BARUCH, APOCALYPSE OF. A work distinct from the apocryphal Book of Baruch, which was originally composed in Hebrew, but survives only in a Syrian version of the Sixth Century, made from the Greek translation of the original Hebrew. It was discovered by Ceriani in 1866, in a MS. of the Milan Library. Consisting of 7 sections, it contained 7 revelations made to Baruch, the last 5 after a fast of 7 clays in each case. The first revelation refers to the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which is pictured as an accomplished fact in the second. In the third, Jeremiah is commanded to go to Babylon, but Baruch is to remain behind. In the fourth Baruch is promised that he will live to bear testimony against the enemies of Israel. The fifth and sixth contain promises and assurances of a renewed period of glory for Israel. and in the last, the 11 periods of tribulation are predicted and described, which will come before the final rebuilding of Jerusalem can take plaee and the Messianic period he inaugurated. The
theory now current among scholars is that the Apocalypse is the work of several authors living before and after the fall of Jerusalem. All the elements of the book, however, are .Jewish, and illustrate the Messianic hopes and attachment to the Law which characterize the pious Jews in the century before and in the one after the ap pearance of Jesus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. For the Syriac text. see the Bibliography. For the Syriac text. see the edition of Ceriani 1S76-83) ; ib., photo lithographic facsimile (Milan, 1876-83) ; Charles, Apocalypse of Baruch (London, 189i) ; Drum mond, The Jewish. Messiah (London, 1877) ; De Faye, Les apocalypses juices (Paris, 1892).