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Ford-Judgment in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham FINAL Abstract Judgment in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham By: Jason Ford When the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem’s temple in 70 CE, it altered Jewish imagination and compelled religious and community leaders to devise messages of consolation. These messages needed to address both the contemporary situation and maintain continuity with Israel’s religious history. 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham are three important witnesses to these new messages hope in the face of devastation. In this dissertation I focus on how these three authors used and explored the important religious theme of judgment. Regarding 4 Ezra, I argue that by focusing our reading on judgment and its role in the text’s message we uncover 4 Ezra’s essential meaning. 4 Ezra’s main character misunderstands the implications of the destroyed Temple and, despite rounds of dialogue with and angelic interlocutor, he only comes to see God’s justice for Israel in light of the end-time judgment God shows him in two visions. Woven deeply into the fabric of his story, the author of 2 Baruch utilizes judgment for different purposes. With the community’s stability and guidance in question, 2 Baruch promises the coming of God’s judgment on the wicked nations, as well as the heavenly reward for Israel itself. In that way, judgment serves a pedagogical purpose in 2 Baruch–to stabilize and inspire the community through its teaching. Of the three texts, Apocalypse of Abraham explores the meaning of judgment must directly. It also offers the most radical portrayal of judgment. For Apocalypse of Abraham, the violent judgment of Israel's !1 enemies serves as Israel’s own reward for their faithfulness. Apocalypse of Abraham’s community gets to avenge their own suffering. Through close textual analysis of judgment in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham, my dissertation offers a more robust understanding of Early Judaism’s theological development in the years after 70 CE. !2 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Rice University Department of Religion for the support I have received over the last several years. I’ve been inspired and encouraged by the faculty and my peers. I am particularly thankful to Dr. Matthias Henze for serving as the chairman of my dissertation committee. I have learned much from him, both inside and outside the classroom. I wouldn’t have made it to where I’m at without his encouragement and support. His incisive comments have helped me at each stage of this project. I’m also thankful for the time and attention of my other committee members, Dr. April DeConick and Dr. Scott McGill. My family has encouraged and supported my intellectual interests from the beginning. A special thanks to my mom, grandmother, and brother for all the love. Most importantly, thank you to Hadley, my wife. Your love and belief in me have meant everything. !3 Contents Abstract 1 Acknowledgments 3 Contents 4 Introduction 7 The Focus of This Study 7 Defining Judgment 8 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham 10 Description of the Study 12 Chapter 1: Judgment and Justice: On Reading 4 Ezra 16 Introduction 16 A Narrative Reading of 4 Ezra 18 4 Ezra’s Structure 22 Ezra the Convert: Traditional Readings of 4 Ezra 26 Making Sense of 4 Ezra’s Genre Changes and Ezra’s Character 30 Points of Emphasis: Which View Does 4 Ezra’s Author Privilege? 42 Transformation with a Purpose: Emulation 46 Conclusion 51 Chapter 2: Judgment in 4 Ezra 54 Setting the Stage: Ezra and Uriel in 4 Ezra’s First Episode 54 Judgment Passage 1: 4 Ezra 5.30 55 Judgment Passage 2: 4 Ezra 5.40-42 57 Judgment Passage 3: 4 Ezra 6.1-6 60 Judgment Passage 4: 4 Ezra 6.18-29 62 Judgment Passage 5: 4 Ezra 7.11-25 65 Judgment Passage 6: 4 Ezra 7.27-29 68 Judgment Passage 7: 4 Ezra 7.32-44 70 Judgment Passage 8: 4 Ezra 7.59-61 75 Judgment Passage 9: 4 Ezra 7.64-74 76 Judgment Passage 10: 4 Ezra 7.78-80 80 Judgment Passage 11: 4 Ezra 7.102-104 81 Judgment Passage 12: 4 Ezra 7.113-15 83 Judgment Passage 13: 4 Ezra 8.15-17 84 Judgment Passage 14: 4 Ezra 8.37-39, 45 85 Judgment Passage 15: 4 Ezra 8.59-61 86 Judgment Passage 16: 4 Ezra 11.41-44 88 Judgment Passage 17: 4 Ezra 13.25-28 89 !4 Judgment Passage 18: 4 Ezra 13.48-50 92 Judgment Passage 19: 4 Ezra 13.52-55 93 Judgment Passage 20: 4 Ezra 14.31-35 95 Conclusion 97 Chapter 3: Judgment in 2 Baruch 100 Judgment Passage 1: 2 Baruch 5.2-3 103 Judgment Passage 2: 2 Baruch 13.3-8 106 Judgment Passage 3: 2 Baruch 14.8-19 109 Judgment Passage 4: 2 Baruch 24.1-2, 25.1-4 114 Judgment Passage 5: 2 Baruch 30.1-5 116 Judgment Passage 6: 2 Baruch 39.7, 40.1-3 120 Judgment Passage 7: 2 Baruch 48.17-24 124 Judgment Passage 8: 2 Baruch 48.31-41 127 Judgment Passage 9: 2 Baruch 72.2-73.4 132 Judgment Passage 10: 2 Baruch 85.9-13 135 Conclusion 139 Chapter 4: Judgment in Apocalypse of Abraham 142 Introduction 143 Himmelfarb and Transformation 145 Orlov and Priestly Traditions 147 Henze and Judgment 150 Judgment Passage 1: Apocalypse of Abraham 5 152 Judgment Passage 2: Apocalypse of Abraham 7 154 Judgment Passage 3: Apocalypse of Abraham 13 163 Judgment Passage 4: Apocalypse of Abraham 29 170 Judgment Passage 5: Apocalypse of Abraham 29.14-31 174 Conclusion 178 Conclusion 180 Bibliography 184 !5 !6 Introduction THE FOCUS OF THIS STUDY This dissertation is a study of the role that judgment plays in three important texts for understanding Early Judaism. My central argument is that by evaluating the theme of judgment in these texts we better understand their purpose, their community’s interests, and, ultimately, better grasp the innovative theology of Jewish thinkers in the early decades of the 2nd-century CE. The passages that deal with judgment are deeply nationalistic and frequently violent. Despite this, investigating how and why these thinkers discussed judgment the way that they did provides us with necessary information to fully grasp their purposes and what they valued. These three authors, in particular, felt a disconnect between their inherited religious traditions and the possibility of living out the tenets of that faith in their contemporary situation. Whether offering intellectual resolution, encouragement for certain practices, or outright vengeance, these authors utilized judgment as a central feature in their discourse. For 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Apocalypse of Abraham, judgment was one theme that helped them calm their anxieties within their community and clarify people’s confusion over their unknown future In one sense, the authors were concerned with how judgment on the human level of history fit with God’s overarching nature and justice. Because this issue holds such vast consequences for authors’ understandings of– and relation to their God, numerous other issues are tied up in the analysis of judgment. Haim Shapira captures this sentiment perfectly: “The relation between human judgment and Divine justice is not a purely theological matter; it has implications for the nature of the judicial process, the perception of the judges’ authority, the !7 laws of evidence, the degree of judicial discretion, and other matters.”1 In other words, one’s religious conclusion about judgment affects how one views the logic of the theological system, the trust that the community should place in their God, the effectiveness of their religious teachings and the need to adhere to them, as well as the goodness of God in this context. DEFINING JUDGMENT The best definition of judgment as it relates to Early Judaism that I’ve encountered comes from Robert Farrar Capon. In a book on the judgment parables of Jesus, Capon describes the theme of judgment as “decisive, history-altering and history-fulfilling action on the part of God.”2 This definition is notable for several reasons. First, it removes the negative connotation so often loaded into our use of “judgment” in religious contexts. When the Hebrew prophets announce the Day of Judgment, it sounds like a bad thing. And it is for many. But the word is not limited to negative connotations. Second, Capon captures what the word represented in its first- and second-century context. It’s about the actions of God that fundamentally shift the order of the world’s events. Third, and perhaps most importantly, Capon also includes God’s promises to his community in the definition. The actions of God will fulfill history—that is, they make good on what God has told his people that he would do for them through their prophets and teachers. When discussing judgment, particularly in eschatological contexts, there is lack of precision over the details of what actually constitutes judgment. Because judges and courtrooms and pronouncements of judgments are so clear, we frequently refer to these matters without the 1 Haim Shapira, “‘For the Judgment is God’s’: Human Judgment and Divine Justice in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish Tradition,” Journal of Law and Religion 27.2 (2011-12): 273-328, 273-4. 2 Robert Farrar Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 347. !8 need to clarify.3 But when it comes to the descriptions of eschatological teachings in Early Jewish texts, we’d benefit from more precision on the matter.
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