Ancient Jewish Prayers and Emotions

Stefan C. Reif, Renate Egger-Wenzel, Stefan C. Reif, Renate Egger-Wenzel

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9783110386080
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Comentario bíblico

Given the recent interest in the emotions presupposed in early religious literature, it has been thought useful to examine in this volume how the Jews and early Christians expressed their feelings within the prayers recorded in some of their literature. Specialists in their fields from academic institutions around the world have analysed important texts relating to this overall theme and to what is revealed with regard to such diverse topics as relations with God, exegesis, education, prophecy, linguistic expression, feminism, happiness, grief, cult, suicide, non-Jews, Hellenism, Qumran and Jerusalem. The texts discussed are in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and are important for a scientific understanding of how Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity developed their approaches to worship, to the construction of their theology and to the feelings that lay behind their religious ideas and practices. The articles contribute significantly to an historical understanding of how Jews maintained their earlier traditions but also came to terms with the ideology of the dominant Hellenistic culture that surrounded them.

Simone M. Paganini

Adjusting the Narrative Emotions and the Prayer of Moses (Jub 1:19–21)

According to the narrative framework of Jubilees123 – which should not be separated from the rest of the book124 – Moses speaks only once in a direct address to God. This direct speech in the first chapter of Jubilees (Jub 1:19–22) undoubtedly constitutes an intercessory prayer. It is a unique text that has no direct parallels in the Hebrew Bible, even if its main elements and its literary background may be found in some of Moses’s speeches in Exodus and Deuteronomy.125 A close reading of the text of the first chapter of Jubilees demonstrates that this prayer is not isolated and should be understood within its literary context.

The first chapter and the prologue to the book of Jubilees are very concise, summarizing a similar situation to that of Exodus 19. Moses’s words are closely connected to two divine speeches, which frame his prayer. The first one – Jub 1:5–19a – prepares the intercessory prayer, the second one – Jub 1:22b–27a – is a direct, positive answer to Moses’s intercession. Yet, this answer is not God’s last word, since he later speaks again (Jub 1:27), when he does not address Moses, but the Angel of the Presence. This new figure does not feature in the Exodus text while in the book of Jubilees it appears to fulfil a task that was reserved to Moses in the Tanakh.

It will here be argued that Jubilees shows a certain development towards correcting the biblical narrative in relation to the role of Moses, and that this is emphasized by God’s response to Moses’s intercession. This divine response seems to be motivated by God’s emotional reaction to Moses’s prayer.

At first, it is necessary to demonstrate how Moses’s intercessory prayer fits into the overall context of Jubilees 1. One cannot understand the real meaning of this prayer without considering God’s first monologue (1.). Further, Moses’s prayer (2.) and God’s emotional reaction (3.) need to be considered in more detail. As will be shown below, both Moses’s prayer and God’s answer have important and decisive implications for the book as a whole.

1 God’s first monologue

At the beginning of Jubilees, as well as in Exodus 19 – “And it came to pass in the first year of the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, on the sixteenth day of the month” (Jub 1:1) – Moses receives the order to ascend the mount126 to meet God and to receive “the two tablets of stone.”127 At the beginning of the book, however, the content of these two tablets remains obscure. The description in Jubilees connects expressions taken from Exodus 19 with expressions from Exodus 24. Thus, God gives to Moses either the two tablets with the commandments following Exodus 20 or – if we take account of the rewriting of Exod 24:12–18 offered in Jub 1:1b–4128 – other tablets similar to the ones known from Exod 31:18.129 There is also a third possibility: the content of the two tablets of Jub 1:1 could also be the same as the content of Jub 2–50.130 In Jubilees 1, the reader simply does not know and – what is more surprising – the content of the tablets is not vital for an understanding of the dynamics of the first chapter of Jubilees.

At the beginning, however, the similarities between the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Exodus are unmistakable. The first substantial difference appears at the end of Jub 1:4. After noting that Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, Jubilees continues with the statement that God showed him “the earlier and the later history of the division of all the days of the law and of the testimony”131 before – like in Exodus 21 or in 24 – God began his direct speech.

In the Hebrew Bible, the topic of this divine speech either revolves around the explanation of the Decalogue (“the covenant code”) (Exodus 21), or it describes the rules for building the tabernacle and other correlated precepts (Exodus 24). Either way, the topic of God’s speeches in the Tanakh does not coincide with the topic of his first monologue in Jub 1.

This long monologue introducing and inspiring a homiletical reaction by Israel’s leader begins with two imperatives addressed to Moses – twice it is said that he has to write132 “all these words”. It then proceeds with a direct speech by God himself that initially outlines Israel’s future sin (Jub 1:8–14), followed by the eventual repentance of the people (15), and finally their reward, i.e. the people will find the Lord and he will build his sanctuary in their midst (17).

The structure and content of the first part of this monologue provide the background against which to understand and interpret Moses’s subsequent intercession.

God specifies ten future sins of the people (Jub 1:8–14). This represents an allusion to the Ten Commandments outlined in Exodus 20 and an attempt to accord to the narrative of Jubilees a similar status to that of Exodus 19. The ten evil actions of the people – turning to strange gods; forgetting the commandments; walking after the nations and their uncleanness; making high places and worshipping there; sacrificing children to demons; not following the witnesses; slaying the witnesses; persecuting those who seek the law; abrogating and changing everything; forgetting law, commandment and judgement – represent a wholesale damage to the covenant pact between God and Israel.

Nonetheless, God’s speech does not conclude with this list of the people’s sins and their subsequent punishment. Instead, God reveals that the people will search for, and find him. The formulation “I shall be found when they seek me with all their heart and with all their soul” in Jub 1:16 introduces an oracle of salvation. God will build his sanctuary; he will not forsake or fail his people.

In this long monologue, one may observe an interesting dynamic: God describes a cyclical movement which is also characteristic of the deuteronomic understanding of history: from sin to punishment, and afterwards to repentance and salvation.133 Everything happens only at God’s behest. Neither Moses nor the people are capable of convincing God to change his mind.

The profound message of Jubilees according to this speech is unequivocal: God is the Lord of history, he knows his people and their sins but he does not cease leading them. He is also merciful and his final aim is to save them.

2 Moses’s prayer

Although the introductory formula of God’s direct speech in Jub 1:5 – “And he said” – does not mention Moses, he is clearly the addressee of God’s monologue. According to Jub 1:2, he is on the mountain and listens to God. The conversation between God and Moses continues with Moses’s reaction. But God did not intend to start a dialogue. The contents of his speech are conclusive in their positivity: he has seen and has also judged the sin of his people. He has the knowledge that they will repent and thus also reach their salvation. God’s monologue in the context of the narrative of Jubilees 1 does not require any answer or statement from Moses.

Moses’s intercessory address nevertheless begins and ends like a prayer to a deity who wishes to destroy his people.134 Indeed, God has just confirmed that he is going to save his people. This fact leads to the conclusion that Moses has misunderstood the divine speech.

The intercessory nature of Moses’s prayer is emphasized by the narrator’s remark “Moses fell on his face and prayed and said …”135 The artistic, literary structure of Moses’s speech136 underlines its importance, but also reveals Moses’s incapacity to understand the merciful nature of his God. In the Tanakh, Moses is the one who most frequently converses with God, but at the beginning of Jubilees he is presented as a person unable to comprehend God’s speech.

The two imperative petitions at the beginning of his Prayer – “do not forsake … do not deliver” your people – reconnect Moses’s plea with the end of God’s monologue, but, given the content of God’s speech, Moses’s request appears unnecessary and misplaced. It seems that he has only listened to the first (negative) part of God’s monologue and neglected the rest. This explains why he considers, for instance, the possibility of being delivered into the hands of the nations, which has already been denied by God (Jub 1:15). Further, the appeal for God to be merciful is not really necessary, since God has already declared his merciful disposition towards his people (Jub 1:16). The subsequent attempt to make the spirit of Belial responsible for the sin of the people is likewise absurd. God knows – and he has already described it in plenty of detail – Israel’s situation. The real motivation for the sins of the people may be found in their desire to forsake the ordinances, commandments and covenant (Jub 1:10). Belial does not play any relevant role. Moses’s positive requests to create a clean heart and a holy spirit are already fulfilled by God: peace and righteousness, but also blessing and truth, are already – according to God’s first monologue – his gifts for the people.

Considering the individual elements of Moses’s prayer, it is evident that his demands have already been met by God.

To be clear, Moses’s attempt to convince God not to punish his people – which is based on Moses’s prayer in Deut 9:2–29137 after the sin of the golden calf, where Moses also refers to Israel with the words “your people and your inheritance” – is unnecessary in Jubilees. At the beginning of the book, there is no description of Israel worshipping other gods. The introduction presents the people at the Mount Sinai in accordance with the account of Exodus 19 (and not Exodus 32).

One might understand this prayer as a pre-emptive measure to beg God’s mercy and to implore his intervention in order to preclude Israel from sinning.138 Moses implores God twice to protect his people: at first against the negative influence of the spirit of Belial;139 and subsequently he says: “let them not be ensnared from all the paths of righteousness”. These two appeals specify the initial request expressed at the beginning of the prayer: “do no forsake your people … to go along the error of their minds.”140

By performing this prayer, Moses tries to change God’s mind, but this superfluous effort only shows his incapacity to recognize God’s real nature.

However, a prayer directly addressed to God – whether it is necessary or not – demands a divine answer. Obviously, this answer is not part of the prayer, but connected to it, since it presents an immediate response. While God’s reply occurs immediately, it does not change the destiny of the people, but only that of it Moses. Until this moment we have no indication of emotions in the text, but now this aspect changes.

3 God’s emotions and the consequences of Moses’s prayer

After Moses’s plea, God’s answer summarizes and stresses the same situation that he has already described in his first monologue: God knows the wicked thoughts of the people – its “stiffneckedness”, Jub 1:22 – and he is perfectly aware that they “will not be obedient”. Nevertheless, and at the same time, he repeats and underlines his belief that the people “would turn to me in all uprightness, with all their heart and their soul”. This conviction not only echoes the proclamation of the first divine monologue, but now it is specified by way of four unmistakable expressions that clarify the divine position. These four elements refer to, and fulfil, not only Moses’s plea, but they also offer much more than he has requested.

A prayer like Moses’s one does not remain without consequences. These are: 1.) God will circumcise the foreskin of their heart; 2.) he will create in them a holy spirit; 3.) he will cleanse them so that the people will not turn away from him, and 4.) the people will keep and fulfil his commandments.

At this point, the divine answer includes additional elements that were not the topic of Moses’s intercessory prayer.

God’s positive intention, which has been shown before, becomes apparent at the very end of his second speech. The conclusion of God’s answer is full of emotions: twice he states that he ...