iii. Analysis of the Book.— The author, cr rather authors, of this book write in the name of Baruch, the son of Ni^riah, for literary purposes. The scene is laid in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and the time embraces the period immediately pre- ceding and subsequent to the capture of the city by the Clialda'ans. Baruch speaks throughout in the first person. He begins by declaring that in the twenty-lifth year of Jeconiah, king of Judah, the word of the Lord came unto him. It is noteworthy that the book thus opens with a gross chronoloCTcal error; for Jeconiah reigned in reality only tliree months, and had been already eleven years a captive in Babylon before the fall of Jerusalem. If we in- clude in our consideration the letter to the tribes in the Captivity, the book naturally falls into seven sections, divided in all but the last case by fasts, the fasts being of seven days in all instances save the first. This artificial division is due to the final editor of the book. The grounds for regarding the work as composite will be given later.
The first section (1-5) opens with God's con- demnation of the wickedness of the kingdom ol Judah, and the announcement of the coming de- struction of Jerusalem for a time and the captivity of its people. But Jeremi.ah and those wlio are like him are bidden to retire, first because ' their works are to the city as a firm pillar, and their prayers as a strong wall' (2). Baruch thereujion asks what will be the future destinies of Israel, mankind, and the world. Will Israel no longer exist, mankind cease to be, and the world return to its primeval silence (3)? God replies that the city and people will be chastised 011I5' for a time (4'); that the city of which it was said, 'On the jialm of my hanils have I written thee,' is not the earthly but the heavenly Jeru-salem prepared afore- time in heaven, and already manifested in vision to Adam, Abraham, and Mo.ses (4-"'). Baruch replies that the enemy will destroy Zion or i)ollute the sanctuary, an(r boast thereof before their idols. Not so, God rejoins : the enemy will not overthrow Zion nor burn Jerusalem, and thou thyself wilt witness this. Baruch thereupon fasts till the even- ing (5). In the next section (6-9) the Chaldn-ans encompa.ss Jerusalem on the following day. It is not they, however, but angels who overthrow the walls, having first hidilen the sacred vessels of the temple in the earth till the last times. The Chal- daans then enter and carry the peojilo away captive. Jerusalem is delivered up for a time. Baruch fasts seven days. In the third section ( 10-12) Jeremiah is bidden to accompany captive .ludah to Babylon, and Baruch to remain in Jerusalem to receive dis- closures on the things that should be hereafter. Baruch now despairs of all things : ' Blessed is he who was not born, or, being born, has died.' Let nature henceforth withhold her increase, and the jov of the bridegroom and the bri<le be no niDro. ' Wherefore should woman bear in pain and bury in grief?' Let the priests, moreover, return to (Joel the temjile keys, confessing : ' Wo have been found false stewards.' 'Oh that there were ears unto thee, O earth, and a heart unto thee, O dust, anil go and announce in Slieol, ami say to the dead : " Blessed are ye more than are we the living.'" Baruch then fasts seven days. In section four (13-21') Baruch is told that he 'will bo preserved till the consummatioa of the times ' to bear l«sti-
250 BARUCH, APOCALYPSE OF
BAKUCH, APOCALYPSE OF
mony. When Baruch complains of the prosperity of the \vicked and the suflerings of the righteous, God declares that it is the future world that is made on account of the righteous, and that blessed- ness standeth, not in length of days, but in their quality and end. Baruch fasts seven days. In the lifth section (21'-47) Baruch deplores the vanity and vexation of this life : ' If there were this life only . . . nothing could be more bitter' ; he sup- jilicates God to bring about the promised consum- mation, ' that his strength might become known to those who esteem his long-suffering weakness.' In answer thereto God reproves him for his trouble over that which he knows not, and his intrusion into things in which he has no part, and declares that until the preordained number of souls is born, the end, though at hand, cannot yet be : neverthe- less, ' My coming redemption ... is not far distant as aforetime; for, lo! the days come when the books will be opened in which are written the sins of all those who have sinned, and again also the treasuries into which the righteousness of all those who are justified in creation is gathered.' Furthermore, when Baruch asks regarding the nature and duration of the punishment of the wicked, it is revealed that the coming time will be one of tribulation, diWded into twelve parts, at the close of which the Messiah will be revealed (29. 30). Thereupon Baruch summons a meeting of the elders into the valley of Kidron, and announces the coming glories of Zion. Soon after follows his vision of the cedar and the vine, by which the destinies of Rome and the triumph of the Messiah are respectively symbolised (3G-40). The Messiah will rule till this world of corruption is at an end. When Baruch asks who shall share in the future blessedness, the answer is: 'Those who have be- lieved.' Thereupon Baruch (44-47) summons his eldest son, his friends, and seven of the elders, and acquaints them with his approaching end. He exhorts them to keep the law ; to teach the people ; for such teaching will give them life, and 'a wise man shall not be wantmg to Israel, nor a son of the law to the race of Jacob.' After another fast of seven days, Baruch, in the sixth section (48-76), prays on behalf of Israel. Then follows a revelation of the coming woes, and Baruch's l.imcntation over Adam's fall and its sad effects (48). Baruch, in answer to his prayer, is instructed as to the nature of the resurrection bodies (52). Then follows an account of the cloud vision (53-74). In this vision Baruch sees a cloud ascendinjj from the sea and covering the whole earth. And it was full of black and clear waters, and a mass of lightning appeared on its summit. And it began to dis- charge first black and then bright waters, and again black and then bright waters, and so on for twelve times in succession. And finally it rained l)lack waters, darker than all that had been before. And after this the lightning flashed forth, and liealed the earth where the last waters had fallen, and twelve streams came up from the sea and became subject to that lightning (53). In the subsequent chapters the interpretation is given. Tlie cloud is the world, and the twelve successive discharges of black and bright waters symbolise twelve evil and good periods in the history of the world. The eleventh period, symbolised liy the dark waters, referred to the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldacans, and the twelfth, bright waters, to the renewed prosperity of Israel and the rebuildinj' of Jerusalem (54-ti8). The last black waters pointed to wars, earthquakes, fires, famines ; and such as escaped these were to be slain by the Messiah. But these last black waters were to be followed by dear, which symbolised the blessedness of the Messianic kingdom which sliould form the inter- vening peiiod between corruption and incorruption