BARUCH, Books of. In the Apocrypha, the book of Baruch may be said to be the only apocryphal book written in the style of the Hebrew prophets. While savoring strongly of an attempt at imitation, and possessing but lit tle originality, it nevertheless contains • some striking passages of considerable lorce. It dis p•mses advice and consolation to the distressed Israelites in a hopeful and encouraging tone, with a promise for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. An apocryphal letter of the prophet Jeremiah is usually given as chapter 6, addressed to the exiled Jews in Babylon. The book is un doubtedly by more than one author; the differ ent styles, of %%bid: there are four, and the names for God lead to that belief. The early part is supplicatory, and the later, hortatory. Among experts in liiale criticism much diver gence of opinion exists as to authorship and period, part apparently originating from He brew and part bearing the stamp of original Greek. Some commentators believe in a He brew original for both parts, and attribute the Grecisms to a skilful translator; others, again, hold the theory of an Aramaic original up to a certain part, or that the book was entirely composed in Greek. The traditional author ship by Baruch is rarely supported except among Roman Catholic writers. The statement in the Greek Apostolic Constitution, v. 20, that Baruch was read, with Lamentations, in the synagogues on the Day of Atonement, is said to be unsupported by evidence. Baruch
was generally regarded as a continuation or appendage to Jeremiah by a large part of the early Christian Church, and writers were natu rally attracted by ii,i 37, which they quoted as a -prophecy of the Messiah. The book was de clared canonical by the Council of Trent (1545-63), though not without much hesita tion and debate.
The Apocalypse of Baruch is a distinct extra-Biblical work, a 6th century document, written in Syriac, and was discovered abont 1866 in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan by Antonio Ceriani, the famous Italian orientalist. He published tmnslations of the document in Latin and Italian. It contains at the end a letter addressed to the nine and a half tribes of Israel carried into captivity across the phrates. Consult Ceriani, A., 'Le edizione e i delle versioni Siriache del Vecchio Testa mentO) (1869), and (Canonical Histories and Apocryphal Legends relating to the New Tes tament' (London 1873) • Charles"Apocrypha of Baruch) (1896) ; kneucker, 'Das Buck Baruch) (Leipzig 1879) • Scharer, (Geschichte des jfidischen Volks im Zeitalter Jesu Christi) (Leipzig 1886) ; (Dictionary of the Bible); 'Catholic Encyclopedia.)