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 Early Jewish Writings and
New Testament Interpretation
E S SE N T IA L S O F B I B L IC A L ST U D I E S
Early Jewish Writings and New Testament Interpretation
C.D. Elledge
An Invitation to Biblical Poetry
Elaine James
Ancient Israel’s Neighbors
Brian R. Doak
Sin In The New Testament
Jeffrey Siker
Reading Hebrew Bible Narratives
J. Andrew Dearman
The History of Bronze and Iron Age Israel
Victor H. Matthews
New Testament Christianity in The Roman World
Harry O. Maier
Women in the New Testament World
Susan E. Hylen
Early Jewish Writings
and New Testament
Interpretation
C . D. E L L E D G E
 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2023
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
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address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Elledge, C. D. (Casey Deryl), author.
Title: Early Jewish writings and New Testament interpretation / C.D. Elledge.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2023. |
Series: Essentials of biblical studies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022061035 (print) | LCCN 2022061036 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190274580 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190274597 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780190274610 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Jewish religious literature—History and criticism. |
Bible. Old Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish. |
Bible. New Testament—Relation to the Old Testament. |
Judaism—History—To 70 A.D. |
Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.
Classification: LCC BM485 .E55 2023 (print) | LCC BM485 (ebook) |
DDC 296 .1—dc23/eng/20230207
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022061035
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022061036
DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780190274580.001.0001
Paperback printed by Marquis Book Printing, Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
For Annabelle and Elijah
(Sirach 30:4–​5)
 Contents

Series Introduction ix

1. Forms of Scripture in Early Judaism  1

Early Judaism  1
Canon and Noncanonical Literature  6
Apocrypha, or Deuterocanonical Books  10
Pseudepigrapha  13
Dead Sea Scrolls  19
Philo and Josephus  19
This Book  20
2. The Glory of Wisdom  23
The Dimensions of Wisdom  23
Sages and Scribes  25
Wisdom Writings  25
The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira  27
The Wisdom of Solomon  34
Wisdom in the New Testament  41
3. In the Last Days  54
Apocalyptic Literature  54
Apocalyptic Thought  57
1 Enoch  59
Post–​70 ce Apocalypses  70
4 Ezra  73
2 Baruch  78
Apocalypse of Abraham  80
Apocalypticism in the New Testament  83
4. Rewriting Scripture  97
Explicit Interpretation  97
Implicit Interpretation  99
Rewritten Scriptures  100
viii Contents

Jubilees  102
Biblical Antiquities (Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum)  113
Scriptural Interpretation in the New Testament  120
5. In the Wilderness  128
The Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls  128
Scriptural Manuscripts and Their Interpretation  134
Rule Documents  138
Legal Writings  142
Psalms, Hymns, Prayers  145
Wisdom and Apocalypticism  147
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament  150
6. Jews, Greeks, and Romans  157
Philo of Alexandria  157
Philo and the New Testament  166
Josephus  170
Josephus and the New Testament  181

Notes  187
Glossary  191
Works Cited  195
Index of Sources  201
General Index  205
 Series Introduction

The past three decades have seen an explosion of approaches to study

of the Bible, as older exegetical methods have been joined by a variety
of literary, anthropological, and social models. Interfaith collabora-
tion has helped change the field, and the advent of more cultural di-
versity among biblical scholars in the West and around the world has
broadened our reading and interpretation of the Bible. These changes
have also fueled interest in Scripture’s past: both the ancient Near
Eastern and Mediterranean worlds out of which Scripture came and
the millennia of premodern interpretation through which it traveled to
our day. The explosion of information and perspectives is so vast that
no one textbook can any longer address the many needs of seminaries
and colleges where the Bible is studied.
In addition to these developments in the field itself are changes in
the students. Traditionally the domain of seminaries, graduate schools,
and college and university religion classes, now biblical study also
takes place in a host of alternative venues. As lay leadership in local
churches develops, nontraditional, weekend, and online preparatory
classes have mushroomed. As the number of seminaries in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America grows, particular need for inexpensive, easily
available materials is clear. As religious controversies over the Bible’s
origins and norms continue to dominate the airwaves, congregation
members and even curious nonreligious folk seek reliable paths into
particular topics. And teachers themselves continue to seek guidance
in areas of the ever-​expanding field of scriptural study with which they
may be less than familiar.
A third wave of changes also makes this series timely: shifts in the
publishing industry itself. Technologies and knowledge are shifting
so rapidly that large books are out of date almost before they are in
print. The internet and the growing popularity of ebooks call for flexi-
bility and accessibility in marketing and sales. If the days when one ex-
pert can sum up the field in a textbook are gone, also gone are the days
x Series Introduction

when large, expensive multi-​authored tomes are attractive to students,

teachers, and other readers.
During my own years of seminary teaching, I have tried to find just
the right book or books for just the right price, at just the right reading
level for my students, with just enough information to orient them
without drowning them in excess reading. For all the reasons stated
above, this search was all too often less than successful. So I was excited
to be asked to help Oxford University Press assemble a select crew of
leading scholars to create a series that would respond to such class-
room challenges. Essentials of Biblical Studies comprises freestanding,
relatively brief, accessibly written books that provide orientation to
the Bible’s contents, its ancient contexts, its interpretive methods
and history, and its themes and figures. Rather than a one-​size-​had-​
better-​fit-​all approach, these books may be mixed and matched to suit
the objectives of a variety of classroom venues as well as the needs of
individuals wishing to find their way into unfamiliar topics.
I am confident that our book authors will join me in returning enthu-
siastic thanks to the editorial staff at Oxford University Press for their
support and guidance, especially Theo Calderara, who shepherded the
project in its early days, and Dr. Steve Wiggins, who has been a most
wise and steady partner in this work since joining OUP in 2013.
Patricia K. Tull
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
 1
Forms of Scripture in Early Judaism

A classic feature of many religions has been the role of authoritative

writings, often called “scriptures.” Religions are adamant about the
authority, wisdom, mystery, and beauty of their scriptures. Yet com-
plex questions emerge when we ask what counts as “scripture” and
how such writings emerged within the historical experiences of a re-
ligion. This is especially the case for Judaism and Christianity. Near
the close of the first century ce, Judaism would preserve a collection
of scriptural books known today as the Hebrew Bible. Another name
for this collection is the Tanak, an acronym that includes three major
divisions: the Torah, the Prophets, and Writings. It is also called Mikra
(that which is read aloud, especially in the synagogue).
As for the Christian Bible, a more extended development transpired
throughout the first four centuries of its emergence—​and beyond.
Christians would accept the writings of the Hebrew Bible as their
Old Testament, preserving them in a different order and typically
reading them in the Greek translation known as the Septuagint. Their
Greek scriptures also contained additional writings not found in the
Hebrew Bible. These included writings designated by later Christians
as Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical Books. The collection, of course,
further expanded to include the early church writings that formed the
New Testament, which itself was attested in varied arrangement and
content among the earliest surviving collections.

Early Judaism

An important feature of the formation of scriptures is that Jews and

Christians would ultimately exclude a vast range of popular religious
literature from their scriptural collections. Many of these books were

Early Jewish Writings and New Testament Interpretation. C.D. Elledge, Oxford University Press.
© Oxford University Press 2023. DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780190274580.003.0001
2 Early Jewish Writings

originally composed during one of the most fascinating environments

in the study of religions, a historical era sometimes called “Early
Judaism” or “Ancient Judaism” (see Box 1.1). “Second Temple Judaism”
further designates the Judaism that flourished from the Persian resto-
ration of the Jerusalem temple (515 bce) until its destruction by the
Romans (70 ce).
The geographical parameters of Early Judaism range beyond the
ancestral homeland of Palestine to the diaspora communities that
flourished in Babylonia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. Its his-
torical parameters are understood differently by modern historians.
Yet they commonly include the Hellenistic (332–​63 bce) and Roman
(63 bce) eras in the centuries prior to the reformulation of Jewish tra-
dition achieved by early rabbis and codified in the Mishnah (ca. 200
ce). Prior to the full emergence of this “Rabbinic Judaism,” however,
many colorful strands of religious belief and practice flowed through
the Jewish community.

Box 1.1 Major Events in the History of Early

Judaism

BCE (Before Common Era)

Alexander’s Conquests 334–​323
Septuagintal Translation third century
Hellenistic Reform Movement 175
Maccabean Revolt 167–​164
Hasmonean Dynasty ca. 140–​63
Roman Rule in Palestine 63
Herod the Great 37–​4
Roman Rule in Egypt 30
CE (Common Era)
Great Jewish Revolt 66–​70
Diaspora Revolt 115–​117
Bar-​Kochba Revolt 132–​135
The Mishnah ca. 200
 Forms of Scripture in Early Judaism 3

The experiences of Early Judaism in the Hellenistic era reveal how

Israel’s earlier traditions were creatively adapted to the seismic changes
that Alexander’s conquests brought to the Near East (334–​323 bce).
The subsequent spread of Greek culture, or Hellenization, fractured
the Jewish community internally, as conflicting factions pursued
competing alternatives for how to live out the ancestral faith under
Greek dominion. One of the most intense political expressions of
these conflicts erupted in the Hellenistic Reform (175 bce), in which
pro-​Hellenistic Jews enacted cultural, religious, and legal reforms
that endeavored to transform the city of Jerusalem into a Greek polis.
They were supported in their radical initiatives by the Greek emperor
Antiochus IV Epiphanes, infamous throughout subsequent Jewish tra-
dition. In the Maccabean Revolt (167–​164 bce), the Maccabean family
fought to assert practices of Jewish religion threatened by the Reform,
including circumcision, sabbath, and temple sacrifice. After their rev-
olutionary triumph over Antiochus and his pro-​Hellenistic partisans,
the heirs of the Maccabees, the Hasmoneans, established a prosperous
political dynasty in Jerusalem (ca. 140 bce). Hasmonean leadership,
however, would only provoke intense sectarian opposition from other
sectors of the Jewish community. It is within this environment that the
first historical references to the three famous “sects” of ancient Judaism
are to be found: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes (see Box 1.2).
Bringing an eventual end to the Hasmonean Dynasty, Rome
experimented with varied strategies for governing ancient Palestine
(63 bce). The most successful involved political friendship with King
Herod the Great, whose lengthy reign (37–​4 bce) secured Roman
interests in the region, while promoting Jewish prosperity interna-
tionally. Herod’s leadership gloriously renovated the Jerusalem temple
(20s bce), making it a renowned centerpiece of Jewish civilization. Yet
this delicate pro-​Roman/​pro-​Jewish alignment was defended with a
bloody sword and proved difficult to maintain after Herod’s death.
As revolutionary factions gained momentum, three catastrophic
revolts would contribute to the gradual demise of Early Judaism.
The Great Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–​70 ce) would see the de-
struction of the Jerusalem temple and the massive upheaval of earlier
Palestinian society. Yet 70 ce was far from the end of Jewish nation-
alism and revolutionary fervor. After prolonged conflict in major
4 Early Jewish Writings

Box 1.2 The Three Jewish Sects

According to Josephus, three religious “classes” or “schools”

“practice[d]‌philosophy” (War 2:119–​66; Antiquities 18:11–​25).
These included the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Differences
in theological beliefs and social organization distinguish the
schools. The aristocratic Sadducees emphasize free will, deny
rewards in the afterlife, and are contentious toward one another.
Severe in matters of judgment, they abide only by the written
Torah in their religious practice. Pharisees enjoy popular appeal
and are renowned for their legal interpretation, which emphasizes
certain “traditions from the fathers” not written within the Torah
(Antiquities 13:296–​97). Lenient in matters of judgment, they live
simply, believe in an afterlife, and emphasize cooperation between
free will and determinism. Essenes form an altogether distinct
communal order in which they practice asceticism, adhering to
deterministic beliefs and a positive view of the afterlife. Josephus’s
accounts testify to how differing theologies and social behaviors
characterized competing sectarian movements in Early Judaism.

urban environments, a Diaspora Revolt (115–​117 ce) raged in North

Africa, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia as Jewish revolutionaries destroyed
pagan temples and massacred Greek populations. The unrelenting
Roman response devastated many of the diaspora communities that
flourished in these regions. The Bar-​Kochba Revolt (132–​135 ce) in
Palestine waged another failed attempt at political liberation from
Rome. These revolts intensively disrupted the social and religious
structures that had characterized earlier Judaism.
Since the origins of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity are to be
found within this setting, Early Judaism may be regarded as among
the most generative environments in the history of religions. Rabbinic
Judaism was deeply informed by the religion of the Tannaim, sages
who had been active before the temple’s destruction and offered lead-
ership to the Jewish community in the desperate aftermath. Their
interpretation of Israel’s law contributed to the advancement of rab-
binic Halakhah. This totality of Jewish legal tradition included orally
 Forms of Scripture in Early Judaism 5

transmitted sources later collected in the Mishnah and continuously

deliberated throughout the Talmud. Early Jewish writings reveal a vast
expanse of legal traditions that developed prior to the temple’s destruc-
tion, exhibiting both continuity and discord with the emerging rab-
binic Halakhah. Such is also the case with the Aggadah, the nonlegal,
moral, theological, narrative, and mystical traditions of Rabbinic
Judaism.
Jesus and his earliest followers also lived within this environment.
Within its first-​century context, it is perhaps premature to use the
term “Christianity” to describe the actual social setting of Jesus and
his earliest followers, especially if we use that term to designate a dis-
tinct world religion. While Jesus and his earliest followers appear to
have challenged existing beliefs and practices in Early Judaism, so did
other movements within this era. Beyond the Tannaim and the nas-
cent church, there flourished a variety of other competing religious
currents that contended for their own interpretations of how to live out
the ancestral faith amid the incessant tides of imperial rule.
The literature of Early Judaism has thus stood at the forefront of
attempts to understand the gradual emergence of the church and
Rabbinic Judaism from the multifaceted religious context that both
shared. These shared origins have remained among the factors that have
most persistently linked Judaism and Christianity as mutual heirs of a
common religious heritage. While scholars once confidently asserted
an intentional “parting of the ways” between Judaism and Christianity
in the late first-​century ce, the continuing study of Early Judaism offers
a more problematic tale (Becker and Reed 2003). As Daniel Boyarin
(1999, 5–​6) observes, “Like many twins, Judaism and Christianity
never quite formed entirely separate identities. Like closely related
siblings, they rivaled each other, learned from each other, fought with
each other, perhaps even sometimes loved each other.” Since Early
Judaism supplied their originally shared, formative environment, the
literature composed in this era preserves crucial evidence for under-
standing the later development and tensive relationships between the
two religions throughout their subsequent histories.
This age was also crucial to the latest stages of the development of the
Hebrew Bible itself. Late compositions like Daniel 7–​12 and many of
the Psalms were composed in this era. Many books were continuously
6 Early Jewish Writings

edited throughout this age, as they began to develop together into

larger scriptural collections. Thus, Early Judaism was not merely a later
heir but was an active contributor to the literature of the Hebrew Bible.
Jewish scribes, visionaries, sages, historians, poets, and philosophers
also composed a vast amount of fascinating new literature throughout
the Hellenistic and Roman eras that did not ultimately appear in the
later Hebrew canon. These diverse writings provide modern scholars
some of the best available insights into one of history’s most fertile reli-
gious contexts. The purpose of the present volume is to introduce a se-
lect number of important genres and collections of these writings and
to discuss their implications for interpreting aspects of New Testament
literature and Christian origins.

Canon and Noncanonical Literature

From a contemporary perspective, many of these writings may be

categorized in some sense as “noncanonical.” This categorization, of
course, assumes the formation of a biblical canon or exclusive col-
lection of scriptural books. The term “canon” derives from a Greek
word denoting a straight rod or beam utilized to measure or main-
tain the structure of other materials. A kanōn might align the intricate
threads of a woven tapestry or guide the precise measurements of a
skilled mason or carpenter. As applied to intellectual culture, the ideal
models for literature, philosophy, or architecture might be designated
as kanones. Christians would apply this term to the collection of their
scriptural texts. Amid stormy controversies, these writings provided
an authoritative guide, metric, or model for distinguishing between
truth and falsehood, worship and abomination.
An important feature of canon in Judaism and Christianity is that
their collections ultimately became exclusive. Some writings were in-
cluded, while others, however popular, were omitted. The scriptural
canons of Jews and Christians also became closed, so that no new
writings were added. For the Hebrew Bible, it appears that such an ex-
clusive scriptural collection first emerged among early rabbinic leaders
near the end of the first century ce, although some scholars still argue
for an earlier or later context. For the Christian Bible, the closure of the
 Forms of Scripture in Early Judaism 7

canonical process transpired through a much later development, first

traceable to the fourth century ce. Moreover, the canonical process
transpired differently among global populations within Christianity,
leading to differences among the canons of Catholic, Protestant,
Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. Since the closure
of the canonical process began relatively late in the histories of Judaism
and Christianity, what “scripture” may have meant in earlier settings
remains a more open and enticing question.

Canons as Inclusive

One way to appreciate the situation is to recognize two features of

canon. As Lee McDonald (2012) advises, one feature of canon pos-
itively asserts that a writing represents an authoritative scriptural
document. This emergent sense of canon came relatively earlier. The
Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, received
strong, even essential acceptance throughout much of Judaism in the
Hellenistic and Roman eras, even among communities that were oth-
erwise at odds. The Prophets are continuously utilized as religious
authorities, even if questions persist about what texts were referenced by
this categorical term. Passages of Psalms are also frequently referenced
in varied ways in the literature of Early Judaism and the nascent church.
One may recognize an early, formative sense of canon among the
Dead Sea Scrolls, an early Jewish literary collection from Palestine. The
scrolls contain manuscripts from the Hellenistic era up until the Great
Jewish Revolt. Approximately 25 percent of the scrolls comprise copies
of all the books found in the later Hebrew Bible, with the possible ex-
ception of Esther. They attest numerous copies of each of the books
of the Torah, with Deuteronomy registering the most, at twenty-​nine.
Each of the Prophetic books is found in multiple copies, with Isaiah
registering the largest number, at twenty-​one. While their numbers are
often fewer, most of the texts featured as Writings in the later Hebrew
Bible appear. This includes thirty-​ six manuscripts that preserve
portions of Psalms in varied compositions.
New Testament writings likewise cite every book of the Torah as
scripture. Deuteronomy is most frequently quoted, with over forty
8 Early Jewish Writings

citations. Most of the Prophetic books are cited, with Isaiah registering
over sixty citations. Among the Writings of the Hebrew Bible, passages
of Psalms are quoted over seventy times; Job, Proverbs, and Daniel
are also cited. Even conceding that quotation alone does not reveal a
writing’s canonical status, one finds the broad contours of the eventual
books of the Hebrew Bible throughout the pages of the New Testament.
Testimonies from Ben Sira (early second century bce), Josephus,
and 4 Ezra (late first century ce) share the view that Law and Prophets
constituted essential categories of scripture. Ben Sira’s Prologue fur-
ther references “other books that followed them”; Josephus references
“four” additional books containing “hymns to God and instructions
for human life” (Apion 1:38–​40; cf. Luke 24:44). These sources, how-
ever, do not identify specific books or their sequential arrangement.
Josephus enumerates the total collection of scriptural books at twenty-​
two (five law +​thirteen prophets +​four hymns/​instructions); 4 Ezra
identifies twenty-​four public books to be read by all people (14:45).
These enumerations appear to converge in large measure with the
eventual twenty-​four books of the Hebrew Bible.
Even so, as Timothy Lim (2013) and other scholars advise, the 22/​24
book enumeration may describe the scriptural collection of the partic-
ular Pharisaic-​rabbinic movement that would hold increasing sway in
the decades following the temple’s destruction. The scriptural collections
of other movements may well have remained more, or less, expansive.

Canons as Exclusive

Even as canons positively include authoritative scriptural books, they

ultimately possesses a delimiting and negative characteristic. Canons
became exclusive collections with boundaries. Thus, many popular,
even authoritative writings were ultimately excluded. Indeed, such se-
lectivity would have been meaningful and necessary only amid a much
larger array of popular religious literature that held value within the
Jewish and Christian communities. McDonald (2012) counsels that this
exclusive feature of canon emerged late and that it is anachronistic to as-
sume that it prevailed in the centuries prior to the closure of the canon-
ical process. There is sufficient evidence to believe that in Early Judaism
 Forms of Scripture in Early Judaism 9

a more expansive sense of authoritative texts prevailed, one that in-

cluded writings that would not appear within the later Hebrew Bible.
The Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament again provide illuminating
instances. Writings later known as Jubilees and portions of 1 Enoch ap-
pear to have held some type of religious authority among the authors
of the scrolls. Manuscripts of Jubilees, in fact, register nearly as many
copies as Genesis (fifteen to sixteen), a number surpassed only by
Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and portions of Psalms. The New
Testament also cites or alludes to texts that ultimately did not feature
in the Hebrew Bible. Among the clearest examples, Jude explicitly cites
a portion of 1 Enoch as an authoritative prophecy that foretells the de-
mise of the wicked and the final triumph of God’s justice (v14).
Most striking in this regard is a passage from 4 Ezra, where “the
twenty-​four books” of the Hebrew Bible comprise a public declaration
for the masses. Yet for “the wise among your people” remain “seventy
[books] that were written last. . . . For in them is the spring of under-
standing, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge” (14:45–​
47).1 4 Ezra may suggest that the fullest wisdom was to be found
beyond the writings of the Hebrew Bible alone, within seventy divinely
revealed, esoteric books, in which the most profound waters of under-
standing flowed.
In yet a different case, the Prologue to Ben Sira presents the book as
an essential complement to “the law,” “prophets,” and “other books.”
It offers functional training in the written and spoken word, skills es-
sential for keeping the law and advancing its fame among “outsiders.”
In this instance, existing scriptural books may yet be wedded to sec-
ondary, supportive works, like Ben Sira, that refine their interpre-
tation and application to the problems of daily life. The Prologue
recommends awareness that canons may contain internal gradations
of authority that complement and support one another.
Studying the so-​called noncanonical literature of Early Judaism
today thus requires a kind of dual vision. Even as modern readers
study these documents centuries after the closure of the canonical
process, we must also acknowledge that they were originally composed
and utilized within a range of diverse communities that held their own
particular assumptions about what constituted scripture. Since the
authors of the New Testament also lived in an era prior to the closure
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Issued Weekly—By Subscription $2.50 per year. Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the year 1905, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C., by Frank
Tousey, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.

No. 3 OCTOBER 20, 1905. Price 5 Cents

A Corner in Corn;
OR,
HOW A CHICAGO BOY DID THE
TRICK.

By A SELF-MADE MAN.
 CHAPTER I.
IN THE ROOKERY BUILDING.
“Has Vance returned yet?” asked Jared Whitemore, a stout, florid-
complexioned man of sixty-five, opening the door of his private office
and glancing into the outside room.
“No, sir,” replied Edgar Vyce, his bookkeeper and office manager—a
tall, saturnine-looking man, who had been in his employ several
years.
“Send him in as soon as he comes back.”
The bookkeeper nodded carelessly and resumed his writing.
“Miss Brown,” said Jared to his stenographer and typewriter, a very
pretty brown-eyed girl of seventeen, the only other occupant of the
room, whose desk stood close to one of the windows overlooking La
Salle Street.
She immediately left her machine and followed her employer into the
inner sanctum.
Mr. Whitemore was a well-known speculator, one of the shrewdest
and most successful operators on the Chicago Board of Trade.
He owned some of the best business sites in the city, and his ground
rents brought him in many thousands a year.
Accounted a millionaire many times over, no one could with any
degree of certainty say exactly what he was worth.
His plainly furnished office was on an upper floor of the Rookery
Building.
He did business for nobody but himself. Jarboe, Willicutt & Co.,
whose offices were on the ground floor of the Board of Trade
Building, were his brokers.
The office clock chimed the hour of five as the bookkeeper, with a
frown, laid down his pen, rested his elbow on the corner of his tall
desk and glanced down into the busy thoroughfare.
At that moment the office door opened and a messenger boy
entered.
Mr. Vyce came to the railing and received an envelope addressed to
himself.
He signed for it, tore it open, read the contents, which were brief,
with a corrugated brow, and then, with much deliberation, tore the
paper into fine particles and tossed them into the waste-basket.
For a moment or two he paced up and down before his desk, with
his hands thrust into his trousers pockets, and then resumed his
work just as the door opened again and admitted a stalwart, good-
looking lad, with a frank, alert countenance and a breezy manner,
who entered briskly with a handful of pamphlets and papers.
“Mr. Whitemore wants you to report in his office at once, Thornton,”
said the bookkeeper, in a surly kind of voice, accompanied with a
look which plainly showed that he was not particularly well disposed
toward the boy.
“All right,” answered Vance, cheerily, turning toward the private
office, on the door of which he knocked, and then entered on being
told to come in.
“I hate him!” muttered Mr. Vyce, following the boy’s retreating figure
with a dark scowl. “He’s a thorn in my path. He’s altogether too thick
with Whitemore. I can’t understand what the old man sees in him.
For the last three months I’ve noticed that my hold here is slipping
away, and just when I need it the most. Just when things were
coming my way, too. Now, with a fortune in sight, this boy is
crowding me to the wall. Curse him! I can’t understand what it
means. Is it possible Whitemore suspects me? Pshaw! Am I not an
old and trusted employee? I’ve always been in his confidence to a
large extent, but of late he has been keeping things from me—
matters I ought to know—especially in reference to this deal he has
on. Those corn options are on the point of expiring, and I expected
ere this to have been sent West to settle with the elevator people
and get the receipts, for corn is on the rise and the old man is ahead
at this stage of the game. I strongly suspect he means to corner the
market this time. He’s got the dust to attempt it with, and already he
holds options on nearly half of the visible supply in Kansas and
Nebraska, besides what he has stored here. There is no telling what
he has been doing during the last thirty days, as not a word about
corn has passed between us during that time. It’s not like Whitemore
to act this way with me. Something is up, and by George! I’ll find out
what it is.”
Mr. Vyce drove his pen savagely into a little glass receptacle filled
with small shot and turned to the window again, after glancing at the
clock.
Bessie Brown came out of the inner office with her notebook in her
hand and sat down at her machine to transcribe her notes.
In a few moments Mr. Vyce came over to her desk and, taking up his
station where he could catch a glance of what she was writing,
remarked:
“Are you working overtime to-night, Miss Brown?”
“Excuse me, Mr. Vyce,” she said, covering the paper with her hands,
“this is strictly confidential.”
“I beg your pardon,” he said, between his teeth, altering his position.
“But you haven’t answered my question.”
“I expect to be busy until six,” she replied, without looking at him.
“I have tickets for McVickar’s,” he continued. “Would you honor me
with your company there this evening? It is not necessary that you
return home to dress. We can dine at Palmer’s.”
“You must excuse me,” she replied, with a heightened color, “but I
never go anywhere without my mother’s knowledge and permission.”
“But you went to the Auditorium two weeks ago with Thornton,” he
said, in a tone of chagrin.
“Mr. Thornton asked mamma if I could go, and she consented.”
“You never invited me to call at your home, so I could become
acquainted with your mother,” persisted Mr. Vyce, who was evidently
jealous of the intimacy which existed between Vance and the young
lady.
Bessie said nothing to this, but applied herself more attentively to her
work.
“Aren’t you going to extend that privilege to me, Miss Brown?” he
continued, fondling his heavy black mustache.
“Mr. Vyce, I am very busy just now,” she replied, with some
embarrassment.
The bookkeeper gave her a savage glance and then walked away
without another word.
Much to her relief, he soon put on his hat and left the office abruptly,
shutting the door with a slam.
At the same moment Vance came out of the private office and
stepped up beside the pretty typewriter.
She looked up with a smile and did not offer to hide from his gaze
the long typewritten letter on which she was engaged.
Evidently there was nothing there Vance ought not to know.
“Will you please turn on the light, Vance?” she asked, sweetly, her
fingers never leaving the keys for a moment.
“Certainly, Bessie,” he replied, with alacrity, raising his hand to the
shaded electric bulb above her machine and turning the key,
whereupon the slender wires burst into a white glow. “How much
more have you to do?”
“Another page, almost,” she answered, with another quick glance
into his bright, eager young face.
“I won’t be able to see you to the car to-night,” he said, regretfully.
That was a pleasure the young man had for some time appropriated
to himself and Bessie as willingly accorded.
“You are going to stay downtown, then, for a while?” she asked.
“Yes; I shall be here for an hour yet, perhaps. After supper I’ve got to
meet Mr. Whitemore in his rooms at the Grand Pacific. I’ve got to
notify mother of the fact by telephone.”
Vance went over to the booth in the corner of the office and rang up
a drug store in the vicinity of his home, on the North Side.
Outside the shades of night were beginning to fall.
From the windows of the office one could see directly up La Salle
Street.
The cars, as they made the turn into or out of the street at the corner
of Monroe, flashed their momentary glares of red and green lights,
and filled the air continually with the jangle of their bells.
The sidewalks were filled with a dense crowd that poured out
continually from the street entrances of the office buildings.
They streamed out of the brokers’ offices and commission houses on
either side of La Salle Street, and the tide set toward the upper end
of the thoroughfare, where stood the girders and cables of the La
Salle Street bridge.
Vance took all this in with a brief survey from the window, after he
had sent his message across the river.
“What do you think?” said Bessie, as he paused once more beside
her. “Mr. Vyce asked me to go to the theatre with him to-night. Hasn’t
he a cheek?”
“Of course you accepted?” said Vance with a grin.
“Of course I did no such thing,” she answered, pausing for an instant
in her work, as she looked up with an indignant flush on her creamy
cheeks. “You know better than that, Vance. You just want to provoke
me,” with a charming pout.
“That’s right,” he answered, with a quiet chuckle, “but you mustn’t
mind me.”
She smiled her forgiveness and went on with her work.
“There, that’s done,” she said, in a few moments, pushing back her
chair. “I hope I haven’t made any mistakes,” as she rose to take the
sheets into the inner office.
“No fear of that, I guess,” said the boy, encouragingly. “You’re about
as accurate as they come, Bessie.”
She paused on the threshold of the door to flash him back a look of
appreciation for the compliment and then disappeared within.
Presently she returned and started to put on her things.
“It looks a little bit like rain, doesn’t it?” she asked, glancing at the
darkened sky, where not a star was visible.
“You can have my umbrella, if you wish,” Vance offered, “but I guess
it won’t rain yet awhile.”
“Never mind; I’ll chance it. Good night, Vance.”
“Good night, Bessie,” and the outside door closed behind her.
Vance returned to his desk and proceeded to make copious extracts
from a pile of pamphlets and reports he had taken from a closet.
In half an hour Mr. Whitemore came out of his sanctum with his hat
on.
“You’d better go to supper now, Vance. Meet me promptly at eight
o’clock at my rooms,” he said, “and bring everything with you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mr. Whitemore left, and the lad, making a bundle of his notes and
such papers as he knew were wanted by his employer, turned out
the electric lights and locked up the office.
He didn’t know it then, but this was the last time for many days he
was to see the inside of the Rookery Building.
Nor did he dream of the tragedy that awaited his return to the office.
 CHAPTER II.
BOUND WEST.
Vance went to a Clark Street restaurant and had supper.
It was all right, but the boy did not enjoy it as much as he would have
done at home.
The Thorntons lived in a small house, one of a row, on the North
Side, which Mrs. Thornton owned.
They had once been wealthy, for Mr. Thornton had at one time been
a successful member of the Chicago Board of Trade.
But a few months before his death, which had occurred ten years
previously, he had been caught in a short deal and squeezed.
He extricated himself at the cost of his entire fortune.
Everything was swept away except the one little house, the property
of Mrs. Thornton, to which the family immediately moved, and a few
thousand dollars banked in the wife’s name.
After Mr. Thornton’s death the widow devoted herself to her children,
and when Vance graduated from the public school, she made
application to Mr. Whitemore, with whom her husband had had
business relations, for a position for her son in his office.
The application being made at a lucky moment, the lad was taken
on, and had in every way proved himself worthy of Jared
Whitemore’s confidence.
Promptly at eight o’clock Vance was shown up to Mr. Whitemore’s
rooms in the Grand Pacific Hotel.
The corn operator was in his sitting-room before a table that was
scattered over with papers and telegraph blanks.
It was a cool evening, but Jared Whitemore was in his shirt sleeves,
and, although the windows were down at the top, his face was red
and he was perspiring furiously.
A half-smoked cigar projected between his lips, and several
discarded stumps lay on a lacquer tray that held one of the hotel
pitchers of ice water.
“You have the government report on the visible supply in that bundle,
have you?” asked Jared Whitemore, as soon as he became aware of
the boy’s presence in the room.
“Yes, sir.”
“Let me have it,” with an impatient gesture.
Vance had it before his employer in a twinkling.
“Your notes, please,” said the operator, after he had studied the
report for several minutes.
The boy laid them before him.
“Put the pamphlets down there. Now, take the evening paper and go
over there by the window and sit down.”
Vance did so, and there was perfect silence in the room for the next
half hour, when it was broken by a knock on the door.
“See who that is,” almost snapped Whitemore, jerking his thumb in
the direction of the entrance.
Vance found a telegraph boy outside, signed for the yellow envelope
and brought it to his employer.
Two more dispatches arrived before the little marble clock on the
mantel chimed the hour of nine.
Another half hour of almost perfect silence ensued, during which two
more cigar stumps were added to the collection on the dish; and
Vance was beginning to wonder why he was being held there by Mr.
Whitemore, when the operator rose from his seat, mopped his
forehead with his familiar bandana handkerchief and then sat down
again.
“Vance.”
“Yes, sir,” answered the boy, springing up.
“Come here.”
The tones were short, sharp and incisive.
“Sit down here alongside of me.”
Vance obeyed this order with military promptness.
“When can you start for Omaha?”
“Sir!” said the boy, almost speechless from amazement.
“I asked you when you could leave for Omaha?” repeated the
operator, brusquely.
“By the eight o’clock train in the morning, if you particularly wish it,”
answered the astonished lad.
“Very well; make your arrangements to that effect. Now, Vance, I
want to speak to you. Heretofore I have always closed my dealings
with the elevator people through Mr. Vyce. For reasons which I need
not discuss with you I am going to send you to do the business for
me this time.”
The boy’s eyes expanded to the size of saucers at this information.
It simply meant a most remarkable expression of confidence on Mr.
Whitemore’s part in his youthful office assistant.
Confidence not only in the boy’s business sagacity, but even more
so in his integrity, for he would be obliged to handle checks signed in
blank for a very large sum of money; just how large would, of course,
depend on the amount of corn the options covered.
That it ran into several millions of bushels the lad already knew.
“I am taking this unusual course,” continued Mr. Whitemore, lighting
a fresh cigar and regarding Vance keenly, “for several reasons. To
begin with, since I started this deal I have in hand I have met with
opposition from a most unexpected quarter. It could only have
developed through information furnished by some one who had an
insight to my plans. In order to test the accuracy of my suspicions in
a certain direction I cut off all information from that quarter. The
result has been confusion in the ranks of the opposition. I’m,
therefore, convinced I can at any time put my finger on the traitor to
my interests. To continue the further development of my scheme, I
have decided to substitute you for Mr. Vyce, so far as the settlement
of my Western corn options are concerned. During the last five or six
weeks you have probably noticed that I have employed you on
business of a confidential nature. This was to test you for the
purpose I had in view. On one occasion I so arranged matters that
you were forced to retain in your possession over Sunday a very
large sum of money. I had no doubts as to your honesty, but I wished
to see how you would proceed under the responsibility. The result
was perfectly satisfactory to me. Vance, I knew your father well. We
had many business dealings, and I found him a man on whom I
could implicitly rely. I believe you are his duplicate.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Vance, gratefully, as Mr. Whitemore paused for
a moment.
“Now to business. Here is a power of attorney, which will give you all
the necessary authority to represent me on this Western trip. Here
are your general instructions,” and he handed Vance the two
typewritten pages Bessie Brown had executed just before she left
the office for the night.
“You will go to Omaha first, thence to Kansas City, and so on. Here
are letters of introduction addressed to the elevator firms. Some of
them are personally acquainted with me. These are the vouchers for
the options. You will insist on all settlements at the figures given in
the options, which, as you will see, are below the market quotations.
Now, as to the payments of the balances, here is a small check-book
of the Chicago National Bank. I have made out and signed sixteen
checks in blank, one of each payable to the order of the elevator
firm; all you will have to do is to fill in the amount after the difference
has been computed. Immediately after each settlement you will mail
me by registered letter, care of the Chicago National Bank, the firm’s
receipt for the amount of money represented by the check, together
with the warehouse receipt. Now, read your instructions over
carefully, and if there is anything you have to suggest, I will listen to
you.”
Vance went over the two-page letter and found that it covered every
emergency, so far as he could see.
The boy was especially directed to visit certain out-of-the-way
places, where elevators, reported as disused or empty, were known
to exist, and to ascertain by every artifice in his power whether any
corn had been received there for storage during the past three
months. This was one of the most important objects of his journey.
“Here are a couple of hundred dollars to cover incidental expenses,”
said Mr. Whitemore, handing Vance a roll of bills. “I hardly need to
tell you that I am reposing an almost unlimited confidence in your
honor and business sagacity—a somewhat unusual thing to do with
one so young as you. But I am rarely mistaken in my estimate of
character, and I feel satisfied you will fill the bill to the letter. I may
say right here that you have studied the corn market to advantage.
Such details as I have asked you to look into for me you have gone
over and reduced to practical results with astonishing clearness and
dispatch for one of your years and limited experience with Board of
Trade methods. You seem to be a born speculator, like your father. I
have long wished to associate with me a young man of nerve and
accurate foresight in whom I could thoroughly depend. You appear to
combine all the qualities in question. On this trip you are bound to
acquire knowledge of the most confidential nature—information that
could not but seriously embarrass me if it became known to my
business opponents. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” said Vance, with a serious face.
“You see how much I depend on your loyalty?”
“You need have no fear but I will fulfil your trust down to the smallest
degree,” answered Vance, earnestly.
“I am sure of it, Vance. The proof of the pudding is that I am sending
you West on this business. One thing your age, and, I hope, your wit
and cautiousness, are particularly adapted to, and that is acquiring
the information about the possible contents of those elevators
reported to be empty. On the thoroughness of your report as regards
these properties will depend one of my most important moves on the
corn market.”
“I will find out the truth, if that be within the bounds of possibility.”
“Now, Vance, another thing. Your mother will naturally want to know
where you are going, but it will be necessary for you to withhold that
information, for I have an idea that as soon as your absence is noted
at the office she will be approached on the subject by some one
interested in tracing your movements. You will simply tell her you are
going out of town on business for me and will be back in a few days.
Do not write to any one in Chicago, not even your folks, while you
are away. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Should you find it necessary to communicate with me at any time,
call up Mr. Walcott, of the Chicago National Bank, on the long-
distance telephone, and he will send for me.”
“Very well, sir.”
“I believe there is nothing further, so I will say good bye till I see you
at the office after your return.”
“Good-bye, sir.”
Vance took up his hat, after carefully putting all the papers and the
check-book of the Chicago National Bank in an inside pocket of his
coat, and left the hotel.
When he reached home an hour later he duly astonished his mother
and sister with the information that he was going out of town on
business for his employer.
Of course the first thing they wanted to know was his destination.
“I am sorry, mother, I can’t tell you. Where I am going, as well as the
object of the trip, is a business secret.”
“But we ought to know, Vance,” expostulated his pretty sister Elsie.
“Unless you tell us we shall be worried to death about you.”
“Sorry, sis,” he replied, taking her face in his two hands and kissing
her cherry-red, pouting lips; “but I am under strict orders not to say a
word about it.”
“It’s real mean of you. You know neither mamma nor I would say a
word if you told us not to,” she persisted, throwing her arms about
his neck coaxingly.
“Don’t blame me, Elsie—blame the boss. Let me tell you one thing,
dear. I feel sure this trip is the chance of my life. Mr. Whitemore as
good as said so.”
And with that the gentle mother and loving sister had to be content.
Next morning Vance boarded a Pullman drawing-room car and left
Chicago over the C. B. & Q. railroad for Omaha.
 CHAPTER III.
TAKING UP THE OPTIONS.
Vance arrived at Omaha on the following morning and registered at
the Great Western Hotel, where he had breakfast.
Then he went to the reading-room and looked over the papers,
particularly noting the corn situation.
It was now time for him to be about his business.
He procured a large, oblong manilla envelope, in which he enclosed
his letter of instruction, all but one of his letters of introduction, option
vouchers and his check-book, and after removing a single specific
check marked by a perforated capital “A,” he sealed up the package,
addressed it to himself and deposited it in the hotel safe.
Then he sallied forth on the streets of Omaha.
The hotel clerk had directed him where to find the elevator buildings,
which were located at various points along the river front.
He took a car to the nearest point and then inquired his way to the
office of Flint, Peabody & Co., who controlled three of the elevators.
Their counting-room was in Elevator A.
“I should like to see Mr. Peabody,” he said to a clerk who asked him
his business.
“He is busy at present. Take a seat.”
After waiting half an hour he was shown into the private office.
“Mr. Peabody?” asked Vance of a little, white-haired old gentleman
seated at a mahogany desk alongside a window overlooking the
Missouri river.
“Yes; what can I do for you?”
Vance handed him his card, in one corner of which was printed
Jared Whitemore in small type.
“Mr. Thornton, eh?” exclaimed the busy head of the establishment,
regarding him with some surprise as he sized him up from head to
foot.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ve been expecting a representative of Mr. Whitemore, as those
corn options expire at noon to-day. I am bound to say I looked for an
older person than you. I presume you have a power of attorney to
act for him?” said Mr. Peabody, holding out his hand.
Vance produced the paper, which the gentleman very carefully
examined.
“How am I to know that you are really the person set forth in this
document—that you are actually Mr. Whitemore’s representative? It
may be a forgery, and you may be acting for people opposed to that
gentleman’s interests,” said Mr. Peabody sharply.
“I have a letter of introduction which ought to cover that point,”
answered Vance, promptly producing an envelope addressed to the
person he was talking to.
“Hum!” said Mr. Peabody, glancing it over. “Seems to be all right.
However, as his option is a large one covering grain in our three
elevators, I’ve got to be careful. Excuse me a moment.”
“Are you going to call up Mr. Whitemore?” asked Vance as the
gentleman rose from his desk.
“Why do you ask?” asked Mr. Peabody abruptly, casting a suspicious
look at the boy.
“Because, for business reasons he expressly desires that you should
call up Mr. Walcott of the Chicago National Bank and ask for him. He
does not want any communication at his office direct.”
“Very well,” replied the gentleman, who easily surmised Mr.
Whitemore’s reasons.