Did the spirit withdraw from Israel? An evaluation of the earliest Jewish data

New Testament Studies

Volumn 43, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 35-57

  Levison, John R ^a  

^a DUKE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 62649120512     PISSN: 00286885     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0028688500022487     Document Type: Review

References (51)

1. J. Vos, Traditionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur paulinische Pneumatologie (Assen: van Gorcum Co., 1973) 72.
2. The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition (London: SCM, 1947) 108-9.
3. Paul and Rabbinic Judaism: Some Rabbinic Elements in Pauline Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 4th ed. 1980) 215. This statement follows a serious analysis (208-15) of other data which indicate the continued working of the Holy Spirit. Professor Davies has communicated to me in private conversation that he no longer espouses this position, upon which he wrote a half century ago.
4. 'Holy Spirit', Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible 2.630.
5. New Testament Theology (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971) 81.
6. New Testament Prophecy (Atlanta: John Knox, 1979) 21.
7. Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980) 135.
8. See also idem, Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A Re-examination of the New Testament Teaching on the Gift of the Spirit in Relation to Pentecostalism Today (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970) 27, where he states that at the baptism of Jesus 'the long drought of knowing the Spirit comes to an end'.
9. Das Angeld des Geistes: Studien zur paulinischen Pneumatologie (Göttingen: Vanden-hoeck & Ruprecht, 1992) 31.
10. God's Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993) 914.
11. R. Meyer, TDNT 6.812-16;
12. R. Leivestad, 'Das Dogma von der prophetenlosen Zeit', NTS 19 (1972-3) 288-99;
13. D. E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 103-6;
14. F. E. Greenspahn, 'Why Prophecy Ceased', JBL 108 (1989) 37-49.
15. Lampe, 'Holy Spirit', IDB 2.630.
16. J. Barton, Oracles of God: Perceptions of Ancient Prophecy in Israel after the Exile (New York/Oxford: Oxford University, 1986) 115.
17. Barton, Oracles of God, 108. Aune (Prophecy in Early Christianity, 103) contends more stridently, 'The evidence ... flatly contradicts that view.'
18. See A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Book of Psalms (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1902) 439-42;
19. M. E. Tate, Psalms 51-100 (Word Biblical Commentary 20; Waco, TX: Word 1990) 247.
20. Meyer, TDNT 6.814;
21. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity, 105;
22. Greenspahn, 'Why Prophecy Ceased', 40.
23. Leivestad, 'Das Dogma', 292.
24. See, for example, J. A. Goldstein, I Maccabees (AB 41; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976) 12-13;
25. Horn, Angeld, 29-30.
26. Meyer (TDNT 6.815) feels justified in identifying this prophet with John Hyrcanus, who occupies the climactic position in 1 Maccabees and is accorded prophetic status by Josephus. On Josephus' interpretation of John Hyrcanus, see R. Gray, Prophetic Figures in Late Second Temple Jewish Palestine: The Evidence from Josephus (New York/Oxford: Oxford University, 1993)16-23.
27. Leivestad, 'Das Dogma', 295-6.
28. Greenspahn, 'Why Prophecy Ceased', 39-40.
29. Feldman, 'Prophets and Prophecy in Josephus', JTS 41 (1990) 400;
30. Gray, Prophetic Figures, 8-16.
31. See L. H. Feldman, 'Prophets and Prophecy, 400-7;
32. Translations of 2 Baruch by A. F. J. Klijn in J. H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1983) 1.621-52.
33. 'Why Prophecy Ceased', 40.
34. Before embarking upon our analysis, we ought to recognize the perennial problem of dating rabbinic material. H. L. Strack and G. Stemberger (Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash [Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1991] 176) place the final redaction of the Tosefta in the later third or fourth centuries. Its reliability as a source for understanding the first century CE, therefore, is dependent in part upon the existence of prior texts which share its perspective. I have attempted to demonstrate in part two that no such firm evidence of this viewpoint antedates the Tosefta itself. Therefore, even if t. Sota 13.2-4 supported the alleged dogma of the permanent withdrawal of the prophetic Spirit, its usefulness for interpreting the New Testament would be limited.
35. Unpublished translation of E. M. Meyers. Other translations of the Tosefta, unless otherwise specified, are from J. Neusner, The Tosefta, Translated from the Hebrew: Third Division Nashim (The Order of Women) (New York: Ktav, 1979).
36. Similarly F. W. Horn, 'Holy Spirit', Anchor Bible Dictionary 3.263-4.
37. A. Marmorstein ('The Holy Spirit in Rabbinic Legend', in idem, Studies in Jewish Theology [ed. J. Rabbinowitz and M. S. Lew; London/New York/Toronto: Oxford University, 1950] 126) infers from a saying of Rabbi Akiba, who taught that during the thirty-eight years of Israel's punishment, Moses received no divine address, meeting with the shekhinah, or any visit from the Holy Spirit: 'For this reason and not on any personal ground it was said that Hillel would have been worthy of the Holy Spirit had not the sinfulness of his age robbed him of its possession.' We should observe, however, that the bath qol in t. Sota 13.2-4 is a mode of divine revelation; clearly the generation is not so evil that the sages cannot collectively hear the divine voice. The caveat proffered in 13.3 that, despite the withdrawal of the Spirit, God continued to communicate by means of the bath qol, is an attempt to rebut the implication that God failed to communicate. Therefore, the analogy Marmorstein draws between this text and Akiba's statement about Moses is unsuitable; there is here communication - significant communication which confirms the presence of rabbis worthy of the Holy Spirit.
38. Translation from H. Danby, The Mishnah (Oxford: Oxford University, 1933) 446.
39. On these see my 'Inspiration and the Divine Spirit in the Writings of Philo Judaeus', JSJ 26 (1995) 271-323.
40. E.g., Josephus Ant. 4.108, 118-19; 8.114; on these see my 'Josephus' Interpretation of the Divine Spirit', JJS (1996), forthcoming.
41. See also Pseudo-Philo Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 27.9-10; on this see my 'Prophetic Inspiration in Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum', JQR 85 (1995) 297-329.
42. For important overviews, see Marmorstein, 'Rabbinic Legend', 132-5;
43. P. Schäfer, Die Vorstellung vom heiligen Geist in der rabbinischen Literatur (StANT 28; Munich: Kösel, 1972) 116-34, especially 121-3;
44. and H. Parzen, 'The Ruah Hakodesh in Tannaitic Literature', JQR n.s. 20 (1929-30) 51-76.
45. Der Geist Gottes im Neuen Testament (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1926) 118.
46. The Holy Spirit (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980) 30.
47. Prophecy in Early Christianity, 104.
48. 'Matay Paseqah Hanevu'ah?', Tarbiz 17 (1945-6) 1-11.
49. See summaries and critiques in P. Schäfer, Vorstellung, 144-6
50. Mek. Beshallab 7. Translation from J. Z. Lauterbach, Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael: A Critical Edition on the Basis of the Manuscripts and Early Editions with an English Translation, Introduction and Notes (3 vols.; Philadelphia, 1933-5) 1.252.
51. See, for example, E. M. Meyers, 'The Crisis of the Mid-fifth Century B.C.E., Second Zechariah and the "End" of Prophecy", in Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob Milgrom (ed. D. P. Wright, D. N. Freedman, A. Hurvitz; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1995) 713-23.