Wickedness in Shinar

Introduction

In the previous issue of the eJournal, T. Gaston[1] examined the tensions that led to the separation of Christianity as a distinct religion from Judaism based on the standard work, “The Partings of the Ways” by J. D. G. Dunn.[2] The catalyst in this development was the destruction of the Second Temple which necessitated the reformation and rebirth of Judaism as Rabbinical Judaism (the heir of Pharisaic Judaism). The article focused attention on the Jamnia community, which after AD 70 was authorized by the Romans to operate with a degree of autonomy unavailable to any other Jewish community and which therefore became the architect of a new Jewish orthodoxy: Rabbinic Judaism. However, the importance (sometimes even the existence) of the Jamnia Council is challenged:

The concept of the Council of Jamnia is an hypothesis to explain the canonization of the Writings (the third division of the Hebrew Bible) resulting in the closing of the Hebrew canon. … These ongoing debates suggest the paucity of evidence on which the hypothesis of the Council of Jamnia rests and raise the question whether it has not served its usefulness and should be relegated to the limbo of unestablished hypotheses. It should not be allowed to be considered a consensus established by mere repetition of assertion.[3]

Whatever the contribution of the Council of Jamnia in the land of Israel may have been, it is certain that Roman support was squandered with the Bar Kokhba revolt led by Simon Bar Kokhba (AD 132–136). The revolt was supported by Rabbi Akiba.[4] The revolt was viciously crushed by the Romans, and the consequences for Judaism were even more devastating for the population than those of AD 70 as the majority of the Jewish population of Judea was killed, exiled, or sold into slavery after the Bar-Kokhba revolt, and Jewish religious and political authority was suppressed far more brutally, with the Jews even banned from entering Jerusalem.. After the revolt the Jewish religious center shifted away from the land of Israel to the Jewish scholars of Babylon under Parthian control, away from the influence of Rome.

Rabbinic Judaism gained dominance within the Jewish Diaspora between the second to the sixth centuries AD, with the codification of the oral law and the development of the Babylonian Talmud to control the interpretation of Jewish scripture and to encourage the practice of Judaism in the absence of Temple sacrifice and other practices no longer possible. Babylon became the main centre of Jewish religious, cultural, and political life; Judea would not become prominent again until the modern era.  The destruction of the Second Temple and the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism in Babylon are predicted by the prophet Zechariah and confirmed by Christ.[5]

Vision of the Flying Scroll

The vision in Zechariah 5 is about the destruction of a “house” in the land[6]  and the establishment of a new “house” in the land of Shinar[7].  Zechariah is said to have prophesied in the second year of Darius the Persian (520 BC) but his ministry extended to the forth year (518 BC). Like Haggai, therefore, he is addressing and seeking to encourage the postexilic community.

At first glance Zechariah 5 is incongruous with the previous visions concerning restoration, but closer examination demonstrates that this is not so, for the restored community was being reassured that God had removed the iniquity, allowing the remnant a fresh beginning; thus Zechariah 5 complements earlier visions. However, the vision also carries an implicit warning; for what God had performed in the past – removing iniquity and exiling the nation, would happen again if the nation remained unrepentant. From Zechariah’s standpoint (building the new temple) the vision is retrospective and reassuring, but it is at the same time prophetic of future events, for the iniquity that had been removed to Shinar in order to allow the community to flourish, could also at some future point return from Shinar and contaminate the nation again.

The flying scroll with the curse was of huge proportions – it flew so that it could be viewed throughout the land – it was written on both sides so that it could be read from above (by the angels, who act as witnesses?) and from beneath (by the people) – in other words ignorance of the divine will was not an excuse. The Hebrew word translated “curse” (Zech 5:3) alludes to the covenant sanctions that attend the violation of God’s covenant with Israel (cf. Deut 29:12, 14, 20-21). Stealing and swearing falsely (mentioned later in this verse) are sins against mankind and God respectively and are thus violations of the two major parts of the Ten Commandments. These two stipulations (commandments 8 and 3) represent the whole law. The second part of the vision describes three women – two of them with wings bearing a basket containing a third woman called iniquity or “lawlessness.”   These “women” come out of the house that has just been destroyed:

Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out (i.e. of the house) two women, and the wind was in their wings. Zech 5:9 (KJV)

We are clearly dealing with a parody of the Ark of the Covenant – instead of two “ox-faced” cherubim with the spirit in their eagle wings we have two women (representing Israel and Judah) with the “wind”[8] in their unclean stork wings.  Instead of the gold covered mercy seat—a lead weight, instead of the glory of God dwelling between the cherubim—a wicked woman called “lawlessness” in the “midst”.  Moreover, the description vouchsafed to Zechariah is similar to Ezekiel, “He said moreover, this is their resemblance (Heb., ‘eye’) through all the earth.” (Zech 5:6; cf. Ezek 10:12; “and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about”). The two women are based on the matriarchs Rachel and Leah, “which two did build the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11), except now a different kind of house was being prepared.[9]

Establishing a House in Shinar

Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Wither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, to build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established (kuwn), and set there upon her own base (mekunah). Zech 5:10-11 (KJV)

The scroll that bore the curse had the same dimensions (20×10 cubits) as Solomon’s porch (1 Kgs 6:3). This is not accidental, for the porch was supported by two pillars that symbolised the covenant made with David (1 Kgs 7:21):

But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established (kuwn) for evermore. 1 Chron 17:14 (KJV); cf. 2 Sam 7:12

God had promised (Exod 23:20), “to bring the people into the place which I have prepared” (kuwn). The first pillar was Jachin “He (Jah) will establish (kuwn)”; the other pillar, Bo’az, probably means, “He will strengthen”.[10] Zechariah draws our attention to this by using poetic parallelism between the words “established” and “base”.

The Hebrew mekunah (“base”, related to the verb kuwn “to establish”) is used eight times in 1 Kings 7 for the description of the brass base of the lavers and the base of the pillars that Solomon made for the temple. King Ahaz removed the brazen “sea” from its base (mekunah) of twelve oxen (2 Kgs 16:17); one can only presume that he used the base as support for a (portable?) throne or maybe an altar. He certainly copied and installed an Assyrian altar in the temple. Ahaz’ action seems to be a response to Isaiah’s message,[11]

If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Isa 7:9 (KJV)

We might well add the words of the Deuteronomy,

Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established (kuwn) thee? Deut.32:6 (KJV)

The divine response to the nation’s corruption was to exile the people and the bases to Babylon:

And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases (mekunah), and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon. 2 Kgs 25:13 (KJV)

And when it is established (kuwn), she shall be set there upon her own base (mekunah) Zech.5:11 (KJV revised)

 The Unclean House Destroyed

‘I will send out the curse’, says the Lord of hosts; ‘It shall enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain in the midst of his house and consume it, with its timber and stones’. Zech 5:4 (NKJV revised)

Leviticus 14 proscribes the procedure that the priest must follow in order to cleanse a leprous house.  If the house could not be cleansed, the following took place:

And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house: and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. Lev 14:45 (KJV)

Before condemning an unclean house, the priest would inspect the house three times before pronouncing his final verdict—similarly, Jesus inspected the Temple three times during his ministry, culminating in the last inspection during his final week (Matt 21:12, 13; Luke 19:43-48). The verdict pronounced by Christ is based on Zechariah’s vision:

Matthew 23 & 24	Zechariah 5
A den of thieves (21:13). Stealing (23:23-25). Corban (Mark 7:11).	The house of the thief (v. 4).
Swearing (23:16-22).	Swearing (v. 3).
Your house left desolate (23:28). Not one stone upon another (24:1-3).	Timber and stones of the house consumed (v. 4).

Consequently “their house” (“your house”) was destroyed by the Romans, for it was an unclean house, no longer fit to be his Father’s dwelling place.  The subsequent history of Israel demonstrates that the remainder of Zechariah’s vision was fulfilled in Babylon, for the Jews, deprived of cultic ritual, established their interpretation of the Law as a substitute.

Conclusion

The vision in Zechariah 5 is about apostate Judaism not apostate Christianity.  The temple was destroyed (again) as predicted by Zechariah (and Christ) and false religion was established in Babylon in the development of Rabbinic Judaism. Spiritually the Jews had regressed to the place of their exile.

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[1] T. Gaston, “The Parting of the Ways”, CeJBI 3/4 (Oct 2009): 1-7.

[2] J.  D.  G.  Dunn, The Partings of the Ways (London: SCM Press, 1991).

[3] J. Lewis “Jamnia” ABD, 3:634-7 (634).

[4] “Bar Kokhba” means “son of a star” (Num 24:17: “There shall come a star out of Jacob”.

[5] [ED. AP.] Palestinian centres of learning (such as Usha) were also influential, especially during the second century. Babylonian prominence develops towards the end of the second century especially with the Amoriam.

[6] The curse encompasses the whole “land” or “earth” (eretz, Zech.5:3); here in particular it concerns the land of Judah.

[7] “Shinar” is the “country of two rivers”, the ancient name for the territory later known as Babylonia or Chaldea (Gen 11:2).

[8] The meaning of the Hebrew word ruach is to be deduced from the context. The main idea running through all the passages is that of invisible force. It is variously translated as either wind or spirit.

[9] The “two sisters” (based on Rachel and Leah) form the archetype for Ezekiel (Ezek 23:1-3). Contrast the removal of iniquity in Zechariah with the removal of the glory in Ezekiel: “Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims” (Ezek 10:18). Rachel and Leah “built the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11).

[10] The meaning of “Boaz” is uncertain but most probably means “strength”—the word “strength” is twice used in Prov 31:17 (where the  virtuous woman is modelled on Ruth) playing on the name of Boaz.  The pillars formed an outward symbol of the promise made to David: “Yahweh would establish the seed of Boaz”.

[11] Ahaz set the Assyrian altar in the temple area after the crisis of Isaiah 7.