THE BOOK OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MOSES. 55 The Book of the Assumption of Moses. We have, however, recently been put into a position to perceive plainly, from quite another aspect of it, of what great importance the agitation of the Gaulonite was. For it may be said that as every profoundly influential event in the history of Israel is signalised at least by one corresponding memorial in the literature and literary art of the nation, so we are now able to show that this event of the activity and fall of Judas the Gaulonite, which was of such vast significance for all the remaining history of the nation, was immortalised by such a memorial-work. This memorial, which is for us of special interest, on account of its origin in the times immediately preceding the movements of an entirely different spirit, which were originated by the Baptist and Christ, assumed a similar form to those which had proceeded from the last great religious commotions of the people, and which, being from the very first sustained by a new and more vigorous spirit, maintained through the fluctuations of time a less ephemeral existence. This is the Book of the Assumption of Moses, which has only very recently been rediscovered, at least the first half of it. It is a book belonging to the class of artistic prophecy, which was so much in favour in those days. And now that it has been recovered, we can plainly see that as the first dawn of the Maccabean times found its literary immortalisation through the Book of Daniel,' and, subsequently, the climax of all their endeavours through the Books of Enoch and Noah,3 so also the revival produced by the Gaulonite, which, though brief in outward appearance, was lasting in its hidden and profound effects, found its immortality in literature by means of this work. As may be inferred from reliable indications, the book did not appear prior to the fall of the Gaulonite, but not long afterwards, when the movement which had been started by him was still powerfully throbbing under all the first and most intense impressions which he had produced. Accordingly we find in it the cautiousness in writing which was required by the straits of the times, combined with the art of veiled antici 'The remarks on this book in vol. v. p. 479 receive here simply a more exact explanation and precise treatment, the subject having been in the meantime dealt with at greater length in the Gött. Gel. Anz. 1867, pp. 110-117. For ready reference I have retained the division of chapters introduced into Hilgenfeld's edi- 2 See vol. v. pp. 302 sq. pation and prophecy, which had at that time been so elaborately perfected. The result was a book of this extremely artistic and ingenious character as regards its plan and execution. Like all such works, it presents from the range of view of its own time and of the experiences and new forebodings which were conditioned by the latter, a new general survey of all the past and the future, worked out, not with an artistic perfection equal to its boldness, but with all the greater originality; and as like all kindred works its art is based upon the fresh glorification of a holy man of antiquity, its veiled no less than its actual prophecy, just as in the case of all similar works, is employed simply within the framework of historical narrative and description. Now, it is in conformity simply with the time and the highest aims of the Gaulonite that in this case no less a man than Moses himself is selected as the hero of antiquity, with whom everything is here connected. For what did the Gaulonite desire, so far as he gave his aims an historical connection, more than the highest glorification of Moses and of the Law as it was understood by him? Indeed Moses stands so high in the estimation of our Bible-prophet' that he makes him, or rather the last days of his life, the sublime centre of all the past, nay, of the whole history of the world down to the Messianic consummation. It is true he does not affect a division of history on the basis of exact numbers, such as we find in the books of Daniel and Enoch; on the contrary, he is satisfied simply to indicate in broad outlines and general names of periods the Divine relations which he meets with in the consideration of the marvellous changes of history generally, and to leave them to be found out as if they were celestial enigmas. But inasmuch as he adopts, following the various previous examples of the Book of Enoch and yet in an original manner, 5,000 years as the sacred cycle of all history until the coming of the Messiah, he places the last days of Moses in the year 2500 before this event. It is true that so far as we know none of the various early chronological computations which were then derived from the numbers found in the Pentateuch, declared that just 2,500 years had elapsed between the Creation and the death of Moses; still they really approached this number,3 and our Bible-prophet 1 As the man may be briefly designated who supposes himself to be a prophet mainly on account of his apt and believing use of the Holy Scriptures. 2 Tempora CCL.; but in what special sense these tempora, kaipоí, are to be understood, is precisely the enigma which the readers are to solve according to all other indications. According to the Hebrew Pentateuch there would be 1,556, 390, 215, 430, and 40, in all 2,631 years; according to the Greek Pentateuch, fewer. THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK. 57 uses everywhere simply large round proportions. The period from the death of Moses to the time of the author amounted, on the contrary, according to the greatest length assigned to it by the learned chronologists of the time,' to much less than 2,500 years; and although the time from the present of the author to the coming of the Messiah had to be deducted, the period would still be too extended. However, our Bible-prophet could conceive this long series of years until the coming of the Messiah as shortened 2 by Divine mercy to a term of 25 × 70 instead of 25 × 100, or of 1,750 instead of 2,500 years. In that case it became possible for him also in the various great crises of this time, which may be briefly called the Mosaic time, to fix corresponding periods, of seventy years each in round numbers, in such a way that attentive, longing readers could see therein so many hints regarding the nearness of the longed-for salvation. To give here a short general view of the book, and at the same time an example of the prophecies and calculations of such Bible-prophets, who constantly became of greater importance according to the whole spirit of the times, we find the 25 yearweeks, or briefly years, are so divided that particularly the first 6 or 7 when there were no kings in Israel, that is, in the view of our author, when Israel dwelt in the land according to the principles of a pure Theocracy, are distinguished from the 18 or 19 when it was ruled by princes and tyrants3 (that is, domestic and foreign princes). Of these 18 or 19 years there are distinguished (1) 7 (that is, 490) when Jerusalem shall be strongly fortified by the Sanctuary (that is, the time from David until the destruction of Jerusalem): next (2) 9 (that is, 630) years when God gladdens His people with His special protection, but when they already sink too low into heathenism, that is, the same times, but commenced earlier, perhaps from the period where the books of Kings begin. These 9 years close with the conquest by a king from the East, as Nabuchodrozzor is here called in direct antithesis to the later king and conqueror from the West, that is, Augustus. After these 9 follow, lastly 1 According to the observations, vol. ii. pp. 83 sq., 371 sq. 2 Corresponding to the sacredness of the years of jubilee, and the type given in the Book of Daniel, ch. ix. [See the author's subsequent treatment of this chapter in the second edition of his Commentary on the Prophets, English translation, vol. v. pp. 267 sq.-TR.] In ch. ii. that is, the hiatus after intrabunt in terram suam annos must be supplied in some such way as by vi. et vii. sine regibus erunt, unless in this passage the number twenty-five was first mentioned in a general sense. Ch. iii. at the beginning compared with ch. vi. at the end. The seven and the nine are, ch. ii., plainly brought into connection with the time of the foundation and also of the division of the Davidie kingdom according to the ten and two tribes; and the number nine, as the most important of the two, is repeated, ch. vii. in a clear connection. (3), 3 and 3 and 2 of such years,' evidently those of the Persian, the Greek and the Roman rule, the Persian being reckoned correctly as about 210 (3 times 70) ordinary years, the Greek, which in fact gradually passed into the Roman before Pompey, likewise as 210, so that the Roman rule, if it was considered as having lasted from about 110 years B.C., had not then outlasted as much as two of these seventy years. If there are now (4) added to these four different governments, the one being native and the three foreign, which are here regarded as the four great hours, that is, sections of time in those 18 to 19 year-days, the 77 years of the Babylonian captivity, which are specially distinguished,3 we get as the result the above 18 to 19 years which must elapse after the pure Theocracy; yet the time when the proper sacrifices will be presented in the Temple is correctly limited to the 7 first and the 8 last named, accordingly to the round number of 15 of such year-days.* 2 Our author, therefore, makes Moses, in the year 2500 after the Creation and the last hours of his own life, discourse with Joshua regarding this immense period of history, which, as our Bible-prophet conceives it, is destined soon to become the truly Mosaic period. He clothes that which had already become matter of past history in the form of an artificially veiled future, and not until the end, where Messianic anticipation comes in, does he pass into pure and simple prophecy. Now, as the whole work was written not only to arouse and inspire its readers, but also to add to the glory of Moses himself, it is quite intelligible that the book should close with a narrative description of the death of Moses, in which the immortal side of his work and his spirit is presented in a far more glorious light than is the case at the end of the Pentateuch. The days of the highest glorification of the memory of Moses that could ever occur in the course of history had now been long approaching; and as far as this glorification could find its perfect expressions in a narrative of the end of his earthly career, it finds this here. We refer to the beautiful representation of the conflict between Satan and Michael for the eternal possession of Moses at the moment of his death, when the former imagines that he can According to the correct reading, 1 discussed more plainly than in the passage of the Gött. Gel. Anz. above referred to. 5 These numbers have here at the commencement been quite clearly preserved, and in so far as they supply early evidence regarding the calculation from the years since the Creation are also memorable, as has been shown in the Göttinger Nachrichten, 1865, pp. 513 sq. ITS REFERENCES TO HEROD. 69 59 claim him, because even Moses had once really failed to maintain his faith with sufficient purity, but the latter victoriously defends him. The idea that neither can a grave hold the body of Moses nor a sepulchral monument (even if it were a pyramid) suffice for him, since the whole earth is his grave and his monument,' is similar. It is true that that narrative, together with the entire conclusion of the book, is wanting in the one original document, mentioned above, which has come down to us: still, the whole book received from that narrative the short name of the Assumption,2 or ascension, of Moses. And we have ample evidence of the popularity of the work in those first times for which it was primarily written. But if it was less popular amongst its later readers, because they no longer appreciated the living traits of the time of its origin, and if on that account it was variously recast under the hands of subsequent Jewish scholars, its simple fundamental thought, at all events, was still all along preserved in these editions, as was further remarked above.3 But if we read the book simply as it presents itself in its primary meaning to us, it carries us back most vividly to those fundamental conceptions under the influence of which the Gaulonite and his adherents acted, as it also, in its veiled manner, portrays vividly enough simply the pictures of the most recent past. It is worthy of note, that amongst the somewhat older stories it is only the relation of the Two Tribes to the Ten which are remaining in exile, or rather in foreign countries, and there multiplying not unprosperously, to which more express reference is made; but thus all the members of the ancient nation who were dwelling in the East were manifestly already in these times reckoned to belong to the Ten Tribes, and often boasted of their prosperity. On the other hand, the true glory of the Maccabean times is in our book already as good as forgotten; and in that the bad example which the last Asmoneans had set reflected its impure light upon them all, they are already all called totally unworthy priests, indeed, 'Slaves born from slaves,' as the early Pharisees threw this in the teeth first of Hyrcanus I. and Jannæus.7 But the blackest shadow falls, in the first place, upon the layman Herod, 1 Ch. xi. 2 Assumptio, or rather acc. ch. x. Receptio Mosis, 'Aváλnyis, acc. Gen. v. 24. 3 Vol. ii. pp. 226 sq. Comp. also de Jelinek's Bet-Hamidrasch, i. pp. 115 sq. Ch. iii. passim and ch. iv. ad fin. That the two tribes of the New Jerusalem always remain tristes et gementes is a feature in which our author agrees entirely with the expression Dan. ix. 25. 5 Comp. vol. v. p. 91. It Ch. v. and ch. vi. ad init. may be seen from this that the earlier Asmoneans also were reprobated before they appropriated the royal name. 7 Vol. v. pp. 382 sq. |