THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
nated the Hebrew and probably the basis of the Coptic Elijah apocalypse, while it was also the period of the editor of books i., ii., and viii. of Commodian's Carmen apologetic urn, and the apocalyptic sayings of Lactantius (ut sup.)- The Christian sibyllist makes a hero of Odenatus, the Jewish Apocalyptist makes him an antimessiah. Book xiv. is by an ignorant man who essays to give a sketch of Roman imperial history but is hopelessly confused; possibly he wrote in the awful times which swept over Egypt [s^] after the time of the death of Odenatus and Zenobia, and he was hardly a Jew. His work is a polemic against evil, rapacious, and godless kings. The "holy nation" of line 360 refers not to the Jews but to Christians.
Theophilus of Antioch (Ad Autolycurn, ii. 36; Eng. transl. in ANF, ii. 109) gives two citations from a beginning of the sibylline books which exalt the true God and chide idolatry. The general view is that Theophilus has quoted from the early introduction to book iii., but Geffcken (ut io. Other sup.) sees in the fragments an elabora- Collections. tion of the present introduction to hi., and would derive them from an anthology from verses devoted to an apologetic purpose, supporting this by the facts that in the following chapter Theophilus is dependent upon such a work and that Clement of Alexandria cites some verses of this fragment (Strom., V., xiv.), derived from an anthology (Elter, De gnomologiorum Grwcorum historia atque origine, Bonn, 1894-95; university program). There are facts against this conclusion, however, such as the one that Lactantius must have regarded these verses as belonging to the proem of book iii. And, in spite of Geffcken's claim that they are of Christian origin, there is nothing which goes against a Jewish derivation, though not from the author of book iii. Under the name of the Tiburtine sibyl is a confused mass of sayings from the Middle Ages which has been again and again subjected to the process of editing. The development of this body of material has been worked out well by E. Sackur (Sibyllinische Textund Forschungen, Halle, 1S98), the source of the Tiburtine sibyl being traced to a nucleus dating soon after the death of Constantius I. (361 a.d.). But a further history is suggested by R. Basset (Les Apocryphes etliiopiens, vol. x., LaSagesse de Sibylle, Paris, 1899), who makes it evident that the material which he publishes and the Tiburtine sibyl go back to a common source, dealing with nine ages of the world. The Arabic-Ethiopian sibyl is known also in a redaction of the period of Harun al-Rashid. The basal document may go back to the end of the third century, the period when metrical sibylline oracles passed over into prose. Even in the Middle Ages the sibyl remained a popular figure, cf. the opening fines of the poem Dies irae, dies ilia, solvet sceclum in favilla, teste David cum Sibylla. On Byzantine and medieval sibylline literature cf. F Kampers, Die deutsche Kaiseridee in Prophetie undSage, Munich, 1896. (W. Bousset.)
Bibliography. The principal texts are noted in § 3 above.
Add. P. Heitz s ed., after a M.S. of St. Gall, Strasburg,
1903, with Einleitung by \V. L. Schreiber; and the Eng.
transl. in blank verse by M. S. Terry, New York, 1890.
Foi questions of introduction and exegesis consult:
Bleek, in Theologische Zeitschrift, i (1819), 120-246, ii (1820), 172-239; G. Besancon, De Vemploi que les peres de Veglise ont fait des oracles sibyllins, Paris, 1851; A. Hilgenfeld, Die jildische Apokalyptik in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, pp. 51-90, Jena, 1857; H. Ewald, Abhandlung iiber Entstehung der sibyllinischen Biicher, Got-
tingen, 1858; J. Langen, Das Judenthum in Palastina zur Zeit Christi, pp. 169-174, Freiburg, 1866; B. Badt, De oraculis Sibyllinis, Breslau, 1869; idem, Ursprung, Inhalt, und Text des vierten Buches der sibyllinischen Orakel, ib. 1878; H. Dechent, Ueber das erste, zweite und elite Buch der sibyllinischen Weissagungen, Frankfort, 1873; M. Vernes, Hist, des idees messianigues, pp. 43 sqq., Paris, 1874; J. Drummond, Jewish Messiah, pp. 14 sqq., London, 1877; A. C. Bang, Voluspa und die sibyllinischen Orakel, Vienna, 1880; A. Bouche-Leclerc, Hist, de la divination dans Vantiquite, ii. 199-214, Paris, 1880; V. H. Stanton, The Jewish and the Christian Messiah, Edinburgh, 1886; T. Zahn, in TKW, 1886, pp. 32^5, 77-87; K. Buresch, Klaros, Leipsic, 1889; H. Diels, Sibyllinische Blatter, Berlin, 1890; S. A. Hirsch, in JQR, ii (1890), 406-429; W. J. Deane, Pseudepigrapha, 276 sqq., Edinburgh, 1891; J. E. H. Thompson, Books which Influenced our Lord and his Apostles, pp. 167-169, ib. 1891; E. Fehr, Studia in oracula Sibyllina, Upsala, 1893; M. Friedliinder, in REJ, xxix (1894), 183-196; idem, Geschichte der jiXdischen Apologetik, pp. 31-54, Zurich, 1903; W. Bousset, Der Antichrist, pp. 59-63 et passim, Gottingen, 1895; idem, in ZNTW. 1902, pp. 23 sqq.; E. Rohde, Psyche, pp. 62-69, 2d ed., Freiburg, 1898; E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen, ii. 177 sqq., Tubingen, 1900 (Germ, transl. with introduction and notes); O. Zockler, Die Apokryphen des A. Ts., pp. 477-484, Munich, 1901; J. Geffcken, Komposition und Enstehungszeit des Oracula Sibyllina, Leipsic, 1902; idem, in TV, viii. 1 (1903); E. Oldenburger, De oraculorum Sibyllinorum elocutione, Rostock, 1903; E. Hennecke, Handbuch der neutestamentlichen Apokryphen, pp. 339-350, Tubingen, 1904; M. Monteiro, " As David and the Sibyls say," a Sketch of the Sibyls and the Sibylline Oracles, London, 1905; A. Rzach, Analekta zur Kritik und Exegese der sibyllinischen Orakel, Vienna, 1907; J. Schleiper, Die Erziihlung der Sibylle. Eine Apocryphische, nach den karschunischen, arabischen und athiopischen Handschriften zu London, ib. 1908; Schiirer, Geschichte, iii. 421^50, Eng. transl., II., iii. 271-291 (excellent list of literature at end of German text) ; Harnack, Litteratur, i. 861-863; ii. 581-589; DB, i. 743, iii. 227, extra vol., pp. 66-68; EB, i. 245-250; JE, xi. 319-323.
SICARII, si-ke'ri-ai or si-ca'ri-i (Lat. "Assassins"): The term applied to Jewish zealots before and during the Jewish war, whose aim was to drive the Romans from the country. The name comes from sica, "a small dagger," which they concealed under their cloaks, using it during assemblies or pilgrimages to kill their enemies, including Jews who were friendly to the Romans (Josephus, Ant., XX., viii. 10; War, II., xiii. 3). The most prominent of their victims was the high priest Jonathan, said to have been slain at the instigation of Felix the governor of Judea. Bibliography: Schiirer, Geschichte, i. 574 sqq., 584, Eng.
transl., 178 sqq., 189.
SICKENBERGER, sik'en-berH"-er, JOSEPH: German Roman Catholic; b. at Kempten (81 m. s.w. of Munich) Mar. 19, 1872. He was educated at the University of Munich (D.D., 1900) and also studied in Italy, Vienna, and Paris. In 1902 he became privat-docent at Munich, where he was appointed associate professor of patrology and Christian archeology in the following year. In 1905 he was called to Wiirzburg as full professor of the same subject, and since 1906 has been professor of New- Testament exegesis and theology at Breslau. He has written Titus von Bostra, Stndicn zu desscn