The Prestige of the Pagan Prophet Balaam in Judaism, Early Christianity and Islam

van kooten_f1_i-xviii NEW.indd i 1/22/2008 7:40:06 PM THEMES IN BIBLICAL NARRATIVE

JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

Editorial Board GEORGE H. VAN KOOTEN, Groningen ROBERT A. KUGLER, Portland, Oregon LOREN T. STUCKENBRUCK, Durham

Assistant Editor FREEK VAN DER STEEN

Advisory Board REINHARD FELDMEIER, Göttingen – JUDITH LIEU, Cambridge FLORENTINO GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ, Groningen-Leuven HINDY NAJMAN, Toronto MARTTI NISSINEN, Helsinki – ED NOORT, Groningen

VOLUME 11

van kooten_f1_i-xviii NEW.indd ii 1/22/2008 7:40:06 PM The Prestige of the Pagan Prophet Balaam in Judaism, Early Christianity and Islam

Edited by George H. van Kooten and Jacques van Ruiten

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2008

van kooten_f1_i-xviii NEW.indd iii 1/22/2008 7:40:06 PM Cover illustration: Balaam blessing the Children of Israel. Etching with engraving, by Henry Fuseli, (1741–1825)

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van kooten_f1_i-xviii NEW.indd iv 1/22/2008 7:40:06 PM CONTENTS

Editorial Statement ...... ix Introduction ...... xi Contributors ...... xix

PART ONE BALAAM IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, AND COMPARABLE FIGURES IN ANCIENT GREECE

1. Balaam the Villain: The History of Reception of the Balaam Narrative in the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets ...... 3 Ed Noort 2. Balaam and Deir Alla ...... 25 Émile Puech 3. Balaam, Mopsus and Melampous: Tales of Travelling Seers ...... 49 Jan N. Bremmer

PART TWO BALAAM IN ANCIENT JUDAISM

4. Balaam in the Dead Sea Scrolls ...... 71 Florentino García Martínez 5. A Qumran Cave 2 Fragment Preserving Part of Numbers 23:5–7[8] (2Q29 1) ...... 83 Eibert Tigchelaar 6. Balaam and Enoch ...... 87 Eibert Tigchelaar 7. The Rewriting of Numbers 22–24 in Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18 ...... 101 Jacques T.A.G.M. van Ruiten

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8. Balaam as the Sophist Par Excellence in Philo of Alexandria: Philo’s Projection of an Urgent Contemporary Debate onto Moses’ Pentateuchal Narratives ...... 131 George H. van Kooten

9. ‘A Star Shall Come out of Jacob’: A Critical Evaluation of the Balaam Oracle in the Context of Jewish Revolts in Roman Times ...... 163 Stefan Beyerle 10. Balaam’s Fourth Oracle (Numbers 24:15–19) According to the Aramaic Targums ...... 189 Alberdina Houtman & Harry Sysling 11. Interpret Him as Much as You Want: Balaam in the Babylonian Talmud ...... 213 Ronit Nikolsky

PART THREE BALAAM IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY

12. Balaam and the Star of the Magi ...... 233 Tobias Nicklas 13. Balaam in Revelation 2:14 ...... 247 Jan Willem van Henten 14. Balaam and 2 Peter 2:15: ‘They Have Followed in the Steps of Balaam’ ( Jude 11) ...... 265 Tord Fornberg 15. Speaking Asses in the Acts of Thomas: An Intertextual and Cognitive Perspective ...... 275 István Czachesz 16. ‘To Bless with a Mouth Bent on Cursing’: Patristic Interpretations of Balaam (Num 24:17) ...... 287 Johan Leemans

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PART FOUR BALAAM IN THE KORAN AND EARLY KORANIC COMMENTARIES

17. Balam in Early Koranic Commentaries ...... 303 Fred Leemhuis

Index of Ancient Texts ...... 309 I. Hebrew Bible ...... 309 II. Apocrypha and Septuagint ...... 314 III. Pseudepigrapha ...... 315 IV. Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Texts ...... 316 V. Philo of Alexandria ...... 316 VI. Flavius Josephus ...... 318 VII. Rabbinic and later Jewish Texts ...... 318 1. Mishnah ...... 318 2. Tosefta ...... 318 3. Palestinian Talmud ...... 318 4. Babylonian Talmud ...... 318 5. Midrashim ...... 319 6. Targumim ...... 319 VIII. Greek and Latin Pagan Texts ...... 320 1. Authors ...... 320 2. Papyri ...... 323 3. Inscriptions ...... 323 IX. Christian Texts ...... 324 1. New Testament ...... 324 2. Patristic and other Christian Writings ...... 325 3. Gnostic Writings ...... 327 X. Koran and Koranic Commentaries ...... 327

van kooten_f1_i-xviii NEW.indd vii 1/22/2008 7:40:07 PM van kooten_f1_i-xviii NEW.indd viii 1/22/2008 7:40:07 PM EDITORIAL STATEMENT

Themes in Biblical Narrative publishes studies dealing with early interpretations of Biblical narrative materials. The series includes conference volumes and monographs. Publications are usually the result of a reworking of papers presented during a TBN-conference on a particular narrative, e.g. the Balaam story, or a speciﬁc theme, for instance: ‘clean and unclean’ in the Hebrew Bible, or: ‘the ruah adonai and anthropological models of humanity’. Having treated the basic texts for this narrative or theme, other contributions follow its earliest interpretations and receptions throughout the subsequent phases of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and if appropriate Islam. Also studies which illuminate the successive inculturations into the various Umwelts—the Ancient Near East, the Graeco-Roman World—are included. Extensions to modern Bible receptions and discussions of hermeneutical questions are welcomed, if they are related explicitly to the study of early receptions of Biblical texts and traditions. Contributions to the series are written by specialists in the relevant literary corpora. The series is intended for scholars and advanced students of theology, linguistics and literature.

The series is published in co-operation with the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), Durham University (United Kingdom), and Lewis & Clark College (USA). It includes monographs and conference volumes in the English language, and is intended for international distribution on a scholarly level.

For information on forthcoming conferences, calls for papers, and the possibility of organizing a TBN conference at your own institution, please visit the series homepage: www.xs4all.nl/~fvds/tbn.

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This volume contains the reworked papers of the 2005 Themes in Biblical Narrative Conference which took place at the University of Groningen on 17–18 June 2005. Having dealt with such comprehensive and solemn themes such as Creation and the Revelation of God’s name to Moses in immediately previous years, we had decided, for a change, on what we believed to be a more frivolous theme: Balaam and the speaking ass. To our surprise it turned out that the speaking ass is not such a dominant theme in the history of the earliest reception as one might expect, but that the full Balaam narrative is indeed a very serious topic in its reception within the Jewish Scriptures, in ancient Judaism and early Christianity; it is also known to Islam. From the canonical or narrative perspective of the Jewish Scriptures themselves, the non-Israelite prophet Balaam antedates the major Israelite-Jewish prophets. He is, in fact, one of the earliest prophets to be mentioned in the Jewish Scriptures, almost on a par with Moses himself, who is supposed to have written about Balaam, after their encounter in the wilderness following the exodus from Egypt. By the very nature of his stature as a non-Israelite, pagan prophet, the figure of Balaam raises important questions with regard to the nature of prophecy and the relation between the Israelite God and the pagan nations. In this sense, the narrative about Balaam provides an example of a broader interest, in Judaism and Early Christianity, in God’s dealings with pagan figures—such as Cyrus, depicted as God’s Messiah in Isaiah (45:1); in the validity of pagan prophecy—in the case of the Jewish Orphica and the Jewish and Christian Sibylline Oracles; and in the authority of pagan philosophers who are quoted, in support, in the New Testament (Acts 17:28). In the case of Balaam, not only the very phenomenon of a non- Israelite prophet, but in particular the conflicting stories and potent oracles of Balaam in the book of Numbers and other parts of the Jewish Scriptures gave rise to reflection on this ambiguous figure, in Judaism, early Christianity and Islam. For this reason, ‘Balaam is described both as a typical pagan sooth-sayer and as a genuine prophet of God’ (M.A. Sweeney in The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion [Oxford 1997, 97]). His reception is in fact ‘an ambivalent perception of the first

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prophet in ancient Israelite writings’ (Stefan Beyerle, this volume) and touches upon the ‘appreciation of gentiles as prophets’ (Ronit Nikolsky, this volume). Thus the leading perspective developed in this volume is the often simultaneous praise and criticism of Balaam as a prestigious pagan prophet throughout ancient Judaism, early Christianity and the early Koranic commentaries. Several papers also pay due and explicit attention to the interplay between the traditions of Balaam and the contexts in which they were appropriated. The papers are clustered in four separate sections.

The first part is devoted to Balaam in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East and to comparable figures in Ancient Greece. ED NOORT (Groningen) illuminates several phases in the history of reception of the Balaam narrative in the Hebrew Bible. An examination of the texts on Balaam found outside Numbers 22–24 shows that brief remarks gradually darken the originally positive portrait of Balaam, which is entirely negative by the end. In the final texts he is no longer seen as the seer who blesses Israel but as the source of inspiration for apostasy, a false prophet who must be put to death. The shifts in the image of Balaam have to do with changing concepts of prophecy and revelation, true and false prophets, the different ways the voice of the deity can be heard, and the boundaries between ‘us and them’. The succeeding contribution by ÉMILE PUECH ( Jerusalem-Paris) underpins that Balaam is indeed a historical figure, as the Deir Alla inscriptions, discovered in 1967, make clear. Puech concentrates on the first combination of the Deir Alla text. He gives his reconstructed text and a translation, followed by notes to explain some choices in the restoration of this difficult text. Subsequently he shows that the text is an excerpt of the book of a seer, Balaam, who is of Aramaic origin, but whose mantic influence reached as far as Deir Alla-Penuel in Gilead, a well-known sacred place where Jacob met, fought and saw El face to face (Gen 32:23–32). The divine power the gods gave to Balaam was transmitted by his magic book; the power was still in use in a writing adapted to the local dialect by the servants of the sanctuary or sacred place in the first part of the 8th century, as an effective means for the religious needs of the local population. To put the figure of Balaam into perspective as a seer in the Ancient Near East, JAN BREMMER draws a detailed comparison between Balaam and two famous seers in Ancient Greece, Mopsus and Melampous. In this, Bremmer pays attention to the sociological and

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religious aspects of the professional seer in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, pointing out both differences and resemblances. This comparative approach yields the insight that Near-Eastern and Greek seers are geographically very mobile. Balaam is sent for by the Moabite king Balak from his town on the Mid-Euphrates (Num 22:5). Mopsus and Melampous also travelled throughout the ancient world. Regularly such seers become involved in military advice, and in this light Balaam’s death on the battleﬁeld, in the service of the Midianite kings (Num 31:8), is not out of tune with what happened to Greek seers. Bremmer ﬁnally concludes that ‘there is a Wittgensteinian family resemblance between the early Greek and Aramaic/Israelite seers rather than a close similarity’. Their special powers ‘made them attractive to wide sections of society near and far. That is why in both cases we see them wandering and travelling through the Mediterranean and the Near East’.

The second part of the volume deals with the reception of Balaam in the various strands of Judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. FLORENTINO GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ (Groningen-Leuven) explores the figure of Balaam in the Dead Sea Scrolls. He first studies the biblical texts of Numbers 22–24 found at Qumran, concluding that the image of Balaam is close to a positive representation. He then touches on the well-known messianic interpretation of the fourth oracle (especially Num 24:17), found in various non-biblical texts from Qumran. Despite the fact that Balaam occurs as the first villain on a list of ‘false prophets who arose in Israel’, the prophecy of Balaam was not only accepted but used repeatedly in sectarian writings to express the diverse messianic expectations of the group. In a short paper, EIBERT TIGCHELAAR (Groningen, now Florida State University) publishes a hitherto unidentified small Dead Sea Scrolls fragment preserving part of Num 23:5–7[8]. He shows that two Cave 2 fragments preserving part of Numbers can be assigned to the same manuscript, 2QNumb: these are the hitherto unidentified fragment 2Q29 1 (Num 23:5–7[8]) and 2Q7 (Num 33:47–53). Furthermore, it may also be possible to assign fragments 2Q9 and 2Q29 3 to the same manuscript. A surprisingly positive reception of Balaam is found in the pseudepigraphical writing 1 Enoch, to the extent that the figure of Enoch is in fact modelled on Balaam. This is shown in a second paper by TIGCHELAAR. The self-portrayal of Enoch at the beginning of 1 Enoch corresponds with the Balaam oracles. Not only are there parallels

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between the figures of Balaam and Enoch, but Balaam’s famous oracle about a future rising star (Numbers 24) is also drawn upon in 1 Enoch. Although particular phrases in the context of Numbers may not have been intended in an eschatological sense, they acquired this meaning for Jewish writers of the Hellenistic age. Tigchelaar discusses the question of whether the Enochic authors were concerned with the original figure of Balaam, or ‘chose those phrases which could be applied to Enoch, without any thoughts on phenomenological correspondences between Balaam and Enoch at all’. This shows how difficult it often is to decipher the process of reception. By broadening his material to include the extrabiblical Deir Alla inscriptions, Tigchelaar discerns resemblances between 1 Enoch and the Deir Alla texts which lead him to believe that ‘Balaam the dreamer and the seer provided a perfect model for Enoch the dreamer and the seer’. Pseudo-Philo’s Book of Biblical Antiquities also presents a predominantly positive reception of Balaam as JACQUES VAN RUITEN (Groningen) demonstrates. This writing, dating from the first cent. bce, belongs to the genre of the ‘rewritten Bible’, of which it is actually one of the latest examples before the biblical text became standardized and canonized from 70 ce onwards. Van Ruiten offers an extensive rationalization of this genre of the ‘rewritten Bible’. The Bible needed to be rewritten to solve apparent contradictions in the biblical texts. This technique was also employed in Pseudo-Philo with regard to the narrative of Balaam. Van Ruiten observes a tendency in ancient Jewish and early Christian exegesis to solve the ambiguous portrayal of Balaam in the Bible and to render it more negative. Against this background, he analyzes Pseudo-Philo’s rewriting of the Balaam narrative. The general picture of Balaam is positive, inasmuch as he is regarded a prophet of Israel. By emphasizing that the Spirit of God did not remain in Balaam, contradicting the book of Numbers (Num 24:2), Pseudo-Philo is able to draw a sharp line between Balaam’s divinely inspired oracles, on the one hand, and his subsequent conduct, on the other. This removes the ambiguity of the biblical narrative. A thoroughly negative critique of Balaam is presented by Philo of Alexandria (fl. c. 40 ce). Philo’s portrayal of Balaam as a malignant, subversive sophist, who wishes to be paid for his message, is discussed by GEORGE VAN KOOTEN (Groningen). Balaam the sophist is the exact opposite of the true philosopher. This image of Balaam, it is argued, only becomes understandable if one takes sufficient account of Philo’s debate with contemporary sophists. Philo, concerned as he is about the dangers posed by the sophistic movement to the Greek-educated Jewish

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youth at Alexandria, seems to project his heated controversy with the sophistic movement onto Moses’ Pentateuchal narratives, including that of Balaam. In order to reach this Jewish youth it seems far more effective to warn them through anti-sophistic commentaries on the Mosaic Pentateuch than through general treatises. This shows that the history of reception can best be understood from the particular circumstances of the interpreter. Historical conditions are also fully taken into account in the contribution of STEFAN BEYERLE (Greifswald) on Balaam’s fourth oracle in the context of Jewish revolts in Roman times. Beyerle points out that whereas the picture of Balaam in the ancient Jewish sources is that of a wicked prophet and foreign seducer of Israel, the understanding and rewriting of Balaam’s fourth oracle about a rising star turned this text into ‘one of the cornerstones of the eschatological hopes in Judaism and, with some reservations, in early Christianity’. Beyerle examines the reception of the much appraised fourth oracle of Balaam against the backdrop of the Jewish revolts in the Diaspora in 115–117 ce and of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt in 132–135 ce. Although reference to Balaam’s oracles does indeed occur, and a religious, sometimes even ‘messianic’ milieu is not to be denied, Beyerle cautions against applying straight connections between Balaam’s oracles and the Jewish revolts. These revolts are, Beyerle suggests, rather amalgams of religious and political factors. The continuous ambivalence towards Balaam is also highlighted by ALBERDINA HOUTMAN (Kampen) & HARRY SYSLING (Kampen) in their contribution on Balaam’s fourth oracle in the Aramaic Targums. Although rabbinic sources generally depict Balaam as a villain and sinner, the targumic interpretation of the fourth oracle is different: ‘The Palestinian Targums on this oracle without exception describe Balaam as a highly honoured person, and a genuine prophet, who even surpasses other prophets’. They differ amongst themselves, however, as some interpretations turn this oracle into an outspoken messianic prophecy, whereas others, though strongly eschatological in character, do not go so far as to employ the term ‘Messiah’. Balaam’s prediction that ‘One out of Jacob shall rule, and destroy the survivors of Ir’ (Num 24:19) is interpreted by the targumic translators in an anti-Roman way: they refer to the destruction of Rome by the future redeemer. RONIT NIKOLSKY (Groningen) follows neatly with a contribution on Balaam in the Babylonian Talmud, which focuses on a particular text, namely Sanhedrin 90a–106b. On the one hand, she demonstrates the unique view of the Babylonian Talmud about Balaam by analyzing

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the particular sequence of narratives present in the pericope of this biblical ﬁgure. The Babylonian Talmud presents Balaam in a negative tone. He is ugly, impertinent, and he deliberately chooses to be evil, even when he can avoid it. His prophetic abilities vanish, and he is reduced to an advisory role which eventually costs him his life. At the same time, by discussing examples of reworking older material into the pericope of the Babylonian Talmud, Nikolsky highlights a process of narrative continuum which enables the text to introduce new points of view as well as to keep its own integrity. While advancing the unique perspective of the narrative, the Babylonian Talmud also conserves the cultural repertoire and makes it relevant for its audience.

The third part of the volume contains papers on the early Christian reception of the Balaam narratives. Although the papers have been grouped as part III, one should naturally bear in mind that, chronologically speaking, this early Christian reception is contemporary with, or sometimes even predates ancient Jewish understandings of Balaam. TOBIAS NICKLAS (Nijmegen, now Regensburg) discusses the Star of the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew against the background of the rising star of Numbers 24. Although ancient Jewish interpretations do understand the star of Numb 24:17 in a messianic sense, the question of whether Matthew was alluding to Balaam’s star in Matthew 2 is not easily answered. Nicklas reviews several arguments and explores the potential meanings of an intertextual reading of Matthew 2 and Numbers 24. He also discusses some of the earliest interpretations of Matthew 2. Balaam is mentioned explicitly at three points in the New Testament: in the Revelation of John, and in the epistles of Jude and 2 Peter. Com- mon to these writings is that they all refer to Balaam in the context of strong disagreement with (in their eyes) aberrant forms of Christianity. This clearly implies a negative image of Balaam. JAN WILLEM VAN HENTEN (Amsterdam) discusses the reference in Rev 2:24 to ‘those who hold to the teaching of Balaam’ in the Christian community at Pergamum. Van Henten shows that the way in which this ‘teaching of Balaam’ is understood is very similar to the re-interpretation of the Balaam narratives in post-biblical Jewish literature, notably by Josephus. John’s charges in Revelation 2 against the ‘Balaamites’ in Pergamum are discussed in detail. Seeking a particular, concrete context for this community to which John wrote, Van Henten explores the possibility that Balaam in fact serves as a negative symbol for non-Jewish prophets who manifested themselves in the Pergamene Christian community and

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became a factor in ‘an ongoing struggle of competing prophetic groups for whom the interaction with non-Jewish culture was a major issue’. TORD FORNBERG (Uppsala) examines the injunction in 2 Peter against ‘those who follow the road of Balaam’. In this, the author of 2 Peter is dependent on the letter of Jude, which had already presented Balaam as a negative example of noteworthy sinners. In some sense 2 Peter appears to be more positive about Balaam because, unlike Jude, he is aware of the positive contents of Balaam’s oracle regarding the rising star. Nevertheless, the main thrust of 2 Peter is to depict Balaam in very negative tones: ‘He was the heretic par préférence, and he was punished accordingly, as will be the heretics of our epistle.’ As in Rev- elation, Balaam has become a chiffre for aberrant Christian movements which are to be mistrusted. Although the speaking ass is often unimportant or even absent in the reception of the Balaam narratives, it is present in the Acts of Thomas. ISTVÁN CZACHESZ (Groningen, now Helsinki) reviews the passages about speaking asses and other speaking animals in the Acts of Thomas and in the major apocryphal acts and also examines them in the context of the famous ass novels of Pseudo-Lucian and Apuleius. He concludes with some cognitive considerations about speaking animals as a possible explanation for why these narratives exerted such a great appeal. JOHAN LEEMANS (Leuven-Erfurt), in his contribution, offers insights into the patristic interpretations of Balaam. Among the quotations from the Balaam passages, Num 24:17—on the rising star of Jacob—is paramount. As was already touched upon by Nicklas in his paper on Matthew and the star of the Magi, but is now fully demonstrated, the Church Fathers link the star from Balaam’s oracle with that of the Magi. It is surmised that the Magi knew Balaam’s prophecy and that they either shared the same profession or were his descendants. Leemans suggests that, as the Christians in fact inherited the message which the Magi had received from Balaam, the Balaam narrative becomes important for the self-understanding of Christianity as a Church embracing the gentiles: ‘the reception of Balaam contributed to the formation of a Christian identity vis-à-vis other religions of Late Antiquity’. Despite their high appreciation of Balaam, some Church Fathers felt the need to deny that the accuracy of Balaam’s star prophecy offered an argument in support of astrology. Ultimately, the patristic evaluation of Balaam also remained ambiguous. Among the most accommodating views was Origen’s: ‘Balaam’s skills at divination made him an appropriate vehicle of God’s word’.

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The final part of the volume contains a paper by FRED LEEMHUIS (Groningen) on early Koranic commentaries which discuss a possible reference to Balaam in the Koran: ‘and recite to them the tidings of him to whom We gave our signs, but he rejected them . . .’ (Sūrat al-araf 7:175–176). The commentaries on this passage seem to centre on the question of whether Balaam was a true prophet. They objected to the possibility of a prophet of God going astray and losing his prophethood and decided that, for that reason, Balaam could not have been a prophet in the first place. All contributions, whether from a Jewish, Christian or Islamic perspective, confirm that Balaam is an enigmatic figure which has given rise to very deeply ambiguous interpretations. The reception of this figure can indeed be characterized as the simultaneous praise and criticism of a pagan prophet.

A vote of thanks is due to the Board of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen for continuing to fos- ter and host this annual conference at the faculty. We are very grateful to them, and to the Groningen Research School for the Study of the Humanities, for making this conference possible. On the occasion of the presentation and subsequent discussion of the papers, we were very privileged to enjoy the stimulating presence and participation of Prof. Emanuel Tov (Hebrew University, Israel). Finally, we wish to thank the staff at Brill for their continuous support. The index of ancient texts was kindly prepared by Birgit van der Lans and Judith van der Wel, student assistants.

Groningen, August 2007

George van Kooten Jacques van Ruiten

University of Groningen Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies Oude Boteringestraat 38 9712 GK Groningen The Netherlands Website: www.rug.nl/theology

van kooten_f1_i-xviii NEW.indd xviii 1/22/2008 7:40:07 PM CONTRIBUTORS

Stefan Beyerle, Professor of Old Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Greifswald, Germany (with effect from Autumn 2008) Jan N. Bremmer, Professor of the General History of Religion and Com- parative Religious Studies, Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen István Czachesz, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the Netherlands Organization for Scientiﬁc Research (NWO), Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen; now Research Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland Tord Fornberg, Associate Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Faculty of Theology, University of Uppsala, Sweden Florentino García Martínez, Professor of the Religion and Literature of Early Judaism & Director of the Qumran Institute, Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen, and Research Professor, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium Alberdina Houtman, Researcher and Lecturer, Department of Semitic Languages, now Professor for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations (endowed chair), Kampen Theological University/Protestant Theologi- cal University Johan Leemans, Professor of Early Church History and Patristics, Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Erfurt, Germany; Visiting Lecturer in Patristics, Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Leuven Fred Leemhuis, Professor of Islam (endowed chair Groningen University Fund), Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen Tobias Nicklas, Professor of New Testament Studies, Faculty of Theology, Radboud University Nijmegen; now Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Regensburg, Germany Ronit Nikolsky, University Lecturer in Hebrew, Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen

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Ed Noort, Professor of Ancient Israelite Literature, Old Testament Inter- pretation, the History of Israelite Religion and Intertestamental Literature, Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen Émile Puech, Researcher CNRS Paris—École biblique et d’archéologie française de Jérusalem, Jerusalem Harry Sysling, Researcher, Department of Semitic Languages, Kampen Theological University/Protestant Theological University Eibert Tigchelaar, Fellow of the Netherlands Organization for Scientiﬁc Research (NWO) at the Qumran Institute, Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen; now Professor of Religion, Department of Religion, Florida State University Jan Willem van Henten, Professor of New Testament Studies, Department of Biblical Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam George H. van Kooten, Professor of New Testament & Early Christianity, Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen Jacques T.A.G.M. van Ruiten, Senior University Lecturer in Ancient Israelite Literature, Old Testament Interpretation, and Early Jewish Literature, Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen

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BALAAM IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, AND COMPARABLE FIGURES IN ANCIENT GREECE

van kooten_f2_1-24.indd 1 1/22/2008 4:48:14 PM van kooten_f2_1-24.indd 2 1/22/2008 4:48:15 PM BALAAM THE VILLAIN: THE HISTORY OF RECEPTION OF THE BALAAM NARRATIVE IN THE PENTATEUCH AND THE FORMER PROPHETS

Ed Noort

To the Memory of Timo Veijola, 1947–2005, a Friend and Colleague1

1. Introduction

In the Hebrew Bible, Balaam is a famous foreign seer, a truly remarkable character in Numbers 22–24. Israel escapes a near-death situation in the desert by being blessed instead of cursed. The leading role in this drama is taken by the diviner Balaam, ‘the man whose sight is clear, . . . who hears the words of El, who obtains knowledge from Elyon and sees the vision from Shadday’.2 In the narrative itself he has no title. He is not called a prophet (aybn), nor a seer (hzj/har), nor a man of God (μyhlah vya). But, as all his actions show, including his answers to Balak and his repeated statements to the leaders of Moab, he has the ability to curse and bless3 as well as tell the future.4 Yet he uses his powers only after listening to the word of YHWH. On the one hand he is a stranger, foreign to Israel. On the other hand, he acts like an Israelite seer, even like a prophet bound to the word of YHWH. Although other currents are present, the main stream of the ﬁnal text of Numbers 22–24 is a positive narrative. Balaam is an intermediary who saves Israel, blessing the people as ordered by YHWH.

1 Timo Veijola belonged during the seventies to our group of doctoral students at Göttingen together with Walter Dietrich (Bern), Hermann Spieckermann (Göttingen), Christoph Levin (München) and Dietrich Baltzer (Münster). Our small class met at the home of Walther Zimmerli, later on at the faculty with the other supervisors Rudolf Smend, Lothar Perlitt and Robert Hanhart. 2 Num 24:15bβ, 16abα, cf. 24:3–4.* Cf. the use of the verb hzj and the noun hzjm. Balaam’s professional praxis is that of a hzj. 3 Num 22:6. 4 Cf. the explication by H. Seebass, Numeri (BKAT 4.3.1), Neukirchen-Vluyn 2004, 73 and his translation of μymsq as ‘instruments for divination’, not ‘fees for divination’ and 23:23 und 24:1 (μy)vjn as ‘omen(s)’.

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This paper does not focus on the fascinating central narrative, but on illuminating several phases in its history of reception in the Hebrew Bible. Sometimes there is a great distance between the ‘original’ narrative and its ﬁnal reception. The differences may be clear, but why they came about is not. Therefore I focus on a range of texts with more or less related traditions thereby studying the development of changes to Balaam’s image in Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua and Micah. Brief remarks gradually darken the portrait of Balaam, which is entirely negative by the end. In the ﬁnal texts he is no longer seen as the seer who blesses Israel but as the source of inspiration for apostasy, as a false prophet who must be put to death. Two texts refer to his execution with the approval of the biblical author. Surprisingly, another tradition in the history of reception understands Balaam as a messianic prophet. He is connected to Isaiah and is the source of inspiration for the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew. Balaam truly has two faces. Here I focus on the negative traditions because even more interesting than the changes themselves are the reasons behind them. The shifts in the image of Balaam have to do with changing concepts of prophecy and revelation, of true and false prophets, of the different ways the voice of the deity can be heard and of the boundaries between ‘us and them’. The study is organized as follows. I start by describing the geographical scene of Moab in the biblical tradition. It is the homeland of King Balak who ordered Balaam, a foreign seer, to curse Israel. Then I demonstrate the main historical lines of interpretation by analyzing two Dutch paintings. After this I examine the texts on Balaam found outside Numbers 22–24 and explore the reasons for the growing negativity of his image, touching in turn upon the concentration on Word-of-God theology, the YHWH prophets of the 7th and 6th centuries bce and the condemnation of all other religious specialists (Deuteronomy 18). The journey ends with regret for the literary death of poor Balaam.

2. The Geographical Scenery and Biblical Background

Balaam’s activities take place in Moab, a plateau in the mountainous region east of the Dead Sea. This couleur locale, seen in a canonical context, is highly relevant because being one of Judah’s neighbours always provoked controversy. No reader can miss the conﬂicting feelings about Moab, already evident in Gen 19:30–38, where Lot’s daughters take control of their future and give birth to the brothers Moab and Ammon

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through an incestuous adventure with their father. Highly remarkably, the narrative does not condemn what has happened, although Moab and Ammon are mocked somewhat for being the incestuous offspring of the daughters and their drunken father.5 But there is no link with the intellectual world of laws in Leviticus 18 and the narrative demonstrates that in the view of the genealogy (Lot/Abraham) Ammon and Moab are regarded as relatives. In the battle against Sihon of Heshbon (Numbers 21)—a strange intermezzo—Moab plays only a minor role. Both Sihon and Og narratives serve a specific purpose. The entire East- Jordan territory is represented by the legendary kings Og and Sihon. They are historicized, their territory is conquered and subsequently divided.6 This view holds Israel in possession of the East-Jordan territory. Balak and his Moab nation represent another stage, seen most clearly in the Balaam cycle of Numbers 22–24. Moab and King Balak want Israel cursed, but receive a blessing instead. This negative image of Moab is intensified in the next chapter (Numbers 25) where Moabite/ Midianite women mingle sexually (hnz 25:1b) with the Israelites. According to deuteronomistic doctrine the consequences are crystal clear. The Israelites start7 (the sinful) worship of Baal of Peor.8 The tendentious nature of the story is clear from the thin line connecting Baal of Peor in Num 25:1–2 with Moab. The leading part is claimed by a Midianite, not a Moabite woman (Num 25:6). Even the war of revenge in Numbers 31 is directed against Midian, not Moab. These stories reflect a religious-political situation in which Northern Moab

5 It is suggested that Genesis 19 provides an alternative to the ﬂood narrative, since a catastrophe is required between the paradise story and the world as it was experienced by later readers or listeners. Perhaps the now locally situated narrative of Genesis 18–19 originally functioned as a worldwide catastrophe. The daughters approached their father because ‘our father is growing old, and there is not a man on earth (≈rab) to come into us after the manner of all the world’ (Gen 19:31). Cf. E. Noort, ‘For the Sake of Righteousness: Abraham’s Negotiations with YHWH as Prologue to the Sodom Narrative. Gen 18:16–33’ in: E. Noort & E.J.C. Tigchelaar (eds.), Sodom’s Sin: Genesis 18–19 and Its Interpretations (TBN 7), Leiden 2002, 3–15. 6 E. Noort, ‘Transjordan in Joshua 13: Some Aspects’, in: A. Hadidi (ed.), Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan III, London 1987, 125–30. 7 According to MT a logical consequence of the sexual love affair. The sin of Pe‘or is referred to in Hos 9:10; Deut 3:4; Josh 22:17. Of course Philo knows more details than his predecessors. He tells of the beautiful Moabite women charging a price for their bodies. A sacriﬁce to Baal of Peor is needed before the party starts (Philo, De vita Mosis 292–301). 8 Peor: Raš Mušaqqar. Settlements: Mušaqqar East and West: 2238.1337 and 2239. 1335. Map: Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Reihe B, IV 6 (northern part, detailed map).

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changed hands many times and where political aspiration translated into religious conflicts.9 At the end of the book of Numbers, Moab is merely a place of preparation10 for crossing the Jordan. Num 25:1 (Shittim) as a point of arrival is linked with Josh 2:1 and 3:1 as a point of departure. In Deuteronomy all the voices, both positive and negative, are heard. Here YHWH assures us that Israel has no claim to the land of Moab, because He Himself has given it to the sons of Lot.11 Moab is the place on the threshold of the Promised Land where the entire Torah is proclaimed during the final day of Moses’ life. Moab is the site of a second Sinai, where the covenant of Exodus 24 is re-established (Deuteronomy 29). Moses must die in Moab following divine orders.12 The death of Moses enables the Torah to be finished. It is codified and understood to be the Torah that Moses carried across the Jordan into the land of Moab and recited there.13 Moses is replaced by his Torah. According to this thread, important stages of Israel’s theological journey are highlighted in Moab. The same book, however, contains another thread. Deut 23:3–4 states that Moabites—and the following ten generations—shall be refused entry to the hwhy td[ because they refused Israel crucial passage through their land on their wanderings to the Promised Land. In the Early Prophets the image of Moab differs again. The grotesque murder of the oppressor Eglon, the fat king of Moab, in Judges 3 represents the negative image. In contrast, 1 Sam 22:3–5 has Moab offering asylum to David and his family. And in just a small step from here David becomes a Moabite ancestor in the book of Ruth. Possibly the genealogy connecting Ruth and David via Boaz and Obed is secondary. Even in that event the image of Moabite Ruth gets treated sympathetically in the biblical tradition. But here again, the picture changes. According to 2 Kgs 3:27 the Moabite king sacrifices his crown prince on the city wall during a siege. The biblical narrative is convinced that this ultimate

9 The Mesha Inscription states that Mesha recovered the land of Medeba and massacred the Israelite population. According to 2 Sam 8:2 David defeats Moab and kills the population following a special procedure. 10 Num 26:3, 63; 31:12, 33, 44, 48–50; 35:1; 36:13. 11 Deut 2:9, 18, 19. 12 Num 27:12–14; Deut 32:48–52, referring to Num 20:12 as an interpretation of Num 20:2–11. The ambiguity about the precise nature of Moses’ sin is reﬂected by the confusion of the commentaries (striking the rock twice, no verbal explication, no exact repeat of the divine instructions, stressing the ﬁrst-person singular of Moses’ sayings, etc.). 13 Deut 31:9–13, 24–29.

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sacriﬁce will have a negative effect on the military chances of Israel. Their troops return home without success. Despite all biblical polemics against child sacriﬁce, it is effective, even in the eyes of the Israelite author. Finally the books of Amos, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are totally negative in their judgement of Moab, full of catastrophe, doom and despair. The same trend can be found in the poetical texts of the Hebrew Bible. According to Exod 15:14–15 Moab is bound to the traditional enemies: Philistea, Edom, Moab and Canaanites. The same is the case in Ps 60:10: Moab, Edom, and Philistea.14 This short synchronic overview demonstrates that in changing times Moab and Israel/Judah had a friend-foe relationship, more foe than friend in the eyes of the Israelite authors.15 The two neighbours were separated only by the Jordan and the Dead Sea and thus lived in close proximity, partly together, sometimes united against the same enemies, sometimes sharing each other’s concept of national statehood. Their different political interests were often replaced by religious oppositions. YHWH and Chemosh were seen as rivals, both acting as national gods leading their people through the ups and downs of history. From in between these political-religious and geographical coulisses the foreign seer Balaam strides onto the stage.

3. The Two Main Lines of the History of Reception

In some parts of the Christian history of reception Balaam is the prophet ‘of the gentiles’. He is faithful to the word of YHWH and according to Matthew 2:1–12 predicts the star that will guide the Magi to Bethlehem. His fourth oracle on Moab, laden with meaning, puts Balaam in a messianic interpretation of the text: ‘I see (him), but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come forth out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel’.16

14 Cf. Ps 83:7–9 and Ps 108:10. 15 For the still deﬁnitive introduction to the textual evidence see the study by S. Timm, Moab zwischen den Mächten: Studien zu historischen Denkmälern und Texten (Ägypten und Altes Testament 17), Wiesbaden 1989. For a brief overview of all the important problems and progress see ‘Moab’, Biblical Archaeologist 60/4 (1997) and, ﬁnally, for an intriguing socio-political study see B. Routledge, Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, Polity, Archaeology, Philadelphia 2004. 16 Num 24:17. By using only 24:17abα and not bβ, ‘It shall crush the heads of Moab, and the skulls of all the sons of strife’, the oracle of judgement is transferred into a prophecy about a future ruler without using the local or chronological connection

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This line of iconography is illustrated by an altarpiece by Hierony- mus Bosch (c.1450–1516), ‘Epiphany’, now in the Prado in Madrid. In the central panel17 of this triptych the three Magi are shown as the first gentiles to adore Christ. Acceptance of the newborn king plays an important role in the painting, which stresses the role of pagans acknowledging the Messiah. The painting is full of references that build up a network of intertextual connections around the central theme. The first Magus puts a representation of the Sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22) on the ground before Mary and the child. The collar worn by the second Magus reflects the arrival of the Queen of Sheba at Solomon’s court (1 Kgs 10:1, 2). The visit of the queen foreshadows the New Testament Magi. The most intriguing figure,18 however, stands in the doorway, holding the crown19 of the second Magus. The frogs on his legs refer to the plagues of Egypt and the conflict and competi- tion between Moses and the Egyptian sorcerers. On the one hand he is a pagan sorcerer, on the other hand he is very close to the adoring Magi. He is correctly identified as Balaam. This interpretation is not only demonstrated by this altarpiece by Hieronymus Bosch. It has a wider iconographic range. Balaam and his ‘star of Jacob’ text appear together with the prophet Isaiah and David framing the adoration of the Magi in the popular Biblia pauperum,20 illuminated books from the latter half of the 15th century. The second, negative, line of iconography is illustrated by a well- known early painting by Rembrandt (1626),21 which is based on an earlier portrayal by his teacher Lastman (1622). Rembrandt dramati- cally changes the composition employed by Lastman.22 In Rembrandt’s

used now. For early messianic interpretations using the full text of Num 24:17, both Jewish and Christian, cf. U. Lutz, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (Evangelisch-Katholischer Kommentar zum NT I/1), Neukirchen-Vluyn 1985, 115nn14, 15. Lutz does not favour a direct relation between Matt 2:2 and Num 24:17 because the star and the messiah are not identical as in Num 24:17. 17 Cf. http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth214_folder/bosch_prado_ epiphany.html. 18 For the iconographic representations of the ﬁgure of Balaam see E. Kirschbaum, ‘Der Prophet Bileam und die Anbetung der Weisen’, Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte 49 (1954) 129–71; J. Schelhaas, ‘Bileam, de waarzegger- profeet’, Gereformeerd Theologisch Tijdschrift 36 (1935), 25–44, 65–90, 113–35. 19 Cf. the decoration of the crown and collar of the second Magus. 20 Royal Library = Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Museum Meermanno- Westreenianum, 10 A 15. 22r. 21 63.2 × 46.5 cm. Paris, Musée Cognacq-Jay. 22 B.P.J. Broos, ‘Rembrandt en zijn eeuwige leermeester Lastman’, Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis 26 (1972), 76–84.

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version the angel does not stand in front of the donkey but appears from behind it.23 The Moabite princes and servants frame Balaam in his central position. The rift between the seeing donkey and the blind seer, who nearly beats his animal to death is dramatic. The seer is blind and acts against divine commands. Oracular tomes are visible in his baggage. In the final version of the Balaam story the scene of the talking donkey represents a step backward on the road to final blessing. Now Balaam’s journey to Balak stirs YHWH’s anger, although he has received divine permission to travel in Num 22:20. These two contradicting lines in iconography—(a) the positive view related to the messianic oracles and (b) the negative one representing the danger of a foreign seer who must be stopped by YHWH or his messenger—are not 15th or 17th-century inventions but have been found already in the catacombs and sarcophagi of the 3rd24 and 4th25 centuries. The scene of the talking donkey goes beyond the usual genre-bound opposition of a called person against his calling. Gideon appeals to the fact that his family is the last of Manasseh and that he himself is the youngest ( Judg 6:15). Saul regards himself a mere Benjaminite, one of the smallest tribes of Israel (1 Sam 9:16). Moses thinks he is unfit (Exod 3:11; 4:1–17) and expresses his doubts to YHWH. He does not consider himself a man of the Word (Exod 4:10) and would rather have someone else sent (Exod 4:13). These may be topoi, in which the initial negativity stresses the gravity and the importance of the task, as in prophetic callings.26 But in Balaam’s case it is the reverse: he makes no objection himself but assures the messengers that he depends on the word of YHWH. The first time (Num 22:13) he does not go because YHWH refuses him permission, the second time (20:20) he agrees because YHWH explicitly says so. YHWH’s anger in the next scene in 22:22–35 is in no way derivable from the regular course of

23 F.W. Robinson, ‘A Note on the Visual Tradition of Balaam and his Ass’, Oud Holland 84 (1969), 238–244. 24 Fresco in the catacomb of Priscilla, ‘Balaam pointing out the star to Mary’ (Monastery of the Benedictines of Priscilla). The second line can be seen in the catacombs of the Via Latina, Cubiculum F, ‘Balaam stopped by the Angel’ (Fresco), fourth century ce. 25 Phaedra & Hippolytus Sarcophagus of Trinquetaille in Musée lapidaire d’art chrétien, Arles. J.B. Ward Perkins, ‘The Hippolytus Sarcophagus from Trinquetaille’, Journal of Roman Studies 46 (1956) 10–16. 26 W. Richter, Die sogenannten vorprophetischen Berufungsberichte (FRLANT 101), Göttingen 1970, 145–6.

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the narrative, but starts the negative judgements on Balaam’s expedition to Balak.

4. Balaam: Good Guy or Bad?

Balaam is seldom mentioned outside Numbers 22–24. With the exception of Micah 6:5 all the references are negative. The texts involve three themes:

(1) The most important supposition is that Balaam actually wanted to curse Israel, or has already done so, but at the last moment YHWH changes the words in his mouth to a blessing instead of a curse. This makes Balaam a villain and YHWH a saviour (Deut 23:5, 6; Josh 24:9, 10; Neh 13:2). (2) The second argument links Balaam to the sin of Baal-Peor, the story of the Moabite/Midianite women. Worse still, he is held responsible for both the plague and the anger of YHWH: the women seduce Israel on Balaam’s advice (Num 31:16). (3) The third view leads to an inevitable conclusion: Balaam is guilty and must be executed (Num 31:8; Josh 13:22).

So ends the story of an exceptional biblical figure. But such a development invokes intriguing questions. Which came first: the tradition of a dangerous seer who cursed Israel, a tradition that slowly changed into the more positive image depicted in Numbers 22–24? Do Numbers 31, Deuteronomy and Joshua represent the original, primary texts of this tradition? Is Numbers 22–24, with the exception of the she-donkey scene, a later reflection? Or did it happen the other way round? Did the whole story start with a positive image of the prophetic seer and change later into the negative picture of the false prophet? Noth is an example of those who defend the first position;27 Donner the second.28

27 Noth has changed his opinion several times, as he has done with regard to other crucial texts ( Joshua 24). In his Überlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch, Stuttgart 1948, 80–6, he presumed that the ‘bad guy’ Balaam connected with Baal Peor represented the oldest stage, although the literary traditions were young. In his commentary on Numbers (ATD; Göttingen 1966, 154), his literary historical viewpoint that the texts containing the ‘good’ Balaam were older than the texts containing the ‘bad’ Balaam prevailed. 28 H. Donner, ‘Balaam pseudopropheta’, in: H. Donner & R. Hanhart & R. Smend (eds), Beiträge zur alttestamentlichen Theologie: Festschrift für Walther Zimmerli, Göttingen 1977, 112–23 at 114.

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The most extensive survey of different possibilities is given by Seebass.29 Since Donner’s Balaam Pseudopropheta (1977) there is a certain consensus on the development from ‘good guy’ to ‘bad guy’. The ‘why’ and partly the ‘how’, however, remain unclear.

5. The Texts outside Numbers 22–24

(a) A Neutral Image of Balaam: Micah 6:5 I will begin with the ‘positive’ or at least ‘neutral’ text Micah 6:5: ‘My people:30 Remember (anArkz) what Balak, king of Moab, planned31 and what/how Balaam, son of Beor, answered him’. The context is the byr, the lawsuit between YHWH and his people structured by w[mç of vv. 1 and 2 bound together with ‘My people what have I done to you?’ (v. 3) and the appeal ‘My people, remember . . .’ (v. 5). Israel has to remember: (1) the delivery from the house of slavery;32 (2) the sending of Moses, Aaron and Miriam;33 (3) the rescue from Balak; and (4) the crossing (of the Jordan river) from Shittim to Gilgal. Every item presupposes a negative situation: slavery, wilderness, cursing, fording a dangerous river, and a positive result: deliverance by YHWH. The canon of divine salvation is called the hwhy twqdx (v. 5). In this context Balak clearly represents danger and Balaam the positive side. The verb ≈[y (‘to plan’) with reference to something Balak does is used here in malam partem as is well understood by the LXX adding

29 H. Seebass, Numeri (BKAT 4.3.i–ii), Neukirchen-Vluyn 2004–2005, 1–107. 30 BHS suggests reading /M[i ‘with him’ instead of yMi[' vocative. The emendation is not supported by the versions and the parallelism with v. 3 yMi[' is too strong to be ignored. 31 For the verb ˆ[y, ‘to advise’, ‘to plan’, see L. Ruppert, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 3 (1981), 718–751, who supposes a development from ‘to pronounce an oracle’ (Num 24:14) via ‘advise’ to ‘plan’. A. Wolters, New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, vol. 2, 490, concludes that both meanings exist alongside each other. For him ‘the relationship between the two basic senses is something like that between thought and expression, both with an orientation to future action’ (490). The straight development suggested by Ruppert, however, cannot be proven without an exact dating of the texts. Opinions differ here. 32 hl[ Hif. in contrast to axy Hif. includes not only the Exodus, but also the wilderness wanderings and the arrival in the promised land (H.W. Wolff, Micha [BKAT XIV.4], Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, 148). 33 The trio Moses, Aaron and Miriam mentioned together as a demonstration of given leadership is enigmatic. Num 12:1–4 takes them together in a crisis of leadership. Num 26:59 and 1 Chron 5:29 offer a genealogy. Micah 6:4 is the only text with a positive approach.

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κατὰ σοῦ ‘against you’. The second part of the sentence ‘what/how Balaam answered’ expresses the contrast. Balak wants evil. Balaam counters with a positive action. There is no indication in this text that Balaam planned to curse Israel. On the contrary, he is portrayed as someone who says what YHWH commands him to say. The text is in agreement with the main line in Numbers 22–24. In literary-historical terms Micah 6 is situated between Numbers 22–24* and the negative texts. Shittim holds no negative connotation here, in contrast to Num- bers 25 and the text following it.

(b) A Darkening View of Balaam: Deuteronomy 23:4–6; Joshua 24:9–10; Nehemiah 13:2 The next group of texts is from Deuteronomy, Joshua and Nehemiah. These texts presume that Balaam did curse Israel but YHWH did not listen to him and changed the words in his mouth to a blessing. Two points are noteworthy here: (1) The change from Balaam’s possible intention to his accomplished deed; (2) YHWH decides on the curse or blessing. Curses or blessings as such are not automatically effective, they are not a selbstwirksames Wort.34 Even in this case where a ‘bad’ Balaam is supposed, YHWH has the power to change the curse.

(i) Deut 23:4–6 In Deut 23:4–6 the image of Balaam is darkened. Ammonites and Moabites are not admitted into hwhy lhq, not until after the tenth generation (Gen 19:30–38). Here Balaam is actually the ‘bad guy’. Deut 23:5 assumes that Balak has hired him (rkc); Balaam has been bribed. Indeed, there are references to the payment Balak will give Balaam. dbk Pi. in Num 22:17, 37 means ‘to pay (very) well’.35 Balak offers such payment twice, but twice Balaam refuses the silver and Num 22:18 explicitly states that he will speak only what YWHW/Elohim commands. The suggestion that Balaam has been bribed stems from Deuteronomy, not from Numbers from which Deuteronomy obtains its information. Numbers itself portrays Balaam as the foreign soothsayer who will speak the word of YHWH. The actual reinterpretation occurs in Deut 23:6: ‘But YHWH your God was not willing to listen to Balaam’

34 Cf. however, the early Koranic commentaries; see Leemhuis, this volume. 35 S. Gevirtz, ‘West-Semitic Curses and the Problem of the Origins of Hebrew Law’, Vetus Testamentum 11 (1961) 137–158, here 141–2n5.

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and ‘YHWH your God changed the curse (hllq) into a blessing’. The scheme is: Balaam is hired, Balaam curses Israel, YHWH does not accept the curse and changes the curse into a blessing. For Israel the result of Numbers and Deuteronomy is the same. They are blessed. But according to Deuteronomy Balaam is the actual evildoer.

(ii) Josh 24:9, 10 Joshua 24:9, 10 also reinterprets the Balaam narrative, but differently. First, Balak’s hostility is increased for, according to Joshua 24, Balak has waged war against Israel. As is said of the inhabitants of Jericho who opposed Israel ( Josh 24:11), the same is explicitly said of Balak: ‘He fought against Israel’ (v. 9). Num 22:6, however, only states Balak’s willingness to make war in combination with the cursing. As in Deuteronomy 23 the curse is expressed by llq, not by rra. This is the next difference between Joshua and Numbers. An exact parallel between Deuteronomy and Joshua is the ‘hearing’ by YHWH as the decisive divine action: ‘But YHWH your God, was not willing to listen to Balaam’ (Deut 23:6) and ‘but I was not willing to listen to Balaam’ ( Josh 24:10), the only difference being the ﬁrst person singular used in the speech of Josh 24:10 and l [mç instead of la [mç. The second part of the verse, however, states ‘but he [Balaam] kept on blessing you [Israel]’. The text suggests that Balaam perhaps wanted to curse Israel, but he was a better prophet than he realised. He wanted to speak the word of YHWH and eventually he did. This looks like a slightly more innocent Balaam, especially in the last part of the sentence: ‘I delivered (lxn Hif.) you out of his hand’. This ‘hand’ refers not only to Balaam but also to Balak, which is how the LXX understands the verse, reading ἐκ χειρων αὐτων (‘out of their hands).36 There is another difference between Deuteronomy and Joshua in comparison with Numbers. Josh 24:9 expresses Balak’s action upon Balaam’s arrival with ˚lv, a quote from Num 22:5,15. Deut 23:5 however, interprets the whole action, as stated above, by rkc ‘to hire’. Balaam is only in it for the money and will speak the word of any man who hires him. That Josh 24:10 is an actual duplication of Deuteronomy, as nearly all commentaries state, is not the most obvious conclusion due to the differences between Deut 23:6 and Josh 24:9, 10 added to the fact that

36 The LXX reads ἀπολεσαι ‘to destroy’: ‘YHWH your God did not want to destroy you and he kept on blessing you’.

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the blessing formulation37 used in Josh 24:10 is based on Num 23:11 and 24:10. Both the Deuteronomy and Joshua texts think along the same lines. Josh 24:9, 10 rewrites Num in a direct way for its own view of the narrated history. Deut 23:5, 6, with its stress on the bad role Balaam plays, depends on Joshua 24 and not the other way around: Numbers > Joshua 24 > Deuteronomy 23. In this group Deuteronomy represents the last stage in remodelling the image of Balaam.

(iii) Neh 13:2 This is conﬁrmed by the last text: Neh 13:2 with its literary quote of Deut 23:5, 6. Precisely the same arguments used in Deuteronomy are reapplied in Nehemiah. The Moabites did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, Balak hired Balaam and YHWH changed his curse into a blessing.

(c) A Relentlessly Dark View of Balaam: Numbers 31 There is yet another thread in blackening Balaam’s image which does not deal with his presumed curse but the ‘counsel’ he gives Balak. This is understood to advise the Moabite/Midianite women to seduce the Israelites. The argument presupposes a combination of Numbers 24 and 25 and reverses the words of Balaam in Num 24:14. The context of Num 31:16 is a confrontation between Moses and the military leaders after the Midianite war. The war against Midian resulted from the events in Numbers 25. Midian women are taken cap- tive (31:9) and those who had sexual intercourse with a man should be sacrificed (31:17). The reason is formulated in 31:15b, 16: ‘Have you let all the women live? Behold, these [the women] caused the people of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam to act treacherously against YHWH in the affair at Peor, and so there was the plague among the congregation of YHWH’. Although the story of Numbers 25 starts with the Moabite women, here it refers to the Midianite woman of Num 25:6. This is not the only difference between Num 25:6–18 and Num 25:1–5. What is called ‘the anger of YHWH’ in 25:3 is called a ‘plague’ in 25:8. In 25:1–5 the leaders are executed, in 25:7 it is the action of Phinehas which saves Israel. The word ‘people’, from the first five verses meaning ‘the

37 Josh 24:10 μkta ˚wrb ˚rbyw; Num 23:11, 24:10 ˚rb tkrb hnhw.

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congregation of the Israelites’, is added to ‘Israel’ in 25:6. The scene starting with 25:6 is a Fortschreibung serving priestly interests and together with the ‘atonement’ of 25:13 belongs to this tradition. Num 31:16 reflects the narrative of Num 25:6–8, defining the events at Peor with the expressions: ‘to act treacherously’ (rsm + l[m), ‘the affair at Peor’ (rw[pArbdAl[), ‘the plague’ (hpgm); and the ‘congregation of YHWH’ (hwhy td[). However, the tendency to mingle the Midianites and Moabites is evident in the combination. So far, so clear (more or less). When 31:16 reflects 25:6–8, which in itself is a Fortschreibung of 25:1–5 we are in the final layers of Numbers, deeper still when v. 16 has the combination of Num 25 and Num 24:14 in view. What happened at Peor, the sexual relations with Midianite women (25:6–8), and the worship of Baal of Peor (25:3), was supposedly done on the advice of Balaam. Nowhere in the Balaam narrative, however, do we find such advice. It is deduced from Num 24:14b: ˚m[l hzh μ[h hc[y rva ˚x[ya. In this context it is perfectly clear what the verse means. Balaam’s most famous oracle Num 24:17 (‘I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star shall come forth out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the heads of Moab and the skulls of all the sons of strife’) is directed at a future Israelite king, who will destroy Moab. V. 14 introduces that oracle: ‘I (Balaam) will let you (Balak) know what this people (Israel) will do to your people (Moab)’. In the introduction and oracle combined Balaam tells Balak that a future king will destroy his state. This meaning has changed slowly in the history of reception. Here the first option is to use ≈[y as meaning ‘to advise’, ‘to counsel’, ‘to plan’ so that Balaam is advising Balak. The second step must be to change the roles of subject and object of hc[: ‘I (Balaam) will advise you (Balak) what your people (Moab) will/can do to this people (Israel)’. That is indeed the way the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate render V.14: as dabo consilium quid populus tuus huic populo faciat extremo tempore. Having interpreted Num 24:14 in this way we are not far from Philo’s colourful description of this verse, where he tells in great detail how Balaam explains to Balak that Israelite men can be seduced by the beautiful Moabite women, offering their bodies on one condition: the price is an offering to the Moabite god Baal of Peor.38 Num 24:14 is consequently explained, with a sideways glance at the next chapter, Numbers 25, as the fulfilment of Balaam’s ‘advice’. Balaam knows that

38 Philo, De vita Mosis 292–301.

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the only way to achieve the goal of severing the ties between YHWH and his chosen people is transgression of the first commandment. When Israel serves other gods, then YHWH will no longer be with ‘his’ people. This links Balaam’s closing words to Balak with the disaster of Pe‘or in Numbers 25. Here his image is no longer pristine white or shades of grey but deep, dark black; the besmirching of Balaam has reached its zenith when Balaam tells Balak how he can achieve his goal: the destruction of Israel. The final stage in reworking the ‘bad’ character of Balaam deals with his death. Two texts refer to Balaam’s execution. Num 31:8 describes the story of the Midianite war: ‘And they killed the kings of Midian, along with the rest of their dead—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Rebe, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam, son of Beor, with the sword’. The same five kings return in Josh 13:21 which also refers to the killing of Balaam, with one significant difference. In Joshua Balaam is called μswqh, the ‘diviner’ or ‘soothsayer’. That Josh 13:21b, 22 depends on Num 31:8 is demonstrated by the addition of ‘the diviner’ and by the fact that Joshua combines Numbers 21, the war against Sihon, with the war on the Midianites, Numbers 31. The result is the same, Balaam is killed. It is the inevitable end of a process within a canonical text. Balaam was a foreign seer. He wanted to curse Israel, but YHWH prevented him. So he decided to use other means. He organized the transgression of the first commandment (‘You shall have no other gods beside Me’) and as Numbers 31 and Joshua 13 tell us, Israel observed that commandment. With this treacherous act Balaam reveals himself to be a false prophet, according to Deut 13:2. Such a prophet should be put to death (Deut 13:6).

6. From Blessing Israel to Death Penalty

The developments outlined above are the result of a long process. The death of Balaam and the necessity for it are the result of learned exegesis. Perhaps it helps Balaam that he died merely a ‘literary’ death. In order to trace the developments as a transformation of the socio- religious background, I refer to two key texts. The ﬁrst is the gloss of 1 Sam 9:9 where the narrator explains that previously in Israel, anyone who had a question for God (μyhla vrd) would say: ‘Come, let us go to the seer (har); for the one who is now called a prophet (aybn), was formerly called a seer (har)’. The interpolator connects divination with

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the har and the aybn, explaining the latter as just another designation for the former. He is aware of the fact that there were different types, times and means of experiencing the divine will.39 More need not be said, the very awareness is enough.40 The second key text is the appellation in Josh 13:22: Balaam μswqh, the ‘soothsayer’. It is the deﬁnitive marking of the brand in the process of besmirching Balaam. Now the stage is not only open to Deuteronomy 13, the condemnation of the false prophet, but also and foremost to Deuteronomy 18 as a contrast to the true prophet of YHWH. For Deuteronomy 18, the μyrvh ryv of the divinely inspired prophetic word and its fulﬁlment is anticipated by a list of diviners, soothsayers and sorcerers whose work is hb[wt ‘abhorrent’ to YHWH (V.10–11) in the eyes of the author. According to 18:12–14 they belong to Canaan with their evil practices. They are an absolute antipode to the true Israel and therefore YHWH dispossesses them in front of his people (v. 12). In contrast a true prophet will be raised up from among Israel itself ‘from among your brothers’ (vv. 15, 18). ‘And I, YHWH, will put my words in his mouth and he will speak . . . all that I command him’ (v. 18). YHWH is speaking directly to his servant, the prophet. The deity himself is the initiator. He reveals his will without human intervention. Does that not sound familiar? Did Balaam himself not inform the messengers of Balak that he would exercise his profession in exactly that way, by listening to the word of YHWH? What is happening here? The μymsq μsq, the diviner, is losing ground against the true YHWH prophet coming from Israel itself. That prophet is by no means a foreigner. He is speaking the word of YHWH and that word must come true. The ideology presented here is the deathblow for all forms of divination. Some forms are still tolerated, such as lot-casting, Urim and Tummim and asking the Ephod.41 If possible they are reworked

39 Cf. the still useful short review by O. Eissfeldt, ‘Wahrsagung im Alten Israel’, in: La divination en Mésopotamie ancienne en dans les regions voisines (XIVe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale), Paris 1966, 141–6. Num 23:23 should not be interpreted as Eissfeldt does. The later tradition of the Targum translates as ‘no divination in Israel’, instead of ‘no divination against Israel’. 40 H.J. Stoebe, Das erste Buch Samuelis (KAT VIII.1), Gütersloh 1973, 195, 202–3. cautiously warns: ‘Die archäologische Notiz ist in ihrer Bedeutung für die Entwicklung des Prophetismus wahrscheinlich stark überbewertet worden’. 41 Older, technical and legitimate means of inquiring the will of the deity are: Ephod (1 Sam 23:9; 30:7), possibly the ark of God (1 Sam 14:8 lectio difﬁcilior), in connection with the lav and vrd inquiry, casting lots and explicitly the Urim and

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in other theological settings, for instance the Urim and Tummim and the Ephod in the dress of the High Priest of Exodus 28,42 but all other forms come under the verdict of the deuteronomistic authors.43 This judgement, however, is a turning point in the history of religion in Israel. The μswq in Isa 3:244 belongs to a list of military, political and religious leaders: the rwbg, the hmjlm vya and the aybn, the fpwv and ˆqz as well. Here the diviner is standing alongside the warrior, the soldier, the prophet, the judge and the elder. In Isa 3:3 the list is completed with the chieftain, the eminent one, the counsellor, the skilful magician and the expert enchanter. In this company the μswq is at home. There are not enough reasons for viewing (parts of ) the list as a secondary addition.45 This bird’s-eye view of the elite and decision-makers ﬁts into the social picture of court life and government circles in the Judah of 8th century bce. It is part of the authentic Isaiah words.46 It may

Tummim (U+T: Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8; Ezra 2:63; Neh 7:76; 1 Sam 14:41 LXX; T+U: Deut 33:8; U: Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6). 42 E. Noort, ‘Bis zur Grenze des Landes: Num 27,12–23 und das Ende der Priesterschrift’, in: T. Römer (ed.), The Books of Leviticus and Numeri (BEThL), Leuven (forthcoming): ‘Alles was in der konkreten Gottesbefragung eine Rolle spielt, wird hier in der Bekleidung des Hohenpriesters eingezeichnet. Neben dem Ephod (Lev 8:7), wird die Brusttasche beschrieben, in welche die Urim und Tummim getan werden (Lev 8:8). Die Brusttasche wird in Exod 28,15 als fpvm ˆvj, die ‘Brusttasche der Entscheidung’ bezeichnet. In Num 27,21 handelt es sich um ‘den fpvm der Urim’, den Eleasar einholen soll. Und Exod 28,30 ordnet an, dass Aaron den fpvm für die Israeliten ständig auf seinem Herzen tragen soll, wenn er vor JHWH tritt’. 43 Sometimes there is a recollection of the original function in the later setting. Cf. the explanation by Flavius Josephus concerning Exodus 28: ‘. . . the garment of the high priest, for he (Moses) left no room for the evil practices of prophets; but if some of that sort should attempt to abuse the divine authority, he left it to God to be present at the sacred ceremonies when he pleased and when he pleased to be absent . . . or as to those stones . . . the high priest wore on his shoulders, which were sardonyxes. . . . Every time God was present at the sacred ceremonies one of them shined out. It was the stone on his right shoulder. Bright rays ﬂashed then . . . Yet I will mention what is still more wonderful than this: For God declared beforehand, by those twelve stones which the high priest bears on his breast, and which were inserted into his breastplate, when they should be victorious in battle; for so great a splendour shone forth from them before the army began to march, that all the people were sensible of God’s being present for their assistance’ ( Jewish Antiquities III.214–218). 44 B.B. Schmidt, Israel’s Beneﬁcent Dead. Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition (FAT 11), Tübingen 1994, 179–190; R. Schmitt, Magie im Alten Testament (AOAT 313), Münster 2004, chap. 6.2 Magiepolemiken in der prophetischen Literatur, 256–358. 45 U. Becker, Jesaja: Von der Botschaft zum Buch (FRLANT 178), Göttingen 1997, 162–4. 46 H. Wildberger, Jesaja 1–12 (BKAT X.1), Neukirchen-Vluyn 1972, 116–7, 119, 121–3; Schmitt, Magie, 357.

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be argued that these civil servants and religious specialists did belong to the Judean establishment because they are criticized by Isaiah in a relatively harsh way. Had they not played important roles, it would not have been worth mentioning them. This is the ﬁrst important point. The second one is that there is no polemic against the profession itself, only against the way it was practised. The μswq belongs to the ‘stay and staff’ of Judah (Isa 3:1) which will be taken away. Slowly we recognize the rich and multifaceted religious forms of pre-exilic Israel and Judah. The μswq belonged to that religious establishment. The same is the case in Mic 3:6, 7: ‘Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them. The seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God’. The focus of this prophetic speech by Micah is on the way prophecy and divination were maintained at the royal court. The religious specialists attacked by Micah promised ‘well-being in the name of God to those who paid them well, and so had made šālōm a matter of transaction between patron and professional’.47 Here the μswq is part of the accepted group of religious specialists as well as the prophet and the seer. The texts of Isaiah and Micah criticize the performance of the 8th century bce religious establishment with its diverse functions and characters. A thoroughly principled condemnation of all forms of queries to God—apart from the Word-of-God prophet—starts between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th century bce. This may be demonstrated by a simple example of concordance. The construct form μyhla/hwhy rbd appears 242 times in the Hebrew Bible.48 The expression is used 225 times in the context of a prophetic speech or divine message to a prophet. Half of these texts are concentrated in Ezekiel (60 times) and Jeremiah (52 times). The same trend is visible in the formulation of the divine saying hwhy μan, probably stemming from the ancient utterances of seers.49 This form is used 365 times in the Hebrew Bible, 175 times in Jeremiah and 85 in Ezekiel. The word

47 J.L. Mays, Micah (OTL), London 1976, 83. For the literary function of the verses, see A.S. van der Woude, Micha (POT), Nijkerk 1976, 112–116. Different: J.A. Wagenaar, Oordeel en heil: Een onderzoek naar samenhang tussen de heils- en onheilsprofetieën in Micha 2–5 (Diss. Utrecht), Utrecht 1995, 34–6. 48 O. Grether, Name und Wort Gottes im Alten Testament (BZAW 64), Berlin 1934; E. Noort, ‘Wort Gottes I’, Theologische Realenzyklopädie, vol. 36, Berlin 2004, 291–8. 49 D. Vetter, μan, Theologisches Handwörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 2, 2.

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of the prophet is not only qualified by the messenger’s form, but also confirmed and directly legitimized by ‘says YHWH’. It is used as an introductory formulation, as a concluding one and as a signal between both prophetic arguments and judgemental speech. The common aim of the diverse uses is clear. The text alleges to be the authentic word of YHWH and no one else. These simple figures demonstrate a remarkable focus on the divine word. It is confirmed by the image-building in general of religious functions in the 7th and 6th centuries bce. The redactional text of Jer 18:18 grants the following attributes to specialists: instruction (hrwt) belongs to the priest, counsel (hx[) to the wise and the word (rbd) to the prophet. The diverse ways of mastering life have resulted in the exclusive connection between the prophet and the divine word. No longer is there place for any other ways of experiencing the will of God. It is this development of the prophecy between the end of Israel and the exile (722–586 bce) that kills Balaam. The prophetic answer to the threats of the late pre-exilic and exilic times rewrites his story. The separation between the true prophet of YHWH and his equivalents in former and recent50 times is most clear in the law for prophets in Deuteronomy 18. In the multi-layered positive section of the law, Jeremiah seems to stand in the background.51 The prophet will be raised up (μwq Hif.) by YHWH from among the Israelites,52 he will be the mediator between YHWH and the people in continuation of Exod 20:19.53 YHWH himself will put words in his mouth.54 No word shall be spoken that YHWH does not command. Similarly, the recognition of a true prophet seems clear. If the word does not come

50 Here Jeremiah 28 is instructive. Hananiah uses the messenger’s formula (v. 2), recites an oracle of salvation (vv. 2–4), and uses the formula of divine saying (v. 4). The scene concludes with a prophetic gesture (v. 10). Jeremiah can only go home. There is no criterion to decide whether Jeremiah or Hananiah is the true prophet. 51 M. Köckert, ‘Zum literargeschichtlichen Ort des Prophetengesetzes Dtn 18’, in: R.G. Kratz & H. Spieckermann (eds.), Liebe und Gebot: Studien zum Deuteronomium. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Lothar Perlitt (FRLANT 190), Göttingen 2000, 80–100; W.H. Schmidt, ‘Das Prophetengesetz Dtn 18,9–22 im Kontext erzählender Literatur’, in: M. Vervenne & J. Lust (eds.), Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Literature: Festschrift C.H.W. Brekelmans (BEThL CXXXIII), Leuven 1997, 55–69. 52 The same is said of the king: Deut 17:15. 53 ‘Do not let God speak to us, or we will die’, cf. Deut 18:16,17. The prophet is portrayed as the man who can bear the words of God in contrast to the people. 54 Cf. Num 22:20, 35; 23:3, 26; 24:13, especially 22:38; 23:5, 12, 16: ypb rbd μyc; Deut 18:18 ˆtnypb.

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to pass, if there is no fulfilment, it is not a word YHWH has spoken.55 This radical solution fits the polarization of the law for prophets and the highly theoretical character of it. The criterion works only in the aftermath, it fits only words dealing with the immediate future. In the crisis-like situation of Jeremiah 28 the addressees are as helpless as Jeremiah himself. This theoretical clarity matches the ‘Canaanizing’ of the forbidden practices in Deut 18:9–12. Soothsayers and diviners now symbolize the Canaanites YHWH will expel before Israel. The μswq has landed, definitely on the wrong side. From that moment on Balaam is a ‘loser’. His history is rewritten in various ways in short commentaries throughout the books of Num- bers and Joshua. Did Balaam actually speak the words YHWH put into his mouth, or was he the foreign seer who, on behalf of Balak, was willing to curse Israel at a price? As stated above, in Deut 23:5 a negative undertone enters with the use of rkc (‘to hire’). Balaam can be bribed, he does it for the money. In translating Num 22:7 as ‘the elders of Moab [and the elders of Midian] came to Balaam with the μymsq in their hands’, in conjunction with this ‘fee for divination’ many exegetes helped to darken Balaam’s image.56 Last but not least Balaam is condemned by the mere fact that he is a foreigner. For the true prophet is raised by YHWH ‘from among your brothers’. His being a foreigner is expounded upon in the texts. Coming originally from Transjordan,57 he is connected with Pethor at the Euphrates (Num 22:5) or even Aram Naharaim (Deut 23:5). The only known local name fitting the text is Pitru, the Hittite name for the town ana-aššur-utir-asbat ‘I settled it again for Aššur’–Assyria,

55 Several solutions had been tried. In contrast to the court prophets, independent prophets (1 Kings 22) are the only true ones. Or were they prophets of doom in contrast to those announcing salvation ( Jer 28:8, 9)? No scheme really ﬁts. 56 W. Gross, Bileam. Literar- und formkritische Untersuchung der Prosa in Num 22–24 (StANT 38), München 1974, 142, followed by Seebass, Numeri IV.3, 15, 16, defends the meaning ‘oracular instruments’. In that case the elders brought in the instruments for divination and asked Balaam to handle them. Oracular instruments were a well- known phenomenon. Ezek 21:26 explains how the king of Babylon uses divination with the root μsq: he shakes the arrows, he asks the teraphim, he consults the liver. It could be a normal procedure that oracle instruments were brought in. If the context justiﬁed a fee, there is no need for negative judgement. Of course one should pay for a consultation (1 Sam 9:7,8). 57 Some Hebrew mss, the Samaritan Pentateuch, Peshitta and Vulgata read Balaam’s land of origin as (ˆ)wm[-ynb ≈ra ‘the land of the Ammonites’ (Num 22:5). The designation ‘land of his fellowmen’ makes no sense.

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known from the records of the Neo-Assyrian king Salmanasser III. It is perhaps identical to the Egyptian name p-d-r, located where the Sagur runs into the Euphrates. If the original homeland of the Balaam tradition was Ammon, an assertion sustained by the surprising discovery of the Balaam text at Deir Allā, his localisation at or beyond the Euphrates serves one goal: Balaam is a foreigner, he comes from afar, from Mesopotamia/ Aram Naharaim where the Neo-Assyrian and the Babylonian states are known for using their wide range of divination as instruments for political pressure.58 Readers of the Balaam narrative could see him as a representative of an anti-Judean religious power. To make him an Ammonite was not enough. Some deuteronomistic layers assume that entry to the Promised Land starts by crossing the Arnon.59 So Balaam was made an extreme foreigner, coming from far, far away, from a dangerous land where diviners, soothsayers and prophets played important roles in political and religious issues. Balaam’s career did not end well. He began as a foreign seer blessing Israel, saving Israel from deadly danger by obeying the Word of YHWH. But the scene of the talking she-donkey betrays the growing rift between the image of YHWH and the diviner. Balaam is set aside in the search for what it means to be a true prophet and a theology of the word of God as the only means of communication. His narrative is reworked in fragmentary and thus secondary remarks in brief scenes in Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua until he is turned into a totally negative ﬁgure. He sells his prophecy to Balak, he comes from a distant and dangerous country, he truly wanted to curse Israel, but YHWH saved them, and he told Balak the Moabite king how to seduce the Israelites so that he could achieve his ultimate, treacherous goal. Balaam is a false prophet who uses his power and knowledge to bring in foreign gods. In the light of all the arguments found in Deuteronomy 13 and 18, Balaam must be killed; and so he is.

58 H. Spieckermann, Juda unter Assur in der Sargonidenzeit (FRLANT 129), Göttingen 1982, 322–344. 59 Deut 2:24, 36; 3:8, 12; 4:48; Josh 12:1–6; 13:25. The main stream of the deuteronomistic school, however, considers that the Promised Land started after crossing the Jordan from east to west. A few texts explicitly deny that (parts of ) Ammon belonged to the Promised Land: Deut 2:19, 37.

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In the Museum of Amman, however, some text fragments60 excav- ated by the Dutch expedition at Deir Allā are a fortunate reminder of the other tradition regarding Balaam, son of Beor: ‘The chastisements of the Book of Balaam, the son of Beor, the man who sees the Gods. As for him, the gods came at night, [and] he beheld a vision like an utterance of El’.61 May he rest in peace.

60 J. Hoftijzer & G. van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir Allā (Documenta et monu- menta orientis antiqui 19), Leiden 1976; J. Hoftijzer & G. van der Kooij (eds.), The Balaam Text from Deir Allā Re-Evaluated: Proceedings of the International Symposium Held at Leiden 21–24 August 1989, Leiden 1991 and É. Puech in this volume. 61 Translation of the ﬁrst lines according to É. Puech in this volume.

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Émile Puech

The inscriptions on plaster were discovered in March 1967 by a Dutch expedition directed by H.J. Franken digging at Tell Deir {Alla.2 The site is located about eight kilometers east of the Jordan river, not far from the northern bank of the Yabbok/Zerka river. It has been first identified with Sukkot3 and late preferably with Penuel.4 The loci 34 and 35 where the fragments were discovered, belong to stratum ix/m dated to the late ninth to the first half of the eighth

1 I dedicate this study to the memory of H.J. Franken who passed away on 18 January 2005, and I am very grateful to Murray Watson for correcting and improving my English. 2 H.J. Franken, ‘Archaeological Evidence Relating to the Interpretation of the Text’, in: J. Hoftijzer & G. van der Kooij (eds), Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, Leiden 1976, 3–16, and H.J. Franken, ‘Deir {Alla re-visited’, in: J. Hoftijzer & G. van der Kooij (eds), The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated: Proceedings of the International Symposium Held at Leiden 21–24 August 1989 (Ancient Near East), Leiden 1991, 3–15, esp. 7–8n9. 3 See for example the survey of S. Mittmann, ‘Beiträge zur Siedlungs- und Territorialgeschichte des nördlichen Ostjordanslande’ ‘Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina Vereins, Wiesbaden 1970, who identified the site with Deir {Alla. This identification is refused by Franken, ‘Deir {Alla re-visited’, 11–13. R. de Vaux, Histoire ancienne d’Israël, II. La période des Juges, Paris 1973, 122–123, also seriously doubts this identification: ‘3° Il est presque sûr que Deir {Alla n’est pas Sukkôt: c’était un sanctuaire fréquenté par des semi-nomades, puis entouré d’un village, mais Deir {Alla n’a jamais été une ville’, but he contradicts himself somewhat in these pages when he goes on ‘ . . . De Sukkôt (Deir {Alla ou à côté) . . . et arrivant aux abords de Deir {Alla (Sukkôt)’. And he refutes maybe too quickly the arguments of H. Reviv, ‘Two Notes on Judges VIII, 4–17’, Tarbiz 38 (1968–1969) 309–317: ‘H. Reviv a essayé de montrer que la constitution de ces deux villes, les «hommes de Sukkôt» et les «hommes de Penuel», se rapproche de celle des cités cananéennes plus que des villes israélites: on a ensuite ajouté les «princes» de Sukkôt aux v. 6 et 14. Cela n’est pas convaincant, et je préfère penser que Sukkôt et Penuel étaient alors occupés par des Gadites’ (122). The plaster inscription could provide some arguments in favour of such a view when it says: ‘He summoned the h[eads of the] assembly [un]to him’ and ‘and his people went up to him’, lines I 3–4. H.J. Franken, ‘Balaam at Deir {Alla and the Cult of Baal’, in: A.E. Glock & T. Kapitan (eds), Archaeology, History and Culture in Palestine and the Near East: Essays in Memory of Albert E. Glock, Atlanta 1999, 182–202 at 189, seems now to be more nuanced on the identification, quoting his previous study Excavations at Tell Deir Alla. The Late Bronze Age Sanctuary, Louvain, 1992, 165–71. 4 See A. Lemaire, ‘Galaad et Makîr’: Remarques sur la tribu de Manassé à l’est du Jourdain’, Vetus Testamentum 31 (1981) 39–61 at 51–2, by its situation in the Ghor, Sukkôt fits better at Tell A«ÉaÉ (‘branches huts’) in Arabic.

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century bc according to the last results of archaeological work done since then in this area.5 Carbon 14 tests point also to a date around the end of the ninth century bc for level ix,6 and the palaeographic analysis of this inscription agrees with such a conclusion about the turn of the century, circa 800 or a bit later.7 Finally, the discovery of two short Aramaic inscriptions, a[rç yz ‘Belonging to pn’ on a jug and a[rç ˆba on a flint stone (perhaps a stone weight), in a locus circa 10 m north of locus 35 in stratum ix,8 could suggest a trade connection or influence of the Arameans of Damascus on the Gilead region and on the site in particular, as it is well known between circa 835 to circa the middle of the eighth century bc. But this says nothing about the dialect or the origin of the plaster inscription which is specifically directed to the local population. Although the plaster was much broken and dispersed in two main clusters, at some distance one from the other, in the destruction level, most probably due to a violent earthquake—a famous earthquake is known during the days of Uzziah, king of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, (Am 1:1; Zach 14:4–5) to be dated most probably around 760—, and although the written surface was poorly preserved in most of the places, the still very incomplete inscription became a famous and important one, as soon as the name of a well known diviner was read, Balaam, the son of Beor. The marvelous editio princeps was published in 1976, less than ten years after the discovery, by J. Hoftijzer with a long and detailed palaeographic analysis by G. van der Kooij, under the title Aramaic Texts from

5 See M.M. Ibrahim & G. van der Kooij, ‘The Archaeology of Deir {Alla Phase IX’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 16–29. 6 See W.G. Mook, ‘Carbon 14 dating’, in: M.M. Ibrahim & G. van der Kooij (eds), Picking up the Threads: A Continuing Review of Excavations at Deir Alla, Jordan, Leiden 1989, 71–73, and Ibrahim & Van der Kooij, ‘The Archaeology of Deir {Alla Phase IX’, 27–28: ‘some time between 770 and 880 bc, with a high probability of a date being at the end of the 9th century bc’. 7 See É. Puech, ‘Approches paléographiques de l’inscription sur plâtre de Deir {Alla’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 221–238 (‘around the ﬁrst half of the eighth century’), and G. van der Kooij, ‘Book and Script at Deir {Alla’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 239–262 (‘between 800 and 720 bc’). 8 See Franken, ‘Archaeological Evidence’, 15; but Franken, ‘Balaam at Deir {Alla’, 196–200, analyses a[rç as a local numen or deity related to a ‘drinking place’ and understand these objects associated with a libation goblet and a loom weight as ‘symbolic’ in the cultic area of a sanctuary. See already Franken, Excavations at Tell Deir Alla, 175: ‘One name . . . still used today by the Bedawi: esch-Scheria, drinking place or watering place, and the Jordan is also referred to as Scheriat el-Kebir, the great drinking place’.

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Deir Alla.9 This was a masterpiece of research and scholarship on a very difficult text, as the following years proved. Since then, an impressive number of studies has appeared on this fragmentary text. A special conference was even held at Leiden in 1989 along with a nice exhibition of the fragments and other objects of this layer, and the papers are printed in a book The Balaam Texts from Deir Alla Re-evaluated.10 The editors succeeded in presenting two main groups of text, combinations i and ii, among a dozen other smaller groups. Later on, it became possible to reorganise the fragments of the first combination into part of a column, as the scribe seemed to have prepared columns on the plastered wall surface with red ink or paint, tracing perpen- dicular line(s) to a horizontal one, like the preparation of columns of a scroll. Above the horizontal line, he drew a winged sphinx walking leftward, in an Egyptianising style, which is to be situated to the left of the (first) column of the text. What is characteristic here is a quite well preserved white margin to the right of this first column of text and a vertical red line just to its left. Since no inscribed fragment has been found with remains of a red line on the right margin, this suggests to me that all the fragments with ink must belong to a single long column of text, around 33 cm wide with a right white margin of minimum 9 cm (around a third of the column!), rather than being some remains of a second column, as some scholars have thought.11 For sure, it is hard to imagine only the combination ii as the first column of the text, because it belongs most probably to the bottom part of that same first column, since it fell upside down near wall 36 on which it was inscribed, whereas the upper part of it was found at a greater distance in the opposite direction when the wall split in two parts.12

9 Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, with contributions by H.J. Franken, V.R. Mehra, J. Voskuil, J.A. Mosk, and prefaced by P.A.H. de Boer. 10 Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, Leiden 1991. 11 See already Van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, 26, and still for example A. Lemaire, ‘Les inscriptions sur plâtre de Deir {Alla et leur signiﬁcation historique et culturelle’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 33–57, esp. 42–44, who suggested that combination II has to be placed as the ﬁrst column and combination I as column two on its left. Van der Kooij, ‘Book and Script’, 239–62, esp. 241–4, shows now the most probable place of the fragments in a single column on the wall. Lately, B. Levine, Numbers 21–36, New York 2000, 242, states: ‘There are also indications that additional columns may have been inscribed’. But he did not give more information about them. 12 Van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, 26–27.

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By chance, the upper part of this first column has been pretty well preserved, after some realignments of the presentation of the editio princeps, some new joins, some insertions of new fragments and restorations of some lines, thus reducing the groups ia, ib, ic and id into a single text of 16 more or less complete lines. This was made possible, first, because the editors did a very valuable description of the fragments, and, secondly, because the scribe used a peculiar technique in writing the first two lines just below the red horizontal line: the first half of the first line and the second half of the second line are in red ink and of equal length. This seems to suggest that the first sentence in red ink should be interpreted as a title of the whole composition, or at least of the text presented here, and that the second sentence in red ink should underline the main topic of the first part of it, since there is also another first half line in red ink in the second combination (ii 17) which could underline the content of the second part of the text. In fact, this second half red line isolates and gives the core of the content of the message which the gods delivered to the diviner or seer. The practice of red ink is not well attested in Palestinian inscriptions. It is known on some plaster fragments discovered at Kuntillat {Ajrud and dated also around 800 bc.13 But since the Old Kingdom the Egyptian scribes used red ink or rubrics, first to indicate the passages to be studied daily by the students, but also to correct letters or mistaken words; and in Demotic texts, red ink was used only in the magical and religious papyri. However, at all periods, red ink was used to highlight, divide, isolate or distinguish words or sentences. Thus at the beginning of a manuscript, it underlines the date or the title, and in the course of a text it underlines an important passage or a secondary addition. Even in the incipit it is not rare that the red ink stops before the end of a sentence or that the title is only partly rubricised.14 Sometimes the red ink can have a disparaging meaning or can signify a bad augur

13 See Z. Meshel, Kuntillat Ajrud: A Religious Centre from the Time of the Judaean Monarchy on the Border of Sinai, Jerusalem 1978, 14–16. Other inscriptions are written in red ink on pithoi with vertical and horizontal margins as on papyrus scrolls, and the drawings are also in red paint. The inscriptions on the pithoi have an apotropaic signiﬁcation, as I have shown elsewhere. 14 See B. Van de Walle, ‘La division matérielle des textes classiques égyptiens et son importance pour l’étude des ostraca scolaires’, Le Muséon 59 (1946) 223–32, and G. Posener, ‘Sur l’emploi de l’encre rouge dans les manuscrits égyptiens’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 37 (1951) 75–80.

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or predict a misfortune.15 Is there such an Egyptian influence in the copy of this inscription? Only a proper interpretation of it can give an answer, but it seems that for the first two lines such usages are not far from the truth: a title and the main content of the first paragraph.16 What is also striking is that, in the present state of the research on all these fragments, the name of Bala‘am is found only in the first combination, otherwise it must be restored with no certainty on small fragments. But such a presentation does not surprise us too much. It is certainly necessary that mention of him occurs more than once in the first lines to present Bala{am, his identification and his title: he is the divine seer, a central figure of the composition from the beginning, because he has to deliver to his people the message of the gods, what he does in his ‘book’. This does not mean that he is not acting or is not present in the second part of the column or combination ii, the state of preservation is too bad to say too much on that in the present state of my research. Because my paper is to present Bala{am at Deir {Alla, I will concentrate my remarks on the first combination. First of all, I shall give the text the way I try to understand it presently, some fifteen years after my previous essay, followed by a translation and some notes to explain some choices in the restorations, and then a synthesis on this group.17

First group of fragments18 ’hwla zjy[w’]hlylb’ˆhla’wtayw(’)ah[’]ˆhla’hzj’ça’r[[b()r]b’μ[lb’rps’yrsy 1 ’h[zj]m[’] hm[’]t[a]rl’ça’harja’alk’l[py‘hk’r[b()rb’μ[[lb]l’wrmayw’la’açmk 2 t[mç[’] μ[x]y’h[z’]μylw’hwl[a’]lhq[yça]r’ˆmzy’tlgn[’hr]q[’]ˆh’[’]rjm’ˆm’μ[lb’μqyw 3 kbw’

15 See G. Posener, ‘Les signes noirs dans les rubriques’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 35 (1949) 77–81. 16 Some Qumran scrolls use red ink on one line, or a little more for a complete verse of a biblical text, but the usage does not seem to be the same as here, see É. Puech, ‘Les langues et les écritures dans les manuscrits de la mer Morte’, in: R. Viers (ed.), Des signes pictographiques à l’alphabet: La communication écrite en Méditerranée. Actes du colloque, 14 et 15 mai 1996. Villa grecque Kérylos, Fondation Théodore Reinach (Beaulieu-sur-Mer), Paris 2000, 175–211, esp. 191–2. 17 A more complete presentation of previous research and propositions will be included and discussed at another occasion. 18 See photograph in Figure 1.

van kooten_f3_25-48.indd 29 2/7/2008 2:14:52 PM 30 émile puech ﬁ rst combination. Alla plaster inscription, { Figure 1. The Figure Deir

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ayw’hkbt’μlw’μxt’μl’r[b()rb’μ[lbl[’wrmayw’hwla’hm[’l[yw’hkby’h 4 ’wdjyta’ˆhla’ˆhla’tl[p’war’wklw[’wbç]j’’ˆydç’hm’μkwja’wbç’μhl’rm 5 n’law’˚çj’μç’yk()b[b’ˆymç’yrks’yrpt(’)ç[m]çl’wrmaw’d[wm’ˆydç’wbxnw 6 rj’rg[ss’yk’μl[’d[’yght()law’˚çj’b[[b]’ttj’ybht’yk()rms’law’μf[’hg 7 ’trçn’rrd’hpna’yjrpa’hdxw’≈jn’ynb[’hds]j’hn[y’ˆmjr’ˆ/lqw’rçn’tp 8 ’wlka’ˆbnra’rfj’lbyy’ˆljr’rçab’hfm’rq[b’lçjy]w’ˆym[çb’lk’]rpxw’ˆwy 9 ç’yrg’rswm’w[mç’ˆ[bqw’rmj’wytç’ˆ[md/ymw’hdç]’tyj(’)μjl’w]çpj’djy 10 ’hnhkw[’]rm’tjqr’hyn[w’˚jqy’ˆmkjl[’]μkj[’]w[ljyw’]ˆm[kjl’w]rtk[w’ˆy]d 11 bçj’bçj’ˆrq’rza’açnl[’jçm]ta’tyz()ˆm[çb’μkj/ˆhkw’]rgptt[’d][ 12 j’bçjw’ qjr’ˆm[’]ˆçrj’w[mçw[’μkjb’ˆ]jfb’wklh’ˆxbj[w’hw]rbj[’]ˆm’qtnta[’bç] 13 ’rgç’ˆqq’wzj’lkw[’]μ[l]b[j’tl]d’yljl[’]jtp[t]w’˚jq[’rm]a’μk[j’yk’t] 14 l’rtç[w nb’tqrqh’xynj’rmn’μ[p’]lka’tr[mal’hlw’]μ[kj’]lqb[’][mç[l’ˆçrjb’tzj] 15 ny[w’ˆrza’ˆçm[’açn’ˆhk/μkj’ μ/çd]q’yz[[mw’tabl’rqb’y] 16 ’wzjl’rtç[w’rgç’y] 17

Translation in stychometry (red ink in small capitals) 1The chastisements of the book of BalaFam, the son of BeFor, the man who sees the Gods. As for him, the gods came at night, [And] he beheld a vision 2like an utterance of El. And they said to Ba[ la{a]m, the son of Be{or: ‘He will do the annihilation(/decrease) of his posterity the man who will have to s[e]e what you have heard!’ 3And Balaxam arose on the morrow. Behold the e[vent of ] the revelations. He summoned the h[eads of the] assembly [un]to him and for [that (?)] day[ he fas]ted, and he wept 4bitterly. And his people went up to him and [they] sai[d] to Bala{am, the son of Be{or: ‘Why do you fast, and why do you weep?’ And he 5said to them: ‘Be seated. I will show you what the Shadday (gods) have p[lanned,] and go, see the acts of the gods! The go[d]s have banded together, 6and the Shadday (gods) have held a council, and they have said to Sha[mas]h: “Sew up, close up the heavens with a cloud, so that it brings/will be there darkness and not bri-7ghtness, obscurity and no[t] radiance! so that you give dread [with a clo]ud of darkness,

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and do not plot(/remove?) for ever!’ For the swift revi-8led the eagle, and the cry/nest of vultures answered it, the st[ork (reviled ) ]the young of the falcon, and the owl (answered to) the chicks of the heron, the swallow frightened 9the pigeon, and the sparrow [all (that is?) in the s]ky. And the rod [ flayed the ca]ttle, where a staff should tend ewes, hares ate 10altogether, the beast of[ the fields] looked[ for fee]d (?), [and ]ass(es) and hyenas drank [bloo]d/[wate]r (?). Hear the admonition, clients(/adversaries?) of the Sha-11dday (gods) and ]surround[the sag]es/[divine]rs[ and wait (?).] A sage/diviner (?) will mock the sages/diviners. And an oracle had prepared myrrh, and a priestess 12got tired additi[onally ]/rubbed herself (?) additi[onally], [and a priest/the sage] has [anointed ]himself [with ]olive [oi]l, to bear the offering of the horn. One augurer had augured, and another one had au-13[ gured,] he broke away from [his] colleagues. [And] crowds departed [confident in the diviner (?)] and they heard incantations from afar. 14[For the di]viner spo[ke a mockery/laughing (?),] the do[or of ] their [terri ]to[ry (?)] became open to disease, and all beheld (acts of ) distress. Shagar-and-‘Ashtar did not 15[look at the incantations (?), to ]listen to the voice[of the diviner and to him] she[ did not spo]ke/[com]mand (?). The [mou]th of the leopard devoured the piglet, [the lioness (?)] drove out the young of 16[the flock (?), and the re]fuges of ho[liness/Qe[dem (?) -, - - -. The diviner offered (?)] double libations, but the eye- 17[s of Shagar-and-Ashtar did not look at (?) ...... ’

Notes on the text Line 1: It is certain that all the small fragments with red ink must belong to these two half lines. Thus I place at the beginning and in this sequence fragments iii f,b,h,a,e and d, but h, a and d connect somewhat with 1c, which begins with line 2 of the column and with some remains of red ink. In this way, the ﬁrst half red line is fully readable and gives the title of the text: ‘The chastisements of the book of Bala{am . . .’, to be compared to Jer 17:13: . . . yk wbtky ≈rab yrwsy (‘my chastisements

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against the land are written, for . . .’).19 This title could limit the column to being only an excerpt of the whole ‘book’ of Bala’am. In the lacuna at the end, i insert fragments ivc and xvc for the last half line in black ink; the sentence seems to begin with ah, which can be interpreted as the anaphoric personal pronoun or casus pendens followed by a waw apodosis, or less probably as an interjection ‘behold’ and a wayyiqtol. Line 2: I insert here first frag. xvd in black ink, and then iiic, xva and xvb in the second red half, xvb has preserved some black ink of line 1. The reading of la açmk is certain, excluding here any form of an Aramaic status emphaticus as some scholars have asserted. The red sentence is difficult to read but after l[py the word alk seems certain: most part of the dowstroke and of the head of kaf is visible on the color pictures.20 The word alk in a status constructus can means ‘decrease’ or ‘destruction/annihilation of ’ depending on the root considered. The sequence alk l[py has parallels in the prophetic oracles where God or the prophet uses almost always hlk along the synonym hç[: Isa 10:23; Jer 4:27; 5:10, 18; 10:24–25; 30:11 = 46:28; Ezek 11:13; 20:17, Nah 1:8, 9, Soph 1:18; Neh 9:31. This same root is used also in Num 25:11 ytylk alw. Among the many proposals for this end of line, the sequence ]rl ça harja and t[m[ is certain, and the restoration [a]rl t[mç[’]hm[’]t with the small red fragments which can belong only here, seems most probable, and to be understood as an infinitive similar to t[dl in combination ii and meaning ‘of his posterity the one who will have to see what you have heard’. This sentence in red ink is a concise statement of the utterance from the gods, an explicit announcement of the chastisements in the title of the book. Note that Jer 30:11 = 46:28 (and 10:24–25) use the root rsy and hlk hç[ in the same sentence, like here in the two red ink phrases. Thus the biblical parallels give the preference to the root hlk.

19 A beginning with an Aramaic word (znh) (M. Weippert, ‘The Balaam Text from Deir {Alla and the Study of the Old Testament’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 151–184, esp. 153, 165), or by an indentation (A. Lemaire, ‘L’inscription de Balaam trouvée à Deir {Alla: épigraphie’, in: J. Amitai [ed.], Biblical Archaeology Today: Proceedings of the International Congress on Biblical Archaeology, Jerusalem, April 1984, Jerusalem 1985, 313–325, esp. 317), are totally excluded. Van der Kooij, ‘Book and Script’, 247, does not accept the join of fragment IIIa to Ic to read b rps, but this could be debated as the head of a qof instead of a waw, see line 4: hqla > hwla. 20 See Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, Plate 1, or Ibrahim & Van der Kooij, Picking up the Threads, cover page, certainly excluding bet.

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Line 3: The reading tlgn [hr]q ˆh (better than tll[q]) tries to make the best of the remains of ink with fragment vif in order to understand the sentence; a/hrq means ﬁrst ‘encounter, chance, accident, occasion, event’ and is a homophone to ‘tale, story’. Then the fragments viiid, xiic below ia and ib allow us to read the proposals given here. The piel of verb ˆmzy means ‘to summon, invite’ and hwl[a ]lhq[ yça]r is a logical guess given the remains in the line, followed by μ[xy ˆy]mylw, a dual due to the distance to be restored, or better μ[x]y h[z ]μylw if the insertion of fragment vg is possible and accepted,21 and the end is in agreement with the next line. Line 4: The translation of l[yw is more conjectural: if one prefers to stay in a West-Semitic dialect, the meaning is ‘to ascend’, if one chooses the Aramaic background it is possible to understand ‘to enter’, as Levine did recently.22 But since hl[ is normally constructed with la, and ll[ with -l, it is better to stay with a West-Semitic dialect. The reading hwla is secured, instead of hqla of the editors. ‘To ascend’ to the diviner is quite acceptable as the movement of the heads of the people who want to meet him at the high place or bamah.23 Such a reading gives priority to a Canaanism opposed to an Aramaism. Then the fragments vif, viiid and xiic allow us to read perfectly the line, hm[ being a collective parallel to lhq yçar, and alluded to by the plurals μkwja wbç μhl, line 5. Line 5: With fragments vif and xiic, the reading of the line is certain, even the restoration of wbç]j. The difﬁculty is the meaning of ˆydç, a dual or better a gentilic for a theophoric hypostatic name, ‘the ones of the mountains’? In Job 5:17 and Deut 32:17, dç is parallel to μyhla la -, with the meaning of ‘Mighty’ or ‘demons’. And the council of gods is well known on the mountains, see for instance Isa 14:13 rh d[wm. Then compare ˆhla tl[p war wklw with Ps 66:5: [pm warw ykl μda ynb l[ hlyl[ arwn μyhla twl- and 46:9: rça hwhy twl[pm wzj wkl ≈rab twmç μç, which all announce destructions.

21 A reading of a demonstrative (w/hz’μyl) is equally possible for the space. But an already proposed reading lka l]kylw is much too long for the space. 22 Levine, Numbers 21–36, 248. 23 Franken, ‘Balaam at Deir {Alla’, 193–5, interprets this area of level IX as a sanctuary or a high place: ‘the remains of a Baal height’. Is it not striking that Bala{am in Num 22:41 and 23:3; 23:14 and 23:28 is always on a bamah or a high place to look for omens or the revelations of YHWH? And the people ascend to the bamôt.

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Line 6: Compare Ps 82:1: fpçy μyhla brqb la td[b bxn μyhla. The debated and crucial point here is the reading of the divinity at the junc- tion of the two parts, ic and id. The distance is known and the remains of ink are said to be those of a stroke to the right which I take to be the left stroke of a ç, not of a j; thus the reading ç[m]çl seems quite possible,24 instead of r[g]çl generally accepted, and rgç is associated with rtç[, line 14, as fertility divinities (see line 14). As the following verbs yrks yrpt are feminine imperatives, çmç has to be feminine. If this divinity is masculine in Phoenician, Aramaic, Akkadian, and generally in Hebrew—but it can also be feminine—, she is feminine in Ugaritic (špš) and at el-Amarna. If accepted, this can be an important clue for the linguistic background of the composition. The verb yrpt is best taken as imperative of rpt ‘to sew’ rather than an imperfect of rrp ‘to break’ and yrks as an imperative of rks rather than the substantive ‘the bolts of ’. Another difficulty is in the reading ykb[b without a word divider: is it to be understood as a single word with an Aramaic feminine suffix ‘with your cloud’, or as two words ‘with a cloud, so that’? The same difficulty is found with ykrms, line 7. The scribe is usually consistent in the use of word dividers, but sometimes he puts two (line 5) and sometimes none (end of line 2 and in line 1 it is impossible to be sure), thus apparently this criterion is not absolute. And since there is no clear Aramaic linguistic characteristic in this text, this dubious suffix can be analysed in a different way, and taken as a conjunction.25 Thus Shamash has certainly something to do with brightness and darkness, and the verb wrma can also have the meaning of an order. Finally, μç can be a perfect μç with b[ as subject as well as the adverb ‘there’. Line 7: The second hemistich rms law μf[ which also expresses opposites is not easy to explain: I have taken μf[ as the metathesis of fm[ with the meaning ‘obscurity, darkness’ parallel to ˚çj above, an explanation accepted by some scholars, and relating rms to Arabic smr which refers to the brightness of the moon or the bristling of stars, and thus can be a good parallel to hgn, a metaphoric use of rms for the rays of the sun/

24 A. Caquot & A. Lemaire, ‘Les textes araméens de Deir {Alla’, Syria 54 (1977) 189– 208, were the first to propose this reading. 25 J. Hoftijzer, ‘What did the gods say? Remarks on the first combination of the Deir {Alla-Plaster Texts’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 121–42, esp. 121–5, still maintains his first Aramaic reading and interpretation of these lines.

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Shamash, i.e. her radiance.26 Then to the left of ic fragment ivi joins perfectly for the reading ˚çj’b[[b]’ttj’ybht’yk ‘so that you give dread [with a clo]ud of darkness’. Compare the parallel -b (-)tytj ˆtn in Ez 26:17; 32:23, 24, 25, 26, 32. The meaning of μl[ d[ yght law can be ‘and do not plot for ever’ (from hgh I ‘moan, utter, muse’, see Ps 2:1–2), or ‘and do not be angry for ever’ (from ggh ‘murmur, muse’, see Akkadian agagu), or ‘and do not remove (it) for ever’ (from hgh II).27 Line 8: Because of a break, it is possible to read ˆmjr ˆqw ‘the nest of vultures’ as well as ˆmjr lqw ‘the cry of vultures’, in one case the cry of the swift would be opposed to that of the vultures as the swift is opposed to the eagle, otherwise the nest would correspond to the young of the falcon or the chicks of the heron. In the verb hn[y, the -h could also be analysed as a sufﬁx: ‘will answer it’, for the interplay of πrj and hn[, see Ps 119:42. At the break the reading ≈xn’ynb[’hds]j seems to be accepted instead of ≈jn, as well as hdx further.28 Then the meaning of trçn is not clear, unless we look at an Arabic root naara ‘to disperse, scatter’ which seems to me acceptable here.29 Line 9: The restoration of the small lacuna could be someting like ˆym[çb π[ ]rpxw or ’m[çb lk ]rpxw. At the main break, I would suggest inserting fragment ixk without a direct join and to restore [b lçj(y)]w hfm rq using the same sequence as in ii 37: ]lkayw lçjl rqb as an

26 See É. Puech, ‘Le texte “ammonite” de Deir {Alla: Les admonitions de Balaam (première partie)’, La vie de la Parole: De l’Ancien au Nouveau Testament. Études d’exégèse et d’herméneutique bibliques offertes à Pierre Grelot professeur à l’Institut Catholique de Paris, Paris 1987, 13–30, at 22 and note 39. 27 This meaning fits also the context, but it misses a suffix. See P.K. McCarter, ‘The Balaam Texts from Deir {Alla: The First Combination’, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 239 (1980) 49–60, esp. 51, 54; J.A. Hackett, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla, Chico 1984, 29, 46. A hif îl yght of the root hgn would fit perfectly ‘do not shine’, if one could accept an archaic form based on the Ugaritic tšgy paradigma, but it is difficult to accept a metathesis or a scribal error, as is proposed by B. Margalit ‘Ugaritic ‘tr. ‘r. and DAPT (I 14) šgr. w‘štr’, in: N. Wyatt, W.G.E. Watson & J.B. Lloyd (eds), Ugarit, Religion and Culture: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Ugarit, Religion and Culture Edinburgh, July 1994. Essays Presented in Honour of Professor John C.L. Gibson, Münster 1996, 179–203, esp. 192. 28 Van der Kooij, ‘Book and Script’, 260, categorically excludes this reading, but the pictures are less clear than he says. The copy I have does not support it. On the contrary it favors ≈xn and the name of a bird, but Van der Kooij accepts the reading hdxw, 258 and 260. 29 The word trçn should be a verb perfect 3rd person feminine with rrd as subject, not a substantive as Levine (Numbers 21–36, 246 and 252) translating ‘and cluster of eagles’, but there is no conjunction here.

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inclusio, thus ensuring in my opinion the disposition of all the fragments in a single column. Line 10: With this line the conjectures begin. I propose inserting first fragment vii and in the lacuna fragment ivf but without any direct join, only for a possible context, and to restore: hdç] tyj μ[jl w]çpj djy ˆ[bqw rmj wytç ˆ[(?)ymw. If a new sentence begins with w[mç, then ˆ[bqw must belong to the previous one as a coordinate subject with rmj which cannot mean ‘silt’ or ‘wine’ (Aramaism); consequently the object of wytç should be read in ˆ[-, for instance ˆ[mdw, ‘and bloo]d’ or ˆ[ymw ‘and wate]r’ but ˆ[yw ‘and win]e’ is excluded for the space, compare Num 23:24 where πrf lkay and μd htçy are used for wild animals. Thus the restored sentence would be parallel to the preserved one. For rswm w[mç, see Prov 1:8; 4:1; 8:33; 19:20, 27; Job 20:3. Line 11: I propose inserting fragments va, vc and vd in these following lines,30 plus ive between vd and id, all without any direct joins, unless one accepts to read the end of the long stroke of pe in vc 1 = line 10 and the end of the long stroke of nun in vd 3 = line 12. Such a reconstruction did not allow us to restore here rtç[w rg]ç as do most of the authors. The meaning of ˆy]dç yrg is difficult to appreciate: in a negative way as the Akkadian gerū ‘adversaries of ’ (from grh), or in a positive one ‘the clients of’ as in Phoenician (from gwr)31 which seems better to me in the context. Then the restoration is more conjectural. I suggest as a possibility: ˚jqy ˆmkjl μkj w[ljyw] ˆm[kjl. The word ˚jqy can be explained as the imperfect of jql with a 2nd person singular suffix which would be unique here, or better as the imperfect of ˚jq, a dialectal orthography of the root k ‘to mock’. Then follow two female practitioners, the hyn[ corresponds to the Akkadian apiltu, and then the hnhk, each one busy with her specific practice, maybe libanomancy with the preparation of myrrh, but this is not so explicit for the priestess: she was not at rest or rubbing herself.32

30 See also the suggestion of the edition, Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts, 149, 256–257. 31 For instance the Temple Tariff of Kition A 16 and B 10, H. Donner & W. Röllig, Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften, II, Wiesbaden 1966, 54. 32 Franken, ‘Balaam at Deir {Alla’, 198–9, describes a terra-cotta ﬁgurine which ‘has a tambourine indicating her involvement in some festival and she has a drop of men- struation blood. She represented probably a “vestal virgin”, permanently or temporarily dedicated to a goddess as priestess’ (198).

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Line 12: The position of the fragment vc not far from the right margin plus fragment va suggests restoring [’d][ ‘besides, still, more, likewise’ before the imperfect rgptt[ ‘like[wise] get exhausted’ ( ithpael, piel = ‘to be exhausted’), or ‘like[wise] rubbed herself ’ (as a denominative of rgp) but a negative meaning here is not expected. Seeing that the sequence ˆrq rza açnl[ jçm]ta tyz()ˆ[ seems self evident, I restore before it for the space: . . . ˆ[mçb μkj/ˆhkw The Ugaritic cognate ’uzr means ‘offering’ or a liquid of aphrodisiac type.33 For such offering the use of a horn ˆrq (1 Sam 16:1, 13; 1 Kgs 1:39) or of a vessel in the shape of a horn, a rhyton, is well known. The quadruple sequence of bçj can be grouped two by two with the unique waw as a verb and a substantive, better than a sequence of four. Line 13: To the left of vc 4 ˆ]m must be restored; I propose inserting here the fragment vk to read hw]rbj ˆm qtnta. The ithpael of qtn means ‘to separate oneself, to be detached’. Indeed after the sequence of several augurers, it is not impossible to expect that one of them does not agree with the others, and that crowds follow the one they trust in. This is the way I understand the next sentence: ˆ]jfb wklh ˆxbj[w [μkjb. For the meaning of ˆxbj—‘crowds’, I accept the proposition of the editor from the Syriac.34 The verb w[mç is better understood here as a perfect form, rather than the imperative. The word ˆçrj can mean ‘incantations’ or ‘the experts in incantations, a sort of magician’, see Isa 3:2–3: çjl ˆwbnw μyçrj μkjw ≈[wyw . . . ˆqzw μsqw. Line 14: In the right part of the line the reading rm]a’μk[j (fragment vc 5), which seems quite probable, was followed by a substantive or something else, but I insert here fragment Vf 1]w’˚jq[ as ‘mockery’ or ‘laughing’.34a Then on fragment vd 4, ]d yljl jtp[, the verb can be in a qal or nif al form. For a possible restoration of this sentence as [μnfb tl]d, see Job 3:10: ynfb ytld rgs al yk. But it is also possible to insert here fragment vb 1 ](?)μ[.]b[ (see line 15). In this case, a reading ]μ[l]b[j is possible with the meaning ‘territory, part, region’ or ‘pain, pang’ (or

33 See H. Cazelles, ‘’Uzr ugaritique et ’zr phénico-punique à travers des travaux récents’, Atti del I congresso di studi fenici e punici, Roma, 1971, Rome 1983, 673–5. 34 See J. Hoftijzer, ‘Interpretation and Grammar’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, 171–321, esp. 257–8. The proposal of Levine, Numbers 21–36, 253–4, ‘and the striking force departed’ seems to me less probable, because it does not take into account the following word ]jfb and the small lacuna. 34a My drawing of Vf (ﬁgure 1) has to be corrected, the upper part of Vf1 had to be put a little more to left (see the stroke of kaf ) in order to read and draw qoph (not an erroneous lamed ).

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]t[l]b[ç ‘flowing stream’ but this meaning is less probable here). The next sentence ˆqq wzj lkw ‘and all beheld (acts of ) distress’ which implies that the magical practices were unsuccessful, explains somewhat the preceding one. They seem in agreement with the second red half line in the beginning which announced the destruction of the posterity or the decrease of the fertility among the living. The mention of the goddess(es) rtç[w rgç, as deity/ies of the full moon and of the morning star whose functional activities are the increase of cattle and the fecundity of the flocks,35 followed by a negative particle, suggests that she/they did not pay attention to the cultic practices or offerings to her/them, and that she/they was/were insensible to the prayers in order to increase the fertility of the flocks or/and of the human beings. Line 15: Only the last third of the line is preserved. I suggest reading xynj rmn μ[p lka/πrf,36 following the curses of the Aramaic treaties of Sefire I a 30–31 which use lka and hrmn μp in its list, or πrf with the Hebrew Bible. If the fragment vb 2 is inserted here, it will be possible to read xynj rmn μ[p ]lka tq/r[, ‘the [mou]th (Aramaism?) of the leopard devoured the piglet’. The first broken word may be a form of tq[rqh as the verb near the end of this line. This verb is a perfect form 3rd person feminine with a feminine subject in the next line, for instance aybl or tabl (like on the arrows’ heads) ‘lioness’ as a parallel, see also Num 23:24: πrf lkay d[ ayblk. The insertion of fragment vf in the right part allows us to propose a restoration of the main part of the line: tzj] ]μ[kj ]lqb [mç[l (?)ˆçrjb, and to complete the short space, I will propose as a conjecture tr[mal’hlw, see line 2: the gods speak or command to the seer. Line 16: As a proposal to understand the ink remains on fragment vf 3 ]q’yz[[,37 I suggest tentatively μ/çd]q yz[[mw ta/aybl rqb y]. At Deir {Alla there was a central sanctuary and in the list of Shishak I, Penuel is quoted with Qedesh: Adam, Sukkot, Qedesh, Penuel, Maanayim; another possibility could be a mention of Qedem ‘aforetime’ or (Benē] Qedem on the east, and Jeroboam I once fortified Penuel as a refuge

35 See K. van der Toorn, ‘Sheger’, in: K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, P. van der Horst (eds), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible [rev. edn.], Leiden 1999, 760–2. 36 Van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, 118, wrote that mem is excluded, but this is not so clear, because there are remains of the word divider and of the head of the mem on its right. This cannot be read as lamed. 37 There is no Aramaic relative pronoun yz here, as it is suggested by the editors, Aramaic Texts from Deir Alla, 259 and 15; the group V was found together with Ic, position: to the left of or below Ic (149).

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place (1 Kgs 12:25). A reading ˆrza ˆçm would means ‘double offerings’ and could be restored something like ˆrza ˆçm [ ˆhk/μkj açn(w), see line 12 for a first ritual service, which seems repeated and doubled after the failure and inefficiency of the first attempt, as lines 14–15 try to make explicit. The last preserved word ny[w[ can with difficulty be singular ‘and the eye’, a plural y]ny[w and the nomen rectum should be restored because there is no word divider at the end of the line, for instance ˆhla, ˆydç or rtç[w rgç which is pretty well attested. The sentence would apparently say that again this time the libations did not work successfully as expected, the gods or the goddess did not pay attention to them and something else must be done to assure the wellbeing of the people.

Balaam at Deir Alla

These lines give us the ﬁrst part of an excerpt of the book of a diviner or seer of the gods, whose name Bala{am son of Be{or is already well famous in the biblical traditions and later on. The Aramaic ﬁliation term rb could only suggest that Bala{am is not at home there and that he is of Eastern origin, an Aramean from birth,38 as it is also known from Num 22:5; 23:7; Deut 23:5, where he is presented as a prophet or seer of Aram from Petorah on the river, or from the east (Qedem).39 Although this simple word rb, which is part of the name (without a word divider), indicates his ethnic background or origin, nothing about the language of the text can be learned from it. The editor, J. Hofti- jzer, understood the inscription throughout as an Aramaic composition because of many Aramaic elements in the vocabulary, phonetic and syntax. But he added ‘an Aramaic language hitherto unknown’, because the demarcation between Aramaic and Canaanite isoglosses

38 This point is disputed by scholars who think that this occurrence does not make this text Aramaic nor Bala{am an Aramean. The name Kilamuwa bar Hayya does not render a Phoenician inscription from Samxal an Aramaic text and Kilamuwa an Aramean, either. See Levine, Numbers 21–36, 247. But there is perhaps a little more here in the Deir {Alla text. 39 Much has been written on this subject. J.C. Greenﬁeld, ‘Philological Observations on the Deir {Alla Inscription’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 109–120 at 119, doubts if Petorah is a geographic direction, as it is usually interpreted, and not an occupational designation from which we would learn that he was also an interpreter of dreams, engaged in oneiromancy, a widespread practice in the ancient world. See also M. Delcor, ‘Le texte de Deir {Alla et les oracles bibliques de Balaxam’, Vetus Testamentum 32 (1981) 52–73, esp. 64–5.

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does not correspond completely with what is known about these two linguistic areas.40 The scholarly debate had focused a lot on this point and shown that the Aramaic features are not so evident in this text, but there is still no agreement. What is clear, at least in this ﬁrst group, is the following:

– There is no status emphaticus in a- as it was thought in the reading aylmk line 2, no relative yz except in the short inscription a[rç yz of this level, and the proposed feminine. suffix yk- (lines 6–7) could be understood as well as a conjunction. – In addition, the following are used: a nifal wbxn (l. 6), the waw con- secutive (e.g., wtayw, zjyw), the qal infinitive ending with t- and not with the preformative -m which is already well known at Tell Fekheryieh. – Almost all of the supposed Aramaisms are easily disposed of, like (1) the plural ending ˆ- as in Moabite and some Hebrew examples; (2) the plural suffix hw- to be compared to the h- in Moabite; (3) the plural ending wy- for the perfect of some verbs (wytç) is known in Hebrew; (4) the t- as 3rd person feminine singular perfect (tqrqh), usual in Ugaritic and rare in Hebrew; (5) the preformative a- in the l[pta forms, which is used in Ugaritic also, could be here an innovation, but the Canaanisms in the morphology are not refutable.41 – Truly there is the egregious phonetic problem of primitive ad as qof here rather than ade in Canaanite, ˆ[bq line 10 and ˚jqy line 11, but this peculiar orthography of a phoneme, which is anyway problematic in all Semitic languages, cannot determine the Aramaic status of the language.42

Concerning the vocabulary, only dj in combination ii 10 and μ[p (but this is a restored form, I 15) would be innovations that this text shares with Aramaic, rb indicating as stated above the ethnic origin of Bala{am. The verbs hta, hzj, hwj, hqj, πrj, rpt also are known in Hebrew, hzj and hta in Ugaritic. In this text çmç is a goddess, not a god as he is always in Aramaic. It is the point to underline here the numerous parallels between Deir {Alla and Biblical Hebrew, compare:

40 Hoftijzer, ‘Interpretation and Grammar’, 300–2. 41 See Greenﬁeld, ‘Philological Observations’, 109–12. 42 See Greenﬁeld, ‘Philological Observations’, 112–4.

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– r[b rb μ[lbl wrmayw . . . hlylb ˆhla hwla wtayw (ll. 1–2) and Num 22:20: wl rmayw hlyl μ[lb la μyhla abyw, Num 22:9: μyhla abyw rmayw μ[lb la; – la açmk hzjm zjyw (ll. 1–2) and Num 24:4, 16: hzjy ydç hzjm, and Isa 1:1: hzj rça . . . ˆwzj, Isa 13:1: hzj rça lbb açm, and Hab 1:1: hzj rça açmh which combine both; – l[py hk (l. 2) could be compared to hç[y hk which both refer to divine action; – alk l[py . . . rps yrsy (ll. 1–2) and Jer 46:28 (cf. Jer 30:11) hç[a yk ˚ytrsyw hlk hç[a alw . . . hlk, and Jer 4:27 hmmç hwhy rma hk yk hç[a al hlkw ≈rah lk hyht; – rjm ˆm μ[lb μqyw (l. 3) and Num 22:13: rqbb μ[lb μqyw; – tlgn hrq ˆh (l. 3) could ﬁnd some parallels in the use of hrq in Num 23:3–4, 16: rqyw . . . ˚l ytdghw ynary hm rbdw ytarql hwhy hrqy wyla rmayw μ[lb la μyhla, and of hlg in Num 22:31: ta hwhy lgyw aryw μ[lb yny[, and 24:4, 16: μyny[ ywlgw lpn; – hwla hm[ l[yw . . . lhq[yça]r ˆmzy (ll. 3–4), see Jdg 8:14: taw twks yrç hynqz, and 1 Sam 10:17: μ[h ta lawmç q[xyw; – hkbt μlw μxt μl r[b rb μ[lbl wrmayw . . . hkby hkbw μ[xy (ll. 3–4) and 1 Sam 1:7–8: hml hnj hçya hnqla hl rmayw lkat alw hkbtw ylkat al hmlw ykbt; – wbçj ˆydç hm μkwja wbç μhl rmayw (l. 5) and 1 Sam 15:16: hdygaw πrh hlylh yla hwhy rbd rça ta ˚l, Gen 49:1: μkl hdygaw wpsah. The verb hwj is found three times in similar constructions in Job 15:17: hrpsaw ytyzj hzw yl [mç ˚wja, and Job 32:10; 36:2. – ˆhla tl[p war wklw (l. 5) and Ps 46:9: hwhy twl[pm wzj wkl and Ps 66:5: arwn μyhla twl[pm warw wkl to relate divine deeds, – d[wm ˆydç wbxnw wdjyta ˆhla (ll. 5–6) with a nif‘al, and Ps 82:1: μyhla fpçy μyhla brqb la td[b bxn (cf. 1 Kgs 22:19). The word d[wm as divine assembly is known in Ugaritic, Canaanite and Hebrew but so far not in Aramaic. The deities la, ˆhla - ˆydç (ll. 1–2, 5–6) can ﬁnd a similar religious context in the book of Job with la and ydç, and in Numbers 23–24 with μyhla, hwhy and ydç; – hgn law ˚çj μç (ll. 6–7), although μç could be analysed as an adverb ‘here’, the use of ˚çj μyç/tyç is well known in Biblical Hebrew, Isa 5:20: ˚çjl rwaw rwal ˚çj μymç, Ps 104:20: hlyl yhyw ˚çj tçt, and it would make the verb preferable here; the pair ˚çj-hgn is very common (Isa 9:1; 50:10, Am 5:20, 2 Sam 22:29 = Ps 18:29), and the next pair must function in the same way although with unique words;

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– ttj ybht (l. 7) and Ez 32:24–25: wntn rça or μyyj ≈rab μtytj ˆtn yk, see Gen 9:2; 35:5; – rswm w[mç (l. 10) is a combination well attested in the sapiential books, in Proverbs particularly, – ˆçrj w[mç (l. 13), see Isa 3:3: μyçrj μkjw. – rçab (l. 9), lexeme of a form non-Aramaic, but frequent in Hebrew

Despite all these comparisons with Biblical Hebrew, the language of Deir {Alla which is not Aramaic,43 is clearly not Hebrew,44 nor a product of one or more members of the Israelite community of a Transjordanian tribe.45 It is a local dialect close to the Canaanite of its time, as many morphological, syntactic, phonological and lexical features show; this dialect can be called Gileadite or ‘Ammonite’, giving a territorial meaning to it, as the palaeography of the copy also supports.46

43 Despite all these kind of observations, D. Pardee, ‘The Linguistic Classification of the Deir {Alla Text Written on Plaster’, in: Hoftijzer & Van der Kooij, The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-Evaluated, 100–105, concludes that ‘an ascription to the Aramaic group is unavoidable . . . that the isoglosses favoring an Aramaic affiliation outnumber those favoring a Canaanite affiliation and that their prioritized value is significantly greater . . . The language of the Deir {Alla plaster inscription is typologically a very archaic form of Aramaic, the archaism probably being due to regional isolation’. This can be hightly doubted and can work better in the opposite direction in favor of a Canaanite affiliation. Weippert, ‘The Balaam Text from Deir {Alla’, 159–64, is still convinced of the Aramaic character of the text, specially from the points of orthography and morphology compared to syntax and lexicography which are nearer to Canaanite: ‘a peripheral language which is not yet Aramaic but is about to become Aramaic’ (163). 44 Contrary to the opinion of J.W. Wesselius, ‘Thoughts about Balaam: The Historical Background of the Deir Alla Inscription on Plaster’, Bibliotheca Orientalis 44 (1987) 589–99, who thinks that the text is in Hebrew. 45 As Levine, Numbers 21–36, 264–75, who tries to propose on demographic grounds (Israelite occupation in that period), on the basis of linguistic criteria (mostly the syntax) for a Northwest-Semitic language of a regional character (because of its limited Aramaic characteristics), on the literary character of the text (the Biblical poem of Bala{am), adding that even the content with a pagan spirit cannot be an objection. Weippert, ‘The Balaam Text from Deir {Alla’, 179–80, arrives at the conclusion of ‘a (Proto-)Aramaic language, and not Hebrew’, used by indigenous in a territory claimed by the Bible as Israelite territory. 46 See Puech, ‘Approches paléographiques’, 221–38. Many typical peculiarities of the Ammonite scribal school are present there that cannot come from an Aramaic tradition, but they are already known in the Ammonite territory. I cannot accept the conclusions of J. Naveh, ‘The Date of the Deir {Alla Inscription in Aramaic Script’, Israel Exploration Journal 17 (1967) 256–8, because the writing cannot be situated in the development of the Aramaic cursive; nor for example that of A. Lemaire, ‘Les inscriptions sur plâtre’, 46–9, who classifies this text as Aramaic, the original of the copy being even

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The Biblical authors certainly considered Bala{am as an Aramean, but this is of no significance for the classification of this text, since it was first to be read and understood by some local people (sages, seers, diviners) in the local sanctuary,47 not a school,48 and secondly, nothing proves that the copy on the wall is the original composition, or a copy contemporaneous with the seer Bala{am. The absence of any form of article, be it Aramaic or Northwest-Semitic, would by itself argue against such a conclusion in the 8th century bc, and would suppose a much earlier date for its composition, certainly in the second millennium.49 That means

Proto-Aramaic. His criticism against my proposal did not distinguish the territory of the Ammonites occupied by local people from the occupying powers between the 10th, 9th and 8th century who have nothing to do with such a text. Van der Kooij, ‘Book and Script’, 249–55, accepts now the existence of a ‘national’ script in Amman, which developed in close contact with Aramaic writing. Such Aramaic influences are expected. 47 Franken, ‘Balaam at Deir {Alla’, 193–7, interprets the room where the inscription stood, as a cave for a seer and his night visions seeing the divine assembly. The room was entered through a hole from above like a grotto as two other adjacent rooms on the south without a normal door, only by a small elevated entrance. ‘The grotto is a place of mystery, and where the mysteries of the gods of the underworld are revealed’. ‘Thus it is the seat of the oracle’ (194). ‘It was the place of revelation where the seer “saw” the meetings of the gods . . . The seer gave oracles, had dreams, interpreted dreams and was a healer. But the place of the oracle was indicated and fixed by divine revelation (Gen 18:16–17). Where the oracle is, is the sanctuary, and when the sanctuary has such inaccessible rooms as is the case here, they share in the holiness of the place and the building takes the nature of a maze or labyrinth . . . In the light of what was said above about the meaning of the Semitic sanctuary and its symbolism and in the light of the meaning of the plaster texts, no matter variant readings and interpretations are given, the archaeological evidence suggests a large religious building with many rooms’ (195). ‘As far as any connection can be postulated between Balaam, his sanctuary, and Baal, we are dealing with a Near Eastern Iron Age religion with all the characteristic general features of a religion concerned with the mystery that life comes out of death’ (197). The area could well have been the living quarters of the priests (194) in which were found several antlers of fallow deer which are usually used in apotropaic rites, a terra-cotta of a stag. Finally the weaving rooms have parallels in the Jerusalem temple, 2 Kgs 23:7. 48 Contrary to Lemaire, ‘Les inscriptions sur plâtre’, 53–5, who proposed to understand this room as a school with benches, ‘un lieu d’enseignement’: the teacher wrote on the wall to teach these texts. This is impossible as many will agree, firstly because it was not the way to teach in the ancient world, and secondly the room has no window or door for any sufficient light for such a purpose. The ‘primary function of the writing is not educational but magical’, according to Franken, ‘Balaam at Deir {Alla’, 190. This is at least partly true and its religious purpose is certain. 49 The earliest example of the article in the Northwest-Semitic is found on a arrow- head dated circa eleven hundred or even the end of 12th century bc, see É. Puech, ‘Les pointes de flèches inscrites de la fin du iie millénaire en Phénicie et Canaan’, in: M.a E. Aubet & M. Barthélemy (eds), Actas del IV congreso internacional de estudios Fenicios y Púnicos, Cádiz, 2 al 6 de Octubre de 1995, Cádiz 2000, 251–69 at 254: no. 18 rpsh lx ˆda ≈j ‘Arrow of Adon (son of ) Âilli, the scribe’, and a little later on one dated in the 11th century no. 26 rxh fpç ça lbçy ˆb [dmç ≈j ‘Arrow of Šemida{ son of Yišbal, man

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that only parts of an excerpt of the book of Bala{am have been recovered there. And it is quite possible that the biblical tradition knew something else or other parts of such a ‘book’,50 or that both adopted and adapted the ways of this famous diviner to their own narratives. Further, both traditions have in common the presentation of this figure as a ozeh, a seer like the roeh in 1 Sam 9:9 which is said to be the previous denomination of a nabî—a prophet, a witness of divine visions and auditions. After a night vision of the gods in the sanctuary the seer awoke, fasted and wept, thus performing a prophetic gesture in order to deliver to the people the decision of the world of the gods: an impending doom. The message is an utterance of El, the chief of the Canaanite pantheon after a meeting of the heavenly council. Gods and Shadday (gods) or Demons(?) altogether have decided and said (or ordered) to Shamash to bring dread by a cloud which shall shut up the heavens. Shamash is asked ‘to stop ploting’ or ‘not to remove (it) forever’. That means that she shall not lighten anymore. The cries of different species of birds, from the smallest ones frightening the biggest, the birds of night those of day, the birds of prey the others,51 the natural order had changed and it is the same situation with the animals, ewes and cattle, hares and hyenas,52 domesticated and wild animals; all are looking and fighting for food and drink, grass, grain or meat and water (or blood, l. 10?), but they did not find, because Shamash apparently had been too powerful, and had brought dearth by a severe drought in the country.53

of Šaphat, the Tyrian’. Later on the accusative particle appears also in Phoenician, see É. Puech, ‘Note sur la particule accusativale en Phénicien’, Semitica 32 (1982) 51–5. In Aramaic the status emphaticus and the relative yz are well known in the third quarter of the 9th century bc on the Tell Fekheriyeh statue, see A. Abou Assaf, P. Bordreuil & A. R. Millard, La statue de Tell Fekherye et son inscription bilingue assyro-araméenne, Paris 1982. An inscribed sherd from {Ein Gev could also be dated in the middle of the 9th century bc: ayqçl (B. Mazar, A. Biran, M. Dothan & I. Dunayevsky, ‘ {Ein Gev’, Israel Exploration Journal 14 [1964] 1–49, esp. 27) and another from Tel Dan: ay[j]bf (N. Avigad, ‘An Inscribed Bowl from Dan’, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 100 [1968] 42–4). 50 The word rps ‘book’ could refer to oral traditions attributed to the famous seer, like the Pentateuch or Torah is attributed to Moses, a famous Hebrew lawgiver. 51 Lev 11:13–19 and Deut 14:12–20 give lists of birds as prohibited food, among them are found rçn, μjr, ≈n, and hdsj parallels to the Deir {Alla list. 52 ‘Hyena break bones for marrow, eat carcasses of wild and domesticated animals, . . ., kill or injure larger animals, particularly the young of domestic stock, . . . They may cause damage to crops and ﬂocks around villages where they live’, Encylopedia Iranica 12 (2004) 600–3. 53 Hoftijzer, ‘What Did the gods Say?’, 137, would agree with this proposal that the gods seek to restrain the goddess from punishing, but he understands ‘Sha[gar’ l. 6. Yet

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This situation was probably understood as a punishment because of the sinfulness of the people. Shamash as the messenger of El seems to be opposed to other gods or Shaddays, and first to Shagar-and-{Ashtar. She is asked to act in the opposite way, to hide herself forever in order to restore order through the last decision of the council of gods, but nothing is said here about a sudden rain or deluge.54 Only darkness is clearly meant bringing dread and death, as it is the case with Shapash in Ugaritic myths. This can be compared to biblical predictions of disaster, see especially Ez 32:3–8 mentioning birds, beasts and dense darkness, and Zeph 1:14–17; see also Deut 11:17 and 1 Kgs 8:35 where ‘God shut up the heavens, so that there be no rain and the land yield no fruit and you perish quickly’. The seer Bala{am asks people to listen to the admonition and to look for a sage or diviner, but the people heard only from afar and went confidently because all sorts of cultic practises have supposedly been properly done. But disease entered the region and apparently Shagar-and-Ashtar, the fecundity deity, did not answer favourably to the magicians’ diversions. It was like before, leopards devoured piglets, and so on. Then comes a second series of cultic pratices, double libations, but apparently without much success in changing the decision of the gods. Shagar-and-{Ashtar did not answer. One can only expect that more cultic exercises and interventions of the diviners took place in order to counter these calamitous acts of some gods against their people and that finally Bala{am succeeded in gaining the benediction of El or of the gods, when these were satisfied.55 Then the natural course of life is supposed to work again in order. This seems to be the main conclusion reached at the end of combination ii 37, but this will be the subject of another paper. In short, the first part of the Deir {Alla text is an excerpt of the book of a seer, Bala{am from an Aramaic origin, but whose mantic influence

it is not certain that these lists of birds serve as ‘auguries portending calamity’ (138) or for ornitomancy. The calamity is already there even if the animal symbols receive a metaphoric signification of the changes of the established social order and in the service of the gods. 54 Weippert, ‘The Balaam Text from Deir {Alla’, 171, who read the text in Aramaic ‘you may break the bolts of heaven . . .’, interprets these phenomena as signs of chaos, heavy rain and floods, see Am 5:18–20. 55 In the biblical Bala{am pericope, Bala{am offered sacrifices on seven altars in three different places, but could only say what God Yhwh told him in the visions: benedictions instead of curses.

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reached as far as Deir {Alla–Penuel in Gile{ad, a well-known sacred place where an eponym whose name was changed into la-rçy, met, fought and saw El face to face (Gen 32:23–32). And the divine power the gods gave to Bala{am was transmitted by his magic book and was still in use in a writing adapted to the local dialect by the servants of the sanctuary or sacred place in the ﬁrst part of the 8th century as an effective means for the religious needs of and divine favours destined for the local population. The same seems to be the case for the Israelites with the Bala{am story in the book of Numbers.

van kooten_f3_25-48.indd 47 2/7/2008 2:14:55 PM van kooten_f3_25-48.indd 48 2/7/2008 2:14:55 PM BALAAM, MOPSUS AND MELAMPOUS: TALES OF TRAVELLING SEERS

Jan N. Bremmer

Introduction

One of the attractive sides of the study of ancient languages and cultures is the continual discovery of new material. These discoveries not only regularly increase our knowledge, but they also make us, sometimes, see that received wisdom is in need of correction. For example, it was long believed that the Greek novelist Achilles Tatius dated from the fourth or the sixth century ad until, in 1938, a fragment of his text turned up on a papyrus of the second century.1 Aeschylus’ drama Sup- pliants used to be dated to before the battle of Marathon (490 bc) until a papyrus was published in 1952 that showed its first performance to have been together with a piece by Sophocles; consequently it cannot have been a very early one, as was previously thought.2 The name of Mezentius, king of Etruscan Caere and fierce opponent of Aeneas, was not attested in Etruria until it was discovered on a seventh-century pot from Caere in 1989.3 The recent publication of the Aramaic inscription of Tel Dan with its mention of byt dwd, ‘the city (or “house”) of David’ has demonstrated that David is not a completely fictive person, as quite a few Old Testament scholars would have us believe.4 And the discovery of the Deir Alla inscription with the name of Balaam has

1 J.N. Bremmer, ‘Achilles Tatius and Heliodorus in Christian East Syria’, in: H. Vanstiphout (ed.), All those nations . . . Cultural Encounters within and with the Near East, Groningen 1999, 21–9 at 23f. 2 Oxyrhynchus Papyri 20.2256.4, Aeschylus T 70 and F 451n with Radt ad loc., cf. A. Lesky, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur, Berne/Munich 19632, 271–2, which still shows something of the impact of the discovery. 3 N. Horsfall on Virgil, Aeneid 7.648; M. Fazio, ‘Uno, nessuno e centomila Mesenzio’, Athenaeum 39 (2005) 51–69; L. Kronenberg, ‘Mezentius the Epicurean’, Transactions of the American Philological Association 135 (2005) 403–31. 4 The basis for all future research now is G. Athas, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation, Shefﬁeld 2003. See most recently V. Sasson, ‘The Tell Dan Aramaic Inscription: The Problems of a New Minimized Reading’, Journal of Semitic Studies 50 (2005) 23–34. Cf. note 48 below.

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at least shown that his mention in the Old Testament is not a later invention, but probably goes back to a historical seer.5

1. The professional seer in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

As far as I can see, most scholars have focussed on the meaning of the fragments’ inscription and the geographical implications of this fascinating discovery at Deir Alla. Yet there seems to have been little interest in seeing whether the inscription could enrich our understanding of the sociological and religious aspects of the professional seer in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean. In my contribution I would therefore like to pay attention to some of these aspects by comparing Balaam to two famous Greek seers, Mopsus and Melampous, even though our knowledge of Balaam is much sketchier than that of the two Greek seers.

(a) Differences Let us start with some differences. Melampous was the ancestor of Greece’s most famous family of seers, the Melampodidae. The mention of a family already illustrates one of the differences between Greek seers and the Israelite prophets. Whereas the latter were organised on the master-pupil principle, as is illustrated by Elija giving his coat to Elisha, the former handed the profession down from father to son. This must have been an old tradition in Greece, as it is already attested in Hesiod (F 136 MW) and in the Odyssey, where the seer Theoclymenus is said to be the great-grandson of Melampous (15.225–56).6 Another difference can be inferred from the Semitic and Greek terms for the seer. In the ﬁrst line of the Deir Alla inscription Balaam is said to have seen the gods. The more or less contemporary Aramaic inscription of Zakkur, the king of Hamath, says that the god Baal-Shamem spoke to him through haziyin (line 12),7 and the Israelite prophets were

5 For the discovery and the text see J. Hoftijzer & G. van der Kooij (eds), The Balaam Text from Deir Alla Re-evaluated, Leiden 1991; several contributions in this volume. 6 On the family organisation of Greek seers see R. Janko on Iliad XIII.663–70; W. Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution, Cambridge, Mass. 1992, 43–6. Hesiod’s fragment: M. West, The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, Oxford 1985, 79f. 7 See the text and discussion by A. Lemaire, ‘Oracles, politique et littérature dans les royaumes araméens et transjordaniens (IXe–VIIIe s. av. n.è.)’, in: J.-G. Heintz (ed.), Oracles et prophéties dans l’antiquité, Paris 1997, 171–93 at 172–5.

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called hozeh, ‘visionaries’;8 in fact, visions are the mode of inspiration for the Israelite prophet.9 The Greek seer, on the other hand, is called mantis, which used to be etymologically connected to mania, ‘madness’. However, more recently it has been seen that this cannot be correct, and a connection with a root *ma, ‘to reveal’, has been proposed,10 but this is not wholly persuasive either.11 The alternative connection with a root *men, ‘to think’ remains possible, the more so as the early Greeks considered insight a highly important quality of their seers, witness Hesiod’s remark (F 203 MW) that ‘insight’ (nous) was the deﬁning quality of the descendants of Amythaon, the father of Melampous. Through this insight they could predict the future or treat their patients’ symp- toms with a speciﬁc technique.

(b) Resemblances In addition to these differences, there were also resemblances. One of these is the geographical mobility of both Israelite and Greek seers. It is an interesting aspect of the Balaam story that he is sent for by the Moabite king Balak from his town on the Mid-Euphrates (Num 22:5). Such an invitation is probably not unique, since there are several other indications that kings of the Ancient Near East invited foreign craftsmen and professionals to their courts.12 Thus Niqmadda II of Ugarit sent a message, probably to Amenophis IV, requesting a doctor, and the fame of Egyptian doctors was indeed such that they were sent to Hattusa.13 Even Cyrus, according to Herodotus (3.1), had still requested

8 2 Samuel 24:11; 2 Kings 17:13; 2 Chronicles 9:25, 12:15, 19:12, 35:15 and 18, etc., cf. R.R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, Philadelphia 1980, 254–6. 9 Isa 1:1; Jer 14:14, 23:16; Ezek 12:24, 13:16; Hab 2:2–3; Obad 1; Nah 1:1. 10 M. Casevitz, ‘Mantis: le vrai sens’, Revue des Études Grecques 105 (1992) 1–18. 11 See the counter arguments by E. Lévy, ‘Devins et oracles chez Hérodote’, in: Heintz, Oracles et prophéties, 345–65 at 349–50, and J. Jouanna, ‘Oracles et devins chez Sophocle’, ibidem, 283–320 at 284n2. 12 C. Zaccagnini, ‘Patterns of Mobility among Near Eastern Craftsmen’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 42 (1983) 245–64; W. Helck, Die Beziehungen Ägyptens und Vorderasiens zur Ägäis bis ins 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr., Darmstadt 19952, 185–88; C. Grottanelli, Kings and Prophets, Oxford 1999, 127–45 (19821, not always persuasive); I. Huber, ‘Von Affenwärtern, Schlangenbeschwörern und Palastmanagern: Ägypter im Mesopotamien des ernsten vorchristlichen Jahrtausends’, in: R. Rollinger & B. Truschnegg (eds), Altertum und Mittelmeerraum: Die antike Welt diesseits und jenseits der Levante, Stuttgart 2006, 303–29. 13 Ugarit: J.A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna Tafeln, 2 vols, Leipzig 1915, vol. 1, 49.22; French translation in W.L. Moran, Les Lettres d’Él Amarna, Paris 1987, 219. Hattusa: E. Edel, Ägyptische Ärzte und ägyptische Medizin am hethitischen Königshof: neue Funde von Keilschriftbriefen Ramses’ II. aus Bogazköy, Opladen 1976.

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an ophthalmologist from Amasis, and other Persian kings employed Greek physicians.14 The Hittite kings sent letters to the king of Babylon in order to get hold of conjurers,15 and a king of Alasia on Cyprus requested ‘a (team [?] of male) eagle-diviners’ from Egypt, although such specialists are not attested there;16 perhaps he was used to the big role of eagles, the birds of Zeus,17 in early Greek ornithomancy.18 Our ﬁnal example once again comes from the Old Testament. When we look at the succession of Ben-Hadad by Hazael, whose name now has turned up in inscriptions in Hera’s sanctuary on Samos and in Apollo’s in Eretria,19 we cannot but notice that the prophet Elisha was in Damascus at the right time. Our information is poor, but it is hard to escape the impression that he had been sent for by either the king or one of his grandees (2 Kings 8). The notice is per haps a legendary anecdote, as so many stories about the prophets, but once again must have sounded true to the Israelites.

2. Mopsus

We have some very interesting cases of such travelling seers in early Greece, namely Mopsus and Melampous, the latter of whom was also reported to converse with animals, just like Balaam and the ass. In the case of Mopsus, our evidence has been enriched in the last decades by several new ﬁnds and I will start with him. Unfortunately, the tradition

14 Cf. A. Grifﬁth, ‘Democedes of Croton: A Greek Doctor at the Court of Darius’, in: H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg & A. Kuhrt (eds), Achaemenid History II. The Greek Sources, Leiden 1987, 37–51; C. Tuplin, ‘Doctoring the Persians: Ctesias of Cnidus, Physician and Historian’, Klio 86 (2004) 305–47. 15 Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi I 10 Rs. 42–48; Keilschrifturkunden aus Boghazköi 3.71. 16 Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna Tafeln I, no. 35.26 (eagle), cf. Moran, Les Lettres d’Él Amarna, 203 (thinks of a vulture diviner); L. Hellbing, Alasia Problems, Göteborg 1979, 29–37, to be read with the remarks by P. Arzti, Bibliotheca Orientalis 41 (1984) 212, whose translation I follow. 17 J.M. Hemelrijk, ‘Zeus’ Eagle’, Bulletin Antieke Beschaving 76 (2001) 115–31. 18 Iliad VIII.247, XII.200–9, XXIV.310–11; Pindar, Isthmian Odes 6.50; Aeschylus, Agamemnon 104–59; Xenophon, Anabasis 6.1.23; Posidippus 31 AB (eagles as omen for the Argead kings). 19 H. Kyrieleis & W. Röllig, ‘Ein altorientalischer Pferdeschmuck aus dem Heraion von Samos’, Athenische Mitteilungen 103 (1988) 37–75; I. Ephal and J. Naveh, ‘Hazael’s Booty Inscriptions’, Israel Exploration Journal 39 (1989) 192–200; Burkert, Orientalizing Revolution, 16.

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about Mopsus is most confusing.20 Yet, as always, a firm grasp of the chronology can be of help. Mopsus must have been one of the more prominent early Argonauts, as he regularly appears on representations of the funeral games of Pelias, the king who had initiated the expedition of Jason and his Argonauts: on the famous late seventh-century Chest of Kypselos, on an early sixth-century ‘Argive’ shield-band from Olympia and on a later sixth-century hydria from Etruscan Vulci.21 As on two of these representations Mopsus is shown boxing, the name of his father Ampyx probably derived from a popular etymology connected with the root *pug, ‘fist, boxing’.22 Consequently, the Mopsus, son of Ampyx, who is mentioned in an enumeration of Lapiths in the sixth- century pseudo-Hesiodic Aspis (181), must have been the invention of a poet at a loss for names.23 Yet the name proved to be successful and in Roman times it was told that Mopsus’ father Ampyx had been a seer as well, one more example of a family of seers.24 Mopsus’ Argonautic status is confirmed by Pindar. In his Fourth Pythian Ode (189–91; c. 460 bc) on the expedition of the Argonauts he mentions that ‘the seer Mopsus, carrying out for him ( Jason) divination by means of birds and holy lots, readily embarked the expedition’, when the Greeks had assembled at Iolcus. And indeed, a more recently published small papyrus fragment from an archaic poem mentions Orpheus, Mopsus, Jason and Aietes in an Argonautic context.25

20 Ph. Houwink ten Cate, The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera During the Hellenistic Period, Leiden 1961, 44–50; D. Metzler, ‘Der Seher Mopsos auf den Münzen der Stadt Mallos’, Kernos 3 (1990) 235-50 (too speculative); J. Vanschoonwinkel, ‘Mopsos: légendes et réalité’, Hethitica 10 (1990) 185–211; E. Simon, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) VI.1 (1992) s.v. Mopsos I; Burkert, Orientalizing Revolution, 52–3; T.S. Scheer, Mythische Vorväter, Munich 1993, 153–271. 21 Pausanias 5.17.10, cf. A. Snodgrass, ‘Pausanias and the Chest of Kypselos’, in: S. Alcock et al. (eds), Pausanias: Travel and Memory in Roman Greece, Oxford 2001, 127–41 at 128; R. Wachter, Non-Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions, Oxford 2001, 180–1 (Vulci), 298 (Olympia). 22 Wachter, Non-Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions, 298n1078. Did he give his name to Thessalian Mopsion? For this obscure town and its debated location see Strabo 9.5.22; Supplementum epigraphicum Graecum (SEG) XLVII.668, XLVIII.660, XLIX.619, but see also B. Helly and J. Decourt, Bulletin épigraphique 2000, no. 413. 23 Contra Scheer, Mythische Vorväter, 157. 24 Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.524; Hyginus, Fabulae 128. 25 Oxyrhynchus Papyri 53.3698; note also Apollonius Rhodius 1.65–6, 80, 1083, 2.923, 3.543, 916–7, 4.1502–3 (death); Statius, Thebais 3.521; Valerius Flaccus 1.207, 234, etc.; Silius Italicus 3.521.

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It may seem strange to us that a seer was a good boxer, but we must not forget that early Greek seers were also redoubtable warriors. Homer mentions the Trojan seer Helenus, the son of the Trojan king Priam, on the battlefield, and an Olympian shield-band shows the seer Amphiaraus with full military equipment. The latter is even explicitly called by Pindar (Olympian Odes 6.16–7): ‘good both as a seer and at fighting with the spear’, but because of the treachery of his wife, who sold her husband for a necklace, Amphiaraus did not survive the expedition of the Seven against Thebes.26 In fact, death on the battlefield was not uncommon, and several seers were killed in action. When at Thermopylae in 480 bc the Spartan army, with its king Leonidas, was massacred by the Persians, the seer Megistias was among the dead Spartans. During the Athenian invasion of Egypt in the middle of the fifth century, the seer Tele nikos pe rished, and we can still read his name in big letters on the inscription honouring the fallen. The death of Stilbides, the chief military seer of Nicias during the Athenian invasion of Sicily, shortly before the eclipse of 27 August 413, proved to be fatal, because Nicias was now forced to rely on other seers, whose advi ce led him to doom the mission through delay. In a list of citizens of Argos who were killed on campaign c.400 bc, the mantis is mentioned immediately after the ‘king’ ( probasileus).27 And finally, the epitaph of the maternal uncle of the orator Aeschines celebrates him as both warrior and mantis.28 The latter activity is stressed by the motif of the eagle carrying a snake on his relief, which alludes to the well-known omen in Iliad XII, which in turn was used several times by Aristophanes.29

26 Helenus: Iliad XIII.576–600, cf. T. Ganschow, LIMC VIII.1, Suppl. (1997) s.v.; J.N. Bremmer, ‘Helenos’, in: Der Neue Pauly 5 (1998) 282. Amphiaraus: I. Krauskopf, LIMC I.1 (1981) s.v. For the spelling of his name see now Wachter, Non-Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions, 76f. 27 Megistias: Herodo tus 7.228 = Simoni des VI Page. Telenikos: Inscriptiones Graecae (IG) I3 1147.129. Stilbides: A. Sommerstein and D. Olson on Aristophanes, Peace, 1031. Argos: SEG 29.361. On military seers see the full survey by W.K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War, vol. 3, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 1979, 47–90; R. Lonis, Guerre et religion en Grèce à l’époque classique, Paris 1979, 95–115; M.H. Jameson, ‘Sacriﬁ ce before battle’, in: V.D. Hanson (ed.), Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, London 1991, 197–227 at 204f. 28 P. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculi IV a. Chr. n., Berlin/New York 1989, no. 519; Aeschines 2.78, cf. R. Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, Oxford 2005, 117n5. 29 Iliad XII.200–9; Aristophanes, Knights 197–210, Wasps 15–9, cf. M. Schmidt, ‘Adler und Schlange: Ein griechisches Bildzeichen für die Dimension der Zukunft’, Boreas 6 (1983) 61–71; Y. Turnheim, ‘The Eagle and the Snake on Synagogue Lintels in the Golan’, Rivista di Archeologia 24 (2000) 106–13.

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Military seers are, it seems, no longer attested in Athens in the later fourth century, but they continued to be important in Macedonia, where Philip II and his son Alexander the Great still fully em ployed seers for military aims. Both kings espe cially consulted Aristandros, a seer from Tel messos. This Carian city, of which the ruins are still visible in the south-east of present-day Turkey, was famous for its seers, and it is typical in the motif of the wandering of seers that some of them evidently journeyed to far-away Macedonia. The employment of seers by Alexander is now also attested by the new Posidippus. One of his epigrams reads as follows: A mantis lies beneath the crow, the Thracian hero Strymon, supreme steward of bird-omens. This is the title Alexander gave him with his seal, for three times he defeated the Persians after consulting his crow.30 Aristandros, though, was the last prominent wandering seer. Alexander’s successors no longer needed such advisors.31 In the light of these parallels, it should not be surprising that Balaam died on the battleﬁeld too, this time in the service of the Midianite kings (Num 31:8). Even if the notice is a later invention, it must have sounded true to the Israelite reader. In any case, although it is not stated explicitly, the tradition about the prophet Samuel’s involvement in the wars against the Philistines also suggests that he participated in the ﬁghting (1 Samuel 7). Naturally, Mopsus’ expertise in bird augury conforms more to our idea of a seer. This technique was indeed highly important to the Greeks. The prototypical Greek seer Calchas was ‘by far the best of the ornithomancers, who knows the present, the future and the past, and who guided the ships of the Greeks to Troy through the mantic skill that Phoebus Apollo had given him’ (Iliad I.69–72). The already mentioned Helenus was also ‘by far the best of the ornithomancers’ (VI.76), and Teiresias, perhaps the most famous seer of Greece, could even

30 Posidippus 35 AB, cf. S. Schröder, ‘Überlegungen zu zwei Epigrammen des neuen Mailänder Papyrus’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 139 (2002) 27–9. 31 Aristandros: P. Kett, Prosopographie der historischen griechischen Manteis bis auf die Zeit Alexanders des Grossen, Diss. Nuremberg 1966, 25–9. Telmessos: Kett, ibidem, 99–101; D. Harvey, ‘Herodotus I, 78 and 84: Which Telmessos?’, Kernos 4 (1991) 245–58; add now the Telmessian seer Damon in Posidippus 34 AB, who may be another example of a travelling seer.

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understand the language of the birds.32 In fact, in the Iliad bird omens always come true.33 It is therefore somewhat surprising to hear that, in addition to ornithomancy,34 Mopsus was also an expert in cleromancy.35 The most likely explanation is perhaps Mopsus’ connection with the oracle of Klaros, the Greek word for lot, near Colophon. A sixth-century poem, the pseudo-Hesiodic Melampodia, relates that Mopsus had met and defeated Calchas in a riddle contest at Klaros.36 The tradition must be relatively early, as the summary (Argumentum) of the ancient Nostoi also connects Calchas with Colophon.37 However, Sophocles opted for a different location and moved the scene to Cilicia in his tragedy The Demand for Helen’s Return (F 180, 180a Radt). This had become accepted knowledge in the fourth century, as Alexander’s historian Callisthenes writes that ‘Calchas died in Klaros, but the men with Mopsus passed over the Taurus. Some remained in Pamphylia, but the others were dispersed in Cilicia and Syria as far as even Phoenicia.’38 It is not crystal clear what this means. Did Callisthenes want to explain the presence of Greeks in southeast Anatolia or the presence of Mopsus or both? All three possibilities seem plausible. In any case, it is clear that Mopsus

32 Pherecydes in F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGrH) 3 F 92a = F 92a Fowler; note also Sophocles. Antigone 999–1004; Pausanias 9.16.1; A. Ambühl, Kinder und junge Helden: Innovative Aspekte des Umgangs mit der literarischen Tradition bei Kallimachos, Leuven 2005, 110. 33 Janko on Iliad XIII.821–3. For Greek bird augury see A. Bouché-Leclercq, Histoire de la divination, vol. 1, Paris 1879, 127–45; W. Halliday, Greek divination, London 1913, 246–71. 34 Note also Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.66. 35 For the technique see Bouché-Leclercq, Histoire de la divination, vol. 1, 190–7; Halliday, Greek divination, 205–18; A.S. Pease on Cicero, De divinatione I.12; most recently, C. Grottanelli, ‘Sorte unica pro casibus pluribus enotata: Literary Texts and Lot Inscriptions as Sources for Ancient Kleromancy’, in: S.I. Johnston & P. Struck (eds), Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination, Leiden 2005, 129–46. For Christian applications see most recently P.W. van der Horst, Japhet in the Tents of Shem, Leuven 2002, 159–89 (‘Sortes: Sacred Books as Instant Oracles in Late Antiquity’, 19981); W. Klingshirn, ‘Deﬁning the Sortes Sanctorum: Gibbon, Du Cange, and Early Christian Lot Divination’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 10 (2002) 77–130 and ‘Christian Divination in Late Roman Gaul: the Sortes Sangallenses’, in: Johnston & Struck, Mantikê, 99–128. 36 Hesiod, F 278 MW; Pherecydes FGrH F 142 = F 142 Fowler; Euphorion, frags. 97–8 Powell, cf. 429 SH. For Mopsus and Colophon note also Dictys 1.17; Dares 18. 37 See also Hesiod F 278 MW; Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 142 = F 142 Fowler; Lycophron 424–5 and Tzetses on 427–30; Callisthenes apud Strabo 14.4.3 (see Radt’s critical apparatus); Conon FGrH 26 F 1, 6; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.2; Scholion on Dionysios Periegetes 850. 38 Callisthenes apud Strabo 14.4.3.

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was associated with Pamphylia too, since the region was also called Mopsopia and he was connected with several of its cities.39 It is rather curious that Mopsus was also noted to have killed another seer, Amphilochos. Both Mopsus and Amphilochos came with their men from Troy and founded Mallos, a Cilician town well known for its oracle.40 The two seers fought and killed one another in a fight about the kingship. They were buried at Magarsa near the river Pyramus. However, this tradition becomes visible only in the earlier second- century poem Alexandra of Lycophron and must postdate the conquests of Alexander the Great.41 As in the sixth century bc Amphilochos was already reputed to have been killed by Apollo in Cilicia, the co-existence of two famous seers in the same region may well have created the myth of their rivalry.42 The idea of two seers as leaders of a military expedition perhaps looks odd, but the custom of having two commanders is very old and may well explain the Spar tan dyar chy.43 Sometimes, we even find seers among the two leaders: Poulydamas was a seer and a comrade in arms of Hector, with whom he commanded the young warriors (Iliad XII.196), and among the Trojan allies ‘Chromis and the ornitho mancer Ennomos’ (II.858) com manded the Mysians, who may well be the Muški of the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions, even though both names are Greek.44 Now Mopsus is not a figure with clear family ties to other Greek mythological figures. His mother Manto is not mentioned before the third-century Philostephanos (apud Athenaeus 7.297), and his father Apollo does not appear before Strabo.45 In other words, it very much

39 Theopompus FGrH 115 F 103; Pliny, Naturalis historia 5.96; I. Perge 106; Pomponius Mela 1.14.79; Athenaeus 7.297f; Scholion on Dionysios Periegetes 850; Journal of Hellenic Studies 78 (1958) 57 (inscription with Mopsus’ name in Sillyon). 40 Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE) XIV.916–7; Scheer, Mythische Vorväter, 222–41. 41 Lycophron 439–46; Strabo 14.5.16; Cicero, De divinatione I.88; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.19. 42 Hesiod F 279 MW, cf. Scheer, Mythische Vorväter, 170. 43 Cf. H.W. Singor, Oorsprong en betekenis van de hoplietenfalanx in het archaische Griekenland, Diss. Leiden 1988, 138–140; add J.N. Brem mer, ‘Oorsprong, functie en verval van de pentekon ter’, Utrechtse Historische Cahiers 11.1/2 (1990) 1–11 at 5; R. Caprini, ‘Hengist e Horsa, uomini e cavalli’, Maia 46 (1994) 197–214. The phenomenon has been overlooked by J. Latacz, Homers Ilias, Gesamtkommentar, vol. 2.2, Munich 2003, 228, in an otherwise useful enumeration of pairs of commanders. 44 For Chromis see now also Kölner Papyri VI.245 and P. Weiss, LIMC III.1 (1986) s.v. Chromios. Muški and names: Latacz on Iliad II.858. 45 Strabo 14.5.16; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.3; Conon FGrH 24 F 1, 6; Pomponius Mela 1.88; Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 1.21.134.4.

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seems that Mopsus was an outsider in Greek mythology. Yet in Cilicia we find several place names that seem to be associated with him, such as Mopsuestia and Mopsokrene, names that clearly betray their Greek origin and therefore most likely postdate Alexander the Great.46 So where do we look for the origin of Mopsus? A whole new stage in the study of Mopsus was reached in Karatepe in 1946, when an eighth-century Hieroglyphic Luwian-Phoenician bilingual inscription turned up in which the local kingdom of Que was called bt mpš, ‘house of Mopsus’.47 This may be compared to the already mentioned discovery of the expression byt dwd in the Tel Dan inscription.48 The Phoenician text of a very recently published new example of such bilinguals even states that the king himself, the well attested, late eighth-century Urikki, was ‘an offspring of the house of Mopsus’, whereas the Luwian version calls him a ‘descendant of [Muk]sas’.49 It seems to me that this difference in spelling has not yet received the attention it deserves. The Luwian spelling Muksas is confirmed by the fact that the late fifteenth-century Hittite Maduwattas text of Boghazköy mentions a certain Mukshus, until now the first and only occurrence of that name in Hittite texts.50 However, a reflection of this name can be noticed in Linear B texts where we find the name Mo-qo-so twice, in mainland Pylos (PY Sa 774) and in Cretan Knossos (KN De 1381). Unfortunately, we do not know whether the name derives from slavery, guest friendship or other circumstances. Evidently, the name had a long life, as the fifth-century Lydian historian Xanthos mentions an early Lydian king Moxus, even though this has become Mopsus in part of

46 W. Ruge, RE XVI.1 (1933) 241–51; Scheer, Mythische Vorväter, 241–53; contra J. Strubbe, ‘Gründer kleinasiatischer Städte: Fiktion und Realität’, Ancient Society 15–17 (1984–86) 253–304 at 274–6. 47 See now J.D. Hawkins, Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions I.1–3, Berlin/New York 2000, A I.16, II.5, III.1. 48 A. Lemaire, ‘The Tel Dan Stela as a Piece of Royal Historiography’, Journal for the study of the Old Testament 81 (1998) 3–14 and ‘ “Maison de David”, “maison de Mopsos”, et les Hivvites’, in: C. Cohen et al. (eds), Sefer Moshe: The Moshe Weinfeld Jubilee Volume, Winona Lake 2004, 303–12. Cf. note 4 above. 49 R. Tekoglu & A. Lemaire, ‘La bilingue royale louvito-phénicienne de Çineköy’, Comptes rendus de l’Académie. des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 2000, 961–1007; E. Lipiński, Itineraria Phoenicia, Leuven 2004, 122–3; G. Lanfranchi, ‘The Luwian-Phoenician Bilingual of Çineköy and the Annexation of Cilicia to the Assyrian Empire’, in: R. Rollinger (ed.), Von Sumer bis Homer: Festschrift M. Schretter, Münster 2005, 481–96. 50 See now J.D. Hawkins, ‘Muksas’, in: Reallexikon der Assyriologie 8 (1993–97) 413.

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the manuscript tradition.51 Moreover, in recent discussions it has been overlooked that the name Moxus must have been rather popular in Lydia, as it occurs no less than four times among forty names in a later fourth-century bc Ephesian inscription about the condemnation to death of inhabitants of Sardis.52 There even was a rather obscure Lydian city, Moxoupolis, which also attests to the continuity of the name, and it is not impossible that the name of the Phrygian tribe of the Moxonaoi or Moxeanoi also goes back, eventually, to the name Moxus.53 From the onomastic evidence we can conclude that the Hittites and Luwians wrote Moxus and that this spelling was also taken over by the peoples adjacent to the former Hittite empire, such as the Lydians and the Mycenaean Greeks. The conclusion must therefore be that the Greeks derived the spelling Mopsus from the Phoenicians.54 The place where this most likely happened was Cilicia, the only region where we actually find the name and spelling Mopsus in the already mentioned bilinguals.55 However, the derivation may have been indirect. Opposite Cilicia was Cyprus, which had close ties with the mainland,56 and where we find a word mopsos, ‘a stain on cloth’.57 The Cypriots related that the family of their former Paphian seers, the Tamiradae, had come from Cilicia.58 It may fit this tradition that the south coast of modern Turkey once was well known for its many divinatory

51 Xanthos FGrH 765 F 17, where Jacoby prints Μόξου against the manuscript reading Μόψου, as Nicolaus Damascenus FGrH 90 F 16 has Μόξος; similarly Suda μ 1245. 52 I. Ephesos 2 = SEG 36.1011.24, 26, 28, 51. 53 Moxoupolis: V. Bérard, ‘Inscriptions d’Asie Mineure’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 15 (1890) 538–62 at 556 no. 38 (= Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae 2). Moxonaoi: I. Ephesos 13 = SEG 37.884 II 35; C. Habicht, Journal of Roman Studies 65 (1975) 86. 54 M. Finkelberg, Greeks and Pre-Greeks, Cambridge 2005, 150–2 argues the other way round, but this takes insufﬁciently into account the isolated position of Mopsus in Greek mythology. 55 H. Donner & W. Röllig, Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften, 3 vols, Wiesbaden 1966–692, A I 16, II.15, III.11; C IV 12; A. Strobel, Der spätbronzezeitliche Seevölkersturm, Berlin 1976, 31–38; F. Bron, Recherches sur les inscriptions de Karatepe, Geneva/Paris 1979, 172–6; W. Röllig, ‘Appendix I – The Phoenician Inscriptions’, in: H. Çambel, Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, vol. 2, Berlin/New York 1999, 50–81. 56 For Cyprus and Cilician Corycus see J. Lightfoot, Parthenius of Nicaea, Oxford 1999, 183–85. 57 Hesychius, s.v. μόψος· κηλὶς ἡ ἐν τοῖς ἱματίοις. Κύπριοι. 58 Tacitus, Historiae 2.3.1; Hesychius, s.v. Ταμιράδαι.

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centres.59 Apparently, there originated in the seventh or sixth century bc a tradition about a powerful Cilician seer to whom the Greeks gave the Phoenician inﬂuenced name Mopsus, even though Luwian speakers must have called him Moxus. Walter Burkert has recently devoted an article, stimulating as always, to the two most important routes of transmission of Near Eastern religious and mythological material: the ‘via fenicia’ and the ‘via anatolica’.60 The latter must have been the route of the later ‘Royal Road’ of the Persians that went from Sardis to Susa,61 and through which the name Moxus may have arrived in Sardis. The former must have been responsible for the arrival in Greece of Phoenician mythological themes, motifs and names, such as Typhon, a name related to Safon, the holy mountain in Northern Syria, to the north of Ugarit.62 Thus even though the prehistory of Mopsus cannot be recovered in detail, we can be reasonably clear that his origin has to be sought in the contacts between Phoenicians and Greeks in Cilicia or on Cyprus.

3. Melampous

Our second wandering Greek seer is Melampous or, less frequently, Melampos.63 His myth developed in all directions,64 but I will limit

59 R. Lebrun, ‘Quelques aspects de la divination en Anatolie du sud-ouest’, Kernos 3 (1990) 185–95. 60 W. Burkert, Kleine Schriften, vol. 2, Göttingen 2003, 252–66. 61 D.H. French, ‘Pre- and early-Roman roads of Asia Minor: The Persian Royal Road’, Iran 36 (1998) 15–43. 62 See most recently C. Bonnet, ‘Typhon et Baal Saphon’, in: E. Lipiński (ed.), Studia Phoenicia, vol. 5, Leuven 1987, 101–43; J.W. van Henten, ‘Typhon’, in: Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Leiden 19992, 879–81; P.W. Haider, ‘Von Baal Zaphon zu Zeus und Typhon: Zum Transfer mythischer Bilder aus dem vorderorientalischen Raum in die archaisch-griechische Welt’, in: Rollinger, Von Sumer bis Homer, 303–37. 63 For the form Melampos see Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.126, Paeanes 4.28; Wachter, Non- Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions, 108–9, who also compares the personal name Melampodoros (-dora), cf. IG II2 6539; IG VII.2–7–8, 216, 223, 232; Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 18 (1894) 497 no. 4, all clearly inﬂuenced by Melampous’ sanctuary at Aigosthena, for which see E. Simon, LIMC VI.1 (1992) 406f. Note also the name Melampos on Paros (SEG 26.974). 64 See most recently I. Löfﬂer, Die Melampodie, Meisenheim 1963; K. Dowden, Death and the Maiden, London/New York 1989, 96–115; E. Suarez de la Torre, ‘Les pouvoirs des devins et les récits mythiques’, Les Études Classiques 60 (1992) 3–21; E. Simon, LIMC VI.1 (1992) s.v.; Ph. Borgeaud, ‘Melampous and Epimenides: Two Greek Paradigms of the Treatment of Mistake’, in: J. Assmann & G. Stroumsa (eds), Transformations of the Inner Self in Ancient Religions, Leiden 1999, 287–300.

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myself here to its older strata. The Odyssey tells his story twice, but the ﬁrst time it refers to him only as the ‘blameless seer’ (11.291). Evidently, the story was already familiar to Homer’s audience and thus presupposes a pre-Homeric epic version.65 From the two versions in the Odyssey, the fragmentarily preserved Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (F 37), the pseudo-Hesiodic Melampodeia (F 271–2) and the ﬁfth-century Athenian mythographer Pherecydes, we can reconstruct the following plot of the myth.66 King Neleus of Pylos was willing to give his daughter Pero in marriage only to that suitor who succeeded in bringing Iphicles’ refractory cattle from Thessalian Phylace. The only one to try was Melampous, who wanted the girl for his brother Bias. Melampous had raised some snakes that had licked his ears so that he could understand the language of birds and thus acquired the art of divination.67 Unfortunately, he fell into the hands of Iphicles’ herds- men and was put into chains. When in prison he heard woodworms tell that the beams were nearly gnawed and requested a transfer to a different cell.68 He was now recognized by his captors for the seer he was, released and presented with the cattle. These in turn he gave to Neleus, who then married Pero off to Bias. According to the Odyssey (15.238–9), having won his brother a wife, Melampous left Pylos, his place of birth,69 for Argos, where he became a ruler. The myth behind this lapidary statement is known from other sources, even though these seem a bit confused. One of the problems, surely, is that it has been demonstrated only very recently that a number of source citations in later mythographical authors cannot be correct and must be viewed with utmost scepticism.70 This is clearly also the case in one of the sources concerning Melampous. According to the late second-century ad Apollodorus (2.2.2), Hesiod (F 131 MW) explained

65 Thus A. Heubeck on Odyssey 11.291–7. 66 Odyssey 11.291–7, 15.225–55; Hesiod F 37.1–9, 261, 270–72 (?) ff. MW; Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 33 = F 33 Fowler; Propertius 2.4.1. 67 The motif also explains the mantic gifts of Helenus and Cassandra, cf. Antikleides FGrH 140 F 17; Arrianos FGrH 157 F 102 (rationalised); M. van Rossum-Steenbeek, Greek Readers’ Digests? Studies on a Selection of Subliterary Papyri, Leiden 1997, no. 50; Scholion and Eustathius on Iliad VII.44. Note that Melampous had learned the art from the Egyptians according to Herodotus (2.49). 68 For Melampous’ knowledge of the language of animals see also Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 33 = F 33 Fowler; Pliny, Naturalis historia 10.137; Apollodorus 1.9.11; Scholion on Theocritus 3.43–5; Eustathius on Odyssey 11.292. 69 Odyssey 15.225–6; Herodotus 9.34; Apollodorus 1.9.11. 70 A. Cameron, Greek Mythography in the Roman World, New York 2004.

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the madness of the daughters of Proitos from their refusal to accept the mysteries of Dionysos, whereas Acusilaus of Argos (FGrH 2 F 28 = F 28 Fowler), who lived before the Persian Wars, had stated that they mocked the wooden statue of Hera. However, from other sources it is clear that Hesiod, too, mentioned Hera as the cause of the madness, and moreover, the mysteries of Dionysos can hardly have existed already in his time.71 So what did Melampous do in Argos? The daughters of King Proitos of Tiryns had become mad and wandered over the country, their skins covered with a kind of white eczema. Melampous promised to heal the girls if he received a sub- stantial reward. At ﬁrst the king refused, but eventually he had to give in. Melampous cured the girls, and both he and his brother received part of Proitos’ territory and a daughter as wife.72 The myth is later retold with Dionysos as the main god and all the women of Argos as protagonists, but it still contains the reward of the kingship. The continuing connection with Bias may well point to the old motif of the double kingship (above). Even if Argos is the centre of Melampous’ activities, tradition connected him also with many other places on the Pelopon- nese, such as Elis, Sikyon, Asine,73 and Lousoi. Clearly, Melampous was a really wandering seer.74 This is not the place to present a full analysis of the Melampous myth. That would require another paper at least. In the perspective of a comparative analysis of Greek and Near Eastern prophets, however, two more aspects seem to me worth commenting upon. First, it is clear that Melampous is already a full-ﬂedged mantis before he is married. We are not told at what age he received Proitos’ daughter as wife, but the age of adulthood in mythology is twenty.

71 A. Henrichs, ‘Die Proitiden im hesiodischen Katalog’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 15 (1974) 297–301; D. Cairns, ‘Myth and the Polis in Bacchylides’ Eleventh Ode’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 125 (2005) 35–50. This makes the analysis of W. Burkert, Homo necans, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 1983, 170–1 less persuasive in its combination of Dionysos and Hera. 72 Hesiod F 133 MW; Bacchylides 11.39–110 with H. Maehler ad loc.; Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 114 = F 114 Fowler; Alexis F 117 KA; Papyri Herculanenses 1609 VIII, cf. Henrichs, ‘Die Proitiden’; Vitruvius 8.3.51.5; Strabo 8.3.19; Pausanias 2.25.9, 5.5.10; Apollodorus 2.2.2; Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Οἴνη; Scholion on Callimachus, Hymns 3.236. Eustathius on Dionysius Periegetes 292, 15–21; Hesychius α 3345 Latte; Finkelberg, Greeks and Pre-Greeks, 80–84. 73 Bacchylides, frag. 4 Maehler, cf. S. Hornblower, Thucydides and Pindar, Oxford 2004, 124f. 74 M. Jost, ‘La légende de Mélampous en Argolide et dans le Péloponnèse’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique Suppl. 22 (1992) 173–84.

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That is when Jason turns up at King Pelias to ask for his heritage, that is when Telemachus goes out to seek for his father Odysseus, and that is when Oedipus sets out to Delphi to inquire about this parents; twenty is also the age when the Cretan novices got married en masse.75 Perhaps we have to think of a difference in age between the nobility and the smaller farmers, as Hesiod advises thirty as the proper age to marry,76 but Melampous was clearly fairly young when he started to perform as a seer. This was probably not chance, as youth is also the characteristic of another great seer in Greece. In addition to the Melampodidae, the seer family that claimed Melampous as its ancestor, there was also another famous seer family in Greece, the Iamidai, the custodians of Zeus’ prophetic altar at Olympia.77 Their ﬁrst ancestor Iamos had just attained adulthood when he was called in the middle of the night (compare Samuel!) by his grandfather Poseidon and father Apollo to go to Olympia .78 Last but not least, Teiresias surprised Ath- ena in the nude while bathing in a fountain and was punished with blindness. In compensation, the goddess made ‘him a seer to be sung of men hereafter, yea, more excellent far than any other’. At this fateful moment Teiresias was still a youth, as ‘the down was just darkening on his cheek’.79 We may think that such an age is too young for a proper mantis; certainly, if we think of a seer as venerable as Teiresias. Yet we cannot fail to notice that also in the Old Testament Samuel is pretty young when God calls him. His commission story starts with the words: ‘Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli’ (1 Sam 3:1). Subsequently he receives a vision, and the chapter is concluded with the words ‘As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel

75 Jason: Pindar, Pythian Odes 4. Oedipus: Schol. Odyssey 11.271. Collective marriage: see the suggestive observations by L. Gernet, Anthropologie de la Grece antique, Paris 1968, 39–45. 76 Hesiod, Opera 696–7 with West ad loc. 77 Kett, Proso pographie der historischen griechi schen Manteis, 84–93. 78 Pindar, Olympian Odes 6.57ff., cf. L. Gernet, Polyvalence des images. Testi e frammenti sulla leggenda greca, edn. A. Soldani, Pisa 2004, 54f. 79 Callimachus, Fifth Hymn 75–6 (beard), 121–2 (seer), trans. A.W. Mair, Loeb. For the episode see C. Calame, Poétique des mythes dans la Grèce antique, Paris 2000, 169–205; Ambühl, Kinder und junge Helden, 99–160.

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at Shiloh by the word of the LORD’ (1 Sam 3:19–21). It is clear that Samuel was still pretty young when he was made a prophet. The second aspect worth noticing is that in the myth of Melampous the seer is able to acquire part of the territory and thus to become king. We already encountered this connection with rulership in the myth of Mopsus’ fight with Amphilochos (above). We may also note the name Koiranos, ‘Ruler’, among the descendants of Melampous,80 who was also king of Argos,81 and it may be significant in this respect that the verb μαντεύεσθαι seems to have been formed in analogy to βασιλεύς/βασιλεύειν.82 Finally, a connection with political life appears in the function of Melampous’ sanctuary at Aigosthena as the local archive.83 Kings as seers or vice versa may look strange to us, but they are already well attested in the Iliad. The already mentioned Ennomos, who commanded the Mysians together with Chromis (II.858), was an ‘ornithomancer’, and king Merops of Percote did not see that his sons were not to return home from the war, even though he ‘beyond all men knew predictions’ (II.831).84 Other examples of king-seers are Anios of Delos (a son of Apollo), Mounichos (a king of the Molossi ans) and Phineus, the blind Thracian king whose divinatory qualities incited the Argonauts to shoot down the Harpies who daily defecated on his food.85 In short, king-seers are well attested in ancient Greece. In this respect there is a significant difference with the Israelite prophets. They also came close to the corridors of power, but they did not rise above the level of kingmaker. This becomes clear from the

80 Iliad V.148 and Scholion ad loc., XIII.566–70 with R. Janko ad loc.; Hesiod F 136 (?) MW; Pherecy des FGrH 3 F 115 = F 115 Fowler; Sopho cles F 391 Radt; Pausanias 1.43.5; Apollodorus 3.3.1. Koiranos’ etymology: A. Heubeck, ‘Koiranos, korragos und Verwandtes’, Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft NF 4 (1978) 91–8. 81 Hesiod F 136.3 MW; Pindar, Olympian Odes 13.75. 82 Lévy, ‘Devins et oracles chez Hérodote’, 354. 83 IG VII.207–8. 84 For these Trojans see P. Wathelet, Dictionnaire des Troyens de l’Iliade, 2 vols, Liège 1988 s.v.; add for the sons of Merops, B. Hainsworth, The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. 3, Cambridge 1993, 262f. 85 Anios: LIMC I.1 (1981) 793f. (Ph. Bruneau); SEG 32.218.41, 80; A.D. Trendall, ‘The Daughters of Anios’, in: E. Böhr & W. Martini (eds), Studien zu Mythologie und Vasenmale rei , Mainz 1986, 165-8. Mounichos: Antoninus Liberalis 14; L. Paleocrassa, LIMC VI.1 (1992) s.v. Teneros: Pindar, frag. 51d and 52g.13 Maehler; Strabo 9.2.34; Pausanias 9.26.1; scholia on Pindar, Pythian Odes 11.5 and Lycophron 1211; I. Rutherford, Pindar’s Paeans, Oxford 2001, 343f. Phineus: A. Kislinger, Phineus, Diss. Vienna, 1940; L. Kahil, LIMC VIII.1 (1994) s.v. Phineus I. Note also Polybius 34.2.6 on Danaus and Atreus as kings and seers.

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involvement of Samuel with both Saul (1 Samuel 10–11) and David (1 Samuel 16), of Ahija with Jerobeam (1 Kings 11), and of both Eli- jah and Elisha with both Jehu (1 Kings 19; 2 Kings 9) and Hazael (1 Kings 19; 2 Kings 8), the already mentioned Syrian king. In none of these cases does the Israelite prophet become a king himself. In fact, the Israelites had deposed the prophet Samuel from his pre-eminent position and replaced him with Saul as king (1 Samuel 8–11). In the cases of Mopsus and Melampous, seers could still reach the ultimate position of power, kingship, as they undoubtedly all came from the aristocratic class, and the political situation in Greece had not yet reached a certain equilibrium.86 It seems to me that this must reflect the pre-Homeric situation. In the historical Archaic Age we still hear of wandering seers, but no longer of seers reaching the highest positions in society. We cannot be completely certain about the Cretan Thaletas who went to Sparta to purify them from a plague.87 However, the Cretan Epimenides went to Athens in the 590s bc to purify the city from a plague or pollution,88 but he also visited Sparta where they preserved an oracle scroll carrying his name.89 Abaris was an archaic healer-seer who probably practised in the mid-sixth century bc, and who forecast plagues in Athens and Sparta.90 The Boeotian seer Bakis lived only slightly later, as Pisistratus was nicknamed after him, and he purified the Spartan women after an outbreak of madness.91 The last great healer-seer was Empedocles, who worked in the mid-fifth century in the full light of history and even called himself ‘a wanderer’ (B 112, 115 DK).92 Yet in that century seers increasingly declined in esteem,

86 For the social status of the archaic seer see J.N. Bremmer, ‘The Status and Symbolic Capital of the Seer’, in: R. Hägg (ed.), The Role of Religion in the Early Greek Polis, Stockholm 1996, 97–109. 87 Pratinas in: B. Snell, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 4 F 9; Aelian, Varia Historia 12.50. 88 R. Parker, Miasma, Oxford 1982, 209–10. 89 J.N. Bremmer, ‘The Skins of Pherekydes and Epimenides’, Mnemosyne IV 46 (1993) 234–36. 90 Lycurgus, frag. 14.5a Blass; Apollonius, Mirabilia 4; Iamblichus, Vita Pythagorae 28; Suda α 18; J.N. Bremmer, The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife, London/New York 2002, 38. 91 Theopompus FGrH 115 F 77; Suda, s.v. Bakis; cf. W. Burkert, ‘Apokalyptik im frühen Griechentum: Impulse und Transformationen’, in: D. Hellholm (ed.), Apocalypti- cism in the Mediterra nean world and the Near East, Tübingen 1983, 235–54 at 248–9; R. Parker, Athenian Religion, Oxford 1996, 87; O. Masson, Onomastica Graeca selecta, vol. 3, Geneva 2000, 207–8 well explains the name as ‘Speaker’. 92 For Empedocles see most recently A. Willi, The Languages of Aristophanes, Oxford 2003, 104–17.

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except for the military seers who remained in favour well into the Hel- lenistic era. It is therefore significant that in fourth-century comedy the great Melampous is described purifying the daughters of Proitos with a torch, a squill and hellebore, just like contemporary low-class peddlers of purification.93 The days of the great wandering seers were definitively a phenomenon of the past.

4. Excursus: Female travelling seers

Before I draw my conclusion I may perhaps be permitted to pose a problem. Until now we have spoken about male seers, but do we also find female travelling seers? In the Old Testament we find the fascinating story of Deborah, a prophetess who was also a judge. When she calls a certain Barak to lead the Israelites against the army of the Canaanites at Mount Tabor, he only goes if she goes with him, and so, the text says, ‘Deborah went up with him’ ( Judg 4:10). This is as much travelling, I fear, as we find among the Israelite prophetesses. It probably was not very different in ancient Greece. It is only in the last decade that attention has been drawn to the existence of female manteis. We have a relief of a female mantis from Mantinea with a liver in her hand,94 and it may not be chance that, according to Plato, a certain Diotima came from Mantinea to Athens and ‘for those who made sacrifices as she directed, she achieved a delay of the advent of the plague for ten years’, which makes her look very much like Epimenides.95 We also have a Hellenistic funerary stele from Thessalian Larissa with the laconic inscription ‘Satyra mantis’ (SEG 35.626), and the mention of a female mantis in a catalogue of civil officials of early Roman Sparta, ‘Alkibia, daughter of Teisamenos’ (IG V 1.141). The name of the father may well be significant, as Teisame- nos was an Iamid seer who came from Elis, the region of Olympia. The Spartans were so impressed by his mantic skills that during the Persian invasion they tried to contract him. Teisamenos was a skilful businessman and stipulated that he would only serve the Spartans on the condition that they would give him full civic rights, an exceptional

93 Diphilus F 125 with Kassel and Austin ad loc.; Parker, Miasma, 207f. 94 A. Hupﬂoher, ‘The Woman Holding a Liver from Mantineia: Female Manteis and Beyond’, in: E. Østby (ed.), Ancient Arcadia, Athens 2005, 77–91. 95 Plato, Symposium 201de, cf. Burkert, Orientalizing Revolution, 43.

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case in Sparta. When the Spartans initially refused but later consented, he went for more and required the same rights for his brother Hagias.96 With the Persians approaching quickly, the Spartans had to give in, and with Teisamenos as mantis they defeated Mardonius at Plataeae.97 Given that Teisamenos was the name of such a famous Spartan seer, Alkibia’s father almost certainly was a mantis too.98 Last but not least, the new Posidippus has also given us a female mantis: To acquire a servant the best bird of omen is the grey heron, which the mantis Asterie summons to her sacriﬁces. Trusting it Hieron acquired for the country a carer with lucky foot, and another for the house Posidippus 26 AB, trans. Austin, adapted. New discoveries, then, have enlarged our picture of the female mantis, but they do not seem to have been travellers like their famous male counterparts.

5. Conclusion

After this gender excursus, let us conclude with a brief comparison of the prophet Balaam with the mythological seers Mopsus and Melamp- ous. It is clear that there is a Wittgensteinian family resemblance between the early Greek and Aramaic/Israelite seers rather than a close similarity. Both were predictors of the future, healers of the sick, and connected with political power, but the Greek seers were of a higher class and technicians rather than visionaries. However, the special powers of these seers made them attractive to wide sections of society near and far. That is why in both cases we see them wandering and travelling through the Mediterranean and the Near East. Real talent, be it mantic or scholarly, knows no political boundaries.99

96 For the brothers Teisamenos and Hagias see now Hornblower, Thucydides and Pindar, 183–4. 97 Herodotus 9.33–6, cf. Burkert, Orientalizing Revolution, 42, who makes him into a Melampodid. For the problem of Teisamenos’ family background see most recently A. Schachter, ‘The seer Tisamenus and the Klytiadai’, Classical Quarterly 50 (2000) 292–5. 98 Kett, Prosopographie, 92, with other testimonia on the Iamids in Roman times. 99 This contribution proﬁted from audiences at the University of Groningen and Emory University, Atlanta, and from comments by Annemarie Ambühl, Bob Fowler and Kristina Meinking. Sandra Blakely kindly corrected my English.

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BALAAM IN ANCIENT JUDAISM

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Florentino García Martínez

According to Martin Abegg’s Concordance, Balaam appears once in the non-biblical Qumran scrolls in Hebrew, in 4Q175 1:9,1 and another time in an Aramaic text,2 in 4Q339, on a list of the false prophets who arose in Israel, among whom ‘Balaam, son of Beor, the old man from Bethel’ is the first.3 However, if we look a little further than this meagre attestation, we may find that the use of the Balaam story at Qumran may help us develop our understanding of the biblical narrative, which is our central concern here. When one looks at the basis of the narrative development, two different stories seem to be told in Numbers 22–24. In the one account, Balaam is considered in a rather positive light; his conduct is seen as blameless. He is not an Israelite of course but a kind of magician to whom ‘the money of divination’ must be paid (Num 22:7). However, he does obey YHWH’s orders and prophesizes what God commands him to. In the other account, following rabbinic tradition, Balaam has a thoroughly negative image: for example, he commits sodomy with his ass, loses his share in the world-to-come and harmful snakes arise from his rotten bones. Indeed, other biblical texts have been highly influential in the development of this negative image, such as Num 31:15–16 where Moses recalls the counsel attributed to Balaam, ‘Let the women do the work and Israelites will be defeated’. In fact this negative image is very old since, according to Gilles Dorival in his commentary on Numbers in La Bible d’Alexandrie, the ‘demonisation’ of Balaam is already evident in the Greek translation of Numbers 22–24: ‘La LXX de Nb est plus défavorable à Balaam que le TM: s’il est un inspiré, il n’est pas un prophète pour Seigneur’.4

1 M.G. Abegg, Jr., J.E. Bowley & E.M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls Concordance, Vol. 1: The Non-Biblical Texts from Qumran, Leiden 2003, 147. 2 Abegg, Bowley & Cook, Dead Sea Scrolls Concordance. Volume One, 800. 3 M. Broshi & A. Yardeni, Qumran Cave 4. XIV Parabiblical Texts. Part 2 (Discoveries in the Judean Desert XIX), Oxford 1995, 77–9, Plate XI. 4 G. Dorival, Les Nombres (La Bible d’Alexandrie 4), Paris 1994, 414.

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Where in this development can we locate an image of Balaam that can be drawn from the Qumran scrolls? In order to ﬁnd out, in this short note I will ﬁrst explore the biblical texts of Numbers 22–24 found at Qumran in order to see if the development found in the LXX is already present. Secondly, I will touch on the well known messianic interpretation of the fourth oracle, i.e. Num 24:17, found in different non-biblical texts from Qumran. This Qumran interpretation of the Balaam oracle has been so thoroughly studied that nothing new should be expected from my exposition. Nonetheless this interpretation is so important that in one way or another it should be included in our discussion.

1. Numbers 22–24 at Qumran

The three chapters of Numbers we are dealing with have been partially preserved in two manuscripts from Cave 4: 4Q23 (4QLev-Numa),5 which has preserved remains of Num 22:5–6, 22–24, and 4Q27 (4QNumb),6 which contains fragments of Num 22:5–21, 31–34, 37–38, 41; 23:1–4, 6, 13–15, 21–22, 27–30 and 24:1–10. 4QNumb is a particularly interesting manuscript. Its textual affiliation is not easy to ascribe. In general, it seems closer to the Samaritan Pentateuch than to the LXX or the MT. It has nevertheless a series of interesting variants. Here are some examples although the readings are not always absolutely certain. With regard to Num 22:6, both 4Q23 and 4Q27 read ynmm with the first person suffix, and not the plural of the LXX ἡμεῖς.7 In contrast, with regard to Num 22:11, 4Q27 has the same plus ≈ra ˆm (= ἐκ τῆς γῆς) of LXX.8 With regard to Num 22:13, Dorival interprets the variant of the Greek as τὸν κύριον ὑμῶν, whereas the MT reads μkxra, as a theological variant made by the translator: ‘La substitution de “votre seigneur” à “votre terre” est sans doute volontaire; il s’agit d’éviter que la terre qui doit revenir à Israël soit définie—même par Balaam—comme la

5 Edited by Eugene Ulrich in: E. Ulrich et al., Qumran Cave 4. VII: Genesis to Numbers (Discoveries in the Judean Desert XII), Oxford 1994, 153–76, Plates XXIII–XXX (= DJD XII). 6 Edited by Nathan Jastram in DJD XII, 205–67, Plates XXXVIII–XLIX. 7 DJD XII, 171 and 230. 8 DJD XII, 231. Although only the ﬁnal letter has been preserved, space requirements make the reading assured.

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proprieté des Moabites’.9 Dorival also thinks it is unlikely that the LXX could depend on a Hebrew model: ‘Il est difficile de croire que la LXX dépende d’un modèle qui, au lieu de μkxra, offrait hmkynwda’.10 4Q27 is difficult to decipher, but the most probable reading is the one by the editor:11 hmkynwda, a reading confirmed by the addition of wyl[ in the verse, which clearly refers to Balak as ‘their Lord’. With regard to Num 22:18, even if only the lamed has been preserved,12 it seems clear that 4Q27 has the addition of yblb which corresponds to the LXX addition of ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ μου. Commentators on the LXX usually explain the Greek addition as intended to harmonize with Num 24:13, although there it is translated by παρ’ ἐμαυτοῦ, but now we have a Hebrew manuscript containing the same addition in Num 22:18. With regard to Num 22:19, 4Q27 apparently contains a repetition of the expression used in Num 22:8 ‘and the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam’ though only the word yrç has been preserved.13 Although this concrete addition is not found in the Samaritan Pentateuch, it corresponds to one of the characteristics of this textual family: importing parallels from other parts of the Biblical texts. With regard to Num 23:3, 4Q27 also has a lengthy addition, this time corresponding to the addition present in the LXX.14 At the end of the verse the MT reads only: ypç ˚lyw, but the LXX has: καὶ παρέστη Βαλακ ἐπὶ τῆς θυσίας αὐτοῦ, καὶ Βαλααμ ἐπορεύθη ἐπερωτῆσαι τὸν θεὸν καὶ ἐπορεύθη εὐθεῖαν (‘And Balak stood by his offering, and Balaam went off to ask God and went straight away’). 4Q27 has pre served a text that corresponds to the first part of the LXX addition: μ[lbw wtl?w¿[ l[ qlb bxytyw ˚ly?w ‘and Balak went and stood by his holocaust, and Balaam . . .’ Based on the available space in the manuscript, the editors assume that the entire addition is present. Whereas the MT describes only the intention of Balaam to go, our text also describes the fulfilment of this intention. With regard to Num 23:4 in 4Q27, as in the Samaritan Pentateuch, it is not God himself who meets Balaam but his angel: μyhwla ˚alm,15

9 Dorival, Les Nombres, 105. 10 Ibid. 11 DJD XII, 231. 12 Ibid. Only the top of the letter is visible, the rest has peeled off. 13 Ibid. The word is completely preserved in frag. 21. 14 DJD XII, 234. 15 Partially reconstructed, only mem and lamed have been preserved, cf. DJD XII, 234.

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and consequently the editors have reconstructed the ‘angel’ as the one who speaks to Balaam in Num 23:5. With regard to Num 24:1, Jastram inserts the half verse found on 23:23 because of the space requirements of the reconstructed manuscript:16 larçyb μymsqhw bwq[yb μyç¿jnh (‘to look for the omens in Jacob and presages in Israel’). The variant cannot be proved, of course, but it would ﬁt with the tendency of the manuscript to insert elements from other sections of the biblical text, as the Samaritan Pentateuch characteristically does, and is required by the wynp rbdmh which appears in the next line.17 With regard to Num 24:6, it can be proved that our manuscript has hfn (‘pitched’) as in the Samaritan text, instead of the [fn (‘planted’) of the MT, assuring us that this metaphor was used by the LXX, that of the tent pitched or set up by the Lord (σκηναί, ἃς ἔπηξεν), and not of the aloe planted as in the MT.18 The last variant I want to note is on Num 24:9. I do not mean the simple exchange of [rk for r[k for all other major witnesses, because this is evidently a simple error by the copyist who has interchanged {ayin and resh, but the unique ≈br (‘stretches out’) for the MT bkç (‘lies down’) or the Greek ἀνεπαύσατο (‘takes a rest’), because the same Hebrew verb is used in Gen 49:9 in the blessing of Judah by Jacob. In fact, with the use of this verb (the rest of the verse has not been preserved), our manuscript brings this verse of Numbers in line with the verse of Genesis, where we can read that Judah ‘crouches, stretches out like a lion and like a lioness—who dares rouse him?’ (hyrak ≈br [rk wnmyqy ym ayblkw). This bringing in line with Gen 49:9 indicates, in my opinion, the secondary nature of this variant, but at the same time it introduces into the Balaam story the echoes of the blessing of Judah, which, we are going to see, plays an important role in the Qumran exegesis of Num 24:17. To conclude this brief overview of the preserved variants in the Qumran manuscripts, we cannot say that the progressive ‘demonisation’ of Balaam that Dorival sees in the Greek translation is already evident in our manuscripts. In spite of the shared variants, here the image of Balaam is closer to the positive representation found in the MT.

16 DJD XII, 236. 17 Ibidem. 18 The word is preserved in its integrity; the following hwhy has been inserted between the lines, see frag. 28.

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Unfortunately no remnants of the fourth oracle have been preserved. There is thus no way of ﬁnding out if some variants of the LXX and other textual families are attested to in the biblical copies of Numbers present at Qumran. We must go directly to the non-biblical texts that quote or interpret the oracle, particularly Num 24:15–17, which deals with the sceptre and star prophecy.

2. The Sceptre and Star Prophecy

The longest of the three quotations of the fourth Balaam oracle in the sectarian texts from Qumran is found in 4Q175,19 the so-called Testimonia, a unique sheet with four quotations on messianic figures, separated by vacat. This manuscript does not give an explicit interpretation of the texts but the selection made indicates that these texts, independently of their original meaning, have been interpreted as messianic.20 The first quotation (lines 1–8) is taken from Exod 20:18 as found in the Samaritan version, a combination of Deut 5:28–29 and Deut 18:18–19 of the MT announcing the coming of a prophet like Moses, the eschatological prophet. The third quotation (lines 14–20) is taken from Deut 33:8–11 and is applied to the priestly messiah, as specified by the added introduction ‘And about Levi he says’. The fourth quotation (lines 21–30) is taken from a composition found at Qumran preserved on two manuscripts (4Q378–379) and published under the title 4QApocryphon of Joshua,21 in which the reference to Josh 6:26 makes clear that the negative figure depicted there is the eschatological opponent of the messiahs: ‘an accursed man, a man of Belial’. The second quotation (lines 9–13) comes from the fourth oracle of Balaam and is the one that interests us here. It is taken from Num 24:15–17 and, apart from the different orthography of many words, contains only a few differences from the MT or the Samaritan version. It reads rw[bnb attached, but without the problematic waw of the MT. It introduces rça after ‘who knows the

19 Edited by J.M. Allegro, Qumrân Cave 4. I (4Q158–4Q186) (Discoveries in the Judean Desert V), Oxford 1968, 57–60, Plate XXI. 20 The messianic interpretation of the passage is generally acknowledged. The only exception is the article by J. Lübbe, “A Reinterpretation of 4QTestimonia,” Revue de Qumran 46/12 (1986) 187–197. For a synthetic treatment of the text, see J. Zimmermann, Messianische Texte aus Qumran (WUNT 2. Reihe 104), Tübingen 1998, 428–36. 21 Edited by C. Newsom in G. Brooke et al., Qumran Cave 4. XVII: Parabiblical Texts, Part 3 (DJD XXII), Oxford 1996, 237–88, Plates XVII–XXV.

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knowledge of the Most High’ that is not in the MT at that point, but which is present in the verse of Num 24:3, which Num 24:15 simply repeats. The second time it uses the singular ˆy[ instead of the plural, perhaps to harmonize the expression with the previous singular also present in the MT. Perhaps the most interesting variant is the change in the form of the verb μqw of the MT for μwqyw, not only because of the change of the temporal aspect, but because it has been inserted above the line, which gives me the impression that it represents the thinking of the copyist.22 The meaning of the quote is totally clear: for the collector of this series of quotes, the coming of a future royal messiah is announced in Balaam’s oracle. It is equally clear that the two words employed in the biblical text, ‘the star’ and the ‘sceptre’, bwq[ym bkwk and larçym fbç, are applied to a single anticipated ﬁgure, the one who will ‘crush the temples of Moab and cut to pieces all the sons of Seth’, a descendent of David who will rule as a victorious king in the eschatological era. In view of the age of the manuscript, I think we can consider this quote to be one of the older, if not the oldest, messianic interpretation of the biblical text, an interpretation that, as it appears in other contributions, will have great success in both Judaism and Christianity.23 The second quotation of Balaam’s oracle at Qumran, taken from Num 24:17–19, is found in one of the battle hymns of 1QM XI:5–6,24 where the quote is introduced as: rwmal zam wnl htdgh rçak ‘Thus you taught us from ancient times saying’. The ﬁrst part of the quote (Num 24:17) is practically identical to the MT, with the omission of only the waw before μq; but in the quote of verses 18 and 19, though easily recognizable, the order of the stychoi is different from all other versions. Elsewhere, we have translated the passage like this:25

22 The copyist of 4Q174 is the same one who penned 1QS, a fact that has led Xeravits to speculate that the copyist could have been the compiler of the Testimonia: ‘We may further note that the theological view to which the Testimonia seems to testify—the eschatological activity of three different protagonists—has only one other occurrence in the Qumran Library: 1QS IX 11, a passage written by the same scribe. This fact hypothetically allows us to suppose that the Testimonia could even have been compiled by this scribe, seeking to collect biblical paasages supporting this theological concept’. See G.G. Xeravits, King, Priest, Prophet. Positive Eschatological Protagonist of the Qumran Library (STDJ 47) Leiden 2003, 58. 23 See the contributions by Beyerle, Houtman & Sysling, and Leemans, this volume. 24 Edited by E.L. Sukenik, The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1955, Plates 16–34. 25 F. García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, Leiden 1994, 104.

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A star will depart from Jacob, a sceptre will be raised in Israel. It will smash the temples of Moab, it will destroy all the sons of Seth. It will come down from Jacob, it will exterminate the remnant of the city,26 the enemy will be its possession,27 and Israel will perform feats.28 Here we cannot deal with the textual form of the quotation.29 What it is interesting for our purpose is the meaning attributed to the quotation by the context in which it is placed, since it shows us how the text of Numbers was interpreted and to whom it was applied. The quote concludes the battle hymn to which previous liberations from enemies in the history of Israel were achieved by royal human agents with the help of God’s might (Goliath is given unto David’s hands in line 2, Israel is saved by the hands of the kings in line 3). Each victory is concluded with the cry hmjlmh hkl μa ayk (‘For the battle is yours!’), addressed to God. The Balaam oracle is adduced at the end, as a guarantee that the same will happen in the future final battle. The context does not specify if the bwq[ym bkwk and larçym fbç are understood as one or two different figures, but the form of the final part of the quotation makes clear that the referent is only one, the royal messiah who will lead the people in the final battle. In this second quote we thus find the same messianic interpretation of the oracle that we found in the first quote. The third perhaps most interesting and more often studied quotation of the same oracle is present in the first copy of the Damascus Document from the Cairo Genizah30 (CD VII:14–21; also partially preserved in 4Q266 3 iii 17–25 and 4Q269 5),31 in the section known as the ‘Amos- Numbers Midrash’ (CD VII:9–VIII:2). The passage is particularly

26 This is Num 24:19 in the MT. 27 This is a summary of the two ﬁrst stychoi of Num 24:18, but eliminates the concrete references to Adom and Sheir. 28 This is the conclusion of Num 24:18. 29 Jean Carmignac, who had written two long articles on the quotations of the Old Testament in 1QM (‘Les citations de l’Ancient Testament dans “La Guerre des Fils de Lumière contre les Fils de Ténèbres” ’, Revue Biblique 63 [1956] 234–60, 375–90), concludes in his translation of 1QM that Num 24 :17–19 is quoted in a ‘difﬁcilement intelligible’ form. See J. Carmignac – P. Gilbert, Les Textes de Qumran traduits et annotés I (Autour de la Bible), Paris 1961, 109. For a synthetic presentation of the differences see A.S. van der Woude, Die messianischen Vorstellungen der Gemeinde von Qumrân (Studia Semitica Neerlandica 3), Assen 1957, 119. 30 Edited by S. Schechter, Documents of Jewish Sectarians, vol 1: Fragments of a Zadokite Work, Cambridge 1910 (reprinted New York 1970). 31 The Qumran copies of the document were edited by J.M. Baumgarten, Qumran Cave 4.XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266–273) (Discoveries in the Judean Desert XVIII), Oxford 1996, 23–93, Plates I–XVII and 123–139, Plates XXIII–XXV.

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complex because the second copy of the Genizah text (pages XIX–XX) has preserved a rather different text, in which the quotations from Amos and Numbers are replaced by quotations from Zach 13:7 and Ezek 9:4 (XIX:5–14). Both passages are certainly related and Chaim Rabin has edited an eclectic text relegating to an appendix editions of both texts as found in the two manuscripts.32 The narrative frame is identical before and after the quotations, and both passages deal with future punishments for the unfaithful and rewards for the faithful. But the core part is different. In MS A the reasoning is explained by using a quotation from Isa 7:17 followed by Amos 5:26–27 and a subsidiary quotation from Amos 9:11; the quotation from Num 24:17 is split in two parts and applied to two different ﬁgures. In MS B the reasoning is explained using Zach 13:7 with a subsidiary quotation from Zach 11:11 and a quotation from Ezek 9:4. There have been many attempts to sort out the relationship between both passages.33 Some scholars, starting with the groundbreaking work of J. Murphy-O’Connor,34 modi- ﬁed later by Philip Davies35 and further developed by George Brooke36 and by Michael Knibb,37 have tried to explain the differences between both texts on the basis of redactional arguments. Some consider MS A the more original version, while others consider MS B as the more original. Other scholars, like S. White,38 consider both texts original and explain the differences simply by text-critical methods, errors and omissions in both manuscripts, originated by double haplography. Both versions repeat identical or nearly identical phrases at certain places, for example: ‘and all who despise’, ‘so as it is written’, ‘were given up to the sword’, ‘shall be delivered to the sword’, ‘these escaped at the age of the visitation’. Like other scholars, G. Xeravits combines both

32 C. Rabin, The Zadokite Documents, Oxford 19582, 28–36 and 78–80. 33 The latest attempt known to me is by G. Xeravits, in his article ‘Précisions sur le texte original et le concept messianique de CD 7:13–8:1 et 19:5–14’, Revue de Qumran 73 (1999) 47–59, and in his previously quoted book, King, Priest, Prophet, 38–47. 34 J. Murphy-O’Connor, ‘The Original Texts of CD 7:9–8:2=19:5–14’, Harvard Theological Review 64 (1971) 379–386. 35 P.R. Davies, The Damascus Covenant: An Interpretation of the Damascus Document ( Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 25), Shefﬁeld 1983, 143–72. 36 G. Brooke, ‘The Amos-Numbers Midrash (CD 7,13b–8,1a) and Messianic Expectations’, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 92 (1980) 397–404. 37 M.A. Knibb, ‘The Interpretation of Damascus Document VII,9b–VIII,2a and XIX,5b–14’, Revue de Qumran 57–58/15 (1991) 243–51. 38 S.A. White, ‘A Comparison of the “A” and “B” Manuscripts of the Damascus Document’, Revue de Qumran 48/12 (1987) 537–53.

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approaches (textual and redactional) in order to establish the relationship between the two parallel texts.39 All these efforts have greatly contributed to our understanding of the two midrashim, and the work will certainly continue in the future.40 But I doubt that with the available evidence we will ever be able to solve the problem satisfactorily. The fragments from cave 4 contain remnants of the Amos-Numbers midrash, but no trace of the Zachariah-Ezekiel midrash. Yet these remains are so fragmentary that no conclusion can be drawn from the absence. For our purpose, however, the matter is relatively unimportant, even if both texts contain somewhat different messianic ideas, since only MS A quotes Num 24:17. In the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, the text of CD VII:9–VIII:1 reads as follows:41 9 But (for) all those who despise: when God visits the earth in order to empty over them the punishment of the wicked, 10 when there comes the word which is written in the words of Isaiah, son of Amoz, the prophet, 11 who said: Isa 7:17 ‘There shall come upon you, upon your people and upon your father’s house, days such as 12 have come since Ephraim departed from Judah’. When the two houses of Israel separated, 13 Ephraim detached itself from Judah, and all the renegades were delivered up to the sword; but those who remained steadfast 14 escaped to the land of the north. Blank As he said: Am 5:26–27 ‘I will deport the Sikkut or your King 15 and the Kiyyun of your images away from my tent to Damascus’ Blank The books of the law are the Sukkat 16 of the King, as he said: Am 9:11 ‘I will lift up the fallen Sukkat of David’ Blank The King 17 is the assembly; and the Kiyyune of the images are the books of the prophets, 18 whose words Israel despised. Blank And the star is the Interpreter of the law, 19 who will come to Damascus, as is written: Num 24:17 ‘A star moves out of Jacob, and a sceptre arises 20 out of Israel’. The sceptre is the prince of the whole congregation and when he rises ‘he will destroy 21 all the sons of Seth’ Blank These escaped at the time of the ﬁrst visitation, while the renegades were delivered up to the sword.

39 See the works quoted in note 33. 40 See now S. Hultgren, ‘A New Literary Analysis of CD XIX–XX, Part I: CD XIX:1–32a (with CD VII:4b–VIII:18b). The Midrashim and the “Princes of Judah” ’, Revue de Qumran 84/21 (2004) 549–78; S. Hultgren, ‘A New Literary Analysis of CD XIX–XX, Part II: CD XIX:32b–XX:34. The Punctuation of CD XIX:33b–XX:1a and the Identity of the “New Covenant” ’, Revue de Qumran 85/22 (2005) 7–32. 41 F. García Martínez & E.J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, Leiden 2000, 561.

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Since I have previously commented on this text when dealing with the messianic expectations at Qumran,42 here I will concentrate only on the elements directly concerned with the use of Balaam’s oracle. The quotation from Num 24:17, here split in two, is introduced as justification of the previous explanation of the first quotation from Amos 5:26–27. In the text of Amos, the author chooses four words: twks, ˚lmh, ˆwyk and bkwk, and provides each one with an explanation, justified in two cases by secondary quotations. Though the Amos text as quoted differs in some instances from the MT, I think that the omission of the fourth element (bkwk; ‘the star’) in the quotation is accidental and probably due to the mediaeval copyist, because without it the introduction of the topic would not have been motivated (the MT reads: rça μkyhwla bkwk μkl μtyç[: ‘the star of your God that you made for yourselves’). The qumranic midrash, after having identified the ‘sukkat’ with the books of the law, using a quotation from Amos 9:11 to prove the point, and after having equated the ‘King’ with the assembly and the ‘Kiyyune’ with the words of the prophets, goes on to identify the ‘star’ with the Interpreter of the Law, an identification confirmed by the quotation of the first part of Num 24:17. This quotation, with its mention of fbç (‘sceptre’) besides ‘star’, provokes a new identification, that of the ‘sceptre’ with the ‘prince of the whole congregation’ (hd[h lk ayçn) whose arrival will cause the destruction of all the sons of Seth. Here it is clear that Balaam’s oracle is applied to two clearly distinct figures: the ‘star’ which is identified with the ‘Interpreter of the Law’ (hrwth çrwd awh bkwkhw), and the ‘sceptre’, which is equated with the ‘prince of the whole congregation’ (hd[h lk ayçn awh fbçh). This dual application clearly distinguishes this use from the other two quotations, which apply the text to a single messianic figure. As is well known, the problem with identifying the figure designated here as hrwth çrwd is the value that needs to be given to the participial form used in our text, i.e., abh, which may refer to a figure of the past or to a figure of the future (as in our translation). In the first case, this figure would refer to the original ‘Interpreter of the Law’ as in CD IV:7, where the same expression is applied to the founder of the group, also called the ‘Teacher of Righteousness’. In the second case, this figure

42 F. García Martínez, ‘Messianic Hope in the Qumran Writings’, in: F. García Martínez & J. Trebolle Barrera, The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Leiden 1995, 182–4.

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(whether or not a Teacher redivivus) would refer to an eschatological figure, which would carry messianic connotations. Since I am on record as a defender of this second position,43 I will not rehearse the arguments again here. Suffice to say that the quotations from either Amos 9:11 or Num 24:17 are used consistently in a eschatological sense in the Qumran writings. We have previously mentioned the use of Num 24:17 in 4Q175 and in 1QM. Amos 9:11 is also used in a clearly eschatological context in 4Q174, known as the Florilegium.44 In this text, which Steudel has proved was most probably part of an eschatological midrash,45 we read in a comment on 2 Sam 7:12–14 (4Q174 1 i 11–12): ‘This (refers) to the “branch of David” who will arise with the Interpreter of the Law who will rise in Zion in the last days, as it is written: “I will rise up the hut of David which has fallen”.’ Here, dywd tkws is not identified with ‘the books of the law’ (as in CD), but with dywd jmx, the ‘branch of David’, which is one of the titles of the royal messiah at Qumran (see also 4Q161 and 4Q252). And, more important, the hrwth çrwd will arise in Zion together with this messianic figure in the last days. Thus both figures should be in the same category: both are ‘messianic’ and both are expected μymyh tyrjab. The quotation of Num 24:17 is thus used in CD to express the anticipation of two eschatological figures. The second of these figures, the ‘sceptre’, is identified with the ‘prince of the whole congregation’ (d[h lk ayçn), a well-known qumranic designation for the royal messiah (see 4Q285 where he is identified with the dywyd jmx, 4Q161 or even 1QM), to whom the blessing of 1QSb V:20–29 is dedicated: hd[h ayçn ta ˚rbl lykçml. By splitting the quotation in two and applying it to two different messianic figures, the interpretation given in the Damascus Document shows us that the same text could be used for different purposes. Its messianic value was not reduced to introduce the classic expectation of a Royal Messiah (as in 4QTestimonia), but could also be put to the service of the different messianic conceptions developed within the community.

43 F. García Martínez, ‘Two Messianic Figures in the Qumran Texts’, in: D.W. Parry & S.D. Ricks, Current Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 20), Leiden 1996, 14–40. 44 Edited by J.M. Allegro, Qumrân Cave 4. I (4Q158–4Q186) (Discoveries in the Judean Desert V), Oxford 1968, 53–57, Plates XIX–XX. 45 A. Steudel, Der Midrash zur Eschatologie aus der Qumrangemeinde (4QmidrEschata.b) (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 13), Leiden 1994.

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The quotation of Balaam’s oracle in CD is clearly different from the two we have analyzed (on 4QTestimony and on 1QM). In CD the oracle is applied not to one messiah but two eschatological figures. However, the basic trust that God has spoken through Balaam, and that his words apply to the final salvation of Israel via (a) messianic figure(s), remains constant. At the beginning of this note I stated that of the two references to Balaam in the non-biblical scrolls from Qumran (in 4Q339), one makes him the first villain on a list of ‘false prophets who arose in Israel’. This text is thus witness to the progressive ‘demonisation’ stated earlier in the LXX. Despite this, the prophecy of ‘Baalam, son of Beor, the old man from Bethel’, as 4Q339 calls him, was not only accepted but used repeatedly in sectarian writings to express the diverse messianic expectations of the group.

van kooten_f5_69-82.indd 82 1/22/2008 7:41:19 PM A QUMRAN CAVE 2 FRAGMENT PRESERVING PART OF NUMBERS 23:5–7[8] (2Q29 1)

Eibert Tigchelaar

In this volume dedicated to the reception of Balaam and Numbers 22–24 it is fitting to publish a hitherto unidentified small Dead Sea Scrolls fragment preserving part of Num 23:5–7[8]. In 1962 Mau- rice Baillet published the fragments from Qumran Cave 2, including unidentified fragments which he grouped together on the basis of similarity of skin or script.1 Thus, 2Q29 consists of four small fragments, presently referred to as “Unclassified frags.” Baillet transcribed frag. 1 as follows: 1 ¿. rbdt. ?; 2 ¿.lb wnjnw μ‚?; 3 ¿a?, and gave the following translation “1 . . . tu parleras . . . 2 . . . et nous . . .”2 However, in many hands of this type (generally called “Herodian”) the letters waw and yod are barely distinguishable, and if one reads in l. 2 ynjny, “he led/leads me,” for wnjnw, “and we,” then one may transcribe and reconstruct the first lines as corresponding to Num 23:5–7:3 ¿. rObOdOtO h‚?kw 1 ¿q‚lb ynjny μO?ra 2 ¿a‚? 3

1. and th]is is what you must say .[ 2. (From) Ara]m Balak has brought me [ 3. ].[ The last trace of line 1 presents a problem. The trace seems to be the shoulder of lamed, or the upper right arm of šin or {ayin, in which case the text would have had a variant that is not attested elsewhere. But perhaps most of the leather has been abraded, in which case one may reconstruct on the basis of the transmitted texts b(w)çy¿w_, “So [he returned.” The traces in line 3 may reﬂect ¿a‚? or two letters, the second

1 M. Baillet, J.T. Milik, R. de Vaux, O.P., Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan III. Les ‘Petites Grottes’ de Qumrân. Exploration de la falaise. Les grottes 2Q , 3Q , 5Q , 6Q , 7Q à 10Q. Le rouleau de cuivre (Oxford, 1962). (= DJD III ) 2 DJD III, 92. 3 All translations follow the NRSV, though sometimes I have placed the words in a different order.

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being, most likely, {ayin or šin. The hand seems similar to that of 2Q7 (2QNumb) which consists of one fragment preserving part of Num 33:47–53. Since 2Q7 has the plene or full spelling in the words ybçwy (inhabitants) and lwk (all), and the long form of the sufﬁx in hmtwmb (their high places), I apply full spelling and long sufﬁxes in the reconstruction of 2Q29 1: l[ bxn hnhw wyla bwçy¿w_6 rObOdOtO h‚?wkw qlb la bwç rmwayw μ[lb ypb¿ 1 ?yrç lwkw awh wtlw[ μdq yrrhm bawm ˚lm ¿q‚lb ynjny μO?ra ˆm rmwayw wlçm açyw7 bawm¿ 2 ?hklw bwq[y yl hra hkl hwhy μ[z awl μw[za hmw la hbq awl bwqa hm8 larçy hm[z¿ 3

1. [in Balaam’s mouth, and said: “Return to Balak and th]is is what you must say.” 6So [he returned to Balak, who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the ofﬁcials of ] 2. [Moab. 7Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying: “From Ara]m Balak has brought me, [the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me; Come,] 3. [denounce Israel!’ 8How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? It is not clear to which word the traces of lines 3 belong. It cannot be xalef of either a(w)l or la of verse 8, since the upper arm of the lameds would have been visible on the fragment, and one must therefore assume a variant or, e.g., a blank space.4 The length of the reconstructed line of 2Q29 1 1 (78 letter-spaces) corresponds closely to that of the reconstructed lines of 2Q7 (73–78 letter-spaces), which I suggest to reconstruct differently from Baillet, assuming that Num 33:50 began at the right margin of a new line: yOr‚?hb wnjyw hmytlbd ˆwml[m w[syw47 hmytlbd ˆwml[b wnjyw dg ˆwbydm¿ 1 ?wbn ynpl μyr¿b‚[‚h l[ wnjyw49 wjry ˆdry l[ bawm tbr[b wnjyw μyrb[h yrhm w[syw48¿ 2 ?twmç¿yt ?t¿ybmO5 ˆdryh‚? [ ] vacat [ bawm twbr[b μyfçh lba d[¿ 3 la rbO?d51 rwmal wjry ˆdry l[ bawm tbr[b hçwm la hwhy rbdyw50¿ 4 ?htrm¿a‚l larçy ynb ta hO?mtçrwhw52 ˆ[nk ≈ra la ˆdryh ta μyrbw[ hmta yk hmhla¿ 5 ?hmkynpm ≈¿rOah ybçwy

4 LXX reads τί ἀράσωμαι ὃν μὴ ἀρᾶται κύριος ἢ τί καταράσωμαι ὃν μὴ καταρᾶται ὁ θεός, inverting the order hwhy . . . la of MT, but this does not help in interpreting the traces of line 3. A blank space would allow the identiﬁcation of alef as part of bwqa.

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lwk taw_? wdbat hmtwksm ymlx lwk taw hmtwykçm 6lwk ta hmtdbaw¿ 6 ?wdymç¿h hmtwmb tçr¿l‚? ≈rah ta yttn hmkl yk hb hmtbçyw ≈rah ta hmtçrwhw53¿ 7 htwa

1. [from Dibon-gad and camped at Almon-diblathaim. 47They set out from Almon-diblathaim and camped in the moun]tains of Aba[rim, before Nebo.] 2. [48They set out from the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho; 49they camped by] the Jordan from Be[th]-je[shimoth] 3. [as far as Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab. ] blank [ ] 4. [50In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 51Sp]eak to the Israelites, and s[ay] 5. [to them: When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52you shall drive out] the inhabitants of the lan[d from before you,] 6. [destroy all their ﬁgured stones, destroy all their cast images,] and de[molish] all their high places. 7. [53You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land] to [possess. Baillet placed 2Q29 frags. 1–4 together, but it is not obvious that frag. 2 belongs to the same manuscript, and it is impossible to match the remains with the text of Numbers. The few remains of frag. 3 could correspond to several sections of Numbers, e.g., Num 32:4–5 ?ˆj wnaxm μa wrmwayw5 hnqm hkydb[lw ayh hnqm ≈ra larçy td[ ¿ynplO 1 ˚yny¿[Ob 2

1. before [the congregation of Israel—is a land for cattle; and your servants have cattle.” 5They continued, “If we have found favor] 2. in [your] si[ght where line 1 has 61 letters-spaces, or Num 23:17 (ynpl and yr¿[Ob) with a mere 51 letter-spaces. Alternatively, if line 2 is read as ¿çOb, one may locate the fragment in the following places: Num 13:22–23 (with 81 letter-spaces): lwkçaw hrmz μçm wtrkyw lwkça ljn d[ wawbyw23 μyrxm ˆ[wx ¿ynplO 1 ?fwmb whwaçyw dja μybn[ μyn¿çOb 2

1. before Zoan in Egypt. 23And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole] 2. between t[wo of them.

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Num 15:25–26 (with 72 letter-spaces): hmkwtb rgh rglw larçy ynb td[ lwkl jlsnw26 hmtggç l[ hwhy ¿ynplO 1 ?μ[h lwkl yk hgg¿çOb 2

1. before [the Lord, for their error. 26All the congregation of the Israelites shall be forgiven, as well as the aliens residing among them, because the whole people was involved 2. in the er[ror. or, with 86 letter-spaces, in Num 15:28–29. The remains of 2Q29 4 are too limited and too uncertain to allow for any certain identiﬁcation. Baillet also stated that it would not be impossible that 2Q9 belonged to the same manuscript as 2Q7, in which case it should correspond to Num 18:8–9,5 but the line length would be shorter (58 letter-spaces if one reconstructs plene spelling and long sufﬁxes) compared to 2Q7 and 2Q29 1 (73–78 letter spaces): ?lwkl ytmwrt trmçm ta hkl yttn hnh ynaw ˆwrha la hwhy r¿b‚dyw8 1 ?hyhy hz9 μlw[ qwjl hkynblw hjçwml μyttn hkl larçy ynb yç¿kwq 2 hk¿l 3

1. 8[The Lord] spok[e to Aaron: I have given you charge of the offerings made to me, all] 2. the holy gi[fts of the Israelites; I have given them to you and your sons as a priestly portion due you in perpetuity. 9This shall be] 3. y[ours In sum, two Cave 2 fragments preserving part of Numbers can be assigned to the same manuscript (2QNumb), to wit the hitherto unidenti- ﬁed fragment 2Q29 1 (Num 23:5–7[8]) and 2Q7 (Num 33:47–53). An assignment of 2Q9 and 2Q29 3 to the same manuscript is possible, if one allows for columns of somewhat varying width in the same scroll.

5 DJD III, 59–60.

van kooten_f6_83-86.indd 86 1/22/2008 4:53:23 PM BALAAM AND ENOCH

Eibert Tigchelaar

The correspondences between 1 Enoch 1:2–3b and the Balaam oracles, especially Num 24:15–17a (cf. also Num 24:3–4) have been recognized since the beginnings of research on 1 Enoch.1 Most recently Nickelsburg has commented extensively on the relationship between the two sections, whereas Orlov adopted VanderKam’s suggestion that there are parallels between the ﬁgures of Balaam and Enoch.2 This contribution comments on some suggestions concerning the relationships between those literary sections and the ﬁgures of Balaam and Enoch.

1. 1 Enoch 1:2–3b and Num 24:15–17a

The relation between 1 Enoch 1:2–3b and Num 24:15–17a is undis- puted, but a detailed analysis of the parallels is problematic due to the

1 Cf., e.g., G.H. Schodde, The Book of Enoch Translated from the Ethiopic, with Introduction and Notes, Andover 1882, who in his notes to 1:2 merely states: ‘Cf. Num. xxiv. 3, 4, 15. Apocryphal writers claim inspiration for their works, and thus seek to put a pia fraus on a level with the canonical books’. R.H. Charles, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch Translated from the Editor’s Ethiopic Text, Oxford 1912, 4–5, called attention to the phrase ‘he saw the vision’ in 1 Enoch 1:2, ‘which would have been taken from Num 24:4’. M.E. Stone, ‘Lists of Revealed Things in the Apocalyptic Literature’, in: F.M. Cross, W.E. Lemke, & P.D. Miller (eds), Magnalia Dei: The Mighty Acts of God. Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Memory of G. Ernest Wright, Garden City, N.Y. 1976, 414–52, at 444n1, refers to the introduction of 1 Enoch, and its relation to ‘the Song of Balaam’. J.C. VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition, Washington, D.C., 1984, 115–8, 122, discusses the relation to Numbers 22–24 and to the ﬁgure of Balaam more extensively than anyone before. D. Suter, ‘Māšāl in the Similitudes of Enoch’, Journal of Biblical Literature 100 (1981) 202, esp. note 34, brieﬂy discusses the relation of ‘Enoch’s discourse to Balaam’s oracles in Numbers 23–24’. M. Black, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch: A New English Edition, Leiden 1985, 103–4, explained that 1 Enoch 1:2 was ‘largely modelled on the Balaam prophecy at Num. 24.3f.’, and suggested to remove the textual awkwardness in the beginning of 1 Enoch 1:2 by assuming that the verse followed its Numbers model; J.T. Greene, Balaam and His Interpreters: A Hermeneutical History of the Balaam Traditions, Atlanta, Ga., 1992, 135–40, mentions the textual correspondence, but is more interested in the trajectory of elements of what he calls the Balaam type. 2 G.W.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1–36; 81–108, Minneapolis 2001, 137–41; VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth, 116; A.A. Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition, Tübingen 2005, 41–2.

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incomplete and complex textual base of the Book of 1 Enoch. For 1 Enoch 1:2–3b we have the Ethiopic textual traditions, the Greek text preserved in the Akhmim manuscript, and some words of the Aramaic in 4Q201 1. There are differences between these witnesses, and too little remains of the Aramaic to reconstruct the original text with any conﬁdence.3 Moreover, an analysis of the intertextuality is even more problematic since Numbers 24 is written in Hebrew. Therefore, Nickelsburg presents the synopsis between Num 24:15–17a and his eclectic text of 1 Enoch 1:2–3b as follows in translation.4 Num 24:15a And he took up his discourse and said 1 Enoch 1:2a And he took up his discourse and said5

Num 24:15b ‘The oracle of Balaam, the son of Beor 1 Enoch 1:2b ‘Enoch,6 a righteous

Num 24:15c the oracle of a man whose eye is opened 1 Enoch 1:2b man whose eyes were opened by God

Num 24:16a the oracle of him who hears the words of God 1 Enoch 1:2d And from the words of the watchers and the holy ones I heard everything

Num 24:16b and knows the knowledge of the Most High 1 Enoch 1:2e and I knew what I saw

Num 24:16c who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with his eyes uncovered 1 Enoch 1:2c who had the vision of the Holy One and of heaven which the angels showed me

Num 24:17a I see him but not now, I behold him, but not nigh’ 1 Enoch 1:2f Not for this generation I do expound, but concerning one that is distant I speak

3 J.T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumrân Cave 4, Oxford 1976, 141–2, tentatively reconstructs the text. Differences between the textual witnesses are discussed in Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 137, 139. 4 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 138. I have omitted 1 Enoch 1:3a–b and 1 Enoch 93:1–3 from the synopsis, and have minimally rearranged and changed some words. Textual comments on 1 Enoch 1:2 are given in 135 and 137. 5 Cf. also 1 Enoch 1:3b: ‘And concerning them, I take up my discourse now’. 6 In view of the dependence on Numbers 24, Black, Book of Enoch, 104, and D.C. Olson, Enoch: A New Translation, North Richland Hills, Tex. 2004, 27, suggest that the text originally read ‘[The] Oracle of Enoch’, and that the word ‘oracle of ’ was accidentally lost.

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Nickelsburg briefly comments that ‘the language and the form of the unit [1 Enoch 1:2–3b] closely parallel the Balaam oracles, especially Num 24:15–17, and a similar dependence is evident in the introduction to the Apocalypse of Weeks’.7 However, as to the character of the relationship, he cautions: ‘[w]hether this author intends a specific allusion to the figure of Balaam is unclear’, and ‘[e]ven if no association with Balaam is intended, the form and content of his ancient oracles provide a model (. . .), which this author modifies for his own purposes’.8 Such warnings seem to be directed against attempts to overinterpret the literary correspondences. However, it is of interest to discuss the possible associations at greater length. This synopsis shows the close relation between the two passages, Num 24:15–17 and 1 Enoch 1:2–3b. In fact, Num 24:3–4 are quite similar to 24:15–16, but there are two arguments to assume that Num 24:15–17 and not Num 24:3–4 served as the model for 1 Enoch 1:2–3b. First, there is a correspondence between Num 24:16a (‘hearing’) and b (‘knowing’) with 1 Enoch 1:2d (‘hearing’) and e (‘knowing’), whereas Num 24:4 lacks the ‘knowing’, and in some versions also the ‘hearing’.9 Second, Num 24:17a en 1 Enoch 1:2f both state explicitly that the discourse does not address the present, but the future. The correspondence between both texts therefore exists in the following elements: the clause ‘and he took up his discourse and said’,10 ‘a man whose eye(s) is/were opened’, ‘hearing words of ’ God/the watchers, ‘knowing’, ‘seeing the vision of the Almighty/the Holy One’, and the statement that the words concern the future. This close correspondence suggests that we should read the text of 1 Enoch 1:2–3b against the background of its model. One way of doing so is by paying particular attention to modifications. Nickelsburg mentions three such modifications in 1 Enoch ‘which anticipate essential elements

7 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 137. 8 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 137. 9 Black, The Book of Enoch, 103–104 refers to the relationship to Num 24:3–4. MT Num 24:16 has the clause ˆwyl[ t[d [dyw where MT Num 24:4 only has rça, thus missing the ‘knowing’. However, SamP Num 24:4, is even shorter, corresponding only to MT 24:4b, therefore missing both the ‘hearing’ and the ‘knowing’. The same short reading has been reconstructed for reasons of space in 4QNumb XVII 16. Cf. DJD XII, 236–7, where the editor, N. Jastram, suggests that the Old Greek ‘probably did not have the long reading’. 10 The clause in LXX Num 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15, 20, 21, 23, is identical with 1 Enoch 1:2: Καὶ ἀναλαβὼν τὴν παραβολὴν αὐτοῦ εἶπεν, though the Aramaic had the plural ‘his discourses’.

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in the texts that follow in 1 Enoch’.11 First, Enoch is not identified as his father’s son, but as ‘a righteous man’, a designation that reappears in 1 Enoch 15:1, in the context of Enoch’s vision of God. Second, the reference to hearing ‘the words of the watchers and holy ones’ (instead of hearing ‘the words of God’) refers to the cosmic visions in chaps 17–36 that were interpreted by angels. Third, the designation of God as simply the ‘Holy One’ is not attested in this part of 1 Enoch,12 but, according to Nickelsburg, it may anticipate the Throne Vision of chaps 14–15 which itself may have been influenced by Isaiah 6 with its threefold holy. In other words, for Nickelsburg the modifications have a literary background: they anticipate or refer to the visions to come later in the book. Nickelsburg’s observations are valid, but one should also consider other possibilities. What would seem to be a modification might in fact be a different understanding of the model. Or modifications might not directly be due to the literary context, but to a broader context, or a non-textual background. A different interpretation may be the case with the first modification. While it is true that the designation ‘righteous one’ reappears at 1 Enoch 15:1, in the context of Enoch’s vision of God,13 one should consider another explanation. The word μtç of the Balaam clause ˆy[h μtç, which is usually translated ‘whose eye is opened’ or ‘whose eye is clear’, has been problematic for the early translators, some of which seem to have interpreted it as two words, ç with μt. Thus, the LXX renders μtç rbgh ˆy[h with ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἀληθινῶς ὁρῶν (Num 24:15),14 ‘the man who sees truly’, and Targum Onqelos yzj rypçd arbg, ‘the man who sees clearly’.15 Similarly, the orthography of the quotation of Num 24:15 in 4Q175

11 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 139. 12 ‘Holy One’ is attested in the composite designations ‘the Great Holy One’ (1 Enoch 1:3b) or ‘the Holy (and) Great One’ (1 Enoch 10:1; 12:3; 14:1). 13 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 139. Note though that in the Greek different expressions are used. In 1 Enoch 1:2 Ἑνώχ ἄνθρωπος δίκαιος, and in 15:1 Ἑνώχ, ἄνθρωπος ἀληθινὸς. The Ethiopic tradition reads in both verses be’si ādeq. This expression is used in Gen 6:9 for Noah: qydx çya jn; Νωε ἄνθρωπος δίκαιος. 14 Usually μt or μymt in the Hebrew Bible are not rendered by ἀληθινός in the LXX, but cf. Deut 32:4. In Job 1:1, where rçyw μt is rendered by ἀληθινός, ἄμεμπτος, δίκαιος, the word ἀληθινός seems to be an addition. Cf. also Job 1:8 rçyw μt rendered by ἄμεμπτος, ἀληθινός. 15 Cf. more extensively, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1670–71, and D. Houtman & H. Sysling, ‘Balaam’s Fourth Oracle According to the Aramaic Targums’, in this volume.

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10 ˆy[h μthç may also indicate that ç was interpreted as the particle.16 In short, the Enochic phrase ‘a righteous man’, may simply substitute the reference to the father of Num 24:15, but it is also possible that it has been influenced by a double understanding of μtç. The second modification, hearing the words of the watchers and holy ones, is also found in 1 Enoch 93:1, where is does not refer to angelic encounters in the immediate literary context. Though Nickelsburg is correct in referring to the cosmic visions or journeys in chs. 17–36, this idea is more general, being connected to the figure of Enoch as such. However, the question does not only concern modifications of phrases, but also that of contexts. For example, to what extent does the original context of the model (e.g., Numbers 24) assist in understanding 1 Enoch 1, or, vice versa, to what extent does the context of 1 Enoch 1 determine the understanding of the use of the model.

2. The Use of Scripture in 1 Enoch 1

It is generally acknowledged that 1 Enoch 1–5 form a late editorial addition to 1 Enoch 6–32 or 1 Enoch 6–36. Before the Qumran fragments were published it was thought that chaps 1–5 formed a late ‘introduction to the entire book written by the ﬁnal editor’.17 Milik’s edition of the Aramaic fragments changed this opinion: the manuscripts 4Q201 and 4Q202 contain remnants of both chaps 1–5 and of chaps 6ff, but not of any of the other Enochic booklets, and Milik thought it probable that both contained only the Book of Watchers.18 Most recently, Nickelsburg allowed for the possibility that chaps 1–5 were written as an introduction to the Book of Watchers with or without chaps 6–11, or perhaps as an introduction to a corpus that also contained 1 Enoch 81 and some

16 The orthography of 4Q175 (4QTestimonia) is notoriously irregular, and it is not clear whether the scribe interpreted the form as μt + hç, or as μth + ç. For other remarks on the orthography of this text, cf. my ‘In Search of the Scribe of 1QS’, in: S.M. Paul et al. (eds), Emanuel: Studies in Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel Tov, Leiden 2003, 439–52. 17 E.g., Charles, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch, 2. On the relation of chaps 1–5 to other parts of 1 Enoch, cf. the discussion in Hartman, Asking for a Meaning, 138–45. In E.J.C. Tigchelaar, Prophets of Old and The Day of the End: Zechariah, the Book of Watchers and Apocalyptic, Leiden 1996, 163, I argued that chaps 1–5 were added by the ﬁnal editor of the Book of Watchers, who incorporated 1:3–9, ‘an already existing text’, in chaps 1–5. 18 Milik, The Books of Enoch, 22, 25, 141, 165. This is questioned by Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 25.

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of the material in 91–94.19 Whatever the case, this introduction to 1 Enoch 6–36 (with or without more parts), contains more parallels to biblical texts than the other parts of the book. Other relations between the Book of Watchers and what is now known as the Hebrew Bible can be found,20 but the use of scripture in ch. 1 is more dense, and more direct than in the other parts of the Book of Watchers. This may in part be attributed to the subject matter: the Hebrew Scriptures have more models for theophanies than for journeys to the edges of the world. Yet, there may also have been a conscious attempt to root the booklet in established biblical language. 1 Enoch 1 uses the model of Num 24:15–17, but also of other Hebrew Bible passages. 1 Enoch 1:3c–7 and 9 present a theophany that is heavily dependent on biblical theophanic texts, in particular Deut 33:1–2, Mic 1:3–4, Jer 25:31, and Hab 3:3, 6, 10,21 whereas 1:8 is indebted to the language of the priestly blessing of Num 6:24–26. The question is whether we have here a pastiche of different, loosely connected passages, or whether the choice of these passages also reflects a specific exegesis. Throughout 1 Enoch 1 we find allusions to Deut 33:1–2. The heading of Deut 33:1 resounds in 1 Enoch 1:1a, whereas phrases of Deut 33:2 recur in 1 Enoch 1:3c, 4 and 9. Deut 33:1 This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death 1 Enoch 1:1a The words of the blessing with which Enoch blessed the righteous chosen

Deut 33:2a And he said: ‘The Lord has come from Sinai 1 Enoch 1:3c ‘The Great Holy One will come forth from his dwelling

Deut 33:2b and he has dawned from Seir to them 1 Enoch 1:4a and the eternal God will tread from there22 upon Mount Sinai

19 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 132. 20 Cf., e.g., M.A. Knibb, ‘The Use of Scripture in 1 Enoch 17–19’, in: F. García Martínez & G.P. Luttikhuizen (eds), Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome: Studies in Ancient Cultural Interaction in Honour of A. Hilhorst, Leiden 2003, 165–78. 21 See in detail J.C. VanderKam, ‘The Theophany of Enoch I 3b–7,9’, Vetus Testamentum 23 (1973) 129–50; L. Hartman, Asking for a Meaning: A Study of 1 Enoch 1–5, Lund 1979, 23–6; Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 142–9. 22 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 142 suggests to follow the Ethiopic ‘and from there’ (<ἐκεῖθεν) in stead of the Greek reading of the Akhmim manuscript ἐπὶ γῆν, ‘on the earth’. One may speculate that the text represents Aramaic ˆmyt ˆm, ‘from Teman’,

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Deut 33:2c he shone forth ([ypwh) from mount Paran 1 Enoch 1:4b he will shine forth ([pwyw) with his mighty army

Deut 33:2d And he has come from myriads of holy ones 1 Enoch 1:9a Behold he comes with myriads of his holy ones The text uses the model of Deuteronomy 33, but fuses, and in part sub- stitutes, it with expressions from other theophanic sections. For example, the phrase ‘The Great Holy One will come forth from his dwelling’ is reminiscent of Mic 1:3a and Isa 26:21a ‘For behold the Lord comes forth from his place’.23 The major modiﬁcation is that in Deuteronomy God appears from Sinai, whereas in 1 Enoch 1 He comes to Sinai.24 The overall relation between 1 Enoch 1:1, 3c–4, 9a with Deut 33:1–2 shows that the section 1 Enoch 1:2–3b corresponds to the simple ‘And he said’ of Deut 33:2a. In other words, the remodeled ‘Balaam-introduction’ is embedded in the remodeled and expanded Deuteronomy 33 section. Nickelsburg argues that 1 Enoch 1:1 was the superscription for one of the composite stages of 1 Enoch, since the allusion to Deut 33:1 served to introduce the work as an Enochic testament.25 On the other hand, he regards 1 Enoch 1:2–3b as the introduction to the theophanic oracle in 1 Enoch 1:3c–5:9.26 This distinction between the two introductions is questionable: 1 Enoch 1:1 may be the superscription of a composition, but it also serves as an introduction to the theophany and subsequent judgment and blessing of chap. 1, since both the heading and the description of the theophany are modeled on Deut 33:1–2. Also, the connection between 1 Enoch 1:2–3b and the subsequent theophany is less obvious. Nickelsburg states that ‘[t]he succession of the introduction (1:2–3) and the theophany with its accompanying judgment parallel the same order in Num 24:15–19’.27 Indeed, Num 24:17c ‘and he

instead of ˆmt ˆm, ‘from there’, and uses language of Hab 3:3. On the other hand, the variant reading ἐπὶ γῆν would link the clause up to Mic 1:3 ≈ra ytwmb l[ ˚rdw, ‘he will tread on the heights of the land’. 23 For other examples, cf. Hartman, Asking for a Meaning, 23–6, or Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 142–9. For example, the image of ‘treading’ in 1 Enoch 1:4a (πατήσει) may be based upon Mic 1:3 ˚rdw (Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 145). 24 On the reference to Sinai here, cf. A. Bedenbender, Der Gott der Welt tritt auf den Sinai: Entstehung, Entwicklung und Funktionsweise der frühjüdischen Apokalyptik, Berlin 2000, 228–30. 25 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 25, 135. 26 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 137. 27 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 144. Cf. also 141: ‘The introductory formula in Numbers and the complex of ideas in Balaam’s oracle are replicated here; the introduction in 1:2–3b leads to an announcement of the appearance of God and the judgment that will occur (1:3c–9)’.

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shall crush the borderlands of Moab’ may be interpreted as an act of judgment, but Nickelsburg does not elaborate on whether the famous prophecy of Num 24:17b ‘a star shall come forth from Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel’ is a theophany. In another respect though, 1 Enoch 1:2–3b is clearly an introduction to judgment, to wit that he speaks not for this present generation, but concerning one that is distant, a statement that recalls Num 24:17a ‘not now’ and ‘not nigh’. Within the context of 1 Enoch as a whole, ‘this generation’ alludes to Gen 7:1 where ‘this generation’ is the generation of the flood. Throughout 1 Enoch the flood serves as a model for the last judgment. The combination of Num 24:17a with Gen 7:1 would therefore mean: the judgment concerns not the generation of Noah and Enoch, the generation of the flood, but a future one. Not the first judgment, but the final one. This perspective, however, concerns not only the theophany, but the composition as such. Whereas it may be senseless to try to unravel the two introductions in a literary-critical manner, one should ask whether this introduction to the Book of the Watchers deliberately connects these specific patterns of Deut 33:1–2 and Num 24:15–17. Whereas this volume is concerned with the reception of Balaam, one should also ask why the author of the introduction to the book of Enoch uses the model of Deut 33:1–2 with the reference to Sinai. After all, the Mosaic law or Torah is largely absent from 1 Enoch, to the extent that Boccaccini has launched the hypothesis of two competing strands of Judaism, an Enochic and a Mosaic one.28 However, the author, as well as the text’s audience, must have been aware of the almost immediate sequence in Deut 33:4a ‘Moses charged us with the Law’. The allusions to Moses, Sinai and the Law, in the introduction of a book attributed to Enoch, can be explained in different ways. They may have been meant to indicate how to read the Book of the Watchers, namely as a book which precedes but also implies the Law.29 In this sense, there is no conflict between Enoch and Moses. Or should one interpret the intertextual correspondence between Deut 33:1, the blessing of Moses, and 1 Enoch 1:1, the blessing of Enoch, as an attempt on the part of Enochic editors to substitute Moses by Enoch?

28 G. Boccaccini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways Between Qumran and Enochic Judaism, Grand Rapids 1998. 29 Therefore, Bedenbender, Der Gott der Welt tritt auf den Sinai, 215, speaks about the ‘Mosaisierung des Wächterbuches’.

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In the Hebrew Bible, both Deut 33:1 and Num 24:15–16 introduce a divine intervention. In Deuteronomy 33, this is a theophany, being followed by the description of the subjection of the enemies, both in the blessings of the tribes (Deut 33:11) and at the end of the chapter. Num 24:17–19 has the famous oracle about the scepter and the star which are to crush the enemies by might. This oracle has been interpreted as referring to one or more royal or messianic ﬁgures, but in some cases this oracle may have been read as a theophany. This goes for one of the three quotations of the oracle in the Dead Sea Scrolls,30 namely the one in 1QM XI 6–7. The ‘Messianic’ interpretation is on the whole taken for granted, but Davies suggested that the quotation, if it belongs to the hymn (1QM X 17–XI 7) at all, applies to God, and not to a human warrior.31 In spite of Messianic interpretations in the same era, the possibility that the author of the hymn in 1QM used the quotation to refer to God cannot be ruled out. In that case, Jacob and Israel were apparently interpreted as geographical names, not as ethnical ones. It is likewise possible that the author of 1 Enoch 1 interpreted the oracle of Num 24:17–19 as a theophany. The ‘star’ is not mentioned in 1 Enoch 1, but where one would expect the oracle of the star, 1 Enoch 1:3 continues with a reworking of Deut 33:2 which describes the coming of God in terms which are also used to describe the rising and shining of the luminaries. Only the second of the three terms, jrz, ‘to dawn’, has been replaced by ˚rd, ‘to tread’, the same verb that is used in Num 24:17, but also in Mic 1:3. In short, the author of 1 Enoch 1 has replaced the oracle of Num 24:17b by a reworking of biblical theophanies, which indicates that he did not understand the oracle in a messianic way. In 1 Enoch 1:9, the theophany concludes in judgment on all, the destruction of the wicked, and the conviction of all ﬂesh ‘for all the wicked deeds that they have done, and the proud and hard words that sinners spoke against him’. In the interpretation of the oracle of Num- bers 24, the names of some of the nations have been replaced by more general terms. E.g., Num 24:18a ‘Edom will become a possession’, has been replaced in 1QM XI 7 by ‘the enemy will become a possession’,

30 Cf. on these quotations, e.g., G.G. Xeravits, King, Priest, Prophet: Positive Eschatological Protagonists of the Qumran Library, Leiden 2003, as well as F. García Martínez, this volume. 31 P.R. Davies, IQM, the War Scroll from Qumran: Its Structure and History, Rome 1977, 97.

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and the marginal reading in Sir 36:10 (MS B) gives ‘enemy’ for ‘Moab’ in the clause ‘exterminate the head of the temples (forehead) of Moab’.32 Nickelsburg offers several suggestions for ‘the speaking of the proud and hard words’, a phrase which is used again in 1 Enoch 5:4 which the addition ‘with your unclean mouths against his majesty’.33 A triangular reading of Numbers 24, 1 Enoch 1, and Sir 36:10 (MS B), gives yet another possibility: the claim by the head of the hostile leaders ‘There is no one like me’ (ytlwz ˆya), blasphemy by the appropriation of one of God’s attributes (Isa 45:21). In sum: even though the famous oracle of Num 24:17b–19 is not reworked explicitly in 1 Enoch 1, it is implied in the fusion of theophanic language in this chapter. There is no indication that the ‘star’ was interpreted as a messianic ﬁgure. On the contrary, the combination of the models of Num 24:15–17 and Deut 33:2 indicates that both sections were interpreted as referring to the coming of God.

3. Enoch and Balaam

Whereas the relation between Num 24:15–17 and 1 Enoch 1 is clear, this is not entirely the case with the possible relation between the figures of Balaam and Enoch. One must start by observing that Num 24:15–16 and 1 Enoch 1:2 are not only the introduction to a ‘discourse’, but also characterize and introduce the figures of Balaam and Enoch. Apparently, the author thought that the claims made by Balaam were to a large extent applicable to Enoch. Indeed, any editor reworking a text which contained the throne vision (1 Enoch 14–15) would recognize that the claims of Balaam that he had heard the words of God, had knowledge of the Most High, and had seen the vision of the Almighty, also held true for Enoch. Moreover, this not only goes for the figure of Balaam, but also for the eschatology of his oracles. Num 24:17 ‘not now . . . not nigh’ corresponds to 1 Enoch 1:2 ‘not for this generation, but concerning one that is distant’, and in Num 24:14 Balaam warns Balak

32 LXX (Sir 36:9) ‘Crush the heads of hostile rulers’ (interpreting here also ytap as ‘rulers’), and reading or interpreting ‘crush’ with Num 24:17 and Ps 68:22. Cf. also the Syriac (Sir 36:12) ‘Exterminate the crown of the enemy’. 33 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 158. ‘While the author may have in mind some kind of blasphemy strictly speaking, the detailed explications of sin in the Epistle suggest a number of other possibilities . . . may imply the teaching of false torah, which can be understood as an arrogant speaking against the majesty of God who gave the torah’.

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about what Israel would do to the Moabites ‘at the end of days’. In the Numbers context, the phrase may not have been intended eschatologi- cally, but, as VanderKam states, ‘for a Jewish writer of the Hellenistic age it would naturally have aroused eschatological thoughts’.34 In fact, the second part of the superscription in 1 Enoch 1:1 which refers to ‘the day of tribulation’ and ‘enemies’ is with regard to content related to this clause from Numbers 24. Another element which connects Numbers 22–24 to 1 Enoch 1–5 is the motif of curse and blessing. In short, in both texts we have a seer with divinely inspired knowledge about the far future who is able to curse and to bless. The question, however, is whether there is also an allusion to the figure of Balaam. VanderKam, and in his footsteps Orlov, claimed that both Enoch and Balaam ‘have strong associations with the world of divination and more specifically with the bārûtum’.35 The Mesopotamian priest-diviners called bārû were specialized to read the gods’ decisions from the inner organs of animals, configurations of oil in water, the rising of smoke and, according to VanderKam, mantic dreams. Their functions included giving oracles and verdicts, deciding the future, determining the time. A series of scholars, recently especially VanderKam and Kvanvig have discussed the correspondences between on the one hand Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and on the other Enmeduranki, the seventh antediluvian king in Mesopotamian tradition, who also was ‘diviner’, ‘priest’, and ‘guardian of secrets’.36 Hence, VanderKam and even more so Orlov are tempted to describe Enoch as a bārû. However, there are

34 VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth, 117–8. The phrase μymyh tyrjab is quite rare in the five books of Moses, being used only in Gen 49:1; Num 24:14; Deut 4:30; 31:29. 35 VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth, 116. Cf. also Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition,, 41–2. Note that for this subject Orlov does not go beyond what VanderKam and Kvanvig stated in the 1980’s, and that he displays no knowledge of recent literature on the bārû. Cf., e.g., U. Jeyes, Old Babylonian Extispicy: Omen Texts in the British Museum, Leiden 1989, although her distinction between secular and religious has not met approval; F.H. Cryer, Divination in Ancient Israel and Its Near Eastern Environment: A Socio- Historical Investigation, Sheffield 1994, 194–205, with good surveys of Ancient Near Eastern data, but conceptually disputable; J. Sweek, ‘Inquiring for the State in the Ancient Near East: Delineating Political Location’, in: L. Ciraolo & J. Seidel (eds), Magic and Divination in the Ancient World, Leiden 2002, 41–56. 36 Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition, 28. Cf. extensively, VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth, 33–51, and H.S. Kvanvig, Roots of Apocalyptic, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1988, 214–53. To W.G. Lambert, ‘Enmeduranki and Related Matters’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 21 (1967) 126–38, one should now add: W.G. Lambert, ‘The Qualifications of Babylonian Diviners’, in: S.M. Maul (ed.), Festschrift für Rykle Borger zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 24. Mai 1994: tikip santakki mala bašmu, Groningen 1998, 141–58.

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some problems. First, the figure of Enoch does not fit nicely in Meso- potamian categories. VanderKam acknowledges that the astronomical interests of Enoch do not really fit with the function of bārû. Also, the bārû is first and foremost a diviner, a specialist in extispicy, and the connection between the bārû and ‘mantic dreams’ is tenuous.37 VanderKam and Orlov also argue that Balaam was some kind of bārû.38 Some of the features in Numbers 22–24 have been related to the bārûs. On the other hand, the Deir Alla text mentions Balaam’s dreams in the night, which would link him both with one of the alleged specialisms of the bārû and with Enoch’s visions in 1 Enoch. Above I mentioned that the relationship between the bārû and ‘mantic dreams’, is problematic. However, the real question is not historical or phenomenological (‘Was Balaam a bārû type of diviner?’), but whether a second century BCE editor of the Book of Enoch would have regarded Balaam as a diviner comparable to Enoch.39 In response, one may argue the following. First, the elements in the narrative of Numbers 22–24 which suggest that Balaam was a diviner are entirely different from the picture of Enoch as presented in the early Enochic literature. The only correspondence is the receiving of visions in the night. Even if it would be justified to relate both Enoch and Balaam to the function of bārû, then only an overall knowledge of the various aspects of this function might bring the two figures together. Second, in view of the selective way the editor brings scriptural passages together, it is possible that he was not concerned with the original figure of Balaam, but chose those phrases which could be applied to Enoch, without any thoughts on phenomenological correspondences between Balaam and Enoch at all. As an alternative, one may consider whether Enoch should be compared with the seer Balaam of the Deir Alla text, rather than with the questionable bārû type of diviner. In his commentary to the first vision or dream of Enoch (1 Enoch 83–84), Nickelsburg very tentatively draws attention to a correspondence between the Enoch’s first vision and the

37 S.A.L. Butler, Mesopotamian Concepts of Dreams and Dream Rituals, Münster 1998, 37–40 opposes the view that bīru means ‘dreams’, though she concedes that twice it cannot mean extispicy and must mean something like ‘vision’. 38 For the history of research on the relation between Balaam and the bārû, cf. VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth, 116n32. 39 The function of the bārû and the art extispicy were already for centuries diminishing in importance, whereas astrology became more and more important.

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first combination of the Deir Alla Plaster Text.40 In the first combination, Balaam has a night vision, stands up in the morning, weeps and fasts for perhaps two days, and then tells the vision to the gathered chiefs of the assembly. The contents of the vision are even less well preserved, but it is clear that the vision concerns a coming disaster. In this first dream vision, Enoch had a vision how the heaven collapsed and fell on earth, whereupon the earth was swallowed in the abyss. In his sleep, Enoch weeps and laments, and his grandfather wakes him, after which Enoch tells the vision to his grandfather. Nickelsburg cautions that in view of the badly preserved state of the Deir Alla text and the controversies about the reading, no firm conclusions can be drawn. In spite of the correspondences ‘[t]he possible connections between this text and Enoch’s first dream vision are far from clear or even certain’. There are indeed formal or structural correspondences, but a comparison of the text of the first dream vision with that of the first combination of the Deir Alla text, shows that the correspondence is mainly restricted to some narrative elements, and not to the details. The few details of the the first combination of the Deir Alla Plaster Text that recall 1 Enoch are mainly those that are also found in Numbers, such as the reference to both hearing and seeing, and the reference to having visions of heaven which the gods show him. In that respect, 1 Enoch with its angels comes closer to the Deir Alla text with its plural gods (ˆhla and ˆydç) than to Num 24:15–17 with its grammatically singular forms ˆwyl[, la and ydç. It would seem that Balaam the dreamer and the seer provided a perfect model for Enoch the dreamer and the seer.

4. Conclusions

Within the history of reception of the Balaam ﬁgure and his ‘star and scepter’ oracle, 1 Enoch 1 has a special position. The Num 24:15–16 self-introduction of Balaam has been applied to Enoch, apparently implying a positive stance towards the Balaam type of seer. The Num 24:17–19 oracles is not quoted but implied in 1 Enoch 1, but the allusions suggest it was read as a theophany, not messianically.

40 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 347–8.

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Jacques T.A.G.M. van Ruiten

The subject of this contribution is the rewriting and interpretation of the Balaam story in the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (lab) of Pseudo- Philo. This work is usually classiﬁed as belonging to the literary genre of the ‘rewritten Bible’. It follows a large part of the biblical story, that is, from Genesis until the second book of Samuel, which is to say, from the creation of Adam until the death of Saul.1 The work dates from the second part of the ﬁrst century ce, and is one of the latest examples of the ‘rewritten Bible’ as, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 ce and the standardization of the biblical text, there was no longer a place for such phenomenon.2 The term ‘rewritten Bible’ was coined by Vermes who describes it as a midrashic insertion of haggadic development into the biblical narrative in order to anticipate questions and to solve problems in advance.3 The ‘rewritten Bible’ follows Scriptures, but includes a considerable number of additions and interpretative developments.4 According to

1 Cf. D.J. Harrington, ‘Pseudo-Philo’, in: J.H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, II, London 1985, 297–377, esp. 297. It is possible that lab is not complete in itself, but that it should continue until the end of the Second Book of Kings, where the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 is described. Cf. M.R. James, The Biblical Antiquities of Philo, London 1917, 60–5, 73; G. Kisch, Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (Publications in Mediaeval Studies. The University of Notre Dame X), Notre Dame 1949, 29; C. Dietzfelbinger, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum ( Jüdische Studien aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit II.2), Gütersloh 1975, 96–7; D.J. Harrington, Pseudo- Philon: Les Antiquités Bibliques, I (Sources Chrétiennes 229), Paris 1976, 21. In contrast, Jacobson is inclined to believe that the lab is complete. Cf. H. Jacobson, A Commentary on Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, I (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums 31), Leiden 1996, 253–254. See also C. Perrot & P.M. Bogaert, Pseudo-Philon: Les Antiquités Bibliques, II (Sources Chrétiennes 230), Paris 1976, 21–2. 2 The need for interpretation continues, however. The most important examples of interpretation of the standardized text of the Hebrew Bible are ‘midrash’ and ‘targum’. 3 G. Vermes, ‘The Life of Abraham’, in: G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism, Leiden 1961, 67–126, esp. 95. Cf. also Perrot & Bogaert, Pseudo-Philon, 22–8. 4 E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.–135 A.D.), III.1, Revised and Edited by G. Vermes, F. Millar, & M. Goodman, Edinburgh 1986, 326.

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Nickelsburgh, the ‘rewritten Bible’ is ‘very closely related to the biblical texts, expanding and paraphrasing them and implicitly commenting on them’.5 It follows a sequential, chronological order. Although it makes use of biblical words and phrases, these words and phrases are not set apart by way of quotation formula or lemma, but are integrated into a seamless retelling of the biblical story.6 In recent years, interest in the nature of biblical interpretation in early Jewish literature has grown.7 From the exile onwards, the books of the Pentateuch were the subject of interpretation. Kugel enumerates some fundamental assumptions about Scripture that characterize all ancient biblical interpretation.8 The Bible was read as a cryptic document with hidden meanings. It was a fundamentally relevant document for the interpreters and their audience. It was perfect and perfectly harmonious. This meant that there could be no mistake in the Bible. There could be no contradiction between what was said in one passage and what was said in another. Every apparent contradiction was an invitation to reveal the real, but hidden meaning of it. Quite often problems in the biblical text provided the clue for an interpretation. Halpern-Amaru has pointed out that polemical and theological interests and biblical interpretation are interwoven. Only close textual analysis could unravel that weave.9 With regard to the portrayal of Balaam in the Bible, there seems to be an internal contradiction.10 On the one hand, there seems to be a positive picture of the prophet in Numbers 22–24. Balaam is a

5 G.W.E. Nickelsburgh, ‘The Bible Rewritten and Expanded’, in: M.E. Stone (ed.), Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran Sectarian Writings, Philo, Josephus (Compendium Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum II.2), Assen 1984, 89–156, esp. 89. 6 P.S. Alexander, ‘Retelling the Old Testament’, in: D.A. Carson and H.G.M. Williamson (eds), It Is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture. Essays in Honour of Barnabas Lindars, Cambridge 1988, 99–121, esp. 116–7. 7 For the following, see J.L. Kugel, The Bible As It Was, Cambridge, Mass. 1997, 1–49. 8 Kugel, Bible, 17–23. 9 B. Halpern-Amaru, The Empowerment of Women in the Book of Jubilees (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism Series 60), Leiden 1999, 136. 10 See, e.g., M. Noth, Überlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch, Stuttgart 1948, 81–5; Cf. G. Vermes, ‘The Story of Balaam’, in: Vermes, Scripture and Tradition, 127–77, esp. 175–176; W. Gross, Bileam: Literar- und formkritische Untersuchung der Prosa in Num 22–24 (StANT, 38), München 1974; J.A. Hackett, ‘Balaam’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 1, 569–572; Kugel, Bible, 482–95; D. Frankel, ‘The Deuteronomic Portrayal of Balaam’, Vetus Testamentum 46 (2004) 30–42; M.L. Barré, ‘The Portrait of Balaam in Numbers 22–24’, Interpretation 51 (2004) 254–66. See also the contribution by E. Noort in this volume.

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prophet who blesses Israel and curses its enemies. He even predicts the Messiah. On the other hand, there are several passages in which the portrayal of Balaam is very negative. For example, Num 31:16: ‘These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the Lord’. This text ascribes the sin of Israel in Numbers 25 to Balaam. He advises the women of Moab to seduce Israel. The killing of Balaam by the sons of Israel (Num 31:8; Josh 13:22) seems to be the result of his negative advice. Other texts show that Balaam had in fact tried to curse Israel, but in the end God did not listen, and he is the one who changed the curse into a blessing (Deut 23:5–6; Josh 24:9–10). In the light of the assumptions behind ancient biblical interpretation, it is understandable that most pre-critical interpreters have problems with the ambiguous portrayal of Balaam in the Bible. We have to realize that the point of departure both for Pseudo-Philo as well as for the other early Jewish authors is the final form of the text. They could not divide the complete biblical story of Balaam into several layers (for example, Yahwistic, Elohistic, Priestly) in order to solve this problem of contradiction.11 The assumption of the perfect harmony of the Bible and the impossibility of mistake meant that although there is a completely conflicting portrayal of Balaam, there can be no contradiction between differing passages. On the basis of the negative portrayal of Balaam, many interpreters have raised the question of whether the description of Balaam in Numbers 22–24 is purely positive. Why does Balaam receive the messengers of Balak a second time? What is the meaning of the story of the ass in relation to Balaam? Is the portrayal of Balaam as positive as it seems at first glance?12 In most cases of early Jewish and early Christian exegesis, this leads to a completely negative interpretation of Balaam. Every innocent word or gesture of Balaam in Numbers 22–24 is interpreted in a negative way.13

11 For the development of the Balaam traditions, cf. M.S. Moore, The Balaam Traditions: Their Character and Development (SBLDS, 113), Atlanta, Ga. 1990; J.T. Greene, Balaam and His Interpreters: A Hermeneutical History of the Balaam Traditions (Brown Judaic Studies, 244) Atlanta, Ga., 1992; H. Seebass, Numeri IV/3 (BKAT, IV.3), Neukirchen- Vluyn 2004. 12 Cf. Kugel, Bible, 484. 13 Cf. Vermes, ‘Story of Balaam’, 127–177; Perrot and Bogaert, Pseudo-Philon, 124–125; L.H. Feldman, Prolegomenon to M.R. James, The Biblical Antiquities of Philo, New York 1971, C.

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Relatively speaking, Pseudo-Philo pays a lot of attention to the rewriting of the Balaam story in lab 18. It is difficult, however, to evaluate his interpretation of Balaam. Does he interpret Balaam in a positive or in a negative sense? Is the prophet a hero for Israel,14 or should he be called a villain?15 In order to give an answer to this question, I will firstly provide an overall comparison between Numbers 22–24 and lab 18. At the level of the macrostructure, the similarities and dissimilarities between both texts will be surveyed. I will also consider some of the characteristics of the narrative technique of the rewriting. Secondly, I will discuss in more detail the dissimilarities between both texts that are related to the ambiguity of Balaam. I will go through the text, and point to elements that are related to it. I refer here to the synoptic overview in the appendix to this article, where the full text of Numbers 22–24 and lab 18 can be found.16 Below I will attempt to give a classification of all the similarities and dissimilarities between Numbers 22–24 and lab 18.

An Overall Comparison of Numbers 22–24 and Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

Lab 18 can be considered as a rewriting of Numbers 22–24. It contains many transformations, which are brought about by problems in the biblical text. There are also many transformations, however, which seem, at ﬁrst sight, to have no clue in the biblical text at all. Pseudo-Philo has explicitely connected Numbers 22–24 with events in the narrative context, and it is more accurate to say that, in lab 18, he is retelling Num 21:21–25:18.17 The preceding passage in which the victory of Israel over the kings of the Amorites is described (Num 21:21–22:1) forms, in the eyes of Pseudo-Philo, the necessary background of the fear of Balak, whereas the integration of Numbers 25 (and Numbers

14 According to Vermes (‘Story of Balaam’, 174) Balaam is a tragic hero. His only desire is to do the will of God. When he realized that he had been deceived by Balak, he committed spiritual suicide by giving evil advice to the king. Departing in joy, hopeless in the end. 15 Jacobson, Commentary, 611. 16 In the latter part (LAB 18:10–13, and Num 22:36–24:24), I refrained from putting both texts side by side, because they are too different. Therefore I decided to give only the text of the LAB and refer to the biblical text in the margins. 17 The rewriting of the story of Balaam in LAB 18 is preceded by Korah’s rebellion (LAB 16; cf. Numbers 16) and Aaron’s rod (LAB 17; cf. Numbers 17), and is followed by Moses’ farewell, prayer, and death (LAB 19), which combines several elements from Deuteronomy 31–34.

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31:16) in Numbers 22–24 shows the problem of the ambiguity of the portrayal of Balaam. The seducing of the people after the daughters of Moab is a direct consequence of the prophecy of Balaam. As far as the narrative structure of Numbers 22–24 is concerned, Pseudo-Philo follows this quite closely, as can be seen in the following table.

Numbers Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum I. 21:21–22:4: The Exposition I. 18:1–2c: The Exposition II. 22:5–14: The First Invitation II. 18:2d–7f: The First Invitation a. 5–7: Invitation of Balak a. 2d–l: Invitation of Balak mediated by messengers b. 8: Response Balaam b. 3: Response Balaam c. 9–12: Meeting God and c. 4–6: Meeting God and Balaam Balaam d. 13–14: Balaam’s response d. 7a–f: Balaam’s response (refusal) (refusal) III. 22:15–35: The Second Invitation III. 18:7g –9: The Second Invitation a. 15–17: Invitation Balak a. 7g–o: Invitation Balak mediated by messengers b. 18–19: Response Balaam b. 8a–e: Response Balaam c. 20: Meeting God and Balaam c. 8f–i: Meeting God and Balaam d. 21: Departure Balaam d. 8j–k: Departure Balaam e. 22–35: The story of the ass e. 9a–i (Elements of the) story of the ass IV. 22:36–24:25: The Discourses of IV. 18:10–14: The Discourse of Balaam Balaam A. The Arrival Balaam A. The Arrival Balaam 22:36–40: Arrival Balaam 10a: Arrival Balaam in the in the land of Moab land of Moab B. The oracles and the narrative B. The oracle and the narrative context context 1. 22:41–23:12: First attempt to curse a. 22:41: Location I (Bamoth Baal) [ Balaam sees the extremity of the people (μ[h hxq)] b. 23:1–3: Preparation of the b. 10b–d: Preparation (Balaam meeting with God (Balak builds an altar and offers builds seven altars and Balak [10bc]; Balaam sees a part of and Balaam offer) the people ( partem populi ) [10d])

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Table (cont.) Numbers Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum c. 23:4–5: Balaam meets God d. 23:6: Balaam returns to Balak e. 3:7–10: First Oracle f. 23:11: Reaction Balak g. 3:12: Response Balaam 2. 23:13–26: Second attempt to curse a. 23:13–14a: Locations II (Field of Zophim, top of Pisgah) b. 23:14b–15: Preparation of the meeting with God (seven altars) c. 23:16: Balaam meets YHWH d. 23:17: Balaam returns to Balak e. 23:18–24: Second Oracle f. 3:25: Reaction Balak g. 23:26: Response Balaam 3. 23:27–24:19: Third attempt to curse a. 3:27–28: Location III (top of Peor) b. 23:29–30: Preparation of the meeting with God (seven altars) c. 24:1–2: Spirit of God upon c. 10e: Spirit of God does Balaam not abide in him d. – e. 24:3–9: Third Oracle e. 10f–12p: Oracle f. 24:10–11: Reaction Balak f. 12qr: Reaction Balak g. 24:12–14: Response Balaam g. 13: Response Balaam e’. 24:15–19: Fourth Oracle 4. 24:20–24: Three short Oracles – 20: against Amalek – 21–22: against the Kenite – 23–24: against Kittim V. Closure of the Story V. Closure of the Story 24:25: Departure of Balaam 14a–c: Departure of Balaam [25:1–18: Idolatry with Baal 14d–e: Seducing after the daughters Peor] of Moab

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The text of Numbers can be divided into five parts.18 The story is framed by the exposition (I: Num 21:21–22:4) and the closure (V: Num 24:25). Between the beginning and the end, the main body of Numbers 22–24 can roughly be divided into two parts. The first part (Num 22:1–35) is formed by the attempts of Balak to persuade Balaam to curse Israel. This part can be divided into two subunits: the first invitation (II: Num 22:5–14) and the second invitation (III: Num 22:15–35). The second part is formed by the discourses of Balaam (IV: Num 22:36–24:25) embedded in their narrative context. The repetitions in this part of the text are noticeable. After the arrival of Balaam (A: Num 22:36–40), the rest of the text (B: Num 22:41–24:24) can mainly be divided into three subunits with more or less the same structure, having seven recurring elements: B1 (Num 22:41–23:12), B2 (Num 23:13–26), B3 (23:27–24:19). Unit B1 and unit B2 in particular are very much in parallel. Unit B3 deviates in so far as there is no meeting between God and Balaam, but the spirit of God enters Balaam. There is also a fourth oracle, which is connected with the response of Balaam. The overview makes clear that the framework of the narrative of Num- bers 22–24 is clearly recognizable in LAB 18.19 The exposition (I) occurs in 18:1–2c, the closure (V) in 18:14abc.20 Also, the first invitation (II) and the second invitation (III) are clearly recognizable (resp. 18:2d–7f, and 18:7g–9). The story of the ass, which is part of the second invitation, is very much abbreviated. As far as the discourses of Balaam are concerned (IV), the most important difference between both texts is the fact that Numbers has four oracles of Balaam (22:41–24:19), with three additional short oracles (24:20–24), whereas Pseudo-Philo (v. 10–13) has one oracle. However, many of the recurring elements in the narrative context of the oracles also occur in LAB 18, but only once. This overall comparison of Numbers 22–24 and LAB 18 shows that the narrative structure of both texts is highly comparable. However, the content of these parallel texts is very different. In the synoptic overview,21 it is clear that apart from some verbatim quotations (often with variations),

18 For a different understanding of the structure, see, e.g., B.A. Levine, Numbers 1–20 (AB 4), New York 1993, 139–41. 19 For a study of the structure of LAB 18, see E. Reinmuth, Pseudo-Philo und Lukas: Studien zum Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum und seiner Bedeutung für die Interpretation des lukanischen Doppelwerks (WUNT 74), Tübingen 1994, 58–62. 20 Pseudo-Philo connects the closure of the story of Numbers 22–24 with Numbers 25 (LAB 18:14de). 21 See the synoptic overview in the appendix of this article.

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there are many omissions and additions in lab 18.22 In the following I will attempt to unravel the various threads of the author’s exegetical techniques, the traditional elements from biblical and non-biblical sources which exert inﬂuence on lab 18.23 Sometimes the text of Pseudo-Philo is somewhat disturbing with regard to the narrative technique. I shall give two examples.24 One of the striking things at the beginning of the text is that Pseudo-Philo (lab 18:2d–7) does not adopt the ‘messengers’ of Numbers 22 (v. 5–14). In lab 18:2d the text reads: ‘He sent to Balaam’, but it is not mentioned who was sent. In Numbers, the messengers act prominently. They are called ‘the messengers’ (v. 5a), but also ‘the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian’ (v. 7a), ‘the princes of Moab’ (v. 8d), ‘the princes of Balak’ (v. 13b), and ‘the princes of Moab’ (v. 14a). They are not only mentioned by name, but they also have a clear function. They have to bring the message of Balak to Balaam, and they have also brought some instruments to do so (v. 7a–c). In lab 18, it appears as if Balak speaks directly to Balaam. There are no intermediaries. Once Balaam is speaking, there seems to be more people involved, however: ‘and now wait (expectate: pluralis) here’ (v. 3f ). The inconsistency becomes completely clear when, after the response of Balaam, Gods says: ‘Who are the men who have come to you?’ (v. 4b).

22 When a passage in the lab deviates from the parallel passage in mt Numbers, it is not always possible to ascertain whether the deviation reﬂects the hand of the author or the text of his Vorlage. The comparison of Numbers and lab is complicated by the fact that one should establish which Hebrew biblical text the author had in front of him when he composed his book. Harrington has compared the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum with the extant versions of Numbers and concluded that the biblical text of the lab would have been a Palestinian text type. It agrees sometimes with lxx, at others with Samaritan Pentateuch or the mt, but is independent from them. Cf. D.J. Harrington, ‘The Biblical Text of Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 33 (1971) 1–17. One should always remain aware of this problem. The meth- odological problem is even more complicated. The lab is preserved in Latin, but since the study of Cohn in 1898 it is universally accepted that the Latin is a translation of the Greek, and that underlying the Greek there must have been a Hebrew original. Cf. L. Cohn, ‘An Apocryphal Work Ascribed to Philo of Alexandria’, Jewish Quarterly Review 10 (1898) 277–332; D.J. Harrington, ‘The Original Language of Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum’, Harvard Theological Review 63 (1970) 503–14. 23 Important research on the biblical interpretation in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum has been done by F.J. Murphy, Pseudo-Philo: Rewriting the Bible, New York 1993; H. Jacobson, A Commentary on Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, I–II (AGAJU, 31), Leiden 1996. 24 The examples are taken from H. Jacobson, ‘Biblical Quotation and Editorial Function in Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum’, Journal for the Study of Pseud- epigrapha 5 (1989) 47–64, esp. 54–5.

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A comparable problem with regard to the narrative technique can be found in lab 18:2i–k: ‘And now come, and curse this people because they are too many for us’. This is a quotation of Num 22:6a–c, with some variations: ‘And now come, curse this people for me, because they are too mighty for me’. The reference to ‘this people’ is completely clear in the biblical text since the people had just been mentioned (Num 22:5b–d: ‘Behold, a people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me’). However, this aspect is omitted in lab 18. As a consequence ‘this people’ has no reference in this text. Another interesting phenomenon in the rewriting of Pseudo-Philo is the fact that there seem to be conflated quotations. I will provide two examples to explain this technique. I refer to lab 18:3fg: ‘And now wait here, and I will see what the Lord may say to me this night’. At first sight, these lines seems to refer to Num 22:8. However, it is striking that some words in lab 18:3 do not occur in the biblical text: ‘and now’, ‘I will see’, and ‘what’. Moreover, it is doubtful whether the word ‘wait’ is an adequate rendering of wnyl (Lodge). Finally, ‘this night’ is transposed to the next sentence. One could say, of course, that Pseudo- Philo gives a free rendering of Num 22:8. However, when one looks at Num 22:19, where Balaam answers the second group of messengers, then it seems as if lab 18:3 is rendering Num 22:19 (as in lab 18:8).25 The missing words from lab 18:3 ‘and now’, ‘I will see’, and ‘what’ do occur in Num 22:19. ‘Wait’ seems to be an adequate rendering of wbç (wait) from Num 22:19, whereas ‘I will see’ also renders h[daw (I will know) from Num 22:19 in a plausible way. Finally, the rendering of ‘this night’ in lab 18:3g at the end of the second sentence might be influenced by Num 22:20, where it is said that God came to Balaam in the night. A second example is lab 18:4a: ‘And God said to him by night’. This could be a rendering of Num 22:9, although the words ‘to him’ and ‘by night’ do not occur in Numbers, whereas the words ‘came to Balaam’ do not occur in lab 18:4a. However, in the parallel phrase in the second invitation, that is, Num 22:20a, the words ‘to him’ and ‘at night’ are found. It is possible that in his formulation of the first invitation Pseudo-Philo is influenced by the formulation in the second.26

25 Jacobson, ‘Biblical Quotation’, 55–56. 26 Jacobson, ‘Biblical Quotation’, 56.

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More striking are the many omissions and additions. When looking at the synoptic overview, one could get the impression that we are dealing with two completely different kinds of texts that bear no relation whatsoever. In some cases, however, omissions in one text are connected to additions in the other text, although at different places. The difference with the above-mentioned category of conﬂated quotations is not completely clear. I will give a few examples. Firstly, Num 22:5d reads ‘and they are dwelling opposite me’. This has no direct counterpart in lab 18. However, we see more or less the same phrase in lab 18:2b: ‘and he was living opposite them’. Secondly, Num 22:6f–h reads ‘for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed’. This has no obvious counterpart in lab 18. Moreover, this raises a question: how is it that Balak knows this about Balaam? In lab 18:2g–h, we are given the answer: ‘Behold I know that in the reign of my father Zippor, when the Amorites fought him, you cursed them and they were handed over before him’.27 Thirdly, Num 22:17a (that is, in the second invitation) reads ‘for I will surely do you great honor’. However, we see that this is quoted in lab 18:2l: ‘and I will do you great honor’. Num 22:17a is followed by the request to curse the people in Num 22:17d: ‘Curse this people for me’, whereas lab 18:2l is preceded by this request in lab 18:2j: ‘Curse this people’.

The Ambiguity of Balaam

Most noticeable are the additions in lab 18 that give no direct clue, as far as the wording is concerned, to the biblical text of Numbers. For example, lab 18:3b–g, 4d–h, 5b–6e, 7i–o, 8bc, hi, 10h–13. For the most part, Pseudo-Philo’s portrait of Balaam in the rewriting is very positive. Balaam is a prophet who does not want to curse Israel, and who listens to the God of his chosen people. Balaam seems to have no passion for money, and he is not corrupt. He is not inﬂuenced by the offers of Balak’s messengers. In the end, however, it is said that although he blesses Israel, he is not blessed himself, and moreover that he gives negative advice about Israel to Balak. As I go through the text, I will pay particular attention to the portrayal of Balaam in lab.

27 Cf. Jacobson, Commentary, 577–578.

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The First Invitation ( lab 18:2d–7f )

The additions in lab 18:3 make clear that the future cursing of Israel gives pleasure to Balak. He seems to be convinced that this curse will succeed as it did when Balaam cursed the Amorites (cf. lab 18:2gh). Balaam explains, however, that success in the past does not guarantee future success. God’s plans are not man’s (or Balak’s) plans. Moreover, the gift of inspiration is given only temporarily (cf. lab 18:3d),28 whereas God determines what is the correct way.29 The additions make clear that Balaam can say only what is inspired by God. The additions in lab 18:4 can in a certain sense be related to Num 22:10–11. Whereas Balaam’s answer to God’s question in Numbers seems to imply that God did not know the answer, lab shows that Balaam, in Pseudo-Philo, interprets the question asked by God as a rhetorical question.30 God’s question is in fact a test. Subsequently, Balaam proclaims God’s omniscience (lab 18:4f ) and his creative power (18:4g). In the end, Balaam refers to himself as ‘your servant’ (lab 18:4h). Elsewhere in lab, Abraham and Moses are called ‘servant’.31 The designation ‘your servant’ for Balaam seems to express Pseudo- Philo’s high esteem. God’s answer in lab 18:5–6 follows the ﬁrst request of Balak to curse Israel (lab 18:2d–l). Balaam obtains God’s advice (lab 18:3fg). Although the wording is different in Numbers and lab 18, the result in both cases is God’s refusal. Whereas in Num 22:12 it is stated quite simply: ‘You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed’, the answer in lab 18:5–6 is much more elaborate and related to the patriarchal narratives of Genesis. In his answer, God recalls ﬁrstly the numerous offspring of Abraham (lab 18:5b–d). The promise occurs many times in Genesis (Gen 12:2; 13:16; 15:5; 16:10; 17:2, 4–6, 16, 20; 18:18; 21:12; 22:17 etc.). In two

28 This seems to be the interpretation of LAB 18:3d: ‘Now he does not realize that the spirit that is given to us is given for a time’. The spirit of God enters men temporarily on the occasion of their inspiration. So Jacobson, Commentary, 579. 29 So lab 18:3e: ‘Our ways are not straight unless God wishes it’. 30 The reply of Balaam in lab 18:4 is the reply he ought to have given according to Midrash Numbers Rabbah 20:6. See Vermes, ‘Story of Balaam’, 131–2; Feldman, Prolegomenon, ci; Murphy, Pseudo-Philo, 85; Jacobson, Commentary, 581. 31 See lab 6:11: ‘Why do you not answer me, Abram servant of God?’ 20:2: ‘Did I not speak on your behalf to Moses my servant?’ See also lab 15:5: ‘I will tell my servants, their fathers’; 38:4.

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of the occurrences, a comparison is made between Abraham’s descendants and the stars of heaven, that is, in Gen 15:5 and Gen 22:17. Most commentators refer only to Gen 22:17: ‘I will make your seed as many as the stars of the heaven’, as the source of lab 18:5d because of the continuation of the text (lab 18:5ghi) where Pseudo-Philo refers to the Aqedah (Genesis 22).32 However, it is also possible to point to Gen 15:5: ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. Then he said to him: So shall your seed be’. It is striking that Gen 15:1 speaks about a vision: ‘After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision’, as in lab 18:5b. It is possible that we are dealing with a conflation of two parallel texts. The first part of lab 18:5d: ‘Your seed will be’, derives from Gen 15:5, and the second part: ‘like the stars of the heaven’, from Gen 22:17.33 God continues by combining the promise of numerous offspring with the tradition that God has lifted Abraham above the firmament and shown him the universe (lab 18:5ef ). This theme also occurs in Testa- ment of Abraham 10–14, 2 Baruch 4:4, and Midrash Genesis Rabbah 44:12. Is it possible to link this passage to Gen 15:5a: ‘And he brought him outside’? In that case, we have here an early reference to a midrash on Gen 15:5.34 After this, God reminds Abraham of the offering of Isaac, Genesis 22 (lab 18:5g–k). God says that he demanded Isaac as a holocaust, and because Abraham did not refuse, his offering was acceptable for God.35 Although Isaac was not sacrificed,36 God declares that he has chosen Israel because of his blood.37 Balak tries to use the power of Balaam against Israel, but the Aqedah causes God to choose Israel.38 God reveals to Balaam that He had spoken with the ‘angels who work secretly’ (lab 18:5l). He starts this speech in lab 18:5n with a quotation from Gen 18:17, where God decides to reveal to Abraham

32 See, e.g., James, Biblical Antiquities, 123; Harrington, ‘Pseudo-Philo’, 325; Murphy, Pseudo-Philo, 85; B.N. Fisk, ‘Offering Isaac again and again. Pseudo-Philo’s Use of the Aqedah as Intertext’, Catholic Biblical Quaterly 62 (2000) 481–507, esp. 484–5. 33 Cf. Jacobson, Commentary, 582. 34 Cf. Midrash Genesis Rabbah 44:12, where hxwj (outside) is used as ‘heaven’. See also 2 Bar 4:4. 35 Cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1.13:2–4; Targum Jonathan Gen 22:1. 36 Cf. LAB 18:5i: ‘I gave him back to his father’. 37 Cf. BT Yoma 5a; Mekhilta de Rabbi Shimon 4. Although Isaac’s blood was not spilled, is does have expiatory value. Lab also refers to the Aqedah in 32:2–4 and 40:2. 38 Cf. Murphey, Pseudo-Philo, 86.

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all the acts he is going to perpetrate with regard to Sodom. In lab, this is applied to the election of Israel. The purpose of quoting Gen 18:17 is not completely clear. Perhaps one should look to the next verse (Gen 18:18) in which first the numerous offspring of Abraham and then the blessing are referred to: ‘Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him’. If this is true, this would mean that when Pseudo-Philo quotes Gen 18:17, he is in fact referring to Gen 18:18. However, I am not sure about this suggestion, because I am not aware of his using this technique elsewhere. It is nevertheless interesting to note that the first part of Gen 12:3 is quoted in lab 18:6de, whereas the second part of the verse, ‘and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’, which is very much comparable to the second phrase of Gen 18:18, is not quoted. God also reveals the election to Jacob, who he calls ‘firstborn’. This revelation is based on an interpretation of the blessing in Genesis 32. The final words of God to Balaam are a rhetorical question with regard to the proposal of Balaam to curse Israel (lab 18:6cde). The implicit warning is that Balaam will not be blessed if he curses Israel. This is an application of the first promise to Abraham in the Bible: ‘I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse’ (Gen 12:3). Three events in the history of the Patriarchs are cited by God as indications that Israel is a blessed people and cannot be cursed. First, the establishing of a covenant between God and Abraham (Gen 15) in lab 18:5b–f; second, the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22) in lab 18:5g–k; and third, Jacob’s wrestling with the angel of God (Gen 32) in lab 18:6. Each of these events is marked with a blessing of Abraham and his descendants. Pseudo-Philo’s appropriation of Genesis might mirror the hermeneutics of Numbers 22–24 itself.39 The parallel between the Abraham story and Balaam helps us to see the latter as a positive, sympathetic figure.

39 Cf. B.N. Fisk, ‘Offering Isaac again and again. Pseudo-Philo’s Use of the Aqedah as Intertext’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 62 (2000) 481–507 (esp. 485). Fisk points to several intertextual relations between Numbers 22–24 and Genesis 22 (cf. Fisk, ‘Offering Isaac’, 486–488). Also, other ancient interpreters combine the patriarchal stories and the Balaam narrative. Cf. Philo, De Migratione 109–119, Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 4.6.4.

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The second invitation ( lab 18:7g–9)

The additions with regard to the second invitation (lab 18:7g–9) mainly portray Balak,40 although possibly something is also said of the destiny of Balaam. In the eyes of Balak, holocausts will reconcile God with men (lab 18:7ij). This is apparently necessary, as Balak thinks that God will not help him because of his sins (cf. lab 18:7m). He asks Balaam to offer as many sacrifices as necessary to win God’s favour (lab 18:7kl). Both God and Balaam will profit, as Balaam will have a reward, and God his offerings (lab 18:7no). There is no clear connection with the text of Numbers. It is probable that the words of Balak in lab 18:7i–o are related to Num 22:16d–17b: ‘Let nothing hinder you from coming to me, for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say I will do’. In lab, Balak says what he thinks what could prevent Balaam from cursing Israel, which is the same as what prevents Balaam from doing what Balak commands. In lab, the mention of the offering of great honor to Balaam (Num 22:17a) is not mentioned with regard to the second invitation, but is transferred to the first invitation (lab 18:2l). However, the ‘reward’ mentioned in lab 18:7n: ‘You will have your reward’, could be used instead of the ‘great honor’ found in Num 22:17a. It is also possible to connect the reward with Num 22:18c: ‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold’. The remark that God will be reconciled with men if he gets his holocausts (cf. lab 18:7i–j) has no counterpart in the biblical text, but possibly refers to lab 18:5g–j. Because Abraham was ready to offer his son, he is a chosen one. Balak is trying to exceed this offer. God asks for Abra- ham’s son (lab 18:5g) in order that Israel be blessed, yet Balak offers God more in lab 18:7l: ‘as many holocausts as he wishes’. Balak wishes to persuade God with gifts, and to purchase a decision with money (cf. lab 18:11d; cf. also 18:10c, 12r). The offering as such does play an important part in Numbers. Every time Balaam receives an oracle, he brings an offering (Num 23:1–2, 14–15, 27–30). This is paralleled only once in lab (18:10bc) because there is only one oracle. Balaam’s answer to this second invitation of Balak contains two additions (lab 18:8), which are difficult to interpret. With regard to the first addition (lab 18:18bc), one should point to some disagreement among

40 Cf. Murphy, Pseudo-Philo, 86.

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the manuscripts.41 One manuscript, lab 18:8b, reads as follows: ‘Ecce insipiens est filius Sephor’, which can be translated: ‘Lo, the son of Sep- hor is foolish’.42 The other reading is ‘Ecce inspiciens est filius Sephor’ which is translated by Harrington as follows: ‘Behold the son of Zippor is looking around’.43 Jacobson translates it: ‘Behold the son of Zippor is a seer’. He takes the following ‘et’ as representating an adversative waw: ‘but he does not recognize that he dwells among the dead’.44 In any case, the addition seems to stress that Balaam evaluates Balak in a negative way and indeed consults God again. He also goes along with Balak, as in the biblical text. However, in the eyes of Balaam, Balak does not recognize that he dwells among the dead (lab 18:8c). Possibly, this means that wicked people, even if they are still alive, are called dead.45 The consequence of this is that Balak’s prayers and offerings will be of no consequence, because only the living can praise God. With regard to the second addition (lab 18:8hi), it is possible to interpret 18:8h: ‘And your way will be a stumbling block’, in the light of 18:8i: ‘And that Balak will go to ruin’. In this interpretation, both sentences contain a reference to Balak.46 The way of Balaam will be a stumbling block for Balak, who will be ruined by this. Balaam remains, at this point of the text, a positive figure. It is also possible, however, to read both sentences independently. In that case, it is not immediately clear for whom Balaam’s way is a stumbling block.47 One manuscript (π) adds tibi after 18: 8h: ‘And your way will be a stumbling block for you’. In this case, 18:8h can be related to Balaam, whereas 18:18i deals with Balak. Consequently, both will be visited by bad luck as a consequence of Balaam’s visit. This is supported by lab 18:11m–o: ‘For I know that, because I have been persuaded by Balak I have lessened the time of my life’. If this interpretation is correct, it is the first time in lab 18 that Balaam’s destiny is mentioned. Until the second consultation

41 Cf. Jacobson, Commentary, 590. 42 So James, Biblical Antiquities, 124; Kish, Liber Antiquitatum, 160. 43 Harrington, Pseudo-Philo, 87. 44 Jacobson, Commentary, 591. 45 See Jacobson, Commentary, 591, with reference to Babylonian Talmud Berachot 18b; Midrash Genesis Rabbah 39:7. Harrington, ‘Pseudo-Philo’, 325, note k, suggests that Balak (!) ‘does not recognize that the idols are dead’. See also James, Biblical Antiquities, 124; Perrot and Bogaert, Pseudo-Philon, 126 suggest that Balak the seer does not know his own destiny. Murphy, Pseudo-Philo, 87, says that Balak has a human way of reasoning, and therefore lacks knowledge of God’s ways. 46 Jacobson, Commentary, 591. 47 Murphy, Pseudo-Philo, 87.

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with God, Balaam is pictured as a prophet on the side of Israel, who refuses to be swayed by Balak. However, God’s permission to his request to go with Balak (18:8f–i) contains Balaam’s destruction. The transformation of the story of the ass in lab supports this interpretation. After Balaam departs with the messengers (18:8jk), the biblical story of the ass is very much shortened in lab 18:9. Neither God’s anger, nor the angel’s sword, nor the speaking ass are mentioned. In lab, the episode is reduced to a revelation of the angel and a summon to hurry. God’s anger and the opposition of the angel are summarized in the preceding words of God to Balaam: ‘Your way will be a stumbling block’ (18:8h). In a certain way, an internal contradiction in the text of the Bible is solved. In the biblical text, God ﬁrst permits Balaam to go, but when he does, God becomes angry. In LAB, the permission to go is directly linked to the coming destiny of Balaam.

The Discourse of Balaam ( lab 18:10–13)

In the rewriting of the first and second invitation, Balaam is valued positively. Pseudo-Philo does not give any negative interpretation of Balaam at places where other early Jewish and Christian authors do so. Balaam is not able to curse Israel, and seems to be a figure similar to Abraham. He nevertheless goes to God for a second time, but this is in conformity with the biblical text. The formulation of God’s second permission possibly anticipates the future destiny of Balaam. The positive evaluation of Balaam seems also to be present in the discourse (LAB 18:10–13). Balaam does not curse Israel, although Balak asks this of him (cf. LAB 18:10h–n). On the contrary, he condemns Moab and acknowledges the power of God (LAB 18:11c, 12e–g). At the same time, however, some negative characteristics of Balaam are given. The spirit of God does not abide in Balaam (LAB 18:10e, 11l), and his last hour has come (LAB 18:11m–12a, 12h–p). He admits that he has been led astray by Balak, and therefore he is not blessed, even though he blesses Israel (LAB 18:11mn, 12ij, 12no). After Balak has said to Balaam that God has cheated him (18:12qr), Balaam even gives negative advice concerning Israel (18:13a–i). Thus, in this last part of LAB 18, a shift in the evaluation of Balaam takes place, from a positive evaluation of Balaam who blesses Israel, to that of a prophet who will not be blessed and who even gives negative advice about Israel. It is difficult, however, to point to exactly where the change takes place and for what reason. Therefore, below I will examine some further aspects of this part of the text.

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The arrival of Balaam after his journey with the messengers is described in lab 18:10 very concisely: ‘And he came into the land of Moab’ (10a). In the biblical text, the meeting of Balaam and Balak is described quite extensively (Num 22:36–38). In lab 18:10b–f, Balaam carries out the offerings immediately after his arrival in the land of Moab and even before he makes contact with Balak. In the Bible, Balak is the ﬁrst to carry out the offerings (Num 22:39–40), while later on they either undertake them together (Num 23:2), or Balak is present when Balaam makes the offerings (Num 23:14), or Balak carries them out himself (Num 23:30). In lab, Balak is not mentioned when Balaam sees Israel (lab 18:10d), whereas in Numbers, they see the people together (Num 22:41; 23:13; 24:2). Pseudo-Philo seems to avoid giving the impression that Balaam is collaborating with Balak at this point in the text. In lab, the discourse of Balaam is not preceded by an encounter between Balaam and God (cf. Num 23:4–10, 16–24), nor by the mention that the spirit of God came upon him (Num 24:2–9). In lab, it seems as if Balaam utters his discourse without divine approval. lab 18:10e: ‘And when he saw part of the people, the spirit of God did not abide in him’ has a parallel in the biblical text, Num 24:2c: ‘And the spirit of God came upon him’. These parallel texts, however, are contradictory in meaning. In lab, Balaam loses the spirit, whereas in Numbers he receives it. It seems as if, according to Pseudo-Philo, the oracle of Balaam is delivered while the spirit is absent. At the beginning of the chapter (lab 18:3d), Balaam says to Balak that the spirit is given only for a time. This seems to imply that Balaam realizes that the spirit will not always rest in him. In lab 18:11l, it is said that only a little is left of the spirit, which is tantamount to saying that there is nothing left.48 According to Levison, the reason for changing Num 24:2 is probably the ambivalence of Pseudo-Philo with regard to ascribing to the spirit of God the delivering of an oracle to a prophet who is not from Israel, and who in the end led Israel astray. The spirit remains in Balaam, only to allow him to deliver his oracle. Whereas Pseudo- Philo is dependent on Scripture to ascribe the oracle of Balaam to the spirit, he contradicts this by adding a negative: ‘the spirit of God did not abide in him’.49

48 Cf. Levison, ‘Prophetic Inspiration’, 321. 49 Cf. Levison, ‘Prophetic Inspiration’, 321–2. Jacobson (Commentary, 594) has some problems accepting the fact that LAB 18:10e has a text that is contradictory to the biblical text. He suggests the deletion of the negation, but this does not satisfy him either, since it would mean that there was already the spirit of God in Balaam. According

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In the discourse of Balaam (lab 10:10h–12o), his message is that he cannot curse Israel, because it is indestructible (lab 18:10h–n). Israel is God’s heritage (v. 11a), and God has great commitment to his people (v. 11hi). Israel’s light is more brilliant than the splendour of lightning (v. 12c) and its course swifter than an arrow (v. 12d). In addition to these positive remarks with regard to Israel, Balaam expresses himself negatively about Moab (v. 12e–g), whereas the destiny of Balak, who tried to persuade God with gifts (v. 11d), is compared with that of Pharaoh, who tried to reduce Israel to slavery (v. 11ef ). One can conclude that the general picture of Balaam as described in lab 18 is a positive one, he is a prophet of Israel. However, two elements in the discourse seem to contradict this conclusion. In the ﬁrst place, Balaam alludes to his own fate and coming end (lab 18:11j–12a). He is restrained in his speech (lab 18:11j) and cannot say what he sees with his eyes (lab 18:11k). In lab 18:12 he also speaks in a negative way about himself. His last hour seems to have come (lab 18:12a). He gnashes his teeth (lab 18:12h). The fact that he was persuaded by Balak is given as the reason why he has lost time in his life (lab 18:11no). Although it is not completely clear, I think that here Pseudo-Philo is referring to the fact that Balaam listened to Balak a second time concerning the possibility of cursing Israel. After the ﬁrst consultation, it was clear that God did not wish Balaam to meet Balak (cf. lab 18:7). The fact that he listened to Balak a second time is possibly what is meant by his transgression (lab 18:12ij). Although God gave Balaam permission to meet Balak, and although his message remains positive for Israel, Balaam is still blamed.50 Balaam seems to be aware of the fact that it was because of this transgression that he was not blessed, despite the fact that he had blessed Israel and cursed Moab (lab 18:12no). This element seems to be in contradiction with the implication of lab 18:6de: ‘But if you curse them, who will be there to bless you?’, but his subsequent consultation with God seems to give a turn to his destiny. This is clearly anticipated in the formulation of God’s second statement

to Jacobson, this is questionable, and against the biblical text that says that the spirit comes upon Balaam. He suggests therefore the following textcritical solution. Originally the text probably reads: ‘there was a spirit’ (ἐγενέτο πνεῦμα), which became through a mistake in writing, ‘the spirit of God abides’ (ἐμενε το πνεῦμα). In Greek this is only a small change. In a later stage, a copyist did not like this and he added a negation (‘the spirit of God did not abide’). 50 Cf. Murphy, Pseudo-Philo, 89.

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giving permission for Balaam to meet Balak in lab 18:8h: ‘And your way will be a stumbling block’. The integration of the coming end of Balaam within his prophecy solves the contradiction in the biblical text that suggests that a prophet who is blessing Israel (Numbers 22–24) will also soon meet his end (cf. Num 31:8). In the second place, after Balaam ended his discourse, he grew silent (lab 18:12p). The spirit of God left him. Balak’s reaction is one of dissatisfaction with the blessing of Israel and the cursing of Moab, and he blames God for this (lab 18:12qr). It is only after Balaam has ﬁnished his discourse that he gives negative advice about Israel to Balak—Israel can only be defeated when it sins: ‘Come and let us plan what you should do to them. Pick out the beautiful women who are among us and in Midian, and station them naked and adorned with gold and precious stones before them. When they see them and lie with them, they will sin against their Lord and fall into your hands; for otherwise you cannot ﬁght against them’ (lab 18:13). In the biblical text, Balaam has already gone home before the people of Israel begin to have sexual relations with the daughters of Moab. Pseudo-Philo, however, explicitly states that Balaam had counselled Balak to use the women. He borrows this negative point from another biblical story rather than Numbers 22–24. It refers to the story of Baal Peor (Num- bers 25), which is ascribed to Balaam in Num 31:16: ‘These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor . . .’. The formulation in Num 31:16 is not completely clear, since ‘on Balaam’s advice’ is the translation of the Hebrew μ[lb rbdb which means literally ‘in the word (matter) of Balaam’. However, the text suggests that Balaam has at least something to do with it. In lab, the advice of Balaam is interwoven into the story about his prophecy.51 The closure of the text mentions his advice once again, but Pseudo-Philo seems to put the responsibility mainly on the shoulders of Balak: ‘And afterward the people were seduced after the daughters of Moab. For Balak did everything that Balaam had showed him’ (lab 18:14de).

51 It is possible that the negative advice of Balaam reﬂects the introduction of the fourth oracle: ‘Come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days’ (Num 24:14b). In Numbers, it is clear that ‘this people’ is Israel, and ‘your people’ is Moab. Possibly Pseudo-Philo turns this around: ‘Come and let us plan what you (Balak) should do to them (Israel)’ (lab 18:13b).

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By integrating this negative aspect of the portrayal of Balaam into the story of Numbers 22–24, Pseudo-Philo tries to harmonize the contrasting passages in the Bible with regard to the portrayal of Balaam. What is important here, is that Balaam’s negative advice is delivered only after his prophecy is complete. The spirit of God has left Balaam, and only then does he give this counsel. Balaam’s advice to seduce Israel is not a prophecy. He does not curse Israel. As a prophet under the inspiration of the spirit of God, Balaam did the right thing. Only without this inspiration is Balaam able to give negative advice to Balak.

Conclusion

Pseudo-Philo combines the positive portrayal of Balaam with a negative one, through a gradual diminishing of the spirit. At the end of his oracle, lab speaks about a prophet at the end of his life. Although he did not curse Israel, he is misled by Balak, and therefore he will soon come to his end, and will not be blessed by God. Only after he ends his oracle, is he able to give his negative advice to Balak. Pseudo-Philo integrates Numbers 22–24 not only with Num 31:16, but also with texts such as Num 31:8 that predict the coming end of Balaam. The change in the characterization of Balaam mainly takes place at the end of his discourse, but is already anticipated by the answer of God at the second consultation.

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APPENDIX

A SYNOPTIC OVERVIEW OF NUMBERS 22:2–25:1 AND PSEUDO-PHILO, LIBER ANTIQUITATUM BIBLICARUM 18

In the following synoptic overview I give the texts of Numbers and Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18 in the English translation. Biblical verses are quoted according to the Revised Standard Version with slight modifications. Quotations from the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum are from D.J. Harrington, ‘Pseudo-Philo’, in: J.H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, II, London 1985, 297–377, based on the Latin edition of the text edited in D.J. Harrington, Pseudo-Philon. Les Antiquités Bibliques, I (SC 229), Paris 1976, 148–57, also with slight modifications. The modifications are made at points where the comparison of these texts would otherwise have been troubled.

I put in small caps the elements of Numbers which do not occur in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, and vice versa, i.e., the omissions and additions. In ‘normal script’ are the elements that corresponds in both texts, i.e., the verbatim quotations of one or more words of the source text in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. I put in italics all variations between Numbers and Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum other than addition or omission. The verbatim quotations and the modiﬁcations of them can occur in the same word order or sentence-order in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum as in Numbers. However, sometimes there is a rearrangement of words and sentences. I underline those elements.

I. The Exposition (Num 21:21–22:1 // LAB 18:1–2c)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

[Cf. Num 21:21–22:1] 1a In that time, Moses killed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, b and he handed over all their land to his own people, c and they dwelled in it. 2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw [ ] all that Israel had done to the Amorites.

2a Balak [ ] was king of Moab, [cf. Num 22:5d] b and he was living opposite them, 3a And Moab was in great dread of the c and he was very much afraid [ ]. people, b because they were many; [ ] c Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. 4a And Moab said to the elders of Midian: b ‘This horde will now lick up all that is round about us, c as the ox licks up the grass of the field’. 4d Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab in that time.

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II. The First Invitation (Num 22:5–14 // LAB 18:2d–7f )

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

5a He sent messengers to Balaam the 2d And he sent [ ] to Balaam the son son of Beor[ ] at Pethor, which is near of Beor, the interpreter of the River, in the land of Amaw dreams, who lived in Mesopotamia, to call him, e and commanded him, saying: f saying: b ‘Behold, a people has come out g ‘Behold [ ] of Egypt; c they cover the face of the earth, d and they are dwelling opposite me. [cf. LAB 18:2b] [cf. Num 22:6f–h] I know that in the reign of my father Zippor, when the Amorites fought him, you cursed them h and they were handed over before him. 6a And now come, i And now come b [ ] curse this people for me, j and curse this people [ ], c because they are too mighty for me; k because they are too many for us, [cf. Num 22:17a] l and I will do you great honor’. d perhaps I shall be able to defeat [ ] them e and drive them from the land; f for I know that g he whom you bless is blessed, [cf. LAB 18:2g–h] h and he whom you curse is cursed’. 7a So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand; b and they came to Balaam, c and gave him Balak’s message. 8a And he said to them: 3a And Balaam said [ ]: [ ] b ‘Behold this has given pleasure to Balak, c but he does not know that the plan of God is not like the plan of man. d Now he does not realize that the spirit that is given to us is given for a time. e But out ways are not straight unless God wishes it. b ‘Lodge here this night, f And now wait here, c and I will bring back word to you, as g and I will see what the Lord may say to the Lord speaks to me’; me this night’. d so the princes of Moab stayed [ ] with Balaam.

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Table (cont.)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

9a And God came to Balaam and 4a And God [ ] said to him by said [ ]: night: b ‘Who are these men with you?’ b ‘Who are the men who have come to you?’ 10a And Balaam said to God: c And Balaam said [ ]: b ‘Balak the son of Zippor, king [ ] of Moab, has sent to me, saying: 11a “Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, b and it covers the face of the earth; c now come, d curse them for me; e perhaps I shall be able to ﬁght against them f and drive them out”.’ [ ] d ‘Why, Lord, do you try the human race? e They cannot endure it, f because you know well what is to happen in the world, g even before you founded it. h And not enlighten your servant if it be right to go forth with them’. 12a God said to Balaam: 5a And he said to him: b ‘You shall not go with them; [ ] c you shall not curse the people, d for they are blessed’. [ ] b ‘Is it not regarding this people that I spoke to Abraham in a (cf. Gen 15:1) vision, c saying: (cf. Gen 22:17 / 15:5) d “Your seed will be like the stars of the heaven”, (cf. Gen 15:5a?) e when I lifted him above the firmament (cf. Test. Abr. 10–14; 2 Bar 4:4) f and showed him the arrangements of all the stars? (cf. Gen 22:1–19) g And I demanded his son as a holocaust. h And he brought him to be placed on the alter, i but I gave him back to his father, j and, because he did not refuse, his offering was acceptable before me, k and on account of his blood I chose them.

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Table (cont.)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18 l And then I said to the angels who work secretly: (cf. Gen 18:17) m “I will reveal everything I am doing to Abraham” 6a and to Jacob his son, the third one whom I called firstborn (cf. Gen 32:25–30) b who, when he was wrestling in the dust with the angel who was in charge of hymns, would not let him go until he blessed him’ ”. c And do you propose to go forth with them to curse whom I have chosen? (cf. Gen 12:3) d But if you curse them, e who will be there to bless you?’

13a And Balaam arose in the morning, 7a And Balaam arose in the morning, b and said to the princes of Balak: b and said [ ]: c ‘Go to your own land; c ‘Be on your way, d because the Lord has refused to let d because God does not wish me to come me go with you’. with you’. 14a And the princes of Moab rose e And they set out b and went to Balak, c and said: f and told Balak d ‘Balaam refuses to come with us’. what was said by Balaam.

III. The Second Invitation (Num 22:15–35 // LAB 18:7g –9)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

15a And Balak again sent princes, more 7g And Balak again sent other men in number and more honorable than they. 16a And they came to Balaam [ ] to Balaam, b and said to him: h saying [ ]: c ‘Thus says Balak the son [ ] of Zippor: d “Let nothing hinder you from coming to me; 17a for I will surely do you great honor, [cf. LAB 18: 21] b and whatever you say to me I will do; c come, d curse this people for me”.’ [ ] i ‘Behold I know that when you offer holocausts to God, j God will be reconciled with men. k And now ask even still more from your Lord

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Table (cont.)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

l and beg with as many holocausts as he wishes. m But if he should be propitiated regarding my evil deeds, n you will have your reward o and God will receive his offerings’.

18a And Balaam answered 8a And Balaam [ ] b and said to the servants of Balak: said to them: c ‘Though Balak were to give me [ ] his house full of silver and gold, d I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God, to do less or more. [ ] b “Behold the son of Zippor is looking around c and he does not recognize that he dwells among the dead. 19a And now wait here this night also, d And now wait here this night, b and I will know what more the e and I will see what [ ] God will say Lord will say to me’. to me’.

20a And God came to Balaam at f And God [ ] said to him: night and said to him: b ‘If the men have come to call you, [ ] c rise, d go with them; g ‘Go with them, e but only what I bid you, that [ ] shall you do’. [ ] h and your way will be a stumbling block, i and that Balak will go to ruin’.

21a Balaam rose in the morning, j He rose in the morning b and saddled his ass, [ ] c and went with the princes of Moab. k and set out with them.

22a But God’s anger was kindled b because he went; c and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. d And he was riding on the ass, e and his two servants were with him. 23a And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand; b and the ass turned aside out of the road, c and went into the field;

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Table (cont.)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

d and Balaam struck the ass, to turn her into the road. 24a Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. 25a And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, b she pushed against the wall, c and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall; d so he struck her again. 26a Then the angel of the Lord went ahead, b and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. 27a When the ass [ ] 9a And the ass came by way of the wilderness saw the angel of the Lord, b and saw an angel b she lay down beneath Balaam; and lay down beneath him. c and Balaam’s anger was kindled, d and he struck the ass with his staff. 28a Then the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, b and she said to Balaam: c ‘What have I done to you, d that you have struck me these three times?’ 29a And Balaam said to the ass: b ‘Because you have made sport of me. c I wish I had a sword in my hand, d for then I would kill you’. 30a And the ass said to Balaam: b ‘Am I not your ass, upon which you have ridden all your life long to this day? c Was I ever accustomed to do so to you?’ d And he said: e ‘No’. 31a And the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, c And he opened Balaam’s eyes, b and he saw the angel of the Lord d and he saw the angel standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand; c and he bowed his head, e and adored him on the ground. d and fell on his face.

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Table (cont.)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

32a And the angel of the Lord said to him: b ‘Why have you struck your ass these three times? c Behold, I have come forth to withstand you, d because your way is perverse before me; 33a and the ass saw me, b and turned aside before me these three times. c If she had not turned aside from me, d surely just now I would have slain you e and let her live’. 34a Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord: b ‘I have sinned, c for I did not know that thou didst stand in the road against me. d Now therefore, if it is evil in thy sight, I will go back again’. 35a And the angel of the Lord said f And the angel [ ] said to him: to Balaam: b ‘Go with the men; g ‘Hurry h and be gone, c but only the word which I bid you, i because whatever you say will come to that shall you speak’. pass ( for him)’. d So Balaam went on with the [ ] princes of Balak

IV. The Discourse(s) of Balaam (Num 22:36–24:24 // LAB 18:10–13)

Numbers Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

(cf. 22:36–40) 10a And he came into the land of Moab (cf. 23:1–2a, 14b, 29–30a) b and built an altar (cf. 23:2b, 14c, 30b) c and offered sacriﬁces. (cf. 22:41c; 24:1c–2b) d And when he saw part of the people, (cf. 24:2c) e the spirit of God did not abide in him. (cf. 23:7a,18a, 24:3a,15a) f And he took up his discourse (cf. 23:7b,18b, 24:3b,15b) g and said: h ‘Behold Balak brought me to the mountain,

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Table (cont.)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

i saying: j “Come, run into the fire of those men”. k What fire the waters will not extinguish, I cannot resist; l but the fire that consumes water, who will resist that?’ m And he said to him: n ‘It is easier to take away the foundations of the topmost part of the earth and to extinguish the light of the sun and to darken the light of the moon than for anyone to uproot the planting of the Most Powerful or to destroy his vine. o And he (Balak) did not know that his consciousness was conceited so as to hasten his own destruction. 11a For behold I see the heritage that the Most Powerful has shown me by night. b and behold the days will come, c and Moab will be amazed at what is happening to it d because Balak wished to persuade the Most Powerful with gifts and to buy a decision with money. e Should you not have asked about what he sent upon Pharaoh and his land f because he wished to reduce them to slavery? g Behold an overshadowing and highly desirable vine, and who will be jealous because it does not wither? h But if anyone says to himself that the Most Powerful has labored in vain or has chosen them to no purpose, i behold now I see the salvation and liberation that will come upon them. j I am restrained in my speech k and cannot say what I see with my eyes, l because there is little left of the holy spirit that abides in me. m For I know that,

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Table (cont.)

Numbers 22 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

n because I have been persuaded by Balak o I have lessened the time of my life. 12a And behold my remaining hour. b Behold again I see the heritage and the dwelling place of this people. c And its light will shine more brilliantly than the splendor of lightning, d and its course will be swifter than that of an arrow. e And the time will come f and Moab will groan, g and those serving Chemosh who have plotted these things against them will be made weak. h But I will gnash my teeth, i because I have been led astray j and have transgressed what was said to me by night. k And my prophecy will remain public, l and my words will live on. m And the wise and understanding will remember my words that, n when I cursed, I perished o but though I blessed, I was not blessed’. p On saying these words he grew silent. q And Balak said: (cf. 23:11, 25; 24:10–11) r ‘Your God has cheated you of many gifts from me’. 13a And then Balaam said to him: (cf. 23:12, 26; 24:12–14) b ‘Come and let us plan what you should do to them. c Pick out the beautiful women who are among us and in Midian, (cf. Num 25:1; 31:16) d and station them naked and adorned with gold and precious stones before them’. e And when they see them f and lie with them, g they will sin against their Lord h and fall into your hands; i for otherwise you cannot ﬁght against them’.

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V. The Closure of the Story (Num 24:25–25:1 // LAB 18:14)

Numbers 24 Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18

[ ] 14a And on saying this, 25a And Balaam rose, b Balaam turned away b and he went c and returned to his place; c and returned to his place. c and Balak also went his way. [ ] 1a While Israel was staying at Shittim, b [ ] the people began to have sexual d And afterward the people were relations with the daughters of Moab. seduced after the daughters of Moab. [ ] e For Balak did everything that Balaam had showed him.

van kooten_f8_101-130.indd 130 1/22/2008 4:54:18 PM BALAAM AS THE SOPHIST PAR EXCELLENCE IN PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA: PHILO’S PROJECTION OF AN URGENT CONTEMPORARY DEBATE ONTO MOSES’ PENTATEUCHAL NARRATIVES

George H. van Kooten

In Philo’s commentaries on Moses’ Pentateuch, one of the figures dealt with in some detail is Balaam.1 As we shall see, Philo regards Balaam as quite an important figure. He portrays him as a sophist, for reasons which we shall explore in the first section (§1). From the fifth century bc on, the word ‘sophist’ was applied, in a technical sense, to the itiner- ant professors of higher education who travelled widely through the Greek world and gave lectures for which they could charge a large fee. According to a definition by Christopher Taylor, They pioneered the systematic study of techniques of persuasion and argument, which embraced various forms of the study of language, including grammar, literary criticism, and semantics. Protagoras was reputedly the first person to write a treatise on techniques of argument, and was notori- ous for his claim to ‘make the weaker argument the stronger’. The sophists aroused strong reactions, both positive and negative. On the positive side, the highly successful careers of the most celebrated testify to a considerable demand for their services, especially in providing rhetorical training for aspiring politicians. On the negative, they were regarded, especially by those of conservative views, as subversive of morality and tradition, in view (. . .) of their teaching (especially to the young) of techniques of argument. (. . .) Plato (. . .) depicts the sophists predominantly as charlatans, in contrast to Socrates, the paradigm of the true philosopher.2 The same antithesis between sophistry and true philosophy runs through Philo’s writings. By anachronistically attributing the term ‘sophist’ to past opponents of Israel, Philo rewrites the history of Israel in philosophical terms. Balaam is but one example of the sophists whom Philo

1 I wish to thank Dr Maria Sherwood-Smith (Leiden) for her kindness in revising the English in this paper. 2 C.C.W. Taylor, ‘Sophists’, in: S. Hornblower & A. Spawforth (eds), The Oxford Classical Dictionary —Third Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, 1422.

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mentions. As a sophistic adversary of Israel, who appears during Israel’s voyage through the wilderness, Balaam is, chronologically speaking, the last representative of sophistic philosophy in Moses’ Pentateuch and takes his place in a long succession of sophists who contend with the ancestors and descendants of the Jewish people. The way in which Philo construes this archetypal conflict between sophistry and Israel will be discussed in the second section (§2). In his treatment of Balaam and other sophists, Philo shows himself to be anything but detached. As a matter of fact, Philo’s grave concerns about the threat posed to true philosophy by sophists in his own day repeatedly emerge from the text in a very vivid manner. The attention Philo pays to sophistry is not the expression of an antiquarian interest in Greek philosophy, but rather reflects his concern about the contemporary movement known as the Second Sophistic, which, in the first three centuries ad, revived the spirit of the classical sophists. The Second Sophistic, which has recently been put on the scholarly agenda by many classicists,3 flourished in Rome and in the cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Alexandria where Philo worked and lived. It was a public phenomenon: Rhetors (ῥήτορες), whether resident teachers of rhetoric or touring emi- nences, would draw aficionados in large numbers to private or imperial mansions, lecture halls in libraries, bouleuteria, odeia, and even theatres.4 These rhetoricians were active in public declamation and teaching, but also in the arena of civic and political life: Many sophists (. . .) were influential in their cities and even provinces, intervening to check civic disorder or inter-city rivalry (. . .), or dispatched as envoys to congratulate emperors on their accession or to win or secure privileges for their cities (and often themselves).5 The distinctions they could procure in the public sphere rendered their profession quarrelsome and very competitive. It is against the

3 See, e.g., T. Whitmarsh, The Second Sophistic (New Surveys in the Classics 35), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; B.E. Borg (ed.), Paideia: The World of the Second Sophistic (Millennium Studies 2); Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2004; G. Anderson, The Second Sophistic: A Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire, London/New York: Routledge, 1993; G.W. Bowersock, Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969. 4 E.L. Bowie, ‘Second Sophistic’, in: Hornblower & Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1377–8 at 1377. 5 Bowie, ‘Second Sophistic’, 1377.

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lure of this rhetorical movement that Philo wishes to warn his readers. It may well be that Philo’s treatment of contemporary sophistry offers an important key to his entire oeuvre—commentaries which may otherwise appear to be abstract, monotonous, difﬁcult and unfocused philosophical musings on the books of Moses. As I shall argue, Balaam, along with other adversaries from Israel’s past, functions as a chiffre of the (perceived) attack of sophistry on Philo’s Platonic philosophy, thus giving a concrete and realistic urgency to Philo’s scholarly work. Philo’s application of Moses’ writings to his own polemical circumstances, and the way he transposes the philosophical controversies of his day back into narratives contained in those writings will be examined in the third section (§3).

The issue of Philo and the sophists of contemporary Alexandria was already taken up by Bruce Winter in his exemplary study Philo and Paul Among the Sophists (1997).6 To my mind, the study constituted a break- through in Philonic and Pauline studies by applying the new insights into the movement of the Second Sophistic to contemporary Judaism (Philo) and Christianity (Paul) and contextualizing the opponents in both Philo’s writings and Paul’s Corinthian correspondence. Prior to Winter’s study we lacked a thorough survey of Philo’s discussion of the sophists, and his many comments on the sophistic movement seem to have been neglected.7 Before pointing out a desideratum not fulfilled by Winter’s study, I shall briefly outline the structure of his book. In the chapters devoted to Philo, Winter first raises the question ‘Who are Philo’s Sophists?’ Before Winter, views varied considerably in scholarly literature. Winter carefully reviews all existing definitions by modern scholars, deals with the relevant passages from Philo’s writings and, on the basis of that, criticizes most modern definitions, to conclude ‘that Philo denotes contemporary, professional orators and sophists in Alexan- dria. Other first-century writers such as Plutarch, Epictetus and Dio Chrysostom likewise refer to both groups as a sort of contemporary, identifiable and professional guild’.8

6 B.W. Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists: Alexandrian and Corinthian Responses to a Julio-Claudian Movement—Second Edition, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2002 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19971). 7 Cf. Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 59, 59n1, 62. 8 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, chap. 3, 59–79 at 66. Earlier modern deﬁnitions are listed on pp. 60–2 and critically reviewed on pp. 62–78.

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In his final conclusion, Winter offers the following assessment, in which he underscores the specialized, technical, literal meaning of the term ‘sophist’ in Philo and its reference to the actual contemporary movement of the Second Sophistic: Orators and sophists comprised an identifiable grouping in Alexandrian society (. . .). Within the educational system of the first century, the term ‘sophist’ was not a fluid one: it excluded philosophers, dialecticians, grammarians, musicians, geometricians and any other specialized group. Philo’s ‘sophists’ comprised a specific group within paideia (. . .). Philo does not use the term ‘sophist’ to stigmatise philosophers (. . .). The term in Philo’s corpus is neither a ‘symbol’ nor a pejorative label applied to Greek or Jewish teachers or Greek philosophers. (. . .) the word should be read literally. Philo may well speak of the sophists in a pejorative way, but like Dio, he does not use it pejoratively of non-sophists. A distinct vocabulary of invective, drawn from Plato and well suited to its purpose, was used of the actual sophists in the first century.9 On the basis of this terminological clarification, Winter is able to take two further steps in the following chapters. First, Winter studies Philo’s critique of the Alexandrian sophistic tradition by offering a systematic analysis of Philo’s characterizations and criticism of the sophists, and commenting on their misuse of paideia for vice, deception, and personal gain.10 Whereas Winter’s analysis of the comments themselves is systematic, he fails to pay sufficient attention to the original narrative setting of Philo’s criticisms within his commentaries on the Mosaic Pentateuch, so that the full import of Philo’s criticism is lost. Secondly, having now established both the definition of ‘sophists’ and Philo’s criticism of these sophists, Winter shows how Philo prepared himself and the ablest among his readers for the arduous debate with and defeat of the sophists.11 Despite the ground-breaking qualities of Winter’s study, one important aspect of Philo’s polemics with the sophists is not sufficiently illuminated: the scope and range of Philo’s projection of the contemporary debate with the sophists onto the narratives of the Mosaic Pentateuch, on which his writings offer a running commentary. My own research into the sophists in Philo’s corpus of texts throws more light on this

9 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 78–9. 10 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, chap. 4, 80–94. 11 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, chap. 5, 95–108.

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aspect. Apart from yielding some extra passages on the sophists not drawn upon by Winter,12 my enquiry into the narrative context of Balaam the Sophist and into that of other ‘sophists’ in Philo’s commentaries on the Pentateuch shows that Philo envisaged an uninterrupted threat posed to Israel’s history by sophistry. Winter occasionally refers to the narrative settings of Philo’s criticism of the sophists and to the way these narratives function,13 but never highlights them, due to his systematic, non-narrative treatment of the contents of this criticism. By divorcing the polemic from its narrative, biblical context he also fails to point out important narratives and does not mention the anti-sophistic contestants by their biblical names.14 Within the Mosaic writings the sophistic threat reached its climax, in Philo’s eyes, in the ﬁgure of Balaam (§1), as the culmination of sophistic encounters right from the start of creation (§2). By construct- ing a persistent sophistic threat throughout the narratives of the Mosaic Pentateuch, Philo seems to warn his ( Jewish) readers not to yield to the attractions of contemporary sophistry (§3). It shows another side, and therefore a more complicated picture, of Philo of Alexandria. This is the picture, not of a Hellenizing, ‘secularizing’ Jew, but of a Jew who, by adopting Greek philosophy, draws some demarcation lines against the prevailing forces of the Second Sophistic.

1. Balaam in Philo’s thought

In his commentary on Cain’s murder of Abel, Philo draws a parallel between the conduct of Cain and that of Balaam. According to Philo, God’s question to Cain, ‘What have you done?’ (Gen 4:10), is tantamount to ‘You have done nothing, accomplished nothing’. It was so with Balaam also. He was a sophist, an empty conglomeration of

12 See, e.g., De confusione 39; Legum allegoriae 1.74, 3.41, 3.54; De migratione 171–172; De praemiis 8; De providentia, frag. 1.1; De somniis 1.102. 13 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 80, 94, 105, 107. 14 See, e.g., the narratives about the creation (De opiﬁcio mundi 45; passage not in Winter), Abraham (De praemiis 58; passage in Winter, 89n50 but without name of Abraham), Rebecca (De posteritate Caini 150; in Winter, 92 but without reference to section on Rebecca), Joseph (De Josepho 104, 125; passages in Winter, 88 and 64 but without reference to Joseph), Moses (De confusione 33–35; passage not in Winter) and the Amorites (Legum allegoriae 3.232–233; passage in Winter, 91 but without reference to the Amorites).

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incompatible and discordant notions (ὁ σοφιστὴς Βαλαάμ, μάταιος ὢν ὄχλος ἐναντίων καὶ μαχομένων δοξῶν). It was his desire to do harm to the goodly one by laying curses upon him. But he could not, for God turned his curses into a blessing . . .15 (Quod deterius 70–71) Apparently, Philo reads the story of Balaam as that of a conflict between Balaam’s evil intentions (‘his curses’) and the outcome (their being turned into blessings by God). In his exegesis of the Balaam narrative in Num- bers 22–25, Philo is heavily dependent on its earliest interpretation in Deut 23:4–6 (cf. Noort’s contribution, §5b–i). There is an unresolved tension between the positive picture of Balaam in Numbers 22–24 (he refuses to be paid and wishes to speak only as God commands [22:7, 17–18, 37–38; 23:12, 26; 24:11–13]) on the one hand, and the unan- ticipated reference in Numbers 31 to Balaam’s harmful advice (31:16; cf. 31:8) to weaken the Israelites by seducing them and inviting them to idolatry (25:1–3a) on the other. Because of this tension, the author of Deuteronomy assumes that Balaam had in fact been hired and intended to curse Israel for gain, but was prevented by God who turned the curse into a blessing (Deut 23:4–6; cf. Neh 13:2, Jude 11, 2 Pet 2:15). This interpretation turned Balaam into a figure which, in a different context, could be easily understood as a sophist avant la lettre. This conflict of opposing movements of cursing and blessing in Balaam renders him ‘an empty conglomeration of incompatible and discordant notions’—a periphrastic definition of what Philo understands sophists to be. And indeed, as Philo continues: Sophists are bound to find the powers within them at strife, words running counter to ideas and wishes to words, in absolute and utter discord (πεφύκασι δὲ οἱ σοφισταὶ πολεμίοις χρῆσθαι ταῖς ἐν αὑτοῖς δυνάμεσι, λόγων ἐνθυμήασι καὶ βουλημάτων λόγοις ἀντιστατούντων καὶ μηδαμῇ μηδαμῶς συνᾳδόντων). (Quod deterius 72) Although the sophists invest much energy in demonstrating both the social character of righteousness and the unsociability of injustice, the advantageous nature of moderation and self-control as well as the loss of health due to a licentious life, the great benefits conferred by piety as well as how irreligion makes one into a pariah, and the power of

15 Translations of Philo have been taken from the Loeb Classical Library (F.H. Colson, G.H. Whitaker & R. Marcus) with occasionally minor alterations when needed.

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virtue in bringing health and safety as well as the harm occasioned by wickedness, the sophists themselves nevertheless (. . .) all the time entertain sentiments quite at variance with the things they say. At the very moment that they are singing the praises of good sense and moderation and righteousness and piety, they are found more than ever to be practising foolishness, licentiousness, injustice, and impiety, to be confounding and overturning, you may well nigh say, every ordinance of God or man. To these men one might rightly put the question (. . .) ‘What beneﬁt have all these harangues on the subject of virtue conferred on your own souls? (. . .) Have you not furnished true charges against yourselves, in that, while you have shown yourselves lecturers of the highest order as far as understanding of beautiful things and philosophical discourses are concerned, you are invariably caught cherishing sentiments and indulging in practices that are utterly base?’ (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat 73–75) This sophistic ambivalence is symbolized in Balaam, who is characterized as ‘an empty conglomeration of incompatible and discordant notions’. Balaam is no doubt called ‘vain, empty, idle’ because of the idle words he intended to speak. Philo is keen to stress Balaam’s vanity in a number of passages in other treatises, even when he does not explicitly repeat his charge that Balaam is a sophist in those writings. In De confusione linguarum, Philo calls Balaam ‘that dealer in auguries and prodigies and in the vanity of unfounded conjectures’ (τὸν γοῦν οἰωνόμαντιν καὶ τερατοσκόπον περὶ τὰς ἀβεβαίους εἰκασίας ματαιάζοντα), and relates this to the etymology of his name: ‘vain’ (καὶ γὰρ μάταιος ἑρμηνεύεται Βαλαάμ; 159). Balaam’s vanity is demonstrated by the fact that he cursed the Man of Vision [i.e. Moses], though in words he uttered prayers of blessing, for it [i.e. Moses’ law-book] considers not what he actually said, words restamped under God’s providence, like a true coin substituted for the false, but his heart, in which he cherished thoughts of injury rather than of beneﬁt. There is a natural hostility between conjecture and truth, between vanity and knowledge, and between the divination which has no true inspiration and sound sober wisdom (De confusione linguarum 159). Balaam’s vanity is clearly contrasted with true knowledge. In De migratione Abrahami, this vanity is explained by an antithesis between factual truth and rhetorical abilities. Philo argues that the practice of praising someone in encomiums and the opposite act of blaming are often not based on ‘the truth of fact’, but rest rather on the falsely exercised rhetorical abilities of speakers and authors:

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Do you not see the flatterers who by day and night batter to pieces and wear out the ears of those whom they flatter, not content with just assent- ing to everything they say, but spinning out long speeches and declaiming and many a time uttering prayers with their voice, but never ceasing to curse with their heart? (De migratione Abrahami 111) This, of course, is a description of what Philo regards as Balaam’s hallmark and it is no surprise that he continues by referring to him. In so doing Philo tries to make sense of the positive oracles of Balaam, recorded in Numbers 23–24. Particularly striking, in Philo’s eyes, is Balaam’s statement: ‘God is not as man’ (Num 23:19)—a statement Philo could only approve of. Yet, Balaam is to be blamed for his evil intentions and these justify his being called ‘empty’: Accordingly, that empty one, Balaam (ὁ μάταιος Βαλαὰμ), though he sang loftiest hymns to God, among which is that most Divine of canticles ‘God is not as man’ (Num 23:19), and poured out a thousand eulogies on (. . .) Israel, has been adjudged impious and accursed even by the wise lawgiver, and held to be an utterer not of blessings but of curses. For Moses says that as the hired confederate of Israel’s enemies he became an evil prophet of evil things, nursing in his soul direst curses on the race beloved of God, but forced with mouth and tongue to give prophetic utterance to most amazing benedictory prayers: for the words that were spoken were noble words, whose utterance was prompted by God the Lover of Virtue, but the intentions, in all their vileness, were the offspring of a mind that looked on virtue with loathing. (113–114) In other treatises Philo repeats his explicit characterization of Balaam as a sophist. In De mutatione nominum, Philo highlights Balaam’s contradictory performance vis-à-vis Israel. Although Balaam, ‘that dealer in augury’ (τὸν οἰωνοσκόπον Βαλαὰμ), is described, in the Septuagint, as ‘hearing the oracles of God and knowing knowledge from the Most High’ (Num 24:16), Philo points out that Balaam himself did not profit from such knowledge but eventually perished in his own madness because with his prophetic, oracular sophistry (σοφιστείᾳ μαντικῇ) he was intent upon ‘defacing the stamp of heaven-sent prophecy’ (202–203). As such it was no insult for the sophists of Philo’s day to be compared with oracular prophets. Philostratus, the second-century ad author of a biographical compendium of sophists and himself a sophist, also drew this comparison at the beginning of his work: the sophistic method resembles the prophetic art of soothsayers and oracles. For indeed one may hear the Pythian oracle say: ‘I know the number of the sands of the sea and the measure thereof ’, and ‘Far- seeing Zeus gives a wooden wall to the Trito-Born’, and ‘Nero, Orestes,

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Alcmaeon, matricides’, and many other things of this sort, just like a sophist (Lives of the Sophists I.481). The contrast Philo makes is rather between oracular sophistry and prophecy concerned with real knowledge. It is apparent from Philo’s other works that he views true prophecy—such as that uttered by Balaam at God’s prompting—as Platonic in nature. In his treatise De vita Mosis, for instance, in which he explicitly represents Balaam as a sophist, there is an extensive paraphrase of the Balaam narrative (1.263–293), even if Balaam is not mentioned by name. He is only described as ‘a man living in Mesopotamia far-famed as a soothsayer, who had learned the secrets of that art in its every form, but was particularly admired for his high proficiency in augury’.16 In this retelling, Philo also gives the contents of some of Balaam’s oracles, after he has said that Balaam became possessed and there fell upon him the truly prophetic Spirit (προφητικοῦ πνεύματος ἐπιφοιτήσαντος) which banished utterly from his soul his art of oracular prophecy (ὃ πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν ἔντεχνον μαντικὴν ὑπερόριον τῆς ψυχῆς ἤλασε). For the inspiration of the Holiest and magical sophistry might not live together (θέμις γὰρ οὐκ ἦν ἱερωτάτῃ κατοκωχῇ συνδιαιτᾶσθαι μαγικὴν σοφιστείαν). (1.277) Under this influence Balaam speaks: From Mesopotamia has Balak called me, a far journey from the East, that he may avenge him on the Hebrews through my cursing. But I, how shall I curse them whom God has not cursed? (. . .) I shall not be able to harm the people (. . .). Who has made accurate discovery of how the sowing of their generation was first made? Their bodies have been

16 This aspect of Philo’s characterization of Balaam is spotlighted in H. Remus, ‘Moses and the Thaumaturges: Philo’s De Vita Mosis as a Rescue Operation’, Laval théologique et philosophique 52 (1996) 665–80; L.H. Feldman, ‘Philo’s Version of Balaam’, Henoch 25 (2003) 301–19; and T. Seland, ‘Philo, Magic and Balaam: Neglected Aspects of Philo’s Exposition of the Balaam Story’, in: J. Fotopoulos (ed.), The New Testament and Early Christian Literature in Greco-Roman Context: Studies in Honor of David E. Aune (Supplements to Novum Testamentum 122), Leiden: Brill, 2006, 333–46. According to Feldman, Philo ‘sought to elevate the ﬁgure of Moses through contrasting him, the true prophet, with this, the greatest of pagan prophets, who was actually a mere techni- cian’ (317); his De vita Mosis ‘serves to rescue Moses from possible misunderstandings of Moses as a mere thaumaturge or as a magician, a reputation attested in a variety of [pagan] sources’ (Remus, 665). Remus (666, 671, 674), Feldman (309) and Seland (345–6) suggest ‘that Philo sees contemporary Balaams as practicing their arts in the streets and marketplaces of Alexandria’ (Feldman). However, they seem to lose sight of Philo’s depiction of Balaam as a sophist (only brieﬂy mentioned by Remus, 668, 672n34 and Feldman, 304, 318).

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moulded from human seeds, but their souls are sprung from divine seeds, and therefore their stock is akin to God (διὸ καἰ γεγόνασιν ἀγχίσποροι θεοῦ). (1.278–279) As F.H. Colson pointed out, Philo probably derives this appraisal of the Jews in terms of ‘divine seeds’ and ‘being akin to God’ from Plato,17 who, in his Republic, quotes the following lines from Aeschylus: The near-sown seeds of gods (οἱ θεῶν ἀγχίσποροι), | Close kin to Zeus, for whom on Ida’s top | Ancestral altars ﬂame to highest heaven, | Nor in their life-blood fails the ﬁre divine. (Aeschylus, Niobe; Plato, Republic III 391E) The passage in Philo about the origin of ‘the Hebrews’, which the Septuagint lacks, may serve as a nice illustration of how the wording of Balaam’s oracles is slightly platonized so as to forge an antithesis between Balaam the sophist and the God-inspired Balaam, who speaks the language of Plato, the great anti-sophistic philosopher. In his use of the Balaam narrative, Philo is predominantly interested in the character of Balaam, and hardly mentions the episode of the speaking ass. According to F.H. Colson, ‘Philo’s omission of any mention of the ass speaking [in De vita Mosis 1.263–293] may no doubt be due to the feeling that the story might seem ridiculous to the Gentile readers, whom he certainly has in view’.18 Though this is a possible explanation, there is some evidence to suggest that the episode of the ass speaking to Balaam was already known to a wider Greek public. According to the second-century bc Hermippus of Smyrna, in his De Pythagora, Pythagoras remarked that Calliphon, a deceased disciple of Pythagoras, had admonished him ‘not to pass a certain spot, on which an ass had collapsed, to abstain from thirst-producing water, and to avoid all calumny.’ This, as Hermippus added, was Jewish practice: ‘In practising and repeating these precepts he [i.e. Pythagoras] was imitat- ing and appropriating the doctrines of Jews and Thracians. In fact, it is actually said that that great man introduced many points of Jewish law into his philosophy’ ( Josephus, Contra Apionem 1.162–165).19

17 F.H. Colson, Philo, vol. 6 (Loeb Classical Library), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press/London: Heinemann, 1935, 420–1 note b. 18 Colson, Philo, vol. 6, 603, Appendix to §263; cf. Feldman, ‘Philo’s Version of Balaam’, 311. 19 For introduction, text, translation and commentary see also M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, vol. 1, Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974, 93–6: No. 25.

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It is tempting to regard the admonition ‘not to pass a certain spot, on which an ass had collapsed’ as an allusion to the ass in the Balaam narrative, which collapsed under Balaam in order to escape the threatening Angel of the Lord, who had positioned himself in its path: ‘And when the ass saw the angel of God, she lay down under Balaam; and Balaam was angry, and struck the ass with his staff. And God opened the mouth of the ass (. . .). And God opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord withstanding him in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand’ (Num 22:27–31 LXX). If Hermippus was indeed drawing on the Balaam narrative, the story must have been known to a Greek public. There is no reason, however, to suppose that this public would have ridiculed this passage. The phenomenon of the speaking ass is not entirely unknown in Graeco-Roman literature, as Apuleius and Ps-Lucian testify (see Czachesz’s contribution to this volume, §§4–5). It is more likely that Philo, given his sophistic portrayal of Balaam, is simply less interested in the episode of the speaking ass. All it receives is an allegorical interpretation to the effect that it stands for ordinary pursuits in life, such as farming and trade. Those who ‘follow the life of the merchant or the farmer or other business which men pursue for gain’ sit on their beast, and blame it when disappointment and misfortune befall them. These ways of life, however, Philo argues, are wholly guiltless objects, because the angel of the Lord, the reason of God, who can intervene along the path of all men, is the source of all good and ill. Only if man uses this divine reason in the right way will he become a truly happy and reasonable being (De cherubim 32–33). The speaking ass is only of minor importance to Philo, since his interest is focused on Balaam, whom he turns in a worse character than the text of Numbers allows for. Contrary to the biblical account in Numbers, Philo asserts that not even when the closed eye of his soul received its sight and ‘beheld the angel of God standing in his way’ (Num 22:31) did he turn aside and refrain from evil-doing, but let the stream of his folly run full course and was overwhelmed by it and swallowed up. (. . .) [ H ]e who listens not, who is not turned from his course by the Conviction which stands in his path, will in time receive destruction ‘with the wounded’ (Num 31:8) whom their passions stabbed and wounded with a fatal stroke. (Quod deus sit immutabilis 181–183) This focus on Balaam the Sophist becomes more understandable if one realizes that Philo’s invective against Balaam is part of his comprehensive

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programme of refuting the sophists. In many passages Philo gives characteristics of these sophists. In his view, the issues of sophistry date back to the very beginning of creation and have accompanied Israel ever since.

2. Philo’s Anti-Sophistic Programme

(2.1) Characteristics of the Sophists In his work, Philo characterizes the sophists as mere lovers of words: ‘while most people deem the man prudent who can find sophistical arguments, and is clever at expressing his ideas (οἱ μὲν γὰρ πολλοὶ φρόνιμον νομίζουσι τὸν εὑρετὴν λόγων σοφιστικῶν καὶ δεινὸν ἑρμηνεῦσαι τὸ νοηθέν), Moses knows such an one to be a lover of words (Μωυσῆς δὲ λογοφίλην μὲν αὐτὸν οἶδε) indeed, but a prudent man by no means’ (Legum allegoriae 1.74). Their rhetorical capacities and specious sophistic arguments ([κατα]λόγοι σοφιστικοὶ) belong to the sphere of the body and the sense organs from which the mind must withdraw (Legum allegoriae 3.41). We have to abandon excessive, sophistic quibbling about the meaning of words: παυσόμεθα τῆς ἄγαν σοφιστείας (Legum allegoriae 3.206) and be led away from ‘the sophistries of deceitful word and thought’: ἔξω . . . τῶν κατὰ τὸν ἀπατεῶνα λόγον σοφιστειῶν (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit 85). Sometimes the sophists are criticized for their lit- eralism and their failure to apply the rules of allegory (De somniis 1.102); on other occasions they, like the poets, are portrayed as obsessed with myths (De opificio mundi 157; cf. De vita contemplativa 4), the obsession of ‘those whose way is to deal in marvels and cultivate sophistry rather than wisdom’ (De praemiis et poenis 8). Sophistry is to be censured because ‘sophists (σοφισταί), impelled at once by mercenary motives and by a grudging spirit, stunt the natures of their pupils by withholding much that they ought to tell them, carefully reserving for themselves against another day the opportunity of making money’ (De posteritate Caini 150). They, ‘the multitudes of sophists’, wrongly imagine ‘that wisdom consists in finding specious arguments, and not in appealing to the solid evidence of facts’: καθάπερ μυρίοις συνέβη τῶν σοφιστῶν, οἵτινες ᾠήθησαν σοφίαν πιθανὴν εἶναι λόγων εὕρεσιν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ πραγμάτων ἀληθεστάτην πίστιν (De migratione Abrahami 171–172). Whereas Philo leaves ‘the invention of ingenious arguments and perverse pretexts to the sophists, the task of wisdom is to investigate all that nature has to show’: ἀλλὰ γὰρ σοφιστείας μὲν

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ἔργον εὑρεσιλογεῖν, σοφίας δὲ ἕκαστα διερευνᾶν τῶν ἐν τῇ φύσει (De providentia, frag. 1.1). The origins of this impious, sophistic way of thinking Philo attributes to ‘an ancient sophist named Protagoras’, who regarded the human mind as the measure of all things: τίς οὖν ἐστιν ἀσεβοῦς δόξα; μέτρον εἶναι πάντων χρημάτων τὸν ἀνθρώπινον νοῦν‧ ᾗ καὶ τῶν παλαιῶν τινα σοφιστῶν ὄνομα Πρωταγόραν φασὶ χρήσασθαι (De posteritate Caini 35). Sometimes Philo can even attribute the title of sophists to all philosophers insofar as they do not agree in their solutions to particular problems,20 although among them he singles out the sophistic position proper of ‘those who argue at length that man is the measure of all things’. Yet, since the history of philosophy is full of discordance, ‘because truth flees from the credulous mind which deals in conjecture’ and eludes discovery and pursuit, all scientific quarrellings can be characterized as ‘wranglings of the sophists on questions of dogma’ (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit 246). In certain respects, the sophists resemble the sceptics, who ‘spend themselves on petty quibbles and trifling disputes’. Indeed, ‘in philosophy there are men who are merely word-mongers and word-hunters’ (De congressu eruditionis gratia 51–53). Sophists are also encountered among the audiences of philosophers, who fill the lecture-halls and theatres on a daily basis. Among the audience, there is also a class of people ‘who carry away an echo of what has been said, but prove to be sophists rather than philosophers (σοφισταὶ δὲ ἀντὶ φιλοσόφων ἀνευρίσκονται). These people’s words deserve praise, but their lives censure, for they are capable of saying the best, but incapable of doing it’ (De congressu eruditionis gratia 67). Sophists profess an extremely sceptical philosophy and love arguing for argument’s sake, thus opposing all other representatives of the sciences (De fuga et inventione 209). They are not interested in what is authentic, but rather mimic and debase it by juxtaposing it with spurious matters (De mutatione nominum 208), just as Balaam wished to deface the stamp of genuine, heaven-sent prophecy with his oracular sophistry (De mutatione nominum 203). At the end of the day, Philo regards the sophists as poorly as he does the uneducated. In this, they contrast sharply with ‘the saintly company of the Pythagoreans’ and ‘all genuine votaries of philosophy’, who,

20 Cf. Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 72–3.

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rising above the opinions of the common herd (. . .) have opened up a new pathway, which the outside world can never tread, for studying and discerning truths, and have brought to light the ideal forms which none of the unclean may touch. Both, the uneducated and the sophists, are regarded as ‘unclean’: By unclean I mean all those who, without ever tasting education at all, or else having received it in a crooked and distorted form, have changed the stamp of wisdom’s beauty into the ugliness of sophistry (κάλλος τὸ σοφίας εἰς τὸ σοφιστείας αἶσχος μεταχαράξαντες). These, unable to discern the conceptual light through the weakness of the soul’s eye, which cannot but be beclouded by the ﬂashing rays, as dwellers in perpetual night, disbelieve those who live in the daylight, and think that all their tales of what they have seen around them, shown clearly by the unalloyed radiance of the sunbeams, are wild phantom-like inventions no better than the illusions of the puppet show (Quod omnis probus liber sit 1–5). In this passage, the sophists are clearly identiﬁed with the dwellers in Plato’s cave (Republic VII, 514ff.), Socrates’ sophistic opponents and all other uneducated. The inability of the cave-dwellers ‘to discern the conceptual light through the weakness of the soul’s eye’ is also exhibited by Balaam, as we have already seen: ‘not even when the closed eye of his soul received its sight and “beheld the angel of God standing in his way” (Num 22:31) did he turn aside and refrain from evil-doing, but let the stream of his folly run full course’ (Quod deus sit immutabilis 181).21 Balaam is indeed a sophist par excellence.

(2.2) The ‘history’ of the Sophists and Israel Balaam is not the only sophist which Israel encountered, however. According to Philo, the entire history from creation to the voyage of Israel through the wilderness was full of sophistic attacks on the ‘true philosophy’. The main episodes of this unceasing tension are (1) the

21 Yet, with regard to the contents of his oracles, Balaam is described more favorably by Philo. In his introduction to Balaam’s third and (in Philo’s representation) ﬁnal oracle, Balaam is described as ‘the one who saw in sleep a clear presentation of God with the unsleeping eyes of the soul’ (De vita Mosis 1.289; italics mine). On this, see C.T.R. Hayward, ‘Balaam’s Prophecies as Interpreted by Philo and the Aramaic Targums of the Pentateuch’, in: P.J. Harland & C.T.R. Hayward (eds), New Heaven and New Earth: Prophecy and the Millennium. Essays in Honour of Anthony Gelston (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 77), Leiden: Brill, 1999, 19–36 at 20–24, esp. 22. In this way, according to Hayward, ‘Something extraordinary has happened. By so speaking of Balaam, Philo has invested him with the character of Israel, (. . .) “the one who sees God” ’ (Hayward, 22–24 at 22; cf. 35).

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creation and the life of the ﬁrst human beings, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, (2) the period of the patriarchs and the matriarchs, (3) the period of Israel in Egypt from Joseph to Moses, both of whom were confronted with ‘the sophists of Egypt’, and (4) the period of Israel in the wilderness, where Moses and the Israelites encountered the Amorites and Balaam. Together, these episodes cover the entire narrative span of Moses’ Pentateuch, from the creation to the exodus and the voyage through the wilderness.

(1) The creation and the life of the ﬁrst men

(a) Creation’s anti-sophistic order With an eye to the future attacks by sophists, God already built into the very set-up of the original creation a reminder that it is not wise to trust created phenomena rather than God. This is how Philo tries to explain why God created the earth on the third day, whereas the sun and moon were only created on the fourth day, despite the fact that the plants and fruits on the earth were dependent upon them for their growth: being aware beforehand of the ways of thinking that would mark the men of future ages, how they would be intent on what looked probable and plausible, with much in it that could be supported by argument, but would not aim at sheer truth; and how they would trust phenomena rather than God, admiring sophistry more than wisdom (ὅτι πιστεύσουσι μᾶλλον τοῖς φαινομένοις ἢ θεῷ σοφιστείαν πρὸ σοφίας θαυμάσαντες); and how they would observe in times to come the circuits of sun and moon (. . .) and would suppose that the regular movements of the heavenly bodies are the causes of all things that year by year come forth and are produced out of the earth; that there might be none who (. . .) would venture to ascribe the first place to any created thing, ‘let them’, said He, ‘go back in thought to the original creation of the universe, when, before sun or moon existed, the earth bore plants of all sorts and fruits of all sorts’ (De opificio mundi 45–46). The unexpected order of creation serves, Philo agues, to show the unfoundedness of sophistry which bases itself only on superficial phenomena. The force of sophistry already revealed itself in the lives of the first men, particularly in those of Eve, Cain and Abel.

(b) The Serpent versus Eve Philo ascribes the ﬁrst sin to the inﬂuence of sophistry, to the serpent, ‘emitting a human voice and arguing like a sophist (ἐνσοφιστεύων) to

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an utterly guileless character, and cheating a woman with seductive plausibilities’ (De agricultura 96).

(c) Cain versus Abel Moreover, the ﬁrst murder, of Abel by Cain, was due to Cain’s sophistic inclinations, against which Abel, untrained in the arts of rhetoric, could not protect himself. It is noteworthy that in his interpretation of this episode, Philo is not only critical of Cain, but also of Abel for his excessive naivety in meeting up with Cain. The sophists, like Cain, when they have covered the dreary length of a long-distance course of talk (. . .) are held to have defeated men unaccustomed to arguing like sophists (σοφιστεύειν). But their victory lies not in the strength of those who have won, but in their opponents’ weakness in this sort of thing. For those who apply themselves to the pursuit of virtue may be placed in two classes. (1) Some, making the soul alone the treasure-house of the good at which they aim, devote themselves to praiseworthy actions, without having so much as dreamt of juggling with words. (2) The others are doubly successful; their mind is secured by wisdom in counsel and good deeds, their speech by the arts of eloquence. Now to encounter the wranglings in which some folk [i.e. the sophists] delight is eminently ﬁtting for these latter, ready and equipped as they are with the means of withstanding their enemies, but for the former class it is not at all safe to do so. (. . .) Now Abel had never learned arts of speech, and knew the beautiful and noble with the mind only. For this reason he should have declined the meeting on the plain, and have paid no regard to the challenge of the man of ill-will (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat 35–37). The hidden message of this passage is, no doubt, that one should be trained in eloquence and speech so as to be able to counter-attack the sophists, lest one suffer the fate of Abel. As we shall see in §3, it is exactly this message that Philo wants to communicate to his own readers. The need to train both mind and speech is emphasized by numerous other examples from Israel’s history. Cain is in fact the instructor of all sophists, and the sophist Protagoras is in fact ‘an offspring of Cain’s madness’. Cain ‘proved the strength of his creed by unmistakable deeds in his victory over Abel, the champion of the opposite opinion, and in getting rid of both him and his opinion’ (De posteritate Caini 35)—so serious is the struggle between sophists and non-sophists. Cain’s strat- egy, according to Philo, consists in building demonstrative arguments, delivering lengthy expositions and perorations, and ‘forging plausible inventions contrary to the truth’: sophistic devices (αἱ σοφιστικαι τέχναι) which are used by ‘the wise in their own conceit, devotees of impiety,

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godlessness, self-love, arrogance, false opinion, men ignorant of real wisdom’ (De posteritate Caini 53). The other instances in which the strife between sophists and non-sophists comes to the fore cover most key narratives in Moses’ Pentateuch, among them the narratives about the patriarchs and matriarchs.

(2) The period of the patriarchs and matriarchs

(d) Abraham versus the Chaldeans Abraham, forsaking Chaldean astrology when called by God, ‘changes by instruction from sophist to sage’: ἀντὶ σοφιστοῦ γενόμενος ἐκ διδασκαλίας σοφός (De praemiis et poenis 58).

(e) Hagar and Ishmael versus Sarah and Isaac The sophistic struggle reiterates itself among his children, Ishmael and Isaac. Whereas Sarah, Isaac’s mother, represents virtue, Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, symbolizes only preliminary studies.22 Her child can but be a sophist who has to be banished: the most perfect types of being and the secondary acquirements are worlds apart, and wisdom has no kinship with the sophist’s culture (σοφία σοφιστείας ἀλλότριον). For the latter has for the fruits of all its labour only those persuasions which tend to establish the false opinion, which destroys the soul; but wisdom studies truth and thus obtains that great source of proﬁt to the mind, knowledge of right reason. (. . .) the sophist, who is ever sophist, and his mother, instruction in preliminary learning, are expelled and banished by God from the presence of wisdom and the wise, on whom he confers the titles of Sarah and Abraham: ὁπότε καὶ <κατὰ> πάντα σοφιστὴν καὶ μητέρα αὐτοῦ, τὴν τῶν προπαιδευμάτων διδασκαλίαν, ἐλαύνει καὶ φυγαδεύει ἀπὸ σοφίας καὶ σοφοῦ, ὧν ὀνόματα᾽ Αβραάμ τε καὶ Σάρραν καλεῖ (De cherubim 9–10). Hagar’s child represents ‘the soul just beginning to crave after instruction’, because Hagar herself only offers incomplete education so that her child, ‘when grown to manhood, becomes a sophist’ (De posteritate Caini 131). As a sophist he has only covered ‘the school subjects’, and not the ‘sciences which deal with virtues’ (De sobrietate 9–10). Interpreting the

22 See A.P. Bos, ‘Hagar and the Enkyklios Paideia in Philo of Alexandria’ in the proceedings of the 2006 TBN Conference on Hagar (forthcoming in the TBN series, Leiden: Brill).

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assertion, made by the angel of the Lord, that Ishmael ‘will be a wild man; his hand will be against all’ (Gen 16:12), Philo argues: Now this picture clearly represents the sophist (. . .). (He is) like those who are now called Academics and Sceptics, who place no foundation under their opinions and doctrines and do not (prefer) one thing to another, for they admit those as philosophers who shoot at (the doctrines) of every school, and these it is customary to call ‘opinion-ﬁghters’ (Quaestiones in Genesin III.33).

(f ) Rebecca’s non-sophistic attitude It is Isaac’s wife Rebecca who again symbolizes the correct non-sophistic attitude. Commenting on Rebecca’s generosity in giving a servant abundant water to drink, Philo remarks: When she saw how readily receptive of virtue the servant’s nature was, she emptied all the contents of her pitcher into the drinking-trough, that is to say, she poured all the teacher’s knowledge into the soul of the learner. For, whereas sophists (σοφισταί), impelled at once by mercenary motives and by a grudging spirit, stunt the natures of their pupils by withholding much that they ought to tell them, carefully reserving for themselves against another day the opportunity of making money, virtue is an ungrudging thing, fond of making gifts, never hesitating to do good (De posteritate Caini 150–151). After the narratives of the patriarchs and matriarchs, Philo also weaves the struggle with the sophists into Israel’s sojourn in Egypt. Both Joseph and Moses are confronted with ‘the sophists of Egypt’. This, of course, is very relevant to Philo and his public. Being resident in Alexandria in Egypt himself, in a subtle way he equates the contemporary sophists of Alexandria with their Egyptian predecessors from the times of Joseph and Moses.

(3) Israel in Egypt: Joseph and Moses versus ‘the sophists of Egypt’

(g) Joseph versus the sophists of Egypt In Philo’s representation, the history of Israel and the sophists continues with Joseph. Philo is not entirely positive about Joseph, whose ‘coat of varied colours’ (Gen 37:3) is interpreted by Philo as: the woven robe of statecraft (πολιτεία), a robe richly variegated, containing but a most meagre admixture of truth, but many large portions of false, probable, plausible, conjectural matter, from which sprang up all the sophists of Egypt (οἱ Αἰγύπτου πάντες σοφισταί) (De somniis 1.220).

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This passage also reveals that Philo is very much aware of the power which rhetorically trained sophists exert in the political arena, a power he may have experienced in the tensions in Alexandria between the Jews and the Greeks, which resulted in each side sending a delegation to the emperor Gaius.23 Winter, who also draws a parallel between Philo and Plato in this respect, notes: The role of the sophists in the political life of the city also drew criticism from Philo, for the deception of the sophistic tradition inevitably spilt over into that arena. ‘All the sophists of Egypt’ were said to have sprung up in the area of politeia from ‘a meagre mixture’ of truth and ‘many large portions of false, probable, plausible, conjectural matter’. They became experts ‘in decoying, charming, and bewitching’ their hearers, Somn. I.220. Plato’s view was that among the sophists, those who attempted to direct the polis through deliberative oratory were the greatest sorcerers and most practiced in charlatanism. (The Statesman 291C, 303C)24 Despite his critical note about Joseph’s sophistic garment, Philo portrays Joseph as the one who succeeds over the Egyptians sophists in interpreting the dreams of the Egyptian king. As the king anticipates: ‘He will reveal the truth, and as light disperses darkness his knowledge will disperse the ignorance of our sophists’: διακαλύψει τὴν ἀλήθειαν, οἷα φωτὶ σκότος ἐπιστήμῃ τὴν ἀμαθίαν τῶν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν σοφιστῶν ἀποσκεδάσει (De Josepho 104). Joseph distinguishes himself favourably from the ‘sophistic praters who shew off their cleverness for hire and use their art of interpreting the visions given in sleep as a pretext of making money’ (De Josepho 125).

(h) Moses versus the sophists of Egypt These Egyptian sophists are the same group whom Moses confronts at the court of the Egyptian king (De vita Mosis 1.92). It is of course no coincidence that the Egyptian magicians are called ‘sophists’ by Philo. In this way, Philo places his own struggle with sophistic circles in Alex- andria in the wider perspective of the age-long controversy between Israel and the sophists, both within Egypt and beyond. Moses is only

23 Cf. Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 96: ‘The Greeks were well represented by these men [ Isidorus, Apion and Lampon] who, needless to say, possessed the rhetorical training needed to present their case’. Cf. Winter, 96–8 about Philo’s rhetorical ability as can be discerned from the captatio benevolentiae still extant in his De legatione ad Gaium. 24 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 90.

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able to confront the sophists because he has first been thoroughly trained after admitting his inexperience in speech. Unlike Abel, Moses is not naive about the tricks of the sophists and avails himself of the help of Aaron, who acts as his spokesman: Do you not see that Moses declines the invitation of the sophists (σοφισταί) in Egypt (. . .)? He calls them magicians, because good morals are spoiled by the tricks and deceptions of sophistry (σοφισμάτων . . . τέχναις καὶ ἀπάταις) which act on them like the enchantments of magic. Moses’ plea is that he is not ‘eloquent’ (Exod 4:10), which is equivalent to saying that he has no gift for oratory, which is but specious guesswork about what seems probable. Afterwards he follows this up by emphatically stating that he is not merely not eloquent but absolutely ‘speechless’ (Exod 6:12). He calls himself ‘speechless’, not in the sense in which we use the word of animals without reason, but of him who fails to find a fitting instrument in the language uttered by the organs of speech, and prints and impresses on his understanding the lessons of true wisdom, the direct opposite of false sophistry (ἀντίθετός . . . ψευδεῖ σοφιστείᾳ). And he will not go to Egypt nor engage in conflict with its sophists (σοφισταί), until he has been fully trained in the word of utterance, God having shown and perfected all the qualities which are essential to the expression of thought by the election of Aaron who is Moses’ brother (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat 38–39). Thus trained, Moses is able to meet the Egyptian king at the edge or mouth of the river (Exod 7:15), Philo says. This place of encounter is taken, in an allegorical sense, to point to the lips through which the stream of speech passes: Now speech is an ally employed by those who hate virtue [i.e. by the sophists] (. . .), and also by men of worth for the destruction of such doctrines (. . .). When, indeed, after they have shaken out every reef of fallacious opinions, the opposing onset of the sage’s speech [i.e. the speech of Moses] has overturned their bark and sent them to perdition, he [Moses] will (. . .) set in order his holy choir to sing the anthem of victory (De confusione linguarum 33–35). This triumph of Moses over the sophists at the ‘lip of the river’, reminds Philo of the even greater triumph of Israel over the Egyptians who attempted to pursue them through the Red Sea, but drowned and were seen dead at the edge of the sea (Exod 14:30). Their death symbolizes ‘the destruction of unholy doctrines and of the words which their mouth and tongue and the other vocal organs gave them to use’ (De confusione 35). As Philo puts is elsewhere: ‘the scene of their death is none other than the lips of that fountain bitter and briny as the sea,

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those very lips through which poured forth the sophist-talk which wars against virtue (δι᾽ ὧν ὁ πολέμιος ἀρετῆς σοφιστὴς λόγος ἐξεκέχυτο)’ (De somniis 2.281–282). As we have seen before, Philo warns his readers that there are many who ‘have not the capacity to demolish by sheer force the plausible inventions of the sophists (τὰς πιθανὰς τῶν σοφιστῶν), because their occupation has lain continuously in active life, so they are not trained in any high degree to deal with words’ (De confusione 39). Such rhetorical training is crucial if one is to succeed in defeating the sophists, as Moses’ life shows. This counter-attack against the sophists naturally also colours the Mosaic laws. According to Philo, Moses’ anti-sophistic intentions can be noted in his decrees concerning the holy seventh day on which one should abstain ‘from work and proﬁt-making crafts and professions and business pursued to get a livelihood’. The leisure of this day should be occupied (. . .) by the pursuits of wisdom only. And the wisdom must not be that of the systems hatched by the word-catchers and sophists (οἱ λογοθῆραι καὶ σοφισταὶ) who sell their tenets and arguments like any bit of merchandise in the market, men who for ever pit philosophy against philosophy (οἳ φιλοσφίᾳ κατὰ φιλοσοφίας . . . χρώμενοι) without a blush (. . .), but the true philosophy which is woven from three strands— thoughts, words and deeds (De vita Mosis 2.211–212).25

(4) Israel in the wilderness: Moses and the Israelites versus the Amorites and Balaam

(i) Israel versus the Amorites The attacks suffered from the sophists do not stop once Israel leaves Egypt. Even during the voyage through the wilderness, the sophists continue to plague them. Philo mentions them by name: the Amorites and Balaam. The name ‘Amorites’, Philo argues, should be etymologically understood as ‘men fond of talking’, who ‘symbolize the uttered word’ (τοῦ

25 A further instance of Moses’ anti-sophistic codiﬁcations is found in De specialibus legibus 3.54 where accusers who appear before the judges are warned that they should draw up their formal challenges ‘not in the spirit of a false accuser or malicious schemer, set on winning at any cost, but of one who would strictly test the truth without sophistry (ἄνευ σοφιστείας)’. Although closely following Num 5:12–31 the phrase ἄνευ σοφιστείας is lacking from the Septuagint.

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γεγωνότος λόγου σύμβολον ὄντες). Philo draws here on the Stoic distinction between logos prophorikos (‘speech’) and logos endiathetos (‘thought’).26 The Amorites represent only the former, the uttered word, without it being the vehicle of the internal word. The problem here, in the Amorites’ case, is that their uttered word does not function in harmonious cooperation with the internal word (a harmony which, as we shall see, is advocated by Philo), but is in fact devoid of internal reason. As Adam Kamesar has convincingly shown, in Philo’s view the training of the logos prophorikos should be assigned to the discipline of rhetoric, and that of the logos endiathetos to philosophy. This view is also upheld in Greek writers such as Plutarch, Hermias of Alexandria and Sopater. The setting of this assignment of the two logoi to these two disciplines, Kamesar shows, is that of the conﬂict between rhetoric and philosophy. These two logoi are meant to function harmoniously: ‘A paideia that is concerned with both τὸ φρονεῖν and τὸ εὖ λέγειν, the educational ideal that goes back to Isocrates, would entail the cooperative synergy of the logos endiathetos and the logos prophorikos, if Stoic terminology is employed’.27 By portraying the Amorites as only in command of the logos prophorikos without the backing of the logos endiathetos, Philo characterizes them as sophists. Their king, according to Philo, is the sophist clever at searching after verbal artiﬁces (ὁ σοφιστής ἐστι καὶ δεινὸς λόγων ἀνερευνᾶν τέχνας); and those who transgress the boundary of truth place themselves at the mercy of his quibbling (Legum allegoriae 3.232). He is concerned with sophistic riddles (τὰ αἰνίγματα τὰ σοφιστικὰ), probabilities and plausible arguments which involve no knowledge of the truth (233).

26 See G. Verbeke, ‘Logos I. Der Logosbegriff in der antiken Philosophy’, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, vol. 5 (1980), 495–6n4 with reference to Sextus Empiricus, Adversus Mathematicos 8.275 (= Adversus Dogmaticos 2.275): ‘Man does not differ in respect of uttered reason from the irrational animals (. . .), but in respect of internal reason’ (trans. R.G. Bury, Loeb Classical Library); = Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta 2.135. 27 A. Kamesar, ‘The Logos Endiathetos and the Logos Prophorikos in Allegorical Interpretation: Philo and the D-Scholia to the Iliad’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 44 (2004) 163–81, esp. 170–3 at 173, with an extensive bibliography on the logos endiathetos and the logos prophorikos in 163–4n1.

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( j) Balaam The threat which the Amorites pose to Israel in the wilderness is another instance of sophists’ onslaught against knowledge and truth. Philo found this episode narrated in Numbers 21, just before Balaam takes centre-stage in Numbers 22–24. In this sense, the appearance of Balaam the sophist, already discussed in §1 above, constitutes the climax of Israel’s manifold encounters with the sophists.

3. Philo’s application to the philosophical discussion of his day

An intriguing question which arises when one takes in the multitude of Philo’s comments on sophists is why he devoted so much attention to them. There are clear indications in his writings that Philo views the sophists of his day as a clear threat which he wishes to tackle head-on. I take my starting-point in another passage on the Amorites, whose name, as we have just seen, Philo explains as ‘men fond of talking’, and whose king he referred to as a sophist. In Quis rerum divinarum heres sit, Philo, having introduced the Amorites and identified them as ‘talkers’, remarks that the gift of speech ‘has been marred by thousands of the recipients (. . .). These are impostors, flatterers, and inventors of cun- ning plausibilities’. Their practice is contrasted with ‘the man of worth’ whose speech ‘should be transparent and true. But the speech which most strive for is obscure and false’ (302–303). Philo clearly experiences this as a problem of his own day: So long then as ‘the sins of the Amorites’, that is of sophistical arguments, ‘are not fulfilled’ (Gen. 15:16) because of the fact that they are difficult to disprove and criticize (οὖν οὐκ ἀναπεπλήρωται τὰ ἁμαρτήματα τῶν Ἀμορραίων, τουτέστι τῶν σοφιστικῶν λόγων διὰ τὸ ἀνεξέλεγκτον), but still in virtue of their powers of attraction seduce us (ἡμᾶς ἐπάγεται) with their plausibilities, while their enticements make us powerless to turn from and leave them, we remain powerless. But if ever all the plausible fallacies are refuted by true beliefs (. . .), we shall (. . .) slip our cable and sail clean away from the land of falsehood and sophistry (ἀράμενοι τῆς τῶν ψευσμάτων καὶ σοφισμάτων χώρας) (. . .) Such is the lesson expressed in the problem here presented. For it is impossible to turn back from, to hate, to leave the plausible falsehood, unless the sin involved in it be revealed complete and consummated. And this revelation will be made when, confronted by the firm evidence of truth, it receives the much- needed refutation (κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ἀντίταξιν καὶ βεβαίωσιν) (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit 304–306).

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In this passage, Philo shows his concern that the sophistic powers of attraction may ‘seduce us’ (ἡμᾶς ἐπάγεται), that is him and his contemporary readers. It demonstrates that even in a passage about the Amorites of long ago, who tried to seduce Israel in the wilderness, Philo recognizes the sophists of his own day. He also acknowledges that the sophistic arguments are difﬁcult to disprove and criticize, yet emphasizes that their refutation is much-needed. We encounter here a vivid interest is the philosophical discussion of his own day. That Philo regards the sophists as a present-day phenomenon and not only as a literary motif derived from Plato’s anti-sophistic dialogues is shown by the fact that he talks explicitly about ‘the orators or sophists of today’: οἱ ῥήτορες ἢ οἱ νῦν σοφισταὶ (De vita contemplativa 31). They are contrasted with the senior leader of the Jewish sect of the Therapeutae who, every seventh day, gives a well-reasoned and wise discourse. He does not make an exhibition of clever rhetoric like the orators or sophists of today but follows careful examination by careful expression of the exact meaning of his thoughts, and this does not lodge just outside the ears of the audience but passes through the hearing into the soul and there stays securely. Elsewhere, too, Philo explicitly makes the link with contemporary sophists, the sophistic throng of people of the present day: ὁ νῦν ἀνθρώπων σοφιστικὸς ὅμιλος. The road which leads to God, Philo argues, one must take to be philosophy, not the philosophy which is pursued by the sophistic throng of people of the present day (ὁ νῦν ἀνθρώπων σοφιστικὸς ὅμιλος), who, having practised arts of speech to use against the truth, have given the name of wisdom to their rascality, conferring on a sorry work a divine title (De posteritate Caini 101). A further indication that Philo, in his discussion of the sophists is thinking primarily of the sophists of his own day, is the lively portrait of everyday life of which the throng of sophists is part: Day after day the throng of sophists, which is to be found everywhere (ὁ πανταχοῦ τῶν σοφιστῶν ὅμιλος), talks the ears off any audience they happen to have with disquisitions on minutiae, unravelling phrases that are ambiguous and can bear two meanings and distinguishing among circumstances such as it is well to bear in mind—and they are set on bearing in mind a vast number (De agricultura 136). They are the ones who, though professing to be philosophers, ﬁll the lecture-halls and theatres almost every day, ‘discoursing at length,

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stringing together their disquisitions on virtue without stopping to draw breath. Yet what profit is there in their talk?’ (De congressu 64).28 In a passage in which Philo criticizes the hectic and indulgent, pas- sionate lifestyle of the sophists, the sheer size of the sophist movement is also highlighted: And so multitudes of those who are called sophists (μυρίοι . . . τῶν λεγομένων σοφιστῶν), after winning the admiration of city after city (θαυμασθέντες κατὰ πόλεις), and after drawing well-nigh the whole world to honour them (καὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην σχεδὸν ἅπασαν ἐπὶ τιμὴν ἐπιστρέψαντες) for their hair-splitting and their clever inventiveness, have with all their might worn their life out, and brought it to premature old age, by the indulgence of their passions (De agricultura 143). This movement spreads through the cities like wildfire and, Philo fears, is influencing the young: ‘Vanity (. . .) with its sophisms (σόφισματα) and trickery beguiles every city and loses no time in capturing the souls of the young’ (De praemiis 25). It is in this world that Philo wants to shoulder his philosophical responsibilities and there are several passages in his writings which express his personal commitment to refuting sophistry. Philo does not regard himself as Abel, who had never learned the arts of speech and for whom it was not safe to encounter the wranglings of the sophists (Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat 35), but likens himself to Moses, who only engaged in conflict with the sophists once he had been fully trained in rhetoric (Quod deterius 38–39). As he makes plain: It will be well for us to counter in this manner those who are pugnacious over the tenets which they maintain; for when we have been exercised in the forms which words take, we shall no more sink to the ground through inexperience of the tricks of the sophistic wrestling (οὐκέτ᾽ ἀπειρίᾳ σοφιστικῶν παλαιομάτων ὀκλάσομεν), but we shall spring up and carry on the struggle and disentangle ourselves with ease from the grips which their art has taught them. (. . .) But if a man, though equipped in soul with all the virtues, has had no practice in rhetoric, (. . .) when like Abel he

28 I agree with Winter that this passage is about sophists. See Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 74: ‘Philo comments that hardly a day goes by but lecture-halls and theatres ﬁll with οἱ φιλοσοφοῦντες. Various classes of people listen with different but inadequate responses. But to whom does Philo refer? While οἱ φιλοσοφοῦντες can be translated as “philosophers”, it often means sophists in the Philo corpus. In Post. 34 Philo mentions that many who have “professed” philosophy arrive at conclusions belonging to the ancient sophist, Protagoras.’

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steps out for a sophistic contest (εἰς σοφιστικὸν ἀγῶνα), he will fall before he has obtained a firm footing (Quod deterius 41–42). Philo clearly regards himself as fully up to the job. This is no task for those who are just beginning their studies, those making progress, and those who have reached perfection without having established firm roots. All these should refuse ‘to engage in the war waged by the sophists’ (καὶ μὴ τῷ τῶν σοφιστῶν ἐπαποδύεσθαι πολέμῳ); if they, mere amateurs, engage ‘trained and seasoned fighters, they will undoubtedly get the worst of it’ (De agricultura 159; 162). Therefore, It will, then, be the business of him who fully apprehends and understands the subject, and thoroughly knows his own powers, to go to war with the strife-loving band of sophists (πολεμῆσαι τῷ φιλέριδι καὶ σοφιστικῷ στίφει) (De agricultura 162). Philo’s strong advice not to engage lightly in the strife with sophists probably reflects his experience of the ongoing clash between sophistry and philosophy in his own days. His own ideal is to integrate rhetoric, intentions and virtuous deeds in one coherent whole. In support of this ideal he quotes Moses: In a thoroughly philosophical way he [Moses] makes a threefold division of it, saying: ‘It is in thy mouth and in thy heart and in thine hand’ (Deut 30:11–14), that is, in words, in plans, in actions. For these are the parts of the good thing, and of these it is compacted, and the lack of but one not only renders it imperfect but absolutely destroys it. For what good is it to say the best things but to plan and carry out the most shameful things? This is the way of the sophists (σοφιστῶν οὗτος ὁ τρόπος), for as they spin out their discourses on sound sense and endurance they grate on the ears of those most thirsting to listen, but in the choices that they make and the actions of their lives we find them going very far wrong. It is equally wrong, however, to have good intentions but fail in deeds and words, or to practice the right things ‘without understanding and explicit speech’. But if a man succeeded, as if handling a lyre, in bringing all the notes of the thing that is good into tune, bringing speech into harmony with intent, and intent with deed, such an one would be considered perfect and of a truly harmonious character (De posteritate Caini 85–88).29

29 This threefold enterprise is also discussed in De agricultura 144; De congressu eruditionis gratia 67–68; and De vita Mosis 2.212.

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In order to achieve this synthesis, and avoid one-sidedness of whatever kind, Philo also reflects on the Stoic distinction between logos prophorikos (‘speech’) and logos endiathetos (‘thought’), as we saw in the case of the sophistic Amorites who only possessed the former logos (see at the end of §2). Philo stresses that one should master both logoi: ‘Logos’ has two aspects, one resembling a spring, the other its outflow; ‘logos’ in the understanding resembles a spring, and is called ‘reason’, while utterance by mouth and tongue is like its outflow, and is called ‘speech’. That each species of logos should be improved is vast wealth, understanding having good reasoning at its command for all things great and small, and utterance being under the guidance of correct training. For many reason excellently, but find speech a bad interpreter of thought and are by it betrayed through not having had a thorough grounding in the ordinary subjects of culture. Others, again, have shown great ability in expounding themes, and yet been most evil thinkers, such as the so- called sophists (οἱ λεγόμενοι σοφισται). Abel is adduced as an example of the first category, those who ‘reason excellently’ but lack ‘a thorough grounding in the ordinary subjects of culture’, and is contrasted with the sophists. Moses, however, once he has been trained in knowledge and wisdom, is a perfect example of those who command both logoi. This is in accordance with God’s intentions: God bestows on those who obey Him no imperfect boon. All His gifts are full and complete. And so, in this case also, He does not send the blessing or ‘logos-excellence’ in one division of logos, but in both its parts, for He holds it just that the recipient of His bounty should both conceive the noblest conceptions and give masterly expression to his ideas. For perfection depends, as we know, on both divisions of logos, the reason which suggests the ideas with clearness, and the speech which gives unfailing expression to them. Moses was led to look into knowledge and wisdom ‘with a view to getting the better of the sophists in Egypt (οἱ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ σοφισταί)’. It was Aaron who acted as Moses’ logos in utterance (ὁ προφορικὸς λόγος).30 To be versed in both logoi is extremely important: It is a vital matter, then, for one about to face a contest with sophists (πρὸς ἀγῶνα σοφιστικὸν) to have paid attention to words with such thor- oughness as not only to elude the grips of his adversary but to take the

30 Cf. also De gigantibus 52.

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offensive in his turn and prove himself superior both in skill and strength (De migratione Abrahami 71–82). In De ebrietate, Philo emphasizes what happens if one is dominated by the uttered word only. The uttered word (ὁ κατὰ προφοράν . . . λόγος) implants in us through the specious, the probable and the persuasive (. . .) false opinions for the destruction of our noblest possession, truth. Why, then, should we not at once take vengeance on him too, sophist (σοφιστής) and miscreant that he is, by sentencing him to the death that beﬁts him—that is to silence, for silence is the death of speech? Thus will he no longer ply his sophistries within the mind ( ἵνα μηκέτ᾽ ἐνσοφιστεύοντος ὁ νοῦς μεθέλκηται), nor will that mind be led astray, but having been absolutely released from (. . .) the sophistries of speech (τῶν κατὰ τὸν . . . λόγον σοφιστειῶν ἐλεύθερος) (. . .), the mind will be able to devote his unhampered liberty to the world of mental things (De ebrietate 70–71). Only if one is versed in both logoi, as Philo makes clear in De migratione, can one defeat those who ‘bring their sophistic trickery into play against the divine logos (ἀντισοφιστεύοντες τῷ θείῳ λόγῳ)’. Philo is optimistic, however, that this contest with the sophists will be successful: ‘All the arguments of sophists (πάντες οἱ σοφιστικοὶ λόγοι) are devoured and done away with by Nature’s many-sided skill (. . .). sophistry is ever defeated by wisdom (ἀεὶ σοφιστείαν ὑπὸ σοφίας ἡττᾶσθαι)’ (De migratione Abrahami 72–85). It is to underpin this view, that sophistry has indeed always been defeated by wisdom, that Philo retells the story of the sophist Balaam who planned in vain to attack Israel with his sophistic oracles.

Epilogue: The function of the Old Testament narratives in Philo

Philo not only takes action against contemporary sophistry in general but seems particularly concerned that the Jewish youth, receiving a Greek education at Alexandria, may be prone to non-philosophical, sophistic inﬂuences. Speaking about the Jewish race, ‘our race’, Philo observes that many have used their education not for the better (‘for day and light’) but for the worse (‘for night and darkness’), and have effectively extinguished the enlightenment of their souls by striving after a life of luxury and high ofﬁces: Many (. . .) have acquired the lights in the soul for night and darkness, not for day and light; all elementary lessons for example, and what is

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called school-learning and philosophy itself when pursued with no motive higher than a life of luxury, or from desire of an office under our rulers (Legum allegoriae 3.166–167). This concern is recognized already very clearly by Alan Mendelson in his study ‘Secular Education in Philo of Alexandria’ (1982): Neither political activities nor practical applications of the arts and sciences were condemned as inherently evil, although both were fraught with danger. But Philo drew the line when secular education compromised the integrity of the individual or the solidarity of the Jewish community. It is not coincidental that in LA [Legum allegoriae] iii.167–68 the most explicit instances of miseducation are students who use the encyclia to serve pretentious ends or to curry favor with the Roman rulers.31 This observation is further spelled out in Mendelson’s final conclusion, in which he underscores ‘the social and political lures of total assimilation’ and ‘the real dangers’ exerted by the sophistic movement (although, writing prior to Winter, he does not sufficiently address the issue of the sophists in the Philonic reflection on secular education): Taking it for granted that the elite Jewish youth of Alexandria would be enrolled in Greek institutions, he [ Philo] appears to have asked himself in what way their secular education could be turned to account. Jews, he insisted, should utilize the encyclia in their strivings toward divine knowledge instead of exploiting the acquisition of Greek culture simply to further their social and political ambitions. (. . .) In this environment, the social and political lures of total assimilation must have loomed large. Philo was particularly sensitive to this issue, perhaps because his nephew, Tiberius Julius Alexander, had already shown signs of disloyalty to Judaism. (. . .) Philo continued to draw clear lines between what was acceptable and what was not acceptable for his coreligionists. (. . .) Philo encourages a certain devotion to the encyclia, but he places them within a Jewish framework, and he repeatedly warns against their seductive charms. On the latter point, I cannot emphasize too strongly the real dangers which Philo saw in the disciplines, dangers which ranged from sophistry to heresy.32 If Philo is indeed gravely concerned about the dangers the sophistic movement poses to the Greek-educated Jewish youth at Alexandria, I believe this apprehensiveness accounts for the anti-sophistic slant of his

31 A. Mendelson, Secular Education in Philo of Alexandria (Monographs of the Hebrew Union College 7), Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1982, 46. Cf. also Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 93 with 93n72. 32 Mendelson, Secular Education in Philo of Alexandria, 82.

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commentaries on Moses’ Pentateuch. Philo’s anti-sophistic stance and his concern about the possible misuse of secular education puzzled F.H. Colson in an important article ‘Philo on Education’ (1917). Since all in all ‘very little systematic or formal writing on the subject’ of education survives from pagan Graeco-Roman sources, despite the importance which Antiquity attached to it, Colson deems it ‘strange to find one of the most vexed questions of classical antiquity most fully discussed in the work of this semi-hellenized Jew [i.e. Philo]—to find the old issue between the sophist and the philosopher stated to us in terms of the Old Testament.’33 However, it is not strange at all if Philo is determined to guard the Jewish youth against the influence of the sophist movement. Indeed, as Winter writes in reply to Colson’s statement: ‘If it is strange (as F.H. Colson maintains), it is also highly informative that Philo evaluated the Alexandrian sophistic tradition by means of OT incidents imported into the structure of Plato’s critique.’34 Winter’s emphasis, however, is on the final part of the sentence, ‘OT incidents imported into the structure of Plato’s critique’, and it seems he takes Philo’s evaluation of the sophistic tradition ‘by means of OT incidents’ almost for granted. What Winter sets out to demonstrate and clarify in response to Colson is Philo’s Platon- izing tendency, not his use of narratives from the Mosaic Pentateuch. After quoting Colson, Winter continues: ‘Although Philo conducts his discussion of the sophistic tradition within a framework of OT characters and texts, we will see that his critique of it depends heavily on Plato’s evaluation of the sophists’.35 However, it may also be informative that Philo criticizes the sophistic tradition ‘by means of OT incidents’ if he is indeed trying to warn the Greek-educated Jewish youth. If that is the case, warning them through anti-sophistic commentaries on the Mosaic Pentateuch is far more effective than through general treatises. Occasionally Winter seems to be aware of this anti-sophistic function of the Old Testament narratives. Commenting on De migratione Abrahami 76–85, where Philo states that ‘all the arguments of the sophists are devoured and done away with’ by the rhetorically gifted Aaron, the logos prophorikos, the ‘Finger of God’, Winter states: ‘This narrative functions as a divine rescript which declares that “sophistry is ever defeated by

33 F.H. Colson, ‘Philo on Education’, Journal of Theological Studies 18 (1917) 151–62, esp. 151, 153, 162, with quotation from 162. 34 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 94. 35 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 80.

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wisdom” ’.36 Here, Winter explicitly reﬂects on the function which Philo attributes to a particular Old Testament narrative. Similarly, later on Winter argues that ‘Philo’s war against contemporary sophistic activity was an outworking of ’ his high esteem for Moses as ‘ “the wise man” (πάνσοφος), exceeding in age and wisdom even the Seven Wise Men of the Greeks’, in congruence with the rhetorical question posed by the Greek philosopher Numenius: ‘What else is Plato, but Moses speaking Attic Greek?’37 Consequently, according to Winter, Philo ‘believed that conﬂicts in which noted OT characters engaged provided the paradigm for his evaluation of the sophists’.38 I agree with this and believe that the narrative emphasis of the present paper, which focuses on the Old Testament narrative contexts of the polemic concerning the sophists in Philo’s oeuvre, shows abundantly that there is an uninterrupted anti-sophistic reading of these narratives in Philo’s commentaries, spanning the entire line from the creation to Moses. The scale and scope of this undertaking suggests that Philo deliberately chose the Mosaic Pentateuch as the vehicle to convey his warning to the Greek-educated Jewish youth concerning the dangers of the anti-philosophical, social and political lures of the sophist movement.

36 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 105. 37 On Numenius’ view on Moses, see now M.F. Burnyeat, ‘Platonism in the Bible: Numenius of Apamea on Exodus and Eternity’, in: G.H. van Kooten (ed.), The Revelation of the Name YHWH to Moses: Perspectives from Judaism, the Pagan Graeco-Roman World, and Early Christianity (Themes in Biblical Narrative 9), Leiden: Brill, 2006, 139–68. On Graeco- Roman views on Moses in general, see G.H. van Kooten, ‘Moses/Musaeus/Mochos and his God Yahweh, Iao, and Sabaoth, Seen from a Graeco-Roman Perspective’, in: Van Kooten, The Revelation of the Name, 107–38. 38 Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists, 107.

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Stefan Beyerle

1. Introduction

The fourth oracle of Balaam the prophet is one of the most important messianic proof texts in the Judaisms of Hellenistic-Roman times.1 In general, such a focused theological reception contradicts several negative characterizations of Balaam as the ‘Pseudo-Prophet’ both in ancient Jewish and Christian sources. As related to the principle ‘Sacra Scriptura sui ipsius interpres’, later strata within the Pentateuch (cf. Deut 23:5–6; Num 31:8,16) saw Balaam in a negative light, while later prophetic interpretation (cf. Mic 6:5) of scripture emphasized the prophet’s positive inﬂuence on Israel. Especially in Micah 6 the oracles from Numbers 22–24 are embedded within the topic of salvation history as it is concret- ized in the ‘Exodus’ and ‘Eisodus’ motives (cf. Mic 6:4–5).2 The traditions of the Tanach already obviously attest an ambivalent perception of the ﬁrst prophet in ancient Israelite writings. This tendency is sustained by the ancient Jewish interpretation. The Jewish exegete, philosopher and theologian Philo of Alexandria, e.g., renarrates the story of Balaam from Num 22–24 in his ‘Life of Moses’ by replacing the last oracle of Balaam (Num 24:15–19) with the story of Baal Peor (Philo, Mos. 1.294–298).3 Like Philo, the early Christian polemic against the ‘Nicolaites’ refers to the ‘teaching of Balaam’ (Rev

1 Cf., e.g., G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic Studies, Leiden 19832, 165. 2 Pace J.A. Hackett, ‘Balaam’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 1, 569: ‘. . . the mention of Balaam in Mic 6:5 can be interpreted either positively or negatively . . .’ But cf. R. Kessler, Micha, Freiburg 1999, 265–6. For a late pre-exilic or exilic dating and the interpretation of Mic 6:1–8 cf. H.W. Wolff, Dodekapropheton 4: Micha, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, 142–5, 149–50. In recent times, e.g., M. Rösel, ‘Wie einer vom Propheten zum Verführer wurde. Tradition und Rezeption der Bileamgestalt’, Biblica 80 (1999) 506–24, has examined the different strains of the Balaam prophecy. 3 Cf. H. Donner, ‘Balaam pseudopropheta’, in: H. Donner et al. (eds), Beiträge zur Alttestamentlichen Theologie, Göttingen 1977, 118–9.

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2:14, τὴν διδαχὴν Βαλαάμ) and substantiates this particular teaching through references to the eating of food sacriﬁced to idols and the practice of fornication (φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα καὶ πορνεῦσαι). A parallel to the two latter practices can be found in the Septuagint version of Num 25:1–2, where we hear from the Israelites having sexual intercourse with the daughters of Moab (ἐκπορνεῦσαι εἰς τὰς θυγατέρας Μωαβ) and eating the Moabite sacriﬁces and worshipping the Moabites’ idols (καὶ ἔφαγεν ὁ λαὸς τῶν θυσιῶν αὐτῶν καὶ προσεκύνησαν τοῖς εἰδώλοις αὐτῶν).4 Both Philo and the epistle to Pergamon in the Book of Rev- elation make use of the canonical sequence in the Book of Numbers that places the Baal Peor episode straight after the Balaam cycle with the aim to highlight Balaam’s negative facet5—an interpretation of the ‘canonical shape’ that already led Julius Wellhausen to the conclusion that Numbers 25 is closely connected with chapters 22–24.6 The tendency mentioned above is only one of the many allusions to the ambivalence of the prophet Balaam and the corresponding characterization of this prophet since the early traditions found in the Tanach. In writings as early as the witnesses from the ancient Biblical examinations of Balaam, the diviner turns out to become a wicked liar.7 In general and apart from a few exceptions (e.g., Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 4.100–158)8 the ancient Jewish sources have portrayed Balaam as the wicked prophet (cf. also the ‘List of False Prophets’ in 4Q339)9

4 Cf. H. Löhr, ‘Die “Lehre der Nikolaiten”: Exegetische und theologische Bemerkungen zu einer neutestamentlichen “Häresie” ’, in: A. Lexutt & V. von Bülow (eds), Kaum zu glauben: Von der Häresie und dem Umgang mit ihr, Rheinbach 1998, 40–1. 5 Cf. also the quotations collected by J.L. Kugel, Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible As It Was at the Start of the Common Era, Cambridge, Mass., 1998, 808–10, who lists among others Targum Neofiti to Num 31:6; Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18:13–14; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 4.129. 6 See J. Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bücher des Alten Testaments, Berlin 19634, 111–2, also with reference to his ‘Q-source’ (the priestly writer). For a recent interpretation see Hackett, ‘Balaam’, 570. 7 See Vermes, Scripture, 126–77; Kugel, Traditions, 818–9. 8 On the interpretation of the Balaam figure in Josephus see L.H. Feldman, ‘Josephus’ Portrait of Balaam’, Studia Philonica Annual 5 (1993) 48–83. In Jewish War 6.312–315 Josephus refers to ‘an ambiguous oracle’ (χρησμὸς ἀμφίβολος) from the ‘sacred scriptures’ (ἐν τοῖς ἰεροῖς εὑρημένος γράμμασιν): a Jew would become ‘ruler of the world’ (ἄρξει τῆς οἰκουμένης). M. Hengel, Die Zeloten: Untersuchungen zur jüdischen Freiheitsbewegung in der Zeit von Herodes I. bis 70 n. Chr., Leiden 19762, 243–6, identifies the oracle with Num 24:17. But cf. J.J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature, New York, 1995, 200: ‘It is not clear what passage in the Scriptures Josephus had in mind’. 9 On 4Q339 see Sh.J.D. Cohen, ‘Hellenism in Unexpected Places’, in: J.J. Collins & G.E. Sterling (eds), Hellenism in the Land of Israel, Notre Dame 2001, 217–23, who

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and foreign seducer of Israel. In contrast to this, the understanding and rewriting of the fourth oracle has made the text of Num 24:15–19 one of the cornerstones of the eschatological hopes in Judaism and, with some reservations, in early Christianity.10 And what is more, most scholars identify allusions to the ideal king, mostly linked with David, in the mt of the last oracle.11 Taking these allusions as a starting point and, furthermore, focusing on the Septuagint and especially Aramaic interpretations like the Targums or the Syriaca, the way for an isolated messianic reading of the fourth oracle, or even Num 24:17, was prepared.12 In sum, the different strains of productive rewriting and interpretation of the stories and sayings that are connected with the prophet Balaam in the Tanach result in an ambiguous, not to say contradictory picture of Balaam as an active person. Moreover, the praise of Balaam’s activity is restricted to ‘messianic’ interpretations of the third and fourth oracle in Numbers 24. And those two oracles count among only a few ‘messianic’ proof-texts from the Pentateuch (Torah). Most of them stem from poetical contexts (e.g., Gen 49:9–10; Deut 33:8–11).13 In an extensive, conceptual, but sometimes too far-reaching article, Johann Maier criticizes the much too frequent unbalanced use of terms

compares the ‘List of the False Prophets’ (4Q339) with the ‘List of Netinim’ (4Q340) and finds in both influences of the Hellenistic ‘scholarship’ of listing things, even in Qumran. 10 The question whether early Christianity refers to the Balaam oracle depends on how far one assumes the influence of Num 24:17 on the story of the magoi in Matt 2. See also Nicklas, this volume. 11 Cf. the balanced analysis of K. Seybold, ‘Das Herrscherbild des Bileamorakels Num 24,15–19’ (1973), in: K. Seybold, Die Sprache der Propheten: Studien zur Literaturgeschichte der Prophetie, Zürich 1999, 34–51. See also recently B.A. Levine, Numbers 21–36, New York 2000, 201, and H. Seebass, Numeri, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2005, 199–200. 12 See, e.g., Vermes, Scripture, 59–60, 165; K.J. Cathcart, ‘Numbers 24:17 in Ancient Translations and Interpretations’, in: J. Krašovec, The Interpretation of the Bibel: The International Symposium in Slovenia, Sheffield 1998, 512–3; K. von Stuckrad, Das Ringen um die Astrologie: Jüdische und christliche Beiträge zum antiken Zeitverständnis, Berlin 2000, 104. It is interesting to see that the prominent reception of the fourth oracle in Qumran only at 4Q175 in l.9 refers explicitly to ‘Balaam’ (cf. Num 24:15bα). On this problem see also the statement from J.T. Greene, ‘The Balaam Figure and Type before, during, and after the Period of the Pseudepigrapha’, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 8 (1991) 73: ‘There [i.e., in the Qumran texts, SB] Balaam became far less important than his word(s)’. 13 Cf. the examinations in Collins, Scepter, index: s.v.; J.J. Collins, ‘Messianism and Exegetical Tradition: The Evidence of the LXX Pentateuch’, in: J.J. Collins, Jewish Cult and Hellenistic Culture: Essays on the Jewish Encounter with Hellenism and Roman Rule, Leiden 2005, 58–81.

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like ‘messiah’, ‘messianism’ or ‘messianic’ within recent scholarly discussion.14 Maier, focusing on Qumran evidence, emphasizes the aspects of function and assignment related to those ﬁgures that the Hebrew Bible and, especially, the ancient Jewish writings called ‘anointed ones’. Those aspects are in no way automatically adjoined to early Christian ideas like ‘Christology’, ‘Eschatology’ or ‘Apocalypticism’. In my opinion, this is also true for the so-called ‘messianic’ interpretation of Numbers 24 in Judaism(s) outside the Qumran writings. The quotations and reinterpretations are in need of some proof of whether they should still be called ‘messianic’. As a starting point, the following notes will examine the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 cE) and then turn back to the Jewish riots under Trajan (115–117 ce). Following the path back through ancient Jewish history, this study will also discuss sources like the Fifth Sibylline Oracle and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

2. The ‘Messianic Ingredients’ of the Bar Kokhba Revolt

Much has been written and still little is known about the so-called revolt of Bar Kokhba or ‘Second Jewish War’ and its military leader Simeon Bar Kosiba.15 A good example is the question why the Jews rebelled against the Romans under Bar Kochba. The Roman historian Cassius Dio (3rd century ce), preserved by the Byzantine sources (Epitome of Xiphilinus: 11th century ce), explores the cause of the revolt with the following words (Historia Romana LXIX, 12.1–2):16

14 See J. Maier, ‘Messias oder Gesalbter? Zu einem Übersetzungs- und Deutungs- problem in den Qumrantexten’, Revue de Qumran 65–68/17 (1996) 585–612. 15 For the predominant lack of evidence see the (mostly) balanced articles of B. Isaac & A. Oppenheimer, ‘Bar Kokhba Revolt’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 1, 598–601; M.O. Wise, ‘Bar Kokhba Letters’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 1, 601–6, and A. Oppen- heimer’s contributions on ‘Bar Kokhba, Shim‘on’ and ‘Bar Kokhba Revolt’ in Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Oxford 2000, vol. 1, 78–83. A still valuable survey of problems and scholarly theses relating to Bar Kokhba is to be found in E. Schürer (G. Vermes, F. Millar & M. Goodman), The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.–A.D. 135), rev. edn., vol. 1, Edinburg 1973, 534–57; B. Isaac & A. Oppenheimer, ‘The Revolt of Bar Kokhba: Ideology and Modern Scholarship’, Journal of Jewish Studies 36 (1985) 33–60. 16 For text and translation cf. M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, vol. 2: From Tacitus to Simplicius, Jerusalem 1980, 391–2: no. 440. See also G.E. Evans, Jesus and His Contemporaries: Comparative Studies, Leiden 1995, 189–90, and, recently, P. Kuhlmann, Religion und Erinnerung: Die Religionspolitik Kaiser Hadrians und ihre Rezeption in der antiken Literatur, Göttingen 2002, 43–4, 60–7.

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(12:1) ᾿Ες δὲ τὰ ῾Ιεροσόλυμα πόλιν αὐτοῦ ἀντὶ τῆς κατασκαφείσης οἰκίσαντος, ἣν καὶ Αἰλίαν Καπιτωλῖναν ὠνόμασε 〈scil. ᾿Αδριανός〉, καὶ ἐς τὸν τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ τόπον ναὸν τῷ ∆ιὶ ἕτερον ἀντεγείραντος πόλεμος οὔτε μικρὸς οὔτ᾿ ὀλιγοχρόνιος ἐκινήθη. (2) ᾿Ιουδαῖοι γὰρ δεινόν τι ποιούμενοι τὸ ἀλλοφύλους τινὰς ἐς τὴν πόλιν σφῶν οἰκισθῆναι καὶ τὸ ἱερὰ ἀλλότρια ἐν αὐτῇ ἱδρυθῆναι. (12:1) At Jerusalem he [scil. Hadrian] founded a city in place of the one which had been razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina,17 and on the site of the temple of the god he raised a new temple to Jupiter. This brought on a war of no slight importance nor of brief duration, (2) for the Jews deemed it intolerable that foreign races should be settled in their city and foreign religious rites planted there. In this brief note, Cassius Dio names Hadrian’s decision to replace Jerusalem by a Roman city, his installation of the cult of Jupiter and the following religious consequences as the cause for the Jewish revolt—remarkably Dio does not refer to the name Bar Kokhba. That the Roman historian could only have meant the Bar Kokhba war can be clariﬁed by the writings of the Christian Father Eusebius (4th century ce). Eusebius calls Bar Kokhba by name and notes that Hadrian renamed Jerusalem after the Romans’ suppression of the revolt (cf. Historia Ecclessia, IV. 6.1–4).18 Another source, the Historia Augusta (probably end of the 4th century ce), states (Historia Augusta, Hadrianus 14.1–2):19

17 On Jerusalem’s history as ‘Aelia Capitolina’, see E. Otto, Jerusalem: Die Geschichte der Heiligen Stadt. Von den Anfängen bis zur Kreuzfahrerzeit, Stuttgart 1980, 165–73. For the urban infrastructure see recently Y.Z. Eliav, ‘The Urban Layout of Aelia Capitolina: A New View from the Perspective of the Temple Mount’, in: P. Schäfer (ed.), The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Revolt against Rome, Tübingen 2003, 241–77. 18 For a harmonistic reading of Cassius Dio and Eusebius cf. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, vol. 2, 396, and M. Hengel, ‘Hadrians Politik gegenüber Juden und Christen’ (1984–1985), in: M. Hengel, Judaica et Hellenistica: Kleine Schriften, Tübingen 1996, vol. 1, 379–91. See also the discussion in P. Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand: Studien zum zweiten jüdischen Krieg gegen Rom, Tübingen 1981, 36–8. Some scholars argue in favour of a foundation of ‘Aelia Capitolina’ as a cause of the revolt. Cf. recently A. Oppenheimer, ‘The Ban on Circumcision as a Cause of the Revolt: A Reconsideration’, in: P. Schäfer (ed.), The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Second Revolt against Rome, Tübingen 2003, 68–9, and Y. Shahar, ‘The Underground Hideouts in Galilee and Their Historical Meaning’, in: Y. Shahar & Y. Tepper (eds), Jewish Towns and Villages in Galilee and their Underground Hideouts, Tel Aviv 1985, 217–40 at 227 and 230–31, Pace, e.g., G.W. Bowersock, ‘A Roman Perspective on the Bar Kochba War’, in: W.S. Green (ed.), Approaches to Ancient Judaism, Chico 1980 (repr. 1994), 136–37, 140. 19 For text and translation see Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, vol. 2, 619: no. 511. See, recently, Kuhlmann, Religion, 97–101, 133–6.

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(2) Moverunt ea tempestate et Iudaei bellum, quod vetabantur mutilare genitalia. (2) At this time also the Jews began war, because they were forbidden to practise circumcision. Some scholars, like Edith Mary Smallwood, prefer the ban on circumcision as a reasonable cause of the revolt. She combines the quotation from Historia Augusta with the edict of Hadrian’s successor Antoninus Pius (138–161 ce). This edict seems to allow circumcision for the Jews exclusively, which would highlight Hadrian’s universal ban. Further- more, Tosefta, Shabbat 15.9 (cf. also Palestinian Talmud, Shabbat 19:2; Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 72a) reports a new circumcision of the epispasmos (μykwçm) ‘in the days of abzwk ˆb’, i.e., a reaction of the Jews to Hadrian’s prohibition in the days of the revolt.20 But against this, Peter Schäfer has argued for an identiﬁcation of the μykwçm with Roman- sympathizers among the Jews, who had for a long time been assimilated into the Roman culture.21 Those ‘Roman Jews’ were obviously forced by their revolting brothers to practice circumcision. With regard to Historia Augusta and the Roman edict, Schäfer questions the historical credibility of the Historia and interprets the legislation under Antoninus Pius as a tool to avoid proselytism among the Jews—only the circumcision of the sons is permitted (Modestinus Digesta XLVIII, 8.11.1: circumcidere Judaeis ﬁlios suos tantum rescriptio divi Pii permittitur).22 Finally and above all, one can question whether the Latin expression ‘mutilare genitalia’ in fact meant circumcision. Recently, Ra{anan Abusch pointed to the fact that ‘this report should only be read in a highly circumscribed way as a possible indication that the practice of circumcision was somehow implicated

20 Cf. E.M. Smallwood, ‘The Legislation of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius against Circumcision’, Latomus 18 (1959) 334–47; E.M. Smallwood, ‘The Legislation of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius against Circumcision: Addendum’, Latomus 20 (1961) 93–6. Cf. also E.M. Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian. A Study in Political Relations, Leiden 19812, 428–38, 445. 21 They can be compared with the ‘Hellenists’ in the days of Antiochus IV. Cf. Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 45–6 (see below). 22 Cf. Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 38–43; P. Schäfer, Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World, Cambridge, Mass., 1998, 103–5; P. Schäfer, ‘The Bar Kokhba Revolt and Circumcision: Historical Evidence and Modern Apologetics’, in: A. Oppenheimer (ed.), Jüdische Geschichte in hellenistisch-römischer Zeit: Wege der Forschung. Vom alten zum neuen Schürer, München 1999, 119–32. Besides this, one can question the meaning of ‘mutilare genitalia’ in Historia Augusta, Hadrianus 14.2. The expression generally refers to a non-Hellenistic behavior that injures the physical integrity of the genitals, maybe castration that also includes circumcision (see above).

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in the larger conflict’.23 Furthermore, Abusch reads the expression as a reference to the prohibition of the genital mutilation of slaves as it is also attested in the Roman slave law.24 This short survey of different historical approaches to the Bar Kokhba revolt includes peculiarities that are of special interest for a messianic interpretation of the leading figure. Firstly, if Peter Schäfer’s interpretation is supported by the sources, the Jewish revolt was not at all Jewish. Rather, it was a regional conflict25 especially relating to inner-Jewish confrontations. Secondly, Hadrian is made responsible for the desecration of Jerusalem and its Temple and also for the ban on circumcision. Furthermore, Hadrian is seen as a ‘Hellenistic’ ruler among the Roman Emperors.26 Finally, the textual evidence leaves open the question whether the Roman persecution followed the revolt or vice versa.27 Taking these data together, the circumstances of the Bar-Kokhba revolt mirror in every respect the Hellenistic encounter with Palestine under Antiochus IV.28 Therefore, both revolts can be regarded within a social and theological setting that promoted eschatological expectations, whose concrete peculiarities appeared in a more or less radical shape.

23 R. Abusch, ‘Negotiating Difference: Genital Mutilation in Roman Slave Law and the History of the Bar Kokhba Revolt’, in: Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, 80. 24 See Abusch, ‘Negotiating Difference’, 84–9. 25 The regions are: Judaea and former Idumaea (southern hill country) and from Jericho south to Masada along the Dead Sea shore: see F. Millar, The Roman Near East: 31 BC–AD 337, Cambridge, Mass., 1996, 370; cf. also the sceptical summary of Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 134–5, and recently M. Mor, ‘The Geographical Scope of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt’, in: Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, 107–31. On the involvement of Nabateans in the revolt see below. 26 Hadrian identiﬁed himself with Zeus Olympios and, from 129 CE onwards, was named ‘Hadrianos Sebastos Zeus Olympios’. His programm can be called ‘Pan-hellenic’. Cf. A.R. Birley, Hadrian: The Restless Emperor, London 2000, 215–34. Recently, Kuhlmann, Religion, passim, has examined the politics of religion at the time of Hadrian. 27 Cf. the similar discussion of E.J. Bickerman and V. Tcherikover on Jewish history in the time of Antiochus IV. Cf. E.J. Bickerman, The God of the Maccabees: Studies in the Origin and Meaning of the Maccabean Revolt, repr. Leiden 1979; V. Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews, repr. Peabody 1999, 175–203. See also the recent discussion in J.J. Collins, ‘Cult and Culture: The Limits of Hellenization in Judea’ (2001), in: Collins, Jewish Cult and Hellenistic Culture, 26–40. 28 Cf. M. Hengel, Judentum und Hellenismus: Studien zu ihrer Begegnung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Palästinas bis zur Mitte des 2. Jh.s v. Chr., Tübingen 19883, 559; P. Schäfer, ‘Hadrian’s Policy in Judaea and the Bar Kokhba Revolt. A Reassessment’, in P.R. Davies & R.T. White (eds), A Tribute to Geza Vermez: Essays on Jewish and Christian Literature and History, Shefﬁeld 1990, 293–4, 296–7; Birley, Hadrian, 228–9.

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The following examination tries to evaluate in how far the Bar Kokhba revolt ‘. . . wie kaum ein anderes Ereignis jener Zeit messianische Konnotationen mit sich führte’.29 The relevant sources that may show a messianic interpretation of Bar Kokhba are: Rabbinic writings, esp. the Talmud Yerushalmi, the coins from the Bar Kokhba period and some papyri from the caves of Muraba{at, the caves of the Nahal Sexelim, and the caves at Nahal Hever.30

a. Rabbinic Evidence The most famous and only positive messianic reference in rabbinic writings occurs in Palestinian Talmud, Taanit 4:8.27; 68d. The text reads as follows: (1) R. Shimon b. Yohai taught: ‘My teacher Aqiva (ybr hbyq[) used to expound: “A star shall step forth from Jacob” (Num 24:17) [in this way:] Kozeba/Kozba (abzwk) steps forth from Jacob’. (2) When R. Aqiva beheld Bar Kozeba/Kozba, he exclaimed: ‘This one is the King Messiah (ajyçm aklm awh ˆyd)’. (3) R. Yohanan b. Torta said to him: ‘Aqiva, grass will grow between your jaws and still the son of David will not have come!’31 Most interesting in this threefold characterization of Bar Kokhba is the central identiﬁcation with the ‘Messiah’ from the mouth of Aqiva: it is in Aramaic and not, like the framing parts, in Hebrew.32 As Peter Schäfer has shown, the so-called ‘Bethar-Complex’ parallels the quotation of Num 24:17 with the midrash on Gen 27:22, which stems originally from ‘the Rabbi’, i.e., R. Jehuda Ha-Nasi (who died 217 ce). Thus, the name of R. Shimon b. Yohai was a late insertion in both traditions. And it is not very likely that the positive interpretation of

29 In the words of von Stuckrad, Astrologie, 142; cf. also 151–8. 30 Pace several other scholars (cf., e.g., Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 59–62), the Christian tradition will be left aside for two reasons: ﬁrstly, Christian sources like Justin’s Apologia I.31,6, Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesia IV.6.2 or the Apocalypse of Peter show no clear indications that they have known real Jewish traditions about a ‘messiah’ Bar Kokhba, and, secondly, their anti-Jewish polemics tend to obscure the Jewish affection in line with or against Bar Kokhba at the time of the ‘Second Jewish War’. 31 For the translation see P. Schäfer, ‘Bar Kokhba and the Rabbis’, in: Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, 2. 32 The passage in (2) may refer to the Aramaic aggadic writings. Those were meant for the common people. Cf. G. Stemberger, Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch, Munich 19928, 181.

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Bar Kokhba originates from R. Jehuda Ha-Nasi, one or two generations after the revolt. Consequently, R. Jehuda Ha-Nasi could be suspected of being the creator of the negative interpretation of Bar Kosiba as Bar Koziba (‘son of a lie’). The creator of the positive exegesis could have been Aqiva. But, as Peter Schäfer concludes, it is more likely that the famous Rabbi was inserted into the dialogue after his martyrdom at the time of the second Jewish revolt. Bringing the arguments together, the Aramaic middle part that emphasizes Bar Kokhba’s identification with the Messiah is part of the final redaction of this text.33 In conclusion, the midrash of Num 24:17 in the Palestinian Talmud, Taanit shows a late identification of the messianic proclamation.34 In a much later rabbinic tradition preserved in Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 93b we read: Bar Koziba (abyzwk) reigned two and a half years. He said to the Rabbis: ‘I am the Messiah (jyçm ana)!’ They answered: ‘Of the Messiah it is written that he smells and judges—let us see whether he smells and judges’. When they saw that he was unable to smell and judge, they killed him. Here, the messianic claim lacks any reference to Aqiva. The investigation of the Messiah is a midrash on Isa 11:3–4, and, insofar, reflects a much later rabbinic tradition (perhaps first half of the 4th century ce) compared with the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt.35 Even in the context of an anti-messianic polemic against certain claims of Bar Kokhba there is no hint to a contemporary or, what is more, historical allusion to a messianic identification by means of a reinterpretation of Num 24:17. This short look at rabbinic sources illustrates that there is no connection between the historical Rabbi Aqiva, a messianic reading of

33 Cf. Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 166–9; Schäfer, ‘Bar Kokhba and the Rabbis’, 3–4, esp. 4: ‘The reason why Aqiva, of all the possible candidates, would have been inserted into the dictum as Bar Kokhba’s herald (instead of the unknown and obviously insigniﬁcant original author) is simple: Aqiva was the hero of the Yavneh period and, most importantly, the imprisonment, martyrdom and death during the revolt are well established in the rabbinic literature’. 34 Cf. R.G. Marks, The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature: False Messiah and National Hero, Pennsylvania 1994, 16, however, without relating to Schäfer’s interpretation. Pace, e.g., E.E. Urbach, The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs, vol. 1, Jerusalem 1975, 673–6, and, recently, S. Bergler, ‘Jesus, Bar Kochba und das messianische Laubhüttenfest’, Journal for the Study of Judaism 29 (1998) 183–4. 35 Cf. Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 57–8; Schäfer, ‘Bar Kokhba and the Rabbis’, 5; Marks, Image, 21–2. Schäfer refers to Rava (bar Nahmani, who died in 330 ce; cf. also Stemberger, Einleitung, 99).

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Num 24:17, and Bar Kokhba. Additionally, messianic overtones can be traced back to the ‘hero’ of the revolt in general,36 but their roots and socio-political settings in particular are unknown to us. And, lastly, the sources show a certain ambiguity towards the functions and honorable deeds of Bar Kokhba. Insofar, some scholars combine traditions of the—dying—Messiah ben Ephraim with the second Jewish revolt.37

b. The coinage In combination with the inscriptional evidence, the Bar Kokhba coins are the most important archaeological finds for the dating of the revolt.38 Apart from their historical value for the setting and the reconstruction of the revolt, the iconographical peculiarities of some of the coins show a symbol of something like a star. This leads scholars to the conclusion that the coins of Bar Kokhba also attest a messianic symbol.39 But in general, the symbol is at least ambiguous, and many scholars identify a rosette instead of a star. This identification is further confirmed by a lead weight found at Horvat {Alim40 that shows a six-petalled rosette in the center of each side surrounded by two circles forming a double frame and two inscriptions referring to ‘Ben Kosba (absknb), Prince of

36 See recently Schäfer, ‘Bar Kokhba and the Rabbis’, 17–9, where he examines messianic overtones that can be connected with the title ayçn (see below). 37 See recently, e.g., B.W.R. Pearson, ‘Dry Bones in the Judean Desert: The Messiah of Ephraim, Ezekiel 37, and the Post-Revolutionary Followers of Bar Kokhba’, Journal for the Study of Judaism 29 (1998) 192–201. 38 See H. Eshel, ‘The Dates Used During the Bar Kokhba Revolt’, in: Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, 95–6. The most important evidence is the appearance of Bar Kokhba coins together with Aelia Capitolina coins in hoards. From this, some scholars conclude that the new foundation of Aelia Capitolina took place already before the outbreak of the revolt. See L. Mildenberg, The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War, Aarau 1984, 100–1; see also above and the review of M. Hengel, ‘Die Bar-Kokhbamünzen als politisch-religiöse Zeugnisse’ (1986), in: Hengel, Judaica et Hellenistica, vol. 1, 344–50. Recently, Y. Tsafrir, ‘Numismatics and the Foundation of Aelia Capitolina—A Critical Review’, in: Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, 33–6, has argued against this conclusion. The evidence of both types of coins, or even more, in hoards like the one in the el-Jai Cave gives no reason to assume that these coins were left by only one person at a certain time. 39 See, e.g., Smallwood, Jews, 444–5, with 445n66, and H. Künzl, Jüdische Grabkunst von der Antike bis heute, Darmstadt 1999, 209. 40 See the photography in A. Kloner & B. Zissu, ‘Hiding Complexes in Judaea: An Archaeological and Geographical Update on the Area of the Bar Kokhba Revolt’, in: Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, 186 and 214, ﬁg. 11. On the inscriptions, the provenance and archaeological data of the Horvat ‘Alim lead weight, see A. Kloner, ‘Lead Weight of Bar Kokhba’s Administration’, Israel Exploration Journal 40 (1990) 58–67 [= Eretz Israel 20 (1989) 345–54, Hebrew].

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Israel (larçy yçn), and his administrator (wçnrpw) Shim{on Dasoi’ (side A), resp. ‘Shim{on ben Kosba, Prince of Israel and his administrator’ (side B).41 To some extent comparable is an eight-petalled and six-petalled rosette that can be found on some coins stemming from the time of Alexander Yannai.42 The form of the mentioned name is of further interest: the legends of the coins and weights, as the documents from the Judean Desert, never use the name abkwk which bears messianic overtones and is only preserved in rabbinic (Midrash, Lamentations Rabbah 2:2, see Ekha Rabbati [ed. Buber], 101; cf. Palestinian Talmud, Taanit 4:8.27; 68d) and Christian sources ( Justin, Eusebius; see above).43 Even if the coins included a reference to the ‘star’, the messianic understanding of this specimen would be thwarted by the consequent omission of the programmatic name abkwk (rb) in the contemporary legends of the coins and in the documents. Why should the iconography of the coins carry messianic overtones while the name of the leader is restricted to ˆw[mç or larçy ayçn ˆw[mç?44 For further arguments, one type of coin needs to be scrutinized. Among the silver and bronze coins45 a tetradrachma with the tetra- style facade of the Temple on the obverse and the lulav and etrog on the reverse is very common.46 Within the temple facade of the obverse

41 For the discussion and translation of the inscriptions see Kloner, ‘Lead Weight’, 61–4. On further weights from the Bar Kokhba period, of which some also bear the rosette, see B. Lifshitz, ‘Bleigewichte aus Palästina und Syrien’, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 92 (1976) nos. 41 and 42; Kloner, ‘Lead Weight’, 66–7, and R. Deutsch, ‘A Lead Weight of Shimon Bar Kokhba’, Israel Exploration Journal 51 (2001) 96–8. The recently published weight, examined by Deutsch, shows just the inscription: ‘Shim{on ben Kosba, Prince of Israel’ ( ?l¿arçy ?a¿ysn ?ab¿swk ˆb ˆw[mç). The script of the lead weights and coins is Palaeo-Hebrew. 42 See Y. Meshorer, Jewish Coins of the Second Temple Period, Tel-Aviv 1967, 119 and plate II: nos. 8. 8A. 8B. 9. 11. See also the coins of Herod Philip II: Y. Meshorer, Jewish Coins, 135–7 and plates X and XI: nos. 76–84; cf. Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba- Aufstand, 64. 43 Cf. P. Schäfer, ‘R. Aqiva und Bar Kokhba’, in: P. Schäfer, Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des rabbinischen Judentums, Leiden 1978, 86–90; P. Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 51–2; Isaac and Oppenheimer, ‘The Revolt of Bar Kokhba’, 57; L. Mildenberg, ‘Bar Kokhba Coins and Documents’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 84 (1980) 313–4; Mildenberg, Coinage, 13. 26. 90–1. Schürer et al., History, 543n128, notices that SOR (MS Munich) also reads abkk rb. 44 See the coins at Meshorer, Jewish Coins, 165 (plate XXVI: no. 199); Mildenberg, Coinage, 30–1, 133–63 (series I, nos. 27–87) and 294–98 (series III, nos. 1–11), 301–5 (series IV, nos. 20–30), 306–9 (series IV, nos. 34–46). 45 See J.W. Betlyon, ‘Coinage’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 1, 1088. 46 For the Temple concept of the Bar Kokhba-coins see Y. Meshorer, Ancient Jewish Coinage; Vol. 2: Herod the Great through Bar Cochba, New York 1982, 138–41 at 140

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a stylized ark of the covenant is included.47 The star or rosette is placed in the center over the architrave. Leo Mildenberg has pointed out striking objections against the interpretation as a star. First, the prototype of this type of coin clearly reveals a round rosette and not a star. Second, the identiﬁcation as a star is methodologically invalid since it interprets the symbolic elements in isolation.48 Third, the element of a coin, as a primary source, is combined with Aqiva’s association of Bar Kokhba and the ‘star’ of Num 24:17. All in all, ‘nothing on the coins, in fact, refers to Shim{on ben Kosiba as the Messiah.’49

c. The documents from the Judean desert The documentary texts from the Bar Kokhba period50 are also suspected of preserving some information about the status of Bar Kokhba as a messianic ﬁgure. The connecting link between these documentary texts and the coins can be ﬁxed in the title for Bar Kokhba, ayçn, and the symbolism of the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’.51

(italics by Meshorer): ‘Thus the image on the silver tetradrachms symbolizes the concept of the Temple in Jerusalem; it does not need any more speciﬁc features’. 47 Cf. the discussion in Mildenberg, Coinage, 33–42. The alternative interpretation would be to identify a Torah shrine on the front of a synagogue. 48 Furthermore, some coins have a curving line instead of the rosette. Cf. L.D. Sporty, ‘Identifying the Curving Line on the Bar-Kokhba Temple Coin’, Biblical Archaeologist 46 (1983) 121–3, with, however, far-reaching arguments. For Sporty, the wavy line represents the golden vine at the facade of the Temple. Also rather speculative is the suggestion that the line over the Temple architrave symbolizes God’s protection in the cloud above the Temple. So H. Ulfgard, Feast and Future: Revelation 7:9–17 and the Feast of the Tabernacles, Lund 1989, 138. 49 In this way Mildenberg, Coinage, 45, and for the above listed arguments cf. 44–5 and 73–6. 50 Cf. the introduction by H.M. Cotton, ‘The Impact of the Documentary Papyri from the Judaean Desert on the Study of Jewish History from 70 to 135 CE’, in: A. Oppenheimer (ed.), Jüdische Geschichte in hellenistisch-römischer Zeit. Wege der Forschung: Vom alten zum neuen Schürer, München 1999, 221–9; H.M. Cotton, ‘Documentary Texts’, Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Oxford 2000, vol. 1, 214–5 (see also the listing of Millar, The Roman Near East, 548–52). The relationship between the coins and the documentary texts is discussed by Mildenberg, Coinage, 90–4. 51 A further signiﬁcant symbol on the coins, more exactly on the Bar Kokhba denarii and the small bronze coinage, is a bunch of grapes that have no literary equivalent in the documentary texts: see Meshorer, Jewish Coins, 161, 163–9 (plate XXII: nos. 173–7, plate XXIV: nos. 187–90A, plate XXV: nos. 197–98, plate XXVII: nos. 206–9C, plate XXVIII, nos. 213–5); Mildenberg, Coinage, 172–3. 176–7. 189–99. 244–88. 290–3 (Series II, nos. 1–2. 9–11. 37–51. 139–220. 224–30. 233. 236–7. 246–65) and 327–33. 343–4 (series V, nos. 147–60. 225–33). Some scholars concede that this symbol of fertility could bear messianic overtones: cf., e.g., P. Schäfer, Geschichte der Juden in der Antike: Die Juden Palästinas von Alexander dem Großen bis zur arabischen Eroberung,

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Especially the symbols of the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’ have led scholars to the far-reaching thesis that the ‘Bar Kokhba-messianism’ was modeled to some extent on the basis of messianic ideas from the early Christian traditions. An extended article by Siegfried Bergler examines the relevant sources.52 Bergler takes his starting point with three Papyri from the ‘Yadin-Collection’ (P. Yadin 57, 52 and 59 [= 5/6 Hev 57, 52 and 59]). All three Papyri have two things in common: they stem from the Bar Kokhba period and refer to the leader’s wish to be prepared for the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’. Here, Bergler asks: ‘. . . warum Bar Kochba trotz jener schwierigen politischen Situation so darauf bedacht war, eine korrekte Sukkot-Feier mit vorschriftsmäßig verzehnteten Fest- sträußen zu begehen’.53 The answer to this question can be found in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Zechariah 14) and the New Testament (cf. Mark 11), wherein Bergler detects allusions to the characterization of the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’ as an eschatological, i.e., messianic, feast in ancient Judaism and Christianity.54 All in all, from Bergler’s point of view, the title of a ayçn and the importance of the Sukkot show that the ancient sources, papyri and coins,55 bear witness to Bar Kokhba as a Torah observant, military and messianic leader in the revolt.56 Despite the differences that Bergler sees between the nationalistic intentions of the Bar Kokhba revolt and the universalistic orientation of the Christian revolt, the messianism of Bar Kokhba can be compared to some extent with the messianism of the early Christian movement.

Stuttgart 1983, 165. But the bunch of grapes is a well-documented symbol in picto- rial art in Jewish antiquity in general. It is a sign of the land’s fertility and does not hint at messianic beliefs particularly (see Mildenberg, Coinage, 46, cf. also Meshorer, ‘Ancient Jewish Coinage’, 143). 52 Cf. Bergler, ‘Jesus’, 143–91. See also the arguments of J.C. O’Neill, ‘The Mocking of Bar Kokhba and of Jesus’, Journal for the Study of Judaism 31 (2000) 39–41. 53 So Bergler, ‘Jesus’, 147–8. 54 Cf. especially Bergler, ‘Jesus’, 165–6. 55 See the tetradrachmas that pictures ‘lulav’ and ‘etrog’ on the reverse and the Temple with a stylized ark of the covenant on the obverse. This collection of Bar Kokhba coins is identical with the ‘series I’ in Mildenberg, Coinage, 123–72 (nos. 1–104). The legends on the coins read: ‘Jerusalem’—‘Year One of the Redemption of Israel’ (nos. 1–5), ‘Jerusalem’—‘Year 2 of the Freedom of Israel’ (nos. 6–26), ‘Shim‘on’—‘Year 2 of the Freedom of Israel’ (nos. 27–45), ‘Shim‘on’—‘For the Freedom of Jerusalem’ (nos. 46–96). See, at last, also irregular coinage (nos. 97–104). 56 Cf. Bergler, ‘Jesus’, 190: ‘Darum dürfen die besprochenen Papyri—bei aller gebotenen Zurückhaltung—als weitere Mosaiksteinchen für die These des messianisch- patriotischen Selbstverständnisses von Bar Kochba bzw. des von messianisch-nationalen Erwartungen geprägten Aufstandes gewertet werden’.

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For further proof of Bergler’s thesis, it is worth to take a look at P. Yadin 52 (5/6 Hev 52) from the ‘Cave of the Letters’, one of the most famous documentary texts of the second revolt. In line 1–11 we read:57 1 Cου[μαι]οc Ιωναθηι 2 Βειανου καὶ Μα-3 [c]αβαλα[ι] χαίρειν. 4 ἐπιδὴ ἔπεμcα πρὸc 5 ὑμᾶc ᾽Α[γ]ρίππαν cπου-6 δ[άcα]τε πέμcε μοι 7 θ[ύ]ρcου[c] καὶ κίτρια, 8 ὅ[cον] δυναcθήcεται, 9 ἰc [π]αρεμβολὴν ᾽Ιου-10 δ[αί]ων καὶ μὴ ἄλωc 11 π[οι]ήcηται. Soumaios to Yonathes son of Beianos and to Masabala greetings. Since I have sent you Agrippa, hurry to send me wands and citrons, as much as you will be able to, for the camp of the Jews, and do not do otherwise. Beyond the debate of alternative readings in former text editions, a reference to the μyblwl and μygwrta of the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’ seems plausible.58 Hannah M. Cotton has argued in a recent article that the writer of the letter, Cου[μαι]οc, should not be identiﬁed with the ˆw[mç of the coins and letters. In her opinion, he is more likely a gentile, speciﬁcally, a Nabatean.59 Another Aramaic letter from the ‘Cave of the Letters’ (P. Yadin 57) is also of special interest.60 Here, a certain Simeon writes to Judah bar Menashe (hçnm rb hdwhyl ˆw[mç). He is ordered to send ‘palm fronds’ (ˆybll), ‘citrons’ (ˆygrta), ‘myrtles’

57 Text and translation are adopted from the final edition of H.M. Cotton, ‘The Bar Kokhba Revolt and the Documents from the Judaean Desert: Nabataean Participation in the Revolt (P. Yadin 52)’, in: Schäfer, The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, 144. 58 On the arrangement, especially the four species for the feast, and the function of the μyblwl and μygwrta during Sukkot see, e.g., Mishnah Sukkot 3 and 4. See on the older readings the apparatus criticus in H. Lapin, ‘Palm Fronds and Citrons: Notes on Two Letters from Bar Kosiba’s Administration’, Hebrew Union College Annual 64 (1993 [1994]) 114 (cf. also Bergler, ‘Jesus’, 145; Cotton, ‘The Bar Kokhba Revolt’, 145, and the editio princeps by B. Lifshitz, ‘Papyrus grecs du désert de Judea’, Aegyptus 42 [1962] 241–8). The circumstances of this find are described by Y. Yadin, ‘Expedition D’, Israel Exploration Journal 11 (1961) 42–3, who already refers to the citrons. For the discussion of θ[ύ]ρcου[c] καὶ κίτρια in line 7 of the Papyrus Yadin 52 see Lapin, ‘Palm Fronds’, 116–8, who refers, among other sources, to 2 Macc 10:6–7 and Jdt 15:12. 59 The arguments are: Soumaios is never the transcription of ˆw[mç. Later in P. Yadin 52 (ll. 12–14), the text emphasizes that the present writer was not able to write in Hebrew (letters). It is absolutely inconceivable that Bar Kokhba could not have felt like writing in Hebrew or in Hebrew-Aramaic letters, because his ‘program’ included the revival of Hebrew as the official language. At last, Agrippa and the writer of P. Yadin 59 could have been Nabateans, too; cf. Cotton, ‘The Bar Kokhba Revolt’, 146–8, and Lapin, ‘Palm Fronds’, 115–6. For contrary argumentation S.E. Porter, ‘The Greek Papyri of the Judaean Desert and the World of the Roman East’, in: S.E. Porter & C.A. Evans (eds), The Scrolls and the Scriptures: Qumran Fifty Years After, Sheffield 1997, 300–1, 308, who thinks of a ‘Nabataean Jew’. 60 Cf. on the text Lapin, ‘Palm Fronds’, 112–3. The addressee hçnm rb hdwhy has also been identified with a priest.

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(ˆysdh), and ‘willows’ (ˆybr[) to ‘the camp’ (hynjml). We may conclude that the ambition of the followers of Bar Kokhba was to be prepared for Sukkot at the end of the revolt, though the feast is not literally mentioned.61 Obviously also non-Jews were among them. And, consequently, a careful comparison of the documents with the symbols of the tetradrachmas that picture ‘lulav’62 and ‘etrog’ on the reverse and the temple with a stylized ark of the covenant on the obverse leads to the conclusion that the revolt had a conservative aim in terms of bringing back the Jerusalem temple as the place of the Jewish feasts.63 Finally, the designation of Bar Kokhba as a ayçn by both, the coins64 and the documents, have been interpreted as a messianic title. As Joseph A. Fitzmyer puts it: ‘It is not unlikely that both the title, Prince of Israel, and the appellation, “the son of the star”, are due to the messianic character of the uprising’.65 In the Hebrew Bible the word ayçn designates generally the noble one, and furthermore the leader of a tribe and clan and a military commander.66 The title contains eschatological overtones only in the later redactions of the book of Ezekiel (cf. Ezek 37:23–25; 45:7–8; 48:21–22).67 In general, the singular constructus ayçn larçy from the documents and the coins of the Bar Kokhba revolt is only attested once in the Hebrew Bible (Ezek 21:30).68 Aside from the

61 Pace Lifshitz, ‘Papyrus grecs’, 241, 243, and Porter, ‘The Greek Papyri’, 305, 315–6. Both read in line 9–10 of P.Yadin 52 [κ]ιτρειαβολὴν ᾽Ιουδαίων (= ‘fête juive des Tabernacles’). For the dating of the letters see Cotton, ‘The Bar Kokhba Revolt’, 148. 62 In his preliminary report Yadin mentions a seal found in the ‘Cave of the Letters’ that bears ‘a floral decoration which is perhaps to be interpreted as a lulab with myrtle branches’ (Yadin, ‘Expedition D—The Cave of the Letters’, 230). 63 See also the very careful description of the relevant coins in Mildenberg, Coinage, 45. On the conservative and religiously traditional veneer of the Bar Kokhba revolution see B.R. Pearson, ‘The Book of the Twelve: Aqiba’s Messianic Interpretations and the Refuge Caves of the Second Jewish War’, in: Porter & Evans, The Scrolls and the Scriptures, 229–30, but Pearson’s thesis of a direct influence of passages from the Book of the Twelve Prophets on the Bar Kokhba messianism is highly speculative. 64 Especially relevant is the bronze coinage with the inscription on the reverse and obverse in combination with an Amphora, a palm-leaf, a palm, a lyre and a vine-leaf; cf. Mildenberg, Coinage, 46–8. 294–8 (nos. 1–11), 301–4 (nos. 20–8), 306–9 (nos. 34–46) and 334–5 (nos. 161–7). 65 J.A. Fitzmyer, ‘The Bar Cochba Period’ (1962), in: J.A. Fitzmyer, The Semitic Background of the New Testament, Grand Rapids 1997, 315. 66 See H. Niehr, ‘ayçn, nāśí’, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 5, 653–4; R. North, ‘Palestine, Administration of ( Judean Officials)’, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 5, 87. 67 Cf. Collins, Scepter, 27–8. 68 See Niehr, ‘ayçn, nāśí’, Theologsiches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 5, 657. But cf. also the expression larçyb ayçnl in Ezek 45:16.

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evidence of the Hebrew Bible, scholars frequently refer to the Qumran texts;69 e.g., the Rule of Benedictions blesses the ‘prince of the congregation’ (cf. 1QSb 5:20: hd[h ayçn) and endows him with eschatological functions that resemble Isaiah 11. Additionally, the scepter of Num 24:17 is mentioned. This is confirmed in the Damascus Document, wherein the scepter of the Balaam oracle is identified with the ‘prince of the whole congregation’ (CD 7:20, hd[h lk ayçn).70 Finally, the Sefer ha-Milhamah, another source from Qumran that attests a messianic reading of Isaiah 11, speaks of ‘[. . . the Prin]ce of the Congregation and all Isr[ael . . .]’ (4Q285 frag. 4, line 2: ?. . . la¿rçy lwkw hd[h a?yçn. . .]).71 In short, the evidence could lead to the conclusion that the ayçn on the coins and in the documents from second revolt times imply Bar Kokhba’s messianic role in this event.72 Nevertheless, two observations challenge this thesis. Firstly, the presupposed connection between the traditions from Qumran and those from the Bar Kokhba period is possible but not provable.73 Secondly, the use of the title ayçn in the documents is rather formalistic. E.g., the documentary texts of the Muraba‘at und Seiyâl collections frequently use the designation ‘Shim‘on Ben Kosba, the ayçn of Israel’74 combined with the formula ‘year x of the redemption’ (tlagl) or ‘freedom’ (twrjl). The last two formulas are also used on some of the coins. But the deeds of sale, loan contracts, bills and letters attest the relevant passages in such a uniformity and fixedness75 that the sources reveal no

69 See, e.g., Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 69–71, and, recently, C.A. Evans, ‘Prince of the Congregation’, Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Oxford 2000, vol. 2, 693–4. 70 The text quotes Num 24:17 just before the section paraphrased above. On the Qumran texts of 1QSb and CD, cf. F. García Martínez & E.J.C. Tigchelaar (eds), The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, Leiden 1998, vol. 1, 106–9 and 560–1. 71 On the Qumran text of 4Q285 cf. García Martínez & Tigchelaar, Study Edition, vol. 2, 640–1. 72 Cf., e.g., Meshorer, Ancient Jewish Coinage, 136. 73 See Schäfer, Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand, 70. 74 Also the title ‘ayçn over (l[) Israel’ is possible (cf. Fitzmyer, ‘The Bar Cochba Period’, 315). It is also remarkable that the formular of date appears in the form of absk rb ˆw[mçl only once in Papyrus Yadin 43. 75 Cf. for the deeds of sale in the Seiyâl collection the form-critical analysis of H.M. Cotton & A. Yardeni, Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek Documentary Texts from Nahal Hever and other Sites: With an Appendix Containing Alleged Qumran Texts (The Seiyâl Collection II), Oxford 1997, 13–7. As a concrete example, the form of the ‘I.O.U. Note’ is especially peculiar: cf. M. Broshi & E. Qimron, ‘A Hebrew I.O.U. Note from the Second Year of the Bar Kokhba Revolt’, Journal of Jewish Studies 45 (1994) 286–7 [= Eretz Israel 20 (1989) 256–61, Hebrew]. For the form-critical analysis of the Bar Kokhba letters cf. P.S. Alexander, ‘Chapter Fourteen: Epistolary Literature’, in: M.E. Stone (ed.), Jewish Writings of the Second Termple Period: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran Sectarian Writings,

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specific proof of messianic concepts, except for the general allusions mentioned above. To sum up this paragraph, the use of the Hebrew-Aramaic term ayçn and the references to the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’ on the coins and in the documents from the Bar Kokhba period reveal no unambiguous hint to a messianic understanding of the revolt, its leader or supporters. And what is more, some scholars use the messianic insights stemming from Christian traditions in order to identify and explain messianic overtones in the documents and on the coins of the Bar Kokhba period that only seem to parallel the phenomena. And this method comes close to what Johann Maier has criticized: Anders als im NT, wo eine konkrete Person in ihrem Verhältnis zu den eschatologischen Funktionen zur Debatte steht, geht es im jüdischen Bereich also in erster Linie um Funktionen in Relation zu den vorhan- denen Verfassungsvorstellungen der einzelnen jüdischen Gruppen.76 All in all, the survey of messianic indications from the sources of the second Jewish revolt shows that Num 24:17 only appears in a late rabbinic context of messianic interpretations of Bar Kokhba. Furthermore, there is no sufficient evidence of interpreting the historical figure of Bar Kokhba in a certain messianic context.

3. ‘Star-Messianism’ in the Diaspora? — The Fifth Sibylline Oracle

Only twenty years previous to the Bar Kokhba revolt we hear about Jew- ish riots in the diaspora of Egypt, the Cyrenaica, at Cyprus and Meso- potamia (115–117 ce). Especially the Fifth Sibylline Oracle (= Sib. Or. 5), which includes no less than four messianic expectations (cf. Sib. Or. 5, 106–110, 155–161, 256–259, 414–428),77 is generally characterized as a source pointing to the revolts in the diaspora under Trajan (98–117 ce),

Philo, Josephus, Assen 1984, 588–92; see also the survey by C. Hezser, Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine, Tübingen 2001, 275–84, 286–8. 76 Cf. Maier, ‘Messias oder Gesalbter?’, 589. 77 Cf. also the motive of the ﬁght of the stars in Sib. Or. 5,206–213, 512–531 (see also Sib. Or. 5,345–352, 482–483). The passage in Sib. Or. 5,256–259 is suspected of being at least partly a Christian interpolation. Cf. J.-D. Gauger (ed.), Sibyllinische Weissagungen: Griechisch-Deutsch, Düsseldorf 1998, 510–1; A. Chester, ‘The Parting of the Ways: Eschatology and Messianic Hope’, in: J.D.G. Dunn (ed.), Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways A.D. 70 to 135, Tübingen 1992, 239–46.

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the Roman emperor.78 Particularly the harshness and brutality of the conﬂict between the Diaspora-Jews and the Romans79 and the polemics against Rome as attested in Sib. Or. 5 seem to build a bridge between the oracles and the revolt. Furthermore, many scholars tend to conclude from this correspondence that the main reason for the riots in Egypt, the Cyrenaica and at Cyprus and Mesopotamia was located in the religious ambitions and targets of the insurgents. Those were predominantly messianic and eschatological.80 The scholarly communis opinio, in general, goes very far and needs some further proof, especially concerning the reliability of the sources of the revolt and its connection to passages from Sib. Or. 5.

(a) The revolts in the Diaspora (115–117 CE)81 Compared to the Bar Kokhba revolt, the events of the diaspora revolts are reconstructed from a much more meager textual evidence. ‘For Cyrenaica and Egypt the scanty literary sources, Eusebius, Dio Cassius and Orosius, are supplemented by archaeological evidence and papyri

78 Cf. M. Hengel, ‘Messianische Hoffnungen und politischer “Radikalismus” in der “jüdisch-hellenistischen Diaspora”: Zur Frage der Voraussetzungen des jüdis- chen Aufstandes unter Trajan 115–117 n. Chr.’, in: D. Hellholm (ed.), Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism Uppsala, August 12–17, 1979, Tübingen 19892, 668–74. See also the hints in H. Lichtenberger, ‘Messianische Erwartungen und messianische Gestalten in der Zeit des Zweiten Tempels’, in: E.W. Stegemann (ed.), Messias-Vorstellungen bei Juden und Christen, Stuttgart 1993, 16–7. 79 Cf., e.g., the notice transmitted by Eusebius in Historia Ecclesia IV.2.4: ὁ δὲ πολλαῖς μάχαις οὐκ ὀλίγῳ τε χρόνῳ τὸν πρὸς αὐτοὺς διαπονήσας πόλεμον, πολλὰς μυριάδας ᾽Ιουδαίων, οὐ μόνον τῶν ἀπὸ Κυρήνης, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἀπ᾽ Αἰγύπτου συναιρομένων Λουκουᾴ τῷ βασιλεῖ αὐτῶν, ἀναιρεῖ—‘He [i.e., the Roman Marcius Turbo, SB] waged war vigorously against them in many battles for a considerable time and killed many thousands of Jews and not only those of Cyrene, but also those of Egypt who had rallied to Lucuas their king’. Text and translation after M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, vol. 3: Appendixes and Indexes, Jerusalem 1984, 29–30, no. 562. 80 E.g., the Temple, i.e., the hopes and religious attitudes connected with the Temple, are a major topic in Sib. Or. 3, 4 and 5; cf. M. Simon, ‘Sur quelques aspects des Oracles Sibyllins juifs’, in: Hellholm (ed.), Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, 228–31, and A. Chester, ‘The Sibyl and the Temple’, in: W. Horbury (ed.), Templum Amicitae: Essays on the Second Temple presented to Ernst Bammel, Shefﬁeld 1991, 37–69. 81 Due to the Egyptian provenance of the ﬁfth book of the Sibylline Oracles (see below), the following lines concentrate on the revolts in Northern Africa and leave those at Cyprus and Mesopotamia aside. The question whether the Jews in Palestine were also involved in the revolts in the times of Trajan is still open to dispute. Cf. the notice in the Historia Augusta (Hadrianus 5.2) and the arguments in Schäfer, Geschichte der Juden, 156–7 and 226: nos. 510–9.

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respectively’.82 Nevertheless, scholars exhibit the parallels between the revolts in Northern Africa and under Bar Kokhba. Both are rooted to some extent in inner-Jewish conﬂicts. Both relate to military leaders, Bar Kokhba and Lucuas, who were legitimized through messianic designation. Lucuas is called ‘king’ in Eusebius’ account of the revolt (Historia Ecclesia IV.2.4). Both riots fought for Jewish religious interests against the Roman rulers. These parallels are striking and lead many scholars to the conclusion that the revolts under Trajan and Hadrian were put forth by a strong messianic impact among the Jews.83 The uncertainties concerning the messianism during the second Jew- ish revolt have already been discussed. The evidence for the revolts in the diaspora is much more obscure. First of all, the question of how the riots at Cyrene and Egypt are connected is a matter of dispute. While Cassius Dio in his Historia Romana (LXVIII, 32.1–3) gives the impression of two contemporary but independent outbreaks of riots that start at Cyrene, the Byzantine chronographer Xiphilinus later augments the report by stating that the revolt broke out in Mesopotamia. Eusebius (Historia Ecclesia IV.2.3) notices: ‘the Jews of Cyrene continued to plunder the country of Egypt’.84 Furthermore, Eusebius mentions Alexandria and Egypt ﬁrst. Despite these ambiguous results, most scholars argue for an outbreak at Cyrene (see Eusebius’ Chronicle), where a certain Lucuas was the leader of rebellious Jews. And in 116 ce, Jews from Cyrenaica left for Egypt to continue the revolt.85 ‘Thus, from the end

82 Likewise Smallwood, Jews, 393, and for the reconstruction of the history of the revolts see ibid., 393–415, and Hengel, ‘Hoffnungen’, 658–65. A. Fuks, ‘The Jewish Revolt in Egypt (A.D. 115–117) in the Light of the Papyri’, Aegyptus 33 (1953), 131–58, reconstructs the events by means of the papyrological evidence. For a recent and comprehensive overview of the events see J.M. Modrzejewski, The Jews of Egypt: From Ramses II to Emperor Hadrian, Princeton 1997, 198–205, and for the aftermath of the riots see 207–25 (cf. also Schürer, History, 529–34). 83 See Hengel, ‘Hoffnungen’, 666–8, and, recently, S. Felder, ‘What is the Fifth Sibylline Oracle?’, Journal for the Study of Judaism 33 (2002) 363–85 at 383. 84 οἱ κατὰ Κυρήνην τὴν χώραν τῆς Αἰγύπτου λεηλατοῦντες . . . (Text and translation: Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, vol. 3, 29–30: no. 562). On Eusebius see Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, vol. 2, 385–9: no. 437, with notes, wherein Stern emphasizes: ‘It is not clear whether the revolt in Egypt or that in Cyrenaica came ﬁrst’ (388). 85 See A. Fuks, ‘Aspects of the Jewish Revolt in A.D. 115–117’, Journal of Roman Studies 51 (1961) 101 with note 52. T.D. Barnes, ‘Trajan and the Jews’, Journal of Jewish Studies 40 (1989) 153–62, has challenged this scholarly view by means of a critical examination of Eusebius’ account of the revolts. He dates the beginning of the riots from 116/7 CE onwards, and tries to show that they started in Mesopotamia, without any ‘messianic’ motivation (but see the critical discussion of this thesis by Horbury, ‘Beginnings’, 284–95).

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of a.d. 115, or the beginning of a.d. 116, the revolt of the Cyrenean Jews and the revolt of Egyptian Jewry became one movement, under the command of the Cyrenean “Jewish King”, Loukuas-Andreas’.86 Not only Eusebius (see above) calls Lucuas a ‘king’, also a papyrus attests a theatrical performance ridiculing the Jewish messianic expectations connected with this ruler.87 A roughly outlined survey of the history of the Jewish revolts in the diaspora results in two points of interest concerning the messianic question. First, the atrocity and brutality of the revolt can be referred to as a religious and zealot attitude of the insurgents. In this, many scholars identify the best reason for the outbreak of the revolt at Cyrene, due to the lack of further notices about other reasons in the sources.88 Second, a leader from Cyrene, designated as ‘king’, obviously coordinated the riots also at Alexandria and in the Egyptian chora. His function and designation come close to what Johann Maier has in mind when he describes the ‘anointed ones’. Nevertheless, the arguments are rather weak. E.g. Cassius Dio’s drastic report about the Jewish insurgents eating the ﬂesh of the victims or anointing themselves with their blood (Historia Romana LXVIII, 32.1–2) is hardly reliable.89 And the manifold attestations of a brutal and cruel conduct of war ﬁrst of all refer to the Roman part within the revolts (cf. Eusebius, Historia Ecclesia IV.6.3–4).90 They say only little about an enthusiastic and religiously motivated behavior of the Jews. Finally, the designation of one of the military leaders in the revolt as ‘king’ in

86 Thus Fuks, ‘Aspects’, 101. Cassius Dio (Historia 68.32.1) refers to the head of the Cyrenean revolt as ‘Andreas’. The most reasonable explanation is that he had two names. Cf. on the text of Cassius Dio, and also for further comments, Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, II, 385–6. 87 V.A. Tcherikover & A. Fuks (eds), Corpus Papyrorum Judaicorum (CPJ), Cambridge & Jerusalem 1957–1964, 158a, 158b; Cf. Fuks, ‘The Jewish Revolt in Egypt’, 138–40. 88 Cf. Fuks, ‘Aspects’, 103; Hengel, ‘Hoffnungen’, 662–3, 665–6. 89 This is true, even if the thesis of a later Christian and anti-Jewish insertion in Cassius Dio, probably written by Xiphilinus (cf. Fuks, ‘The Jewish Revolt in Egypt’, 156), should be doubted. See Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, vol. 2, 387, and W. Horbury, ‘The Beginnings of the Jewish Revolt under Trajan’, in: P. Schäfer (ed.), Geschichte— Tradition—Reflexion: Festschrift für Martin Hengel zum 70. Geburtstag, vol. 1, Tübingen, 1996, 289. 90 Exceptional at first sight is Orosius VII.12.6–7: ‘. . . Iudaei, quasi rabie efferati, per diversas terrarum partes exarserunt. nam et per totam Libyam adversas incolas atrocissima bella gesserunt . . .’ These notices can be suspected of being a quotation from Cassius Dio (see above). Further, the wish of a Greek mother to her son ‘that they may not roast you’ (CPJ 437 [2:236]) is in no way sufficient to proof Jewish eschatological enthusiasm throughout the revolts.

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combination with an obviously religious attitude of the insurgents gives no sufﬁcient background to speak of a messianically inspired riot.91

(b) Num 24:17 in the Fifth Sibylline Oracle As a second step, the messianic passages in Sib. Or. 5 should be examined. It is generally accepted that at least Sib. Or. 5,155–61 and ‘the coming of the star’ alludes to Num 24:17 and the messianic semantics of astrological phenomena in ancient Judaism.92 Further, if one accepts the messianic meaning of the Septuagint in Num 24:7 and 17,93 the oracles in Sib. Or. 5,256–25994 and Sib. Or. 5,414–428 also come to mind. In all the texts from Sib. Or. 5 a human being or man is sent by God or from heaven to bring judgment to the evil world.95 Remem- bering that the reports on the diaspora revolts speak of ‘Lucuas, the king’, combined with the discernment that all Sibylline prodigies of a savior ﬁgure are related to each other,96 also Sib. Or. 5,108–110 with ‘the mighty king sent by God’ should be taken into consideration.97 All

91 See also the ambiguities in the sources as noticed by Horbury, ‘Beginnings’, 297–8, who, nevertheless, goes on to explain the revolt’s messianic background (cf. Horbury, ‘Beginnings’, 298–303). Cf. also the pointed remarks from D.[ J.] Frankfurter, ‘The Legacy of Jewish Apocalypses in Early Christianity: Regional Trajectories’, in: J.C. VanderKam & W. Adler (eds), The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity, Assen 1996, 145–6. 92 Cf. J.J. Collins, ‘Sibylline Oracles’, in: J.H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha; vol. 1, New York 1983, 392; H. Merkel, Sibyllinen ( JSHRZ 5.8), Gütersloh 1998, 1066–7. 93 On the textual problems see Seebass, Numeri, 23–4. It should be emphasized that a messianic reading in Num 24:7, 17 LXX is not self-evident: cf. J. Lust, ‘The Greek Version of Balaam’s Third and Fourth Oracles: The ἀνθρωπος in Num 24:7 and 17: Messianism and Lexicography’, in: L. Greenspoon (ed.), VIII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Paris 1992, Atlanta 1995, 233–57; J. Lust, ‘Septuagint and Messianism, with a Special Emphasis on the Pentateuch’, in: H. Graf Reventlow (ed.), Theologische Probleme der Septuaginta und der hellenistischen Hermeneutik, Gütersloh 1997, 42–4 (cf. also the balanced discussion of the sources by Collins, ‘Messianism’, 72–7). 94 Most scholars identify Sib. Or. 5,257 as a later Christian insertion. For a critical evaluation of the arguments and a different view see V. Nikiprowetzky, ‘Reﬂexions sur quelques problemes du quatrieme et du cinquieme livre des oracles sibyllins’, Hebrew Union College Annual 43 (1972) 58–65. 95 Cf. on the ‘man’-imagery as messianic in Judaism and in the context of the Trajan riots: W. Horbury, ‘The Messianic Associations of “the Son of Man” ’, Journal of Theological Studies New Series 36 (1985) 48–52; W. Horbury, ‘Beginnings’, 295–303. 96 Cf. Hengel, ‘Hoffnungen’, 675; Merkel, Sibyllinen, 1067. 97 The texts from Sib. Or. 5 read as follows: V.155 ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν ἐκ τετράτου ἔτεος λάμψῃ μέγας ἀστήρ, V.156 ὃς πᾶσαν γαῖαν καθελεῖ μόνος εἵνεκα τιμῆς,

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in all, the background of messianic references in Sib. Or. 5 not only alludes to the fourth Balaam-Oracle but also to texts like Num 24:7, a passage already read in the messianic sense by Philo (Praem. 95),98 or

V.157 ἣν τὰ πρῶτ᾽ ἐδάσαντο Ποσειδάωνι ἄνακτι. V.158 ἥξει δ᾽ οὐρανόθεν ἀστὴρ μέγας εἰς ἅλα δῖαν V.155 But when after the fourth year a great star shines V.156 which alone will destroy the whole earth, because of V.157 the honor which they ﬁrst gave to Poseidon of the sea, V.158 a great star will come from heaven to the wondrous sea[.] V.256 εἷς δέ τις ἔσσεται αὖτις ἀπ᾽ αἰθέρος ἔξοχος ἀνήρ, [V.257 ὃς παλάμας ἥπλωσεν ἐπὶ ξύλου πολυκάρπου,] V.258 ῾Εβραίων ὁ ἄριστος, ὃς ἠέλιόν ποτε στῆσεν V.259 φωνήσας ῥήσει τε καλῇ καὶ χείλεσιν ἁγνοῖς. V.256 There will again be one exceptional man from the sky [V.257 who stretched out his hands on the fruitful wood,] V.258 the best of the Hebrews, who will one day cause the sun to stand, V.259 speaking with fair speech and holy lips. V.414 ἦλθε γὰρ οὐρανίων νώτων ἀνὴρ μακαρίτης V.415 σκῆπτρον ἔχων ἐν χερσίν, ὅ οἱ θεὸς ἐγγυάλιξεν, V.416 καὶ πάντων ἐκράτησε καλῶς πᾶσίν τ᾽ ἀπέδωκεν V.417 τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς τὸν πλοῦτον, ὃν οἱ πρότεροι λάβον ἄνδρες. V.414 For a blessed man came from the expanses of heaven V.415 with a scepter in his hands which God gave him, V.416 and he gained sway over all things well, and gave back the wealth V.417 to all the good, which previous men had taken. V.108 καί κέν τις θεόθεν βασιλεὺς πεμφθεὶς ἐπὶ τοῦτον V.109 πάντας ὀλεῖ βασιλεῖς μεγάλους καὶ φῶτας ἀρίστους. V.110 εἶθ᾽ οὕτως κρίσις ἔσται ὑπ᾽ ἀφθίτου ἀνθρώποισιν. V.108 and then a certain king sent from God against him V.109 will destroy all the great kings and noble men. V.110 Thus there will be judgment on men by the imperishable one. For the text see Gauger, Sibyllinische Weissagungen, 132, 138, 148, 130 [after Kurfess]; translations from Collins, ‘Sibylline Oracles’, 397, 399, 403, 395. The relevant sources in the two Balaam oracles read (text: J.W. Wevers [ed.], Numeri, Göttingen 1982, 289, 293): Num 24:7 ἐξελεύσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ, καὶ κυριεύσει ἐθνῶν πολλῶν, καὶ ὑψωθήσεται ἢ Γὼγ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐξηθήσεται ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ. Num 24:17 [. . .] ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον ἐξ ᾽Ιακώβ, καὶ ἀναστήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ᾽Ισραήλ, καὶ θραύσει τοὺς ἀρχηγοὺς Μωάβ, καὶ προνομεύσει πάντας υἱοὺς Σήθ. 98 Cf. J.J. Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora, Grand Rapids 20002, 135–8, who argues for a rather ethical than national eschatology as Philo’s attitude.

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Dan 7:13, the coming of ‘a Son of Man’, and, also, to the ‘ruler from Judah’ (Gen 49:10 LXX; cf. Sib. Or. 5,415: σκῆπτρον ἔχων ἐν χερσίν). A connection of the star from Num 24:17 with the ‘king’-imagery is attested in Testament Levi 18:3, wherein a star arises in heaven: a star of a king or a star as a king. But the passage is widely suspected of being a Christian addition (cf. also Testament of Judah 24:1–4,5–6).99 The messianic oracles in Sib. Or. 5 obviously combine different traditions that were already prominent in ancient Judaism as eschatological references to a savior figure. Num 24:7 and 17, from the third and fourth Balaam oracle, function as proof texts together with Daniel 7 and Genesis 49. None of the texts from the Tanach are actually quoted. But the allusions100 show, contrary, e.g., to the Testament of Levi and the Testament of Judah, that the awaited figure is a heavenly, God-sent man and has no specifications that speak for a separation into a ‘priestly’ and a ‘Davidic messiah’.101 Finally, the assumed relation of the ‘messianic’ texts in Sib. Or. 5 to the revolts at the time of Trajan should be examined. Sib. Or. 5 clearly shows an Egyptian setting and its different parts can be dated between 70 and 130 ce. The favorable oracle on Hadrian (Sib. Or. 5,46–48)

99 Testament of Levi 18:3 reads (text: M. de Jonge [ed.], The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Critical Edition of the Greek Text, Leiden 1978, 46–8): καὶ ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον αὐτοῦ ἐν οὐρανῷ ὡς βασιλεύς (Mss.: βασιλέως), φωτίζων φῶς γνώσεως ὡς ἐν ἡλίῳ ἡμέρας· καὶ μεγαλυνθήσεται ἐν τῇ οἰκουμένῃ ἕως ἀναλήψεως αὐτοῦ—‘And his star will arise in heaven, as a king (Mss. as the one of a king, SB), lighting up the light of knowledge as by the sun of the day; and he will be magniﬁed in the world until his assumption’. For the translation see H.W. Hollander & M. de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Commentary, Leiden 1985, 177; J. Becker, Die Testamente der zwölf Patriarchen ( JSHRZ 5.1), Gütersloh 1974, 60. Cf. on the messianic texts in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and a probable differentiation between Christian additions and Jewish traditions Collins, Scepter, 89–92. 100 On the one hand Testament of Levi 18:3 and Testament of Judah 24:1 together with Num 24:17 LXX attest the ‘rising’ (ἀνατέλλω) of a ‘star’ (ἄστρον), and Testament of Judah 24:1 furthermore combines the ‘arising’ (ἀνίστημι) of a ‘human being’ (ἄνθρωπος) ‘from his seed’ (ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ; cf. Num 24:17 LXX and 24:7 LXX). On the other hand in Sib. Or. 5,155 the ‘star’ (ἀστήρ) is ‘shining’ (λάμπω), and in Sib. Or. 5,256, 414 it is the ‘man’ (ἀνήρ), and not a ‘human being’ (ἄνθρωπος), who does not ‘arise’ (ἀνίστημι) but who ‘comes’ (ἔρχομαι; cf. Sib. Or. 5,414). Here, Sib. Or. 5 refers to Num 24:7 LXX and 24:17 LXX, while the reference to the ‘scepter in the hand of the heavenly man’ (Sib. Or. 5,413–414; cf. also Dan 7:13) alludes to the Greek text of Gen 49:10 and the Hebrew version of Num 24:17. Further references are identi- ﬁed by Horbury, ‘Messianic Associations’, 44–5: the ‘scepter’ points to Ps 2:9; 45:7–8, the ‘burning up of the cities and nations of the wicked’ (Sib. Or. 5,419) refers to Num 24:18–19; Isa 11:4. 101 Cf. J.J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, Grand Rapids 19982, 236–7; Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem, 148–9.

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hints at a later insertion from the time prior to the Bar Kokhba revolt. And the concluding oracle, resembling the Stoic concept of ἐκπύρωσις and stating the dethronement of Isis and Serapis (cf. Sib. Or. 5,484–8), obviously presupposes the defeat of the Jews in the revolts under Trajan.102 Beside the later framing parts, Sib. Or. 5 consists of four oracles (cf. Sib. Or. 5,52–110, 111–178, 179–285, 286–433) that follow a common pattern of words against the nations (Egypt and Asiatic countries), an eschatological adversary, the advent of a savior figure, and a fiery destruction.103 These older layers of Sib. Or. 5 originate from the period between 70 and 115 ce. Thus, they antedate the revolts in the diaspora. The recent scholarly discussion sees a connection between the religious ideology as attested in Sib. Or. 5 and the diaspora revolts.104 Most scholars conclude that Sib. Or. 5 prepared the ideological background for those insurgents involved in the riots of the time of Trajan. E.g., idolatry is frequently denounced in Sib. Or. 5.105 Compared to that, in Cyrene, the temples of Hecate, Zeus, the Dioscuri, Artemis, and Apollo were destroyed. In Alexandria, the conflict caused the destruction of the temple of Nemesis and the Sarapeium.106 In Sib. Or. 5, ‘Babylon’ stands for Rome (cf. Sib. Or. 5,143, 159, 434), and ‘Babylon’ wages war against the Parthians (Sib. Or. 5,434–439).107 Further, Rome is attacked

102 Cf. J.J. Collins, The Sibylline Oracles of Egyptian Judaism, Missoula 1974, 73–95; Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination, 234, 236–7. See also Felder, ‘What is The Fifth Sibylline Oracle?’, 369. 103 Cf. Collins, ‘Sibylline Oracles’, 390; Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem, 143–4. Recently and among other scholars, Felder doubts the widely well-structured composition and the dating. He reconstructs older traditions from around 300 bce to 70 ce, stemming from a non-Jewish, i.e., Greek, setting that was reworked by a Jewish author after 70 ce. The latter also includes the messianic expectations calling for a restoration of the Jerusalem Temple (see Felder, ‘What is The Fifth Sibylline Oracle?’, 377–84). 104 See, e.g., Hengel, ‘Hoffnungen’, 655–83; Horbury, ‘Beginnings’, 295–303; Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem, 140–50. Much more carefully, D.[ J.] Frankfurter, ‘Lest Egypt’s City be Deserted: Religion and Ideology in the Egyptian Response to the Jewish Revolt (116–117 ce)’, Journal of Jewish Studies 43 (1992) 203–20, argues for a ‘messianic’ motivation of the revolts. But he does this through a thorough evaluation of the Papyri. They reveal an anti-Jewish behavior that was set against the ‘Typhonians’ by the Egyptians. 105 Cf. Sib. Or. 5, 75–85, 278–280, 353–356, 403–405, 495–496; see Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem, 165. 106 Cf. R. Goldenberg, The Nations that Know Thee not: Ancient Jewish Attitudes towards other Religions, Shefﬁeld 1997, 45–6. 107 Whether this notice already recounts the war of Trajan against the Parthians or earlier struggles between Rome and Parthia (cf. Merkel, Sibyllinen, 1067, 1133) is a matter of dispute. On the conﬂicts of Rome with the Parthians see also Millar, The Roman Near East, 66–8, 99–105.

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for its immorality (Sib. Or. 5,166–167), and the destruction of the Jeru- salem Temple by the Romans is remembered (Sib. Or. 5,160–161).108 In the end, the Greeks come into view (cf. Sib. Or. 5,264–265), when the ‘unclean foot of the Greeks’ (ποὺς ἀκάθαρτος ῾Ελλήνων) is wished to no longer ‘revel around your land’ (οὐκέτι βακχεύσει περὶ σὴν χθόνα).109 All in all, the Jewish attitude in Sib. Or. 5 can be described as a ‘general xenophobia’.110 And this general view of the gentiles coincides with the characterization of the revolt of 115–117 ce as ‘a war of Judaism against Greco-Roman paganism’.111 If one also considers the mood of eschatological imminence in both, Sib. Or. 5 and the sources from the revolts, as it has been diagnosed by some scholars, a setting of Sib. Or. 5 at the dawn of the diaspora riots seems perfect. However, beside those questions concerning an enthusiastic and religiously motivated behavior of the Jews in the diaspora already given above, the notices about temple destruction in Cyrene and Alexandria do not easily point to a certain attitude of the insurgents. E.g., the temple of Nemesis at Alexandria was destroyed ‘in the exigencies of the war’ as Appian (Bella civilia 2.90) reports—maybe a hint that the temple was razed by the Greeks themselves to avoid a further exploitation of the temple’s military value by the Jews.112 Beyond that, the eschatological texts in Sib. Or. 5, as examined above, do not point to a straightforward connection to the revolts in the diaspora. The only explicit allusion to the fourth Balaam oracle in Sib. Or. 5,155–158 presents an astral imagery to announce a savior figure, a procedure that was generally known in ancient Judaism.113 Combined with further references (esp. from Dan 7:13 and Gen 49:10), the star-like figure is presented as a heavenly man. But nowhere this savior figure is pictured as a Davidic king.114

108 See Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem, 144–8. 109 Especially this Jewish-Greek conﬂict in Alexandria goes back to the years of the Roman emperor Claudius and his edict from 41 ce (CPJ 153; see Modrzejewski, The Jews of Egypt, 173–83). 110 In this way Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem, 146. 111 Likewise D. Mendels, The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism, Grand Rapids 1997, 386. 112 This is the argument of Goldenberg, Nations, 46; see also 47 and 133n81, 134n90. 113 See for the philology of ‘star’-imagery I. Zatelli, ‘Astrology and the Worship of the Stars in the Bible’, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 103 (1991) 86–99; F. Lelli, ‘Stars μybkwk’, in: K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, P. van der Horst (eds), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Leiden 19992, 813–4, and for ‘astral messianism’ see esp. the ‘Cairo Damascus Document’ and Collins, Scepter, 63–7. 114 Cf. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination, 236.

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What is more, there is no clear and unambiguous connecting line from Sib. Or. 5 to the Jewish revolts in the diaspora at the time of Tra- jan. I.e., we have no characteristic historical and political setting that relates to the oracles. Finally, the possibility of a general anti-Roman propaganda or ideology should be kept in mind for Sib. Or. 5: An ideology that is well attested at that time, and even earlier (cf. Oracles of Hystaspes, Oracle of the Potter).115 It was a propaganda that included those oracles awaiting a savior ﬁgure, but, again, revealed no speciﬁc historical setting.

4. Conclusions

The preceding analysis tried to examine the reception of the fourth oracle of Balaam in the light of its socio-political background. This approach is justiﬁed by the evidence. Hence, the references occur in the context of Jewish revolts in early Christian times. But the results provide no unequivocal nexus between the so-called messianic interpretations of Num 24:17 and the revolts at Palestine under Bar Kokhba or in the diaspora. Nevertheless, it would be a misunderstanding to simply deny a religious, or sometimes ‘messianic’ milieu among the insurgents, as it would be wrong to exclude any political aspect from the allusions to the fourth Balaam oracle. Solely, this survey tries to stress the danger of (Christian) biases and pitfalls when ‘messianic’ texts are read historically.

115 Cf. H. Schwier, Tempel und Tempelzerstörung: Untersuchungen zu den theologischen und ideologischen Faktoren im ersten jüdisch-römischen Krieg (66–74 n. Chr.), Göttingen 1989, 231–50.

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Alberdina Houtman & Harry Sysling

Introduction

In the biblical narratives, the character of Balaam is presented in two ways that are diametrically opposed.1 In the so-called Balaam pericope (Numbers 22–24), he is portrayed as an obedient servant of the Lord, and as a man who has special prophetic qualities (Num 24:16: ‘Word of him who hears God’s speech, who obtains knowledge from the Most High’).2 In other biblical texts, however, there is a negative view of Balaam. In two of them, Deut 23:4–6 and Josh 24:9–10, it is suggested that Balaam intended to curse the Israelites, but that God converted his curses into blessings.3 Still other biblical traditions portray him as one of those who were slain by the Israelites ( Josh 13:22; Num 31:8), and in Num 31:16, he is charged with the plan to persuade the Israelites to trespass against the Lord and to worship Baal-Peor. As might be expected, the ambivalence towards Balaam continues in the subsequent exegetical and commentary literature. On the one hand, Balaam is praised as a true servant of the Lord, and as the author of impressive prophetic oracles, and on the other hand, he is slated as a villain, who sought to curse the people of the Lord, and who undermined their morality. In this article, we will concentrate on one speciﬁc genre of post- biblical literature, namely the Targums.4 Within this genre, we will

1 See e.g. A. Rofé, (hk ,dùùk - b ,bùùk rbdmb) μ[lb rps, Jerusalem 1979, 10–15; See also Noort, this volume. 2 See B.A. Levine, Numbers 21–36, New York 2000, 155; cf. M.L. Barré, ‘The Portrait of Balaam in Numbers 22–24’, Interpretation 51 (1997) 254–66 at 264: ‘Nowhere else in the Old Testament is a non-Israelite seer viewed so favorably as in Numbers 22–24’. The Tale of the Jenny (Num 22:21–35), however, is a detraction of Balaam’s reputation: in this satirical tale he is depicted as a blind seer, unable to see the angel of the Lord who is standing in his path. 3 See also Neh 13:1–2. 4 When referring to the various Targums, we use the following abbreviations: TO = Targum Onqelos, Neof = Neoﬁti, Neof [M] = margin text of Neoﬁti, FTs =

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focus especially on the interpretation of Balaam’s fourth oracle, which is best-known from the famous words ‘A star rises from Jacob. A scepter comes forth from Israel’ (Num 24:17). The fourth oracle can be divided into two main parts. The ﬁrst part, Num 24:15–16, introduces and characterises Balaam. In the second part, Num 24:17–19, the content of the oracle is given. This paper will follow this division. We start with a section on the speaker (§1), followed by a section on the content of the oracle (§2). At the end of each section, we will summarise our ﬁndings.

§1. Introduction to the Speaker (Num 24:15–16)

Who was Balaam? Reading the book of Numbers, one has already learned quite a lot about Balaam before coming to the fourth oracle. At this point in the story, it is known that Balaam is the son of Beor, that he came from Pethor, which is by the Euphrates, ‘in the land of his kinsfolk’ (Num 22:5);5 and that Balak, king of Moab, asked him repeatedly to curse the Israelites, which he was unable to do, because God prevented him. In Num 24:3–4, as an introduction to the third oracle, a detailed characterisation is given of Balaam’s prophetic qualities. At the start of the fourth oracle the same introduction is repeated almost literally: (15a) He took up his parable,6 and said: (15b) ‘Word of Balaam son of Beor, (15c) word of the man whose eye is true, (16a) word of him who hears God’s speech, (16b) who obtains knowledge from the Most High, (16c) and beholds visions from the Almighty, prostrate, (16d) but with eyes unveiled’.

Fragment Targums (as a group), FTP = Fragment Targum recension P, FTV = Fragment Targum recension V, PsJon = Pseudo-Jonathan. The texts that are given in the Aramaic synopsis are derived from the following editions: TO = A. Sperber, The Bible in Aramaic, Vol. 1: The Pentateuch, Leiden 1992 (1959); Neof = A. Díez Macho, Neophyti 1: Targum Palestinense ms. de la Biblioteca vaticana, T. IV, Números, Madrid 1974; FTs = M.L. Klein, The Fragment Targums of the Pentateuch According to Their Extant Sources, Rome 1980; PsJon = E.G. Clarke et al. (eds), Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch: Text and Concordance, Hoboken, New Jersey 1984. 5 On the interpretation of this verse and its relation to traditions that connect Balaam to the Midianites, Moabites, Ammonites, or to the land of Amau (mentioned in the Idrimi inscription), see Levine, Numbers 21–36, 145–49; on the crux interpretum wm[ ynb ≈ra, see S.C. Layton, ‘Whence Comes Balaam? Num 22,5 Revisited’ Biblica 73 (1992) 32–61. 6 Whereas we generally follow the New jps Translation (Philadelphia & Jerusalem 1985), we decided here to use the word ‘parable’ instead of ‘theme’ because the word ‘parable’ seems more ﬁtting to the context.

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The various meturgemans (translators) interpreted these two verses in different ways. We start with Num 24:15. Num 24:15a rmayw wlçm açyw MT rmaw hyltm lfnw TO rmaw hytwbn ltmb lfnw Neof rmaw hytwaybn ltmb lfnw FTP rmaw hytwybn ltmb lfnw FTV rmaw hytwbn ltm lfnw PsJon

Num 24:15a MT And he took up his parable, and said: TO And he took up his parable, and said: Neof And he took up his prophetic parable, and said: FTP And he took up his prophetic parable, and said: FTV And he took up his prophetic parable, and said: PsJon And he took up his prophetic parable, and said:

Num 24:15b r[b wnb μ[lb μan MT rw[b rb μ[lb rmya TO rw[b hrb μ[lb rma Neof rw[b hyrb μ[lb rmya> FTP rw[[b] rb μ[lb rma FTV rw[b rb μ[lb rmya PsJon

Num 24:15b MT Oracle of Balaam, son of Beor, TO The saying of Balaam, son of Beor, Neof Says Balaam, son of Beor, FTP

Num 24:15c μtç rbgh μanw MT rypçd arbg rmyaw TO ysktad hm ywba ˆm ryqyd hrbg rma Neof ysktyad ˆam ywja ˆm ryqyd arbg

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:ˆy[h MT :yzj TO :ywl[ ylgty hyaybn lk ˆm Neof :ywl[ ylgtya ayaybn lk ˆm FTP :ywl[ ylgta ayybn lk ˆm FTV :hyl ylgtm hwh aybn ˆm PsJon

Num 24:15c MT and oracle of the man whose eye is opened, TO and the saying of the man who sees clearly. Neof says the man who is more honoured than his father; what was hidden from all the prophets has been revealed to him. FTP and the saying> of the man who is more honoured than his brother; the one who was hidden from all the prophets has been revealed to him. FTV and says the man who is more honoured than his brother; what was hidden from all the prophets has been revealed to him. PsJon and the saying of the man who is more honoured than his father, for the secret mysteries, what was hidden from the prophet, was being revealed to him. It is clear that the Palestinian Targums stress that Balaam’s words are genuinely prophetic. Instead of the Masoretic ‘And he took up his parable and said’ (Num 24:15a), all the Palestinian Targums specify ‘And he took up his prophetic parable and said’, in this way emphasising that Balaam’s oracle has to be seen as a prophetic discourse.7 The Palestin- ian Targums, moreover, add that as a prophet Balaam surpassed other prophets (Num 24:15c). They tell us that Balaam was ‘more honoured than his father’,8 and that ‘what was hidden from all the prophets has

7 See also Palestinian Targums on Num 23:7, 10, 18; 24:3. Hayward, comparing Philo’s attitude towards Balaam with that of the Targums, rightly states: ‘. . . it is the Targums which most closely reﬂect Philo’s belief that Balaam’s oracles about Israel were those of a remarkable prophet’. See C.T.R. Hayward, ‘Balaam’s Prophecies as interpreted by Philo and the Aramaic Targums of the Pentateuch’, in: P.J. Harland & R. Hayward (eds), New Heaven and New Earth: Prophecy and the Millennium. Essays in Honour of Anthony Gelston, Leiden 1999, 19–36, at 21. It must be noted that the addition ‘prophetic’ is missing in Onqelos, in keeping with its general tendency to stay close to the Hebrew text. 8 That he was more honoured than his father as a prophet is derived from the expression r[b wnb which occurs here and in Num 24:3. In Sanhedrin 105a it is explained as follows: ‘Scripture writes the son of Beor (Num 22:5); [but also] his son was Beor (Num 24:3). R. Joanan said: His father was his son in the matter of prophecy’, meaning that

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been revealed to him’, indeed no small distinction. Targum Pseudo- Jonathan specifies ‘that which was hidden’ as ‘the secret mysteries’, in this way connecting our verse with the blessing of Jacob in Gen 49:1 where, according to the Palestinian Targums, Jacob reveals ‘the secret mysteries’ to his sons.9 The sentence ‘what was hidden from all the prophets has been revealed to him’ is the targumic explanation of the difficult Hebrew expression ˆy[h μtç. There are, at least, four possible explanations of this enigmatic formulation:10 (1) (the man) whose eye is pierced; (2) (the man) whose eye is opened; (3) (the man) whose eye is pure / perfect; (4) (the man) whose eye is closed / concealed. The first two meanings are based on a reading μtç as a shafel of μtj, meaning ‘to bore, make an opening’.11 In a literal sense these two meanings can be connected. Rashi has already made this connection by explaining the expression as ‘his eye was bored out and had been extracted and its eye socket could be seen to be open’.12 Apart from this literal interpretation, one can also think of a metaphorical reading of ‘the opening of the eye’ as ‘eye-opener’. Think for instance of the opening of the eyes of Adam and Eve after they had eaten of the forbidden fruit. The third explanation is derived from a root μmt, and based on a reading wny[ hmtç, ‘whose eye is perfect/pure’.13 The fourth explanation, is derived from a root μts, ‘to close, conceal’.14 It is not immediately clear on which of these four interpretations the Targums are based. Onqelos, for instance, translates ‘the man who sees clearly’, which may reflect either the second or the third explanation. The Palestinian Targums allude to the meaning ‘concealed’ / ‘hidden’

Beor was considered Balaam’s inferior. See also Rashi on Num 24:3. The Fragment Targums read, probably mistakenly, ‘more honoured than his brother’. 9 See for the connection between Jacob’s blessings and Balaam’s oracles, Hayward, ‘Balaam’s Prophecies’ 23–4. 10 For a survey of the exegetical solutions, see Levine, Numbers 21–36, 191–3. 11 Cf. J. Levy, Wörterbuch über die Talmudim und Midraschim, 4 vols, Berlin und Wien, 1924, vol. 4, 618; M. Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, New York 1971, 1639 ‘to unseal, to open, esp. to bore a hole through a vessel in order to get wine out by means of a tube’. 12 See A.M. Silbermann (ed.), Pentateuch with Rashi’s Commentary, 5 vols, Jerusalem 1929–34, vol. 5, 118a. The meaning ‘transpierced’ is also reﬂected in BT Sanhedrin 105a, where it is said that ‘Balaam was blind in one eye’ and in BT Niddah 31a where it is stated that ‘the eye of the wicked Balaam was blinded’. 13 This interpretation is perhaps also reﬂected in the LXX: ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἀληθινῶς ὁρῶν, ‘the man who truly sees’ (Num 24:15). 14 This interpretation is shared by the Vulgate: homo cuius obturatus est oculus.

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(‘what was hidden from all the prophets . . .’), but also to the meaning ‘to open’ in the sense of ‘to reveal’ (‘. . . has been revealed to him’).15 The latter parallels the meaning of the Hebrew expression μyny[ ywlg of Num 24:16, to which we come next.16 Num 24:16a la yrma [mç μan MT la μdq ˆm rmym [mçd rmya TO yyy μdq ˆm rmym [mçd rma Neof ùyy μdq ˆm llmm ùnçd arbg rma FTV aqla μdq ˆm rmym [mçd rmya PsJon

Num 24:16a MT oracle of the one who hears the words of God TO The saying of him who hears speech from before God Neof Says the one who hears speech from before the Lord FTP missing FTV Says the man who hears speech from before the Lord PsJon The saying of him who hears speech from before God

Num 24:16b ˆwyl[ t[d [dyw MT hal[ μdq ˆm [dm [dyw TO hyl[ μdq ˆm h[yd [dyw Neof hyyly[ μdq ˆm h[yd [dyw FTV haly[ aqla hyb jtrd at[ç [dyw PsJon

Num 24:16b MT and obtains knowledge of the Most High TO and obtains knowledge from before the Most High Neof and obtains knowledge from before the Most High FTP missing FTV and obtains knowledge from before the Most High PsJon and who knew the hour when the Most High God was wrath with him,

Num 24:16c hzjy ydç hzjm MT yzj ydç μdq ˆm wzyjd TO hwwh y[b hwwh dkw yzj hwh ydç wyzjw Neof

15 Cf. G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism, Leiden, 1973, 156–7; B. Grossfeld, The Targum Onqelos to Leviticus and the Targum Onqelos to Numbers, Edinburgh, 1988, 136n3; Hayward, ‘Balaam’s Prophecies’, 21n7. 16 This verse is not attested in ftp.

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hwh y[b hwh rkw yzj hwh ydç ùdq ˆm wzjd FTV hwh hyl ylgtyd y[b hwh dkw ymj ydç μdq ˆm wzyjd PsJon

Num 24:16d lpn MT bykç TO hytawbn yzrw ywpa l[ jftçm Neof ùtawbn yzrw ywpa l[ j[ft]çm FTV aybn ˆm ysktad hm aymyts ayzrw ywpa l[ lypnw jftçm PsJon

:μyny[ ywlgw MT :hyl ylgtmw TO hyçpn l[ abntm hwhw hyl ˆyylgtm Neof hyçpn l[ ybntm hwhw hyl ˆylgtm FTV :hyl ylgtm hwh PsJon :hmyyqtml hytawbn πwsw abrjb lpn hwhd Neof :ùmyyqtml hytwybn πwsw abrjb lypn awhd FTV

Num 24:16cd MT who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, with (his) eyes uncovered, TO who saw a vision from before the Almighty; upon lying down, it is revealed to him. Neof and used to see a vision of the Almighty; and when he wanted (a revelation), he prostrated himself upon his face, and the mysteries of his prophecy were revealed to him; and he prophesied concerning himself that he would fall by the sword; and ultimately, his prophecy would be fulfilled. FTP missing FTV and used to see a vision from before the Almighty; and when he wanted (a revelation) he prostrated himself upon his face, and the mysteries of (his?) prophecy were revealed to him; and he prophesied concerning himself that he would fall by the sword; and ultimately, his prophecy would be fulfilled. PsJon who saw a vision from before the Almighty; and when he wanted that it be revealed to him, he prostrated himself and fell upon his face, and the hidden mysteries which were hidden from the prophet were revealed to him. The first half of the verse (Num 24:16ab) is not problematic and is accordingly translated fairly literally. The only notable exception is

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the translation of ‘who obtains knowledge from the Most High’ (Num 24:16b) by ‘who knew the hour when God was wroth with him’ in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. This is probably a reference to Num 22:22 where it says that God was angry with Balaam.17 The real textual problems start at the end of the second half of the verse with the expression μyny[ ywlgw lpn (Num 24:16d). The Targums, with the exception of Targum Onqelos, go into detail to explain the construction. Let us take for example Targum Neofiti: And when he desired (a vision) he [ Balaam] used to prostrate himself upon his face, and the mysteries of his prophecy were revealed to him. And he prophesied concerning himself that he would fall by the sword, and ultimately, his prophecy would be fulfilled. The Palestinian Targums paraphrase ‘falling’ first literally as ‘falling down’, that is ‘prostrating oneself ’ (‘he used to prostrate himself upon his face’), and secondly, in a metaphorical sense as ‘to die a violent death’ (‘. . . that he would fall by the sword’). The Hebrew μyny[ ywlgw is understood in the same manner as ˆy[h μtç of Num 24:15, as referring to his ability to receive ‘the mysteries of prophecy’.18 The prophecy concerning his death is a proleptic allusion to Num 31:8, where it says that ‘They [the Midianites] also put Balaam son of Beor to the sword’.

Concluding remarks on Number 24:15–16

The biblical description of Balaam as a prophet is distinctly positive in this oracle. The Targums, without exception, maintain this positive tone and even endorse it. This is remarkable, since it is has been rightfully observed that rabbinic sources depict Balaam generally as a villain and a sinner.19 In several sources, Balaam is accused of immorality and idolatry, and the connection of his name with the events that took place at Baal-peor caused him to be given the nickname [çrh, ‘the wicked’. Geza Vermes, in his analysis of the story of Balaam,20 explicitly includes the Targums in the list of sources that give a negative

17 jps Num 22:22: ‘But God was incensed at his going; so an angel of the Lord placed himself in his way as an adversary.’ 18 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan uses exactly the same phrasing as in 24:15. 19 See, e.g., J.R. Baskin, Pharao’s Counsellors: Job, Jethro, and Balaam in Rabbinic and Patristic Tradition, Chico (California) 1983, 77–93; See also Nikolsky, this volume. 20 Vermes, Scripture and Tradition, 127–77.

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evaluation of Balaam. He writes: ‘The common Palestinian tradition, which in addition to the Palestinian Targums and related midrashic material includes also Josephus, Philo, and the relevant New Testament passages, records the story of Balaam the Villain’.21 Yet, as we have seen, the evidence of the targumic interpretation of the fourth oracle is different. The Palestinian Targums on this oracle without exception describe Balaam as a highly honoured person, and a genuine prophet, who even surpasses other prophets. When we include, however, other biblical passages on Balaam in our investigation, the picture becomes more varied. A difference can then be noted between Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targums on the one hand, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, which is from a later date, on the other. Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targums give a decidedly more positive view of Balaam than Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. They generally follow the Hebrew text without giving an unnecessar- ily negative value judgment.22 In contrast, there are many passages in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan that depict Balaam as positively evil. He is identified with Laban the Aramean for he sought, as Laban did, ‘to swallow the people of the House of Israel’.23 He tried to escape his death using magic words that enabled him to fly in the air of the heaven, but could not escape from the sword of Phinehas,24 who pursued and

21 Vermes, Scripture and Tradition, 173. See also M. McNamara, ‘Early Exegesis in the Palestinian Targum (Neofiti 1) Numbers Chapters 24’, Proceedings of the Irish Biblical Association 16 (1993) 57–79, esp. 60, 66; M.S. Moore, ‘Another Look at Balaam’ Revue Biblique 97 (1990) 359–78, esp. 360. 22 Only once, when Balaam’s donkey addresses herself to him, he is called ‘the wicked Balaam’ and accused of having lack of understanding (Neof, fts Num 22:30). In one occasion in Neofiti on Gen 27:29, it is said that Balaam will be cursed, whereas Pseudo-Jonathan repeats this theme in Gen 12:3, Num 24:9 (but here also in fts). A negative statement is found in Neof Num 24:1 where it is said of Balaam that ‘he used to go on every occasion to consult through his phallus’, that is to make necro- mantic consultations. Whereas Pseudo-Jonathan states that Balaam persuaded Balak ‘to prepare inns, and place therein prostitutes’ (24:14), Neofiti and fts note that he ‘caused them to sin’, and only in 24:25 does Neofiti specify that Balak returned ‘to set up his daughters to increase and multiply’ (not in fts). On this tradition of the evil advice of Balaam, see also Sifre Numbers §137, BT Sanhedrin 106a; cf. Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors, 88–89. 23 For this play-on-words—Balaam is interpreted as μ[ [lb ‘he who devours (the) people’—see Sanhedrin 105b. For the identification of Balaam with Laban, see PsJon Num 22:5, 31:8; Targum 1 Chron 1:43. 24 In Targum 1 Chron 1:44 it is said that Phinehas killed Bela (who is identified in 1:43 with Balaam) in the wilderness.

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killed him (PsJon Num 31:8).25 He persuaded the evil king Balak to put his daughters at the crossroads of the way to lead the Israelites astray (PsJon Num 24:14, 31:8).26 On several occasions he is called a villain (PsJon Num 22:30, 23:9, 23:21)27 and a sinner (PsJon Num 23:10, 31:8). He is seen as one of Pharaoh’s counsellors ‘who did not heed the word of the Lord’ (PsJon Exod 9:21).28 And unlike Moses, who will be blessed, Balaam will be cursed (PsJon Gen 27:29; cf. PsJon Gen 12:3, Num 24:9).29 So, although this speciﬁc oracle gives a positive evaluation of Balaam as a prophet, other texts show a tendency towards a more negative evaluation in the later Targum traditions such as those contained in Pseudo-Jonathan.30

§2. The Content of the Oracle (Num 24:17–19)

After this short introduction to Balaam the prophet, let us now turn to the contents of his message. The oracle itself is presented in the Bible as a parting speech and predicts Israelite victories over Moab and Edom. It starts with the lively description of a vision, followed by a more terse prediction of the downfall of Edom at the hand of Israel. In the translation of jps, the Masoretic text reads as follows: (17a) What I see for them is not yet, (17b) what I behold will not be soon: (17c) ‘A star rises from Jacob, (17d) a scepter comes forth from Israel. (17e) It smashes the brow of Moab, (17f ) the foundation of all children of Seth. (18a) Edom becomes a possession, yea, (18b) Seir a possession of its enemies; (18c) but Israel is triumphant. (19a) A victor issues from Jacob (19b) to wipe out what is left of Ir’.

25 See also Yalqut Shimoni, Mattot §785. 26 See also PsJon Num 24:25, 31:16. Cf. Sifre Num §157, Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18:14. See Vermes, Scripture and Tradition, 169–72. See also Nikolsky. 27 Cf. Neof [ M ] Gen 12:3; Tg 1 Chron 1:43. 28 See Midrash Exodus Rabbah 1:9, BT Sotah 11a, BT Sanhedrin 106a. Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors, 54–55, 88. 29 See also Neof [m] on Gen 12:3, Num 24:9. 30 A parallel tendency is visible in the intensiﬁcation of animus towards Balaam in Amoraic sources, as compared with a more positive view in Tannaitic sources; see Baskin, Pharao’s Counsellors, 81.

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The various meturgemans interpreted this oracle in different ways. We start with Num 24:17. Num 24:17a ht[ alw wnara MT ˆ[k alw hytyzh TO ˆwdk tylw hyl hna ymj Neof ana wdkw ˆwdk awh tylw hyl ana ymj FTP ˆwdk awh tylw [h]yl ana ymj FTV ˆwdk ytylw hyl ana ymj PsJon

Num 24:17a MT I see him, but not now; TO I saw him, but not now; Neof I see him, but (he) is not here now, FTP I see him, but he is not here now; FTV I see him, but he is not here now; PsJon I see him, but (he) is not here now,

Num 24:17b bwrq alw wnrwça MT byrq yhwtylw hytyks TO hbyrq ah tylw hyb hna lktsm Neof abyrq awh tylw hyb lktsm FTP abyrq awh tylw [h]yb ana lktsmw FTV byrqm hytylw hyb ana lktsm PsJon

Num 24:17b MT I behold him, but (he is) not near TO I looked out for him, but he is not near Neof I am looking at him, but he is not near FTP and now I am looking at him, but he is not near FTV and I am looking at him, but he is not near PsJon I am looking at him, but he is not near

Num 24:17c bq[ym bkwk ˚rd MT bq[ym aklm μwqy dk TO bq[y tybd ˆm μwqml ˚lm dyt[ Neof bq[y tybdm ˚lm μwqml dyt[ FTP bq[y tybdm ˚lm μqml dyt[ FTV bq[y tybdm πyqt ˚ylm ˚wlmy dk PsJon

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Num 24:17c MT A star shall come out of Jacob TO When a king shall arise out of Jacob, Neof A king is to arise from those of the house of Jacob, FTP A king is to arise from those of the house of Jacob, FTV A king is to arise from those of the house of Jacob, PsJon When a mighty king from those of the house of Jacob shall rule,

Num 24:17d larçym fbç μqw MT larçym ajyçm abrtyw TO larçy tybd ˆm fylçw qwrpw Neof larçy tybd ˆm fylçw qyrpw FTP ùrçy tybdm fylçw qyrpw FTV larçym πyqt fbyçw ajyçm ybrtyw PsJon

Num 24:17d MT and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel; TO and the Messiah will be anointed out of Israel, Neof and a redeemer and ruler from those of the house of Israel; FTP and a redeemer and ruler from those of the house of Israel; FTV and a redeemer and ruler from those of the house of Israel; PsJon and the Messiah will be anointed, and a mighty sceptre out of Israel,

Num 24:17e bawm ytap ≈jmw MT bawm ybrbr lyfqyw TO yybawm ypyqt lfqyw Neof yabawm ypyqt lfqyw FTP yabawm ypyqt lwfqyw FTV yabawm ynbrbr lfqyw PsJon

Num 24:17e MT and it shall crush the temples of Moab, TO and he shall kill the leaders of Moab, Neof and he shall kill the mighty ones of the Moabites, FTP and he shall kill the mighty ones of the Moabites, FTV and he shall kill the mighty ones of the Moabites, PsJon and he shall kill the leaders of the Moabites,

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Num 24:17f :tç ynb lk rqrqw MT :açna ynb lkb fwlçyw TO :hyyskn yrm ˆqwryw tçd ywnb lk yxyçyw Neof :ajnydm ynb lk ˆqwryw FTP ajnydm ynb lk yxyçyw ˆqwryw FTV ˆydyt[d gwgd hytyryçm tçd ywnb lk ˆqwryw PsJon

:ywmdq ˆwhlwk ˆwhyrgyp ˆwlpyw larçyb abrq yrdys ardsml PsJon

Num 24:17f MT and break all the sons of Seth. TO and will rule over all mankind. Neof and blot out all the sons of Seth, and he shall cast out the masters of riches. FTP and empty out all the people of the East. FTV and empty out and blot out all the people of the East. PsJon and empty out all the sons of Seth, the armies of Gog, who in the future will make war against Israel, and all their corpses shall fall before him.

The Hebrew text of Num 24:17 is difficult to understand for several reasons. First of all there is the problem of the suffix 3rd masculine singular in the first part of the verse in the words wnara and wnrwça (Num 24:17a). It is impossible to determine whether this is a personal or an impersonal suffix. Should the suffix therefore be translated as ‘him’ or rather as ‘it’? If it is a personal suffix, it probably refers to the tenor of the metaphor following, which is the warrior who will win victories for Israel. But if it is an impersonal suffix, to what does it then refer? To the ‘star’ and ‘sceptre’ as vehicles of the same metaphor? Or perhaps to the vision as a whole? This uncertainty is reflected in modern Bible translations. For instance, the jps translates it impersonally as ‘What I see for them is not yet, what I behold will not be soon’. Likewise Levine in his commentary renders ‘I see it, but not now; I envision it, but not soon’, whereas the Revised English Bible translates ‘I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near’.31 Unfortunately it is impossible to

31 A revision of the New English Bible (1961–1970), the Revised English Bible was published in 1989. This translation is still close to The King James Version (1611), which translated ‘I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh’.

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see how the meturgemans understood the Hebrew text, since Aramaic, being a cognate language, has the same ambiguity with regard to the sufﬁxes as Hebrew. In spite of this, most of the modern translators of the Targums opted for a personal interpretation. Given the style and the context of the oracle, we are inclined to follow them. The cryptic Hebrew ht[ alw (Num 24:17a) can be explained in two different ways. It can mean that the prophet does not see it now, or it can mean that what he sees will not happen at this very moment. The context suggests that the second meaning applies here. The Palestinian Targums felt the need to rule out any possible misunderstanding, and made the meaning explicit by turning it into a nominal phrase ‘he (or: it) is not now’. In the targumic versions Num 24:17c starts with a conjunction of time. Targum Onqelos and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan use the word dk, ‘when’, whereas the Palestinian Targums have dyt[ ‘in future’. By means of these time indications, the meturgemans stress once more that what will be said next will not happen at the same moment. As regards its form, Num 24:17cd is marked by three parallelisms, the verbal parallelism μq and ˚rd, and the nominal parallelisms fbç and bkwk, and larçym and bq[ym. The verb ˚rd, normally translated ‘to tread upon’, should probably be interpreted here as ‘to march up’.32 In this way the parallelism makes sense. The Hebrew could then be translated as ‘a star marches up from Jacob, a sceptre (or: meteor)33 rises from Israel’. The nominal parallelism fbç and bkwk is interpreted metaphorically in all the extant Targums. This is in line with the general tendency in the Targums to explain metaphors by substituting the supposed tenor for the vehicle.34 Different choices were made, however, with regard to the substitutions. All Targums agree with the replacement of ‘star’ by ‘king’,35 whereby Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds the adjective ‘strong’. The word fbç, ‘sceptre’, on the other hand, has found dif-

32 Just as in Judg 5:21 ‘March on, my soul, with courage’. See Levine, Numbers 21–36, 199–200. 33 See Levine, Numbers 21–36, 200–1. 34 Cf. P. Churgin, Targum Jonathan to the Prophets, New Haven 1907 [= 1927], 85; see also Y. Komlosh, μwgrth rwab arqmh, Tel-Aviv 1973, 372–80. 35 The connection of star and king is well known. In Isa 14:12, for instance, the king of Babylon is likened to the morning star. The image is of course also well known from the birth story of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew.

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ferent explanations. Targum Onqelos simply substituted ‘messiah’ for the word, which is in itself remarkable, since Targum Onqelos is very reticent with regard to messianic interpretations. The term messiah occurs only here and in Genesis 49:10.36 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan rendered the word twice, once metaphorically as ‘messiah’, and then more or less literally as ‘a strong sceptre’. This juxtaposition makes the sentence a little awkward; since both terms are then the object of the singular verbal form ybrtyw. Possibly one could read the expression ‘and a strong sceptre’ as an explicative gloss by ‘messiah’ that connects it to the biblical text. This would turn the meaning into ‘then the Messiah, who is a strong sceptre, will be anointed from Israel’. The Palestinian Targums all translate the Hebrew fbç μqw (Num 24:17d) with fylçw qyrpw,37 ‘and a redeemer and ruler’. The second rendering clearly interprets the word fbç as a metonym for ‘one who bears a sceptre’, i.e., a ruler. But how did they come to the rendering ‘redeemer’? The most probable possibility is that they chose to read the verbal form μqw as a participle, instead of a prophetic perfect. Accord- ing to that reading it could possibly mean ‘someone who interferes’,38 i.e., a redeemer. In Num 24:17ef (‘It smashes the brow of Moab, the foundation [rqrqw] of all children of Seth’) many commentators propose an emendation of dqdqw for the strange word rqrqw, in accordance with the reading of the Samaritan Pentateuch,39 and with the occurrence of the same parallel word pair dqdq and taq in Jeremiah and Isaiah.40 The text could then be translated as ‘he strikes the bow of Moab and the pate of all the people of Seth’. One disadvantage of this solution is that a verbal form would better serve the parallelism. Possibly, the meturgemans were aware of this, since they all translated the word by means of a verbal form. The meturgeman of Neoﬁti probably read it as an inﬁnitive pilpel of rrq ‘to tear down’,41 since he translated it as yxyçyw ‘and he will destroy’. The meturgemans of the Fragment Tar- gums and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan translated ˆqwryw ‘he shall empty,

36 S.H. Levey, The Messiah: An Aramaic Interpretation, Cincinnati 1974, 31–2. 37 Neof reads qwrp. 38 See L. Koehler & W. Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti, Leiden 1953, 832, sub 4. 39 A.F. von Gall (ed.), Der hebräische Pentateuch der Samaritaner, Berlin 1966, 328. 40 See Jer 48:45 and cf. Isa 3:17 (reading ˆhtap for ˆhtp). 41 It probably occurs in this sense in Isa 22:5.

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banish’. This may be a play-on-words on the root letters resh and qof, as a kind of desperate attempt to make sense of an unknown word. Also the meturgeman of Targum Onqelos translated it as a verb, but it is difficult to make out how he came to his interpretation fwlçyw on the basis of the Masoretic text.42 If, on the other hand, he had a Vorlage that read dqdqw it may be that his interpretation is based on an association of ‘skull’ with ‘head’, which is often interpreted metaphorically as ‘leader’.43 The ethnographic designation tç ynb is unique to this verse, and it is uncertain to whom it refers. The meturgemans of Targum Neofiti and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan left it untranslated, and Targum Onqelos maintained the indistinctness, while Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tried to explain it with an explanatory gloss. Onqelos interpreted the expression as a designation for mankind. According to rabbinic tradition, Adam begot Seth in his likeness and image,44 unlike Cain, who had been totally different.45 Thus, Seth, as a worthy successor to his father, was considered the ancestor of the human race. This is also reflected in the genealogical register in 1 Chron 1:1, where Seth is mentioned as representative of the generation after Adam. In combination with the subject ‘messiah’ and the verb ‘to rule’, this produced a universal reading with strong messianic overtones. The Fragment Targums interpreted the designation as ‘all the sons of the East’. This interpretation is probably based on Isa 11:14 where ‘the peoples of the East’ are specified as Edom and Moab.46 Although the Hebrew verse ends here, both Targum Neofiti and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan carry on. Targum Neofiti has an addition hyyskn yrm ˆqwryw ‘and he will banish the masters of riches’. The verb is probably just as in the other Palestinian Targums an attempt to render the unknown Hebrew verb form rqrqw. The expression yrm hyyskn ‘masters of riches’ is a second translation of the expression tç ynb. tç is probably read as taç ‘uprising, dignity’.47 ˆb may have been

42 The suggestion given by I. Drazin in his translation and commentary (I. Drazin, Targum Onkelos to Numbers, Hoboken, NJ, 1998, 252n57, that rqrqw means digging, and by extension sufﬁcient control to mutilate, seems far-fetched. 43 A similar way of interpretation occurs in to Deut 33:20, where dqdq is translated as ˆyklm ‘kings’ and in tj Jer 48:45, where it is translated as ayryqy ‘nobles’. 44 Gen 5:3. 45 Cf. Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer 22. 46 Levine, Numbers 21–36, 202, suggested that it is based on a tradition whereby the descendants of Seth inhabited parts of Transjordan. 47 See Koehler & Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti, 913.

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read as ‘member, fellow of a group, class, profession etc.’ ‘People who belong to the dignified classes’ is then further interpreted as ‘masters of riches’.48 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan has a lengthy addition that serves as an adjectival clause to the expression ‘sons of Seth’. In translation, it reads ‘the armies of Gog, who in the future will wage war against Israel, and all their dead bodies shall fall before him’.49 This is obviously a reference to the prophecies in Ezekiel 38–39. For example, in Ezek 38:8 God says to Gog ‘in the distant future you shall march against the land of a people restored from the sword, gathered from the midst of many peoples—against the mountains of Israel, which have long lain desolate . . .’ This is referred to by the meturgeman as ‘the armies of Gog, who in the future will wage war against Israel’. At the end of Ezekiel 38, God announces the punishment that he will bestow on Gog because of this hostile attack: (21) ‘. . . and every man’s sword shall be turned against his brother. (22) I will punish him with pestilence and with bloodshed; and I will pour torrential rain, hailstones, and sulfurous fire upon him and his hordes and the many peoples with him’. In Ezek 39:4–5 the prediction continues ‘You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your battalions and the peoples who are with you; and I will give you as food to carrion birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field, (5) as you lie in the open field’. The result of this horrible punishment is summarised succinctly by the meturgeman in the phrase ‘all their dead bodies shall fall before him’.50 With this reference to the great war of Gog against Israel, the meturgeman clearly places this prophecy at the end of time.51 We continue with the next verse of the prophecy, Num 24:18.

Num 24:18a hçry μwda hyhw MT atwry μwda yhyw TO

48 McNamara has suggested that the addition may contain wordplay on ym(w)r, which is Rome. See McNamara, ‘Early Exegesis’, 57–79 at 72 note i. 49 See also the lengthy paraphrase of PsJon Num 11:26. For discussion of this passage, see, e.g., H. Sysling, Tehiyyat Ha-Metim, Tübingen 1996, 235–42. 50 The verb lpn ‘to fall’, which is probably derived from Ezek 39:4, also occurs in the Palestinian Targums to Num 11:26, where it says about Gog and Magog that ‘they fall at the hand of King Messiah’. 51 Whereas in the Hebrew Bible there are no references to Gog and his armies in the Pentateuch, Pseudo-Jonathan puts him on the scene in Exod 40:11; Lev 26:44; Num 24:17; Deut 32:39, 34:3.

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wtry μwa ywh[y]tw Neof atyry μwda ywhyw FTP ytry μwda yhyw FTV ˆykyrt ˆwwhyw PsJon

Num 24:18a MT And Edom shall become a possession TO And Edom shall become a possession Neof And Edom shall become a possession FTP And Edom shall become a possession FTV And Edom shall become a possession PsJon And they shall be driven out

Num 24:18b yhwbbd yl[bl ry[ç hçry hyhw MT ywbbd yl[bl ry[ç atwry yhyw TO ˆwhybbd yl[bl wtry hlbgd arwf ywwhyw Neof ˆwhybbd yl[bl albgd arwf atyry ywhyw FTP ˆwhyans larçy albgd arwf FTV μdq ˆm albgd ynb ˆykyrt ˆwwhyw PsJon

Num 24:18b MT and Seir a possession of its enemies TO and Seir a possession for its enemies Neof and the mountain of Gablah shall be a possession for its enemies FTP and the mountain of Gablah shall be a possession for their enemies FTV and the mountain of Gablah for their enemies PsJon and the Gablaites will be driven out from before Israel, their enemies,

Num 24:18c :lyj hç[ larçyw MT :ˆysknb jlxy larçyw TO :ˆygs ˆysknb ˆwjlxy larçyw Neof :πyqt lyjb ˆwrbgty larçyw FTP :πyqt lyjb ˆwrbgty ùçyw FTV :ˆwnwtryw ˆyskynb ˆwpqty larçyw PsJon

Num 24:18c MT And Israel will do valiant deeds / gain wealth TO And Israel shall prosper in property Neof And Israel shall prosper in abundant riches

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FTP And Israel shall be victorious with great strength FTV And Israel shall be victorious with great strength PsJon And Israel shall be strenghtened with (their) property and shall take possession of them

Edom and Seir, both connected to Esau, the firstborn of Isaac, are used here as synonyms, in this way producing a nice chiasmus. Onqelos gives a literal translation. Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targums translate Seir by ‘the mountain of Gablah’. This is quite an early identification, which already occurs in the Genesis Apocryphon.52 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan makes the same identification, but applies it to the people who live there, the Gablaites. The translation of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan deviates strongly from the other Targums. It reads ‘and they shall be driven out, and the Gablaites will be driven out from before Israel its enemy’. The first thing that strikes one is that the name ‘Edom’ is replaced by the hidden pronoun ‘they’. Probably the meturgeman saw this verse as a continuation of the preceding one, equating Edom with the armies of Gog. The second important deviation is the interpretation of the Hebrew hçry by ˆykytr from the root ˚tr ‘to be driven out’. This is not as strange as it looks at first sight. Levine, in his commentary on Numbers, interprets the Hebrew in a comparable way. He argues that the hifil of çry has the connotation ‘to drive away’. And although the exact form hçry that we have in this verse is unique, we know from similar forms that it must have stative force, as in, e.g. hbng, hprf, or hflp. According to this argumentation, the reference is to ‘a land or territory depopulated by an enemy invader’.53 The third difference is that Targum Pseudo-Jonathan specifies the enemy as Israel. It must have been highly satisfying for the audience to hear that in the end they for once will not be the deportees, but the deporters. The Hebrew expression lyj hç[ is ambiguous. It can be interpreted either in terms of ‘wealth’ or ‘strength’. Targum Onqelos and Targum Neofiti chose the translation ‘wealth’, while the Fragment Targums opted for ‘strength’. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan combined the two options by translating ‘and Israel shall be strengthened with property’.

52 1QapGen, col. 21 line 29 (cf. Gen 14:6). See, e.g., A. Neubauer, La Géographie du Talmud, Amsterdam 1965 (1868), 66–7; M. McNamara, Targum and Testament, Grand Rapids 1972, 194; G. Reeg, Die Ortsnamen Israels nach der rabbinischen Literatur, Wiesbaden 1989, 157. 53 Levine, Numbers 21–36, 202.

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The last verse of the oracle is Num 24:19.54

Num 24:19a bq[ym dryw MT bq[y tybdm dj twjyyw TO bq[y tybd ˆm μwqml ˚lm dyt[ Neof bq[y tybd ˆm μwqyml ˚lm dyt[ FTP bq[y tybdm μqyml ˚lm dyt[ FTV bq[y tybdm fylç μwqyw PsJon

Num 24:19a MT One out of Jacob shall rule Onk And someone from the house of Jacob will descend, Neof A king is to arise from those of the house of Jacob, FTP A king is to arise from those of the house of Jacob, FTV A king is to arise from those of the house of Jacob, PsJon Then a ruler shall arise from among those of the house of Jacob,

Num 24:19b :ry[m dyrç dybahw MT tyrqm byzyçm dybwyw TO hkrk ˆm byyjjmd ˆm yxyçyw Neof akrk ˆm ryytçmd ˆam lk yxyçyw FTP akrk ˆm ryytçmd hm lk ty yxyçyw FTV ynyfntfçwq ˆm r ytçmd atwb]zyç yxyçyw dybwyw PsJon

MT :aymm[ TO :ayh abyyj Neof :ymwr ayh ad abyyj FTP :ymwr ayhd abyyj FTV :aymm[ ywryq πyqt ˆwrsyqw ydxyw [atbyyj atrq PsJon

Num 24:19b MT and destroy the survivor from Ir / from the city Onk and will destroy any survivor from the city of the nations Neof and he will blot out the one who has sinned from the sinful city, that is . . . FTP and he will blot out anyone who remains from the sinful city, that is Rome

54 The text emendation between square brackets in PsJon is derived from D. Rieder, Targum Jonathan ben Uziel on the Pentateuch (Hebrew), Jerusalem 1974, 232.

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FTV and he will blot out all that remains from the sinful city, that is Rome PsJon and he will destroy and blot out {the remnant which remains from Constantinople, the sinful city, and lay waste and ruin the rebellious city [. . .]} and Caesarea, the strongest of the cities of the nations.

The Hebrew text of Num 24:19 approximately reads in English: ‘One out of Jacob shall rule, and destroy55 the survivor of the city’.56 The Hebrew dryw, can according to its consonant reading be derived from hdr, ‘to rule’, or from dry ‘to descend, come down’. In the last case the meaning would be ‘One will descend from Jacob’. This is the interpretation of Targum Onqelos. Neofiti and the Fragment Targums combined the two meanings, repeating the sentence they used in 24:17 ‘A king is to arise from those of the house of Jacob’. Also the meturgeman of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan combined the two possible meanings, but he chose the word ‘ruler’ instead of ‘king’. The sense of the second part of our verse is ambiguous especially as regards the word ry[. Until today there is doubt among researchers whether this must be read as a noun or as a toponym. For the meturgemans there was apparently no doubt that it meant ‘city’. The Targums all refer, more or less openly, to the destruction of the sinful capital of the Roman Empire by the hand of the future redeemer. Targum Onqelos specifies the word ‘city’ as ‘the city of the nations’, undoubtedly meaning Rome. The Fragment Targums explicitly identify the city with Rome: ‘the sinful city, that is Rome’. Targum Neofiti ends the verse without identification, leaving an entire line blank. The copyist may have omitted the name of the city, fearing censorship.57 Instead of ‘one who remains’ (ftp) or ‘all that remains’ (ftv), Neofiti reads ‘the one who has sinned’, either under the influence of the expression ‘sinful city’ or out of a theological craving for justice, such as is also found, e.g. in the Genesis story about Sodom.58

55 Or: ‘deport’, see Levine, Numbers 21–36, 203. 56 In the jps translation: ‘A victor issues from Jacob, to wipe out what is left of Ir’. 57 Also in Neof Num 24:24 the name of the city is left out, and in the expression ‘legions of the Romans’ (for Hebrew kittim), the word Romans is erased. See Díez Macho, MS. Neophity 1. IV, 238n6, 242n4. 58 jps Gen 18:25 ‘Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike.’

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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan has the most expanded commentary to this last clause of the oracle. Although part of it has been erased by ink in the manuscript, it is still largely readable. We follow here the reconstruction of the edition of Rieder:59 ‘and he will destroy and blot out {the remnant which remains from Constantinople, the sinful city, and lay waste and ruin the rebellious city [. . .]} and Caesarea, the strongest of the cities of the nations’.60 After ‘rebellious city’, there is in the ms an empty space of some thoroughly blotted text,61 which according to some researchers may have read: ‘that is Rome’.62 So the original text of the manuscript identiﬁed the ‘sinful city’ with at least two main representatives of the great Roman Empire, namely Constantinople and Caesarea Maritima, but maybe also with Rome.63 Constantinople being the Rome of the East from the fourth century onwards, and Caesarea being the Romans’ administrative capital in Judaea.64 This dates this tradition somewhere between the foundation of Constantinople as the imperial capital in 330 and the conquest of Caesarea Maritima by the Arabs in the 7th century.

Concluding remarks on Numbers 24:17–19

The targumic versions of the fourth oracle of Balaam can be summarised as follows. Onqelos gives, as may be expected, the most literal translation of the Hebrew text. All the deviations from the Hebrew can be explained as genuine attempts to render the Hebrew text faithfully. The most salient details are the explanation of ‘sceptre’ as ‘messiah’

59 See note 54; Clarke, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch, xii, mentions that the text is broken. Ad loc. (190) he only gives the text that remains. According to R. Le Déaut (Targum du Pentateuque, vol. 1, 32) the text of the manuscript (fol. 172a) has been censored and the name of the censor (Dominico Gierosolomitano) is mentioned. 60 Díez Macho (MS. Neophity 1. IV, 238n6) suggests the reading ‘he will make desolate and destroy the city, the seat [medura] of the emperors [de-qisrin]’, but see the criticism of Le Déaut in: R. Le Déaut & J. Robert, Targum du Pentateuque, III. Nombres, Paris 1979, 237n39. 61 See Rieder, Targum Jonathan ben Uziel, 232n9. 62 G. Dalman, Aramäische Dialektproben, Leipzig 1896, 8n11; Le Déaut & Robert, Targum du Pentateuque, III, 237n37. 63 Constantinople is also mentioned in PsJon Num 24:24. For the combination of Rome and Constantinople, see also Targum of Psalms 108:11 where it says: ‘But now that I have sinned, who has brought me to the wicked city of Rome? Who has led me to Constantinople, which is Edom?’ Cf. D.M. Stec, The Targum of Psalms, Collegeville 2004, 200. 64 See P. Schäfer, The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World, London 2003, 177.

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and ‘sons of Seth’ as ‘mankind’. These interpretations turn the text into an outspoken messianic prophecy. The Palestinian Targums can be subdivided into Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targums on the one hand and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on the other. In most cases the interpretations of Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targums agree with one another.65 It is remarkable that both Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targums, in spite of the strong eschatological colouring of their interpretation, renounce the explicit term ‘messiah’. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is a different case. It is the most elaborate of all the targumic versions. It is a mixed tradition, containing interpretations from widely different periods. It has been argued that it contains both some of the earliest and some of the latest dateable targumic material. In its final state the collection has been worked over with some care, so that in some ways it is the most literary of the Palestinian Targums.66 Even in this relatively small portion of text from Balaam’s fourth oracle, we notice some striking characteristics. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan regularly uses allusions to other texts to enhance its interpretation, such as for example the allusions to Ezekiel in the dra- matically eschatological expansion to the breaking of the sons of Seth. In the last verse the meturgeman relates the oracle in very explicit terms to the latter years of the Roman Empire. Experience teaches that the more difficult a Hebrew text is, the more diverse its translations. Problematic words and expressions demand explanation. It is only natural that the explanations reflect the current thought of particular times. And more often than not the wish to conform is perhaps father to the thought.

65 The only notable exceptions are the additional reading ‘masters of riches’ in 24:17 and the interpretation of lyj as ‘riches’ in Neoﬁti. 66 See P.S. Alexander, ‘Jewish Aramaic Translations’, in: M.J. Mulder & H. Sysling (eds), Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, Assen 1988, 217–54, at 219.

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Ronit Nikolsky

Introduction

In the past, some scholars devoted studies to rabbinic views about Balaam. To mention only the most recent: Ephraim Urbach devoted an article to Balaam and the question of gentile prophecy, concentrat- ing also on the conjecture put forward already in the 19th century that Balaam in rabbinic thought is representing Jesus.1 Geza Vermes was describing the continuity between biblical opinions about Balaam (pointing to the different view expressed in P as opposed to the other sources) and late antique statements about him.2 Judith Baskin devoted her dissertation to ‘the three counselors of Pharaoh’, which later appeared as a book.3 Her focus is on rabbinic appreciation of gentiles as prophets. James Kugel studied opinions of late antique authors about Balaam, focusing on the messianic understanding of his oracle as well as other issues.4 Even though in some cases scholars point to the differences found in various rabbinic or late antique texts about Balaam,5 in most cases they are focusing on one or more themes regarding Balaam, and they look into opinions of various late antique writers about this biblical ﬁgure. The present article is different in its focus. In contrast to earlier works, it does not follow a particular theme which appears in rabbinic literature about Balaam, such as his prophetic abilities or rabbinic assessment of

1 E.E. Urbach, ‘The Rabbinic Sermons about the Gentile Prophets and the Story of Balaam’, in: E.E. Urbach, The World of the Sages, Jerusalem 2002, 537–55. 2 G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic Studies, Leiden 1973, 127–77. 3 J.R. Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counselors: Job, Jethro, and Balaam in Rabbinic and Patristic Tradition, Chico, California 1983, 75–113. 4 J.L. Kugel, Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible as It Was on the Start of the Common Era, Cambridge Massachusetts 1998, 799–810, 818–23. 5 For example Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counselors, 81.

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his moral conduct, but it focuses on one particular text about Balaam. I wish to analyze the representation of the person of Balaam in a pericope in the Babylonian Talmud (bt), i.e., Sanhedrin 90a–106b.

The Pericope about Balaam in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 90a–106b)

The pericope about Balaam in the bt is found in Perek Helek,6 literally meaning ‘the chapter on “portion” ’. The issue in the Mishnah,7 which is the basis for the Talmudic discussion,8 is the question of who deserves, and who does not deserve to have a ‘portion’ in the next world.9 Usu- ally, a person gains a portion in the next world by accumulating good deeds in this world, and by repenting the sins committed, but in some cases some people have committed such evil deeds that they cannot in any way repair their fate and therefore cannot have a ‘portion’ in the next world. The rabbis enumerate these villains: those who hold wrong theological opinions (such as saying that the Torah has not been handed down from heaven), those who make use of medico-magical practices (‘whispering over a blow’) or those who pronounce God’s hidden name. Seven people are mentioned by name, three kings ( Jeroboam, Ahab and Manasseh) and four commoners (Balaam, Doeg, Ahitofel and Gehazi), as being such villains that they do not deserve a portion in the next world. The Gemara on this Mishnah discusses each of these people extensively. This discussion is where we ﬁnd the pericope about Balaam. This bt pericope is a midrash. It follows the plot of the biblical story of Balaam. We read about the summoning of Balaam by Balak, Balaam’s consent to come and curse the Israelites, his adventure with his she-ass, his encounter with Balak and his cursing of the Israelites, which turns into blessings. The bt pericope also discusses two other biblical narratives: the ﬁrst is the episode of the fornication of the Israelites with the daughters of the Moabites—a sin resulting from

6 Hebrew: qlj qrp. All the themes which appear in the summary below appear in all major manuscripts and editions of the Talmud (Herzog, Muenchen, Firenze, Karlsruhe and the Barco edition), albeit not always verbatim. 7 Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1–2. 8 Sanhedrin 90a–106b. 9 The expression ‘to have a portion in the next world’ can mean either that the soul will dwell in a blissful place after death, or that the soul will be present in the future messianic world. The exact meaning of the expression is not important for this article, as long as the general meaning of being in a good world after death is accepted.

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Balaam’s advise to the Moabites; this episode is found in chapter 25 of the book of Numbers. The second narrative is the killing of Balaam by the Israelites, found in two places in the biblical text: Num 31:8 and Josh 13:22. Many of the narratives and ideas which make up the pericope about Balaam in the bt are quotations, retold stories and ideas found in earlier rabbinic narratives. In what follows, I will first summarize the content of the bt pericope and analyze it (§1). Later, I will analyze the manner in which the bt is reworking earlier rabbinic sources into the pericope, and how the original source is changed in this process (§2). It is my opinion that the method of integrating older sources into a current cultural products, such as the Babylonian Talmud, is particularly important in retaining a feeling of cultural continuity and therefore a solid cultural identity, while at the same time this process is enabling the culture to adapt to present-day circumstances and to a modern—for its time—world-view. The type of analysis of the Talmudic text that I will be presenting here is similar to the one followed by J.L. Rubenstein in both of his recent books.10 Rubenstein has reluctantly called the first stage of the analysis (which is here part of the summary of the pericope) ‘literary analysis’ and the second stage ‘source criticism’, while being aware that both these terms carry a (historical) meaning which does not allow them to convey that fresh outlook on Talmudic narrative which exists in Rubenstein’s books. I follow (also reluctantly) this terminology. In my research on rabbinic literature, I have accepted the assertion that the various periods, as well as the various loci (that is, Palestine and Babylonia), of rabbinic culture have produced bodies of writing which represent their respective world view. We can expect to find differences in emphasis in a story when told in various periods or when moved from Palestine to Babylonia or vice versa. Rabbinic writings should not, then, be treated en bloc; instead, it is the cultural diversity represented in the various rabbinic writings, which should be the focus of the scholarly work dealing with this literature.

10 J.L. Rubenstein, Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition, and Culture, Baltimore/ London, 1999; J.L. Rubenstein, The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud, Baltimore/London, 2003.

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1. Summary and Analysis of the BT Pericope (Sanhedrin 90a –106b) The narrative in the Balaam pericope revolves around two axes. One is the biblical story of Balaam; here the narrative follows the sequence of the biblical verses, comments on and expounds on the story and thus it follows the usual midrash method. The second axis is a systematic description and explanation of the ﬁgure of Balaam. Unfolding in the bt pericope are various aspects of the person of Balaam, beginning with an etymology of his name, going on to identify the person, relate his moral choice and his psychological, physical and sexual characteristics, and ending up with his professional abilities. Some details of the biblical story at hand are discussed: his adventures with his she-ass, the Balak-Balaam meeting, the advice Balaam gives to the Moabites and the consequences of this, and lastly Balaam’s death are expounded on, and the context and the meaning of the story are addressed. Another key to the message of the text are statements about sexual behavior. There is nothing in the biblical story about Balaam that is directly concerned with sexuality. Yet the Babylonian text sets before the reader three models of sexual behavior. The ﬁrst is Balaam’s: he is engaged in sexual activity with his she-ass. The second is the manner in which the young Moabite women tempt the Israelite men. The third model represents the relationship between the Israelites and their God; this is described as the intimacy between a lion and a lioness, an intimacy into which no one may intrude. The sexual models serve as a way for the rabbis to differentiate pro- priety from impropriety, the pious from the wicked, and thus to identify Balaam as a villain and an improper person.11 In what follows, I will provide a summary of what is said in the bt. I will be breaking the narrative up into numbered sections so that the compositional effort of the author/editor12 will be apparent; this will also facilitate references to the various narratives in the discussion. Every so often the sequence of sections of the narrative will be

11 See the discussion in Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counselors, 89. 12 In this article, I am not making any conjecture about authorship of the bt. Various words, such as ‘author’, ‘editor’, ‘compiler’ in the singular or plural are used for the sake of convenience, without intending a precise deﬁnition and without assuming that the work was done by a single person. For the same sake of convenience I use metaphoric language when speaking of the text as a person, i.e. ‘the text says’, ‘the pericope shows’, etc. I intend to say that the people/person responsible for arranging, compiling or writing the texts intended to convey such a meaning.

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stopped for an analysis of what was said; I am hoping in this way to avoid repeating a telling of the narrative, once when summarizing and once when analyzing.13 The references to the biblical verses, which are discussed in the pericope, are given in brackets. Reference to the Talmudic pages is given in the footnotes.

Sections 1–7: Introducing Balaam 1. Who is the person of Balaam? (Num 22:5)14 The pericope in the bt begins by discussing the meaning of Balaam’s name and his identity. A few etymologies are suggested, including one distinguishing Balaam as having had sexual intercourse with a domestic animal (his title rw[b-ˆb is taken to mean ry[b l[ ab, engaging sexually with a domestic animal). As far as his identity is concerned, it is stated: ‘He is a prophet, son of a prophet, who exceeded his father in prophecy’. He is one and the same person as Kushan Rishatayim,15 who is also Laban the Aramean, the father- in-law of Jacob.16 2. Balaam is evil through his own free will The editor quotes a baraita, a Tosefta-like narrative, stating that ‘only the wicked among the gentiles do not deserve to enter the next world’, implying that pious gentiles do deserve it.17 Balaam’s own words are then quoted: ‘If I die a pious death, my end will be like his’ (Num 23:10). This is taken to mean if I, Balaam, am pious at the time of my death, I will merit the same fate as a pious Israelite (that is, have a ‘portion’ in the next world). From all the villains mentioned in the Mishnah—states the bt—it is only Balaam who will not have a ‘portion’ in the world to come. The others will. 3. Why did the Midianites go with the elders of the Moabites? (Num 22:7) Next, the bt quotes a Tannaitic statement18 concerning a surprising biblical account. In the story of Balaam, although it is Balak, the

13 See Rubenstein, Stories, 24–28. 14 Sanhedrin 105:1, line 39; Sanhedrin 105:2, line 36. 15 Judg 3:8–10. 16 The Aramaic identiﬁcation probably follows the biblical text in Num 23:7 (‘from Aram Balak led me’). I thank Tal Ilan for this observation. 17 The summary is of the text as it appears in the Tosefta. Some of the bt’s manuscripts—Herzog and Muenchen and the Barco edition—support this reading, while others corrupt or alter it. This section will be discussed later. 18 This statement is found in Sifre Bamidbar 157.

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Moabite king, who worries about the Israelites who are surrounding his country, the elders of the Midianites are also participating in the delegation set out to summon Balaam. These two nations, explains the Tannaitic sage, were originally in a state of war but they united in order to ﬁght the Israelites who were approaching Balak’s land. 4. Balaam’s impertinence (Num 22:8) Going into detail about Balaam’s character, the bt indicates his impertinence. This is evident from his waiting for God’s answer concerning Balak’s request. ‘Who would dare to come between a father [God] and his son [ Israel]?’, asks the bt. ‘Impertinence is a kingship without a crown,’ continues the bt, and it is impertinence that has earned Balaam permission to go to Balak in order to curse the Israelites, which at this stage is a success on his part, but which will later prove futile. 5. Physical characteristics of Balaam The bt indicates some of Balaam’s less appealing physical features such as his being lame and blind in one eye. 6. Sexual qualities of Balaam Balaam is characterized as being ‘a sexual magician’ (wtmab μswq) and some textual proofs are invoked to prove that he was sexually involved with his she-ass. 7. The nature of Balaam’s magic What was the nature of Balaam’s powers? His great talent was in knowing the split second in which God was angry at the Israelites; this split second was the only moment when a curse cast upon Israel could have any effect. His sexuality comes up again in this section: in a long narrative (based on Num 24:16) we learn about the nature of Balaam’s power, as well as his relationship with his she-ass.

Analysis From the outset Balaam is presented in a negative manner. Despite his respected lineage (a prophet, son of a prophet), he is ugly, impertinent and is identiﬁed with other doers of evil to the Jews, all of whom were of Aramean descent. The term ‘Aramean’ in the rabbinic literature is a reference to most of the nations in the region of Palestine, Syria and Babylonia, other than the Jews themselves; it is a term that designates the ‘Other’. The description of Balaam’s unusual sexuality seems surprising at this point, but it will make more sense later on, when other sexual models are presented.

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The fact that Balaam chose to do evil reveals him as someone who is not inherently evil, but who made a mistake which proved fatal for him. That mistake was in crossing the border into a state of intimacy which was not his own: the one between God and His people. Balaam’s prophetic abilities are being played down: ‘Knowing the moment in which God is angry’ and being a ‘sexual magician’ can hardly be equated with real prophecy bestowed on a person by God.

Sections 8–10: Balaam as the sole evildoer of the biblical story19 8. Balaam is compared with Abraham (Num 22:21) The bt utilizes a textual unit known from Genesis Rabbah, where Balaam is contrasted with Abraham.20 The incentive for making this comparison lies in the identical words, which are used in the Bible to describe the actions of both these people: both woke up in the morning and saddled their donkey. In both cases, they are men of high rank who did something that was not befitting their rank. 9. Balak’s sacrifices (Num 22:40) The next paragraph discusses Balak. Here it is related that the forty-two sacrifices, which in accordance with Balaam’s orders Balak offered to God, merited him the honor of having a daughter Ruth, who would be the foremother of King David. 10. Is it customary to say it this way? Section 10 seems not to belong to the Balaam sequence. It is asking, ‘Is it proper to say about Yael the Kenite that she is more blessed than the women in the tent [that is, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah]?’21 The answer is that the text is not really saying this; it is only pretending to do so.

Analysis This block introduces Balak. He was forced by Balaam to build forty- two altars and make sacriﬁces to God (section 9). This unintentionally pious act is contrasted with another act, an intentional one (section 8): two people of high stature, Abraham and Balaam, are engaged in work which is below their status, namely saddling a donkey. In the case

19 Sanhedrin 105:2, lines 36–46. 20 Midrash Genesis Rabbah 55:3. 21 This is referring to Judg 5:24 ‘Yael shall be more blessed than the women, more blessed than the women of the tent’.

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of Abraham this was a good act, showing his love of God; but in the case of Balaam there is no piousness in the act, since it was driven by hatred toward Israel. In contrast, the act of sacriﬁcing to God, performed by Balak, is pious in its very essence, regardless of the intention involved. Therefore this act merited Balak the honor of being the forefather of King David. As a result of this contrast Balaam comes out of this narrative as the sole evil protagonist of this biblical story. The Talmud does have reservations about its own statement: it should not be taken completely seriously. My interpretation of section 10 is as saying: it is not proper to present Balak as completely non-evil. We only seem to be saying this.

Sections 11–13: Balaam’s conduct in this episode22 11. How did Balaam speak? (Num 23:5) How was Balaam forced to pronounce oracles, which meant the opposite of what he intended to say? Some say God gave an angel permission to change his speech; others say He guided him as an animal with a halter. 12. Analysis of the third oracle (Num 24:5) Whatever the manner of his prophecy was, God turned around each sentence Balaam intended to utter so that it had exactly the opposite meaning. The bt lists Balaam’s various prophecies and by turning the meaning of these around, Balaam’s original intentions were exposed. For example: Balaam wanted to curse the Israelites so that they would have no synagogues or houses of learning (batei midrash), but he ended up saying: ‘How good are thy tents, O Jacob’ (bq[y ˚ylha wbwf hm). ‘Tents’ is equated with Torah studying, since it invokes the rabbinic expression ‘a tent of Torah’, which means learning the Torah in the houses of learning. Balaam wanted to curse the Israelites so that they would have no Shekhinah (God’s presence) among them, but he ended up saying: ‘Thy dwellings Israel’ (larçy ˚ytwnkçm), and this connects the word ‘presence’ (shekhinah) and ‘dwellings’ (mishkenot). Balaam wanted to curse the Israelites so that their kingdom would not continue, but he ended up saying: ‘like a river they shall continue.’ The bt goes on to unearth all the original evil intentions of Balaam which by God’s

22 Sanhedrin 105:2, line 46; Sanhedrin 103:1, line 12.

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will were turned into blessings. Alas, say the rabbis, in the end all of what Balaam originally intended as curses turned out to come true, except for the ﬁrst one: The Jews do have synagogues and houses of learning! 13. The cedar and the papyrus (Num 24:6) In the next section we read that the curses of a friend are better than the blessings of an enemy, so although Balaam ended up giving blessings, it would have been better not to have had these blessings (since in the end they turned back into curses).

Analysis The important message these sections covey has to do with Talmudic culture. The rabbis sadly note that of all the blessings bestowed (unintentionally) by Balaam, only one is left for the Israelites: they have Houses of Learning. The emphasis on the ‘learning’ in houses is typical of Talmudic culture.23 Since Balaam did not succeed as a prophet of God, he resorted to being an advice-giver; this is the topic of the next block.

Sections 14–17: Balaam’s advice 24 14. The oracle about the Kenite (Num 24:21) Now the text introduces Balaam as a giver of advice. There were three gentile sages who were counsel givers to Pharaoh: Balaam, Jethro and Job.25 Balaam chose to curse Israel and was in the end killed by the Israelites;26 Job did not take part in the evil counsel and therefore only suffered torture during his lifetime; Jethro, who ran away from the place of evil counsel to join Moses, was rewarded by having his offspring sit in the ‘chamber of Hew stone’ in the Temple.27 15. The last prophecy of Balaam (Num 24:23–24) The next section is a commentary on the last prophecy of Balaam. We learn that it is not wise to come between God and His people while God is in the process of saving them; it is like throwing a cloak between a lion and lioness at the time of their mating.

23 About this see, for example, Rubenstein, Culture, 3–38. 24 Sanhedrin 106:1, lines 12–43. 25 The subject of Baskin’s book. 26 Josh 13:22. 27 Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael, Jethro, tractate Amalek, 2.

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16. Balaam’s advice (Num 24:14) At this point the biblical story of Balaam comes to an end. The next chapter (Numbers 25) is about the sin of the Israelites in Shittim. However, the bt pericope does include the story of Shittim as part of the narrative about Balaam. We learn that Balaam gave advice to the Moabite king to use the Moabites’ young women to tempt the Israelites. The Israelites would be lured into buying goods from these Moabite women, encouraged to feel at home in their houses, and after drinking their wine would consent to worship the idol Peor in order to receive sexual services. 17. The outcome of the advice: the sin in Shittim The bt discusses brieﬂy the sin in Shittim. The place’s name is explained (‘a place of nonsense’, twfç); and Balaam’s advice is said to have cast an inﬂuence over all the Israelites, since the Moabite women were seducing them while naked and so caused sexual impurity in the Israelite men. A rabbi is quoted as saying that whenever the words ‘and Israel sat . . .’ are found in the biblical text, a disaster follows. Many examples of such a nexus are quoted from the biblical text.

Analysis Balaam is ignorant regarding the futility of his trying to come between God and His people. Considering what we know about his sexuality, the lawlessness of his suggestion to Balak, and his inability to recognize a truly intimate relationship is hardly surprising. Balaam is characterized here as mistakenly thinking that he has a relationship with God. In describing Balaam’s advice the bt is loyal to its Halakhic nature. It asserts that the major problem of the sin is not the few Israelites who actually sinned with the daughters of Moab, but about the sexual impurity which infected all the Israelite men. What seems to be an unrelated matter—the nexus of the biblical verses speaking about Israel as ‘sitting’ (Num 24:1a) and the disaster that follows (Num 25:1b–9)—is in fact a clear statement of a ‘Babylonian’ point of view. The verses quoted all show that the words ‘Israel’s sitting’ always indicated a disaster to come. The verses are describing Israelite people as sitting Canaan, Egypt or in the land of Israel, under King Solomon’s rule. In all these cases they sinned and a disaster followed. One realizes, then, that living in the promised land does not protect the Israelites against sinning and the disasters that follow. This is a typical ‘diasporic’ claim.

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Sections 18–20: Balaam’s death and additional issues28 18. Balaam’s death and his status Balaam was killed by the Israelites along with the kings of Midian. Balaam was present at that place because he had come to collect the fee for his advice. At this point he was no longer a prophet, but a magician. 19. Balaam’s age A gentile asked Rabbi Hanina whether he knew how old Balaam was at the time of his death. The Rabbi answered that according to the verse (Ps 55:24), ‘People of blood and deceit will not have half of their days’, Balaam must have been thirty-three or thirty-four when he died. ‘This is right’, said the gentile, ‘I have a book where it says that he was thirty-three when the villain Pinchas killed him’. 20. What should we do with this story? In the ﬁnal section we ﬁnd the following sentence: ‘Mar, son of Rabina said to his son: Midrash does not apply to the other [persons mentioned in the Mishnah] except in the case of the wicked Balaam. In his case: make a Midrash about him as much as possible.’29

Analysis The last sections of the pericope coincide with the end of the biblical chapter and the end of Balaam’s life. Balaam was killed by the Israelites because of the advice he gave to the Moabites. Such a severe punishment is appropriate when we remember the bt’s view that this advice caused impurity to all Israelite men. In this last two sections we ﬁnd the wider context of the story according to rabbinic view. The issue of Balaam’s age is the topic of section 19. A scholarly debate has focused on the question of whether Balaam is here equated with Jesus, who also died at thirty-three. There is no clear statement, nor any clear hint that this is so. Urbach and Baskin conclude that Balaam has general anti-Christian traits in his representation in rabbinic literature.30 Before reaching a conclusion about this issue, let us look at the last section.

28 Sanhedrin 106:1, lines 43–106:2, 13. 29 hmkd ,[çrh μ[lbm rbl ,çrdml çypt al whlwkb .hyrbl anybrd hyrb rm hyl rma hyb çwrd - hyb tjkçmd. This sentence appears in all the major manuscripts. 30 See Urbach, ‘Rabbinic Sermons’, 281–4 and the literature quoted there; Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counselors, 91–3.

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In section 20 we learn that one may have a ‘free hand’ to interpret (make a midrash about) the figure of Balaam. We should consider the very last section along with the previous one, and conclude that it is possible to see Balaam as a ‘mock-Jesus’ figure, or as conveying an anti-Christian message to the Jewish people (as stated by Urbach and Baskin), but the figure of Balaam should not be understood as a hard symbol, but a flexible one, allowing different interpretation according to need. Therefore, an interpretation of him as Jesus, while possible, is not exclusive. Balaam could be any ‘Other’ of the rabbinic culture.31

The BT Point of View As It Appears in the Representation of the Biblical Balaam Story

The pericope is a mosaic of small textual units combined together by the editor to create a full picture. Some of the smaller units are copy- ing, reworking or retelling narratives and ideas, which are known from earlier rabbinic writings of Palestinian or Babylonian origin. Some of the statements are unknown from other sources and could have been composed for this particular pericope. There is an overall message which results from the sequential reading of the pericope and deciphering the various hints planted in it. This message is what the originator(s) of the Talmud wanted to present to the reader(s). The bt is presenting Balaam in an unquestionably negative tone. He is ugly, impertinent, and he is choosing to be evil, even when he can avoid it. His prophetic abilities were originally quite high: he comes from a line of prophets. But he ‘plays a losing game’ when trying to come between God and his people. His prophetic abilities vanish, and he is reduced to being an advice-giver. It is this advice which in the end costs him his life. Some points of this pericope present a particular Babylonian interest or world-view. We can point to the following as the typical Babylonian representation of Balaam:

(1) Balaam is the only and absolutely negative protagonist in the story. This should be seen against the background of Tannaitic statements

31 This agrees with the way Heinemann presented the image of Balaam. Joseph Heinemann, Aggadah and Its Development, Jerusalem 1971, 119–21.

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about Balaam, which presented him as a powerful receptor of the words of God, and which have a much less negative overtone in the narratives about him.32 This should also be seen in comparison with the later Palestinian midrashic corpus of Tanchuma, where Balak is emphatically described as being just as much a villain as Balaam was. These two corpora, the Babylonian Talmud and Tanchuma, seem to be representing two major cultural worlds of late rabbinic Judaism; in some cases the two corpora deliberately put themselves in opposition to each other. Our pericope could be one such case. (2) There is merit in ritualistic acts where the intention of the doer plays only a small part if any. An approach which seems to consider a relatively rigid Halakhic focus of Jewish life, as opposed to a system which promotes and develops narratives as a cultural identiﬁer such as elaborated narratives (such as midrash) or liturgical poetry. (3) Balaam’s advice has severe Halakhic implication regarding impurity. This is an attitude similar to what we have seen in the previous point. (4) Being in the Land of Israel does not necessarily entail a happy state of affairs. A point of view which seems natural to a diaspora culture such as the Babylonian. (5) Houses of learning are the only blessing of the Israelites. Again a typical Babylonian point of view, as already described by Ruben- stein and others.

2. Old Wine in New Jars: Narrative Continuum In the bt pericope there are more than a dozen cases of reworking earlier known material from other rabbinic writings. Parallels are found in the Mishna, the Tosefta, Tannaitic midrashim (Sifre Bamidbar and Mekhiltas), Palestinian amoraic material (Palestinian Talmud and Genesis Rabba) and other parts of the bt. In all cases the earlier material is not quoted verbatim. Changes may vary from minute lexical alterations, through omission, additions and changes made in the order of the narrative, all the way to presenting a complete opposite meaning than the text known to us from writings of the earlier rabbinic strata. The question of which texts existed before

32 Sifre Bamidbar, paragraph 156; Mekhilta deRashbi 18:1, 19:16; Sifre Zuta, paragraph 7; Sifre Devarim, paragraphs 243, 256.

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the author(s) of bt, is complicated and not fully answered in the world of scholarly studies of midrash tends to relate to the various products of rabbinic culture as drawing on a mutual cultural repertoire, both oral and written, in order to express a particular relevant narrative message. Each narrative product that we possess, such as the midrashim or Talmudim uses this cultural repertoire for its own purpose/message. By this ‘double action’—on the one hand using known material, and on the other hand producing a new narrative of it—the culture can both keep the continuity of its identity and update itself according to the needs of the reality. I term this phenomenon narrative continuum. Since it is too much for the scope of the present article to cover all the early narratives which are reworked into the bt pericope, I will analyze here two such examples: the parable of the two dogs who were enemies of each other, and the Tosefta discussion of the question whether all gentiles go to hell, or only the wicked among them.

The dogs who were enemies of each other: retelling a midrashic story, and a ‘memra’ A Tannaitic parable, also found in Sifre Bamidbar, is reworked in section 3. It is related to the verse Num 31:2: ‘Avenge the avengers of the Israelites from the Midianites and then die’. Thus says God to Moses before the latter’s death. Here is the text from Sifre Bamidbar, and the parallel in our Talmudic pericope:

Sifre Bamidbar 157 bt Sanhedrin 105:1 But the Moabites originated [the idea of attacking the Israelites] as it is written: and the elders of Moab went and the and the elders of Moab went and elders of Midian (Num 22:7). the elders of Midian (Num 22:7). They never had peace with There is a Tannaitic tradition each other, and they still fought that Midian and Moab never against Israel [together]?! had peace. It is similar to two dogs who It is similar to two dogs who were in a herd, and they were |were in a herd, and were enemies of each other. enemies of each other. A wolf came to take a lamb A wolf came on one of from the herd, and one of them them. was barking at him.

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Table (cont.) Sifre Bamidbar 157 bt Sanhedrin 105:1 The other one said: if I don’t The other said: if I don’t go and help him now, [the wolf ] help him today, he will kill him, will kill him and will pass to me and tomorrow he comes for me. and will kill me. [So] they made peace with each Both went and killed the other and fought the wolf. wolf. Thus [it was] with Moab and Midian. They never made peace with each other, as it is written (Genesis 36:35) who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, and when they prepared to ﬁght the Israelites they made peace with each other and fought against Israel. Rav Papa said: as people are saying: the weasel and a cat celebrated on the ﬂesh of the unfortunate.

The exegetical question put forward in the midrash is: since it is the Moabites who caused the Israelites to sin, not the Midianites, why does Moses seek vengeance upon the Midianites? The answer comes in the form of a parable about the two dogs that made a pact in order to ﬁght the wolf. The Israelites are the wolf, a strong and vicious animal, while the Moabites and Midianites are two dogs, essentially much weaker than the wolf. The parable in Sifre never says whether the nations/dogs overcame the wolf/Israel or not. The intended audience knows how the biblical story ends: the Israelites crossed the desert successfully. In fact the culture which produced the Sifre text is still living in this country. The ‘wolf ’ survived the combined forces of the ‘dogs’. The meta-message of the Sifre parable is that the Israelites are (always?) saved. The bt incorporates this parable in order to convey a message different from the one found in the Tannaitic text. The end of the story is different: the dogs kill the wolf. A new gap is now created in the story: if the wolf is Israel, are the rabbis pronouncing Israel dead? The solution to this gap comes in an editorial addition to the parable, in the form

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of a memra, a saying: ‘the weasel and the cat celebrated on the ﬂesh of the unfortunate’.33 Is the wolf the unfortunate, or is it the cattle which was devoured by the wolf in the end? This is not made clear to us by the authors. In any case the unfortunate character is the ‘us’ group of the Talmudic voice, who are at the same time the Israelites in the desert from the biblical story and the Jews of Babylonian of the time of the text. The parable and the memra are alluding to the poor state of the Jews as a minority in Babylonia, when the ‘nations’ (Romans and Arameans?) are ‘celebrating’ [that is, being in power].34

Do the Wicked among the Gentiles Go to Hell? In section 2 we learn that Balaam is the only one of the four people mentioned in the Mishnah who will in fact not enter the world to come, whereas the other three will enter it. This idea contradicts the clear statement of the Mishnah. It is hinted at, however, in the Palestinian Talmud,35 where we ﬁnd excuses for allowing all the other persons mentioned in the Mishnah to enter the world to come, but there is no such excuse for Balaam. The bt makes this idea explicit in a simple indicative sentence. By way of a support for this opinion, the bt then quotes a discussion, which is found also in the Tosefta.36 The biblical context of the discussion is the verse Ps 9:18 (‘The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all the nations that forget God’). The question which is raised is whether gentiles go to heaven after their death or not. The answer is that the wicked among the gentiles do not go to heaven. Here is the Tosefta’s version and the bt:

Tosefta Babylonian Talmud Rabbi Eliezer says: Rabbi Eliezer says: All nations have no portion in the world to come, as it is written: The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all the The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all nations that forget God (Ps 9:18). the nations that forget God (Ps 9:18)

33 hdg çybd abrtm alwlh wdb[ arnwçw atçwkrk. 34 R. Papa, in whose name this memra is quoted, died in 375. 35 Palestinian Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2; 29b. 36 Tosefta Sanhedrin 13:2.

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Table (cont.) Tosefta Babylonian Talmud The wicked will depart to Sheol—these The wicked will depart to Sheol— are the wicked ones of Israel. these are the wicked ones of Israel. All the nations that forget God—these are the nations of the world. Words of R. Eliezer. Rabbi Joshua said to him: If it was Rabbi Joshua said to him: Is it written the wicked shall depart to Sheol, written all the nations? No, it is written all the nations and no more, I would all the nations that forget God. have agreed with you, but since it is written that forget God the meaning is that there are pious So [the meaning is] the wicked ones among the nations who have a shall depart to Sheol, and who portion in the world to come. they? All the nations that forget God. And that evil-doer [Balaam] made it apparent about himself saying: (Num 23:10) ‘My soul shall die a righteous death’. If my soul dies a righteous death, then ‘my end will be like his’ [I will be like the Israelites, i.e. going to heaven] and if not—I go to my people [i.e.—to hell].

The discussion in the compilation which we call nowadays Tosefta is found almost verbatim in the bt. The conclusion of the discussion is assigned in the bt particularly to Balaam. The anonymous and impersonal voice of the implied author of the bt pericope invokes for this purpose Balaam’s own words and then interprets them. We ﬁnd in the bt a latent idea from the pt being made explicit; the argument is supported by a baraita (a non-Mishnaic Tannatic statement), which however does not mention Balaam directly; the Baraita is then assigning it to Balaam using an interpretation of Balaam’s own words from the biblical text. The ﬁnal view which is expressed here is contrary to what is clearly pronounced in the Mishnah, namely that four people do not enter the world to come. The Talmud concludes that three do enter, only Balaam does not. This new conclusion is presented as based on all the Tannaitic legal sources, namely both the Mishna and the Tosefta. The

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new view is conveyed, as well as the accountability to the old culture, and by this the continuity of the cultural identity. We see the multi-functionality of the ‘narrative continuum’. While advancing the unique bt narrative about Balaam, it is also conserv- ing the cultural repertoire (and by this keeping the continuity of the cultural identity) and making the repertoire relevant for audience, by relating to current events.

Concluding Summary

In this article, I hope to have demonstrated two points. One is the unique view about Balaam present in the Babylonian Talmud, the other is a process which I termed ‘narrative continuum’, as a process enabling a culture both to introduce new points of view as well as to keep its integrity. The uniqueness of the Babylonian view about Balaam unfolds through analyzing the particular sequence of narratives which are present in the pericope about this biblical figure. This unique view may be made more apparent if seen in light of other rabbinic views about him, particularly Tannaitic views and later saboraic views expressed, among others, in Tanchuma. There is no room to do this within the framework of this article. Both Urbach37 and Baskin,38 who studied the figure of Balaam in rabbinic literature, concluded that there was a generally anti-Christian attitude expressed by the rabbis in connection with the figure of Balaam. Neither of these scholars, as well as Heinemann (see note 31 above), made a sharp distinction between the various cultures within rabbinic literature, therefore their conclusion is more general and does not point to the uniqueness of the bt view. As far as the ‘narrative continuum’ is concerned, I have discussed two examples of reworking older material into the bt pericope. The changes made in them, as well as the immediate context in the bt, serve the multi-function of presenting an up-to-date message to the audience, as well as keeping cultural integrity intact.

37 Urbach, ‘Rabbinci Sermons’, 13–15. 38 Baskin, Pharao’s Counselors, 92–3.

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BALAAM IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY

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Tobias Nicklas

In Ulrich Luz’s important commentary on the Gospel of Matthew the following sentence can be found: ‘Über den Stern ist sehr viel Tinte vergossen worden’.1 Luz is absolutely right: The interpretations of the mysterious ‘star’, which according to Matt 2:1–12 leads the ‘magi’2 to the newborn ‘king of the Jews’, are manifold and—as far as I see—no consensus about its meaning and background has been found yet. Perhaps the different interpretations of the star can be best arranged in correspondence to the questions which those interpretations actually seek to answer.3

(1) How can the astronomical phenomenon told by Matthew be explained on a historical or a scientiﬁc level? It was the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who ﬁrst calculated that a conjunction of the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars had taken place around the years 7 or 6 bce. For centuries this constellation—and several other phenomena—has been seen as proof that the Gospel tells the truth.4 Many of explanations like this are in

1 U. Luz, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (EKK I/1), Zürich/Neukirchen-Vluyn 1985, 118. 2 The Greek term μάγοι is likewise a problematic one. See, e.g., R.E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (ABRL), New York 1993, 167–8; W.D. Davies & D.C. Allison, Jr., The Gospel According to Matthew I: I-VII (ICC), Edinburgh 1988, 227–31, and J. Gnilka, Das Matthäusevangelium I: Kommentar zu Kap. 1,1–13,58 (HThKNT 1.1), Freiburg i.Br./Basel/Vienna 1986, 35–6. 3 I am sceptical of the attempts to reconstruct earlier sources of the scene, as for example performed by J. Nolland, ‘The Sources for Matthew 2:1–12’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 60 (1998) 283–300 (discussion of older literature!). Therefore I do not refer to questions regarding such attempts. 4 See particularly E. Stauffer, Jesus: Gestalt und Geschichte, Zürich 1957, 34–6. In our days cf., e.g., K. Ferrari-D’Occhieppo, ‘The Star of the Magi and Babylonian Astronomy’, in: E.M. Yamauchi & J. Vardaman (eds), Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan, Winona Lake 1989, 41–53; further publications: 42n3. Another author, who votes for the historicity of the scene, is E.M. Yamauchi, ‘The Episode of the Magi’, in: Idem & J. Vardaman (eds), Chronos, Kairos, Christos, 15–39. Among the recent commentaries at least that of H. Baarlink, Mattëus I. Een praktische bijbelverklaring, Kampen 1997, 39–40, seems to be interested in this theory.

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the line of Werner Keller’s famous Und die Bibel hat doch recht!5—holding the objective that the truth of the Gospels must be defended on the level of their historical reliability.6 These interpretations usually even do not take into account that Matthew himself clearly speaks about a miraculous star, which according to Matt 2:9 migrates from the North to the South,7 what, of course, makes any astronomical explanation of the phenomenon impossible in the ﬁrst place. The roots of this debate are old. Basically the main points of criticism have already been seen by pagan critics of early Christianity, like Porphyry, who pointed to the historical incompatibility of Matt 2:3 and Luke 2:39 (see frag. 12 at Epiphanius, Panarion 51.8).8 But, as I think, all kinds of more or less desperate attempts to defend the historical accuracy of the events told do not hit the gist of the issue. Matthew’s infancy stories want to illustrate the signiﬁcance of Jesus Christ, and they do this by the help of characters, images and ideas taken from what we call ‘the Old Tes- tament’. The claim of the text to tell the truth lies beyond the level of historical correctness—the Gospel wants to announce ‘Jesus the Christ’, the ‘son of David’ and ‘son of Abraham’ (Matt 1:1).9

For a discussion of these interpretations see also Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 171–3; Luz, Matthäus 1, 115–16. 5 W. Keller, Und die Bibel hat doch recht! Forscher beweisen die historische Wahrheit des Alten Testaments, Düsseldorf 1955. As far as I know, the last German edition of this book was published in the year 2000. 6 Another point of critique should at least be mentioned. M. Hengel & H. Merkel, ‘Die Magier aus dem Osten und die Flucht nach Ägypten (Mt 2) im Rahmen der antiken Religionsgeschichte und der Theologie des Matthäus’, in: P. Hoffmann et al. (eds), Orientierung an Jesus: Zur Theologie der Synoptiker; Für Josef Schmid, Freiburg i.Br. 1973, 139–69, esp. 147, write: ‘Zudem müßte man, wenn man eine solche Erklärung vertritt, der Astrologie, nämlich der Beziehung zwischen den Gestirnen und dem menschlichen Einzelschicksal wie der Weltgeschichte, eine positive Bedeutung einräumen’. 7 It was already John Chrysostom, Homiliae in Matthaeum 7:3 (PG 57.76) who pointed out that Matthew’s star must have been a miraculous one. Among more recent titles see, e.g., D. Hill, The Gospel of Matthew (NCeB), London 1972, 83; J. Schmid, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (RNT), Regensburg 19655, 46. H. Frankemölle, Matthäuskommentar, vol. 1, Düsseldorf 1994, 166, clearly states: ‘Alle gelehrigen Spekulationen astronomischer Art über eine mögliche Sternkonjunktion scheitern am matthäischen Text’. 8 The text—its attribution to Porphyry is open to dispute—is printed in A. v. Harnack, Porphyrius, «Gegen die Christen», 15 Bücher: Zeugnisse, Fragmente und Referate (APAW. PH 1), Berlin 1916, 49–50. Cf. also T.D. Barnes, ‘Porphyry Against the Christians: Date and Attribution of the Fragments’, Journal of Theological Studies 24 (1973) 424–42; A. Meredith, ‘Porphyry and Julian Against the Christians’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.23.2 (1980) 1119–49, esp. 1130; H. Merkel, Die Widersprüche zwischen den Evangelien: Ihre polemische und apologetische Behandlung in der Alten Kirche bis zu Augustin (WUNT 13), Tübingen 1971, 17, and J.G. Cook, The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism (STAC 3), Tübingen 2000, 137–8. 9 Of course, this is no contradiction to the claim of the text to tell the truth. For an

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Therefore attempts which try to explain the motive of the star on a level of ‘Traditionsgeschichte’ or ‘Religionsgeschichte’ seem to be much more promising. Then the question can be formulated as follows.

(2) Which ideas did the author of Matt 2:1–11 connect with the motive of the star? Does he allude to Num 24:17? Again, several answers of this question have been given—let me address at least some of them.10 (a) Ancient literature sometimes relates the birth and/or the death of an important person to astral phenomena.11 Several interpreters of Matthew 2 refer to a scene in (ps-)Kallisthenes’ Romance of Alexander the Great 1.12, which can be dated to the 2nd or 3rd century ce.12 While Alexander’s mother Olympias is in labour pains, the Egyptian Nek- tanebo13 watches the constellation of the stars and inﬂuences it through his magical power. The child must not be born before the stars indicate the birth of the new ruler of the world. The theoretical background of this account can be found in ancient astronomical and astrological books, for example in Claudios Ptolemaios’ Tetrabiblos (ca. 100–178 ce; Alexandria); or in the Anthologies of his Antiochian contemporary Vettius Valens. Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 6.1 (4th century; Syracuse), writes about constellations of stars, which point to the birth of kings,14 while Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 2.28ff., gives examples of particular astral phenomena which accompanied important historical incidents. But Matthew seems to point into a very different direction than the

interpretation see T. Hieke, ‘Biblos Geneseos—Mt 1,1 vom Buch Genesis her gelesen’, in: J.-M. Auwers & H.J. De Jonge (eds), The Biblical Canons (BEThL 163), Leuven 2003, 635–50; Idem, Die Genealogien der Genesis (HBS 39), Freiburg i.Br. 2003, 288–92. 10 For a detailed overview see T. Holtmann, Die Magier vom Osten und der Stern: Mt 2,1–12 im Kontext frühchristlicher Traditionen (MThSt 87), Marburg 2005. 11 Cf. for example D. Senior, Matthew (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries), Nashville 1998, 45; W. Wiefel, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (ThHNT 1), Leipzig 1998, 37, or M.E. Boring & F.B. Craddock, The People’s New Testament Commentary, Louisville/ London 2004, 16. J. Schmid, Matthäus, 46, sees connections to the Babylonian belief in stars. 12 For the older sources of such a motive see, for example, H. Van Thiel, Leben und Taten Alexanders von Makedonien, Darmstadt 1974, xiii–xxi. For the date see the stylistic and grammatical observations made by K. Wyss, Untersuchungen zur Sprache des Alexanderromans von Pseudo-Kallisthenes (Laut- und Formenlehre des Codex A), Freiburg/CH 1942. 13 According to Alexander Romance 1.1.3 Nektanebo, a former king, is Alexander’s real father. 14 More material is presented by G. Mussies, ‘Some Astrological Presuppositions of Matthew 2: Oriental, Classical and Rabbinical Parallels’, in: P. van der Horst (ed.), Aspects of Religious Contact and Conﬂict in the Ancient World (Utrechtse Theologische Reeks 31), Utrecht 1995, 25–44, esp. 35n63.

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texts mentioned above.15 He is not interested in a constellation of stars; he even does not describe the star in any detail; he just speaks about ‘his star’ (2:2).16 Additionally, Matthew’s text does not give any evidence of the idea that the messiah’s birth in Bethlehem could be dependent on a special combination of stars. (b) The expression ‘his star’ perhaps relates better to the ancient idea that everybody has ‘his star’, which begins to shine at his birth and fades at his death.17 In this context often the stories about Mithridates IV Eupator in Pompejus Trogus’ Philippical History are mentioned—they are preserved in excerpts in Justinus Junianus, Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV 37.2.1–3.18 According to this text, the king’s birth and his taking of power are accompanied by great celestial phenomena. However, the text never clearly speaks about ‘his star’. Moreover, it describes a comet greater than the sun, which ﬁlls the sky for seventy days.19 Perhaps a note in the Scriptores historiae Augustae concerning the birth of Alexander Severus (reigned from 222 to 235 ce) is a better parallel. According to this text at the emperor’s birth a new star of great mag- nitude shone above his father’s house in Arca Caesarea (13.5).20 But, again, the autonomy of Matthew’s text can be seen easily. Matthew speaks about the rising of the star and he describes it as ‘his star’, but does not mention its size or its brightness. And besides, nothing in the aforementioned texts reminds us of the idea that a star leads people to a new-born king. (c) Thus, often the attempt has been made to ﬁnd a background of the motive in biblical texts. Mainly the story of Balaam, Numbers 22–24, and here, of course, especially Num 24:17 are mentioned regu-

15 But it is indeed possible that the astrological texts have older roots or go back to older ideas. 16 See already Hengel & Merkel, ‘Magier aus dem Osten’, 147. 17 See for example Hengel & Merkel, ‘Magier aus dem Osten’, 148; Luz, Matthäus 1, 118–19; P. Bonnard, L’évangile selon Saint Matthieu (Commentaire du Nouveau Testament), Genève 1992³, 25. 18 The Philippical History (midst of the 1st century bce) only partly has survived. 19 Another very vague parallel could possibly be seen in Philostratus’ account of Apollonios of Tyana’s birth (Vita Apollonii 1.5), where a ﬂash of lightning lights up. This story is mentioned by W. Carter, Matthew and the Margins: A Socio-Political and Religious Reading ( JSNT.S 204), Shefﬁeld 2000, 76. 20 Historia Augusta: Römische Herrschergestalten I: Von Hadrianus bis Alexander Severus, translated by E. Hohl; edited by E. Merten & A. Rösger (Bibliothek der Alten Welt— Römische Reihe), Zürich/Munich 1976, 319. A late midrash about Abraham’s star is mentioned by H. Strack & P. Billerbeck, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus erläutert aus Talmud und Midrasch, Munich 1922, 77–8.

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larly: ‘A star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.’21 It is surely not necessary to discuss the different witnesses of messianic interpretations of Num 24:17 in ancient Judaism here.22 Of course, these messianic interpretations make an intertextual relationship between Matthew 2 and Num 24:17 particularly plausible. But the connections between Num 24:17 and Matthew 2 are so unclear that the question, whether Matthew alludes to Numbers or not, is still discussed controversially. The following arguments can be found:

– Num 24:17 and Matt 2:1–12 are too different to allow a connection between both texts.23 If Matthew wanted to allude to Num 24:17, why did he not mark this allusion more clearly,24 as he does in other cases?25 Another argument is that the Matthean star signalizes the coming of Jesus, while Balaam’s ‘star’ is an image for the Messiah himself.26 Finally, on the whole Matthew does not seem to have been interested in the book of Numbers too much. – Of course, Matthew does not clearly allude to Num 24:17, but, nevertheless, parallels to the Balaam-scene can be found. The clear- est points are the words for ‘star’ and its ‘rise’ in the LXX version

21 Many authors assume an intertextual relationship to Num 24:17 without further argumentation. See, e.g., W.F. Albright & C.S. Mann, Matthew (AncB), Garden City 1971, 14–15; Bonnard, Matthieu, 25; D.J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew (Sacra Pagina 1), Collegeville 1991, 42; Hill, Matthew, 82; R. Schnackenburg, Matthäusevangelium 1,1–16,20 (NEB.NT 1), Würzburg 1985, 23; B.T. Viviano, ‘The Movement of the Star: Matt 2:9 and Num 9:17’, Revue biblique 103 (1996) 58–64, esp. 58 and 60 (here the whole scene is interpreted as a ‘midrashic comment on Num 24:17’). 22 See, e.g., the articles by F. García Martínez, S. Beyerle, and R. Nikolsky in this volume. 23 Senior, Matthew, 45, mainly emphasizes the contrasts between the two scenes, while Luz, Matthäus 1, 115, writes: ‘Wörtliche Reminiszenzen an die Bileamgeschichte von Num 24,17 fehlen in 2,1–12 so gut wie völlig’. 24 Cf., e.g., Mussies, ‘Some Astrological Presuppositions’, 26–7; Yamauchi, ‘Episode of the Magi’, 23. 25 But see also Davies & Allison, Matthew I, 235, who write: ‘Why does Matthew not cite Num 24.17? This question, often raised especially by those wishing to ﬁnd the source of Mt 2.1–12 in history, not haggadic imagination, has a simple answer. The formula quotations in Mt 2 serve the chapter’s geographical orientation and— what cannot be said of Num 24.17—each contains a place name—Bethlehem, Egypt, Ramah, Nazareth’. 26 See, e.g., Mussies, ‘Some Astrological Presuppositions’, 27; C.S. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Grand Rapids/Cambridge 1999, 101–2n83. But see also Gnilka, Matthäusevangelium I, 37, who states: ‘Man wendet gegen diese Deutung ein, daß für Bileam der Stern für die Person des Messias stehe, während er in der Magier-Perikope als dessen Zeichen aufgefaßt sei. Jedoch ist auch für Bileam der Stern ein Bild’.

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of Numbers (Num 24:17a LXX: ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον ἐξ Ιακωβ; Matt 2:2b: εἴδομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ). The Matthean magi come from the East as Balaam does (ἀπ᾽ ἀνατολῶν Num 23:7 LXX; see also Num 22:5),27 although they do not want to curse Israel, but worship the new ‘king of the Jews’. At the end of the story it is told that ‘Balaam went off to his home’ (Num 24:25) and the magi ‘went away to their own country’.28 Moreover, Philo, De vita Mosis 1:276–277, is a witness to the idea that Balaam was seen as a ‘magician’.29 And, ﬁnally, some scholars see a parallel between Herod and the Moabite king Balak.30

The situation can thus be described in the following way: of course, it is possible that Matthew alluded to Num 24:17. But, as far as I see, there is no argument at hand, which is able to prove this thesis with certainty.31 In my eyes, Matthew’s text is simply too open here.32 Now I could try to give new weight to old arguments and decide for one case or the other. I do not think that such a procedure would lead much further. One should remember that a great deal of the arguments mentioned above can already be found in David Friedrich Strauss’s famous Leben Jesu (ﬁrst edition 1835).33 Therefore I think that it could be much more interesting to formulate new questions and start a new search from new perspectives.

(3) Is it meaningful to connect the image of the star in Matt 2:1–12 with the one in Num 24:17 and to read Matt 2:1–12 against the background

27 This connection is mentioned by Frankemölle, Matthäuskommentar I, 166; Gnilka, Matthäusevangelium I, 37; Hengel & Merkel, ‘Magier aus dem Osten’, 144; Schweizer, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (NTD 2), Göttingen 1973, 17, and Wiefel, Matthäus, 37. 28 See also Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 196. Brown mainly works with a reconstructed pre-Matthean account. 29 See also Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 193; Gnilka, Matthäusevangelium I, 37. 30 Cf. Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 194; G.W. Buchanan, The Gospel of Matthew (The Mellen Biblical Commentary), Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter 1992, 87. 31 Although he emphasizes the parallels between Matthew 2 and the Balaam/ Balak-scene D.A. Hagner, Matthew 1–13 (WBC), Dallas 1993, 25, ﬁnally also comes to the same result. 32 See also M. Mayordomo-Marín, Den Anfang hören: Leserorientierte Evangelienexegese am Beispiel von Matthäus 1–2 (FRLANT 180), Göttingen 1998, 286, who writes: ‘[ D]ie Bezugnahme [wird] nur ungenügend markiert, der Umfang des übernommenen Materials auf sprachlicher Ebene ist sehr gering’. 33 See D.F. Strauss, Das Leben Jesu für das deutsche Volk bearbeitet, Leipzig 1874³, 368–75.

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of Balaam’s oracle? Which potential meanings can be won by such a reading of Matt 2:1–12? Question 3 is a reformulation of question 2, with a few important changes and shifts. (a) The term ‘allusion’ is replaced by the wider idea of ‘image’.34 (b) The ancient perspective of a historical author as a human being of flesh and blood, who created a text, is replaced by a reader’s perspective. I am not interested in empirical readers or the first readers of the Gospel of Matthew here.35 I am moreover concerned with the possibility to construct a reading process of the text in the frame of a Christian Bible. Thus, I assume a ‘model reader’ in the sense of Umberto Eco’s definition of the term.36 (c) Simultaneously, I do not ask which particular meaning a historical author at a special point of time wanted to communicate by the means of his text. Moreover, I am interested in potential meanings (‘Sinnpotentiale’), which result from an intertextual connection between Matt 2:1–12 and Num 24:17. In this context I assume a dynamic idea of the ‘meaning of texts’, while I do not want to deny the existence of certain ‘limits of interpretation’.37

But now back to the text and its interpretation. Matt 2:1–12 is characterized by two oppositions. On the one hand, there is king Herod, the Idumean, the illegitimate king of Israel. On the other hand, there is the announced ruler, the ‘shepherd of my people Israel’ (Matt 2:6; cf. 2 Sam 5:2), who is also the Davidic ruler. Since the very ﬁrst lines of

34 For a discussion of the term ‘allusion’ see for example G. Reim, Jochanan: Erweiterte Studien zum alttestamentlichen Hintergrund des Johannesevangeliums, Erlangen 1995, 97–8, who distinguishes between ‘offensichtlichen, wahrscheinlichen und möglichen Anspielungen.’ For a detailed discussion of the relationship between the terms ‘allusion,’ ‘metaphor’ and ‘image’ see R. Zimmermann, ‘Jesus im Bild Gottes: Anspielungen auf das Alte Testament im Johannesevangelium am Beispiel der Hirtenbildfelder in Joh 10’, in: J. Frey & U. Schnelle (eds), Kontexte des Johannesevangeliums: Das vierte Evangelium in religions- und traditionsgeschichtlicher Perspektive (WUNT 175), Tübingen 2004, 82–116, esp. 94–100. 35 Regarding this question see, e.g., Mayordomo-Marín, Den Anfang hören. 36 See U. Eco, Im Wald der Fiktionen: Sechs Streifzüge durch die Literatur; Munich 1999², 19: ‘eine Art Ideal-Leser, den der Text nicht nur als Mitarbeiter vorsieht, sondern such auch zu erschaffen versucht.’ More detailed Idem, Lector in Fabula: Die Mitarbeit der Interpretation in erzählenden Texten, Munich 1998³, 61–81. Of course, I am also fully aware of the problems of speaking about ‘a’ Christian Bible. See the detailed discussion of the problem in T. Hieke & T. Nicklas, ‘Die Worte der Prophetie dieses Buches’: Offenbarung 22,6–21 als Schlussstein der christlichen Bibel Alten und Neuen Testaments gelesen (BThSt 62), Neukirchen-Vluyn 2003, 91–108 and 113–24. 37 Cf. U. Eco, Grenzen der Interpretation, Munich/Vienna 1992.

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the Gospel it is clear that Jesus is seen as ‘the son of David’ and that he cannot be understood without his roots in Israel’s history. The second opposition is deeply connected with the first one. Herod represents Jeru- salem, the place where the ‘magi’ come first,38 but where they do not find the new-born king. Jesus, however, represents the destination of their search, David’s city, Bethlehem. The ‘magi’ first are standing outside of this opposition. Their quest for the ‘King of the Jews’ (Matt 2:2) reveals their non-Jewish perspective39 and shows that they connect the rise of the star with the birth of a ‘king of the Jews’. Matt 2:2 moreover makes clear that they come with good intention:40 they want to worship the new-born king. How can the meaning of the text be described when it is read against the background of Balaam’s oracle? First, Num 24:17 seems to be a more plausible background when both parts of the parallelism ‘a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel’ are connected with two different events, which, however, belong together. When the star comes out of Jacob, then a special scepter will rise in Israel. Jesus thus needs not to be identified with the star—he moreover is the new-born king, whose ‘scepter’ rises out of Israel when the star rises. This meaning is even more plausible when Num 24:17 is also connected with the story about David’s victories told in 2 Sam 8:1–14. This would correspond well to Matthew’s idea that Jesus is David’s son. Herod’s reaction, who according to Matt 2:4 asks, where the messiah (and not just any king of Israel) will be born, also is much more plausible, when the connection between star and king has a messianic background. But I do not think that it is really helpful to identify the positive figures of the Matthean ‘magi’ with Balaam.41 I also do not think that Herod’s role really corresponds to that of the Moabite king Balak.42

38 Perhaps it is interesting to note that Isa 7:14 cited in Matt 1:23 is connected to Jerusalem, too. Now the text corrects assumptions that the ‘Immanuel’ could be born in Jerusalem. I am grateful to Ulrich Berges for this helpful advice. 39 See also Matt 8:11, which speaks about many who will come from the East and the West who will eat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This text also seems to point to pagans (see also Frankemölle, Matthäuskommentar I, 166). My argumentation is contrary to Albright & Mann, Matthew, 16, who do not think that the magi have to be interpreted as pagans. 40 In other biblical texts the term ‘magi’ bears negative associations. See Dan [ Th] 4:7; 5:15; Acts 13:6,8; cf. also Acts 19:19 etc. 41 Contrary, e.g., to Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 194–5. This is mainly due to the point that early Judaism interpreted Balaam mainly in negative terms. 42 Contrary, e.g., to Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 194.

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Herod moreover can be interpreted as a rival of the ‘newborn king’, an illegitimate king. Perhaps it is possible to identify him—the Idumean— with Edom in Num 24:18, one of Israel’s enemies. Then the text can be understood in a way that his power will find an end when the prophesied scepter rises in Israel. Simultaneously Israel ‘does valiantly’ (Num 24:18b), what already can be seen in Matthew’s account: when they observe the star again, the ‘magi’ are filled with great (eschatological) joy (Matt 2:10).43 Led by the star they find the house and worship the child with gifts, which are due to the Savior-King at the time of the eschatological pilgrimage of the nations (Isa 60).44 Perhaps this understanding of the scene could also add a little piece to Matthew’s picture of Israel.45 The ‘magi’ represent the nations which begin to worship the newborn ‘king of the Jews’, the ‘messiah of Israel’ whose roots can be found in David’s royal house. But if the text is really read as an echo to the Balaam-Balak scene, that possibly also means that Israel is blessed by God and these blessings cannot be taken away from Israel (Num 23:8; 24:1a, 9b). Thus, I am convinced that it really makes sense to connect Matt 2:1–12 with Balaam’s oracle. I am sure that my short interpretation has not exhausted all potential meanings of the text. I also do not want to state that this interpretation really was intended by the historical author of the text, but I think that it is an adequate one. A fourth question could be added.

(4) How do ancient interpretations of Matt 2:1–12 understand the motive of the star? Of course, such a question never can be answered in an exhaustive manner.46 But perhaps it is interesting to follow some lines of the

43 See, e.g., Davies & Allison, Matthew I, 247; A. Sand, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus (RNT), Regensburg 1986, 51. 44 For a more detailed interpretation of the presents cf. H. Kruse, ‘Gold und Weihrauch und Myrrhe (Mt 2,11)’, Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift 46 (1995) 203–13, esp. 203–9, and J. Kügler, ‘Gold, Weihrauch und Myrrhe. Eine Notiz zu Mt 2,11’, Biblische Notizen 87 (1997) 24–33. 45 Regarding the relationship between Israel and the Church in the Gospel of Matthew see now P. Fiedler, ‘Israel bleibt Israel: Überlegungen zum Kirchenverständnis des Matthäus’, in: R. Kampling (ed.), « Dies ist das Buch . . . »: Das Matthäusevangelium. Interpretation—Rezeption—Rezeptionsgeschichte; Für Hubert Frankemölle, Paderborn 2004, 49–73. 46 See, e.g., Holtmann, Magier vom Osten; G. Dorival, ‘« Un astre se lèvera de Jacob »: L’interprétation ancienne de Nombres 24,17’, Annali di storia dell’esegesi 13 (1996)

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interpretation of the star in ancient Christian texts. Perhaps it is most interesting to concentrate on texts which make the connection with Num 24:17 explicit: It is already Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone 106.4, who shows that it is perfectly possible to identify Christ with the star and simultaneously to interpret the star as a sign for Jesus’ birth. Justin clearly cites Num 24:17 (plus Zech 6:12)47 and explains that the ‘magi’ knew Jesus because of the star, which rose at his birth. Perhaps Justin’s interpretation here relies on older traditions;48 he at least seems to presuppose the magi’s origin in Arabia quite naturally.49 An explicit citation of Num 24:17 also can be found at Irenaeus of Lyon (Adversus haereses 3.9.2),50 while Hippolyt in his Commentary on Daniel speaks about the rise of the star κατὰ τὸ προφητευόμενον.51 Origen’s interpretation of the scene (Contra Celsum 1.60) is a witness to the idea that Jesus’ birth brings an end to all demonic and magical powers. When the ‘magicians’ had noticed that their magic powers were fading and looked for the reason of this, they had seen a heavenly sign which they interpreted with the help of Balaam’s oracle. Here the reason for the magi’s prostration is obviously the newborn king’s power over the demons (cf. similarly, e.g., Hieronymus, In Iesaiam 7.9.24). But there is another question which had to be resolved: How did the magi get to know about the signiﬁcance of the star? Balaam and the ‘magi’ had to be connected somewhat: the ﬁrst witness to this idea is already Origen, Homiliae in Numeros 13.7 who interpreted the ‘magi’ as descendants of Balaam (see also Homiliae in Numeros 15.4).52

295–352, and J. Leeman’s article in this volume. Cf. also W.A. Schulze, ‘Zur Geschichte der Auslegung von Matth. 2,1–12’, Theologische Zeitschrift 31 (1975) 150–60, and B.M. Metzger, ‘Names for the Nameless in the New Testament: A Study in the Growth of Christian Tradition’, in: P. Granﬁeld & J.A. Jungmann (eds), Kyriakon: Festschrift Johannes Quasten I, Münster 1970, 79–99, esp. 79–86. 47 The textual form of the citation is interesting. Justin reads: ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον ἐξ Ἰακὼβ καὶ ἡγούμενος ἐξ Ἰσραήλ. For a discussion see Dorival, ‘Astre’, 310. 48 It is, however, not absolutely clear whether Justin here refers to the canonical Gospel of Matthew or to an early Gospel harmony. Cf., e.g., M.-É. Boismard, Le Diatessaron: De Tatien à Justin (ÉtB N.S. 15), Paris 1992; D. Barthélemy, ‘Justin et le texte de la Bible’, in: Justin Martyr. Ouvres Completes, Paris 1994, 369–77. 49 For an overview of the different speculations about the magi’s origin, cf. Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 168–70. 50 More detailed: Dorival, ‘Astre’, 311–12. 51 The attribution to Hippolyt of Rome is uncertain. Another proposal is to attribute it to a second Hippolyt, an Oriental bishop. More detailed cf. B.R. Suchla, ‘Hippolyt’, Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur, 3rd edn. (2002) 336–9, esp. 337. 52 Other witnesses to this idea are Eusebius of Caesarea, Gregor of Nyssa, Diodor

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New aspects can be found when we leave Graeco-Latin literature.53 The Cave of Treasures (or Spelunca Thesaurorum) is a Syriac text, which probably was written in Mesopotamia during the 6th century and later translated into many languages.54 A part of the wider circle of apocryphal Literature on Adam and Eve, it tells the history of the world from the creation to the crucifixion of the Lord. The Syriac text is transmitted in two recensions, an oriental (MS Or.) and an occidental one (MS Oc.).55 A long passage (chapters 45–46) retells the scene of the magi and also contains a lengthy reflection of the role of the star. At first sight the text does not seem to connect the scene with Balaam’s oracle.56 According to MS Or. 45:2, the star appears two years before Christ’s birth.57 At once its outstanding beauty attracts attention, and, besides, within the star a crowned young maiden carrying a child can be seen (45:2–3).58 The ‘magi’ and ‘the whole land of Persia’ (45:5; MS Or. here is longer than MS Oc.) are disturbed by the appearance of such a star. The magi, as they are used to do, consult the ‘signs of the Zodiac’ (45:4, 9). Reading the ‘Revelation of Nimrud’59 (45:11) they discover that this

of Tarsos, Johannes of Damascus et al. More detailed cf. Dorival, ‘Astre’, 314–15, and J. Leemans in this volume. 53 I had no access to a whole text (or a translation) of the Armenian Infancy Gospel. A summary of the long magi-scene of this text can be found at Schulze, ‘Geschichte der Auslegung’, 151. 54 For a short introduction see, e.g., P. Bruns, ‘Spelunca Thesaurorum/Schatzhöhle’, Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur, 3rd edn. (2002) 649–50. 55 A detailed description of the transmission of the text can be found at A. Su-Min Ri, La Caverne des Trésors: Les deux recensions syriaques (CSCO 486; Scriptores Syri 207), Leuven 1987, vi–xxii. 56 That does not mean that there are no connections to the Old Testament. The third magos, called Perôzâdh, the king of Sheba in the East, tells that he had studied at a Jewish school and read the book of Isaiah. Christ’s birth should be seen as fulﬁll- ment of Isa 9:6 and 7:14. 57 This is surely due to the idea that the magi have to ﬁnd enough time to investigate the meaning of the star and to go to Jerusalem, where according to the text they arrive eight days after Jesus’ birth. Because of Matt 2:16 other authors argued that the ‘magi’ did not arrive before Jesus was in his second year. See, e.g., Ephraem, De nativitate 26.2.1–2. 58 For parallels see U. Monneret de Villard, Le leggende orientali sui magi evangelici (Studi e Testi 163), Città del Vaticano 1952, 74n2. For a possible parallel in Ephraem’s Commentary to the Diatessaron see more detailed A. De Halleux, ‘L’adoration des mages dans le commentaire syriaque du Diatessaron’, Muséon 104 (1991) 251–64. E.A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Cave of Treasures, London 1927, 205, also refers to the 38th chapter of the Book of the Bee (Armenia, 13th century), where the star because of its size and its peculiar way is interpreted as a mysterious power. Cf. also Metzger, ‘Names for the Nameless’, 84. 59 Regarding the ‘signs of the Zodiac’ and the ‘Revelation of Nimrud’ A. Su-Min Ri, Commentaire de la Caverne des Trésors: Étude sur l’histoire du texte et de ses sources (CSCO

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star refers to a king of Juda. Here Balaam perhaps enters the story again. Chapter 35, a part of the account about Salomo’s deeds, tells that Salomo at the foot of the mountain Seïr ﬁnds an altar (35:15ff.), which had been built by envoys of the giant Nimrud60 (35:18). These envoys had been sent to Balaam, the priest of the mountain,61 when he wanted to consult the ‘signs of the Zodiac’ (35:19). So Balaam here is seen as an expert in magical sciences who later also had to be consulted by the magi when they wanted to understand the sign of the star. Is Balaam here already paralleled to Zoroaster, the ‘inventor of magic’ (see, e.g., Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions 4.27.3.62 For Zoroaster as μάγος cf. already Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 1.15.69)?63 These lines are developed further in the Arabian Life of Jesus, which usually is titled Arabian Infancy Gospel.64 This work probably was written in Syriac.65 Perhaps a ﬁrst version of it goes back to the 5th century. The text often is dated quite vaguely into the 6th century.66 The title

581; Subsidia 103), Leuven 2000, 447, writes: ‘La Caverne a condamné « la magie, les incantations, les présages, le chaldaïsme, les sorts, les événements accidentels et les destins » en tant qu’enseignements de Satan (26.9) et une liste analogue avec « les signes du zodiaque » concerne l’intervetion du prêtre Idashir, un élève de Nemrod (27.17). Mais la révélation de Nemrod est écartée de cette condamnation, car elle provient de l’enseignement du quatrième ﬁls de Noé (27.19).’ 60 For an overview of ancient perspectives on ‘Nimrud’, see C. Uehlinger, ‘Nimrod’, in: K. van der Toorn et al. (eds), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Leiden 1999², 627–30, and K. van der Toorn & P.W. van der Horst, ‘Nimrod Before and After the Bible’, Harvard Theological Review 83 (1990) 1–29. The ﬁgure probably has its roots in a Mesopotamian God of fertility, Ninurta. In the Bible it is mentioned in Gen 10:8–12. 61 The connection between Balaam and the mountain Seïr could be concluded from the Peshitta version of Num 22:5 and 23:7. Cf. Su-Min Ri, Commentaire, 391–2. 62 For a detailed introduction see, e.g., M. Vielberg, Klemens in den pseudoklementinischen Rekognitionen: Studien zur literarischen Form des spätantiken Romans (TU 145), Berlin 2000, 106–9. 63 In this context the names of the envoys who built the altar are possbily interesting, too. Su-Min Ri, Commentaire, 395, writes: ‘Le premier et le deuxième nom commencent par « Pir », du grec « πῦρ » feu:les mages, en effet, sont connus come prêtres du feu et pour cette raison ils sont appelés « πύραιθοι ».’ 64 For an analogous use of the title C. Genequand, ‘Vie de Jésus en Arabe’, in: F. Bovon & P. Geoltrain (eds), Écrits apocryphes chrétiens I, Paris 1997, 205–38. 65 A Coptic version was edited by E.A. Wallis Budge, The History of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the History of the Likeness of Christ, 2 vols, London 1899. 66 Cf. G. Schneider, Evangeliae Infantiae Apocrypha: Apocryphe Kindheitsgeschichten (FC 18), Freiburg i.Br. 1995, 55, who refers to J. Michl, ‘Evangelien II: Apokryphe Evangelien’, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 2nd edn., 3 (1959) 1217–33, esp. 1223. O. Cullmann, ‘Kindheitsevangelien’, in: W. Schneemelcher (ed.), Neutestamentliche Apokryphen I: Evangelien, Tübingen 19906, 330–72, esp. 365–6, and A. De Santos Otero, Los Evangelios Apócrifos. Edición crítica y bilingüe, Madrid 199910, 301–3, as far as I see, give no date.

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‘infancy gospel’ is due to the fact that the more well-known of two Arabian manuscripts of the text,67 MS Or. 350 of the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, indeed just refers to events from the time before Jesus’ public activity. However, the second manuscript, Codex Orientalis 32 from the Bibliotheca Laurenziana/Florenz (according to the colophon copied during the year 1299 in Mardin), which was not published before 1973, from chapter 42 on has further material reaching until ascension and Pentecost.68 I want to concentrate on a short passage in the text of the Florence manuscript. This text starts with an oracle of Zaradusht (Zarathustra), who is seen as the founder of magic (1:1). Zaradusht foresees Jesus’ birth, his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. He also refers to the star as a sign for Jesus’ birth. The focus of the text is put on the brilliance of the star which is identified with an angel of the Lord. Perhaps this idea could be developed out of Luke 2:9, where the angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shines around them. In this case, the text possibly harmonizes the Matthean and the Lucan account. Luke’s angel, who leads the shepherds to Betlehem, is identified with the star leading the magi. After the end of Zaradusht’s prophecy, however, a strange sentence can be found:69 The speech [of Zaradusht] was in the form of a prophecy. Joshua, the son of Nun, the Metropolit, said that this Zaradusht was Balaam, the astrologer, and that his prophecy would be fulfilled at the end of times. Several lines of interpretation are connected here. The text wants to explain how the pagan ‘magi’ had the chance to get their knowledge about the birth of the newborn ‘king of the Jews’. Therefore it connects the ‘magi’ with the magician Zaradusht, it links the star with Balaam’s oracle, and, finally, identifies Balaam with Zaradusht—a really amazing exegesis of Matthew 2!70

67 Editio princeps: H. Sike, Evangelium Infantiae vel liber apocryphus de Infantia Salvatoris, Utrecht 1697. Most of the later editions and translations of the text rely on this edition. 68 M.E. Provera, Il vangelo arabe dell’infanzia secondo il ms. Laurenziano Orientale (n. 387), Jerusalem 1973. 69 According to the transcription of Provera, Il vangelo arabe, 67. 70 For other witnesses of this peculiar connection of ideas cf. Monneret de Villard, Le leggende orientali, 125–7. See, e.g., Theodor bar Konai’s Liber scholium (end of 8th century CE), and the commentaries of Ishodad of Merw (9th century) and BarHebraeus (d. 1286). Monneret de Villard, Le leggende orientali, 126–8, moreover points to the lexicographer Isobar Ali ed Abu’l-Hasan bar Bahlul, but quotes only Payne-Smith, col. 539f.

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Conclusion

(1) I cannot give a safe answer to the question whether Matthew really used the Balaam oracle when he produced the magi-scene and I think that such an answer is simply not possible. If there is a reference, Matthew did not mark it obviously enough. But I also think that a reading which connects Matt 2:1–12 with Balaam’s oracle makes very good sense. There is perhaps one more point in favour of such a reading. From its very first sentences Matthew’s Gospel is interwoven with intertextual references to what we call the ‘Old Testament’, references on very different levels such as (marked) citations, allusions, the use of names, and images, to mention only a few. I think that the Matthean text ‘creates’ readers who first look for the impact of the marked intertextual references, but then are led by their discoveries to search for more and more other kinds of intertextual references. The text thus wants to be read several times—by readers who gradually find deeper sense every time when they read it.

(2) The question, whether Matt 2:1–12 should be interpreted against the background of Balaam’s oracle was asked from at least the second century on. And from these early times both lines of interpretation can be found: several authors interpreted Matt 2:1–12 without showing an explicit interest in Num 24:17;71 other authors bound both texts in very different ways together. Sometimes they were interested in filling in the ‘gaps’ in the story like the unanswered questions where the magi exactly came from and how they received their mysterious knowledge about the significance of the star. At least in some cases these examples of exegesis helped to adapt the story to new contexts. This seems especially the case with the identification of Balaam with Zoroaster. Very often they formed the starting point for asking new questions and recognizing new riddles, and gave the impulse for new creative forms of interpretation.72

71 I have not mentioned the manifold interpretations of the magi scene which do not refer explicitly to Balaam traditions. The ﬁrst author who possibly alluded to Matthew’s star without mentioning Num 24:17 was Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians 19.2, but the allusion is far from clear. 72 I am grateful that the members of the ‘bijbelse atelier’ at Nijmegen University discussed an earlier version this article in detail and helped me to develop my ideas. I also wish to thank my friend Thomas J. Kraus who not just helped to improve my thoughts but also my English.

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Jan Willem van Henten

1. Introduction

Jesus Christ’s edict to his community in Pergamum (Rev 2:12–17) includes a brief passage about Balaam: But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication. (Rev 2:14)1 The fixed form of the Pergamum edict helps us to determine the function of the Balaam passage in its immediate context. Repetitions of the relevant vocabulary as well as the syntactic connection between Rev 2:14 and 2:15 suggest that the Balaam figure is connected with the Jezebel referred to in the edict to Thyatira (Rev 2:20–21) as well as with the Nicolaitans mentioned in Rev 2:6, 15. All three names, Balaam, Jezebel and the Nicolaitans, are associated with a specific instruction, whereas only the Balaam and Jezebel figures are accused of eating food sacrificed to idols as well as fornication (Rev 2:14, 20). Revelation’s text offers no explanation whom the symbolic name of Balaam may refer to. This implies that its possible meaning can only be inferred from the nature of the accusation in 2:14, the parallel passages about Jezebel and the Nicolaitans as well as the context. I intend to discuss, in this brief contribution, the form of the letter to the Jesus believers in Pergamum and its literary context, the specific reproach that refers to Balaam, as well as the connections with Num 24:14; 25:1–6 and 31:16, which may have been taken up in Rev 2:14. Finally, I will briefly discuss three possible avenues for contextualising the Balaam passage in the multi-ethnic milieu of Asia during the early empire.2

1 Unless stated otherwise the translations from the Bible have been taken from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). I warmly thank Emma England for correcting my English and making helpful suggestions. 2 As is well-known, there is no communis opinio on the date of Revelation, although the majority view is that the work was composed during the ﬁnal years of the ﬁrst

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2. Literary Context

Revelation has, as most scholars acknowledge, a mixed literary form.3 The work shares generic characteristics with prophecies as well as apocalypses, but it presents itself to its readers as a letter in its opening and concluding sections (Rev 1:1–8; 22:6–21). The seven letters to the seven communities of Asia (Rev 2:1–3:22) are introduced in Rev 1:4–5. This passage partly resembles the beginning of a letter from somebody belonging to the Jesus movement: ‘John to the seven communities that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from him . . .’ (Rev 1:4a). Rev 1:4–5 indicates, as the seven individual letters in 2:1–3:22 do, that the letters to the seven communities in Asia are special because of their origin: they are based on a revelation from Jesus Christ and reflect his indisputable authority.4 The seven letters can, therefore, be considered edicts from Jesus Christ, who is indicated with a symbolic formula at the beginning of the letters (2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). The opening of the edict to Pergamum reads: ‘And to the angel of the community in Pergamum write: “These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword” ’ (Rev 2:12). The symbolic formula in this verse links up with the description of the angelomorphic figure whom John sees in Rev 1:13–16. The figure most probably refers to Jesus Christ and has a sharp two-edged sword coming from his mouth (1:16).5 Jesus Christ’s seven edicts in Revelation 2–3 are part of the first section of the visionary body of Revelation. This section is introduced with John’s note that he was entranced with the Lord’s spirit (1:10).6

century CE. See for a detailed survey of various dates D.E. Aune, Revelation (World Biblical Commentary 52A–C), Dallas, Texas/Nashville: Word Books/Thomas Nelson, 1997–98, vol. 1, lvi–lxx. 3 K. Berger, Formgeschichte des Neuen Testaments, Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer, 1984, 289, 304 and 367. Survey of various hypotheses concerning Revelation’s genre: Aune, Revelation, vol. 1, lxx–lxxxii. 4 See Rev 1:1 and the ἀπὸ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος and ἀπὸ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ in 1:4–5, which show that Jesus’ and God’s authority are closely related. Also 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14. Berger, Formgeschichte, 302–3. 5 P.R. Carrell, Jesus and the Angels: Angelology and the Christology of the Apocalypse of John, (SNTSMS 95), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 129–74. 6 Correspondences between the content of 1:10–3:22 and that of 4:1–22:5, as well as many repetitions of the vocabulary, support the view that 1:10–3:22 belongs to Revelation’s long visionary section. Yet, some scholars argue that this section starts in Rev 4:1; see, for example, W.G. Kümmel, Einleitung in das Neue Testament, Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer, 1978, 402–3.

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The formula ‘I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day’ (Rev 1:10) associates John’s visionary experience with those of the great prophets of Israel.7 The seven edicts, which form the main part of 1:10–4:1, all show the same basic formal pattern, with some minor variations:8 (1) adscriptio and command to write (Rev 2:12a)9 The ﬁrst element indicates the destination of the edict and gives Jesus’ command to write to the community concerned in the second person singular. (2) τάδε λέγει formula, followed by Christological predications (Rev 2:12b) This formula introduces and authorizes the edict’s content, and the predications associate the ‘speaker’ with Jesus Christ. (3) narratio of the community’s situation (Rev 2:13–15) The edicts’ main body starts with a description of the community situation; statements about this situation are introduced with the stereotypical formulae ‘I know your works’ (2:19; 3:1, 8, 15; cf. 2:2) and ‘but I hold against you that’ (2:4, 14, 20). (4) dispositio (Rev 2:16) The second section of the edicts’ body concerns the arrangement between the ‘speaker’ and the community, which includes in most cases an incitement to repent (2:5, 16, 22; 3:3). (5) proclamatio (Rev 2:17) The concluding section has a formulaic command in the third person (‘let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying . . .’) and focuses on another divine authority, namely God’s spirit, located at the edict’s very end or in penultima position.10

7 The formula is repeated in 4:2; 17:3 and 21:10. The Book of Ezekiel especially links prophetic revelation to the spirit of God (e.g. Ezek 40:1–2); F.D. Mazzaferri, The Genre of the Book of Revelation from a Source-critical Perspective (BZNW 54), Berlin: De Gruyter, 1989, 103–6. 8 The brief description here closely follows the discussion of the literary form of the seven letters in Aune, Revelation, vol. 1, 119–24, who convincingly argues that the form and style of the letters corresponds in signiﬁcant ways to imperial edicts (pp. 126–9). 9 In the main text I only give the relevant references to the edict to Pergamum, see for other references footnotes 10–11. 10 See Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22.

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(6) vindicatio (Rev 2:17) The edicts’ last element offers the speaker’s promise of a reward for the victors, i.e. those who obey his commands.11 With the exception of the edict to the community of Laodicea the content of the seven letters is a mixture of praise and accusations, as well as threats and consolation: ‘In good epistolary form they begin with praise and then return to blaming or threatening’.12 The particular information embedded in the literary form of the edict about the community of Pergamum concerns a double reference to Satan’s place of residence (Rev 2:13). It also includes the acknowl- edgment that the community’s members did not deny Jesus’ faith (Rev 2:13), a ﬂashback to the days of Jesus’ witness Antipas (2:13), as well as the accusation that some were holding to the teaching of Balaam (2:14), and others to the teaching of the Nicolaitans (2:15). This brief contribution can only focus on one of the particularities of the Perga- mum edict, the accusation connected with Balaam’s teaching.13

3. The accusations concerning Balaam’s teaching

(a) The stumbling block caused by Balaam The accusation in Rev 2:14 that several members of the community of Jesus’ followers, at Pergamum, were clinging to Balaam’s teaching clearly presupposes a negative image of Balaam. This matches the main features of the Balaam traditions in early Judaism that constructs the seer as a wicked person who causes the Israelites to sin.14 However, the Greek vocabulary of Rev 2:14 that characterizes Balaam’s instruction for Balak, putting a stumbling block before the Israelites (βαλεῖν

11 Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 26–27; 3:5, 12, 21. See also Rev 13:10; 14:12. Rev 21:7 identi- ﬁes the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem as ‘victors’ and 21:27 as the ones whose names are written in the Book of Life (see also Rev 3:5). Their reward is also indicated by allusions to the Paradise stories of Gen 2–3 (Rev 22:14). 12 S. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Library of Early Christianity 5), Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1989, 81. 13 C.J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in their Local Setting ( JSNTSup 11), Shefﬁeld: JSOT Press, 1989, 87–94, discusses possible connections between Balaam’s group and the Nicolaitans. 14 G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic Studies (Studia Postbiblica 4), Leiden: Brill, 1961, 127–77. See also the contributions of Van Ruiten, García Martínez, Tigchelaar and Houtman & Sysling in this volume.

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σκάνδαλον ἐνώπιον τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραηλ), is without parallels in the New Testament, the Septuagint as well as in other early Jewish literature.15 It is even missing in Josephus, who devotes a large section to Balaam; his word count is 2.21 times greater than the source-text in Numbers.16 In the Septuagint σκάνδαλον mostly renders Hebrew mokesh ‘trap’ ( Judg 2:3; 8:27; 1 Sam 18:21; Ps 69:22; 106:36; 140:5; 141:9) or mikhshol ‘stumbling block’ (Lev 19:14; 1 Sam 25:31; Ps 119:165). Revelation’s formula βαλεῖν σκάνδαλον might go back to a Hebrew phrase with mikhshol, which is sometimes preceded by the verb natan. Mokesh usually goes with a construction haya l in the Hebrew Bible.17 However, the content of Rev 2:14 strongly suggests that the stumbling block caused by Balaam derives from a well-known episode in Jewish Scripture, as is the case with the rather similar accusation concerning Jezebel in the edict for the community in Thyatira (Rev 2:20).18 Balaam and Balak are biblical names for non-Israelites and both characters can be found together with the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible in Numbers 22–24.19 It is likely that Revelation alludes to the Balaam episodes in this section of Numbers, in particular to the advice that Balaam offers to Balak just before his departure (Num 24:14). John, the author of Revelation, seems to have considerably re- interpreted the content of his source-text in Numbers. Firstly, he appears to have combined Balaam’s advice to Balak as mentioned in Num 24:14, ‘let me advise you what this people will do to your people in days to come’, with Num 31:16, ‘These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the Israelites’. Rev 2:14 clearly connects the accusation concerning

15 On the other hand, there are signiﬁcant repetitions of the vocabulary in the accusations concerning Balaam (2:14), the Nicolaitans (2:6, 15) and Jezebel (2:20) within Revelation: ἔχω κατὰ σοῦ . . . (2:14; 2:20); τοῦτο ἔχεις / ὅτι ἔχεις . . . οὕτως ἔχεις . . . (2:6, 14–15); διδαχή / διδάσκω (2:14, 15, 20); φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα καὶ πορνεῦσαι / πορνεῦσαι καὶ φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα (2:14, 20). 16 L.H. Feldman, ‘Josephus’ Portrait of Balaam’, Studia Philonica Annual 5 (1993) 48–83, esp. 49. 17 HAL vol. 2, 530 and 551. Although the most common use of moqesh goes with haya l, occasional combinations of moqesh or mikhshol as object with natan do occur: e.g. Prov 29:25; Lev 19:14; Ezek 3:20; 14:3. 18 Jezebel, king Ahab’s spouse, was famous for her veneration of Baal and persecution of Israel’s prophets (1 Kgs 18:4; 19:1–3). 2 Kgs 9:30–37 describes her gruesome death— she was thrown out of the window by Jehu and her body was devoured by dogs. 19 Other brief references are Deut 23:5–6; Josh 13:22; 24:9–10; Judg 11:25; Mic 6:5; Neh 13:2. See the contribution of Noort in this volume.

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Balaam’s teaching with fornication. Secondly, in line with other early Jewish passages that build on Num 24:14, John has changed the verse’s original meaning into its opposite. Revelation’s rendering of it implies an attack on the Israelites by the Moabites/Midianites. Revelation, therefore, re-interprets Num 24:14 along the following lines: ‘let me [Balaam] advise you [Balak] what your people [Moab] will do to this people [Israel] in days to come’.20 Thirdly, when Balaam’s advice to Balak is interpreted through the lens of Num 31:16 (which again mentions Balaam’s advice), it appears to assume a connection between the texts. It presupposes that the brief episode of the Israelites’ fornication and idolatry at Baal-Peor, described in Num 25:1–6, is incorporated in the Balaam-Balak episode briefly paraphrased in Revelation.21 This conclusion is supported by the continuation of the accusation against Balaam in Rev 2:14, which hints at Num 25:1–2 with its references to food sacrificed to idols and fornication.22 Num 25:1–2 mentions both: ‘While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. These invited the people to sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods’ (my italics). It is, of course, impossible to reconstruct the exegetical process that resulted in this re-reading of Numbers in Rev 2:14. However, John’s combination of Numbers 22–24 with Numbers 25, which seems to be presupposed in Rev 2:14, may have partly been triggered by several pieces of information in the Hebrew text of Numbers:

20 Likewise: Num 24:14 in the Vulgate (dabo consilium quid populus tuus huic populo faciat extremo tempore) and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. This reading is presupposed in Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae 4.126–130, Philo, De vita Mosis 1.295–299, and Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 18:13. These passages offer the content of Balaam’s advice: seduction of the young Israelites by the most beautiful girls from Moab/Midian in order to make them commit idolatry. See the contribution of Van Ruiten in this volume. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition, 162: ‘Jewish tradition presents him as advising the king how to outwit the Israelites by inducing them to sin against God, and the verb xi{atsekha is interpreted in that sense.’ This interpretation implies that the verbal form xi{atsekha is not derived from the root yud-ayin-tsade ‘advise, counsel’ (HAL vol. 2, 403; DCH vol. 4, 245–6), or ‘give an oracle’ (L. Ruppert, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 3, 720–1), but from the root ayin-waw-tsade, ‘give (wicked) advice’, M. Yastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, 2 vols, New York: Pardes, 1950, 1056. 21 Vermes, Scripture and Tradition, 175, argues that the negative portrait of Balaam derives from the P supplement to the Balaam materials in Numbers 31 that refers both to Balaam’s death by the Israelites (31:8) as well as to his advice to the Moabite/ Midianite women (31:16). 22 Aune, Revelation, vol. 1, 193.

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(1) The similarity of the names Beor, Pethor and Peor may have caused their association with each other, for example by al tiqre-exegesis: Num 22:5 introduces Balaam as ‘son of Beor at Pethor’, while Num 23:28 and 25:3, 5, 18 (twice) refer to Peor.23 This would imply that Numbers 25 belonged to the episode about Balaam and Balak. (2) Numbers 22–24 and 25 are basically set in the same geographical location: the geographical setting of Numbers 25 is Shittim (full name, Abel-shittim, Num 25:1), which was located in the Moabite plains (Num 33:49). Israel stayed in these plains from Num 22:1 onward. (3) The ﬂashback in Num 31:16 explicitly combines Balaam’s advice with the acts of the women at Baal-Peor.24

Flavius Josephus shows that the re-interpretation of Numbers 22–25 in Revelation was not exceptional in post-biblical Jewish literature. Josephus’ elaborate passage about Balaam offers a signiﬁcant parallel to the brief reference in Rev 2:14. Josephus takes the coherence of Numbers 22–24 and 25 for granted. He blames Balaam for suggesting, just before his departure, that the Moabite/Midianite princes should instruct their women to seduce the Israelite youths and make them worship the Midianite/Moabite deities (Antiquitates Judaicae 4.126–130).25 Josephus extensively elaborates the seduction of the Israelite males by the Moabite/Midianite women (Antiquitates Judaicae 4.131–164).26

23 For Balaam’s introduction in Num 22:5 MT see Noort ’s contribution in this volume. 24 J.T. Greene, Balaam and His Interpreters: A Hermeneutical History of the Balaam Traditions (BJS 244), Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1992, 73–4, argues that the death of Balaam according to Num 31:8 implies that he was one of the enemy’s priestly kings, which puts the preceding sections in a negative light. The reason for this would be Balaam’s function as a code for outside sacerdotal types that combined the characteristics of priests, prophets, magicians and diviners and were perceived as the opponents of the circle responsible for the Priestly Codex. 25 Feldman, ‘Josephus’ Portrait of Balaam’, 80. Cf. b.Sanh. 106a. S. Rappaport, Agada und Exegese bei Flavius Josephus, Wien: Verlag der Alexander Kohut Memorial Foundation, 1930, 38 with footnote 180 (p. 126). 26 W.C. van Unnik, ‘Josephus’ Account of the Story of Israel’s Sin with Alien Women in the Country of Midian (Num.25:1ff.),’ in: M.S.H.G. Heerma van Voss (ed.), Travels in the World of the Old Testament: Studies Presented to Professor M.A. Beek, Assen: Van Gorcum, 1974, 241–61. Feldman, ‘Josephus’ Portrait of Balaam’, 67; 80–81.

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(b) Two charges against those who cling to Balaam’s teaching How should we interpret Rev 2:14’s two charges against those amongst Jesus’ believers, in Pergamum, who cling to Balaam’s teaching? Revela- tion’s readers in the ﬁrst centuries ce will probably have interpreted the charge of the consumption of idol food (φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα) literally (see below).

(i) The charge of fornication The accusation of fornication (πορνεῦσαι), however, might have made sense to them in the context of a literal reading as well as in a metaphorical interpretation, if they associated the text with its source-text in Numbers.27 Num 25:1–2 indicates three condemnable practices: (1) sexual relationships (liznot; LXX ἐκπορνεῦσαι) with non-Israelite women; (2) idolatry by participation in the sacriﬁces of the Moabite gods and veneration of these gods (wayyishttahawwu lelohehen); and (3) transgression of the food laws because of the consumption of contaminated food, i.e. food sacriﬁced or offered ritually to Baal Peor (wayyokhal ha-am; LXX ἔφαγεν ὁ λαὸς τῶν θυσιῶν αὐτῶν).28 Sexual relationships with non-Israelite women were by themselves not uncommon. There are many cases of such relationships in the Hebrew Bible. In later periods, readers may have linked these relationships with objections to, or even a ban on, mixed marriages, as Josephus’ discussion of the episode in Numbers 25 shows.29 However, the immediate context and the choice of the verb zanah in Num 25:1 suggest a negative assessment of these sexual relationships.30

27 R.M. Royalty, The Streets of Heaven: The Ideology of Wealth in the Apocalypse of John, Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1998, 32–3, as well as B. Rossing, The Choice between Two Cities: Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse, Harrisburg, Penns.: Trinity Press International, 1999, 69, consider a metaphorical meaning more probable. 28 Greene, Balaam, 73. 29 C. Hayes, ‘Intermarriage and Impurity in Ancient Jewish Sources’, Harvard Theological Review 92 (1999), 3–36. Neh 13:1–3 calls, with an allusion to the Balaam episode, for a separation from Ammonites and Moabites. This is also an issue in Josephus (Antiquitates Judaicae 4.132, 135, 145–149); Feldman, ‘Josephus’ Portrait of Balaam’, 77–8, who notes a similar focus concerning Samson’s relationships with non-Israelite women ( Judg 14:1–16:3; Antiquitates Judaicae 5.286–317). 30 The root zanah (in LXX usually rendered by πορνεύω or ἐκπορνεύω) frequently has a depreciating connotation in the Hebrew Bible and refers to prostitution or fornication, HAL vol. 1, 263–4; DCH vol. 3, 121–2; A. Brenner, The Intercourse of Knowledge: On Gendering Desire and ‘Sexuality’ in the Hebrew Bible, Leiden: Brill, 1997, 147–51. See further the discussion by Noort in this volume.

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The Hebrew text of Numbers 25 deals with two kinds of fornication. Firstly, literal fornication with Moabite/Midianite women; and secondly, the symbolical fornication with the Israelites’ veneration of Moabite gods. In prophetic passages of the Hebrew Bible, also attested in Qumran documents, zanah frequently has a metaphorical meaning pointing at Israel, or Judah, turning away from God and venerating other deities.31 Later Hebrew Bible passages that express a view based on deuteronomistic theology also indicate such an attitude with stereotypical formulae condemning the people’s prostitution to other gods.32 One of these passages, Exod 34:15–16, shares a double, i.e. literal and metaphorical, meaning of fornication with Num 25:1–2. It also associates Israel’s idolatry with the consumption of idol food: You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods (wezanu ahare elohehem) and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice. And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods (my italics). In the light of Exod 34:15–16 and Num 25:1–2, the charge of fornication in Rev 2:14 may, in fact, be taken as a triple warning to stay away stricto sensu from non-Jews. This means not engaging in any sexual relationships with them, through marriage or otherwise,33 and radically abstaining from any involvement with other deities, because this could easily lead to corruption by eating food sacrificed to these deities. Other passages in Revelation confirm that πορνεία is a complex issue in this book. The passages seem to hint at fornication with a metaphorical meaning (Rev 2:20–21; 9:21; 14:8; 17:2, 4; 18:3, 9; 19:2). Πορνεία is a key phrase in Revelation’s vision about the judgment of the whore Babylon. Rev 18:2–3 reads: Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul bird, a haunt of every foul and hateful beast. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication (ἐκ τοῦ οἴνου τοῦ θυμοῦ τῆς πορνείας

31 J. Kühlewein, ‘znh huren’, Theologisches Handwörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 1, 519–20. S. Erlandsson, ‘znh zanah’, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 2, 612–9. 32 Exod 34:15–6; Deut 31:16; Judg 2:17; 8:27, 33. 33 M. Simon, ‘The Apostolic Decree and its Setting in the Ancient Church’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 52 (1970), 437–60, esp. 451–2.

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αὐτῆς πέπωκαν), and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her (μετ᾽ αὐτῆς ἐπόρνευσαν), and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury. The poly-interpretability of the symbolism of the woman Babylon’s fornication has a cogent foundation. The symbolism clearly alludes to corruption resulting from the engagement in the abominable practices of a foreign metropolis. This corruption is comparable in its negative impact to what the Babylonian empire did to the people of God.34 The vision announces the ruin of this woman in evocative terms. Rev 18:2 can be read as a prophecy that the city will become a devastated ruin, a dwelling place for wild animals, in line with the prophecies in Isa 13:21–22 and Jer 51:37. Yet, it is also possible to translate the triple ἀκάθαρτος in this passage as ‘unclean’ instead of ‘foul’ (see NRSV). In that case the verse offers another motivation for ‘Babylon’s’ ruin, namely that the place functions as a huge depot of animals that are unclean according to Jewish religion. Even a third reading is imaginable if we focus on the last part of 18:3, by associating fornication with brutal trade practices and exploitation. We can then read it against the background of a prophetic passage like Isa 23:17–18, which uses the imagery of prostitution to criticize the trade practices of the city of Tyre.35 The counterpart of the woman Babylon’s wine of fornication, the wine or cup of God’s wrath, indicates her fate (Rev 14:10; 16:19; 18:6). She is included in the judgment described in Revelation 14 (14:8) for all those who carry the mark of the ﬁrst beast on their forehead or their right hand (14:9–11; cf. 13:16; 16:2). This refers to all the disobedient persons who corrupt themselves by siding with this beast. The divine wrath over Babylon is announced with the imagery of God’s cup of wrath, building on Hebrew Bible prophecies of doom.36 Jeremiah 51 not only prophesises that Babylon would be a cup in the hand of God and seduce and make drunk the entire world (51:7), but also that Babylon itself would fall because of God’s intervention ( Jer 51:8–10; cf. Isa 21:9). Revelation 18 describes this fall, along with its economic consequences, with a repetition of the cup imagery: the woman’s judg-

34 See for readings of Rev 17–18 as a critique of Rome Rossing, Choice between Two Cities, 6–9 and 61–133. 35 See especially R. Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993, 338–83; Royalty, Streets of Heaven, 59–71 and 177–210; Rossing, Choice between Two Cities, 8–9, 70–1 and 130–3. 36 Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15, 17, 28; 51:7–8; Hab 2:16; Pss 11:6, 75:8.

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ment is, as it were, poured over her as though God is emptying his cup of wrath (Rev 18:6, anticipated by 14:10 and 16:19). In short, the accusation of fornication in Rev 2:14 can be interpreted in a literal as well as a symbolic way. This depends partly on whether we read the passage from the perspective of its source-text in Numbers or in line with other passages in Revelation about fornication. The basic message of the charge of fornication in Rev 2:14 seems to be quite clear, despite its poly-interpretability. It calls for a radical abstention of foreign culture, whether this is exempliﬁed by sexual relationships with foreign women, veneration of foreign deities, corruption through foreign political power symbolized by a harlot representing a metropolis and, perhaps, also its foreign economic transactions, or all of these. The other charge in Rev 2:14 (φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘partaking of meats offered to idols’ could, therefore, just be an illustration of such corruptions.

(ii) The charge of idol food The phrase εἰδωλόθυτον (-ς) is a hapax legomenon in the Septuagint and probably a Jewish(-Christian) neologism from the first century ce as an attempt to find an alternative phrase for ἱερόθυτα ‘sacrifices’, ‘meats offered to gods’ (cf. 1 Cor 10:28).37 The oldest occurrences are from the New Testament, but the phrase is also found in Justin Martyr, a Christian interpolation in Pseudo-Phocylides (Sententiae 31),38 4 Macc 5:2 and the Martyrdom of Pionius. There is no evidence that Jews were forced to eat idol food by the Romans in the first two centuries ce. The reference in 4 Maccabees to idol food may therefore be interpreted as an identity marker pointing to the need to observe the Jewish food laws, as I have argued elsewhere.39 Not until Decius’ decree from the Spring of 250 ce were all free inhabitants of the empire compelled to sacrifice to the gods, pour a libation and eat some sacrificial meat.40

37 Cf. Martyrium Agapae 3.1–5 (ἱερόθυτον ἔσθίω); 5.2 (ἱερόθυτον ἔσθίω καὶ θύω). 38 1 Cor 8:1, 4, 7, 10; 10:19; Acts 15:29; 21:25; Rev 2:14, 20; Didache 6:3; Justinus, Dialogus cum Tryphone 34.8; 35.1, 6. P.W. van der Horst, The Sentences of Pseudo-Phocylides with Introduction and Commentary (SVTP 4), Leiden: Brill, 1978, 135–6. 39 J.W. van Henten, ‘Martyrdom and Persecution Revisited’, in: W. Ameling (ed.), Märtyrer und Märtyrerakten (Altertumswissenschaftliches Kolloquium 6), Wiesbaden/ Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002, 59–75. 40 Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica 6.41. W.H.C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of a Conﬂict from the Maccabees to Donatus, Oxford: Blackwell, 1965. Repr. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981, 406–10.

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The famous libelli, certificates that a person has sacrificed, are the result of this decree. Thus, there is no need to presuppose a context of persecution for the charge of φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα in Revelation, which dates, of course, from before Decius’ decree. In fact, it was common practice for non-Jews during the early empire to sell meat sacrificed to gods at the marketplace or to eat it afterwards during a banquet, a meeting of an association of artisans or a gathering connected with a civic cult. David Aune lists four possible contexts for eating sacrificial meat in the early Imperial Age:

(1) participation in a sacral meal in a temple; (2) acceptance of sacriﬁcial meat distributed during a public religious festival; (3) eating meat purchased at the market-place, e.g. at home; (4) sharing a sacral meal with the members of a club or association.41

The third and fourth options seem to be particularly plausible possibilities in the multi-cultural urban milieu of Roman Asia in which Jews and Jesus’ followers lived. The implication of the accusation of the communities in Pergamum and Thyatira (Rev 2:14, 20) could be that common practices concerning sacriﬁcial meat were considered unacceptable for community members. Participation in one of these practices would, in that case, have implied that the person involved became an outsider who was committing fornication, i.e. ‘whoring after other deities’ by his or her willingness to make compromises for a smooth interaction with the non-Jewish outside world.42

41 Aune, Revelation, vol. 1, 186. See further F. Büchsel, ‘εἴδωλον κτλ.’, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 2, 378–9; H. Hübner, ‘εἴδωλον κτλ.’, Exegetisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament, vol. 1, 936–41; J. Lust, E. Eynikel & K. Hauspie, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1992–96, vol. 1, 130; H.-J. Klauck, Herrenmahl und hellenistischer Kult: Eine religionsgeschichtliche Unter- suchung zum ersten Korintherbrief (NTAbh NF 15), 2nd edn., Münster: Aschendorff, 1986, 241–9 and 277, with references. 42 Aune, Revelation, vol. 1, 186–7 and 191–4; cf. J.W. Marshall, Parables of War: Reading John’s Jewish Apocalypse (Studies in Christianity and Judaism/Études sur le christianisme et le judaïsme), Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001. About Revelation as a Jewish work, see Marshall; also J.W. van Henten, ‘Anti- Judaism in Revelation? A Response to Peter Tomson’, in: R. Bieringer, D. Pollefeyt & F. Vandecasteele-Vanneuville (eds), Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel ( Jewish and Christian Heritage Series 1), Assen: Van Gorcum, 2001, 111–25.

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Apparently, John the prophet advocated a radical abstinence of those aspects of Gentile culture that conflicted with his view of the proper Jewish way of life.43 This scenario about group boundaries connected with food sacrificed to idols in a Jewish context is confirmed by a passage in Tosefta Hullin 2:13. It shows that at least some Jews participated in Gentile cultic practices concerning sacrificial meat in Caesarea Maritima in the second century ce and that Jewish sages did not object to it: A. He who slaughters a beast [intending] to toss its blood for the purposes of idolatry and to burn its fat for the purpose of idolatry, B. lo, this is meat of the sacrifices of corpses [Mishna Hullin 2:7c]. C. If after one slaughtered it, he tossed its blood for the purposes of idolatry or burned its fat for the purposes of idolatry, D. lo, this was an actual case in Caesarea. E. So they came and asked sages, who did not rule either to prohibit or to permit [the meat].44 Josephus’ rendering of the episode at Baal Peor perhaps also implies, when one reads between the lines, that Numbers 25 triggered discussions about the proper ethnic and cultural boundaries for the people of Israel. Antiquities 4.137 notes an observation by the Moabite/Midianite women that the customs of the Israelites are very different (ἀλλοτριώτατα) from those of other humans, their food is peculiar (ἰδιοτρόπους), and their drinks again different from those of other humans.45 One can combine this observation with the transgression of the ancestral laws at Baal Peor by the Israelite youth highlighted by Josephus. The implication would be that fornication, whether in the literal or in the metaphorical sense,

43 Paul’s discussion of the eating of sacriﬁcial meat in 1 Corinthians 8–10 focuses upon insiders. He argues for unity of the Corinthian community and solidarity among its members. See, e.g., the discussions of P.J. Tomson, Paul and the Jewish Law: Halakha in the Letters of the Apostle to the Gentiles (CRINT 3.1), Assen: Van Gorcum/Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990, 151–220; M.M. Mitchell, Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation: An Exegetical Investigation of the Language and Composition of 1 Corinthians, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck/Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992, 126–49; 237–58; C. Heil, Die Ablehnung der Speisegebote durch Paulus: Zur Frage nach der Stellung des Apostels zum Gesetz (Bonner Biblische Beiträge 96), Bonn: Beltz/Athenäum, 1994, 177–235. 44 Trans. J. Neusner, The Tosefta Translated from the Hebrew: Fifth Division Qodoshim (The Order of Holy Things), New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1979, 72. L.I. Levine, Caesarea under Roman Rule (Studies in Late Antiquity 7), Leiden: Brill, 1975, 45 and 72, discusses this passage and notes that when this question arose there was apparently no rabbinic authority in the city to solve it. 45 That Balaam, as a non-Jew, spoke on behalf of God formed a dilemma for Josephus in the opinion of Feldman, ‘Josephus’ Portrait of Balaam’, 50.

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as well as transgressions of the food laws are strictly forbidden for Jews who did not want to step outside the Jewish community.

4. Three Avenues for Contextualising Rev 2:14

The preceding sections have dealt with the interconnections between Rev 2:14 and its source-texts in Numbers as well as the interpretations of the two charges against Balaam as far as can be elucidated from relevant parallel passages. More concrete interpretations of the charges require that the rather general phrases of the accusation be contextualised in a specific situation for the author’s community, which is by necessity a rather subjective enterprise and further complicated by symbolic language permeating through the book. Recent studies into Revelation have proposed at least three possible avenues for contextualising the Balaam passage in Rev 2:14. First, several scholars have suggested that the passage should be connected with the Apostolic decree, and as a consequence with the status of ‘Gentile Christians’ within the community.46 David Aune offers the following comment on our passage: There appears to be a close connection between the two prohibitions mentioned in this verse (and Rev 2:20) and the apostolic decree in Acts 15, for only in Acts 15:20 [. . .], 29; 21:25; Rev 2:14, 20 are the notions of πορνεία and εἰδωλόθυτος closely connected . . . The list of prohibitions promulgated by the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 reflects the tradition of the Noachide Laws . . .47 The Noachide Laws, the pre-Sinai laws for Jews and Gentiles alike, include the abstention from meat sacrificed to idols and fornication,48 which are both mentioned in Rev 2:14, 20. The implication of this reading is that Rev 2:14, 20, analogous to Acts 15:20, 29, would concern the halakhic status of Gentile followers of Jesus, which I prefer to Aune’s term ‘Gentile Christians’. David Flusser and Huub van de Sandt make a similar suggestion in connection to their discussion of Didache

46 E.g. Simon, ‘The Apostolic Decree’, 439, 442–5; H. van de Sandt & D. Flusser, The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity (CRINT III.5), Assen/Minneapolis: Royal Van Gorcum/Fortress Press, 2002, 238–9; 245; 252–5. 47 Aune, Revelation, vol. 1, 187. 48 M. Bockmuehl, ‘The Noachide Commandments and New Testament Ethics with Special Reference to Acts 15 and Pauline Halakhah’, Revue biblique 102 (1995), 72–101, esp. 94–5.

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6:2–3. This passage warns the reader against food offered to idols. In their opinion Didache 6:2–3, in its present form, relativises what was originally a rather rigorous ritual and ethical Jewish instruction. This changed the document into a manual for non-Jewish Christians who did not need to keep the Jewish food laws. The authors distinguish this tradition from the one represented by the Apostolic Decree (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25) and Rev 2:14, 20, because it aims at a compromise about Torah observance for Gentile followers of Jesus. However, the final clause of Didache 6:2–3, the warning to stay away from food offered to idols, would stem from a Jewish tradition.49 Second, there is the recent hypothesis that John W. Marshall defends in his 1997 dissertation Parables of War: Reading the Apocalypse within Judaism and during the Judean War.50 Marshall argues for an early date of Revelation, 69–70 ce, and considers it a work written for Jewish Diaspora readers in order to explain for them the Jews’ conflict with Rome and point out the war’s consequences for them. In his view Revelation provided Judaism with guidelines for its relation with Rome and Greco-Roman culture, assuming that the dividing line between in- and outsiders would concern Jews on the one hand and the Greco- Roman outside world on the other.51 The conflicting issue targeted in Rev 2:14, 20 as well as in 2:9 and 3:9 would be the eating of food, especially ‘idols-meat’, which had previously been used in the context of the veneration of pagan gods before its consumption.52 Third, one can also contextualise Rev 2:14 as one phase in an ongoing struggle of competing prophetic groups for whom the interaction with non-Jewish culture was a major issue.53 The reference to the parallel accusation concerning Jezebel as someone who called herself

49 Van de Sandt & Flusser, The Didache, 238–70. 50 See footnote 42. 51 Marshall, Parables, 88–97; 263; 266; 288. Basing themselves on reconstructions of Revelation’s setting or contextualisations that are rather different from Marshall’s reading, R.M. Royalty, Streets of Heaven, L.L. Thompson, P.B. Duff, H.O. Meier and others argue that the important issue in Revelation is how Christians should relate to Roman society and Roman culture. See the summary in Rossing, Choice between Two Cities, 9–11. 52 Marshall, Parables, 71; 181–2; 196. 53 J.T. Greene, ‘Balaam: Prophet, Diviner and Priest in Selected Ancient Israelite and Hellenistic Jewish Sources,’ SBL Annual Meeting Seminar Papers 1989, Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1989, 57–106, attempts to show that Balaam was a ﬁgure used by competing groups of priests and prophets against each other’s ideal self-concept and type-concept.

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a prophetess (2:20), Balaam’s function as a prophet in Numbers and the explicit reference to him as a prophet in 2 Pet 2:16 can be taken as clues for such a reading. The fact that both names were known in connection with famous non-Israelites may have strengthened their potential for a negative stereotyping of competing prophets and also suggest a non-Jewish origin for these prophetic leaders as John’s com- petitors. Both the introduction and conclusion of Revelation present John himself as a prophet with the proper authorization. He preaches the word of God in the tradition of the prophets of Israel (Rev 1:2, 9; 6:9; 19:13; 20:4; cf. Zech 1:1). Revelation’s conclusion calls his work literally a prophecy (22:6–10, 18; cf. 1:3; 10:11). In Rev 22:6 the angel refers to God, in his explanation to John, as the God of the spirits of the prophets as well as to what is revealed to John. This invites the reader to consider John a prophet as well. The associations triggered by the names of Balaam and Jezebel strongly disqualify those who adhere to the teachings of the prophetic leaders who are hidden behind these negative symbolic names. Balaam’s reputation does not need further elaboration here, and Jezebel hardly needs an explanation either. She was known as the queen who venerated Baal and persecuted Israel’s prophets (1 Kgs 18:4; 19:1–3). Her well-known gruesome death (2 Kgs 9:30–37) must have been taken as a powerful warning by the early readers of Revelation.

5. Conclusion

The accusation that some members adhered to Balaam’s teaching, introduced with the stereotypical formula ‘but I hold against you that’ (cf. Rev 2:4, 20), is part of the description of the community situation in Jesus’ edict for his followers at Pergamum. However, actual information about this situation is missing. The meaning of the symbolic reference to Balaam can, therefore, only be based upon the associations that the name of Balaam and the issues of the accusation may have evoked among its early readers. John’s use of Num 24:14; 25:1–6 and 31:16 as source-texts in Rev 2:14, as well as parallel passages, including Josephus’ elaborate passage about Balaam in the Jewish Antiquities, suggest that the accusation may concern three charges. These charges are (1) fornication, i.e. sexual relationships with non-Jewish women; (2) idolatry, i.e. fornication in a metaphorical sense; and (3) transgression of the Jewish food laws because of a contamination by food that had

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possibly functioned in a non-Jewish religious context. Other passages in Revelation show that πορνεία ‘fornication’ in a symbolical meaning can also denounce excessive political power or exploitation by economic transactions. The charge of consuming idol food (φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα) should probably be taken in a literal sense, and may point to strict boundaries for interactions with non-Jewish culture. Unfortunately, the data in Rev 2:14 do not provide enough information for reconstruct- ing the community situation, for which these charges may have been relevant. Tentatively, however, three avenues for contextualising Rev 2:14 in Roman Asia between 66–70 and 150 could be indicated, by following various hypotheses. Which avenue appeals most to the reader probably depends largely on his or her interpretation of other passages in Revelation. Yet, there cannot be any doubt about the verdict for followers of the prophet called Balaam in Rev 2:14: if they do not reject his teaching and repent, Jesus Christ will appear soon and wage war with them with the sword of his mouth (2:16). With this announcement the edict to the community of Pergamum refers to its beginning in 2:12 with a clear inclusio.

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Tord Fornberg

1. Balaam in Jude and 2 Peter

The Letter of Jude only briefly refers to Balaam.1 The very short note in verse 11 mentions him as follows: ‘they . . . abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain’.2 His name occurs in a combination of three frightening examples of sinners from times long ago: Cain, Balaam and Korah (cf. Tosefta Sotah 4:19).3 The false teachers attacked by the author of Jude are presumed to show the same qualities as these three sinners in the past history of humanity. Cain (Genesis 4) was often described as an Epicurean,4 an atheist or at least as one who denied the existence of divine justice, for we are never told why God did not accept his sacrifice. Balaam is singled out as someone who did not preach his message because he honestly believed in it, but because of greed, saying what people wanted to hear and thus were prepared to pay him for saying. Korah (Numbers 16), finally, rebelled against God’s servant Moses and perished suddenly and unexpectedly when the earth swallowed up him and his two companions Dathan and Abiram. There is a broad consensus today that the author of 2 Peter5 had access to the letter of Jude and used that letter extensively when he

1 On Balaam and his reception history see, e.g., L. Schmidt, ‘Bileam I. Altes Testament’, in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie 6 (Berlin/New York 1980), 635–9; P. Schäfer, ‘Bileam II. Judentum’, in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie 6 (Berlin/New York 1980), 639–40; many authors, ‘Balaam’, in: Encyclopaedia Judaica 4 ( Jerusalem 1971), 120–4; H. Karpp, ‘Bileam,’ in: Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 2 (Stuttgart 1954), 362–74; and G. Vermes, Scripture and Tradition, Leiden 1961, 127–77. 2 Biblical texts are quoted according to The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, New York/Oxford 1989. 3 E.g., R. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, Waco 1983, 78–84. 4 J.H. Neyrey, ‘The Form and Background of the Polemic in 2 Peter’, Journal of Biblical Literature 99 (1980) 407–31. 5 R. Bauckham, ‘2 Peter: An Account of Research’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.25.5 (Berlin/New York 1988), 3713–52 summarizes the history of research of the letter.

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addressed his own readers,6 and I will take for granted in what follows that this is the case. We see at once that 2 Peter has added the well- known episode with Balaam’s speaking donkey in 2:16. In that way he downplayed even more Balaam’s prophetic gifts, a donkey being far superior. Cain and Korah have both disappeared, and we may guess that Balaam has now been credited also with the sins that Jude ascribed to these two figures. It is clear that at least vv. 15–16 in 2 Peter 2 deal with Balaam. The question may now be asked, if we can find Balaam hidden behind the wordings in the immediate context. Much of 2:13–14 lacks parallels in Jude and is thus added by our author. There we may find additional material alluding to Balaam, if not the Balaam of the Bible so the Balaam of later tradition. I propose that already the expression ‘irrational animals’ (aloga zōia) at the beginning of 2:12 is such an allusion to Balaam and his donkey. Consequently, I will argue that 2:12–16 as a whole centre on the figure of Balaam (see §2) and show us how this enigmatic figure functions as a typos pointing forward to the heretics in the church. We may add the introductory description of the false prophets in 2 Pet 2:1–3. While this passage has several words in common with Jude 4, others are special material, certainly phrased by the author himself. It seems to be worthwhile to examine this passage to find possible allusions to the Balaam story (see §3). In addition, the passage 2 Pet 1:19–21 about prophecy and its inspiration and interpretation is thematically relevant for our study. The prophecy about the ‘morning star’ ( fōsforos) was confirmed for Peter when he experienced how Jesus was transfigured on ‘the holy mountain’ (2 Pet 1:16–18).7 It has been proposed that the word ‘morning star’ points back to Balaam’s words that ‘a star shall come out of Jacob’ (Num 24:17).8 If so, the picture painted of Balaam in our text is not totally dark (as it was in Jude); he was inspired by God when he spoke about the star. Then, but that is another matter, he fell victim to his greed, and was killed like the ‘irrational animals’.

6 T. Fornberg, An Early Church in a Pluralistic Society: A Study of 2 Peter, Lund 1977; J. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, New York 1993; and R. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter. See also T. Callan, ‘Use of the Letter of Jude by the Second Letter of Peter’, Biblica 85 (2004) 42–64. 7 See J.H. Neyrey, ‘The Apologetic Use of the Transﬁguration in 2 Peter 1:16–21’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 42 (1980) 504–19. 8 E.g., Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, 226.

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What has been hinted at thus far will now be exposed in more detail, and hopefully I can show or at least make it credible that the narrative of Balaam has inﬂuenced the author of 2 Peter heavily.

2. Balaam in 2 Peter 2:12–16

(a) Explicit reference to Balaam in 2 Pet 2:15–16 I take my point of departure in 2 Pet 2:15–16, where things are evident and Balaam is even mentioned by name. (15) They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong, (16) but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. The author starts by combining what was said about Cain and Balaam in his source in Jude 11. While Jude mentions ‘the way of Cain’, our author drops Cain and puts Balaam in his place. Maybe he was influenced by Num 22:32, where God says to Balaam: ‘[ Y ]our way is perverse before me’. The change in meaning is not very great. Cain and Balaam are two interchangeable examples of grave sinners, and it may be less important that Cain was often associated with atheism in addition to his other sins. One may also compare with Acts 13:10, where we read how Paul addressed an audience in Cyprus and accused the magician Elymas for ‘making crooked the straight paths of the Lord’. But already the fact that our author starts with a phrase used about Cain in his source and readdresses that phrase to Balaam shows us that he was prepared to take expressions used about other figures and use them secondarily about Balaam. The statement that they ‘have gone astray’ ( planasthai ) rephrases Jude’s statement about Balaam’s error ( planē ) and exemplifies the freedom with which he rewrote his sources. The name of Balaam’s father is said to be Bosor, not Beor as it is in all other traditions including manuscript Vaticanus of our text.9 This is probably to be read as an allusion to the sexual licentiousness of Balaam, not the Balaam who refused to obey Balak (Numbers 22–24)

9 Most scholars seem to argue for the reading Bosor, e.g., B.M. Metzger (ed.), A Textual Commentary on the New Testament, London/New York 19713.

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but the Balaam of Baal of Peor, the Balaam who enticed the Israelites to share sacriﬁcial meals and have sexual intercourse with Midianite/ Moabite women (Numbers 25 and Num 31:1–20), thus allowing their ‘ﬂesh’ (Hebrew basar) to follow its lusts. The author seems to refer to this event later in 2:18, where he writes about the heretics who follow Balaam that ‘they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error’.

(b) Allusions to Balaam in 2 Pet 2:18 When we leave the two verses of 2:15–16, we leave the passage that deals explicitly with Balaam. At least on the surface there is nothing about him in what follows, neither is there anything about Balaam in the parallel verses in Jude 12–16. But the allusion made in 2:18 to Balaam as a man of ‘flesh’ points to the possibility that this passage may hide more allusions to him. Thus, after having compared the heretics with ‘waterless springs and mists driven by a storm’ (inspired by Jude 12), the author once again describes the behaviour of the heretics in a polemical way partly quoted above: ‘For they speak ( phthenggesthai ) bombastic nonsense (mataiotēs), and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice (deleazein) people who . . .’. The beginning of this passage contains three words which may allude to Balaam: (1) ‘To speak’, Greek: phthenggesthai, here and in 2:16 about Balaam’s donkey. It occurs also in Acts 4:18 and 15 times in the LXX. (2) ‘To entice’, Greek: deleazein, here and in 2:14, both times possibly about Balaam. It occurs also in Jas 1:14 but never in the LXX. (3) ‘Nonsense’, Greek: mataiotēs (also in Rom 8:20 and Eph 4:17). The word occurs frequently in the Psalms and especially in Qohelet. It is striking that the two infrequent words phthenggesthai and deleazein, used in the context, are repeated here. It is difficult to evade a suspi- cion that the figure of Balaam is still lurking in the thoughts of the author. The third word, ‘nonsense’ (mataiotēs), is less striking, but it may be worth noting that Philo several times accused Balaam for being ‘impious’ (mataios). Especially important is De confusione linguarum 159: ‘Balaam means impious’ (mataios hermēneuetai Balaam).10 If the author of

10 Vermes, Scripture, 128–9.

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2 Peter was thoroughly at home in the Greco-Roman world at large,11 Philo’s interpretation of the name Balaam strengthens the possibility that our author wrote about Balaam in 2:18 even if he did not mention him by name. While he certainly mentions other negatively laden ﬁgures as well, such as ‘the angels’ in Genesis 6, Noah’s contemporaries in Genesis 6–8, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 and, once again, ‘angels’ (this time a vague reference to Jewish pseudepigraphical literature), it was Balaam who served as the real archetype of a sinner.

(c) Allusions to Balaam in 2 Pet 2:12–14 We will now turn our attention to the passage that precedes 2:15–16, i.e. vv. 12–14, and here we will ﬁnd a number of possible allusions to Balaam. If he were not mentioned by name and even with the striking and unambiguous scene involving his donkey in 2:16, we would not be able to state with certainty that these verses deal with Balaam. The fact that the unambiguous mentioning of him comes only after vv. 12–14, however, does not weaken the argument. The epistle was certainly meant to be read many times in the churches of the addressees, so the allusions in vv. 12–14 were clear at least from the second reading. They can be summarized as follows. 2 Pet 2:12 is a slightly enlarged version of Jude 10 and expresses basically the same ideas as its source. However, the emphasis on destruction ( phthora) is made stronger with words of that stem used no less than three times, and it probably alludes to the tradition that Balaam ended his life by being killed by the Israelites (Num 31:8). The note that the ‘irrational animals’ (aloga zōia), mentioned already in Jude 10, are intended for destruction already from their moment of origin adds to this emphasis.12 This is certainly an allusion to Balaam’s donkey, described with the more or less synonymous expression ‘a speechless donkey’ (hypozygion aphōnon) in 2:16. The author may allude to the haggadic tradition that the spectacular animal (see also Czachesz’s paper in this volume) died immediately after having spoken her words of accusation against her owner.13

11 Fornberg, Early Church, esp. 111–46. 12 Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, 263 with references. 13 Numbers Rabbah 20:14–15, quoted in Vermes, Scripture, 139.

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In 2 Pet 2:13a the author states that the heretics are ‘suffering the penalty for doing wrong’ (misthos adikias). This is significant, since the same expression ‘doing wrong’ is used about Balaam in 2:15. The description of the heretics is thus influenced by the Balaam-tradition as this has been expressed by the author. This parallel between v. 13 and v. 15 makes it legitimate to search for other parallels, less visible but nonetheless present, once the reader has been put on the track by what is evident. 2 Pet 2:13b is heavily influenced by its source in Jude 12, but its author has rewritten that text in a way that seems to fit his situation. The opponents of both authors evidently took part (syneuōchousthai ) in the sacred meals of the readers (hai agapai hymōn, Jude 12). Thus they were evidently members of their churches. In 2 Peter their meals are instead polemically described as ‘their dissipation’ (hai apatai autōn), an evident word-play and a reference to the sacrificial feasts with sexual overtones that the Israelites fell pray to in the desert as a consequence of Balaam’s advice to King Balak (Num 25:1–5 and 31:1–12 and especially v. 16). In that way the Israelites qualified for the divine curse without Balaam having to express it at all. Finally, 2 Pet 2:14 has no background in Jude, and our author has been free to allude to the Balaam narrative without needing to rewrite any source. As we are told in Num 31:16 Balaam had advised the Midi- anites (cf. Numbers 25 about Moabite women) to tempt the Israelites with sexual pleasures (Philo, De vita Mosis 1.293–299), and there are haggadic texts telling us how unusually beautiful girls were chosen for this task.14 That may explain why the somewhat awkward word ‘adulteress’ (moichalis) was chosen for the expression that literally can be translated ‘eyes full of an adulteress’15 and not the abstract ‘adultery’ (moichalia), as could be expected. The allusion is not to fornication generally but to the irresistibly tempting character of the women who enticed the Israelite men; they had eyes for nothing but their sexuality. We may also point out the unusual word ‘entice’ (deleazein) that we find in 2:14 and later on in v. 18. There seems to be a clear connection between the two passages. Both times those who are enticed seem to be people who have recently been saved, from sin or from slavery in Egypt and who are not yet firmly established in their new state of salvation.

14 Philo, De vita Mosis 1.277. 15 Cf. Plutarch, De Vitioso Pudore 528E, referred to in Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, 266.

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It is easy to find here a reference to Balaam and his encounter with the Israelites, having recently escaped slavery in Egypt. While the accusation of greed ( pleonexia, 2:14) frequently occurs in polemical texts, it may still be relevant that Balaam was often accused of this very sin in Jewish post-Biblical traditions (Philo, De vita Mosis 1.267–268; De cherubim 33–34). This goes together with what is written in vv. 13 and 15 about Balaam’s willingness to receive ‘the wages of doing wrong’ (misthos adikias). The heretics in the church of our author are finally branded as ‘Accursed children!’ (kataras tekna, 2:14).16 This can of course be quite a normal insult hurled at any sinner. There are several parallels. It may be influenced by Jude 11, where we read about Cain, he who was cursed by God after he had killed Abel (Gen 4:11). But it is rather to be explained from the fact that the verb ‘curse’ (katarasthai ) is used as much as ten times in Numbers 22–24, the very chapters that deal with Balaam. The heretics in the church of 2 Peter, Balaam’s followers, are the ‘accursed children’ branded by our author. It may be noted, however, that Cain is mentioned cryptically in Num 24:21–22, in the last of Balaam’s four oracles: ‘the Kenite . . . your nest is set in the rock; yet Cain is destined for burning’. But a Greek-reading Jew, at home in the Septuagint, would have no difficulty to associate the expression ‘Accursed children’ with Balaam and his adherents. It is thus evident that the whole passage 2 Pet 2:12–16 can be read with Balaam as the arch-heretic attacked by the author. The author has deleted Cain and Korah and chosen to use just one figure as the dark background that explains the behaviour of his opponents. We find another example of this use of Balaam in Rev 2:14 (cf. Van Henten’s contribution to this volume), in the letter to Pergamon, a text that is fairly contemporaneous with 2 Peter. The accusations are the same: ‘Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block (skandalon) before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols ( phagein eidōlothyta) and practice fornication ( porneuein).’ No other Old Testament model is mentioned in the letter to Pergamon, and it seems that Balaam and Jezebel, who is mentioned in Rev 2:20 in the letter to Thyatira, stand out as the two pre-eminent arch-heretics in late apostolic times.

16 The word katara occurs in Num 23:25.

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3. Balaam and the false prophets in 2 Peter 2:1–3

From the passage that we have now discussed we will go back to 2 Pet 2:1–3.17 The passage in between, vv. 4–11, provides other examples of divine punishment from the Old Testament, and there are hardly any allusions to Balaam to be found there. Neither do vv. 1–3, if read alone, contain anything that unambiguously deals with Balaam. But there may be a number of hidden allusions to be found. The false prophets ( pseudoprophētai ) who spoke to the people (laos) of Israel (2:1) may very well include Balaam. We are certainly not told explicitly who these prophets were, but their appearance prefigures that of the heretics in the church. The background in Jude 5 is revealing. There Jude wrote how God saved his people (laos) from Egypt only to see them perish in the desert, a fitting description of how the Israelite soldiers except Joshua and Caleb perished (Num 26:63–65). But the way in which the heretics are described is striking. After 1:19–21 with an, as we will find, at least partly positive evaluation of Balaam (see §4 below) they are described in 2:1–3 in a way that must lead the thoughts of the reader to the very same Balaam: (1) The heretics cause a ‘swift destruction’ (tachinē apōleia) to hit them, and their destruction ‘is not asleep’ (ou nystazei ). This is to be read together with 2:12 with the repeated word ‘destruction’ ( phthora). (2) Many will follow their ‘licentious ways / desires’ (aselgeiai, 2:2), also in v. 18. The use of the compound verb exakoloutheisthai in both v. 2 and v. 15 is hardly coincidental. The ‘straight road’ (eutheia hodos) in v. 15 and ‘the way of truth’ (hē hodos tēs alētheias) in v. 2 are one and the same. In v. 15 this road is explicitly contrasted to ‘the road of Balaam’, in v. 2 to their ‘licentious ways’ (aselgeiai; also in Jude 4), a word that returns in v. 18 and also in v. 7, where it describes the sexual liberties that characterized the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, a fitting description of the horrible licentiousness the Israelites conducted at Baal Peor because of Balaam’s advice. (3) The heretics are also accused of ‘greed’ ( pleonexia), an accusation that returns in v. 14, certainly about Balaam.

17 A. Gerdmar, Rethinking the Judaism-Hellenism Dichotomy: A Historiographical Case Study of Second Peter and Jude, Stockholm 2001, 143–9 on the use of the ﬁgure of Balaam in the whole of 2 Peter 1–2.

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From this we can conclude that, read in the light of what follows, the passage 2:1–3 brings Balaam in focus.

4. Balaam—heretic par préférence or prophet

The main message that the author of our epistle wants to convey is that there will be a future apocalyptic intervention in history, with salvation for some and judgment for others, i.e. the heretics (2 Pet 3:5–13).18 This great event is summarized in the concept of the parousia of Jesus. The word as such is no technical term; it means ‘arrival’ or even ‘presence’, but it can also have the special Christian meaning of the coming of Christ, either in the Incarnation or in his second coming on the last day, the so-called parousia in a speciﬁc sense. This is certainly the case in 2 Pet 1:16 as is clear from the combination with the word ‘power’ (dynamis), the expression ‘power and coming’ being a so-called hendiadys. Reference to this cosmic and eschatological event, when the heretics who ‘have followed the way of Balaam’ (2 Pet 2:15) ‘will be disclosed’ (2 Pet 3:10) with all their deeds, sums up the use that our author makes of Balaam: he was the heretic par préférence, and he was punished accordingly, as will be the heretics of our epistle.19 But there may also be another side of the coin. Balaam is not only the typos who preﬁgures the heretics in the church of 2 Peter. He was also a prophet, who, without knowing it himself, did mediate God’s message, a message that is contained in the temporal clause ‘until the day dawns and the morning star ( fōsforos) rises (anatellein) in your hearts’ (1:19). This may refer back to the famous fourth song, sung by Balaam, when he refused to curse the Israelites but was forced to bless them instead. I quote: ‘The oracle of Balaam son of Beor . . . I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star (LXX: astron) shall come out (LXX: anatellein) of Jacob, and a sceptre (LXX: ‘human being’ [anthrōpos]) shall rise out of Israel . . .’ (Num 24:15–19). This mysterious text, however it was intended by the original author, was given a Messianic interpretation in the Septuagint, in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q175, CD 7:18–19 and 1QM 11:6–7) and in Targum Onkelos.20 It was understood in the

18 Fornberg, Early Church, 60–93. 19 See Metzger, Textual Commentary, 705–6 on the complicated text-critical situation of 2 Pet 3:10. 20 See also the papers by Beyerle and Houtman & Sysling in this volume.

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early church as referring to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, his Incarnation (cf. Nicklas’s paper in this volume). It was probably considered strange that a foreign prophet like Balaam, who did not even belong to the people of Israel, could foresee this divine intervention in history. What our author writes in 1:20–21 serves the purpose to explain this mystery. No prophecy has its starting point in the prophet himself. A true prophet is always driven by God’s spirit, thus also Balaam. The prophecies in Numbers 23–24 do not really go back to the pagan soothsayer. They have their origin in God’s spirit ( Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 4.118), and Balaam was only the mouthpiece. The transfiguration scene, spoken of in 1:16–18, has now provided the divine confirmation that Balaam’s message in v. 19, said to be ‘more fully confirmed’ (bebaioteron), really was inspired by God:21 ‘we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For . . . that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory’.22 God himself, in v. 17 called ‘the Majestic Glory’, stands out as a guarantee that Balaam’s words about the coming Mes- siah were true. But Balaam did not realize this truth himself; he was only the instrument whom God had chosen to use in order to convey his message to the people. Then, tragically, he fell in sin and instigated the Moabites how they should make the Israelites leave their God and as a consequence be defeated. Our text, 2 Peter, thus is strongly dominated by this negative image of Balaam, but we can also find traces of the Balaam who, according to early Christian sources (see Leemans’s contribution to this volume), such as a painting in the Priscilla catacomb in Rome, prophesied about the Incarnation to take place in Bethlehem.

21 See M. Dijkstra, ‘Is Balaam also among the Prophets?’, Journal of Biblical Literature 114 (1995) 43–64 on Balaam as a non-Israelite prophet and the text about him found in Deir ‘Alla in Jordan (see also Puech’s contribution to this volume). M. Rösel, ‘Wie einer vom Propheten zum Verführer wurde: Tradition und Rezeption der Bileamgestalt’, Biblica 80 (1999) 506–24 discusses the intra-Biblical and early Jewish reception history of the ﬁgure of Balaam. 22 See Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, 179–80 for Philo’s use of what is seen to guarantee stable (bebaios) knowledge.

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István Czachesz

If we undertook to house all speaking animals in world literature in an imaginary zoo, we would easily run out of space. The shelter of speaking animals in the Bible, however, would remain almost empty, housing only a serpent and an ass1—surprisingly so, regarding the literatures of the Near East and Graeco-Roman antiquity, where speaking animals are routinely employed.2 We will have more success if we extend our search to the Apocryphal Acts and rabbinical literature, where speaking animals are more frequent.3 This chapter will examine the function of speaking and otherwise intelligent or pious animals in a range of Christian texts, with special attention to asses, and discuss their connection to the Balaam narrative. (1) First, I will survey the major Apocryphal Acts for speaking animals. (2) In the second part I will discuss two speaking asses in the Acts of Thomas. (3) In the third section we will make a detour to Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem. (4) In the fourth part, I will deal with the ass in Pseudo- Lucian’s and Apuleius’ narratives. (5) In the ﬁfth part, I will investigate the motif of asses carrying (images of ) gods. (6) Finally, I will address some cognitive psychological aspects of speaking animals.

1. Speaking animals in the Apocryphal Acts

Speaking animals are stock-material in the Apocryphal Acts.4 Since our study concentrates on the occurrence of asses, a few examples

1 Serpent: Gen 3:1–5; Ass: Num 22:28–30; cf. Rev 4:7–8 and Ezekiel 1. Speaking plants feature in Judges 9, the only ‘fable’ in the Bible. 2 For the Eastern origins of the fable, see W. Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Inﬂuence of Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, Cambridge/London 1992, 120–4. 3 Ch.R. Matthews, ‘Articulate Animals: A Multivalent Motif in the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles’, in: F. Bovon, A.G. Brock, Ch.R. Matthews (eds), The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, Cambridge, MA 1999, 205–32. For the rabbinical tradition see especially E.J. Schochet, Animal Life in Jewish Tradition: Attitudes and Relationships, New York 1984, 83–193. 4 See especially Matthews, ‘Articulate Animals’.

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will sufﬁce to illustrate the frequent use of other intelligent animals. In the Acts of Paul, the apostle baptises a speaking lion, which he meets again when he is sentenced to the animals in Ephesus.5 In the Acts of Peter 9–12 a dog serves as the apostle’s messenger, summoning Simon Magus. In the Acts of Thomas, both speaking animals of the Hebrew Bible are featured: the apostle destroys the serpent of Eden (31–33), and speaking asses, as we will see immediately, appear twice in the narrative (39–41; 68–81). Philip in his Acts meets three articulate animals: the eagle that he takes sight of on a tree turns out to be Jesus Christ himself (Acts of Philip 3.5–9);6 later he baptises a leopard and a kid who will even receive the Eucharist (8 and 12).

2. Speaking asses in the Acts of Thomas

Let us now turn our attention to the speaking asses in the Acts of Thomas.7 Right after the apostle defeats the serpent, an ass’s colt walks up to him and invites him, ‘Twin brother of Christ, apostle of the Most High [. . .] mount, sit on me, and rest, until you come to the city’. (39)8 ‘Who are you,’ inquires the apostle, ‘and to whom you belong? For surprising and strange is that which was spoken by you. These things are also hidden from many’. (40) And the colt answers, ‘I am of that family which served Balaam, and to which also belonged the colt on which sat your Lord and your Master. And now I have been sent to

5 Hamburg Papyrus 1–3. Paul meets the lion another time in the Coptic fragment of the Acts of Paul, preserved in Papyrus Bodmer XLI (R. Kasser & P. Luisier, ‘Le Papyrus Bodmer XLI en Édition Princeps l’Épisode d’Éphèse des Acta Pauli en Copte et en Traduction’, Le Muséon 117 (2004), 281–384). Cf. T. Adamik, ‘The Baptized Lion in the Acts of Paul’, in: J.N. Bremmer (ed.), The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Kampen 1996, 60–74. 6 For this episode see I. Czachesz, ‘The Eagle on the Tree: A Homeric Motif in Early Christian and Jewish Literature’, in: F. García Martínez & G.P. Luttikhuizen (eds), Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome: Studies in Ancient Cultural Interaction in Honour of A. Hilhorst, Leiden 2003, 87–99. 7 Greek: M. Bonnet, Acta apostolorum apocrypha, vol. 2.2, Leipzig 1903, 217–87; Syriac: P. Bedjan, Acta martyrum et sanctorum syriacae, vol. 3, Leipzig 1892, 107–15. The translation has been adapted from J.K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford 1993. For the connection between the Greek and the Syriac, see A.F.J. Klijn, Acts of Thomas: Introduction—Text—Commentary, Leiden 20032, 8–9. It is generally assumed that the Acts of Thomas originated in Edessa in the early third century, cf. J.N. Bremmer, ‘The Acts of Thomas: Place, Date and Women’, in: Idem (ed.), The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, Leuven 2001, 74–90. 8 In the Syriac text, Thomas foretells that the colt would speak (see below).

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give you rest as you sit on me, that these [the multitude] may believe [. . .]’. After some hesitation the apostle sits on the ass’ back. As they arrive at the city gates, he dismounts the animal and dismisses it, ‘Go and be kept safe where you were’. (41) When he says this, the colt immediately falls to the ground and dies. In another episode of this Acts, wild asses help the apostle when he exorcises a woman and her daughter (69–81). At this time, the asses do not report themselves voluntarily. When his draft animals stop moving in the great heat, Thomas turns to the general whose family is demonised: ‘If you believe in Jesus Christ, go to the herd of wild asses and say, “Judas Thomas, the apostle of Christ, the new God, says: Let four of you come, because we need you!” ’ Following his instruction, the general summons the animals, and immediately they run to the apostle and fall upon their knees. When hearing his need, all of them want to be yoked; finally, the four strongest are employed and the rest is dismissed. After they arrive at the general’s home, the apostle sends one of the asses, yoked on the right hand side, into the house with the instruction to call the demons outside. And, indeed, the wild ass enters the yard and addresses the demons at length. Hearing his words, the woman and her daughter come out of the house to the apostle, who drives the demons out of them. The two women, however, lie on the ground as if they were dead. At this point the wild ass delivers a long speech, exhorting first the apostle and then the multitude. Finally, the women are raised and the asses are dismissed outside the city gates. Just as the serpent in Acts of Thomas 32 is identified with the serpent of Eden, the ass’s colt says he is from the family of the ass of Balaam. However, the answer is less evident to the question as to how far the narrative is actually based on the episode of Numbers 22. The first motif that grabs our attention in Acts of Thomas 39 is the phrase ‘opened his mouth and said’ (καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ εἶπεν). In Num 22:28 we read almost exactly the same words, but there God is the subject: ‘Then YHWH opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam’ (LXX: καὶ ἤνοιξεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ στόμα τῆς ὄνου, καὶ λέγει τῷ Βαλααμ). This detail is given even more emphasis in the Syriac version of the Acts of Thomas, where the apostle foretells that God will open the mouth of the ass as a sign so that the multitude would believe. ‘And the mouth of the colt was opened, and it spoke like a man by the power of our Lord, and said to him [. . .].’ In one of the Syriac manuscripts, the whole episode is summarised as ‘The fifth act, about the ass’s colt which was given

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speech (or reason) by the grace of our Lord, and which spoke like a man.’9 As in Numbers, the ass has superhuman insights about the divine, and speaks of mysteries that are ‘hidden from many’. Yet in the fourth act of the Acts of Thomas the ass is never superior to the apostle. Whereas in Numbers 22 it is Balaam whose life is endan- gered when he does not recognise the angel of the Lord, in the Acts of Thomas the ass dies when it has accomplished its mission. In Numbers the animal is a she-ass, whereas in the Acts of Thomas the animal is a young ass, similar to the animal on which Jesus enters Jerusalem in Mark and Luke.10 In the other ass-story of the Acts of Thomas, the wild asses first understand the general’s words and obey him and the apostle. This resembles the behaviour of the bugs in the Acts of John 60–61, a motif which may be labelled as ‘animals that listen to the man of God’. Only in the second part of the episode does one of the wild asses speak, which is, however, not commented on as a miracle for this time. The ass’s role as a messenger resembles the role of the speaking dog in Acts of Peter 9–12, the latter being a possible source of the episode in the Acts of Thomas. The wild ass, nevertheless, is outfitted with reason far better than the dog, and his insight into the matters of salvation surpasses even the intelligence of the first speaking ass of the Acts of Thomas. He undergoes, as it were, a rapid evolution, from wild ass to listening animal, messenger, and a mediator of highest wisdom.

3. Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem

Various motifs of both episodes involving asses in the Acts of Thomas can be seen as references to Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem.11 In Acts of Thomas 39, as we have remarked above, the apostle rides a young ass, just as Jesus in Mark and Luke. In the second episode, the apostle sends the general for the wild asses with the message, ‘Let four of you come, because we need you!’ (chap. 69). Similarly, Jesus sends two of his disciples for the ass, who are supposed to say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back immediately’ (Mark 11:3). It is remarkable that motifs

9 Ms. Sachau 222, see P. Bedjan, Acta martyrum, 42. 10 Numbers 22: ˆ/ta; (cf. r/mj}), LXX ἡ ὄνος. Acts of Thomas 39–41: πῶλος ὀνάδος, Syriac    . Mark 11:7 and Luke 19:35: πῶλος. 11 Mark 11:1–10 and parallels.

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of the Balaam story and of Jesus’ entry are freely mixed up in both episodes of the Acts of Thomas. Did the story of Numbers 22 already influence the narrative of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem? Surprisingly enough, exegetes have given little, if any, attention to this alternative. Zech 9:9 is routinely identified as the source of Jesus’ animal: ‘he rides on an ass (r/mj}) and a foal of she- asses (t/ntoa}AˆB, ryI[)’. The Marcan text, however, as Ulrich Luz rightly observes,12 reveals no evidence of using Zechariah. The ‘foal (πῶλος) on which nobody has sat as yet’ (Mark 11:2), is not necessarily an ass. It fulfils, on one hand, the requirements of a sacrificial animal;13 on the other hand, riding such an animal is a miracle in itself,14 a fact which certainly did not escape the attention of Mark and his listeners, and reminds one of the use of the wild asses in the Acts of Thomas. Numbers 22 may have influenced the formation of this narrative, where Jesus ‘comes in the name of the Lord’ to restore David’s glorious kingdom, just as Balaam was sent by YHWH to foretell Israel’s glory. We may also wonder if the figures of the two disciples sent for the animal have been somehow inspired by the two servants accompanying Balaam.15 In Matthew’s version of Jesus’ entry the animal is specified as a she-ass (ἡ ὄνος, Matt 11:7), which is accompanied by her foal (πῶλος). Since Matthew cites Zech 9:9, it has been thought that he misunderstood the repetition ( parallelismus membrorum) and therefore let Jesus make use of two asses instead of one, making them mother and baby.16 Luz, however, warns that such basic misunderstanding of the Hebrew style hardly occurred to a Jewish author, and emphasises instead Matthew’s strive to apply the formula quotations literally.17 We can also remark

12 U. Luz, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus, vol. 3, Zürich/Neukirchen-Vluyn 1997, 178n11. Cf. W. Grundmann, Das Evangelium nach Markus, Berlin 19777, 303. Pace J. Gnilka, Das Evangelium nach Markus, vol. 2, Zürich/Neukirchen-Vluyn 1978–79, 114. 13 Num 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3. 14 Cf. Grundmann, Markus, 304. 15 Two passages in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 106b; Gittin 57a) are traditionally thought to identify Jesus with Balaam, but neither mentions the asses; cf. I. Singer & D. Adler (eds), The Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. ‘Balaam’; S. Krauss, Das Leben Jesu nach jüdis- chen Quellen, Berlin 1902, 267f.; P. Schäfer, Jesus in the Talmud, Princeton 2007. Origen, Thirteenth Homily on Numbers, connects the asses in Numbers and the gospels, and allegori- cally identiﬁes them with the Church; cf. Leemans’s contribution to this volume. 16 E.g. W. Grundmann, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus, Berlin 19754, 448. E. Schweizer, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus, Göttingen 197313, 263, mistakenly assumes that the conjunctive ‘and’ between the two members of the parallelism appears ﬁrst in the Greek. 17 Luz, Matthäus, 178n20.

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that Matthew (or his source) renders Zech 9:9 more faithfully to the Hebrew than does the Septuagint, making the repetitive structure unmistakable. Moreover, neither the Hebrew nor the Greek of Zech 9:9 suggests that the ﬁrst ass is a female. We can safely assume that Matthew has made his own choices here and it is quite possible that his choice for a she-ass has been inﬂuenced by Numbers 22.

4. The Ass Novel

There is yet another ancient narrative about asses to be mentioned in this chapter, which survived in two literary adaptations. Its inﬂuence and popularity can be readily compared with that of the Balaam story. Both Pseudo-Lucian’s Ass and Apuleius’ Metamorphoses predate the Acts of Thomas. Recently S.J. Harrison dated Metamorphoses to the ad 170s or 180s,18 whereas it is commonly assumed that both Pseudo-Lucian’s Greek epitome (the so-called Onos) and Apuleius’ Latin Metamorphoses were indebted to the earlier Greek Metamorphoseis by Lucius of Patras, a work which did not come down to us, but is referred to by Photius (Bibliotheca 129).19 The Ass Novel (by which I will refer to the common plot of the group of texts delineated above) reports the adventures of a young man, Lucius by name, who was experimenting with magic, but things went wrong, and he remained in the shape of an ass for a long while.20 Although the ass hides a human hero in an animal’s shape, it is not granted the ability of speech: ‘I was in other ways an ass, but in heart and mind I was a man, still that same Lucius, apart from the voice’.21 This detail is important from the perspective of the narrative structure, since it delays the hero’s return into human form. Stories similar to the Ass Novel circulated in the Eastern Church from the fourth century. In Historia monachorum 21.17 (late fourth century)

18 S.J. Harrison, Apuleius: A Latin Sophist, Oxford 2000, 9–10 and 250–1, cf. Idem (ed.), A Companion to Latin Literature, Malden, MA 2005, 217–20. 19 Harrison, Apuleius, 218–9. 20 In Apollodorus, Epitome 7.15 Circe turns some of Ulysses’ companions into asses (in Odyssey 10.237ff. she turns all of them into swine). 21 Pseudo-Lucian, Ass 15.1, trans. J.P. Sullivan in: B.P. Reardon, Collected Ancient Greek Novels, Berkely/London 1989, 589–618. Cf. Apuleius, Metamorphoses III.25 and E. Finkelpearl, ‘The Language of Animals and the Text of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, in: W.H. Keulen, R.R. Nauta & S. Panayotakis (eds), Lectiones Scrupulosae: Essays on the Text and Interpretation of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses in Honour of Maaike Zimmerman, Groningen 2006, 203–21.

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a virgin is changed into a mare by magic, and then receives back her human shape with the help of father Macarius. Lausiac History 17.6–9 (written in 419–20) reports a more elaborate version of the story with a married woman.22 In the Arabic Infancy Gospel 20–22, originally written in Syriac in the ﬁfth or sixth century,23 jealous women change a young man into a mule by witchcraft. He is changed back into human shape when Mary lifts the infant Jesus on the mule’s back.24 The motif was also known to the church fathers in the West: Augustine knew about Italian women who changed visitors into draft animals, and he remarked that the victims kept their human reason, just as Apuleius’ hero.25 In sum, the Ass Novel seems to be known in both the Eastern and the Western Church from the fourth century. But could it already inﬂuence the Acts of Thomas? The basic idea behind the Ass Novel, Numbers 22, and the Acts of Thomas is similar: all three writings feature an ass which has some human abilities as a result of supernatural intervention. Although there is no metamorphosis in Numbers 22 and the Acts of Thomas, similarities do exist among all three texts. For example, the asses in Numbers and in the Ass Novel are unjustly beaten several times.26 In the Ass Novel and the Acts of Thomas, the whole city gathers to see the miraculous asses.27 Finally, there is a third motif, which we have to discuss in some detail: Lucius’ participation in the mystery of the Syrian goddess.

5. Ὄνος ἄγει μυστήρια

On one occasion, Lucius, in the shape of an ass, is loaded with the image of the Syrian goddess and marches through the villages with a group of begging priests:

22 For dating Historia Monachorum around 394, see E. Schulz-Flügel, ‘Historia monachorum’, in: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG), 4th edn., vol. 3 (2000) 1793. For Palladius’ Lausiac History, see M. Heimgartner, ‘Palladius’, in: RGG4, vol. 6 (2003) 838. For related stories on witchcraft and adultery from antiquity, see H. van Thiel, Der Eselroman, 2 vols, Munich 1971–72, vol. 1, 187–90. 23 O. Cullmann, ‘Infancy gospels’, in: W. Schneemelcher (ed.) New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1, Louisville, KY 19912, 414–69, esp. 456f.; Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament, 100. 24 In chap. 20, children are changed into goats and then back into human shape. 25 Cf. Augustine, De civitate Dei 18.18. 26 Pseudo-Lucian, Ass 38; Apuleius, Metamorphoses IX.11; cf. B.L. Hijmans et al., Apuleius Madaurensis, Metamorphoses, Book IX: Text, Introduction and Commentary, Groningen 1995, 113–4. 27 Pseudo-Lucian, Ass 49; Apuleius, Metamorphoses X.19; Acts of Thomas 71.

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For he was an old pervert, one of those who carry the Syrian goddess around the villages and the countryside and force her to play the beggar. [. . .] The next day they assembled for work, as they themselves termed it, decked out the goddess, and placed her on my back. [Apuleius: They put the goddess, wrapped in a silk cloak, on my back to carry.] Then we drove out of the city and circulated through the countryside. Whenever we came to some village, I, as the vehicle of the goddess, would stand there [. . .]. Whenever they cut themselves up like this, they would collect obols and drachmas from the bystanders watching. Others contributed dried figs, a jar of wine, and cheeses, as well as a big bushel of wheat and barley for the ass.28 When reading this sarcastic episode, it is difficult not to be reminded of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem, as well as of Acts of Thomas 39–41, where the man of God rides an ass. At the same time, it is unlikely that the Acts of Thomas wanted to imitate the respective episode of the Ass Novel. Was perhaps the author of the Ass Novel familiar with the biblical stories? The Ass Novel incorporates a wide range of anecdotal and proverbial material about asses.29 In Greek religion, different gods and mythological figures were riding an ass in myths or cultic processions.30 An ass carried the child Dionysus, helped him to escape from the Giants, and took him all the way to India as well as to Dodona. Hephaestus, whose legs were crippled, was frequently depicted riding an ass, and he was lead back to the Olympus on an ass (after Dionysus made him drunk).31 Silenus (Dionysus’ mentor, the god of drunkenness) was also riding an ass. In the procession of Ptolemy II (king of Egypt 281–246 bc), the Satyrs and Maenads were riding asses. The ass was evidently associated with the less noble, gay aspects of mythology and religious cults. The motif was shortly expressed in the saying ὄνος ἄγει μυστήρια (‘The donkey carrying mysteries’), and elaborated on in Aesopian fables and Aristophanes’ comedies, among others. An Aesopian fable describes a scene that is very similar to the Cybele episode of the Ass Novel:

28 Pseudo-Lucian, Ass 35–37; cf. Apuleius, Metamorphoses VIII.24–27. 29 Thiel, Eselroman, vol. 1, 184; B.L. Hijmans et al., Apuleius Madaurensis, Metamorphoses, Book VIII: Text, Introduction and Commentary, Groningen 1985, 239, 294–6; M. Zimmerman, Apuleius Madaurensis, Metamorphoses, Book X: Text, Introduction and Commentary, Groningen 2000, 256. 30 W. Richter, ‘Esel’, in: K. Ziegler & W. Sontheimer (eds), Der kleine Pauly, vol. 2, Stuttgart 1967, 370–3, esp. 372; G. Raepsaet, ‘Esel’, in: H. Cancik & H. Schneider (eds), Der neue Pauly, vol. 4, Stuttgart 1998, 129–35, esp. 134–5. 31 W. Fauth, ‘Hephaistos’, in: Der kleine Pauly, vol. 2, 1024–8, esp. 1026; A. Ley, ‘Hephaistos’, in: Der neue Pauly, vol. 5, Stuttgart 1998, 352–5.

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A man had placed a carved image on his donkey and was leading him along. Many people bowed down when they met them along the way. The donkey grew arrogant, thinking that the country folk were bowing down before him, so he began to leap and prance. As he did so, the donkey almost threw the image of the god from his back. The donkey’s master beat him with a stick and said, ‘You are a donkey carrying a god on your back, but that does not mean you deserve to be worshipped as a god!’ This fable can be used for vulgar people who attribute to themselves the honour that is paid to others.32 The donkey also ‘carries the mysteries’ in Aristophanes’ Frogs 158– 161: Dionysus: And who are these? Heracles: These are the Mystic celebrants. Xanthias: By God, I am the donkey carrying the Mysteries (ἐγὼ γοῦν ὄνος ἄγω μυστήρια)! But I won’t put up with this for one more minute!33 The similarities between the ass’s involvement in Greek mythology and mystery cults, on the one hand, and Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem, on the other hand, are indeed remarkable. There is no room in this contribution to examine this relation in detail, which would lead us away from the Wirkungsgeschichte of Numbers 22. Nevertheless, we can outline a hypothetical picture. The authors of Numbers 22 and Zech 9:9 may have been acquainted with the religious use of the ass which is known to us from the Greek sources, and offered demythologised versions of those images. Subsequently, the Marcan narrative of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem made use of Numbers 22 as well as of information about mystery religions in the ﬁrst century ad. Matthew especially relied on Zechariah and to some extent on Numbers. The Acts of Thomas, ﬁnally, was more liberal in mixing biblical and novelistic elements, as were later the biographers of the desert fathers and the apocryphal infancy gospels.34

6. Cognitive considerations about speaking animals

In the ﬁnal part of this paper I will highlight some psychological aspects of speaking animals. Experiments have shown that stories with strange

32 Aesop 266 (Chambry); trans. L. Gibbs, Aesop’s Fables, Oxford 2002, 134. 33 Trans. M. Dillon, adapted. 34 The assumed sexual intercourse of Balaam and the ass in rabbinic tradition (see Nikolsky’s paper in this volume) might also reﬂect the inﬂuence of the Ass Novel.

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elements are more readily remembered than stories without them.35 As we all know, ‘Man bites dog’ is news. Religion makes use of various ideas which violate everyday expectations. Such ideas have been widely maintained in the history of humankind. Strangeness alone, however, is not enough for ideas to be successfully transmitted. A dog with six legs is strange enough, yet such ﬁgures are rarely mentioned in fairy tales, myths, or religion. Unusual features are always limited and functional, rather than just awkward. Among the asses in our texts we can see various sorts of unusual features. Balaam’s ass can see the angel and can speak. Jesus’ donkey is one on which no one has ridden (in Mark and Luke). In the Ass Novel, Lucius has human thoughts and feelings in the body of an ass, without the ability of speech; he also eats human food. In the Acts of Thomas, the asses have knowledge about religious matters and they can speak. In all other respects, however, all of those animals are normal. None of them are just haphazard mixtures of human and non-human elements.36 Their ‘normal’ features evoke expectations in the readers as to how those animals would behave in different situations; whereas their ‘functional strangeness’ allows them to show those situations from a surprising, new angle. Recently Pascal Boyer and other cognitive scientists have experimen- tally demonstrated that especially successful ‘strange’ concepts, similar to the ones described above, minimally violate innate ontological categories.37 A cross-cultural comparison shows that all humans differentiate between living and non-living things. The former are subdivided into animate (persons and animals) and non-animate kinds (plants); the latter include artefacts and other substances. Neurological studies have also provided evidence about some of those categories, showing that different brain structures are activated when manipulating different categories.38 When we recognise something in our environment as belonging to one of the ontological categories we intuitively activate various expectations

35 See below for literary references. 36 If we look at animals in other literature, a similar view emerges: Aesop’s animals, for example, have one or two human traits, mostly stereotypes. 37 P. Boyer, The Naturalness of Religious Ideas, Berkeley 1994; P. Boyer & C. Ramble, ‘Cognitive Templates for Religious Concepts: Cross-cultural Evidence for Recall of Counterintuitive Representations’, Cognitive Science 25 (2001) 535–64; J.L. Barrett & M. Nyhof, ‘Spreading Non-Natural Concepts: The Role of Intuitive Conceptual Structures in Memory and Transmission of Cultural Materials’, Journal of Cognition and Culture 1 (2001) 69–100; cf. I. Pyysiäinen, M. Lindeman & T. Honkela, ‘Counterintuitiveness as the Hallmark of Religiosity’, Religion 33 (2003) 341–55. 38 L.R. Squire & E.R. Kandel, Memory: From Mind to Molecules, New York 1999, 89–90.

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about them:39 a plant will grow but not move; animals will move but not speak; etc. Concepts that violate such intuitive expectations about ontological categories are called counterintuitive concepts. However, concepts that are maintained in the long run will not violate ontological expectations excessively: they will be minimally counterintuitive. Whereas they violate our expectations at some points, they still contain enough ‘normal’ features that enable our minds to make rich inferences about them, which explains why the ass-characters are constructed in the way that I have described above. Religious ideas are typically such minimally counterintuitive concepts.40 Moreover, most of them, as Boyer and others have rightly observed, will involve the category of ‘person’.41 This is also evident in the texts studied in this chapter, where strange asses have traits borrowed from human beings (speech, thought, devotion), and never ones borrowed from plants, rocks, or hammers. In the Ass Novel, in line with the Aesopian stories, animals’ human- like features serve mainly irony and entertainment. Philosophers, however, have discussed since old whether animals have reason. The Sceptics of the New Academy were arguing for human-like intelligence in animals, whereas Stoics were opposed to this view.42 Ironically, the views of the New Academy about animals seem to have received support from recent ﬁndings in animal psychology.43 In rabbinic Jewish thought, various animals have sharp minds and many of them are represented as deeply religious.44 Maybe Numbers 22 is a signal that such ideas existed earlier in Jewish thought, similarly as in Greek philosophy, only not many of them made their way into the extant writings. But, again, this issue regards the origins of the Balaam narrative rather than its history of reception.

39 Actually speciﬁc brain areas get activated, such as motoric systems when we see a tool; cf. Squire & Kandel, Memory, 90. 40 S. Atran, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion, New York 2002, 95–100; P. Boyer, Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, London 2001, 70–5. 41 Boyer, Religion Explained, 82–103; Pyysiäinen et al., ‘Counterintuitiveness’; Atran, In Gods We Trust, 100–7. 42 U. Dierauer, Tier und Mensch im Denken der Antike: Studien zur Tierpsychologie, Anthropologie und Ethik, Amsterdam 1977, 199–293. 43 E.g. M.D. Hauser, Wild Minds; What Animals Really Think, New York 2000. According to M.D. Hauser, N. Chomsky & W.T. Fitch, ‘The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve?’ Science 298 (2002) 1569–79, the human faculty of speech includes only one element that distinguishes it from similar abilities in intelligent animals: the domain-general use of recursion (the successive application of a rule on itself ). 44 Schochet, Animal Life, 119–43; Matthews, ‘Articulate Animals’, 221–2.

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Johan Leemans

1. Introduction

The contributions in this volume abundantly demonstrate that the prophet Balaam occurs explicitly or implicitly in a surprisingly large and diverse body of texts. Besides the ‘core text’ of Numbers 22–24 and several other passages of the Hebrew Bible the prophet is, inter alia, present in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament and the Targumim. Turning to the patristic inheritance, the available amount of sources is simply overwhelming and defies any form of exhaustive presentation.1 A quick glance at the patristic interpretations of Numbers 22–24 reveals that Balaam was to the Church Fathers a beloved scriptural character.2 It is also immediately clear that, as far as the number of occurrences is concerned, Num 24:17cd towers above all others: ‘a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel’ (RSV). In this contribution, I will thus focus on the Church Fathers’ reception of this text. The variety of texts in which Num 24:17cd occurs is striking. They comprise in the first place commentaries and sermons that offer an exegetical interpretation of the biblical text. Here the harvest is limited to writings by Origen and Augustine. In his Homilies XIII–XIX on Num- bers, extant in Rufinus’ Latin translation, Origen offers the only detailed

1 An exhaustive study of the Church Fathers’ reception of the Balaam character and/or of Numbers 22–24 does not exist to date. The general survey by Karpp in the Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum (RAC ) is already old and the valuable contribution by Baskin did not aim at completeness either (H. Karpp, ‘Bileam. Kirchenväter’, in: RAC 2 [1954] 366–73; J.R Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors: Job, Jethro, and Balaam in Rabbinic and Patristic Tradition [ Brown Judaic Studies 47], Chico CA 1983, 75–115). 2 ‘Wen wir die altchristliche Literatur durchblättern, können wir mit Erstaunen fest- stellen, dass der Prophet mit der sprechenden Eselin, der verﬂuchen wollte aber doch segnen musste, nicht nur gut bekannt, sondern geradezu eine beliebte Persönlichkeit ist’ (E. Kirschbaum, ‘Der Prophet Balaam und die Anbetung der Weisen’, Römische Quartalschrift 49 [1954] 129–171 at 130).

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analysis of Numbers 22–24 that has come down to us from the patristic period.3 In what follows, his work will be prominent. Besides Origen’s writings, some chapters of Augustine’s Quaestiones ad Heptateuchum also deal with our text but, safe for some scholia, there is not much else.4 Yet, all writings produced by the Early Church were thoroughly scriptural. The role of the Bible in the Church Fathers’ culture and their practice of ‘exegesis’ itself went far beyond explaining the sacred text. Indeed, according to the writers of the patristic period, the Bible was the word of God, meaning that God’s message and truth was proclaimed in every single verse and sentence. Moreover, the Scriptures constituted an essential element of their cultural and hermeneutical framework.5 Recourse was continuously taken to the Scriptures, but often very fragmentarily. Allusions to or quotations from the Scriptures ﬂew effortlessly out of the Fathers’ pen, regardless of whether the content of their work was historical, apologetical, dogmatic, catechetical, homiletic, biographical, monastical or strictly exegetical. No wonder then that these writings often resemble a mosaic of scriptural quotations and allusions. Consequently, the raw material on which the following survey of the patristic interpretations of Num 24:17 draws, largely presents itself as sparsa collecta: isolated and often short passages that are scattered all over patristic literature. In what follows I will present the main lines of the reception of Balaam and of Num 24:17. I start with the most prominent feature: Num 24:17 as foretelling the incarnation. In a second section I will discuss the link between this verse and the Matthean story of the Magi. Thirdly, I will indicate the role of Num 24:17 in the polemic of the Church Fathers against astrological practices. I will show further that the Church Fathers also highlighted negative aspects of Balaam’s character and how they address the tension with his undeniably positive contribution to the history of salvation.

3 Origène: Homélies sur les Nombres. II. Homélies XI–XIX, texte latin de W. Baehrens (GCS), nouvelle édition par Louis Doutreleau s.j. (Sources Chrétiennes 442), Paris 1999, 116–373. 4 See the survey in J. de Vaulx, Les Nombres (Sources bibliques), Paris 1972, 51–2. 5 See F. Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture, Cambridge 1997.

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2. Num 24:17 in the Fathers: foretelling the incarnation6

In his fourth oracle, Balaam prophesies: ‘a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel’ (RSV). The survey of Kevin Cathcart shows that messianic interpretations of this Hebrew text are evidently reflected in its Greek, Syriac, Latin and Aramaic renderings. In this regard the renderings of the words ‘star’ and ‘sceptre’ are particularly significant. ‘Star’ is rendered as ‘king’ in the Peshitta and in three Targum texts. In the Greek versions it is the word ‘sceptre’ that is the most important one. In the Septuagint7 it is translated by ἄνθρωπος and in a version transmitted by Justin Martyr as ἡγούμενος—leader, which becomes dux in the Latin translation of Irenaeus’ Adversus Haereses.8 We also find similar renderings of this text in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Pseudepigrapha.9 It is noteworthy that in the Vulgate the most faithful rendering of the Hebrew is offered, without messianic overtones at all: orietur stella ex Iacob et consurget virga de Israhel. By the time Jerome prepared this translation, a messianic interpretation of this verse had already firmly imposed itself. One of the earliest testimonies of such an interpretation is to be found in Justin Martyr’s First Apology. In the context of his exploration of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, Justin discusses Old Testament passages that foreshadow the incarnation. Num 24:17 is evidently one of them: Another prophet, Isaiah, expressing thoughts in a different language, spoke thus: ‘A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a flower shall spring from the root of Jesse, and in His arm shall nations trust’. Indeed, a brilliant star has arisen, and a flower has sprung up from the root of Jesse—this is Christ. For, by God’s power, He was conceived by a virgin who was a descendant of Jacob, who was the father of Judah, the above-mentioned father of the Jewish race; and Jesse was His forefather according to this prophecy, and He was the son of Jacob and Judah according to their lineage.10

6 On the patristic interpretation of this verse, see G. Dorival, ‘Un astre se lèvera de Jacob: L’interprétation ancienne des Nombres 24,17’, Annali di storia dell’esegesi 13/1 (1996) 295–352. 7 According to the Göttingen edition of the Septuagint the text of 24:17cd is ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον ἐξ Ἰακώβ καὶ ἀναστήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ Ἰσραήλ. 8 Cf. K.J. Cathcart, ‘Numbers 24:17 in Ancient Translations and Interpretations’, in: J. Krasovec (ed.), Interpretation of the Bible: The International Symposium in Slovenia, Shefﬁeld 1998, 511–20, esp. 512. 9 Cathcart, ‘Numbers 24:17 in Ancient Translations and Interpretations’, 513–16. 10 Justin Martyr, Apologia I.32 (translation taken from T.B. Falls, Writings of Saint Justin Martyr [ Fathers of the Church 6], Washington 1948, 69–70).

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It is striking that the quotation from Num 24:17 is mixed up with one from Isaiah and that the whole text is ascribed to the latter prophet. One should, however, not make too much out of this since in his somewhat later Dialogue with Trypho Justin mentions that He (Christ) ‘was called Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses’.11 The star-prophecy ascribed to Moses here clearly refers to Num 24:17. After Justin Martyr we turn to Origen. In the context of his exegesis of Balaam’s fourth oracle, in which he pays special attention to verse 17, Origen dwells at length on the link between the star-prophecy and the incarnation. He formulates the identification of the star to Christ as follows: But let us see what he [sc. Balaam] says in what follows: ‘I will show him, though not immediately; I will bless him and he is not nearby’. In other copies, however, one reads ‘I will see him, though not immediately’. If the latter variant is to be accepted, one will find it easier to understand that it is Christ—about whom he says in what follows ‘a star comes forth from Jacob and a man will rise from Israel’—that it is Christ whom must be seen.12 It is also evident to the authors of the fourth century that the ‘star’ in Num 24:17 must be identified with Christ. In On the Incarnation, Atha- nasius of Alexandria refutes the Jews’ unbelief in the cross and the incarnation by using their own scriptures against them: The unbelieving Jews have their refutation from the books which they also read; from beginning to end all through each inspired book proclaims these things, just as the words themselves are obvious. For the prophets previously foretold the miracle of the Virgin and the birth from her, saying: ‘Behold a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is, interpreted, “God with us” ’ (Isa 7:14). And Moses, that truly great man who is believed by them to be truthful, considered the saying concerning the incarnation of the Saviour as most momentous, and recognising it as true, phrased it thus: ‘A star will rise from Jacob and a man from Israel, and he will break the princes of Moab’.13

11 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 126.1 (trans. Falls, Writings of Saint Justin Martyr, 343). 12 Origenes, In Numeros homiliae XVIII.4. In a passage from the second book of his Commentary on the Song of Songs, the same connection is made: ‘But now . . . let us also adduce from the second prophecy of Balaam the passage that refers to Christ. A star, he says, shall rise out of Iacob and a man shall come forth from his seed . . .’ (R.P. Lawson, Origen: The Song of Songs. Commentary and Homilies [Ancient Christian Writers 26], Westminster MD/London 1957, 156). 13 Athanasius of Alexandria, De Incarnatione 33 (edn. and trans. R.W. Thomson, Athanasius: Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione [Oxford Early Christian Texts], Oxford 1971, 214–15).

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I continue with two testimonies from Christmas sermons. Ephrem the Syrian’s so-called First Christmas Hymn presents proof texts from the Old Testament, foretelling in beautifully vigorous poetry Jesus’ messianic office. The first stanza, of which the following fragment is taken, stresses the continuous repetition of the word ‘today’, the celebrative atmo- sphere, and demonstrates that the Christmas-event is none other than Christ’s incarnation foreshadowed already in the Hebrew Bible: The word that Micah spoke was realised today, for a shepherd went out from Ephrata, and his staff herded souls. (Mic 5:2; 5:1 Pes.) Behold, a star shone forth from Jacob and a prince arose from Israel. The prophecy that Balaam spoke found its meaning today. (Num 24:17) The hidden light descended and its beauty shone forth from a body; the dawn of which Zechariah spoke lights up Bethlehem today. (Zech 2:5).14 In his Christmas Homily, Amphilochius of Iconium (second half of the fourth century ad) also sings the praise of the day of Christmas: O day, worthy of a thousand songs of praise; the day on which a star from Jacob shone forth to us, on which a heavenly man from Israel was seen and on which the strong God came to us.15 Similar texts can also be found in less evident places. In the middle of the sixth century, for instance, we read in the Topographia Christiana of Cosmas Indicopleustes: Moreover, he [sc. Moses] wrote down what had been said by Balaam: ‘A star will rise from Jacob and a man from Israel, and he will break the princes of Moab and subject all the sons of Seth’. With ‘the sons of Seth’ the whole world is meant and his words can only be fittingly applied to Christ.16 On the basis of this sample of texts, to which many more could be added, it is clear that a messianic interpretation of Num 24:17 is present in the writings of the Church Fathers and that it is linked to the incarnation.

14 Ephrem, In Nativitatem I (trans. K. McVey, Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns [Classics of Western Spirituality], New York NY 1989, 64). 15 Amphilochius of Iconium, In Christi natalem 3 (edn. C. Datema, Amphilochii Iconiensis opera [Corpus Christianorum; Series Graeca 3], Turnhout 1978, 7, lines 87–9; my own translation). 16 Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topographia Christiana V.112 (edn. and trans. W. Waska- Conus [Sources Chrétiennes 159], Paris 1970, 171; my own translation).

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3. The ‘star’ of Num 24:17 and the star of the Magi

The largest cluster of patristic texts revolving around Num 24:17 are connecting Balaam’s star to the Magi of the Matthean Infancy Nar- rative (cf. Nicklas’s contribution to this volume). Irenaeus is the ﬁrst to make this connection in book III of the Adversus Haereses: Therefore there is one and the same God, who was proclaimed by the prophets and announced by the Gospel; and His Son, who was of the fruit of David’s body, that is, of the virgin of [the house of ] David, and Emmanuel; whose star also Balaam thus prophesied: ‘There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a leader shall rise in Israel.’ But Matthew says that the Magi, coming from the east, exclaimed ‘For we have seen His star in the east, and have come to worship Him’; and that, having been led by the star into the house of Jacob to Emmanuel, they showed, by these gifts which they offered, who it was that was worshipped; myrrh, because it was He who should die and be buried for the mortal human race; gold, because He was a King, ‘of whose kingdom is no end’; and frankincense, because He was God, who also ‘was made known in Judea’, and was ‘declared to those who sought Him not’.17 Irenaeus is arguing here that the Christian God is the only true god. Balaam’s star-prophecy evidently refers to Christ in this context, but the author also connects this to the star which led the Magi from the East to Bethlehem. In other words, Balaam’s prophecy of Num 24:17 brings us into the Matthean narrative of the journey of the Magi, their presence at the crib and their bringing of presents all of which are interpreted symbolically. It is clear that still early in the patristic period, the identiﬁcation of Balaam’s star with that of the Magi is evident already in Irenaeus. Matthew’s report of the events thus raised the following question: how did the Magi—who were pagans!—know that the star they had seen announced the incarnation? The Fathers’ answer to this question is that they knew by a gift of divine grace. Besides this supernatural cause, they also point to a second more mundane reason: the Magi knew Balaam’s prophecy and hence were enabled to interpret the star they saw as an announcement of the birth of the Messiah.18

17 Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses III.9.2 (trans. taken from The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus [The Ante-Nicene Fathers 1], Edinburgh 1996 [= 1884], 422–3). 18 See e.g. Leo Magnus, Sermo 34 4.2.

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This solution of course leads to the following question: how did the Magi know Balaam’s prophecy at all? The Fathers’ answer is in general twofold: they point to the common geographical background of Balaam and the Magi: both are ‘from the East’ and/or they point to their common profession: both Balaam and the Magi were in the ﬁeld of divination and the practice of soothsaying. These two elements were gradually interwoven and the Magi were relatively early described as ‘relatives’ or ‘descendants’ of Balaam. This is already the case in Origen’s Homilies in Numeri, but on the basis of introductory formulations such as ‘it is considered’, it is fair to assume that he did not invent it himself but rather hands over an already existing tradition.19 This tradition is continued after Origen.20 Eusebius of Caesarea qualiﬁes the Magi, much as Origen had done, as diadochoi of Balaam.21 Gregory of Nyssa styles Balaam as the προπάτωρ, the ancestor, of the Magi.22 Diodore of Tarsus styles the Magi in his treatise De fato as ὁμοτέχνοι of Balaam.23 Ambrosius of Milan refers to ‘some story’ (historia quaedam) according to which the Magi were the descendants of Balaam24 and Jerome, in his Commentary on Matthew, repeats that the Magi were Balaam’s descendants.25 Two centuries later, at the very end of the patristic period, John Damascene, an eager collector of the theological tradition of the previous centuries, still echoes that the Magi were ἀπογόνοι, descendants, of the son of Beor.26 Furthermore, the Fathers were not insensitive to the irony of history: Balaam, a pagan, foretold in his oracle the birth of the Christian Saviour, who came forth from the Jewish people. This message was preserved in the Hebrew Bible: the content of it was lost to the Jews, who rejected Christ but who, as it were involuntarily, transmitted the announcement of the Messiah’s birth to the pagans who did receive it and became Christians. In other words, the pagan prophet Balaam transmitted the message of the incarnation to other pagans through the Hebrew Scriptures. This theme is of course teased out with great

19 Origenes, In Numeros homiliae XIII.7.4. 20 See Dorival, ‘Un astre se lèvera de Jacob’, 315–16. 21 Eusebius of Caesarea, Demonstratio evangelica IX.1. 22 Gregory of Nyssa, In diem natalem Christi (edn. F. Mann, Sermones [Gregorii Nysseni Opera X.2], Leiden 1996, 245.3–246.2, esp. 245 line 16). 23 Diodore of Tarsus, De fato 53. 24 Ambrosius, In Lucam II.48. 25 Hieronymus, Commentarium in Matthaeum (ad Matt 2:2). 26 Joannes Damascenus, In Nativitatem 6.

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enthusiasm by the Church Fathers, most notably, again, in their Christ- mas sermons. The earliest source is Origen who ascribes it to a felicitous intervention of divine Providence in his Fourteenth Homily on Numbers: We have to do here with a miraculous and great dispensation: since the prophet’s words, who were confined to the Israelite sphere, could not reach the pagans, the mysteries (mystēria) about Christ were carried to them through Balaam, in whom all people had trust, and this great treasure was brought to them not so much through the heart and the senses but through the spoken word.27 The final consequence of this argument is, of course, that the Christians themselves, for whom the Church Fathers were writing, were inherit- ing the message the Magi had received from Balaam. Ultimately they themselves were, through the Magi, the heirs of Balaam’s prophecy. This final step is only taken relatively late. We find it for the first time in Augustine’s Sermon on Epiphany, but also in later writings.28 Perhaps the most unequivocal formulation is to be found in the anonymous sixth-century Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum: O blessed Magi, who from all pagan people merited to become the firstlings of the faithful! The reason is that these Magi carried already the form of what was to be the Church ( forma futurae Ecclesiae). For, just as they were, in belief, seeking and confessing their faith in the King, whom they had never seen, in the same manner are we—who come forth from pagan people—also daily seeking in belief the Lord, whom we have never seen, and we confess his power.29 The author continues by making the connection between the star of the Magi and the star-prophecy of Balaam. He also quotes Num 24:17. The Magi were the firstlings of Christianity. Through their intervention, which was the result of the fact that they were following not only their own but also Balaam’s star, the latter became a sort of founding father of Christianity. It goes without saying that this does injustice to the historical roots of Christianity in Judaism but it should, I think, be understood as a testimony to Christianity understanding itself exclusively as an ecclesia ex gentibus. In this sense it can be said that the reception of Balaam contributed to the formation of a Christian identity vis-à-vis other religions of Late Antiquity.

27 Origenes, In Numeros homiliae XIV.3. 28 Augustinus, Sermo 200 and Sermo 202; Leo Magnus, Sermo 32 2.4. 29 Ps-Chrysostomus, Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum homilia II.2.

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4. Balaam’s star and the Church Fathers’ polemic against astrology

One of the religious practices deeply entrenched in paganism was belief in the fatum and, coupled with that, various sorts of divination, including the practice of astrology. Throughout the patristic period the leaders of the late antique Christian communities consistently argued against these practices.30 Particularly from the fourth century onwards, bishops had to respond to this pressing matter of undesirable behaviour within their own congregations as more and more semi-Christians joined the Church. In his Fourteenth Festal Letter, for instance, written in 426 ad, Cyril of Alexandria strongly warns his ﬂock against believing that they could foretell the future from consulting the stars. These are all false predictions and the people practicing it are false prophets. Sometimes their predictions are proven right, but this is only pure luck on their part. Moreover, only a small share of these predictions do indeed come true. The validity of these practices is also clearly contradicted by the fact that repeatedly these people have proven to be unable to predict even their own future, let alone that of others.31 Besides some scriptural arguments, the bishop of Alexandria also spent the lions’ share of his yearly letter to a vehement refutation of these undesirable practices. By means of this, two things are clear: astrological practices were widespread and the battle to eradicate them in his time was also far from won. In the Church Fathers’ critical reﬂections regarding astrological practices, the star of the Magi plays a predominantly positive role. In some other passages, however, Balaam’s star-prophecy is at least implicitly present as an authoritative argument in favour of astrology. This created a problem: how can one be against astrology when a diviner uttered an oracle which in the end proved to be the prediction of the birth of Christ? Dorival presents some material in which this tension is addressed.32 Of this especially a text of Basil of Caesarea merits consideration.

30 These anti-astrological writings and arguments of the Fathers are described and analysed in D. Amand, Fatalisme et liberté dans l’antiquité grecque: recherches sur la survivance de l’argumentation morale antifataliste de Carnéade chez les philosophes grecs et les théologiens chrétiens des quatre premiers siècles (UCL; Recueil de travaux d’histoire et de philologie, Série 3 19), Louvain: Bibliothèque universitaire Louvain, 1945. 31 Cf. Cyril of Alexandria, Epistula festalis XIV.128–303. 32 Dorival, ‘Un astre se lèvera de Jacob’, 345–9.

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In a long passage from Basil of Caesarea’s Homily on the Holy Genera- tion of Christ,33 Balaam is present a few times and Num 24:17 is quoted just before the anti-astrological argumentation stricto sensu starts. In this argument Basil strongly argues that ‘the rising of the star’ (sc. of Balaam) had nothing at all to do with predicting the future or with the belief that the specific configuration of stars at the time of someone’s birth would influence the course of this person’s life. Moreover, this idea is not applicable to the situation at the time of the Saviour’s birth. We know of two sorts of heavenly bodies: those who are permanently moving (the planets) and those who are never moving (the stars). The star of the Magi, however did both: first, it led them from the East, whence they came, to Bethlehem, and when they had found the place where the child was, the star stood still above the place. Hence it was a very special star, announcing an exceptional event, and can in no way be made into an argument in defence of astrological practices which are only related to ordinary stars.

5. Balaam: An ambiguous character

What has been said thus far about Balaam’s portrayal in the Church Fathers was all very positive. He was a prophet who announced the incarnation. He was put on par with the Magi—yes, even became their forefather—and was, all in all, a beloved character who was always mentioned in Christmas sermons or sermons on Epiphany. Yet, there was also a dark side to the Fathers’ appraisal of Balaam: he was a prophet of the central event of Christian doctrine, but at the same time he remained a pagan prophet. Karp formulates it as follows: ‘Bileam ist ein Stück heidnisches Altertums innerhalb der Bibel selbst’.34 Moreover, he was a pagan prophet about whom the Scriptures recorded some highly questionable deeds. Origen brought the following things forward against him:35 he went to the king even while God forbade him to do so; he built altars and demanded divine counsel through magic; he was avaricious. Some patristic authors gave way to their hostility to this false prophet and simply evaded the problem by denying him the status of a true

33 Basilius of Caesarea, In generationem Christi 6. 34 Karpp, ‘Bileam’, 366. 35 Origenes, Homiliae in Numeros 15.1 with reference to 14.3.1.

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prophet.36 In most cases however this ambiguity has been part and parcel of the Church Fathers’ description of Balaam. At the end of the patristic period, it has been summed up in a sermon on Mark 6:1–4 by Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna in the first half of the sixth century: Balaam blesses with a mouth bent on cursing, and although hired for wickedness he speaks all the mysteries of truth. And just like a rose amidst thorns, that is, as on a prickly shrub little flowers with wondrous aromas are grown, so too sometimes the perceptions of the worst people are triggered against their will by the impulse of divinity for the good, such that what they say derives not from their merit but from the [ particular] mystery.37 Origen, roughly three centuries before this quotation, had already expressed the argument that Balaam was overcome by divine superiority, that the ‘impulse of divinity for the good’ outweighed the prophet’s bad disposition. He was the first to address the problem of this ‘double face’ of Balaam at length. One sees him wrestling with this throughout his Homelies on the Balaam pericope and finally come to a solution which has influenced the later tradition and the nuanced character of which has never been superseded. This interpretation of Balaam is closely connected to Origen’s understanding of prophecy.38 Contrary to many authors before him, Origen did not think that the divine inspiration of the Spirit removed or made useless the prophet’s normal human rational faculties. In addition, when the prophet is inspired, he still retains his individual character. Moreover, in Origen’s allegorical exegesis, the diviner Balaam with his talents in the field of magical practices is considered to be in contact with evil spirits and as fighting against Israel. In Baskin’s words, ‘[Origen] portrays the battle between Balaam and Israel as a microcosm of the larger universal struggle between good and evil’. The challenge then was to reconcile this idea of prophecy with this portrayal of Balaam. There was an easy way out: Origen could have argued, like some of his predecessors, that the prophet’s individual character was not involved in his prophetic acts, that the prophet was only the medium through which the Spirit delivered his

36 Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors, 102–3. Examples: Athenagoras, Legatio 9.1; Justin Martyr, Apologia I.36.1; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata VI.18. 37 Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo 49 (trans. W.B. Palardy, Saint Peter Chrysologus: Selected Sermons, vol. 2 [ Fathers of the Church], Washington 2004, 190–1). 38 Here I follow Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors, 104–9.

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message. This was, however, contrary to Origen’s ideas of prophecy and hence he had to show how this soothsayer, despite his wicked alliance with evil forces, became one of the prophets of the incarnation. As in the quotation from Peter Chrysologus, the pivotal point of the argument is divine intervention. According to Origen, God had understood that Balaam’s gifts of divination were not good in themselves, but could be made useful to the plan of salvation. Indeed, ‘Balaam’s skills at divination made him an appropriate vehicle of God’s word’, and made his testimony about Christ the more convincing to the pagans.39 The following question must thus be posed: was this man a true prophet? Origen answers it in the negative. However important his oracles may have been, they did not come from his heart. They came only due to divine intervention. Moreover, Balaam’s absence in virtues, in particular, did not match with what can be expected from a prophet. In sum, Balaam was good enough a medium for the goal he had to serve but nothing more than that. He definitely did not deserve to be put on par with great prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Remarkably enough this does not lead to Origen’s complete dismissal of Balaam. On the contrary, while he refuses to acknowledge Balaam as a true prophet, Origen does acknowledge his merit as medium for the message of salvation in Christ. He was definitely an unworthy person, but in Origen’s view Balaam must have reached a certain measure of salvation because of the following three things: he was the medium of the announcement of the coming of Christ; what he announced came true; and he was the forefather of the Magi. All in all we find in Origen a nuanced, moderate view on the ambiguous Balaam. A similar but on the whole somewhat more negative opinion on Balaam is expressed in some passages in the writings of Augustine of Hippo. Augustine distinguishes between true and false prophets and is unwilling to compromise in this regard. Somebody who utters a prophecy—even when it comes true—is not necessarily a prophet. ‘It is impossible to be a prophet and lack charity’, Augustine says.40 Being a prophet has also to do with one’s personal disposition, with one’s character, with one’s embodiment of essential virtues. To Augustine charity is a crucial virtue for everybody and, hence, a fortiori, for a prophet. Balaam is thus in the eyes of the bishop of Hippo not

39 Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors, 105. 40 Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum II.8–9.

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a real prophet. But if a prophet is not a true prophet and yet clearly is able to utter prophecies, just as Balaam did, how does he do that? Augustine provides a similar answer as the one provided by Origen: Balaam and other false prophets were only able to do what they did due to divine intervention. This divine intervention uses the person as a sort of medium for a short time and for a speciﬁc purpose. In a particularly well-crafted passage, he formulates it as follows: There is as great a distance between the prophecy of prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah and that transitory passing prophecy as appeared in Saul, as the distance when humans speak and speech as it appeared in Balaam’s ass. And that instance only occurred because God found it necessary to demonstrate his will to Balaam; it was not an indication that the beast was permanently to be able to speak with men. If God can make an ass speak, he can certainly make an ungodly man submit to the spirit of prophecy for a short time.41 The dismissive tone and the argument are clear: people like Balaam are not real prophets; at best they are, says Baskin, ‘God’s unwilling mouthpiece’.42 Up to this point Augustine’s opinion differs more in tone than in content from that of Origen. Origen’s view on prophecy was a bit more nuanced but he too made a clear distinction between true and false prophets. Contrary to Origen, however, Augustine does not see much hope of salvation for Balaam. He even goes as far as to refuse to connect him with the Magi. In this regard Augustine is an exception in patristic literature. We have seen that most Church Fathers in their Christmas sermons or sermons on Epiphany, referred to Balaam. This is not so with Augustine. He dwells many times at length on the Magi and their importance of proclaiming the Gospel in the entire oikoumene, including the pagans, but unlike other authors there is in Augustine’s mind no room for Balaam in this picture.

41 Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum II.2. Translation taken from Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors, 110. 42 Baskin, Pharaoh’s Counsellors, 111.

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BALAAM IN THE KORAN AND EARLY KORANIC COMMENTARIES

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Fred Leemhuis

1. ‘He to whom We gave Our signs’—Balaam in the Koran?

Balam or Balām, as Balaam is known in Arabic, does not occur in the Koran. However, we do meet him in Koranic commentaries, because, according to some, there is a reference to him, albeit not by name, in Sūrat al-arāf 7:175–176, which reads: And recite to them the tidings of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he rejected them, and Satan made him to follow after him, and he became one of the deluded. And had We willed, We would have raised him up thereby; but he inclined towards the earth and followed his tendency. Apart from the fact that there is no agreement among the commentators about the identiﬁcation of the person to whom God gave His signs and who then rejected them, most of them would agree with the words of Shawqī ayf, the late president of the Academy of the Arabic Language of Egypt, who wrote in his Koranic commentary: It is said that he was a man from the Israelites, called Balam from the people of al-Balqa (Transjordan). It is also said that he was Umayya ibn Abī al-al of the Thaqīf.1 His personality does not concern us, but his story does.2 But then he does not really elaborate on the story and neither does another modern Egyptian commentator, the present Shaykh al-Azhar, Muammad Sayyid anāwī in his somewhat earlier Koran commentary. He mentions Balam ibn Bāūrā among four persons to whom the verse is reported to refer, but concludes with his opinion that, because nobody is named, the verse refers to everyone who knew the truth and

1 A poet who reputedly knew the scriptures, but who choose not to follow Muhammad and became his opponent. 2 Shawqī ayf, Al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-qurān al-karīm, Cairo [2000]2, 289.

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then renounced it.3 They both echo the opinion which is expressed in the Tafsīr al-manār nearly a century earlier: ‘God does not make clear and neither does his messenger in a sound tradition what his name, race or homeland was’.4 However, on the following pages quite a number of Koranic commentaries are summarized and traditional narrative details of the Balam story are given. Moreover, the Biblical reference is not forgotten.5 Anyway, the story of Balam has not really been at centre stage. From the early period onward the commentators of the Koran, apart from one or two exceptions, treat it rather schematically and do not seem to be very interested in providing much detail.

2. The earliest period of Koranic commentary (8th/9th cent. CE)

From the earliest period of Koranic commentary it is the tafsīr of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān (d. 150/767) which provides a more or less detailed coherent whole: Balām, the son of Bāūrā, the son of Māth, the son of arrāz, the son of Āzar of the people of Ammān had been given God’s greatest name. This land Ammān was also called al-Balqā, the region in Greater Syria where the giants were. It was called so, because of its king, a man called Bālaq. Its king at the time was Bānūs, the son of Satashrūth who told Balām to curse Mūsā. Balām said: ‘But he is a religious man and it is not ﬁtting that he should be cursed’. Then the king ordered a cross to be made to crucify Balām. When he saw it, he went on one of his she-asses to go and curse Mūsā. And when he saw Mūsā’s camp, the ass stood still and he beat her and the ass said: ‘Don’t beat me, because there is a burning ﬁre in front of me that stops me, so go back’. This he did and went back to the king who told him: ‘Either you go and curse him or I will crucify you’. Then he went and cursed Mūsā with God’s greatest name that he should not enter the city. And God complied with his request. When this was told to Mūsā, he asked God to take away this greatest name from Balām, which God did. Thus Balām was led astray by the devil, because he had followed the desires of the king.6

3 Muammad Sayyid anāwī, Al-tafsīr al-waī, vol. Sūrat al-arāf, Cairo 19852, 268–9. 4 Tafsīr al-manār, edn. Cairo (General Book Organization) 1973, vol. 9, 340. 5 Tafsīr al-manār, edn. Cairo (General Book Organization) 1973, vol. 9, 343–8. 6 Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, edn. Abdallāh Mamūd Shaāta, 5 vols, Cairo 1979–89, vol. 2, 74–5.

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From the other extant earliest commentaries nearly nothing can be gleaned. In the tafsīr of Mujāhid (d. between 100/718 and 104/722) he is called Balām, the son of Bāir, one of the Israelites to whom was given a book, but he cast it off and followed the passions and desires of this world and he did not profit from the book which was given to him.7 In these two earliest tafsīrs, the person in Sūrat al-arāf 7:175 is only identified as Balām. In the tafsīr of Abd -al-Razzāq al-anānī (d. 211/822), both Umayya ibn Abī al-al and Balam, the son of Ābir, are mentioned without more detail.8 In later tafsīrs, they nearly always are mentioned together, sometimes accompanied by other possible identifications of to whom God had given his signs.

3. Later Koranic commentaries

(a) The tafsīr of al-abarī (10th cent. CE) As far as Balām is concerned, this does not add much to what was written by G. Vajda in the Encyclopaedia of Islam.9 He, mainly on the basis of the tafsīr of al-abarī (d. 310/923), mentions a few other aspects of the story, which are also known from the Haggadah, such as that it was Balam who was responsible for the fornication of the Israelites with the daughters of Moab and Midian.10 Some of the more abstruse details which al-abarī provided are, however, not mentioned, such as a tradition that Balam was a scholar of the Israelites who knew God’s greatest hidden name and who became an inﬁdel. He went to the giants and told them that he would curse the Israelites, so that the giants could defeat them. They then gave him everything he wished,

7 Of this tafsīr, three major versions are known, which all date from the middle of the second Islamic century. See F. Leemhuis, ‘Origins and Early Development of the tafsīr Tradition’, in: A. Rippin (ed.), Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur’an, Oxford 1988, 13–30 at 19–25. Here the version by Warqā b. Umar (d. 160/776) is referred to: Tafsīr Mujāhid, edn. Abd-al-Ramān al-āhir ibn Muammad al-Sūratī, 2 vols, Islamabad 1976 (reprint Beyrouth n.d.), vol. 1, 250; Tafsīr al-imām Mujāhid ibn Jabr, edn. Muammad Abd-al-Salām Abū al-Nīl, Cairo 1989, 346–7. 8 Tafsīr al-Qurān lil-imām Abd -al-Razzāq ibn Hishām al-anānī, edn. Muafā Muslim Muammad, Riyadh 1989, vol. 2, 243. Most of this tafsīr actually is material of al-anānīs teacher Mamar b. Rāshid (d. 153/770). 9 G. Vajda, ‘Balam’, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn., Leiden 1954–, vol. 1, 984. 10 Abū Jafar Muammad ibn Jarīr al-abarī, Tafsīr al-abarī al-Musammā Jāmi al-Bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qurān, 12 vols, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 1412/1992, vol. 6, 118–25.

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but he could not copulate with their women, because they were too tall, so he did it with his she-ass instead. Al-abarī actually gives three possibilities of what is meant by ‘Our signs’ (‘And recite to them the tidings of him to whom We gave Our signs’—Sūrat al-arāf 7:175–176): (1) God’s greatest name; (2) one of God’s books; and (3) prophethood. Although al-abarī himself prefers a meaning like ‘God’s proofs and His evidence’ for ‘Our signs’ he adduces two traditions, which qualify the first and last possibilities. About God’s greatest name he quotes a tradition on the final authority of Ibn Zayd: He asked nothing from God that He did not give him. About Balām’s prophethood, a tradition on the final authority of Mujāhid is given: He was a prophet of the Israelites to whom prophethood was given, but then his people bribed him to be silent, which he did and he left them as they were, i.e. he did not pronounce his message.

(b) The tafsīr of al-Naās (10th cent. CE) After al-abarī, the theme of Balām’s possession of God’s greatest name is again taken up in the tafsīr of al-Naās (d. 338/949). Like in al-anānī’s and al-Tabarī’s in this commentary both Umayya and Balam are also mentioned. According to one tradition which is supplied, Balam was one of the Israelites, according to another he was someone who possessed God’s greatest name and who was asked to curse Mūsā and his people. He did not want to do that because he had been ordered in his sleep to prophesy favourably about them. But then Mūsā came to his people with 80,000 men from behind the Euphrates. Thereupon he told them of the ruse to send women to them so that they would be led into temptation and could then be defeated. Consequently his gift, namely God’s greatest name, was taken from him.11

(c) The tafsīr of al-Samarqandī (10th cent. CE) In the tafsīr of al-Samarqandī (d. c.380/988), some more details are added to the Balam story. Balam, the son of Bāūrā, was a servant of God from among the Israelites whose prayers were heard at the time that Mūsā was ﬁghting a Pharaoh. This Pharaoh gathered his priests and sorcerers, but they could do nothing, but they said that there was

11 Abū Djafar al-Naās, Maānī al-qurān al-karīm, edn. Muammad Alī al-Sābūnī, 6 vols, Mecca 1988/9, vol. 3, 103–5.

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one of the Israelites whom he could ask for help. Thus the Pharaoh sent people to Balam’s wife with presents and she told Balam that they should heed the Pharaoh’s wish, because they lived in his neigh- bourhood. Balam then mounted his she-ass and went on his way, but on the way the ass stopped. He beat her and then she said: ‘Look in front of you’. So he did and look, there was the archangel Jibrīl. To the dismay of the Pharaoh, Balam ﬁnally could not say anything more about the Israelites than this: ‘Whoever curses them will be cursed and whoever blesses them will be blessed’. But then Balam told them that there was a way to defeat Mūsā’s people: They should send beautiful, well dressed and perfumed women to them. And if the Israelites would lie with them, they could defeat them. This plan they put into effect, but only the fools of the Israelites did as they had hoped. Then Mūsā asked that God should take away Balam’s belief and this is what was done.12

(d) Al-Māwardī (11th cent. CE) Al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058) does not add much, but mentions the same three possibilities of the meaning of ‘Our signs’ as al-abarī. But about the third possibility that was transmitted on the authority of Mujāhid he adds that this could not have been the case, because ‘God only bestows His prophethood on someone of whom He knows that he will not violate His obedience and disobey’.13

(e) al-Fakhr al-Rāzī (12th/13th cent. CE) In al-Fakhr al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209), we ﬁnd about Balām the following: Mūsā headed for Balām’s city and its people asked Balām to curse the Israelites, which he did, because he possessed God’s greatest name and so prevented the Israelites to come to the city. Thus they were compelled to stay in the desert. Then Mūsā said to God: ‘Because of which sin must we stay in the desert?’ God said: ‘Because of Balām’s curse’. Then Mūsā said: ‘As You have heard his curse on me, hear also my curse on

12 Tafsīr al-Samarqandī al-musammā Bar al-Ulūm li-Abī al-Layth Nar ibn Muammad ibn Amad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Samarqandī, edn. Alī Muammad Muawwa, Ādil Amad Abd al-Mawdjūd, Zakariyya Abd al-Madjīd al-Nūtī, 3 vols, Beirut 1413/1993, vol. 1, 582–3. 13 Abū al-asan Alī b. Muammad b. abīb, Tafsīr al-Māwardī al-musammā al-nukat wa-l-uyūn, edn. Khir Muammad Khir, 4 vols, Kuwait 1993, vol. 2, 80.

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him’. And Mūsā asked that God’s greatest name and his belief should be taken from Balām. And it was taken from Balām and it went out of his chest like a white dove. Rāzī informs us that it is also said that Balām was one of God’s prophets and that he, after Mūsā’s prayer, was stripped of his belief to become an inﬁdel. Al-Razi then mentions that this story is, of course, quite problematic, because if Balām, or for that matter Umayya ibn Abī al-al, was a prophet, how could he then become an unbeliever? The answer to that problem is that such an idea is far-fetched, because God has said: ‘God knows best where to place His messages’ (Sūrat al-Anām 6:124),14 and that is proof that God only honours someone with His message when He knows the eminence of such a person above all others in honour, superiority and virtue. How can unbelief ﬁt someone who is in such a state?15

4. Conclusion

Not much more can be said about the reception of Balām’s story in the early Koranic commentaries. In these, there is not much reﬂec- tion on the different aspects of the story, except for one. It is striking that the commentators apparently struggled more and more with the problem of a prophet of God who went astray or who could be persuaded to disobey God and so lose his prophethood. They found no other answer to that than the explanation that Balām therefore could not have been a prophet. Interestingly enough, they apparently did not object to the concept that the possession of God’s greatest name obliges God, as it were, to hear and answer anything which the possessor would ask. This would seem to raise the question whether God would be obliged to obey the possessor of His greatest name? Commentators like Muqātil, al-abarī, al-Naās, al-Māwardī and al-Rāzī apparently saw no problem.

14 Al-Rāzī follows the majority reading with a plural and not a singular as af an Āim and Ibn Kathīr. 15 Al-tafsīr al-kabīr lil-imām al-Fakhr al-Rāzī, 32 vols, Beirut n.d., vol. 15, 53–7.

van kooten_f18_301-308.indd 308 1/22/2008 5:00:15 PM INDEX OF ANCIENT TEXTS

I. Hebrew Bible

Genesis 7:15 150 3:1–5 275n1 14:30 150 4 265 15:14–15 7 4:10 135 20:18 75 4:11 271 20:19 20 5:3 204n44 24 6 6 269 28 18 6–8 269 28:30 18n41 7:1 94 34:15–16 255 9:2 43 12:2 111 Leviticus 12:3 113 8:8 18n41 13:16 111 11:13–19 45n51 14:6 207n52 18 5 15 113 19:14 251 15:1 112 15:5 111, 112 Numbers 16:10 111 5:12–31 151n25 16:12 148 12:1–4 11n33 17:2 111 13:22–23 85 17:4–6 111 15:25–26 86 17:16 111 15:28–29 86 17:20 111 16 104n17, 265 18–19 5n5 17 104n17 18:17 112, 113 18:8–9 86 19 5n5, 268 19:2 279n13 19:30–38 4, 12 20:2–11 6n12 19:31 5n5 20:12 6n12 21:12 111 20:20 9 22 8, 112, 113 21 5, 16, 153 22:17 111, 112 21:21–22:1 104 32 113 21:21–22:4 107 32:23–32 xii, 47 21:21–25:18 104 35:5 43 22 278–280, 283, 285 37:3 148 22–24 passim 49 185 22–25 136, 253 49:1 42, 97n34 22:1 253 49:9 74 22:1–35 107 49:9–10 165 22:2–25:1 121–130 49:10 185, 187, 203 22:5 xiii, 13, 21, 40, 51, 109, 110, 190, Exodus 192n8, 217, 238, 253 3:11 9 22:5–6 72 4:1–17 9 22:6 3n3, 13, 110 4:10 9 22:5–14 107, 108 4:13 9 22:5–21 72

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22:6 3n3, 13, 109 23:11 14 22:7 21, 71, 136, 217 23:12 20n54, 136 22:8 73, 109, 218 23:13 117 22:9 42, 109 23:13–15 72 22:10–11 111 23:13–26 107 22:11 72 23:14 34n23, 117 22:12 111 23:14–15 114 22:13 9, 42, 72 23:16 20n54, 42 22:15 13 23:16–24 117 22:15–35 107 23:17 85 22:16–17 114 23:18 89n10 22:17 12, 110, 114 23:21–22 72 22:17–18 136 23:23 3n4, 17n39, 74 22:18 12, 73, 114 23:24 37 22:19 73, 109 23:25 271n16 22:20 9, 20n54, 42, 109 23:26 20n54, 136 22:21 219 23:27–30 72, 114 22:22 196 23:27–24:19 107 22:22–35 9 23:28 34n23, 253 22:27–31 LXX 141 24 xiv, xvi, 96 22:28 LXX 277 24:1 3n4, 74, 222, 241 22:28–30 275n1 24:1–10 72 22:31 42 24:2 xiv, 117 22:31–34 72 24:2–9 117 22:32 267 24:3 76, 89n10, 192n8, 193 22:35 20n54 24:3–4 3, 87, 89, 190 22:36–38 117 24:4 42, 89 22:36–40 107 24:5 220 22:36–24:24 104n16 24:6 74, 221 22:37 12 24:7 183, 184, 185 22:37–38 72, 136 24:7 LXX 185n100 22:38 20n54 24:9 74, 241 22:39–40 117 24:10 14n37 22:40 219 24:11–13 136 22:41 34n23, 72, 117 24:13 20n54 22:41–23:12 107 24:14 11n31, 14, 15, 22:41–24:19 107 96, 97n34, 22:41–24:24 107 119n51, 222, 247, 23–24 42, 138, 274 251–252, 262 23:1–2 114 24:15 3n2, 76, 89n10, 23:1–4 72 90–91, 165n12, 23:2 117 191, 192, 193n13, 23:3 20n54, 34n23, 73 196n18 23:3–4 42 24:15–16 89, 95, 96, 99, 23:4 73 190–198 23:4–10 117 24:15–17 75, 87, 88, 89, 23:5 20n54, 74, 220 92, 94, 96, 99 23:5–7 [8] xiii, 83, 85, 86 24:15–19 93, 163, 165, 189–212 23:6 13, 72 24:15–19 LXX 273 23:7 40, 89n10, 217n16 24:16 3, 42, 89, 138, 23:7 LXX 238 189, 194–196, 218 23:8 241 24:17 xiii, xvi, xvii, 23:10 229 7n16, 15, 72,

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74, 76, 78, 79, 80, 31 5, 10, 14, 16 81, 89, 93–94, 95, 31:1–12 270 96, 165, 170, 31:1–20 268 171–172, 174, 31:2 226 178n69, 179, 183, 31:8 10, 16, 55, 103, 185, 188, 190, 119, 120, 136, 199–203, 209, 163, 189, 196, 235, 236–240, 215, 252n21, 242, 246, 266, 253n24, 269 287–292, 294, 296 31:9 14 24:17 LXX 185, 238 31:12 6n10 24:17–19 76, 77n29, 95, 31:15 14 96, 99, 190, 31:16 10, 14, 15, 103, 198–211 119, 120, 136, 24:18 28, 77n27, 95, 163, 189, 247, 205–206, 241 251–253, 262, 270 24:18–19 76, 185n100 31:17 10, 14, 15 24:19 xv, 77n26, 31:33 6n10 208–209 31:44 6n10 24:20 89n10 31:48–50 6n10 24:20–24 107 32: 4–5 85 24:21 89n10, 221 33:47–53 xiii, 84, 86 24:21–22 271 33:49 253 24:23 89n10 33:50 84 24:23–24 221 35:1 6n10 24:25 107, 238 36:13 6n10 25 5, 14, 15–16, 103, 104, 119, Deuteronomy 164, 215, 222, 2:9 6n11 253, 259, 268 2:18 6n11 25:1 5, 6, 253 2:19 6n11, 22n59 25:1–2 5, 164, 252, 254, 255 2:24 22n59 25:1–3 136 2:36 22n59 25:1–5 14, 15, 270 2:37 22n59 25:1–6 247, 252, 262 3:4 5n7 25:1–9 222 3:8 22n59 25:3 14,15, 253 3:12 22n59 25:5 253 4:30 97n34 25:6 5, 14, 15 4:48 22n59 25:6–8 15 5:28–29 75 25:6–18 14 11:17 46 25:7 14 13 17, 22 25:8 14 13:2 16 25:13 15 13:6 16 25:16 15 14:12–20 45n51 25:18 253 18 4, 17, 20, 22 26:3 6n10 18:9–12 21 26:59 11n33 18:10–11 17 26:63 6n10 18:12–14 17 26:63–65 272 18:15 17 27:12–14 6n12 18:16 20n53 27:21 18n41 18:17 20n53 27:22 170 18:18 17, 20n54

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18:18–19 75 9 275n1 21:3 279n13 11:25 251n19 23 13, 14 14:1–16:3 254n29 23:3–4 6 23:4–6 12, 136, 189 1 Samuel 23:5 10, 12, 13, 1:7–8 42 14, 21, 40 3:1 63 23:5–6 103, 163, 251n19 3:19–21 63–64 23:6 10, 12, 13, 14 7 55 29 6 8–11 65 31–34 104n17 9:7 21n56 31:9–13 6n13 9:8 21n56 31:16 255n32 9:9 16, 45 31:24–29 6n13 9:16 9 31:29 97n34 10–11 65 32:4 90n14 10:17 42 32:17 34 14:8 17n41 32:48–52 6n12 14:41 18n41 33:1 92, 93, 94, 95 15:16 42 33:1–2 92, 93, 94 16 65 33:2 92, 93, 95, 96 16:1 38 33:8 18n41 16:13 38 33:8–11 75, 165 18:21 251 33:11 95 22:3–5 6 23:9 17n41 Joshua 25:31 251 2:1 6 28:6 18n41 3:1 6 30:7 17n41 6:26 75 12:1–6 22n59 2 Samuel 13 16 5:2 239 13:21 16 7:12–14 81 13:22 10, 16, 17, 103, 189, 8:1–14 240 215, 221n26, 251n19 8:2 6n9 13:25 22n59 22:29 42 22:17 5n7 24:11 51n8 24 10n27, 13, 14 24:9 10, 13, 14 1 Kings 24:9–10 12, 189, 251n19 1:39 38 24:10 10, 13, 14 8:35 46 24:11 13 10:1 8 10:2 8 Judges 11 65 2:3 251 12:25 40 2:17 255n32 18:4 251n18, 262 3 6 19 65 3:8–10 217 19:1–3 251n18, 262 4:10 66 22 21n55 5:24 219n21 22:19 42 6:15 9 8:14 42 2 Kings 8:27 251, 255n32 3:27 6 8:33 255n32 8 65

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9 65 Ezekiel 9:30–37 251n18, 262 1 275n1 17:13 51n8 3:20 251n17 9:4 78 Isaiah 11:13 33 1:1 42, 51n9 12:24 51n9 3:1 19 13:16 51n9 3:2 18 14:3 251n17 3:2–3 38 20:17 33 3:3 18, 43 21:26 21n56 3:17 203n40 21:30 177 6 90 26:17 36 7:14 240n38, 32:3–8 46 243n56 37:23–25 177 7:17 78 32:23–26 36 9:1 42 32:24–25 43 9:6 243n56 32:32 36 10:23 33 38 205 11:3–4 171 38–39 205 11:4 185n100 38:8 205 13:1 42 39:4 205n50 13:21–22 256 39:4–5 205 14:12 202n35 40:1–2 249n7 14:13 34 45:7–8 177 22:5 203n41 48:21–22 177 23:17–18 256 26:21 93 Hosea 45:21 96 9:10 5n7 50:10 42 51:17 256n36 Amos 60 241 1:1 26 5:18–20 46n54 Jeremiah 5:20 42 4:27 33 5:26–27 78, 79, 80 5:10 33 9:11 78, 79, 80, 81 5:18 33 10:24–25 33 Obadiah 14:14 51n9 1 51n9 17:13 32 18:18 20 Micah 23:16 51n9 1:3 93, 95 25:15 256n36 3:6 19 25:17 256n36 3:7 19 25:28 256n36 6 163 28 20n50, 21 6:1–5 11 28:8 21n55 6:1–8 163n2 28:9 21n55 6:4–5 163 30:11 33, 42 6:5 10, 11, 163, 251n19 46:28 33, 42 48:45 203n40 Nahum 51:7–8 256n36 1:1 51n9 51:8–10 256 1:8 33 51:37 256 1:9 33

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Habakkuk 1:8 90n14 1:1 42 3:10 38 2:2–3 51n9 5:17 34 2:16 256n36 15:17 42 3:3 93n22 20:3 37 32:10 42 Zephaniah 36:2 42 1:14–17 46 1:18 33 Proverbs 1:8 37 Zechariah 4:1 37 1:1 262 8:33 37 6:12 242 19:20 37 9:9 279–280, 283 19:27 37 11:11 78 29:25 251n17 13:7 78 14 175 Daniel 14:4–5 26 4:7 240n40 5:15 240n40 Psalms 7 185 2:9 185n100 7:13 185, 187 9:18 228 11:6 256n36 Ezra 18:29 42 2:63 18n41 45:7–8 185n100 46:9 34, 42 Nehemiah 55:24 223 7:76 18n41 60:10 7 9:31 33 66:5 34, 42 13:1–3 254n29 68:22 96n32 13:2 10, 14, 136, 69:22 251 251n19 75:8 256n36 82:1 35, 42 1 Chronicles 83:7–9 7n14 1:1 204 104:20 42 5:29 11n33 106:36 251 108:10 7n14 2 Chronicles 119:165 251 9:25 51n8 140:5 251 12:15 51n8 141:9 251 19:12 51n8 35:15 51n8 Job 35:18 51n8 1:1 90n14

II. Apocrypha and Septuagint

4 Maccabees 5:2 257 Sirach 36:10 (MS B) 96 36:12 96n32

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III. Pseudepigrapha

2 Baruch 18:10 114, 116, 117, 118 4:4 112 18:10–12 118 18:10–13 104n16, 107, 116 1 Enoch xiii–xiv 18:11 114, 116, 117, 118 1 91–95, 99 18:12 114, 116, 118, 119 1–5 91, 97 18:13 116, 119, 252n20 1:1 92, 93, 94, 95, 97 18:13–14 164n5 1:2 88n4, 89, 90n13, 96 18:14 107, 119, 198n26 1:2–3 87, 88–89, 93, 94 18:18 114 1:3 88n4–n5, 90n12, 18:21 114 92, 95 19 104n17 1:3–4 93 20:2 111n31 1:3–7 92 32:2–4 112n37 1:3–9 91n17, 93n27 38:4 111n31 1:9 95 40:2 112n37 1:4 92, 93 1:9 92, 93 Pseudo-Phocylides, 5:4 96 Sententiae 6–32 91 31 257 6–36 91, 92 10:1 90n12 Sibylline Oracles xi 12:3 90n12 3 180n80 14–15 90, 96 4 180n80 14:1 90n12 5 179, 180, 183–188 15:1 90 5:46–48 185 17–36 90, 91 5:52–110 186 81 91 5:75–85 186n105 83–84 98 5:106–110 179 91–94 92 5:108–110 183 93:1 91 5:111–178 186 93:1–3 88n4 5:143 186 5:155 185n100 Liber Antiquitatum 5:155–158 187 Biblicarum xiv 5:155–161 179, 183 6:11 111n31 5:159 186 15:5 111n31 5:160–161 187 16 104n17 5:166–167 187 17 104n17 5:179–285 186 18 101–130 5:205–213 179n77 18:1–2 107 5:256–259 179, 183 18:2 109, 110, 111 5:257 183n94 18:2–7 107, 108, 111 5:264–265 187 18:3 109, 111, 117 5:278–280 186n105 18:4 109, 111 5:286–433 186 18:5 111, 112, 113, 114 5:345–352 179n77 18:5–6 111 5:353–356 186n105 18:6 113 5:403–405 186n105 18:7 114 5:413–414 185n100 18:7–9 107, 114 5:414 185n100 18:8 114, 115, 116, 119 5:414–428 179, 183 18:8–11 115 5:419 185n100 18:9 116 5:434 186

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5:434–439 186 Testament of Judah 5:482–483 179n77 24:1 185n100 5:484–488 186 24:1–4 185 5:495–496 186n105 24:5–6 185 5:512–531 179n77 5:526 185n100 Testament of Levi 18:3 185 Testament of Abraham 10–14 112

IV. Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Texts

1QapGen, XXI, 29 207n52 4Q174 1 I, 11–12 81 1QM 77n29, 81, 95 4Q175 75, 81, 91n16, 1QM XI, 6–7 76, 95, 273 165n12, 273 1QM X, 17–XI, 7 95 4Q175 1:9 71 1QM XI, 7 95 4Q175 4 90, 91 1QS 76n22 4Q201 91 1QS IX, 11 76n22 4Q201 1 88 1QSb V, 20 178 4Q202 91 1QSb V, 20–29 81 4Q252 81 2QNum 84, 86 4Q266 3 III, 17–25 77 2QNumb xiii 4Q269 5 77 4QNum XVII, 16 89n9 4Q285 81, 178 2Q7 xiii, 84, 86 4Q339 71, 82, 164 2Q9 xiii, 86 4Q378–379 75 2Q29 83 CD IV, 7 80 2Q29 1 xiii, 83, 84, 85, 86 CD VII, 9–VIII, 1 79 2Q29 1–4 85 CD VII, 9–VIII, 2 77 2Q29 3 xiii, 86 CD VII, 14–21 77 2Q29 4 86 CD VII,18–19 273 4QTestimonia 81 CD VII, 19–20 78 4Q23 72 CD VII, 20 178 4Q27 72, 73 CD XIX–XX 78 4Q161 81 CD XIX, 5–14 78 4Q174 76n22, 81

V. Philo of Alexandria

De agricultura 35 150 96 145–146 39 135n12, 151 136 154 159 137, 268 143 155 144 156n29 De congressu eruditionis gratia 159 156 51–53 143 162 156 64 155 67 143 De cherubim 67–68 156n29 9–10 147 32–33 141 De ebrietate 33–34 271 70–71 158

De confusione linguarum De fuga et inventione 33–35 135n14, 150 209 143

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De gigantibus De sobrietate 52 157n30 9–10 147

De Josepho De somniis 104 135n14, 149 1.102 135n12, 142 125 135n14, 149 1.220 148, 149 2.281–282 150–151 Legum allegoriae 1.74 135n12, 142 De specialibus legibus 3.41 135n12, 142 3.54 151n25 3.54 135n12 3.166–167 158–159 De vita contemplativa 3.206 142 4 142 3.232–233 135n14, 152 31 154 3.233 152 De vita Mosis De migratione Abrahami 1.92 149 71–82 157–158 1.263–293 139, 140 76–85 160 1.267–268 271 109–119 113n39 1.276–277 238 111 137–138 1.277 139, 270n14 113–114 138 1.278–279 139–140 171–172 135n12, 142 1.289 144n21 1.292–301 15 De mutatione nominum 1.293–299 270 202–203 138 1.294–298 163 203 143 1.295–299 252n20 208 143 2.211–212 151, 156n29

De opiﬁcio mundi Quaestiones in Genesin 45–46 135n14, 145 3.33 148 157 142 Quis rerum divinarum heres sit De posteritate Caini 85 142 34 155n28 246 143 35 143, 146 302–303 153 53 146–147 304–306 153–154 85–88 156 101 154 Quod deterius potiori 131 147 insidiari soleat 150 135n14, 142, 148 35 146, 155 38–39 150, 155 De praemiis et poenis 41–42 155–156 8 135n12, 142 70–71 135–136 25 155 72 136 58 135n14, 147 73–75 137 95 184 Quod deus sit immutabilis 181 141, 144 De providentia, frag. 1.1 135n12, 142–143 Quod omnis probus liber sit 1–5 143–144

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VI. Flavius Josephus

Against Apion 4.129 164n5 1.162–165 140 4.131–164 253 4.132 254n29 Jewish Antiquities 4.135 254n29 1.13.2–4 112n35 4.137 259 3.214–218 18n43 4.145–149 254n29 4.6.4 113n39 5.286–317 254n29 4.100–158 164 4.118 274 Jewish War 4.126–130 252n20, 253 6.312–315 164n8

VII. Rabbinic and later Jewish Texts

1. Mishnah Hullin Sukkot 2:7 259 3 176n58 4 176n58 Sanhedrin 10:1–2 214n7

2. Tosefta Hullin 2:13 259 Shabbat 15:9 168

Sanhedrin 13:2 228n36 Sotah 4:19 265

3. Palestinian Talmud Ta’anit 29 228n35 4:8.27 170, 173 105 192n8 68 170, 173 Shabbat 19:2 168 Sanhedrin 10:2 228n35

4. Babylonian Talmud Berachot 18 115n45 Sanhedrin 90–106 xv, 214, 216 Yoma 5 112n37 93 171 103:1 220n22 Yebamoth 72 168 105 193n12 105:1 217n14, 226–227 Gittin 57a 279n15 105:2 217n14, 219n19, 220n22 106 198n28, 253n25, 279n15 Sotah 11 198n28 106:1 221n24, 223n28

Niddah 31 193n12

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5. Midrashim Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael Genesis Rabbah Jehtro, tractate Amalek 2 221n27 39:7 115n45 44:12 112 Mekhilta de Rabbi Shimon 55:3 219n20 4 112n37 Exodus Rabbah Sifre Bamidbar 1:9 198n28 156 225n32 157 217n18, 226–227 Numbers Rabbah 20:6 111n30 Sifre Debarim 20:14–15 269n13 243 225n32 256 225n32 Lamentations Rabbah 2:2 173 Sifre Zuta 7 225n32 Ekha Rabbati (ed. Buber) 101 173 Pirque de Rabbi Eliezer 22 204n45

6. Targumim Targum Jonathan 24:25 198n26 Gen 22:1 112n35 31:8 198 31:16 198n26 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis Deuteronomy 12:3 198 32:39 205n51 27:29 198 34:3 205n51

Exodus Targum Neoﬁti 9:21 198 Genesis 40:11 205n51 12:3 198n27, 198n29

Leviticus Numbers 26:44 205n51 24:9 198n29 31:6 164n5 Numbers 22:30 198 Targum Onkelos 23:9 198 Numbers 23:10 198 24:15–19 273 23:21 198 24:9 198 Deuteronomy 24:14 198, 252n20 33:20 204n43 24:17 205n51

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VIII. Greek and Latin Pagan Texts

1. Authors Acusilaus of Argos (edn. Jacoby, FGrH) Mirabilia 2 F 28 62 4 65n90

Aelian, Varia Historia Appian, Bella Civilia 12.50 65n87 2.90 187

Aeschines Apuleius 2.78 54n28 Metamorphoses III.25 280n21 Aeschylus VIII.24–27 282n28 Agamemnon 104–159 52n18 IX.11 281n26 T 70 and F 451n 49n2 X.19 281n27

Aesop Aristophanes 266 283 Frogs 158–161 283 Knights 197–210 54n29 Alexis Wasps 15–19 54n29 F 117 KA 62n72 Arrianos (edn. Jacoby, FGrH) Anonymous 157 F 102 61n67 Nostoi 56 Athenaeus Scriptores historiae Augustae 7.297 57 13.5 236 Bacchylides Antikleides (edn. Jacoby, FGrH) 11.39–110 62n72 140 F 17 61n67 (edn. Maehler) frag. 4 62n73 Antoninus Liberalis 14 64n85 Callimachus, Fifth Hymn 75–76 63n79 Apollodorus, Epitome 121–122 63n79 1.9.11 61n68, 61n69 2.2.2 61, 62n72 Cassius Dio, Historia romana 3.3.1 64n80 68.32.1–2 182 6.2 56n37 68.32.1–3 181 6.3 57n45 69.12.1–2 166 6.19 57n41 7.15 280n20 Cicero, De divinatione I.88 57n41 Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica Conon (edn. Jacoby, FGrH) 1.65–66 53n25 24 F 1 57n45 1.66 56n34 24 F 6 57n45 1.80 53n25 26 F 1 56n37 1.1083 53n25 26 F 6 56n37 2.923 53n25 3.543 53n25 Dares 3.916–917 53n25 18 56n36 4.1502–1503 53n25

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Dictys 2.858 57, 64 1.17 56n36 5.148 64n80 6.76 55 Diphilus 8.247 52n18 F 125 66n93 12.196 57 12.200–209 52n18, 54 Empedocles 13.566–570 64n80 B 112 65 13.576–600 54n26 115 DK 65 24.310–311 52n18

Euphorion (edn. Powell) Odyssey frags. 97–98 56n36 10.237ff. 280n20 11.291 61 Hermippus of Smyrna, 11.291–297 61n66 De Pythagora (Stern no. 25) 140n19 15.225–256 50, 61n69 15.225–55 61n66 Herodotus 15.238–239 61 2.49 61n67 3.1 51 Hyginus, Fabulae 7.228 54n27 128 53n24 9.33–36 67n97 9.34 61n69 Iamblichus, Vita Pythagorea 28 65n90 Hesiod F 37 MW 61 Justinus Junianus, F 37.1–9 MW 61n66 Historiarum Philippicarum libri F 131 MW 61 XLIV 37.2.1–3 236 F 133 MW 62n72 F 136 MW 50, 64n80 Pseudo-Kallisthenes F 136.3 MW 64n81 Romance of Alexander the Great F 203 MW 51 1.1.3 235n13 F 261 MW 61n66 1.12 235 F 270–272 MW 61n66 F 278 MW 56 Pseudo-Lucian F 279 MW 57n42 Ass Opera 696–697 63 15.1 280 35–37 282n28 Pseudo-Hesiod 38 281n26 Aspis 49 281n27 181 53 Lycophron, Alexandra Melampodeia 424–425 56n37 F 271–272 61 439–446 57

Historia Augusta, Hadrianus Lycurgus (edn. Blass) 5.2 180n81 frag. 14.5a 65n90 14.1–2 167 14.2 168n22 Modestinus, Digesta 48.8.11.1 168 Homer Iliad Nicolaus of Damascus (edn. Jacoby, 1.69–72 55 FGrH ) 2.831 64 90 F 16 59n51

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Ovid, Metamorphoses Symposium 12.524 53n24 201DE 66n95

Pausanias Pliny the Elder 1.43.4 64n80 Naturalis historia 2.25.9 62n72 2.28ff. 235 5.5.10 62n72 5.96 57n39 5.17.10 53n21 10.137 61n68 9.16.1 56n32 9.26.1 64n85 Plutarch, De vitioso pudore 528E 270n15 Pherecydes (edn. Jacoby, FGrH) Polybius 3 F 33 61n66, 61n68 34.2.6 64n85 3 F 92a 56n32, 56n37 3 F 114 62n72 Porphyry 3 F 115 64n80 Frag. 12 234 3 F 142 56n36, 56n37 Posidippus Philostratus 26 AB 67 Lives of the Sophists I.481 138–139 31 AB 52n18 The Life of Apollonius of 34 AB 55n31 Tyana I.5 236n19 35 AB 55

Photius, Bibliotheca Pratinas (edn. Schnell) 129 280 4 F 9 65n87

Pindar Propertius Pythian Odes 2.4.1 61n66 4 63n75 4.126 60n63 Claudios Ptolemaios 4.189–191 53 Tetrabiblos 235

Isthmian Odes Sextus Empiricus 6.50 52n18 Adversus Dogmaticos 2.275 152n26 Adversus Mathematicos 8.275 152n26 Olympian Odes 6.16–17 54 Silius Italicus 6.57ff. 63n78 3.521 53n25 13.75 64n81 Sophocles Paeanes 4.28 60n63 Antigone 999–1004 56n32 frag. 51d (edn. Maehler) 64n85 frag. 52g 13 (edn. Maehler) 64n85 The Demand for Helen’s Return (edn. Radt) Plato F 180 56 Republic F 391 (Radt) 64n80 III 391E 140 VII 514ff. 144 Statius, Thebais 3.521 53n25 The Statesman 291C 149 303C 149

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Strabo Valerius Flaccus 8.3.19 62n72 1.207 53n25 9.2.34 64n85 1.234 53n25 14.4.3 56n37 14.5.16 57n41 Vettius Valens Anthologies 235 Tacitus, Historiae 2.3.1 59n58 Vitruvius 8.3.51.5 62n72 Theopompus (edn. Jacoby, FGrH) 115 F 77 65n91 Xanthos (edn. Jacoby, FGrH) 115 F 103 57n39 765 F 17 59n51

Pompeius Trogus Xenophon, Anabasis Philippical History 236 6.1.23 52n18

Pomponius Mela 1.14.79 57n39 1.88 57n45

2. Papyri Kölner Papyri Papyri Herculanenses 1609 VIII 62n72 VI.245 57n44 P. Yadin [= 5/6 Hevev] 52 175, 176 Oxyrhynchus Papyri 57 175, 176 20.2256.4 49 59 175 53.3698 53

3. Inscriptions Donner & Röllig, Kanaanäische VII.2–7–8 60n63 und aramäische Inschriften VII.207–208 64n83 A I 16 59n55 VII.216 60n63 II. 15 59n55 VII.223 60n63 III.11 59n55 VII.232 60n63 C IV 12 59n55 I. Perge Hansen, Carmina epigraphica 106 57n39 Graeca saeculi IV a Chr. n no. 519 54 Linear B PY Sa 774 58 Hawkins, Corpus of Hieroglyphic KN De 1381 58 Luwian Inscriptions I.1–3 A I.16 58n47 SEG A II.5 58n47 26.974 60n63 A III.1 58n47 29.361 54n27 32.218.41 64n85 I. Ephesos 32.218.80 64n85 2 59n52 35.626 66 13 59n53 36.1011.24 59n52 36.1011.26 59n52 Inscriptiones Graecae 36.1011.28 59n52 I3 1147.129 54n27 36.1011.51 59n52 II2 6539 60n63 37.884 II 35 59n53 V 1.141 66

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IX. Christian Texts

1. New Testament Matthew 8:4 257n38 1:1 234 8:7 257n38 1:23 240n38 8:10 257n38 2 xvi, 235, 245 10:19 257n38 2:1–11 235 10:28 257 2:1–12 7, 233, 237–239, 241, 246 James 2:2 8n16, 236, 240 1:14 268 2:3 234 2:4 240 2 Peter 2:6 239 1–2 272n17 2:9 234 1:16 273 2:10 241 1:16–18 266, 274 2:16 243n57 1:17 274 8:11 240n39 1:19 273, 274 11:7 279 1:19–21 266, 272 1:20–21 274 Mark 2:1–3 266, 272–273 6:1–4 297 2:2 272 11 175 2:4–11 272 11:1–10 278n11 2:7 272 11:2 279 2:12–16 266, 267, 271 11:3 278 2:12 266, 269, 272 11:7 278n10 2:12–14 269 2:14 268, 270–271, 272 Luke 2:13 270–271 2:9 245 2:13–14 266 2:39 234 2:15 136, 265–266, 19:35 278n10 270–271, 272, 273 2:15–16 266–268 Acts 2:16 262, 266, 268, 269 4:18 268 2:18 268–269, 270, 272 13:6 240n40 3:5–13 273 13:8 240n40 3:10 273 13:10 267 15:20 260–261 Jude 15:29 257n38, 260–261 4 266, 272 17:28 xi 5 272 19:19 240n40 10 269 21:25 257n38, 260–261 11 136, 265, 267, 271 12 268, 270 Romans 12–16 268 8:20 268 Revelations Ephesians 1:1–8 248 4:17 268 1:2 262 1:3 262 1 Corinthians 1:4 248 8–10 259n43 1:4–5 248 8:1 257n38 1:9 262

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1:10 248, 249 3:8 249 1:10–3:22 248n6 3:9 261 1:10–4:1 249 3:12 250n11 1:13–16 248 3:13 249n10 1:16 248 3:14 248 2 xvi 3:15 249 2:1 248 3:21 250n11 2:1–3:22 248 3:22 249n10 2:2 249 4:1 248n6 2:4 249, 262 4:1–22:5 248n6 2:6 247, 251n15 4:2 249n7 2:7 249n10, 250 4:7–8 275n1 2:8 248 6:9 262 2:9 261 9:21 255 2:11 249n10, 250 10:11 262 2:12 248, 249, 263 13:10 250n11 2:12–17 247 13:16 256 2:13 250 14:8 255, 256 2:13–15 249 14:9–11 256 2:14 164, 247, 249, 14:10 256–257 250–255, 257–258, 14:12 250n11 260–263, 271 16:2 256 2:15 247, 250, 251n15 16:19 256–257 2:16 249, 263 17:2 255 2:17 249, 250 17:3 249n7 2:18 248 17:4 255 2:19 249 18:2–3 255–256 2:20 249, 251, 257n38, 18:3 255 258, 260–262, 271 18:6 256–257 2:20–21 247, 255, 18:9 255 2:22 249 19:2 255 2:24 xvi 19:13 262 2:26–27 250n11 20:4 262 2:29 249n10 21:10 249n7 3:1 248, 249 21:27 250n11 3:3 249 22:6–10 262 3:5 250n11 22:6–21 248 3:6 249n10 22:14 250n11 3:7 248 22:18 262

2. Patristic and other Christian Writings Acts of John Acts of Thomas 60–61 278 31–33 276 32 277 Acts of Paul 39 276–277, 278 Hamburg Papyrus 1–3 276 39–41 276, 278n10, 282 40 276 Acts of Peter 41 277 9–12 276, 278 68–81 276 69 278 Acts of Philip 69–81 277 3:5–9 276 71 281n27 8 276 12 276

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Ambrosius of Milan, In Lucam Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions 2.48 293 4.27.3 244

Amphilochius of Iconium, Cosmas Indicopleustes, In Christi natalem Topographia Christiana 3 291 5.112 291

Arabic Infancy Gospel Cyril of Alexandria, 1.1 245 Epistula festalis 20–22 281 14.128–303 295

Athanasius of Alexandria, Didache De Incarnatione 6:2–3 260–261 33 290 6:3 257n38

Athenagoras, Legatio Diodore of Tarsus, De fato 9.1 297n36 53 293

Augustine Ephrem the Syrian, De civitate Dei 18.18 281n25 In Nativitatem 1 291 De diversis quaestionibus ad 26.2.1–2 243n57 Simplicianum 2.2 299 Eusebius 2.8–9 298 Demonstratio evangelica 9.1 293 Sermon on Epiphany 200 294n28 Historia ecclesiastica 202 294n28 4.2.3 181 4.2.4 180n79 Quaestiones ad Heptateuchum 288 4 6.1–4 167 4.6.2 170n30 Basil of Caesarea 4.6.3–4 182 In generationem Christi 6.41 257n40 6 296 Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis Cave of Treasures 6.1 235 35 244 35:15ff. 244 Gregorius of Nyssa, 35:18 244 In diem natalem Christi 35:19 244 245.3–246.2 293 45–46 243 45:2–3 243 Hippolytus, Commentary on Daniel 242 45:4 243 45:5 243 Hieronymus 45:9 243 Commentarium in Matthaeum/ 45:11 243 Commentary on Matthew 2.2 293 In Iesaiam 7.9.24 242 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis Vulgate 1.15.69 244 Num 4:14 252n20 1.21.134.4 57n45 Num 4:17 289 6.18 297n36 Historia monachorum 21.17 280

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Ignatius of Antioch, Leo Magnus Letter to the Ephesians Sermo 32 2.4 294n28 19.2 246n71 Sermo 34 4.2 292n18

Irenaeus of Lyon, Lausiac History 17.6–9 281 Adversus haereses 3.9.2 242, 292 Martyrium Agapae 3.1–5 257n37 John Chrysostom, 5.2 257n37 Homiliae in Matthaeum 7:3 234n7 Martyrdom of Pionius 257

Pseudo-Chrysostomus, Opus Orosius Imperfectum in Matthaeum homilia 7.12.6–7 182n90 2.2 294 Petrus Chrysologus John of Damascus Sermo 49 297 In Nativitatem 6 293 Origen Justin Martyr Contra Celsum Apologia 1.60 242 1.6 170n30 Homiliae in Numeros 1.31 170n30 13 279n15 1.32 289 13–19 287 1.36.1 297n36 13.7 242 13.7.4 293 Dialogus cum Tryphone 14.3 294 34.8 257n38 15.1 296 35.1 257n38 15.4 242 35.6 257n38 18.4 290 106.4 242 126.1 290

3. Gnostic Writings Apocalypse of Peter 170n30

X. Koran and Koranic Commentaries

Sūrat al-arāf Muqātil ibn Sulaymān 7:175 305 Tafsīr Muqātil ibn Sulaymān 7:175–176 xviii, 303 (edn. Abdallāh Mamūd Shaāta) II.74–75 304 Al-Māwardī, Tafsīr al-Māwardī al-musammā al-nukat wa-l-uyūn al-Naās, Maānī al-qurān al-karīm (edn. Khir Muammad Khir) (edn. Muammad Alī al-Sābūnī) II.80 307 III.103–5.) 306

Mujāhid al-Samarqandī, Tafsīr al-Samarqandī Tafsīr Mujāhid (edn. Abd-al-Ramān al-musammā Bar al-Ulūm li-Abī al-āhir ibn Muammad al-Sūratī) al-Laythnar ibn Muammad ibn Amad I.250 305 ibn Ibrāhīm al-Samarqandī 1.582–583 306–307

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al-anānī, Tafsīr al-Qur ān lil-imām al-abarī, Tafsīr al-abarī Abd -al-Razzāq ibn Hishām al-anānī al-Musammā Jāmi al-Bayān fī Tafsīr (edn. Muafā Muslim Muammad) al-Qur ān II.243 305 VI.118–125 305–306

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THEMES IN BIBLICAL NARRATIVE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

ISSN 1388-3909

1. GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ F. & G.P. LUTTIKHUIZEN (eds). Interpretations of the Flood. 1999. ISBN 90 04 11253 7 2. LUTTIKHUIZEN, G.P. (ed.). Paradise Interpreted. Representations of Biblical Paradise in Judaism and Christianity. 1999. ISBN 90 04 11331 2 3. LUTTIKHUIZEN, G.P. (ed.). The Creation of Man and Woman. Interpreta- tions of the Biblical Narratives in Jewish and Christian traditions. 2000. ISBN 90 04 11671 0 4. NOORT, E. & E. TIGCHELAAR. (eds). The Sacrifice of Isaac. The Aqedah (Genesis 22) and its Interpretations. 2002. ISBN 90 04 12434 9 5. LUTTIKHUIZEN, G.P. (ed.). Eve’s Children. The Biblical Stories Retold and Interpreted in Jewish and Christian Traditions. 2003. ISBN 90 04 12615 5 6. AUFFARTH, C. & L.T. STUCKENBRUCK (eds). The Fall of the Angels. 2004. ISBN 90 04 12668 6 7. NOORT, E. & E. TIGCHELAAR (eds). Sodom’s Sin. Genesis 18-19 and its Interpretations. 2004. ISBN 90 04 14048 4 8. VAN KOOTEN, G.H. (ed.). The Creation of Heaven and Earth. Re-interpretations of Genesis I in the Context of Judaism, Ancient Philosophy, Chris- tianity, and Modern Physics. 2005. ISBN 90 04 14235 5 9. VAN KOOTEN, G.H. (ed.). The Revelation of the Name YHWH to Moses. Perspectives from Judaism, the Pagan Graeco-Roman World, and Early Christianity. 2006. ISBN 978 90 04 15398 1 10. POMYKALA, K.E. (ed.). Israel in the Wilderness. Interpretations of the Biblical Narratives in Jewish and Christian Traditions. 2008. ISBN 978 90 04 16424 6 11. VAN KOOTEN, G.H. & J. VAN RUITEN (eds). The Prestige of the Pagan Prophet Balaam in Judaism, Early Christianity and Islam. 2008. ISBN 978 90 04 16564 9