10-20-2008, 01:35 AM
Shlama all--
Sometime ago I had a discussion with Paul Younan about the two apocryphal quotes in Jude and its possible bearing on canonicty. My point has always been that the NT wirters often use sources their audience is familar with but without necessarily imparting canonical status on them. The apostle Paul quoted from several Greek poets, for example. Paul made an interesting response though that it wasn't the same as using a source for spiritual or biblical facts as Jude seems to do.
But in the case of Enoch, I thought at the time I offered a decent explanation as a logical extension from Hebrews 10:4, but I did not talk about directly the other quote, "and the archangel Michael, in disputing with Satan for the body of Moses said, YHWH rebuke you." (I am paraphrasing for speed.)
I think I may have found a possible inspiration for this quote from Tanakh that, maybe, was in turn an inspiration for the Assumption of Moses. It is not ironclad, but I do think it is interesting. At a minimum, it might shed a little light on the midrashic mind behind the apocryphal work. Let me lay this out:
1) In reading the end of Deuteronomy (34:10), I was intrigued by the statement "there never arose again another prophet LIKE MOSES (kiMoshe) whom YHWH knew face to face." The translation reminded me of a line from Exodus, "who is LIKE unto Thee o El" which in Hebrew is MICAH MOCAH EL. This expression gets compacted into a name--MICHAEL.
2) A few lines before, in 34:6, we are told that Moses' tomb location is secret. The rabbinic explanation, one of them at least, is that if it were known it would encourage Israel to worship the remains. Joshua, who by tradition is said to have written the last bit of Deuteronomy, presumably knew though where the tomb was.
3) We then go 1000 years until we get to the next significant "Joshua" in Tanakh, this one being the high priest Yehoshua ben Yehozadak. The prophet who writes about this Joshua is of course Zechariah. It is in Zechariah 3:1-2 though that we get the second longest reference to Satan in Tanakh (only Job tells more). It says: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of YHWH and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. YHWH said to Satan,"YHWH rebuke you, Satan! YHWH, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!
See what I mean? Almost the entire phrase is there in a chapter about ONE JOSHUA that harks back to a mystery of THE PREVIOUS JOSHUA. Again look at the words in common:
angel
Satan
YHWH rebuke you
And then, when comparing to the obvious Joshua, we get the mystery of Moses and where his tomb is and the name of an angel of YHWH encoded from Exodus!
More than that, in looking at where the name "Michael" appears directly, the one Torah reference, Numbers 13:33, is as the father of "Sethur" from the tribe of Asher. Well, "asher" can mean "who" in Hebrew and at least the Hebrew "Seth" can mean "appointed", so it's a kind of out of order code in a way: "who is appointed (as) Michael".
Problem is I guess that SETH and SETHUR are two different words and they are not even spelled the same with the common sound, one with sheen and the other a samekh. SETHUR actually though has an interesting meaning in its own right: HIDDEN.
On the other hand, I have talked about sonic wordplays that don't rely on spelling before and spelling can vary from one dialect to another anyway. Besides which, the other similarities seem to strong to ignore. And finally, look at how Michael is described elsewhere in Tanakh:
Da 10:13 - But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Da 10:21 -
but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.
Da 12:1 -
"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people--everyone whose name is found written in the book--will be delivered.
So Michael is a DELIVERER who saves people based on if they are written in the Book that Moses had a major role in writing.
Hmmmm, could there be something to it all? Could these patterns have inspired the apocrypal Assumption of Moses, or could both Jude and the apocryphal author been looking at the same thing from Tanakh???
Sometime ago I had a discussion with Paul Younan about the two apocryphal quotes in Jude and its possible bearing on canonicty. My point has always been that the NT wirters often use sources their audience is familar with but without necessarily imparting canonical status on them. The apostle Paul quoted from several Greek poets, for example. Paul made an interesting response though that it wasn't the same as using a source for spiritual or biblical facts as Jude seems to do.
But in the case of Enoch, I thought at the time I offered a decent explanation as a logical extension from Hebrews 10:4, but I did not talk about directly the other quote, "and the archangel Michael, in disputing with Satan for the body of Moses said, YHWH rebuke you." (I am paraphrasing for speed.)
I think I may have found a possible inspiration for this quote from Tanakh that, maybe, was in turn an inspiration for the Assumption of Moses. It is not ironclad, but I do think it is interesting. At a minimum, it might shed a little light on the midrashic mind behind the apocryphal work. Let me lay this out:
1) In reading the end of Deuteronomy (34:10), I was intrigued by the statement "there never arose again another prophet LIKE MOSES (kiMoshe) whom YHWH knew face to face." The translation reminded me of a line from Exodus, "who is LIKE unto Thee o El" which in Hebrew is MICAH MOCAH EL. This expression gets compacted into a name--MICHAEL.
2) A few lines before, in 34:6, we are told that Moses' tomb location is secret. The rabbinic explanation, one of them at least, is that if it were known it would encourage Israel to worship the remains. Joshua, who by tradition is said to have written the last bit of Deuteronomy, presumably knew though where the tomb was.
3) We then go 1000 years until we get to the next significant "Joshua" in Tanakh, this one being the high priest Yehoshua ben Yehozadak. The prophet who writes about this Joshua is of course Zechariah. It is in Zechariah 3:1-2 though that we get the second longest reference to Satan in Tanakh (only Job tells more). It says: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of YHWH and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. YHWH said to Satan,"YHWH rebuke you, Satan! YHWH, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!
See what I mean? Almost the entire phrase is there in a chapter about ONE JOSHUA that harks back to a mystery of THE PREVIOUS JOSHUA. Again look at the words in common:
angel
Satan
YHWH rebuke you
And then, when comparing to the obvious Joshua, we get the mystery of Moses and where his tomb is and the name of an angel of YHWH encoded from Exodus!
More than that, in looking at where the name "Michael" appears directly, the one Torah reference, Numbers 13:33, is as the father of "Sethur" from the tribe of Asher. Well, "asher" can mean "who" in Hebrew and at least the Hebrew "Seth" can mean "appointed", so it's a kind of out of order code in a way: "who is appointed (as) Michael".
Problem is I guess that SETH and SETHUR are two different words and they are not even spelled the same with the common sound, one with sheen and the other a samekh. SETHUR actually though has an interesting meaning in its own right: HIDDEN.
On the other hand, I have talked about sonic wordplays that don't rely on spelling before and spelling can vary from one dialect to another anyway. Besides which, the other similarities seem to strong to ignore. And finally, look at how Michael is described elsewhere in Tanakh:
Da 10:13 - But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Da 10:21 -
but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.
Da 12:1 -
"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people--everyone whose name is found written in the book--will be delivered.
So Michael is a DELIVERER who saves people based on if they are written in the Book that Moses had a major role in writing.
Hmmmm, could there be something to it all? Could these patterns have inspired the apocrypal Assumption of Moses, or could both Jude and the apocryphal author been looking at the same thing from Tanakh???
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
Andrew Gabriel Roth