STUD lA

IN VETERIS TESTAMENT!
PSEUDEPIGRAPHA
EDIDERUNf

A.-M. DENIS

ET

M. DEJONGE

VOLUMEN UNDECIMUM

D. SATRAN

BIBUCAL PROPHETS
IN BYZANTINE PALESTINE

BIBLICAL PROPHETS
IN BYZANTINE PALE STINE
REASSESSING THE liVES OF THE PROPHETS

BY

DAVID SATRAN

EJ.BRILL
LEIDEN NEW YORK KOLN
1995

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Satran, David.
Biblical prophets in Byzantine Palestine : reassessing the Lives
of the prophets I by David Satran.
p. em.- (Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha, ISSN
0929-3523 ; v. 11)
Includes bibliographical references (p.
) and indexes.
ISBN 9004102345 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Lives of the prophets-criticism, interpretation, etc.
I. Lives of the prophets. English. II. Title. III. Series.
vol.11
229'.913-dc20

94-37300
CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahm.e

Satran, David:
Biblical prophets in Byzantine Palestine : reassessing the Lives of the
prophets I by David Satran.- Leiden; New York; Ko1n
: Brill, 1995
(Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha ; Vol. II)
Einheitssacht. des beigef. Werkes: Vitae prophetarum <engl.>
ISBN 90--04-10234-5
NE: Vitae prophetarum <engl.>; Lives of the prophets; GT

ISSN 0169-8125
ISBN 90 04 10234 5

Cof!Yright 1995 by E.]. Brill, lAden, The Netkerlaruis

All rights reserved. No part !if this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in a'!JI form or by any means, electronic,
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permission from the publisher.
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the appropriate fees are paid direct[y to The Cof!Yright
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Fus are sul!ject to change.

For my mother and father

CONlENTS
Acknowledgments

ix

References and Abbreviations

xi

Introduction
....................................................................... .
Biblical Traditions and Christian Audiences ...................... .
Form and Method ........................................................ .

1. Evidence, Consensus, and Context

Textual Evidence ......................................................... .
History of Research ..................................................... .
The Lives of the Prophets in Modem Research .................. .
Searching for an Ur-Text: Date, Provenance, Language .... ..
Sacred Tombs and Loca Sancta in Early Judaism ............ ..
Prophets and Martyrs in Second Temple Period Judaism
Contexts of Transmission ............................................ ..
2. Structure, Content, and Composition
The Structure of the vitae
Birth and Burial
Biblical Exegesis and Creative Topography
Conclusion .............................................................. .
Legendary Narrative ..................................................... .
Martyrs, Miracle-Workers and Intercessors
Conclusion .............................................................. .
Eschatological Prophecy ............................................... .
The Composition of the Lives of the Prophets
Recensional Trajectories ............................................. .
Sources and Development .......................................... ..
Conclusion .............................................................. .

1
7
9

9
16
16
20

22
25

29
34
34
38

40
46
50
52
58
63

68
68
71
75

3. The Vita of Daniel: an Early Byzantine Legend .................... ..

The Transformation and Penitence of Nebuchadnezzar
Exemplars of Early Byzantine Society

79
82

4. Context, Genre, and Meaning

Prophets and Holy Men ................................................ .
Scriptural Geography ................................................... .
The Righteous Dead ..................................................... .

97
97

91

105
110

vm

CONIENTS

Conclusion

118

Appendix: The Lives of the Prophets-an English translation

121

Bibliography

129

Indices
Biblical and Apocryphal Literature
General Index
.................. ....... ................................... ...

145
147

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I was introduced to the Lives of the Prophets in my first graduate seminar
with Michael Stone at the Hebrew University. I am deeply thankful to
Michael-friend, colleague, and still my teacher-for his continued
encouragement of my research. Like many others in the field, I have
enjoyed inspiration and support from Robert Kraft who has commented
upon portions of the argument presented here. I would also like to thank
John Collins and George Nickelsburg who "midwived" my first publication
on the Lives and have shown a generous interest in my work. Benjamin
Wright read the very earliest version of a chapter of this book almost a
decade ago and ever since has urged me to get on with the project. Finally, I
am very grateful to Marinus de Jonge, who accepted this study for
publication and has ensured, in most avuncular fashion, that I made good on
my commitment.
I would like to thank, as well, Gary Anderson, Marc Brettler, Peter
Brown, Bruce Dahlberg, Steven Fraade, John Gager, Martha Himmelfarb,
Richard Lim, and Robert Wilken for making it possible for me to present
aspects of my research on the Lives in different contexts: I have learned
much from these encounters as well as from their comments and
suggestions.
A debt of a very real nature is owed to my teachers and colleagues at th~
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Danny Schwartz read an earlier draft of the
study, offering valuable suggestions and corrections. Debby Gera
commented on a final version of the book, offered advice on problems in
translation from the Greek, and took on the thankless task of proofreading
camera-ready copy. She alone knows the number of "howlers" of which the
reader has been deprived. I am grateful to my students Valerie Carr and
Leonardo Cohen for valuable research assistance and to Olga Bondarchuk
who aided in the preparation of the indices.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge those bodies which have provided, at
various times and in different ways, financial support for the research,
writing, and publication of this book: the Basic Research Foundation of the
Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the National Endowment for
the Humanities (Summer Fellowship), the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust,
Yad HaNadiv (Rothschild Foundation), the Memorial Foundation for Jewish
Culture, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Faculty of
Humanities (Hebrew University).

ACKNOWLEDGMENrS

My greatest debt is to my family. My wife Shari, through love, counsel,

and conversation, has contributed more to this project than anyone, but she,
could know. Our children-Daniella, Shai and Dafna-have reminded me
always that there is life outside of the Lives. Joan Ben-Shabetai ~"t, my late
mother-in-law, gave freely of her time and of her vast enthusiasm to help
me pursue my research. My parents, Harold and Selma Satran, though a
distance often separates us, have always been with me.

D. S.
Jerusalem

REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS

I have attempted to make the references throughout the volume as clear, yet
brief, as possible, while minimizing the use of abbreviations.
Footnote references contain author's name, short title, and date of
publication. Full, unabbreviated references can be found in the
Bibliography.
Both text and footnotes make regular use of the standard and well-known
abbreviations of works from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The
titles of extra-canonical writings, Jewish and Christian, are given in full.
Both MT and LXX are freely used to indicate readings from, respectively,
the Masoretic text and the Septuagint.
Rabbinic writings are indicated by their full name; whenever possible,
the name of the modem editor of the text (and page numbers of that edition)
are given as well. Only BT and PT have been employed to indicate the
Babylonian or Palestinian Talmud.
Patristic works, too, are recorded without abbreviation. These are
accompanied by short references to the (critical) edition and translation
available. The series in which these editions and translations appear are
indicated according to the following abbreviations:

ACW
CCSG
CCSL

csco
CSEL
CSHB
FC
GCS
LCL
NPNF
PG
PL

sc

Ancient Christian Writers

Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae
Fathers of the Church
Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller
Loeb Classical Library
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Patrologia Graeca (ed. J.P. Migne)
Patrologia Latina (ed. J.P. Migne)
Sources Chretiennes

INIRODUCTION
Why should Christian readers of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages have
been fascinated by a small book which recounts the births, deeds, and deaths
of the p~ophets of biblical Israel? How did the composition known as the
Lives of the Prophets ("Vitae Prophetarum ") attain the status of a work read
and transmitted throughout the monasteries and schools of eastern and
western Christendom? The immediate and seemingly logical answer-that
these very prophets were those who foretold the coming of the Messiahsimply will not do: the work is neither given to prophecies regarding Jesus
nor overtly christological in its message. Indeed, the short vitae or
biographical sketches which comprise the book concentrate almost wholly
on the prophets themselves, from cradle to grave. What attraction could this
sort of biblical handbook have held?
Students of early Jewish and Christian extra-biblical literature-known
variously (and confusingly) as intertestamental, post-biblical, apocryphal or
pseudepigraphic-have long been familiar with the Lives. 1 Preserved in a
wealth of Greek manuscripts as well as in Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic,
Arabic, and Latin versions, the composition was traditionally attributed to
the learned and malicious fourth century bishop Epiphanius of Salamis.
This attribution has long been questioned, and indeed, rejected outright, and
in its place a scholarly consensus has taken shape: the Lives represents a
Jewish work of the late Second Temple period, almost certainly deriving
from Palestine and probably composed originally in Hebrew. Unfortunately,
like many a consensus, these conclusions remain largely unproved; in fact,
they beg many of the central questions regarding the work. Furthermore,
they result in an orientation to the composition and its presumed origins
that has caused modem students of the text routinely to underestimate the
significance of the Lives for generations of Byzantine and medieval
Christian readers. This is both inaccurate and misleading given all that we
know of the work's popularity and distribution.
Few works better fulfill the description of a text much cited but little
read-i.e. read for its own sake and in its own right. Over the last half
century, the Lives has become a witness to diverse attitudes and practices, a
I have tried to preserve a certain consistency throughout the study: the
composition as a whole is referred to as the Lives of the Prophets or, more
frequently, simply the Lives; the terms vita and vitae are reserved for the
constituent sections of the lar2er work.

INTRODUCTION

keystone in the erection of scholarly edifices, and generally, a text in the

service of other texts. The work has been exploited and cherished by
students of the history and the literature of pre-Rabbinic Judaism, by
students of the New Testament and the early Church, as well as by every
serious researcher of the historical geography of Palestine at the turn of the
era. This is, in many ways, not at all surprising: study of the Lives is
equally an investigation of early Jewish and Christian attitudes to a wide
range of subjects: the importance of place (sites of birth and death); the
significance of the grave; the nature of the miraculous and the role of those
who "work" miracles; the place of "omens" and "signs" in the prophetic
message. Much of this research, however, has come at the expense of an
examination of the Lives as a work on its own terms.
Consequently, a series of fundamental issues in the study of the Lives
have been neglected. Many of these will be made explicit in the following
chapters, but one demands mention at the very outset. The Lives is in many
different respects a unique composition, singular both in form and content:
varied and central features of the work fmd no ready parallel either in early
Jewish or in early Christian literature. This uniqueness has been
acknowledged only infrequently and still more rarely been taken seriously.
Little attention has been given, for example, to the questions of genre and
meaning-what sort of composition is the Lives, how would it have been
appreciated by its earliest audiences, where does the work's message lie?
Perhaps most difficult, yet crucial for the success of this enterprise, is the
search for a convincing historical and religious framework: the attempt to
establish a convincing and coherent context for a highly anomalous text.
The Lives possesses its own voice yet must be coaxed and cajoled to speak.
BffiLICAL lRADffiONS AND CHRISTIAN AUDIENCES
There can be few phenomena more fascinating, or frustrating, than the
intersection and potential inseparability of early Jewish and Christian
literatures. Despite the adoption of often opposing theological strategies and
the acceptance of sometimes divergent hermeneutical stances to the text of
the Bible, post-biblical Judaism and the early Church found themselves
joint heirs to a host of shared sources and traditions.2 This is the inevitable
consequence of an emergent "Christianity that could not allow itself to
forget its origins in Judaism. That meant, preeminently, that in order to
define itself Christianity would always in some way turn to the Jewish
scriptures." 3 Indeed, in marked contrast to the common (and easily
exaggerated) portrait of an explicit Christian polemic engaged in an endless
2
3

Kraft, "The Multiform Jewish Heritage of Early Christianity" (1975).

Meeks, "Breaking Away" (1985) 114.

IN'IRODUCTION

series of frontal assaults on Jewish tradition, there exist a considerable

number of early Christian compositions which so closely resemble ancient
Jewish texts as to raise serious questions about their own religious identity.
In the face of this indeterminacy, a seemingly straightforward rule of
thumb often has been invoked: if a work is not obviously Christian, then it
must be Jewish. Numerous versions of this axiom have been coined,
perhaps most recently in connection with the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs: "The absence of the name of Jesus suggests that we would do
well to assume that a passage is BC Jewish, unless we can prove
otherwise. "4 The inconclusive, even incoherent, nature of this criterion has
been suggested by David Flusser:
The difficulty of such a study of published and unpublished Christian works
on biblical history is caused by the fact that a legend based upon Old
Testament themes in a Christian book is not necessarily Jewish, even if it
has no Christian connotations. When a Christian author treats stories
about Jacob for example, he could give free way to his fantasy without
limiting it to Christological motifs-he knew then as well as we know now
that the patriarch Jacob lived a long time before Jesus and the beginnings
of Christianity. 5

Indeed, the history of Christianity, Eastern and Western, is largely a history

of reflection on the text of the Bible, and frequently in a manner that was
neither overtly typological nor allegorical. The student of biblical
interpretation in the early Church must be constantly aware of the many
modes and subjects which an exegete might have inherited from earlier (or
contemporary) Jewish sources but was equally capable of creating himself.
Syriac exegesis, for example, was deeply mindful of its Jewish inheritance
and at the same time able to produce texts of similar tone and content.6"
There was, as well, a remarkable degree of "pure interpretation" of the
biblical account as divine narrative. The Byzantine chronicle tradition
addressed the vast range of sacred history, from antediluvian biblical legend
through the events of the period of the Second Temple, as a subject of deep
and intrinsic interest. 7
4
Review of Hollander and de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs (1985) by J. C. O'Neill in Journal of Theological Studies 39 (1988)
176.
5
Flusser, "Palaea Historica" (1971) 48.
6
Brock, "Jewish Traditions in Syriac Sources" (1979) surveys the
contacts between Syriac Christian interpreters and early Jewish tradition. For an
extended exegetical treatment of a biblical theme which reveals few explicit
signs of its Christian origin, see the text examined in the same author's "A
Syriac Verse Homily on Elijah and the Widow of Sarepta" (1989).
7
See Adler, Time Immemorial (1989); Fishman-Duker, "The Second
Temple Period in Byzantine Chronicles" (1977).

INTRODUCTION

There exists, in fact, an entire range of concerns whose centrality and

manner of treatment cannot be considered exclusively either Jewish or
Christian. One thinks immediately of the "Two Ways" material (and related
teachings concerning the dangers of "double-mindedness") which functions
so naturally at Qumran as well as in an early Christian didactic context. So
too, the sections of moral paraenesis in the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs provide superb evidence for the virtual inseparability of JewishHellenistic ethical attitudes and literary expression from those embraced by
broad sectors of second century Christianity. 8 Nor are these questions of
continuity and long-term influence between Judaism and Christianity
limited to the realm of textual dependence or literary relationship. Despite
the very real gaps in our knowledge of both early Jewish and Christian
liturgy, there remains ample evidence for the degree to which early
Christian communities both adopted Jewish models of prayer and continued
to forge new materials under their influence. The liturgical passages of the
Apostolic Constitutions (books 7 and 8) offer a window onto the shadowy
realm of virtually indistinguishable forms of religious expression: are these
faithful remnants from a Jewish-Hellenistic prayer book or a highly nuanced
and reworked Christian adaptation of originally Jewish synagogue
tradition?9 Similar problems attend our attempts to unravel the development
of certain nodes of cultic activity in the Mediterranean world. How did Jews
and Christians jointly nurture the memory of Alexander the Great? 10 We are
only beginning to comprehend the true extent of the cross-fertilization and
transmission of ritual and practice between different religious communities
in Late Antiquity.

Particularly revealing (and promising) in this regard is the study of postbiblical traditions concerning a wide range of "ideal figures" drawn from the
Hebrew Bible. Of late there has been something of a resurgence of interest
in the portrayal of such biblical heroes within the exegetical traditions of
both Judaism and Christianity.ll One thinks of the portrait of Joseph
within the framework of Hellenistic Judaism, in the Testaments of the
Twelve Patriar.hs, and in the literature of the early Church. 12 There is the
8
Hollander, Joseph as an Ethical Model (1981) 6-12 and passim;
Hollander and de Jonge, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1985) 41-49;
de Jonge, ''Rachel's Virtuous Behavior "(1990) and references there.
9
For a history of scholarship and analysis of the texts, see Fiensy,
Prayers Alleged to be Jewish (1985).
10
Simon, "Alexandre le Grand" (1962) 127-139 and notes at 201-202.
11
Note the following collections of studies: Collins and Nickelsburg
(eds.), Ideal Figures in Ancient Judaism (1980); Figures de /'Ancien Testament
chez les Peres (1989).
12
Nickelsburg, Studies on the Testament of Joseph (1975); Hollander,
Joseph as an Ethical Model (1981); de Jonge, "Test. Benjamin 3:8" (1989).

INTRODUCTION

incorporation of the (presumably Jewish) legend concerning the martyrdom

of Isaiah within the {clearly Christian) account of the same prophet's
ascension. 13 One observes the progressive transformations of the prophet
Elijah in the New Testament and in the later Coptic and Hebrew
apocalypses. 14 Finally, it is possible to plot the development of the figure
of Ezra from the Jewish apocalypse written during the generation following
the destruction of the Temple through the literature of Byzantium and the
medieval Latin West. 15 In each of these instances, scholars have grappled
with the specific points of evidence as well as the general criteria which
reveal the manner in which a Jewish text or tradition was absorbed by the
early Church. What has been too little appreciated, perhaps, is the relative
ease and minimal strain with which early Christian authors were able to
accept these originally Jewish models without radically altering the
contours of their characterization. 16 To suppose that a flagrantly
christological exegesis was the only possible approach to the figures of the
Hebrew Bible is doubly misleading: first, it obscures the reality of a
straightforward identification with the biblical narrative on the part of a
Christian audience; second, it diminishes our own awareness of a host of far
more delicate and significant means by which a text and its heroes could be
appropriated.
A prime example of the detection of understated Christian elements is
afforded by the Testament of Isaac. The work is dependent upon the
Testament of Abraham and clearly Christian in its present Coptic, Arabic,
and Ethiopic versions; yet it is considered by many to be a Jewish text only
superficially revised and interpolatedP The surgical excision of overtly
Christian passages, however, still leaves a text of only a highly
questionable Jewish flavor; this is best witnessed, perhaps, by thefollowing portrait of Isaac himself:

13
14

See Hall, "The Ascension of Isaiah" (1990).

For a dossier of traditions associated with the figure., see Stone and
Strugnell (eds.), The Books of Elijah (1979); Bauckham, "Martyrdom of Enoch
and Elijah" (1976) argues for the decisively Christian character of this motif;
Frankfurter, Elijah in Upper Egypt (1993) attempts to set the Apocalypse within
a distinctively Coptic context; see Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell (1983) for
specific aspects and relationships of the later Jewish and Christian texts.
15
Kraft, '"Ezra' Materials in Judaism and Christianity" (1979); Stone, "The
Metamorphosis of Ezra" (1982) and idem, Fourth Ezra (1990) 36-47.
16
Simon, "Les saints d'Israel dans la devotion de l'Eglise ancienne" (1954)
remains the most incisive and encompassing statement.
17
On this document, see Kuhn, "The Sahidic version of the Testament of
Isaac" (1957); idem, "An English Translation of the Sahidic version of the
Testament of Isaac" (1967). The passage cited is according to the translation by
Kuhn in Sparks, The Apocryphal Old Testament (1984) 423--439.

INTRODUCTION
Now our father Isaac had made for himself a bedroom in his house; and when
his sight began to fail he withdrew into it and remained there for a hundred
years, fasting daily until evening, and offering for himself and his
household a young animal for their soul. And he spent half the night in
prayer and praise to God. Thus he lived an ascetic life for a hundred years.
And he kept three periods of forty days as fasts each year, neither drinking
wine nor eating fruit nor sleeping on his bed. (5:3--6)

This seems an unusual and highly developed description of personal

asceticism, when read against the background of early Jewish practice.1 8
Particularly troubling is the explicit mention of three forty-day fasts
observed by the patriarch. While unparalleled within the context of ancient
Judaism, the phenomenon exists as a common feature of the fourth and fifth
century Eastern churches, particularly within monastic circles. 19 Indeed, one
senses that much in this small book (for example, the discussion of
sacrificial and priestly matters in chapters ~7) should be read within the
framework of burgeoning Egyptian monasticism.
The present study of the Lives of the Prophets is an expression of these
concerns. It has been suggested, and widely accepted, that the composition
is representative of those early Jewish writings "which have received little
significant Christian addition" in the course of their transmission. 20 There
is need for a clearer determination whether the work is, in fact, to be treated
as a lightly edited Jewish text from the period of the Second Temple or as a
more elaborate and composite product of Christian redaction centuries later.
The former viewpoint confidently regards the text as Jewish and engages, if
the need should arise, in the isolation and removal of Christian
"interpolations"; the latter approach accents the complexities of the process
of Christian transmission and is far less sanguine about the possibility of
restoration of an "original" (Jewish?) document. Yet the-primary issue here
is not the identification of subtle or even disguised Christian elements,
though a matter both interesting and worthy of investigation, but the
identity of the Lives. What is the essence of a composition so widely read
and transmitted within the Christian churches which nevertheless deals with
biblical figures and themes in such a "neutral" (non-christological) fashion
as to be commonly perceived as a Jewish work? Viewed in this light, the
Lives of the Prophets truly can be appreciated as a testing ground for the
contiguities and divergences of Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity.
18
For a survey of the phenomenon (and modern research) see Fraade,
"Ascetical Aspects of Ancient Judaism" (1986).
19
For the ttooapaJCootai or quadragesimae of the early Byzantine church,
see Schtimmer, Die altchristliche Fastenpraxis (1933) 201-207. This aspect of
the text was commented on already in James, The Testament of Abraham (1892)
157-158 and emphasized again in Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell (1983) 27, n.63.
20
Charlesworth, "Christian and Jewish Self-Definition" (1981) 29.

INTRODUCTION

FORM AND METHOD

My examination of the Lives involves a presentation of evidence and

argument, proceeding from the relatively secure and agreed to the more
hypothetical and speculative. The first chapter presents, therefore, the
information which serves as the basis for subsequent discussion: a survey of
the textual evidence, a review of modern scholarship on the Lives, and an
inquiry into the history of the work's transmission. The following chapter
takes up the formal analysis of the text-its structure, content, and
underlying principles of composition. A detailed examination of an extended
narrative from one of the constituent vitae, that of the prophet Daniel, is
the subject of the next chapter. The fourth chapter addresses the issues
central to the literary and religious identity of the Lives: questions of genre
and meaning within a given historical and cultural context. That final
chapter will make clear, I hope, why this study bears the title "Biblical
Prophets in Byzantine Palestine."21
The Lives of the Prophets presents an enormously complex textual
tradition: a plethora of Greek witnesses which can be reduced no further than
to multiple recensions as well as an impressive range of versional (Western
and Oriental) evidence. The present study is not text-critical in essence and
makes virtually no attempt to sort out these complexities. I accept and use
the basic conclusions regarding the textual situation of the Greek
manuscripts reached by Schermann and his predecessors; my readings in the
versions are guided by the studies of Nestle, Knibb, Lofgren, Stone,
Dolbeau, and others. I do hope, however, that my reading of the work,
sometimes in the way of forceful conclusions, sometimes as no more than
hesitant probings, will encourage others to take up the textual task anew.
I emphasize at the very outset that no attempt is made to restore or
analyze an "original" text of the Lives. First, as I hope to make clear, that
effort seems to me either doomed to failure or to the attainment of results of
the most hypothetical, potentially misleading, sort. Second, this study aims
at an assessment of the Lives as a document, as an integral text. That text,
in its earliest assured state of existence, stands before us today in its sixth
century C.E. form. In a very real sense, this study is a close reading and
analysis of that witness to the Lives of the Prophets--<;odex Marchalianus
(or Q, as it is widely known by students of the Greek Bible.) This is true,
21 Despite growing acceptance of the term "Late Antiquity" as a more
precise designation of the third through sixth centuries CE, I retain here as well
the use of "Byzantine"-both for its evocative sense of nascent
Christianization and its aptness to describe aspects of ecclesiatical and imperial
activity in Palestine from the rule of Constantine until the arrival of Islam. On
the terminological question, see Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late
Antiquity (1993) 7-8.

INTRODUCTION

though often unstated, of essentially every modem investigation of the

composition. Why has Q taken on this virtually canonical status? Because
it is the oldest and best manuscript, we are repeatedly told. This is only in
part true. It is, indeed, our earliest witness to the complete Greek text. It is
our best witness, however, only insofar as it has been judged "purer," "less
tainted by Christian interpolations," and a handful of other questionable
assumptions. In the concluding section of chapter one ("Contexts of
Transmission") I shall explore this question at greater length and attempt to
make clear the defensible reasons for concentrating on a certain form or
representative of a textual tradition.22
The Lives of the Prophets is a brief work yet deceptively dense; because
of the mass of details-geographical, narrative, symbolic-which make up
the work, a full commentary on the individual vitae would be very lengthy.
The present study does not pretend to fill that need. It does attempt,
however, to point in some of the directions, perhaps unexpected, that the
author of such a commentary would have to be prepared to explore. The
work of commentary, after all, is pursued within a framework. The writer of
a commentary will almost always bring to bear material which is either
contemporaneous with his subject (the milieu) or earlier (the background).
My argument for a significantly later date for the Lives is no less a claim
regarding the type and range of materials which need to be considered in
writing a commentary on the text.
Finally, there has been a conscious effort to "disperse" the
methodological issues and their discussion. These questions are critical and
might well have been concentrated in a preliminary chapter, as a
prolegomenon to the study of the text. It is my sense that to do so would
have burdened the reader with a series of theoretical issues prior to any real
acquaintance with the Lives. Instead, questions of method and approach are
introduced at the close of each of the chapters of this study in the hope that
they serve as both a natural outgrowth of the preceding analysis and a
fitting summary of it. In the concluding chapter, an attempt is made to draw
together these theoretical threads.

22 Appended to this study is a literal translation of the Lives as preserved in

the codex Marchalianus. This is provided simply as an aid to the reader desiring
an integral text of the composition.

CHAPI'ER ONE

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CONTEXT

The intent of the present chapter is to lay out as clearly and tersely as
possible three areas of secure information regarding the Lives of the
Prophets: first, a survey of the multiple and variegated witnesses to the text
of the work; second, a review of modern scholarly opinion with an
emphasis on those issues which have received abundant attention as well as
an indication of those questions which have suffered either relative or
absolute neglect; finally, an examination of the evidence for the "context of
transmission"-those cultural and historical frameworks in which the text
of the Lives can be shown to have been read and preserved. This three-fold
discussion is intended both to set forth the status quaestionis regarding the
work and to establish the methodological rationale for the ensuing
investigation.
1EX1UALEVIDENCE

Few works among the extra-biblical literature of early Judaism and

Christianity can lay claim to as rich and complex a textual dossier as the
Lives of the Prophets. The principal representative of the work is, of
course, the array of Greek manuscripts, yet the evidence of the versions in
host of other languages, much of this only recently published and largely
unassessed, demands close attention as well. 1

Greek
The study of the very ample Greek evidence for the text of the Lives has
advanced steadily since the beginning of the sixteenth century when the first
1
The indispensable guide to these textual riches are the researches of
Schermann: see his monograph Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 2-43
and the introductory notes to his edition of the Greek recensions Prophetarum
Vitae (1907) ix-xxxiii. A particularly concise and accurate account is that found
in Denis, Introduction aux pseudepigraphes de /'Ancien Testament (1970) 8589. See too Halkin, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (1957) 221-223 and
Novum Auctarium Bibliothecae Hagiographicae Graecae (1984) 183-184. On a
current reassessment of the textual situation, see below, p. 29.

10

CHAPIERONE

printed edition of the composition appeared (1529) in Basel. When Theodor

Schermann inherited the work of his predecessors more than three hundred
and fifty years later, at the close of the nineteenth century, the Greek textual
situation was far more complex and and sorely in need of careful ordering.
Schermann's pioneering monograph and associated edition of the Lives
stand to this day as the cornerstone of all research on the composition. 2 His
classification of the Greek manuscripts according to the following distinct
recensional patterns remains unquestioned.
(1) Epiphanius Prior [Ep 1]: This is the text of the Lives as preserved in
Ms. Paris 1115 (dated to 1276), with explicit attribution to the fourth
century bishop Epiphanius of Cyprus. It represents the primary form of the
work known to researchers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 3
(2) Dorotheus [Dor]: This recension is attributed to the little known
figure Dorotheus of Tyre (third century). It was first published in the
sixteenth century in Latin translation but in its Greek form only in 1776 on
the basis of Ms. Vindob. theol. gr. 77 (thirteenth century).4 This is the
version of the Lives which was incorporated into the Chronicon Pascha/e,
composed in the early seventh century. 5 The Dorothean recension is
characterized by lengthy christological prefaces to the individual vitae and a
markedly economical form of the vitae of the minor prophets.6
(3) Epiphanius Alter [Ep2]: a second recension with explicit attribution
to Epiphanius. It represents a common and widespread form of the text
which unanimously has been judged as secondary and often corrupt.7
(4) Recensio Anonyma [An]: The prime representative of this recension
is the Codex Marchalianus (Vat. gr. 2125)-known widely by its siglum Q
-a famed uncial manuscript of the LXX Prophets which originated in
Egypt. While the main body of this codex is widely held to be no later than
2
3

Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907); Prophetarum Vitae (1907).

Text: Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 17-35 (odd pages) and
Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 4-25. For details regarding the recension
and early editions of the Ms. Paris 1115-Torinus (1529); Zehner (1612);
Petavius (1622)-see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 2-6
and Prophetarum Vitae (1907) xiii-xviii. For additional (unpublished)
manuscript evidence, see Denis, Introduction (1970) 85-86 and nn. 3-6.
4
Text: Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 26-55. On the recension,
see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 6-14; Prophetarum
Vitae (1907) xviii-xxii; Denis, Introduction (1970) 86 and nn. 7-9.
5
Migne, PG 92.360-397; ed. l:>indorf [CSHB] 274-302.
6
See below, pp. 68-71.
7
Text: Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 55-67. On the recension,
see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 14-15; Prophetarum
Vitae (1907) xxii-xxiv; Denis, Introduction (1970) 86 and n. 10 wilh details of
additional (unpublished) manuscript evidence.

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT

11

the sixth century, the opening twelve leaves, which contain the text of the
Lives (11-24), are clearly an addition by a later hand and may be dated to
the seventh (or eighth?) century. 8 There exists, as well, significant
additional manuscript evidence for this recension. 9 This is the form of the
Greek text which has been prized by researchers for more than a century as
the basis for study; our own reasons for concentrating on this form of the
text will be discussed below.
(5) A fifth, abbreviated recension, sometimes associated with the name
of Hesychius of Jerusalem, is found in the scholia to Theodoret of Cyr and
in the edition of the writings of Theophylact. 10
(6) A sixth, and final, recension of the Lives is that represented in the
tradition of the menolqgia and synaxaria of the Greek churches. 11

Syriac
Despite sporadic claims for their originality, the Syriac versions are widely
acknowledged to offer the earliest and most abundant evidence for the
translation of the Lives from Greek and their transmission into the cultural
orbit of Eastern Christianity. The earliest and most renowned Syriac
witness are the vitae of the first nine minor prophets preserved in the famed
8
Text: Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 16-34 (even pages);
Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 68-98. A photographic reproduction of
the codex Marchalianus was prepared by J. Cozza-Luzi and published by the
Vatican in 1890, and in the same year a detailed study of the manuscript by A.
Ceriani appeared as a companion volume. For a full description of the codex, its
history, and relevant publications, see Swete, The Old Testament in Greek
according to the Septuagint (1887-1894) III, vii-ix. Note too the discussions
in Swete, An Introduction to the the Old Testament in Greek (1902) 144-145;.
Jellicoe, The Septuagint and Modern Study (1968) 201-202; Metzger,
Manuscripts of the Greek Bible (1981) 94-95.
9
Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 15-19 and
Prophetarum Vitae (1907) xxiv-xxix; Hall, "A Hagiologic Manuscript" (1886).
For details of additional (unpublished) manuscript evidence, see Denis,
Introduction (1970) 87 and nn. 11-15.
10
Text: Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 98-104. On the recension,
see Schermann, Propheten und Apostellegenden (1907) 19-21; Prophetarum
Vitae (1907) xxx-xxxii; Denis, Introduction (1970) 87.
11
Though discussed by Schermann (Propheten- und Apostellegenden, 2122), this evidence was not gathered for his edition. The comprehensive
collection remains that of the Bollandists: Delehaye, Synaxarium (1902). For
the literary form and tradition, see the studies collected in Delehaye, Synaxaires
byzantins, menologes, typica (1977) and Aland and Aland, The Text of the New
Testament (1987) 160-166. See also Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 5964; Negoita, "La vie des prophetes selon le synaxaire de l'eglise grecque"
(1965); Halkin, "La prophete 'saint' Jeremie dans le menologe imperial
byzantin" (1984).

12

CHAPIERONE

Ambrosian codex of the Syro-Hexapla. 12 This was merely the tip of the
iceberg, however, and during the final decades of the nineteenth century
multiple forms of the Syriac text were published: (1) a version attributed to
Epiphanius on the basis of three manuscripts from the British Museum 13 ;
(2) a distinct recension based on manuscripts from Berlin and New York 14;
(3) selected vitae, with attribution to Epiphanius, preserved in the fourth
book of the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (112frl199), Jacobite
Patriarch of Antioch 15 ; (4) the vitae which form chapter 32 of the thirteenth
century Book of the Bee by Solomon of Basrah 16 ; (5) concise vitae of the
prophets, bearing a clear relationship to the Lives, which appear in a ninth
century manuscript from the monastery of St. Catherine. 17 The range of
Syriac evidence has not been assessed as a whole since the beginning of the
century and still awaits careful consideration. 18

Armenian
Second only to the Syriac in its richness as a textual witness is the
variegated Armenian tradition. First published, almost a century ago, were
12
There is, unfortunately, no readily accessible publication of these texts;
for the vita of Nahum, see Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 44. On this text,
see Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 37-39.
13
Add. 12178, 14536, 17193. Nestle published an eclectic edition of the
four major prophets on the basis of these manuscripts in his Brevis Linguae
Syriacae Grammatica (1881); in the second edition (1888 2) 86--107, he provided
a complete text; for variant readings of these manuscripts, see Nestle, "Vitae
Prophetarum" (1893) 36-43.
14
Baethgen, "Beschreibung der syrischen Handschrift 'Sachau 131 "'
(1886) 197-199; Hall, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1887) with notes by
Noldeke in JBL 7 (1887) 63-64. Further evidence is discussed in Ebied, "Some
Syriac Manuscripts" (1974) 523-524.
15
Chabot (ed.), Chronique de Michel le Syrien (1899-1910) 1.63-101
(text); 4.38-63 (trans.). On this text, see Schermann, Propheten- und
Apostellegenden (1907) 28-30.
16
Budge (ed.), The Book of the Bee (1886) 74-79 (text); 69-73 (trans.).
17
Lewis, Catalogue of the Syriac Mss. (1894) 4-8; the text appears in
Latin translation in Schermann's edition: Prophetarum Vitae (1907) 105-106.
18
The expanse and variety of the Syriac testimony hardly supports the
confident judgment of Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 14: "There was but
one Syriac translation, made at an early date, and in the course of centuries it has
often been somewhat carelessly copied as well as improved here and there from
Greek sources." Of great interest, therefore, is the note in Schiirer, History of the
Jewish People (1973-87) 3.785, n. 10: "In an unpublished supplement, prepared
for are-edition [of Denis, Introduction] by S. P. Brock, the Syriac recensions are
grouped under three headings: (1) the text edited by Nestle; the Ambrosian SyroHexapla manuscript (Milan, C. 313 Inf.) and the lives in the West Syrian
chronicles; (2) a later Nestorian recension of (1); (3) abbreviated texts."

EVIDENCE, aJNSENSUS, AND CON1EXT

13

the vitae (actually, in Annenian, "deaths") of the twelve minor and four
major prophets culled from an assembly of biblical manuscripts. 19 These
have been bolstered in recent years by much additional evidence drawn from
the Collection of Homilies, the Menologium, and a unique Bible
manuscript from Erevan.20 This newly published material includes the vitae
well known through the Greek tradition-with a certain resonance to the
anonymous recension-as well as a number of figures (e.g., Moses and the
companions of Daniel) which appear to be unique Annenian creations. 21
Closely related material, though clearly to be distinguished from the Lives,
is found in an additional Annenian work known as the Names, Works and
Deaths of the Holy Prophets. 22

Arabic
The influence of the Lives on Arabic literature has been noted for some
time, yet no direct evidence existed for a version of the work in that
language. 23 Recently, however, a complete Arabic text was published on
the basis of a unique 10-llth century manuscript which probably originated
in the monastery of St. Catherine.24 The editor notes the general affinity of
the Arabic version with the Greek text of the anonymous recension but does
not resolve the question whether the Arabic translation, which reveals
epitomizing tendencies, was made directly from the Greek or on the basis of
a Syriac text of the Lives. 25 Aspects of this version are of unique interest
and will be discussed below.
19
Yovsepi'ianc', The Uncanonical Books of the Old Testament (1896)
207-227 (Armenian); trans. by Issaverdens, The Uncanonical Writings of the
Old Testament (1934 2 ) 143-156.
2
For detailed description of the evidence, see Stone, "The Apocryphal
Literature in the Armenian Tradition" (1969) 72-77 and idem, "Jewish
Apocryphal Literature in the Armenian Church" (1982) 298-300. Stone notes
that in at least one early fifteenth century Ms. (Jerusalem, Armen. Patr. lB) the
vitae of the minor prophets are given under the title of Lives of the Prophets
with an express attribution to Epiphanius.
21
Stone (ed.), Armenian Apocrypha (1982) 129-157. The Armenian text is
provided with a Greek retroversion for those vitae known from the Lives
(Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Zechariah b. Jehoida, Ahijah, Joad); those peculiarly
Armenian are rendered in English translation.
22
Ibid., 158-173. Stone argues (159) that this text is most likely a
"translation, from a Greek, or more probably a Latin, original."
23
Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur (1944) 1.212217. The Lives, it should be noted, bears no relation to the Islamic tradition
known as Qisas al-anbiya'; see Sidersky, Les origines des Iegendes musulmanes
(1933) and Thackston (ed.), Tales of the Prophets of al Kisa'i (1978).
24
LOfgren, "An Arabic Recension of the 'Vitae Prophetarum "' (1976n7).
25
Ibid., 78-80

14

CHAPIERONE

Ethiopic
The Ethiopic witness to the Lives survived, long undiscovered, in a number
of different forms. At the end of the last century the vita of Jeremiah alone
was known on the basis of two manuscripts. 26 Only recently has additional
manuscript material been published which reveals a much fuller picture of
the evidence, as well as proof that "the Lives of the Prophets did exist in
Ethiopic as an entity and not merely as a series of isolated pieces."27 The
Ethiopic version has been characterized as "free and paraphrastic," and there
is strong suspicion that this development may have occurred on the innerEthiopic level; the translation is likely to have been made from a Greek text
whose precise recensional identity remains problematic; there is, moreover,
a possibility of Syriac interference at some level of transmission.2 8 It is
important to be mindful of the millennium gap which exists between the
presumed era of translation into Ethiopic (fourth-sixth centuries) and the
extant manuscripts.
Latin

No integral Latin witness to the Lives was recognized until most recently,
and attention had centered upon two major personalities of the Latin Middle
Ages: Isidore of Seville and Peter Comestor, both of whom clearly knew
some form of the composition and incorporated aspects of it in their own
works. Isidore's De ortu et obitu patrum (c. 600) was long regarded as our
earliest Latin witness of the Lives. 29 More than half a millennium later the
influence of the Lives is apparent throughout the Historia Scholastica (c.

26

Bachmann, Aethiopische Lesestiicke (1893) 10-13.

Knibb, "The Ethiopic Version of the Lives of the Prophets: Ezekiel and
Daniel" (1980) and idem, "The Ethiopic Version of the Lives of the Prophets, II:
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, Ahijah,
and Joel" (1985)--citation from p. 17. Knibb's initial publication is based on
two manuscripts of the vita of Ezekiel and one of Daniel; the second is based on
a continuous, albeit damaged, manuscript identified by the late Roger Crowley
in the Bibliotheque Nationale. The second article includes a collation with the
texts of the vita of Jeremiah published by Bachmann (see previous note.)
28
See Knibb "The Ethiopic Version" (1980) 198-200 with the additions
and corrections in idem, "The Ethiopic Version ... II" (1985) 17-21.
29
Migne, PL 83.129-156. See now the critical edition, with ample
introduction and notes by Chaparro G6mez (1985). Vaccari, "Una fonte del 'De
ortu et obitu patrum' di S. Isidoro" (1958) offered the first detailed analysis of
Isidore's use of the Lives as a source. This work should not be confused with a
later and derivative work (PL 83.1275-1294) often attributed to Isidore; see
McNally, "Christus in the Pseudo-Isidorian 'Liber de Ortu et Obitu Patriarchum'"
(1965).

27

EVIDENCE, ffiNSENSUS, AND CON1EXT

15

1160) of Peter Comestor. 30 Yet we now possess no fewer than three

independent Latin versions of the text of the Lives, and it has been
forcefully argued that two of these forms of the Latin text (closely related to
the text of the anonymous Greek recension) actually precede and provide the
basis for the account of Isidore of Seville. 31 It is possible, then, to regard
the Latin version as among the earliest textual evidence (sixth century?) for
the existence of the Lives as an integral work.

Hebrew
The Hebrew evidence for the composition is restricted to two relatively brief
passages incorporated in more extensive medieval works. An undated
manuscript of anthological character from the Bibliotheque Nationale
contains an abbreviated version of the vitae of Isaiah and Ezekiel. 32 This
Hebrew text is most likely translated from a Latin version of the Lives, yet
diverges interestingly through its adaptation of rabbinic legend and
terminology in recounting the deaths of the two prophets. Additional late
Hebrew evidence is provided by a narrative section from the vita of Daniel
in the Oxford manuscript of the Chronicle of Yerahmee/. 33 Here too,
30
Migne, PL 198.1053-1722; Vollmer (ed.), Eine deutsche Schulbibel des
15.Jahrhunderts (1925). On Comestor-his works and their influence-see
Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (1983 3 ) 178-180; Landgraf,
"Recherches sur les ecrits de Pierre le Mangeur" (1931); Martin, "Notes sur
l'ceuvre litteraire de Pierre le Mangeur" (1931).
31
Dolbeau, "Deux opuscules latins, relatifs aux personnages de Ia Bible et
anterieurs a Isidore de Seville" (1986) presents an edition of the texts (113-136)
preceded by an analysis of the inner-Latin relationships. See too the same
author's "Une liste ancienne d'api)tres et de disciples" (1986) and "'De Vita etObitu Prophetarum "' ( 1990).
32
Paris BN Heb. 326, l57b-l58a. Though scholars have dated the
manuscript to the 12th century, researchers of the Institute for Manuscript
Photographs in the Hebrew University attribute the manuscript to the 13th or
14th century. A full description of Paris Ms. Heb. 326 does not exist but it may
be characterized as an Ashkenazic manuscript containing material of great
diversity: halakhic matter, commentaries on prayers, some aggadah, poetry, and
biblical interpretation. The section from the Vitae Prophetarum was first
published in Flusser, Sefer Josippon (1981) 2:153, n. 448. I am indebted to Dr.
Boaz Hus (Hebrew University) for information regarding this manuscript and the
analysis of its contents. For his more detailed report on the manuscript,
particularly the Ezekiel passage, including text and translation, see Stone,
Satran, and Wright (eds.), The Apocryphal Ezekiel (forthcoming).
33
Oxford Ms. 2797 (Heb. d. 11), 76r-76v. The composition ascribed to
Yerahmeel b. Shelomoh (11th-12th cent.) finds its sole witness in this Oxford
manuscript, where it forms a portion of the Sefer ha-Zikhronot compiled
ca. 1325 by Eleazar b. Asher ha-Levi. See Neubauer and Cowley, Catalogue of
the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (1906) 2:208-215 and

16

CHAPIERONE

despite unsubstantiated claims that the passage represents a vestige of an

original Hebrew text, the version is demonstrably medieval and the product
of translation. 34 Both Hebrew witnesses to the Lives, then, appear to
provide valuable testimony only for the subsequent transmission of the
work in the Latin West.
HISTORY OF RESEARCH

Interest in the Lives of the Prophets, however, has not been limited to the
field of textual criticism. Virtually every aspect of the literary and historical
origins of the Lives has been the subject of scholarly discussion and debate
during the last hundred years. Before taking up these questions individually I
shall attempt a brief survey of the course of modem scholarship on the
work. Specific attention will then be given to the central questions of
language, date, and provenance. There follows a fairly detailed summary of
research on two broader issues in the study of the Lives which have left a
deep mark on our perception of both the composition and its presumed
historical and religious context. These questions involve varied aspects of
the historical geography of ancient Palestine as well as the nature of the
relationship between prophecy and martyrdom during the Second Temple
period. Finally, I will try to outline a series of "gaps" in recent research:
chinks in the armor of modem scholarship on the text.

The Lives of the Prophets in Modern Pseudepigrapha Research

While clearly not as intensely studied as many of the other works accounted
among the Old Testament pseudepigrapha, it would be misleading to imply
that the Lives has been neglected: modem scholarship on the composition
dates back to the early sixteenth century and has produced notable results.
The following three centuries saw the gradual publication of the most
important Greek manuscripts of the work and the establishment of
Neubauer, "Yerahmeel ben Shelomoh" (1899) 364-386. The publication of the
Hebrew text remains a prime desideratum, and scholarly acquaintance with this
important composition has been largely through the unreliable medium of
Gaster (tr.), The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (1899).
34
The version of Yerahmeel is clearly a Hebrew translation of a Latin form
of the text virtually identical with that found in the Historia Scholastica of Peter
Comestor; see above, n. 30. In a separate study, I am currently examining the
relationship of the medieval Latin and Hebrew texts. A detailed listing of the
common traditions in Yerahmeel and Comestor appears in Vollmer, Eine
deutsche Schulbibel des 15.Jahrhunderts (1925) 1:361-368. For similar
relationships between texts from Yerahmeel and underlying Latin sources, see
Harrington (ed.), The Hebrew Fragments of Pseudo-Philo (1974) 1-7 and Stone
(ed.), Signs of the Judgement (1981) 12-13, 41-57.

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT

17

increasingly critical attitudes toward traditional claims of Epiphanian or

Dorothean authorship. 35 A renewed burst of activity surrounding the Lives
began with the publication (1881) of the Syriac version of the vitae of the
four major prophets by Eberhard Nestle in the chrestomathy of the first
edition of his Syriac Grammar. 36 Several years later Isaac Hall published
both Greek and Syriac manuscripts of the workY The conclusive
summation of nineteenth century scholarship was offered by Nestle himself
in his publications of the preeminent Greek and Syriac witnesses to the text
of the Lives. 38 The dual achievement of Theodor Schermann in 1907,
however, was so great as to make all previous research appear as nothing
more than a praeparatio. His critical edition of the principal Greek
recensions is unsurpassed and forms the basis of scholarship on the text to
this day. 39 His detailed analysis of the process of textual transmission,
published separately in the same year, stands as the last full-length study of
the Lives of the Prophets.4{) The care with which Schermann weighed the
evidence of the Greek manuscripts and other versions is paralleled by his
balanced treatment of broader literary and historical issues.
Schermann's contributions marlc a watershed in scholarship on the Lives
of the Prophets; the establishment of an accessible and coherent, if
complex, textual base secured the composition's place in modem study of
the pseudepigrapha. Until that time the Lives had suffered from relative
neglect: most obvious, perhaps, in the absence of the composition from the
two major collections of post-biblical Jewish literature, those of Kautzsch
and Charles, which appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century. 41
However, the inclusion of the work in P. Riessler's German translation of
extra-canonical Jewish writings (1928) was both indicative of the new
status of the Lives and itself a potent factor in awakening fresh interest. 42
Shortly thereafter, R. Bernheimer drew the attention of English-speaking
35
For scholarship on the Lives during the sixteenth through nineteenth
centuries, see Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 1-6; Schermann,
Prophetarum Vitae (1907) ix-xxxiii and idem, Propheten- und Apostel/egenden
(1907) 2-39 passim.
36
Brevis Linguae Syriacae Grammatica (1881).
37
"A Hagiologic manuscript" (1886) 27-39 and "The Lives of the
Profhets" (1887) 28-39.
3
Brevis Linguae Syriacae Grammatica (1888 2 ); "Vitae Prophetarum"
(1893).

39
Prophetarum Vitae (1907) vii-xxxiii, 1-106.
4{)
Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 1-133.
41
Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testments
(1900); Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913).
42
Riessler, Altjiidisches Schrifttum ausserhalb der Bibel (1928) 871-880,
1321-1322 (notes).

CHAPIERONE

18

scholars to the work in a brief, somewhat sensational note, and S. Klein did
much the same for the Hebrew-reading public in a study of the geographical
traditions.43
It was C. C. Torrey's edition and English translation of the text,
however, that fixed the Lives of the Prophets as a standard point of reference
for students of the literary and religious history of the Second Temple
period. The author describes clearly both his project and its significance:
The document which emerges is a characteristic deposit of old Jewish
folklore, first published in Palestine, in the Hebrew language, in the first
century of the present era. What is here presented is a Greek text which is
believed to be the oldest form now attainable, with such slight emendation
as is absolutely necessary, and with the critical and explanatory notes
which are required. The appended translation, with its annotations, will
probably be welcome; for no English version of these legends has been
available. At all events, with the appearance of the present edition the
Lives can take its legitimate place, for the first time, as a regular member of
the Old Testament Apocrypha.44

Torrey's monograph established not only a conveniently accessible text of

the Lives for a generation of readers but an entire complex of assumptions
regarding the nature and origin of the composition. This burgeoning
consensus regarding the work received expression in contemporary surveys
of Jewish apocryphal and pseudepigraphic literature.45
No longer an oddity or an arcane source, during the last forty years the
Lives of the Prophets has been much studied and often cited. The great
majority of these studies have taken up specific questions within the realms
of historical geography (sites of sacred tombs) or the history of religion
(prophecy and martyrdom) and will be the subject of more detailed attention
below. One publication that engages these themes directly, though, deserves
mention already at this juncture-Joachim Jeremias' study of sacred tombs
in Roman and Byzantine Palestine.46 Though oriented around a problem in
43

Bernheimer, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1935); Klein, "Al ha-Sefer Vitae

(1937).
Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 1-2.
45
Torrey, The Apocryphal Literature (1945) 135-140; Zeitlin, "Jewish
Apocryphal Literature" (1949/50) 249 treats the Lives as an apocryphal
"midrash" together with the Testament of Job, Martyrdom of Isaiah, and
Biblical Antiquities of ps.-Philo; Pfeiffer, "The Literature and Religion of the
Pseudepigrapha" (1952) 245.
46
Jeremias, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (Mt 23,29; Lk 11, 47). Eine
Untersuchung zur Volksreligion der Zeit Jesu (1958). Twenty-five years earlier,
Jeremias had published two brief studies of traditions from the Lives: "Sarabatha
und Sybatha" (1933) and "Moreseth-Gath" (1933); several years after the
Pr~hetarum"

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT

19

New Testament interpretation and background, this monograph represents

the most sustained investigation of the individual vitae since the labors of
Nestle and Schermann. Jeremias' work has exercised an enormous influence
and has proven, alongside Torrey's monograph, to be a major conduit for
the wider dissemination of the Lives.
Of more recent work on the Lives note should be taken of M. de Jonge's
examination of Christian elements in the composition, a perspective both
unique and largely unappreciated. 47 The vita of Jeremiah has attracted
particular attention, with special emphasis on the legend relating the
concealment of the Tabernacle. 48 The new status of the Lives of the
Prophets in modem research has also earned the text a secure place in recent
surveys and collections of post-biblical Jewish literature. A series of
handbooks on the culture and literature of the period of the Second Temple
have featured entries devoted to the Lives. 49 Fresh translations of the text
(with brief introductions and ample annotation) have appeared recently in
the English Old Testament Pseudepigrapha50 and Spanish Apocrifos del
Antiguo Testamento. 51 A German version is currently in preparation for the
series Jiidische Schriften aus hellenistisch-romisher Zeit. 52 Finally, as
described above in some detail, much care has been lavished of late on the
edition, translation, and study of the versions, both Oriental and Western, of
the composition.

appearance of the monograph he published two brief addenda: "Drei weitere

spa~iidische Heiligengriiber" (1961) and "Das spiitjiidische Deboragrab" (1966).
4
De Jonge, "Christelijke Elementen in de Vitae Prophetarum" (1961/62).
48
Nickelsburg, "Narrative Traditions" (1973) 64; Wolff, Jeremia im
Friihjudentum und Urchristentum (1976) 36-44, 63-66; Petit, "La cachette de
l'Arche d'alliance" (1985); Koester, The Dwelling of God (1989) 51-54, 175177.
49
Denis, Introduction (1970) 85-90; Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha
and Modern Research (1981) 175-177; Stone (ed.), Jewish Writings of the
Second Temple Period (1984) 56-60; Schiirer, History of the Jewish People
(1973-1987) 3.783-786; Russell, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (1987)
113-123.
50
Hare, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1985).
51
Fernandez Marcos, "Vida de los Profetas" (1983). Note too the earlier
articles by the translator: "Nueva acepcion de TEPAI: en las 'Vidas de las
Profetas'" (1980) and "A1ti~uv or yyi~uv?" (1980).
52
To be carried out by A. M. Schwemer of Tiibingen who also is preparing a
full-scale commentary on the Lives. I am grateful to Dr. Schwemer for sending
me a copy of her dissertation: "Studien zu den friihjiidischen Prophetenlegenden:
Vitae Prophetarum" (Tiibingen 1993) and regret that the advanced state of my
own manuscript no longer allowed a proper assimilation and assessment of her
findings.

20

CHAPIERONE

Searching for an Ur-Text: Date, Provenance, and Language

During the course of the last century much of the scholarly concern with
the Lives of the Prophets has centered about the question of origins-when,
where, and in what language did the composition emerge? So overwhelming
has been the general agreement on these questions that it is neither difficult
nor particularly hazardo~s to venture a thumbnail sketch of the consensus:
the Lives is a Jewish work of the first celltury C.E., composed in Palestine.
Only with regard to the question of language-Hebrew or Greek-has there
been a serious difference of opinion. The components of this formula may
be taken up briefly in tum.
Jewish. While widely acknowledged that in its present forms (the Greek
recensions and versions) the work reveals some signs of Christian
transmission, it has been maintained roundly that these touches are few,
superficial, quickly identified, and as easily removed. The allegiance to the
text of Codex Marchalianus (Q) which has developed -over the last century
rests in large part on the perception of that text as relatively free of
Christian interpolations, i.e. closest to the form of the original Jewish
composition. With the exception of the studies by Klein and de Jonge, no
serious thought has been given to the possibility of a more active process
of Christian redaction of earlier sources. 53
Date. There has been little hesitancy in assigning the work to the latter
portion of the Second Temple period, generally to the first century of the
Common Era. The few problematic attempts made to find concrete
historical allusions in the text have only exposed the difficulty involved in
accurately dating a document such as the Lives on internal grounds. 54 The
53
Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937); De Jonge, "Christelijke
Elementen in de Vitae Prophetarum" (1961/62). Note too the caution expressed
by the present writer in Stone (ed.), Jewish Writings of the Second Temple
Period (1984) 56-60.
54
Perhaps the prime example of an historical "proof' which carries little
conviction is Torrey's argument (Lives of the Prophets [1946] 11-12) "that at
the time when this work was composed Gilead was, and for some time had been,
a part of the Nabatean kingdom," i.e. a certain date of composition prior to 106
C.E. when Arabia became a Roman province. This construct rests on nothing
more than the opening phrase of the vita of Elijah-"Elijah, a Thesbite from the
land of the Arabs"-and Torrey's certainty that the term yii 'Apa~cov could only
have been used during the period of Nabatean hegemony. This certainly
overburdens the evidence: with the onset of Roman rule, the new province
retains the name Arabia, and the indigenous population continues to be known
as "Arab". For common late-fourth century usage of the phrase, see Jerome,
Hebr. Quaest. in Genesim 25:13-18; ed. Adriaen [CCSL 72] 31. It is a matter of
some dismay, therefore, to see this argument resurface in Hare, "The Lives of the
Prophets" (1985) 381.

EVIDENCE, CONSENSUS, AND CON'IEXT

21

generally accepted date appears to be based in most instances on an

appreciation of the document, particularly its traditions of martyrdom and
burial, as background to the writings of the New Testament.
Provenance. Here too there has been broad agreement, as the Lives is
considered by all to be a Palestinian composition. The argumentation has
not been substantial and is based on an assumption of the trustworthiness
and antiquity of the geographical notices in the work: i.e., only an author
from Palestine itself, most likely Judea, could have displayed this intimate
knowledge of local topography and tradition.55
Language. There has been strong suspicion among scholars since the
beginnings of the modem study of the Lives that the extant Greek texts
derive from a Semitic Vorlage. In 1833 Henricus Arentius Hamaker
published a detailed commentary on the text and, following a theory first
put forward by Joachim Zehner (1612), paraded much erudition in favor of
an original Hebrew composition. 56 A variation on the theme was provided
by Isaac Hall who concluded his translation of a Syriac text of the Lives by
voicing the conviction that that language and not Greek was original. 57
This trend was opposed by the combined authority of Nestle and
Schermann; the latter recognized an underlying Jewish document but
resisted any automatic assumption of a Hebrew source and regarded the
language of the text as indicative of a Jewish-Greek idiom peculiar to SyriaPalestine. 58 A similar opinion was offered by F.-M. Abei.5 9 There is a
renewed effort to argue for an originally Semitic text, however, beginning
with the study by Samuel Klein (1937) who leaned toward the possibility
of Aramaic. 60 By far the most enthusiastic proponent of the view of a
Semitic original was C. C. Torrey: his edition and translation, based on
Codex Marchalianus (Q), reflect an unwavering conviction that a Hebrew
Vorlage underlies the work; readings without manuscript witness are
55 Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 11 argues that "the standpoint of
the author of the Lives is plainly Jerusalem"; Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae
Prophetarum" (1937) 209 points out the inordinate interest in sites in the
proximity of Beth-Guvrin (Eleutheropolis). Virtually all commentators seem to
acknowledge possible Egyptian origins for some of the elements found in the
vita of Jeremiah.
56 Hamaker, Commentatio in libel/urn de vita et morte prophetarum, qui
Graece circumfertur (1833).
57 Hall, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1887) 38-39.
58 Nestle, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1893) 46; Schermann, Prophetarum Vitae
(1907) x-xi; Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 122, 131-133.
59
Abel, "Le Tombeau d'Isa'ie" (1922) 26: "On a tente de placer a l'origine
de ces notices un opuscule hebreu ou arameen, mais les tournures semitiques
s'expliquent suffisamment par le grec aramalsant parle en Palestine."
60 Klein, "Al ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) 191, n. 6.

22

CHAPIERONE

introduced into the Greek text on the basis of a reconstructed Semitic

source.61 Jeremias too accepted this basic position yet appeared once again
to favor an Aramaic original.62 Of late, however, there has been far more
caution in this regard and in the introduction to his recent translation
D. R. A. Hare has assembled a number of new and interesting arguments
for Greek as the original language of composition.63

Sacred Tombs and Loca San eta in Early Judaism

From the time of Hadrian Reland's stunning composition Palaestina ex
Monumentis Veteribus lllustrata (1714), students of the historical
geography of the Holy Land have been fascinated by the Lives of the
Prophets and its trove of place names and burial traditions. Their
investigations largely have originated from (and consequently given
sustenance to) the premise that
. . . the little book is Palestinian through and through, and its atmosphere is
distinctly that of pre-Christian times. Very noticeable is the number of
geographical names, familiar to the author and his contemporaries but
unknown to us and unmentioned in either the earll. Christian Onomastica or
the rabbinical writings, which occur in the Lives. 4

It is precisely this unique, unparalleled character of the traditions in the

Lives of the Prophets which has so enthralled students of the work. Indeed,
the present century has witnessed significant advance in the critical study of
later traditions surrounding the tombs of biblical figures. The detailed
investigations of the historical geography of Jerusalem and its environs by
H. Vincent and F.-M. Abel, among the founding generation of scholars of
the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique, ultimately issued in their joint classic
work on Jerusalem Nouvelle. 65 They found much of interest in the birth and
burial notices in the Lives of the Prophets and generally displayed great
confidence in the work as a repository of early Jewish lore. By far the most
61 Torrey, The Apocryphal Literature (1945) 139-140; idem, Lives of the
Prophets (1946) 1, 7-8, 16-17, 24-25, n. 28, 27-28, n. 47, 49-52 (appendix:
"Jeremiah and the Reptiles of Egypt"). In a generally appreciative review of
Torrey's monograph, Marcus (JBL 66 [1947] 337-339), expressed a measure of
reservation regarding the free manner in which both the Greek text and resultant
translation had been emended.
62 Jeremias, Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 12, n. 2.
63 Hare, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 380, 390, n. 4j.
64
Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 10.
65
Vincent and Abel, Jerusalem. Recherches de topographie, d' archeologie
et d' histoire 2.3-4 (Paris 1922-1926). Note too their earlier studies: Vincent,
"Le tombeau des proph~tes" (1901) 84; Abel, "La sepulture de saint Jacques le
Mineur" (1919) and "Le Tombeau d'lsale" (1922).

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CON1EXT

23

comprehensive and sustained examinations of the geographical traditions of

the work, however, have been those conducted by Samuel Klein and
Joachim Jeremias. Two more differently oriented scholars could scarcely be
imagined-as both men pursued their research in accord with their own
broader interests and agenda-yet the two ultimately agreed in their
estimation of the Lives of the Prophets as a unique and valuable collection
of Jewish tradition antedating, in most cases, the destruction of the Second
Temple.
Klein's ambitious article provided the first extensive commentary on the
composition's birth and burial traditions. 66 His detailed discussion of the
geographical notices of the individual vitae is marked by an attempt to set
those traditions within the context of similar concerns in rabbinic literature.
Klein reveals a curious blend of open-eyed skepticism and blind devotion in
his treatment of the work. He observes, in the case of a particularly obscure
report concerning the prophet Nahum, that while "the explanation is
certainly strange, nothing appears to be too strange for this author in such
matters" (201); yet in his analysis of the vita of Azariah (191-192) he is
willing to perform all manner of mental and geographical gymnastics in
order to defend the trustworthiness of the composition. Indeed, the overall
impression one gains from Klein's article is the general disparity between
the traditions recorded in the Lives of the Prophets and those of early Jewish
literature. There remains, however. an ardent tenor of respect for the
authenticity of the birth and burial notices, and the explanation emerges
only at the conclusion of Klein's discussion: the vitae preserve a remnant,
however faint and distorted, of traditions akin to those which may be
presumed to have formed the "Scroll of Genealogies" (l'Orw n~nl) known
and consulted in the early rabbinic period. 67 The geographical notices of the
Lives of the Prophets, despite later corruptions and additions, retain the
"essence" of a popular piety from the period of the Second Temple.
Jeremias' monograph on Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) is
marked by a straightforward goal: the demonstration that one of most
famous of the sayings of Jesus-"Woe to you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the
monuments of the righteous" (Mt 23:29; // Lk 11:47)-accurately reflects
66
67

Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937).

Ibid., 208-209. This assertion would appear to be based solely on the
fact that the non-extant "Scroll of Genealogies"- b. Yebamot 49a; j. Taanit
4,2 (68a); Genesis Rabbah 85, 10 (Theodor-Albeck, 1259)-contained the
legend of Isaiah's death at the hands of Manasseh. Yet the activity of the
prophets (and their martyrdom) is likely to have been tangential to the scroll's
principal genealogical function: see the observations in Stone, Armenian
Apocrypha (1982) 160-161.

24

CHAPIERONE

the spiritual and architectural reality of first century Palestine.68 It would be

difficult to overestimate the importance of the Lives of the Prophets for this
project: in Jeremias' argument for the existence of "sacred tombs" as one of
the principal elements in the "popular religion at the time of Jesus," no
other text is asked to testify so often on behalf of Jewish tradition and
practice from the period of the Second Temple.69 This monograph by
Jeremias, systematically presented and often ingeniously argued, has had a
profound influence. His conclusions regarding the background of the Q
pericope in Matthew 23:29-31 and Luke 11:47-49 have become fixed
points of reference for modern commentators on those passages. Recent
inquiries into the nature of early Jewish piety, in particular the question of
"popular religion," during the period of the Second Temple have found
Jeremias' thesis irresistible.7 Finally, and perhaps most pervasive, has
been the impact of Heiligengriiber on investigations of the Jewish origins
of a wide variety of early Christian practices: cults of martyrs and saints,
veneration of graves, and patterns of pilgrimage.7 1 Indeed, to question
Jeremias' reliance upon and understanding of traditions drawn from the
Lives of the Prophets would be, in effect, to raise serious questions about a
broad range of current assumptions concerning the relationship between
Jewish and Christian forms of piety in late antiquity.
The ultimate "success" of the geographical notices in the Lives of the
Prophets can be measured by their acceptance and incorporation in the
standard handbooks on "loca sancta" of Roman and Byzantine Palestine. The
classic treatment by Peter Thomsen appeared in the same year ( 1907) as
Schermann's dual volumes; Thomsen introduces the place names of the

68
69

Jeremias, Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 5.

Fully half of Jeremias' introductory discussion of primary source
materials (11-13) is devoted to the Lives of the Prophets. In his investigation
of individual traditions, the vitae serve as the principal (and sometimes sole)
source of support: see Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 29-31, 58, 62-65,
67-68, 71-74, 80-85, 87, 89-90, 93-94, 100-101, 105, 108-109, 112-113.
70
Strange, "Archaeology and the Religion of Judaism in Palestine" (1979)
667-668; Meyers and Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity
(1981) 162; Werner, "Traces of Jewish Hagiolatry" (1980) 48-50. See too
Rothkrug, "The 'Odor of Sanctity' and the Hebrew Origins of Christian Relic
Veneration" (1981) and Lightstone, The Commerce of the Sacred (1984) 57-87.
11
Simon, "Les pelerinages dans l'Antiquite chretienne" (1973); Klauser,
"Christlicher Martyrerkult, heidnischer Heroenkult und spatjiidische
Heiligenverehrung" (1974); Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 10, 33;
Kret~chmar, "Festkalender und Memorialstatten Jerusalems" (1987); Wilkinson,
"Jew1sh Holy Places and the Origins of Christian Pilgrimage" (1990). For lone
voices of dissent, see now Rordorf, "Wie steht es urn den jUdischen Einfluss auf
den christlichen Miirtyrerkult" (1990) and Taylor, Christians and the Holy
Places. The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins (1993).

EVIDENCE, ffiNSENSUS, AND CON1EXT

25

vitae-cited as "Pseudepiphanius" on the basis of Nestle's 1893

publication-throughout his work and they figure prominently alongside
those of Josephus, Eusebius, et a/. 12 The next major project of this sort
was the posthumously published collection of material, including rabbinic
sources, prepared by Michael Avi-Yonah; birth and burial notices from the
vitae are integrated here only when they could be positively identified with a
known site.73 Two recent and detailed compilations of "loca sancta" have
appeared as the appendices to studies of Christian pilgrimage by John
Wilkinson and Pierre Maraval: both works exhibit a keen interest in the
Lives of the Prophets as well as a clear knowledge of Jeremias' research. 74
None of these students of the historical geography of ancient Palestine has
questioned the status of our text as a Jewish composition of the Second
Temple era.
Prophets and Martyrs in Judaism of the Second Temple period
Closely related to the study of the burial notices in the Lives has been a
sharp focus on the composition's martyrological content. Here, as well, the
impetus has arisen largely from the desire to elucidate a further /ogion
whose presumed source lies in the Q-tradition:
Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and
apostles, some of whom they they will kill and persecute,' so that this
generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the
foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah,
who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. (Lk 11:49ff.; Mt 23:34f.)

Much discussion of these verses has concerned the mention of Zechariah and
the often frustrating attempts to resolve the confusion between no fewer..
than four figures bearing that name: the prophet Zechariah son of Berachiah
son of Ido (Zech 1: 1) about whose fate the Bible is silent; Zechariah son of
the priest Jehoiada (2 Chr 24:20-22) slain in the Temple by the command
of Joash; Zechariah father of John the Baptist martyred by Herod according
to early Christian tradition (Protevang. James 23-24); Zechariah son of
72
73

Thomsen, Loca Sancta (1907).

Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer of Roman Palestine (1976). Citations from the
Lives appear to be indiscriminately culled from both Nestle (1893) and
Schermann (1907). Though published almost twenty years after the appearance
of the monograph by Jeremias, there is no acknowledgment of his research.
74
Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims Before the Crusades (1977) 148-178
("Gazetteer"); Maraval, Lieux Saints et Pelerinages d'Orient (1985) 251-310
("Repertoire des Lieux Saints. I. Palestine"). Wilkinson's work is distinguished
by a true frrst-hand knowledge of the land as well as a critical attitude toward a
number of Jeremias' suggested identifications.

26

CHAP1ERONE

Baries (Josephus, War 4.334-344) murdered by the Zealots on the eve of

the Destruction. 75 It is only natural that in the course of discussion
attention was directed to the respective vitae of the prophet and priest
contained in the Lives.16 Among the most comprehensive investigations of
the entire issue, including the testimony of the Lives, have been studies
dedicated to the lost apocryphon of Zechariah. 77
Concurrently a much broader examination had begun of the background
of the Gospel saying-an assessment of the larger relationship between
prophecy and martyrdom in the period of the Second Temple. 78 An
additional series of proof-texts from the New Testament had been introduced
to widen the inquiry:
Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those
who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become
his betrayers and murderers. (Acts 7:52)
Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the
sword ... (Heb 11:36-37)

With these citations as an epigraph, Hans Joachim Schoeps (1943) engaged

the issue of Jewish antecedents directly and for the first time brought the
evidence of the Lives into the very center of the discussion. 79 Schoeps
demanded the recognition of a rich tradition concerning the deaths of the
prophets within Judaism of the Second Temple period, not all of whose
sources have survived or can be reconstructed. His analysis opens, in fact,
with a nod to the Church father Origen who already had observed the marked
"disappearance" of such legends from the scriptural canon of Judaism. 80 Of
those extant sources which attest to the pre-Christian tradition, none offers
75
The literature on this problem is enormous: see the discussion in Steck,
Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 33-40 and the helpful
survey in Garland, The Intention of Matthew 23 (1979) 182-183, n. 69.
76
The basic discussion, with ample reference to the Lives, remains Blank,
"The Death of Zechariah in Rabbinic Literature" (1937/38). Blank notes there
the parallel confusion between the figures of prophet and priest in Mt 23:35, in
the Targum to Lamentations 2:20, and in certain manuscripts of the Lives.
77
Berendts, Studien iiber Zacharias-Apokryphen und Zacharias-Legenden
(1895); Dubois, "Etudes sur l'Apocryphe de Zacharie" (1978).
78
Pioneering in this regard was the monograph of Schlatter, Der Miirtyrer
in den Anfiingen der Kirche (1915) 18-22 ("Der Prophet als Miirtyrer"). For the
history of research, see Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten
(1967) 15-19 and Scholer, "Israel Murdered its Prophets" (1980) 6-22.
79
Schoeps, "Die jlidischen Prophetenmorde" (1943; 1950).
80
Note principally his Comm. ser. in Matt. 25-28; ed. Klostermann [GCS
38] 40-54 and Epist. ad Africanum 13 (9); ed. de Lange [SC 302] 542-544.

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CON'IEXT

27

so broad a range of material as the Lives; Schoeps details the accounts of

violent death in the vitae of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah, and
Zechariah b. Jehoiada (and appends Joel and Habakkuk according to one of
the Syriac versions.) Without this rich martyrological tradition, Schoeps
concludes with reference back to the Q-logion, "bleibt das Jesuwort
unverstandlich." 81 Independent of Schoeps' research, Henry Fischel
presented a comparable study of early Jewish attitudes, though with far
greater emphasis on both pagan background and rabbinic testimony; his
findings largely dovetailed with those of Schoeps:
In conclusion, it can be said that as early as the first century C.E. it had
become a generally accepted teaching of Judaism that prophets had to suffer
or even to undergo martyrdom. This tenet was exemplified by midrashic
reports on the sufferings or deaths of the prophets. Preconceived in
biblical sources, this belief seems to be of Jewish origin. The N .T.
teachings on the task and fate of the prophet seem to be based on this
Jewish belief and presuppose a number of midrashic stories. 82

Among those "midrashic" reports and stories, martyrologicallegends drawn

from the vitae figure prominently.
To this day, the respective studies of Schoeps and Fischel, including
their willingness to incorporate the evidence of the Lives, continue to
establish the tone for scholarly discussion of the conjunction of prophecy
and martyrdom at the close of the Second Temple period. 83 The only true
attempt to rethink the entire problem has been the lengthy monograph by
Odil Hannes Steck on the "violent fate" of the prophets. 84 Interestingly,
Steck attempts a more precise definition of the phenomenon-speaking of a
Deuteronomic outlook within a predominantly Ievitical context-which
concurrently detracts from the importance of the Lives : the motif of
martyrdom in the vitae is neither particularly emphatic nor does it bear a
clear ideological orientation. 85 Both of these aspects of Steck's research
have been questioned of late, and it is difficult to discern any displacement

81
82
83

Schoeps,"Die jiidischen Prophetenmorde" (1943; 1950) 132.

Fischel, "Martyr and Prophet" (1946/47) 279.
Manson, "Martyrs and Martyrdom" (1956/57) provides an articulate
statment of this consensus from the viewpoint of New Testament reseach. For a
somewhat different perspective, see Flusser, "Das jiidische Martyrium" (1973).
The folowing studies have all accented the martyrological aspects of the Lives:
Bernheimer, "The Martyrdom of Isaiah" (1952); Koml6s, "About Jewish
Elements in the Vitae Prophetarum" (1958); Hare, The Theme of Jewish
Persecution of Christians (1967) 137-141.
84
Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967).
85
Ibid., 247-250.

28

CHAPrER ONE

of the Lives as a prime witness to early Jewish and Christian attitudes

toward martyrdom.86

Desiderata
From our survey of scholarship several lacunae emerge clearly. First, tl!ere
has been no sustained examination of the Lives as a literary text. This
dearth of precise literary analysis appears all the more remarkable given the
obvious and proximate background of biblical scholarship. The research
concerns and techniques developed by generations of students of the Hebrew
Bible and New Testament still wait to be applied in even the most cursory
manner.87 In the absence of such an investigation, an entire realm of
questions regarding the form, composition, and genre of the Lives has yet
to receive clear formulation. One of the obvious courses of entry to such
problems-the intensive analysis of a select vita or group of vitae-has
also been neglected. Indeed, there has not been an in-depth study of the vita
of a prophet since Franz Delitzsch's monograph on Habakkuk exactly a
century and a half ago. 88
Congruent with the failure to address the text as an integral literary
document has been a reticence about larger issues of historical and cultural
context. The traditional view of the Lives of the Prophets as a Jewish work
of the Second Temple period both begs and blocks certain central questions
regarding the work.The broad willingness to regard the composition as
"background" to the New Testament or as illustrative of attitudes and
practices among the people in the period of the Second Temple has not
resulted in a a serious attempt to read the text within a defined historical
framework; rather, there has been a largely piecemeal exploitation of details
drawn from the vitae. Very little attention has been given to either the basic
religious identity of the composition or the possible significance which the
work held for the community in which it was created. The key to these
questions lies in the determination of an audience and a context: by whom
86
For a sustained critique of Steck's work, see Scholer, "Israel Murdered its
Prophets" (1980) 15-22. Scholer devotes a lengthy discussion to the vitae of
the martyred prophets (145-165) and insists on the primacy of the Lives as a
witness to Jewish martyr-consciousness at the end of the Second Temple period.
87 Schermann displayed an awareness of these questions in his treatment of
the individual vitae (Propheten- und Apostellegenden [1907] 43-116) but
offered neither a general discussion of the issue nor detailed analysis. More
recently Steck, Israel und das gewa/tsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 248
has noted the lack of "eine traditionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung" of the text.
88
Delitzsch, De Habacuci prophetae vita atque aetate commentatio
historico-isagogica cum Diatriba de Pseudodorothei et Pseudepiphanii vitis
prophetarum (1842).

EVIDENCE, OONSENSUS, AND CONlEXT

29

and in what setting was the text received, read, and preserved. These are
crucial concerns, perhaps, yet often sidestepped in the dizzying rush to
establish the earliest and most original form of the document.
Finally, despite the solid and fruitful labors of Nestle and Schermann,
time is fast approaching to reassess and reassemble the textual evidence for
the Lives. This is in part due to the steady expansion of the number of
known Greek manuscripts of the different recensions 89 and equally as a
result of our greatly increased knowledge of the different versions and a
growing perception of their importance. A far-reaching project by a team of
scholars, led by M. Petit and F. Dolbeau, envisions precisely this sort of
fundamental re-examination of the entire textual tradition toward a new
edition, of the Greek and of the versions, for the Series Apocryphorum of
the Corpus Christianorum.90
CONlEXTS OF 1RANSMISSION

Text-critical questions aside, the overwhelming focus of modem research

clearly has been the contribution of the Lives of the Prophets to an
understanding of Judaism and nascent Christianity at the end of the Second
Temple period. It might even appear that a virtually exclusive interest in
details relevant to the physical and spiritual landscape of first century
Palestine has encouraged similar conclusions regarding the origin of the
work. Given the broad consensus that the document is in fact both early and
Jewish, one is surprised by the equanimity which accompanies the
following revelation by the most recent translator of the Lives:
The document is extant in Christian manuscripts only. Not a scrap of it has
been identified at Qumran, and there is no reference to it in other Jewislf
literature. Nevertheless, the basic material has been so little influenced by
Christian beliefs that scholars are generally agreed that the original
writing was created by a Jew. Because it was transmitted by Christians,
however, it is not surprising that the manuscripts contain a good deal of
Christian material. 91

One is left wondering what are the precise criteria for distinguishing
between the "good deal of Christian material" which has presumably
accumulated during the course of transmission and the "basic material"
89 Denis, Introduction (1970) 85-88 cites no fewer than twenty Greek
manuscripts of the work which were unknown to Schermann, and one suspects
that this list will continue to grow.
9
For a preliminary description of the project, see the Bulletin de L'AELAC
(Association pour l'etude de Ia litterature apocryphe chretienne) 2 (1992) 1~13.
91
Hare, "The Lives of the Prophets" (1986) 380

CHAPIERONE

30

reflecting popular Jewish religiosity at the time of Jesus. And what does
one do with all that Christian accretion? Does it have any relevance to the
study of the document? To judge by the last century of scholarship, .the
answer would appear to be: little or none at all. This decidedly imbalanced
approach to the study of the Lives of the Prophets is rendered still more
questionable given the widespread transmission and obvious significance of
the text in the Byzantine Greek, Oriental Christian, and Medieval Latin
traditions.
.......
The problem would be a real one even if the testimony to the existence
of the Lives had been relatively early, e.g. the writings of Origen (185254), as in the case of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. 92 It would
still be incumbent on the student of the text to give some accounting for
the centuries that had elapsed between its putative Jewish authorship and its
earliest witness-by a Christian author. The case at hand, though, is far
more dramatic and unsettling: virtually no heed has been paid to the simple
fact that the earliest evidence for the Lives of the Prophets ranges from the
sixth through eighth centuries. No citation from nor allusion to the
composition can be documented from the patristic period; similarly, the
work does not appear in any of the canon lists (third through sixth
centuries) which we possess. In short, between the text's presumed point of
origin and our very first proof of its existence there lies a gap of half a
millennium.
It may be helpful to marshal these "early" witnesses. First, there are the
oldest manuscripts of the Lives from the seventh and eighth centuries:
The Greek text preserved in the opening leaves of the codex
Marchalianus (Q) which are to be dated no later than the seventh
century.93
The Syriac text of the vitae of the minor prophets (with the exception
of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) prepared in 616/617 and preserved in
the eighth century codex Ambrosiana of the Syro-Hexapla.94
The eighth century Syriac manuscript (Mus. Brit. add. 14536) which
contains one of the prime witnesses to that version.95
Alongside these early textual representatives stand two authors from the
first half of the seventh century who included portions of the Lives in their
own works:

92

On this, as well as a host of closely related issues, see de Jonge, "The

Tr;~smission of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs by Christians" (1993).

94

95

See above, n. 8.
See above, n. 12.
See above, n. 13.

EVIDENCE, a>NSENSUS, AND OON1EXT

31

Isidore of Seville (ca. 560-636) made use of the Lives in his

composition De ortu et obitu patrum. 96 As discussed above, it would
now appear that we can trace the evidence still further back to the Latin
texts (sixth century?) which stood behind the work of Isidore. 97
The anonymous author of the Byzantine Chronicon Paschale (ca. 629)
employed a Greek text representative of the Dorotheus recension.98
Both manuscripts and testimonies, therefore, indicate the existence of an
ample textual tradition (Greek recensional activity as well as translation
into both Syriac and Latin) at the close of the sixth century. It is of no
little interest, moreover, to observe the sudden appearance and concentration
of so many variegated witnesses to the existence of the text at that point in
time. It may not be unreasonable to infer processes of redaction and
circulation of Greek texts of the Lives substantially earlier in that century.
Beyond that point, however, the evidence simply cannot be coerced.
What are the methodological consequences of the recognition that the
earliest traces of the Lives of the Prophets can be documented only in a
series of Christian sources from the late sixth or early seventh centuries
C.E.? Is it possible to continue to read, cite, and study the vitae as if they
had been plucked directly from the reality of the Second Temple period? In
an analysis of scholarly assumptions current in the investigation of a wide
range of Jewish pseudepigrapha, Robert Kraft posed the problem most
acutely:
Whatever the ultimate origins and literary history of these materials, their
place in Christian usage (and piety) is well attested simply on the basis of
the preserved MSS. And it is here that our quest for solutions about earlier
phases of development must begin if we are to pursue a systematic and
rigorously controlled approach to the problem.99

This insistence on the prime importance of the context of transmission

comes as a corrective to decades of inconclusive and premature searching
96 See above, n. 29.
97 See above, n. 31.
98 See above, n. 5. It is interesting to note that the sixth century
Alexandrian author Cosmas Indicopleustes cites the Christological florilegia
which preface the vitae in the Dorotheus recension but does not seem to know
the vitae themselves: Topographia Christiana 5.139-173; ed. Wolska-Conus
[SC 141, 159, 197] (1968-1973) 2.201-265. On the possible relationship
between Cosmas and the Chronicon Paschale, see Schermann, Propheten- und
Apostellegenden (1907) 12-14; Mercati, "A Study of the Paschal Chronicle"
(1906); Winstedt, "A Note on Cosmas and the Chronicon Paschale" (1907);
Wolska, La topographie chretienne de Cosmas Indicopleustes (1962) 98-105.
99
Kraft, "Reassessing the 'Recensional Problem' in Testament of
Abraham" (1976) 131-132.

32

CHAPIERONE

after origins. Kraft proceeds to spell out the implications of this approach:
in addressing documents whose contexts of transmission and reception
provide our only secure basis for research,
content and (if possible) intent need to be analyzed within the framework
of the identifiable transmitters of the material.. .. Were the motives at work
in the transmission and preservation of such materials sufficient to cause
the actual composition and/or construction of some of the materials
themselves? It should not be assumed that a document composed or
compiled by a Christian will necessarily contain characteristically
"Christian" contents. 100

The implications of this position are truly profound; taken seriously, they
would demand something of a "paradigm shift" in the study of post-biblical
Jewish literature. In fact, it is not a call which has been widely heeded. 101

***
The ta~k before us, then, is to examine the Lives of the Prophets without
pre-suppositions, released from the (unproven) requirement to anchor the
composition in first century Palestine. This demands a close examination
not of a presumed "original" text but of the text as we have received it. A
difficulty immediately appears: multiple, divergent texts of the composition
known as Lives of the Prophets stand before us today. Further, given the
disavowal of any premature attempt to establish the origins of the
document, can we speak of a "best" text, or even a better one? Clearly, we
cannot do so in the sense in which this determination has traditionally been
made: the form of the text closest in either language or content to a
hypothetical Jewish context. For our purposes-and in accord with the
principles set down above-the best text may simply be that form of the
100 Ibid., 135. Note as well the discussion in Kraft's unpublished, yet widely
circulated lecture on "The Pseudepigrapha in Christianity" (1976) and Stone,
"Categorization and Classification" (1986). For an intriguing study of an
ancient Jewish document in its context of transmission, see Nickelsburg, "Two
Enochic Manuscripts: Unstudied Evidence for Egyptian Christianity" (1990).
101 Witness the editorial instructions to the contributors to the 0 l d
Testament Pseudepigrapha concerning the date of their respective documents:
"The contributor assesses the debates (if any) over the date of the original
composition, explains, if appropriate, the dates of any subsequent expansions
or interpolations, and then presents his or her own scholarly opinion."
Charlesworth, "Editor's Preface" in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (19831985) xv. Contrast the far greater sensitivity to this problem of dating and
transmission in the preface (esp. xiv-xvi) to Sparks (ed.), The Apocryphal Old
Testament (1984). See too the reviews of these collections by M. E. Stone and
R. A. Kraft in Religious Studies Review 14 (1988) 111-117.

EVIDENCE, aJNSENSUS, AND CON'IEXT

33

text which can be confirmed to have achieved stability at the earliest

verifiable point in time. Our investigation, then, will be based upon the
text of the Lives as preserved in opening pages of the Codex
Marchalianus-a traditional choice, perhaps, but for a very untraditional
reason. There is no determination or claim that codex Q preserves a better,
more literate, more Jewish, or more original form of the document; rather,
it simply provides the earliest form of the Greek text within a known
historical context.
Prior to an assessment of the text within its context of transmission,
however, something must be said of the text itself. In the following chapter
the Lives will be examined in an effort to make clear its basic form,
structural components, and some aspects of its inner logic. The
investigation will lead fmally to a consideration of the literary development
of the work. Is this procedure not a dilution of the very commitment to
"work backwards" from a known historical context? Yes, in fact, and there
will be several points in the course of the chapter where the discussion will
be suspended until that context can be offered. Yet there are advantages in
this approach. First, it provides an opportunity to demonstrate in some
detail the manner in which an exclusive focus on Judaism of the Second
Temple period has created a distorted perception of the Lives. Second, it
gradually exposes the (perhaps unwilling) reader to the possibility that the
text not only can be examined within a Byzantine Christian context but, in
certain instances, must be. Finally, it will be argued that the Lives of the
Prophets, due to its complex redactional character, resists the attempt to
reveal earlier layers or stages in the process of composition. In this light,
an emphasis on the "context of transmission" is methodologically correct
not in some abstract sense alone but represents, in fact, the only practicableand satisfactory manner for the historian-whether his principal concerns be
literary, social, or religious-to address the text and the issues which it
raises.

CHAP1ER1WO

STRUCTURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSITION

The discussion in the last chapter revealed the principal predilection (and
weakness) of modern scholarship on the Lives of the Prophets: inordinate
concern with piquant details-geographical and narrative-at the expense of
a close investigation of the work's overall form and genre. "The primordial
problem is literary: sources and fabrications, structure and composition." 1 A
principal impediment to such analysis has been the general impression that
the composition is largely arbitrary, even haphazard, in structure. A primary
goal of the present chapter, then, is the effort to discern and demonstrate
recurrent patterns-of both form and content-which define the work.
For reasons elaborated at the close of the preceding chapter, the text
before us will be that of the Codex Marchalianus (Q), Schermann's prime
witness to the recensio anonyma of the Lives. This manuscript of the
composition numbers twenty-three biographical sketches or vitae: Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve "minor" prophets, Nathan, Ahijah of
Shiloh ( 1 Kgs 11 :29), the "man of God" (known here as Joad) who came to
Jereboam (1 Kgs 13), Azariah son of Oded (2 Chr 15:1), Elijah the
Tishbite, Elisha his successor, and Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada
(2 Chr 24:20-22). These figures would appear to represent a solid and
consistent core of the work, being present (albeit in variant ordering) in at
least one other Greek recension and in the principal manuscripts of a
number of the versions.
1HE STRUCTIJRE OF THE Vll'AE

The simplest vita provides no more than the designation of the prophet
with his tribal affiliation and place of birth followed by a specification of
his death and burial site. Most witnesses to the Lives of the Prophets offer
but a single example of this extreme brevity:

Thus, Ronald Syme on an equally vexed composition: Ammianus and the

Historia Augusta (1968) 211; idem, Historia Augusta Papers (1983) 211:
"Historians were the principal contenders, eager for facts and preoccupied with
the dating of the work. That was unfortunate. The primary approach . . . should be
literary: structure and sources, language and authorship."

STRUCfURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSmON

35

Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in
peace and was buried there.

This succinct structure would appear to adhere precisely to the

superscription to the text in the Codex Marchalianus: "The names of the
prophets and whence they were, where they died and how and where they
were buried." The majority of the vitae, in fact, reveal slightly expanded
forms of this basic structure. In these cases, the birth and burial notices
serve as a framework for details of the prophet's life and mission.
Micah the Morathite was of the tribe of Ephraim. After he did many things
to Achab, he was killed by Joram his son at a precipice, because he rebuked
him for the impieties of his fathers. And he was buried alone in his land
near the burial ground of the Anakim.
Nahum was from Elkesi, on the other side of Isbegabarin, of the tribe of
Simeon. After (the time of) Jonah this man gave an omen to Nineveh that it
would be destroyed by fresh water and subterranean fire-and this came
about. The surrounding lake flooded it at the time of an earthquake and fire
out of the desert scorched its upper part. He died in peace and was buried in
his land.

Structurally these passages are clearly similar, though the additional

"sandwiched " material is in fact far from identical: the vita of Micah is
enhanced by a brief narrative of the prophet's deeds, while that of Nahum is
adumbrated through the details of a prophecy and its fulfillment. Closely
resembling the account of Micah are the vitae of Amos, Obadiah,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi, Nathan, Ahijah, Joad, and Azariah. 2
The burial notice is not always a closing formula, however. Almost as
frequently as not, some supplementary material concerning the prophet is
not included within the biographic framework but follows immediately
upon it. In a single instance, the skeletal birth-burial pattern is simply
amplified:
Hosea. He was from Belemoth, of the tribe of lssachar, and was buried in
his own land in peace. And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive upon
the earth if the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to
become twelve oaks.

In a number of cases, the vitae are still more fully developed and include
both narrative material within the framework as well as an appended
section, generally of prophetic import. The additions may be fairly brief:
2
The vitae of Elijah and Elisha probably belong in this structural category
as well; however, in the Codex Marchalianus they appear to have attracted much
additional and secondary material, on which see below, n. 33.

36

CHAPTER1WO

Habakkuk was from the tribe of Simeon out of the field of Beth-Zouxar. He
foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem, prior to the captivity, and mourned
exceedingly. When Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, he fled to Ostrakine
and dwelt in the land of Ishmael. When the Chaldeans retired, and those
who remained in Jerusalem (went down) to Egypt, he dwelt in his own land
and ministered to the reapers of his field. As he took up the food, he
prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to a distant land and will
return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the reapers." And after he
had been in Babylon and had given the meal to Daniel, he stood beside the
reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of what had happened. And he
understood that the people would return yet more swiftly from Babylon.
And he died two years before the return and was buried alone in his own
field.

He gave an omen to those in Judea that they would see a light in the
Temple, and thus they would perceive the glory of the Temple. And
concerning the end of the Temple, he foretold that it would be
accomplished by a western nation. Then, he said, the 'Dabeir' (veil of the
inner sanctuary) will be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns
will be carried off, and no one will know where they are; they will be taken
away by angels into the wilderness, where in the beginning the Tent of
Witness was pitched. And through them the Lord will be known at the end,
for they will enlighten those pursued by the serpent in darkness as from the
beginning.

Roughly similar in structure to the extended vita of Habakkuk are those of

the prophets Daniel and Jonah. In all these instances, as in a number of
others to be discussed below, the fmal appended section may be described as
an eschatological prophecy.
Finally, one encounters the lengthy and complex lives of the major
prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They present far more complicated
structures which appear to have developed from the basic forms described
thus far.
Ezekiel. He is from the land of Arira, of the priests, and he died in the land
of the Chaldeans during the captivity, when he had prophesied many things
to those in Judea. The leader of the people of Israel there killed him, when
he was rebuked by him for worshipping idols. And they buried him in the
field of Maour in the tomb of Shem and Arpachshad, ancestors of Abraham.
And the tomb is a double cavern, since Abraham also made the tomb of
Sarah in Hebron in its likeness. It is called double for it is twisted, and an
upper chamber is hidden from the ground floor and is suspended in rock
upon the ground.

This prophet gave an omen to the people so as to pay close attention to the
Chebar river: whenever it should fail, to expect the scythe of desolation to
the end of the earth; and when it should rise, the return to Jerusalem.

STRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON

37

The holy man also resided there, and many would gather round him. And
once when a multitude was with him, the Chaldeans feared lest they should
revolt and they came to them to kill them. But he caused the water to stand
so that they might flee and arrive on the other side. And those of the
enemies who dared to pursue were drowned.
Through prayer, he provided them spontaneously with an abundant supply
of fish and appealed for a life to come from God for many who were growing
weak.
When the people were being destroyed by their enemies, he came to the
leaders, and through miracles, they ceased being fearful. He said this to
them: "Have we perished? Is our hope lost?" And by the omen of the bones
of the dead he persuaded them that there shall be hope for Israel both now
and in the future.
While he was there he showed the people of Israel the things taking place
in Jerusalem and in the Temple. He was snatched up from there and came to
Jerusalem to rebuke the unfaithful. He saw the pattern (of the Temple) as did
Moses, its wall and broad surrounding wall, even as Daniel said it would be
built.
He judged the tribe of Dan and Gad in Babylon because they acted impiously
towards the Lord by persecuting those who were keeping the Law. He
performed a great portent regarding them-that the snakes consumed their
children and all their cattle-and he predicted that because of them the
people would not return to their land, but shall be in Media until the
completion of their error. And the one who murdered him was from among
them, for they opposed him all the days of his life.

Here one observes an initial birth-narrative-burial notice followed by

supplementary prophetic material-very close in form to the vitae described
immediately above. This is then rather luxuriously expanded by additional
legendary narrative and finally concludes with a second account of the
prophet's death. Similarly composite are the vitae of Isaiah and Jeremiah
and it would appear that in several respects, to be discussed below, these
vitae can be regarded as a distinct unit within the text. 3
The overall impression from this survey is one of utmost flexibility,
perhaps better fluidity, in the structure(s) of the work. This impression is
only strengthened when one examines the relationship between the different
Greek recensions or even between the manuscript witnesses of the same
recension. Indeed, one is easily tempted to imagine or hypothesize how the
vitae could have attained their present form: the gradual addition (or,
conceivably, extraction) of varying component traditions or materials. Any
3
The criterion here, it should be stressed, is one of structure and not
length: the vita of Daniel is, in fact, longer still than these three but quite
different in forin.

38

CHAPIER1WO

such discussion, however, is clearly premature. We must first examine

more closely those very subjects and formal characteristics which comprise
the composition.
It has become clear in the course of the preceding overview that
underlying the formal structures of the vitae are three distinct categories of
material or subjects whose appearance throughout the work is so regular as
to be predictable: birth and burial accounts relating details of a geographical
and genealogical nature; narrative legends of varying length with a decided
emphasis on miraculous or wondrous deeds; and prophetic pronouncements
often of a decidedly eschatological tenor. I shall examine the precise
character and distinctive qualities of each of the three types of material in
some detail. The assessment of these structural components is essential not
only to an appreciation of the Lives of the Prophets as an integral document
but to an accurate understanding of the work within its religious and
cultural context. Their careful explication may serve, paradoxically, to
accent the complexities attending any attempt to determine the literary and
historical development of the work.
BIR1H AND BURIAL

Perhaps the most celebrated feature of the Lives of the Prophets has been
the wealth of geographical and genealogical information which the text
displays. As we have seen, these birth and burial traditions form a
consistent feature of the vitae despite the wide variation in structural
possibilities:
Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in

peace and was buried there.

Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon, from the field of Sabaratha. He

prophesied concerning the city and concerning the end of the nations and
the shame of the unrighteous. And when he died he was buried in his field.

Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash the
king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out his
blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the
priests buried him with his father. From that time there were apparitions in
the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the
angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire
by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as
formerly.

These variegated examples also help to demonstrate how very closely linked
are the accounts of birth and death in almost half of the vitae (Hosea,
Micah, Amos, Joel, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Malachi,
Nathan, Azariah): an imprecise reference to burial in the prophet's "own

STRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSIDON

39

land" or in "his field" postulates clear dependence on the introductory details

of the prophets' point of origin. In fact, no attention has been paid to the
distinction between these linked notices and those which exhibit
independent burial traditions. Furthermore, it may be noted that the
majority of vitae offer little detail regarding burial practice itself: these
include brief references to the prophets being laid to rest "with honor"
(Daniel, Haggai) or "in peace" (Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Nahum), "alone"
(Micah, Habakkuk) or "with his fathers" (Obadiah, Malachi, Zechariah b.
Jehoiada).
The clear exceptions to this pattern, unique in both structure and content,
are the traditions concerning the three major prophets. In contrast to the
brief sentence (or portion thereof) devoted to the notice of death and burial,
the vitae of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel offer far more detailed accounts
with an elaboration of both the circumstances and manner in which the
prophet was laid to rest:
Isaiah, of Jerusalem, died after he was sawn in two by Manasseh and was
buried beneath the oak of Rogel, near the conduit of the waters which
Hezekiah destroyed by blocking them .... And since this happened through
Isaiah, the people also buried him nearby carefully and with great honor as
a memorial, so that even after his death they might have the benefit of the
water in similar fashion through his prayers, for an oracle was given to
them in this regard.
Jeremiah was from Anathoth, and he died in Tahpanhes (Daphne) in Egypt
when he was stoned by the people. He is buried in the area of the residence
of Pharaoh, since the Egyptians honored him, having benefited through
him .... We have heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged
men, that Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the
prophet and recognized his mysteries, transferred his remains to
Alexandria, placing them around in a circle with honor; and the race of asps
was checked from the land and so too the crocodiles from the river.
Ezekiel. He is from the land of Arira, of the priests, and he died in the land
of the Chaldeans during the captivity, when he had prophesied many things
to those in Judea. The leader of the people of Israel there killed him, when
he was rebuked by him for worshipping idols. And they buried him in the
field of Maour in the tomb of Shem and Arpachshad, ancestors of Abraham.
And the tomb is a double cavern, since Abraham also made the tomb of
Sarah in Hebron in its likeness. It is called double for it is twisted, and an
upper chamber is hidden from the ground floor and is suspended in rock
upon the ground.

These passages stand as the introductory sections of their respective vitae

and in several respects (length, intricacy) could be considered integral
compositions which were later expanded to include both narrative and
prophetic elements. Indeed, both the Jeremiah and Ezekiel burial traditions

40

CHAPIER1WO

are immediately followed by similar types of material: "This Jeremiah gave

a sign (CTTljle'iov) to the priests of Egypt ... "; "This prophet [Ezekiel] gave
an omen (tipa.c;) to the people .... "
As surveyed in the preceding chapter, modern scholarship has embraced
the Lives of the Prophets as a prime source for the historical geography of
Palestine in the late Second Temple period. It has more than once been
suggested that the birth and burial traditions of the vitae are not simply one
aspect of the work but, in fact, its prime feature. This has been put most
strongly by those who have described the very essence of the composition
to be "a pilgrim's guide, and as such it inaugurates the long chain of
pilgrim literature on Palestine. "4 Students of the composition have been
captivated by both the abundant quantity and unique character of the text's
birth and burial traditions. They have unfailingly been impressed, in the
words of Torrey, by "the number of geographical names, familiar to the
author and his contemporaries but unknown to us and unmentioned in either
the early Christian Onomastica or the rabbinical writings."S This is
certainly true and could be rephrased with added emphasis: the Lives impart
more information regarding the prophets and their physical whereabouts
than all of our other sources, both Jewish and Christian, taken together.
This extraordinary outpouring of detailed geographical notices holds at once
enormous promise and hazard; there is simply so much otherwise unknown
material that quantity threatens to become a standard of authority. It is
crucial, therefore, that the richness of the text-the profusion of names of
both local sites and tribal affiliations-be evaluated ultimately by the value
of its constituent traditions.

Biblical Exegesis and Creative Topography

It is altogether possible that the geographical notices of the vitae have been
the object of excessive admiration. Indeed, it can be demonstrated that the
majority of the birth and burial notices of the prophets are either explicitly
dependent or exegetically derived from the biblical narrative. No less
significantly, some of those details which have been drawn from the
biblical text can be shown to have their basis in a Greek version of
scripture. Of the vitae in Codex Q of the Lives fully one third contain
geographical elements based expressly on Scripture:
Jeremiah
Micah
Amos

Anathoth
Moresheth
Tekoah

Jer 1:1
Micah 1:1; Jer 26:18
Amos 1:1

4
R. Bernheimer, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1935) 201. Note similar
expressions in Fischel, "Martyr and Prophet" (1946/47) 375; Jeremias,
Heiligengri:iber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 11; Simon, Recherches (1962) 203.
5
Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 10.

STRUCfURE, CON1ENT, AND COMPOSffiON

Nahum
Ahijah
Joad
Elijah
Elisha

Elkosh
Shiloh
Bethel
Tishbe
Abel-Meholah

41

Nahum 1:1
1 Kgs 11:29
2 Kgs 23:15-20
1 Kgs 17:1
1 Kgs 19:16

The magnitude of this reliance should not be underestimated: there does not
seem to be a single, clear instance in which the birth and burial notices of
the text either ignore or contradict the biblical evidence. Nor does the author
appear to have been stymied when the scriptural account offered no direct
guidance; it was simply necessary then to read more closely and creatively.
Let us begin with the minor prophet Zephaniah and with Azariah b.
Oded (2 Chr 15: 1-8), figures regarding whom the biblical record offers
little illumination, yet whose vitae provide the customary geographical

detail:
Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon, from the field of Sabaratha
(l:apapa8a).... And when he died he was buried in his field.
variants: Bapa8a [An]; l:apap8a8a [Dor]; l:apapa8a [Ep 1]
Azariah was from the land of Subatha (l:upa8a).... And when he died he was
buried in his own land.
variants: l:uva8a [Dor]; l:uJ.lPa8a, l:uvpa8a [Ep 1]

Here we have prime examples of the unique witness afforded by the Lives of
the Prophets: neither in Jewish literature of the Second Temple and
Rabbinic periods nor in the Byzantine onomastic and pilgrimage sources do
we find any mention of the birth and burial sites of these prophets. The
place names themselves-"Sabaratha" and "Subatha"-would appear to be
both unparalleled and resistant to precise location. 6 Given the singular
nature of these notices, is there any possibility of identifying the intended
sites or of verifying the existence of an early Jewish tradition?
The solution appeared in a brief note published in 1933 by Joachim
Jeremias.? In a terse yet trenchant analysis he demonstrated that the vitae of
Zephaniah and Azariah exhibit birth and burial "traditions" which would
appear to owe far more to interpretative ingenuity than to the faithful
preservation of the memory of sacred sites. We read in 2 Kgs 25:18-21 (cf.
Jer 52: 24-27) that at the time of the destruction of the First Temple, the
chief priest Seraiah and the second priest Zephaniah were brought by
Nebuzaradan before the king of Babylon and put to death at Riblah (MT:
n~l,; LXX: 'PEPA.a9a, AEPA.a9a). Josephus, however, gives the name of
6
Thomsen, Loca Sancia (1907) lists l:apa~a9a (103) and l:u~aOa (108)
as "Heimat u. Grab" of the respective prophets solely on the basis of our text
7
Jeremias, "Sarabatha und Sybatha" (1933).

42

CHAP1ER1WO

the site variously as 'Apa~a9& (Ant. 10 135) and :EaMi~a9a (149)fonns proximate to the variants of "Sabaratha." It would appear that the
author of the notice in the vita identified the prophet Zephaniah with the
priest of identical name and adopted the locale of the latter's death as the
birthplace of the prophet. 8 The notice in the vita of Azariah betrays similar
exegetical origins. Immediately preceding the appearance of the prophet we
read (2 Chr 14:9 ff.) of Asa's battle against Zerah the Cushite which takes
place "in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah" (MT: MVI~~ nn!l~ M'U ).9
Once again, Josephus provides an arresting variant-:Ea~a9a (Ant. 8,
293)-very close in form to the "Subatha" of the vita. Here too it appears
that Azariah' s birthplace has been determined through the association of
disparate details in the biblical text. 10 No less interesting than the technique
of these two notices, however, is the fact that the correct understanding of
their exegetical character was established by none other than Jeremias,
perhaps the outstanding proponent of the Lives as an authentic source of
early Jewish burial tradition! The conclusion in his early article, however,
was unequivocal: "Sarabatha und Sybatha sind aus der Liste der
pallistinischen Ortsnamen des neutestamentlichen Zeitalters zu streichen." 11
The simple removal of two place names from the inventory of
Palestinian sites from the Second Temple period does little to restore one's
confidence in the Lives as an early and trustworthy source. It can be shown,
rather, that the vitae of Zephaniah and Azariah are in no sense unusual or
idiosyncratic and that the principles underlying their geographical notices
run through the work as a whole. The vita of Micah, for example, reveals
the composition's full potential for untrammeled associative thought:
8
Jeremias' conclusions regarding "Sarabatha" as a deformation of the
biblical Riblah are accepted by Abel, Geographie de Ia Palestine (1938) 436437. Note a curiously similar late medieval Jewish report: Ish-Shalom, Kivrei
Avot (1948) 102-103.
9
The Greek text reads "in the valley to the north of Mareshah", generally
recognized as based on an alternate (perhaps superior) reading: MYI~> nll9ll M'll.
10
This identification had been suggested already by Reland, Palaestina ex
Monumentis Veteribus lllustrata (1714) 1025 and accepted by Thomsen, Loca
Sancta (1907) 108. Hare "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 396 cites Jeremias
approvingly on the identity of "Subatha" and suggests a possible further
confusion between Azariah b. Oded (2 Chr 15:1) and the later prophet Oded (2
Chr 28:9-15).
11
Jeremias, "Sarabatha und Sybatha" (1933) 255. Yet a quarter of a century
later, in his definitive Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt, we sense a different goal
and an altered judgment. Here Jeremias relegates his earlier study to a lone
footnote as support for the general observation that "Wenn man die Schrift mit
der erforderlichen Kritik benutzt, findet man in ihr sehr viel brauchbares und
zuverliissiges Material" (12-13). Still more remarkably, he ignores his previous
conclusion regarding the birthplace of Zephaniah (87) and simply omits all
reference to the prophet Azariah and the details of his vita.

S'IRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSIDON

43

Micah the Morathite was of the tribe of Ephraim. After he did many things
to Achab, he was killed by Joram his son at a precipice, because he rebuked
him for the impieties of his fathers. And he was buried alone in his land
near the burial ground of the Anakim.

The description of the prophet Micah as a Morathite, i.e. deriving from the
biblical site Moresheth in the area of latter-day Eleutheropolis or BethGuvrin, is based on the scriptural account (Micah 1:1; cf. Jer 26:18) in
perfectly straightforward fashion. 12 The same cannot be said of the
remainder of the vita and its details. The attribution of Micah to Ephraim is
both unparalleled and internally inconsistent; the prophet's previously stated
place of birth simply cannot be reconciled with the northern tribal portion.
The puzzle, as many have recognized, results from the confusion of the
prophet with an earlier figure of identical name: "There was a man of the
hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah" (Judges 17:1). Similar
difficulties arise concerning the account of Micah's death during the rule of
Ahab and Joram; the prophet is explicitly said to have lived more than a
century later "in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah" (Micah 1:1). Here
too, the answer probably lies in the identification of Micah with a similarly
named figure: Micaiah son of Imlah prophesied (and was persecuted) in the
days of Ahab (1 Kgs 22),13 Most perplexing, however, is the closing report
of Micah's burial in the proximity of the resting place of the Giants or
Anakim ('EvaKtil! = O'Pl)l; cf. Josh 11:21-22). Once again, we confront an
unparalleled tradition whose authenticity has been staunchly supported on
the basis of our text's accurate preservation of early material.l 4 Without
disputing the possible, even probable, connection between the locale of
Micah's birth (Beth-Guvrin) and legends concerning the Giants, it is
nevertheless possible to identify the immediate source of the burial noticein the vita. A vexed and perhaps intractable verse in the book of Micah
(1: 10) begins ll''-~ ll:l l1'ln-~ nu and is rendered, no less obscurely, by
I!Tt !!E'YaA:6vtcr9t. oi. iv AK\1! I!Tt
the Greek translator: oi. iv
avotKoOol!tt't. In a series of manuscripts and witnesses one observes the
variations iv AKttl!; evaKttl!; evaxttl!. Given the propensity of the Lives

rea,

12
MT: 'nW,!m n:m:l; the Greek text reads Mropaa8t or Mropa8El. This is
repeated with significant amplification in a wide range of early Christian
accounts: Eusebius, Onomastikon; ed. Klostermann [GCS 11.1] 134-135; Peter
the Deacon, Appendix ad ltinerarium Egeriae 5.8; ed. Weber [CCSL 175] 99100; Jerome, Epistula 108.14; Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica 7.29.2; ed.
Bidez [GCS 50] 345.
13
While distinguishable in Hebrew--n:m:~ and ln':l'l:l-both names are
rendered identically in the Greek versions as Mtxatac;.
14
Jeremias, "Moreseth-Gath" (1933) 42-53; idem, Heiligengriiber in Jesu
Umwelt (1958) 82-86.

44

CHAPTERlWO

for associative exegesis, one suspects that it was this Greek fonn of the
verse which forged the link between the prophet and the Anakim of old.
Further examples of this tendency are afforded by the vitae of Hosea and
Joet.s Hosea "was from Belemoth (~EAe).l.ro9) of the tribe of Issachar and
was buried in his own land in peace." Here we encounter, typically, a
birthplace and tribal affiliation whose connection with the prophet find no
reflection or support outside of the text at hand. The Greek place name itself
has been widely identified by students of historical geography with the
biblical site of Yibleam (O)I)l').l 6 Yet it would appear that here too the
association with the prophet Hosea arose through a curious concatenation of
disparate biblical passages:
And the Lord said to him, "Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I
will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end
to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day, I will break the bow
of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." (Hosea 1:4-5)
The fourth lot came out for Jssachar, for the tribe of Issachar, according to
its families. Its territory included Jezreel .... (Josh 19: 17)
When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Bethhaggan. And Jehu pursued him, and said, "Shoot him also"; and they shot
him in the chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is by Yibleam. (2 Kgs 9:27)

However tenuous these connections between Hosea, the tribe of lssachar,

and the site of Yibleam may seem, they remain our only evidence and sole
possible explanation for the account in the vita.
The details regarding Joel are equally unparalleled and raise the
possibility of a similar process of exegetical creativity. The prophet is
described as coming "from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron"
(Be9ro).l.6prov; var. Be9rop&v [An]; ~118ro).l. [Dor; Ep 1] }-once again, both
a birth site and tribal affiliation which cannot be substantiated on the basis
of other sources available to us. There is something of a consensus,
however, that the various Greek forms of the site name can be correlated
with the biblical Beth-meon (11)1D n'l; Jer 48:23) or Beth-baal-meon
(11)11!) ))ll n'l; Josh) 13: 17)_17 It is interesting, then, to observe a markedly
similar constellation of details (Reuben, Joel, Baal-meon) within the
following passage:
15
The essence of the argument regarding these prophets is to be found
already in Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) 197-198.
16
Thus Reland, Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata (1714) 615,
622; cf. Thomsen, Loca Sancta (1907) 34; Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946)
40, n. 34; Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 29.
17
Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) 198; Torrey, Lives of the
Prophets (1946) 26 n. 39, 41 n. 39; Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 104.

STRUCfURE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON

45

the sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and
Carmi. the sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,
Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, Beerah his son, whom
Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away into exile; he was a chieftain
of the Reubenites. And his kinsmen by their families, when the genealogy
of their generations was reckoned: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah, and Bela
the son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel, who dwelt in Aroer, as far as
Nebo and Baal-meon. (1 Chr 5:3-8)

This too may not strike us as a completely satisfying explanation of the

details in the vita of Joel, yet no other seems to have been offered.
Having detected a pattern of highly imaginative exegesis behind the birth
and burial notices of the Lives, it is natural to look for related modes of
interpretation. Not unexpectedly, students of the text have described the
process as "rabbinic" or "midrashic". 18 It is critical, therefore, to recognize
that the geographic and tribal details of the vitae are the result of a process
essentially unlike that governing the Rabbis' speculations on the prophets
and their origins. Two brief examples can be offered by returning to the
figures of the previous paragraph. The prophet Joel, according to a midrash,
is the son of Samuel the prophet. How can this be, given the plain sense of
Scripture (Joell:l) that he is the son ofPethuel ()MlM)? Yet this Pethuel is
none other than Samuel who "tempted God with his prayer"
(,n,.!lnl '"' nM). 19 One is struck here by both the deep concern with the
language of the biblical text-the recourse to a hidden etymology-and the
fact that genealogy is not an end in itself but rather a technique of
elucidation of the biblical text. Still more illustrative is the rabbinic
identification of Hosea as a descendant of Reuben. In commentary on Hosea
14:2-"Return (n:nw), 0 Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have
stumbled because of your iniquity"-the figure of Reuben is introduced as
an exemplar of penitence on the basis of the verse "And Reuben returned
(lVI'l) to the pit ... " (Gen 37:29). The midrash, founded thus far on the
double sense of the Hebrew verb Vl,VI as "return" and "repent," continues as
follows:
The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Reuben, thou didst seek to return
Joseph, the well-loved son, to thy father. Upon thy life, a son of a son's
son of thine will bring about the return of Israel in perfect repentance to
their Father in heaven. And who will he be? Hosea the son of Beeri (Hos
1: 1). Of him it is written "When the Lord first spoke (of repentance)
18
In his early discussion of those traditions-few and inconsequential, in
his opinion-which were the crystallization of a purely literary process,
Jeremias ("Sarabatha und Sybatha" [1933] 255) spoke of their emergence from
the "Lehrhause eines uns unbekannten rabbinischen Lehrers."
!9
Midraslz on Psalms 80:1; ed. Buber, 361. Cf. Yalkut Slzim'oni Joel 1
(533) as well as Rashi on Joel 1:1.

CHAFIER1WO

46

son of thine will bring about the return of Israel in perfect repentance to
their Father in heaven. And who will he be? Hosea the son of Beeri (Hos
1:1). Of him it is written "When the Lord first spoke (of repentance)
through Hosea" (Hos 1:2). And of Hosea's father it is written, "Beerah his
son, whom Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away into exile; he was
a chieftain of the Reubenites" (1 Chr 5:6). And why is he here called
Beerah, i.e. "he of her well"? To intimate that he was a well of Torah
(mm )VI n'UCI). 20

There is an enormous sensitivity to both the language and the difficulties of

the biblical text: a discussion of the prophet's genealogy not as a goal but
as a method of drawing textual connections in order to elucidate
troublesome verses and to deepen the understanding of a biblical situation or
character.2I In the examples surveyed above from the Lives of the Prophets,
by contrast, we have observed the desultory nature of the biblical
associations: a seemingly random linking of names and verses with no clear
motivation beyond the creation of a serviceable birth and burial framework.

Conclusion
The birth and burial notices of the Lives of the Prophets should no longer
be regarded naively as a repository of Jewish tradition from the close of the
Second Temple or beginning of the rabbinic periods. This is not only a
question of widely variant strategies of interpretation. There is, in fact, little
or nothing which links the topographical exegesis of the Lives with postbiblical Jewish literature. This was demonstrated, not quite intentionally
perhaps,
the investigation of the birth and burial notices by Samuel
Klein: of the geographical and genealogical notices which were examined,
there is not a single, undisputed parallel to be found in the entire rabbinic
corpus and no fewer than ten instances of direct contradictloii) 2
Furthermore, the Rabbis' few explicit statements of principle regarding the
prophets and their sites of birth and burial bear virtually no relation to the
evidence of the Lives. The famous dictum (baraita) concerning "the tomb of
the king and the tomb of the prophet" within the context of the ritual purity
of the city of Jerusalem speaks of the tombs of the house of David and of

in

20
Pesikta Rabbati 50:4 according to Ms. Parma 1240; trans. Braude [Yale
Judaica Series 18] 2.848. Cf. Yalkut Shim'oni Hosea 1 (516).
21
The characterization here of rabbinic exegesis, its concerns and
sensitivities, owes much to the classic work, unfortunately never translated, of
Isaak Heinemann: Darkhei Ha'Agadah [=Methodology of the Aggadah] (1950).
Heinemann's study of Rabbinic thought and literary technique explores the
basic categories of 'creative historiography' and 'creative philology'.
22
Klein, "AI ha-Sefer Vitae Prophetarum" (1937) notes clear divergence
from rabbinic tradition in the following vitae: Elijah (193); Elisha, Isaiah
(194), Jeremiah (195), Ezekiel, Daniel (196), Hosea (197), Joel (198), Obadiah,
Jonah (199); see the concluding discussion (206-207) there.

S1RUCfURE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSmON

47

silent. 23 Still more straightforward is the formulation attributed to a number

of later rabbinic authorities: "Whenever the name (of a prophet) and the
name of the city (of a prophet) is made explicit, it is known that he is from
that city; when his name but not the name of his city (is made explicit), it
is known that he is from Jerusalem."24 This is obviously a principle quite
foreign to the atmosphere of the Lives.
Aware of Klein's study and mindful of the gap between the evidence of
the vitae and the rabbinic reports, Jeremias argued for a break in continuity
between the Volksreligion of the Second Temple period and the learned
piety of the Rabbis. This discontinuity, he claimed, was the result of severe
pressures, both external and internal: the traumatic effect upon the
transmission of popular tradition due to the repeated revolts against Rome,
the destruction of Jerusalem, and eventual exclusion of the Jewish
population from its environs; no less, the intentional suppression and
distortion of earlier forms of Jewish piety by the Rabbis themselves. 25
According to this view, then, the Lives stands as a valuable witness to early
Jewish tradition, a unique expression of popular religiosity from the period
of the Second Temple. It is worth stating clearly, at this juncture, why
Jeremias' position is problematic from both a literary and a religioushistorical perspective.
First, it is impossible to ignore those geographical and genealogical
details in the Lives which clearly are not a reflection of popular piety but
rather of a bookish, often eccentric, interpretative process. Given the
remarkable manner in which a number of these birth and burial "traditions"
seem to have taken shape, one necessarily hesitates to assume an associated
and widespread praxis. Second, in all the multifarious expressions of
Judaism from the post-biblical period which have survived, there is little or
no hard evidence (beyond that garnered from the vitae themselves) for the
veneration of the tombs of the prophets. In fact, Jeremias himself was
compelled to conclude that of the ten sacred graves which could be shown
23
Tosefta Baba Batra 1:11 (ed. Zuckermandel, 399); Tosefta Negaim 6:2
(625); Avot de-Rabbi Natan A, ch. 35 (ed. Schechter, 104); Semahot 14:10 (ed.
Zlotnick, 39). In version B of Avot de-Rabbi Natan (ch. 39; ed. Schechter, 107)
the tomb of the prophet Isaiah is mentioned together with those of the house of
David and that of Hulda. On this saying, see BUchler, "La purete levitique de
Jerusalem et les tombeaux des prophetes" (1911). Note the employment of this
text in Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 52, 66.
24
BT Megillah 15a (in the name of R. Ulla); cf. Numbers Rabbah 10:5;
Lamentations Rabbah "petihta" 24 (ed. Buber, 23), in the name of R. Yohanan.
In fact, rabbinic literature reveals remarkably little interest in the tombs of the
prophets, and we encounter few traditions regarding their graves until the torrent
of medieval Jewish pilgrim accounts beginning in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. See Ish-Shalom, Kivrei Avot (1948).
25 Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 58-60, 66-67, 141-143.

48

CHAP1ER 'IWO

with "certainty or probability" to have been known by Jesus only those of

Isaiah and Zechariah b. Jehoiada could be numbered securely among the
prophets.26 The sole proof-text (as well as motive) for the early dating of
the Lives of the Prophets remains the saying of Jesus concerning the
building of the tombs of the prophets (Mt 23:29-30; Lk 11 :48-49).
Finally, there is every reason to be wary of an historical construct whose
theoretical basis lies in the distancing of the "theology" of the Rabbis from
the beliefs and concerns of "the people". 27 This long treasured cultural
model of a yawning abyss between the piety and practice of the common
man and those of a privileged and learned elite, as I shall emphasize in the
final chapter, has been exposed as both inadequate and misleading.
Once relieved of the absolute necessity of anchoring the birth and burial
traditions securely within the bounds of early Jewish piety, it is possible to
encounter the geographical and genealogical details of the Lives afresh,
within a new context. The fourth century was a revolutionary era for
Christianity, yet nowhere more clearly than in Palestine where its
expressions were manifold: the compilation of onomastica, pilgrimage to
newly discovered and restored holy sites, the construction of churches on
many of these same sites, the emergence of a unique Jerusalem liturgy, and
the unhalting inventio of sacred tombs and their relics. 28 It has been argued
that the birth and burial notices of the vitae only rarely produce an exact fit
with such early Byzantine Christian sources of biblical topography and
legend as Eusebius, Egeria, and Jerome. This is true, perhaps, yet too easily
overlooked that more than half of the geographical traditions of the Lives do
correspond in some measure with these fourth and fifth century reports.
Indeed, it is largely from the period of Eusebius and the Bordeaux pilgrim
that we first read reports concerning the tombs of the prophets, and it is in
light of these earliest traditions that the notices of the vitae must be
26 lbid.,114. Note, however, the conviction: "Aber diese List ist ganz
sicher nicht erschopfend".
27 Note the cautionary remarks in Ginzberg, "Some Observations" (1922)
136: "Whatever the Rabbis might have been, we must not think of them as a
class by themselves separated from the people; they were neither monks nor
professors. They were of the people, lived with the people and worked for the
people." On the extent of rabbinic accommodation to burial practices and
beliefs of the people, see Lieberman, "Some Aspects of After Life" (1974) 246253. For a nuanced treatment of the later transmission of early Jewish legend,
see Yassif, "Traces of Folk Traditions of the Second Temple Period" (1988). On
the larger theoretical problem facing the historian of Late Antiquity, see below,
pp. 115-117.
28 For an historical overview of this process, see Hunt, Holy Land
Pilgrimage (1982) and now Wilken, The Land Called Holy (1992), especially
chs. 5-6. Additional evidence and further bibliography is adduced in the final
chapter of the present study.

SlRUCI'URE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSmON

49

evaluated. 29 Furthennore, among the most salient features of this period

was the extreme fluidity of tradition; it is often forgotten that there was no
body of authorized tradition in such matters and that the afore-mentioned
authors regularly disagree with one another. 30 The failed search for perfect
correspondence should not mask the fact that the geographical concerns and
orientation of the Lives look more at home among these early Byzantine
texts than anywhere else. Clearly, each of these points demands further
elaboration and more precise analysis; the final chapter of this study,
devoted to a reading of the Lives as an integral work within an established
historical context, will take up some measure of that task.
It would be ingenuous to pretend that by either examining the
commitment to biblical exegesis underlying the notices in the vitae or by
placing the work within an early Byzantine framework we somehow can
resolve all of the geographical quandaries resident in the text. There remain
more than a dozen unexplained birth traditions and recalcitrant burial
notices, as well as a host of perplexing tribal affiliations. It should be
obvious, as well, that there is no argument here against the possibility of
the incorporation of early Jewish traditions within the work. One strongly
suspects, for example, that the burial notices regarding the three major
prophets-unique in their common length, detail, and structure-must go
back, in some measure at least, to an earlier (Jewish?) source or sources. 31
So too, the frequent internal contradictions between birth site and tribal
affiliations-often, as we have seen, the result of an uncritically zealous
desire to provide details on the basis of the biblical narrative-may reflect

29
Thus, without the slightest evidence, recurrent attempts have been made
to identify Beth-Zouxar (~TJ8~ouxap), the birth and burial place of Habakkuk
according to his vita, with the site of Beth-Zechariah (1 Maccabees 6:32), south
of Jerusalem and Bethlehem: Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 43; Jeremias,
Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 81. Serious consideration of the full
range of early Byzantine evidence (Eusebius, the pilgrim accounts of Egeria and
Antoninus Placentinus, the history of Sozomenus, and the representation of the
Madeba map), however, make clear that the reference must be to a site near
Eleutheropolis (Beth-Guvrin). I hope to marshal the evidence in detail in a paper
devoted to Habakkuk in early Jewish and Christian topography.
30
It would be the rankest sort of anachronism, for example, to regard
Eusebius' Onomasticon as a textbook summary of authoritative tradition rather
than as an opening salvo in a prolonged engagement of competing traditions,
i.e. traditions in the making.
31
Only the tradition concerning the tomb of Isaiah, however, can be
substantiated from early Jewish and Christian sources; see Abel, "Le Tombeau
d'lsaie" (1922) and Vincent and Abel, Jerusalem (1922-1926) 2.855-860. For
modem archaeological research on the tomb complex in the Kidron valley, see
Avigad, Ancient Monuments (1954); Stutchbury, "Excavations" (1961).

50

CHAP1ER1WO

as well a conflation of earlier sources. 32 Despite the unabashed admission

that there is no complete resolution of the difficulties inherent in the birth
and burial notices, there are a number of conclusions, however tentative,
which should be drawn. First, a recognition of the very uncertain
relationship which the traditions in the text bear to those of early Judaism
and the corresponding need to re-examine many of those same traditions in
light of Christian transmission and reception of the text; second, a
willingness to reckon with a prolonged and complicated process of literary
growth; finally, a chastened response to those singular, unparalleled
"traditions" embedded in the Lives, conscious of the fact that, in matters of
historical geography and much else, unique may mean little more than
idiosyncratic.

LEGENDARY NARRATIVE
The bulk of the composition is given over to an account of those legendary
deeds of the prophets which generally form the core of the individual vitae.
As opposed to the highly predictable birth and burial notices, however, the
narrative accounts display a marked lack of uniformity both in structure and
content. The legends may be strikingly brief:
load was from Samareim. He is the one whom the lion attacked and he died
when he rebuked Jereboam concerning the calves. And he was buried in
Bethel near the false prophet who had deceived him.
Azariah was from the land of Subatha. He turned back from Israel the
captivity of Judah. And when he died he was buried in his land.

or far more developed in their artistry:

Nathan, the prophet of David, was from Gaba, and he was the one who
taught him the law of the Lord; and he saw that David would sin in (the
matter of) Bathsheba, and while he was making haste to go and warn him,
Beliar hindered him, for by the road he found the corpse of a murdered man
lying naked. And he remained there, and that night he knew that (David)
had performed the transgression. And he turned back weeping, and when
(David) killed her husband, the Lord sent (Nathan) to rebuke him. And when
he had grown exceedingly old he died and was buried in his land.

Relatively brief narratives are found in the vitae of Micah, Amos, Obadiah,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, and
32
Interesting in this regard is a brief Syriac text, the nature of whose
relationship to our composition remains far from clear, where the concise vitae
generally avoid such internal contradiction by supplying either place of birth or
tribal affiliation but not both. On this text, see the discussion below, p. 72.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON

51

Zechariah son of Jehoiada. Comparable in length and coherence to the tale

regarding Nathan are passages in the vitae of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Jonah, and Habakkuk; still more developed and unique in many respects is
the long narrative, to be analyzed in the following chapter, concerning
Daniel. No legendary material is transmitted in the vitae of Hosea, Joel, and
Nahum.
The narrative sections of the Lives take up a wide variety of themes and
subjects, and no sustained attempt appears to have been made to impose
consistency on the material. Furthermore, certain vitae discuss markedly
similar topics-e.g., Jeremiah and Habakkuk concerning the hiding of the
Tabernacle-without any obvious effort to coordinate or relate the variant
traditions. Perhaps the broadest common denominator behind the legends, in
fact, is their extra-biblical character. This was noted expressly by Torrey:
The main fact to be observed in all these "Lives" is that they are
supplementary to the accounts given in the canonical scriptures. Perfect
familiarity with the Bible is taken for granted, and there is no intention of
repeating what has already been recorded. Jeremiah's career in Jerusalem is
well known, so our compiler turns at once to his activities in Egypt. The
wonderful deeds of Daniel in Babylon have no mention; his chapter deals
chiefly and at considerable length with the popular notions in regard to the
transformation of Nebuchadnezzar. When Jonah's turn comes, the whale
and Nineveh are put aside, and his biography is filled out with the
traditions concerning his life in the region of Tyre and Sidon with his
mother, who entertained Elijah, and with the account of his subsequent
journeyings and his burial in the tomb of Othniel. The folk-tales about
Habakkuk, Nathan, the dire consequences of the murder of Zechariah ben
Jehoiada, etc., also stand quite outside the canonical tradition. 33

This is surely correct, though some strong qualification may be necessary.

The majority of the vitae (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, Elijah, Elisha) feature narrative passages truly
removed from, or even at odds with, the scriptural account; nevertheless, in
certain cases (Daniel, Nathan, Ahijah, Joad, Zechariah b. Jehoiada) one
observes legends which are frrmly rooted in the biblical narrative and reveal
the effects of exegetical expansion or enhancement. The explication of these
passages becomes, of necessity, an attempt to discover their possible
33
Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 3-4. He goes on to observe that
"biographies made up from O.T. narratives ... are under the suspicion of being a
secondary element in the compilation." This criterion relates most directly to
the vitae of Elijah and Elisha where originally concise accounts appear to have
been adumbrated in Codex Q by long sections which depend directly and solely
on the narratives from 1 and 2 Kings. This material is conspicuously absent in
the other representatives of the anonymous recension and in the Epiphanian and
Dorothean recensions. For the formula introducing these sections ("The signs
which he did ... "), see below, p. 65.

52

CHAPTERlWO

sources and relationship with the cognate literature. These narrative

sections, in fact, have been judged by most scholars to provide evidence
(comparable to that of the birth and burial traditions) of the work's Jewish
character; in the words of a recent commentator, "many if not most of the
legends transmitted in the [Lives] have parallels in rabbinic and other
Jewish sources."34 The present investigation will attempt to demonstrate
how very misleading this statement is.

Martyrs, Miracle-Workers and Intercessors

One of the central concerns in modem study of the legends of the Livesand a chief linchpin in the determination of the work's early Jewish
character-has been the complex of traditions regarding the martyrdom of
the prophets. There has been some exaggeration and loss of perspective in
this regard. In a commendable effort to awaken scholarly interest in the text,
yet with little regard for either evidence or simple arithmetic, one scholar
judged that "according to the Vitae Prophetarum most of the ancient
prophets had to suffer a violent death, and this interpretation, in a way
characteristic for the Jewish Haggadah, is based upon assumed indications in
the canonical books."35 A recent handbook declares "significant are the
notices of violent death" and restricts its survey of the contents of the work
to precisely those vitae. 36 In fact, such notices are a distinct minority in the
Lives and do not appear to have been invested with any special significance.
Of the twenty-three prophets surveyed, six alone (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Amos, Micah, and Zechariah b. Jehoiada) can be described as having met a
martyr's death. (If the accent is on a violent, unnatural demise then one
might want to include as well the man of God, Joad in our text, devoured
by a lion in accord with the account in 1 Kgs 13: 1-32.) When one
considers that the murder of Zechariah is scripturally based (2 Chr 24:2022), there remain but five extra-biblical instances of prophets who meet
their death at the hands of the people or their rulers. In each of these
instances, furthermore, the vita accords but a brief phrase to the description
of the martyrdom. Finally, in order correctly to judge the nature of the
composition and its orientation in these matters it is important to observe
that a greater number of vitae emphasize the natural deaths and orderly
burial of the prophets: Daniel is laid to rest "alone and with honor in the
royal sepulchre" of the Persian kings; Haggai is buried "alongside the tomb
of the priests, honored as they are"; Hosea, Joel, and Nahum are all laid to
rest "in peace"; Obadiah and Malachi are buried with their fathers; both

34

35
36

Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 384.

Bemheimer, "Vitae Prophetarum" (1935) 202.
Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research (1981) 177.

STRUCTIJRE, CON1ENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON

53

Nathan and Zechariah b. Berachiah pass away advanced in years. This is

hardly the stuff of a full-fledged martyrology.
It is, in fact, very difficult to argue that the notices of violent death in
the Lives provide any proof of the early Jewish character of the
composition. Of the six prophets martyred, only the legends regarding
Isaiah and Zechariah b. Jehoiada can be demonstrated with assurance to have
a pre-Christian context. 37 This would accord precisely,-and not
coincidentally, one assumes-with our ability to document burial traditions
of the prophets in frrst century Palestine. In both instances, moreover, the
account in the Lives does not reveal features distinctive of the early Jewish
accounts of the deaths. The martyrdom of Isaiah is narrated with the utmost
brevity and makes no mention of either the accusation of blasphemy on the
basis of the prophet's own words (Isa 6:1) or the detailed description of his
execution.3 8 The description of Zechariah's murder is more expansive,
including much that is unique, but does not provide the feature most
characteristic of the Jewish accounts: the "innocent blood of the slain
Zechariah had no rest."39
Indeed, there may be elements in both narratives which indicate influence
from the text of the New Testament. Regarding Isaiah it is told that he was
the beneficiary of a divine "sign" (011fl'iov), "since being faint before his
death he prayed for water to drink and straightway it was sent to him from
there; on account of this it was called Shiloah which means sent." The fmal
3?
The principle evidence for the martyrdom of Isaiah is, of course, the
Jewish source presumed to underlie the Christian Ascension of Isaiah; the
classic study of this document remains the edition and translation of Charles
(1900); for recent discussion, see the introductions by Knibb in Charlesworth
(ed.), Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (1983-1985) 2.143-176 and Barton in
Sparks, Apocryphal Old Testament (1984) 775-784. Discussions of the early
Christian and rabbinic evidence: Ginzberg, Legends (1909-38) 6.374-375;
Bernheimer, "The Martyrdom of Isaiah" (1952); Steck, Israel und das
gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 245-247; Schiirer, History of the
Jewish People (1973-1987) 3.337-340; Yassif, "Traces of Folk Traditions of
the Second Temple Period" (1988) 216-220. For the slaying of Zechariah (2 Chr
24:20-22), see the studies listed above, p. 26, nn. 76-77 and below, n. 39.
38
For these motifs, see Ascension of Isaiah 3:8-9; 5; BT Yebamot 49b; PT
Sanhedrin 10:2 (28c).
39 Blank, "The Death of Zechariah in Rabbinic Literature" (1937/38) 338.
See BT Gittin 57b and its parallels; the legend is well known in early Byzantine
Palestine and witnessed by both the Bordeaux pilgrim (591.1-2; ed. GeyerCuntz [CCSL 175] 15) and Jerome: "Simpliciores fratres inter ruinas templi et
altaris, sive in portarum exitibus, quae Siloam ducunt, rubra saxa monstrantes,
Zachariae sanguine putant esse polluta" (Comm. in Matt. 23:35; ed. Hurst and
Adriaen [CCSL 77] 219). For detailed analyses of the rabbinic traditions, see the
article by Blank; Ginzberg, Legends (1909-38) 6.396-397; and especially
Heinemann, Aggadah and its Development (1974) 31-38.

54

CHAPTER1WO

words of this report have long been recognized as an exact parallel to John
9:7 (o EPil11VEUtat (lltEotaAjlEVo<;) yet regarded as no more than
coincidental use of a common etymology. It has been argued on syntactical
grounds, however, that the vita must be dependent on the Gospel verse. 40
The vita of Zechariah opens in the following manner:
Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash the
king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out his
blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the
priests buried him with his father.

The phrase which appears in the text of codex Q (as well as in the
representatives of Dorotheus) "in the middle (literally: between) near the
porch" is both unclear and awkward-the Greek term (ci.va j.I.Eoov)
seemingly redundant in this context. It is very interesting, therefore, to note
the same term in an important variant reading of Lk 11:51-"whom they
killed between (ci.vajlEOov) the altar and the sanctuary."41 There is no
intention to argue that the notices of martyrdom in the vitae of Isaiah and
Zechariah could not have been based on traditions both early and Jewish;
rather, that there is nothing in the form in which they appear in the Lives
which compels (or even allows) us to come to that conclusion.
In fact, the remaining traditions of martyred prophets prove still more
difficult to place in an early Jewish context. There is simply no
incontrovertible evidence in a pre-Christian matrix that Jeremiah and
Ezekiel were understood to have suffered martyrdom. The motif of the
violent deaths of the three major prophets, for example, though often and
perhaps correctly thought to lie behind the anonymous formula of Hebrews
11:36-37-"they were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were
killed by the sword ... "- can only be documented in a limited number of
early Christian texts. 42 The stoning of Jeremiah as narrated in the Lives
appears in an alternative form in the problematic final chapter of the
Paraleipomena of Jeremiah (9: 19-32) and is depicted in a long series of early

40
41

De Jonge, "Christelijke Elementen" (1961/62) 165-167.

Thus according to Codex Bezae and the Syriac textual family, as noted by
Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 398, n. 23a. See LXX Ezek 8:16--ava
j.LEOOV trov atAajl !Cat ava j.LEOOV to'ii Ouota<Jtflptou. In several witnesses of
Anonyma, the entire phrase from the principal text of Luke "between the altar
and the sanctuary" (j.ttta~u to'ii Ouota<Jtflptou JCat to'ii oiJCou)--denoting the
location of the priest's murder-is inexplicably incorporated as the site of the
burial(!) of Zechariah.
42
Most explicitly, perhaps, in the Apocalypse of Paul 49; more often,
however, the preeminent triad of martyred prophets in early Christian tradition
is Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON

55

Christian sources.43 The slaying of Ezekiel, related in two distinct forms at

the opening and close of his vita, is to be found in a different, more colorful
version in a number of early Christian texts.44 More problematic still are
the accounts of the violent fates of Amos and Micah: here we find
ourselves, once again, facing the quandary of the unique, as the martyrdom
of neither prophet can be documented in either early Jewish or Christian
literature. 45 In sum, the very traditions of prophet-martyrs which were
believed to anchor the Lives securely in the thought-world of Judaism of the
Second Temple period have proven a very weak reed on which to lean.
In the incessant search for a pre-Christian martyrology, a most
significant fact concerning the martyred prophets of the Lives has gone
virtually unrecognized: the actual configuration of the six. It is of no little
interest that the catalogue of prophets who meet violent deaths-Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Amos, and Zechariah b. Jehoiada-finds a precise
parallel in the early Christian Apocalypse of Paul (25):
But I went forward and the angel led me and brought me unto the river of
honey, and I saw there Esaias and Jeremias and Ezekiel and Amos and
Micheas and Zacharias, even the prophets lesser and greater, and they
greeted me in the city. I said unto the angel: What is this path? and he said
unto me: This is the path of the prophets: every one that hath grieved his
soul and not done his own will for God's sake, when he is departed out of
the world and hath been brought unto the Lord God and worshipped him,
then by the commandment of God he is delivered unto Michael, and he
bringeth him into the city unto this place of the prophets, and they greet
him as their friend and neighbor, because he hath performed the will of
God.46

43
Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 249, n.
7 and Danielou, The Origins of Latin Christianity (1977) 37-39, 107-109.
44
Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967) 249250, n. 8. For a full presentation of these sources, see Stone, Satran, and Wright
(eds.), The Apocryphal Ezekiel .
45
See Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten (1967)
249-250; Fischel, "Martyr and Prophet" (1946/47) 275-276; note the silence
of Schoeps, "Die ji.idischen Prophetenmorde" (1950).
46
James, Apocrypha Anecdota (1893) 25: "Ego autem incedebam docente
me angelo, et tulit me a<d> flumen mellis, et uidi illic Aesayam et Geremiam et
Aezehiel et Ammos et Micheam et Zachaream, profetas minores et maiores, <et>
salutauerunt me in ciuitate. Dixi angelo: Que est via haec? et dixit mihi: haec est
via prophetarum: omnis qui constritauerit animam suam et non facit propriam
uoluntatem suam propter deum, cum exierit de mundo et ductus fuerit ad dominum
deum et adorauerit eum, tunc iussu dei traditur Michaelo, et inducit eum in ciuitate
in locum hunc prophetarum, et salutant eum sicut amicum et proximum suum
quoniam fecit voluntatem dei." The translation is that of James, The Apocryphal
New Testament (1924) 539. The connection between this text and the Lives was

56

CHAPTER1WO

Neither the date nor provenance of the Apocalypse of Paul can be

detennined with any certainty, though the text may be witnessed as early as
the time of Origen and certainly no later than that of Augustine.47 Further,
it is extremely unclear how we should interpret this intriguing
correspondence between the two documents. The passage from the
Apocalypse of Paul, unlike the Lives, does not speak explicitly of
martyrdom when identifying the six prophets yet clearly regards them as
paradigmatic. 48 Does earlier martyrological tradition explain the
specification of those six figures or, conversely, could their exemplary
status have encouraged subsequent speculation about their manner of death?
In any event, the special status of these three major and three minor
prophets would seem to have become current in Christian circles by the
third or fourth century. It cannot be demonstrated to have existed prior to
that period.
The extreme concern with the role of the prophet as martyr has come at
the expense of an appreciation of the truly preeminent characteristic of the
legendary narratives in the Lives: the pronounced ability of the prophets
both to effect miracles and to act as intercessors. Thus, the accounts of the
violent fates of Isaiah and Jeremiah are in each instance overshadowed by
the far more detailed description of the wonders which took place both prior
to and following their deaths.
[Isaiah] And in the time of Hezekiah, before he made the cisterns and the
pools, through the prayer of Isaiah a little water came out in order that the
city not perish for lack of water, for the people were held in siege by
noted by Scholer "Israel Murdered its Prophets" (1980) 150, n. 3, without
further comment.
47
For an overview of the text and its problems, see Himmelfarb, Tours of
He II (1983) 16-19 and the introduction by Duensing in HenneckeSchneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha (1965) 2.755-759; Casey, "The
Apocalypse of Paul" (1933) and Silverstein, Viso Sancti Pauli (1935) remain the
fundamental studies. While there is a clear consensus that our best
representatives of the work, the extant Latin versions, derive ultimately from an
original Greek text, both the provenance and date of the original document
remain uncertain. Dating of the work depends largely on an assessment of the
preface which describes the inventio of the work under the foundations of Paul's
house in Tarsus during the rule of Theodosius; cf. the account of the discovery by
the fifth century historian Sozomenus, Historia Ecc/esiastica 1.19; ed. Bidez
[GCS 50] 331. James (The Apocryphal New Testament [1924] 525) accepted the
account as integral to the work and regarded the text as a late fourth century
composition; Casey (25-26) understood the preface to be an addition to the
original text and prefered a third century dating. On the topos of discovery, see
Spe;er, Biicherfunde in der G/aubenswerbung der Antike (1970).
4
In fact, the Apocalypse of Paul speaks of the martyrdom of the three
major prophets (see above, n. 42) in a different context and in a manner which
does not suggest dependence upon the tradition of the Lives.

STRUCTURE,CONTENT,ANDCONWGSf.nON

57

foreigners. The enemies asked: "Where are they drinking from?" And they
encamped by the Shiloah while holding the city (under siege). If the Jews
came, the water came out; if the foreigners came, it did not. Therefore, to
this day (the water) comes out suddenly in order that the mystery might be
exhibited. And since this happened through Isaiah, the people also buried
him nearby carefully and with great honor as a memorial, so that even after
his death they might have the benefit of the water in similar fashion
through his prayers, for an oracle was given to them in this regard.
[Jeremiah] For he prayed, and the asps and the beasts of the waters, which
the Egyptians call 'Nephoth ' 49 and the Greeks crocodiles, departed from
them. And all those who are believers in God pray to this day in the place
and taking the soil of the place they heal the bites of asps. And many
banish these very wild animals and those (creatures) of the water. We have
heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged men, that
Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the prophet and
recognized his mysteries, transferred his remains to Alexandria, placing
them around in a circle with honor; and the race of asps was checked from
the land and so too the crocodiles from the river.

We observe markedly similar structures and emphases in these vitae: the

efficacious prayer of the prophet; the beneficent disruption of the natural
order, the widespread recognition of this wonder as a mystery (J!u<ni)pwv);
finally, the sustained efficacy and benefit of the act beyond the prophet's
lifetime which encourages continued public observance of the miracle "to
this day" (ro~ OTJj.1pov). In the words of a recent commentator, "the
righteous dead are still alive in a very real sense".50
In the vita of Ezekiel the emphasis would seem to be placed on the
wondrous intercessions of the prophet while still alive. A series of brief
legends recount the marvels brought about by Ezekiel in order to save thct
people while in the Babylonian captivity:
The holy man also resided there, and many would gather round him. 5 1 And
once when a multitude was with him, the Chaldeans feared lest they should
revolt and they came to them to kill them. But he caused the water to stand
so that they might flee and arrive on the other side. And those of the
enemies who dared to pursue were drowned.
Through prayer, he provided them spontaneously with an abundant supply
of fish and appealed (napu:a4aEv) for a life to come from God for many
who were growing weak.
49

See Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 51-52.

Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 383. On this preeminent
characteristic, see below, pp. 110-112.
51
According to Ep 1 , this miracle too is attributed to the power of the
deceased prophet: "And the holy man was laid (to rest) in the land of the
Assyrians, and many gathered about his grave for prayer and entreaty .... " On
this variant, see Jeremias, Heiligengraber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 112-113.
SO

CHAPTERlWO

58

When the people were being destroyed by their enemies, he came to the
leaders, and through miracles, they ceased being fearful.

The wondrous deeds of Ezekiel are based on clear scriptural patterns-the

parting of the sea (Ex 14:21-29); the abundance of fish (Ezek 47:8ff.}-but
are remarkable in the manner that they stress the independence and initiative
of the prophet himself. He has taken on the defined role of an advocate
(7tapaKA:rrroc;), an intercessor, on behalf of the people.
This dual emphasis of the Lives on the miracle-working and intercessory
character of the prophets accents, once again, features which are not readily
located within an early Jewish framework. Only in Ben Sira does one sense
any real interest in the portrayal of the prophets as wonder-workers, an
interest which for the author is subservient to a broader theological
program.52 Still more problematic is the role of intercessor: virtually the
only prophet assigned that position in the literature of the Second Temple
period is Jeremiah (2 Maccabees 15:12-16; Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
2:1; Paraleipomena of Jeremiah 1:2). Indeed, early rabbinic writings also
reveal strikingly little development of the biblical prophets, with the
marked exceptions of Moses and Elijah, as the bearers of either miraculous
or intercessory powers.53 The very distinct posture of the Lives-the
pronounced orientation of the prophet's role as both wonder-worker and
intercessor-is best appreciated through the detailed examination of a
singular legend connected with the figure of Daniel, which will be taken up
in the following chapter.
Conclusion
There has been much uncritical, indeed confused, discussion of the
inherently Jewish nature of the narrative traditions in the Lives. Nineteenth
and early twentieth century commentators. while anxious to uncover the
Jewish sources of the work, took great care to define the problematic nature
of these relationships. Delitzsch, for example, questioned whether the
overall structure of the work justifies the use of the descriptive term
"haggadic." 54 Recent students of the composition have been far less
cautious. Thus, Torrey introduces the composition as "a characteristic
deposit of old Jewish folklore". 55 In a short paper designed to supplement
52 Ben Sira 46:20 (Samuel); 48:3-5 (Elijah); 48:12-14 (Elisha); 48:23
(Isaiah). See Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (1973) 212; Mack, Wisdom and the
Hebrew Epic (1985) 136; Barton, Oracles of God (1986) 100-102.
53 Bokser, "Wonder-working and the Rabbinic Tradition" (1985) esp. 60,
n. 62; 63-65, n. 75: "the theme of biblical figures who intercede for Israel... is
irnJ:>rtant not in tannaitic sources but in third century and later materials."
Delitzsch, De Habacuci prophetae vita (1842) 89, n. 62.
55
Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 1.

STRUCfURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON

59

Klein's treatment of geographic detail, Koml6s judges the legends of the

Lives "to show a close connection and contact with rabbinic and haggadic
elements."56 Jeremias likewise expresses few reservations: "Es geht aber
sicher auf jiidische Oberlieferungen zuriick, wie die zahlreichen
Lokaltraditionen, die Zusammenhange mit dem Midrasch und viele
Einzelziige bewisen."57 An authoritative handbook classifies the work as a
"Biblical Midrash", and the most recent translator of the Lives confidently
maintains that "many of the legends recorded here have parallels in the
haggadah of rabbinic Judaism".58
This confident identification of the narrative elements in the Lives with
characteristically Jewish modes of exposition (e.g., midrash or aggadah) is
misleading in a number of respects. As indicated above, much of the
speculation regarding the Jewish nature of the legends in the vitae is
integrally linked with suppositions concerning the work's supposed
martyrological tenor. There is no doubt that a strong Jewish dimension
underlies a wide range of early Christian attitudes to martyrdom, including
the notion of a prophet (or other righteous figure) who suffers at the hands
of his own people or their leaders. 59 It is equally clear that the traditions to
this effect in the writings of the New Testament have their basis in attitudes
and beliefs current in first century Jewish circles. Nevertheless, there
remains ample room for caution: it must be recognized that so
extraordinarily powerful a tendenz in the life and faith of the early Churchwhose very basis lies in the rejection, persecution, and e~Wal martyrdom
of Jesus-cannot be retrojected naively as a fundamental tenet of Judaism in
the Second Temple period. So too, Jewish sources relating to the violent
deaths of righteous figures must be assessed in the light of historical
factors, notably the pronounced influence of the Hadrianic persecutions on.
the development of rabbinic attitudes toward martyrdom. 60 Finally, as this
56
57

Koml6s, "About Jewish Elements in the Vitae Prophetarum" (1958) 127.

Jeremias, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 11-12. He adds there (n.
1) that "die Schilderung, wie der Prophet Nathan auf dem wege zu David ... trifft
ganz die Art des Midrasch."
58 Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-1987) 3.784: "haggadic
elements serve to enrich the portraits, and to link them with other biblical
figures"; Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 384.
59
The fundamental study of these attitudes remains Frend, Martyrdom and
Persecution in the Early Church (1965); cf. Flusser, "Das jiidische Martyrium"
(1973). Note two recent collections of essays on the subject: Horbury and
McNeil (eds.), Suffering and Martyrdom in the New Testament (1981) and van
Henten (ed.), Die Entstehung der jiidischen Martyrologie (1989) with a rich
survey of earlier research (5-15).
60
Herr, "Persecutions and Martyrdom" (1972) argues against the existence
of a martyr-consciousness among Palestinian Jews prior to the second century
C.E. See too Lieberman, "The Martyrs of Caesarea" (1939/40) in this regard.

60

CHAPTER1WO

survey of the Lives has revealed, of the six prophets who are said to have
met a violent death, four (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah) are absent from
early rabbinic legend. 61 The two remaining "martyr-prophets" (Isaiah and
Zechariah b. Jehoiada) not only are accorded significantly distinct treatment
in rabbinic sources, as we have seen, but are represented frequently in the
early Church. We are left with precious little material regarding the violent
deaths of the biblical prophets which is demonstrably both early and
Jewish.
Indeed, it might be argued that virtually every tradition or legend in the
Lives which finds its parallel in rabbinic literature can be evidenced in early
Christian literature as well. The association of Daniel with a "family of
those prominent in the royal service", the confusion of the prophet Micah
with Micaiah b. Imlah ( 1 Kgs 22:8), or the identification of Jonah as the
son of the widow of Zarephath-all of these motifs are common to rabbinic
and patristic sources alike. A revealing example of an unduly selective focus
on "Jewish" sources is the oft-cited "aggadic" blending of the prophet
Obadiah with the identically named servant of Ahab in the days of Elijah (1
Kgs 18:3-16).62 It is all too rarely noted that this identification was also a
commonplace of late fourth century Christian exegesis in close connection
with an active tradition (unknown from Jewish sources) regarding the tomb
of Obadiah, in proximity to those of Elisha and John the Baptist, in the
area of Samaria. 63 To speak of such traditions or legends simply as
"Jewish" or "rabbinic" is clearly to have told only half the story. This
inclination in recent research on the Lives is only intensified by an
unfortunate tendency to cite late (i.e. medieval) Hebrew texts as though they
unfailingly provide evidence for earlier Jewish exegetical tradition. In many
instances, however, we are witness rather to the entry (or re-entry) of
61
On the later (medieval) surfacing of such traditions, often through the
mediation of Christian sources, see Amaru, "The Killing of the Prophets"
(1983).
62
Thus Torrey, Lives of the Prophets (1946) 41 notes laconically "so in
the rabbinical tradition"; Schiirer, History of the Jewish People (1973-1987)
3.784 cites Sifre Numbers 133 (ad Num 27.1); Hare, "Lives of the Prophets"
(1985) 392, n. 9c observes this to be a "Jewish tradition" and refers the reader to
Ginzberg, Legends (1909-1938) 4.240f.
63
See Appendix ad ltinerarium Egeriae 5.6; ed. Weber [CCSL 175] 99
[= Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels (1981) 201]; Jerome, ep. 108, 13.4-5
[=Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims (1977) 51-52]; Jerome, Comm. in Abdiam
Prophetam 1; ed. Adriaen [CCSL 76] 352.1-7: "Hunc aiunt esse Hebraei, qui sub
rege Samariae Achab, et impiissima Iezabel pauit centum prophetas in specubus,
qui non curuauerunt genu Baal, et de septem millibus erant, quos Helias arguitur
ignorasse, sepulcrumque eius usque hodie cum mausolea Helisaei prophetae et
Baptistae Ioannis in Sebaste uenerationi habetur, quae olim Samaria dicebatur."
See Jeremias, Heiligengriiber in Jesu Umwelt (1958) 30-31.

STRUcruRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON

61

apocryphal material into Jewish literature through the agency of comparably

late, medieval Christian sources.64 These are but a few of the considerations
which must precede any conclusion regarding the inherent or exclusive
nature of a legend or tradition as "Jewish".
The problem is most acute, perhaps, with regard to precisely those
materials which have the clearest claim to origins both early and Jewish.
Not a few of the legends presumed to be Jewish (in some absolute sense)
are, in fact, drawn from the unwieldy amalgam of tradition of the period of
the Second Temple. A prime example is the story of the concealment of the
Ark of the Covenant which appears in the vita of Jeremiah and is closely
paralleled in a number of post-biblical contexts. 65 Schermann already
emphasized this orientation, noting that the closest parallels to Jewish
tradition were to be found neither in Josephus nor in rabbinic literature but
in the extra-biblical writings broadly categorized as apocryphal or
pseudepigraphic. 66 These are materials which, in their earliest form, are
indubitably Jewish and often pre-Christian. The mere incorporation of such
traditions from the period of the Second Temple, however, tells us very
little about the essentially Jewish or Christian character of the Lives. These
traditions were, after all, part of the post-biblical heritage common to both
Judaism and Christianity.
Furthermore, reading the legends of the Lives leaves one with the strong
suspicion that what lies embedded within the individual vitae are not always
remnants of tradition from the Second Temple period but reflections of (and
upon) such early traditions. Interesting in this regard is the legend
concerning the prophet Habakkuk: in a narrative deceptively simple and
familiar, the prophet is said to have
dwelt in his own land and ministered to the reapers of his field. As he took
up the food, he prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to a distant
land and will return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the reapers."
And after he had been in Babylon and had given the meal to Daniel, he
stood beside the reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of what had
64
The phenomenon is highly variegated and too little appreciated; see
Flusser, Sefer Yosippon (1978/1980) 2.148-153; Amaru, "The Killing of the
Prophets" (1983); Himmelfarb, "R. Moses the Preacher and the Testaments of
the Twelve Patriarchs" (1984); Reeves and Waggoner, "An Illustration from the
Apocrypha" (1988). The tendency to regard such later traditions-drawn, for
example, from the Chronicles of Yerahmeel or Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah-as
inherently Jewish is one of the by-products of an excessive and uncritical
reliance on Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews.
65
Eupolemus, fr. 4; 2 Maccabees 2:4-8; Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 6:59; Paraleipomena of Jeremiah 3: 1-9. For discussion of the tradition and
interrelationship of the sources, see the studies listed above, p. 19, n. 48.
66
Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 118-126:
"Verhiiltnis der vitae prophetarum zur jiidischen Literatur".

62

CHAPTER1WO
happened. And he understood that the people would return yet more swiftly
from Babylon.

This is not simply an alternate version of the well-known tale from the
Greek addition to the book of Daniel known as Bel and the Dragon (vv. 3339}-rather, the legend from the vita of Habakkuk represents a secondary
version of the apocryphal tale, a rewriting which posits clear knowledge of
an earlier tradition. 67 Our appreciation of the Lives may rest in no small
measure on the extent to which the legendary narratives are perceived to
represent just this sort of reworking of earlier Jewish traditions from the
Second Temple period.
Finally, it is crucial to recognize that there are precious few examples
from either the literature of the Second Temple period or from later rabbinic
writings of sustained interest in the "legends of the prophets." The Lives
represents an unusual, indeed almost unique, concentration of such
materials. Indeed, it has been argued that it was only
the Christian assimilation of the Old Testament prophets to Jesus which
produces the idea that the prophets are examples to be imitated.... in
Judaism the prophets were revered as great teachers, but it is less often
suggested that their lives are meant as a paradigm for later generations. 68

Josephus, for example, so prolific in his rewriting of Pentateuch and in his

retelling of the period of the Judges and the Kings, is noticeably more
taciturn in his portraits of the prophets. (The exception which proves the
rule, of course, is the special attention which he pays to the book of Daniel
in Antiquities Bk. 10.) It is interesting to note, moreover, that the few
undeniably Jewish compositions which offer a sustained discussion or
overview of the prophets-e.g., the "Praise of the Fathers" from Ben Sira
and portions of the early rabbinic treatise Seder Olarrr-are, in fact, very
different from the Lives in their most basic principles of organization.69
In the following chapters, I shall attempt to show in a more precise
fashion that what appears highly anomalous in a Jewish context can, in a
different framework, be both comprehensible and compelling. While certain
traditions in the vitae are likely to be early and Jewish, the material as
assembled in the Lives would have been most congenial to a Byzantine
Christian audience and to their expectations concerning the Hebrew prophets
and their deeds. Even at this preliminary stage of investigation, however, it
is incumbent upon us to reconsider an established consensus, as three
"unorthodox" conclusions suggest themselves: first, the very tenuous and
67
On the possible significance of the reworking of the tale, see the
discussion below, pp. 101-102.
68
Barton, Oracles of God (1986) 98.
69
See below, pp. 98-99.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON

63

problematic nature of any "peculiarly" Jewish elements in these passages;

second, the extent and manner of the dependence of a substantial portion of
the legendary material in the vitae on literary traditions from the period of
the Second Temple; finally, the possible significance of the narrative
sections of the Lives within a context of Christian reception and
transmission. While it is often difficult to establish elements in the work
which are inescapably Christian, it may be still more arduous, or even
impossible, to isolate materials or traditions which are necessarily Jewish.
ESCHATOLOGICAL PROPHECY
Very little attention has been given to what might be called the "prophetic"
element of the Lives. This would appear to be the result of at least two
factors: first, the simple fact that so much scholarly effort has been
expended on the geographical and legendary aspects of the composition;
second, these sections of the text are unremittingly difficult, even opaque.
Yet these passages are of no little interest and importance, for they represent
a identifiable structural unit in the work which may lend some insight into
broader questions of composition and development. 70 I have designated this
material "eschatological prophecy" for in almost every instance the prophet
describes a future event of cataclysmic dimensions which involves a
disruption of the natural order.
This prophetic component is marked by the distinctive formula "he gave
an omen" ('tepa~ 5ol1cev) which recurs no fewer than eight times in the
course of the Lives of the Prophets. The passages introduced by that phrase
appear either within a biographical framework (Ezekiel, Nahum, Zechariah)
or at the conclusion of the vita (Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, Habalckuk). I cite
them in the order of their appearance in codex Q:
[Ezekiel] This prophet gave an omen to the people so as to pay close
attention to the Chebar river: whenever it should fail, to expect the scythe
of desolation to the end of the earth; and when it should rise, the return to
Jerusalem.
[Daniel] And he gave an omen concerning the mountains which are above
Babylon: when the mountain on the north will smoke, the end of Babylon
will approach; and when it burns with fire, the end of all the earth. And if
the (mountain) on the south will pour forth water, the people will return to
its land, and if it will pour forth blood, Beliar's slaughter will be on all the
earth.

70
The special character of this material was observed already by
Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 121-122; it has been
remarked upon subsequently by De Jonge and Fernandez Marcos.

64

CHAPI'ER 1WO

[Hosea] And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive upon the earth if
the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to become twelve
oaks.
(Jonah] And he gave an omen concerning Jerusalem and the whole land,
that when they should see a stone calling out pitifully, the end is near; and
when they see all the nations in Jerusalem, then the entire city will be
destroyed to its foundations.
[Nahum] After (the time of) Jonah this man gave an omen to Nineveh that it
would be destroyed by fresh water and subterranean fire-and this came
about. The lake surrounding it flooded it at the time of an earthquake and
ftre out of the desert scorched its upper part.
[Habakkuk] He gave an omen to those in Judea that they would see a light
in the Temple, and thus they would perceive the glory of the Temple. And
concerning the end of the Temple, he foretold that it would be
accomplished by a western nation. Then, he said, the 'Dabeir' (veil of the
inner sanctuary) will be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns
will be carried off, and no one will know where they are; they will be taken
away by angels into the wilderness, where in the beginning the Tent of
Witness was pitched. And through them the Lord will be known at the end,
for they will enlighten those pursued by the serpent in darkness as from the
beginning.
Zechariah came from (the land of) the Chaldeans already advanced in years
and there he prophesied many things to the people and gave omens as
proof.... And concerning Cyrus he gave an omen of victory and foretold the
service which he would perform for Jerusalem and blessed him greatly.

The identification of these sections as a distinct category of material rests

largely on their common introductory formula. Their unique character can
best be appreciated, perhaps, through comparison with passages in the
Lives which resemble them in several respects but should not be confused
with them. First, there are those additional places in the text, some of
which have been examined earlier, where the term 'tEpa.~ occurs:
[Ezekiel] When the people was being destroyed by the enemies, he went to
their leaders and, being terrified by miracles (ttpaat\cov), they ceased. He
said to them (the people): "Have we perished? Is our hope lost?" And by the
omen (v ttpan) of the bones of the dead he persuaded them that there
shall be hope for Israel both now and in the future .... He judged the tribe of
Dan and Gad in Babylon because they acted impiously towards the Lord by
persecuting those who were keeping the Law. He performed a great portent
(tepa~) regarding them-that the snakes consumed their children and all
their cattle-and he predicted that because of them the people will not
return to their land, but shall be in Media until the completion of their
error.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON

65

Elisha was from Abel-Meholah of the land of Reuben. And an omen (tEpa~)
took place regarding this man, for when he was born in Galgal the golden
calf bellowed sharply, so as to be heard in Jerusalem.
[Zechariah b. Jehoiada] From that time there were apparitions (ttpata) in
the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the
angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire
by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as
formerly.

These are the only other instances of the word tepac; in the text, a fact
which might recommend them as part of the larger complex; however, the
departure from the set formula and the very different sense of the word in
these contexts (miracle, portent, apparition) speaks against the inclusion of
these passages. So too, the remarkable legend from the vita of Jeremiah:
This Jeremiah gave a sign (Oflf!Etov lWiroK) to the priests of Egypt, that
their idols must be shaken and collapse [by means of a savior born of a
virgin in a manger.] 71 Therefore to this very day they reverence a virgin
giving birth and worship an infant placing him in a manger. And when
Ptolemy the king asked the reason (for this) they said, "This is an ancestral
mystery transmitted to our fathers by a holy prophet, and we are to await,
he says, the fulfillment of this mystery."

The passage is quite unique, obviously of a very different flavor than those
currently being examined, and lacks the crucial terminology: in all the
Greek versions of this tale the word CJT)Jltiov appears rather than tepac;. On
this same basis, we can discount the lengthy concluding sections of the
vitae of Elijah and Elisha which open with the distinctly different formula
"the signs which he performed ... " (ta 5 CJT)Jltia (i EnOlTJGEV); further,
the material which follows is not prophetic in character but based on the
biblical accounts of these figures. 72
In an attempt to gauge the true measure of the passages of eschatological
prophecy, let us first turn our attention to their opening formula: "he gave
an omen." The term tepac; is a common one in the Septuagint as a
virtually stereotypical translation for the Hebrew term Jl.!)ll!3-representing a
phenomenon whose "ultimate author is always God."73 What is so unusual
about the employment of the phrase in the Lives of the Prophets is that the
71
Codex Q is difficult here: the bracketed reading "by means of a savior
born of a virgin in a manger" is taken from the other representatives of the
anonymous recension and the Dorothean recension. On the passage and its
quandaries, see the long note in Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 387.
72
See the discussion above, n. 33, and Torrey's judgment that this material
is secondary and discordant with the nature of the composition.
73
Thus Rengstorf, "tipa~" (1964-76) 7.118, who provides a thorough
survey of the Greek term.

66

CHAPIER 'IWO

that the "omen," while still very much in the divine province, is something
which the prophet gives to the people. Yet this usage has its roots in a
unique biblical passage:
And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to
Bethel.. .. And he gave an omen in that same day (LXX: Kat 8roJCV v -rfi
TJJ.lEPCf tJCdvn tepa~). saying: "This is the word that the Lord has spoken:
'Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are upon it shall be
poured out."' ... The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from
the altar, according to the omen which the man of God had given by the
word of the Lord (LXX: JCata to ttpa~ 8 8roJCV o av9pC01to~ tou 90u
v Mycp JCupiou). (1 Kgs 13:1-5)

This anonymous "man of God", of course, is none other than Joad of our
text.74 No less noteworthy than the affinity between the biblical text and
the Lives is our inability to adduce any further parallels. In fact, the term
'tepac; itself gradually disappears from usage during the course of the
Second Temple period and appears in the New Testament and Apostolic
fathers only within the familiar biblical phrase "signs and wonders"
(OTUJ.Eta Kat 'tepa'ta). 75 The Lives of the Prophets confronts us, then,
with the frequent and consistent employment of an unusual phrase whose
principal member ('tepac;) had become a significantly rare term in both
Jewish and Christian literature.
Nevertheless, these passages of eschatological prophecy must be
considered a very unwieldy unit. The recurrent theme of national restoration
(Temple, Jerusalem) is never given full expression; the pervasive imagery
of fire, water, and other natural phenomena remains enigmatic. Most
surprising, there do not appear to be any striking parallels to the language
or motifs of these passages in the expanse of post-biblical apocalyptic
literature. Though both the later Jewish and Christian apocalyptic traditions
are rife with the notion of "signs" and "signs of the end" ,76 including all
manner of disruption of the natural order, there is little or nothing that truly
resembles this section of the Lives. Comparison with other texts, for
74
75

Fernandez Marcos, "Nueva acepcion de TEPAl:" (1980) 37-38.

Rengstorf, "tepa~" (1964-76) 7.124-126. The most dramatic evidence
for this avoidance of the term on its own is the citation of LXX Joel 3:1-5 in
Acts 2:17-21. The original verse-"And I will give omens (ttpata) in the
heavens and on the earth" (3:3)-is transformed to: "And I will show omens
(tE_f,ata) in the heaven above and signs (OTIJ.lE'ia) on the earth beneath."
6
On "signs of the end" see Mk 13 (and par.); Rev 12; 4 Ezra 4:52-5:13,
6:17-28, 8:63-9:8; Sibylline Oracles 2:154-213, 3:796-808; Apocalypse of
Peter 5. For ample discussion, with further references to sources and
bibliography, see Stone, Fourth Ezra (1990) 105-114. It should be stressed that
it is the Greek term OTIJ.lE'iov (and not tepa~) which underlies the conception of
the eschatological "sign" in the post-biblical apocalyptic tradition.

STRUCfURE, CONlENT, AND COMPOSffiON

67

example, serves only to accentuate the absolute lack of any ethical

dimension (i.e. concern for moral or societal order) in the eschatology of
our document. Paradoxically, elements in these passages seem most clearly
to hearken back to that stream of late biblical prophecy (Joel 3-4; Isa 2427: Zech 9-14) often considered proto-apocalyptic.77 Here one finds much
common imagery as well as at least two biblical phrases or themes which
are clearly echoed in the Lives. 18 Though not precisely parallel, the
following verses from Joel (3:3-4) best illustrate that proximity: "And I
will give omens (LXX: Kat Sroaro tipata) in the heavens and on the
earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to
darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the
Lord comes."
No less troubling than the question of literary affinities is the fact that it
is not readily apparent how the passages themselves cohere. Three of them
do so most obviously (Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah}-sharing a common motif
of the future restoration of the people in their land. The "omens" attributed
to Nahum and Zechariah, however, speak of particular historical conditions
which are understood to have been fulfilled. Nevertheless, there are clear
points of contact: the passage concerning Nahum, in common with the
vitae of Ezekiel and Daniel, is based upon vivid imagery of water and fire:
the "omen" given by Zechariah to Cyrus, on the other hand, is related to the
larger theme of national restoration. The passages from the vitae of Hosea
and Habakkuk, on the other hand, introduce special problems of content:
both present motifs (coming of the Lord: rending of the veil) which invite
speculation regarding Christian origins. 79 Taken as a whole, these passages
of eschatological prophecy resist clear definition and leave us little recourse
but to admit bewilderment regarding their original context or significance.
In the following section of this chapter we shall see that, beyond questions
Stone, "Apocalyptic Literature" (1984) 384-388.
Compare vita of Ezekiel to op1tavov tfic; EPT1J.lCOO"Ecoc; Eic; 1ttpac; tfic;
yfic; with LXX Zech 5:1-3 and vita of Jonah A.t6ov ~orovta oilctproc; with LXX
Hab 2: 11; cf. Paraleipomena of Jeremiah 9:30.
79
de Jonge, "Christelijke Elementen" (1961/62) 170-174, 176-177. In
both instances the Dorothean recension preserves markedly different texts. The
short version of the vita of Hosea (see below, p. 70) lacks the "omen" material
altogether. In the vita of Habakkuk, the formulaic introduction-"He gave an
omen to those in Judea that they would see a light in the Temple, and thus they
would know the glory of the Temple"-is lacking in the Dorothean recension.
Interestingly, here as well, the phrase in Q "the veil of the inner sanctuary will
be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns will be carried off' reads as
follows: "the veil of the inner sanctuary and the capitals of the two columns will
be carried off." On the widespread image of the rending of the temple veil, see
the discussion and references in De Jonge, "Two Interesting Interpretations of
the Rending of the Temple Veil" (1985).
77
78

CHAPTER1WO

68

of linguistic and thematic continuity, there is intriguing evidence from one

of the versions of the Lives for the demarcation of these passages as a
distinct unit.

TIIE COMPOSITION OF 1HE liVES OF THE PROPHETS

The examination of the Lives of the Prophets thus far, through an analysis
of the structure and constituent materials of the individual vitae, has been
guided by the conviction that one must begin a literary-historical
investigation from the understanding of a known and certain text. The form
of the composition as preserved in the codex Marchalianus (Q) provides that
fixed point, both known and certain. The focus of my study remains that
"received" text of the Lives of the Prophets, yet prior to a reading of the
work within a proposed cultural and religious context something must be
ventured concerning the development of the document. It would appear most
unlikely that the terms "author" and "composition" can be applied in a
simple manner; rather, the text gives every impression of being an
amalgam of traditions, oral and written, from a broad expanse of time.
Consequently, we must attempt an assessment of the Lives of the Prophets
as a complex document reflecting successive levels of authorial, editorial,
and scribal activity. Furthermore, by addressing these issues it becomes
possible to go beyond the question which commonly lurks behind the study
of many presumedly early Jewish documents: how does one work backwards
from the preserved text? Namely, we may now ask: with what measure of
success can one reasonably expect to do so?

Recensional Trajectories
A superficial comparison of the recensions of the Lives of the Prophets is
both an interesting and dangerous exercise. It is more likely than not to
produce a confident, albeit false, conviction that it is possible to chart the
development of certain vitae in linear fashion. This could lead in turn to the
further, but no less misleading, determination that the Greek recensional
evidence seems to reflect successive stages in the growth of the document.
An interesting example of such recensional relationships is afforded by
the vita of Joel:
Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in
peace and was buried there. [Q; Dor]
Joel the prophet. This one was from the field of Beithom out of the land of
Reuben. He prophesied much concerning Jerusalem and the end of the
nations. And seeing (these things) he died in peace and was buried in
Beithom his land with honor. [Epl]

SlRUCfURE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON

69

The unadorned brevity of the text of Q (shared by the Dorothean

recension )----composed of nothing more than the birth and burial tradition of
the prophet-is likely to have been expanded in the principal Epiphanian
recension through the addition of a formulaic phrase. As noted above, in the
survey of the Greek witnesses to the text, such additions have been judged
characteristic of that recension. Still more interestingly, however, this
enlarged Epiphanian text approximates the following vita:
Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon from the field of Sabaratha. He
prophesied concerning the city (Jerusalem) and concerning the end of the
nations and the shame of the unrighteous. And when he died he was buried
in his field. [Q; Dor]

Our most concise and economical versions of the vita of Zephaniah,

therefore, closely resembles a presumedly later, expanded version of the vita
of Joel. Furthermore, these variations exist not only between different
recensions, but within recensional families; thus, the text of the vita of Joel
according to principal manuscript witnesses of the anonymous recension,
except for codex Q, reveals a similarly expanded formulation:
Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron, having
prophesied concerning famine and cessation of sacrifices and the sufferings
of the righteous prophet and through him the renewal of creation to
salvation. He died in peace and was buried there. [Anon]

How does one assess the relationship between such texts? Should the
variant forms of the vita of Joel stand as a model by which "lengthier"
vitae, such as that of Zephaniah, can be reduced to their "original"
proportions? Is there some ineluctable tendency toward textual expansion
which can then be reversed in the hypothetical process of reconstruction of
an earlier, and of necessity briefer, vita? Alternatively, the unusually brief
form of the vita of Joel could be an object of suspicion: might the material
reflected in the Epiphanian recension and in the other representatives of the
anonymous recension preserve elements of an earlier and more expansive
version, subsequently curtailed? Or, finally, does the recensional evidence
simply indicate an inconsistent tendency toward harmonization of disparate
and divergent patterns whose points of origin escape us?
These questions grow more complex when we cease to accord privilege
to a certain textual representative. It has become accepted practice since the
days of Schermann to regard the anonymous recension in general, and the
Codex Marchalianus (Q) in particular, as our most faithful guide to the
original text of the composition. The rationale of this judgment is largely
unexamined and, at best, seems to based on some imprecise perception of
the text of Q as terse, unadorned, and free from blatantly Christian

CHAPTERlWO

70

interpolations. 80 It is not difficult, however, to produce a number of clear

instances in which the text of Q does not provide the briefest, most
economical form of a specific vita and would appear, instead, to represent a
later stage of textual growth. Let us begin with the following forms of the
vita of Hosea:
This Hosea was from Belemoth of the tribe of lssachar and died in his own
land in peace. [Dor]
Hosea. He was from Belemoth, of the tribe of Issachar, and was buried in
his own land in peace. And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive upon
the earth if the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to
become twelve oaks.[Q]
Hosea the prophet, son of Beeri. He was born in Belemoth from the tribe of
Issachar. He gave an omen that the Lord would arrive from heaven upon the
earth, and this (would be) the sign of his coming, when the oak which is in
Shiloh were to be splintered from itself into twelve parts and become
twelve oaks; and thus it came about. Having prophesied much about the sin
of his people, he died in peace and was buried in his own land. [Ep1]

In this instance the vita as preserved in the Dorothean recension reveals the
same extreme brevity as found in Q in the case of the prophet Joel. The text
of Q and of the other witnesses to the Anonymous recension includes an
additional passage of the type analyzed above as "eschatological prophecy."
The Epiphanian text, once again, shows signs of still further enhancement.
A similar relationship between the anonymous and Dorothean recensions
is demonstrated by the vita of Zechariah the priest:
Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He was from Jerusalem, and Joash the
king of Judah killed him by the altar, and the house of David poured out his
blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch. And seizing him the
priests buried him with his father. [Dor]
Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash the
king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out his
blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the
priests buried him with his father. From that time there were apparitions in
the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the
angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire
by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as
formerly. [Q]

These two instances provide significant evidence that the Dorothean

recension sometime preserves a text which is more terse and economical
(though not necessarily more "original'') than that preserved by Q. Though
80

See above, pp. 32-33.

STRUCTURE,CONTENT,ANDCOMPOSrnON

71

unappreciated by many students of the text, Schennann in fact had remarked

upon the superior quality of the Dorothean text, particularly with regard to
the vitae of the twelve minor prophets.81
In the analysis of the development of documents such as the Lives of the
Prophets, there is a basic presumption of progressive stages of increasing
length and complexity. Given this orientation, there exists a profound
temptation to "refashion" the individual vitae, for example, without the
intervening narrative or prophetic material; the result in virtually every
instance would be coherent. In fact, such a reconstruction would simply
reduce the composition as a whole to the extreme economy of the extant
vitae of Joel and, in the Dorothean recension, Hosea. Indeed the unadorned,
direct quality of the introductory and closing notices of birth and burial, the
pristine brevity of this fonn of the vitae, may have predisposed many
readers of the text to an alliance with a central tenet of early fonn-criticism:
" ... the briefer the legend, the greater the probability that we have it in its
original form." 82 What are we doing, in fact, when we hypothesize an
earlier fonn of the text on the basis of a recensional comparison? Have we
given sufficiently serious thought to the peculiar identities of Dorotheus
and Anonyma and to the possible intricacies of the relationship between the
recensions? 83 Are we not, in rather arbitrary fashion, predetennining the
question of how a work such as the Lives of the Prophets might have
appeared once and then been expected to change over the course of time? It
is time to return to the evidence from the analysis of the text preserved in
CodexQ.

Sources and Development

The examination thus far of the Greek text of the Lives has given some
sense of the complexity of this small work. It is composed of very different
sorts of materials (geographic, narrative, prophetic) which have been
brought together in accord with a variety of structural possibilities. The
wide spectrum of forms of the individual vitae, their heterogeneous
presentation of subject matter, and the marked differences in their lengthall of these should caution against any premature attempt to explain the
development of the composition in too facile a manner. No less striking is
the apparent lack of coordination between the structural units identified: it is
very difficult to see any overlap or continuity, for example, between the
Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (1907) 127-128.
Gunkel, The Legends of Genesis (1964) 47.
In a number of instances, for example, the "concise" account of
Dorotheus comes at the expense of material related to the theme of
eschatological prophecy. See above, n. 79. Could this, rather, be a clear tendenz
on the part of that recension?
81
82
83

CHAP'IER1WO

72

narrative themes of the vitae and the eschatological motifs of the prophetic
sections. The simplest and most attractive solution undoubtedly would be
some fonn of source-critical theory which would attempt to unravel the
traditions, oral and written, that were ultimately brought together. The
prospects for such an explanation, however, seem bleak; it is not at all
certain, moreover, that the fonnal, structural analysis offered above either
corresponds to or reflects in an accurate or realistic manner the historical
development of the document.
The birth and burial notices of the prophets, as we have seen, present a
host of difficulties: a plethora of place names which resist identification,
internal contradictions between birth sites and tribal affiliations, and a
considerable number of geographical and genealogical "traditions" which
appear to be little more than exegetical derivations. These problems are
aggravated by the deeply entrenched tendency of scholars to see this material
as the earliest, most basic stage of the work, the foundation upon which the
composition was constructed. Yet not a few of the difficulties encountered
would be alleviated if one were to imagine the birth and burial traditions of
the Lives undergoing a long and probably uneven process of growth. Little
attentio.n has been paid, for example, to a short list of the prophets,
attributed to Epiphanius of Cyprus and Cornelius of Jerusalem, from a
ninth century Syriac manuscript. 84 The text offers a very abbreviated
treatment of twenty-three prophets (including Moses, Samuel, and David)
which does not readily correspond with any of the extant Greek or Syriac
versions of the Lives. While perhaps best regarded as a late abridgment of
the work, it is nevertheless worth considering the following entries (nos.
15-18) from the Syriac list:
Hosea was in the time of Uzziah, from the tribe of Issachar, llftd is buried in
his land.
Micah was in the days of Jorab, son of Ahab, from the tribe of Ephraim.
Amos was from Tekoah; Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, killed him.
Nahum was from the tribe of Simeon.

Could one of the sources of the Lives have been a comparable list of
prophets with their tribal affiliations alone? How many other such sources,
oral and written, might have been incorporated in the birth and burial
traditions of the composition? And what might have been the limitations of
such sources?
It is worth recalling in this context Torrey's own instincts regarding the
nature of the geographical notices:
84

See above, p. 12, n. 17.

STRUCTIJRE, CON1ENT, AND COMPOSffiON

73

It has therefore sometimes been suggested that the chief interest of the
author of this compilation may have been in the localities that are
named .... This motive was present, no doubt, in the author's plan, but it
does not appear to have played an important part. The localities are named,
and cities and towns are given the coveted honor, in a manner which
suggests literary routine rather than the attempt to give useful information.
The fragmentary material, so uneven in extent and character, was held
together and given unity by this framework of necessary detail. 85

This perception of the birth and burial material as a literary framework of

the individual vitae is certainly coherent with the analysis of the somewhat
arbitrary, even artificial exegesis which underlies a number of the traditions.
Such exegesis, as we have seen, bears no indication of having been either
early or necessarily Jewish in origin; there is some possibility that it may
have arisen through an interpretative encounter with the Bible in Greek.
These geographical and genealogical oddities may have been the product of a
late, even final, stage in redaction: an attempt to supplement either a
complex of sources or a single pre-existent document with appropriate
detail.
Still more problematic, perhaps, are the narrative legends of the Lives.
Here we are truly confronted by an expanse of material which may have its
origins within the post-biblical period but can be demonstrated clearly not
to have achieved its present form before the end of the fourth century C.E.
Our ability to trace the patterns of growth and development of the legends
would appear to be limited and perhaps will remain so. A number of the
passages are closely related to themes from Jewish writings of the period of
the Second Temple and, as we have seen, are likely to be directly dependent
on those early traditions. Other legends remain of very uncertain origin and.
can be documented within both demonstrably Jewish and Christian
contexts. Finally, the analysis of the vita of Daniel in the next chapter will
provide a prime example of a narrative presumed to be early-and many of
whose elements are likely to derive from earlier tradition-yet whose
present form (details, structure, significance) demands an early Byzantine
historical framework.
The demarcation of independent units of material in the Lives of the
Prophets can most clearly be argued for the passages of eschatological
prophecy. These passages, as we have seen, though enigmatic and
somewhat impenetrable, are marked by a distinctive formula which sets
them apart not only from other sections of the Lives but also from the
broad range of early Jewish and Christian literature. There is, in fact, a
further piece of evidence to be considered. The Arabic version of the Lives
of the Prophets, from a tenth century manuscript translated either directly
85

Torrey, The Lives of the Prophets (1946) 3.

74

CHAPTER1WO

from the Greek or on the basis of a Syriac intermediary, preserves a

distinctive form of the composition. 86 The editor took note of these
differences, generally lacunae when weighed against the Greek text, and
argued that "it is evident that the Arabic redactor acted as an epitomizer to a
large extent." 87 Unnoticed, however, was the fact that among the material
lacking in this version of the Lives are all of the passages, without
exception, which we have designated as eschatological prophecy; nor is
there any vestige of the formula "he gave an omen". 88 It is thoroughly
possible, of course, that the Arabic redactor himself (or his predecessor who
transmitted the Greek or Syriac Vorlage) removed precisely these sections of
the work, skillfully editing out the prophetic materials whether enclosed
within the biographical framework of the vitae or appended to them. We
find ourselves solidly in the realm of conjecture at this point: there is no
surviving Greek or Syriac witness to confirm this hypothesis. 89 Yet we
cannot discount the possibility that the Arabic text reflects an earlier form
of the text (once again, Greek or Syriac) which did not yet include these
passages; the Arabic version would then embody an earlier stage in the
redactional history of the Lives of the Prophets.
At this juncture it is important to recognize how distant we remain from
a view of the work in its course of development. The two principal
components of the Lives, the traditions of birth and burial and the passages
of legendary narrative, show every indication of themselves being
composite units which evolved over the course of time. In both instances
there appears ample evidence or strong reason to suspect that it was only at
a very late, perhaps final, stage of redaction that crucial details (or entire
passages) were introduced into the work. (Paradoxically, it may be the
passages of eschatological prophecy, long suspected of being both late and
secondary, that have the strongest claim to being an integral unit of
material that antedates, perhaps by centuries, the period of the ultimate
redaction of the Lives.) We should acknowledge the remove between the
present state of research and any form of explanation, based on principles of
both source- and redaction-criticism, which might offer a plausible scenario
for the growth of the document. Still more difficult to envision is the
attempt to move behind the versions and recensional families in order to
86
87

For details on the Arabic version, see above, p. 13.

Lofgren, "An Arabic Recension of the 'Vitae Prophetarum'" (1976n7)

80.
88
This selective absence can be seen clearly in the vitae of Daniel, Hosea,
Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zechariah; the vita of Ezekiel is simply too
abbreviated to draw any conclusion.
89
The recension of Dorotheus, however, does reveal a significantly
curtailed treatment of eschatological prophecy; see above, nn. 79, 83.

STRUCTIJRE, CONTENT, AND COMPOSffiON

75

come closer to a more primitive form of the composition, i.e. the recovery
of an original document, Jewish rather than Christian.

Conclusion
These questions point to a methodological quandary which lies at the very
heart of the modem study of post-biblical Jewish literature: to what extent
were earlier traditions and texts copied and preserved, reworked and redacted,
or rewritten and recast in the early centuries of Christian literary activity? Is
there a reasonable expectation that these adopted (and often adapted) Jewish
materials can be restored to their original and early form? Or, rather, do the
texts before us bear so clear and compelling a Christian identity as to render
them impenetrable? The issue is of clear and direct relevance for the study of
the Lives of the Prophets yet has rarely been confronted; rather, as the
survey of modern scholarship has revealed, there has been virtually no
caution or concern in moving from the Byzantine and medieval Greek texts
before us backwards to their putative Jewish source. The critical questions
at stake affect a broad range of texts, however, and the position outlined
here is directly dependent upon that of M. de Jonge in his assessment of
the vexed problem of the origins and nature of the Testaments of the

Twelve Patriarchs.<xl
(1) The Lives of the Prophets have functioned meaningfully within a
wide spectrum of indisputably Christian contexts. The vitality of the work
within manifold forms and expressions of Christian culture is witnessed by
the quantity and distribution of the Greek manuscript evidence, the rich
tradition of translation into languages of both Western and Eastern churches
and subsequent transmission, and the active employment of the work in a
variety of literary and liturgical settings. The preceding examination of thestructure and content of the document has already revealed a number of
significant commonalities of thought and language between our text and
early Byzantine piety and exegesis. In the succeeding chapters I shall
attempt to place the Lives of the Prophets within a still more precise
context: an historical and religious framework whose cogency may not only
explain the attraction which the work held but aid us in understanding the
circumstances under which the text attained its present form.
(2) The identification and isolation of Christian elements in the Lives,
i.e. the removal of interpolations, is neither a practical nor efficacious
90
De Jonge, "Test. Benjamin 3:8" (1989) 205-206; see too his earlier
statements of the problem in "The main issues in the study of the Testaments of
the Twelve Patriarchs" (1979/80) and (with Hollander) in The Testaments of the
Twelve Patriarchs (1985) 14-17, 82-85. It is noteworthy that Schermann
(Propheten- und Apostellegenden [1907] 12~122), albeit from a very different
perspective, already observed the common literary-historical problematic
between the Testaments and the Lives.

76

CHAPTER 'TWO

manner of restoring an originally Jewish text. First, as has long been

recognized, there are few "blatantly" Christian features in the text of the
vitae preserved by Q. Indeed, I have tried to demonstrate (and will emphasize
in the following chapters) that it is precisely the lack of distinctively
Christian elements which provides a major clue toward the understanding of
the document. There are, nevertheless, indisputably Christian attributes in
the work, yet their qualities are diametrically opposed to the concept of
"interpolation": they are subtle, confounding simple identification, and so
deeply embedded in the fabric of the text as to resist extraction. In fact,
clearly recognizable interpolations or additions in the Lives of the Prophets
would appear only to be characteristic of a variety of recensional tendencies:
the messianic content of the prefaces to the individual vitae in Dorotheus
and the frequent asides in the Epiphanian texts. It would be far more
accurate, then, to speak of Christological interpolations in an existing
Christian document.
(3) The nature of the Christian transmission and redaction of the Lives of
the Prophets renders virtually impossible the recovery of an earlier preChristian stage in the document's development. In the words of de Jonge,
Scholars should realize that literary criticism is of necessity a very limited
tool in the case of the analysis of highly complex writings . . . which
purport to transmit ancient tradition; they have been pseudepigraphical
from the start, may be expected to have assembled as much relevant
material as possible, and have 'invited' those who transmitted the text to
insert traditions at their disposal.91

Certain trajectories have been shown to exist between the different versions
of the Lives, among the multiple recensions of the Greek text, as well as
between the various manuscript witnesses to the same recension. The
impression is continually reinforced that the Lives of the Prophets is in its
very essence a restless composition, an ongoing sequence of texts in a state
of flux. These fluctuations, however, cannot be conveniently restricted to
the later stages of textual transmission: they are likely to have characterized
the work from its very inception. It has been argued recently, with specific
reference to forms of rabbinic literature, that classical theories of textual
development-and the attendant search for a zero-base text which can be
restored or reconstructed-are not universally applicable.9 2 There are
instances in which tracing a complex history and process of transmission
simply cannot be assumed to lead backward to an earlier, unitary, clearly
91 Ibid.
92 Schafer, "Research into Rabbinic Literature: an Attempt to define the
Status Quaestionis" (1986) with response by Milikowsky, "The Status
Quaestionis of Research in Rabbinic Literature" (1988) and rejoinder by Schafer,
"Once Again the Status Quaestionis of Research in Rabbinic Literature" (1989).

STRUCIURE, CON1ENT, ANDCOMPOSffiON

77

defined stage of authorial or redactional identity. It is as ill-advised to deny

categorically the possibility of a Jewish text underlying the Lives as it
would be futile to speculate about the nature or contents of such a
document. We simply remain uncertain whether such a text ever existed
and, if so, what its form may have been.
(4) It is not even possible, when confronted with a work like the Lives
of the Prophets, to speak with any precision of the "growth" of the text.
Literary and historical analysis may isolate units of material within a
composition yet this is still a far cry from a diachronic analysis of the
work. After all, the identification of seemingly distinct sections of
material-whether based on considerations of form or content or a
conjunction of the two-is itself of uncertain significance and open to a
plethora of interpretations. Are these divisions within the text indicative of
the employment of multiple sources, the incorporation of pre-existent
documents, or perhaps the gradual development of a composition over a
protracted period of time? This indeterminacy demands the recognition that
a tradition-historical approach cannot lead to a delineation of stages in the
history of the text in the sense that we would be able to assign certain
sections, or certain phrases in sections, to a particular 'layer' in the text.
We have only the final text as the outcome of a, no doubt, long process of
assemblage: we are not in a position to posit earlier redactional stages
resulting in earlier more original forms of the document.9 3

This demands, more than anything else, the recognition that our formal
literary analysis of the text, however convincing it may be on its own
terms, cannot pretend to reflect the historical reality underlying the text. We
may be justified and fully confident in our characterization of a work as.
composite and yet at once recognize our inability to reconstruct its
constituent elements or the process which brought them together. It simply
may not be possible to "work backwards" from the text in its transmitted
form, to peel away the layers to something earlier or more original. (Indeed,
one suspects that the imagery of a progressively layered object-so integral
to our perception of the natural world-may be peculiarly ill-suited to the
problem at hand.)
(5) Finally, the traditional and entrenched use of the categories "Jewish"
and "Christian" as mutually exclusive possibilities does little to advance
our understanding of the Lives of the Prophets and similar writings. Upon
this notion of the unrelenting exclusivity of the two traditions rests the
unfortunate perception of the problem as one demanding the removal of
Christian elements, at which point a Jewish document miraculously
emerges. There are, indeed instances in which Jewish and Christian attitudes
93

De Jonge, /oc. cit.

78

CHAPTER1WO

are not proximate, points at which true and deep differences can be charted.
yet there are far more areas in which the early Church both inherited and
enhanced a complex of attitudes, practices, and beliefs which were
consonant with those of early Judaism. It is only with the full recognition
of these continuities that one becomes deeply aware of the difficulties in
moving backwards, i.e. attempting to determine which aspects of a postbiblical tradition can be traced back (precisely and exclusively) to their
Jewish origins.

***
We are, once again, faced with the text in its present form-or, in the case
of the Lives of the Prophets, in a dazzling variety of forms. The decision to
focus on the text of codex Marchalianus (Q) represents, as we have
indicated, no judgment regarding a "better" or necessarily "earlier" text-form,
but rather the choice of a certain crystallization of the textual process. The
foregoing analysis of that text of the Lives of the Prophets has imparted, I
hope, some sense of the diversity and complexity of the work. The call for
an examination of the work within its known context of transmission or
reception is not simply the expression of a methodological principle; it is
the essentially pragmatic result of the realization that very little indeed
separates the earliest proven context of transmission (sixth century) from
the likely context of redaction (fifth century)! Indeed, the distinct identity of
the terms which nourish this discussion-transmission, redaction,
composition-has been exposed as deeply problematic. Finally, there has
been some insistence that even if we were to take the methodologically
questionable step and prematurely begin the process of "working backward",
we could not responsibly reach beyond the reality of a thoroughly Christian
text.94

94 Note the mixture of recognition and criticism of this pos1hon in

Collins, "The Testamentary Literature in Recent Scholarship" (1986) 272-273.

CHAPTER 1HREE

THE VITA OF DANIEL: AN EARLY BYZANTINE LEGEND

Among the most frustrating aspects of the Lives of the Prophets is the
stubbornly indeterminate nature of the majority of the vitae. They offer
little more than the most basic-and generally unparalleled or
impenetrable--{!etails concerning the biblical figure at hand. There is a sore
temptation to throw up one's hands in the face of a composition which
seems to be uneven and uninviting in equal measures. A means of escape
from this predicament is offered by those few legends of greater length and
specificity. The vita of Daniel is remarkable in this regard, offering the
most extended and integral narrative of the entire work; no other single
passage from the Lives raises as many suggestive questions about the
outlook and milieu of the composition. It is here that we come closest to
the guiding design behind what, I suspect, may have been the final stage of
authorship and redaction. If, in fact, "the idiosyncracy of an author is best
penetrated through his inventions," 1 this unique narrative may prove our
point of entry to the mentalite of the the document as a whole.
Similar in form to the vitae of Jonah and Habakkuk, the central narrative
of the vita of Daniel is framed by a brief introductory account of the origins
and character of the prophet and a concluding prophetic section. The
opening passage informs us of Daniel's birthplace (upper Beth-Horon), a
tradition characteristically unattested, his courtly descent, and his extreme
continence: so great that "the Jews supposed him to be a eunuch". 2 The
prophet is described as one who mourned and fasted over the city Jerusalem
(Dan 10:2-3)--causing him to become "a man withered in appearance but
comely in the grace of the Most High". 3 The closing section provides a
quite unexceptional example of "eschatological prophecy", including the
formulaic introduction "And he gave an omen ... ".
It is the central legend of the vita, however, that demands our closest
attention:
Syme, Ammianus and the Historia Augusta (1968) 4.
On this theme concerning Daniel and his companions--common to both
rabbinic and patristic sources--and its exegetical connections with lsa 39:7, see

Braverman, Jerome's Commentary on Daniel (1978) 53-71.

3
See Satran, "Daniel: Seer, Philosopher, Holy Man" (1980) 41-42.
2

80

CHAPI'ER 1HREE

He prayed greatly on behalf of Nebuchadnezzar, after Baltasar, his son,

summoned him, when he became a wild animal and a beast, in order that he
might not perish. His upper half, as well as his head, were like an ox; his
feet together with his lower half were like a lion. It was revealed to the holy
man concerning this mystery, that Nebuchadnezzar had become a beast as a
result of his love of pleasure and stiff-neckedness, and that those who
belong to Beliar are like an ox under yoke. Rulers have (these qualities) in
their youth; finally, they become wild animals-snatching, destroying,
killing, and smiting.
The holy man knew, through God, that Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like an
ox, and it became food of a human sort. On account of this even
Nebuchadnezzar, taking on a human heart following digestion, wept and
implored the Lord, praying every day and night forty times. Behemoth
would come upon him and make him forget that he had been a man; his
tongue became fixed, unable to speak, and at once realizing this he cried;
his eyes were like (raw) flesh from weeping. Many were going out of the
city and observed him. Daniel alone did not desire to see him, for he was in
prayer on his behalf during the entire period of his transformation. He said
that Nebuchadnezzar would again become a man, but they did not believe
him.
Daniel caused the seven years, which he called 'seven seasons,' to become
seven months. The mystery of the 'seven seasons' was fulfilled in his
regard, since he was restored in seven months (and) during six years and
<six> [five] months he fell down before the Lord and confessed his
impiety, and after the forgiveness of his sin He returned the kingdom to
him. While making confession Nebuchadnezzar neither ate bread or meat
nor drank wine, since Daniel had enjoined him to appease the Lord by
(eating) soaked pulse and herbs. On account of this Nebuchadnezzar called
him (Daniel) Baltasar, since he desired to appoint him heir alongside his
own children. But the holy man said: "Far be it from me to forsake the
inheritance of my fathers and to cleave to the inheritance of the
uncircumcised."

While the legends of the Lives are dependent largely on traditions which
touch only lightly, if at all, on the scriptural account of the prophet's
career, this vita introduces an elaborate narrative clearly derived from and
amplifying the biblical text of the fourth chapter of the book of Daniei.4
Indeed, it is the exegetical quality of the legend which ultimately allows us
to appreciate both its specific details and central motifs in their precise
historical and religious context. One recognizes immediately the core of the
scriptural account-the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar for his
overwhelming arrogance through his physical transformation into a "beast
of the field". Yet a host of unusual, seemingly bizarre features come quickly
to the fore: the vivid description of the Babylonian king's bestial
4
For a detailed survey of the history of exegesis of the biblical narrative,
see Satran, Nebuchadnezzar Dethroned (forthcoming).

1HE VITA OF DANIEL

81

metamorphosis; the enhanced role assigned to Daniel as counsel and

mediator; the carefully detailed stages of Nebuchadnezzar's penance. Two
principal movements characterize the narrative of the vita-transformation
and penitence-and their elucidation guides the initial stage of analysis. On
the basis of this examination, it is possible to appraise the newly delineated
portraits of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel as potent symbols of emerging
temporal and spiritual authorities in early Byzantine society.
The limited attention which this legend thus far has drawn has been
based on the presumption that this tale, like the work as a whole, is the
product of Judaism of the Second Temple period. 5 A number of initial
observations should be made, therefore, regarding the narrative's
problematic status within the framework of early Jewish interpretation of
the fourth chapter of Daniel. Certain aspects of the legend may indeed have
their source in alternative forms of the biblical narrative current during the
Second Temple period. Aramaic fragments of the Prayer of Nabonidus
recovered from Cave 4 at Qumran reveal a Jewish exorcist or diviner (,u)
who actively intercedes on behalf of the stricken Babylonian ruler. 6 The Old
Greek translation of Daniel too presents a substantially different version of
the tale which accentuates the confession of Nebuchadnezzar prior to his
restoration.7 Neither form of the scriptural legend, however, begins to
approximate the detail or structure of the narrative from the Lives. Still
further removed from the spirit of the vita of Daniel is the treatment of the
biblical chapter by the Rabbis. Though much exercised by the prolonged
bestial existence of Nebuchadnezzar, exegetes nowhere suggest the complex,
hybrid creature described here. So too, the sympathetic treatment of
Nebuchadnezzar's arduous penitence and recovery, made possible through
the intercession and counsel of Daniel, is totally foreign to the tendenz of
5
Thus Doob, Nebuchadnezzar's Children (1974); Sack, "Nebuchadnezzar
and Nabonidus in Folklore and History" (1982).
6
The document first appeared in Milik, '"Priere de Nabonide"' (1956); for
a recent, convincing reconstruction, see Cross, "Fragments of the Prayer of
Nabonidus" (1984). The most extensive treatment remains Meyer, Das Gebet des
Nabonid (1962).
7
The Old Greek of Daniel-printed together with the text of Theodotion in
modern critical editions (Rahlfs; Ziegler)-was almost completely displaced by
the latter version in the early Church, as noted by Jerome in the preface to his
translation as well as in the prologue to his commentary on the book. The sole
extant representatives of the Old Greek text are Codex Chisianus (Ms. 88) and
the third century Chester Beatty papyrus (967). There is no consensus regarding
the relationship between the form of Daniel 4 in the Old Greek and the Masoretic
text: Satran, Nebuchadnezzar Dethroned, ch. 2 analyzes the Old Greek as an
exegetical derivative of the received Aramaic text; Wills, The Jew in the Court of
a Foreign King (1990) 87-121 argues for the priority of the version preserved in
the Old Greek.

82

CHAPfER 1HREE

Rabbinic commentary.8 It will become clear, in fact, that an elucidation of

this legend from the Lives must be sought well outside the boundaries of
Jewish tradition.
1HE 1RANSRlRMATION AND PENITENCE OF NEBUCHADNE1ZAR

The extended, central narrative of the vita of Daniel opens with a

straightforward summary statement: the Hebrew seer prayed greatly on
behalf of the Babylonian king, at the bequest of the latter's son Baltasar,
when his father had become like "a wild animal and a beast". This
seemingly repetitive characterization is immediately clarified by the precise
description ofNebuchadnezzar's strange metamorphosis: "His upper half, as
well as his head, were like an ox; his feet together with his lower half were
like a lion." The Babylonian king, therefore, had taken on the features of
both a domestic beast (Ktf\vo~). in the form of an ox, as well as a wild
animal (Ehlpiov), in the manner of a lion. The purely pictorial aspect of the
description is puzzling. The received Aramaic text of Daniel indeed speaks
of the Babylonian king as one who "ate grass like cattle" (Dan 4:30; cf.
4:22, 29), yet nowhere likens him expressly to a lion. The Old Greek
version and the translation attributed to Theodotion. however, incorporate
the image of the lion within the description of the king's bestial state (OG
Dan 4:30b). Nevertheless, neither the biblical versions nor subsequent
literary and artistic traditions provide any evidence for the bizarre hybrid
creature of the vita of Daniel. In fact, an understanding of the portrayal of
Nebuchadnezzar depends on both an awareness of exegetical possibilities and
an appreciation of the skillful and imaginative use of a series of topoi
derived from the ethical and political discourse of the Greco-Roman world
The Babylonian king is described as "stiff-necked" and "in love with
pleasure"---qualities which liken men to oxen and assign them to the camp
of Bellar. The problematic biblical phrase "Belial" ())J'~l) appears widely in
Jewish sources of the Second Temple period, especially in the writings of
8
See the unequivocal judgment of Ginzberg, Legends (1909-1938) 6.423,
n. 104 and the full discussion of rabbinic interpretation in Satran,
Nebuchadnezzar Dethroned. In fact, it is the marked absence of early Jewish
parallels to the narrative of the vita which has prompted an understandable, if
totally unwarranted, inclination to regard the parallel narrative in the medieval
Chronicle of Yerahmeel-Oxford Ms. 2797 (Heb. d. 11), 76r; Gaster (tr.), The
Chronicles of Jerahmeel (1899) 205-206-as a reflection or vestige of an
original and early Hebrew text.. The version of Yerahmeel is clearly a Hebrew
translation of a Latin text virtually identical with that found in the Historia
Scholastica of Peter Comestor (PL 198.1452). See above, pp. 14-16. The story
preserved in the Chronicle of Yerahmeel is of a manifestly secondary nature,
however, and provides valuable testimony only for the subsequent transmission
of the vita of Daniel in the Latin West.

Tiffi VITA OF DANIEL

83

the Qumran sect and related texts, in order to denote an evil principality or
even the Devil himself; the term continues to play an important role in
early Christian literature.9 The idea that those who belong to Beliar are like
an ox "under yoke" (im6,uyoc;) - or, perhaps, that "like an ox, they are
under the yoke of Beliar" - may well be the result of an etymological
conceit. The name Belial could be understood to mean "without yoke"
(~1)1+'~:1), i.e. without restraints, unbound by law or convention.IO The
present phrase, then, would denote those who are under yoke to the one who
knows no yoke. The attribution to Nebuchadnezzar of the quality of "stiffneckedness" (mcA.T)po'tpXT)At), a somewhat unlikely description in light
of the term's biblical context, may well have been inspired by its close
relation to this imagery. The description in its entirety may be, in fact, an
exegetical inversion of Jeremiah 27:11 (LXX Jer 34: 11) where the nations
are exhorted to bring their "neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon". As
a result of his transgressions, the "stiff-necked" king of Babylon has now
been brought under the yoke of Beliar.II
Furthermore, there is an ethical commonplace which underlies the
mystery (~uc:rtf1pwv) of Nebuchadnezzar's bizarre transformation. The king
had become like a "beast" due to the salient features of his characterinveterate "love of pleasure (qnAT)Oovia) and stiff-neckedness"- traits to
which rulers are prone "in their youth" (ev vEmT)'tl); as a consequence of
these shortcomings, Nebuchadnezzar was doomed to become ultimately a
"wild animal" in all its ferocity. This motif finds expression in a broad
range of Greco-Roman sources through the widespread imagery of the
passions themselves as wild beasts. 12 An interesting variation on this
9
The standard work on this figure is Van der Osten-Sacken, Gott und Belial
(1969). For later usage, see Scopello, "Beliar, symbole de l'beresie" (1989).
10
See BT Sanhedrin 111 b. It is unnecessary to assume a Hebrew source for
this word play, however, for the etymology had found a secure niche in early
Christian onomastica; see Wutz, Onomastica Sacra (1915) 772; Stone (ed.),
Signs of the Judgement (1981) 125, I. 113.
11
Compare the employment of this imagery in John Chrysostom, Hom.
adv. Judaizantes 1.2 (PG 48.845-846) where the Jews are described as "stiffnecked" since they refuse to accept the "yoke" of Christ.
12
Note De opificio mundi 157-160 where Philo stresses the bestial,
serpent-like quality of cplAT)liovia. For a thorough documentation of this motif
in Hellenistic philosophical discourse, see Malherbe, "The Beasts at Ephesus"
(1989) 82-86 and the references there. One of the most enduring expressions of
this theme was the Neoplatonic interpretation of the transformation by Circe of
Odysseus's men into swine (Od. 10.239-240), a piece of Homeric exegesis
which first appears in the writings of Porphyry; see Buffiere, Les mythes
d' Homere (1956) 500-520 and Lamberton, Homer the Theologian (1986) 115119. It is interesting, ultimately, to observe the treatment of the Homeric theme
in Boethius' the Consolation of Philosophy 4.3; ed.-tr. Stewart, Rand and
Tester [LCL] 330-339. The early sixth century (Christian) philosopher provides

84

CHAPI'ER 1HREE

theme appears in the discourse on the seven "spirits of deceit" in the

Testament of Reuben which culminates in the "spirit of procreation and
sexual intercourse" through which
sin enters through love of pleasure (qnA.,Sovia). For this reason it is last
(in the order) of creation and first (among the desires) of youth (1tprotov
tile; ve6tTJtoc;), because it has been filled with ignorance; and it leads the
young man like a blind man to a pit and like a beast (xtilvoc;) over a
precipice. 13

Very much as in our text, the "love of pleasure" is described as major

failing of those in their youth, a failing which can lead to self-destruction
after the manner of an ignorant beast. Equally apposite is the spiritualizing
metamorphosis of this theme in a treatise of Maximus the Confessor (580662). In his Four Centuries on Charity, after describing in glowing terms
the state of the "mind" (vol>~) which adheres to God, Maxim us speaks of the
falling away from the Divine presence:
But when it [the mind] departs from Him and goes over to material things,
it becomes either like a domestic beast (XtTJVcOI)TJc;), in love with pleasure
(qnA.~I)ovol), or like a wild animal (9TJpuo8TJc;), fighting over these things
with men. 1

Maximus is using language and imagery which had become commonplace

in the Greek theological tradition. 15
the summary statement of the ancient view of the bestial characteristics of
human behavior. For a detailed analysis of the passage, as well as the underlying
tradition, see O'Daly, The Poetry of Boethius (1991) 207-220.
13
Testament of Reuben 2:8-9. The translation here follows closely that of
De Jonge in Sparks (ed.), The Apocryphal Old Testament (1984) 517. For
broader discussion of the passage, see DeJonge, "Rachel's Virtuous Behavior"
(1990) 304-307. It is noteworthy that there exist a number of further close
parallels between the legend from the vita of Daniel and the Testament of
Reuben (especially 1:6-10), as noted below. The question deserves careful
examination, though I suspect that here too the Lives can be shown to have
made secondary usage of earlier traditions; see above, pp. 61-62.
14
Kephalaia 2.52; PG 90.1001B. For Maximus' own pronounced interest
in the figure of Nebuchadnezzar, see Blowers, Exegesis and Spiritual Pedagogy
in Maximus the Confessor (1991) 188-189 and the references there.
15
See, for example, the passage from Justinian's Epistula ad Menam,
generally ascribed to Origen, Peri Archon I, 8.4; ed. Koetschau [GCS 22] 104,
Frg. 17b: "it [the soul] is rendered bestial (a1tolCtTJvouta t) by its folly and
becomes savage (a1to9TJptoutat) by its wickedness." Crouzel, Theologie de
I' image de Dieu chex Origene (1956) 197-206 and Cox, "Origen and the Bestial
Soul" (1982) 115-140 explore this theme. For a broad survey of such imagery,
with a particular emphasis on its role in Cappadocian theology, see Danielou,
Platonisme et theologie mystique (1944) 79-89.

THE V!IA OF DANIEL

85

Finally, the trait of "love of pleasure" and the bestial quality of the soul
both feature as prime attributes of the corrupt ruler within the context of
Greco-Roman political theory. Plato and Aristotle had identified the unjust
ruler as enslaved to pleasure (Tj5ovi)), and in his treatise "On Kingship,"
written nearly five centuries later, Dio Chrysostom offers a series of
variations on this classical theme of the distinction between kingship and
tyranny, characterizing the latter regime as one "in love with pleasure"
(qnA.i)5ovo~). 16 Likewise, in his Republic (bks. 8-9) Plato discussed at
length the feral nature of the tyrant, and in subsequent political thought the
decline from a human to a bestial state becomes a central topos of the
development of kingship and its eventual decline into tyranny . 17 This
theory and concomitant imagery received eloquent expression in Cicero's
composition On the Comnwnwea/th:
Do you see, then, how a king developed into a tyrant and how a defect on
the part of one man turned the state from a good form into a thoroughly bad
one? ... For once the king has adopted a form of rule which is unjust and
arbitrary, he becomes forthwith a tyrant, than whom no creature more foul,
or loathsome, or detestable to gods or men can be imagined. Though he is
formed in the image of man, the monstrous ferocity of his character
surpasses that of the wildest of beasts. 18

It would appear that the narrative from the vita of Daniel has employed a
series of traditional motifs in a highly original fashion. Nebuchadnezzar's
composite metamorphosis has become symbolic of both the nature and the
progression of his moral decline: formerly a slave of pleasure, a dumb
"beast"-his foreparts (Ej.11tpoo9ux) became like an ox; subsequently an
agent of cruelty, a tyrant and "wild animal"-his hindparts (oxio9ux)
became those of a lion.
The succeeding verses make abundantly clear, however, that the portrait
of Nebuchadnezzar following his metamorphosis is not that of a proud
tyrant. The king is said to eat grass like an ox, as in the biblical account
(Dan 4:22, 29-30), and thereby regains his senses periodically; during those
brief spans of lucidity he bemoans his bestial condition, while praying
16
17

Dio Chrysostom, Peri Basileias 3.40; ed. de Arnim (1893) 1.40.

See von Fritz, The Theory of Mixed Constitutions in Antiquity (1956)

60-76.
18
Cicero, De re publica 2.26; ed. Ziegler (1955) 67. The English
translation is from On the Commonwealth, tr. Smith and Sabine (n.d.) 178-179.
Note too the remarkable disquisition on the cruelty of Nero in Flavius
Philostratus, Vita Apollonii 4.38; ed.-tr. Conybeare [LCL] 1.436-439:
"Moreover, in traversing more of the earth than any man yet has visited, I have
seen hosts of Arabian and Indian wild beasts; but as to this wild beast (811piov),
which the many call a tyrant, I know not either how many heads he has, nor
whether he has crooked talons and jagged teeth."

86

CHAPI'ER 1HREE

fervently to the Lord. The emphasis on the reduction of the Babylonian

ruler to a diet of grass is reminiscent of a biblical motif (Gen 3: 18) which
receives notable amplification in the later Adam literature: the sin of Adam
and Eve brings the denial of their former (heavenly) sustenance, and the two
are compelled to eat the food of the beasts of the field. There, as in our
passage, the change of diet is clearly an element of punishment within a
penitential context. 19 The author clearly has made every effort to emphasize
the pain and distress which Nebuchadnezzar endures as the result of his
bestial transformation. The recurrent emphasis on the weeping and prayers
of the Babylonian king raises the larger question of the meaning and
purpose of his punishment.
This portrayal of the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar exhibits two
clear and central characteristics: a symbolic perception of the king's
physical metamorphosis and a distinct emphasis on the repentant sorrow
which it engenders. While aspects of this description can be found in nuce
in earlier pagan and Jewish sources, the unique combination of these
features emerges for the first time within a distinct, paraenetic stream of
interpretation in fourth and fifth century Christian literature. Among both
Greek and Latin exegetes of the book of Daniel we discern a marked attempt
to see an inner, moral significance in the bizarre nature ofNebuchadnezzar's
punishment and a repeated emphasis that the purpose of the king's bestial
transformation was essentially beneficent. Paulinus of Nola (353/4-431)
gives fine expression to this portrayal of the Babylonian ruler:
As a result, even in physical appearance he was changed into a beast, exiled
not only from his kingdom but also from human feelings. He was likened
to a lion by his dismal locks, to a vulture by his hooked claws, to an ox by
his feelings and food; for since he had resembled many beasts in character,
he was made to resemble more than one in his punishment. At length,
however, Nebuchadnezzar came to a knowledge of God and was returned to
both his senses and his kingdom. He too was made an exemplar of faith to
us, so that we may fear to lose the kingdom within us by sinning and
remember to seek it again by doing penance. 20

No less striking is the role assigned Nebuchadnezzar by John Chrysostom

(347-407) in an early treatise exhorting a fellow monk to penitence:
19
See the Life of Adam and Eve chs. 37-39 (=Apocalypse of Moses 10-12).
In that literature one finds a closely related constellation of details: a beast (in
certain versions, either "Satan" or "Behemoth") who attacks Seth and is
sentenced to silence; Eve bewails their reduction to the food of beasts; and Adam
takes on a forty-day period of penitence. On this range of motifs, see Anderson,
''The Penitence Narrative in the Life of Adam and Eve" (1992); Stone, A History
of till! Literature of Adam and Eve (1992) surveys the evidence and its problems.
20
Epist. 23.19-20; ed. Hartel [CSEL 29] 177. My translation follows
closely that of Walsh [ACW 35/36) 2.22-23.

1HE V!IA OF DANIEL

87

And yet even then God did not punish him, but was still long-suffering,
counselling him both by means of a vision and by His prophet But when
he was not improved in any way by any of these means, then God finally
inflicted punishment (ttj.Hopia) upon him, not by way of avenging Himself
on account of (his) former deeds, but as cutting short future evils and
checking the advance of wickedness; yet even this He did not inflict
permanently, but after chastising (1tatStuaac;) him for a few years He
restored him once again to his former honor, having suffered no loss from
his punishment, but rather having gained the greatest of all benefits - a
firm hold upon faith in God and repentance on account of his former sins. 21

The ultimate goal of this chastisement (xa.tBeia.), clearly, was to bring

Nebuchadnezzar to a state of genuine sorrow and remorse.
The importance of this interpretative framework for an understanding of
the legend from the vita of Daniel receives further support from the fresh
consideration of a detail hitherto unappreciated. The opening sentence of the
narrative relates that Daniel "prayed greatly on behalf ofNebuchadnezzar ...
when he became a wild animal and a beast, in order that he might not perish
(iva Jlll axoAT)'ta.t)". The intention of the author appears obvious, and we
assume that when the Babylonian king underwent his metamorphosis,
Daniel's prayerful intercession was necessary in order to save his very life.
The sentence is clearly ambiguous, however, and it is the alternative,
seemingly paradoxical, meaning which emerges against the background of
contemporary exegesis. Thus, in his second Catechetical sermon (preached
c. 350), Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, describes the divine response to the
enormity of Nebuchadnezzar' s crimes:
You have seen the magnitude of his evil deeds - now attend to the lovingkindness of God. [Nebuchadnezzar] was turned into a wild beast, he dwelt il\.
the wilderness, he was scourged in order that he might be saved. He had
claws like a lion, for he was a plunderer of the Sanctuary. He had a lion's
mane, for he was a ravaging, roaring lion. He ate grass like an ox, for he
was a brute beast, not recognizing Him who had given him the kingdom.
His body was drenched with dew, because, having seen the fire quenched by
the dew (Thdt Dan 3:50), he did not believe. 22

"He was scourged in order that he might be saved"-or, as Cyril is recorded

in a variant tradition, "he was turned into a wild beast, not so that he might
perish (oux 'iva. ax6A.T)-ra.t), but that by repentance he might be saved". 23
The prayers of Daniel, crucial and efficacious as they proved to be, were but
a second stage in the salvation of Nebuchadnezzar-first, the Babylonian
21
Ad Theodorum 1.6; ed. Dumortier [SC 117] 106. On the treatise and the
identity of John's correspondent, see Carter, "Chrysostom 's Ad Theodorum
Lapsum and the Early Chronology of Theodore of Mopsuestia" (1962) 87-101.
22
Catecheses 2, 18; Migne, PG 33.407A; ed. Reischel-Rupp, 1.60-62.
23
Catacheses 2, 18 (recensio altera); PG 33.421C.

88

CHAPI'ER 1HREE

ruler was turned into a wild animal and a beast precisely in order that he not
perish! Only through such punishment could he be brought to the stage of
repentance. The rich ambiguity pervading both the sermon by Cyril and the
vita of Daniel derives directly from the principle of divine loving-kindness
(qnA.av9po>7t{a) which underlies the patristic interpretation of the fourth
chapter of Daniel. 24 This determination of the meaning and purpose of
Nebuchadnezzar's punishment is confrrmed, in tum, by the subsequent
description of the king's penitence.
In the wake of Nebuchadnezzar's transformation, Daniel initiates the
central action of the narrative. Indeed, in contrast to the severely limited role
assigned him in the biblical account, the "holy man" (o oaux;) of the vita
remains in the foreground: unlike the many residents of Babylon who left
the city in order to see the strange spectacle of their former ruler, Daniel
displays no such curiosity but spends the time in prayer on behalf of
Nebuchadnezzar. This intercessory activity engenders dramatic results"Daniel caused the seven years, which he called 'seven seasons,' to become
seven months."25 The following verses reveal the full measure of Daniel's
intercession and the deeper significance of the change effected in
Nebuchadnezzar's punishment. The Babylonian ruler was restored to a
human state following a seven-month period of metamorphosis; the
restoration to his kingship, however, was a matter of seven long years. 26
The interim period of six years and five months was given over to a series
of spiritual exercises: genuflection (
root c;), confession
(E~Oj.lOAOYTlatc;), and dietary restriction. The final activity, in its closely
detailed formulation, was expressly enjoined upon Nebuchadnezzar by

u1t o1tt

24
On the concept of divine philanthropia, see Zitnik, "9to~ qnMiv9pro1to~
bei Johannes Chrysostomos" (1975) 76-118.
25
The exegetical point of departure is obviously the repeated phrase "seven
seasons" (MT l'l'T)I M)llVI; Thdt E1tta Katpo() in the text of the fourth chapter of
Daniel; the author of our narrative is clearly aware of both the ambiguous nature
of that phrase as well as its traditional interpretation as "seven years"---present
already in the Old Greek of Daniel and then repeatedly in later authors, e.g.
Josephus (Ant. X, 10.6 [216]) and Hippolytus (Comm. in Dan. III, 10;
ed. Bonwetsch [GCS 1] 142). Note the curious interplay between identical
periods of time in the Testament of Reuben 1:7-10; see above, n. 13.
26
The principal Epiphanian recension of the vita reads E1tta f.I.CJtt11~
instead of E1tta f.I.TICJt, with the consequent understanding that Daniel
(?)established seven "rulers" over Babylon during the period of the king's
penance. This reading is clearly corrupt, as it destroys the logic of the reduction
of Nebuchadnezzar's transformation, but provides interesting evidence of an
exegetical approach to the problem of the government of Babylon during the
king's prolonged absence. A representative of this recension was known to
both Peter Comestor and Yerahmeel (see above, n. 8) as is proven by their
parallel renderings: septem judices and D'IO.!IlVI M)llVI.

1HE VliA OF DANIEL

89

Daniel in order to aid the king to attain divine remission (a<pecrtc;) of his
sins.
The appreciation of these verses demands a sensitivity to the actual
procedure of penance in the early Byzantine period. Penitential doctrine, as
it had developed by the middle of the fourth century, demanded a severe, and
often prolonged, period of public discipline. 27 In fact, penitential documents
of the fourth century itself testify to a growing tendency toward the
mitigation of severe punishments provided, of course, that the sinner gave
proof of sincere repentance. The rationale for this practice is given terse,
eloquent expression by John Chrysostom: "repentance is judged not by
quantity of time but by disposition of the soul."28 Within this penitential
framework, there is obvious significance in Daniel's intercessory response
to the tearful anguish of Nebuchadnezzar during the period of his bestial
transformation. So too, the remaining six-year and five-month period
assigned Nebuchadnezzar for the confession of his transgressions is
specifically designated as a period of i;o11oA.6r'lmc;-this term signified the
entire process of public penance in early Christian society .29 A recurrent
feature of penitential behavior, as witnessed by both canonical sources and
hagiographic literature, is the act of genuflection (imo7t'trocrtc;) or
prostration.3 It is noteworthy, therefore, that during the period of his
penitence Nebuchadnezzar habitually "fell down (imem't7t't) before the
Lord." Finally, the goal of this penitential activity, whose achievement
prepares Nebuchadnezzar for the assumption of his throne, is the "remission
(a<pecrtc;) of sins"-a technical term for the conclusion of penance in the
early Church. 31
The most intriguing information supplied by our narrative, though, is
the detailed account of the dietary restrictions imposed upon the Babylonian
27
For an authoritative overview of the literature on penitential doctrine and
practice during the fourth and fifth centuries, see Poschmann, Penance and the
Anointing of the Sick (1964) 81-121 as well as the very suggestive treatment of
the question in Ladner, The Idea of Reform (1959) 303-315.
28
Ad Theodorum I, 6; ed. Dumortier [SC 117] 108-110. Compare
Augustine, Enchiridion 17, 65: "Non tam consideranda est mensura temporis
quam doloris"-cited in Poschmann, Penance and the Anointing of the Sick
(1964) 94. See too the "canonical epistle" (217, 74; PG 32.804A) of Basil of
Caesarea which takes up this issue.
29
Rahner, Penance in the Early Church (1983) 125-151 passim.
30
For "genuflection" as one of the four "stations" of public penance, see
Gregory Thaumatourgos, Canonical Epistle; PG 10.1048. On this document, see
Quasten, Patrology, 2.126-127. The same four-fold division is found in the
canonical epistles of Basil of Caesarea; see Quasten, Patrology, 3.234-235.
31 Joyce, "Private Penance in the Early Church" (1941) 33, n. 2: "By
acp0l<; was signified the remission of guilt and punishment alike-the
cancelling of the debt."

90

CHAPIER 1HREE

king by the Hebrew prophet.32 Daniel enjoins Nebuchadnezzar, during the

period of his penance, to refrain from bread and meat and wine, restricting
himself to soaked pulse and herbs. The injunction "neither to eat bread or
meat nor to drink wine" reminds one immediately of Daniel's own state of
mourning and fasting (Dan 10:3) which precedes his reception of an
eschatological vision. 33 Similarly, pulse (&rnpta), a common foodstuff of
the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world, is employed by the Old Greek
version (Dan 1:12, 16) in order to describe the vital, if ambiguous,
component of Daniel's self-imposed regimen. 34 On a certain level,
therefore, the description of the Babylonian king's dietary restriction
involves the transfer to Nebuchadnezzar of motifs drawn from the biblical
portrait of Daniel. This exegetical inversion casts a number of traditional
elements into a totally new configuration, as they are incorporated within
the fast of a penitent ruler rather than that of a righteous prophet.
The full significance of this transfer, however, depends on the smallest
of details. The pulse which Daniel exhorts Nebuchadnezzar to make the
staple of his penitential diet is specified as "soaked"-O<:rnpta ~pEK'ta.
Derived from a common verb (~pxro ), the adjective ~pEK'to~ is found not
once in either Jewish-Hellenistic or early Christian sources.35 In Christian
literature from the fourth century onward, though, the word proliferates
suddenly with several noteworthy charncteristics:
the adjective ~pEIC't~ occurs widely as a modifier of the noun o<:rnpta
(pulse) or closely related terms, e.g. lentils, beans, chickpeas;
the appearance of the word ~pEK'ta alone to signify the phrase "soaked
pulse"-indicating the widely accepted usage of that phrase;
the phrase "soaked pulse" (<Xrnpta ~pEK'ta), as well as its less frequent
variants, is attested only within the context of monastic dietary practice.
Among the earliest occurrences of the phrase is in the early fifth century
Historia Lausiaca of Palladius Monachus, one of our chief sources for the
development of Egyptian monasticism. In a passage descriptive of the
intense competition between early Christian "holy men," Palladius tells of
Macarius of Alexandria:
32 For the following discussion, see also my earlier study, "Daniel: Seer,
Philosopher, Holy Man" (1980) 39-43.
33 For early Jewish attitudes toward fasting, see Fraade, "Ascetical Aspects
of Ancient Judaism" (1986) and the literature cited there; for Christian practices,
see Arbesmann, "Fasting and Prophecy in Pagan and Christian Antiquity"
(1949-51) and Musurillo, "The Problem of Ascetical Fasting in the Greek
Patristic Writers" (1956).
34 The Old Greek uses oonpta to translate the Hebrew O,lV"'l/!~,V"'l; the
Theodotionic version renders these onipJ.Lata.
35 The only reference for the word ~p1Ct6~ in the classical lexica is to the
Hippiatrica, a veterinarian corpus of Byzantine compilation.

TilE VlTA OF DANIEL

91

Such was his practice that whenever he heard of any discipline (aaJCrtcn~)
he surpassed it exceedingly. Having heard from some that the
Tabennesiotes [monks of the coenobium founded by Pachomius near
Thebes] eat their food uncooked during the Lenten period, he decided during
seven years to eat no food that had come in contact with fire, and he
partook of nothing other than raw vegetables, if they could be found, and
soaked pulse (oonpta ~pKta).36

Just so, Mark the Deacon (fifth century) tells of the novice Salaphtha,
whose ascetic regimen during the Lenten period excluded even bread and
salt, allowing only soaked pulse (ocrnpux ~pEK'ta) and raw vegetablesY
Similar descriptions are to be found in the Historia Religiosa of Theodoret
of Cyr, the history of Palestinian Christianity by Cyril of Scythopolis, and
John Moschus' Pratum Spirituale. 38 On the basis of these passages, whose
common concerns and contexts are so clearly defmed, A.-J. Festugiere has
concluded that soaked pulse (omtpux ~PEK'ta) "constituant la nourriture
ordinaire des moines, surtout pendant la Car~me."39
The detailed description of Nebuchadnezzar' s penitence, therefore, allows
us to delineate still more closely the provenance of our narrative. An
overwhelming interest in the Babylonian ruler as a model of repentance has
been complemented by the precise knowledge of a dietary regimen whose
roots lie in the realm of monastic askesis. Intersecting lines of evidence,
exegetical and philological, enable us to speak confidently of the narrative
as a fourth- or fifth century composition, representative of certain aspects of
early Byzantine piety. A closer demarcation of a political and social context
can be sought through consideration of the figures of Nebuchadnezzar and
Daniel.
EXEMPLARS OF EARLY BVZANTINE SOCIETY
From the beginnings of the Byzantine age, the image of the penitent ruler
played a unique role in the thought-world of Christianity. First and
foremost is the figure of Constantine himself: within a century after his
36 Historia Lausiaca 18; Butler (ed.), Lausiac History 1.48; tr. Meyer [ACW
34}58.
7
Vita Porphyrii Gazensis 102; Gregoire and Kugener (eds.), Vie de
Porf"yre (1930) 78-79.
3
Theodoret, Historia Religiosa 15.1 (Acepsimas), 18.1 (Eusebius of
Asikha), 21.12 (James of Cyrrhestica), 24.5 (Damian, Polychronius), 30.2
(Domnina); ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 234, 257]. Cyril of
Scythopolis: ed. Schwartz [TU 49.2] 234. Joannes Moschus: Pratum Spirituale
107, 163, 179; PG 87.2968A, 3029C, 3049B.
39 Festugiere, Les Moines d'Orient (1961-65) 1.44, n. 11. None of the
editors of the patristic sources cited above notes the occurrence of the phrase in
the vita of Daniel.

CHAPTER THREE

92

death, the first Christian emperor had become the subject of a full-scale
legend of affliction, penance, and conversion-the Actus Sy/vestri.40 No
less important, however, in the molding of this image were scriptural
exemplars. One thinks first, perhaps, of David-rebuked by the prophet
Nathan, punished by God-and the fascination he exerted on homilists and
exegetes of the fourth and fifth centuries.41 A vivid description of David in
his most debased state of penitence is offered by Salvian of Marseilles:
The guilty one acknowledged his sin; he was humbled, filled with remorse,
confessed, and wept; he repented and asked for pardon; he gave up his royal
jewels, laid aside his robes of cloth of gold, put aside the purple, and
resigned the crown; he was changed in body and in appearance; he cast
aside all his kingship with its ornaments; he put on the externals of a
fugitive penitent, so that his squalor was his defense; he was wasted by
fasting, dried up by thirst, worn from weeping, and imprisoned in his own
solitude.42

David was not the only biblical figure who served as a model of penanceAhab, Manasseh, and Hezekiah come immediately to mind. Underlying
these varied and diverse traditions is a common concern with the often
uneasy relationship between those invested with political and ecclesiastical
authority. 43 This tension (and its ideal resolution) were made tangible in the
image of the errant king who repents of his transgression and submits to
some form of spiritual discipline.
Though a somewhat unlikely candidate, Nebuchadnezzar too entered the
ranks of penitential models. This involved a distinct and rather sharp
departure from a traditional perception (both Jewish and Christian) of the
Babylonian ruler as an uncompromising and arrogant tyrant. The new

4
For the text of the Actus Sylvestri see Mombritius, Sanctuarium sive
Vitae sanctorum (1910) 2.508-531. The fundamental study of this vexed
document remains Levison, "Konstantinische Schenkung und SilvesterLegende" (1924) 159-247. See also Ehrhardt, "Constantine, Rome, and the
Rabbis" (1959/60); Loenertz, "Actus Sylvestri: genese d'une legende" (1975);
Linder, "Ecclesia and Synagoga in the Medieval Myth of Constantine the Great"
(1976); van Esbroeck, "Legends about Constantine in Armenian" (1982).
41
There has not been, surprisingly, a detailed investigation of David as a
penitential figure in the early Church. Huttar, "Frail Grass and Firm Tree" (1980)
provides an interesting glimpse at the later tradition.
42
De Gubernatione Dei IT, 19; ed. Lagarrigue [SC 220] 174.
43
Greenslade, Church and State from Constantine to Theodosius (1954)
offers a concise treatment of the tension between the holders of ecclesiastical
and political authority; see too Setton, Christian Attitudes towards the Emperor
in the Fourth Century (1941). Heim, "Les figures du prince ideal au IVe siecle: du
type au modele" (1989) surveys the role played by biblical models in the
literature of this conflict.

1HE Vll'A OF DANIEL

93

understanding of the figure of Nebuchadnezzar came in the wake of the

Christianization of the Empire.
Truly, if past events recorded in the prophetic books were figures of the
future, there was given under King Nebuchadnezzar a figure both of the time
which the Church had under the apostles, and of that which she has now....
The earlier time of that king represented the former age of emperors who did
not believe in Christ, at whose hands the Christians suffered because of the
wicked; but the latter time of that king represented the age of the successors
to the imperial throne, now believing in Christ, at whose hands the wicked
suffer because of the Christians. 44

The political and ecclesiastical revolution demanded corresponding changes

in the interpretation of Scripture: a nearly exclusive concern with the
cruelty and wickedness of the Babylonian ruler gave way to a new
sensitivity towards his repentance and conversion. As noted in the previous
section, the exegesis of the fourth chapter of Daniel played a crucial role in
this development. The narrative ofNebuchadnezzar's bestial transformation
and his subsequent restoration to the throne of Babylon provided the basis
for his inclusion among that select group of royal figures who transgressed,
did penance, and were enabled to regain their former glory and grace.
This awareness of the potential significance of the biblical tale within a
newly emerging political and ecclesiastical context receives telling
confirmation from the classic account of the origins of Christian Armenia.
Presented as an eye-witness testimony of the conversion of the king
Tiridates in the early part of the fourth century, the History of the
Armenians by "Agathangelos" represents, in fact, a highly stylized (and
anachronizing) recitation of the Christianization of the Armenian Empire. A
considerable portion of the History, composed ca. 460, is devoted to the
embellishment of the figure of Gregory "the Illuminator," the first
Armenian catho/icos. 45 Of direct interest for our investigation is the
description of the affliction of Tiridates, following the martyrdom of a
group of nuns:
But when the king, having mounted his chariot, was about to leave the
city, then suddenly there fell on him punishment from the Lord. An impure
demon struck the king and knocked him down from his chariot. Then he
began to rave and to eat his own flesh. And in the likeness of
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he lost his human nature for the
likeness of wild pigs and went about like them and dwelt among them. Then
44
Augustine, Epist. 93, 3.9; ed. Goldbacher [CSEL 34] 453-454. The
translation is that of Cunningham [NPNF I, 1] 385.
45
For the dating and description of the work, see Thomson (tr.),
Agathangelos. History of the Armenians (1976), esp. lxxv-xciii, and van
Esbroeck, "Agathangelos" (1985).

94

CHAPI'ER 1HREE

entering a reedy place, in senseless abandon he pastured on grass, and

wallowed naked in the plain. 46

The description is later enhanced in a manner both vivid and familiar:

For his whole body had become hairy, and on his limbs bristles had grown
like those of great wild boars. And the nails of his hands and feet had
hardened like the claws of beasts that dig the earth or eat roots. Similarly
the appearance of his face had turned into the likeness of the hard snout of
an animal living among reeds. Because of the beast-like nature of his way
of life he had fallen from the honor of his throne, and he roamed about in
the likeness of pasturing beasts among the animals in the reeds, lost to the
society of men.47

Gregory, earlier punished cruelly by Tiridates and presumed to be dead,

returns miraculously at the behest of the king's family and the princes.
After delivering a long doctrinal exhortation and attending to the burial of
the martyred nuns, Gregory sets himself to the restoration of the king, who
had already shown himself to be of a repentant spirit. When all are gathered
together in the newly built chapel, the "blessed Gregory with fervent
prayers and supplications tearfully implored healing for the king."48
Tiridates is returned to his original human form and sets off on a campaign,
together with Gregory, in order to uproot idolatry and paganism throughout
the kingdom; the royal family leads the rest of the nation in accepting
baptism at the hands of the newly-consecrated Saint.
The central role of Gregory the Illuminator in the History of the
Armenians, reminds us that Agathangelos is deeply interested in tracing the
emergence of a pious Christian ruler under the tutelage of a fmn patriarch.49
One thinks of the legendary relationship between Sylvester and Constantine
as well as the recurrent confrontations between Ambrose, bishop of Milan,
and the Emperor Theodosius I (379-395)--altercations which are clearly
reflected in Ambrose's lavish treatment of the relationship between the
prophet Nathan and King David. 5 The narrative in the vita of Daniel shares
these concerns. The prophet at no point disappears from the narrative but
46
History of the Armenians 212; tr. Thomson (1976) 217. For the parallel
text in the daughter versions of the History, see Garitte, Documents pour I' etude
du livre d'Agathange (1946) 48.
47
History of the Armenians 727; tr. Thomson (1976) 269. On the
metamorphosis of Tiridates into a pig (or boar) see Garsoi'an, "The Iranian
Substratum of the Agat'angelos' Cycle" (1982).
48
History of the Armenians 773; tr. Thomson (1976) 311.
49
Thomson (tr.), Agathangelos. History of the Armenians (1976) xc-xciii.
50
On the relationship between Ambrose and Theodosius, and its exegetical
reflection, see the introductory comments of Hadot to his edition of Ambroise de
Milan, Apologie de David [SC 239] 33-43. See now the evocative remarks in
Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (1992) 109-111.

THE V!JA OF DANIEL

95

actively accompanies the king during his transformation and penitencepraying, interceding, exhorting. The Babylonian ruler emerges in our
narrative as a reformed and righteous Emperor.51 This new configuration of
the relationship between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar reflects a crucial facet
of the tension between ecclesiastical and political authority which
characterized Byzantine society.
It would be mistaken, however, to attempt to identify Daniel too closely
with either Sylvester, Gregory the Illuminator, or Ambrose of Milan; he is
neither pope nor patriarch nor bishop in his dealings with Nebuchadnezzar.
Rather, the Hebrew prophet has been refashioned after the model of a central
figure in early Byzantine society: the Holy Man. 52 There are a number of
characteristic movements in the narrative which testify to this new
presence. The repeated assertion that Daniel knew (through a divine
medium) both the cause and the nature of Nebuchadnezzar's bestial state is
immediately followed by his intensive prayer on behalf of the Babylonian
king. By effecting Nebuchadnezzar's release from that condition-a cure
which the great throng of onlookers characteristically did not believe
possible-Daniel reveals his position as a healer. Indeed, the restoration of
the Babylonian ruler is no less than "the reintegration into the community
of the individual human being through the assertion against the demonic of
the abiding resilience of his human nature." 53 This act of physical
rehabilitation is followed by an equally intense stage of spiritual recovery.
Among the markedly penitential aspects of the narrative discussed earlier
were two distinctive features of early Byzantine practice: first, the growing
tendency toward relaxation of unduly harsh features of the system of public
penance and, second, the imposition of a monastic regimen. This dual
emphasis helps us to understand the relationship between Daniel and
Nebuchadnezzar not as one bound by the strictures of ecclesiastical penance
but within the context of the "therapeutic direction of souls". 54 The
repentant sinner places himself under the guidance of a respected figure who
then directs, with a considerable measure of autonomy, the spiritual
discipline of his charge. The holy man has been said to wield "the harsh
surgery of the ascetic a1to'ta.~t<;"55_interestingly, Daniel's imposition of a
51
On the ideal model of the Christian Emperor, see Chesnut, The First
Christian Histories (1977) 223-242 and Thelamon, "L'empereur ideal d'apres
I'Histoire Ecclesiastique de Rufin d'Aquilee" (1970).
52
See below, pp. 100-105.
53 Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 111.
54
The phrase is found in Poschmann, Penance and the Anointing of the
Sick (1964) 116-121. The classic study of the phenomenon remains Holl,
Enthusiasmus und Bussgewa/t (1898); see too Dorries, "The Place of Confession
in Ancient Monasticism" (1982).
55
Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man" (1971) 98.

96

CHAPI'ER 1HREE

severe dietary restriction is designated a 1tp6ota~l<;. It should be

remembered that Daniel does not accost Nebuchadnezzar, as a bishop or
patriarch might confront a recalcitrant Emperor, but is summoned at a
moment of severe crisis-as an intercessor, a healer, a confessor. His
attitude toward the penitent ruler, characteristic of the holy man of Late
Antiquity, remains an ambiguous mixture of concerned intimacy and
professional detachment. 56

***
The narrative from the vita of Daniel provides a vivid and detailed
development of Daniel 4 which can be situated within a distinct exegetical,
cultural, and political context. The fascination with the symbolic nature of
Nebuchadnezzar's punishment and emphasis on the providential character of
his chastisement establish the text firmly within the framework of fourth
century Christian interpretation. The account of Nebuchadnezzar's
penitential behavior and the unique role assigned Daniel lend a monastic
coloring to the narrative. While it is likely that traditions (whether oral or
written) of early Jewish origin underlies the narrative of the vita of Daniel,
it is no less certain that the legend before us represents a thoroughly altered,
indubitably Christian stage of development. The biblical chapter has been
transformed into a fine expression of early Byzantine piety. No other
passage from the Lives so effectively alerts us to the need to read the
document within its proper historical and religious setting or so clearly
demonstrates the elusiveness and subtlety of its Christian elements.

56
On the holy man's detachment and his status as "the professional in a
world of amateurs", see Brown, ibid., 91-93, 97. It is interesting, therefore, to
note Daniel's determined refusal at the close of the narrative, when confronted
with the possibility of political power. Nebuchadnezzar's desire to make the
Hebrew prophet a joint-heir (auyKA.llp6vof.Loc;) with his own children receives a
sharp reply from Daniel: "Far be it from me to forsake the inheritance of my
fathers and to cleave to the inheritance of the uncircumcised." This clearly extrabiblical conclusion to the legend would appear to have its origins in an
exegetical attempt to explain the confusion between the Babylonian name
given Daniel (Dan 1:7; 4:8) and that of Nebuchadnezzar's crown prince (Dan
5:1)--a confusion which could only arise for a reader of the book of Daniel in
Greek! This has been noted in Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 390, n. 4j.

CHAPTER IUUR

CONTEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

The analysis of the Lives of the Prophets in the preceding chapters-with
their emphasis on the text's highly variegated subject matter, multiform
structure, and complex process of composition-has been preparatory, in
some sense, to the task of reading the work as an integral document. It is
hoped that whatever convictions the reader may still harbor regarding the
possible sources and antiquity of the traditions contained in the text, there is
a general willingness to address the document as a product of the early
Byzantine age. The intense desire on the part of many scholars to read the
constituent vitae as authentic records of early Judaism must give way to a
readiness to confront the work as a whole within its established Christian
context of transmission and influence.
Approaching the text in this manner, one encounters a series of
overarching questions thus far largely ignored in modem scholarship. Does
the composition have a distinct religious and cultural identity? What
significance might the work have held for the community in which it was
transmitted (if not actually created)? The preeminent characteristics of the
Lives of the Prophets-the account of the wondrous deeds which the
prophets performed and the description of the manner of their deaths and
location of their grave~mand to be placed within a broader religious and
cultural framework. Closely related to the questions of meaning and
audience is that of genre: what is the overall form of the work and what
expectations did such a document arouse-and presumably satisfy-for its
readers? Possible answers to these questions are suggested by recent research
on the "localization" of holiness in Late Antiquity.
PROPHETS AND HOLY MFN

An attempt to understand the Lives in a fitting historical context must

coincide with an assessment of the work's literary, social, and religious
identity: questions of genre and significance. The customary answers
surveyed above-a guide to sacred tombs at the time of Jesus; an early
Jewish martyrology-have been determined less by the evidence of the text
as transmitted than by regnant hypotheses concerning the text's presumed
point of origin. These approaches err not only by reading inaccurately but

98

CHAP1ER FOUR

by seeing too little of the Lives and thereby focusing on but a single facet
of the composition. It has been noted too rarely, for example, that not only
in matters of detail but in overall design and structure the Lives is a highly
idiosyncratic composition. The danger lies in a misrepresentation of the
basic nature and intent of the work.
Let us begin with the unique quality of the Lives as a collection of
succinct, self-contained portraits of biblical figures: the multifaceted
literatures of early Judaism and Christianity offer nothing even remotely
proximate. Extant Jewish writings of the Second Temple period-whether
in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic-provide virtually no evidence for a genre of
compressed, anecdotal biography. Likewise, there is little correspondence
between the vita of any of the prophets, even the most fully developed, and
the technique or outlook of "sacred biography" as practiced by Philo, the
authors of the gospels, or later generations of Christian and pagan
competitors.
Closest, perhaps, to the Lives in its concern with an assembly of
individual figures from the scriptural account is Ben Sira 44-49, the "Praise
of the Fathers." The seeming resemblance, however, simply betrays the
enormous divide between the two works. The chapters in Ben Sira are given
over to a characterization of biblical worthies with a dual purpose which is
both carefully designed and clearly executed: the historical recitation of the
biblical account and the celebration of its heroes as exemplary figures drawn
from that history. 2 This dual concentration is equally apparent in the far
more concise yet focused uses of scriptural models in inspirational speeches
from the period of the Hasmonean revolt-"Remember the deeds of the
fathers which they did in their generations ... ". 3 This strong tendency toward
the treatment of individual figures strictly within the framework of an
historical narrative or schema is still more pronounced in works of a
chronological character such as Eupolemus (frg. 2) and the rabbinic treatise
Seder Olam.4 In these varied examples, drawn from widely differing
expressions of Judaism during the Greco-Roman period, we are witness to a
For this specific genre within the larger context of ancient biography,
see Cox, Biography in Late Antiquity (1983) 3-65.
2
The literature is enormous: see Mack, Wisdom and the Hebrew Epic
(1985) and the brief, perceptive remarks in Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism
(1974) 136.
3
1 Maccabees 2:51-60; 4 Maccabees 18:11-13. This paraenetic use of a
"succession" of prominent biblical characters is then taken up in a great variety
of early Christian literary and homiletic contexts, initiated by Hebrews 11.
4
Milikowsky, "Seder 'Olam and Jewish Chronography" (1982). Note the
similar manner in which such distinct documents as Ben Sira (47-49) and Seder
Olam (ch. 20) both treat individual prophets through the careful coordination of
their deeds with those of the kings of Israel and Judah, i.e. political history.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

99

blending of the principles of biblical historiography with those of the

Hellenistic literature of doxography and diadoche, whether a succession of
poets, philosophers, or politicians. 5
The text before us is quite distinct in both form and character. While
containing certain narrative elements, the intensely self-contained nature of
the individual vitae clearly distances the Lives from any form of historical
or chronographic composition. Likewise, the work makes no attempt to
establish (nor even exhibits an interest in) the history or succession of the
prophets. There is no recension or version of the text which presents the
vitae in anything resembling a chronological sequence. There is,
consequently, little or no sense of either interdependence or historical
relationship among the prophets themselves. Finally, unlike the encomium
of Ben Sira, only with great difficulty can an overall design or series of
motifs be discerned. As became apparent in earlier discussion, the
composition coheres largely through the presence of common structural
elements or units of material, which themselves appear in a variety of
formal arrangements.
Far closer to the nature of the Lives-and certainly coherent with the
work's established context of transmission (as well as redaction)-are the
early fifth century collections of the lives of the monks of Egypt and of
Syria. The preeminent representatives of this new flowering of monastic
literature are the anonymous History of the Monks of Egypt, the Lausiac
History of Palladius, and the Religious History (of the Monks of Syria) by
Theodoret of Cyr.6 These works share a common design which has been
described as a
free-ranging style of cameo portraits, the most informal of hagiographical
genres .... This genre took the form of collections of stories, which might
or might not be concerned with a biographical approach; a single incident
would often suffice for the author's purpose. 7

This departure from established structures for either biographical or

historical narrative would appear to have been evident to the authors
themselves. Thus Theodoret in the prologue to his work:

5
The outstanding example of the genre in early Christian literature is
Jerome's De viris illustribus; see Kelly, Jerome (1975) 174-178 and Barnes,
Tertullian (1985 2 ) 3-12; for the classical antecedents, see: Momigliano, The
Development of Greek Biography (1971) 65-100; Mejer, Diogenes Laertius
(1978) 60-101; Geiger, Cornelius Nepos (1985) 30-32.
6
Young, From Nicea to Chalcedon (1983) 38-56 provides an excellent
introduction to this literature.
7
Harvey, Asceticism and Society in Crisis (1990) 34-35.

100

CHAPTER FOUR
We shall not write a single eulogy for all together, for different graces were
given them by God .... Since, therefore, they have received different gifts,
we shall rightly compose the narrative of each one differently. We shall
not work through the whole course of their actions, since a whole life
would not be enough for such writing. Instead, we shall narrate a selection
from the life and actions of each and display through this selection the
character of the whole life, and then proceed to another .... The account will
proceed in narrative form, not following the rules of panegyric but forming
a plain tale of some few facts. 8

The accounts of Palladius and Theodoret, while clearly distinct from one
another in varied aspects of literary style and religious outlook, display a
shared willingness to write "anecdotal" hagiography. Their respective works
feature monastic portraits of widely varying lengths and emphases. It is
extremely difficult, in both cases, to speak of either an organizing principle
or a single theme which unites their collections as integral compositions.
In analogous fashion, then, the Lives could be perceived as an attempt to
present the reader with a loosely constructed collection of vitae of the "holy
men" of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, one might argue that the subsequent
transmission and usage of the work in both the Eastern and Western
churches recommends this understanding of the Lives as a form of
hagiography. It is incumbent upon us, however, both to define further and
to qualify this classification.
There is no need to argue the importance of the holy man-pagan,
Jewish or Christian-in late Roman and early Byzantine society. The
multifaceted role (intercessor, healer, miracle-worker, spiritual guide) which
he played in a wide variety of social and geographic contexts has been the
subject of intensely rewarding investigation for more than two decades. His
ubiquitous presence has justly been described as "the leitmotiv of the
religious revolution of Late Antiquity ,"9 Yet the potency of this new
8
Historia Religiosa prologue 8-9; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC
234, 257] 1.138-140; trans. by Price in Theodoret of Cyr. A History of the
Monks of Syria (1985) 7. For the interplay of praxeis and ethos in classical
biography, see Cox, Biography in Late Antiquity (1983) 8-9, 12-13.
9
Thus, Peter Brown in his seminal study: "The Rise and Function of the
Holy Man in Late Antiquity" (1971); reprinted, with significant additions, in
Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (1982) 103-152. For refinements and
further nuances, see idem, "The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity" (1983);
Drijvers, "The Saint as Symbol" (1990); Cameron, Christianity and the
Rhetoric of Empire (1991) esp. 112-116, 208-212. Note too the following
collections: von Lilienfeld (ed.), Aspekte friihchristlicher Heiligenverehrung
(.1977) and Hackel (ed.), The Byzantine Saint (1981). On the Christian saint's
pagan counterpart, see Brown, "The Philosopher and Society in Late Antiquity"
(1978) and Fowden, "The Pagan Holy Man in Late Antique Society" (1982). For
a comparative survey of the pagan, Jewish, and Christian evidence, see
Kirschner, "The Vocation of Holiness in Late Antiquity" (1984).

CON'IEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

101

individual can be measured not only in tenns of his function and influence
within contemporary society: equally telling is the pervasive effect which
his model of behavior exerted on the portrayal of revered figures of the
past-patriarchs, philosophers, and apostles. The Lives provides impressive
evidence for this reconfiguration of the image of the biblical prophet. Close
attention was given in the preceding chapter to the transition of the figure
of Daniel from the seer of the scriptural narrative to the spiritual advisor and
intercessor of the vita. The outcome is nothing less than the emergence of
the prophet as holy man.
Less detailed though no less dramatic is the metamorphosis of the figure
of Habakkuk. Devoid of virtually all characterization in the Bible, the
prophet is portrayed as the somewhat unwilling, certainly unwitting, ally of
Daniel in a legend from the Second Temple period:
Now the prophet Habakkuk was in Judea. He had made a stew and had
broken bread into a bowl, and was going into the field to take it to the
reapers. But the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, "Take the food that you
have to Babylon, to Daniel, in the lions' den." Habakkuk said, "Sir, I have
never seen Babylon, and I know nothing about the den." Then the angel of
the Lord took him by the crown of his head and carried him by his hair;
with the speed of the wind he set him down in Babylon, right over the den.
Then Habakkuk shouted, "Daniel, Daniel! Take the food that God has sent
you." Daniel said, "You have remembered me, 0 God, and have not forsaken
those who love you." So Daniel got up and ate. And the angel of God
immediately returned Habakkuk to his own place. (Bel and the Dragon 3339)

The most salient aspects of this early Jewish tale are the prominent role
reserved for angelic agency-charging the prophet with his mission and
physically transporting him to and fro-and Habakkuk's own lack of
enthusiasm or initiative: "I have never seen Babylon, and I know nothing
about the den." The prophet is portrayed as little more than a reluctant
instrument, an empty vessel, for the implementation of a divine scheme.
Though characteristically brief, the account in the vita of Habakkuk gives
eloquent witness to a very different perception:
[Habakkuk] dwelt in his own land and ministered to the reapers of his field.
As he took up the food, he prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to
a distant land and will return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the
reapers." And after he had been in Babylon and had given the meal to
Daniel, he stood beside the reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of
what had happened. And he understood that the people would return yet
more swiftly from Babylon.

Here we observe Habakkuk fully aware of his condition, completely in

control of his actions, and self-consciously dissociated from those about

102

CHAPIER FOUR

him. In the fashion of the late Roman holy man, Habakkuk of the vita
"kept his identity futact. " 10
Much the same emphasis can be discerned in the portraits of the three
major prophets in the Lives. They work wonders on behalf of the faithful,
their "clientele", not as mere instruments possessed by the divine spirit, but
as self-possessed arbiters, mediators who attempt to span the gap between
God and his creatures.l 1 Paradigmatic in this regard is Isaiah's prayerful
intercession on behalf of the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem:
And God made the sign of the Siloam (Shiloah) for the prophet since, when
he was faint before his death, he prayed for water to drink and straightway it
was sent to him from there; thus, it was called Siloam (Shiloah), which
means sent. And in the time of Hezekiah, before he made the cisterns and
the pools, through the prayer of Isaiah a little water came out in order that
the city not perish for lack of water, for the people were held in siege by
foreigners. The enemies asked: "Where are they drinking from?" And they
encamped by the Shiloah while holding the city (under siege). If the Jews
came, the water came out; if the foreigners came, it did not. Therefore, to
this day (the water) comes out suddenly in order that the mystery might be
exhibited.

This is precisely the style of wonder-working characteristic of the holy man

of Late Antiquity. Thus, John Moschus (550-619) tells of his visit to the
monastery founded two centuries earlier by Theodosius in Cilicia:
The fathers of this monastery led us to an arrow's distance above the
monastery. And when they showed us (the spot) they said: This spring,
both very beautiful and strong, we have from God; and they added: It is not
at all natural but rather given us by God. For many times our holy and great
father Theodosius fasted and shed tears with many genuflexions in order
that God might grant us the enjoyment of this water; since at first our
fathers took their fill from the conduit. But God, who always does the will
of those who fear him, granted us the blessing of the water through the
prayers of our father.l2

10
Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity"
(1971) 93. Brown makes reference there (n. 163) to a story related by Theodoret
of Cyr concerning Salamanes, a hermit who is transported bodily from one side
of a river to another and back again without uttering a word: Historia Religiosa
19.3; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 257] 2.60-62; trans. Price (1985)
129-130. The legend is, in fact, startlingly similar in both motif and emphasis
to that in the vita of Habakkuk.
11
For carefully delineated portraits of this role, see Flusin, Miracle et
histoire dans l'auvre de Cyrille de Scythopolis (1983) 155-214; Van Dam,
"Hagiography and history: The life of Gregory Thaumaturgus" (1982); Mitchell,
Anatolia (1993) 2.122-150 (Theodore of Sykeon).
12 Moschus, Pratum Spirituale 80; PG 87.2937C-D. See the note in Price
(tr.), Theodoret. A History of the Monks of Syria (1985) 93, n. 5.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

103

It is not only the fonnal aspect of intercessory prayer (and its efficacy) by
which Isaiah is likened to the holy men of early Byzantine society, but the
very posture of the prophet in his appeal for divine aid. This can be
exemplified by a curiously parallel report in the Life of Chariton:
... Chariton became physically feeble on account of his great age, as well
as owing to his extreme asceticism, so that he was unable to fetch by
himself the water for his own needs. Wishing to avoid troubling one of the
brethren on this account, he prayed to God, and immediately, from a corner
of the cave, a limpid, cool stream was made to spring forth, and it flows to
this very day. 0 what freedom of speech had this man before God! 0 what
friendly care the God of the universe had for him! 13

Readers of the Lives must have found the piety and concerns of the prophets
to be both familiar and reassuring.
There is surely nothing surprising about the willingness of an early
Byzantine audience to accept, even embrace, a prophet of the Bible as the
possessor of the customary attitudes and behavior of a contemporary holy
man. Yet there is an additional reason why these two forms of sacred
existence should have been so deeply and successfully assimilated: the
forces of influence and modelling always had been reciprocal. From his very
inception, both historical and literary, the Byzantine saint had been
portrayed as a true successor to the heroes of Scripture. Let us resume the
above-cited passage from the Life of Chariton:
0 what freedom of speech had this man before God! 0 what friendly care the
God of the universe had for him! Truly well the divine David says: "The
Lord fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves
them." This is no lesser a miracle than those accomplished by Moses,,
Samson, and Elisha, of whom the first struck a rock and water came out of
it, as the story goes (Ex 17:6), the second caused water to spring out of a
jawbone in answer to his prayer (Judg 15:18-19), and the third made the
waters of Jericho, which were bitter and wholly undrinkable, sweet and
pleasant and conducive to fertility (2Kgs 2:19-22).

This close identification of contemporary spiritual figures with biblical

predecessors is, of course, neither isolated nor unusual. The prophets and
apostles of the early Church had long been associated with exemplary
figures drawn from the pages of H~!;>!_ew Scripture. 14 Among the most
fascinating examples of this biblical consciousness which characterized
entire sectors of early Christian society was the decision of groups of
13
Life of Chariton 24; trans. by di Segni in Wimbush (ed.), Ascetic
Behavior in Greco-Ronum Antiquity (1990) 411.
14
See the brief discussion of this phenomenon in the Introduction. There is
no comprehensive study of the cultural and literary processes behind this
modelling and fashioning of character.

104

CHAPIER FOUR

martyrs at the time of the Great Persecution (303-311) to abandon their

given names and take on the identities of the prophets: Eusebius reports
how five Egyptians, when called before the governor in Caesarea, answered
to the names of Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel, Daniel. 15 Here, as in
many other respects, the transition from martyr to monk was surprisingly
fluid; later Christians of ascetic impulse continued to look to the prophets
(and martyrs) in their most personal attempts at self-definition. It was an
identification which often was felt most poignantly at the time of death:
"Collecting from all sources many prophets, many apostles, and as many
martyrs as possible, [James of Cyrrhestica] placed them in a single coffin,
in his wish to dwell with the assembly of the saints, and his desire to share
with them both the resurrection and Ute privilege of the vision of God." 16
Indeed, the authors of the formative works of monastic hagiography
understood that the spiritual proximity of their subjects to the patriarchs,
prophets, and apostles lay at the very foundation of their enterprise. Thus
Theodoret of Cyr:
... he who will disbelieve what we are about to tell does not believe either
in the truth of what took place through Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha,
and considers a myth the working of miracles that took place through the
sacred Apostles. But if truth bears witness on behalf of those men, let him
believe these stories also to be free of falsehood, for the grace that worked
in those men is the same that through these men performed what it has
performed. 17

And the anonymous author of the History of the Monks of Egypt:

Why should we speak at length about their faith in Christ, seeing that it
can even move mountains? For many of them have stopped the flow of
rivers and crossed the Nile dry-shod. They have slain wild beasts. They
have performed cures, miracles and acts of power like those which the holy
prophets and apostles worked. The Saviour performs miracles through them
in the same way. Indeed, it is clear to all who dwell there that through them
15
Eusebius, Martyrs of Palestine 11.8; ed. Cureton (1861) 40; Comm. in
Esaiam 44:5; PG 24.401-404. See the discussion in Baer, "Israel, the Christian
Church, and the Roman Empire" (1961) 129-130, n. 133.
16
Historia Religiosa 21.30; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC 257]
2.116; trans. Price (1985) 145.
17
Historia Religiosa prologue 10; ed. Canivet and Leroy-Molinghen [SC
234] 1.140-142; trans. Price (1985) 8. Note Theodoret's presentation of a
miracle of Symeon the Elder: "I shall mention just one, offering it as an image
of the way he worked miracles like the Apostles and Prophets." (HR, 6.5);
likewise, his comparison of the spectacle offered by the prophets Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel with that afforded by Symeon Stylites (HR, 26.
12). On the centrality of Scripture in the early monastic movement and its
literature, see now Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert (1993).

CONlEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

105

the world is kept in being, and that through them too human life is
preseJVed and honored by God.18

The linking of the holy men of early Byzantine society with a wide
spectrum of scriptural exemplars was a crucial aspect of this genre of
exposition; it established, at once, the essential verisimilitude and
reliability of the extraordinary accounts to be narrated as well the authentic
nature and continuity of the spiritual gifts which had been revealed. In
describing "the way of life of the holy and great fathers", the hagiographer
was at pains to "show that even in these times the Saviour performs
through them what he performed through the prophets and the apostles, for
the same Lord now and always works all things in all men." 19 This desire
to forge a spiritual link between the contemporary holy man and biblical
prophet found its perfect complement in the understanding, as expressed in
the Lives, of the prophets themselves as precursors of the Byzantine saint.

SCRIPTURAL GEOORAPHY
Yet we must not allow ourselves to neglect one of the most striking
characteristics of the composition. If the Lives as a collection bears some
relationship to a hagiographical genre which emerges in the beginning of
the fifth century, nevertheless, the individual vitae of the prophets share a
single, peculiar emphasis: the flavor of geographical exactitude. This
topographic dimension of the Lives is neither accidental nor secondary; it
provides a fixed element of content throughout the entire work and serves as
a recurrent framework of the individual vitae.
This plenitude of place names and tribal affiliations, as surveyed in
chapter two, cannot easily be explained or paralleled in light of Jewistr
literature from the Second Temple and rabbinic periods. There is no single
composition, or even portion of a larger work, that can be argued to
resemble the Lives in this central respect. Here, too, it can be shown that
serious consideration of the context of transmission propels us in a far more
fruitful direction. From the period of Constantine and Eusebius one
observes a new and intense fascination with the land of Palestine as the
physical treasury of the history and heritage of the Church. 20 This
18
Historia Monachorum, prologue 9; trans. by Russell, The Lives of the
Desert Fathers (1980) 50.
19
Historia Monachorum, prologue 13; trans. Russell (1980) 51.
20
Three major studies of the phenomenon have appeared in recent years:
Walker, Holy City, Holy Places? (1990); Wilken, The Land Called Holy (1992)
82-125; Taylor, Christians and the Holy Places (1993). The extent to which
such attitudes toward the land and holy sites were present in second and third
century Christianity remains a much debated point. For the early evidence see
Windisch, "Die iiltesten christlichen Paliistinapilger" (1925); Harvey, "Melito

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CHAPTER FOUR

fascination, as noted earlier, found manifold expression: the emergence of a

literary genre of /oca sancta, burgeoning pilgrimage to holy sites of every
possible description, the construction of churches and monasteries on, or
near, many of those very sites, and the creation of a new liturgy linked
integrally with the physical reality of Jerusalem. It is within this nexus that
the conjunction in the Lives of prophet and land can be understood.
Uniting and nourishing virtually all of these varied expressions of piety
was the centrality of the Bible, and particularly the Old Testament or
He~.w Bible. 21 The historical-geographical works of Eusebius, the
accounts left us by the pilgrim of Bordeaux and by Egeria, the liturgy and
catachesis of the Jerusalem Church-all of these bear witness to the depth
of the confrontation of early Byzantine Christianity in Palestine with its
scriptural heritage. Indeed, this emergent attitude toward the land of
Palestine was part and parcel of a large-scale Christian reclamation of the
story-the legend and the history-{)f the Hebrew Bible.22 (This might be
seen as the second, more self-assured, stage of the early Church's claim on
biblical prophecy and promise.) No more eloquent expression was offered
than Eusebius's celebration of Constantine's new churches "in the
Palestinian nation, inasmuch as in that place as from a fount gushed forth
the life-bearing stream to all .... In the Palestinian nation, in the heart of
the Hebrew kingdom ... ".23 Underlying this attitude to the land of the Bible
was a deeply ambivalent posture toward its Hebrew and Jewish past.
Expressions of early Byzantine piety were in no small part influenced and
conditioned by antecedent structures, practices, and traditions. A prime
example of such profound ambivalence is the complex of early Christian
attitudes toward the Temple mount and its supercession by the Holy
and Jerusalem" (1966); Chadwick, "The Circle and the Ellipse: Rival Concepts
of Authority in the Early Church" (1959) 5-7. Strong arguments have been
raised, however, against the existence of pre-Constantinian veneration of
Palestine and the holy places: see Holum, "Hadrian and St. Helena" (1990) and
Ta~lor, op. cit., esp. 295-332.
1
On the biblical basis of Byzantine piety in Palestine, see Hunt, Holy
Land Pilgrimage (1982) 83-127; Maraval, "La bible des pelerins d'Orient"
(1984); Smith, To Take Place. Toward Theory in Ritual (1987) 74-95; Dubois,
"Un pelerinage Bible en main: l'itineraire d'Egerie (381-384)" (1988).
22 The classic work is Simon, Verus Israel (19642). For the Palestinian
context, see Wilken, "The Restoration of Israel in Biblical Prophecy" (1985)
and Stroumsa, "'Vetus Israel'" (1988).
23
Eusebius, Laus Constantinii 9.15-16; ed. Heikel [GCS 7] 221; trans. in
Drake, In Praise of Constantine. A Historical Study and New Translation of
Eusebius' Tricennial Orations (1975) 101. This aspect of Eusebius's outlook is
discussed in Cardman, "Fourth-Century Jerusalem: Religious Geography a
Christian Tradition" (1984) 56-57 and carefully assessed in Wilken, The Land
Called Holy (1992) ch. 5.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

107

Sepulchre. 24 Indeed, it was this very fascination with the Temple, present
only as memory yet no less real for that, which gave rise to some of the
most bitter Christian polemic with the contemporary Jewish community:
"Where now are the things that you held sacred? Where is the high priest?
Where are his garments, the breastplate, the Urim?"25 Once again, our
understanding of the Lives depends, in part, on a recognition of a deeply
equivocal attitude toward the use of biblical legend and Jewish tradition in
the Byzantine rediscovery of the Holy Land.
A comparison, unlikely yet apposite, may help to accent the salient
features of the geographical component of the Lives. The Onomasticon of
Eusebius can be regarded as an early and exceedingly astute exercise in
reading the biblical narrative and the land of Palestine as one. His attempt
to provide precise geographical identifications for the totality of placenames in Scripture, despite its many shortcomings, stands as a landmark of
scholarship. 26 In terms of both structure and style, however, the
Onomasticon functions not as a practical guide for pilgrim or pious tourist
but rather as a handbook of biblical information and lore. So too the Lives.
The two works share a primary allegiance to the scriptural record: just as
Eusebius unfolds the biblical topography of Palestine through an exegesis
of toponyms as they appear in the successive books of Scripture, the Lives
attends to the prophets and their geographical and genealogical origins
through adherence to a canonical ordering. It could be argued that the Lives
is, in fact, nothing more than a variation on the form of an onomasticonan attempt to wed Bible and land, not on the basis of the name of a site but
through the person of the prophet. (It should be emphasized, however, that
in contrast to Eusebius our text often appears more committed to the
24 Nibley, "Christian Envy of the Temple" (1959).is the standard treatment
of this deep-seated ambivalence. For biblical and post-biblical Jewish
influences on the Holy Sepulchre and the Jerusalem liturgy, see Black, "The
Festival of the Encaenia Ecclesiae" (1954) and Wilkinson, "Jewish Influences
on the Early Christian Rite of Jerusalem" (1979) [= Wilkinson, Egeria' s Travels
(1981) 298-310.] Possible rabbinic reactions are discussed in Gafni, "'Prehistories' of Jerusalem" (1987) 12-15 and Schwartz, "The Encaenia of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre" (1987).
25 John Chrysostom, Hom. adv. ludaizantes 6.5; PG 48.911. Compare the
closing passage from the vita of Zechariah b. Jehoiada: "From that time there
were apparitions in the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a
vision of the angels of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to
inquire by the Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as
formerly." On the centrality of the Temple in John's polemic, see Wilken, John
Chr;sostom and the Jews (1983) 128-160.
2
Klostermann (ed.), Eusebius. Das Onomastikon der biblischen
Ortsnamen (1904). See Barnes, "The Composition of Eusebius' Onomasticon"
(1975) and Groh, "The Onomastikon of Eusebius and the Rise of Christian
Palestine" ( 1985 ).

108

CHAP1ER FOUR

potentials of exegesis than to the realities of geography.) Finally, the works

share a lack of "closure", a predisposition to subsequent redaction. The
Onomasticon of Eusebius was taken up at the end of the fourth century by
Jerome, who, in the course of his translation, added, altered, and otherwise
"improved" the composition; as we have observed, the Lives clearly was
prone to similar treatment.
The perception of the Lives as a handbook is significant. It is a quality
which aligns the text with a number of other equally curious works that
derive, in some measure at least, from early Byzantine Palestine. One
thinks, for example, of the Hypomnesticon attributed to an unknown
Joseph27 and the treatise of Epiphanius of Salamis On Weights and
Measures. 28 The latter composition overflows with odd bits of scriptural
lore, including a strong interest in the Hebrew and Aramaic origins of
biblical terms and names. Recent studies likewise have served to strengthen
our impression of Epiphanius's interest in and knowledge of fourth century
Palestinian Jewish culture.29 The Semitic component in the geographical
notices of the vitae traditionally has aroused the suspicion that our Greek
texts preserve a somewhat barbarized form of early Jewish tradition. Why
could they not be a reflection of contemporary Jewish sources? It is
essentiat to remember, moreover, that Christianity in Byzantine Palestine,
despite its heavy Greek patina, remained a Semitic culture: the language of
the towns and villages was Aramaic. 30 On that score, as well, it would not
27 Moreau, "Observations sur l' 'Y7tOJ.lV'l<Jtucov Bt~A.iov lroo~1t1tou"
(1955/1957) argues for the identity of the author with Joseph the Comes, who
appears in Epiphanius, Panarion 30.4-12; for the latter, see Avi-Yonah, The
Jews of Palestine (1976) 167-168.
28
Dean (ed.-tr.), Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures (1935)
provides a translation of the Syriac text with helpful notes. See also van
Esbroeck, Les Versions Georgiennes d'Epiphane de Chypre Traite des Poids et
des Mesures (1984) and Stone, "Concerning the Seventy-two Translators:
Armenian Fragments of Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures" (1980). On the
author, see Young, From Nicea to Chalcedon (1983) 133-142.
29
Lieu, "Epiphanius on the Scribes and Pharisees" (1988); Bregman, "The
Parable of the Lame and the Blind: Epiphanius' Quotation from an Apocryphon
of Ezekiel" (1991). See too Goodblatt, "Audet's 'Hebrew-Aramaic' List of the
Books of the OT Revisited" (1982).
30
Among the most famous evidence for the multi-lingual nature of
Palestine in the fourth century is the account in Egeria of the service in the Holy
Sepulchre, conducted in Greek but simultaneously translated by a presbyter into
Syriac (i.e. Aramaic) "so that the people may understand". ltinerarium Egeriae
47.3-4; ed. Weber [CCSL 176] 89; trans. in Wilkinson, Egeria's Travels (1981)
146. For the interest in and preservation of the Semitic names of a local site in a
learned Greek text, see the account in the fifth century historian Sozomenus:
''The tomb of Micah was at the site Berathsatia, located some ten stadia from the
city; the local population, not knowing what they are saying, called [the tomb]

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

109

be remarkable if place-names in a Christian Greek text retained their

Semitic flavor.
The works just discussed are all united by a common streak of biblical
antiquarianism. The consistent mention in the Lives of the tribal affiliation
of the prophets-an element often interpreted as a prime indicator of early
Jewish tradition-is in no way foreign to the concerns of the Church in
Byzantine Palestine: the preservation of traditional tribal boundaries is an
established feature of the Christian onomastic tradition from the researches
of Eusebius through the construction of the (sixth century) Madeba map.
Finally, there is something "encyclopedic" in character about the Lives: a
strong impression that no single detail, geographical or genealogical, can be
allowed to go missing. 31 It is precisely this relentless desire to supply both
the place-name and the tribe for every prophet that brought the redactor of
the text to the flagrant acts of "invention" discussed above. Yet here too one
observes the spirit of the age: these details in the vitae represent the literary
equivalent of the uncovering of the relics of a righteous figure from the
biblical past. 32 The creative exegesis of Scripture in order to attain a birth
or burial site is nothing other than an inventio-an (inspired?) "discovery"
of a portion of the biblical heritage of the Church. There is, in short, no
aspect of the geographical concerns of the Lives which resists interpretation
against the background of ascendant Christianity in Byzantine Palestine.
A note of caution is necessary at this juncture in the discussion. It has
been suggested more than once that the geographical traditions of the vitae
are not simply one aspect of the work but, in fact, its prime feature. This
has been put most strongly by those who have described the very essence of
the composition to be "a pilgrim's guide" of the period of the Second
Temple. 33 As we have already argued, this view involves a serious reversalof historical circumstance and influence. No less, it rests on a crucial
overestimation of the worth of individual traditions and the practicability of
the work as an itinerary. Our own emphasis on the central role of
geography in the text within a larger Byzantine framework does not imply a
simple translation of mistaken assumptions from one historical context to
another. Just as the Lives is not a Jewish guide to the sacred graves of first
'the memorial of the faithful' -naming it Nephsameemana in their native
tongue." Historia Ecclesiastica 7, 29.2; GCS 50, 345. On the question of
languages in early Byzantine Palestine, see Schiirer, History of the Jewish
People (1973-1987) 2.79, n. 252; Mussies, "Greek in Palestine and the
Diaspora" (1976) 1058-1059.
31
Maas, John Lydus and the Roman Past (1992) 53-56 discusses the
importance of antiquarianism in early Byzantium.
32 For inventio as a central aspect of early Byzantine piety, see
P. Maraval, Lieux Saints et Pe/erinages d'Orient (1985) 41-47.
33
See above, p. 40.

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CHAPTER FOUR

century Palestine it is as surely not a guide to loca sancta for Byzantine

Christians. The eccentricity which characterizes a number of the birth and
burial traditions is sufficient to eliminate any real possibility that the
composition could have been used in that fashion in any historical period.
Furthermore, of all the variegated forms in which the text of the Lives has
been preserved, there is not a single witness to an ordering of the individual
vitae according to the structure of an itinerary.
It might be argued, in fact, that the essence of the geographical element
in the Lives runs directly counter to the impulse for pilgrimage. The
composition, structured in almost all of its variant forms and recensions
according to some conception of the prophetic canon, is as free from the
concerns of geographical order as it is from the constraints of historical
presentation. Furthermore, its literary prominence in both Eastern and
Western Christian society can be argued to have obviated some portion of
the need for pilgrimage. The arduous task of journey to Palestine and its
holy sites is based on what has been called the "therapy of distance"-the
creation of a distance which needs to be overcome and is resolved in the act
of pilgrimage which "activates a yearning for intimate closeness." 34 Yet the
Lives provides exactly that sense of proximity by bringing the prophets and
their physical setting directly to the reader of the text. The vitae represent an
attempt to make the geography of Scripture tangible from afar. 35
1HE RlGHIEOUS DEAD

We have argued that the Lives, though in many respects a singular, even
idiosyncratic composition, demonstrates clear lines of filiation with a
number of literary genres (and their concomitant cultural concerns) that were
prominent in the early Byzantine period. Indeed, our understanding of the
Lives in historical and religious context demands a balanced appreciation of
these quite distinct elements in the text. The themes discussed thus farholy man and holy land, sacred biography and sacred geography-are clearly
the dual foci of the work. We have discerned, as well, a major axis uniting
these seemingly disparate planes: Scripture. It is the biblical record which
determines the compass of the hagiographical pursuit and provides the
factual basis for its topographical orientation.
In a further, and final, attempt to define these themes and their
correlation, I return to one of the most striking and widely recognized, yet
34
The phrase of A. Dupront as cited and embellished in Brown, The Cult of
the Saints (1981) 86-88.
35
The process is analogous, in some respects, to the manner in which
participation in the Christian liturgy, with its interplay of place and time, came
to replace the need for physical presence in Jerusalem: see Smith, To Take Place
(1987) 88-95.

CONlEXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

111

misunderstood, aspects of the composition. The Lives provides its readers

with an account of "the names of the prophets and whence they were, where
they died and how and where they were buried"-according to the
superscription of Codex Q. It is the unrelenting concern of the individual
vitae with the manner and location of the burial of the prophets which
demands our attention. This aspect of the text is indeed pivotal, drawing
still closer the realms of hagiography and sacred geography: the tomb as the
ultimate point of union between holy man and holy land.
This consistent attention to the burial sites of the prophets becomes a far
more comprehensible and significant feature of the Lives when considered
within the context of the work's transmission and reception-the complex
of early Christian attitudes and practices toward the righteous dead and their
tombs. This complex has been conveniently called the "cult of the saints"
and has been shown to center about the belief-current in a wide range of
Christian society between the third and sixth centuries-that it is indeed
possible "to join Heaven and Earth at the grave of a dead human being. " 36
The implications of this "joining" are best expressed, perhaps, by the
inscription over the tomb of St. Martin: "Here lies Martin the bishop, of
holy memory, whose soul is in the hand of God; but he is fully here,
present and made plain in miracles of every kind." 37 At its heart lies the
profound faith in the continued efficacy of the holy man after his death-as
in the following reports from the Lives:
And since this happened through Isaiah, the people also buried him nearby
carefully and with great honor as a memorial, so that even after his death
they might have the benefit of the water in similar fashion through his
prayers, for an oracle was given to them in this regard.

[Jeremiah] For he prayed, and the asps and the beasts of the waters, which
the Egyptians call 'Nephoth' and the Greeks crocodiles, departed from
them. And all those who are believers in God pray to this day in the place
and taking the soil of the place they heal the bites of asps.

These passages, and perhaps the composition as a whole, are founded on the
deepest conviction that "the righteous dead are still alive in a very real
sense. " 38 That the Lives was clearly read and transmitted in this spirit can
36
Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) is the inescapable starting-point
for modern study of the subject. (The quotation is from p. 1 of that book.) Beside
the classic studies of Lucius and Delehaye, see Kotting, Der friihchristliche
Reliquienkult und die Bestattung im Kirchengebiiude (1965) and the references
below, nn. 46~7.
3?
Quoted in Brown, The Cult of the Saints ( 1981) 4.
38
Hare, "Lives of the Prophets" (1985) 383 who then compares,
unconvincingly, "the early Christian belief that the righteous dead are
transported to a place of blessedness before the final resurrection". The

112

CHAPIER FOUR

be further adduced from a number of actualizing additions to the notices

concerning the burial sites of the prophets in the various recensions. 39 Most
telling of all, however, is the continuation of the above-cited passage from
the vita of Jeremiah:
We have heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged men, that
Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the prophet and
recognized his mysteries, transferred his remains to Alexandria, placing
them around in a circle with honor; and the race of asps was checked from
the land and so too the crocodiles from the river.

In the words of Marcel Simon, "Alexandre se comporte comme un eveque

de l'ancienne Eglise."40 No less importantly, Jeremiah (and his colleagues
from the pages of the Lives) are understood to be the worthy recipients of
this honor and attention. Holy men in their lives, saints in their death.
One might argue, moreover, that there is an important sense in which a
text such as the Lives functioned to alleviate tensions inherent in the
emerging cult of the saints. As opposed to the proprietary interests
connected with the tombs of the righteous dead-interests which threatened
the unity of fourth and fifth century Christian communities4 1-the vitae of
the prophets afforded equal and open access to these holy men and their
graves. No bishop, no church, no see controlled entry to the shrines of the
prophets of the Lives. Much in the way that a burgeoning transportation of
relics brought holy men and their shrines to distant points in the Christian
world, the widespread transmission of the Lives circulated the prophets
through both the East and West. Indeed, one might argue that the vitae,
often detached from their previous literary context(s), were themselves
"relics" of both holy man and holy land, ready to be enshrined in a new
setting.
There is a fmal significance to this correspondence between the structure
and focus of the Lives of the Prophets and its Christian context of
transmission. We have, in fact, impressive evidence from a variety of fourth
century sources, Christian and non-Christian, that the veneration of the dead
and their graves was a novurn in the world of Late Antiquity. Thus,
commitment to a first century date for the Lives prohibits Hare from exploring
the implications of his own observation that the work "throws indirect light on
the Christian practice of veneration of the saints" (384).
39
See Micah [Ep 1 ] (18.5-6): "And his grave is well-known to this very
day"; Zechariah [Dor] (36.7-11) with which the tradition in Sozomenus Historia
Ecclesiastica 9, 17 should be compared.
40
Simon, "Alexandre le Grand, juif et chretien" (1962) 136. Note there the
subsequent reflection of this tradition in early seventh century Christian
literature (John Moschus and Sophronius).
41
See Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 31-36.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

113

Eusebius takes note of the derision directed towards the emperor

Constantine in the wake of the construction of the sacred tomb par
excellence, the Holy Sepulchre:
But those who in the blindness of their souls are ignorant of matters divine
hold the deed a joke and frankly ridiculous, believing that for so great a
sovereign to bother himself with memorials to human corpses and tombs is
unfitting and demeaning.42

It was the rapid multiplication of such holy graves that aroused the ire of
pagan critics. Julian the apostate indicts the Christians directly for the
profusion of this monstrous novelty: "You keep adding many corpses
newly dead to the corpse of long ago. You have filled the whole world with
tombs and sepulchres."43 Similar accusations are raised by Eunapius of

Sardis:
For they collected the bones and skulls of criminals who had been put to
death for numerous crimes, men whom the law courts of the city had
condemned to punishment, made them out to be gods, haunted their
sepulchres, and thought that they became better by defiling themselves at
their graves.44

It was a revolution of major proportions as "the pagan found himself in a

world where his familiar map of the relations between the human and the
divine, the dead and the living, had been subtly redrawn."45
Despite widespread recognition of this emergent Christian attitude toward
the righteous dead and their tombs as something new and largely unheralded
in the world of Late Antiquity, there has been much scrambling after
origins and forerunners. A prolonged and ultimately disappointing series of
attempts ensued to find the necessary background within a pagan
framework, principally in the ancient cult of heroes. 46 This has given way
increasingly to a search for the Jewish origins of a range of related Christian
practices: cults of martyrs and saints, veneration of graves, and
pilgrimage. 47 There are a number of reasons to be wary of this line of
42 Laus Constantini 11.3; ed Heikel [GCS 7] 224; trans. in Drake, In Praise
of Constantine (1975) 103.
43
Contra Galilaeos 335C.
44
Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists 472; tr. Wright [LCL] 425.
45 Brown, The Cult of the Saints (1981) 5.
46
Klauser, "Christlicher Miirtyrerkult, heidnischer Heroenkult und
spatjUdische Heiligenverehrung. Neue Einsichten und neue Probleme" (1974) is
a forceful critique of this position; note, however, the qualifying addendum (p.
29) to his original article. For a balanced overview of patristic attitudes, see Van
den Broek, "Popular Religious Practices and Ecclesiastical Policies" (1979).
47 See above, p. 24, nn. 70-71.

114

CHAPTER FOUR

approach, not the least of which is the acknowledgment on the part of early
Christians themselves of the enormous remove dividing their practices from
those of traditional Judaism. This is given straightforward expression in the
Didascalia, (late?) third century church legislation of Syrian provenance:
Indeed, in the second legislation, if one touches a dead man or a tomb, he
must be bathed. You, however, according to the gospel and according to the
power of the Holy Spirit, shall be assembled even in the cemeteries, and
read the holy Scriptures, and without observance complete your services
and your intercessions to God; and offer an acceptable eucharist, the
likeness of the body of the kingdom of Christ, in your congregations and
in your cemeteries and on the departures of them that sleep among you ....48

It was not only the pagan world, clearly, that was shocked by such forms of
worship. We are confronted by a "fundamental difference of ideas," a
"difference between Christian and Jewish sensibilities. The new Christian
attitude toward the dead and their relics marked a break in previous religious
life."49 In the words of Jerome: ludaeorum luctus Christianorum gaudium
est-there is no better expression of this new mood, and the extreme selfconsciousness which accompanied it. 50 Nevertheless, it has become
something of a commonplace to find the sources of these attitudes and
48
Didascalia Apostolorum 26; ed. Voobus [CSCO 407] 261; Eng. tr.
[CSCO 408] 243-244.
49
Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (1987) 447-448. Similarly, Taylor,
Christians and the Holy Places (1993) 331: "Christian pilgrimage to holy
places was a radical innovation, a combination of an ancient story set in one
particular landscape and the newly Christianized veneration of sites and things.
It fused/together diverse elements found in Jewish and Samaritan tradition with
pa~an<piety, and became something more significant than the sum of its parts."
0
Jerome, Epist. 60.6; ed. Hilberg [CSEL 54] 555. A telling illustration of
this divergence in attitudes is the reaction of the Jewish doctor to the cult of St.
Martin: "Martin will do you no good, whom the earth now rests, turning him to
earth .... A dead man can give no healing to the living"; cited by Brown, The
Cult of the Saints (1981) 4. For the antiquity of this attitude, see Ps-Philo,
Biblical Antiquities 33:4-5 and 4 Ezra 7:102-115. See too the pointed remarks
in John Chrysostom, Hom. adv. Judaizantes 8.7; PG 48.937): "Therefore, when
you see God punishing you, don't flee to your enemies the Jews only to provoke
God; go to his friends the martyrs, the holy ones who are pleasing to him and
who approach him with great confidence"; trans. by Meeks and Wilken, Jews
and Christians in Antioch (1978) 118. Simon, Verus Israel (1986) 367: "To go
to the martyrs meant perhaps to send up prayers to them. It also meant, more
specifically, to visit their tombs and to touch their relics." An intersting
example of religious competition in this sphere (within the Antiochene
context) is the veneration of the relics of the Maccabean martyrs; for diverging
interpretations of the evidence, see Bickerman, "Les Maccabees de Malalas"
(1951); Lightstone, Society, the Sacred, and Scripture (1988) 29-35; Cohen,
"Pagan and Christian Evidence on the Ancient Synagogue" (1987) 168-169.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

115

practices concerning the righteous dead in elements "unorthodox and

unofficial" of early Judaism. This improbable venture, together with the
concomitant role assigned the Lives of the Prophets, have had significant
implications for a central problem in the study of the history of religion.
The last generation has seen much animated discussion regarding the
nature, status, indeed, the very existence of the entity known as "popular
religion." The question is an offshoot of a wide-ranging and noisy debate
among students of medieval and early modem Europe concerning the
possible role of a distinctive popular piety which existed in constant
tension with (or opposition to) the faith of a social and religious elite. 5 1 It
would be fair to say that despite a healthy measure of disagreement, a
majority of historians of society and religion are now far more cautious in
their use of the term and many have renounced it altogether. The debate
continues among students of Late Antiquity as well, and an acknowledged
master of ancient historiography pronounced clearly in this regard:
Thus my inquest into popular religious beliefs in the late Roman historians
ends in reporting that there were no such beliefs. In the fourth and fifth
centuries there were of course plenty of beliefs which we historians of the
twentieth century would gladly call popular, but the historians of the fourth
and fifth centuries never treated any belief as characteristic of the masses
and consequently discredited among the elite. Lectures on popular reli~ious
beliefs and the late Roman historians should be severely discouraged. 5

It has been argued with equal force that to attempt to explain those very
aspects and attitudes of the early Byzantine world which have featured
prominently in our own discussion-the rise of the holy man and the cult
of the saints-as a result of the sudden resurgence of a popular piety is
simply to perpetuate a worn-out and inadequate model, a "two-tier" theory
of religion. 53
Yet the anxious desire to read the Lives of the Prophets as essential
background to the veneration of the tombs of the saints in the early Church
entails an exposure to just this methodological pitfall. As noted in the
second chapter, the insistent location of the work within the context of first
51
Some landmarks: Davis, "Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of
Popular Religion" (1974); Christian, Person and God in a Spanish Valley
(1972) and Local Religion in Sixteenth Century Spain (1981); Ginzburg, The
Cheese and the Worms (1987; 1976) xiii-xxvi; and Larner, Witchcraft and
Religion. The Politics of Popular Belief (1985).
52
Momigliano, "Popular Religious Beliefs and Late Roman Historians"
(1971) 18. Cf. Patlagean, "Ancient Byzantine Hagiography and Social History"
(1983).
53
Brown, "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man" (1971) 81-82; idem,
The Cult of the Saints (1981) 12-22. For perceptive criticism of Brown's own
model, see Murray, "Peter Brown and the Shadow of Constantine" (1983) 201.

116

CHAP1ER FOUR

century Judaism was achieved at a very real cost. It meant reading the
document without the necessary attendant evidence-no other pre-Christian
text from the period demonstrates even a remotely sustained interest in the
tombs of the prophets and their role as intercessors-as well as in the face
of much contrary evidence (or profound silence) from rabbinic sources. The
price to be paid for this reading of the work was yet another encounter with
a resolute form of the two-tier model, as the Lives became a repository of
the Volksreligion of the late Second Temple period:
For example, it is clear that veneration of tombs of departed saints was an
important element in first century Judaism. Yet the documents of what one
might call official religion are strangely silent on this matter.
One of the most well-attested elements of folk religion in Palestine in this
period, and indeed to the present, is the veneration of the tombs of holy
men. There is little room in ancient orthodoxy or orthopraxis to allow for
this, but its presence is well documented, though our sources are late, with
one notable exception. The 'Lives of the Prophets' is a first century BCE or
CE compilation ....54

At the. precise moment that historians of society and religion in Late

Antiquity were ridding themselves of a persistent and misleading paradigm,
students of early Judaism and Christianity were engaged in a renewal of the
covenant. Ironically, the chief, virtually sole, support for the early dating of
the Lives remains the saying of Jesus (Mt 23:29-30; Lk 11:48~9) directed
not against the people of Judea but against their leaders (Scribes, Pharisees,
lawyers~surely a curious place to begin (and end) one's search for vestiges
of popular religion.55
54
Meyers and Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity
(1981) 162 and Strange, "Archaeology and the Religion of Judaism in
Palestine" (1979) 667-668. The source and support for these statements is, not
surprisingly, Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958). For the "hidden" agenda of
Jeremias' monograph, see the concluding appendix (144-145) on the
Constantinian discovery of the site of the holy sepulchre: "Aber ist es denkbar,
so wird gelegentlich gefragt, dass die Urgemeinde die Erinnerung an Jesu Grab
pflegte? Waren ihre Gedanken nicht so vollstiindig auf die Wiederkunft Jesu
ausgerichtet, dass ihr solche geschichtlichen Reminiszenzen vollig fernliegen
mussten? ... Diese Welt der heiligen Graber war ein realer Bestandteil der
Umwelt, in der Urgemeinde lebte. Es ist undenkbar, dass sie, in dieser Welt
lebend, das Grab Jesu der Vergessenheit anheimgegeben haben sollte."
Kretschmar, "Festkalender und Memorialstiitten Jerusalems in altkirchlicher
Zeit" (1987) esp. 68-77 presents a more elaborate (and nuanced) exposition of
this viewpoint. For powerful critiques of this position, see Rordorf, "Wie steht
es urn den jiidischen Einfluss auf den christlichen Miirtyrerkult" (1990) and
Ta~lor, Christians and the Holy Places (1993).
5
Jeremias, Heiligengriiber (1958) 141-142 attempts to sidestep the
difficulty.

CON1EXT, GENRE, AND MEANING

117

An alternative, as we have seen, exists. Read in context-the early

Byzantine context of redaction, reception, and transmission-the Lives is
no longer evidence for an exclusively popular piety or elements of a folk
religion; the work emerges, rather, as an expression of an encompassing
religious and cultural outlook. If the composition often appears "popular"
in tone or style-marked by neither rhetorical eloquence nor theological
subtlety nor philological acumen-all the more remarkable is its coherence
with the attitudes and concerns uniting men such as Eusebius and Jerome,
Athanasius and Theodoret. A unique composition in many respects, the
Lives of the Prophets, nevertheless, succeeds in giving expression to "the
network of obsessions of a whole society, of an age. "56

56
The phrase is that of J. Le Goff as cited by R. J. Z. Werblowsky in
Numen 33 (1986) 249.

CONCLUSION
This study has examined the earliest documented form of the Lives of the
Prophets-the sixth (or seventh) century Greek text found in the Codex
Marchalianus (Q). Investigation of the types of material comprised by the
text-birth and burial traditions; legendary narrative; and eschatological
prophecy-have led to a number of related conclusions. First, many of the
details and much of the basic orientation of the Lives stands in sharp
contrast to what we know of Judaism of the Second Temple and rabbinic
periods. Second, the Lives exhibits rich evidence of having undergone a
complex and thoroughgoing process of redaction: whatever measure of preexisting legend and tradition may have been incorporated in the resultant
work, it is now enormously difficult, perhaps impossible, to recover those
materials in their earlier form. Third, a final, crucial stage in the redaction
of the geographical and narrative material, which forms the overwhelming
bulk of the work, can be shown to have taken place no earlier than the
fourth or fifth centuries of the common era and within a clearly Christian
context. This close conjunction between the earliest verifiable context of
the work's transmission (seventh century) and the presumedly final stage of
redaction (fifth century) dictates the cogency of examining the structure and
meaning of the Lives within the framework of early Byzantine Christianity.
Consequently, I have argued that the Lives of the Prophets not only can
but must be appreciated as a Christian document. Despite a century of
scholarly consensus, the work should not be naively introduced as evidence
fo! a wide range of Jewish attitudes from the Second Temple period. The
Lives is a demonstrably Christian composition in its present form(s),
having enjoyed a long and variegated career within both the Eastern and
Western Churches; by contrast, no form of the work can be proven to have
existed in a pre-Christian Jewish context. No less significantly, the Lives
has been shown to have borne distinctive cultural and religious meaning
within an early Byzantine setting. Any attempt to wrench specific details or
traditions from this established context simply embraces the unknown and
squanders "the advantages of studying the embedded text. " 1

Osborne, Rethinking Early Greek Philosophy. Hippolytus of Rome and

the Presocratics (1987) provides the phrase; now, on the same problematic, see
Mansfeld, Heresiography in Context: Hippolytus' Elenchos as a Source for
Greek Philosophy (1992).

CONCLUSION

119

This reassessment clearly sets the Lives in the ill-charted border zone
between Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity. This composition, like
many others preserved and transmitted by the early Church, deals with
scriptural detail and legend in a manner not essentially different from the
interpretative stances found in contemporary Jewish sources: there is no
obvious attempt, for example, to read either the person of Jesus or other
aspects of distinctively Christian doctrine into the text of the Lives. We
find ourselves confronted by an amalgam of traditions and exegesis-some
of whose origins may lie in the period of the Second Temple-which can
reasonably claim to be both Jewish and Christian. The effect should be to
force us to reexamine a number of our most basic assumptions regarding
the distinct nature of religious identities.2 A series of questions naturally
follows. To what extent could the characters and events of the Hebrew Bible
provide a sufficiently expansive arena for a Byzantine Christian
author/redactor and his audience? Under what conditions, and with what
consequences, could the emerging Christian culture accommodate its Jewish
literary heritage? These questions inevitably lead to a central quandary raised
at the very outset of our study: "Were the motives at work in the
transmission and preservation of such materials sufficient to cause the
actual composition and/or construction of some of the materials
themselves?"3
Indeed, it has proven necessary to dig both deeply and carefully in order
to detect the specifically Christian aspects of the document. One must read
all such materials which have passed through the filter of non-Jewish
transmission with a heightened sensitivity to their more subtle reflections
of Christian thought or practice. It may often be no more than an aberrant
phrase or a lexical incongruity that alerts us to the possibility of an
unsuspected significance, in turn demanding a correspondingly altered
historical and religious context. The description ofNebuchadnezzar's bestial
metamorphosis embedded within the vita of Daniel, discussed above at
2
On the difficulties encountered (and sensitivity required) in addressing
such issues, see De Jonge, "The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Christian
and Jewish" (1985) and Kraemer, "Jewish Tuna and Christian Fish: Identifying
Religious Affiliation in Epigraphic Sources" (1991). For a discussion of
Judaism and Christianity as a "tyranny of categories" in a very different setting,
see Kaplan, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia (1992) 156-166.
3
Kraft, "Reassessing the 'Recensional Problem' in Testament of
Abraham" (1976) 135. These question are, in fact, deeply subversive to the
traditional, distinct categorization of Old Testament ("Jewish") and New
Testament ("Christian") Pseudepigrapha. On this problematic and some new
directions, see Bovon, "Vers une nouvelle edition de Ia litterature apocryphe
chretienne" (1983); Junod, "Apocryphes du NT ou Apocryphes chretiens
anciens" (1983); Dubois, "The New Series Apocryphorum of the Corpus
Christianorum" (1984).

120

CONCLUSION

some length, serves as an example of the process. The existence of a single,

disconcerting detail-the "soaked lentils" of the Babylonian king's dietcompels the reader to examine the narrative afresh. The perception of this
initial incongruity is enhanced by a concatenation of additional features: a
symbolic description of the character of the tyrant; a pervasive emphasis on
the efficacy of penitence; fmally, the attitude and actions of Daniel himself.
The seemingly unexceptional, neutral character of the central narrative in
the vita of Daniel (with neither Christological nor trinitarian overtones
which might be expected to alert the reader) clearly forces us to reassess the
standards by which we judge a document either Jewish or Christian.
No less important than the identification of any single element in the
text as "Christian" or the product of Christian transmission is the
recognition that the Lives as it stands is in the fullest sense a text of early
Byzantine Christianity. The very act of redaction is equally an act of
"composition," i.e. the creation of a new literary entity with a meaning and
function proper to its new historical framework. I have tried to show,
consequently, that the constellation of motifs and concerns which lie at the
very core of the Lives-holy man, scriptural geography, and sacred tombmust be appreciated initially within an early Byzantine cultural and
religious context. The text is, therefore, far more than the sum of its parts:
even if it could be proven to consist entirely of earlier Jewish tradition, the
Lives of the Prophets is in every respect a new composition.
The Lives allows us a brief glimpse into a little appreciated yet highly
significant manner in which. Christianity, in its formative period, chose to
deal with its biblical heritage. Can this perceived continuity between
ancient Judaism and Christianity, the ability of the early Church to adopt
and adapt scriptural motifs, often tacitly, be in effect one of the strongest
statements of an emergent Christian hegemony? It is widely held that
Rabbinic "silence" concerning Christianity contrasts sharply with the
surfeit of anti-Jewish polemic produced in the early church. Perhaps it
might better be compared with the equally silent appropriation of the
biblical heritage which came to the fore in the early centuries of the
Byzantine period. There exists, in fact, a curious correlation in this period
between the literary reality-transmission, redaction and resultant
appropriation of biblical and early Jewish writings by the early Churchand the (often implicit) ideological motivation of Christianity: the religious
and cultural adoption of the Scriptures, history, and status of "Israel". The
compound identity of the Lives of the Prophets corresponds precisely with
this blurring of the distinction between Jewish past and Christian present.
The encounter with the text leaves us with the paradox that a work which
appears most indubitably Jewish can, in fact, be most deeply Christian.

APPENDIX

THE LIVES OF THE PROPHETS

(according to the text of Codex Marchalianusr

The names of the prophets and where they come from,

and where they died and how and where they are buried
(1) Isaiah, of Jerusalem, died after he was sawn in two by Manasseh and

was buried beneath the oak of Rogel, near the conduit of the waters which
Hezekiah destroyed by blocking them. And God made the sign of the
Siloam (Shiloah) for the prophet since, when he was faint before his death,
he prayed for water to drink and straightway it was sent to him from there;
thus, it was called Siloam (Shiloah), which means sent. And in the time of
Hezekiah, before he made the cisterns and the pools, through the prayer of
Isaiah a little water came out in order that the city not perish for lack of
water, for the people were held in siege by foreigners. The enemies asked:
"Where are they drinking from?" And they encamped by the Shiloah while
holding the city (under siege). If the Jews came, the water came out; if the
foreigners came, it did not. Therefore, to this day (the water) comes out
suddenly in order that the mystery might be exhibited. And since this
happened through Isaiah, the people also buried him nearby carefully and
with great honor as a memorial, so that even after his death they might
have the benefit of the water in similar fashion through his prayers, for an
oracle was given to them in this regard.
The tomb is near the tomb of the kings, behind the tomb of the priests,
on the southern portion. Solomon made the tombs, which were drawn up
by David, to the east of Zion, which has an entrance from Gabaon twenty
stadia removed from the city. And he made a winding structure, not to be
discerned; and to this day it is unknown to many of the <entire> people.
There the king kept the gold from Ethiopia and the spices. And since

This translation attempts to provide a straightforward, fairly literal

rendering of the text of Codex Q. Material in parentheses () has been added for
explanatory purposes (e.g., alternative names of biblical sites) or in order to
facilitate translation into English. Material in arrow brackets <> indicate those
readings of Q which are particularly difficult or, perhaps, impossible. Words in
square brackets [) are provided on the basis of other witness to the Anonymous
recension where succor is desirable or, even, required.

122

APPENDIX

Hezekiah showed the nations the mystery of David and Solomon and defiled
the bones <of the site> of his fathers, on account of this God swore that his
offspring would be in servitude to his enemies and made him sterile from
that day.
(2) Jeremiah was from Anathoth, and he died in Tahpanhes (Daphne) in
Egypt when he was stoned by the people. He is buried in the area of the
residence of Pharaoh, since the Egyptians honored him, having benefited
through him. For he prayed, and the asps and the beasts of the waters,
which the Egyptians call 'Nephoth' and the Greeks crocodiles, departed from
them. And all those who are believers in God pray to this day in the place
and taking the soil of the place they heal the bites of asps. And many
banish these very wild animals and those (creatures) of the water.
We have heard from the sons of Antigonos and Ptolemaios, aged men,
that Alexander the Macedonian, after he stood at the place of the prophet and
recognized his mysteries, transfen;ed his remains to Alexandria, placing
them around in a circle with honor~ and the race of asps was checked from
the land and so too the crocodiles from the river. He introduced, likewise,
the snakes called Argolai', i.e. snake-fighters, which he brought from
Argos of the Peloponnesus, whence they are called 'Argolai'. which means
fortunate ones of Argos, for they call everything auspicious 'laia'.
This Jeremiah gave a sign to the priests of Egypt, that their idols must
be shaken and collapse [by means of a savior born of a virgin in a m~
Therefore to this very day they reverence a virgin giving birth and worship
an infant placing him in a manger. And when Ptolemy the king asked the
reason (for this) they said, "This is an ancestral mystery transmitted to our
fathers by a holy prophet, and we are to await, he says, the fulfillment of
this mystery."
This prophet seized the ark of the Law and the things in it, prior to the
destruction of the Temple, and caused them to be ..s.w~up in a rock
and said to those present: "The Lord has departed from Zion to heaven and
will come again in power. And it will be a sign for you of his coming,
when all the nations will prostrate themselves before wood." And he said
that no one would remove this ark, save Aaron, and none of the priests or
prophets will open the tablets within it any longer, save Moses, the chosen
of God. And in the resurrection, first the ark will be resurrected and will
come out of the rock and will be placed on mount Sinai, and all the saints
will be gathered to it there, awaiting the Lord and fleeing the enemy who
desires to destroy them. He set with his finger the name of God (as) a seal
in the rock and the impression became like a mold of iron, and a cloud
covered the name, and no one knows the place nor (is able) to read it to this
day and until the end. And the rock is in the wilderness, where the ark first

1HE UVES OF1HE PROPHETS

123

was, between the two mountains on which Moses and Aaron lie buried.
And at night there is a cloud like fire according to the ancient model, for the
glory of God will never cease from his Law. And God gave grace to
Jeremiah in order that he might perform the fulfillment of his mystery so
that he might become a partner with Moses, and they are together to this
day.
(3) Ezekiel. He is from the land of Arira, of the priests, and he died in the
land of the Chaldeans during the captivity, when he had prophesied many
things to those in Judea. The leader of the people of Israel there killed him,
when he was rebuked by him for worshipping idols. And they buried him in
the field of Maour in the tomb of Shem and Arpachshad, ancestors of
Abraham. And the tomb is a double cavern, since Abraham also made the
tomb of Sarah in Hebron in its likeness. It is called double for it is twisted,
and an upper chamber is hidden from the ground floor and is suspended in
rock upon the ground.
This prophet gave an omen to the people so as to pay close attention to
the Chebar river: whenever it should fail, to expect the scythe of desolation
to the end of the earth; and when it should rise, the return to Jerusalem.
The holy man also resided there, and many would gather round him. And
once when a multitude was with him, the Chaldeans feared lest they should
revolt and they came to them to kill them. But he caused the water to stand
so that they might flee and arrive on the other side. And those of the
enemies who dared to pursue were drowned.
Through prayer, he provided them spontaneously with an abundant
supply of fish and appealed for a life to come from God for many who were
growing weak.
When the people were being destroyed by their enemies, he came to the
leaders, and through miracles, they ceased being fearful. He said this to
them: "Have we perished? Is our hope lost?" And by the omen of the bones
of the dead he persuaded them that there shall be hope for Israel both now
and in the future.
While he was there he showed the people of Israel the things taking
place in Jerusalem and in the Temple. He was snatched up from there and
came to Jerusalem to rebuke the unfaithful. He saw the pattern (of the
Temple) as did Moses, its wall and broad surrounding wall, even as Daniel
said it would be built.
He judged the tribe of Dan and Gad in Babylon because they acted
impiously towards the Lord by persecuting those who were keeping the
Law. He performed a great portent regarding them-that the snakes
consumed their children and all their cattl~d he predicted that because of
them the people would not return to their land, but shall be in Media until

124

APPENDIX

the completion of their error. And the one who murdered him was from
among them, for they opposed him all the days of his life.
(4) Daniel. He was from the tribe of Judah, of a family of those prominent
in the service of the king, but while still a child he was brought from Judah
to the land of the Chaldees. He was born in upper Beth-Horon and was a
chaste man, so that the Jews supposed he was a eunuch. He mourned
greatly over the city (Jerusalem) and disciplined himself by fasts from all
desirable food; he was a withered man in appearance but comely in the grace
of the Most High.
He prayed greatly on behalf of Nebuchadnezzar, after Baltasar, his son,
summoned him, when he became a wild animal and a beast, in order that he
might not perish. His upper half, as well as his head, were like an ox; his
feet together with his lower half were like a lion. It was revealed to the holy
man concerning this mystery, that Nebuchadnezzar had become a beast as a
result of his love of pleasure and stiff-neckedness, and that those who
belong to Beliar are like an ox under yoke. Rulers have (these qualities) in
their youth; finally, they become wild animals-snatching, destroying,
killing, and smiting.
The holy man knew, through God, that Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like an
ox, and it became food of a human sort. On account of this even
Nebuchadnezzar, taking on a human heart following digestion, wept and
implored the Lord, praying every day and night forty times. Behemoth
would come upon him and make him forget that he had been a man; his
tongue became fixed, unable to speak, and at once realizing this he cried;
his eyes were like (raw) flesh from weeping. Many were going out of the
city and observed him. Daniel alone did not desire to see him, for he was in
prayer on his behalf during the entire period of his transformation. He said
that Nebuchadnezzar would again become a man, but they did not believe
him.
Daniel caused the seven years, which he called 'seven seasons,' to
become seven months. The mystery of the 'seven seasons' was fulfilled in
his regard, since he was restored in seven months (and) during six years and
<six> [five] months he fell down before the Lord and confessed his impiety,
and after the forgiveness of his sin He returned the kingdom to him. While
making confession Nebuchadnezzar neither ate bread or meat nor drank
wine, since Daniel had enjoined him to appease the Lord by (eating) soaked
pulse and herbs. On account of this Nebuchadnezzar called him (Daniel)
Baltasar, since he desired to appoint him heir alongside his own children.
But the holy man said: "Far be it from me to forsake the inheritance of my
fathers and to cleave to the inheritance of the uncircumcised." And he
performed many miracles for the other kings of the Persians, which they

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125

have not recorded. He died there and was buried in the royal sepulchre alone
with great honor.
And he gave an omen concerning the mountains which are above
Babylon: when the mountain on the north will smoke, the end of Babylon
will approach; and when it burns with fire, the end of all the earth. And if
the (mountain) on the south will pour forth water, the people will return to
its land, and if it will pour forth blood, BeHar's slaughter will be on all the
earth. And the holy man rested in peace.
(5) Hosea. He was from Belemoth, of the tribe of Issachar, and was buried
in his own land in peace. And he gave an omen that the Lord would arrive
upon the earth if the oak in Shiloh were to be splintered from itself and to
become twelve oaks.
(6) Micah the Morathite was of the tribe of Ephraim. After he did many
things to Achab, he was killed by Joram his son at a precipice, because he
rebuked him for the impieties of his fathers. And he was buried alone in his
land near the burial ground of the Anakim.
(7) Amos was from Tekoah. And after Amaziah had beaten him often, his
son at last killed him by pummeling his temple with a club. And he went,
still breathing, to his land and some days later he died and was buried there.
(8) Joel was from the land of Reuben in the field of Bethomoron. He died in
peace and was buried there.
(9) Obadiah was from the land of Shechem of the field of Bethacharam. He.
was a disciple of Elijah and he survived, having endured much because of
him. He was the third captain of fifty men whom Elijah spared and (with
whom) he went down to Ahaziah. Later, having left the service of the king,
he prophesied and died and was buried with his fathers.
(10) Jonah was from the land of Karithmous near Azotos (Gaza), the city of
the Greeks, by the sea. After he was cast ashore out of the sea monster and
went to Nineveh and returned, he did not remain in his own land, but taking
his mother as well he dwelled in Sour, a region of foreign nations. For he
said: "Thus I will remove my disgrace, for I spoke falsely when I
prophesied against Nineveh, the great city." At that time, Elijah was
rebuking the house of Achab and, after he invoked famine on the land, he
fled. And he came and found the widow with her son [Jonah], for he could
not remain among the uncircumcised, and he blessed her. And when her son
[Jonah] died, God awakened him again from the dead through Elijah, for He

126

APPENDIX

desired to show him that he is unable to run from God. And he arose after
the famine and went to the land of Judah. And when his mother died along
the way, he buried her near the oak of Deborah. And after he dwelt iil the
land of Saraar, he died and was buried in the cave of Kenez, who had been
judge of one tribe in the days of disorder. And he gave an omen concerning
Jerusalem and the whole land, that when they should see a stone calling out
pitifully, the end is near; and when they see all the nations in Jerusalem,
then the entire city will be destroyed to its foundations.
(11) Nahum was from Elkesi, on the other side of Isbegabarin, of the tribe
of Simeon. After (the time of) Jonah this man gave an omen to Nineveh
that it would be destroyed by fresh water and subterranean fire-and this
came about. The surrounding lake flooded it at the time of an earthquake and
fue out of the desert scorched its upper part. He died in peace and was buried
in his land.
(12) Habakkuk was from the tribe of Simeon out of the field of BethZouxar. He foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem, prior to the captivity, and
mourned exceedingly. When Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, he fled to
Ostrakine and dwelt in the land of Ishmael. When the Chaldeans retired, and
those who remained in Jerusalem (went down) to Egypt, he dwelt in his
own land and ministered to the reapers of his field. As he took up the food,
he prophesied to his family saying: "I am going to a distant land and will
return swiftly; if I delay, carry out (the food) to the reapers." And after he
had been in Babylon and had given the meal to Daniel, he stood beside the
reapers as they ate and spoke with no one of what had happened. And he
understood that the people would return yet more swiftly from Babylon.
And he died two years before the return and was buried alone in his own
field.
He gave an omen to those in Judea that they would see a light in the
Temple, and thus they would perceive the glory of the Temple. And
concerning the end of the Temple, he foretold that it would be accomplished
by a western nation. Then, he said, the 'Dabeir' (veil of the inner sanctuary)
will be rent to pieces, and the capitals of the two columns will be carried
off, and no one will know where they are; they will be taken away by
angels into the wilderness, where in the beginning the Tent of Witness was
pitched. And through them the Lord will be known at the end, for they will
enlighten those pursued by the serpent in darlrness as from the beginning.
(13) Zephaniah was of the tribe of Simeon, from the field of Sabaratha. He
prophesied concerning the city and concerning the end of the nations and the
shame of the unrighteous. And when he died he was buried in his field

1HE UVES OFTiffi PROPHETS

127

(14) Haggai, who is also messenger/angel, came from Babylon to Jerusalem

perhaps as a youth and prophesied explicitly concerning the return of the
people and saw, in part, the construction of the Temple. And when he died,
he was buried near the tomb of the prophets, with honor, as they were.
(15) Zechariah came from (the land of) the Chaldeans already advanced in
years and there he prophesied many things to the people and gave omens as
proof. He said to Jozadak that he would beget a son and that he would serve
as a priest in Jerusalem. He blessed Salathiel (Shealtiel) on (the birth of)
his son and bestowed upon him the name Zerubbabel. And concerning
Cyrus he gave an omen of victory and foretold the service which he would
perform for Jerusalem and blessed him greatly. He saw in Jerusalem the
things of his prophecy <and> concerning the end of the nations and of Israel
and of the Temple and (concerning) the laziness of the prophets and priests,
and he discoursed concerning the dual judgement. And he died at an advanced
age and when he passed away he was buried near Haggai.
(16) Malachi. He was born in Sopha after the return and, while still very
young, he led a beautiful life. And since the entire people honored him as
holy and gentle, they called him Malachi, which means messenger/angel,
for he was also pleasant to behold. And whatever he said in prophecy, on
that very day an angel of the Lord appeared and repeated (it), as happened in
the days of disorder, as has been recorded in 'Spharphotim', that is in the
book of Judges. And while still a youth he was added to his fathers in his
field.
(17) Nathan, the prophet of David, was from Gaba, and he was the one who
taught him the law of the Lord; and he saw that David would sin in (the
matter of) Bathsheba, and while he was making haste to go and warn him,
Beliar hindered him, for by the road he found the corpse of a murdered man
lying naked. And he remained there, and that night he knew that (David) had
performed the transgression. And he turned back weeping, and when (David)
killed her husband, the Lord sent (Nathan) to rebuke him. And when he had
grown exceedingly old he died and was buried in his land.
(18) Ahijah was from Shiloh, where the tabernacle was of old, from the city
of Eli. He said regarding Solomon that he would offend the Lord. And he
rebuked Jereboam, for he would walk treachorously with the Lord. He saw a
yoke of oxen trampling the people and running over the priests. And he
foretold to Solomon that his wives would displace him and all his race. And
he died and was buried near the oak of Shiloh.

128

APPENDIX

(19) Joad was from Samareim. He is the one whom the lion attacked and he
died when he rebuked Jereboam concerning the calves. And he was buried in
Bethel near the false prophet who had deceived him.
(20) Azariah was from the land of Subatha. He tUrned back from Israel the
captivity of Judah. And when he died he was buried in his land.
(21) Elijah, a Thesbite, was from the land of the Arabs, of the tribe of
Aaron, dwelling in Gilead, since Thesbis (Tishbe) was alloted for the
priests.When he was about to be born, his father Sobacha saw that men of
shining appearance addressed him, and swathed him in fire, and and gave
him flames of fire to consume; and going (out), he reported (this) in
Jerusalem, and the oracle said to him: "Do not fear, for his dwelling will be
light and his word (will be) an oracle and he will judge Israel.*
(22) Elisha was from Abelmaoul (Abel-Meholah) of the land of Reuben.
And an omen took place regarding this (man), for when he was born in
Galgal the golden calf bellowed sharply, so as to be heard in Jerusalem. And
the priest said, by means of the Urim, that a prophet had been born (to)
Israel who would destroy their graven images and molten idols. And when
he died, he was buried in Samaria.
(23) Zechariah was from Jerusalem, son of Jehoiada the priest, and Joash
the king of Judah killed him by the altar; and the house of David poured out
his blood in the middle (or: in public) near the porch, and seizing him the
priests buried him with his father. From that time there were apparitions in
the Temple, and the priests were no longer able to see a vision of the angels
of God nor to give oracles from the inner sanctuary, nor to inquire by the
Ephod, nor to give answer to the people by means of the Urim as formerly.

And other prophets were hidden,

whose names are contained in their genealogies
according to the books of the names of Israel.
For the whole race of Israel was inscribed by name.

The vitae of Elijah and Elisha are given in the compact form common to
other representatives of the Anonymous recension and to the other Greek
recensions. Codex Marchalianus alone contains additional material in both
vitae wliich begins: "The signs which he performed ... ". On this problem, see
above, p. 51, n. 33.

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Zeitlin, S., "Jewish Apocryphal Literature," Jewish Quarterly Review 40
(1949/50) 223-250.
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Christiana Periodica 41 (1975) 76-118.

BffiLICAL AND APOCRYPHAL LllERATIJRE

Numbers in parentheses indicate footnotes.
Ezekiel
8:16 (LXX)

HEBREW BIBLE
Genesis
3:18
37:29

86
45

Hosea
1:4-5
14:2

Judges
17:1

42

Joel
3:1-5 (LXX)
3:3-4

Joshua
13:17
19:17
1 Kings
11:20
11:29
13
17:1
18:3-16
19:16
22
22:8

44
44

34
41
34, 52
41
60
41
43
60

2 Kings
9:27
23:15-20
25:18-21

44
41
41

Isaiah
6:1
24-27

53
67

Jeremiah
1:1
26:18
27:11 (=LXX 34:11)
48:23
52:24-27

40
40, 42
83
44
41

54 (41)

44
45
66 (75)
67

Amos
1:1

40

Micah
1:1

40, 42

Nahum
1:1

41

Habakkuk
2:11 (LXX)

67 (78)

Zechariah
1:1
5:1-3 (LXX)
9-14

25
67 (78)
67

Daniel
96 (56)
1:7
1:12. 16
90
4
80-82, 86-88, 92-93, 96
4:8
96 (56)
4:22
82, 85
4:29-30
82, 85
5:1
96 (56)
10:2-3
79, 90

BffiLICAL AND APOCRYPHAL Ll1ERATURE

146
1 Chronicles
5:3-8
2 Chronicles
14:9ff
15:1
15: 1-8
24:20-22
28:9-15

45
42
34, 42 (10)
41
25, 34, 52, 53 (37)
42 (10)

NEW TESTAMENT
Matthew
23:29-35

23-25, 48, 116-117

Mark
13

66 (76)

Luke
11:47-51 23-25, 48, 54,116-117
John
9:7

Ben Sira
44-49

58 (52), 62, 98

4Ezra
4:52-5:13
6:17-28
7:102-115
8:63-9:8

66
66
114
66

(76)
(76)
(50)
(76)

Life of Adam and Eve

37-39

86 (19)

1 Maccabees
2:51-60
6:23

98 (3)
49 (29)

2 Maccabees
2:4-8
15:12-16

61 (65)
58

4 Maccabees
18:11-13

98 (3)

54

Acts
2:17-21
7:52

66 (75)
26

Hebrews
11
11:36-37

Paraleipomena of Jeremiah
1:2
58
3:1-9
61 (65)
9:19-32
54
9:30
67 (78)

98 (3)
26, 54

Ps-Philo, Biblical Antiquities

33:4-5
114 (50)

Revelation
12

66 (76)

APOCRYPHA
Apocalypse of Paul
25
49

55-56
54 (42)

66 (76)

Ascension of Isaiah

5, 53 (37)

62, 101

66 (76)
66 (76)

Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch

2:1
58
6:5-9
61 (65)
Testament of Isaac

Apocalypse of Peter
5

Bel and the Dragon

33-39

Sibylline Oracles
2:154-213
3:796-808

5-6

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

3-5, 30, 75
Testament of Reuben
1:6-10
84 (13), 88 (25)
2:8-9
84

GENERAL INDEX
Numbers in parentheses indicate footnotes. Modern authors are noted only in
those instances where either they have been directly cited or their viewpoints
expressly discussed.
Abel, P.-M., 21-22
Abel-Meholah, 41
Actus Sylvestri, 92
Adam literature, 86
Agathangelos, 93-94
Ahab, 92
Ahijah
vita of, 35, 41, 50
Alexander the Great, 4, 112
Ambrose of Milan, 94-95
Amos
vita of, 27, 35, 38, 40, 50, 52-54,
60,72
Anathoth, 40
antiquarianism, 109
Antoninus Placentinus, 49 (29)
apocalyptic, 5, 66-67
Apostolic Constitutions, 4
asceticism, 6, 90-91
Arabia, 20 (54)
Aristotle, 85
Armenia, 93
Athanasius, 117
Augustine, 89 (28), 93
Avi-Yonah, M. H., 25
Azariah b. Oded, 41-42
vita of, 23, 35, 38, 41, 50
Barton, J., 62
Basil of Caesarea, 89 (28, 30)
Belial ( = Beliar), 83
Bernheimer, R., 17
Bethel, 41
Beth Guvrin, cf. Eleutheropolis

Beth-meon ( = Beth-baal-meon = Baalmeon), 44-45

Beth-Zechariah, 49 (29)
Beth-Zouxar, 49 (29)
biblical exegesis, 2-7, 106-110
in Lives of the Prophets, 40-46
patristic, 86-88
rabbinic, 45-46
Syriac, 3
biblical exemplars, 2-6, 103-105
biography, 98-100
birth and burial, 23, 35, 38-50, 72-73
Boethius, 83-84 (12)
Bordeaux pilgrim, 48, 53 (39), 106
Bokser, B., 58 (53)
Brown, P. 95-96, 111-113, 115 (53)
Byzantine chronicle tradition, 3
Byzantine Palestine, 48-49, 105-110
Charlesworth, J. H., 32 (101)
Christology, 5, 31 (98)
Chronicles of Yerahmeel, 15-16, 61
(64), 88 (26)
Chronicon Paschale, 10, 31
Cicero, 85
Codex Marchalianus (Q), 7-8, 10-11,
20, 30, 33, 35, 68-71, 78, 111,
118
Constantine, 91-92, 94, 105-106,
113
Cornelius of Jerusalem, 72
Cosmas lndicopleustes, 31 (98)
Cyril of Jerusalem, 87
Cyril of Scythopolis, 91

148

GENERAL INDEX

Daniel, 58, 60
vita of, 39, 51-52, 63, 67, 74 (88),
79-96, 101, 119-120
David, 92, 94
Delitzsch, F., 28, 58
Didascalia, 114
Dio Chrysostom, 85
Dolbeau, F., 29
Egeria, 48, 49 (29), 60 (63), 106, 109
(30)
Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin), 21 (55),
43, 49 (29)
Elijah, 5, 58, 104
vita of, 35 (2), 41, 50, 51 (33), 65
Elisha
vita of, 35 (2), 41, 50, 51 (33), 65
Elkosh, 41
emperor, 91-96
encomium, 98-99
Epiphanius of Salamis, 1. 72, 108
eschatological prophecy, 36, 63-68,
73-74
ethical theory, 4, 83-84
Eunapius of Sardis, 113
Eupolemus, 98
Eusebius, 43 (12), 48, 49 (29), 104109, 117
Onomasticon, 49 (30), 107-108
Ezekiel
vita of, 27, 36-37, 39-40, 51-54, 5758, 60, 63-64, 67 (78), 74 (88)
Ezra, 5
fasting, 6, 90-91
Festugiere, A.-J., 91
Fischel, H., 27
Flusser, D., 3
geography, 40, 105-110
Ginzberg, L., 48 (27), 61 (64)
Gregory "the Illuminator", 93-95
Gregory Thaumatourgos, 89 (30)

Habakkuk, 28, 49 (29), 101-102

vita of, 27, 36, 38-39, 49 (29), 51,
61-62, 64, 67, 67 (79), 74 (88), 79,
101-102
Haggai
vita of, 35, 39, 50, 52
hagiography, 99-105
Hall, 1., 21
Hamaker, H. A., 21
Hare, D. R. A., 20 (54), 22, 29, 96
(56), 111-112 (38)
Harvey, S. A., 99
Heinemann, 1., 46 (21)
Hellenistic Judaism, 4
Hezekiah, 92
Hippolytus, 88 (25)
History of the Monks of Egypt, 104-5
holy man, 95-96, 100-105
Holy Sepulchre, 106-107, 113, 116
(54)
Homeric exegesis, 83-84 (12)
Hosea
vita of, 35, 38-39, 44-46, 51-52, 64,
67, 67 (79), 70, 72. 74 (88)
Hypomnesticon, 108
intercession, 56-58, 88, 94-96, 102103
interpolation, 75-76
inventio, 109
Isaiah, 5, 47 (23), 48, 104
martyrdom of,
vita of, 27, 36-37, 39, 52-54, 56-57,
60, 102-103, 111
Isidore of Seville, 14, 31
Issachar, 44
Jesus, 59
Jeremiah, 58, 104
vita of, 19, 27, 36-37, 39-40, 51.
52-54, 57, 60, 65, 111
Jeremias, J., 18-19, 22-24, 41-42,
47, 59, 116-117 (54-55)
Jerome, 20 (54), 43 (12), 48, 53 (39),
60 (63), 99 (5), 114, 117

INDEX

Joad, 66
vita of, 35, 41, 50
Joel
vita of, 27, 35, 38-39, 44-45, 51-52,
68-69
John Chrysostom, 83 (11), 86-87,
89, 114 (50)
John Moschus, 91, 102 (40)
Jonah, 60
vita of, 51, 64, 67 (78), 74 (88), 79
Jonge, M. de, 19, 75-78 1 tit
Josephus, 41-42, 62, 88 (25)
Julian, 113
Justinian, 84 (15)
kingship, 85
Klein, S., 18-21, 23, 46
Koml6s, 0., 59
Kraft, R., 31-32, 119
Lane Fox, R., 114 (49)
Le Goff, J., 117 (56)'
Life of Chariton, 103
liturgy, 4, 106-110
Lives of the Prophets, 1-2
Arabic version, 13, 73-74
Armenian version, 12-13
composition, 68-78
dating, 20-21
Dorothean recension, 10, 31 (98), 67
(79), 68-71
Ethiopic version, 14
genre, 97-110
Greek recensions, 11, 68-71
Hebrew version, 16
history of research, 16-29
language, 21-22
Latin version, 15
midrashic, quality of, 18 (45), 27,
45-46, 52, 58-61
provenance, 21
sources, 71-75
structure, 34-38
Syriac version, 11-12, 30, 72
transmission, 29-33, 97
textual criticism, 7-16, 29

149

loca sancta, 25, 106-110

Macarius of Alexandria, 90-91
Maccabean martyrs, 114-115 (50)
Madeba map, 49 (29)
Malachi
vita of, 35, 38-39, 50, 52
Manasseh, 92
Maraval, P., 25
Mark the Deacon, 91
Martin, 111, 114 (50)
martyrdom, 24-28, 59-60, 97, 103-4
and prophecy, 26
of the prophets, 52-56, 60
martyrology, 97
Maximus the Confessor, 84
Micah, 60
vita of, 27, 35, 38-40, 43-44, 50,
52-54, 60, 72
Micaiah b. Imlah, 43, 60
miracles, 56, 102-105
Momigliano, A., 115
monasticism, 6, 90-91, 102-105
Moses, 58
Moresheth, 40
Nahum
vita of, 23, 35, 38-39, 41, 51-52,
64, 67, 72, 74 (88)
narrative legends, 73
Nathan, 92, 94
vita of, 35, 38, 50, 53
Nebuchadnezzar, 51, 80-96, 119-120
Nero, 85 (18)
Nestle, E., 17
Obadiah, 60
vita of, 35, 38-39, 50, 52
Oded,42
omen, 63-67
onomastica, 48, 83 (10)
Origen, 26, 30, 84 (15)
Paulinus of Nola, 86
Palladius, 90-91, 99-100
penitence, 86-91
Pesikta Rabbati, 46 (20)

150

GENERAL INDEX

Peter Comestor, 14-15, 82 (8), 88

(26)
Peter the Deacon, 43 (12)
Petit, M., 29
philanthropia, 88
Philo, 83 (12)
Philostratus, 85 (18)
pilgrimage, 24-25, 40, 48-49, 106110
Plato, 85
political theory, 85
popular religion, 23-24, 47-48, 115117
Porphyry, 83 (12)
Prayer of Nabonidus, 81
relics, 112-113
Reuben, 44-46
Riessler, P., 17
Sabaratha, 41-42
saints, cult of, 24, 111-115
Salvian of Marseilles, 92
Samaria, 60
Samuel, 104
Schermann, T., 10, 17, 61, 69, 75
(90)
Schoeps, H.-J., 26-27
Scholer, D., 28 (86)
Schwemer, A.M., 19 (52)
"Scroll of Genealogies", 23
Seder Olam, 62, 98
Semiticisms, 21-22, 108-109
Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah, 61 (64)
Shiloah, 41, 53
signs, 53, 65, 66
Simon, M., 112
"soaked pulse", 90-91
Sozomen, 43 (12), 49 (29), 109 (30),
112 (39)
Steck, 0.-H., 27-28
Subatha, 41-42
Sylvester, 94-95
Syme, R., 34 (1), 79
Symeon the Elder, 104 (17)
Symeon Stylites, 104 (17)

Syro-Hexapla, 11-12, 30
Tabernacle, 51, 61
Taylor, J., 114 (49)
Tekoah, 40
Temple, 106-107
Temple veil, 67 (79)
Theodosius I, 94
textual criticism, 76-78
Theodoret of Cyr, 91, 99-100, 102
(10), 104, 117
Thomsen, P., 24
Tishbe, 41
tombs, 48-49, 97, ll1-117
Elisha, 60
house of David, 46-47
Hulda, 46-47
Isaiah, 47 (23), 48, 49 (30)
John the Baptist, 60
Obadiah, 60
of biblical figures, 22-24
rabbinic attitudes, 46-47
Zechariah b. Jehoiada, 48
Torrey, C. C., 18, 20 (54), 21-22, 40,
51, 58, 72-73
transmission, 75-78, 100, 119-120
tribal genealogy, 43
tyranny, 85
Vincent, H . 22
Wilkinson, J., 25
Yibleam, 44
Zechariah, apocryphon of, 26
Zechariah b. Baries, 25
Zechariah b. Berachiah, 25
vita of, 50, 53, 64, 67, 74 (88)
Zechariah b. Jehoiada, 25
vita of, 27, 38-39, 48, 51, 52-54,
60, 64, 70
Zechariah, father of John the Baptist,
25
Zehner, J., 21
Zephaniah, 41-42
vita of, 38, 41, 50, 69

STUDIA IN VETERIS TESTAMENT!

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA
EDITED BY A.-M. DENIS AND M. DEJONGE

2. DELCOR, M. (ed.). Le Testament d'Abraham. Introduction, traduction du

texte grec et commentaire de la recension grecque longue. Suivi de la traduction des Testaments d'Abraham, d'lsaac et de Jacob d'apres les versions
orientales. 1973. ISBN 90 04 03641 5
3. JONGE, M. DE (ed.). Studies on the Testaments if the Twewe Patriarchs. Text
and Interpretation. 1975. ISBN 90 04 04379 9
4. HORST, P.W. VAN DER (ed.). The Sentences if Pseudo-Phocylides. With Introduction and Commentary. 1978. ISBN 90 04 05707 2
5. TURDEANU, E. Apocryphes slaves et roumains de !'Ancient Testament. 1981.
ISBN 90 04 06341 2
6. HOLLANDER, H.W. Joseph as an Ethical Model in the Testaments if the Twewe
Patriarchs. 1981. ISBN 90 04 0638 7 0
7. BLACK, M. (ed.). The Book if Enoch or I Enoch. A New English Edition with
Commentary and Textual Notes. In Consultation with J.C. VANDERKAM.
With an Appendix on the "Astronomical" Chapters by 0. NEUGEBAUER.
1985. ISBN 90 04 07100 8
8. HOLLANDER, H.W. & M. DE JONGE (eds.). The Testaments if the Twewe
Patriarchs. A Commentary. 1985. ISBN 90 04 07560 7

9. STONE, M.E. Selected Studies in Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha. With Special

Reference to the Armenian Tradition. 1991. ISBN 90 04 09343 5
10. TROMP, J. (ed.). The Assumption if Moses. A Critical Edition with Commentary. 1993. ISBN 90 04 09779 1
11. SATRAN, D. Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine. Reassessing the li:oes if
the Prophets. 1995. ISBN 90 04 10234 5