Religions in Antiquity: Essays in Memory of Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough (Studies in the History of Religions)

702 Pages·1970·25.04 MB·English

by  Jacob Neusner

STUDIES
IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS
(SUPPLEMENTS TO NUMEN)
XIV
RELIGIONS IN ANTIQUITY
LEIDEN
E. J. BRILL
1970
RELIGIONS IN ANTIQUITY
ESSAYS IN MEMORY OF
ERWIN RAMSDELL GOODENOUGH
EDITED BY
JACOB NEUSNER
Professor of Religious Studies
Brown University
With a portrait, 5 plates and 6 figures
LEIDEN
E. J. BRILL
1970
First edition 1968
Reprinted 1970
Copyright 1970 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands
AH rights reserved. No part of this hook may be reproduced or
translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche
or any other means without written permission from the publisher
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Foreword ix
In Memoriam 1
MORTON SMITH, Columbia University
An Appreciation 3
SAMUEL SANDMEL, Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of
Religion, Cincinnati
Memoir 18
ALAN MENDELSON, University of Chicago
I. A POSTHUMOUS PAPER
Paul and the Hellenization of Christianity 23
ERWIN R. GOODENOUGH with A. THOMAS KRAABEL
II. BIBLICAL STUDIES
On the Presence of God in Biblical Religion 71
BARUCH A. LEVINE, Brandeis University
The Celebration of the Feast of Booths according to Zech.
xiv 16-21 88
WALTER HARRELSON, Vanderbilt University
Psalm 118: The Song of the Citadel 97
HARRY S, MAY, University of Tennessee, Nashville
Psychological Study of the Bible 107
FREDERICK C. GRANT, Union Theological Seminary, New York
Rome in the East 125
MORTON S. ENSLIN, Bryn Mawr College
God's Agent in the Fourth Gospel 137
PEDER BORGEN, University of Bergen, Norway
The Samaritan Origin of the Gospel of John 149
GEORGE WESLEY BUCHANAN, Wesley Theological Seminary
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
The Earliest Hellenistic Christianity 176
ROBIN SCROGGS, Dartmouth College
The Purpose of the Hellenistic Patterns in the Epistle to the
Hebrews 207
ROBERT S. ECCLES, De Pauw University
New Testament and Gnostic Christology 227
CARSTEN COLPE, Gottingen University
Jewish Influences on the "Heliand" 244
GILLES QUISPEL, Utrecht University
III, APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA
The Prayer of Joseph 253
JONATHAN Z. SMITH, University of California, Santa Barbara
The Concept of the Messiah in IV Ezra 295
MICHAEL STONE, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
IV. HISTORY OF JUDAISM
On the Shape of God and the Humanity of Gentiles 315
MORTON SMITH, Columbia University
The Facade of Herod's Temple, an attempted Reconstruction . 327
M. AVI-YONAH, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Hellenizations in Josephus' Portrayal of Man's Decline.... 336
LOUIS H. FELDMAN, Yeshiva College
Moses as God and King 354
WAYNE A. MEEKS, Indiana University
Studies in Cynicism and the Ancient Near East: the Transfor­
mations of a Chria
HENRY A. FISCHEL, Indiana University 372
"Not by Means of an Angel and not by Means of a Messenger" 412
JUDAH GOLDIN, Yale University
Freedom within Obedience to the Torah 425
ROBERT M. MONTGOMERY, Ohio Wesleyan University
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
Page
Rabbis and Community in Thitd-Century Babylonia 438
JACOB NEUSNER, Brown University
V. SYMBOLISM AND HISTORY OF RELIGIONS
Notes on the Symbolism of the Arrow 463
MIRCEA ELIADE, University of Chicago
The "Significance" of Symbols: A Hypothesis Tested with
Relation to Egyptian Symbols 476
BEATRICE L. GOFF, Yale University
The Waters of Life: Some Reflections on Zionist Water Symbolism 506
V. W. TURNER, Cornell University
NOMOS OYSEQS: The Concept of Natural Law in Greek
Thought 521
HELMUT KOESTER, Harvard University
A Sabazios Inscription from Sardis 542
SHERMAN E. JOHNSON, Church Divinity School of the Pacific
Heavenly Enthronement and Baptism, Studies in Mandaean
Baptism 551
GEO WIDENGREN, Uppsala University
Problems in the Study of Iranian Religions 583
RICHARD N. FRYE, Harvard University.
Religionswissenschaft revisited 590
WILLARD GURDON QXTOBY, Yale University
On the Universality of Symbols 609
PAUL FRIEDMAN, M.D., PhD., New York City
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
A Bibliography of the Writings of Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough 621
A. THOMAS KRAABEL, University of Minnesota
Biblical Index 633
General Index 641
Grace Goldiu
Erwin Ramsdcll Goodcnough
1893-1965
FOREWORD
These essays were originally intended for presentation to Professor
Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough on the occasion of his seventy-fifth
birthday. Before his death, in March, 1965, he knew of our plans for
this volume and was gladdened by them.
Special thanks are due to Mrs. Grace Goldin, Hamden, Connecticut,
for the portrait which appears at the frontispiece.
The subsidy for this volume was provided by four institutions: Yale
v
University, where Goodenough taught History of Religions from 1923
to his retirement in 1962; the National Foundation for Jewish Culture,
as a memorial tribute in behalf of the Jewish community to Gooden-
ough's scholarly contributions to the study of the history of Judaism;
the American Council of Learned Societies; and the Dartmouth
College Comparative Studies Center. The support of the National
Foundation for Jewish Culture was made possible by Dr. Ralph Hal-
bert, Mr. Harold Green, Mr. Wayne Tannenbaum, Mr. Herbert Sol-
way, Mr. Abbey Lipson, Mr. Ray Wolfe, Mr. Mark Tanz, and Mr.
Donald Carr, all of Toronto, Canada. Goodenough was closely as­
sociated with the American Council of Learned Societies for many
years. He was a delegate to the Council from the Society of Biblical
Literature and Exegesis from 1956 to 1963, and served on the ACLS
Committee on the History of Religions from 1953 to 1965, and on the
Committee of Scholarly Publication from 1958 to 1959. The ACLS
grant toward the publication of this volume is a result of a contri­
bution from the United States Steel Foundation. The Dartmouth
College Comparative Studies Center expresses, through its support,
its gratitude for Goodenough's assistance in the formation of its
Seminar on Religions in Antiquity, held from March, 1965, to June,
1966. He presided over the planning sessions in January, 1965, despite
the onset of his final illness. The paper read at the seminar by Professor
Richard N. Frye is included in this volume. Professors Gilles Quispel
and Morton Smith, who conducted several sessions, and Wayne
A. Meeks, Robin Scroggs, Jonathan Z. Smith, and the editor, who
participated in them, are herein represented. It was therefore found
appropriate to participate in the publication of this memorial volume,
in significant measure a byproduct of the Comparative Studies Center
seminar which Goodenough helped to shape.
X FOREWORD
The extra costs of setting type in Greek and Hebrew alphabets and
of preparing tables for Professor Henry A. Fischel's essay have been
shared by Indiana University. The Dartmouth College Committee on
Research made a generous grant toward the editor's expenses. To both
institutions the editor expresses warm gratitude.
The editor hopes that these papers, many of which fruitfully utilize
Goodenough's scholarship, may contribute to the critical discussion of
some problems of concern to him during his lifetime. He can conceive
no higher, nor more appropriate, act of reverence for the memory of a
beloved teacher and friend.
JACOB NEUSNER
Comparative Studies Center
Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire
October 24, 1966.
IN MEMORIAM
BY
MORTON SMITH
Columbia University
Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough was born in Brooklyn, New York,
in 1893. After attending Hamilton College he went for two years to
Drew Theological Seminary and then to Garrett Biblical Institute, from
which he received the bachelor's degree in theology in 1917. He then
studied for three years at Harvard, where he was much influenced
by the teaching of George Foot Moore, and for three years at Oxford,
from which he received the D.Phil, in 1923. In that year he returned
to the United States as instructor in history at Yale, where he re­
mained, becoming Assistant Professor of History in 1926 and As­
sociate Professor in 1931, then Professor of the History of Religion
in 1934, and John A. Hoober Professor of Religion in 1959. On his
retirement from Yale in 1962 he spent a year at Brandeis University,
and setded in Cambridge, where Harvard placed at his disposal an office
in Widener Library. Here he continued his research until his final illness.
During his work for his first published book, The Theology of Justin
Martyr, 1923, he came to the conclusion that many hellenistic elements
of early Christianity were probably derived, not directly from the
pagan world, but from the already hellenized Judaism through which
Christianity first spread abroad. Almost all the rest of his scholarly
work was devoted to the study of this hellenized Judaism, which
figured largely in all his works and was the primary concern of The
Jurisprudence of the Jewish Courts in Egypt, 1929, By Light, Light: The
Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism, 1935, The Politics of Philo Judaeus,
with a General Bibliography of Philo, 1938, An Introduction to Philo Judaeus,
1940, and the monumental Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period,
of which the publication has continued since 1953 and which will be
completed, by publication of the thirteenth volume, this year. In these
works Goodenough set forth a picture of hellenized Judaism which
may be seen as completment and counterpart to Moore's classic
picture of rabbinic Judaism. But while Moore's work was the careful
analysis and description of a well-recognized body of written sources,
Goodenough's work required the collection of a vast body of archaeo-
NUMEN, Suppl. XIV