The following are exclusively on the epistles to the seven churches : Laiirentius, Expositio (Amst. 1649, 4to) ; Ramirez, Commentarius (Lugd. 1652, fol.) ; More, Exposition (Lond. 1669, 12mo): Smith, Epistola [topo- graphical] (ibid. 1678, 8vo); Johnson, Laodicean Age (ibid. 1733, 8vo) ; Allen, Improvement (ibid. 1733, 8vo) ; Wadsworth, Lectures (Idle, 1825, 12-mo); Theime, Com- mentt Ho (L. B. 1827, 4to); Wichelhaus, Predigten. (El- berf. 1827, 8vo) ; *Arundel, Visit [descriptive] (Lond. 1828, 8vo) ; Milner [J.], Sermons (ibid. 1830, 8vo) ; Mil- ner [T.], History (ibid. 1832, 8vo) ; Withy, Lectures (ibid. 1833, 8vo); Hyatt, Sermons (ibid. 1834, 12mo); Muir, Sermons (ibid. 1835, 12mo) ; *M'Farlane, Seven Churches [descriptive, with etchings] (ibid. 1836, 4to) ; Blunt, Exposition (ibid. 1838, 12mo) ; Carr, Sermons (ibid. 1840, 12mo) ; Wallace, Consideration (ibid. 1842, 8vo) ; West, Discourses (ibid. 1846, 12mo) ; Thompson, Sermons (ibid. 1848, 8vo) ; Stathan, Lectures (ibid. 1848, 12mo) ; Heub- ner, Predigten (Berl. 1850, 8vo) ; Tom, Die sieben Send- schr. (Bayr. 1850, 8vo); Gumming, Lectures (Lond. 1850, 12mo) ; Parker, Interpretation (ibid. 1852, 12mo) ; Cham- berlain. Seven Ages (ibid. 1856, 8vo) ; Biber, Sermons (ibid. 1857, 12mo); Trench, Commentary (ibid, and N.Y. 1861, 12mo); *Svobode, Seven Churches [with 20 photographs, and Notes by Tristram] (Lond. 1869, 4to) ; *Plumptre, Exposition (ibid. 1877, 12mo) ; Anon. Sym- bolic Parables ( Edinb. 1877, 12mo). See Asia Minor.
REVELATIONS, Spurious. The Apocalyptic char- acter, which is occupied in describing the future splen- dor of the Messianic kingdom and its historical relations, presents itself for the first time in the book of Daniel, which is thus characteristically distinguished from the former prophetical books. In the only prophetical book of the New Test., the Apocalypse of John, this idea is full}' developed, and the several apocryphal revelations are mere imitations, more or less happy, of these two canonical books, which furnished ideas to a numerous class of writers in the first ages of the Christian Church. We here consider those especially which profess to be of a prophetic character. The principal spurious reve- lations extant have been published by Fabricius, in his Cod. Pseudep. V. T., and Cod. Apoc. N. T., and their char- acter has been still more critically examined in recent times 1 -j- archbishop Laurence (who has added to their number), by Nitzsch, Bleek, and others, and especially by Dr. Liicke, in his Einleit. in die Offenbarung Johan. und die gesammte apocalyp/ische. Literatiir. (See the preceding article.) Tischendorf, in his A pocalypses Apoc- rypha (Lips. 1866, 8vo), has published the following: " Apocalypsis Mosis" (Gr. ed. princeps) ; " Apocalypsis Esdrse" (Gr. ed. pr.) ; " Apocalypsis Pauli" (Gr. ed. pr.) ; "Apocalypsis Johannis" (Gr. ed. pr.) ; "Johannis Liber deDominatione Maria;" (Gr.ed.pr.) ; "Translatio Maria;" (Lat. ed. pr.) ; another " Translatio Maria-" (Lat.) ; " Ad- |
ditamenta ad Acta Apost. Apocrypha;" "Ad Acta An- dreas et Matthias, ex codice unciali;" "Ad Acta Philip- pi, ex codd. Parisiensi et Barocciano ;" " Ad Acta Tho- mas, e codd. Moncrensi et Podleiano;" "Acta Petri et Ainlrea-. in fine mutila, e cod. Barocciano." For the ac- count below we are partly indebted to Kitto's Cyclop. See Apocrypha.
I. Pseudo-Revelations Purporting to Refer to Hebrew Characters.— These are principally the following:
1, 2. The. Apocedyjjse of Adam and thai of Abraham are cited by Epiphanius (Hones, xxxi, 8) as Gnostic productions. They are now wholly lost.
3. The Book of Enoch is one of the most curious of the spurious revelations, resembling in its outward form both the book of Daniel 'and the Apocalypse; but it is uncertain whether this latter work or the book of Enoch was first written. See Enoch, Book of.
4. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a sim- ilar apocryphal production. See Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs.
5. The Apocalypse of Moses, mentioned by Syncellus (Chronog.) and Cedrenus (Comp. Hist.), fragments of which have been published by Fabricius (ut sup.), is conjectured by Grotius to have been a forgery of one of the ancient Christians.
In addition to this and the above work published by Tischendorf, there has lately been discovered an "As- cension" or " Assurrlption CAvaKijipig) of Moses," in the library at Milan, which has been published by Ceriani (Monumenta Sacra [Medio]. 1861]); Hilgenfeld (N. T. extra Canonem [Lips. 1866]) ; Yolkmar (Handb. z. d. Apohr. [Leips. 1867, vol. iii]); and Merx (Archiv f. wiss. Erforsch. etc. [ibid. 1867, vol. ii]). It represents an interview between Moses and Joshua just before the death of the former, and professes to depict the future history of Israel. It seems to have been written by a Jew of the early Christian times (Ewakl, Jahibucher, 1852, 1853). See Moses.
These are different works from the so-called " Little Genesis." See Jubilees, Book of.
6. The Ascension and }'isi<>n of Isaiah (ArafiaTticbv /cat "Opaaig 'Haaiov), although for a long time lost to the world, was a work well known to the ancients, as is indicated by the allusions of Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian, and Epiphanius. The first of these writers (Dial. c. Tryph. ed. Paris, p. 349) refers to the account therein contained of the death of Isaiah, who "was sawn asunder with a wooden saw — a fact," he adds, "which was removed by the Jews from the sacred text." Ter- tullian, also (De Patientia), among other examples from Scripture, refers to the same event; and in the next (the 3d) century Origen (Epist. ad African.'), after stat- ing that the Jews were accustomed to remove many things from the knowledge of the people which they nevertheless preserved in apocryphal or secret writings, adduces as an example the death of Isaiah, "who was sawn asunder, as stated in a certain apocryphal writing, which the Jews perhaps corrupted in order to throw dis- credit on the whole." In his Comm. on Matt, he refers to the same events, observing that if this apocryphal work is not of sufficient authority to establish the ac- count of the prophet's martyrdom, it should be believed upon the testimony borne to that work by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. xi, 37) ; in the same manner as the account of the death of Zechariah should be credited upon the testimony borne by our Saviour to a writing not found in the common and published books (koivoiq nai £scriptvpsvoig j8(/3X('oic), but probably in an apocryphal work. Origen cites a passage from the apocryphal account of the martyrdom of Isaiah in one of his Homilies (ed. De la Rue, iii, 108). The Apos- tolical Constitutions also refer to the apocryphal books of Moses, Enoch, Adam, and Isaiah as writings of some antiquity.