Gentiles Demand All These Things

Three ancient Jewish texts, composed at different times, in different languages, and in different locations, nevertheless share a remarkably similar description of gentiles. According to the three texts gentiles are characterized by concern for their physical needs. All three texts portray gentiles as obsessed with food and drink and clothing:

Letter of Aristeas §140-141^[40]

…the priests who are the guides of the Egyptians…have named us [i.e. the Jews] ‘men of God,’ a title applicable to none others but only to him who reveres the true God. The rest are men of food and drink and clothing,^[41] for their whole disposition flees for refuge to these things. With our countrymen, however, these things are reckoned as of no worth, but throughout the whole of life their contemplation is on the sovereignty of God.

Matthew 6:25-33^[42]

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky [cf. Luke 12:24 ‘ravens’]: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the gentiles [cf. Luke 12:30 ‘nations of the world’ τὰ ἔθνη τοῦ κόσμου] seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Avot de Rabbi Natan (version a) ch.20^[43]

Rabbi Hananiah, prefect of the priests, says: He who takes to heart the words of the Torah is relieved of many preoccupations—preoccupations with hunger, foolish preoccupations, unchaste preoccupations, preoccupations with the evil impulse, preoccupations with an evil wife, idle preoccupations, and preoccupations with the yoke of flesh and blood. For thus is it written in the Book of Psalms by David, king of Israel: The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes (Ps. 19:9). But he who does not take to heart the words of the Torah is given over to many preoccupations—preoccupations with hunger, foolish preoccupations, unchaste preoccupations, preoccupations with the evil impulse, preoccupations with an evil wife, idle preoccupations, and preoccupations with the yoke of flesh and blood. For thus it is written in Deuteronomy by Moses our master: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever; because thou didst not serve the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with a gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things: therefore thou shalt serve thine enemy whom the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things (Deut. 28:46 ff.). In hunger: for example, at a time when a man longs to eat even a bit of coarse barley bread but he cannot find it, the nations of the world (אומות העולם) demand from him white bread and choice meat. And in thirst: For example, at a time when a man longs to drink even a drop of vinegar or a drop of bitters but cannot find them, the nations of the world demand of him the finest wine in any country. And in nakedness: For example, at a time when a man is eager^[44] to wear even a tunic of wool or of flax but cannot find them, the nations of the world demand from him silks and the best kallak in any country. And in want of all things: (That is,) in want of light, of knife, of table. Another interpretation of In want of all things: (In want) of vinegar and salt. This is the meaning of the curse that men utter: “Mayest thou have neither vinegar nor salt in thy house!”

Their God Is Their Stomach^[45]

The passage excerpted from the Letter of Aristeas is part of an apology for Israel’s purity laws. The justification for the restrictions on objects that may be eaten or touched is put in the mouth of Eleazar, the (fictional?)^[46] Jewish high priest, who explains that the purity laws are a protective hedge against the errors of gentile idolatry: “Our lawgiver…fenced us about with impregnable palisades and with walls of iron, to the end that we should mingle in no way with any of the other nations, remaining pure in body and spirit, emancipated from vain opinions, revering the one and mighty God above the whole creation,” (§139). The intention of our excerpt from Aristeas is to prove the superiority of Judaism. Whereas non-Jews find security in food and drink and clothing, Judaism leads to the contemplation of the divine. The author of Aristeas (usually referred to as Pseudo-Aristeas in scholarly literature) would have his readers know that Judaism is a truly philosophical religion.^[47]

• ^[1] That, it would seem, is the point of the citation of Ps. 19:9, the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. As the story of Jonathan eating the honey illustrates, when a hungry person has been nourished his eyes are brightened (I Sam. 14:27,29). Psalm 19:11, it should be noted, compares the LORD's judgements to the sweetness of honey. There is a possible connection between Ps. 19:9, the proof text for the first part of Rabbi Hananiah's homily, and Deut. 28:47, the proof text for the second part. Psalm 19:9 says that the LORD's precepts rejoice the heart (מְשַׂמְּחֵי־לֵב), while Deut. 28:47 requires that the Children of Israel serve the LORD with joyfulness and goodness of heart (בְּשִׂמְחָה וּבְטוּב לֵבָב). ↩
• ^[2] On this distinction see Jacob Milgrom's discussion in Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004) 113-115. ↩
• ^[3] Why Eleazar did not discuss fish is a matter of speculation. Perhaps there was no useful allegorical significance which the author of Aristeas could attribute to fins and scales. ↩
• ^[4] Adapted from Shutt (above n. 4) emphasis mine. ↩
• ^[5] On the traditional nature of this trio of sins see David Flusser and Shmuel Safrai, "The Apostolic Decree and the Noahide Commandments" (Halvor Ronning trans.) Jerusalem Perspective Online (2012). See also Peter Tomson, Paul and the Jewish Law: Halakhah in the Letters of the Apostle to the Gentiles (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990): 154; and Huub van de Sandt and David Flusser, The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity (CRINT III.5; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002): 247-249. ↩
• ^[6] cf. Shutt's translation of §151 (above n.4). ↩
• ^[7] Adapted from Shutt's translation (above n.4). ↩
• ^[8] Benjamin Wright observes that the Greek word ἁπαρξαµένους can indicate the offering of firstlings or first fruits in "Three Jewish Ritual Practices in Aristeas §§ 158-160" Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (eds. Lynn LiDonnici and Andrea Lieber; Leiden: Brill, 2007): 13. Sandt and Flusser note that in Jewish sources tithes are often implied in the designation "firstfruits," The Didache (above n. 13): 361. ↩
• ^[9] Quoted from Shutt's translation (above n.4). ↩
• ^[10] The verb here is καταφεύγειν. It appears often in the LXX with the meaning "to flee" most frequently translating the Hebrew verb נוס. Six times the Greek verb appears with reference to the cities of refuge (Lev. 26:25; Num. 35:25, 26; Deut. 4:42, 19:5; Josh. 20:9). This verb can also be used for fleeing to God for refuge (Ps. 142(143): 9; Zech. 2:11; Isa. 54:15, 55:5; Jer. 27(50): 5). ↩
• ^[11] In his notes to §141 Henry Meecham, (n. 4 above) 251, drew a connection between our excerpt from Aristeas and Matt. 6:31ff. ↩
• ^[12] Adapted with minor alterations from the Revised Standard Version. ↩
• ^[13] The phrase אומות העולם, however, does not appear in Deut. 28 or, indeed, anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible. ↩
• ^[14] David Bivin explains that the חלוק or tunic was an undergarment not worn in public without the outer garment or טלית in "The Hem of His Garment" Jerusalem Perspective n. 7 (1988): 2. Rabbi Hananiah, perhaps, should therefore be understood to mean that at a time when a man would count himself fortunate to have even a coarse undergarment, the nations of the world demand elegant robes. Shmuel Safrai notes that the "tunic was usually of linen and the cloak of wool," in "Religion in Everyday Life" in The Jewish People in the First Century (CRINT; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976): 2:797. ↩
• ^[15] Deuteronomy 28:48 is the only place in the Hebrew Bible where the three terms צמא ,רעב, and עירם appear together in a single verse. Hosea 2:9(11) likewise is the only verse in the Hebrew Scriptures where food and drink are discussed together with wool and linen. ↩
• ^[16] Joseph Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV (1985), 977. ↩
• ^[17] Geza Vermes, The Authentic Gospel of Jesus (2003), 96. ↩
• ^[18] English translation according to the alternate reading of the RSV. ↩
• ^[19] That Jesus was capable of weaving verses from different parts of Scripture together in order to make a point is well known. See Joseph Frankovic, "Remember Shiloh!" Jerusalem Perspective n. 46&47 (1994): 25-29; and more recently R. Steven Notley, "Jesus' Jewish Hermeneutical Method in the Nazareth Synagogue" in Early Christian Literature and Intertextuality (eds. Craig A. Evans and H. Daniel Zecharias; 2009), 2:46-59. ↩
• ^[20] Psalm 146: 8-9 according to the LXX reads: To him who cloaks the sky with clouds, to him who prepares rain for the earth, to him who makes grass to grow on the mountains, [and green herb for the service of men,] giving to the animals their food and to the young ravens that call on him, τῷ περιβάλλοντι τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐν νεφέλαις, τῷ ἑτοιμάζοντι τῇ γῇ ὑετόν, τῷ ἐξανατέλλοντι ἐν ὄρεσι χόρτον [καὶ χλόην τῇ δουλείᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων,] διδόντι τοῖς κτήνεσι τροφὴν αὐτῶν καὶ τοῖς νεοσσοῖς τῶν κοράκων τοῖς ἐπικαλουμένοις αὐτόν. The words that Ralfs has placed within brackets were imported from Ps. 104:14. In the introduction to his translation of the Psalms for the NETS, Albert Pietersma notes that, "At not a few places, Ralfs enclosed within square brackets items of text, which, although they could not in his judgment justifiably be regarded as original, nevertheless had wide spread support in the textual traditions," (New English Translation of the Septuagint (2007), 542). ↩
• ^[21] Flusser suggests that Matthew substituted 'birds of the sky' for Luke's 'ravens', "due to the fact that ravens were associated in Greek thought with the hanging tree," ("Have You Ever Seen a Lion Toiling as a Porter?" Judaism of the Second Temple Period: The Jewish Sages and Their Literature (trans. Azzan Yadin; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 332 n. 2). But perhaps it is worth considering the possibility that the disagreement between the two Gospels is due not to substitution, but to two different condensations of a longer saying which included both examples. ↩
• ^[22] Here the translation is my own. ↩
• ^[23] M. Dahood suggests that עפאים should be understood to refer not to branches but to ravens who give voice (Psalms III: 101-150 [1970]: 38). If so, this would make an interesting parallel to the young ravens (ערבים) who cry in Psalm 147:9. ↩
• ^[24] 1 Kings 10:5 mentions the robes of Solomon's servants, and v. 25 counts robes among the gifts that were brought to him (cf. 2 Ch. 9:4, 24), but these passing references are not much to go on. ↩
• ^[25] As noted by Tomson Paul and the Jewish Law (above n. 13): 128; and G. Vermes (above n. 25): 97. ↩
• ^[26] See Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews (trans. Henrietta Szold and Paul Radin; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003) 2:968-970 and the sources cited there. ↩
• ^[27] So BDAG (above n. 4): 257. ↩
• ^[28] These verses read: As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows our frame, remembering that we are dust. ↩
• ^[29] We also recognize that our investigation has left some details of Jesus' examples unaccounted for. Those details include the birds/ravens nether sowing, nor reaping, nor gathering into barns (v. 26), a human's inability to add to one's stature/length of life (v. 27), flowers neither labouring nor spinning (v.28), and grass being thrown into an oven (v.30). Perhaps these details, which expand on examples which can be derived from Scripture, should be regarded as Jesus' imaginative flourishes. ↩
• ^[30] 1 Sam. 20:1; Ecc. 7:28; Hos. 3:5, 5:15. ↩
• ^[31] See above n. 9. ↩
• ^[32] This interpretation may have been encouraged by the verses which follow in Deuteronomy: The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar...[who] shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; who shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish, (Deut. 28:49, 51). ↩
• ^[33] Vermes (above n. 25): 96. ↩
• ^[34] Ibid., 408. ↩
• ^[35] Ibid., 409. ↩
• ^[36] Ibid., 227. ↩
• ^[37] Some members of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research have demonstrated that in Jesus' teaching the Kingdom of Heaven is not a time one has to wait for or a final eschatological event, but a divine activity which was taking place in and through Jesus' ministry and among his followers. The Kingdom of Heaven is God's redemptive mission of healing and forgiveness and reconciliation which is taking place in the present age. Jesus believed that this was a mission in which God invites human beings to participate. The Kingdom of Heaven, therefore, can refer not only to God's redemptive activity but also to the community that practices the way of living which enthrones God as King. Thus Jesus was able to refer to his own school of disciples as the Kingdom of Heaven. ↩
• ^[38] Jacob Lauterbach (trans.), Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2004). ↩
• ^[39] For a much fuller treatment of this theme in connection with Jesus' homily on worry see David Flusser, "Have You Ever Seen A Lion?" (above n. 29). ↩
• ^[40] Unless otherwise noted, all quotations from Aristeas are taken or adapted with minor alterations from Moses Hadas (trans.), Aristeas to Philocrates (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951). ↩
• ^[41] ‘Clothing’ translates the Greek noun σκέπη. Hadas translates σκέπη with ‘raiment’ while R. J. H. Shutt translates this word as ‘clothes’ (“Letter of Aristeas” Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (ed. James Charlesworth; New York: Doubleday, 1983) 2:22).
  The term σκέπη appears to have the basic meaning of ‘covering.’ Thus the LXX translation of Psalm 104 (105):39 reads, He spread out a cloud for a covering for them (διεπέτασεν νεφέλην εἰς σκέπην αὐτοῖς). Compare this with Job 37:8, The wild beasts come in under cover (εἰσῆλθεν δὲ θηρία ὑπὸ σκέπην). But the Greek term could also indicate clothing, as we see in Josephus’ account of Adam and Eve: “And now they became aware that they were naked and ashamed of such exposure…[they] bethought them of a covering (σκέπην),” (Ant. 1§44). Likewise, Philo defined the two kinds of σκέπη as clothing and housing (Contempl. §38). Σκεπάζω, the verbal form of the same root, means ‘to cover’, and the related term σκέπασμα refers ‘chiefly to clothing’ according to BDAG. This makes it all the more puzzling that BDAG defines σκέπη as “shade afforded by trees” citing our text from Aristeas as an example (W. Bauer, W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich, and F.W. Danker, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature [third edition; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000]: 927). See the comments of H. St. J. Thackeray, “Translation of the Letter of Aristeas” Jewish Quarterly Review 15 (1903): 366 n. 4; and Henry Meecham, The Letter of Aristeas: A Linguistic Study with Special Reference to the Greek Bible (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1935): 251. ↩
• ^[42] Adapted with minor alterations from the Revised Standard Version. ↩
• ^[43] Adapted with minor alterations from Judah Goldin (trans.), The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955). A parallel to this passage attributed to Rabbi Shimon b. Yohai may be found in Tanna Debe Eliyyahu Zuta chapter 16. ↩
• ^[44] The text here is difficult, cf. Goldin (above n. 3) Chapter 20 n. 4. My thanks to David Bivin with whom I consulted regarding the translation of this passage. ↩
• ^[45] Phil. 3:19, cf. Rom. 16:18. ↩
• ^[46] Josephus Ant. 12.4.1 § 157 mentions a high priest named Eleazar who was the brother of Simon the Just. E. Bickerman suggested that “it is probable that pseudo-Aristeas found the name of Eleazar as a High Priest under Ptolemy II in some Hasmonean source,” The Jews in the Greek Age (Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press, 1988): 144. ↩
• ^[47] See Hadas’ comments on §141 and 142. ↩