2 Baruch

Historical printed page 477

—————————E ee INTRODUCTION cannot be sustained. Three conclusions remain open according as we assume the integrity or com- positeness of these books. If on the one hand we assume unity of authorship, either 2 Baruch is earlier or later than 4 Ezra. According to Schiirer, Bissell, Thomson, Deane, Kabisch, De Faye, Clemen, Wellhausen, 2 Baruch is the earlier, while Langen, Hilgenfeld, Renan, Dillmann, Rosenthal, Gunkel are just as strongly convinced that it is the later. Moreover, the arguments of the one side are just as weighty as the counter arguments of the other, and beyond this z#passe it is impossible, in my opinion, for criticism to advance, until it recognizes the composite nature of both books. The subject cannot be discussed here. The reader can consult an attempt to deal with the chronological relations of the various constituents of the two books in my edition of 2 Baruch, pp. Ixxii-lxxvi. See also Box’s edition of 4 Ezra, which is about to be published, as well as his Introduction to 4 Ezra in the present volume. $10. THEOLOGY. This book presents a vivid picture of the hopes and beliefs of Judaism during the years A.D. 50-100. As it was written at different dates and by different authors, its composition was thus contemporaneous with that of the New Testament. It is, therefore, of great value to the New Testament student, as it furnishes him with the historical setting and background of many of the New Testament problems. Original Sin and Free-will. Sin in 2 Baruch is the conscious and deliberate breach of the law, Xv. 5-9, xix. 1-2. Man does not fall inevitably into it ; for he does not possess a cor malignum as in 4 Ezra. Jeremiah is ‘ pure from sin’, ix. 1. Sin, then, being a conscious breach of law, it began with Adam’s transgression. Adam is the starting-point as in 2 Enoch, whereas in 1 Enoch and Jubilees human depravity is traced mainly to the angels that sinned. When Adam fell, his name became symbolical for the power of darkness opposing the power of light, which is the law, xviii. 1-2. - On the fall of Adam certain consequences followed. (a) First of all, physical death. In B?, i.e. XVii. 3, xix. 8, xxiii. 4, Adam’s sin brought in physical death, otherwise man would have been im- mortal. This conditional immortality of man appears also in 1 Enoch Ixix. 11, Wisdom i. 13, 14, 2 Enoch xxx. 16,17, 4 Ezra iii. 7. But in A‘, 1. 6. liv. 15, lvi. 6, Adam is said to have brought in only premature death. (6) Psychical and physical declension. This consequence appears in many passages but most clearly in lvi. 6, where trouble and anguish, disease and death, sensual passion and the begetting of children are traced to it. ‘For when he transgressed Untimely deaths came into being : Grief was named, And anguish prepared : And pain was created, And trouble consummated : And disease began to be established, And Sheol kept demanding that it should be renewed in blood : And the begetting of children was brought about, And the passion of parents produced : And the greatness of humanity was humiliated, And goodness languished.’ (c) Spiritual evil in that man became a danger to himself, Ivi. 10, and to the angels, lvi. το. In the former passage the text states shortly that man ‘ became a danger to his own soul’. This fact, therefore, that man henceforth became his own worst enemy, implies that by the Fall a hereditary tendency to evil was established in man. In one passage only does spiritual death appear to be traced to Adam, i.e. in xlviii. 42 sq., but even there it does not follow as an inevitable consequence. Notwithstanding the above penalties that followed on the Fall, man according to 2 Baruch preserves his free-will, his moral nature remains unimpaired, and the spiritual consequences of Adam’s Fall are in the main limited to Adam himself, liv. 15, 19. ‘For though Adam first sinned And brought untimely death upon all, Yet of those who were born from him Each one of them has prepared for his own soul torment to come, And again each one of them has chosen for himself glories to come. Adam is, therefore, not the cause, save only of his own soul, But each of us has been the Adam of his own soul.’ 477