Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

Author(s): Henry Todd

Source: The Irish Church Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 25 (Jan., 1914), pp. 57-73
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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 57

APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.*

UNDER the above title a series of important books

placed in the hands of English readers. In the fi
volume there are twelve of the apocryphal writi
enumerated in the Anglican Sixth Article, with
addition of 3 Maccabees and the replacement of the B
of Baruch by the Book of Baruch and the Epistle
Jeremy. The second volume contains, besides th
works with which Dr. Charles's name will always
honourably associated, The Letter of Aristeas, Th
Books of Adam and Eve, The Sibylline Oracles,
Baruch, 4 Ezra, The Psalms of Solomon, 4 Maccabee
Pirke A both, and The Story of Ahikar. Altoget
the Biblical student is offered no less than thirty-t
commentaries on writings that are of the highest v
for many of his investigations. To attempt to descr
such an amount of literature within the limits of an
article would be as feasible as trying to sail over the
Pacific Ocean in a day. Accordingly I shall content
myself with a short account of the workmanship, fol-
lowed by a discussion of some of the important questions
raised by Dr. Charles.
In almost every case each contributor had to furnish
an introduction, a translation, and a commentary. Dr.
Charles was therefore obliged to deal with a matter of
great importance on which scholars are hopelessly
divided. What subjects should be discussed in an Intro-
duction ? Dr. Charles answers this question in the

*The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in

English. With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes
to the several Books. Edited in conjunction with many scholars
by R. H. Charles, D.Litt., D.D., Fellow of Merton College,
Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy. Clarendon Press.
.'3 3s. od. net.

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58 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

Preface. Introduction deals with ten topics:-i. Short

account of the book, embodying its leading features and
the editor's chief conclusions. 2. Title of the book. 3-
The MSS. 4. Ancient Versions. 5. Date (a) of the
original text; (b) of the Ancient Versions. 6. Integrity.
7. Authorship. 8. Influence of the book on later litera-
ture (a) Jewish; (b) Christian. 9. Theology of the book.
io. Bibliography : (a) chief editions of the text (and of the
Ancient Versions); (b) chief critical inquiries; (c) chief
editions of the book. There is hardly an Introduction
in the two volumes in which this scheme is carried out.
For example, that to I Esdras is given under eight
headings, one of which is Value; that to the First Book
of Maccabees is given under nine, one of which is
Contents, and so on. Dr. Charles himself does not
follow his own plan. There are no less than sixteen
sections in the Introduction to the Book of Jubilees. No
doubt, this variety is, to some extent, unavoidable,
because no two books can be treated exactly alike.
Questions arise concerning one which do not arise
regarding another. Admitting this, however, it is
desirable that scholars should, as far as possible, proceed
on some uniform method in order to avoid the making
of impossible demands on the memory. It does not
require Isaac Casaubon's authority to assure us that
there is no use in reading a thing unless it be retained
in the memory. As long as every introductor does that
which is right in his own eyes, so long the student is
impeded, instead of being assisted, in his effort to retain
what he has carefully read.
The present writer was compelled, in order to profit
by the knowledge of others, to devise a scheme of his
own. Taking into account the fact that a book may be
viewed, firstly, as if it were the only book in the world,
and secondly, as having important relations with books
written before it, subsequent to it, and contemporaneous
with it, the following enumeration was found helpful:-
1. Contents. 2. Affinities. 3. Peculiarities. 4. Char-

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 59

acteristics. 5. Integrity. 6. Object. 7. Sources. 8.

Text. 9. Authorship. io. Date. ii. Place of com-
position. 12. Destination. Affinities, Peculiarities,
and Characteristics may be lexical, phraseological,
stylistic, historical, ethical, or doctrinal. No place is
given to either Title or Bibliography. A few lines will,
as a rule, be sufficient for the former, and its proper
place is before the first of the notes that constitute the
commentary. Bibliography serves two useful purposes:
it preserves the names of the scholars who have worked
at the book, and also guides the student to valuable
sources of information concerning it; but it is not,
strictly. speaking, a part of Introduction.
Testing the various Introductions in my own way, I
found them all most instructive and most readable. Mr.
Townshend's remarks on the author of the Fourth Book
of Maccabees as an autocrat of language may serve as a
sample.

"We may note the author's love of double-barrelled preposi-

tional compounds, as where he speaks of parents as ivairoc4payt-
$ovrse, stamping their seal on the child; and of prepositions used
intensively in composition, as in JirpponyoXoyovdtvos, another of
his coinages, to express the skinflint's extra-gleaning of his
grapes. Indeed his love of the6 ornate is such that he will invent
a three-barrelled prepositional compound, if the fancy strikes
him; as when, in the case of the torture of the first of the seven
brethren, in order to describe the horrid ingenuity of the tor-
turers, he says, r7v 'rpoXgv yrpowrn-nucar.rjvov, 'they overstrained
against him the wheel,' or as the Syriac Version has it, 'they
made the wheel more cruel by artifice against him.' "

With reference to the translations, it is difficult to

estimate the amount of work that the general editor and
his fellow-helpers have accomplished. Not only was
the acquisition of several languages a necessity, but
also a laborious comparison of manuscripts and ver-
sions had to be made in the hope of obtaining the
original text. Such toil ought to be fully appreciated
by those who enjoy its results. New translations of

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60 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

many of the Apocrypha are given, and a quotation fr

Sirach xxxiv. 16-17, may serve as an illustration:-
4 The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear Him,
A mighty shield and strong stay,
A cover from scorching Sirocco, a shadow from noontide he
A guard from stumbling, and a succour from falling,
Heart-gladdener and eye-brightener,
Healing, life, and blessing.'"
The notes on each book are excellent and rarely fa
to remove the obscurities, explain the historical allu
sions, and define the puzzling words which occur in
Biblical affinities are, as a rule, indicated. Those wh
are hard to please can occasionally find fault. The f
lowing examples will show their general character.
Assumption of Moses, ix. i. "Then in that da
there shall be a man of the tribe of Levi, whose nam
shall be Taxo." The note declares that Dr. Burkitt's
interpretation of Taxo is correct. By applying Gematria
to the Hebrew transliteration of the Greek equivalent of
the true form of Taxo, Dr. Burkitt found Eleazar. If
this interpretation be correct, then it is just possible that
St. Paul, who was affected by the mental atmosphere of
his time, employed proper names in such a way that
their true significance can only be ascertained by an
exercise of great ingenuity. Euodia and Syntyche may,
as some Germans affirm,' be derived from an exclamation
of Leah's and the name of one of her sons.
The note on Book of Jubilees, iv. 7, 8, is: " Usually
the mother names the child in Genesis, the father in
Jubilees, as the Samaritan text in Gen. iv. 25. Excepl
tions are Gen. iv. 26; v. 29; xxv. 25, 26; Ex. ii. 22."
The careful reader will wonder why it is necessary to call
attention to the difference between a name maternally or
paternally bestowed, and may, in this way, be started
on a line of investigation entirely new to him. He may
find that there is something in the marginal note in the
R. V. on 2 Sam. xii. 24.
1 See Zahn, Einleitung in d. NT., ed. 2, i. 397.

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 61

Suggestiveness characterizes many of the notes an

makes them very valuable. Considerations of spac
doubtless, account for the brevity of many of them, bu
occasionally we meet with a very long one. The Fourt
Book of Maccabees opens, with the words :-" Philoso
phical in the highest degree is th6 question I propose
discuss, namely, whether the Inspired Reason is
supreme ruler over the passions." The note on
" Inspired Reason" is almost an essay, and is de-
lightful.
"Philosophy is the power-house of the soul. It covers the
motive-power by which our higher nature rules or tries to rule
our worse self. Man's first want is meat and drink, and how to
supply the want his first problem. The physical side of the
problem solves itself; he either finds food or he starves. But
there is also a spiritual side to the problem, and to it Philosophy
contains the answer-or answers."
Further on reference is made to a little dialogue of
Cleanthes, the mention of whose name suggests the
following :-
" It has, happened to some young men entering the study of
philosophy to feel a sudden qualm lest they were being made
fools of by a set of bookworms calling themselves philosophers,
weaklings, constitutionally unable to enter into the feelings of a.
healthy natural man. Such may take comfort in the recollection
that the writer of this little dialogue, Cleanthes, who, after Zeno,
was the great prophet of the Stoics, in his unconverted days had
been a pugilist, and that no man ever stood up in the ring but:
had a working knowledge of our animal nature and the need of
keeping one's head in spite of its promptings."
These may serve as samples of the excellence which
prevails throughout the notes in both volumes. There
are a few, however, to which objection may be made,
and these must be exemplified. The note on The Books
of Adam and Eve, xxix. 7 declares that in this verse
there are marks which show that it is of Christian origin;
but an addition is made in brackets which appears to
contradict this. Perplexity is the result.
Commentators never fully realize how careful they
ought to be. The present writer heard an address on a

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62 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

passage in the Book of Jeremiah, in the course of which

the speaker said : " The word in the original is animus."
Suppose this gentleman to read the note on the Letter
of Aristeas, 145, which mentions that the word
rradKx, is translated " bald locust " by both R. V. and
A. V., he would air his knowledge of the original of
Lev. xi. 22, by quoting a Greek word.
Dr. Moffatt remarks on the expression " the King's
Friends " that it was revived in the eighteenth century
by the political mercenaries who intrigued for George
III. Did these political mercenaries read 2 Maccabees ?
Did they even read I Kings iv. 5 ?
Sometimes a note is inexcusably tOo short. At Sirach
i. 28, reference is made to the cvhp 8&ivXos of St. James
as a parallel to the man with a double heart. This is
most fitting, but why is no mention made of the occur-
rence of the expression " day of eternity " in 2 Pet.
iii. 18, in the note on Sirach i. 2 ?
However, the highest praise is due to the scholars
who have laboured so strenuously to enable us to under-
stand the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old
Testament. All who give learning a high place in their
list of " good things temporal " will welcome with
delight the two magnificent volumes to which the pre-
ceding remarks relate. They are a splendid exhibition
of wide scholarship and untiring industry. The print-
ing and binding are excellent, and the price-three
guineas net-is not excessive. In the last number of
the Hibbert Journal Dr. Moffatt expressed the hope that
Dr. Charles would do for the New Testament what he
has now done for the Old. This wish will be heartily
echoed by all Biblical students.
The labours and views of Dr. Charles demand special
attention. The books which this distinguished scholar
has edited are as follows :--The Apocalypse of Baruch,
The Assumption of Moses, The Martyrdom of Isaiah,
The Book of Jubilees, The Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, The Book of Enoch, The Book of the Secrets

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 63

of Enoch, and Fragments of a Zadokite Work. T

extensive learning and marvellous industry of D
Charles arouse the highest admiration. The prese
writer is unable to express how much he owes to hi
for the delight and instruction given him by h
writings.
It is easy to show that the literature to which D
Charles has devoted himself throws great light on ma
portions of the Gospels, the Epistles, and the
Apocalypse. At the time our Lord began His public
ministry divergent views existed as to the origin of the
Messiah, the scene of His kingdom, the nature of His
sovereignty, and the time of His investment with it.
Was the Messiah to be human or superhuman? Was
His kingdom to be Palestine, or a new heaven and a
new earth? Was His sovereignty to be mainly material
or purely spiritual ? Was He to be invested with it on
His appearance or after a departure and a return ? The
Gospels and some of the Pseudepigrapha conjointly
furnish the various answers given to the foregoing
questions. For example, in John i. an account is given
of a deputation to the Baptist. Those sent inquire why
John is baptizing if, amongst other alternatives, he is
not the Messiah. If the members of the deputation, or
those by whom they were sent, knew that John was the
son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, evidently membership
of the tribe of Levi was consistent with Messiahship. In
the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs the Messiah is
to come from Levi. This has been described as a
phenomenon strange and unique. At any rate it throws
light on John i. Similarly, the other branches of
Messianic doctrine may be illustrated.
The Pseudepigrapha illuminate, amongst other
things, the following in the Pauline Epistles :-Beliar,
the man of lawlessness, the resurrection of the body,
angelic orders, and the trump of judgement. For the
General Epistles one instance may be given out of many.
In 2 Pet. iii. 8, we are told that with God a thousand

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 64 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

years are as one day. This principle is applied in

Jubilees iv. 30 to explain the fulfilment of the penalty
pronounced on the eater of the forbidden fruit. At his
death Adam
"lacked seventy years of one thousand years; for one thousand
years are as one day in the testimony of the heavens, and there-
fore was it written concerning the tree of knowledge: 'On the day
that ye eat thereof ye shall die.' For this reason he did not
complete the years of this day; for he died during it."
It is unnecessary to exemplify in the case of the
Apocalypse. Beyond all doubt the Pseudepigrapha are
of great value to the student of the New Testament.
A far greater claim than this, however, is made, and
it must be carefully examined. Dr. Charles is of
opinion that the writers of the New Testament were well
acquainted with the Book of Enoch and the Testaments
of the Twelve Patriarchs, and frequently made use of
them. This is a matter of the highest importance and
should not be accepted unless the evidence demands it.
The present writer has no hesitation in declaring that
Dr. Charles sees affinities where there are none, and
places too much value on those that may actually exist.
The second portion of the tenth section of the Introduc-
tion to the Book of Enoch opens with the words :-" I
Enoch has had more influence on the New Testament
than has any other apocryphal or pseudepigraphic work.
A few examples will clearly illustrate this." An exam-
ination of Dr. Charles's examples will show that many
of them may be rejected. On the Enoch side we find
the expression " generation of light," and, correspond-
ing to it on the New Testament side we have " children
of light " from Ephesians with a reference to I Thess.
v. 5, and also " sons of light " from St. John's Gospel
with a reference to Luke xvi. 8. Are we to believe
that, either directly or indirectly, St. Paul's employment
of the expression " children of light " is due to the
expression " generation of light " in Enoch ? Are we
to regard our Lord's use of the term " sons of light "
as a sign of the " influence " of the Book of Enoch on

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 65

His phraseology ? " Son of " is one of the very

monest of Hebrew idioms. Our Lord spoke of " the
of peace," "sons of the kingdom," "son of Gehen
"son of perdition ": why not of " sons of light "?
amazing to find four passages of Scripture brought
ward as an indication of the " influence " of the p
" generation of light."
Similarly we find " Lord of Lords ..... King
kings " on the Enoch side and I Tim. vi. 15 and
xvii. 14 on the New Testament side. It is just as
reasonable to derive the phrase in Revelation from the
phrase in I Tim., or vice versa, as to put both forward
as instances of the " influence " of Enoch on the New
Testament.
Again, on the Enoch side we find " Lord of spirits,"
and corresponding to it " Father of spirits " on the New
Testament side. Is there, necessarily, any sign of
" influence " here? One might as well affirm that
" Father of lights" and "Father of spirits" are so
related that one of these was suggested by the other.
In i Cor. ii. 8 we meet with the phrase " Lord of
glory," and in Eph. i. I7, " Father of glory." Was
St. Paul's employment of the latter occasioned by his
use of the former ? These expressions are related to one
another in the very same way as " Lord of spirits " and
" Father of spirits." Another example is, " dwelling
places of the holy " in Enoch and " mansions " in St.
John's Gospel, on which no remark is necessary. The
instances adduced are typical of many others, and they
may all be calmly laid aside on the ground of irrelev-
ancy. An examination of those left will result in a
further reduction. On the Enoch side we have " tree of
life " and the same phrase on the New Testament side.
This illustrates what may be said of many of Dr.
Charles's examples: they have their common origin in
the Old Testament. Let us turn back to one of the cases
already mentioned. In Enoch we meet with " Lord of
lords, God of gods, King of kings "-; in i Tim. vi. 15,
E

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 66 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

with " King of kings, and Lord of lords "; in R

xvii. 14, with " Lord of lords, and King of kin
Most likely all these come from Deut. x. 17.
Those that remain, when the list is reduced by exclu
ing the irrelevant and those that may be traced to
Old Testament, are few in number and do not con-
clusively show indebtedness on either side. The follow-
ing is as favourable an instance as any of possible
influence: Enoch xxxviii. 2-" It had been good for
them if they had not been born "; Matt. xxvi. 24-
" it had been good for that man if he had not been
born." Some persons may be inclined to see indebted-
ness on one side or the other, but surely the sentiment
of these words must have arisen in the minds of many
when some terrible disaster or horrible fate fell on any
one they knew.
With reference to the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, Dr. Charles declares that there are traces of
this work in many passages of the Gospels; " and that
St. Paul seems to have used the book as a vade mecum."
Now as regards the Testaments, interpolation by
Christians is admitted on all sides, and therefore uncer-
tainty must always arise when a parallel between this
book and the New Testament is pointed out. In many
cases where Dr. Charles would say a New Testament
writer is indebted to the Testaments, Dr. Plummer
would say that the latter had been interpolated by a
Christian. In other instances the Old Testament might
be alleged as a common source. For example, Dr.
Charles finds the source of "For I know nothing
against myself " (I Cor. iv. 4) in Test. Iss. vii. I, " and
am not conscious bf committing any sin." In Bishop
Gibson's commentary on the Book of Job the note on
xxvii. 6 reads:-" The LXX in this clause is note-
worthy . . . as containing the remarkable phrase used
by St. Paul in I Cor. iv. 4-"
Even when Dr. Charles seems most certain, eminent
scholars have failed to agree with him. Test. Levi vi.

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 67

Si, reads: " But the wrath of the Lord came upo
them to the uttermost"; I Thess. ii. 16, "but the
wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." According
to Dr. Charles, St. Paul has actually quoted the Testa-
ments in this passage. Textual criticism, however, has
a great deal to say on this parallel, and, further, it may
be an interpolation either in the Testaments or even in
St. Paul's Epistle. At any rate, so distinguished a
scholar as Dr. Burkitt finds himself unable to accept
Dr. Charles's views."
Phraseological affinities must be used very cautiously.
There may be modes of forming expressions in one age
that are unfamiliar to another. In the New Testament
we meet with "crown of life," " crown of glory," and
so on, and these may indicate that familiarity with the
race-course suggested the description of any reward by
a genitival phrase beginning with " crown." A reci-
pient of extreme praise might be said to have obtained
a " crown of praise." The expression " crown of right-
eousness " occurs in Aristeas, 2 Tim., and the Testa-
ments, but there may be no indebtedness anywhere. In
fact, the phrase may have been in existence for ages
before the earliest of these writings appeared. It must
be kept in mind that one person alone, having read a
book, might give wide currency to some of its expres-
sions and ideas, which might be used by authors entirely
unacquainted with their original source.
Dr. Charles is not the only person who attaches great
importance to phraseological resemblances. In the
third section of the Introduction to the Story of Ahikar
we read:-

"Ahikar iv. 14, has the account of Nadan's revelry, after he

got rid of his uncle, and of beating the men-servants and the
woman-servants, etc. We have to compare carefully Matt. xxiv.
48-51 and Luke xii. 43-46, and it will be seen that the language of
Ahikar has coloured one of our Lordts parables,"

'Journal of Theological Studies, 9go8, p. 138.

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68 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

Here is the passage from Ahikar :-

"And when Nadan my son came, ino funeral feast did he mak
for me, nor any remembrance at all; but gathered him the va
and lewd folk, and set them down at my table, with singing a
with great joy; and my beloved servants and handmaidens he
stripped and flogged without mercy."

Is there any use in suggesting our Lord's indebtedness

to this, or to any passage, for the idea of a person
beating servants ? " No striker " is one of the qualifica-
tions of a bishop. A couple of questions may be asked.
Did the author of The Burial of Sir John Moore take
the expression " dimly burning " from a marginal note
in A. V. on Is. xlii. 3. ? Was Browning's "think
thy thoughts" suggested by a marginal note in
A. V. on Dan. xi. 34? In the tenth section of the
Introduction to the Wisdom of Solomon mention is
made of the person that coined the term " parallelo-
mania." Thanks are due to this scholar for teaching
us this word. With profound respect, I suggest that
Dr. Charles and Dr. Harris are suffering from this
malady.
The critical student must pursue all his investigations
regardless of consequences, and if one of these is the
removal of a large portion of the originality of the New
Testament writers it must be accepted. But there is also
the obligation of insisting on rigidity of demonstration;.
and in the case under examination this has not been
complied with. The New Testament writers knew and
quoted the Old Testament, and if they knew the
Pseudepigrapha they have not displayed their know-
ledge of them in the same way in which they have shown
their knowledge of the Canonical writings. The Book
of Isaiah may have been St. Paul's vade mecum, but
surely not the Testaments.
The next point for discussion is the development of
ethical ideas. Test. Reub. iv. 3 reads: " Even until
now my conscience causeth me anguish on account of
my impiety." Dr. Charles states: "This is the first

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 69

occurrence in Jewish literature of the conscience

fully-developed conception." This assertion is st
in too absolute a form. A good case can be mad
favour of the view that the Hebrews used the word
" heart " in a sense equivalent to conscience in its
developed state. In Luther's translation of the Bible
the word " Gewissen " occurs in Josh. xiv. 7 and Job
xxvii. 6. Let " conscience " be accepted as a rendering
in the former and we have Caleb stating, " I brought
him word again according to my conscience." There
seems very little difference between this and the passage
in the Testaments. Also good sense results from mak-
ing a similar substitution in Job xxvii. 6: " My con-
science will not reproach me so long as I live."
" Heart " was a very significant term with the Hebrews,
and may have included a great deal of the connotation of
the term "conscience." Dr. Cheyne's note on Ps.
xxiv. 4 is, " God can see the stains on the hands and
heart (conscience) of a criminal."' All that can safely
be said is that probably the passage in the Testaments
is an advance on anything that may be implied by the
term " heart " in certain passages of the Old Testament.
In the same absolute manner Dr. Charles assigns
dates to various writings. It is very important to know
when the second section of the Book of Enoch was
written, but the available evidence is unsatisfactory.
The fourth and fifth verses of the thirty-eighth chapter
are :-

"From that time those that possess the earth

be powerful and exalted,
And they shall not be able to behold the face
For the Lord of Spirits has caused His light t
On the face of the holy, righteous and elect.
Then shall the kings and the mighty perish
And be given into the hands of the righteous

3 T. K. Cheyne, The Book of Psalms translate

text, with Notes and Introduction, i. Io3.

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70 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

According to Dr. Charles, the later Maccabean princes

are "the kings and the mighty " alluded to. The
expression is extremely vague and might have many
other references as well. To maintain this interpreta-
tion violence has to be done to xlvi. 7: " And their
faith is in the gods which they have made with their
hands." It would hardly occur to any person to regard
this as "a strong expression for the idolatrous tenden
cies of the Sadducean court," unless it had to be fitted
in with a date already settled on. Dr. Charles seems to
feel this, for in the splendid edition of the Book of Enoch
which he put forth in I912 he suggests that the passag
is corrupt. Further, the passage in which the
Parthians are mentioned is treated as an interpolation.
When corruption and interpolation have to be assumed
in support of a proposition, doubtfulness, not certainty,
is the result.
Perhaps the most interesting of all the questions raised
by Dr. Charles is the significance of the term Son of
Man in the Book of Enoch. Is it a title of the Messiah ?
Its first occurrence must be carefully noted. Enoch
xlvi. opens as follows:
" And there I saw One who had a head of days,
And His head was white like wool;
And with Him was another being whose countenance had the
appearance of a man.
And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy
angels,
And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all
the hidden things concerning that Son of Man, who he
was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the
Head of Days ?"

The fact that Enoch is the first to use the term Son of
Man seems fatal to the contention that it is Messianic.
Enoch wants to know who a certain being is, and whence
he was, and styled this being Son of Man. If Son of
Man is equivalent to Messiah, then Enoch knows that
the being about whom he is inquiring is the Messiah.
This seems extraordinary. Subsequently we find the

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 71

word " this" or "that" before Son of Man. Dr.

Charles says that the demonstratives probably represen
the Greek definite article. The word "probably "
should be noted. But is not the demonstrative
sufficiently explained by reference to Enoch's inquiry ?
This Son of Man means " this being you asked about."
A third objection against the Messianic significance
of the expression Son of Man is that it is twice applied
to Enoch himself. In Enoch Ix. Io we read: "And
he said to me: ' Thou son of man, even thou dost seek
to know what is hidden' "; and in lxxi. 14: "Thou
art the son of man who art born unto righteousness."
Dr. Charles regards these as interpolations. What
about the interpolators ? They knew the second section
of the Book of Enoch and evidently did not regard Son
of Man as a title of the Messiah.
A fourth objection may be based on Matt. xvi. 13:
The writer of this verse cannot have regarded Son of
Man as a Messianic title, because if he did, then Peter's
confession is largely deprived of its significance, as it
was almost put into his mouth. But the author of the
First Gospel, according to Dr. Charles, knew the Book
of Enoch and made great use of it. If so, his authority
is against Dr. Charles's interpretation of Son of Man.
This objection cannot be met by stating that our Lord's
question is given correctly in either Mark or Luke, but
not in Matthew. This may be perfectly true, but it has
no bearing on the issue. The point is, that whoever
wrote Matt. xvi. 13 did not regard Son of Man as a
title of the Messiah, and whoever wrote Matt. xvi. 13
knew the Book of Enoch.
The foregoing discussion will at least show that the
works edited by Dr. Charles are full of interest and
worthy of the closest study. Undoubtedly they help us
to understand many parts of the New Testament, but to
affirm that our Lord and St. Paul studied any of them is
to go beyond what the evidence warrants.
The Pseudepigrapha conclude with Fragments of a
Zadokite work, a manifesto of a party described by Dr.

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72 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA.

Charles as follows: A religious revival inside Judaism

took place during the twenty years subsequent to 19
B.C. Its promoters, failing to secure many adherent
retired to Damascus and established a Covenant of
Repentance under their Star or Lawgiver, whose pre-
cepts they were to observe until the arrival of the
Teacher of Righteousness. From Damascus they re-
turned to Palestine, proclaiming themselves the true
Israel, the Temple to be their Sanctuary and Jerusalem
their holy city. Four Orders-Priests, Levites, Israel-
ites, and Proselytes-with a Censor, constituted the
party. How long they lasted cannot be ascertained, but
they probably formed a part of the great company of the
priests mentioned in Acts vi. 7. The Zadokite work
was written between i8 B.C. and 70 A.D, or possibly be-
tween 18 B.C. and 8 B.C. Its characteristics are: the
placing of the Prophets on an equality with the Law,
depreciation of David and his line, prohibition of divorce,
rigid observance of the Sabbath, and the expectation of
a Messiah, not from Judah, but from Levi and some other
tribe.
The last of Dr. Charles's works is a valuable contribu-
tion to the history of religion and will command the
attention of scholars.
That the two volumes under review will be very ser-
viceable to students may be shown by simply referring
to the index of any first-class commentary on a book of
the New Testament published during recent years.
There we shall find numerous references to the
Apocrypha and especially to the Pseudepigrapha. It
is a great advantage to have an easy way of looking up
these references. What has been said of commentaries
applies to many books on Biblical subjects. For ex-
ample, the Rev. R. H. Alford has just issued a work
entitled Jewish History and Literature under the
Maccabees and Herod.' In it there are many quotations
'Jewish History and Literature under the Maccabees and Herod,
by B. H. Alford, Longmans., 2s. 6d. net.

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 APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. 73

from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. For exampl

the teaching of the Book of Jubilees on angels, t
festivals, the Patriarchs, and the last things is dwe
upon. Mr. Alford's book skilfully describes, in altern
tion, the principal events in Jewish history and the not
worthy writings that appeared during the hundred a
thirty years before the Nativity. This meets a r
want, because it is possible to find many a well-informe
man unacquainted with Jewish history though w
acquainted with Grecian and with Roman history. M
Alford's book abounds in useful knowledge, clear
conveyed, and deserves a wide circulation.

HENRY TODD.

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