Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

MOSES, ASSUMPTION OF

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 897 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

MOSES, See also:ASSUMPTION OF , an extra-canonical apocalyptic See also:work of the Old Testament. The Assumption or See also:Ascension of Moses ('AvhXrttliis Mama-See also:ion) is a prophecy of the future See also:relating to See also:Israel, put into the mouth of Moses, and addressed to See also:Joshua just before the See also:great lawgiver died. Founded upon the See also:book of See also:Deuteronomy, it is brief and unpoetical. But it seems to have been large at first, for according to Nicephorus it consisted of 1400 stichs. It contains a brief See also:history of Israel from Moses to the Messianic See also:age. The most striking feature in this work is the writer's scathing condemnation of the priesthood before, during, and after the Maccabean See also:period, and an unsparing depreciation of the See also:Temple services. This book was lost for many centuries till a large fragment of it was discovered and published by Ceriani in 1861 (Monumenta sacra I. i. 55–64) from a See also:palimpsest of the 6th See also:century. Very little was known about the contents of this book See also:prior to this See also:discovery. One passage found in this fragment is quoted in the Ada synodi Nicaenae, ii. 18. Most of the other references relate to the strife of See also:Michael and Satan about the See also:body of Moses, and ascribe it to the Ascensio Mosis, i.e.

'AvhXfp/'is Mcavo ws. Various other See also:

works have been attributed to Moses, such as the Petirath Moshe, the jijXos Aoywv µsaris v Mwva&ss, The See also:Exodus of Moses (in See also:Slavonic), &c. See See also:Charles, Assumption of Moses, pp: xiv.–xvii. ; Schiirer, Gesch. See also:des fad. Volkes, 220–221. Date.—The book has been assigned to most See also:dates between the See also:death of See also:Herod the Great and that of See also:Bar-Cochba. But this See also:text precludes any date after A.D. 70. The true date appears to See also:lie between 4 B.C. and A.D. 30. Herod is already dead (vi. 6), hence it is after 4 B.C.; and Herod's sons are to See also:rule for shorter periods than their See also:father, hence it must have been composed before these princes had reigned See also:thirty-four years-i.e. before A.D.

30. But there are grounds for assuming that A.D. 7 is probably the earlier limit (see Charles , op. cit. lv.–Iviii.). Author.—The author was not an Essene, for he recognizes See also:

animal sacrifices and cherishes the Messianic See also:hope. He was not a Sadducee, for he looks forward to the See also:establishment of the Messianic See also:Kingdom (x.). Nor yet was he a Zealot, for the quietistic ideal is upheld (ix.), and the kingdom is established by See also:God Himself (x.). He was clearly a Pharisaic Quietist, a Pharisee of a fast disappearing type, recalling in all respects the Chasid of the See also:early Maccabean times, and upholding the old traditions of quietude and resignation. His See also:object is to protest against the growing secularization of the Pharisaic party through its See also:adoption of popular Messianic beliefs and See also:political ideals. But his See also:appeal was in vain, and so the secularization of the Pharisaic See also:movement culminated in due course in the fall of See also:Jerusalem. The Latin Version a See also:Translation from the See also:Greek.—That our Latin text is derived from the Greek there can be no question. Thus Greek words are transliterated, as " chedrio " from ,ceSpbw, heremus " f rom Zpnµos ; Greek idioms are reproduced, as " usque nos duci captivos," ws rob iWas See also:aixµaXon ia0i)sai, and retranslation into Greek is frequently necessary in See also:order to correct the misrenderings of the translator or the corruptions already inherent in the Greek. Finally, fragments of the Greek version are still preserved.

The Greek a Translation from the See also:

Hebrew.—That the Greek was in turn derived from a Semitic See also:original was denied by See also:Hilgenfeld, Volkmar and others. But See also:Ewald, See also:Schmidt-Merx, Colani, See also:Carriere, See also:Hausrath, Dalman, See also:Rosenthal and Burkitt decide in favour of a Semitic. R. H. Charles (op. cit. xxxviii.–xlv.) is of See also:opinion that it is possible to prove that the Greek goes back not to an Aramaic but to a Hebrew original, on the following grounds: (I) Hebrew idiomatic phrases survive in the text. Thus circumibo (ii. 7) = " I will protect," i.e. aaias (cf. Deut. xxxii. io), and in sacerdotes vocabuntur = cis iepeIs ,c7 riBiioovnu, ueN: o'Inv 'iv (cf. i Chron. See also:xxiii. 14, and Isa. xlviii.2), =" they will See also:call themselves priests." (2) Frequently it is only through retranslation that we can understand the source of corruptions in the text. (3) In some cases we must translate not the Latin but the Hebrew presupposed by it. Thus in i. 7, successor =SehSoxos=mein, must be rendered " See also:minister." The Book may be the lost Testament of Moses.—The See also:present book is possibly the See also:long lost OtaOiiic Mwuo wS mentioned in some of the See also:ancient lists, for it never speaks of the assumption of Moses, but always of his natural death (i.

15, iii. 13, X. 14). About a See also:

half of the original Testament is preserved in the Latin Version. The latter half probably dealt with questions about the Creation (see Fabric. See also:Cod. pseud. V. T., ii. 844; Acta synodi Nicaenae, ii. 20). With this " Testament " the " Assumption," to which almost all the patristic references and that of See also:Jude are made, was subsequently edited. Some views of Author.—Our author's views on Moses are remarkable.

He writes that Moses was prepared from before the See also:

foundation of the See also:world to be the mediator of God's See also:covenant with his See also:people (i. 14, iii. 12). During his See also:life he was Israel's intercessor with God (xi. I I, 17). Praying on their behalf as a " great See also:angel " (xi. 17), " a sacred spirit who was worthy of the See also:Lord manifold and incomprehensible " (xi. 16). Apparently his relation to Israel did not cease with death, as he was to be their intercessor in the spiritual world (xii. 6). His death was an See also:ordinary one (i. 15, iii.

13, X. 12, 14), but no single See also:

place was worthy to See also:mark the place of his See also:burial, for his See also:sepulchre was from the rising to the setting See also:sun, and from the See also:south to the confines of the See also:north—yea, the whole world was his sepulchre (xi. 8). On the See also:doctrine of See also:good works our author's views are allied to Old Testament conceptions rather than to the rabbinic doctrine of See also:man's righteousness, which bulks so largely in Jewish literature from A.D. 50 onwards. So far from representing man's righteousness as involving merit over against God, our author represents the greatest See also:hero of Israel as declaring " Not for any virtue or strength of mine, but in His compassion and long-suffering was He pleased to call me " (xii.

End of Article: MOSES, ASSUMPTION OF

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
MOSES OF CHORENE 		[next]
MOSHEIM, JOHANN LORENZ VON (c. 1694-1755)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries