2 Baruch

Historical printed page 498

30 31 II BARUCH 29. 6—381. 3 *e vine there shall be a thousand branches, and each branch shall produce a thousand clusters, and each 6 cluster produce a thousand grapes, and each grape produce a cor of wine. And those who have 7 hungered shall rejoice : moreover, also, they shall behold marvels every day. For winds shall go forth from before Me to bring every morning the fragrance of aromatic fruits, and at the close of the 8 day clouds distilling the dew of health. And it shall come to pass at that self-same time that the treasury of manna shall again descend from on high, and they will eat of it in those years, because these are they who have come to the consummation of time. 1 ‘And it shall come to pass after these things, when the time of the advent of the Messiah is fulfilled, that He shall return in glory. XXX. 2-5. The Resurrection. 2. Then all who have fallen asleep in hope of Him shall rise again. And it shall come to pass at that time that the treasuries will be opened in which is preserved the number of the souls of the righteous, and they shall come forth, and a multitude of souls shall be seen together in one 3 assemblage of one thought, and the first shall rejoice and the last shall not be grieved. For they know that the time has come of which it is said, that it is the consummation of the times. 4 But the souls of the wicked, when they behold all these things, shall then waste away the more. 5 For they shall know that their torment has come and their perdition has arrived.’ XXXI-XXXIII. Aaruch exhorts the People to prepare themselves for worse Evils. 1 And it came to pass after these things that I went to the people and said unto them: ‘ Assemble 2 unto me all your elders and I will speak words unto them.’ And they all assembled in the valley 3 of the Cedron. And I answered and said unto them: ‘ Hear, O Israel, and I will speak to thee, And give ear, O seed of Jacob, and I will instruct thee. xxix. 4 flesh, in verse 5 vegetable, in verse 8 heavenly food, i.e. manna. The second is a return to Adam’s food in Paradise. . As to the ten thousand-fold yield of corn and wine Dr. Rendel Harris gives a probable explanation in a misreading of 2) = ‘plenty’ in the blessing of Isaac (Gen. xxvii. 28) as 321 = 10,000. each branch, &c. For ‘each’ the Syriac gives ‘ one’ three times over, following the idiom in the Hebrew original. a cor, about 120 gallons. 6. rejoice. Cf. 4 Ezra vii. 28, xii. 34. behold marvels. Cf. 4 Ezra vii. 27, xiii. 50; Matt. xi. 4-6; John vii. 31. 8. the treasury of manna shall again descend. In Sibyll. Or. vii. 149 manna is to be the food of the members of the Messianic kingdom. Cf. Rev. ii. 17 ‘hidden manna’. consummation of time, i. e. the Messianic age. Cf. xxvii.15. Inxxx. 3 the phrase has a different meaning, but there we have the work of B?. XXX. 1. when the time of the advent of the Messiah is fulfilled. This seems to mean that after His reign the Messiah will return in glory to heaven. ‘ Advent’ may be rendered ‘ presence’, i. e. visible reign on earth. return in glory, back to heaven, where He was before His revealing on earth. For His pre-existence see 1 Enoch xlvi. 1. 2, xlviii. 3 (note), &c. In 4 Ezra vii. 29, 30 the Messiah and the righteous die at the close of the Messianic kingdom. Then all who have fallen asleep ... shall rise again. The resurrection here follows immediately on the Messiah’s return to heaven: but on his death in 4 Ezra vii. 29, 30. The words ‘of Him’ spoil the sense, and the parallelism to LXX of Ps. xvi. 9 én’ ἐλπίδι. fallen asleep. We are not told the fate of the living, as A! is fragmentary. 2. Here we return to Β΄, and resume the text that ended at xxiv. 1. 3. they know. Text reads ‘he knows’. : the consummation of the times. Here = the final judgement. Contrast xxix. 8. 4. waste away. Cf. 1]. 5; 4 Ezra vii. 87. XXXI-XXXV. Baruch assembles and addresses the elders of the people. He exhorts them not to forget Zion and its anguish ; the end of all that is corruptible iscoming; the law, if they hold fast to it, will protect them when the whole creation is shaken; they are to grieve for the coming woe more than for the past, when the creation shall be renewed. Thereupon Baruch sends away the people, and when they remonstrate against his forsaking them, he rejoins that he follon wee to the Holy Place to seek light from God. ‘There he laments over Zion. (A fast of seven days should ollow here. The subject of Baruch's address is to be found in each instance in the preceding revelation (as in v. 5, x. 4), but it will be observed that this address, xxxi, 3—xxxii. 6, is out of relation to all that has gone before. The gist of the address is (a) the end of corruption is at hand; (6) the law will save in the coming crisis ; (c) the present creation must give place to a new and incorruptible creation. Now these questions are discussed later in the dialogues between Baruch and God. Thus, for (a) see xlii. 6-8 ; for (4) see xlviii. 22-4, 38-41; for (c) see xlviii. 49; lii. 3, 8-9, 16. Thus originally xxxi-xxxv followed lii. Moreover, xliv. 8-15 really concludes Baruch’s address in xxxi, xxxii; i.e. it follows xxxii. 6. Thus xluiti-lii originally preceded xxxt-xxxv. XXXI. 1. all your elders. See xliv. 1, note. 498 : Xxx, 2- ΧΧχν. : 3 - XXV, 4.