worship 63
eyes of Isaac, and the eyes of Isaac were looking at the angels on high.
Isaac saw them but Abraham did not see them.’^36
Other forms of interpretation were probably more discursive, in the
form of sermons, but their nature can only be surmised from the literary
texts which preserve extended passages of such interpretation. Such is
the commentary on Habakkuk from Qumran:
‘Thou hast ordained them, [O Lord,] for judgement; Thou hast established
them, O Rock, for chastisement. Their eyes are too pure to behold evil;
and Thou canst not look on distress.’ Interpreted, this saying means that
God will not destroy His people by the hand of the nations; God will exe-
cute the judgement of the nations by the hand of His elect. And through
their chastisement all the wicked of His people shall expiate their guilt
who keep His commandments in their distress. For it is as he said, ‘Too
pure of eyes to behold evil’: interpreted, this means that they have not
lusted after their eyes during the age of wickedness.^37
Early rabbinic Bible exegesis was preserved in tannaitic texts com-
piled in the second century ce or later, but is likely to contain much
earlier material. It certainly contains some interpretations that can be
traced back explicitly to the first century ce because of parallels with
motifs found in the writings of Josephus or Philo, such as the legend of
the extraordinary beauty of Moses as a child. In Josephus’ version,
‘when he had attained the age of three years God gave him wondrous
increase of his stature, and no one was so indifferent to his beauty that
on beholding Moses he was not astonished at his handsomeness. And it
happened that many people who happened to meet him as he was borne
along the road turned back at the sight of the child and left aside their
serious affairs and used their time to view him. For the vast and
undiluted childish charm that enveloped him captivated those who saw
him.’ One can see such stories about Moses woven into sermon form in
rabbinic biblical commentaries of many centuries later: ‘Because he was
so handsome, everyone was eager to see him, and whoever saw him
could not tear himself away from him. Pharaoh also used to kiss and
hug him, and he [Moses] used to take the crown of Pharaoh and place
it upon his own head, as he was destined to do when he became great.’^38
It is hard from the surviving evidence to know how much Bible inter-
pretation took place in the context of such teaching after the public
reading of the texts, and how much took a more literary form. There is
no evidence, for instance, of liturgical use by Jews of the book of Jubi-
lees, which was composed, probably in the mid- second century bce, as