shall perforce admit that some of the constituents of 4 Ezra are older than
the latest of Baruch, and that other constituents of Baruch are decidedly
older than the remaining ones of 4 Ezra. On the other hand, if we assume
unity of authorship, it seems impossible to arrive at finality on the
chronological relations of these two works. Langen, Hilgenfeld, Wieseler,
Staehelin, Renan, Hausrath, Drummond, Dillmann, Rosenthal, Gunkel, have
maintained on various grounds the priority of 4 Ezra; and Schuerer,
Bissell, Thomson, Deane, Kabisch, De Faye, Wellhausen, and Ryssel the
priority of Baruch on grounds no less convincing.

_Relation to Rabbinical Literature._--A very close relation subsists
between our book and rabbinical literature. Indeed in some instances the
parallels are so close that they are almost word for word. The description
of the destruction of Jerusalem by angels in vi.-viii. is found also in the
Pesikta Rabbati 26 (ed. Friedmann 131a). By means of this passage we are,
as Ginzberg has shown, able to correct the corrupt reading "the holy Ephod"
(vi. 7), [Hebrew: 'PWD HQWDSH] into "the holy Ark," _i.e._ [Hebrew: 'RWN
HQWDSH]. What might be taken as poetic fancies in our text are recounted as
historical facts in rabbinical literature. Thus the words (x. 18):

"And ye priests, take ye the keys of the sanctuary,
And cast them into the height of heaven,
And give them to the Lord and say:
'Guard Thine own house; for lo we are found unfaithful stewards,'"

are given in various accounts of the fall of Jerusalem. (See Ta'anith, 29a;
Pesi[k.]t. R., _loc. cit._; _Yalqu[t.] Shim'oni_ on Is. xxi; _Aboth_ of
Rabbi Nathan vii.). Even the statement that the bodies of Sennacherib's
soldiers were burned while their garments and armour remained unconsumed
has its parallel in _Sanh_. 94a.

_Integrity of the Book._--In lxxvii. 19 it is said that Baruch wrote two
epistles, one to the nine and a half tribes and the other to the two and a
half at Babylon. The former is found in lxxviii.-lxxxvi.; the latter is
lost, but is probably preserved either wholly or in part in the Book of
Baruch, iii. 9-iv. 29 (see Charles, _op. cit._ pp. lxv.-lxvii). On the
other hand, it is not necessary to infer from lxxv. that an account of
Baruch's assumption was to be looked for in the book.

AUTHORITIES.--The literature is fully cited in Schuerer, _Gesch._ iii.
223-232, and R. H. Charles, _Apocalypse of Baruch_, pp. xxx.-xliii.
Ginzberg's a