Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple

Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple Literature through Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah Edited by George J. Brooke Associate Editors Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar Jonathan Ben-Dov Alison Schofield volume 113 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stdj Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple Literature through Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature Jointly Sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for the Study of Christianity, 22–24 February, 2011 Edited by Menahem Kister, Hillel I. Newman, Michael Segal, and Ruth A. Clements LEIDEN | BOSTON Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature. International Symposium (13th : 2011) Tradition, transmission, and transformation from Second Temple literature through Judaism and Christianity in late antiquity : proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, jointly sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for the Study of Christianity, 22–24 February, 2011 / by Menahem Kister, Hillel Newman, Michael Segal, and Ruth A. Clements. pages cm. — (Studies on the texts of the desert of Judah, ISSN 0169-9962) Includes indexes. ISBN 978-90-04-27408-2 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29913-9 (e-book) 1. Judaism— History—Post-exilic period, 586 BC–210 AD—Congresses. 2. Judaism—History—Talmudic period, 10–425—Congresses. 3. Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600—Congresses. 4. Civilization, Greco-Roman—Congresses. 5. Apocryphal books—Criticism, interpretation, etc.— Congresses. 6. Rabbinical literature—History and criticism—Congresses. 7. Dead Sea scrolls—Congresses. I. Kister, Menahem, editor. II. Newman, Hillel, editor. III. Segal, Michael , editor. IV. Clements, Ruth, editor. V. Title. BM176.O75 2015 296.1—dc23 2015016654 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-9962 isbn 978-90-04-27408-2 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-29913-9 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Preface vii Abbreviations xiii Parabiblical Traditions and Their Use in the Palaea Historica 1 William Adler Outsider Impurity: Trajectories of Second Temple Separation Traditions in Tannaitic Literature 40 Yair Furstenberg No Angels before the World? A Preexistence Tradition and Its Transformations from Second Temple Literature to Early Piyyuṭ 69 Yehoshua Granat Pious Long-Sleepers in Greek, Jewish, and Christian Antiquity 93 Pieter W. van der Horst Remnants of a Pharisaic Apologetic Source in Josephus and in the Babylonian Talmud 112 Tal Ilan and Vered Noam Windy and Fiery Angels: Prerabbinic and Rabbinic Interpretations of Psalm 104:4 134 Yaakov Kaduri Hellenistic Jewish Writers and Palestinian Traditions: Early and Late 150 Menahem Kister The Severus Scroll Variant List in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls 179 Armin Lange Where is the Lost Ark of the Covenant? The True History (of the Ancient Traditions) 208 Chaim Milikowsky vi contents Satan’s Refusal to Worship Adam: A Jewish Motif and Its Reception in Syriac Christian Tradition 230 Sergey Minov Stars of the Messiah 272 Hillel I. Newman Retelling Biblical Retellings: Epiphanius, the Pseudo-Clementines, and the Reception-History of Jubilees 304 Annette Yoshiko Reed Why is “A” Placed Next to “B”? Juxtaposition in the Bible and Beyond 322 Avigdor Shinan and Yair Zakovitch The Reception and Reworking of Abraham Traditions in Armenian 343 Michael E. Stone Index of Ancient Texts 361 Index of Modern Authors 387 Preface The Second Temple period was crucial to the formation of both rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity, which share common roots in that semi- nal era. The origins of many literary genres, modes and traditions of biblical exegesis, halakhic rulings, and theological notions found in later Jewish and Christian writings can be traced back to that formative period. The Thirteenth International Orion Symposium (February 22–24, 2011) was convened in order to explore the dynamics by which some of these earlier texts and traditions were transmitted to later generations and taken up in other contexts, where they were both preserved and adapted to new cultural and religious settings. The fruits of that symposium are presented in this volume. These explorations span the period from biblical and Second Temple times to the Middle Ages. The papers address compositions ranging from Second Temple Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Hellenistic Jewish writings, to rabbinic midrash, halakhic texts, piyyuṭ, and patristic literature; some deal as well with medieval works of Jews, Christians, and Moslems. In many senses these rich and diverse worlds must be seen as parts of a larger continuum, but at the same time we must not blur distinctions or fail to acknowledge the unique features of each culture and corpus of material. Many works that originated in the Second Temple period (such as the books of the Apocrypha and the so-called Pseudepigrapha, the oeuvres of Philo and Josephus, and fragments of Hellenistic Jewish authors) continued to be transmitted in Christian circles and cited by Christian authorities; however, these works were generally unknown to Jewish literature of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. With few exceptions (notably Ben Sira, the Aramaic Levi Document and the Damascus Document, medieval fragments of which have been discovered in the Cairo Genizah), direct transmission of texts among Jews of works from the Second Temple period is extremely rare. On the other hand, classical rabbinic literature (and to a lesser extent medieval rabbinic literature) often contains traditions that originated in the Second Temple period. Such traditions can likewise be found in early Christianity. Therefore, in order to study the afterlife of Jewish literature of the Second Temple period, one must confront two distinct phenomena: the transmission of texts on the one hand; and the transmission and transformation of traditions on the other. These are not discrete processes, but complementary ones. Scrutiny of both phenomena is crucial for exploring the roots of rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity: rabbinic traditions often provide the key to understanding obscure passages in viii preface works of the Second Temple period, just as the earlier texts often demonstrate the pre-Christian origins of those traditions. The studies included here analyze different aspects of numerous compositions from diverse periods and contexts; nevertheless, they may be broadly catego- rized according to their content and methodology. Many focus on traditions and their transformation in subsequent contexts, particularly within rabbinic literature. Some of these traditions emerged from the exegesis of particular biblical verses, both narrative and halakhic; others are historical or quasi-historical in nature, though even these latter may be colored by biblical exegesis. Several of the papers highlight the role of shared or contrasting exegetical principles and methods. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that the rabbinic corpus, together with Christian and extrarabbinic Jewish sources, fre- quently attests to much earlier traditions. That is, many of the traditions found in the later texts were neither created by the rabbis and their contemporaries, nor did they necessarily emerge from the milieux of the specific sages to whom they are attributed or necessarily originate in the place and period of the redac- tion of the individual compilations. Of course, these traditions did continue to evolve in the course of their transmission; new meanings continued to accrue even for old traditions when put into new cultural and literary contexts. Avigdor Shinan and Yair Zakovitch contend that biblical interpretation must be seen as a continuum extending from passages within the Bible itself to the midrash, and that the implicit methods of inner-biblical exegesis can be illuminated by the more explicit techniques of later material. They investigate a specific exegetical practice: the attribution of significance to literary juxtaposition with the biblical text. Beginning with the explicit usage of this technique in rabbinic literature, they trace it back to implicit occurrences in the writings of the Second Temple period; they ultimately find the roots of this practice

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