The Relationship Between Ossuan, Burial and the Beiief in Resurrection During the Late Second Temple Period Judaism by Dina Teit
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The Relationship between Ossuan, Burial and the Beiief in Resurrection during the Late Second Temple Period Judaism by Dina Teitelbaum A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master's of Arts in Classics and Religion. Carleton University, Canada May 1997 copyright: D ina Teitelbaum, Ottawa, Canada, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale m*I of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliograp hic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seil reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or eleckonic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la proprié,té du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Carleton University Ottawa, Canada K 1S 5J7 Thesis contains black and white and/or coloured graphs/tables/photographs which when microfilmed may lose éheir significance. The hardcopy of the thesis is available upon request Erom Carleton University Library. The University ~ibr&y An analysis is undertaken of the ossuary phenomenon in Late Second Temple period Judaism. Burial practices and material culture are described in terms of archaeological discoveries and rabb inical 1i terature. This is followed b y a sum mary of the socio-historical development of Jewish beliefs in afierlife, focusing on resurrection. For th is purpose biblical , deutero-canonical, h istorical and other contemporary 1iterature of the period is examined by means of textual criticism. An attempt is made to correlate ossuas, decoration or ossuary burials to the bel ief in afierlife or resurrection respective1y. However, a direct link could not be established. Instead, the present study argues that ir was a wealthy segment of kwish society that opted for secondary burial into an ossuary. Its means aliowed it to indulge in the luxury of the ultimate in individual safe- keeping of its remains, thus identifiably guaranteeing memorialization by succeeding generations of visitors to the tomb. Preface My first encounter with ossuaries in Israel in 1967, made me wonder about the phenornenon and on impulse I decided that there must be a comection between the belief in the resurrection and these fascinating bone-boxes. Years later, when 1 became involved in archaeology, I discovered, that in fact, such a correlation had been proposed by some scholan which others vehemently denied. Intrigued by the controversy. 1 resolved to undenake a smdy of all the issues concerned with the aim of reaching a definitive conclusion. if possible! This is my justification for the present inquiry. 1 would like to express my sincere gratitude to my dear husband Heshel and to my precious children, Tamara, Devorah, Esther and Avraham for their love and understanding while this research was carried out. A speciai heartfelt appreciation goes to Ingrid M. Haase. my friend and librarian, who encouraged and supported me in my endeavour. I am very grateful to Professor Stephen Wilson for his supervision and patience and to the Depanment of Religion for making this work possible. Tabie of Contents Page Acronyms ............................................. x ... List of Illustrations ..................................... xtii TitIe Illustration ...................................... xviii introduction ........................................... 1 Part One: The Practice of Secondary Burial during the Late Second Temple Period ....................................... 3 Introduction ....................................... 3 1.1 Definition of Ossuary and Ossilegium .................... 3 1.2 Terminology ................................... 4 1.2. Semitic Terms .............................. 4 1.2.2 Greek Terms ............................... 7 2 . Survey of Jewish Burial Custorns in Palestine .................. 11 2.1 Burials of the First Temple Period ..................... 12 2.2 Burials in the Second Temple Period .................... 15 2.2.1 Burials in Tombs .......................... 16 2.2.1.1 Tombs and Their Layout ................ 16 2.2.1.2 Primary and Secondary Burial in Tombs ....... 19 2.2.1.3 BuriaI Procedure ..................... 23 2.2.2 Primary Burials in Individual Graves .............. 24 2.3 Burials in Late Antiquity ........................... 26 3 . Literary Sources Penaining to Secondary Burials ................ 29 3.1 Rabbinical Writings .............................. 29 3.2 Epitaphs ..................................... 36 2.2.1 Survival in Sheol ........................... 80 2.2.2 Immortality Expressed in Burial Practices and Mortuary Cult 82 2.2.3 Collective Immortality ........................ 85 2.2.4 Revivication ............................. 85 The Development of the Notion of the Afterlife ................ 87 3 . L The Background of Jewish Society ..................... 88 3.1.1 The Seleucid Oppression and Persecution ............ 89 3.1.2 Apocalyptic Orientation ....................... 89 3.1.3 Ernphasis on the Individual ..................... 90 3.1.4 Pluralism in First Century Judaism ................ 92 3.2 The Origin of the Notion of Bodily Resurrection ............ 94 3.2.1 The Non-Eschatological Martyrological Resurrection ...... 94 3.2.2 The Eschatological Martyrolog ical Resurrection ......... 96 3.2.3 The Notion of Resurrection in its Social Context ........ 98 3.3 The Origin of the Notion of the Immortal Sou1 ............. 100 3.3.1 The Notion of the Irnmortal Sou1 in its Social Context ... 100 3.3.2 The Concept of lmmod Sou1 in Greek Anthropology ... 100 3.3.3 Synthesis of Greek Anthropology and Hebrew Thought ... 101 3.3.3.1 Josephus the Iewish Historian ............. 101 3.3.3.2 Authors of Wisdom of Solomon and 4 Maccabees 103 3.4 The Concept of Sou1 in Hellenistic Judaism ............... 105 3.5 The Impact of the Notion of Immortal Sou1 on Resurrection ..... 107 The Evidence of Notions of Afterlife in the Late Second Temple Period . 109 4.1 Evidence in Second Temple Period Literature ............. 109 4.1.1 Tables ................................. 109 4.1.2 The Notions of Afterlife in their Forms and Functions ... 112 4.2 Evidence in Jewish Society ......................... 114 4.2.1 Sadducees .............................. 116 vii Pharisees ............................... 4.2.2.1 Beit Hillell Beit Sharnai and Later Judaism .... Essenes ................................ Scribes ................................ Prophetic-Char ismatic Movements and Revolutionaries ... 4.2.5.1 Jesus Followers and Early Christianity ....... 4.3 Evidence from Epitaphs ........................... 5 . Was the Notion of the Bodiiy Resurrection Prevalent in First Century CE? 126 Part Three: Correlational Study of Ossuary Burial and the Notion of the Reswection .............................. 129 Previous Research into the Ossuary Phenornenon ............... 129 Analysis of Correlations between Ossuary Decoration and the Belief in an Afterlife ...................................... 131 2.1 The Symbolic Interpretation ......................... 132 2.2 The Non-Symbolic Interpretation ...................... 133 2.3 Comprehensive Approach to the Question of Symboiism ....... 134 Analysis of Correlations between Ossuary Burial and the Beiief in Resurrection ............................. 135 3.1 Is Jewish Ossuary Burial a Novelty? ................... 136 3.2 The Chronological Correlation between Emerging Resurrection Belief and Ossuary Burial .............................. 141 3.3 Ossilegium and its Relation to Afterlife ................. 142 3.3.1 The Significance of Bones ..................... 142 3.3.2 The Significance of Decay .................... 144 3.3 The Correlation between Atonement and Resurrection ........ 145 3.4 Correlation between Resurrection Belief and the Receptacle ..... 146 3.5 Ossimries and the Pharisees ......................... 148 Al ternative Reasons for the Ossuary Phenornenon .............. 150 4.1 Evidence for a Small Group within Well-to-do Society ........ 151 4.2 Motivation: Expression of Individuality .................. 154 4.3 The Disappearance of Ossuaries ...................... 156 Appendix of Illustrations ............................. L60 Bibliography .................................... 178 Acronyms AASOR Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary AJAA Hachlili, Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeolom in the Second Tem~IePeriod ANAS Annals of the New York Academy of Science ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt Ant Josephus, Antiquities ASOR American Schools of Oriental Research Atiqot Atiqot. Journal of the Israel Department of Antiquities, Jerusalem BA Biblical Archaeologist BAR Bibl ical Archaeology Review BASOR Bulletin of the ,4rnerican Schools of Oriental Research BibOr B ibl iotheca Oriental is, Leiden BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Manchester BZ Biblische Zeitschrift BZAW Beihefie zur Zeitschrifi