2. Contents. — The results of criticism show that the Sibylline Books are the work of different authors, and that they originated in different countries and periods. The collection as we now have it includes:
a. .Jewish Elements. — Scholars are generally agreed that book iii is, upon the whole, the work of an Egyp- tian Jew, though based somewhat on already existent heathen oracles and corrupted by Christian interpola- tions. The description of historical events in this book reaches to the reign of Ptolemy Physcon (B.C. 170- 117), and is followed from that epoch by a fanciful fore- casting of the future. To antagonize idolatry, es])ecial- ly under its Egyptian form, was evidentlj' the object of the oracle, which to this end enii)loys persuasion, historico- mythological descriinion, and threatening prophecy— more connnonly the latter, as might be sup- posed from the assumption of a Sibylline garb. The l)ook enumerates successive world-iiowers, though not in the manner of Daniel, and foretells a jieriod of woe which should be ended by the advent of Messiah, who will overthrow his enemies, restore .Iiidah, and gloriously deliver the saints. There is no unity of arrangement.
Book iv belongs next in the order of chronology. It consists of not (piite two himdred verses, and is com- plete in itself. The history of the world is traced through twelve general ions, six of which are Assyrian, two Median, one Persian, and one (irecian. The eleventh covers the ])eriod of the Roman world-po^wer, and tlie twelfth is tlie Messianic |)eriod. The events noted in the l)ook as recent are the destruction of Jerusalem and the eriq)iiou of Vesuvius in A.D. 79; that which is most imuu'diatcly impending is the return of a mat- ricidal emperor I'roni his exile beyond the Euphrates to
SIBYLLINE ORACLES
SIBYLLINE ORACLES
make \var on Rome. The date of ils composition is easy to determine from these data. No specitically Christian elements appear, and the religious bearing of the fragment upon the whole is difficult to deter- mine. Its author was probably a Jewish Christian of the ordinary type, who had no concepiion of the con- tradiction involved in such a character.
Book V is a crux interpretum. Tlie first fifty verses recite the list of Roman emperors from Julius Cresar to Hadrian, their names being indicated by the respective initial letters, etc. The internal evidence assigns the date of composition to the close of Hadrian's reign (A.U. 138). The description it gives of Nero as laying claim to divine honors, after he " shall have returned," indicates a Christian pen; but the Christian element is so little apparent that judicious critics regard the great- er part of the book as a Jewish production. The re- peated reference to Nero, the arch-enemy, seems to sug- gest that the author wrote in Nero's time, in which case it woulil become necessary to separate that portion of the book which reaches down to Hadrian, and upon tliis point scholars are greatly divided. Tlie subject- matter is largely eschatological, but lacks comprehen- siveness of view, so that the author or compiler deals rather with the doom of particular cities and countries than with that of the world.
b. Christian Elements. — Hook vi is a brief hymn on Jesus as the Son of God, which touches on his miracles, teachings, and death, and denounces a prophetic curse on the Sodomitic land which W((ve for him the crown of thorns. In connection with the baptism in Jordan, it introduces the fire mentioned in ancient gospels, and presents an idea of the dove greatly at variance with the canonical idea. It has been supposed that a form of gnosis is here revealed to our notice ; but the ques- tion may depend for its answer on tlie comiecting of this fragment with book vii. The latter also contains, among apparently disconnected oracles of threatening, a number of extended hymns on Christ, in which the baptism is again particularly referred to and a peculiar philosophy connected with it (the premundane Logos clothed with flesh by the Spirit), and in which, more- over, a ritual of sacrifice is recommended ( v, 7(3 ) to which the Church was an entire stranger. The only historical allusion which might aft'ord a hint respecting the age of the books is that in which it is said that '•other Persians should reign" in the time of greatest trouble (the time then current?). The reference might perhaps apply to the beginning of the Sassanid rule.
Book viii deals more extensively with ideas peculiar to Christianity than any of those described. It is com- posed of fragments and devoid of unity, but the first half (ver. 1-860) makes the impression of a connected whole. It begins where book v left oft', and assigns to Hadrian's family three additional kings. A further ref- erence to a king of different family (Sept. Severus), with Lis sons, may be a later interpolation. The book is in- tended to be a prophetic portrayal of the last judg- ment, but it includes a rehearsal of the life of Jesus, with the famous lines, thirty -four in number, which are known as the Sibylline Acrostic (ver. 217-2.50) — the initial letters forming the words 'Itjaovg Xpeioroc (sic) iieoi) v'loc aiurifp iTTavpi'ig. They were early rec- ognised, e. g. by Eusebius and Augustine {Civ. Dei, 18, 23) ; but it is evident that they originated with a later hand. Neither the first nor the last of the lines is in- dependent of the context in its structure. Lactantius cites at least one of the lines as having a different ini- tial letter. The number of the lines is in some copies limited to twenty-seven; and the form XpuTTog has no parallel. The less extended second half (ver. 361-501) contains nothing Sibylline in character, and is composed of fragments of Christian hymns. It is supposed to be- long to the close of the 4th centur}'.