Rewriting Biblical History: Essays on Chronicles and Ben Sira in Honor of Pancratius C. Beentjes PDF
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Rewriting Biblical History Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies Edited by Friedrich V. Reiterer, Beate Ego, Tobias Nicklas Volume 7 De Gruyter Rewriting Biblical History Essays on Chronicles and Ben Sira in Honor of Pancratius C. Beentjes Edited by Jeremy Corley and Harm van Grol De Gruyter ISBN978-3-11-024093-1 e-ISBN978-3-11-024094-8 ISSN1865-1666 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Rewriting biblical history : essays on Chronicles and Ben Sira in honor of Pancratius C. Beentjes de Gruyter / [edited by] Jeremy Corley, Harm vanGrol. p.cm.(cid:2)(Deuterocanonicalandcognateliteraturestudies,ISSN1865- 1666;v.7) “ThisvolumehonorsEmeritusProfessorPancratiusC.Beentjes(known tohisfriendsasPanc)ontheoccasionofhissixty-fifthbirthday.Thefore- mostareasofhisresearchhavebeenBenSiraandtheBooksofChronicles” (cid:2)ECIPPreface. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-3-11-024093-1(hardcover23(cid:3)15,5:alk.paper) 1.Bible.O.T.Chronicles(cid:2)Criticism,interpretation,etc. 2.Bible.O.T. Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus (cid:2) Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Beentjes, PancratiusCornelis. II.Corley,Jeremy. III.Grol,Harmvan. BS1345.52.R49 2011 2221.6067092(cid:2)dc22 2011013790 BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutsche Nationalbibliografie;detailedbibliographicdataareavailableintheInternet athttp://dnb.d-nb.de. ©2011WalterdeGruyterGmbH&Co.KG,Berlin/NewYork Printing:Hubert&Co.GmbH&Co.KG,Göttingen (cid:4)Printedonacid-freepaper PrintedinGermany www.degruyter.com Preface This volume honors Emeritus Professor Pancratius C. Beentjes (known to his friends as Panc) on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. The foremost areas of his research have been Ben Sira and the Books of Chronicles (see the bibliography at the back of this volume). His doctoral dissertation in Dutch, Jesus Sirach en Tenach (1981), was a critical examination of how far Ben Sira had used the phraseology of earlier biblical texts. He later produced a critical edition of all the Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira, The Book of Ben Sira in Hebrew (1997; reprint 2006). In 2006 he collected more than two dozen of his English-language articles on Ben Sira in a volume, “Happy the One who Meditates on Wisdom” (Sir 14:20). Meanwhile, he has also written substantial Dutch commentaries on 1 Chronicles (2002) and 2 Chronicles (2006), as well as a set of English-language studies published as Tradition and Transforma- tion in the Book of Chronicles (2008). The present volume of essays reflects his interest in these two ancient writings. One of Panc’s important contributions to scholarship has been to show how Chronicles and Ben Sira’s Praise of the Ancestors both make new presentations of biblical history. The Chronicler creates a new text by adding fresh elements and modifying older material, while Ben Sira forges a new synthesis out of diverse elements drawn from earlier tradition. A constant theme of Panc’s research is that the later re-presentations are not an inferior retelling of the inherited sacred tradition, but rather deserve to be viewed as new texts worthy of consideration in their own right. Panc’s scholarly output fits in with a wider resurgence of interest in the rewritings of history in Second Temple Judaism. Much of the recent impetus has come from the discovery and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls Rewritten Bible texts, such as the Genesis Apocryphon and Jubilees. This has led to a renewed interest in other retellings of biblical history, such as the works of Josephus and Pseudo-Philo. Research has extended into the new presentations of biblical figures in writings from Second Temple Judaism. Hence the present volume intentionally puts together two significant rewritings of biblical history, to illustrate how these two works reinterpreted Israel’s sacred past. The Books of Chronicles and Ben Sira 44–50 both rewrite previous biblical history in different ways. While the postexilic Book of Chronicles reworks earlier narratives from Samuel and Kings, Ben Sira’s Praise of the Ancestors offers a new presentation of biblical history from the Genesis vi Preface patriarchs to Nehemiah, prior to the praise of the high priest Simon. Whereas older scholarship often regarded the historiography of Chronicles and Ben Sira as secondary and derivative, today there is renewed interest in these works as significant theological and cultural documents. Both Chronicles and Ben Sira aim to create a national identity centered on temple piety. Although these two texts were composed less than two centuries apart, not many scholars have yet compared their achievements in any detail, even though both works adopt a temple-focused cultic perspective on historical events and ignore the exile almost completely. It is hoped that the juxtaposition of them in the present volume will spark further insights. Since Christine Mitchell is one of the few scholars to have compared the work of the Chronicler and Ben Sira, it is appropriate that her essay opens the present volume. Mitchell juxtaposes the two writings, considering the genre of each, comparing their literary techniques and their use of earlier tradition, and illustrating the Chronicler’s approach from the account of Asa’s reign. The next three essays focus on later portrayals of famous ancient characters. First, Friedrich Reiterer offers a detailed investigation of the vocabulary in Ben Sira’s description of Aaron, showing how it often differs from Pentateuchal phraseology and how it depicts Aaron with several royal features. Thereafter, Jeremy Corley’s study of Ben Sira’s portraits of Joshua and Samuel indicates how both these characters have been assimilated to each other and to other famous figures of biblical history. Bradley Gregory then considers the significance of David’s battles in Chronicles and Ben Sira, finding that the Chronicler views David’s military campaigns as paving the way for his preparations for his son Solomon to build the temple, whereas Ben Sira sees David as a model of personal piety who prays for success in his contest with Goliath. The following two essays examine aspects of the Chronicler’s temple theology in comparison with his sources. Harm van Grol offers textual and literary readings of the composite psalm in 1 Chr 16:8-36, showing how the new text highlights themes of the people’s vulnerability and innocence, as well as the hope of regathering from their situation of dispersal. Thereafter, Steven Schweitzer outlines the depiction of the sanctuary in Samuel–Kings, an account that looks back at the theological causes of the temple’s destruction, and draws contrasts with the Chronicler’s description, that focuses on the new future possibilities presented by the rebuilt temple. The next two essays consider the diverse portrayals of Solomon and then his son Rehoboam. Benjamin Wright contrasts the presentations of Solomon by the Chronicler and Ben Sira, showing that whereas Chronicles depicts Solomon positively as the faithful temple builder, part of Ben Sira’s portrait focuses on his dalliances with women, which are seen as contributing to the breakup of the kingdom. Then Roland Boer contrasts the representations of Preface vii Rehoboam in Kings and Chronicles in light of Machiavellian politics. Whereas Kings is remote from a Machiavellian approach because Rehoboam’s cruelty leads to disaster, Chronicles exhibits a Machiavellian perspective because the king’s harshness leads not to disaster but to security for Judah. In very different ways, the following two essays discuss how Ben Sira presents two of Israel’s great prophets. Bart Koet considers the postexilic portrayal of Elijah as the end-time reconciler of father and son, according to the last verse of Malachi (echoed in Ben Sira). This role is in sharp contrast with Hiel’s sacrificing of his two sons to build Jericho, in the last verse before the narrative introduction of Elijah in 1 Kings. Then, moving beyond mere questions of quotation or allusion, Archibald van Wieringen employs a reader- oriented perspective to examine how Ben Sira’s picture of Hezekiah and Isaiah offers a creative re-reading of the Book of Isaiah. The next three essays deal with the Chronicler’s portrayals of three of Judah’s kings from the century leading up to the Babylonian exile. First, Gary Knoppers demonstrates how, by contrast with the Book of Kings, the infamous king Manasseh is transformed within the Chronicler’s narrative into a model penitent, though his reforms are incomplete and his successor Amon follows his former bad ways. Second, Renate Egger-Wenzel begins with the Chronicler’s portrait of Josiah before surveying Ben Sira’s depiction of that king, observing that both texts connect Josiah with the prophet Jeremiah. Sirach 49 moves from Josiah’s sickness through to the healing of the exilic destruction under Nehemiah, and states that the Twelve Prophets allowed Jacob to become strong again. Third, Bob Becking examines the Chronicler’s description of Zedekiah, viewed as more than just a pawn in the game of superpower politics, and suggests that the Chronicler reshaped tradition about Zedekiah on the basis of the Bagoses incident in 408–401 BCE (known to us from Josephus). Otto Mulder’s essay focuses on the figure of the high priest Simon, who appears at the end of Ben Sira’s Praise of the Ancestors. According to Mulder, Rosh Hashanah is the liturgical background to Sirach 50, while the reservoir construction (= Bethesda) shows the particular high priest to be Simon II, a collaborator with the Seleucid monarch Antiochus III. The next two essays deal with the presence or absence of women in both rewritings of biblical history. Willien van Wieringen notes that, contrary to some assertions, the Chronicler’s genealogies do give a significant place to women (such as Abraham’s concubine Keturah and Judah’s daughter-in-law Tamar), and that some seeming references to “sons” may actually be to “children,” that is, daughters as well as sons. Then Núria Calduch-Benages investigates the absence of named women from Ben Sira’s Praise of the Ancestors, attributable to an androcentric collective memory in that society. Whereas some Hellenistic encomia celebrate female characters, many Second viii Preface Temple Jewish lists of personages do not name women, though Ben Sira 44– 50 does refer to some anonymous women. In the final essay in the volume, Maurice Gilbert compares Ben Sira’s Praise of the Ancestors with the review of history in the latter chapters of the Book of Wisdom. While observing the literary differences in context, genre, and structure, Gilbert recognizes the similarities in the sapiential approach to biblical history and the apologetic purpose. Overall, this volume traces a long trajectory through biblical history, illustrating some of the diverse ways in which it has been rewritten and reinterpreted in the Second Temple period. Both the Chronicler and Ben Sira sought to find new theological messages for their audience out of Israel’s ancient tradition, as Panc Beentjes has often demonstrated. Panc, we dedicate this Festschrift to you in grateful thanks for your many years of scholarship on these two great texts, and wish you everything good for the future. JEREMY CORLEY Ushaw College – Durham HARM VAN GROL Tilburg School of Theology – Utrecht February 2011
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