144 BAEUCH, APOCALYPSE OF
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lament over the ruins (x. 6-xii. 4) is uninterrupted by any gleam of hope. Surely this is -what might be expected in a work of literature, apart from the fact that it is not tUl later in the book that revela- tions about the future are given to Baruch.
While, however, absolute consistency is not to be expected, it is necessary to show that the Fall of Jerusalem is assumed all through the book. A Jewish apocalyptist may vary in his anticipations of the future, but after A.D. 70 he could never write as if the Temple were still standing. No great weight, indeed, can be laid on passages like ch. xxvii., where neither the building nor the de- struction of the Herodian Temple is mentioned ; for the historical situation implied throughout is that of Baruch lamenting over the ruins of the recently destroyed Solomonic Temple, it being- obvious that the author often practically identi- fies himself with Baruch, and his own recently destroyed Temple with the Solomonic. But be- sides these passages it has been asserted that the present existence of a Temple at Jerusalem is assumed in xxxii. 2ff., lix. 4, and Ixviii. 5. On closer examination, howevei', this is seen not to be the case. Ch. xxxii. is an address by Baruch to the Jews left in the land after the Fall of Jerusalem. He tells them that Zion will be built again (v.^) ; but that building Avill not last : it will be thrown down and remain desolate, and only afterwards Avill it be renewed in glory (vv.^- *). The whole context shows that it is a prophecy of the re-building of the Temple of Zerubbabel and its subsequent destruction, and we must interpret, or if necessary amend, the wording of v.^ in accordance with that context. It is literally, ' Because after a little time the building of Zion will be shaken that it may be built again.' Either, therefore, this is an adaptation of Hag 2®, Ezk 37", or the word for ' shaken ' is a mistranslation for some word like set in motion.' In lix. 4 it is said that God showed Moses ' the likeness of Zion and its measurements, made in the likeness of the present Sanctuary.' But this phrase, corresponding to ra vvv ciyta, does not necessarily mean ' the Sanctuary which is now in good repair'; it need mean no more than 'the modern Temple,' as contrasted with the heavenly Pattern (Ex 25^"*). In Ixviii. 5, Baruch is told that Zion will be built again, but in the later predictions of the final troubles before the advent of Messiah no mention is made of its subsequent destruction. But this is not conclusive, as no detailed historical predictions are made in Ixix.-lxxiv. 'The Most High . . . alone knows what will befall' (Ixix. 2).
In all this it must be borne in mind that Apoc. Baruch is knoMTi to us only from a single 3IS of a not very literal translation into Syriac of a Greek translation of a Hebrew or Aramaic original. It is, therefore, only likely that some minor incoher- encies may be due to accidents of transmission. But tliej' are, after all, verj^ few.
i. General point of view. — The Apocalypse of Baruch, then, is here regarded as a unit,y, and as the work of a Palestinian Jew writing soon after A.D. 70. 4 Ezr. 3-14 may be described in similar terms. We have noticed some of the linguistic connexions between these works.* They coincide also in much of their teaching, in the division of history into 12 jiarts, in the importance attached to Adam's sin, in the legend of Behemoth and Leviathan, in the interest taken in the Lost Tribes,! in the stress laid on the permanence of the Law.
The chief difference between them lies in the
• Amon? single phrases, the political situation is reflected in habitatio Uierusalem (U Ezr. lO-i") and 'the habitation of Zion' (Bar. Ixxx. 7), i.e. 'the fact that Jerusalem, or Zion, was inhabited.'
t It is possible that to this interest the books owed their pre- servation in Syriac. Edessa itself is situated on ' the other side' of the Euphrates, and those Edessenes who read the
psychology of the writers. The fate they antici- pate for Israel is similar, but it atl'ects them dif- ferently. The author of 4 Ezra is not really a pessimist in the sense of believing that evil is iilti- mately victorious in this world. The eagle, i.e. Rome, is destroyed in the end ; the last act in the world -drama is the glorious 400 years' reign of Messiah. Then comes the other world of full retribution. The scheme satisfies the Most High, who says, 'Let tlie multitude perish, which was born in vain' (9-^). The really interesting thing is that it does not satisfy Ezra. ' This is my first and last saying,' says he, ' that it had been better that the earth had not given Adam, or else when it had given him to have restrained him from sinning' (7'^*' [116]). 'We are tormented, because we perish and know it. Let the race of men lament and the beasts of the field be glad, for it is better with them than with us ; for they look not for judgment, neither do they know of tor- ments or of salvation promised unto them after