Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009) 540-550 brill.nl/jsj Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/004722109X12492787778805Genre without a Name: Was Tere a Hebrew Term for Apocalypse?1Alexander KulikDepartment of Central and Eastern European Cultures/Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, Te Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus 91905, Israel akulik@mscc.huji.ac.ilAbstractAlthough the term for apocalypse is not attested as a title or genre denition in the extant corpus of Hebrew or Jewish Aramaic documents, some early Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic texts may contain rudimentary evidence in favor of the exis-tence of a Hebrew or Jewish Aramaic equivalent for the term. Moreover, its recon-struction can contribute to better understanding of certain wide spread apocalyptic imagery, which must be closely connected to the semantics of this term. Keywordsapocalypse, revelation, book, title, terminology, reconstructionTe apocalypse is one of the best represented genres in early Jewish litera-ture.2 Even though, like most pseudepigraphic texts, the apocalypses sur-1) I thank Haggai Ben Shammai, who gave me a lead to a solution of this problem and brought my attention to the article by Shlomo Pines and to the Quranic passages S. 53.36-37; 87.19. He also gave a critical impetus to a renewed discussion of the problem by suggesting that the Arabic suhuf may be a loan translation of the Syriac gelyana (see below). Cyril Aslanov, Steven Fassberg, James Kugel, Michael Ryzhik, Dan Shapira, Michael Stone read the draft of this article and made valuable comments. I am especially grateful to Sergey Minov, who helped me considerably with the Syriac and Arabic materials. Te research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 450/07).2) In subsequent discussion by the genre of apocalypse I imply the type of revelation or the class of literary work as dened by their ancient authors or editors, rather than a liter-ary genre as dened by modern scholars. Not only the genre denition but even the understanding of the apocalypses as a distinctive corpus can hardly be documented in the period under discussion (at least before the Church Fathers; cf. also Ishodad of Merv A. Kulik / Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009) 540-550 541vived mainly in translation, at least some of these popular works must have had Hebrew and Aramaic originals. Tis fact contrasts strikingly with the absence of a Hebrew or Jewish Aramaic term for the genre or type of revelatory experience, a term which would correspond also to the one used as a title of some of these books. In modern Hebrew the most common equivalents for apocalypse are or , both biblical terms meaning prophetic vision rather than revelation. Recently an attempt was made to adopt a new term for use in the titles of apocalyptic writings, translated from (or retroverted into) Hebrew as , which, even though it means revelation, is not attested in this usage in the classical Hebrew sources. Te question then becomes: was not there an authentic Hebrew or Jewish Aramaic term corresponding to apocalypse?Tere is no equivalent term attested as a title or genre denition in the extant corpus of Hebrew or Aramaic texts. In Greek this rare noun attested for the rst time only for the rst century B.C.E. meant physical uncovering in very prosaic contexts (like uncovering the head, etc.) and had nothing to do revelatory experience. Te verb could be used also for revealing secrets, but only human.3 In Jewish literature, the noun revelation () is attested for the rst time in Sir 22:22 also with the meaning revealing of the secret ( ) in an ethical, rather than a mystical context. Wonders shown by God are called in T. Abr. 6:8. Paul already mentions visions and rev-elations [] of the Lord (2 Cor 12:1); cf. 1 Cor 14:6, 26; 2 Cor 12:7; and not quite clear Luke 2:32 ( ), based on LXX Ps 97:2.4 Te word appears in the titles of the books dated not earlier than from the late rst century C.E. onward: the Apocalypse of cited below) and the denition of the apocalyptic literature as a literary genre belongs to the modern scholarship. Notice, e.g., the contradiction between ancient and modern genre denition of the Testament of Abraham (entitled apocalypse in rec. B, ms E).3) See the reconstruction of its semantic development suggested by Smith (History, 12).4) As opposed to the noun, the verb (as in Ps 97:2 mentioned above) is widely attested in the Greek Bible, where it renders the Heb (LXX Prov 11:13; cf. Sir 4:18; 41:23 (42:1); Amos 3:7; Num 22:31; 24:4, 16 (cf. 1 En. 1:2); cf. 1 Sam 2:27; 3:21; etc.) or the Aram (Teod Dan 2:19, 22, 28 et seq., 47) and in the New Testament (Matt 10:26; 11:25, 27; 16:17; Luke 2:35; 10:21, 22; 12:2; 17:30; John 12:38). Only in a few of the above passages it refers to the revelation of mysteries about the future given by God or of God himself (cf. Charles C. Torrey, Apocalypse, in Te Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1901), 1.669-675 at 669 and the survey of the usage of the verb in other early Jewish writings in Morton Smith, On the History of and , in Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East: 542 A. Kulik / Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009) 540-550Abraham; Testament of Abraham (rec. B, ms E); Apocalypse of Ezra; 2 Baruch; 3 Baruch; Book of Revelation; Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam and many later Christian apocalypses.5 Among these, only the Apocalypse of Abraham obviously had a Hebrew original, but even here it is possible that the title is a later addition, especially since it is absent from some ver-sions of the text, or appears in modied forms. Nevertheless, there is some rudimentary evidence in favor of the exis-tence of an equivalent Hebrew, or at least Jewish Aramaic, term.6 Hebrew gilayon as BookTe Hebrew term from the root uncover, reveal (as of Gk ) or, less probable, roll, fold, unfold [a scroll]7is attested in Biblical Hebrew (Isa 8:1 and 3:23). In Isa 8:1, Heb was interpreted as meaning either writing material (Gk piece of tanned leather [for writing] in Aquilas and Aram tablet in the Tar-gum) or book, and so in the majority of the sources: Gk volume in LXX, here scroll by Symmachus, a roll forming [part of ] a book by Teodotion,8 Lat librum book by Jerome. Hebrew gilayon as Revelation?In Rabbinic Hebrew the meaning of the term is more specic. Te word appears in the Tosefta: . Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism (Uppsala, August 12-17, 1979) (ed. David Hellholm; Tbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1983), 9-20 at 13-15.5) Cf. Smith, History.6) Tis possibility was rst raised by Hirsch P. Chajes (see below). 7) Te latter derivation is probably attested in Isa 3:23 and Gen. Rab. 19, where means girdle and has a gloss (Gk ; Lat stignum). Te earliest sources where the form is obviously derived from the root , are probably much later; cf., e.g., a Hebrew liturgical poem by Nehemia of the 10th c.: . . . . This can be a play of words. However, the interchange of the roots " and " are well attested in Hebrew. It is also not fully clear what pattern is it in the Tosefta below: gil(l)ayon or gilyon, even though the two patterns may also merge. Te interchange would be easier with the former.8) For this meaning of see PGL, 749. A. Kulik / Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009) 540-550 543Te gilyonim and the books of the heretics do not dele the hands [= are not canonical]. Books of Ben Sira and all books written from now on [or: from then; or from the time, when prophecy ceased, cf. y. Sanh. 10.28a; Seder Olam 30] do not dele the hands. (t. Yad. 2.13) Te same combination occurs also in t. ab. 13.5: Te gilyonim and books of heretics shall not be saved from re (cf. y. ab. 16.15c). In con-trast to Isa 8:1, here gilyonim can hardly mean blank sheets (as the word was probably understood by Aquilas in Isa 8:1) or margins of scrolls as it is usually interpreted,9 and this for two reasons: (1) margins are already treated earlier in the same tractate, 2.11 (as also in m. Yad. 3.4; b. ab. 116a); and (2) further discussion is concentrated on the divine names found in these texts, a discussion which would be inappropriate in con-nection with either blank sheets, or blank margins. Te term also cannot mean sheet or margin in b. ab. 116a, where in and , derogatory puns on , it rather designates book. We could suggest that, just as it does in the Talmud, so in the Tosefta the word may refer to Christian books, and specically to the Gospels.10 However, in the Tosefta are clearly distinguished from the books of heretics (with the term min often used specically for Christians), and thus must refer to other texts, which must be neither canonic (and so not dele the hands), nor heretical, similarly to the Books of Ben Sira 9) Tus Gedalia Alon, Te Jews in Teir Land in the Talmudic Age, 70-640 C.E. (2 vols.; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 1.276; Karl G. Kuhn, Giljonim und sifre minim, in Judentum, Urchristentum, Kirche: Festschrift fr Joachim Jeremias (ed. W. Eltester; BZNW 26; Berlin: Tpelmann, 1964), 24-61; Efraim E. Urbach, Self-Isola-tion or Self-Armation in Judaism in the First Tree Centuries: Teory and Practice, in Jewish and Christian Self-Denition. Vol. 2: Aspects of Judaism in the Graeco-Roman Period (ed. E. P. Sanders et al.; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), 269-98.10) Tus George F. Moore, Te Denition of the Jewish Canon and the Repudiation of Christian Scriptures, in Essays in Modern Teology and Related Subjects Gathered and Published as a Testimonial to Ch. A. Briggs (New York: Scribner, 1911), 99-125, 101; Louis Ginzberg, Some Observations on the Attitude of the Synagogue towards the Apocalyptic-Eschatological Writings, JBL 41 (1922), 115-36 at 122-23; Saul Lieberman, Tosefta ki-Fshutah (9 vols.; New York: Jewish Teological Seminary, 1955-1973), 3.206-7; Morris Goldstein, Jesus in Jewish Tradition (New York: Macmillan, 1950), 72-74; Sid Leiman, Te Canonization of Hebrew Scripture: Te Talmudic and Midrashic Evidence (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1976), 93 and 190-91, n. 511; Jacob Neusner, Te Tosefta (6 vols.; New York: Ktav, 1977-1986), 6.333. See the discussion of the term in Steven T. Katz, Issues in the Separation of Judaism and Christianity after 70 C.E.: A Reconsideration, JBL 103 (1984): 43-76 at 56-59.544 A. Kulik / Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009) 540-550and all books written from now on [or: from then; or from the time, when prophecy ceased]. One of the most popular genres belonging to this group and semantically appropriate to the term would be apocalyptic compositions. An alternative interpretation of the Tosefta passage would then be: revelations and heretical books [Gospels?].11 Pines adduces sev-eral instances of the adjacent use of the two terms, revelation/reveal and gospel in the New Testament (Gal 1:11-12; 16; Eph 3:15-16; 1 Pet 1:12).12Syriac gelyana as Revelation Pines also cites several examples from Syriac sources, where gelyn/gelyn (s.\_/s.\_) means apocalypse13 or, less probably, gospel.14 11) Te Tosefta thus must list three or four distinctive corpuses: apocalypses, heretic books, books of Ben Sira (wisdom literature?), and either the fourth group of the books to be written from now on or a general denition possibly including the groups aboveof the books created after some point in the past. 12) Shlomo Pines, Hearot al Tiqbolet ha-Qayemet beyn Munahim Suriim u-veiyn Munahim shel Leshon hazal [Notes on the Parallelism between Syriac Terminology and Mishnaic Hebrew], in Sefer Zikaron le-Yaakov Friedmann zl: Qovetz Mehqarim (Jerusa-lem: Institute for Jewish Studies, 1974), 205-13 at 209, n. 13. Cf. also early piyyut that contains the noun with the meaning of revealing: , , ,. line 17; 8th c.); ?? , , . ) ) "