The Colloquy of Moses on Mount Sinai: Where Syriac Christianity Meets Islamic Spain and Africa between the 16th and 19th Cent.
Karla R.
Suomala
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n2suomala
Karla R. Suomala
The Colloquy of Moses on Mount Sinai: Where Syriac Christianity Meets Islamic Spain and Africa between the 16th and 19th Cent.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N2Suomala.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
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Syriac Studies
Moses
Torah
Colloquy
Ge’ez
Swahili
aljamiado
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In 1891, Isaac Hall published a Syriac
dialogue that blends elements of Exod 19-34 in which Moses
ascends Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah, and spends 40 days and
nights with God. This dialogue between God and Moses
incorporates legal and ethical issues, as well as explores
issues of God’s origin and nature. The text seems to have
no other counterparts in Syriac literature, but has parallels
in four other manuscript traditions: 1) Arabic Christian,
2) Ethiopian Christian and Falasha, 3) East African Muslim, and
4) Spanish Muslim. This paper will explore those parallels, and
investigate the possibility of a common source.
[1] During
the course of my dissertation research on Moses and God in
dialogue in post-biblical literature,
K. Suomala, Moses and God in Dialogue: Exodus
32-34 in Postbiblical Literature, forthcoming from Peter
Lang (2004).
I came upon a Syriac
dialogue, “The Colloquy of Moses on Mount Sinai,”
published by Isaac Hall.
I. Hall, “The Colloquy of Moses on Mount
Sinai,” Hebraica 7:3 (1891), 161-177. For the
most recent bibliographical information on this manuscript
tradition, see A. M. Denis, Introduction à la
littérature religieuse
judéo-hellénisitque I (Turnhout: Brepols,
2000), 467-468, and J.-C. Haelewyck, Clavis apocryphum
veteris testamenti (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), 94-95.
The dialogue is set on Mt. Sinai
and is loosely based on Exod 19-34. In this dialogue between
Moses and God, Moses asks rather simple, straightforward
questions. To each of the questions, God provides a response.
Hall could not provide a date or setting for the text, although
he speculated that it might have some connection to the
Nestorian liturgical tradition. He notes that the text he
received from a contact in Urmia in 1889 was part of a
manuscript that also contained “The Story of Arsenius
King of Egypt.” This manuscript, along with two others
that contain “The Colloquy”, is held by the
Houghton Library at Harvard University.
A. Desreumaux, “Un manuscript syriaque de
Téhéran contenant des apocryphes,” in
Apocrypha. Revue International des Littérature
Apocryphes 5 (1994), 137-164, describes a Syriac ms in the
Issayi 18 collection, and M.H. Goshen-Gottstein, Syriac
Manuscripts in the Harvard College Library: A Catalogue,
Harvard Semitic Studies 23 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. 1979),
lists syr. 89, syr. 90, and syr. 166, the last being the
ms to which Hall referred.
[2] As part
of his description of “The Colloquy”, Hall points
to the close connection between the Syriac and Arabic Christian
manuscript tradition by noting the existence of three
additional Karshuni versions.
I. Hall, 161-162.
Graf demonstrates that “The
Colloquy” is in fact well attested in Christian Arabic
traditions, particularly Karshuni, and he suggests that the
material in these manuscripts has Syriac origins.
G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen
Literatur I, Studi e Testi 118 (Vatican City:
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944), 207-208, provides a full
listing of Arabic Christian manuscripts. See also G.
Troupeau, Catalogue des manuscrits arabes
chrétiens I (Paris: Biliotheque nationale, 1972),
mss 213, 275, 286, 5072.
Most of the mss
in this group are dated to the 16th and
17th centuries although there are at least four can
be dated to the 15th century. One of the mss is
dated as late as the 19th century.
[3] The
Syriac “Colloquy”, with respect to both form and
content has no clear parallels within the Syriac literary
tradition,
S. P. Brock examines Moses traditions and their
origins in Syriac literature up through the Middle Ages
in “Some Syriac Legends Concerning Moses,”
Journal of Jewish Studies 33 (Spr-Aut 1982), 237-255.
There are no dialogues between God and Moses that appear in
among these legends. In addition, there are no parallels
in Brock’s examination of Syriac dispute poems or
dialogue hymns, both of which are more stylized in
form. See S. P. Brock, “Dialogue hymns of the Syriac
Churches,” Sobernost 5 (1983), 35-45, and
“Syriac dispute-poems: the various types,” in
Dispute Poems and Dialogues, Orientalia Lovaniensia
Analecta 42, ed. G. Reinink and H. Vanstiphout (Leuven:
Department Orientalistiek, 1991), 109-19.
the wider Christian tradition,
The Arabic Christian manuscripts do not really
present us with a parallel or a separate traditionin that they
are so closely connected to the Syriac “Colloquy”
and may in fact be based upon the Syriac.
or even the
classical Islamic tradition. At first glance, it would appear
that there are parallels between “The Colloquy” and
the numerous dialogues between Moses and God in rabbinic
literature. However, upon closer examination, aside from the
dialogue form, the content and the style of “The
Colloquy” does not correspond to any of the rabbinic
dialogues.
K. Suomala, 91-153.
[4] Is this
text simply an anomaly? How can we account for it, given the
lack of precedent in Jewish, Christian and Muslim literature?
Interestingly, there are parallels, but not necessarily where
one might expect to find them. In addition to the Syriac
Christian manuscripts (including those in Arabic), dialogue
texts with similar content and structure are found among: 1)
Ethiopian Christians and Jews (Falashas), 2) Muslims of
Mozambique (or perhaps Kenya), and 3) Spanish Muslims.
[5] Steven
Kaplan has recently connected this Syriac text to both the
Ethiopian Christian as well as Falasha traditions. He has
published a translation of the Ge’ez version, Nagara
Muse, of this dialogue, part of the Falasha corpus of
literature which was received from the Ethiopian church with
very few revisions.
S. Kaplan, Les Falashas (Turnhout,
Belgium: Brepols, 1990), 97-105.
There are at least four
manuscripts—three in the Faitlovich collection, and one
in a private collection. The manuscripts include dates: two of
them contain the years 1757/58 and one records 1754/55.
[6] Another
dialogue that appears connected to this group also originates
in Africa. The Swahili Epic of Moses (Utenzi wa Musa)
is considered among the first literary works discovered in
northern Mozambique. Tentatively dated to the late nineteenth
century, the text may have been written in Kenya. It is fairly
close in length to the Syriac and Ge’ez texts, about 330
stanzas, and is written in the Utenzi poetic form. One of the
three versions of this text found in a copy book by discovered
by Prof. Eugeniusz Rzewuski of Warsaw University was translated
by Jan Knappert.
J. Knappert, “Ritual and Creed in
Moses’ Conversation with God,” in Windows on
the House of Islam, ed. J. Renard (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1998), 78-84.
[7] Not
finding specific precursors in either the Christian or Jewish
literary traditions, I turned to Islamic biblical legend and
commentary. As it turns out, there is a rather substantial
manuscript tradition of dialogue texts involving Moses and God
in sixteenth century Spain. These texts form part of the body
of aljamiado and morisco
literature—material written or transmitted by Spanish
Muslims in Spanish with Arabic characters. The
aljamiado period really only lasted for little more
than a century, concluding in 1609, at which point a large
portion of the population fled Spain for North Africa. These
dialogues are dated not later than 1609, when the last of the
Moriscos fled Spain. In these manuscripts there are
direct parallels to the Syriac, Ge’ez, and Swahili
dialogues—both in form and in content—although
theologically they are closer to the Swahili text. There are
three manuscripts at la Real Academia de la Historia in Spain
that contain these dialogues—Gay. T. 19, 8, and
13.
A. Vespertino Rodríguez, Leyendas
Aljamiadas y Moriscas sobre Personajes Bíblicos
(Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1983).
[8] These
dialogue texts are linked by form and content. The question and
answer format or what in linguistic terms is called an
adjacency pair (a completed verbal unit, i.e., a question and
its answer, a request and its performance, a statement and a
response) dominates each dialogue. In these dialogues, the
central conversation partners are God and Moses, although
characters such as Iblis and angels also make appearances and
contribute to the dialogues.
[9] With
respect to content, the questions that Moses asks fall into
three categories: 1) those that pertain to ethical, moral, and
ritual issues, 2) those that reflect a desire to know more
about the nature and origin of the Divine, and 3) those that
pertain to final judgment and redemption. In the first
category, each of the texts, to differing degrees, emphasizes
care for the poor and the orphans, proper treatment of parents,
burial rites and responsibilities, consistent prayer, avoiding
anger, slander, oppression, bringing about peace, and honoring
the neighbor. An example of concern about proper ritual occurs
in each text when Moses asks God about a reward for the person
who digs a grave:
Syriac
And Moses … said, “He that digs the grave of a
departed brother believer, what is his reward? And God said
to him, I will clothe him with a robe of the light of my
divinity, and I will pardon him [his] sins.
I. Hall, 172.
Ge’ez
[Moses asks] What will you give to the one who digs a grave
for his brother in the faith? [God responds] I will write his
name in the Book of Life with the prophets the apostles, the
martyrs and the saints.
Clear allusion to the Christian base text,
presumably the Syriac, of this dialogue.
And I will place him in the
Garden [paradise]…
S. Kaplan, 99 (translation is mine).
Swahili
The digger of graves will live in heaven. The one who buries
his mother with love will live in a palace in
paradise.
J. Knappert, 81.
aljamiado
[Moses asks] What will the reward be for the one who buries
the deceased? [Allah responds] I will prepare for him a
palace in paradise.
A. Vespertino Rodríguez, 215-216.
[10] The
general pattern found in these examples is one where Moses
inquires as to the reward for a particular behavior (in other
cases, he asks about the punishment), and God generally
responds with a specific compensation—sometimes in this
world, sometimes in the hereafter, and occasionally in both.
The questions are short, and God’s responses are
equivalent in length, if not slightly longer. In the texts
above, the only text that does not indicate Moses’
question is the Swahili, which tends to have fewer questions
from Moses and longer monologues on God’s part covering a
wider area of issues. It appears as if Moses’ questions
are implied in the Swahili text, and the material takes on the
character of a summary of the conversation between God and
Moses.
[11] Very
frequently in the four textual traditions under examination,
the rewards and punishments are similar. For example, the only
text above which does not specify paradise as part of the
reward is the Syriac, but it does indicate “a robe of the
light of my divinity.”
I. Hall, 172.
A typical example of where the
four traditions do agree on rewards is when Moses wants to know
what the one who walks with or carries the bier of the dead
will receive. In each text, either sins or debts or both will
be forgiven.
[12] A
further ritual concern has to do with prayer. Interestingly,
the Syriac and Ge’ez texts include rewards for those who
pray at all of the appointed times throughout the day—in
the evening, during the night when people sleep, before dawn,
and at the third, sixth and ninth hours. The aljamiado
and Swahili texts aren’t as specific, for example:
aljamiado
[God asks] Moses, do you want me to hear and respond to your
prayers? [Moses] said, Yes, Lord. [God responds] Then pray at
night when people sleep.
A. Vespertino Rodríguez, 188-189.
Swahili
[God says] Make your prayers numerous at every hour.
J. Knappert, 80.
The aljamiado texts indicate other times for prayer
throughout the day, corresponding to Islamic practice, although
they are not every three hours as found in the Syriac and
Ge’ez texts, which reflect Christian practice.
Apparently the Falasha community did not
adjust the prayer times, even though they considered themselves
practicing Jews. It may be that because there is such overlap
between Christian and Jewish practice in Ethiopia, the Falashas
saw no need to make changes.
[13]
Concern for the ‘other’ is a key theme in all of
these texts; whether it be parents, neighbors. widows, orphans,
the hungry, the poor, a large part of the conversation between
God and Moses has to do with these groups of people and their
proper treatment. Each of the texts under study is very
explicit, and some of them add significant detail in
differentiating between these groups. A poor person, for
example, might not have money, or clothing, food or shelter, or
even friends. The Swahili text, though perhaps the least
expansive, provides a good summary of the content found in each
of the texts. Here God tells Moses to “respect your
neighbor, be generous to the poor and to the orphans, and live
in peace with all people,” indicating proper behavior,
and then concludes with positive reinforcement, “I will
reward you later.”
J. Knappert, 84.
[14] The
second category of questions reflects Moses’ desire to
know more about the nature and origin of the Divine. For
example, in each tradition Moses wants to be able to see God,
very much like Exod 33:18-20, where Moses says
“‘Show me your glory, I pray.’ And he said,
‘I will make all my goodness pass before you…
But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face; for no one
shall see me and live.’” In the aljamiado
texts, Iblis actually tempts Moses to ask this question.
Syriac
[Moses says] I beg you that I might see you with my eyes?
[God responds] You are not able to see me, Moses. [Moses
persists, saying] If I see you, I will tell the children of
Israel that I have seen God, and I will speak the truth with
them. [God commands] Arise, pray, O Moses.
I. Hall, 176.
Ge’ez
[Moses says] O Lord, can I see you with my eyes? [God
responds] O Moses, I will let you see me so that you can
justly say that you have seen God who is above the water.
Moses pray and demand to see me.
S. Kaplan, 104.
Swahili
[Moses says] My Lord! I wish to see you! [The narrator
explains that] Moses saw what seemed like a valley of bright
light. He fainted again… he heard hundreds of angels
calling him: Moses! You have sinned! The Lord cannot be seen!
And Moses felt as if the mountains were crumbling and the
earth was sinking away.
J. Knappert, 79.
aljamiado
[Moses says] Now show me yourself so that I might see you.
[Allah responds]… O Moses, son of Imran, you have
asked for a mighty thing… O Moses, you cannot see
me.
A. Vespertino Rodríguez, 170.
[Moses says] O my Lord, let me see your face.… [Allah
responds] O Moses you cannot see me. [Moses persists] My
Lord, as I hear your word [voice?] let me see your face
because my community doubts.
Ibid, 197.
[15] The
Swahili and aljamiado texts indicate that as a result
of this request, the earth quakes and Moses faints for up to
three days, at which point he is revived by God and his senses
are restored. At the outset, God tells Moses in the Syriac, the
Swahili and the aljamiado texts that this request
cannot be granted. In the Syriac text, however, God finally
allows Moses a glimpse of heaven, and in the aljamiado
text, Moses faints when he sees a glimpse of God’s
grandeur. In the Ge’ez text, Moses sees God’s
presence but cannot perceive what is before him.
[16]
Following this line of questioning, Moses also asks God in each
of the texts where God lives or where God is, and where God was
prior to the creation of the universe. The Syriac, Ge’ez,
and aljamiado texts all have a similar progression of
questions and answers: 1) Lord, are you near or far? God
responds by saying that God is both above and below everything,
and that God dwells in every place; 2) What is your clothing
and your food? God responds variously; in the Syriac, for
example, God says that the tears of sinners are food, and the
praises of angels and the repentance of humans is clothing; 3)
How did you exist before you created heaven and earth? God says
that God resided with the holy throne; 4) What kind of throne
was it? Where were you before the throne? Who was bearing the
throne? Again, God answers these questions to various degrees
in the dialogue texts. 5) O Lord, do you sleep? In each text we
learn that God does not sleep, and God provides a parable to
illustrate the point. The Swahili text is again probably the
least expansive in this area, not asking as many questions but
containing more of a summary of the questions asked in the
other traditions.
[17] The
third category of questions is addressed by all of the
traditions except the Ge’ez text, which does not deal
with a final judgment or redemption. The Syriac, the Swahili
and the aljamiado traditions, however, connect Adam to
both Moses and the contemporary audience being addressed. The
Syriac text points to the redemption of Adam from Gehenna
through Jesus Christ, and the restoration of Adam and his
descendants to the Garden of Eden.
O Moses, this is the word between me and your father Adam:
After five thousand five hundred years I will descend to
deliver him, and will pay his debts and sins; and I shall
receive mocking, and spitting upon my face, and they shall
fix nails in my hands and feet, and put on my head a crown of
thorns, and smite me with a spear, and kill me; and they
shall bury me, and I shall rise from the grave after three
days; and I shall ascend to heaven and take up with me Adam
and his children, and make him inherit the kingdom of
heaven.
I. Hall, 177.
[18] The
aljamiado and Swahili texts, in contrast, point to
numerous Adams with a final human Adam who is the ancestor of
Moses as well as all human beings. Because this human Adam
sinned, and was expelled from the Garden, all humans must die.
These two traditions emphasize, however, that Allah will be
with believers who follow his will which is encompassed in the
five pillars of Islam.
After that, Confessor, I created Adam, who would rule the
jinns and make them his subjects. Listen carefully: this is
not your Adam who was your ancestor, it was not the
same person. This Adam lived for a thousand and ten years,
then I took him away and replaced him with another king of
the jinns. Many years later I created the human Adam and his
wife, Eve. All their descendants will die at an unknown time,
so remember to repent your sins daily, keep the fast in
Ramadan…
J. Knappert, 84.
The aljamiado texts provide further detail on the
Adams that were created. In conversation with Moses, Allah
says:
… I created a man whose name was Adam, and he lived
ten thousand years; he was not one of the angels, or a human,
or even a jinn. After that I created another Adam, and
still later another Adam, and yet another Adam, until I
created ten thousand Adams. Each one lived ten thousand
years. …and then after [Iblis] disobeyed me, and
descended to earth, I created your father Adam and he lived
one thousand years.
A. Vespertino Rodríguez, 179.
[19]
Overall, these texts also reflect some differences, primarily
in the area of content. The religious bent of the authors of
the Syriac, Swahili, and aljamiado texts becomes clear
within just a few lines of each text with the exception of the
Ge’ez text. Since the Ge’ez is so close to
the Syriac text, it is not as easy to tell that it was used in
a Falasha community. The aljamiado and Swahili texts
mention Muhammed often, and Allah even commands Moses to pray
for Muhammand and fellow Muslims. In both of these textual
traditions, Moses becomes jealous of Muhammed, who has not even
been born yet, and desires to know more about this man for whom
he must pray. Moses asks Allah, “Who is Muhammed, O Lord,
that I cannot approach you with saying a prayer for
him?”
Ibid, 174.
While the Islamic texts are not polemical
against either the Jewish or Christian communities, the Syriac
text concludes with a strong anti-Jewish polemic:
… I will scatter [the Jews] through creation, and take
from them the priesthood and the kingdom and the prophecy,
and give them to be stained black, so that they shall be as
dogs hated of every one.
I. Hall, 177.
The Ge’ez text, which is otherwise so close to the
Syriac, but represents Ethiopian Jews, logically does not
include the polemic.
[20]
Another interesting difference between the Syriac and the other
texts in this tradition is with the nature of the prohibitions
that Moses and God discuss. While in the Swahili and
aljamiado texts, God prohibits fornication, the Syriac
text goes into some detail about male sexual activity with
boys, beasts or other men.
Ibid, 173.
There are explicit punishments
indicated for the different types of sexual activity, as well
as directions as to how one might atone for these sins. One
wonders where the impetus arose for such an extensive
discussion on this subject which is entirely absent from the
other traditions.
[21]
Based on this preliminary discussion, it seems clear that these
texts have a common source, although it is not clear what that
source is. The Syriac, Ge’ez, and Swahili texts all look
as if they relate in some way to a larger tradition, such as
the one represented in the aljamiado tradition. At
this point there are three fairly extensive aljamiado
dialogues, and they contain almost every feature found in the
later texts discussed here. Did the Moriscos in Spain
originate this Moses tradition? It does not seem likely, given
the condition of the community in the sixteenth
century.
L. Lopez-Baralt, Islam in Spanish
Literature: from the Middle Ages to the Present, trans. A.
Hurley (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992), 171-189.
These Spanish Muslims were a remnant of the
former Islamic population in Spain, and they were fighting a
loosing battle against persecution, exile or assimilation. The
texts themselves show a people who had lost their Arabic
language skills, but had not gained literary Spanish
proficiency in their place. The Arabic words in the texts are
often used improperly, or are completely misunderstood. The
author or authors did not seem to have a grasp of either
Spanish or Arabic grammar. Finally, among the texts dealing
with biblical characters or themes, there are very few original
compositions. Most of the ideas in the aljamiado texts
can be traced back to Medieval Islamic literature, commentary,
or hadith material.
[22] To
date, I have not encountered a tradition in medieval Islamic
texts which closely matches the material in this grouping.
Obvious places to start would be commentators like Al-Kisai and
Al-Tabari, but neither contains Moses material that is similar
in form or content to these dialogues. This does not mean,
however, that such an “ur-tradition” does not exist
in Islamic literature. In even a cursory examination of these
texts, it becomes clear that the concerns addressed are very
close to those found in the Quran itself and in the hadith
material—especially the emphasis on proper treatment of
the poor, the hungry, orphans, widows, parents, the oppressed,
and the dead, along with a great deal of attention on prayer,
lending money, associating with righteous people, and sexual
behavior. In addition, the reward/punishment schema is found
throughout the Koran—particularly in relation to
salvation or damnation, which are central issues in these
texts.
[23]
Given the fact that “The Colloquy” is widely
attested in Christian Arabic, one might investigate connections
between the Arabic mss and the Islamic traditions.
Interestingly, there are no such Muslim dialogues in
Arabic. It is clear that the authors of the
aljamiado texts did not know Arabic very well, if at
all, and that even their Spanish lacked polish. Since there are
no other examples of this type of dialogue in Christian
literature, and the dialogues in Jewish literature don’t
really correspond in terms of style and content,
Jewish tradition might have had some
influence on the questions dealing with God’s nature
which is an important theme in rabbinic and especially medieval
Jewish literature. Unfortunately, the specific questions
that Moses poses in these texts are not found in either corpus.
The only passages that come close are those in Numbers and
Deuteronomy Rabbah which talk about the possibility of God
eating. The Rabbis conclude that God does not eat. Another
group of midrashic passages deal with whether or not God
sleeps—very much like the passages under study
here—and the Rabbis conclude that God does not sleep
either. A few rabbinic passages deal with where God resides in
heaven and provide descriptions of the throne. Exodus Rabbah
23:13, for example, incorporates the image found in the Syriac
text that God’s throne is borne by four angels in the
forms of a human, an eagle, a lion, and a bull. Beyond these
slight similarities in theme, however, there is nothing
specific that connects these four textual traditions to Jewish
literature of either the rabbinic or medieval period in any
substantial way.
it is possible
that these dialogues have all been influenced by some earlier,
and fairly prominent, Islamic Moses tradition._______
Notes
_______
Bibliography
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