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i
Gabriele Boccaccini,
Lorenzo DiTommaso,
David Hamidović,
Michael E. Stone
Associate editors
Jason M. Zurawski
1
iv
1
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.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
A Guide to Early Jewish Texts and Traditions in Christian Transmission. Alexander Kulik, Gabriele Boccaccini,
Lorenzo DiTommaso, David Hamidović, and Michael E. Stone, Oxford University Press (2019).
© Oxford University Press.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190863074.003.0002
v
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Contributors ix
A. Traditions
1. Greek 7
William Adler
2. Latin 23
Robert A. Kraft
3. Ethiopic 35
Pierluigi Piovanelli
4. Slavonic 49
Alexander Kulik
5. Coptic 73
Jacques van der Vliet
6. Syriac 95
Sergey Minov
7. Armenian 139
Michael E. Stone
8. Georgian 165
Jost Gippert
9. Christian Arabic 195
John C. Reeves
vi
vi C on t en ts
B. Corpora
12. The “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” as Category and Corpus 253
Lorenzo DiTommaso
13. Flavius Josephus 281
Michael Tuval
14. Philo of Alexandria 299
Gregory E. Sterling
15. Armenian Philonic Corpus 317
Abraham Terian
16. Minor Jewish Hellenistic Authors 331
Folker Siegert
17. Early Jewish Liturgical Texts 355
Folker Siegert
18. Qumran Texts 363
David Hamidović
19. Enochic Traditions 383
Gabriele Boccaccini
20. The Jewish Calendar and Jewish Sciences 417
Jonathan Ben-Dov
Acknowledgments
The research presented in this volume has received funding from the European Research
Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)
/ERC grant agreement no 263293 and was conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, the Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions /Institut
romand des sciences bibliques (Université de Lausanne), Concordia University Montréal,
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the University of
Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies, and the Enoch Seminar: International
Scholarship in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins.
vi
ix
Contributors
Introduction
The Voice of Jacob
Alexander Kulik
The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau.
Genesis 27:22
Jewish literature of the Hellenistic and Roman periods has attracted different groups of
scholars for different reasons. In modern times, it was Western Christian scholars—or
Western scholars interested in the beginnings of Christianity—who first took up the chal-
lenge. They were fascinated by the opportunity to reconstruct the context and background
of the New Testament world and benefited from the accessibility of manuscript sources
preserved in Greek, Latin, and the vernacular languages of the West. Eastern Christian
scholars, in turn, often belonged to emergent national schools and were thrilled that their
heritages, typically unknown to Western scholars, could also contribute to the study of an
ancient and universal legacy.
It took some time, however, before Jewish scholars overcame their sense of alienation
from the overtly non-Jewish modes of transmission of Second Temple sources and joined the
venture. Their motives were diverse: some welcomed a Jewish alternative to Rabbinic tradition;
others discerned instructive similarities in the conditions of the Jewish people in the Greco-
Roman and modern periods; still others rediscovered for themselves important pages in the
history of the Jewish people in its own land. This last interest, combined with the achieve-
ments of archaeology, opened new opportunities to juxtapose physical and textual evidence.
Without ignoring these extra-academic agendas, some scholars—among them the
initiators of this volume—approach the field motivated by intellectual curiosity of another
kind. Second Temple literature represents a methodologically fascinating object of research.
The fact that the absolute majority of evidence about one civilization (early Judaism) has
been preserved by another (late antique and medieval Christianity) creates an intricate set
of challenges that overlap diverse academic disciplines yet are complexly intertwined.
2
An integrative analysis in this field should therefore involve the tools of linguistics,
textual criticism, translation studies, literary criticism, comparative religion, history of art,
cultural anthropology, folklore, thematic criticism, and more. From a purely philological
perspective, we are often dealing with texts and traditions that have an especially com-
plicated intercultural history, with ancient and medieval translations that usually involve
more than one or two languages and scribal traditions. From a historical-cultural perspec-
tive, we face the most tangled knot of factors to be considered at every stage of analysis. To
mention only a few:
As a result, the edifice of Second Temple Jewish culture, originally an amalgam of var-
ious Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman elements, crumbled, and its pieces were taken away
separately by subsequent Christian authors and communities. These pieces must therefore
be carefully excavated from the treasuries of the many later and equally diverse cultures. In
this volume we aspire to contribute to reassembling such fragments and making sense of
them. The format we have chosen for doing so is conditioned by two main considerations.
First, we aim to introduce a certain balance into scholarly perspectives on early
Jewish literature. There is a need to consider this corpus not from the point of view of a
reconstructed product—that is, a body of hypothetical, unpreserved originals (as usually
portrayed in accordance with the agenda of specific religiocentric disciplines)—but from
the point of view of the extant materials (thus in a more philologically oriented frame-
work), with a strong emphasis, where appropriate, on the manuscript evidence. This does
not necessarily mean that we hold a hypercritical view on the possibility of such hypo-
thetical reconstructions. In fact, the authors of this volume represent the entire range of
3
opinions on this matter. We simply agree in recognizing that such an integral survey is
lacking. Although certain traditions have received focused attention, none of the standard
surveys approach the corpus of early Jewish literature from the perspective of the transmis-
sion, reception, and, often, modification of the preserved sources. Instead, they present it
as a reconstructed corpus, often ignoring the transmission history or at least making no
attempt to deal with it in an integrated fashion.1 We believe that filling this lacuna will
open new research perspectives and initiate a process of bridging the gap between scholars
of early Judaism and of medieval Christianity.
Second, one finds much research pertaining to each distinct tradition and corpus, as
well as some intertraditional insights here and there. But what we are missing—and this is
most significant—is a systematic dialogue among scholars who are (understandably) often
restricted to their own fields and to sources preserved in languages that they have mastered.
In our view, this dialogue should commence with a presentation of the state of the field,
that is, with a general survey of the research situation documented in a reference volume.
This volume is designed to yield just such a result, and to take the most necessary step of
providing a basic platform, a map for discussion, and a useful tool for scholars of various
disciplines, approaches, and backgrounds.
The present volume is therefore devoted to problems of preservation, reception, and
transformation of Jewish texts and traditions of the Second Temple period in diverse ec-
clesiastical traditions. The chapters present (a) general up-to-date surveys of separate tradi-
tions (addressing, inter alia, recent developments in the state of research and perspectives
for future research); (b) discussion of the fate of specific texts and corpora among diverse
traditions; (c) methodological issues (including the distinction between originally Jewish
and Christian material, modes of medieval transmission and compilation, early Jewish
texts and motifs in liturgy and iconography, etc.); and, when possible, (d) innovations rele-
vant to the topic. The central purpose of the book is to map the trajectories of early Jewish
texts and traditions among diverse later cultures, and thus provide a comprehensive intro-
duction to the field.
The volume consists of three main sections. Section A, “Traditions,” provides sur-
veys of the Christian linguo-confessional traditions that preserve early Jewish materials,
including Greek, Latin, Ethiopic, Slavonic, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Christian
Arabic, Celtic, and Germanic. To achieve a more stereoscopic and richer perspective, we
1. See, e.g., the surveys by E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. and ed. G.
Vermes, F. Millar, and M. Goodman (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1973–1987); M. E. Stone, ed., Jewish Writings of the
Second Temple Period (CRINT 2.1; Assen and Minneapolis, MN: Van Gorcum and Fortress Press, 1984); G. W. E.
Nickelsburg, Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins: Diversity, Continuity, and Transformation (Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress Press, 2003); and A. Samely, Profiling Jewish Literature in Antiquity: An Inventory, from Second
Temple Texts to the Talmuds, with P. Alexander, R. Bernasconi, and R. Hayward (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2013). See also collections of translated sources, such as J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha (2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1983–1985); R. Bauckham, J. R. Davila, and A. Panayotov, eds.,
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013); and L.
B. Feldman, J. L. Kugel, and L. H. Schiffman, eds., Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(Philadelphia and Omaha: JPS and University of Nebraska Press, 2013).
4
then present a different cross-section of the same material, this time organized according
to the most distinct corpora of Jewish literature preserved by Christians. Section B,
“Corpora,” looks at different corpora of texts from the point of view of their Christian
preservation. It includes a discussion of Old Testament pseudepigrapha as corpus and cate-
gory; the works of Josephus, Philo, and minor Jewish Hellenistic authors; liturgical works;
works found in Qumran in their connection to Christian traditions; Enochic books and
traditions, and remnants of the ancient Jewish science as preserved by Christians.2 Section
C, “Comparative Perspective,” offers surveys of alternative non-Christian tracks for the
survival of early Jewish materials: Jewish (Rabbinic and Karaite), Islamic, and Manichaean
traditions that also preserve elements or echoes of early Jewish texts.
Each chapter discusses early Jewish texts belonging to a certain tradition or corpus
(including texts that are of dubious or Christian provenance but preserve early Jewish
motifs), together with information, as appropriate, on their estimated dates of composi-
tion, translation provenance, and languages of Vorlagen. Special consideration is accorded
to texts preserved uniquely (or primarily) in the tradition under consideration. The chap-
ters aspire to examine the peculiarities of the given tradition or corpus in comparison to
other traditions or corpora, the relation of the given tradition or corpus to Greek or other
related linguistic traditions, the Sitz im Leben of translations and their connection to major
cultural processes, and sometimes also the Nachleben of translations. The authors often pay
attention to the functioning of texts; their incorporation into major collections; and, when
possible, their reception in textual, visual, and oral traditions. Together, the chapters pro-
vide an outlook on the current state of research and on perspectives and tasks for future
research, accompanied by a basic bibliography that gives the main editions, translations,
and research works, often including projects in progress.
The present volume shares one trait with its object of research. It has been conceived
and implemented by a diverse team, whose members belong to different fields of know-
ledge and when they do not, then to rival schools of thought—or, if neither of these, then
they at least hold opposing views on cardinal issues. Although such diversity may come at
the expense of uniformity of presentation, we view that, not as an inevitable constraint,
dictated by the hitherto disciplinary disintegration of the topic, but as a positive and fun-
damental advantage of this project, which exposes the reader to a richness of views and
approaches. Hence, united by our mutually complementary dissimilarity no less than by
our common aspiration to catch the subdued voice of Jacob, as captured and preserved by
brotherly hands, we submit our work to the judgment of the reader.
Alexander Kulik
Editor-in-Chief
2. We do not include as a separate corpus the works known as “Deutero-canonical books” or “Apocrypha.” The
history of the transmission and reception of these works follows what may be called a “biblical” trajectory, along-
side other early Jewish books, such as Daniel and Esther, and in contrast to a vast majority of the texts that consti-
tute the subject of this volume.
5
Traditions
6
7
Greek
William Adler
What survives of early Greco-Jewish literature depends mainly on the efforts and pref-
erences of Christian witnesses and copyists. That includes the writings of the two best-
known representatives of Hellenistic Judaism: Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus.
Modern scholarship owes the early church a great debt for having preserved, largely intact,
the Greek texts of so many of the writings of Josephus and Philo.1 Other works either
1. For the Christian preservation and reception of Philo, see esp. D. Runia, Philo in Early Christian
Literature: A Survey (CRINT 3.3; Assen: Van Gorcum, 1993), 3–7. On Josephus, see H. Schreckenberg, Die
8
8 Willi a m A dler
originally composed in Greek or translated into that language did not fare nearly so well,
however. Absent the smattering of excerpts preserved mainly in Eusebius’s Praeparatio
evangelica, we would know nothing of the works of Artapanus, Aristeas “the exegete,”
Demetrius the chronographer, Aristobulus the philosopher, Ezekiel the tragedian, and
Philo the epic poet—each an important witness to the cultural world of Hellenistic
Judaism.2 What survives of other Hellenistic Jewish authors is sometimes little more than
their names. Included among those lost works are what must have been substantial works
of history. Were it not for the testimony of Second Maccabees, the five-volume history
of Jason of Cyrene, an account of the Maccabean revolt that extends to Judas’s defeat of
Nicanor in 161 bce, would now be entirely unknown.3 According to Photius, the Jewish
historian Justus of Tiberias (first century ce) published a history of the Jewish war and a
chronicle of Jewish history in the form of a genealogy of kings extending from Moses down
to the death of the Herodian king Agrippa II.4 Justus’s proofs for the antiquity of Moses—a
pet theme among Jewish and Christian apologists—did draw praise from Eusebius.5 But
apart from a few stray notices in the writings of Christian authors and a scathing review of
his account of the Jewish war in Josephus’s Vita, nothing of either work survives.6
Flavius-Josephus-Tradition in Antike und Mittelalter (Leiden: Brill, 1972); and Schreckenberg, “The Works of
Josephus and the Early Christian Church,” in L. R. Feldman and G. Hata, eds., Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity
(Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 315–24. In addition to the preservation of Josephus and Philo
in direct Greek transmission, there is a substantial collection of witnesses to their writings through secondary
channels. See Schreckenberg, Die Flavius-Josephus-Tradition, 68–171; and J. R. Royse, The Spurious Texts of Philo
of Alexandria: A Study of Textual Transmission and Corruption with Indexes to the Major Collections of Greek
Fragments (ALGHJ 22; Leiden: Brill, 1991), 14–58 (excerpts from Philo in Greek catenae and florilegia).
2. For edition and English translation of the fragments of Hellenistic Jewish authors preserved by Eusebius
and other sources, see C. R. Holladay, ed. and trans., Fragments from Hellenistic Jewish Authors (4 vols.; SBLTT;
Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1983–1996).
3. See 2 Macc 2:23, where the author claims to have condensed Jason’s work into a single volume. For other
lost Jewish histories composed in Greek, see E. Schürer, English translation revised and edited by G. Vermes and
F. Millar, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 b.c.–a.d. 135) vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T&T
Clark, 1973), 19–43.
4. Photius, Bibliotheca, ed. R. Henry (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1959–1977), 33 (6b).
5. Euseb., Chronici canones, ed. R. Helm, Die Chronik des Hieronymus (3rd ed.; GCS Eusebius Werke 7;
Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1984), Praef. 7. 11–17.
6. For Josephus’s critique of Justus, see Joseph., Vita, 336–67. On Justus of Tiberias, see T. Rajak, “Justus of
Tiberias,” CQ 23 (1973): 344–68. On the polemical exchange between Josephus and Justus, see Rajak, “Josephus
and Justus of Tiberias,” in Feldman and Hata, eds., Josephus, Judaism, and Christianity, 81–94; and S. J. D. Cohen,
Josephus in Galilee and Rome: His Vita and Development as a Historian (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition
8; Leiden: Brill, 1979), 114–20.
9
Greek 9
Jewish literature, is also the most forthcoming in explaining how he gained access to these
documents and his motives for citing them.7 In his Ecclesiastical History, which contains a
relatively full inventory of Philo’s writings, Eusebius praises the richness of Philo’s thought
and the subtlety of his exposition of sacred scripture, and recognizes Philo’s role in laying
the groundwork for apostolic teaching.8 He holds Josephus in equally high regard. For
Eusebius, Josephus’s account of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple,
narrated by an eyewitness observer with unassailable credentials, confirmed his own inter-
pretation of these events as divine retribution against the Jews, both for rejecting Christ
and for killing James the Just. In the Antiquities and Josephus’s two books against Apion,
Eusebius found valuable confirmation of the antiquity of the Jews and the authority and
unity of their sacred texts, and a spirited vindication of Jewish institutions—issues that
were all central to Eusebius’s defense of Christianity against its learned detractors.9
The desire to establish the antiquity of the Jews and the priority of their doctrines
and practices was also the motive underlying Eusebius’s selection of source material for his
Praeparatio evangelica, a sprawling work of fifteen books composed sometime after 313
ce. It was occasioned by an accusation all too familiar to Christian apologists—namely,
that Christianity required its adherents to abandon their ancestral customs and cut “for
themselves a new kind of track in a pathless desert.”10 In response, Eusebius promises to
demonstrate to his readers that Christianity had restored the wisdom of the “Hebrews,”
an ancient and godly ethnos, preceding Moses and the Jewish nation, much older than the
Greeks and far superior to them in both their teachings and customs.11 To document his
argument that the renowned wisdom of the Greeks was both late and derivative, Eusebius,
a bookish scholar with access to the copious resources of the library of Caesarea, lays out a
vast array of citations from older sources, many of them composed by Jewish or Samaritan
authors of the Hellenistic age.
Spanning the history of the Jews from Abraham down to the fall of Jerusalem to the
Babylonians, Eusebius’s citations from these latter sources make up an assortment of frag-
ments from various literary genres: commentaries and exposition, epic and tragic poetry,
and various genres of historiography. From the Jewish philosopher Aristobulus, Eusebius
extracted two substantial excerpts attempting, among other things, to demonstrate Plato’s
and Pythagoras’s familiarity with a Greek translation of the Mosaic law. Four excerpts
from Demetrius “the chronographer” deal with events from Genesis and Exodus. Four
fragments from the Jewish historian Eupolemus concern the achievements and reigns of
David, Solomon, and the last three kings of Judah, along with a computation of the years
7. On Eusebius’s citations from Jewish literature, see A. J. Carriker, The Library of Eusebius of Caesarea (VCSup
67; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 155–77.
8. Euseb., Hist. eccl. 2.17.23–18.8.
9. Euseb., Hist. eccl. 3.9.3–10.
10. Euseb., Praep. evang., ed. K. Mras (GCS 43; Eusebius Werke 8; Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1954), 1.2.4.
11. See A. Johnson, Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica (Oxford Early Christian Studies;
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
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