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Is JUDAISM the Religion of Moses? 47

from the major groups of Judaism. And they assuredly do not represent any large religious move-
ments among the Jews. "The Apocalyptic literature certainly represents an element in the Judaism
of its time, BUT IT WAS AN ELEMENT OF VERY MINOR IMPORTANCE compared with
those [the Pharisees, etc.] in which lay the real vitality and strength of Judaism. It is a fundamental
mistake to suppose that the Apocalyptic literature can explain what Judaism really stood for, in that
or any other age" (Herford, Judaism in the New Testament Period, p. 11).

The writings of these few individuals or religious sects were completely rejected by the
Jews. Some of the reasons for their rejection by the other sects is because they were obviously con-
tradictory with one another in many ways; they were at variance with the popular teaching of the
Scriptures.

All of the writings of these Apocalyptists were written DURING or sometime after the pe-
riod of the religious anarchy. Some were written even as late as the First Century A.D. Their
teachings on the whole, while having a Jewish basis, reflect men's opinions and ideas which were
absorbed from Hellenism. The teachings of the various books are extremely diverse. Strong ele-
ments of Hellenism are found in some, and in others to a lesser degree (Ency. Biblica, col. 2010,
2011).

There is no question that some of their teachings, even the manner in which some of them
wrote, were directly influenced by Egyptian and Syrian Hellenism. Their teachings represent those
of some individual teachers who, after the religious anarchy, began to teach their own religious be-
liefs independent of the Pharisees, but nonetheless, equally as erroneous.

"Traces of Syrian Hellenism, which had been implanted among the less educated masses,
endured, and the victorious Judean people [after the successful Maccabean Revolt] har-
bored a growing semi-Hellenized crowd who had NEITHER GRASPED THE PURE
HEBRAIC FAITH nor received the pure Hellenic spirit. This populace [certain leaders
among them] FOSTERED THE APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE WITH ITS
FANTASTIC AND YET SOMEWHAT MATERIALISTIC SPIRITUALITY, which,
while it was largely an expression of the Hebraic mind and a development of the prophetic
vision, SHOWS A MARKED IMPRESS OF FOREIGN DOCTRINE" (Bentwich, Helle-
nism, p. 335).

The principles behind the apocalyptic literature are an infusion of certain Jewish beliefs
with Hellenism. All of the writings of these minor sects, or perhaps only individual writers, were
quite varied and contradictory.

"The aspect that that literature presents is of so diversified a character that it is difficult to
combine all the DIFFERENT ELEMENTS into one connected whole" (Schurer, The Jew-
ish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, sec. ii, vol. iii, p. 1).

Were These Groups Akin to the Essenes?

Because so many of the doctrines of the writers of these various books seem to show a near
kinship to certain Essenistic beliefs, some scholars have endeavored to show that the authors were

The Berean Voice March-April 2003