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The Midrashic background for James II. 21–3
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
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References
page 457 note 2 J.S.S. VII (1962), 267–92Google Scholar; see particularly pp. 285 f.
page 458 note 1 For the references to Abraham as an in early sources, see Strack-Billerbeck, , Kommentar zum neuen Testament aus Talmud and Midrasch, III, 755Google Scholar; see further Ginzberg, L., The Legends of the Jews, V, 207–8Google Scholar, n. 4.
page 458 note 2 See Vajda, G., L'amour de Dieu dans la théologie juive du Moyen Âge (Paris, 1957Google Scholar). The Book of Jubilees, where the theme of Abraham as the friend or lover of God, faithful and longsuffering in trial, occurs in a highly developed form (see xvii. 15–xix. 9), is frequently cited as an early parallel for James. It is to be noted, however, that there is no reference in Jubilees to the notion that Abraham was designated a friend of God specifically on account of the Akedah. Even before this event Abraham was regarded as a faithful lover of God in heavenly circles, according to the author of Jubilees (xvii. 15), who stresses that God already acknowledged Abraham to be ‘faithful and a lover of the Lord’ on account of his preceding trials (xvii. 17–18), the purpose of the Akedah being primarily to refute the allegations of Mastema (cf. Sanhedrin 80, cited by Rashi on Gen. xxii. I). In the Book of Jubilees, it is the burial of Sarah, not the Akedah, which constitutes Abraham's tenth trial for which he was formally acknowledged (viz. ‘recorded on the heavenly tables’) as the friend of God (xix. 3–9). Consequently the relationship between Jubilees and James on this subject requires closer examination to determine, if possible, whether the author of James has employed a modified version of an earlier theme, or whether he has preserved in its more original form an ancient tradition which the author of Jubilees has developed in his more elaborate treatment of the subject. In either case, the Epistle of James remains our earliest extant source for the notion that Abraham was called the friend of God as a direct result of the Akedah.
page 458 note 3 See Easton, B. S., The Interpreter's Bible XII (New York, 1957), p. 44Google Scholar; Sidebottom, E. M., The Century Bible (New Edition): The Epistle of James (London, 1967), p. 45.Google Scholar
page 458 note 4 Op. cit. p. 755.Google Scholar
page 459 note 1 BT Sotah 31 a, where the Gemara adds the following: ‘Whence do we know that Abraham himself [loved God]? From that which is written, “…the offspring of Abraham my friend (= viz. “who loved me’ – Isaiah, xli. 8Google Scholar).’rsquo; See further Büchler's observations on the above Baraitha, Studies in sin and atonement (Oxford, 1928), p. 126Google Scholar, and more recently, Urbach, E. E., The Sages – Their Concepts and Beliefs (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1969), p. 354.Google Scholar
page 459 note 2 R. Meir's statement indicates that he subscribed to the view formulated by R. Joshua b. Hyrkanos in Mishnah Sotah v. 5, that Job served God out of love. By means of his definition of as a more comprehensive epithet, he sought to eliminate the difficulty posed by the scriptural testimony to Job's character as ‘a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil (Job i. 8)’, upon which Rabban Jobanan b. Zaccai based his view that Job served God only from fear ( Sotah, Mishnah, loc. cit.).Google Scholar
page 459 note 3 Cf. Genesis Rabbah, lvi. 7Google Scholar, and the variant readings cited by Theodor, ad loc., p. 603Google Scholar. Although the date of this passage cannot be determined, it may be very early, as it clearly echoes Jubilees xviii. 16, ‘And I have shown to all that thou art faithful unto me…’. On the rendering of with a causative meaning (=
), as is presupposed already by Jubilees (see also xviii. 11), see further Peshitta on Gen, ad loc.; also Pseudo-Philo's paraphrase of Gen. xxii. 12 ( Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, ed. Kisch, G. (Indiana, 1949), p. 204Google Scholar): Non interficias filium tuum, neque disperdas fructum ventris tuum. Nunc enim manifestavi ut appareres ignorantibus te…, which is comparable with the Latin version of Jubilees (cf. Rönsch, H.: Das Buch der Jubiläen (Leipzig, 1874), p. 20Google Scholar): quod quo nunc manifestavi quia times Deum tuum.
page 459 note 4 Cf. De Abrahamo XXXII. 170Google Scholar (translation by Colson, F. H., The Loeb Classical Library, v1, 85–6).Google Scholar
page 460 note 1 Cf. Quis Hares Sit VI. 19 ffGoogle Scholar. For a full evaluation of this homily and its possible links with Palestinian Aggadah, see Amir, J., ‘Philo's homilies on love and fear, and their relationship to Palestinian Midrashim’, Zion xxx (1965), 47–60.Google Scholar
page 460 note 2 Cf De Abrahamo X. 48Google Scholar; see further IV Maccabees xiv. 20. The tradition that all three patriarch were designated lovers of God occurs also in the Zadokite Fragments (page 3, lines 2 and 3–4, s edition Ch. Rabin, (Oxford, 1954), p. IIGoogle Scholar), and is presupposed by R. Meir in Sifrey Deut. 32 (ed. Finkelstein, , pp. 58–9Google Scholar), where he presents each of the three patriarchs as an example for one of the three aspects of love for God suggested by Deut, . vi. 5Google Scholar, ‘with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might’. See further Vajda, G., op. cit. p. 44Google Scholar n. 1.
page 460 note 3 Cf. Berakhoth, PT ix. 14bGoogle Scholar; Sotah, PT v. 20cGoogle Scholar. Although the Akedah is not explicitly mentioned in this source, it may be presupposed, as the terminology employed in the Baraitha is found in both midrashic and liturgical sources in connection with the sacrificing of Isaac. Cf. Pesiqta de Rabh Kahana, ed. Mandelbaum, , 11, 342Google Scholar: ‘Abraham our father said before God: Lord of [both] worlds, it was revealed and known before you that when you said to me, “Take your son, your only son, etc… (Gen. xxii. 2)’, I had in my heart the appropriate answer to give to you! I had it in my heart to say to you, “Yesterday you said to me, ‘For through Isaac shall your descendants be named (Ibid. xxi. 12)’, and now you say to me, ‘Take your son’!” But, just as I had in my heart the appropriate answer to give to you, yet I suppressed my inclination and I did not answer you, so when the descendants of Isaac, etc…’ See further the parallels cited by Mandelbaum ad loc., see also the Fragmentary Targum to Genesis xxii. 14, and particularly the concluding doxology of the Zikhronoth (i.e. the second of the three special benedictions introduced into the additional Amidah for the New Year; Authorised Daily Prayer Book (new ed. London, 1962), p. 342Google Scholar): ‘And may the binding with which Abraham our father bound his son Isaac on the altar appear before you, how he suppressed his compassion in order to perform your will with a perfect heart
)
page 460 note 4 For the interpretation of - as opposed to the contracted form 2t7 – as an allusion to the two natures or inclinations in man, see Sifre Deut. 32 (ed. Finkelstein, , p. 55Google Scholar), on Deut. vi. 5: “‘with all your heart (
)”, [this implies] with your two inclinations, with the good inclination, and with the evil inclination’. See further R. Meir's statement ( loc. cit. p. 58Google Scholar) that Abraham is the biblical prototype for the whole-hearted love for God as enjoined in this verse: ‘“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” – Love him with all your heart like Abraham your father!’ In conjunction with these sources see Jubilees xxi. 2–3, where Abraham declares to Isaac, ‘through-out all the days of my life I have remembered the Lord, and sought with all my heart to do his will… and I have given my heart and my spirit that I might observe to do the will of him who created me’. The phrase ‘my heart and my spirit’, which is preserved in the Latin version of Jubilees (cf. Charles, ad loc., The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 11, 43 nGoogle Scholar. 3), may be purely stylistic. However, in the light of the material, rabbinic, liturgical and sectarian, cited in this paper, as well as the significant terminology
and
(above, p. 460f ), some serious consideration should be given to the possibility that the Book of Jubilees is the earliest source for the motif reflected in all the passages cited above, portraying Abraham as the faithful lover of the Lord, subjecting both his evil and his good inclinations to the whole-hearted service of God.
page 461 note 1 Cf. Driver, G. R., The Judaean Scrolls (Oxford, 1965), p. 551.Google Scholar
page 461 note 2 Page 3, lines 2–3, ed. Rabin, , pp. 10–11.Google Scholar
page 461 note 3 Cf. Meyer, A., Das Rätsel desJacobusbriefes (Giessen, 1930), pp. 135 f.Google Scholar; see also Urbach, , op. cit. (above, p. 459 n. 1), p. 353.Google Scholar The biblical source for this interpretation of Genesis xv. 6, as Meyer notes, is Nehemiah, ix. 8Google Scholar, cited above (p. 460), in the Baraitha of the seven types of Pharisee. In view of the possible common authorship of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles, it is interesting to note that the Chronicler had already summarized the life and character of Abraham as related in Genesis, in the two terms and
(II Chron. xx. 7), neither of which occurs in the pentateuchal narrative, indicating that this motif, which is already found in a highly developed form in Jubilees, has its origins early in the period of the Second Temple.
page 461 note 4 Cf. Targum Pseudo Jonathan to Gen. xv. 6: ‘And he had faith in the Word of the Lord, and it was accounted unto him for merit, because he did not reproach Him with words.’; The concluding phrase which the Targumist has added to his rendering has an interesting parallel in Jubilees xix. 3, relating to the climactic trial of Abraham, the burial of Sarah, (see above, p. 458 nGoogle Scholar. 2): ‘And Abraham went to mourn over her and bury her, and we tried him to see if his spirit were patient and he were not indignant in the words of his mouth.’ See further Bowker's remarks on the above rendering of the Targum, The Targums and Rabbinic Literature (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 202 f.Google Scholar; also Philo's rendering of Genesis xv. 6, Quis Haeres Sit, XIX. 94.Google Scholar
page 462 note 1 xliv. 20–1 ( The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, ed. Charles, , I, 483Google Scholar). See also Segal's comments on the Hebrew text (xliv. 25–7), Sepher Ben Sira Ha-Shalem (Jerusalem, 1953), pp. 308 f.Google Scholar
page 462 note 2 Both chapters open with almost identical phrases in the Hebrew text. The promise of progeny as numerous as the stars (xv. 5) is reiterated in xxii. 17, also the promise of ultimate triumph over the enemy in this verse is an allusion to the covenant in xv. 18 f. regarding the possession of Canaan and its inhabitants. Moreover the expression which occurs in an unusual context in xxii. 5, actually forms the basis of an aggadic association with xv. 5, ‘So (
) shall your descendants be’ (cf. Tan-huma, B. I, p. 113Google Scholar; also Targum Pseudo Jonathan and Rashi on Genesis ad loc.).
page 462 note 3 XVIII. 5, ed. Kisch, , p. 159Google Scholar; translation, James, M. R. (London, 1917), pp. 123–4.Google Scholar
page 462 note 4 On the notion presupposed here, that Isaac was actually slain by Abraham, see Spiegel, S., Mē-Aggadoth Ha-Akedah, Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, Hebrew Section (New York, 1950), pp. 471–547Google Scholar, particularly pp. 493–7; also Vermes, G., Scripture and Tradition in Judaism (Leiden, 1961), pp. 204 f.Google Scholar
page 463 note 1 Genesis Rabbah xliv. 12, ed. Theodor-Albeck, , p. 432.Google Scholar
page 463 note 2 Similarly the phrase, ‘For I have known him’ (verse ig) may have been taken as a pointer to xxii. 12, ‘for now I know that you fear God’.
page 463 note 3 Fragmentary Targum to xviii. 17: ‘And the Lord through his Word said: Shall I hide from Abraham my friend ()’; Philo, , De Sobrietate 55–6Google Scholar (trans. Colson, and Whitaker, , III, 473Google Scholar): ‘For wisdom is rather God's friend than his servant. And therefore he says plainly of Abraham: Shall I hide anything from Abraham my friend’ (on this passage see Sandmel, S., Philo's Place in Judaism, H.U.C.A. XXVI (1955), 165–6Google Scholar, n. 130); Midrash Ha-Gadol on Genesis ad loc., ed. Margulies, , p. 303Google Scholar: ‘God said: I am about to perform a great deed in my world, and I do not tell Abraham myfriend!’; see further Pirke' R. Eliezer chapter 25, and Midrash Sekhel Tobh, ed. Buber, , p. 28.Google Scholar
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