The Images of Space in the Third Sibylline Oracle DISSERTATION zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Dr. theol. Eingereicht am: 17.06.2011 der Theologischen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin von Deborah Jacobs Präsident/Präsidentin der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz Dekan/Dekanin der Theologischen Fakultät Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter Gutachter/Gutachterinnen: 1. Prof. Dr. Cilliers Breytenbach 2. PD Dr. Christiane Zimmermann 3. Prof. Dr. Markus Witte Tag der Disputation: 05.12.2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Preliminary questions ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1.1 The Sibyl and apocalypticism ................................................................................ 1 1.1.2 The character of the Sibyl ...................................................................................... 2 1.2 The Jewish and Christian Sibylline Oracles ...................................................................... 4 1.2.1 The transmission of Sibylline Fragments by Christian authors ............................. 4 1.2.2 The Sibyl as a Jewish pseudepigraph .................................................................... 4 1.2.3 The beginning of the Third Sibylline Oracle ......................................................... 5 1.3 History of research ............................................................................................................ 5 1.3.1 Early scholarship and the Sibylline Oracles .......................................................... 6 1.3.2 The 19th and 20th centuries ..................................................................................... 6 1.3.3 The Third Sibylline Oracle .................................................................................... 7 1.3.4 Recent Scholarship ................................................................................................ 9 1.3.5 The date of the Third Sibyl: The seventh king, the king from the sun/east ......... 16 1.4 Structure of the Third Sibylline Oracle ........................................................................... 20 Excursus: The anti-Roman oracle in lines 350-380 ................................................................................ 21 1.5 Spatial theories and biblical scholarship ......................................................................... 29 1.5.1 Images of Space ................................................................................................... 29 1.5.2 Soja’s Thirdspace and Foucault’s Heterotopia .................................................... 29 1.5.3 Space in the Third Sibyl ...................................................................................... 33 1.5.4 The vertical and horizontal lines in the Third Sibyl ............................................ 36 1.6 Utopias in classical and biblical texts .............................................................................. 39 1.6.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 39 1.6.2 Classical and Hellenistic Utopias ........................................................................ 40 1.6.3 Utopias in biblical texts ....................................................................................... 42 PART II: COMMENTARY ............................................................................................................. 45 2 SECTION I: LINES 93-161 .................................................................................................... 45 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 45 2.1.1 Structure ............................................................................................................... 45 2.1.2 Primeval history – the horizontal and vertical lines ............................................ 45 2.2 Fragmentary passage (93-96) .......................................................................................... 46 2.3 The Tower of Babel (97-107) .......................................................................................... 47 2.4 The Titanomachy and the tripartite division of the world (108-158a) ............................ 53 Excursus The Euhemerism ..................................................................................................................... 53 2.4.1 The Titan dominion and the Titanomachy (108-113) ......................................... 54 2.4.2 The tripartite division of the earth and the beginning of divided kingdoms ....... 58 Exursus: The Sibyl and the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 and Jubilees 8-9 ........................................ 61 2.5 Conclusion: The relativisation of dominion in the past (156-158a) ................................ 66 2.6 The World Empires: the beginning universal history (158b-161) .................................. 67 Excursus: The development of the empire scheme ................................................................................. 70 2.7 The empires and the Table of Nations tradition .............................................................. 73 3 SECTION II: LINES 162-195 ................................................................................................. 76 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 76 3.2 Structure .......................................................................................................................... 77 3.3 The introduction formula (lines 162-166) ....................................................................... 77 Excursus: Ex eventu prophecy and the point of view of the Sibyl ......................................................... 80 3.4 How many kingdoms of men will arise: The house of Solomon (167-170) ................... 81 3.5 The map of the Sibyl and the Table of Nations tradition ................................................ 87 3.6 The assessment of the Empires ....................................................................................... 88 3.7 The Macedonian Empire (171-174) ................................................................................ 90 3.8 The kingdom from the western sea (175-191) ................................................................ 93 3.9 The seventh king of Egypt and the role of the people of God (192-195) ...................... 102 3.10 Conclusion: the relativisation of dominion of the past .................................................. 106 4 SECTION III: LINES 196-294 .............................................................................................. 108 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 108 4.1.1 Structure ............................................................................................................. 108 4.1.2 Introduction of a new prophecy (196-198) ........................................................ 108 4.2 Oracles against various nations (199-212a) .................................................................. 109 4.3 The Macedonians as descendants of the Titans ............................................................. 110 4.3.1 Oracles against the pious men who live around the temple (212b-217) ........... 113 4.3.2 The righteous people from Ur of the Chaldeans (218-219) ............................... 114 Excursus: The Jews as originators of the Chaldean sciences ............................................................... 115 4.4 Things that lead astray: the law as the way of God (220-233) ...................................... 117 4.5 The law is righteousness and virtue (234-247) ............................................................. 119 4.6 The history of the pious (248-294) ................................................................................ 122 4.6.1 The Exodus narrative (248-264) ........................................................................ 122 4.6.2 Exile and restoration of the people of God (265-294) ....................................... 126 4.6.3 God will send a king from heaven to avail his people (286-294) ...................... 130 4.7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 132 5 SECTION IV: LINES 295-349 .............................................................................................. 135 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 135 5.2 Structure ........................................................................................................................ 136 5.3 A formula to introduce a new section (295-299) .......................................................... 136 5.4 Babylon is punished for destroying the temple (300-313) ............................................ 136 5.5 An oracle against Egypt in the seventh reign as a redactional addition (314-318) ....... 142 5.6 Oracles against Gog and Magog, Libya (319-323) ....................................................... 143 5.7 The daughters of the west (324-333) ............................................................................