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Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum

The Jewish Apocalyptic Herritage in Early Christaianity

Edited by James C. VanderKam and William Adler

1996
Van Gorcum, Assen
Fortress Press, Minneapolis



JEWISH TRADITIONS IN EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

Board of Editors: Y. Aschkenasy, T. Baarda, W.J. Burgers, D. Fhtsser, P.W. van der Horst, Th.C. de Kruyf, S. Safrai, J.C. VanderKam, B.H. Young General Editor: P.J. Tomson

Volume 1

PAUL AND THE JEWISH LAW; HALAKHA IN THE LE’ITERS OF THE APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES

Peter J. Tomson

Volume 2

JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY AND ICONOGRAPHY
IN EARLY AND MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY
Heinz Schreckenberg - Kurt Schubert
Translations from the German: Paul A. Catbey

Volume 3
PHIL0 IN EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE; A SURVEY
David T. Runia

Volume 4

THE JEWISH APOCALYPTIC HERITAGE IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY

Edited by James C. VanderKam and William Adler Published under the auspices of the Foundation Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamenturn Amsterdam


PREFACE XI CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

by William Adler


Jewish Apocalypses in Christian Settings 1
The Christian Use of the Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition 2
Approaches to the Question 2
P. Vielhauer and Early Christian ‘Apocalyptic’ 3
Early Christianity as the Bearer of the Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition 5
Scope and Method of the Present Study 7
Early Christian Perceptions of the Jewish Apocalypses 8
The Use of the Word &noxdhv+g 8
Christian Identification of an Apocalyptic ‘Genre’ 10
The Jewish Apocalypses as ‘Esoteric Book Wisdom’ 12
Possible Functions of the Jewish Apocalypses in Early Christianity 13
Esotericism as a Literary Motif 13
Apocalyptic Writings in Sectarian Self-Definition 17
The Jewish Apocalypses and the Question of their Authority 19
The Self-Validating Claims of the Jewish Apocalypses 19
The Uncertain Status of the Jewish Apocalypses 22
The Survival and ‘Christianization’ of Older Jewish Apocalypses 25
Apocalyptic Themes in Non-Apocalyptic Genres 29

CHAPTER TWO: 1 ENOCH, ENOCHIC MOTIFS, AND ENOCH IN EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE by James C. VanderKam

The Status of Enochic Literature in Early Christianity
Introduction 33
Chronological Survey 35
Jude (Palestine? second half of the first century) 35
Barnabas (Alexandria; second half of the first century) 36

VI
Athenagoras, Embassy for the Christians (Alexandria; 176-80 CE) 40
Irenaeus (Gaul, ca. 130 - ca. 200) 42
Clement of Alexandria (Egypt; ca. 150 - ca. 215) 44
Tertullian (North Africa; ca. 160 - ca. 220) 47
Origen (Egypt and Palestine; ca. 185 - ca. 254) 54
summary 59
Early Christian Uses of the Enochic Angel Story
Introduction 60
Chronological Survey 62
1 Pet 3:19-20 62
Jude 6 63
2 Pet 2:4 63
Justin Martyr (Syria-Palestine; died ca. 167) 63
Tatian (Rome and Antioch; ca. 110-72) 65
Athenagoras 65
Irenaeus 66
Clement of Alexandria 66
Bardaisan (Syria; 154-222) 67
Tertullian 67
Gnostic Uses of the Angel Story 70
The Pseudo-Clementine Literature 76
Julius Africanus (various places; ca. 160 - ca. 240) 80
Origen 81
Commodian (mid-third century) 82
Cyprian (Carthage; died 258) 82
Zosimus of Panopolis (late third - early fourth century) 83
Gen 6: l-4 in the Fourth Century 84
Summary 87
The Person of Enoch in Early Christian Literature
Introduction 88
Revelation 11 89
Chronological Survey 92
The Apocalypse of Peter (second century) 92
Tertullian 93
Hippolytus (Rome; ca. 170-236) 93
The Apocalypse of Elijah (Egypt; third-fourth centuries) 95
The Apocalypse of John (third-fifth centuries) 96
Possible Sources for the Identification of Enoch as One of
the Witnesses 97
Conclusion 100

VII
CHAPTER THREE: CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE ON THE TRANSMISSION
HISTORY OF 4,5, AND 6 EZRA
by Theodore A. Bergren 102
The Transmission History of 4 Ezra in Hebrew and Greek 103
Christian Influence in the Extant Tertiary Versions of 4 Ezra 107
The Latin Version 107
The Syriac Version 108
The Ethiopic Version 108
The Georgian Version 109
The Arabic1 Version 109
The Arabic2 Version 110
The Armenian Version II0
The Coptic Version 122
Conclusions 1 I3
Christian Influence in the Latin Transmission History of 4,5, and 6 Ezra 113
Background 114
The Process of Association of 4,5, and 6 Ezra 116
The Recensional Situation 121
Geographical Considerations 125
Conclusions 126
CHAPTER FOUR: THE LEGACY OF JEWISH APOCALYPSES IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY: REGIONAL TRAJECTORIES by David Fran&rter 129
Introduction 129
Apocalypses and Apocalypticism 129
A Regional Approach to the Use of Apocalypses 131
Apocalypticism in Asia Minor
Introduction 131
132
Prophetic Sects and Literary Composition 133
Evidence for Jewish Apocalyptic Literature 136
The Byzantine Legacy of the Ascension of Isaiah 139
Conclusions 141
Egyptian Apocalypticism (1): Gnosis and Holy Books
Judaism in Egypt 143
Egyptian Priestly ‘Apocalypticism’ 146
Gnosticism as Heir to Jewish Apocalypses 150
Religious Continuities Between Jewish Apocalypticism and
Gnosticism 1.50
142
Mission and Book /5_?
Self-Definition 15.3

VIII
Liturgy 154
Literary Continuities Between Jewish Apocalypses and
Gnostic Texts 155
Conclusions 161
Egyptian Apocalypticism (2): Millennialist Groups and Holy Men
Apocalyptic Movements in the Third Century 164
Apocalypses and Sectarianism in the Fourth Century 170
Anchoritic Charisma, Third through Fifth Centuries I74
Visions 176
Names and Avatars of the ‘Saints’ 181
Monastic Scriptoria, Fourth through Seventh Centuries 185
Manuscripts 186
Hagiography 190
Martyrology I93
‘Apocalypticism’ in Coptic Egypt 195
Egyptian Apocalypticism: Conclusions
Two Kinds of Apocalypticism 196
Apocalypses and Scripture in Egyptian Christianity 198
163
196
CHAPTER FIVE: THE APOCALYPTIC SURVEY OF HISTORY ADAPTED BY CHRISTIANS: DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF 70 WEEKS
by William Adler 201
Introduction 201
Daniel’s 70 Weeks and the ‘Apocalyptic View of History’ 202
History as Revealed Wisdom 203
The Current Crisis as the Foreordained Culmination of History 204
The 70 Weeks of Years in Jewish Chronography of the Second
Temple Period 206
The Old Greek Rendering of Dan 9:24-27 206
Daniel 9 in Jewish ‘Apocalyptic Chronography’ 208
Josephus and the Crisis of the Jewish War 212
Josephus and Daniel’s Apocalyptic Hope 212
Josephus’ ‘Ambiguous Oracle’ 214
The ‘70 Weeks’ in Christian Exegesis 217
Early Treatment of the Prophecy 217
Historicizing Interpretations of Daniel 9 after the First Century 228
The x~~,trtili; fiyotipevog and the Adaptation of a Jewish
I:xcgctical Tradition 223
‘I’hc ‘I’hcodotionic Rendering of Dan 9:25 223
(‘lclncnt’~ Stromala 224
t Iippcjl\,lu\’ Scgrwntation 01‘ the 70 Year-Weeks 226
I,lu4c’l)iu\’ Inlctprclalion 01‘ I)aniel’s Vision 227

IX
Daniel 9 in Eusebius’ Demonstratio Evangelica 227
Alexander Jannaeus and the End of the Xelotbg fiyob~evos 229
Eusebius’ ‘Third Theory’ and Herod’s Cessation of Priestly
Unction 231
Herod, the ‘Coming Prince’ and Gen 49: 10 232
The xeurzo’l fiyo”i)p,~vo~ and the Formation of a Christian View of
Universal History
Eusebius’ ‘Catalogue’ of High Priests and the Shaping of
Sacred History 237
236
ABBREVIATIONS 239
CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 242
INDEX OF SOURCES 259
INDEX OF NAMES, PLACES AND SUBJECTS 273
INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS 282



Preface

Early Christians found themselves in a paradoxical relationship with Jews and Judaism. On the one hand, they saw the Jewish people, especially the religious leaders, as their staunchest opponents. Though they embraced the Torah and the Prophets, which the Christians believed spoke eloquently of Jesus the Messiah, they had rejected him and now opposed his followers. On the other hand, most of the very first Christians were themselves Jewish and almost alI members of the church recognized in Judaism their deepest spiritual roots. As time passed, the percentage of Jewish Christians became negligible, but even when the Church had become almost entirely non-Jewish in membership the Jewish contribution to the new faith could hardly be denied.

One major component of that rich Jewish heritage was the broad diverse apocalyptic tradition. There can be no doubt that many early Christian writers found Jewish apocalyptic texts, modes of thought, characters, and themes to be particularly valuable as they elaborated their theologies, cosmologies, and philosophies of history. The New Testament itself gives eloquent witness to the heavy influence from Jewish apocalypticism. Several passages in it quabfy as apocalypses (e.g., the Synoptic apocalypses), and apocalypse as the name of a literary genre comes from the Greek title of the Revelation of John. But the legacy of the Jewish apocalypses by no means ended with the New Testament period; it continued in varied ways for centuries and has lefi a permanent imprint on Christian theology. The Jewish and, to a lesser extent, the early Christian apocalypses have become the object of imnunerable studies in recent decades. Scholarship in these areas has been reinvigorated in part by discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, among which significanl porfions of key apocafyptic books such as I Enoch were found, and by the Nag Hammadi codices in which several apocalypses appear. The apocalypses have been studied from diverse angles and with different scholarly methods. Thus textual, exegetical, and recensional issues have been addressed; and definitions of key terms, isolation of characteristic ways of thinking, and identification of possible social settings have all occupied much time and space in contemporary scholarship. It is fair to say, however, that amid this flurry of activity the Christian appropriation of Jewish apocalypticism has not received as much attention as it deserves or requires. The present book is offered as a contribution toward filling that need. The five essays in it have been designed, not to offer comprehensive coverage of this massive topic, but more as a series of probes into important aspects of the early Christian employment, adaptation, and preservation of Jewish apocalyptic traditions. It seemed
wise to select a limited number of significant topics and to pursue them - especially through major examples - in order to gain a greater understanding of the subject. In general, the essays cover the first three or four centuries of the Common Era, although in some cases it was necessary to move beyond these limits.

The introduction surveys ancient perceptions of the apocalypses as well as their function, authority, and survival in the early Church. The second chapter focuses on a specific tradition by exploring the status of the Enoch literature, use of the fallen angel motif, and identification of Enoch as an eschatological witness. A chapter is also devoted to Christian transmission of Jewish texts – a topic whose significance is more and more being recognized. 4-6 Ezra serve as examples of what could and did happen to such works as they were copied and edited. The use and influence of Jewish apocalyptic texts and themes among sectarian Christian groups in Asia Minor and especially Egypt form the subjects of the fourth chapter, while the fifth analyzes early Christian appropriation and reinterpretation of Jewish apocalyptic chronologies. A word of thanks is due to the Board of Editors for their initiative to include this volume in Section III of the Compendia series, and to Professor Peter J. Tomson for his gentle guidance, prompting, and encouragement as the volume gradually took shape. Words of gratitude to the contributors are also in order. Each one of them has taken time from busy schedules to produce major new studies in areas in which they specialize. Thanks are also extended to the Rev. Les Walck for his important assistance at an early point in the research which lies behind chap. 2.\

It is hoped that this volume will enhance the appreciation of the debt the Christian Church owes to its mother religion, and that it will stimulate added reflection on the complex cultural relationships in the early history of both religions.

James C. VanderKam
William Adler






















Chapter One

Introduction

William Adler

Jewish Apocalypses in Christian Settings


Recent work on the Jewish apocalypses has devoted considerable energy to the kinds of Judaism that gave birth to this literature, and its social setting and function. Virtually every Jewish party or sect has at one time or another been identified as possibly responsible for its composition. One reason for the lack of succes in locating the apocalypses has to do with the conditions under which these works survive. Because most of the Jewish apocalypses received a generally unfavorable reception in post-70 Judaism, there does not exist a developed tradition of Jewish interpretation to contextualise these documents or provide a framework for their analysis.1
Like much Jewish literature of the second temple period, the apocalypses owe their survival almost entirely to early Christianity. In most cases, the extand Christianized form of a Jewish apocalypse is the product of a long prior history of transmission, the particulars of which can be quite murky. Since the Christian groups who copied and transmitted the Jewish apocalypses are either unknown or removed from the conventional avenues of research pursued by the student of the early Judaism, the function of these documents for the religious communities that preserved them is often a matter of speculation. It is true that the discovery of fragments of Jewish apocalypses at Qumran has partially filled the vacum. But these fragments are minuscule in comparison with the vast number of apocalyptic text preserved by the early Church. And the relationship of these compositions to the sectarian writings of Qumran is still unclear.2 Theorizing about the social setting and function of the Jewish apocalypses must at some point acknowledge tha fact that the context in which these apocalypses survive is a Christian one.























The Christian Use of the Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition /
I
APPROACHES TO THE QUJXI-ION

Although formally recognized, the Christian environment in which the Jewish apocalypses were preserved is often treated as a regrettable accident of history standing in the way of the recovery of the original text in its earliest setting. The numerous demonstrably Christian apocalypses that appeared after the first century have also suffered relative neglect3 The late date and derivative character of many of the Christian sources partially explain this disinterest. But it also has to do with a widespread preconception that ‘real’ apocalypses originated in a discrete and identifiable movement in early Judaism and Christianity, a defming characteristic of which was a ‘radical eschatologization of the understanding of one’s history’.4

Because there is broad consensus that primitive Christianity took root on the same soil that produced the Jewish apocalyptic literature, specimens like the ‘synoptic apocalypse’ and the Book of Revelation are generally understood as products of the same movement. But despite their generic affinities with their Jewish counterparts, the Christian apocalypses that appeared after the first century tend to be treated as step-children, heirs to the form but not the ‘thoughtworld’ of their Jewish prototypes. Typically, they are dismissed as a kind of literary epiphenomenon, not reflective of genuine apocalyptic thinking, but rather a product of other religious impulses in late Antiquity. It is surely significant in this regard that the Book of Revelation, the one Christian apocalypse to receive more than its fair share of attention, is almost invariably compared with Jewish, not Christian, works of the same literary genm5 This supposition of a coherent ideology and movement defined by its radically dualist eschatology has decisively shaped the study of the apocalyptic literature, both Jewish and Christian. Until recently, the Jewish apocalypses have functioned mainly as an aid for better understanding the eschatological proclamations of Jesus and the early Church. Insofar as the use of the Jewish apocalypses as ‘background literature’ refracts the investigation of them through the lens of material in the New Testament, it can sometimes lead to overarching and misleading assertions about the ‘basic character of Jewish apocalyptic’.

’ For a survey of the contents of the later Christian apocalypses one still finds Weinel, ‘Die spltere christliche Apokalyptik’, now 70 years old, cited as the standard work on the subject. For pre-fourth century apocalypses, see A.Y. Collins, ‘The Early Christian Apocalypses’. Schiissler Fiorenza, ‘The Phenomenon of Early Christian Apocalyptic’ is more concerned with methodological issues than specific texts.
’ See K. Miiller, ‘Die Ansltze der Apokalyptik’, 32. This position was defended recently by U. Miiller. ‘Apocalyptic Currents’, 284. ’ As Klaus Koch notes (Rediscovery of Apocalyptic, 190 Jewish apocalypses are considered by many scholars to be ‘much richer in content and show a greater depth of thought’.

An example of this latter approach is P. Vielhauer’s programmatic survey of the origins and development of ‘apocalyptic’ in early Christianity.6 Since in his view Christianity ‘took over the genre of the Apocalypse from Palestinian Judaism’, Vielhauer set out to compare Christian apocalyptic material with its Jewish antecedents, in order to ascertain ‘affinities and differences’ .7 While acknowledging that the Jewish apocalypses were not designated by any common title, Vielhauer believed that it was nonetheless possible to identify enough fixed characteristics of this literature to justify the nomenclature of a literary genre. These features included pseudonymity, accounts of a vision or audition, historical surveys in the form of vuticinium ex even& and more formal literary features such as wisdom sayings, prayers and parenesis. From a list of themes compiled from diverse sources, Vielhauer distilled what he considered to be the apocalyptic ‘world of ideas’ that gave birth to this literature: pessimism; doctrine of the two ages; universalism; determinism; and imminent expectation of the end of the world. Like many other students of this literature, Vielhauer ascribed the social and religious origins of this literature to crisis and persecution. As products of ‘eschatologically-stimulated circles’ in post-exilic Judaism whose opposition to the developing ‘non-eschatological theocracy’ forced them into a sectarian existence, the apocalypses functioned primarily to strengthen these religious communities, especially in times of oppression.*

Although Vielhauer conceded that Jesus’ preaching about the imminent coming of the kingdom of God may have retained some faint vestiges of Jewish apocalypticism, the content and authority of his message were ‘too high to be rendered in categories suitable to eschatological expectation’.’ In place of the apocalyptic notions of eschatological salvation and the clear temporal distinction of the two ages, Jesus proclaimed a divine sovereignty that shattered the traditional two-age scheme of the Jewish apocalyptist. The same concept rendered superfluous the kind of end-time speculation familiar from many of the apocalypses. Nor did Jesus’ teaching seek enhanced status through the typical revelatory vehicles of the apocalyptic genre, namely a pseudonymous figure of the past or an angelus interpres. The authority that flowed from the message itself was self-authenticating.”

” Vielhauer’s two essays on this subject, entitled ‘Apocalyptic’ and ‘Apocalyptic in Early Christianity’, are included in Hennecke-Schneemelcher, NTA 2. In the 1990-92 English edition of this work the two essays have been revised and updated by G. Strecker. Unless otherwise indicated, references to Vielhauer’s essays are based on the 1976 English version (vol 2, 581-600; 608-642). All other references to NTA are based on the most recent edition. See also n20.
’ Viclhauer, ‘Apocalyptic’, 581.
’ Viclhnuer. ‘Apocalyptic’, 595-98, following the suggestion of Ploger, Theokrutie und Eschatdo,
t,G, 36-68.
” Viclhaucr, ‘Apocalyptic in Early Christianity,’ 609.
I” ih hOXf.

Following this overall perspective, Vielhauer argued that evolving Christian ideas about the parousia determined the form and content of material borrowed from a store of Jewish apocalyptic materials, in the shape either of documents or traditions.” As its eschatology began to depart from the fundamentally nonapocalyptic teachings of its founder, the early Church incrementally absorbed apocalyptic material from its Jewish environment. The ‘momentous influx’ of Jewish apocalyptic ideas commenced with the post-Easter proclamation of Jesus’ death and resurrection and his exaltation as an eschatological Savior. Because this idea transformed Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom of God into an expectation of Christ’s return, the early Church was now able to embrace apocalyptic ideas foreign to Jesus’ original teachings, in particular the temporal distinction between this age and the new age and the correlative conception of an eschatological ‘son of man’.‘* The reshaping of the forms of apocalyptic instruction introduced for Vielhauer yet another phase in the transformation of Christian apocalyptic thinking.

Since the earliest apostles and missionaries saw themselves only as transmitters of the tradition, not as bearers of new ideas, apocalyptic themes initially found expression through the ‘saying of Jesus’. But when in the post-apostolic period the apostles became the vehicles and guarantors of apocalyptic tradition, fictitious letters and apocalypses began to circulate under the name of an apostle, thereby enabling the early Church to absorb from Jewish models another literary element - pseudonymity.13 The systematization of eschatological expectations also accelerated the adaptation of apocalyptic subject matter from Jewish tradition. These included more elaborate accounts of the parousia and the signs preceding it, and apocalyptic surveys stretching from the present time to the end. The apocalyptic descriptions already in evidence in 1 Thess. 4: 16-53 and the synoptic apocalypse reveal that quite early the primitive Church lent vividness and color to its thinking about the parousia by assimilating material from Jewish antecedents.

The early Church’s self-understanding as an interim eschatological community and the actual persecutions that it experienced further hastened the absorption of Jewish apocalyptic ideas about the eschatological woes preceding the end-times. Motifs from Jewish apocalyptic associated with war and famine, the ruin of families, the increase of tribulation, the Antichrist and the great apostasy thus found ready acceptance within the apocalyptic thinking of early Christianity. When, in Vielhauer’s view, the early Church had lost confidence in the imminent end, apocalyptic motifs were even used to dampen eschatological expectation (see, for example, the use of the ‘Antichrist’ motif in 2 Thessalonians 2).

” ib 600.
I2 ib 609.
” ib 610. It is difficult to see why this feature of the Christian apocalypses requires a Jewish model, capccially since pseudonymous documents of all kinds claiming apostolic authorship proliferated in the cxly Church.

As Christian thinking about the end became increasingly estranged from any relationship to ‘Christian existence’, eschatological doctrines were systematized and repeated artificially as dogma. As a result, what had once been a vital, imminent hope hardened into a ‘traditional picture of the future’. In the final stages of this development, interest in the parousia was itself superseded by fascination with heavenly journeys and the Beyond. From the middle of the second century, the Antichrist and the afterlife, at best subsidiary themes of the parousia expectation in the New Testament, became the dominant elements of Christian apocalyptic thinking.14

Fundamental to Vielhauer’s program was his reconstruction of a pervasive and fairly static apocalyptic structure behind its diverse literary manifestations. This enabled him to postulate a linear correlation between ‘apocalyptic’ as a ‘literary phenomenon’, as the ‘realm of ideas from which this literature emanates’, and as the social ideology of ‘eschatologically-excited communities’ supposedly responsible for its composition. As in many older studies of apocalyptic literature, his understanding of the word ‘apocalyptic’ actually comprehended three distinct, but overlapping, categories: apocalypse as a literary form, apocalyptic eschatology as a theological perspective, and apocalypticism as the ideology of a socio-religious movement.

As has often been pointed out more recently, this all-encompassing use of the word is responsible for much of the current disarray in the research on the literature.” Apocalyptic eschatology, a subject neither peculiar to the apocalypses nor uniquely defining of the apocalyptic literature, covers a range of positions much wider than Vielhauer’s ‘basic structure’ would tolerate. The doctrine of two ages, for example, which for Vielhauer underpinned the apocalyptic world view, may actually represent a later stage in the development of apocalyptic thinking not generalizable to the entire corpu~.‘~ Because eschatology defined for him the essential nature of ‘apocalyptic’, Vielhauer was required to reduce non-eschatological material in the apocalypses to the status of ‘coloring’,

” Vielhauer, ‘Apocalyptic’, 600; id, ‘Apocalyptic in Early Christianity’, 613. For his treatment of lhe Antichrist theme in early Christianity and its Jewish antecedents, Vielhauer relied largely on (iunkel, Sch@@ng und Chaos, and especially Bousset, Der Anrichrist. For a recent critique of their reconstruction of the Antichrist myth, see Jenks, Origins.
” f;or discussion of this matter, see Collins, ‘Introduction’, 3; id, Apocalyptic Imagination, 2.
“’ On the problems of extracting a unified eschatological picture from the literature, see Rowland,
O/M~II /lc~r,n. 23-29. The example usually given in support of the two-age doctrine is 4 Ezra 750.
l$u~ as Barr notes (‘Jewish Apocalyptic’, 35) the conditions under which 4 Ezra was written make it tlll’l’icuh 10 extrapolate this view for the whole of apocalyptic literature. For general discussion of
111~ prohlcm~ of’ treating apocalyptic eschatology in terms of the idea of a definite end or two
pm& XT (‘ollin~. ‘Apoc;ilypric F.~chu~olopy’.

that is, secondary by-products of the conventicle-like and distressed social conditions under which the apocalypses were produced.17 But esotericism and speculative wisdom, subjects that figure much more importantly in many of the early apocalypses than is often acknowledged, can hardly be dismissed as literary embellishment. What Jonathan Smith has described as apocalyptic ‘scribal knowledge’ suggests an international dimension to this literature hardly expected of the oppressed sectarian communities allegedly responsible for its composition.” Above all, the sociological description of the apocalypses as sectarian literature created by groups under persecution and crisis needs to be reexamined.”

The motive for Vielhauer’s relatively fixed picture of ‘Jewish apocalyptic’ was that it offered a convenient backdrop against which to demonstrate Jesus’ transcendence of the apocalyptic environment in which he carried on his ministry. Here the overriding objective of Vielhauer’s study was to dissociate, to the extent possible, Jesus’ teachings from Jewish eschatological hopes or national aspirations. As Klaus Koch has noted, the influence of Bultmannian theory was so thoroughgoing that it sometimes stood in for historical evidence. Thus, Vielhauer was prepared to dismiss the primitive gospel traditions about the eschatological ‘son of man’ as not genuine, insofar as they reflected a temporal dualism incompatible with Jesus’ message of divine sovereignty.20 The same dogmatism influenced his selection of ‘apocalyptic’ material. Unlike his reconstruction of ‘Jewish apocalyptic’, which drew entirely on the literary apocalypses, the Christian source material serving as a basis of comparison comprised a much more diverse collection of sources: eschatological logia, epistles, and church orders, as well as the later Christian genre apocalypses. As a result, Vielhauer’s conclusions about the uniqueness of Jesus’ preaching on the basis of formal differences from the Jewish genre apocalypses were potentially misleading. It is certainly true that many of the recurring features of the Jewish apocalypses (historical surveys, divisions of history, speculation about the time of the end and pseudonymity) are lacking in the sayings about the kingdom of God attributed to Jesus in the gospels. But one may well challenge the appropriateness of his drawing weighty theological conclusions about the unique au thority of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God and the existential demands of his ministry

” Vielhauer, ‘Apocalyptic’, 598.
” J.Z. Smith, ‘Wisdom and Apocalyptic’; see also Betz, ‘Religio-Historical Understanding’, 136;
Stone, ‘Lists of Revealed Things’; id, Scriptures, Sects, 42-47.
I9 On the difficulties of classifying the apocalypses as ‘conventicle literature’, see Collins, ‘The
Genre Apocalypse’, 546; id, Apocalyptic Imagination, 29.
‘” Of Vielhauer’s rejection of the authenticity of the son of man sayings, Koch notes: ‘Here the dogmatic conceptuality behind the demythologizing movement is acting as sponsor for the historical questions’ (Rediscovery of Apoculyptic, 68). It will be noted that, in his revision of Vielhauer for the most recent edition of NTA, G. Strecker (vol 2 p569f) seems to distance himself from this view, at the same time softening some of Vielhauer’s more controversial claims about Jesus’ transcendence of his Jewish environment.

on the basis of uneven comparisons between the fully developed Jewish genre apocalypses and eschatological logia embedded in the gospel tradition.

In line with his overall definition of ‘apocalyptic’, Vielhauer understood the early Church’s use of Jewish apocalyptic sources as almost entirely conditioned by its eschatological hopes. If certain motifs (for example, the apocalyptic historical survey) from Jewish prototypes did not find their way into the Christian apocalypses, it was only because the Church’s singleminded focus on the parousia of Christ crowded out themes not directly applicable to this subject. The same criteria predisposed Vielhauer to disqualify tout court those Christian apocalypses that did not fit his definition. A genuine apocalypse not only had to embrace certain eschatological doctrines; as ‘resistance literature’, it also had to be occasioned by a real crisis. Since the later apocalypses failed to satisfy either criteria, they owed their contents (especially their ideas concerning the afterlife) mainly to ‘gnostic or pagan’ influence.21 The Shepherd of Hermas was delegitimized for other reasons. Although Hermas held certain features in common with the older apocalypses (for example, parenesis and allegory), these were not ‘eschatologically determined’ and hence ‘stylistic elements’ only. Inasmuch as Hermas ‘included no disclosures of the eschatological future or the world beyond’, the work had to be categorized as a pseudo-Apocalypse.22

SCOPE AND METHOD OF THE PRESENT STUDY

In Vielhauer’s study, imprecise use of the word ‘apocalyptic’ as a hybrid set of literary, theological and sociological features created a picture that was at once too diffuse and too narrow. By adducing as examples of Christian ‘apocalyptic’ texts that were not apocalypses in the formal literary sense, it risked turning the discussion into an amorphous study of Christian eschatology. On the other hand, sources that satisfied the literary desiderata of an apocalypse were invalidated because they did not meet certain preconceived theological (‘eschatology’) or socio political (‘crisis’ or ‘persecution’) criteria. As a result, the analysis lent itself to circular questions about which apocalypses were genuine and which were not. 23



” Vielhauer, ‘Apocalyptic’, 600. See also his Geschichre der urchrisrlichen Literatur, 528 where IX argues that because these later apocalypses ‘no longer arise from actual occasions’ and do not rcprcsent ‘resistance literature’, they are only the ‘expectations of more or less speculative groups’. I‘hc contention that the tours of heaven and hell in the Christian apocalypses derive from pagan \ourc’ch h:~s hcen recently challenged in several studies. See Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell; Bauckham, ‘Lilly Jcwihh Visions of Hell’.
V~elhaucr. ‘Apocalyptic in Early Christianity’. 630. 638. For discussion of the genre of Hermas, XX’ ;II\o I);r\ id I Icllholm. /hr.\ Vi.\iorr.shccc~k tlrs Ht,rnmrr.s. 96. t97.

To avoid the confusion that would otherwise set in, the current study does not represent itself as an examination of Jewish and Christian ‘apocalyptic’, but rather of the Jewish apocalypses in their Christian settings. It is curious that the wealth of scholarship on early Christianity as an ‘apocalyptic’ movement within first-century Judaism has yielded so little research on this question, or in fact on any of the Jewish pseudepigrapha preserved by Christians.” It would, of course, be unrealistic to suppose that a single study could do complete justice to a problem as complex and multifaceted as this one. The Christian transmission, use and reworking of any one of the better known Jewish apocalypses would probably deserve an entire volume. In the limited compass of one book, what can at most be accomplished is to examine several representative issues. The following discussion attempts to lay out in broad strokes issues treated in more detail in the remainder of the study. How did Christians perceive and classify this literary legacy? What function and status did these documents have in the Christian communities that preserved them? How were they expanded upon and adapted for Christian use?

Early Christian Perceptions of the Jewish Apocalypses

THE USE OF THE WORD &ZOX6hW~~

Studies of apocalyptic literature commonly designate certain Jewish texts as apocalypses on the basis of some modem conception of the genre. Although useful for purposes of categorization and analysis, these classification schemes are strictly scholarly exercises. None of the various Jewish works now known as apocalypses referred to itself by this or by any other single title. The first work actually to describe itself as an apocalypse was a Christian writing, the Book of Revelation.25 Moreover, it was not until the end of the second century

*’ For a critique of this approach, see also Rowland, Open Heaven, 24: ‘Not only has the original significance of the word as a particular literary type become less important, but also those apocalypses which do not give evidence of a particular type of piety are excluded from the category of apocalyptic.’ For an extreme application of this approach, see Schmithals, Apocalyptic Movement.
Since for Schmithals the ‘apocalyptic thought world’ is largely independent of the apocalyptic form ( I8Sf). he considers most of the apocalypses, both Jewish and Christian, as incidental to the apocalyptic movement. Of the Christian apocalypses, for example, Schmithals asserts that because many of them have no interest in the end of history, they bear only ‘very little connection, or none zlt all, with actual (.ric) apocalyptic’ (207). Unfortunately, the idea of defining ‘apocalyptic’ as a ~hcologicul concept that can somehow be divorced from apocalyptic literature persists in more I-cc’cnt scholarship; see, for example, Sturm, ‘Defining the Word “Apocalyptic”‘, esp p37f.
” I;or gc’ncr;d wrlurh~ on he importance of this subject, see Stone, Scriptures, Sects, 109-l 11.
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