110578580 Charlesworth Pseudoepigrapha and Early Bib Inter

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA SUPPLEMENT SERIES

14

Editor James H. Charlesworth Associate Editors Philip R. Davies James R. Mueller James C. VanderKam

STUDIES IN SCRIPTURE IN EARLY JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

Series Editors Craig A. Evans James A. Sanders

JSOT Press Sheffield

The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation

edited by James H. Charlesworth and Craig A. Evans

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series 14 Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity 2

Copyright © 1993 Sheffield Academic Press Published by JSOT Press JSOT Press is an imprint of Sheffield Academic Press Ltd 343 Fulwood Road Sheffield SIO 3BP England

Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press and Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd Guildford

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Dau Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation.—(JSP Supplement Series, ISSN 0951-8215; No. 14) I. Charlesworth, James H. II. Evans, Craig A. III. Series 220.8

ISBN 1-85075-443-8

CONTENTS

Preface Abbreviations List of Contributors

7 8 11

JAMES A. S A N D E R S

Introduction: Why the Pseudepigrapha?

13

T H E PSEUDEPIGRAPHA A N D JEWISH EXEGESIS JAMES H .

CHARLESWORTH

In the Crucible: The Pseudepigrapha as Biblical Interpretation

20

H O W A R D CLARK KEE

Appropriating the History of God's People: A Survey of Interpretations of the History of Israel in the Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha and the New Testament

44

GORDON Z E R B E

'Pacificism' and 'Passive Resistance' in Apocalyptic Writings: A Critical Evaluation JAMES C.

65

VANDERKAM

Biblical Interpretation in 1 Enoch and Jubilees

96

T H E PSEUDEPIGRAPHA A N D THE N E W TESTAMENT DAVID E. AUNE

Charismatic Exegesis in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

126

B R U C E D . CHILTON

God as 'Father' in the Targumim, in Non-Canonical Literatures of Early Judaism and Primitive Christianity, and in Matthew 151 CRAIG A . E V A N S

Luke and the Rewritten Bible: Aspects of Lukan Hagiography

170

6

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

D A V I D P. M O E S S N E R

Suffering, Intercession and Eschatological Atonement: An Uncommon Common View in the Testament of Moses and in Luke-Acts

202

PETER H . D A V I D S

The Use of the Pseudepigrapha in the Catholic Epistles

228

PEDER BOROEN

Heavenly Ascent in Philo: An Examination of Selected Passages 246 RICHARD J. BAUCKHAM

Resurrection as Giving Back the Dead: A Traditional Image of Resurrection in the Pseudepigrapha and the Apocalypse of John 269 Index of Ancient Writings Index of Modern Authors

292 315

PREFACE

The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation is a collection of essays dedicated to the comparative study of the presence and function of Scripture in the Pseudepigrapha (and other Jewish literature) and the New Testament. One purpose of this collection is to draw the Pseudepigrapha more fully into the discussions of the meaning, function, and place of 'Scripture' in the period from circa the third century BCE to the second century CE. This volume is the second in a series of related studies that are appearing under the sub-title of Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity (SSEJC), edited by C.A. Evans and J.A. Sanders. The series is an outgrowth of the work that is being undertaken by members of the Society of Biblical Literature who are working in a program unit of the same name. We extend our appreciations to the contributors to the present volume for their understanding and cooperation. Appreciations are also extended to Scholars Press of Atlanta for permission to publish sections of 'The Pseudepigrapha as Biblical Exegesis', which appeared in Early Jewish and Christian Exegesis: Studies in Memory of William Hugh Brownlee, edited by C.A. Evans and W.F. Stinespring, and to Uitgeversmaatschappij J.H. Kok of Kampen, the Netherlands, for permission to publish portions of 'Biblical Interpretation: The Crucible of the Pseudepigrapha', which appeared in Text and Testimony: Essays on New Testament and Apocryphal Literature in Honor of A.F.J. Klijn, edited by T. Baarda etal. J.H. Charlesworth Princeton Theological Seminary C.A. Evans Trinity Western University

ABBREVIATIONS

AB AGJU AnBib ANRW APOT BA Bib BNTC BO BWANT BZNW CBQ CBQMS ConBNT CRINT CSCO DBSup EncJud ETR ExpTim FRLANT GCS HAT HDR HSM HTR HTS HVCA ICC IDB JAOS JBL JETS

Anchor Bible Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des Urchrislentums Analectabiblica Aufsrieg und Niedergang der rSnuschen Welt R.H. Charles (ed.), Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Biblical Archaeologist Biblica Black's New Testament Commentaries Bibliotheca orientalis BeitrSge zur Wissenschaft vom Alien und Ncucn Testament BeiheftezurZWW Catholic Bibiical Quarterly Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series Coniecianea biblica. New Testament Compendia rerum iudaicarum ad novum testamentum Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplement Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971) Etudes theologiques et religieuses Expository Times Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments Griechischechristliche Schriftsteller Handbuch zum Allen Testament Harvard Dissertations in Religion Harvard Semitic Monographs Harvard Theological Review Harvard Theological Studies Hebrew Union College Annual International Critical Commentary G.A. Buttrick (ed.). Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible Journal of the American Oriental Society Journal of Biblical Literature Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

Abbreviations

Mom

Journal of Jewish Studies Journal of Near Eastern Studies Jewish Quarterly Review W.G. Kummel et at. (eds.), JUdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-rdmischerZeii (Giiietslcii: Mohn, 1973-) Journalfor the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period Journal for the Study of the New Testament Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Supplement Series Journal of Semitic Studies Journal cf Theological Studies Loeb Classical Library H. A.W. Meyer, Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar uber das Neue Testament Monatsschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums

MNIC NCB Neot NICNT NIGTC NovTSup NTS OIL OTP PAAJR RB Rel RevQ RHPR RSR SBLASP SBLSCS SBLDS SBT SC SJT SNT SNTSMS SPB ST SVTP

Moffatt NT Commentary New Century Bible Neotestamentica New International Commentary on the New Testament The New Iniemational Greek Testament Commentary Novum Testamentum, Supplements New Testament Studies Old Testament Library J.H. Charlesworth (ed.). The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Proceedings of the American Academy of Jewish Research Revue biblique Religion Revue de Qumran Revue d'historie et de philosophie religieuses Recherches de science religieuse SBL Abstracts and Seminar Papers SBL Septuagint and Cognate Studies SBL Dissertation Series Studies in Biblical Theology Sources chrdtiennes Scottish Journal of Theology Studien zum Neuen Testament Society of New Testament Studies Monograph Scries Studia postbiblica Suidia theologica Studia in Veteris Testament! pseudepigrapha

JJS JNES JQR JSHRZ JSJ JSNT JSOT JSOTSup JSPSup JSS JTS LCL MeyerK

10 TDNT TDOT TNTC TZ VT VTSup WBC ZA W ZNW

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

G. Kittel and G. Friedrich (eds.). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament O.J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren (eds.). Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Theologische Zeitschrift Vetus Testamennm Vettts Testamentum, Supplements Word Biblical Commentary Zeitschrift ftir die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Zeitschrift ftir die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

David E. Aune, Professor New Testament and Christian Origins, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinios, USA Ricard Bauckham, Professor of New Testament Studies, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK Peder Borgen, Research Professor of New Testament, University of Trondheim, Dragvoll, Norway James H. Charlesworth, Georgre L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA Bruce Chilton, Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, USA Peter H. Davids, Researcher and Theological Teacher, Langley Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Langley, British Columbia, Craig (Sanfikins, Professor of Biblical and Intertestamental Studies, Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia, Canada Howard Clark Kee, Aurelio Professor of Biblical Studies, Emeritus, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts, USA; Senior Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA David P. Moessner, Associate Professor of New Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, USA James A. Sanders, Professor of Intertestamental and Biblical Studies, School of Theology at Claremont, Claremont, Claifornia, USA James C. VanderKam, Professor of Hebrew Scriptures, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA Gordon M. Zerbe, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Canadian Mennonite Bible College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

INTRODUCTION: WHY THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA?

James A. Sanders

Like many important terms the word Pseudepigrapha is difficult to define. A pseudepigraphon is a discrete piece of literature attributed by its unknown author, or by subsequent community tradition, to a bygone name well-known and highly respected in that community. In this sense the world's literature is replete with pseudepigrapha; indeed, the Bible itself is largely made up of pseudepigrapha. That is, most of the literature in the Bible is anonymous either in initial composition or at points of community transmission; then, it is often attributed to one or another great, recognizable name in antiquity— such as the whole of the Pentateuch to Moses, the whole of the Psalter to David, or all the 'Pauline' letters to the Apostle Paul. In this manner unidentifiable individuals, even authors of truly great literary compositions, were caught up into community identity at the expense of their own. While this may be baffling to the Western mind which stresses the importance of the individual, especially in terms of genius and concepts of inspiration, it was very common, and even a mark of piety, in the social and cultural milieux from which the Bible and Early Jewish and Christian literature derive. The Bible was formed in cultures of orality, not literacy, and was shaped to be read aloud in community; the focus at all stages was primarily on the community. What is meant by Pseudepigrapha in this volume is more limited in scope and yet more indeterminate. It is an inept term diat has come since the early eighteenth century to mean roughly the following: the Early Jewish literature (largely in the 200 BCE to 200 CE period) that resembles the Apocrypha or deuterocanonical literature but is not included in the Jewish or Western Christian canons, or in rabbinic literature.' But even that is not a definition, since there are Jewish 1. There are a few of the so-called Pseudepigrapha that are in the Greek and Slavonic Bibles and/or the Appendix to the Vulgate—some of the Esdras literature.

14

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

literary works from the period, such as the pes ha rim and other distinctly denominational literature from Qumran, which do not comfortably fit the mix, while there are others from Qumran that do fit. And the question of fit in those instances is not related to anonymity or pseudepigraphy but rather to certain literary characteristics. No one in the field has found another term that has gained acceptance to designate this important body of literature which has in this century alone grown dramatically by discovery and recovery.^ Why are the Pseudepigrapha, in the sense described, important? First and foremost, they provide us with an immeasurable treasure of primary sources, beyond the Apocrypha, for the intellectual and social history of late Early Judaism. They prove that earlier views of there having been an orthodox, pre-rabbinic (early Pharisaic) Judaism, on the one hand, and a heterodox Judaism, on the other (the consensus until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls), were false. While a few scholars still speak and write of 'normative Judaism' in this period, most now do not. The history of Early Judaism is now seen to have been highly diverse from the early post-exilic days until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The older tendency to speak of four or five 'parties' in the Early Jewish period is no longer appropriate; there were many, diverse groups whose several contours are evidenced in the Pseudepigrapha and other Jewish literature of the period. The older tendency to speak or write of Palestinian Judaism over against Hellenistic Judaism is no longer appropriate; the former is now seen as variously hellenized in various parts of Palestine, and the latter is now seen as unlimited by geographic bounds in themselves. It is important now also to allow for there having been so-called orthodox Jewish communities scattered throughout the diaspora in the period in question. And though we do not yet know enough about the diverse denominations and groups to identify any pseudepigraphon

3 and 4 Maccabees, the Prayer of Manasseh, and Psalm 151 (and Psalms of Solomon in Alexandrinus); the Armenian lacks 4 Maccabbees. It is difficult to speak of a widely accepted canon, in the narrow sense (norma normata) of the Greek Old Testament in antiquity since the contents and orders of books differ after Genesis to 4 Kingdoms in the early, more complete LXX manuscripts. 2. See the comments by James H. Charlesworth in the introduction to The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, I, D (= OTP) (Garden City: Doubleday, 1983, 1985), pp. xxiv-xxv, and in A. Caquot (ed.). La Litterature intertestamentaire (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1985), pp. 11-28.

Introduction: Why the Pseudepigrapha?

15

with one or another of them, the Pseudepigrapha provide a glimpse into internal divisions and strifes between these differing expressions of the Judaism of the period. One common feature of the pluriformity within Judaism that emerges with clarity is the pervasive and radical influence of Scripture on Judaism. While the third section of the Jewish canon was not closed until well after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE and the separation of Christianity from its Jewish matrix, the influence of the Torah and Prophets, and some of the early Writings (the third and final section of the Jewish canon), on subsequent Jewish and Christian literature was immense. All of the literature of the period was written Scripturally in one sense or another, and to one degree or another. The depth and extent of Scriptural intertextuality in this literature is perhaps its most marked common feature. Not only is most of it attributed to great names in Scripture, but it was variously composed in the manner of and in the light of various parts of Scripture. That was how important these anonymous writers felt what they had to communicate was; they were fully willing to lose their own individualities and egos in the convictions their writings reveal. But ultimately, the salient observation is not that they attributed their convictions to earlier well-known figures from biblical history; the important observation that emerges from close study of the scriptural intertextuality manifest in all this literature is that they were so convinced of what they felt they had been given to say that they wrote it in scriptural phrases, shapes, tones and cadences. There are clear citations of the Hebrew Bible or Septuagint, uncounted paraphrases and weavings of scriptural phrases into the fabric of the newer compositions, many allusions to passages, figures and episodes, and untold echoes of Scripture passages in various combinations; and through them all there was the desire as well to write scripturally in form and structure. Scripture was slowly coming to various forms of closure, and the sorts of inspiration attributed to past authors of Scripture (itself largely pseudepigraphic in the broader sense) were no longer being claimed; there was a tt'adition being handed down that 'prophecy had ceased' in the time of Ezra. But such a tradition could not alter the conviction of these anonymous authors that they had something important to say to their communities and to their day, indeed that they were inspired and impelled to do so. Undeserved suffering inflicted upon Jews by non-Jewish forces, and by internal

16

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

strife and conflict, needed to be addressed if Judaism was to survive and belief in the biblical God of justice and mercy to endure. Some of it to us sounds fanatic and overdrawn, and we may well breathe sighs of relief that parts of it did not make it into any current canon of Scripture;^ but its importance for understanding Early Judaism and the matrix of Early Christianity would be difficult to overstate. If one wants to get a true perspective on the formation of the New Testament and to understand its arguments and claims, one should start at the beginning of Christian canonical literature, the Torah. The perspective one gains by focusing on the cross-cultural and intertextual dimensions of biblical literature at all its stages of development and formation provides the framework in which to understand the New Testament." Such a focus begins with what my teacher, Samuel Sandmel, called haggadah within Scripture—another way of speaking of its intertextuality; but it also begins with Scripture's pervasive cross-cultural aspects from the Bronze Age, through the Iron Age, the Persian Period, and the Hellenistic-Roman Era. No one period is more important or more problematic than another, and they all together provide a paradigm in sequence for seeing how the traditioning process moves from the earliest to the latest literature in the Bible. Each cultural period deposited its peculiar characteristics in the literature it produced. If one moralizes on first reading any of it, one thereby puts the mores and cultural traps and trappings of each period into a false perspective of prominence. If one instead monotheizes 3. Just as many current communities of faith ignore considerable portions of canonical Scripture. There has always been a tendency to focus on favorite parts of Scripture, adopting a kind of canon within a traditional canon; such foci often provide the bases of the various denominations which otherwise claim their identity in the same canon. 4. The intertextual mode of reading the NT is gaining ground. Two recent, fine examples are Richard B. Hayes' Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989) and Gail R. O'Day, 'Jeremiah 9.22-23 and 1 Corinthians 1.26-31: A Study in Intertextuality', JBL 109/2 (1990), pp. 259-67. If such examples are read along with Michael Fishbane's intertextual mode of reading the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature, they become all the more compelling and powerful; see now Fishbane's beautifully wrought The Garments of Torah: Essays in Biblical Hermeneutics (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1989), esp. pp. 33-46 and 121-33. Unfortunately Fishbane himself does not do the reverse; see the writer's forthcoming review in Theology Today.

Introduction: Why the Pseudepigrapha?

17

while reading all its parts, along with the developing theocentric and monotheizing hermeneutic thrust of Scripture, one does not stumble over the modes and expressions of polytheism, even tribalism, that pervade the Bible from inception through the NT; they were legion. If one gains that canonical hermeneutic perspective through the Torah and the Prophets and moves with it on through the Writings, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Qumran literature and Philo, the NT takes its rightful place in the Jewish-Christian canonical mix. Each historical period has its own characteristics which frame the texts; but the cultural traps and trappings need not be the focus of reading. One might ask, why include the Pseudepigrapha in such a diachronic reading? Other bodies of Hebraic and Jewish literature (variously influenced by many cultures including the Hellenic and Hellenistic) form parts of current canons of Scripture. So why the Pseudepigrapha? Canon in this functional sense is a paradigm, and not a 'box' with rigid boundaries. Some of the writings that we call Pseudepigrapha actually functioned as canon for some Early Jewish communities, and some are included in current canons; others of them may possibly have done so in antiquity. After all, we inherit no autographs of any of them but only apographs (copies of copies), or ancient translations from the original-language copies, which means that some Early Jewish and then Early Christian communities must have thought highly enough of most of them to share them that widely. To include the Pseudepigrapha in the reading is to witness the process in its fullest extent, and especially in its full Hellenistic-Roman guise.' The canonical process was not a smooth development, far from it. On the contrary, it exhibits the various degrees in which cultural givens shaped the literature. But to monotheize, or perceive the integrity of Reality through these texts, was no easier or less rough in the Iron

5. To imagine that limiting the quantity of literature to a shorter canon, such as the Jewish or Protestant, makes the exercise easier or more manageable (manipulable?) is to attempt to repress and deny the considerable pluralism and dialogue inherently present in those canons. Attempts to harmonize Scripture are basically political efforts to co-opt Scripture (and God) for one point of view (a violation of the Third Commandment) and result in denying the depths of riches any canon contains. To view canon, instead, as basically a hermeneutic paradigm by which to read Scripture and life, and to read subsequent efforts (theologies) to understand Reality, is to affirm its ongoing relevance in ever-changing situations of the human experiment.

18

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Age or Persian period than in Hellenistic and Roman times. The first three commandments of the Decalogue (no polytheism, no idolatry and no co-opting of God's name for one theology, ideology, agenda or point of view) have been humanity's greatest challenge through the ages to the present, whatever the cultural frame. Arguably (and minimally) only the Book of Jude in the NT exhibits direct intertextuality with any of the Pseudepigrapha (7 Enoch). That is not the point. If one studies all of the literature, Hebraic and Jewish, in whatever language available, from its beginnings through the NT, including the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, both intertextually and with the theocentric/monotheizing thrust of the whole (if not of each of die parts), one then comes to the NT with no more nor less than the same necessary cross-cultural and intertextual task for understanding and perception. One gains a perspective it is impossible to gain if one attempts to understand the NT only from its own literature alone, or from its synchronic position in the Hellenistic/Roman world of the first century alone, or, indeed, from a current (and denominationally restricted?) canonical context alone.* Study of the NT is commonly done synchronically, focusing on its own and contemporary literature, and often with a moralizing hermeneutic that puts the mores and cultural givens of the first-century Hellenistic world in a privileged position and a distorted perspective. It is another way to decanonize the NT. It takes it out of any canon whatever, ancient or current, all of which begin with Genesis and the late Bronze Age paradigm and process, which initiates the task that continues through the N T and beyond to today. The same cultural traps and trappings evident in the NT would already have been dealt with by the time one reaches the NT, if its problems are tackled in the light of the intertextual canonical process that continues through Early Judaism and into Early Christianity, even in the literature which may have been included in no widely recognized canon of which we are aware.

6. Richard Simon in his Histoire critique du Vieux Testament (Rotterdam: Leers, 1685; Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1971) stressed that it is impossible fully to understand Christianity without knowledge of Judaism and its history. In addressing the issue of the value of consulting Early Jewish literature and understandings of Scripture, Simon boldly stated that the authority God had given the Hebrew Republic through Moses and the judges he appointed had never been withdrawn (see 'La preface de I'auteur' and pp. 6 , 9 et passim).

Introduction: Why the Pseudepigrapha?

19

One can then perceive with sharp clarity the truly canonical nature, for the Christian, of the NT. The NT seems quite late in biblical-historical terms, and it is written in a strange, vulgar Greek. But if it is read intertextually, with a monotheizing hermeneutic, the NT finds its true place in the full canonical paradigm by which Christians may know who they really are and what they stand for. They may also learn how they should continue the canonical, traditioning process, theologizing and moralizing (preaching), in their own day and within their own cultural traps and trappings, which is by and large what the authors and communities of the various canons, and of the Pseudepigrapha, did in their day.

IN THE CRUCIBLE: T H E PSEUDEPIGRAPHA AS BiBUCAL INTERPRETATION

James H. Charlesworth

For much of my professional life I thought the clash of cultures (Kulturkampf) adequately explained the origin of the writings contained in the Pseudepigrapha. For example, the origin of the Jewish struggle over the proper calendar, either the lunar or solar calendar, was thought to be caused by the imposition of the Seleucid lunar calendar on the Palestinian Jews. Thus, in part, it prompted the Maccabean revolution. Now I doubt that explanation. The Qumran Aramaic fragments of so-called / Enoch show that chs. 72 to 82 predate the Maccabean rebellion; and they contain a polemic against the lunar calendar (see / En. 75.1-9 and 82.1-20). According to this section the 'sinners' are identified as 'the people that err' in 'the computation of the year...The year is completed in three hundred and sixty-four days' (7 En. 82.5-6). This calendrical struggle must be traced back to at least the third century BCE. Thus something formative in the shaping of the Pseudepigrapha antedates the Maccabean rebellion. Surely biblical exegesis is part of that unknown phenomenon; it certainly helped to shape other Jewish writings, especially those by Philo and Josephus.' I shall attempt in 1. Philo and Josephus, despite some claims to the contrary, are both exegetically influenced by the Old Testament. H.W. Attridge has persuasively argued that Josephus intcrpretatively presents scriptural narratives. His 'theology is very much an apologetic one, which reworks Jewish u-adition in categories derived from and comprehensible to a Greco-Roman public'. See Attridge, The Interpretation of Biblical History in the Antiquitates Judaicae of Flavius Josephus (HDR, 7; Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976), p. 17. Likewise, as R.D. Hecht has attempted to show, Philo is 'exclusively engaged in deducing the reasonableness of the Law'. See Hecht, 'The Exegetical Contexts of Philo's Interpretation of Circumcision', in F.E. Greenspahn, E. Hilgertand B.L. Mack (eds.). Nourished with Peace: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism in Memory of Samuel Sandmel (Scholars Press Homage Series;

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

21

this essay to demonstrate that the crucible of the Pseudepigrapha was biblical exegesis—perhaps the Kulturkampf, which dates at least from the time of Alexander the Great, was the fire of die crucible. But what is meant by this imagery. 'Crucible' defines a vessel in which a substance takes definite shape due to the melting of selected materials. The term 'crucible' is used metaphorically to denote the shaping of ideas, writings, people, and collectives of wide-ranging meaning. It is an appropriate image, therefore, to focus our thoughts and ask the following: What is the crucible in which the early Jewish Pseudepigrapha were shaped? In revering Torah and struggling to understand its abiding efficacious force, the early Jewish pseudepigrapha were fashioned in Early Judaism. The heat from this struggle melted the deposits of all the contiguous cultures, including especially the Persians, Parthians, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Syrians. The crucible of the Pseudepigrapha was Torah interpretation. After considering six misconceptions that have hindered this understanding, five categories and five perspectives will be used to illustrate this point. Six

Misconceptions

Six misconceptions hinder the perception of the Pseudepigrapha as exegetical works. First, biblical exegesis during die period of Early Judaism, or circa 150 BCE to 200 CE, was once Uiought to be primarily reflected in the Targumim and Midrashim;^ but then we learned that each of these is Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1984), pp. 51-79 (79). 2. Even Emil Schiirer, the erudite late nineteenth-century and early twentiethcentury expert on Early Judaism, succumbed to this tendency. In his justly famous A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ he tended to U-eat early Jewish exegesis in isolation from the study of the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha and, for example, contended that the Targumim in their present form were only 'about one hundred years after the time of Christ' (div. I, vol. I, p. 118). Schiirer unduly restricted his ueatment of Jewish exegesis to haggadah and halakhah, which were too narrowly defined (cf. div. 2, vol. I, section 25). It is now slowly becoming clear that to study the pseudepigrapha is to examine Jewish exegetical work on Tanach. Only to a minor extent did Schiirer observe this insight (cf. div. 2, vol. Ill), and he failed to integrate into his study of early Jewish exegesis the Jewish pseudepigrapha he labeled as 'sacred legends' (namely Jubilees and the Martyrdom of Isaiah). These pseudepigrapha are not adequately categorized as 'modes of enriching

22

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

too late to help us understand the Jewish interpretation of die 'Old Testament' prior to die destruction of die Temple in 70. Witfi die discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls we turned our attention to an attempt to understand the Pesharim and a re-examination of die possibly early nature of Aramaic translations and interpretations of the Scriptures, thanks to the recovery of Targumim in die Qumran caves. A study of Qumranic biblical text types awakened us to the reality that the adjective 'Septuagintal' must no longer be used only to refer to Greek variants, but may also refer to very early Hebrew traditions that are not reflected in the Biblia Hebraica. We are now in a totally new era in the study of biblical exegesis in Early Judaism. Interpretation begins not widi die writings separate from the Old Testament; it does not even begin with the pointing of a text. It begins with die choosing of consonants in Semitic manuscripts. The subsequent expansions or deletions in the Hebrew text of the Bible itself is unexpected and impressive, and is not limited to the Qumranic fragments of Jeremiah and Samuel.^ It is now widely recognized that the Jewish pseudepigrapha that antedate c. 135 CE represent a chapter in early Jewish biblical exegesis."* The early Jewish writings collected in the Pseudepigrapha are chronologically much closer to die commencement of Jewish exegesis dian post-70 Jewish rabbinic works. As E.P. Sanders recently pointed the sacred story' (div. 2, vol. Ill, p. 134); they are interpretations of Torah by reciting and expanding the stories, and thereby making them more meaningful and paradigmatic for daily life. Some pseudepigrapha probably did rival and replace canonical works in some communities, for example in the groups that produced the Books of Enoch (cf. also I IQTemple and IQpHab); but the pseudepigrapha should not be portrayed as rivals of canon. They are supporters of it. Random comments by Schurer indicate that he may well have agreed with this insight; but he did not adequately integrate his voluminous and (at times) brilliant reflections. Of course, the precursor is seldom the perfector. 3. See the brilliant discussions by P.M. Cross, not only in his classic woric The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961 [rev. edn] and recently reprinted) but also in his articles in Bible Review. In 'New Directions in Dead Sea Scroll Research: Original Biblical Text Reconstnicted from Newly Found Fragments' (Bible Review I [1985], pp. 26-35), Cross demonsu-ates dramatically that '4QSam preserves lost bits of the text of Samuel' (p. 26). 4. See especially the chapters in the present book by J.A. Sanders, H.C. Kee, J.C. VanderKam, C.A. Evans and R.J. Bauckham.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

23

out, the study of Scripture was a regular feature of so-called common Judaism: 'Jews were generally well educated in the Bible, and diis is attributable to the practice of attending the synagogue, where the scripture was read and expounded'.' Secondly, the Pseudepigrapha are still claimed by some scholars to be the literary products of groups on the fringes of a 'Normative Judaism'. Usually this understanding is evident as presupposition, never exposed and examined, that miscasts the Pseudepigrapha. It can be seen, for example, in Leonhard Rost's advice to students diat the Pseudepigrapha, unlike the Apocrypha, are 'judisches Schrifttum, das nur innerhalb einzelner Gruppen Geltung gehabt hat, obwohl es beinahe dem gleichen Zeitraum wie die Apokryphen entsprungen ist'.* The Pseudepigrapha were not important only in some groups, but were significant in many groups, and are essential sources for any attempt to portray early Jewish life and dieology. To be dismissed from scholarly works is the use of the terms 'normative' and 'orthodox' in descriptions of p r e - 7 0 Jewish life and thought. It is amazing to read in distinguished journals such ideas as die following one: The present separation of Judaism and Christianity is explicable historically only if one recognizes that there existed a firmly accepted Jewish orthodoxy in the first century and that this was even then a definable belief (actually expressed in part in the s'ma') which was accepted by all who called themselves Israelites.^

The Qumran group, the Samaritans, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and virtually every group in Early Judaism (c. 2 5 0 BCE to 2 0 0 CE) of which we have any knowledge, thought of themselves as 'Israelites*. Each would have described their own peculiar thoughts as the only right belief. They are so diverse that one cannot describe them as 5. E.P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 BCE-63 CF. (London: SCM; Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992), p. 197. Also see Sanders's Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishnah (London: SCM; Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990). 6. L. Rost, Einleitung in die alttestamentlichen Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen einschliesslich der grossen Qumran-Handschriften (Heidelberg, 1971), p. 22. English translation: Judaism outside the Hebrew Canon (trans. D.E. Green; Nashville: Abingdon, 1976), p. 30. 7. N.J. McEleney, 'Orthodoxy in Judaism of the First Christian Century', JSJ 4 (1973), pp. 19-42 (20).

24

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

representing a common ortiiodoxy.* The interpretation of the Shema was not according to some set pattern, and we must confess real problems in discerning what this common confession meant in Early Judaism. To define this belief has produced so many difficulties that scholars have called for a moratorium on assuming one can talk about an essence to Early Judaism. Long ago W.D. Davies wisely emphasized 'die variety, complexity and transitional character of Jewish religion in die time of Jesus'.' This misunderstanding of Early Judaism results in a failure to grasp the historical, sociological and theological importance of the Pseudepigrapha. If we wish to understand the Pseudepigrapha we must dismiss any residue left by the once dominant contention that they were insignificant products of Jewish groups on the fringes of a Normative Judaism. Thirdly, some well-informed scholars have assumed or argued that die Pseudepigrapha were just like all the other sacred writings in pre70 Judaism. They righUy point to die fact that the canon was not yet closed; but they err in assuming that at that time there was only an amorphous collection of sacred books. Some scholars point to the Hebrew script used at Qumran, and claim that, since the same script was used to copy the Torah books as well as the new Qumranic compositions, there was no perception at Qumran of the contours of die Torah. Again we can cite Rost, who argued that at Qunmui 'there was no sharp distinction between holy scriptures and those reckoned less holy' because, inter alia, 'die same esteemed form of script (was) used to copy Isaiah or Genesis to copy Sirach, Enoch, die Book of Jubilees' and other writings not in the Tanach." 8. As Morton Smith stated long ago, i f there was any such thing, then, as an "orthodox Judaism", it must have been that which is now almost unknown to us, the religion of the average "people of the land". But the different parts of the country were so different, such gulfs of feeling and practice separated Idumea, Judea, Caesarea, and Galilee, that even on this level there was probably no more agreement between them than between any one of them and a similar area in the Diaspora' (M. Smith, 'Palestinian Judaism in the First Century', in M. Davis [ed.], Israel: Its Role in Civilization [New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1956J, p. 8 1 . 9. W.D. Davies. 'Contemporary Jewish Religion', in M. Black and H.H. Rowley (eds.), Peake's Commentary on the Bible (London: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1961), pp. 705-11 (705). 10. Rost, Judaism outside the Hebrew Canon, p. 22.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

25

More than one Hebrew script was used at Qunnran, and each of these were used because they were perceived to be sacred." The ancient and hallowed language of Israel was Hebrew. The Torah's scripts were the most sacred form of writing. It was only proper, therefore, in light of die powerful influence of the Torah at Qumran to continue the use of this script. The publication of the Leviticus Scroll amply illustrates the presence of paleo-Hebrew at Qumran.'^ The claim that the Holy Spirit continued to be alive in the Qumran community, and that the secrets of a prophet's words were disclosed only to die Moreh Has-sedek (see especially IQpHab 7) illustrates the high regard for the Torah felt at Qumran. According to the Rule of the Community die Torah was to be read throughout the day and night. The so-called 'new' laws and ordinances were considered ancient, and derivative from the quintessential and primary importance of the Torah. The new was an exegesis of die old; the latter elevated die former. I am convinced die same phenomenon characterizes die Pseudepigrapha. Fourthly, from the foregoing general misunderstanding some scholars tend to suggest that the Pseudepigrapha were produced to replace the Tanach. The impression is sometimes given that the socalled extracanonical works were used in some early Jewish groups as anti-canonical works. This confused idea seems to be present in Solomon Zeitlin's contention that a large portion of the Pseudepigrapha, namely the apocalypses, were composed 'in opposition to riormative Judaism. Normative Judaism regarded the Apocalyptists as destructive.'" I shall try to demonstrate that the Pseudepigrapha are not anticanonical works. Many documents in die Tanach represent vast differences in the interpretation of data and traditions. This healthy debate continues among die Pseudepigrapha. There are no neat literary categories, like pre-rabbinics and anti-rabbinics. 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, among many other writings, reflect the origins of Rabbinic Judaism, which is die type of Judaism Zeitlin labeled 'normative'. Likewise, the 11. The Greek copies of the Septuagint were most likely brought to Qumran. 12. See D.N. Freedman and K.A. Mathews, The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll (UQpaleoLev) (with contributions by R.S. Hanson; American Schools of Oriental Research; distributed by Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, IN, 1985). 13. S. Zeitlin, 'Jewish Apocryphal Literature', Studies in the Early History of Judaism (New York: Ktav, 1974), II, p. 241.

26

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

appearance of apocalyptic elements, ideas, symbols and passages in rabbinic literature indicate the frequently close intertwining of pseudepigraphic and earliest rabbinic diought in pre-70 CE Judaism. Fifthly, some scholars have claimed that the eyes of the audiors of the Pseudepigrapha were not on God's will, nor on sacred and ancient Jewish traditions, nor on Torah scrolls. For such scholars the Pseudepigrapha were contaminated by non-Jewish ideas. Hugo Fuchs, for example, in Judisches Lexikon, described the Pseudepigrapha as follows: 'Da ihr Inhalt aber als halbheidnisch empfunden wurde, verwarf, sie sowohl das offizielle J.-tum wie auch das offizielle Christentum'.''' This interpretation fails both by perpetuating the old myth that there were no foreign influences in so-called official Judaism, and by caricaturing the Pseudepigrapha as unworthy, because they are un-Jewish. Sixdily, a wide tendency of scholars is to emphasize too much the visionary aspect of the Pseudepigrapha. These scholars stress that the pseudepigraphical books are preoccupied with revelatory tilings. The vision of the authors is only of the future age or the heavens above. Yehoshua M. Grintz, for example, in the famous Encyclopaedia Judaica wrote that the Pseudepigrapha are 'visionary books attributed to the ancients, characterized by a stringent asceticism and dealing with the mysteries of creation and working out of good and evil from a gnostic standpoint'." This statement is fraught with so much misinformation as to cause many to wonder how it was ever passed by the editors. Suffice it only to state that the Pseudepigrapha are not to be branded and discarded as visionary works; as we shall see, they are part of the rich exegetical tradition of Early Judaism. Why then have the pseudepigraphical writings been systematically neglected in the study of early Jewish exegesis? One reason may be found in die words of Michael E. Stone: 'None of die apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books written in Hebrew or Aramaic was composed as biblical exegesis citing and expounding verses*.'* This statement is potentially misleading, and was written in the context of contrasting 14. H. Fuchs, 'Pseud(o)epigraphen'. in Judisches Lexikon (Berlin: Judischer Verlag, 1927; repr. 1982), IV/I, col. 1175. 15. Y.M. Grintz in EncJud (1971). III. col. 182. 16. M.E. Stone, Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, section two, volume II; Assen: Van Gorcum; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), p. xxi.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

27

the Pseudepigrapha and Rabbinics. Isolated and examined as a description of the relation of the Pseudepigrapha to the Tanach it is misleading. What Stone seems to be trying to clarify is that the Pseudepigrapha have a 'different attitude to scriptural authority' than die rabbinic writings. Yet, it is unfortunate that so many scholars have focused too narrowly on die use of the Tanach in Early Judaism, and have assumed incorrectly that since the Pseudepigrapha have not expounded verses from the Tanach they are not to be seen in terms of primary or secondary exegetical compositions. Moreover, one must not even give the impression that the authors of the Pseudepigrapha never quoted a verse of Scripture. A look at the italics in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha discloses that diese authors did quote from the books collected into the Tanach. There is no question that die author of the Testament of Job had memorized the canonical Job. For example, in ch. 2 4 he quotes verses from Job 2.8b-9d; in ch. 2 8 he cites Job 2 . 1 1 - 1 3 .

D.S. Russell righUy demonstrates die biblical and exegetical nature of the Pseudepigrapha. He offers the opinion that the purpose of his book, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Patriarchs and Prophets in Early Judaism, is to demonstrate from the books generally called 'the pseudepigrapha' the considerable developments that took place in early Judaism relating to the character and function of the patriarchs and prophets in whose names many of them were written.

Russell succeeds in demonstrating the exegetical link between the Tanach and the Pseudepigrapha. The Pseudepigrapha shine light on the centrality of the Tanach in Early Judaism. Many of the writings were written under the name of one of the biblical 'saints' thus emphasizing the paradigmatic importance of the Bible. Criteria How should one begin to comprehend die Pseudepigrapha as a type of early Jewish biblical exegesis? How should die data be organized? George W.E. Nickelsburg in 'The Bible Rewritten and Expanded' opts for the criteria of dividing die documents into those which are

17. D.S. Russell, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Patriarchs and Prophets in Early Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), p. xi.

28

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

very loosely connected to the biblical traditions and diose which are 'closely related to the biblical texts'.'* Among the documents only loosely connected to the Bible are the following: Daniel 1-6 The Prayer of Nabonidus Susanna Bel and the Dragon Tobit Judith Martyrdom of Isaiah The Lives of the Prophets The Testament of Abraham Joseph andAseneth Paraleipomena ofJeremiah Epistle ofAristeas and 3 Maccabees.

Among the documents closely linked widi die Bible are diese: / Enoch and the Book of the Giants Jubilees The Genesis Apocryphon The Book of Biblical Antiquities The Apocalypse of Moses The Life of Adam and Eve Philo the Epic Poet Theodotus the Epic Poet Ezekiel the Tragedian The Story of Darius' Bodyguards Additions to the Book of Esther David's Compositions Baruch The Episde of Jeremiah, and The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men.

I agree with Nickelsburg that the 'tendency to follow die ancient texts more closely may be seen as a reflecdon of their developing canonical status' (p. 89). Rather than be seen as writings oblivious or antagonistic to die Tanach, die Pseudepigrapha witness to the centrality of Tanach among early Jews and its movement to a canonical status. The audior of 4 Ezra 18. G.W.E. Nickelsburg in Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period; see esp. p. 89.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

29

celebrates the 2 4 revelatory books that are published, and the 7 0 additional books that are kept secret. As Rost rightly states, 'there can be no question that he is referring to the twenty-four books of the Tanach, consisting of Torah, Nevi'im, and K e t u v i m ' . " This point is important; and it is equally necessary to emphasize diat according to the author of 4 Ezra the 7 0 are related to and continuous with the 2 4 . The Pseudepigrapha are part of die latitudinous ways Jews interpreted die Bible. The Pseudepigrapha are shaped widiin the crucible of biblical exegesis. The early Jewish Pseudepigrapha, that is those which are Jewish and antedate the codification of the Mishnah in 2 0 0 CE, may be provisionally studied under five categories, which may be briefly listed:^" 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Inspiration. The Old Testament serves primarily to inspire the author, who then evidences considerable imagination, perhaps sometimes under influences from nonbiblical writings (ranging from the Books of Enoch to the Arda Viraf).^^ Framework. The Old Testament provides the framework for the author's own work. The original setting of the Old Testament work is employed for appreciably other purposes. Launching. A passage or story in die Old Testament is used to launch another, considerably different reflection. The original setting is replaced. Inconsequential. The author borrows from the Old Testament only the barest facts, names especially, and composes a new story. Expansions. Most of these documents, in various ways and degrees, start with a passage or story in die Old Testament, and rewrite it, often under the imaginative influence of oral traditions linked somehow to the biblical narrative.

Each of these five categories emerge from and serve to illustrate the exegetical nature of the Pseudepigrapha. 19. Rost, Judaism outside the Hebrew Canon, p. 23. 20. These categories as first proposed by me, which are now expanded, are included in C.A. Evans, Non-Canonical Writings and New Testament Interpretation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1992). p. 46. 21. See J.T. Milik, The Books of Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1976), and M. Haug, 'The Book of Arda Viraf, in C F . Home (ed.). Ancient Persia (Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, 7; New York: Parke, Austin & Lipscomb, 1917), pp. 185-207.

30

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Inspiration Many Pseudepigrapha were written by Jews who were primarily inspired by the Tanach, but were also free to think creatively under die influence, at times, of the insights and advances in the contiguous world cultures. The best example of this exegetical method is found in the category labeled 'Prayers, Psalms and Odes'. The 'More Psalms of David' are structured according to the poetry of the Davidic Psalter, and are frequently indistinguishable from diem. The Psalms are the inspiration for these additions to it. Psalm 151A also evidences the characteristic of the second category; it uses 1 Samuel 16 and 17 as die framework for four verses. Note the following translation of the Hebrew (11 QPs 151): I was the smallest among my brothers, and the youngest among the sons of my father; and he made me shepherd of his flocks, and the ruler over his kids. (151 A. 1) He sent his prophet to anoint me, Samuel to make me great; (151A.5) But he [God] sent and took me from behind the flock, and he anointed me with holy oil, and he made me leader for his people, and ruler over the sons of his covenant. (151 A.7)

These hues are based upon 1 Sam. 16.1-11, 17.14 and 2 Sam. 7.8, and perhaps also on Pss. 78.70-71 and 89.20. It is understandable why die Hebrew of this psalm contains the title 'A Hallelujah of David the Son of Jesse'.^^ The next psalm, 151B (11 QPs 151), is also based on die Davidic Psalter, and on another episode in the life of David, one which is recorded in 1 Sam. 17.8-25. A translation from the Hebrew is as follows: Then I s[a]w a Philistine who was uttering taunts from the ra[nks of the enemy...].

22. The translations are by Charlesworth and are printed in OTP, 11, ad he.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

31

The Syriac recension is not so fragmentarily preserved: I went out to attack the Philistine, and he cursed me by his idols. But after 1 unsheathed his sword, I cut off his head; and I removed the shame from the sons of Israel.

Other verses in the additional psalms, or Psalms 151 through 155, are also inspired by the Davidic Psalter and by episodes in the life of David. The Prayer of Manasseh, one of the most beautiful penitential psalms ever written, was composed in the century before the destiiiction of the Temple by a devout Jew who wished to supply the prayer of Manasseh described in 2 Chronicles 33. Note this comparison: 2 Chronicles 33

I

Prayer of Manasseh I provoked

[Manasseh]. . . provoking his (Yahweh's] anger [Mana.sseh]. . . placed . . . the i d o l . . . in the Temple Manasseh with hooks . . . in chains... humbling himself deeply before the God of his ancestors

your fury (or anger) I set up idols I am ensnared I am bent by a multitude of iron chains I am bending the knees of my heart before you God of our fathers.

Here we confront a prayer composed pseudonymously to provide the prayer mentioned in 2 Chron. 33.11-13. The Prayer of Manasseh, dierefore, is an exegesis of an Old Testament passage using the model of bodi inspiration, because it is sOTictured according to die style of die Psalter and otiier Hebraic poems, and framework, because it intends to use the story in 2 Chronicles to compose a new psalm or prayer. Framework Framework is a type of exegesis in which the Tanach provides the setting for a work that has a different purpose. A story in the Tanach provides the basis, or framework, for a considerably different narrative. The best examples of the type of exegesis called 'Framework' are found in the Fourth Book of Ezra, 2 Baruch, and in die Testaments

32

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

collected in die Pseudepigrapha. In each of diese documents an Old Testament passage provides the basis, or framework, for an entirely different story. The apocalypse in 4 Ezra begins as follows: In the thirtieth year after the desuiiction of our city, I, Salathiel, who am also called Ezra, was in Babylon. I was U'oubled as I lay on my bed, and my thoughts welled up in my heart, because I saw the desolation of Zion and the wealth of those who lived in Babylon {4 Ezra 3.1-2).^

The author has used the framework of the story of the destruction of Jerusalem, Zion, by the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE to tell the story of the devastation wrought by the Romans in the first century CE. The audior of this passage knew well die traditions related to and based exegetically in 2 Kings 25, according to which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked and conquered Jerusalem. The same source, combined widi Jeremiah traditions, produced the apocalypse called 2 Baruch. Note in particular ch. 6.1-2. Now it happened on the following day that, behold, an army of the Chaldeans [= Babylonians] surrounded the city. And in the evening I, Baruch [= Jeremiah's scribe], left the people, went outside, and set myself by an oak. And I was grieving over Zion and sighed because of the captivity which had come upon the people.^*

Scholars often explain the use of 'Babylon* for 'Rome' because of the need of die Jews to hide their anti-Roman polemic from them. This attractive suggestion does not exhaust die possibilities or reasons for such pseudepigraphical writing. In my opinion, an equally important one is the powerful paradigmatic force of the biblical text and the ti'aditions related to it. By using an exegesis of 2 Kings and Jeremiah as the framework for articulating the search for meaning in a new day, it _was possible to stress diat as once growdi sprang up from the ruins of 587 so it will be possible—indeed certain in light of the vision revealed to Baruch—for the new to begin again, thanks to the fact that God was indeed in control of the destruction of his Temple and is about to bring in die promised eschaton. The source for the testamentary literature is the account of Jacob's last word, or testament, to his sons; and in particular the record of diat scene described in Genesis 49. 23. Trans, by B.M. Metzger in OTP, I. p. 528. 24. Trans, by A.F.J. Klijn in OTP, I, p. 622.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

33

Then Jacob called his sons, and said, 'Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in days to come. Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob, and hearken to Israel your father' (Gen. 49.1-2, RSV). A Jewish docuitient, probably composed around 100 BCE and redacted by a Christian sometime in the second century CE,^' reflects this memorable story in Genesis 49. A Jew composed testaments for each of the twelve sons of Jacob by using the account of how Jacob called his twelve sons around his death bed and exhorted and blessed them. Genesis 49 was the framework for composing testaments for each of Jacob's twelve sons. What Jacob had done on his death bed for his sons, each of diem did for their sons, but the content shifted markedly in the direction of thought so prevalent in Early Judaism; large 25. There is considerable controversy over the Jewish or Christian origin of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is clear that at least two testaments, one attributed to Levi and the other to Naphtali, are Jewish and pre-Christian, since fragments of each were found in medieval manuscripts in the Cairo Geniza and also in Cave IV at Qumran. It is also clear that these testaments are not identical to the Greek testaments in the critical text of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The crucial question is now whether a document of twelve testaments was composed by a Jew or a Christian. Acknowledging that the distinctions between 'Jewish' and 'Christian' are now blurred, and that the Jewish fragments mentioned above are not identical with the critical text of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, M. de Jonge and I have tended to differ on assessing the origin of the document. He continues (since 1953) to favor the possibility that a Christian conceived the idea of twelve testaments in the second century. He is certainly correct to stress that with the Greek document we are faced not with interpolations but with redactions, with extensive deletions as well as additions, of the Jewish sources; I, however, am more convinced that the Jewish strata is far more extensive than he thinks and that it is found behind each of the twelve testaments. My conviction that a Jew composed a document that contained twelve testaments may now be confirmed, in part at least, by the discovery of a Testament of Judah among the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This discovery was presented to specialists in Cambridge and Uppsala and will be published in the near future. The most recent publications on this debate are the following: M. de Jonge, 'The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs', in H.F.D. Sparks (ed.). The Apocryphal Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 505-12; H.C. Kee, 'Testaments of the Twelve Pauiarchs', in OTP, I, pp. 775-80; J.H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament: Prolegomena for the Study of Christian Origins (SNTS, 54; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); M. de Jonge, Jewish Eschatology, Early Christian Christology and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (NovTSup, 63; Leiden: Brill, 1991).

34

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

apocalyptic sections filled out the brief statement by Jacob 'diat I may tell you what shall befall you in days to come' (Gen. 49.1). Both the old framework and the new content is pellucidly represented in the Testament of Levi; note die following excerpts: A copy of the words of Levi: the things that he decreed to his sons concerning all they were to do, and the things that would happen to them until the day of judgment. He was in good health when he summoned them to him, but it had been revealed to him that he was about to die. When they all were gathered together he said to them: (1.1-2)... 'At this moment the angel opened for me the gates of heaven and I saw the Holy Most High sitting on the throne. And he said to me, "Levi, to you I have given the blessing of the priesthood until I shall come and dwell in the midst of Israel- (5.1-2).^*

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs thus evolves out of the Old Testament narrative, especially Genesis 47 through 50, and in that sense belongs widiin die broad study of exegesis widiin Early Judaism. The Testament of Job, which was written in the century before the destrucdon of Jerusalem, also evolves out of an exegesis of Jacob's testament. As R.P. Spitder perceives, die Old Testament provided for the composition of the Testament of Job the following framework features: the blessing from father to sons (Gen. 47.29-50.14): an ill father (Gen. 48.1), who is near death (Gen. 47.29), and on his death bed (Gen. 47.31). calls his sons (Gen. 49.1), disposes of his possessions (Gen. 48.22), and issues a forecast of future events (Gen. 49.1). The father dies (Gen. 49.33), and a lamentation completes the framework of the .story (Gen. 50.2-14)."

This framework provides the basis for the genre, loosely defined, diat unites the Jewish testaments, namely the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Testament of Job, and to a lesser extent die Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Moses (cf. also I En. 91.1-19, Tob. 14.3-11, Acts 20.17-38, I Tim. 4.1-16 and Jn 17.1-26). Here is die opening to die Testament of Job (which is extant in Greek): 26. Trans. H.C. Kee in OTP, I, pp. 788-89.26. 27. See Spiuler's discussion in OTP. I, pp. 831-32.

C H A R L E S W O R T H in the Crucible

35

Now on the day when, having fallen ill, he [Job] began to settle his affairs, he called his seven sons and his three daughters [cf. Job 1.2]... And when he had called his children he said, 'Gather round, my children. Gather round me so that I may show you the things which the Lord did with me and all the things which have happened to me' (1.2-4).^

As can be surmised from the last clause, 'that I may show you the things which the Lord did with me and all the things which have happened to me', this testament is basically a recital of Job's life. It, therefore, contrasts with the Testament of Levi, and constantly returns, after expansive narratives, to the biblical framework and book of Job. In essence, the Testament of Job is an imaginative exegesis and legendary expansion of the biblical book. For example. Job's wife has a speech of only two lines in the Hebrew text, which is expanded in the Septuagint to a full paragraph; in the Testament of Job she is named—Sitis—and shares a rather lengthy dialogue with Job. As I stated long ago, the Testament of Job is a type of midrash in the form of a testament on the canonical book.^' It is an example of the early phases of what will later be called midrashim. The Testament of Abraham (extant only in Greek) continues in the direction taken by the author of the Testament of Levi and away from that followed by the author of the Testament of Job. It does not expand on the life of Abraham; it describes how Abraham refuses to die. Michael is sent by God to help Abraham prepare for death and to write a testament; eventually Michael is to collect his soul. Abraham, however, refuses to die and forces Michael to take him on a celestial journey (somewhat reminiscent of the journeys of Enoch). In contrast to the Testament of Job, as E.P. Sanders states, virtually nothing from die Old Testament is found in the Testament of Abraham, other than the obvious and relatively insignificant references which can be traced back to Genesis.'" Surprisingly, in light of the vast iconographical and documentary evidence, there is no clear reference to Abraham's attempt to sacrifice Isaac. With the authors of many apocalypses and apocalyptic writings the author of the Testament of Abraham is interested in the cosmic dimensions of Jewish theology.^' 28. Trans. R.P. Spittler in OTP, I, p. 839. 2 9 . Charlesworth, 'Testament of Job', in The Pseudepigrapha and Modem Research with a Supplement (SBLSCS, 7; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981), p. 135. 30. Sanders, 'Testament of Abraham', in OTP, I, p. 879. 3 1 . See Charlesworth, 'The Cosmic Theology of Early Judaism', in The OU

36

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

The Testament of Moses (extant in only one Latin palimpsest) received its present form in the first half of the first century CE. It is similar to the Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Levi, in that it does refer to the future acts of God, but it is more similar to die Testament of Job in that it also concentrates not upon die predicuons of the future but on a recitation of the past history of God's people. In a farewell discourse to Joshua, Moses describes the history of Israel and the Jews from the time of the conquest of Palestine dirough the rebuilding of the Temple after the sixth-century exile to die subsequent apostasy (perhaps due to the hellenizing priests or the 'kings' of the late Hasmoneans). The work, as extant in its fragmentary form, continues with an eschatological hymn that celebrates the destiuction of the evil one by Israel's guardian angel, and the final exaltation of Israel. The close relationship between the Testament of Moses and Deuteronomy, especially chs. 31 dirough 34, leads J. Priest to suggest diat it is a vinual rewriting of them. This is true not only with respect to general ouUine but also regarding specific allusions and theological perspective. Deuteronomy 31-34 is clearly the author's model, though he has recast his own work in light of the history of the people from the conquest to his own day and through the prism of his own apocalyptic outlook.'^

^

What Priest calls 'model' I have been referring to as 'framework'; yet die Testament of Moses shares much with the apocalyptic dimensions of the Testament of Levi and another model of exegesis, namely 'Expansions of the "Old Testament" and Legends'. Each of diese are different methods used by the early Jews to comprehend and make contemporary the biblical message. Launching Launching is a type of Jewish exegesis by which a passage or story in die Tanach is used to produce, or launch, another different story. The best examples of using a passage in the Old Testament for launching forth into a new setting are die Books of Enoch. The books gadiered together now into what is called / Enoch and 2 Enoch are based upon two verses in Genesis 5: Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament, pp. 65-67. 32. J. Priest, 'TesUment of Moses', in OTP, I, p. 923.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

37

Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him (Gen. 5.2324, RSV. See also Sir. 44.16).

From these brief comments the early Jews developed exegetically the ideas that Enoch must be somehow associated with die solar calendar of 365 days, that he was perfecdy righteous, and that he did not die, but is with G o d . ' ' Since Enoch then tends to transcend time and place—his place is either unknown or hidden (cf. 1 En. 12.1-2)—he is the perfect candidate for ascending through the heavens and viewing the world below, its history, and the future ages. According to I Enoch (extant in its full form only in Ethiopic, although early Aramaic Qumran fragments have been found) he receives from the angels a vision and says, 'I heard from them everything and I understood. I look not for this generation but for the distant one that is coming (1.2)'.''' Enoch falls asleep and has a dream and visions, according to I En. 13.8. According to 2 Enoch (extant only in Slavonic) he is awakened from his sleep and guided by 'two huge men' (2 En. 1.4). Subsequently in both works Enoch journeys dirough the heavens. Another passage in the Old Testament has significandy influenced the diought of the authors of / Enoch and 2 Enoch. It is the story of the fall of the watchers found in Gen. 6.1-4. In 1 Enoch 1-36 this story is considerably reworked and expanded. In 2 Enoch 18 [J] the fallen angels are seen being punished in the fifth heaven and others are in die second heaven, 'imprisoned in great darkness'." Another passage in Genesis—which is exceedingly important for understanding early Jewish exegesis, because of a Qumran scroll, Philo, Josephus, and Hebrews—has considerably shaped die ending of 2 Enoch, which unfortunately was excised by R.H. Charles. 2 Enoch 71-72 describes die miraculous birdi of Melchizedek; these chapters, like 11Q Melchizedek, are similar to the early midrashim and to the 'Expansions of the "Old Testament" and Other Legends'. They are an exegesis with fantastic expansions of Gen. 14.17-24, according to 33. A careful study of the origin of apocalyptic thought and the role of Enoch in its development is J.C. VanderKam's Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition (CBQMS, 16; Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1984). 34. E. Isaac, '1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse oO Enoch', in OTP, 1, p. 13. 35. See F.I. Andersen, '2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch', in OTP, I, pp. 13032.

38

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

which a mysterious individual, Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of God Most High, offers bread and wine to Abraham and blesses him. Abraham subsequently gives him a tenth of his spoils from battle. Inconsequential Some pseudepigrapha have only an inconsequential relation to the Old Testament. They have inherited from the Tanach only the personae, or other details, in order to create a new story. The link with the Tanach is clear and seminal; but it is inconsequential in contrast with die other three types of exegesis found in the Pseudepigrapha. The Sibylline Oracles are not essentially shaped or created by biblical exegesis, even diough the third book is influenced by Psalms 2 and 48, Isaiah 11, and the traditions about the pilgrimage of the gentiles to Jerusalem in the eschaton (cf. Isa. 2.1-4; Mic. 4.1-4; 2fech. 14.16-21). Likewise, books four, five and eleven are only marginally influenced by the Old Testament. To understand the Third Sibylline Oracle it is important to understand die exegetical base for some verses, but it is more important to comprehend developments in nonJewish cultures, especially in Greece, Italy and Egypt. Similarly the Treatise of Shem and Hoe Apocalypse of Adam received from the Old Testament little more dian the name pseudepigraphically linked with the document. In fact the astrological interest of the former and the present gnostic nature of the latter expose the vast differences between these two pseudepigrapha and die Old Testament, even if the Old Testament is a library of widely differing documents. Also related to the Tanach in only a relatively inconsequential way are the documents that belong under the category of 'Wisdom and Philosophical Literature'. The Wisdom books in die Tanach are Jewish, but they are profoundly shaped by humanity's common treasury of universal wisdom and morality. Developing later out of diis Wisdom tradition—but certainly not an exegesis of it—are 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, Pseudo-Phocylides and Syriac Menander. Expansions The most important category of the Pseudepigrapha for our present purposes is the expansion of the biblical narrative. Here the biblical story has been told and retold until it is discussed and questions arise.

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

39

What was life like in Paradise before Eve and Adam disobeyed God? What were their reactions to the first experience of death and sickness? What was the name of Jepthah's daughter, and what was her reaction to her father's vow? What was Asenedi, Joseph's wife, like, and how was it possible for him to marry an Egyptian who worshipped idols? Who were Jannes and Jambres, and Eldad and Modad? The answers given to these questions and the lore that developed from retelling the biblical stories produced the expansions of them found in the Life of Adam and Eve, Pseudo-Philo, Joseph and Aseneth, Jannes and Jambres and Eldad and Modad. Exegesis by expansion is stunning evidence that the Pseudepigrapha were often produced within the crucible of biblical interpretation. The biblical stories were memorized; they were taken seriously, as bruta facta, as revealed truths; but to speak to the curiosities and needs of a later time die stories needed to be retold and completed widi details. All die evidence seems to suggest diat what we call additional facts and details were considered by the early Jews who revered these Pseudepigrapha to be part of the true story. Now they were revealed to serve the curiosities and needs of later generations. The following are the Pseudepigrapha that are 'Expansions of die Old Testament' in one column and the portion of the Tanach that is expanded in die second column: Jubilees Martyrdom of Isaiah Joseph and Aseneth Life of Adam and Eve Pseudo-Philo Lives of the Prophets Ladder of Jacob 4 Baruch Jannes and Jambres History of the Rechabites Eldad and Modad

Genesis 1.1-Exodus 12.50 1, 2 Kings Genesis 37-50 Genesis 1 - 6 Genesis to 2 Samuel Kings, Clironicles, Prophets Genesis 28 Jeremiah, 2 Kings 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah Exodus 7-8 Jeremiah 35 Numbers 11.26-29

Like die Dead Sea Scrolls and die documents collected into die New Testament, the Pseudepigrapha tend to treat the Tanach in ways that are shockingly cavalier to modern biblical critics. It seems obvious that die text was considered divine, but the spirit for interpretation allowed the Jewish exegete to alter, ignore, expand, and even rewrite the sacred Scripture. Pneumatic exegesis was a phenomenon which at once

40

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

was shaped by and in turn shaped the received text and accompanying tradition. The study of the use of the Tanach in the Pseudepigrapha accentuates a major insight brilliantly expressed by Edward Schillebeeckx: scholars too often forget that in Early Judaism the Tanach 'was not functioning per se or in isolation but in the context of late Jewish piety as diat had since been developing. One cannot with impunity skip over die time that had elapsed between the great prophets and Jesus.''* Essential

Perspectives

To grasp the ways the Pseudepigrapha were fashioned by biblical interpretation five perspectives are essential. First, we must leave behind the once dominant conceptions of pre-70 Judaism. It was not categorized by a clear separation of Palestinian Judaism from Diasporic Judaism, by a monolidiic closed and 'normative Judaism', by the continuing purity of an indigenous well-defined Judaism, or by some identifiable and wide spread orthodoxy. Once these modern mydis are removed, it is possible to see diat the Pseudepigrapha are the products of many divergent groups within Early Judaism. Some, like I Enoch, Jubilees smA the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, move us close to the various types of Essenes. The Psalms of Solomon, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch show us some movements in die direction of Pharisaism and early rabbinic thought. 4 Baruch and Pseudo-Eupolemus show us affinities with the Samaritans. The Testament of Moses and Psalms of Solomon 17 and 18 reveal what might be polemics against the earliest phases of the Zealots. But most importandy, the Pseudepigrapha warn us not to think about Judaism as divided into four sects. There were more than a dozen groups and many more subgroups. Secondly, the tendency of the audiors of the Pseudepigrapha was not to replace but to heighten Torah. This well known phenomenon, dianks to die recovery of die Temple Scroll, is most clearly evident in Jubilees, sometimes called the 'Littie Genesis'. The audior of 2 Baruch especially elevated the Torah. Recall Klijn's translation of 2 Baruch 77.15-16, which reads as follows:

36. E. Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (trans. H. Hoskins; New York: Crossroad, 1974), p. 257.

C H A R L E S W O R T H in the Crucible

41

Shepherds and lamps and fountains came from the Law, and when we go away, the Law will abide. If you, therefore, look upon the Law and are intent upon wisdom, then the lamp will not be wanting and the shepherd will not give way and the fountain will not dry up (OTP, 1, p. 647).

Along with the same trend came the elevation of biblical heroes. Some, like Jacob, were accorded angelic and divine status, as Mardn Hengel in Germany,'^ James D.G. Dunn,'* Christopher R o w l a n d " and D.S. Russell*" in England, and G. Nickelsburg,"' odiers, and I myself^ in the USA have attempted to illustrate. The interpretation of die status of the biblical saints, which is exegesis of Scripture, was the crucible in which the Pseudepigrapha were fashioned. These so-called extra-canonical writings shine light on the importance of Tanach, or the canonical Scriptures. Thirdly, early Jewish lore deposited in the Pseudepigrapha reveal how much Palestinian Jews cherished die biblical tales. One diat must have been popular, judging from the Apocalypse of Abraham, was the altercation between Terah, the idol maker, and his son, Abraham, to whom the Jews allocated die belief in one and only one God. Many works in the Pseudepigrapha—especially the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Testament of Job, the Lives of the Prophets and Pseudo-Philo— attest to folk tales developing around the Tanach. They show how Torah permeated the far reaching corners of Early Judaism and helped produce die Pseudepigrapha. Fourthly, we have learned to see how sociologically conditioned are the documents in the Pseudepigrapha, reflecting consecutively the crises of the Maccabean era, and the growing stranglehold on Palestine by the Romans, beginning with Pompey's entrance into the Temple in 63 BCE and culminating with the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Now, we need to perceive the exegetical dimensions that have also 37. M. Hengel in The Son of God (trans. J. Bowden; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), pp. 47-48. 38. J.D.G. Dunn, Christology in the Making (London: SCM; Philadelphia: Westminster Pi«ss, 1970), p. 17. 39. C. Rowland, Christian Origins: From Messianic Movement to Christian Religion (London: SPCK; Minneapolis: Ausburg, 1985), pp. 17-38. 40. D.S. Rus,sell, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, pp. 1-8. 41. G.W.E. Nickelsburg and J.J.Collins (eds.). Ideal Figures in Ancient Judaism (Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 12; Chico, CA: Scholars Press. 1980). 42. J.H. Charlesworth, 'The Portrayal of the Righteous as an Angel', in Ideal Figures, pp. 135-51.

42

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

produced the Pseudepigrapha. Louis H. Feldman rightly stressed that the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Psalms of Solomon and die Prayer of Manasseh, as well as many of the Qumran Scrolls and some of the Apocrypha, 'are generally conscious imitadons of biblical b o o k s . . . " " Imitating is certainly a form of interpreting. In some cases it is clear exegesis. The reviews of history in many of the apocalypses in die Pseudepigrapha are exegetical reflections on die histories in the Tanach. To retell die drama of salvation from protological time to the eschatological age is to interpret the Tanach. This exegetical component of the apocalypses has not been perceived in die examination of the reviews of history. Fifth, the works in the Pseudepigrapha are not fully or adequately represented by the contention diat they are visionary writings. Studies of the ethical sections of 2 Enoch and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs reveal the strong paradigmatic links widi God's commandments recorded in the Torah, and the ethical teachings of the great prophets. To study the descriptions of die heavenly tablets. Paradise, the coming of God's messenger or Messiah, and God's holy dwelling in the Temple is to be drawn to the large swirling pool of biblical interpretation that permeated all groups in Early Judaism.

Conclusion A change has occurred in the study of pre-70 Palestinian Judaism. In the last twenty years the Pseudepigrapha have come into their own. Now diese writings are accorded some respect, and it is generally and internationally recognized that the history of pre-70 Judaism must depend upon diem in describing the fluid and vibrant culture known as Early Judaism. If we desire to understand the origins and sociological functions of the Pseudepigrapha, we must now recognize that diey were fashioned in the crucible of biblical interpretation. They point to the importance of Torah in the daily life of the religious Jew, especially in Palestine before the destruction of die nation in 70. As die late Samuel Sandmel stated in a very popular article on die Pseudepigrapha,

43. L.H. Feldman, 'Judaism, History o f , Britannica, Macropaedia (1974), X, p. 314.

in The New

Encyclopaedia

C H A R L E S W O R T H In the Crucible

43

Without a Genesis, there could never have been a 'Jubilees'. Indeed, had there not already been a Bible, there could have been no Pseudepigrapha for, in one way or another, these books all derive from the Bible."'*

Biblical exegesis is the crucible of the Pseudepigrapha. In it ancient humanity's wisdom, scientific observations, and speculations were melted down and shaped to reappear as Jewish tradition.

44. S. Sandmel, 'The Books That Were Left Out', Keeping Posted (February, 1973), pp. 19-23 (23).

APPROPRIATING THE HISTORY OF G O D ' S PEOPLE: A SURVEY OF INTERPRETATIONS OF THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL IN THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA, APOCRYPHA A N D THE N E W TESTAMENT

Howard Clark Kee

Claims made by post-exilic Jews and by early Christians that they were the true heirs of the covenant promises to Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets required them to develop a framework for interpreting and appropriating that central strand in the biblical tradition. Inevitably, the dominant conceptual framework of the dme and culture of each specific segment of the religious communities had a determinative effect on how this tradition was perceived and appropriated.' Comparative analysis of these interpretative phenomena requires more than merely noting which historical figures or events were highlighted by the different groups in this process of appropriadon of die tradition. By looking at die larger context and the specifics of the world-view of each document under analysis, the interpreter must ask what are die dominant features implicit and explicit widiin die wridng concerning such basic features as the view of reality, the nature of knowledge, the mode of interpretation of Scripture, and the idendty of the social group making the claims to be heirs of this tradition. In abstract terms, the modern interpreter must consider ontological, epistemological, hermeneudcal, cultural and sociological factors in analyzing the relevant texts. That treatment of the early history of die covenant people was an important ingredient in very different documents within the biblical tradition is not surprising, since basic to the claim of participation in die people of God was the affirmation diat God called and guided the 1. The methodological principles on which this essay is based are set out in my book. Knowing the Truth: A Sociological Approach to New Testament Interpretation (Minneapolis: Augsburg-Fortress, 1989).

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

45

patriarchs from the period of dieir earlier nomadic existence and their experience of slavery in Egypt undl their settlement in the land of Canaan. It was in that land that the formerly mobile, portable presence of God in die covenant box was given a fixed location, although the tradition is in disagreement as to whedier die holy place should be Bethel, Shechem or Jerusalem. Central in all diese corporate, historical experiences are the leaders called and empowered by God, since through them die purpose of God is disclosed and effected in behalf of God's people. As scholars have long noted, in ancient Israel the equivalent of die creeds is the recital of what God has done to call and constitute his covenant people, as in Deut. 26.1-11. In Deuteronomy, following that confession, is an ostensibly predictive description of die establishment of the central sanctuary at Shechem (Deut. 27) and of the monarchy, its failure and the exile (Deut. 28), followed by the restoration of the people in the land (Deut. 30). Obviously, there is almost universal scholarly agreement that the closing chapters of Deuteronomy were written centuries after Israel had in fact settled in die land. Clearly essential to die maintenance of the covenant relationship and of the special place of the people in the purpose of God is dieir obedience to the commandments (Deut. 30.19-20): I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LX>RD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you, and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

That Israel was to identify with its history, with covenant promises and responsibilities, is obvious. The process and the differences in appropriation of diat historical tradition are also obvious when it compares documents produced before, during and shortly after the exile: Deuteronomy, the books of Samuel and Kings; die books of Chronicles. But, given the more radically changed and changing circumstances of the post-exilic period, how was the community to understand and appropriate its history and perceive its future? Far more than a conceptual, theological issue was involved in Deuteronomy: the promises were made to die twelve tribes, but apparendy after the exile Judah alone remained as an identifiable entity. Initially, following the return from the exile, die sanctuary was operated under what seem to have been the generous policies of the Persian government, but by the

46

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Hellenistic era Jews were under enormous pressure culturally and politically to conform to the patterns of Hellenistic life and thought. By the Roman period, the century of autonomy under the Maccabees had passed, with its odd blend of royal and priestly authority characterized by internecine conflict and courting the favor of Rome. By die middle of the first century BCE, both the monarchs and priests who ruled die people of Israel did so only by authorization of the Roman emperor and senate. How, during these times of major political, social and cultural change, was the covenant relationship to be defined? How was it to be tangibly expressed in terms of social structures? What were to be die qualifications for participation in it? From Jewish and early Christian sources, it is evident that during die Hellenistic and Roman periods, a variety of answers to diese questions were being offered, several of them building explicitly on the biblical traditions of die history of the covenant people, and some of them clearly influenced by the concepts and axioms of Hellenistic culture. Accordingly, analysis of representative documents shows how central it is to the present-day interpretation of each that attention be given to the cultural context and worldview represented by die writer and original readers who stand behind these materials. The writings we examine in relation to diese interpretative issues include two from the Jewish wisdom tradition—the Wisdom of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon—one from the apocalyptic tradition of Judaism— / Enoch—and two from the early Christian tradition: Acts and the Letter to die Hebrews.

1. The Wisdom of Sirach The prologue of die Wisdom of Sirach states the dual aim of reading die Scriptures: to gain learning and wisdom, and to live according to the law. The first 15 chapters of die work deal mostly widi generalized wisdom, as in 8.8, where following the advice of die sages and their maxims is encouraged. Yet there are repeated references to the importance of obedience to the law, as die expression of die wisdom of God. This involves both the cultic and the moral features of the law: support and participation in the priesUy process (7.29-31) and obedience to the commandments (11.19). To define the one who is wise, Sirach asserts, 'Whoever holds to the law will obtain wisdom' (14.20-27).

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

ATI

Beginning in Sirach 16-17, however, another ingredient is present with respect to the law: the wisdom of God is evident in the creation. 17.11-12 reads, 'He bestowed knowledge upon them, and allotted to them the law of life. He established with them an eternal covenant, and revealed to them his decrees'. Initially this sounds like a return of Prov. 8.22-31, where wisdom is pictured as God's companion while the process of creation unfolds. But in what follows one can detect the influence of the Stoic notion of natural law, as active agency in the creation and ordering of the world, and as an essential factor in human beings, guiding them to moral order as they conform their lives to this inherent moral system. This inference is confirmed by the fact that the technical language and basic concepts of Stoicism appear in the Greek text of Sirach. In 18.30, as introduction to a series of injunctions about controlling one's desires and restraining one's appetites, there appears the technical term, egkrateia. In 19.17 there is advice to 'let die law of the Most High take its course' in order to arouse a sense of moral responsibility. Or again, in 21.11, 'Whoever keeps the law controls his dioughts'. The process of disciplined instruction in die Greek tradition is made explicit in 23.7, where paideia appears in die section title according to some of the best manuscripts (B, S, A). All of this attention to die philosophical and paideutic context prepares for the declaration in 24.1-22 diat Wisdom, whose origin is divine and whose role has been the ordering of die universe, is now established in Jerusalem, embodied in 'die covenant of die Most High, die law diat Moses commanded us' (24.23). Resuming die mixture of proverbial wisdom and specifics of the commandments in the law, Sirach observes that 'die one who seeks God will accept his paideia... die one who seeks the law will be filled with it' (32.14-15). Ordinary workers and artisans are precluded by dieir occupations from being wise, aldiough 'diey maintain the fabric of the world' (38.24-34). But it is die scribe who studies the law, who seeks out die wisdom of die ancients, who will be shown by the Lord what wisdom is, and will 'glory in the law of the Lord's covenant' (39.1-11). Wisdom will show diat God is in control of die whole of time, from beginning to end (39.16-21), and works dirough the forces of nature (wind, hail, fire, famine, wild animals) to accomplish his purposes (39.28-31), so that 'everything proves good in its appointed time' (39.34) and all the universe operates in accord with his plan and

48

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

purpose (43.13-16). God bestows this wisdom tois eusebesin (on those who are pious). Sirach, having made the case for the basic congruity of immanent divine order and purpose with the law of the covenant, proceeds to 'sing the praises of famous men* (44.1-50.21), most of them described in Scripture, who were both wise and righteous in their obedience to God*s commandments. 'Everlasting covenants* were made by God with Noah, who is described as dikaios and teleios (44.17-18). Abraham 'kept the law of the Most High, and entered into a covenant with him' (44.20). Likewise, Isaac and Jacob shared in the covenant (44.22). Moses' crucial role was to receive from God 'the commandments, the law of life and knowledge, so that he might teach Jacob the covenant* (44.1-5). Clearly this role of Moses is described with conscious or unconscious references to a correlation between the all-permeating law of nature and the revealed law of the covenant with Israel. The interrelation between law and covenant is evident in the descriptions of the roles of Aaron and Phineas (45.6-22), in diat the establishment of the covenant gave them both priestly and educational duties. Thus Aaron was granted 'authority and statutes and judgments to teach Jacob die testimonies, and to enlighten Israel with [God*s] law* (45.17), while Phinehas, widi whom God established 'a covenant of friendship*, will through his descendants 'have the dignity of the priesthood-forever* (45.23-24). God*s control of the forces of nature is dramatically evident in two incidents in die time of Joshua: the sun standing still, and the hailstones that strike down the enemy of Israel (46.4-5). Yet the role of Joshua and Caleb in fostering obedience and piety is shown whenone reads that they actively 'restrained the people from sin and stilled their wicked grumbling* (46.7). David is instrumental in establishing order in the life of God's people, not only in a military and political sense, by defeating dieir enemies (47.4-7), but by instituting the proper worship of God through singers and their psalms of praise, and in establishing the annual cycle of festivals (47.8-10). God honored David for these modes of ordering the life and worship of Israel, in that he 'gave him a covenant of kingship and a glorious throne in Israel' (47.11). Although Solomon's sexual promiscuity brought subsequent judgment on Israel and the dividing of the kingdom, he did reign 'in an age of peace' and built a house for God, 'a sanctuary to stand forever' (47.13). His wisdom was embodied in the songs, proverbs and parables, which 'astounded the nations' and

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

49

left an enduring heritage in Israel (47.15-17). Solomon's violations of the law of the covenant, and those of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, brought ruin and exile on the nation, thereby demonstrating how interconnected are conformity to the divine law and maintenance of social order in history (48.23-25). God sent messengers to recall the people to obedience, Elijah and Elisha, but most were disobedient, with the result that diey were 'carried off as plunder from their land and were scattered over all die earth'. Yet God's purpose continues, for there remained 'a ruler from the house of David' (48.15), and die promise of a return of Elijah 'to restore the tribes of Jacob' (48.10; cf Mai. 4.5-6). On die positive side, Hezekiah maintained the integrity of Jerusalem and supplied it with water (48.17), in return for which the Lord destroyed die invading Assyrians: For Hezekiah did what was pleasing to the Lord, and he kept firmly to the ways of his ancestor David, as he was commanded by the prophet Isaiah, who was great and trustworthy in his visions.

Isaiah's prophetic spirit enabled him to see 'what was to occur to the end of time, and the hidden things before they happened' (48.23-25). The prophet is attuned to the divine purpose and power that are invisibly but inexorably at work to fulfil the covenant promises. Similarly, Josiah reformed the people by keeping 'his heart fixed on the Lord', widi the result that 'in lawless times' (en hemerais anomon) he made eusebeia prevail (49.2-3). Conversely, die ruin of Judah and of the sanctuary in Jerusalem were die consequence of die abandonment by the kings of 'the law of the Most High' (49.4-7). Moving beyond the events reported in the scriptural narratives, Sirach offers extended praise of Simon, son of Onias, who as king and priest restored the temple, provided a water supply for die city, and led the priests and die people in dignified, orderly worship of God (50.1-21). Following this review of the history of God's people, Sirach describes what he has done in terms that derive from the traditions of popular Greek philosophy: he has written down instruction, or training (paideia) in understanding (sunesis) and knowledge (episteme). Those who 'lay them to heart will become wise*, and those who 'put them into practice* will be ready for anything that life may bring (50.2729). In the concluding autobiographical poem, Sirach describes how he sought and gained wisdom through much disciplined instruction (pollen paideian). He appeals to those who are untrained (apaideutoi)

50

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

to take up residence in the house of instruction (paideia) (51.20-23). In the closing lines there are yet additional appeals to his readers to receive paideia (51.26-28). One might argue that the Greek text of Sirach is only a translation of the Hebrew original, so that the use of technical terms in Greek is irrelevant to the intention of the original author. But the very fact that the translator of this document was persuaded that this terminology with its philosophical connotations was the appropriate way to convey the meaning of the text to the readers is profoundly significant. This language conveys for him the basic meaning of the text. What Sirach sees as involved in the recollections of the history of God's people is the concrete exemplifying of the purpose of God in creation and history in behalf of his covenant people. The law gives expression to the demands that this overarching purpose places on those who claim to be God's people. The basic understanding of the law is shaped by two factors: (1) the old legal traditions of Israel, and (2) the philosophical concept of natural law as pervading the universe. The vocabulary for describing communication of diese insights and for embodiment of them in the life of God's people also derives specifically from the intellectual traditions of Hellenistic philosophy.

2. The Wisdom of Solomon There are many points of basic similarity between the world-view expressed in Sirach and that set forth in the Wisdom of Solomon, as well as some distinctive features in die latter document. The Spirit of God not only pervades the world (as does the law of nature), but is 'that which holds all things together' (1.7). After denouncing die hedonism and self-serving Hfestyle of the wicked (1.16-2.20), the author notes that they did not know die mysteries of God (mysteria theou) (2.22), and failed to realize that God created human beings 'in the image of his own eternity' (2.23). In die present, as described in Stoic thought, they undergo testing and discipline (3.5), but 'those who trust him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide in his love' (3.9). The highest value is virtue, arete, in recollection of which is immortality, athanasia, the guarantee of dieir future (4.1). Unlike Sirach, but resembling cultural and conceptual developments in the Hellenistic world, the relationship with wisdom is pictured in mystical terms which use sexual imagery to represent the union of the

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

51

seeker and wisdom. In 6.17-20, the yearning for wisdom is described as the most authentic (alethestate) desire (epithumia) for wisdom. Love of her is devotion to paideia, which manifests itself in 'the keeping of her laws'. That leads to immortality, which 'brings one near to God'. It is 'desire for wisdom' diat leads to a share in the kingdom. What God communicates to those who are devoted to wisdom is unerring knowledge of what is (ton ontdn), to know the suiicture of the world (sustasin kosmou) and the activity of the elements (energeian stoicheidn), the beginning and end and middle of times, the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons, the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars, the natures of animals, and the tempers of wild animals, the powers of spirits [or winds] and the thoughts of human beings, the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots (7.17-22).

In short, the subject matters of Greek ontology, physics, astronomy, zoology, botany, cosmology, and theories about human nature. In a splendid poetic description of wisdom (7.24-8.1), die author pictures her as a transcendant reality, superior to all human or physical limitations, as 'a breath of the power of God'. This depiction of wisdom culminates in a series of abstract or philosophical terms which show the influence of Platonic diought: God as ultimate reality is not visible to human eyes, but wisdom 'is a pure (eilikrines) emanation (aporroia) of the glory of die Almighty (pantokrater)...a rejection (apaugasma) of eternal light, an immaculate (akelidoton) reflection {esoptron) of die divine activity {tes tou theou energeias)'. In 8.2 the dieme of mystical union with wisdom resumes, only this time the sexual imagery is even more explicit: 'I loved her and sought her from my youth; I desired to take her to myself as a bride, and I became enamored of her beauty'. She enjoys symbiosis widi God, and is loved by God (8.3), but she is also a mystical initiate (mustis) into the knowledge (epistemes) of God (8.4). Her labors are virtues (aretai), and she teaches self-control {sophrosune) and prudence (phronesis), justice (dikaiosune) and courage (andreian). Through the training experience which she provides (suggymnasia) one may gain understanding (phronesis). So desirable is wisdom diat die author declares, "I went about seeking how I might take her to m y s e l f (8.18). Speaking as Solomon, in 9.8 the author recalls God's command to build the temple on the holy mountain, 'and an altar in the city of [God's] habitation', which he then describes in unmistakably Platonic terms as 'a copy (mimema) of the holy tent'—the heavenly archetype

52

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

that God had prepared from the beginning. In more abstract terms, the role of wisdom is summarized in 9.9: With you is wisdom, she who knows your works and was present when you made the world; she understands what is pleasing in your sight and what is right (euthes) according to your commands.

This role of wisdom corresponds closely to that of logos in the Republic of Plato, establishing the perfect universal commonwealth, achieving ultimate justice through universal law, and thereby disciplining human passions. It is wisdom in these capacities who is pictured at work in human history, through whom 'the paths of those on earth were set right, and people were taught what pleases you, and were saved by wisdom' (9.18). The author proceeds to specify how wisdom was operative in the historical experiences of Israel, delivering die righteous and punishing die wicked. It is significant that personal names are not used in these summaries of the biblical narratives, since what is essential for the writer is the operation of the wisdom principle rather than the specifics of historical individuals or experiences. Wisdom cared for 'die first-formed father of the world (kosmos) and gave him strength to rule all things' (10.1-2), but she also effected punishment on the 'unrighteous man' who killed his brother (10.3). She provided for the survival of 'die righteous man by a paltry piece of wood' (10.4), and was the motivating force as well as the source of insight for the patriarchs who are here anonymous (10.5-14). She effected deliverance for 'a holy people and blameless race' (10.15), disciplining them and instructing them until they came to recognize their leader and their experiences as the working of God in their behalf (11.1-14). At the same time, wisdom brought fierce punishment on the foolish, who worshipped 'irrational serpents and worthless animals' (11.15), in diat diey failed to realize that God's hand which 'created the world out of formless matter' was in control of it and of the destiny of human beings (11.16-20). The mathematical dimensions of the world are manifestations of God's purpose, since he has 'arranged all things by measure, number and weight'. Clearly, the physical details of the creation are of prime importance to the author of this work: God's 'immortal spirit is in all tilings' (11.26). After detailing the divine judgments that fell on the unnamed Canaanites (12.3-11) and reaffirming die sovereignty of God (12.12-

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

53

18), the author asserts that these experiences toolc place as disciplinary learning for Israel (12.19-23). The error of the neighboring nations which refused to recognize the God of Israel was that in their idolatry they worshipped the created things rather than the Creator (12.27; 13.1-3). What they failed to recognize is the cosmological argument for the existence of God: 'From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding (analogos) perception of their Creator (genesiourgosY (13.5). The folly of idolatry is spelled out in 1 3 . 1 15.17. Examples of the consequences of idolatry are recalled—without specifying the culprits—in relation to Israel's worshipping the brass serpent in the wilderness (15.18-16.14) and the Egyptians' punishment in the form of the plagues (16.15-19). Conversely, God supplied his people with bread from heaven. For creation, serving you who made it, exerts itself to punish the unrighteous, and is kind through good actions on behalf of those who Uiist in you.

The plague of darkness (on the Egyptians presumably; 17.1-21) is contrasted with the light that floods God's people (18.1-4), 'through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world {aiony. When the death of the first-born fell on Egypt, Israel was delivered because they 'agreed with one accord to the divine law' (18.9). It was God's all-powerful word (pantodunamos logos) that leapt from heaven and accomplished the divine purpose. As the instrument of God, Moses (also unnamed) wore (1) a robe on which was depicted the whole kosmos, (2) four rows of stones symbolizing die 'glories of die ancestors', and (3) a diadem which represented the majesty (jnegalosune) of God (18.24). Aldiough most historical details are lacking, 19.1-21 describes the acUon of God at the Red Sea as cosmic in its import: 'For the whole creation in its nature was fashioned anew, complying with your commands'. The result of die plagues and the deliverance of Israel at the sea was that 'the elements (stoicheia) changed places widi one anodier': For land animals were tfansformcd into water creatures, and creatures that swim moved over to land. Fire even in water retained its normal power, and water forgot its fire-quenching nature.

54

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Flames, on the contrary, failed to consume the flesh of perishable creatures that walked among them, nor did they melt the crystalline, quick-melting kind of heavenly food.

God's ordering of die creation in accord widi his will is an ongoing process, according to this author, not an accomplished action in the past. These divine activities are not arbitrary or frivolous, however: For in everything, O Lord, you have exalted and glorified your people, and you have not neglected to help them at all times and in all places.

For the author of die Wisdom of Solomon, the point in retelling these stories of die history of Israel is not a romantic recalling of the past nor is it historic legitimation for the legal and cultic institutions of Israel. Instead, these depersonalized accounts serve as concrete illustrations of the Creator's ordering of die universe for the welfare of diose who conform to die divinely established cosmic laws and for die punishment of those who do not. 3. The Book of Enoch 1 Enoch 1-36 has the features of a typical apocalyptic document: written by a worthy and faithful member of God's people in the past, who foresees the day of tribulation that is to come in the future when God will destroy the wicked and purge the earth, and then renew it and all of creation for the benefit of the elect. In that time of fulfilment, the righteous will have the light of the knowledge of God, will receive wisdom, and will be enabled to live out dieir lives in peace and happiness (5.8-10). The wicked angels face disaster, however (6.1-9.11), and Enoch's intercession with God in their behalf is in vain (12.1-13.10). God has given him his insights into the future (14.1-7), and has taken Enoch up into his presence. From there he can see how the universe operates, widi the winds turning die heavens and moving the stars (17.1-19.3), as well as the future destiny of the fallen stars (21.1-22.14), and the blessed, peaceful, eternal abode of die righteous (24.1-36.4). There they can 'see die effect of his power, and praise him in respect to the great work of his hands'. There is a picture of divine order here in 1 Enoch, but it is not the manifestation of a structured cosmos operating in accord with an

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

55

immanent law. Rather, the direct exercise of God's sovereign will is in control of all that occurs. The major focus is on the future, when God settles accounts with his creatures. Similarly, in the Similitudes of Enoch (chs. 37-71) there are pictures of the coming judgment of the wicked (38) and of the resting place of the blessed with the Lord of Spirits (39). Wisdom can find no place to dwell among humans, although her opposite number. Iniquity, does (42). The agent through whom God defeats the powers of evil and vindicates the faithful is 'one like a human being' = Son of Man, also referred to as the Messiah (46-50). This apocalypse purports to be speaking from the distant past, but there is mention that the land of God's people will be invaded by the Parthians and the Medes (56.5-8), which clearly reflects the post-exilic period, or may even point to the recurrent fear in the Roman period that these people would invade the eastern provinces of the empire. What is significant is that the literary stance in the past is of no material importance except that it provides the platform for the description of the future. In 7 En. 6 5 - 6 9 that future is depicted through the medium of information which Enoch provides to Noah concerning the doom of the wicked described in Genesis 6, where the 'sons of God' (understood to be fallen angels) took human wives, thereby violating the divinely intended orders of existence. The result as Enoch describes it (65.6-10) was that this wicked disclosure of angelic secrets led to the oppressive deeds of Satan, the exercise of occult powers and the practice of idolatry, and the exposure to humans of divine knowledge. Noah detests these secret things (65.11), but what he receives concerns the future; he is promised that from his descendants will come the kingship of God's people, and 'a fountain of the righteous and holy ones without number forever'. The flood will destroy not only wicked humanity but also the fallen angels as well (67-69). Thus what is presented as a prediction from Enoch's standpoint is in this document a prophecy of the destruction of the wicked in the end time and the vindication of the faithful remnant. Similarly, the poetic elaboration of the creation story in 69.16-25 is an oracle of the fulfilment of God's purpose in the end of the age. The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries (7 En. 72-82) is chiefly concerned with the divine order as evident in the created world, with its four directions, seven mountains and seven rivers (77-79), the pattern of the seasons (80), and the disclosure of the divine order in relation

56

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

to astronomy and the calendar. Unlike the concept of natural law, these evidences of divine order are described in order to give the reader assurance that God is so completely in control of the universe that he will bring to fulfilment his promise of punishment for the wicked and peace for the righteous. In die Dream Visions (I En. 83-90) there is a series of veiled references to the stages in the history of Israel. Through four heavenly beings, Enoch is enabled to see the punishment of die fallen stars and die ultimate destiny of God's people (87-88). The historical process diat will lead to this outcome is then sketched in veiled symbolic and metaphorical language, beginning with die flood and moving to the exodus (89.1-27), proceeding from the exodus to die entrance into the land of Canaan (89.28-40); from the period of the judges to the building of the temple (89.41-50); the period of the two kingdoms and the destruction of Jerusalem (89.51-67); from the exile to the return and die rebuilding of die temple (89.68-72). Israel is referred to under the metaphor of die 'sheep', and the temple is a 'lofty building' or simply a 'house'. Beginning with the return from the exile, however, the descriptions become more detailed. The dispersion of the sheep among the wild beasts and their harrassment by vultures and wild birds (89.73-77) obviously depict the dispersion of Jews in hellenistic times and die difficulties suffered by diem diroughout the hellenistic world. The final segment (90.6-42) describes in symbolic language the period from the time of die Maccabees to the taking over of the land by the Romans and then moves quickly to a portrayal of the ultimate defeat of the hostile powers and the building of die new temple, with God's people led by die Messiah, who is pictured as a snow-white bull widi huge homs and who presides over die herd. The concluding section of 1 Enoch (91-108) begins widi a typical apocalyptic description of the growing wickedness of the world which will lead up to a final judgment and the vindication of the righteous. Included in this section are fragments of apocalypses that depict the history of the world as a succession of 'weeks', or ordered epochs. A brief but complete Apocalypse of Weeks (93) devotes about one verse to each week, with the result diat none of die historical events depicted in die epochs can be identified widi certainty. Probably Week 5, which speaks of 'the completion of glory, a house and a kingdom shall be built', refers to the Maccabean period. The sixth week in which the 'house of the kingdom is burnt' may come from the post-70 C E

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

57

destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. The rest of this section of 7 Enoch is taken up with exhortations to the elect to remain faithful and warnings of the doom of the wicked. Highlighted is the role of Noah (106-107), whose insight and foresight led him to prepare the ark for the deliverance of the faithful from judgment. Noah serves as prototype and symbol of die final salvation of die elect from die endtime judgment diat is soon to fall on die world. The final chapter, 108, which identifies itself as 'anodier Book of Enoch' simply repeats the message of encouragement to the faithful to endure to the end of the age. In spite of the different times and different audiors from which the collection we know as the 7 Enoch emerged, its attitude toward die history of Israel is uniform. The discerning elect, illumined by the apocalyptic visions that God has granted to chosen instruments, are able to see the pattern of God's purpose for his people and for the creation. Special revelation to die elect enables them to understand what God is doing, to withstand the pressures to disobey God out of a false sense of gaining advantages by illicit means, and to remain faidiful until the time of God's deliverance of his own. The historical events are in themselves of no special importance. What is crucial is the divinely-granted insight into the will and purpose of God.

4. The Acts of the Apostles Three of the speeches in Acts deal directly with the question how those who regard Jesus as the Christ are to understand the history of God's people Israel. The claim of fulfilment of Scripture is present from the opening chapter, with reference to the outpouring of the Spirit (announced in 1.4, 8 and fulfilment claimed in 2.17-20, where Joel 2.28-32 is quoted) and to the defection of Judas from the twelve (1.15-20; with a paired quotation from Pss. 69.25 and 109.8). Peter's Pentecost sermon quotes scriptures that he declares to have been fulfilled by the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus (2.22-34; cf. Pss. 16.8-11; 110.1). It is in Peter's address in the portico of Solomon, however, that the significance of Jesus is placed within the framework of the history of Israel, understood from an eschatological perspective (3.12-26). The God who is at work dirough Jesus is initially identified as 'the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fadiers'

58

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

(3.13). It is he who has raised up from the dead the one whose sufferings 'God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets' (3.18). Repentance on the part of those who rejected him is essential in order that God can inaugurate the new epoch that is in store for his people: 'So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord' (3.19). Meanwhile, 'heaven must receive' Jesus 'until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of all his holy prophets from old' (3.21). Both the coming of diis ultimate prophet and the dire consequences of failure to heed him and his message were foretold in die Scriptures (Deut. 18.15-16, 19; Lev. 23.29). Response to him is the ultimate criterion for identity of God's people. Peter tells his hearers diat they stand in the tradition of die prophets and especially of God's covenant with Abraham ('You are the sons of the prophets and of die covenant which God gave to your fadiers'), but die potential participants in the benefits of diis covenant are the entire human race, since God said 'to Abraham, "In your posterity shall all die families of die earth be blessed'" (3.25; Gen. 22.18). The genetic descendants of Abraham are diose to whom God has sent his messenger 'first' (3.26). In short, Jesus is die criterion by which participation in the eschatological purpose of God is decided. The community of faith consists of all diose—Jews or Gentiles—who see in die crucified and risen Jesus the agent of God for renewal of his people and of the creation. What impact does this conviction have on the interpretation of die history of Israel? The first and most detailed address on this theme is the speech of Stephen (Acts 7.1-51). Abraham was shown die land of promise by God, but was never able to possess 'even a foot's length' of it (7.5). His offspring through Isaac, Jacob and the twelve patriarchs were illtreated by die Egyptians for 400 years (Gen. 15.13-14; Exod. 12.40). Yet die fulfilment of die covenantal promise to Abraham was affirmed in spite of the seeming delays, and Abraham's response to the covenant was given concrete expression in the distinctive sign, circumcision (Acts 7.8). The future orientation of the covenant is expressed in 7.17, where Stephen remarks that 'as die time of promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied' until the Egyptians began the oppression of the Israelites that led to their deliverance by God in die events of the exodus. Even as these divine actions were being readied, die covenant people 'did not understand... that God was giving them deliverance by his hand' (7.25). The

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

59

promise of deliverance was made explicit to Moses (7.32-34): 'I have come down to deliver them', but Moses' leadership under God as both 'ruler and deliverer' was refused by the people (7.35). Stephen recalls that Moses had promised that God would raise up for them a prophet as he had raised up Moses (7.38; Deut. 18.15). When the 'living oracles' of the law were delivered to Moses by God on Mt Sinai, the people 'refused to obey him', asking instead that Aaron provide them with gods (7.39). God allowed them to 'worship die host of heaven' (7.42), as Amos had subsequently noted (Amos 5.25-27). Although the people had the visible sign of God's presence with them in the tent which Moses was instructed to make, which Joshua took into the land of promise, which David proposed to replace with a permanent house of God and which Solomon actually erected, Stephen notes that 'the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands', and quotes Scripture (Isa. 66.1-2) to support his point. In short, die history of Israel is one of persistent misunderstanding and refusal to wait until God's time for the fulfilment of the covenant promises. Even the people's continuation of the practice of circumcision is a matter of self-deceit on their part, since they are 'uncircumcized in heart and ears' (7.51; Exod. 33.3, 5; Jer. 9.26). That is, dieir wills are predisposed against the purposes of God and they are unable to hear and heed his message to them. Their history is one of rejection of God's message and the murder of God's agents and messengers—a hostile stance diat has reached its climax in their rejection of Jesus (7.52-53). It is wholly appropriate diat Stephen declares the ultimate confirmation of diis critical assessment of die history of Israel by his vision of Christ exalted as Son of Man at die right hand of God, in fulfilment of Psalms 8 and 10. A much gentler version of this thesis of Stephen about Israel's history is offered by Paul in his sermon at the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia in Acts 13. God is seen as having chosen the covenant people and made diem great during their stay in Egypt (13.17), and as having bom with them and cared for them during the forty years in die wilderness (13.18). He provided diem widi the land, and with judges and finally a king to rule over diem there (13.19-20). It is an heir of David whom God has now sent to them as a savior, yet the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets concerning him which they had heard read weekly. In condemning him, they fulfilled the

60

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Scriptures and brought about what God had promised to the fathers (13.23-32). The message that Paul brings to them he identifies as 'what God promised to the fathers', and then proceeds to declare it to have been fulfilled by the resurrection of Jesus (Ps. 2.7; Isa. 55.3; Ps. 16.10). These promises were not fulfilled by David, who died and whose body decayed. Rather, forgiveness of sins is available for all who trust in Jesus, as is freedom, which the law of Moses cannot provide (7.3639). Even the hostile response of some of his hearers is in fulfilment of Scripture, Paul declares, quoting Hab. 1.5 and then Isa. 49.6 to justify the extension of the invitation to Gentiles to share in the light of the knowledge of God's purpose through Jesus (7.47). In the purpose of God, Jews were to be the first to hear this message, but now they reject it and judge themselves 'unworthy of eternal life'. It is those who 'were ordained to eternal life' who believe the message (7.48), just as it is the Lord's command that Paul and his associates now 'turn to die Gentiles'. What Acts reports Paul as saying here is not a rejection of the Scriptures or of the covenantal tradition that is embodied in it, but stands rather in the later prophetic tradition of Israel, with its emphasis on eschatological expectation of fulfilment of the divine promises to Israel. Paul here declares diat diose who claim to be the people of God have failed to comprehend the full range of what God promised to their ancestors and what he has now done through Jesus in fulfilment of diose promises. The extension to die Gentiles of the invitation to share in God's people is not a radical innovation but is instead the culmination of what God announced beforehand through die prophets. The problem is with the failure of diose who see themselves as heirs of the covenant to heed and accept what God has told them. Paul's message assumes the unity and continuity of God's purpose as disclosed through the Scriptures throughout die history of Israel. 5. The Letter to the Hebrews In the opening lines of die Letter to die Hebrews, the author discloses two factors of primary importance for the subject of our research: (1) he asserts the basic continuity between the self-disclosure of God to his people in the ancient times ('of old') and the revelation in his 'Son* (1.1-2). (2) He uses technical terms from Greek philosophy in his description of die relationship of Jesus to God, thereby disclosing

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

61

to the reader his ontological and epistemological assumptions. The Son is the effulgence (apaugasma) of the divine glory and the distinguishing visible evidence (character) of the divine essence. This philosophical understanding of reality is further specified in 8.1-5, where the role of the earthly priest is contrasted with that of Jesus as the archetypal high priest, in that the former deals with earthly, physical, temporally limited copies of the eternal, primary model of the sanctuary in heaven. The distinction tiie author is making in the Platonic tradition between eternal archetypes and ephemeral copies could scarcely be more explicit. The same distinction is made widi regard to Jesus' offering of himself in the heavenly sanctuary, in contrast to the repeated sacrifices made by die priests in die earthly shrine (9.23-24). Similarly, the law—important as it is—is only the 'shadow of the good things to come' (lO.I). What die author has done is to combine Platonic ontology, which distinguishes between timeless archetypes and timebound copies, with an eschatological view that contrasts historical past and present with future fulfilment of the divine purpose. Hence it is not the repeated offerings of the temple cultus but the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ which brings perfection to his people (10.11-14). Faidi dierefore is the ability to perceive the ultimate, timeless realities which God has disclosed through Jesus. They must be sharply differentiated from the imperfect, ephemeral copies which the historic sacrificial system of Israel embodied. In 11.1-2 die author defines faith as the self-existent, basic substance of what is hoped for, and the demonstration or proof of things which are not seen—either not yet, or archetypal and hence invisible to mortal eyes. That point is confirmed when he writes that in creation the word of God effected the change from the eternal archetypes to the temporal copies of earthly phenomena, 'so diat what is seen [by human eye] was made out of things which are not visible [i.e., the eternal form]'. It is against this ontological and epistemological set of assumptions that die author goes on to describe the faidi of worthies from Israel's past. God's acceptance of Abel's sacrifice is not only a fact of die past but is a continuing witness, so that 'through his faidi [Abel] is still speaking*, diereby attesting to the eternal reality of true sacrifice (11.4). Enoch's having been taken up to God without die experience of deadi shows how essential faith is, since one must 'believe that he exists' in spite of the lack of any tangible, physical evidence, and that 'he

62

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

rewards diose who seek him' across die boundaries that separate the transitory world from die realm of eternity (11.5-6). Similarly, Noah trusted what God told him about the future, even though diere there was no human basis for such an expectation. His action in building the ark was a negative judgment on this ephemeral, material world and an act of faith through which he participated in the transcendent reality (11.7). Abraham left his native land and went to live a humanly uncertain but divinely assured way of life in 'the land of promise', where his descendants, Isaac and Jacob, also resided. Their confidence was not in what they possessed, but in what God had said. Abraham did not seek to establish a human society or governmental system, but looked to God to built his polls (11.8-10). Similarly, Sarah had no human basis for expecting offspring, but by trust in the divine promise there came from her one whose progeny are innumerable (11.12). Moses refused to accept the humanly-proffered position of power as Pharaoh's son, preferring 'to share ill-treatment with the people of God' and to embark on die journey of faidi. He was enabled to do so because he 'endured as seeing him who is invisible' (11.23-27). It was this sort of faidi diat enabled the Israelites to cross die Red Sea, to capture the walled city of Jericho and to accomplish all the other marvels that are summarized in 11.32-38. In each case they were able to see beyond die immediate situation and die merely human resources. The author summarizes, 'These, though well attested by dieir faidi, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us' (11.39). That 'something' was Jesus, who is described as the prototype or primary model (archegos) and the one who completes and accomplishes God's purpose, the (teleidtes) 'of our faith'. He persevered through suffering and death, and has already attained the place of highest honor 'at the right hand of the throne of God' (12.1-2). By faith, God's new people need no longer merely look forward in hope to the fulfilment of God's purpose. They have already 'come to Mount Zion and to the city of die living God, the heavenly (epoMran/os) Jerusalem...to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, to the spirits of the righteous who are now made complete (teleios), and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant...' (12.22-24). Proleptically, die new community of faith has access to and in the present age is already living widiin the context of eternal reality. The experiences of men and women of faith in the days of ancient Israel anticipated diat

K E E Appropriating

the History of God's People

63

ideal context and reladonship, and the stories of them are to be understood accordingly. What characterizes all these figures from the ancient history of Israel is that they 'all died in faith, not having received the things that were promised, but having seen and greeted diem from afar, they acknowledged their existence as aliens and exiles in the earth' ( 1 1 . 1 3 ) . They sought a homeland (patris), and desire one diat is better than the geographic, terrestrial space where they resided: namely a celesdal realm, a polls prepared for diem by God. The dimensions of this faithful hope are a blend of die ontological and die eschatological, of ultimate reality and divinely fulfilled promises which together are seen as constituting a new order for God's people. 6. Conclusion Although the five writers reviewed in this essay drew upon the same basic biblical material—die stories of die patriarchs and die exodus, of die conquest of Canaan and the establishment of die monarchy—diey each interpret the stories in ways they serve their own distinctive ends in their own specific time and cultural circumstances. In each case there are overarching assumptions about God and the creation, about human knowledge, about divine purpose for the creation, and for God's people. In each case cultural and social conditions of the writer's time influence directly and pervasively the ways in which the biblical material is understood and its meaning inferred. At the height of the epoch when Hellenistic culture was having maximum and widespread influence on Jewish thinking, the assumptions of Sirach about reality and the work of God in die world were powerfully shaped by the dominant philosophy of that time: Stoicism. Immanent law is seen as the divine force at work within the created order, and its oral dimensions are evident in die Mosaic law, to which God's people are called to obedience. When the system of Platonic ontology becomes a significant cultural force in the Roman period, the nature of creation and die sense of the divine movement within history as exemplified by the history of Israel are perceived as temporal manifestations in human experience of ultimate reality which remains hidden from ordinary view in the eternal sphere. This way of diinking is apparent in the interpretation of Israel's history in the Jewish Wisdom of Solomon and die Christian Letter to the Hebrews. The theme of eschatological fulfilment of the prophetic promises of

64

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

God shapes the thought of the sermons in Acts. The future of God's people has been foreseen by the prophets, and God is asserted to be at work through Jesus effecting the fulfilment of that plan for the renewal and vindication of his people. What God has purposed was announced through the prophets, but its implications involve alt human beings who see in Jesus the agent of God to bring that purpose to fhiition. Stephen emphasizes the judgmental aspects of this point of view, on condemning the insensitivity and unbelief of historic Israel, while Paul underscores the inclusive potential of the message about what God has begun to do through Jesus. Reaction to aggressive pagan culture and to the determined efforts of Hellenistic rulers to conform Jewish life and diought to die GrecoRoman patterns is the potent force that contributed to the rise of apocalyptic, as is evident in such writings as Daniel and I Enoch. God's will for and through his people can triumph only beyond cataclysmic judgment which will bring to an end the present dominant socio-cultural order. With the end of that structure and the political power that seeks to impose it on God's people, the faithful elect community will be vindicated. To them alone has God granted insights into his past and present activity in behalf of his own people. Thus it is not the choice of biblical material for interpretation and application that is determinative, but the life-world of assumptions and values which are operative in the minds of interpreters and their intended readers.

'PACIFISM' A N D 'PASSIVE RESISTANCE' IN APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS: A CRITICAL EVALUATION

Gordon

Zerbe

Numerous early Jewish and New Testament writings emerged in response to the specific crises of violent persecution at the hands of oppressive foreign and/or imperial rule. In recent scholarship four apocalyptic writings in particular, namely Daniel, the Testament of Moses, Revelation and 2 Baruch, have been identified as promoting the stance of 'passive resistance' or 'pacificism' in response to this situation.' These writings express a fervent hope for the final defeat and punishment of these oppressors and lack any explicit rejection of military resistance. Nevertheless, it is argued that they recommend deferring diis vengeance to God and God's special agents, oppose the opdon of armed resistance, and favor the stance of endurance, suffering and martyrdom. The purpose of diis essay is to review the evidence in favor of diis interpretation, given the presence of ambiguous evidence and alternative explanations. This essay, therefore, will contribute to the question of whether or not there is continuity in the political perspective between certain apocalyptic writings of Early Judaism, including the Pseudepigrapha, and those of the New Testament. Before we examine the evidence of these particular documents, however, some questions must be raised regarding the meaning and descriptive adequacy of terms such as 'pacifism' and 'passive resistance' to characterize the political perspective of groups or the writings in question. In the literature on the writings under investigation, 'pacifism' and 'passive or nonviolent resistance' are generally 1. See esp. J.J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Vision of the Book of Daniel (HSM, 16; Missoula. MT: Scholars Press, 1977), pp. 191-222; A. Yarbro Collins, 'The Political Perspective of the Revelation to John', JBL 96 (1977), pp. 241-56; F.J. Murphy, '2 Baruch and the Romans', JBL 104 (1985), pp. 663-69.

66

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

used interchangeably. This leads to some unclarity. In common usage, 'pacifism' entails the principled rejection of violent or armed resistance,^ To describe a perspective as 'advocating passive resistance', however, is less precise and somewhat misleading. First, the action of people whose stance is so described may not be strictly passive, possibly entailing ideological resistance through pedagogy (the maskilim of Daniel), non-cooperation, or non-violent protest.' Thus the language of 'non-violent resistance' is perhaps more apt. Secondly, this perspective may entail the preference for or use of non-violent forms of resistance, not necessarily the categorical rejection of armed resistance. Thus in the discussion to follow, it will be necessary to ask not merely if a given document advocates 'passive or nonviolent resistance', but also if it goes so far as to advocate 'pacifism'. In this connection, the language of 'quietism' and 'non-resistance' must also be evaluated, since these terms are also used to describe the perspective of some of the writings under investigation. These terms focus on the response of withdrawal and passivity, and do not necessarily describe a form of resistance. While such stances might be motivated by a 'pacifistic' ideology, this is not necessarily so. Sometimes such a perspective is motivated on pragmatic grounds, for instance, by the interest of 'taming' unconquerable and ruthless power instead of provoking certain destruction." We turn, then, to consider the four writings identified. The Book of Daniel The book of Daniel was most likely produced in the circles of certain maskilim, 'wise teachers', who were leading the faithful in resisting the Hellenizing reforms instituted under Antiochus IV Epiphanes.' 2. In this discussion, we are limiting ourselves to a discussion of options from the perspective of responding to oppressive powers, and are not referring to the possible use or rejection of arms for purposes other than resistance to such powers. 3. For examples of non-violent protest by individuals or groups in first-century Palestine, see esp. R.A. Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Popular Jewish Resistance in Roman Palestine (San Francisco; Harper & Row, 1987), pp. 61-120. 4. This is Philo's perspective, as evident esp. in Somn. 2.78-92. See further G. Zerbe, Non-Retaliation in Early Jewish and New Testament Texts: Ethical Themes in Social Contexts (JSPSup, 13; Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), ch. 2. 5. Collins. Apocalyptic Vision, pp. 207-14; idem, Daniel with an Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), pp. 36-38.

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

67

Among the faithful who stand firm and take action' (11.34), these maskilim are described as 'giving understanding to many' (11.33), 'leading many to righteousness' (12.3), and 'falling by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder' (11.33).* Through the publication of the book of Daniel, the maskilim exhort their fellow Jews to remain steadfast to the covenant in the face of persecution, especially by helping them understand their situation in broad apocalyptic perspective. The readers are assured of the imminent and final victory of God and his heavenly army over the forces of evil. The interpretation that Daniel also promotes the stance of passive resistance in direct opposition to the armed resistance of the Maccabees is based variously on the following lines of evidence. First, some who take this view argue that the reference to 'little help' that the persecuted faithful receive in 11.34 represents an ironic and disparaging comment regarding the Maccabees.'' Secondly, the supposed derivation of Daniel from the circles of the Hasidim, interpreted as a peace-minded group during the Hellenistic crisis, is used to support die pacifisdc interpretadon.* Thirdly, 11.14 is seen as a disparagement of violent mediods: 'sons of violence {b'ne parisim) among your own people shall rise u p to establish a vision {I'ha '"mid hazon); but they 6. There is some ambiguity in 11.32-35 and 12.3, 10 as to the precise description of the maskilim in relation to the rabbim, 'the many*, whom they teach. Dan. 11.33-35 and 12.3 seem to describe the maskilim as a specific group, while 12.10 seems to identify the maskilim with the 'many' who understand. Moreover, there is ambiguity in the third person pronouns in 11.33-34. It is uncertain whether those who fall are limited to the maskilim or inclusive of 'the many'; and it is unclear whether those who die are to be identified as the masklim and/or as the faithful 'many' (cf. 12.10). 7. E.g. J.A. Montgomery, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel (ICC; New York: Scribner's, 1927), p. 458; A. Bentzen. Daniel (HAT, 19; Tubingen: Mohr. 2nd edn, 1952), p. 87; G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology, 11 (trans. D. Stalker; New York: Harper & Row. 1965), p. 315; G.W.E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), pp. 90, 94; D.S. Russell. Daniel (Philadelphia: Westminster Pi«ss, 1981), pp. 208-209; A. Lacocque, The Book of Daniel (tfans. D. Pellauer; Atlanto: John Knox, 1979),p. 230 n.50;K. Koch. DoiS«c/i Don/W(Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. 1980), p. 165. 8. E.g. O. Ploger. Theocracy and Eschatology (tfans. S. Rudman; Richmond, VA: John Knox. 1968). pp. 14-17; M. Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism, I (trans. J. Bowden; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), pp. 176-78; Lacocque. Daniel, pp. 7-8, 230.

68

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

shall fall'.' Fourthly, and foremost in recent treatments, it is argued that the description of the final drama shows that the book 'opts for a purely passive role vis-a-vis the oppressive power'.'" (a) The depiction of the final apocalyptic drama represents a distinctive appropriation of the holy war tradition. The author does not bring to mind the historic battles of Joshua and David, but uses the ancient combat myth to interpret the current situation and to point to its imminent resolution, (b) The emphasis is on the direction acdon and intervendon by God (7.10-11, 26; 8.25; 9.27) and die heavenly annies (11.45-12.1). The reference to God's deliverance 'by no human hand' (8.25; cf. 2.34, 45) in particular is seen as having 'a polemical ring to it, given die historical context'." (c) The elect do not play an active role in die final batde. Since the activity of Judas Maccabeus was contemporaneous with the writing of Daniel, such an omission is seen as 'an expression of opposition to die Maccabean revolt'.'^ The proper role of the elect includes 'standing firm' (which means keeping the covenant, 11.32), 'making many wise' (11.33), suffering (11.35) and 'waiting' (12.12). The stance recommended to the elect, then, is that of endurance and waiting (12.12); diere is no call to armed resistance. In response to the first argument, it must be observed that Dan. 11.34 is actually rather o b s c u r e . " J.J. Collins argues, against the majority of interpreters, that the 'little help' refers not to the Maccabees, but to those few among the 'many' who respond to instiiiction and join the efforts of die maskilim (11.33a, 34b)."' While the 'little help' probably refers to the Maccabees, as the majority of interpreters hold, there is no reason to suppose diat diis reference reflects a disparagement because of their violent methods. H.H. Rowley considers the reference an indication diat the author actually supports the Maccabean 9. My translation. For tiiis interpretation, see e.g. J.A. Goldstein, 1 Maccabees (AB, 41; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976), pp. 43-44. 10. Yarbro Collins. 'Political Perspective', p. 243; similarly Collins, Apocalyptic Vision, pp. 191-222; Lacocque, Daniel, p. 230 n. 50. 11. Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 244. 12. Yarbro Collins. 'Political Perspective', p. 244. 13. Yarbro Collins ('Political Perspective', p. 244) concedes this. For a review of proposals regarding the meanings of various parts of this verse, see V. Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (trans. S. Applebaum; New York: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1959; repr. New York: Atheneum, 1982). p. 477; Lacocque, Daniel, p. 230. 14. Collins, Apocalyptic Vision, p. 207.

ZERBE 'Pacificism'and'PassiveResistance'

69

uprising while not building his hopes on i t . " Arguing similarly, V. Tcherikover claims diat 11.34 reflects the fact that the Hasidim, whom he sees as a scribal group and the circle from which the book of Daniel emerged, were the main leaders in the resistance to Andochus and diat die Maccabees provided diem with some support.'* Dan. 11.34 remains somewhat obscure and hence cannot be used as clear evidence that the book of Daniel promotes a pacifisdc stance in opposition to the resistance of the Maccabees. The supposed derivation of Daniel from the circles of the Hasidim also cannot be used to support a pacifistic reading of Daniel. First, recent research has shown tiiat the scanty information on the Hasidim makes it nearly impossible to reconstruct a useful profile of this group, if indeed it can be considered a well-defined g r o u p . " Secondly, the available texts cannot sustain the traditional reconstruction that the Hasidim were a peace-minded group who joined with the Maccabees reluctantly and withdrew from the alliance as soon as religious freedoms were established.'* 2 Mace. 14.6 refers to the Hasidim as rebellious Jews in general, whose leader was Judas Maccabeus. 1 Maccabees distinguishes the Hasidim from the Maccabees, apparendy to glorify the role of the Maccabees in the resistance, but still sees them as 'mighty warriors (ischuroi dunamei) of Israel' who fought alongside die Maccabees (2.42). The account of die Hasidim's peace mission in I Mace. 7.8-17, which must also be read in terms of its likely Hasmonean bias," explains die pursuit of peace as emerging from the Hasidim's acceptance of die priestly credentials of Alcimus, not from any rejection of fighting. Thirdly, the identification of the 15. H.H. Rowley. The Relevance of Apocalyptic (tiew York: Association Press, 3rd edn, 1963), pp. 21, 108; see also Russell, Daniel, p. 209. 16. Tciierikover, Hellenistic Civilization, pp. 198, 477 n. 37. H. Sahlin ('Antiochus IV Epiphanes und Judas MakkabSus*, 5T23 [1969], pp. 41-68) makes Daniel a supporter of the Maccabean resistance by going too far in identifying Judas the 'son of man*. 17. See esp. P. Davies, 'Hasidim in the Maccabean Period', JJS 28 (1977). pp. 127-40; similarly Horsley, Spiral of Violence, pp. 66-68. 18. See e.g. Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization, pp. 196-98; W.R. Farmer, 'Hasideans', IDB, II, p. 528; Horsley, Spiral of Violence . pp. 66-67. 19. In the parallel account in 2 Mace. 14. Judas participates in the negotiations, something which I Maccabees may have wanted to suppress; see e.g. Davies, 'Hasidim', pp. 137-38; Horsley, Spiral of Violence, pp. 66-67; cf. Goldstein, 7 Maccabees, pp. 88, 330-36.

70

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Hasidim with the refugees in the caves who were slaughtered on the Sabbath because of their refusal to fight (1 Mace. 2.29-41) cannot contribute to a pacifistic profile of the Hasidim. This identification has no textual basis;^" and the refusal of the refugees to fight was based on their Sabbath convictions, a feature of their zeal for the Law.^' As Tcherikover puts it, 'The very fact that the soldiers saw fit to attack them on the seventh proves convincingly that on any other day they could have expected stiu-dy resistance'." The reference in 11.14 to 'sons of violence' who rise up alludes to aid that certain Jews gave Antiochus during the uprisings against the Egyptians during the reign of Ptolemy V, which culminated in the defeat of the Egyptians by the Seleucids at Paneas around 200 BCE (11.15-16).^' Little is known of this Jewish uprising. It was probably led by a pro-Seleucid and Hellenizing faction which had hopes of completely throwing off the foreign yoke and thus of fulfilling the prophetic predictions ('to estabHsh a vision', 11.14).^" The author identifies this group as 'son of violence', either as a disparagement of the character of this group as opportunists and Hellenizers or because of their violent rebellious activity. While this text may reflect an opposition to armed resistance as a matter of principle and faith, it remains somewhat obscure. The primary evidence for the pacifistic interpretation, as hi. Collins and A. Yarbro Collins concede,^' rests in the depiction of the final drama and the role of the elect in it. On the positive side, the presentation of Daniel is indeed striking when it is contrasted with the military, synergistic ideology of other groups and writings, particularly those that are apocalyptic in character. Accounts or depictions of the Hellenistic crisis that exhibit a synergistic ideology, in which human military action works in concert with the divine and heavenly action.

20. See esp. Davies, 'Hasidim', pp. 133-34. 21. On the restriction against making war on tlie Sabbath, cf. Jub. 50.12; 2 Mace. 6.11. For the refusal of some militants to fight on the Sabbath, see Josephus, War 2.16.4 §392; Ant 14.4.2 §63; R. North, 'The Maccabean Sabbatical Years', Bib 34 (1953). pp. 501-15. 22. Tcherikover. Hellenistic Civilization, p. 198. 23. See Josephus, Ant. 12.3.3 §129-44; Ucocque, Daniel, p. 224. 24. See e.g. Lacocque, Daniel, p. 224. He points to Ezek. 13.6-7, which speaks about the 'vision of falsehood' (mah'zeh-saw'') perpeuated in the name of God. 25. See above, n. 10.

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

71

are evident in 1 Maccabees,^* 2 Maccabees," Judith,^* Jubilees 2 3 , ^ ' the Animal Apocalypse

(1 En. 8 5 - 9 0 ) , ' " and the Apocalypse

of Weeks

(1 En. 9 3 . 1 - 1 0 ; 9 1 . 1 1 - 1 7 ) . "

26. Divine vengeance is enacted by human agents (1 Mace. 2.40,50,66-68; 3.38,43-44), even though the victories are possible only through God's help (3.18-22; 4.8-11). i t is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven... [Heaven] will crush them before us' (3.19,22, RSV). For the specific ways in which the exploits of Judas are based on Old Testament paradigms of holy war, see Yarbro Collins, "Political Perspective', pp. 242-43; Collins, Apocalyptic Vision, pp. 195-97. On the motif of decisive help from God/Heaven, cf. IQM 11.1-6, 17; 12.4-10; 13.14-16; 18.13-19.2. A long-standing view at Qumran is that the elect must take the stance of passivity, subservience and nonretaliation in relation to oppressors in the present order of time, but will take an active role in the battle against the enemies of God once the final day of vengeance arrives (1QS9.12-23, 25; 10.17-21; II.1-2; IQM). For a discussion of this perspective, see Zerbe, Non-Retaliation, ch. 3. 27. The Maccabean victory comes through the manly fighting of Judas and his warriors (2 Mace. 2.19-22; cowards desert, 8.13), but only because aid came from God (2.21; 5.1-4; 8.16-20, 23-24. 34; 9.4, 8; 10.29-31; 15.21-23) who was moved from anger to mercy (2.22; 5.20; 7.33, 38; 8.5, 29). Although the calamity came because of Israel's sins (6.12-17; 7.18, 32), God was moved because of the blood of the martyrs and their appeal for vengeance, because of the Temple, and because of the deeds of blasphemy (7.17, 19, 29, 31, 35-37; 8.2-4). 28. Judith stresses that military victory depends on help from God, not military might. Its central assertion is apparent in Judith's prayer: 'For your power depends not upon numbers, nor your might upon men of strength. For you are God of the lowly, helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, protector of the forlorn, savior of those without help" (9.11, RSV). 29. Jub. 23 supports the use of the sword against apostates (23.20; cf. 1 Mace. 2.44; 3 Mace. 7.10-15; / En. 91.11-12) and claims that time of peace will arrive when the people 'will drive out their enemies' with God's help (23.30-31). On internal grounds, Jub. 23 dates to around 168 BCE; and the entire book probably dates between 161 and 140; see O.S. Wintermute, OTP, II, p. 44. 30. Judas is celebrated as a mighty warrior (90.9, 10, 13) who is helped by Michael (90.14, 17) and by the Lord himself who comes in wrath against Israel's enemies (90.15, 18). The final victory comes when the people are given 'a great sword' in order to destroy all their enemies (90.19, 34). On internal grounds the Animal Apocalypse can be dated between 164 and 160 (Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, p. 93) or before the recapture of Jerusalem and the rededication of the Temple (M. Black, 77ie Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch (SVTP, 7; Uiden: Brill. 1985), p. 2 0 ) . 31. The faithful during the Antiochian crisis will destroy sinners and cut off the roots of oppression (91.11a). 1 £n. 91.1 lb, where it is said that the elect destroy

72

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

On the other hand, there are serious Hmitations to this evidence. First, the argument is mainly one from silence, insofar as it is the lack of synergistic militant ideology, particularly the lack of any role for the elect in final battle, that is noted. It is argued that the historical context, namely the contemporaneous activity of Judas Maccabeus, makes this omission significant. In response, however, one can argue that the author may in fact see a certain limited value in armed resistance (11.34). Moreover, one can argue that if indeed the author is attempting to demarcate alternative methods of resistance and to reject armed mediods in particular, one would expect a more explicit rejection of violent resistance (cf. Mt. 26.51-53; Jn 18.36). That is, die omission of any rejection of armed resistance is probably more significant than the omission of any active role for the elect in die final apocalyptic drama. The alternative, of course, is that the author simply favors 'passive resistance' and does not reject armed resistance. Secondly, the emphasis on the transcendent power of God who accomplishes his purpose 'by no human hand' need not represent a polemic against the Maccabees. The author may not be condemning armed resistance as such, but may be claiming that real help is with God, and for this reason also calls the action of the Maccabees 'little help' (11.34). Similarly, the focus on Michael as the supreme deliverer (12.1) may not be intended to rule out human participation in the conflict. Indeed, the two-storey conception which affirms that the decisive batdes are waged in die heavenly arena is also characteristic of writings that display a synergistic, military ideology'^ and so does not specifically indicate a pacifistic perspective. Thirdly, the emphasis of the posture of the elect as remaining faidiful to the covenant and being willing to die on its behalf expresses a theme that was also fundamental to the Maccabean movement.'' The sinners and oppression with the sword, is lacking in 4QEn^ and may be a later expansion; see Black, / Enoch, p. 292. The final victory comes when the faithful are given a sword for the destruction of sinners and oppressors (91.12). Black (/ Enoch, pp. 20, 293) supposes that the Apocalypse of Weeks should be dated to before the rededication of the Temple; J.J. Collins {Apocalyptic Imagination [New York: Crossroad, 1984], p. 49) dates it before 160. Cf. also / En. 95.3; 96.1; 98.12 for synergistic holy war motifs. Collins (Apocalyptic, pp. 55-56) notes that the Animal Apocalypse and the Apocalypse of Weeks affirm a 'militant role for the righteous*. 32. On the two-storey conception of military conflict, see e.g. Isa. 24.21-23; 1 Mace. 7.41-42; 2 Mace. 2.21; 5.1-4; 10.29-31; 15.8-16. See further nn. 26-28. 33. See esp. I Mace. 1.62-63; 2.19-68, esp. 2.50.

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

73

belief that martyrdom on behalf of the covenant would have an atoning effect for the community and the individual (11.35; 12.10) was also held by those who favored military resistance.'* Fourthly, it is not entirely accurate to say that the role of elect in die final conflict is purely passive. Instead, die faithful 'stand firm and take action' (11.32). This reference is also rather ambiguous. While die language of 'standing firm' seems to refer especially to remaining faithful to die covenant (cf. 11.30-32a)," 'taking action* is inappropriately limited to the task of instruction.'* 'Taking action' refers to the response of all the faithful, while instruction is the special vocation of die maskilim (11.33; 12.3). Indeed, since die language of 'taking action' i'sh) throughout the visions refers especially to military action,'^ it seems unwarranted to rule out the possibility that 'taking action' might include military resistance. Fidelity to die covenant and armed resistance are closely related in contemporaneous texts.'* The preceding rejoinders point to the ambiguous nature of the evidence. T w o final features of the text, however, must also be assessed: a possible allusion in 12.12 to die Isaianic tradition of taking the stance of trust and waiting in view of God's exclusive prerogative for security and defense; and the modelling of the action and fate of the maskilim on diat of the suffering servant of Isaiah. A makarism placed nearly at the end of die book affirms: 'Blessed i'asre) is the one who waits (hamhakeh) and comes to the thousand diree-hundred and thirty-five days' (12.12, RSV). This blessing seems to recall die language of Isa. 30.18: 'Blessed i'asre) are all diose who wait {kol hoke) for [ Y a h w e h ] ' . " In Isaiah, diis blessing functions to 34. See e.g. 2 Mace. 6-8. In 1 Maccabees what stays God's wrath (e.g. 1.64) are Mattathias's 'zeal for the Law' (2.23-26; Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, pp. 114-15) and the military action of Judas (3.3-8). For martyrdom among the 'Zealots', see M. Hengel, Die Zeloten (AGJU, 1; Uiden: Brill. 1961), pp. 261-76 ('Die Bereitschaft zum Martyrium'). 35. Thus Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 244. 36. Contra Collins, Apocalyptic Vision, pp. 208, 213. 37. See esp. 8.4, 12, 24; 11.3. 7, 16. 24, 39. The combination of 'standing firm' (hzjq) and 'taking action' to refer to military activity is apparent in 11.5, 6, 7; with different terms for 'standing', cf. 8.4. 12; 11.16. God's deliverance is denoted with the verb 'to take action' in 9.4,19. 38. See esp. I Mace. 2.19-68. 39. The parallels in Pss. 34.8; 84.12; Jer. 17.7-8 are not quite as close to Dan. 12.12 as that of Isa. 30.18.

74

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

close a passage which claims that the strength of the elect is their repentance, quietness and trust, not their military might (30.15-18). It is tempting, therefore, to see here a reference to an old Israelite tradition that favors the passive stance of mist and opposes the reliance on military might on the basis of Yahweh's elusive prerogative for defense and security.*" Attributing such a meaning to Dan. 12.12, however, probably reads too much into the text. The verse was probably added immediately prior to the publication of the book after calculations for the time of the end were adjusted and is primarily an encouragement for the faithful to accept some delay in the arrival of the end.*' A feature that might provide a more significant indication of a pacifistic tradition is the use of the image of the suffering servant from Isaiah 52-53 to express the action and fate of the maskilim.*^ The action of the maskilim in relation to 'the many' parallels that of the servant in relation to 'the many' (Isa. 53.11, 12). In particular, the references to the maskilim 'making many understand' (yabtnH larabbim, 11.33) and 'making many righteous' {masdtqe harabbim, 12.3) allude direcdy to Isa. 53.11: 'by his knowledge my righteous servant will make many righteous' (b'da'td yasdlq sadiq 'abdi larabbim). The atoning character of the deadis (Dan. 11.34; 12.10), then, appears to be based on the model of the suffering servant. Similarly, the exaltation of the servant (Isa. 52.13; 53.10-12) is a model for the maskilim and martyrs (12.2-3).*' Finally, the usage of the term maskilim is probably adapted from the first line of the poem: 'See, my servant will act wisely (yasktl 'abdi, Isa. 52.13). It would seem very likely, dien, that die servant's pattern of non-retaliation and passive acceptance of suffering (53.7; cf. 50.4-11) also provided the maskilim a model for proper action. 40. On this tradition, whicli appears in certain Psalms (20; 30; 44; 118), Hosea and Isaiah, and which contrasts with the royal ideology, see B.C. OUenburger. Zon, the City of the Great King: A Theological Symbol of the Jerusalem Cub (JSOTSup, 41; Sheffield: JSOT Press. 1987), pp. 81 -144. 41. E.g. Lacocque. Dani'e/, p. 250. 42. On Daniel's use of suffering servant text, see esp. H.L. Ginsberg, 'The Oldest Interpretation of the Suffering Servant', VT3 (1953). pp. 400-404. 43. For another use of this tradition of suffering and exaltation, see Wis. 2.1220; 3; 4.20-5.14 (compare esp. Dan. 11.32, 35; 12.3 and Wis. 2.13; 3.6-7) and 1 En. 62-63. See Lacocque. Daniel, p. 230; Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, pp. 89, 178-79, 219-20.

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'PassiveResistance'

75

What can be concluded, then, in regard to the perspective of Daniel on the proper response of the elect to persecution at the hands of illegitimate foreign rule? It is clear that Daniel should be identified as a piece of resistance literature."'' But while it is probable that Daniel promotes passive resistance, it is merely possible that Daniel additionally rejects military action categorically and thus represents a pacifistic perspective. The maskilim who produced Daniel certainly envisioned a salvation much more grand and cosmic than that offered by tiie Maccabean freedom-fighters. The focus is on the cataclysmic intervention of God into history, the time of the 'end' which the elect must await ( 1 1 . 3 5 ; 1 2 . 6 , 1 3 ) . While the maskilim, dierefore, probably did not put their hopes in the Maccabean movement, it is not certain that diey rejected the limited value of military action against the powers of evil. The focus on God's action and the lack of a role for the elect in the depiction of the final drama do not specifically indicate a pacifistic posture. Moreover, it is not clear that the action of the faithful in 'taking action' ( 1 1 . 3 2 ) excludes military action; and it is probable that 1 1 . 3 4 acknowledges die limited value of armed resistance. The maskilim, however, seem to favor the stance of passive resistance. Their action focuses on teaching, 'helping many understand' ( 1 1 . 3 3 ) . Even this detail is somewhat inconclusive. It is not clear whedier this action derives from a commitment to passive resistance as a matter of principle, or whether it reflects the typical activity of the intellectual leaders of a people.*' The most significant evidence which indicates that passive resistance is the favored stance of the maskilim is die use of the model of die suffering servant to describe their action and fate. The Testament of Moses The present form of the Testament of Moses (T. Mos.) was probably produced in Palestine"* between 4 BCE and 3 0 CE, although it may 44. Collins, Apocalyptic Vision, pp. 191-93. 45. Horsley, Spiral of Violence, p. 66. 46. T. Mos. is extant in only one incomplete and corrupt MS of a Latin translation of a Greek version, which in turn was probably based on a Hebrew or Aramaic original. See R.H. Charles, The Assumption of Moses (London: Black, 1897), pp. xxvi-xlv; D.H. Wallace, 'The Semitic Origin of the Assumption of Moses', TZ 11 (1955), pp. 321-28.

76

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

represent an earlier edition composed during the Maccabean revolt and interpolated or re-edited in the early first century."^ The T. Mos. is set as a farewell exhortation and prediction by Moses to Joshua and has been apdy described as 'a rewriting of Deut. 31-34'.'** Its primary message is to exhort readers to follow the commandments (9.4, 6; 12.10) and to assure them diat God will speedily answer the cry of die righteous and deliver the elect (12.12). The question now is whether the T. Mos. additionally 'advocates a policy of nonviolence',"*' displays a 'pacifistic ideology','" or 'implies a program of non-resistance' or 'passive resistance'." The major portion of the document consists of a predictive delineation of the history of Israel from die entry into Canaan until die end of days (2.1-10.10). The final eschatological drama begins with the rule of destructive and godless men who claim to be righteous (7.110) and continues with the worst punishment and wradi (persecution) that Israel has experienced since creation, at the hands of a 'king of

47. Arguing tiiat the entire document emerged in the first century are Charles. Assumption of Moses, pp. Iv-lvii; Rowley, Relevance, p. 108; E.-M. Laperrousaz, Le Testament de Mo'ise (Paris: Librarie d'Amerique et d'Orient, 1970), J.J. Collins, "The Date and Provenance of the Testament of Moses', in G.W.E. Nickelsburg (ed.). Studies on the Testament of Moses (SCS, 4; Cambridge, MA: Scholars Press, 1973); E. Brandenburger, 'Himmelfahrt Moses', JSHRZ,\I2, pp. 59-60; J. Priest, 'The Testament of Moses', OTP, I, pp. 920-21. Preferring a second-century date, but with differing views as to the extent of the redaction, are J. Licht. 'Taxo, or the Apocalyptic Doctrine of Vengeance', JJS 12 (1961), pp. 95-103; Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, p. 80; J. Goldstein, 'The Testament of Moses: Its Content, its Origin, and its Attestation in Josephus', in Nickelsburg (ed.). Studies on the Testament of Moses, pp. 44-47; Collins, Apocalyptic Vision, p. 199; A. Yarbro Collins, "The Composition and Redaction of the Testament of Moses 10', HTR 69 (1976), pp. 179-86. 48. D.J. Harrington, 'Interpreting Israel's History: The Testament of Moses as a Rewriting of Deut. 31-34', in Nickelsburg (ed.). Studies on the Testament of Moses, pp. 59-70; Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, pp. 80-82. 49. Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, p. 103; cf. idem, 'Date and Provenance', pp. 23, 26, 30; 'it set the model of pacifistic piety'. 50. Nickelsburg. Jewish Literature, p. 213. 51. D.M. Rhoads, 'The Assumption of Moses and Jewish History: 4 BC-AD 48', in Nickelsburg (ed.). Studies on the Testament of Moses, p. 56. Also taking this general position are Charles, Assumption, pp. li-lii (it represents 'Pharisaic Quietism'); S. Zeitlin, 'The Assumption of Moses and the Bar Kockba Revolt', JQR 38 (1947-48), pp. 1-45; Yarbro Collins, 'Political PerspecUve', pp. 244-45.

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'PassiveResistance'

77

kings of the earth' who has supreme authority (8.1-5).'^ In the midst of this p e r s e c u t i o n / ' a Levite named T a x o ' " will come. He speaks to his sons, nodng first die severity of die persecution and its apparent injustice (9.2-3). He continues: (4) Now, therefore, sons, heed me. If you investigate, you will surely know that never did (our) fathers nor their ancestors tempt God by transgressing his commandments. (5) Yea, you will surely know that this is our stfength. Here is what we shall do. (6) We shall fast for a three-day period and on the fourth day we shall go into a cave, which is in the open country. There let us die rather than transgress the commandments of the Lord of Lords, the God of our fathers. (7) For if we do this, and do die, our blood will be avenged before the Lord (9.4-7)." Immediately following this exhortation is a hymn describing the coming salvation (10.1-10). After an introductory statement (lO.I), die arrival of die kingdom is described in three stages or pictures. ( I ) The angel {nuntius),

identical or analogous to M i c h a e l , " 'will

52. Although in an eariier edition ch. 8 may have referred specifically to the Antiochian persecution, in its present form it takes the form of a generalized 'eschatological tableau'; so Collins, 'Date and Provenance', pp. 18-22; Laperrousaz, Testament, pp. 122-24; Brandenburger, 'Himmelfahrt Moses' p. 60. The displacement theories whereby both chs. 8 and 9 (Charles) or ch. 8 alone (Rowley, Relevance, p. 107) are (re)placed before ch. 6 break the obvious flow of the eschatological drama. 53. The text has illo dicenle ('while he was speaking'. Priest, OTP), which would constitute a major aporia between chs. 8 and 9. Brandenburger ('Himmelfahrt Moses', p. 75) favors the emendation illo ducente ('while he (the king] was ruling') instead of the emendations illo edicente ('he (the Lord] was decreeing/ordaining') and illo die erit ('in that day', Charles). 54. Interpretations of the meaning of the name Taxo and of his historical or eschatological identity are legion and the reference remains obscure. See Charles, Assumption, pp. 35-36; Rowley, Relevance, pp. 149-56. 55. Citations from Priest in OTP. Similar martyr and cave stories occur in the Maccabean literature and may provide the basis for the present story: I Mace. 1.53; 2.29-38; 2 Mace. 6.11-7.40; 10.6; Josephus. Ant. 12.6.2 §§268-78; 14.15.5 §§420-30. See Charles, Assumption, pp. 33-34. On T. Mos. 9.6-7 cf. esp. I Mace. 2.37; 2 Mace. 7.2, 6, 14, 17, 19, 34-37. 56. T.W. Manson ('Miscellanea Apocalyptica', JTS 46 (1945], p. 43) argues that since an angelic messenger is usually U^slilerated from angelos as angelus, here nuntius designates a human messenger (Elijah). At most, this argument can show that the Latin tfanslator had a human messenger in mind. Most interpreters

78

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

avenge them of their enemies* (10.2). (2) God himself will go forth from his dirone with wrath on behalf of this people (10.3), effecting cosmic upheavals (10.4-6), and 'alone*" will work 'vengeance on the nations* (10.7). (3) Israel will be raised to the heights of heaven and will enjoy bliss (10.8-10). The pacifistic interpretation of the T. Mos. is based primarily on the following three factors: (1) the character of the action by the hero Taxo (ch. 9); (2) the manner in which the final victory emerges (ch. 10); and (3) the implied connection between these two.'* It is difficult to deny the paraenetic intention of the model and exhortation of the end-time hero Taxo for the readers, particularly in view of the testamentary form of the exhortation." The exhortation (9.4-7) implies a passive stance in relation to persecutors. Taxo emphasizes that their strength {vires, power, might) is to keep the conunandments, implicitly not to display military prowess (9.4). Accordingly, Taxo prepares himself and his sons for possible martyrdom, committing his cause to God. The interpretation diat the course of martyrdom was deliberately sought,*" however, goes beyond the textual evidence.

understand nuntius as the archangel Michael. So Charles, Assumption, pp. 39-41; Priest, OTP, I, p. 932. 57. Taking solus adverbially (= Hcb. Pbaddo) as modifying the verb 'will surge forth' (with Charles, Assumption, p. 41; Priest, OTP, I. p. 932) instead of adjectivally as modifying 'eternal one' (Brandenburger, 'Himmelfahrt Moses'). 58. Charles {Assumption, pp. li-lii) also suggests that the author's silence on the Maccabean uprising in the face of his obvious knowledge of the movement is 'impressive' and 'an emphatic censure of their appeal to arms'. While opposition to the Hasmoneans is also evident (6.1), neither of these factors specifically indicates that die T. Mos. rejects armed resistance. 59. See e.g. Charles, Assumption, p. 34; Rhoads, 'Assumption', p. 56; Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, p. 82. 60. E.g. Collins ('Some Remaining Traditio-Historical Problems in the Testament of Moses', in Nickelsburg [ed.]. Studies on the Testament of Moses, p. 42) argues that this is evident from the fact that the resolve to die is made at a point when Taxo and his sons are not yet prisoners, in contrast to the case of the martyrs in 2 Mace. 7. It should be noted, however, that what is expressed here is the readiness to die, not the resolve to die. The text is not clear as to the purpose of the move to the cave. The motivation is probably the same as described in I Mace, and 2 Mace, where the movement to caves is motivated in order to escape persecution and in order to keep the commandments, especially the Sabbath, secretly (I Mace. 1.53; 2.29-30; 2 Mace. 6.11).

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

79

While Taxo does not expliciUy reject armed resistance as a matter of principle, his acdon shows a preference for a non-violent response. Also supporting a pacifistic interpretation of the T. Mos. is the character of die final drama in ch. 10. There is no Messianic warfare, nor any military activity on die part of God's people.*' This omission does not specifically indicate a pacifistic perspective. More decisive is the fact that the kingdom is ushered in and vengeance is wrought by the direct intervention of the angel and God. It is stressed that vengeance is die work of God 'alone' ( 1 0 . 7 ) . Given the dependence of

chs. 9 and 1 0 on Deuteronomy 32,*^ it is probable that this notion derives from Deut. 32.35, 'Vengeance is mine, and recompense'.*' If this is so, the T. Mos. interprets Deut. 32.35 to mean not only that God will indeed bring vengeance, but also that vengeance is God's exclusive prerogative and should be deferred to him. Another argument used to support the pacifistic perspective of the T. Mos. is the implied connection between ch. 9 (purification and martyrdom) and ch. 1 0 (salvation and vengeance), particularly die notion that martyrdom is deliberately sought as the means to hasten God's vengeance against the persecutors. The flow of die drama does suggest diat Taxo's action indeed precipitates the divine vengeance that inaugurates the end-time,*" so that the two chapters are not merely unrelated stages in the final drama.*' Chapter 9 concludes with Taxo's resolution to be ready to die rather than transgress the Law ( 9 . 6 ) and

61. Emphasized by Charhs, Assumption, p. Hi; Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, p. 82. Charles (APOT, II. p. 412) explains the lack of a Messiah figure as due to the increasingly military conception of the Messiah; while this interpretation is enticing, there are no proofs for it. 62. T. Mos. 9.7 echoes Deut. 32.43; 10.8 Cbome aloft on an eagle') uses the imagery of Deut. 32.11-13; the pervasive language of 'vengeance' in DeuL 32.35-43 may have influenced 10.2, 7; the destruction of idols in 10.7 may be from Deut. 32.37-39. The fact that the entire testament is a rewriting of Deut. 31-34 also supports the use of Deut. 32 here. 63. Cf. the emphatic emoi and ego in the textual addition of Deut. 32.35 cited by Paul in Rom. 12.19. Collins (Apocalyptic Vision, p. 200) observes that Deut. 32.32-43 supplied the paradigm for the author's perspective. 64. See esp. Licht, 'Taxo', pp. 95-103; followed by Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, p. 82; Collins, 'Traditio-Historical Problems', p. 42; Rhoads, 'Assumption', pp. 56-57; Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 245. 65. Contra J. Priest, 'Some Reflections on the Assumption of Moses", Perspectives in Religious Studies 4 (1977), pp. 92-111; idem, OTP, I, p. 923.

80

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

with his expectation that such innocent death will arouse G o d ' s vengeance (9.7). This expectation is based directly on Deut. 32.43: 'for he avenges the blood of his servants, and takes vengeance on his adversaries'.** The coming of the kingdom is described immediately following this resolve and expectation, and the reader is apparently to infer tfiat Taxo and his sons act in accordance with Taxo's exhortation, and that it is specifically these innocent deaths that trigger the wrath of God and precipitate the onset of the eschatological age.*' The repetition of the theme of vengeance in 10.2 and 10.7 indicates that die expectation of Taxo will be fulfilled specifically.** In die perspective of the T. Mos., then, it is especially martyrdom that provokes divine wrath. To suggest, however, that Taxo deliberately seeks martyrdom and that the T. Mos. promotes martyrdom as the proper human contribution in the holy war against the enemies of God*' seems to go beyond die evidence. In summary, it must be admitted diat there is no outright rejection of the sword or armed resistance and that accordingly it is impossible to say that the T. Mos. rejects armed resistance as a matter of principle. Neverdieless, die ideal of passive resistance is evident in die resolve of the end-time hero Taxo, who instructs his sons (and the readers) diat purification, strict observance of the Law and readiness to die on behalf of the Law are the 'strength' of the righteous. While the author seems to indicate that it is innocent deadi in particular diat triggers the eschaton, it is not clear that the author promotes martyrdom as the primary contribution diat the elect make in die final battle. The T. Mos. does present the notion, however, based on an exegesis on Deut. 32.35, that vengeance is God's prerogative and should be deferred to him.

66. Similarly. 2 Mace. 7.6 cites Deut. 32.36 and shares the expectation of divine vengeance for martyrdom. Cf. also 1 Mace. 2.37; and the allusion to Deut. 32.43 in Rev. 19.2. 67. Licht. 'Taxo'. p. 98. 68. So also Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, p. 82. 69. See e.g. Collins, Apocalyptic Vision, p. 200; idem, 'Traditio-Historical Problems', p. 42. Rhoads ('Assumption', p. 57) observes that the author exhorts 'obedient death as the way to guarantee vengeance against the enemy'.

ZERBE 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

81

Second Baruch The present Syriac version of 2 Baruch probably derives, through a Greek translation, from a Semitic original written in Palestine at the end of the first century C E or in the first two decades of the second century CE.™ F. Murphy, in his recent dissertation,'' argues that in general... the intention of the author is to draw the attention of the people away from the loss of Zion and away from a preoccupation with the punishment of the desU-oyers of Jerusalem. Through references to the Mosaic covenant, and by paralleling Baruch with Moses, the author seeks to recall the people to covenantal obedience. In his use of die two-world scheme, he manages to relaiivizc the importance of the Temple and land in Judaism and to reorient the People away from a this-worldly attitude to an other-worldly one.

Murphy also suggests that the author may have wished to discourage a growing resistance movement against Rome, so that he represented a 'quietistic' group in opposition to a 'militant* group within the nascent rabbinic movement.'^ Murphy develops this notion further in an article'' in which he contends that the author of 2 Baruch deliberately urged pacifism on his contemporaries. In so doing, he was careful to assure his readers that those who had desU-oyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem in 70 CE would be punished, but at the same time he conveyed the idea that punishment was entirely die business of God. It should play no role in the thought or action of Israel itself. Instead of concerning itself with revenge or with the judgment of the destroyers of Zion, the people should turn their attention to the other world and concern themselves with the salvation of their souls.

The notion that the righteous should be preoccupied with the rewards and punishments of the age to come and that punishment is God's business appears explicidy in three passages. The first is in Section II (chs. 10-20).''' Toward the end of die opening lament over die loss of Zion (10.6-12.5), Baruch asks, 'who will judge over diese 70. For diis general scholarly consensus, see A.F.J. Klijn. '2 Baruch', in OTP, I. pp. 616-17. 71. F.J. Murphy. 77i Structure and Meaning of Second Baruch (SBLDS, 78; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985). p. 28. 72. Murphy, Second Baruch, pp. 136-42. 73. Murphy, '2 Baruch and the Romans*, p. 663. 74. For the outline followed here, see Murphy, Second Baruch, pp. 11-13.

82

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

things' (11.3), complains about the injustice (11.4-7), and expresses his hope for the punishment of the Romans: 'surely wrath will arise against you in its own time' (12.4).'' God answers by acknowledging that the enemies of Israel will be punished, though this retribution is widened to be against 'the nations' for their general wickedness, not for the specific act of destroying Jerusalem (ch. 13).'* Baruch and God continue to engage in dialogue on the subject of retribution (14.2) and of the plight of the wicked in relation to the righteous in the future world. God corrects Baruch's reasoning about the judgment awaiting sinners (15.1). This culminates in a passage that answers Baruch's question, 'who will j u d g e ? ' " and establishes die fact diat die judgment of enemies is God's business: And I judge everything that exists. You, however, should not diink about this in your heart and you should not be afflicted because of the things which have been (l9.3b-4).

Immediately following this statement, God goes on to say that the end of all things is near when God will judge sinners and reward the righteous, and diat the sorrow and evils of the present life, including die destruction of Zion, are irrelevant in comparison to true happiness in die new aeon (19.5-20.6). A second critical passage occurs in Section V (chs. 48-52). Here a dialogue between God and Baruch focuses on the ultimate fate of the righteous and the wicked in die coming aeon. The decisive factor, as throughout 2 Baruch, is the way in which one obeys die Law.'* Indeed, it is the Law diat will 'repay' die wicked on the day of judgment (48.47). At die end of the dialogue, there is a transition to the second

75. Citations are from Klijn in OTP. Murphy ('2 Baruch', p. 664) argues that die introductory 'but I shall say as I think' (12.1) indicates that the author intends the proclamation of vengeance as Baruch's early and unenlightened attitude. 76. Cf. chs. 82-83. 2 Bar. nowhere states that the enemies will be punished specifically for the desuiiction of Jerusalem. Indeed 2 Bar. seems to take away the desuiiction of Jerusalem as a pretext for seeking vengeance against the Romans by arguing that the destruction was God's own work on account of the sins of Israel. See Murphy, Second Baruch, p. 137; idem, '2 Baruch', pp. 665-66. It should be noted, however, that oUier documents that hope explicidy for vengeance against the oppressors also explain die suffering as being on account of Israel's sins; e.g. 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Testament of Moses. 77. For the notion diat 19.3 answers 11.3, see Murphy, Second Baruch, p. 15. 78. For references, see Klijn, OTP, I, p. 619.

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

83

person, as Baruch addresses his listeners with a summary of what he has just learned: Enjoy yourselves in the suffering which you suffer now. For why do you look for die decline of your enemies? Prepare your souls for diat which is kept for you, and make ready your souls for the reward which is preserved for you (52.6-7)."

A third passage reflecting 2 Baruch's perspective on the enemies of Israel can be found in Section VII ( 7 7 . 1 8 - 8 7 . 1 ) , the letter of Baruch

to the dispersed tribes. This passage is a summary of some of the more important themes of the entire document. First, Baruch indirectly reminds his readers that the present distress was caused by their own sins and that reflection on the situation should aid their preparation for the final judgment (ch. 7 8 ; cf. 7 7 . 1 - 1 7 ) .

Baruch

moves to a word of consolation and asserts that vengeance will indeed come against their enemies (ch. 8 2 ) . But this poem of judgment against the enemies turns into a consideration of the hidden sins of all individuals ( 8 3 . 1 - 3 ) and culminates in a command to look away from

the present distress and desire for vengeance: Therefore, noUiing of the present things should come into your heart but they should, on the conuary, be expected, since that which was promised will come. And we should not look upon the delights of the present nations, but let us think about that which has been promised to us regarding the end... The end of the world will then show the great power of our Ruler since everything will come to judgment. You should, therefore, prepare your hearts for dial which you have believed before, lest you should be excluded from both worlds (83.4-8).

As is the case throughout 2 Baruch, the focus of judgment is on the individual, not the national enemies of Israel.*** The perspective of these three passages with their focus on the new aeon, however, stands in some tension with the Messianic passages which present the hopes of a nationaHstic eschatology ( 2 9 . 2 - 3 0 . 1 ; 3 9 . 7 - 4 0 . 2 ; 7 0 . 9 ; 7 2 . 2 - 6 ) . These latter texts seem to maintain a hope 79. For the motif of preparation, see also 32.1-7; 44.2-8; 46.5-6; 83.7; 85.11. 80. Some interpreters argue diat in the judgment die distinction between Israel and die Gentiles is somewhat blurred because it involves a separation between the righteous and the wicked within Israel (chs. 41-42; 51; 54.22); so e.g. Murphy, Second Baruch, p. 137; idem, '2 Baruch', pp. 666-67 n. II. But in response, it should be observed that a purification of Israel does not mean a blurring of the distinctions between true Israel and the Gentiles.

84

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

for a national restoration in Palestine through the Messiah's military victory over the Romans.*' Many recent interpreters downplay the significance of the nationalistic messianic eschatology for the author's perspective.*^ But counterbalancing arguments can be adduced.*' The Messianic passages play an important role in the entire document. They function to enlighten the people regarding the 'course of times' so that they will know how to act in the final days (e.g. 28.1; 46.5-6) and to assure them that vengeance will come to their enemies and that times of bliss will arrive (e.g. 24.4). While the predominant focus of 2 Baruch is on the rewards and punishments of the new aeon itself, so that the Messianic era is not emphasized and Messianic speculation is

81. Although the Messiah appears to play a passive role in 29.2-30.1, he appears expliciUy as warrior and judge in die 3 9 . 7 ^ . 2 and 70.9; 72.2-6. The advent of the Messiah's dominion will mean the demise of Rome (die fourth world dominion); the Messiah will destroy the last rulers' entire host and will bring him bound to Zion for judgment and execution (39.7-40.2). All three passages affirm that at the height of die Uibulation die inhabitants of die holy land will be protected by the Messiah (29.2; 40.2; 71.1), and that die rule of the Messiah will have a limited duration as the penultimate stage before the establishment of die new aeon at die end (30.1-5; 40.3; 73.1-74.4). 82. See e.g. P. Bogaert, Apocalypse de Baruch: Introduction, traduction du Syriaque et commentaire (SC. 144. 145; Paris: Cerf, 1969), I, pp. 413-19; A.F.J. Klijn, 'The Sources and the Redaction of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch', JSJ 1 (1970), pp. 74-76; Murphy, Second Baruch, pp. 31-116, esp. pp. 66-67. The following arguments are adduced. (I) The diree passages are inconsistent wiUi each odier and simply appropriate traditional materials. (2) The duration of the Messianic era is limited as the penultimate stage before the final consummation and belongs to the present world of corruption. (3) The passages do not play an important role in the presentation of 2 Baruch as a whole and do not always constitute the focus of die larger passages in which diey appear. 83. (I) The diree messianic passages, while presenting somewhat different pictures, are not actually 'contradictory'; see Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, p. 172. The traditional character of the material does not diminish its importance for die author. The fact that this material was used, even if modified, means diat it was accepted by the author. (2) Even if the Messianic era is limited in duration (but cf. 40.3, it lasts 'forever'), it is still an essential part of die eschatological scenario as an intermediate hope for a national victory in Palestine. While there may be a relative subordination of the Messianic era, there is no absolute 'rejecUon' or 'correction' of diis hope. (3) The thrust of the larger passages is indeed on die faithfulness to the law as die means to membership in die future world (31-32; 41-44; 77.1-17). But diis is complementary to die eschatological presentation, not in opposition to it.

ZERBE 'Pacificism' and 'Passive Resistance'

85

absent or even discouraged.*'* it is clear that die author still hopes for a Messianic interregnum. Murphy proposes that the Messianic passages present no difficulty for the pacifistic interpretation since the Messiah is the sole agent of judgment and punishment—tiie people or army of the Messiah play no role in the battle.*' But tiiis argument from silence is ratiier inconclusive.'* If the author was actually opposing tiie rising resistance movement one would expect a much stronger statement against military activity or ideology. In conclusion, then, the primary interest of the autiior of 2 Baruch is the arrival of the new aeon and its implications. In the light of its coming, the primary concern of tiie people should be the preparation of tiieir souls dirough obedience to the Law. Focusing on tiie rewards and punishments of die age to come, the people should desist from preoccupation widi die punishment of the enemies of Israel, especially Rome ( 1 9 . 3 - 4 ; 5 2 . 6 - 7 ; 8 3 . 4 - 8 ) . Vengeance and judgment are the

business of God and the Messiah in die appropriate future time. On the odier hand, however, there are no explicit commands against armed resistance, and the author does express hope for a national restoration in Palestine and die punishment of the oppressors dirough the leadership of the Messiah. The author remains silent on whether or not he expects the people to join in battle with die Messiah against dieir enemies. While the author may well represent a 'quietistic' posture, to say that he 'deliberately urged pacifism' seems to go beyond die evidence. The Revelation to John The Revelation to John was probably written toward die end of die reign of Domitian (c. 9 0 - 9 6 C E ) to fellow Christians engaged in a

84. Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, p. 178. 85. Murphy. '2 Baruch', p. 667. 86. One might compare this presentation of the Messiah with Pss. Sol. 17, where the Messiah destroys the Gentiles militarily (vv. 22-24) but also, somewhat conu-adictingly, without weapons of war (vv. 33-35); and widi 4 Ezra 13, where die Messiah will desffoy the enemies without 'weapons of war' (vv. 9-10, 28), 'widiout effort by the law' (v. 38). These two passages also lack any reference to participation by the people or an army, aldiough die picture o(Pss. Sol. 17, in which die Messiah rules 'with a rod of iron', implies the presence of an army.

86

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

religio-political conflict with the Roman principate and its administrat i o n . " Employing the genre, themes, and possibly sources of Jewish apocalyptic literature,'* the author sought to console his readers and to encourage them to remain faithful by assuring them that the outcome of the conflict was certain, namely that the Lamb will conquer the kings of the earth and avenge the injustice of persecution. A. Yarbro Collins has made the case that the political perspective of Revelation stands in continuity with the Jewish tradition of passive resistance of the synergistic type (as represented by the Testament of Moses) in which the elect contribute to the final victory, not by their military resistance, but by their faithfulness and martyrdom. Martyrdom hastens the end by provoking God's vengeance. Two main lines of evidence are used to support this interpretation: the depiction of die final batde and victory, in which the Messiah and his heavenly army conquer the kings of die earth without the assistance of human agents, and the action of the elect diat is described or exhorted, which focuses on faidifiilness, endurance and martyrdom." Yarbro Collins argues that Revelation's use of the holy war tradition, particularly diat of cosmic dualistic conflict, reinforces a certain pattern of resistance. 'The holy was imagery is used in such a way as to encourage a passive acceptance of suffering in the eschatological conflict'.'" In 19.11-26 the heavenly Messiah comes as a military victor: he appears on a white horse with a sword in his moudi and a 'rod of i r o n ' " in his hand and is joined by 'the armies of heaven* (19.14).'^ In 20.1-3 an angel seizes the Dragon and binds him for one 87. For this scholarly consensus, see e.g. A. Yarbro Collins, Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse (Philadelphia: Wesuninster Press, 1984), pp. 25-83; E. Schiissler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), pp. 181-203. 88. For a review of proposals regarding die sources and redaction of Revelation, see e.g. Schiissler Fiorenza, Revelation, pp. 159-80. 89. W. Klassen ('Vengeance in the Apocalypse of John', CBQ 27 [1966], pp. 300-11) also highlighu these two features, although he excessively softens the notion of vengeance, claiming diat the author wrote to bring all to repentance by warning them of the consequences of dieir actions (p. 304). 90. Yarbro Collins, 'Polidcal Perspective', p. 247. 91. Cf. 2.16; 12.5; Pss. Sol. 17.23-24. This motif is based on Ps. 2.9. 92. This text refers to die angelic armies. In 15.6 angels have a similar attire; and parallels wiUi oUier apocalyptic texts also suggests this (Zech. 14.15; Mk 8.38; 13.27; 1 Thess. 3.13; Mt. 26.53). R. Mounce (The Book of Revelation [Grand

ZERBE 'Pacificism' and 'Passive Resistance'

87

thousand years in the bottomless pit. In 20.7-10 the final onslaught of chaos against 'the camp of the saints and the beloved city', orchestrated by the released Dragon, is crushed by fire from heaven. In the cycles of visions leading up to the final battle, it is angels who herald and pour out wrath on the evil earth rulers and dwellers." In ch. 12, which is paradigmatic for the elect's situation and fate, an initial defeat of the Dragon is accomplished by Michael and his angels on behalf of the elect, after which the Dragon is thrown down from heaven. Yarbro Collins finds it decisive that in these scenes there is no role for the elect, no attempt to promote 'a program of active resistance or even self-defense'.'" Rather, the author in these scenes seeks to awaken trust in the power of heaven to avenge and to effect final victory. Yarbro Collins admits, however, that the author provides glimpses of the idea diat the elect would fight in the last baUle (14.4; 17.14), aldiough diese 'are not at all emphasized'." In 17.14, which seems to compress 19.11-21 and which refers to the Lamb's victory in the batde widi the beast, we read that 'and diose with him [the Lamb] are called and chosen and faithful' {kai hoi met' autou kletoi kai eklektoi kai pistol). This triad apparently refers to human followers of die Lamb, not to angels.'* Neverdieless, the author has left it ambiguous as to whether diey play an acdve military role in die batde or share in the victory, benefiting from die Messiah's warfare and protection." This group with the Lamb brings to mind also the 144,000 who stand with the Lamb on Zion (14.1) and 'follow the Lamb wherever he goes' (14.4). These 144,000, who sing a song of victory (14.2-3; cf. 15.2-4), are pictured as morally upright soldiers who have maintained their chastity in accord with the purity regulations for holy w a r . " Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977]. p. 346) suggests that the reference in 17.14 (see below, n. 96) suggests that the martyrs who now stand in God's presence (cf. 7.9-17) should be included in die group. 93. See 8.3-5; 8.6-9.21; 14.14-20; 16.1-21. 94. Yarbro Collins. 'Political Perspective', p. 247. 95. Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 248. 96. Kletos and eklektos occur only here in Revelation, but clearly indicate the elect of humanity; pistos occurs elsewhere of Christ (1.5; 3.14; 19.11), of the words of John's revelation (21.5; 22.6). and of Christians in the context of dying for die faidi (2.10, 13). 97. See Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 248 n. 37. 98. Seeing a military reference in 14.4a are e.g. E. Lohmeyer. Die Offenbarung

88

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

The author does not make it clear, however, whether he supposes that the elect will actually participate in the final battle or uses this imagery primarily as a symbol of the abstention from adultery with Babylon (cf. 14.8). While the author leaves it somewhat ambiguous whether the elect will participate militarily in the final battle, he is quite clear that the elect will participate in the final judgment and rule over their persecutors. This is indicated by the references to their participadon in die Messianic rule and judgment'' and the probability that in 20.4 it is the resurrected martyrs who are given thrones for judgment.'"" With Yarbro Collins, dien, one can agree diat die dominant emphasis is on the direct agency of the Messiah and the heavenly armies to effect eschatological victory. Nevertheless, one must admit that there is some ambiguity as to whether or not the elect play any role in the final battle and that the elect will participate at least in the judgment of the world. The use of the holy war tradition by itself, then, does not seem to categorically exclude the possibility of armed participation with God on the final day. What does Revelation specifically counsel, however, as to the proper conduct and stance of believers in persecution? To ascertain this, we begin by observing tiie language of 'conquering' (nikan) as applied to die elect. In die messages to die seven churches (2.7, 11, 17, 2 6 - 2 8 ; 3.5, 12, 21) and in the conclusion (21.7) various promises are held out for 'those who conquer'. In some passages the 'conquerors' are identified especially as diose who remain faithful.'"' But more significandy. des Johannes (HNT, 16; Tubingen: Mohr, 1926), p. 120; G.B. Caird, The Revelation of St John the Divine (London: Harper & Bros.. 1966); G.R. BeasleyMurray, Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), p. 223; Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 248. For OT references to purity regulation for war, cf. Deut. 23.9-10; 1 Sam. 21.5; 2 Sam. 11.11. For such regulations at Qumran, see F. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qumran (Garden City: Doubleday, rev. edn, 1961), pp. 98-99. 99. See esp. 2.26-27 in relation to 19.15. Cf. die future tense ofbasileud for the elect: 5.10; 22.5. 100. BasedonDan.7.9-10, 22.See e.g.Beasley-Murray,/?eve/arion, pp. 292-93. 101. E.g. die promises for rewards to die 'conquerors' in die messages follow immediately upon call to obedience and/or repentance; in 21.7 the rewards for 'conquerors' are contrasted with those for the 'cowardly, faithless' (deilois, apistois), implying that the 'conquerors' are specifically die faidiful; and in 2.26 the 'conqueror' is identified as the one 'who keeps my word until die end' (2.26).

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

89

the 'conquerors' are seen specifically as those who remain faithful unto death.'"^ Rev. 1 2 . 1 1 clarifies die basis for the victory by the elect: And diey [our brediren] have conquered him [die accuser] by die blood of the Lamb and by die word of dieir testimony (marmria), for diey loved not their lives even unto deadi (RSV).

The Lamb's martyrdom and vindication by resurrection to God's tiwone is the basis for the elect's victory (cf. 1.6; 5 . 5 - 1 0 ) . Likewise, tiie saints conquer by tiieir 'faitiiful witness' unto deafli'*" just as Jesus, the pre-eminent 'faithful witness' unto death, conquered.'*" Those who remain faithful unto deadi come out victorious and ultimately share in die U m b Messiah's rule ( 1 . 6 ; 2 . 2 6 - 2 8 ; 3 . 2 1 ; 5 . 9 - 1 0 ; 2 0 . 4 - 6 ) .

The 'conquering' of the elect, dierefore, is described in noticeably non-violent ways. 'To conquer' is to remain faithful unto death, diereby sharing in die ultimate victory of die Lamb. Related to the theme of faidifulness unto the end is that of 'endurance'. The seven messages contain a repeated emphasis on the virtue of hupomone

( 2 . 2 , 3 , 1 9 ; 3 . 1 0 ; cf. 2 . 1 0 , 1 3 , 1 9 , 2 5 ; 3 . 8 . 1 0 - 1 1 ) ,

and at the outset in 1.9 this dieme is linked specifically with suffering. In Revelation, hupomonS is not just a general characteristic of faith, but a particular stance in persecution that implies both passively accepting suffering and remaining steadfast.'*" In the middle of ch. 13, which describes the beast and its oppression of die saints ( 1 3 . 7 , 1 5 ; cf. 1 2 . 1 7 ) , the author emphasizes die necessity of endurance: ei lis echei ous akousatd. ei tis eis aichmaldsian, eis aichmaldsian hupagei. ei tis en machaire apoktanthenai, auton en machaire apoktanthinai. hode estin he hupomone kai he pistis ton hagidn.

102. In 2.10 'conquering' is equated widi being 'faidiful unto death'; in 15.2-4 'those who had conquered die beast and its image' are apparendy martyrs (13.7, IS) who now stand in God's presence (cf. 7.9-17); and those who have remained faidiful unto death in 12.11 are said to have 'conquered' Satan. 103. For martyr and martyria as applied to die elect, see 2.13; 6.9; 11.3, 7, 12; 12.11; 17.6; 20.4; cf. 1.2,9; 12.17; 19.10. 104. See 1.5; 3.14; cf. 19.11. 105. See Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 249; F. Hauck, 'hupomend', TDNT, IV, p. 688.

90

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

If any one has an ear, let him hear: If any one is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if any one is to be slain with the sword, widi die sword is he to be slain. Here is die endurance and faidi(-fulness) of die saints (13.9-10. my trans.).

While an alternative reading of this text might be interpreted as an explicit promotion of a pacifistic stance, the most likely reading highlights the inevitability of captivity or martyrdom for some as the occasion for maintaining endurance."'* Martyrdom, however, is not just inevitable. It also plays a central function in the book as a whole, particularly as that which will arouse die vengeance of God. The question, however, is whether Revelation promotes, as Yarbro Collins argues, a kind of synergism in which martyrdom in particular is the contribution that the elect make in the final conflict to hasten die final day,"" or whedier it intends to console its readers by its association of martyrdom and God's vengeance, not to encourage martyrdom as such. Five passages must be considered. 1. In die vision of the souls under the altar who cry for vengeance (6.9-11), the fact that the souls are associated with the altar seems to imply that die deaths are conceived as sacrifices. Two important ideas are implied here: that God will avenge innocent blood, and diat there

106. For the case in favor of this textual reading (Alexandrinus) of the couplets on captivity and the sword, based on Jer. 15.2 and 43.17, see R.H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St John (ICC; New York: Scribner's, 1920), I. pp. 355-57; B.M. Metzger. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London: United Bible Societies, 1971), pp. 749-50. On this reading, bodi couplets refer to the plight of the persecuted and dius suit die context of persecution and endurance. On the various readings with apokte(i)nei...dei in the second couplet ('if any one slays with the sword, with the sword must he be slain', R S V ) the text could refer either to the persecutors, expressing die inevitable reuibution coming to them, or to die persecuted, proscribing die use of arms (in continuity with the adaptation of Jer. 15.2 in Mt. 26.52). While this last interpretation is attractive in diat it would entail 'an explicit rejection of die militant option' (Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 247), on external and contextual grounds it is not Uie best reading. Also secondary are die readings that have apagei in the first half of the first couplet ('if any one leads into captivity, to captivity he goes'), in which case both couplets would refer to the final lot of the persecutors. 107. Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', pp. 249-52, 256.

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'Passive

Resistance'

91

is a fixed number of souls that must be killed before the end should come.'"* Yarbro Collins concludes that in Revelation the role of the elect is not purely passive; rather there is the possibility of a kind of synergism. Each martyr's deadi brings the eschaton closer.'*"

While it is true that each death brings the eschaton closer, it seems unwarranted to conclude that Revelation promotes martyrdom as such as that which they can synergistically contribute to the final outconne. The notion of the fixed number of martyrs ( 6 . 1 1 ) explains why the end has not yet arrived; it does not encourage martyrdom per se. The author does affirm that the cry of the martyrs is heard; immediately following is a proleptic description of the final battle against the kings of the earth ( 6 . 1 2 - 1 7 ) .

2 . T h e prelude to the seven trumpets ( 8 . 3 - 5 ) also indicates that vengeance upon the earth is the response to the prayers of the martyrs. An angel comes to a golden altar before the throne and mingles incense with the prayers of the saints to God. The prayers of the saints and the altar here recall the vision of the fifth seal. After offering the prayers to God, the angel takes fire from the altar and throws it on the earth, which represents the answer to the prayers of the (martyred) saints for vengeance. 3 . When the third bowl of wrath is poured upon the earth, the rivers and fountains of water become as blood ( 1 6 . 4 ) . The commentary that follows explains the significance of this scene: And I heard die angel of die waters say, 'You are just, O Holy One, who are and were, for you have judged {ekrinas) diese diings; because they shed die blood of die saints and prophets, you gave them blood to drink. It is what diey deserve (axioi eisin)'. And I heard die altar respond, 'Yes, O Lord God, die Almighty, your judgments are true and just' (16.5-7, NRSV).

This one aspect of cosmic destruction is interpreted specifically as vengeance for the blood of the martyrs. The reference to the altar recalls the vision of the souls under the altar ( 6 . 9 - 1 1 ; cf. 8 . 3 - 5 ) and expresses their satisfaction for this act of vengeance. 4 . In the Babylon interlude ( 1 7 . 1 - 1 9 . 5 ) , among Babylon's most heinous sins is the execution of the saints ( 1 7 . 6 ; 1 8 . 2 4 ) . In the judgment 108. For references to diese modfs in other apocalyptic writings, see Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 249. 109. Yarbro Collins, 'Political Perspective', p. 249.

92

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

doxology that begins the final heavenly liturgy celebrating the fall of Babylon (19.1-8), Babylon's destruction is interpreted as judgment for her 'fornication' and as vengeance for the execution of the martyrs: he has judged (ekrinen) die great harlot who corrupted die earth with her fornication, and he has avenged (exedikesen) on her the blood of his servants (19.2, RSV).

Here we have the final answer to the martyr's cry in 6.10: Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge (krineis) and avenge (ekdikeis) our blood on the inhabitants of die earth (NRSV).""

5. Finally, the description of the millennium (20.4-6) illustrates the special role for the martyrs in Revelation. Even if participation in the millennium is not limited to the martyrs,"' it is clear that they are singled out for special emphasis. Martyrdom, then, is specially tied to God's vengeance in Revelation. It arouses God's wrath and will ultimately be requited. This theme, however, seems to function primarily to console the elect in their struggle; there is no clear evidence that the author encourages martyrdom as such as the synergistic contribution which the elect make in the final drama {contra Yarbro Collins). In conclusion, in Revelation the primary action recommended of the elect is that of faithfulness, endurance (which implies passively accepting suffering) and testimony, for which many will suffer death. The elect 'conquer' by maintaining faitiiful witness unto death; tiiere is no encouragement to take up arms against the oppressors. Martyrdom is seen as arousing God's vengeance; but tiiere is no encouragement of martyrdom as such as as the synergistic contribution that the elect make in the final conflict. While diere are some glimpses of the notion that the elect will play a military role in the final battle,"^ the

110. Bodi 6.10 and 19.2 allude to Deut. 32.43 (cf. 2 Kgs 9.8; Ps. 79.10) just as die Testament of Moses docs when it anticipates vengeance on account of the martyrs (see above, n. 62). 111. The hoitines in 20.4 might be taken eidier as an ordinary relative, dius qualifying 'die souls of diose who had been beheaded', or in its classical usage, thus signifying a wider group dian die 'beheaded'. 112. If so, we see here a perspective much like diat of Qumran (see above, n. 26). While vengeance is proscribed for the present, penultimate hour and deferred to God, the elect can anticipate their own participadon in die conquest and judgment

Z E R B E 'Pacificism'and'PassiveResistance'

93

emphasis is on God, his Messiah, and die heavenly armies as the primary agents of vengeance and vindication. Revelation, then, seems to represent the perspective of 'passive resistance', aldiough diere is insufficient evidence to claim that it is 'pacifistic'."' Conclusion This essay has sought to determine if four apocalyptic writings, namely Daniel, the Testament of Moses, 2 Baruch and Revelation, promote the stance of 'passive, non-violent resistance' and/or 'pacificism* in relation to illegitimate and oppressive rule. All four writings seem to encourage the response of 'passive resistance*. None contains a call to military resistance; all emphasize that victory and vengeance will come through the direct action of God and his special agents; none indicates that the elect will participate in the final battle against the enemies. The action that is characteristic or recommended of the elect represents non-military forms of resistance, primarily faithfulness and endurance. Do these writings, however, also display a 'pacifistic* perspective? The evidence remains somewhat ambiguous. The primary evidence for die perspectives of both 'passive resistance' and 'pacificism' consists of the emphasis on the direct action of God and his special agents in the final victory, on the one hand, and the lack of any explicit participation by the elect in the final batUe, on the other. This sort of depiction does indeed contrast sharply from those writings, apocalyptic and non-apocalyptic, which express an overtly synergistic, military ideology ( 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Jubilees 23, Animal Apocalypse

[1 En. 8 5 - 9 0 ] , Apocalypse

of Weeks [1 En.

93.1-10;

9 1 . 1 1 - 1 7 ] ) . But there are also other apocalyptic writings diat focus on the direct intervention of God and lack any reference to the synergistic participation of the elect in die final battle, some of which even contain rhetoric against the weapons of war. One can note here the Wisdom of Solomon,"" the Psalms of Solomon,^ 4 Ezra"* and the

of persecutors in the final hour. If this is the author's view, it is very muted. 113. On 13.10, die one text which might indicate an explicit rejection of armed resistance, see above, n. 106. 114. The Wisdom of Solomon promotes the stance of forbearance (epieikeia, 2.19), endurance of evil (anexikakia, 2.19), non-retaliation (18.1-2), and prayer versus force of arms (18.22) in response to abuse from foreign oppressors. The

94

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Sibylline Oracles 3 - 5 . " ' While some of these seem to reflect the persp)ective of passive resistance (Wisdom of Solomon) or quietism (Psalms of Solomon, but not pacifistic), others cannot be so clearly identified. It is mediodologically somewhat dubious, dien, to suppose agents of deliverance and vengeance are 'wisdom', God's hand, word and warfare, and die forces of creation. Instances of armed warfare in Israel's history appear to be downplayed. See, further, Zerbe, Non-Retaliation, ch. 2. 115. In Pss. Sol. 17 the Davidic 'Lord Messiah will destroy the Gentile oppressors 'with an iron rod' and 'widi die word of his moudi' (vv. 24, 35, 36; cf. Ps. 2.9; Isa. 11.2-4). There is a polemic against relying on die weapons of war or numbers in battle (17.33-34a) and die su^ngdi of the Messiah is seen especially in his word and character. There is no reference to any role on the part of die devout in die desuiicdon of the oppressors, although die expectation is diat die devout will be the beneficiaries of the Messiah's victory. R.B. Wright ('Psalms of Solomon', OTP, II, p. 643) asserts diat members of the group diat produced die psalms 'were not political pacifists, and appear as quietists only because they have no opportunity to be activists'. 116. 4 Ezra is concerned with the future release of Israel from the tyranny of Rome. The Davidic Messiah will conquer, judge and destroy the Romans (11.3612.3; 12.31-33) and establish the kingdom in security (12.34). In 4 Ezra 13 the Messiah will destroy die nations assembled to conquer Israel, but widiout 'a spear or any weapons of war' (13.9, 28). RaUier, he will conquer by a stream of fire, a flaming breath, and a storm of sparks issuing from his moudi, which will bum up the multitude (13.10-22,27). The three discharges symbolize die Messiah's reproof of the nations for their ungodliness, his reproach of them, and his destruction of them 'without effort by the law' (13.38). There is no reference to any synergistic participation by the elect; the Messiah will defeat the oppressors of Israel miraculously widiout reliance on military might 117. According to Sib. Or. 3, God uses human agents, even foreign kings, to achieve his purposes in history (352. 356, 366). But in the final conflict, God will direcUy intervene to judge die nations gathered against Israel (669-701) and will usher in an age of peace. Cosmic catastrophes, including fire and fiery swords from heaven (672-73, 689-91, 798) will destroy the enemies of Israel. Then Israel will live in peace, free from war, 'for [the Lord] alone will shield diem... The Immortal himself and die hand of the Holy One will be fighting for them' (702-13; Collins in OTP). Weapons of war will be gathered and used to fuel fires (727-31) and 'prophets of the great God will take away die sword' (781). In Sib. Or. 4, God will also intervene to judge die Romans (135-36) and die whole earth (159-61) widi a great conflagration, especially dirough fire from heaven (171-78). In Sib. Or. 5, a savior figure with a scepter will come from heaven to destroy die enemies of Israel and to restore Jerusalem (414-25). The destruction will occur especially by fire from heaven (274, 299, 325, 375-80). None of die Oracles refer to any synergistic participation by the elect in die present or future conflicts.

ZERBE 'Pacificism'and'PassiveResistance'

95

that the presence of an eschatological drama that focuses on God's direct action and lacks a reference to participation by the elect in the final battle specifically indicates the perspective of 'passive resistance', let alone that of 'pacificism*. For this reason, and because there is no explicit rejection of armed resistance in these writings, it is perhaps best not to term die perspective of any of these documents as 'pacifistic*.

BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION IN 1 ENOCH AND JUBILEES

James C. VanderKam

I.

Introduction

The subject of this essay is the large topic of biblical interpretation in 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. These two extended works are among the very earliest of the Jewish pseudepigraphs from the Second Temple period, and their andquity raises at least two problems in connection widi their relation to die Hebrew Bible. The book of / Enoch, as commentators have long noted, consists of five major parts, each of which appears to have been written at a different time. The oldest section—the Astronomical Book (chs. 72-82)—dates from no later than the third century BCE, while the Book of Watchers (chs. 1-36) may come from approximately the same time' and the Epistle of Enoch (chs. 91-107) from perhaps 170 BCE.^ If these dates are correct, then all three compositions predate the second half of Daniel (chs. 7-12) which is commonly assigned to ca. 165 BCE. It has also been argued that Jubilees, too, is earlier than the last six chapters of

1. The dates for the Astronomical Book and Book of Watchers are based primarily on paleographical considerations. J.T. Milik (The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4 [Oxford: Clarendon, 1976], p. 7) dates die oldest cave 4 MS of die Astronomical Book to die late diird or early second century BCE, while die oldest copy of die Book of Watchers ' . . . is connected widi die semicursive scripts ('semi-formal') of the diird and second centuries BC. Our manuscript probably datesf from die first half of die second century' (p. 140). 2. It has been customary to date the Epistle to die end of the second century, but for the earlier date see now G.W.E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), pp. 149-50; and J.C. VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition (CBQMS, 16; Washington: Catholic Biblical Association, 1984), pp. 142-49.

VANDERKAM Biblical Interpretation in 1 Enoch and Jubilees

97

Daniel,' but the case has not been made in a convincing way." The result is, nevertheless, that a substantial part of the Enochic corpus is more ancient than one section of what became Scripture; these booklets belong to what might be called the biblical period. They, along with books such as 1-2 Chronicles, provide other witnesses to the fact that older biblical books were being interpreted already in the age that produced the Hebrew Bible. A second problem is that at the early times in which the various parts of 1 Enoch and the unified Book of Jubilees were written, the term 'biblical' would not have had the precision that was later given to it. Contrary to the view of R. Beckwith, it seems highly unlikely that the Hebrew canon had been closed in the time of Judas Maccabeus;' 1 Enoch and Jubilees diemselves and the popularity of bodi at Qumran are eloquent testimony to the fact that other works billed themselves as revelations and tiiat their claims were accepted by at least some ancient Jews. Which works the authors of diese books may have considered authoritative is not entirely clear, although it is obvious tiiat Genesis had a special appeal for them and diat they valued many others. Thus the Enochic pamphlets and the Book of Jubilees provide windows into die processes of interpreting older authoritative compositions at a time when the bounds of the Hebrew Scriptures were not set and when other writers were making revelatory claims for their literary efforts. Though they are very different kinds of books, 1 Enoch and Jubilees are righUy treated together in a study of this kind. The parts of / Enoch focus on the eschatological judgment that will separate and reward the righteous and the evil and formulate admonitions on the basis of it, while Jubilees, as it retells the biblical account from creation to Sinai, is a prime example of the so-called 'Re-written 3. So Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, pp. 77-79; J. Goldstein, "The Date of die Book of Jubilees'. PAAJR 50 (1983), pp. 63-86. 4. See J.C. VanderKam, 'Enoch Traditions in Jubilees and Other SecondCentury Sources', SBLASP (1978), I, pp. 229-51; diere it is argued diat die audior of Jubilees knew die Enochic Book of Dreams which was not written before 164 BCE.

5. The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985). For a more plausible view about an open 'canon' in this period, see J. Barton, Oracles of God: Perceptions of Ancient Prophecy in Israel after the Exile (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 1-95.

98

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

Bible'.* But behind the obvious differences between the two in form and content, there lie some shared beliefs and practices. Among the common views of the writers are the importance of the story about heavenly angels who descended and married women, the revealed character of the 364-day solar calendar, and the firm conviction that there would be a time of ultimate reckoning. The authors articulated these shared beliefs through interpretation of and reflecdon on earlier authoritadve religious texts, many of which are now found in the canon of Hebrew Scripture. The plan of die paper is first to study die uses of earlier Scriptures in the five secdons of / Enoch (arranged chronologically) and second to do the same for Jubilees. The size of the two books makes an exhaustive study impossible within the confines of a single essay; consequendy, a selection has been made of what were judged to be especially instructive cases. Obviously, other examples than those found below could have been selected, but die ones chosen are important instances of biblical uses and should give the reader a good impression of how the various authors operated. Before turning to the texts, one important observation should be made: the different Enochic authors (and die writer of Jubilees to a certain extent), even in diose places in which they are not quoting or reworking a specific passage, resort to what might be called a biblically saturated language. The rhetoric of the writers was manifestly conditioned by die ancient texts of their nation and faidi, and they expressed this indebtedness repeatedly both in die pericopes that will be studied here and in other sections of their works.

II. Biblical Interpretation

in 1 Enoch

Scholars now divide the book into five sections. In chronological order they are: the Astronomical Book (chs. 72-82); the Book of the 6. The phrase comes from G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic Studies (SPB, 4; Leiden: Brill, 2nd rev. edn, 1983), pp. 67-126. There is some dispute about precisely which books to include in the category, but some scholars place / Enoch 6-11 in it. Cf., for example, G.W.E. Nickelsburg, 'The Bible Rewritten and Expanded', in Jewish Writings of the Second-Temple Period (CRINT, 2.2; Assen. The Nedierlands: Van Gorcum; Philadelphia: ForU«ss Press, 1984), pp. 89-156; D. Dimant, 'Use and Interpretation of Mikra in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha', in M.J. Mulder (ed.), Mikra (CRINT, 2.1; Assen, The Nedierlands: Van Gorcum; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), pp. 379-419.

V A N D E R K A M Biblical Interpretation

in 1 Enoch and Jubilees

99

Watchers ( 1 - 3 6 ) ; the Epistle of Enoch ( 9 1 - 1 0 7 ) ; the Book of Dreams ( 8 3 - 9 0 ) ; and the Book of Parables ( 3 7 - 7 1 ) . J.T. Milik has shown that the Book of Parables did not form an original part of the Enochic coUecdon of texts; radier, the Book of the Giants occupied its place.' For the piuposes of this essay, however, the five components of die present book of 1 Enoch will be studied. It should be added that each of the five secdons of I Enoch may be further subdivided into originally discrete units, but it would add litde to die present discussion to analyze each of these in isolation. A. The Astronomical

Book (= AB, chs. 7 2 - 8 2 )

The first verse offers a sketch of some of the book's contents. The Book of the Itinerary of the Luminaries of Heaven: the position of each and every one, in respect to dieir ranks, in respect to dieir auUiorities, and in respect to dieir seasons; each one according to their names and dieir places of origin and according to dieir mouths, which Uriel, the holy angel who was with me, and who (also) is their guide, showed me—just as he showed me all dieir treatises and die nature of the years of die world unto eternity, till die new creaUon which abides forever is created (72.1; cf. 80.1).

In diis sense, the book is presented as a revealed scientific treatise, and it provides the expected technical material from ch. 7 2 through ch. 7 9 . Then, in 8 0 . 2 - 8 and 8 1 other concerns predominate, while in 8 2 the more scientific interests resurface. The text was originally written in Aramaic but later translated into Greek and from Greek into Ethiopic—the only version preserved in full form at present. However, a comparison of the Qumran Aramaic fragments of the book with die Ethiopic text shows that in the comparable sections the original was much longer than the current Ethiopic text.* Consequently, inferences drawn from the Ethiopic text may not be valid for the now lost original version. There is nothing comparable to the AB in die Hebrew Bible; in fact, die book shows almost no evidence of any but the most general influence from or interaction widi the biblical text. To tiiis statement diere are only a few exceptions. Enoch himself, is, of course, a biblical character, and his role in the book shows that die autiior accepted a 7. Milik, Books of Enoch, pp. 89-98. His conclusions about the date of die Book of Parables are quite unlikely to be correct 8. Milik, Books of Enoch, pp. 7-8.

100

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

particular interpretation of Gen. 5.22: 'Enoch walked with God (D-n'jKn n « -[m -pnm) after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years'. He understood the phrase 'Enoch walked with God' to mean that he spent time with the angels. That is, in 5.22 (and 24) the definite noun D-n'jKn meant for him 'the angels', whereas the anarthrous form u-T\^*. at the end of 5.24 he read as 'God'. As a consequence, it was believed diat Genesis credited Enoch with a 300-year stay in the company of angels before God eventually took him for his eternal sojourn with him and his heavenly rednue. While Enoch was with these celestial beings he learned die secrets contained in die AB. The AB also presupposes die biblical information diat Enoch was die father of Mediuselah (76.14; cf. 81.5-6; 82.1). To him Enoch transmitted die revealed data that he alone had received, and Methuselah in turn passed tiiem to future generations (81.5-6; 82.1). / En. 81.6 suggests, moreover, tiiat the biblical chronology underlies it: Genesis gives Enoch's age as 65 when Methuselah was born; the next 300 years Enoch is with the angels; and after diis period he has one year widi his son before God removed him. Beyond these biographical details die AB has at best a tenuous relaition with scriptural works. Even Uriel, the angel who discloses the astronomical information to Enoch, is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The name is a scriptural one, but it is never given to an angel (1 Chron. 6.9 [Eng. 6.24]; 15.5, 11; 2 Chron. 13.2). The name was chosen for Enoch's angelic guide because its meaning was appropriate to his role in die book: God is my light (see also 74.2; 75.3, 4; 78.10; 79.6; 80.1; 82.7). R.H. Charles claimed a stronger connection witii scriptural givens for the AB: 'In this treatise the writer attempts to bring the many utterances in the OT regarding physical phenomena into one system, and puts this forward as the genuine and biblical one as opposed to all other systems'.' It is, however, difficult to see how this statement could be true. To be sure, tiiere are echoes of scriptural notions. For example, die audior speaks of a new creation (72.1)—an idea that is expressed in Isa. 65.17; 66.22. In the AB the new or second creation serves as a terminus to mark the end of die period during which die book's astronomical laws are valid. Beyond diis correspondence, there appears to be a near quotation or at least an allusion to Isa. 30.26 in 72.37. In the 9. R.H. Charles, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1912; repr. Jerusalem: Makor, 1973), p. 147.

V A N D E R K A M Biblical Interpretation in I Enoch andJubilees

101

Enochic passage the writer says of the sun: 'As for the intensity of its light, it is sevenfold brighter than that of the moon; nevertheless (the sun and the moon) are equal in regard to their (respective) sizes'. Isa. 3 0 . 2 6 predicts (referring to a time of divine grace on God's people, cf. V. 2 3 ) : Moreover ihe light of the moon will be as the light of the sim, and die light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in die day when the Lord binds up die hurt of his people, and heals die wounds inflicted by his blow.

Where the biblical passage has an eschatological frame of reference, the AB uses the ratio of 7:1 as describing the comparative brightness of the two luminaries in die time between the first and second creations. Apart from this passage, the astt'onomy and geography of die book do not appear to be based on scriptural texts. In addition, no exegetical basis is given for any of the calendrical calculations. It seems accurate to say diat the audior derives his views, not so much from biblical texts, as from lore that can be found in different sorts of Mesopotamian documents that depict rather primitive levels of scientific development.'" B. The Book of Watchers (= BW, chs. 1 - 3 6 ) Although there is some reason for believing that the AB is composite ( 8 0 . 2 - 8 1 . 1 0 may be an addition), a stronger case can be made that the BW has been constructed from disparate units. Chapters 1 - 5 serve as an introduction to the treatise, 6 - 1 1 present the story of the angels who descended to earth and die aftermath of dieir sin, 1 2 - 1 6 connect Enoch with the story about die angels, and 1 7 - 3 6 describe two journeys ( 1 7 - 1 9 and 2 0 - 3 6 ) on which angels conducted Enoch through the created o r d e r . " These 3 6 chapters in varying degrees are the first Enochic writings that exhibit a close relation with parts of the Hebrew Bible. In general it may be said that in the different units a wide variety of earlier texts are laid under contribution; that is, die writer or writers employ a vocabulary diat is thoroughly indebted to biblical language. There is no point in documenting all of these cases. Rather, in the sections diat follow, attention will be focused on a few cases in

10. See VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic pp. 89-104. 11. As an example, see Charles, The Book of Enoch, pp. 1-2.

Tradition,

102

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

which specific biblical passages are borrowed and exploited at greater length. I. / Enoch 1-5. These chapters begin by introducing Enoch with words that are reminiscent of Deut. 33.1 (Moses' blessing of the tribes) and Numbers 2 2 - 2 4 (the Balaam chapters) and by establishing the eschatological content of his message. Thus, his words are characterized as a blessing for 'the elect and the righteous who would be present on the day of tribulation at (the time of) the removal of all the ungodly' ( I . I ) . Consequently the words of Enoch are predictive in harmony with the biblical passages on which they drew. Even Balaam, after all, had prefaced a message to Balak widi the words, 'And now, behold, I am going to my people; come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days' (Num. 24.14; cf. V. 17). The phrase 'the latter days* no doubt proved attractive to the author of the BW for whom it had eschatological meaning. Here, then, one meets a case in which a biblical text, whose future referent was perhaps more modest in extent,'^ has been transformed to fit the eschatological setting of a different composition. 7 Enoch 1.3b-9 presents a theophany which is expressed in thoroughly Q-aditional, biblical language; this is followed by words of judgment for sinners and blessing for the righteous (chs. 2-5). These secti(j)ns have received much scholarly attention and have been shown to be a pastiche of biblical phrases and images—all now set within an eschatological context. Especially noteworthy is the work of L. Hartman, who, in his exhaustive search for more and less certain scriptural sources, has offered valuable insights into the uses of biblical texts and motifs in these chapters. He and odiers have shown that the theophany in l.3b-9 borrows principally from Mic. 1.3-4 (and to a lesser extent from Hab. 3) and that the writer has woven into the Micah passage a variety of words, phrases and images that come from other biblical accounts of dieophanies The words of blessing in 1.8 are related to Num. 6.24-26, while 1.9, widi its description of die Lord*s arrival for judgment, draws upon Deut. 33.2. By employing a rich mixture of biblical language and images, the author has succeeded

12. M. Noih. Numbers (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968), p. 192. He suggests that the phrase D O T H'TTTHD means 'in time to come' or 'at a later dme'.

V A N D E R K A M Biblical Interpretation in l Enoch and Jubilees

103

in fashioning an impressive picture of the awesome appearance of the eschatological Judge." Hartman has also shown diat die repeated references in chs. 2 - 5 to how nature obeys the laws set by its maker and how human beings habitually violate divine law are a development of the covenantal dieme of calling on heaven and earth as witnesses against Israel widi regard to its pact widi God (see Deut. 3 0 . 1 9 ; 3 2 . 1 ) . About I Enoch 25 he observes: Beyond any doubt the text as a whole—except for the details of 2.1-5.3 (on the order of nature)—grows out of a soil consisting of an interpreted OT. The texts which have especially inspired our author are the PriesUy Blessing of Nu 6 and the Farewell Speech of Moses in Dt 28ff. Several times diere has been every reason to assume that these biblical connections are guided by a wider frame of reference, which has to do with the concepts of blessing, malediction and covenant"

In fact, Hartman sees bodi die theophany passage and die rib or dispute chapters ( 2 - 5 ) as belonging 'in a field of covenant associations, visible also in the ways in which different Jewish texts deal with motifs contained in our 1 En passage'." 2. 1 Enoch 6-II. When one moves from die introductory chapters, which set fundamental diemes for die remainder of the book, one immediately encounters a more detailed and sustained use of an antecedent text. I Enoch 6 - 1 1 relates the core myth of the Enochic books: die story of the heavenly angels who descended to earth, married whichever women they chose, and fatJiered from them evil offspring. In tiiis case one biblical pericope provides die primary inspiration or at least the framework for the story—Gen. 6.1-4—although it is evident that the author has greatly expanded the base text.'* It has 13. L. Hartman, Prophecy Interpreted: The Formation of Some Jewish Apocalyptic Texts and of the Eschatological Discourse Mark 13 par. (ConBNT. I; Uppsala: Gleerup. 1966); idem. Asking for a Meaning: A Study of 1 Enoch 1-5 (ConBNT, 12; Lund: Gleerup, 1979). Cf. also J.C. VanderKam. 'The Theophany of Enoch i. 3b-7, 9', VT23 (1973). pp. 129-50. 14. Haitman, Asking for a Meaning, pp. 37-38. 15. Harmian, Asking for a Meaning, p. 97. In his book he has accumulated a wealdi of comparative material about diis matter. 16. There have been many studies of diese chapters in recent times, but for analyses which deal more specifically with their relation to the biblical text see Nickelsburg, 'The Bible Rewritten and Expanded', pp. 90-92; and Dimant 'Use

104

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

been argued that in fact Genesis embodies a compressed form of the more ancient, fuller account in 1 Enoch, but that thesis, which would reverse the direction of influence, has hardly been p r o v e d . " According to the angel story, the sin of the watchers and their children led to judgment for all who were guilty.'* The flood, which was one of the punishments meted out to the malefactors, then functions as a hortatory example which is repeatedly adduced throughout / Enoch. The close relation of and differences between the biblical and Enochic versions can be seen by setting them in parallel c o l u m n s . "

and Interpretation of Mikra', pp. 402-406. The most diorough study of 1 Enoch 6 11 remains Dimant's unpublished dissertation, "The Fallen Angels" in die Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphic Books Related to Them' (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1974 [Hebrew]), pp. 23-72. 17. So Milik, The Books of Enoch, pp. 30-32; P.R. Davies, 'Sons of Cain' in J.D. Martin and P.R. Davies (eds.), A Word in Season: Essays in Honour of William McKane (JSOTSup, 42; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986), pp. 46-50. 18. It is generally agreed diat diere are two versions of die angel story in chs. 6 II: one that centers about Shemihazah and one that focuses on Asael. On this distincdon. see die familiar essays of G.W.E. Nickelsburg ('Apocalyptic and Mydi in 1 Enoch 6-1 r , JBL 96 [1977], pp. 383-405) and P.Hanson ('Rebellion in Heaven, Azazel and Euhemeristic Heroes in I Enoch 6-11', JBL 96 [1977], pp. 197-233). Dimant ('"The Fallen Angels'", pp. 23-72) finds evidence of a diird version and distinguishes the three as follows (see the summary on pp. 64-65): I. die Shemihazah version involves the story of the angels who defiled diemselves widi women, fathered giants and thus sinned; diis is an interpretation of Gen. 6.1-4 but without any connection widi die flood. 2. a story about angels who taught divinadon and other secrets to mankind, thus leading them astray. They, too, had children. This is an interpretadon of Gen .6.1-4 diat is connected with die flood as a punishment on sinful mankind. 3. the story of Asael who taught various arts to mankind and in this way led diem into sin. The account is an interpretation of Gen. 6.11-12 and explains the destrucdon that transpired before die flood and also die reason for die punishment of the flood. The additional question whedier Lev. 16 with its goat for Azazel has influenced the text (Hanson ['Rebellion in Heaven', pp. 220-25] makes much of diis) is complicated by die fact that die name is spelled Asael in die Aramaic fragments, noi Azazel as it is in Lev. 16. But Lev. 16 may have played some role in the formation of die BW; see the comment of D.J. Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot: Early Jewish Responses to Ezekiel's Vision (Texte und Studien zum Andken Judentum, 16; Tubingen: Mohr, 1988), p. 82 (regarding / Enoch 14). 19. The very literal translations of the Genesis and 7 Enoch passages are mine; diey have been worded to accent die points of agreement and similarity between the two texts.

VANDERKAM Biblical Interpretation Genesis 6.1-4 And it was when mankind began to multiply on the face of the ground daughters were bom to diem, and the sons of the elohim saw the daughters of mankind that they were good, and they took for themselves women from all whom diey chose.

in 1 Enoch andJubilees

105

7 Enoch 6.1-2: 7.1-2 And it was when the sons of mankind multiplied, in those days diere were born to them beautiful and lovely daughters, and the angels, the sons of heaven, saw them and desired them, and they said among themselves, 'Come on, let's choose for ourselves women from die children of mankind, and let's bear sons for ourselves.

At this juncture each text has material that is not reflected directly in the other. Gen. 6.3 speaks of the divine decision to limit life to 120 years, while 1 En. 6.3-8 tells about Shemihazah, the leading angel, and his companions who swore to carry out the resolve they had just made. The text also lists the names of die 20 chief angels. Once die additional lines are given in the two works, they resume paralleling one another. The nephitim were in the eardi in diose days, and also afterwards when (?) die sons of the elohim came into die daughters of mankind, and they bore for diem. They are the gibborim who were from eternity, the men of the name.

And all the others with them. And diey took for themselves women, and each one chose one for himself. And they began to come into them, and they were promiscuous with them. And they taught them...And they became pregnant and gave birth to great giants, and the height of each one was 3000 cubits.

A comparison of the two shows that the author of 1 En. 6-11 has nuanced die biblical text in many minor ways (e.g. moving 'in diose days' to the beginning of the story, whereas Genesis has it in v. 4 in connection with the nephilim). One noteworthy change, apart from labeling the 'sons of the elohim' as 'angels', is that the wording in Enoch highlights the physical, lustful side of the angels' action by using two adjectives to describe the women (beautiful and lovely), only one of which comes from Genesis; and by using two verbs (saw and desired), where Genesis has one (saw).^" Also, the author wished to stress that the angels' decision was not based upon a momentary passion but was deliberate and its implications clearly understood. 20. Dimant, 'Use and Interpretation of Mikra', pp.404-405; '"The Fallen Angels'", pp. 33-34.

106

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

This appears to be the purpose of the additional section regarding the etymological oath on Mt Hermon: And Semyaz, being their leader, said unto them: 'I fear that perhaps you will not consent that this deed should be done, and I alone will become (responsible) for dtis great sin'. But they all responded to him, 'Let us all swear an oath and bind everyone among us by a curse not to abandon this suggestion, but to do the deed'. Then they all swore together and bound one anodier by (die curse) (6.3-4).

Only after inserting this and other material does the writer return to his terse base in Genesis 6. It should also be noticed that I Enoch specifies the purpose of the angels' cohabiting with women. Gen. 6.2 relates only that 'they took for themselves women from all whom they chose'. I En. 6.2 has the angels say to one another: 'Come on, let us choose wives for ourselves from among the daughters of man and beget us children'. This addition is of considerable interest because it seems related to the omitted words of Gen. 6.3 {Jub. 5.7-8 associates them explicitly): 'Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years'". The issue of length of life for the offspring of the angels recurs in several passages in 1 Enoch. It appears diat the watchers wished long life on the earth for their children. Gabriel is commanded: Proceed against die bastards and die reprobates and against the sons of die fornicators, and destroy the sons of the fornicators and the sons of the Watchers from amongst men. And send diem out, and send diem against one another, and let them destroy themselves in battie, for they will not have lengdi of days. And they will all petition you, but Uieir fathers will gain nothing in respect of them, for they hope for eternal life, and dial each of diem will live life for five hundred years (10.9-10).^'

Rather than enjoying extended life, the children of the angels will kill one another in the presence of their fathers. Then the fathers diemselves will be bound for 70 generations until tiie final judgment, when their sentence will last forever (a word from Gen. 6.3; see 1 En. 10.11-14). It seems that the author has interpreted the word 'flesh' in Gen. 6.3 to refer to the gigantic children of the angels and has dius

21. Translation of M. Knibb, The Ethiopic Book of Enoch: A New Edition in the Light of the Aramaic Dead Sea Fragments (2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978).

V A N D E R K A M Biblical Interpretation in I Enoch andJubilees

107

incorporated thoughts from this verse into his more complicated account. The union of the sons of God widi the daughters of men receives no moral evaluation in Genesis; it is simply recounted. / Enoch, however, makes a specific judgment on the matter: 'And they began [for the verb, cf. Gen. 6 . 1 ] to go in to them and were promiscuous with tiiem. And they taught d i e m . . . ' ( 7 . 1 [Knibb]). The later account also supplies more detail about the children bom to heavenly fathers and earthly mothers. Gen. 6 . 4 mentions the presence of the nephilim, but after the sexual union of angels and women it names tiie children 'die gibborim who were from eternity, die men of the name'. In 7 En. 7 . 2 the women gave birth to great giants, each standing some 30(X) cubits. One does not meet here the later identification of three generations of offspring (though Syncellus offers it at this point): large giants, nephilim, and elioud (see 7 En. 8 6 . 4 ; 8 8 . 2 ; Jub. 7 . 2 2 ) , but die names and descriptions in Gen. 6 . 4 seem to be behind them. 3 . 7 Enoch 12-16. In this section which first introduces Enoch, the seventh antediluvian father, into the angel story, the writer begins by working again with die information in Gen. 5 . 2 2 , 2 4 . And before eveiydiing Enoch had been hidden, and none of die sons of men knew where he was hidden, or where he was, or what had happened. And all his doings (were) widi die Holy Ones and with the Watchers in his days (12.1-2 [Knibb]).

Here, as in die AB (see above), one meets die notion diat Enoch spent time with die angels. Where the Ethiopic text twice uses the verb 'to be hidden' (takabta, a form found in some MSS of Ethiopic Gen. 5 . 2 4 ) , the Greek translation contains 'to be taken' (eXfintpOii) which reflects the reading of die MT npb in Gen. 5 . 2 4 . Furthermore, die fact diat no one knew the whereabouts of Enoch seems to be a clarification of Genesis' cryptic 'and he was not*. The language, then, is closely tied to Gen. 5 . 2 4 , but it is not impossible (widiin die chronology of Genesis) that die first of Enoch*s two removals to angelic company is here under consideration.^^ According to 7 En. 1 2 . 1 , his removal occurred before the events which had just been narrated. The only other passage in tiiese five chapters with especially close 22. See the discussion in VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, pp. 130-31.

108

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

scriptural ties is 14.8-25, the story of Enoch's vision of and ascent to the divine throneroom. It has often been observed diat diese verses are heavily dependent upon the various scriptural throne visions; examples are Isaiah 6; 1 Kgs 22.19-23 (widi die parallel in 2 Chron. 18.18-22); Ezekiel 1, 10; and Dan. 7.9-14. Mention of Daniel 7 raises a special problem because, though there are marked similarities between it and some of the wording of Enoch's description, Daniel 7 is supposed to be later tiian die BIV, in which case die borrowing (if diere was any) would have been from / Enoch 14 to Daniel 7 and not from Daniel 7 to / Enoch 14. Somediing of die nature and extent of the writer's borrowing from biblical models may be gleaned from the following list (the parallels are not exact in every case, and the Daniel references are given widiout claiming diat diey were the source of Enoch's imagery):" 14.8 (cf. 14.14): vision (Ezek 1.1; Dan. 7.1, 2) clouds (Ezek. 1.4, 28; 10.3-4; Dan. 7.13) ligliming (Ezek. 1.13-14) winds (Ezek. 1.4; Dan. 7.2) lifted me up (Ezek. 8.3; 11.1 [but not, as widi Enoch, into heaven])

Enoch then proceeds to describe his vision of heaven in more detail and with less familiar features (wall of hailstones surrounded by a tongue of fire, a large house built of hailstones with a snow floor), though some expected items do occur (e.g. fire [Ezek. 1.4, 13, 27; 10.2, 6-7; Dan. 7.9-10; cf. Isa. 6.4, 6] and cherubim [Ezek. 9.3; 10.122]). Enoch's fear, trembling and prosU-ation (14.13-14) remind one of the seer's reaction in other accounts of this kind (Isa. 6.5; Ezek. 1.28; Dan. 7.15, 28). When one reaches the point at which he describes G o d ' s heavenly throne, the writer's language becomes heavily traditional: 14.18 high Uirone (1 Kgs 22.19; Isa. 6.1; Ezek. 1.26; 10.1; Dan. 7.9 cherubim (Ezekiel 10 [cf. 9.3]) wheel (Ezek. 1.15-16,19, 20, 21; 10.2; Dan. 7.9) 14.19 rivers of burning fire (Ezek 1.4 [cf. v. 29]; Dan. 7.10)

23. For bibliography on the passage, cf. VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, p. 134 n. 85. To diat list should be added M. Black, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch: A New English Edition (SVTP, 7; Uiden: Brill, 1985), pp. 146-52; G.W.E. Nickelsburg, 'Enoch, Levi, and Peter: Recipients of Revelation in Upper Galilee', JBL 100 (1981), pp. 576-87.

VANDERKAM Biblical Interpretation

in I Enoch andJubilees

109

14.20 Great Glory sat on the throne (Ezek. 1.28 [see 3.23; 9.3]; 10.4 [cf. 43.4; 44.4]) bright raiment (cf. Ezek. 1.27-28; Dan. 7.9) 14.21 could not look at his face (Isa. 6.2; cf. Targ. Ezek. 1.27) 14.22 10,000 times 10,000 were before him (Dan. 7.10; odier texts mendon die heavenly rednue but not the number [1 Kgs 22.19; Isa. 6.2]) 14.23 holy ones near him did not leave by night or day (cf. Ezek. 1.1921; 10.16-17; Rev. 4.8) 14.24-25 die deity calls widi his moudi (Isa. 6.6-13; 1 Kgs 22.21-22; Ezek. 1.28; 2.2).

Since the antecedent biblical throne visions (and not Daniel 7) function as the settings in which prophets receive their commissions, it is not surprising that the same happens on this occasion for Enoch. The end puipose of Enoch's ascent is to be commissioned by God to play die role of prophet His approach to God's dirone room is prelude to this commission, and, conversely, the message he is commissioned to deliver is the climax of the vision.^"

Yet, despite the author's heavy reliance upon traditional language and models, he departs from them in important respects: Enoch is summoned to speak words of judgment to the angelic watchers, and he not only sees the heavenly throne room in his vision but he actually ascends to that forbidden place, into the celestial temple.^^ Thus, in this case, various biblical models are exploited to produce a new text which is closely tied to larger themes in the books of Enoch: a righteous man condemns the primordial sinners and speaks from the ultimate position of authority. C. The Epistle of Enoch (= EE, chs. 91-107) The rhetoric of / Enoch 91-107 is replete with scriptural language as the writer contrasts the sinners/rich/mighty with the righteous/poor/ weak. Yet, he seldom treats a particular passage more fully than simply by repeating a word or two (98.15-16 and Jer. 23.32 are an example),^* although the material in ch. 104 and Dan. 12.1-3 show

24. Nickelsburg, 'Enoch, Levi, and Peter', pp. 576-77. 25. Nickelsburg, 'Enoch, Levi, and Peter', p. 578; Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot, pp. 81-82. 26. G.W.E. Nickelsburg, 'The Episde of Enoch and die Qumran Literature', JJS 33 (1982), pp. 336-38.

110

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

strong resemblances.^' The two major exceptions to the rule figure near the beginning and at the end of the epistle: the Apocalypse of V/eeks (93.3-10; 91.11-17) and the story of the Birth of Noah ( 1 0 6 107). It may be the case that these two sections are independent compositions that were incorporated into the Epistle, but, whatever their origin, diey were present in the work at an early d m e and are now integral parts of it. These two radier different texts should now be examined. 1. The Apocalypse of Weeks (= AW). The A W may be die oldest Jewish apocalypse diat includes a historical survey.^* The writer, in his cryptic account, introduces Enoch in language drawn (as in ch. 1) from the Balaam stories and then divides biblical history into units of unequal length that he terms weeks. For each of the first six, he alludes to at least one event diat allows one to locate the point in the biblical storyline diat he has reached. The first six weeks and perhaps part of the seventh reproduce the biblical period, while the last three depict different stages of die final judgment. Weekl: Week 2: Week 3: Week 4: Week 5: Week 6:

Enoch's birth Evil causes the flood after which wickedness increases again The election of Abraham Revelation of die law The eternal dynasty and kingdom of David are established Evil abounds, Elijah ascends, the Judean kingdom ends, and die dispersion begins Week 7: An apostate generation arises, and die elect receive instruction Week 8: Judgment of die wicked by die righteous and a house built for the great King Week 9: Judgment of the world and die godless Week 10: Judgment on die angels and die new heaven appears.

27. G.W.E. Nickelsburg, Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism (HTS, 26; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 122. 28. The date of die AW is debated, but die range of suggestions is very narrow; The one selected depends upon die place where one finds the time of the audior in die scheme of 10 weeks. For a recent defense of an early Maccabean dating, see F. Dexinger. Henochs Zehnwochenapokalypse und offene Probleme der Apokalyptikforschung (SPB, 29; Leiden: Brill, 1977), pp. 137-40. For a date of ca. 170, see J.C. VanderKam, 'Studies in die Apocalypse of Weeks (I Enoch 93.1-10; 91.11-17)'. CBQ 46 (1984), pp. 521-23.

V A N D E R K A M Biblical Interpretation

in I Enoch and Jubilees 1 1 1

After these ten will follow innumerable weeks. This little apocalyptic text shows that the author knew the biblical storyline that is familiar from the narrative books of the Hebrew Bible, but it also shows, as one would expect in an Enochic work, a familiarity with the story of the angels who sinned and who will be judged (in the tenth week). All of diiis material is incorporated into a single scheme without differentiation in levels of authority. The writer seems to have selected a minimal number of key events in the biblical drama around which to center his structure (he does not, however, mention so prominent an event as the Exodus). Moreover, he clearly sees a pattern to sacred history—a history that, in its seventh week, extends beyond the scriptural time limit. While his 'weeks' may be of varying length,^' they fit within a balanced pattern in which the righteous eventually prevail and the three kinds of evildoers are obliterated. In diis text it is possible to see that die author regards his own 'week'—the seventh or sabbatical week—as the one tiiat precedes die beginning of die diree-part judgment. By placing the entire survey in the mouth of Enoch (the seventh patriarch) who lived in the first week, he furnishes a classic example of vaticinia ex eventu. The choice of the distinctively biblical term 'weeks' and the predominance of the number seven in the AW point one toward another way in which die scriptural text has influenced the writer of the EE. It may be that he divided die period from die beginning of history to the end of the judgment into ten units of seven in imitation of Jeremiah's prophecy tiiat the exile would last 7 0 years (Jer. 2 5 . 1 1 - 1 2 ; 2 9 . 1 0 ) . Daniel 9 , of course, reinterprets Jeremiah's number to mean 7 0 times seven or 4 9 0 years (vv. 2 5 - 2 7 ) . In the AW, however, tiie 7 0 units are made to cover all of history and of the judgment. It is also likely diat the writer, who lived toward the end of what he considered the seventh week, had in mind the biblical theme of die jubilee—the year diat followed the sevendi sabbatical year, the year of redemption and release (see Lev. 2 5 . 1 8 - 5 5 ; Isa. 1 6 . 1 - 2 ) . He himself, dius, would be

characterizing his time as the one which lay just before tiie great year of the Lord's favor for his people, the year of freedom.'" 29. K. Koch ('Die mysteridsen Zahlen der judaischen Konige und die apokalyptischen Jahrwochen", VT 28 [1978], pp. 439-40) maintains diat each one of weeks 4-7 covers 490 years. 30. On these points, see VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic

112

The Pseudepigrapha

and Early Biblical

Interpretation

2. The Birth of Noah. The story of Noah's miraculous birth is related in 1 Enoch 106-107 and in the Genesis Apocryphon 2. It is a tale tfiat shares some traits with accounts of other heroes' births," but it is also a unique composition. In 7 Enoch 106-107 it is told from the perspective of Enoch himself. There appears to be no way that the writer of this remarkable story could have drawn most of the details about the circumstances of the birth and the extraordinary appearance and ability of Noah from the sparse biblical givens about him. Yet, diough diere is great disparity with the scriptural givens about his birth (Gen. 5.28-29), the connection between the two may not be so loose as it first appears. It is obvious from the Enochic version of the story that the writer is using Genesis' genealogy of the prediluvian patriarchs. He mentions Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah—patriarchs six through ten in the list of Genesis 5. In tiiis respect he is simply following scriptural givens about how diese five were related to one another. He also shows, by placing Enoch far away from human habitation and widi die angels, diat he works with the interpretation of Gen. 5.21-24 that is found throughout the Enochic corpus: he spent time witii the angels. In diis case, chronology demands diat Enoch be placed in the last phase of his career; he is now communing widi the angels for the second time, after completion of his 365 years. That is, he is in tiie stage depicted in Gen. 5.24, not diat of 5.22. The text of 7 Enoch 106-107, especially as it has been clarified by die Aramaic fragments and the parallel in the Genesis Apocryphon, indicates that a series of puns on the names of the principal characters—apart from Enoch—underlies the story. Jared: descent (if) of die angels (106.13; cf. 6.6) Enoch: Mediuselah: he is sent (n":© from die second part of his name) to and from Enoch; in GA 2.23 he traverses the land (no) of Parvaim. dius giving an etymology for die first part of die name

Tradition, pp. 156-57; 'Studies in the Apocalypse of Weeks', pp. 520-21; and P. Grelot, 'Soixante-dix semaines d ' a n n ^ ' . Bib 50 (1969). pp. 169-86. 31. A. Hultgird, for example, has shown that die story has significant parallels widi the account of Zaradiustra's birth ('Das Judentum in der hellenistisch-romischen Zeit und die iranische Religion—ein religionsgeschichUiches Problem', ANRW, 11.19.551).

V A N D E R K A M Biblical Interpretation

in 1 Enoch and Jubilees

113

Lamech: low indeed (Greek and Aramaic of 106.1), a reference to conditions at his time'^ Noah: left (on the eardi; 106.16, 18); holy (106.18. from n'3?); saved (106.16. from era in its Eastern Aramaic sense?).''

Working with these playful etymologies and building upon the lore about Enoch's residing far away with the angels, the author fashions a picture of Noah and the circumstances of his birth that is related to biblical data but only in a loose sense. He has packed extra-biblical traditions about Enoch and about the appearances of heroes at birth into the sparse frame provided by his biblical source. D. The Book of Dreams (chs. 83-90) Within this section the author has placed two apocalypses. The shorter one (93.3-11) predicts cataclysmic destruction of the earth; it envisages the coming flood, though true to the biblical chronology, it is to come only after Enoch's 365 years. The second and much longer apocalypse—the Animal Apocalypse—is found in chs. 85-90. As its name suggests, it uses the imagery of various kinds of animals (and of human beings) to depict the events of the biblical storyline and of the immediate postbiblical period until die time of tiie autiior. It is likely that tiie writer carries his account into tiie early Maccabean period;''' thus he, too, like the author of the A W, does not distinguish in his survey between biblical and postbiblical events. Since he normally follows the scriptural text so carefully, the presence of extrabiblical material (e.g. the angel story in 86-88) in the apocalyptic survey raises acutely the question of what constituted die corpus of audioritative literature or tradition for this scholar. Enoch himself, from his vantage-point before tiie flood, sees the symbolic unfolding of the entire drama in a dream (85.1-2; 90.40-42). 32. The longer Greek text at diis point is supported by die fragmentary remains of 4QEn