The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

ADELA YARBRO COLLINS 251
SIBYLLINE ORACLES
Book five of the Sibylline Oracles was composed by an Egyptian Jew in the
late first or early second century C.E. 96 The fifth oracle of this composition,
lines 286–433, contains an account of the advent of a saving figure,
a man from heaven, holding a scepter given to him by God. 97 He will
destroy every city and the nations of evildoers. He will make “the city
which God desired,” most likely Jerusalem, “more brilliant than stars and
sun and moon.” He will beautify the city and make a holy temple and “a
great and immense tower over many stadia touching even the clouds and
visible to all, so that all faithful and all righteous people could see the
glory of the eternal God, a form desired” (Sib. Or. 5:420–27). 98 This
account is similar to the Animal Apocalypse in its use of the word
“tower” for the temple. It differs in having a temple in the new Jerusalem,
whereas there is no “tower” in the “house,” the new Jerusalem, of the
Animal Apocalypse.
THE BOOK OF REVELATION
In the message addressed to “the angel of the congregation in
Philadelphia,” the risen Christ makes the following promise to “the one
who conquers”:
I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall surely never
depart from it again, and I will write upon him the name of my God and
the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that is coming down
out of heaven from my God, and my new name. (Rev 3:12)
Most of the promises to the “one who conquers” in the seven messages
are eschatological: they are to be fulfilled in the thousand-year reign or
the new creation. 99 The fulfillments of some of them, however, are difficult
96. See John J. Collins, “Sibylline Oracles,” in OTP 1:390–91.
97. The advent of the savior-figure and his mighty deeds are described in Sib. Or.
5:414–433.
98. Trans. from Collins, “Sibylline Oracles,” 403.
99. The promise in Rev 2:7 refers to the tree of life in the new Jerusalem; cf. 22:2.
The freedom from the second death promised in 2:11 may allude to the first resurrection
at the beginning of the thousand-year reign (cf. 20:6) or to the final judgment
(cf. 20:14–15; 21:8). The promise of 2:17 involves Christ’s giving the conqueror
some of the hidden manna to eat; cf. 2 Bar. 29:8, according to which manna will
descend from heaven during the messianic kingdom for the faithful to eat. The promise
of 2:26–27, that the conqueror will rule the nations with an iron rod, may allude