William J. Deane · 12 of 16

The Sibylline Oracles. · Part 1

The work thus named is a collection of Judaeo-Christian poems, of various dates, designed to propagate certain ideas among heathens, and assuming this form in order to win acceptance in such quarters. Various derivations have been suggested for the word Sibylla, and it has been attributed to the Hebrew and other Oriental languages; but many suppose that the word is really Greek, compounded of the Æolic σιός = θεός and βόλλα or βύλλα = βουλή, and thus meaning, counsel of God. However, it may well be doubted whether it is not a feminine form of the old Latin word sibus, meaning “wise.” Persibus, or Persicus, is found in this sense in Plautus and Nævius, where it is explained by old grammarians as = peracutus. Hence the term signifies “wise woman, witch.” The name was applied to any female who affected to foretell the future, so that it may be taken to mean an inspired prophetess, or, as Varro puts it, “cujus pectus numen recipit, et quæ vaticinatur.” She is not an official priestess, but one abnormally influenced by the Deity. The most ancient authors speak of a Sibyl; but this idea did not long continue, and we soon find them multiplied and assigned to different localities. The number of accredited Sibyls has been stated sometimes as three or four, sometimes as ten; and the writings that are current under their name have been increased by later discoveries from eight books to fourteen—though the whole of these are not extant, of many of them isolated fragments alone having been preserved. That some lines of the ancient heathen poems have been preserved by classical authors is well known; only one or two of these, however, as far as I know, are found in our present collection, though there are passages and expressions which show distinctly a pagan origin, as the account of the tower of Babel, quoted from a Sibyl by Josephus, where it is said that the gods sent a mighty wind and overthrew the building. In Asia Minor and Greece the Sibyllines obtained only a private circulation, and were never officially collected or publicly used, though, even from the scanty notices existing, we gather that they exercised a very potent influence and were largely credited. The original Libri Sibyllini, with which the name of King Tarquin is connected, and which reached Borne from Asia by way of Cumae, perished in the fire which consumed the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, B.C. 82. Their place was supplied by a collection gathered from various places in Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor, and amounting to about 1000 verses. This was revised by order of Augustus, and again by Tiberius; but has been preserved only in fragments found in classical authors. The widespread belief in the authority of such productions led to the composition and circulation of a quantity of professed oracles, which demanded critical investigation, and received some such attention at the hands of the emperors Julian and Honorius. The verses, however, thus authorised as genuine have not come down to us in their integrity, and what we know of them is little and unsatisfactory. Servius, in his commentary on Virgil, mentions a hundred as the number of these Sermones, and Suidas names twenty-four as the production of the Chaldaean Sibyls alone. How many more were attributed to the other Sibyls cannot be known. Our present collection is of Jewish and Christian origin, and can lay no claim to any high pagan antiquity. So common, indeed, had the forging of these poems become in early Christian times, that Celsus sneers at Christian writers as Σιβολλισταί, sibyl-mongers, or sibyl-believers. The exact relation of these later compositions to the early group it is impossible to determine. Their acceptance as authentic in an uncritical age is no argument in their favour; but they seem to have been considered to possess some supernatural authority, far inferior, of course, to that of Jewish prophets, but still originated by Divine influence. Doubtless the later Sibyls used some of the old material which was found ready to their hand, though it is now almost impossible to say what was borrowed from floating tradition. A line here and there, indeed, may be identified. Thus, as of heathen origin and probably remnants of old oracles or Sibylline verses, we may cite the punning couplet in iv. 71 and elsewhere:—

καὶ Σάμον ἄμμος ἅπασαν ὑπ᾿ ἠϊόνεσσι καλύψει· Δῆλος δ᾿ οὐκέτι δῆλος, ἄδηλα δὲ πάντα τὰ Δήλου.

The Latin versifier has attempted to reproduce the second line thus:—

Et Delus, non jam Delus, deleta latebit.

From the same source come some of the lines in Book iii., which, as we shall see, narrate the reign of Saturn and the demigods of pagan theology, beginning with the building of the Tower of Babel on the plains of Assyria, when all men were of one language, and were animated with the one desire of invading the starry heaven. This is partly scriptural; but then follows a heathen episode: Chronos and Titan fight one with the other, but are reconciled by “Rhea and Guia and Aphrodite, with her fair crown, and Demeter, and Vesta, and Dione with her beautiful locks.” The birth of Zeus gives occasion for a wonderful piece of etymology. To save him from the fate of her previous children, Rhea sent (διέπεμψε) him away to Phrygia secretly, hence they call him Δία because διεπέμφθη.” On a par with this derivation is that of Hades (i. 85), which takes its name from Adam, who was the first to enter it, the death of Abel being ignored for philological purposes. Another etymology, not unrecognised by the Fathers, is given to this name in Book iii. 26, which Alexandre calls “ingeniose absurdus.” Here it is commended as a name of four letters which represent the four quarters of the earth, as the Latin versifier writes:—

Qui nomine solo Occasus ortusque refert boreamque notumque.

In the original:—

Ἀντολίην τε Δύσιν τε Μεσιμβρίαν τε καὶ Ἄρκτον.

Another paragraph owed to heathen sources is one concerning the destruction of Troy (iii. 414 ff.), where Helen is called “the Erinnys from Sparta,” which reminds one of Virgil’s “Trojæ et patriæ communis Erinnys” (Æn. ii. 578); and another where Homer, “the blind old man who writes lies,” is accused of plagiarising from the Sibyl whose oracles he was the first to use. Diodorus mentions this accusation as made by the Erythraean Sibyl, and is not referring to our present book.

The primary cause of the composition of these productions is not far to seek. Given the existence of a body of such prophetical utterances among the heathen, which were considered of superhuman authority and universally credited, it fell naturally into the mind of Jew and Christian to endeavour to gain acceptance for the truths which they had to teach, not only by tracing these truths in the extant words of poet and prophetess, but also by themselves expressing them in the form and under the guise of Sibylline inspiration. The mystery that enveloped these oracles greatly helped the impersonation, and the authors thought themselves quite justified in their undertaking if by this means they might insinuate the truths of God’s unity and righteousness, and disseminate the hopes which animated their breasts. That the Sibylline Oracles were held in high honour during the early Christian centuries is proved by the frequent appeals to them made by the Fathers. The list of the writers who thus used them includes the names of Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Clemens Alexandrinus, Eusebius, and Augustine. Some of these authors apparently were acquainted only with the heathen books; others, as Clemens Alexandrinus and Lactantius, cite passages of pagan, Jewish, and Christian authorship; and while some attribute to them an authority almost conclusive, others quote them with reserve, and own that their testimony is disputed and not always of decisive importance.

Every one is familiar with the verse of the “Dies Iræ,” which, if an interpolation, at any rate proves the estimation in which the Sibyl was held:—

Dies iræ, dies illa, Solvet sæcla in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla.

The manufacture of Sibylline verses continued for some centuries. It was natural and easy to employ this means of disseminating correct opinions among piously-disposed minds. What had been done by heathen Greeks might become a power for good in Jewish and Christian hands. For two centuries before Christ writers used this form to propagate Jewish opinions; in the early days of the Christian era, Sibyllines attempted to force Christian views into prominence in pagan circles. Existing poems were largely used, adopted, and published. Imitations were freely made, and these additions to the already copious collection enlarged the stock to an unwieldy extent, which defied every effort at order or classification. Every writer allowed himself full liberty of inserting his lucubration wherever he chose; isolated fragments, therefore, abound, many duplicates occur, and the result is confused and chaotic. But as paganism disappeared, and Christianity grew stronger and less in need of such adventitious support, the composition of Sibylline verses gradually ceased, and no additions to the collection seem to have been made since the fourth century. The use of them dying out, their existence became forgotten, and in the Middle Ages the Greek text seems to have been unknown. Of course the passages quoted by the early Fathers and the Christian apologists, and the testimony borne to the “Prophetess,” as Clemens Alexandrinus calls her, served to keep alive the knowledge of the existence of such writings; but the collection of oracles gathered into books, such as we now possess, was not current; and from their very mystery and obscurity these unknown verses were regarded with more respect and deference than their intrinsic merits deserved.

The literary history of the Sibyllines is soon told. The earliest known quotation is that mentioned above concerning the building of the Tower of Babel. This is cited by Alexander Polyhistor, who lived between B.C. 80 and 40, and is found in Eusebius, Chron. i. 23, and in almost identical words, though with only a vague reference to the Sibyl, in Josephus, Antiq. i. 4. 3. In what form the book existed from whence this citation is taken we do not know. Whether Clemens Romanus quotes any part of our work is uncertain; Hermas Pastor mentions the Sibyl, but not her verses. Quotations abound most in Clemens Alexandrinus and Lactantius, who, however, seem to have been acquainted chiefly with the Jewish portions of the work as well as with some passages now no longer extant. In the time of Lactantius there was circulated a rude and undigested mass of verses in the Greek language, which had no pretence to order or completeness. Some unknown author, who has left a preface of untrustworthy character, collected these scattered elements, arranged them into books, with many interpolations of his own, designed to express his view or to facilitate the transition from one subject to another. The collector, probably a monk, and an adept at transcribing manuscripts, lived in the sixth century under Justinian. From his work our present collection took its origin. As has been already said, we are not here to look for the mysterious Sibylline books which were offered to Tarquin; nor yet for those which replaced the perished Oracles in later times. Our collection is of later date and different origin, being merely imitations of the original utterances, and only, as it were, by chance embodying any of the ancient heathen verses. A portion of what we now possess was first published at Basel in 1545 from an Augsburg, now a Munich, MS. by Xystus Betuleius (= Sixtus Birke—i.e. birch-tree); this, which comprised eight books, was followed immediately by a metrical Latin version, the composition of Sebastian Castalio (Chateillon), who also republished the Greek text with emendations some ten years later. The fourth edition appeared at Paris in 1599 (repeated in 1607), under the auspices of John Opsopoeus (i.e. Koch = ὀψοποιός, cook), purified by the aid of some newly-discovered MSS., and enriched with some short but useful annotations. Amsterdam produced the next edition in 1687, undertaken by Servatius Gallaeus (Servais Gallé); but this is of no critical value, and is full of typographical errors and irrelevant learning. A portion of the Sibyllines is printed in Gallandi’s Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, Venet. 1788. All these editions above-mentioned contain only the first eight books. Some additions to the received text were made by Angelo Mai, who in 1817 and 1828 found and published some of the missing books, making the complete work to consist of fourteen books, the ninth and tenth, however, not having been recovered. The first perfect edition, and one that left little to be desired, is due to C. Alexandre, who, in 1841 and some subsequent years, put forth a carefully revised text, with Castalio’s Latin version improved and augmented, and with a large body of critical and exegetical notes, and a volume of excursus, which treat copiously of all matters connected with the Oracles. This edition was repeated in a handier form in 1869. Another edition of the whole work is that by J. H. Friedlieb (Leipzig 1852), which is supplied with a translation into German hexameters, but disfigured by a faulty text. An Englishman, Sir John Floyer, published a prose translation of the first seven and part of the eighth books in 1713, in the authenticity of which he implicitly believed, taking the trouble to compare them with the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, and finding in them a marvellous heathen testimony to the truth of Divine prophecy. As an instance of human credulity few books are more curious than that of this simple and uncritical knight-errant.

The work as at present arranged is a mass of confusion and incongruity, no pretence at chronological order being aimed at. The production of several authors—Gentile, Jewish, and Christian—taking very different standpoints, and living in very different ages, the Oracles must be examined separately, if we wish to weigh their contents accurately and estimate their real value and importance. Each book is not in itself a whole, the production of one author, or of one age. Often it contains incongruous elements, or is simply a congeries of unconnected fragments. But thus much is evident, that two chief elements are forthcoming, viz. a Jewish with some trace of heathen colouring, and a Christian which is more uniform. But it is very difficult to decide as to the character of many portions which are only of a neutral tint. The critics are not agreed as to the arrangement of the several books, but from the considerations adduced by Alexandre and Ewald, we may divide the whole collection into eight pieces of different date and authorship. The first and oldest is undoubtedly the prologue of Book i. and parts of Book iii. (97–828). This portion was the work of an Alexandrian Jew, who wrote under Ptolemy VII. Physcon, about B.C. 140. It is by far the most important of all the poems, and worthy of the fullest investigation, as it is the longest pre-Christian production in the whole series. There is one other, and only one other, certainly pre-Christian section in the whole collection. This fragment is found in vers. 36–92 of the same third book, and from internal evidence is assigned to B.C. 40, the time of the first Triumvirate. The second piece, Book iv., is regarded as the most ancient of the Christian Sibyllines, though there is nothing in it distinctively Christian, and it may well have been the work of a Jew. Its date is considered to be about A.D. 80. The third is a conglomeration of Jewish and Christian compositions, the Jewish preponderating. Much of it belongs to the first Christian century. It consists of the whole, or nearly the whole, of Book v. The fourth piece is composed of Books vi. and vii., and, as Ewald thinks, the first part of Book v.; but this latter assertion is doubtful. This is of a Christian character, though decidedy heretical, and is referred to the early part of the third century A.D. The fifth is found in Book viii., vers. 1–360, Christian and orthodox, a little later than the last. The sixth consists of the rest of the eighth Book. The seventh is composed of Books i., ii., and the first thirty-five verses of Book iii., and was written about the middle of the third Christian century. The last piece contains Books xi., xii., xiii., xiv., and is the production of a Jew in Egypt, who had some acquaintance with Christian rites and doctrine. Thus these “Oracles” cover a space of more than four hundred years, and give an insight into the tenets and feelings of Jews and Christians at an epoch the most important in the religious history of man.

Being of this miscellaneous character, the Sibyllines must be regarded as speaking each one for itself alone. In tracing any particular view or tenet or idea, we cannot, as in the ordinary case of a book composed at a definite time and place by a single author, say generally the Sibylline Oracles express this or that opinion; but we must carefully regard the passage where the opinion occurs, and decide when it was written, and whether by Jew, Christian, or semi-pagan; for on our determination of these questions depends the value of the given statement. Unfortunately, the interpolations of later hands are so numerous, that it is impossible in all cases to assign date or locality with absolute certainty. We are not about to attempt any critical examination of the text in this paper; the design is more humble, viz. to give readers some idea of the contents of these books, keeping distinct the groups into which they seem naturally to divide themselves, and to show their bearing on the religious ideas of the two centuries preceding and subsequent to the time of our Lord.

For the benefit of those who have not seen the original, it may be premised that the poems take the same form as, and endeavour to assume the outward character of, the ancient heathen oracles. They are written in Homeric hexameter verse, but with great licence as to the quantities of words, accent often being taken to lengthen a short syllable, e.g. iii. 1: Οὐράνἰ ὑψιβρεμέτα μάκαρ, ὃς ἔχεις τὸ Χερουβίμ, and quantities are in the most regal manner made to give way to the necessities of the verse, even without the excuse of accent, e.g. v. 272: αὐτοὺς δὲ κρύψουσιν ἕως κόσμος ἀλλαγῃ, the last two feet doing duty for spondees. It is supposed that the most ancient Sibylline verses were acrostics. Of this kind of verse one celebrated specimen occurs in Book viii., vers. 217–250, part of which in a Latin form has been preserved by St. Augustine (De Civit. xviii. 23). The passage in the Greek consists of thirty-four lines, the initials of which make the words ἸΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΕΙΣΤΟΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΥΙΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΣΤΑΥΡΟΣ. The Latin version omits the last word, employs C and S to represent Σ, and finding a difficulty in the use of the Greek letter υ, has substituted others in its place, which may possibly represent the current pronunciation; so that, as it stands, the initials compose the words: JESVCS · CREISTOS · TEV · DNIOS · SOTER.

The earliest portion of the work is found, as has been said, in Book iii., combined with some older Gentile verses and some later Christian interpolations. All critics agree in this view, and many consider the prologue placed now before Book i. to be of equal antiquity. There are fragments not found in the extant MSS. of the Sibylline Oracles, but preserved by Theophilus and Lactantius, and ascribed by the latter to the Erythræan Sibyl. After enumerating ten Sibyls, he proceeds (Instit. i. 6): “The verses of these Sibyls are all in circulation except those of the Cumaean, which are reserved in secret by the Romans, and are inspected by none but the Quindecimviri. They are the work of different authors, though often ascribed to one, who passed by the generic name of Sibyl. It is impossible to discriminate the writers, except in the case of the Erythraean, who inserts her own name in her poem, and is called Erythraean, though sprung from Babylon.” Some of the lines have been inserted by the original collector in the first part of the third book, and it is probably owing to this that the MSS. have ceased to contain the prologue, as it was thought unnecessary to transcribe what would be found in another place. The prologue, which probably formed the original introduction to Book iii., begins with an exhortation to the Gentiles to leave their false deities, and to worship the one true God, “who reigns alone, almighty, unbegotten, seeing all yet seen of none.” “Ye shall have the reward of your evil counsel,” says the Sibyl, “because, neglecting to honour the true, everlasting God, and to offer to Him sacred hecatombs, ye have made your sacrifices to the deities of Hades.” The Fathers have seen in these words a wonderful advance of heathenism towards right religion. But, of course, they are not the genuine utterances of a heathen; they are written by a Jew personifying the pagan Sibyl. The following argument, however, seems to be genuine. It is preserved by Theophilus in his second book against Autolycus (p. 348), and takes the form of a kind of syllogism: “If gods beget, and are indeed immortal, they would be far more numerous than men, nor would any place be found for mortals whereon to stand. And if all that is begotten perishes, no god could ever have sprung from a human womb. But God is one, alone, supreme, who made heaven and sun,” etc., “incorruptible, creator, eternal, dwelling in the air; who to the good proffers good as an exceeding great reward, and against the evil raises up wrath and anger, war and pestilence, yea, lamentable woes.” The closing lines of the prologue point to a late Jewish origin, the mention of Paradise in the sense of the abode of spirits never occurring in the Old Testament save in Ecclus. xliv. 16, and then only in the old Latin version, speaking of the translation of Enoch. The prologue ends thus: “But they who honour the true, eternal God shall inherit life, dwelling for ever in the fair garden of Paradise, feasting on sweet bread from the starry heaven.” The inheritance of life, the abode in Paradise, and the feeding on manna savour of New Testament terminology, and, if not of Christian derivation, are remarkable as anticipative of Christian doctrine. That the author was an Alexandrian Jew, and assumed the position of the writer of the Book of Wisdom, seems tolerably certain, if we regard his allusions to beast-worship. “O ye men,” he cries, “are ye not ashamed to make gods of pole-cats (γαλᾶς) and brutes? Has not madness and frenzy robbed you of your senses if ye think that gods plunder dishes and pots, and, instead of dwelling in the rich, golden heaven, look upon moth-eaten robes, and are begirt with spiders’ webs? Fools, to adore snakes, dogs, weasels, and birds of air, and creeping things of earth, and images of stone, and statues made by hand, and cairns by the roadside: these things ye worship and many other vanities which it were a shame even to mention.” Plainly the writer of these lines must have had before his eyes the abominations of Egyptian idolatry, and was expressing his hatred of a religion, the material forms of which were daily forced upon his notice. But he differs from many of his countrymen in his eschatological views. There is no trace of millennarianism, or of a reign of Messiah before the final judgment, or of a first resurrection which shall affect the righteous only—doctrines which are found continually in later books. Here there is only one judgment for all, which shall decide the fate of good and bad, who shall at once receive their appointed lot, the former entering upon an eternal life of happiness in an earthly Paradise, the latter going away into eternal fire.

We come now to the consideration of the most important and characteristic of the Oracles, viz. the most ancient portions of Book iii., vers. 97–294 and 489-828. The intervening lines, vers. 295–488, forming the second section of the book, are an interpolation of a heterogeneous character, and will be noticed further on. The writer of the genuine poem is evidently an Alexandrian Jew, living in the second century before Christ. The determination of the date of the composition depends on internal considerations. The author is acquainted with the Book of Daniel, and with the expedition, of Antiochus Epiphanes to Egypt. This affords some clue; but there is a closer limitation. After the division of the Macedonian kingdom, it is said that another empire shall be established by “a toga-clad and republican nation,” which shall deal hardly with Macedonia until “the seventh king of Grecian origin shall reign in Egypt.” The allusion here must be to Ptolemy Physcon, who, after his brother Philometor’s death, reigned as sole king (B.C. 145–117), having been associated with him for a time (B.C. 170–164) before he was banished from Egypt. He was the seventh sovereign of Hellenic race. Another criterion is the allusion to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, which, as is well known, were overthrown B.C. 146.

The beginning of the poem evidently is absent. It now commences abruptly with an account of the building of the Tower of Babel, its overthrow by violent winds, and the dispersion of mankind consequent upon the confusion of tongues. Then follows a section, derived from Hesiod and other heathen sources, detailing the legends of the sons of Saturn and the Titans from the tenth generation after the Flood, wherein the gods of antiquity appear as human kings, and which are recounted in order to show how war was introduced into the world, and how other kingdoms arose. The history of the ancient empires—Persians, Medes, Assyrians, etc.—is dismissed in a few verses, the author arriving at a stride at Rome; and then merging into prophecy, the Sibyl foretells the prosperity of the kingdom of Solomon, whose dominion extends over Phoenicia, Asia Minor, the neighbouring islands, and Persia—an exaggeration which could scarcely have been made by any one but a Jew of a late period. After a short episode concerning the Greeks and Macedonians, the Sibyl proceeds to inveigh against Rome, “a nation clad in white, many-headed, which, coming from the Western Sea, shall grow into a mighty empire and shake the throne of kings.” Of its rapine and luxury, its gross licentiousness and profanity, its cruelty and oppression, she speaks in severest terms, and predicts a retributive punishment soon to fall. This is to happen in times when “the nation of the mighty God shall once again be strong, and become to all peoples the guide of life.” An eloquent passage follows, containing the history of the Jews unto the return from exile. The opening lines are fine:—

There is a city in the land of the Chaldæans from which arose the most righteous race of men, whose care was good counsel and fair deeds. For they regard not with anxious thought the course of sun and moon, nor the wonders that are found on earth, nor the depth of ocean’s blue-eyed sea, nor the omens of a sneeze and the birds of the augur, nor seers, nor sorcerers, nor charmers, nor ventriloquists’ fond deceits; they study not the predictions of Chaldæan astrologers; they observe not the stars; for merest fraud are all such things, which men in their folly day by day explore, exercising their soul in no useful work, teaching error unto hapless mortals; whence many evils have befallen the inhabitants of earth, so that they have strayed from the paths of righteousness. But, on the other hand, this people make righteousness and virtue their sole care; they shun avarice, which to the race of man brings numberless evils, wars, and famine past escape. Just bounds are theirs in town and field; no thief steals by night into their houses; they harry not their neighbours’ flocks of oxen, sheep, and goats, nor violate their neighbours’ boundaries; the rich man vexes not his poorer brother, nor harasses the widow, but rather aids her from his stores of corn and wine and oil; ever is he a blessing to them who have nothing; ever of his harvest he gives a share to the needy. Thus they fulfil the command of the great God, which is their ordered song; for the heavenly Father has given the earth as the common possession of all men.—Vers. 218–248.

This eloquent passage, which indeed is an amplification of the warnings in Deut. xviii., is succeeded by an abstract of the history of Israel in the form of prophecy. The exodus is noticed, and the promulgation of the law at Sinai, and the happy life in the Holy Land, “when to them alone among mankind the fruitful earth returned a hundredfold—such were the measures of God.” But the exile in Assyria follows and the ruin of the once favoured land, a punishment of the people’s idolatry. Therefore for seventy years the country lies desolate, till a king sent from heaven,—Cyrus,—warned by a holy dream, restores Judah, the royal tribe, and all the kings of Persia give means to rebuild the temple.

The last section of the poem (vers. 489–807) is occupied with various predictions concerning the nations of the earth. In the epilogue (vers. 808–828) the Sibyl speaks of herself (though some critics regard this notice as a later interpolation), affirming that, while fame tells that she came from Erythrae, or was the daughter of Circe, she was in fact the daughter-in-law of Noah, and shut up with him in the ark. She asserts emphatically that she came from Babylon inspired (οἰστρομανής) to foretell the future to mortals. “The Greeks,” she says, “assert that I am from Erythræ, or the daughter of Circe and Gnostos, and that I am insane and a false prophetess; but when my predictions shall be fulfilled, then shall ye remember me, and own that I am not mad, but a true prophetess of God” (808 ff.). Of the prophecy itself the following may be taken as a summary, though very often it is difficult to see to what events in history the seer refers, and sometimes there is known no fact corresponding to the fate announced:—Phoenicia shall be utterly destroyed, so that not a tribe shall be left, because of her lying lips and lawless life, and her proud exultation against the mighty God, A horrible end awaits Crete, whose smoking ruins all the world shall see. Thrace shall pass under the servile yoke, when a mixed horde of Galatians and Phrygians (Dardanidæ) shall overrun the fields of Greece. Evil shall befall Gog and Magog, the Marsi and Daci.” Under these appellations the extreme northern nations are meant; the Marsi were always formidable in Roman eyes, and the Dacians are often enumerated among Scythian tribes. This loose geography may be expected in a Jew living at Alexandria. Woe is next denounced on the peoples of Asia Minor—on Moors, Ethiopians, and Arabians; and then the ruin of Greece is predicted, when a barbarous nation shall invade it, and rapine and cruelty and slaughter shall reign throughout the land. This refers to the proceedings of the Romans in the Macedonian and Achaic wars. Man’s share in this destruction shall be aided by Nature: plague, fire, famine shall do their part, so that scarce a third of the inhabitants shall remain. These evils are a punishment for the idolatry which profane kings introduced into Greece “fifteen hundred years ago.” What this limitation of time may mean cannot accurately be determined. Dating it from the Sibyl’s age, it would land us in an epoch long anterior to the Trojan war, about which we can form only conjectures. But the seer looks forward to better days. Greece will some day cast away its idols and turn to the true God, and with hands uplifted implore His help, offering to Him the sacrifices which once were paid to false gods. And then, led away, as it seems, by the temporary prosperity of the Jews under the Maccabæan rule, the author utters his Messianic hopes in glowing language, contrasting the peace and happiness of the favoured people with the wars and misery which were the heathen’s portion. “The holy race shall cleave unto the Most High God, and honour His temple with libations and incense and sacred hecatombs, and offer on the great altar fat thighs of rams. Righteously observing the holy law, they shall live happy in city and field, and, themselves becoming prophets, shall bring joy to all men; for to them alone of mortals hath God given wisdom and faith. They make no gods of gold or silver, nor pictured forms of beasts to worship; but ever they raise pure arms to heaven, in early morning rising from their bed to cleanse their hands with water; they honour the eternal God and their parents; they love chastity and the bed undefiled, nor ever practise the shameful vices of the heathen, which have brought on these infinite misery.” But a day shall come when idolatry shall be abolished, and the pagans shall hide their images in the holes of the rocks for very shame. This blessed change shall take place “what time a new king shall rule over Egypt, the seventh in succession of the Grecian supremacy,” i.e. as we have seen, in the reign of Ptolemy Physcon. At that time “a mighty king from Asia, like a rapacious eagle”—Antiochus Epiphanes—shall ravage Egypt, and carry off large booty across the sea. Taught by these sufferings, the nation shall bow its knee to the great God of heaven, and burn its idols; and the Lord shall make all the land rejoice; and earth shall give her increase, and there shall be abundance of flocks and herds and of everything that sustains the life of men. This passage places us at the standpoint of the writer, who, knowing nothing of subsequent events, takes occasion from the happy circumstances of the Jews at this epoch to picture the peaceful life of the righteous nation in anticipation of the glories of Messiah’s kingdom. At the same time, he warns the Gentiles that first shall arise terrible tribulation from the cruel inroads of a barbarous people, meaning probably the Romans. At the close of this distress Messiah shall come. “Then from the rising sun God shall send a king, who shall make all the earth to cease from cruel war, killing indeed some, making faithful treaties with others. Not by his own counsels shall he do all this, but in obedience to the good decrees of Almighty God. And the Lord’s people shall be rich with every blessing, with gold and silver and purple raiment; land and sea shall fill them with good things.” Nations shall war against the holy people, eager to destroy the temple of God, and bring in their own idolatrous worship; but the hand of the Lord shall be heavy upon them, and shall rain destruction upon them from heaven. “In those days the whole earth shall be shaken, and all the inhabitants thereof, and great fear shall be on every side. He shall rend asunder the mountains, and lay open the abyss, and fill the places with dead bodies, and lay low the walls of evil men, because they knew, not the law of God, and raised their weapons against the holy place.” And this destruction shall fall upon them until they recognise God, the righteous Judge. Here, as the seer unfolds the mighty future, he claims for his utterances the gift of inspiration. “The great eternal God Himself bade me prophesy these things, all of which shall be fulfilled in their season; for the Spirit of God throughout the world is true.” Then follows another glowing description of the felicity of the chosen people, who shall dwell in peace and plenty under the immediate protection of God. “Oh, how greatly doth the Immortal love these men! shall all the islands and cities say; for all things sympathise with them and bring them help, both heaven, and moon, and God-moved sun.” At sight of this prosperity the Gentiles shall turn to God, and call on one another to come and offer sacrifice to the Almighty, and to be obedient to His law. Now the prophet calls upon Greece (i.e. the land of Egypt) to aid the Jews dwelling there to return to their own country, and to take part in the struggle then being carried on under the brave Maccabees. If the Egyptians shall neglect to do this, and shall still cleave to their idolatry and heathen vice, they shall lose all share in the felicity of the Messianic kingdom, “when the fated end shall arrive, and the judgment of the eternal God shall fall upon mortal men.” A still more glowing description of this happy time follows, very similar to the classic accounts of the golden age; and the Lord, it is said, in the starry heaven shall give one common law to all the earth, “for He is God alone, and there is none but He.” And when His kingdom is established over all men, then shall they bring incense and offerings to the one house of God which shall stand for ever. Here the writer evidently looks forward to the permanence and unique position of the temple at Jerusalem, once polluted by Antiochus, but now purified and restored by the piety of the Maccabees. By land and sea, he says, the peoples shall flock to the Holy City to pay their vows; and this they can do because it shall be a time of universal peace, when “the prophets of God shall take away the sword from among mankind, and they themselves shall be the kings and righteous judges of mortal men; and He shall dwell with them and be their everlasting light.” What signs shall precede this happy reign of Messiah? They are these: flaming swords in the sky seen by night in the east and west; storms of dust; the light of the sun failing in mid-day, and the moon’s rays falling on earth at unusual times; blood flowing from rocks; warriors and huntsmen appearing in the clouds of heaven.