hold that the
conception kept on men's minds.[1727] They are a product of the passion
for apocalyptic writing that prevailed among the Jews and Christians in
Palestine and Alexandria, from the second century B.C. into the third
century of our era. The fame of the Graeco-Roman Sibyl was widespread,
and to the Jews and Christians of that time it seemed proper that she
should be made to predict the history of Judaism and Christianity;
possibly it was believed that such a prophetess must have spoken of this
history. Naturally the Jewish Sibyl has a Biblical genealogy--she is the
daughter of Noah.

+940+. Her utterances, given in heavy Greek hexameters, have been
preserved for us in a great mass of ill-arranged fragments, with many
repetitions, indicating them as the work of various authors. What we
have is clearly only a part of what was produced, but the nature of the
whole body of pseudo-predictions is easily understood from the material
that has been preserved. They follow the history down to the author's
time, giving it sometimes an enigmatical form, and the future is
described in vague phrases that embody the guesses or hopes of the
writer. It seems certain that all of the existent material of these
oracles is from Jewish and Christian hands. Even when Greek mythical
stories are introduced, as in the euhemeristic description of the origin
of the Greek dynasties of gods in the third book, the whole is
conceived under the forms of Jewish or Christian thought. The Sibyllines
are quoted by Josephus and by many Christian writers from Justin Martyr
to Augustine and Jerome and later. They give a picture of certain Jewish
and Christian ideas of the period and of the opinions held concerning
certain political events, but otherwise have no historical value. An
illustration of the fact that the belief in them as real inspired
prediction continued to a late time is found in the hymn _Dies Irae_, in
which the Sibyl is cited along with David as a prophet of the last
judgment. The whole history of the figure is a remarkable illustration
of the power of a written record, held to be a divine revelation, to
impress men's minds and control their beliefs and actions.

+941+. While divination has played a great part in the religious history
of the world, it has rarely brought about important political or
religious results.[1728] The exceptions are the great Greek oracles of
Dodona and Delphi and the Roman Sibylline Books; to these last, a