Wisdom is not hypostatised in the book, any more than in Proverbs. It is merely personified. This appears from the following passages :--` Wis dom found no place where she should‘dwell ; then she had a dwelling in heaven. Wisdom came to dwell among the sons of men, and found no habi tation : then wisdom returned to her place, and took up her abode among the angels. And un righteousness came forth from her recesses ; whom she did not seek she found, and dwelt among them, as the rain in the wilderness, and as the dew on the thirsty land' (xlii. 2-3). ' The wisdom of the Lord of spirits has revealed him [the Son of Man] to the holy and righteous' (xlviii. 7). ' The righte ous one will arise from sleep, and wisdom shall arise to be given them' (xci. so).
In like manner, the word is not an appellation of Messiah. `The word calls me, and the spirit is poured out upon me [Enoch]' (xci. ' The Lord called me with his own mouth, and said to me, `come hither, Enoch, and to my holy word" (xiv. 24). The only passage in which the word appears to be used personally of Messiah is xc. 38, And the first among them [was the word, and the same word] became a great beast,' etc. But we agree with Dillmann in holding that the words in brackets are a Christian gloss. They give no suitable sense. Besides, the identification of the word with Messiah is foreign to the Christology of the book, and does violence to Jewish ideas of His person (Dillmann, Das Buck Henach, p. 287).
As in the canonical prophecies of the 0. T. so here, the final establishment of the Messianic kingdom is preceded by wars and desolations. In the eighth of the ten weeks into which the world's history is divided, the sword executes judg ment upon the wicked ; at the end of which God's people have built a new temple, in which they are gathered together. The tenth week closes with the eternal judgment upon angels (ch. xc. xci.) With respect to the doctrine of a general resur rection, it is certainly implied in the work. But the mode of the resurrection of the wicked and the righteous is differently presented. The spirits of the former are taken out of sheol and thrown into the place of torment (xcviii. 3 ; ciii. S ; cviii. 2-5) ; whereas the spirits of the righteous raised again will be reunited to their bodies, and share the blessedness of Messiah's kingdom on earth (lxi. 5 ; xci. 10; xcii. 3 ; c. 5). The reunion of their bodies with their spirits appears a thing reserved for the righteous.
In bringing out the sentiments expressed in the book care must be taken not to convert them into dogmas, or fixed ideas that formed part of the writer's settled creed. Their descriptions are poeti cal and ideal. Hence doctrines cannot well be deduced from them. As well might one attempt
to construct a theology out of the prophetic writ ings of the 0. T. As the authors of the work built largely on the prophets, assuming a like tone, and animated in part by the same spirit, they can not be truly regarded as other than Hebrew poets, and prophets of an inferior order to the old inspired ones of a better age.
Stuart has gone to the book with his system of theology, and derived from it a Christology essen tially Christian. Hence he supposes that the writer of several passages had some acquaintance with the Gospel and Revelation of John. Surely the reverse is the fact. The Apocalypse is a work that savours strongly of the Jewish apocalyptic literature, Daniel and Enoch. This is consistent with the fact adduced against it by Stuart, viz., that John bears on the face of all his writings the stamp of originality (Biblical Repository for 'an. 5840, p. I27)• As various sects in Judaism were tolerably developed at the time of some of the writers, it has been a subject of inquiry whether the peculiar doc trines of any appear in the work. According to Jellinek (Zeitschrift der deutsch.-morgenkina'. Gesellschaft, vii. p. 249) the work originated in the sphere of Essenism. We learn from Josephus that the Essenes preserved as sacred the names of the angels : and put up certain prayers before sunrise, as if they made supplication for that phenomenon (yewish Wars, book ii. ch. viii.) Now there is a very developed angel-doctrine in the work before us ; and we also find the following passage When I went out from below and saw the hea ven, and the sun rise in the east, and the moon go down in the west, a few stars, and everything as I Ie has known it from the beginning, I praised the Lord of judgment and magnified Him, because He has made the sun go forth from the windows of the east,' etc. etc. (lxxxiii. 1). This certainly reminds one of Essenism shewing its influence on the mind of the writer. It belongs to the third Enoch book. The IoSth chapter, which was later than the third Enoch book, is more plainly Essenic. The pious, whom God rewards with blessings, are described as having lived a life of purity, self-denial, and asceti cism like to that of the Essenes. Yet Dillmann appears disinclined to find any reflexion of Essenism in lxxxiii. I s, or elsewhere (Das Buck Henoch All gemeine Einleitung, p. liii.) We admit that the first and second Enoch books are free from it, as also the Noah book. It is obvious that none of the writers belonged to the school of the Pharisees. They were tolerably free from the sects of their people ; rising above the narrow confines of their distinctive peculiarities, which were not then fully developed.