Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Jerry D. Treux on Exodus 22:28 (22:27, LXX)

Exo 22:28 is rendered in the KJV as:

Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.

The LXX understood the underlying Hebrew as referring to plural Gods. The verse in the Septuagint (22:27, LXX) reads:

θεοὺς οὐ κακολογήσεις καὶ ἄρχοντας τοῦ λαοῦ σου οὐ κακῶς ἐρεῖς

Brenton in his translation of the LXX, renders the verse thusly:

Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor speak ill of the ruler of thy people.

There have been many attempts to downplay the theological implications of this verse; for instance, some commentators, both historical (e.g., Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) and modern (e.g., the NET Bible) have argued that this refers to human judges, notwithstanding the fact that  אלהים does not mean "judge(s)."

In his 2009 PhD dissertation, The Problem of Blasphemy: The Fourth Gospel and Early Jewish Understandings, Jerry D. Truex discusses the various interpretive possibilities of this verse in the LXX (pp.100-5), and argues that the most plausible interpretation of the “gods,” as understood by the LXX translators, within the matrix of Second Temple Judaism, are divine intermediary figures; on pp. 103-4, we read:

[I]n in the immediate context of 22:27, another intermediary figure is introduced by the Lord:

I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him (NRSV; Exod 23:20-21, my emphasis)

There are two Jewish traditions that allude to Exod 22:20-21 and both may shed light on who is blasphemed in Exod 22:27a. The first comes from the Apocalypse of Abraham, which can be dated between 70 and 150 C.E. In this text, God commands an angel called Yahoel to consecrate Abraham (Apoc. Ab. 10:3-4). The angel, whose name is thought to be a combination of Yahweh and El, is indwelt by God’s ineffable name (Apoc. Ab. 10:8) and is given powers of divine administration (Apoc. Ab. 10:8-14). In this way, the Apocalypse of Abraham seems to allude to Exod 23:20-21, where God promises to send an angel to lead Israel and warns the Israelites not to disobey the angel, for my name is in him. The second tradition comes from Philo, who, in his commentary on Exod 23:20-21, describes the angel that leads Israel as the Logos. The Logos is the μεσιτης or mediator of God’s gifts and benefactions, who is elsewhere given the title of God. What is striking is that the identification of certain figures as gods is not exceptional in first-century Jewish literature . . . Inclusive monotheism, in our judgment, provides a plausible theological context for reading verse 27a during the first century.

On p. 104, n. 538, we read, in part, that:


Outside the [Dead Sea Scrolls], there are exalted figures who, if not directly called gods, are described in god-like terms. For example, Enoch, like God, is placed on a throne of glory (1 Enoch 62:5; 69:29), identified as the majestic “son of man” (1 Enoch 71:14), and considered worthy of worship (1 Enoch 48:5).