Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)
2016 / 2. szám - ARTICLES / STUDIEN - Jaap Doedens: Lierary Wormholes: Wild Animals and Angels in Mark 1:13
Jaap Doedens The apocryphal24 and pseudepigraphical25 works share this view. Part of the Noahic covenant was the fear of animals for man;26 a much wished-for situation in a world where often exactly the opposite was true, where humans feared for wild animals. In such an unsafe world, Jacob concludes that his beloved son Joseph had been devoured by a wild animal,27 and the peoples deported after 722 b.c.e. to the devastated territory of Samaria feared lions which killed some of them.28 The document known as The Apocalypse of Moses29 adds to the curse on Adam as known from Genesis 3:17-19 the following sentence: “The beasts, over whom thou didst rule, shall rise up in rebellion against thee, for thou hast not kept my commandment”.30 Animosity of animals as a consequence of the sin of man is probably the most clearly expressed in the following section from The Apocalypse of Moses: Then Seth and Eve went towards paradise, and Eve saw her son, and a wild beast assailing him, and Eve wept and said: ‘Woe is me; if I come to the day of the Resurrection, all those who have sinned will curse me saying: Eve hath not kept the commandment of God.’ And she spake to the beast: ‘Thou wicked beast, fearest thou not to fight with the image of God? How was thy mouth opened? How were thy teeth made strong? How didst thou not call to mind thy subjection? For long ago wast thou made subject to the image of God.’ Then the beast cried out and said: ‘It is not our concern, Eve, thy greed and thy wailing, but thine own; for (it is) from thee that the rule of the beasts hath arisen. How was thy mouth opened to eat of the tree concerning which God enjoined thee not to eat of it? On this account, our nature also hath been transformed. Now therefore thou canst not endure it, if I begin to reprove thee. Then Seth speaketh to the beast: ‘Close thy 24 E.g. Sir 17:4 God "put the fear of man upon all flesh, and gave him dominion over beast and fowls"; Wis 9:1-2 "O God of my fathers, (...) who hast made all things with thy word, and ordained man through thy wisdom, that he should have dominion over the creatures which thou hast made". 25 E.g. Jub. 2:14 "and he gave him dominion over everything which was upon the earth and which was in the seas and over everything which flies, and over beasts and cattle and everything which movers upon the earth or above the whole earth" (translation: Wintermute, O. S.: Jubilees, in Charlesworth, James H. (ed): The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 2, New York, Doubleday, 1985, 57; 2 En. 58:3 "And the Lord appointed him over everything (as king), and he subjected everything to him in subservience under his hand."Translation: Andersen, F. I.: 2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch in Charlesworth, James H. (ed): The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1, New York, Doubleday, 1983, 184. 26 Gen 9:2. 27 Gen 37:33. 28 2 Kgs 17:24-25. 29 Probably to be dated somewhere between the 1st and the 4th century c.e., cf. Charles, R. H.: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English: Volume 2: Pseudepigrapha, Oxford, Clarendon, 1913,126-127. Although the text is late, the thoughts expressed in it reflect a similar stance upon the cause of animosity between wild animals and humans as found already in the Old Testament, perhaps only more elaborated. 30 The Apocalypse of Moses, 4:4. Translation: Charles, R. H.: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, Volume 2, Pseudepigrapha, Oxford, Clarendon, 1913,147. 58 Sárospataki Füzetek 20. évfolyam 2016-2
