"and obtain righteousness with the Lord of spirits. Peace be to the saints with the Lord “of the world.—There shall be light intermi"nable, nor shall they enter upon the enume"ration of time, for darkness shall be previously 66 destroyed, and light shall increase before the "Lord of spirits; before the Lord of spirits "shall the light of uprightness increase for 66 ever." Although we find no absolute quotation in this instance, it is yet difficult to conceive that one of these passages has not been imitated from the other, especially as the passage of Enoch, like the Sibyl, is, "concerning the saints and the "elect." In the third book these lines occur “Ανθ' ων επτα χρονων δεκαδας γη καρποδότειρα, 66 Wherefore, for seventy times, your fruitful land "Shall lie deserted, and your glorious house; "Yet shall your end be good, your glory great; "For thee, though mortal, thus hath God ordained." In the apocryphal "Testaments of the Twelve * P. 239. "Patriarchs," the date of which, as I have already observed, is early in the second century, the following words occur, in the Testament of Levi*: 66 66 66 66 “ Και νυν εν βιβλιῳ Ενωχ, οτι εβδομηκοντα εβδομαδας πλανηθησεσθε, και την ιερωσυνην βεβηλωσετε, "And now I know, from the book of Enoch, "that you will err for seventy weeks, and you "will profane the priesthood, and defile the "sacrifices, until he again shall look upon you, "and pitying you, shall receive you in faith and "baptism." This appears to have been collected from the Book of History †, in borrowing from which, however, the author of the Testaments has taken the number of seventy shepherds, to represent the duration of the weeks foretold by the Prophet Daniel; and as the Sibylline book has followed this example, it appears that the quotation of the Sibyl has not been taken directly from Enoch, *Fabr. Codex Pseudepigraphus, vol. i. p. 581. Translation, p. 125–133. A a but from the Testaments. The motive of the ap writer must have been to draw from this source a portion of what he supposed to be an ancient prophecy; from whence it appears that the book of Enoch itself was not within his reach, or he would, doubtless, have quoted from it with greater correctness. Yet almost immediately subsequent to this passage is another, which pears to have been derived from the prophecy of Enoch itself, and thus we should appear to arrive at a contrary conclusion. But if, as I have already suggested, it be probable that portions of the book of Enoch were among the collection of Sibylline verses before the Christian era, we shall only infer, that the passage which follows has been preserved through that independent channel. As the prophecy, indeed, with which this passage agrees, whatever may be its authority, contains a view of the events of every successive age, and as the circumstances there mentioned, as well as the computation made use of, are quite inconsistent with the Book of History, we must necessarily infer, that the whole of it could not have been within the knowledge of the same writer, who made the previous quotation; and thus we have at least internal evidence of the existence of some original document, of which the following lines contain a remnant :— 66 66 “ Και τοτε δη θεος ουρανόθεν πεμψει βασιληα, Κρινει δ' ανδρα εκαστον εν αιματι και πυρος αυγῃ. “ Εστι δε τις φυλη βασιλειος, ης γενος εσται “ Απταιστον, και τουτο χρονοις περιτελλομενοισι 66 Αρξει, και καινον σηκον θεου αρξετ' εγείρειν.” “Then from the heaven shall God send forth a king, In the prophecy of Enoch, it is said * : given a sword to execute justice and judgment upon all oppressors. Sinners shall be deli"vered up into the hand of the righteous, who, 66 during its completion, shall acquire habita"tions by their righteousness; and the house of "the great king shall be built up for ever." The first line of the Sibyl appears to have been taken from another passage, where it is said, * Translation, p. 140. that "the elect one shall sit upon the throne of "his glory;" but what follows, although not identical in expression, is so similar in arrangement to the part of Enoch which I have subjoined to it, that I think the identity of the origin of both can hardly be doubted; for it will be observed, that in both cases the punishment of the wicked, the dominion of the righteous, and the building of the house of God, follow each other in the same order. The celebrated lines which foretel the destruction of Samos and of Rome, are found in the third and also in the eighth book; thus not only affording, by this repetition, an evidence that these books were compiled by two different authors, but likewise tending towards the same conclusion from the difference of arrangement in the two instances in which these lines occur. In both cases the names of Rome, of Samos, and of Delos, are mentioned; but in the eighth book, the last line is incomplete and while this passage, in the third book, appropriately closes an allusion to the city of Rome, it is added in the eighth, without much apparent connexion, |