account incapable of becoming a rule of faith, service of vice and infidelity. Nor should we the 'Son of Man sitting upon the forget that much-perhaps, most-of what we throne of His glory,' choosing for the censure was founded upon a national tradition, the antiquity of which alone, indepen- righteous their countless habitations,' dent of other considerations, had rendered it and destroying the wicked with the respectable. That the author was uninspired, word of His mouth,-the 'book of life will scarcely now be questioned. But, although his production was apocryphal, it ought not opened' before the Judge,-earth, hell, therefore to be stigmatised as necessarily re- and the grave, giving up their dead,' plete with error. Although it be on that-the joy of the righteous, the shame it may nevertheless contain much moral as and confusion of the wicked, who are well as religious truth, and may be justly re-led off by the angels to punishment,garded as a correct standard of the doctrine the 'new heaven' and the 'new of the times in which it was composed. Non omnia esse concedenda antiquitati, that not earth,' old things having passed away, everything is to be allowed to antiquity,' is, it-the 'furnace of fire,' and the 'lake is true, a maxim founded upon reason and ex- of fire,'-all these appear in the Book perience. But in perusing the present relic of of Enoch, and the last, the lake of fire,' is, manifestly (xvi), a figure introduced with distinct reference to the Dead Sea; and, accordingly, in the same connection, we find angels, which kept not their first estate,' coupled with 'Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them,' Jude 7, which are spoken of as 'going after strange flesh,' like those angels, and being 'set for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.' Nay, those awful words spoken of Judas, It had been good for that man if he had never been born,' find their counterpart also (viii) in the language of a remote age and country, should the reader discover much to condemn, still, unless he be too fastidious, he will find more to approve; if he sometimes frown, he may oftener smile; nor seldom will he be disposed to admire the vivid imagination of the writer, which transports him far beyond the flaming boundaries of the world, 'extra Processit longè flammantia mœnia mundi,' 'Past the world's flaming walls has far ad vanced,' displaying to him every secret of Creation, the splendours of heaven, and the terrors of hell, the mansions of departed souls, and the myriads of the celestial hosts, the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Ophanim, which surround the blazing throne, and magnify the Holy Name of the great Lord of Spirits, the Almighty Father of men and of angels. GFRÖRER also writes, Jahrhundert des Heils, p.105,109 : I salute our Enoch as in a certain sense a fore-announcer of the coming of our Lod this Book. the 1131. This fact is of great importance. For it shows that these were popular Jesus Christ,-not as if he had a perception of expressions, which were in common the truth, for his Messias is, as in the case of use in the mouths of devout men of other Jews, enveloped in a cloud of ambition that time, and must, therefore, be interand false hopes :-but he is still an evidence to show with what kind of feeling, and with preted according to their general spirit, what glowing earnestness, twenty or thirty and not be pressed too far in their years before Christ, the Anointed of the Lord literal meaning. To the Jews of those was expected. source, from which may be derived a know-days, acquainted with the Book of ledge of the state of the Jewish form of faith before, and in the days of, Jesus Christ. There is no better 6 Enoch, these images would be quite familiar,-like those which speak of the stars falling,' the 'Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory,' or those again, which were evidently current in the popular talk, about Abraham's bosom,' the 'torments of hell,' and the 'great gulf fixed.' 1130. But especially it deserves notice that almost all the language of the New Testament, in which the judgment of the Last Day is described, the Eschatology, as it is called, of the N.T., -appears to have been directly derived from the language of the Book of 1132. It is not impossible that the Enoch, as will be seen from the pas- Book of Enoch, as it now exists, may sages quoted above, (iv), (xiii), (xvi), contain some Christian interpolations (xix), (xx). The 'everlasting chains,' of a later date, as we know to be the case in which the fallen angels are 'kept with another famous apocryphal book, under darkness, unto the judgment of the 'Sibylline Oracles.' But, howthe great day,'-the 'everlasting fire ever this may be, the Epistle of Jude prepared for the devil and his angels,' | seems plainly to recognise some por tions, at least, of the Book of Enoch, as already existing, and as authentic and authoritative. Hence, even should any critics propose to place the composition of the whole Book' at a later date than that assigned to it by Archbp. LAURENCE and GFRÖRER,* the age of the Epistle would have to be depressed with it, to a time far later than that of the Apostles,-to a time, when the real origin of the 'Book' had been forgotten, and its contents could be confidently quoted, as the veritable words of the antediluvian Patriarch. And, generally, the occurrence of such expressions, as we have quoted above, common to the Book of Enoch and to so many of the apostolical writings, shows plainly the forms of thought and language, which were prevalent among the Jews in the first age of Christianity. seated, by the gift of God, in our nature,--of the everlasting distinction between right and wrong, and of a Perfect Justice, presiding over the universe of moral being, which, as it is not always manifested clearly in this life, we believe with undoubting confidence, will be revealed assuredly hereafter. Truths, such as these, which underlie the figures of the N.T., are not less true, nor is their authority less binding, because we are able to trace their historical growth, just as the excellence of the Lord's Prayer is not diminished, because we know that it is made up of petitions, which were current already among the Jews.* Rather, this very growth among men, of the recognition of a great Eternal Truth, gives us the comforting assurance of the Presence of a Living God in History, not only advancing continually the intellectual development of mankind, but-enlightening and inspiring, with ever-increasing Light and Life, the hearts of His children. 4 1133. We must remember, therefore, from what sources such expressions as these were drawn, and not suppose that they are meant to convey to us accurate information about the details of the invisible world. The substantial *On this point GFRÖRER Writes, vol.i,Part truth, which underlies these figures, is ii.p.149: I have, as it is seen, developed out the fact, the belief in which is deep-cording to which the Lord's Prayer is comof the books of the Jews the principles, ac * Mr. WESTCOTT says on this point, SMITH'S Dict. of the Bible, i.p.547: Notwithstanding the arguments of HILGENFELD and Joss, the whole book appears to be distinctly of Jewish origin. Some inconsiderable interpolations may have been made in successive translations, and large fragments of a much earlier date were undoubtedly incorporated into the work. But, as a whole, it may be regarded as describing an important phase of Jewish opinion, shortly before the coming of Christ.' posed. Not only is its character Jewish, but so also are the separate clauses, which occur in different Jewish prayers, (see LIGHTFOOT, SCHÖTTGEN, WETSTEIN on Matt.vi.9, WITSIUS.) It may be that it was a prayer already in use before the time of Jesus: probably, however, it was then first put together out of earlier prayers. Though, generally, the portions of it agree verbally with already existing Jewish prayers, yet I have nowhere found the whole among Jewish writers, though they have, however, many similar prayers.' END OF PART IV. THE PENTATEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA CRITICALLY EXAMINED BY THE RIGHT REV. JOHN WILLIAM COLENSO, D.D. BISHOP OF NATAL. •We can do nothing against the Truth, but for the Truth.'-St. Paul, 2 Cor. xiii. 8. 'Not to exceed, and not to fall short of facts,-not to add, and not to take away,- to state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,-are the grand, the vital, maxims of Inductive Science, of English Law, and, let us add, of Christian Faith.' Quarterly Review on Essays and Reviews,' Oct. 1861, p. 369. PART V. LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 1865. The right of translation is reserved. |