Chapter 48

[275]Kanonisch und Apokryph, pp. 42-46.

[276]See Friedländer,Die rel. Bewegungen..., pp. 22-77.

[277]Oesterley and Box,Op. cit., p. 36.

[278]See his editions of these books.

[279]Portions of this book are also found in the Book of Jubilees, vii. 20-39, x. 1-15, cp. xxi. 10.

[280]Die Worte Jesu, p. 199.

[281]Op. cit., pp. 253 ff.

[282]See above,pp. 150ff.

[283]I.e. “The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries,” as Charles calls it.

[284]I.e. “the righteous”; a play on the wordZaddūkim, the “sons of Zadok,” i.e. “the Sadducees.”

[285]Seep. 93.

[286]See also what is said above on the section called “The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries,” or “Book of Astronomy.”

[287]Die rel. Bewegungen..., pp. 59, 60.

[288]i.-xxxii. 6 and xix. 3-xxi. 9 in a duplicate form were discovered at Akhmîm in 1886-1887; vi.-x. 14, xv. 8-xvi. 1, and viii. 4-ix. 4 in a duplicate form, have been preserved in Syncellus; lxxxix. 42-49 occurs in a Greek Vatican MS. (No. 1809); there are also a few quotations in early Greek ecclesiastical writings.

[289]Charles,The Book of Enoch(2nd ed.), p. ix.

[290]Op. cit., II, iii. 273.

[291]Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, pp. liv. ff.

[292]Op. cit., pp. xcvii. f.

[293]There is, indeed, nothing to prohibit us from dating the book slightly later than Charles does (viz.B.C.109-107), and assigning it to the reign of Alexander Jannæus,B.C.103-76. Testament of Levi viii. 14 does not militate against this.

[294]Op. cit., pp. 239 ff.

[295]Op. cit., p. xcvii.

[296]Op. cit., II, p. 630.

[297]But see below,pp. 218,223.

[298]The Apocryph. and Pseud. of the O.T., II, p. 411.

[299]Op. cit., pp. 268 ff.

[300]Proverbs, Job, some of the later Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom.

[301]Gregg,The Wisdom of Solomon, p. xxx.

[302]Griechische Philosophie..., p. 13.

[303]Cp. also the account of the meeting between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, 1 Kings x. 1-9.

[304]Toy, in theEncycl. Bibl., IV, 5322.

[305]See Isaiah xix. 11-15; Jeremiah l. 35, li. 57.

[306]Jeremias,Das alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, pp. 29, 80.

[307]So the Greek; the Hebrew is not extant, but the Syriac has: “in the roots of Tehom,” so that the Hebrew in all probability read “Tehom.” See further, Proverbs viii. 26-30.

[308]On this see further in the next section.

[309]In theJewish Encycl., XII, 537b.

[310]Fairweather,The Background of the Gospels, p. 84.

[311]Cp. Oesterley and Box,Op. cit., pp. 195-221.

[312]Fairweather,Op. cit., p. 84.

[313]Cp. also verse 9: “He spake and it was done,” and Psalm cxlviii. 5.

[314]Barton,Ecclesiastes, in the “International Critical Commentary,” p. 37.

[315]Oesterley and Box,The Wisdom of Ben-Sira, in Charles’ “The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament,” I, p. 308.

[316]The idea appears already in Proverbs viii. 31-36, ix. 1-6; but Ben-Sira elaborates it in his own way.

[317]See, on this subject, the very interesting essay on “The Holy Spirit as Wisdom,” by Rees, in theMansfield College Essays(1909).

[318]Gregg,The Wisdom of Solomon, p. xxxvi.

[319]The tree of wisdom in the Garden is referred to in xxxii. 3.

[320]See above,p. 202.

[321]But cp. Job xxviii. 12-14, though the general conception of Wisdom here differs from that of the later Wisdom books.

[322]Hastings’D.B., V, p. 275.

[323]Spoken of as “the holy ones,” so too in Job xv. 15; cp. also Prayer of Manasses, verse 15.

[324]Seepp. 331ff; below.

[325]For other examples see the present writer’s section in the Introduction toSirachin Charles, I, pp. 285 f.

[326]For the reason of this see below,pp. 412f.

[327]On the substitution of “Heaven” for the name of God, see Oesterley and Box,Op. cit., pp. 186 ff.

[328]Holmes in Charles, I, 527.

[329]Cp. the Book of Enoch lxix. 6, where it is said in reference to the evil angels: “Now the third is Gadreel; he it is who taught the children of man all the blows of death; and he led astray Eve....”

[330]These have been recounted in the preceding verses; the writer is addressing Jews.

[331]The Ezra-Apocalypse, pp. xl. f.

[332]Maldwyn Hughes,The Ethics of Jewish Apocryphal Literature, p. 240.

[333]See further the next section, on the Future Life.

[334]In one passage in this Vision, xii. 34, the Messianic Kingdom appears to be reserved for the children of Israel only; but it is probable that this verse does not belong to the original text.

[335]The whole passage, iii. 1-9, deals with the lot of the righteous hereafter, but the salient words in the present connection are those quoted above.

[336]“Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him” (Isa. xl. 10). “And the Lord will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a canopy. And there shall be a pavilion for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain” (Isa. iv. 5, 6). “In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His people, and for a spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgement, and for strength to them that turn back the battle at the gate” (Isa. xxviii. 5, 6). It is the thought, not the language, which shows connection between the two; in the Septuagint of Isaiah xxviii. 5, for example, “a diadem of beauty” is differently expressed, but see Isaiah lxii. 3 (Sept.). “And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness it upheld Him. And He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke” (Isa. lix. 16, 17). Cp. also parts of Psalm xviii.

[337]See the present writer’sEcclesiasticus, p. lxxvi.

[338]It is, of course, possible that this is due to a Christian glossator; but there is no doubt that the Old Latin contains many really ancient elements.

[339]We follow Box here (The Ezra Apocalypse, passim), though we are not convinced that all which Box assigns to the Redactor is necessarily from this hand.

[340]The meaning of the name is “God hath healed,” cp. iii. 17, “And Raphael was sent to heal them both.”

[341]In Enoch xx. 8 he is said to be him “whom God set over those who rise.”

[342]See, for details, the present writer’sEcclesiasticus, in the Cambridge Bible, pp. 263 f.

[343]The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament(1913).

[344]The final “ch” was added in Greek to show that the name was indeclinable.

[345]In the Hebrew text the author speaks of himself as: “Simeon, the son of Jeshua (Jesus), the son of Eleazar, the son of Sira.”

[346]SeePart I., Chap. xii.

[347]See the present writer’sEcclesiasticusin the Cambridge Bible, p. xxiv.

[348]Euergetes I reigned for twenty-five years,B.C.247-222.

[349]Cowley and Neubauer,The Original Hebrew of a portion of Ecclesiasticus, pp. x., xi.

[350]Cp. Maunde Thompson,Handbook of Greek and Latin Palæography, p. 43.

[351]See Gaster in theJewish Quarterly Review, xii. pp. 688 ff.

[352]Oesterley,Op. cit., pp. xci. f. (See the Literature at the head of the chapter.)

[353]Prof. D. S. Margoliouth,The Origin of the “Original” Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus.

[354]Lévi, in theJewish Encycl., xi. 393.

[355]See Box and Oesterley,Op. cit., pp. 272-278.

[356]Ibid., p. 277.

[357]In this connection it is important to note the following facts:allthe Greek manuscripts, uncial as well as cursives, have a great displacement in the text, xxx. 25-xxxiii. 13ahaving exchanged places with xxxiii. 13b-xxxvi. 16a; since all the Greek manuscripts have this displacement it is obvious that all ultimately go back to a single parent manuscript; now the Old Latin Version hasnotgot the displacement, and yet it is a translation from the Greek; consequently this version represents a condition of affairs which is older than the oldest Greek manuscripts.

[358]Op. cit., p. 274; he adds in a note that these additions “do not necessarily proceed from the hand of one individual”; we feel convinced that he is right here also.

[359]We use this term as being the most convenient, but strictly speaking it is an anachronism, for, as we have seen above (Chap. vii), thetermbelongs to post-Maccabæan times; we use it here as representing the pre-Maccabæan tendency which later on developed into Sadducæanism.

[360]Cowley,Op. cit., iv. 4237.

[361]Ibid.

[362]Nothing better illustrates this than Ben-Sira’s copious use of the Psalms and Proverbs.

[363]See above,pp. 267ff.

[364]I.e. natural tendency, or inclination.

[365]Perhaps the rendering of the Syriac Version is to be preferred here; for “wresteth reproofs” it reads “concealeth instruction.”

[366]In his edition ofPirqe Aboth(2nd ed.), p. 115.

[367]This is only preserved in Hebrew.

[368]The additions are found scattered in the Greek cursives numbered 23, 55, 70, 106, 248 (this is the foremost representative of the group), 253; some were added by a later corrector of Codex Alexandrinus; also in the Syriac and Old Latin Versions (St. Jerome incorporated this in the Vulgate as it stood) and in the Syro-Hexapla; as well as in the quotations from the book in the writings of Clement of Alexandria.

[369]The fact that some of the additions are found in Hebrew points to their having been made at an early date; it is unlikely that a secondary Hebrew text would have been written in post-Christian times.

[370]This addition occurs in the Hebrew text, as well as in the cursives.

[371]The Hebrew of chapter xxix. is not extant; but the addition probably existed in the secondary Hebrew as it occurs in the Syriac Version as well as in the cursives and in the Old Latin Version.

[372]For further details see the commentaries of Mayor, and Knowling, on St. James, and Zahn’sEinleitung, I. p. 87.

[373]This is the form of the name given in the Aramaic fragments.

[374]“And when I saw them, my tongue stammered and my limbs became faint; and I sought for a single word from the words of wisdom, and I found none,” iv. 2 (Rendel Harris’ translation of the Syriac Version).

[375]So according to the Aramaic, the other Versions read “Sennacherib.” The Aramaic text is given in Ungnad’sAramäische Papyrus aus Elephantine, pp. 62-82 (1911).

[376]According to the Armenian Version (Conybeare), Pharaoh threatens to attack the king of Assyria and to take away his kingdom if he does not fall in with the proposal.

[377]It is given in Swete,The Old Testament in Greek, vol. ii. pp. 815-848 (1896).

[378]In the Aramaic fragment this is not the case, apparently.

[379]In the Achikar story he is called “the Secretary and Great Seal of Sennacherib, king of Assyria and Nineveh” (Syriac Version iii. 8).

[380]Although the Greek omits the words “and thy wine” they occur in the Latin, Aramaic, and Hebrew Versions.

[381]Simpson, in Charles, I, p. 191.

[382]See Schürer, III, p. 241, where further literature is given; the English translation of Schürer does not contain this; it has been added to the last (fourth) German edition.

[383]See further, Simrock,Der gute Gerhard und die dankbaren Todten(1856).

[384]For details see Schneider,Kultur und Denken der Babylonier und Juden, pp. 638 ff. (1910).

[385]Cp. Numbers xix. 11-13, 16 ff.

[386]The reference to fasting in xii. 8, does not belong to the true text.

[387]See above,pp. 92f.

[388]The idea that the book is historical and therefore belongs to the seventh centuryB.C.does not merit serious consideration.

[389]Op. cit., I, p. 185.

[390]Encycl. Brit.art., “Tobit.”

[391]See, further, Simpson,Op. cit., I, p. 185.

[392]Origen,Ep. ad Afric., xiii., says that the book was not written in Hebrew; Jerome,Praef. in Vers. libri Tob., says he translated it from the Chaldee (i.e. Aramaic), but this was itself a translation, for while the Greek puts the narrative from i. 3-iii. 6 in the first person and from here onwards continues in the third person, Jerome’s Aramaic (which is in all probability represented by the manuscript edited by Neubauer,The Book of Tobit, A Chaldee text... 1878) makes thewholenarrative run in the third person; but if the original form of the story was written in the third person throughout, it is unthinkable that in a later form the first person would have been substituted in i. 3-iii. 6 alone. On the other hand, it would be quite natural for the original writer to commence his story in the first person and later to fall into the third person, for this latter is the simpler and easier form of narration. The Hebrew Versions are of quite late date, and obviously translations; see Neubauer,Op. cit., and Gaster,Two Unknown Hebrew Versions of the Tobit Legend(1897).

[393]Torrey in theJewish Encycl., vii. 388b.

[394]Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden(2nd ed.), p. 132.

[395]Op cit., vii. 388a.

[396]These three cursives are all in the Vatican Library at Rome.

[397]Cp. Löhr,Op. cit., p. 147 (see the Literature above).

[398]So according to Scholz,Op. cit., pp. xxiv. f. (see the Literature above).

[399]See the Literature above.

[400]Op. cit., p. 131.

[401]The Religious Views of the Pharisees, p. 2; see also Herford,Pharisaism, its Aim and its Method, pp. 282-335.

[402]See above,p. 91.

[403]Owing to the revolt of Bar-Kokba.

[404]Chapter lv., where he speaks of “Judith the blessed.”

[405]Seepp. 218f. above.

[406]In theEncycl. Biblica, ii. 2645.

[407]Löhr,Op. cit., i. 148.

[408]Viz.Cod. Chisianus(87), a cursive of the ninth century.

[409]Swete,Intr. to the O.T. in Greek, p. 260 (1900).

[410]Swete,Op. cit., p. 260.

[411]Stromateisiv.

[412]Eclogæ Propheticæ, § I.

[413]Strom.i.

[414]Swete says: “The addition to Daniel iii. 23 is clearly Midrashic and probably had a Semitic original,”Op. cit., p. 261.

[415]Singer,Op. cit., pp. 55-57.

[416]Singer,Op. cit., pp. 270-273.

[417]In the present writer’sEcclesiasticus(Cambridge Bible) a translation of this Psalm is given together with the points of similarity between it and the “Shemoneh ‘Esreh,” pp. 349, 350.

[418]In the Mishna, Sanhedrin vi. 2, it is said: “If some cause for extenuation is brought forward on his (i.e. the condemned) behalf, he is liberated, otherwise he goes out (i.e. of the hall of judgement) to be stoned. Some (accredited) person calls out in front of him (i.e. as he is being led to the place of execution): ‘So and so, the son of so and so, is going forth to be stoned for having committed such and such a sin, and of which such and such are the witnesses; whosoever has anything to bring forward in his favour let him come forth and utter it on behalf of him’ (i.e. the condemned).”

[419]See the works mentioned under the Literature given above.

[420]The Jewish name was Salome.

[421]“Then shall ye do unto him as he thought to do unto his brother.”

[422]“The Greek word translated ‘dragon’ denotes originally a large serpent. Homer usesdrakōnandophisinterchangeably without the least apparent difference. Even thedrakōnof Greek mythology remains essentially a serpent”—Witton Davies in Charles, I, 653.

[423]Rouse,Greek Votive Offerings, pp. 193 ff.

[424]Both Berosus and Helladius speak of gods worshipped as serpents in Babylon (Witton Davies).

[425]It should be noted that in the canonical Esther the chapters run from i. to x. 3; in the Apocrypha the chapters are numbered as though they came consecutively after those of the canonical Esther, viz. x. 4 to xvi. 24; this unnecessary confusion is due to St. Jerome “who relegated the Greek interpolations to the end of the canonical book; but it has had the effect of making them unintelligible” (Swete,Op. cit., p. 257).

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