Baruch Iv

BARUCH.

IV. Ezra.

This Apocryph is variously named. Most Latin mss. designate it IV. Ezra; a more appropriate title would be the Ezra Apocalypse and it is usually referred to as such. It is of great importance on account of its very full treatment of the theological questions rife in the latter half of the 1st century of the Christian era. In its present form it was composed A.D. 8o-1o°. For fuller treatment see EZRA.

Apocalypse of Baruch—The Greek.—This book survives in two forms, in Slavonic and Greek. The Slavonic is only of sec ondary value, as it is merely an abbreviated form of the Greek. As the original work presupposes II. Enoch and the Syriac Apoc alypse of Baruch and was known to Origen, it was written be tween A.D. 8o and 200, and nearer the earlier date than the later, as it would otherwise be hard to understand how it came to cir culate among Christians. (See BARUCH.) Apocalypse of Abraham.—This book is found only in the Slavonic, a translation from the Greek. It is of Jewish origin, but in part worked over by a Christian reviser.

Lost Apocalypses: Prayer of Joseph.—An obviously anti Christian work. (See iii. 265-266.) Book of Eldad and Modad.—This book was written in the name of the two prophets mentioned in Num. xi. 26-29. It is of minor importance.

Apocalypse of Eli j ah.

This Apocalypse is of Jewish origin, and probably known to St. Paul. (See iii. 361-366.) Apocalypse of Zephaniah.—Possibly of Jewish origin, but its present form is Christian. (See Scharer, iii. 2. Enoch, or the Slavonic Enoch, or the Book of the Secrets of Enoch.—This new fragment of the Enochic literature was re cently brought to light through five mss. discovered in Russia and Servia. The book in its present form was written before A.D. 7o in Greek by an orthodox Hellenistic Jew, who lived in Egypt. For a fuller account see ENOCH.

Oracles of Hystaspes.

See under N. T. Apocalypses, below.

Testament of Job.

M. R. James, Apocrypha Anecdota, ii. pp. lxxii.–cii., 104-137, holds that the book in its present form was written by a Christian Jew in Egypt on the basis of a Hebrew Midrash on Job in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. (See Scharer, iii.

406-407. ) Testaments of the III. Patriarchs.—This work was written in Egypt, according to James, and survives also in Slavonic, Ru manian, Ethiopic and Arabic versions. It deals with Abraham's reluctance to die and the means by which his death was brought about. James holds that this book is referred to by Origen (Hom. in Luc. xxxv.), but this is denied by Scharer, who also questions its Jewish origin. With the exception of ch. x.–xi., it is really a legend and not an Apocalypse. The Testaments of Isaac and Jacob are still preserved in Arabic and Ethiopic (see James, op. cit. 140-161).

Sibylline Oracles.

Of the books which have come down to tis the main part is Jewish, and was written at various dates. iii. iv.–v. are decidedly of Jewish authorship, and probably xi.–xii., xiv. and parts of i.–ii. The oldest portions are in iii., and belong to the 2nd century B.C.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The more important of these works are published Bibliography.-The more important of these works are published in English in Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the O.T., vol. ii., ed. by R. C. Charles (19i3). Most of them are published separately in the S.P.C.K. Translations of Early Documents, ed. by Oesterley and Box.