated.

Among all the earlier prophetic annunciations respecting the future kieGdom of heaven, however, none are to be found where symbol is em- ployed in the manner in which Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, and the au- thor of the Apocalypse employ it. Jigurative language is, indeed, everywhere employed. From the very nature of the case, this was ab- solutely necessary ; for how could an attractive picture of things in the distant future be ep without borrowing the costume of the age in

which the prophetic a ‘thor wrote? How could he form a picture both animated and striking, unless he addressed the imagination and fancy through the medium of imagery or tropical language? The second Psalm, the 45th Psalm, and most of the predictions in Isaiah, are nota- ble examples of what I here mean to designate. No part of the Scrip- tures is more full of trope and imagery than these Messianic composi- tions; none requires more rhetorical discrimination and taste, in order to make a correct interpretation.

ae

32 APOCALYPTIC STYLE OF PROPHECY.

But with all this abundance of metaphor and animated imagery, how different still is the manner of these predictions, from the general tenor of those contained: in the book of Ezekiel, el, and Zechariah! I do not now speak merely of the Messianic predictions in these books, but of the general manner of the entire compositions of these prophets. From the time of the captivity downwards, the taste of the Hebrew writers in. general seems to have undergone a great change. I know of nothing more dissimilar in respect to style and method, than Isaiah, for example, on the one side, and Ezekiel, Dar 1, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi, on the other. Jeremiah is an example of a kind of interme- diate tone between the two. But he was educated in Palestine, and spent most of his life there. His style exhibits some points of surpass- ing excellence, in regard to which he has not been outdone by any wri- ter, perhaps never equalled. But his writings afford us only a few ex- amples of the symbolic method of representation; such as those of the linen girdle, chap. xiii; the potter and his marred work, chap. xviii; the potter’s earthen bottle, chap. xix; the two. baskets of figs, chap. xxiv; and the bonds and yoke put on his neck, chap. xxvii. In Isaiah, I find but a single instance of a similar nature; (unless indeed we add to this the representation in chap. viii.) This is in chap. xx, where the pro- phet is commanded “to walk naked and barefoot for the space of three years.” I do not understand this, however, as anything more than an emblematic picture exhibited indeed in language, but not literally carried through in action. Still, in its nature it is symbolic. In the same man- ner I understand the symbolic transaction exhibited in Hosea i, ii. Amos has one example of symbol also, in chap. viii, viz. a basket of summer fruit.

Let the reader pass now from an attentive examination of these early prophets, to the careful perusal of those who wrote during and after the Babylonish exile. Ezekiel, from beginning to end, is almost an unbro- ken series of symbolical representation. His preaching or prophesying stands, in almost every case, connected intimately with representations of such a nature.

The book of Daniel is, if we except a little of it which is occupied with historic narrative, nothing but symbol from beginning to end. Dreams, visions, sensible representations, in which that is acted out, in view of the prophet, which he is to record as a prediction, constitute the whole of his prophecies. In these respects, he is the exemplar of the Apocalypse, whose author, although indeed no imitator in a servile sense of any other writer, would seem still to have given a decided preference to Daniel’s method of representation above that of other prophets.

The book of Zechariah, again, is one continuous strain of symbols, until we reach chap. vii; this, with chap. viii, resembles very much the

APOCALYPTIC STYLE OF PROPHECY. 35

manner of Hageai and Malachi, his contemporaries. From the 9th chap. to the end, the strain is indeed diverse ; so much so, that critics have been and are still divided in opinion, whether this portion of the book belongs to the same author who wrote the first half of the book. -With- out entering into this dispute, I would merely remark, that the subject of the last part of the book is so very diverse from that of the first, that we might reasonably expect a different mode of treating it. But, with all the diversity between chap. ix—xiy. and the rest of the book, still with a notable example of. teaching by the use of symbol ; as marked, indeed, as any in the preceding part of the book.

In hee compositions of Haggai and Malachi, symbol does not oc- cur; but both of their books are merely hortatory or admonitory, rather than predictions respecting the future.

Here then are plain and palpable facts before us. A great change took place in the prophetic style and method, from and after the date of the Jewish captivity. Jeremiah presents this matter to us, in its tran- sition-state ; which is what we might naturally expect. Ezekiel, who is carried into a foreign country when young, fully adopts the method of the prophets during and after the exile. The taste for this mode of writing, introduced by such men as Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, seems to have been widely diffused among the Jews everywhere, and to have come down, with augmented sway, to the apostolic age and the times which immediately sueceeded it. This we shall have abundant opportunity to see, in the sequel. |

In whatever way so great a change in the style of composition was ‘ brought about among the Jewish prophets, yet the fact itself admits of no denial or concealment. The taste of writers and readers certainly underwent a great revolution. Did the influence of the Chaldees upon the Jews effect this? Or is it one of those things which supervene so gradually, that a specific cause can hardly be assigned for it? Is it, for example, like the change in English style and taste, since the days of Addison, Steele, and Pope?

That theory of inspiration which makes men mere machines while un- der its influence, responding to the touch of an invisible hand, as the lyre does to the touch of its master, can hardly find admission here. Accord- ing to this account of prophecy, here was in all respects the same author, who guided Isaiah, and Hosea, and Amos, and Joel, and Micah. But nothing can be more diverse than the manner in which he spoke by them, and that in which he spoke during and after the exile. Can we venture to suggest, that the taste of the divine Author himself became changed in the course of time, in order that we may account for the phenomenon before us? The bare suggestion of such a thing makes us instinctively revolt from it. Shall we not say, then, as Paul does, that

VOL. I. 5

34 APOCALYPTIC STYLE OF PROPHECY.

9

“the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets ;’” and inasmuch as this is so, all the indiyidualities of characte h age, and in each particular prophet, are of course fully devel f Jacts may be per- mitted to bear testimony on this occasion, (: not?) we must say, that the latter supposition is probably true. ersities greater, more “specific, more easily pointed out, and more characteristic of difference in taste and cultivation, exist nowhere among Greek, Roman, or English writers, than exist among the writers ‘of the Old Testament prophecies.

Tf one wanted proof of the almost self-eviden maxim, that when God speaks to men he speaks more humano, he might find it in the facts before us. Why does Ezekiel differ so much from Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, and others of an earlier age? Because, I would answer, his own personal taste, and that of others whom he addresses, was exceedingly different from the taste of former times. It matters not from what cause this dif- ference sprung. As a fact it stands out in relief before us; and we pro- ceed in a correct manner, therefore, when we attribute to it all the in- fluence that it would naturally have.

The question is of little or no moment here, which of the two methods of writing now under consideration, is rhetorically to be preferred. In the West, no doubt Isaiah would bear away the palm. But there is an East as well as a West, in.a world so large as ours; and there cannot be a shadow of doubt, that Ezekiel and Daniel would carry the prize in all the eastern world. Much nearer to their taste do these authors ap- proach, than the simple and sublime Isaiah. What rational objection can be made, now, that a book, such as the Bible, intended for all the nations of the earth, should exhibit on its pages such a variety of method in composition, that every part of the world may find in it something adapted to its own taste ?

What I have now said may serve to explain, and at the same time defend, the style and manner of the Apocalypse, which so nearly, in many respects, resembles that of the later Hebrew prophets. The taste of the later prophets was widely extended and long continued among the Jews. In its nature it is more truly oriental, than that of the ear- lier prophets. As the greater portion of the Jews never returned from exile, but remained in distant eastern countries, no wonder that they continued to relish in a peculiar manner the symbolic method of writing, exhibited by the later prophets, and that this taste came down to the time of the Saviour and his apostles.

It is enough to say, in the way of defending the style of the Apoca- lypse, if such defence were needed, that John complied with the demands of the time in which he lived with regard to this. And if it should be er a Se wa wo Pol i ae emp the sab

: : hould be remembered, that the prophetic

hs

APOCALYPTIC STYLE OF PROPHECY. 35

declarations of both are exceedingly b ee arly comprising more than a few sentences, and it for composition of 's

clarations of such a character there is not room t nature as ‘John exhibits. But the reader should also call to d the exceedingly figurative, I might’ even say symbolic, description of the Saviour’s coming to punish the Jews, as set forth in Matt. xxiv. I would reminc him, also, that every part of our Saviour’s instructions is filled with parables and similitudes ; a method of speaking altogether of the like nature with that of using symbol in prophecy.

It will be aantial te n all hands, that it is important for an interpre- ter of any particular book of Scriptures, to gain 2 all the knowledge which he can of the taste and manners of the age in which the author of that book lived. Whoever was the author ar the Apocalypse, there can be no rational doubt that the book itself was written during the first cen- tury of the Christian era. Was the author alone and peculiar in his taste? Was he so singular, so peculiar in the method of his composi- tion, as to offend the feelings and taste of his contemporaries, and expose his book to be charged by his readers with being extravagant and unin- telligible? So one would think from the charges which in recent times have been often made against the book, and which are not without ex- ample, even during and after the latter part of the third century. There have not been wanting critics, indeed, such as they were, who have more than intimated that the writer of the Apocalypse was a kind of enthu- Siastic visionary, agitated, when he wrote his book, by a species of mono- mania springing from the troubles and persecutions of the times in which he lived. It is thus that ignorance or misconception of the true nature of this work can speak ; but it becomes those who have examined this matter, to consider well whether there is any weight in allegations of such a character.

My position is, that the taste and manner of the Apocalypse ts the taste and manner of the later Hebrew prophets, and of the age in which John himself lived. The former part of this allegation has already been illus- trated and confirmed. It remains to exhibit, if it can be done, the truth of the latter.

Fortunately for my purpose, there are a number of compositions still extant, which took their rise during the first century or near the close of it, and which either lay claim to a prophetic character, or evidently ex- hibit, in their style and method, an attempt to imitate the symbolic or apocalyptic mode of writing. From these we can judge what the taste and feelings of that period was, in regard to composition of this nature ; for nothing can be plainer, than that writers, who were desirous of being read, would not knowingly offend against the taste of the age in which they lived. It is evident, indeed, from the first reading of the pieces in

ur 36 APOCRYPHAL APOCALYPSES

question, that the enndalgomicogics of writing was one which was con- sidered as specially agreeable to the taste of the times, and one which would easily find its way to popular favour. pet +7

In giving some account of the ancient apocalyptic literature, which is

ype of an apocryphal nature, for the purpose of

illustrating the spirit of the age in which John lived, I shall divide it into two classes; viz. (1) Such

ooks as are not known to be extant at present, but which are mention- ed by ancient writers. (2) Such works as, either in whole or in part, in a translation or in their original language, have come down to us.

I have named all the books of this nature APOCRYPHAL; and by this designation I mean to characterize them, (1) As not belonging to the Christian canon of sacred books; and (2) As containing ungrounded pretences to the spirit of prophecy, and exhibiting by their manner and matter more or less of fanaticism, empty auguries, idle speculations, vain boastings of revealed scientific knowledge, mere histories of the past clothed in the garb of predictions, and assumptions of very. extraordinary communications made in a manner not only supernatural, but not unfre- quently in a way that is extravagant, childish, and altogether incredible. With all these is intermixed many fine moral and sometimes truly Ohris- tian sentiments, and many views of God and divine things which have their origin in the Scriptures. It will be understood of course, that I do not here undertake to characterize the works of the Hebrew prophets named above, but only such later apocryphal books as we now have op- portunity to examine. Other apocryphal works which have perished, if we may judge from the few specimens of them that have been pre- served, and from the fate itself which they have experienced, were for the most part inferior to those which still remain. The ertwoso in an- cient. sacred literature is probably, therefore, the only person that now suffers any serious inconvenience worth naming, from the loss to which Trefer. Still, the reader will remember, that a leading object before us at present is to inquire, whether the age of John was an age productive in an uncommon degree of compositions which were designed to be of an apocalyptic nature; and if so, whether there is anything strange in the fact, that John has made use of that method of developing his prophetic views which the Apocalypse exhibits ?

§ 5. Apoeryphal Apocalypses which are not known to be now extant.

It will be understood by the reader, that the great antiquity of all these is not asserted; because the means of investigating the question of age, are not in all cases within our power. In general we may with mueh probability believe them to have been the productions of quite an early age of Christianity, although not, perhaps, of the first century,

54

NOT NOW KNOWN TO BE EXTANT. — 37

I said simply recount such of these pooksllis are known by, their sieleas and refer the reader to, au thors where he will find some description of them. j

(1) The Apocalypse

t of J f Bhijah. ann: Apocalypse of Fooharneah (Sogoviov). (3) The z ata e of Zechariah. ae

These are all mentioned as wed that have perished, in the Codex _ Biblioth. Coisl. vel Seguir. ed. Montfaucon, p. 194. Jerome also men-— tions the first, Epist. 101, ad Pammach. From their titles we should naturally suppose them to have been apocalyptic in the manner of some of the Old Testament prophets. But we can make no certain conclusion. _ (4) The. Apocalypse of Adam. This is mentioned in Epiph. Haer. 31. 8, as being a Gnostic production.

(5) The Apocalypse of Abraham. Also mentioned by the same au- thor, Haer. 39. 5, and attributed to the Sethites. It is called Abra- ham, in Pseudo-Athanas. Synopsis Scrip. Sac.

(6) Lhe Apocalypse of Moses. Mentioned by Syncellus, Chronogr. p- 27, and supposed by him, and, Cedrenus (comp. Histor. p. 3), to be the same with the book entitled Aexzy Maogug yéveous.

(7) The Prophecies of Hystaspes. 'This book must have been com posed very early, inasmuch as Justin Martyr (Apol. Maj. § 20) men- tions it as according, in its matter, with the Sibylline oracles. It ap- pears not only to have been well known among the early Christians, but Clemens Alex. (Strom vi. 5) quotes from an apocryphal writing of the apostle Paul, extant in his time but not particularly described by him, a passage which shows in what estimation it was held by some. The writer of that Apocrypha, Clement says, asserts that Paul not only recommended the Sibylline oracles to the heathen, but also the work of Hystaspes; in which last work they might find (as he alleges), that “the Son of God is more gloriously and clearly described [than in the Sibylline oracles ], and also how that many kings will make war against Christ, hating him and those who bear his name, and his faithful follow- ers, and his patience, and his coming.” The book, therefore, would seem to have been of Christian origin ; while at the same time it was, according to the testimony of Lactantius (Inst. vii. 15. vii. 18), of a like tenor with the Sibylline oracles, often approaching the manner of hea- then predictions. The eschatology of Zoroaster, viz. that the world would perish by fire, ete., appears to have been adopted by the author of the book; who probably, therefore, was some oriental.Christian, or Jewish Christian. Bleek (Theol. Zeitschrift. I. p. 146) supposes the apocry- phal writing of Paul, mentioned above, to have been composed in the first century. Of course, if this be correct, the book of Hystaspes must be assigned to an early period. *

(8) The Apocalypse of Peter. Eusebius (Hist. Ecc. III. 3. 25)

oy =

ee wae

88 APOCRYPHAL APOCALYPSES

makes mention of this, and 1 ranks it with other writings of a similar na- ture, which he explicitly declares to be spurious. But Clement of Al- exandria, in one of his Hypotyposes, (which is now lost, but a fragment of which is found in Euseb. Hist. Ecc. VI. 14), makes mention of the Apocalypse of Peter, and ranks it with the doubted Epistles of Jude and Barnabas. Before the time of Clement, Theodotus the Gnostic had made free use of this Apocalypse; and in his "Exhoyus &x tov 7700- gyrincy OQeoddzov, the same Clement has preserved some small speci- mens of the Apocalypse in question. The tenor of these is that of heavy denunciation, probably directed against the Jews. In accordance with this view of the writing before us, Lactantius speaks in Inst. IV. 21, where he says that the praedicatio of Paul and of Peter at Rome was reduced to writing, and then cites from this writing many severe comminations against the Jews. It is doubtful, however, whether this praedicatio here means the ‘Anoxchuyug Heézeov ; although Grabe and Schmidt maintain this. It may have been the Kyovywa Ilézgov, to which matter of this kind would not have been inappropriate——But be this as it may, the anonymous fragment on the Canon in Muratori (An- tiq. Ital. Med. Aevi, III. 854), who wrote near the end of the second century or at the beginning of the third, says: “ Apocalypsis [-s=etg ?]. Johannis et Petri tantum recipimus, quam quidam ex nostris legi in ec- clesia nolunt.” This writer, then, places the Apocalypse of Peter in the same rank with that of John; and so Clement of Alexandria appears to have done. Sozomen also states, that it was read é ci nugow ris moaoaoxevys, in some of the churches of Palestine, down to the fifth cen- tury. It was in all probability, then, of Judaeo-Christian origin, and in its tenor it was like many other productions of that period which had a similar origin. The extent of the writing cannot be known with cer- tainty. In the stichometria, i. e. measure or number of ozizot, pertain- ing to the various sacred and to some apocryphal books, given in Cotel. Patt. Apostol. I. p. 7, 2070 oziyor are assigned to it by one reading, and by another 270. To the Apocalypse of John is assigned, in the same place, 1200.

(9) The Apocalypse of Paul. This was founded on the passage in 2 Cor. 12: 2—4, respecting Paul’s rapture into the third heaven, and it professes to reveal what was there said to him. It was probably the same writing that was often cited in ancient times under the title of “4ve- Bacixdy TTaviov. Augustine (Tract. 98 in Evang. Johannis) says, that it was “ full of fables invented steultissima presumptione.” The Cainitae, an anti-Jewish sect and a branch of the Ophitae, appear to have made great use of this writing. Sozomen refers to it in Ece. Hist. VII. 19; as do Thedoret and Theophylact in their commentaries on 2 Cor. 12: 2—4, ‘Theodosius of Alexandria, of an uncertain age, in his work

NOT NOW KNOWN TO BE EXTANT. 39

Egurjuata nei ooowdui», speaks of it as being no work of Paul the apostle, but of Paul of Gemoraia; which st, however, seems to be merely conjectural.

_ (10), Revelations of Cerinthus. Wiicction much contested has arisen, in modern times, respecting these Revelations. The question is, whether a book bearing such a title in ancient times, and being the work of Cerinthus, really existed; or, whether the Apocalypse of John was so called by Caius, a presbyter ‘at Rome (fl. A. D. 200), because he sup- posed Cerinthus to have been the author. Caius was a zealous opposer of the Montanists, who maintained extravagant views in respect to a terrestrial Millennium; and in a Dialogue written by him against the Montanists, he says, as quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Ecc. 3. 28, “ Cerin- ’ thus, under the guise of revelations written by a distinguished apostle, has, without regard to truth, introduced to us accounts of wonderful things as shown to him by angels, affirming that after the resurrection there will be an earthly kingdom of Christ, and that we shall be made citizens of Jerusalem in our fleshly state, and there serve once more our lusts and pleasures. And being an enemy to the Seriptures of God, and wishing to mislead, he says there will be a thousand years of wed- ding-feasts.” Does Caius here mean, that Cerinthus himself forged revelations which resembled those of John, and prefixed the apostle’s name to them in order to gain credit for them? Or does he mean to stigmatize the Apocalypse itself as a supposititious work, attributed to John by Cerinthus, and unworthy of credit? \'This is not the proper place for a discussion of this question, as it will again come up for con- sideration in the sequel. I will therefore simply remark here, that Eusebius nowhere mentions a book of this nature which was written by Cerinthus himself, although he says much of him, and is very particu- lar in naming all works of such a kind which had come to his know- ledge. Neither does Irenaeus nor Epiphanius make any mention of such a work as belonging to Cerinthus, The probability seems rather to be, that Caius, out of zeal against the Montanists and Cerinthus, who were enthusiastic Millenarians, meant by this passage to disclaim the Apocalypse of John because it seemed to him too much to fayour their cause. He of course attributed the book to some factitious source, and maintained that deception was practised by Cerinthus in respect to it.

(11) The Apocalypse of Saint Thomas. Merely mentioned in the Decretum Gelasianum de libris Apocryphis. Also,

(12) The Apocalypse of Stephen the Martyr. Sixtus Senensis, in his Biblioth. Sac. II. p. 12, quotes a writing of Serapion of Thmuis against the Manichees, as saying, that they held this Apocalypse in high estimation. Nothing more is known respecting it. The Greek original of Serapion remains as yet unpublished.

a 3

- fw 40 T och vemad REVELATIONS STILL EXTANT.

Later Apocalypses in abundance might be named ; but this would have no bearing on the object. before us; which is, merely to illustrate the strong inclination of the early ages of Christianity toward writings of this nature. Wesee what abundant gleanings have already been made, from writings which are mostly of early origin, and perhaps all of them; but which have perished, through their extravagance or in- significance. In regard to some others yet to be mentioned, we are placed in a different position. We have them before us, and can ex- amine and judge for ourselves respecting the nature and design of their composition. I shall give the result of my examination as briefly as is consistent with imparting the requisite information to those who may have no access to the originals, and who wish for such an account of , them as will enable them to form some proper judgment of the books in question.* inti

§ 6. Apoeryphal Revelations still extant.

These are (a) The Ascension of Isaiah the Prophet. (6) The Book of Enoch. (c) The fourth Book of Ezra. (d) The Sibylline Oracles. (e) The Testament of the twelve Patriarchs. (jf) The Shepherd of Hermas. (g) The apocryphal Apocalypse of John.

(a) The Ascension of Isaiah the Prophet.

Such is the general title given to a singular book, of no small interest to the critic who is concerned with Christian antiquities. Several of the early Christian writers have referred to this production; and some have quoted a part of its contents in such a way, as to show that it was originally written in Greek. From the sixth century, however, nearly down to the present time, with the exception of only now and then a solitary voice, a deep silence has reigned among ecclesiastical writers of all classes respecting it; and it is but a few years since, that the learned counted it among the books which were irretrievably lost. Happily, a little more than 20 years ago, Dr. Laurence, then Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, came into possession of an Acthiopic translation of this work, which he procured from a bookseller in London, who had purchased it among a parcel of miscellaneous books at auction, without any knowledge as to whence it came or what it contained. In 1819 Dr. Laurence gave to the world the contents of it, in Aethiopic, and in a Latin translation with notes, to which he subjoined an English version,

* For the substance of the preceding summary respecting the lost ° Anonahiwers, I am indebted to the interesting work of F. Licke, Einl. in die Off, Johannis, fF. p. 44 seq. It is more complete and better arranged, than any other which I have seen. ’

= s Pu

ay were _ # § 6. ASCENSION OF ISATAH. Al

and a critical dissertation in the same language. Of the general fidelity and ability of these critical labours, there is, I believe, no doubt among those who are qualified to judge. ~e ~The general title of the book, Ascension of Isaiah, or (as Epiphanius .

Haeres. 40 calls it) AvaBactxdy Eoaiov, does not seem to be appropriate to the whole composition. It is divided, by the nature of its contents and by the mode in which it is written, into two parts; the first of which (chap. i—v.) is. a kind of short biographical sketch of the prophet Isa- ‘iah; and. the second (chap. vi—xi.) contains an account of his ascent to the upper heaven. There is a separate title for the second part, viz. The Vision (6gaois) which Isaiah the son of Amos saw, in the 20th year of the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah. A brief view of the con- tents of this peculiar and interesting piece, will not be unacceptable to the reader who is not able to procure the book. It is, moreover, of some importance to the accomplishment of the object’ which I have in view. Its general similarity of form to the Apocalypse of John must, in many respects, be evident to every intelligent reader. The tenor of the book is as follows:

‘Hezekiah, in the 26th year of his reign, sent for his only son Manasseh, and brought him before the prophet Isaiah and his son Josheb, in order that he might deliver to him the truths, which he. himself had received from the prophet, re- specting eternal judgments, the torments of Gehenna that place of everlasting punishment, the different orders of angels—and truths relating to the faith of the Beloved [the Messiah], the destruction of the world, the clothing of the saints, their departure and change, and the rejection and ascension of the Beloved. These truths, [it is said], were seen in prophetic vision by Isaiah in the 20th year of Hezekiah’s reign.’ [These subjects have respect to the contents of the second part of the book entitled Vision or” Ogaoue, viz. chap. vi—xi. ]

‘Isaiah informs the king that his son will reject all these truths; that Samael [Satan] will take possession of him, and lead him to pervert many, and also to the murder of the prophet himself. Hezekiah weeps, and determines to destroy Manasseh; but the prophet forbids him.’ Ch. i.

‘ After Hezekiah’s death, Berial [Belial = Satan] leads Manasseh into all man- ner of wickedness, specially idolatry and the persecution of the faithful servants of God. Isaiah, with other prophets, flees from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, and they take up their abode on a desert mountain there, where they subsist on roots and herbs. After two years, a false prophet by the name of Belkira, a Samaritan residing at Bethlehem, discovering the place of Isaiah’s retreat, accuses him to Manasseh as being guilty of blasphemy in asserting that he had seen God [Is. vi.], also because he had called Jerusalem Sodom, and denounced her princes as people of Gomorrha, [Is. 1:10]. Manasseh sends and apprehends Isaiah; for Berial (who dwelt in him) was greatly enraged on account of his prophecies respecting the Beloved,’ [viz. those mentioned under chap. i.]

After narrating the apprehension of Isaiah, on account of the predic- tions which he had before uttered concerning the Beloved, who would come from the seventh heaven, take the form of man, be persecuted by

VOL. I, 6

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42 s § 6. ASCENSION OF ISAIAH.

the Jews, and finally crucified “in company with the workers of iniquity,” the writer goes on to recite more particulars of the prophecy of Isaiah.”

‘The twelve apostles take offence, watchmen guard the sepulchre of the Be- loved, angels descend to open it on the third day, the twelve disciples are com- missioned to preach to all nations, the Holy Spirit is given and miracles become frequent. Afterwards, however, disciples forsake the doctrine of the twelve apos- tles respecting the second advent of Christ, and contend much about the proximity of his approach. There will be great defections in doctrine and practice, among pastors, elders, and their flocks ; but few faithful teachers will be left, and a lying, worldly, ambitious, avaricious spirit will prevail.’ [The reader will not fail to notice how plainly these things characterize the time in which the writer must

«When this period is completed, Berial will descend [viz. from the firmament or upper regions of the atmosphere, in which the author supposes him to live], in the form of an impious monarch, the murderer of his mother, the sovereign of the world, [he means ero who murdered his own mother], and he will persecute and-oppress all the disciples of the Beloved, claim divine honours, overturn all the usual and established courses of things, be worshipped. and served as God, erect his image everywhere, and have power three years, seven months, and twenty- seven days. Only a few believers will be left, waiting for the coming of their Lord ; which shall take place after 332 days. Berial and his powers shall be dragged into Gehenna, and the saints shall enjoy the rest provided for them in their present bodily state. All the saints from heaven, in their heavenly clothing, shall descend with the Lord, and dwell in this world; while the saints, who had not died, shall also be clothed in like manner with those who come from heaven, and, after a time, leave their bodies here, in order to assume their heavenly station. The universal’ wreck of the material world will follow; and this will be the forerunner of the general resurrection and the judgment. The ungodly shall be devoured by fire which issues from the Beloved.’ Chap. iv.

The writer now breaks off from his account of Isaiah’s prophecy, and refers us, for the remainder, to the Vision of Babylon; by which I un- derstand a part of the canonical. Isaiah, viz. chap. xiii. xiv. xxi, He evidently expects his readers to find there a type or exemplar of the punishment of the second Babylon [Rome ], with all its adherents.

Chap. v. contains an account of the final martyrdom of the prophet, ‘ who was sawn asunder, through the influence of Berial, with a wooden saw. Belkira, the Samaritan, and others stood by, now deriding his sufferings, and then endeavor- ing to persuade him to recant what he had said against them. But he hearkened not to their counsels, and died without a tear or a groan, calling upon the Holy Spirit. All this was brought about by Samael [Satan], who was enraged because of Isaiah’s prophecy respecting the Beloved, and also respecting the destruction of Satan and his kingdom.’

It cannot have escaped the reader’s notice, how entirely the general tenor of the foregoing alleged predictions of Isaiah accord with the latter part of the Apocalypse. But of this, more in the sequel.

Here ends the first part of the Ascension of Isaiah ; and, from its con- tents, it might with much more propriety be named éfod0¢ or wagrvguoy

§ 6. ASCENSION OF ISAIAH. 43

Eoaiov. But it would seem, that some redactor who gave currency to the work, affixed a general title, because the first part might be fairly considered as nothing more than an ¢ntroduction to the second. The abstract of the “Ogacis must be very brief.

‘Isaiah, with his son Josheb, visits Hezekiah in the 20th year of his reign; and thirty prophets, with many sons of the prophets, were also assembled on this occasion, in order to listen to the distinguished seer. The voice of the Holy Spirit [$p na] is soon heard, while Isaiah is talking with the king; and all fall prostrate and worship. Isaiah remains in a trance, conversing with the Holy Spirit. One of the glorious angels of the seventh heaven is sent, to conduct Isaiah thither. When the rapture was accomplished, and the prophet restored to the use of his bodily faculties again, he related the particulars of his ascension to the king and some of his officers with the prophets.’ Chap. vi.

The vision during the rapture follows. ‘An angel exceedingly glorious ap- pears to him, and informs him that he is sent to conduct him into the presence of God and of the Beloved. First, they ascend to the firmament [the upper part of the air, i. e. that which lies near the welkin or firmament]. There the prophet sees Samael and all his powers engaged in fierce contest, and slaughter, and dia- bolical deeds, doing things like to those which are done on earth.’ [Another trait. of Nero’s time].

He then ascends above the first heaven or firmament, where he sees a throne in the midst, with angels on the right and on the left, the former being far more glorious than the latter, while all unite in praising Him who dwells in the seventh heaven, and his Beloved. The second heaven repeats the same scene, but with augmented splendour. Here the prophet prostrates himself in order to worship Him who sits upon the throne; but he is told by his conductor that it is only an angel, and that he must reserve his worship for the seventh heaven; [comp. Rey. 19: 10. 22: 9.]

‘Tn the third, the fourth, and the fifth heaven, the same scene is repeated ; the throne in the midst, the angels on the right and left, and the gradually augment- ing glory are all mentioned. In the third heayen, however, the commemoration of things ceases, although the knowledge of them there exists. The glory of the presiding angel in each of the five heavens, is greater than that of the angels on the right and left. In the fifth heaven, the augmentation of glory is tripled or quadrupled.’ Chap. vii.

‘The prophet is next conducted to the ether of the sixth heaven, where he sees a throne and great splendour. The angel informs him, that he is to see much greater glory, and that he is to return for a while to his mortal body, but after- wards by a violent death to come to the seventh heaven, and assume the clothing there laid up for him. In the sixth heaven, to which he is now conducted, he sees no throne, no right nor left side differing in splendour ; all are alike splendid, and ‘all invoke the Father, the Beloved the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, all with united voice.’ Here the light is such as makes that of the five heavens appear as darkness. The prophet prays for liberty to remain here and not return to the earth; but his request is not granted.’ Chap. viii.

‘ He is next transported to the ether of the seventh heaven. There a voice sa- Iutes his ear, inquiring whither he would come who dwells among strangers. Permission, however, is given. by his “ Lord God, the Lord Christ,” to ascend to the seventh heaven. There are angels innumerable, and all the glorified saints invested with their heavenly clothing, but not yet crowned or enthroned, nor to

44 § 6, ASCENSION OF ISAIAH.

be so until after the humiliation, exaltation, and glorified state of _the Beloved. The beloved is to descend through all heavens, unknown to the angels as he passes, because he assumes their respective forms, [chap. x. 20 seq.] ;. he will assume the form of man, be reputed as flesh, be crucified, rise from the dead on the third day, and after 545 days ascend to glory, bringing many saints with him ; and then shall thrones and crowns be given to them all. Books recording all that is done on earth are here shown to the prophet, and clothing, crowns, and thrones are pointed out, which are reserved for saints who are in future to come thith- er. The Beloved here exhibits himself in surpassing glory. Angels and saints worship him. He then assumes an angelic form; they still repeat the worship. Another glorious Being, the Angel of the Holy Spirit, of similar appearance, is approached and worshipped, although he does not actually change his glory into one like that of the angels. "The prophet is bidden to worship him. Finally, the Beloved, the angel of the Holy Spirit, and all the saints and angels, approach and worship the Father.’ Chap. ix.

‘The prophet now hears praise and glorification transmitted from dll the six heavens below to Him who is in the seventh ; after which a voice proceeds from the Father, commissioning the Beloved to descend through all the heayens, con- cealed from the inhabitants of them. In passing through the domain of Samael, he is even to assume the appearance of his angels [10: 11]. When the conquest of all the powers of darkness shall have been achieved, then shall the Beloved ascend to glory, and reign at the right hand of God.’ ‘In obedience to this man- date the Lord now descends through all heavens, accompanied by the prophet and his conductor, and concealed from all those through the midst of whom he passes. He even assimilates himself to the angels of Samael, as he passes through the firmament where they dwell.’ Chap. x. '

‘ Next he becomes incarnate in the womb of Mary. The suspicions of Joseph, his intention to divorce her, the interposition of an angel, the refraining from con- jugal intercourse, and the miraculous birth of the Saviour, are all then narrated as passing in vision before the prophet’s eyes. His youth, manhood, miracles, public development, crucifixion, the sending forth of his apostles, and his ascen- sion, are all briefly passed inreview. Finally he ascends in his glory, and is seen and worshipped in his ascent by all the worlds through which he passes, not ex- cepting even that of Samael. In the seventh heaven, he takes his seat at the right hand of the great Glory, and the Holy Spirit on the left hand.’

‘Isaiah now returns to his mortal body, and relates to Hezekiah and others what things he had seen, charging them not to make’ them public until a future period. On account of this vision Samael hated Isaiah, and caused Manasseh to saw him asunder.’ Chap. xi.

Such is the deeply interesting apocryphal book before us; on which it would be easier to write a little volume, than to compress into a few paragraphs what is appropriate to be said on the present occasion.

Of the individual author of this piece we know nothing with certainty, or even with probability. That he was a Ohristian, lies upon the face of the whole composition ; that he was -of Jewish lineage, is almost. equally plain, from his manifest acquaintance with the ancient Scriptures, and with the Rabbinical traditions of the times. As an example of the latter, we may appeal to the martyrology of Isaiah as related in chap. . 5: 11, where the circumstance is mentioned of his being sawn asunder

§ 6. ASCENSION OF ISAIAH. 45

(as Dr. Laurence has it) with a wooden saw. The meaning probably is, as we should express it, with a wood-saw, i. e. a saw adapted to the _ sawing of wood. Merely that he was sawn asunder, is the tradition given in the Mishna (Tract. Jebam. IV. ad fin.) ; so too in Cod. Sanhed. fol..103. b; and in some other Jewish productions, early. and late, as well.as'in some of the earlier Christian fathers who make mention of the same tradition. Paul is supposed by many to refer to the same, in the émpioPnour of Heb. 11: 37.

To recount the instances in which the author makes reference to Old and New Testament declarations of facts and truths, would be to repeat a considerable portion of the whole book ; although in no instance does he formally quote either Testament, if perhaps we may except ch. viii. 11, where it is said of Isaiah in his earthly. condition, that “he had neither perceived, nor ascended, nor understood the things” which were reveal- ed to him in the upper world. The same turn of thought, and nearly the same expression, may be found in Is. 64: 3,4. But the whole tenor of the work is most manifestly modelled after portions of the Old and New Testaments. The rapture of Paul to the third heaven, (2 Cor. xii.), is the model of the general costume of the book ; and in the exe- cution of the author’s plan, the visions of God in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Dan- iel, and the Apocalypse, are all laid under contribution. That he had read the Apocalypse, seems to me almost beyond a doubt. E. g. Isaiah says (Ascens. 8: 4) to his angel-conductor: “What is this which I be- hold, my Lord? He replied: I am not thy Lord, but thine associate.” Here it is very natural to suppose, that Rey. 22:8, 9 or 19:10 was be- fore the author’s mind. On another occasion (7: 21—23) the prophet falls down to worship the angel, who replies to him almost according to the exact tenor of Rey. 19: 10, where John offers to worship his angel- interpreter. The description of “the impious monarch, the murderer of his mother” (4; 2—12), seems so plainly to coincide, in all its leading features, with that of the beast in Apoc. xiii, that the reader cannot make a comparison between them without a conviction that one must be the model of the other.

The leading sentiment which lies at the basis of the Apocalypse, and which has already been exhibited above, is almost with equal plainness brought to view in the Ascension of Isaiah. According to chap. 4: 13 seq., great defection in the church shall take place before the coming of Christ; but he will come with his angels, and “drag Berial and his powers into Gehenna;” comp. Rev. 20:1—3. Then will succeed a time of rest to the pious; comp. Rey. 20:4—6, ‘The saints in glory will come with their heavenly splendour, and dwell with the saints on earth, who will be clad like the glorified saints ; and after the season of rest is past, they will be transferred to heaven (Ascens. IV. 16, 17). . Then

46 § 6. ASCENSION OF ISAIAH.

all worlds will be shaken by the indignation of the Lord, the resurrection will take place, the judgment will follow, and a fire will consume all the ungodly (4: 18).

From this passage it is plain, that the author of the apocryphal book under examination was a Millenarian in the sense in which Papias and many of the early Christians were, i. e. that he believed in Christ’s vis7- _ ble reign on earth, during the period of rest which he had appointed for his church.

In another passage (9: 12—18), the writer refers to the state of saints after their death and before the ascension of Christ, in a manner which shows that he had the first portion of the Apocalypse (chap. iii—vii-) in view. He speaks of the thrones, and crowns, and the heavenly clothing, in a way like that of John in the Apocalypse 3:4. 4:4. 6:11.-7:9, 185 one circumstance excepted, of which I shall say more in the sequel.

Gesenius (Hinleit. in Jesaiam, p. 50) does not hesitate to say, that ‘the main object of the writer of the Ascension is, to express his earnest hope and expectation of the speedy coming of Christ, and of the splendid triumph for the saints and martyrs which will ensue’ | That this doc- trine is plainly contained in his book, the passages quoted above are suf- ficient to show. But these passages are the principal ones to which ap- peal can be made. Occasional and subordinate allusions to the same topics are indeed not wanting in the Ascension ; but the plan of the wri- ter is not simplex duntaxat et unum, like that of John in the Apocalypse. The book of Daniel was probably before the eye of his mind, as well as the Apocalypse ; and. these costume of the Ascension in general approaches nearer to that of the Old Testament prophets, than to that of the New. This seems to betray the author’s Jewish origin.

There are several limitations of times in this book which I cannot forbear noticing, as some of them are apparently connected with the time in which the book was written. In 9:16, Christ’s continuance on earth, after his resurrection and before his ascension, is said to be 545 days; at least this is apparently the meaning of the passage. This is so different from the forty days mentioned in Acts 1: 3, that no critic on the Ascension has yet been able to find a solution of the difficulty. Nitzsch, in some highly acute and critical remarks on the production be- fore us, (Studien und Kritiken, III. p. 235), thinks it not improbable, that the writer means to include not only the time of the Saviour’s so- journ with his apostles, but also the period in which he was engaged in subduing Samael and his angels who dwell in the upper atmosphere, before the Conqueror ascended into the heavens themselves. In the to- tal absence of satisfactory facts, we may consent at least to hear inge- nious conjecture.

In chap. 4: 12, the writer assigns to the persecuting power of Nero

=

§ 6. ASCENSION OF ISAIAH. 47

the time of three years, seven months, and twenty-seven days. The burning of Rome was on the 19th of June, A. D. 64. , The persecution set on foot by Nero against Christians, as the alleged authors. of the con- flagration, commenced probably in November of the same year. So Mosheim (De Rebus, etc.), who alleges reasons. apparently satisfactory. Nero was destroyed on the 9th of June, A. D. 68. Counting back to November in A. D. 64, we find a space of three years and seven months ; and if the persecution began quite early in November, A. D. 64, there will be some days over this time; which seems to be a striking coinci- dence.—But on the other hand, may not the writer have had in his eye the period assigned to the great persecutor of the church mentioned in Dan. 12:12, viz. 1335 days? If the years be reckoned at 365 days, and three of the months at thirty, and four at thirty-one days, this will make the identical period mentioned in the Ascension, with the exception of only one day. It is difficult to decide in such a case, where either method of reckoning would. seem to be satisfactory.

In 4: 14 of the Ascension, it is said, “the Lord shall come with his angels . . . to drag Berial and his powers into Gehenna, after 332 days,” viz. from the end.of Nero’s reign as above described. Here is the por- tion of time on which Laurence fixes as the period within which the Ascension must have been written. After this period had elapsed, and Christ had not come as was expected, the writer could not have ventured on so bold an assertion. Of course, then, sometime during A. D. 69 must be the date to be assigned to the origin of the Ascension.

Yet with this, neither Gesenius, Bleek, Nitzseh, nor Licke, appears to be satisfied. They regard. the numbers in this work as merely symboli- cal, and are not, therefore, disposed to admit a literal construction. I cannot but think that their criticism is doubtful. There are other cir- cumstances in the book, which they do not seem to have noticed, that fix the time of its composition to a very early age; I should say, to the first century. In 3:21 seq. it is expressly stated, that great divisions and troubles shall arise in the church “upon the subject of his [Christ’s ] second advent ....and the proximity of his approach.” Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians is a comment on this. Every person well acquainted with the early history of Christianity knows, that the latter half of the first century gave rise to many opinions and controversies on this subject, and that a very general expectation was indulged, for a time, that Christ would appear in his glory before the generation then living should pass away... Many of the German critics think they find such expectations fully and often expressed in every part of the New Testament. Now as all hopes of this nature must of course vanish with the first century, so no disputes on the point, when Christ would come, appear to have been seriously and extensively agitated after the close of

48 § 6. ASCENSION OF ISAIAH.

the first century. ‘The Millenarians of subsequent periods were particu- larly concerned with the question of a visible reign ; not so much, whether the reign would commence immediately after the death of Nero, or of Domitian ; for that period was already passed. After the death of Nero, then, and before the expectation of Christ’s speedy appearance was given up, must, as seems to my mind, be the period fixed upon as the probable date of the Ascension.

Gesenius objects to fixing upon an origin so early, that the doctrine of the Trinity is too prominent in the book, to render it probable that the Ascension could have been composed until a later period, when this doctrine was more fully developed. Laurence, on the other hand, glo- ries in having found in the book irrefutable oe of the early exist- ence, even in the apostolic age itself, of the doctrine of the Trinity; Gen. Remarks, p. 111 seq. I cannot accede to the opinion of either. In Chap. 1: 7, the writer says, indeed: “ As God liveth ... as the Beloved [ayannt6s = Christ] of my Lord liveth, as the Spirit . . . liveth.” Again in 8:18 he says: “ All [the angels] invoked the’ first, the Father, and his Beloved the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, all with united voice.”. In 9: 832—86, the Lord of glory [Christ] and the Holy Spirit are repre- sented as objects of angelic worship; and in 11: 32, 33, they are repre- sented as ovv9ovos with the Father. ‘There are other passages, also, of a similar tenor. But after all, in 9: 40,occurs a passage, which seems to render doubtful the force of Laurence’s argument. It runs thus: “ Then I saw that my Lord worshipped, and the angel of the Holy: Spirit, and they both of them together glorified God [the Father].” This seems to develope at least the subordination-theory of the Trinity, and probably, along with this, something of the emanation-system of the Gnos- tics. The book is confessedly Gnostic, in some of its views respecting the spiritual world; and the doctrine of the Trinity, as here exhibited, would not be much unlike that of Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and many others. I cannot doubt that the germ of the emanation-theory sprung up in middle Asia, where the celebrated system of Zoroaster would give immediate countenance to such speculations. A belief in one underived Being; and two derived Ones, who have all the attributes of divinity ex- cept self-existence and independence, was easily and obviously deducible from Parsism, and seems to have tinctured the views of our author. At all events, his doctrine of a Trinity is quite different from that in which Athanasius believed, and from that which Dr. Laurence would admit.

Nor is this the only mark of our author's eastern origin. There is one circumstance, lightly passed over even by Nitzsch as well as by the. other critics, which would seem to indicate, somewhat plainly, the quar- ter from which some of his speculations had been borrowed. In 7: 22 the angel tells Isaiah, that ‘his clothing is laid up... above all heavens,’

ie

om

INTRODUCTION.

a 7, $1. General Remarks.

WHATEVER difference of opinion may exist among interpreters of the Apocalypse, in respect to the meaning which must be assigned to particular portions of it, there can be but one opinion, as it would seem, among intelligent and considerate readers, as to the “general object or design of this book. It lies upon the very face of the whole composition, I mean the prophetic part of it, that the coming and completion of the kingdom of God or of Ohrist, or in other words, bsp of Ohris-— tianity over all enemies and opposers, its universa prevalence in the world for a long series of years, and its termination in an endless period of glory and happiness, constitute the main theme of the writer, and is indeed the almost exclusive subject of his contemplation. *

The light, however, in which he has placed his subject, in order that it may be viewed by others, must. be carefully examined and considered by the reader. The announcement of the triumphs which Christian church, is not made, as it might have been ha the. pleased, by a simple categorical declaration. Christianity is in a man- ner personified, and it appears on the scene of action, engaged in a con-— ‘test with the powers of darkness so violent, that the struggle must evi- dently end in the extermination or utter subjugation of one of the par- ties. Successively one and another bitter and bloody enemy of the church is overcome; then follows a long period of peace and prosperity, during which the influence CMB tie oh is so widely diffused, that no apparent hostility disturbs it. fter this the powers of darkness renew their as- sault with exasperated malice and rage; but the interposing hand of heaven smites them down, and puts a final end to the contest. The peaceful and universal reign of the Christian religion then succeeds, and continues down to the final consummation of the Messianic kingdom on earth, ‘when the resurrection and the judgment-day introduce a new and perfect order of thing which is ioe continue through ages that have no end. ae

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10 GENERAL REMARKS.

Such is the simple and perspicuous outline of the Apocalypse. Like all, or nearly all, particular prophecies of the Old Testament and of the New, it has one, and but one, main object in view, to which all its vari- ous representations are subordinate, and to which also the particulars of each several part are more or less subservient.

Nothing could be more appropriate to the time and cirewmstances in which the book before us was composed, than the theme which the wri- ter has chosen. Christians on all sides were agitated by bitter and bloody persecution. Many professed disciples of Christ were driven by fear, or allured by the hope of favor and worldly good, to renounce their allegiance to the Saviour ; while others abstracted themselves from his service and shunned his followers, in order that they might avoid the horrors of per- secution. The author of the Apocalypse possessed Christian sympathies of too high and holy a nature, to look on such a scene without deep emo- tion. To prevent an evil of so great magnitude, he was directed by the Saviour to write the book of Revelation, and to publish it by sending it.to the seven churches of Asia. bie

The composition before us, then, seems to have, been primarily occa- sioned by the existing state of things ; and surely nothing could be more appropriate or better adapted to the purposes for which it was originally written. It is filled, from beginning to end, with encouragement and admonition and consolation to all who were engaged in the great contest, then going on. Victory—victory—a final and universal and eternal vic- tory of the church over all her enemies—is echoed at every pause ; anda crown of glory is held forth by the God and Judge of all, as ready to be placed on the martyr’s head, amid the joyful assembly of the first born in heaven, the moment he falls in the battle which he is waging. A most fearful end, moreover, awaits the enemies of the kingdom of God. The worshippers of the idolatrous beast, the adherents of the false pro- phet, yea, the beast himself and the prophet his coadjutor, with Satan and all the powers of darkness, are finally cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, where the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever, while they are suffering the agonies of the second death.

All that hope or fear can do, in the way of operating upon the minds of men, to encourage them to persevere in a holy course of life, and to dissuade them from opposition to God and the purposes of his redeeming grace, seems to be held forth by the Apocalypse. No book in all the Bible can, on the whole and when rightly understood, be regarded as exceeding it in respect to adaptedness for making impressions of such a salutary nature. If the human mind can be affected (and who will deny that it is most deeply affected ?) by hope and Jear, the highest point to which the agency of these principles can be carried, is attained by the writer of the Revelation,

GENERAL REMARKS. 11

Such powerful agencies, we may well say, were needed by Christians, when banishment and blood were the order of the day, in respect to the professed followers of a Saviour. Nor have such agencies ever, at any period since that time, ceased to be highly important ; for, in every age, the church and the world have been in strenuous opposition, if not in actual contest. Even at the present hour, such a book as the Apoca- lypse is greatly needed, in order to encourage the faith and hope of Christians in regard to the prospects of the church, and to comfort them under their various sufferings and discouragements. Above all, the Apocalypse, when rightly understood, would be the Vade Mecum of such as go forth to publish a Saviour’s name among the perishing heathen. Surrounded by those who are servants of the powers of darkness, dis- couraged perhaps by small success, and disheartened by the strength of superstitions, and by the zeal for bloody or foolish rites and ceremonies which pervades all around them, the faithful missionary may read with tears of joy the precious promises so often held out in the book before us — promises of the final and universal triumph of truth and love over all the opposition of error and. of malignity ; and when he lights apes the soul-reviving assurances of the Saviour that “he will sur ely come,” his heart may respond, like that of the apocalyptic seer: “ Amen; even .so; Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly !”

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§ 2. Comparison of the Apocalypse with other scriptural prophecies of «

similar tenor.

In many respects the light and shade of the picture which the Apoca- lypse presents, are peculiar to this book. No other part of Scripture, where the same general theme is the subject of contemplation, minutely resembles the Revelation as to form and method. Nowhere is the sub- ject of the church’s triumphs pursued to such a length, and exhibited | with such continuity and fulness. Yet the same general theme, viz., the final and universal triumph of truth and holiness over error and sin, is by no means new or peculiar to the Apocalypse. Many other prophe- cies relate to this subject, and predict the same issue of the struggle be- tween the powers of light and darkness.

To these prophecies, however, belong, as has just been hinted, some striking features of diversity, when compared with the Apocalypse, which deserve particular consideration. Most of them are quite brief, present- ing only in a few verses that which is expanded by the author of the Apocalypse into almost an entire book. Most of them, moreover, pre- sent the simple fact of triumph over all the enemies of the church, with- out bringing into view any definite series or succession of triumphs. In short, they stand related to the Apocalypse, much as the simple story, or

12 COMPARISON OF THE APOCALYPSE

historic facts, that form the basis of an epic poem, stand related to the poem itself, with all its machinery and with all the decorations that have sprung from the glowing imagination of the poet. The kernel or nucleus of the Apocalypse lies, indeed, enfolded in many a passage of the Old Testament, and in not a few of the New; but nowhere among all these passages is any such full and ample development of the subject made, as in the writing before us. Never before had such a full development been so much needed. The time was now come, during the apostolic ve, when the kingdom of God was to be built up on its new and last jundation, and when the fulfilment of all that the ancient Scriptures ontain respecting it, was about to commence. The writer of the Apoc- 'ypse lived in the very midst of the contest that was going on, was him- If a sufferer in it, and therefore took a deep interest in the theme which as the main object of his book. Vivid feeling and powerful represen- ition might be expected of him in circumstances like these ; and such ve Apocalypse everywhere exhibits.

The charge has indeed not unfrequently been made against this book, aat itis altogether wnique, and that the genius of the whole New Testa- hent stands in opposition to it, or at least is as widely distant from it as jossible. Even Luther, as we know, treated the Revelation with neg- ect, at first, if not with scorn, because, as he averred, he could not find Shrist in it; for, as he viewed the subject, Jesus Christ, and Christ as erw- “fied, must be the main theme of all that belongs to a true gospel-book. This is not the place to examine the allegations of Luther; but thus

uch may be said, without fear of contradiction by any intelligent read- pr of the present day, namely, that of all the books in the New Testa- ment, Christ, as the beginning, middle, and end, appears most conspic- uous in the Apocalypse. The peculiarity of manner in this book, i. e. the peculiarity of style, diction, plan, and: mode of representation—in a word, of all which belongs. simply to costwme—I readily concede ; in- deed, I have already alluded to it in the preceding remarks. But we shall see in the sequel, that the fundamental truth or basis of the Apoc- alypse is one which is a common theme of prophecy, both in the Old Testament and in the New. In order to confirm this, we must pass in

brief review some of the evidence which lies before us. i

I. Passages in the Old Testament.

(1) Gen, 3:15. From the early origin of our race, immediately after the fall of man, the prediction was uttered by his merciful Judge, that ‘the Seed of the woman should bruise the Serpent’s head.’ I am aware that some have rejected the idea of finding a predicted Messiah here. But it seems to be plain, that the apostle, who (Rom. 16: 20) prays. that ‘the God of peace, would shortly bruise Satan under the feet of the

WITH OTHER SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES. 18

Romish Christians,’ understood the declaration in Gen. 8: 15 as a pre- diction of the triumph of the church over the powers of darkness. And in Rev. 12: 17, the dragon is represented as ‘going to make war with the seed of the woman,’ with evident allusion to the declaration of the same text. With such examples before us; why should we hesitate to avow our persuasion, that the promise in Gen. 8: 15 pertains to the Saviour and the church, and that it announces the same sentiment which lies at the basis of the Apocalypse, namely that truth and love shall at last come. off victorious over falsehood and malignity.

(2) In Gen. 12: 3. 18: 18. 22: 18, are promises to Abraham, that “in him, or in his seed, all the nations of the earth should be blessed.” In Gen. 17: 5 is a promise, that ‘he should become the father of many nations.’ In Gen. 26: 4, the promise made to Abraham is renewed to Isaac, who is told, that ‘in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed.” If now we may allow Paul to be our expositor here, we shall find that in Rom. iv. and in Gal. iii, he interprets. the promises made to Abraham as having reference to the Messiah, to the calling of the Gentiles, and to the wide diffusion of the gospel among them. That Abraham himself so understood them, seems to be highly probable from what the Saviour says, “ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad,’ John 8:56. Still we find nothing more ex- plicitly predicted here, than that some one of Abraham’s posterity should arise, who would be a blessing not only to the patriarch’s seed, but to the Gentile world at large. When, how, or by what means all this was to be accomplished, these early predictions do not of themselves inform us. That Abraham, in consequence of them, looked forward to a. Mes- stanie day, when the triumphs of truth and love over the powers of darkness and malignity should take place, we know. But how definite his knowledge or expectation was, we have no sure means of determin- ing. Be this as it may, the germ of the Apocalypse lies in the pro- mises made to Abraham and his seed.

(8) The prophetic declaration of the dying Jacob, in respect to Ju- dah, was, that “the scepter should not depart from Judah, nor a law- giver from between his feet, until Shiloh should come; and to him should the gathering of the people be ;” Gen. 49: 10.

It would be foreign to my purpose to enter into the critical disputes about this passage. It is enough, that by general accord it is now ac- knowledged, that A>" (from 23) may mean either peace-maker, or tran- quilitas. Even in the latter case, as Gesenius (Lex. s. v.) concedes, the expectation of quiet is in and through the king Messiah, who is to spring from Judah. Peace-maker, or Prince-of-peace, is a name highly appropriate to the future king of the Jews, (comp. Is. 9: 6); and to those who believe that God made promises of a Messianic nature to

14 . COMPARISON OF THE APOCALYPSE

Abraham and to Isaac, it will not seem strange that they were also re- newed to the dying Jacob. But there is still the same simple and ge- neric idea at the basis of this promise, which forms the basis of the pre- -ceding ones, viz., that some one among the progeny of Judah should be a blessing to the world at large: “ Unto him shall the gathering of the people (nay nations) be.” With this we may compare Is. 42: 4, where it is said respecting the lect Servant of God, that “he shall not fail . . . until he have set judgment in the earth, and made the isles to wait for his law.” Haggai 2: 7 gives a like sense: “J will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with my glory ;” and many more. passages might easily be quoted, of the same tenor. The passage in Haggai shows what the disposition of the nations shall be in respect to the Messiah; for he is named their Dr- sirE. The passage in Isaiah shows the extent to which the nations will be “gathered.”

(4) Passing by the historical books, in which some Messianic pre- dictions may be found, e. g. 2 Sam. 7: 12 seq., let us proceed to the book of Psalms. The second Psalm, with nearly all of the ancient in- terpreters and most of the modern ones, we may regard as Messianic. We have a special reason for so doing, inasmuch as Paul, in Acts 13: 33 and Heb. 1: 5, has expressly and plainly quoted it as being Messianic. In this Psalm we are presented,. first, with the combination of the wicked against the person and dominion of their anointed King; then with the determination of him who “sitteth m the*heavens” that ‘the throne of this King. should be established, and that all nations, even the uttermost parts of the earth, should be given to him as a heritage. All who continue to oppose his righteous dominion, will be dashed in pieces as a potter’s vessel.’ Such then is to be the dominion and power of the Anointed King; his sway is to be universal, his power to “ put all enemies under his feet” is irresistible. And such—to all intents and purposes—is the picture presented of this King in the Apocalypse. He goes forth “conquering and to conquer.” He is “ King of kings and Lord of lords ;” and all who oppose themselves to his righteous and lawful dominion are “dashed in pieces as a potter’s vessel.”

But how different the mode of David and John, in presenting the same great truth! In Ps. ii, a few verses, couched in simple figurative language, are employed to designate all which the writer intended to say; probably all that was present to his mind. But in the Apoca- lypse, we have a protracted series of events, all represented to us by symbols throughout. Yet if all which is here symbolized should be com- bined together into one brief and general view, it could not be more simply and happily. presented, than it is in the second Psalm.

The reader will easily be able to make for himself, without any sug-

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WITH OTHER SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES. 15

gestions from me, the like remarks on a large number of the Messianic passages yet to be produced. I shall therefore deem it unnecessary for me to repeat them.

(5) To Ps. viii. a Messianic sense is denied by many interpreters of the present day. It would be out of place for me here to enter into a critical vindication of the interpretation which I feel constrained to give it, when I construe it as being Messianic. In so doing, I follow the author of the epistle to the Hebrews (2: 6—9), who clearly makes such an application of its sentiments. In this Psalm, again, the simple generie idea of universal dominion stands prominent; connected, as a matter of course, with the supreme exaltation and glory of the person- age thus exalted. In allrespects the matter is substantially the same as that in Ps. ii, while the costume is quite different, and the comminatory part of Ps. ii. is here omitted.

(6) Ps. xxii. is another portion of Scripture, the Messianic sense of which I cannot hesitate to acknowledge. I would not appeal to the commencing words of -it, as repeated by the dying Saviour upon the cross, for satisfactory proof of this; because he might have quoted.a pious sentiment from a Psalm not Messianic: but. I may appeal to Matt, 27: 39, 43 and to John 19: 24, for satisfactory proof that the Evangelists regarded this Psalm as Messianic. Somewhat more than half of the Psalm is occupied with describing the sufferings of the Mes- siah. Verse 22 begins the note of joy and triumph. He who had been a degraded sufferer, is to praise God in the midst of the congre- gation for deliverance ; and this deliverance is: to be proclaimed before the world as a ground of trust and confidence in God. “ All the ends of the world,:too, will call it to mind and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations will worship before him.” ... “ The kingdom is the Lord’s, and he is to govern among the nations.” . . “A people that is to be born shall declare his righteousness.” Here again, the simple idea is, that he who once was in a suffering and dying condition, shall become the instrument of bringing all nations to serve and to praise the Lord ; which latter idea is the same that is contained in Ps. ii. and viii, although it is invested with a drapery quite different..

(7) 2s. xlv. One greater than David or Solomon appears to be here. Unio the Son a part, at least, of the words of this Psalm are said by a sacred writer to be addressed, Heb. 1: 8; and well may we credit. this, when the. nature of the Psalm is thoroughly examined. ‘The writer presents us with a view of a king, fair, eloquent, heroic, a wise and con- descending and upright governor, and an irresistible conqueror of all his enemies. His dominion is eternal; and that all people may yield a willing subjection to him, he becomes affianced to the daughter of a foreign prince, and admits other foreign princesses among the retinue of

16 . COMPARISON OF THE APOCALYPSE

his court. Cheerful subjection to him is yielded, in prospect of the blessings to be enjoyed. Here again is presented the same attitude of things as in the Apocalypse. “'The arrows are sharp in the hearts of the king’s enemies,” and “ the people fall beneath his terrible right arm.” The image of the bride, the Lamb’s wife (Rev. 19: 7—9), seems to have been suggested to the apocalyptic seer, by the royal espousals described in the Psalm before us. Even the special idea at the close of the Ps. (v.16), viz. that the children of the bride are to be “made princes in all the earth,” is repeatedly brought before us in the Apocalypse, by the declaration that Christians are to be made “kings and priests unto God ;” see Rey. 1: 6. 5: 10. 20: 6, comp. 1 Pet. 2:-9.

(8) I cannot prove that Ps. lxxii. is Messianic; but I may suggest, that the contents seem to be appropriately applied when they are so in- terpreted, and that what is said here is of higher import than belongs to any ordinary king. Although it is not directly quoted and applied to the Messiah in the New Testament, yet, with Rosenmueller, 1 must think that a greater than David, Solomon, or any Jewish king, is to be found bere. The dominion of the Prince here described is to extend “from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.” He will be a merciful, just, and powerful king, vindicating the oppressed and helping the poor and needy. In his days shall the earth yield a most abundant increase; its “fruit shall wave ike Lebanon,” and all nations shall pour into his treasures their precious substance. “ His name shall endure as long as the sun... all nations shall call him blessed.” Here again is the usual idea of universal dominion, with the accessory one of universal and extraordinary fruitfulness of the earth. For the first time we find this latter idea here-introduced. JLvterally I do not suppose it is to be interpreted, any more than other similar images in descriptions of this na- ture.. But the least which can be said, is, that it is a lively image of pros- perity and happiness under the reign which is here predicted.

(9) Ps. ex. very much resembles the second Psalm in the tenor of its contents, and has been very generally conceded to be Messianic. Matt. 22: 42—45. Acts 2: 834—26. 1 Cor. 15:25, and Heb. 1:18. 5: 6, seem to leave no room for doubt, that the New Testament writers at any rate regarded this Psalmas Messianic. Supreme exaltation and domin- ion are here ascribed to a King, who is to be enthroned with God. His enemies are all to be subdued and prostrated, by a contest which shall fill many places with dead bodies, and wound the heads over many coun- tries. A King and a Priest forever the conqueror is then to be made, by the immutable oath of God. The priesthood which is here ascribed to this exalted king, seems to be the only point of difference between this and Psalm ii. which needs to be mentioned. In other respects, there is simply the idea of universal sway and of irresistible permanent power

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WITH OTHEB SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES. 17

and dominion presented to our view. That this glorious King is also to be a Priest forever, is an accessory idea by no means to be overlooked. ‘The Apocalypse also preserits us with a view of the Messiah, as having made his followers “kings and priests to God forever and ever,” by the offering of his own blood in the capacity of our great high Priest.

(10) Passing by minor and controverted passages, let us next take a view of what the Evangelical Prophet has said, in relation to the subject before us. Is. 2: 2—4, (with which Mic. 4: 1—4 should be compared), presents us with the simple idea, that. the Lord’s house shall be exalted high above all other places of worship, and that all nations shall go up to pay their homage there, and to learn the laws and statutes of Jeho- vah. When this shall come to pass, universal peace shall prevail, and the nations learn war no more. This unites the two leading ideas in Gen. 49: 10 and Ps. ii. Sheloh or Peace-maker is to come in the last days, and the uttermost. parts of the earth are to be given to him as a heritage. The Messianic nature of this passage is:admitted almost with- out a question.

(11) Equally plain is the passage in Is. 9: 1—7. ‘ Great light is to be scattered over the nations who have been walking in darkness. The rod of every oppressor is to be broken, the noise of battle to cease, gar- ments rolled in blood no more to be seen; while the Prince of peace, whose name.is Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the perpetual Father or Guardian of his people, is to have a government of which there shall be no end, and his throne to be established in judgment and justice forever and’ever’ The tenor of this is the same with that of Is. 2: 2—4, although the manner of the annunciation is quite diverse. The leading idea in both these passages should be compared with those views in the Apocalypse, which present the universality of Christ’s king- dom, the peaceable reign, first of a thousand years, and then again of a period after the enemies of the church, the hosts of Gog and Magog, are destroyed.

(12) In Is. 11: 1—10, “the Shoot from the stem of Jesse, the Branch from his roots,” is to be endowed with every gift and grace which will qualify him to judge with equity and to rule with wisdom and discretion. A time of universal peace shall succeed, in which all, even the noxious beasts and reptiles of the earth, are to lay aside their enmity, and live in harmony with each other...“ The earth shall be filled with the know- ledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” ‘To the “ensign” of the people “shall the Gentiles seek, and 1itllibecliing-place shall be glorious.” It is remarkable how frequently and with what ardour the prophet Isaiah dwells on this view of the Messianic reign. Its unlimi- ted extent and its undisturbed peace fill him with holy ecstasy.

(18) Is. 85: 1—10 presents us with a somewhat different picture. All

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18 COMPARISON OF THE AP®CALYPSE

the desolate and desert parts of the earth are to become fruitful. Zion is to be saved from all her enemies. ‘The eyes of the blind are to be opened; the ears of the deaf are to be unstopped ; the tongue of the dumb to sing; the lame man is to leap as a hart; and a highway to the house of God is to be made, over which no unclean person, and no rav- enous beast, shall pass. “ The redeemed shall walk there, . .. and come the ransomed of the Lord to Zion, with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads.” The idea of an extraordinary fruitfulness of the earth is here presented in a manner like to that in Ps. xxii. The freedom from suffering:and sorrow and sin, which will prevail in the days of Zion’s deliverance, is held up in a most cheering ‘and vivid manner.

(14) With the controversy respecting the genuineness of Is. x1—lxvi, I have nothing to do at present. My belief is, that, to say the-least, no proof that ought to satisfy us has yet been adduced, to show that these chapters belong to a prophet who lived near the close of the Babylonish exile. At all events, nothing can be more certain, than that the writers of the New Testament appeal to these chapters as a genuine portion of the Scriptures ; and equally plain it appears to be, that they appeal to them as the production of Isaiah. Is. 42: 1—9 seems plainly to be Mes- sianic, and is so applied in Matt. 12: 17—21. The prediction is, that the elect servant of God shall, by his gentle and -inoffensive demeanor, bring forth judgment unto victory, proclaim it to the Gentiles, and make the isles to wait for his law. He shall be “for a covenant to the people, for a light to the Gentiles,” and bring out the prisoners who are confined inthe darkness of dungeons. The Maker of heaven and earth declares this; and will perform it. The universality of the imfluence of the Prince of peace is plainly exhibited by this figurative representation.

(15) Is. 49: 1—12 presents us with nearly the same picture, although drawn with somewhat different colours. The Servant of the Lord, al- though frustrated at first in his attempts to persuade Israel, will yet bring back the remnant of them, and become a light to the Gentiles, even unto the ends of the earth. He will be for “a covenant of the people,” and all nations, with their kings and princes, shall bow down before him. In vs. 18—26 of the same chapter, a picture is presented of the prosperity and enlargement of Zion. Her lost children are to be restored ; the Gentiles are to bring them in, and kings are to become nursing-fathers, and queens nursing-mothers, and all her enemies are to be humbled.

(16) Is. 52: 7—15 presents another description of a like tenor. Good tidings to Zion are published; her God reigns; the ends of the earth are to see the salvation of God; the Servant of the Lord will make many nations to leap for joy, and kings will do him reverence.

(17) Is. 54: 1—5 represents Jerusalem as enlarging itself and break-

WITH OTHER SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES. 19

ing forth on the right hand and on the left; as inheriting the Gentiles ; as having her Maker for her husband, and the Holy One of Israel for her Redeemer, who shall be called “the God of the whole earth.”

(18) Is. 55: 1—5 invites all without distinction to come and buy wine and milk without money.and without price ; an everlasting covenant is to be made with them, and the sure mercies of David to be given them. The offspring of David is to be given as a leader and commander of the people, and Zion is to call a nation whom she knew not, and nations that knew not her are to run unto her.

(19) Is. 60: 1—22 exhibits a variegated and most beautiful picture of the future prosperity and glory of the church. ‘The Gentiles shall come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising. All nations will flock to her, and bring their freewill-offerings in abundance. Any who refuse, shall be utterly laid waste. Universal peace and prosperity will attend her; wasting and destruction shall no more invade her ; her light shall never be withdrawn ; mourning no more take place; her people shall be all righteous; and her increase like that when one becomes a thousand. ‘fhe Lord will surely accomplish all this, in his time.

(20) Is. 65: 17—25. A, new heavens and a new earth are to be created. Jerusalemeis to become a rejoicing, and her people a joy. In- firmities, sorrows, and» brevity of: life, shall no more be.-experienced. Long life, great prosperity, and undisturbed peace, shall be enjoyed. All enmity, even among the beasts of the field, shall cease, and-there shall be nothing te hurt or offend in all. the holy mountain of God. Vs..19— 24 represéiit'Israel.as gathered from among all the nations of the earth and brought to. Jerusalem.” Phere shall pure worship be established, so long as the new heavens and the new earth remain before the Lord, and all flesh shall go up to worship there, from one new, moon to another, and from one sabbath to another.

The attentive reader must have already observed; in respect to these predictions of “the evangelical prophet,” that nearly all of them look be- yond the redemption of the Jews, and include the Gentiles along with them. Jt is a circumstance worthy of note, on ‘a eritical account, inas- much as it serves to show, that the same tenor of Messianic prophecy is exhibited in the former part of the book of Isaiah, as is developed in the latter part. All is expansive, catholic in the highest sense, truly evan- gelical, and: demonstrative of a;benevolence commensurate with the wants and woes of .a perishing world.. That the simple theme which lies at the basis of all-these predictions, is the future aati hiversal prevalence of true piety and religion, is evident from the first perusal of them. How exactly this accords with the main design of the Apocalypse, needs not to be again asserted.

The general tenor of succeeding prophecies in the Old Testament, is

& COMPARISON OF THE APOCALYPSE

more Hebraistic or Jewish in its character. Foreign nations are less the objects of the writers’ thoughts. To the wants and woes of the Jewish nation, when they came into a_state of exile and oppression, the pro- phets of a later period more immediately address themselves. The Jews, they predict, will be again brought back to their country, and restored to the divine favour. ‘The time is coming when they shall all-turn to God, with repentanee for their past transgressions, and with full purpose of new and evangelical obedience. -

Much less frequent, also, are the Messianic prophecies in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets who lived during the period of the exile, than they are in the book of Isaiah. The sins and sorrows of the Jew- ish nation seem to occupy almost the whole soul of the sympathizing, consoling, warning seers, during that season of chastisement-and distress.

(21) Jer. 23: 5—8. After the Jews have gathered in from their dis- persion, the righteous Branch of David shall reign over them and’pros- per. He shall be called the Lord our Righteousness ; and in his days shall Judah and Jerusalem be safe.

(22) Jer. 31:27—37. The house of Israel and Judah%hall be: built up, and they shall cease to bear the iniquity of their fathers. A new covenant shall be made with them, different from the ancient one. God’s law shall be written upon their hearts ; and all shall know him from the least to the greatest. The Lord will be their God; he will forgive all their sins, and cast them off no more. This decree is perpetual as the ordinances of the sun and of the moon. Comp. Heb. 8: 10 seq.

(23) Jer. 33: 13—26. Judea shall again be inhabited; the Branch of Righteousness, which is of David, shall thrive, and execute judgment and justice in the land. Judah and Jerusalem shall be safe under his protection; his throne shall be perpetual. Pure offerings and holy priests shall never be wanting. The seed of David and the priests shall be multiplied as the stars of heaven. The covenant by which all this is secured, is sure and lasting as that of day and night.

These are all the conspicuous prophecies in the book of Jeremiah, that have a relation to the subject in question. The mere inspection of these shows us, that they are confined to the part which the Jewish na- tion will act, during the future period of the church’s prosperity and splendour.

(24) Of the same tenor are all the prophecies in EzeKret, with re- gard to this subject. Ezek. 34: 23—31. One Shepherd shall be set over Israel, viz. David the servant of God. He shall be their Prince. They shall enjoy peace and safety. The earth shall yield abundant increase. Neither the heathen nor beasts of prey shall any more annoy

them. The Plant of renown among them shall supply their wants, and the Lord shall be their God.

i

WITH OTHER SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES. on

(25) Ezek. 36: 24—38. From all countries shall the Jews be gath- ered; they shall be purified, and a new heart given to them. God will give them his Spirit, and cause them to obey his laws. He will save them from their enemies, and from all the various evils which they had so long suffered. They shall become true penitents, and their land, which was a desolation, shall be like the garden of Eden. God will be inquired of, in order that he may do all this for them ; and all the waste places of Judea shall be restored.

(26) Ezek. 37: 21—28. The Jews shall all be gathered in, and be- come one nation, and one King shall reign over them. ‘They shall no more return to the worship of idols. Dayid shall be king over them, and be their prince forever. They shall dwell in their own land, and God will make an everlasting covenant with them, and be their God, and they shall be his people.

(27) Ezek. 89: 20—28. The. prediction in this passage refers evi- dently to a more distant and subsequent period of the prosperity of the church, i. e. a period which follows the great irruption made upon it by Gog and Magog, whose forces are destroyed by divine interposition ; comp. Rey. 20:7—10. The amount of the prediction is, as before, that the Jews should be gathered from all countries, become penitent, and obtain mercy. God will pour out his Spirit abundantly upon hom; and he will never more hide his face from them.

Thus we perceive, that all the predictions in Ezekiel are of the same tenor with those in Jeremiah, and have respect merely to the future lot of the Jewish nation.

(28) The book of Danrex expands again into somewhat of the like tenor with that of Isaiah, only it is more brief.and more general. Dan. 2:44. The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, (after the days of the four kingdoms symbolized by the image seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream,) which shall break in pieces and destroy all other kingdoms, and stand forever.

(29) Dan. 7:18, 14, 27. To the Son of Man is given a kingdom, and dominion, and glory. All nations will serve him ; and his dominion is everlasting. The kingdom under the whole heaven is given to the peo- ple of the saints of the most high God.

(30) Dan. 9:24—27. This contains the famous passage respecting the seventy weeks. But as no interpretation of this has yet been given, so far as I know, which meets all the demands of critical exegesis, or entirely satisfies the minds of candid and enlightened inquirers, I will not count upon this passage, on the present occasion.

(31) Dan. 12:1—3. Great trouble, such as never before existed among the Jewish nation, shall come upon them ; but the people of God shall be delivered. Many that sleep in the dust shall arise. ‘They that

22. COMPARISON OF THE APOCALYPSE

be wise, and turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever.*

In the book of Daniel, then, the two predictions, which are sufficiently plain to be here counted upon, are of the same tenor with those in Isa- jah, and in the Apocalypse. Different are the representations of the minor prophets in general.

(82) Hos. 3:4, 5. The children of Israel shall be many days with- out a prince, without sacrifices and ritual ceremonies, and afterwards shall return and seek the’ Lord, and David their king, and fear the Lord in the latter days. ‘

(83) Joel 2: 28—32. God will pour out his Spirit on all flesh, even all the different classes of men from the highest to the lowest, and will exhibit astonishing signs of his presence and power. ~All that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

(84) Joel 3: 17—21. No strangers shall annoy or pollute God’s holy mountain. The land shall flow with milk and wine; while the countries of all its enemies shall be laid waste.’ Jerusalem and Judah shall have a permanent residence, and be made clean. This prediction seems to compare well with Ezek. 39: 20—28, which relates to the times that are subsequent to the invasion of Gog and Magog. It character- izes the old age of the world, and therefore can be compared only with - the season which follows the time of Gog and Magog, as mentioned in Rey. 20: 8—10.

(35) Amos 9:11—15. The tabernacle of David, which has fallen, is to be raised up, and the breaches thereof repaired. A season of peace and great plenty is to follow. The people of God are to be planted in their own land, and to be no’ more disturbed.

(36) Hag. 2: 6,7. Heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, are to be shaken. The Desire of all nations is to come, and fill the house of the Lord with glory.

(87) Zech. 12: 10—14. Universal penitence and mourning is to:take place among the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are to. mourn-over Him whom they have pierced.

(88) Zech. 14: 20, 21.- Holiness to the Lord is to be inscribed on

“I hesitate whether this is to be put to the account of Messianic prophecies, The certain object of it does not, as yet, seem to have been clearly and in all re- spects satisfactorily made out. The resurrection here mentioned some have thought to agree with that brought to view as preceding the Millennium, in Rev. 20:4—6. But in the latter case, only Christians, or perhaps only Cinastdiax mar- tyrs, appear to be the subjects of the first resurrection ; while in Dan, 12: 2, we findsome to be raised to everlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt ; = e. a gencral resurrection seems to be indicated here, while that in Rev. 20: 4d—6 is to say the most, only partial. More light is needed in respect to both paeanbreu, in order to obtain full and entire satisfaction. aie ;

WITH OTHER SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES. 23

everything which belongs to his house and to Jerusalem. The Ca- naanites will no more dwell in ‘the land:.- This prophecy seems to tally with that in Ezek. 39: 20—28.. Joel 8:17—21. Rev. 20: 8—10, and to relate to the times which are to jhe the invasion by Gog and Ma- S08:

(89) Mal. 4: 2—6... The Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. Israel shall prosper, and the wicked be trodden down. ~ Elijah, the prophet, will come as the forerunner of the day of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the wee and of the chil- dren to the fathers.

Such is the tenor of the predictions in the Old Testament, in relation to the deeply interesting subject before us. I have not aimed at citing them all; and I have purposely omitted such \as relate merely to the person of the Messiah; :because these had been fulfilled when the Apoc- alypse was written, and could not be there introduced: as predictions of what was yet to'come. Only such prophecies’ as have relation to the universal spread of ‘religion; whether among the Jews, or Gentiles, or both, have a direct bearing on our subject. Of these the number is so great, as to leave no room for well-grounded: doubt’ in the mind, that the pious Jews of former ages must have been filled with high expecta- tions in regard to the Messianic: period, and, like good old Simeon, must have been’ waiting for the Consolation of Israel, or, like Abraham, they must have seen the Saviour’s day afar off, and have been glad.

. That some of the predictions cited above, as having relation to the future extent and glory of the church, have been, and will be, interpre- ‘ted differently from what they are here supposed to mean, every reader well versed in biblical interpretation will know without admonition. It is a fact, moreover, that interpreters have not been wanting, who have even denied that there is any such thing as real prediction, either in the Old Testament or in the New; and many such are now upon the stage. But as my present concern is not with the dispute between Rationalists and Believers in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, so I cannot here enter into it, nor stop to vindicate my exegesis. It is enough for my present purpose to say, that I have made such an application of the prophecies cited, as I believe to be well founded. At all events, the same principles will apply to them as to the Apocalypse ; and if the one is prophetic, the other also is so.. The basis of both is evidently the same, viz. the universal spread and triumph of true religion. The only seeming exceptions here, are those prophecies which have respect only to the future conversion and restoration of the whole Jewish people. But I cannot regard what is said in this respect, as standing at all in opposition to such predictions as the book of’ Isaiah contains. The

24 COMPARISON OF THE APOCALYPSE

prophets who have spoken only of the restoration of the Jews, had their reasons, doubtless, for so doing—reasons, one would think, connected with the circumstances, the time, the place, the relations, in which they uttered their respective predictions. It would not be safe to conclude, that because only a reformation in part is expressly predicted in a par- ticular passage, a universal one is intended to be denied. We can only conclude from such a phenomenon, that for some good reason the pro- phets, who uttered the partial predictions, proceeded at that time no fur- ther.

On the whole, then, nothing can be plainer, in view of what has al- ready been laid before the reader, than that the main subject of the Apoc- alypse is not in the least degree a novel one. ‘The costume; the length and connection of the several series of predictions ; the symbols unceas- ingly employed; the nature of these symbols in some respects; the con- nection which all hopes of the future reformation and salvation of a per- ishing world have with the religion instituted by the Saviour of men ; and the peculiar development of the kingdom of God in consequence of this ;—all these are in the main new circumstances, it must be confessed, and peculiar to the author of the Apocalypse... But these are matters which are immediately connected with the style and peculiar situation of the writer, and with the times in which he lived, and are not substan- tially concerned with the main. and fundamental design. of his whole composition. In swbstance, there is an entire unity between the Old Testament prophecies and the Apocalypse, as to the future extent and completion of the kingdom of God, or the reign of true piety and virtue. A pious and intelligent Jew, or any sober person familiar with the writ- ings of the Old Testament, could not overlook the identity of the main object in both the cases that have just been named.

II. Passages in the New Testament.

But have the New Testament writers exhibited anything of the same expectations? Has the Saviour himself given any intimation that he was sent to others, as well as “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ?” The answer is not difficult ; for it is plain that one heart and soul, in.re- lation to the subject before us, pervade the writers of the New Testa- ment and of the Old.

(40) Matt. 8:11." When Jesus had healed the servant of a Roman centurion, he is reported by the Evangelist to have marvelled at the faith of this heathen man, and to have said: « Many shall come from the east. and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Ja- cob, in the kingdom of God.” In Luke 13: 29, the Evangelist adds : “From the north and the south,” as well as from the east and the west.

§ 6. ASCENSION OF ISAIAH. 49

i.e. in the seventh or uppermost heaven. Again, in 8:14 the same angel tells him, that ‘after the death of his body, he shall ascend to the seventh heaven, and there assume his clothing, and there see other clothings which are /aid up and numbered.’ The same sentiment is re- peated in chap. 9: 2, 18, 24, and 11: 40. In his General Remarks, p. 167 seq., Dr. Laurence traces this peculiarity to the Zohar, the most ancient, as well as the most ample collection of Cabbalistical remains ; and the passages which he adduces exhibit a similarity of conception in regard to the heavenly clothing of the saints. But I apprehend the ori- gin of this idea, in both productions, may be easily traced to a more an- cient and very direct source. In the Zend Avesta, which seems to have been written more than five centuries before the Christian era, among the second order of angels (Izeds) are reckoned the Gahs, to whom many supplications are directed (see Kleuker’s Zend Avesta, Izeshne, Ha LIL.) ; and one part of the office of the female Gahs is, to prepare clothing and lay it up in Gorotman [heaven] for such as are the faithful servants of Ormusd. With this the souls of the righteous will be cloth- ed, after the resurrection ; see Kleuker’s Zend. Av. I. p. 142; also An- hang. I. Th. I. p. 283. The costume of the Ascension and of the Zo- har, in regard to this matter, seems to be kindred with that of Parsism ; and this is well known to have influenced the speculations of the Kab- balists and the Gnostics.

Another remarkable coincidence with the costume of the Apocalypse deserves special mention. In Ascens. vii. 9 isa passage which represents the prophet Isaiah, in his rapture, as passing . or firmament, i. e. the upper region of the atmosphere or the apparent vicinity of the sun and stars, and as there beholding Samael [Satan] and his angels in fierce contention, and doing deeds of desperation. Who can refrain from call- ing to mind Rey. 12: 7—9, where Michael and his angels are represent- ed as contending évy z@ ovour®, i. e. in the first heaven or upper air, against Satan and his angels? Or who can refrain from calling to mind Paul’s “prince of the power of the air [prince of aerial dominion ], who worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2: 2), or “the prin- cipalities, and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world [of this benighted world], . . . spiritual wickedness in high places,” i. e. wicked spirits in elevated, q. d. aerial places, Eph. 6:12? That ‘evil spirits lived in the atmospheric region, was plainly a popular belief of the first century, (see Exe. I. Vol. II.) ; and thence Berial and his powers are to be “dragged down to hell,” when the Lord shall come, according to Ascens. 4:14. Does not this serve to cast light on those passages of the New Testament quoted above, and on others of the like tenor ?

I cannot suppress the remark, that chap. xi. of the Ascension appears manifestly to be copied from the account of the nativity of the Saviour in

VOL. I. 7

+. aoe eee

50 § 6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

Matt. 1: 18—25, and shows, if it be genuine, that in the first century this was a part of the Gospels. I know of no good reason to doubt its genuineness. The writer has, indeed, presented a wonderful birth, as well as conception ; but. this belongs to the manner of the book, and con- stitutes one of its apoeryphal traits.

On the whole, it is lispossite to read this production with attention, without feeling that one’s circle of acquaintance with oriental imagery is enlarged thereby, and also with the opinions and speculations of curious minds in the first age of Christianity. He is not to be envied as a critic, who can peruse such a book without the most lively interest.

[The reader who wishes further and more particular information, is referred to the Ascensio Isaiae Vatis, a Ricardo Laurence, LL.D. Oxon. 1819; Gesenius Einleit, in Esaiam, § 9, p. 45 seq.; Liicke, Einleit. in Apoc. § 16, p. 125 seq. and 1. Nitzsch on two Fragments of the "Avafatexdy "Eoaiov, in the Studien und Kritiken, II. p. 209 seq. The fragments were discovered by A. Maio, in the Vatican library, and published in 1823 in his Nova Collectio Seriptt. Vet., Pars IT. p. 208. Nitzsch has exhibited these, and made, at the close of his communication, some highly acute and critical remarks on the whole production. A Latin trans- lation of the Vision or second part of the work, was mentioned by Sixtus Senen- sis in his Biblioth. Sancta, Lib. 11. p. 59, as printed at Venice under the title of Visio Admirabilis Esaiae Prophetae ; which, after disappearing for a long time, has at last been discovered in the hbrary at Miinchen and at Copenhagen. . In this version, chap. xi. 2—21 of the Ethiopic version is wanting. The quotations of this book by the fathers, may be found in Laurence’s General Remarks; anda brief account of them, both in Gesenius and Liicke.]

(b) The Book of Enoch.

Several circumstances conspire to throw more than ordinary interest around this apocryphal production. From ancient times, it has been be- lieved that Jude has made a quotation from it, in vs. 14, 15 of his brief epistle. Some of the earliest fathers, moreover, have appealed to it even in such a way, as to show that they regarded it as entitled to a rank scarcely, if at all, inferior to that of an acknowledged canonical book.

In the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, one of the most respecta- able of the apocryphal productions, and one which, beyond all-reasona- ble doubt, belongs to the latter part of the first century or to the begin- ning of the second,* the book of Enoch is the subject of express appeal and of citation no less than nine times, besides some other probable al- lusions to it. The mode of appeal shows the weight of authority attach- ed, by the writer of the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, to the book now under examination. In Test. Sim. c. 5, he says: Eagan & Av. Lee QuntyoL reaps Evoy, 0 Ott, x. t.4.3 in Test. Lev. c. 10, xadadg megueyet BiBhos Evay tov dixoéov; and the ‘like j in ec. 14. c. 16. Test, Dan. c. 5,

* So Nitzsch has satisfactorily shown, in his De Testamentis XII. Patriarcharum, Lib. Vet. Test. Pseudepigrapho, p.-17 seq.

§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 51

Test. Jud. ¢. 18. Test. Zeb. c. 8. Nepht. c. 4. Benj. c.9. In Test. Reub. é& 5, there is a plain reference to that part of the book of Enoch, which exhibits the seduction of women before the flood by some of the apos- tate angels, viz. Enoch, ch. vii. viii.

The manner and object of these appeals leaves no room to doubt, that the author of the Testaments regarded and cited the book of Enoch as one of canonical authority, or, to say the least, as one whose decision, or declaration, or prediction, was to be looked upon as eredible and au- thoritative. And inasmuch as the author of the Testaments has thus quoted and alluded to the book of Enoch, near the close of the first cen- tury or at the beginning of the second, it follows of course that the lat- ter must have already been in circulation, and obtained credit among the expected readers of the Testaments; consequently we are bound, at all events, to assign a period as early as the first century to the com- position of the book of Enoch.

So Justin Martyr (Apol. Brev. p. 92, edit. ex. Cong. Sanct. Mauri) exhibits a passage respecting the apostate angels, who seduced women before the flood and in various ways corrupted the world, which passage beyond all question is built on the book of Enoch, chap. vii—ix, although he does not specifically name the book. Irenaeus refers to the punish- ment of angels who thus sinned (Cont. Haeres. IV. 30, Massuet 16), and speaks of Enoch as “conservatus usque nunc testis judicii Dei,” by which he must mean that the words of Enoch, as contained in his so named prophecy, are still preserved. Tertullian, in Lib. de Idol. ¢. 4 and 15, also in his De Cultu Fem. c. 10, ap eals to Enoch, as “the an- cient prophet Enoch,” and cites some things which he declares the Holy Spirit to have announced by him. Again, in De Habitu Fem. ¢. 2. 3, he argues at length in favour of the divine inspiration and authority of the book; on grounds, indeed, which will not abide the test of scrutiny, but still he is evidently much in earnest, and accuses the Jews of having rejected the authority of this book, because it contained certain things in it respecting Christ. He also concedes, “ scripturam Enoch... non recipt a quibusdam ;” i. e. some Christians reject it, or do not admit it into the canon of the sacred books. He declares, however, that it is a profitable book for Christians; and that we have warrant enough for believing, that ‘every writing adapted to edification is inspired of God,’ [alluding to 2 Tim. 3:16]. Finally, in order to’ settle the question of authority, he adds : “ Accedit, quod Enoch apud Judam Apostolum tes- timonium possidet.”

The book of Enoch (ce. 97:7, 8) is also cited by him in his De Idolo- lat. c. 4, in almost exactly the same words that a literal Latin transla- tion of the Ethiopic copy of this book would exhibit. The general iden- tity of the book of Enoch, as used by Tertullian, with that which has

52 § 6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

come down to us through the medium of the Ethiopic, seems therefore to be beyond any reasonable question.

Clement of Alexandria (c. A. D. 200), refers to the book of Enoch and quotes from it, (Exioy. zeoq. pp- 801, 808, ed. Sylb. and in many other places) ; but he expresses no opinion as to its authority.

Origen frequently refers to the book of Enoch; e. g. Cont, Cels. p. 267, ed. Spencer; zeot deyar, IV. cap. ult. et L c. 3; Homil. 28 in Num. XXXIV. In some of these passages he expressly disclaims all canonical authority of the book; but, out of deference to the opinion of some who had a high regard for it, he says once, on an occasion of ap- pealing to it: “If any one pleases to receive it as a sacred book ;” in Johann. p. 132, ed. Huet. ;

Jerome mentions the book, and calls it apocryphal ; Catal. Scriptt. Eccl. c. 4. Comm. in Tit. i. Comm. in Psalm. 132: 3. Augustine stands in the same position, rejecting as fabulous many of the legends in the book of Enoch; De Civ. Dei, XV. 23. X VILL. 38.

From the time of Augustine down to the ninth century little or noth- ing appears to have been known or said of the book of Enoch. But, near the beginning of this century, G. Syncellus, a monk of Constanti- nople, wrote a Chronographia in Greek, in which he made very copious extracts from that book. The first two of them include ch. vii—x. 15; the other one begins with ch. xv. 8, and ends with ch. xvi. 1.* These are so copious, and withal so much in conformity with the book of Enoch which has come down to us through the medium of the Ethiopic, that no doubt can remain as to the identity of the two works.

It seems to have been the prevailing opinion among the ancient Chris- tian fathers, that the apostle Jude, in vs. 14, 15 of his epistle, had quo- ted. a passage from the book of Enoch. Even those who condemn the book as apocryphal, admit this, and endeavour to account for it in some way satisfactory to their own minds.- In modern times, an intense in- terest has occasionally been awakened, in disputes about the canon of the New Testament, respecting this alleged quotation ‘of Jude. The book of Enoch, therefore, had long been eagerly sought after and wished for ; but in vain, until a recent traveller in Abyssinia discovered this cu- rious relic there, in the Ethiopic language and incorporated by the Abyssinians with their books of the Old Testament.t ;

* The reader will find these extracts in Dr. Laurence’s Book of Enoch, printed at large in the Appendix. He will also find them in Syncellus, first edited by Scaliger, and recently by Dindorf at Bonn, 2 Vol. 8vo. ; they are exhibited, like- wise, in Fabricius Cod. Pseudepigr. V. Test. I. p. 179 seq.

t That traveller was James Bruce, well known to the English world by his five volumes of Travels. He brought with him from Ethiopia ‘or Abyssinia, three copies of the book of Enoch ; one of which he gave to the Bodleian library at Ox-

§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 53

Respecting the contents of the book thus introduced to the reader I proceed to give some account, as briefly, however, as the nature of the case will admit. It is no easy task, to give a synopsis of contents which are so multifarious and diverse; and withal, the difficulty is much augmented by the want of unity in the book, by apparent transpositions of several parts of it, and not improbably by the omission of some things which once belonged to it.

‘The book begins, like those of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other prophets, with a superseription, in which Enoch is first spoken of in the third person; but after a few lines the same personage goes on to speak in the first. “ The bless- ing of Enoch upon the elect‘and righteous, who were to exist in the time of trouble, rejecting all the wicked and the ungodly,” is given in the inscription as the gene- ral object of the whole book; and this agrees tolerably well with the contents at large. 3 In like manner as in the prophets, Daniel, Zechariah, and John, angels are represented as the guides and interpreters of the seer. What he sees has, as he avers, respect “ to a distant period,” i. e. to the days of the Messiah.

That which is so summarily hinted in the inscription, with respect to the gen-

ford, another. to the royal library at Paris, and a third he kept for himself. From the copy at Oxford, Dr. Laurence, late Regius Professor of Hebrew there, gave to the world, in A. D. 1821, a translation into English, with Notes, and a Prelim- inary Dissertation. From this a knowledge of the contents of the singular book in question has been diffused over Europe.—De Sacy also made a translation into Latin of a small part of the book, (from the copy in the Paris Library,) which he published in the Mag. Encyc. I. p. 382 seq. In 1833, Prof. A. G. Hoffmann of Jena translated the first half of Laurence’s English version into German, and published it with exegetical notes. Hoffmann had no opportunity for consulting the original, as to this part of his work. But subsequently to this, the celebrated traveller, Dr. Ruppell, brought another copy of the whole work from Abyssinia. Furnished with this, Hoffmann made a version fromthe Ethiopic for Vol. II. of his Commentary, in which he has, by his superior knowledge of the oriental lan- guages, made many corrections of Laurence, (mostly minor ones), and expended great labour upon the exegetical Notes. Inman Excursus, he has reviewed a re- cent work in England, by the Rev. Edward Murray, entitled Enoch restitutus, in which the English author has endeavored to show, that the present book of Enoch is fragmentary, being made up of several different writings, and that the book quoted by Jude (vs. 14, 15) was a very different and much smaller book than the present. The superior knowledge of the subject, which Hoffmann possessed, easi- ly enabled him to show how unsafe in criticism, and also how illogical, the lead- ing positions of Murray are. It needs something more than confident assumption and unrestrained imagination, to criticise on an obscure work of antiquity. The second Vol. of Hoffmann was published in 1838. Both volumes make 960 pages. They are the fruit of widely extended and patient study, and generally satisfy the mind of an inquirer, who seeks to understand the book of Enoch. On some points of higher criticism, the commentator shows more attachment to previously adopted views, than is satisfactory to an impartial reader; sometimes (not often) even cashiering the text, where it stands in his way. On some of these points, I feel myself unable to accord with him; but thanks are due to him for the light that he has poured in upon this dark and neglected domain of sacred literature.

a’ &

54 § 6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

eral design of the book, is, in the immediate sequel, more fully expressed : ‘ God will hereafter reveal himself on earth; all shall be filled with terror ; the earth shall be burned up and all things in it perish ; but to the righteous peace and mercy will be given, they shall all be blessed, and the glory of God shine upon them.’ Then follows the passage (ch. ii.) which is quoted in Jude, vs. 14, 15; to which the attention of the reader will be particularly directed in the sequel.

The discerning reader will here find the same germ as in the Apoca- lypse. Views like this are frequently repeated in the book of Enoch ; which serves to show on what the mind of the writer was most intent, and how much resemblance in some respects there is, between his prin- cipal aim and that of John. Both wrote for the consolation of suffering saints.

The writer goes on: ‘ All nature obeys, without transgressing, the ordinances of God; the stars, the seasons, the clouds, the trees, the rivers, and seas, all obey their appropriate laws ; only the wicked disobey, and on them no peace shall come, but eternal curses. To the righteous, however, shall be given light, peace, joy, wisdom, freedom from condemnation, long life, and everlasting happiness.’ Ch. iii—vi.

Such, then, is the theme of the book proposed by the writer. He be- gins his exhibition of the evidence, designed to establish his positions, with an account of transactions before the flood, and during the days of Enoch, ;

‘A number of angels:(200 according to ch. 7: 7) become enamoured with some of the daughters of men, and, by the persuasion of Samyaza their leader, they en- ter into an agreement, sanctioned by oath on mount Hermon, to cohabit with them. This agreement they execute, teaching their paramours, at the same time, sorcery, divination, the arts of luxury and ornamental dress, and also of fabrica- ting dyes, jewels, and instruments of war. These women, in the sequel, brought forth giants [p°>°£2] 300 cubits high, who devoured all the productions of man which were fitted for food, and. then, at last, fell upon men themselves.’ Ch. vii. Vill.

‘The good guardian angels of men now make complaint to the Almighty, in regard to these outrages and violations of the laws of men and angels. An angel is immediately sent by the Most High to Noah, in order to tell him of the deluge which should come upon the earth. Raphael is also commissioned to bind Aza- ziel, one of the leading apostate angels, hand and foot, and cast him into darkness and into the desert of Dudael. The earth is to be punished for its vickettiens, but not utterly destroyed. Gabriel is commissioned to go and excite the ginite, the mongrel breed of angels and women, to mutual slaughter. Michael is cali: manded to go and seize Samyaza, with his apostate fellows, and bind them for seventy generations under the earth, even to the day of judgment; also to com- plete the destruction of the giants,’ Ch. ix. x. 1—20. Then followsa description of a kind of millennial state, which is to succeed the destruction of the wicked (10: 21—29) ; ‘ righteousness and equity shall abound ; the saints will live each to beget a thousand children ; the earth will yield, in overflowing abundance, all that ministers to want or luxury ; all men will be righteous, all worship God in truth ; all crime will cease ; no more shall any deluge come ; and everything in which men engage will be blessed.” | :

*

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§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 55

Enoch is now commissioned by good angels, to go and announce to the apostate angels their doom. This commission he executes, and they all become terrified, and beseech him to intercede for them. He con- sents, and writes down a memorial for them ; but while he is reading it, he falls asleep, and is taught therein by a vision, that their doom admits of no change.

The substance of that vision is as follows: ¢ The prophet is caught up into hea- ven, where he sees a spacious palace, surrounded by crystal walls and vibrating flames of fire, and guarded by cherubim of fire. Ona throne therein, which was surrounded with flaming splendour, One great in glory sat, on whom even angels could not look without being dazzled.’ Ch. xii—xiv. ‘ By the exalted Being on this throne, Enoch is commanded to go and announce to the apostate angels their doom. The crime which they have committed is against the laws of their spir- itual nature, and admits of no pardon. The giants, their ill-begotten progeny, shall beget only evil demons, who will commit all kinds of violence and oppres- sion, and shall at last miserably perish by mutual slaughter. No metcy is to be obtained for them. Their flesh is to perish before the judgment that is coming upon them, and until the consummation of all things. No peace can ever be given to apostate angels and their offspring.’ Ch. xv. xvi.

Thus concludes that part of the book which has special reference to the case of the apostate angels ; and this may appropriately be named the first part of the book of Enoch; or, if a division of the whole be made by books, (as it was in the days of Syncellus who quotes éx B:p- diov mewtov), this may be called the first book.

The second Boox extends from ch. xyil. to ch. xxxv. ‘The prophet is eleva- ted to the top of a lofty mountain in some distant region, whence he sees the trea- sures of lightning and thunder, the fiery ocean in which the sun sets, and the tivers of fire which empty into it; also the mountains of gloom whence winter issues, the great abyss the source of all the streams of water, and the treasuries of the winds which are agents in all the motions of the heavenly bodies. All these were seen in the West.’ Ch. xvii. xviil. 1—7.

‘Next the Seer passes to the South. Here are six mountains formed of resplen- dent and precious stones, and blazing with fire. On the other side of them he sees an extended desert, with a great lake, and fountains of water. Over these fountains stood columns of fire, which moved up and down; over them was no firmament, and under them no solid ground. Here seven stars were imprisoned, which had transgressed the command of God, in respect to keeping their appoint- ed movements. This is the place where the apostate angels appointed leaders in the matter of their transgression; and afterwards the same angels led men astray, into idolatry and other crimes, for which they shall be judged.’ Ch. xviii. xix.

‘ Passing on nearer to this tremendous place, the Seer asks the angel, who ac- companied him, to explain the ground of that severe punishment which the stars suffered. The answer is, that they had transgressed their laws.’ Ch. xxi, 1—3.

The writer, like Origen and several of the early Fathers, believed the stars to be animated, or at least to be under the direction of anima- ted angelic beings. Hence the gwilt with which they are charged. This

2

56 § 6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

seems to be mentioned by him, in order to inspire his readers with dread of transgressing God’s holy laws.

‘ Going thence the angel conducts him to a dreadful place, glittering with col- umns of fire, which he declares to be “ the prison of the [sinning] angels.” Ch. xxi.4—6. Thence he goes to Elysium or the region of the blessed, surrounded by mighty walls of rock. Hither the souls of the dead, i. e, of all the righteous, will come and dwell until the day of judgment. This place is divided into four spaces, by a chasm between the first and second, water between the second and third, and light between the third and fourth. So is it, also, with the souls of the wicked, which, in their place (under ground), are separated until the judgment-day, when they will be punished forever ; there is no escape from their prison.’ Chap. xxii.

‘From this place the prophet is rapt into another, where he sees seven shining mountains, adorned with precious stones, and with odoriferous trees, one of which exceeded all the trees of Eden. The fruit of this tree will be given to the right- eous afier the judgment, and they will live forever by means of it, free from all pain and sorrow. On the seventh of these mountains, overtopping all the rest, the Lord of Glory will descend, when he shall visit the earth to reward the right- eous. Chap.xxiv. Thence the prophet comes to the middle of the earth [Jeru- salem], where he sees a holy mountain [Zion], with water on the eastern side flowing to the south [the brook Kidron]; also another mountain [that of Olives] on the east. Water also ran from the west. [from the fountain of Siloam], and another mountain was on the south. Among these were vallies, and precipices with trees; also an accursed valley [viz. that of Hinnom]. Here blasphemers are punished, and in the judgment they shall be made an example of retribution.’ Ch. xxv. xxvi.

‘From this place the prophet is carried to a mountain in the desert [perhaps Si- nail, full of trees, water, and cataracts ; thence to another place to the eastward of this, which was full of choice, odoriferous, and medicinal trees; from this he sees another place, with plenty of never failing water and goodly trees; then he sees another mountain containing trees loaded with the most sweet-smelling fruit, from which water flowed like nectar; and on this another mountain full of trees with fruit of surpassing odour.’ Chap. xxvii—xxx.

‘Thence, surveying “the entrances of the north,” he perceived seven other mountains, replete with new and odoriferous trees. Passing these, and going over the Erythraean Sea [Gulf of Akaba?], far beyond it he beheld the garden of righteousness [Eden], with trees numerous, large, fragrant, beautiful, and among them the tree of knowledge, like a species of the tamarind tree. Raphael informs him, that this was the tree of which his ancient progenitors ate. Ch. xxxi. Thence he is conducted toward the extremities of the earth, where large beasts and birds of various forms are seen; and to the eastward of these he comes to the ends of the earth and the heavens; and there he sees the gates of heaven open, whence issued all the stars, which, by the help of his guide, he numbered and re- corded, together with their times and seasons. Thence he goes to the extremities of the north, where he sees the gates whence issue the northern winds, cold, hail, frost, dew, and rain. Thence he is taken to the gates at the western extremity ; and thence to those of the south, from which issue dew, rain, and wind. Thence he goes back again to the east, in order to review the courses of the stars.’ Ch. XXXIV—XXXV.

Here begins a new vision, “the vision of wisdom,” to be communi- cated in 103 parables, [De Sacy reads three ; and only three are con-

ar

§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 57

tained in the book]. It extends from ch. xxxvii. to ch. lxx, and con- stitutes by far the most interesting and important part of the book, in- asmuch as here the whole of the author’s Christology is displayed. The usual appellation here of the divine Being, is Lord of spirits, which oc- curs scores of times.

First parasie. ‘The time of judgment and of the separation of the righteous and wicked is coming, when endless woe will be to the wicked; but peace and happiness to the righteous. ‘The holy and elect race” shall descend from hea- ven and dwell with men. The prophet is then taken up to heaven, and sees the habitation of the saints with the angels. Their number is countless, and they continually bless and praise God. He earnestly desires to remain there. My- riads stand before the Lord of spirits; and on the four sides of him are four arch- angels, who in different ways address him, praising him, and supplicating for suc- cess in the discharge of the different tasks assigned there. Ch. xxxvili—xl. Af- ter this the secret places of paradise are shown to Enoch, and there he sees the receptacles of all the various agents in nature, thunder, wind, dew, hail, etc.; also of the moon with all her phases, and of the stars with all their picdolanae These last shine with no changing or borrowed light.” Ch. xli—xliv.

PARABLE THE SECOND. This parable specially exhibits the author’s Christology. ‘The title of the parable (ch. 45: 1) gives us to understand, that it respects those “who deny the name of the Lord of spirits, and who will be judged and punished by the ELuctr Onz,” [the Messiah].

‘The Elect One shall dwell in the midst of the righteous, changing the face of heaven and earth; excluding the wicked from them. The Ancient of Days will ‘give to the Elect One full power to subdue all opposition, to humble all kings and princes who resist him, and expel the Lord of glory from their temples.—The blood of the righteous shall be avenged ; the supplications of the holy ones on ac- count of their blood, viz. that it may be avenged, willbe heard. The Son or man is invoked before the Lord of spirits, and was invoked before the creation of the sun and stars. All shall worship him. Tur Execr Onk was witn Gop BEFORE

HE WORLD was. ‘The righteous will he protect; the wicked will he cast into the fire. The glory and power of the Faces One are eternal; he will judge secret things.’ Ch. xlv—xlviii.

‘The saints shall live in glory; the wicked be overwhelmed with evil; but space for repentance shall be given; and those who do not repent shall never find mercy. The earth and Hades shall deliver up their dead to be judged; the right- eous shall be separated from the wicked, and filled with joy and peace.’ Ch. xlix. 1.

¢ Enoch is now transported once more to the West, by a whirlwind, There he sees six mountains of different metals, all of which are to be appropriated to the use of the Messiah, [comp. Is. 45: 9, ‘I will give thee the treasures of darkness.’’] All of these shall dissolve at his coming, and no more use be made of them to fabricate arms of opposition. Ch li.—A deep valley is also seen there by the pro- phet, and all men bring their presents and offerings thither [to propitiate the Mes- siah]; but such as have filled their hands with iniquity and the fruits of rapacity shall perish, while the righteous endure forever. There the angels of punishment were preparing their deadly weapons to smite sinners, and to destroy kings and the powerful ones of the earth; but the righteous shall be relieved from the vexa- tion of si . Ch. lii. Thence Enoch is brought to another part of the earth,

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to a deep valley burning with fire, [the valley of Hinnom, see chap. xxviJ. To this the kings and the mighty, who had been oppressors, are brought; and here they are bound with fetters of iron that have no weight;’ [comp. chains of dark- ness, Jude v. 6. 2 Pet. 2: 4]. Ch. liti. :

‘Here comes in a paragraph which seems like an interpolation, it being a de- scription merely of the flood in Noah’s time. It extends from 53: 7 to 54:5. ¢ Af ter this, the prophet sees in a valley, the sinning angels in chains, and also their paramours and offspring, [the giants]—Subsequent to this the princes of the Par- thians and Medes shall come and remove kings, and tread upon the land of the elect. Their course, however, shall be arrested; but the people of the land will be destroyed by mutual slaughter, and the mouth of Hades shall be much en- larged. Ch. liv. After this Enoch sees another army of chariots coming upon the wind, from the east, west, and south, [the invading Romans]. Their noise shakes the whole earth. Ch. ly.

Tuirp Parasie. ‘Peace shall be to the saints, and God will be their ever- lasting light.—The secrets of the lightning are now shown to Enoch; also of the thunder; both when they are for a blessing and for a curse. Ch. Ivi. lvii. In the 500th year of Enoch’s life the heavens and the earth shook violently, the Ancient of Days was seen on his throne of glory, surrounded by myriads of angels; the time of judgment and punishment, as well as of reward, comes; to the righteous Leviathan and Behemoth are given for their feast ; while the wicked are severely punished. Ch. lviii.

¢ Another angel now proceeds with the prophet, and discloses to him all the se- crets of the agencies of nature, e. g. of the winds, moon, lightning, ebb and flow of the sea, mist, rain, darkness, light, etc. Ch. lix.—Angels go to the north, with measures for the righteous, that they may be brought to dwell with the elect, and be able to measure or scan their portions and all the secrets of nature. All unite to bless, praise, and glorify the Lord and his Elect One. The Cherubim, Sera- phim, and Ophannim, and “all the angels of the Lords, viz. of Taz Erect OxE AND OF THE OTHER PowER, who was upon the earth over the water on that day,” bless and praise him—all holy beings in the universe shall bless and praise the Lord of spirits. Ch. lx. The. Lord of spirits summons kings and princes to com- prehend, if they can, his Elect One. He seats himself upon the throne of judg- ment, and brings the ungodly to trial. Anguish will seize upon the wicked, when they behold the Son of woman sitting on the throne of his glory. All shall glorify «Him who has dominion over all things, Him who was concealed,” viz. the Son of man, ‘who from the beginning existed in secret ;”’ all the elect shall stand be- fore him, all kings and princes fall down and worship him. “« They shall fix their hopes on this Son of man, and pray to him, and petition to him for mercy.’ But all _ the ungodly shall be dragged away to punishment, while the righteous shall be made joyful before him, and dwell with the Son of man forever. The saints, who have been raised from the earth, will be clothed with the garment of life. This garment is with the Lord of spirits. Ch. lxi. Tyrant kings will then be punish- ed, that rest may be given to the saints for a time. They shall praise God for the rest thus given to them. Oppressors cannot find this rest. They are constrained to acknowledge that God’s judgments are just. They shall be thrust out from the presence of the Son of man. The apostate angels, who have seduced men, will be punished by him.’ Ch. Lxii. Ixiii, ,

Chs. Ixiv—Ixvii. contain a vision of Noah respecting the flood; which is plainly interpolated here ; or at least inserted in a wrong nee Tt ; m

$6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 59

has respect to Enoch, only inasmuch as Noah repairs to him for the ex- planation of things seen by the former in a vision.

‘In ch. Ixviii. the names of twenty-one apostate angels are given, who were active in misleading the others, and also their various characters and offences. All shall be judged by the Son of man, and his word shall be all-powerful in pres- ence of the Lord of spirits.—Here, it is said, ends the third parable; but ch. lxix. lxx. are plainly a continuation consisting of homogeneous matter. The prophet sees the Son of man exalted by, all on earth and in heaven. After being lifted up to the heaven of heavens, Enoch there sees the pellucid and glittering palace of the Ancient of Days, and also angels, archangels, and saints, worshipping before him. He falls down and worships. He is commended and blessed, and a promise of perpetual peace and happiness is made to him.’ Ch. ]xvii—lxx.

Chaps. lxxi—Ixxxi. exhibit the author’s peculiar system of astrono- my or astrology. They respect the sun, moon, winds, mountains of frost, the parent-fountains of water, ete.; and they treat of all the phe- nomena, and changes of these. ‘ They are a most singular exhibition of ignorance in matters of science combined with a kind of acuteness, and of ideas resulting merely from ocular inspection mixed with speculative reasoning upon the nature of things. It would be a welcome contribu- tion to the history of astronomy, if some such man as Ideler would be- come a commentator upon this unique system of nature. No one with acquisitions less than his, in this department of science, would be able, J think, to unravel the intricacies of this section. Hoffman has done much to clear up its obscurities, but not all which is desirable. In ch. Ixxxi. Enoch commands Methuselah his son to preserve with care all which he has written down respecting these matters.

¢ Other visions of Enoch are also communicated to Methuselah. ,He was pre- monished, in vision, of the flood; and his father Mahalaleel enjoined it upon him to intercede for the earth. His prayer is accepted, in regard to a small remnant of men.’ Ch. Ixxxii. lxxxiii.

¢ Another dream of Enoch discloses, under the imagery of black and white cows and bulls, the history of Adam’s posterity ; of the apostate angels, as interming- ling with them; of the punishment of the antediluvians; of Noah’s ark, the flood, etc., as related in the Scriptures. The history of Moses, Saul, David, Solomon, etc., is continued under the symbol of sheep.’ This is carried on, although in a very obscure and unattractive manner, down to a period near the Christian era. One can hardly recognize the author of the preceding part of the book in these chapters. Some of these representations are not only obscure, but parts of them are absolutely loathsome. Ch. lxxxiv—Ixxxix. For the most part, however, Hoff- mann has given satisfactory explanations.

Ch. xc. contains ‘an address of Enoch to all his posterity, in which he gives them moral warning and exhortation. Ch. xci. is made up of the like matter. Ch. xcii—civ. contain addresses of Enoch to his children respecting “ the elect of the world, the plants of righteousness.’’ A period of ten weeks is named, into which the whole course of time is distributed. In the succession of these, the author refers to the deluge, to Abraham, to the law, to the temple of Solomon, to Elijah, to oo captivity, and to the corrupt Jews in their exile. The

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eighth week is one of righteousness in which judgment shall be executed upon oppressors ; and in it the house of the great King shall be built up ; (which pro- bably describes the Maccabaean period). In the ninth week the judgment of righteousness shall be revealed, and the world prepared for destruction ; (a gene- ric view of the Messianic period). On the seventh day of the tenth reek: ever- lasting judgment shall be executed on the apostate angels, and a new heaven and a new earth appear. Who is capable of comprehending the works of God, or who can count the number of the stars, etc. ?”

Ch. xciii. contains an exhortation to righteousness, with a desctigition and re- proof of the ways of the wicked. Chaps. xciv—x¢ix. contain denunciations of the wicked, and particularly of oppressors and persecutors. ‘This is by far the noblest moral part of the book, and approaches near the paraenetic strains of the Old Testament prophets. It evidently flows from a mind deeply sympathizing with the suffering and persecuted righteous. ‘In the hands of the Most High are all the elements, and all things; who can resist him? Ch.c. Who will dare to murmur against him? God will be terrible to the wicked; the righteous, after all their persecution and sufferings, will enjoy eternal peace. By a most solemn oath, assurance is given of this. The sufferings of the righteous are de- scribed. The righteous are exhorted to persevere, and repeated assurance of rich reward is given. To them shall books be given, books of joy and great wisdom —books in which they believe and rejoice, [New Testament ?]. Enoch’s posteri- ty shall instruct men in those days; God and his Son will forever hold commu- nion with them. Ch. cii—civ. In ch. cy. Enoch again reverts to the antediluvian period, and tells us of the extraordinary appearance of Noah, when first born ; so extraordinary that Lamech, his father, repaired to Knoch in order to know the meaning of it. Enoch tells him that:a flood is coming, and that his child [Noah] is destined to survive it, because of his holy character.’

¢ Another book also Enoch wrote, respecting the latter days. Flaming fire will consume all the ungodly and oppressors. But those who have laboured and suf- fered in their bodies, and have loved God, renounced the world with its riches, and given their bodies to torment, and been tried by the Lord, shall obtain a rich reward.’ Ch. ev.

The whole work ends with a wish, that “the benediction of Enoch’s

prayer, and the gift of his appointed period, may be with his beloved ; Amen.”

It would not comport with my present object to pursue a critical ex- amination of this book, in all its details. This would furnish matter for a volume. But so far as this production has a bearing on the spirit of the age in which it was written, and can be brought into comparison with the Apocalypse, it well deserves a serious notice. A few remarks must be made on (a) The place where the book was written. (6) The time when. (c) Its probable author. (d) On that part of its contents which has respect to the sufferings of the righteous, and also to the future period of their prosperity and glory.

(a) Place where the book was written. By this is meant, hot the par- ticular district. or town wherein it was actually Seaeced, but the cown- try to which its author probably belonged.

§ 6.. BOOK OF ENOCH. 61

There can be no good ground for hesitation, that its author was an oriental man ; by which I here mean, a man not of western, but of mid- dle Asia; most probably of some part of the ancient Media, or of its tributary provinces high up between the Caspian and the Black Seas. In chap. 71: 18, 19, he speaks of the day as comprising eighteen parts, twelve of which, at a certain time of the year, are light, and six dark ; i. e. the day is sixteen hours long (as we express it), and the night eight hours. This could never happen in Palestine ; inasmuch as the lati- tude is too near the equator to admit of so much inequality. The coun- try, where the days are exactly of the length here named, must be not far from the 49th degree of latitude ; and of course, strictly considered, the country must be high up, even above the Caspian and Euxine Seas. But inasmuch as the author is describing the complete course of the sun, and all the gradations of day and night which (so far as he knows) this occasions, it is not necessary to suppose that he lived in the very place where the.day might be twice as long as the night, but only in such a part of the world as that he would probably come to a knowledge of such a fact. Ancient Media or Persia, where astrology flourished so much and so long among the Magi, would therefore be the most proba- ble region which we can assign to him. On the supposition that he was a Hebrew, (of which there can be no doubt, as we shall see in the se- quel), there is no difficulty in finding a home for him in that region. So early as 721 B. C. the king of Assyria carried away a great portion of the ten tribes into “the cities of the Medes,’ 2 K. 17:6. Among those who assembled at. the feast of Pentecost, soon after the resurrec- tion of the Saviour, were ‘‘ Parthians, Medes and Elamites” [ Persians ], most or all, no doubt, of Jewish origin. Many thousands of Jews, we well know, were scattered over all parts of middle Asia, who had be- come so attached to the countries whither they had been transported, that they never returned from their exile, even after permission for re- turn was given.

What makes much for the supposition now in question is, that throughout the whole book, light, fire, splendour, radiance, are almost everywhere made so conspicuous. ‘This seems to indicate, that the au- thor had been brought up in a country whose. religion was Parsism. One needs but to open the Zend-Avesta, in order to feel that the very basis, and (one might almost say) a great portion of the essential ingre- dients of Parsism, consist of light and splendour. Oromasd himself seems to have been regarded by the Magi as being formed from Ur- licht, or (as we must express it in our own language) parent-light. One circumstance in particular may be noted, where the author adverts to views respecting the other world, which in all probability he had uncon- sciously obtained from those who surrounded him. In 61: 18, he speaks

62 § 6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

of the saints, after the resurrection, as being “ clothed with the garment — of life’ He then adds: “That garment of life is with the Lord of spirits, in whose presence your garment shall not wax old, nor your glo- ry diminish.” The idea of ‘garments being laid up or kept in heaven for the clothing of the righteous,’ is familiar in the system of Zoroaster, where the Gahs, (female Izeds or angels of the second order), are rep- resented as employed in fabricating garments which are kept in store for the righteous. Unconsciously the author seems to. have.intermin- gled this peculiarity of Parsism with his own conceptions ; for the Scrip- tures, which present us often with the idea of splendid costume as ap- propriate to the righteous in a future world (Rev. 3: 4,5, 18. 4: 4. 6:11. 7:9, 18), lack the peculiar trait to which I have just adverted. The Ascension of Isaiah abounds in this: peculiarity (see p. 49) ; and the reader by consulting the passage referred to, will find the evidences of it placed before him, with references also to the Zend-Avesta. In my re- marks on the Ascension of Isaiah, in the paragraph to which reference has just been made, I have stated my reasons for supposing, that the au- thor of that work was a Hebrew of Middle Asia. The cast of the com- position in the present case, in many respects, leads me to a like view of the country of the author. I acknowledge that the ground is not en- tirely certain ; for a writer of western Asia could exhibit the like traits. No one of the circumstances mentioned would be sufficient of itself to establish my position; but a combination of them all leads me to the feeling, that this position is probably correct. It seems probable, that neither the author of Enoch nor of the Ascension of Isaiah would design- edly introduce Parsism ; but if they were educated in a country where the common idiom of the people had embodied it in their language and modes of expression, it would be difficult to avoid some developments of it.

Licke suggests, that some things in the book favour the idea that it was written in Egypt, p. 64. But I find nothing in it which leads to this, unless it be its astronomical speculations ; which, however, may quite as well be attributed to the East, as to Egypt. The habitual reckoning of the year at 364 days, shows that the author belonged to a country which is neither in extreme western Asia nor eastern Africa. It remains as yet unknown whence this reckoning comes. The locali- ties, in parts of the book, show beyond a doubt that the author was in some degree familiar with the geography of Palestine; e. g. in chap. 13: 8, 9, where Hermon, Dan, and Lebanon occur; in 25: 1 seq., where we have the special localities of Jerusalem; and in 31: 2, where the desert [of Arabia] and the Erythraean Sea come before us. But all this makes nothing against the eastern home of the writer; inasmuch as more or less of the pious Jews of all countries often visited Palestine, in order to worship there.

§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 63

(0) Time when the book was written. Dr. Laurence thinks this can be ascertained almost with exact certainty, from the nature of some of its contents. The substance of his argument may be briefly stated. (1) It must; have been written before the epistle of Jude; for Jude quotes from it, and quotes in such a way as to show that he supposed his rea- ders to be already familiar with the book. (2) It.was written after the book of Daniel ; because it often quotes from this book, and everywhere shows a familiar acquaintance with it, and an effort to imitate it. Here we have then, limits within which the book of Enoch must have been composed. But, (8) From ch. Ixxxiii. to ch. xe. is an allegorical his- tory or picture of all the leading events recorded in ‘the Old Testament history. The people of Israel are represented as sheep ; and Saul, Da- vid, and Solomon, are first distinctly alluded to as their shepherds. Af- ter these it is said that seventy shepherds ruled over them. ‘These are distributed into three classes; (a) Thirty-seven* kings of Judah and Is- rael. Such is in fact the number, if we omit Zimri, deposed after seven days ; Tibni, the rival of Omri, who can hardly be said to have actually at- tained to sovereignty ; and Shallum, who reigned but one month; all three being of the ten tribes. To make out the number in question, then, we must include the twenty kings of Judah and the seventeen kings of Israel. (6) Twenty-three shepherds constitute the second class; and these are plainly the foreign kings of Babylon and. Persia, and also the kings of Macedonian origin both in Syria and Egypt; viz. Babylonian 4, Persian 11, Macedonian 8, = 23; see names in Laurence, p. XXVII. (c) Twelve native Jewish princes, beginning with Mattathias, the father of Judas Maccabaeus, and ending with Herod.. Now inasmuch as no more than twelve are comprised in this last class, Dr. Laurence concludes, that the author must have lived and written during the time of Herod; otherwise he would have included in his list Herod’s three sons who reigned after him, and among whom Herod’s dominions were divided, and also Agrippa who reigned over the whole province of Judea. This

would have increased the numbers, under the third class, to sixteen ; or, in case we begin the reckoning with Judas Maccabaeus, to fifteen.

‘This representation appears plausible, at first view. But a closer ex- amination of it than Dr. Laurence has made, brings serious difficulties to light, which he has overlooked. In ch, 89: 25, the twelve shepherds or princes, whom he reckons as native Jews, are spoken of in such a way, as on.the whole to render this mode of reckoning quite improbable. Ac- + aint to this passage, an angel presents to the Lord “the book of the

* Dr. Laurence reads thirty-five, because the whole number added together would make seventy-two instead of seventy. But there is noneed of this change. The number seventy is used symbolically ; and consequently a little more or less will make no important difference. So Litcke and Hoffmann.

a > hed by Ma

64 § 6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

destruction which the last twelve shepherds wrought, and points out, be-

fore the Lord of the sheep, that they destroyed more than those who

preceded them.” So Laurence; but Hoffman remarks, that Laurence

has omitted the demonstrative before twelve shepherds, and that the

Ethiopic obliges us to translate thus: Which rHosE twelve shepherds

wrought. This gives an entire new turn to the whole passage, and

necessarily refers the shepherds to that class of which the writer had

been speaking; and these are beyond all reasonable question, forergn

kings who had exercised dominion over Judea. On turning back to ch.

89: 7, we find twenty-three shepherds mentioned, who bore sway during

fifty-eight periods. The context in the sequel to this last passage, exhibits

a symbolical representation of the struggles of the Jews for their free-

dom, and of the oppression and attacks of foreign powers. It would seem,

then, that the fifty-eight periods extend from the time of the exile down to

the time when the more violent sufferings and struggles of the Jews be-

gan. This, if we follow Hartmann, must be the period of Antiochus III.

or the Great, king of Syria, during whose reign Palestine was often a

theatre of war. The remaining periods to be completed, (in order to

make the round number 70), are the twelve under the twelve Rings,

brought to view in Enoch 89: 25, and mentioned above. Following the book of the Maccabees, Hartmann makes out twelve Syrian and Egyptian ~ kings, from this period down to the time when Simon was elected as the Leader of the Jews, and was acknowledged and confirmed as king by Demetrius Nicator, B. C. 142; Froelich. Annales, p. 72. 1 Mace. 13: 34—42. From that period onward, temporary invasions and subjection excepted, the Jews were ruled by their own princes, until near the pe- riod when the nation was subdued and scattered by the Romans. It is easy, when viewed in such a light, to account for it why the author of Enoch should say, that “those last twelve shepherds destroyed more than those who preceded them.” Antiochus Epiphanes is included among the twelve ; and all the consequences that followed the struggle so earnestly begun by him to destroy the Jews, are included. But to apply this, as has been done by most, (and by myself in a former Re- view of the book of Enoch, Bib. Repos. XV. p. 115 seq.), since the publication of Laurence, to the native Jewish kings, is doing violence to history, or else to the credit of the author of Enoch. This should never be done, except in a case of absolute necessity. For particulars, in vindication of the view given above, I must refer to Hartmann’s Notes, on the passages of Enoch above cited.

In confirmation of this view, it should be mentioned, that the sequel to Enoch 89: 25 treats of the victories obtained by the Jews over foreign oppressors and powers ; which were completed in the time of Simon. Of course, if this view of the subject be correct, the argument of Lau-

§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 65

renee, that the book of Enoch was written in the time of Herod, because the list of twelve kings is concluded with him, is not well grounded. It would seem. that the list is concluded with Trypho or Demetrius, ri- val chiefs, during whose contest Simon came to the crown. of Judea, which was made hereditary in him.

We find notices moreover, in the book of Enoch, of occurrences later than this period. The passage to which I now refer, is in ch. 54: 9, which speaks of “the Chiefs of the East, among the Parthians and the Medes,” as coming up and « treading upon the land of the elect,” and of their “ removing kings and. hurling them from their thrones ;” in the se- quel, however, they, are represented as checked by “the city of the righteous.” These events are represented, also, in the book of Enoch, as succeeded by civil war and destruction among the people of the Holy Land.

The facts which correspond with this representation are, that the Par- thians overran and subdued the whole of Syria, Tyre excepted, in B. C. 41; and in the following year they entered Judea, where Antigonus, the last of the Asmonaean race of kings, was contending with Herod for the sovereignty, drove out Herod, and placed Antigonus upon the throne. Three years after this, Antigonus was displaced by the Romans, and Herod established as king in his room. The civil wars and commotions accompanying and following these events, are supposed to be what the author aims to describe, in ch. 54: 10—12. At a period immediately subsequent to this, Laurence, with whom Hoffmann (in Vol. I.) and some others agree, places the composition of the book of Enoch. But in Vol. I. Hoffmann, as we have seen, modifies this opinion,

So much is doubtless true, viz. that the composition must have been, later than these events. How much later? is a question which these pas- sages do not seem at all to decide. Other passages, however, in my view, direct us to a period considerably later than the one designated by Dr. Laurence. There is no need of supposing, that the author continues the history of kings in Palestine down to the day in which he lived. With the reign of Simon begins the period of Jewish independence ; and besides this, the number of seventy kings is already completed, up to that period. Subsequently, the invasion of the Parthians, and of the Romans (as it seems to me), is adverted to by the author.

Tn chap. lv, the prophet represents himself as seeing ‘“ another army of chariots, with men riding upon them, .. . coming from the east, the west, and the south.” The whole earth trembles with the sound of them, and ‘their noise is heard even to the extremities of earth and heaven.’ I cannot well doubt, that the invasion of Palestine by Vespa- sian is here designated. Laurence and Hoffmann refer it to the Roman military interpositions in behalf of Herod; but these seem to me alto-

VOL. I. 9

66 § 6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

gether too brief and insignificant to give occasion to such high wrought description as is here employed. Besides, this invasion seems to be re- presented, by the writer, as introductory to the completion of the king- dom of God. So the primitive Christians, it is well known, regarded the Roman invasion under Vespasian.

In ch. 89: 29 seq., after the seventy shepherds had ceased to rule, they are represented as being brought to judgment, with the apostate angels, and thrust into an abyss of fire “on the right of that house,” i. e. in the valley of Hinnom. ‘ Hither the blind sheep, i. e. the obdurate Jews, are also brought. The anctent house is then immerged, save some of its choice parts, (comp. Apoc. 11:1, 2), and “the Lord of the sheep pro- duces a new house, great, and loftier than the former, which he erects in the place of the first which had been concealed,” (so Hartmann) ; and all its pillars and ornaments are new. To this house all worshippers from all parts of the earth come, and the Lord of the sheep rejoices with great joy over them all.’—I am not aware of any construction of this, which is so reasonable as that which supposes it to mean the destruc- tion of the temple by the Romans, and the building of the new and spiritual one under the Christian dispensation, with the consequent in- gathering of the Gentiles. The context does not permit us to suppose, that the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar can be here meant.’

Again, in ch. xcii. the author divides the whole period of the world’s existence into ten weeks; not of equal length, but marked by events or persons peculiar to each. The first in his own (Enoch’s) age; the se- cond that of Noah and the flood; the third of Abraham; the fourth of the Law; the fifth of Solomon’s temple; the sixth of Elijah, including the Babylonish exile at its close; the seventh is that of the corruption of many Jews, exiles among the heathen, and the conspicuous piety of a part of them; the eighth is that of Judas Maccabaeus and the restora- tion of Jewish worship and privileges (comp. 89: 26, 27); the ninth week is destined ‘to destroy the works of the ungodly, to reveal the judgment of righteousness to the whole world, and to prepare the world for the final judgment.’ On the seventh day of the tenth week, is to be the final judgment, and a new heavens will then be formed, “in which sin will be no more named forever and ever.”

The names of the individuals who thus identify the respective weeks or periods, as presented above, are indeed not given in the book of Enoch; but such language is employed as leaves no room to doubt as to the first six periods ; and in my own apprehension, there is little or no reason to doubt respecting the limits assigned to the others. In the ninth or Messianic period the author seems to have lived. If this be doubtful here, further evidence will serve to confirm it.

On grounds such as these Liicke inclines to the opinion, that the wri-

§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 67

ter of the book of Enoch composed his work after the destruction of the temple by the Romans, and at a period when the Gospel had been spread among the Gentiles, p. 60 seq.

But I have, in a diligent and repeated perusal of the book, lighted up- on passages besides these, which seem to indicate that the author lived after the period when most of the New Testament books were already written; inasmuch as there are indications, satisfactory to me, that he has not unfrequently referred to what they contain. It is difficult, per- haps, to produce specific evidence enough concerning this to. satisfy all minds; and I must cast myself, therefore, upon the tout ensemble of the book, and appeal to the impression made upon such readers as have given it a repeated and scrutinizing perusal. I can, however, specificate a number of particulars, most of which seem in a good measure to have been overlooked by Laurence, Hoffmann, and even by Liicke.

Ch. 38: 2, It would have been better for them, had they never been born; comp. Matt. 26:24. Mark 14:21. Ch. 46: 3,4, The Son of man --- shall raise up kings and the mighty from their couches, and’ the powerful from their thrones ... he shall hurl kings from their thrones and their dominions ...the countenance of the mighty shall be cast down, filling them with confusion ; comp. Luke 1:51, 52. Ch. 480: 38, With him dwells the spirit. of intellectual wisdom . .. and the spirit of those who sleep in righteousness ; he [ Christ] shall judge secret things ; comp. the frequent idiom of the New Testament, where sleep is used for death, and sleeping in Jesus for dying in the Christian faith ; comp. also, Rom. 2:16. Ch. 24:3 seq., Enoch sees a tree among the mountains of judgment, “ goodly in aspect. . . its leaf, flower, and bark never wither ... the sight of its fruit is delightful . . . the fruit. of it shall be to the elect [after the judgment]... the sweet odour shall enter into their bones, and they shall live a long life ;” comp. Apoe. 22:2, 14. 2:7.

In ch. xl, Enoch is represented as seeing countless myriads standing before the throne of the Lord of spirits, and in particular fowr archangels standing on the four sides of this throne, and severally and successively addressing themselves to him who sat upon it. In Apoc. iv—vi, the four Zoa are represented as occupying the same position. Inasmuch as they are there presented as rational creatures joming in the worship of God, our author would seem to have considered them as archangels. In Rev. vi. the four Zo are presented as successively speaking, in like manner as in the book of Enoch. In ch. 47:1 seq., the blood of the righteous is said to ‘ascend from the earth before the Lord of spirits . - - that he would execute judgment, and that his patience may not endure forever,” and thanks are given by all the powers of heaven, that this supplication is accepted; comp. Rev. 6: 9 seq. 11: 16—18. Ch. 47: 3, ‘ The book of the living is opened, in the presence of God ;’ comp. Rey.

68 $6. BOOK OF ENOCH.

20:12. Ch. 48: 9, ‘ They [the persecuting wicked ] shall burn in the presence of the righteous, and sink [into the great abyss | in the presence of the holy ; comp. Rev. 14: 10. In 45: 4, 5, a new heavens and a new earth are to be made for the dwelling of the righteous; comp. Rev. 21: 1. Ch. 50: 1, ‘The earth shall deliver up [for judgment] from her womb, and Hades deliver up from hers that which it hath received, and destruction [}i928, the abyss] shall restore that which it owes ; comp. Rey. 20: 18.

When we attentively consider such passages as those just referred to in the Apocalypse, must we not conclude, either that the writer of the Apocalypse drew from the book of Enoch, or the author of the latter book from John? To my own mind, John presents altogether the strongest evidence of being the original; the author of the book of Enoch appears to be the imitator. Ewald reverses this conclusion, Comm. in Apoce. p. 9.

But we have not yet done with this subject. The Christology of the book of Enoch bears almost incontestable evidence of New Testament, or at least of Christian, origin.

In the moderate portion of the book which is directly Christological, the name Elect or Hlect One, as applied to the Messiah, occurs some fifteen times; comp. Luke 23: 35, and especially 1 Pet. 2: 4. Son of man occurs, in the same portion of the book, at least sixteen times; my Son, in 1046: 2; Messiah oceurs 48: 11. 51: 4; Son of woman occurs in 61: 9, where he is said to sit on the throne of his glory, comp. Gal. 4: 4, yevouevoy &% yuvouxds. All this, specially the last, seems to be too specific to be overlooked. But there is more still which exhibits the Christian views of the author. In 48: 2, the Son of man is said to be invoked before the Lord of spirits, and his name in presence of the An- cient of Days. In 60: 10 seq. the Elect One is represented as ovxgo- vog with the Lord of spirits, and as worshipped by all the host of heaven. In 61: 9, 10, the Son of woman is said to be seated on the throne of glory, and all the kings and princes of the earth are represented as glo- rifying him.

In 60: 13 is a passage which seems, according to Laurence’s version, to recognize the doctrine of the Trinity, “The Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the Ophannim, [different orders of angels according to Jewish com- putation |, all the angels of power, and all the angels of the Lords, viz. of the Elect One, and of the other Power who was upon earth over the water on that day [alluding to Gen. 1: 2]... shall glorify, praise, exalt, etc.” This can hardly be taken for anything less than a development of trini- tarian views ; at all events, of such views respecting the object of truly divine worship as no uninspired Jew can be shown to have possessed, until after the promulgation of Christianity. But Hoffmann translates:

§ 6. BOOK OF ENOCH. 69

“ Angels of power and all angels of lordships [i. e. who are of superior order], and the Elect and the other Powers, who were on earth over the water in that day,” i. e. superior angels present and assisting at the creation. This is ingenious; but I doubt whether it expresses the mind of the writer.

The New Testament insists much on the doctrine, that the Messiah is to be the supreme and final judge of all men. So is it in the book of Enoch, e. g. ch. 50: 38. 54: 5. 60: 10, 11. 61: 9. 68: 39, 40. On his sentence depends the final destiny of all intelligent beings. Is not this a peculiarity appropriate to the New Testament dispensation? On the Son of man, moreover, all kings, princes, etc., are said to fix their hopes, to pray to him, and petition him for mercy, 61: 12, 18. And when one reads (48: 5, 6), that “the Elect and Concealed One existed in the presence of the Lord of spirits, before the world was created and for- ever; [and that] in his presence he existed, and has revealed to saints ... the wisdom of the Lord of spirits,” how can he refrain from sup- posing, that John 1:1, 2, 18 was before the writer’s mind, and that he ‘has imitated even the very repetition which occurs in the Gospel of John 1:1, 2?

I may add, also, that the book appears to be full of allusions to the persecution of the righteous and the martyrdoms which they suffered during the primitive age. I cannot produce at length the passages, for want of room; but the reader may find some of them in 46: 6. 48: 4. 40: 5. 80: 11. 52: 4—7. 1:7. 10:18, 19. 48 a: 10. 62: 1—7. chaps. xciv. —xcix. chaps. cii. ciii. 105: 28. Even these do not contain all the passages of this nature which are in the book. Among those, however, which I have here designated, are some which speak more particularly of the peace and rest to be given to the righteous. The whole tenor of the book is of such a cast, as to give special emphasis to such passages. Let the reader turn to ch. 105: 23, near its close, where no doubt can be left on his mind, that the writer has in view the same thing as John had when he wrote Apoc. 12:11; for he has used almost exactly the same expressions.

The doctrine of the endless