Sárospataki Füzetek 18. (2014)
2014 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Jacob J. T. Doedens: The Return of YHWH and the End of the Exile
Jacob J.T. Doedens of the nations are merely present at the level of promise. Nowhere in the intert- estamental literature or, for that matter, in the Old Testament it is claimed that these promises have been fulfilled already.67 They remain future. In a way, this concurred with the earlier views on the exile. The common belief was that there would come an end to the punishment experienced in defeat and exile. This belief was only modified to the extent that the period of punishment would last longer than initially hoped for. The Assessment of Exile and Restoration in Second Temple Literature The motif, developed in the Old Testament, of the enduring consequences of the exile can also be found in literature from the Second Temple period. The trope exile’ became a shorthand expression to refer to the actual situation. Such a way of expression fitted the theme: exile had always been more than merely a geographic displacement.68 Exile is chaos as a consequence of defeat; it signified divine punishment. In the following section, some of the most significant references to the ‘enduring exile’ and, therefore, to the hope for restoration from the Second Temple period literature will be addressed. (1) Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha In several passages within 1 Enoch 37-71 (The Book of Similitudes), the hope for ‘the elect’ is expressed: a new heaven and a new earth (1 En. 45:4-5)69 and the destruction of the kings and potentates of the earth (1 En. 53:5; 55:3-4). The book of The Dream Visions in 1 Enoch is more explicit on the subject of the exile: in the so called Animal Apocalypse a picture is drawn how Israel (depicted as a flock of sheep) is handed over to 70 foreign rulers (described as pastors) (1 En. 89:59- 72). This part of the apocalypse relates the period of the exile. However, after the return from exile, there is no real solution to the godlessness of Israel, as 1 En. 89:73-74 formulates: They started to place a table before the tower (standing for the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, JJTD), with all the food which is upon it being polluted and impure. Regarding all these matters, the eyes of the sheep became so dim-sighted that they could not see.70 1 Enoch 90:6-42 describes in veiled words the period from the Maccabean 67 Cf. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, 269. 68 Cf. Halvorson-Taylor, Enduring Exile, 16. 69 For an English translation, see "1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch," translated by E. Isaac, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments (ed. James H. Charlesworth; New York: Doubleday, 1983), 5-89; hereafter OTP. 70 OTP 1:69. 40 Sárospataki Füzetek 17. évfolyam I 2014 I 1
