CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: Alien Note Injected Into Inter-Testament Writings

As stated, following the close of the Old Testament canon, about 425 B.C., a series of Apocryphal and pseudepigraphal Jewish writings began to appear, some of them definitely bearing on the origin, nature, and destiny of man. These ranged in time between 200 B.C. and A.D. 100. Some were largely apocalyptic in tone and structure. The first three, and therefore the earliest (Sirach, Tobit, and the Sibyllines), maintained the historic Conditionalist positions of their forefathers.CFF1 657.1

But about 130 B.C. a distinctly alien note began to appear, beginning with The Book of Jubilees and 2 Maccabees. Some, such as The Wisdom of Solomon, vacillated between the two positions. (The sequence, category, and timing of each and all will be apparent by referring to Tabular Chart D, on page 658.)CFF1 657.2

The next six treatises appeared in the early Christian Era—the Ethiopian Enoch, Slavonic Enoch, Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, and 2 Esdras all continued to be Conditionalist, while two, Judith and 4 Maccabees, set forth the Innate-Immortality postulate, with its corollary of the Eternal Torment of the wicked.CFF1 657.3

Then, following these apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings, there come two climactic and contrasting groups of writings of great significance. Both appear in the transition hour from the old to the new dispensations, at the dawn of the Christian Era. These are, first, the consistently Conditionalist Dead Sea scrolls, and, second, the militantly Immortal-Soulist writings of Philo Judaeus—the latter destined shortly to exert a profound influence upon three variant groups (Jews, pagans, and Christians). Thus these opposing groups, about equally divided, had drawn far apart—with Philo’s aggressive position ascendant, and soon becoming a determining influence. This was especially true among the Alexandrian Neoplatonic Christian group a little later.CFF1 657.4

Chart D TWO VIEWS OF LIFE AND DEATH IN JEWISH INTER-TESTAMENT WRITINGS

(Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Literature—c. 200 B.C. to A.D. 150)

SIGNIFICANCE OF INTER-TESTAMENT JEWISH WRITINGS

Two distinctly opposing views on the origin, nature, and destiny of man are found in the inter-Testament Jewish writings. And some oscillated between these opposing views (cf. Wisdom of Solomon). Three Conditionalist works (Tobit, Sirach, and Sibyllines), beginning about 190 B.C., preceded the first Innate-Immortality writings (2 Maccabees and Jubilee), which view did not appear prior to 150 B.C. And two Conditionalist Apocryphal writings (Syriac Baruch and 2 Esdras) extend beyond the Innate group of five, in the right-hand column, between the two Conditionalist groups of three and four, respectively, ending with 2 Esdras. It is important to note that in addition to the Apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings, the Dead Sea (Essene) Scrolls are preponderantly Conditionalist, and represent an impressive stand on this view, whereas the last two in the period covered (Philo and Josephus) are Immortal-Soulists. Thus the two opposing groups, about equally divided, close with the Innate-Immortality postulate of Philo predominant, and exerted a determining influence on the Alexandrian Christian group a little later.CFF1 658.1