Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness

Chapter 10 Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness Steven D. Fraade 1 Introduction If I may begin with a broad, cross-cultural generalization, the idea of “wilderness” in many, if not all, cultures conveys both a positive sense of spiritual communion—whether solitary or collective, whether with God or with nature/creation—and a negative sense of danger to one’s, or to a culture’s, very existence. It is a place of escape from urban civilization and its human-made tools of violence and depravity,1 a place of lawlessness with dangers from the extreme heat, cold, floods, and draught, as well as the danger of being attacked by wild and venomous creatures. Thus, Deut 8:15–16 speaks of ‫במדבר הגדל‬ ‫“( והנורא נחש שרף ועקרב וצמאון אשר אין־מים‬the great and terrible wilderness with its seraph serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it …”).2 Since others will have dealt with the place of wilderness in terms of the physical location of Khirbet Qumran in the wilderness of the Judean Desert, and with the yaḥad’s self-understanding vis-à-vis the revelatory and redemptive significance of its dwelling and service therein (e.g., 1QS 8:12–16, interpreting Isa 40:3),3 I shall focus on the “surrounding” textual expressions of both the 1 On “cultural primitivism” (“how much better it was in the good old days before x was invented”) in antiquity more broadly, see Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity, vol. 1 of A Documentary History of Primitivism and Related Ideas (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1935). The volume includes a supplemental essay by William F. Albright entitled, “Primitivism in Ancient Western Asia (Mesopotamia and Israel),” 421–32. See also Steven D. Fraade, Enosh and His Generation: Pre-Israelite Hero and History in Postbiblical Interpretation, sblms 30 (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1984), 288, general index, s.v. “cultural primitivism.” 2 Translations follow njps unless otherwise indicated. Note Philo’s allegorical interpretation of the dangers of the wilderness as representing the pleasures and passions: Leg. 2.84–88. 3 See George J. Brooke, “Isaiah 40:3 and the Wilderness Community,” in New Qumran Texts and Studies: Proceedings of the First Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris 1992, ed. G. J. Brooke, stdj 15 (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 117–32; Devorah Dimant, “Non pas l’exil au désert mais l’exil spirituel: L’Interprétation d’Isaïe 40, 3 dans la Règle de la Communauté,” in Qoumrân et le judaïsm du tournant de notre ère: Actes de la Table Ronde, Collège de France, 16 novembre 2004, ed. A. Lemaire and S. C. Mimouni (Paris: Peeters, 2006). 17–36; Hindy Najman, “Towards a Study of the Uses of the Concept of Wilderness in Ancient Judaism,” dsd 13 (2006): 99–113; Alison Schofield, “The Wilderness Motif in the Dead Sea Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account © Steven D. Fraade, 2025 | doi:10.1163/9789004698079_011 190 Fraade positive and negative sides of wilderness in the Hebrew Bible, late Second Temple, and early rabbinic writings, especially as a locus for revelation and prophecy, with specific attention to the practice of ascetic abstinence therein. In conclusion, I will correlate the two (Qumran and its fellow travelers). 2 Revelation in No-Man’s Land Although, as we shall see, there are many expressions of both the positive and the negative sides of the wilderness in the Hebrew Bible and late Second Temple Judaism, the question of why the Torah (however conceived) was revealed in the wilderness (of Sinai), is not explicitly asked until our earliest (tannaitic) rabbinic sources. Notable is the following midrash from the Mekhilta of R. Ishmael, Baḥodesh 5: ,‫ שלא ליתן פתחון פה לאומות העולם לומר‬,‫ומפני מה לא ניתנה תורה בארץ ישראל‬ ‫ שלא להטיל מחלוקת‬,‫—דבר אחר‬.‫לפי שנתנה תורה בארצו לפיכך לא קבלנו עלינו‬ ,‫ וזה אומר בארצי נתנה תורה‬,‫ שלא יהא זה אומר בארצי נתנה תורה‬,‫בין השבטים‬ (‫—בשלשה דברים )ניתנה‬.‫ במקום הפקר‬,‫ דימוס פרהסיא‬,‫לפיכך נתנה תורה במדבר‬ ‫ כך‬,‫ מה אלו חנם לכל באי העולם‬,‫ לומר לך‬,‫ במדבר ובאש ובמים‬,‫[נמשלה] תורה‬ .‫דברי תורה חנם לכל באי העולם‬ Why was the Torah not given in the Land of Israel? So as not to give the nations of the world an excuse to say: “Because the Torah was given in their ]Israel’s] land, we did not accept it.” Another interpretation: So as not to cause dispute between the tribes, lest this one say, “In my land the Torah was given,” and that one say, “In my land the Torah was given.” Therefore, the Torah was given in the wilderness, publicly and openly, in a place belonging to no one. The Torah has been compared to three things: to wilderness, to fire, and to water. Just as all of these are freely available to all the inhabitants of the world, so too words of Torah are freely available to all the inhabitants of the world.4 Scrolls,” in Israel in the Wilderness: Interpretations of the Biblical Narratives in Jewish and Christian Traditions, ed. K. E. Pomykala, tbn 10 (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 37–53. See also edss 2:1131, index s.v. “wilderness.” 4 H. Saul Horovitz and Israel A. Rabin, eds., Mechilta d’Rabbi Ismael, 2nd ed. (Jerusalem: Bamberger & Wahrmann, 1960), 222; for the text with English translation, see Jacob Z. Lauterbach, ed., Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1933), 2:236–37, from which this English translation is adapted. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness 191 The midrash explains the choice of wilderness as the locus for revelation with the argument that had the Torah been revealed in an inhabited region, the inhabitants of that region (whether one of the nations or one of the Israelite tribes) would have claimed a privileged and exclusive possession of it. In the case of the nations, had it been revealed in the Land of Israel, the other nations would have claimed to have no part in it, and hence no culpability for violating its terms. Extending the idea of the Torah being given in a no-man’s land, freely available to all, it is said that the Torah is compared to (was given in)5 wilderness, fire, and water, since all three share the quality of being freely available to all. In effect, the law is revealed in a place of lawlessness, lest any single group claim an exclusive territorial claim to possessing it. Thus, the midrash would seem to suggest a more inclusive view of non-Jews with respect to the Torah. For a more (common) exclusionary view, see Ps 147:19–20, where God is praised for not having revealed his laws to the nations, but to Israel alone: ‫מגיד דבריו ליעקב חקיו ומשפטיו לישראל׃ לא עשה כן לכל־גוי ומשפטים בל־ידעום‬ ‫הללו־יה׃‬ He issued His commands to Jacob, His statutes and rules to Israel. He did not do so for any other nation; of such rules they know nothing. Hallelujah. Similarly, see Sir 24:3–12, 23, where, when wisdom seeks a place to dwell (“In whose territory should I abide?”), God commands her to dwell in Zion (“Make your dwelling in Jacob, and in Israel receive your inheritance”).6 The biblical view of the Torah’s availability to the non-Jewish nations, whether cynical or charitable, is a question that has received much scholarly attention, but for lack of space cannot be discussed here.7 The Mekhilta’s three comments (concerning the nations, tribes, inhabitants of the world) depict the wilderness as an appropriate place for the Torah to have been revealed because of its equal availability there to all who desire it; 5 ms Oxford and Yalquṭ Shimʿoni have ‫“( נמשלה ב־‬compared to”). ms Munich and the printed edition (Venice 1545) have ‫“( נתנה ב־‬given in”). Midrash Leqaḥ Ṭov has ‫נמשלה ב־‬, but only with reference to fire and water (not wilderness). 6 The Hebrew Ben Sira is not extant here. 7 Most recently, see Steven D. Fraade, “The Torah Inscribed/Transcribed in Seventy Languages,” in Hebrew between Jews and Christians, ed. D. Stein Kokin, sj 77 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2023), 21–47; idem, “Rabbis on Gentile Lawlessness: Three Midrashic Moments,” in Law and Lawlessness in Early Judaism and Christianity, ed. D. Lincicum, wunt 420 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019), 135–56; both with reference to earlier treatments. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account 192 Fraade revelation in the wilderness in effect creates a level playing field for the competing nations and tribes in terms of access to the Torah. Thus, this constitutes essentially a socio-political reason for the Torah’s having been given in the wilderness. Unfortunately, I find no antecedents to this sort of rationale in the Hebrew Bible or in late Second Temple texts, which rather seem to emphasize the wilderness as a place of prophecy, revelation, worship, or testing in its own right.8 This need not contradict the Mekhilta’s negative views of “the nations” elsewhere, but rather constitutes an irenic rhetorical strategy: they cannot claim it was not offered to them. 3 Prophetic Commissioning in the Wilderness In the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple literature, the wilderness (broadly understood) is the context for the commissioning of prophets. Thus, Moses receives his prophetic call while shepherding his father-in-law’s sheep ‫אחר‬ ‫“( המדבר‬into the wilderness,” but perhaps better understood as “to the west of the wilderness”;9 Exod 3:1); the channel of divine, prophetic communication continues so long as the Israelites are in the wilderness, so long as the visible, cloud-like, divine kavod accompanies them. Note the association of wilderness with divine kavod in Exod 16:10: ‫ויהי כדבר אהרן אל־כל־עדת בני־ישראל ויפנו‬ ‫“( אל־המדבר והני כבוד ה׳ נראה בענן׃‬And as Aaron spoke to the whole Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there, in a cloud, appeared the Presence ]kavod[ of the Lord”). Similarly, in 2 Sam 7:8, David is said to have received his prophetic commission while shepherding sheep, presumably in an uninhabited and uncultivated locale. Likewise, Amos (7:7) is called from shepherding the flock to prophesy God’s word. Amos himself romanticizes the forty-year period of wandering in the wilderness as if it were a period of unobstructed intimacy between God and Israel—their honeymoon as it were—rather than a punishment for their lack of faith, asking rhetorically, ‫ ארבעים שנה‬,‫הזבחים ומנחה הגשתם־לי במדבר‬ ‫“( בית ישראל‬Did you offer sacrifice and oblation to Me those forty years in the wilderness, O House of Israel?”; 5:25). Of course, according to the Torah 8 For the view that Mt. Sinai had no inherent “honor” to bestow upon the Israelites, but rather the reverse, and that once the Israelites (and the shekhinah, or divine indwelling) moved on it retained no sanctity, becoming undifferentiable from the other mountains, see Mekilta of R. Ishmael Baḥodesh 3 (Horovitz and Rabin, Mechilta, 213; Lauterbach, Mekhilta, 2:214–15); Mekilta of R. Shimʿon bar Yoḥai on Exod 19:13 (Jacob N. Epstein and E. Z. Melamed, eds., Mekhilta d’Rabbi Šimʿon b. Jochai [Jerusalem: Mikize Nirdamim, 1955], 141). 9 nrsv has “beyond the wilderness.” Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness 193 (Exodus 19–Numbers 10; e.g., Exod 40:20), the Israelites did offer sacrifices in the wilderness; but in Amos’s idealizing hindsight, the wilderness becomes a time of intimacy that rendered sacrifice unnecessary or premature.10 Returning to Moses, what are we to make of his repeated request (Exod 3:18; 5:3; 8:23) of Pharaoh to take the people specifically into the wilderness for three days, to worship? Even if this request is just a ruse to escape, it presumes that the wilderness is a fitting and recognized destination for worship, that is, communion and communication with the deity. 4 The Wilderness as a Place of Escape and Piety Several passages see the wilderness as a place to which to escape, in order to avoid civilized society’s trials and tribulations. In some cases, dwelling in the wilderness is accompanied by forms of ascetic self-denial, to which we will very shortly return.11 When the “many” of 1 Macc 2:29–38 seek to pursue “righteousness and justice,” at a time when “troubles pressed heavily upon them,” they “went down to the wilderness to live there (29–30).”12 However, their escape is unsuccessful, as they are pursued by Antiochus’s troops and martyred on the Sabbath. 5 Wilderness and Abstinence In several accounts, living in the wilderness is accompanied by either abstinence from or limitations on food, drink, and other bodily pleasures, in some cases in preparation for receiving revelation or prophecy in a state of enhanced purity and/or contrition. Thus, it is said of Moses’s sojourn on Mt. Sinai with God for forty days and forty nights (Exod 34:28): ‫לחם לא אכל ומים לא‬ 10 11 12 For another romanticized wilderness memory, see Hos 2:16–17, but contrast Hos 2:5. For another rosy view of the wilderness wandering as a time when God directly nourished the Israelites, see Philo, Spec. 2.199. On asceticism in ancient varieties of Judaism, see Steven D. Fraade, “Ascetical Aspects of Ancient Judaism,” in Jewish Spirituality: From the Bible Through the Middle Ages, vol. 13 of World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, ed. A. Green (New York: Crossroad, 1986), 253–88. For treatment of the Essenes/Qumran community, see 266–69. Greek: Τότε κατέβησαν πολλοὶ ζητοῦντες δικαιοσύνην καὶ κρίμα εἰς τὴν ἔρημον καθίσαι ἐκεῖ, αὐτοὶ καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτῶν καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ κτήνη αὐτῶν, ὅτι ἐσκληρύνθη ἐπ’ αὐτοὺς τὰ κακά. English: “At that time many who were seeking righteousness and justice went down to the wilderness to live there, they, their sons, their wives, and their livestock, because troubles pressed heavily upon them” (nrsv). Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account 194 Fraade ‫“( שתה ויכתב על־הלחות את דברי הברית עשרת הדברים׃‬He ate no bread and drank no water; and he wrote down on the tablets the terms of the covenant, the Ten Commandments”). By abstaining from bread and water, Moses achieves a semi-divine or angelic state, rendering himself both physically and spiritually receptive to being filled with revelation.13 Note also, in this regard, Josephus’s account of his interning with the ascetic Bannus: πυθόμενός τινα Βαννοῦν ὄνομα κατὰ τὴν ἐρημίαν διατρίβειν, ἐσθῆτι μὲν ἀπὸ δένδρων χρώμενον, τροφὴν δὲ τὴν αὐτομάτως φυομένην προσφερόμενον, ψυχρῷ δὲ ὕδατι τὴν ἡμέραν καὶ τὴν νύκτα πολλάκις λουόμενον πρὸς ἁγνείαν, ζηλωτὴς ἐγενόμην αὐτοῦ. καὶ διατρίψας παρ’ αὐτῷ ἐνιαυτοὺς τρεῖς καὶ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τελειώσας εἰς τὴν πόλιν ὑπέστρεφον. [O]n hearing of one named Bannus, who dwelt in the wilderness, wearing only such clothing as trees provided, feeding on such things as grew of themselves,14 and using frequent ablutions of cold water, by day and night, for purity’s sake, I became his devoted disciple. With him I lived for three years and, having accomplished my purpose, returned to the city.15 Compare, in this respect, Jesus’s flight to the wilderness in Matt 4:1–4, where the wilderness is both a place of ascetic testing and of supernatural communication: Τότε ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀνήχθη εἰς τὴν ἔρημον ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος πειρασθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου. καὶ νηστεύσας ἡμέρας τεσσεράκοντα καὶ νύκτας τεσσεράκοντα, ὕστερον ἐπείνασεν. Καὶ προσελθὼν ὁ πειράζων εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Εἰ υἱὸς εἶ τοῦ θεοῦ, εἰπὲ ἵνα οἱ λίθοι οὗτοι ἄρτοι γένωνται. ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν, Γέγραπται, Οὐκ ἐπ’ ἄρτῳ μόνῳ ζήσεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ παντὶ ῥήματι ἐκπορευομένῳ διὰ στόματος θεοῦ. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights and afterwards he was 13 14 15 Cf. Exod 24:18; Deut 9:9. Deut 9:18 suggests that Moses’s fasting here was in response to the people’s apostasy. See also the roles of wilderness and fasting with respect to Elijah in 1 Kgs 19:3–9. For Moses’s celibacy during his forty prophetic years in the wilderness, see b. Šabb 87a; Exod. Rab. 19:3; 46:3; ʾAbot de R. Nat. A:2, 9 (Solomon Schechter, ed., ʾAbot de Rabbi Nathan [Vienna, 1887[, 9–10, 40); Tg. Onq. Num 12:1; Tg. Ps.-J. Num 12:2. For other examples of a vegan or primitive diet in the wilderness, see below. Vita 11–12 (Thackeray, lcl 1:4–7). Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness 195 famished. The tempter [= Satan] came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Deut 8:3).”16 For parallels, see Mark 1:12–13, which includes wild beasts, and Luke 4:1–4. For Israel being tested for forty years, see Deut 8:2. For Israel having been miraculously fed with heavenly bread in the wilderness, see Exodus 16. Compare this to Matt 14:13–21 (on Jesus’s hearing of the death of John the Baptist) and 15:32–39. Similarly, of John the Baptist we are told (Matt 3:1–6): Ἐν δὲ ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις παραγίνεται Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστὴς κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ]καὶ[ λέγων, Μετανοεῖτε· ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ῥηθεὶς διὰ Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος, Φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ. Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Ἰωάννης εἶχεν τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ, ἡ δὲ τροφὴ ἦν αὐτοῦ ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον. τότε ἐξεπορεύετο πρὸς αὐτὸν Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ πᾶσα ἡ Ἰουδαία καὶ πᾶσα ἡ περίχωρος τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ποταμῷ ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν. In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’” (Isa 40:3). Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.17 The same combination of dwelling in the wilderness and living a life of abstinence or primitivism in preparation for receiving revelation can be seen in several passages from the Pseudepigrapha. In 4 Ezra, Ezra several times receives 16 17 nrsv. nrsv. For parallels see Mark 1:2–6; Luke 3:1–6; John 1:19–23. On John’s living in the wilderness, see also Luke 1:80. Regarding John’s hairy clothes, compare Elijah in 2 Kgs 1:8; and Zech 13:4, according to which hairy garments are deceptively worn by false prophets. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account 196 Fraade visions and divine communications in a “field,” where he subsists on a primitive diet reminiscent of Israel’s forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. Thus, we find in 4 Ezra 9:26–31, in preparation for Ezra’s fourth vision: So I went, as he directed me, into the field which is called Ardat; and there I sat among the flowers and ate of the plants of the field, and the nourishment they afforded satisfied me. And after seven days, as I lay on the grass, my heart was troubled again as it was before. And my mouth was opened, and I began to speak before the Most High, and said, “O Lord, you showed yourself among us, to our fathers in the wilderness when they came out from Egypt and when they came into the untrodden and unfruitful wilderness; and you said, ‘Hear me, O Israel, and give heed to my words, O descendants of Jacob. For behold, I sow my Law in you, and you shall be glorified through it forever.’”18 Similarly, in 4 Ezra 12:50–51, in preparation for Ezra’s sixth vision, we find: So the people went into the city, as I told them to do. But I sat in the field seven days, as the angel had commanded me; and I ate only of the flowers of the field, and my food was of plants during those days.19 Finally, in 4 Ezra 14:37–48, in conjunction with the seventh vision, we find: So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we proceeded to the field, and remained there. And on the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, “Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink.” Then I opened my mouth, and behold, a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its color was like fire. And I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory; and my mouth was opened, and was no longer closed. And the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, in characters which they did not know. They sat forty days, and wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night. As for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at night. So during the forty days ninety-four books were written. And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, “Make public the twenty-four [exoteric[ 18 19 otp 1:545. otp 1:551. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness 197 books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; 46 but keep the seventy [esoteric[ that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge.” 48And I did so.20 The forty days seeks to link Ezra’s receiving of revelation to Moses’s. Here, however, Ezra drinks a special potion to induce receptivity to revelation. In two other places 4 Ezra stresses fasting in preparation for visions but without specifying a wilderness location: 4 Ezra 5:13, 20 (second vision) and 6:31, 35 (third vision). For a similar clustering of wilderness—prophetic—ascetic motifs, see the Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah 2:7–11. Here, the context is preparation for visions and revelation: And when Isaiah the son of Amoz saw the great iniquity which was being committed in Jerusalem, and the service of Satan, and his wantonness, he withdrew from Jerusalem and dwelt in Bethlehem of Judah. And there also there was great iniquity; and he withdrew from Bethlehem and dwelt on a mountain in a desert place. And Micah the prophet, and the aged Ananias, and Joel, and Habakkuk, and Josab his son, and many of the faithful who believed in the ascension into heaven, withdrew and dwelt on the mountain. All of them were clothed in sackcloth, and all of them were prophets; they had nothing with them, but were destitute, and they all lamented bitterly over the going astray of Israel. And they had nothing to eat except wild herbs (which) they gathered from the mountains, and when they had cooked (them), they ate (them) with Isaiah the prophet. And they dwelt on the mountains and on the hills for two years of days.21 For one final pseudepigraphic combination of the motifs of wildernessasceticism and atonement, see the Testament of Moses 9:1–7: Then, even as he was speaking, there will be a man from the tribe of Levi whose name is Taxo. He, having seven sons, will speak earnestly to them, “See (my) sons, behold a second punishment has befallen the people; cruel, impure, going beyond all bounds of mercy—even exceeding the former one. For which nation or which province or which people, who 20 21 otp 1:554–55. otp 2:158. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account 198 Fraade have (all) done many crimes against the Lord, have suffered such evils as have covered us? Now, therefore, sons, heed me. If you investigate, you will surely know that never did (our) fathers nor their ancestors tempt God by transgressing his commandments. Yea, you will surely know that this is our strength. Here is what we shall do. We shall fast for a three-day period and on the fourth day we shall go into a cave,22 which is in the open country. There let us die rather than transgress the commandments of the Lord of Lords, the God of our fathers. For if we do this, and do die, our blood will be avenged before the Lord.”23 6 Qumran Correlations (and Not) Although we have no reason to presume that the above texts (with the exception of those from the Hebrew Bible) were known to the members of the yaḥad, or that the Dead Sea Scrolls were known to the “authors” of the above texts, there are partial correlations between them that might suggest shared understandings of what it means to sojourn in the wilderness, especially with respect to the role of bodily abstinence as a way of heightening the experience of proximity to and communion with God. Assuming some degree of overlap between the yaḥad and the Essenes, I have included references to both in what follows. With respect to simple or primitive clothing, Josephus notes the frugal nature of the Essenes’ dress, specifically that they only change their clothes and sandals when they are worn out (Josephus, B.J. 2.126). For Essene frugality more broadly, see Philo, Prob. 77, 84. For the ragged (holey) dress of the members of the yaḥad, see 1QS 7:13–14. For the Essenes wearing white linen garments, presumably signifying ritual purity, see Josephus, B.J. 2.123, 137 (cf. Contempl. 66). According to 1QM (1Q33) 7:9–10, the priestly battle garments were made of white linen. For Essene limits on food, see Josephus, B.J. 2.130, 133, who emphasizes the limited amounts of food eaten at the Essene common meals: 22 23 For refuge in caves, as places removed from civilization, see 1 Kgs 19:9; 2 Macc 6:11; 10:6; Josephus, A.J. 12.272; 14.421–430; y. Šeb. 9:1 (38d); b. Šabb. 33b–34a; b. B. Qam. 117a. Cf. 1 Macc 1:53; 2:31. otp 1:931. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness 199 καὶ καθισάντων μεθ’ ἡσυχίας ὁ μὲν σιτοποιὸς ἐν τάξει παρατίθησι τοὺς ἄρτους, ὁ δὲ μάγειρος ἓν ἀγγεῖον ἐξ ἑνὸς ἐδέσματος ἑκάστῳ παρατίθησιν. … καὶ τοῖς ἔξωθεν ὡς μυστήριόν τι φρικτὸν ἡ τῶν ἔνδον σιωπὴ καταφαίνεται, τούτου δ’ αἴτιον ἡ διηνεκὴς νῆψις καὶ τὸ μετρεῖσθαι παρ’ αὐτοῖς τροφὴν καὶ ποτὸν μέχρι κόρου. When they have taken their seats in silence, the baker serves out the loaves to them in order, and the cook sets before each one plate with a single course. … To persons outside the silence of those within appears like some awful mystery; it is in fact due to their invariable sobriety and to the limitation of their allotted portions of meat and drink to the demands of nature.24 We know very little about what was consumed at common meals within the yaḥad, but see 1QS 6:4–5; 1QSa 2:17–22, for bread (possibly standing for food in general) and wine (possibly unfermented grape juice). Consider also Philo who, in describing the Therapeutae (who flee the cities after divesting themselves of private property ]Contempl. 18–23]), emphasizes the simplicity of their diet (Contempl. 37, 73–74), in much greater detail than he does for the Essenes. The passage (as does the larger treatise) may tell us more about Philo than it does about the purported Therapeutae: σιτοῦνται δὲ πολυτελὲς οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ ἄρτον εὐτελῆ, καὶ ὄψον ἅλες, οὓς οἱ ἁβροδίαιτοι παραρτύουσιν ὑσσώπῳ, ποτὸν δὲ ὕδωρ ναματιαῖον αὐτοῖς ἐστιν· ἃς γὰρ ἡ φύσις ἐπέστησε τῷ θνητῷ γένει δεσποίνας, πεῖνάν τε καὶ δίψαν, ἀπομειλίσσονται, τῶν εἰς κολακείαν ἐπιφέροντες οὐδέν, ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ τὰ χρήσιμα, ὧν ἄνευ ζῆν οὐκ ἔστι. Διὰ τοῦτο ἐσθίουσι μέν, ὥστε μὴ πεινῆν, πίνουσι δέ, ὥστε μὴ διψῆν, πλησμονὴν ὡς ἐχθρόν τε καὶ ἐπίβουλον ψυχῆς τε καὶ σώματος ἐκτρεπόμενοι. … εἰς τοῦτο τὸ συμπόσιον—οἶδ’ ὅτι γελάσονταί τινες ἀκούσαντες, γελάσονται δὲ οἱ κλαυθμῶν καὶ θρήνων ἄξια δρῶντες—οἶνος ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις οὐκ εἰσκομίζεται, ἀλλὰ διαυγέστατον ὕδωρ, ψυχρὸν μὲν τοῖς πολλοῖς, θερμὸν δὲ τῶν πρεσβυτάτων τοῖς ἁβροδιαίτοις· καὶ τράπεζα καθαρὰ τῶν ἐναίμων, ἐφ’ ἧς ἄρτοι μὲν τροφή, προσόψημα δὲ ἅλες, οἷς ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ ὕσσωπος ἥδυσμα παραρτύεται διὰ τοὺς τρυφῶντας. Νηφάλια γὰρ ὡς τοῖς ἱερεῦσι θύειν καὶ τούτοις βιοῦν ὁ ὀρθὸς λόγος ὑφηγεῖται· οἶνος μὲν γὰρ ἀφροσύνης φάρμακον, ὄψα δὲ πολυτελῆ τὸ θρεμμάτων ἀπληστότατον διερεθίζει, τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν. 24 Thackeray, lcl 2:372–75. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account 200 Fraade Still they eat nothing costly, only common bread with salt for a relish flavoured further by the daintier with hyssop, and their drink is spring water. For as nature has set hunger and thirst as mistresses over mortal kind they propitiate them without using anything to curry favour but only such things as are actually needed and without which life cannot be maintained. Therefore they eat enough to keep from hunger and drink enough to keep from thirst but abhor surfeiting as a malignant enemy both to soul and body.… In this banquet … no wine is brought during those days but only water of the brightest and clearest, cold for most of the guests but warm for such of the older men as live delicately. The table too is kept pure from the flesh of animals; the food laid on it is loaves of bread with salt as a seasoning, sometimes also flavoured with hyssop as a relish for the daintier appetites. Abstinence from wine is enjoined by right reason as for the priest when sacrificing, so to these for their lifetime. For wine acts like a drug producing folly, and costly dishes stir up that most insatiable of animals, desire.25 However, when it comes to communal fasting, we find no evidence in the scrolls for anything beyond the one-day fast of Yom Kippur.26 7 Conclusions Notwithstanding its being a place of wildness and lawlessness, we have seen many sources, from the Hebrew Bible through early rabbinic midrash, that consider the wilderness to be a place suitable for revelation and prophecy, both to individuals and to collectives. It is also a place to which to flee to escape from or avoid the cultural and spiritual travails of more urban settings. Early rabbinic midrash is the only literature, so far as I can tell, that emphasizes the ownerless status of, and hence the possibility of universal access to, the wilderness (even if cynically offered). This possibility makes the wilderness the ideal place for the revelation of the Torah, a place where acceptance or rejection of the Torah is dependent only on the free choice of the potential recipient. The absence of such a rationale in the Second Temple texts we examined, 25 26 Colson, lcl 9:134–35, 156–59. See Noah Hacham, “Communal Fasts in the Judean Desert Scrolls,” in Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to Bar Kokhba in Light of Dead Sea Scrolls; Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 27–31 January, 1999, ed. D. Goodblatt et al., stdj 37 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 127–45. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness 201 especially the Dead Sea Scrolls, might simply reflect their less universal and more esoteric view of revelation. A significant number of texts that we have surveyed, especially but not only pseudepigraphic ones, associate living in the wilderness with ascetic (or “primitive”) dress and diet, including long-term fasting, and with dwelling in caves. While wilderness dwelling is not in itself associated with sexual abstinence, some of its associated activities may be; see, e.g., Exod 19:15 which mandates three days of sexual abstinence prior to the revelation at Mt. Sinai, and rabbinic sources that stress Moses’s separation from his wife throughout his prophetic ministry in the wilderness, stretched as he is, as it were, between earth and heaven.27 Ascetic practices are said in some texts to be acts of piety and purification in preparation for receiving divine communications, or at least enjoying divine communion, and in others for achieving atonement. While this is consistent with the wilderness ideology and physical location of the yaḥad—if only for that part of the movement which was settled in Khirbet Qumran or other wilderness locales—the ascetic motif is less enunciated in the scrolls than we might have expected, on the basis of both the “surrounding” texts and ancient descriptions of the Essenes by outside observers. Perhaps this was an aspect of the Essenes that appealed to Greco-Roman audiences and was therefore emphasized by these outside observers; but, even so, the motif is not found to the extent that we saw it in other Second Temple texts. The ascetic lifestyle of wilderness refugees is most strongly stressed by Philo with respect to the Therapeutae rather than to the Essenes; with the caveat that even this description might be as much construction as representation. In several of the sources surveyed, ascetic behavior in the wilderness is associated with exceptionally pious individuals (Moses, Isaiah, Ezra, Jesus, John the Baptist, Bannus, Taxo), whereas the scrolls might reflect a more communitarian approach to the construction of piety that places less emphasis on the supererogatory practices of exemplary individuals. In short, there is ample evidence, however uneven, for the combination of wilderness refuge with ascetic (or “frugal”) acts of contrition as signifying a state conducive to the reception of divine revelation and redemptive expectations in the broader textual context of late Second Temple Judaism. To end with a negative conclusion, notwithstanding the deep resonances of the Dead Sea Scrolls with themes of wilderness, exile, purity, revelation, and eschatological expectation, held in common with roughly “adjacent” expressions of ascetic piety, both across time and place, it is noteworthy that we have no 27 See above, n. 13. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account 202 Fraade desert-connected aretalogies of the Teacher of Righteousness, or the Overseer, or the Maskil (assuming that he was a historical figure), as we do, say, for Moses and Jesus and their spiritual successors, not to mention those of the surrounding Greco-Roman world. Bibliography Albright, William F. “Primitivism in Ancient Western Asia (Mesopotamia and Israel).” Pages 421–32 in Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity. Vol. 1 of A Documentary History of Primitivism and Related Ideas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1935. Brooke, George J. “Isaiah 40:3 and the Wilderness Community.” Pages 117–32 in New Qumran Texts and Studies: Proceedings of the First Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris 1992. Edited by G. J. Brooke. STDJ 15. Leiden: Brill, 1992. Dimant, Devorah. “Non pas l’exil au désert mais l’exil spirituel: L’Interprétation d’Isaïe 40, 3 dans la Règle de la Communauté.” Pages 17–36 in Qoumrân et le judaïsm du tournant de notre ère: Actes de la Table Ronde, Collège de France, 16 novembre 2004. Edited by A. Lemaire and S. C. Mimouni. Paris: Peeters, 2006. Epstein, Jacob N., and E. Z. Melamed, eds. Mekhilta d’Rabbi Šimʿon b. Jochai. Jerusalem: Mikize Nirdamim, 1955. Fraade, Steven D. “Ascetical Aspects of Ancient Judaism.” Pages 253–88 in Jewish Spirituality: From the Bible Through the Middle Ages. Vol. 13 of World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest. Edited by A. Green. New York: Crossroad, 1986. Fraade, Steven D. Enosh and His Generation: Pre-Israelite Hero and History in Postbiblical Interpretation. SBLMS 30. Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1984. Fraade, Steven D. “Rabbis on Gentile Lawlessness: Three Midrashic Moments.” Pages 135–56 in Law and Lawlessness in Early Judaism and Christianity. Edited by D. Lincicum. WUNT 420. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019. Fraade, Steven D. “The Torah Inscribed/Transcribed in Seventy Languages.” Pages 21–47 in Hebrew between Jews and Christians. Edited by D. Stein Kokin. SJ 77. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2023. Hacham, Noah. “Communal Fasts in the Judean Desert Scrolls.” Pages 127–45 in Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to Bar Kokhba in Light of Dead Sea Scrolls; Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 27–31 January, 1999. Edited by D. Goodblatt et al. STDJ 37. Leiden: Brill, 2001. Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account Revelation and Prophecy in the Wilderness 203 Horovitz, H. Saul, and Israel A. Rabin, eds. Mechilta d’Rabbi Ismael. 2nd ed. Jerusalem: Bamberger & Wahrmann, 1960. Lauterbach, Jacob Z., ed. Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1933. Lovejoy, Arthur O., and George Boas. Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity. Vol. 1 of A Documentary History of Primitivism and Related Ideas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1935. Najman, Hindy. “Towards a Study of the Uses of the Concept of Wilderness in Ancient Judaism.” DSD 13 (2006): 99–113. Schechter, Solomon, ed. ʾAbot de Rabbi Nathan. Vienna, 1887. Schofield, Alison. “The Wilderness Motif in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Pages 37–53 in Israel in the Wilderness: Interpretations of the Biblical Narratives in Jewish and Christian Traditions. Edited by K. E. Pomykala. TBN 10 (Leiden: Brill, 2008). Steven D. Fraade - 9789004698079 Downloaded from Brill.com 10/29/2024 03:49:21PM by steven.fraade@yale.edu via communal account