Testament and canon in the Letter of Second Baruch (2 Baruch 78-87)

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 149-163

  Whitters, M F ^a  

^a NONE   (United States)

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EID: 60949799560     PISSN: 09518207     EISSN: 17455286     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/095182070101200202     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. For a bibliography of older scholarship on the genre, see A.B. Kolenkow and J.J. Collins, 'Testaments', in R.A. Kraft and G.W.E. Nickelsburg (eds.), Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters (Philadelphia: Fortress Press; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986), pp. 259-85
2. Other references relevant for this paper are: P. Bogaert, Apocalypse de Baruch, introduction, traduction du syriaque et commentaire (2 vols.; SC, 144-45; Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1969), I, p. 122
3. J.H. Charlesworth, 'Testaments - Often with Apocalyptic Sections: Introduction', OTP, I, p. 773
4. J.J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination (2nd edn; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, MA: Eerdmans, 1998), pp. 127-44. There does not seem to be any recent survey of the testament genre, especially in light of DSS sources
5. R.P. Spittler, 'Testament of Job', OTP, I, pp. 831-32
6. M. Küchler, Frühjüdische Weisheitstraditionen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1979), pp. 415-19
7. J. Munck, 'Discours d'adieu dans le Nouveau Testament et dans la littérature biblique', in O. Cullman and P. Menoud (eds.), Aux sources de la tradition chrétienne (Festschrift M. Goguel; Neuchâtel: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1950), pp. 155-70
8. A.B. Kolenkow, 'The Genre Testament and Forecasts of the Future in the Hellenistic Jewish Milieu', JSJ 6 (1975), pp. 57-71
9. E. Stauffer, 'Abschiedsreden', RAC, I, pp. 29-35
10. T.F. Glasson, Greek Influence in Jewish Eschatology (London: SPCK, 1961). More recent literature on the subject does not contest or comment on the Greco-Roman and Jewish connection
11. K. Baltzer, The Covenant Formulary (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), esp. pp. 81-82
12. E.g. 1 En. 91-104 (the Letter of Enoch); 4 Ezra; 2 Baruch; the Testament of Levi (2-5; 14-18); the Testament of Moses
13. Some examples include 1 Enoch (esp. the Letter of Enoch, chs. 91-104), the Testament of Moses, probably the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and possibly 4 Ezra
14. In general see J.J. Collins, 'Pseudepigraphy and Group Formation in Second Temple Judaism', in E.G. Chazon and M. Stone (eds.), Pseudepigraphic Perspectives: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999), pp. 43-58
15. Disputing the view that 1 En. 91-105 is sectarian is R.A. Horsley, 'Social Relations and Social Conflict in the Epistle of Enoch', in R.A. Argall, B.A. Bow and R.A. Werline (eds.), For a Later Generation (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000), pp. 100-15 (115)
16. The Ethiopian Church adopted the book of Enoch; the Syrian Orthodox Church adopted the Epistle of Baruch; the Latin Church adopted Fourth Ezra as an appendix to the Vulgate, while other churches give it quasi-canonical status. The book of Enoch seemed to have pride of place for religious groups in the Hellenistic period. See G.W.E. Nickelsburg, 'The Nature and Function of Revelation in 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and Some Qumranic Documents', in Chazon and Stone (eds.), Pseudepigraphic Perspectives, pp. 91-119 (98-99)
17. Collins, 'Group Formation', p. 44
18. The Qumran sect may have received other testaments into their 'canon'. See M.O. Wise, The First Messiah (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), pp. 46-60, 110-15
19. Bogaert, Apocalypse, I, pp. 67-72
20. F.J. Murphy, The Structure and Meaning of Second Baruch (SBLDS, 78; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985)
21. M.F. Whitters, The Epistle of Second Baruch: A Study in Form and Message (JSPSup, 42; Sheffield Academic Press, [forthcoming] 2003)
22. cf. G.B. Sayler, Have the Promises Failed? A Literary Analysis of 2 Baruch (SBLDS, 72; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1984)
23. M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 11
24. The translation follows the V MS of Ceriani
25. (plural) has been emended to (singular). Otherwise, the translation of the phrase would be, 'that you... learn the mighty commandments that he has taught you'. Bogaert (Apocalypse, II, p. 154) suggests the emendation on grounds that 'the rarity of construct phrases brings on errors of punctuation'. All other versions read as above
26. Literally, the MS reads, 'the covenant and your ancestors'
27. The Syriac phrase is frequently used in the Peshitta New Testament for one's defense before a tribunal (Acts 22.1; 1 Cor. 9.3; 2 Cor. 7.11; Phil. 1.7,16; 2 Tim. 4.16). In this passage of Ep2B, Baruch presumes he is soon to give an account of his life to God the judge
28. In this sense, Ep2B resembles the Epistle of Enoch, which depends on the apocalyptic revelations recorded earlier in 1 Enoch. See Nickelsburg, 'Nature', p. 92
29. For a definition of the genre and its narrative framework, see J.J. Collins, 'Introduction: Towards the Morphology of a Genre', in idem, Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre (Semeia, 14; Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1979), p. 9
30. This is my translation based upon 'c'
31. For example, note the similarity of language between 2B 84.2, 7 and Deut. 31.19, 21, 26, 28; 32.1)
32. W.O. McCready, 'A Second Torah at Qumran?', SR 14 (1985), pp. 5-15
33. J. Corbett, 'The Pharisaic Revolution and Jesus as Embodied Torah', SR 15 (1986), pp. 375-91
34. J. Kampen, 'The Sectarian Form of the Antitheses within the Social World of the Matthean Community', Dead Sea Discoveries 1 (1994), pp. 338-63
35. In general, see J.E. Wright, 'Baruch', in M.E. Stone and T.A. Bergren (eds.), Biblical Figures Outside the Bible (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998)
36. P.R. Davies (Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures [Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1998], pp. 119-20) contends that long before the first century biblical scribes had exalted the stature of Jeremiah to 'a prophet like Moses' and his collection of prophecies to the status of the Torah
37. An imprint of a seal, discovered in 1975 and dated to the time of the Babylonian invasion, reads, 'Belonging to Berekhyahu, son of Neriyahu, the scribe'. The names and the dating all fit the biblical portrayal of Baruch the scribe, son of Neriah. See H. Shanks, 'Fingerprint of Jeremiah's Scribe', BARev 12 (1996), pp. 36-38
38. W. Adler, 'Introduction', in J.C. Vanderkam and W. Adler (eds.), The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (CRINT, 3/4; Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature; Assen: Van Gorcum; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), pp. 1-31 (13)
39. D.S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic 200 BC-AD 100 (London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964), pp. 118-19. Russell believes that the necessity of writing apocalypses down reflects a widespread suspicion of oral revelations and coincides with the increasing codification and canonization of the Law and prophets in the Roman period
40. In the Pastoral Letters of the New Testament, for example, 'doctrine' and 'gospel' are used almost synonymously (e.g. 1 Tim. 1.10)
41. Other explanations for the eagle as Baruch's courier have been proposed by C. Wolff, 'Irdisches und himmlisches Jerusalem: Die Heilshoffung in den Paralipomena Jeremiae', ZNW 82 (1991), pp. 147-58
42. and J. Herzer, Die Paralipomena Jeremiae: Studien zu Tradition und Redaktion einer Haggada des früher Judentums (TS AJ, 43; Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1994), pp. 69-71, 122 n. 419
43. M.F. Whitters, 'Some New Observations about Jewish Festal Letters', JSJ 32 (2001), pp. 272-88 (285-88)
44. This is the OTP translation; Gressman calls this a Lehrbrief (see B. Violet, Die Apokalypsen des Esra und des Baruch in deutscher Gestalt, mit Textvoschlägen für Esra und Baruch von H. Gressman [Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1924], p. 350)
45. Gressman calls this der Regel in book format or (Violet, Apokalypsen, p. 350)
46. Note the repetition of 'one' and compare the line with the Jewish 'Shema' prayer. H.J. Schoeps (Theologie und Geschichte des Judenchristentums [Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1949], p. 290 n. 3) sees this as a creedal statement, though Bogaert (Apocalypse, II, p. 162) is not as inclined to accept it as such, because there is no mention of the Jewish people per se. He concedes, however, that the line is a summary of the book's universalism
47. On the other hand, Charles sees this passage as a polemical attack against Christians. He takes Moses as the 'One' who provided the Law. See R.H. Charles, The Apocalypse of Baruch Translated from the Syriac: Edited with Introduction, Notes and Indices (London: A. & C. Black, 1896), p. 164
48. R.A. Horsley ('The Kingdom of God and the Renewal of Israel: Synoptic Gospels, Jesus Movements, and Apocalypticism', in J.J. Collins [ed.], The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism. I. The Origins of Apocalypticism in Judaism and Christianity [3 vols.; New York: Continuum, 1998], pp. 303-44 [336]) believes that the Gospel of Matthew illustrates how the destruction of Jerusalem made a Jewish-Christian community more extroverted and universal in its outlook and mission. The same principle may be at work in 2B
49. For a general discussion of Jewish proselytism, see M. Goodman, Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994)
50. L.H. Feldman, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)
51. M. Hirshman, 'Rabbinic Universalism in the Second and Third Centuries', HTR 93 (2000), pp. 101-15
52. A dated but still useful study on the subject is G.F. Moore's Judaism in the First Centuries of the Common Era (3 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927-30), I, pp. 323-53