glimpses of the Apocalyptic views and hopes - the highest spiritual tendency - of that

deeply interesting movement. Most markedly, this Book at least is strongly anti-

Pharisaic, especially in its opposition to their purifications (ch. vii.). We would here

specially note a remarkable resemblance between 2 Tim. iii. 1-5 and this in Assump.

Mos. vii. 3-10: (3) 'Et regnabunt de his homines pestilentiosi et impii, dicentes se esse

iustos, (4) et hi suscitabunt iram animorum suorum, qui erunt homines dolosi, sibi

placentes, ficti in omnibus suiset onmi hora diei amantes convivia, devoratores gulæ (5)

... (6) [paupe] rum bonorum comestores, dicentes se haec facere propter misericordiam

eorum, (7) sed et exterminatores, queruli et fallaces, celantes se ne possint cognosci,

impii in scelere, pleni et inquitate ab oriente usque ad occidentem, (8) dicentes:

habebimus discubitiones et luxurian edentes et bibentes, et potabimus nos, tamquam

principes erimus. (9) Et manus eorum et dentes inmunda tractabunt, et os eorum loquetur

ingentia, et superdicent: (10) noli [tu me] tangere, ne inquines me ...' But it is very

significant, that instead of the denunciation of the Pharisees in vv. 9,10 of the Assumptio,

we have in 2 Tim. iii. 5. the words 'having the form of godliness, but denying the power

VIII. The Apocalypse of Baruch. - This also exists only in Syriac translation, and is

apparently fragmentary, since the vision promised in ch lxxvi. 3 is not reported, while the

Epistle of Baruch to the two and a half tribes in Babylon, referred to in lxxvii. 19, is also

missing. The book had been divided into seven sections (i.-xii.; xiii.-xx.; xxi.-xxxxiv.;

xxxv.-xlvi.; xlvii.- lii.; liii.- lxxvi.; lxxvii.- lxxxvii.). The whole is in a form of revelation to

Baruch, and of his replies, and questions, or of notices about his bearing, fast, prayers,

&c. The most interesting parts are in sections v. and vi. In the former we mark (ch. xlviii.

31-41) the reference to the consequence of the sin of our first parents (ver. 42; comp. also

xvii. 3; xxiii. 4; liv. 15, 19), and in ch. xlix. the discussion and information; with what

body and in what form the dead shall rise, which is answered, not as by St. Paul in 1 Cor.

xv. - though the quest ion raised (1 Cor. xv. 35) is precisely the same - but in the strictly

Rabbinic manner, described by us in Vol. ii. pp. 398, 399. In section vi. we specially

mark (ch. lxix.- lxxiv.) the Apocalyptic descriptions of the Last Days, and of the Reign

and Judgme nt of Messiah. In general, the figurative language in that Book is instructive

in regard to the phraseology used in the Apocalyptic portions of the New Testament.

Lastly, we mark that the views on the consequences of the Fall are much more limited

than those expressed in 4 Esdras. Indeed, they do not go beyond physical death as the

consequence of the sin of our first parents (see especially liv. 19: Non est ergo Adam

causa, nisi animæ suæ tantum; nos vero unusquisque fuit animæ suæ Adam). At the same

time, it seems to use, as if perhaps the reasoning rather than the language of the writer

indicated hesitation on his part (liv. 14-19; comp. also first clause of xlviii. 43). It almost

seems as if liv. 14-19 were intended as against the reasoning of St. Paul, Rom. v. 12 to

the end. In this respect the passage in Baruch is most interesting, not only in itself (see for

ex. ver. 16: Certo enim qui credit recipiet mercedem), but in reference to the teaching of

4 Esdras which, as regards original sin, takes another d irection than Baruch. But I have

little doubt that both allude to the - to them - novel teaching of St. Paul on that doctrine.

Lastly, as regards the question when this remarkable work was written, we would place

its composition after the destruction of Jerusalem. Most writers date it before the