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But the genuineness Of this Epistle , which was one of the dyrfaeyofAtve * of the early church , and is not , included in Origen ' s list of canonical books , appears to us too doubtful to bear that such an argument should be raised wnoii it ; and we quite agree with the Editors of the
remark of the Improved Version , " that it has as little evidence , external or internal , in its favour , as any book of the New Testament . " The real Jude , we think , would not have called himself * ' the brother of James / 5 nor have admonished the converts to be mindful of " the words
which were spoken before by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ / ' nor have spoken of < € the faith once delivered to the saints / ' It is , however , difficult to say when it was written , but it may have been a hundred years after the commonly-supposed time , and therefore the Book of Enoch may also have been written later than Dr .
L . thinks . He endeavours to prove that it was written but a few years before the Christian era , and his chief argument is this : —From the 83 rd to the 9 Dth chapter , an allegorical
narrative is given of the leading events recorded in sacred history , too obvious in its outline to be misapprehended . Now in this allegory , the government of the Jewish nation is carried down
as low as to the rule of 70 princes superintending the flock . Saul , David and Solomon are first of all distinctly alluded to . Then these 70 shepherds are said to be appointed over the sheep , 37 of whom are classed together as superintending them in their respective
periods , afterwards 23 , and last of all 12 . By the help of a little gentle violence to the numbers of the kings of Juduh and Israel , he makes them to he the first division ; the Babylonian , Persian and Macedonian kings the second ; and the Maccabaean princes the third . As Herod was the 12 thin
succession from Matthias , the father of Judas , he concludes the work to have been written in his reign . This seems plausible ; but then it is difficult to explain how all these 70 shepherds , without exception , Hezekiah , Josiah , ^ yrus , Judas Maccabaeus of course
among the number , should be represented as condemned to the fiery abyss for their crimes . i L ' * s P ° ke to the man who wrote n presence , who was one of the seven
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white opes , saying , Take those seventy shepherds to whom I delivered up the sheep , ana who ^ receiving them , killed more of them than I commanded . Behold , I saw them all bound , and ail standing before him . First came on the
trial of the stars , which , being judged and found guilty , went to the place of punishment . They thrust them into a place deep and full of flaming fire , and full of pillars of fire . Then the seventy shepherds were judged , and , being found guilty , were thrust into the flaming abyss . " —P . 128 .
From another passage , chap , xcii ., Dr . L . argues that this book must have been written before the destruction of Jerusalem , because mention is made of the fate of the first temple , but no allusion to that of the second . Yet , if the temple were really standing ,
what is the meaning of ver . 14 : " Sinners shall be delivered up into the hands of the righteous , who , during its completion , shall acquire habitations by their righteousness , and the house of the great King shall be built up for ever 99 ? One thing may be fairly inferred
respecting the author , that he was a Jew , living at the time when all the ideas of the Messiah's approaching kingdom were strong and vivid in the minds of that people ; and in thi 3 view it throws a valuable light upon the gospel history . The resemblance is indeed so striking , that it is difficult at times to believe that it is not a
Christian who speaks , and if the marks of time which Dr . Ij . thinks he has discovered are open to the objections which have been stated above ^ this will appear very probable [ chap . lxi ] . The question whether the author of this book were a Jewish Christian or
not , and when he wrote , becomes important from , the use to which the translator has applied some parts of it . The following are his own words : " in this book , clear and distinct
allusious are made to a Being , highly exalted with the Lord of spirits , under the appellations of the Son of Man , the Elect One , the Messiah , and the Son of God . Disputes have arisen respecting the nature of the Son of Man described in the vision
of Daniel ; and Unitarians contend , that his existence commenced at the birth of Jesus Christ ; affirming , without fear of contradiction , that no Jew of any age ever held the opinion of his pre-existence , much less ever regarded him as au object of divine worship . But that the Jewish
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RevieuL—The Book of Enoch the Prophtt . 413
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v <^ xvi . o H
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1821, page 413, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2502/page/33/
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