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SIBYLLINE ORACLES
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SIBYLLINE ORACLES , a collection of Apocalyptic writings, composed in See also:imitation of the See also:heathen Sibylline books (see SIBYLS) by the See also:Jews and, later, by the Christians in their efforts to win the heathen See also:world to their faith. The fact that they copied the See also:form in which the heathen revelations were conveyed (See also:Greek See also:hexameter verses) and the Homeric See also:language is See also:evidence of a degree of See also:external Hellenization, which is an important fact in the See also:history of See also:post-exilic Judaism. Such was the activity of these Jewish and See also:Christian missionaries that their imitations have swamped the originals. Even See also:Virgil in his See also:fourth See also:Eclogue seems to have used Jewish rather than purely heathen oracles. The extant fragments and conglomerations of the Sibylline oracles, heathen, Jewish and Christian, were collected, examined, translated and explained by C. See also:Alexandre in a monumental edition full of exemplary learning and acumen. On the basis of his results, as they have been scrutinized by scholars like Schiffer and See also:Geffcken, it is possible to disentangle some of the different strata with a certain degree of confidence. 1. See also:Book III. contains Jewish oracles relative to the See also:Golden See also:Age established by See also:Roman supremacy in the See also:East about the See also:middle of the 2nd See also:century B.C. (especially 175-181: cf. 1 See also:Mace. viii. I-16). The evacuation of See also:Egypt by See also:Antiochus Epiphanes at the bidding of the Roman ambassadors suits the warning addressed to " See also:Greece " (732-740) against overweening ambition and any See also:attempt upon the See also:Holy See also:City, which is somewhat strangely enforced by the famous Greek See also:oracle, " Let See also:Camarina be, 'tis best unstirred." Older than these are the Babylonian oracle (97-154) and the See also:Persian (381-387). A later Jewish oracle (46-62) refers to the See also:wars of the second Triumvirate of See also:Rome, and the whole compilation seems to come from a Christian redactor. 2. Book IV. is a definite .attack upon the heathen Sibyl—the Jews and Christians did not attempt to pass off their " forgeries " as genuine—as the See also:mouthpiece of See also:Apollo by a See also:Jew who speaks for the See also:Great See also:God and yet uses a Greek See also:review (49-114) of See also:ancient history from the See also:Assyrian See also:empire. There are references to the legendary See also:escape of See also:Nero to See also:Parthia (119-124) and the destruction of See also:Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (130-136). 3. Book V. contains a more See also:developed form of the myth of Nero redivivus in which a See also:panegyric on him (137-141) has been brought up to date by some Jew or Christian, and eulogies of See also:Hadrian and his successors (48-51) See also:side by side with the See also:legend of the miserable See also:death of See also:Titus in quittance of his destruction of Jerusalem (411-413) which probably represents the See also:hope of the zealots who survived it. 4. The remaining books appear to be Christian (some heretical) and to belong to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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