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Gabriel's Revelation

Summary

Gabriel's Revelation, also called Hazon Gabriel (the Vision of Gabriel)[1] or the Jeselsohn Stone,[2] is a stone tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew text written in ink, containing a collection of short prophecies written in the first person. It is dated to the late 1st century BCE or early 1st century CE and is important for understanding Jewish messianic expectations in the Second Temple period.

A detail of the Gabriel Revelation Stone on display in the Israel Museum (fair use full view).

Description edit

Gabriel's Revelation is a gray[3] micritic limestone[4] tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew text[3] written in ink.[5] It measures 37 centimeters[3][6] (width) by 93[3] or 96[6] centimeters (height). While the front of the stone is polished, the back is rough, suggesting it was mounted in a wall.[7]

The writing is a collection of short prophecies written in the first person by someone identifying as Gabriel to someone else in the second person singular.[8] The writing has been dated to the 1st century BCE or the early 1st century CE by its script and language.[9][10][11][12] David Hamidovic's analysis instead suggests a date after 50 CE.[13][14] A physical analysis of the stone found no evidence of modern treatment of the surface, and found the attached soil most consistent with the area east of the Lisan Peninsula of the Dead Sea.[15] The text as a whole is unknown from other sources;[6] it is fragmentary, so the meaning is quite uncertain.[16][17][18] It is considered very similar to the Dead Sea scrolls.[10] The artifact is relatively rare in its use of ink on stone.[5][10][19]

Scholars have characterized the genre of Gabriel's Revelation as prophetic,[7] although biblical Hebrew scholar[20][21][22] Ian Young expresses surprise that it does not use Hebrew language characteristic of biblical prophetic texts.[23] Other scholars describe its genre as a revelatory dialogue similar to 4 Ezra or 2 Baruch[24] or even as an apocalypse.[25][18]

Origins and reception edit

The unprovenanced tablet is claimed to have been found by a Bedouin man in Jordan on the eastern banks of the Dead Sea around the year 2000.[26] It was owned by Ghassan Rihani, a Jordanian antiquities dealer working in Jordan and London, who sold it to David Jeselsohn, a Swiss–Israeli collector.[26][27][28] At the time of his purchase, Jeselsohn says that he was unaware of its significance.[27][28] Lenny Wolfe, an antiquities dealer in Jerusalem, reports having seen it prior to Rihani obtaining possession of it.[26] Expert Hebrew paleographer and epigrapher[29][30][31] Ada Yardeni reports that she first saw photographs of the tablet in 2003.[6]

The first scholarly description of the find and the editio princeps of the text[5][11][32] was published in April 2007 in an article written by Yardeni in consultation with Binyamin Elizur.[6][a] Yardeni gave the writing the name "Hazon Gabriel".[33]

As of 2011, the stone was located in Zurich.[7] In 2013, the stone was loaned to the Israel Museum to be displayed in an exhibit there.[26]

The stone has received wide attention in the media[34][35] starting in July 2008, primarily due to Israel Knohl's interpretations.[36]

Authenticity edit

Most scholars have tentatively accepted it to be authentic,[37][19] although Årstein Justnes, a biblical studies professor,[38][39] has published a refutation of its authenticity.[40][41] Doubts have further been expressed by Kenneth Atkinson[42] and Jonathan Klawans.[43]

Interpretation and significance edit

Hillel Halkin in his blog in The New York Sun wrote that it "would seem to be in many ways a typical late-Second-Temple-period eschatological text" and expressed doubts that it provided anything "sensationally new" on Christianity's origins in Judaism.[36]

Translations of line 80

The finding has caused controversy among scholars.[44] Israel Knohl, an expert in Talmudic and biblical language at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, translated line 80 of the inscription as "In three days, live, I Gabriel com[mand] yo[u]".[45][46] He interpreted this as a command from the angel Gabriel to rise from the dead within three days, and understood the recipient of this command to be Simon of Peraea, a Jewish rebel who was killed by the Romans in 4 BCE.[28][46] Knohl asserted that the finding "calls for a complete reassessment of all previous scholarship on the subject of messianism, Jewish and Christian alike".[46] In 2008, Ada Yardeni was reported to have agreed with Knohl's reading.[47] Ben Witherington noted that the word Knohl translated as "rise" could alternately mean "show up".[28]

Other scholars, however, reconstructed the faint writing on the stone as a different word entirely, rejecting Knohl's reading.[48][49] Instead, Ronald Hendel's (2009) reading of "In three days, the sign ..." has gained widespread support.[50] In 2011, Knohl accepted that "sign" is a more probable reading than "live", although he maintains that "live" is a possible reading.[51][52][53] However, the meaning of the phrase in the currently accepted reading is still unclear.[50] Knohl still maintains the historical background of the inscription to be as mentioned above. He now views Simon's death, according to the inscription, as "an essential part of the redemptive process. The blood of the slain messiah paves the way for the final salvation".[54]

David Hamidovic suggests it was written in the context of the Roman Emperor Titus’ siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.[13][14]

Gabriel's Revelation is considered important for broader scholarly discussion about Jewish messianic expectations in the Second Temple Period, specifically the themes of the suffering messiah and the Messiah ben Joseph, both of which are otherwise believed to be later developments.[55][56] as well as the Davidic messiah.[18]

Publications edit

The Hebrew text and translation are available in several editions: Yardeni & Elizur (2007),[b] Knohl (2008c), Qimron & Yuditsky (2009), Knohl (2011), and Elgvin (2014). Photographs of the stone are printed in Henze (2011a, pp. 189–194). Newer high resolution images are available from the InscriptiFact Digital Image Library.[57] Detailed linguistic studies have been performed by Bar-Asher (2008), Rendsburg (2011), and Young (2013).

Notes edit

  1. ^ Elizur is a specialist on the 9th century CE Pesikta Rabbati (Septimus 2015, p. 153).
  2. ^ Yardeni & Elizur (2007) includes only the Hebrew text. The English translation was first published in Yardeni (2008). The Hebrew and English were republished in Yardeni & Elizur (2011, pp. 13–17), with a note from the authors that Qimron & Yuditsky (2009) contained "important corrections ... to our reading", some of which were included in that edition (Yardeni & Elizur 2011, p. 11).

Citations edit

  1. ^ Knohl 2008a.
  2. ^ "The First Jesus?". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d Knohl 2009, p. xiv.
  4. ^ Goren 2008, p. 224.
  5. ^ a b c Novenson 2017, p. 176.
  6. ^ a b c d e Yardeni & Elizur 2011, p. 11.
  7. ^ a b c Yardeni & Elizur 2011, p. 12.
  8. ^ Yardeni & Elizur 2011, p. 17.
  9. ^ Novenson 2017, p. 176f.
  10. ^ a b c Yardeni 2008, p. 60.
  11. ^ a b Henze 2011a, p. xii.
  12. ^ Yardeni & Elizur 2011.
  13. ^ a b Hamidovic 2012.
  14. ^ a b Elgvin 2014, p. 16.
  15. ^ Goren 2008, p. 228f.
  16. ^ Novenson 2017, p. 177.
  17. ^ Witherington 2010, p. 211.
  18. ^ a b c Collins 2015.
  19. ^ a b Bronner 2008.
  20. ^ Schniedewind 2005, Section 3.8.
  21. ^ Gaines 2015, p. 68.
  22. ^ Byun 2017, p. 7.
  23. ^ Young 2013.
  24. ^ Henze 2011b.
  25. ^ Henze 2011b, p. 129.
  26. ^ a b c d Estrin 2013.
  27. ^ a b Jeselsohn 2011.
  28. ^ a b c d van Biema, David; Tim McGirk (7 July 2008). "Was Jesus' Resurrection a Sequel?". Time. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
  29. ^ Dimant & Kottsieper 2012, p. 239.
  30. ^ Terry 2013, p. 551.
  31. ^ Evans 2003, p. 116.
  32. ^ Knohl 2008b.
  33. ^ Yardeni 2008 "It was written in the first person, perhaps by someone named Gabriel ('I Gabriel', line 77), so I have named the text 'Gabriel's Vision'"
  34. ^ Collins 2015, p. 127.
  35. ^ Henze 2011a, p. 6,99.
  36. ^ a b Halkin 2008.
  37. ^ Hutchinson 2015, p. 117.
  38. ^ "Årstein Justnes CV" (in Norwegian).
  39. ^ "Årstein Justnes".
  40. ^ Justnes 2015.
  41. ^ Justnes & Rasmussen 2020.
  42. ^ Atkinson 2018.
  43. ^ Klawans 2018, pp. 489–501.
  44. ^ Collins 2015, p. 128.
  45. ^ Knohl 2008c.
  46. ^ a b c Knohl 2007.
  47. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20080820180906/http://www.bib-arch.org/news/dss-in-stone-news.asp Note: compare with archive from the day prior.
  48. ^ Bar-Asher 2008, p. 500-502.
  49. ^ Henze 2011a.
  50. ^ a b Koller 2014.
  51. ^ Novenson 2017, p. 178f.
  52. ^ Knohl 2011, p. 43, n. 12.
  53. ^ Hutchinson 2015, p. 118.
  54. ^ Knohl 2011, p. 47-48.
  55. ^ Aus 2015, p. 90-91.
  56. ^ Hutchinson 2015, p. 119f.
  57. ^ http://inscriptifact.com/ moved temporarily to https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/Archive/InscriptiFact----an-image-database-of-inscriptions-and-artifacts-2A3BF1OL6PW

References edit

  • Atkinson, Kenneth (2018). "The Gabriel Revelation (Hazon Gabriel): A Reused Masseba Forgery?". Qumran Chronicle. 26 (3). Moligany, Poland: The Enigma Press: 113–127. ISSN 0867-8715.
  • Aus, Roger D. (2015). "Jesus as a Nazirite in Mark 14:25 par., and Joseph's reunion meal in Judaic tradition". In Evans, Craig A.; Johnston, J.J. (eds.). Searching the Scriptures: Studies in Context and Intertextuality. The Library of New Testament Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 81ff. ISBN 978-0-567-66383-2.
  • Bar-Asher, Moshe (2008). "On the Language of 'The Vision of Gabriel'". Revue de Qumran. 23 (4): 491–524. JSTOR 24663069.
  • Bronner, Ethan (6 July 2008). "Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  • Byun, Seulgi L. (2017). The Influence of Post-Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic on the Translator of Septuagint Isaiah. The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-567-67239-1.
  • Collins, J.J. (2015). "Gabriel and David: Some reflections on an enigmatic text". Apocalypse, Prophecy, and Pseudepigraphy: On Jewish Apocalyptic Literature. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 127ff. ISBN 978-1-4674-4383-8.
  • Dimant, D.; Kottsieper, I. (2012). The Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective: A History of Research. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-20806-3.
  • Elgvin, Torleif (2014). "Eschatology and Messianism in the Gabriel Inscription" (PDF). Journal of the Jesus Movement in Its Jewish Setting from the First to the Seventh Century. 1: 5–25. Retrieved 29 September 2017. This paper reworks and combines Elgvin's prior work on the Gabriel Revelation.
  • Estrin, Daniel (30 April 2013). "Mysterious Hebrew stone displayed in Jerusalem". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 3 May 2013.
  • Evans, Craig A. (2003). Jesus and the Ossuaries. Baylor University Press. ISBN 978-0-918954-88-6.
  • Gaines, J.M.H. (2015). The Poetic Priestly Source. Augsburg Fortress, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5064-0046-4.
  • Goren, Yuval (2008). "Micromorphologic Examination of the 'Gabriel Revelation' Stone". Israel Exploration Journal. 58 (2): 220–229. JSTOR 27927206.
  • Halkin, Hillel (8 July 2008). "Blurry 'Vision of Gabriel'". The New York Sun. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  • Hamidovic, David (2012). "An Eschatological Drama in Hazon Gabriel: Fantasy or Historical Background?". Semitica. 54: 233–250. ISSN 0373-630X. oai:serval.unil.ch:BIB_11BDA2887951.
  • Hendel, Ronald (2009). "The messiah son of Joseph: Simply sign". Biblical Archaeology Review. Vol. 35, no. 1. p. 8.
  • Henze, Matthias, ed. (2011a). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Early Judaism and its literature. Brill. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2. Table of contents and preface
  • Henze, Matthias (2011b). "Some Observations on the Hazon Gabriel" (PDF). In Henze, Matthias (ed.). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Early Judaism and its literature. Brill. pp. 113–29. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  • Hutchinson, R.J. (2015). Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth—and How They Confirm the Gospel Accounts. Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-0-7180-1849-8.
  • Jeselsohn, David (2011). "The Jeselsohn Stone: Discovery and Publication". In Henze, Matthias (ed.). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Early Judaism and its literature. Brill. pp. 1–10. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2.
  • Justnes, Årstein (16 January 2015). "Hazon Gabriel: A Modern Forgery?". Material Philology in the Dead Sea Scrolls: New Approaches for New Text Editions: Proceedings of the International Conference at the University of Copenhagen, 3–5 April, 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2017.. Also published as Justnes, Årstein (16 January 2015). Hazon Gabriel: A Modern Forgery? (Speech). Holy Scriptures Forum. Norway: University of Agder. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  • Justnes, Årstein; Rasmussen, Josephine Munch (2020). "Hazon Gabriel: A Display of Negligence". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 384: 69–76. doi:10.1086/709464. S2CID 225553689.
  • Klawans, Jonathan (2018). "Deceptive Intentions: Forgeries, Falsehoods and the Study of Ancient Judaism". Jewish Quarterly Review. 108 (4). Project Muse: 489–501. doi:10.1353/jqr.2018.0030. ISSN 1553-0604. S2CID 165452745.
  • Knohl, Israel (19 April 2007). "In three days, you shall live". Haaretz. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  • Knohl, Israel (2008a). ""By Three Days, Live": Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel". The Journal of Religion. 88 (2). University of Chicago Press: 147–158. doi:10.1086/525562. ISSN 0022-4189. S2CID 170794593.
  • Knohl, Israel (2008b). "The Gabriel Revelation and the Birth of Christianity". In Schiffman, Lawrence H.; Roitman, Adolfo D.; Tzoref, Shani (eds.). The Dead Sea Scrolls and Contemporary Culture: Proceedings of the International Conference held at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (July 6-8, 2008). Brill. pp. 435–476. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004185937.i-770. ISBN 978-90-04-18593-7. abstract
  • Knohl, Israel (2008c). "The Messiah son of Joseph: 'Gabriel's revelation' and the Birth of a New Messianic Model" (PDF). Biblical Archaeology Review. Vol. 34, no. 5. pp. 58–62. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017. The translation from this document has been republished and is available online at Knohl, Israel (15 July 2008). "'Gabriel's Revelation' Tablet Translation Now Available on Hartman Website". Shalom Hartman Institute. Archived from the original on 1 February 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  • Knohl, I. (2009). Messiahs and Resurrection in 'The Gabriel Revelation'. The Robert and Arlene Kogod Library of Judaic Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4411-1486-0.
  • Knohl, Israel (2011). "The Apocalyptic and Messianic Dimensions of the Gabriel Revelation in Their Historical Gontext". In Henze, Matthias (ed.). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Early Judaism and its literature. Brill. pp. 39–60. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2.
  • Koller, Aaron (2014). "Book Review: Henze, Matthias, ed. Hazon Gabriel" (PDF). Review of Biblical Literature. 16: 74–78. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  • Novenson, M.V. (2017). The Grammar of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom and Its Users. Oxford University Press. p. 176ff. ISBN 978-0-19-025502-2.
  • O'Connell, J.H. (2016). Jesus' Resurrection and Apparitions: A Bayesian Analysis. Wipf & Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4982-2559-5.
  • Qimron, Elisha; Yuditsky, Alexey (Eliyahu) (2009). "Notes on the So-called 'Vision of Gabriel' Inscription". Cathedra: For the History of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv (in Hebrew). 123: 133–144. JSTOR 23408340.. An abbreviated version[1] was published as Qimron, Elisha; Yuditsky, Alexey (Eliyahu) (2011). "Notes on the So-Called Gabriel Vision Inscription". In Henze, Matthias (ed.). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Early Judaism and its literature. Brill. pp. 31–38. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2.
  • Rendsburg, Gary (2011). "Hazon Gabriel: A Grammatical Sketch". In Henze, Matthias (ed.). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Early Judaism and its literature. Brill. pp. 61–92. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2.
  • Septimus, Y. (2015). On the Boundaries of Talmudic Prayer. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-153421-8. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  • Schniedewind, W. M. (2005). "Prolegomena for the Sociolinguistics of Classical Hebrew". Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 5. doi:10.5508/jhs.2004.v5.a6. ISSN 1203-1542.[permanent dead link]
  • Terry, M. (2013). Reader's Guide to Judaism. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-135-94150-5.
  • Witherington, B. (2010). The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought World of the New Testament: The Collective Witness. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-3862-2. Republished in Witherington, B. (2016). New Testament Theology and Ethics. Vol. 2. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-9984-5.
  • Yardeni, Ada (2008). "A New Dead Sea Scroll in Stone? Bible-like Prophecy Was Mounted in a Wall 2,000 Years Ago" (PDF). Biblical Archaeology Review. 34 (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017. From BAR website HTML archive without sidebars
  • Yardeni, Ada; Elizur, Binyamin (2007). "A First-Century BCE Prophetic Text Written on a Stone: First Publication". Cathedra: For the History of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv (in Hebrew). 123: 155–166. JSTOR 23407585., translated with minor additions[1] in Yardeni, Ada; Elizur, Binyamin (2011). "A Hebrew Prophetic Text on Stone from the Early Herodian Period: A Preliminary Report". In Henze, Matthias (ed.). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Early Judaism and its literature. Brill. pp. 11–29. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2.
  • Young, Ian (2013). "Book Review: Hazon Gabriel: New Readings of the Gabriel Revelation". Review of Biblical Literature. 15: 211–215.

Subnotes edit

  1. ^ a b Koller 2014.

Further reading edit

  • Beskow, Per (26 August 2010). "Modern Mystifications of Jesus". In Burkett, Delbert (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Jesus. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 458–473. doi:10.1002/9781444327946.ch28. ISBN 978-1-4443-2794-6.
  • Capes, David B. (2011). "'Jerusalem' in The Gabriel Revelation and the Revelation of John". In Henze, Matthias (ed.). Hazon Gabriel: New readings of the Gabriel Revelation. Brill. pp. 173–186. ISBN 978-1-58983-541-2.. An earlier draft of this chapter was published as David B., Capes (24 January 2013). 'Jerusalem' in The Gabriel Revelation and the Revelation of John. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  • Cohen-Matlofsky, Claude. "Hazon Gabriel: A Social Historian's Point of View". The Bible and Interpretation.
  • García, E. Macarena (2016). Messianism and Resurrection in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls. St. Andrews Symposium for Biblical and Early Christian Studies Son of God: Divine Sonship in Jewish and Christian Antiquity June 6–8, 2016.
  • Hamidovic, David (2009). "La vision de Gabriel". Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses (in French). 89 (2): 147–168. doi:10.3406/rhpr.2009.1389. ISSN 0035-2403. oai:serval.unil.ch:BIB_46BAAA309892.
  • Hazen, Craig (2009). "Gabriel's Revelation". Christian Research Journal. 32 (2). Retrieved 29 September 2017. PDF
  • Tabor, James (2013). "The 'Gabriel Stone' on Display". Bible History Daily. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  • Tripp, Jeffrey M. (2014). "A Revelation from Gabriel to Nathan? The Herodian Temple and the Ideology of the Davidic Covenant in the Hazon Gabriel". Annali di Storia dell'Esegesi. 31 (1): 7–27 – via EBSCO. (abstract)
  • Tabor, James (13 May 2013). "The "Gabriel Stone" on Display". Bible History Daily. Biblical Archeology Society. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  • 원용국 (2012). "사해사본에 나타난 "요셉의 아들 그 메시야" [The messiah, the son of Joseph]. 성경과 고고학 (in Korean). 72: 4–18.

External links edit

  • English translation from Yardeni 2008
  • Hebrew text from Yardeni 2008
  • Yardeni, Ada (14 March 2007), Untitled [Drawing of Hebrew as it is written on the stone] (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 10 January 2008

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