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Judaism II. Группа авторов
Читать онлайн.Название Judaism II
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isbn 9783170325852
Автор произведения Группа авторов
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
Independent of Ethiopic Enoch (1 Enoch) is Slavonic Enoch (= 2 Enoch) , originally written in Greek, possibly already before 70 CE (there are frequent references to a functioning sacrificial practice and no reflection on the destruction of the temple). It was certainly completed in the course of the second century CE.67 The work describes a heavenly journey through the heavenly spheres as far as the divine throne and gives insights into the secrets of the world on the other side. The universalistic perspective of its author on the cult, wisdom, and ethics points to the final composition of this Jewish writing (handed down and repeatedly revised in Christianity) within a majority non-Jewish environment in the western Diaspora.
The twelve books of the Sibylline Oracles68 are a collection, written in Greek, of Jewish and Christian fictional oracles from the lips of a mythical female figure as a bearer of revelation. In style the Sibyllines correspond to ancient epic poetry. The Sibylline Oracles were revised and expanded many times. A concluding redaction of the collected material probably took place in the early Middle Ages. The Sibyllines are preserved only in manuscripts by Christian scribes. Originally a religio-historical phenomenon from Greco-Roman culture,69 the oracles found distribution in the entire ancient Mediterranean world in orally transmitted sayings collections.
The popular genre was also adopted by Jewish authors and subsequently fixed in the biblical tradition when the Sibyl was identified with Noah’s daughter-in-law (3:826f.). The antiquity of the oracles underscored their special reliability. This interpretatio Iudaica of a pagan mythical figure makes sense in that the propaganda of the Sibyllines aimed to demonstrate to a non-Jewish audience, from a Jewish perspective, the inescapable consequences of their attachment to pagan polytheism and—in Books 4 and 5—of their support for the hated world power, Rome.
The Jewish origin of the bulk of Books 3 to 5 is generally regarded as certain. In their present form the Jewish Sibyllines contain reworked older, non-Jewish traditions and numerous pronouncements from a Jewish source. These Jewish sub-collections come from different periods. It is considered likely that the third book of the Sibyllines dates to the third century BCE at the latest, while the fourth and fifth books relate to contemporary events from late-first and the beginning of the second century BCE. The place of origin of Books 3 to 5 is generally thought to be Egypt.
The Jewish Sibyllines contain cryptic prophecies against non-Jewish peoples, in particular against the Ptolemaic and the Roman Empires. They express the hope of a future action by God in favor of his oppressed people and of the world-wide implementation of the commandments of the Torah. A periodization of the historical world age draws a wide arc from the Flood to the coming world conflagration.
8 Dead Sea Scrolls
Since 1947, a total of 900 fragmentary Jewish writings have been found in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran, an ancient settlement on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.70 These writings date from the third century BCE to before 70 CE and can be divided paleographically into an »archaic« group (ca. 250–150 BCE), a »Hasmonean« group (ca. 150–30 BCE), and a »Herodian« group (ca. 30 BCE–70 CE). It is possible that there is a link between the inhabitants of the settlement and the authors or owners of the scrolls.
Among the manuscript discoveries—which are heterogeneous in content—are first of all, all the books of the Bible (except for Esther), copied or translated, and some religious writings in Hebrew or Aramaic that were previously known only in the Christian tradition. Also among the manuscript finds are commentaries on Canonical writings (pesharim), which interpret the present time through the prophetic books (e.g. Isaiah, Habakkuk, and Nahum). This interpretation was regarded as the text’s »real« meaning, which had always related to the community itself. Among the actual »sectarian writings« are the Rule of the Community, the War Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the so-called Cairo Damascus Document. Besides paleographic and terminological similarities, there are agreements in content between these texts, such as the description of life in the community, reflection on its special place within Palestinian Judaism, and the mention of an authoritative teacher.
The influence of Jewish apocalypticism on the sectarian scrolls is supported by the fact that there were also fragments from almost all parts of 1 Enoch, the book of Jubilees, and Daniel in the caves. The scrolls borrow themes, imagery, and motifs characteristic of apocalyptic literature such as dualistic thinking, the division of world time into individual epochs, the presentation of the present time as the end-time, the idea of an imminent catastrophic change of era, and a decisive battle between good and evil, as well as consciousness of the election of their own group, and their liturgical communion with heavenly beings.
The sectarian scrolls depict a priestly sect with a special organizational form, whose life and piety were determined by the sharp contrast to the currently practiced Jerusalem temple cult and the cultic calendar used there. Its community of goods, its extraordinary efforts for purity even in everyday life, its eschatological orientation, and its anti-Hellenistic mentality were based on an expectation of an imminent Eschaton.
Its dualistically structured apocalyptic understanding of judgment served to stabilize its community: the ungodly individual is punished in the final judgment and annihilated. There is, however, very little talk of the future salvation of the individual in the sectarian writings; at the top of all hopes of salvation stood the fellowship of the cultically pure priests of God. It was only within the exclusive circle of the pious and the righteous and only on the basis of a correct lifestyle that people saw themselves as safe from the threat of God’s wrathful judgment. Expulsion from one’s own community based on transgressions that threaten group identity meant irrevocable exclusion from eternal salvation.
9 Philo of Alexandria
The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 BCE–50 CE) endeavored to combine the narratives and directives of the Torah with ideas from contemporary Stoic and Platonic philosophy, without giving up the biblical-Jewish tradition or image-free monotheism. Despite his thorough knowledge of Hellenistic philosophy, Philo was no outsider, shown through his election as the Alexandrian Jews’ spokesman for important diplomatic affairs.
The works of Philo71 were handed down through Christianity—in Greek, Latin, and Armenian. In Judaism, by contrast, the Jewish philosopher of religion was soon to be forgotten following the demise of Alexandrian Judaism after the Kitos War (115–117 CE). Not a few of his works are lost. The writings of Philo that are preserved are not really consistent in terms of form and content. They can be divided into (1) commentaries on the Pentateuch, (2) philosophical treatises, and (3) historical writings.72
Philo’s systematic interpretations and applications of the law for Alexandrian Judaism view the Torah as composed by Moses under God’s direction (in its Greek version, regarded as inspired). It is not only Israel’s religious guide, but also as a blueprint of creation, as natural law, and as the source of all philosophy. These derive from a shared ancient repertoire of exegetical methods (allegory in particular), by means of which authoritative texts and traditions were afforded contemporary relevance and authority, in an apologetic manner. By linking the biblical material with Jewish beliefs and Greek ideas, they demonstrate their author’s efforts to recognize tradition while also revealing his concern to develop a counter-concept to pagan ideas like Middle Platonism, Stoicism, and neo-Pythagoreanism.
A key theme for Philo was the dialectic between the transcendence and immanence of God. He mediated between Greek and biblical/Jewish thinking by accentuating the absolute difference between the perfect creator and an inadequate creation. He emphasized that the Torah equips and directs the rational human soul to rise from the banishment of the body and the emotions into the world of the divine