THE GREEK APOCALYPSE OF BARUCH

(INTRODUCTION)

HERE is a Book of Baruch among those apocrypha

class; that is, books still accepted by the Roman Catholic church and occasionally reprinted even in Protestant Bibles. There are also six or seven other Baruch apocrypha. Baruch's name was naturally borrowed as one under which to announce religious preachings; for he appears in the Old Testament as a lesser prophet or scribe, the staunch supporter of the greater prophet Jeremiah through all the latter's tribulations. Again and again Baruch is represented as reading to the people from his book. Hence many books were afterward assigned to him.

Among these was the Apocalypse here given. It is a Greek work of the second century after Christ; but behind this there must have been a Jewish original, for much of the thought is Hebraic. This Greek version was written by a Christian, whose main purpose seems to have been to warn the unconverted Jews of their wickedness in not accepting Christianity. This then is a typical apocrypha of the apocalypse" class. That is, it depicts an ancient prophet as foreseeing the end of the world, or in this case the heavens beyond the world, and it describes this vision with an earnest ethical purpose.

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The "seven heavens" described in this apocalypse form the most complete and fully organized idea of a heavenly kingdom or social world preserved from Hebraic or early Christian teaching. Indeed it is the theology of this book which lends its chief interest. The intercession of angels for men is taught, and, more important still, Adam is not represented as plunging all his race into sin. Each man is here definitely declared to be his own Adam, causing his own fall. "The men who now drink insatiably the wine transgress worse than Adam."

A narrative and revelation of Baruch, concerning those ineffable things which he saw by command of God. Bless Thou, O Lord.

A revelation of Baruch, who stood upon the river Gel weeping over the captivity of Jerusalem, when also Abimelech was preserved by the hand of God, at the farm of Agrippa. And he was sitting thus at the beautiful gates, where the Holy of holies lay.

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Verily I, Baruch, was weeping in my mind and sorrowing on account of the people, and that Nebuchadrezzar the King was permitted by God to destroy His city, saying: Lord, why didst Thou set on fire Thy vineyard, and lay it waste? Why didst Thou do this? And why, Lord, didst Thou not requite us with another chastisement, but didst deliver us to nations such as these, so that they reproach us and say, Where is their God? And behold as I was weeping and saying such things, I saw an angel of the Lord coming and saying to me: Understand, O man, greatly beloved, and trouble not thyself so greatly concerning the salvation of Jerusalem, for thus saith the Lord God the Almighty. For He sent me before thee, to make known and to show to thee all the things of God. For thy prayer was heard before Him, and entered into the ears of the Lord God. And when

1 It is recorded that Abimelech fell asleep in the garden of Agrippa at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and did not awake for sixtysix years.

2"The farm of Agrippa." Rendel Harris identifies this with the fertile valley below Solomon's Pools, known as Solomon's Gardens. See Josephus, "Antiquities," viii. 7. 3, “There was a certain place about fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which is called Etham, very pleasant it is in fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of water; thither did he (Solomon) use to go out in the morning."

he had said these things to me, I was silent. And the angel said to me: Cease to provoke God, and I will show thee other mysteries, greater than these. And I, Baruch, said, As the Lord God liveth, if thou wilt show me, and I hear a word of thine, I will not continue to speak any longer. God shall add to my judgment in the day of judgment, if I speak hereafter. And the angel of the powers said to me, Come and I will show thee the mysteries of God.

And he took me and led me where the firmament has been set fast, and where there was a river which no one can cross, nor any strange breeze of all those which God created. And he took me and led me to the first heaven, and showed me a door of great size. And he said to me, Let us enter through it, and we entered as though borne on wings, a distance of about thirty days' journey. And he showed me within the heaven a plain; and there were men dwelling thereon, with the faces of oxen, and the horns of stags, and the feet of goats, and the haunches of lambs. And I, Baruch, asked the angel, Make known to me, I pray thee, what is the thickness of the heaven in which we journeyed, or what is its extent, or what is the plain, in order that I may also tell the sons of men? And the angel whose name is Phamael said to me: This door which thou seest is the door of heaven, and as great as is the distance from earth to heaven, so great also is its thickness; and again as great as is the distance from North to South, so great is the length of the plain which thou didst see. And again the angel of the powers said to me, Come, and I will show thee greater mysteries. But I said, pray thee show me what are these men. he said to me, These are they who built the tower of strife against God, and the Lord banished them.

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And the angel of the Lord took me and led me to a second heaven. And he showed me there also a door like the first and said, Let us enter through it. And we entered, being

borne on wings a distance of about sixty days' journey. And he showed me there also a plain, and it was full of men, whose appearance was like that of dogs, and whose feet were like those of stags. And I asked the angel: I pray thee, Lord, say to me who are these. And he said, These are they who gave counsel to build the tower, for they whom thou seest drove forth multitudes of both men and women, to make bricks; among whom, a woman making bricks was not allowed to be released in the hour of child-birth, but brought forth while she was making bricks, and carried her child in her apron, and continued to make bricks. And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixtythree cubits. And they took a gimlet, and sought to pierce the heaven, saying, Let us see whether the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron. When God saw this He did not permit them, but smote them with blindness and confusion of speech, and rendered them as thou seest.

And I, Baruch, said, Behold, Lord, Thou didst show me great and wonderful things; and now show me all things for the sake of the Lord. And the angel said to me, Come, let us proceed. And I proceeded with the angel from that place about one hundred and eighty-five days' journey. And he showed me a plain and a serpent, which appeared to be two hundred plethra in length. And he showed me Hades, and its appearance was dark and abominable. And I said, Who is this dragon, and who is this monster around him? And the angel said, The dragon is he who eats the bodies of those who spend their life wickedly, and he is nourished by them. And this is Hades, which itself also closely resembles him, in that it also drinks about a cubit from the sea, which does not sink at all. Baruch said, And how does this happen? And the angel said, Harken, the Lord God made three hundred and sixty rivers, of which the chief of all are Alphias, Abyrus, and the Gericus; and because of these the sea does not sink. And I said, I pray thee show me which is the

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tree which led Adam astray. And the angel said to me, It is the vine, which the angel Sammael planted, whereat the Lord God was angry, and He cursed him and his plant, while also on this account He did not permit Adam to touch it, and therefore the devil being envious deceived him through his vine. [And I, Baruch, said," Since also the vine has been the cause of such great evil, and is under judgment of the curse of God, and was the destruction of the first created, how is it now so useful? And the angel said, Thou askest aright. When God caused the deluge upon earth, and destroyed all flesh, and four hundred and nine thousand giants, and the water rose fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, then the water entered into paradise and destroyed every flower; but it removed wholly without the bounds the shoot of the vine and cast it outside. And when the earth appeared out of the water, and Noah came out of the ark, he began to plant of the plants which he found. But he found also the shoot of the vine; and he took it, and was reasoning in himself, What then is it? And I came and spake to him the things concerning it. And he said, Shall I plant it, or what shall I do? Since Adam was destroyed because of it, let me not also meet with the anger of God because of it. And saying these things he prayed that God would reveal to him what he should do concerning it. And

3" The tree which led Adam astray." The transition is sudden, but there may be a hiatus in the narrative. Baruch is still in the third heaven, where paradise was placed, and by now the angel may have shown him it. In the Slavonic the story of the vine does not break into the description of the dragon, but comes after it.

4 The conception of the grape-vine as the forbidden tree is very old. It is related of Shamdon (Asmodeus) that at the planting of the first vine by Noah, he helped with the work and said to Noah: "I want to join you in your labor and share with you; but take heed that I take not of your portion, lest I do you harm." The story does not occur elsewhere in the exact form of that of the text.

5 Slavonic reads "Satanïl." Sammael was originally one of the chief archangels, but tempted Eve with a view to making the earth his kingdom. Thenceforth he is the chief of the Satans, the angel of death, and Israel's special foe.

The passage in brackets is clearly an interpolation by the Christian redactor, who felt it necessary to modify the condemnation of wine, on account of its use in the Eucharist.