Esther Eshel
for envisioning alternative behaviors rather than to constitute a fixed two-
ways literary form."^22 In his discussion of later texts using the same image,
dated to the Hellenistic period (Tobit and l Enoch), Nickelsburg shows the
continuation of the biblical parallels, where "the two ways imagery is em
ployed as a construct for ethical admonitions."^23 A well-known parallel is
found in lQS 3:15-4:26, as well as in some related early Christian sources,
among them Barnabas 18-21 and the Didache 1-6,^24 which are outside the
scope of this article. In his study of this motif in early Jewish sources,
Nickelsburg came to the conclusion that "the two-ways imagery in biblical
and post-biblical tradition is inextricably bound up with the notion of di
vine recompense for human deeds. These deeds are alluded to, or described
in binary or polar fashion, and right and wrong deeds bring divine blessing
and punishment respectively." He further suggests: "As Jewish theology be
gins to think in terms of an eschatological judgment, the 'life' and 'death'
that wait at the ends of the ways are constructed as eternal life and eternal
destruction."^25
I suggest that additional, early Jewish texts be incorporated in the ex
isting discussion, namely, the texts considered here: ALD, the Genesis
Apocryphon, and Jubilees, alongside Tobit. Here I can only outline the first
steps of such a study of the two-ways motif, and I view this as a work in
progress.
The earliest postbiblical source for the two-ways imagery is ALD 3.
Preserved partially in 4QLevib, this text was reconstructed by Stone and
Greenfield based on the Athos Greek manuscript, which preserves the prayer
in full. This prayer reads as follows:^26
3 :4And now my children are with me,
and grant me all the paths of truth.
3 :5Make far from me, my Lord,- G. W. E. Nickelsburg, "Seeking the Origins of the Two Ways Tradition," in A Mul
tiform Heritage: Studies on Early Judaism and Christianity in Honor of Robert A. Kraft (At
lanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 98. - Nickelsburg, "Seeking the Origins," 98.
- Where Kraft found what he called "basic binary" form; see R. A. Kraft, "Early De
velopments of the 'Two-Way Tradition(s)' in Retrospect," in For a Later Generation: The
Transformation of Tradition in Israel, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity, ed. R. A. Argall,
B. A. Bow, and R. A. Werline (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity, 2000), 137. - Nickelsburg, "Seeking the Origins," 108.
- Greenfield, Stone, and Eshel, The Aramaic Levi Document, 33-34, 60-61, 125-30.