James H. Charlesworth, "BARUCH, BOOK OF 2 (SYRIAC)," Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed

Approximately 30 to 50 years after the destruction of the temple by the Roman soldiers in 70 c.e. a gifted Jew, using old traditions, many of which antedate 70, struggled to assert that Judaism is a religion based on Torah-Law-and that the loss of the temple was due to the failure of the chosen nation to be obedient to God and his Law. His central message is the continuing obligation to obey the Law (note 44:5-7; 51:3; so also Collins 1984, contra Murphy 1985). In many ways the concerns and expressions in 2 Baruch indicate how Early Judaism was moving toward Rabbinic Judaism. Some scholars speculate that the author may have been Akiba (Rosenthal 1885) or belonged to Akiba's group at Jamnia (Violet 1924); Bogaert (1969) suggests that he may have been Rabbi Joshua ben H\ananiah (ca. 40-125).

The document, which is a full-blown apocalypse (contrast 4 Ezra), is extant in only the following corrupt or partial manuscripts:one 6th- or 7th-century Syriac manuscript (Milan, Ambrosian Library, MS B.21 Inf. fols. 257^a-265^b), which is sometimes meaningless and is based on a lost Greek text; one 10th- or 11th-century Arabic manuscript (St. Catherine's Monastery, Arab. MS no. 589), which is defective and based on a late Syriac text; two 4th- or 5th-century fragments among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (P.Oxy. 403); and three late excerpts in Jacobite lectionaries (BM Add. MS 14686 [13th cent.], BM Add. MS 14687 [13th cent.], Kerala, India, A. Konath Libr. MS 77 (4) [16th cent.]). Without a doubt the major witness to this document is the Syriac manuscript in the Ambrosian Library, but emendations are sometimes necessary.

Although not obvious, it is possible that the apocalypse was intended to have seven sections:the destruction of Jerusalem (1-12); the impending judgement (13-20); retribution and the messianic era (21-34); Baruch's lament and an allegory of the vine and the cedar (35-46); the endtime, the resurrected body, paradise (47-52); Baruch's vision of a cloud (53-76); and the epistle of Baruch (77-87). Some scholars think the epistle was later added to the apocalypse (Sayler 1984), others (Bogaert 1969; Klijn OTP 1:615-52) rightly see it as an original part of the document, as a kind of epilogue (Collins 1984).

While there is a consensus that the document was probably composed in Palestine, there is no agreement on whether it was composed in Greek (Bogaert 1969), Hebrew or Aramaic (Denis 1970a, b), or Hebrew (Charles 1896; Klijn OTP 1:615-52). Earlier in this century, scholars concluded that the work is a combination of sources (Charles isolated six), but today most scholars (Bogaert 1969; Sayler 1984; Murphy 1985) are rightly impressed with the unity of the work. Brockington thinks that 2 Baruch is roughly contemporaneous with 4 Ezra and Pseudo-Philo, but there is sufficient evidence to conclude, with many specialists, that the chronological order seems to be Pseudo-Philo, 4 Ezra, then 2 Baruch (cf. Klijn OTP 1:615-52. No literary dependence, however, proves this sequence; but in view of the numerous and striking parallels between 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch (viz. cf. 4 Ezra 7:118 with 2 Bar. 48:42 and 54:19) it is possible that the author of 2 Baruch attempted to correct the pessimism of 4 Ezra (cf. Collins 1984).

The brilliant mind of the author is readily apparent. He claims apologetically that Israel's enemies were allowed to enter Jerusalem only after "all the sacred vessels" had been removed and the angels had destroyed the walls (7:1-8:5). He thereby removes the Romans' reason for boasting (7:1). Eschewing the explanation that evil derives from fallen (1 Enoch) or evil angels (cf. 1QS), the author of 2 Baruch puts the blame on humankind, lamenting in poetic language that insinuates some free will:"Adam is, therefore, not the cause, except only for himself, but each of us has become our own Adam" (54:19; Klijn OTP 1). His explanation for the delay in the consummation of the ages is that the endtime will not come until the number of those to be born is fulfilled (23:4-7). One of the most beautiful eschatological passages in the history of the Jewish apocalypses is the following: "For the youth of this world has passed away, and the power of creation is already exhausted, and the coming of the times is very near and has passed by. And the pitcher is near the well, and the ship to the harbor, and the journey to the city, and life to its end" (85:10; Klijn OTP 1:615-52; this passage is truncated in the Arabic version).

Bibliography

Bogaert, P.-M. 1969. L'Apocalypse de Baruch: Introduction, traduction du syriaque et commentaire. SC 144, 145. Paris.

Brockington, L. H. 1984. The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch. Pp. 835-95 in The Apocryphal Old Testament, ed. H. F. D. Sparks. Oxford.

Charles, R. H. 1896. The Apocalypse of Baruch. London. repr. London, 1917, 1929.

Charlesworth, J. H. 1981. The Pseudepigraph and Modern Research with a Supplement. SBLSCS 7S. Chico, CA.

---. 1985. The Triumphant Majority as Seen by a Dwindled Minority: The Outsider According to the Insider of the Jewish Apocalypses, 70-130. Pp. 285-315 in "To See Ourselves as Others See Us" :Christians, Jews, "Others" in Late Antiquity, ed. J. Neusner and E. S. Frerichs. Chico, CA.

Collins, J. J. 1984. The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to the Jewish Matrix of Christianity. New York.

Dedering, S. 1973. Apocalypse of Baruch. Part 4.3, pp. i-iv + 1-50 in The Old Testament in Syriac. Leiden.

Denis, A.-M. 1970a. Apocalypsis Syriaca Baruch. Pp. 118-20 in Fragmenta Pseudepigraphorum quae supersunt Graeca. PVTG 3. Leiden.

---. 1970b. Introduction aux pseudépigraphes grecs d'ancien testament. SVTP 1. Leiden.

Hadot, J. 1987. Apocalypse Syriaque de Baruch. Pp. 1471-1557 in La Bible: Écrits intertestamentaires, ed. A. Dupont-Sommer and M. Philonenko. Paris.

Harnisch, W. 1969. Verhängnis und Verheissung der Geschichte. Göttingen.

Leemhuis, F.; Klijn, A. F. J.; and Gelder, G. J. H. van. 1986. The Arabic Text of the Apocalypse of Baruch. Leiden.

Murphy, F. J. 1985. The Structure and Meaning of Second Baruch. SBLDS 78. Atlanta.

Rosenthal, F. 1885. Vier apokryphische Bücher aus der Zeit und Schule R. Akiba's. Leipzig.

Sayler, G. B. 1984. Have the Promises Failed? A Literary Analysis of 2 Baruch. SBLDS 72. Chico, CA.

Violet, B. 1924. Die Apokalypsen des Esra und des Baruch in deutscher Gestalt. GCS 32. Leipzig.