Texts in Conversation
Psalm 104 describes God making the winds his messengers. Rabbinic tradition in Ecclesiastes Rabbah quotes that as proof that angels travel by the wind, using that to interpret Ecclesiastes as referring to the angel of death.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalm 104:4
Hebrew Bible
2 He covers himself with light as if it were a garment. He stretches out the skies like a tent curtain 3 and lays the beams on water in his upper rooms3. He makes the clouds his chariot and travels on the wings of the wind. 4 He makes the winds his messengers and the flaming fire his attendant. 5 He established the earth on its foundations; it will never be moved.
Ecclesiastes Rabbah 8:8
Aggadah
Rabbinic
“There is no man who rules the spirit.” The Rabbis say: “There is no man who rules the spirit” of the angel of death, to prevent him from taking him. From where is it derived that angels are called spirits? As it is stated: “He makes his angels spirits” (Psalms 104:4).
Date: 700-950 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
“... In the following midrashic excerpt, death, before which man stands powerless, assumes angelic hypostasis. [...] The Rabbis saw an arcane connection between the “winds” and the celestial powers and used Ps 104:4 to corroborate their hermeneutical approach; according to the rabbinic exposition, God makes the “winds,” that is, the angels, his messengers. Apparently, the original meaning of Ps 104:4 has also been disregarded. The rabbinic necessity to present Qoheleth as speaking of the celestial powers and not of man’s indisposition before death dictated the change on the base meaning of both biblical verses and resulted in concealing another dark and hermeneutically “problematic” point of the book of Ecclesiastes. ...”
Kitsos, Michail
"Examples of Intertextuality in Ecclesiastes Rabbah: An Examination of the Book of Psalms in Ecclesiastes Rabbah with Methodological Nuances" in Dell, Katharine Julia, and Will Kynes (eds.) Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually
(pp. 278-279) Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.