Texts in Conversation
Genesis 6 gives humanity 120 years in a warning before the flood. Pseudo-Philo quotes this warning in a promise about Moses, treating the number as a prediction of the length of his life.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 6:3
Hebrew Bible
1 When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. 3 So the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God would sleep with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.
Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 9:8
Classical
7 The thought that Amram had in his heart was pleasing before God, and God said, “Because the thought of Amram is pleasing before me, and he has not set aside the covenant made between me and his fathers, the one born of him will serve me forever, and through him I will do wonders in the house of Jacob, and will do signs and wonders by him for my people such as I have done for no one else, and I will work my glory in them and declare to them my ways. 8 “I the Lord will kindle my lamp for him to dwell in him, and will show him my covenant that no one has seen, and reveal to him my great excellence, my justice, and my judgments, and I will shine a perpetual light for him. For in ancient days I thought of him, saying, ‘My spirit will not be a mediator among these men forever, for they are flesh, and their days will be 120 years.’”
Search:
Notes and References
“... Pseudo-Philo views early biblical material as prophetic in nature and often shows how this material was fulfilled in the later biblical narrative. For example, setting the human lifespan at 120 years (Gen. 6.3) is fulfilled in the length of Moses’ life (LAB 9.8; Deut. 34.7), while making the golden calf (Exod. 32) fulfills God’s predictions in Gen. 11.6 that humans will go from bad to worse (LAB 12.3). Bauckham believes that at many points Pseudo-Philo’s retelling of biblical history parallels the manner in which the Matthean and Lukan evangelists retell the Jesus story as they find it in the Gospel of Mark and in other traditions. ...”
Evans, Craig A.
"Luke and the Rewritten Bible: Aspects of Lukan Hagiography" in Charlesworth, James H., and Craig A. Evans (eds.) The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation
(p. 189) JSOT Press, 1993
* 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.
User Comments
,