race (the Romans)
peridil of peace. After H,n nitcriiniM.n.m ni .'i -iiHip <if |iroverbs, the woes of tlir l:i-l -rii,'i:iii,,i,. -.n- ]i(.ilrnyed, and the evenlsot iln' l:i-.| ,l;iynt jn.liiiui'iil :ind resurrection are f(nvi,,|,l. 'riuMi lull,l^^, :i, picture of the iranish- ment of the wicked and the blessedness of the righteous.— Book III. extols the unity and power of Goil, denounces idolatry, proclaims the coming of tlie Great King, and of his opponent Beliar, lurrsliailo-\vs the reign of a woman ((jleopatra), and the siilijr.iion of the Avorld to (Christ. At this ]ioiii(. Ill,' f-iliyl returns to the origin of man, and liiy^inniug with the Tower of Babel recounts the ^l<iry as given in the OT down to Roman day.s. Sli(» foretells the doom of Rome, and of many .V^iatic cities, .as well as of the islands of the Jigean. A general judgment and millennium (JNIessianic Day) closes the book. — Book IV. de- clares the blessedness of the righteous, sketches .successively the Assyrian and Medo-Persian domi- n.ations, announcing the Greek conquest, which will Iiring woes on Phrygia, Asia, and Egypt ; one great king, especially will cause calamities to fall (III Sicily and Greece. After the Macedonian will come a Roman conque.st. The impious will suffer U'.any evils, and a general resurrection, judgment and retribution will follow. — Book V. oiiens with a ]n-ophecy of the reign of the Roman emperors; it then tia.vscs in i'c\ir\\ thu calamitii's iiiiiiending
into a ..f the further tion of VI. de-
details of judgment, sueli as the d Serapis, Isis, and the Ethiopiiiiis.- scribes the pre-existeiice, incarnation, .unl liaptism of the Son of God, His teaching and miracles, tlie miseries in store f(n- the guilty land, and the glories of the Cross. — Book VII. is an account of the woes impending' upon various lands and cities of Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, in which just one prediction of the signs of the Messiah is incor- porated.— Book VIII. is a history of the world under five monarchies. The (ifth of these furnishes the subject for a prophecy of misery, judgment, and destruction. From this the sibyl passes to the denunciation of woes upon Egypt, the islands of the Mediterranean, and Persia, and closes with a ]^)icture of the Messiah. — Books IX. and X. are in fragments. — Book XI. is an orderly story of the world-powers from the time of the Tower of Babel to the subjection of Egypt under Cleopatra.— Book XII. pictures the fortunes of the Caesars, beginning with Augustus and closing with Alex- ander Severus. — Book XIII. concerns the times of the emperors of the 1st cent., beginning with Maximin. It touches more especially upon their relations with the Persians and Syrians, closing with an allegory of a bull, a stag, a lion, and a goat. — Book XIV. is the most obscure of the Sibylline productions. The writer evidently in- tends to unfold the fortunes of a long succession of emiierors and conquerors. He gives the initial letter of the name of each, and sug^'ests other ways of identilication. But liis descriptions are so wide of the historical figures that they cannot be safely identitied. The periml portrayed is generally the late Roman and possibly the early Byzantine.
lAteranj questions. — The above division into books was made in the 6th cent, of the Christian era (during the reign of Justinian). Whoever made it is also responsible for the collection .eles from i-arious sniirces, and tlie insertion of certain his own ainni,^ tlieni. It has heen euiiii-ctured that
of the
iiid u.\
ordiiig to authorshi]
itusion, which nrraiiging the
evident, howeve
ip and date ot ly accomphshe( four classes of \
84 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
oracles : (1) those which issue from a Jewish source ; (2) those which come from a Christian ; (3) those which are of heathen origin ; and (4) neutral elements. The last of these adds very much to the difficulty of the critical prohlem. The heathen elements are not vei-}' extensive, and attach themselves in preneral to the Jennsh. For the rest, the analysis which results from the labours of Ewald and Alexandre may be safely adopted as workable, and is as follows : —
The Sibylline Oracles niav be grouped into eight parts, each bv a different author and from a different age, as follows — (1) The Prologue of Book I. and Book III., 97-S2S, belong to the age of Ptolemy Physcon (B.C. 140). They were therefore written bv an Alexandrian ,Tew. Tliey constitute the pith and kernel o"f the whole collection in point of value for the study of inter- Testamental conditions and modes of thought, and for the times of Jesus. (2) Book 1\'. was written about a.d. SO. Its author may have been either a Christi.in or a Jew. with the probability largely in favour of the former alternative. (3) Book v., with the possible exception of the first part, issued from the 1st cent, -i.e., and is a mixture of .Tewish andChristian fragments impossible to disentangle from each other. (4) Books VI. and VII. (towhich Ewald adds the first part of Book \".)date from the earlv part of the 3rd ccnturv. The autlior was a heretical Christian. (,=i)Book VIII., 1-360, is also by a Christian, but not a heretic, probablv of the luiddle of the 3rd ctnturv. ((■) Book VIII., 861-,W1, is "also bv an orthodox Christian of the 3rd centurj-. (7) Book I. (without the Prologue), Book II.. and Book 111.. 1-35. come from tlie middle of the 3rd cent., and arc of Christian origin. (8) Books XL, XII., XIII., and XIV. were writtten by a Jew resident in Egypt, who, however, lived in Christian times, and is acquaijited with some Christian prac- tices. According to this analysis, the.se oracles cover a period of more than 400 years in their production, and represent a wide variety of t\Ttes of thouglit.