Glossary
"Apollonius of Tyana in Cappadocia (Asia Minor) was a Neophyagorean sage: he followed the teachings of the philosopher Pythagoras (born ca. 521 B.C.E.). Apollonius was born about the same time as Jesus and survived until near the end of the first century C.E. Like Jesus, Apollonius was a wandering sage, offering his advice here and there, sometimes without invitation. He was a vegetarian, wore a linen garment, did not bathe, and frequently fasted. He practiced exorcism, cured the sick, and forecast the future. Christian folk in the third century regarded him as a direct competitor of Jesus."
"The preserved Life of Apollonius was written by one Flavius Philostratus at the behest of the empress Julia Domna in the early years of the third century and was completed only after her death in 217."
"...The question of whether Philostratus had access to a firsthand source as he claimed (i.e., the diary of Damis, a disciple of Apollonius) or whether Philostratus simply created a good deal of the material himself is still debated by scholars."
According to Philostratus, "Apollonius of Tyana was born of a well-to-do Greek family in the south-central Anatolian town of which his name preserves the memory. His parents sent him for higher education to the Greek city of Tarsus on the south coast about the same time as the Jewish parents of Paul, in Tarsus, sent their boy to Jerusalem for his education. Both boys came down with incurable religiosity: Paul first became a Pharisee and then was converted to Christianity; Apollonius became a Pythagorean and after some years set out for Babylon where he studies with the magi, and then for India to find the Brahmans and learn their teachings. He come back claiming to have done so, formed a circle of disciples, and lived with them as an itinerant philosopher, holy man, and miracle worker, going from temple to temple along the coasts of northern Syria, Anatolia, and Greece, where Paul, shortly before, had gone from synagogue to synagogue. From Greece, in the last years of Nero, Apollonius went to Rome (where Paul had already been executed). A brush with the police may have persuaded him to push on to Spain where one of the Roman governors was plotting a revolt. After the revolt and Nero's suicide in 68 he returned to Sicily and Greece, then visited Alexandria where in 69 he is said have been consulted by Vespasian at the beginning of his revolt. Vespasian went to Rome, Apollonius to the 'naked sages' in upper Egypt, a community of ascetics with pretensions to supernatural powers. Thence he returned to the eastern Mediterranean where he continued his itinerant life until 93 when he went to Rome to face charges of magic and sedition; he was accused of having sacrificed a Greek boy to divine from his entrails the fate of a conspiracy to kill the emperor Domitian. He reportedly vanished from the courtroom in Rome, returned to Greece, and continued his life there and in Asia Minor undisturbed until his death - some said, his ascent to heaven - shortly after Domitian's assassination in 96. He is also said to have appeared after his ascension or death to a young man who did not believe his teachings."
The Throne Bearers of Yahweh
"The word cherub (cherubim is the Hebrew masculine plural) is a word borrowed from the Assyrian kirubu, from karãbu, 'to be near', hence it means near ones, familiars, personal servants, bodyguards, courtiers. It was commonly used of those heavenly spirits, who closely surrounded the Majesty of God and paid Him intimate service. Hence it came to mean as much as 'Angelic Spirit'. (The change from K of Karãbu, to K of Kirub is nothing unusual in Assyrian. The word has been brought into connection with the Egyptian Xefer by metathesis from Xeref=K-r-bh.) A similar metathesis and play upon sound undoubtedly exists between Kerub and Rakab, 'to ride', and Merkeba, 'chariot'....The word ought to be pronounced in English qerub and querubim, and not with a soft ch. "
"The idea of cherubim as the chariot of God seems indicated in I Paralip. 18, where David gives gold for the Temple cherubim, who are described as 'the Chariot', not, probably, because they had the outward shape of a vehicle, but because the Temple cherubim symbolized the swift-winged living thrones upon which the Almighty journeys through the heavens."
The Imagery of the Cherubim
"A superbly carved ivory plaque from Megiddo gives a rare glimpse of the Canaanite royal court. It shows the king, seated on a throne supported by sphinxes, receiving a victory procession."
In the Bible Lands Museum is an "extremely rare and exquisite ivory carved in openwork technique; that is, in places the ivory is cut all the way through. This artifact is about 5.5 inches high and slightly less than 4 inches wide."
"This ivory plaque can be dated to about the late ninth century B.C.E. The Phoenician style, incorporating Egyptian elements, is well known. Although the provenance of the piece is uncertain, I strongly suspect it was once part of the famous ivory hoard excavated by a French expedition in 1928 at the site of Arslan Tash, about 20 miles east of the upper Euphrates in modern-day Syria. The Arslan Tash ivories were inlaid in the wooden frames of beds (cf. Amos 6:4)."
See Ezekiel's Visions of the Throne-Chariot for a description of the creatures. Cornwell identifies the lion with the constellation Leo, the Ox with Taurus, the man with Aquarius (the water-bearer) and the eagle with Scorpio. These constellations are located at opposite quarters of the zodiac. Lee Perry identifies the creatures with the four Guardian Stars. The four beasts are also similar to the karibu carved on the gates of Nebuchadrezzar's palace in Babylon.
Origins in the Sphinx
"The indications are that Christianity was well established in middle Egypt by A.D. 150 and that Alexandria was its port of entry and supporting base."
Titus Flavius Clemens, (b. 150 CE, Athens, d. between 211 and 215) was a "missionary theologian to the Hellenistic (Greek cultural) world, and second known leader and teacher of the catechetical school of Alexandria. The most important of his surviving works is a trilogy comprising the Protreptikos ('Exhortation'), the Paidagogos ('The Instructor'), and the Stromateis ('Miscellanies'")."
"Clement of Alexandria became head of the Catechetical School about 190. A philosopher throughout his life, Clement saw Greek philosophy as a preparation for Christ, even as a witness to divine truth. Plato was a cherished guide. Sin is grounded in man's free will. Enlightement by the Logos brings man to knowledge. Knowledge results in right decisions. These draw a man toward God until he is assimilated to God (Stromata iv. 23). The Christian lives by love, free from passion. His life is a constant prayer. Clement set forth its pattern in minute detail in the Paedagogos. He took an optimistic view of the future of all men, but knowledge would be rewarded in the world to come. An allegorical exgesis of Scripture supported these views."
"During the next two decades [c. 180-200] Clement was the intellectual leader of the Alexandrian Christian community: he wrote several ethical and theological works and biblical commentaries; he combatted heretical Gnostics (religious dualists who believed in salvation through esoteric knowledge that revealed to men their spiritual origins, identities, and destinies); he engaged in polemics with Christians who were suspicious of an intellectualized Christianity; and he educated persons who later became theological and ecclesiastical leaders (e.g., Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem)."
"Ezekiel the Tragedian's Exagoge is one of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha that survive only in quotation fragments. These quotation fragments are usually preserved in the work of others. The Exagoge is preserved in the Preparation For The Gospel by Eusebius....The conclusion I came to in this study was that the Exagoge was a Jewish work from between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC."
The apocryphal 2 Esdras received its name "because of the opening verse: 'The second book of the prophet Ezra. . . .' The book is an apocalypse consisting largely of seven revelations (3:1-5:20; 5:21-6:34; 6:35-9:25; 9:38-10:59; 11:1-12:51; 13:1-58; 14:1-48) which are primarily concerned with moral themes. Apparently, at least three authors are responsible for 2 Esdras. The original author was probably a first-century Palestinian Jew who, writing in Aramaic or Hebrew, produced chaps. 3-14 (the original 4 Ezra). It was subsequently translated into Greek. A second-century Christian added a Greek introduction (chaps. 1-2). Finally, a third-century Christian added the last two chapters (15-16) in Greek....The purpose of the original author was to show that God is just, despite the evil of the Rome of his day and the calamities that had befallen Jerusalem..."
"...The Apocalypse of Ezra (4 Ezra = 2 Esdras), which seems to have been compiled around the end of the first Christian century by a Jew who was somewhat disillusioned by the harshness with which the Lord had allowed Israel to be treated in the recent past -- especially the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The book probably was written in Semitic, and early translated into Greek, and from Greek into a variety of languages. The Semitic original has perished, along with the Greek translation (except for a few lines from 15.57-59, which in any event originally was not part of 4 Ezra...), so that present editions rest primarily on the ancient Latin version. In its present Latin form, 4 Ezra contains what is usually called a Christian framework (chs 1-2 = '5 Ezra' and 15-16 = "6 Ezra") between which the Apocalypse proper is sandwiched."
"4 Ezra...contains seven visions that God gave to Ezra the scribe/prophet."
The Jewish author writes about events leading up to the Last Judgment.
"The biblical Jubilee year was the fiftieth year, the year following the succession of seven sabbatical years. Whereas a sabbatical year was one in which the land must lie fallow and rest (analogous to the Sabbath at the end of the week), in the jubilee year all land that had been alienated form its original owners was supposed to return to them. All Hebrew slaves were to be set free. The jubilee year began on the Day of Atonement and was signaled by the blowing of trumpets throughout the land and the proclamation of universal liberty."
In the Old Testament
According to Genesis 14:17-20, Abraham/Abram met Melchizedik after a victorious battle against five mighty kings who had conquered southern Canaan.
After being blessed, Abram presented the priest-king with a tithe of all his battle booty.
"…Melchizedek is king of what Salem (or Shalom) means in Hebrew: he's king of peace in the sense of integration, wholeness. He's the 'royal man,' one who's conquered and unified his upper and lower natures, becoming perfect. Such men are called kings. He's also the only high priest in the Old Testament whom no one seems to have ordained."
"This non-Israelite priest-king appears in two places in the Hebrew Bible: Genesis 14:18-20 and Psalm 110:4. My own reading of the texts is that Genesis is drawing on traditional material from the Judean royal cult (or perhaps even from pre-Israelite traditions) to tie the more recently introduced figure Abram to Jerusalem (Salem) and its temple cult. Psalm 110 seems to indicate that there was a priesthood of Melchizedek tied to the Davidic king in the temple cult. I....think that he was a tutelary [guardian] deity of the Davidic house along the lines of ancestral deification in West Semitic royal cults."
"Here there are three parties: David, the Lord, and David's Lord. David is the speaker, and he refers to the one that the Lord is speaking to as 'my Lord.' Certainly David is not equating 'my Lord' with himself. This may be paraphrased as: David says, 'The Lord said to my personal Messiah ... .' The Midrash [on Psalm 18:36] is correct in recognizing the Messianic Character of the psalm."
Since Messiah is to be of the order of Melchizedek, then He, too, is to be Priest and King.
A God-like Being
For the author of scroll 11Q13, the Melchizedek Text of Cave 11, "Melchizedek is an enormously exalted divine being, to whom are applied names that are generally reserved for God alone, the Hebrew names el and elohim. In the author's citation of Isaiah 61:2, which speaks of 'the year of the Lord's favor,' 'Melchizedek' is substituted even for the most holy name of Israel's God, Yahweh. Yet more remarkably, Melchizedek is said to atone for the sins of the righteous and to execute judgment upon the wicked - actions usually associated with God himself. By the power of Melchizedek, dominion on earth shall pass from Satan...to the righteous Sons of Light."
As the Angel Michael
Where Melchizedek appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the document called Melchizedek (11QMelch), he is identified with the 'Elohim' of Psalm 82:1, thus giving us yet another variation on the theme of an angel identified with a divine name.' As the earlier researchers have seen, typically, the name of the angel varies from tradition to tradition. Thus, Michael is God's 'mediator' and general archistrategos, 2En 33:10; TDan 6:1-5; TAbr 1:4; cf. LAE 14:1-2). Eremiel appears in the Apocalypse of Zephaniah (6:1-15), in which he is mistaken for God. In the Ascension of Isaiah 7:2-4, an angel appears whose name cannot be given. And Melchizedek is the favored angelic name in 11QMelch."
Like the Son of God
The author of Hebrews "says...that Melchizedek was a priest of a lineage superior to that of the Levitical priests, since even Abraham paid him homage (7.1-6). Furthermore, Melchizedek continues to serve as a priest forever, in some sense as if he were the Son of God himself (7.3)."
In the Melchizedek text of Cave 11, the "congregation of the sons of righteousness" "heed the message of a second figure described in this writing as 'the messenger.' The messenger, also designated 'Anointed of the spirit' (Hebrew messiah), is conceived of as coming with a message from God, a message explicating the course of history (that is, a declaration of when the End shall come) and teaching about God's truths. This figure dies, an event that may correspond somehow with the text's references to 'jubilee periods'."
Incarnated as Jesus Christ
"Elsewhere (18.5-6), Jesus Christ, and thus apparently Melchizedek, is given the title 'Commander-in-chief (
arxistrategoV) [of the] All.' The Greek term
arxistrategoV is a common title of the archangel Michael. Christ is also called 'glorious one' (but the reading is unclear) and the high angels assisting him are 'chief commanders (
arxistrategoV) of the luminaries (
fwsqer)' (6.2-3). There is a reference to an 'angel of light' in a broken context in 15.1 and the high angels are called 'commander' (
strategoV), 'luminary' (
fwsqer), and 'man-of-light' in 17.11-14 or commander in chief (
arxistrategoV) in 17.18-19. These terms recall Michael, the angel of light or prince of light at Qumran, who leads the heavenly armies against the forces of Belial." Michael's role is described in the account of the Elohim in the Book of Enoch, which was part of the corpus of literature found near Qumran. The Epistle to the Hebrews compares the high priesthood of Jesus to that of Melchizedek.
The scribes were the "school teacher-lawyer-notary class of the Galilean towns."
In the gospels, the apologetic "material is intended to counter the polemic begun and carried on by the scribes, taken up by the high priest, and at two later periods, first from about A.D. 30 to 44 and again from about 70 to 100, vigorously pushed by the Pharisees. The addition of references to the Pharisees in stories and sayings that originally lacked them is a good indication that the original forms of such stories and sayings antedated the rise of Pharisaic influence after 70. Hence we may reasonably suppose that the outsiders' picture of Jesus discernible in the gospels is mainly that of the scribes and high priests of Jerusalem, but carries on considerable elements derived from the scribes of Galilee and from Jesus' lifetime."
"'Synagogue' is not Hebrew at all; it is Greek meaning 'bringing together' and it was originally a place for Jews to meet and organize their community needs in order to uphold the various laws, particularly their food laws."'
"During the period of the Second Temple (520 B.C.E. - 70 C.E.), the term synagogue did not refer primarily to a building but to an assembly. In the villages and towns of ancient Palestine, local affairs were governed by local people. The town or village assembly consisted of the townspeople who attended to a variety of matters - political, judicial, economic, as well as religious (there was no dividing line between religion and the state)."
"None of the pre-70 buildings in Palestine that have been studied by archaeologists show any iconography or other indications that they are anything more than a place to meet." Scholars believed that during the second temple period, the faithful met in homes, not in a specific building used exclusively for worship. However, a pre-70 building has been identified as a synagogue. "The oldest synagogue yet uncovered, a structure dating to about 75-50 BCE, has been excavated near Jericho.
In the first century C.E., "the typical Sabbath service in the synagogue consisted of lections read from the law, the Former Prophets, and the Latter Prophets....There might be also be a recitation from the Targum by memory and a sermon delivered by; the scribe expounding on the lections. These readings and preachings were interspersed with prayers and psalms to complete the worship experience."
"In Jesus' day, the activities that took place in assembly halls were mostly social and educational. The 'synagogue' was primarily a place of study where scripture (Torah and the Prophets) was read aloud and commented on."
"'At some point, however, the synagogue turned from a meeting house into a temple, a place at which one could actually worship Yahweh." This transition occurred in the decades following the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.
"After the destruction of the temple, synagogue buildings were erected and those buildings became centers of public worship and study. The synagogue that a friendly Roman officer built for Jewish elders (Luke 7:5) reflects post-70 conditions. Luke's picture of Corninth with a house-church next door to a synagogue building (Acts 18:7) also fits the later archaeological evidence.)"
The Sibylline Oracles
Sibylline Oracles were "a collection of oracular prophecies in which Jewish or Christian doctrines were allegedly confirmed by a sibyl (legendary Greek prophetess); the prophecies were actually the work of certain Jewish and Christian writers from about 150 BC to about AD 180...In the Oracles the sibyl proved her reliability by first 'predicting' events that had actually recently occurred; she then predicted future events and set forth doctrines peculiar to Hellenistic Judaism or Christianity. The Jewish apologist Josephus and certain Christian apologists thought the works were the genuine prophecy of the sibyls and were greatly impressed by the way in which their doctrines were confirmed by external testimony. Both Theophilus of Antioch and Clement of Alexandria, 2nd-century Christian theologians, referred to the sibyl as a prophetess apparently no less inspired than the Old Testament prophets."
"Scholars are unsure if there ever really was a 'Sibyl' who inaugurated this tradition. Collections of 'Sibylline' oracles appeared in a variety of centers in the ancient world. These collections enjoyed considerable prestige in the Roman Empire and allowed Jews and Christians to communicate their religious views....The collection...now makes up part of the Pseudepigrapha."
The Third Sibylline Oracle, "written ca. the middle of the 2d century BC in Egypt...tells how God sends a savior king who puts an end to all war and grants deliverance to the Jews. The reference is to some Hellenistic Egyptian ruler, either Ptolemy VI Philometor or his successor. The concluding section of the oracle prophesies a kingdom that God will raise up. The hopes of Isaiah are echoed as the Jerusalem temple becomes the goal of pilgrimage for all the nations, the conditions of paradise return, and universal peace prevails....All this is done by God, who is referred to throughout the oracle as 'the great King'. Additions were made to the Third Oracle in the 1st century BC. They prophesy the coming of a 'holy prince' who will rule over a universal kingdom, inaugurated by the fiery judgment of 'the great king, immortal God.' Again all this takes place on Earth."
"The Egyptian Sibylline tradition is remarkable for its lack of the otherworldly dimension so characteristic of the apocalyptic literature. There is no talk of angels and no expectation of resurrection."
"In the Byzantine period 12 of the compositions were collected in a single manuscript containing 14 books (of which numbers 9 and 10 are lost). An incomplete text of this collection was first published in 1545."
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
"The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs were written between 109 and 106 B.C.E. by a Pharisee who greatly admired John Hyrcanus at the zenith of the Maccabean (or Hasmonean) dynasty. The conviction was that Hyrcanus and his Levite family constituted the messianic line. Later revisions condemn the apostate Hasmonean line and expect Messiah to come from the tribe of Judah. The Testaments are inspired by Jacob's testament in Genesis 49 and typically follow this form:
The reference to priestly and royal messiahs in Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs reinforces the conviction that it was a pharisaic work.
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