pillars, t then Christ the immortal shall come in a cloud to the Immortal, with mighty angelic retinue, seating himself at the right hand of the Great, and judging
from the tlirone the life of the pious and the ways of the impioufl.
• Note, e.g., the denunciation (111-118) of the love of money, as elsewhere in iii. 23of., viii. 18 f. Kaimcity is one of the car- dinal sins with which these Rosteni provincials charge the Roman Empire (iii. 350 f., viii. 18 f., !)«t) ; the Sibyl reflects the resent- ment felt by the popular mind at the taxes levied by Rome, as well as the ordinary ethical protest against avarice and luxury. The general ethics are discussed witli reference to the Didnche by Ucndel Harris in The Tfachinff of Vit. Apofttles, London, 1887, p. 40 f.. and by A. Dieterich in his S'ekpia, Leipzig, lSt>3, p. 193 f.
t Taking itiova as generic. But this feature is unexampled and unintelligible. Did the SibylUnist mean 'the whipping- post' of a Roman place of trial?
484
SIBYLLINE ORACLES
SIBYLLINE ORACLES
Moses, the p-eat friend of the Moi4t Hi^h, shall also come,
clothed in flesh, and Abraham the K^eat,
laaat- and Jacob, Joshua, Daniel and Klijah,
Ilabakkuk, Jonah, and ihuse whom the Hebrews slew.
All the Hebrews after Jeremiah who come for judgment before
the throne shall he slay, that they may receive dvie recompense and punishment for what each did in this mortal life. Then shall all pa-ss throu;ih the flery stream, through the unquenchable fire : the just shall all be saved, but the impious shall perish to all eternity, as many as have formerly wrou;^ht evil, committed nuirder or been accomplices therein, all liars, thieves, <ieceivers, foul adulterers, parasites, iiitrifjuers, sowers of slander, wicked, violent, lawless, and idolatrous persons, all who have forsaken the great immortal God, who have turned blasphemers, persecutors of the pious, destroyers of the faithful, scorners of just men, all who with crafty and shameless double-face as presbyters and honoured deacons* look on . . .*
There is a lacuna in the text at this point, after which tlie <i;rim list of crimes is continued, with their fitting punishment. In 313 f., the bliss of
heaven is portrayed as follows :
' But as for those others who cared for justice and good deeds, for piety and righteous thoughts, angels shall bear them up through the fiery stream to light and life without a care, where is the immortal path of the great God, where are the three fountains of wine, honey and milk. There shall earth be alike for all, undivided by walls and barriers, then of its own accord it will Ijear richer fruits, possessions shall be in common and wealth no monopoly.t No poor shall be there, no rich man, no tyrant, no slave, neither great nor small any more, no kings, no rulers, all shall be alike in fellowship. None shall ever say again, " Night has come" or '* Morning," or " Yesterday," none worries over length of days, over spring, over summer, over winter, over autumn, over marriage, over death, over buying, over selling, over sunset, over sunrise : it shall be one long day.'
The last words literally run, 'and He shall make one long day.' But, in order to avoid the appear- ance of describing a selfish bliss, the Sibyllinist proceeds to the following remarkable doctrine :
' And another thing will the almighty, immortal God bestow on
them : t when the pious ask immortal God, he will grant them to save
men from the fierce fire and eternal torment : this also he will do
(for them) He will take the men again from the tireless fire and for the sake of his own people will transport them to another life, inuiiortal, undymg, in the Elysian plain, where he has the great waters of the deep-bosomed lake, perennial Acherusia.'
At the thought of tliis the Sibyl breaks into a pathetic prayer for herself :
' Alas, woe is me for that day, when I am punished for all my ill deeds, I who cared nought for marriage § or sound reason, but in the house of my wealthy man shut out the needy, and deliberately
* Even Christian officials are among the condemned, as in tlie Dantesque vision of the 4th cent. Apocalypse of Paul (ed. Tisch- endorf, Leipzig, 18(56, p. 34 f.), where the Apostle sees a presby- ter, a bishop, and a deacon successively tormented for their ecclesiastical misdeeds.
t A point reiterated by the Sibyllina {e.g. iii. 247, 'Heaven fashioned the earth to be common to all ')— one of several drawn from Stoic ethics.
I The denial that the punishment of hell is eternal tallies with Origen's doctrine, and an indignant scribe or editor has appended a protest, which has been preserved in some MSS. 'Obviously a lie," he remarks, 'for the fire of punishment will never leave the condenmed, though personally I could wish it were so, scarred as I am with such sore wounds of sin, that need all the greater Mercy. Origen ought to be ashamed of chatter- ing as though there were any limit to punishment.'
§ The traditional Sibyl is unmarried, though there is one strange exception in the Sibyl whom Pausanias mentions (x. 12); she was called Herophile or Artemis, she sang at Delphi about the rape of Helen and the Trojan war, and ' she was the wedded wife of Apollo, and his daughter, and his sister.' Perhaps here as in vii, 153 (see below, p. 486) she confesses to having sinned sexually instead of marrymg. Only, she seems to be married here, unless 'in the house of my wealthy man* means residence in the shrine of Apollo. The two versions of her past life differ slightly.