{"title":"“The Prophecy on the Coming of the Son of Man” in the Arabic Testament of Adam and its Syriac Vorlage","authors":"J. Monferrer-Sala","doi":"10.1177/0951820720940224","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820720940224","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this article is to compare the version provided by the text-type “b” or shorter recension, with its Vorlage, as found in the third recension of this work composed in Syriac language, through the analysis of the section containing the “Prophecy on the coming of the Son of Man.”","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"69 2","pages":"229 - 244"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820720940224","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41274550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Greek education and cultural identity in Greek-speaking Judaism: The Jewish-Greek historiographers","authors":"Marieke Dhont","doi":"10.1177/0951820720936601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820720936601","url":null,"abstract":"The style of the Jewish-Greek historiographers Eupolemus and Demetrius has often been evaluated as “bad Greek.” This is generally seen as evidence of their lack of education. The negative views on the language of Demetrius and Eupolemus are illustrative of a broader issue in the study of Hellenistic Judaism: language usage has been a key element in the discussion on the societal position of Jews in the Hellenistic world. In this article, I assess the style of the historiographers in the context of post-classical Greek, and conclude that their language reflects standard Hellenistic Greek. The linguistic analysis then becomes a starting point to reflect on the level of integration of Jews in the Greek-speaking world as well as to consider the nature of Jewish multilingualism in the late Second Temple period.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"217 - 228"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820720936601","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41555023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kenaz: A figure created out of the scriptures?","authors":"Nathanael Vette","doi":"10.1177/0951820720929685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820720929685","url":null,"abstract":"Kenaz is a marginal figure in the Jewish scriptures. And yet for Pseudo-Philo, Kenaz’s importance rivals that of Moses and Joshua. Pseudo-Philo gives Kenaz a long and illustrious career unparalleled in the extant literature (LAB 25–28). But whereas past scholarship has seen the roots of Pseudo-Philo’s description of Kenaz in the language of Judg 1–3, this link is tenuous at best. Instead, the description of Kenaz is pieced together out of unrelated passages from the Jewish scriptures. This article explores the scriptural sources for Pseudo-Philo’s description of Kenaz. In short, Pseudo-Philo has not inherited Kenaz from tradition or exegesis but has invented him using the Jewish scriptures.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"245 - 259"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820720929685","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48584397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Artapanus as a Source for the Building of the Temple of Onias in Egypt","authors":"M. Piotrkowski","doi":"10.1177/1868103420913773","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1868103420913773","url":null,"abstract":"In scholarly literature, one frequently encounters the claim that Artapanus supplies the only reference to the building of the Temple of Onias in the entire extant corpus of Jewish-Hellenistic literature. While this assumption has found acceptance, this article wishes to investigate that claim. While Artapanus indeed incorporated a reference to the building of a temple by Jews in Heliopolis—the same place, where Josephus located the Temple of Onias—it seems, however, that what Artapanus had in mind was not the Jewish Temple of Onias, but the famed Egyptian Temple of Atum-Ra. This insight is supported by passages of ancient Hellenistic writers such as Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, who, as Artapanus, contain similar references, to which the latter appears to allude. Artapanus’ note may thus be explained by the notion that the piece of information about Jews being responsible for the building of a famous Egyptian temple fulfills an apologetic purpose and served to aggrandize the Jewish presence in the Egyptian Diaspora.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"197 - 214"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1868103420913773","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42983763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The origin of Beliar in Sibylline Oracle 3.63: A new proposal","authors":"Mateusz Kusio","doi":"10.1177/0951820720902124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820720902124","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates Sibylline Oracle 3.63 which states that Beliar will come ἐκ Σεβαστηνῶν, “from the Sebastenoi.” Scholars have understood the verse as meaning that Beliar will be either a Roman imperial figure or a Samaritan false prophet. Pointing out the serious shortcomings of these hypotheses, the article argues that the Sibylline Beliar should be seen as originating in Asia, most probably in Phrygia or northern Galatia. The relevant numismatic and epigraphic evidence is explored along with references to those regions across the Sibylline Oracles. New interpretative possibilities generated by the proposal are also presented along with the suggestion that Sib. Or. 3.63–74 should be dated sometime between mid-first and mid-third century C.E. and provenanced to central Asia Minor.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"168 - 183"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820720902124","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46771166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“In strength” not “by force”: Re-reading the circumcision of the uncircumcised ἐν ἰσχύι in 1 Macc 2:46","authors":"Isaac T. Soon","doi":"10.1177/0951820720902086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820720902086","url":null,"abstract":"This article challenges the dominant reading of 1 Macc 2:46, both that (a) the syntagm ἐν ἰσχύι means coercion and that (b) the literary context of 1 Maccabees understands the circumcising of the uncircumcised in 2:46 as coercive. An analysis of the lexical semantics of ἐν ἰσχύι in ancient Greek literature shows that it never referred to coercion, but primarily referred to the means by which an action was accomplished (“by strength/might/power”). Admittedly, ἐν ἰσχύι can occur in coercive contexts (e.g. Wis 16:16). However, coercion is not a part of the syntagm itself, but arises out of the surrounding literary circumstances. Rather than as one who forces circumcision upon others, the literary context of 1 Macc 2:46 presents Mattathias as a liberator who reinstates circumcision for those who had been prevented from circumcising their children due to persecution. Josephus, our earliest reception of 1 Macc 2:46, is a witness to this reading.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"149 - 167"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820720902086","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46262758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Treatise of the Vessels (Massekhet Kelim) and traditions concerning Eden and the gold of Parvaim","authors":"Kai Akagi","doi":"10.1177/0951820720914766","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820720914766","url":null,"abstract":"The Treatise of the Vessels identifies the gold of the Temple as gold of Parvaim from Eden. The idea that the Temple’s gold came from Eden is otherwise unattested, but it may have come from exegetical reflection on scriptural texts and traditions concerning gold and Eden. (1) The description of gold as “good” is unique to Gen 2 and 2 Chr 3. (2) A chain of scriptural texts could associate the gold of the Temple with Eden through linking Parvaim, Ophir, and Havilah. (3) Traditions concerning golden fruit could have contributed to associating the gold of the Temple with fruit trees in Eden. These intertexts and traditions not only provide examples of the kind of scriptural exegesis that may have been formative in the composition of the Treatise of the Vessels but also demonstrate similarity to more widely attested traditions concerning the gold of Parvaim, the Garden of Eden, and the Temple in the Midrash, Talmud, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. Recognizing such similarities may be an initial step in further consideration of the context of the text’s composition.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"184 - 196"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820720914766","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43404962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An overlooked treatise in Greek political thought: An essay on 2 Maccabees as a Hellenistic politico-theological manifest 1","authors":"D. Mendels","doi":"10.1177/0951820719882362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820719882362","url":null,"abstract":"This essay does not dwell yet again on traditional issues associated with 2 Maccabees usually discussed through a Jewish lens by dozens of modern scholars. It also does not view the book within its traditional Jewish Hellenistic “Sitz im Leben,” with its self-evident Hellenistic-Jewish reading audience, and its aim is neither to draw a distinction between Greek topoi and biblical motifs nor to discuss its values as an historical text. Rather, the article assumes a pagan reading publicum alongside a Jewish Hellenistic one that, in contradistinction with its Jewish audience, could easily see in 2 Maccabees a standard narrative of a life in a Greek polis under foreign rule, where the “ancestral constitution” plays a significant role, so typical of Greek poleis from the classical period (Delian league) through the Hellenistic era (Macedonian Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires). Reading the book as a Greek would have can give us new insights concerning its socio-political and theological message (independently of its Jewish one). The article reconstructs a politeia as a learned Greek would have done. The book can actually be read as a reflection, or rather a microcosmos of the second century B.C.E. in the Greek sphere during the Hellenistic period. The overall message of the book emerges different than that broadcasted to the Hellenistic Jews, and constitutes a rich mine of theoretical information about the relationship between a subject city and an empire.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"100 - 131"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820719882362","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46711587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Manifesting evil: Demons and physical monstrosity in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs","authors":"T. de Bruin","doi":"10.1177/0951820719880926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820719880926","url":null,"abstract":"The interplay between spiritual evil and physical monstrosity plays a large role in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. The Testaments are structured around the understanding of a human spirit, the mind, which stands between good and evil spirits, and in general it is the mind that forms the focus of the text’s exhortation. The evil spirits influence the mind, causing a person to think unrighteous thoughts and ultimately commit unrighteous acts. The role of the mind, however, is so large that it even plays a dominant role in the physical appearance of a person. In this article, I examine three distinct cases where someone’s ethical and spiritual evil results in physical monstrosity. First, we see that when someone’s mind follows the temptations of an evil spirit, they become disabled. Second, we see that an evil spirit has the power to poison someone’s own neutral spirit, which ultimately leads the poisoned person to manifest themselves in a monstrous way. Finally, women bear monstrous giants as a direct result of their mental lust for the angelic Watchers. These three cases show the close relationship between external appearance and internal demeanor in the Testaments. Thus, humankind functions as a means through which the invisible monstrous manifests itself in the visible world. This realization helps clarify some early Christian understandings of humankind’s natural and monstrous states, as well as their ideas about ethics and social conduct, the nature of evil, and how the manifestation of evil in the physical world is influenced.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"132 - 145"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820719880926","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42197112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Meteorology and metrology: Evaluating parallels in the Ethiopic Parables of Enoch and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch","authors":"G. Macaskill","doi":"10.1177/0951820719880925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820719880925","url":null,"abstract":"This article will examine a set of distinctive conceptual and terminological combinations in the Ethiopic Parables of Enoch and the Slavonic 2 Enoch, associated with the meteorological elements and their angelic custodians/managers. These texts contain extended accounts of the storehouses (or treasuries) within which the elements are stored, and they exhibit a particular interest in how their angelic custodians distribute the elements to the earth; the imagery of distribution is, in turn, connected to metrological concepts informed by the imagery of a righteous balance (or scales). We will consider how other texts offer limited parallels to these combinations, a comparison that will help to illustrate the particularly close connection between the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch. The closest parallels are found in 3 Enoch, though here we will also see some striking developments that suggest the Ethiopic and Slavonic works preserve traditions from an earlier point of evolution. Some suggestive parallels will also be noted in works of Syrian origin, which might cast new light on the provenance or transmissional pathways of the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":"29 1","pages":"79 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820719880925","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47728585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}