evil, leads men and angels astray, and whose functions are tempting, accusing, and punishing (1 Cor. v. 5). See Matt. viii. 29, xii. 24-28; Matt. iv. 1-12; 2 Cor. xi. 3; Rev. xii. 4 and 10. The following are typical examples of the reproduction of the actual phraseology of Enoch in the New Testament: The book of Revelation is especially full of reminiscences of Enoch: e. g. The tree of life, ii. 7. The white raiment, iii. 5. The angels of the winds, vii. 1. The star falling from heaven, ix. 1. Note.-S.P.C.K. edition, by Charles. THE TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE IN the Library of Cambridge University is the MS. of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs obtained in the thirteenth century by the famous English scholar, Robert Grosseteste, the saintly Bishop of Lincoln. He in his simplicity believed with the men of his day that it contained actually the last words of the twelve sons of Jacob. Scholars of our own time are less simple, and have little difficulty in ascertaining the approximate date of its first appearance; they know that its ascription to the Twelve Patriarchs is but one instance of the custom of apocalyptic writers: they look for information in it about the thought of the age in which it really was produced, and are richly rewarded. This was the time of John Hyrcanus, the very zenith of Maccabæan glory, who at the moment was regarded because of his holding the offices of prophet, priest, and king, and for his military successes, as the actual fulfilment of the hopes of a Messiah. As such he was the idol of the Pharisaic party up to the year 106 B.C., when the deadly breach occurred, which separated him from them. The original book was perhaps written in Hebrew by a Pharisaic admirer who did not scruple to include in his works psalms to his idol of a Messianic character, at any rate before the breach occurred. Interwoven with this original work are later passages that paint the later Hasmonæan rule in the most hostile colours. The dynasty had become corrupt, and the Pharisaic spirit, unchanging in its hopes for the future of Israel, now turned with loathing from the family that had once loomed so large. And thus we have curses of the Hasmonæans intermingled with blessings on their great predecessor John Hyrcanus. Having been content for a time to waive their conviction that the Messiah would spring from the tribe of Judah, when events taught them their mistake, they returned all the more eagerly to their ancient hope. Canon Charles regards the chief interest of the work to be its high and spiritual ethical teaching," which," he says, "has achieved a real immortality by influencing the thought and diction of the writers of the New Testament, and even those of our Lord." Besides the Jewish additions, which were made somewhere about B.C. 60, we find a number of Christian interpolations of a dogmatic character, which are easily detected. For the book was very popular with the early Church. Theories have been advanced by some English scholars that all resemblances between the New Testament and the Testaments are due to an editor who transferred matter from the former to the latter. Canon Charles pronounces emphatically against this view. The merely dogmatic interpolations are obvious from their disagreement with the teaching of the book as a whole : the ethical sayings and teachings are in harmony not only with the spirit of the book as a whole, but also with their respective contexts." 1 So that these theories may be definitely dismissed. The method of the writer is to give one by one an imaginary speech from the lips of each dying patriarch; they are partly ethical, partly apocalyptic; the ethical teaching springs from the character of the patriarch himself in each case as painted in Genesis or later legend; thus Reuben deals from his own supposed experience with the fire of lust, Simeon with the canker of envy, and Levi exalts the beauty of holiness. The ethical teaching, therefore, is winged with a certain dramatic force, unknown to the more prosaic Wisdom-writers. And then as he looks far down the vista of the future and sees the events of later ages hurrying on to crisis, or established in 1 Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, O.T., II. p. 291, peace, he seems to burst forth naturally into the great apocalyptic passages, as exalted as any that are preserved, in their assurance of the supernatural righteousness and glory of the Messianic Kingdom, which shall include all nations. As has been said, the book exerted a strong influence on the New Testament. Canon Charles notes that St. Paul used it as a vade mecum, and finds some seventy words in St. Paul's Epistles, common to the Testaments, which are not found elsewhere in the New Testament. The rather strange expression in Rom. i. 32 is really a reproduction of an expression in the Testament of Asher vi. 2. With regard to our Lord's teaching we find in Test. Gad. vi. 3 (B) : Iƒ any one sin against thee speak to him in peace. and if he repent forgive him (cf. Matt. xviii. 15). And the Test. Dan. v. 3 conjoins like Jesus the two chief duties: Love the Lord in all your life, and one another with a true heart" (cf. Matt. xxii. 37-39). Several cases of identity of expression are to be found. The author of the Testaments, unlike other Pharisees of his day with whose works we are acquainted, as well as the later interpolator, is a Universalist. He believes that the Gentile world will be saved through Israel. This conviction alone marks the spiritual development that his faith had reached. His doctrine of the Messiah is coloured by the fact that he believed him to spring from the priestly tribe. He is the Mediator, who opens Paradise to the righteous, gives them to eat of the tree of life, binds the spirit of evil, and destroys the reign of sin. As prophet he teaches the holy nation, and as king he rules and destroys its enemies. In the Resurrection, after the rising of the patriarchs and heroes, the righteous will stand on the right hand and the wicked on the left. The New Jerusalem will be founded on earth, and will last for ever. Note.-S.P.C.K. edition, by Charles. |