THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

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8. PURPOSE.

8. The PURPOSE of the author I read thus. He wishes to supplement existing narratives, as has been said; and this he does by means of his fabulous genealogies (which, especially in the corrupt state in which we have them, arouse but a faint interest) and also by his paraphrases 1 of Bible stories, (for example, those of Korah, Balaam, Jael, Micah) and by his fresh inventions, especially that of Kenaz, the first judge, which is on the whole his most successful effort. In this side of his work he seeks to interest rather than to instruct. On the religious side I detect a wish to infuse a more religious tone into certain episodes of the history, particularly into the period of the judges, and to emphasize certain great truths, foremost among which I should place the indestructibility of Israel, and the duty of faithfulness to the one God. Lapse into idolatry and union with Gentiles are the dangers he most dreads for his people. I have collected the passages in which his positive teaching, is most clear and prominent, and purpose in this place to digest them under several heads, usually in the order in which they occur in the text.

The Future State of Souls and the End of the World.

III. 10. When the years of the world (or age) are fulfilled, God will quicken the dead, and raise up from the earth them that sleep: Sheol will restore its debt, and Abaddon its deposit, and every man will be rewarded according to his works. There will be an end of death, Sheol will shut its mouth, the earth will be universally fertile. No one who is "justified in God" shall be defiled. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, an everlasting habitation.

XIX. 4. God will reveal the end of the world.

XIX. 7. Moses is not to enter into the promised land "in this age."

12. He is to be made to sleep with the fathers, and have rest, until God visits the earth, and raises him and the fathers from the earth in which they sleep, and they come together and dwell in an immortal habitation.

13. This heaven will pass away like a cloud, and the times and seasons be shortened when the end draws near, for God will hasten to raise up them that sleep, and all who are able to live will dwell in the holy place which he has shown to Moses.

XXI. 9. God told the fathers in the secret places of souls, how he had fulfilled his promises: cf. XXIV. 6; XXXII. 13.

XXIII. 6. He showed Abraham the place of fire in which evil deeds will be expiated, and the torches which will enlighten the righteous who have believed.

13. The lot of the righteous Israelites will be in eternal life: their souls will be taken and laid up in peace, until the time of the world is fulfilled, and God restores them, to the fathers, and the fathers to them.

XXVI. 12. The precious stones of the temple will be hidden away until God remembers the world, and then will be brought out with others from the place which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, etc. The righteous will not need the light of the sun or moon, for these stones will give them light.

XXVIII. 10. The rest (requies) of the righteous when they are dead.

XXXII. 17. The renewal of the creation (cf. XVI. 3).

XXXIII. 2-5. There is no room for repentance

after death, nor can the fathers after their death intercede for Israel.

XXXVIII. 4. Jair's victims are quickened with "living fire" and are delivered. (This, however, does not seem strictly to apply to the future state: see the passage.)

XLVIII. 1. When God remembers the world Phinehas will taste of death. Until then he will dwell with those who have been "taken up" before him.

LI. 5. God quickens the righteous, but shuts up the wicked in darkness. When the bad die they perish: when the righteous sleep they are delivered.

LXII. 9. Jonathan is sure that souls will recognize each other after death.

The Lot of the Wicked.

XVI. 3. Korah and his company: their dwelling will be in darkness and perdition, and they will pine away until God remembers the world, and then they will die and not live, and their remembrance will perish like that of the Egyptians in the Red Sea and the men who perished in the Flood. 6. Korah and his company, when they were swallowed up, "sighed until the firmament should be restored to the earth."

XVIII. 12. Balaam will gnash his teeth because of his sins.

XXXI. 7. Sisera is to go and tell his father in hell that he has fallen by the hand of a woman.

XXXVIII. 4. Jair will have his dwelling-place in fire: so also Doeg, LXIII. 4.

XLIV. 10. Micah and his mother will die in torments, punished by the idols he has made. And this will be the rule for all men, that they shall suffer in such fashion as they have sinned.

Punishment, long deferred, for past sins, is much in our author's mind.

VI. 11. Abram says "I may be burned to death on account of my (former) sins. God's will be done."

XXVII. 7. If Kenaz falls in battle it will be because of his sins.

15. Certain men were punished, not for their present offence, but for a former one.

XLII. 2. Manoah's wife is barren because of sins.

XLV. 3. The Levite's concubine had sinned years before and is now punished.

XLIX. 5. Elkanah says: If my sins have overtaken me, I had better kill myself.

The greatness of Israel and of the Law.

VII. 4. The Holy Land was not touched by the Flood.

IX. 3. The world will come to naught sooner than Israel can be destroyed.

4. When Israel was not yet in being, God spoke of it.

XII. 9. If God destroys Israel there will be none left to glorify him.

XVIII. 13. Israel can only be defeated if it sins.

XXXII. 9, 14. The heavenly bodies are ministers to Israel, and will intercede with God if Israel is in a strait.

15. Israel was born of the rib of Adam.

XXXIX. 7. The habitable places of the world were made for Israel.

IX. 8. God thought of the Law in ancient days.

XI. 1. It is a light to Israel but a punishment to the wicked.

2. It is an everlasting Law by which God will

judge the world. Men shall not be able to say "we have not heard."

5. It is an eternal commandment which shall not pass away.

XXXII. 7. It was prepared from the birth of the world.

Of Union with Gentiles.

IX. 1. The worst feature of the Egyptian oppression was the proposal that the Hebrew girls should marry Egyptians.

5. Tamar sinned with Judah rather than mingle with Gentiles, and was justified.

XVIII. 13. The union with the daughters of Moab and Midian would be fatal to Israel.

XLIII. 5. Samson mingled with Gentiles, and was therefore punished. He was unlike Joseph.

Angelology.

The service of angels is fairly prominent, and several are named.

XI. 12. "Bear not false witness, lest thy guardians do so of thee." This, I think, refers to angels.

XV. 5. The angels will not intercede for the people if they sin. The angel of God's wrath will smite the people.

"I put angels under their feet." (Also XXX. 5.)

XVIII. 5. "I said to the angels that work subtilly (?)."

6. Jacob wrestled with the angel that is over the praises.

XIX. 16. The angels lament for Moses.

XXVII. 10. Gethel or Ingethel is the angel of hidden things; Zeruel the angel of strength. (Also LXI. 5.)

XXXII. 1, 2. The angels were jealous of Abraham,

XXXIV. 3. Certain angels were judged: those who were condemned had powers which were not given to others after them. They still assist men in sorceries.

XXXVIII. Nathaniel the angel of fire.

XLII. 10. The angel Phadahel.

LXIV. 6. When Samuel is raised up by the witch, two angels appear leading him.

Demons and Idols.

Of evil spirits hardly anything is said, but some space is devoted to descriptions of idols.

XIII. 8. Adam's wife was deceived by the serpent.

XXV. 9. "The demons of the idols."

9 seq. The idols and precious stones of the Amorites are dwelt upon.

XLIV. 5 seq. Micah's idols are described in terms which remind one slightly of the images in a sanctuary of Mithras. (See the note.)

XLV. 6. "The Lord said to the Adversary" (anticiminus, ὁ ἀντικείμενοσ). He is quite suddenly introduced, and without any explanation.

LIII. 3, 4. Eli wonders if an unclean spirit has deceived Samuel. If one hears two calls at night, it will be an evil spirit that is calling: three will mean an angel.

LXI. An evil spirit oppresses Saul.

Evil spirits were created after heaven and earth (on the Second Day) and are a secondary creation. They sprang from an echo in chaos: their abode was in "Tartarus."

A holy spirit is mentioned occasionally, but in rather vague terms.

XVIII. 3. Balaam says that the spirit (of prophecy) is given "for a time."

11. "Little is left of that holy spirit which is in me."

XXVIII. 6. The holy spirit leapt upon Kenaz.

XXXII. 14. (Deborah addressing herself.) "Let the grace of the holy spirit in thee awake."

The character of God and His dealings with men are, naturally, illustrated in many passages, in some of which there is a strange lack of perception of what is worthy and befitting.

XII. 9. Moses says, "Thou art all light."

XXII. 3. "Light dwells with him."

XVI. 5. The sons of Korah say that God, not Korah, is their true father: if they walk in his ways, they will be his sons.

XVIII. 4. God knew what was in the world before he made it.

XXI. 2. He knows the mind of all generations before they are born (cf. L. 4).

XXVIII. 4. He willed that the world should be made and that they who should inhabit it should glorify him.

XXX. 6. God is life.

XXXV. 3. He will have mercy on Israel "not for your sakes, but because of them that sleep" (cf. XXXIX. 11 end).

5. Men look on glory and fame, God on uprightness of heart.

XXXVI. 4. God will not punish Gideon in this life, lest men should say "It is Baal who punishes him": he will chastise him after death.

XXXIX. 4. (LXII. 6.) If God forgives, why should not mortal man?

God, being God, has time to cast away his anger.

11. He is angry with Jephthah for his vow. "If a dog were the first to meet him, should a dog be offered to me? It shall fall upon his only child."

XLV. 6. Israel took no notice of Micah's idols;

but is horrified at the Benjamite outrage: therefore God will allow Benjamin to defeat them, and will deceive them (cf. LXIII. 3).

XLVI. He deceives Israel, telling them to attack Benjamin.

XLVII. 3. If God had not sworn an oath to Phinehas, he would not hear him now.

LII. 4. He will not allow Eli's sons to repent, because aforetime they had said "When we grow old we will repent."

LXIV. 1. Saul put away the wizards in order to gain renown: so he shall be driven to resort to them.

Man, especially in relation to sin.

XIII. 8. Man lost Paradise by sin.

XIX. 9. What man hath not sinned? Who will be born without sin? Thou wilt correct us for a time, and not in wrath.

XXXII. 5. Esau was hated because of his deeds.

XXXVI. 1. The Midianites say, "Our sins are fulfilled, as our gods told us, and we believed them not."

LII. 3. Eli says to his sons: "Those whom you have wronged will pray for you if you reform."

LXIV. 8. Saul thinks that perhaps his fall may be an atonement for his sins.

The Messiah.

Dr. Cohn speaks of the Messianic hope of the writer, but I am myself unable to find any anticipation of a Messiah in our text. It is always God, and no subordinate agency, that is to "visit the world" and put all things right.

The word Christus occurs in two chapters: in LI. 6, and LIX. 1, 4, which refer to Saul or David.

There are two other puzzling passages, of which

one inclines at first to say that the meaning is Messianic.

XXI. 6. Joshua says: "O Lord, lo, the days shall come when the house of Israel shall be likened to a brooding dove which setteth her young in the nest, and will not leave them or forget her place, like as also these, turning (conuersi) from their acts, shall fight against (or overcome) the salvation which shall be born of them (or is born to them)."

LI. 5. Hannah says: "But so doth all judgement endure, until he be revealed who holdeth it (qui tenet)." As, a few lines later, she says: "And these things remain so until they give a horn to his (or their) Anointed," which certainly refers to Saul; it is probable that Saul or David is meant in the present passage also. Nevertheless the resemblance between qui tenet and ὁ κατέχων of St. Paul (2 Thess. ii. 6, 7) is noteworthy.

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Footnotes

34:1 Which in some cases rather deserve the name of perversions. Great liberties are taken with them: a notable fact.

THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

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7. FORM.

7. As to the FORM, I suggest that the chief model which the author set before himself was the Biblical Book of Chronicles. He begins abruptly, as that does, with genealogies and with Adam: he introduces from time to time short pieces of narrative, which rapidly increase in importance until they occupy the whole field: he devotes much space to speeches and prayers, and is fond of statements of numbers. His aim is to supplement existing narratives, and he wholly passes over large tracts of the history, occasionally referring to the Biblical books in which further details are to be found: and it is to be noted that he seems to place his own work on a level with them. "Are not these things written in the book of" the Judges, or the Kings, is his formula, and it is that of the Bible also. In all these respects he follows the Chronicler: only, as has been said, we miss in him the liturgical and priestly interest of that writer. Like the Chronicler, too, he is, and I believe was from the first, anonymous; I can find no trace of an attempt to personate any individual prophet, priest or scribe.

THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

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6. DATE.

6. As to the DATE of the book, a positive indication of a terminus a quo has been detected in the text by Dr. Colin. He draws attention to a speech of God to Moses (XIX. 7): "I will show thee the place wherein the people shall serve me 850 (MSS. 740) years, and thereafter it shall be delivered into the hands of the enemies, and they shall destroy it, and strangers shall compass it about; and it shall be on that day like as it was in the day when I brake the tables of the covenant which I made with thee in Horeb: and when they sinned, that which was written thereon vanished away. Now that day was the 17th day of the 4th month." Dr. Cohn's comment is: "These words are meant to signify that Jerusalem was taken on the 17th of Tamuz, on the same day on which the Tables of the Law were broken by Moses. The capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, however, took place on the 9th of Tamuz (Jer. 526; Cf. 2 Kings 253). The . . . 17th of Tamuz can relate only to the second temple (read capture) as it is expressly mentioned in the Talmud (Taanith IV. 6, cf. Seder Olam Rabbah, cap. 6 and 30) that on that date the Tables of the Law were destroyed and Jerusalem was taken by Titus. Thus the author betrays himself by giving as the date of the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians what is really the date of the capture by Titus."

The point is so important that I have felt it only right to present the evidence in some detail. The Mishnah of Taanith IV. 6 says "Five calamities befell our fathers on the 17th of Tamuz and five on the 9th of Ab. On the 17th Tamuz the Tables of the Law were broken: the daily sacrifice ceased to be offered: the city of Jerusalem was broken into: Apostomos burnt the Law and set up an idol in the sanctuary. On the 9th of Ab our fathers were told that they should not enter the holy land (Num. xiv.). The first and the second temple were destroyed; Bethar was taken, and the plough passed over the soil of Jerusalem."

It must be borne in mind that the capture of Jerusalem, and not the destruction of the Temple, is the event of which the date is important. To establish Dr. Cohn's argument, it is necessary that the capture of the city by Titus, and not the capture by Nebuchadnezzar, should be assigned to the 17th Tamuz.

The Gemara of the Jerusalem Talmud on the Mishnah quoted above attempts to show that there is a confusion in the chronology, and that probably both captures took place on the 17th Tamuz. But that of the Babylonian Talmud, which Mr. I. Abrahams has kindly translated for me, makes the requisite distinction between the dates, in these terms--

The city was broken up on the 17th. Was it indeed so? Is it not written "in the 4th month, on the 9th of the month, the famine was sore" (Jer. 526): and is it not written in the following verse: "then the city was broken up"? Raba replied: There is no difficulty: for the one refers to the first, the other to the second Temple. For there is a baraitha (teaching) which teaches: "On the first occasion the city was broken into on the 9th of Tamuz, and on the second occasion on the 17th."

This clearly justifies Dr. Cohn in taking the 17th of Tamuz as the date primarily associated with the capture by Titus. The attempt of the Jerusalem Talmud to place the Babylonian capture on the same date is of a later complexion, and is made, it seems, in the interests of a factitious symmetry. The baraitha quoted in the Babylonian Talmud is of the same age as the Mishnah (i.e. before A.D. 200).

Thus Philo is indeed referring to the capture by Titus, and is therefore writing at a date later than A.D. 70. But, apart from this piece of positive evidence, the general complexion of the book strongly supports Dr. Cohn when he holds that it was written after the destruction of the second Temple. There is a singular absence of interest in the Temple services and in the ceremonial Law, whereas the moral Law, and especially the Decalogue, is dwelt upon again and again. Of course we read of sacrifices and the like, and it was impossible for the author to avoid all mention of the Tabernacle and its vessels, and of the yearly feasts. But the space devoted to them is strikingly small. The Passover is twice mentioned by name, and its institution is once referred to, together with that of the Feasts of Weeks, of Trumpets, and of Tabernacles, but no stress is laid upon it. The prescriptions for the observance of the Sabbath mention only synagogal services. When we compare Philo with Jubilees (second cent. B.C.), where the constant effort is to antedate the ceremonial Law in every part, we feel that we are in a wholly different stage of Judaism. Further, the evidence derivable from the resemblances between Philo and other books certainly written after A.D. 70, which will be found collected in another part of this Introduction, points unequivocally in the same direction.

In the portion of the book which we have (and it is important to remember that it is but a fragment) the writer's anticipations of a restoration and his allusions to the desolation of Jerusalem are equally faint and dim. It is probable that as occasion served--e.g. when he came to treat of Solomon's temple--he would have spoken more plainly than he could well do when dealing with the earlier history. If an opinion based upon what we possess of his work is demanded, my own is that an appreciable interval must be placed between the destruction of the city and our author's time. I should assign him to the closing years of the first Christian century. 1

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Footnotes

33:1 It might even be said that the vagueness of his hopes and aspirations points to an even later period, after the crushing of the Bar-Cochba rising in A.D. 135. However, the fact of the acceptance of the book by the Christian Church, which alone has preserved it, and the absence of anti-Christian polemic, forbid us to assign to it a date at all late in the second century.

THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION

BY

M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.

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5. ORIGINAL LANGUAGE.

5. The ORIGINAL LANGUAGE of the book, its date, its form and its purpose, must now be discussed.

Original Language.--The Latin version, in which alone we possess the work, is quite obviously a translation from Greek. The forms of proper names, the occurrence of Greek words which puzzled the translator, ometocea, pammixia, epomis, etc., make this abundantly clear. It is hardly less plain that the Greek was a translation from Hebrew. As Dr. Cohn has pointed out, the whole complexion, and especially the connecting links of the narrative, are strongly Hebraic, and there is a marked absence of the Greek use of particles, or of any attempt to link sentences together save by the bald "et," which occurs an incredible number of times.

Some statistics may be given: Et factum est occurs at least 33 times; Et tum (usually of the past) 37; Tunc 25; Et nunc (of present or future) 85; In tempore illo 18; In diebus illis (and the like) 10; Et post haec, or postea 30; Ecce 105; Ecce nunc 47; Et ideo 27; Et erit cum, or si 24. Other common links which I have not counted are Et ut (uidit, etc.), Et cum, His dictis, Propterea.

The leading Hebraisms are present: adiicere, or apponere with another verb, meaning "he did so yet again," 9 times at least; the intensive participle and verb (Illuminans illuminaui) 15 times. We have Si introducing a question 4 times; a uiro usque ad mulierem and the like (XXX. 4; XLVII. 10); ad uictoriam, in uictoria (= למנצח, "Utterly"); IX. 3; XII. 6; XLIX. 6.

Hebraists, among whom I cannot reckon myself, may probably detect the presence of plays upon words, passages written in poetical form (some of which are indeed obvious), and mistranslations. 1

From what has just been said it will be rightly gathered that the literary style of Philo is not its strong point. Indeed, it is exceedingly monotonous, full of repetitions and catchwords. The author's one device for obtaining an "effect" is to string together a number of high-sounding clauses, as he does, for example, in his repeated descriptions of the giving of the Law. As a narrator, he has another trick. An incident is often compared to another in the past (or future) history of Israel, and many times is an episode from that history related in a speech or prayer.

Some of the recurrent phrases are: I spake of old saying about 25 times; in vain, or not in vain 14; it is better for us to do this than . . . 7; not for our sakes, but for . . . about 5 times; who knoweth whether 4; dost thou not remember 3; To thy seed will I give this land (or the like) 7-9; the covenant which he made 5-8; I know that the people will sin 8-9; God's anger will not endure for ever 10; The Gentiles will say 4-8; I call heaven and earth to witness 4-5; in the last days 4; make straight your ways 5-6; corrupt (your ways, etc.) 18; remember or visit the world 6; be for a testimony 10. Of single words accipere occurs 88 times in the first half of the text; habitare, inhabitare about 80 times in the whole text; iniquitas 33; disponere 37; testamentum 47; ambulare 21; uia, uiae 25; adducere 19; seducere 21; saeculum 27; sempiternus 15; constituere 20; expugnare 27; zelari 14; illuminare 12; renunciare 15.

Other lists are given in Appendix II.

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Footnotes

27:1 Pitra thought that the Latin versions of these were by the same hand: I cannot confirm this idea, and indeed incline to question its correctness.
28:1 Of mistranslations I can only point to one. In VIII. 13 Visui appears as a proper name. It seems clearly to be a mistake for "and Isui." The error implies a Hebrew original: it is not found in the LXX. See the Appendix on Readings in loc.