(b) Justification and good works. — The Rabbinic doctrine of man's merit is entirely absent. Cf. 12'' ' Not for any virtue or strength of mine, but in His compassion and long-suttering, was He pleased to call me.' Cf. Tit 3', 2 Ti P.
(c) Dai/ of rejyentance. — Jerusalem is to be the place of worship till ' the day of repentance in the visitation wherewith the Lord shall visit them in the consummation of the end of the days' (1'^). This repentance in Mai 4* and Lk 1^* " is to be brought about by Elijah. It is the theme of John the Baptist (Mk P) and of Christ (1"). It is to usher in the 'visitation,' or the establishment of the theocratic Kingdom by God Himself in person.
(d) Michael is regarded as the chief antagonist of Satan and ot Israel's foes. In 10^ he is ap-
pointed chief, and ' will forthwith avenge them of their enemies.' Cf. Rev 12^.
(e) Gehenna is still the place, not where the wicked and immoral sutler, but into which Israel's foes, the Gentiles, are cast. The dividing line be- tween the future blessed and accursed is a national and not a moral one.
(/) Messianic Kingdom. — There is no Messiah. In 10' we are told ' the Eternal God alone . . . will . . . punish the Gentiles.' The Kingdom will come upon a general repentance (1'") 1750 years (10^^) after Moses' death, i.e. between A.D. 75 and 107. The ten tribes share in the promises (3^) and in the final restoration (10^) Israel is finally ex- alted to heaven (lO'*^-) and beholds its foes in Ge- henna (10'").
Literature. — (a) Chtkf BDmoNS of the Lath? text. — A. Ceriani, Monumenta sacra et prof ana, i. i. [1861] 55-64 ; A. Hilgenfeld, ST extra Canonem receptum-, 1S76, pp. 107-135 ; G. Volkmar, Mose Prophetie und Uimmelfahrt, Leipzig, 1S67 ; Schmidt-Merx, ' Die Assuniptio Mosis . . .' {Archie f. wissen. Erjorsch. des AT, ed. Merx, 1868, I. ii. 111-152); O. F. Fritzsche, Libri Apocryphi V.T., 1871, pp. 700-730 ; R. H. Charles, The Assumption of Hoses . . . the unemended Text . . . together ivith the Text in its . . . critically emended Form, London, 1897 ; C. Clemen, The Assumption of Moses, Cam- bridge, 1904. (6) Chief critical lnquiries. — Ronsch, ZWT, xi. [181)8] 76-108, 4(i6-4C8, xii. [1869] 213-228, xiv. [1871] 89-92, xvii. [1874] 542-562, xxviii. [18S5] 102-104 ; F. Rosenthal, Vier apoc. Biicher, 1SS5, pp. 13-38; E. Schiirer, HJP il. iii. 73-83; W. Baldensperger, Das ^elbstbewusstsein Jesu, 1888, pp. 25-31 ; W. J. Deane, Pseudepigrapha, 1S91, pp. 95-130 ; E. de Faye, Les Apocalypses juives, 1892, pp. 67-75 ; R. H. Charles, op. cit. xiii-lxv; C. Clemen, in Kautzsch's Apok. und Pseud., ii. [1900] 311-331 ; F. C. Burkitt, in HDB iii. 448-450 ; R. H. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Oxford, 1913, ii. 407-424. A. LI. DaVIES.
ASSURANCE.— 1. The word and its Greek equivalents. — 'Assurance' (with the kindred forms ' assure,' ' assured of,' ' assuredly') is em})loyed in the EV to render several Gr. words expressing certi- tude, or setting forth grounds of certainty. — (1) In Ac 17^^ it is used to render TricrTts, 'faith,' which has the meaning here of 'pledge' or 'guarantee,' the Resurrection of Christ being taken by St. Paul, in addressing the Stoics and Epicureans of Athens on Mars' Hill, as Avarrantiiig the faith, or impart- ing certainty to the conviction, of judgment to come. — (2) It is used in He IP (RV) to translate VTrbaraffis, ' substance,' ' confidence,' where iriaris itself is defined as ' the assurance of things hoped for, the proving (fKeyxos) of things not seen.' — (3) In 1 Jn 3^^ we find the verb employed to translate ireljofxev from Treideiv : ' Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our heart before him,' where ireiaojULev, translated ' shall assure,' signifies the stilling and tranquillizing of the heart that has been agitated by doubts, mis- givings, or fears, (■n-eicrop.ev is only once again employed in the NT in this sense : in Alt 28i'*, where it is rendered ' persuade,' and where Tindale's quaint translation is 'pease' [appease], the object of the persuasion being the Roman governor at Jerusalem.) — (4) In 2 Ti 3^^ the passive form of the verb is found as the rendering of eiria-TwdTjs, ' thou hast been assured of,' referring to Timothy's training in the knowledge of the ' sacred Avritings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.' — (5) In Ac 2^® we find the adverb ' assuredly ' em- ployed to translate dcr^aXwy, 'surely,' 'certainly,' recalling da(pdXeiav in Lk 1*.— (6) In Ac W the word (jvp-^i^d^wv, ' combining,' ' putting this and that together,' is translated in AV 'assuredly gathering,' which in RV has given place to the word of logical inference, 'concluding.'
(7) The word, however, of which ' assurance ' is the definite and specific rendering is irXripocpopla (1 Th P, Col 22, He 6" 10'^-), with which may be taken the kindred verb ■n-Xyipocpopi'iv , passive irXrjpocjiopdcTdaL. In determining the precise meaning of the Gr. original we receive no help from Gr. literature in
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