the
appointed time, must have been a very wide-spread idea, especially at
the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and even earlier than that
(see Gal. IV. 26; Rev. XXI. 2; Heb. XII. 22). In the Assumption of Moses
(c. 1) Moses says of himself: Dominus invenit me, qui ab initio orbis
terrarum praeparatus sum, ut sim arbiter ([Greek: mesites]) testamenti
illius ([Greek: tes diathekes autou]). In the Midrasch Bereschith rabba
VIII. 2. we read, "R. Simeon ben Lakisch says, 'The law was in existence
2000 years before the creation of the world.'" In the Jewish treatise
[Greek: Proseuche Ioseph], which Origen has several times quoted, Jacob
says of himself (ap. Orig. tom. II. in Joann. C. 25. Opp. IV. 84):
"[Greek: ho gar lalon pros humas, ego Iakob kai Isrel, angelos theou
eimi ego kai pneuma archikon kai Abraam kai Isaak proektisthesan pro
pantos ergou, ego de Iakob ... ego protogonos pantos zoos zooumenou hupo
theou]." These examples could easily be increased. The Jewish
speculations about Angels and Mediators, which at the time of Christ
grew very luxuriantly among the Scribes and Apocalyptists, and
endangered the purity and vitality of the Old Testament idea of God,
were also very important for the development of Christian dogmatics. But
neither these speculations, nor the notions of heavenly Archetypes, nor
of pre-existence, are to be referred to Hellenic influence. This may
have co-operated here and there, but the rise of these speculations in
Judaism is not to be explained by it; they rather exhibit the Oriental
stamp. But, of course, the stage in the development of the nations had
now been reached, in which the creations of Oriental fancy and Mythology
could be fused with the ideal conceptions of Hellenic philosophy.]

[Footnote 102: The conception of heavenly ideals of precious earthly
things followed from the first naive method of speculation we have
mentioned, that of a pre-existence of persons from the last. If the
world was created for the sake of the people of Israel, and the
Apocalyptists expressly taught that, then it follows, that in the
thought of God Israel was older than the world. The idea of a kind of
pre-existence of the people of Israel follows from this. We can still
see this process of thought very plainly in the shepherd of Hermas, who
expressly declares that the world was created for the sake of the
Church. In consequence of this he maintains that the Church was very
old, and was created before t