2 Baruch

Historical printed page 497

II BARUCH 27, 6—29. 5 7 in the fifth part famine and the withholding of rain. And in the sixth part earthquakes and 8, 9 terrors. [Wanting.] And in the eighth part a multitude of spectres and attacks of the Shedim. 1,12 And in the ninth part the fall of fire. And in the tenth part rapine and much oppression. And in 13 the eleventh part wickedness and unchastity. And in the twelfth part confusion from the mingling 14 together of all those things aforesaid. For {these parts of that time are reserved, and} shall be 15 mingled one with another and minister one toanother. For some shall leave out some of their own, and receive (in its stead) from others, and some complete their own and that of others, so that those may not understand who are upon the earth in those days that this is the consummation of the times. 1,2 ‘Nevertheless, whosoever understandeth shall then be wise. For the measure and reckoning of 3 that time are two parts a week of seven weeks.’ And I answered and said: ‘It is good for a man to 4 come and behold, but it is better that he should not come lest he fall. [But I will say this also: 5 Will he who is incorruptible despise those things which are corruptible, and whatever befalls in the case of those things which are corruptible, so that he might look only to those things which are not 6 corruptible?] But if, O Lord, those things shall assuredly come to pass which Thou hast foretold 7 to me, so do Thou show this also unto me if indeed I have found grace in Thy sight. Is it in one place or in one of the parts of the earth that those things are come to pass, or will the whole earth experience (them) ?’ t And He answered and said unto me: ‘Whatever will then befall (will befall) the whole earth ; 2 therefore all who live will experience (them). For at that time I will protect only those who are 3 found in those self-same days in thisland. And it shall come to pass when all is accomplished that 4 was to come to pass in those parts, that the Messiah shall then begin to be revealed. And Behemoth shall be revealed from his place and Leviathan shall ascend from the sea, those two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation, and shall have kept until that time ; and then they shall 5 be for food for all that are left. The earth also shall yield its fruit ten thousandfold and on each (?) 6,7. famine . . . earthquakes, as signs of the end. Cf. Ixx, 8; Matt. xxiv. 7, &c. 9. spectres. Or ‘portents’. Cf. 4 Ezra vi. 21. Io. the fall of fire. Cf. lxx.8; 4 Ezrav. 8. 14. As Ryssel has observed, this is corrupt. By reading ogy instead of oo and omitting the following © we arrive at the following: ‘these parts which till that time had been reserved (?) shall (then) be mingled’, &c. 15. leave out. Text reads has = ‘leave over’, But the context requires the sense of ‘ omitting ’, ‘leaving out’. The error can be explained, if we suppose that παραλείψουσι, which has both the above meanings, stood before the translator and that he followed the wrong one here. XXVIII. 1. Cf. Dan. xii. 10: ‘the wise shall understand’. 2. Interpretation seems impossible. 3. The difficulty of faithfulness during the woes (cf. xli. 1, lxxv. 5; 4 Ezra xiii. 16-20; Matt. xxiv. 22) and the blessings which await those who endure. 4-5. These verses break the connexion of thought, and no account is taken of them in the context. An answer is given to the question in xliii. 2. - XXIX. 2. I will protect, &c. Here God protects His people who are found in the Holy Land, whereas in A? the Messiah does so (xl. 2), and in A® the Holy Land itself (Ixx. 1). In B? it is the law that protects the faithful, wherever they dwell (xxxii. 1). ἃ found ...in this land. Cf. last note, and 4 Ezra xiii. 48, 49. A special blessing attached to residence in Palestine. It alone was to escape the woes that should befall all the earth besides. But this thought is found only in the sections of this book written prior to A. Ὁ, 70. It first appears in Joel ii. 32 in Apocalyptic literature, though it was before for a time, in the eighth century B.C., the belief of the Jews. For the privileges attached to residence in Palestine see my Commentary 7 oc. 3. The Messiah’s réle here is passive. Cf. 1 En. xc. 37, 38; 4 Ezra vii. 28, 29. Contrast A? and A® (e. g. xl) where the Messiah fights, destroys His enemies, and sets up His kingdom. The phrase ‘ begin to be revealed’ may be corrected to ‘the principate of the Messiah will be revealed’ (xxxix. 7) or ‘ Messiah the prince shall be revealed’ (Dan. ix. 25). Whence will Messiah be revealed? Here, and in xxx. 1, it seems from heaven; elsewhere, perhaps, from some place on earth. Cf. John vii. 27 : ‘When the Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.’ Cf., too, 4 Ezra vii. 28, xiii. 32. Moe ar may be already born and yet not know his calling till Elijah comes and anoints him, in Justin’s Dial. c. Lee The Talmud states that the Messiah was born at Bethlehem on the day of the destruction of the temple, was named Menahem, and afterwards suddenly carried away by a storm (Jer. Berachoth, p. 5). 4. And Behemoth shall be revealed, ἅς. For the full form of this myth see 4 Ezra vi. 49-52. The diction is so similar that both must quote from the same source—a lost short hexaemeron, like that in 4 Ezra vi. 38-54. See my Commentary i Joc. Behemoth . .. and Leviathan. See 1 En. lx. 7-9, 24 notes; Targ. Jon. on Gen. i. 21 ‘And God created great beasts Leviathan and his wife which were prepared for the day of consolation’. Also Targum on Ps. ]. 1o. all that are left. An indefinite statement ; guzbus vis in 4 Ezra vi. 52. 5. We have here another fragment of an old Apocalypse, of which we find a version in Irenaeus, v. 33. Papias is ; there said to ascribe it to our Lord. Irenaeus preserves a longer and fuller form than our text, and all seeds and fruit- trees share in the miraculous fruitfulness in his quotation. 1 En. x. 19 gives a still more fragmentary quotation, We have, curiously, three diets provided in our syncretistic text for the members of the Messianic kingdom, In 1105.2 497 Kk XXVili. 4-5