(_b_) The eschatology of the New Testament, including St. Paul's, is of course especially Jewish. It does not however concern us much in the Epistle to the Ephesians; but we notice that in _The Apocalypse of Baruch_ the idea of 'the consummation of the times' (cf. Eph. i. 10, 'the fulness of the times') appears and reappears constantly. See xiii. 3; xxi. 8, 17; xxx. 3; xlii. 6; liv. 21; lvi. 2; lix. 4; lxix. 4, 5; cf. _The Assumption of Moses_, i. 18: 'The consummation of the end of the days.' (_c_) The connexion of St. Paul's doctrine with the Jewish doctrine is also illustrated in _The Apocalypse of Baruch_ on the following points. _That the Gentiles had the opportunity of the knowledge of God through His works in nature, but refused it_. See _Baruch_, liv. 18, and cf. Romans, i. 20: _The pre-existence of the Messiah_. This is suggested but not very clearly stated in xxx. 1, cf. Charles's note and _The Assumption of Moses_, i. 14, where the pre-existence of Moses seems to be asserted. Again, _the Fall of Adam and its effect in introducing death_ (_or premature death_) _into the world_. See xxiii. 4; xlviii. 42; liv. 15; lvi. 6, and {264} Charles's notes. Once more The Resurrection of the Body. See _Baruch_, l; li. On all these points we see what was the material in existing Jewish thought or, in other words, what were the existing developements of Old Testament belief, which the Christian inspiration had to work upon. The effect of the specifically Christian inspiration is chiefly seen (1) in selection among existing beliefs--taking some and utterly rejecting others; (2) in giving a definite and fixed form to current Messianic and other ideas which were continually shifting and incoherent; and (3) in spiritualizing and moralizing what it appropriated. Of course it is in the Revelation or Apocalypse of St. John that we have the most signal instance of the New Testament use of contemporary Jewish material. But such material holds a very large place in the whole of the New Testament, and there is no more important assistance to the study of the New Testament than is afforded by contemporary Jewish literature, especially that of an Apocalyptic character. [1] _The Apoc. of Baruch_ (A. and C. Black, 1896), p. lxxxii. The statement is compiled from Weber, _Lehre des Talmuds_. [2] Edited also by R. H. Charles (A. and C. Black, 1897), p. 37. NOTE D. See p. 120. THE BROTHERHOOD OF ST. ANDREW