Traces of Greek influence are to be discerned in all probability in some of the Psalms, for they witness to a state of affairs brought about by the working of the Greek spirit. In the first nine chapters of Proverbs, too, there are marks of Hellenic influence, e.g. individualism, universalism, the use of allegory and the hypostatization of Wisdom. In the Book of Job the same influence may be discerned in the philosophic cast of the speeches, in its imitation in form of Plato’s dialogues, and in the fact that the background of the book is cast in the form of a novel, which was likewise imitated from the Greeks. As to Ecclesiastes, opinions differ as to whether it exhibits direct borrowing from Stoic and Epicurean thought; but it certainly contains analogies with Greek philosophy. In the Apocrypha only two books come into consideration, but they are the two most important. Ecclesiasticus was written with the purpose, among others, of demonstrating the superiority of Jewish over Greek wisdom; at the same time, Ben-Sira often shows himself influenced, unconsciously it may be, by the latter, although the Judaic elements in the book preponderate to an overwhelming degree. The Book of Wisdom, a product of the Judaism of the Dispersion, is full of the Hellenic spirit; this comes out very clearly in the treatment of the doctrines of the pre-existence of the soul, of immortality, of the body as evil, and of the creation of the world out of formless matter. Further, most commentators find the influence of Stoic philosophy in the ideas of the _Anima Mundi_ and of the metabolism of the elements, as well as the classification of the four cardinal virtues which the Stoics copied from Plato. CHAPTER V The Apocalyptic Movement [LITERATURE.—Toy, _Judaism and Christianity_, pp. 372-414 (1891); Schlatter, _Israel’s Geschichte von Alexander d. Grossen bis Hadrian_ (1900); Bousset, _Die Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter_, pp. 195-290 (1903); Bousset, _Die jüdische Apokalyptik_ (1903); Volz, _Jüdische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba_ (1903); M. Friedländer, _Die rel. Bewegungen_ ..., pp. 22-77 (1905); Gressmann, _Der Ursprung der israelitisch-jüdischen Eschatologie_ (1905); Oesterley, _The Doctrine of the Last Things_ (1908); Schürer, II, iii. pp. 44-151, German ed. III, pp. 258-407 (1909); Oesterley and Box, _The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue_, pp. 27-45, 222-254 (1911); Charles, _Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish and Christian_ (1913); Burkitt, _Jewish and Christian Apocalypses_ (1914); MacCulloch’s article on “Eschatology,” in Hastings’ _Encycl. of Religion and Ethics_, v. pp. 373-391 (1912).] I. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE APOCALYPTIC MOVEMENT