The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

«Observe how the verdant trees are covered with leaves and they bear fruit.» — 1 Enoc 3, en la serie de exhortaciones a mirar la naturaleza, manda observar los árboles verdes cubiertos de hojas

«He will destroy the wicked ones* and censure x all flesh on account of everything that they have done, that which the sinners and the wicked ones committed against him.» — 1 Enoc 1:9 anuncia la venida del Señor a destruir a los impíos y a reprender a toda carne; el asterisco tras ones es la llamada de nota de Isaac, que el troceo pega a la palabra

«And again, examine the days of the summer, 3 how (the heat of) the sun b is upon (the earth) c and dominates her. d And as for you, you will crave 6 shade and shelter on account of the heat of the sun; and the earth shall burn with scorching heat, and you are not able to walk on the earth or on the rock on account of the heat.» — 1 Enoc 4 manda examinar los días del verano para sacar de ahí el argumento del orden invariable; las letras sueltas tras las palabras son llamadas de nota de Isaac pegadas por el troceo

«and the years of their happiness shall be multiplied forever in gladness and peace all the days of their life.» — 1 Enoc 5:9 promete a los elegidos años de felicidad multiplicados en alegría y paz

«In those days, when the children of man had multiplied, it happened that there Gen. 6.1^ 2 were born unto them handsome and beautiful daughters.» — 1 Enoc 6:1 abre el relato de los Vigilantes con el nacimiento de hijas hermosas entre los hombres; el tramo lleva dentro la referencia marginal a Génesis que el troceo intercala

«the angels, the children of heaven, saw them and desired them; and they said to one another, "Come, let us choose wives for ourselves from among the daughters 3 of man and beget us children.» — 1 Enoc 6:2 pone en boca de los ángeles, hijos del cielo, la decisión de tomar mujeres entre las hijas de los hombres

«And they taught them magical i f u l s ? 2 medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots, and taught them c (about) plants.» — 1 Enoc 7 enumera lo que los Vigilantes enseñaron a las mujeres: medicina mágica, encantamientos, el corte de raíces y las plantas; el troceo desarma la palabra que precede a medicine

«And they began to sin against birds, wild beasts, reptiles, and fish.» — 1 Enoc 7:5 lleva el pecado de los gigantes hasta las aves, las fieras, los reptiles y los peces

«#And to Gabriel the Lord said, "Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates and against the children of adultery; and destroy the children of adultery and expel the children of the Watchers from among the people.» — 1 Enoc 10:9 pone en boca del Señor la orden a Gabriel contra los bastardos y los hijos de los Vigilantes; el signo # al arranque es la marca de verso que el volumen imprime como punto

«#And all the children of the people will become righteous, and all nations shall worship and bless me; and they will all prostrate» — 1 Enoc 10:21 anuncia que todos los hijos del pueblo serán justos y que todas las naciones adorarán y bendecirán

«And the earth shall be cleansed from all pollution, and from all sin, and from all plague, and from all suffering; and it shall not happen again that I shall send (these) upon the earth» — 1 Enoc 10:22 promete la tierra limpia de toda contaminación y la promesa de no volver a enviar esos males

«And peace and truth shall become partners together* in all PSSS.IO; the days of the world, and in all the generations of the world.» — 1 Enoc 11:2 anuncia que la paz y la verdad se harán socias por todos los días del mundo; el tramo lleva dentro la referencia marginal a los Salmos de Salomón que el troceo intercala

«For their children delight in seeing the murder of their beloved ones.» — 1 Enoc 12, en el reproche a los Vigilantes, consigna que sus hijos se deleitan en ver la muerte de sus amados

«But they shall groan and beg forever over the destruction of their children, and there shall not be peace unto them even forever.» — 1 Enoc 12 les niega la paz incluso para siempre, y les deja el gemir y el rogar por la destrucción de sus hijos

«I saw in my sleep what I now speak with my tongue of flesh and the breath of the mouth which the Great One has given to man» — 1 Enoc 14:2 hace que Enoc declare el origen de lo que dice, visto en sueño y hablado con lengua de carne

«For what reason have you abandoned the high, holy, and eternal heaven; and slept with women and defiled yourselves with the daughters of the people» — 1 Enoc 15:3 pone en boca del Señor el reproche a los Vigilantes por haber abandonado el cielo y dormido con mujeres

«But now the giants who are born from the (union of) the spirits and the flesh shall be called evil spirits upon the earth» — 1 Enoc 15:8 declara que los gigantes nacidos de la unión de los espíritus y la carne serán llamados espíritus malignos sobre la tierra

«Evil spirits' have come out of their bodies. Because from the day that they were created from the holy ones they became the Watchers» — 1 Enoc 15:9 deriva los espíritus malignos de los cuerpos de los gigantes y remonta su origen a los santos que se hicieron Vigilantes

«dwelling of the spiritual beings of heaven is heaven; but the dwelling of the spirits of the earth, which are born upon the earth, is in the earth.» — 1 Enoc 15:10 reparte las moradas: la de los seres espirituales del cielo es el cielo y la de los espíritus nacidos en la tierra es la tierra

«You were (once) in heaven, but not all the mysteries (of heaven) are open to you, and you (only) know the rejected mysteries.» — 1 Enoc 16:3 dice a los Vigilantes que estuvieron en el cielo y que solo conocen los misterios rechazados

«#And he was wroth with them and bound them until the time of the completion of their sin in the year of mystery.» — 1 Enoc 18:16 consigna la ira contra los astros y su atadura hasta el tiempo del cumplimiento de su pecado

«c #(So) I, Enoch, I saw the vision of the end of everything alone; and none among human beings will see as I have seen.» — 1 Enoc 19:3 hace que Enoc declare que vio solo la visión del fin de todo y que ningún ser humano verá como él ha visto

«And I came to an empty place.» — 1 Enoc 21:1 consigna la llegada de Enoc a un lugar vacío

«"Enoch, why are you afraid like this?"? 10 (I answered and said),'' • "I am frightened because of this terrible place and the spectacle of this painful thing. " r And he said unto me, "This place is the prison house of the angels; they are detained here forever» — 1 Enoc 21:9 y 21:10 ponen en boca de Ura'el la pregunta y la identificación del lugar como casa-prisión de los ángeles; el volumen repite esta escena en otra plana y aquí se ancla en la primera

«These three have been made in order that the spirits of the dead might be separated.» — 1 Enoc 22:9 explica los tres lugares huecos como separación de los espíritus de los muertos

«Such has been made for the souls of the people who are not righteous, but sinners and perfect criminals;» — 1 Enoc 22:13 destina uno de esos lugares a las almas de los que no son justos, pecadores y criminales consumados

«This (thing) which you saw is the course (of the fire) and this/ the fire which is burning* in the direction of the west, is the luminaries of heaven.» — 1 Enoc 23:4 pone en boca de Raguel la identificación del fuego que corre hacia el occidente con las luminarias del cielo

«Then Michael, one of the holy and revered" angels—he is their chief—who was with me, responded to me.» — 1 Enoc 24:6 nombra a Miguel como jefe de los ángeles santos y venerados que acompañan a Enoc

«I blessed the God of Glory, the Eternal King, for he has prepared such things for the righteous people, as he had created (them) and given it to them.» — 1 Enoc 25:7 hace que Enoc bendiga al Dios de la Gloria por lo preparado para los justos

«#And I marveled at the mountain(s)° and I marveled at the valley(s): I marveled very deeply.» — 1 Enoc 26:6 consigna el asombro de Enoc ante los montes y los valles del recorrido

«There will be upon them the spectacle of the righteous judgment» — 1 Enoc 27:3 sitúa en ese valle maldito el espectáculo del juicio justo en los últimos días

«And when one picks* the fruit it gives the most pleasant odor.» — 1 Enoc 31, en el recorrido del oriente, consigna que el fruto de esos árboles da el olor más agradable

«It would have been better for them not to have been born.» — 1 Enoc 38:2, en la primera parábola, dice de los pecadores que más les valiera no haber nacido

«And in those days Enoch received the books of zeal and wrath as well as the books of haste and whirlwind.» — 1 Enoc 39:2 consigna que Enoc recibió los libros del celo y de la ira y los de la prisa y el torbellino

«and righteousness shall prevail in his days, and the righteous and elect ones shall be without number before him forever and ever.» — 1 Enoc 39:6 describe al Elegido de la justicia y de la fe, con los justos y elegidos sin número ante él

«and all the righteous and the elect before him shall be as intense' as the light of fire.» — 1 Enoc 39:7 dice de los justos y elegidos que serán ante el Señor de los Espíritus intensos como la luz del fuego

«There (underneath his wings) I wanted to dwell; and my soul desired that dwelling place.» — 1 Enoc 39:8 pone en boca de Enoc el deseo de morar bajo las alas del Señor de los Espíritus

«my face was changed on account of the fact that I could not withstand the sight.» — 1 Enoc 39:14 consigna el cambio del rostro de Enoc por no poder resistir la visión

«And there my eyes saw the secrets of lightning and thunder, and the mysteries of the winds, how they are distributed in order to blow upon the earth, and the secrets of the clouds and the dew I saw there from where they proceed in that place» — 1 Enoc 41:3 consigna entre los secretos vistos los del relámpago y el trueno y los misterios de los vientos

«Then Wisdom went out to dwell with the children of the people, but she found no dwelling place.» — 1 Enoc 42:2 narra que la Sabiduría salió a morar entre los hijos de los hombres y no halló morada

«The ancient Jewish and Jewish-Christian documents that are here called Pseudepigrapha have in their long history been both problematic and promising in both Jewish and Christian communities.» — George W. MacRae abre el primer Foreword del tomo 1 nombrando la doble condición que el conjunto ha tenido para las dos comunidades que lo transmitieron o lo dejaron caer

«The Epistle of Jude, in its strong antiheretical polemic, refers at least twice to the language of the book we call 1 Enoch and in a third instance quotes it in an authoritative manner as prophetic.» — MacRae señala el testimonio interno del Nuevo Testamento: la Epístola de Judas alude dos veces a 1 Enoc y en un tercer lugar lo cita como profecía

«The Second Epistle of Peter, generally regarded as the latest of the New Testament books, incorporates much of Jude into its second chapter, but it is very careful to excise all of the allusions to the Pseudepigrapha.» — MacRae contrapone la conducta de 2 Pedro, que incorpora buena parte de Judas y suprime justamente sus alusiones a los pseudoepígrafos

«The problem to which this situation points is that of the canonical status of the Pseudepigrapha in early Christianity—and the consequent propriety or impropriety of citing them in public documents.» — MacRae enuncia el problema que esa divergencia plantea, el del estatuto canónico de estos escritos en el cristianismo primitivo y la licitud de citarlos

«In the synagogue the problem did not persist so long, and the decision was clearly against the Pseudepigrapha.» — MacRae traza el desenlace distinto del lado judío, donde la decisión contra los pseudoepígrafos fue temprana y no se prolongó

«Whatever canonical decisions were taken by the official leadership, it is clear that in popular religious circles, especially Christian ones, this literature continued to be prominent and to influence thought and piety.» — MacRae distingue la decisión de las jerarquías de la circulación efectiva: en los círculos populares, sobre todo cristianos, esta literatura siguió pesando en el pensamiento y en la piedad

«But perhaps even more important than such a largely accidental factor as manuscript discoveries has been the ever increasing acceptance of historical-critical method on the part of students of the Bible at all levels.» — MacRae pone el método histórico-crítico por delante de los hallazgos manuscritos como causa del renovado interés académico

«Thus it affords a rich insight into the creative religious imagination from a singularly important formative period in Western religious culture.» — MacRae califica la ganancia de esta edición por ser inclusiva y no selectiva, y la presenta como acceso a la imaginación religiosa de un periodo formativo

«Dr. James Moffatt sums up Manasseh, that royal rake, in a few simple words: "He did ample evil in the sight of the eternal to vex him" (2Chr 33:6).» — James T. Cleland, en el Foreword for Christians, cita a James Moffatt sobre Manasés; la cita bíblica entre comillas dobles es de Moffatt y la reproduce Cleland

«The God who forgave is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, the God of Jew and Christian alike.» — Cleland deriva de la Oración de Manasés su tesis de lectura, que el Dios que perdona es el mismo para el judío y para el cristiano

«We are both children of the Kingdom, and the Pseudepigrapha may become a bridge between the Old and New testaments, helping us cross to and fro, back and forth, until we are equally at home in both, to our mental satisfaction, and our spiritual growth in grace.» — Cleland propone la función que le da al conjunto desde el púlpito, la de puente entre los dos testamentos

«The point is that there is no such thing as a "canon" of the Pseudepigrapha.» — Samuel Sandmel, en el Foreword for Jews, niega que exista nada parecido a un canon de los pseudoepígrafos

«By and large it has been Christians who have done the painstaking work of gathering this material, comparing the various manuscripts, producing critical editions, and providing translations into modern languages.» — Sandmel consigna de quién ha sido el trabajo de recoger y cotejar este material, y lo atribuye en su mayor parte a estudiosos cristianos

«I do not think it is wrong to say that much of the Christian interest in the Pseudepigrapha in the early nineteenth century was based on the light this literature was deemed to throw on early Christianity.» — Sandmel declara el interés que a su juicio movió a la erudición cristiana del siglo XIX sobre estos textos

«Even more to be deplored was the circumstance that there were Christian scholars who seemed to feel the need to choose, as it were, between the Pseudepigrapha on the one hand and the rabbinic literature on the other hand, and who, on the basis of only part of the total Jewish literary productivity, came to some occasionally quixotic or reckless or even partisan conclusions about the nature of Judaism at the time of the birth of Christianity.» — Sandmel objeta la conducta de los estudiosos cristianos que buscaban en esta literatura el contraste desfavorable con el cristianismo, y nombra a R. H. Charles al hacerlo

«A complete turnaround in the approach to the Pseudepigrapha in the last decades has been most gratifying.» — Sandmel afirma el vuelco de las últimas décadas en el modo de acercarse a estos escritos

«It should be said that the relevancy of the Pseudepigrapha to early Christianity is not in any way diminished by the recent admirable mode of the study of Pseudepigrapha.» — Sandmel acota que el valor de los pseudoepígrafos para el cristianismo primitivo no mengua por estudiarlos en sí mismos

«The cooperative study enlisting the gifted minds of Christians of various denominations and Jews of varying backgrounds is surely as moving and exciting a development as any cooperative academic venture could be.» — Sandmel describe la composición del equipo que firma el volumen, con cristianos de varias denominaciones y judíos de formaciones distintas

«I do not think that the modern student needs to admire every example of the Pseudepigrapha, any more than we today need to regard every novel as a masterpiece.» — Sandmel enuncia su reserva de lector, que no hace falta admirar cada pieza de esta literatura

«At the outset it is wise to stress three caveats for the general reader:» — Charlesworth anuncia en el Editor's Preface las tres advertencias que antepone para el lector general

«The expanded definition of the Pseudepigrapha, now universally recognized as necessary by scholars, represents a more extended historical period than Charles's selection of writings; hence it must not be used prima facie as a group of writings representative of Early Judaism.» — Charlesworth sostiene que la definición ampliada de los pseudoepígrafos abarca un periodo más extenso que la selección de Charles, y advierte contra tomarla sin más por representativa del judaísmo temprano

«Conversely, late writings must not be ignored in a search for ideas possibly characteristic of Early Judaism; these documents frequently preserve edited portions of early Jewish writings.» — Charlesworth añade el reverso de esa advertencia, que los escritos tardíos conservan a menudo porciones editadas de escritos judíos antiguos

«Because it is a widely used term today, we have decided to retain the technical term "Pseudepigrapha"; it is explained in the following Introduction.» — Charlesworth declara por qué conserva el término técnico que da título al volumen

«Original Language. The translator briefly discusses the original language of the document, reviews published scholarly conclusions, and usually advocates one possibility.» — Charlesworth describe el apartado Original Language del formato común, donde cada traductor discute la lengua del original y suele inclinarse por una

«Date. The contributor assesses the debates (if any) over the date of the original composition, explains, if appropriate, the dates of any subsequent expansions or interpolations, and then presents his or her own scholarly opinion.» — Charlesworth describe el apartado Date, donde el contribuyente sopesa los debates sobre la fecha y termina dando su propia opinión

«Relation to Canonical Books. The expert assesses the possible relationships between the pseudepigraphon and writings now customarily judged canonical.» — Charlesworth describe el apartado Relation to Canonical Books, donde cada experto sopesa la relación del pseudoepígrafo con los escritos hoy tenidos por canónicos

«An alphabetical listing is confusing, however, because some of the documents collected below are known by more than one title, some may be listed alphabetically according to more than one word in the title, and—most importantly— an alphabetical order is artificial and does not signal the relationships between documents that are related.» — Charlesworth objeta el orden alfabético por tres razones que enumera, entre ellas que varios documentos se conocen por más de un título

«In the past scholars often felt free to emend a text and to aim at a loose idiomatic translation (although Charles himself was a literalist).» — Charlesworth traza el cambio de costumbre en la traducción y anota entre paréntesis que Charles mismo era literalista

«While we have aimed whenever possible at an idiomatic rendering, we have avoided the temptation to paraphrase the meaning of a complicated passage or to conceal sometimes confusing readings behind elegant English prose.» — Charlesworth fija el criterio de traducción del volumen, que renuncia a parafrasear el pasaje difícil o a esconder la lectura confusa tras una prosa elegante

«I am indebted to the editors and staff at Doubleday, to my Board of Advisors, to the external readers, notably H. D. Betz, I. Gruenwald, J. Neusner, J. F. Oates, B. Schaller, J. L. Sharpe III, J. F. Strange, N. Turner, J. C. VanderKam, and F. W. Young, who have labored over many of these contributions, and to the contributors, who had to live for a long time with a frequently stern and demanding editor.» — Charlesworth nombra en los agradecimientos a la editorial y al consejo que acompañaron el trabajo

«Western culture has been largely shaped by a unique collection of ancient books: the Bible.» — Charlesworth abre la Introduction for the General Reader situando la Biblia como el conjunto que dio forma a la cultura de Occidente

«We know so little about these sources that we cannot be certain of the extent to which they were actual documents.» — Charlesworth traza la premisa de la búsqueda de escritos perdidos, que los autores bíblicos dependieron de fuentes que ya no existen y de las que no se sabe siquiera si fueron documentos

«One of these lists is a catalogue, perhaps from the sixth century, falsely attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373).» — Charlesworth data y atribuye la primera de las listas antiguas de libros extracanónicos, y dice de ella misma que es un pseudoepígrafe: un catálogo falsamente puesto bajo el nombre de Atanasio de Alejandría

«The present edition of the Pseudepigrapha reflects the search for lost writings.» — Charlesworth declara qué principio organiza la edición frente a las listas antiguas

«Many documents, recently discovered in the Near East or recognized in distinguished libraries, are translated here into English for the first time.» — Charlesworth consigna que varios de los documentos del volumen se vierten al inglés por primera vez

«Not including the documents placed in the Supplement, the writings now available for the first time in English are the Testament of Adam,» — Charlesworth enumera los escritos que aparecen por primera vez en inglés fuera del Supplement

«When R. H. Charles published his edition of the Pseudepigrapha there was widespread agreement that the Hebrew canon, the Old Testament, was fixed finally at Jamnia around A.D. 90.» — Charlesworth traza el desplazamiento del consenso sobre el cierre del canon hebreo desde la edición de R. H. Charles

«The New Testament canon was not closed in the Latin Church until much later; certainly not before the late fourth century and long after Constantine the Great established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.» — Charlesworth data el cierre del canon del Nuevo Testamento en la Iglesia latina y lo sitúa después de Constantino

«Even in America today there are different canons among the various Christian communions: for example, Protestants exclude from the canon the Apocrypha, the additional books in the Greek Old Testament; the Roman Catholics, following the edicts of the Council of Trent in 1546, include them as deuterocanonical.» — Charlesworth consigna que hoy conviven canones distintos entre las confesiones cristianas, con los deuterocanónicos dentro o fuera según Trento

«For our present purposes it is wise to add to the above insights the recognition that many authors of pseudepigrapha believed they were recording God's infallible words.» — Charlesworth enuncia el dato que a su juicio importa para leer estos escritos, que muchos de sus autores creían estar registrando palabras infalibles de Dios