Dr. Dicke observes that the drapery only of tl apocalyptic element of this work is Jewish, tl internal character being altogether Christian. B in.both form and substance there is an evident in tation, if not of the Apocalypse of St. John, least of the book of Daniel and of the Sibyllii oracles. The use of the canonical Apocalyp Liicke (/. c., sec. 16) considers to be undeniable viii. 45 (comp. Rev. xxii. 8, 9 ; Yli. 2I-23 ; Re xix. to).
Of the ancient Greek poems called the SIBYL LINE ORACLES (written in hexameter verse), there was formerly a considerable number in use, of which but few have descended to our times. Servius, in the 5th century, mentions a hundred books (sermones, Thot); and Suidas, who lived most probably in the nth, speaks of twenty four books of the Cbaldxan sibyls alone. But eight only were known to the moderns, until the recent discoveries of Angelo Alai, who has re covered and published an eleventh, twelfth, thir teenth, and fourteenth book from palimpsests in the Ambrosian and Vatican libraries (Script. Vet. Nov. Collect., vol. iii. p. 3). The first eight boOks have been shown to be the compositions of various writers from the commencement of the zd cen tury B.C. YO A.D. 500. Of these, the earliest in point of date is supposed to be the third book, contain ing a series of connected predictions written by an Alexandrian Jew in the time of the Maccabees, but containing heathen poems of a still earlier period. The subject is continued by anothez Alexandrian Jew, who lived about forty years before the Christian era. Notwithstanding the later Christian interpolations by which this docu ment has been disfigured, it forms a valuable col lection of Sibylline oracles respecting the Messiah, anterior to the Christian era. It concludes with another addition, written partly in the 3d century and partly at a still later period. But before this period, the fourth and fifth books come in, the former of which was written by a Christian about A.D. SO ; the latter consists of several predictions from various authors, principally Egyptians, one of whom was an Alexandrian Jew, who wrote in the middle of the 2d century ; another portion is by a Jew in Asia Minor, about A.D. 20 ; and cer tain parts by another Jewish author, about A.D. 7o. But the whole book in its present form pro ceeds most probably from the Jewish Christians residing at Memphis in the commencement of Adrian's reign, who collected the greater portion of the oracles of the first part, and united them to the third and fourth books. At least the whole
three books were formed into one collection in the middle of the zd century, and ascribed to one and the same sibyl. But at the close of the next centuty these books were completely separated, and were, together with the subsequent books then written (sixth, seventh, and eighth), each attributed to a distinct prophetess. Of these, the earliest in point of date is the eighth book, part of which was composed about A.D. I70-ISO, and the entire finished at the end of the 3d century, when it was united with the others, as we learn from Lac tantius. The seventh book, separate from its later interpolations, was composed by a Judaizing Chris tian in the 3d century. The sixth book appears to have been written at the close of this century by a Christian, for he speaks of Christ as the second Adatn. That part called the Acrostics was con structed in the 4th century from earlier Sibyl line verses. Some portions of the eighth book were probably written at this period, and introduced at a still later among the Sibylline oracles. The latest of all are the first and second books, written by one and the same author, who lived in the West in the middle of the 5th century.
Of this motley group the chief portions only are of an apocalyptic cbaracter, others being purely epic, or in the form of hymns. The sibyl, as the oracle of God, predicts the destruction of paganism in its wars on both Judaism and Christianity. To this is annexed the apocalyptic consolation and encouragement to the sufferer and oppressed among God's people. The poetic interest, which is a characteristic of apocalyptic composition, both Jewish and Christian, is not lost sight of.
There have been three distinct periods traced in respect to the Sibylline Revelations. The first is the Jewish, commencing at the AlaccaboTan period. Tbis, observes Liicke, belongs to the cycle of Daniel's Apocalypse.' The second period is the Jewish Christian, having a special relation to the antichristian character of the persecuting Nero, with an admixture of Chiliastic elements. The third period is free from Chiliasm, and belongs to the Christian chamcter of the 3d century, embracing a species of universal history in the Sibylline form, concluding with the end of all things at the final judgment.