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In Numbers 15, God commands Israel to wear tassels as a reminder to obey the law. Pseudo-Philo turns this command into the cause of Korah’s rebellion, with the rebels complaining that the law is too hard to bear.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 15:38
Hebrew Bible
37 The Lord spoke to Moses: 38 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them to make tassels for themselves on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and put a blue thread on the tassel of the corners. 39 You must have this tassel so that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and obey them and so that you do not follow after your own heart and your own eyes that lead you to unfaithfulness. 40 Thus you will remember and obey all my commandments and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”
Pseudo Philo Biblical Antiquities 16:1
Classical
1 At that time he gave him commandment concerning the fringes; and then Korah rebelled, and 200 men with him, and they said, “What if a law we cannot bear has been ordained for us?” 2 God was angry and said, “I commanded the earth, and it gave me man; and to him were born at first two sons. The elder rose up and killed the younger, and the earth hurried and swallowed his blood. But I drove out Cain and cursed the earth and said to Sion, ‘You shall no longer swallow up blood.’ And now the thoughts of men are greatly polluted. 3 “I will command the earth, and it will swallow up body and soul together, and their dwelling will be in darkness and destruction; and they will not die but will waste away until I remember the world and renew the earth. Then they will die and not live, and their life will be taken away from the number of all men; nor will Hell vomit them up again, and destruction will not remember them, and their departure will be like that of the tribes of the nations of whom I said, ‘I will not remember them,’ that is, the camp of the Egyptians and the people I destroyed with the water of the flood. The earth will swallow them, and I will do no more to them.”
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Notes and References
“... Pseudo-Philo often creates new connections and transitions. He seems to assume that the sequence of the biblical narrative implies a cause and effect relationship (an assumption that frequently lies behind rabbinic exegesis). Therefore, when the biblical narrative, in his view, seems to lack transition, Pseudo-Philo will supply the missing link. For example, since the law of tassels in Num. 15.37-41 immediately precedes the story of Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 16, LAB 16.1 explains that the rebellion was occasioned by the law of the tassels. The stories of the building of the tower of Babel (Gen. 11) and God’s call of Abram (Gen. 12) are linked in LAB 6–7. ...”
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. 187) 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.
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