the angels who sinned in the antediluvian time, then deals with the oppressive shepherds, condemns next the renegade Israelites, and finally justifies those who have observed the Law. After this the old temple is taken away, a new one is brought, and the Messiah is born (90: 28-38).

The variety of details shows the composite nature of this literature. The general scheme, however, is the same: The end of the present state of things is not far away, and the kingdom of God is about to be set up. But whether it will simply renew the glories of Solomon, whether it will be supersensible, whether it will be located in Palestine or in one of the seven heavens-on these points we find a variety of views. Daniel's hope of a resurrection for the exemplary righteous, especially for those who have been martyred for the faith, is improved upon until we get a general resurrection. The sufferers of the Maccabean age express their confidence that they will be raised (IV Mac. 9:8f.), and one writer goes so far as to say that Judas Maccabeus was moved by his belief in a resurrection to offer a sin-offering for those who had died in their defilement (II Mac. 12: 43-45).

The expectation thus set forth in varying forms may be called in the general sense Messianic, but the individual Messiah is not a constant figure in the picture. Where he does appear it is not always clear whether he is thought to be transcendent, a ruler for eternity or for a thousand years, or whether the perpetuity of the dynasty in successive members is intended. To make room for his reign of a thousand years two resurrections are sometimes posited, one at the beginning of the Messianic age, the portion of exemplary Jews, the other at the end of the period, when the whole of mankind will be revived for the final judgment. In one passage Enoch asserts that at the end of the seventh week of the world's history the righteous will rise, and during the eighth week they will execute judgment on the sinners. After this, in the tenth week, will be the general judgment, when: "He will execute judgment on the angels and the first heaven will depart, and a new heaven will appear, and

all the powers of heaven will shine sevenfold for evermore, and after that there will be many weeks without number in goodness and righteousness, and sin will be no more mentioned" (Enoch 91: 10-17; cf. Jubilees 21: 24).

The Son of Man who appears in the book of Daniel is a symbolic figure representative of the people of Israel. The writer thought of the coming commonwealth as a theocracy without human king. A part of the Enoch literature takes the same view. But a part of it looks for a personal Messiah, king of Israel and vicegerent of Yahweh. Enoch borrows from Daniel the figure of the Son of Man and describes him: "With the Ancient of Days was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man and his face was full of graciousness like one of the holy angels. And I asked the angel who went with me concerning that son of man who he was and why he went with the Ancient of Days; and he answered me and said: This is the Son of Man who has righteousness, with whom dwells righteousness, and who reveals all the treasures of that which is hidden, because the Lord of Spirits has chosen him, and his lot before the Lord of Spirits will surpass everything in uprightness forever." There follows a promise that the Son of Man shall overcome all the kings of the earth who oppose themselves to him (Enoch 46). The language might be construed in consistency with the vision of Daniel, where the Son of Man stands for the people, but when the next chapter goes on to say that the prayer of the righteous ascends before the Lord of Spirits in his days (days of the Son of Man) it seems clear that the Son of Man is not himself the personified righteous. Here, therefore, we have the fully developed personal Messiah, who will come to judge the earth. He is, moreover, a superhuman being, one whose name was named before the Lord of Spirits, before the sun and the constellations and the stars were created: "For this reason was he chosen and hidden before him before the creation of the world, and from eternity" (48: 1-6). Enoch saw the Elect One of righteousness and faith, and how righteousness shall

prevail in his days, and the righteous shall be without number before him forever. "And I saw his dwelling place under the wings of the Lord of Spirits, and all the righteous are before him beautifully resplendent as lights of fire” (39 : 6 ƒ.). Elsewhere the Elect One is described sitting on a throne and so dwelling in the midst of the righteous (48:3-5). He is said to judge Azazel and the wicked angels (55:4), and several passages might be quoted to show his office as judge in heaven.

We have before us, then, the fully developed theory that the Messiah who is to rule the coming kingdom is a superhuman person, pre-existent in heaven and only waiting for the time appointed to come from heaven and take the throne. He was created before the stars, but is kept hidden until the day of judgment. This is not so violent a hypothesis as we are at first inclined to think it. If Enoch, the antediluvian patriarch, sees all these things in vision, they must have some sort of existence in his time before they actually become real in the course of history. It is not probable that the writers asked themselves whether this was a real or an ideal pre-existence. In the later Jewish conception many things existed from eternity, or at least from the creation, which were revealed in time-the Law, for example. The book called the Secrets of Enoch declares that all souls were created in the beginning before the foundation of the world (Secrets of Enoch 23). The hypothesis of preexistence enables the author of Enoch to explain the vision of Daniel where the Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven. To the oppressed people of God the thought of an angelic Messiah would be most welcome. His superhuman dignity would be a guarantee of power and permanency for his reign.

While this literature shows that the Messianic hope was cherished by a large section of the Jewish people in this period, it also shows how far the hope was from being consistent. The future glory is to be manifested in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem may be either on earth or in heaven; it may be

a new Jerusalem, a new creation, or it may be something already existing in heaven, shown to Adam, to Abraham, or to Moses. The home of the saints may be in the paradise in which Adam first dwelt, and which is either in one of the heavens or on the earth, in the far east or in the far west; or, on the other hand, the tree of life, the central object of that paradise, may be transplanted to Jerusalem (Enoch 24, 25, and 32). The place of punishment is to be below the earth and its entrance is the ill-omened Valley of Hinnom. Located thus, just under the walls of Jerusalem, it will contribute to the pleasures of the righteous, since they will be able to contrast their own happy state with that of the damned (Enoch 27, 62: 12; cf. Isaiah 66:24). Yet the underworld is also conceived as a temporary paradise, one division of it being the place where the souls of the righteous are reserved until the resurrection. According to one view, when the righteous are raised the wicked will simply be left in this Hades. More general was the idea of a judgment for all men. The Messianic time is in some cases thought to last only a thousand years, during which the righteous will enjoy material good, will possess land of great fruitfulness, will sow seed that will increase a thousandfold, and will beget a thousand children (Enoch 10:17-22). The two monsters, behemoth and leviathan, will be slain and given to the righteous for food, the earth will bring forth a thousandfold, each vine will have a thousand branches, each branch will have a thousand clusters, each cluster a thousand grapes, each grape will yield a cor of wine, and the manna will again fall from heaven so that no one need hunger (Apocalypse of Baruch 29). Similar millennial dreams were cherished in the Church, as we well know. They show the power which the apocalypses exercised over the minds of those who sighed for the redemption of Israel.

CHAPTER XIX

THE TREASURE OF THE HUMBLE

By common consent the book of Psalms represents the culmination of Israelitic religion. This is attested by the New Testament and by the place which the book has taken and still holds in the Christian Church. It is the culmination not only in tone but also in time, being one of the latest, if not the latest, of the Old Testament books. The tradition which ascribes, or which seems to ascribe, a large number of the poems to David as author is now generally given up. It is as certain as anything can be that the collection contains Maccabean compositions,1 and the final redaction of the book took place not long before the beginning of our era. This being so, it is not probable that any portion of it can be older than the Exile, and for our purpose it is safest to see in it the expression of Jewish piety of the latest period. That the book as we have it is made up from a variety of sources is evident on the surface. Poems similar in tone to the Psalms are found in some of the prophetic books and must be judged to be late insertions in those books.2

The Psalter is a book of devotion. It is often called the hymn-book of the second temple, but this is somewhat misleading. Some parts of it seem to have been contributed by the musical guilds (those ascribed to the sons of Korah, to Asaph, or Jeduthun), and the ascriptions of praise which fill the last section of the book are appropriate for the public service. But these make up only a fraction of the

1 The most convincing example is Psalm 74.

2 Examples are Isaiah 12 and 25: 1-5, the psalm of Habakkuk, already discussed, and several passages in Chronicles.