Semitic Lanrnsses

SIBYL, SIBYLLINE BOOKS.
The Greek Sibyls (§ 1). Lists of Sibyls (§ 2). Jewish Christian Sibylline Writings Q 3). Book iii. (§ 4). Use of Older Material (§ 5). Introduction to Book iii. (§ 8). Books i. ii. (§ 7). Books iv., v., viii. (§ 8). Books vi., vii., xi. xiv. (§ 9). Other Collections (§ 10).

Among the productions of late Jewish and early Christian literature the Sibylline Oracles have special interest because of their manifold relations with the Roman Greek system of oracles. The sibyls of Greek and Roman antiquity were prophetesses

who, now here, now there, uttered their :. The denunciatory predictions, of which Greek what remains, however, is but the Sibyls. dying echoes of the former activity.

There were possibly in Greece in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. Cassandra like figures uttering from city to city their dread proph­ecies to the terror of men; the home of this art seems to have been Asia Minor, the earliest reports im­plying Erythrea and Samos as the centers. Later reports know of a Delphian sibyl, a sister of Apollo named Artemis. In Rome the sibyl came only at the end of the regal period from the Greek colonies of southern Italy. The oriental sibyls become known first after Alexander, mainly in Asia Minor, where East and West met and women's part in religion was prominent. But all knowledge of these characters is dim and vague; they appear as prophetesses, not as personalities, and gave their name to a large pseudonymous literature in the apocalyptic period of Jewish development.

The earliest writer to give the names of a series of sibyls is Heraclides Ponticus (cited by Clement of Alexandria, Strom., I., xxi., A NF, ii. 325), who speaks

of a Phrygian Delphian sibyl Artemis

s. Lists and a Heraclean called Herophile.

of Sibyls. Later the list of sibyls grows, and they

are known at Delphi, Erythrea, Sardis, and Cumae, while Clement of Alexandria (ut sup.) speaks of an Egyptian and a Roman sibyl; Suidas knows of nine; Varro notes ten: a Persian, a Libyan, a Delphian, a Cimmerian (in Italy), the Erythrean, the Samian, the Cumman (Amalthea), the Hellespontian, the Phrygian, and the Tiburtine named Albunea. To this Varronian catalogue there are a number of witnesses, e.g., Lactantius (Insti­tutes, I., vi., ANF, vii. 15 16; worth consulting) and Isidore of Seville (in his Originum . . . libri, VIII., viii.), as well as a series of later authorities. Some of the lists contain variations, however, notably that by an anonymous writer who composed an introduc­tion to the collection of the Jewish Christian Sibyl­line Books (i. viii.) and that in a series of excerpts of the fifth century known as the "Tubingen Theosophy." The report of Pausanias regarding the sibyls (X., xii.) has especial interest, represent­ing an attempt to reduce the number of these proph­etesses to four, viz., the Libyan, Herophile (to whom be refers all reports regarding the Greek sibyls), the Cumman whom be names Demo, and the Hebrew Babylonian Egyptian whom he names

897 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Sibel

8iby1

Sabbe. But of all those mentioned in these lists,

most of whom are hardly anything more than

literary fictions, the oldest and best attested is the

Erythrean, for whose existence Varro cites the testi­

mony of the chronographer Apollodorus. The

grotto of the sibyl mentioned by Pausanias was re­

discovered in 1891, in which an inscription dealing

with the sibyl tells of her wonderful birth, of her

delivery of oracles immediately thereafter, and of

her age as already 900 years. Eusebius in his

Chronicle places her appearance in the ninth Olym­

piad; an old tradition is known which places her

origin in the eighth pre Christian century. Next to

her the sibyl of Samos is best attested, according to

Varro, by Eratosthenes, who found mention of her

in the Samian annals, while Eusebius places her in

the first year of the seventeenth olympiad (711 B.C.).

According to early testimony the Cumaean sibyl was,

so to speak, a branch of the Erythrean; and this

is supported by the name given in the Varro Lac­

tantius list (ut sup.). Belief in the Cumwan sibyl at

Rome goes back to the end of the kingly period,

when her oracles had importance for the State.

After the destruction of the collection of oracles by

the burning of the temple of Jupiter in 83 B.C., a

new collection was sought, particularly from Ery­

threa. The author of the Pseudo Justinian Cohor­

tatio (chap. xxxvii.) has left an interesting descrip­

tion of the grotto of the Cumaean sibyl, who was

identified with the river and oracle deity Carmenta.

Another sibyl had her sanctuary near the Tiber

on the Anio, and under her proper name of Albunea

was called the Tiburtine Sibyl. Concerning the

Babylonian Sibyl Pausanias reports (Y., xii.) that

there was a "Hebrew" sibyl named Sabbe, daughter

of Berosus and Erymanthe. The Cohortatio (x.)

identifies her with the Cumaean prophetess. Moses

of Chorene (q.v.; in Historice Armeniacce, i. 5) speaks

of a more highly credited Berosian Sibyl; the Ver­

ronian catalogue mentions a Persian prophetess of

whom Nicanor, Alexander's biographer, speaks;

later reports seem to regard these as the same, and

the original source of Varro probably rightly

brought together the three Babylonian, Persian,

and the Hebrew, the last the daughter of Noah­

and the process of shortening the list went on in the

anonymous introduction to the Sibylline Books

already named and in the "Tubingen Theosophy."

The age of the foundation of these reports is not sure,

but they may go back to Alexander Polyhistor

(early in the first century B.C.). The so called

Babylonian sibyl in these notices is no other than

the assumed Hebrew sibyl; but this does not ac­

count for her name, Sambethe or Sabbe, nor for the

report that she was the daughter of Berosus, nor

for her designation as Babylonian. An inscription

(in CIG, 3509) seems to refer to an oracle sanctuary

of the Chaldean Sambethe. If a Chaldean (Baby­

lonian) Sambethe sanctuary is proved, the tradition

of such a sibyl seems to have history behind it;

such a prophetess would naturally be Hellenistic

and would write in Greek, and would not unnaturally

be connected with Berosus the historian.

This was the ground in which grew the crop of

Jewish sibylline poetry. In Egypt began the great

Jewish diaspora mission; there the Jews appro 

priated Greek culture, philosophy, and the forms of Greek literature, and sought through them to recommend Jewish culture to the Greeks. Jewish

chronographers attempted to show a 3. Jewish  greater antiquity for their race; Jews

Christian first sought and then fabricated testi 

Sibylline mony of Greeks to prove the latter in 

Writings. debted to Moses for the best of their

wisdom, and used the sibylline litera­ture as a means, putting in the sibyl's mouth utter­ances regarding the Jewish people, the Jewish deity, the conversion of the gentiles, and the coming golden age. And the Christians imitated them, but with less success. The Church Fathers accepted these writings at their face value (so Justin, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius, and Augustine). With the downfall of heathendom, these were less used, but were still employed till late in the Middle Ages. The most of this literature was collected by diligent hands and has survived, and into it a sort of unity has been worked. Two or three groups of collections stand out, presenting types of text. One group (designated as b) con­sists of books i. viii. 485; a second (f) has viii. and i. vii.; a third (St) has vi., vii. 1, viii. 218 428 numbered ix., iv. numbered x., and then xi. xiv., the whole a continuation of the existing collection of eight books. The date of these collections is prob­ably between the beginning of the fourth and the middle of the fifth century. Of printed editions the older ones may be mentioned Xystus Betuleius (1545), S. Castalio (1555), Opsopoeus (1599), Gal­laeus (1689), Gallandi (Bibliotheca veterum patrum, vol. i., Venice, 1788), and Friedlieb (Leipsic, 1852). Of abiding value is the great edition of C. Alexandre (Oracula sibyllina, 2 vols., Paris, 1841 56); A. Rzach's Oracula sibyllina (Vienna, 1891) uses the manuscripts for a modern reconstruction of the text; but much better is J. Geffcken's edition (Leipsic, 1902).

Of all these writings the oldest, most important, and richest in contents is iii. 97 829, falling into three divisions, 97 294, 295 188, 489 795 (796 829 being merely concluding remarks). The first deals with the building of the tower of Babel, the wars of the sons of Saturn and the Titans, a brief review of world

history, prediction of the Solomonic 4. Book iii. realm till the emergence of the Romans,

and the seventh king of Egypt, and a noteworthy description of Israel from Moses till the return from exile. The second part is a series of oracles on the nations: Babylon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, the West, a number of cities, Macedonia, Asia, Phrygia, Ilium (and a polemic against Homer); then a cento of mingled predictions. The third contains a preaching of repentance to the Greeks humiliated by the Romans, the story of the coming fortunes of the Jews, judgment to come on the outer world, the Messianic kingdom and the vain war against it, preaching of repentance again, and a pic­ture of the future blessedness. Three times the seventh kingdom (king) of Egypt appears (192 193, 314 318, 608 615), construed as referring to Ptolemy VII. Physcon, and doubt is expressed whether this is to be dated 170 164 or 14.5 117; many date the book c. 140 B.C. But account must be taken of the

Sibyl THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG 898

possibility of the inclusion of earlier pieces, the correct apprehension of which makes possible an­other dating, dependent upon a different interpreta­tion of certain intruded parts. But at any rate, this part must have arisen in the Maccabean period, for the condition described is that of the independent Jewish state while the preaching is directed against the Romans who have subjected Hellenism. Yet a late part of the Maccabean time is indicated, since 470 sqq. points to Sulla and his Asian campaign, and 350 sqq. deals with the war against Mithridates c. 88 B.c., quoting an oracle on the affair. Since the author uses these documents, he must have written after 88 B.c., probably in the time of Queen Alexan­dra. He worked, as did the apocalyptical writers, only in part with his own material, for the most part taking over existing matter. Probably his own composition is to be found in iii. 211 294, which describes the Jewish people, of which 271 272 especially fits the Jewish diaspora of Alexandra's period. This part is, however, closely related to the passage 520 795, which accordingly also may be regarded as the Jewish writer's own. Whether the sermon to the Greeks belongs here is doubtful, as it fits equally well with the times of Sulla and of the Mithridatic war, the one indication of a later date being its advanced eschatology. Probably to the same author are to be ascribed lines 162 166, 194­210, 295 336, 489 519 all of them introductions to longer sections,   and with some probability the entire conclusion; also in general 156 166, 196 294, 489 795 except 608 615.

There are also older pieces from the time of

Ptolemy VII. worked into the composition of the

whole so 167 195, 314 318, 608 615. This writer

has also taken into his work a series of heathen

oracles, a process which he deemed suitable to im­

press the non Jewish world. There is express testi­

mony from heathen sources (Varro,

g. Use of Bocchus, and Pausanias) to a tradition

Older that the Erythrean (Delphian) sibyl Material. foretold the fall of Ilium and charged Homer with lies and plagiarism of her verses (cf. iii. 414 432 of the present collection); the preceding oracle concerning Phrygia makes the im­pression of being derived from a heathen source, as does 381 387, there being testimony that the Persian (Chaldean) sibyl spoke concerning Alexander; simi­larly the oracle against Rome (350 sqq.) is not in the style of the present writer, but is heathen and of great political interest; so the early sibylline characteris­tics shine out of lines 337 349, 433 438. In these passages oracles of various heathen sources seem to have been collected and arranged in artistic fashion. Such a borrowing appears in the early part of this book 105 154 is unmistakably gentile; in Lactan­tius (Institutes, I., xiv. 2) there is a parallel to the Euhemeristic turn of thought in the conflict between the Kronides and Titans. But this passage is in close connection with that concerning the tower of Babel, and the speaker as sibyl identifies herself with the older sibyl (iii. 809 sqq.); it would be expected al­most that this speaker would use earlier prophecies; and Alexander Polyhistor (Eusebius, Chronicon, I., xxiii.), Josephus (Ant., I., iv. 3), and Abydenus (Eusebius, Chronicon, I., xrociii_xxxiv.) cite an

oracle in heathen form on this subject. The original sibyl may have derived the story from Hebrew tradition or from folklore. This book then seems to come from the time of Queen Alexandra, and uses older fragments of Jewish origin, and of heathen origin from the Erythrean and other Greek oracles. The lines 211 294 and 520 795 are valuable for the religious situation at the end of the, Maccabean period.

In iii. 1 95 two hands are apparent, 46 62 and 63 92 showing distinct differences. The first be­longs in the period of the first triumvirate, according to the usual dating; but in 46 50 a Christian seems to speak. With 46 fit may possible be placed 1 45,

a Christian editing of c. 70 A.D. The 6. Intro  passage 63 92 is more difficult to date,

duction to but may belong to c. 25 B.c., since Se 

Book iii. baste is to be the source of Antichrist.

But it might refer to Simon Magus, and so be as late as the second half of the first century. The mention of the widow has been especially puz­zling, since it can no longer be taken to mean Cleo­patra. The first and second books must be taken in­to account in fixing the date; they were the first to assume a unity and then to form two books; this appears in the manuscripts of  [~, which call books i. and ii. "the first logos," of which book iii. was " the second." Books i. ii. are outlined in i. 1 323, and were to set forth the fortune of the world in ten families, of which only seven appear, the last three being removed in the working over. This part, generally recognized as of Jewish origin, was sep­arated into two parts by an editor of expressly Chris­tian character. But the dates of these separate editings are not easy to determine; estimates vary from the beginning of the Christian era till the third Christian century, the later dating being based upon the doubtful datum of the existence of the masculine ciesura. Other indications adduced are equally elusive. The ruin predicted in the third book at the beginning agrees with the origin of the basal writing of books i. ii. Book i. handles the theme which in all probability was treated in the part broken off when iii. was added viz., creation and the flood; in i. there are echoes of the Babylonian version of the flood (lines 230 260), showing that the report of the flood from book i. was once at least in book iii., and, like iii. 96454, depended upon the Babylonian Sambethe. The manuscripts indicate 1,034 lines for book iii., of which only 829 (895) are extant, an indication which shows the extent of the piece broken off from the beginning of book iii.

It is probable that iii. 46 62 and 63 92 were introduced subsequent to the compilation of the rest of the book; if then 46 92 belongs to the period c. 70 A.D., the destruction of the beginning of book iii. and the rise of the basis of books i. ii. are prior to

that date. The section ii. 167 176 is a 7. Books part of the Christian redaction, in

L  ii. which the theme is the return of the

twelve tribes from the East to take

vengeance upon the "Assyrian prince." This theme

is a favorite in the late Jewish apocalyptic writings,

as in IV Esdras, the Syriac Baruch, and other

writings dating from the end of the first Christian

century into the third century. In this third century

RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

apologetic the prediction of the Antichrist Beliar is prominent. The "Assyrian prince" who persecuted the Jews can scarcely be any other than Odenatus, king of Palmyra, against whom the predictions of book xiii. are directed, who also in the Apocalypse of Elias appears as the chief Antichrist opposed to Judaism. This places the redaction of books i. ii. in the second half of the third century. But iii. 63­92 is related to ii. 167 sqq., and the editor of book ii. and writer of iii. 63 sqq. must have been the same person or have belonged to the same environment; the widow of iii. 77  78 must be Zenobia of Palmyra, who reigned after Odenatus. To this same environ­ment belongs book viii., which is a conglomerate of pieces of varied character. Lines 1 216 are early, before the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last part much edited, however; 217 250 is an acrostic (on the Greek lesous Chreistos theou kuios soter stauros), and is followed by a Christological section 251 323, and this by a medley, the whole st le of which recalls the editor of books i  ii., whole series of lines being repeated from the one in the other, especially as dealing with the destruction of the world by fire, the purification by the same means, etc. If the editors of these parts are not the same, their methods and the time in which they worked were close together. Possibly this editor wrote viii. 169 177. The editor of books i. ii., the author of iii. 63 92, and the compiler of book viii. in its present form are (is) to be placed in the time of Odenatus and Zenobia or immediately after Zenobia's death.

A second group of connected pieces is composed of books iv., v., and the oldest part of book viii., and in situation this group builds around book iv., which is Jewish. The fact that temple and sacrificial of­ferings are past (lines 27 28) is explained by the

fact that after the fall of the Temple 8. Books the Jews soon lost the idea of sacrifice. iv., v., viii. In consequence of the fall of Jerusalem,

the writer hates Rome and Italy, and

must have written soon after 79 A.D., and looks for

the return of Nero for revenge on Rome, thus giving

the earliest testimony for the Nero saga. In 49 114

the compiler has used an older and probably Greek

oracle 97 98 is attested by Strabo. The ten

families (ut sup.) reappear here, and this section

may be pre Christian. Toward the end the burning

of the world reappears, with the resurrection of

the dead. Book v. is difficult, though critics agree

that the basis is Jewish, while there is question as

to its origin from one hand. The section 1 51, a

tedious and uninteresting enumeration of the

Roman emperors till Hadrian , by its character

demands a different authorship from the rest. Three

sections, 137 178, 214 285, 361 446, seem to be

closely related to each other, and present three

themes the returning Nero, threats against Rome,

and the New Jerusalem. A fourth section is found

in 93 110, the subject of which is also Nero and his

return. These all seem to have arisen out of prac­

t the same situation, and the author's anger

against Rome is roused by his experience in the

destruction of the Temple, while he looks f

Jerusalem

Sibyl

who was influenced also by the heathen oracles which he has embodied; he lived within a generation after the fall of Jerusalem. Out of a similar situation (or the same) arose Rev. xvii. xviii., xxi. In the rest of book v. are sayings which betray the Egyptian type. Especially characteristic is the section 4.84 510, which undoubtedly points to the Jewish temple in Leontopolis (see LEONTOPOLIB); the conception in this part, that a great temple is in the future to be built in Egypt, is intelligible when it is remembered that the Leontopolis temple stood until 'r3 A.D. An Egyptian Jew expected its reconstruction, and its destruction in the last period before the great judgment. Whether the remaining pieces, to be characterized broadly as Egyptian, are by the author of the Nero pieces is not to be decided cate­gorically; he may have been the first to incorporate them in a work, and he may have imitated the older portions. The book looks like the work of one re­dactor, begun in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, with interpolations by a Christian. In this same connec­tion belongs viii.l 216, dealing with the returning Nero, the author of which was a Christian who wrote near the end of Marcus Aurelius' reign and took into his work a number of older sayings, though the form has in some cases been considerably changed.

Books vd. and vii. belong together. Both are by Christian authors, bat their type is apocryphal or heretical. Book vi. is anti Jewish, is written in praise of the Son of God, is adoptionistic, and stresses the baptism of Jesus. Its date is doubtful, but it may have been known to the editor of books i. ii. The author of book vii. was

g. Books probably born a Jew, wrote in imita­vi., vii., xi.  tion of earlier sibylline writers, and

ziv. where he is independent is quite in­

teresting (e.g., 64 95, 118 162). His

Christology is heretical in color, but he adheres to

the logos type of Christology; he may have been a

Jewish Christian Gnostic, and possibly wrote c. 150

A.D. Books xi. xiv. have a certain unity. Book xi.

is the oldest, Jewish in origin, and has been regarded

as edited in the third Christian century, though that

seems too late as his work would have little meaning

for that time. He pictures the age of Cleopatra and

the end of the Egy ptian kingdom, but his prophecies

are worthless; more likely he belongs to Augustan

times. Book xii., picturing in quiet narrative the

Roman emperors from Augustus to Alexander

Severus, can not have emanated from a Christian,

but must be by a Jew, loyal to the empire, not

orthodox, but cosmopolitan, living after Alexander

Severus. As an oriental regarding the empire, he is often interesting in his vy~ws. But lines 28 34 must have been adapted by '!'Christian who dealt with the birth of Christ. Book xiii., starting in where xii. leaves off, is exceedingly interesting. It carries on the story from Alexander Severus to Gallienus. Pos­sibly recognizable forms are Gordian L, and IIL,

Philip the Arabian and his son, Gallius, X m;hus