years and then died, and so ended his Messiah- ship, could not be Jesus Christ. Accordingly the Syriao reads '30' instea,d of '400,' evidently a Christian emendation. Undoubtedly this is a Jewish conception, and its mournful character, so unlike the triumphant tone of Enoch, is in keeping with the gloomy character of the book, and a reflection of the deep melancholy that took possession of the minds of earnest, patriotic Jews after the fearful scenes of the siege of Jenisalein and the overwhelming of their hopes in a deluge of blood. The reference to the death of the Messiah is not found in the Arabic or the Ar- menian versions ; but it is easy to see how it came to be omitted, while there is no likelihood that it would be inserted later, either by a Jew, to whom the idea would be unw;elcome, or by a Christian, since the resurrection is not also mentioned. A noteworthy fact is that the Messiah is addressed by God as ' My son.' The Ethiojiic of 7^, instead of 'My son Jesus' reads 'My Messiah,' and the Armenian, ' the anointed of (jod.' But the refer-
ence to .sonship occurs elsewhere frequently, e.g. ' My son Christ,' or 'My anointed son' (7'-"; see also 1333. S7. 52 149^ in most versions, but not in Arm. : see Dr. Sanday, art. ' Son of God ' in Hastings' DB. vol. iv. p. 571). Since, as Dr. Sanday remarks in the article just referred to,
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the strongly Messianic passage in PsSol 17'-^'^' has not the title ' Son,' bnt clearly borrows from Ps 2 in V.-', it is a likely inference that 2 Esdras is here based on that Psalm. Compare the words of the high priest in Mt 26^'.
In chs. 12 and 13 the Avriter names Daniel, and manifestly bases his elaboration of the Messianic picture on the Book of Daniel. The Messiah appears as a lion rising up out of a wood and roaring. A certain pre-existence is implied in the assertion that the Most High had kept him (12^-) ; the Latin has only ' for the end,' but the Syriae reads ' for the end of days, who shall spring up out of the seed of DaWd.' He will come to upbraid and
are repeated in ch. 13, but in a different form. A man comes from the midst of the sea. This is unlike Daniel (7^- "), where the four beasts come up from the .sea, but the ' one like unto a son of man ' from the clouds. The Most High has kept him for a great season (v.-*), another reference to pre-e.x- istence. Similarly later on we read, ' Like as one can neither seek out nor know what is in the depths of the sea, even so can no man upon earth see my Son, or those that be with him, but in the time of his day ' (v.='-). He exists, but hidden till the time when God will reveal him. When be comes and is revealed, ' it will be as a man ascend- inw.' ' When all the nations hear his voice ' they w'ill draw together to tight against him. But he >vill stand on the top of Mount Zion, and there he will taunt the nations to their face and destroy them without any effort on his part, tlie instrument of destruction being the Law, which is compared to fire. Then in addition to the saved remnant of the Jews already refeiTed to, the lost ten tribes will be brought back from their exile beyond the Euphrates, whither they had gone by a miracu- lous passage through the river, and whence they will return by a similar miraculous staying of • the springs of the river ' again. Thus we have the idea of a restoration of all Israel under the Messiah, but ^nth no further extension of the happy future so as to include other nations, as in the Christian Apocalyptic conceptions ; on the contrary, those nations will be humiliated and chagrined at the spectacle of the glorification of the former \'ictims of their oppression. On the whole we must conclude with Paul Volz (Judischc Eschatulogic, p. 202) that 2 Ezra adopts the traditional hope of the ilessiah, but does not see in it the chief ground of assurance for the future. He is hailed as God's son, but he appears to have only a temporary existence. He does not bring deliverance from sin ; nor is he to come for judg- ment. His death is the end of his mission.
ii. The Doctrixe of Wisdom. — Unlike the Prophetic and Apocalyptic literature which con- fessedly anticipated a great future, and so fur- nished a hope which Christianity subsequently claimed to fulfil, the Hebrew Wisdom writing's profess to give absolute truth, and betray no consciousness of further developments. Neverthe- less the Church was quick to seize on them as teaching the essential Divinity of Christ. The historical method of more recent times sees in them the germs of ideas on this subject which were subsequently developed by Christian theologians
" ' ■ ' ' ' ■ ' ■ le of
That ssion
.1 F.
Wi-a
of the Alexan'l Wisdom in doctrine in from the n- 1. Sirach. by Sirach
vance on Proverbs. The idea of Wisdom itself essentially the same, and the gnomic form of wr ing continues an identity of method.