Chapter XII: The Ezra Apocalypse (3)

[54] _Antiq._, XIII, xi. 2, XV, x. 5, XVII, xiii. 3.

[55] _Die rel. Bewegungen_, p. 8.

[56] From a slab-inscription found at Nimroud; see Pinches, _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records of Assyria and Babylonia_, p. 363.

[57] He reigned from B.C. 358-338.

[58] Syncellus, i. 486 (ed. Dindorf).

[59] The ancient Jêb, situated at the southern extremity of a small island in the Nile, between two and three miles long, not far below the first cataract and opposite Assouan, the ancient Syene.

[60] These _papyri_ belong to the period B.C. 494-400, i.e., from the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Darius I, through the reigns of Xerxes (485-465), Artaxerxes I (465-424), Darius II (424-405), to the fifth year of Amyrtæus, who threw off the Persian yoke and made Egypt independent.

[61] The Jewish governor under Darius II was, according to the _papyri_, one Jedoniah.

[62] A detailed account of the excavations at Elephantiné during the years 1906-1908 is given in the _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache_, vol. xlix. (1909). The most elaborate work on the subject is Sachau’s _Aramäische Papyrus und Ostraka aus einer jüdischen Militärkolonie zu Elephantine_ (1911). An excellent smaller work is Ed. Meyer’s _Der Papyrusfund von Elephantine_ (1912), which has been translated into English. A valuable text-book for students is Ungnad’s _Aramäische Papyrus aus Elephantine_ (1911).

[63] Guthe, in the _Encycl. Bibl._, I, 1110.

[64] Quoted in Josephus, _Antiq._, XIV, vii, 2; cp. 1 Macc. xv. 16-24, from which it can be seen that Jewish settlements existed not only in Egypt, but also in Syria, Asia Minor, along the Mediterranean coast, and elsewhere.

[65] Quoted in Josephus, _Antiq._, XIX, v. 2.

[66] _Bell. Jud._, II, xviii. 7.

[67] _In Flaccum_, § 8 (ed. Mangey, II, p. 525).

[68] _In Flaccum_, § 6 (ed. Mangey, II, p. 523).

[69] For full details see Schürer, II, ii. pp. 219-327, German ed., III, pp. 1-188.

[70] Cp. Josephus, _Bell. Jud._, VI, ix. 3.

[71] See further § IV of this chapter.

[72] This document belongs roughly to about the year B.C. 100; though Schürer would place it a century earlier; many modern scholars, however, disagree with him in this.

[73] Cp. Bousset, _Die Religion des Judenthums_, pp. 405 ff.

[74] When we find that in the first centuries of Christianity even orthodox Rabbis were to be found who held that Baptism without Circumcision sufficed for proselytes we may well ask whether the result of the Hellenistic spirit was not a contributory cause of such a lapse from traditional Judaism.

[75] _Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions_, I, p. 277.

[76] It is dealt with in Schürer, II, iii. pp. 156-320; German ed., III, pp. 420-633.

[77] Some account of the _Pseudepigrapha_, which are partly Palestinian, but mainly Græco-Jewish, is given below, Chap. X.

[78] B.C. 285-246.

[79] Some scholars assign this to the reign of Ptolemy VI (Philometor), B.C. 182-146.

[80] _Philo and Holy Scripture_, p. 32 (1895); see also Swete, _Op. cit._, pp. 25 f.

[81] Cp. Meyer, _Der Papyrusfund von Elephantiné_, p. 19.

[82] For the further history of the Septuagint, and for the labours of Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and above all of Origen, Swete’s book, already mentioned, should be consulted.

[83] _The Philology of the Greek Bible_, p. 8.

[84] Cohn and Wendland’s edition.

[85] _Antiq._, XVIII, viii. 1 ff.

[86] “The philosophy which Philo expounds is essentially the popular Greek philosophy, a blend of Platonism, Pythagoreanism, and Stoicism, slightly modified by the Hebrew belief in God” (Edwyn Bevan, _Stoics and Sceptics_, p. 94).

[87] It is of importance for Christian theology to notice that in several passages (see Lightfoot, _Colossians and Philemon_, p. 216) Philo interprets “the image of God” to mean the “Logos”; so that when, in Gen. i. 27, man is said to have been created in “the image of God,” it means that he was created in the likeness of the “Logos.”

[88] _De Migratione Abrahami_, § 18, quoted by Lauterbach.

[89] On the whole subject of the relation between the Philonian and the Johannine Logos doctrines see Réville, _La doctrine du Logos dans le quatrième évangile et dans les œuvres de Philon_ (1872); Baldensperger, _Der Prolog des Vierten Evangeliums_ (1898).

[90] For the influence of Philo upon St. Paul see Thackeray, _The Relation of St. Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought_, passim (1900).

[91] Cp. Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, I, pp. 490 ff.

[92] Cp. Robertson Smith, in the _Encycl. Brit._, XIII, p. 705.

[93] Box, _The Book of Isaiah_, p. 113.

[94] Kamphausen in the _Encycl. Bibl._, I, 1009.

[95] To give but two examples: Robertson Smith (_The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, p. 212), after having examined the subject carefully, says: “We are thus led by a concurrence of arguments to assign the collection of Psalms xc.-cl. and the completion of the whole Psalter to the early years of the Maccabee sovereignty.” Briggs (The Book of Psalms, I, pp. xc., xci.) assigns a large number of the Psalms to the Greek period.

[96] Cp. Stade, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_, ii., p. 215 (1888).

[97] _Griechische Philosophie im Alten Testament_, pp. 25 f. (1904).

[98] Friedländer, in his book just referred to, sees many other signs of Greek influence in the Psalms (pp. 15-58); it is probable that in some cases he is right; in others this is doubtful.

[99] Cp. O. Holtzmann in Onken’s _Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen_, II, p. 295.

[100] Cp. Friedländer, _Op. cit._, p. 72.

[101] e.g. Clement of Alexandria, _Stromateis_, I., v. 29, quoted by Friedländer, _Op. cit._, p. 73.

[102] Cp. Stade, _Op. cit._, II, p. 216; O. Holtzmann, _Op. cit._, II, p. 297; M. Friedländer, _Op. cit._, pp. 79 ff.

[103] _Op. cit._, II, p. 351.

[104] _Op. cit._, p. 107. Friedländer’s contentions are combated by Krüger, _Hellenismus und Judentum im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter_, pp. 22 ff.

[105] _Ecclesiastes_, pp. 11 ff; he is followed by Plumptre in his _Ecclesiastes_; Siegfried, _Prediger und Hoheslied_, and Haupt, _Koheleth_; Krüger and Friedländer hold the same view.

[106] See further, Haupt, _Op. cit._, p. 6.

[107] _The Book of Ecclesiastes_, pp. 34-43.

[108] _Op. cit._, p. 38.

[109] _Einleitung in das Alte Testament_, p. 262 (1896); Friedländer puts it more strongly, see _Die rel. Bewegungen_ ..., p. 1, _Griechische Philosophie_ ..., pp. 131 ff.

[110] _Comm. in Eccles._, quoted by Cheyne, _Job and Solomon_, p. 262.

[111] _Op cit._, p. 262.

[112] _Op. cit._, p. 271.

[113] Few, we imagine, would date Ecclesiastes earlier than the middle of the third century B.C. at the _earliest_.

[114] Cheyne, _Op. cit._, p. 265.

[115] See the present writer’s Ecclesiasticus in the _Cambridge Bible_, p. xxv.

[116] _Jewish Encycl._, XI, 390_a_.

[117] This is an exaggeration; what Ben-Sira says is:

Speak, O elder, for it is thy privilege;
But be discreet in understanding, and hinder not song....
Speak, O young man, if thou art compelled....
Sum up thy speech, say much in little (xxxii. 3-8, in Hebrew).

[118] Cp. Ecclesiastes xii. 7: “... and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit (_rūach_) return to God Who gave it.”

[119] _Outlines of Greek Philosophy_ (English translation, 1909), pp. 152 f., where references to Plato’s works are given in support of what is said.

[120] Unless _nĕphĕsh_ is used in the sense of _nĕshāmāh_ in 1 Samuel xxv. 29, where Abigail says to David: “... Yet the soul (_nĕphĕsh_) of my lord shall be bound in the bundle (or bag) of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as from the hollow of a sling”; but it is probably a quite different set of ideas which comes into question here. At the same time the idea of God’s solicitude for the souls of His beloved which He takes care of in the “bundle of life,” and which are thus separable from the body even during life, might easily, with the advance of thought on the subject, suggest the pre-existence of the soul.

[121] Cp. Weber, _Jüdische Theologie_, 2 ed., p. 205.

[122] Menzel, _Op. cit._, p. 58.

[123] Zeller, _Op. cit._, p. 155.

[124] _Op. cit._, p. 155.

[125] _Op. cit._, p. 147.

[126] Cp. Zeller, _Op. cit._, pp. 229-255; Wendland, _Die Hellenistisch-Römische Kultur_ ... pp. 110-115.

[127] _Op. cit._, p. 532.

[128] The same as the Assidæans referred to in 1 Maccabees ii. 42.

[129] _Die rel. Bewegungen_, p. 22.

[130] _Op. cit._, p. 23.

[131] The quotations from this book are from Charles’ translation.

[132] _The Ezra Apocalypse_, pp. 35, 36.

[133] Though this book is late it reflects earlier thought and practice.

[134] Cp. also the verses which follow, and xlviii. 1, lviii. 1-4, etc.

[135] _Die rel. Bewegungen_ ..., p. 25.

[136] The verses which follow deal with the same subject; cp. the Book of Jubilees v. 13 ff., Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch lxxxv. 9.

[137] Cp. xlviii. 7: “For in His name they are saved.”

[138] See also the Psalms of Solomon, xvii., xviii.

[139] The Pauline conception of a “spiritual body” was unknown to the Apocalyptists. The fact that this expression is a contradiction in terms need not trouble us; that is simply due to the impossibility of expressing spiritual truths adequately in human language.

[140] As early as the end of the fourth century B.C. the Jews of Palestine became acquainted with the Platonic doctrine of immortality, though it was some time before this teaching was accepted, cp. Friedländer, _Griechische Philosophie_ ..., p. 12.

[141] Quotations from the Apocalyptic Literature dealing with the subject of this section have been collected in the present writer’s _The Doctrine of the Last Things_, pp. 72-121.

[142] i.e., “Governor.”

[143] We have no information of what happened during the Exile itself regarding the teaching of the Law; but it is difficult to believe that such a zealous scribe and legalist as Ezra could have been inactive; his knowledge of the Law was not merely the result of his coming to Palestine, cp. Ezra vii. 6: “This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a ready scribe in the Law of Moses.”

[144] Cp. Josephus, _Antiq._, XVIII, i. 3.

[145] See, for details, Ryle, _Ezra and Nehemiah_, p. xxxv.

[146] This is in accordance with Ben-Sira’s identification of Wisdom with the Law, see xv. 1, xxxiv. 8, etc.

[147] It will be remembered that the Hebrews reckoned the historical books among the Prophets.

[148] Assidæans, also written Hasidæans, is merely the Græcized form of the Hebrew _Chassidim_; in the Authorized Version the word is rendered “saints.”

[149] Made high-priest by the Syrian king.

[150] One of the Syrian generals.

[151] Cp. 2 Maccabees xiv. 6.

[152] In the original constitution of the Sanhedrin this was probably not the case; for, as first constituted, the priestly aristocracy, i.e., the Sadducæan party, dominated the Sanhedrin. The Sadducees were, however, unable to resist the growing power of what came to be the popular party, and before the New Testament period began both Scribes and Pharisees were fully represented in the Sanhedrin.

[153] It is sometimes said that they were “separatists” in the sense that they desired Israel to be separate from all the world; but this ignores the fact that the Pharisees pursued an active missionary _propaganda_ among the Gentiles, which is witnessed to, e.g., in Matthew xxiii. 15, where Christ says that the Pharisees “compass sea and land to make one proselyte.”

[154] _Antiq._, XIII, x. 6.

[155] This is the explanation given by some of the Church Fathers, e.g., Epiphanius, _Haer._ xiv., and Jerome, _Comm. in Matth._, xii. 23 (Schürer), as well as by some modern scholars.

[156] _Encycl. Bibl._, iv. 4236. The present writer, in conjunction with Mr. Box, was inclined to accept this interpretation (_The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue_, p. 134), but further study of the subject has compelled them to revise their former view.

[157] See the words of Josephus, _Antiq._, XIII, x. 6, quoted below.

[158] Cp. Josephus, _Antiq._, XI, viii. 7; XII, ii. 5, iv. 1, 10.

[159] Antiochus made Menelaus, who was not of priestly family, high-priest; after him Alkimus filled the office (1 Macc. vii. 5, 9); though a priest he was not of the sons of Zadok (Josephus, _Antiq._, XII, ix. 7). On the death of Alkimus (1 Macc. ix. 54-57) the Hasmonæan high-priesthood began (1 Macc. xiv. 30, 35, 41 ff.; cp. Josephus, _Antiq._, XIII, ii. 3).

[160] Two objections have been raised against the view that the term Sadducees (_Zaddūkim_) takes its origin from the personal name Zadok. One is that the double _d_ in _Zaddūkim_ does not permit of its being derived from Zadok with only one; this objection would be serious were it not that in the Septuagint and in Josephus Zadok is spelled with two d’s. This objection, therefore, falls to the ground. The other is that there is nothing to show that the Sadducees were ever regarded as the sons of Zadok, nor that they themselves made such a claim. This _argumentum e silentio_, always precarious, is upset by the evidence of the _Zadokite Fragments_. Hölscher’s contention (_Op. cit._, pp. 102 ff.) that the term “sons of Zadok” was one of reproach does not appear to us to be necessary.

[161] Vita, § 2, cp. _Antiq._, XVIII, i. 3.

[162] _Antiq._, XV, x. 4.

[163] Cp. _Antiq._, X, xi. 7 (towards the end), XIII, v. 9; _Bell. Jud._, II, viii. 14, where he speaks of these three as “the philosophic sects among the Jews.”

[164] _Vita_, § 2.

[165] _Op. cit._, p. 16.

[166] This was first pointed by Jost, _Blicke in die Religionsgeschichte_, ii. p. 93, referred to by Leszynsky, p. 25.

[167] Not to be confused with the _Tosaphôth_, i.e. the “additions” made to Rashi’s Commentary on the Talmud by his disciples, who for this reason are known as the _Tosaphists_.

[168] Other Rabbinical sources, of less importance, are given by Leszynsky, _Op. cit._, pp. 36 ff.

[169] See further, Hölscher, _Op. cit._, pp. 16 ff.; Leszynsky, _Op. cit._, pp. 36 ff.

[170] The name applied to a room adjoining the synagogue in which were stored disused manuscripts of the books of the Bible which had been used in public worship and had become worn out; heretical Hebrew books were also placed in the _Genizah_.

[171] Büchler holds that this sect “lived in Damascus in the seventh or eighth century A.D.,” and that the manuscripts contain “a picture artificially drawn to reflect assumed conditions shortly before the destruction of the second Temple.” Interesting and learned as Büchler’s article is, the present writer is not convinced that Schechter’s main contentions have been weakened by it.

[172] Some of the Apocalyptic books may also be regarded as sources of information; but the evidence in these is largely of an indirect character; and as regards authorship differences of opinion exist; so we have thought it best to restrict ourselves to the sources mentioned. In dealing, however, with these Apocalyptic books in