Pseudepigraphy

Trotz zahlreicher und fundierter Einblicke in die Gattung und den theologischen
Inhalt der Nag-Hammadi-Apokalypse des Paulus (NHC V,2) bleibt die genaue
Valenz des Textes umstritten: Ist der Text valentinianisch, wie oft behauptet, oder
nicht, und was bedeutet die Antwort für unser Verständnis der gnostischen Apokalypsen im Allgemeinen? Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über das Problem und belegt, dass der Nachweis für eine valentinianische Herkunft des Textes problematisch ist. Vor allem ist es unwahrscheinlich, dass die berühmten valentinianischen Lehrer des 2. Jahrhunderts Bedarf an Pseudonymität gehabt hätten. Ganz im Gegenteil zeigt die Beleglage für die Beziehung zwischen Gruppendefinition und Pseudonymität, dass die bekannten valentinianischen Lehrer ihre Autorität durch ihre kirchlichen Institutionen und hohe Ausbildung begründeten – im Unterschied zu den namenlosen Autoren der pseudonymen Apokalypsen und der sogenannten „sethianischen“ Literatur. Hier erscheint die Möglichkeit, dass die Nag-Hammadi-Apokalypse des Paulus eher ein späterer Text wäre, geschrieben nach der Blüte des Valentinianismus, in einer Zeit, als die valentinianische Theologie eine Art Geheimwissen unabhängig von irgendeiner Schule geworden war.

Textual criticism of the New Testament illuminates the pseudepigraphic issue insofar as the reception of a text in the early Church is inseparable from the circulation of its manuscripts. David PASTORELLI confronts the Epistle of Jude to three different types of texts: Alexandrian, Byzantine and "Western". Though it is widely attested in the Alexandrian type at the end of the second century, the Alexandrian authors know that some churches do not accept the Epistle. It is most plausibly churches of Syria they have in view: four minor Catholic Epistles (2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and Jude) are but lately accepted in the Syro-Byzantine type. The major discovery comes from the "Western" text which excludes the Epistle of Jude, allowing thereby to show that its pseudepigraphic status is already discussed in the first half of the second century; the Muratorian Canon confirms that the debate goes on at the end of that same century.

La critique textuelle du NT permet de jeter un éclairage sur la question pseudépigraphique dans la mesure où la réception d’un écrit dans l’Eglise ancienne est indissociable de sa diffusion dans la tradition manuscrite. David PASTORELLI confronte l’épître de Jude aux différents types de texte connus (« occidental », alexandrin et byzantin). Jd est largement attestée dans le type alexandrin dès la fin du second siècle, mais les auteurs alexandrins n’ignorent pas qu’elle n’est pas admise par toutes les églises. La Syrie est vraisemblablement visée : les quatre épîtres catholiques mineures (2 P, 2-3 Jn et Jd) ne sont reçues que tardivement dans le type syro-byzantin. La découverte majeure provient du texte « occidental » qui exclut Jd et permet ainsi de montrer que le statut pseudépigraphique de l’épître de Jude est discuté dès la première moitié du second siècle ; le Canon de Muratori confirme la poursuite du débat à la fin du second siècle.

This article challenges the historical existence of the 'Johannine community'—a hypothesized group of ancient churches sharing a distinctive theological outlook. Scholars posit such a community to explain the similarities of John to 1, 2 and 3 John as well as the epistles' witness to a network of churches. Against this view, this article calls attention to evidence of literary contact between the four texts and the presence of dubious authorial claims in each. Taken together, these features cast John, 1 John, 2 John and 3 John as unreliable bases for historical reconstruction, whose implied audiences and situations are probably fabrications. The article proceeds to develop a new history of the Johannine texts. Those texts represent a chain of literary forgeries, in which authors of different extractions cast and recast a single invented character-an eyewitness to Jesus' life-as the mouthpiece of different theological viewpoints.

(Open Access through SAGE: https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X19890490)

This is the submitted draft version of a paper published in Novum Testamentum 59.2 (2017): 171-93 (http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685365-12341555). This study investigates the implications of pseudonymity for the interpretative process, arguing that we need to take into account the pseudepigraphal attempt to achieve a " reality effect " by employing tropes and concerns from authentic Pauline letters to lend the forged writing an air of verisimilitude. But in this way our ability, if we judge a text pseudepigraphal, to discern reality from appearance is severely problematized, and we should therefore consider the possibility that pseudepigraphal letters should be treated more as rhetorical compositions than as epistolary literature, since all the ostensive elements of epistolarity are fictionalized in a pseudepigraphal letter.

Comment expliquer que certains textes du Nouveau Testament soient pseudépigraphes ? Après avoir passé en revue les différentes hypothèses, Régis Burnet finit par conclure que l'explication la plus plausible du phénomène se trouve dans un travail de relecture de l'oeuvre d'un apôtre opérée par ses disciples. Il met cependant en garde contre ce que cette position pourrait présenter d'irénique, en rappelant qu'écrire sous le nom d'un autre n'était jamais une opération innocente dans l'Antiquité : cette pratique doit donc interroger nos notions de vérité et de fidélité, mais aussi notre conception de l'inspiration.

1 Enoch 90.37-38 feature a messianic white bull and a nagar. Following a discussion of interpretational cruces, this article concludes that the latter represents the aurochs. A comparison is made with Deut. 33.17 in which the same two oxen represent an anticipated Joseph-Joshua deliverer, who is on the one hand servile and destined to sacrificial death and on the other regnant and free. The coincidence of imagery in the two passages suggests that 1 En. 90.37-38 is dependent on Deut. 33.17, leading to the conclusion that the oxen of 1 En. 90.37.38 depict a Joseph-Joshua Messiah destined to sacrificial death then resurgence in power. This has implications for the dating of beliefs about the Josephite Messiah, for the integrity of other second-century BCE texts, and for Christian origins.

L’attribuzione delle Elegiae di Massimiano a Cornelio Gallo viene generalmente imputata a Pomponio Gaurico, nonostante essa sia testimoniata in parecchi codici preesistenti alla sua edizione dei Fragmenta (1502), per cui non vi è dubbio che essa dipende da scelte testuali precedenti, soprattutto perché reca numerosi errori indipendenti da Gaurico stesso. Lo dimostrano un nuovo, approfondito esame dei codici e l’analisi di alcuni dati, finora non presi in considerazione. Si è inoltre ritenuto opportuno elencare una serie di giudizi sull’autore delle Elegiae e sull’opera.

Summarium
Primus Pomponius Gauricus Maximiani Elegias Cornelio Gallo perperam adscripsisse plerumque creditur, at idem faciunt et nonnulli codices qui, antequam eius editio in lucem prodiret (1502), conscripti sunt, qua re non est dubium quin eadem ex superioris aetatis testimoniis pendeat, praesertim cum compluribus mendis scateat quae nullo modo uni Gaurico tribui possunt. Quod quidem codicum recentiorum investigatione diligenter peracta, novis argumentis nisus comprobare conatus sum. Praeterea mihi visum est percensere quid de Elegiarum auctore nec non de Elegiis ipsis viri docti omni tempore sentirent.

There are two important aspects in Athanasius’ self-representation as an author that led to his success and reputation. One aspect is his depiction as the true teacher, the other aspect is his portrayal as the real martyr. “Teacher” belongs to a more intellectual habitus, “martyr” to a practical and spiritual one. Both aspects support each other and underline his authority as a reliable author. Especially the adoption of the theme “persecution” and “martyrdom” is notable, because it is the first creative reuse of this theme in a new context during a time when the persecution of Christians was an element of the past, but when, at the same time, the veneration of the martyrs of the first three centuries grew constantly. Athanasius managed to depict his many exiles as martyrdom, not as damnation or cowardly flight. On the contrary, he achieved to describe his many depositions as maneuvers of the heretics, either of the Eusebians or of the emperors, though historical research has shown that he was not exiled because of theological reasons at all. In the end it was the conviction of the later generations after Athanasius that Christianity owed the prevalence of Nicene Orthodoxy to him; his five exiles did not discredit his legacy but on the contrary supported it.

The pruning of the Pauline Canon is considered one of the signal achievements of contemporary New Testament studies. Quite intriguingly, however, no such consensus on the Pauline Canon exists among researchers who have actually executed quantitative studies of style in the Greek New Testament (GNT). Perhaps even more tellingly, from the perspective of functional linguistics, no study in the GNT has been executed that uses a linguistically comprehensive set of measures for either the syntagmatic structures, paradigmatic systems, multiple strata or multiple metafunctions of the GNT. In this study we will pursue an approach that, for the first time, visually compares and contrasts these three dimensions in some depth. The advantages of such an approach are its (1) comprehensive selection of linguistic measures across six representative syntagmatic ranks in the GNT, (2) use of two data-driven (rather than ad hoc) feature-selection methods, (3) use of multiple extractive multivariate techniques (correspondence analysis and multiple correspondence analysis) which provide highly interpretable visualizations of the data, and (4) use of a formal experimental design methodology that explores each level of linguistic rank. This study proposes a) an approach that serves as a meaningful next step building upon the work of Neumann and Mealand in particular, and b) that the tighter integration of linguistics and multivariate visualization combines to provide new insights into the textual boundaries of the Pauline Canon.

With many scholars, among them Outi Leppä, I regard Colossians as a pseudepigraphical epistle. On the literary side, Col looks like a cento made from reminis¬cences of Rom, 1Cor, 1Thess, 2Thess, Gal and Acts. In my Echtheitskritische Untersuchungen zu den vier kleineren Paulusbriefen / Bd. 1 (Investigations on the Authenticity of the Four Minor Pauline Epistles / Vol. 1) (2011) I have confronted the usual certainty that the New Testament epistle to the Philippians is authentic with the question: By what evidence are we able to discern with confidence that Phil has not been, at least for a great part, put together in the same manner as Col? Previous research (notably by C.L. Mitton, E.P. Sanders and O. Leppä) has neglected many parallels that, added together, fit well the possibility of inauthenticity. At least in the cases of Phil / Rom and Phil / Acts, these parallels seem to me not only to indicate a direct literary contact, but, for reasons presented in detail, to point in the direction of Phil’s literary dependence on these texts. The same is true for Phil / 2Thess, and this study contains the reasons for my impression. It constitutes an excerpt from the forthcoming second edition of the two half-volumes published in 2011. (The wording of this excerpt may not be completely identical with the final version.)

Dans cet article, je me propose de réfléchir au rôle et à la fonction de la pseudépigraphie dans les Oracula Sibyllina, une collection de textes poétiques à caractère politique et religieux écrits en grec entre le IIe siècle avant J.-C. et le VIIe siècle de notre ère. À cet effet, je recours à Michel Foucault et à sa réflexion sur la notion d’auteur, dont je tente de vérifier la pertinence pour comprendre les raisons qui ont poussé des juifs et des chrétiens à faire appel à des figures identifiées comme païennes pour transmettre leur message. Ce faisant, j’espère trouver des clés permettant de cerner les motivations et intentions des auteurs de ces textes. J’illustre mon propos par l’étude de quelques morceaux choisis du recueil.

In this article, I propose to reflect on the role and the function of pseudepigraphy in the Oracula Sibyllina, a collection of poetic texts of a political and religious nature written in Greek between the second century BC and the seventh century AD. To this end, I use Michel Foucault and his reflections on the notion of authorship and try to test its relevance to understand the reasons that led Jews and Christians to summon figures identified as pagans to convey their message. In doing so, I hope to better identify the intentions and motivations of the authors. I illustrate my points by studying some excerpts from the collection.

ABSTRACT

The historical-critical method that characterizes academic biblical studies too often remains separate from approaches that stress the history of interpretation, which are employed more frequently in the area of Second Temple or Dead Sea Scrolls research. Inaugurating the new Eisenbrauns series, Critical Studies in the Hebrew Bible, A More Perfect Torah explores a series of test-cases in which the two methods mutually reinforce one another. The volume brings together two studies that investigate the relationship between the composition history of the biblical text and its reception history at Qumran and in rabbinic literature.

The Temple Scroll is more than the blueprint for a more perfect Temple. It also represents the attempt to create a more perfect Torah. Its techniques for doing so are the focus of part 1, entitled “Revelation Regained: The Hermeneutics of KI and 'IM in the Temple Scroll.” This study illuminates the techniques for marking conditional clauses in ancient Near Eastern literature, biblical law, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It also draws new attention to the relationship between the Temple Scroll’s use of conditionals and the manuscript’s carefully organized spacing system for marking paragraphs. Syntax serves as a technique, no less than pseudepigraphy, to advance the Temple Scroll’s claim to be a direct divine revelation.

Part 2 is entitled “Reception History as a Window into Composition History: Deuteronomy’s Law of Vows as Reflected in Qoheleth and the Temple Scroll.” The law of vows in Deut 23:22-24 is difficult in both its syntax and its legal content. The difficulty is resolved once it is recognized that the law contains an interpolation that disrupts the original coherence of the law. The reception history of the law of vows in Numbers 20, Qoh 5:4–7, 11QTemple 53:11–14, and Sipre Deuteronomy confirms the hypothesis of an interpolation. Seen in this new light, the history of interpretation offers a window into the composition history of the biblical text.

The volume shows the significance of syntax and historical linguistics for understanding how ancient scribes established claims of religious and textual authority. Appendixes on the use of conditionals in biblical law and the Dead Sea Scrolls provide resources for further research.

KEYWORDS

Pentateuch, Biblical Law, Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran, Historical Criticism, History of Interpretation, Historical Linguistics, Reception History, Composition History, Redaction, Exegesis, Innerbiblical Exegesis, Rewritten Scripture, Halakic Exegesis, Legal Exegesis, Legal Hermeneutics, Covenant Code, Law of Vows, Syntax, Grammar, Oaths, Vows, Pleonasm, Conditionals, Casuistic Law, Scribal Practice, Textual Authority, Interpolation, Revelation, Voicing, Protasis, Apodosis, Lexik, Bundesbuch, Auslegungsgeschichte, Entstehungsgeschichte des Dtn, Wirkungsgeschichte, Grammatik, Innerbiblische Exegese

REVIEWS

"A More Perfect Torah is an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue about text and composition. The best feature of the work is the author's effort to bring together two often insular disciplines—biblical studies and the history of Jewish interpretation."
—Matthew McAffee, Bulletin for Biblical Research 24.1 (2014)

"L. has provided us with two fine detailed studies that nicely demonstrate the interplay of language and hermeneutics. The brief summary presented here does not do full justice to his arguments, which draw parallels from cuneiform law and rabbinics as well as from the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls."
—John J. Collins in Theologische Literaturzeitung 139.2 (2014)

"[In this book,] Levinson accomplishes his goal with a clarity and specificity that is–in sum–nearly unassailable. . . . [He] states his case clearly, carefully, and brilliantly. . . . Levinson’s argument is so persuasive and his critical skills so sharpened by use that readers may find themselves bewitched into accepting without argument or question the conclusions he proffers. . . . [As a result,] it is so very tempting to surrender and suggest that Levinson has uttered the final word on the subject. The book is just that good."
—Jim West, "Zwinglius Redivivus" blog (2013)

"This cutting-edge monograph is the first in the new Eisenbrauns series Critical Studies in the Hebrew Bible. It is presented in two parts, the first of which, 'Revelation Regained: The Hermeneutics of ky and 'm in the Temple Scroll', was co-authored with Molly Zahn. By examining the syntax, linguistic forms, and the spacing system employed, the authors explain the replacement of the conditional particle ky ('if') in Deuteronomy with 'm ('if' or 'when') in 11QT as the redactor's desire to resolve the inconsistent arrangement and awkward content of the pre-existing laws. This textual sprucing was further accompanied by re-presenting the speeches of Moses as direct divine revelation, to construct a superior and definitive finished product for the Temple Scroll's audience(s). A separate analysis of the reception of Deuteronomy's law of vows (in Num. 20, Qoh. 5.4-7, 11QT 53.11-14 and Sifre Deut.) is then shown to illuminate the compositional history of the earlier biblical forms. This is a highly persuasive and compelling study, less accessible to non-specialists, but essential reading for understanding the development of authoritative Judaean texts in the Second Temple Period."
—Sandra Jacobs, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 38:5 (2014): 194

“In the final analysis, this short book about biblical literature should challenge scholars of rabbinic Judaism in a number of productive ways. First, the book’s daunting melding of hermeneutics with historical linguistics argues against the separation of labor that currently characterizes a great deal of work on rabbinic Judaism. Second, the book convincingly destabilizes the categories of scripture and rewritten scripture. This is not only a helpful reminder that the history of biblical exegesis begins before scripture was fixed. By showing how the earliest exegetical impulses have impacted biblical texts, Levinson is shaking the canonical foundation on which many histories of biblical exegesis begin. Third, the book demonstrates what can be seen by working both forward and backward through time. A great deal of scholarship on rabbinic Judaism is structured chronologically—from the Torah to the Talmud. There are plenty of good reasons for this, and certainly no justification for wholesale change. Indeed, the first chapter of the present work is perfectly chronological. But the second chapter disturbs this all-to-neat structural device, demonstrating that the shakiness of some foundations can best be seen not just by looking down from above but by climbing down and probing deeply and carefully. Finally, Levinson’s contribution to our understanding of the Second Temple period quest for a more perfect Torah sheds general light on rabbinic literature, especially by implicit contrast. Rabbinic Judaism—with its belief in the dual Torah, and its employment of explicitly exegetical midrashic styles—developed an entirely different approach, whereby revelation could be regained from a Torah that need not, and no longer could, be perfected by rewriting.”
    —Jonathan Klawans, The Review of Rabbinic Judaism 18 (2015): 167–170

“A More Perfect Torah contains two short yet richly rewarding studies which seek to combine what are frequently considered separate disciplinary pursuits within biblical studies, skillfully demonstrating the benefits of a broader and more integrative approach to the field. . . .

“The two studies. . .demonstrate that history critics must at least consider Rewritten Scripture and reception history as avenues of historical-critical inquiry. Moreover, the studies show that the evidence of Rewritten Scripture or reception history will, in certain cases, be determinative or strongly corroborative of historical-critical conclusion. The studies in this volume thus not only issue a challenge to the boundaries between disciplinary specialization within biblical studies, but significantly problematize any distinction between Scripture and Rewritten Scripture or between Bible and reception.”
—Deane Galbraith, University of Otago, Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception 4:1 (2014): 105–8. Online: http://dx.doi.org/10.11157/rsrr4-1-636

This paper is the full draft of a presentation I gave at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, TX for the "Pastoral Implications of Pseudepigraphy and Anonymity in the New Testament," conference sponsored by The International Reference Library for Biblical Research, May 19-21, 2022. An edited version is slated for publication with Wipf&Stock/Cascade for Spring/Summer, 2023.

The search for an authority unites all types of pseudepigraphy, both the intentional falsifications or false attributions and the accidental or erroneous ones. This authority is a consensus among both the "producers" and the "recipients" of the writings. In pre-modern times, the well-known name was the best guarantee to be remembered and further received. These observations support the assumption that in most cases only special authorities became the starting point for further pseudepigraphic ascriptions. In the beginning there were apostles, then well-known teachers who also became martyrs. This also applied to Athanasius in a special way.

SVMMARIVM – Hic tractantur tres quaestiones Maximianeae, de quibus docti uiri disseruerunt: qua aetate poeta uixerit, paganusne fuerit an Christianus, denique elegi eius carmen
continuum sint necne.
ABSTRACT – This article discusses three significant problems in the study of Maximian: the
most likely dating of this author, his religious views and the unity or fragmentation of his
corpus

This paper is the full draft of a presentation I gave at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, TX for the "Pastoral Implications of Pseudepigraphy and Anonymity in the New Testament," conference sponsored by The International Reference Library for Biblical Research, May 19-21, 2022. An edited version is slated for publication with Wipf&Stock/Cascade for Spring/Summer, 2023.

James offers a concise and accessible introduction to a New Testament text, in this case aimed specifically at undergraduate-level students. John S. Kloppenborg introduces the reader to a series of critical issues bearing on the reading of James and provides a balanced presentation and assessment of the range of scholarly views, with guidance for further reading and research.
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Chapter One: Approaching James
Chapter Two: Attestation, Authorship, and Date
Chapter Three: Genre and Structure
Chapter Four: The Fabric of James: The Jewish Bible and the Jesus Tradition
Chapter Five: Addressees and Purpose
Epilogue: The Legacy of James
Index of References
Index of Special Vocabulary
Index of Modern Authors

This study investigates the function of the double fiction, resulting from the use of pseudepigraphy, for the kybernetic purposes of a letter, using the Letter to Titus as a case study. Deutero-Paul (“Paul”) continues the proto-Pauline tradition in a creative and innovative way, given that he recognizes the importance of (the historical) Paul for building up of the community, even if he himself represents, somewhat paradoxically, a rather static understanding of tradition. “Paul” creates a fictive portrayal of the community of the past in order to mold his own community for the future. However, a moral evaluation of the letter’s pseudepigraphy remains problematic as the application of the ancient criteria of such an evaluation is unreliable, due to the unavailability of certain historical information.

One of the striking features of Second Temple Judaism is the appearance of the phenomenon of pseudepigraphy. Intertwined with this are the questions of authorship, fidelity to tradition, and the creative formation of new works. This paper attempts to bring to bear the debates on the “Auteur” in Film Studies to the understanding of authorial persona and voice in the Jewish writings of the Persian and Hellenistic Period. By focusing on a broader set of issues centered on creative production, this paper hopes to find new ways of viewing the old problems inherent in redaction theory.