Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan

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Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament Herausgeber / Editor Jörg Frey (Zürich) Mitherausgeber / Associate Editors Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford) · James A. Kelhoffer (Uppsala) Hans-Josef Klauck (Chicago, IL) · Tobias Nicklas (Regensburg) J. Ross Wagner (Durham, NC) 360 Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan Contexts, Traditions, and Influences Edited by Matthew Goff, Loren T. Stuckenbruck, and Enrico Morano Mohr Siebeck M G is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism in the Department of Religion at Florida State University. L£¤ T. S¥¦§¤¨£¥¦§ is Professor of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism in the Protestant Faculty of Theology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. E¤£ª¦ M£¤ is retired teacher of Classics in High Schools and the current President of the International Association of Manichaean Studies (IAMS). ISBN 978-3-16-154531-3 ISSN 0512-1604 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2016 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohr.de This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to repro- ductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was typeset by Martin Fischer in Tübingen, printed by Gulde-Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. Preface The present volume contains the proceedings of a conference organized by Matthew Goff (Florida State University) and Loren Stuckenbruck (Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität). The colloquium was entitled “Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Ancient Contexts, Traditions, and Influences.” It convened on June 6–8, 2014, at the Studienhaus, an old farm house which has been renovat- ed for conference use, located near Munich at the foothills of the Alps. It was a beautiful and relaxing venue for our meeting. Scholars from a range of countries participated, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Israel, and the United States. Loren Stuckenbruck first suggested holding a conference on the giants during the 2013–14 academic year, during which time Matthew Goff was at LMU as a Gastwissenschaftler, on a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The conference was generously supported by the Hum- boldt Foundation and the organizers are grateful for this funding. The conference would not have been possible without the assistance of the Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. In par- ticular Ursula Danninger provided a great deal of highly effective organizational support, which was instrumental for the success of the conference. We thank her for her help. We are also grateful to Seth Bledsoe for his willingness to assist in myriad ways during the conference. The meeting was also enriched by the par- ticpation of several attendees. They include Peter Machinist, Shani Tzoref, Seth Bledsoe, Matthias Hoffmann, Andrew Mein, and Ted Erho. In addition to the contributors of this volume, quality papers were also delivered at the conference by Walther Sallaberger, Annette Steudel, and Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst. Critical editorial support for the present volume was provided by Kyle Roark, a graduate student at FSU, who went through the entire manuscript and prepared the indices. We thank him for his work. Stuckenbruck and Goff are also grateful that Enrico Morano, one of the participants at the conference, agreed to serve as a co-editor for the proceedings volume, because of his expertise in Manichaeism and Central Asian languages. The editors would also like to express thanks to Mohr Siebeck for accepting the proceedings in its prestigious WUNT series. Henning Ziebritzki in particular deserves acknowledgment for his diligent leadership in seeing this book to press. We also thank the Israel Antiquities Authority for agreeing to have images of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls published in this volume. VI Preface We dedicate this book to the memory of Józef Milik and Walter Bruno Hen- ning, two pioneers of research on the giants in ancient Judaism and Manichaeism, on whose mighty shoulders we stand. July 2015 The editors Table of Contents Table of Contents Preface ........................................................ V List of Abbreviations ............................................ IX Matthew Goff Introduction .................................................... 1 Part One Gibborim and Gigantes Antecedents, Reception, and Comparative Contexts from the Hebrew Bible and Greek Literature Brian R. Doak The Giant in a Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond .................................. 13 Samantha Newington Greek Titans and Biblical Giants ................................... 33 Michael Tuval “Συναγωγὴ γιγάντων” (Prov 21:16): The Giants in the Jewish Literature in Greek ....................................................... 41 Part Two Tales of Giants in their Ancient Jewish Context The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Watchers, and Daniel Joseph L. Angel The Humbling of the Arrogant and the “Wild Man” and “Tree Stump” Traditions in the Book of Giants and Daniel 4 ........................ 61 VIII Table of Contents Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe Throne Theophanies, Dream Visions, and Righteous(?) Seers: Daniel, the Book of Giants, and 1 Enoch Reconsidered ................ 81 Ida Fröhlich Giants and Demons .............................................. 97 Matthew Goff The Sons of the Watchers in the Book of Watchers and the Qumran Book of Giants: Contexts and Prospects .................................. 115 Loren T. Stuckenbruck The Book of Giants among the Dead Sea Scrolls: Considerations of Method and a New Proposal on the Reconstruction of 4Q530 .......... 129 Part Three Enochic Traditions in Central Asia and China Exploring Connections and Affinities between Giants in Ancient Judaism and Manichaeism Gábor Kósa The Book of Giants Tradition in the Chinese Manichaica ............... 145 Enrico Morano Some New Sogdian Fragments Related to Mani’s Book of Giants and the Problem of the Influence of Jewish Enochic Literature ................ 187 John C. Reeves Jacob of Edessa and the Manichaean Book of Giants? .................. 199 Jens Wilkens Remarks on the Manichaean Book of Giants: Once Again on Mahaway’s Mission to Enoch ............................................... 213 Index of Citations of Ancient Texts ................................ 231 Modern Author Index ........................................... 251 Introduction Matthew Goff Florida State University The essays of this volume constitute the proceedings of a conference, the “Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan.” This was the first colloquium devoted specifically to the giants of Enochic tradition. As scholars of Second Temple Judaism are aware, over the past generation there has been a tremendous rise of interest in Enochic literature and traditions.1 In terms of scholarly attention devoted to 1 Enoch and related texts, researchers have naturally focused on the watchers myth, the descent of two hundred angels to earth. They have sex with women who sire children, who are commonly referred to as giants. The sons of the watchers, according to the Enochic Book of Watchers, were dangerous and vi- olent “bastards” who rampaged across the earth, killing humans and even eating them (1 En. 10:9). This disturbing violence is presented as the iniquity that arose on the earth which triggered Noah’s flood. This tale, it is now widely recognized, was popular in antiquity and it has been studied from a variety of perspectives. Our conference was born out of the conviction that the giants deserve to be a more central topic of consideration in on-going scholarly discussion on Enochic literature. The crimes of the giants have often been considered in terms of the question of the “origin of evil,” a major theme of scholarly interest in Enochic literature and apocalypticism in general.2 Despite the growth of scholarship on Enochic literature and traditions, many basic questions and issues regarding the sons of the watchers require further analysis. Why are the children of the angels “giants” and how should we understand what a “giant” is? What, on the basis of the clues that are provided in Enochic literature, did people at that time think these giants looked like? While there has been much interest in exploring 1 For recent literature on this topic, see, for example, Angela Kim Harkins, Kelley Coblentz Bautch, and John C. Endres, S. J., eds., The Fallen Angels Traditions: Second Temple Develop- ments and Reception History (CBQMS 53; Washington, D. C.: The Catholic Biblical Associa- tion of America, 2014); Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Sec- ond Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts (WUNT I.335; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014). 2 Archie T. Wright, The Origin of Evil Spirits: The Reception of Genesis 6:1–4 in Early Jewish Literature, rev. ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015); John J. Collins, “The Origin of Evil in Apocalyptic Literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in idem, Seers, Sibyls and Sages in Hellenis- tic-Roman Judaism (JSJSup 54; Leiden: Brill, 1997), 287–99. 2 Matthew Goff the Mesopotamian cultural background of the watchers, what Mesopotamian texts and traditions can better
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