From a Virgin Womb: The Apocalypse of Adam and the Virgin Birth (Biblical Interpretation Series)

234 Pages·2007·2.25 MB·English

by  Andrew J. Welburn

From a Virgin Womb
Biblical Interpretation Series
Editors
R. Alan Culpepper
Ellen van Wolde
AssociateEditors
David E. Orton
Rolf Rendtorff
EditorialAdvisoryBoard
janice capel anderson — phyllis a. bird
erhard blum — werner h. kelber — ekkehard w. stegemann
vincent l. wimbush — jean zumstein
VOLUME91
From a Virgin Womb
Apocalypse of Adam
The and the Virgin Birth
By
Andrew J. Welburn
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2008
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CONTENTS
Introduction.FromtheVirgin BirthtotheGospelofMatthew..... 1
part one
the apocalypseofadam
Chapter1.Adam’s Apocalypse:CGV/5asTestamentandJewish
Revelation........................................................... 29
Chapter2.BiblicalMaterials:ExileandReturn..................... 43
Chapter3.“Syncretistic”Materials................................... 61
part two
the infancy narratives and the virgin birth
Chapter4.AnUnnaturalBirth(Mt.1,18–21andCGV78,6–17)... 87
Chapter5.AVirgin BirthandaPersecutedChild(Mt.1–2and
CGV78,18–26).....................................................117
Chapter6.TheMagiinBethlehemandtheQueenoftheSouth
(Mt.2,1–12andCGV78,27–79,19)...............................131
Conclusion.TheVirgin Birth:SomeReflectionsonitsMeaning...161
Appendix.TheZarathuˇstra-LegendandCGV/577,26 –78,26 ...181
ListofAbbreviations...................................................209
Bibliography ...........................................................211
Index ...................................................................219

introduction
FROM THE VIRGIN BIRTH TO
THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
The Apocalypse of Adam: Cycles of Revelation
Overthecenturies,generations of Christianshave been awed andmys-
tified by the Gospel of Matthew’s infancy narratives concerning the
origins of Jesus, and in particular by the mystery of the “virgin birth”.
More recently the story has provoked controversy through faith and
doubtamonglaymenandclergyalike.Understandingithasbecomean
issue, therefore, at the fracture-line of modern Christian thought. Biol-
ogy, symbolism, myth or historical reminiscence—how we understand
it will depend upon our wider interpretation of the Christian message.
But what did it mean to those who spread the story? It is hard to see
how the modern debate can be resolved until we know something of
thebackgroundandorigins oftheideaitself.
On a more modest scale, though still running into generations, bib-
lical scholars have wondered about the background of the idea and,
while hearkening in their own way to contemporary issues, have per-
haps wisely devoted themselves to the problem of first understanding
what the Gospel writer’s conception of its meaning originally was. Is
it biblical? It has of course long had to be acknowledged that Is. 7,14
did not really speak of a virgin birth; yet the origins of the idea have
stillgenerallybeensoughtinwhathaveseemedtomanyastrainedexe-
gesis of other biblical (and post-biblical) stories.1 It is simply a fact in
theendthat theOldTestamentandthehaggadic traditions provide no
1 TheapproachisreaffirmedbyR.E.Brown,“GospelInfancyNarrativeResearch
from1976–1986”,CBQ 48(1986),468–483;660–680;cf.hisBirthoftheMessiah.ACom-
mentaryontheinfancynarrativesinMatthewandLuke(London1977)pp.111–116,andfurther
bibliography pp. 120–121. More recently D.C. Allison has looked for background to
haggadictraditionsconcerningMoses,andevenfoundthere“hints”ofavirginbirth:
Allison,TheNewMoses.AMattheanTypology(Minneapolis1993)pp.157–165.However,it
ishardtoseehowsuchamarginalfeatureofthestoriescouldhavecometobeusedto
indicateJesusasthe“prophetlikeMoses”.
2 introduction
substantial basis for any stories of the miraculous birth of the Messiah.
Relatively few scholars, on the other hand, have wanted to utilise the
obvious pagan analogies, since these pose what seem almost insuper-
able questions about the way Christian circles could have been open
to extra-biblical ideas.2 Altogether, plausible sources that tell of virgin
birth in areas convincingly close to the Gospel’s own probable origins
have provedextremelyhardtodemonstrate.
Early in the last century G. Messina made a bold attempt to explain
its significance by studying its close connection with the coming of the
mysterious Magi, a term which strictly designates Zoroastrian priests
rather than kings or “wise-men”, and with the development of Chris-
tian legends which seem to belong to the same background. The Gos-
pel’s unique interest in these oriental sages seemed to link it to tradi-
tions about the prophecy of Zarathustra concerning a great “World-
Saviour”, the Saoˇsyant.3 In certain Christian circles, e.g. in Lactan-
tius and especially in Eastern Christianity, the prophecy was naturally
taken to allude to Christ, and there is widespread recognition that gen-
uine Zoroastrian connections underlie the elaboration of the legends
which grew up about the Magi, the prophecy and the famous Star.4
On the other hand, Messina’s contention that the background of these
legends is originally the background of the Gospel infancy-narratives
themselves has generally been received with scepticism. The legends
on which he drew are in many cases several centuries later than the
2 PaganmaterialiscriticallyconsideredespeciallyinJ.G.Machen,TheVirginBirthof
Christ (NewYork1930);T.Boslooper,TheVirginBirth(Philadelphia1962);R.E.Brown,
TheVirginalConceptionandBodilyResurrectionofJesus(NewYork1973).
3 G. Messina, I magi a Betlemme e una predizione di Zoroastro (Rome 1933) = id., “Il
Sauˇsyantnellatradizioneiranicaetlasuaattesa”,Orientalia1(1932),149–176and“Una
presunta profezia di Zoroastro sulla venuta del Messia”, Biblica XIV(1933), 170–198;
for the Zoroastrian character of the Magi, cf. A. Paul, L’Évangile de l’enfance selon saint
Matthieu (Paris 1968), pp. 104–112; 116–125; for Iranian elements in Christian legends
e.g.suchasthosefoundintheChronicle ofZuqnin,U.MonneretdeVillard,Leleggende
orientali sui magi evangelici (Rome 1952); on the Zoroastrian “Prophecy of Hystaspes”
utilisedbyLactantius,seebelow,pp.81–82.
4 On the background of the “star”, see the summary in G. Widengren, “The Sa-
cral Kingship of Iran”, in La Regalità Sacra (Leiden 1959), 242–257 (248ff.); also below,
pp.155–159.J.Duchesne-Guillemin’swhollyscepticalresponseseemsexcessive:“Even
ifthemotifofthecaveandthestarareveryancient,nothinggoestoprovethattheir
occurrence together in the legend of a saviour, in Iran, was prior (and foreign) to the
legend of the Nativity. It seems more likely that it was the Christian apologists who
transposed and applied to Iran and the Magi a story originally told about Jesus.” Cf.
Duchesne-Guillemin, “Die Magier in Bethlehem und Mithras als Erlöser?”, ZDMG
(1962).
fromthevirginbirthtothegospelofmatthew 3
Gospel, and despite the strong thematic links it has seemed to most
scholars that the historical chasm to be bridged is simply too daunt-
inglylarge.
Thelinkscertainlyincludetheideaofa“virginbirth”,partofacom-
plex Zoroastrian myth of bringing the original prophecy to its escha-
tological fulfilment: the prophet not only foretells, but in Zoroastrian
thought is actually part of a mystical process leading to the advent of
his “posthumous son”. Sometimes seemingly rather abstract and “sym-
bolic”, the Saoˇsyant is thus the child of a divine prophetic word, and
not just of ordinary human nature. Many other aspects of his des-
tined role seem appropriate. The themes of promise and fulfilment
might well have appealed to the circles from which Matthew’s Gospel
stemmed. R.E. Brown is suitably impressed by the scope of Messina’s
proposedexplanation,whilealsonotingtheawkward historicalgap:
He sees the possible origins of the whole idea in the doctrine of the
Avesta concerning the expectation of the Sauˇsyant, a son to be born
after Zoroaster’s death. (The seed of Zoroaster was preserved in a lake;
andwhenapre-ordainedvirginwouldbathethere,shewouldbeimpreg-
natedbyit.)Thissalvificfigurewastoraisethedeadandcrushtheforces
of evil. However, there is no evidence that Christians in Matthew’s time
knewofthisexpectation.…5
And so matters stood until the discovery of a remarkable document,
with roots apparently in both Jewish and Iranian ideas, which was
preserved as part of the Nag Hammadi Library, Codex V/5.6 This is
5 R.E.Brown,TheBirthoftheMessiahpp.168–169.
6 Trans. G. MacRae in D.M. Parrott (ed.), Nag Hammadi Codices V,2–5 and VI with
PapyrusBerolensis8502(Leiden1979).ItshouldnotbeassumedatthispointthatApocAd
is Gnostic just because it was included in the Nag Hammadi collection, which also
contains ethical maxims, philosophical extracts, Hermetic discourses, etc. Those who
broadly favour an earlier and possibly Jewish-Palestinian origin for ApocAd include
M.Krause,G.MacRae,J.M.Robinson,R.Kasser,H.-M.Schenke,etal.Seetoothe
importantstudiesbyG.W.E.Nickelsburg,“SomeRelatedTraditionsintheApocalypse
ofAdam,theBooksofAdamandEveand1Enoch”,inB.Layton(ed.),TheRediscovery
ofGnosticism,vol.2(Leiden1981),pp.515–539;andP.Perkins,“ApocalypticSchematisa-
tionintheApocalypseofAdamandGospeloftheEgyptians”,inMcGaughy(ed.),Proceedingsof
theSocietyofBiblicalLiterature2(Missoula1972),pp.591–599.TheundoubtedGreeklan-
guagebehindourCopticdocumentisnobarriertosuchorigination.Areviewofearlier
theories about ApocAd in K. Rudolph, “Gnosis und Gnostizismus, ein Forschungs-
bericht”, TR 34(1969), 121–175 (160–169); also E. Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism. A
Survey of the Proposed Evidence (London 1973), pp. 107–115. G. MacRae, “Apocalypse of
Adam”inJ.H.Charlesworth(ed.),TheOldTestamentPseudepigraphavol.1(London1983)
pp.707–719justifiesits inclusioninthepseudepigraphaon several grounds, beingnot
onlydependentonthtextofGenesis“butatextalreadymediatedbyJewishexegetical