Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals
Share Embed Flag
Download ePaper

Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

booksandjournals.brillonline.com
from booksandjournals.brillonline.com More from this publisher
24.12.2013 Views

30 P. Winter / Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 29-31 entrusted to save the Jewish race. The text on which the Greek reading is based expresses a different idea: no subaltern being of the supernatural world, however high in rank, but God Himself has made it His concern to watch over Israel. While other nations are ruled by angels, the people of Israel, God’s own portion, a people for God’s possession (“For YHWH’s portion is His people— Jacob is the lot of His inheritance”, Deut xxxii 9; compare Ben Sira xvii 17), are subject to Him alone—dealings between God and Israel could be no other but direct. The Greek Text, so strongly emphasising the distinction of Israel, belongs to an era when angelology had become widely known and accepted by the Jews of the diaspora and Palestine alike; while admitting as true that all nations were governed by one God, the stipulation was made that this was done, in the case of non-Jewish nations, through the intermediary of angelic powers, but as far as Israel was concerned without those intermediaries. No μεσίτης comes in between God and His people. Jubilees xv 30-32 expresses this idea in powerful language: . . . He has chosen Israel to be His people And He sanctified and gathered them from amongst all the sons of men—For there are many nations and many peoples, and all they are His, But over each one He has placed spirits as rulers who will lead them away from Him— Yet over Israel He has appointed no angel nor spirit, For He Alone is their Ruler, and He will preserve them . . . that they may be His and He may be theirs from henceforth for ever and ever. The Greek reading of the Isaian passage obviously belongs to an era of intimate intercourse between Jews and neighbouring nations. Yet there is no reason to think that the translator made the change himself. He followed a Hebrew text that has not survived, but of which a parallel exists in a midrashic expansion to a passage from Deuteronomy. This midrash is recited at the passover service: And YHWH brought us out of Miṣrayim: Not by the hands of an angel And not by the hands of a seraph וַ‏ פִ‏ יּצִ‏ אֵ‏ מִּנּויְ‏ יָ‏ צְ‏ רַ‏ יִ‏ ם : ‏א עַ‏ ל־יְדֵ‏ י מַ‏ לְ‏ אָ‏ וְ‏ ‏א עַ‏ ל־יְדֵ‏ י שָׂ‏ רָ‏ ף וְ‏ ‏א עַ‏ ל־יְדֵ‏ י שָׁ‏ לִ‏ יחַ‏ אֶ‏ לָּ‏ א הַ‏ קָּ‏ דוֺשׁ בָּ‏ רּו‏ הּוא בִּ‏ כְ‏ בוֺדוֺ‏ ‏ּובְ‏ עַ‏ צְ‏ מ‏ . . . .

P. Winter / Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 29-31 31 And not by the hands of an envoy But the Holy One, blessed be He, in His Glory and by Himself. . . . The idea is the same, in the Greek Text of Isaiah and in the Haggadah shel Pesaḥ.

P. Winter / Vetus Testamentum <strong>IOSOT</strong> (<strong>2013</strong>) 29-31 31<br />

And not by the h<strong>and</strong>s of an envoy<br />

But the Holy One, blessed be He, in His Glory <strong>and</strong> by Himself. . . .<br />

The idea is the same, in the Greek Text of Isaiah <strong>and</strong> in the Haggadah shel<br />

Pesaḥ.

logo

products

Resources

Company

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings
Imprint
Change language
Made with love in Switzerland
© 2024 Yumpu.com all rights reserved

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!