Chapters on Jewish Literature. Israel Abrahams

Israel is presented as a hope and a threat; a menace to those who refuse to follow the better life, a promise of salvation to those who repent. About the year 80 C.E., a book of this kind was composed. It is what is known as the Fourth Book of the Sibylline Oracles. The language is Greek, the form hexameter verse. In this poem, the Sibyl, in the guise of a prophetess, tells of the doom of those who resist the will of the one true God, praises the God of Israel, and holds out a beautiful prospect to the faithful.

      The book opens with an invocation:

      Hear, people of proud Asia, Europe, too,

       How many things by great, loud-sounding mouth,

       All true and of my own, I prophesy.

       No oracle of false Apollo this,

       Whom vain men call a god, tho' he deceived;

       But of the mighty God, whom human hands

       Shaped not like speechless idols cut in stone.

      The Sibyl speaks of the true God, to love whom brings blessing. The ungodly triumph for a while, as Assyria, Media, Phrygia, Greece, and Egypt had triumphed. Jerusalem will fall, and the Temple perish in flames, but retribution will follow, the earth will be desolated by the divine wrath, the race of men and cities and rivers will be reduced to smoky dust, unless moral amendment comes betimes. Then the Sibyl's note changes into a prophecy of Messianic judgment and bliss, and she ends with a comforting message:

      But when all things become an ashy pile,

       God will put out the fire unspeakable

       Which he once kindled, and the bones and ashes

       Of men will God himself again transform,

       And raise up mortals as they were before.

       And then will be the judgment, God himself

       Will sit as judge, and judge the world again.

       As many as committed impious sins

       Shall Stygian Gehenna's depths conceal

       'Neath molten earth and dismal Tartarus.

      But the pious shall again live on the earth,

       And God will give them spirit, life, and means

       Of nourishment, and all shall see themselves,

       Beholding the sun's sweet and cheerful light.

       O happiest men who at that time shall live!

      The Jews found some consolation for present sorrows in the thought of past deliverances. The short historical record known as the "Scroll of Fasting" (Megillath Taanith) was perhaps begun before the destruction of the Temple, but was completed after the death of Trajan in 118. This scroll contained thirty-five brief paragraphs written in Aramaic. The compilation, which is of great historical value, follows the order of the Jewish Calendar, beginning with the month Nisan and ending with Adar. The entries in the list relate to the days on which it was held unlawful to fast, and many of these days were anniversaries of national victories. The Megillath Taanith contains no jubilations over these triumphs, but is a sober record of facts. It is a precious survival of the historical works compiled by the Jews before their dispersion from Palestine. Such works differ from those of Josephus and the Sibyl in their motive. They were not designed to win foreign admiration for Judaism, but to provide an accurate record for home use and inspire the Jews with hope amid the threatening prospects of life.

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

      Josephus.

      Whiston's English Translation, revised by Shilleto (1889).

      Graetz.—II, p. 276 [278].

      Sibylline Oracles.

      S.A. Hirsch.—Jewish Sibylline Oracles, J.Q.R., II, p. 406.

CHAPTER III

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THE TALMUD

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