G — Biblically Based Apocryphal Works

An Aramaic Apocalypse (4Q246)

1Surnamed the 'Son of God fragment', 4Q246, with its intriguing phrases 'son of God' and 'son of the Most High', recalling Luke i, 32, 35, has been in the centre of learned and popular speculation. On palaeographical grounds the script is dated to the final decades of the first century BCE. Four competing interpretations of the 'son of God' figure have been proposed: the title is to be associated with the Seleucid ruler, Alexander Balas (J. T. Milik); it designates a Jewish, possibly Hasmonaean, king, with a possible 'messianic undertone' in the use of 'son of God' (J. A. Fitzmyer); the Antichrist (D. Flusser); still apocalyptically, but in a positive sense, F. García Martínez argued in favour of an angelic identity, the 'son of God' is either the heavenly Melchizedek or Michael, the Prince of Light. The editor has decided to sit on the fence and applies the title to either the future Davidic Messiah or a historical Seleucid pretender. The overall message of the fragment recalls the apocalyptic section of the Book of Daniel. A Daniel-like person, referred to in column 1, is to explain to a king seated on a throne a vision or dream alluding to wars involving Assyria and Egypt, and the arrival of a final ruler, served by all, and called by them, or designating himself, 'son of God'. But the triumph of peace is not attributed to him - his reign is rather characterized by internecine struggle between nations and provinces - but to the Great God, helping 'the people of God' (cf. Dan. vii, 22, 29), whose dominion over mankind is declared eternal (cf. Dan. vii, 14) and free from the sword. Relying mainly on the evidence of the existing text, rather than on hypothetical reconstructions of missing passages, I see in the 'son of God' of 4Q246 neither Flusser's Antichrist, nor the straight historical individual of the Milik-Puech variety, but the last historico-apocalyptic

2sovereign of the ultimate world empire who, like his model, Antiochus Epiphanes in Dan. xi, 36-7, is expected to proclaim himself and be worshipped as a god (see JJS 43, 1992, 301-3). For the editioprinceps,see E. Puech, DJD, XXII, 165-84. I ... [the spirit of God] dwelt on him, he fell down before the throne ... O [K]ing, you are angry for ever and your years ... your vision and all. For ever you ... [the gre]at ones. An oppression will come to the earth ... a great massacre in the provinces ... the king of Assyria [and E]gypt ... he will be great on earth ... will make and all will serve ... he will be called (or: call himself) [gran]d ... and by his name he will be designated (or: designate himself). II The son of God he will be proclaimed (or: proclaim himself) and the son of the Most High they will call him. Like the sparks of the vision, so will be their kingdom. They will reign for years on the earth and they will trample all. People will trample people (cf. Dan. vii, 23) and one province another province vacat until the people of God will arise and all will rest from the sword. Their (the people of God's) kingdom will be an eternal kingdom (cf. Dan. vii, 27) and all their path will be in truth. They will jud[ge] the earth in truth and all will make peace. The sword will cease from the earth, and all the provinces will pay homage to them. The Great God (cf. Dan. ii, 45) is their helper. He will wage war for them. He will give peoples into their hands and all of them (the peoples) He will cast before them (the people of God). Their dominion will be an eternal dominion (Dan. vii, 14) and all the boundaries of...