the-book-of-enoch-r-h-charles - Fallen Angels

Sect. Il] Chapter XXXVIII. 5 73
And be given into the hands of the righteous and holy.
wickedness of the Sadducees in 99' 104°.
ITie kings and the mighty in the text)
therefore, are native rulers and Sad-
ducees. We thus agree with Kostlin,
Theol. Jahrh. 1856, 268 sqq., and Bill-
mann,Herzog,B. E. xii. 352, in identify-
ing these princes with the last of the
decaying Asmonean dynasty. The
Herodian dynasty was not supported
by the Saddijcees, and thus may be
left out of consideration. Further,
as there are no references to Rome
in the Parables, it cannot as yet
have made its power to be felt in
Palestine ; and the Parables, there-
fore, must have been written before
64 B.C., when Rome interposed in favour
of Aristobulus II. Ealdensperger, Das
tSelbstheicusstsein Jesu (p. 12), indeed,
tries to show that there are references
to the Roman power; but his main
contention, that the falling Asmoneans
could hardly be designated as ' mighty
kings', is already answered on critical
grounds : the phrase ' mighty kings
does not belong to the true text. The
lower limit is thus 64 b. c, and the
higher may be reasonably fixed at 94.
The differences between the Maccabees
and the Pharisees, which had already
grown important under John Hyrcanus
with his Sadducean policy, were further
developed under Aristobulus I, and in
the early years of Alex. Jannaeus were
intensified into an irreconcilable anta-
gonism. This antagonism Jirst issued
in bloodshed about 95 B. c, when 6,000
Pharisees were put to death because
they insulted Alex. Jannaeus for failing
to comply with their views on ritual.
This fact explains the writer's demand
for vengeance for the murder of the
righteous, 47^'^''. Subsequent years
only embittered the strife between the
Pharisees and the Asmonean head of
the Sadducees, and provoked a civil
war in which 50,000 Jews fell. Weary
'
of the struggle, Jannaeus asked the
Pharisees to name their conditions of
peace : their answer was laconic and
irreconcilable, ' Thy death ' ; but in
the subsequent strife they were for the
time crushed into impotence. Owing to
the multitudes of Pharisees slain by
Jannaeiis, he came to be called
slayer of the pious '. With the acces-
' the
sion of Alexandra 79, however, the
Pharisees became masters of the nation,
and peace prevailed till 70, when again
the nation was rent in twain and
plunged into devastating and bloody
wars, through the fraternal strife of
Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. To
a devout Pharisee the Maccabees with
their Sadducean and Hellenic principles
might well appear as enemies of the
Theocratic community during the years
94-79 or 70-64. To one or other of
these periods, therefore, we assign the
composition of the Parables. Perish
and. > q. Be given into the
hands of the righteous. This phrase
would seem to indicate the period
of the sword, when the righteous
were themselves to slay the wicked.
But this would be unsuitable here :
the judgement is catastrophic and
forensic. The Son of Man is judge,
and his judgements are executed by the
angels of punishment, 41" 62-". This
phrase recurs in 48' ; but there the
context requires us to understand the
casting of the kings into Gehenna. In
50", where we again find this idea un-
mistakably, the difficulty is obviated
by the fact that 50 is most probably an
interpolation. Either, then, we have
here an inconsistent feature introduced
by the original writer, or else the phrase
is only to be taken in a general sense,
as expressing the triumph of the
righteous, Eighteous and holy.
This designation of the members of
the kingdom is found also in 48'i ^>
'