Their feeling is too deep, and their reliance on God too immediate; they
fitly follow the psalms of the Old Testament, though afar off. Of another
type of contemporary literature, Apocalypse, at least two representatives
besides the Book of Daniel have come down to us from the time of Jesus or
earlier,--the so-called Book of Enoch, and the fragment known as the
Assumption of Moses. These writings have peculiar interest, because they
are probably the source of quotations found in the Epistle of Jude;
moreover, some sayings of Jesus reported in the gospels, and in particular
his chosen title, The Son of Man, are strikingly similar to expressions
found in Enoch. Can Jesus have read these books? The psalms of the Devout
were the kind of literature to pass rapidly from heart to heart, until all
who sympathized with their hope and faith had heard or seen them. The case
was different with the apocalypses. They are more elaborate and
enigmatical, and may have been only slightly known. Yet, as Jesus was
familiar with the canonical Book of Daniel, although it was not read in
the synagogue service in his time, it is possible that he may also have
read or heard other books which had not won recognition as canonical. If,
however, he knew nothing of them, the similarity between the apocalypses
and some of Jesus' ideas and expressions becomes all the more significant;
for it shows that these writings gave utterance to thoughts and feelings
shared by men who never read them, which were, therefore, no isolated
fancies, but characteristic of the religion of many of the people. With
these ideas Jesus was familiar; whether he ever read the books must remain
a question.

19. This literature exists for us only in translations made in the days of
the early church. Most of these books were originally written in Hebrew,
the language of the Old Testament, or in Aramaic, the language of
Palestine in the time of Jesus. Traces of this language as spoken by Jesus
have been preserved in the gospels,--the name _Rabbi; Abba_, translated