Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

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Bernd Strauss
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Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Post by Bernd Strauss »

Greek lexicons sometimes refer to the Jewish apocalyptic literature in the Greek language. Is there a searchable database which contains those writings? They do not seem to be included in the free abridged corpus of TLG. Is there also a concordance to Greek words used in the Jewish apocalyptic literature?
Ken M. Penner
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Re: Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Post by Ken M. Penner »

Bernd Strauss wrote: February 27th, 2018, 3:56 pm Greek lexicons sometimes refer to the Jewish apocalyptic literature in the Greek language. Is there a searchable database which contains those writings?
Yes.
The full TLG includes all the ancient Greek Jewish texts.
Much of this corpus is available at the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha (of which I am co-director), but it is not designed to be searchable.
Craig Evans and we provided these texts to the main Bible software companies, which have in turn made them searchable. Accordance, Logos (I was responsible for the morphological tagging), and BibleWorks.
Bernd Strauss wrote: February 27th, 2018, 3:56 pm Is there also a concordance to Greek words used in the Jewish apocalyptic literature?
Yes. The Concordance by Denis has an ISBN of 978-9004090217.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
Bernd Strauss
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Joined: May 20th, 2017, 11:23 am

Re: Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Post by Bernd Strauss »

Thank you for the references. I have now found out that I have the writings in Bibleworks, and the program can do lemma searches in them. The description reads:
The Greek Pseudepigrapha. Electronic text prepared by Craig A. Evans. Morphologically tagged by Rex A. Koivisto. Copyright © 2008 Craig A. Evans. Copyright © OakTree Software, Inc.
The Pseudepigrapha (English), Translated by Craig E. Evans, assisted by Danny Zacharias, Matt Walsh, and Scott Kohler. Copyright © 2008 Craig A. Evans.
This module contains all known Greek texts of the Pseudepigrapha. Other texts of the Pseudepigrapha that do not appear in this module (such as 2 Enoch) are not present, because they do not have a Greek manuscript. The actual Greek texts used in this module have been taken from standard public domain texts.
I could not find a Greek text of 2 Esdras in the module. The passage which I am looking for is 2 Esdras 7:113. Another passage is Testament of Moses (Assumption of Moses) 12:4. Only the first chapter of Assumption of Moses appears to be available. Do you know whether these works are included in the module?
Ken M. Penner
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Re: Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Post by Ken M. Penner »

Bernd Strauss wrote: February 28th, 2018, 3:26 pm I could not find a Greek text of 2 Esdras in the module. The passage which I am looking for is 2 Esdras 7:113. Another passage is Testament of Moses (Assumption of Moses) 12:4. Only the first chapter of Assumption of Moses appears to be available. Do you know whether these works are included in the module?
These are texts that are not Greek but Latin. To confirm, check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esdras#Naming_conventions or https://pseudepigrapha.org/docs/intro/4Ezra and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_Moses or https://pseudepigrapha.org/docs/intro/Mois
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
Bernd Strauss
Posts: 111
Joined: May 20th, 2017, 11:23 am

Re: Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Post by Bernd Strauss »

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Matthew gives an impression that 2Esdras 7:113 and the Assumption of Moses 12:4 are available in Greek texts, because it states in a comment on Mt 13:39:

"Of the Gospel writers only Matthew uses the phrase συντέλεια (τοῦ) αἰῶνος (‘completion of the age’). It is frequent in Jewish apocalyptic literature (often with ‘ages’), in which the sequence of ages plays a significant role. [Footnote:] See 2 Esdr. 7:113; As. Mos. 12:4; Test. Ben. 11:3; Test. Levi 10:2."

The commentary apparently includes Latin texts among the references, although it specifically discusses the Greek phrase συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος.
S Walch
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Re: Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Post by S Walch »

The NIGTC is probably more referring to 2 Edras 7:113 (4 Ezra 7:113) as an example of the Apocalyptic literature 'in which the sequence of ages plays a significant role', rather than an example of the usage of συντέλεια (τοῦ) αἰῶνος.

The Latin is as follows:
dies enim iudicii erit finis temporis huius et initium futuri inmortalis temporis, in quo pertransivit corruptela

English (from RSV):
But the day of judgment will be the end of this age and the beginning of the immortal age to come, in which corruption has passed away

End of this age = finis temporis huius

finis in the Latin Vulgate usually translates τέλος rather than συντέλεια, but the two Greek words have overlapping meaning. Nevertheless would expect a retroversion from the Latin to Greek text to look like τὸ τέλος τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου rather than συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος
Bernd Strauss
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Re: Finding Searchable Texts of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Post by Bernd Strauss »

I can see now that the commentary may be referring to instances where a sequence of ages is implied.

The phrase συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος/ αἰώνων appears three times in the Greek Pseudepigrapha available in BibleWorks:
Testament of Levi 10:2.
Testament of Benjamin 11:3.
The Testament of Job 4:6.

The phrase τέλος αἰώνων occurs once:
Sibylline Oracle 8:311.

Apparently either of the phrases could appear in the Greek version of 2 Esdras 7:113.
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