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lost in their time.
After the close of the Canon of the Hebrew Scriptures

in the fourth century or so B.C. by the “Members of the
Great Synagogue,” established by Ezra and Nehemiah,
all other sacred or religious literature besides those
included within the Canon was called Apocrypha and
excluded from the Hebrew Bible by an assembly of the
learned and pious Jews, the last of whom was the famous
“Simeon the Just,” who died in 310 B.C. Now among
these Apocryphal books are included the Apocalypses
of Enoch, Barukh, Moses (pbuh) , Ezra, and the Sibyline
books, written at different epochs between the time of
the Maccabees and after the destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus. It seems to be quite à la mode with the Jewish Sages
to compose Apocalyptical and religious literature under
the name of some celebrated personage of antiquity. The
Apocalypse at the end of the New Testament, which
bears the name of John the Divine, is no exception to
this old Judeo Christian habitude. If “Judah the brother
of the Lord” could believe that “Henoh the Seventh from
Adam (pbuh) ” was really the author of the one hundred and
ten chapters bearing that name, there is no wonder that
Justin the Martyr, Papias, and Eusebius would believe in
the authorship of Matthew and John.

However, my aim is not to criticize the authorship
of, or to extend the comments upon these enigmatic and
mysterious revelations which were compiled under the
most painful and grievous circumstances in the history
of the Jewish nation; but to give an account of the origin
of this surname “the Son of Man” and to shed some light
upon its true signification. The Book of Enoch too, like
the Apocalypse of the Churches and like the Gospels,
speaks of the coming of “the Son of Man” to deliver
the people of God from their enemies and confuses this
vision with the Last Judgment.