The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

354 Pages·2012·1.85 MB·English

Th e Jewish Teachers of Jesus,
James, and Jude
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Th e Jewish Teachers of
Jesus, James, and Jude
What Earliest Christianity Learned fr om the
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
DAVID A. deSILVA

1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DeSilva, David Arthur.
Th e Jewish teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: what earliest Christianity
learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha /David A. deSilva.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-532900-1
1. Apocryphal books—Criticism, interpretation, etc.
2. Bible. O.T. Apocrypha—Criticism, interpretation, etc.
I. Title.
BS1700.D47 2012
229´.06—dc23 2012000909
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To our sons,
James Adrian deSilva, John Austin deSilva, and Justin Alexander deSilva;
No parent could be more pleased.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
3
1 . Recovering the Voice of Jesus
14
2 . Recovering the Voices of James and Jude
31
3 . In the School of Ben Sira of Jerusalem
58
4 . Th e Book of Tobit: Life Lessons from an Edifying Tale
86
5 . Th e Book of Enoch: Th e Order of God’s Cosmos and the Consequences
of Violations
101
6 . Military Messianism and Jesus’ Mission: Th e Psalms of Solomon
141
7 . Jewish Martyrology and the Death of Jesus: 2 Maccabees and the
Lives of the Prophets
158
8 . Th e Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs : A Legacy of Ethics and
Eschatology for a New Generation
175
9 . Th e Testament of Job: Job Becomes an Example of Patient
Endurance
237
Conclusion: Jesus, James, and Jude among the Jewish Teachers
252
Notes 261
Bibliography 3 07
Index of Modern Authors 3 27
Index of Select Ancient Texts 331
Index of Subjects 3 41
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Since long before Luke opened his Gospel and Acts with words addressing his
patron, Th eophilus, authors have had occasion to acknowledge the networks
of support that facilitated their pursuit of their scholarly and literary en-
deavors. I gladly continue the tradition, fi rst by thanking Professor Dr. James
H. Charlesworth of Princeton Th eological Seminary for his impact. His course
“Sociology of the Early Jesus Movement” and, in particular, his book J esus
Within Judaism laid the foundations for my ongoing interest in the literature of
the Second Temple period and the formative infl uence of this literature on
early Christianity, and his support and encouragement along the way have
been of great value to me. I have also profi ted from the work of many scholars
researching the historical Jesus, but for this volume none has been so helpful,
thorough, and consistent a guide as Professor Dr. John P. Meier of the Univer-
sity of Notre Dame through his multivolume work, A Marginal Jew . Th e entire
guild of biblical scholarship owes him a great debt for this exhaustive and
careful investigation of the meaning and authenticity of the traditions attrib-
uted to Jesus.
M ore immediately, I am grateful to Ms. Cynthia Read of Oxford University
Press for her kind reception of my proposal and her guidance at many points
along the way of writing this manuscript. Th e Alexander von Humboldt Founda-
tion kindly provided a resumption of my fellowship, allowing me to accept Prof.
Dr. Hermann Lichtenberger’s invitation to return to Tübingen for part of a
summer, during which time I was able to pursue research especially for the chap-
ters on the T estaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Testament of Job. I am
grateful to the foundation for its continued support and to Prof. Lichtenberger for
his sponsorship. Dr. and Mrs. Gottfried and Linda Kiefner most graciously opened
up their home to me and my eldest son during this time, welcoming us back to
Tübingen like family. I am also grateful to Baker Academic Press for kind permis-
sion to incorporate introductory material from the chapters on Ben Sira and Tobit
from my Introducing the Apocrypha (2002) into the corresponding chapters here.
ix