Apocalyptic Literature: Creation, Adam, and the Fall

• A. Grillmeier, Christ in the Christian Tradition, vol. I
• J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds
• Angelo di berardino, ed., Patrology, vol. IV
• Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy
• John Dillon, The Middle Platonists
• Jean Danielou’s Jewish Christianity and Origins of Latin Christianity
• H.B. Swete, The Holy Spirit in the Ancient Church
• Jarl Fossum, The Name of God and the Angel of the Lord

Apocalyptic Literature: This week’s readings

This week, Dr. Orlov had us read (I apologize that I don’t have on-line links for all of them):

Readings: Genesis 1-3; Latin Life of Adam and Eve; The Book of the Watchers; G. Boccaccini, Roots of Rabbinic Judaism, ch. 2.

Additional Readings: G. Boccaccini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis, pp. 68-79; J. Reeves, Early Jewish Mythologies of Evil; Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, entries: Anthropos, Adam, Glory.

Accounts of Creation and Fall

With the readings from Genesis, the Life of Adam and Eve, and the Enochic Book of the Watchers, Dr. Orlov wanted to make us aware that there were multiple accounts of the Creation and Fall (introduction of evil into the world) in the Second Temple period. Generally, these are all very ancient stories, yet modified to suit the purposes/ideology of the parties who used them.  The following represents some of my notes from the readings:

Gen 1-3

Gen 1–This chapter is considered by scholars to have been written by Zadokite priestly authors. It is very concerned with ordering, separating, classifying. God(s)/Spirit of God create Earth and heavenly firmament-Earth is without form and void and covered in darkness. God divides waters. God forms cosmos in 6 days, rests on 7th. Creation is good. God says, “Let us make man in our image and our likeness.”

Gen 2-Second creation account (spiritual vs. physical?). Man commanded not to eat of Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil-or they would surely die. Woman created from man.

Gen 3-Serpent (God’s creation) tempts Eve to eat of fruit, Eve gives in. She gets Adam to eat fruit. Serpent cursed, Adam and Eve expelled from Garden and Tree of Life. The introduction of evil and death into the world is Adam and (principally) Eve’s fault, under influence of the Serpent.

Latin Life of Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve have been expelled from Garden. They miss angelic food in paradise and don’t want to eat what animals eat. For penitence, seeking God’s mercy, they stand in river for 40 days with water up to neck (compare baptism).
Satan transforms himself into angel of light and tries to convince Eve to leave water.
Satan is the one by whom they were “alienated from the dwelling of paradise and spiritual happiness.” Satan hates Adam because Satan (and angel followers) was expelled from heaven when he would not worship Adam, the image of God. Satan grieved because of his loss of glory. He wanted Adam and Eve to experience the same loss.
Adam taken to heaven in chariot of fire. He sees the fiery face of God. He sees vision of the future of his children.
Adam suffers great pain as punishment for his transgression and is near death. He sends Seth and Eve to retrieve oil from the Tree of Life to cure him. Adam is not granted the oil, but is promised that he will be resurrected by the Son of God and led to the Tree of Life. Signs and darkness accompany Adam’s death. After Adam is redeemed, his will sit on the throne formerly occupied by Satan.
Eve commands children to keep a record in stone and earth of their life. 8th day is day that Christ will reign forever. These stone records survived the flood and were seen by many, but they could not be read. God helped Solomon to understand all that was written as he built the Temple.

Book of Watchers

Angels (Watchers) married human women who then gave birth to great giants who caused many problems. Watchers (with Azaz’el) taught heavenly secrets (that are performed in heaven) to mankind. These angels bring corruption into the world. Michael, Gabriel saw sin and problems on Earth caused by Watchers. The Holy One will cry because of the sin and oppression on Earth (1 Enoch 9:10). Deluge will be sent to destroy wickedness from the Earth. Whole Earth was corrupted by sins of Azaz’el.
Watchers ask Enoch to write memorial prayers seeking mercy of God for them. Enoch reads judgment to Watchers that they will be imprisoned forever.
Enoch is taken up into Heaven. He sees a white building surrounded by tongues of fire. Goes into inner house of white marble. Walls have mosaics with cherubim, floor is of crystal and ceiling depicts stars. Fire is all around. He enters second house (3rd section), which has fire on floor and ceiling. He sees chariot throne lifted up with wheels, cherubim, and fire from underneath. He sees Great Glory on the throne dressed in white robe. He is surrounded by fire. He calls Enoch to come near to Him and His Word. God speaks with Enoch.

Boccaccini, Roots of Rabbinic Judaism

Zadokite Worldview:
Zadokites wrote Gen 1, describing how God made order out of chaos-God separates and defines boundaries-society, space, and time are divided hierarchically into graded holiness.
Sins of kings bring destruction on Jerusalem-Zadokites insist that all priests and people guilty of sin as well-could not have been destroyed if they had been innocent.
Temple closely mirrors Heaven-”to enter the Temple and take part in the Temple cult is therefore to participate to some degree in the unceasing worship going on in heaven.”

Entries in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible:

Anthropos:

One designation, with or without qualification, of the highest being in many gnostlc systems…The name draws attention to the direct or indirect link between supreme divinity and humanity, esp. the ‘unwavering race’, thanks to which redemption from the world created by the Archons is possible. The name Anthropos signifies that God is the prototype of Man (anthropos) because man is made, directly or indirectly, in his image.

Adam:

In the Bible itself there are no traces of traditions that Adam was ever regarded as an angelic or divine being…[must look to other Ancient Near Eastern literature]
Some passages in early rabbinic literature testify to the existence of “heretics” (minim) that held that Adam had acted as God’s associate in creation, or as his pleni-potentiary (e.g., b.Sanh. 38a: “Our rabbis taught: Adam was created [last of all beings] on the eve of Sabbath. Why so? Lest the minim should say: The Holy One, blessed by He, had a partner [sc. Adam] in his work of creation.”). Gnostic sources seem to confirm this when they speak of Adam as [the one] through whom everything came into being (Fossum 1985:267). In other early Christian sources the idea of Adam having been God’s viceregent crops up occasionally, epecially in the so-called Adam literature (see, e.g., the Cave of the Treasure; further Stone 1992). Philo’s distinction between the heavenly Man of Gen l:27 and the earthly man of Gen 2:7 may have been one of the tributaries to the development of this motif (Opif. mundi 134 et al.). In 2 Enoch 30:11-12 (long recension) God says: “On the earth I assigned him [Adam] to be a second angel, honoured and great and glorious. I assigned him to be a king, to reign on the earth and to have my wisdom. There was nothing comparable to him on the earth, not even among my creatures that exist [the angels].” But the Testament of Abraham ch. 8 (rec. B) goes a step further when identifying Adam with a Kavod-like (Glory) Man in heaven, “sitting upon a throne of great glory” at the gates of Paradise, encircled by a multitude of angels and looking at the many souls being led to destruction and the few souls being led to life. “Adam is enthroned in heaven as the Glory at the end of time” (Fossun 1985:276). The description of Adam as a “wondrous man,” “adorned in such glory,” with a “terrifying apperance, like that of the Lord” (Test. Abr. I I, rec. A) clearly recalls Ezekiel’s vision in ch. 1. It would seem that in certain circles with mystical inclinations God’s Glory, the Heavenly Man, and Adam merged into one angelic figure. On the development of this idea in later Kabbalistic circles see Scholem 1974 (Reg., s.v.). The implication that all this may have for the study of New Testament christology is a matter of debate.

Notes from Class Lecture:

The Second Temple (intertestamental) period is largely a mystery. Looking at pseudepigraphal and apocalyptic literature helps put together picture, but it is still very confusing. “Canon” did not exist in this period–just collections of scrolls that varied from library to library. Apocalyptic literature is response to absence of Temple–promoted the idea that heavenly liturgy goes on eternally in heavenly temple. Apocalypses are “outlines of mystical practice”–meant to be taught to and understood by only a few.  Study of Rabbinics and Patristics gives us insight into later interpretations of these texts, but not necessarily original meaning.

586 BC–First Temple destroyed

538 BC–End of Exile

516 BC–Temple is Rebuilt

After Exile, Judahite monarchy wasn’t continued. Zadokites edit sacred writings and reshape Judaism. Genesis 1 is the “manifesto” of the priestly tradition–outlines their vision of God, the Universe, and Creation. For them, society was divided into graded levels of holiness, with the Temple at the center of Jerusalem and Jerusalem and the center of the world. Boundaries between levels had to be strictly enforced. Humans couldn’t go to the Underworld or to Heaven without terrible consequences.

Enochic tradition focused on the violation of those boundaries (e.g., ascent to heaven). Zadokites wanted to marginalize this trend–that’s why we don’t see it in the Old Testament. The Zadokites only focused on the human realm.  Terms like God’s Glory (kavod) were introduced to reinforce the boundaries–men do not see God, they see his Glory. Humans are protected from seeing Deity directly.

We know very little of the First Temple because we only have literature from the Second Temple–anything from earlier is edited by Zadokites. Zadokites tried to exclude all theologies that they didn’t agree with. Other parties kept their own alternative theologies, but they (generally) didn’t make it in to our Old Testament. This is why Old Testament is so different than New. New Testament authors had access to, and often preferred alternative theologies.

All groups wanted access to the temple, but Zadokite priests restricted access. Enochic literature preserves access to temple through heavenly temple. Enoch becomes high priest in heavenly temple. Although not emphasized in their writings, Zadokites also believe in heavenly temple–earthly sanctuary is a copy of heavenly.

Creation, Fall, and Evil

Traditions of protology (the beginning) and eschatalogy (the end) are often symmetrical. Same characters/places that exist in beginning often come back in end of times.

Adamic tradition of creation carried on by Zadokites. In some interpretations of this tradition, Fall of Adam actually took place before the incident with the Serpent in the Garden. The Fall occurred during the process of creation.

• In Genesis 1, Adam is “created” (bara). Adam (man, human being) is created male and female. Some later interpreters explained that this meant that Adam was androgenous–both male and female inseparable. At this point, Adam existed in the “world of creation” (olam ha’beriah)–a world of potential existence, the highest of the worlds that exist outside of God’s presence.
• In Gen 2, Adam is formed (yazah). Adam (male human) is formed from the dust of the earth. This takes place in the “world of formation” (olam ha’yetzirah). Here there is a joining of substance and spirit, and making “something from something.”
• Finally, Eve is made (asiah). She is separated from Adam’s body–this marks the third of the lower worlds, the “world of making” (olam ha’asiyah). This is where the human race is propagated.

These traditions (found principally in Kabbalistic literature), indicate that in the end times, the female will be incorporated back into the male, and the two will be one eternally.  (I’m sure David Littlefield or Kerry Shirts could tell us more about these traditions).  

Another interesting aspect of the Adam tradition is the idea that when Adam fell, he lost his “garments of light” that he had possessed in the Garden of Eden. When they were expulsed from the Garden, they were given “garments of skins” so that they would not be naked–but also to indicate their loss of heavenly glory.  In Life of Adam and Eve, Adam instructs Seth and Eve to go back to the Garden to ask for oil from the tree of life. The purpose of this oil is to give back garments of light (= resurrection and immortality).

Enochic Tradition

The Enochic literature doesn’t mention transgression of Adam and Eve–they were our noble parents. Evil comes into the world because of the Watchers, demiurgic angels who want to corrupt the earthly realm–fornicate with earthly women and share heavenly secrets without God’s permission. These were angels of great power and authority.  These angels are punished by God and cast into a pit in the desert. Because of the fall of these important angels, humans (e.g., Enoch) are called to come to heaven to become angels and take the place of those who fell. Some scholars think that this stories were meant to criticize the Second Temple Zadokite priesthood who were seen as corrupt by those who were excluded from serving in the new temple. Themes of Enochic literature continue unchanged for centuries, and are very important to Christian theology. We don’t find these themes in Old Testament, but they appear in the New. Life of Adam and Eve appears to be a mix of Adamic and Enochic literature used by Christians.

Please excuse the partial and sketchy nature of these notes–I hope they were understandable and of interest. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to add a comment here or email me. All things being equal, I will make the same type of posts next week with what I have learned until then.

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