toepel, alexander. yonton revisited.. a case study in the reception of tic science within early...

HTR 99:3 (2006) 235–45

Yonton Revisited: A Case Study in the

Reception of Hellenistic Science within

Early Judaism

Alexander ToepelUniversity of Tübingen

In the Syriac Book of the Cave of Treasures, which in a general way we may reckon

among the rewritten Bible texts, in ch. 27.6–11, an apocryphal fourth son of Noah

appears, by name.1

and possesses oracular and astrological wisdom. In 1980, Stephen Gero interpreted 2 Recently, however, Clemens Leonhard,

following Witold Witakowski, has questioned this approach and denied any prehis

tory to ; he regards him as an “invention” of the Syriac author of the Cave of

1 Scholars commonly date Cave of Treasures to the 6th c. C.E. and believe that a Christian

author in northern Mesopotamia wrote it; see Peter Bruns, “Spelunca Thesaurorum/Schatzhöhle,”

in Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur (ed. Siegmar Döpp and Wilhelm Geerlings; 3d ed.;

Freiburg i. Br.: Herder, 2002) 650. For arguments that favor a date towards the end of the 6th or

early 7th centuries, see ch. 1 “Einleitung” of the author‘s forthcoming doctoral thesis Die Adam- und Sethlegenden im syrischen Buch der Schatzhöhle (CSCO 618, Subsidia 119; Louvain: Peeters,

Cave of Treasures as a rewritten Bible text follows from the book’s

similarity to works which undoubtedly belong to this genre, such as the Book of Jubilees or the

Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, as Gary A. Anderson has noted (“The Cosmic

Mountain. Eden and Its Early Interpreters in Syriac Christianity,” in Genesis 1–3 in the History of Exegesis [ed. Gregory A. Robbins; Studies in Women and Religion 27; Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen,

1988] 214, n. 8).2 Stephen Gero, “The Legend of the Fourth Son of Noah,” HTR 73 (1980) 321–30. The name

“ ” does not actually appear in Jewish sources. Gero inferred the legend’s Jewish origin from

a peculiar exegesis of Gen 9:24 in the Babylonian Talmud, Sanh. fol. 70a. Here Ham’s crime against

the drunken Noah consists in castrating him in order to prevent Noah from begetting a fourth son.

Similarly the Midrash Gen. Rab. 36.7 asserts, without mentioning the castration, that Ham prevented

Noah from begetting a fourth son; see ibid., 321–22. Combining this with the appearance of

in the Cave of Treasures, Gero concluded that the Talmudic and Midrashic accounts refer polemically

236 HARVARD THEOLOGICAL REVIEW

Treasures.3 In the present article I aim to investigate whether it is possible indeed

to trace a Jewish origin of ’s appearance in the Cave of Treasures. Taking

could have evolved within a Jewish context. Secondly, I will

attempt to actually identify in earlier Jewish sources. In this I will follow

originates in the Biblical person of

(Gen 10:25).4 While Ri’s assumption derives from the possibility of a mis

and very probable, thus justifying the direction of thought taken by both

Gero and Ri over against the allegations of Leonhard and Witakowski. Moreover,

Hellenistic astronomy and astrology and how they read these concepts into, or set

them in opposition to, the Bible.

In earlier Jewish writings, two Biblical personages appear in possession of

astrological and oracular knowledge. In the Book of Jubilees ch. 8.1–4, Kainan,

a grandson of Shem, discovers an inscription with astrological content that the

fallen angels have written; according to Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities 1.69–71,

5 In order to elucidate the legend of in the Cave of Treasures, I

quote both passages here in full and analyze them with regard to their place within

Judaism in the age of Hellenism and Late Antiquity.

The account in Jubilees 8.1–4 runs as follows:6

8.1

married a woman named Rasueya, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of

to a fourth son of Noah, whom they believed to possess astrological knowledge; see ibid., 327–30.

Since the authorities quoted in the relevant passages of Talmud and Midrash belong to the 3rd and

4th centuries, this motif must considerably antedate the Cave of Treasures, which preserves it in its

original form, while the Rabbinic sources succeeded in erasing almost every memory of it.3 Clemens Leonhard, “Observations on the Date of the Syriac Cave of Treasures,” in Studies

in Language and Literature in Honour of Paul-Eugène Dion (ed. P. M. Michèle Daviau, John

W. Wevers and Michael Weigl; vol. 3 of The World of the Aramaeans

“The Division of the Earth Between the Descendants of Noah in the Syriac Tradition,” Aram 5

(1993) 635–56, at 641 and 648, who, likewise without further discussion, asserts that the author of

Cave of Treasures “invented” .4 Commentaire de la Caverne des Trésors. Étude sur l’histoire du texte et de ses

sources. (CSCO 581, Subsidia 103; Louvain: Peeters, 2000) 341–57, at 356.5 Similar motifs also appear in such medieval works as the Book of Jashar and the Chronicles of

Jerahmeel; see Thomas W. Franxman, Genesis and the Jewish Antiquities of Flavius Josephus (BibOr

35; Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979) 79–80. I do not treat these later sources here because they

do not yield information on the motif’s use before the Cave of Treasures was written.6 I take this translation from The Book of Jubilees: A Critical Text (ed. and trans. James

C. VanderKam; CSCO 511; Scriptores aethiopici 88; Louvain: Peeters, 1989) 50–51. Scholars

commonly date the Book of Jubilees to the time immediately after the Maccabaean revolt; see

ALEXANDER TOEPEL 237

Elam. She gave birth to a son for him in the third year of this week, and he

named him Kainan. 2When the boy grew up, his father taught him (the art

of) writing. He went to look for a place of his own where he could possess

his own city. 3He found an inscription which the ancients had incised in a

rock. He read what was in it, copied it, and sinned on the basis of what was

in it, since it was the Watchers’ teaching by which they used to observe the

omens of the sun, moon, and stars and every heavenly sign. 4He wrote (it)

down but told no one about it because he was afraid to tell Noah about it lest

he become angry at him about it.

This reveals a pronounced negative attitude towards astrology, in accord with the

book’s generally hostile stand against Hellenism.7 The Book of Jubilees here at

tributes the ability to interpret stellar oracles to the “Watchers,” that is, the fallen

angels of ch. 5.1–2, 6, who are responsible for the introduction of magical arts and,

through their marriages with human women, for the birth of the antediluvian giants

and the bloodshed they caused. A comparison of the account quoted above with the

reports of pagan authors on the origins of alchemical and other occult knowledge

shows that the author of the Book of Jubileesthe arcane sciences of his Hellenistic environment. Greek authors most often at

tribute such knowledge to Hermes Trismegistos, who engraved it upon tablets or

stelae of stone, which the respective adepts found at a much later date and from

which they, in turn, derived their skills.8 Although we do not know why the Book

James C. VanderKam, “The Origins and Purposes of the Book of Jubilees,” in Studies in the Book of Jubilees (ed. Matthias Albani, Jörg Frey, and Armin Lange; TSAJ 65; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,

1997) 3–24, at 19–20. John C. Reeves adduces convincing reasons for dating the book to an earlier

period, that is, between 225 and 175 B.C.E. (Jewish Lore in Manichean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions [HUCM 14; Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992] 54). For

Jubileesof the 2nd c. B.C.E.

7 See VanderKam, “Origins and Purposes,” 20–22.8 See Wolfgang Speyer, Bücherfunde in der Glaubenswerbung der Antike. Mit einem Ausblick

auf Mittelalter und Neuzeit (Hypomnemata 24; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970) 111–20.

According to Proclus, In Tim. 1.24 A/B, already Krantor, who lived around 250 B.C.E., maintained

that Plato derived the myth of Atlantis from Egyptian stelae; see ibid., 115. As Eusebius, Praep. ev. 1.9.26 shows, Philo of Byblos, too, knew the motif and related that Sanchuniathon found stelae

with the teachings of Hermes in a temple of Amun; see Speyer, Bücherfunde, 114–15. According to

a stone with an inscription of Ostanes concerning alchemical knowledge; see ibid., 26–27. Speyer

motif could have easily reached Judaea, which the Ptolemies ruled until 200 B.C.E. We may no

longer accept Bousset’s contention of the motif’s “Chaldaean” (in the sense of Babylonian) origin,

which he bases upon a single parallel in Berossos (Wilhelm Bousset, “Die Beziehungen der

ältesten jüdischen Sibylle zur chaldäischen Sibylle und einige weitere Beobachtungen über den

synkretistischen Charakter der spätjüdischen Litteratur,” ZNW 3 [1902] 23–49, at 43–46; idem and

Hugo Gressmann, Die Religion des Judentums im späthellenistischen Zeitalter [HNT 21; 4th ed.;

Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1966] 492–93).


of Jubilees ascribes such knowledge to Kainan, who appears only in the Septuagint

text of Gen 11:12,9 here Kainan obviously takes the role of the adept in Hermetic

writings, albeit in a negative form.10

In contrast to this Josephus gives the motif a much more positive turn. In Jewish Antiquities 1.69–71 he writes about the descendants of Seth:11

1.69All of these, being virtuous, lived in happiness in the same land without

civil strife, with nothing unpleasant coming upon them until their death. And

they discovered the science with regard to the heavenly bodies and their

orderly arrangement. 70And in order that humanity might not lose their dis

coveries or perish before they came to be known, Adamos having predicted

that there would be an extermination of the universe, at one time by a violent

9 See Jacques T. A. G. M. van Ruiten, Primaeval History Interpreted: The Rewriting of Genesis 1–2 in the Book of Jubilees (Supplements to JSJ 66; Leiden: Brill, 2000) 313, 315. The Masoretic

text reads Selach, to which George Kedrenos, Compendium historiarum, also attests; see Speyer,

Bücherfunde, 114, n. 23. George probably depends here upon Julius Africanus, who is attributing

10 Asatir 4.15 Kainan’s father Arpachshad receives

a “book of signs” which apparently contains astrological knowledge; see Albertus F. J. Klijn, Seth in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature (NovTSup 46; Leiden: Brill 1977) 30, n. 15. Since the

Asatir (whose title derives from the Arabic plural “stories; legends”) in its present form goes

C.E. (see Hans G. Kippenberg, Garizim und Synagoge. Tradition-sgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Religion der aramäischen Periode [Religionsgeschichtliche

the story in Jubilees. Likewise, the note in Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities 1.144 that Arpachshad

is the ancestor of the Chaldaeans (see Bousset, “Beziehungen,” 44) in all likelihood also goes

back to such a tradition, since “Chaldaean” in antiquity is almost synonymous with “astrologer.”

Klaus Berger interprets Jubilees 8.1–4 as referring to faulty methods of calculating the calendar,

but the text does not clearly indicate this (Das Buch der Jubiläen [ed. and trans. Klaus Berger;

JSHRZ 2.3; Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1981] 369 n. 3e). However, the discrediting of

astrology in Jubilees ch. 8.1–4 may relate to the partition of the earth which follows soon after

Jubilees ch. 8.8–9.15, especially given that the division of the earth into

by Greek geographers involved astronomical knowledge (see below, n. 28). According to

The Book of Jubilees, 51). Only after this, in 8.11, does Noah himself divide the earth by casting

lots. This presupposes two ways of dividing the parts of the earth among Noah’s descendants,

one of which is evil and, as the annunciation of divine judgement in ch. 9.15 shows, presumably

Jubileesassociates with the fallen Watchers. Since the geographical section in Jubilees chs. 8–10 seems

to aim toward the refutation of “the claim that the Jews stole their land from the Canaanites, the

supposedly rightful owners” (VanderKam, “Origins and Purposes,”, 22 n. 83), we may surmise that

the author of Jubilees, by attributing the origin of astrology to the fallen angels, wishes to subvert

the astronomical foundation of Hellenistic geography. In its place he introduces a division of the

earth according to the casting of lots by Noah, which validates the right of the Jewish nation to its

ancestral land. In the Ethiopic Book of Enoch ch. 8.3 some of the fallen angels teach astrology to

humankind, which explains why Jubilees attributes the invention of astrology to the Watchers; see

van Ruiten, Primaeval History, 318. 11 I take this translation from Louis H. Feldman, trans. Judean Antiquities 1–4. (vol. 3 of Flavius

Josephus: Translation and Commentary; ed. Steve Mason; Leiden: Brill, 2000) 24–26.


on both, 71

the one of stone should remain and offer an opportunity to teach men what

had been written on it and to reveal that also one of brick had been set up by

them. And it remains until today in the land of Seiris.

This account shows a marked difference from Jubilees 8.1–4. First of all, it attri

butes the discovery of astronomy12 not to the fallen angels but to the descendants

of Seth who excel in virtue and whom Josephus pictures in accordance with pagan

authors’ descriptions of the Golden Age.13 Furthermore, Jubilees credits them with 14 This detail

of Josephus’ story has a precise astrological background, which his pagan audience

must have known. From an early time on Greek cosmology knew of a magnus annuswhich was completed when the planets reached exactly the same position they had

conjunctions” of the planets in the individual signs of the Zodiac would take place

and lead to cosmic catastrophes.15 Seneca, in Nat. 3.29.1 and Marc. 26.6, refers

12 As Per Beskow remarks, the distinction between astronomy and astrology does not operate

in antiquity (“Astrologie I. Einleitung,” Theologische Realenzyklopädie [ed. Gerhard Krause and

Gerhard Müller; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1979] 4:277).13 See Louis H. Feldman, Studies in Josephus’ Rewritten Bible (JSJ Supplements 58; Leiden:

Brill, 1998) 3–8. We do not know why Josephus attributes the invention of astronomy to the Sethites.

Later rabbinic authorities as well as Christian exegetes and historiographers interpret the “sons of

God” in Gen 6:2 as descendants of Seth; see Philip S. Alexander, “The Targumim and Early Exegesis

of ‘Sons of God’ in Genesis 6,” JJS 23 (1972) 60–71, at 62–63; Lionel R. Wickham, “The Sons of

God and Daughters of Men: Genesis VI 2 in Early Christian Exegesis,” OtSt 19 (1974) 135–147,

at 141–44; Gedaliahu A. G. Stroumsa, Another Seed: Studies in Gnostic Mythology (NHS 24;

Leiden: Brill, 1984) 25–26. Since the fall of the Watchers in Jubilees likewise refers to Gen 6:2, it

would prima facie seem probable that Josephus credits the descendants of Seth with astronomical

of Gen 6:2 in Ant. 1.73 does not indicate that he knew of such an interpretation of the fallen angels;

see Feldman, Judean Antiquities, 26 n. 172. Moreover, Josephus’s knowledge of actual astrological

books ascribed to Seth most probably lies immediately behind his account in Antiquities. Later on,

Byzantine historiographers in particular depict Seth as an astrologer; see Klijn, Seth, 48–53.14 To be sure, Adam is the one who makes this prediction. Such accords with later rabbinic

sources, which ascribe to Adam a general prophetic foreknowledge as well as skills in calendrical

calculation, which he transmitted to Enoch and Noah; see Salomo Rappaport, Agada und Exegese bei Flavius Josephus

1930) 7 and nn. 44–45; Feldman, Judean Antiquities, 24 nn. 164–65. Adam’s prediction, however,

by virtue of having an astrological background, does relate to the Sethites’ discovery of astronomy;

the Sethites themselve, of course, inscribe the prophecy on stelae.15 See Wilhelm Gundel and Hans G. Gundel, “Planeten,” in Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der clas-

sischen Altertumswissenschaft (ed. Konrat Ziegler; Stuttgart: Metzler, 1950) 20: cols. 2095–2096,

2148–2151.


sidera sideribus incurrent (Marc. 26.6).16

Seneca shares with Jubilees 8.1–4 the inscription of this knowledge on stelae.17

However, in this connection Josephus mentions a geographical detail that Jubileeslacks: The stelae remain “until today in the land of Seiris ( ).”

states that Thoth erected stelae with oracular knowledge After

tian temples.18 Even though we cannot determine the location of these places with

certainty, we may reasonably assume that both designations refer to the country

of the Seres, that is, the Chinese, whom ancient authors thought an exceptionally

peaceful and just people.19

Summing up, we may say that both Josephus and the Book of Jubilees attribute

astronomical/astrological knowledge to persons of remote antiquity. In both cases

16

half of the 3d c. B.C.E.

. Feldman (Studies, 15) notes the

motif’s use in Stoicism but does not point out its astrological background. Besides, rabbinic authors

also know a but relate this event to the punishment of Sodom; see Rappaport, Agada,

90–92, and Feldman, Judean Antiquities, 24 n. 166. As Ginzberg convincingly argued, this most

likely compensates for the denial of individual retribution, which the ending of the world through

with Gero’s interpretation of the legends about Noah’s castration as polemics against astrological

would occur at the same time. If he did (as Rappaport [Agada, 91–93] supposes) the erection of two

stelae as a precaution against the loss of the Sethites’ knowledge would have served no purpose,

since both would perish in the double catastrophe. As to the motif’s origin, it is “Chaldaean” (see

Bousset, “Beziehungen,” 45 n. 5) insofar as we consider its astrological background. Cuneiform

texts, however, as Bousset himself elsewhere notes (Bousset and Gressmann, Religion, 492–93) offer

not a single parallel, wherefore the notion cannot be Babylonian. According to Gundel and Gundel

(“Planeten,” cols. 2148–2149) the motif ultimately goes back to Hermetic and Egyptian sources. 17 See above, n. 8.18 See Gerrit J. Reinink, “Das Land ‘Seiris’ ( ir) und das Volk der Serer in jüdischen und christ

lichen Traditionen,” JSJ 6 (1975) 72–85, at 73.19 See ibid., 72–85, esp. 80. Feldman (Judean Antiquities, 26 n. 168) relates Reinink’s conclusions

based on the old Chinese word for silk” (ibid.) but connects the name with Greek “silkworm”

and related terms, which themselves undoubtedly do have that origin; see Reinink, “Seiris,” 78.

Reitzenstein’s contention that Seiris is identical with , which denotes the country of Isis

and which we therefore take to refer to Egypt (see ibid., 74), does not seem probable in the light of

Hypostasis of the Archons a mountain of Sir ( ) appears

as the landing place of Noah’s ark, and ch. 134 of the Pistis Sophia maintains that Jesus dictated

books with oracular knowledge to Enoch in Paradise, which Enoch later deposited on the “rock

Ararat” (see ibid., 74, and Speyer, Bücherfunde, 30). Moreover, according to Hippolytus’s refutatio

holy book from Seres


inscriptions preserve this knowledge and both times there is a connection with

Noah. In Jubileestime; according to Jewish AntiquitiesUnlike the Book of Jubilees, however, Josephus has a positive image of oracular

he contends, one could see it even in his own day.20

Having outlined the setting of these stories in their Hellenistic environment,

I will now relate them to the account found in Cave of Treasures. In its present

form, to be sure, this account presents a Christian reworking of the theme, which

serves the purpose of explaining how the Magi were able to predict the birth of

Christ and actually come to Bethlehem to do him homage. Ch. 45.11 of the Caveof Treasures states that they read the “oracle of Nimrod”, and ch. 27.6–11 explains

the origin of this oracle by describing a meeting between Nimrod and , a

“son of Noah”:21

27.6And Nimrod went up to yqrwra, that is, Nod. 7And when he reached the

lake wkrs, he found , the son of Noah. 8And he went down and bathed

in the lake; then he drew near and prostrated himself before , son of

Noah. 9And said to him: You who are a king are prostrating yourself

before me? 10And Nimrod said to him: Because of you I went down here. 11And he stayed with him for three years and [taught] Nimrod wisdom

and revelatory books; and he [ ] said: Do not return to me.

Like the texts quoted above, this passage deals with the transmission of oracular

knowledge deriving from a person of the remote past. The sentences that follow

(ch. 27.12–22) show that this knowledge concerns stellar oracles: Nimrod returns

to his country and starts using the divinatory methods taught to him by . A

to reveal the same art to him. The demon advises him to marry his mother, sister

and daughter,22 whereupon the priest starts practicing astrology and “Chaldaean

between China and the Mediterranean operated through the intermediary of Parthia (see Reinink,

country appears under the name of [ r], which Bardaisan’s Book of the Laws of Countriesuses to denote China. In the chronicle, the Magi, who possess an oracular book by Seth predicting

the birth of Christ, dwell there (see ibid., 74–75). This account already represents the Christian

version of the story which we will treat below in connection with .20 A version of this story, very similar to the one in Josephus, appears in the Vita Adae et Evae

ch. 49.3–50.1; see Feldman, Judean Antiquities, 24 n. 166. It most likely depends either on Jewish Antiquities or on a common source but differs from Josephus insofar as the inscription does not deal

with astrology but concerns the life of Adam and Eve; see ibid., and Rappaport, Agada, 7–8. 21 I offer this translation based upon the Eastern recension of the Syriac text as given in La

Caverne des Trésors. Les deux recensions syriaques207; Louvain: Peeters 1987) 210.

22 Christian polemics constantly targeted marriages between close relatives, which the Zoroastrian

nobility and clergy apparently practiced; see Eznik of Kolb, De Deo § 187 (in A Treatise on God [trans. Monica J. Blanchard and


arts.” The author of the Cave of Treasures takes pains, however, to emphasize that

superstitious practices do not contaminate Nimrod’s own divination, because it

was who taught it to him; the Persians called it “oracle,” and the Romans

called it “astronomy” (27.20).

he does not invent it) and, further, since Ps.-Clementine Homilieswith Zoroaster, it seems valid to assume that in Cave of Treasures the name Nimrod

in fact stands for Zoroaster, to whom Hellenistic astrology attributed a corpus of

divinatory and magical texts.23 However, the alleged son of Noah, , who

safeguards oracular wisdom in the same way as the Watchers in Book of JubileesJewish Antiquities 1.69–71, appears neither

in the Bible nor in any source antedating the Book of the Cave of Treasures.24

Ri, in commenting on Cave ’s identity

from his dwelling place in a country named Nod. Both Gen 4:16 and Cave 5.31

the Masoretic text locates it . The rabbinical law of exegesis by analogy

), which Gen

, grandson of

Arpachshad.25 Drawing upon the similar appearance of the names and

and ), Ri contends that these two names

designate the selfsame person.26 To corroborate this, we may observe that in Num

Robin D. Young; Early Christian Texts in Translation 2; Louvain: Peeters, 1998] 117–18) and the

Nestorian canons quoted in Victor Aptowitzer, Kain und Abel in der Agada, den Apokryphen, der hellenistischen, christlichen und muhammedanischen Literatur (Veröffentlichungen der Alexander

Kohut Memorial Foundation 1; Vienna: Löwit, 1922) 8–9.23 On Zoroaster in astrology, see Wilhelm Gundel and Hans G. Gundel, Astrologumena (Sudhoffs

obviously go back to Hellenistic Egypt (see ibid., 61–62) which accords well with the Egyptian

background of the inscription/stelae in Book of Jubileesstudent motif present in Cave of Treasures occurs in Hippolytus’s Elench. (1.2.12) where, however,

Zoroaster appears as teacher, and Pythagoras is his student; see ibid., 60 n. 2. The account in Cave of Treasures may be trying to subvert such a notion by stating that Zoroaster himself learned his

wisdom from a son of Noah. The use of [segad] “to prostrate oneself; to bow down; to

worship” in Cave 24.8 indicates the wish to make Nimrod/Zoroaster inferior to , which

stands in marked contrast to Zoroaster’s exaltation by pagan astrologers.24 Later works, to be sure, mention

back to Cave of Treasures; see Gero, “Legend,” 323–26.25 See Ri, Commentaire, 350–52. Josephus (Antiquities 1.147) mentions that the sons of

inhabit India and , that is, China; see Ri, Commentaire, 352. That the author of

Cave of Treasuresbest explain the unintelligible “lake wkrs” ( ) in Caveparallel accounts in Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum

[ uqianos yam ., 324–25). Cave24.20 furthermore mentions the “mountains of Nod” as located at the “ends of the East”.

26 See ibid., 341–57, esp. 356. Apart from misspelling, we may assume the possibility that

“ ” represents a Babylonian pronounciation of “ .” Note that the name “Aquila” seems


that he came from the “Eastern mountains” ( ).27

In addition to this tentative connection, we may further support Ri’s assumption

which will help to actually identify the elusive fourth son of Noah in Jewish sources.

Hellenistic geographers divided the earth into or , that is, parallel

circular belts between the poles and the equator. These ultimately derived

required astronomical skills.28 Now, Gen 10:25 states that during the lifetime of

“the earth was divided” and Targum Ps.-Jonathan to Gen 10:26 says that

“begot Elmodad, who measured the earth with cords.”29 This dividing and

measuring procedure in itself does not imply any astronomical techniques; in fact,

according to the Book of Jubilees 8.11, Noah divides the earth among his children

by casting lots. However, in the previous sentence (8.9), Noah’s children, which

would include Arpachshad,

bad way among themselves.”30 This might well refer to a division of the earth into

as in fact a Hellenistic reader of Gen 10:25 and Targum Ps.-Jonathan to

Gen 10:26 would naturally assume astronomical knowledge on part of the persons

involved in dividing the earth. Given the fact that the division took place in the days

of , it would furthermore have made sense to attribute this knowledge to

, whose descendants were known to live in an Eastern land, the traditional

habitat of astrologers, thus turning into an astronomer/astrologer who could

to appear as “Onkelos” in Babylonian sources, as two passages in the Jerusalem and Babylonian

Talmud attest (yMeg 1.9 and bMeg fol. 3a), where Palestinian is rendered as in the

Babylonian version. Other examples show insertion of the letter nun; note the forms “Andrianus” and

“Indropicus” for “Hadrian” and “Hydropicus” in the Babylonian Talmud (see Alec E. Silverstone,

Aquila and Onkelos [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1931] 31 and n. 5; The Targum Onqelos to Genesis [trans. Bernard Grossfeld; The Aramaic Bible 6; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988] 5 and n.

7). “ ” may also be the “phonetic” representation of a Babylonian regional form “ ;”

in this case the whole episode in Cave 27.6–11 most likely derives from an oral source.27 See ibid., 354–56. In place of the term , which in the Masoretic text parallels the “Eastern

mountains,” the Septuagint version of Num 23:7 has Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, of course, is the

was a king of Bactria (see ibid., 329); Cave 24.20 mentions Bactria alongside the “mountains of

Nod” as an eastern country.28 Berichte

zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 24 (2001) 16–23, and idem, “Zone,” in Der Neue Pauly. Enzyklopädie der Antike 12.2 (ed. Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider; Stuttgart: Metzler, 2003) 12.2, cols.

832–34.29 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis (trans. Michael Maher; The Aramaic Bible: The Targums

’s brother Peleg on account of a play on words with the root Pi el “to divide; to separate.”

The Targum passage relies on a derivation of the name “Elmodad” from Qal “to measure.”30 VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 51; see above, n. 9.


such as Nimrod/Zoroaster.31

We may also explain the rejection and elimination of this motif in rabbinic lit

erature, which Gero surmised, along these lines. Not only did Hellenistic geography

divide the earth in accordance with astronomical precepts, but it also assigned to

the various zones of the earth (most often seven in number) a planet that ruled over 32 More precisely,

the Babylonian Talmud makes evident (

against this idea the redactors of the

tractate make their own standpoint unmistakably clear.33 Rav, founder of the acad

emy in Sura and one of the outstanding scholars of the third century, also rejected

the opinion that Ham “mutilated” Noah, that is, castrated him, thus rendering him

unable to even beget this son. Gero takes this as a polemical reference to a fourth

son of Noah endowed with astrological knowledge.34

If we accept the derivation of the name “ ” from “ ,” however, we

son. First of all, Jewish tradition knows other tradents of astrological and oracular

31 A connection between and Nimrod, albeit a polemical one, appears in ch. 6 of

Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. Here , together with Nimrod, collaborated in

Commentaire, 353. Given that rabbinic literature,

which aimed at refuting astrology, frequently mentions Nimrod’s hostility towards Abraham (see

as an astrologer alongside

Nimrod. In Book of Jubilees 8.7 does not appear by name, but his father Eber married a

daughter of Nimrod by name of Azurad, which would make a grandson of Nimrod; see Ri,

Commentaire, 353. Furthermore, and Seth are curiously similar. According to Jubilees 4.4,

the name of Seth’s wife is Azura, and in the Revelationshad access to a more complete version of Cave of Treasures,

“a man in his [Noah’s] likeness, like his image” (Gero, “Legend,” 325). Since already Josephus in

his Jewish War 6.289 mentions astrological texts under the name of Seth (see Gundel and Gundel,

Astrologumena/ yqrwra in Cave 27.6 to

(see Ri, Commentaire, 320), which can be connected to the name “ ” Bousset’s and

hero 32 See Gundel and Gundel, “Planeten,” cols. 2140–2143.33 See James H. Charlesworth, “Jewish Astrology in the Talmud, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea

Scrolls, and Early Palestinian Synagogues,” HTR 70 (1977) 183–200, at 187. The Biblical text

here adduced to denigrate astrology is Jer 10:2. I have argued elsewhere that Qumran fragments

with regard to the pagan nations (Alexander Toepel, “Planetary Demons in Early Jewish Literature,”

JSP 14 (2005) 232–34, 237–38).34 See Gero, “Legend,” 327–30.


lore who are directly related to Noah. These include, on the one hand, Noah’s son

Shem, to whom tradition attributes a treatise on astrology, and on the other hand

a Sybil by the name of Sambethe whom tradition calls a daughter of Noah. More

over, Genesis Apocryphon §7 appears to attribute astrological knowledge to Noah

himself.35 All this accords with the fact that the above mentioned traditions some

times connect the stelae containing astrological knowledge with Mount Ararat, the 36

hero Xisuthros, who stands in parallel to the biblical Noah, hides oracular literature 37 By the

third century, therefore, , whose designation “son of Noah” we may interpret

in the general sense of “descendant” in a manner congruent with Biblical mode of

speech, may have already become detached from his biblical place and become one

of Noah’s direct offspring in analogy to Shem and the Sybil Sambethe.

From the preceding discussion we clearly see that ’s appearance in Caveof Treasures 27.6–11 is by no means merely a Christian legend; rather, Gero’s

direction of explanation has proven fruitful and, in fact, revealed a likely Jewish

counterpart of , credited with measuring the earth by astronomical meth

ods, which would have made him one of the early practitioners of astronomy and

astrology, alongside heros of Hellenistic astrology such as Nimrod/Zoroaster. The

as an astronomer furthermore shows the ambiguous attitude

towards Hellenistic science that seems to have prevailed before the formation of

rabbinical Judaism. On the one hand, as we have seen, the Book of Jubilees (2nd c.

B.C.E.) already condemns astrology and perhaps sought to discredit alleged tradents

of astrological lore. On the other hand, Hellenistic Jewish writers like Artapanus

Abraham.38 The endowment of

attitude; its aim, however, “is not so much an advocacy of astrology as it is an at

tempt to say that all the things that the Greeks revere were earlier invented by, or

at least known to Jews.”39

35 See Charlesworth, “Jewish Astrology,” 190–91; Bousset, “Beziehungen,” 24–25); The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (trans. Geza Vermes; 4th ed.; London: Penguin Books, 1995) 450.

36 See above, n. 8.37 See Bousset, “Beziehungen,” 43.38 Fragments preserved by Eusebius, Praep. ev. 9.17–18; see Charlesworth, “Astrology,”

189–90.39 Ibid., 190.

toepel, alexander. yonton revisited.. a case study in the reception of tic science within early...

Documents