Page 3 (part 9)

The Apocalyptist prophesies further of the repentance of the Gentiles (chapter l.), an universalistic note of significance, and speaks of the Resurrection of the dead in a notable passage: And In those days shall the earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it, And Sheol also shall give back that which it has received, And Hell shall give back that which it owes. [paragraph continues] The parable ends with an account of the judgement, followed by two short passages on the last struggle of the heathen powers against Israel (lvi. 5-8), and the return from the Dispersion (lvii.), which do not appear to be in their original place. The third parable (lviii.-lxxi.) has clearly suffered largely from the intrusion of alien matter, and is probably incomplete. Its main theme is the final judgement upon all flesh, and especially upon the great ones of -the earth; the judge is the Son of Man. Some of p. xxiii the passages which speak of the future reward of the righteous are full of beauty; the following is well worth quoting: And the righteous and elect shall have risen from the earth, And ceased to be of downcast countenance. And they shall have been clothed with garments of glory. And they shall be garments of life from the Lord of Spirits: And your garments shall not grow old. Nor your glory pass away before the Lord of Spirits. A large Noah fragment comes in the middle of the Parable (see p. xxvi below). The close of this Parable is contained in lxix. 26-29; the account of Enoch's final translation (lxx.), and two of Enoch's visions (lxxi.) are out of place. iii. The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries (chapters lxxii.-lxxxii.). In lxxiv. 12 it says: "And the sun and the stars bring in all the years exactly, so that they do not advance or delay their position by a single day unto eternity; but complete the years with perfect justice in 364 days." 1 This gives the key-note of this book, viz. that time is to be reckoned by the sun, not by the moon (see further on this the section on Authorship, above). Until we come to chapter lxxx. this book is uninteresting in the extreme; it purports to tell in detail of the laws by which the sun, moon, stars and the winds are governed; they are described by Uriel, "the holy angel," to the Apocalyptist. The four quarters of the world, the seven mountains and the seven rivers are also dealt with. "The author has no other interest save a scientific one coloured by Jewish conceptions and beliefs." 2 It is, however, different when we come to chapter lxxx. 2-8; the whole tone alters in these verses, in which it is said that owing to the sin of men the moon and the sun will mislead them. An ethical thought is thus brought in p. xxiv which is wholly lacking in the previous chapters of this book; this is also true of chapter lxxxi.; it is probable that neither of these chapters stood here originally. Regarding the point of the 364 days to the year which the writer of this book makes, Charles says that "he did this only through sheer incapacity for appreciating an thing better; for he must have been acquainted with the solar year of 365¼ days. His acquaintance with the Greek cycles shows this. . . .