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The Root of Immortality: Death in the Context of Jewish Wisdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

John J. Collins
John J. Collins
Affiliation:
De Paul University, Chicago, IL 60611
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Extract

In his influential study The Sacred Canopy, Peter Berger asserted that “the power of religion depends, in the last resort, upon the credibility of the banners it puts in the hands of men as they stand before death or, more accurately, as they walk, inevitably, toward it.” Berger was not suggesting that religion is primarily a private obsession of the individual with death. Rather his thesis is that religion is a social phenomenon, part of the human enterprise of “world-building” by which we attempt “to impose a meaningful order upon reality.” The significance of death is not an individual matter because “death radically challenges all socially objectivated definitions of reality—of the world, of others, and of the self. Death radically puts in question the taken-for-granted, ‘business-as-usual’ attitude in which one exists in everyday life. Here everything in the daytime world of existence in society is massively threatened with ‘irreality’—that is, everything in that world becomes dubious, eventually unreal, other than what one used to think.” In short, death is a threat to the meaningfulness not only of the individual life, but of the common enterprise of society and, indeed, of any attempt, social, religious or philosophical, to perceive reality as a coherent and purposeful order.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 71 , Issue 3-4 , October 1978 , pp. 177 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1978

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References

1 Peter L., Berger, The Sacred Canopy (Anchor Books; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969) 51Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., 22.

3 Ibid., 43.

4 See Hartmut, Gese, Lehre und Wirklichkeit in der alten Weisheit (Tübingen: Mohr, 1958)Google Scholar; Hans Heinrich, Schmid, Gerechtigkeit als Weltordnung (Tübingen: Mohr, 1968)Google Scholar; Schmid, , Wesen und Geschichte der Weisheit (BZAW 101; Berlin: Töpelmann, 1966) 17–27; 144–68Google Scholar.

5 Berger, Sacred Canopy, 43–44.

6 The date of Sirach is fixed by the prologue which was composed by Sirach's grandson, who translated the book into Greek. The grandson came to Egypt in 132 B.C.E. (“in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Euergetes”). The grandfather's work is usually dated about 180 B.C.E. with a few dissenting voices who argue for a third century date. See Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism (Philadelphia; Fortress, 1974) 1. 131; Johann, Marböck, Weisheit im Wandel: Untersuchungen zur Weisheitstheologie bei Ben Sira (BBB 37; Bonn: Hanstein, 1971) 9Google Scholar.

7 There is no consensus on the date of the Wisdom of Solomon. For the various scholarly opinions see Joseph, Reider, The Book of Wisdom (Dropsie College Series; New York: Harper, 1957) 12–14.Google Scholar

8 James L., Crenshaw, “The Problem of Theodicy in Sirach: On Human Bondage,” JBL. 94 (1975) 53Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., 58.

10 Christa, Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1–9 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1966) 102–16Google Scholar. On the qualitative use of “life” elsewhere in the OT see Gerhard von Rad, “Life and Death in the OT,” TDNT 2. 843–49; Rudolf Bultmann, “The Concept of Life in the OT,” ibid., 849–51; Walther, Zimmerli, “‘Leben’ und ‘Tod’ im Buche des Propheten Ezechiel,” TZ 13 (1957) 494–508Google Scholar; Christoph, Barth, Die Errettung vom Tode in den individuellen Klage- und Dankliedern des Allen Testaments (Zollikon: Evangelischer Verlag, 1947) 117, 145, 152Google Scholar. On the use and transformation of mythological motifs in the discussion of “life” in Proverbs see also Richard J., Clifford, “Proverbs IX: A suggested Ugaritic Parallel,” VT 25 (1975) 298–306Google Scholar.

11 See the conclusive review of the material by Bruce, Vawter, “Intimations of Immortality and the Old Testament,” JBL 91 (1972) 158–71Google Scholar. A belief in immortality has been attributed to Sirach especially by Tadeusz, Penar (Northwest Semitic Philology and the Fragments of Ben Sira [Rome: Biblical Institute, 1975] 9, 24, 49, 54Google Scholar) following the principles of Mitchell, Dahood, Psalms III (AB 17A; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970) XLI, LII.Google Scholar

12 On the traditional Israelite view of Sheol see Nicholas J., Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament (BibOr 21; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1969)Google Scholar.

13 A clear affirmation of a positive afterlife is found in no biblical book before Daniel, which was written more than a decade after Sirach. A possible but doubtful reference to resurrection can be found in the earlier “Isaianic Apocalypse,” (Isa 26:19). See John J., Collins, The Apocalyptic Vision of the Book of Daniel (HSM 16; Missoula: Scholars, 1977) 170–75Google Scholar.

14 On this theme in the OT see Donald E., Gowan, When Man Becomes God (Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series 6; Pittsburgh: Pickwick, 1975)Google Scholar.

15 Gerhard, von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (Nashville: Abingdon, 1972) 97–112Google Scholar.

16 The meaning of the “fear of the Lord” in the OT is discussed by Joachim, Becker, Gottesfurcht im Alten Testament (AnBib 25; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1965)Google Scholar. The role of the phrase in Sirach is discussed by Josef, Haspecker, Gottesfurcht bei Jesus Sirach (AnBib 30; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1967)Google Scholar. See also James L., Crenshaw, “The Eternal Gospel (Eccl 3:11),” in Essays in Old Testament Ethics (J. Philip, Hyatt, In Memoriam; ed. James L., Crenshaw and John T., Willis; New York: Ktav, 1974) 44–45Google Scholar.

17 See also 1:14–20; 2:1–18; 25:10–11; 40:26–27etc. Haspecker, Gottesfurcht, 209–18 and passim.

18 Compare the attitude of Qoh 8:15: “And I commend enjoyment, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink, and enjoy himself, for this will go with him in his toil, through the days of life which God gives him under the sun.” See also Qoh 10:7–11; 11:8.

19 The correlation of limit and fulfillment in Sirach may be compared to the view of Martin Heidegger that every being “encounters freely and spontaneously the necessity of its limit…. Coming to stand, accordingly, means: to achieve a limit for itself, to limit itself. Consequently, a fundamental characteristic of the essent is to telos, which means not aim or purpose, but end. Here ‘end’ is not meant in a negative sense, as though there were something about it that did not continue, that failed or ceased. End is ending in the sense of fulfillment (Vollendung).” (Martin, Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics [New Haven: Yale, 1959] 60Google Scholar). Compare also John Dominic, Crossan, The Dark Interval (Niles, IL: Argus, 1975) 13–46Google Scholar.

20 For similar imagery in Proverbs and in Egyptian wisdom literature see Kayatz, Studien, 102–16.

21 Ian T., Ramsey, Models and Mystery (London: Oxford, 1964) 1–21Google Scholar; compare Bernard E., Meland, Fallible Forms and Symbols (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976) 26Google Scholar, 130 and Max, Black, Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell, 1962) 219–43Google Scholar.

22 Ramsey, Models, 3.

23 Ibid., 9, citing Black, Models and Metaphors, 222.

24 Meland, Fallible Forms, 130.

25 Ibid.

26 Black, Models and Metaphors, 44.

27 This formulation of Lévi-Strauss's theory is given by Edmund, Leach (“Lévi-Strauss in the Garden of Eden: An Examination of some Recent Developments in the Analysis of Myth,” in Claude Lévi-Strauss: The Anthropologist as Hero [ed. E. Nelson, Hayes and Tanya, Hayes; Cambridge: M.I.T., 1970] 51Google Scholar).

28 On the inductive character of the wisdom tradition see further John J., Collins, “The Biblical Precedent for Natural Theology,” JAAR 15 (1977) Supplement B:35–67Google Scholar.

29 See especially James M., Reese, Hellenistic Influence on the Book of Wisdom and Its Consequences (AnBib 41; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1970)Google Scholar.

30 See further John J., Collins, “Cosmos and Salvation: Jewish Wisdom and Apocalyptic in the Hellenistic Age,” HR 17 (1977–78) 121–42Google Scholar.

31 On the translation of this verse see Collins, “Cosmos and Salvation,” n. 16; A. T. S., Goodrick, The Book of Wisdom (The Oxford Church Bible Commentary; London: Rivingtons, 1913) 96–97Google Scholar.

32 On the qualitative use of “life” and “death” in the Wisdom of Solomon see C., Larcher, Etudes sur le Livre de la Sagesse (EBib; Paris: Gabalda, 1969) 285–300Google Scholar.

33 See Dieter, Georgi, “Der vorpaulinische Hymnus Phil 2, 6–11,” in Zeit und Geschichte. Dankesgabe an Rudolf Bultmann (ed. Eric, Dinkier; Tübingen: Mohr, 1964) 270–72Google Scholar: “Genau besehen hat der Weg des Gerechten nur den Schein des Leidens und Sterbens. Es wird mit Absicht doketisch geredet.”

34 So A. A. Di, Lella, “Conservative and Progressive Theology: Sirach and Wisdom,” CBQ 38 (1966) 139–46Google Scholar.

35 See especially Th., Middendorp, Die Stellung Jesu Ben Siras zwischen Judentum und Hellenismus (Leiden: Brill, 1973) 7–34Google Scholar; Marböck, Weisheit im Wandel, 160–73.

36 Hans Conzelmann, “Die Mutter der Weisheit,” in Zeil und Geschichte, (above, n. 33) 225–34.

37 For the spectrum of opinions in Alexandrian Judaism see Harry Austryn, Wolfson, Philo (2 vols; Cambridge: Harvard, 1948) 1. 3–86Google Scholar.

38 On the question of Platonic and other Greek philosophical influences on the Wisdom of Solomon see Larcher, Etudes, 350–61 and Reese, Hellenistic Influence, 12–16.

39 For a summary of the debate see Larcher, Etudes, 320–27. The most substantial argument for bodily resurrection in the book is provided by Paul, Beauchamp, “Le salut corporel dans le livre de la Sagesse,” Bib 45 (1964) 491–526Google Scholar. Beauchamp argues that an interest in the physical restoration of the universe runs through the second half of the book and infers that bodily resurrection is implicit. This however is not a necessary inference. Other scholars, such as Larcher, are inclined to posit bodily resurrection, because of an unsubstantiated assumption that such was standard Jewish belief. So also Di Lella, “Conservative and Progressive Theology,” 154.

40 On the relation of apocalyptic to the wisdom tradition, with special attention to the Wisdom of Solomon, see Collins, “Cosmos and Salvation.”

41 Lothar, Ruppert, Der leidende Gerechte (Forschung zur Bibel 5; Würzburg: Echter, 1972) 73–105Google Scholar. George W., Nickelsburg (Resurrection, Immortality and Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism [HTS 26; Cambridge: Harvard, 1972] 60)Google Scholar implies the use of apocalyptic motifs here. See also Mathias, Delcor, “L'immortalité de l'âme dans le Livre de la Sagesse et dans les documents de Qumrân,” NRTh 77 (1955) 614–30Google Scholar and Pierre, Grelot, “L'eschatologie de la Sagesse et les apocalypses juives,” A la Rencontre de Dieu, Mémorial Albert Gelin (Le Puy: Xavier Mappus, 1961) 165–78Google Scholar.

42 See further John J., Collins, “Apocalyptic Eschatology as the Transcendence of Death,” CBQ 36 (1974) 21–43Google Scholar.

43 See, for example, Nickelsburg, Resurrection.

44 Meland, Fallible Forms, 130.

45 Ramsey, Models, 15.

46 See for example Lou H. Silbermann, “The Human Deed in a Time of Despair: The Ethics of Apocalyptic,” in Essays in Old Testament Ethics, 191–202. On the role of the afterlife in apocalyptic writings see further Collins, “Apocalyptic Eschatology,” and “The Symbolism of Transcendence in Jewish Apocalyptic,” BR 19 (1974) 5–22Google Scholar.

47 See Larcher, Etudes, 396–98; Thomas, Finan, “Hellenistic Humanism in the Book of Wisdom,” ITQ 27 (1960) 30–48Google Scholar.

48 It is interesting to note that a similar tension is found in the works of Plato. In the Phaedo the physical world is false and evil, e.g. Phaedo 66: “so long as we have the body and the soul is contaminated by such an evil, we shall never attain completely what we desire.” In the Symposium, by contrast, Plato attributes to Diotima a view of the universe as a cosmic ladder in which the lower material rungs provide the essential steps on which alone we can ascend to higher truths. See Symposium 211.