STUD lA IN VETERIS TEST AMENT!

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA EDIDERUNf

A.-M. DENIS ET M. DEJONGE

VOLUMEN UNDECIMUM

D. SATRAN

BIBUCAL PROPHETS IN BYZANTINE PALESTINE

BIBLICAL PROPHETS IN BYZANTINE PALE STINE

REASSESSING THE liVES OF THE PROPHETS

BY

DAVID SATRAN

EJ.BRILL LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KOLN

1995

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Satran, David. Biblical prophets in Byzantine Palestine : reassessing the Lives

of the prophets I by David Satran. p. em.- (Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha, ISSN

0929-3523 ; v. 11) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes. ISBN 9004102345 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Lives of the prophets-criticism, interpretation, etc.

I. Lives of the prophets. English. II. Title. III. Series. vol.11

229'.913-dc20 94-37300 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahm.e

Satran, David: Biblical prophets in Byzantine Palestine : reassessing the Lives of the prophets I by David Satran.- Leiden; New York; Ko1n : Brill, 1995

(Studia in V eteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha ; Vol. II) Einheitssacht. des beigef. Werkes: Vitae prophetarum <engl.> ISBN 90--04-10234-5

NE: Vitae prophetarum <engl.>; Lives of the prophets; GT

ISSN 0169-8125 ISBN 90 04 10234 5

© Cof!Yright 1995 by E.]. Brill, lAden, The Netkerlaruis

All rights reserved. No part !if this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in a'!JI form or by any means, electronic,

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For my mother and father

CONlENTS

Acknowledgments

References and Abbreviations

Introduction ....................................................................... . Biblical Traditions and Christian Audiences ...................... . Form and Method ........................................................ .

1. Evidence, Consensus, and Context Textual Evidence ......................................................... . History of Research ..................................................... .

The Lives of the Prophets in Modem Research .................. . Searching for an Ur-Text: Date, Provenance, Language .... .. Sacred Tombs and Loca Sancta in Early Judaism ............ .. Prophets and Martyrs in Second Temple Period Judaism

Contexts of Transmission ............................................ ..

2. Structure, Content, and Composition The Structure of the vitae Birth and Burial

Biblical Exegesis and Creative Topography Conclusion .............................................................. .

Legendary Narrative ..................................................... . Martyrs, Miracle-Workers and Intercessors Conclusion .............................................................. .

Eschatological Prophecy ............................................... . The Composition of the Lives of the Prophets

Recensional Trajectories ............................................. . Sources and Development .......................................... .. Conclusion .............................................................. .

3. The Vita of Daniel: an Early Byzantine Legend .................... .. The Transformation and Penitence of Nebuchadnezzar Exemplars of Early Byzantine Society

4. Context, Genre, and Meaning Prophets and Holy Men ................................................ . Scriptural Geography ................................................... . The Righteous Dead ..................................................... .

ix

xi

1 2 7

9 9

16 16 20 22 25 29

34 34 38 40 46 50 52 58 63 68 68 71 75

79 82 91

97 97

105 110

vm CONIENTS

Conclusion 118

Appendix: The Lives of the Prophets-an English translation 121

Bibliography 129

Indices Biblical and Apocryphal Literature 145 General Index .................. ....... ................................... ... 147

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I was introduced to the Lives of the Prophets in my first graduate seminar with Michael Stone at the Hebrew University. I am deeply thankful to Michael-friend, colleague, and still my teacher-for his continued encouragement of my research. Like many others in the field, I have enjoyed inspiration and support from Robert Kraft who has commented upon portions of the argument presented here. I would also like to thank John Collins and George Nickelsburg who "midwived" my first publication on the Lives and have shown a generous interest in my work. Benjamin Wright read the very earliest version of a chapter of this book almost a decade ago and ever since has urged me to get on with the project. Finally, I am very grateful to Marinus de Jonge, who accepted this study for publication and has ensured, in most avuncular fashion, that I made good on my commitment.

I would like to thank, as well, Gary Anderson, Marc Brettler, Peter Brown, Bruce Dahlberg, Steven Fraade, John Gager, Martha Himmelfarb, Richard Lim, and Robert Wilken for making it possible for me to present aspects of my research on the Lives in different contexts: I have learned much from these encounters as well as from their comments and suggestions.

A debt of a very real nature is owed to my teachers and colleagues at th~ Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Danny Schwartz read an earlier draft of the study, offering valuable suggestions and corrections. Debby Gera commented on a final version of the book, offered advice on problems in translation from the Greek, and took on the thankless task of proofreading camera-ready copy. She alone knows the number of "howlers" of which the reader has been deprived. I am grateful to my students Valerie Carr and Leonardo Cohen for valuable research assistance and to Olga Bondarchuk who aided in the preparation of the indices.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge those bodies which have provided, at various times and in different ways, financial support for the research, writing, and publication of this book: the Basic Research Foundation of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities (Summer Fellowship), the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust, Yad HaNadiv (Rothschild Foundation), the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Faculty of Humanities (Hebrew University).

X ACKNOWLEDGMENrS

My greatest debt is to my family. My wife Shari, through love, counsel, and conversation, has contributed more to this project than anyone, but she, could know. Our children-Daniella, Shai and Dafna-have reminded me always that there is life outside of the Lives. Joan Ben-Shabetai ~"t, my late mother-in-law, gave freely of her time and of her vast enthusiasm to help me pursue my research. My parents, Harold and Selma Satran, though a distance often separates us, have always been with me.

D. S.

Jerusalem

REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS

I have attempted to make the references throughout the volume as clear, yet brief, as possible, while minimizing the use of abbreviations.

Footnote references contain author's name, short title, and date of publication. Full, unabbreviated references can be found in the Bibliography.

Both text and footnotes make regular use of the standard and well-known abbreviations of works from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The titles of extra-canonical writings, Jewish and Christian, are given in full. Both MT and LXX are freely used to indicate readings from, respectively, the Masoretic text and the Septuagint.

Rabbinic writings are indicated by their full name; whenever possible, the name of the modem editor of the text (and page numbers of that edition) are given as well. Only BT and PT have been employed to indicate the Babylonian or Palestinian Talmud.

Patristic works, too, are recorded without abbreviation. These are accompanied by short references to the (critical) edition and translation available. The series in which these editions and translations appear are indicated according to the following abbreviations:

ACW CCSG CCSL csco CSEL CSHB FC GCS LCL NPNF PG PL sc

Ancient Christian Writers Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca Corpus Christianorum Series Latina Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae Fathers of the Church Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller Loeb Classical Library Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Patrologia Graeca (ed. J.P. Migne) Patrologia Latina (ed. J.P. Migne) Sources Chretiennes

INIRODUCTION

Why should Christian readers of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages have been fascinated by a small book which recounts the births, deeds, and deaths of the p~ophets of biblical Israel? How did the composition known as the Lives of the Prophets ("Vitae Prophetarum ") attain the status of a work read and transmitted throughout the monasteries and schools of eastern and western Christendom? The immediate and seemingly logical answer-that these very prophets were those who foretold the coming of the Messiah­simply will not do: the work is neither given to prophecies regarding Jesus nor overtly christological in its message. Indeed, the short vitae or biographical sketches which comprise the book concentrate almost wholly on the prophets themselves, from cradle to grave. What attraction could this sort of biblical handbook have held?

Students of early Jewish and Christian extra-biblical literature-known variously (and confusingly) as intertestamental, post-biblical, apocryphal or pseudepigraphic-have long been familiar with the Lives.1 Preserved in a wealth of Greek manuscripts as well as in Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Latin versions, the composition was traditionally attributed to the learned and malicious fourth century bishop Epiphanius of Salamis. This attribution has long been questioned, and indeed, rejected outright, and in its place a scholarly consensus has taken shape: the Lives represents a Jewish work of the late Second Temple period, almost certainly deriving· from Palestine and probably composed originally in Hebrew. Unfortunately, like many a consensus, these conclusions remain largely unproved; in fact, they beg many of the central questions regarding the work. Furthermore, they result in an orientation to the composition and its presumed origins that has caused modem students of the text routinely to underestimate the significance of the Lives for generations of Byzantine and medieval Christian readers. This is both inaccurate and misleading given all that we know of the work's popularity and distribution.

Few works better fulfill the description of a text much cited but little read-i.e. read for its own sake and in its own right. Over the last half century, the Lives has become a witness to diverse attitudes and practices, a

I have tried to preserve a certain consistency throughout the study: the composition as a whole is referred to as the Lives of the Prophets or, more frequently, simply the Lives; the terms vita and vitae are reserved for the constituent sections of the lar2er work.

2 INTRODUCTION

keystone in the erection of scholarly edifices, and generally, a text in the service of other texts. The work has been exploited and cherished by students of the history and the literature of pre-Rabbinic Judaism, by students of the New Testament and the early Church, as well as by every serious researcher of the historical geography of Palestine at the turn of the era. This is, in many ways, not at all surprising: study of the Lives is equally an investigation of early Jewish and Christian attitudes to a wide range of subjects: the importance of place (sites of birth and death); the significance of the grave; the nature of the miraculous and the role of those who "work" miracles; the place of "omens" and "signs" in the prophetic message. Much of this research, however, has come at the expense of an examination of the Lives as a work on its own terms.

Consequently, a series of fundamental issues in the study of the Lives have been neglected. Many of these will be made explicit in the following chapters, but one demands mention at the very outset. The Lives is in many different respects a unique composition, singular both in form and content: varied and central features of the work fmd no ready parallel either in early Jewish or in early Christian literature. This uniqueness has been acknowledged only infrequently and still more rarely been taken seriously. Little attention has been given, for example, to the questions of genre and meaning-what sort of composition is the Lives, how would it have been appreciated by its earliest audiences, where does the work's message lie? Perhaps most difficult, yet crucial for the success of this enterprise, is the search for a convincing historical and religious framework: the attempt to establish a convincing and coherent context for a highly anomalous text. The Lives possesses its own voice yet must be coaxed and cajoled to speak.

BffiLICAL lRADffiONS AND CHRISTIAN AUDIENCES

There can be few phenomena more fascinating, or frustrating, than the intersection and potential inseparability of early Jewish and Christian literatures. Despite the adoption of often opposing theological strategies and the acceptance of sometimes divergent hermeneutical stances to the text of the Bible, post-biblical Judaism and the early Church found themselves joint heirs to a host of shared sources and traditions.2 This is the inevitable consequence of an emergent "Christianity that could not allow itself to forget its origins in Judaism. That meant, preeminently, that in order to define itself Christianity would always in some way turn to the Jewish scriptures."3 Indeed, in marked contrast to the common (and easily exaggerated) portrait of an explicit Christian polemic engaged in an endless

2 3

Kraft, "The Multiform Jewish Heritage of Early Christianity" (1975). Meeks, "Breaking Away" (1985) 114.

IN'IRODUCTION 3

series of frontal assaults on Jewish tradition, there exist a considerable number of early Christian compositions which so closely resemble ancient Jewish texts as to raise serious questions about their own religious identity.

In the face of this indeterminacy, a seemingly straightforward rule of thumb often has been invoked: if a work is not obviously Christian, then it must be Jewish. Numerous versions of this axiom have been coined, perhaps most recently in connection with the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: "The absence of the name of Jesus suggests that we would do well to assume that a passage is BC Jewish, unless we can prove otherwise. "4 The inconclusive, even incoherent, nature of this criterion has been suggested by David Flusser:

The difficulty of such a study of published and unpublished Christian works on biblical history is caused by the fact that a legend based upon Old Testament themes in a Christian book is not necessarily Jewish, even if it has no Christian connotations. When a Christian author treats stories about Jacob for example, he could give free way to his fantasy without limiting it to Christological motifs-he knew then as well as we know now that the patriarch Jacob lived a long time before Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity. 5

Indeed, the history of Christianity, Eastern and Western, is largely a history of reflection on the text of the Bible, and frequently in a manner that was neither overtly typological nor allegorical. The student of biblical interpretation in the early Church must be constantly aware of the many modes and subjects which an exegete might have inherited from earlier (or contemporary) Jewish sources but was equally capable of creating himself. Syriac exegesis, for example, was deeply mindful of its Jewish inheritance and at the same time able to produce texts of similar tone and content.6" There was, as well, a remarkable degree of "pure interpretation" of the biblical account as divine narrative. The Byzantine chronicle tradition addressed the vast range of sacred history, from antediluvian biblical legend through the events of the period of the Second Temple, as a subject of deep and intrinsic interest. 7

4 Review of Hollander and de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1985) by J. C. O'Neill in Journal of Theological Studies 39 (1988) 176.

5 Flusser, "Palaea Historica" (1971) 48. 6 Brock, "Jewish Traditions in Syriac Sources" (1979) surveys the

contacts between Syriac Christian interpreters and early Jewish tradition. For an extended exegetical treatment of a biblical theme which reveals few explicit signs of its Christian origin, see the text examined in the same author's "A Syriac Verse Homily on Elijah and the Widow of Sarepta" (1989).

7 See Adler, Time Immemorial (1989); Fishman-Duker, "The Second Temple Period in Byzantine Chronicles" (1977).

4 INTRODUCTION

There exists, in fact, an entire range of concerns whose centrality and manner of treatment cannot be considered exclusively either Jewish or Christian. One thinks immediately of the "Two Ways" material (and related teachings concerning the dangers of "double-mindedness") which functions so naturally at Qumran as well as in an early Christian didactic context. So too, the sections of moral paraenesis in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs provide superb evidence for the virtual inseparability of Jewish­Hellenistic ethical attitudes and literary expression from those embraced by broad sectors of second century Christianity.8 Nor are these questions of continuity and long-term influence between Judaism and Christianity limited to the realm of textual dependence or literary relationship. Despite the very real gaps in our knowledge of both early Jewish and Christian liturgy, there remains ample evidence for the degree to which early Christian communities both adopted Jewish models of prayer and continued to forge new materials under their influence. The liturgical passages of the Apostolic Constitutions (books 7 and 8) offer a window onto the shadowy realm of virtually indistinguishable forms of religious expression: are these faithful remnants from a Jewish-Hellenistic prayer book or a highly nuanced and reworked Christian adaptation of originally Jewish synagogue tradition?9 Similar problems attend our attempts to unravel the development of certain nodes of cultic activity in the Mediterranean world. How did Jews and Christians jointly nurture the memory of Alexander the Great?10 We are only beginning to comprehend the true extent of the cross-fertilization and transmission of ritual and practice between different religious communities in Late Antiquity. ·

Particularly revealing (and promising) in this regard is the study of post­biblical traditions concerning a wide range of "ideal figures" drawn from the Hebrew Bible. Of late there has been something of a resurgence of interest in the portrayal of such biblical heroes within the exegetical traditions of both Judaism and Christianity.ll One thinks of the portrait of Joseph within the framework of Hellenistic Judaism, in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriar.hs, and in the literature of the early Church. 12 There is the

8 Hollander, Joseph as an Ethical Model (1981) 6-12 and passim; Hollander and de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1985) 41-49; de Jonge, ''Rachel's Virtuous Behavior "(1990) and references there.

9 For a history of scholarship and analysis of the texts, see Fiensy, Prayers Alleged to be Jewish (1985).

10 Simon, "Alexandre le Grand" (1962) 127-139 and notes at 201-202. 11 Note the following collections of studies: Collins and Nickelsburg

(eds.), Ideal Figures in Ancient Judaism (1980); Figures de /'Ancien Testament chez les Peres (1989).

12 Nickelsburg, Studies on the Testament of Joseph (1975); Hollander, Joseph as an Ethical Model (1981); de Jonge, "Test. Benjamin 3:8" (1989).

INTRODUCTION 5

incorporation of the (presumably Jewish) legend concerning the martyrdom of Isaiah within the {clearly Christian) account of the same prophet's ascension.13 One observes the progressive transformations of the prophet Elijah in the New Testament and in the later Coptic and Hebrew apocalypses.14 Finally, it is possible to plot the development of the figure of Ezra from the Jewish apocalypse written during the generation following the destruction of the Temple through the literature of Byzantium and the medieval Latin West. 15 In each of these instances, scholars have grappled with the specific points of evidence as well as the general criteria which reveal the manner in which a Jewish text or tradition was absorbed by the early Church. What has been too little appreciated, perhaps, is the relative ease and minimal strain with which early Christian authors were able to accept these originally Jewish models without radically altering the contours of their characterization.16 To suppose that a flagrantly christological exegesis was the only possible approach to the figures of the Hebrew Bible is doubly misleading: first, it obscures the reality of a straightforward identification with the biblical narrative on the part of a Christian audience; second, it diminishes our own awareness of a host of far more delicate and significant means by which a text and its heroes could be appropriated.

A prime example of the detection of understated Christian elements is afforded by the Testament of Isaac. The work is dependent upon the Testament of Abraham and clearly Christian in its present Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions; yet it is considered by many to be a Jewish text only superficially revised and interpolatedP The surgical excision of overtly Christian passages, however, still leaves a text of only a highly questionable Jewish flavor; this is best witnessed, perhaps, by the­following portrait of Isaac himself:

13 See Hall, "The Ascension of Isaiah" (1990). 14 For a dossier of traditions associated with the figure., see Stone and

Strugnell (eds.), The Books of Elijah (1979); Bauckham, "Martyrdom of Enoch and Elijah" (1976) argues for the decisively Christian character of this motif; Frankfurter, Elijah in Upper Egypt (1993) attempts to set the Apocalypse within a distinctively Coptic context; see Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell (1983) for specific aspects and relationships of the later Jewish and Christian texts.

15 Kraft, '"Ezra' Materials in Judaism and Christianity" (1979); Stone, "The Metamorphosis of Ezra" (1982) and idem, Fourth Ezra (1990) 36-47.

16 Simon, "Les saints d'Israel dans la devotion de l'Eglise ancienne" (1954) remains the most incisive and encompassing statement.

17 On this document, see Kuhn, "The Sahidic version of the Testament of Isaac" (1957); idem, "An English Translation of the Sahidic version of the Testament of Isaac" (1967). The passage cited is according to the translation by Kuhn in Sparks, The Apocryphal Old Testament (1984) 423--439.

6 INTRODUCTION

Now our father Isaac had made for himself a bedroom in his house; and when his sight began to fail he withdrew into it and remained there for a hundred years, fasting daily until evening, and offering for himself and his household a young animal for their soul. And he spent half the night in prayer and praise to God. Thus he lived an ascetic life for a hundred years. And he kept three periods of forty days as fasts each year, neither drinking wine nor eating fruit nor sleeping on his bed. (5:3--6)

This seems an unusual and highly developed description of personal asceticism, when read against the background of early Jewish practice.1 8

Particularly troubling is the explicit mention of three forty-day fasts observed by the patriarch. While unparalleled within the context of ancient Judaism, the phenomenon exists as a common feature of the fourth and fifth century Eastern churches, particularly within monastic circles.19 Indeed, one senses that much in this small book (for example, the discussion of sacrificial and priestly matters in chapters ~7) should be read within the framework of burgeoning Egyptian monasticism.

The present study of the Lives of the Prophets is an expression of these concerns. It has been suggested, and widely accepted, that the composition is representative of those early Jewish writings "which have received little significant Christian addition" in the course of their transmission.20 There is need for a clearer determination whether the work is, in fact, to be treated as a lightly edited Jewish text from the period of the Second Temple or as a more elaborate and composite product of Christian redaction centuries later. The former viewpoint confidently regards the text as Jewish and engages, if the need should arise, in the isolation and removal of Christian "interpolations"; the latter approach accents the complexities of the process of Christian transmission and is far less sanguine about the possibility of restoration of an "original" (Jewish?) document. Yet the-primary issue here is not the identification of subtle or even disguised Christian elements, though a matter both interesting and worthy of investigation, but the identity of the Lives. What is the essence of a composition so widely read and transmitted within the Christian churches which nevertheless deals with biblical figures and themes in such a "neutral" (non-christological) fashion as to be commonly perceived as a Jewish work? Viewed in this light, the Lives of the Prophets truly can be appreciated as a testing ground for the contiguities and divergences of Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity.

18 For a survey of the phenomenon (and modern research) see Fraade, "Ascetical Aspects of Ancient Judaism" (1986).

19 For the ttooapaJCootai or quadragesimae of the early Byzantine church, see Schtimmer, Die altchristliche Fastenpraxis (1933) 201-207. This aspect of the text was commented on already in James, The Testament of Abraham (1892) 157-158 and emphasized again in Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell (1983) 27, n.63.

20 Charlesworth, "Christian and Jewish Self-Definition" (1981) 29.

INTRODUCTION 7

FORM AND METHOD

My examination of the Lives involves a presentation of evidence and argument, proceeding from the relatively secure and agreed to the more hypothetical and speculative. The first chapter presents, therefore, the information which serves as the basis for subsequent discussion: a survey of the textual evidence, a review of modern scholarship on the Lives, and an inquiry into the history of the work's transmission. The following chapter takes up the formal analysis of the text-its structure, content, and underlying principles of composition. A detailed examination of an extended narrative from one of the constituent vitae, that of the prophet Daniel, is the subject of the next chapter. The fourth chapter addresses the issues central to the literary and religious identity of the Lives: questions of genre and meaning within a given historical and cultural context. That final chapter will make clear, I hope, why this study bears the title "Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine."21

The Lives of the Prophets presents an enormously complex textual tradition: a plethora of Greek witnesses which can be reduced no further than to multiple recensions as well as an impressive range of versional (Western and Oriental) evidence. The present study is not text-critical in essence and makes virtually no attempt to sort out these complexities. I accept and use the basic conclusions regarding the textual situation of the Greek manuscripts reached by Schermann and his predecessors; my readings in the versions are guided by the studies of Nestle, Knibb, Lofgren, Stone, Dolbeau, and others. I do hope, however, that my reading of the work, sometimes in the way of forceful conclusions, sometimes as no more than hesitant probings, will encourage others to take up the textual task anew.

I emphasize at the very outset that no attempt is made to restore or analyze an "original" text of the Lives. First, as I hope to make clear, that effort seems to me either doomed to failure or to the attainment of results of the most hypothetical, potentially misleading, sort. Second, this study aims at an assessment of the Lives as a document, as an integral text. That text, in its earliest assured state of existence, stands before us today in its sixth century C.E. form. In a very real sense, this study is a close reading and analysis of that witness to the Lives of the Prophets--<;odex Marchalianus (or Q, as it is widely known by students of the Greek Bible.) This is true,

21 Despite growing acceptance of the term "Late Antiquity" as a more precise designation of the third through sixth centuries CE, I retain here as well the use of "Byzantine"-both for its evocative sense of nascent Christianization and its aptness to describe aspects of ecclesiatical and imperial activity in Palestine from the rule of Constantine until the arrival of Islam. On the terminological question, see Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity (1993) 7-8.

8 INTRODUCTION

though often unstated, of essentially every modem investigation of the composition. Why has Q taken on this virtually canonical status? Because it is the oldest and best manuscript, we are repeatedly told. This is only in part true. It is, indeed, our earliest witness to the complete Greek text. It is our best witness, however, only insofar as it has been judged "purer," "less tainted by Christian interpolations," and a handful of other questionable assumptions. In the concluding section of chapter one ("Contexts of Transmission") I shall explore this question at greater length and attempt to make clear the defensible reasons for concentrating on a certain form or representative of a textual tradition.22

The Lives of the Prophets is a brief work yet deceptively dense; because of the mass of details-geographical, narrative, symbolic-which make up the work, a full commentary on the individual vitae would be very lengthy. The present study does not pretend to fill that need. It does attempt, however, to point in some of the directions, perhaps unexpected, that the author of such a commentary would have to be prepared to explore. The work of commentary, after all, is pursued within a framework. The writer of a commentary will almost always bring to bear material which is either contemporaneous with his subject (the milieu) or earlier (the background). My argument for a significantly later date for the Lives is no less a claim regarding the type and range of materials which need to be considered in writing a commentary on the text.

Finally, there has been a conscious effort to "disperse" the methodological issues and their discussion. These questions are critical and might well have been concentrated in a preliminary chapter, as a prolegomenon to the study of the text. It is my sense that to do so would have burdened the reader with a series of theoretical issues prior to any real acquaintance with the Lives. Instead, questions of method and approach are introduced at the close of each of the chapters of this study in the hope that they serve as both a natural outgrowth of the preceding analysis and a fitting summary of it. In the concluding chapter, an attempt is made to draw together these theoretical threads.

22 Appended to this study is a literal translation of the Lives as preserved in the codex Marchalianus. This is provided simply as an aid to the reader desiring an integral text of the composition.

CHAPI'ER ONE

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CONTEXT

The intent of the present chapter is to lay out as clearly and tersely as possible three areas of secure information regarding the Lives of the Prophets: first, a survey of the multiple and variegated witnesses to the text of the work; second, a review of modern scholarly opinion with an emphasis on those issues which have received abundant attention as well as an indication of those questions which have suffered either relative or absolute neglect; finally, an examination of the evidence for the "context of transmission"-those cultural and historical frameworks in which the text of the Lives can be shown to have been read and preserved. This three-fold discussion is intended both to set forth the status quaestionis regarding the work and to establish the methodological rationale for the ensuing investigation.

1EX1UALEVIDENCE

Few works among the extra-biblical literature of early Judaism and Christianity can lay claim to as rich and complex a textual dossier as the Lives of the Prophets. The principal representative of the work is, of course, the array of Greek manuscripts, yet the evidence of the versions in a host of other languages, much of this only recently published and largely unassessed, demands close attention as well.1

Greek

The study of the very ample Greek evidence for the text of the Lives has advanced steadily since the beginning of the sixteenth century when the first

1 The indispensable guide to these textual riches are the researches of Schermann: see his monograph Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 2-43 and the introductory notes to his edition of the Greek recensions Prophetarum Vitae (1907) ix-xxxiii. A particularly concise and accurate account is that found in Denis, Introduction aux pseudepigraphes de /'Ancien Testament (1970) 85-89. See too Halkin, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (1957) 221-223 and Novum Auctarium Bibliothecae Hagiographicae Graecae (1984) 183-184. On a current reassessment of the textual situation, see below, p. 29.

10 CHAPIERONE

printed edition of the composition appeared (1529) in Basel. When Theodor Schermann inherited the work of his predecessors more than three hundred and fifty years later, at the close of the nineteenth century, the Greek textual situation was far more complex and and sorely in need of careful ordering. Schermann's pioneering monograph and associated edition of the Lives stand to this day as the cornerstone of all research on the composition.2 His classification of the Greek manuscripts according to the following distinct recensional patterns remains unquestioned.

(1) Epiphanius Prior [Ep1]: This is the text of the Lives as preserved in Ms. Paris 1115 (dated to 1276), with explicit attribution to the fourth century bishop Epiphanius of Cyprus. It represents the primary form of the work known to researchers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 3

(2) Dorotheus [Dor]: This recension is attributed to the little known figure Dorotheus of Tyre (third century). It was first published in the sixteenth century in Latin translation but in its Greek form only in 1776 on the basis of Ms. Vindob. theol. gr. 77 (thirteenth century).4 This is the version of the Lives which was incorporated into the Chronicon Pascha/e, composed in the early seventh century.5 The Dorothean recension is characterized by lengthy christological prefaces to the individual vitae and a markedly economical form of the vitae of the minor prophets.6

(3) Epiphanius Alter [Ep2]: a second recension with explicit attribution to Epiphanius. It represents a common and widespread form of the text which unanimously has been judged as secondary and often corrupt.7

(4) Recensio Anonyma [An]: The prime representative of this recension is the Codex Marchalianus (Vat. gr. 2125)-known widely by its siglum Q -a famed uncial manuscript of the LXX Prophets which originated in Egypt. While the main body of this codex is widely held to be no later than

2 Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907); Prophetarum Vitae (1907). 3 Text: Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 17-35 (odd pages) and

Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 4-25. For details regarding the recension and early editions of the Ms. Paris 1115-Torinus (1529); Zehner (1612); Petavius (1622)-see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 2-6 and Prophetarum Vitae (1907) xiii-xviii. For additional (unpublished) manuscript evidence, see Denis, Introduction (1970) 85-86 and nn. 3-6.

4 Text: Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 26-55. On the recension, see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 6-14; Prophetarum Vitae (1907) xviii-xxii; Denis, Introduction (1970) 86 and nn. 7-9.

5 Migne, PG 92.360-397; ed. l:>indorf [CSHB] 274-302. 6 See below, pp. 68-71. 7 Text: Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 55-67. On the recension,

see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 14-15; Prophetarum Vitae (1907) xxii-xxiv; Denis, Introduction (1970) 86 and n. 10 wilh details of additional (unpublished) manuscript evidence.

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT 11

the sixth century, the opening twelve leaves, which contain the text of the Lives (11-24), are clearly an addition by a later hand and may be dated to the seventh (or eighth?) century.8 There exists, as well, significant additional manuscript evidence for this recension.9 This is the form of the Greek text which has been prized by researchers for more than a century as the basis for study; our own reasons for concentrating on this form of the text will be discussed below.

(5) A fifth, abbreviated recension, sometimes associated with the name of Hesychius of Jerusalem, is found in the scholia to Theodoret of Cyr and in the edition of the writings of Theophylact.10

(6) A sixth, and final, recension of the Lives is that represented in the tradition of the menolqgia and synaxaria of the Greek churches.11

Syriac

Despite sporadic claims for their originality, the Syriac versions are widely acknowledged to offer the earliest and most abundant evidence for the translation of the Lives from Greek and their transmission into the cultural orbit of Eastern Christianity. The earliest and most renowned Syriac witness are the vitae of the first nine minor prophets preserved in the famed

8 Text: Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 16-34 (even pages); Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 68-98. A photographic reproduction of the codex Marchalianus was prepared by J. Cozza-Luzi and published by the Vatican in 1890, and in the same year a detailed study of the manuscript by A. Ceriani appeared as a companion volume. For a full description of the codex, its history, and relevant publications, see Swete, The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuagint (1887-1894) III, vii-ix. Note too the discussions in Swete, An Introduction to the the Old Testament in Greek (1902) 144-145;. Jellicoe, The Septuagint and Modern Study (1968) 201-202; Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible (1981) 94-95.

9 Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 15-19 and Prophetarum Vitae (1907) xxiv-xxix; Hall, "A Hagiologic Manuscript" (1886). For details of additional (unpublished) manuscript evidence, see Denis, Introduction (1970) 87 and nn. 11-15.

10 Text: Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 98-104. On the recension, see Schermann, Propheten· und Apostellegenden (1907) 19-21; Prophetarum Vitae (1907) xxx-xxxii; Denis, Introduction (1970) 87.

11 Though discussed by Schermann (Propheten- und Apostellegenden, 21-22), this evidence was not gathered for his edition. The comprehensive collection remains that of the Bollandists: Delehaye, Synaxarium (1902). For the literary form and tradition, see the studies collected in Delehaye, Synaxaires byzantins, menologes, typica (1977) and Aland and Aland, The Text of the New Testament (1987) 160-166. See also Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 59-64; Negoita, "La vie des prophetes selon le synaxaire de l'eglise grecque" (1965); Halkin, "La prophete 'saint' Jeremie dans le menologe imperial byzantin" (1984).

12 CHAPIERONE

Ambrosian codex of the Syro-Hexapla. 12 This was merely the tip of the iceberg, however, and during the final decades of the nineteenth century multiple forms of the Syriac text were published: (1) a version attributed to Epiphanius on the basis of three manuscripts from the British Museum 13;

(2) a distinct recension based on manuscripts from Berlin and New York14;

(3) selected vitae, with attribution to Epiphanius, preserved in the fourth book of the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (112frl199), Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch15; (4) the vitae which form chapter 32 of the thirteenth century Book of the Bee by Solomon of Basrah16; (5) concise vitae of the prophets, bearing a clear relationship to the Lives, which appear in a ninth century manuscript from the monastery of St. Catherine.17 The range of Syriac evidence has not been assessed as a whole since the beginning of the century and still awaits careful consideration.18

Armenian

Second only to the Syriac in its richness as a textual witness is the variegated Armenian tradition. First published, almost a century ago, were

12 There is, unfortunately, no readily accessible publication of these texts; for the vita of Nahum, see Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 44. On this text, see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 37-39.

13 Add. 12178, 14536, 17193. Nestle published an eclectic edition of the four major prophets on the basis of these manuscripts in his Brevis Linguae Syriacae Grammatica (1881); in the second edition (18882) 86--107, he provided a complete text; for variant readings of these manuscripts, see Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 36-43.

14 Baethgen, "Beschreibung der syrischen Handschrift 'Sachau 131 "' (1886) 197-199; Hall, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1887) with notes by Noldeke in JBL 7 (1887) 63-64. Further evidence is discussed in Ebied, "Some Syriac Manuscripts" (1974) 523-524.

15 Chabot (ed.), Chronique de Michel le Syrien (1899-1910) 1.63-101 (text); 4.38-63 (trans.). On this text, see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 28-30.

16 Budge (ed.), The Book of the Bee (1886) 74-79 (text); 69-73 (trans.). 17 Lewis, Catalogue of the Syriac Mss. (1894) 4-8; the text appears in

Latin translation in Schermann's edition: Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 105-106. 18 The expanse and variety of the Syriac testimony hardly supports the

confident judgment of Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 14: "There was but one Syriac translation, made at an early date, and in the course of centuries it has often been somewhat carelessly copied as well as improved here and there from Greek sources." Of great interest, therefore, is the note in Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-87) 3.785, n. 10: "In an unpublished supplement, prepared for are-edition [of Denis, Introduction] by S. P. Brock, the Syriac recensions are grouped under three headings: (1) the text edited by Nestle; the Ambrosian Syro­Hexapla manuscript (Milan, C. 313 Inf.) and the lives in the West Syrian chronicles; (2) a later Nestorian recension of (1); (3) abbreviated texts."

EVIDENCE, aJNSENSUS, AND CON1EXT 13

the vitae (actually, in Annenian, "deaths") of the twelve minor and four major prophets culled from an assembly of biblical manuscripts.19 These have been bolstered in recent years by much additional evidence drawn from the Collection of Homilies, the Menologium, and a unique Bible manuscript from Erevan.20 This newly published material includes the vitae well known through the Greek tradition-with a certain resonance to the anonymous recension-as well as a number of figures (e.g., Moses and the companions of Daniel) which appear to be unique Annenian creations.21

Closely related material, though clearly to be distinguished from the Lives, is found in an additional Annenian work known as the Names, Works and Deaths of the Holy Prophets. 22

Arabic

The influence of the Lives on Arabic literature has been noted for some time, yet no direct evidence existed for a version of the work in that language.23 Recently, however, a complete Arabic text was published on the basis of a unique 10-llth century manuscript which probably originated in the monastery of St. Catherine.24 The editor notes the general affinity of the Arabic version with the Greek text of the anonymous recension but does not resolve the question whether the Arabic translation, which reveals epitomizing tendencies, was made directly from the Greek or on the basis of a Syriac text of the Lives.25 Aspects of this version are of unique interest and will be discussed below.

19 Yovsepi'ianc', The Uncanonical Books of the Old Testament (1896) 207-227 (Armenian); trans. by Issaverdens, The Uncanonical Writings of the Old Testament (19342) 143-156.

2° For detailed description of the evidence, see Stone, "The Apocryphal Literature in the Armenian Tradition" (1969) 72-77 and idem, "Jewish Apocryphal Literature in the Armenian Church" (1982) 298-300. Stone notes that in at least one early fifteenth century Ms. (Jerusalem, Armen. Patr. lB) the vitae of the minor prophets are given under the title of Lives of the Prophets with an express attribution to Epiphanius.

21 Stone (ed.), Armenian Apocrypha (1982) 129-157. The Armenian text is provided with a Greek retroversion for those vitae known from the Lives (Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Zechariah b. Jehoida, Ahijah, Joad); those peculiarly Armenian are rendered in English translation.

22 Ibid., 158-173. Stone argues (159) that this text is most likely a "translation, from a Greek, or more probably a Latin, original."

23 Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur (1944) 1.212-217. The Lives, it should be noted, bears no relation to the Islamic tradition known as Qisas al-anbiya'; see Sidersky, Les origines des Iegendes musulmanes (1933) and Thackston (ed.), Tales of the Prophets of al Kisa'i (1978).

24 LOfgren, "An Arabic Recension of the 'Vitae Prophetarum "' (1976n7). 25 Ibid., 78-80

14 CHAPIERONE

Ethiopic

The Ethiopic witness to the Lives survived, long undiscovered, in a number of different forms. At the end of the last century the vita of Jeremiah alone was known on the basis of two manuscripts.26 Only recently has additional manuscript material been published which reveals a much fuller picture of the evidence, as well as proof that "the Lives of the Prophets did exist in Ethiopic as an entity and not merely as a series of isolated pieces."27 The Ethiopic version has been characterized as "free and paraphrastic," and there is strong suspicion that this development may have occurred on the inner­Ethiopic level; the translation is likely to have been made from a Greek text whose precise recensional identity remains problematic; there is, moreover, a possibility of Syriac interference at some level of transmission.28 It is important to be mindful of the millennium gap which exists between the presumed era of translation into Ethiopic (fourth-sixth centuries) and the extant manuscripts.

Latin

No integral Latin witness to the Lives was recognized until most recently, and attention had centered upon two major personalities of the Latin Middle Ages: Isidore of Seville and Peter Comestor, both of whom clearly knew some form of the composition and incorporated aspects of it in their own works. Isidore's De ortu et obitu patrum (c. 600) was long regarded as our earliest Latin witness of the Lives.29 More than half a millennium later the influence of the Lives is apparent throughout the Historia Scholastica (c.

26 Bachmann, Aethiopische Lesestiicke (1893) 10-13. 27 Knibb, "The Ethiopic Version of the Lives of the Prophets: Ezekiel and

Daniel" (1980) and idem, "The Ethiopic Version of the Lives of the Prophets, II: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, Ahijah, and Joel" (1985)--citation from p. 17. Knibb's initial publication is based on two manuscripts of the vita of Ezekiel and one of Daniel; the second is based on a continuous, albeit damaged, manuscript identified by the late Roger Crowley in the Bibliotheque Nationale. The second article includes a collation with the texts of the vita of Jeremiah published by Bachmann (see previous note.)

28 See Knibb "The Ethiopic Version" (1980) 198-200 with the additions and corrections in idem, "The Ethiopic Version ... II" (1985) 17-21.

29 Migne, PL 83.129-156. See now the critical edition, with ample introduction and notes by Chaparro G6mez (1985). Vaccari, "Una fonte del 'De ortu et obitu patrum' di S. Isidoro" (1958) offered the first detailed analysis of Isidore's use of the Lives as a source. This work should not be confused with a later and derivative work (PL 83.1275-1294) often attributed to Isidore; see McNally, "Christus in the Pseudo-Isidorian 'Liber de Ortu et Obitu Patriarchum'" (1965).

EVIDENCE, ffiNSENSUS, AND CON1EXT 15

1160) of Peter Comestor.30 Yet we now possess no fewer than three independent Latin versions of the text of the Lives, and it has been forcefully argued that two of these forms of the Latin text (closely related to the text of the anonymous Greek recension) actually precede and provide the basis for the account of Isidore of Seville. 31 It is possible, then, to regard the Latin version as among the earliest textual evidence (sixth century?) for the existence of the Lives as an integral work.

Hebrew

The Hebrew evidence for the composition is restricted to two relatively brief passages incorporated in more extensive medieval works. An undated manuscript of anthological character from the Bibliotheque Nationale contains an abbreviated version of the vitae of Isaiah and Ezekiel. 32 This Hebrew text is most likely translated from a Latin version of the Lives, yet diverges interestingly through its adaptation of rabbinic legend and terminology in recounting the deaths of the two prophets. Additional late Hebrew evidence is provided by a narrative section from the vita of Daniel in the Oxford manuscript of the Chronicle of Yerahmee/. 33 Here too,

30 Migne, PL 198.1053-1722; Vollmer (ed.), Eine deutsche Schulbibel des 15.Jahrhunderts (1925). On Comestor-his works and their influence-see Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (19833) 178-180; Landgraf, "Recherches sur les ecrits de Pierre le Mangeur" (1931); Martin, "Notes sur l'ceuvre litteraire de Pierre le Mangeur" (1931).

31 Dolbeau, "Deux opuscules latins, relatifs aux personnages de Ia Bible et anterieurs a Isidore de Seville" (1986) presents an edition of the texts (113-136) preceded by an analysis of the inner-Latin relationships. See too the same author's "Une liste ancienne d'api)tres et de disciples" (1986) and "'De Vita et­Obitu Prophetarum "' ( 1990).

32 Paris BN Heb. 326, l57b-l58a. Though scholars have dated the manuscript to the 12th century, researchers of the Institute for Manuscript Photographs in the Hebrew University attribute the manuscript to the 13th or 14th century. A full description of Paris Ms. Heb. 326 does not exist but it may be characterized as an Ashkenazic manuscript containing material of great diversity: halakhic matter, commentaries on prayers, some aggadah, poetry, and biblical interpretation. The section from the Vitae Prophetarum was first published in Flusser, Sefer Josippon (1981) 2:153, n. 448. I am indebted to Dr. Boaz Hus (Hebrew University) for information regarding this manuscript and the analysis of its contents. For his more detailed report on the manuscript, particularly the Ezekiel passage, including text and translation, see Stone, Satran, and Wright (eds.), The Apocryphal Ezekiel (forthcoming).

33 Oxford Ms. 2797 (Heb. d. 11), 76r-76v. The composition ascribed to Yerahmeel b. Shelomoh (11th-12th cent.) finds its sole witness in this Oxford manuscript, where it forms a portion of the Sefer ha-Zikhronot compiled ca. 1325 by Eleazar b. Asher ha-Levi. See Neubauer and Cowley, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (1906) 2:208-215 and

16 CHAPIERONE

despite unsubstantiated claims that the passage represents a vestige of an original Hebrew text, the version is demonstrably medieval and the product of translation.34 Both Hebrew witnesses to the Lives, then, appear to provide valuable testimony only for the subsequent transmission of the work in the Latin West.

HISTORY OF RESEARCH

Interest in the Lives of the Prophets, however, has not been limited to the field of textual criticism. Virtually every aspect of the literary and historical origins of the Lives has been the subject of scholarly discussion and debate during the last hundred years. Before taking up these questions individually I shall attempt a brief survey of the course of modem scholarship on the work. Specific attention will then be given to the central questions of language, date, and provenance. There follows a fairly detailed summary of research on two broader issues in the study of the Lives which have left a deep mark on our perception of both the composition and its presumed historical and religious context. These questions involve varied aspects of the historical geography of ancient Palestine as well as the nature of the relationship between prophecy and martyrdom during the Second Temple period. Finally, I will try to outline a series of "gaps" in recent research: chinks in the armor of modem scholarship on the text.

The Lives of the Prophets in Modern Pseudepigrapha Research

While clearly not as intensely studied as many of the other works accounted among the Old Testament pseudepigrapha, it would be misleading to imply that the Lives has been neglected: modem scholarship on the composition dates back to the early sixteenth century and has produced notable results. The following three centuries saw the gradual publication of the most important Greek manuscripts of the work and the establishment of

Neubauer, "Yerahmeel ben Shelomoh" (1899) 364-386. The publication of the Hebrew text remains a prime desideratum, and scholarly acquaintance with this important composition has been largely through the unreliable medium of Gaster (tr.), The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (1899).

34 The version of Yerahmeel is clearly a Hebrew translation of a Latin form of the text virtually identical with that found in the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor; see above, n. 30. In a separate study, I am currently examining the relationship of the medieval Latin and Hebrew texts. A detailed listing of the common traditions in Yerahmeel and Comestor appears in Vollmer, Eine deutsche Schulbibel des 15.Jahrhunderts (1925) 1:361-368. For similar relationships between texts from Yerahmeel and underlying Latin sources, see Harrington (ed.), The Hebrew Fragments of Pseudo-Philo (1974) 1-7 and Stone (ed.), Signs of the Judgement (1981) 12-13, 41-57.

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT 17

increasingly critical attitudes toward traditional claims of Epiphanian or Dorothean authorship.35 A renewed burst of activity surrounding the Lives began with the publication (1881) of the Syriac version of the vitae of the four major prophets by Eberhard Nestle in the chrestomathy of the first edition of his Syriac Grammar.36 Several years later Isaac Hall published both Greek and Syriac manuscripts of the workY The conclusive summation of nineteenth century scholarship was offered by Nestle himself in his publications of the preeminent Greek and Syriac witnesses to the text of the Lives.38 The dual achievement of Theodor Schermann in 1907, however, was so great as to make all previous research appear as nothing more than a praeparatio. His critical edition of the principal Greek recensions is unsurpassed and forms the basis of scholarship on the text to this day. 39 His detailed analysis of the process of textual transmission, published separately in the same year, stands as the last full-length study of the Lives of the Prophets.4{) The care with which Schermann weighed the evidence of the Greek manuscripts and other versions is paralleled by his balanced treatment of broader literary and historical issues.

Schermann's contributions marlc a watershed in scholarship on the Lives of the Prophets; the establishment of an accessible and coherent, if complex, textual base secured the composition's place in modem study of the pseudepigrapha. Until that time the Lives had suffered from relative neglect: most obvious, perhaps, in the absence of the composition from the two major collections of post-biblical Jewish literature, those of Kautzsch and Charles, which appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century.41

However, the inclusion of the work in P. Riessler's German translation of extra-canonical Jewish writings (1928) was both indicative of the new status of the Lives and itself a potent factor in awakening fresh interest.42 •

Shortly thereafter, R. Bernheimer drew the attention of English-speaking

35 For scholarship on the Lives during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, see Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 1-6; Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) ix-xxxiii and idem, Propheten- und Apostel/egenden (1907) 2-39 passim.

36 Brevis Linguae Syriacae Grammatica (1881). 37 "A Hagiologic manuscript" (1886) 27-39 and "The Lives of the

Profhets" (1887) 28-39. 3 Brevis Linguae Syriacae Grammatica (18882); "Vitae Prophetarum"

(1893). • 39 Prophetarum Vitae (1907) vii-xxxiii, 1-106. 4{) Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 1-133. 41 Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testments

(1900); Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913). 42 Riessler, Altjiidisches Schrifttum ausserhalb der Bibel (1928) 871-880,

1321-1322 (notes).

18 CHAPIERONE

scholars to the work in a brief, somewhat sensational note, and S. Klein did much the same for the Hebrew-reading public in a study of the geographical traditions. 43

It was C. C. Torrey's edition and English translation of the text, however, that fixed the Lives of the Prophets as a standard point of reference for students of the literary and religious history of the Second Temple period. The author describes clearly both his project and its significance:

The document which emerges is a characteristic deposit of old Jewish folklore, first published in Palestine, in the Hebrew language, in the first century of the present era. What is here presented is a Greek text which is believed to be the oldest form now attainable, with such slight emendation as is absolutely necessary, and with the critical and explanatory notes which are required. The appended translation, with its annotations, will probably be welcome; for no English version of these legends has been available. At all events, with the appearance of the present edition the Lives can take its legitimate place, for the first time, as a regular member of the Old Testament Apocrypha.44

Torrey's monograph established not only a conveniently accessible text of the Lives for a generation of readers but an entire complex of assumptions regarding the nature and origin of the composition. This burgeoning consensus regarding the work received expression in contemporary surveys of Jewish apocryphal and pseudepigraphic literature.45

No longer an oddity or an arcane source, during the last forty years the Lives of the Prophets has been much studied and often cited. The great majority of these studies have taken up specific questions within the realms of historical geography (sites of sacred tombs) or the history of religion (prophecy and martyrdom) and will be the subject of more detailed attention below. One publication that engages these themes directly, though, deserves mention already at this juncture-Joachim Jeremias' study of sacred tombs in Roman and Byzantine Palestine.46 Though oriented around a problem in

43 Bernheimer, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1935); Klein, "Al ha-Sefer Vitae Pr~hetarum" (1937).

Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 1-2. 45 Torrey, The Apocryphal Literature (1945) 135-140; Zeitlin, "Jewish

Apocryphal Literature" (1949/50) 249 treats the Lives as an apocryphal "midrash" together with the Testament of Job, Martyrdom of Isaiah, and Biblical Antiquities of ps.-Philo; Pfeiffer, "The Literature and Religion of the Pseudepigrapha" (1952) 245.

46 Jeremias, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (Mt 23,29; Lk 11, 47). Eine Untersuchung zur Volksreligion der Zeit Jesu (1958). Twenty-five years earlier, Jeremias had published two brief studies of traditions from the Lives: "Sarabatha und Sybatha" (1933) and "Moreseth-Gath" (1933); several years after the

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT 19

New Testament interpretation and background, this monograph represents the most sustained investigation of the individual vitae since the labors of Nestle and Schermann. Jeremias' work has exercised an enormous influence and has proven, alongside Torrey's monograph, to be a major conduit for the wider dissemination of the Lives.

Of more recent work on the Lives note should be taken of M. de Jonge's examination of Christian elements in the composition, a perspective both unique and largely unappreciated.47 The vita of Jeremiah has attracted particular attention, with special emphasis on the legend relating the concealment of the Tabernacle.48 The new status of the Lives of the Prophets in modem research has also earned the text a secure place in recent surveys and collections of post-biblical Jewish literature. A series of handbooks on the culture and literature of the period of the Second Temple have featured entries devoted to the Lives.49 Fresh translations of the text (with brief introductions and ample annotation) have appeared recently in the English Old Testament Pseudepigrapha50 and Spanish Apocrifos del Antiguo Testamento.51 A German version is currently in preparation for the series Jiidische Schriften aus hellenistisch-romisher Zeit.52 Finally, as described above in some detail, much care has been lavished of late on the edition, translation, and study of the versions, both Oriental and Western, of the composition.

appearance of the monograph he published two brief addenda: "Drei weitere spa~iidische Heiligengriiber" (1961) and "Das spiitjiidische Deboragrab" (1966).

4 De Jonge, "Christelijke Elementen in de Vitae Prophetarum" (1961/62). 48 Nickelsburg, "Narrative Traditions" (1973) 64; Wolff, Jeremia im

Friihjudentum und Urchristentum (1976) 36-44, 63-66; Petit, "La cachette de l'Arche d'alliance" (1985); Koester, The Dwelling of God (1989) 51-54, 175-177.

49 Denis, Introduction (1970) 85-90; Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research (1981) 175-177; Stone (ed.), Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (1984) 56-60; Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-1987) 3.783-786; Russell, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (1987) 113-123.

50 Hare, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1985). 51 Fernandez Marcos, "Vida de los Profetas" (1983). Note too the earlier

articles by the translator: "Nueva acepcion de TEPAI: en las 'Vidas de las Profetas'" (1980) and "£A1ti~uv or £yyi~uv?" (1980).

52 To be carried out by A. M. Schwemer of Tiibingen who also is preparing a full-scale commentary on the Lives. I am grateful to Dr. Schwemer for sending me a copy of her dissertation: "Studien zu den friihjiidischen Prophetenlegenden: Vitae Prophetarum" (Tiibingen 1993) and regret that the advanced state of my own manuscript no longer allowed a proper assimilation and assessment of her findings.

20 CHAPIERONE

Searching for an Ur-Text: Date, Provenance, and Language

During the course of the last century much of the scholarly concern with the Lives of the Prophets has centered about the question of origins-when, where, and in what language did the composition emerge? So overwhelming has been the general agreement on these questions that it is neither difficult nor particularly hazardo~s to venture a thumbnail sketch of the consensus: the Lives is a Jewish work of the first celltury C.E., composed in Palestine. Only with regard to the question of language-Hebrew or Greek-has there been a serious difference of opinion. The components of this formula may be taken up briefly in tum.

Jewish. While widely acknowledged that in its present forms (the Greek recensions and versions) the work reveals some signs of Christian transmission, it has been maintained roundly that these touches are few, superficial, quickly identified, and as easily removed. The allegiance to the text of Codex Marchalianus (Q) which has developed -over the last century rests in large part on the perception of that text as relatively free of Christian interpolations, i.e. closest to the form of the original Jewish composition. With the exception of the studies by Klein and de Jonge, no serious thought has been given to the possibility of a more active process of Christian redaction of earlier sources. 53

Date. There has been little hesitancy in assigning the work to the latter portion of the Second Temple period, generally to the first century of the Common Era. The few problematic attempts made to find concrete historical allusions in the text have only exposed the difficulty involved in accurately dating a document such as the Lives on internal grounds. 54 The

53 Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937); De Jonge, "Christelijke Elementen in de Vitae Prophetarum" (1961/62). Note too the caution expressed by the present writer in Stone (ed.), Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (1984) 56-60.

54 Perhaps the prime example of an historical "proof' which carries little conviction is Torrey's argument (Lives of the Prophets [1946] 11-12) "that at the time when this work was composed Gilead was, and for some time had been, a part of the Nabatean kingdom," i.e. a certain date of composition prior to 106 C.E. when Arabia became a Roman province. This construct rests on nothing more than the opening phrase of the vita of Elijah-"Elijah, a Thesbite from the land of the Arabs"-and Torrey's certainty that the term yii 'Apa~cov could only have been used during the period of Nabatean hegemony. This certainly overburdens the evidence: with the onset of Roman rule, the new province retains the name Arabia, and the indigenous population continues to be known as "Arab". For common late-fourth century usage of the phrase, see Jerome, Hebr. Quaest. in Genesim 25:13-18; ed. Adriaen [CCSL 72] 31. It is a matter of some dismay, therefore, to see this argument resurface in Hare, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 381.

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CON'IEXT 21

generally accepted date appears to be based in most instances on an appreciation of the document, particularly its traditions of martyrdom and burial, as background to the writings of the New Testament.

Provenance. Here too there has been broad agreement, as the Lives is considered by all to be a Palestinian composition. The argumentation has not been substantial and is based on an assumption of the trustworthiness and antiquity of the geographical notices in the work: i.e., only an author from Palestine itself, most likely Judea, could have displayed this intimate knowledge of local topography and tradition.55

Language. There has been strong suspicion among scholars since the beginnings of the modem study of the Lives that the extant Greek texts derive from a Semitic Vorlage. In 1833 Henricus Arentius Hamaker published a detailed commentary on the text and, following a theory first put forward by Joachim Zehner (1612), paraded much erudition in favor of an original Hebrew composition.56 A variation on the theme was provided by Isaac Hall who concluded his translation of a Syriac text of the Lives by voicing the conviction that that language and not Greek was original.57

This trend was opposed by the combined authority of Nestle and Schermann; the latter recognized an underlying Jewish document but resisted any automatic assumption of a Hebrew source and regarded the language of the text as indicative of a Jewish-Greek idiom peculiar to Syria­Palestine. 58 A similar opinion was offered by F.-M. Abei.59 There is a renewed effort to argue for an originally Semitic text, however, beginning with the study by Samuel Klein (1937) who leaned toward the possibility of Aramaic.60 By far the most enthusiastic proponent of the view of a Semitic original was C. C. Torrey: his edition and translation, based on Codex Marchalianus (Q), reflect an unwavering conviction that a Hebrew Vorlage underlies the work; readings without manuscript witness are

55 Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 11 argues that "the standpoint of the author of the Lives is plainly Jerusalem"; Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) 209 points out the inordinate interest in sites in the proximity of Beth-Guvrin (Eleutheropolis). Virtually all commentators seem to acknowledge possible Egyptian origins for some of the elements found in the vita of Jeremiah.

56 Hamaker, Commentatio in libel/urn de vita et morte prophetarum, qui Graece circumfertur (1833).

57 Hall, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1887) 38-39. 58 Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 46; Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae

(1907) x-xi; Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 122, 131-133. 59 Abel, "Le Tombeau d'Isa'ie" (1922) 26: "On a tente de placer a l'origine

de ces notices un opuscule hebreu ou arameen, mais les tournures semitiques s'expliquent suffisamment par le grec aramalsant parle en Palestine."

60 Klein, "Al ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) 191, n. 6.

22 CHAPIERONE

introduced into the Greek text on the basis of a reconstructed Semitic source.61 Jeremias too accepted this basic position yet appeared once again to favor an Aramaic original.62 Of late, however, there has been far more caution in this regard and in the introduction to his recent translation D. R. A. Hare has assembled a number of new and interesting arguments for Greek as the original language of composition.63

Sacred Tombs and Loca San eta in Early Judaism

From the time of Hadrian Reland's stunning composition Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus lllustrata (1714), students of the historical geography of the Holy Land have been fascinated by the Lives of the Prophets and its trove of place names and burial traditions. Their investigations largely have originated from (and consequently given sustenance to) the premise that

. . . the little book is Palestinian through and through, and its atmosphere is distinctly that of pre-Christian times. Very noticeable is the number of geographical names, familiar to the author and his contemporaries but unknown to us and unmentioned in either the earll. Christian Onomastica or the rabbinical writings, which occur in the Lives. 4

It is precisely this unique, unparalleled character of the traditions in the Lives of the Prophets which has so enthralled students of the work. Indeed, the present century has witnessed significant advance in the critical study of later traditions surrounding the tombs of biblical figures. The detailed investigations of the historical geography of Jerusalem and its environs by H. Vincent and F.-M. Abel, among the founding generation of scholars of the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique, ultimately issued in their joint classic work on Jerusalem Nouvelle.65 They found much of interest in the birth and burial notices in the Lives of the Prophets and generally displayed great confidence in the work as a repository of early Jewish lore. By far the most

61 Torrey, The Apocryphal Literature (1945) 139-140; idem, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 1, 7-8, 16-17, 24-25, n. 28, 27-28, n. 47, 49-52 (appendix: "Jeremiah and the Reptiles of Egypt"). In a generally appreciative review of Torrey's monograph, Marcus (JBL 66 [1947] 337-339), expressed a measure of reservation regarding the free manner in which both the Greek text and resultant translation had been emended.

62 Jeremias, Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 12, n. 2. 63 Hare, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 380, 390, n. 4j. 64 Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 10. 65 Vincent and Abel, Jerusalem. Recherches de topographie, d' archeologie

et d' histoire 2.3-4 (Paris 1922-1926). Note too their earlier studies: Vincent, "Le tombeau des proph~tes" (1901) 84; Abel, "La sepulture de saint Jacques le Mineur" (1919) and "Le Tombeau d'lsale" (1922).

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT 23

comprehensive and sustained examinations of the geographical traditions of the work, however, have been those conducted by Samuel Klein and Joachim Jeremias. Two more differently oriented scholars could scarcely be imagined-as both men pursued their research in accord with their own broader interests and agenda-yet the two ultimately agreed in their estimation of the Lives of the Prophets as a unique and valuable collection of Jewish tradition antedating, in most cases, the destruction of the Second Temple.

Klein's ambitious article provided the first extensive commentary on the composition's birth and burial traditions. 66 His detailed discussion of the geographical notices of the individual vitae is marked by an attempt to set those traditions within the context of similar concerns in rabbinic literature. Klein reveals a curious blend of open-eyed skepticism and blind devotion in his treatment of the work. He observes, in the case of a particularly obscure report concerning the prophet Nahum, that while "the explanation is certainly strange, nothing appears to be too strange for this author in such matters" (201); yet in his analysis of the vita of Azariah (191-192) he is willing to perform all manner of mental and geographical gymnastics in order to defend the trustworthiness of the composition. Indeed, the overall impression one gains from Klein's article is the general disparity between the traditions recorded in the Lives of the Prophets and those of early Jewish literature. There remains, however. an ardent tenor of respect for the authenticity of the birth and burial notices, and the explanation emerges only at the conclusion of Klein's discussion: the vitae preserve a remnant, however faint and distorted, of traditions akin to those which may be presumed to have formed the "Scroll of Genealogies" (l'Orw n~nl) known and consulted in the early rabbinic period.67 The geographical notices of the· Lives of the Prophets, despite later corruptions and additions, retain the "essence" of a popular piety from the period of the Second Temple.

Jeremias' monograph on Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) is marked by a straightforward goal: the demonstration that one of most famous of the sayings of Jesus-"Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous" (Mt 23:29; // Lk 11:47)-accurately reflects

66 Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937). 67 Ibid., 208-209. This assertion would appear to be based solely on the

fact that the non-extant "Scroll of Genealogies"- b. Yebamot 49a; j. Taanit 4,2 (68a); Genesis Rabbah 85, 10 (Theodor-Albeck, 1259)-contained the legend of Isaiah's death at the hands of Manasseh. Yet the activity of the prophets (and their martyrdom) is likely to have been tangential to the scroll's principal genealogical function: see the observations in Stone, Armenian Apocrypha (1982) 160-161.

24 CHAPIERONE

the spiritual and architectural reality of first century Palestine.68 It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the Lives of the Prophets for this project: in Jeremias' argument for the existence of "sacred tombs" as one of the principal elements in the "popular religion at the time of Jesus," no other text is asked to testify so often on behalf of Jewish tradition and practice from the period of the Second Temple.69 This monograph by Jeremias, systematically presented and often ingeniously argued, has had a profound influence. His conclusions regarding the background of the Q pericope in Matthew 23:29-31 and Luke 11:47-49 have become fixed points of reference for modern commentators on those passages. Recent inquiries into the nature of early Jewish piety, in particular the question of "popular religion," during the period of the Second Temple have found Jeremias' thesis irresistible.7° Finally, and perhaps most pervasive, has been the impact of Heiligengriiber on investigations of the Jewish origins of a wide variety of early Christian practices: cults of martyrs and saints, veneration of graves, and patterns of pilgrimage.71 Indeed, to question Jeremias' reliance upon and understanding of traditions drawn from the Lives of the Prophets would be, in effect, to raise serious questions about a broad range of current assumptions concerning the relationship between Jewish and Christian forms of piety in late antiquity.

The ultimate "success" of the geographical notices in the Lives of the Prophets can be measured by their acceptance and incorporation in the standard handbooks on "loca sancta" of Roman and Byzantine Palestine. The classic treatment by Peter Thomsen appeared in the same year ( 1907) as Schermann's dual volumes; Thomsen introduces the place names of the

68 Jeremias, Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 5. 69 Fully half of Jeremias' introductory discussion of primary source

materials (11-13) is devoted to the Lives of the Prophets. In his investigation of individual traditions, the vitae serve as the principal (and sometimes sole) source of support: see Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 29-31, 58, 62-65, 67-68, 71-74, 80-85, 87, 89-90, 93-94, 100-101, 105, 108-109, 112-113.

70 Strange, "Archaeology and the Religion of Judaism in Palestine" (1979) 667-668; Meyers and Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity (1981) 162; Werner, "Traces of Jewish Hagiolatry" (1980) 48-50. See too Rothkrug, "The 'Odor of Sanctity' and the Hebrew Origins of Christian Relic Veneration" (1981) and Lightstone, The Commerce of the Sacred (1984) 57-87.

11 Simon, "Les pelerinages dans l'Antiquite chretienne" (1973); Klauser, "Christlicher Martyrerkult, heidnischer Heroenkult und spatjiidische Heiligenverehrung" (1974); Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 10, 33; Kret~chmar, "Festkalender und Memorialstatten Jerusalems" (1987); Wilkinson, "Jew1sh Holy Places and the Origins of Christian Pilgrimage" (1990). For lone voices of dissent, see now Rordorf, "Wie steht es urn den jUdischen Einfluss auf den christlichen Miirtyrerkult" (1990) and Taylor, Christians and the Holy Places. The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins (1993).

EVIDENCE, ffiNSENSUS, AND CON1EXT 25

vitae-cited as "Pseudepiphanius" on the basis of Nestle's 1893 publication-throughout his work and they figure prominently alongside those of Josephus, Eusebius, et a/.12 The next major project of this sort was the posthumously published collection of material, including rabbinic sources, prepared by Michael Avi-Yonah; birth and burial notices from the vitae are integrated here only when they could be positively identified with a known site.73 Two recent and detailed compilations of "loca sancta" have appeared as the appendices to studies of Christian pilgrimage by John Wilkinson and Pierre Maraval: both works exhibit a keen interest in the Lives of the Prophets as well as a clear knowledge of Jeremias' research.74

None of these students of the historical geography of ancient Palestine has questioned the status of our text as a Jewish composition of the Second Temple era.

Prophets and Martyrs in Judaism of the Second Temple period

Closely related to the study of the burial notices in the Lives has been a sharp focus on the composition's martyrological content. Here, as well, the impetus has arisen largely from the desire to elucidate a further /ogion whose presumed source lies in the Q-tradition:

Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they they will kill and persecute,' so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. (Lk 11:49ff.; Mt 23:34f.)

Much discussion of these verses has concerned the mention of Zechariah and the often frustrating attempts to resolve the confusion between no fewer.. than four figures bearing that name: the prophet Zechariah son of Berachiah son of Ido (Zech 1: 1) about whose fate the Bible is silent; Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada (2 Chr 24:20-22) slain in the Temple by the command of Joash; Zechariah father of John the Baptist martyred by Herod according to early Christian tradition (Protevang. James 23-24); Zechariah son of

72 Thomsen, Loca Sancta (1907). 73 Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer of Roman Palestine (1976). Citations from the

•Lives appear to be indiscriminately culled from both Nestle (1893) and Schermann (1907). Though published almost twenty years after the appearance of the monograph by Jeremias, there is no acknowledgment of his research.

74 Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades (1977) 148-178 ("Gazetteer"); Maraval, Lieux Saints et Pelerinages d'Orient (1985) 251-310 ("Repertoire des Lieux Saints. I. Palestine"). Wilkinson's work is distinguished by a true frrst-hand knowledge of the land as well as a critical attitude toward a number of Jeremias' suggested identifications.

26 CHAP1ERONE

Baries (Josephus, War 4.334-344) murdered by the Zealots on the eve of the Destruction.75 It is only natural that in the course of discussion attention was directed to the respective vitae of the prophet and priest contained in the Lives.16 Among the most comprehensive investigations of the entire issue, including the testimony of the Lives, have been studies dedicated to the lost apocryphon of Zechariah. 77

Concurrently a much broader examination had begun of the background of the Gospel saying-an assessment of the larger relationship between prophecy and martyrdom in the period of the Second Temple.78 An additional series of proof-texts from the New Testament had been introduced to widen the inquiry:

Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. (Acts 7:52)

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword ... (Heb 11:36-37)

With these citations as an epigraph, Hans Joachim Schoeps (1943) engaged the issue of Jewish antecedents directly and for the first time brought the evidence of the Lives into the very center of the discussion.79 Schoeps demanded the recognition of a rich tradition concerning the deaths of the prophets within Judaism of the Second Temple period, not all of whose sources have survived or can be reconstructed. His analysis opens, in fact, with a nod to the Church father Origen who already had observed the marked "disappearance" of such legends from the scriptural canon of Judaism.80 Of those extant sources which attest to the pre-Christian tradition, none offers

75 The literature on this problem is enormous: see the discussion in Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 33-40 and the helpful survey in Garland, The Intention of Matthew 23 (1979) 182-183, n. 69.

76 The basic discussion, with ample reference to the Lives, remains Blank, "The Death of Zechariah in Rabbinic Literature" (1937/38). Blank notes there the parallel confusion between the figures of prophet and priest in Mt 23:35, in the Targum to Lamentations 2:20, and in certain manuscripts of the Lives.

77 Berendts, Studien iiber Zacharias-Apokryphen und Zacharias-Legenden (1895); Dubois, "Etudes sur l'Apocryphe de Zacharie" (1978).

78 Pioneering in this regard was the monograph of Schlatter, Der Miirtyrer in den Anfiingen der Kirche (1915) 18-22 ("Der Prophet als Miirtyrer"). For the history of research, see Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 15-19 and Scholer, "Israel Murdered its Prophets" (1980) 6-22.

79 Schoeps, "Die jlidischen Prophetenmorde" (1943; 1950). 80 Note principally his Comm. ser. in Matt. 25-28; ed. Klostermann [GCS

38] 40-54 and Epist. ad Africanum 13 (9); ed. de Lange [SC 302] 542-544.

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CON'IEXT 27

so broad a range of material as the Lives; Schoeps details the accounts of violent death in the vitae of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah, and Zechariah b. Jehoiada (and appends Joel and Habakkuk according to one of the Syriac versions.) Without this rich martyrological tradition, Schoeps concludes with reference back to the Q-logion, "bleibt das Jesuwort unverstandlich."81 Independent of Schoeps' research, Henry Fischel presented a comparable study of early Jewish attitudes, though with far greater emphasis on both pagan background and rabbinic testimony; his findings largely dovetailed with those of Schoeps:

In conclusion, it can be said that as early as the first century C.E. it had become a generally accepted teaching of Judaism that prophets had to suffer or even to undergo martyrdom. This tenet was exemplified by midrashic reports on the sufferings or deaths of the prophets. Preconceived in biblical sources, this belief seems to be of Jewish origin. The N .T. teachings on the task and fate of the prophet seem to be based on this Jewish belief and presuppose a number of midrashic stories.82

Among those "midrashic" reports and stories, martyrologicallegends drawn from the vitae figure prominently.

To this day, the respective studies of Schoeps and Fischel, including their willingness to incorporate the evidence of the Lives, continue to establish the tone for scholarly discussion of the conjunction of prophecy and martyrdom at the close of the Second Temple period. 83 The only true attempt to rethink the entire problem has been the lengthy monograph by Odil Hannes Steck on the "violent fate" of the prophets.84 Interestingly, Steck attempts a more precise definition of the phenomenon-speaking of a Deuteronomic outlook within a predominantly Ievitical context-which concurrently detracts from the importance of the Lives : the motif of martyrdom in the vitae is neither particularly emphatic nor does it bear a clear ideological orientation.85 Both of these aspects of Steck's research have been questioned of late, and it is difficult to discern any displacement

81 Schoeps,"Die jiidischen Prophetenmorde" (1943; 1950) 132. 82 Fischel, "Martyr and Prophet" (1946/47) 279. 83 Manson, "Martyrs and Martyrdom" (1956/57) provides an articulate

statment of this consensus from the viewpoint of New Testament reseach. For a somewhat different perspective, see Flusser, "Das jiidische Martyrium" (1973). The folowing studies have all accented the martyrological aspects of the Lives: Bernheimer, "The Martyrdom of Isaiah" (1952); Koml6s, "About Jewish Elements in the Vitae Prophetarum" (1958); Hare, The Theme of Jewish Persecution of Christians (1967) 137-141.

84 Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967). 85 Ibid., 247-250.

28 CHAPrER ONE

of the Lives as a prime witness to early Jewish and Christian attitudes toward martyrdom.86

Desiderata

From our survey of scholarship several lacunae emerge clearly. First, tl!ere has been no sustained examination of the Lives as a literary text. This dearth of precise literary analysis appears all the more remarkable given the obvious and proximate background of biblical scholarship. The research concerns and techniques developed by generations of students of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament still wait to be applied in even the most cursory manner.87 In the absence of such an investigation, an entire realm of questions regarding the form, composition, and genre of the Lives has yet to receive clear formulation. One of the obvious courses of entry to such problems-the intensive analysis of a select vita or group of vitae-has also been neglected. Indeed, there has not been an in-depth study of the vita of a prophet since Franz Delitzsch's monograph on Habakkuk exactly a century and a half ago.88

Congruent with the failure to address the text as an integral literary document has been a reticence about larger issues of historical and cultural context. The traditional view of the Lives of the Prophets as a Jewish work of the Second Temple period both begs and blocks certain central questions regarding the work.The broad willingness to regard the composition as "background" to the New Testament or as illustrative of attitudes and practices among the people in the period of the Second Temple has not resulted in a a serious attempt to read the text within a defined historical framework; rather, there has been a largely piecemeal exploitation of details drawn from the vitae. Very little attention has been given to either the basic religious identity of the composition or the possible significance which the work held for the community in which it was created. The key to these questions lies in the determination of an audience and a context: by whom

86 For a sustained critique of Steck's work, see Scholer, "Israel Murdered its Prophets" (1980) 15-22. Scholer devotes a lengthy discussion to the vitae of the martyred prophets (145-165) and insists on the primacy of the Lives as a witness to Jewish martyr-consciousness at the end of the Second Temple period.

87 Schermann displayed an awareness of these questions in his treatment of the individual vitae (Propheten- und Apostellegenden [1907] 43-116) but offered neither a general discussion of the issue nor detailed analysis. More recently Steck, Israel und das gewa/tsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 248 has noted the lack of "eine traditionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung" of the text.

88 Delitzsch, De Habacuci prophetae vita atque aetate commentatio historico-isagogica cum Diatriba de Pseudodorothei et Pseudepiphanii vitis prophetarum (1842).

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CONlEXT 29

and in what setting was the text received, read, and preserved. These are crucial concerns, perhaps, yet often sidestepped in the dizzying rush to establish the earliest and most original form of the document.

Finally, despite the solid and fruitful labors of Nestle and Schermann, time is fast approaching to reassess and reassemble the textual evidence for the Lives. This is in part due to the steady expansion of the number of known Greek manuscripts of the different recensions89 and equally as a result of our greatly increased knowledge of the different versions and a growing perception of their importance. A far-reaching project by a team of scholars, led by M. Petit and F. Dolbeau, envisions precisely this sort of fundamental re-examination of the entire textual tradition toward a new edition, of the Greek and of the versions, for the Series Apocryphorum of the Corpus Christianorum.90

CONlEXTS OF 1RANSMISSION

Text-critical questions aside, the overwhelming focus of modem research clearly has been the contribution of the Lives of the Prophets to an understanding of Judaism and nascent Christianity at the end of the Second Temple period. It might even appear that a virtually exclusive interest in details relevant to the physical and spiritual landscape of first century Palestine has encouraged similar conclusions regarding the origin of the work. Given the broad consensus that the document is in fact both early and Jewish, one is surprised by the equanimity which accompanies the following revelation by the most recent translator of the Lives:

The document is extant in Christian manuscripts only. Not a scrap of it has been identified at Qumran, and there is no reference to it in other Jewislf literature. Nevertheless, the basic material has been so little influenced by Christian beliefs that scholars are generally agreed that the original writing was created by a Jew. Because it was transmitted by Christians, however, it is not surprising that the manuscripts contain a good deal of Christian material. 91

One is left wondering what are the precise criteria for distinguishing between the "good deal of Christian material" which has presumably accumulated during the course of transmission and the "basic material"

89 Denis, Introduction (1970) 85-88 cites no fewer than twenty Greek manuscripts of the work which were unknown to Schermann, and one suspects that this list will continue to grow.

9° For a preliminary description of the project, see the Bulletin de L'AELAC (Association pour l'etude de Ia litterature apocryphe chretienne) 2 (1992) 1~13.

91 Hare, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1986) 380

30 CHAPIERONE

reflecting popular Jewish religiosity at the time of Jesus. And what does one do with all that Christian accretion? Does it have any relevance to the study of the document? To judge by the last century of scholarship, .the answer would appear to be: little or none at all. This decidedly imbalanced approach to the study of the Lives of the Prophets is rendered still more questionable given the widespread transmission and obvious significance of the text in the Byzantine Greek, Oriental Christian, and Medieval Latin traditions. .......

The problem would be a real one even if the testimony to the existence of the Lives had been relatively early, e.g. the writings of Origen (185-254), as in the case of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.92 It would still be incumbent on the student of the text to give some accounting for the centuries that had elapsed between its putative Jewish authorship and its earliest witness-by a Christian author. The case at hand, though, is far more dramatic and unsettling: virtually no heed has been paid to the simple fact that the earliest evidence for the Lives of the Prophets ranges from the sixth through eighth centuries. No citation from nor allusion to the composition can be documented from the patristic period; similarly, the work does not appear in any of the canon lists (third through sixth centuries) which we possess. In short, between the text's presumed point of origin and our very first proof of its existence there lies a gap of half a millennium.

It may be helpful to marshal these "early" witnesses. First, there are the oldest manuscripts of the Lives from the seventh and eighth centuries:

• The Greek text preserved in the opening leaves of the codex Marchalianus (Q) which are to be dated no later than the seventh century.93 • The Syriac text of the vitae of the minor prophets (with the exception of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) prepared in 616/617 and preserved in the eighth century codex Ambrosiana of the Syro-Hexapla.94

• The eighth century Syriac manuscript (Mus. Brit. add. 14536) which contains one of the prime witnesses to that version.95

Alongside these early textual representatives stand two authors from the first half of the seventh century who included portions of the Lives in their own works:

92 On this, as well as a host of closely related issues, see de Jonge, "The Tr;~smission of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs by Christians" (1993).

See above, n. 8. 94 See above, n. 12. 95 See above, n. 13.

EVIDENCE, a>NSENSUS, AND OON1EXT 31

• Isidore of Seville (ca. 560-636) made use of the Lives in his composition De ortu et obitu patrum.96 As discussed above, it would now appear that we can trace the evidence still further back to the Latin texts (sixth century?) which stood behind the work of Isidore.97

• The anonymous author of the Byzantine Chronicon Paschale (ca. 629) employed a Greek text representative of the Dorotheus recension.98

Both manuscripts and testimonies, therefore, indicate the existence of an ample textual tradition (Greek recensional activity as well as translation into both Syriac and Latin) at the close of the sixth century. It is of no little interest, moreover, to observe the sudden appearance and concentration of so many variegated witnesses to the existence of the text at that point in time. It may not be unreasonable to infer processes of redaction and circulation of Greek texts of the Lives substantially earlier in that century. Beyond that point, however, the evidence simply cannot be coerced.

What are the methodological consequences of the recognition that the earliest traces of the Lives of the Prophets can be documented only in a series of Christian sources from the late sixth or early seventh centuries C.E.? Is it possible to continue to read, cite, and study the vitae as if they had been plucked directly from the reality of the Second Temple period? In an analysis of scholarly assumptions current in the investigation of a wide range of Jewish pseudepigrapha, Robert Kraft posed the problem most acutely:

Whatever the ultimate origins and literary history of these materials, their place in Christian usage (and piety) is well attested simply on the basis of the preserved MSS. And it is here that our quest for solutions about earlier phases of development must begin if we are to pursue a systematic and rigorously controlled approach to the problem.99 •

This insistence on the prime importance of the context of transmission comes as a corrective to decades of inconclusive and premature searching

96 See above, n. 29. 97 See above, n. 31. 98 See above, n. 5. It is interesting to note that the sixth century

Alexandrian author Cosmas Indicopleustes cites the Christological florilegia which preface the vitae in the Dorotheus recension but does not seem to know the vitae themselves: Topographia Christiana 5.139-173; ed. Wolska-Conus [SC 141, 159, 197] (1968-1973) 2.201-265. On the possible relationship between Cosmas and the Chronicon Paschale, see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 12-14; Mercati, "A Study of the Paschal Chronicle" (1906); Winstedt, "A Note on Cosmas and the Chronicon Paschale" (1907); Wolska, La topographie chretienne de Cosmas Indicopleustes (1962) 98-105.

99 Kraft, "Reassessing the 'Recensional Problem' in Testament of Abraham" (1976) 131-132.

32 CHAPIERONE

after origins. Kraft proceeds to spell out the implications of this approach: in addressing documents whose contexts of transmission and reception provide our only secure basis for research,

content and (if possible) intent need to be analyzed within the framework of the identifiable transmitters of the material.. .. Were the motives at work in the transmission and preservation of such materials sufficient to cause the actual composition and/or construction of some of the materials themselves? It should not be assumed that a document composed or compiled by a Christian will necessarily contain characteristically "Christian" contents.100

The implications of this position are truly profound; taken seriously, they would demand something of a "paradigm shift" in the study of post-biblical Jewish literature. In fact, it is not a call which has been widely heeded.101

* * * The ta~k before us, then, is to examine the Lives of the Prophets without pre-suppositions, released from the (unproven) requirement to anchor the composition in first century Palestine. This demands a close examination not of a presumed "original" text but of the text as we have received it. A difficulty immediately appears: multiple, divergent texts of the composition known as Lives of the Prophets stand before us today. Further, given the disavowal of any premature attempt to establish the origins of the document, can we speak of a "best" text, or even a better one? Clearly, we cannot do so in the sense in which this determination has traditionally been made: the form of the text closest in either language or content to a hypothetical Jewish context. For our purposes-and in accord with the principles set down above-the best text may simply be that form of the

100 Ibid., 135. Note as well the discussion in Kraft's unpublished, yet widely circulated lecture on "The Pseudepigrapha in Christianity" (1976) and Stone, "Categorization and Classification" (1986). For an intriguing study of an ancient Jewish document in its context of transmission, see Nickelsburg, "Two Enochic Manuscripts: Unstudied Evidence for Egyptian Christianity" (1990).

101 Witness the editorial instructions to the contributors to the 0 l d Testament Pseudepigrapha concerning the date of their respective documents: "The contributor assesses the debates (if any) over the date of the original composition, explains, if appropriate, the dates of any subsequent expansions or interpolations, and then presents his or her own scholarly opinion." Charlesworth, "Editor's Preface" in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (1983-1985) xv. Contrast the far greater sensitivity to this problem of dating and transmission in the preface (esp. xiv-xvi) to Sparks (ed.), The Apocryphal Old Testament (1984). See too the reviews of these collections by M. E. Stone and R. A. Kraft in Religious Studies Review 14 (1988) 111-117.

EVIDENCE, aJNSENSUS, AND CON'IEXT 33

text which can be confirmed to have achieved stability at the earliest verifiable point in time. Our investigation, then, will be based upon the text of the Lives as preserved in opening pages of the Codex Marchalianus-a traditional choice, perhaps, but for a very untraditional reason. There is no determination or claim that codex Q preserves a better, more literate, more Jewish, or more original form of the document; rather, it simply provides the earliest form of the Greek text within a known historical context.

Prior to an assessment of the text within its context of transmission, however, something must be said of the text itself. In the following chapter the Lives will be examined in an effort to make clear its basic form, structural components, and some aspects of its inner logic. The investigation will lead fmally to a consideration of the literary development of the work. Is this procedure not a dilution of the very commitment to "work backwards" from a known historical context? Yes, in fact, and there will be several points in the course of the chapter where the discussion will be suspended until that context can be offered. Yet there are advantages in this approach. First, it provides an opportunity to demonstrate in some detail the manner in which an exclusive focus on Judaism of the Second Temple period has created a distorted perception of the Lives. Second, it gradually exposes the (perhaps unwilling) reader to the possibility that the text not only can be examined within a Byzantine Christian context but, in certain instances, must be. Finally, it will be argued that the Lives of the Prophets, due to its complex redactional character, resists the attempt to reveal earlier layers or stages in the process of composition. In this light, an emphasis on the "context of transmission" is methodologically correct not in some abstract sense alone but represents, in fact, the only practicable­and satisfactory manner for the historian-whether his principal concerns be literary, social, or religious-to address the text and the issues which it raises.

CHAP1ER1WO

STRUCTURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSITION

The discussion in the last chapter revealed the principal predilection (and weakness) of modern scholarship on the Lives of the Prophets: inordinate concern with piquant details-geographical and narrative-at the expense of a close investigation of the work's overall form and genre. "The primordial problem is literary: sources and fabrications, structure and composition."1 A principal impediment to such analysis has been the general impression that the composition is largely arbitrary, even haphazard, in structure. A primary goal of the present chapter, then, is the effort to discern and demonstrate recurrent patterns-of both form and content-which define the work.

For reasons elaborated at the close of the preceding chapter, the text before us will be that of the Codex Marchalianus (Q), Schermann's prime witness to the recensio anonyma of the Lives. This manuscript of the composition numbers twenty-three biographical sketches or vitae: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve "minor" prophets, Nathan, Ahijah of Shiloh ( 1 Kgs 11 :29), the "man of God" (known here as Joad) who came to Jereboam (1 Kgs 13), Azariah son of Oded (2 Chr 15:1), Elijah the Tishbite, Elisha his successor, and Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada (2 Chr 24:20-22). These figures would appear to represent a solid and consistent core of the work, being present (albeit in variant ordering) in at least one other Greek recension and in the principal manuscripts of a number of the versions.

1HE STRUCTIJRE OF THE Vll' AE

The simplest vita provides no more than the designation of the prophet with his tribal affiliation and place of birth followed by a specification of his death and burial site. Most witnesses to the Lives of the Prophets offer but a single example of this extreme brevity:

Thus, Ronald Syme on an equally vexed composition: Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (1968) 211; idem, Historia Augusta Papers (1983) 211: "Historians were the principal contenders, eager for facts and preoccupied with the dating of the work. That was unfortunate. The primary approach . . . should be literary: structure and sources, language and authorship."

STRUCfURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSmON 35

Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in peace and was buried there.

This succinct structure would appear to adhere precisely to the superscription to the text in the Codex Marchalianus: "The names of the prophets and whence they were, where they died and how and where they were buried." The majority of the vitae, in fact, reveal slightly expanded forms of this basic structure. In these cases, the birth and burial notices serve as a framework for details of the prophet's life and mission.

Micah the Morathite was of the tribe of Ephraim. After he did many things to Achab, he was killed by Joram his son at a precipice, because he rebuked him for the impieties of his fathers. And he was buried alone in his land near the burial ground of the Anakim.

Nahum was from Elkesi, on the other side of Isbegabarin, of the tribe of Simeon. After (the time of) Jonah this man gave an omen to Nineveh that it would be destroyed by fresh water and subterranean fire-and this came about. The surrounding lake flooded it at the time of an earthquake and fire out of the desert scorched its upper part. He died in peace and was buried in his land.

Structurally these passages are clearly similar, though the additional "sandwiched " material is in fact far from identical: the vita of Micah is enhanced by a brief narrative of the prophet's deeds, while that of Nahum is adumbrated through the details of a prophecy and its fulfillment. Closely resembling the account of Micah are the vitae of Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi, Nathan, Ahijah, Joad, and Azariah.2

The burial notice is not always a closing formula, however. Almost as frequently as not, some supplementary material concerning the prophet is· not included within the biographic framework but follows immediately upon it. In a single instance, the skeletal birth-burial pattern is simply amplified:

Hosea. He was from Belemoth, of the tribe of lssachar, and was buried in his own land in peace. And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive upon the earth if the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to become twelve oaks.

In a number of cases, the vitae are still more fully developed and include both narrative material within the framework as well as an appended section, generally of prophetic import. The additions may be fairly brief:

2 The vitae of Elijah and Elisha probably belong in this structural category as well; however, in the Codex Marchalianus they appear to have attracted much additional and secondary material, on which see below, n. 33.

36 CHAPTER1WO

Habakkuk was from the tribe of Simeon out of the field of Beth-Zouxar. He foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem, prior to the captivity, and mourned exceedingly. When Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, he fled to Ostrakine and dwelt in the land of Ishmael. When the Chaldeans retired, and those who remained in Jerusalem (went down) to Egypt, he dwelt in his own land and ministered to the reapers of his field. As he took up the food, he prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to a distant land and will return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the reapers." And after he had been in Babylon and had given the meal to Daniel, he stood beside the reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of what had happened. And he understood that the people would return yet more swiftly from Babylon. And he died two years before the return and was buried alone in his own field.

He gave an omen to those in Judea that they would see a light in the Temple, and thus they would perceive the glory of the Temple. And concerning the end of the Temple, he foretold that it would be accomplished by a western nation. Then, he said, the 'Dabeir' (veil of the inner sanctuary) will be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns will be carried off, and no one will know where they are; they will be taken away by angels into the wilderness, where in the beginning the Tent of Witness was pitched. And through them the Lord will be known at the end, for they will enlighten those pursued by the serpent in darkness as from the beginning.

Roughly similar in structure to the extended vita of Habakkuk are those of the prophets Daniel and Jonah. In all these instances, as in a number of others to be discussed below, the fmal appended section may be described as an eschatological prophecy.

Finally, one encounters the lengthy and complex lives of the major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They present far more complicated structures which appear to have developed from the basic forms described thus far.

Ezekiel. He is from the land of Arira, of the priests, and he died in the land of the Chaldeans during the captivity, when he had prophesied many things to those in Judea. The leader of the people of Israel there killed him, when he was rebuked by him for worshipping idols. And they buried him in the field of Maour in the tomb of Shem and Arpachshad, ancestors of Abraham. And the tomb is a double cavern, since Abraham also made the tomb of Sarah in Hebron in its likeness. It is called double for it is twisted, and an upper chamber is hidden from the ground floor and is suspended in rock upon the ground.

This prophet gave an omen to the people so as to pay close attention to the Chebar river: whenever it should fail, to expect the scythe of desolation to the end of the earth; and when it should rise, the return to Jerusalem.

STRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON 37

The holy man also resided there, and many would gather round him. And once when a multitude was with him, the Chaldeans feared lest they should revolt and they came to them to kill them. But he caused the water to stand so that they might flee and arrive on the other side. And those of the enemies who dared to pursue were drowned.

Through prayer, he provided them spontaneously with an abundant supply of fish and appealed for a life to come from God for many who were growing weak.

When the people were being destroyed by their enemies, he came to the leaders, and through miracles, they ceased being fearful. He said this to them: "Have we perished? Is our hope lost?" And by the omen of the bones of the dead he persuaded them that there shall be hope for Israel both now and in the future.

While he was there he showed the people of Israel the things taking place in Jerusalem and in the Temple. He was snatched up from there and came to Jerusalem to rebuke the unfaithful. He saw the pattern (of the Temple) as did Moses, its wall and broad surrounding wall, even as Daniel said it would be built.

He judged the tribe of Dan and Gad in Babylon because they acted impiously towards the Lord by persecuting those who were keeping the Law. He performed a great portent regarding them-that the snakes consumed their children and all their cattle-and he predicted that because of them the people would not return to their land, but shall be in Media until the completion of their error. And the one who murdered him was from among them, for they opposed him all the days of his life.

Here one observes an initial birth-narrative-burial notice followed by supplementary prophetic material-very close in form to the vitae described immediately above. This is then rather luxuriously expanded by additional legendary narrative and finally concludes with a second account of the prophet's death. Similarly composite are the vitae of Isaiah and Jeremiah and it would appear that in several respects, to be discussed below, these vitae can be regarded as a distinct unit within the text. 3

The overall impression from this survey is one of utmost flexibility, perhaps better fluidity, in the structure(s) of the work. This impression is only strengthened when one examines the relationship between the different Greek recensions or even between the manuscript witnesses of the same recension. Indeed, one is easily tempted to imagine or hypothesize how the vitae could have attained their present form: the gradual addition (or, conceivably, extraction) of varying component traditions or materials. Any

3 The criterion here, it should be stressed, is one of structure and not length: the vita of Daniel is, in fact, longer still than these three but quite different in forin.

38 CHAPIER1WO

such discussion, however, is clearly premature. We must first examine more closely those very subjects and formal characteristics which comprise the composition.

It has become clear in the course of the preceding overview that underlying the formal structures of the vitae are three distinct categories of material or subjects whose appearance throughout the work is so regular as to be predictable: birth and burial accounts relating details of a geographical and genealogical nature; narrative legends of varying length with a decided emphasis on miraculous or wondrous deeds; and prophetic pronouncements often of a decidedly eschatological tenor. I shall examine the precise character and distinctive qualities of each of the three types of material in some detail. The assessment of these structural components is essential not only to an appreciation of the Lives of the Prophets as an integral document but to an accurate understanding of the work within its religious and cultural context. Their careful explication may serve, paradoxically, to accent the complexities attending any attempt to determine the literary and historical development of the work.

BIR1H AND BURIAL

Perhaps the most celebrated feature of the Lives of the Prophets has been the wealth of geographical and genealogical information which the text displays. As we have seen, these birth and burial traditions form a consistent feature of the vitae despite the wide variation in structural possibilities:

Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in peace and was buried there.

Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon, from the field of Sabaratha. He prophesied concerning the city and concerning the end of the nations and the shame of the unrighteous. And when he died he was buried in his field.

Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash the king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out his blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the priests buried him with his father. From that time there were apparitions in the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as formerly.

These variegated examples also help to demonstrate how very closely linked are the accounts of birth and death in almost half of the vitae (Hosea, Micah, Amos, Joel, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Malachi, Nathan, Azariah): an imprecise reference to burial in the prophet's "own

STRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSIDON 39

land" or in "his field" postulates clear dependence on the introductory details of the prophets' point of origin. In fact, no attention has been paid to the distinction between these linked notices and those which exhibit independent burial traditions. Furthermore, it may be noted that the majority of vitae offer little detail regarding burial practice itself: these include brief references to the prophets being laid to rest "with honor" (Daniel, Haggai) or "in peace" (Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Nahum), "alone" (Micah, Habakkuk) or "with his fathers" (Obadiah, Malachi, Zechariah b. Jehoiada).

The clear exceptions to this pattern, unique in both structure and content, are the traditions concerning the three major prophets. In contrast to the brief sentence (or portion thereof) devoted to the notice of death and burial, the vitae of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel offer far more detailed accounts with an elaboration of both the circumstances and manner in which the prophet was laid to rest:

Isaiah, of Jerusalem, died after he was sawn in two by Manasseh and was buried beneath the oak of Rogel, near the conduit of the waters which Hezekiah destroyed by blocking them .... And since this happened through Isaiah, the people also buried him nearby carefully and with great honor as a memorial, so that even after his death they might have the benefit of the water in similar fashion through his prayers, for an oracle was given to them in this regard.

Jeremiah was from Anathoth, and he died in Tahpanhes (Daphne) in Egypt when he was stoned by the people. He is buried in the area of the residence of Pharaoh, since the Egyptians honored him, having benefited through him .... We have heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged men, that Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the prophet and recognized his mysteries, transferred his remains to Alexandria, placing them around in a circle with honor; and the race of asps was checked from the land and so too the crocodiles from the river.

Ezekiel. He is from the land of Arira, of the priests, and he died in the land of the Chaldeans during the captivity, when he had prophesied many things to those in Judea. The leader of the people of Israel there killed him, when he was rebuked by him for worshipping idols. And they buried him in the field of Maour in the tomb of Shem and Arpachshad, ancestors of Abraham. And the tomb is a double cavern, since Abraham also made the tomb of Sarah in Hebron in its likeness. It is called double for it is twisted, and an upper chamber is hidden from the ground floor and is suspended in rock upon the ground.

These passages stand as the introductory sections of their respective vitae and in several respects (length, intricacy) could be considered integral compositions which were later expanded to include both narrative and prophetic elements. Indeed, both the Jeremiah and Ezekiel burial traditions

40 CHAPIER1WO

are immediately followed by similar types of material: "This Jeremiah gave a sign ( CTTljle'iov) to the priests of Egypt ... "; "This prophet [Ezekiel] gave an omen (tipa.c;) to the people .... "

As surveyed in the preceding chapter, modern scholarship has embraced the Lives of the Prophets as a prime source for the historical geography of Palestine in the late Second Temple period. It has more than once been suggested that the birth and burial traditions of the vitae are not simply one aspect of the work but, in fact, its prime feature. This has been put most strongly by those who have described the very essence of the composition to be "a pilgrim's guide, and as such it inaugurates the long chain of pilgrim literature on Palestine. "4 Students of the composition have been captivated by both the abundant quantity and unique character of the text's birth and burial traditions. They have unfailingly been impressed, in the words of Torrey, by "the number of geographical names, familiar to the author and his contemporaries but unknown to us and unmentioned in either the early Christian Onomastica or the rabbinical writings."S This is certainly true and could be rephrased with added emphasis: the Lives impart more information regarding the prophets and their physical whereabouts than all of our other sources, both Jewish and Christian, taken together. This extraordinary outpouring of detailed geographical notices holds at once enormous promise and hazard; there is simply so much otherwise unknown material that quantity threatens to become a standard of authority. It is crucial, therefore, that the richness of the text-the profusion of names of both local sites and tribal affiliations-be evaluated ultimately by the value of its constituent traditions.

Biblical Exegesis and Creative Topography

It is altogether possible that the geographical notices of the vitae have been the object of excessive admiration. Indeed, it can be demonstrated that the majority of the birth and burial notices of the prophets are either explicitly dependent or exegetically derived from the biblical narrative. No less significantly, some of those details which have been drawn from the biblical text can be shown to have their basis in a Greek version of scripture. Of the vitae in Codex Q of the Lives fully one third contain geographical elements based expressly on Scripture:

Jeremiah Micah Amos

Anathoth Moresheth Tekoah

Jer 1:1 Micah 1:1; Jer 26:18 Amos 1:1

4 R. Bernheimer, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1935) 201. Note similar expressions in Fischel, "Martyr and Prophet" (1946/47) 375; Jeremias, Heiligengri:iber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 11; Simon, Recherches (1962) 203.

5 Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 10.

Nahum Ahijah Joad Elijah Elisha

STRUCfURE, CON1ENT, AND COMPOSffiON

Elkosh Shiloh Bethel Tishbe Abel-Meholah

Nahum 1:1 1 Kgs 11:29 2 Kgs 23:15-20 1 Kgs 17:1 1 Kgs 19:16

41

The magnitude of this reliance should not be underestimated: there does not seem to be a single, clear instance in which the birth and burial notices of the text either ignore or contradict the biblical evidence. Nor does the author appear to have been stymied when the scriptural account offered no direct guidance; it was simply necessary then to read more closely and creatively.

Let us begin with the minor prophet Zephaniah and with Azariah b. Oded (2 Chr 15: 1-8), figures regarding whom the biblical record offers little illumination, yet whose vitae provide the customary geographical detail:

Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon, from the field of Sabaratha (l:apapa8a) .... And when he died he was buried in his field.

variants: Bapa8a [An]; l:apap8a8a [Dor]; l:apapa8a [Ep1]

Azariah was from the land of Subatha (l:upa8a) .... And when he died he was buried in his own land.

variants: l:uva8a [Dor]; l:uJ.lPa8a, l:uvpa8a [Ep1]

Here we have prime examples of the unique witness afforded by the Lives of the Prophets: neither in Jewish literature of the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods nor in the Byzantine onomastic and pilgrimage sources do we find any mention of the birth and burial sites of these prophets. The place names themselves-"Sabaratha" and "Subatha"-would appear to be· both unparalleled and resistant to precise location.6 Given the singular nature of these notices, is there any possibility of identifying the intended sites or of verifying the existence of an early Jewish tradition?

The solution appeared in a brief note published in 1933 by Joachim Jeremias.? In a terse yet trenchant analysis he demonstrated that the vitae of Zephaniah and Azariah exhibit birth and burial "traditions" which would appear to owe far more to interpretative ingenuity than to the faithful preservation of the memory of sacred sites. We read in 2 Kgs 25:18-21 (cf. Jer 52: 24-27) that at the time of the destruction of the First Temple, the chief priest Seraiah and the second priest Zephaniah were brought by Nebuzaradan before the king of Babylon and put to death at Riblah (MT: n~l,; LXX: 'PEPA.a9a, AEPA.a9a). Josephus, however, gives the name of

6 Thomsen, Loca Sancia (1907) lists l:apa~a9a (103) and l:u~aOa (108) as "Heimat u. Grab" of the respective prophets solely on the basis of our text

7 Jeremias, "Sarabatha und Sybatha" (1933).

42 CHAP1ER1WO

the site variously as 'Apa~a9& (Ant. 10 §135) and :EaMi~a9a (§149)­fonns proximate to the variants of "Sabaratha." It would appear that the author of the notice in the vita identified the prophet Zephaniah with the priest of identical name and adopted the locale of the latter's death as the birthplace of the prophet.8 The notice in the vita of Azariah betrays similar exegetical origins. Immediately preceding the appearance of the prophet we read (2 Chr 14:9 ff.) of Asa's battle against Zerah the Cushite which takes place "in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah" (MT: MVI~~ nn!l~ M'U ).9

Once again, Josephus provides an arresting variant-:Ea~a9a (Ant. 8, §293)-very close in form to the "Subatha" of the vita. Here too it appears that Azariah' s birthplace has been determined through the association of disparate details in the biblical text.10 No less interesting than the technique of these two notices, however, is the fact that the correct understanding of their exegetical character was established by none other than Jeremias, perhaps the outstanding proponent of the Lives as an authentic source of early Jewish burial tradition! The conclusion in his early article, however, was unequivocal: "Sarabatha und Sybatha sind aus der Liste der pallistinischen Ortsnamen des neutestamentlichen Zeitalters zu streichen."11

The simple removal of two place names from the inventory of Palestinian sites from the Second Temple period does little to restore one's confidence in the Lives as an early and trustworthy source. It can be shown, rather, that the vitae of Zephaniah and Azariah are in no sense unusual or idiosyncratic and that the principles underlying their geographical notices run through the work as a whole. The vita of Micah, for example, reveals the composition's full potential for untrammeled associative thought:

8 Jeremias' conclusions regarding "Sarabatha" as a deformation of the biblical Riblah are accepted by Abel, Geographie de Ia Palestine (1938) 436-437. Note a curiously similar late medieval Jewish report: Ish-Shalom, Kivrei Avot (1948) 102-103.

9 The Greek text reads "in the valley to the north of Mareshah", generally recognized as based on an alternate (perhaps superior) reading: MYI~> nll9ll M'll.

10 This identification had been suggested already by Reland, Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus lllustrata (1714) 1025 and accepted by Thomsen, Loca Sancta (1907) 108. Hare "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 396 cites Jeremias approvingly on the identity of "Subatha" and suggests a possible further confusion between Azariah b. Oded (2 Chr 15:1) and the later prophet Oded (2 Chr 28:9-15).

11 Jeremias, "Sarabatha und Sybatha" (1933) 255. Yet a quarter of a century later, in his definitive Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt, we sense a different goal and an altered judgment. Here Jeremias relegates his earlier study to a lone footnote as support for the general observation that "Wenn man die Schrift mit der erforderlichen Kritik benutzt, findet man in ihr sehr viel brauchbares und zuverliissiges Material" (12-13). Still more remarkably, he ignores his previous conclusion regarding the birthplace of Zephaniah (87) and simply omits all reference to the prophet Azariah and the details of his vita.

S'IRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSIDON 43

Micah the Morathite was of the tribe of Ephraim. After he did many things to Achab, he was killed by Joram his son at a precipice, because he rebuked him for the impieties of his fathers. And he was buried alone in his land near the burial ground of the Anakim.

The description of the prophet Micah as a Morathite, i.e. deriving from the biblical site Moresheth in the area of latter-day Eleutheropolis or Beth­Guvrin, is based on the scriptural account (Micah 1:1; cf. Jer 26:18) in perfectly straightforward fashion. 12 The same cannot be said of the remainder of the vita and its details. The attribution of Micah to Ephraim is both unparalleled and internally inconsistent; the prophet's previously stated place of birth simply cannot be reconciled with the northern tribal portion.

The puzzle, as many have recognized, results from the confusion of the prophet with an earlier figure of identical name: "There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah" (Judges 17:1). Similar difficulties arise concerning the account of Micah's death during the rule of Ahab and Joram; the prophet is explicitly said to have lived more than a century later "in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah" (Micah 1:1). Here too, the answer probably lies in the identification of Micah with a similarly named figure: Micaiah son of Imlah prophesied (and was persecuted) in the days of Ahab (1 Kgs 22),13 Most perplexing, however, is the closing report of Micah's burial in the proximity of the resting place of the Giants or Anakim ('EvaKtil! = O'Pl)l; cf. Josh 11:21-22). Once again, we confront an unparalleled tradition whose authenticity has been staunchly supported on the basis of our text's accurate preservation of early material.l4 Without disputing the possible, even probable, connection between the locale of Micah's birth (Beth-Guvrin) and legends concerning the Giants, it is nevertheless possible to identify the immediate source of the burial notice­in the vita. A vexed and perhaps intractable verse in the book of Micah (1: 10) begins l»l''-~ ll:l l1'ln-~ nu and is rendered, no less obscurely, by the Greek translator: oi. iv rea, I!Tt !!E'YaA:6vtcr9t. oi. iv AK\1! I!Tt avotKoOol!tt't£. In a series of manuscripts and witnesses one observes the variations iv AKttl!; evaKttl!; evaxttl!. Given the propensity of the Lives

12 MT: 'nW,!m n:m:l; the Greek text reads Mropaa8t or Mropa8El. This is repeated with significant amplification in a wide range of early Christian accounts: Eusebius, Onomastikon; ed. Klostermann [GCS 11.1] 134-135; Peter the Deacon, Appendix ad ltinerarium Egeriae 5.8; ed. Weber [CCSL 175] 99-100; Jerome, Epistula 108.14; Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica 7.29.2; ed. Bidez [GCS 50] 345.

13 While distinguishable in Hebrew--n:m:~ and ln':l'l:l-both names are rendered identically in the Greek versions as Mtxatac;.

14 Jeremias, "Moreseth-Gath" (1933) 42-53; idem, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 82-86.

44 CHAPTERlWO

for associative exegesis, one suspects that it was this Greek fonn of the verse which forged the link between the prophet and the Anakim of old.

Further examples of this tendency are afforded by the vitae of Hosea and Joet.•s Hosea "was from Belemoth (~EAe).l.ro9) of the tribe of Issachar and was buried in his own land in peace." Here we encounter, typically, a birthplace and tribal affiliation whose connection with the prophet find no reflection or support outside of the text at hand. The Greek place name itself has been widely identified by students of historical geography with the biblical site of Yibleam (O)I)l').l 6 Yet it would appear that here too the association with the prophet Hosea arose through a curious concatenation of disparate biblical passages:

And the Lord said to him, "Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." (Hosea 1 :4-5)

The fourth lot came out for Jssachar, for the tribe of Issachar, according to its families. Its territory included Jezreel .... (Josh 19: 17)

When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth­haggan. And Jehu pursued him, and said, "Shoot him also"; and they shot him in the chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is by Yibleam. (2 Kgs 9:27)

However tenuous these connections between Hosea, the tribe of lssachar, and the site of Yibleam may seem, they remain our only evidence and sole possible explanation for the account in the vita.

The details regarding Joel are equally unparalleled and raise the possibility of a similar process of exegetical creativity. The prophet is described as coming "from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron" (Be9ro).l.6prov; var. Be9rop&v [An]; ~118ro).l. [Dor; Ep1] }-once again, both a birth site and tribal affiliation which cannot be substantiated on the basis of other sources available to us. There is something of a consensus, however, that the various Greek forms of the site name can be correlated with the biblical Beth-meon (11)1D n'l; Jer 48:23) or Beth-baal-meon (11)11!) ))ll n'l; Josh) 13: 17)_17 It is interesting, then, to observe a markedly similar constellation of details (Reuben, Joel, Baal-meon) within the following passage:

15 The essence of the argument regarding these prophets is to be found already in Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) 197-198.

16 Thus Reland, Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata (1714) 615, 622; cf. Thomsen, Loca Sancta (1907) 34; Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 40, n. 34; Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 29.

17 Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) 198; Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 26 n. 39, 41 n. 39; Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 104.

STRUCfURE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON 45

the sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. the sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away into exile; he was a chieftain of the Reubenites. And his kinsmen by their families, when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah, and Bela the son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel, who dwelt in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon. (1 Chr 5:3-8)

This too may not strike us as a completely satisfying explanation of the details in the vita of Joel, yet no other seems to have been offered.

Having detected a pattern of highly imaginative exegesis behind the birth and burial notices of the Lives, it is natural to look for related modes of interpretation. Not unexpectedly, students of the text have described the process as "rabbinic" or "midrashic". 18 It is critical, therefore, to recognize that the geographic and tribal details of the vitae are the result of a process essentially unlike that governing the Rabbis' speculations on the prophets and their origins. Two brief examples can be offered by returning to the figures of the previous paragraph. The prophet Joel, according to a midrash, is the son of Samuel the prophet. How can this be, given the plain sense of Scripture (Joell:l) that he is the son ofPethuel ()MlM)? Yet this Pethuel is none other than Samuel who "tempted God with his prayer" (,n,.!lnl '"' nM).19 One is struck here by both the deep concern with the language of the biblical text-the recourse to a hidden etymology-and the fact that genealogy is not an end in itself but rather a technique of elucidation of the biblical text. Still more illustrative is the rabbinic identification of Hosea as a descendant of Reuben. In commentary on Hosea 14:2-"Return (n:nw), 0 Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity" -the figure of Reuben is introduced as· an exemplar of penitence on the basis of the verse "And Reuben returned (lVI'l) to the pit ... " (Gen 37:29). The midrash, founded thus far on the double sense of the Hebrew verb Vl,VI as "return" and "repent," continues as follows:

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Reuben, thou didst seek to return Joseph, the well-loved son, to thy father. Upon thy life, a son of a son's son of thine will bring about the return of Israel in perfect repentance to their Father in heaven. And who will he be? Hosea the son of Beeri (Hos 1: 1). Of him it is written "When the Lord first spoke (of repentance)

18 In his early discussion of those traditions-few and inconsequential, in his opinion-which were the crystallization of a purely literary process, Jeremias ("Sarabatha und Sybatha" [1933] 255) spoke of their emergence from the "Lehrhause eines uns unbekannten rabbinischen Lehrers."

!9 Midraslz on Psalms 80:1; ed. Buber, 361. Cf. Yalkut Slzim'oni Joel 1 (533) as well as Rashi on Joel 1:1.

46 CHAFIER1WO

son of thine will bring about the return of Israel in perfect repentance to their Father in heaven. And who will he be? Hosea the son of Beeri (Hos 1:1). Of him it is written "When the Lord first spoke (of repentance) through Hosea" (Hos 1:2). And of Hosea's father it is written, "Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away into exile; he was a chieftain of the Reubenites" (1 Chr 5:6). And why is he here called Beerah, i.e. "he of her well"? To intimate that he was a well of Torah (mm )VI n'UCI).20

There is an enormous sensitivity to both the language and the difficulties of the biblical text: a discussion of the prophet's genealogy not as a goal but as a method of drawing textual connections in order to elucidate troublesome verses and to deepen the understanding of a biblical situation or character.2I In the examples surveyed above from the Lives of the Prophets, by contrast, we have observed the desultory nature of the biblical associations: a seemingly random linking of names and verses with no clear motivation beyond the creation of a serviceable birth and burial framework.

Conclusion

The birth and burial notices of the Lives of the Prophets should no longer be regarded naively as a repository of Jewish tradition from the close of the Second Temple or beginning of the rabbinic periods. This is not only a question of widely variant strategies of interpretation. There is, in fact, little or nothing which links the topographical exegesis of the Lives with post­biblical Jewish literature. This was demonstrated, not quite intentionally perhaps, in the investigation of the birth and burial notices by Samuel Klein: of the geographical and genealogical notices which were examined, there is not a single, undisputed parallel to be found in the entire rabbinic corpus and no fewer than ten instances of direct contradictloii)2 Furthermore, the Rabbis' few explicit statements of principle regarding the prophets and their sites of birth and burial bear virtually no relation to the evidence of the Lives. The famous dictum (baraita) concerning "the tomb of the king and the tomb of the prophet" within the context of the ritual purity of the city of Jerusalem speaks of the tombs of the house of David and of

20 Pesikta Rabbati 50:4 according to Ms. Parma 1240; trans. Braude [Yale Judaica Series 18] 2.848. Cf. Yalkut Shim'oni Hosea 1 (516).

21 The characterization here of rabbinic exegesis, its concerns and sensitivities, owes much to the classic work, unfortunately never translated, of Isaak Heinemann: Darkhei Ha'Agadah [=Methodology of the Aggadah] (1950). Heinemann's study of Rabbinic thought and literary technique explores the basic categories of 'creative historiography' and 'creative philology'.

22 Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) notes clear divergence from rabbinic tradition in the following vitae: Elijah (193); Elisha, Isaiah (194), Jeremiah (195), Ezekiel, Daniel (196), Hosea (197), Joel (198), Obadiah, Jonah (199); see the concluding discussion (206-207) there.

S1RUCfURE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSmON 47

silent.23 Still more straightforward is the formulation attributed to a number of later rabbinic authorities: "Whenever the name (of a prophet) and the name of the city (of a prophet) is made explicit, it is known that he is from that city; when his name but not the name of his city (is made explicit), it is known that he is from Jerusalem."24 This is obviously a principle quite foreign to the atmosphere of the Lives.

Aware of Klein's study and mindful of the gap between the evidence of the vitae and the rabbinic reports, Jeremias argued for a break in continuity between the Volksreligion of the Second Temple period and the learned piety of the Rabbis. This discontinuity, he claimed, was the result of severe pressures, both external and internal: the traumatic effect upon the transmission of popular tradition due to the repeated revolts against Rome, the destruction of Jerusalem, and eventual exclusion of the Jewish population from its environs; no less, the intentional suppression and distortion of earlier forms of Jewish piety by the Rabbis themselves.25

According to this view, then, the Lives stands as a valuable witness to early Jewish tradition, a unique expression of popular religiosity from the period of the Second Temple. It is worth stating clearly, at this juncture, why Jeremias' position is problematic from both a literary and a religious­historical perspective.

First, it is impossible to ignore those geographical and genealogical details in the Lives which clearly are not a reflection of popular piety but rather of a bookish, often eccentric, interpretative process. Given the remarkable manner in which a number of these birth and burial "traditions" seem to have taken shape, one necessarily hesitates to assume an associated and widespread praxis. Second, in all the multifarious expressions of Judaism from the post-biblical period which have survived, there is little or· no hard evidence (beyond that garnered from the vitae themselves) for the veneration of the tombs of the prophets. In fact, Jeremias himself was compelled to conclude that of the ten sacred graves which could be shown

23 Tosefta Baba Batra 1:11 (ed. Zuckermandel, 399); Tosefta Negaim 6:2 (625); Avot de-Rabbi Natan A, ch. 35 (ed. Schechter, 104); Semahot 14:10 (ed. Zlotnick, 39). In version B of Avot de-Rabbi Natan (ch. 39; ed. Schechter, 107) the tomb of the prophet Isaiah is mentioned together with those of the house of David and that of Hulda. On this saying, see BUchler, "La purete levitique de Jerusalem et les tombeaux des prophetes" (1911). Note the employment of this text in Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 52, 66.

24 BT Megillah 15a (in the name of R. Ulla); cf. Numbers Rabbah 10:5; Lamentations Rabbah "petihta" 24 (ed. Buber, 23), in the name of R. Yohanan. In fact, rabbinic literature reveals remarkably little interest in the tombs of the prophets, and we encounter few traditions regarding their graves until the torrent of medieval Jewish pilgrim accounts beginning in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. See Ish-Shalom, Kivrei Avot (1948).

25 Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 58-60, 66-67, 141-143.

48 CHAP1ER 'IWO

with "certainty or probability" to have been known by Jesus only those of Isaiah and Zechariah b. Jehoiada could be numbered securely among the prophets.26 The sole proof-text (as well as motive) for the early dating of the Lives of the Prophets remains the saying of Jesus concerning the building of the tombs of the prophets (Mt 23:29-30; Lk 11 :48-49). Finally, there is every reason to be wary of an historical construct whose theoretical basis lies in the distancing of the "theology" of the Rabbis from the beliefs and concerns of "the people".27 This long treasured cultural model of a yawning abyss between the piety and practice of the common man and those of a privileged and learned elite, as I shall emphasize in the final chapter, has been exposed as both inadequate and misleading.

Once relieved of the absolute necessity of anchoring the birth and burial traditions securely within the bounds of early Jewish piety, it is possible to encounter the geographical and genealogical details of the Lives afresh, within a new context. The fourth century was a revolutionary era for Christianity, yet nowhere more clearly than in Palestine where its expressions were manifold: the compilation of onomastica, pilgrimage to newly discovered and restored holy sites, the construction of churches on many of these same sites, the emergence of a unique Jerusalem liturgy, and the unhalting inventio of sacred tombs and their relics.28 It has been argued that the birth and burial notices of the vitae only rarely produce an exact fit with such early Byzantine Christian sources of biblical topography and legend as Eusebius, Egeria, and Jerome. This is true, perhaps, yet too easily overlooked that more than half of the geographical traditions of the Lives do correspond in some measure with these fourth and fifth century reports. Indeed, it is largely from the period of Eusebius and the Bordeaux pilgrim that we first read reports concerning the tombs of the prophets, and it is in light of these earliest traditions that the notices of the vitae must be

26 lbid.,114. Note, however, the conviction: "Aber diese List ist ganz sicher nicht erschopfend".

27 Note the cautionary remarks in Ginzberg, "Some Observations" (1922) 136: "Whatever the Rabbis might have been, we must not think of them as a class by themselves separated from the people; they were neither monks nor professors. They were of the people, lived with the people and worked for the people." On the extent of rabbinic accommodation to burial practices and beliefs of the people, see Lieberman, "Some Aspects of After Life" (1974) 246-253. For a nuanced treatment of the later transmission of early Jewish legend, see Yassif, "Traces of Folk Traditions of the Second Temple Period" (1988). On the larger theoretical problem facing the historian of Late Antiquity, see below, pp. 115-117.

28 For an historical overview of this process, see Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage (1982) and now Wilken, The Land Called Holy (1992), especially chs. 5-6. Additional evidence and further bibliography is adduced in the final chapter of the present study.

SlRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSmON 49

evaluated.29 Furthennore, among the most salient features of this period was the extreme fluidity of tradition; it is often forgotten that there was no body of authorized tradition in such matters and that the afore-mentioned authors regularly disagree with one another. 30 The failed search for perfect correspondence should not mask the fact that the geographical concerns and orientation of the Lives look more at home among these early Byzantine texts than anywhere else. Clearly, each of these points demands further elaboration and more precise analysis; the final chapter of this study, devoted to a reading of the Lives as an integral work within an established historical context, will take up some measure of that task.

It would be ingenuous to pretend that by either examining the commitment to biblical exegesis underlying the notices in the vitae or by placing the work within an early Byzantine framework we somehow can resolve all of the geographical quandaries resident in the text. There remain more than a dozen unexplained birth traditions and recalcitrant burial notices, as well as a host of perplexing tribal affiliations. It should be obvious, as well, that there is no argument here against the possibility of the incorporation of early Jewish traditions within the work. One strongly suspects, for example, that the burial notices regarding the three major prophets-unique in their common length, detail, and structure-must go back, in some measure at least, to an earlier (Jewish?) source or sources.31

So too, the frequent internal contradictions between birth site and tribal affiliations-often, as we have seen, the result of an uncritically zealous desire to provide details on the basis of the biblical narrative-may reflect

29 Thus, without the slightest evidence, recurrent attempts have been made to identify Beth-Zouxar (~TJ8~ouxap), the birth and burial place of Habakkuk according to his vita, with the site of Beth-Zechariah (1 Maccabees 6:32), south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem: Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 43; Jeremias, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 81. Serious consideration of the full range of early Byzantine evidence (Eusebius, the pilgrim accounts of Egeria and Antoninus Placentinus, the history of Sozomenus, and the representation of the Madeba map), however, make clear that the reference must be to a site near Eleutheropolis (Beth-Guvrin). I hope to marshal the evidence in detail in a paper devoted to Habakkuk in early Jewish and Christian topography.

30 It would be the rankest sort of anachronism, for example, to regard Eusebius' Onomasticon as a textbook summary of authoritative tradition rather than as an opening salvo in a prolonged engagement of competing traditions, i.e. traditions in the making.

31 Only the tradition concerning the tomb of Isaiah, however, can be substantiated from early Jewish and Christian sources; see Abel, "Le Tombeau d'lsaie" (1922) and Vincent and Abel, Jerusalem (1922-1926) 2.855-860. For modem archaeological research on the tomb complex in the Kidron valley, see Avigad, Ancient Monuments (1954); Stutchbury, "Excavations" (1961).

50 CHAP1ER1WO

as well a conflation of earlier sources.32 Despite the unabashed admission that there is no complete resolution of the difficulties inherent in the birth and burial notices, there are a number of conclusions, however tentative, which should be drawn. First, a recognition of the very uncertain relationship which the traditions in the text bear to those of early Judaism and the corresponding need to re-examine many of those same traditions in light of Christian transmission and reception of the text; second, a willingness to reckon with a prolonged and complicated process of literary growth; finally, a chastened response to those singular, unparalleled "traditions" embedded in the Lives, conscious of the fact that, in matters of historical geography and much else, unique may mean little more than idiosyncratic.

LEGENDARY NARRATIVE

The bulk of the composition is given over to an account of those legendary deeds of the prophets which generally form the core of the individual vitae. As opposed to the highly predictable birth and burial notices, however, the narrative accounts display a marked lack of uniformity both in structure and content. The legends may be strikingly brief:

load was from Samareim. He is the one whom the lion attacked and he died when he rebuked Jereboam concerning the calves. And he was buried in Bethel near the false prophet who had deceived him.

Azariah was from the land of Subatha. He turned back from Israel the captivity of Judah. And when he died he was buried in his land.

or far more developed in their artistry:

Nathan, the prophet of David, was from Gaba, and he was the one who taught him the law of the Lord; and he saw that David would sin in (the matter of) Bathsheba, and while he was making haste to go and warn him, Beliar hindered him, for by the road he found the corpse of a murdered man lying naked. And he remained there, and that night he knew that (David) had performed the transgression. And he turned back weeping, and when (David) killed her husband, the Lord sent (Nathan) to rebuke him. And when he had grown exceedingly old he died and was buried in his land.

Relatively brief narratives are found in the vitae of Micah, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, and

32 Interesting in this regard is a brief Syriac text, the nature of whose relationship to our composition remains far from clear, where the concise vitae generally avoid such internal contradiction by supplying either place of birth or tribal affiliation but not both. On this text, see the discussion below, p. 72.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON 51

Zechariah son of Jehoiada. Comparable in length and coherence to the tale regarding Nathan are passages in the vitae of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, and Habakkuk; still more developed and unique in many respects is the long narrative, to be analyzed in the following chapter, concerning Daniel. No legendary material is transmitted in the vitae of Hosea, Joel, and Nahum.

The narrative sections of the Lives take up a wide variety of themes and subjects, and no sustained attempt appears to have been made to impose consistency on the material. Furthermore, certain vitae discuss markedly similar topics-e.g., Jeremiah and Habakkuk concerning the hiding of the Tabernacle-without any obvious effort to coordinate or relate the variant traditions. Perhaps the broadest common denominator behind the legends, in fact, is their extra-biblical character. This was noted expressly by Torrey:

The main fact to be observed in all these "Lives" is that they are supplementary to the accounts given in the canonical scriptures. Perfect familiarity with the Bible is taken for granted, and there is no intention of repeating what has already been recorded. Jeremiah's career in Jerusalem is well known, so our compiler turns at once to his activities in Egypt. The wonderful deeds of Daniel in Babylon have no mention; his chapter deals chiefly and at considerable length with the popular notions in regard to the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar. When Jonah's turn comes, the whale and Nineveh are put aside, and his biography is filled out with the traditions concerning his life in the region of Tyre and Sidon with his mother, who entertained Elijah, and with the account of his subsequent journeyings and his burial in the tomb of Othniel. The folk-tales about Habakkuk, Nathan, the dire consequences of the murder of Zechariah ben Jehoiada, etc., also stand quite outside the canonical tradition.33

This is surely correct, though some strong qualification may be necessary. The majority of the vitae (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Amos,

Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, Elijah, Elisha) feature narrative passages truly removed from, or even at odds with, the scriptural account; nevertheless, in certain cases (Daniel, Nathan, Ahijah, Joad, Zechariah b. Jehoiada) one observes legends which are frrmly rooted in the biblical narrative and reveal the effects of exegetical expansion or enhancement. The explication of these passages becomes, of necessity, an attempt to discover their possible

33 Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 3-4. He goes on to observe that "biographies made up from O.T. narratives ... are under the suspicion of being a secondary element in the compilation." This criterion relates most directly to the vitae of Elijah and Elisha where originally concise accounts appear to have been adumbrated in Codex Q by long sections which depend directly and solely on the narratives from 1 and 2 Kings. This material is conspicuously absent in the other representatives of the anonymous recension and in the Epiphanian and Dorothean recensions. For the formula introducing these sections ("The signs which he did ... "), see below, p. 65.

52 CHAPTERlWO

sources and relationship with the cognate literature. These narrative sections, in fact, have been judged by most scholars to provide evidence (comparable to that of the birth and burial traditions) of the work's Jewish character; in the words of a recent commentator, "many if not most of the legends transmitted in the [Lives] have parallels in rabbinic and other Jewish sources."34 The present investigation will attempt to demonstrate how very misleading this statement is.

Martyrs, Miracle-Workers and Intercessors

One of the central concerns in modem study of the legends of the Lives­and a chief linchpin in the determination of the work's early Jewish character-has been the complex of traditions regarding the martyrdom of the prophets. There has been some exaggeration and loss of perspective in this regard. In a commendable effort to awaken scholarly interest in the text, yet with little regard for either evidence or simple arithmetic, one scholar judged that "according to the Vitae Prophetarum most of the ancient prophets had to suffer a violent death, and this interpretation, in a way characteristic for the Jewish Haggadah, is based upon assumed indications in the canonical books."35 A recent handbook declares "significant are the notices of violent death" and restricts its survey of the contents of the work to precisely those vitae.36 In fact, such notices are a distinct minority in the Lives and do not appear to have been invested with any special significance. Of the twenty-three prophets surveyed, six alone (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah, and Zechariah b. Jehoiada) can be described as having met a martyr's death. (If the accent is on a violent, unnatural demise then one might want to include as well the man of God, Joad in our text, devoured by a lion in accord with the account in 1 Kgs 13: 1-32.) When one considers that the murder of Zechariah is scripturally based (2 Chr 24:20-22), there remain but five extra-biblical instances of prophets who meet their death at the hands of the people or their rulers. In each of these instances, furthermore, the vita accords but a brief phrase to the description of the martyrdom. Finally, in order correctly to judge the nature of the composition and its orientation in these matters it is important to observe that a greater number of vitae emphasize the natural deaths and orderly burial of the prophets: Daniel is laid to rest "alone and with honor in the royal sepulchre" of the Persian kings; Haggai is buried "alongside the tomb of the priests, honored as they are"; Hosea, Joel, and Nahum are all laid to rest "in peace"; Obadiah and Malachi are buried with their fathers; both

34

35 36

Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 384. Bemheimer, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1935) 202. Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research (1981) 177.

STRUCTIJRE, CON1ENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON 53

Nathan and Zechariah b. Berachiah pass away advanced in years. This is hardly the stuff of a full-fledged martyrology.

It is, in fact, very difficult to argue that the notices of violent death in the Lives provide any proof of the early Jewish character of the composition. Of the six prophets martyred, only the legends regarding Isaiah and Zechariah b. Jehoiada can be demonstrated with assurance to have a pre-Christian context.37 This would accord precisely,-and not coincidentally, one assumes-with our ability to document burial traditions of the prophets in frrst century Palestine. In both instances, moreover, the account in the Lives does not reveal features distinctive of the early Jewish accounts of the deaths. The martyrdom of Isaiah is narrated with the utmost brevity and makes no mention of either the accusation of blasphemy on the basis of the prophet's own words (Isa 6:1) or the detailed description of his execution.38 The description of Zechariah's murder is more expansive, including much that is unique, but does not provide the feature most characteristic of the Jewish accounts: the "innocent blood of the slain Zechariah had no rest."39

Indeed, there may be elements in both narratives which indicate influence from the text of the New Testament. Regarding Isaiah it is told that he was the beneficiary of a divine "sign" (011fl£'iov), "since being faint before his death he prayed for water to drink and straightway it was sent to him from there; on account of this it was called Shiloah which means sent." The fmal

3? The principle evidence for the martyrdom of Isaiah is, of course, the Jewish source presumed to underlie the Christian Ascension of Isaiah; the classic study of this document remains the edition and translation of Charles (1900); for recent discussion, see the introductions by Knibb in Charlesworth (ed.), Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (1983-1985) 2.143-176 and Barton in Sparks, Apocryphal Old Testament (1984) 775-784. Discussions of the early Christian and rabbinic evidence: Ginzberg, Legends (1909-38) 6.374-375; Bernheimer, "The Martyrdom of Isaiah" (1952); Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 245-247; Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-1987) 3.337-340; Yassif, "Traces of Folk Traditions of the Second Temple Period" (1988) 216-220. For the slaying of Zechariah (2 Chr 24:20-22), see the studies listed above, p. 26, nn. 76-77 and below, n. 39.

38 For these motifs, see Ascension of Isaiah 3:8-9; 5; BT Yebamot 49b; PT Sanhedrin 10:2 (28c).

39 Blank, "The Death of Zechariah in Rabbinic Literature" (1937/38) 338. See BT Gittin 57b and its parallels; the legend is well known in early Byzantine Palestine and witnessed by both the Bordeaux pilgrim (591.1-2; ed. Geyer­Cuntz [CCSL 175] 15) and Jerome: "Simpliciores fratres inter ruinas templi et altaris, sive in portarum exitibus, quae Siloam ducunt, rubra saxa monstrantes, Zachariae sanguine putant esse polluta" (Comm. in Matt. 23:35; ed. Hurst and Adriaen [CCSL 77] 219). For detailed analyses of the rabbinic traditions, see the article by Blank; Ginzberg, Legends (1909-38) 6.396-397; and especially Heinemann, Aggadah and its Development (1974) 31-38.

54 CHAPTER1WO

words of this report have long been recognized as an exact parallel to John 9:7 (o EPil11VEU£tat (lltEotaAjlEVo<;) yet regarded as no more than coincidental use of a common etymology. It has been argued on syntactical grounds, however, that the vita must be dependent on the Gospel verse.40

The vita of Zechariah opens in the following manner:

Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash the king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out his blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the priests buried him with his father.

The phrase which appears in the text of codex Q (as well as in the representatives of Dorotheus) "in the middle (literally: between) near the porch" is both unclear and awkward-the Greek term (ci.va j.I.Eoov) seemingly redundant in this context. It is very interesting, therefore, to note the same term in an important variant reading of Lk 11:51-"whom they killed between (ci.vajlEOov) the altar and the sanctuary."41 There is no intention to argue that the notices of martyrdom in the vitae of Isaiah and Zechariah could not have been based on traditions both early and Jewish; rather, that there is nothing in the form in which they appear in the Lives which compels (or even allows) us to come to that conclusion.

In fact, the remaining traditions of martyred prophets prove still more difficult to place in an early Jewish context. There is simply no incontrovertible evidence in a pre-Christian matrix that Jeremiah and Ezekiel were understood to have suffered martyrdom. The motif of the violent deaths of the three major prophets, for example, though often and perhaps correctly thought to lie behind the anonymous formula of Hebrews 11:36-37-"they were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword ... "- can only be documented in a limited number of early Christian texts.42 The stoning of Jeremiah as narrated in the Lives appears in an alternative form in the problematic final chapter of the Paraleipomena of Jeremiah (9: 19-32) and is depicted in a long series of early

40 De Jonge, "Christelijke Elementen" (1961/62) 165-167. 41 Thus according to Codex Bezae and the Syriac textual family, as noted by

Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 398, n. 23a. See LXX Ezek 8:16--ava j.LEOOV trov atAajl !Cat ava j.LEOOV to'ii Ouota<Jtflptou. In several witnesses of Anonyma, the entire phrase from the principal text of Luke "between the altar and the sanctuary" (j.ttta~u to'ii Ouota<Jtflptou JCat to'ii oiJCou)--denoting the location of the priest's murder-is inexplicably incorporated as the site of the burial(!) of Zechariah.

42 Most explicitly, perhaps, in the Apocalypse of Paul 49; more often, however, the preeminent triad of martyred prophets in early Christian tradition is Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON 55

Christian sources.43 The slaying of Ezekiel, related in two distinct forms at the opening and close of his vita, is to be found in a different, more colorful version in a number of early Christian texts.44 More problematic still are the accounts of the violent fates of Amos and Micah: here we find ourselves, once again, facing the quandary of the unique, as the martyrdom of neither prophet can be documented in either early Jewish or Christian literature.45 In sum, the very traditions of prophet-martyrs which were believed to anchor the Lives securely in the thought-world of Judaism of the Second Temple period have proven a very weak reed on which to lean.

In the incessant search for a pre-Christian martyrology, a most significant fact concerning the martyred prophets of the Lives has gone virtually unrecognized: the actual configuration of the six. It is of no little interest that the catalogue of prophets who meet violent deaths-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Amos, and Zechariah b. Jehoiada-finds a precise parallel in the early Christian Apocalypse of Paul (25):

But I went forward and the angel led me and brought me unto the river of honey, and I saw there Esaias and Jeremias and Ezekiel and Amos and Micheas and Zacharias, even the prophets lesser and greater, and they greeted me in the city. I said unto the angel: What is this path? and he said unto me: This is the path of the prophets: every one that hath grieved his soul and not done his own will for God's sake, when he is departed out of the world and hath been brought unto the Lord God and worshipped him, then by the commandment of God he is delivered unto Michael, and he bringeth him into the city unto this place of the prophets, and they greet him as their friend and neighbor, because he hath performed the will of God.46

43 Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 249, n. 7 and Danielou, The Origins of Latin Christianity (1977) 37-39, 107-109.

44 Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 249-250, n. 8. For a full presentation of these sources, see Stone, Satran, and Wright (eds.), The Apocryphal Ezekiel .

45 See Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 249-250; Fischel, "Martyr and Prophet" (1946/47) 275-276; note the silence of Schoeps, "Die ji.idischen Prophetenmorde" (1950).

46 James, Apocrypha Anecdota (1893) 25: "Ego autem incedebam docente me angelo, et tulit me a<d> flumen mellis, et uidi illic Aesayam et Geremiam et Aezehiel et Ammos et Micheam et Zachaream, profetas minores et maiores, <et> salutauerunt me in ciuitate. Dixi angelo: Que est via haec? et dixit mihi: haec est via prophetarum: omnis qui constritauerit animam suam et non facit propriam uoluntatem suam propter deum, cum exierit de mundo et ductus fuerit ad dominum deum et adorauerit eum, tunc iussu dei traditur Michaelo, et inducit eum in ciuitate in locum hunc prophetarum, et salutant eum sicut amicum et proximum suum quoniam fecit voluntatem dei." The translation is that of James, The Apocryphal New Testament (1924) 539. The connection between this text and the Lives was

56 CHAPTER1WO

Neither the date nor provenance of the Apocalypse of Paul can be detennined with any certainty, though the text may be witnessed as early as the time of Origen and certainly no later than that of Augustine.47 Further, it is extremely unclear how we should interpret this intriguing correspondence between the two documents. The passage from the Apocalypse of Paul, unlike the Lives, does not speak explicitly of martyrdom when identifying the six prophets yet clearly regards them as paradigmatic. 48 Does earlier martyrological tradition explain the specification of those six figures or, conversely, could their exemplary status have encouraged subsequent speculation about their manner of death? In any event, the special status of these three major and three minor prophets would seem to have become current in Christian circles by the third or fourth century. It cannot be demonstrated to have existed prior to that period.

The extreme concern with the role of the prophet as martyr has come at the expense of an appreciation of the truly preeminent characteristic of the legendary narratives in the Lives: the pronounced ability of the prophets both to effect miracles and to act as intercessors. Thus, the accounts of the violent fates of Isaiah and Jeremiah are in each instance overshadowed by the far more detailed description of the wonders which took place both prior to and following their deaths.

[Isaiah] And in the time of Hezekiah, before he made the cisterns and the pools, through the prayer of Isaiah a little water came out in order that the city not perish for lack of water, for the people were held in siege by

noted by Scholer "Israel Murdered its Prophets" (1980) 150, n. 3, without further comment.

47 For an overview of the text and its problems, see Himmelfarb, Tours of He II (1983) 16-19 and the introduction by Duensing in Hennecke­Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha (1965) 2.755-759; Casey, "The Apocalypse of Paul" (1933) and Silverstein, Viso Sancti Pauli (1935) remain the fundamental studies. While there is a clear consensus that our best representatives of the work, the extant Latin versions, derive ultimately from an original Greek text, both the provenance and date of the original document remain uncertain. Dating of the work depends largely on an assessment of the preface which describes the inventio of the work under the foundations of Paul's house in Tarsus during the rule of Theodosius; cf. the account of the discovery by the fifth century historian Sozomenus, Historia Ecc/esiastica 1.19; ed. Bidez [GCS 50] 331. James (The Apocryphal New Testament [1924] 525) accepted the account as integral to the work and regarded the text as a late fourth century composition; Casey (25-26) understood the preface to be an addition to the original text and prefered a third century dating. On the topos of discovery, see Spe;er, Biicherfunde in der G/aubenswerbung der Antike (1970).

4 In fact, the Apocalypse of Paul speaks of the martyrdom of the three major prophets (see above, n. 42) in a different context and in a manner which does not suggest dependence upon the tradition of the Lives.

STRUCTURE,CONTENT,ANDCONWGSf.nON 57

foreigners. The enemies asked: "Where are they drinking from?" And they encamped by the Shiloah while holding the city (under siege). If the Jews came, the water came out; if the foreigners came, it did not. Therefore, to this day (the water) comes out suddenly in order that the mystery might be exhibited. And since this happened through Isaiah, the people also buried him nearby carefully and with great honor as a memorial, so that even after his death they might have the benefit of the water in similar fashion through his prayers, for an oracle was given to them in this regard.

[Jeremiah] For he prayed, and the asps and the beasts of the waters, which the Egyptians call 'Nephoth '49 and the Greeks crocodiles, departed from them. And all those who are believers in God pray to this day in the place and taking the soil of the place they heal the bites of asps. And many banish these very wild animals and those (creatures) of the water. We have heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged men, that Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the prophet and recognized his mysteries, transferred his remains to Alexandria, placing them around in a circle with honor; and the race of asps was checked from the land and so too the crocodiles from the river.

We observe markedly similar structures and emphases in these vitae: the efficacious prayer of the prophet; the beneficent disruption of the natural order, the widespread recognition of this wonder as a mystery (J!u<ni)pwv); finally, the sustained efficacy and benefit of the act beyond the prophet's lifetime which encourages continued public observance of the miracle "to this day" (£ro~ OTJj.1£pov). In the words of a recent commentator, "the righteous dead are still alive in a very real sense".50

In the vita of Ezekiel the emphasis would seem to be placed on the wondrous intercessions of the prophet while still alive. A series of brief legends recount the marvels brought about by Ezekiel in order to save thct people while in the Babylonian captivity:

The holy man also resided there, and many would gather round him. 51 And once when a multitude was with him, the Chaldeans feared lest they should revolt and they came to them to kill them. But he caused the water to stand so that they might flee and arrive on the other side. And those of the enemies who dared to pursue were drowned.

Through prayer, he provided them spontaneously with an abundant supply of fish and appealed (napu:a4aEv) for a life to come from God for many who were growing weak.

49 See Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 51-52. SO Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 383. On this preeminent

characteristic, see below, pp. 110-112. 51 According to Ep1, this miracle too is attributed to the power of the

deceased prophet: "And the holy man was laid (to rest) in the land of the Assyrians, and many gathered about his grave for prayer and entreaty .... " On this variant, see Jeremias, Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 112-113.

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When the people were being destroyed by their enemies, he came to the leaders, and through miracles, they ceased being fearful.

The wondrous deeds of Ezekiel are based on clear scriptural patterns-the parting of the sea (Ex 14:21-29); the abundance of fish (Ezek 47:8ff.}-but are remarkable in the manner that they stress the independence and initiative of the prophet himself. He has taken on the defined role of an advocate (7tapaKA:rrroc;), an intercessor, on behalf of the people.

This dual emphasis of the Lives on the miracle-working and intercessory character of the prophets accents, once again, features which are not readily located within an early Jewish framework. Only in Ben Sira does one sense any real interest in the portrayal of the prophets as wonder-workers, an interest which for the author is subservient to a broader theological program.52 Still more problematic is the role of intercessor: virtually the only prophet assigned that position in the literature of the Second Temple period is Jeremiah (2 Maccabees 15:12-16; Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 2:1; Paraleipomena of Jeremiah 1:2). Indeed, early rabbinic writings also reveal strikingly little development of the biblical prophets, with the marked exceptions of Moses and Elijah, as the bearers of either miraculous or intercessory powers.53 The very distinct posture of the Lives-the pronounced orientation of the prophet's role as both wonder-worker and intercessor-is best appreciated through the detailed examination of a singular legend connected with the figure of Daniel, which will be taken up in the following chapter.

Conclusion

There has been much uncritical, indeed confused, discussion of the inherently Jewish nature of the narrative traditions in the Lives. Nineteenth and early twentieth century commentators. while anxious to uncover the Jewish sources of the work, took great care to define the problematic nature of these relationships. Delitzsch, for example, questioned whether the overall structure of the work justifies the use of the descriptive term "haggadic."54 Recent students of the composition have been far less cautious. Thus, Torrey introduces the composition as "a characteristic deposit of old Jewish folklore".55 In a short paper designed to supplement

52 Ben Sira 46:20 (Samuel); 48:3-5 (Elijah); 48:12-14 (Elisha); 48:23 (Isaiah). See Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (1973) 212; Mack, Wisdom and the Hebrew Epic (1985) 136; Barton, Oracles of God (1986) 100-102.

53 Bokser, "Wonder-working and the Rabbinic Tradition" (1985) esp. 60, n. 62; 63-65, n. 75: "the theme of biblical figures who intercede for Israel... is irnJ:>rtant not in tannaitic sources but in third century and later materials."

Delitzsch, De Habacuci prophetae vita (1842) 89, n. 62. 55 Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 1.

STRUCfURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON 59

Klein's treatment of geographic detail, Koml6s judges the legends of the Lives "to show a close connection and contact with rabbinic and haggadic elements."56 Jeremias likewise expresses few reservations: "Es geht aber sicher auf jiidische Oberlieferungen zuriick, wie die zahlreichen Lokaltraditionen, die Zusammenhange mit dem Midrasch und viele Einzelziige bewisen."57 An authoritative handbook classifies the work as a "Biblical Midrash", and the most recent translator of the Lives confidently maintains that "many of the legends recorded here have parallels in the haggadah of rabbinic Judaism".58

This confident identification of the narrative elements in the Lives with characteristically Jewish modes of exposition (e.g., midrash or aggadah) is misleading in a number of respects. As indicated above, much of the speculation regarding the Jewish nature of the legends in the vitae is integrally linked with suppositions concerning the work's supposed martyrological tenor. There is no doubt that a strong Jewish dimension underlies a wide range of early Christian attitudes to martyrdom, including the notion of a prophet (or other righteous figure) who suffers at the hands of his own people or their leaders. 59 It is equally clear that the traditions to this effect in the writings of the New Testament have their basis in attitudes and beliefs current in first century Jewish circles. Nevertheless, there remains ample room for caution: it must be recognized that so extraordinarily powerful a tendenz in the life and faith of the early Church­whose very basis lies in the rejection, persecution, and e~Wal martyrdom of Jesus-cannot be retrojected naively as a fundamental tenet of Judaism in the Second Temple period. So too, Jewish sources relating to the violent deaths of righteous figures must be assessed in the light of historical factors, notably the pronounced influence of the Hadrianic persecutions on. the development of rabbinic attitudes toward martyrdom.60 Finally, as this

56 Koml6s, "About Jewish Elements in the Vitae Prophetarum" (1958) 127. 57 Jeremias, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 11-12. He adds there (n.

1) that "die Schilderung, wie der Prophet Nathan auf dem wege zu David ... trifft ganz die Art des Midrasch."

58 Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-1987) 3.784: "haggadic elements serve to enrich the portraits, and to link them with other biblical figures"; Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 384.

59 The fundamental study of these attitudes remains Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (1965); cf. Flusser, "Das jiidische Martyrium" (1973). Note two recent collections of essays on the subject: Horbury and McNeil (eds.), Suffering and Martyrdom in the New Testament (1981) and van Henten (ed.), Die Entstehung der jiidischen Martyrologie (1989) with a rich survey of earlier research (5-15).

60 Herr, "Persecutions and Martyrdom" (1972) argues against the existence of a martyr-consciousness among Palestinian Jews prior to the second century C.E. See too Lieberman, "The Martyrs of Caesarea" (1939/40) in this regard.

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survey of the Lives has revealed, of the six prophets who are said to have met a violent death, four (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah) are absent from early rabbinic legend.61 The two remaining "martyr-prophets" (Isaiah and Zechariah b. Jehoiada) not only are accorded significantly distinct treatment in rabbinic sources, as we have seen, but are represented frequently in the early Church. We are left with precious little material regarding the violent deaths of the biblical prophets which is demonstrably both early and Jewish.

Indeed, it might be argued that virtually every tradition or legend in the Lives which finds its parallel in rabbinic literature can be evidenced in early Christian literature as well. The association of Daniel with a "family of those prominent in the royal service", the confusion of the prophet Micah with Micaiah b. Imlah ( 1 Kgs 22:8), or the identification of Jonah as the son of the widow of Zarephath-all of these motifs are common to rabbinic and patristic sources alike. A revealing example of an unduly selective focus on "Jewish" sources is the oft-cited "aggadic" blending of the prophet Obadiah with the identically named servant of Ahab in the days of Elijah (1 Kgs 18:3-16).62 It is all too rarely noted that this identification was also a commonplace of late fourth century Christian exegesis in close connection with an active tradition (unknown from Jewish sources) regarding the tomb of Obadiah, in proximity to those of Elisha and John the Baptist, in the area of Samaria.63 To speak of such traditions or legends simply as "Jewish" or "rabbinic" is clearly to have told only half the story. This inclination in recent research on the Lives is only intensified by an unfortunate tendency to cite late (i.e. medieval) Hebrew texts as though they unfailingly provide evidence for earlier Jewish exegetical tradition. In many instances, however, we are witness rather to the entry (or re-entry) of

61 On the later (medieval) surfacing of such traditions, often through the mediation of Christian sources, see Amaru, "The Killing of the Prophets" (1983).

62 Thus Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 41 notes laconically "so in the rabbinical tradition"; Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-1987) 3.784 cites Sifre Numbers 133 (ad Num 27.1); Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 392, n. 9c observes this to be a "Jewish tradition" and refers the reader to Ginzberg, Legends (1909-1938) 4.240f.

63 See Appendix ad ltinerarium Egeriae 5.6; ed. Weber [CCSL 175] 99 [= Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels (1981) 201]; Jerome, ep. 108, 13.4-5 [=Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims (1977) 51-52]; Jerome, Comm. in Abdiam Prophetam 1; ed. Adriaen [CCSL 76] 352.1-7: "Hunc aiunt esse Hebraei, qui sub rege Samariae Achab, et impiissima Iezabel pauit centum prophetas in specubus, qui non curuauerunt genu Baal, et de septem millibus erant, quos Helias arguitur ignorasse, sepulcrumque eius usque hodie cum mausolea Helisaei prophetae et Baptistae Ioannis in Sebaste uenerationi habetur, quae olim Samaria dicebatur." See Jeremias, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 30-31.

STRUcruRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON 61

apocryphal material into Jewish literature through the agency of comparably late, medieval Christian sources.64 These are but a few of the considerations which must precede any conclusion regarding the inherent or exclusive nature of a legend or tradition as "Jewish".

The problem is most acute, perhaps, with regard to precisely those materials which have the clearest claim to origins both early and Jewish. Not a few of the legends presumed to be Jewish (in some absolute sense) are, in fact, drawn from the unwieldy amalgam of tradition of the period of the Second Temple. A prime example is the story of the concealment of the Ark of the Covenant which appears in the vita of Jeremiah and is closely paralleled in a number of post-biblical contexts.65 Schermann already emphasized this orientation, noting that the closest parallels to Jewish tradition were to be found neither in Josephus nor in rabbinic literature but in the extra-biblical writings broadly categorized as apocryphal or pseudepigraphic.66 These are materials which, in their earliest form, are indubitably Jewish and often pre-Christian. The mere incorporation of such traditions from the period of the Second Temple, however, tells us very little about the essentially Jewish or Christian character of the Lives. These traditions were, after all, part of the post-biblical heritage common to both Judaism and Christianity.

Furthermore, reading the legends of the Lives leaves one with the strong suspicion that what lies embedded within the individual vitae are not always remnants of tradition from the Second Temple period but reflections of (and upon) such early traditions. Interesting in this regard is the legend concerning the prophet Habakkuk: in a narrative deceptively simple and familiar, the prophet is said to have

dwelt in his own land and ministered to the reapers of his field. As he took up the food, he prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to a distant land and will return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the reapers." And after he had been in Babylon and had given the meal to Daniel, he stood beside the reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of what had

64 The phenomenon is highly variegated and too little appreciated; see Flusser, Sefer Yosippon (1978/1980) 2.148-153; Amaru, "The Killing of the Prophets" (1983); Himmelfarb, "R. Moses the Preacher and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs" (1984); Reeves and Waggoner, "An Illustration from the Apocrypha" (1988). The tendency to regard such later traditions-drawn, for example, from the Chronicles of Yerahmeel or Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah-as inherently Jewish is one of the by-products of an excessive and uncritical reliance on Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews.

65 Eupolemus, fr. 4; 2 Maccabees 2:4-8; Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 6:5-9; Paraleipomena of Jeremiah 3: 1-9. For discussion of the tradition and interrelationship of the sources, see the studies listed above, p. 19, n. 48.

66 Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 118-126: "Verhiiltnis der vitae prophetarum zur jiidischen Literatur".

62 CHAPTER1WO

happened. And he understood that the people would return yet more swiftly from Babylon.

This is not simply an alternate version of the well-known tale from the Greek addition to the book of Daniel known as Bel and the Dragon (vv. 33-39}-rather, the legend from the vita of Habakkuk represents a secondary version of the apocryphal tale, a rewriting which posits clear knowledge of an earlier tradition.67 Our appreciation of the Lives may rest in no small measure on the extent to which the legendary narratives are perceived to represent just this sort of reworking of earlier Jewish traditions from the Second Temple period.

Finally, it is crucial to recognize that there are precious few examples from either the literature of the Second Temple period or from later rabbinic writings of sustained interest in the "legends of the prophets." The Lives represents an unusual, indeed almost unique, concentration of such materials. Indeed, it has been argued that it was only

the Christian assimilation of the Old Testament prophets to Jesus which produces the idea that the prophets are examples to be imitated.... in Judaism the prophets were revered as great teachers, but it is less often suggested that their lives are meant as a paradigm for later generations.68

Josephus, for example, so prolific in his rewriting of Pentateuch and in his retelling of the period of the Judges and the Kings, is noticeably more taciturn in his portraits of the prophets. (The exception which proves the rule, of course, is the special attention which he pays to the book of Daniel in Antiquities Bk. 10.) It is interesting to note, moreover, that the few undeniably Jewish compositions which offer a sustained discussion or overview of the prophets-e.g., the "Praise of the Fathers" from Ben Sira and portions of the early rabbinic treatise Seder Olarrr-are, in fact, very different from the Lives in their most basic principles of organization.69

In the following chapters, I shall attempt to show in a more precise fashion that what appears highly anomalous in a Jewish context can, in a different framework, be both comprehensible and compelling. While certain traditions in the vitae are likely to be early and Jewish, the material as assembled in the Lives would have been most congenial to a Byzantine Christian audience and to their expectations concerning the Hebrew prophets and their deeds. Even at this preliminary stage of investigation, however, it is incumbent upon us to reconsider an established consensus, as three "unorthodox" conclusions suggest themselves: first, the very tenuous and

67 On the possible significance of the reworking of the tale, see the discussion below, pp. 101-102.

68 Barton, Oracles of God (1986) 98. 69 See below, pp. 98-99.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON 63

problematic nature of any "peculiarly" Jewish elements in these passages; second, the extent and manner of the dependence of a substantial portion of the legendary material in the vitae on literary traditions from the period of the Second Temple; finally, the possible significance of the narrative sections of the Lives within a context of Christian reception and transmission. While it is often difficult to establish elements in the work which are inescapably Christian, it may be still more arduous, or even impossible, to isolate materials or traditions which are necessarily Jewish.

ESCHATOLOGICAL PROPHECY

Very little attention has been given to what might be called the "prophetic" element of the Lives. This would appear to be the result of at least two factors: first, the simple fact that so much scholarly effort has been expended on the geographical and legendary aspects of the composition; second, these sections of the text are unremittingly difficult, even opaque. Yet these passages are of no little interest and importance, for they represent a identifiable structural unit in the work which may lend some insight into broader questions of composition and development.70 I have designated this material "eschatological prophecy" for in almost every instance the prophet describes a future event of cataclysmic dimensions which involves a disruption of the natural order.

This prophetic component is marked by the distinctive formula "he gave an omen" ('tepa~ £5ol1cev) which recurs no fewer than eight times in the course of the Lives of the Prophets. The passages introduced by that phrase appear either within a biographical framework (Ezekiel, Nahum, Zechariah) or at the conclusion of the vita (Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, Habalckuk). I cite them in the order of their appearance in codex Q:

[Ezekiel] This prophet gave an omen to the people so as to pay close attention to the Chebar river: whenever it should fail, to expect the scythe of desolation to the end of the earth; and when it should rise, the return to Jerusalem.

[Daniel] And he gave an omen concerning the mountains which are above Babylon: when the mountain on the north will smoke, the end of Babylon will approach; and when it burns with fire, the end of all the earth. And if the (mountain) on the south will pour forth water, the people will return to its land, and if it will pour forth blood, Beliar's slaughter will be on all the earth.

70 The special character of this material was observed already by Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 121-122; it has been remarked upon subsequently by De Jonge and Fernandez Marcos.

64 CHAPI'ER 1WO

[Hosea] And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive upon the earth if the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to become twelve oaks.

(Jonah] And he gave an omen concerning Jerusalem and the whole land, that when they should see a stone calling out pitifully, the end is near; and when they see all the nations in Jerusalem, then the entire city will be destroyed to its foundations.

[Nahum] After (the time of) Jonah this man gave an omen to Nineveh that it would be destroyed by fresh water and subterranean fire-and this came about. The lake surrounding it flooded it at the time of an earthquake and ftre out of the desert scorched its upper part.

[Habakkuk] He gave an omen to those in Judea that they would see a light in the Temple, and thus they would perceive the glory of the Temple. And concerning the end of the Temple, he foretold that it would be accomplished by a western nation. Then, he said, the 'Dabeir' (veil of the inner sanctuary) will be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns will be carried off, and no one will know where they are; they will be taken away by angels into the wilderness, where in the beginning the Tent of Witness was pitched. And through them the Lord will be known at the end, for they will enlighten those pursued by the serpent in darkness as from the beginning.

Zechariah came from (the land of) the Chaldeans already advanced in years and there he prophesied many things to the people and gave omens as proof .... And concerning Cyrus he gave an omen of victory and foretold the service which he would perform for Jerusalem and blessed him greatly.

The identification of these sections as a distinct category of material rests largely on their common introductory formula. Their unique character can best be appreciated, perhaps, through comparison with passages in the Lives which resemble them in several respects but should not be confused with them. First, there are those additional places in the text, some of which have been examined earlier, where the term 'tEpa.~ occurs:

[Ezekiel] When the people was being destroyed by the enemies, he went to their leaders and, being terrified by miracles (ttpaat\cov), they ceased. He said to them (the people): "Have we perished? Is our hope lost?" And by the omen (£v ttpan) of the bones of the dead he persuaded them that there shall be hope for Israel both now and in the future .... He judged the tribe of Dan and Gad in Babylon because they acted impiously towards the Lord by persecuting those who were keeping the Law. He performed a great portent (tepa~) regarding them-that the snakes consumed their children and all their cattle-and he predicted that because of them the people will not return to their land, but shall be in Media until the completion of their error.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON 65

Elisha was from Abel-Meholah of the land of Reuben. And an omen (tEpa~) took place regarding this man, for when he was born in Galgal the golden calf bellowed sharply, so as to be heard in Jerusalem.

[Zechariah b. Jehoiada] From that time there were apparitions (ttpata) in the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as formerly.

These are the only other instances of the word tepac; in the text, a fact which might recommend them as part of the larger complex; however, the departure from the set formula and the very different sense of the word in these contexts (miracle, portent, apparition) speaks against the inclusion of these passages. So too, the remarkable legend from the vita of Jeremiah:

This Jeremiah gave a sign (Oflf!Etov lWiroK£) to the priests of Egypt, that their idols must be shaken and collapse [by means of a savior born of a virgin in a manger.]71 Therefore to this very day they reverence a virgin giving birth and worship an infant placing him in a manger. And when Ptolemy the king asked the reason (for this) they said, "This is an ancestral mystery transmitted to our fathers by a holy prophet, and we are to await, he says, the fulfillment of this mystery."

The passage is quite unique, obviously of a very different flavor than those currently being examined, and lacks the crucial terminology: in all the Greek versions of this tale the word CJT)Jltiov appears rather than tepac;. On this same basis, we can discount the lengthy concluding sections of the vitae of Elijah and Elisha which open with the distinctly different formula "the signs which he performed ... " (ta 5£ CJT)Jltia (i EnOlTJGEV); further, the material which follows is not prophetic in character but based on the biblical accounts of these figures.72

In an attempt to gauge the true measure of the passages of eschatological prophecy, let us first turn our attention to their opening formula: "he gave an omen." The term tepac; is a common one in the Septuagint as a virtually stereotypical translation for the Hebrew term Jl.!)ll!3-representing a phenomenon whose "ultimate author is always God."73 What is so unusual about the employment of the phrase in the Lives of the Prophets is that the

71 Codex Q is difficult here: the bracketed reading "by means of a savior born of a virgin in a manger" is taken from the other representatives of the anonymous recension and the Dorothean recension. On the passage and its quandaries, see the long note in Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 387.

72 See the discussion above, n. 33, and Torrey's judgment that this material is secondary and discordant with the nature of the composition.

73 Thus Rengstorf, "tipa~" (1964-76) 7.118, who provides a thorough survey of the Greek term.

66 CHAPIER 'IWO

that the "omen," while still very much in the divine province, is something which the prophet gives to the people. Yet this usage has its roots in a unique biblical passage:

And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel.. .. And he gave an omen in that same day (LXX: Kat £8roJC£V £v -rfi TJJ.lEPCf tJCdvn tepa~). saying: "This is the word that the Lord has spoken: 'Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out."' ... The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the omen which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord (LXX: JCata to ttpa~ 8 £8roJC£V o av9pC01to~ tou 9£0u £v Mycp JCupiou). (1 Kgs 13:1-5)

This anonymous "man of God", of course, is none other than Joad of our text.74 No less noteworthy than the affinity between the biblical text and the Lives is our inability to adduce any further parallels. In fact, the term 'tepac; itself gradually disappears from usage during the course of the Second Temple period and appears in the New Testament and Apostolic fathers only within the familiar biblical phrase "signs and wonders" (OTUJ.Eta Kat 'tepa'ta).75 The Lives of the Prophets confronts us, then, with the frequent and consistent employment of an unusual phrase whose principal member ('tepac;) had become a significantly rare term in both Jewish and Christian literature.

Nevertheless, these passages of eschatological prophecy must be considered a very unwieldy unit. The recurrent theme of national restoration (Temple, Jerusalem) is never given full expression; the pervasive imagery of fire, water, and other natural phenomena remains enigmatic. Most surprising, there do not appear to be any striking parallels to the language or motifs of these passages in the expanse of post-biblical apocalyptic literature. Though both the later Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions are rife with the notion of "signs" and "signs of the end" ,76 including all manner of disruption of the natural order, there is little or nothing that truly resembles this section of the Lives. Comparison with other texts, for

74 Fernandez Marcos, "Nueva acepcion de TEPAl:" (1980) 37-38. 75 Rengstorf, "tepa~" (1964-76) 7.124-126. The most dramatic evidence

for this avoidance of the term on its own is the citation of LXX Joel 3:1-5 in Acts 2:17-21. The original verse-"And I will give omens (ttpata) in the heavens and on the earth" (3:3)-is transformed to: "And I will show omens (tE_f,ata) in the heaven above and signs (OTIJ.lE'ia) on the earth beneath."

6 On "signs of the end" see Mk 13 (and par.); Rev 12; 4 Ezra 4:52-5:13, 6:17-28, 8:63-9:8; Sibylline Oracles 2:154-213, 3:796-808; Apocalypse of Peter 5. For ample discussion, with further references to sources and bibliography, see Stone, Fourth Ezra (1990) 105-114. It should be stressed that it is the Greek term OTIJ.lE'iov (and not tepa~) which underlies the conception of the eschatological "sign" in the post-biblical apocalyptic tradition.

STRUCfURE, CONlENT, AND COMPOSffiON 67

example, serves only to accentuate the absolute lack of any ethical dimension (i.e. concern for moral or societal order) in the eschatology of our document. Paradoxically, elements in these passages seem most clearly to hearken back to that stream of late biblical prophecy (Joel 3-4; Isa 24-27: Zech 9-14) often considered proto-apocalyptic.77 Here one finds much common imagery as well as at least two biblical phrases or themes which are clearly echoed in the Lives.18 Though not precisely parallel, the following verses from Joel (3:3-4) best illustrate that proximity: "And I will give omens (LXX: Kat Sroaro tipata) in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes."

No less troubling than the question of literary affinities is the fact that it is not readily apparent how the passages themselves cohere. Three of them do so most obviously (Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah}-sharing a common motif of the future restoration of the people in their land. The "omens" attributed to Nahum and Zechariah, however, speak of particular historical conditions which are understood to have been fulfilled. Nevertheless, there are clear points of contact: the passage concerning Nahum, in common with the vitae of Ezekiel and Daniel, is based upon vivid imagery of water and fire: the "omen" given by Zechariah to Cyrus, on the other hand, is related to the larger theme of national restoration. The passages from the vitae of Hosea and Habakkuk, on the other hand, introduce special problems of content: both present motifs (coming of the Lord: rending of the veil) which invite speculation regarding Christian origins. 79 Taken as a whole, these passages of eschatological prophecy resist clear definition and leave us little recourse but to admit bewilderment regarding their original context or significance. In the following section of this chapter we shall see that, beyond questions

77 Stone, "Apocalyptic Literature" (1984) 384-388. 78 Compare vita of Ezekiel to op£1tavov tfic; EPT1J.lCOO"Ecoc; Eic; 1ttpac; tfic;

yfic; with LXX Zech 5:1-3 and vita of Jonah A.t6ov ~orovta oilctproc; with LXX Hab 2: 11; cf. Paraleipomena of Jeremiah 9:30.

79 de Jonge, "Christelijke Elementen" (1961/62) 170-174, 176-177. In both instances the Dorothean recension preserves markedly different texts. The short version of the vita of Hosea (see below, p. 70) lacks the "omen" material altogether. In the vita of Habakkuk, the formulaic introduction-"He gave an omen to those in Judea that they would see a light in the Temple, and thus they would know the glory of the Temple"-is lacking in the Dorothean recension. Interestingly, here as well, the phrase in Q "the veil of the inner sanctuary will be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns will be carried off' reads as follows: "the veil of the inner sanctuary and the capitals of the two columns will be carried off." On the widespread image of the rending of the temple veil, see the discussion and references in De Jonge, "Two Interesting Interpretations of the Rending of the Temple Veil" (1985).

68 CHAPTER1WO

of linguistic and thematic continuity, there is intriguing evidence from one of the versions of the Lives for the demarcation of these passages as a

distinct unit.

TIIE COMPOSITION OF 1HE liVES OF THE PROPHETS

The examination of the Lives of the Prophets thus far, through an analysis of the structure and constituent materials of the individual vitae, has been guided by the conviction that one must begin a literary-historical investigation from the understanding of a known and certain text. The form of the composition as preserved in the codex Marchalianus (Q) provides that fixed point, both known and certain. The focus of my study remains that "received" text of the Lives of the Prophets, yet prior to a reading of the work within a proposed cultural and religious context something must be ventured concerning the development of the document. It would appear most unlikely that the terms "author" and "composition" can be applied in a simple manner; rather, the text gives every impression of being an amalgam of traditions, oral and written, from a broad expanse of time. Consequently, we must attempt an assessment of the Lives of the Prophets as a complex document reflecting successive levels of authorial, editorial, and scribal activity. Furthermore, by addressing these issues it becomes possible to go beyond the question which commonly lurks behind the study of many presumedly early Jewish documents: how does one work backwards from the preserved text? Namely, we may now ask: with what measure of success can one reasonably expect to do so?

Recensional Trajectories

A superficial comparison of the recensions of the Lives of the Prophets is both an interesting and dangerous exercise. It is more likely than not to produce a confident, albeit false, conviction that it is possible to chart the development of certain vitae in linear fashion. This could lead in turn to the further, but no less misleading, determination that the Greek recensional evidence seems to reflect successive stages in the growth of the document.

An interesting example of such recensional relationships is afforded by the vita of Joel:

Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in peace and was buried there. [Q; Dor]

Joel the prophet. This one was from the field of Beithom out of the land of Reuben. He prophesied much concerning Jerusalem and the end of the nations. And seeing (these things) he died in peace and was buried in Beithom his land with honor. [Epl]

SlRUCfURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON 69

The unadorned brevity of the text of Q (shared by the Dorothean recension )----composed of nothing more than the birth and burial tradition of the prophet-is likely to have been expanded in the principal Epiphanian recension through the addition of a formulaic phrase. As noted above, in the survey of the Greek witnesses to the text, such additions have been judged characteristic of that recension. Still more interestingly, however, this enlarged Epiphanian text approximates the following vita:

Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon from the field of Sabaratha. He prophesied concerning the city (Jerusalem) and concerning the end of the nations and the shame of the unrighteous. And when he died he was buried in his field. [Q; Dor]

Our most concise and economical versions of the vita of Zephaniah, therefore, closely resembles a presumedly later, expanded version of the vita of Joel. Furthermore, these variations exist not only between different recensions, but within recensional families; thus, the text of the vita of Joel according to principal manuscript witnesses of the anonymous recension, except for codex Q, reveals a similarly expanded formulation:

Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron, having prophesied concerning famine and cessation of sacrifices and the sufferings of the righteous prophet and through him the renewal of creation to salvation. He died in peace and was buried there. [Anon]

How does one assess the relationship between such texts? Should the variant forms of the vita of Joel stand as a model by which "lengthier" vitae, such as that of Zephaniah, can be reduced to their "original" proportions? Is there some ineluctable tendency toward textual expansion which can then be reversed in the hypothetical process of reconstruction of an earlier, and of necessity briefer, vita? Alternatively, the unusually brief form of the vita of Joel could be an object of suspicion: might the material reflected in the Epiphanian recension and in the other representatives of the anonymous recension preserve elements of an earlier and more expansive version, subsequently curtailed? Or, finally, does the recensional evidence simply indicate an inconsistent tendency toward harmonization of disparate and divergent patterns whose points of origin escape us?

These questions grow more complex when we cease to accord privilege to a certain textual representative. It has become accepted practice since the days of Schermann to regard the anonymous recension in general, and the Codex Marchalianus (Q) in particular, as our most faithful guide to the original text of the composition. The rationale of this judgment is largely unexamined and, at best, seems to based on some imprecise perception of the text of Q as terse, unadorned, and free from blatantly Christian

70 CHAPTERlWO

interpolations.80 It is not difficult, however, to produce a number of clear instances in which· the text of Q does not provide the briefest, most economical form of a specific vita and would appear, instead, to represent a later stage of textual growth. Let us begin with the following forms of the vita of Hosea:

This Hosea was from Belemoth of the tribe of lssachar and died in his own land in peace. [Dor]

Hosea. He was from Belemoth, of the tribe of Issachar, and was buried in his own land in peace. And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive upon the earth if the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to become twelve oaks.[Q]

Hosea the prophet, son of Beeri. He was born in Belemoth from the tribe of Issachar. He gave an omen that the Lord would arrive from heaven upon the earth, and this (would be) the sign of his coming, when the oak which is in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself into twelve parts and become twelve oaks; and thus it came about. Having prophesied much about the sin of his people, he died in peace and was buried in his own land. [Ep1]

In this instance the vita as preserved in the Dorothean recension reveals the same extreme brevity as found in Q in the case of the prophet Joel. The text of Q and of the other witnesses to the Anonymous recension includes an additional passage of the type analyzed above as "eschatological prophecy." The Epiphanian text, once again, shows signs of still further enhancement.

A similar relationship between the anonymous and Dorothean recensions is demonstrated by the vita of Zechariah the priest:

Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He was from Jerusalem, and Joash the king of Judah killed him by the altar, and the house of David poured out his blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch. And seizing him the priests buried him with his father. [Dor]

Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash the king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out his blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the priests buried him with his father. From that time there were apparitions in the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as formerly. [Q]

These two instances provide significant evidence that the Dorothean recension sometime preserves a text which is more terse and economical (though not necessarily more "original'') than that preserved by Q. Though

80 See above, pp. 32-33.

STRUCTURE,CONTENT,ANDCOMPOSrnON 71

unappreciated by many students of the text, Schennann in fact had remarked upon the superior quality of the Dorothean text, particularly with regard to the vitae of the twelve minor prophets.81

In the analysis of the development of documents such as the Lives of the Prophets, there is a basic presumption of progressive stages of increasing length and complexity. Given this orientation, there exists a profound temptation to "refashion" the individual vitae, for example, without the intervening narrative or prophetic material; the result in virtually every instance would be coherent. In fact, such a reconstruction would simply reduce the composition as a whole to the extreme economy of the extant vitae of Joel and, in the Dorothean recension, Hosea. Indeed the unadorned, direct quality of the introductory and closing notices of birth and burial, the pristine brevity of this fonn of the vitae, may have predisposed many readers of the text to an alliance with a central tenet of early fonn-criticism: " ... the briefer the legend, the greater the probability that we have it in its original form."82 What are we doing, in fact, when we hypothesize an earlier fonn of the text on the basis of a recensional comparison? Have we given sufficiently serious thought to the peculiar identities of Dorotheus and Anonyma and to the possible intricacies of the relationship between the recensions?83 Are we not, in rather arbitrary fashion, predetennining the question of how a work such as the Lives of the Prophets might have appeared once and then been expected to change over the course of time? It is time to return to the evidence from the analysis of the text preserved in CodexQ.

Sources and Development

The examination thus far of the Greek text of the Lives has given some sense of the complexity of this small work. It is composed of very different sorts of materials (geographic, narrative, prophetic) which have been brought together in accord with a variety of structural possibilities. The wide spectrum of forms of the individual vitae, their heterogeneous presentation of subject matter, and the marked differences in their length­all of these should caution against any premature attempt to explain the development of the composition in too facile a manner. No less striking is the apparent lack of coordination between the structural units identified: it is very difficult to see any overlap or continuity, for example, between the

81 Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 127-128. 82 Gunkel, The Legends of Genesis (1964) 47. 83 In a number of instances, for example, the "concise" account of

Dorotheus comes at the expense of material related to the theme of eschatological prophecy. See above, n. 79. Could this, rather, be a clear tendenz on the part of that recension?

72 CHAP'IER1WO

narrative themes of the vitae and the eschatological motifs of the prophetic sections. The simplest and most attractive solution undoubtedly would be some fonn of source-critical theory which would attempt to unravel the traditions, oral and written, that were ultimately brought together. The prospects for such an explanation, however, seem bleak; it is not at all certain, moreover, that the fonnal, structural analysis offered above either corresponds to or reflects in an accurate or realistic manner the historical development of the document.

The birth and burial notices of the prophets, as we have seen, present a host of difficulties: a plethora of place names which resist identification, internal contradictions between birth sites and tribal affiliations, and a considerable number of geographical and genealogical "traditions" which appear to be little more than exegetical derivations. These problems are aggravated by the deeply entrenched tendency of scholars to see this material as the earliest, most basic stage of the work, the foundation upon which the composition was constructed. Yet not a few of the difficulties encountered would be alleviated if one were to imagine the birth and burial traditions of the Lives undergoing a long and probably uneven process of growth. Little attentio.n has been paid, for example, to a short list of the prophets, attributed to Epiphanius of Cyprus and Cornelius of Jerusalem, from a ninth century Syriac manuscript.84 The text offers a very abbreviated treatment of twenty-three prophets (including Moses, Samuel, and David) which does not readily correspond with any of the extant Greek or Syriac versions of the Lives. While perhaps best regarded as a late abridgment of the work, it is nevertheless worth considering the following entries (nos. 15-18) from the Syriac list:

Hosea was in the time of Uzziah, from the tribe of Issachar, llftd is buried in his land.

Micah was in the days of Jorab, son of Ahab, from the tribe of Ephraim.

Amos was from Tekoah; Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, killed him.

Nahum was from the tribe of Simeon.

Could one of the sources of the Lives have been a comparable list of prophets with their tribal affiliations alone? How many other such sources, oral and written, might have been incorporated in the birth and burial traditions of the composition? And what might have been the limitations of such sources?

It is worth recalling in this context Torrey's own instincts regarding the nature of the geographical notices:

84 See above, p. 12, n. 17.

STRUCTIJRE, CON1ENT, AND COMPOSffiON 73

It has therefore sometimes been suggested that the chief interest of the author of this compilation may have been in the localities that are named .... This motive was present, no doubt, in the author's plan, but it does not appear to have played an important part. The localities are named, and cities and towns are given the coveted honor, in a manner which suggests literary routine rather than the attempt to give useful information. The fragmentary material, so uneven in extent and character, was held together and given unity by this framework of necessary detail.85

This perception of the birth and burial material as a literary framework of the individual vitae is certainly coherent with the analysis of the somewhat arbitrary, even artificial exegesis which underlies a number of the traditions. Such exegesis, as we have seen, bears no indication of having been either early or necessarily Jewish in origin; there is some possibility that it may have arisen through an interpretative encounter with the Bible in Greek. These geographical and genealogical oddities may have been the product of a late, even final, stage in redaction: an attempt to supplement either a complex of sources or a single pre-existent document with appropriate detail.

Still more problematic, perhaps, are the narrative legends of the Lives. Here we are truly confronted by an expanse of material which may have its origins within the post-biblical period but can be demonstrated clearly not to have achieved its present form before the end of the fourth century C.E. Our ability to trace the patterns of growth and development of the legends would appear to be limited and perhaps will remain so. A number of the passages are closely related to themes from Jewish writings of the period of the Second Temple and, as we have seen, are likely to be directly dependent on those early traditions. Other legends remain of very uncertain origin and. can be documented within both demonstrably Jewish and Christian contexts. Finally, the analysis of the vita of Daniel in the next chapter will provide a prime example of a narrative presumed to be early-and many of whose elements are likely to derive from earlier tradition-yet whose present form (details, structure, significance) demands an early Byzantine historical framework.

The demarcation of independent units of material in the Lives of the Prophets can most clearly be argued for the passages of eschatological prophecy. These passages, as we have seen, though enigmatic and somewhat impenetrable, are marked by a distinctive formula which sets them apart not only from other sections of the Lives but also from the broad range of early Jewish and Christian literature. There is, in fact, a further piece of evidence to be considered. The Arabic version of the Lives of the Prophets, from a tenth century manuscript translated either directly

85 Torrey, The Lives of the Prophets (1946) 3.

74 CHAPTER1WO

from the Greek or on the basis of a Syriac intermediary, preserves a distinctive form of the composition.86 The editor took note of these differences, generally lacunae when weighed against the Greek text, and argued that "it is evident that the Arabic redactor acted as an epitomizer to a large extent."87 Unnoticed, however, was the fact that among the material lacking in this version of the Lives are all of the passages, without exception, which we have designated as eschatological prophecy; nor is there any vestige of the formula "he gave an omen".88 It is thoroughly possible, of course, that the Arabic redactor himself (or his predecessor who transmitted the Greek or Syriac Vorlage) removed precisely these sections of the work, skillfully editing out the prophetic materials whether enclosed within the biographical framework of the vitae or appended to them. We find ourselves solidly in the realm of conjecture at this point: there is no surviving Greek or Syriac witness to confirm this hypothesis.89 Yet we cannot discount the possibility that the Arabic text reflects an earlier form of the text (once again, Greek or Syriac) which did not yet include these passages; the Arabic version would then embody an earlier stage in the redactional history of the Lives of the Prophets.

At this juncture it is important to recognize how distant we remain from a view of the work in its course of development. The two principal components of the Lives, the traditions of birth and burial and the passages of legendary narrative, show every indication of themselves being composite units which evolved over the course of time. In both instances there appears ample evidence or strong reason to suspect that it was only at a very late, perhaps final, stage of redaction that crucial details (or entire passages) were introduced into the work. (Paradoxically, it may be the passages of eschatological prophecy, long suspected of being both late and secondary, that have the strongest claim to being an integral unit of material that antedates, perhaps by centuries, the period of the ultimate redaction of the Lives.) We should acknowledge the remove between the present state of research and any form of explanation, based on principles of both source- and redaction-criticism, which might offer a plausible scenario for the growth of the document. Still more difficult to envision is the attempt to move behind the versions and recensional families in order to

86

87

80.

For details on the Arabic version, see above, p. 13. Lofgren, "An Arabic Recension of the 'Vitae Prophetarum'" (1976n7)

88 This selective absence can be seen clearly in the vitae of Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zechariah; the vita of Ezekiel is simply too abbreviated to draw any conclusion.

89 The recension of Dorotheus, however, does reveal a significantly curtailed treatment of eschatological prophecy; see above, nn. 79, 83.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON 75

come closer to a more primitive form of the composition, i.e. the recovery of an original document, Jewish rather than Christian.

Conclusion

These questions point to a methodological quandary which lies at the very heart of the modem study of post-biblical Jewish literature: to what extent were earlier traditions and texts copied and preserved, reworked and redacted, or rewritten and recast in the early centuries of Christian literary activity? Is there a reasonable expectation that these adopted (and often adapted) Jewish materials can be restored to their original and early form? Or, rather, do the texts before us bear so clear and compelling a Christian identity as to render them impenetrable? The issue is of clear and direct relevance for the study of the Lives of the Prophets yet has rarely been confronted; rather, as the survey of modern scholarship has revealed, there has been virtually no caution or concern in moving from the Byzantine and medieval Greek texts before us backwards to their putative Jewish source. The critical questions at stake affect a broad range of texts, however, and the position outlined here is directly dependent upon that of M. de Jonge in his assessment of the vexed problem of the origins and nature of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.<xl

(1) The Lives of the Prophets have functioned meaningfully within a wide spectrum of indisputably Christian contexts. The vitality of the work within manifold forms and expressions of Christian culture is witnessed by the quantity and distribution of the Greek manuscript evidence, the rich tradition of translation into languages of both Western and Eastern churches and subsequent transmission, and the active employment of the work in a variety of literary and liturgical settings. The preceding examination of the­structure and content of the document has already revealed a number of significant commonalities of thought and language between our text and early Byzantine piety and exegesis. In the succeeding chapters I shall attempt to place the Lives of the Prophets within a still more precise context: an historical and religious framework whose cogency may not only explain the attraction which the work held but aid us in understanding the circumstances under which the text attained its present form.

(2) The identification and isolation of Christian elements in the Lives, i.e. the removal of interpolations, is neither a practical nor efficacious

90 De Jonge, "Test. Benjamin 3:8" (1989) 205-206; see too his earlier statements of the problem in "The main issues in the study of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs" (1979/80) and (with Hollander) in The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1985) 14-17, 82-85. It is noteworthy that Schermann (Propheten- und Apostellegenden [1907] 12~122), albeit from a very different perspective, already observed the common literary-historical problematic between the Testaments and the Lives.

76 CHAPTER 'TWO

manner of restoring an originally Jewish text. First, as has long been recognized, there are few "blatantly" Christian features in the text of the vitae preserved by Q. Indeed, I have tried to demonstrate (and will emphasize in the following chapters) that it is precisely the lack of distinctively Christian elements which provides a major clue toward the understanding of the document. There are, nevertheless, indisputably Christian attributes in the work, yet their qualities are diametrically opposed to the concept of "interpolation": they are subtle, confounding simple identification, and so deeply embedded in the fabric of the text as to resist extraction. In fact, clearly recognizable interpolations or additions in the Lives of the Prophets would appear only to be characteristic of a variety of recensional tendencies: the messianic content of the prefaces to the individual vitae in Dorotheus and the frequent asides in the Epiphanian texts. It would be far more accurate, then, to speak of Christological interpolations in an existing Christian document.

(3) The nature of the Christian transmission and redaction of the Lives of the Prophets renders virtually impossible the recovery of an earlier pre­Christian stage in the document's development. In the words of de Jonge,

Scholars should realize that literary criticism is of necessity a very limited tool in the case of the analysis of highly complex writings . . . which purport to transmit ancient tradition; they have been pseudepigraphical from the start, may be expected to have assembled as much relevant material as possible, and have 'invited' those who transmitted the text to insert traditions at their disposal.91

Certain trajectories have been shown to exist between the different versions of the Lives, among the multiple recensions of the Greek text, as well as between the various manuscript witnesses to the same recension. The impression is continually reinforced that the Lives of the Prophets is in its very essence a restless composition, an ongoing sequence of texts in a state of flux. These fluctuations, however, cannot be conveniently restricted to the later stages of textual transmission: they are likely to have characterized the work from its very inception. It has been argued recently, with specific reference to forms of rabbinic literature, that classical theories of textual development-and the attendant search for a zero-base text which can be restored or reconstructed-are not universally applicable.92 There are instances in which tracing a complex history and process of transmission simply cannot be assumed to lead backward to an earlier, unitary, clearly

91 Ibid. 92 Schafer, "Research into Rabbinic Literature: an Attempt to define the

Status Quaestionis" (1986) with response by Milikowsky, "The Status Quaestionis of Research in Rabbinic Literature" (1988) and rejoinder by Schafer, "Once Again the Status Quaestionis of Research in Rabbinic Literature" (1989).

STRUCIURE, CON1ENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON 77

defined stage of authorial or redactional identity. It is as ill-advised to deny categorically the possibility of a Jewish text underlying the Lives as it would be futile to speculate about the nature or contents of such a document. We simply remain uncertain whether such a text ever existed and, if so, what its form may have been.

(4) It is not even possible, when confronted with a work like the Lives of the Prophets, to speak with any precision of the "growth" of the text. Literary and historical analysis may isolate units of material within a composition yet this is still a far cry from a diachronic analysis of the work. After all, the identification of seemingly distinct sections of material-whether based on considerations of form or content or a conjunction of the two-is itself of uncertain significance and open to a plethora of interpretations. Are these divisions within the text indicative of the employment of multiple sources, the incorporation of pre-existent documents, or perhaps the gradual development of a composition over a protracted period of time? This indeterminacy demands the recognition that

a tradition-historical approach cannot lead to a delineation of stages in the history of the text in the sense that we would be able to assign certain sections, or certain phrases in sections, to a particular 'layer' in the text. We have only the final text as the outcome of a, no doubt, long process of assemblage: we are not in a position to posit earlier redactional stages resulting in earlier more original forms of the document.93

This demands, more than anything else, the recognition that our formal literary analysis of the text, however convincing it may be on its own terms, cannot pretend to reflect the historical reality underlying the text. We may be justified and fully confident in our characterization of a work as. composite and yet at once recognize our inability to reconstruct its constituent elements or the process which brought them together. It simply may not be possible to "work backwards" from the text in its transmitted form, to peel away the layers to something earlier or more original. (Indeed, one suspects that the imagery of a progressively layered object-so integral to our perception of the natural world-may be peculiarly ill-suited to the problem at hand.)

(5) Finally, the traditional and entrenched use of the categories "Jewish" and "Christian" as mutually exclusive possibilities does little to advance our understanding of the Lives of the Prophets and similar writings. Upon this notion of the unrelenting exclusivity of the two traditions rests the unfortunate perception of the problem as one demanding the removal of Christian elements, at which point a Jewish document miraculously emerges. There are, indeed instances in which Jewish and Christian attitudes

93 De Jonge, /oc. cit.

78 CHAPTER1WO

are not proximate, points at which true and deep differences can be charted. yet there are far more areas in which the early Church both inherited and enhanced a complex of attitudes, practices, and beliefs which were consonant with those of early Judaism. It is only with the full recognition of these continuities that one becomes deeply aware of the difficulties in moving backwards, i.e. attempting to determine which aspects of a post­biblical tradition can be traced back (precisely and exclusively) to their Jewish origins.

* * * We are, once again, faced with the text in its present form-or, in the case of the Lives of the Prophets, in a dazzling variety of forms. The decision to focus on the text of codex Marchalianus (Q) represents, as we have indicated, no judgment regarding a "better" or necessarily "earlier" text-form, but rather the choice of a certain crystallization of the textual process. The foregoing analysis of that text of the Lives of the Prophets has imparted, I hope, some sense of the diversity and complexity of the work. The call for an examination of the work within its known context of transmission or reception is not simply the expression of a methodological principle; it is the essentially pragmatic result of the realization that very little indeed separates the earliest proven context of transmission (sixth century) from the likely context of redaction (fifth century)! Indeed, the distinct identity of the terms which nourish this discussion-transmission, redaction, composition-has been exposed as deeply problematic. Finally, there has been some insistence that even if we were to take the methodologically questionable step and prematurely begin the process of "working backward", we could not responsibly reach beyond the reality of a thoroughly Christian text.94

94 Note the mixture of recognition and criticism of this pos1hon in Collins, "The Testamentary Literature in Recent Scholarship" (1986) 272-273.

CHAPTER 1HREE

THE VITA OF DANIEL: AN EARLY BYZANTINE LEGEND

Among the most frustrating aspects of the Lives of the Prophets is the stubbornly indeterminate nature of the majority of the vitae. They offer little more than the most basic-and generally unparalleled or impenetrable--{!etails concerning the biblical figure at hand. There is a sore temptation to throw up one's hands in the face of a composition which seems to be uneven and uninviting in equal measures. A means of escape from this predicament is offered by those few legends of greater length and specificity. The vita of Daniel is remarkable in this regard, offering the most extended and integral narrative of the entire work; no other single passage from the Lives raises as many suggestive questions about the outlook and milieu of the composition. It is here that we come closest to the guiding design behind what, I suspect, may have been the final stage of authorship and redaction. If, in fact, "the idiosyncracy of an author is best penetrated through his inventions,"1 this unique narrative may prove our point of entry to the mentalite of the the document as a whole.

Similar in form to the vitae of Jonah and Habakkuk, the central narrative of the vita of Daniel is framed by a brief introductory account of the origins and character of the prophet and a concluding prophetic section. The· opening passage informs us of Daniel's birthplace (upper Beth-Horon), a tradition characteristically unattested, his courtly descent, and his extreme continence: so great that "the Jews supposed him to be a eunuch".2 The prophet is described as one who mourned and fasted over the city Jerusalem (Dan 10:2-3)--causing him to become "a man withered in appearance but comely in the grace of the Most High".3 The closing section provides a quite unexceptional example of "eschatological prophecy", including the formulaic introduction "And he gave an omen ... ".

It is the central legend of the vita, however, that demands our closest attention:

Syme, Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (1968) 4. 2 On this theme concerning Daniel and his companions--common to both

rabbinic and patristic sources--and its exegetical connections with lsa 39:7, see Braverman, Jerome's Commentary on Daniel (1978) 53-71. ·

3 See Satran, "Daniel: Seer, Philosopher, Holy Man" (1980) 41-42.

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He prayed greatly on behalf of Nebuchadnezzar, after Baltasar, his son, summoned him, when he became a wild animal and a beast, in order that he might not perish. His upper half, as well as his head, were like an ox; his feet together with his lower half were like a lion. It was revealed to the holy man concerning this mystery, that Nebuchadnezzar had become a beast as a result of his love of pleasure and stiff-neckedness, and that those who belong to Beliar are like an ox under yoke. Rulers have (these qualities) in their youth; finally, they become wild animals-snatching, destroying, killing, and smiting.

The holy man knew, through God, that Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like an ox, and it became food of a human sort. On account of this even Nebuchadnezzar, taking on a human heart following digestion, wept and implored the Lord, praying every day and night forty times. Behemoth would come upon him and make him forget that he had been a man; his tongue became fixed, unable to speak, and at once realizing this he cried; his eyes were like (raw) flesh from weeping. Many were going out of the city and observed him. Daniel alone did not desire to see him, for he was in prayer on his behalf during the entire period of his transformation. He said that Nebuchadnezzar would again become a man, but they did not believe him.

Daniel caused the seven years, which he called 'seven seasons,' to become seven months. The mystery of the 'seven seasons' was fulfilled in his regard, since he was restored in seven months (and) during six years and <six> [five] months he fell down before the Lord and confessed his impiety, and after the forgiveness of his sin He returned the kingdom to him. While making confession Nebuchadnezzar neither ate bread or meat nor drank wine, since Daniel had enjoined him to appease the Lord by (eating) soaked pulse and herbs. On account of this Nebuchadnezzar called him (Daniel) Baltasar, since he desired to appoint him heir alongside his own children. But the holy man said: "Far be it from me to forsake the inheritance of my fathers and to cleave to the inheritance of the uncircumcised."

While the legends of the Lives are dependent largely on traditions which touch only lightly, if at all, on the scriptural account of the prophet's career, this vita introduces an elaborate narrative clearly derived from and amplifying the biblical text of the fourth chapter of the book of Daniei.4 Indeed, it is the exegetical quality of the legend which ultimately allows us to appreciate both its specific details and central motifs in their precise historical and religious context. One recognizes immediately the core of the scriptural account-the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar for his overwhelming arrogance through his physical transformation into a "beast of the field". Yet a host of unusual, seemingly bizarre features come quickly to the fore: the vivid description of the Babylonian king's bestial

4 For a detailed survey of the history of exegesis of the biblical narrative, see Satran, Nebuchadnezzar Dethroned (forthcoming).

1HE VITA OF DANIEL 81

metamorphosis; the enhanced role assigned to Daniel as counsel and mediator; the carefully detailed stages of Nebuchadnezzar's penance. Two principal movements characterize the narrative of the vita-transformation and penitence-and their elucidation guides the initial stage of analysis. On the basis of this examination, it is possible to appraise the newly delineated portraits of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel as potent symbols of emerging temporal and spiritual authorities in early Byzantine society.

The limited attention which this legend thus far has drawn has been based on the presumption that this tale, like the work as a whole, is the product of Judaism of the Second Temple period.5 A number of initial observations should be made, therefore, regarding the narrative's problematic status within the framework of early Jewish interpretation of the fourth chapter of Daniel. Certain aspects of the legend may indeed have their source in alternative forms of the biblical narrative current during the Second Temple period. Aramaic fragments of the Prayer of Nabonidus recovered from Cave 4 at Qumran reveal a Jewish exorcist or diviner (,u) who actively intercedes on behalf of the stricken Babylonian ruler. 6 The Old Greek translation of Daniel too presents a substantially different version of the tale which accentuates the confession of Nebuchadnezzar prior to his restoration.7 Neither form of the scriptural legend, however, begins to approximate the detail or structure of the narrative from the Lives. Still further removed from the spirit of the vita of Daniel is the treatment of the biblical chapter by the Rabbis. Though much exercised by the prolonged bestial existence of Nebuchadnezzar, exegetes nowhere suggest the complex, hybrid creature described here. So too, the sympathetic treatment of Nebuchadnezzar's arduous penitence and recovery, made possible through the intercession and counsel of Daniel, is totally foreign to the tendenz of·

5 Thus Doob, Nebuchadnezzar's Children (1974); Sack, "Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus in Folklore and History" (1982).

6 The document first appeared in Milik, '"Priere de Nabonide"' (1956); for a recent, convincing reconstruction, see Cross, "Fragments of the Prayer of Nabonidus" (1984). The most extensive treatment remains Meyer, Das Gebet des Nabonid (1962).

7 The Old Greek of Daniel-printed together with the text of Theodotion in modern critical editions (Rahlfs; Ziegler)-was almost completely displaced by the latter version in the early Church, as noted by Jerome in the preface to his translation as well as in the prologue to his commentary on the book. The sole extant representatives of the Old Greek text are Codex Chisianus (Ms. 88) and the third century Chester Beatty papyrus (967). There is no consensus regarding the relationship between the form of Daniel 4 in the Old Greek and the Masoretic text: Satran, Nebuchadnezzar Dethroned, ch. 2 analyzes the Old Greek as an exegetical derivative of the received Aramaic text; Wills, The Jew in the Court of a Foreign King (1990) 87-121 argues for the priority of the version preserved in the Old Greek.

82 CHAPfER 1HREE

Rabbinic commentary.8 It will become clear, in fact, that an elucidation of this legend from the Lives must be sought well outside the boundaries of Jewish tradition.

1HE 1RANSRlRMATION AND PENITENCE OF NEBUCHADNE1ZAR

The extended, central narrative of the vita of Daniel opens with a straightforward summary statement: the Hebrew seer prayed greatly on behalf of the Babylonian king, at the bequest of the latter's son Baltasar, when his father had become like "a wild animal and a beast". This seemingly repetitive characterization is immediately clarified by the precise description ofNebuchadnezzar's strange metamorphosis: "His upper half, as well as his head, were like an ox; his feet together with his lower half were like a lion." The Babylonian king, therefore, had taken on the features of both a domestic beast (Ktf\vo~). in the form of an ox, as well as a wild animal (Ehlpiov), in the manner of a lion. The purely pictorial aspect of the description is puzzling. The received Aramaic text of Daniel indeed speaks of the Babylonian king as one who "ate grass like cattle" (Dan 4:30; cf. 4:22, 29), yet nowhere likens him expressly to a lion. The Old Greek version and the translation attributed to Theodotion. however, incorporate the image of the lion within the description of the king's bestial state (OG Dan 4:30b). Nevertheless, neither the biblical versions nor subsequent literary and artistic traditions provide any evidence for the bizarre hybrid creature of the vita of Daniel. In fact, an understanding of the portrayal of Nebuchadnezzar depends on both an awareness of exegetical possibilities and an appreciation of the skillful and imaginative use of a series of topoi derived from the ethical and political discourse of the Greco-Roman world

The Babylonian king is described as "stiff-necked" and "in love with pleasure"---qualities which liken men to oxen and assign them to the camp of Bellar. The problematic biblical phrase "Belial" ())J'~l) appears widely in Jewish sources of the Second Temple period, especially in the writings of

8 See the unequivocal judgment of Ginzberg, Legends (1909-1938) 6.423, n. 104 and the full discussion of rabbinic interpretation in Satran, Nebuchadnezzar Dethroned. In fact, it is the marked absence of early Jewish parallels to the narrative of the vita which has prompted an understandable, if totally unwarranted, inclination to regard the parallel narrative in the medieval Chronicle of Yerahmeel-Oxford Ms. 2797 (Heb. d. 11), 76r; Gaster (tr.), The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (1899) 205-206-as a reflection or vestige of an original and early Hebrew text .. The version of Yerahmeel is clearly a Hebrew translation of a Latin text virtually identical with that found in the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor (PL 198.1452). See above, pp. 14-16. The story preserved in the Chronicle of Yerahmeel is of a manifestly secondary nature, however, and provides valuable testimony only for the subsequent transmission of the vita of Daniel in the Latin West.

Tiffi VITA OF DANIEL 83

the Qumran sect and related texts, in order to denote an evil principality or even the Devil himself; the term continues to play an important role in early Christian literature.9 The idea that those who belong to Beliar are like an ox "under yoke" (im6,uyoc;) - or, perhaps, that "like an ox, they are under the yoke of Beliar" - may well be the result of an etymological conceit. The name Belial could be understood to mean "without yoke" (~1)1+'~:1), i.e. without restraints, unbound by law or convention.IO The present phrase, then, would denote those who are under yoke to the one who knows no yoke. The attribution to Nebuchadnezzar of the quality of "stiff­neckedness" (mcA.T)po'tp«XT)At«), a somewhat unlikely description in light of the term's biblical context, may well have been inspired by its close relation to this imagery. The description in its entirety may be, in fact, an exegetical inversion of Jeremiah 27:11 (LXX Jer 34: 11) where the nations are exhorted to bring their "neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon". As a result of his transgressions, the "stiff-necked" king of Babylon has now been brought under the yoke of Beliar.II

Furthermore, there is an ethical commonplace which underlies the mystery (~uc:rtf1pwv) of Nebuchadnezzar's bizarre transformation. The king had become like a "beast" due to the salient features of his character­inveterate "love of pleasure (qnAT)Oovia) and stiff-neckedness"- traits to which rulers are prone "in their youth" (ev vEmT)'tl); as a consequence of these shortcomings, Nebuchadnezzar was doomed to become ultimately a "wild animal" in all its ferocity. This motif finds expression in a broad range of Greco-Roman sources through the widespread imagery of the passions themselves as wild beasts.12 An interesting variation on this

9 The standard work on this figure is Van der Osten-Sacken, Gott und Belial (1969). For later usage, see Scopello, "Beliar, symbole de l'beresie" (1989).

10 See BT Sanhedrin 111 b. It is unnecessary to assume a Hebrew source for this word play, however, for the etymology had found a secure niche in early Christian onomastica; see Wutz, Onomastica Sacra (1915) 772; Stone (ed.), Signs of the Judgement (1981) 125, I. 113.

11 Compare the employment of this imagery in John Chrysostom, Hom. adv. Judaizantes 1.2 (PG 48.845-846) where the Jews are described as "stiff­necked" since they refuse to accept the "yoke" of Christ.

12 Note De opificio mundi 157-160 where Philo stresses the bestial, serpent-like quality of cplAT)liovia. For a thorough documentation of this motif in Hellenistic philosophical discourse, see Malherbe, "The Beasts at Ephesus" (1989) 82-86 and the references there. One of the most enduring expressions of this theme was the Neoplatonic interpretation of the transformation by Circe of Odysseus's men into swine (Od. 10.239-240), a piece of Homeric exegesis which first appears in the writings of Porphyry; see Buffiere, Les mythes d' Homere (1956) 500-520 and Lamberton, Homer the Theologian (1986) 115-119. It is interesting, ultimately, to observe the treatment of the Homeric theme in Boethius' the Consolation of Philosophy 4.3; ed.-tr. Stewart, Rand and Tester [LCL] 330-339. The early sixth century (Christian) philosopher provides

84 CHAPI'ER 1HREE

theme appears in the discourse on the seven "spirits of deceit" in the Testament of Reuben which culminates in the "spirit of procreation and sexual intercourse" through which

sin enters through love of pleasure (qnA.,Sovia). For this reason it is last (in the order) of creation and first (among the desires) of youth (1tprotov tile; ve6tTJtoc;), because it has been filled with ignorance; and it leads the young man like a blind man to a pit and like a beast (xtilvoc;) over a precipice.13

Very much as in our text, the "love of pleasure" is described as major failing of those in their youth, a failing which can lead to self-destruction after the manner of an ignorant beast. Equally apposite is the spiritualizing metamorphosis of this theme in a treatise of Maximus the Confessor (580-662). In his Four Centuries on Charity, after describing in glowing terms the state of the "mind" (vol>~) which adheres to God, Maxim us speaks of the falling away from the Divine presence:

But when it [the mind] departs from Him and goes over to material things, it becomes either like a domestic beast (XtTJVcOI)TJc;), in love with pleasure (qnA.~I)ovol), or like a wild animal (9TJpuo8TJc;), fighting over these things with men.1

Maximus is using language and imagery which had become commonplace in the Greek theological tradition.15

the summary statement of the ancient view of the bestial characteristics of human behavior. For a detailed analysis of the passage, as well as the underlying tradition, see O'Daly, The Poetry of Boethius (1991) 207-220.

13 Testament of Reuben 2:8-9. The translation here follows closely that of De Jonge in Sparks (ed.), The Apocryphal Old Testament (1984) 517. For broader discussion of the passage, see DeJonge, "Rachel's Virtuous Behavior" (1990) 304-307. It is noteworthy that there exist a number of further close parallels between the legend from the vita of Daniel and the Testament of Reuben (especially 1:6-10), as noted below. The question deserves careful examination, though I suspect that here too the Lives can be shown to have made secondary usage of earlier traditions; see above, pp. 61-62.

14 Kephalaia 2.52; PG 90.1001B. For Maximus' own pronounced interest in the figure of Nebuchadnezzar, see Blowers, Exegesis and Spiritual Pedagogy in Maximus the Confessor (1991) 188-189 and the references there.

15 See, for example, the passage from Justinian's Epistula ad Menam, generally ascribed to Origen, Peri Archon I, 8.4; ed. Koetschau [GCS 22] 104, Frg. 17b: "it [the soul] is rendered bestial (a1tolCtTJvouta t) by its folly and becomes savage (a1to9TJptoutat) by its wickedness." Crouzel, Theologie de I' image de Dieu chex Origene (1956) 197-206 and Cox, "Origen and the Bestial Soul" (1982) 115-140 explore this theme. For a broad survey of such imagery, with a particular emphasis on its role in Cappadocian theology, see Danielou, Platonisme et theologie mystique (1944) 79-89.

THE V!IA OF DANIEL 85

Finally, the trait of "love of pleasure" and the bestial quality of the soul both feature as prime attributes of the corrupt ruler within the context of Greco-Roman political theory. Plato and Aristotle had identified the unjust ruler as enslaved to pleasure (Tj5ovi)), and in his treatise "On Kingship," written nearly five centuries later, Dio Chrysostom offers a series of variations on this classical theme of the distinction between kingship and tyranny, characterizing the latter regime as one "in love with pleasure" (qnA.i)5ovo~). 16 Likewise, in his Republic (bks. 8-9) Plato discussed at length the feral nature of the tyrant, and in subsequent political thought the decline from a human to a bestial state becomes a central topos of the development of kingship and its eventual decline into tyranny .17 This theory and concomitant imagery received eloquent expression in Cicero's composition On the Comnwnwea/th:

Do you see, then, how a king developed into a tyrant and how a defect on the part of one man turned the state from a good form into a thoroughly bad one? ... For once the king has adopted a form of rule which is unjust and arbitrary, he becomes forthwith a tyrant, than whom no creature more foul, or loathsome, or detestable to gods or men can be imagined. Though he is formed in the image of man, the monstrous ferocity of his character surpasses that of the wildest of beasts.18

It would appear that the narrative from the vita of Daniel has employed a series of traditional motifs in a highly original fashion. Nebuchadnezzar's composite metamorphosis has become symbolic of both the nature and the progression of his moral decline: formerly a slave of pleasure, a dumb "beast"-his foreparts (Ej.11tpoo9ux) became like an ox; subsequently an agent of cruelty, a tyrant and "wild animal"-his hindparts (oxio9ux) became those of a lion.

The succeeding verses make abundantly clear, however, that the portrait of Nebuchadnezzar following his metamorphosis is not that of a proud tyrant. The king is said to eat grass like an ox, as in the biblical account (Dan 4:22, 29-30), and thereby regains his senses periodically; during those brief spans of lucidity he bemoans his bestial condition, while praying

16 Dio Chrysostom, Peri Basileias 3.40; ed. de Arnim (1893) 1.40. 17 See von Fritz, The Theory of Mixed Constitutions in Antiquity (1956)

60-76. 18 Cicero, De re publica 2.26; ed. Ziegler (1955) 67. The English

translation is from On the Commonwealth, tr. Smith and Sabine (n.d.) 178-179. Note too the remarkable disquisition on the cruelty of Nero in Flavius Philostratus, Vita Apollonii 4.38; ed.-tr. Conybeare [LCL] 1.436-439: "Moreover, in traversing more of the earth than any man yet has visited, I have seen hosts of Arabian and Indian wild beasts; but as to this wild beast (811piov), which the many call a tyrant, I know not either how many heads he has, nor whether he has crooked talons and jagged teeth."

86 CHAPI'ER 1HREE

fervently to the Lord. The emphasis on the reduction of the Babylonian ruler to a diet of grass is reminiscent of a biblical motif (Gen 3: 18) which receives notable amplification in the later Adam literature: the sin of Adam and Eve brings the denial of their former (heavenly) sustenance, and the two are compelled to eat the food of the beasts of the field. There, as in our passage, the change of diet is clearly an element of punishment within a penitential context.19 The author clearly has made every effort to emphasize the pain and distress which Nebuchadnezzar endures as the result of his bestial transformation. The recurrent emphasis on the weeping and prayers of the Babylonian king raises the larger question of the meaning and purpose of his punishment.

This portrayal of the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar exhibits two clear and central characteristics: a symbolic perception of the king's physical metamorphosis and a distinct emphasis on the repentant sorrow which it engenders. While aspects of this description can be found in nuce in earlier pagan and Jewish sources, the unique combination of these features emerges for the first time within a distinct, paraenetic stream of interpretation in fourth and fifth century Christian literature. Among both Greek and Latin exegetes of the book of Daniel we discern a marked attempt to see an inner, moral significance in the bizarre nature ofNebuchadnezzar's punishment and a repeated emphasis that the purpose of the king's bestial transformation was essentially beneficent. Paulinus of Nola (353/4-431) gives fine expression to this portrayal of the Babylonian ruler:

As a result, even in physical appearance he was changed into a beast, exiled not only from his kingdom but also from human feelings. He was likened to a lion by his dismal locks, to a vulture by his hooked claws, to an ox by his feelings and food; for since he had resembled many beasts in character, he was made to resemble more than one in his punishment. At length, however, Nebuchadnezzar came to a knowledge of God and was returned to both his senses and his kingdom. He too was made an exemplar of faith to us, so that we may fear to lose the kingdom within us by sinning and remember to seek it again by doing penance.20

No less striking is the role assigned Nebuchadnezzar by John Chrysostom (347-407) in an early treatise exhorting a fellow monk to penitence:

19 See the Life of Adam and Eve chs. 37-39 (=Apocalypse of Moses 10-12). In that literature one finds a closely related constellation of details: a beast (in certain versions, either "Satan" or "Behemoth") who attacks Seth and is sentenced to silence; Eve bewails their reduction to the food of beasts; and Adam takes on a forty-day period of penitence. On this range of motifs, see Anderson, ''The Penitence Narrative in the Life of Adam and Eve" (1992); Stone, A History of till! Literature of Adam and Eve (1992) surveys the evidence and its problems.

20 Epist. 23.19-20; ed. Hartel [CSEL 29] 177. My translation follows closely that of Walsh [ACW 35/36) 2.22-23.

1HE V!IA OF DANIEL 87

And yet even then God did not punish him, but was still long-suffering, counselling him both by means of a vision and by His prophet But when he was not improved in any way by any of these means, then God finally inflicted punishment (ttj.Hopia) upon him, not by way of avenging Himself on account of (his) former deeds, but as cutting short future evils and checking the advance of wickedness; yet even this He did not inflict permanently, but after chastising (1tatStuaac;) him for a few years He restored him once again to his former honor, having suffered no loss from his punishment, but rather having gained the greatest of all benefits - a firm hold upon faith in God and repentance on account of his former sins.21

The ultimate goal of this chastisement (xa.tBeia.), clearly, was to bring Nebuchadnezzar to a state of genuine sorrow and remorse.

The importance of this interpretative framework for an understanding of the legend from the vita of Daniel receives further support from the fresh consideration of a detail hitherto unappreciated. The opening sentence of the narrative relates that Daniel "prayed greatly on behalf ofNebuchadnezzar ... when he became a wild animal and a beast, in order that he might not perish (iva Jlll axoAT)'ta.t)". The intention of the author appears obvious, and we assume that when the Babylonian king underwent his metamorphosis, Daniel's prayerful intercession was necessary in order to save his very life. The sentence is clearly ambiguous, however, and it is the alternative, seemingly paradoxical, meaning which emerges against the background of contemporary exegesis. Thus, in his second Catechetical sermon (preached c. 350), Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, describes the divine response to the enormity of Nebuchadnezzar' s crimes:

You have seen the magnitude of his evil deeds - now attend to the loving­kindness of God. [Nebuchadnezzar] was turned into a wild beast, he dwelt il\. the wilderness, he was scourged in order that he might be saved. He had claws like a lion, for he was a plunderer of the Sanctuary. He had a lion's mane, for he was a ravaging, roaring lion. He ate grass like an ox, for he was a brute beast, not recognizing Him who had given him the kingdom. His body was drenched with dew, because, having seen the fire quenched by the dew (Thdt Dan 3:50), he did not believe.22

"He was scourged in order that he might be saved" -or, as Cyril is recorded in a variant tradition, "he was turned into a wild beast, not so that he might perish (oux 'iva. ax6A.T)-ra.t), but that by repentance he might be saved".23

The prayers of Daniel, crucial and efficacious as they proved to be, were but a second stage in the salvation of Nebuchadnezzar-first, the Babylonian

21 Ad Theodorum 1.6; ed. Dumortier [SC 117] 106. On the treatise and the identity of John's correspondent, see Carter, "Chrysostom 's Ad Theodorum Lapsum and the Early Chronology of Theodore of Mopsuestia" (1962) 87-101.

22 Catecheses 2, 18; Migne, PG 33.407A; ed. Reischel-Rupp, 1.60-62. 23 Catacheses 2, 18 (recensio altera); PG 33.421C.

88 CHAPI'ER 1HREE

ruler was turned into a wild animal and a beast precisely in order that he not perish! Only through such punishment could he be brought to the stage of repentance. The rich ambiguity pervading both the sermon by Cyril and the vita of Daniel derives directly from the principle of divine loving-kindness (qnA.av9po>7t{a) which underlies the patristic interpretation of the fourth chapter of Daniel. 24 This determination of the meaning and purpose of Nebuchadnezzar's punishment is confrrmed, in tum, by the subsequent description of the king's penitence.

In the wake of Nebuchadnezzar's transformation, Daniel initiates the central action of the narrative. Indeed, in contrast to the severely limited role assigned him in the biblical account, the "holy man" (o oaux;) of the vita remains in the foreground: unlike the many residents of Babylon who left the city in order to see the strange spectacle of their former ruler, Daniel displays no such curiosity but spends the time in prayer on behalf of Nebuchadnezzar. This intercessory activity engenders dramatic results­"Daniel caused the seven years, which he called 'seven seasons,' to become seven months."25 The following verses reveal the full measure of Daniel's intercession and the deeper significance of the change effected in Nebuchadnezzar's punishment. The Babylonian ruler was restored to a human state following a seven-month period of metamorphosis; the restoration to his kingship, however, was a matter of seven long years.26

The interim period of six years and five months was given over to a series of spiritual exercises: genuflection ( u 1t o1tt root c;), confession (E~Oj.lOAOYTlatc;), and dietary restriction. The final activity, in its closely detailed formulation, was expressly enjoined upon Nebuchadnezzar by

24 On the concept of divine philanthropia, see Zitnik, "9to~ qnMiv9pro1to~ bei Johannes Chrysostomos" (1975) 76-118.

25 The exegetical point of departure is obviously the repeated phrase "seven seasons" (MT l'l'T)I M)llVI; Thdt E1tta Katpo() in the text of the fourth chapter of Daniel; the author of our narrative is clearly aware of both the ambiguous nature of that phrase as well as its traditional interpretation as "seven years"---present already in the Old Greek of Daniel and then repeatedly in later authors, e.g. Josephus (Ant. X, 10.6 [216]) and Hippolytus (Comm. in Dan. III, 10; ed. Bonwetsch [GCS 1] 142). Note the curious interplay between identical periods of time in the Testament of Reuben 1:7-10; see above, n. 13.

26 The principal Epiphanian recension of the vita reads E1tta f.I.£CJtt11~ instead of E1tta f.I.TICJt, with the consequent understanding that Daniel (?)established seven "rulers" over Babylon during the period of the king's penance. This reading is clearly corrupt, as it destroys the logic of the reduction of Nebuchadnezzar's transformation, but provides interesting evidence of an exegetical approach to the problem of the government of Babylon during the king's prolonged absence. A representative of this recension was known to both Peter Comestor and Yerahmeel (see above, n. 8) as is proven by their parallel renderings: septem judices and D'IO.!IlVI M)llVI.

1HE VliA OF DANIEL 89

Daniel in order to aid the king to attain divine remission (a<pecrtc;) of his sins.

The appreciation of these verses demands a sensitivity to the actual procedure of penance in the early Byzantine period. Penitential doctrine, as it had developed by the middle of the fourth century, demanded a severe, and often prolonged, period of public discipline. 27 In fact, penitential documents of the fourth century itself testify to a growing tendency toward the mitigation of severe punishments provided, of course, that the sinner gave proof of sincere repentance. The rationale for this practice is given terse, eloquent expression by John Chrysostom: "repentance is judged not by quantity of time but by disposition of the soul."28 Within this penitential framework, there is obvious significance in Daniel's intercessory response to the tearful anguish of Nebuchadnezzar during the period of his bestial transformation. So too, the remaining six-year and five-month period assigned Nebuchadnezzar for the confession of his transgressions is specifically designated as a period of i;o11oA.6r'lmc;-this term signified the entire process of public penance in early Christian society .29 A recurrent feature of penitential behavior, as witnessed by both canonical sources and hagiographic literature, is the act of genuflection (imo7t'trocrtc;) or prostration.3° It is noteworthy, therefore, that during the period of his penitence Nebuchadnezzar habitually "fell down (imem't7t't£) before the Lord." Finally, the goal of this penitential activity, whose achievement prepares Nebuchadnezzar for the assumption of his throne, is the "remission ( a<pecrtc;) of sins" -a technical term for the conclusion of penance in the early Church. 31

The most intriguing information supplied by our narrative, though, is the detailed account of the dietary restrictions imposed upon the Babylonian

27 For an authoritative overview of the literature on penitential doctrine and practice during the fourth and fifth centuries, see Poschmann, Penance and the Anointing of the Sick (1964) 81-121 as well as the very suggestive treatment of the question in Ladner, The Idea of Reform (1959) 303-315.

28 Ad Theodorum I, 6; ed. Dumortier [SC 117] 108-110. Compare Augustine, Enchiridion 17, 65: "Non tam consideranda est mensura temporis quam doloris"-cited in Poschmann, Penance and the Anointing of the Sick (1964) 94. See too the "canonical epistle" (217, 74; PG 32.804A) of Basil of Caesarea which takes up this issue.

29 Rahner, Penance in the Early Church (1983) 125-151 passim. 30 For "genuflection" as one of the four "stations" of public penance, see

Gregory Thaumatourgos, Canonical Epistle; PG 10.1048. On this document, see Quasten, Patrology, 2.126-127. The same four-fold division is found in the canonical epistles of Basil of Caesarea; see Quasten, Patrology, 3.234-235.

31 Joyce, "Private Penance in the Early Church" (1941) 33, n. 2: "By acp£0l<; was signified the remission of guilt and punishment alike-the cancelling of the debt."

90 CHAPIER 1HREE

king by the Hebrew prophet.32 Daniel enjoins Nebuchadnezzar, during the period of his penance, to refrain from bread and meat and wine, restricting himself to soaked pulse and herbs. The injunction "neither to eat bread or meat nor to drink wine" reminds one immediately of Daniel's own state of mourning and fasting (Dan 10:3) which precedes his reception of an eschatological vision.33 Similarly, pulse (&rnpta), a common foodstuff of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world, is employed by the Old Greek version (Dan 1:12, 16) in order to describe the vital, if ambiguous, component of Daniel's self-imposed regimen.34 On a certain level, therefore, the description of the Babylonian king's dietary restriction involves the transfer to Nebuchadnezzar of motifs drawn from the biblical portrait of Daniel. This exegetical inversion casts a number of traditional elements into a totally new configuration, as they are incorporated within the fast of a penitent ruler rather than that of a righteous prophet.

The full significance of this transfer, however, depends on the smallest of details. The pulse which Daniel exhorts Nebuchadnezzar to make the staple of his penitential diet is specified as "soaked"-O<:rnpta ~pEK'ta. Derived from a common verb (~p£xro ), the adjective ~pEK'to~ is found not once in either Jewish-Hellenistic or early Christian sources.35 In Christian literature from the fourth century onward, though, the word proliferates suddenly with several noteworthy charncteristics:

• the adjective ~pEIC't~ occurs widely as a modifier of the noun o<:rnpta (pulse) or closely related terms, e.g. lentils, beans, chickpeas; • the appearance of the word ~pEK'ta alone to signify the phrase "soaked pulse"-indicating the widely accepted usage of that phrase; • the phrase "soaked pulse" (<Xrnpta ~pEK'ta), as well as its less frequent variants, is attested only within the context of monastic dietary practice.

Among the earliest occurrences of the phrase is in the early fifth century Historia Lausiaca of Palladius Monachus, one of our chief sources for the development of Egyptian monasticism. In a passage descriptive of the intense competition between early Christian "holy men," Palladius tells of Macarius of Alexandria:

32 For the following discussion, see also my earlier study, "Daniel: Seer, Philosopher, Holy Man" (1980) 39-43.

33 For early Jewish attitudes toward fasting, see Fraade, "Ascetical Aspects of Ancient Judaism" (1986) and the literature cited there; for Christian practices, see Arbesmann, "Fasting and Prophecy in Pagan and Christian Antiquity" (1949-51) and Musurillo, "The Problem of Ascetical Fasting in the Greek Patristic Writers" (1956).

34 The Old Greek uses oonpta to translate the Hebrew O,lV"'l/!~,V"'l; the Theodotionic version renders these onipJ.Lata.

35 The only reference for the word ~p£1Ct6~ in the classical lexica is to the Hippiatrica, a veterinarian corpus of Byzantine compilation.

TilE VlT A OF DANIEL 91

Such was his practice that whenever he heard of any discipline (aaJCrtcn~) he surpassed it exceedingly. Having heard from some that the Tabennesiotes [monks of the coenobium founded by Pachomius near Thebes] eat their food uncooked during the Lenten period, he decided during seven years to eat no food that had come in contact with fire, and he partook of nothing other than raw vegetables, if they could be found, and soaked pulse (oonpta ~p£Kta).36

Just so, Mark the Deacon (fifth century) tells of the novice Salaphtha, whose ascetic regimen during the Lenten period excluded even bread and salt, allowing only soaked pulse (ocrnpux ~pEK'ta) and raw vegetablesY Similar descriptions are to be found in the Historia Religiosa of Theodoret of Cyr, the history of Palestinian Christianity by Cyril of Scythopolis, and John Moschus' Pratum Spirituale.38 On the basis of these passages, whose common concerns and contexts are so clearly defmed, A.-J. Festugiere has concluded that soaked pulse (omtpux ~PEK'ta) "constituant la nourriture ordinaire des moines, surtout pendant la Car~me."39

The detailed description of Nebuchadnezzar' s penitence, therefore, allows us to delineate still more closely the provenance of our narrative. An overwhelming interest in the Babylonian ruler as a model of repentance has been complemented by the precise knowledge of a dietary regimen whose roots lie in the realm of monastic askesis. Intersecting lines of evidence, exegetical and philological, enable us to speak confidently of the narrative as a fourth- or fifth century composition, representative of certain aspects of early Byzantine piety. A closer demarcation of a political and social context can be sought through consideration of the figures of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel.

EXEMPLARS OF EARLY BVZANTINE SOCIETY

From the beginnings of the Byzantine age, the image of the penitent ruler played a unique role in the thought-world of Christianity. First and foremost is the figure of Constantine himself: within a century after his

36 Historia Lausiaca 18; Butler (ed.), Lausiac History 1.48; tr. Meyer [ACW 34}58.

7 Vita Porphyrii Gazensis 102; Gregoire and Kugener (eds.), Vie de Porf"yre (1930) 78-79.

3 Theodoret, Historia Religiosa 15.1 (Acepsimas), 18.1 (Eusebius of Asikha), 21.12 (James of Cyrrhestica), 24.5 (Damian, Polychronius), 30.2 (Domnina); ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 234, 257]. Cyril of Scythopolis: ed. Schwartz [TU 49.2] 234. Joannes Moschus: Pratum Spirituale 107, 163, 179; PG 87.2968A, 3029C, 3049B.

39 Festugiere, Les Moines d'Orient (1961-65) 1.44, n. 11. None of the editors of the patristic sources cited above notes the occurrence of the phrase in the vita of Daniel.

92 CHAPTER THREE

death, the first Christian emperor had become the subject of a full-scale legend of affliction, penance, and conversion-the Actus Sy/vestri.40 No less important, however, in the molding of this image were scriptural exemplars. One thinks first, perhaps, of David-rebuked by the prophet Nathan, punished by God-and the fascination he exerted on homilists and exegetes of the fourth and fifth centuries.41 A vivid description of David in his most debased state of penitence is offered by Salvian of Marseilles:

The guilty one acknowledged his sin; he was humbled, filled with remorse, confessed, and wept; he repented and asked for pardon; he gave up his royal jewels, laid aside his robes of cloth of gold, put aside the purple, and resigned the crown; he was changed in body and in appearance; he cast aside all his kingship with its ornaments; he put on the externals of a fugitive penitent, so that his squalor was his defense; he was wasted by fasting, dried up by thirst, worn from weeping, and imprisoned in his own solitude.42

David was not the only biblical figure who served as a model of penance­Ahab, Manasseh, and Hezekiah come immediately to mind. Underlying these varied and diverse traditions is a common concern with the often uneasy relationship between those invested with political and ecclesiastical authority.43 This tension (and its ideal resolution) were made tangible in the image of the errant king who repents of his transgression and submits to some form of spiritual discipline.

Though a somewhat unlikely candidate, Nebuchadnezzar too entered the ranks of penitential models. This involved a distinct and rather sharp departure from a traditional perception (both Jewish and Christian) of the Babylonian ruler as an uncompromising and arrogant tyrant. The new

4° For the text of the Actus Sylvestri see Mombritius, Sanctuarium sive Vitae sanctorum (1910) 2.508-531. The fundamental study of this vexed document remains Levison, "Konstantinische Schenkung und Silvester­Legende" (1924) 159-247. See also Ehrhardt, "Constantine, Rome, and the Rabbis" (1959/60); Loenertz, "Actus Sylvestri: genese d'une legende" (1975); Linder, "Ecclesia and Synagoga in the Medieval Myth of Constantine the Great" (1976); van Esbroeck, "Legends about Constantine in Armenian" (1982).

41 There has not been, surprisingly, a detailed investigation of David as a penitential figure in the early Church. Huttar, "Frail Grass and Firm Tree" (1980) provides an interesting glimpse at the later tradition.

42 De Gubernatione Dei IT, 19; ed. Lagarrigue [SC 220] 174. 43 Greenslade, Church and State from Constantine to Theodosius (1954)

offers a concise treatment of the tension between the holders of ecclesiastical and political authority; see too Setton, Christian Attitudes towards the Emperor in the Fourth Century (1941). Heim, "Les figures du prince ideal au IVe siecle: du type au modele" (1989) surveys the role played by biblical models in the literature of this conflict.

1HE Vll'A OF DANIEL 93

understanding of the figure of Nebuchadnezzar came in the wake of the Christianization of the Empire.

Truly, if past events recorded in the prophetic books were figures of the future, there was given under King Nebuchadnezzar a figure both of the time which the Church had under the apostles, and of that which she has now .... The earlier time of that king represented the former age of emperors who did not believe in Christ, at whose hands the Christians suffered because of the wicked; but the latter time of that king represented the age of the successors to the imperial throne, now believing in Christ, at whose hands the wicked suffer because of the Christians.44

The political and ecclesiastical revolution demanded corresponding changes in the interpretation of Scripture: a nearly exclusive concern with the cruelty and wickedness of the Babylonian ruler gave way to a new sensitivity towards his repentance and conversion. As noted in the previous section, the exegesis of the fourth chapter of Daniel played a crucial role in this development. The narrative ofNebuchadnezzar's bestial transformation and his subsequent restoration to the throne of Babylon provided the basis for his inclusion among that select group of royal figures who transgressed, did penance, and were enabled to regain their former glory and grace.

This awareness of the potential significance of the biblical tale within a newly emerging political and ecclesiastical context receives telling confirmation from the classic account of the origins of Christian Armenia. Presented as an eye-witness testimony of the conversion of the king Tiridates in the early part of the fourth century, the History of the Armenians by "Agathangelos" represents, in fact, a highly stylized (and anachronizing) recitation of the Christianization of the Armenian Empire. A considerable portion of the History, composed ca. 460, is devoted to the· embellishment of the figure of Gregory "the Illuminator," the first Armenian catho/icos.45 Of direct interest for our investigation is the description of the affliction of Tiridates, following the martyrdom of a group of nuns:

But when the king, having mounted his chariot, was about to leave the city, then suddenly there fell on him punishment from the Lord. An impure demon struck the king and knocked him down from his chariot. Then he began to rave and to eat his own flesh. And in the likeness of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he lost his human nature for the likeness of wild pigs and went about like them and dwelt among them. Then

44 Augustine, Epist. 93, 3.9; ed. Goldbacher [CSEL 34] 453-454. The translation is that of Cunningham [NPNF I, 1] 385.

45 For the dating and description of the work, see Thomson (tr.), Agathangelos. History of the Armenians (1976), esp. lxxv-xciii, and van Esbroeck, "Agathangelos" (1985).

94 CHAPI'ER 1HREE

entering a reedy place, in senseless abandon he pastured on grass, and wallowed naked in the plain.46

The description is later enhanced in a manner both vivid and familiar:

For his whole body had become hairy, and on his limbs bristles had grown like those of great wild boars. And the nails of his hands and feet had hardened like the claws of beasts that dig the earth or eat roots. Similarly the appearance of his face had turned into the likeness of the hard snout of an animal living among reeds. Because of the beast-like nature of his way of life he had fallen from the honor of his throne, and he roamed about in the likeness of pasturing beasts among the animals in the reeds, lost to the society of men.47

Gregory, earlier punished cruelly by Tiridates and presumed to be dead, returns miraculously at the behest of the king's family and the princes. After delivering a long doctrinal exhortation and attending to the burial of the martyred nuns, Gregory sets himself to the restoration of the king, who had already shown himself to be of a repentant spirit. When all are gathered together in the newly built chapel, the "blessed Gregory with fervent prayers and supplications tearfully implored healing for the king."48

Tiridates is returned to his original human form and sets off on a campaign, together with Gregory, in order to uproot idolatry and paganism throughout the kingdom; the royal family leads the rest of the nation in accepting baptism at the hands of the newly-consecrated Saint.

The central role of Gregory the Illuminator in the History of the Armenians, reminds us that Agathangelos is deeply interested in tracing the emergence of a pious Christian ruler under the tutelage of a fmn patriarch.49

One thinks of the legendary relationship between Sylvester and Constantine as well as the recurrent confrontations between Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and the Emperor Theodosius I (379-395)--altercations which are clearly reflected in Ambrose's lavish treatment of the relationship between the prophet Nathan and King David. 5° The narrative in the vita of Daniel shares these concerns. The prophet at no point disappears from the narrative but

46 History of the Armenians 212; tr. Thomson (1976) 217. For the parallel text in the daughter versions of the History, see Garitte, Documents pour I' etude du livre d'Agathange (1946) 48.

47 History of the Armenians 727; tr. Thomson (1976) 269. On the metamorphosis of Tiridates into a pig (or boar) see Garsoi'an, "The Iranian Substratum of the • Agat'angelos' Cycle" (1982).

48 History of the Armenians 773; tr. Thomson (1976) 311. 49 Thomson (tr.), Agathangelos. History of the Armenians (1976) xc-xciii. 50 On the relationship between Ambrose and Theodosius, and its exegetical

reflection, see the introductory comments of Hadot to his edition of Ambroise de Milan, Apologie de David [SC 239] 33-43. See now the evocative remarks in Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (1992) 109-111.

THE V!JA OF DANIEL 95

actively accompanies the king during his transformation and penitence­praying, interceding, exhorting. The Babylonian ruler emerges in our narrative as a reformed and righteous Emperor. 51 This new configuration of the relationship between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar reflects a crucial facet of the tension between ecclesiastical and political authority which characterized Byzantine society.

It would be mistaken, however, to attempt to identify Daniel too closely with either Sylvester, Gregory the Illuminator, or Ambrose of Milan; he is neither pope nor patriarch nor bishop in his dealings with Nebuchadnezzar. Rather, the Hebrew prophet has been refashioned after the model of a central figure in early Byzantine society: the Holy Man. 52 There are a number of characteristic movements in the narrative which testify to this new presence. The repeated assertion that Daniel knew (through a divine medium) both the cause and the nature of Nebuchadnezzar's bestial state is immediately followed by his intensive prayer on behalf of the Babylonian king. By effecting Nebuchadnezzar's release from that condition-a cure which the great throng of onlookers characteristically did not believe possible-Daniel reveals his position as a healer. Indeed, the restoration of the Babylonian ruler is no less than "the reintegration into the community of the individual human being through the assertion against the demonic of the abiding resilience of his human nature."53 This act of physical rehabilitation is followed by an equally intense stage of spiritual recovery. Among the markedly penitential aspects of the narrative discussed earlier were two distinctive features of early Byzantine practice: first, the growing tendency toward relaxation of unduly harsh features of the system of public penance and, second, the imposition of a monastic regimen. This dual emphasis helps us to understand the relationship between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar not as one bound by the strictures of ecclesiastical penance but within the context of the "therapeutic direction of souls".54 The repentant sinner places himself under the guidance of a respected figure who then directs, with a considerable measure of autonomy, the spiritual discipline of his charge. The holy man has been said to wield "the harsh surgery of the ascetic a1to'ta.~t<;"55_interestingly, Daniel's imposition of a

51 On the ideal model of the Christian Emperor, see Chesnut, The First Christian Histories (1977) 223-242 and Thelamon, "L'empereur ideal d'apres I'Histoire Ecclesiastique de Rufin d'Aquilee" (1970).

52 See below, pp. 100-105. 53 Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 111. 54 The phrase is found in Poschmann, Penance and the Anointing of the

Sick (1964) 116-121. The classic study of the phenomenon remains Holl, Enthusiasmus und Bussgewa/t (1898); see too Dorries, "The Place of Confession in Ancient Monasticism" (1982).

55 Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man" (1971) 98.

96 CHAPI'ER 1HREE

severe dietary restriction is designated a 1tp6ota~l<;. It should be remembered that Daniel does not accost Nebuchadnezzar, as a bishop or patriarch might confront a recalcitrant Emperor, but is summoned at a moment of severe crisis-as an intercessor, a healer, a confessor. His attitude toward the penitent ruler, characteristic of the holy man of Late Antiquity, remains an ambiguous mixture of concerned intimacy and professional detachment. 56

* * * The narrative from the vita of Daniel provides a vivid and detailed development of Daniel 4 which can be situated within a distinct exegetical, cultural, and political context. The fascination with the symbolic nature of Nebuchadnezzar's punishment and emphasis on the providential character of his chastisement establish the text firmly within the framework of fourth century Christian interpretation. The account of Nebuchadnezzar's penitential behavior and the unique role assigned Daniel lend a monastic coloring to the narrative. While it is likely that traditions (whether oral or written) of early Jewish origin underlies the narrative of the vita of Daniel, it is no less certain that the legend before us represents a thoroughly altered, indubitably Christian stage of development. The biblical chapter has been transformed into a fine expression of early Byzantine piety. No other passage from the Lives so effectively alerts us to the need to read the document within its proper historical and religious setting or so clearly demonstrates the elusiveness and subtlety of its Christian elements.

56 On the holy man's detachment and his status as "the professional in a world of amateurs", see Brown, ibid., 91-93, 97. It is interesting, therefore, to note Daniel's determined refusal at the close of the narrative, when confronted with the possibility of political power. Nebuchadnezzar's desire to make the Hebrew prophet a joint-heir (auyKA.llp6vof.Loc;) with his own children receives a sharp reply from Daniel: "Far be it from me to forsake the inheritance of my fathers and to cleave to the inheritance of the uncircumcised." This clearly extra­biblical conclusion to the legend would appear to have its origins in an exegetical attempt to explain the confusion between the Babylonian name given Daniel (Dan 1:7; 4:8) and that of Nebuchadnezzar's crown prince (Dan 5:1)--a confusion which could only arise for a reader of the book of Daniel in Greek! This has been noted in Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 390, n. 4j.

CHAPTER IUUR

CONTEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

The analysis of the Lives of the Prophets in the preceding chapters-with their emphasis on the text's highly variegated subject matter, multiform structure, and complex process of composition-has been preparatory, in some sense, to the task of reading the work as an integral document. It is hoped that whatever convictions the reader may still harbor regarding the possible sources and antiquity of the traditions contained in the text, there is a general willingness to address the document as a product of the early Byzantine age. The intense desire on the part of many scholars to read the constituent vitae as authentic records of early Judaism must give way to a readiness to confront the work as a whole within its established Christian context of transmission and influence.

Approaching the text in this manner, one encounters a series of overarching questions thus far largely ignored in modem scholarship. Does the composition have a distinct religious· and cultural identity? What significance might the work have held for the community in which it was transmitted (if not actually created)? The preeminent characteristics of the Lives of the Prophets-the account of the wondrous deeds which the prophets performed and the description of the manner of their deaths and · location of their grave~mand to be placed within a broader religious and cultural framework. Closely related to the questions of meaning and audience is that of genre: what is the overall form of the work and what expectations did such a document arouse-and presumably satisfy-for its readers? Possible answers to these questions are suggested by recent research on the "localization" of holiness in Late Antiquity.

PROPHETS AND HOLY MFN

An attempt to understand the Lives in a fitting historical context must coincide with an assessment of the work's literary, social, and religious identity: questions of genre and significance. The customary answers surveyed above-a guide to sacred tombs at the time of Jesus; an early Jewish martyrology-have been determined less by the evidence of the text as transmitted than by regnant hypotheses concerning the text's presumed point of origin. These approaches err not only by reading inaccurately but

98 CHAP1ER FOUR

by seeing too little of the Lives and thereby focusing on but a single facet of the composition. It has been noted too rarely, for example, that not only in matters of detail but in overall design and structure the Lives is a highly idiosyncratic composition. The danger lies in a misrepresentation of the basic nature and intent of the work.

Let us begin with the unique quality of the Lives as a collection of succinct, self-contained portraits of biblical figures: the multifaceted literatures of early Judaism and Christianity offer nothing even remotely proximate. Extant Jewish writings of the Second Temple period-whether in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic-provide virtually no evidence for a genre of compressed, anecdotal biography. Likewise, there is little correspondence between the vita of any of the prophets, even the most fully developed, and the technique or outlook of "sacred biography" as practiced by Philo, the authors of the gospels, or later generations of Christian and pagan competitors.•

Closest, perhaps, to the Lives in its concern with an assembly of individual figures from the scriptural account is Ben Sira 44-49, the "Praise of the Fathers." The seeming resemblance, however, simply betrays the enormous divide between the two works. The chapters in Ben Sira are given over to a characterization of biblical worthies with a dual purpose which is both carefully designed and clearly executed: the historical recitation of the biblical account and the celebration of its heroes as exemplary figures drawn from that history.2 This dual concentration is equally apparent in the far more concise yet focused uses of scriptural models in inspirational speeches from the period of the Hasmonean revolt-"Remember the deeds of the fathers which they did in their generations ... ".3 This strong tendency toward the treatment of individual figures strictly within the framework of an historical narrative or schema is still more pronounced in works of a chronological character such as Eupolemus (frg. 2) and the rabbinic treatise Seder Olam.4 In these varied examples, drawn from widely differing expressions of Judaism during the Greco-Roman period, we are witness to a

For this specific genre within the larger context of ancient biography, see Cox, Biography in Late Antiquity (1983) 3-65.

2 The literature is enormous: see Mack, Wisdom and the Hebrew Epic (1985) and the brief, perceptive remarks in Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (1974) 136.

3 1 Maccabees 2:51-60; 4 Maccabees 18:11-13. This paraenetic use of a "succession" of prominent biblical characters is then taken up in a great variety of early Christian literary and homiletic contexts, initiated by Hebrews 11.

4 Milikowsky, "Seder 'Olam and Jewish Chronography" (1982). Note the similar manner in which such distinct documents as Ben Sira (47-49) and Seder Olam (ch. 20) both treat individual prophets through the careful coordination of their deeds with those of the kings of Israel and Judah, i.e. political history.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 99

blending of the principles of biblical historiography with those of the Hellenistic literature of doxography and diadoche, whether a succession of poets, philosophers, or politicians. 5

The text before us is quite distinct in both form and character. While containing certain narrative elements, the intensely self-contained nature of the individual vitae clearly distances the Lives from any form of historical or chronographic composition. Likewise, the work makes no attempt to establish (nor even exhibits an interest in) the history or succession of the prophets. There is no recension or version of the text which presents the vitae in anything resembling a chronological sequence. There is, consequently, little or no sense of either interdependence or historical relationship among the prophets themselves. Finally, unlike the encomium of Ben Sira, only with great difficulty can an overall design or series of motifs be discerned. As became apparent in earlier discussion, the composition coheres largely through the presence of common structural elements or units of material, which themselves appear in a variety of formal arrangements.

Far closer to the nature of the Lives-and certainly coherent with the work's established context of transmission (as well as redaction)-are the early fifth century collections of the lives of the monks of Egypt and of Syria. The preeminent representatives of this new flowering of monastic literature are the anonymous History of the Monks of Egypt, the Lausiac History of Palladius, and the Religious History (of the Monks of Syria) by Theodoret of Cyr.6 These works share a common design which has been described as a

free-ranging style of cameo portraits, the most informal of hagiographical genres .... This genre took the form of collections of stories, which might or might not be concerned with a biographical approach; a single incident would often suffice for the author's purpose.7

This departure from established structures for either biographical or historical narrative would appear to have been evident to the authors themselves. Thus Theodoret in the prologue to his work:

5 The outstanding example of the genre in early Christian literature is Jerome's De viris illustribus; see Kelly, Jerome (1975) 174-178 and Barnes, Tertullian (19852) 3-12; for the classical antecedents, see: Momigliano, The Development of Greek Biography (1971) 65-100; Mejer, Diogenes Laertius (1978) 60-101; Geiger, Cornelius Nepos (1985) 30-32.

6 Young, From Nicea to Chalcedon (1983) 38-56 provides an excellent introduction to this literature.

7 Harvey, Asceticism and Society in Crisis (1990) 34-35.

100 CHAPTER FOUR

We shall not write a single eulogy for all together, for different graces were given them by God .... Since, therefore, they have received different gifts, we shall rightly compose the narrative of each one differently. We shall not work through the whole course of their actions, since a whole life would not be enough for such writing. Instead, we shall narrate a selection from the life and actions of each and display through this selection the character of the whole life, and then proceed to another .... The account will proceed in narrative form, not following the rules of panegyric but forming a plain tale of some few facts. 8

The accounts of Palladius and Theodoret, while clearly distinct from one another in varied aspects of literary style and religious outlook, display a shared willingness to write "anecdotal" hagiography. Their respective works feature monastic portraits of widely varying lengths and emphases. It is extremely difficult, in both cases, to speak of either an organizing principle or a single theme which unites their collections as integral compositions.

In analogous fashion, then, the Lives could be perceived as an attempt to present the reader with a loosely constructed collection of vitae of the "holy men" of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, one might argue that the subsequent transmission and usage of the work in both the Eastern and Western churches recommends this understanding of the Lives as a form of hagiography. It is incumbent upon us, however, both to define further and to qualify this classification.

There is no need to argue the importance of the holy man-pagan, Jewish or Christian-in late Roman and early Byzantine society. The multifaceted role (intercessor, healer, miracle-worker, spiritual guide) which he played in a wide variety of social and geographic contexts has been the subject of intensely rewarding investigation for more than two decades. His ubiquitous presence has justly been described as "the leitmotiv of the religious revolution of Late Antiquity ,"9 Yet the potency of this new

8 Historia Religiosa prologue 8-9; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 234, 257] 1.138-140; trans. by Price in Theodoret of Cyr. A History of the Monks of Syria (1985) 7. For the interplay of praxeis and ethos in classical biography, see Cox, Biography in Late Antiquity (1983) 8-9, 12-13.

9 Thus, Peter Brown in his seminal study: "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity" (1971); reprinted, with significant additions, in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (1982) 103-152. For refinements and further nuances, see idem, "The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity" (1983); Drijvers, "The Saint as Symbol" (1990); Cameron, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire (1991) esp. 112-116, 208-212. Note too the following collections: von Lilienfeld (ed.), Aspekte friihchristlicher Heiligenverehrung (.1977) and Hackel (ed.), The Byzantine Saint (1981). On the Christian saint's pagan counterpart, see Brown, "The Philosopher and Society in Late Antiquity" (1978) and Fowden, "The Pagan Holy Man in Late Antique Society" (1982). For a comparative survey of the pagan, Jewish, and Christian evidence, see Kirschner, "The Vocation of Holiness in Late Antiquity" (1984).

CON'IEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 101

individual can be measured not only in tenns of his function and influence within contemporary society: equally telling is the pervasive effect which his model of behavior exerted on the portrayal of revered figures of the past-patriarchs, philosophers, and apostles. The Lives provides impressive evidence for this reconfiguration of the image of the biblical prophet. Close attention was given in the preceding chapter to the transition of the figure of Daniel from the seer of the scriptural narrative to the spiritual advisor and intercessor of the vita. The outcome is nothing less than the emergence of the prophet as holy man.

Less detailed though no less dramatic is the metamorphosis of the figure of Habakkuk. Devoid of virtually all characterization in the Bible, the prophet is portrayed as the somewhat unwilling, certainly unwitting, ally of Daniel in a legend from the Second Temple period:

Now the prophet Habakkuk was in Judea. He had made a stew and had broken bread into a bowl, and was going into the field to take it to the reapers. But the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, "Take the food that you have to Babylon, to Daniel, in the lions' den." Habakkuk said, "Sir, I have never seen Babylon, and I know nothing about the den." Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown of his head and carried him by his hair; with the speed of the wind he set him down in Babylon, right over the den. Then Habakkuk shouted, "Daniel, Daniel! Take the food that God has sent you." Daniel said, "You have remembered me, 0 God, and have not forsaken those who love you." So Daniel got up and ate. And the angel of God immediately returned Habakkuk to his own place. (Bel and the Dragon 33-39)

The most salient aspects of this early Jewish tale are the prominent role reserved for angelic agency-charging the prophet with his mission and physically transporting him to and fro-and Habakkuk's own lack of enthusiasm or initiative: "I have never seen Babylon, and I know nothing about the den." The prophet is portrayed as little more than a reluctant instrument, an empty vessel, for the implementation of a divine scheme. Though characteristically brief, the account in the vita of Habakkuk gives eloquent witness to a very different perception:

[Habakkuk] dwelt in his own land and ministered to the reapers of his field. As he took up the food, he prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to a distant land and will return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the reapers." And after he had been in Babylon and had given the meal to Daniel, he stood beside the reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of what had happened. And he understood that the people would return yet more swiftly from Babylon.

Here we observe Habakkuk fully aware of his condition, completely in control of his actions, and self-consciously dissociated from those about

102 CHAPIER FOUR

him. In the fashion of the late Roman holy man, Habakkuk of the vita "kept his identity futact. "10

Much the same emphasis can be discerned in the portraits of the three major prophets in the Lives. They work wonders on behalf of the faithful, their "clientele", not as mere instruments possessed by the divine spirit, but as self-possessed arbiters, mediators who attempt to span the gap between God and his creatures.l1 Paradigmatic in this regard is Isaiah's prayerful intercession on behalf of the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem:

And God made the sign of the Siloam (Shiloah) for the prophet since, when he was faint before his death, he prayed for water to drink and straightway it was sent to him from there; thus, it was called Siloam (Shiloah), which means sent. And in the time of Hezekiah, before he made the cisterns and the pools, through the prayer of Isaiah a little water came out in order that the city not perish for lack of water, for the people were held in siege by foreigners. The enemies asked: "Where are they drinking from?" And they encamped by the Shiloah while holding the city (under siege). If the Jews came, the water came out; if the foreigners came, it did not. Therefore, to this day (the water) comes out suddenly in order that the mystery might be exhibited.

This is precisely the style of wonder-working characteristic of the holy man of Late Antiquity. Thus, John Moschus (550-619) tells of his visit to the monastery founded two centuries earlier by Theodosius in Cilicia:

The fathers of this monastery led us to an arrow's distance above the monastery. And when they showed us (the spot) they said: This spring, both very beautiful and strong, we have from God; and they added: It is not at all natural but rather given us by God. For many times our holy and great father Theodosius fasted and shed tears with many genuflexions in order that God might grant us the enjoyment of this water; since at first our fathers took their fill from the conduit. But God, who always does the will of those who fear him, granted us the blessing of the water through the prayers of our father.l2

10 Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity" (1971) 93. Brown makes reference there (n. 163) to a story related by Theodoret of Cyr concerning Salamanes, a hermit who is transported bodily from one side of a river to another and back again without uttering a word: Historia Religiosa 19.3; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 257] 2.60-62; trans. Price (1985) 129-130. The legend is, in fact, startlingly similar in both motif and emphasis to that in the vita of Habakkuk.

11 For carefully delineated portraits of this role, see Flusin, Miracle et histoire dans l'auvre de Cyrille de Scythopolis (1983) 155-214; Van Dam, "Hagiography and history: The life of Gregory Thaumaturgus" (1982); Mitchell, Anatolia (1993) 2.122-150 (Theodore of Sykeon).

12 Moschus, Pratum Spirituale 80; PG 87.2937C-D. See the note in Price (tr.), Theodoret. A History of the Monks of Syria (1985) 93, n. 5.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 103

It is not only the fonnal aspect of intercessory prayer (and its efficacy) by which Isaiah is likened to the holy men of early Byzantine society, but the very posture of the prophet in his appeal for divine aid. This can be exemplified by a curiously parallel report in the Life of Chariton:

... Chariton became physically feeble on account of his great age, as well as owing to his extreme asceticism, so that he was unable to fetch by himself the water for his own needs. Wishing to avoid troubling one of the brethren on this account, he prayed to God, and immediately, from a corner of the cave, a limpid, cool stream was made to spring forth, and it flows to this very day. 0 what freedom of speech had this man before God! 0 what friendly care the God of the universe had for him! 13

Readers of the Lives must have found the piety and concerns of the prophets to be both familiar and reassuring.

There is surely nothing surprising about the willingness of an early Byzantine audience to accept, even embrace, a prophet of the Bible as the possessor of the customary attitudes and behavior of a contemporary holy man. Yet there is an additional reason why these two forms of sacred existence should have been so deeply and successfully assimilated: the forces of influence and modelling always had been reciprocal. From his very inception, both historical and literary, the Byzantine saint had been portrayed as a true successor to the heroes of Scripture. Let us resume the above-cited passage from the Life of Chariton:

0 what freedom of speech had this man before God! 0 what friendly care the God of the universe had for him! Truly well the divine David says: "The Lord fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them." This is no lesser a miracle than those accomplished by Moses,, Samson, and Elisha, of whom the first struck a rock and water came out of it, as the story goes (Ex 17:6), the second caused water to spring out of a jawbone in answer to his prayer (Judg 15:18-19), and the third made the waters of Jericho, which were bitter and wholly undrinkable, sweet and pleasant and conducive to fertility (2Kgs 2:19-22).

This close identification of contemporary spiritual figures with biblical predecessors is, of course, neither isolated nor unusual. The prophets and apostles of the early Church had long been associated with exemplary figures drawn from the pages of H~!;>!_ew Scripture.14 Among the most fascinating examples of this biblical consciousness which characterized entire sectors of early Christian society was the decision of groups of

13 Life of Chariton 24; trans. by di Segni in Wimbush (ed.), Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Ronum Antiquity (1990) 411.

14 See the brief discussion of this phenomenon in the Introduction. There is no comprehensive study of the cultural and literary processes behind this modelling and fashioning of character.

104 CHAPIER FOUR

martyrs at the time of the Great Persecution (303-311) to abandon their given names and take on the identities of the prophets: Eusebius reports how five Egyptians, when called before the governor in Caesarea, answered to the names of Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel, Daniel.15 Here, as in many other respects, the transition from martyr to monk was surprisingly fluid; later Christians of ascetic impulse continued to look to the prophets (and martyrs) in their most personal attempts at self-definition. It was an identification which often was felt most poignantly at the time of death: "Collecting from all sources many prophets, many apostles, and as many martyrs as possible, [James of Cyrrhestica] placed them in a single coffin, in his wish to dwell with the assembly of the saints, and his desire to share with them both the resurrection and Ute privilege of the vision of God."16

Indeed, the authors of the formative works of monastic hagiography understood that the spiritual proximity of their subjects to the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles lay at the very foundation of their enterprise. Thus Theodoret of Cyr:

... he who will disbelieve what we are about to tell does not believe either in the truth of what took place through Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and considers a myth the working of miracles that took place through the sacred Apostles. But if truth bears witness on behalf of those men, let him believe these stories also to be free of falsehood, for the grace that worked in those men is the same that through these men performed what it has performed.17

And the anonymous author of the History of the Monks of Egypt:

Why should we speak at length about their faith in Christ, seeing that it can even move mountains? For many of them have stopped the flow of rivers and crossed the Nile dry-shod. They have slain wild beasts. They have performed cures, miracles and acts of power like those which the holy prophets and apostles worked. The Saviour performs miracles through them in the same way. Indeed, it is clear to all who dwell there that through them

15 Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine 11.8; ed. Cureton (1861) 40; Comm. in Esaiam 44:5; PG 24.401-404. See the discussion in Baer, "Israel, the Christian Church, and the Roman Empire" (1961) 129-130, n. 133.

16 Historia Religiosa 21.30; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 257] 2.116; trans. Price (1985) 145.

17 Historia Religiosa prologue 10; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 234] 1.140-142; trans. Price (1985) 8. Note Theodoret's presentation of a miracle of Symeon the Elder: "I shall mention just one, offering it as an image of the way he worked miracles like the Apostles and Prophets." (HR, 6.5); likewise, his comparison of the spectacle offered by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel with that afforded by Symeon Stylites (HR, 26. 12). On the centrality of Scripture in the early monastic movement and its literature, see now Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert (1993).

CONlEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 105

the world is kept in being, and that through them too human life is preseJVed and honored by God.18

The linking of the holy men of early Byzantine society with a wide spectrum of scriptural exemplars was a crucial aspect of this genre of exposition; it established, at once, the essential verisimilitude and reliability of the extraordinary accounts to be narrated as well the authentic nature and continuity of the spiritual gifts which had been revealed. In describing "the way of life of the holy and great fathers", the hagiographer was at pains to "show that even in these times the Saviour performs through them what he performed through the prophets and the apostles, for the same Lord now and always works all things in all men."19 This desire to forge a spiritual link between the contemporary holy man and biblical prophet found its perfect complement in the understanding, as expressed in the Lives, of the prophets themselves as precursors of the Byzantine saint.

SCRIPTURAL GEOORAPHY

Yet we must not allow ourselves to neglect one of the most striking characteristics of the composition. If the Lives as a collection bears some relationship to a hagiographical genre which emerges in the beginning of the fifth century, nevertheless, the individual vitae of the prophets share a single, peculiar emphasis: the flavor of geographical exactitude. This topographic dimension of the Lives is neither accidental nor secondary; it provides a fixed element of content throughout the entire work and serves as a recurrent framework of the individual vitae.

This plenitude of place names and tribal affiliations, as surveyed in chapter two, cannot easily be explained or paralleled in light of Jewistr literature from the Second Temple and rabbinic periods. There is no single composition, or even portion of a larger work, that can be argued to resemble the Lives in this central respect. Here, too, it can be shown that serious consideration of the context of transmission propels us in a far more fruitful direction. From the period of Constantine and Eusebius one observes a new and intense fascination with the land of Palestine as the physical treasury of the history and heritage of the Church. 20 This

18 Historia Monachorum, prologue 9; trans. by Russell, The Lives of the Desert Fathers (1980) 50.

19 Historia Monachorum, prologue 13; trans. Russell (1980) 51. 20 Three major studies of the phenomenon have appeared in recent years:

Walker, Holy City, Holy Places? (1990); Wilken, The Land Called Holy (1992) 82-125; Taylor, Christians and the Holy Places (1993). The extent to which such attitudes toward the land and holy sites were present in second and third century Christianity remains a much debated point. For the early evidence see Windisch, "Die iiltesten christlichen Paliistinapilger" (1925); Harvey, "Melito

106 CHAPTER FOUR

fascination, as noted earlier, found manifold expression: the emergence of a literary genre of /oca sancta, burgeoning pilgrimage to holy sites of every possible description, the construction of churches and monasteries on, or near, many of those very sites, and the creation of a new liturgy linked integrally with the physical reality of Jerusalem. It is within this nexus that the conjunction in the Lives of prophet and land can be understood.

Uniting and nourishing virtually all of these varied expressions of piety was the centrality of the Bible, and particularly the Old Testament or He~.w Bible.21 The historical-geographical works of Eusebius, the accounts left us by the pilgrim of Bordeaux and by Egeria, the liturgy and catachesis of the Jerusalem Church-all of these bear witness to the depth of the confrontation of early Byzantine Christianity in Palestine with its scriptural heritage. Indeed, this emergent attitude toward the land of Palestine was part and parcel of a large-scale Christian reclamation of the story-the legend and the history-{)f the Hebrew Bible.22 (This might be seen as the second, more self-assured, stage of the early Church's claim on biblical prophecy and promise.) No more eloquent expression was offered than Eusebius's celebration of Constantine's new churches "in the Palestinian nation, inasmuch as in that place as from a fount gushed forth the life-bearing stream to all .... In the Palestinian nation, in the heart of the Hebrew kingdom ... ".23 Underlying this attitude to the land of the Bible was a deeply ambivalent posture toward its Hebrew and Jewish past. Expressions of early Byzantine piety were in no small part influenced and conditioned by antecedent structures, practices, and traditions. A prime example of such profound ambivalence is the complex of early Christian attitudes toward the Temple mount and its supercession by the Holy

and Jerusalem" (1966); Chadwick, "The Circle and the Ellipse: Rival Concepts of Authority in the Early Church" (1959) 5-7. Strong arguments have been raised, however, against the existence of pre-Constantinian veneration of Palestine and the holy places: see Holum, "Hadrian and St. Helena" (1990) and Ta~lor, op. cit., esp. 295-332.

1 On the biblical basis of Byzantine piety in Palestine, see Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage (1982) 83-127; Maraval, "La bible des pelerins d'Orient" (1984); Smith, To Take Place. Toward Theory in Ritual (1987) 74-95; Dubois, "Un pelerinage Bible en main: l'itineraire d'Egerie (381-384)" (1988).

22 The classic work is Simon, Verus Israel (19642). For the Palestinian context, see Wilken, "The Restoration of Israel in Biblical Prophecy" (1985) and Stroumsa, "'Vetus Israel'" (1988).

23 Eusebius, Laus Constantinii 9.15-16; ed. Heikel [GCS 7] 221; trans. in Drake, In Praise of Constantine. A Historical Study and New Translation of Eusebius' Tricennial Orations (1975) 101. This aspect of Eusebius's outlook is discussed in Cardman, "Fourth-Century Jerusalem: Religious Geography a Christian Tradition" (1984) 56-57 and carefully assessed in Wilken, The Land Called Holy (1992) ch. 5.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 107

Sepulchre. 24 Indeed, it was this very fascination with the Temple, present only as memory yet no less real for that, which gave rise to some of the most bitter Christian polemic with the contemporary Jewish community: "Where now are the things that you held sacred? Where is the high priest? Where are his garments, the breastplate, the Urim?"25 Once again, our understanding of the Lives depends, in part, on a recognition of a deeply equivocal attitude toward the use of biblical legend and Jewish tradition in the Byzantine rediscovery of the Holy Land.

A comparison, unlikely yet apposite, may help to accent the salient features of the geographical component of the Lives. The Onomasticon of Eusebius can be regarded as an early and exceedingly astute exercise in reading the biblical narrative and the land of Palestine as one. His attempt to provide precise geographical identifications for the totality of place­names in Scripture, despite its many shortcomings, stands as a landmark of scholarship.26 In terms of both structure and style, however, the Onomasticon functions not as a practical guide for pilgrim or pious tourist but rather as a handbook of biblical information and lore. So too the Lives. The two works share a primary allegiance to the scriptural record: just as Eusebius unfolds the biblical topography of Palestine through an exegesis of toponyms as they appear in the successive books of Scripture, the Lives attends to the prophets and their geographical and genealogical origins through adherence to a canonical ordering. It could be argued that the Lives is, in fact, nothing more than a variation on the form of an onomasticon­an attempt to wed Bible and land, not on the basis of the name of a site but through the person of the prophet. (It should be emphasized, however, that in contrast to Eusebius our text often appears more committed to the

24 Nibley, "Christian Envy of the Temple" (1959).is the standard treatment of this deep-seated ambivalence. For biblical and post-biblical Jewish influences on the Holy Sepulchre and the Jerusalem liturgy, see Black, "The Festival of the Encaenia Ecclesiae" (1954) and Wilkinson, "Jewish Influences on the Early Christian Rite of Jerusalem" (1979) [ = Wilkinson, Egeria' s Travels (1981) 298-310.] Possible rabbinic reactions are discussed in Gafni, "'Pre­histories' of Jerusalem" (1987) 12-15 and Schwartz, "The Encaenia of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre" (1987).

25 John Chrysostom, Hom. adv. ludaizantes 6.5; PG 48.911. Compare the closing passage from the vita of Zechariah b. Jehoiada: "From that time there were apparitions in the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as formerly." On the centrality of the Temple in John's polemic, see Wilken, John Chr;sostom and the Jews (1983) 128-160.

2 Klostermann (ed.), Eusebius. Das Onomastikon der biblischen Ortsnamen (1904). See Barnes, "The Composition of Eusebius' Onomasticon" (1975) and Groh, "The Onomastikon of Eusebius and the Rise of Christian Palestine" ( 1985 ).

108 CHAP1ER FOUR

potentials of exegesis than to the realities of geography.) Finally, the works share a lack of "closure", a predisposition to subsequent redaction. The Onomasticon of Eusebius was taken up at the end of the fourth century by Jerome, who, in the course of his translation, added, altered, and otherwise "improved" the composition; as we have observed, the Lives clearly was prone to similar treatment.

The perception of the Lives as a handbook is significant. It is a quality which aligns the text with a number of other equally curious works that derive, in some measure at least, from early Byzantine Palestine. One thinks, for example, of the Hypomnesticon attributed to an unknown Joseph27 and the treatise of Epiphanius of Salamis On Weights and Measures.28 The latter composition overflows with odd bits of scriptural lore, including a strong interest in the Hebrew and Aramaic origins of biblical terms and names. Recent studies likewise have served to strengthen our impression of Epiphanius's interest in and knowledge of fourth century Palestinian Jewish culture.29 The Semitic component in the geographical notices of the vitae traditionally has aroused the suspicion that our Greek texts preserve a somewhat barbarized form of early Jewish tradition. Why could they not be a reflection of contemporary Jewish sources? It is essentiat to remember, moreover, that Christianity in Byzantine Palestine, despite its heavy Greek patina, remained a Semitic culture: the language of the towns and villages was Aramaic.30 On that score, as well, it would not

27 Moreau, "Observations sur l' 'Y7tOJ.lV'l<Jtucov Bt~A.iov lroo~1t1tou" (1955/1957) argues for the identity of the author with Joseph the Comes, who appears in Epiphanius, Panarion 30.4-12; for the latter, see Avi-Yonah, The Jews of Palestine (1976) 167-168.

28 Dean (ed.-tr.), Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures (1935) provides a translation of the Syriac text with helpful notes. See also van Esbroeck, Les Versions Georgiennes d'Epiphane de Chypre Traite des Poids et des Mesures (1984) and Stone, "Concerning the Seventy-two Translators: Armenian Fragments of Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures" (1980). On the author, see Young, From Nicea to Chalcedon (1983) 133-142.

29 Lieu, "Epiphanius on the Scribes and Pharisees" (1988); Bregman, "The Parable of the Lame and the Blind: Epiphanius' Quotation from an Apocryphon of Ezekiel" (1991). See too Goodblatt, "Audet's 'Hebrew-Aramaic' List of the Books of the OT Revisited" (1982).

30 Among the most famous evidence for the multi-lingual nature of Palestine in the fourth century is the account in Egeria of the service in the Holy Sepulchre, conducted in Greek but simultaneously translated by a presbyter into Syriac (i.e. Aramaic) "so that the people may understand". ltinerarium Egeriae 47.3-4; ed. Weber [CCSL 176] 89; trans. in Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels (1981) 146. For the interest in and preservation of the Semitic names of a local site in a learned Greek text, see the account in the fifth century historian Sozomenus: ''The tomb of Micah was at the site Berathsatia, located some ten stadia from the city; the local population, not knowing what they are saying, called [the tomb]

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 109

be remarkable if place-names in a Christian Greek text retained their Semitic flavor.

The works just discussed are all united by a common streak of biblical antiquarianism. The consistent mention in the Lives of the tribal affiliation of the prophets-an element often interpreted as a prime indicator of early Jewish tradition-is in no way foreign to the concerns of the Church in Byzantine Palestine: the preservation of traditional tribal boundaries is an established feature of the Christian onomastic tradition from the researches of Eusebius through the construction of the (sixth century) Madeba map. Finally, there is something "encyclopedic" in character about the Lives: a strong impression that no single detail, geographical or genealogical, can be allowed to go missing.31 It is precisely this relentless desire to supply both the place-name and the tribe for every prophet that brought the redactor of the text to the flagrant acts of "invention" discussed above. Yet here too one observes the spirit of the age: these details in the vitae represent the literary equivalent of the uncovering of the relics of a righteous figure from the biblical past. 32 The creative exegesis of Scripture in order to attain a birth or burial site is nothing other than an inventio-an (inspired?) "discovery" of a portion of the biblical heritage of the Church. There is, in short, no aspect of the geographical concerns of the Lives which resists interpretation against the background of ascendant Christianity in Byzantine Palestine.

A note of caution is necessary at this juncture in the discussion. It has been suggested more than once that the geographical traditions of the vitae are not simply one aspect of the work but, in fact, its prime feature. This has been put most strongly by those who have described the very essence of the composition to be "a pilgrim's guide" of the period of the Second Temple. 33 As we have already argued, this view involves a serious reversal­of historical circumstance and influence. No less, it rests on a crucial overestimation of the worth of individual traditions and the practicability of the work as an itinerary. Our own emphasis on the central role of geography in the text within a larger Byzantine framework does not imply a simple translation of mistaken assumptions from one historical context to another. Just as the Lives is not a Jewish guide to the sacred graves of first

'the memorial of the faithful' -naming it Nephsameemana in their native tongue." Historia Ecclesiastica 7, 29.2; GCS 50, 345. On the question of languages in early Byzantine Palestine, see Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-1987) 2.79, n. 252; Mussies, "Greek in Palestine and the Diaspora" (1976) 1058-1059.

31 Maas, John Lydus and the Roman Past (1992) 53-56 discusses the importance of antiquarianism in early Byzantium.

32 For inventio as a central aspect of early Byzantine piety, see P. Maraval, Lieux Saints et Pe/erinages d'Orient (1985) 41-47.

33 See above, p. 40.

110 CHAPTER FOUR

century Palestine it is as surely not a guide to loca sancta for Byzantine Christians. The eccentricity which characterizes a number of the birth and burial traditions is sufficient to eliminate any real possibility that the composition could have been used in that fashion in any historical period. Furthermore, of all the variegated forms in which the text of the Lives has been preserved, there is not a single witness to an ordering of the individual vitae according to the structure of an itinerary.

It might be argued, in fact, that the essence of the geographical element in the Lives runs directly counter to the impulse for pilgrimage. The composition, structured in almost all of its variant forms and recensions according to some conception of the prophetic canon, is as free from the concerns of geographical order as it is from the constraints of historical presentation. Furthermore, its literary prominence in both Eastern and Western Christian society can be argued to have obviated some portion of the need for pilgrimage. The arduous task of journey to Palestine and its holy sites is based on what has been called the "therapy of distance"-the creation of a distance which needs to be overcome and is resolved in the act of pilgrimage which "activates a yearning for intimate closeness."34 Yet the Lives provides exactly that sense of proximity by bringing the prophets and their physical setting directly to the reader of the text. The vitae represent an attempt to make the geography of Scripture tangible from afar. 35

1HE RlGHIEOUS DEAD

We have argued that the Lives, though in many respects a singular, even idiosyncratic composition, demonstrates clear lines of filiation with a number of literary genres (and their concomitant cultural concerns) that were prominent in the early Byzantine period. Indeed, our understanding of the Lives in historical and religious context demands a balanced appreciation of these quite distinct elements in the text. The themes discussed thus far­holy man and holy land, sacred biography and sacred geography-are clearly the dual foci of the work. We have discerned, as well, a major axis uniting these seemingly disparate planes: Scripture. It is the biblical record which determines the compass of the hagiographical pursuit and provides the factual basis for its topographical orientation.

In a further, and final, attempt to define these themes and their correlation, I return to one of the most striking and widely recognized, yet

34 The phrase of A. Dupront as cited and embellished in Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 86-88.

35 The process is analogous, in some respects, to the manner in which participation in the Christian liturgy, with its interplay of place and time, came to replace the need for physical presence in Jerusalem: see Smith, To Take Place (1987) 88-95.

CONlEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 111

misunderstood, aspects of the composition. The Lives provides its readers with an account of "the names of the prophets and whence they were, where they died and how and where they were buried"-according to the superscription of Codex Q. It is the unrelenting concern of the individual vitae with the manner and location of the burial of the prophets which demands our attention. This aspect of the text is indeed pivotal, drawing still closer the realms of hagiography and sacred geography: the tomb as the ultimate point of union between holy man and holy land.

This consistent attention to the burial sites of the prophets becomes a far more comprehensible and significant feature of the Lives when considered within the context of the work's transmission and reception-the complex of early Christian attitudes and practices toward the righteous dead and their tombs. This complex has been conveniently called the "cult of the saints" and has been shown to center about the belief-current in a wide range of Christian society between the third and sixth centuries-that it is indeed possible "to join Heaven and Earth at the grave of a dead human being. "36

The implications of this "joining" are best expressed, perhaps, by the inscription over the tomb of St. Martin: "Here lies Martin the bishop, of holy memory, whose soul is in the hand of God; but he is fully here, present and made plain in miracles of every kind."37 At its heart lies the profound faith in the continued efficacy of the holy man after his death-as in the following reports from the Lives:

And since this happened through Isaiah, the people also buried him nearby carefully and with great honor as a memorial, so that even after his death they might have the benefit of the water in similar fashion through his prayers, for an oracle was given to them in this regard.

[Jeremiah] For he prayed, and the asps and the beasts of the waters, which the Egyptians call 'Nephoth' and the Greeks crocodiles, departed from them. And all those who are believers in God pray to this day in the place and taking the soil of the place they heal the bites of asps.

These passages, and perhaps the composition as a whole, are founded on the deepest conviction that "the righteous dead are still alive in a very real sense. "38 That the Lives was clearly read and transmitted in this spirit can

36 Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) is the inescapable starting-point for modern study of the subject. (The quotation is from p. 1 of that book.) Beside the classic studies of Lucius and Delehaye, see Kotting, Der friihchristliche Reliquienkult und die Bestattung im Kirchengebiiude (1965) and the references below, nn. 46~7.

3? Quoted in Brown, The Cult of the Saints ( 1981) 4. 38 Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 383 who then compares,

unconvincingly, "the early Christian belief that the righteous dead are transported to a place of blessedness before the final resurrection". The

112 CHAPIER FOUR

be further adduced from a number of actualizing additions to the notices concerning the burial sites of the prophets in the various recensions. 39 Most telling of all, however, is the continuation of the above-cited passage from the vita of Jeremiah:

We have heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged men, that Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the prophet and recognized his mysteries, transferred his remains to Alexandria, placing them around in a circle with honor; and the race of asps was checked from the land and so too the crocodiles from the river.

In the words of Marcel Simon, "Alexandre se comporte comme un eveque de l'ancienne Eglise."40 No less importantly, Jeremiah (and his colleagues from the pages of the Lives) are understood to be the worthy recipients of this honor and attention. Holy men in their lives, saints in their death.

One might argue, moreover, that there is an important sense in which a text such as the Lives functioned to alleviate tensions inherent in the emerging cult of the saints. As opposed to the proprietary interests connected with the tombs of the righteous dead-interests which threatened the unity of fourth and fifth century Christian communities41-the vitae of the prophets afforded equal and open access to these holy men and their graves. No bishop, no church, no see controlled entry to the shrines of the prophets of the Lives. Much in the way that a burgeoning transportation of relics brought holy men and their shrines to distant points in the Christian world, the widespread transmission of the Lives circulated the prophets through both the East and West. Indeed, one might argue that the vitae, often detached from their previous literary context(s), were themselves "relics" of both holy man and holy land, ready to be enshrined in a new setting.

There is a fmal significance to this correspondence between the structure and focus of the Lives of the Prophets and its Christian context of transmission. We have, in fact, impressive evidence from a variety of fourth century sources, Christian and non-Christian, that the veneration of the dead and their graves was a novurn in the world of Late Antiquity. Thus,

commitment to a first century date for the Lives prohibits Hare from exploring the implications of his own observation that the work "throws indirect light on the Christian practice of veneration of the saints" (384).

39 See Micah [Ep1] (18.5-6): "And his grave is well-known to this very day"; Zechariah [Dor] (36.7-11) with which the tradition in Sozomenus Historia Ecclesiastica 9, 17 should be compared.

40 Simon, "Alexandre le Grand, juif et chretien" (1962) 136. Note there the subsequent reflection of this tradition in early seventh century Christian literature (John Moschus and Sophronius).

41 See Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 31-36.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 113

Eusebius takes note of the derision directed towards the emperor Constantine in the wake of the construction of the sacred tomb par excellence, the Holy Sepulchre:

But those who in the blindness of their souls are ignorant of matters divine hold the deed a joke and frankly ridiculous, believing that for so great a sovereign to bother himself with memorials to human corpses and tombs is unfitting and demeaning.42

It was the rapid multiplication of such holy graves that aroused the ire of pagan critics. Julian the apostate indicts the Christians directly for the profusion of this monstrous novelty: "You keep adding many corpses newly dead to the corpse of long ago. You have filled the whole world with tombs and sepulchres."43 Similar accusations are raised by Eunapius of Sardis:

For they collected the bones and skulls of criminals who had been put to death for numerous crimes, men whom the law courts of the city had condemned to punishment, made them out to be gods, haunted their sepulchres, and thought that they became better by defiling themselves at their graves.44

It was a revolution of major proportions as "the pagan found himself in a world where his familiar map of the relations between the human and the divine, the dead and the living, had been subtly redrawn."45

Despite widespread recognition of this emergent Christian attitude toward the righteous dead and their tombs as something new and largely unheralded in the world of Late Antiquity, there has been much scrambling after origins and forerunners. A prolonged and ultimately disappointing series of attempts ensued to find the necessary background within a pagan framework, principally in the ancient cult of heroes.46 This has given way increasingly to a search for the Jewish origins of a range of related Christian practices: cults of martyrs and saints, veneration of graves, and pilgrimage.47 There are a number of reasons to be wary of this line of

42 Laus Constantini 11.3; ed Heikel [GCS 7] 224; trans. in Drake, In Praise of Constantine (1975) 103.

43 Contra Galilaeos 335C. 44 Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists 472; tr. Wright [LCL] 425. 45 Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 5. 46 Klauser, "Christlicher Miirtyrerkult, heidnischer Heroenkult und

spatjUdische Heiligenverehrung. Neue Einsichten und neue Probleme" (1974) is a forceful critique of this position; note, however, the qualifying addendum (p. 29) to his original article. For a balanced overview of patristic attitudes, see Van den Broek, "Popular Religious Practices and Ecclesiastical Policies" (1979).

47 See above, p. 24, nn. 70-71.

114 CHAPTER FOUR

approach, not the least of which is the acknowledgment on the part of early Christians themselves of the enormous remove dividing their practices from those of traditional Judaism. This is given straightforward expression in the Didascalia, (late?) third century church legislation of Syrian provenance:

Indeed, in the second legislation, if one touches a dead man or a tomb, he must be bathed. You, however, according to the gospel and according to the power of the Holy Spirit, shall be assembled even in the cemeteries, and read the holy Scriptures, and without observance complete your services and your intercessions to God; and offer an acceptable eucharist, the likeness of the body of the kingdom of Christ, in your congregations and in your cemeteries and on the departures of them that sleep among you .... 48

It was not only the pagan world, clearly, that was shocked by such forms of worship. We are confronted by a "fundamental difference of ideas," a "difference between Christian and Jewish sensibilities. The new Christian attitude toward the dead and their relics marked a break in previous religious life."49 In the words of Jerome: ludaeorum luctus Christianorum gaudium est-there is no better expression of this new mood, and the extreme self­consciousness which accompanied it.50 Nevertheless, it has become something of a commonplace to find the sources of these attitudes and

48 Didascalia Apostolorum 26; ed. Voobus [CSCO 407] 261; Eng. tr. [CSCO 408] 243-244.

49 Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (1987) 447-448. Similarly, Taylor, Christians and the Holy Places (1993) 331: "Christian pilgrimage to holy places was a radical innovation, a combination of an ancient story set in one particular landscape and the newly Christianized veneration of sites and things. It fused/together diverse elements found in Jewish and Samaritan tradition with pa~an<piety, and became something more significant than the sum of its parts."

0 Jerome, Epist. 60.6; ed. Hilberg [CSEL 54] 555. A telling illustration of this divergence in attitudes is the reaction of the Jewish doctor to the cult of St. Martin: "Martin will do you no good, whom the earth now rests, turning him to earth .... A dead man can give no healing to the living"; cited by Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 4. For the antiquity of this attitude, see Ps-Philo, Biblical Antiquities 33:4-5 and 4 Ezra 7:102-115. See too the pointed remarks in John Chrysostom, Hom. adv. Judaizantes 8.7; PG 48.937): "Therefore, when you see God punishing you, don't flee to your enemies the Jews only to provoke God; go to his friends the martyrs, the holy ones who are pleasing to him and who approach him with great confidence"; trans. by Meeks and Wilken, Jews and Christians in Antioch (1978) 118. Simon, Verus Israel (1986) 367: "To go to the martyrs meant perhaps to send up prayers to them. It also meant, more specifically, to visit their tombs and to touch their relics." An intersting example of religious competition in this sphere (within the Antiochene context) is the veneration of the relics of the Maccabean martyrs; for diverging interpretations of the evidence, see Bickerman, "Les Maccabees de Malalas" (1951); Lightstone, Society, the Sacred, and Scripture (1988) 29-35; Cohen, "Pagan and Christian Evidence on the Ancient Synagogue" (1987) 168-169.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 115

practices concerning the righteous dead in elements "unorthodox and unofficial" of early Judaism. This improbable venture, together with the concomitant role assigned the Lives of the Prophets, have had significant implications for a central problem in the study of the history of religion.

The last generation has seen much animated discussion regarding the nature, status, indeed, the very existence of the entity known as "popular religion." The question is an offshoot of a wide-ranging and noisy debate among students of medieval and early modem Europe concerning the possible role of a distinctive popular piety which existed in constant tension with (or opposition to) the faith of a social and religious elite. 51 It would be fair to say that despite a healthy measure of disagreement, a majority of historians of society and religion are now far more cautious in their use of the term and many have renounced it altogether. The debate continues among students of Late Antiquity as well, and an acknowledged master of ancient historiography pronounced clearly in this regard:

Thus my inquest into popular religious beliefs in the late Roman historians ends in reporting that there were no such beliefs. In the fourth and fifth centuries there were of course plenty of beliefs which we historians of the twentieth century would gladly call popular, but the historians of the fourth and fifth centuries never treated any belief as characteristic of the masses and consequently discredited among the elite. Lectures on popular reli~ious beliefs and the late Roman historians should be severely discouraged.5

It has been argued with equal force that to attempt to explain those very aspects and attitudes of the early Byzantine world which have featured prominently in our own discussion-the rise of the holy man and the cult of the saints-as a result of the sudden resurgence of a popular piety is simply to perpetuate a worn-out and inadequate model, a "two-tier" theory of religion. 53

Yet the anxious desire to read the Lives of the Prophets as essential background to the veneration of the tombs of the saints in the early Church entails an exposure to just this methodological pitfall. As noted in the second chapter, the insistent location of the work within the context of first

51 Some landmarks: Davis, "Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of Popular Religion" (1974); Christian, Person and God in a Spanish Valley (1972) and Local Religion in Sixteenth Century Spain (1981); Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms (1987; 1976) xiii-xxvi; and Larner, Witchcraft and Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (1985).

52 Momigliano, "Popular Religious Beliefs and Late Roman Historians" (1971) 18. Cf. Patlagean, "Ancient Byzantine Hagiography and Social History" (1983).

53 Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man" (1971) 81-82; idem, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 12-22. For perceptive criticism of Brown's own model, see Murray, "Peter Brown and the Shadow of Constantine" (1983) 201.

116 CHAP1ER FOUR

century Judaism was achieved at a very real cost. It meant reading the document without the necessary attendant evidence-no other pre-Christian text from the period demonstrates even a remotely sustained interest in the tombs of the prophets and their role as intercessors-as well as in the face of much contrary evidence (or profound silence) from rabbinic sources. The price to be paid for this reading of the work was yet another encounter with a resolute form of the two-tier model, as the Lives became a repository of the Volksreligion of the late Second Temple period:

For example, it is clear that veneration of tombs of departed saints was an important element in first century Judaism. Yet the documents of what one might call official religion are strangely silent on this matter.

One of the most well-attested elements of folk religion in Palestine in this period, and indeed to the present, is the veneration of the tombs of holy men. There is little room in ancient orthodoxy or orthopraxis to allow for this, but its presence is well documented, though our sources are late, with one notable exception. The 'Lives of the Prophets' is a first century BCE or CE compilation .... 54

At the. precise moment that historians of society and religion in Late Antiquity were ridding themselves of a persistent and misleading paradigm, students of early Judaism and Christianity were engaged in a renewal of the covenant. Ironically, the chief, virtually sole, support for the early dating of the Lives remains the saying of Jesus (Mt 23:29-30; Lk 11:48~9) directed not against the people of Judea but against their leaders (Scribes, Pharisees, lawyers~surely a curious place to begin (and end) one's search for vestiges of popular religion.55

54 Meyers and Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity (1981) 162 and Strange, "Archaeology and the Religion of Judaism in Palestine" (1979) 667-668. The source and support for these statements is, not surprisingly, Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958). For the "hidden" agenda of Jeremias' monograph, see the concluding appendix (144-145) on the Constantinian discovery of the site of the holy sepulchre: "Aber ist es denkbar, so wird gelegentlich gefragt, dass die Urgemeinde die Erinnerung an Jesu Grab pflegte? Waren ihre Gedanken nicht so vollstiindig auf die Wiederkunft Jesu ausgerichtet, dass ihr solche geschichtlichen Reminiszenzen vollig fernliegen mussten? ... Diese Welt der heiligen Graber war ein realer Bestandteil der Umwelt, in der Urgemeinde lebte. Es ist undenkbar, dass sie, in dieser Welt lebend, das Grab Jesu der Vergessenheit anheimgegeben haben sollte." Kretschmar, "Festkalender und Memorialstiitten Jerusalems in altkirchlicher Zeit" (1987) esp. 68-77 presents a more elaborate (and nuanced) exposition of this viewpoint. For powerful critiques of this position, see Rordorf, "Wie steht es urn den jiidischen Einfluss auf den christlichen Miirtyrerkult" (1990) and Ta~lor, Christians and the Holy Places (1993).

5 Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 141-142 attempts to sidestep the difficulty.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING 117

An alternative, as we have seen, exists. Read in context-the early Byzantine context of redaction, reception, and transmission-the Lives is no longer evidence for an exclusively popular piety or elements of a folk religion; the work emerges, rather, as an expression of an encompassing religious and cultural outlook. If the composition often appears "popular" in tone or style-marked by neither rhetorical eloquence nor theological subtlety nor philological acumen-all the more remarkable is its coherence with the attitudes and concerns uniting men such as Eusebius and Jerome, Athanasius and Theodoret. A unique composition in many respects, the Lives of the Prophets, nevertheless, succeeds in giving expression to "the network of obsessions of a whole society, of an age. "56

56 The phrase is that of J. Le Goff as cited by R. J. Z. Werblowsky in Numen 33 (1986) 249.

CONCLUSION

This study has examined the earliest documented form of the Lives of the Prophets-the sixth (or seventh) century Greek text found in the Codex Marchalianus (Q). Investigation of the types of material comprised by the text-birth and burial traditions; legendary narrative; and eschatological prophecy-have led to a number of related conclusions. First, many of the details and much of the basic orientation of the Lives stands in sharp contrast to what we know of Judaism of the Second Temple and rabbinic periods. Second, the Lives exhibits rich evidence of having undergone a complex and thoroughgoing process of redaction: whatever measure of pre­existing legend and tradition may have been incorporated in the resultant work, it is now enormously difficult, perhaps impossible, to recover those materials in their earlier form. Third, a final, crucial stage in the redaction of the geographical and narrative material, which forms the overwhelming bulk of the work, can be shown to have taken place no earlier than the fourth or fifth centuries of the common era and within a clearly Christian context. This close conjunction between the earliest verifiable context of the work's transmission (seventh century) and the presumedly final stage of redaction (fifth century) dictates the cogency of examining the structure and meaning of the Lives within the framework of early Byzantine Christianity.

Consequently, I have argued that the Lives of the Prophets not only can but must be appreciated as a Christian document. Despite a century of scholarly consensus, the work should not be naively introduced as evidence fo! a wide range of Jewish attitudes from the Second Temple period. The Lives is a demonstrably Christian composition in its present form(s), having enjoyed a long and variegated career within both the Eastern and Western Churches; by contrast, no form of the work can be proven to have existed in a pre-Christian Jewish context. No less significantly, the Lives has been shown to have borne distinctive cultural and religious meaning within an early Byzantine setting. Any attempt to wrench specific details or traditions from this established context simply embraces the unknown and squanders "the advantages of studying the embedded text. "1

Osborne, Rethinking Early Greek Philosophy. Hippolytus of Rome and the Presocratics (1987) provides the phrase; now, on the same problematic, see Mansfeld, Heresiography in Context: Hippolytus' Elenchos as a Source for Greek Philosophy (1992).

CONCLUSION 119

This reassessment clearly sets the Lives in the ill-charted border zone between Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity. This composition, like many others preserved and transmitted by the early Church, deals with scriptural detail and legend in a manner not essentially different from the interpretative stances found in contemporary Jewish sources: there is no obvious attempt, for example, to read either the person of Jesus or other aspects of distinctively Christian doctrine into the text of the Lives. We find ourselves confronted by an amalgam of traditions and exegesis-some of whose origins may lie in the period of the Second Temple-which can reasonably claim to be both Jewish and Christian. The effect should be to force us to reexamine a number of our most basic assumptions regarding the distinct nature of religious identities.2 A series of questions naturally follows. To what extent could the characters and events of the Hebrew Bible provide a sufficiently expansive arena for a Byzantine Christian author/redactor and his audience? Under what conditions, and with what consequences, could the emerging Christian culture accommodate its Jewish literary heritage? These questions inevitably lead to a central quandary raised at the very outset of our study: "Were the motives at work in the transmission and preservation of such materials sufficient to cause the actual composition and/or construction of some of the materials themselves?"3

Indeed, it has proven necessary to dig both deeply and carefully in order to detect the specifically Christian aspects of the document. One must read all such materials which have passed through the filter of non-Jewish transmission with a heightened sensitivity to their more subtle reflections of Christian thought or practice. It may often be no more than an aberrant phrase or a lexical incongruity that alerts us to the possibility of an· unsuspected significance, in turn demanding a correspondingly altered historical and religious context. The description ofNebuchadnezzar's bestial metamorphosis embedded within the vita of Daniel, discussed above at

2 On the difficulties encountered (and sensitivity required) in addressing such issues, see De Jonge, "The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Christian and Jewish" (1985) and Kraemer, "Jewish Tuna and Christian Fish: Identifying Religious Affiliation in Epigraphic Sources" (1991). For a discussion of Judaism and Christianity as a "tyranny of categories" in a very different setting, see Kaplan, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia (1992) 156-166.

3 Kraft, "Reassessing the 'Recensional Problem' in Testament of Abraham" (1976) 135. These question are, in fact, deeply subversive to the traditional, distinct categorization of Old Testament ("Jewish") and New Testament ("Christian") Pseudepigrapha. On this problematic and some new directions, see Bovon, "Vers une nouvelle edition de Ia litterature apocryphe chretienne" (1983); Junod, "Apocryphes du NT ou Apocryphes chretiens anciens" (1983); Dubois, "The New Series Apocryphorum of the Corpus Christianorum" (1984).

120 CONCLUSION

some length, serves as an example of the process. The existence of a single, disconcerting detail-the "soaked lentils" of the Babylonian king's diet­compels the reader to examine the narrative afresh. The perception of this initial incongruity is enhanced by a concatenation of additional features: a symbolic description of the character of the tyrant; a pervasive emphasis on the efficacy of penitence; fmally, the attitude and actions of Daniel himself. The seemingly unexceptional, neutral character of the central narrative in the vita of Daniel (with neither Christological nor trinitarian overtones which might be expected to alert the reader) clearly forces us to reassess the standards by which we judge a document either Jewish or Christian.

No less important than the identification of any single element in the text as "Christian" or the product of Christian transmission is the recognition that the Lives as it stands is in the fullest sense a text of early Byzantine Christianity. The very act of redaction is equally an act of "composition," i.e. the creation of a new literary entity with a meaning and function proper to its new historical framework. I have tried to show, consequently, that the constellation of motifs and concerns which lie at the very core of the Lives-holy man, scriptural geography, and sacred tomb­must be appreciated initially within an early Byzantine cultural and religious context. The text is, therefore, far more than the sum of its parts: even if it could be proven to consist entirely of earlier Jewish tradition, the Lives of the Prophets is in every respect a new composition.

The Lives allows us a brief glimpse into a little appreciated yet highly significant manner in which. Christianity, in its formative period, chose to deal with its biblical heritage. Can this perceived continuity between ancient Judaism and Christianity, the ability of the early Church to adopt and adapt scriptural motifs, often tacitly, be in effect one of the strongest statements of an emergent Christian hegemony? It is widely held that Rabbinic "silence" concerning Christianity contrasts sharply with the surfeit of anti-Jewish polemic produced in the early church. Perhaps it might better be compared with the equally silent appropriation of the biblical heritage which came to the fore in the early centuries of the Byzantine period. There exists, in fact, a curious correlation in this period between the literary reality-transmission, redaction and resultant appropriation of biblical and early Jewish writings by the early Church­and the (often implicit) ideological motivation of Christianity: the religious and cultural adoption of the Scriptures, history, and status of "Israel". The compound identity of the Lives of the Prophets corresponds precisely with this blurring of the distinction between Jewish past and Christian present. The encounter with the text leaves us with the paradox that a work which appears most indubitably Jewish can, in fact, be most deeply Christian.

APPENDIX

THE LIVES OF THE PROPHETS (according to the text of Codex Marchalianusr

The names of the prophets and where they come from, and where they died and how and where they are buried

(1) Isaiah, of Jerusalem, died after he was sawn in two by Manasseh and was buried beneath the oak of Rogel, near the conduit of the waters which Hezekiah destroyed by blocking them. And God made the sign of the Siloam (Shiloah) for the prophet since, when he was faint before his death, he prayed for water to drink and straightway it was sent to him from there; thus, it was called Siloam (Shiloah), which means sent. And in the time of Hezekiah, before he made the cisterns and the pools, through the prayer of Isaiah a little water came out in order that the city not perish for lack of water, for the people were held in siege by foreigners. The enemies asked: "Where are they drinking from?" And they encamped by the Shiloah while holding the city (under siege). If the Jews came, the water came out; if the foreigners came, it did not. Therefore, to this day (the water) comes out suddenly in order that the mystery might be exhibited. And since this happened through Isaiah, the people also buried him nearby carefully and with great honor as a memorial, so that even after his death they might have the benefit of the water in similar fashion through his prayers, for an oracle was given to them in this regard.

The tomb is near the tomb of the kings, behind the tomb of the priests, on the southern portion. Solomon made the tombs, which were drawn up by David, to the east of Zion, which has an entrance from Gabaon twenty stadia removed from the city. And he made a winding structure, not to be discerned; and to this day it is unknown to many of the <entire> people. There the king kept the gold from Ethiopia and the spices. And since

• This translation attempts to provide a straightforward, fairly literal rendering of the text of Codex Q. Material in parentheses () has been added for explanatory purposes (e.g., alternative names of biblical sites) or in order to facilitate translation into English. Material in arrow brackets <> indicate those readings of Q which are particularly difficult or, perhaps, impossible. Words in square brackets [) are provided on the basis of other witness to the Anonymous recension where succor is desirable or, even, required.

122 APPENDIX

Hezekiah showed the nations the mystery of David and Solomon and defiled the bones <of the site> of his fathers, on account of this God swore that his offspring would be in servitude to his enemies and made him sterile from that day.

(2) Jeremiah was from Anathoth, and he died in Tahpanhes (Daphne) in Egypt when he was stoned by the people. He is buried in the area of the residence of Pharaoh, since the Egyptians honored him, having benefited through him. For he prayed, and the asps and the beasts of the waters, which the Egyptians call 'Nephoth' and the Greeks crocodiles, departed from them. And all those who are believers in God pray to this day in the place and taking the soil of the place they heal the bites of asps. And many banish these very wild animals and those (creatures) of the water.

We have heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged men, that Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the prophet and recognized his mysteries, transfen;ed his remains to Alexandria, placing them around in a circle with honor~ and the race of asps was checked from the land and so too the crocodiles from the river. He introduced, likewise, the snakes called • Argolai', i.e. snake-fighters, which he brought from Argos of the Peloponnesus, whence they are called 'Argolai'. which means fortunate ones of Argos, for they call everything auspicious 'laia'.

This Jeremiah gave a sign to the priests of Egypt, that their idols must be shaken and collapse [by means of a savior born of a virgin in a m~ Therefore to this very day they reverence a virgin giving birth and worship ·an infant placing him in a manger. And when Ptolemy the king asked the reason (for this) they said, "This is an ancestral mystery transmitted to our fathers by a holy prophet, and we are to await, he says, the fulfillment of this mystery."

This prophet seized the ark of the Law and the things in it, prior to the destruction of the Temple, and caused them to be .. s.w~up in a rock and said to those present: "The Lord has departed from Zion to heaven and will come again in power. And it will be a sign for you of his coming, when all the nations will prostrate themselves before wood." And he said that no one would remove this ark, save Aaron, and none of the priests or prophets will open the tablets within it any longer, save Moses, the chosen of God. And in the resurrection, first the ark will be resurrected and will come out of the rock and will be placed on mount Sinai, and all the saints will be gathered to it there, awaiting the Lord and fleeing the enemy who desires to destroy them. He set with his finger the name of God (as) a seal in the rock and the impression became like a mold of iron, and a cloud covered the name, and no one knows the place nor (is able) to read it to this day and until the end. And the rock is in the wilderness, where the ark first

1HE UVES OF1HE PROPHETS 123

was, between the two mountains on which Moses and Aaron lie buried. And at night there is a cloud like fire according to the ancient model, for the glory of God will never cease from his Law. And God gave grace to Jeremiah in order that he might perform the fulfillment of his mystery so that he might become a partner with Moses, and they are together to this day.

(3) Ezekiel. He is from the land of Arira, of the priests, and he died in the land of the Chaldeans during the captivity, when he had prophesied many things to those in Judea. The leader of the people of Israel there killed him, when he was rebuked by him for worshipping idols. And they buried him in the field of Maour in the tomb of Shem and Arpachshad, ancestors of Abraham. And the tomb is a double cavern, since Abraham also made the tomb of Sarah in Hebron in its likeness. It is called double for it is twisted, and an upper chamber is hidden from the ground floor and is suspended in rock upon the ground.

This prophet gave an omen to the people so as to pay close attention to the Chebar river: whenever it should fail, to expect the scythe of desolation to the end of the earth; and when it should rise, the return to Jerusalem.

The holy man also resided there, and many would gather round him. And once when a multitude was with him, the Chaldeans feared lest they should revolt and they came to them to kill them. But he caused the water to stand so that they might flee and arrive on the other side. And those of the enemies who dared to pursue were drowned.

Through prayer, he provided them spontaneously with an abundant supply of fish and appealed for a life to come from God for many who were growing weak.

When the people were being destroyed by their enemies, he came to the leaders, and through miracles, they ceased being fearful. He said this to them: "Have we perished? Is our hope lost?" And by the omen of the bones of the dead he persuaded them that there shall be hope for Israel both now and in the future.

While he was there he showed the people of Israel the things taking place in Jerusalem and in the Temple. He was snatched up from there and came to Jerusalem to rebuke the unfaithful. He saw the pattern (of the Temple) as did Moses, its wall and broad surrounding wall, even as Daniel said it would be built.

He judged the tribe of Dan and Gad in Babylon because they acted impiously towards the Lord by persecuting those who were keeping the Law. He performed a great portent regarding them-that the snakes consumed their children and all their cattl~d he predicted that because of them the people would not return to their land, but shall be in Media until

124 APPENDIX

the completion of their error. And the one who murdered him was from among them, for they opposed him all the days of his life.

(4) Daniel. He was from the tribe of Judah, of a family of those prominent in the service of the king, but while still a child he was brought from Judah to the land of the Chaldees. He was born in upper Beth-Horon and was a chaste man, so that the Jews supposed he was a eunuch. He mourned greatly over the city (Jerusalem) and disciplined himself by fasts from all desirable food; he was a withered man in appearance but comely in the grace of the Most High.

He prayed greatly on behalf of Nebuchadnezzar, after Baltasar, his son, summoned him, when he became a wild animal and a beast, in order that he might not perish. His upper half, as well as his head, were like an ox; his feet together with his lower half were like a lion. It was revealed to the holy man concerning this mystery, that Nebuchadnezzar had become a beast as a result of his love of pleasure and stiff-neckedness, and that those who belong to Beliar are like an ox under yoke. Rulers have (these qualities) in their youth; finally, they become wild animals-snatching, destroying, killing, and smiting.

The holy man knew, through God, that Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like an ox, and it became food of a human sort. On account of this even Nebuchadnezzar, taking on a human heart following digestion, wept and implored the Lord, praying every day and night forty times. Behemoth would come upon him and make him forget that he had been a man; his tongue became fixed, unable to speak, and at once realizing this he cried; his eyes were like (raw) flesh from weeping. Many were going out of the city and observed him. Daniel alone did not desire to see him, for he was in prayer on his behalf during the entire period of his transformation. He said that Nebuchadnezzar would again become a man, but they did not believe him.

Daniel caused the seven years, which he called 'seven seasons,' to become seven months. The mystery of the 'seven seasons' was fulfilled in his regard, since he was restored in seven months (and) during six years and <six> [five] months he fell down before the Lord and confessed his impiety, and after the forgiveness of his sin He returned the kingdom to him. While making confession Nebuchadnezzar neither ate bread or meat nor drank wine, since Daniel had enjoined him to appease the Lord by (eating) soaked pulse and herbs. On account of this Nebuchadnezzar called him (Daniel) Baltasar, since he desired to appoint him heir alongside his own children. But the holy man said: "Far be it from me to forsake the inheritance of my fathers and to cleave to the inheritance of the uncircumcised." And he performed many miracles for the other kings of the Persians, which they

lliE UVES OF lliE PROPHETS 125

have not recorded. He died there and was buried in the royal sepulchre alone with great honor.

And he gave an omen concerning the mountains which are above Babylon: when the mountain on the north will smoke, the end of Babylon will approach; and when it burns with fire, the end of all the earth. And if the (mountain) on the south will pour forth water, the people will return to its land, and if it will pour forth blood, BeHar's slaughter will be on all the earth. And the holy man rested in peace.

(5) Hosea. He was from Belemoth, of the tribe of Issachar, and was buried in his own land in peace. And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive upon the earth if the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to become twelve oaks.

(6) Micah the Morathite was of the tribe of Ephraim. After he did many things to Achab, he was killed by Joram his son at a precipice, because he rebuked him for the impieties of his fathers. And he was buried alone in his land near the burial ground of the Anakim.

(7) Amos was from Tekoah. And after Amaziah had beaten him often, his son at last killed him by pummeling his temple with a club. And he went, still breathing, to his land and some days later he died and was buried there.

(8) Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in peace and was buried there.

(9) Obadiah was from the land of Shechem of the field of Bethacharam. He. was a disciple of Elijah and he survived, having endured much because of him. He was the third captain of fifty men whom Elijah spared and (with whom) he went down to Ahaziah. Later, having left the service of the king, he prophesied and died and was buried with his fathers.

(10) Jonah was from the land of Karithmous near Azotos (Gaza), the city of the Greeks, by the sea. After he was cast ashore out of the sea monster and went to Nineveh and returned, he did not remain in his own land, but taking his mother as well he dwelled in Sour, a region of foreign nations. For he said: "Thus I will remove my disgrace, for I spoke falsely when I prophesied against Nineveh, the great city." At that time, Elijah was rebuking the house of Achab and, after he invoked famine on the land, he fled. And he came and found the widow with her son [Jonah], for he could not remain among the uncircumcised, and he blessed her. And when her son [Jonah] died, God awakened him again from the dead through Elijah, for He

126 APPENDIX

desired to show him that he is unable to run from God. And he arose after the famine and went to the land of Judah. And when his mother died along the way, he buried her near the oak of Deborah. And after he dwelt iil the land of Saraar, he died and was buried in the cave of Kenez, who had been judge of one tribe in the days of disorder. And he gave an omen concerning Jerusalem and the whole land, that when they should see a stone calling out pitifully, the end is near; and when they see all the nations in Jerusalem, then the entire city will be destroyed to its foundations.

(11) Nahum was from Elkesi, on the other side of Isbegabarin, of the tribe of Simeon. After (the time of) Jonah this man gave an omen to Nineveh that it would be destroyed by fresh water and subterranean fire-and this came about. The surrounding lake flooded it at the time of an earthquake and fue out of the desert scorched its upper part. He died in peace and was buried in his land.

(12) Habakkuk was from the tribe of Simeon out of the field of Beth­Zouxar. He foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem, prior to the captivity, and mourned exceedingly. When Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, he fled to Ostrakine and dwelt in the land of Ishmael. When the Chaldeans retired, and those who remained in Jerusalem (went down) to Egypt, he dwelt in his own land and ministered to the reapers of his field. As he took up the food, he prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to a distant land and will return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the reapers." And after he had been in Babylon and had given the meal to Daniel, he stood beside the reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of what had happened. And he understood that the people would return yet more swiftly from Babylon. And he died two years before the return and was buried alone in his own field.

He gave an omen to those in Judea that they would see a light in the Temple, and thus they would perceive the glory of the Temple. And concerning the end of the Temple, he foretold that it would be accomplished by a western nation. Then, he said, the 'Dabeir' (veil of the inner sanctuary) will be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns will be carried off, and no one will know where they are; they will be taken away by angels into the wilderness, where in the beginning the Tent of Witness was pitched. And through them the Lord will be known at the end, for they will enlighten those pursued by the serpent in darlrness as from the beginning.

(13) Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon, from the field of Sabaratha. He prophesied concerning the city and concerning the end of the nations and the shame of the unrighteous. And when he died he was buried in his field

1HE UVES OFTiffi PROPHETS 127

(14) Haggai, who is also messenger/angel, came from Babylon to Jerusalem perhaps as a youth and prophesied explicitly concerning the return of the people and saw, in part, the construction of the Temple. And when he died, he was buried near the tomb of the prophets, with honor, as they were.

(15) Zechariah came from (the land of) the Chaldeans already advanced in years and there he prophesied many things to the people and gave omens as proof. He said to Jozadak that he would beget a son and that he would serve as a priest in Jerusalem. He blessed Salathiel (Shealtiel) on (the birth of) his son and bestowed upon him the name Zerubbabel. And concerning Cyrus he gave an omen of victory and foretold the service which he would perform for Jerusalem and blessed him greatly. He saw in Jerusalem the things of his prophecy <and> concerning the end of the nations and of Israel and of the Temple and (concerning) the laziness of the prophets and priests, and he discoursed concerning the dual judgement. And he died at an advanced age and when he passed away he was buried near Haggai.

(16) Malachi. He was born in Sopha after the return and, while still very young, he led a beautiful life. And since the entire people honored him as holy and gentle, they called him Malachi, which means messenger/angel, for he was also pleasant to behold. And whatever he said in prophecy, on that very day an angel of the Lord appeared and repeated (it), as happened in the days of disorder, as has been recorded in 'Spharphotim', that is in the book of Judges. And while still a youth he was added to his fathers in his field.

(17) Nathan, the prophet of David, was from Gaba, and he was the one who taught him the law of the Lord; and he saw that David would sin in (the matter of) Bathsheba, and while he was making haste to go and warn him, Beliar hindered him, for by the road he found the corpse of a murdered man lying naked. And he remained there, and that night he knew that (David) had performed the transgression. And he turned back weeping, and when (David) killed her husband, the Lord sent (Nathan) to rebuke him. And when he had grown exceedingly old he died and was buried in his land.

(18) Ahijah was from Shiloh, where the tabernacle was of old, from the city of Eli. He said regarding Solomon that he would offend the Lord. And he rebuked Jereboam, for he would walk treachorously with the Lord. He saw a yoke of oxen trampling the people and running over the priests. And he foretold to Solomon that his wives would displace him and all his race. And he died and was buried near the oak of Shiloh.

128 APPENDIX

(19) Joad was from Samareim. He is the one whom the lion attacked and he died when he rebuked Jereboam concerning the calves. And he was buried in Bethel near the false prophet who had deceived him.

(20) Azariah was from the land of Subatha. He tUrned back from Israel the captivity of Judah. And when he died he was buried in his land.

(21) Elijah, a Thesbite, was from the land of the Arabs, of the tribe of Aaron, dwelling in Gilead, since Thesbis (Tishbe) was alloted for the priests.When he was about to be born, his father Sobacha saw that men of shining appearance addressed him, and swathed him in fire, and and gave him flames of fire to consume; and going (out), he reported (this) in Jerusalem, and the oracle said to him: "Do not fear, for his dwelling will be light and his word (will be) an oracle and he will judge Israel.*

(22) Elisha was from Abelmaoul (Abel-Meholah) of the land of Reuben. And an omen took place regarding this (man), for when he was born in Galgal the golden calf bellowed sharply, so as to be heard in Jerusalem. And the priest said, by means of the Urim, that a prophet had been born (to) Israel who would destroy their graven images and molten idols. And when he died, he was buried in Samaria. •

(23) Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash the king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out his blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the priests buried him with his father. From that time there were apparitions in the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as formerly.

And other prophets were hidden, whose names are contained in their genealogies according to the books of the names of Israel.

For the whole race of Israel was inscribed by name.

The vitae of Elijah and Elisha are given in the compact form common to other representatives of the Anonymous recension and to the other Greek recensions. Codex Marchalianus alone contains additional material in both vitae wliich begins: "The signs which he performed ... ". On this problem, see above, p. 51, n. 33.

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Christiana Periodica 41 (1975) 76-118.

BffiLICAL AND APOCRYPHAL LllERATIJRE

Numbers in parentheses indicate footnotes.

HEBREW BIBLE Ezekiel 8:16 (LXX) 54 (41)

Genesis 3:18 86 Hosea 37:29 45 1:4-5 44

14:2 45 Judges

17:1 42 Joel 3:1-5 (LXX) 66 (75)

Joshua 3:3-4 67 13:17 44 19:17 44 Amos

1:1 40 1 Kings 11:20 34 Micah 11:29 41 1:1 40, 42 13 34, 52 17:1 41 Nahum 18:3-16 60 1:1 41 19:16 41 22 43 Habakkuk 22:8 60 2:11 (LXX) 67 (78)

2 Kings Zechariah 9:27 44 1:1 25

23:15-20 41 5:1-3 (LXX) 67 (78)

25:18-21 41 9-14 67

Isaiah Daniel 6:1 53 1:7 96 (56) 24-27 67 1:12. 16 90

4 80-82, 86-88, 92-93, 96 Jeremiah 4:8 96 (56)

1:1 40 4:22 82, 85 26:18 40, 42 4:29-30 82, 85 27:11 (=LXX 34:11) 83 5:1 96 (56) 48:23 44 10:2-3 79, 90 52:24-27 41

146 BffiLICAL AND APOCRYPHAL Ll1ERATURE

1 Chronicles 5:3-8

2 Chronicles 14:9ff 15:1 15: 1-8 24:20-22 28:9-15

45

42 34, 42 (10)

41 25, 34, 52, 53 (37)

42 (10)

NEW TESTAMENT

Matthew 23:29-35 23-25, 48, 116-117

Mark 13 66 (76)

Luke 11:47-51 23-25, 48, 54,116-117

John 9:7 54

Acts 2:17-21 66 (75) 7:52 26

Hebrews 11 98 (3) 11:36-37 26, 54

Revelation 12 66 (76)

APOCRYPHA

Apocalypse of Paul 25 55-56 49 54 (42)

Apocalypse of Peter 5 66 (76)

Ascension of Isaiah 5, 53 (37)

Bel and the Dragon 33-39 62, 101

Ben Sira 44-49

4Ezra 4:52-5:13 6:17-28 7:102-115 8:63-9:8

58 (52), 62, 98

66 (76) 66 (76)

114 (50) 66 (76)

Life of Adam and Eve 37-39 86 (19)

1 Maccabees 2:51-60 98 (3) 6:23 49 (29)

2 Maccabees 2:4-8 61 (65) 15:12-16 58

4 Maccabees 18:11-13 98 (3)

Paraleipomena of Jeremiah 1:2 58 3:1-9 61 (65) 9:19-32 54 9:30 67 (78)

Ps-Philo, Biblical Antiquities 33:4-5 114 (50)

Sibylline Oracles 2:154-213 66 (76) 3:796-808 66 (76)

Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 2:1 58 6:5-9 61 (65)

Testament of Isaac 5-6

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 3-5, 30, 75

Testament of Reuben 1:6-10 84 (13), 88 (25) 2:8-9 84

GENERAL INDEX

Numbers in parentheses indicate footnotes. Modern authors are noted only in those instances where either they have been directly cited or their viewpoints expressly discussed.

Abel, P.-M., 21-22 Abel-Meholah, 41 Actus Sylvestri, 92 Adam literature, 86 Agathangelos, 93-94 Ahab, 92 Ahijah vita of, 35, 41, 50

Alexander the Great, 4, 112 Ambrose of Milan, 94-95 Amos vita of, 27, 35, 38, 40, 50, 52-54, 60,72

Anathoth, 40 antiquarianism, 109 Antoninus Placentinus, 49 (29) apocalyptic, 5, 66-67 Apostolic Constitutions, 4 asceticism, 6, 90-91 Arabia, 20 (54) Aristotle, 85 Armenia, 93 Athanasius, 117 Augustine, 89 (28), 93 Avi-Yonah, M. H., 25 Azariah b. Oded, 41-42 vita of, 23, 35, 38, 41, 50

Barton, J., 62 Basil of Caesarea, 89 (28, 30) Belial ( = Beliar), 83 Bernheimer, R., 17 Bethel, 41 Beth Guvrin, cf. Eleutheropolis

Beth-meon ( = Beth-baal-meon = Baal-meon), 44-45

Beth-Zechariah, 49 (29) Beth-Zouxar, 49 (29) biblical exegesis, 2-7, 106-110 in Lives of the Prophets, 40-46 patristic, 86-88 rabbinic, 45-46 Syriac, 3

biblical exemplars, 2-6, 103-105 biography, 98-100 birth and burial, 23, 35, 38-50, 72-73 Boethius, 83-84 (12) Bordeaux pilgrim, 48, 53 (39), 106 Bokser, B., 58 (53) Brown, P. 95-96, 111-113, 115 (53) Byzantine chronicle tradition, 3 Byzantine Palestine, 48-49, 105-110

Charlesworth, J. H., 32 (101) Christology, 5, 31 (98) Chronicles of Yerahmeel, 15-16, 61

(64), 88 (26) Chronicon Paschale, 10, 31 Cicero, 85 Codex Marchalianus (Q), 7-8, 10-11,

20, 30, 33, 35, 68-71, 78, 111, 118

Constantine, 91-92, 94, 105-106, 113

Cornelius of Jerusalem, 72 Cosmas lndicopleustes, 31 (98) Cyril of Jerusalem, 87 Cyril of Scythopolis, 91

148 GENERAL INDEX

Daniel, 58, 60 vita of, 39, 51-52, 63, 67, 74 (88),

79-96, 101, 119-120 David, 92, 94 Delitzsch, F., 28, 58 Didascalia, 114 Dio Chrysostom, 85 Dolbeau, F., 29

Egeria, 48, 49 (29), 60 (63), 106, 109 (30)

Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin), 21 (55), 43, 49 (29)

Elijah, 5, 58, 104 vita of, 35 (2), 41, 50, 51 (33), 65

Elisha vita of, 35 (2), 41, 50, 51 (33), 65

Elkosh, 41 emperor, 91-96 encomium, 98-99 Epiphanius of Salamis, 1. 72, 108 eschatological prophecy, 36, 63-68,

73-74 ethical theory, 4, 83-84 Eunapius of Sardis, 113 Eupolemus, 98 Eusebius, 43 (12), 48, 49 (29), 104-

109, 117 Onomasticon, 49 (30), 107-108

Ezekiel vita of, 27, 36-37, 39-40, 51-54, 57-

58, 60, 63-64, 67 (78), 74 (88) Ezra, 5

fasting, 6, 90-91 Festugiere, A.-J., 91 Fischel, H., 27 Flusser, D., 3

geography, 40, 105-110 Ginzberg, L., 48 (27), 61 (64) Gregory "the Illuminator", 93-95 Gregory Thaumatourgos, 89 (30)

Habakkuk, 28, 49 (29), 101-102 vita of, 27, 36, 38-39, 49 (29), 51,

61-62, 64, 67, 67 (79), 74 (88), 79, 101-102

Haggai vita of, 35, 39, 50, 52

hagiography, 99-105 Hall, 1., 21 Hamaker, H. A., 21 Hare, D. R. A., 20 (54), 22, 29, 96

(56), 111-112 (38) Harvey, S. A., 99 Heinemann, 1., 46 (21) Hellenistic Judaism, 4 Hezekiah, 92 Hippolytus, 88 (25) History of the Monks of Egypt, 104-5 holy man, 95-96, 100-105 Holy Sepulchre, 106-107, 113, 116

(54) Homeric exegesis, 83-84 (12) Hosea vita of, 35, 38-39, 44-46, 51-52, 64, 67, 67 (79), 70, 72. 74 (88)

Hypomnesticon, 108

intercession, 56-58, 88, 94-96, 102-103

interpolation, 75-76 inventio, 109 Isaiah, 5, 47 (23), 48, 104 martyrdom of, vita of, 27, 36-37, 39, 52-54, 56-57, 60, 102-103, 111

Isidore of Seville, 14, 31 Issachar, 44

Jesus, 59 Jeremiah, 58, 104 vita of, 19, 27, 36-37, 39-40, 51. 52-54, 57, 60, 65, 111

Jeremias, J., 18-19, 22-24, 41-42, 47, 59, 116-117 (54-55)

Jerome, 20 (54), 43 (12), 48, 53 (39), 60 (63), 99 (5), 114, 117

INDEX 149

Joad, 66 vita of, 35, 41, 50

Joel vita of, 27, 35, 38-39, 44-45, 51-52,

68-69 John Chrysostom, 83 (11), 86-87,

89, 114 (50) John Moschus, 91, 102 (40) Jonah, 60 vita of, 51, 64, 67 (78), 74 (88), 79

Jonge, M. de, 19, 75-78 1 tit

Josephus, 41-42, 62, 88 (25) Julian, 113 Justinian, 84 (15)

kingship, 85 Klein, S., 18-21, 23, 46 Koml6s, 0., 59 Kraft, R., 31-32, 119

Lane Fox, R., 114 (49) Le Goff, J., 117 (56)' Life of Chariton, 103 liturgy, 4, 106-110 Lives of the Prophets, 1-2 Arabic version, 13, 73-74 Armenian version, 12-13 composition, 68-78 dating, 20-21 Dorothean recension, 10, 31 (98), 67

(79), 68-71 Ethiopic version, 14 genre, 97-110 Greek recensions, 11, 68-71 Hebrew version, 16 history of research, 16-29 language, 21-22 Latin version, 15 midrashic, quality of, 18 (45), 27,

45-46, 52, 58-61 provenance, 21 sources, 71-75 structure, 34-38 Syriac version, 11-12, 30, 72 transmission, 29-33, 97 textual criticism, 7-16, 29

loca sancta, 25, 106-110

Macarius of Alexandria, 90-91 Maccabean martyrs, 114-115 (50) Madeba map, 49 (29) Malachi vita of, 35, 38-39, 50, 52

Manasseh, 92 Maraval, P., 25 Mark the Deacon, 91 Martin, 111, 114 (50) martyrdom, 24-28, 59-60, 97, 103-4 and prophecy, 26 of the prophets, 52-56, 60

martyrology, 97 Maximus the Confessor, 84 Micah, 60 vita of, 27, 35, 38-40, 43-44, 50, 52-54, 60, 72

Micaiah b. Imlah, 43, 60 miracles, 56, 102-105 Momigliano, A., 115 monasticism, 6, 90-91, 102-105 Moses, 58 Moresheth, 40

Nahum vita of, 23, 35, 38-39, 41, 51-52,

64, 67, 72, 74 (88) narrative legends, 73 Nathan, 92, 94 vita of, 35, 38, 50, 53

Nebuchadnezzar, 51, 80-96, 119-120 Nero, 85 (18) Nestle, E., 17

Obadiah, 60 vita of, 35, 38-39, 50, 52

Oded,42 omen, 63-67 onomastica, 48, 83 (10) Origen, 26, 30, 84 (15)

Paulinus of Nola, 86 Palladius, 90-91, 99-100 penitence, 86-91 Pesikta Rabbati, 46 (20)

150 GENERAL INDEX

Peter Comestor, 14-15, 82 (8), 88 (26)

Peter the Deacon, 43 (12) Petit, M., 29 philanthropia, 88 Philo, 83 (12) Philostratus, 85 (18) pilgrimage, 24-25, 40, 48-49, 106-

110 Plato, 85 political theory, 85 popular religion, 23-24, 47-48, 115-

117 Porphyry, 83 (12) Prayer of Nabonidus, 81

relics, 112-113 Reuben, 44-46 Riessler, P., 17

Sabaratha, 41-42 saints, cult of, 24, 111-115 Salvian of Marseilles, 92 Samaria, 60 Samuel, 104 Schermann, T., 10, 17, 61, 69, 75

(90) Schoeps, H.-J., 26-27 Scholer, D., 28 (86) Schwemer, A.M., 19 (52) "Scroll of Genealogies", 23 Seder Olam, 62, 98 Semiticisms, 21-22, 108-109 Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah, 61 (64) Shiloah, 41, 53 signs, 53, 65, 66 Simon, M., 112 "soaked pulse", 90-91 Sozomen, 43 (12), 49 (29), 109 (30),

112 (39) Steck, 0.-H., 27-28 Subatha, 41-42 Sylvester, 94-95 Syme, R., 34 (1), 79 Symeon the Elder, 104 (17) Symeon Stylites, 104 (17)

Syro-Hexapla, 11-12, 30

Tabernacle, 51, 61 Taylor, J., 114 (49) Tekoah, 40 Temple, 106-107 Temple veil, 67 (79) Theodosius I, 94 textual criticism, 76-78 Theodoret of Cyr, 91, 99-100, 102

(10), 104, 117 Thomsen, P., 24 Tishbe, 41 tombs, 48-49, 97, ll1-117 Elisha, 60 house of David, 46-47 Hulda, 46-47 Isaiah, 47 (23), 48, 49 (30) John the Baptist, 60 Obadiah, 60 of biblical figures, 22-24 rabbinic attitudes, 46-47 Zechariah b. Jehoiada, 48

Torrey, C. C., 18, 20 (54), 21-22, 40, 51, 58, 72-73

transmission, 75-78, 100, 119-120 tribal genealogy, 43 tyranny, 85

Vincent, H .• 22

Wilkinson, J., 25

Yibleam, 44

Zechariah, apocryphon of, 26 Zechariah b. Baries, 25 Zechariah b. Berachiah, 25 vita of, 50, 53, 64, 67, 74 (88)

Zechariah b. Jehoiada, 25 vita of, 27, 38-39, 48, 51, 52-54,

60, 64, 70 Zechariah, father of John the Baptist,

25 Zehner, J., 21 Zephaniah, 41-42 vita of, 38, 41, 50, 69

STUDIA IN VETERIS TESTAMENT! PSEUDEPIGRAPHA

EDITED BY A.-M. DENIS AND M. DEJONGE

2. DELCOR, M. (ed.). Le Testament d'Abraham. Introduction, traduction du texte grec et commentaire de la recension grecque longue. Suivi de la tra­duction des Testaments d'Abraham, d'lsaac et de Jacob d'apres les versions orientales. 1973. ISBN 90 04 03641 5

3. JONGE, M. DE (ed.). Studies on the Testaments if the Twewe Patriarchs. Text and Interpretation. 1975. ISBN 90 04 04379 9

4. HORST, P.W. VAN DER (ed.). The Sentences if Pseudo-Phocylides. With Intro­duction and Commentary. 1978. ISBN 90 04 05707 2

5. TURDEANU, E. Apocryphes slaves et roumains de !'Ancient Testament. 1981. ISBN 90 04 06341 2

6. HOLLANDER, H.W. Joseph as an Ethical Model in the Testaments if the Twewe Patriarchs. 1981. ISBN 90 04 0638 7 0

7. BLACK, M. (ed.). The Book if Enoch or I Enoch. A New English Edition with Commentary and Textual Notes. In Consultation with J.C. V ANDERKAM. With an Appendix on the "Astronomical" Chapters by 0. NEUGEBAUER. 1985. ISBN 90 04 07100 8

8. HOLLANDER, H.W. & M. DE JONGE (eds.). The Testaments if the Twewe Patriarchs. A Commentary. 1985. ISBN 90 04 07560 7 •

9. STONE, M.E. Selected Studies in Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha. With Special Reference to the Armenian Tradition. 1991. ISBN 90 04 09343 5

10. TROMP, J. (ed.). The Assumption if Moses. A Critical Edition with Com­mentary. 1993. ISBN 90 04 09779 1

11. SATRAN, D. Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine. Reassessing the li:oes if the Prophets. 1995. ISBN 90 04 10234 5