Subject: Re: Piety in First Century CE Judaism
From: Jeffrey B. Gibson (jgibson000@comcast.net)
Date: Wed Aug 15 2007 - 19:31:28 EDT
Kenneth Litwak wrote:
> I am trying to research the subject of piety in first century Judaism.
> I'm not sure that this is something that can be done by looking at a
> specific word, whether Tsedekah in Hebrew or something else, and Greek
> counterparts. I'm wondering if someone knows of a good starting place
> to get a handle on this idea, if it is a discussed idea. I know it is
> discussed in classical literature, like the Aenead. Thanks.
>
Neusner has a discussion of the idea in his _Dictionary of Judaism in the
Biblical Period_. I would think there would be an entry on it in the
Jewish Encyclopedia and in the Encyclopedia Judaica.
TDNT has a section on it (see below). There's a brief entry in the ADB
under "Devout". Does the NIDNT?
You will also want to research "Zeal" since the zeal of Phineas seems to
be a prototype/model for Jewish piety.
Jeffrey
*********
B. In Judaism, the LXX, the Pseudepigrapha, Josephus and Philo.
1. In the LXX (apart from 3 and 4 Macc.) occurs only
once in Sus. 63. We find it 4 times in 4 Macc., not at all in Test. XII,
Ps. Sol. or Eth. En., once in Sib., 3 5: 4, 187. is
found 8 times in LXX (including Sir.) for , once for
and in Sir. 43:33, twice for in Sir.
12:4; 39:27, 10 times with no Heb. original, in Test. XII and Ps. Sol.
once each (also as a conjecture but not in the MSS at Ps. Sol. 13:5), and
4 times in Eth. En. at 27:3; 102:4, 6; 103:3, cf. also 3 times in Ep. Ar.,
11 in 4 Macc., 10 in Sib., 3 5. is used for
3 times in the LXX: Is. 11:2 without addition, Is.
33:6 and Prv. 1:7 with [ ] [ ],
once in Sir. 49:3 it appears for and with no original it is
used 3 times in 3 Macc. and 47 times in 4 Macc., also 8 times in Ep. Ar.,
3 in Test. XII, and 6 in Sib., 3 5. with acc. 4 Macc.
11:5, mostly with no addition but with
in 4 Macc. 12:14, with obj. gen. ( )
16:14, with and in Ep.
Ar., 24 and 42. Antonyms of in the LXX are
in Is. 32:7 f., Is. 24:16, Prv.
12:12; 13:19; Qoh. 3:16, Sir. 11:22; 13:17; 16:13;
33:14; 39:27; Eth. En. 102:6, Sir. 27:11. is
par. to in Sir. 37:12, to
and Test. L. 16:2; Eth. En. 102:4; 103:3. An antonym of
is in Prv. 13:11; par. are
in Test. R. 6:4, Test. Iss. 7:5, Is. 11:2,
Is. 33:6, 2
Macc. 3:1. But the most common antithesis in Ps. Sol. and Eth. En. is that
of and . The group is
comparatively rare in works close to Palestinian thought and speech. In
the later OT transl. it does not occur at all, and this is no
accident, but a conscious repudiation of the Hellenising usage of the LXX
and of Hellenism generally.
2. Ep. Ar. is naturally the least imprecise in usage since it was supposed
to be written by a Gentile for a Gentile. The question as to the nature of
is put directly in 210:
; and the answer is:
,
,
. There is
no ref. here to the Law. Hence it is no surprise to find the Gk.
juxtaposition of and ( 176, 29
ff.) in 131, nor to find for the respect and honour paid
by the Gentile king to the Jewish God in 42, nor to find the king saying
that he seeks in all things
, (24); is here the conduct towards
men which honours them. Worth noting is 229:
;
.
.
If there is no express ref. to the Law in Ep. Ar., this is predominant in
4 Macc. The theme of this work is that
(also commonly ). How
reason and the Law are related is shown in 1:15ff.:
,
In 1, 32ff. this is elucidated in practice by various
laws: the follows the Law:
, 2:14. The Law teaches what
is. (9:29) or
(9:30): our kind of worship, almost
our religion, is under discussion in 4 Macc. in relation to the
eating of swine s flesh (5:2ff.). This is
which must not be invalidated, 5:18. Thus to
honour ( ) the one God is the teaching of the Law in
, 5:24f. is, then, the totality of the
Jewish religion in which gt. and small transgressions of the Law are
equal, 5:20f. is to venerate God as one and to worship
Him by keeping His Law; the two are the same thing.
Little is to be gleaned from the Sibylline Oracles regarding the use and
content of etc. In 4, 35f. ,
and are par. In 4, 169f. there is ref. to
. Elsewhere we find only gen. ref. to the
righteous and the ungodly as the , ,
, , , or the
, , , ,
, , . In these writings the
group is used almost always of the relation to God.
3. The situation is different in Josephus. Linguistically
is here used with acc. (obj. God in Ant., 10, 45; Ap.,
2, 125; Vit., 113) or with , Ant., 2, 152. With or
we often find or and obj., also the
acc. in Ant., 9, 236, though the simple adj. or noun is enough to denote
the relation to God. 22 Mention of the obj. is connected with the
fact that also denotes the relation to men. Mephibosheth
uses for his loyalty to David, Ant., 7,
269. Herod wants to his kingdom
(Herod himself)
, Ant., 16, 92. 23 Jos. is also aware of the
distinction between and , 176,
29 ff. Jotham was ,
Ant., 9, 236.
24 Jos. also uses and for the piety
of the Gentiles with ref. to the Athenians, Pythagoras, Xerxes and kings
like Croesus. 25 In delimitation from the Gk. world he says not
unjustly that Moses
(like the Gks. 178, 33 ff.),
,
, Ap. 2, 170 f.; cf. 181. But
since is handed down in laws Ap., 1, 60: we keep
the plur.
can be used 26 and piety can be broken down into
a series of acts enjoined by the Law. The priests imprisoned in Rome ate
only nuts and figs and thereby
, Vit., 14: for the laws
,
,
,
, Ap., 2, 291. Naturally it is still insisted that
faith in the one God and worship of God in the cultus are the chief part
of the Law. The duty of piety is incumhent on the whole people, but esp.
the priests, Ap., 2, 188. If Jos. also differs from the Gks. in that they
make piety a part of virtue ( 178, 33 ff.) whereas the Law makes virtue
a part of piety ( lines 16 ff.), he stills pays tribute to the Gk.
world by also regarding piety as a virtue, namely, as the cardinal virtue:
, Ant., 1, 6, and it is rewarded, 20, 48.
Connected with the Gk. influence is the fact that he does not speak of the
. 27
4. In Philo the group occurs some 200 times and
some 150 times. Definitions with , etc. are
rare, and are used only when the obj. is not God but the emperor (Leg.
Gaj., 279 f., 335; Flacc., 103) or parents (Decal., 120) or when the
context calls for precision. 28 This shows that the religious content
of and is wholly dominant in Philo. Where the
groups refer to the emperor or parents the sense is obviously to
honour, not to worship. The predominant religious understanding
of the terms is also plain in the fact that for Philo
denotes the relation to God rather than self or neighbour. He associates
, or ,
and as virtues,
being the rational consideration on wich conduct depends. 29
is the 30
and is similarly ,
Congr., 160. and are a matter of thought as
well as action. He who grasps the thoughts contained in the creation
story,
, Op. Mund., 172. Aristot. said
that the world is
eternal and therewith introduced a , Aet.
Mund., 10. It is to think of God anthropomorphically. 31
Above all it is a
that God is the beginning and end of all things,
Plant., 77; cf. Jos., 246, while ,
(namely, the good) , Leg. All., I,
49. The believes the is ,
Conf. Ling., 125; cf. Sacr. AC., 71; Poster. C., 35, 42, hence those who
, Migr. Abr.,
179. To think God covers wrong is also
, Spec. Leg., II, 11.
Action, like thought, is either or .
, Leg. All., III, 209. The commandments of the Law lead to
,
, Deus Imm., 69. Here
is a . Thus Philo adopts a
pagan definition 177, 1 ff. But he differentiates himself from the
common pagan view that sensual gifts might be offered to God; we can bring
to God only , Det. Pot. Ins., 56.
Naturally literal observance of the Law is for Philo a matter of
, Ebr., 18, indeed (pagan)
, but an evil, namely,
, has grown up here like a shoot, this being the
opinion ,
wherewith wrong can be made good, Plant., 107.
Philo s view of lies in the Gk. sphere apart from
modifications due to his allegiance to the OT and the Law. Gk. influence
( 178, 18 ff.) may also be seen in the fact that he can view
as the correct mean between
and , Deus Imm., 163 f. If he says rather
than like Plut. ( 186, 33 ff.), this is connected with
the fact that for Philo a true or false view of God is closely connected
with moral action. Acc. to him the man who does not turn to the world of
the non-sensual, the spiritual, true being, will necessarily turn to that
of sensuality and evil. , and
are very closely related for Phil. But it again has a Gk. ring ( 186.33
ff.) when he says
(sc. to piety) ,
, Spec. Leg., IV, 147. Restriction to the religious is
the OT legacy in Philo
Theological dictionary of the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 edited
by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. (G. Kittel, G. W.
Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (7:179-181). Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans.
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000@comcast.net
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