Demons of Change

Antagonism and Apotheosis in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism

Andrei A. Orlov

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781438480909
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Critique et interprétation bibliques

Antagonistic imagery has a striking presence in apocalyptic writings of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. In these visionary accounts, the role of the divine warrior fighting against demonic forces is often taken by a human adept, who becomes exalted and glorified as a result of his encounter with otherworldly antagonists, serving as a prerequisite for his final apotheosis. Demons of Change examines the meaning of these interactions for the transformations of the hero and antihero of early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic accounts. Andrei A. Orlov traces the roots of this trope to ancient Near Eastern traditions, paying special attention to the significance of conflict in the adept's ascent and apotheosis and to the formative value of these developments for Jewish and Christian martyrological accounts. This antagonistic tension plays a critical role both for the exaltation of the protagonist and for the demotion of his opponent. Orlov treats the motif of the hero's apotheosis in the midst of conflict in its full historical and interpretive complexity using a broad variety of Jewish sources, from the creational narratives of the Hebrew Bible to later Jewish mystical testimonies.

Chapter One

Between God and Satan

Inauguration into the Divine Image in Early Jewish and Christian Accounts

Then Michael came; he summoned all the troops of angels and told them, “Bow down before the likeness and the image of the divinity.” … And I [Satan] told him, “Go away from me, for I shall not bow down to him who is younger than me; indeed, I am master prior to him and it is proper for him to bow down to me.” The six classes of other angels heard that and my speech pleased them and they did not bow down to you. Then God became angry with us and commanded us, them and me, to be cast down from our dwellings to the earth.

—The Georgian version of the Primary Adam Books 14.1–16.1

Introduction

The Armenian, Georgian, and Latin versions of the Primary Adam Books each contain an etiological tale that deals with events occurring immediately after Adam’s creation. According to the story, told retrospectively by Satan, the newly created protoplast was presented by the archangel Michael to angels whom he asked to bow down before Adam. Some angels agreed to venerate the first human being, while others, including Satan, rejected this proposal. As a result of his refusal, Satan was demoted from his exalted place. This scene exhibits several features of an inauguration ceremony during which the protagonist becomes inducted into the exalted role of the deity’s representative, understood by some interpreters as the office of the image or the icon of God. In the Primary Adam Books, Adam’s role as God’s icon did not last long insofar as he was promptly removed from his exalted position after his fall. Some peculiar features of this protological initiation, however, are reiterated and adopted later in various Jewish and Christian materials in which the heroes were predestined to become new “Adams” by regaining the image of God in the eschatological age. As in the Primary Adam Books, where Satan plays a pivotal role during the hero’s inauguration, some other accounts include the presence of antagonistic figures. Our study will explore these peculiar details of Adam’s inauguration ritual and their impact on later Jewish and Christian accounts in which Enoch, Jacob, Moses, the Son of Man, and Jesus are inducted into the office of the image of God.

I. Induction into the Divine Image in Early Jewish Materials

Primary Adam Books: The Protoplast’s Inauguration

In order to better understand the complete pattern of conceptual developments pertaining to the ritual of induction into the divine image, we must carefully explore the description of it found in the Primary Adam Books. Although the macroforms of these books represent products of later Christian milieus, these Christian compositions can be seen as important compilations of early Jewish Adamic traditions.1

Although many details of the induction ceremony can be found in other early Jewish accounts—including the Book of Daniel, the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian, 2 Enoch, the Prayer of Joseph, the Ladder of Jacob—in the Armenian, Georgian, and Latin versions2 of the Primary Adam Books, one can find almost all of the crucial elements of this ritual in its full conceptual complexity. From these versions of the Primary Adam Books, we learn that immediately after the protoplast’s creation, the archangel Michael brought Adam into the divine presence and forced him to bow down before God. This initial veneration of the deity will become a crucial component of other Jewish and Christian descriptions of the ritual. Adam’s veneration of the deity implicitly indicates that God may also be present in the account. Several other references suggest the deity’s presence, such as God’s address to Adam after the ritual obeisance. In this address, as it appears in the Latin Vita, the deity tells Adam that his body was created in the likeness of the divine form: “Behold, Adam, I have made you in our image and likeness.”3 In the Georgian version God’s address is directed not to the protoplast but instead to the archangel Michael: “And God told Michael, ‘I have created Adam according to (my) image and my divinity.’ ”4

We learn further from the Primary Adam Books that all the angels were ordered to bow down to this human “icon.”5 A significant feature of the story is that Michael, who summons the celestial citizens for the act of veneration, does not ask them to venerate Adam, but instead commands them to bow down before the image and the likeness of God. So Adam, who previously was described as created after the image of God, here becomes suddenly identified as the image of God. Crispin Fletcher-Louis is right to posit that “the identification of Adam as God’s image is by no means an incidental detail of the Worship of Adam Story.”6

In the Georgian version, Michael’s command takes the following form: “Bow down before the likeness and the image of the divinity.”7 The Latin version also speaks of the divine image: “Worship the image of the Lord God, just as the Lord God has commanded.”8 Likewise in the Armenian version, although Adam’s name is not mentioned, he seems to be understood now as the divine representative: “Then Michael summoned all the angels, and God said to them, ‘Come, bow down to the god whom I made.’ ”9

The results of Michael’s order to venerate the “icon” of the divinity are mixed. Some angels agreed to bow down before it, while others, including Satan, refuse to do obeisance. In the Latin version the tradition of the image of God is reiterated when Michael personally invites Satan to “worship the image of God Jehovah.”10 In comparison with Michael’s command that does not invoke Adam’s name, but rather refers to him as the “image of God,” Satan’s refusal to worship now specifically mentions Adam’s name, seeing him not as an “icon” but instead as a creature which is “younger,” or “posterior,” to the antagonist.11 In Satan’s refusal to venerate Adam, one can also find the theme of “opposition” to the divine image. Yet, in the complimentary framework of the Primary Adam Books, such an opposition motif is not intended to deconstruct the exalted protagonist who is envisioned as God’s image. Instead, it functions within the narrative as a device to reaffirm the protagonist’s unique position.

Both motifs—angelic veneration and angelic opposition12—play an equally significant role in the construction of Adam’s unique heavenly identity,13 which climaxes in his exaltation.14 Angelic veneration as well as angelic opposition lead the human protagonist into his new supra-angelic ontology when he becomes an “image” or “face” of the deity. Yet, it is important that the accounts contain not only angelic responses but also Adam’s own veneration of the deity.15 Adam’s own obeisance further establishes his intermediate position between God and the angels in his role as an “icon” of the deity. Fletcher-Louis rightly points out that, “because the angels are commanded to respond to Adam as the image and likeness of God, the ‘worship’ of Adam (if that is what it is) does not necessarily mean that God’s singular, unique identity is now threatened by the worship of another figure.”16 Adam is presented “not as the ultimate object of veneration but rather as a representation or an icon of the deity through whom the angels are able to worship God.”17 The identity of the protagonist, therefore, is constructed through the concept of the divine image. We will see similar developments in the Enochic, Mosaic, and Jacobite traditions where the exaltation of these biblical characters is executed through the concept of the divine image. The same initiatory device will manifest itself in early Christological currents where Jesus is envisioned as the image of the invisible God.

In the beginning of the Georgian and Latin versions of the aforementioned story in the Primary Adam Books, one finds some important additions to the version contained in Genesis regarding the motif of Adam’s face. These additions, attested in the Georgian and Latin versions, are of paramount significance for our study. The Georgian version recounts that God breathed a spirit onto the face of Adam.18 The same detail is also found in the Greek version of Gen 2:7. Though the Hebrew text does not mention Adam’s panim, in the Septuagint’s rendering of the passage, the deity breaths the breath of life into Adam’s face.19 In the Latin Vita 13:2 the face motif appears again. This time it seems to convey a novel tradition by declaring that the protoplast’s countenance was made in God’s image: “when God blew into you the breath of life and your countenance (vultus) and likeness were made in the image of God. …”20 Some scholars see the “face” as the cognate of “image” in this passage. Thus, Steenburg argues that “the use of ‘face’ in this passage is an irregular departure from the standard idiom of ‘image,’ a departure occasioned by the concern to relate God’s image in Adam directly to his physical shape or visible appearance.”21 Fletcher-Louis follows Steenburg’s suggestion, postulating that when the Latin version of the Primary Adam Books 13:3 says Adam’s countenance is made in the image of God, it “accentuates the focus on Adam’s role as God’s visible and physical presence.”22 The Latin version, therefore, seems to entertain a conceptual link between the protoplast’s panim and the tselem, a link that will reappear in various other Jewish accounts of the “inauguration.”

To conclude our analysis of the inauguration ceremony in the Primary Adam Books, we must outline several important elements of this ritual:

1.Postulation of resemblance between the deity’s form and the protagonist’s form (Adam is first described as being created in the image of God and then later becomes understood as an icon of the deity—the image of God);

2.Understanding the protagonist’s panim as his tselem;

3.The motif of the angelic veneration as an important element of the inauguration ceremony;

4.The motif of the angelic opposition/rejection as an important element of the inauguration ceremony;

5.The motif of the demotion of the exalted antagonist as an important element of the inauguration ceremony.

As this study will show, all of these elements can be found, in one form or another, in other early Jewish and Christian descriptions of the inauguration ritual where the motif...