TESTAMENT OF ADAM (1st - 4th c.) Questions
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:24 pm
It is in: The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. by James H. Charlesworth (which relies on the Syriac texts)
(https://books.google.com/books?id=TNdeo ... ek&f=false)
Budge's translation from the Syriac is here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/bct/bct10.htm
Kmosko's 1907 translation from Syriac that has the part about God putting Adam at God's right: https://pages.uncc.edu/john-reeves/rese ... t-of-adam/
S.E. Robinson's translation is in Charlesworth's The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8cyt ... &lpg=PA989
You can read Chapter 4, the Hierarchy of the Angels, here: https://yahuwahaluhiym.files.wordpress. ... f-adam.pdf
The Greek and Syriac fragments (in Greek and Aramaic) are here: http://pseudepigrapha.org/docs/text/TAdam
(Question 1: See below in the thread for A and B) Is the Testament of Adam a (A) Jewish document with an added Christian section, (B) Christian document with Jewish elements, or (C) gnostic?
(Option A) Jewish with a Christian addition
James Charlesworth writes:
(Option B) Christian with Jewish elements
Chapter 1 says that the angels sang "Holy, Holy, Holy" at the fourth hour, and this is a significant Christian hymn, but it also exists in Judaism, since it's in Isaiah.
Chapter 2 says mentions the Lord's Spirit or "Holy Spirit" (per the Ethiopic version): "And at the tenth hour the Holy Spirit overshadoweth the waters, and the devils flee away and remove themselves from the waters. And if the Holy Spirit did not overshadow the waters at this hour every day, no one could drink of the waters, [for if he did] his flesh (i.e. body) would be destroyed by the evil devils." The Holy Spirit is a major theme in Christianity, but it can also be found in Judaism, so it's not necessarily Christian either.
Chapter 3 begins by talking about the signs of the Messiah in a way that strongly recalls Christian ideas of the Messiah.
So I can see how Chapters 1-2 could be a separate Jewish part, with Chapter 3 being a Christian addition, but I am not sure that the two parts are necessarily separate.
Chapter 1-2 does not really talk much about Adam (even though the narrator speaks as Adam in the first person there), but rather about what things are like during different hours of the night and day. The part about Adam is really the third, Christian chapter, which makes chapter 3 an essential part of the text. It seems then that Chapters 1-2 are not an independent section that is its own, separate, non-Christian "Testament" about Adam.
(Option C) Possible Gnosticism
Charlesworth notes that in the Testament of Adam, "Archons control the weather". It's true that there are references to angels as "archons" in the Bible, but it's pretty rare, whereas it's a major feature of gnosticism.
"THE TESTAMENT OF ADAM AND THE ANGELIC LITURGY", by Stephen E. Robinson notes: "Renan believed the Testament to be the product of Christian gnosticism and in this he was followed by several other nineteenth century critics."(Revue de Qumrân Vol. 12, No. 1 (45) (JUIN 1985), pp. 105-110)
The Online Pseudepigrapha says: "Beginning with M. E. Renan, the Testament of Adam was long regarded by modern scholars as a Gnostic work, but both Reinink and Robinson have shown this view to be wrong."
I thought the part about the devils praising God sounded weird, but maybe this reflects the document's gnosticism: "And at the first hour of the night the devils render thanks and praise to God Most High, and there is in them no evil and no harm for anyone until they have finished their service of homage."
Here is the quote about Cain's jealousy over his sister: "Furthermore, thou must know, O my son, Seth, behold a Flood shall come and shall wash the whole earth because of the children of Kâyal (Cain), the murderer, who slew his brother through jealousy, because of his sister Lûd."
(Question 2: SEE BELOW) Is the Testament saying that the Messiah would come 5500 years after Adam's time?
Charlesworth gives this version of God's words to Adam:
"I will make you a god, not right now, but after a space of many years. ... But after a short time there will be mercy on you because you were created in my image..."
E.A. Budge translated the Testament as saying:
(https://books.google.com/books?id=TNdeo ... ek&f=false)
Budge's translation from the Syriac is here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/bct/bct10.htm
Kmosko's 1907 translation from Syriac that has the part about God putting Adam at God's right: https://pages.uncc.edu/john-reeves/rese ... t-of-adam/
S.E. Robinson's translation is in Charlesworth's The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8cyt ... &lpg=PA989
You can read Chapter 4, the Hierarchy of the Angels, here: https://yahuwahaluhiym.files.wordpress. ... f-adam.pdf
The Greek and Syriac fragments (in Greek and Aramaic) are here: http://pseudepigrapha.org/docs/text/TAdam
(Question 1: See below in the thread for A and B) Is the Testament of Adam a (A) Jewish document with an added Christian section, (B) Christian document with Jewish elements, or (C) gnostic?
(Option A) Jewish with a Christian addition
James Charlesworth writes:
The Encratites were an ascetic, gnostic group. Reading this quote by Charlesworth, I thought that the first, more Jewish, section is the most original, since it is all that the Greek fragment quotes. On the other hand, consider that Charlesworth also writes: "the Greek version corresponds most closely with Syriac recension 3, the least reliable of the Syriac recensions. There can be little doubt that the original language of the Testament of Adam is Syriac".The rewriting of tradition in the second half in which Cain slays his brother because of jealousy over Lud, their sister (cf. Budge, Cave of Treasures, p. 70; Gibson, p. 17) may reflect early Syrian asceticism, perhaps that of the Encratites. Even earlier is the first half, because of the conspicuous absence of Christian elements and the general early Jewish tone (cf. the ending with 4Q Morgen- und Abendgebete). Significantly, the Greek portions preserve only this first section...
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/testadam.html
(Option B) Christian with Jewish elements
Chapter 1 says that the angels sang "Holy, Holy, Holy" at the fourth hour, and this is a significant Christian hymn, but it also exists in Judaism, since it's in Isaiah.
Chapter 2 says mentions the Lord's Spirit or "Holy Spirit" (per the Ethiopic version): "And at the tenth hour the Holy Spirit overshadoweth the waters, and the devils flee away and remove themselves from the waters. And if the Holy Spirit did not overshadow the waters at this hour every day, no one could drink of the waters, [for if he did] his flesh (i.e. body) would be destroyed by the evil devils." The Holy Spirit is a major theme in Christianity, but it can also be found in Judaism, so it's not necessarily Christian either.
Chapter 3 begins by talking about the signs of the Messiah in a way that strongly recalls Christian ideas of the Messiah.
So I can see how Chapters 1-2 could be a separate Jewish part, with Chapter 3 being a Christian addition, but I am not sure that the two parts are necessarily separate.
Chapter 1-2 does not really talk much about Adam (even though the narrator speaks as Adam in the first person there), but rather about what things are like during different hours of the night and day. The part about Adam is really the third, Christian chapter, which makes chapter 3 an essential part of the text. It seems then that Chapters 1-2 are not an independent section that is its own, separate, non-Christian "Testament" about Adam.
(Option C) Possible Gnosticism
Charlesworth notes that in the Testament of Adam, "Archons control the weather". It's true that there are references to angels as "archons" in the Bible, but it's pretty rare, whereas it's a major feature of gnosticism.
"THE TESTAMENT OF ADAM AND THE ANGELIC LITURGY", by Stephen E. Robinson notes: "Renan believed the Testament to be the product of Christian gnosticism and in this he was followed by several other nineteenth century critics."(Revue de Qumrân Vol. 12, No. 1 (45) (JUIN 1985), pp. 105-110)
The Online Pseudepigrapha says: "Beginning with M. E. Renan, the Testament of Adam was long regarded by modern scholars as a Gnostic work, but both Reinink and Robinson have shown this view to be wrong."
I thought the part about the devils praising God sounded weird, but maybe this reflects the document's gnosticism: "And at the first hour of the night the devils render thanks and praise to God Most High, and there is in them no evil and no harm for anyone until they have finished their service of homage."
Here is the quote about Cain's jealousy over his sister: "Furthermore, thou must know, O my son, Seth, behold a Flood shall come and shall wash the whole earth because of the children of Kâyal (Cain), the murderer, who slew his brother through jealousy, because of his sister Lûd."
(Question 2: SEE BELOW) Is the Testament saying that the Messiah would come 5500 years after Adam's time?
Charlesworth gives this version of God's words to Adam:
"I will make you a god, not right now, but after a space of many years. ... But after a short time there will be mercy on you because you were created in my image..."
E.A. Budge translated the Testament as saying:
Does this mean that in the year 5500 in the Hebrew calendar, Jesus is to be born? That's 1740 AD in the Gregorian calendar. (http://www.hebcal.com/converter/?hd=28& ... 5500&h2g=1) This doesn't sound right.God spake unto me, saying, "Be not sorrowful, O Adam, for thou didst wish to become a god and didst transgress my command. Behold, I will stablish thee, not at this present, but after a few days."
...
[God continues:] "And after five days and half a day1 I will have compassion upon thee, and shew thee mercy in the abundance of my compassion and my mercy. And I will come down into thy house, and I will dwell in thy flesh, and for thy sake I will be pleased to be born like an [ordinary] child.
BUDGE'S FOOTNOTE:
I.e. five thousand five hundred years.