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GEN. 1,26 AND 2,7 IN , , AND +)

BY

JARL FOSSUM

Bilthoven,The

The scope of this paper is to restore an ancient Jewish on Gen. 1,26 and trace its subsequent development. The tannaite and amoraic interpretations of Gen. 1,26 do not differ from other rabbinical expositions of Scriptural passages in that they show us a body of scholars agreeing with each other in all fundamental respects, but-mainly through the works of J. NEUSNER and his students-it has become clear that we cannot trust this picture. In order to recover the original form of the haggadah, we should com- pare the rabbinical evidence with Philonic and Gnostic texts, where the passage plays a very important role. Furthermore, the Samaritan literature must not be left out. It has been known for a long time that the are preservers of ancient halakhic once in vogue also among the '); we shall see in the

+) This is an expanded version of a paper read in the Judaism section at the XIVth IAHR Congress, held at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, August 17-22, 1980. The theme of the Congress was "Traditions in Contact and Change" . 1) Already A. GEIGERsuggested that the Samaritans, not of pure Israelite stock, at one time had to borrow the doctrines and religious usages current in in order to gain favour with the religious authorities, viz., the . Later, when the came into power and the Sadducean was repressed, according to Geiger, the Samaritans kept to the old ways. The thesis of Geiger was forth in several works; see, for instance, 'Zur Theologie und Schrifterklärung der Samaritaner', ZDMG 12 (1858), pp. 132 ff. (= Nachgelassene Schriften,ed. by L. GEIGER,III (Breslau 1876), pp. 255 ff.). It was repeated in what came to be regarded as the standard work on the Samaritans, viz., J. A. MONTGOMERY,The Samaritans (The Bohlen Lectures for 1906) (Philadelphia 1907, reprinted 1968), pp. 46, 72, 186 ff. It has even been suggested that there was a relationship between the old Zadokite priesthood of Jerusalem and the in . This was asserted mostly on the ground that , Ant. XI. 301 ff., relates that priests and lay men having contracted illegal were expelled from Jerusalem and went to Shechem and founded the cult on Mt. Gerizim. This theory does not have to be probed here; it suffices to note that the Samaritans must be regarded as a branch of the Jewish people. Critical scholarship has known for 203 following that they also have preserved ancient haggadic material, which the Jews decided to abdicate because it led to heresy. Samaritan evidence is in fact very helpful in showing that Gnosticism has grown out of Hebrew religion2).

Philo

Philo of Alexandria, although trained in the of the time and being influenced by the piety of the mystery , had as his main concern to demonstrate the truth of the Jewish . It has been known for a long time that Philo's major works dealing with the of Genesis, namely, De opificio mundi and Legum allegoriae I-III, are not scientific treatises, but homiletical exposi- tions having their "Sitz im Leben" in the preaching being held on the in connection with the reading of the in the Synagogue3). According to Philo, is by nature such that he cannot do anything ; God even has to employ agents in carrying out punishment upon men4). He also employed agents when he created man:

Moses, when treating in his lessons of of the creation of the world, after having said of all other things that they were made by

a long time that but a small percentage of the population in the North was deported by the Assyrians after the fall of the Kingdom of . As regards the similarities between the Samaritans and the Sadducees (the latter often thought to have a connection with the old Zadokites), these show that both bodies were "in an analogous relationship to what came to be . It is not necessarily a case of direct influence or borrowing, but both groups display similar tendencies within the total picture of Judaism'' (R. J. COGGINS,Samaritans and Jews (Growing Points in Theology) (Oxford 1975), p. 157). 2) See J. FOSSUM,The Nameof Godand theAngel of theLord (Doctoral Dissertation, 1982); 'Gnosticism and Samaritan Judaism', in ANRW, II.22 (Gnostizismus und Verwandtes), ed. by W. Haase (Berlin & New York [appear- ing, it is hoped, in the foreseeable future]). Cf. also J. FOSSUM,'Samaritan Demiurgical Traditions and the Alleged Dove Cult of the Samaritans', in Studies in Gnosticismand HellenisticReligion (Presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of his 65th ) (EPRO 91), ed. by R. van den Broek & M. J. Vermaseren (Leiden 1981), pp. 143 ff. 3) See already Z. FRANKEL,Uber die palästinensischeund alexandrinischeSchrift- forschung (Programm des Breslauer Seminars) (Breslau 1854), p. 33, and more recently H. THYEN,Der Stil derjüdisch-hellenistischen Homilie (FRLANT 47) (Göt- tingen 1956), p. 7. The third work on Genesis by Philo, namely, Quaestiones in Genesim, has the character of a treatise. 4) See De fuga et invent. 66.