Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

ment, Prayer of Nabonidus, Visions of Amram, Testament of Qahat),

demonstrate that the practice of attributing wisdom and speech was well

established during the third centuryb.c.e.This undergirds our confi-

dence that a number of other works showing little or no overt sign of

Christian editorial intrusion are originally Jewish and were composed

during the Second Temple period (or at least before the Bar Kokhba Re-

volt): examples of this include1 Enoch 108 (Eschatological Admonition),

4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Apocalypse of Abraham, Testament of Abraham, Letter of

Aristeas, Pseudo-Philo(=Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum),Psalms of Solo-

mon, Similitudes of Enoch(=1 Enoch37–71),Testament of Job, Testament of

Moses, Joseph and Aseneth, Life of Adam and Eve, Pseudo-Phocylides,

3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Prayer of Manasseh.

But for all their importance, the manuscripts from Qumran should

not mislead one to assume that many or most of the “Old Testament”

pseudepigrapha not attested at Qumran were also composed during the

Second Temple period. To begin with, many of these compositions are

simply Christian or contain very little trace of direct borrowing from non-

Christian Jewish tradition (Sibylline Oraclesbooks 6–8,5 Ezra, 6 Ezra,

Questions of Ezra, Greek Apocalypse of Ezra, Vision of Ezra, Apocalypse of

Elijah, Apocalypse of Zephaniah, Apocalypse of Sedrach, Apocalypse of Dan-

iel, Testament of Adam, Testament of Isaac, Testament of Jacob, Testament of

Solomon, Ascension of Isaiah, Odes of Solomon).

A number of others seem to be so predominantly Christian in outlook

and tone that indicators of Jewish tradition seem best explained as a mat-

ter of reception or borrowing by Christian or Jewish-Christian writers

(Lives of the Prophets, Sibylline Oraclesbooks 1–2 and 14,History of the

Rechabites).

More Jewish in outlook, several documents may derive from at least

some Jewish written sources that have been edited, supplemented, or inter-

polated by Christian scribes (so, e.g.,Sibylline Oraclesbooks 3, 4 and 5;

3 Baruch; 4 Baruch;theHellenistic Synagogal Prayers;andTestaments of the

Twelve Patriarchs). Here, some of the Christian interpolations are easy to

identify (4Bar.8:12–9:32;Sib. Or.1.324-400;Sib. Or.3.776;T. Levi4:4; 10:2-

3; 14:2; 16:3, passim;Hell. Syn. Prayers5:4-8 and 20-24; 7:4, etc.). Finally,

some writings may have circulated in both Jewish and Christian circles,

but show very little direct influence from either(Ahiqar Proverbs, Sentences

of the Syriac Menander).These classifications are not clear-cut; it some-

times remains difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether a given

document or one of its passages without obviously Christian ideas there-

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Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:02 PM