Simeon the Righteous

[Kris]

Well, as it often happens, when you are researching one thing, you end up stumbling across something else that creates questions. I was looking over some links that Peter had provided on another thread I had made regarding the temple doors-- one of these links had an article from the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society-- entitled Something Awry in the Temple....

In this article, the author talks for awhile about Simeon the Righteous or Just. He states that most people see him as a high priest right prior to the Hasmoneon period, and one of the last of the Great Assembly. However, he adds in that it might be a later Simeon, closer to 30ad, as this author is trying to link the supposed crazy stuff in the temple to Jesus' time. He talks about the story of Simeon seeing a man when he went into the Holy of Holies each Day of Atonement, and then not seeing him, and Simeon stated that this meant he would die soon. He tries to tie this to the last 40 years of the temple and to retroject Simeon to the 30's ad. I think that this fails because the prior information that precedes this story tells that when Simeon ruled for 40 years, all kinds of good miracles occurred as fires didn't go out, the red cord turned white, people could eat little bits of food and be full, etc. then after he died sometimes these miracles happened and other times they didn't. Then during the last 40 years, all of the miracles ceased-- showing a slow decline of the priesthood until the temple was destroyed.

The author of the article also asserts that there is a place in the Talmud that also talks about Simeon the Righteous talking about Caligula. I think that this might be a mess up in the Talmud, either conflating the High Priest at the time Simeon Kanatheras with Simeon the Just-- or just another legendary story about Simeon, like the Alexander story. This would put him at 41 ad-- still too late for Jesus, though.

Does anyone know much about Simon the Righteous (Just) and when he allegedly lived, etc.

The article that am referencing is here:


48-2-pp301-316_JETS

[Kris]

http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/ ... 6_JETS.pdf

[semiopen]

http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah/sotah_33.html#33a_6

It also happened with Simeon the Righteous9 that he heard a Bath Kol issue from within the Holy of Holies announcing, 'Annulled is the decree which the enemy intended to introduce into the Temple'. Then was Caius Caligula10 slain and his decrees annulled. They noted down the time [when the Bath Kol spoke] and it tallied.11 Now it was in Aramaic that it spoke!

They are discussing praying in Aramaic - from earlier in the paragraph -

Behold Rab Judah has said: A man should never pray for his needs in Aramaic. For R. Johanan declared: If anyone prays for his needs in Aramaic, the Ministering Angels4 do not pay attention to him, because they do not understand that language!

footnote 9 -

Possibly the High Priest Simon, son of Boethus, also called Cantheras, as Josephus describes him (op. cit. XIX, VI, 2). [For other views v. HUCA VIII-IX, p. 300.]

There might be an issue with the dates but it isn't clear to me. The story doesn't strike me as serious but the death of Caligula was 41 CE.

Rabbi Louis_Jacobs discusses Bat Kol – A Divine Voice
- http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article ... ine-voice/

In any event, the consensus in Jewish thought is that no appeal to a heavenly voice can be made to decide matters of halakhah where human reasoning on the meaning of the Torah rules is alone determinative. In non-legal matters, however, a Bat Kol is to be heeded.

Occasionally the term Bat Kol is used in a purely figurative manner, as when the early third-century Palestinian teacher, Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, said (Ethics of the Fathers 6:2): ‘Every day a Bat Kol goes forth from Mount Sinai to proclaim: “Woe to mankind for contempt of the Torah”...