Book of Baruch, Third

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3 Baruch is a Jewish document, generally included in collections of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

Overview

Manuscript Tradition

3 Baruch is known from two Greek and at least twelve South- and East-Slavic manuscripts (not including later reworkings). The Greek texts are found in the British Museum manuscript Add. 10.073, dated to the 15th-16th centuries (hereafter – ms A), and in the Monastery of the Hagia (the island of Andros), manuscript no. 46.39, dated to the beginning of the 15th century (ms B). There are no significant discrepancies between the two, and they even share numerous misreadings, grammatical errors and orthographic deviations. Although Picard dated ms B as the earlier version, it is not a source for ms A (as is clear from the obvious parablepsis in 6:16, absent in ms A; see J.C. Picard, (ed.) “Apocalypsis Baruchi Graece,” in Testamentum Iobi, Apocalypsis Baruchi Graece (Pseudepigrapha Veteris Testamenti Graece, 2; Leiden: Brill, 1967). The textual history of the Slavonic rescension was elaborated upon in the critical edition by H.E. Gaylord (The Slavonic Version of III Baruch. Ph.D. Dissertation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem [Jerusaelem, 1983], xxi-xxvii). Among the Slavonic manuscripts, the one closest to the Greek version is the 13th century South-Slavic St. Petersburg, RNB, Greč 70 (ms L). Together with two East-Slavic abridged copies – Moscow, RGB, f. 272, Syn. 363 of the 15th-16th centuries (ms T) and Moscow, GIM, Barsov (signature unknown) of the 17th-18th centuries (ms B) – it constitutes the family a of the Slavonic rescension. Both T and B at times witness readings closer to the Greek version than ms L. In the family b Gaylord distinguishes two groups of South-Slavic manuscripts: b1, comprised of Belgrade, NB, 651 of the 13th-14th centuries (ms S), Zagreb, KJAZU III.a.20 [Šibenićki Zbornik] of the 16th century (ms N), the glagolitic Zagreb, NSB, R4001 [Petrisov Sbornik] of 1468 (ms Z); and b2 with Sofia, NBKM, 433 [Panagjurski Sbornik] of the 16th century (ms P), Vienna, ÜNB, Slav. 149 of the 16th century (ms V), Sofia, NBKM, 326 (Adžarskij Sbornik) of the 16th century (ms I), Goljamo Belovo, Bulgaria of the 17th-18th centuries (ms D). There are also two copies of which only fragments are preserved: Belgrade, NB, 828 of 1409 (ms G) and Kiev, CBAN, Sp. 168/III of the 18th century (ms K). Although the family b in general is a result of inner-Slavic redaction, including expansions, omissions and revisions of earlier readings reflected in the Greek version and the family a, in some cases it preserves better readings. This means that the divergence between the families took place in the South-Slavic area prior to the 13th century. Some misreadings may witness the Glagolitic Slavonic prototext and uncial Greek Vorlage.

Synopsis

(1) Weeping at the gates of the destroyed Temple, Baruch deals with theodicy and its relation to the Fall. In response, an angel sent to him by God promises to show him the “great mysteries.” (2) The angel takes him to “where heaven was set,” and to the river that cannot be crossed by any “alien breath.” Having arrived at the “first heaven,” they enter the very large door, and after a month-long journey, they find a plain inhabited by strangely shaped creatures. Baruch’s first question is about “the thickness of heaven in which we journeyed;” he learns that it is equal to the height of the sky and the width of heaven (thus G; S equates it to the width of earth, while the width of heaven is as the height of the sky). (3) The angel takes Baruch to the “second heaven,” where they find almost the same creatures, only dog-faced, who are also identified as the builders of the Tower of Babel. Then Baruch learns how they afflicted a delivering woman and wanted to bore through heaven in order to study its composition, and how they were punished with blindness and confusion of languages. (4) After another long journey through another long gate, Baruch sees another plain with Serpent and Hades “around him” (in G; below, the latter is also identified as a belly of the former). Baruch learns about the eating and drinking habits of the monster: “the dragon is he who eats the bodies of those who pass through life wickedly” (G; in S it eats earth instead) and drinks every day a regular portion of water from the sea, which still does not sink, being filled with rivers, a list of which is given. The vision of Serpent-Hades is interrupted by Baruch’s sudden request to see the Tree of Knowledge. In response to this request, he hears a story (instead of seeing a vision), which contains the following episodes: (a) On the Garden, where the five different fruit trees were planted by five named angels; among them, the olive was planted by Michael, and the vine by Satanael (only in S); (b) On the Tree of Knowledge, which turns out to be the vine planted by Sammael (in G; Satanael in S), and thus forbidden to Adam, divested of the divine glory for his transgression. (c) On the Flood, which destroyed many giants, entered Paradise, destroyed its flowers and either removed the vine completely (G) or brought a shoot from it outside (S). Noah, after severe hesitation, replanted the vine by God’s order. However, he was warned that although “its bitterness shall be changed to sweetness,” through excessive drinking major sins still come into the world. (5) The account of the Beasts resumes with a question about the dimensions of the Serpent’s belly, which turns out to be Hades (“insatiable” according to S), and is measured by the distance of a thrown lead. (6) The angel and Baruch proceed to the east and observe the anthropomorphic figure of the crowned sun riding in its quadriga. It is accompanied by the bird, defined as the “guardian of the world” since it “goes before the sun and, stretching out its wings, receives its fire-shaped rays. For if it did not receive them, the race of men would not survive, nor any other living creature.” This bird is giant; it is called Phoenix, born in fire, and produces cinnamon. Here Baruch watches the sunrise from the celestial point of view: the 365 gates of heaven open with a great sound as the light is being separated from the darkness, the Bird commands the sun to shine, and the command wakes the roosters on earth. (7) Baruch wonders about how long the sun can remain motionless and learns that it is a very short period of time “from when the roosters cry until the light comes” (thus in S; in G he asks about its route, but this is probably secondary). Here G repeats the description of the rising sun and the Sun Bird’s performances, which at this point is not only heard by Baruch, but witnessed by him firsthand. (8) Baruch then proceeds with the angel to the west to watch the sunset: the crown is taken from the sun’s head for the nightly renewal “up to heaven,” and the Bird looks exhausted. Baruch learns that the sun’s crown is defiled through its rays by human sins, and the Bird is exhausted by the sun’s radiation. (9) The moon is located in the same heaven. It is shown to Baruch in the morning, in the likeness of a woman, also moving in its chariot of oxen. Although initially having been created “beautiful,” now it waxes and wanes, since it did not hide itself during the transgression of Adam and Eve. G adds that the moon and the “suspended” stars do not dare to shine in the presence of the sun. The sun outshines the stars, and the moon, although “being intact,” is exhausted by its heat. (10) In the next heaven, the “third” heaven (only in G), there is another plain (G; or “mountain” in S) with a lake inhabited by diverse birds, and especially cranes (or birds similar to cranes in size in S). This is the place “where the souls of the righteous come, when they assemble, living together choir by choir” (only G). The “pure” (only S) birds unceasingly praise God (both G and S). The lake is also a source of the rain and – according to G – the “dew of heaven.” They are taken by clouds only from here (S) or also from the sea, while in the latter case only these celestial waters can cause the earth to produce fruit (G). (11) The angel takes Baruch to the next heaven, identified as the “fifth” heaven (although the “fourth” has not been mentioned), where Baruch faces the closed gate, upon which the names of men are inscribed (S). The gate opens only to admit the commander-in-chief Michael, the key-holder of the Kingdom, descending from behind it with a great sound to receive the prayers of men. He holds a cosmically sized bowl into which the “virtues” (G; from here on S always has “prayers” instead of the “virtues” in G) of men enter in order to be brought in it to God. (12) A procession of angels brings baskets filled with flowers and casts them into Michael’s bowl. The flowers represent human virtues (or “prayers” in S). Then other angels, grieving, bring empty (or half-empty) baskets, the offerings from which “did not fill the bowl.” (13) Other angels (either the same “other” or a third group) weep and fear; they ask Michael twice to release them from evil men, whose transgressions they enumerate. (14) Michael goes behind the gate, which closes after him with a thunder signifying that he brings the virtues of men to God. (15) The gate opens again, and Michael distributes the oil. He puts it into the same baskets (in S “mercy” substitutes for “oil”). This reward is given “to our beloved and those who have diligently done good deeds.” Michael sends those who brought full and half-empty baskets to bless their charges. (16) Angels that have not brought any offerings are not allowed to leave their men but are ordered to “provoke against them No-Nation” (only G) and send upon them locusts with “hail and lightning and wrath and cut them in twain with the sword and with death and their children with demons.” S adds to this a brief notion, namely, that the guiding angel ordered Baruch to see the resting places of the righteous and the tortures of the impious. Baruch hears the lament of the latter and receives permission to weep on their behalf. (17) Baruch “comes to himself” (G), or descends to earth (S) and glorifies God.

3 Baruch in Scholarship (History of research)

3 Baruch was introduced to scholarship in 1886, when Stojan Novaković published the Slavonic ms N (“Otkriven’e Varuhove” Starine 18 [1886]). The Greek text found in British Museum by E. Cuthbert Butler was published by Montague Rhodes James only in 1897 (“Apocalypse of Baruch,” in Apocrypha Anecdota: Second Series [Texts and Studies: Contributions to Biblical and Patristic Literature, 5.1; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University, 1897]). Since then six more Slavonic manuscripts were published: ms T by Nikolaj Savvich Tikhonravov in 1894 (“Откровенiе Варуха,” Апокрифическiя сказанiя. Сборник отделения русского языка и словесности (SORJaS 58; 1894), cf. V.V.Milkov, “Откровение Варуха,” in Древнерусские апокрифы: тексты, переводы, комментарии. Памятники древнерусской мысли: исследования и тексты, 1 [С.-Петербург: РГХИ, 1999], pp. 480-487), ms K by Mikhail Mikhailovich Speranskij in 1906 (“Рукописное собрание,” Известия историко-филологическаго Института князя Безбородко в Нежине, 22 [1906]), mss BPS were published by Mikhail Iur’evich Sokolov in 1907 (“Апокрифическое откровение Варуха,” Древности: Труды Славянской Комиссии Императорского Московского Археологического Общества 4.1 [1907], and ms Z by Eduard Hercigonja in 1964 (“Videnie Varuhovo u Petrisovu Zborniku iz 1468 godine,” Zbornik za filologiju i lingvistiku 7 [1964], pp.63-72). Jordan Ivanov republished ms S with discrepancies from mss NP in 1925 (Богомилски книги и легенды [Sofija: Pechatintsa, 1925], pp. 193-200). The bibliography published by Aleksander Ivanovich Jatsimirskij in 1921 included almost all of the manuscripts known today (except ms D; Библиографический обзор апокрифов в южнославянской и русской письменности (Списки памятников), вып. 1: Апокрифы ветхозаветные. [Петроград: Отделение русского языка и словесности Российской академии наук, 1921]). The second known Greek copy was published by Jean-Claude Picard in his critical edition of the Greek text in 1967 (“Observations sur l'Apocalypse Grecque de Baruch I: Cadre historique fictif et efficacité symbolique.” Semitica 20 [1970]: 77-103). The decisive breakthrough in the advancement of research on 3 Baruch was achieved by Harry E. Gaylord, who prepared a critical edition of the Slavonic version in his dissertation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1983 (Gaylord, Slavonic). The Slavonic ms N was translated into German by Gottlieb Nathanael Bonwetsch (“Das Slavisch Erhaltene Baruchbuch,” in: Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen [Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 1896]), and into English by William R. Morfill in 1897 (“The Apocalypse of Baruch translated from the Slavonic,” in Apocrypha Anecdota, pp. 95-102). Wolfgang Hage translated ms S into German in 1974 (Die griechische Baruch-Apokalypse [Judische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit, 5.1; Gütersloh: Mohn, 1974], pp. 15-44), Donka Petkanova – the eclectic text based on mss SNPI to Bulgarian in 1981 (P. Donka, “Апокрифи,” in Стара балгарска литература 1 [Cофия, 1981]), A. Iu. Karpov and Vladimir Vladimirovich Milkov – ms T to Russian in 1990 and 1999 respectively (A.J. Karpov, “Откровение Варуха,” in Златоструй: Древняя Русь X-XIII вв., ed. А. Кузьмин and А. Карпов. Дороги человеческой мысли, 1 [Москва: Молодая гвардия, 1990]), pp. 276-282; Milkov, “ Откровение,” pp. 488-93). The Greek version was translated first into German by Victor Ryssel in 1900 (“Die Apokalypsen des Baruch [syr. u. griech.],” in Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments, ed. E. Kautzsch. Bd. 2. [Tübingen: Mohr, 1900]), into English by Henry M. Hughes in 1913 (“The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch,” in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913 Charles), edited volume), into Hebrew by Eliyahu Shemuel Hartom in 1967 (“Hazon Baruch Bet,” in Ha-Sefarim Ha-Hitzonim, ed. A. Kahana. [Tel-Aviv: Meqorot, 1937]), vol. 1, into Spanish by Natalio Fernández Marcos in 1990 (M.N. Fernández, “Apocalipsis griego de Baruc: Introducción, traducción y notas,” Sefarad 50 [1990], and into Russian by Maria and Vadim Vitkovskij (“Откровение Варуха,” In Апокрифические апокалипсы. Античное христианство: источники [С.-Петербург: Алетейя, 2003]). The parallel versions were translated by Harry E. Gaylord in 1983 (Gaylord, Slavonic). Mikhail Iur’evich Sokolov, Emil Turdeanu, and Harry E. Gaylord made the most noticeable contribution to the textual study of the Slavic rescension and its relation to the Greek version. Among relatively recent works, the studies by Richard Bauckham, John J. Collins, Mary Dean-Otting, George W.E. Nickelsburg, Andrei A. Orlov, Jean-Claude Picard, Rainer Stichel, and Edward J. Wright are of crucial significance in the collective attempt to understand 3 Baruch. The history of research of 3 Baruch has culminated in two studies: the unpublished critical edition of the Slavonic version by Harry E. Gaylord (Slavonic) and the thorough and insightful monograph The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch) in Hellenistic Judaism and Early Christianity (1996 Harlow), book.

3 Baruch in Fiction

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