(a) _Historical_.
History of Johannes Hyrcanus.
(b) _Legendary_.
Book of Jubilees.
Paralipomena Jeremiae, or the Rest of the Words of Baruch.
Martyrdom of Isaiah.
Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum.
Books of Adam.
Jannes and Jambres.
Joseph and Asenath.
(c) _Apocalyptic_.
(See separate article.)
(d) _Didactic or Sapiential_.
Pirke Aboth.
(a) _Historical._--_The History of Johannes Hyrcanus_ is mentioned in 1
Macc. xvi. 23-24, but no trace has been discovered of its existence
elsewhere. It must have early passed out of circulation, as it was
unknown to Josephus.
(b) _Legendary._--The _Book of Jubilees_ was written in Hebrew by a
Pharisee between the year of the accession of Hyrcanus to the
high-priesthood in 135 and his breach with the Pharisees some years
before his death in 105 B.C. _Jubilees_ was translated into Greek and
from Greek into Ethiopic and Latin. It is preserved in its entirety
only in Ethiopic. _Jubilees_ is the most advanced pre-Christian
representative of the midrashic tendency, which was already at work in
the Old Testament 1 and 2 Chronicles. As the chronicler rewrote the
history of Israel and Judah from the basis of the Priests' Code, so our
author re-edited from the Pharisaic standpoint of his time the book of
Genesis and the early chapters of Exodus. His work constitutes an
enlarged targum on these books, and its object is to prove the
everlasting validity of the law, which, though revealed in time, was
superior to time. Writing in the palmiest days of the Maccabean
dominion, he looked for the immediate advent of the Messianic kingdom.
This kingdom was to be ruled over by a Messiah sprung not from Judah but
from Levi, that is, from the reigning Maccabean family. This kingdom was
to be gradually realized on earth, the transformation of physical nature
going hand in hand with the ethical transformation of man. (For a fuller
account see JUBILEES, BOOK OF.)
_Paralipomena Jeremiae_, or the _Rest of the Words of Baruch._--This
book has been preserved in Greek, Ethiopic, Armenian and Slavonic. The
Greek was first printed at Venice in 1609, and next by Ceriani in 1868
under the title _Paralipomena Jeremiae_. It bears the same name in the
Armenian, but in Ethiopic it is known by the second title. (See under
BARUCH.)
_Martyrdom of Isaiah._--This Jewish work has been in part preserved in
the _Ascension of Isaiah_. To it belong i. 1, 2^a, 6^b-13^a; ii. 1-8,
10-iii. 12; v. 1^c-14 of that book. It is of Jewish origin, and recounts
the martyrdom of Isaiah at the hands of Manasseh. (See ISAIAH, ASCENSION
OF.)
_Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum._--Though the Latin
version of this book was thrice printed in the 16th century (in 1527,
1550 and 1599), it was practically unknown to modern scholars till it
was recognized by Conybeare and discussed by Cohn in the _Jewish
Quarterly Review_, 1898, pp. 279-332. It is an Haggadic revision of the
Biblical history from Adam to the death of Saul. Its chronology agrees
frequently with the LXX. against that of the Massoretic text, though
conversely in a few cases. The Latin is undoubtedly translated from the
Greek. Greek words are frequently transliterated. While the LXX. is
occasionally followed in its translation of Biblical passages, in others
the Massoretic is followed against the LXX., and in one or two passages
the text presupposes a text different from both. On many grounds Cohn
infers a Hebrew original. The eschatology is similar to that taught in
the similitudes of the Book of Enoch. In fact, Eth. En. li. 1 is
reproduced in this connexion. Prayers of the departed are said to be
valueless. The book was written after A.D. 70; for, as Cohn has shown,
the exact date of the fall of Herod's temple is predicted.
_Life of Adam and Eve._--Writings dealing with this subject are extant
in Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Syriac, Armenian and Arabic. They go back
undoubtedly to a Jewish basis, but in some of the forms in which they
appear at present they are christianized throughout. The oldest and for
the most part Jewish portion of this literature is preserved to us in
Greek, Armenian, Latin and Slavonic, (i.) The Greek [Greek: Diegesis
peri Adam kai Euas] (published under the misleading title [Greek:
Apokalypsis Mouseos] in Tischendorf's _Apocalypses Apocryphae_, 1866)
deals with the Fall and the death of Adam and Eve. Ceriani edited this
text from a Milan MS. (_Monumenta Sacra et Profana_, v. i). This work is
found also in Armenian, and has been published by the Mechitharist
community in Venice in their _Collection of Uncanonical Writings of the
Old Testament_, and translated by Conybeare (_Jewish Quarterly Review_,
vii. 216 sqq., 1895), and by Issaverdens in 1901. (ii.) The _Vita Adae
et Evae_ is closely related and in part identical with (i.). It was
printed by W. Meyer in _Abh. d. Munch. Akad._, Philos.-philol. Cl. xiv.,
1878. (iii.) The Slavonic Adam book was published by Jajic along with a
Latin translation (_Denkschr. d. Wien. Akad. d. Wiss._ xlii., 1893).
This version agrees for the most part with (i.). It has, moreover, a
section, SS 28-39, which though not found in (i.) is found in (ii.).
Before we discuss these three documents we shall mention other members
of this literature, which, though derivable ultimately from Jewish
sources, are Christian in their present form, (iv.) _The Book of Adam
and Eve_, also called the _Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan_,
translated from the Ethiopic (1882) by Malan. This was first translated
by Dillmann (_Das christl. Adambuch des Morgenlandes_, 1853), and the
Ethiopic book first edited by Trump (_Abh. d. Munch. Akad._ xv.,
1870-1881). (v.) A Syriac work entitled _Die Schalzhohle_ translated by
Bezold from three Syriac MSS. in 1883 and subsequently edited in Syriac
in 1888. This work has close affinities to (iv.), but is said by
Dillmann to be more original, (vi.) Armenian books on the _Death of
Adam_ (_Uncanonical Writings of O.T._ pp. 84 sqq., 1901, translated from
the Armenian), _Creation and Transgression of Adam_ (_op. cit._ 39
sqq.), _Expulsion of Adam from Paradise_ (_op. cit._ 47 sqq.),
_Penitence of Adam and Eve_ (_op. cit._ 71 sqq.) are mainly later
writings from Christian hands.
Returning to the question of the Jewish origin of i., ii., iii., we have
already observed that these spring from a common original. As to the
language of this original, scholars are divided. The evidence, however,
seems to be strongly in favour of Hebrew. How otherwise are we to
explain such Hebraisms (or Syriacisms) as [Greek: euo rheei to helaion
ex autou] (S 9), [Greek: ou eipen ... me phagein ap autou] (S 21). For
others see SS 23, 33. Moreover, as Fuchs has pointed out, in the words
[Greek: hesau en mataiois] addressed to Eve (S 25) there is a corruption
of [Hebrew: havalim] into [Hebrew: avalim]. Thus the words were: "Thou
shalt have pangs." In fact, Hebraisms abound throughout this book. (See
Fuchs, _Apok. u. Pseud, d. A.T._ ii. 511; _Jewish Encyc._ i. 179 sq.)
_Jannes and Jambres._--These two men are referred to in 2 Tim. iii. 8 as
the Egyptian magicians who withstood Moses. The book which treats of
them is mentioned by Origen (_ad Matt._ xxiii. 37 and xxvii. 9 [_Jannes
et Mambres Liber_]), and in the Gelasian Decree as the Paenitentia
Jamnis et Mambre. The names in Greek are generally [Greek: Iannes kai
Iambres] (= [Hebrew: yanim veyambarim]) as in the Targ.-Jon. on Exod. i.
15; vii. ii. In the Talmud they appear as [Hebrew: iohani umamra]. Since
the western text of 2 Tim. iii. 8 has [Greek: Mambres], Westcott and
Hort infer that this form was derived from a Palestinian source. These
names were known not only to Jewish but also to heathen writers, such as
Pliny and Apuleius. The book, therefore, may go back to pre-Christian
times. (See Schurer[3] iii. 292-294; _Ency. Biblica_, ii. 2327-2329.)
_Joseph and Asenath._--The statement in Gen. xli. 45, 50 that Joseph
married the daughter of a heathen priest naturally gave offence to later
Judaism, and gave rise to the fiction that Asenath was really the
daughter of Shechem and Dinah, and only the foster-daughter of
Potipherah (_Targ.-Jon._ on Gen. xli. 45; Tractat. _Sopherim_, xxi. 9;
_Jalkut Shimoni_, c. 134. See Oppenheim, _Fabula Josephi et Asenethae_,
1886, pp. 2-4). Origen also was acquainted with some form of the legend
(_Selecta in Genesin_, ad Gen. xli. 45, ed. Lommatzsch, viii. 89-90).
The Christian legend, which is no doubt in the main based on the Jewish,
is found in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Slavonic and Medieval Latin. Since
it is not earlier than the 3rd or 4th century, it will be sufficient
here to refer to Smith's _Dict. of Christ. Biog._ i. 176-177; Hastings'
_Bible Dict._ i. 162-163; Schurer, iii. 289-291.
(d) _Didactic or Sapiential._--The _Pirke Aboth_, a collection of
sayings of the Jewish Fathers, are preserved in the 9th Tractate of the
Fourth Order of the Mishnah. They are attributed to some sixty Jewish
teachers, belonging for the most part to the years A.D. 70-170, though a
few of them are of a much earlier date. The book holds the same place in
rabbinical literature as the Book of Proverbs in the Bible. The sayings
are often admirable. Thus in iv. 1-4, "Who is wise? He that learns from
every man.... Who is mighty? He that subdues his nature.... Who is rich?
He that is contented with his lot.... Who is honoured? He that honours
mankind." (See further PIRKE ABOTH.)