The
Vision of Jacob
4QAJa=4Q537
Paraphrase
and comments by Carol Hei
Introduction:
The text 4QAJa
(4Q537) is completed by Emile Puech in 1991[1]. It is believed to be the
one more copy of 4QtestLévi, corresponding to TestLéTviGr19:1[2]. The
first fragment is the continuity of Jacob's first vision described in Genesis
28:10-19[3] in the Bible after he set up a stone and poured out a
libation upon it. In this second vision, God confirms his Covenant[4]
with Jacob by promising him blessing and righteous. In return, Jacob accepts
God as the only God. He also voluntarily adds two conditions to the agreement.
First, he promises that he will give one tenth of what he earns back to God[5].
Second, he affirms that the stone, which he established, will serve as the
foundation for a sanctuary to God, to be built upon his return. Fragment 1 also
foretells that Bethel was not the place God ultimately chose for his Temple,
which indicated in the extrabiblical book Jubilees.
In fragment 2,
the text reveals an eschatological figure of the High Priest of the messianic
era who makes the expiation for the people. His mission is to be a suffering
servant to encounter human's sins. In order to do so, the priest need to
suffer, die, (or even be crucified, if Puech's interpretation of certain
problematic terms is correct). All of these are alluded in the text, however,
they are supposed to have been made in the end of the second century BCE.
Paraphrase:
4Q537
Frag.1
[Then I had a
vision at night. An angel of God came down from heaven with seven tablets in
his hand. He told me, "God Most High has blessed you, and] 1 your later
generations[6]. All just and upright men will survive [...and no more] 2
evil [will be done]; lying should not be found among [...] 3 Now, take the
tablets and read everything [that is written on them." So I took the
tablets and read. There were written all my sufferings,] 4 troubles and
everything that would happen to me [during the one hundred and forty seven]
years of my life. [Then he told me," Take] this tablet." [...] 5 [So]
I took that tabl