The Prophets and Sibyls of the Sistine Chapel

The Sibyls, according to the legends, stand, in the Middle Ages, next in importance to the prophets of the Old Testament. It was their office to foretell the coming of Christ to the heathen, as it was that of the prophets to announce him to the Jews.

The Sibyls are alluded to by Greek, Roman, and Jewish writers, and by many of the Christian Fathers. The undisputed authority of the Sibylline books among the pagans, soon suggested the pious fraud of interpolating them.

The direct allusions to the Messiah, which they contain, are supposed to have been inserted in the second century.

Notwithstanding their doubtful authenticity, they continued to be held in veneration, not only through the Middle Ages, but until a comparatively modern date. Sibyls were represented in connection with Scripture subjects, even after Michael Angelo's day.

St. Augustine speaks of the Erythraean Sibyl's testimony immediately before he adverts to the prophets of the Old Testament.

"Sibyllists" was a name of reproach given to early Christians; because, in their disputes with Pagans, they quoted the authority of their own prophetess against them.

The Sistine Sibyls are, the Delphic, the Erythraean, the Persian, the Cumaean, the Libyan.