method not permissible to stray
so far when we have near at hand such a complete explanation as Isaiah
VII. 14. Those who suppose that the reality of the Virgin birth must be
held fast, must assume that a misunderstood prophecy has been here
fulfilled (on the true meaning of the passage see Dillmann (Jesajas, 5
Aufl. p. 69): "of the birth by a Virgin (i.e., of one who at the birth
was still a Virgin.) the Hebrew text says nothing ... Immanuel as
beginning and representative of the new generation, from which one
should finally take possession of the king's throne"). The application
of an unhistorical local method in the exposition of the Old
Testament--Haggada and Rabbinic allegorism--may be found in many
passages of Paul (see, e.g., Gal. III. 16, 19; IV. 22-31; 1 Cor. IX. 9;
X. 4; XI. 10; Rom. IV. etc.).]

[Footnote 95: The proof of this may be found in the quotations in early
Christian writings from the Apocalypses of Enoch, Ezra, Eldad and Modad,
the assumption of Moses and other Jewish Apocalypses unknown to us. They
were regarded as Divine revelations beside the Old Testament; see the
proofs of their frequent and long continued use in Schuerer's "History of
the Jewish people in the time of our Lord." But the Christians in
receiving these Jewish Apocalypses did not leave them intact, but
adapted them with greater or less Christian additions (see Ezra, Enoch,
Ascension of Isaiah). Even the Apocalypse of John is, as Vischer (Texte
u. Unters. 3 altchristl. lit. Gesch. Bd. II. H. 4) has shown, a Jewish
Apocalypse adapted to a Christian meaning. But in this activity, and in
the production of little Apocalyptic prophetic sayings and articles (see
in the Epistle to the Ephesians, and in those of Barnabas and Clement)
the Christian labour here in the earliest period seems to have exhausted
itself. At least we do not know with certainty of any great Apocalyptic
writing of an original kind proceeding from Christian circles. Even the
Apocalypse of Peter which, thanks to the discovery of Bouriant, we now
know better, is not a completely original work as contrasted with the
Jewish Apocalypses.]

[Footnote 96: The Gospel reliance on the Lamb who was slain, very
significantly pervades the Revelation of John, that is, its Christian
parts. Even the Apocalypse of Peter shews Jesus Christ as the comfort of
believers and as the Revealer of the future. In it (v. 3,) Christ says;
"Then will God come to those who believe on me, those who