2 Baruch

Historical printed page 478

II BARUCH Thus man remained the captain of his own soul and therefore of his destiny. The issues of right and wrong are placed before him and the power of choice remains in his keeping, xix. 1, 3. ‘“ Behold I have placed before you life and death,” And he called heaven and earth to witness against them. . . But after his death they sinned and transgressed, Though they knew they had the Law reproving (them), And the light in which nothing could err, Also the spheres which testify, and Me.’ ‘The lamp of the eternal law shone on all those who sat in darkness’, lix. 2: even from the Gentiles the needful knowledge was not withheld and their conscience testified to their guilt: only their pride withheld from them a knowledge of the law. Hence the choice of evil on man’s part is deliberate, li. 16. ‘For then they chose (not) for themselves this time, Which, beyond the reach of anguish, could not pass away: But they chose for themselves that time, Whose issues are full of lamentations and evils . . . So that they shall not come to the honour of which I told thee before.’ Thus in 2 Baruch there is no doctrine of inherited guilt or of total depravity. This differs wholly from the Pauline doctrine. In the latter owing to the Fall man is henceforth dominated by original sin, which makes his fulfilment of the law and therefore his realization of righteousness impossible. He is not, indeed, thereby robbed wholly of free-will, but retains it in a degree just sufficient to justify his condemnation. The Law. This book is of a strongly Pharisaic character. The writers are assured of their power to fulfil the law, and the self-complacency of Baruch xiii. 3, xxv. 1, xliii. 1 stands out in strong contrast with the self-depreciation that marks 4 Ezra. The importance of the law is emphasized iii. 6, xv. 5. It was the centre round which Jewish thought and life revolved. To a limited extent the Messianic expectation was likewise a centre, and, in proportion the more one is emphasized, the more the other falls into the background. Thus in B! where the restoration of Ferusalem is looked Sor but no Messiah, the law is spoken of as follows: God gave the law to Israel, Ixxvii. 3; for trans- gressing it they were sent into exile, xxvii. 4, Ixxxiv. 2; but let not Israel withdraw from the law, xliv. 23, but obey it, xlvi. 5; let them remember it, Ixxxiv. 8; for if they do so, they will see the consolation of Zion, xliv. 7, and a son of the law shall never be wanting, xlvi. 4, nor a lamp nor a shepherd, Ixxvii. 16. In B® where there is no Messiah and no expectation of the restoration of Ferusalem, the law is still further glorified. It will protect those who receive it in their hearts, Xxxii. I, xlviii. 24; by it they will be justified, li. 3; in it will be the hope of the righteous, li. 7; the law is with Israel, and so long as they obey it they will not fall, xlviii. 22,24. They have received one law from One, xlviii. 24. For further treatment of this question see my edition of the Apocalypse of Baruch, pp. \xix, 26-31, 63-4. Here we have decidedly orthodox Judaism. In 4 Ezra on the other hand man trembles before the law: he needs mercy, not the award of the law; for all have sinned, viii. 35: it has served rather unto condemnation; for only a very few are saved through good works, vii. 77, or the divine com- passion, vii. 139. Works and justification. In our apocalypse the righteous are saved by their works, li. 7, and their righteousness is of the law, lxvii. 6. In the consciousness of their justification by the law, li. 3, they can with confidence approach God, and look to Him for the fulfilment of their prayers because of their works wherein they trust, lxiii. 3, 5; Ixxxv. 2, and owing to the same ground of confidence they depart from this world full of hope, xiv. 12. But their works are not limited to themselves in their saving effects. So long as the righteous live, their righteousness is a tower of strength to their people, ii. 2, and after death it remains to their country a lasting ground of merit, xiv. 7, 1xxxiv. Io. The Messiah and the Messianic Kingdom. The hope of a Messiah is entertained only in A}, A?, A’, the hope of the Kingdom without a Messiah in B}, which sections were written before A. Ὁ. 70. Since the chief characteristics of these sections have been dealt with in this respect in § 7, we shall touch only briefly upon them. The kingdom of the Messiah is not like that of the centuries preced- ing 100 B.C., which was to last for ever. According to this Apocalypse the whole present world belongs to the sphere of corruption. Even so does the Messianic kingdom, It forms the end of the world of corruption, xl. 3, and the beginning of the world of incorruption, Ixxiv. 2. Although of temporary duration it is the Golden Age, Ixxiii. 1, 2, 7. 478