Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/197

APOCRYPHA 183 Parallel to this inquiry, or almost a part of it, runs another, viz., that as to the origin and development of the parties which figure so prominently in the pages of the New Testament. All these parties date in their germs from the times of the Restoration, or those not greatly posterior, and may roughly be divided into two those who rigidly adhered to their native Judaism, of whom the Pharisees may be considered the chief representatives ; and those who ethnicised, either attaching themselves exclu sively to Gentile culture, or combining elements of foreign thought and worship with their native faith, the most prominent sect in this class being the Sadducees. We may expect to come in the Apocrypha upon many traces of such diverging opinions. A specimen here and there will illustrate the position of things in these books. The want of real life at the time of the Restoration, and the consequent mechanical adherence to ancient forms, was the direct parent of the Pharisaic morality so well known. Already this appears in Tobit. The Pharisee, who went up to the temple to pray, might almost have gathered the elements of his prayer from this book. "Prayer is good with fasting, and alms, and righteousness For alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin" (ch. xii. 8, comp. ch. xiv. 11, and Judith viii. 6, xi. ll,jf.) On the other hand, traces of quite a different morality, allied to asceticism, appear elsewhere, as in the statement of Wisdom ix. 15, regarding the body : " For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things." On the general doctrine of God no advance perhaps was possible. Very lofty things are said by the author of Ecclesiasticus, e.g., ch. xliii. 30, and in many places, but nothing to surpass or even equal what is said in the Old Testament. Perhaps a certain effort is discernible to emphasise the spirituality of God, both directly and by avoiding anthropomorphic images. This effort is far less discernible in the Apocrypha than in the other productions of the same and succeeding ages, such as the Septuagint, the Targums, &c., which are apt to use circumlocutions like the Word of God, the Shekinah, &c., for God. As to the doctrine of the Wisdom there is no doubt a cer tain development of it in these books. But it is doubtful if Wisdom be anything more anywhere than a personification, to which attributes are given that sometimes make it closely resemble the Spirit, and sometimes the Word or Messiah of the New Testament. Certainly the Wisdom is nowhere in these books identified with the Messiah, although the predicates of Wisdom are applied to the Messiah in the New Testament. (Comp. Wisdom vii. 26, with Hebrews i. 3, and the general descriptions of Wisdom, Wisdom ix. 4, 9, /., vii. 12, /., <fec., Ecclesiasticus, ch. i.) The doctrine of the existence of spirits intermediate between God and man, through whom God s providence is often executed, is certainly found in the Old Testament. These spirits seem mostly benevolent, although there is one whose office it ia to accuse and detract, called Satan, whose character seems evil. This spirit appears formally in the prologue to Job, and in Zech. ch. iii ; comp. 1 Chron. xxi. 1. And some have found traces of the belief in evil spirits in the word " Azazel" (Lev. xvi.), as well as in the "satyrs" of Isaiah (xxxiv. 14). In the book of Daniel the doctrine of angels receives a certain addition, inasmuch as first, the general activity and superintendence of these spirits is indicated by the name given to them of " watchers " (ch. iv. 10, ff.} ; and second, it is intimated that every kingdom has its guardian spirit (Dan. x, 13, 20). The Apocrypha repeats this last idea, Eccles. xvii, 17, and so does the Septuagint on Deut. xxxii. 8. But the angelology of the book of Tobit makes a double step forward first, in the direction of teaching a hierarchy among angels " the seven holy angels, which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One" (ch. xii. 15, though comp. Dan. x. 13) ; and second, in assigning special functions to angels, they "pre sent the prayers of the saints," and assume the care of indi viduals (ch. v. jf.) And demonology receives even a more striking though grotesque development. A wicked spirit, named Asmodeus, is represented as falling in love with Sara, daughter of Raguel, and slaying out of jealousy the seven young men to whom she had been successively married, but is at last put to flight by the fumes of the heart and liver of a fish, and bound in chains in the utmost parts of Egypt (ch. iii. 8, vi. 14, viii. 3). Even more instructive is it to trace the advance towards clearness of the doctrines concerning the state of man. Many times what is implied in the Old Testament is stated with explicitness. For example, " God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eter nity ; nevertheless, through envy of the devil, came death into the world, and. they that do hold of his side do find it" (Wisdom ii. 23.) Again, "Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die" (Ecclesiasticus xxv. 24). The references given above will suffice to indicate what lines of study may be pursued in the Apocrypha, and what advantages may be expected to be derived from them. 4. The degree of estimation in which the apocryphal books have been held in the church has varied much according to place and time. As they stood in the Septua gint or Greek Canon, along with the other books, and with no marks of distinction, they were practically employed by the Greek fathers in the same way as the other books; hence Origen, Clement, and others, often cite them as "Scripture," "divine Scripture," "inspired," and the like. On the other hand, teachers connected with Palestine, and familiar with the Hebrew Canon, rigidly exclude all but the books contained there. This view is reflected, for example, in the canon of Melito of Sardis, and in the prefaces and letters of Jerome. Augustine, however, De Dod. Christ, ii. 8, attaches himself to the other side. Two well-defined views in this way prevailed, to which was added a third, according to which the books, though not to be put in the same rank as the canonical Scriptures of the Hebrew col lection, yet were of value for moral uses and to be read in congregations, and hence they were called " ecclesias tical." Notwithstanding the decisions of some councils held in Africa, which were in favour of the view of Augus tine, these diverse opinions regarding the apocryphal books continued to prevail in the church down through the agea till the great dogmatic era of the Reformation. At that epoch the same three opinions were taken up and congealed into dogmas, which may be considered characteristic of the churches adopting them. In 1546 the Council of Trent adopted the Canon of Augustine, declaring " He is also to be anathema who does not receive these entire books, with all their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church, and are found in the ancient editions of the Latin Vulgate, as sacred and canoni cal." The whole of the books in question, with the ex ception of 1st and 2d Esdras and the Prayer of Manasses, were declared canonical at Trent. On the other hand, the Protestants universally adhered to the opinion that only the books in the Hebrew collection are canonical. Already Wycliffe had declared that " whatever book is in the Old Testament besides these twenty-five (Hebrew) shall be set among the Apocrypha, that is without authority of belief." Yet among the churches of the Reformation a milder and a severer view prevailed regarding the Apocrypha. Both in the German and English translations (Luther s, 1537; Coverdale s, 1535, &c.) these books are separated from the

others, and set by themselves ; but while in some con-