183. he has been \u2026 blaspheming our God, who will make him subject to me Josephus stresses once again David\u2019s trust in God and his determination to defeat an enemy who has blasphemed the name of the God of Israel; this transgression was not permitted to Jews even in regard to the gods of others (Ant. 4.207; Ag. Ap. 2.237). In David\u2019s elaborate speech to Saul, Josephus clearly connects David\u2019s previous experience with the beasts to his impending combat with the Philistine, and he provides some background for why David labels Goliath a dog. Accordingly, at the outset of Josephus\u2019s David and Goliath story (Ant. 6.177), David is \u201cindignant\u201d at the Philistine\u2019s defamation; in the Bible, David simply \u201chears\u201d Goliath speaking (1 Sam. 17:23). It is noteworthy that the historian omits David\u2019s characterization of Goliath as an uncircumcised foreigner (1 Sam. 17:36, 37), probably to avoid any cause for controversy between Jews and non-Jews.
\n185. for you are able to carry them. Please, however, permit your servant Josephus softens the rude words of David (1 Sam. 17:39) when David tells Saul that he cannot walk in his armor, and when he stresses David\u2019s deference to his king by calling himself Saul\u2019s servant, as in 1 Sam. 17:34, 36.
\nfive stones from the brook Josephus follows the Bible in the detail of the five stones, but does not provide extra information on them. In contrast, Pseudo-Philo (61:5) has David collect seven stones upon which he writes the names of his ancestors, as well as his own and the name of the Almighty (Fortissimus). Rabbinic tradition (Midr. Sam. 21:1) emphasizes the miraculous, maintaining that the five stones came to David of their own accord.
\n186. ridiculed him for not having the weapons In Josephus, Goliath\u2019s attention is drawn first by David\u2019s lack of armor, whereas in the Bible (1 Sam. 17:42), the giant despises David because of his age and his looks. In this, Josephus is more concerned than the Bible with the military aspect of the combat.
\nworse than a dog This reply has no equivalent in the MT, but it is found in the LXX (1 Sam. 17:43).
\n187. the dogs, your compatriots Josephus plays on the double meaning of the word \u201cdog,\u201d which in his time could mean pagans as well as animals (see, e.g., Matt. 15:26; Philem. 3:2). Expanding upon this, Pseudo-Philo (L.A.B. 61:6) underscores the opposing views about the God of the Jews and the gods of non-Jews: In his final address to Goliath, David recalls their respective ancestors and focuses on the contrast between Orpah, Goliath\u2019s \u201cmother\u201d (according to Pseudo-Philo) and Ruth, David\u2019s great-grandmother. Even though they were sisters, the two women decided to follow different gods: Orpah followed the gods of the pagans (Allophili); Ruth, the God of Israel (Ruth 1:14\u201319). According to Pseudo-Philo, therefore, the battle between David and Goliath represents a battle between false and true worship.
\nthe Deity protects the Hebrews \u2026 other equipment and force is useless The idea of God as protector of Israel and as an ally of God\u2019s people is a leitmotif in Josephus\u2019s version of the Bible.
\n189. an ally invisible to the enemy, namely God In Josephus, God is David\u2019s ally during the combat, although the actual killing of Goliath seems to be by the hand of David. In contrast, according to Pseudo-Philo (L.A.B. 61:8), the angel Zervihel sides with David to kill Goliath (as Goliath himself recognizes just before his death), and, according to midrashic tradition, an angel casts Goliath to the ground face downward so that the mouth that had blasphemed God might be choked with earth.
\nThe shot passed through to his brain The single combat described by Josephus is a human one, despite the presence of an invisible ally. In the previous paragraph as well (188), Josephus inserts realistic details; he depicts Goliath\u2019s armor hindering his advance. Conversely, Rabbinic tradition emphasizes the miraculous by having David afflict Goliath with leprosy, by casting his evil eye upon him (Midr. Lev. Rab. 21:2; Pesik. Rav Kah. 127; Midr. Sam. 21:109). The supernatural is accentuated once again by Pseudo-Philo (L.A.B. 61:7\u20138): Before dying, Goliath urges David to hasten his murder and to rejoice; David in turn invites the giant to look at his true slayer, and in that moment Goliath sees the supernatural figure\u2014the angel Zervihel\u2014who is with David.
\n190. he cut off his head Josephus repeats that David had no sword of his own, to stress the glory of this Jewish exploit (cf. 1 Macc 3:12, where Judas takes possession of Apollonius\u2019s sword).<\/p>\n
David and Bathsheba<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
According to the Babylonian Talmud (Meg. 25a), the incident between David and Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:2\u201312:14) is one of the five passages that are read in the synagogue but not translated, presumably because of their embarrassing nature. Although Josephus parallels the Talmud\u2019s directive by omitting the first three such passages (Gen. 35:22; Exod. 32:21\u201325; Num. 6:24\u201327) in his Jewish Antiquities (7.147\u201353), he includes the two connected with David, that is, the incident with Bathsheba and the beginning of the incident involving David\u2019s son Amnon and Tamar. Apparently, contrary to Chronicles and to most of Rabbinic tradition, the historian was not concerned about harming the king\u2019s reputation by mentioning his \u201cgreat and terrible act\u201d (7.150). Yet, Josephus maintains that the incident with Bathsheba was the only sin committed by David, that the king was a God-fearing man and deferent to the law, and that he was truly repentant after listening to Nathan\u2019s words (7.153).
\nMoreover, in his version Josephus enhances the character of Nathan, the prophet who reproached David, by emphasizing that he was a tactful and understanding man and by specifying his predictions. Even in the prefatory remark to the story of David and Bathsheba, Josephus speaks of a terrible disaster befalling David, though he was a God-fearing man by nature who strictly kept the ancestral laws (7.130). Josephus takes a middle ground in the debate on David\u2019s sin, distancing himself from views that exonerate David from his guilt, yet clearly stating that the sin with Bathsheba was the only sin ever committed by David.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Begg, C. T. \u201cDavid\u2019s Sin according to Josephus.\u201d Ancient Near Eastern Studies 43 (2006): 45\u201367.
\nFeldman, Louis H. Josephus\u2019s Interpretation of the Bible. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
\nValler, S. \u201cKing David and \u2018His\u2019 Women: Biblical Stories and Talmudic Discussions.\u201d In A Feminist Companion to Samuel and Kings, edited by A. Brenner, 129\u201342. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
147. God \u2026 appeared in a dream to the prophet Nathan \u2026 who was a tactful and clever man Whereas 1 Sam. 12:1 simply says that God sent Nathan to David, Josephus sets the context, having God appear in a dream to the prophet. Moreover, Josephus characterizes Nathan as a man of tact and understanding, in order to explain his use of the parable instead of a direct approach to the king. Josephus has Nathan say\u2014in a remark unparalleled in the Bible\u2014that when kings fall into passion, they are more affected by emotion than by what is just (to dikaion), implying that David failed in one of the key virtues for a king, just as have other rulers. As for the role of passion, in the introductory remark to the story of David and Bathsheba (7.130), Josephus has the king captivated by the woman\u2019s beauty and unable to restrain his desire.
\n150. the man who had dared to do this deed was vile Josephus is harsher than the Bible in judging the gravity of David\u2019s act. And in a previous passage (Ant. 7.139\u2013240), the historian amplified the account of Uriah\u2019s death by stressing his bravery in battle, thereby emphasizing David\u2019s guilt. On the other hand, whereas 2 Sam. 12:5 maintains that at Nathan\u2019s words David flew into a rage, Josephus writes that the king is said to have been grieved by the story, which anticipates David\u2019s repentance, described later in the account (Ant. 7.153). Moreover, Josephus creates a climax, reversing the biblical order of the punishment proposed by David, who first condemns the man to death and then imposes on him a fine (1 Sam. 12:5\u20136).
\n151. God, who had made him king \u2026 and given him wives Whereas in 2 Sam. 12:7 David is said to have been anointed king, Josephus avoids the language connected to the anointing, possibly to prevent any political implications of a messianic figure in the Jewish contemporary world, or any reference to the Christian messiah. On the other hand, the historian stresses David\u2019s military achievements, magnifying the might of the Jewish people and their rule over neighboring nations. As for David\u2019s wives, who were six according to 2 Sam. 3:2\u20135, Nathan maintains that they were Saul\u2019s wives (2 Sam. 12:8); conversely, Josephus\u2014always careful to emphasize his people\u2019s deference to the Law (see, e.g. Ag. Ap. 2.219)\u2014is silent on this point and describes David\u2019s marriages as just and lawful. Accordingly, in a previous passage Josephus states that David strictly observed the laws of his fathers (Ant. 7.130). This remark is echoed by the talmudic tradition (B. Ber. 4a), according to which David always submitted his decisions on religious matters to Mephiboshet, to make sure that they were according to the Law. Indeed, it is in the Talmud (B. Sanh. 21a), following the Mishnah (Sanh. 2:4), that David is the one who granted a king permissionto have as many as 18 wives.
\n152. his sons Whereas in 2 Sam. 12:11 Nathan simply foretells that another man will sleep with David\u2019s wives, Josephus specifies that the man in question will be one of David\u2019s sons. He also amplifies Nathan\u2019s prophecy by referring to Absalom\u2019s upcoming rebellion and, finally, anticipates the announcement of the infant\u2019s death.
\n153. with tears and grief In 2 Sam. 12:13, David confesses and stands guilty before the LORD, but Josephus emphasizes the grief of the king. Accordingly, the Midrash states that when David had realized his transgression, he was penitent for 22 years, weeping daily for an entire hour and eating his \u201cbread with ashes\u201d(S. Eli. Rab. 2:7).
\nnever sinned, except in the matter of Uriah\u2019s wife Josephus does not exonerate David from his sin. However, he explains, in an important addition to the Bible, that David fears God and that his only sin in life involves Uriah\u2019s wife. Accordingly, in the prefatory remark to the story of David and Bathsheba, Josephus emphasizes that, although David is righteous and God-fearing by nature, as well as deferent to the ancestral laws, a terrible disaster befell him (Ant. 7.130). Josephus is apparently willing to take a personal position on a controversial issue. He seems aware of the tradition that attempts to lessen David\u2019s sin or to exonerate him from his guilt in the Bathsheba affair. According to B. Shab. 30a, for example, David is exonerated because of his wholehearted penitence after the deed. In another talmudic passage, R. Samuel b. Nahmani maintains that whoever says that David sinned is mistaken, since the presence of the LORD cannot stay with a sinner, and it is written that the LORD was with David (B. Shab. 56a). The same Rabbi, later on, states that any man in the Israelite army who went to war had to write a bill of divorce for his wife (to release her in case of his death). This would indicate that Bathsheba had been divorced by Uriah, and therefore David did not actually commit adultery with her. Another view, attested in the same passage, is that David did not perform adultery but merely desired to do it, and that, on the other hand, Uriah deserved death for being rebellious to David\u2019s order to go home to his wife. Likewise, B. Sanh. 107a maintains that David\u2019s was not a real sin, but a test by God to enhance his faith: In order to be included in the assembly of the ancestors of Israel, David asked God to test him, and the Holy One replied that he would test him in the matter of adultery. However, the Talmud itself is not of one mind regarding David\u2019s sin. In fact, in the above mentioned passage of B. Shab. 56a, Rav disagrees with Rabbi\u2019s view that David merely desired to but did not commit adultery, considering it an expansion of the verse to defend David, since Rabbi himself was a descendant of the king. In B. Yoma 22b, Rabbi Huna goes so far as stating that David sinned twice\u2014once in being responsible for the death of Uriah and once in taking a census. Rav states that David sinned three times, adding the fact that he listened to the evil report of Ziba against Mephiboshet. Josephus keeps a balanced position, seeking on the one hand to reconfirm David\u2019s sin with Bathsheba, yet stressing David\u2019s fear of God, respect for the ancestral laws, and repentance.
\nGod \u2026 would preserve his life and kingship Josephus makes clear that God\u2019s forgiveness is complete. In fact, to avoid any connection between the child\u2019s death (2 Sam. 12:15\u201323) and David\u2019s adultery and repentance\u2014which might raise questions about God\u2019s forgiveness\u2014Josephus clearly links the death to the rape of Tamar by David\u2019s son Amnon (2 Sam. 13). Moreover, whereas in 2 Sam. 12:14a Nathan simply alludes to David\u2019s life, Josephus adds an assurance about David\u2019s kingship, which implies a failure of later revolts against the king.<\/p>\n
The Death of Absalom<\/p>\n
Silvia Castelli<\/p>\n
In his retelling of Absalom\u2019s death (2 Sam. 18:1\u201318)\u2014the climax of Absalom\u2019s revolt\u2014Josephus, in Jewish Antiquities (7.234\u201344) emphasizes the military aspect, providing details on strategy, stressing the people\u2019s bravery, and giving psychological insights into the opposing parties. In this context he builds up David\u2019s character; he is depicted as a good general and a loving father. Absalom, meanwhile, despite his outstanding physical attractiveness, is portrayed as a rebel against the established authority and a rebellious son; moreover, even though of aristocratic birth and of heroic behavior, he is depicted as afraid of being caught by the enemy.
\nLike the Rabbis, Josephus highlights the connection between Absalom\u2019s beauty\u2014his hair in particular\u2014and his death. But unlike the Rabbis, Josephus casts Joab as Absalom\u2019s killer, despite the king\u2019s prohibition. Josephus thus turns Joab into an insensitive murderer in spite of his renowned deeds and concern for his people, which are not neglected by the historian. In stressing Joab\u2019s envy and disobedience up to the point of becoming a murderer, Josephus recalls some of his contemporaries, such as John of Gischala (J.W. 2.614), who led the nation to civil strife and destruction (J.W. 2.620, 627).
\nThe motif is remarked by the historian later on: the question of the woman in 2 Sam. 20:19 becomes a patent accusation of Joab as the one who, going against his God-given task, is \u201csolicitous to overthrow and devastate a mother-city of the Israelites that had committed no offense\u201d (Ant. 7.289). Moreover, in Josephus, the dying king David explicitly ascribes the murder of Abner and Amasa, \u201ctwo just and good generals,\u201d to Joab\u2019s envy (Ant. 7.386; see 1 Kings 2:5).<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. Studies in Josephus\u2019 Rewritten Bible, 203\u201314 (Joab), and 215\u201329 (Absalom). Leiden: Brill, 1998.
\nBegg, C. T. \u201cThe Demise of Absalom according to Josephus.\u201d OTE 18, no. 3 (2005): 482\u2013502.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
234. his friends \u2026 restrained him according to a very wise plan Whereas in 2 Sam. 18:3, the people simply stress David\u2019s value, saying he is \u201cworth ten thousand\u201d of them, Josephus\u2014who is eager to add military details, some from his own experience\u2014considers two cases: one of complete defeat and one of partial defeat. He even presents an insight into the enemy\u2019s point of view according to the best tactical manuals, such as Onasander\u2019s (The General 33). Moreover, while in the Bible it is David\u2019s army that induces him not to take part in the battle, Josephus focuses on the royal friends, applying to David\u2019s court the role of the Hellenistic group of the king\u2019s friends (philoi).
\n235. the camps This is Josephus\u2019s translation of the Heb. mahanayim (2 Sam. 17:24 MT).
\nhe appealed to them David is depicted here as the good general who exhorts his soldiers before battle (see Moses in Ant. 3.44\u201346; Judah Maccabee in 1 Macc. 3:18\u201322 and Ant. 13.302\u20134). To further emphasize the king\u2019s piety, Josephus adds David\u2019s prayer for his army.
\nHe also implored them to spare his son Absalom \u2026 so that he would not do himself some harm While in 2 Sam. 18:5, David orders Joab, Abishai, and Ittai to deal gently with Absalom for his own sake, in Josephus he supplicates them to spare the young man, threatening to injure himself if Absalom is killed. Josephus later elaborates on David\u2019s mourning for his son\u2019s death, saying that he beats his breast, tears his hair, and disfigures himself (Ant. 7.252). In this way the historian highlights the feelings of his biblical character, especially for his kin, and dramatizes the scene. Moreover, David\u2019s threat serves to accentuate Joab\u2019s disobedience and lack of sensitivity.
\n236\u201337. great deeds of might and daring Josephus amplifies and dramatizes the scene of the battle, highlighting the courage of both sides and providing insights into the eagerness of the fighters. To the few followers of the king, he opposes in a trenchant way the great number of the enemies; to the ambition of the former, the shame of the latter; to the victory of the father, the punishment of the daring son. Moreover, whereas 2 Sam. 18:6 places the battle in \u201cthe forest of Ephraim,\u201d which would be located west of the Jordan, Josephus speaks more generally of \u201ca great plain,\u201d avoiding the difficulty raised by the precise location of the battle.
\nbeing punished for what he had dared to do Josephus portrays Absalom both as a rebel against the king\u2019s authority and as a rebellious son. As a leader of the revolt against his own king, Absalom is an example of rebellion against the established authority, which Josephus views negatively in the context of Jewish history\u2014as one can see in his comments on the fall of Israel\u2019s kingdom (Ant. 9.282)\u2014and in the context of his own time, where the revolutionaries are guilty of rebellion against a legitimate authority (J.W. 7.262). In yet another passage (Ant. 7.195\u201396), Josephus highlights the demagogic character of Absalom, which recalls that of the leaders of the Jewish revolt against Rome, such as John of Gischala (e.g. J.W. 2.589), Simon bar Giora (e.g. J.W. 2.652), the deceitful people and rogues who led the mob into the desert (J.W. 2.259), and Justus of Tiberias (Life 40). Second, Absalom embodies the character of the rebellious son. In Ant. 4.260\u201364, Josephus widely expands the Deuteronomic law on the rebellious son (Deut. 21:18) by having the parents speak directly to the child; in explaining why they love and care for the child, they stress that a sin toward parents is a sin toward God, who is himself parent of the whole human race. In Against Apion (2.206), Josephus maintains that honor to parents is ranked by the Law second only to honor to God, and in both Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities he emphasizes the weight of internal family strife in Herod\u2019s kingdom (see esp. Ant. 16.395\u2013404). Despite the statement in the Mishnah (Sanh. 10:1) that all Israel have a share in the world to come, according to R. Meir in the Talmud (B. Sanh. 103b), Absalom will have no portion in the world to come.
\n238. evident to them, given his beauty and height Absalom\u2019s beauty is one of his chief features, even more than is usual for Josephus\u2019s biblical characters. The Bible itself says that \u201cno one in all Israel was so admired for his beauty as Absalom\u201d (2 Sam. 14:25). Josephus adds that Absalom suffered no loss of beauty through grief over the rape of his sister or through not receiving the concern due to a king\u2019s son, and that he still distinguished himself among all for his appearance and height (Ant. 7.189). Josephus does not embellish the element of Absalom\u2019s height, unlike the Rabbinic tradition. The Talmud (B. Nid. 24b) tells a story about Abba Saul, who was once a grave-digger. On one occasion, when a cave was opened under him, he stood in the eye-ball of a corpse up to his nose; when he returned he was told that it was the eye of Absalom. Lest someone suggest that Abba Saul was a dwarf, the Talmud highlights that he was the tallest man in his generation. The chief element in Absalom\u2019s beauty, however, was his hair. According to 2 Sam. 14:26, he cut it at the end of every year, whereas according to Josephus (Ant. 7.189), he could scarcely go a week without needing to cut it. Josephus anticipates a later Rabbinic discussion (B. Nez. 5a): according to Rabbi Judah, Prince Absalom cut his hair every 12 months; according to Rabbi Nehorai, every 30 days; according to Rabbi Jose, as in Josephus, every week\u2014and precisely every Sabbath eve, as princes usually do. Josephus, adhering to a principle of measure for measure that is also stressed in the Mishnah, holds that Absalom\u2019s outstanding beauty caused his death. Similarly, the Rabbis state that Absalom\u2019s pride in his hair caused his death (M. Sot. 1:8; cf. B. Sot. 9b; Num. Rabb. 9.24; Pirke R. El. 53.4). The Bible (2 Sam. 18:9) speaks more generally of Absalom\u2019s \u201chead\u201d being caught in the tree.
\n239. Fearing that the enemy might capture him Josephus adds several details about the way Absalom was captured. In particular, he notes his fear of the enemy, a feeling that is not worthy of a hero and a king\u2019s son.
\n240. fifty shekels This number corresponds to the reading of 4QSama and the Lucianic manuscripts of the Septuagint (2 Sam. 18:11 LXX), whereas the Masoretic Text (2 Sam. 18:11) has \u201cten shekels.\u201d Moreover, Josephus does not mention the second reward promised by Joab (2 Sam. 18:11), namely a girdle.
\n241. Joab then directed him to show him where he had seen Absalom Whereas in the Bible (2 Sam. 18:14), Joab replies to the soldier that he will not wait for him, in Josephus he requires directions from the soldier in order to find Absalom. Josephus has Joab shoot Absalom in the heart, murdering him; while in both the Bible and the Mishnah, Joab drives three darts into Absalom\u2019s chest, and then the king\u2019s son is finished off by Joab\u2019s ten young weapon-bearers. The Mishnah adds, albeit not explicitly, that Joab used three darts because Absalom stole away three hearts: those of David, David\u2019s court, and the whole people (M. Sot 1:8). According to the same principle, because he copulated with 10 concubines of his father, the 10 young men that bore Joab\u2019s armor thrust 10 javelins unto him (M. Sot., 1:8; Num. Rab. 9.24).
\nJoab\u2019s weapon-bearers In 2 Sam 18:15, the 10 armor-bearers surround Absalom, strike him, and kill him. In Josephus, where Joab himself kills the king\u2019s son, the armor-bearers assume a different function, pulling down the corpse and casting it into a deep pit.
\n242. took on the appearance and dimensions of a tomb Josephus emphasizes the fact that Absalom received a burial according to his royal status, while the Bible simply refers to a great heap of stones (2 Sam. 18:17).
\nthus sparing his compatriots To the reference of Joab sounding the retreat (2 Sam. 18:16), Josephus appends this remark, showing Joab as wanting to save his people\u2019s lives. In his portrait of Joab, Josephus is ambivalent: on the one hand stressing Joab\u2019s deeds and courage in battle; on the other, his ambition, envy, slight attention to David\u2019s feelings, and his brutal deed of killing Absalom, despite the king\u2019s prohibition and threat of harming himself (see \u201cIntroduction\u201d).
\n243. a pillar \u2026 two stadia distant from Jerusalem Josephus embellishes the mention of Absalom\u2019s erecting his pillar in the Valley of the Kings (2 Sam. 18:18) with details on the nature of the pillar and on its distance from Jerusalem, about one quarter of a mile. According to Josephus, the tomb is called \u201chand,\u201d which is the literal translation of the Heb. yad (monument). Josephus derives the name from the etiological notice of 2 Sam. 18:18, which states that the pillar is called Absalom\u2019s monument (yad) \u201cto this day.\u201d
\neven if his children should be destroyed Josephus is concerned by the apparent contradiction between 2 Sam. 15:27, where the three sons and one daughter of Absalom are mentioned, and 2 Sam. 18:18, where Absalom states that he has no son to keep his name in remembrance. To bring the two statements into better conformity, Josephus adds the children\u2019s hypothetical destruction. Attempts to reconcile this contradiction are found also in the Talmud (B. Sot. 11a), in which Rabbi Isaac b. Abdimi interprets the Bible to mean that Absalom has no son fit for the kingship, and Rabbi Hisda maintains that the Bible refers to the episode where Absalom burns Joab\u2019s produce (2 Sam. 14:30), since one tradition holds that whoever burns his neighbor\u2019s produce will not leave a son to succeed him.
\n244. Once she was married Josephus has already dealt with Absalom\u2019s descendants, and with Tamar in particular, in Ant. 7.190; in that passage, following the text of the LXX for 2 Sam. 14:27, Josephus remarked that Tamar married Rehoboam (the MT, on the contrary, does not mention the marriage). The reference to a later passage in his narrative is likely to Ant. 8.249, where, however, Josephus designates the wife of Rehoboam not as Tamar, but as her daughter Maacah. The latter would become Absalom\u2019 s grand-daughter according to Josephus, which is contrary to 2 Chron. 11:20, where she is called Absalom\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n
Solomon\u2019s Wisdom in the Case of the Two Harlots<\/p>\n
Pablo Torijano<\/p>\n
With his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus tries to show the greatness of Jewish history to the entire Greek-speaking world; he focuses on the models provided by great men and women, comparing them with and ranking them among their Greek counterparts. In Ant. 8.26\u201334, Josephus recasts the biblical folktale of the judgment of the two prostitutes (1 Kings 3:16\u201328), which illustrates Solomon\u2019s extraordinary wisdom. Josephus\u2019s main source is the biblical text in its Greek translation (Septuagint). In this part of the Antiquities, he takes great liberty with the biblical material, and likely makes use of midrashic-like traditions that already were popular in his time. He adapts the biblical narrative for his Greek-speaking audience and adds several details, following the usual literary conventions of Hellenistic popular literature: striking situations, suspense, happy endings. In this way, Josephus elaborates on the basic folktale plot and adds some details to highlight the godlike wisdom of Solomon, making clear that Solomon\u2019s wisdom is superior to that of the Greek wise men. The story has parallels in other world literatures.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, L. H. \u201cJosephus as Apologist to the Greco-Roman World: His Portrait of Solomon.\u201d In Aspects of Religious Propaganda in Judaism and Early Christianity, edited by E. Sch\u00fcssler-Fiorenza, 69\u201398. Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970.
\nThackeray, H. St. J. Josephus: With an English Translation. Jewish Antiquities 5\u20138. Vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library, 65, 584\u201388. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1926.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
27. who lived as harlots Josephus uses the Gk. hetairai (courtesans) instead of the biblical original Gk. pornai\/Heb. zonot (prostitutes). He smoothes things over for his Greek audience to make the narrative more credible: a courtesan could be expected in the royal court, but not a prostitute. We find this smoothing trait also in the Targum Jonathan, which uses the Aramaic word \u201cinnkeeper.\u201d In later Jewish tradition, the women are transformed into spirits and the whole episode is linked to the legends that depicted Solomon as master of demons, one of the most popular traits of Solomon in both Jewish and Christian literature.
\nshe who seemed to be the injured one By his wording here\u2014\u201cshe who seemed to be\u201d\u2014Josephus hints at the innocence of the woman. He begins the reformulation of the biblical tale by increasing the dramatic tone in gradual steps.
\nwe both gave birth on the same day and the same hour According to the biblical text, the second woman gives birth to her child three days afterward (1 Kings 3:17). By making it virtually impossible to distinguish between the two children on the basis of age, Josephus stresses the difficulty of the case.
\n30. And when \u2026 all were mentally blinded, as by a riddle, \u2026 the king alone devised the following plan Josephus increases the spectacular flavor of the scene and makes more surprising what follows; his biblical source does not imply that Solomon waited for his counselors\u2019 opinion. By using the word ainigmati (by riddle) he links this episode with the visit of the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1\u20133), where Solomon responds to her challenges by solving every riddle (Heb. khiddot\/Gk. ainigma). The mention of the mental blindness caused by the riddle could be related to Oedipus and the Sphinx myth, according to Feldman. In Rabbinic literature, the motif of posing questions to King Solomon became popular, especially in connection with the Queen of Sheba.
\n31. ordered him to \u2026 cut both children in half The biblical text mentions only the cutting of the living child (1 Kings 3:25).
\n32. all the people secretly made fun of the king as of a boy This detail does not appear in the biblical text, but it fits well into the dramatic plot that Josephus has woven here. Probably it reflects the tradition, found in some Greek manuscripts and several Rabbinic writings, that Solomon was 12 years old when he succeeded David.
\neven asked that she herself be put to torture Josephus elaborates again upon his biblical source to build up the literary effect of the tale and make its outcome more surprising.
\n34. and from that day on hearkened to him as to one possessed of a godlike understanding Josephus expands and subtly revises 1 Kings 3:28, transforming Solomon\u2019s somewhat specific \u201cdivine wisdom to execute justice\u201d into a more general wisdom that fits better with the image of the wise Hellenistic king that Josephus tries to build for his Greek readers.<\/p>\n
Phoenician Writings on Solomon\u2019s Wisdom<\/p>\n
Pablo Torijano<\/p>\n
From the 3rd century BCE onward we find in the Near East an awakening awareness of a national history among the different peoples who lived under Greek rule. Non-Greek historians compiled national histories in an effort to show the Greek-speaking world the achievements and glorious past of their peoples. Here, in Phoenician Writings on Solomon\u2019s Wisdom (Ant. 8.144\u201349), Josephus uses some of those historians as sources to increase the credibility of his own work. Most likely he is directly quoting the authors he employs, because some of the details he includes are not relevant to the account of Solomon\u2019s reign. In some cases they reveal a different view of Solomon\u2019s wisdom.<\/p>\n
Significance<\/p>\n
In this work Josephus quotes two authors who fit into the nationalistic historical movement: Menander of Ephesus (2nd century BCE), who used Phoenician history in his writings about the general history of the Near Eastern world; and Dios (2nd century BCE), who wrote a Phoenician history for Greek audiences. In Josephus\u2019s account, both historians supplement the biblical history of the relationship between Hiram and Solomon in a surprising way: they show both kings, at least, on an equal footing. Clearly, each of their accounts had a polemical purpose because they describe the same facts but from a Phoenician point of view. Both narratives are best understood as examples of the so-called creative history genre that was common in the Hellenistic period and that was characterized by a penchant for details and dramatic effects. In fact, the whole collection of Josephus\u2019s writings could also be classified under that label.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Mendels, D. \u201cHellenistic Writers of the Second Century BCE on the Hiram-Solomon Relationship.\u201d Studia Phoenicia 5 (1987): 429\u201341.
\nThackeray, H. St. J. Josephus: With an English Translation. Jewish Antiquities 5\u20138. Vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library, 65, 648\u201352. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1926.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
144. These two kings are also mentioned by Menander Josephus makes clear that his sources go beyond the records of the Bible; he tries to show in this way that the biblical text is not only a Jewish legend, but also grounded in history. Menander suggests that Hiram was a king as great as Solomon because his exploits parallel those of Solomon (buildings, military campaigns). It is likely that Menander knew Kings either by means of the Greek version of the Septuagint LXX or through some excerpt.
\n145. set up the golden column in the Temple of Zeus Menander describes the Phoenician religion in a Greek garb. The Greek Zeus Olympios stands for the Phoenician Baal Shamem, one of the main gods in the Near East and the main rival of Yahwism in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah before the exile. Antiochus IV Epiphanes dedicated the Jerusalem Temple in 168 BCE to Zeus Olympios, that is, Baal Shamem. The traditional representation of Baal was a column or wooden pillar (Heb. massebah), which had a phallic connotation and was a symbol of the divine male power and strength. The Baal cult or Baalized Yahweh cult is associated in the Hebrew Bible with the high places (bamot).
\ntimber from the mountain called Libanos The quality of the timber from Lebanon was a commonplace in antiquity; the cedars of Lebanon were used in Solomon\u2019s Temple (1 Kings 5:19\u201324; cf. Hos. 14:6; Song of Sol. 4:11). The \u201cmountain called Libanos\u201d (the Lebanon mountains or Mount Lebanon) is a rather general geographical term that designates the mountains in the interior of Phoenicia.
\n146. to celebrate the awakening of Heracles in the month of Peritius Menander is describing here a religious celebration that took place in February (Peritius in the Macedonian calendar), at the end of the winter rains. The Heracles he refers to is Melkart, the main divinity of Tyre; we find this god under the Greek name Heracles in other places as well (e.g., Gadir\/C\u00e1diz in Spain). It is likely that this feast celebrated the annual \u201cresurrection\u201d of Heracles\/Melkart and the coming of spring after winter hardships.
\nand he undertook a campaign against the Itykaians [Uticans] The Itykaians appear in only three other Greek authors (Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, and Appian), always together with or related to Phoenicia. However, Mendels suggests that we have here a textual corruption and that the original text of Menander should read Ioudaios (Jews), but that Josephus adapted it for his own purposes. The inclusion of this notice responds to the traditional description of Hellenistic rulers as successful war leaders.
\n148. Solomon, who was tyrant of Jerusalem, sent riddles to Eiromos Since the 1st century BCE, the Gk. tyrannos meant a lesser ruler or princeling, subjected to a ruler of more importance. Solomon appears then as clearly secondary to Hiram in status. Note that Josephus does not change his source into a more favorable pro-Solomonic account.
\n149. a certain Abdemon, a Tyrian citizen This is an unscriptural detail; Abdemon does not appear in either the Hebrew or the Greek text of the Bible. The passage expands the biblical source about Solomon\u2019s ability to solve the riddles or \u201chard questions\u201d posed by the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1). Josephus sets up a courtesan scene that his Greek readers will recognize as fitting of a royal Hellenistic court. In such a scene, the king shows his superiority over the other ruler with extraordinary wisdom. As the passage is taken from Dios, it shows the Phoenician point of view: Solomon does not appear infinitely wise as in the biblical account and later Jewish traditions.<\/p>\n
Solomon\u2019s Magical Powers<\/p>\n
Pablo Torijano<\/p>\n
In Jewish Antiquities 8.44\u201349, Josephus develops the traditional theme of Solomon\u2019s wisdom and expands the biblical material by three procedures. First, he exaggerates the number of the writings of Solomon, making it even larger than in the biblical text. Second, he shifts away from the traditional Semitic concept of royal wisdom as consisting mainly in administration of justice, portraying it instead as the philosophical knowledge of natural phenomena and empirical data: Solomon is reinterpreted in Hellenistic tones. Finally, Josephus goes even further and uses nonbiblical traditions that link Solomon with esoteric knowledge and, above all, with exorcisms. These traditions were already present in some apocryphal psalms of Qumran (11QapocPs) in the 1st century CE.
\nThe inclusion of this esoteric material is strange, for it would have cast suspicion on Solomon, given the negative bias of Greek audiences toward the supernatural. This bias is reflected in Josephus\u2019s works as well. However, it gives Josephus\u2019s portrait of Solomon an edge over the typical Hellenistic king. What the inclusion of such material reveals is that the links between Solomon and esoteric power\/knowledge were already well established by the 1st century c.e. His characterization as an exorcist became very popular among both Jews and Christians from then on. Thus, different texts found in the Cairo Genizah and several church fathers link Solomon with dominion over demons. This tradition was also cherished in several Rabbinic works, where it appears in conjunction with the literary motif of the solution of riddles. Muslims transmitted these kinds of stories as well, in which the Queen of Sheba is depicted as a jinn or demon that is discovered by the wise King Solomon.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Bar-Ilan, M. \u201cBetween Magic and Religion: Sympathetic Magic in the World of the Sages of the Mishnah and Talmud.\u201d Review of Rabbinic Judaism 5, no. 3 (2002): 385\u201389.
\nDuling, D. C. \u201cThe Eleazar Miracle and Solomon\u2019s Magical Wisdom in Flavius Josephus\u2019s Antiquitates Judaicae 8.42\u201349.\u201d Harvard Theological Review 78 (1985): 1\u201325.
\nSchaefer, P. \u201cJewish Magic Literature in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.\u201d Journal of Jewish Studies 41 (1990): 75\u201391.
\nThackeray, H. St. J. Josephus: With an English Translation. Jewish Antiquities 5\u20138. Vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library, 65, 594\u201397. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1926.
\nTorijano, P. A. Solomon the Esoteric King: From King to Magus, Development of a Tradition. Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods Supplement 73. Leiden: Brill, 2002.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
44. He also composed 1,005 books of odes and songs and 3,000 books of parables and similitudes Josephus exaggerates Solomon\u2019s wisdom by expanding the biblical data; the Bible does not speak about books, but about songs (1 Kings 5:12; see also 1 Kings (LXX 3 Kingdoms) 5:1\u201315, comment on 5:12). Some of the terms used by Josephus could be understood as linked with esoteric knowledge; thus \u014dd\u0113 means songs, but ep\u014dd\u0113 means enchantment; in the same way parabol\u0113 means parable or analogy but could mean astrological conjunction as well. Josephus plays with the meaning of the words, suggesting to his audience that Solomon\u2019s knowledge goes beyond nature and enters into the realms of magic and astrology.
\nhe studied them all philosophically and revealed the most complete knowledge of their several properties Solomon\u2019s wisdom is depicted in the garb of natural sciences. He is transformed into a sort of philosopher figure who could be better understood by his Greek audience; in fact, Solomon was interpreted in this way by the author of Wisdom of Solomon (cf. 7:15\u201322), who was also writing in Greek. Josephus is alluding here to the concept of the sympathy of the elements of the whole universe, according to which everything in this world is related somehow to its counterpart in the supernatural world, which can be influenced if one has the right knowledge. Josephus gradually turns the philosopher into a thaumaturge or \u201cmiracle\u201d man. Hellenistic popular philosophy had developed a complex structure of mediating spirits, \u201cdemons\u201d that were not necessarily evil, and it is likely that Josephus\u2019s Greek audience had those in mind when reading Josephus\u2019s text.
\n45. And God granted him knowledge of the art used against demons This detail, which does not appear in the Bible, is one of the first mentions of the traditions that link Solomon with the expelling of demons (see B. Git. 68a). In antiquity, Jews and Greeks believed that diseases were produced by demons and evil spirits and could be cured only by the expulsion of the spirits that caused them. By mentioning \u201cthe art used against demons,\u201d Josephus increases the importance and power of Solomon and makes him more remarkable in the eyes of his Greek audience, since this sort of ability was not expected in a king.
\nHe also composed incantations The Gk. ep\u014ddai (incantation or enchantment) is related to the Gk. \u014dd\u0113 (ode). It is a special type of ritual poem believed to have a magical effect; the use of poems with healing and\/or exorcizing purposes was frequent in antiquity. Thus, Ps. 91 was used first by Jews and thereafter by Christians for protecting people from demon possession and the diseases it produced. Several hundred bowls and amulets inscribed in Aramaic and Hebrew were used by Jews even until the modern period, reflecting different forms of incantations.
\n46. and this kind of cure is of very great power among us to this day This note reinforces Josephus\u2019s claims about the power of Solomon and makes clear the popularity of the exorcisms linked with Solomon. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions preserve many examples of these Solomonic traditions that reach well into the Middle Ages. As expansions of this tradition we find Ashmedai conversing with Solomon (B. Git. 68b), demons working in the Temple construction (Otzar Midrashim: Midrash Al Yithallel [ed. Eisenstein] 15.556), or the Queen of Sheba transformed into Lilith (Yalkut Shimoni, Jeremiah 285) in Rabbinic writings.
\nin the presence of Vespasian, his sons Josephus puts forward Solomon\u2019s case strongly by making the Roman emperor and his sons witnesses to the power of Solomon. By setting the stage in this way, Josephus even manages to clear Solomon of the charge of witchcraft (go\u0113teia), a serious charge at that time; since the emperor was present, there was nothing untoward in the procedure undertaken by Eleazar. This detail is surely unhistorical, but it fits well in Josephus\u2019s glowing portrayal of Solomon and strengthens it.
\n47. he put to the nose of the possessed man a ring which had under its seal one of the roots prescribed by Solomon Josephus describes the standard procedure for expelling demons: based on the concept of cosmic sympathy (see comment on \u00a744, he studied them all), the exorcist plays with the relationship of the root to the demon who is attracted by it, the use of the ring, and the invocation of names of power that prevail over the demon. The tradition about Solomon\u2019s ring and its powers later became very common and is well attested in late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
\nand \u2026 drew out the demon through his nostrils It was thought that the demon was literally inside of the possessed, so the exorcism was actually a process of physical extraction.
\nand \u2026 adjured the demon never to come back into him, speaking Solomon\u2019s name The invocation of the name Solomon appears here as the main instrument against demonic possession and the diseases it may produce. The description of the exorcism has several parallels in both the New Testament and non-Christian Greek literature.
\n49. no one under the sun may be ignorant of the king\u2019s surpassing virtue of every kind With this final statement, Josephus underlines the absolute superiority of Solomon over every king, including the Roman emperor who witnessed the expelling of the demon. By asserting Solomon\u2019s superiority, Josephus affirms the superiority of the Jewish nation, because such a great king could sprout only from a great people; Jews were slandered frequently in antiquity with charges of supposed moral and ethical inferiority. The apologetic nature of Josephus\u2019s characterization of Solomon appears here clearly and is applied also to the whole Jewish people.<\/p>\n
Solomon\u2019s Prayer at the Temple Dedication<\/p>\n
Pablo Torijano<\/p>\n
In Jewish Antiquities 8.111\u201317, Josephus reworks Solomon\u2019s prayer at the dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 8:22\u201353) by expanding the biblical account at the beginning and cutting it down afterward. In this way, Josephus underlines the aspects that would be easily understandable by his Greek audience and plays down those that were not that important outside of a Jewish context. The prayer is thereby transformed into a religious description of the main traits of the Divinity; it highlights the special relationship that God maintained with both the king and his house and the whole people of Israel. However, bearing in mind his audience, Josephus carefully rewords the biblical text so that the statements about the God of Israel could be applied to any divinity. In this way, Josephus caters to a pagan audience, dressing God in Greek garb so as to make the God of the Jews acceptable to the Greeks and demonstrate again, as he does through his whole work, the value of a religion that addresses God in such terms.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Thackeray, H. St. J. Josephus: With an English Translation. Jewish Antiquities 5\u20138. Vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library, 65, 630\u201335. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1926.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
111. raising his right hand up to heaven Both the Hebrew and Greek texts have \u201chis hands.\u201d Josephus surely made this change as a way of adapting the text to the Greek form of religious cult and general Greek customs; the use of the left hand in Greek culture was seen as suspect and bad; in fact, the left hand was called \u201cthe best one\u201d (aristera) in order not to name it directly.
\nGod \u2026 the Deity Josephus is playing on different senses of the Gk. for god: theos, as used without the article (translated \u201cGod\u201d in the sentence), means that the identification of the god is precarious or refers to an anonymous divine figure; the second denomination, to theion, translated \u201cthe Deity,\u201d means \u201cdivine power\u201d and refers to the source of phenomena that cannot explained by natural causes. Josephus has changed the Jewish traditional denomination, \u201cLORD God of Israel,\u201d that appears in both the Hebrew and Greek biblical texts (1 Kings 8:23, 25) and has chosen Greek terms not directly related to a concrete God.
\nstands in need of nothing The Gk. adjective used here, aprosdees (meaning \u201cstanding in need of nothing\u201d), is usually used by the Stoics to define the wise human being and by extension the Divinity. Josephus is adapting the Stoic terminology and therefore adjusting the Jewish conception of divinity to a Greek system, based in Stoic philosophical ideas. Because Stoicism became the main popular philosophy in late antiquity, its concepts were known among the educated public.
\nbut with that (gift of speech), O LORD, through which we have been made by Thee superior to other creatures Josephus here expands his biblical source and includes another reference to Greek philosophy; we find a similar thought in several works of Aristotle (\u201cman is a speaking [z\u014don echon logon] animal\u201d; Metaphysics 1037b.12; Protrepticus 65.1), and also in the Stoic Chrysippus (\u201cMan is a rational [logikon] animal\u201d; Fragmenta logica et physica 224.3\u20134). With this expansion, Josephus makes Solomon the predecessor of Greek philosophy and by doing so, he shows the superiority of Jewish wisdom, since it is older than the Greek. The passage presents Solomon in the garb of a philosopher-king.
\n112. with our voice, which we have from the air, and know to ascend again through this element Josephus takes this note from the Stoic physics. Both Zeno, founder of Stoicism, and Chrysippus, one of his successors at the head of the school, defined the sound of the human voice as a smiting of the air (Chrysippus, Fragmenta logica et physica 138.2). In Stoicism, there was a clear relation between sound, soul and language; both sound and soul need the air to expand themselves. Josephus strikes a philosophical chord that would have been understood at once by his Greek-speaking readers, making them more likely to accept traits that were less familiar to them.
\n114. to send some portion of Thy spirit to dwell in the Temple, that Thou mayest seem to us to be on earth as well Josephus takes the biblical text, which affirms that God cannot be contained in the Temple (1 Kings 8:27, 29), and restates it to claim that the Temple could contain part of the divine spirit. In doing so, he introduces an idea taken from Stoic thought and its theory about pantheism, the divine presence in everything: God not only made all things, but is all things (cf. Epictetus, Discourses 1.4). The monotheism of Josephus is then best understood within the Hellenistic Jewish tradition of assimilating the Jewish God to the god of philosophy, as seen in Pseudo-Aristeas (3rd century BCE), Aristobulus (2nd century BCE), and Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 BCE\u201350 CE). It is quite likely that Josephus is referring here to the Jewish belief in the presence of God in the Temple; he adapts it to make it more understandable to his Greek audience.
\n117. and also that we are not inhumane by nature nor unfriendly to those who are not of our country By adding this text to 1 Kings 8:41\u201343, Josephus fights the traditional accusation of Jewish misanthropy against non-Jews. The trilogy of charges against the Jews was comprised by xenophobia, misanthropy, and impiety\u2014traditional themes of anti-Jewish denigration. Josephus modifies his biblical source so that Solomon himself, a wise man of old, counters those accusations. Jewish-Greek coexistence was difficult at times in antiquity, as Philo\u2019s Embassy shows clearly. This sort of attitudes were alive in Josephus\u2019s time; it is quite likely that Josephus himself had to endure them.<\/p>\n
The Return from Exile<\/p>\n
Paul Spilsbury<\/p>\n
The events related in this part of the biblical story are of great historical and national importance because they tell of the refounding of the Judean state after the time of Babylonian exile. Josephus\u2019s version of the return from exile in Jewish Antiquities 11 is based on the narrative found in the biblical book of Ezra (1:1\u20134) and its Greek translation in 1 Esdras (2:1\u20134). Josephus supplements the narrative with material drawn from the prophets and from his own interpretation of the biblical records.<\/p>\n
GUIDE TO READING<\/p>\n
The excerpt given here shows Josephus\u2019s attempt to piece together a highly complicated (and sometimes confused) set of traditions about the events of the first few years after the exiles\u2019 return. Josephus emphasizes the goodwill of the Persian overlords, the hostility of local enemies, and the relentless progress of the returnees despite the many hardships and setbacks they faced.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, Louis H. \u201cJosephus\u2019 Portrait of Ezra.\u201d VT 43 (1993): 190\u2013214.
\nSpilsbury, Paul. The Image of the Jew in Flavius Josephus\u2019 Paraphrase of the Bible. TSAJ 69. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998.
\nSpilsbury, Paul, and Gaia Lembi. Judean Antiquities 11\u201313: Translation and Commentary. Vol. 6 of Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, edited by S. Mason. Leiden: Brill (forthcoming).<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
1\u20137 In this passage Josephus tells the story of how Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire (590\u2013530 BCE), was inspired by God to allow the Jewish people to return to Judea after 70 years in exile in Babylon.
\n1. this was the seventieth year The book of Ezra (1:1) states that \u201cwhen the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah was fulfilled\u201d that God \u201croused\u201d the spirit of King Cyrus to allow the Jews to return to Judea. For Josephus this could refer only to the prophet Jeremiah\u2019s prediction that the exile of the Jews in Babylon would last for 70 years (Jer. 25:11, 12; 29:10. See also Dan. 9:2; 2 Chron. 36:21). Josephus also had in mind passages in both Jeremiah and Isaiah to the effect that God would stir up an opponent to defeat the Babylonians (Jer. 51:1, 11; Isa. 41:2, 25). In Isaiah this opponent is identified as Cyrus (44:28; 45:1). For Josephus the fulfillment of such prophecies was confirmation that God was in control of history (cf. Ant. 10.277\u201380).
\n1. the day \u2026 that our people migrated Josephus is fully aware that the deportation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah took place in several stages over a period of more than 10 years, but is focusing here on the events surrounding the destruction of the Temple, which he dates to the new moon of the 5th month in the 11th year of Zedekiah\u2019s reign; and to the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s reign; that is, 586 BCE (Ant. 10.144\u201350; cf. Jer. 52:12, 29; 2 Kings 25:8). It is also significant that Josephus chooses the positive term \u201cmigrated\u201d to speak of the people\u2019s deportation from Judea rather than a more negative expression like \u201cwere exiled.\u201d The next clause in the sentence, however, with its references to \u201cpity,\u201d \u201cmisfortune,\u201d and \u201csuffering\u201d sounds a more grimly realistic note.
\n5. the book of prophecy that Isaiah left behind The picture of the Persian king studying the Hebrew Bible is Josephus\u2019s own addition to the biblical story, possibly inferred from Ezra 1:2 (also 2 Chron. 36:23; 1 Esd. 2:2), in which the king states, \u201cThe LORD \u2026 has charged me with building Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.\u201d At a later stage in his narrative Josephus presents a similar picture of Alexander the Great reading about himself in the book of Daniel (Ant. 11.337).
\n7. for even God would be an ally to them Josephus often emphasizes the idea that God is a special ally or benefactor of the Jews.
\n79\u201383 This passage, in which Josephus again relies heavily on the account in 1 Esdras, recounts the celebrations surrounding the completion of the foundations for the new Temple in Jerusalem\u2014a very significant episode in the history of the Jewish people. Josephus heightens the mixed emotional responses of those who had witnessed the former and greater glory of Solomon\u2019s Temple, which had been destroyed many years before.
\n79. In the second year of the Judeans\u2019 return This chronological reference follows that of both Ezra (3:8) and 1 Esdras (5:54). For Josephus this date also coincides with the second year of the reign of Darius I of Persia (ruled 521\u2013486 BCE).
\n79. the construction of the sanctuary was resumed Earlier in his account (Ant. 11.19) Josephus indicated that the work of construction was begun in the time of Cyrus, but that it was halted for a period of nine years by his son Cambyses II (ruled 530\u2013522 BCE; Ant. 11.30).
\n79. Jesus and his sons \u2026 and Zodmoel the brother of Judah the son of Aminadab As is often the case with the transcription of personal names in ancient texts, there is a great deal of confusion surrounding their precise forms. Ezra 3:9 refers to Jeshua, Kadmiel, Judah, and Henadad.
\n80. the sanctuary was completed quicker than one might have expected While the book of Ezra does not contain any reference to the enthusiasm or speed of the workers, 1 Esdras states that the workers were \u201cpressing forward the work on the house of God with a single purpose\u201d (1 Esd. 5:56). The notion that the work was completed sooner than expected is apparently Josephus\u2019s own addition designed to increase the readers\u2019 admiration of the Judeans. Note also that Josephus introduces confusion into the story by speaking of the completion of the Temple when in fact he was speaking only of the completion of the foundations of the Temple. The completion of the entire Temple is celebrated much later in the story (Ant. 11.105\u20138; cf. Ezra 6:13\u201318).
\n80. just as David first introduced praise for him This is a reference to the book of Psalms, which was traditionally ascribed to King David (cf. Ezra 3:10; 1 Esd. 5:60). The Levites and the sons of Asaph, mentioned in the preceding clause, were groups within the people of Israel especially entrusted with the liturgical and musical aspects of the Temple service.
\n81. they were moved even so far as laments and tears In keeping with his general tendency to heighten the emotional aspects of the story, Josephus greatly embellishes the distress of those who are disappointed with the new Temple; cf. Ezra 3:12 and 1 Esd. 5:60.
\n83. the wailing of the elders and the priests \u2026 was outdoing the sound of the trumpets Josephus is again following the narrative of 1 Esdras (5:64\u201365). The book of Ezra states that the people could not distinguish the sad sounds from the happy ones (Ezra 3:13).
\n84\u201394 In this passage Josephus tells the story of how progress on the Temple is hindered by opposition from the Jews\u2019 enemies, the Samaritans. The episode is significant because it allows Josephus to emphasize the good standing that the Judean community had with their Persian overlords while at the same time stressing the Jews\u2019 openness to all peoples of the world.
\n84. the Samaritans In keeping with his practice throughout his account of the return from exile, Josephus identifies the biblical \u201cadversaries of Judah and Benjamin\u201d (Ezra 4:1; 1 Esd. 5:66) as the Samaritans. Later in the biblical stories (Ezra 4:4; 1 Esd. 5:72) the Judeans\u2019 adversaries are referred to as \u201cthe people(s) of the land.\u201d
\n84. Zorobabel The biblical Zerubbabel, governor of Judah during the reign of Darius I. In Rabbinic lore he was expected to play a significant role in the days of the messiah; see Ginzberg\u2019s Legends of the Jews.
\n85. Salmanassar the king of the Assyrians Shalmaneser V, king of Assyria (ruled 726\u2013722 BCE). This relatively unimportant Assyrian ruler is significant in the history of Israel because he laid siege to the city of Samaria for three years before it fell in 722 BCE and its citizens were carried off into exile in Assyria (see 2 Kings 17:1\u201318:12). Note that the biblical account has Esarhaddon, the son of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, who ruled circa 681\u2013669 BCE. Josephus has replaced this figure with Shalmaneser because he wants to identify the Samaritans with the people referred to as Chutheans in the passage in 2 Kings.
\n85. brought us here from Chuthia and Media Cuth was a city in southern Mesopotamia, and Media occupied the territory roughly corresponding to present-day Iran. Josephus subscribed to a view of Samaritan origins based on 2 Kings 17, according to which the original population of Samaria had been deported by Shalmaneser V of Assyria (see previous comment). Then, according to the biblical account: \u201cThe king of Assyria brought [people] from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the towns of Samaria in place of the Israelites; they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its towns.\u201d This new population is said to have brought with them a wide range of religious practices from their own places of origin that they subsequently combined with the worship of Yahweh. Josephus\u2019s own account of these events may be found at Ant. 9.277\u201391. In Ezra 4:2, however, the adversaries of the Judeans identify themselves as people who had been brought into the region by the later Assyrian king Esarhaddon (ruled ca. 681\u2013669 BCE). In the Samaritans\u2019 own version of their origins they were the direct descendants of the Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who survived the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. The liminal status of these individuals is summed up by the anonymous stratum of the Babylonian Talmud (at Hul. 3b; Nid. 46b; and BK 38b) when it says Kuthim are \u2018Lion Converts\u2019 referring to 2 Kings 17.
\n86. Jesus the high priest The biblical Jeshua, priest at the time of the return from exile. In the prophetic books of Haggai and Zechariah he is called Joshua.
\nit was impossible for them to participate Josephus, perhaps following 1 Esd. 5:70\u201371, implies that the refusal of the Samaritans\u2019 offer of help was based on the restrictiveness of imperial legislation, rather than the Judeans\u2019 own religious preferences. Ezra 4:3, however, states, \u201cIt is not for you and us to build a House to our God, but we alone will build it to the LORD God of Israel, in accord with the charge that the king, King Cyrus of Persia, laid upon us.\u201d
\n87. to revere God in the temple It is an important theme in Josephus\u2019s writings that the Temple of the Jews was in fact open to all people, despite the claims of some in the ancient world that the Jews hated the rest of humanity. In Ant. 8.116, Solomon prays that God will hear the prayers of those who have come to the Temple even from the ends of the earth, and adds, in the next paragraph, that the benefits of the Temple are open to all people (see also Ant. 8.108). In Life 348, Josephus refers to the Temple as \u201cthe common temple of all.\u201d
\n88. Cambyses Cambyses II of Persia (ruled 530\u2013522 BCE), son of Cyrus the Great. Josephus inserts Cambyses into his account to correct the chronology of 1 Esd. 5:73, which jumps from Cyrus directly to Darius I. In the same way earlier in his account (Ant. 11.21) Josephus replaced the Artaxerxes of 1 Esd. 2:12 with Cambyses in an attempt to restore the historical sequence of Persian kings: Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes [= Ahasuerus], Artaxerxes. 1 Esdras for its part rearranges the chronology of the book of Ezra, in which the Judeans\u2019 enemies write a hostile letter to Xerxes\/Ahasuerus (Ezra 4:6), and then Persian officials write a letter to Artaxerxes (Ezra 4:7\u201316) about the construction of the city\u2019s walls and foundations. Rather than resolving the problems in Ezra, 1 Esdras simply introduces chronological difficulties of its own.
\n89. Sisines The biblical Tattenai, the Persian governor of \u201cthe province of Beyond the River\u201d (Ezra 5:3). Josephus adopts the form of his name from 1 Esd. 6:3, where he is referred to as the governor of Syria and Phoenicia.
\nSarabasanes The biblical Shethar-bozenai, apparently a Persian official who worked closely with the Persian governor Tattenai (Ezra 5:3). Josephus\u2019s form is closer to that of 1 Esd. 6:3, Sathrabuzanes.
\n90. a blessed man exceeding all in virtue That is, King Solomon (10th century BCE). In Ant. 8.211, Josephus describes him as a man who \u201csurpassed all other kings in good fortune, wealth, and wisdom\u201d; cf. Ant. 8.24, 42\u201349. Josephus\u2019s description of Solomon in the present context elaborates on the description of him in 1 Esdras as \u201cgreat and strong\u201d; cf. Ezra 5:11 (\u201ca great king of Israel\u201d).
\n91. Nabouchodonosor Nebuchadnezzar II (var. Nebuchadrezzar; ruled 605\u2013562 BCE), the second king of the Neo-Babylonian empire founded by his father Nabopolassar.
\n92. Mithridates The biblical Mithredath (Ezra 1:8). Josephus\u2019s form is derived from 1 Esd. 2:11.
\n93. Sabaser This name appears to be a version of the name \u201cAbassar,\u201d which Josephus used at Ant. 11.11 for the biblical \u201cSheshbazzar.\u201d However, in 11.13, Josephus seems to have replaced the biblical Sheshbazzar with Zerubbabel. In the present context Josephus reintroduces Sheshbazzar without omitting Zerubbabel, thus leaving himself with an extra person in the story. A comparison with Ezra and 1 Esdras on this matter suggests still further confusion. The problem may stem from copyists trying to harmonize Josephus\u2019s version with the different accounts in Ezra and 1 Esdras.
\n109\u201313 In this passage Josephus relates the story found in Ezra 6:19\u201322 and 1 Esd. 7:10\u201315 of the celebration of the first Passover after the completion of the Temple. The passage also includes Josephus\u2019s own summary of Jewish history from the time of Moses.
\n109. all the people streamed from the villages Josephus adds color to the biblical story by inserting the detail that all the people from the villages flocked into the city for the celebration. Further, he states that all the participants\u2014even the women and children\u2014were in a state of ceremonial purity, something not claimed by either of the biblical sources. This may be due to Josephus\u2019s tendency to highlight the authority of the Law of Moses on the one hand, and to emphasize the obedience of all Jews to its requirements.
\n110. Pascha That is, the Passover.
\nsparing no extravagance The references to the various sacrifices and to the extravagance of the celebrations are Josephus\u2019s own embellishments to the biblical story.
\nthe Persian king That is, Cyrus I. Josephus has replaced the difficult reference to the unnamed Assyrian king in the biblical sources at this point (Ezra 6:22; 1 Esd. 7:15).
\n111. a constitution that was both aristocratic and oligarchic Josephus, along with other ancient theorists like Polybius (cf. History 6.3.1\u20139.14), was fascinated with the question of what kind of \u201cconstitution\u201d or arrangement of political life provided for the best kind of society. A survey of his works reveals that Josephus is not always consistent with the terms that he uses for particular kinds of government. For instance, the constitution he calls \u201cboth aristocratic and oligarchic\u201d here, he calls \u201cdemocratic\u201d in another place (Ant. 20.234). However, in an important passage earlier in the Antiquities, Josephus has Moses say that \u201caristocracy\u201d is the best form of government (Ant. 4.223). Samuel has a similar preference for aristocracy in Ant. 6.36. However, Josephus\u2019s definition of aristocracy is unusual in that for him it refers primarily to the rule of God (i.e., the best ruler) mediated through the laws of Moses and administered by the priests. Later in his life Josephus would coin a new term for this form of government, namely \u201ctheocracy\u201d (Ag. Ap. 2.165).
\nthe descendants of Asamonai The Hasmonean family (the Maccabees) that ruled over an independent Judea from 142 to 63 BCE and claimed the title of king from 104\/103 to 63 BCE. Josephus viewed the rule of kings as a decline from the ideal, in which the priestly class governed the people. The reference to the Hasmonean family here is a foreshadowing of difficult days that lie ahead for the Jews \u2026 and perhaps also a subtle criticism of the imperial rule of Rome.<\/p>\n
Esther<\/p>\n
Paul Spilsbury<\/p>\n
The story of Esther has long been popular among Jews, for whom it claims to provide the factual basis for the annual feast of Purim. The story comes to us from antiquity in at least three forms: the Hebrew original and two Greek translations or expansions. The first of these Greek versions may be referred to simply as the Septuagint (LXX) and the second, which is different from the first in a number of ways, may be referred to as the Alpha-Text of Esther. Josephus\u2019s retelling of the story in his Jewish Antiquities (11.184\u2013204, 209\u201343) seems to rely mostly on a Greek translation, in that his version includes much of the additional material found in the Greek versions but not in the Hebrew. As is typical in Josephus\u2019s retelling of such stories, though, he provides many colourful and dramatic additions of his own, some of which are closely related to Jewish traditions found in much later Rabbinic literature.
\nJosephus relates the story in sober historical tones, downplaying the comic elements in the biblical tale and emphasizing both the danger avoided by the Jews and the personal virtues of the main protagonists. In this way Josephus makes the story of Esther contribute to his overall project of presenting the Jews as a heroic people for whom the rest of society ought to be deeply grateful.
\nSee also \u201cJosephus and His Writings,\u201d elsewhere in these volumes.<\/p>\n
GUIDE TO READING<\/p>\n
In Josephus\u2019s retelling, the story of Esther interrupts his account of the postexilic reestablishment of Jewish life and society in the land of Judea\u2014a story with many difficulties and hardships of its own. As in the book of Daniel, the action takes place in the court of a foreign king. In both the Daniel and the Esther stories, the main characters overcome the undeserved hostility of various malicious persons and secure the heartfelt gratitude of the monarch. The translation given here renders Josephus\u2019s text almost in its entirety with only one brief passage (Ant. 11.205\u20138) omitted for reasons of space.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Feldman, Louis H. \u201cHellenizations in Josephus\u2019 Version of Esther.\u201d Transactions of the American Philological Association 101 (1970): 143\u201370.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cJosephus\u2019 Portrait of Ahasuerus.\u201d Australian Biblical Review 42 (1994): 17\u201339.
\nGinzberg, Louis. The Legends of the Jews, trans. H. Szold. 7 vols. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1909\u20131938.
\nSpilsbury, Paul. The Image of the Jew in Flavius Josephus\u2019 Paraphrase of the Bible. Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum 69. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998.
\nSpilsbury, Paul, and Gaia Lembi. Judean Antiquities 11\u201313: Translation and Commentary. Vol. 6 of Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, edited by S. Mason. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
184\u201394 This passage sets the scene by explaining why the king needs a new queen\u2014a need that Esther will soon fill.
\n184. When Xerxes died the kingdom passed to his son Cyrus, whom the Greeks call Artaxerxes The text may be corrupted here, because Cyrus was not the son of Xerxes; rather Artaxerxes was. The king in the Hebrew Bible is called Ahasuerus, whom modern scholarship identifies with Xerxes I (ruled 485\u2013465 BCE). Josephus, however, follows the Greek translation of Esther in identifying him as Artaxerxes I (ruled ca. 465\u2013424 BCE).
\n185. he married a Judean woman of royal descent The biblical story of Esther does not comment directly on Esther\u2019s lineage, though it does identify her cousin (Josephus calls him her uncle) Mordecai as \u201cson of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite\u201d (Esther 2:5). According to Rabbinic tradition, he was a descendant of Israel\u2019s first king, Saul, whose father was also a Benjaminite called Kish (1 Sam. 9:1\u20132); see B. Meg. 13a and Tg. Esth. 2 2:5.
\n187. Susa The most important of four capital cities of the Persian empire, Susa also functioned as the king\u2019s winter residence. The other three capitals were Babylon, Ecbatana, and Persepolis.
\nMany thousands Literally, \u201cmany myriads,\u201d i.e., \u201cmany ten thousands.\u201d
\n188. he ordered his servants not to force any to drink the wine Josephus downplays the emphasis on drunkenness that characterizes the biblical description of the feasting in both the Hebrew and Greek versions (Esther 1:8). A view similar to Josephus\u2019s is expressed in Rabbinic tradition; see AG 11, PA 59, and Tg. Esth. I and II 1:8. Josephus is apparently concerned not to turn his tale into one of debauchery and excess despite his desire to emphasize the sumptuousness of the affair.
\n190. Queen Aste held a banquet It was not considered decent for Persian noble women to attend the men\u2019s banquets, so a separate celebration was held for them. However, the king, who is in the mood to display all his possessions, cannot resist displaying his queen as the high point of all that he owns.
\n191. the laws of the Persians that forbid women to be seen by strangers Josephus supplies an explanation for the queen\u2019s refusal not present in the Hebrew and Greek accounts. According to the Rabbis, the king had required the queen to appear naked; see Esth. Rab. 3.13, B. Meg. 12b, and Tg. Esth. 1 and 2 1:10, 12.
\n192. the Seven Persians The Hebrew Bible refers to \u201csages who knew the times\u201d (Esther 1:13), who are also referred to as \u201cthe seven officials of Persia and Media\u201d (Esther 1:14). It also provides their names. The Greek version, however, does not mention the number seven, and only names three. In Rabbinic tradition the seven stand for angels of confusion sent by God to punish the king for desecrating temple vessels (a detail borrowed from the story of Belshazzar; Dan. 5:2); see AG 14, cited by Ginzberg, Legends, 6:455n33.
\n193. Mouchaios As in the Septuagint. The Hebrew original is Memucan (Esther 1:16). Tg. Esth. I 1:16 identifies this figure with the dreaded Haman, enemy of Mordecai and the Jews, as does B. Meg. 12b. However, Tg. Esth. 2 1:16, 2 PA 61, and Pirke R. El. 49 identify him with Daniel.
\n195\u2013204 In this part of the story the king discovers Esther, falls in love with her, and takes her for his wife. We are also introduced to Mordecai (Josephus calls him Mardochaios) who, in many ways, is the main hero of the story.
\n195. even though he was in love with her The king\u2019s excessive erotic love (er\u014dtik\u014ds) and sexual insatiability is contrasted later in this passage (see comment on 204) with the disinterested filial love (sterg\u014d) of Esther\u2019s uncle Mordecai, revealing the differences in the men\u2019s characters.
\nhe could not be reconciled to her because of the law Throughout this story Josephus shows his characteristic interest in matters of law and proper procedure. In other parts of his history Josephus describes the Judeans as the most law-abiding of all people.
\n198. there was found in Babylon According to the biblical narrative, Esther and Mordecai lived in Susa. Josephus may have been confused by the mention of Babylon later in the same verse (cf. Esther 2:5).
\nher uncle, named Mardochaios, who was from the tribe of Benjamin Mordecai, described in the biblical narrative as Esther\u2019s cousin who adopted her as his own daughter (Esther 2:7). Rabbinic tradition elaborates on the care given Esther by Mordecai: see B. Meg. 13a, Tg. Esth. 1 and 2, and Esth. Rab. 2:7 Josephus states that Mordecai loved Esther as his own daughter (Ant. 11.204), though B. Meg 13a implies that he may have married her. Mordecai\u2019s lineage is significant because it connects him to Israel\u2019s first king, Saul, who became embroiled in an ancient enmity with the Amalekites\u2014an enmity that is continued in the story of Esther and the Judeans.
\n199. Esther The Hebrew Bible introduces the heroine as \u201cHadassah, that is Esther\u201d (Esther 2:7). Josephus follows the Greek versions in mentioning only one name, but Rabbinic traditions expand at some length on the meaning of both names, which were taken to point to her many virtues; see B. Meg. 13a, PA 63, Esth. Rab. 2:7, and Tg. Esth 1 and 2 2:7.
\nEsther \u2026 surpassed all in beauty While the Hebrew version of Esther states that Esther \u201cwas admired by all who saw her\u201d (Esther 2:15), the Septuagint says only that she \u201cfound favor in the eyes of all who saw her.\u201d The Alpha-Text of Esther states, \u201cThe maiden was very beautiful and lovely to behold\u201d (3:7). The Rabbis, too, make a great deal of the exceptional beauty and grace of Esther; see AG 18, Esth. Rab. VI:9, and Ag. Esth. 23.
\n202. took her lawfully as his wife Josephus goes beyond the biblical sources in emphasizing the point that the king lawfully married Esther. Perhaps Josephus hopes to imply that the marriage took place before the king\u2019s love had been consummated. Josephus also specifies the date of the wedding, while his sources indicate only the month in which Esther went in to the king\u2019s chamber.
\n203. she married without making known to him the nation from which she came This detail is essential to the plot of the story, since it explains why the king had been willing to go along with Haman\u2019s wickedness. Josephus does not include the detail\u2014found in both the Hebrew and the Septuagint (Esther 2:10, 20)\u2014that Mordecai had instructed Esther not to reveal her national origins. In omitting this detail Josephus softens the biblical emphasis on Esther\u2019s subservience and obedience to Mordecai. The Rabbis developed a number of speculative reasons for Esther\u2019s secretiveness, including the desire to protect her people from harm should she suffer the same fate as the former queen; see 2 PA 64 and Tg. Esth. II 2:10.
\n209\u201320 Mordecai offends the king\u2019s close friend Haman by refusing to bow before him. Haman vows to take revenge not only on Haman, but on all the Judeans\u2014the traditional enemies of his people\u2014and gains royal permission to do so by falsely accusing them of being disloyal subjects.
\n209. Amanes \u2026 an Amalekite by birth Haman the Agagite, according to the Hebrew Bible. Josephus identifies him as an Amalekite because the king of the Amalekite nation in the time of Saul was named Agag (1 Sam 15:1\u20139). On the significance of this connection, see the comment on Ant. 11.211.
\nboth foreigners and Persians used to bow down to him The Persians were noted for their practice of bowing down, or offering proskyn\u0113sis, to their kings. Already in ancient times Greeks viewed this practice as demeaning (cf. Herodotus, Hist. 7.136), and Josephus may have hoped that Roman readers would share Mordecai\u2019s revulsion at the prospect of having to bow to a court official.
\n210. both because of his wisdom and his native law The biblical story gives no reason for Mordecai\u2019s refusal to bow to Haman other than that he was a Jew (Esther 3:4). Josephus emphasizes what for him are two key components of what it means to be a Jew, namely Mordecai\u2019s innate wisdom and his adherence to his ancestral law. Josephus does not indicate, of course, that there are numerous instances in the Hebrew Bible of individuals bowing down to people without censure (e.g., Gen. 23:7; 43:28; Exod. 18:7; 1 Kings 1:23). At a later stage in his narrative, Josephus follows the Greek versions of the story by inserting a prayer in which Mordecai confesses to God that he would not bow to Haman because he could not abide the thought that \u201cthe honor that I habitually give to you should be given to this man\u201d (Ant. 11.230; cf. Add. Esth. C 13:14). Similar motives are provided in Tg. Esth. 2 3:3 and Esth. Rab. 7:8.
\n211. by nature he hated the Judeans Here Josephus explains what is left implicit in the biblical story, namely that Haman\u2019s hatred of the Judeans had ancient roots. According to Exod. 17:8\u201316, the Amalekites had attacked the Israelites during the time of their wilderness wonderings, but had been defeated by Joshua while Moses raised his hands in prayer. At the conclusion of the battle God had declared: \u201cI will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven\u201d (Exod. 17:14; cf. Num. 24:7; Deut. 25:17\u201319). In the time of King Saul the battle was renewed, but Saul angered God by sparing the life of their king, Agag, despite God\u2019s command to destroy utterly their men, women, children, and animals. In the story of Esther the ancient enmity is revived, as Haman the Agagite seeks to destroy Mordecai the descendant of Saul along with all the Judeans.
\n212. an evil nation, unsociable and different Haman voices an elaborate accusation against the Judeans, possibly similar to anti-Jewish invective that Josephus himself may have heard in and around Rome in the final years of the 1st century CE. In the biblical story, Haman\u2019s slander has three elements: 1) there is a people scattered throughout the king\u2019s realm; 2) their laws are different from those of other people; and 3) they do not obey the king\u2019s laws (Esther 3:8). He states that tolerating them is against the king\u2019s interest and thus advises him to destroy them. He even offers 10,000 talents (an enormous amount) of his own silver to cover the expense. Josephus\u2019s version is essentially the same, though the hatred, accusation, and proposal are greatly intensified. The rest of the story proves the accusations to be utterly false; indeed, the Judeans show themselves to be law-abiding, honorable, trustworthy, and loyal subjects of the king.
\n219. the 14th day of the 12th month The ancient versions of the story vary as to whether the appointed day was the 13th or the 14th of the month. Josephus omits the reference in the biblical story to Haman casting lots in order to divine the most auspicious day for his intended pogrom (Esther 3:7; 9:24\u201326). On the significance of the lot for naming the feast of Purim, see the comment on Ant. 11.295.
\n221\u201333 Mordecai attracts Esther\u2019s attention by dressing in mourners\u2019 clothing, and instructs her to appeal to the king despite the prohibition against entering his presence uninvited. Then, in a departure from the Hebrew narrative, Esther and Mordecai plead with God to save them from Haman\u2019s plot.
\n221. he tore his clothes Mordecai\u2019s behavior would have been readily understood throughout the ancient Near East as indicative of a deep state of mourning and distress. By tearing his clothes, putting on sackcloth, and covering his head with ashes, Mordecai was both demonstrating his grief and protesting the injustice of Haman\u2019s plan. The mourning and despair of the Judeans in this scene is starkly contrasted with the frivolous merrymaking of the king and Haman in the previous paragraph (Ant. 11.220).
\n223. the eunuch Achratheos It was common in the Persian court for eunuchs (castrated males) to be placed in charge of the royal harem and other important aspects of the administration. Here the eunuch acts as a messenger carrying communications back and forth between Esther and Mordecai.
\n225. he pleaded with her to beg the king Josephus raises the pitch on Mordecai\u2019s entreaties. He also adds that Esther should be willing to wear mourners\u2019 clothes herself in her appeal to the king. As the story unfolds, though, Esther wears the most sumptuous clothes imaginable when she approaches the king.
\n226. she had not been summoned to the king The drama of the story is greatly heightened by the law forbidding anyone to enter the king\u2019s presence uninvited. Esther has to overcome this obstacle if she is to plead for her people.
\n227. for if she neglected them now there would undoubtedly be help for them from God, but she and her father\u2019s house would be destroyed by those who had been neglected Mordecai\u2019s warning to Esther is even more strident in Josephus\u2019s retelling than in the Hebrew and Greek versions. In the biblical story Mordecai tells Esther that if she ignores her people\u2019s plight, help will come to them \u201cfrom another place\u201d (Esther 4:14), but that she and her household will not survive the crisis. Josephus goes much further by implying that the Judeans themselves would wreak vengeance on Esther for her dereliction of duty. Josephus omits the biblical line in which Mordecai says to Esther: \u201cAnd who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis\u201d (Esther 4:14). Ginzberg (Legends 6:470n139) suggests that Josephus\u2019s \u201chelp \u2026 from God\u201d implies that Josephus is familiar with the idea of makom as a name of God, a notion found in Philo (see De Somniis 1.11). The idea of Esther having to face divine judgment is found also in Esth. Rab. 8:6.
\n228. if it was necessary for her to die she would endure it As in the biblical story, Esther accepts her fate including the possibility of death: \u201cIf I am to perish, I shall perish\u201d (Esther 4:16).
\n229. he himself pleaded with God The Hebrew story of Esther is striking in that it does not mention God at any point; nor do any of the characters ever pray to God, even though this may be implied by the people\u2019s submission to a strict fast for three days and nights. Josephus follows the Greek versions of the story by making explicit that both Esther and Mordecai pray to God; he even includes the transcript of their prayers.
\n231. the people sent up the same cry Greek Esther (Add. Esth. C 13:18) states, \u201cAnd all Israel cried out mightily, for their death was before their eyes.\u201d
\npleading with God in keeping with the ancestral law Once again Josephus inserts a reference to the law to enhance this aspect of his portrayal of the Judeans. The Hebrew version describes neither Esther\u2019s prayer nor the manner in which she dresses or behaves during this time, other than to imply that she fasts for three days. The Greek versions, however, elaborate greatly on how she humbles herself by dressing poorly and covering her body with ashes and dung, and give an extended account of the prayer that she says (Add. Esth. C 14:1\u201319).
\n232. more beautiful than ever before Josephus adds this aspect of Esther\u2019s prayer to heighten the romantic or erotic aspects of the story. In the Greek versions of the story, Esther prays for courage and eloquence (Add. Esth. C 14:12, 13) while also confessing the sins of the nation and affirming her trust in God. She also insists that she hates the crown that she is forced to wear in public and regards it as a filthy rag (Add. Esth. C 14:16).
\n233. and that the king might have hatred for the enemies of the Judeans This aspect of Esther\u2019s prayer also derives from the Greek version of the story in which Esther prays that God will turn Haman\u2019s plan against him and that God will turn the king\u2019s heart \u201cto hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him\u201d (Add. Esth. C 14:13).
\n234\u201343 Esther enters the king\u2019s presence and, after being received favorably by the king, invites him and Haman to a banquet.
\n234. she approached the king The Hebrew version of the story contains only a very brief description of Esther\u2019s entrance: \u201cEsther put on royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the king\u2019s palace, while the king was sitting on his royal throne facing the entrance of the palace\u201d (Esther 5:1). Josephus, however, closely follows the Greek versions for his whole description of Esther\u2019s entrance into the king\u2019s court, including the clothes she was wearing and how she was attended by maids-in-waiting. The same applies to his description of the king dressed in royal finery and presenting such a figure as to be terrifying to all who saw him. The descriptions greatly enhance the drama of the story.
\n235. she went in to him with fear The element of Esther\u2019s fear, which Josephus derives from the Greek versions of the story, is also dwelt upon at great length by the Rabbis, who interpreted Ps. 22 (in which the psalmist cries out \u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me\u201d) as the prayer of Esther in her fear; see B. Meg. 15b, Tehillim 22.
\n237. But the king, by the will of God I think, changed his mind The Hebrew Bible states, \u201cAs soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won his favor\u201d (Esther 5:2). Josephus follows the Greek versions, which speak of the king\u2019s initial anger followed by a change of heart. However, Josephus diverges from his source, in that while the Greek versions state simply that \u201cGod changed the spirit of the king to gentleness\u201d (Add. Esth. D 15:8), Josephus adds the phrase \u201cI think\u201d to give the impression that this is simply his own personal interpretation of what happened. In Rabbinic interpretations the king is moved against his will by angels who force him to look at Esther and extend his hand toward her; see B. Meg. 15b.
\n241. she was uttering these words painfully and weakly In the Greek versions of the story, which Josephus is following, Esther faints a second time at this point.
\n242. along with his friend Haman The Rabbis speculate that Esther was hoping to provoke the king\u2019s jealousy against Haman by including him in the invitation, even if this endangered her own life; see B. Meg. 15b.
\n243. put off telling her wish to him The Rabbis speculate that Esther was following the example of Moses (Exod. 17:9), who also desired an additional day of preparation before doing battle with Amalek, Haman\u2019s ancestor; see PA 71 (Ginzberg, Legends, 6:474n152).
\n244\u201359 Haman plans to execute Mordecai, but God works to thwart him by having the king honor Mordecai.
\n245. Gazasa In the Hebrew text she is called Zeresh, while in the Greek versions her name is Gazasa or Gazaga or Zosara.
\n246. a tree of sixty cubits Josephus exaggerates what is already an impossibly high stake of 50 cubits in the Bible. Sixty cubits is approximately 80 feet, a ludicrously high gallows to erect in the courtyard of a person\u2019s home! The exaggerated dimension serves to heighten the foolishness and excess of Haman and his wife.
\nto crucify Mordecai Josephus uses terminology that would have been familiar to his Roman audience, since crucifixion was a common form of execution practiced by them. The biblical sources, however, probably speak of impaling, though there is some overlap in the terminology. Impaling involved the public display of a person\u2019s body on a pole after he had been killed. The intention was to inflict the utmost dishonor on the deceased. Examples of hanging on a tree or a wall occur in the Bible (see Gen. 40:19; Deut. 21:22; Josh. 8:29; 10:26; 1 Sam. 31:10), but the practice was particularly associated with the Persians in antiquity (e.g., Herodotus, Hist. 3.125, 7.238).
\n247. God was mocking Haman\u2019s wicked hopes This picture of God mocking Haman is Josephus\u2019s own contribution to the story based on his conviction that God knows the future before it happens and works to accomplish his own ends. The term \u201cmocking\u201d is reminiscent of Esther\u2019s earlier prayer in the Greek version of the story, in which she pleads with God not to let their enemies \u201claugh at our downfall\u201d (Add. Esth. C 14:11). See also the comment below on Ant. 11.257.
\nhe took away the king\u2019s sleep As in the Greek versions, God is identified as the cause of the king\u2019s sleepless night. The Hebrew version states simply that \u201csleep deserted the king\u201d (Esther 6:1). The Rabbis speak of how God and all the heavenly host are roused to action by the fasting and prayers of the Judeans, especially the women, whose voice was heard \u201clike the voice of young goats\u201d (Tg. Esth. 1 6:1; see also Tg. Esth. 2). According to Esth. Rab. 10.1 the king\u2019s sleep is disturbed by a dream of Haman seizing a sword to kill him.
\n248. not wanting to waste his wakefulness idly Josephus expands considerably on the biblical version of this night scene, including details about other records besides the one concerning Mordecai.
\n249. Gabataios and Theodestes In the Hebrew Bible these eunuchs are called Bigthan and Teresh, while in the Greek versions their names are Gabatha and Tharra. The Septuagint contains two stories about Mordecai informing on eunuchs who plan to assassinate the king. Here, Josephus follows the Hebrew Bible\u2019s story line, though clearly he was aware of the Greek variations.
\n251. whichever of his friends The \u201cfriends\u201d of the king were his most loyal supporters, advisors, and confidants. It was customary for such individuals to appear at the court early in the morning to greet the king and to make themselves available for whatever he might need. In this story Haman is the king\u2019s closest friend, but Mordecai more truly fulfills the role by being more concerned for the king\u2019s well-being than his own.
\n253. Haman reckoned that whatever advice he might give would in fact benefit himself Josephus relishes the irony of the scene in which Haman proposes a reward that he imagines will be given to himself. Later in the story Josephus inserts an editorial note in which he reflects on the opposite lesson: those who devise punishments for others should be careful that they do not rebound on themselves (Ant. 11.268). The Rabbis greatly embellish the account of the honors bestowed on Mordecai; see Tg. Esth. 1 and 2 6:10 and B. Meg. 16a.
\n256. his mind was confused Josephus\u2019s greatly embellished account of Haman\u2019s stunned response to the king\u2019s instructions echoes the Alpha-Text of Esther, in which it is stated that \u201chis heart was utterly crushed, and his spirit was changed by faintness\u201d (7:13).
\n257. thinking that he was being mocked Mordecai\u2019s words to Haman are Josephus\u2019s own addition to the story. The motif of mockery raises its head again, this time ironically since Mordecai thinks that he is being mocked, but is not (see comment on Ant. 11.247 above). What is not ironic is Mordecai\u2019s description of Haman as the \u201cworst of all men.\u201d Later in the story the king himself will refer to Haman in the same way (\u00a7265). The Rabbis greatly embellish Haman\u2019s humiliation by having him personally bathe Mordecai and act as his footstool when mounting the horse; see B. Meg. 16a, Esth. Rab. 10.4, and Tg. Esth. 1 and 2 6:11.
\n259. Haman went in disgrace to his own home The Hebrew Bible states that Haman went home with \u201chis head covered in mourning\u201d (Esther 6:12), while the Greek similarly states that Haman went home \u201cmourning and with his head covered.\u201d Two themes are important here. The first is the reversal of the role of mourner. While originally it was the Judeans who mourned while Haman rejoiced, now it is the other way round. The second important theme is that of honor and shame. Haman has been shamed\u2014and more shame lies in store for him\u2014while the one he hoped to shame has been greatly honored\u2014and more honor awaits him and his people.
\nhe would no longer be able to get revenge \u2026 for God was with him Josephus takes this statement from the Greek versions, while in the Hebrew, Haman\u2019s wife states, \u201cIf Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish stock, you will not overcome him; you will fall before him to your ruin\u201d (Esther 6:13). At this point in the story it is already clear that Haman\u2019s plot to kill Mordecai has failed, and the events leading to the final downfall of Haman have already been set in motion.
\n260\u201368 The plot reaches its climax as Esther reveals Haman\u2019s plot to the king, who summarily sentences him to death. Josephus takes the opportunity to reflect on the moral lesson of the story. No doubt Josephus hoped that Gentile readers would learn from his story what dangers lie in store for those who plot to harm the Jews.
\n261. when Sabouchadas, one of the eunuchs, saw the cross that had been set up in Haman\u2019s house Josephus has the eunuch inquire about the cross here to account for his knowledge of it later in the story (Ant. 11.266). In the Hebrew Bible his name is Harbonah, while in the Greek versions it is Agathas or Bugathan.
\n263. she would not have troubled him if he had directed that they be sold into bitter slavery Esther implies that only because a fate worse than slavery awaits the Judeans does she now trouble the king. Josephus\u2019s version is, uncharacteristically, closer to the Hebrew version here than to the Greek ones, in which Esther states that her people have indeed been sold into slavery (Esther 7:4). Possibly, Josephus is alluding to Haman\u2019s financial arrangement with the king whereby he offered to pay for the extermination of the Judeans (see comment on Ant. 11.214 above.). Josephus also alludes to the story of Joseph, who was sold by his brothers (Gen. 37:28, 36; 45:4).
\n264. evil One of the recurring themes of this story is the innate wickedness of Haman in contrast to the virtue of both Esther and Mordecai.
\n265. falling upon her couch Josephus embellishes the drama of this scene, drawing on the Greek versions. The Rabbis state that it was the angel Gabriel who threw Haman onto Esther\u2019s couch to make it look as if he was about to violate Esther. They also say that when the king went into the garden he saw angels disguised as Haman\u2019s sons cutting down the trees; see B. Meg. 16a and Tg. Esth. 1 and 2 7:7.
\nYou worst of all men Ironically, these words to Haman are based on a misunderstanding of Haman\u2019s actions\u2014he seems to the king to be making a violent advance on Esther. Nevertheless, despite his mistake, the king finally sees through Haman\u2019s lies to the real character of the man. Further, this description of Haman, which the audience knows to be true, is a repeat of Mordecai\u2019s words to him earlier in the story where they are also based on a misunderstanding of Haman\u2019s actions. The irony is that the truth about Haman is uttered by characters who misunderstand Haman\u2019s outward actions, but who nevertheless grasp the true nature of the man.
\n267. he should be hanged from that cross The Rabbis greatly embellish the story of Haman\u2019s shameful death along with his 10 sons, who are said to have been crucified or impaled on the same pole; see Tg. Esth. 1 and 2 9:13\u201314.
\n268. Which gives me reason to marvel This editorial comment is Josephus\u2019s own addition to the story. Josephus often draws this kind of moral from the history he relates. Earlier in the story (Ant. 11.253) a reward that Haman had assumed was for himself went to his enemy, and here a punishment that he had devised for his enemy rebounded on himself. This is what Josephus means when he says that \u201cGod was mocking Haman\u2019s wicked hopes\u201d (Ant. 11.247).
\n269\u201396 The king reverses the ill fortune of the Judeans and they are saved. He also sends a letter reversing his earlier edict, and the Judeans commemorate their deliverance by establishing the annual holiday of Purim.
\n269. made immoderate use of the honor he had received This reason for Haman\u2019s fall is supplied by Josephus himself. The measure of this immoderation is expressed in the king\u2019s complaint that Haman had acted with insolence, or arrogance (the Greek term is hybris) not only to those who were his social inferiors, but to his benefactor the king as well (see comment on 273\u201374). This theme is familiar from Greek tragedy. See further the comment on 277 below.
\n275. after misleading by false accusations and slanders those who ruled The poisonous influence of false accusations and slander is a recurring theme throughout Josephus\u2019s writings, no doubt because he himself had been the subject of accusations that he regarded as malicious.
\n276. we must not pay attention to slanders and accusations This is a key contention of Josephus\u2019s throughout his writings. He was particularly concerned that the Romans in his own day should not listen to slander against the Jews either in Rome or throughout the empire. See, e.g., Ag. Ap. 1.2\u20133.
\n277. he did not bear his good fortune well, nor did he manage the greatness of his prosperity with sound reason This too is a theme drawn from Greek tragedy and runs throughout Josephus\u2019s retelling of the biblical story. In one place (Ant. 6.116) Josephus theorizes that Saul came to grief after losing his reason in the wake of great good fortune (see also Ant. 8.251; 9.122).
\n281. to allow the Judeans to live in peace according to their own laws This clause sums up what, in large measure, is the central aim of all Josephus\u2019s writings. Whether in his retelling of the national history, or in relating more recent events, or in giving a description of Judaism itself, Josephus\u2019s aim was to secure for the Jews in his own time precisely this benefit\u2014that they should be allowed to live in peace according to their own laws.
\n284. they took his good fortune as common to themselves Josephus supplies his own interpretation of the people\u2019s joy, namely that they saw the good fortune of Mordecai as their own. Perhaps Josephus wished that his own contemporaries would view his own conspicuously good treatment at the hands of the Romans as a sign, not of treachery, but of better things ahead for the whole nation.
\n285. circumcised The Hebrew Bible states that \u201cmany of the people of the land professed to be Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them\u201d (Esther 8:17). Both of the Greek versions state that many allowed themselves to be circumcised, that is, to demonstrate the sincerity of their conversion to Judaism.
\n290. but they touched none of their possessions This point is found in the Hebrew original (Esther 9:10, 15, 16), and in two places in the Septuagint (Esther 9:15, 16). However, both Esther 9:10 LXX and the Alpha-Text assert that the Jews did indeed plunder the possessions of their enemies. The significance of this point seems to be a connection to the ancient story of enmity between King Saul and the Amalekite king Agag. Saul had disobeyed God by plundering Agag\u2019s possessions when he had been explicitly commanded not to (1 Sam. 15). It is as if in this rerun of the battle between the houses of Saul (Mordecai) and Amalek (Haman), the wrong had finally been put right.
\n292. feasted on the 14th and the following day Josephus takes this detail from the Alpha-Text of Esther (8:17). According to the Hebrew text and the Septuagint, some of the Jews\u2014those living in the city of Susa\u2014needed an extra day to dispose of their enemies, while those living in villages needed only a single day. The result was that those who lived in villages observed the festival on the 14th of Adar, while those who lived in walled cities observed it on the 15th (Esther 9:15\u201319).
\n295. Phrouraioi The term in the Hebrew Bible is Purim, which refers to the lot that, in the biblical story, Haman cast to determine the day on which the Jews should be killed (Esther 3:7; 9:24\u201326). Josephus, however, omits any mention of the casting of lots, and so offers no account of the meaning of the term, perhaps because he viewed the etymology suggested by the Bible (connecting the Hebrew word pur, \u201clot,\u201d with the name of the holiday \u201cPurim\u201d) as highly suspect. The form of the word that Josephus uses derives from the Greek versions, which use either phrourai or phourdai.<\/p>\n
Interpretive Texts Centering on Biblical Figures<\/p>\n
Life of Adam and Eve<\/p>\n
Gary A. Anderson<\/p>\n
The Life of Adam and Eve may be divided into three basic units, the first beginning with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and continuing until Adam\u2019s moment of impending death, when he gathers his children to his bedside in order to relate to them his account of the fall. The second section picks up with Eve\u2019s account of the fall, which is considerably longer than Adam\u2019s. Much of her account agrees with that of Adam, but significant differences also exist. These two narrative sections must have had separate origins and were later combined by a final redactor. The third section documents the death and burial of Adam and Eve and their pardon and promise of a resurrection. As Adam makes clear at the beginning of his speech, the reason for going over all of this ancient history is to make subsequent generations aware of the nature of the fall so that they might better understand why human beings suffer from illness and eventually die. The closing account of Adam\u2019s remorse, pardon, and resurrection reveals that the fall of Adam and Eve will not remain unhealed. It is within God\u2019s merciful nature to redeem those beings he formed with his own hands.<\/p>\n
Textual Evidence<\/p>\n
The Life of Adam and Eve has long been known to Western European readers in Latin. For some time study of the text meant study of its Latin textual form. This changed in the late 19th century when Tischendorf published an edition of the tale in Greek. Shortly thereafter, a Slavonic version\u2014which was composed long after the Greek and Latin\u2014appeared.
\nFor the last 100 years or so, scholars have tried to understand the relationship of the Greek and Latin forms of the text (see table below). This has not been an easy task, for the Latin has several literary units that are absent in the Greek, the most important being the rather long narrative at the beginning concerning Adam and Eve\u2019s penitence. The Greek also has a long independent narrative in which Eve recounts her story of the fall, an apparent doublet of a far briefer account given earlier by Adam. Because of a general scholarly tendency to consider Greek materials as prior to the Latin, a consensus gradually emerged that the Latin additions were secondary.<\/p>\n
Narrative Unit
\nGreek
\nLatin
\nAdam\u2019s penitence
\n\u2014
\n1\u201321
\nCain and Abel
\n1\u20134
\n22\u201324
\nAdam\u2019s vision
\n\u2014
\n25\u201329
\nAdam\u2019s story of the fall
\n5\u201314
\n30\u201344
\nEve\u2019s story of the fall
\n15\u201330
\n\u2014
\nDeath and burial of Adam and Eve
\n31\u201342
\n45\u201348<\/p>\n
The entire picture changed, however, in 1981 when M. Stone published the Armenian and J.-P. Mah\u00e9 the Georgian version of the tale. Each of these oriental versions contained the major additions that were unique to the Latin and Greek (a Latin manuscript has recently been found that contains Eve\u2019s account of the fall). Though one could argue that these versions were later conflations of the shorter and more pristine Greek and Latin texts, there are grounds for suspecting just the opposite. It is not impossible that the Greek and Latin versions derived from an original that looked closer to the present form of the Georgian and Armenian. In support of this, one can point to the recently discovered Latin manuscript of the text that is very similar to the composite account of the Georgian\/Armenian versions. In addition, the Old Irish biblical poem, Saltair Na Rann (10th century), contains material from both the Greek and Latin versions. Given that the source for this Irish text was likely to have been a Greek version of the Life of Adam and Eve, it also provides evidence for an ancient form of the text that resembles the Armenian and Georgian versions. But many scholars still prefer to see the form of the book preserved in Greek (\u201cThe Apocalypse of Moses\u201d) as the oldest form of the work.
\nThe text printed below is the Georgian version. Although most scholarly editions continue to print the Greek and the Latin, it seems preferable to present the reader with the full wealth of all the Adam traditions contained in this document from the perspective of a single text type. The Georgian version\u2019s one advantage over the Armenian is that the Armenian version lost a sizeable piece of text in the section concerning Adam\u2019s burial (45(33):1\u201347(38):2). The reader should not infer from my choice that the Georgian version in its present form is the earliest form of the text. Many scholars still prefer to see the short form of the Greek text as the earliest, even though significant problems remain.<\/p>\n
Authorship and History<\/p>\n
A generation ago it was common to place considerable weight on the question of origin. This has been unfortunate for the study of the Adam books because their history of transmission has been marked by ongoing redaction. One reason for the careful attention to the problem of the origin of the text among an earlier generation of scholars was the claim that it was of ancient Jewish origin. If it could be shown to stem from the Second Temple period, then the text would become a possible source for the Apostle Paul\u2019s famous speculations about the nature of Adam\u2019s sin (esp. Rom. 5 and 1 Cor. 15). One way of demonstrating this was to show that the present Greek text was riddled with Semitisms that betrayed a Hebrew original. But nearly all of these so-called Semitisms have not stood the test of time. All scholars agree that the original form of the text was written in Greek.
\nThere can be no question that the Life of Adam and Eve borrowed a number of exegetical traditions that derive from various Jewish sources. But this cannot, in and of itself, prove that the entire narrative derived from a Jewish author. Many Christian texts, for example, claim that the angels who cohabited with humans in Gen. 6:1\u20134 descended to earth during the days of Jared (5:18\u201320). Since the wordplay in this idea only works in the Hebrew (Jared derives from the root y-r-d, \u201cto go down\u201d), it is surely of Jewish origin, but its occurrence in patently Christian materials means that the presence of Jewish traditions does not prove Jewish authorship. More evidence of Jewish authorship is the very few explicit Christian references (indeed, in the shortest form of the Greek tradition there are none). In sum, the question of the Jewish or Christian origin of the text must be left open. This is itself striking because it indicates how closely intertwined the two traditions were at this early date.
\nIt is also very difficult to determine when the Life of Adam and Eve was written. There are several references to some form of an Adam book in various early Christian texts, but it is not clear in any of these cases that the book in question is the Life of Adam and Eve. If we begin with the hardest evidence, the manuscripts themselves, we can point to our earliest Latin exemplar, from the early 8th century. Since this Latin version is quite different from its earlier Greek form, this would put us at least within the 7th century. A number of early Christian works, however, seem to be clearly dependent on the Life of Adam and Eve (e.g., the Cave of Treasures), and these texts range from the 2nd to the 6th century. A reasonable guess, then, for the date of original composition would be somewhere between 100 and 400 CE.<\/p>\n
Significance<\/p>\n
This text is one of the most widely read and influential pseudepigraphic documents in Western civilization. The influence of the Life of Adam and Eve stretches all the way to Milton\u2019s Paradise Lost and Spencer\u2019s Fairie Queene. No doubt one reason for this was the role this text played in transmitting apocryphal lore about the origins of the wood of the cross (the \u201choly rood\u201d). None of this lore is present in the earliest version of the tale, but it achieved considerable prominence in later Latin versions of the text.
\nAmong the culturally significant motifs found in the Life of Adam and Eve are several elements that have no parallel in the biblical tradition. A striking feature of the opening narrative is the predicament in which Adam and Eve find themselves once they are evicted from the Garden. No human food is to be found, and Eve is pregnant and about to experience the terrible pains of giving birth. Both of these motifs follow from the punishments that God decreed over Adam and Eve just prior to their expulsion (Gen. 3:16\u201319). What is striking about the Life of Adam and Eve is that Adam and Eve \u201cdiscover\u201d crises they have to face in their postlapsarian state. One would have thought from the simple sense of the Genesis narrative that they would have anticipated this state of affairs.
\nThis alteration in the biblical account is due to the way this text understands the fall. It was a commonplace in early Jewish and Christian texts to imagine that Adam and Eve were vested in \u201cgarments of glory\u201d\u2014vestments that rendered them near angelic\u2014prior to their fall. Once they had eaten from the forbidden fruit they were instantly transformed and were clothed with \u201cgarments of skin\u201d (see Gen. 3:21), that is, the same mortal flesh that human beings presently \u201cwear.\u201d In some exegetical traditions it was thought that the very moment in which Adam and Eve found themselves appareled in skin, they also found themselves evicted from the Garden (3:7). If one follows this chain of reasoning, the punishments that God decreed over the snake, Eve, and then Adam (3:14\u201319) are difficult to place. Some texts simply dropped them from their retold narrative. The striking move of the Life of Adam and Eve is to transform these punishments into specific moments of crisis that Adam and Eve will \u201cdiscover\u201d after leaving Eden. Their surprise at each one of these confirms that they were expelled from the Garden before God could declare their punishment.
\nEve\u2019s subsequent account of the fall does not reconstruct the events in the Garden in this fashion. Rather, Adam and Eve remain in the Garden after their sin, hear the punishments decreed by God, and then are expelled, all in basic conformity to the order of the biblical story. The account of Adam\u2019s death has no precedent in the biblical text, and so there are few exegetical traditions in this material that can be traced back to Genesis. What we see in this section are traditional Judeo-Christian ideas about repentance, burial, and resurrection.<\/p>\n
GUIDE TO READING<\/p>\n
It is extremely difficult to number the chapters and verses of this text due to the manner of its prior publication. Because the Greek and Latin texts were originally seen as two separate texts, each was given its own unique system of numeration. Because the Armenian and Georgian versions present the reader with a unified text, a numbering system had to be developed that reflected the established Greek and Latin models, but was also true to the Armenian and Georgian. Hence, there are two conventions in the text printed below. In the opening 21 chapters, where there is no corresponding Greek, the chapter and verse numeration follows what had existed for the Latin and should be clear. At chapter 22, however, there is parallel Greek material, and so numeration is as follows: the first number is the Latin chapter number, the second is the Greek chapter number, and the third is the verse number. For instance, 32(7):1 means chapter 32 in the Latin, chapter 7 in the Greek, verse 1 in all the versions. Similar numeration can be found in the synoptic edition of the text prepared by Anderson and Stone in 1999.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Anderson, Gary. \u201cThe Figure of Adam in Early Judaism and Christianity.\u201d In Biblical Figures Outside the Bible, ed. M. Stone and T. Bergren, 7\u201332. Harrisburg PA: Trinity, 1998.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cThe Penitence Narrative in the Life of Adam and Eve.\u201d Hebrew Union College Annual 63 (1992): 1\u201338. Anderson, Gary, and Michael Stone. A Synopsis of the Life of Adam and Eve. Revised edition. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999.
\nDochhorn, Jan. Die Apokalypse des Mose. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 106. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr, 2005.
\nDe Jonge, Marinus, and Tromp, Johannes. The Life of Adam and Eve and Related Literature. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
\nKnittel, Thomas. Das griechische \u201cLeben Adams und Evas.\u201d Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 88. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr, 2002.
\nLevison, John. Texts in Transition: The Greek Life of Adam and Eve. SBL Early Judaism and Its Literature 16. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2000.
\nMurdoch, Brian. The Apocryphal Adam and Eve in Medieval Europe: Vernacular Translations and Adaptations of the Vita Adae et Evae. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
\nStone, Michael. A History of the Literature of Adam and Eve. SBL Early Judaism and Its Literature 3. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992.
\nTromp, Johannes. The Life of Adam and Eve in Greek: A Critical Edition. Brill: Leiden, 2005.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
1:1. Adam went out from the Garden with his wife Eve \u2026 Adam made a hut to live in This description reflects Gen. 3:24 rather closely. Like the Bible it describes an expulsion and an initial residence to the east of the Garden. Only the reference to dwelling in a hut would seem to be the narrator\u2019s fabrication. Yet there is a textual problem in the Hebrew of Gen. 3:24, which reads: \u201cHe drove out the man and made [him] dwell to the east of the Garden.\u201d The problem concerns the absence of any direct object for the verb \u201cto make dwell\u201d (wayyashken) in the text. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan solved this problem by supplying an object (\u201cand he made the glory of his Shekhinah dwell\u201d); the Greek translator also supplies an object (\u201cand he made him dwell\u201d). The Life of Adam and Eve reflects an exegetical tradition that revocalized the verb wayyashken to wayyishkon, a change that would not have altered the consonantal text. As a result of this revocalization, one could read this clause as \u201che dwelled to the east of Eden.\u201d
\nthey both wept with abundant tears Adam and Eve begin to mourn their plight and weep for seven days, a standard unit of time for ritual grief in the Bible (see Job 2:13) and Rabbinic Judaism (\u201cto sit [in mourning] seven days\u201d). Having completed those seven days, which evidently also included fasting, they begin to look for food. According to B. Er. 18b, Adam was also exemplary in his remorse and fasted off and on for some 130 years after his expulsion. B. Avod. Zar. 8a has Adam, in fear that the darkness of the first night is a return to pre-creation chaos, fasting for eight days; Pirke R. El. 20 asserts that Adam fasted for seven weeks as part of his penitence.
\n2:2. arise and (go) search for food Though far from life (in Eden), it is not yet clear they are fully separated from it. Perhaps their banishment is only temporary. Eve seems to presume that God will restore them to their prior dwelling.
\n3:1. he did not find any food Eden provided a type of food that does not exist on earth (see comment on 4:2). The loss of Edenic food is related to the punishment of Adam in Gen. 3:17\u201319. Adam should have known about this prior to his departure from Eden. In the Life of Adam and Eve, this punishment is \u201cdiscovered\u201d once they are evicted. On the discovery of the punishments of Eve (3:16) and the serpent (3:14\u201315), see comments on 19:1 and 37(10):1.
\n3:2a. if only I were dead then God would have accepted you in the Garden! The striking feature about this interchange is that Eve is not only sure that the fault is hers, she is also adamant about the solution to it in 3:2c (\u201ckill me \u2026 so that God\u2019s anger against you may cease, which came about because of me: and he will bring you back into the Garden\u201d). Midrash Mishle 9:13ff has Eve bemoaning her actions as a negative paradigm.
\n3:2b. Because of us a great anger lies upon all creatures Adam denies Eve\u2019s proposal not because she is in error\u2014about this Adam is completely in the dark (\u201cI do not know this: whether it is because of me or because of you\u201d)\u2014but because he believes killing to be wrong. The ignorance of Adam is grounded in the nature of the expulsion itself: only Eve knows its cause. This will become even clearer later in the tale (see comment on 32(7):3a).
\n3:2c. if you think it wise, kill me Eve asserts her guilt more forcefully, and in her request she anticipates the slaying of Cain by Abel. Adam will not play the role of Cain and observes that this would bring a far worse punishment.
\n4:2. God created that for the beasts An allusion to Gen. 1:29\u201330. According to the way Targum Neofiti understood this text, God had apportioned the wild grasses as food (\u201cand to all the animals [\u2026] I give all green plants as food\u201d) for the animals, but had given Adam and Eve cereals (\u201csee, I give you every seed-bearing plant\u201d). But because these cereals were bestowed on Adam and Eve only after they left Eden, the question became: what did Adam and Eve eat while they were in the Garden? The answer provided by the Life of Adam and Eve was that they ate the food of angels. And so the initial punishment for their crime is the reduction to the status of foraging animals. On the gift of \u201cseed-bearing plants\u201d to Adam and Eve see comment on 20:1a\u2013b.
\n4:3. come and let us do penance for 40 days Another standard unit for mourning (cf. the 40 years that Israel wandered in the wilderness). The goal of Adam and Eve is no longer returning to Eden but securing a food source that will distinguish them from the beasts of the field.
\n5:1. what penitence you (wish to) repent Up to this point, Eve has taken the lead in the conversation, as she is the one who knows why they have been expelled. But as they consider the assumption of a weighty vow of abstinence, Adam takes charge. The preeminent role of the husband in the making of vows follows from Lev. 27. Adam\u2019s worry that Eve will lack the power of endurance is prescient. She will eventually succumb to temptation and fail to fulfill the vow even though the terms of her vow are less stringent than those of Adam\u2019s.
\n5:3. for it is I who have brought these tribulations upon you Again, Eve asserts that her guilt is primary, and Adam does not dispute the matter.
\n6:1b. arise and go to the river Tigris; and put a stone Adam issues a command to Eve as to how she should undergo this period of penance. In this way Adam repeats an element of the storyline of Gen. 2. Because Adam heard the command about the tree prior to Eve\u2019s creation he had to convey this command to Eve. Just as Eve violated the first command (3:6), so she will violate this one (L.A.E. 10:1, 3). The motif of the stone is difficult to place. Perhaps it is intended to keep Eve from drowning and so suffer the consequences of this \u201criver ordeal.\u201d Laments in the Psalter frequently speak of the fear of the waters reaching the neck and of slipping into the deep because of a lack of proper support (Ps. 69:2\u20133). Pirke R. El 20 has Adam standing in water up to his neck.
\nwhile you pray, let no sound come from your mouth An example of measure-for-measure punishment. Since the cause of their expulsion was a violation of a command pertaining to the mouth (eating), so their penance will involve a punishment for this offending organ (silence).
\n7:2. he remained in the Jordan River The exegetical source of this motif is Josh. 3:16, the story of how the Israelites were able to cross the Jordan River so as to enter the Promised Land. As at the Exodus, the waters stopped and stood like a wall so that the Israelites could pass through as though on dry land. In the Life of Adam and Eve, Adam is also miraculously protected from the waters and survives his ordeal unscathed. The Hebrew text of Joshua mentions that the waters rose up as \u201ca wall\u201d that was \u201ca great distance [away] at Adam, the city.\u201d Evidently the reference to \u201cAdam\u201d is geographical, but it is not difficult to imagine an early interpreter construing Adam as a reference to the biblical figure. In this case the verse could be translated, \u201cthe waters rose up as a wall (just as they did) a long time ago with Adam.\u201d The theme of Adam fasting in a river can be found in the late midrashic collection Pirke R. El. 20, perhaps under the influence of the Life of Adam and Eve.
\nthe hair of his head spread out An unusual and unexplained feature in the narrative. Perhaps it connotes that Adam\u2019s vow of abstinence is to be understood as something like a Nazirite vow or simply a sign of penitential mourning.
\n8:2. because God did not withhold their fodder from them God\u2019s gift of vegetable food (Gen. 1:30) to the animals remains unaltered by the transgression. This provides an important hint about the geography of Eden. From the beginning, the animals resided outside Eden on earth where they either grazed on wild grass or were fed by Adam and Eve (see comment on 33:1 and the text of [44](16):3). Inside Eden, Adam and Eve enjoyed the bread of angels.
\n8:3. the water (of) the Jordan had restrained its flow It is important to note how different the ordeal of Adam is from that of Eve. Whereas she must undergo the watery ordeal and will suffer greatly as a result (see 10:1), Adam remains unscathed (20:1\u20132).
\n9:1. he drew close to Eve, on the Tigris River This second story of the temptation of Eve very closely parallels the first. Just as in the first story Eve receives a command from Adam that the serpent persuades her not to obey and ends up discovering the shame of her changed body, so in this version Eve receives a command from Adam (\u201cbe silent, only do penitence in the water for 34 days\u201d; 6:2), which Satan then prompts her to disobey (she leaves the river on the 18th day; 9:1\u20132), and discovers that her flesh has \u201cwithered like rotten vegetables\u201d (10:1). On the importance of the altered bodily form, see comment on 34(8):2.
\n10:1. her flesh was withered like rotten vegetables Eve\u2019s body is transformed, a quintessential sign of the fall. We shall subsequently discover that Eve had fallen to the ground as one who was dead (see 17:3) and remains in that position while Adam converses with Satan about the source of his enmity toward them.
\nall the form of her beauty had been destroyed Just as Eve lost the type of body she possessed after her first transgression (see 34(8):2), so her body changes for the worse one more time after her second transgression.
\n10:3. Where are the commands of repentance that I gave you? This is an odd sentence in its present context. One does not ask where a command of repentance would be. Adam is mimicking God\u2019s question to him in the Garden (\u201cthe LORD God called out to the man and said to him, \u2018Where are you?\u2019 \u201d; Gen. 3:9). Our narrative has clearly set Adam up as a lord over Eve. A similar tradition of Adam\u2019s lordship over Eve can be found in Avot R. Nat. 1:6, where Eve regularly refers to Adam as rabbi or \u201cmy lord.\u201d Cf. B. Yoma 86b citing R. Yehudah defining repentance as avoiding repetition of the same transgression.
\n11:2. Woe to you who fight against us! What evil have we done to you? The Life of Adam and Eve is a composite narrative that has been assembled from various parts. Here we see the question that our editor uses to introduce the story of Satan\u2019s fall into his narrative. One can see the secondary nature of this tale by the difficulties raised by its present placement. Adam gets Satan to tell the story by expressing complete ignorance about Satan\u2019s motives. Yet the story recounts the moment of Adam\u2019s creation and the public elevation of Adam over the entire angelic host. It is hard to imagine that Adam was unaware of what took place during this incident.
\n12:1. (It was) by you that I was alienated from my own throne \u2026 more numerous than those of the cherubim Behind this description is a reference to Ezek. 28:14. This section of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy (28:11\u201319) was a locus classicus in early Christianity for the story of Satan\u2019s fall, though it is likely that Christian readers were drawing on an ancient Jewish source. It depicts a glorious resident of a heavenly Eden, who, because of his pride, was cast out. An ancient Jewish tradition (see Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Deut. 32:8) understood the heavenly council to be made of up 70 angels who represented the 70 nations of the world (see Gen. 10, which depicts the nations of the world as 70 in number). The prince of Tyre (Ezek. 28:10\u201311) was understood to be Satan, who was once the guardian angel of that city (see Origen, Commentary on Ezekiel).
\n13:2. when God breathed a spirit onto your face, you had the image and likeness of Divinity These lines weave together the two creation stories of Genesis. In Gen. 1:26 God forms Adam in his image, whereas in 2:7 he animates Adam by breathing life into his nostrils. According to this tradition the rendering of Adam as the image of God is accomplished by the unique way in which he is animated.
\n14:3. I shall not bow down to him who is younger than I; indeed, I was master before him This recalls the story of Jacob and Esau, for God preferred the younger son over the elder (Gen. 25:23), which led Esau to a jealous and murderous rage. A similar narrative dynamic can be found in the Joseph story, where Joseph is elevated over his 11 older brothers (37:3); they too envy his status and attempt to murder him. By using the pattern of election to tell the story of Satan\u2019s fall, our writer avoids the Gnostic tendency to imagine the power of evil as coeval with creation. In the present story, Satan was created as an angel of considerable honor; only out of his own free will does he fall from glory and seek vengeance on the human race. In some Rabbinic sources, the creation of Adam is also the occasion for angelic rebellion, though in these materials the issue is not jealousy but rather indignation that God would create a being capable of rebellion (B. Sanh. 38b). In other sources the angels attempt to worship Adam (Gen. Rab. 8.10). The tradition of Satan\u2019s refusal to venerate Adam can also be found in the Koran several times (e.g., Surah 38:71\u201377).
\n16:2. when I had realized that \u2026 I was in distress The Armenian version of this line reads: \u201cWhen I realized that because of you I had gone from the dwelling of light and was in sorrow and pains.\u201d According to the Armenian version, Satan, just like Adam and Eve, loses the glorious light he had been blessed with at his creation and experiences bodily pain (see 34(8):2).
\n17:3. Eve had fallen upon the ground like one dead See 10:1 and 34(8):2.
\n18:1. I shall go in the direction of the setting sun Eve separates from Adam so that he can miraculously intervene on her behalf. Her individual exile mirrors the exile with which the story began (1:1). Upon expulsion from the Garden, Adam and Eve go to the east, build a hut, mourn, and then rise to look for food. The last item introduces the dominant theme of the next section of the narrative. Eve, on the other hand, having been banished from Adam\u2019s presence goes to the west, builds a hut, mourns, and then attends to the pains of her pregnancy. Again, the last item mentioned introduces the lead motif of the following section. Just as there was a second temptation and fall of Eve, so there was a second expulsion.
\n19:1. when the days of her parturition arrived \u2026 she wailed toward God in a loud voice It is striking that the birth pains come upon Eve as if by surprise. She must discover these travails just as the discovery of animal food outside of Eden was also a surprise (see comments on 3:1 and 37(10):1). According to a simple reading of the biblical story these punishments should have been expected because God declares them to Adam and Eve prior to their departure from the Garden (Gen. 3:14\u201319).
\n20:1a\u2013b. Then Adam, in the river Jordan, heard her tearful crying \u2026 Then God hearkened to Adam\u2019s prayer \u2026 he taught him sowing A combination of two different themes. First, Adam heard Eve\u2019s cry and goes forth to intercede for her. Second, we see that God has heard Adam\u2019s penance. As a result of his 40 days in the Jordan, Adam is bequeathed the seeds that will be needed to grow the cereals promised in Gen. 1:29 (see comment on 4:2), cereals being the type of food that will distinguish humans from the animal world and so restore Adam and Eve to a state close to the angelic one that they had lost. This narrative tradition is very close to one found in Gen. Rab. 20:10. In commenting on the verse \u201cyou shall eat the grass of the field\u201d (Gen. 3:18), R. Yitzhaq said: \u201cWhen Adam heard this punishment his face shook and he said, \u2018Am I to be bound to the trough like a domestic animal?\u2019 God replied to him, \u2018Since your face has shook [in repentance], you shall eat bread.\u2019 \u201d As in the Life of Adam and Eve, Adam is forced to consume animal food after the fall but when he mourns, God relents and gives him the grains needed to grow bread. It might be noted that some targumic manuscripts translate Gen. 3:18 as \u201cyou shall eat the green grass of the field,\u201d bringing the initial punishment of Adam into exact alignment with the status of the animals in 1:30.
\n20:3. Adam prayed and spoke a plea to God on her behalf Just as Adam and Eve appealed to God for food after the first fall and expulsion, so Eve appeals to Adam after her second fall. Her turning to Adam for intercession is based on the Greek translation of Gen. 3:16: \u201cIn pain shall you bear children, yet your return shall be toward your husband. He shall act as lord over you.\u201d The key term here is \u201creturn,\u201d which could also be glossed as \u201crepentance.\u201d Targum Neofiti translates this verse: \u201cToward your husband shall be your repentance and he will have authority over you regarding your acquittal or persistence in sin.\u201d In brief, the restoration of Eve depends on the prayer of Adam.
\n21:3a. she gave birth to an infant Strikingly our narrative says nothing about the moment when \u201cthe man knew his wife Eve\u201d (Gen. 4:1a). This is due to our narrative presuming that Eve must have become pregnant in Eden, for there has not been sufficient time since their expulsion for Eve to have brought a child fully to term. Numerous Rabbinic sources understood the verb \u201cto know\u201d in Gen. 4:1a as a pluperfect (\u201cAdam had known Eve \u2026\u201d) and thus referred to a prior act of sexual congress that had taken place in Eden. In B. Sanh. 38b, we have clear evidence that Adam and Eve had consummated their marriage prior to their expulsion from Eden: \u201cThe first day consisted of 12 hours. In the first hour Adam\u2019s dust was gathered; in the second, it was kneaded into a shapeless mass; [\u2026] in the seventh, Eve became his mate; in the eighth, they ascended to bed as two and descended as four; [\u2026] in the 10th, he sinned; in the 11th, he was tried; and in the 12th he was expelled.\u201d
\n21:3b. he fell into the hands of the midwife and \u2026 began to pluck up the grass Cain is born full grown and has a somewhat demonic personality. Perhaps it builds on Gen. 4:1, which reads (in the Greek) \u201cI have acquired a man with the help of a divine being.\u201d Here the reference to \u201ca man\u201d seems to indicate that Cain was born fully mature (and so he can leap up right after birth and pluck grass). His demonic nature comes from an exegetical tradition that understood Eve to have had sexual congress with the snake or Satan in the Garden (and so the reference to the assistance of a divine being at the close of Gen. 4:1). See Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on this verse: \u201cAnd Adam knew that Eve had become pregnant by way of Sammael, the (evil) angel of the LORD.\u201d
\n22(1):2. as for Adam, he took Eve At this point in the narrative, the Greek version begins.
\n23(3):2a. do not reveal Seth plays a key role in the Life of Adam and Eve as the one who will learn key mysteries. It is not clear what is implied here\u2014the text is probably relying on a traditional motif of Sethean wisdom\u2014but later in the text we do see what Seth learns (see comment on 47(38):4).
\n30(5):1. and again, after that, Adam had 30 sons and 30 daughters Prior to this section the Latin version (L.A.E. 25\u201329) of the tale has a story of Adam telling Seth about a special revelation he was granted of God\u2019s judgment and pardoning of him. In this fashion the Latin fills out what was unexplained in 23(3):2a.
\n31(6):1. have (you) remembered, perchance, the fruit of the Garden No one knows about death yet; only Adam seems to be aware of what is at stake, and he is not yet clear about all the details.
\n32(7):1. God ordered us In the Bible, Adam gets the command first, and we must presume that he later conveys it to Eve (Gen. 2:16\u201317). But some Rabbinic sources (and perhaps the LXX) presume that Adam and Eve heard the command at the same time. In B. Sanh. 38b (quoted in the comment on 21:3a), Eve was created in the eighth hour, whereas the commandment was given in the ninth hour.
\n32(7):3a. she deceived me, my children, for I did not know Adam was ignorant of what he was doing when he consumed the forbidden fruit. The logic of this text presumes that Eve must have fed him a portion of that fruit without telling him its source. This would explain why Adam is so puzzled to find himself suddenly thrust out of Eden at the beginning of the tale while Eve is not puzzled. Evidently upon eating the fruit they found themselves immediately cast out of paradise. As a result they had no time to hear the punishments that are found at the close of Gen. 3, instead they \u201cdiscover\u201d them as they make their way from Eden (on the theme of \u201cdiscovery\u201d see comments on 3:1; 19:1; 37(10):1).
\n32(7):3b. he had given me the eastern and northern portion The division of Eden into two sections is important so that Adam can be separated from Eve when Satan comes to tempt her.
\n33:1. and there were 12 angels with each of us to guard us The Armenian version has a different and probably better reading: \u201cWe had 12 angels who went around with each of us, because of the guarding of the Garden.\u201d Here the task of guarding belongs to Adam and Eve, which is in keeping with the Genesis narrative, where God put Adam and Eve in the Garden \u201cto work and guard\u201d it (Gen. 2:15). A common question that early interpreters asked was: from whom must they guard the Garden? According to the Life of Adam and Eve, since the animals were to reside outside Eden, Adam and Eve were to prevent the animals from entering. Significantly, in Eve\u2019s account of the fall, Satan manages to overturn this injunction ([44](18):6).
\n34(8): 2. he sent 70 evils upon us It is striking that Adam\u2019s account of what transpired in the Garden ends right here when Adam and Eve have discovered their nakedness (Gen. 3:7). This manner of telling the story is by no means accidental. There was a widespread Jewish tradition\u2014that later become central in Christianity as well\u2014that Adam and Eve had bodies similar to the angels prior to their fall. This would dovetail with the tradition that Adam and Eve ate the food of angels in Garden (see L.A.E. 4:2: \u201cBut our food was that by which the angels live\u201d) and only began to consume human food upon their expulsion. According to this tradition, the vesting of Adam and Eve with \u201cgarments of skin\u201d (see Gen. 3:21) become the single most important punishment for their transgression. The Life of Adam and Eve certainly reflects this tradition, though in a somewhat unexpected way. The 70 evils that plague their bodies are a sign that their former bodily nature has been changed and that they have become mortal. The weight of this tradition was so great that it often pushed the other biblical punishments (pain in childbirth and difficulty in agriculture) to the periphery. In the Life of Adam and Eve, those punishments are no longer decreed by God prior to the expulsion, but discovered by Adam and Eve afterward. The glorious angelic constitution with which Adam and Eve were graced was often referred to as the \u201cgarments of light.\u201d In Gen. Rab. 20:12 we read, \u201cIn R. Meir\u2019s Torah it was found written \u2018Garments of light [\u2018or spelled with an aleph, meaning \u201clight\u201d],\u2019 this refers to Adam\u2019s garments which were like a torch [shedding radiance].\u201d After the fall, when they had lost that beaming radiance, they were clothed in \u201cgarments of skin\u201d (\u2018or spelled with an ayin, meaning \u201cskin\u201d). This exegetical tradition also provided a convenient answer as to how the threat of punishment by death followed upon eating the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve did not literally die when they ate from the tree, but their physical constitution was immediately changed such that they were now bound to die. The number 70 is a unit of totality reflecting a body that had once been whole and immortal but now has become susceptible to pain, corruption, and eventually death.
\n36(9):4. where the Tree of Life is, from which the oil flows out There was much speculation about the nature of the trees in paradise. According to one early Jewish text, one of those trees was thought to be \u201can olive tree, flowing with oil continuously\u201d (2 En. 8:5). Indeed, the Armenian version declares that it was an olive tree. In the Gnostic text On the Origin of the World, there is a lengthy description of two trees in paradise, one of which is an olive tree: \u201cNow after (the Tree of Life), the olive tree sprouted up, which was to purify the kings and the high priests of righteousness, who were to appear in the last days, since the olive tree appeared out of the light of the first Adam for the sake of the unguent they were to receive\u201d (2:111:2\u20138). The secret formula for the anointing oil was given to Moses at Sinai and was to be used to anoint the Tabernacle and the sons of Aaron (Exod. 30:25\u201332). According to Rabbinic tradition (and also evident in the Temple Scroll), this oil was used up during the biblical era and not available in the Second Temple period. According to B. Hor. 11b\u201312a, this oil will become available again in the Messianic era.
\n37(10):1. as she went she saw one of her descendants \u2026 and (the beast) was biting the child This section clearly narrativizes the curse placed on the snake (who is representative of the animal kingdom; in the Latin version the narrator switches back and forth between snake and beast) in Gen. 3:14\u201315. This rebellion takes place only at the end of Adam\u2019s life. It is clear that the submission of the animals to the authority of Adam continued even after the exile from Eden, as Adam has no problems summoning creatures to surround him as he mourns in the river Jordan (L.A.E. 8). Only now at the end of Adam\u2019s life does Seth \u201cdiscover\u201d the third punishment of Gen. 3:14\u201319 (for the punishment of pain in childbirth, see L.A.E. 19:1; for the failure of food supply, see 3:1). In the biblical curse, it is said that enmity will be placed between the snake and the seed of Eve. Here that seed is particularized in the person of Seth. Moreover, Gen. 3:15 declared that the seed of Eve would have the power to bruise the head of the beast. In the Life of Adam and Eve, Seth tames the beast by charging it to close its mouth, an organ that resides, of course, in the head.
\n39(12):1. get away from us, the image of the Divinity In Gen. 5:3 Seth is designated as the image of God. His importance as the image was already indicated in L.A.E. 23(3):2b.
\n41(13):2b. do not labor to supplicate thus concerning the olive tree Although this text was copied and transmitted by Christian scribes, there is very little material in the document that bespeaks specific Christian content. This section, however, provides precisely that. Indeed, in the Latin version of this text this is the occasion for inserting a section of the Gospel of Nicodemus, an apocryphal text that describes the victorious descent of Christ into Hades to despoil the kingdom of Satan (the so-called Harrowing of Hell, well known in medieval literature). In this text the oil from the Garden is identified with the oil of chrism that is used in the baptismal rite. Seth is told that this healing oil from the Garden will become available only after the death and resurrection of Jesus, when Eden will be reopened and those found worthy of the kingdom will be anointed with the oil of immortality (see the Latin version from 41:1 to 42:5).
\n[44] (14).1b This verse is so numbered because the [44] refers to the standard numeration of the Latin and (14) that of the Greek. In this particular case [44] is carried forward for so many units because there is no corresponding Latin.
\n[44](14):2. what has been done with us? This is a somewhat strange question, as Adam has just rehearsed the entire story of the fall to his offspring, who have gathered around him. One would presume that he knows exactly what happened in the Garden. But the question is necessary in order to introduce the next section, which will be a speech by Eve that will provide her longer account of what transpired in the Garden. Because her account will contradict at numerous points what both Adam said and what happened in the early section of the text (L.A.E. 1\u201321), it is likely that it was created independently of that material and redacted into the tale at a later date. The Latin version does not include this material.
\n[44](15):2. your father was guarding his portion of the Garden Eve\u2019s account agrees with what Adam stated earlier (32(7):3b).
\n[44](16): 2a. you are wiser than all the animals This is drawn from Gen. 3:1. But whereas in the biblical account we are not altogether clear why this detail is important, in this retelling its purpose is obvious. The serpent was once the most important figure in the animal kingdom but now no longer bears any obvious signs of such stature.
\n[44](16):2b. you also come to bow down. You were created before him Satan\u2019s dialogue with the serpent follows the same contours as his account of his own fall. When Adam questions him as to his enmity for humankind, Satan replied that he was humiliated by the command to venerate Adam. Why should he worship this creature, he asked, \u201cwho is younger than I; indeed, I was master before him\u201d (14:3). So here, Satan insinuates that the serpent, because he was also created before Adam, should not bow and scrape before him. If anything, Adam should revere him.
\n[44](16):4b. be a sheath for me In Pirke R. El. 13 Satan also speaks through the snake as though through an instrument. According to the tradition found in the Life of Adam and Eve, the snake was not capable of human speech and so Satan will speak through his mouth. This contradicts what we saw earlier when Seth closes the mouth of the serpent, who seemed quite capable of speech (39(12):1). For other texts that identify the serpent with Satan see Ascension of Isaiah 1:8 and 3 Bar. 4:8.
\n[44](17):2c. you \u2026 who are blind According to Gen. 3:7 the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened after the fall. The reader of the biblical text may wonder how they were closed beforehand. Satan provides one answer as to how that might have been.
\n[44](17):3. God set me to guard the Garden See comment on 33:1.
\n[44](17):4. do you eat the fruit of every tree The first words of the serpent in Gen. 3:1 are quite awkward in the original Hebrew. A standard translation is: \u201cDid God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the Garden?\u201d Yet the Hebrew could be rendered, \u201cIs it also the case that God said,\u201d presuming that the snake had been in the midst of a rather long speech when all of the sudden the reader of the biblical text is drawn in midstream. For this reason some midrashic texts (cf. Avot R. Nat. 1), like the Life of Adam and Eve here, feel compelled to introduce the earlier conversation that provides the prelude to the first words Scripture introduces.
\n[44](17):5. do not eat of it In Gen. 3:3 Eve declares that the command is twofold: they are not to eat or touch the tree.
\n[44](18):6. but you, if you are not afraid, bring it to me This is a very odd detail. There is no reason why the snake must enter the Garden and take the fruit in order for the temptation to be accomplished. Perhaps what stands behind this motif is a Jewish tradition about the nature of the double command that Eve received from Adam. According to Gen. 2:17 Adam was told only that he was not to eat from the tree, yet in 3:3 Eve relates that they are not to eat nor even touch the tree. According to Avot R. Nat. (1:4), this provided the serpent with the occasion to prove that the command was spurious. Once the serpent approached the tree, he was able to shake it until its fruit fell to the ground in order to show that it was utterly harmless. If such a tradition stood behind our story, this would explain the necessity of allowing the serpent in to remove the fruit from the tree.
\n[44](19):1d. swear to me truly that, if I make you eat it, you will not be jealous of Adam \u2026, but will \u2026 give of it also to him The problem here is that the serpent knows that when Eve eats the fruit she will know immediately that the snake has lied about the powers of the tree. In order to prevent a remorseful Eve from warning Adam about the tree, the serpent makes her swear that she will give it to her husband.
\n[44](19):3. and I ate it After this line, the Georgian drops three important verses that are retained in the Latin and Armenian versions. The Armenian for this section ([44](20):1\u20133) reads: \u201cAt that hour I learned with my eyes that I was naked of the glory with which I had been clothed. Thenceforth, I began to weep and said, \u2018What did you do to me?\u2019 [But I was no longer mortified about the war that (the) enemy had made against me;] then I learned, thenceforth, that he will lead me to the depths of hell. When Satan did this, he descended from the tree and hid in the Garden.\u201d For our purposes it is important to note Eve\u2019s observation that she has lost the garments of glory (see comment on 34(8):2).
\n[44](21):2. then your father Adam came As noted above, the Georgian text drops the references to Eve\u2019s glorious bodies (see comment on [44](19):3). This is again the case here. The Armenian has the better reading: \u201cThen Adam came to me with his great glory\u201d; that is, he is still vested in garments of glory (see 34(8):2).
\n[44](22):1. we heard from an angel that (God) blew the trumpet The appearance of God in the Garden (Gen. 3:8) is not the result of a stroll in the late afternoon, but rather a momentous descent of the divine chariot-throne (see Ezek. 1).
\n[44](23):1. God summoned Adam [and told him,] \u2018Adam, Adam, where are you? This reference to Gen. 3:8 conflicts with the earlier portion of the narrative in which Adam does not know how he got evicted from the Garden. There Adam discovers the penalties of Gen. 3:14\u201319 here he knows them in advance.
\n[44](24):1. God replied to Adam In the Bible God interrogates Adam, Eve, and then the serpent. He then punishes them in reverse order, the serpent, Eve, and Adam. In the Life of Adam and Eve, the order of the punishments is reversed: Adam, Eve, and then the serpent. It should also be noted that according to the logic of Adam\u2019s account of the fall (see 34:2; Adam and Eve find themselves cast out of the Garden as soon as they discover their nakedness) and the narrative about the penitence of Adam and Eve (L.A.E. 1\u201321), there was no public recitation of these punishments to Adam and Eve. They were discovered once they found themselves outside the Garden (see 3:1; 4:2; 20:1a\u2013b; 37(10):2).
\n[44](24):2. by the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread God declares openly what the cost of their disobedience will be.
\n[44](24):4. the beasts over whom you used to rule shall rise up against you This punishment is not found in the biblical text, but given that the animals were thought to be tame and under the control of humankind prior to the fall, the introduction of this punishment is not a surprise.
\n[44](25):3. you will never go back to [your husband] The punishment of Eve according to the Hebrew text is that her desire will be toward her husband (Gen. 3:16). The LXX and the Targum contain a different reading: Eve\u2019s return shall be toward her husband. In the earlier penitence section (L.A.E. 1\u201321), Eve had to \u201cdiscover\u201d the punishment and its amelioration (see 19:1 and 20:3); in the context of Eve\u2019s tale of the fall (L.A.E. 15\u201330 in the Greek version), the whole account is predicted in advance.
\n[44](26):3. the precious cross that my Son will take upon the earth An obvious Christian interpolation. The promise that an offspring of Eve will crush the serpent\u2019s head was thought to be a prophecy of the coming of Christ known as the protevangelium.
\n[44](28):4. guard yourself from every evil Targum Neofiti concludes its account of the expulsion from Eden with a similar exhortation to keep the commandment of the Torah. It will prove the true way to find one\u2019s way back to Eden.
\n[44](29):3. I beseech you that at the very moment of my leaving the Garden I may take incense from the Garden This is a very important detail, as it indicates the continuity between Eden and the Temple ritual. The earliest appearance of this motif is in Jub. 3:27 (2nd century BCE): \u201cOn that day when Adam went out of the Garden of Eden, he offered a sweet-smelling sacrifice\u2014frankincense, galbanum, stacte, and spices\u2014in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day he covered his shame.\u201d The directions for making the spices for the Temple ritual are given to Moses in Exod. 30:34. Adam\u2019s priestly role was also a frequent theme in Rabbinic texts, where Adam was clothed in priestly garments (Gen. Rab. 20:12) and offered sacrifices (B. Avod. Zar. 8a; Avot R. Nat. 1:1; and Gen. Rab. 16:5).
\n45(31):1. when Adam was lying ill At this point the Latin version begins again, which lacks the Greek version of Eve\u2019s account of the fall in its entirety (L.A.E. 15\u201330).
\n45(31):1. his soul was about to go out of his body Death occurs, according to the Life of Adam and Eve, when the soul leaves the body. This is common in Greek thought (Plato, Phaedo 64c; Philo, Alleg. Interp. 1.105) but it is also found in Jewish literature: Sir. 38:23; 1 En. 22:7; and 2 Esd. (4 Ezra) 7:78. But the relationship of the body to soul is not clear in the Life of Adam and Eve. Adam\u2019s soul still has strong bodily attributes upon separation: it can lie down (45(33):3; 46(35):2) and even be washed (47(37):3). The text has no systematic doctrine as to what happens to the person after death. Rather, its chief claim is that the personhood of Adam will survive and that soul and body will eventually be rejoined at the time of the general resurrection.
\n45(31):3. if we must both die, you too will be set near me Though the emphasis on the subsequent narrative will be on the pardoning of Adam, there is no question that the ultimate end of Adam and Eve is the same. On the burial of husband and wife together, see Gen. 25:10; 49:31; Tob. 4:4; 14:12.
\n45(31):4. that my soul be commended into the hands of my Creator Cf. the story of the death of Moses who also gives up his soul in Midrash Petirat Moshe.
\nI do not know This expression of uncertainty reflects Adam\u2019s piety, for all good penitents in the Bible place their fortunes in the hands of God alone (see Joel 2:14 and Jon. 3:9).
\n45(32):1. Eve arose This is an impressive scene. Eve, who has just finished a heartfelt prayer for the salvation of Adam\u2019s soul will now witness the angels doing the same. This entire unit (45(32):1\u201347(38):1) is missing from the Armenian. The absence of this scene, which will end with the pardoning of Adam (47(37):6), must be secondary, as the whole story is found in the Georgian version and is printed here. Perhaps the Armenian version found the narrative about the pardoning of Adam troubling because it felt that this moment must await the coming of Christ. Typically in Christian tradition, Adam is redeemed when Christ descends to Hell and overthrows the kingdom of death.
\n45(33):2. chariots of fire and a light The chariot imagery is drawn from the Tabernacle narrative (Exod. 25\u201331) and Ezek. 1. Like the Tabernacle, it was impossible to look at the heavenly chariots directly.
\n46(35):2. seven firmaments The idea of a seven-tiered heaven was common in Second Temple Judaism and later Jewish mystical literature.
\n47(37):3. he took Adam to the lake of (A)cheron In Greek tradition, this was a fiery stream that the soul had to cross in order to reach the underworld (see Plato, Phaedo 113a; cf. Sib. Or. 1:300\u2013304).
\n47(37):5. third heaven The idea of a heavenly paradise can be found in the writings of the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 12:2\u20134) and 2 Bar. 4:6; 59:10\u201311. And even more significant is the fact that in 2 Corintheans 12:4 and 2 Enoch 8:1, paradise is in the third heaven. It is also a significant feature in the well-known talmudic story of the four who entered paradise (B. Hag. 14b). In the Life of Adam and Eve the location of paradise is a bit confusing because later in the tale Adam will be buried at the edge of paradise (48(40):6). Our text does not attempt to reconcile these two different traditions about the location of paradise.
\nuntil the day of the oikonomia The term oikonomia is Greek and refers to the management of a household. In Christian discourse it becomes a technical term for God\u2019s providential ordering of the world. Here it refers to that moment in time when God will intervene to rectify the course of human history. In the Hebrew Bible, the moment of divine intervention was known as \u201cthe day of the LORD.\u201d It designated that moment when God would render judgment on either Israel or its foreign oppressors (see Isa. 13:6; Ezek. 30:2\u20133, and many others). In Second Temple Jewish literature this more mundane historical referent is transformed into an eschatological event. In the final days God would dramatically enter history to redeem the just and punish the wicked (see Dan. 12:2\u20133; 1 En. 92:3\u20134; 2 Esd. [4 Ezra] 7:75\u201399).
\n47(37):6. forgiveness of Adam According to one Rabbinic tradition, Adam was created on Rosh Hashanah. This was a sign to his descendants that they might also receive such mercy on the New Year\u2019s Day (see Lev. Rab. 29:1). A sign that Adam was completely exonerated by some tradents within the Rabbinic tradition is the identification of Adam\u2019s burial site with the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. According to B. Er. 32a the meaning of \u201cthe city of four\u201d in Gen. 23:2 is that it is the location of four virtuous couples: Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives (also see Pirke R. El. 20 and Gen. Rab. 58:4).
\n47(38):4. except only for Seth As in 23(3):2a, Seth is made the bearer of a divine mystery. Like the burial spot of Moses, the location of Adam and Eve\u2019s grave was unknown.
\n47(39):2. I will change his joy into sorrow Typical apocalyptic reversal.
\n48(40):3. take Abel\u2019s body as well See 2 En. 71:36 (longer text) for a similar tradition about the delay in burying Abel.
\n48(40):6. the place from which God had taken some soil The text presumes that Adam\u2019s body was formed from a location just outside of Eden. This comports with the biblical text, which has God create Adam (Gen. 2:7) and only later bring him into Eden (2:15). Frequently in Jewish lore, the spot of Adam\u2019s creation is identified with Jerusalem. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (on Gen. 2:15) is most explicit: \u201cAnd the LORD God took Adam from the mountain of worship where he had been created and made him dwell in the Garden of Eden\u201d (see also Pirke R. El. 11, 12, 20). Because the general resurrection was thought to begin in Jerusalem (see Zech. 14; also the popularity of being buried on the Mount of Olives), it was appropriate that the first human beings be buried in its vicinity. Already in the Bible, Mount Zion was identified with Edenic qualities (see Isa. 51:3 and cf. 1 En. 24\u201325).
\n48(41):1. then God turned and called Adam \u2026 Here I am, [LORD] A standard form of address and response in the Bible. \u201cHere I am\u201d means, \u201cI am ready and eager to do your bidding.\u201d See Gen. 22:1, where God says \u201cAbraham,\u201d and he responds, \u201cHere I am.\u201d The same sort of interchange can be found in the call of Samuel (1 Sam. 3) and many other times in the Bible.<\/p>\n
1 Enoch<\/p>\n
Miryam T. Brand<\/p>\n
The Book of Enoch, also called 1 Enoch, is actually a collection of works centered on the character of Enoch and the mysteries that are revealed to him in heaven. These writings take as their common starting point the unusual description of Enoch within the genealogical list from Adam to Noah in Gen. 5:1\u201331:<\/p>\n
When Jared had lived 162 years, he begot Enoch.\u2026 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he begot Methuselah. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God (ha-elohim) 300 years; and he begot sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch came to 365 years. Enoch walked with God (ha-elohim); then he was no more, for God (elohim) took him.\u201d (Gen. 5:18\u201324)<\/p>\n
This passage was evocative for the Second Temple reader, for then elohim was understood to denote not God, but angels. This is especially the case for Gen. 5:24, as a Second Temple audience would not believe that a human being could walk with God himself. In addition, Enoch\u2019s total age of 365 years was reminiscent of the solar calendar, a calendar that was considered superior by some of the authors of Enochic texts. The combination of a reference to angels, calendrical concepts, and walking in heaven led Second Temple writers to speculate regarding what heavenly mysteries Enoch had witnessed. The various works included in 1 Enoch attempt to answer the question of what Enoch saw when he \u201cwalked with the angels.\u201d
\n1 Enoch comprises several works of varying length, subject, and date of composition. The Book of the Watchers chapters 1\u201336 is the earliest extant account of the story of the \u201cWatchers,\u201d angels who sin with human women and produce giants. This story is based on an interpretation of Gen. 6:1\u20134, which tells of bene elohim (literally, sons of God) who mate with the \u201cdaughters of man.\u201d The proximity of the account of the bene elohim to the story of the Flood, combined with the implication that the mating between the bene elohim and human women produced mortal beings of unusual ability, perhaps giants, inspired a tradition whereby the bene elohim, understood to be angels designated \u201cthe Watchers,\u201d caused the sin and violence that led to the Flood. After the story of the Watchers\u2019 sin is related, Enoch is called upon to rebuke the Watchers. He is then asked by the Watchers to plead their case, but is divinely directed to deny the Watchers their request. They and their descendants are duly punished. After he has fulfilled this duty, Enoch receives an angelic tour of the heavens, including the realms that lie outside the mortal universe.
\nThe Parables of Enoch, also called the Similitudes of Enoch, chapters 37\u201371, is an independent work consisting mainly of three \u201cparables\u201d that describe the mysteries Enoch sees and his predictions regarding the future. The Parables uses different terminology from that found in other compositions in 1 Enoch and in much of Second Temple literature. The Parables describes the ascent of Enoch to heaven, his visions of cosmological and heavenly phenomena, and the punishment of the Watchers, and in particular his revelation of the Final Judgment and the Messianic Age. While other works in 1 Enoch rarely mention a messianic figure when describing the final era (the exception being the Book of Dream Visions), the Parables emphasizes the role that the messiah, the \u201cSon of Man\u201d or \u201cChosen One,\u201d will play in the Final Judgment and the age that follows. At the end of the Parables, the \u201cSon of Man\u201d is revealed to be Enoch himself, who will lead people on the path of righteousness in the Messianic Age. The Parables\u2019 unique terminology, its focus on a messianic figure, and the fact that this is the only section of 1 Enoch that did not survive at Qumran has led some scholars to maintain that the Parables is Christian in origin. Nevertheless, this work appears to be Jewish, especially in its lack of explicit Christological statements, although it remains unusual compared to the other works included in 1 Enoch.
\nThe Astronomical Book, chapters 72\u201382, is focused on astronomical and calendrical calculations that support the use of a solar calendar. It has little in common with the other works of 1 Enoch, apart from the fact that its knowledge is attributed to Enoch. The Astronomical Book also contains little explicitly Jewish content and draws deeply from Babylonian astronomy. While the author of the Astronomical Book does attempt to solve the apparent contradiction found in Gen. 1:16 regarding the relative size of the sun and the moon, the author neglects to establish or even mention the dates of the Jewish festivals in his description of their movements and the resulting calendrical calculations. Nevertheless, the Astronomical Book includes a rebuke against those who do not follow its solar calendar, indicating an ongoing argument regarding the dating of the festivals between those who supported a solar calendar and those who followed the lunisolar calendar (as in ancient Near Eastern practice and Jewish tradition). The long numerical descriptions and calculations included in the Astronomical Book led to significant corruption in its transmission, and the Aramaic fragments found at Qumran testify to a very different original form.
\nThe Book of Dream Visions, chapters 83\u201390, includes Enoch\u2019s description of two dream visions relayed to his son Methuselah. The first, chapters 83\u201384, describes a cataclysmic destruction of the earth in deliberately vague language that can be applied both to the Flood and to a final apocalypse. The second, chapters 85\u201390, referred to as the Animal Apocalypse, describes the history of humanity from Adam until the final era, depicting people as animals, whose species differ according to their nationality: Israelites are sheep, Egyptians are wolves, and so on. Unique to the Animal Apocalypse is the nature of the final era, described in multiple stages, whereby the \u201csheep\u201d are restored to a new Jerusalem and Temple, peace is established, all of Israel becomes righteous, and the other nations of the earth are united into a single righteous species.
\nThe Epistle of Enoch, chapters 91\u2013107, includes an introduction noting the Judgment Day that is coming, followed by a series of discourses on ethical behavior. These begin with the Apocalypse of Weeks, a broad recounting of history in ten \u201cweeks\u201d or periods that are unequal in length. The focus is on the final era, which lasts from the conclusion of the seventh week through the tenth week. Following the Apocalypse of Weeks, Enoch holds forth in a series of speeches that predict disaster for the wicked wealthy and a final reward for the righteous.
\nThe Epistle of Enoch includes a short section (chapters 106\u2013107) based on an independent narrative regarding Noah\u2019s birth. Noah is described as a messianic figure whose glowing countenance fills his home with light at his birth. Noah\u2019s father Lamech is consequently concerned that Noah was fathered by angels and goes to his grandfather Enoch for \u201cinside information\u201d regarding Noah\u2019s nature. Enoch describes Noah\u2019s role in the survival of humanity and the initial end of wickedness following the Flood. Enoch also takes this opportunity to mention the final end of evil in the eschatological era.
\n1 Enoch ends with \u201canother book which Enoch wrote\u201d (chapter 108) that reiterates the eventual punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. God\u2019s justice is proclaimed.
\nThe works included in 1 Enoch are themselves composed of shorter, independently composed passages. The original source of certain passages is frequently a matter of scholarly debate. In the commentary that follows, the possibility that a passage within a work was inserted from an independent composition is noted when an independent source would affect the overall meaning.<\/p>\n
Authorship and History<\/p>\n
The manuscript evidence of 1 Enoch is complex. The works included in 1 Enoch were composed in Aramaic, translated into Greek, and from Greek into ancient Ethiopic (Ge\u2019ez). The book as a whole has survived only in Ethiopic, but nearly a third of it (mostly included in the Book of the Watchers) has survived in Greek. The discovery of the Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch at Qumran settled the long-ranging debate regarding whether the majority of 1 Enoch was composed in Aramaic or in Hebrew. Nearly all the works included in 1 Enoch are represented in Aramaic fragments found at Qumran, the notable exceptions being the Parables of Enoch and the \u201cadditional book\u201d in chapter 108.
\nAs noted, each composition in 1 Enoch has a separate origin, and each has a different history and focus of concern. On the whole, these works were authored in Judea at different periods between the 4th century BCE and the turn of the era. The dating of the original texts of these various compositions is still debated. This introduction generally relies on the dating proposed by George Nickelsburg and James VanderKam in their two-volume commentary on 1 Enoch.
\nThe Book of the Watchers is dated to 250\u2013200 BCE, based on its dependence on the book of Jubilees (dated to approximately 160 BCE). The account of the Watchers in Jubilees draws from the Book of the Watchers in its current textual form, even mirroring certain repetitions within the account. The latest possible date for this work is based on the paleographic dating of the Enoch fragments found in Cave 4 at Qumran to the first half of the 2nd century BCE.
\nThe fact that the Parables of Enoch is the only section of 1 Enoch not found at Qumran, and the prominent role it gives to a messiah who is called the \u201cSon of Man,\u201d have led some to consider it a Christian work. However, there is nothing in the work that reflects exclusively Christian theology or terminology, and the declaration in the final chapter that Enoch himself is the \u201cSon of Man\u201d also speaks against a Christian provenance. Based on its content, the Parables of Enoch can be dated to the turn of the Common Era. The description of the invasion of Palestine by the \u201cParthians and Medes\u201d in 1 En. 56:5\u20137 indicates that this work was composed following the Parthian invasion in 40 BCE, but before 70 CE, as the Romans are not mentioned.
\nThe Astronomical Book is thought by some scholars to be the earliest of the compositions in 1 Enoch, based on the paleographic dating of a fragment of this book found at Qumran to the end of the 3rd century BCE. At the latest, this book was composed in the late 3rd to early 2nd century BCE, as is evident from the reference to it found in Jub. 4:17.
\nThe Book of Dream Visions in its present form can be dated between 163 and 160 BCE, shortly after Judah Maccabee\u2019s battle at Beth Zur, assuming that 90:13\u201315 refers to that battle. However, the allegorical nature of this book makes dating based on its content speculative at best.
\nMost of the Epistle of Enoch can be dated to the early 2nd century BCE. The Epistle draws from the Book of the Watchers, but seems to have been composed before the Antiochian decrees in 167 BCE, as these decrees are not mentioned in the Apocalypse of Weeks (93:1\u201310, 91:11\u201317). The \u201cadditional book\u201d in chapter 108, which is the latest text in 1 Enoch, is dated to the 1st century CE.<\/p>\n
Significance<\/p>\n
1 Enoch holds special importance for understanding Jewish thought in the Second Temple period. The significance of the character Enoch in wider Second Temple Judaism is reflected in Enoch\u2019s inclusion in Ben Sira\u2019s list of heroes (Sir. 44:16; 49:14) and the reference to Enoch as the first astrologer in the book of Pseudo-Eupolemus, a possibly Samaritan author of the 2nd century BCE. In the Wisdom of Solomon, Enoch is described as an example of someone who maintained his righteousness by not remaining among the wicked (Wis. 4:10\u201314). Enoch and 1 Enoch are particularly important to the book of Jubilees, which draws from 1 Enoch in its description of Enoch\u2019s experiences and his continuing role until the Day of Judgment (Jub. 4:17\u201326; 10:17). In addition, the account of the Watchers in Jub. 5 is based on the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1\u201336).
\nThe fact that fragments of 1 Enoch were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls is evidence that this book influenced the Qumran community. Based on the Qumran finds, Gabriele Boccaccini posited the existence of an \u201cEnochic Judaism\u201d out of which the Essene movement emerged, accounting for the prominence of Enochic works at Qumran. However, the compositions of 1 Enoch found at Qumran reflect theological differences that belie the existence of a single \u201cEnochic\u201d movement. The emphasis on heavenly mysteries and the apocalyptic final age in 1 Enoch were reason enough for these works to resonate with the Qumran community.
\nWhile 1 Enoch had no direct influence on Rabbinic thought, the various works found in 1 Enoch reflect approaches that developed in the Second Temple period and can be found later in certain Rabbinic texts. The influence of 1 Enoch on Christian thought is clearer. The centrality of the messianic figure in the Parables of Enoch and his epithet, \u201cthe Son of Man,\u201d bears similarities to the Gospels and later Christology. In addition, the Greek translation of 1 Enoch was known to some church fathers and even considered authoritative by them.
\nEnoch continued to be a central figure for later writers. He is the subject of 2 Enoch (of uncertain provenance), which reflects the influence of 1 Enoch, and of 3 Enoch, a Jewish work dating from the 5th or 6th century CE that shows only vague knowledge of Enochic traditions.<\/p>\n
GUIDE TO READING<\/p>\n
1 Enoch as a whole reflects an intense interest in mysteries and wisdom, including knowledge of cosmic phenomena, heavenly realms, and oracular knowledge of the final era. It is this interest that lies behind the elaboration on the character of Enoch, whose sojourn in heaven, noted cryptically in Genesis, was particularly intriguing for some Jews of this period.
\nAny description of the beliefs reflected in 1 Enoch must acknowledge the different interests and theological stances suggested in its different compositions. There is no need to assume that views expressed in one composition within 1 Enoch were shared by authors of other compositions in the same book. At the most superficial level, these include different areas of focus regarding knowledge, from the purely astronomical descriptions of the Astronomical Book to the \u201canimalistic\u201d account of history and the final era found in the Book of Dream Visions. However, the different parts of 1 Enoch also contradict each other in their approaches to the issues they address. For example, the nature of the final era differs in each work that describes it. While in some cases it consists of a naturally functioning world suffused with peace and plenty (as in the Book of the Watchers, 10:16\u201311:2), in others it brings a period of divine battle (as in the Epistle of Enoch, 91:12\u201313), or even the resurrection of the righteous and the end not only of evil, but of death (as in the Parables of Enoch, 51:1\u20132; 61:5; 62:15\u201316). The central role of a messiah in the final era appears only in the Book of Dream Visions and the Parables, but the expanded nature of this role in the Parables of Enoch is evidence of the increased interest in a messianic figure found in specific groups during this period. 1 Enoch is also notable for its explicit use of the afterlife to solve the problem of apparent divine injustice typified by the existence of the prosperous wicked and the suffering righteous; this solution is prominent in the Epistle of Enoch.
\nOther repeating themes throughout 1 Enoch include the acts of the Watchers and their punishment, the Flood and Noah\u2019s role in humanity\u2019s survival, and the destruction of wickedness in the final era. The origin of contemporary evil is sometimes explicitly attributed to the Watchers, but not always; in some retellings of the narrative in 1 Enoch, the Watchers are simply exemplars of those who sin against the divine order and no longer affect the world. The Flood itself functions as a prototype of the apocalyptic Judgment Day in the final era, and it is possible that Noah\u2019s importance hints at an anticipated messiah figure in the final age.
\nEach work included in 1 Enoch is made up of shorter sections that are themselves the work of different hands. Abrupt shifts in topic or narrative style indicate that verses have been inserted from a different text or result from a separate tradition, creating contradictory or repetitious passages within the same composition. While these repetitions can prove frustrating for the reader, they also provide the opportunity to note different approaches to similar themes found within the circles that produced Enochic literature.
\nAnother challenge for the reader is 1 Enoch\u2019s complex textual history. The difficulty of certain passages and the book\u2019s multiple stages of transmission have led to significant textual corruption. One example of this is the reproduction of certain passages out of their original order within the book. The translation included presents the correct order, but the \u201cmistaken\u201d numbering of these verses has been maintained for consistency with the manuscripts. Thus, the passage at 91:11\u201317 has been moved to its original location following 93:1\u201310.
\nThe Parables of Enoch is included in excerpted form. The sections of the Parables that have been selected are representative of the unique nature of this composition and convey its approach, as well as the manner in which it was read in its finished form.<\/p>\n
SUGGESTED READING<\/p>\n
Dimant, Devorah. \u201c1 Enoch 6\u201311: A Fragment of a Parabiblical Work.\u201d JJS 53 (2002): 223\u201337.
\nKnibb, Michael A. The Ethiopic Book of Enoch: A New Edition in the Light of the Aramaic Dead Sea Fragments. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
\nMilik, J. T. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments from Qumr\u00e2n Cave 4. Oxford: Clarendon, 1976.
\nNickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1\u201336; 81\u2013108. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cApocalyptic and Myth in 1 Enoch 6\u201311.\u201d JBL 96 (1977): 383\u2013405.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cEnoch, First Book of.\u201d In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by D. N. Freedman, 2:508\u201316. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
\nNickelsburg, George W. E., and VanderKam, James C. 1 Enoch 2: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 37\u201382. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001.
\nVanderKam, James C. Enoch, a Man for All Generations. Studies on Personalities of the Old Testament. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995.<\/p>\n
COMMENTARY<\/p>\n
The Book of the Watchers<\/p>\n
1:1\u20135:9 The introduction to the Book of the Watchers takes the form of a speech regarding God\u2019s power, the Day of Judgment, and the final era.
\n1:1. the blessing \u2026 according to which he blessed These words are reminiscent of Deut. 33:1, in which Moses blesses the people before he dies. Like Moses\u2019s blessing, Enoch\u2019s blessing includes an oracle of sorts regarding the future of the audience. In contrast to the blessing in Deuteronomy, however, the short oracle that follows is concrete and alludes to the Day of Judgment and the final era, not to a general future.
\n1:2 This verse bears many parallels to the oracle of Balaam in Numbers 23\u201324. VanderKam proposes that comparing Enoch to Balaam reflects the tradition that Enoch was a master of divination. He also notes that certain phrases in Balaam\u2019s discourse would particularly resonate with Second Temple readers. A Second Temple audience would understand aharit hayamim \u201cin days to come\u201d (Num. 24:14) as referring to the final era, and the description of a \u201cstar\u201d rising from Jacob and destroying Israel\u2019s enemies (Num. 24:17) as a reference to the messiah. Balaam holds a special status as \u201cprophet to the nations\u201d in later Jewish traditions, which may also explain the parallel between Enoch and Balaam in this verse.
\nAnd Enoch answered and said This is a translation of the Ethiopic. The Greek reads \u201cAnd he took up his parable (parabol\u0113) and said.\u201d The Greek is the preferred text here, as supported by the Aramaic fragment of this text found at Qumran, which reads matl\u00f4h[\u012b]. This reflects the biblical Hebrew term mashal, literally \u201cparable,\u201d what Balaam \u201ctakes up\u201d when he proclaims his oracles in Numbers.
\nwhose eyes were opened by the LORD Reflecting the description of Balaam in Num. 22:31; 24:4, 16.
\na holy vision in the heavens In some other Ethiopic manuscripts and in the Greek, this passage reads \u201cthe vision of the Holy One and of heaven.\u201d The \u201cvision of the Holy One\u201d corresponds to Balaam\u2019s vision in Num. 24:4, 16.
\nnot for this generation The idea that a prophet may be given a message that is irrelevant to his present audience but will be fully understood in a future generation is also found in Pesher Habakkuk (1QpHab) 7:1\u20136.
\n1:3. Concerning the chosen The \u201cchosen\u201d refers to the \u201cfuture generation\u201d that is the true audience of this message: the Second Temple readers. The \u201cchosen\u201d may include all of Israel, or may specifically refer to the righteous within Israel.
\nThe Holy and Great One will come out The description of God\u2019s revelation and might serves as a preface to Enoch\u2019s oracle, paralleling the beginning of Moses\u2019s blessing in Deut. 33:2\u20133.
\n1:5. the Watchers will shake, and fear and great trembling will seize them The \u201cWatchers\u201d are the angels who rebel against God and mate with human women in the widely known Second Temple tradition based on Gen. 6:1\u20134, discussed further below. The term \u201cWatchers\u201d may also refer to angels in general. It is found in this neutral sense elsewhere in 1 Enoch (1 En. 12:2, 3) and once in the Genesis Apocryphon. In this verse the Watchers \u201cfear and quake\u201d because their judgment is nigh.
\n1:6. the high hills will be made low, and will melt like wax before the flame The motif of mountains melting before the might of God is a common one in biblical literature. As in Mic. 1:4, in this verse the crumbling of the mountains also signifies the fearsome and apocalyptic judgment of the wicked.
\n1:8. he will keep safe the chosen The righteous are not considered part of \u201ceverything\u201d that will perish on the earth. They will receive their just reward: blessing and peace.
\n1:9. holy ones Angels.
\nhave done and wrought against him At the end of this verse, Greek manuscripts include the words \u201cand the hard words which they have spoken, and concerning all the things which the impious sinners have spoken against him.\u201d That these words are original to the verse is supported by the Aramaic fragment, which reads \u201cproud and hard\u201d (ravrevan ve-kashin) where this phrase would be expected. Speaking proudly is a defining activity of sinners in Ps. 12:4 and Dan. 7:8, 11, 20; this sin is revisited in the Book of the Watchers (5:4 and 27:2). The Epistle of Jude quotes v. 1:9 directly (including the words \u201cand concerning all the hard things which the impious sinners have spoken against him\u201d) as proof of the punishment that awaits the wicked (Jude 14\u201315).
\n2:1\u20135:4 These short chapters address the sinners who will now receive their punishment. This description of nature and its cycles emphasizes both the power of God and nature\u2019s total obedience to the divine command. The sinner, who neither recognizes God\u2019s might nor stands firm in God\u2019s commandments, is doubly culpable.
\n2:2. that no work \u2026 manifest The Greek manuscripts read \u201cthat nothing on earth changes, but all the works of God are manifest to you,\u201d and this reading is supported by the Aramaic fragments of this verse. The impious are aware of God\u2019s works, which are manifest in nature and the cosmos, so there is no excuse for their sin in the face of God\u2019s might.
\n3:1. with the exception of fourteen trees which are not stripped The 14 species of evergreens. As listed in the Geoponica (a Byzantine agricultural manual), these are the date palm, citron, fir, sweet bay, olive, cypress, carob, pine, holm-oak, box, myrtle, cedar, willow, and juniper.
\n4:1. You seek shelter and shade \u2026 and you cannot tread upon the earth This passage emphasizes human weakness compared to the divine power that lies behind the natural change of the seasons.
\n5:4. But you have not persevered \u2026 you have transgressed For \u201cBut you have not persevered,\u201d the Aramaic reads, \u201cbut you, you changed your works.\u201d Sinning is presented as a subversion of the natural order.
\nand have spoken proud and hard words with your unclean mouth The speech of the wicked is again considered as blameworthy as their deeds (see commentary on 1:9). The \u201cproud and hard words\u201d themselves demonstrate that the mouth that speaks them must be impure.
\n5:5\u20139 These concluding verses contrast the fate of the wicked with that of the \u201cchosen.\u201d
\n5:7. and they will inherit the earth The contrast between the inheritance of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked can be found in Isa. 57:13; 60:21 and Ps. 37:9, 11, 22, 29.
\n5:8. When wisdom is given to the chosen As the previous passage indicates, all that is needed in order to refrain from sinning is to truly understand one\u2019s place in the world.
\nand will not again do wrong In this passage it is clear that the chosen are not completely righteous. While they are not classed with the \u201csinners,\u201d they may at present sin \u201cthrough forgetfulness, or through pride.\u201d However, once they have been gifted with true understanding, all sin will end. The hope for a change that will prevent sin in the final era is prominent throughout the books of the biblical prophets. Here the change is wrought not by an internal transformation of the \u201cheart\u201d or \u201cspirit\u201d of the chosen, but through the enlightenment of the chosen with divine wisdom.
\n5:9. But they will complete the number of the days of their life The future age will be free of sin, but not of death. The righteous will have happy but finite life spans.
\n6:1\u201311:2 There is no transition whatsoever between Enoch\u2019s speech and the story of the Watchers told here. It is only in chap. 12 that the Watchers are integrated into Enoch\u2019s storyline, an indication that chaps. 6\u201311 were an independent work. The story told in these chapters combines three different narrative threads:<\/p>\n
1. A tradition in which the angel Shemihazah leads the other Watchers to mate with human women. Their sin spawns a race of violent giants, whose destructiveness causes humans (and the earth) to cry to God for assistance. The giants are then destroyed, and the Watchers are punished. This tradition is an exegetical expansion of Gen. 6:1\u20134, but has nothing to do with the Flood that follows in the biblical account. Both the giants and the Watchers are destroyed before the Flood.
\n2. A separate tradition regarding the angel Asael, who teaches forbidden crafts to human beings. Asael thereby causes humans to sin, resulting in the Flood.
\n3. Additions regarding the teaching of forbidden knowledge, particularly magic and divination. This knowledge is transmitted by the Watchers to their human wives, causing sin. As in the Asael tradition, the sinning that is caused leads to the Flood.<\/p>\n
The Shemihazah and Asael traditions are also reflected in the retelling of the Watchers story in Bereshit Rabbati 6:2, in which the union of \u201cShemhazai\u201d with human women produces giant, devouring sons who are wiped out in the Flood while the unrepentant \u201cAzael\u201d is responsible for the jewelry and cosmetics with which women lead men astray, even after the Flood.
\n6:1\u20132 These verses closely reflect Gen. 6:1\u20132, with the understanding that bene elohim refers to an-gels. The author transforms the action of Gen. 6:2b into a dialogue between Shemihazah and the other Watchers, clarifying the Watchers\u2019 intentions and delaying the action until after this exposition. Relative to the story in Genesis, the Watchers\u2019 motivation has been expanded to include the desire to procreate. However, as in Gen. 6:2, their desire also stems from the beauty of human women. The dialogue in this verse also emphasizes the willingness and complicity of the Watchers in their transgression.
\n6:3. Semyaza This is a corruption of Shemihazah; see 4QEnocha (4Q201) 1 iii 6. The name Shemihazah denotes \u201cmy name has seen\u201d or \u201che sees my name.\u201d
\n6:6. they came down on Ardis The preferred reading is found in the Greek Syncellus manuscript and supported by the Aramaic: \u201cthey came down in the days of Jared.\u201d The angels\u2019 descent is linked to Jared, whose name derives from y-r-d, \u201cdescend.\u201d This etymological connection conveniently places the aftermath of the Watchers incident within the lifetime of Enoch, Jared\u2019s son.
\nHermon, because on it they swore and bound one another with curses According to this verse the mountain Hermon is named after the act of herem (a limiting oath with dire consequences) with which the Watchers bound each other. \u201cBound\u201d in \u201cbound one another\u201d translates the verb \u1e25-r-m in the surviving Aramaic fragment of this verse.
\n6:7 The list of angelic names varies in the different Greek and Ethiopic manuscripts, as well as in the Aramaic Qumran fragments.
\n7:1. and everyone chose for himself These words echo Gen. 6:2: \u201cand took wives from among those that pleased them\u201d; literally, \u201cfrom all those that they chose.\u201d
\nand were promiscuous with them The Greek reads \u201cand to defile themselves through them.\u201d The first sin of the Watchers is mating with human women, who are \u201cimpure\u201d for angels (the Shemihazah tradition noted above).
\nAnd they taught them charms and spells An additional sin is the revelation of forbidden knowledge to their wives.
\nand showed to them the cutting of roots and trees Medicine is classed with \u201csorcery and charms\u201d as forbidden knowledge.
\n7:2. and bore large giants, and their height [was] three thousand cubits The Greek Syncellus manuscript reads \u201cand they bore to them three kinds: first large giants, and the giants begot Nephilim, and to the Nephilim were born Elioud. And they were growing in accordance with their greatness.\u201d This reading is supported by Jub. 7:22, which (in a passage based on the Book of the Watchers) notes that the giants fathered Nephilim, and that when the giants killed the Nephilim, the Nephilim killed \u201cthe Elyo.\u201d Gen. 6:4 implies that the \u201cNephilim\u201d were the result of the union of bene elohim and human women: \u201cIt was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth.\u201d The verse equates them with the \u201cheroes of old\u201d and \u201cmen of renown.\u201d In Num. 13:33 the inhabitants of Canaan are called both Nephilim and giants: \u201cWe saw the Nephilim there\u2014the Anakites (i.e., giants) are part of the Nephilim\u2014and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.\u201d The earliest interpretations of Gen 6:1\u20134 in the Second Temple period used the reference in Num 13:33 to understand who the Nephilim were. Consequently, in Gen 6:1\u20134 LXX both Nephilim and \u201cheroes\u201d (gibborim) are translated as giants (gigantes). The identification of the Nephilim in 1 En. 7:2 as the sons of giants reflects an unusual interpretation of Num. 13:33a to read \u201cAnd there we saw the nefilim sons of giant(s) (hanefilim bene anaq).\u201d It may also result, as Nickelsburg suggests, from the understanding that the Nephilim and the \u201cheroes (gibborim) of old\u201d in Gen. 6:4 were two distinct generations. The reading \u201cElioud\u201d is uncertain, and the source of this appellation is not clear.
\n7:3. These devoured all the toil of men The theme of divinely spawned giants devouring all produce and then causing violence can also be found in Ugaritic myth. A similar tradition may have influenced the giants\u2019 depiction here.
\n7:4\u20135 There is no limit to the giants\u2019 violence or hunger. Moreover, they drink blood, preemptively transgressing the first prohibition given to Noah in Gen. 9:4.
\n7:6. Then the earth complained about the lawless ones The reaction of the earth to the giants\u2019 murderous actions echoes God\u2019s accusation to Cain in Gen. 4:10b: \u201cyour brother\u2019s blood cries out to Me from the ground!\u201d
\n8:1. Azazel This is a corruption of Asael; see 6:7 above, 4Q201 1 iii 9, and the reconstruction of 4QEnochb (4Q202) 1 ii 26.
\nto make swords, and daggers The Aramaic reads \u201cswords of iron.\u201d The Asael tradition, probably influenced by the myth of Prometheus, attributes violence not to the giants but to the forbidden craft of warfare taught by Asael.
\nbracelets, and ornaments, and the art of making up the eyes Asael also teaches humans the crafts necessary for female seduction, crafts that will lead to sins of a sexual nature.
\nAnd the world was changed The Greek Syncellus manuscript adds a sentence at the end of the verse: \u201cAnd the sons of men made (these things) for themselves and their wives, and they transgressed and led astray the holy ones.\u201d This reading reflects a tradition in which knowledge is transmitted by Asael before the Watchers\u2019 sin. This knowledge is then used by women to seduce the Watchers.
\n8:2. And there was great impiety and much fornication, and they went astray According to this passage, the corruption of the earth that precedes the Flood in Genesis (Gen. 6:11, 13) is the result of human as well as angelic sin, due to the sharing of Asael\u2019s forbidden knowledge.
\n8:3 This verse inserts a list of forbidden magic and divination practices taught by various angels. The Ethiopic version of the list of names is considerably corrupted, as can be seen in the Aramaic fragments 4Q201 1 iv.1\u20135 and 4Q202 1 iii 1\u20135. The Aramaic version has been reconstructed as follows: \u201cShemihazah taught spellbinding and cutting of roots. Hermoni taught the loosing of spells, magic, sorcery, and skill. Baraq\u2019el taught the signs of thunders. Kokav\u2019el taught the signs of the stars. Ziq\u2019el taught the signs of lightning flashes. Artaqof taught the signs of the earth. Shamshi\u2019el taught the signs of the sun. Sahri\u2019el taught the signs of the moon. And they all began to reveal secrets to their wives.\u201d In this list, the angel\u2019s name generally corresponds to what he teaches. Shemihazah heads the list. The \u201csecrets\u201d of sorcery and divination are taught specifically to the watcher\u2019s human wives following their forbidden union, combining the Shemihazah tradition with the additions regarding the teaching of magic. There is no attempt to integrate this list with the crafts taught by Asael.
\n8:4. And at the destruction of men they cried out This destruction may be a result of the war caused by Asael\u2019s crafts or the direct result of human sin.
\n9:1. Michael, Gabriel, Suriel and Uriel The Aramaic fragments reflect a different quartet of angels: Michael, Sariel, Raphael, and Gabriel; see 4Q201 1 iv 6 and 4Q202 1 iii 7. These four angels also appear together in War Scroll (1QM 9:15\u201316). Michael and Gabriel appear individually in the book of Daniel, Michael in Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1 and Gabriel in Dan. 8:16; 9:21. In Rabbinic tradition Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel frequently appear together and are on rare occasions joined by a fourth angel, Uriel.
\n9:3. And now, to you O holy ones of heaven As noted by Robert H. Charles, the idea of bringing one\u2019s suit to the angels can be found in Job 5:1; 33:23. The intercession of an angel on humans\u2019 behalf is depicted in Zech. 1:12.
\nthe souls of men complain The souls of the humans who have perished demand the punishment of those who have caused their destruction.
\n9:6. what Azazel has done Namely, teaching the crafts of war and seduction that have led to sin.
\nand revealed the eternal secrets The arts of sorcery and divination.
\n9:7. And Semyaza has made known spells The teaching of magic has been added to the primary transgression of mating with human women that is the focus of v. 8.
\n9:11. And you know everything before it happens \u2026 But you say nothing to us This verse presents the paradox of divine knowledge in the face of the existence of ongoing evil, a keen problem for both the angelic speakers of the narrative and the Second Temple audience. The preferred Greek version of this text is more explicit, reading \u201cand you permit them\u201d; the Ethiopic \u201cwhat concerns each of them\u201d likely derives from a corruption of this phrase.
\n10:1\u20133 No explicit connection is made between the sins of the Watchers and the Flood in this interlude, which centers on Noah and his survival. The necessity of the Flood is only explained in the following passages.
\n10:1. Arsyalalyur This name is either a corruption of Uriel (found in the Greek Syncellus manuscript) or, more likely, of Sariel (see comment on 9:1).
\n10:2. Hide yourself From the coming wrath of God; see Isa. 26:20\u201321 and Zeph. 2:3.
\n10:4\u201315 Each angel is given a different task in the punishment of the rebellious angels and their progeny. The division of tasks here is suggestive of the Rabbinic tradition that angels may only perform one task at a time.
\n10:4\u20135. the desert \u2026 and throw him there. And throw on him sharp and jagged stones The fate of Asael is comparable to that of the goat designated \u201cfor Azazel\u201d in Lev. 16:21\u201322 as it appears in M. Yoma 6:4\u20136: the goat is led far outside the city and thrown down a cliff until he is broken to pieces. Talmudic tradition ties \u201cAzazel\u201d directly to the tradition of two sinning angels in B. Yoma 67b: \u201cThe school of R. Ishmael taught: Azazel\u2014[it was so called] because it obtains atonement for the affair of Uzza and Aza\u2019el.\u201d
\n10:7. restore the earth Or, \u201cheal the earth.\u201d It is appropriate that Raphael, whose name means \u201cGod healed,\u201d should perform this task. The earth must be \u201chealed\u201d both of past sin (\u201cwhich the angels have ruined\u201d) and of the possibility of future sin through the revealed mysteries.
\n10:9. against the bastards This is the earliest example of the designation \u201cbastards\u201d applied to the Watchers\u2019 children, who are born of the illicit union between angels and humans. \u201cBastards\u201d is a standard term for these \u201cunnatural\u201d beings in later Qumran texts.
\nand send them against one another The fitting punishment for these violent beings is that they will kill each other.
\nfor they will not have length of days Reflecting Gen. 6:3 \u201c \u2018My breath shall not abide in man forever.\u2019 \u201d In the biblical account this divine declaration occurs between the mating of the bene elohim with women and the birth of their offspring. It was understood as referring to the offspring themselves. The lifespan limitation of 120 years in Gen. 6:3 has been replaced in v. 10 with a less stringent limit of 500 years, in order to correspond to the human lifetimes recounted in Genesis following the Flood. These are far longer than 120 years but less than 500; see Gen. 11:10\u201332.
\n10:11. to corrupt themselves with them in all their uncleanness In this passage the sin of Shemihazah and his followers is not the sharing of knowledge but their defilement by human women.
\n10:12. when they see the destruction of their beloved ones Seeing their children kill each other is part of the Watchers\u2019 punishment.
\nbind them Unlike the giants, the angels are spiritual beings who cannot be physically destroyed. They are therefore bound until the final Day of Judgment.
\n10:13. And in those days they will lead them Their final punishment, following imprisonment for seventy generations, will be an eternity in an \u201cabyss of fire.\u201d
\n10:14 An alternative version of this verse, found in several Ethiopic and Greek manuscripts, is as follows: \u201cAnd when (anyone) is burnt (Syncellus: whoever is condemned) and destroyed from now on, he will be bound with them until the end of all generations.\u201d That is, all future sinners will share the Watchers\u2019 fate after their own death.
\n10:16\u201311:2 In this passage the results of the Flood are described in terms of the final era. All earth will be cleansed of evil and wickedness. While 10:16\u201320 can be read as the results of the Flood described in exaggerated positive terms, the conclusion in 10:21\u201311:2 is applicable only to the end-time, when all peoples will worship God and everyone will live in peace for eternity. Consequently, Robert H. Charles considers 10:17 the point at which the author switches to a description of the final era. Devorah Dimant suggests that the link between the cleansing of the earth after the Flood and the end-time results from the analogy between the Flood as a \u201cpurifying punishment\u201d and the final Judgment Day, as in 1 En. 93:4. The description of the end-time in this passage is idyllic; it includes agricultural plenty, the end of evildoing, universal worship of God, and peace for all eternity. No dramatic change is made to the mechanics of the universe.
\n10:18. and all of it will be planted with trees, and it will be filled with blessing Natural plenty in the final era is a common biblical theme.
\n10:21. and all shall worship me See Isa. 66:19\u201320; Zech. 14:16; and cf. Isa. 2:2\u20133 || Mic. 4:1\u20132.
\n11:1. open the storehouses of blessing As in Deut. 28:12.
\n12:1\u20132 This short introduction explains that the action of the following passage, which inserts Enoch into the Watchers\u2019 story, takes place within the timeline of the previous narrative. Enoch is taken to heaven just prior to the punishment of the Watchers.
\n12:1. Enoch had been hidden See Gen. 5:24, \u201cthen he was no more, for elohim took him.\u201d The author interpreted elohim in Gen. 5:22 and 5:24 as \u201cangels.\u201d
\n12:2. And all his doings were with the Holy Ones and with the Watchers See Gen. 5:22, \u201cEnoch walked with elohim 300 years\u201d and 5:24, \u201cEnoch walked with elohim.\u201d This verse reflects the interpretation of elohim as \u201cangels.\u201d
\n12:3. the Watchers called to me \u201cWatchers\u201d here is used in its neutral sense, meaning all angels.
\nEnoch the scribe The tradition that Enoch was a scribe is instrumental not only in his role in writing the legal \u201cappeal\u201d of the Watchers, but also in his ascribed role as author of the Epistle of Enoch (see 1 En. 92:1).
\n12:4\u201313:2 The message that Enoch must give the sinning Watchers is in keeping with the double account of the sins of the Watchers in the previous passage, reflecting both the Shemihazah and the Asael accounts. In 12:4 the Watchers are accused of sinning with human women (although Shemihazah is not mentioned), while Asael is rebuked separately for revealing \u201call the works of blasphemy and wrong and sin\u201d (13:2).
\n12:4. who have left the high heaven \u2026 and have done as the sons of men do The essence of the Watchers\u2019 sin is that they ignored their angelic status and behaved as humans do, engaging in intercourse with women.
\n13:4. the record of a petition In his role as scribe, Enoch is commissioned to submit a formal appeal on behalf of the Watchers.
\n13:5. For they [themselves] were not able from then on to speak, and they did not raise their eyes to heaven Thus the Watchers are unable to petition God on their own behalf.
\n13:6. in regard to their spirits Better, \u201cin regard to themselves.\u201d
\n13:7. the waters of Dan in Dan, which is south-west of Hermon The author has likely chosen this location due to a play on the root of the word din, judgment. In addition, Dan has a long history of sites of worship, generally deemed illegitimate (see Judg. 18:29\u201331; 1 Kings 12:29\u201330; Amos 8:14).
\n13:8. a dream came to me, and visions fell upon me Enoch receives divine revelation through dreams; see Num. 12:6.
\n13:9. Ubelseyael, which is between Lebanon and Senir Charles identified Ubelseyael as a corruption of Abeilen\u0113 (Abilene), a town 18 miles northwest of Damascus. J\u00f3zef Milik has argued that Ubelseyael is a corruption of Abel-Mayya, that is, Abel-Main \/Maim. Abel-Main \/Maim is a later name for Avel-Beth-Ma\u2019akhah (cf. 1 Kings 15:20 with 2 Chron. 16:4). It is located between the Lebanon range and Mount Hermon (biblical Senir; see Deut. 3:9 and cf. Song of Sol. 4:8). If Milik is correct, the choice of this location for the weeping of the angels is a play on the name Abel-Main, based on Aramaic avelin, mourning\/weeping.
\n14:2. which the Great One has given to men This verse and the following one address the human capability of understanding what may be considered divine knowledge, like the knowledge that is included in the book of Enoch. Such human understanding has been enabled and sanctioned by God, as has Enoch\u2019s role as castigator of wayward angels.
\n14:5\u20137 The Watchers\u2019 request is refused, and they receive a fitting punishment: the Watchers will be bound in the earth for eternity, never returning to the heaven they rejected, but only after they have witnessed the death of their violent sons by the sword.
\n14:7. And while you weep and supplicate, you do not speak a single word from the writing which I have written The length of the lacuna in the surviving Aramaic text (4QEnochc [4Q204] 1 vi 18) indicates that text was lost in the surviving Greek and Ethiopic translations.
\n14:8\u201310 The images in these verses draw from Ps. 18:11\u201313, \u201cHe mounted a cherub and flew, gliding on the wings of the wind. He made darkness His screen; dark thunderheads, dense clouds of the sky were His pavilion round about Him. Out of the brilliance before Him, hail and fiery coals pierced his clouds (or: \u2018his clouds passed, hail and fiery coals\u2019).\u201d
\n14:11. and among them [were] fiery Cherubim, and their heaven [was like] water See Ps. 104:3\u20134.
\n14:18. a high throne See Ezek. 1:26.
\nand the sound of Cherubim As in Ezek. 1:24; 10:5.
\n14:20. And He who is great in glory sat on it and his raiment was \u2026 whiter than any snow See Dan. 7:9.
\n14:21. no angel could enter Enoch is standing in the doorway looking into the house; nobody may enter it.
\nat the appearance of the face of him \u2026 no [creature of] flesh could look This is why Enoch has only described God\u2019s apparel, in contrast to Dan. 7:9.
\n14:22 The flaming fire and the masses of angels in this verse are drawn from Dan. 7:10.
\nTen thousand times ten thousand This is an interpretation of Dan. 7:10b, \u201cMyriads upon myriads attended Him.\u201d The phrase \u201cmyriads upon myriads,\u201d ribbo rivevan, has been interpreted according to the alternate meaning of ribbo, ten thousand. Consequently there are \u201cten thousand of ten thousand\u201d angels in attendance.
\n14:23. the Holy Ones \u2026 did not leave by night or day, and did not depart from him This description of angelic vigilance provides an additional explanation of the term \u201cWatchers.\u201d
\n14:24. I had a covering on my face In order not to look upon the divine presence; see v. 21 above.
\n15:2. You ought to petition on behalf of men For examples of angels pleading on humans\u2019 behalf, see comment on 9:3.
\nand not men on behalf of you This is yet another example of how the rebellious Watchers have reversed the divinely ordained natural order.
\n15:3. and lain with the women This description of the Watchers\u2019 sin fits the Shemihazah tradition; the transgression of the Watchers consisted of mating with human women. However, the \u201cpunishment\u201d that follows is different. The giants are not completely destroyed, but continue to persecute human beings. This is not a punishment for the giants, but for humankind. In this passage the Watchers as a story of sin and punishment has been transformed into an explanation for the existence of evil.
\n15:4 This verse explains the severity of the transgression. Angels are holy and completely spiritual, but these angels defiled themselves with the fleshliness of humankind. The emphasis on angelic immortality versus human mortality is explained in the following verse.
\n15:7. For this reason I did not arrange wives for you There are no female counterparts to the angels. vv. 5\u20138 explain that the purpose of women and sex is procreation, and procreation is meant to provide continuity for humans despite their mortality. It is therefore unnecessary and unnatural for angels, who are immortal.
\nthe dwelling of the spiritual ones [is] in heaven An additional aspect of the order that has been disrupted by the Watchers is the dwelling place of the angels. Not only have the angels mingled with flesh and blood and trespassed on the human prerogative of procreation, but they have also forsaken their abode in heaven.
\n15:8. born from spirits and flesh Because the Watchers came to earth and mingled with flesh, the spirits of their offspring will be bound to earth even after their bodies are destroyed.
\n15:9. from above they were created; from the holy Watchers was their origin The Greek Syncellus manuscript reads \u201cfrom humans they were created; from the holy Watchers was their origin,\u201d indicating that the evil nature of these spirits as well as their continued existence on the earth is due to the illicit mixture of human and angel that created them.
\n15:11. the spirits of the giants \u2026 which do wrong and are corrupt \u2026 and cause sorrow In death as in life, the giants\u2019 spirits cause violence and harm to human beings. However, while the spirits of the giants cause evil, there is no explicit mention of instigating sin.
\n15:12. against the sons of men and against the women because they came out [from them] What is described here is less a punishment than a consequence. Men and women are not addressed here as sinners. Rather, the giants\u2019 spirits must conflict with humans because they have emerged from an illicit union with the human world.
\n16:1. until the day of the great consummation The Judgment Day, when the Watchers and their descendants will be judged and destroyed.
\n16:2\u20134 These verses address Asael and the sinning Watchers who followed him, who are informed of their punishment for revealing mysteries. These mysteries may be related to magic and divination rather than the non-mysterious crafts of war and cosmetics. If so, here it is the Asael tradition and not the Shemihazah tradition that has been combined with the tradition against sorcery.
\n16:3. in the hardness of your hearts The Watchers\u2019 refusal to obey God; see Ezek. 2:4; 3:7.
\n17:1\u201319:3 This passage briefly describes Enoch\u2019s journey around the heavens. Much of what is described here is repeated in a slightly different form in the longer journey narrative that follows, 21:1\u201333:1.
\n17:1. they took me to a place The angels will accompany Enoch throughout his journey, reflecting Gen. 5:22, 24.
\nthey were like burning fire These \u201cflaming\u201d angels may be the serafim, whose name shares a root with the word for \u201cburn,\u201d s-r-f. See also Ps. 104:4; Ezek. 1:13.
\n17:3. a bow of fire and arrows and their quivers Lightning; see Ps. 18:14; 77:18\u201319.
\n17:4. the fire of the west which receives every setting of the sun The visual effect of a sunset is the result of an actual fire that burns in the west.
\n17:5. and pours out into the great sea which [is] toward the west For more on this river, see 23:4.
\n17:6. and I reached the great darkness The Greek reads: \u201cI reached the great river and the great darkness.\u201d Both Babylonian and Greek cosmologies depict the inhabited world as surrounded by a great river.
\n17:8. the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep Enoch has followed the great rivers to their source; see Job 38:16.
\n18:1\u20135 This passage is a digression regarding the winds and the basis of the world.
\n18:1. the storehouses of all the winds In the Bible, meteorological phenomena are frequently kept in \u201cstorehouses\u201d by God (see Deut. 28:12; Job 38:22; and particularly Ps. 135:7; cf. Sir. 43:14).
\n18:2. the cornerstone of the earth See Job 38:4\u20136. The idea that the earth has structural foundations is reflected throughout the Bible.
\n18:3. the pillars of heaven The equating of the \u201cpillars of heaven\u201d with the wind here may be the result of an interpretation of the phrase in Job 26:11, \u201cThe pillars of heaven tremble, astounded at His blast,\u201d via the adjacent 26:13, \u201cBy His wind the heavens were calmed.\u201d
\n18:5. the winds on the earth which support the clouds As noted by Charles, Job 36:29 and 37:16 also bear witness to the difficulty of understanding the weightlessness and movement of clouds in the ancient world.
\nI saw at the ends of the earth the firmament of heaven above In the ancient conception of the world, heaven is shaped like a convex bowl with its ends resting on the edges of the earth. See also 33:2.
\n18:6\u20139 The mountain of God in the northwest corner is flanked by three mountains to its east and three to its south. The jewels found in these mountains may be a reference to \u201cEden, the Garden of God\u201d in Ezek. 28:13, where nine different precious stones are located. In Ezek. 28:16 the same location is called the \u201cmountain of God.\u201d
\n18:8. the top of the throne [was] of sapphire Or, \u201cof lapis lazuli.\u201d See Ezek. 1:26; 10:1 (and cf. Exod. 24:10).
\n18:9. a burning fire The burning fire may indicate a connection between this mountain and Sinai\/Horev; see Exod. 24:17; Deut. 18:16.
\nand what was in all the mountains In the Greek, \u201cand beyond these mountains.\u201d
\n18:10. there the waters were gathered together More likely, \u201cthere the heavens come to an end,\u201d reflected in the Greek and partially in the Aramaic fragment 4Q204 viii 28. Several Ethiopic manuscripts read: \u201cthere the heavens were gathered together.\u201d
\n18:11. pillars of heavenly fire This feature of the Watchers\u2019 prison is mentioned again in 21:7.
\n18:12. neither the firmament of heaven above it, nor the foundation of earth below it Enoch has passed beyond the limits of the inhabited world (see 18:10).
\n18:13. seven stars No specific stars are indicated here. The number seven repeats several times in the book of Enoch and in this section in particular; there are seven mountains of precious stones (18:15) and seven archangels mentioned in the Greek version of chap. 20 (see comment below).
\n18:15. which transgressed the command of the LORD \u2026 because they did not come out at their proper times Like the angels, the stars are considered responsible for their behavior, in particular, for not following the divinely ordained cosmic order. While these \u201ctransgressions\u201d may indicate meteoroids or \u201cshooting stars,\u201d Uriel\u2019s explanation indicates that these are comets or planets with orbits that seemed irregular to ancient astronomers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
183. he has been \u2026 blaspheming our God, who will make him subject to me Josephus stresses once again David\u2019s trust in God and his determination to defeat an enemy who has blasphemed the name of the God of Israel; this transgression was not permitted to Jews even in regard to the gods of others … <\/p>\n