y were fully aware of the fundamental weakness in the apocalyptic
or catastrophic type of prophecy: it took away from the nation and
individual all personal responsibility. Furthermore, its roots went back
to the old Semitic mythology. This type of hope, however, was too firmly
fixed in the popular mind to be dispelled even by the preaching of
Israel's greatest prophets. As a result of the calamities that gathered
about the fall of the Hebrew state it was revived. It is found in Ezekiel,
Zechariah, and Joel. Each of these prophets looked forward to the time
when Jehovah would miraculously overthrow their heathen foes, restore his
scattered people, and establish for them a world-wide, eternal kingdom. In
the closing chapters of the book of Daniel this form of belief attains its
fullest expression in the Old Testament. In the Similitudes of Enoch
(37-71), which come either from the latter part of the Maccabean era or
else from the days of Herod, these messianic hopes are still further
developed. Instead of Israel's guardian angel Michael, represented as
coming on the clouds from heaven and in appearance like a son of man, a
heavenly Messiah is introduced. He is known by the title of the Messiah,
the Elect One, and the Son of Man (probably taken from the book of
Daniel). In Enoch the term Son of Man has evidently become, as in IV
Esdras, the title of a personal Messiah. He is described as pre-existent
and gifted with the divine authority. When he appears, the dead are to
rise, and angels, as well as men, are to be tried before his tribunal. The
sinners and the fallen angels he will condemn to eternal punishment. All
sin and wrong shall be driven from the earth. Heaven and earth shall be
transformed, and an eternal kingdom shall be established in which all the
righteous, whether dead or living, shall participate. This was evidently
the type of messianic hope held by the Pharisees as well as the Essenes.
As the result of the teaching of the Pharisees it was held widely by the
Jews of the first Christian century. It was clearly in the minds of Jesus'
disciples when he made his last journey to Jerusalem. It was both the
background and the barrier to all his work. It is the key to the
interpretation of Paul's conception of the Christ, or the Messiah, for he
had been educated a Pharisee. This apocalyptic type of messianic hope
powerfully influenced the life and thought of the early Christian Church
and even permeated the Gospel nar