Book III of the Sibylline Oracles is a composite Jewish oracular work written in the voice of a pagan Sibyl. It combines universal history, criticism of idolatry, accounts of Israel and the nations, divine judgment, and hopes for a coming age. Much of its earliest material is usually dated to the second century BC, while the received book contains later layers and additions.
Author
Anonymous / composite Jewish Sibyllists
Date
Core material second century BC; later additions
Origin
Egypt, probably Alexandria
Genre
Oracular Poetry / Apocalypse
Textual language
Greek
Translator
Milton S. Terry
Translation / Edition
The Sibylline Oracles, trans. Milton S. Terry, 2nd ed. (1899).
O thou high-thundering blessed heavenly One,
Who hast set in their place the cherubim,
I, who have uttered what is all too true,
Entreat thee, let me have a little rest;
For my heart has grown weary from within.
But why again leaps my heart, and my soul
With a whip smitten from within constrained
To utter forth its message unto all?
But yet again will I proclaim all things
Which God commands me to proclaim to men,
O men, that in your image have a form
Fashioned of God, why do ye vainly stray
And walk not in the straight way, always mindful
Of the immortal Maker? God is one,
Sovereign, ineffable, dwelling in heaven,
The self-existent and invisible,
Himself alone beholding everything;
Him sculptor's hand made not, nor is his form
Shown by man's art from gold or ivory;
But he, eternal Lord, proclaims himself
As one who is and was erst and shall be
Again hereafter. For who being mortal
Can see God with his eyes? Or who shall bear
To hear the only name of heaven's great God,
The ruler of the world? He by his word
Created all things, even heaven and sea,
And tireless sun, and full moon and bright stars,
And mighty mother Tethys, springs and rivers,
Imperishable fire, and days and nights.
This is the God who formed four-lettered Adam,
The first one formed, and filling with his name
East, west, and south, and north. The same is he
Who fixed the pattern of the human form,
And made wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls.
Ye do not worship neither fear ye God,
But vainly go astray and bow the knee
To serpents, and make offering to cats,
And idols, and stone images of men,
And sit before the doors of godless temples;
Ye guard him who is God, who keeps all things,
And merry with the wickedness of stones
Forget the judgment of the immortal Saviour
Who made the heaven and earth. Alas! a race
That has delight in blood, deceitful, vile,
Ungodly, of false, double-tongued, immoral men,
Adulterous, idolous, designing fraud,
An evil madness raving in their hearts,
For themselves plundering, having shameless soul;
For no one who has riches will impart
To another, but dire wickedness shall be
Among all mortals, and for sake of gain
Will many widows not at all keep faith,
But secretly love others, and the bond
Of life those who have husbands do not keep.
But when Rome shall o'er Egypt also rule
Governing always, then shall there appear
The greatest kingdom of the immortal King
Over men. And a holy Lord shall come
To hold the scepter over every land
Unto all ages of fast-hastening time.
And then shall come inexorable wrath
On Latin men; three shall by piteous fate
Endamage Rome. And perish shall all men,
With their own houses, when from heaven shall flow
A fiery cataract. Ah, wretched me!
When shall that day and when shall judgment come
Of the immortal God, the mighty King?
But just now, O ye cities, ye are built
And all adorned with temples and race-grounds,
Markets, and images of wood, of gold,
Of silver and of stone, that ye may come
Unto the bitter day. For it shall come,
When there shall pass among all men a stench
Of brimstone. Yet each thing will I declare,
In all the cities where men suffer ills.
From the Sebastenes Beliar shall come
Hereafter, and the height of hills shall he
Establish, and shall make the sea stand still
And the great fiery sun and the bright moon;
And he shall raise the dead, and many signs
Work before men: but nothing shall be brought
By him unto completion but deceit,
And many mortals shall he lead astray—
Hebrews both true and choice, and lawless men
Besides who never gave ear to God's word.
But when the threatenings of the mighty God
Shall draw near, and a flaming power shall come
By billow to the earth, it shall consume
Both Beliar and all the haughty men
Who put their trust in him. And thereupon
Shall the whole world be governed by the hands
Of a woman and obedient everywhere.
Then when a widow shall o'er all the world
Gain the rule, and east in the mighty sea
Both gold and silver, also brass and iron
Of short-lived men into the deep shall east,
Then all the elements shall be bereft
Of order, when the God who dwells on high
Shall roll the heaven, even as a scroll is rolled;
And to the mighty earth and sea shall fall
Notes
1
28. Mother Tethys.—Wife of Oceanus, mother of the rivers, and the nymphs, three thousand in number. See Hesiod, Theog., 335, ff.
2
30. Four-lettered Adam.—The ingenuity which sees in the four letters of this name the Greek initials of the words for east, west, north, and south surpasses even that noted in book i, 102, where Hades is traced in the word Adam. But Augustine adopts this, and says: "According to the Greek tongue, Adam himself signifies the whole world. For there are four letters, A, D, A, M, and in Greek speech these are the initial letters of the four quarters of the earth." Άνατολή, east; Δύσις, west; Ἄρκτος, north; Μεσημβρία, south. Enarratio in Psalmum, xev, 15 [L., 87, 1286]. See also Tractatus in Joannis, ix, 14, and x, 12 [L., 86, 1465, 1478].
3
55. The time when Rome obtained full control of Egypt was when Augustus became the undisputed master of the regions all about the Mediterranean Sea, and the Roman empire became fully established. This empire the Sibyl recognizes as beginning about the time of the appearance of the Christ, who was born during the reign of Augustus.
4
58. Holy Lord shall come.—The Messiah, for no other ruler could be described by such language as the writer here employs. This passage is evidence that at least lines 55–75 are of Christian or Jewish Christian authorship.
5
62. Three.—One most naturally thinks here of the famous triumvirate of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus; but it is difficult to explain the "fiery cataract" (line 65) and other pictures of judgment in immediate connection with those historic names.
6
76. The Sebastenes are most naturally understood of the inhabitants of Sebaste, or Samaria, and a Jewish writer living in the time of Augustus might have been readily disposed to think of a Beliar—antichrist—as issuing from among the hated Samaritans. Comp. the miracle-working antichrist of Dan. vii, 25; viii, 23–25; xi, 86; and also 2 Thess. ii, 8–10.
7
92–93. A woman … a widow.—If we find in the "three" of line 62 a reference to the triumvirs Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, it is but natural to understand this "widow" as Cleopatra of Egypt, who captivated by her charms both Julius Caesar and Antony. But bore again the picture of world-judgment which immediately follows is difficult to account for in connection with such a mention of Cleopatra. Is not the entire passage rather an ideal apocalyptic concept, to be understood somewhat after the manner of the woman portrayed in John's Apocalypse, xvii, 3; xviii, 7; a symbol of Rome herself conceived as the mistress of nations? Comp. book viii, 263; 165, Comp. book ii, 263; viii, 546.
