Texts in Conversation
1 Clement and the Aramaic translation of Numbers in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan both follow a Jewish interpretive tradition where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were not just rebellious but deliberate instigators of division who became archetypal false teachers.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 51:3
First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
Early Christian
2 For those who live in fear and love would rather suffer themselves than have their neighbors suffer; and they pronounce condemnation on themselves rather than on the harmony that has been handed down to us nobly and righteously. 3 For it is good for a man to confess his trespasses rather than to harden his heart, as the hearts of those who rebelled against Moses the servant of God were hardened; their condemnation was made plain. 4 for they went down to Hades alive, and Death shall be their shepherd. 5 Pharaoh and his army and all the rulers of Egypt, their chariots and their horsemen, were overwhelmed in the depths of the Red Sea and perished for no other reason than that their foolish hearts were hardened after the signs and the wonders had been performed in the land of Egypt by the hand of Moses the servant of God.
Pseudo Jonathan Numbers 26:9
Targum
These are the families of Reuben, and their numbers were forty‑three thousand seven hundred and thirty. And the sons of Phallu Eliab; the sons of Eliab, Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. The same were Dathan and Abiram who brought together the congregation that gathered and made the division against Mosheh and Aharon in the congregation of Korach, when they gathered together and made division against the Lord, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them and Korach, when the congrergation of the wicked died, when the fire devoured the two hundred and fifty men, and they were made an example. But the sons of Korach were not in the counsel of their father, but followed the doctrine of Mosheh the prophet; and therefore they died not by the plague, nor were smitten by the fire, nor engulphed in the yawning of the earth. The Beni Shemeon, Nemuel, Jamin, Jakin, Zerach, Shaul, with their families, twenty‑two thousand two hundred.
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Notes and References
"... It should also be noticed that the Targums (Neofiti Numbers 16:1; 26:9; Pseudo-Jonathan Numbers 26:9) say that Korah, Dathan and Abiram “made a schism” (literally “divided,”; perhaps compare 4QpNah 4:1). This characterization of them as schismatic is also reflected in 1 Clement 51:1–4, which compares those “who set themselves up as leaders of rebellion and dissension” with Korah and his fellows, who rebelled against Moses (compare also 1 Clement 4:12). The implication of Numbers 16:2, that Korah, with Dathan, Abiram, and On, was responsible for inciting others to rebel, is strengthened by Numbers Rabbah 18:2, which interprets “took men” to mean that Korah “drew their hearts with persuasive words” (compare Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4.15–21). Korah was therefore a natural type for heretical teachers, and 2 Timothy 2:19 (along with 1 Clement 51:1–4) suggests that Jude was not the only early Christian writer to apply this type to false teachers within the church. The allusive character of the reference in 2 Timothy 2:19 (quoting Numbers 16:5) suggests a well-established tradition ..."
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