2 Baruch

Historical printed page 479

INTRODUCTION 1. ‘And it shall come to pass when he has brought low everything that is. in the world, And has sat down in peace for the age on the throne of his kingdom, That joy shall then be revealed And rest shall appear. 2. And then healing shall descend in dew, And disease shall withdraw, And anxiety and anguish and lamentation pass from amongst men, And gladness proceed through the whole earth . . . 7. And women shall no longer then have pain when they bear, Nor shall they suffer torment when they yield the fruit of the womb. And it shall come to pass in those days that the reapers shall not grow weary, Nor those that build toilworn, For the works shall of themselves speedily advance Together with those who do them in much tranquillity.’ Ixxiv. 1. At the close of this temporary kingdom the Messiah will return to heaven and the righteous shall rise to a blessed life, xxx. 1. Then shall the righteous receive their promised reward, lix. 2, and enjoy the glories to come, liv. 15, but the unrighteous shall be cast into the torment of fire, liv. 14, Iv. 7, lix. 2, 10. ᾿ In the other sections, B?, B® written after A.D. 70, no period of earthly blessedness is looked for ; the hope of a kingdom of righteousness on earth is abandoned wholly. An extreme note of despair as to this world marks both these sections but especially B® (i.e. Ixxxv), which was written in exile: cp. Ixxxv. 2. According to this latter writer (Ixxxv. 10): ‘The youth of the world is past, And the strength of the creation already exhausted . . . And the pitcher is near to the cistern, And the ship to the port : And the course of the journey to the city, And life to (its) consummation.’ Resurrection. In xlix. 2-li a view of the resurrection is expounded, which sets forth first the raising of the dead with their bodies in exactly the same form in which they had been committed to the earth with a view to their recognition by those who knew them, and next their subsequent trans- formation with a view to a spiritual existence of unending duration. In my edition of this book, pp. 83-4, I have shown that the Pauline teaching in 1 Cor. xv. 35-50 is in many respects not an innovation, but a developed and more spiritual exposition of ideas already current in Judaism. In Judaism the same physical body was resuscitated and transformed ; in the Pauline teaching, the two bodies were wholly unconnected except in so far as they were the successive organs of the spirit in the material and spiritual worlds. They were so far from being identical in any respect that it was not till the physical body was destroyed that the spiritual body could be assumed. There is no transformation of dead or resuscitated bodies in the Pauline teaching: only of bodies of the faithful who should be alive at the Parousia. § 11. RELATION OF THE APOCALYPSE WITH THE NEW TESTAMENT, The points of contact between this Apocalypse and the New Testament are many in number. The most of these, however, are insufficient to establish a relation of dependence on either side; for the thoughts and expressions in question could be explained from pre-existing literature, or were commonplaces of the time. New TESTAMENT. Matt. iii. 16: Lo, the heavens were opened. Matt. iii. 17 (xvii. 5; John xii. 28): A voice from heaven. Matt. iv. 8. Matt. xxiv. 7 (Mark xiii. 8; Luke xxi. 11): Famines and... earthquakes. Matt. xxiv. 11, 24: Many false prophets. Matt. xxiv. 19 (Luke xxiii. 29). Matt. xxvi. 24: It had been good for that man, &c. PARALLELS IN OUR APOCALYPSE. xxil. 1: Lo, the heavens were opened. xiii. 1; xxii. r: A voice from the height. Ixxvi. 3. XXVvli. 6, 7. xlviii. 34 (see note). x. 13, 14 (resemblance slight). x. 6: Blessed is he who was not born, &c. 479 PROBABLE SOURCE OF BOTH. Ezek. i. 1. Dan. iv. 31. Deut. xxxiv. 1-4. Commonplaces of Jewish Apo- calyptic. Commonplaces of Jewish Apo- calyptic. Isa. liv. 1. A Jewish commonplace.