It is impossible to deny the resemblance between the Apocalypse of John and the Sibylline poems of the second period. Besides the Chiliastic ele ments, and the reference to the return of Nero, it is common to both that the destruction of Rome forms the grand crisis of their predictions, and that letters and cyphers are symbolically employed. But, on the other band, what a difference ! The Sibylline oracles are characterised by a dry, mono tonous series of mere predictions, threatenings, and promises ; while the Apocalypse of John presents us with an all but dramatic development of the kingdom of God iu a living picture. The most im portant portion for comparison with the Apocalypse is the contemporary first oracle of the fourth book. The later pieces of this kind may have stood in conscious relation with the Apocalypse, but this is incapable of proof' (Liicke, ut supra).
The books discovered by Angelo Alai are much of the same character with the former, but have less of the religious element. The eleventh book contains a statement of Jewish, Greek, Macedo nian, and Egyptian history, from the Deluge to Julius Cresar. There are some single passages which resemble the third book, but the author was a different person, and was probably a jew, who lived a short titne before the Christian em.
The twill's book resembles the fifth in its com mencement, and contains the same series of Roman emperors from Augustus, under whose reign the appearance of Christ is prominently brought for ward. This series, which in the third book ended with Hadrian, here proceeds as far as Alexander Severus, passing over Sulpicius Severus. Its Christian origin is beyond question, and it may have been written after the death of Severus, A.D. 222.
The thirteenM book narrates, in the Sibylline form, the wars of the Romans in the East to the middle of the 3d century, probably commencing where the former had ended. It is observable that the author alludes to the mathematical fame of Bostra.
The most prominent feature of the fourteenth book is the destruction and rebuilding of the city of Rome, which is provisioned for a whole year in expectation of a long period of adversity ; the last prince of the Latin mce appears and departs, after whom comes a royal race of long duration. The whole narration points to the period of the migration and downfall of the Western Empire. The author doubtless was a Christian of the 5th century.
The book called the TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS iS an ancient apocryphal work (founded most probably on Gen. xlix. z, seg.), in which the twelve sons of Jacob are repre sented as delivering their dying predictions and precepts to their posterity. If we are to credit the authority of a manuscript in the Bodleian libmry, this work was originally written in Hebrew, and translated into Greek by St. Chrysostom. But Dr. Grabe, who first adduced this testimony, con siders it very doubtful. The author of the Latin version (from the Greek) was Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln in the r3th century, with the assistance of a Greek named Nicholas, abbot ot St. Albans. The bishop's attention was first directed to it by Archdeacon John de Basingstoke, who had seen the work during his studies at Athens. This version, which was first printed from very incorrect copies in z 483, and afterwards in 1532 and 1549, was reprinted in the Orthodoxo grapha of Grynreus, and in the Bibliotheea Patrum. A few specimens of the original were printed at various times by Cotelerius (Not. in Script. Apostol.), Gale (d4nnot. in .77mblieh.), and Wharton (Aue tarium) ; but it was reserved for the learned Dr. Grabe to give the entire work in the original Greek, in 1699, from a Cambridge manuscript on vellum (the identical AIS. used by Robert of Lin coln for his translation), a copy of which vvas made for him by the learned Dr. John Mill, who collated it with a manuscript on paper in the Bodleian, written A.D. 1268, and annexed to it various readings from other manuscripts. Dr. Grabe was the person who first divided the work into chapters or paragmphs, with numbers pre fixed. He added some valuable notes, which, with the originals, were republished by Fabricius in his Coa'. Pseua'ep. V T.
This work contains many beautiful passages, and, while its form is that of a pretended pro phecy, bears indirect testimony to the facts and books of the N, T. ; the nativity, crucifixion, resur. rection, ascension, and unblemished character of Jesus—ascribing to him such titles as evidently show that his divinity was fully recog,nised. The author testifies also to the canonical authority of the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul's Epistles, and seems especially to allude to the four Gospels. The age of this apocryphal work is, therefore, of considerable importance in sacred criticism.