Thus “the times and periods of the course of the world’s history have been predetermined by God. The numbers of the years have been exactly fixed. This was a fundamental postulate of the Apocalyptists, who devoted much of their energy to calculations, based upon a close study of prophecy, as to the exact period when history should reach its consummation ... the underlying idea is predestinarian.”[2] But all these things, according to the Apocalyptists, were divine secrets hidden from the beginning of the world, but revealed to God-fearing men to whom was accorded the faculty of peering into the hidden things of God and of understanding them; upon these men was laid the privilege and duty of revealing the divine secrets to others, hence their name of Apocalyptists or “revealers.” It was because the Apocalyptists believed so firmly in this power which they possessed of looking into the deep things of God that they claimed to be able to measure the significance of what had happened in the past and of what was happening in the present; and upon the basis of this knowledge they believed that they also had the power, given them by God, of foreseeing the march of future events; above all, of knowing when the end of the world would come, a consummation towards which the whole history of the world had been tending from the beginning. In spite of all the mysticism, sometimes of a rather fantastic kind, and of the frequently supra-mundane vision with which the Apocalyptic Literature abounds, the Apocalyptists fully realized the need of practical religion; they were upholders of the Law, the loyal observance of which they regard as a necessity for all God-fearing men. In this the Apocalyptists were at one, in principle, with Pharisaism; but their conception of what constituted loyal observance of the Law differed from that of the Pharisees, for, unlike these, the Apocalyptists laid all stress on the spirit of its observance rather than upon the letter. Characteristic of their attitude here are the words in 1 Enoch v. 4: “But ye—ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord, But ye have turned away, and have spoken proud and hard words With your impure mouths against His greatness, O ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace.” And again, in xcix. 2: “Woe to them that pervert the words of uprightness, And transgress the eternal Law.” We do not find in this Literature that insistence on the literal carrying-out of the minutest precepts of the Law which was characteristic of Pharisaism. Veneration for the Law is whole-hearted; it is the real guide of life; punishment awaits those who ignore its guidance; but the Pharisaic interpretation of the Law and its requirements is alien to the spirit of the Apocalyptists.