EDUCATION: JEWISH INFLUENCE v7 amid the growing pessimism and despair of the present world, the Messianic conception took a transcendent direction. In the Similitudes of Enoch, Daniel’s vision of “ one in the likeness of a son of man” is referred to the Chosen One, or Messiah, in such a way that an origin and dignity is ascribed to Him which wavers between ideal predestination and real pre-existence, but is in any case supernatural. “The name of the Son of Man was named by God before the world was; the Son of Man was chosen out and hidden in God’s presence before the world was created, and will be eternally in His presence. The wisdom of the Lord of Spirits revealed Him to the saints, for in His name were they delivered. The Chosen One stands before the Lord of Spirits, and His glory is for ever and ever; in Him dwells the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of Him who giveth understanding, the spirit of doctrine and might, and the spirit of those who have fallen asleep in righteousness. He will judge that which is hidden; when the earth and the under-world give up their dead, then will He choose the righteous and holy among them, for the day of their deliverance has come” (xlviii., xlix).” 1 Against the hypothesis that this and other passages were inter- polated by a Christian, Schiirer remarks (Eng. trans., Div. ii. vol. iii. p- 68), as it seems to me justly, “the view of the Messiah here set forth is fully intelligible on purely Jewish premisses, and does not need for its explanation the hypothesis of Christian influence ; in the whole section there is nothing specifically Christian.” There seems to be more doubt about the Jewish origin of the Messianic passage in the Sybilline Oracles, v. 414: “ There came from the vault of heaven a blessed man, who bore the sceptre given him by God, and brought all things under his power, and restored to all the good, the wealth which former men had taken away from them”