Saturday, July 27, 2024

Excerpts from Andrei A. Orlov, The Glory of the Invisible God (2019) on Yahoel Traditions


Important to note that Yahoel makes his first appearance in the course of the dual theophany. Unlike the previously explored two powers accounts, here in the Apocalypse of Abraham the first and the second powers are manifested in two separate and distinctive theophanic modes: one as the ocularcentric, visible manifestation, and the other as the aniconic voice.

 

As mentioned above, Yahoel’s description in this dual theophany has long puzzled even the most advanced experts of Jewish mediatorial traditions. This is because the striking panoply of theophanic markers represents features that until now were reserved exclusively for the apparitions of God.

 

Yahoel’s celestial shape represents an amalgam of theophanic elements of several essential biblical depictions of God. The angel assumes both the theophanic features of the Ancient of Days from Daniel 7 and the peculiar details of the Kavod from the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel—two formative accounts of divine apparitions in the Hebrew Bible. The Apocalypse of Abraham 11:2–3 recounts the following portrayal of the angel’s form:

 

The appearance of the griffin’s body was like sapphire, and the likeness of his face like chrysolite, and the hair of his head like snow, and a turban on his head like the appearance of the bow in the clouds, and the closing of his garments [like] purple, and a golden staff [was] in his right hand.

Andrei A. Orlov, The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology (ed. James H. Charlesworth; vol. 31; Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies; London; New York; Oxford; New Delhi; Sydney: T&T Clark, 2019), 49.

 

 

Para-biblical Mosaic theophanies may also contribute to Yahoel’s enigmatic profile. Scholars have noticed similarities with another two powers theophany attested in the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian. According to Fossum, “the sceptre which Yahoel has in his right hand recalls the sceptre held by the phōs whom Moses saw upon the great throne in the drama of Ezekiel the Tragedian.” In the light of these similarities, he infers that, in the Apocalypse of Abraham, “Yahoel obviously is the Glory of God.”

Andrei A. Orlov, The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology (ed. James H. Charlesworth; vol. 31; Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies; London; New York; Oxford; New Delhi; Sydney: T&T Clark, 2019), 50.

 

 

Another prolific expert of mediatorial traditions—Christopher Rowland—also detects the transference of divine attributes to Yahoel, arguing that there is “a strong indication that this angel is closely linked with God himself.” He points out that “Revelation 1:13ff. and the angelophany in the Apocalypse of Abraham show some affinities with developments of Ezekiel 1:26f., particularly as they are found in Daniel 10:5f. The result is a theology of some complexity. Both works clearly think of the angelic figure as one who possesses divine attributes.” Rowland notes that the striking embellishment of the angelic mediator with the divine ocularcentric attributes coincides here with the removal of the anthropomorphic features from the deity. He points out, furthermore, that in both the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Book of Revelation,

 

 the reluctance to use anthropomorphic terminology in relation to God is matched by the development of an interest in an exalted angelic figure with divine attributes, who is, of course, given the form of a man. In the Apocalypse of Abraham we find that the angel Yahoel is said to have God’s name dwelling in him, and in Rev 1:13ff. the description of the glorified Christ derives in part from the description of the angel who appears to Daniel in Dan 10:6, but he is also given attributes of God himself derived from Dan 7:9.

Andrei A. Orlov, The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology (ed. James H. Charlesworth; vol. 31; Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies; London; New York; Oxford; New Delhi; Sydney: T&T Clark, 2019), 50.

 

Another important cluster of Yahoel’s attributes evokes the memory of the peculiar features of the Ancient of Days from the Book of Daniel. The transferal of the deity’s attributes from the latter will play a prominent role in a few other mediatorial streams; this includes various Jewish and Christian depictions of the Son of Man in which the second power of Daniel 7 procures the distinctive qualities of the first power. Several researchers have noted the transference of the peculiar characteristics of the Ancient of Days to Yahoel. Jarl Fossum contends that Yahoel’s hair being white as snow is a clear reference to the representation of the Ancient of Days in Dan 7:9, 1 Enoch 46:1, and 1 Enoch 71:10. Although “it is perhaps astonishing that Yahoel in this respect is modeled upon the Ancient of Days and not upon the Son of Man,”187 such transference has all the hallmarks of legitimacy, since, according to the aforementioned tendencies, in the aural structure of the text, features of the ocularcentric deity, and not the second power, must be transferred and emulated.

Andrei A. Orlov, The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology (ed. James H. Charlesworth; vol. 31; Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies; London; New York; Oxford; New Delhi; Sydney: T&T Clark, 2019), 51.

 

 

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