partially answer one of Ezra’s complaints. Ultimately, however, this apocalypse
insists that the Most High made not one world but two, and full retribution
can be expected only after the resurrection, in the world to come. It should
be noted that
Ezra has virtually no interest in the heavenly world, despite
the role of the revealing angel. There is no sense that the other world is
already present, as it is in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nevertheless, like all apoca-
lypses, it requires the belief that this world is not all there is; hope is based
on belief in an alternative universe.
Baruch is in many ways a companion piece to
Ezra.
53
It is similar in
structure and contains both dialogues and visions. Baruch also raises questions
about the justice of God, but he does not probe them the way Ezra does. He
is more easily satisfied that justice is served by a judgment based on the law:
(‘justly do they perish who have not loved thy law’;
Baruch
:
). Like
Ezra, Baruch asks, ‘O Adam what have you done to all those who are born
from you’ (
:
), but a little later he answers his own question: ‘Adam is
therefore not the cause, save only of his own soul, but each of us has been
the Adam of his own soul’ (
:
). In the end, Baruch warns the tribes that
‘we have nothing now save the Mighty One and His law’ (
:
). The message
of the book is that the Jewish people should keep the law and trust in the
justice of God. The teaching accords well with that of mainstream rabbinic
Judaism.
This message is framed, however, by an eschatological teaching very similar
to that of
Ezra. ‘The youth of the world is past, and the strength of the
creation already exhausted and the advent of the times is very short’ (
:
).
There is an elaborate division of history into twelve periods in a vision of a
cloud that rains alternately black and white waters (chapters
–
). The
twelfth period, however, is not the last, but the restoration after the exile.
This in turn is followed by a dark period, which presumably includes the
time of the real author. Finally comes the messianic age, symbolized by
lightning. In chapters
–
the time of tribulation is divided into twelve
woes. Then the messiah is revealed, but after a time ‘he will return in glory’.
This presumably corresponds to the death of the messiah in
Ezra, although
it is expressed in more positive terms. The resurrection and judgment follow.
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Eschatological Dynamics in Early Judaism
In chapters
:
–
,
there is an allegorical vision, in which a vine rebukes
a cedar. The vine, representing the messiah, rebukes the cedar, just as the lion
rebuked the eagle in
Ezra. Although there is no allusion to Daniel in the
vision, the interpretation identifies a sequence of four kingdoms (chapter
).
Like
Ezra,
Baruch shows no awareness of the Enoch tradition, but
integrates the eschatology of Daniel and of traditional messianism into a
Deuteronomic theology.
Yet here again the argument of the book is ultimately dependent on the
reality of a hidden world. This idea is seen most clearly seen in the account
of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, near the beginning of the book:
Do you think that this is the city about which I said, On the palms of my hands
have I engraved you? This building which now stands in your midst, is not the
one that is to be revealed, that is with me now, that was prepared beforehand
here at the time when I determined to make Paradise, and showed it to Adam
before he sinned (though when he disobeyed my commandment it was taken
away from him, as was also Paradise). And after this I showed it to my servant
Abraham by night among the divided pieces of the victims. And again I showed
it also to Moses on Mount Sinai when I showed him the pattern of the taber-
nacle and all its vessels. And now it is preserved with me, as is also Paradise.
(
Baruch
:
–
)
Ezra and
Baruch can be seen as two voices in the discussion of theodicy
in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem. Both have much in common with
emerging rabbinic Judaism, and place a high value on the law, although neither
deals with specific halachic issues. The common eschatological presuppositions
of these works show that such ideas were widely shared in Palestinian Judaism
at the end of the first century. Whatever role apocalyptic ideas may have
played in stirring up revolutionary fervour at the outbreak of the war, they
are not used for that purpose in these books. Here eschatology becomes an
element in theological reflection. Although both books assure us that the time
is short, neither conveys a great sense of urgency. What is important is that
there will be an eventual judgment, that will establish that God is in control.
Hope is sustained, but deferred. There is a clear attempt here to integrate
different strands of Jewish eschatology, providing both for national restoration
on earth and for the resurrection of the dead in a new creation.
A quite different reaction to the destruction of Jerusalem can be found in
the Greek apocalypse of
Baruch, which was most probably composed in
Egypt.
54
This text opens with Baruch grieving over the destruction of Jeru-
salem. An angel appears to him and tells him: ‘Do not be so distressed about
the condition of Jerusalem … argue with God no more, and I will show you
other mysteries greater than these … Come and I will show you the mysteries
88
Judaism, Christianity and Islam
of God.’ The angel then escorts Baruch on an upward tour of five heavens.
(There has been much speculation as to whether there were originally seven,
the usual number in apocalypses of this period, but there is no good reason
to believe that anything has been lost. Rather, Baruch’s revelation is limited
in so far as he is not taken up to the highest heaven.) In the course of this
ascent he sees various cosmological mysteries and also the places where the
dead are rewarded and punished. In the fifth heaven he sees the archangel
Michael, who takes the merits of the righteous up to the presence of the
Lord. It appears that people are judged strictly on their individual merits
regardless of their membership of a covenant people. The final chapter of
the apocalypse indicates that Israel has suffered the curses of the covenant:
‘inasmuch as they angered me by what they did, go and make them jealous
and angry and embittered against a people that is no people, against a people
that has no understanding. And more – afflict them with caterpillar and
maggot and rust and locust and hail with flashes of lightning and wrath and
smite them with sword and with death, and their children with demons. For
they did not heed my voice, neither did they observe my commandments nor
do them’ (
Baruch
:
–
). The reference to ‘a people that is no people’
alludes to Deuteronomy
:
, while the remainder of the passage recalls the
curses of the covenant (Leviticus
:
; Deuteronomy
:
). A Jew might
take some comfort in the thought that the Romans are ‘a people that is no
people’, but there is little consolation for Israel here. Where
Ezra and
Baruch had held that individuals who broke the law deserved to perish,
Baruch seems to hold that Jerusalem deserved its fate on the same grounds.
All that is left in this apocalypse is the merit of individuals and the consolation
of pondering the heavenly mysteries.
Conclusion
Of the late first-century apocalypses,
Baruch is most similar to those of the
second century
in its focus on the heavenly mysteries, although I can see
no direct dependence on the older apocalyptic texts. In all of these texts,
however, the essential dynamic of apocalyptic eschatology remains. This world
is not all there is. There is another hidden reality that can only be perceived
by aid of angelic revelation. Life must be lived
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