Eagan tradition § was that the Sybil had spoken er oracle in acrostic form. W hen sceptics doubted the genuineness of the Christian oracles, it was useful to he able to point to a specimen of the acrostic which told in favour of Christian doctrine. But its inherent popularity led to translations into Latin, even liefore Augustine's day.
The remainder of tlie oracle is a chaos of queer fragments. The acrostic is immediately followed by the remark that the Crucilied Christ was typi- fied by the outstretched arms of Moses at tlie victory over Amalek (251 f. ), an idea which had been propounded by the author of Barnabas (xii. 2) and bj- Justin Martyr (Dinl. 90). The advent of Christ (256 f.) shades ofTinto a comparison between the creation and the end, but in 27011'. the life and Passion of Christ are described afresh. One of the romantic touches in the picture of the Risen Lord is the symbolism of the four wounds in His hands and feet (318 f.), which He sliows to the faithful (cf. Jn 20'-^'"-); these are explained to mean tlie four quarters of the earth — north, south, east, and west having to bear witness against the cruelty of man. The next fragment depicts the entrj' of Christ into Jeru.salem (323 (f.). Then a break occurs, ushering in a dramatic sketch of the Last Daj', the burning of the world, .and the horrible woes of men (337-35S). Through the lijis of the Sibyl (3.59 It'.) God now teaches His true nature, the vanity of idols, and the superlluousncss of sacrifice (390), the two ways set before men (399 f. ), and tlie pains .and rewards which they may expect. This long honiiletic section is almost unique in the Christian Sihtjlliiui. It ends abruptly, and tlie next paragraph (429 f.) treats of the Divine provi- dence and man's relation to his Creator and Judge. The text is badly preserved, but we can trace a form of Logos theology behind the doctrine. In
* Literally * their idols and all their wealth.'
t A cataract of fire and brimstone pours through the SibyUina from iii. 54 f. onwards (cf. EIIK v. ;i90).
t Literally, ' enlightening of the elect with water from twelve springs' (i.ti. the twelve apostles '0. Orthodox baptism (cf. above, p. 4S3).
5 Dion. Hal. iv. 62 quotes Varro to this effect.
456 f., the oracle becomes clearer; tlie 'Virgin- birth at Hethlehem is described. Suddenly, how- ever, the scene changes, and the closing verses (4S0tr. ) are a moralistic homilj' to Christians upon humility, love to God and man, reverence, worship, and the like — wholesome doctrine, but quite out of keeping with any Sibylline setting. The preacher has overjiowered the poet, and the passion for edifj'ing has proved too strong for the writer's sense of dram.atic litness.
The passage on Christ's advent (256 f.) deserves to be quoted. It was a favourite of Lactantius :
*For he shall not enter the world* in glory, but as a mortal
man, pitiable, \vithout honour and oomoUness, to ^ve hope to the
pitiable, to give comeliness to mortal flesh and heavenly faith to the
unbelieving, to fashion man who in the heginning had been formed by God's
holy hands, but whom the serpent had craftily seduced to the doom of
death, to gain the knowledge of good and evil, till he deserted God and worshipped mortal beings. The Almighty at the beginning took him as his counsellor, saying, *' Let us both, my eon, mould mortal race after our
likeness ; I shall devote my hands, and thou the Word, to our form, that together we may make the product." Mindful, then, of this design he shall enter the world, bringing the original pattern into the holy virgin, baptizing with water by the hands of presbyters, domg all things by his Word, healing every disease. With his word he shall check the winds, smooth the raging
sea, walking on it with the feet of peace and in faith.'
It is from this eighth book (337 f.), as AuOTstinet used it to show that the Sibyl was a pre-Christian witne.ss to the truth of Christian prophecy, that the famous raediseval hymn drew its inspiration for the lines :
' Dies iruB, dies ilia, Sohiet sRiclum in fauilla. Teste Dauid cum Sibylla.'
Tlie final destruction of the world by fire is proved not only by the psalter but by the Sibylline oracles; J they were enlisted in the service of Christian eschatology. The God who had spoken of this crisis by David had spoken of it also by this pagan prophetess. Another echo of the oracle is to be heard in the 5th (Oth ?) cent, composition, QucEstiones et responsa ad orthodnxos (74 ... 'if the end of the present order of things is the judg- ment of the imjiious by fire, as the scriptures of prophets and apostles declare, as well as tlio.«e of the Sibyl '), which was enonoously attributed to Justin Martyr. We can understand, from this widespread feeling in a later age, how Michael Angelo neither felt nor excited any sense of incon- gruity in p.ainting Sibyls .along with OT prophets on the roof of the Sixtine Chapel. Giotto had already done this in the Campanile at Florence. Here as elsewhere art naively expressed the popular theology of the age.
The following books are political rather than religious ; this distinguishes them from most of the other Sibylline oracles, whether Jewish or Christian, but it is a return to the primitive func- tion and temper of the classical Sibyl. The eleventh book is a rambling, fanciful series of oracles, in which the Siliyl, as in bk. v., is con- cerned mainly with the fortunes of Egyjit down to the period of Cleojiatra ; § Egypt's subjugation by