Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 33

_Apocalypse of Zephaniah._--Apart from two of the lists this work is known to us in its original form only through a citation in Clem. Alex.

_Strom._ v. II, 77. A Christian revision of it is probably preserved in the two dialects of Coptic. Of these the Akhmim text is the original of the Sahidic. These texts and their translations have been edited by Steindorff, _Die Apokalypse des Elias, eine unbekannte Apokalypse und Bruchstucke der Sophonias-Apokalypse_ (1809). As Schurer (_Theol.

Literaturzeitung_, 1899, No. I. 4-8) has shown, these fragments belong most probably to the Zephaniah apocalypse. They give descriptions of heaven and h.e.l.l, and predictions of the Antichrist. In their present form these Christianized fragments are not earlier than the 3rd century.

(See Schurer, _Gesch. des jud. Volkes_, iii. 271-273.)

2 _Enoch_, or the _Slavonic Enoch_, or the _Book of the Secrets of Enoch._--This new fragment of the Enochic literature was recently brought to light through five MSS. discovered in Russia and Servia. The book in its present form was written before A.D. 70 in Greek by an orthodox h.e.l.lenistic Jew, who lived in Egypt. For a fuller account see ENOCH.

_Oracles of Hystaspes._--See under _N. T. Apocalypses_, below.

_Testament of Job._--This book was first printed from one MS. by Mai, _Script. Vet. Nov. Coll._ (1833), VII. i. 180, and translated into French in Migne's _Dict. des Apocryphes_, ii. 403. An excellent edition from two MSS. is given by M.R. James, _Apocrypha Anecdota_, ii. pp.

lxxii.-cii., 104-137, who holds that the book in its present form was written by a Christian Jew in Egypt on the basis of a Hebrew Midrash on Job in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. Kohler (_Kohut Memorial Volume_, 1897, pp. 264-338) has given good grounds for regarding the whole work, with the exception of some interpolations, as "one of the most remarkable productions of the pre-Christian era, explicable only when viewed in the light of Hasidean practice." See _Jewish Encycl._ vii.

200-202.

_Testaments of the III. Patriarchs._--For an account of these three Testaments (referred to in the _Apost. Const._ vi. 16), the first of which only is preserved in the Greek and is a.s.signed by James to the 2nd century A.D., see that scholar's "Testament of Abraham," _Texts and Studies_, ii. 2 (1892), which appears in two recensions from six and three MSS. respectively, and Va.s.siliev's _Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina_, (1893), pp. 292-308, from one MS. already used by James. This work was written in Egypt, according to James, and survives also in Slavonic, Rumanian, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions. It deals with Abraham's reluctance to die and the means by which his death was brought about.

James holds that this book is referred to by Origen (_Hom. in Luc._ x.x.xv.), but this is denied by Schurer, who also questions its Jewish origin. With the exception of chaps. x.-xi., it is really a legend and not an apocalypse. An English translation of James's texts will be found in the _Ante-Nicene Christian Library_ (Clark, 1897), pp. 185-201. The Testaments of Isaac and Jacob are still preserved in Arabic and Ethiopic (see James, _op. cit._ 140-161). See TESTAMENTS OF THE III. PATRIARCHS.

_Sibylline Oracles._--Of the books which have come down to us the main part is Jewish, and was written at various dates, iii. 97-829, iv.-v.

are decidedly of Jewish authorship, and probably xi.-xii., xiv. and parts of i.-ii. The oldest portions are in iii., and belong to the 2nd century B.C.

III. NEW TESTAMENT APOCALYPTIC

When we pa.s.s from Jewish literature to that of the New Testament, we enter into a new and larger atmosphere at once recalling and transcending what had been best in the prophetic periods of the past.

Again the heavens had opened and the divine teaching come to mankind, no longer merely in books bearing the names of ancient patriarchs, but on the lips of living men, who had taken courage to appear in person as G.o.d's messengers before His people. But though Christianity was in spirit the descendant of ancient Jewish prophecy, it was no less truly the child of that Judaism which had expressed its highest aspirations and ideals in pseudepigraphic and apocalyptic literature. Hence we shall not be surprised to find that the two tendencies are fully represented in primitive Christianity, and, still more strange as it may appear, that New Testament apocalyptic found a more ready hearing amid the stress and storm of the 1st century than the prophetic side of Christianity, and that the type of the forerunner on the side of its declared asceticism appealed more readily to primitive Christianity than that of Him who came "eating and drinking," declaring both worlds good and both G.o.d's.

Early Christianity had thus naturally a special fondness for this cla.s.s of literature. It was Christianity that preserved Jewish apocalyptic, when it was abandoned by Judaism as it sank into Rabbinism, and gave it a Christian character either by a forcible exegesis or by a systematic process of interpolation. Moreover, it cultivated this form of literature and made it the vehicle of its own ideas. Though apocalyptic served its purpose in the opening centuries of the Christian era, it must be confessed that in _many_ of its aspects its office is transitory, as they belong not to the essence of Christian thought. When once it had taught men that the next world was G.o.d's world, though it did so at the cost of relinquishing the present to Satan, it had achieved its real task, and the time had come for it to quit the stage of history, when Christianity appeared as the heir of this true spiritual achievement. But Christianity was no less a.s.suredly the heir of ancient prophecy, and thus as spiritual representative of what was true in prophecy and apocalyptic; its essential teaching was as that of its Founder that both worlds were of G.o.d and that both should be made G.o.d's.

(i.) Canonical:-- Apocalypse in Mark xiii. (Matthew xxiv., Luke xxi.).

2 Thessalonians ii.

Revelation.

(ii.) Extra-Canonical:-- Apocalypse of Peter.

Testament of Hezekiah.

Testament of Abraham.

Oracles of Hystaspes.

Vision of Isaiah.

Shepherd of Hermas.

5 Ezra.

6 Ezra.

Christian Sibyllines.

Apocalypses of Paul, Thomas and Stephen.

Apocalypses of Esdras, Paul, John, Peter, The Virgin, Sedrach, Daniel.

Revelations of Bartholomew.

Questions of Bartholomew.

_Apocalypse in Mark xiii._--According to the teaching of the Gospels the second advent was to take the world by surprise. Only one pa.s.sage (Mark xiii. = Matt. xxiv. = Luke xxi.) conflicts with this view, and is therefore suspicious. This represents the second advent as heralded by a succession of signs which are unmistakable precursors of its appearance, such as wars, earthquakes, famines, the destruction of Jerusalem and the like. Our suspicion is justified by a further examination of Mark xiii.

For the words "let him that _readeth_ understand" (ver. 14) indicate that the prediction referred to appeared first not in a spoken address but in a written form, as was characteristic of apocalypses. Again, in ver. 30, it is declared that this generation shall not pa.s.s away until all these things be fulfilled, whereas in 32 we have an undoubted declaration of Christ "Of that day or of that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." On these and other grounds verses 7, 8, 14-20, 24-27, 30, 31 should be removed from their present context. Taken together they const.i.tute a Christian adaptation of an originally Jewish work, written A.D. 67-68, during the troubles preceding the fall of Jerusalem. The apocalypse consists of three Acts: Act i. consisting of verses 7, 8, enumerating the woes heralding the parusia, Act ii. describing the actual tribulation, and Act iii. the parusia itself. (See Wendt, _Lehre Jesu_, i. 12-21; Charles, _Eschatology_, 325 sqq.; H.S. Holtzmann, _N. T. Theol._ 1-325 sqq. with literature there given.)

_2 Thessalonians ii._--The earliest form of Pauline eschatology is essentially Jewish. He starts from the fundamental thought of Jewish apocalyptic that the end of the world will be brought about by the direct intervention of G.o.d when evil has reached its climax. The manifestation of evil culminates in the Antichrist whose parusia (2 Thess. ii. 9) is the Satanic counterfeit of that of the true Messiah.

But the climax of evil is the immediate herald of its destruction; for thereupon Christ will descend from heaven and destroy the Antichrist (ii. 8). Nowhere in his later epistles does this forecast of the future reappear. Rather under the influence of the great formative Christian conceptions he parted gradually with the eschatology he had inherited from Judaism, and entered on a progressive development, in the course of which the heterogeneous elements were for the most part silently dropped.

_Revelation._--Since this book is discussed separately we shall content ourselves here with indicating a few of the conclusions now generally accepted. The apocalypse was written about A.D. 96. Its object, like other Jewish apocalypses, was to encourage faith under persecution; its burden is not a call to repentance but a promise of deliverance. It is derived from one author, who has made free use of a variety of elements, some of which are Jewish and consort but ill with their new context. The question of the pseudonymity of the book is still an open one.

_Apocalypse of Peter._--Till 1892 only some five or more fragments of this book were known to exist. These are preserved in Clem. Alex. and in Macarius Magnes (see Hilgenfeld, _N. T. extra Can._ iv. 74 sqq.; Zahn, _Gesch. Kanons_ ii. 818-819). It is mentioned in the Muratorian Canon, and according to Eusebius (_H.E._ vi. 14. i) was commented on by Clement of Alexandria. In the fragment found at Akhmim there is a prediction of the last things, and a vision of the abode and blessedness of the righteous, and of the abode and torments of the wicked.

_Testament of Hezekiah._--This writing is fragmentary, and has been preserved merely as a const.i.tuent of the Ascension of Isaiah. To it belongs iii. 13b-iv. 18 of that book. It is found under the above name, [Greek: Diatheke Ezekion], only in Cedrenus i. 120-121, who quotes partially iv. 12. 14 and refers to iv. 15-18. For a full account see ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF.

_Testament of Abraham._--This work in two recensions was first published by James, _Texts and Studies_, ii. 2. Its editor is of opinion that it was written by a Jewish Christian in Egypt in the 2nd century A.D., but that it embodies legends of an earlier date, and that it received its present form in the 9th or 10th century. It treats of Michael being sent to announce to Abraham his death: of the tree speaking with a human voice (iii.), Michael's sojourn with Abraham (iv.-v.) and Sarah's recognition of him as one of the three angels, Abraham's refusal to die (vii.), and the vision of judgment (x.-xx.).

_Oracles of Hystaspes._--This eschatological work ([Greek: Chreseis Hystaspon]: so named by the anonymous 5th-century writer in Buresch, _Klaros_, 1889, p. 95) is mentioned in conjunction with the Sibyllines by Justin (_Apol._ i. 20), Clement of Alexandria (_Strom._ vi. 5), and Lactantius (_Inst._ VII. xv. 19; xviii. 2-3). According to Lactantius, it prophesied the overthrow of Rome and the advent of Zeus to help the G.o.dly and destroy the wicked, but omitted all reference to the sending of the Son of G.o.d. According to Justin, it prophesied the destruction of the world by fire. According to the _Apocryph of Paul_, cited by Clement, Hystaspes foretold the conflict of the Messiah with many kings and His advent. Finally, an unknown 5th-century writer (see Buresch, _Klaros_, 1889, pp. 87-126) says that the _Oracles of Hystaspes_ dealt with the incarnation of the Saviour. The work referred to in the last two writers has Christian elements, which were absent from it in Lactantius's copy. The lost oracles were therefore in all probability originally Jewish, and subsequently re-edited by a Christian.

_Vision of Isaiah._--This writing has been preserved in its entirety in the _Ascension of Isaiah_, of which it const.i.tutes chaps, vi.-xi. Before its incorporation in the latter work it circulated independently in Greek. There are independent versions of these chapters in Latin and Slavonic. (See ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF.)

_Shepherd of Hermas._--In the latter half of the 2nd century this book enjoyed a respect bordering on that paid to the writings of the New Testament. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Origen quote it as Scripture, though in Africa it was not held in such high consideration, as Tertullian speaks slightingly of it. The writer belongs really to the prophetic and not to the apocalyptic school. His book is divided into three parts containing visions, commands, similitudes. In incidental allusions he lets us know that he had been engaged in trade, that his wife was a termagant, and that his children were ill brought up. Various views have been held as to the ident.i.ty of the author. Thus some have made him out to be the Hermas to whom salutation is sent at the end of the Epistle to the Romans, others that he was the brother of Pius, bishop of Rome in the middle of the 2nd century, and others that he was a contemporary of Clement, bishop of Rome at the close of the ist century. Zahn fixes the date at 97, Salmon a few years later, Lipsius 142. The literature of this book (see HERMAS, SHEPHERD OF) is very extensive. Among the chief editions are those of Zahn, _Der Hirt des Hermas_ (1868); Gebhardt and Harnack, _Patres Apostolici_ (1877, with full bibliographical material); Funk, _Patres Apost._ (1878). Further see Harnack, _Gesch. d. altchristl. Literatur_, i. 49-58; II. i.

257-267, 437 f.

_5 Ezra._--This book, which const.i.tutes in the later MSS. the first two chapters to 4 Ezra, falls obviously into two parts. The first (i. 5-ii.

9) contains a strong attack on the Jews whom it regards as the people of G.o.d; the second (ii. 10-47) addresses itself to the Christians as G.o.d's people and promises them the heavenly kingdom. It is not improbable that these chapters are based on an earlier Jewish writing. In its present form it may have been written before A.D. 200, though James and other scholars a.s.sign it to the 3rd century. Its tone is strongly anti-Jewish.

The style is very vigorous and the materials of a strongly apocalyptic character. See Hilgenfeld, _Messias Judaeorum_ (1869); James in Bensly's edition of 4 Ezra, pp. x.x.xviii.-lx.x.x.; Weinel in Hennecke's _N.T.

Apokryphen_, 331-336.

_6 Ezra._--This work consists of chapters xv.-xvi. of 4 Ezra. It may have been written as an appendix to 4 Ezra, as it has no proper introduction. Its contents relate to the destruction of the world through war and natural catastrophes--for the heathen a source of menace and fear, but for the persecuted people of G.o.d one of admonition and comfort. There is nothing specifically Christian in the book, which represents a persecution which extends over the whole eastern part of the Empire. Moreover, the idiom is particularly Semitic. Thus we have xv. 8 _nec sustinebo in his quae inique exercent_, that is [Hebrew: nasa be]: in 9 _vindicans vindicabo_: in 22 _non parcet dextera mea super peccatores_ = [Greek: pheisetai] ... [Greek: epi] = [Hebrew: al]

... [Hebrew: yahmol]. In verses 9, 19 the manifest corruptions may be explicable from a Semitic background. There are other Hebraisms in the text. It is true that these might have been due to the writer's borrowings from earlier Greek works ultimately of Hebrew origin. The date of the book is also quite uncertain, though several scholars have ascribed it to the 3rd century.

_Christian Sibyllines._--Critics are still at variance as to the extent of the Christian Sibyllines. It is practically agreed that vi.-viii. are of Christian origin. As for i.-ii., xi.-xiv. most writers are in favour of Christian authorship; but not so Geffcken (ed. _Sibyll._, 1902), who strongly insists on the Jewish origin of large sections of these books.

_Apocalypses of Paul, Thomas and Stephen._--These are mentioned in the Gelasian decree. The first may possibly be the [Greek: Anabagikon Paulou] mentioned by Epiphanius (_Haer_. x.x.xviii. 2) as current among the Cainites. It is not to be confounded with the apocalypse mentioned two sections later.

_Apocalypse of Esdras._--This Greek production resembles the more ancient fourth book of Esdras in some respects. The prophet is perplexed about the mysteries of life, and questions G.o.d respecting them. The punishment of the wicked especially occupies his thoughts. Since they have sinned in consequence of Adam's fall, their fate is considered worse than that of the irrational creation. The description of the tortures suffered in the infernal regions is tolerably minute. At last the prophet consents to give up his spirit to G.o.d, who has prepared for him a crown of immortality. The book is a poor imitation of the ancient Jewish one. It may belong, however, to the 2nd or 3rd centuries of the Christian era. See Tischendorf, _Apocalypses Apocryphae_, pp. 24-33.

_Apocalypse of Paul._--This work (referred to by Augustine, _Tractat. in Joan._ 98) contains a description of the things which the apostle saw in heaven and h.e.l.l. The text, as first published in the original Greek by Tischendorf (_Apocalypses Apocr._ 34-69), consists of fifty-one chapters, but is imperfect. Internal evidence a.s.signs it to the time of Theodosius, i.e. about A.D. 388. Where the author lived is uncertain. Dr Perkins found a Syriac MS. of this apocalypse, which he translated into English, and printed in the _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, 1864, vol. viii. This was republished by Tischendorf below the Greek version in the above work. In 1893 the Latin version from one MS. was edited by M.R. James, _Texts and Studies_, ii. 1-42, who shows that the Latin version is the completest of the three, and that the Greek in its present form is abbreviated.

_Apocalypse of John_ (Tischendorf, _Apocalypses Apocr._ 70 sqq.) contains a description of the future state, the general resurrection and judgment, with an account of the punishment of the wicked, as well as the bliss of the righteous. It appears to be the work of a Jewish Christian. The date is late, for the writer speaks of the "venerable and holy images," as well as "the glorious and precious crosses and the sacred things of the churches" (xiv.), which points to the 5th century, when such things were first introduced into churches. It is a feeble imitation of the canonical apocalypse.

_Arabic Apocalypse of Peter_ contains a narrative of events from the foundation of the world till the second advent of Christ. The book is said to have been written by Clement, Peter's disciple. This Arabic work has not been printed, but a summary of the contents is given by Nicoll in his catalogue of the Oriental MSS. belonging to the Bodleian (p. 49, xlviii.). There are eighty-eight chapters. It is a late production; for Ishmaelites are spoken of, the Crusades, and the taking of Jerusalem.

See Tischendorf, _Apocalypses Apocr._ pp. xx.-xxiv.

_The Apocalypse of the Virgin_, containing her descent into h.e.l.l, is not published entire, but only several portions of it from Greek MSS. in different libraries, by Tischendorf in his _Apocalypses Apocryphae_, pp.

95 sqq.; James, _Texts and Studies_, ii. 3. 109-126.

_Apocalypse of Sedrach._--This late apocalypse, which M.R. James a.s.signs to the 10th or 11th century, deals with the subject of intercession for sinners and Sedrach's unwillingness to die. See James, _Texts and Studies_, ii. 3. 127-137.

_Apocalypse of Daniel._--See Va.s.siliev's _Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina_ (Moscow, 1893), pp. 38-44; _Uncanonical Books of the Old Testament_ (Venice, 1901), pp. 237 sqq., 387 sqq.

_The Revelations of Bartholomew._--Dulaurier published from a Parisian Sahidic MS., subjoining a French translation, what is termed a fragment of the apocryphal revelations of St Bartholomew (_Fragment des revelations apocryphes de Saint Barthelemy, &c._, Paris, 1835), and of the history of the religious communities founded by St Pachomius. After narrating the pardon obtained by Adam, it is said that the Son ascending from Olivet prays the Father on behalf of His apostles; who consequently receive consecration from the Father, together with the Son and Holy Spirit--Peter being made archbishop of the universe. The late date of the production is obvious.

_Questions of St Bartholomew._--See Va.s.siliev, _Anec. Graeco-Byzantina_ (1893), pp. 10-22. The introduction, which is wanting in the Greek MS., has been supplied by a Latin translation from the Slavonic version (see pp. vii.-ix.). The book contains disclosures by Christ, the Virgin and Beliar and much of the subject-matter is ancient. (R. H. C.)