� 32. The Palestinian Jewish Literature

§ 32. THE PALESTINIAN JEWISH LITERATURE
Preliminary Observations.
UNQUESTIONABLE as it is on the one hand that zeal for the law of God and the hope of a better future constituted the two distinctive marks of the Judaism of the period now under consideration still it must not be forgotten on the other that those interests sought to express themselves in a great variety of forms and that in the sphere of the spiritual life there were yet other aims that claimed to rank along with them though having no immediate connection with them. How far this was the case may be seen from a glance at the Jewish literature of our period. The aspect which that literature presents is of so diversified a character that it is difficult to combine all the different elements into one connected whole. And if this be true of the literature of Palestinian Judaism alone it becomes much more so if we take into account the literature of Hellenistic Judaism as well. In that case there will be seen to stretch before us a field of so extensive and varied a character that it is scarcely any longer possible to make out the internal connection between all the various products of this literature.
In this strangely varied mass two leading groups may in the first instance be distinguished the Palestinian and the Hellenistic. We select those designations for want of better; and to correspond with them we also divide our subject into two leading sections. But at the same time it must be distinctly borne in mind that the line of demarcation between those two groups is of a somewhat fluctuating and indefinite character and that the designations applied to them are to be taken very much cum grano salis. By the Palestinian Jewish literature we mean that which in all essential (but only essential) respects represents the standpoint of Pharisaic Judaism as it had developed itself in Palestine; while by the Hellenistic Jewish literature again we mean that which either as regards form or matter bears traces; to any noticeable extent of Hellenistic influences. The products belonging to the first-mentioned group were for the most part composed in Hebrew; but the fact of their having been so composed must not be regarded as a decisive criterion and that for the simple reason that in numerous instances it is no longer possible to make out whether it was Hebrew or Greek that was the original language but further because in the case of several compositions the circumstance of their being written in Greek is a thing purely external and accidental. And hence it is that we also include in this group several writings that possibly nay probably were composed in Greek at the very first while reserving for the other group only those that show pretty evident traces of Hellenistic influence either in the form or the matter. But the line of demarcation between the two cannot be sharply defined there being in fact some writings that have almost as much title to be included in the one group as in the other. And just as the distinction we have adopted is not intended to imply that those belonging to the one group were written in Hebrew and those belonging to the other in Greek so as little do we intend it to be understood by our use of the term “Palestinian” that all the compositions included under this designation were written in Palestine. For there was Palestinian Judaism outside of Palestine just as conversely there was Hellenistic Judaism within it.
In the period now under consideration literary efforts as such were essentially foreign to “Palestinian” Judaism. One might almost venture to say that it had no literature at all. For the few literary productions of which it could boast had for the most part a purely practical aim and had but a very slender connection with each other. It is precisely from these writings themselves that we can see how true it is that zcal for the law and for the faith of the fathers eclipsed every other interest. When any one took to writing he did so as a rule for the purpose of in one form or another exhorting his readers to keep firm hold of those precious blessings or of indirectly helping to increase and strengthen a spirit of faithful devotion to the law. Literary pursuits as such and the cultivation of literature in the interests of culture generally were things quite unknown to genuine Judaism. Its “culture” consisted in the knowledge and observance of the law.
Looked at from this standpoint it was a somewhat extraordinary thing to find that in the palmy days of the Hasmonaean dynasty works of native history had been composed (the First Book of Maccabees the Chronicles of Hyrcanus). This presupposed the existence of a patriotic self-consciousness for which native history as such was a thing of some value. Later on after the Hasmonaean dynasty had been overthrown we no longer meet with any further traces of Jewish historiography such as those now referred to; and so for his information with regard to this period Josephus had to depend on other than Jewish sources. We already begin to notice indications of an intimate connection with the aims of legal Judaism in those Psalms that were composed during this period in imitation of the older models (the Maccabaean Psalms the Psalter of Solomon). The whole of those compositions were written with a view to religious edification and therefore—for at that time religion meant simply a firm adherence to the law—more or less with the view of fostering and quickening a spirit of faithful devotion to the law. In our period what is known as gnomic wisdom exercised a direct influence in the way of promoting the spirit in question. For notwithstanding the very diversified character of the wisdom of life exhibited in the proverbs of Jesus the son of Sirach their alpha and omega is simply this: fear God and keep His commandments. Then in the maxims of the scribes of the time of the Mishna and which have been collected in the Pirke Aboth we hear from beginning to end and in every variety of tone the exhortation to a strict observance of the law. But there was a species of literature of a totally different character that also served precisely the same end viz. the hortatory narrative (Judith Tobit). When in compositions of this class we have brought before us in a somewhat imaginative fashion the doings and the fortunes of persons who had been distinguished for their heroic faith or their exemplary piety and who had at the same time been sustained by the divine help the object of the story is not to entertain the reader but to inculcate the truth that the fear of God is the highest wisdom and that a fear of God in the sense of legal Pharisaic Judaism. But in our period a more favourite kind of literature still than the hortatory narrative was the genuine prophetic exhortation i.e. exhortations based upon alleged special revelations with regard to the future destinies of the people. It was a favourite practice to put such revelations in the mouths of the recognised authorities of the olden time with the view of thereby giving peculiar weight to the exhortations and the consolations based upon them. The object therefore of those pseudepigraphic prophetic compositions (Daniel Enoch The Ascension of Moses The Apocalypse of Baruch The Apocalypse of Ezra The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and others) was always of an eminently practical kind viz. consolation amid the sufferings of the present and encouragement to maintain a stedfast adherence to the law by pointing to the certainty of future rewards and punishments. None of those literary productions could be said to have had any direct connection with the professional labours of the scribes. No doubt they served to promote a spirit of faithful devotion to the law but they had no concern with the law and the Holy Scriptures as such; we should rather regard them as free literary productions of a very diversified character and composed for the most part in imitation of the older models. In the period now in question the habours of the scribes labours which concerned themselves with the text of the Holy Scriptures and with the work of forming new adaptations of that text either on its legal or its historical and dogmatic side were as yet chiefly of an oral kind. This holds true above all with regard to the process of adaptation as applied to the law. It was not till toward the close of our period in the time of R. Akiba that the results of these learned adaptations of the law began to be committed to writing (see ).[2370] On the other hand however there undoubtedly existed as early as our period literary adaptations or reconstructions of sacred history framed in the spirit of scribism. The Book of Chronicles may be taken as a case in point inasmuch as it treats the earlier history of Israel in such a way as to make it accord with the ideals of later Judaism (see ). But we have a classical example of the Haggadic Midrash in the Book of Jubilees which in any case falls within the period with which we are here dealing. It reconstructs the history of the canonical Book of Genesis entirely after the fashion of the Rabbinical Midrash. Other literary productions which in all probability fall no less within our period select certain episodes or personages from sacred history around which they seek to shed a halo of glory by means of fictitious legends (the Books of Adam the History of Jannes and Jambres and others). It would appear however that at first Hellenistic did more in this way than Rabbinical Judaism. For this latter the palmy days of haggadean fiction did not begin till the Talmudic age. The object of those modifications or embellishments of sacred history was now no longer of so directly practical a character as it had been in the case of the majority of the writings previously mentioned. They owed their origin in the first instance to the universal interest that was taken in the sacred history generally to the desire to have as exact and complete and accurate an acquaintance with it as possible in connection with which however the tendency to embellish it also began at once to assert itself. And yet this tendency again had now in like manner an ulterior practical aim. In thus throwing around the sacred history as bright a halo as possible the object was to show to what an extent Israel had from time to time been enjoying the miraculous protection of its God but above all how by their exemplary conduct and wonderful exploits the holy patriarchs had proved themselves to be true men of God.
[2370] Epiphanias no doubt repeatedly mentions a Mishna of the Hasmonaeans (Haer. xxxiii. 9: δευτέρωσις … τῶν υἱῶν Ἀσαμωναίου also Haer. xv. and similarly Haer. xlii. p. 332 ed. Petav.). But the notice in question is of so Confused a character that it does not admit of being used for historical purposes. There is also some degree of obscurity about the statement in the Megillath Taanith to the effect that on the 14th of Tammuz “the Book of the Decrees” (ספר גזירתא) had been abolished (Derenbourg Histoire de la Palestine pp. 103 443 445; Grätz Gesch. der Juden 3rd ed. iii. 606). According to the ordinary view a Sadducean penal code is supposed to be meant. At all events we have no undoubted evidence to show that previous to the time of Akiba the Pharisaic legal traditions had been committed to writing.
Thus we see then that it was objects chiefly of a practical kind that the literary efforts of Palestinian Judaism sought to serve. This was at least true of the department of history with the consideration of which we will now enter upon our present subject.