be overpowered, saith the Lord, and shall not need to be afraid in war." And the rest is wholly eschatological: rise and fall of kings, appearances of Antichrist: his conflict with Tabitha, death of Elias (!) and Enoch, the end of the world, are treated in detail. The introduction of Elias is, to say the least, inartistic.
The description of Antichrist is this: "He is little . . . young, thin-legged, on his forehead is a place of white hair . . . his eyebrows stretch to his ears, he has marks of leprosy in his hands. He will change himself before them that look on him, will become a child and an old man . . . will change in all his marks; but the marks on his head . . . will not be able to be changed." There are more coincidences here with the Esdras-John descriptions than with the Greek fragment.
The other Apocalypse of Elias is a late Hebrew one edited by Buttenwieser (1897), who believes that events of about A.D. 260 are described in it: I should be surprised if it were really so ancient, in its present rather incoherent form, but it probably has some connexion with the older Apocalypse. Especially, I think, does this apply to the opening, the substance of which is this:
"The Spirit took me up and bore me to the South: I saw a high place burning with fire, which none could enter.
"It bore me to the East: there I saw stars fighting with each other unceasingly.
"It bore me to the West: there I saw how souls suffered judgment in great torments, each one according to his deeds.
"Then Michael revealed to me the End."
Then we plunge into prophecy, with names of kings and cities, days of the month, and large hosts, whose numbers are given. Near the beginning is the description of Antichrist. "These will be his signs, as Daniel beheld him: his face is long, on his forehead he has baldness (?), and he is of very high stature, and his feet are high, and his legs are thin."
The first sentence reads like a summary of a longer
