But the vogue did not last very long. The same fate befell the Sibylline oracles of Judaism that befell the apocalyp.ses ; their popularity with the early Christian Church appears to have thrown them out of favour with the oHicials of Rabbinic Judaism. II The Church appropriated them, ap- pealed to them, edited them in her own interests, composed fresh ones, and, in general, treated the Jewish Sibylline oracles much as the Alexandrian Jews had treated the pagan ones. It is true that the composition of Jewish Sibyllines continued sporadically till the reign of Marcus Aurelius at any rate, and even later. But the extant collection is due to Christians, and one of the intricate problems of this literature is to determine how far Christians have edited sources which were originally Jewish. As in the case of the apoca- lypses, tiie criteria are far from being satisfactory. The Sibylline oracles are a conglomerate of docu- ments, ranging from the 2ud cent. B.C. to the middle of the 7th cent. A.D. Some sections (e.g. the earliest, in bk. iii. ) are evidently Jewish, others as evidently Christian ; but large passages seem to show no distinct soil in one or the other religion. Some of them are not definitely pre-Christian, and even those that are to be dated in the Christian era may be Jewish compositions worked over by a Christian hand.
* In his ' Komposition und Entstehungszeit der Oracula Sibyl- Una ' (Tf/ xxiii. 1 [1902] 2 f.).
t In an essay in E. Preuschen's ZNTW iii. [1902] 23-49.
J ' The language of prophecy naturally assumes a metrical or rhythmical form, partly as an aid to the memory, jmrtly, perhaps, as a means of giving to the words uttered the effect of a more solemn intonation ' (W. Y. Sellar, Roman Poets o/ the Republic, Oxford, 19(15, p. 34) ; cf. ERE iv. 798».
§ Cf. A. Hilgenfeld's Judische Apokalyptih, Jena, 1857, p. 61 f. ; Ewald'8 Abhandtungiiber Entstehuna, Iiihalt.und Werth der aibyllinischen BUcher, Gottingen, 1858 ; B. W. Badt's essay be nraeulis sibyllinis a Judceis compositis, Breslau, 1869 ; and J. Lieger's Die jiidische SibjjUe, griechiseh und deutsch mil erklarenden Anmerkungen, Vienna, 1908; in addition to the prefaces of critical editors like Alexandre and Friedlieb. Tlie bulk of bk. iii. goes back to the 2nd cent. B.C.; nuclei seem to gather round 170 B.c. and 140 B.C.
II Even Josephus only once refers to the Sibyllina, to the oracle of iii. 97 f. about the tower of Babel (Atit. i. 4).
S111VLLI^'K ORACLES
SlliVLLlNE 0RACLP:S
47'J
An instance of the dinuniltyof deciding whether a passage of tlie Sibi/lfiiui \vas written hy a Jew or by a Cliristian is atloided by the Hist of the frag- ments wliicli Tlieophilus of Antioch has preserved {ad Autol. ii. 36) :
* O mortal men of flesh, mere things of nought, How quick your pride, retrnrtik-ss of Hfe's end I Have ye no fear of God, who knows each Uiought, Who sees all, rules all,* who doth all transcend, Nourishing alt he niatle, and in all men Sets the sweet t Spirit to direct their ways? One Ood there is, Lord ahovy mortal ken, Uni)orn, alone in power, from mortal gaze Hidden himself, who yet beholdeth all. The immortal (Jod no eye of llesh can view. Who dwells al)ove, the heavenly God, the true ; For niurlal nerves will weakly flinch and fall Even before the sun's refulgent hall. J Ah, worship him who o'er tlie world holds sway, Unborn, eternal, self-created Being, Sustaining Lord, who in our common day § Assigns to mortals each the power of Beeing.l Bitterly for ill error shall ye pay, For all forsaking of his altars true, For hecatombs and offerings ye lay On altars of dead idols as tbeir due. Besotted, proud, ye left the straight highway To wander blindly amotig thorns : ah, cease, Cease, oh ye foolish men, to roam astray. From darkness and black night seek ye release. Lay hold upon the Light,^ unerring, clear, For all to mark his presence now and here. Turn not for ever to the murky night : When lo the sun's sweet rays are shining bright I Be wise of heart, Ije wise and understand : There is one God, who sends upon the land The rain, the wind, the lightning and the might Of earthquake, famine, pestilence, and woe, Sad woe that weighs the heart, the hail, the snow, — All,** all are his, who reigns over his own, Sovereign of heaven and earth himself alone.'
A passage like this breathes so much of the monotheistic moralism which was common to Orphism, Judaism, and Christianity that we have no definite criteria for assigning it to either a Jewish or a Christian Sibyllinist ; either might have written it, subordinating his dogmatic idio- syncra,sies to the need of preserving tlie dramatic j)robabilities of the situation. The spirit of the piece is deliberately neutral. On the other hand, there can be no doubt with regard to a passage like this from bk. iii. 263 U'., which describes the for- tunes of the twelve tribes :
* To them alone a hundred fold the field Bears harvest, and God's measures ample yield. Yet even they shall fare aniiss, even they Shall suffer pestilence. Thou,tt far away From thy fair shrine shalt flee, for 'tis thy fate To leave thy sacred soil all desolate ; Borne to Assyria, thou shalt there behold Thy wives and children into slavery sold, And greedy hands despoiling all thy gold. Thou shalt fill every country, every sea, And at thy customs all shall angry be.Jt But thy land shall be empty, down shall fall The great God's shrine and altar, the long wall,