John C. Endres, S.J.
it in a new text. A Deuteronomic historical pattern of covenant life with God
also shapes this text, which contains the four "moments" of sin (w. 16-21),
punishment (w. 22-25), a turning point (v. 26), and saving action of God
(w. 27-31). Commentators have noted this progression,^31 and I previously
considered the section through the lens of intertextuality and rewriting.^32
The Apocalypse begins with a statement that the many and varied suf
ferings of humans come as a result of the sin of making the "earth commit
sin through sexual impurity, contamination, and their detestable actions"
(v. 14).^33 The text again mentions that the length of days for humans has
been decreasing — from as many as a thousand years in days of old to a life
of seventy years, or eighty for the strong, in the present day (v. 15a). Even the
days we have are evil, and "there is no peace during the days of that evil gen
eration" (v. 15b).
Sin (23:16-21)
Hearers of this account may be wondering when and how the present evils
will end, so the author pulls together a variety of notions of sin, going be
yond the earlier mention of sexual impurity and contamination and similar
actions. Young people struggle with their elders because of sin and injustice,
while other people abandon key aspects of the covenant and forget the wor
ship regulations and calendar given them by God. And there are many other
evils. As a result, people suffer, wars increase, the entire cosmos will be de
graded, as the message specifies that "the earth will indeed be destroyed be
cause of all that they do" (v. 18). Warfare and violence result from the sins of
this generation, as do also the rapaciousness of the rich against the poor, and
finally, defilement of the Holy of Holies (v. 21). Sin runs the gamut of the hu
man arena: worship, sexuality, social injustice, violence, defilement of sacred
persons, times, and spaces; there is here no partial, restricted view of life.
- Werlinc, Penitential Prayer, 113-16. Klausner, Messianic Idea in Israel, 306.
- For a very different approach to this text, cf. J. Kugel, "The Jubilees Apocalypse,"
DSD 1, no. 3 (1994): 322-37. His reading of this apocalypse, with Ps 90 as intertext, points to a
time of suffering followed by "a golden age" (337), but also provides a way of reading their
past history. - For comment on the sexual nature of these sins, cf. Loader, Enoch, Levi, and Jubi
lees, 122-25.