Сивиллалық Нақылдар Жиынтығы

Collection of oracular utterances

The Sibylline Oracles (Oracula Sibyllina; sometimes called the pseudo Sibylline Oracles) are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen books and eight fragments of Sibylline Oracles survive, in an edition of the 6th or 7th century AD. They are not to be confused with the original Sibylline Books of the ancient Etruscans and Romans which were burned by order of the Roman general Flavius Stilicho in the 4th century AD. Instead, the text is an "odd pastiche" of Hellenistic and Roman mythology interspersed with Jewish, Gnostic and early Christian legend. The Sibylline Oracles are a valuable source for information about classical mythology and early first millennium Gnostic, Hellenistic Jewish and Christian beliefs. Some apocalyptic passages scattered throughout seem to foreshadow themes of the Book of Revelation and other apocalyptic literature. The oracles have undergone extensive editing, re writing, and redaction as they came to be exploited in wider circles. One passage has an acrostic, spelling out a Christian code phrase with the first letters of successive lines.

The Sibylline Oracles in their existing form are a chaotic medley. They consist of 12 books (or 14) of various authorship, date, and religious conception. The final arrangement, thought to be due to an unknown editor of the 6th century AD (Alexandre), does not determine identity of authorship, time, or religious belief; many of the books are merely arbitrary groupings of unrelated fragments. These oracles were anonymous in origin and as such were apt to modification and enlargement at pleasure by Hellenistic Jews and by Christians for missionary purposes. Celsus called Christians Σιβυλλισται ('sibyl mongers' or 'believers in sibyls') because of prophecies preached among them, especially those in the book of Revelation. The preservation of the entire collection is due to Christian writers.

The so called Sibylline oracles are couched in classical hexameter verses. The contents are of the most varied character and for the most part contain references to peoples, kingdoms, cities, rulers, temples, etc. It is futile to attempt to read any order into their plan or any connected theme. Patrick Healy's Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) suggests that their present arrangement represents the caprice of different owners or collectors who brought them together from various sources. Though there are occasionally verses which are truly poetical and sublime, the general character of the Sibylline Oracles is mediocre. The order in which the books are numbered does not represent their relative antiquity, nor has the most searching criticism been able accurately to determine how much is Christian and how much Jewish. Healy continues that book 4 is generally considered to embody the oldest portions of the oracles, and while many of the older critics saw in it elements which were considered to be Christian, it is now looked on as completely Jewish. Book 5 has given rise to many divergent opinions, some claiming it as Jewish, others as the work of a Christian Jew, and others as being largely interpolated by a Christian. It contains so little that can be considered Christian that it can safely be set down as Jewish. Books 6 and 7 are admittedly of Christian origin. Some authors (Mendelssohn, Alexandre, Geffcken) describe book 6 as an heretical hymn, but this contention has no evidence in its favour. It dates most probably from the third century AD. Books 1 and 2 are regarded as a Christian revision of a Jewish original. Book 8 offers peculiar difficulties; the first 216 verses are most likely the work of a second century AD Jew, while the latter part (verses 217–500) beginning with an acrostic on the symbolic Christian word Icthus is undoubtedly Christian, and dates most probably from the third century AD. In the form in which they are now found the other four books are probably the work of Christian authors. Books 12 and 13 are from the same pen, 12 being a revision of a Jewish original. Book 11 might have been written either by a Christian or a Jew in the third century AD, and book 14 of the same doubtful provenance dates from the fourth century AD. The general conclusion is that books 6, 7, and 8 and the latter part of book 8 are wholly Christian. Books 1, 2, 11 12, 13 and 14 received their present form from a Christian. The peculiar Christian circle in which these compositions originated cannot be determined, neither can it be asserted what motive prompted their composition except as a means of Christian propaganda.