Th e Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude This page intentionally left blank Th e Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude What Earliest Christianity Learned fr om the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha DAVID A. deSILVA 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. 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. This page intentionally left blank 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 This page intentionally left blank 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