Monday, July 29, 2024

Andrei A. Orlov on Yahoel as Remover of Human Sins

 

 

Yahoel as Remover of Human Sins

 

It has already been mentioned in our study that, in Exod 23:21, the Angel of the Lord may be depicted as the one who can forgive sins. While in this passage from Exodus, such function does not have clear sacerdotal significance, in later biblical materials it often acquires such meaning.

 

Thus, for example, in the Book of Zechariah, the prophet receives a vision of the following eschatological scene, in which the Angel of the Lord removes the garment of human sins in a very peculiar cultic setting. Zech 3:1–10 unveils the following tradition:

 

Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And to him he said, “See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the Lord was standing by. Then the angel of the Lord assured Joshua, saying “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Now listen, Joshua, high priest, you and your colleagues who sit before you! For they are an omen of things to come: I am going to bring my servant the Branch. For on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day. On that day, says the Lord of hosts, you shall invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree.”

 

Here the familiar biblical mediator of the divine Name removes the unclean garment from a priestly figure, the attire that here symbolizes human transgressions, and then clothes the priest with festal apparel. Here, the removal of human sins is cast in a distinctive sacerdotal context, which some scholars argue is reminiscent of the Yom Kippur ritual. The choice of the ritual is not coincidental, since it was the most significant event in ancient Judaism associated with both the transference and removal of impurity caused by human transgressions. An important detail that points to the presence of the Yom Kippur tradition in Zech 3 is the high priestly garment, which is changed during the course of the story. Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer points out that “the Torah legislates that the high priest should change garments on two occasions: at his inauguration and at the Day of Atonement.” She argues that there is support for identifying the ceremony in Zech 3 with the Day of Atonement as it is described in Lev 16 rather than with the ceremony of inauguration, as it is described in Exod 28–29 and Lev 9. Further reflecting on Joshua’s investiture, Tiemeyer points out that “the cleansing of Joshua and his symbolic change of clothes (Zech 3:3–5) are ... the vital preparations for celebration of the Day of Atonement and its resulting removal of sin from the land (3:9).”

 

Another possible link with the Yom Kippur ritual includes the expression, “I (God) will remove the guilt of this land in a single day ( ביום אחד ),” found in Zech 3:9. Scholars previously have noted that this statement “is important for the understanding of the Sitz-im-Leben of Zech 3 as a whole.” Tiemeyer argues that “the expression ביום אחד = ‘in one day’ points to a ceremony which takes place in one day. Based on this definition, the only day known in the OT when God removes the sins of His people is the annual Day of Atonement.” She further suggests, “assuming that this feast was known to the people at the time of Zechariah, it seems likely that the original audience of this material associated ביום אחד with this festival.” Tiemeyer adds that “the עון in verse 9 is naturally connected with Joshua’s עון in verse 4, pointing to a link between the removal of Joshua’s guilt and of that of the land.” She also suggests that “Joshua’s impurity represents his own guilt, something which must have rendered him unable to carry the guilt of the people on the Day of Atonement. Thus, Joshua’s cleansing prepares the way for the Day of Atonement and the cleansing of the land.”

 

As we can see, the prophetic account offers not just one, but several possible cultic allusions that point to the atoning rite. Daniel Stokl Ben Ezra concisely summarizes these important details that have previously been noted by a number of scholars. He suggests that the

 

protagonist is a high priest. He stands at a special place where only he, God, a defending angel and the accusing Satan are present. The right of access to this place is dependent on observance of certain regulations and amoral code. This evokes the holy of holies. The central act is a symbolic change of vestments. The soiled high priest’s vestments symbolize his sins. Exchanging these soiled clothes for clean ones signifies atonement. The “single day” of purification of the land evokes Yom Kippur and gives it an eschatological ring. The cultic scene alluded to could be the picture of a high priest who changes his linen vestments, which have become stained from sprinkling the blood on Yom Kippur.

 

His summative assessment is as follows: “regarding the number of corresponding

elements, a connection to Yom Kippur is probable.”

 

The scene from Zech 3, wherein the Angel of the divine Name removes the load of human transgressions from a human recipient, is consequential for our study of similar functions of Yahoel in the Apocalypse of Abraham. As one remembers, in the Slavonic pseudepigraphon, the angel of the Name similarly removes the vestment of human sins from the patriarch Abraham.

Apoc. Ab. 13:7–14 narrates the following interaction between the heavenly high priest, Yahoel, and the celestial scapegoat, Azazel:

 

Reproach is on you, Azazel! Since Abraham’s portion is in heaven, and yours is on earth,  since you have chosen it and desired it to be the dwelling place of your impurity. Therefore the Eternal Lord, the Mighty One, has made you a dweller on earth. And because of you [there is] the wholly-evil spirit of the lie, and because of you [there are] wrath and trials on the generations of impious men. Since the Eternal Mighty God did not send the righteous, in their bodies, to be in your hand, in order to affirm through them the righteous life and the destruction of impiety. ... Hear, adviser! Be shamed by me, since you have been appointed to tempt not all the righteous! Depart from this man! You cannot deceive him, because he is the enemy of you and of those who follow you and who love what you desire. For behold, the garment which in heaven was formerly yours has been set aside for him, and the corruption which was on him has gone over to you.

 

Scholars previously noted that this depiction is reminiscent of the scapegoat ritual in which the infamous goat carried Israel’s sins into the uninhabitable realm after they had been transposed onto the creature’s head. Quite literally, through the laying on of hands and the high priest’s confession, the communal sins of Israel were heaped upon the scapegoat.

 

A number of Yahoel’s actions in the Apocalypse of Abraham are reminiscent of the familiar actions of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. In light of the sacerdotal affiliations of Yahoel that we have already explored, it is likely that his actions against Azazel in this chapter also take on cultic significance. Most relevant for our purposes is that Yahoel’s address is reminiscent of the curses that are bestowed on the scapegoat during the atoning rite. In the passage that is quoted above, the transference of Abraham’s sin onto the celestial scapegoat conspicuously coincides with the departure command. This is quite similar to a description found in m. Yoma 6:4. There, members of the community harassed the scapegoat physically and verbally by pulling the animal’s hair and shouting, “Bear [our sins] and be gone! Bear [our sins] and be gone!” The similarity with the Apocalypse of Abraham has not gone unnoticed by scholars. Here, the mishnaic passage includes two explicit cultic elements: first, there is a bestowal of sins (“bear [our sins]”) and, second, there is a command of departure (“be gone”). We find nearly identical elements in the Apocalypse of Abraham. The transference of sins onto Azazel is contained in the phrase “the corruption which was on him has gone over to you.” This eschatological transference appears simultaneously with the departure element, which is indicated by the phrase “depart from this man.”

 

Yahoel’s power to remove sins from God’s creatures is further underlined when he strips from the celestial antagonist his angelic garment. This demonstrates that Yahoel is not simply a sacerdotal servant who heaps sins upon the eschatological scapegoat, but an agent who makes decisions regarding the final outcomes of such purgatorial actions. (Andrei A. Orlov, Yahoel and Metatron: Aural Apocalypticism and the origins of Early Jewish Mysticism [Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 169; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017], 126-30)

 

  

To Support this Blog:

 

Paypal

Venmo

Amazon Wishlist

Blog Archive