CHAPTER XII

The Doctrinal Teaching of the Apocrypha

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

It would be difficult to point to anything which illustrates more clearly the arbitrary way in which the books of the Apocrypha have been separated off from the rest of the Jewish uncanonical religious literature of the period with which we are dealing than the study of the doctrinal teaching of this literature. For in the Apocrypha only part of that teaching is represented; to obtain it in its fulness, so far as the literature of the period is extant, we have to consult such pseudepigraphic works as the Book of Enoch, the Sibylline Oracles, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Book of Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Assumption of Moses, the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Ascension of Isaiah. But to take all these into consideration here is out of the question, and we have already given a brief outline of the more important doctrines taught in them (Chapter X). There is, however, one compensation in restricting ourselves to the books of the Apocrypha; for the more important of these were recognized by official Judaism as containing good orthodox teaching; so that in dealing with this body of literature alone we are at all events on more or less secure ground as far as orthodox Judaism is concerned, and to get at that as a foundation is useful for the further observance of the development of doctrine. At the same time, it is necessary to bear in mind that while in most respects the books of the Apocrypha afford, speaking generally, a criterion for the period B.C. 200-A.D. 100 as to orthodox Jewish teaching, in some respects they are inadequate, in others even insufficient, so that in such cases recourse must be had to the Apocalyptic Literature, though we cannot here take that Literature into fuller consideration.

Now in dealing with the Judaism of this period we must again emphasize what has already been stated several times, namely the existence of the external influences by which it was affected. The background of the Apocrypha books in the domain of doctrine is not solely the Old Testament, though this is, of course, their chief source of inspiration; but there have also been marked Persian and Greek influences in certain directions; it is essential that this should be recognized. This point has been admirably dealt with by Fairweather, and some of his words are well worth quoting; he rightly says that there have been “two great streams of influence flowing in upon the Jewish theology of this period, an Eastern and a Western, a Persian and a Greek. Of these by far the stronger was the Greek, though the Persian is as distinctly traceable ... the Persian current was that of Zoroastrianism; the Greek cannot be associated with a single name. Out of these two forces, which were new, or newly felt, active upon the native Judaism of Palestine, which was old, was formed that _third_ which we meet within the home of Jewish theology of the period. But there was also a Jewish theology outside of Palestine altogether. Not only did foreign influences flow in upon Judaism, but Judaism, now no longer confined to Palestine, went out to meet them. Thus the hitherto unbroken river of Old Testament ideas and doctrines divided itself at this point into three separate streams. One, the main current, continued to flow on in Palestine; while on the east and west of it ran two other streams—the one through Persian territory, and the other through Greek. The tributaries of Persian and Greek ideas by which these streams respectively were fed necessarily caused their waters to be of a composite character, exceedingly difficult to analyse so as to say definitely, ‘This is Jewish, that is Persian,’ or ‘This is Jewish, that is Greek,’”[322] The main current of which Fairweather speaks represents Palestinian Judaism, while the other two streams powerfully affected the Judaism of the Dispersion; the differences between these two types of Judaism must be taken into consideration, for both types are represented in the books of the Apocrypha. We must also seek, as far as possible, to follow the teaching of the various books in chronological order. Differences of opinion exist, to be sure, regarding the actual dates of these, but there is in almost all cases approximate unanimity as to the _centuries_ to which they belong. In some instances different parts of a book belong to different times; this will be taken into consideration where necessary. When, therefore, quotations are given to illustrate some point of doctrine they will be put, as far as possible, in chronological order; see the table on p. 320.

The doctrines to be dealt with are the following:

(_a_) The Doctrine of God. (_b_) The Doctrine of the Law. (_c_) The Doctrine of Sin. (_d_) The Doctrine of Grace and Free-will. (_e_) The Doctrine of the Messiah. (_f_) The Doctrine of the Future Life. (_g_) The Doctrine of Angels. (_h_) Demonology.

The very important doctrine of Wisdom has already been considered in