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Traditions concerning Jamnes and Mambres in Anglo-Saxon England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Frederick M. Biggs  and
Thomas N. Hall
Frederick M. Biggs
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Thomas N. Hall
Affiliation:
University if Illinois at Chicago
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Extract

In the dramatic confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh that preceded the Israelites' departure from Egypt, Pharaoh's magicians played a prominent role: they turned their rods into serpents, if only to have them devoured by Moses's serpent, and then matched the first two plagues brought down on the Egyptians before failing to perform the third (Ex. VII. 11–VIII. 19). Although not named here or elsewhere in the Old Testament, they were identified in II Timothy III.8 as ' ιανν⋯ς and ιαμβρ⋯ς (the Latin forms are usually ‘Iannes’ or ‘Iamnes’ and ‘Mambres’) in a remark that suggests that a considerable tradition had already arisen concerning them: ‘Now just as jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith.’ Two fragmentary Greek papyri (Pap. Vindob. G 29456 verso, in the Nationalbibliothek, Vienna; and Pap. XVI, in the Chester Beatty Library and Gallery of Oriental Art, Dublin), dated to the third and fourth centuries respectively, confirm the existence of at least one early apocryphon about the brothers. The problem of interpreting these fragments, however, is complicated by a bewildering array of references to the two in various languages, which results from both the importance of Exodus to Jews and Christians, and the connection of the brothers to magic. Albert Pietersma and R. Theodore Lutz note that ‘the precise relationship between the loose traditions and the written composition’ is ‘not yet entirely clear’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 25 , December 1996 , pp. 69 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 A recent discussion of the apocryphon (with translations of the Greek and Latin fragments) and its related material is by Pietersma, A. and Lutz, R. T., ‘Jannes and Mambres’, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, J. H., 2 vols. (Garden City, NY, 1983–1985) II, 427–42.Google Scholar See also Schürer, E., The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.–A.D. 135), ed. and trans. Vermes, G., Miller, F. and Goodman, M., 3 vols. in 4 (Edinburgh, 1973–1987) III, 781–3Google Scholar; and James, M. R., The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament (New York, 1920), 31–8.Google Scholar We should like to thank Brother Caedmon Holmes, Deeana C. Klepper, Michael Lapidge, Michael McHugh, Father Martin McNamara and Michelle P. Brown for their help.

2 Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, II, 427.Google Scholar

3 Preliminary statements of some of the conclusions in this article appeared in Hall, T. N., ‘Jamnes and Mambres’, in Sources of Anglo-Saxon literary Culture: a Trial Version, ed. Biggs, F. M., Hill, T. D. and Szarmach, P. E. (Binghamton, NY, 1990), pp. 27–9Google Scholar; and in Biggs's ‘Apocrypha’, presented at the 26th International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (1991).

4 Two previous studies favour the possibility that a fuller version of the apocryphon in Tiberius B. v underlies the Anglo-Saxon evidence: James, M. R., ‘A Fragment of the “Penitence of Jannes and Jambres”’, JTS 2 (1901), 572–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Förster, M., ‘Das lateinisch-altenglische Fragment der Apokryphe von jamnes und Mambres’, ASNSL 108 (1902), 15–28.Google Scholar

5 We follow the edition of Förster, but have not called attention to his expansion of abbreviations or his occasional emendations; see ‘Das lateinisch-altenglische Fragment’, pp. 19–21.Google Scholar The Latin is translated in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, II, 440–1:Google Scholar ‘Mambres opened the magical books of his brother Jannes; he performed necromancy and brought up from the netherworld his brother's shade. The soul of Jannes said in response, I your brother did not die unjustly, but indeed justly, and the judgment will go against me, since I was more clever than all clever magicians, and opposed the two brothers, Moses and Aaron, who performed great signs and wonders. As a result I died and was brought from among [the living] to the netherworld where there is great burning and the pit of perdition, whence no ascent is possible. Now, then, brother Mambres, make sure you do good in your life to your children and friends; for in the netherworld no good exists, only gloom and darkness. After you will have died and have come to the netherworld, among the dead, your abode will be two cubits wide and four cubits long.’

6 This argument must be treated with caution, since the Greek text is fragmentary; Pietersma and Lutz warn that ‘as a result of more study it may well turn out that the order of some of the Chester Beatty fragments will have to be changed’ (Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, II, 430, n. 20).Google Scholar

7 An Eleventh-Century Anglo-Saxon Illustrated Miscellany: British Library Cotton Tiberius B. V, part I…, ed. McGurk, P., Dumville, D. N., Godden, M. R. and Knock, A., EEMF 21 (Copenhagen, 1983). Biggs has examined the manuscript to confirm these points.Google Scholar

8 Pietersma and Lutz incorrecdy consider this illumination to be related to the apocryphon: they refer to the text as ‘accompanied by two illustrations’ (Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, II, 431).Google Scholar This mistake is understandable, since the first illumination depicts two figures who might readily be identified as the brothers.

9 An Eleventh-Century Miscellany, ed. McGurk, et al. , p. 39.Google Scholar

10 Ibid. p. 15. Elsewhere, however, he appears to consider the two works as separate: he lists their contents under separate entries (p. 16), and he does not include ‘Mambres’ in the discussion of the illustrations of ‘Wonders’ (p. 103). In contrast, Knock considers ‘Mambres’ to be part of ‘Wonders’ (p. 89).

11 Ibid. p. 25: ‘a treatise concerning the various monsters that are in the world, perhaps from Pliny if not Priscian, in Latin and Saxon with illustrations’.

12 The Nowell Codex: British Museum Cotton Vitellius A. XV, Second MS, ed. Malone, K., EEMF 12 (Copenhagen, 1963)Google Scholar; see also Gerritsen, J., ‘British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv – a Supplementary Description’, ES 69 (1988), 293–302.Google Scholar

13 Nowell Codex, ed. Malone, , p. 15.Google Scholar Similarly, Ker, N. R. does not suggest lost leaves: see A Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), pp. 281–3.Google Scholar

14 Private communication dated 7 December 1993. She continues, ‘Another feature which may indicate that this was the end of a section is the British Museum stamp, which dates to around the 1830s, prior to reassembly, and which may indicate that this section was distinguished from the others at this point.’ She also notes a rubric to the left of the illustration, which she tentatively reads ‘Þur bosa [or basa]’; see also An Eleventh-Century Miscellany, ed. McGurk, et al. , p. 39. The other illuminations do not contain rubrics.Google Scholar

15 ‘The fact that T [Cotton Tiberius B. v] ends at this point with the fine full page picture of lannes and Mambres I regard as most probably the result of accidental loss of leaves’: Marvels of the East, Roxburghe Club Publication 191 (Oxford, 1929), 30.Google Scholar

16 Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford, 1953), pp. 75–6.Google Scholar See also Knock, who does not accept this suggestion: An Eleventh-Century Miscellany, ed. McGurk, et al. , p. 91.Google Scholar

17 The Bible is quoted from the Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam Versionem, ed. Weber, R. et al. , 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1983)Google Scholar; the translation is the Douai-Rheims. For further discussion of this verse and its relationship to apocryphal traditions concerning Jamnes and Mambres, see McNamara, M., The New Testament and the Palestinian Targum to the Pentateuch (Rome, 1966), pp. 82–96Google Scholar; McNamara's early dating for the Palestinian Targum has been questioned, specifically with regard to the names of the magicians, by Grabbe, L. L., ‘The Jannes/Mambres Tradition in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and its Date’, Jnl of Biblical Lit. 98 (1979), 393–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 PG 13, col. 1769: ‘it is not to be found in public writings, but in a secret book, which is entitled Jamnes and Mambres’. This commentary was known in the West in a Latin translation; see Geerard, M., Clavis Patrum Graecorum, 5 vols. (Turnhout, 1983–1987) I, no. 1450.Google Scholar

19 Das Decretum Gelasianum de libris recipients et non recipiendis, ed. von Dobschütz, E. (Leipzig, 1912), p. 12Google Scholar. Dobschütz lists three manuscripts of this work that were known in Anglo-Saxon England: Cambridge, Trinity College B. 16. 44; Hereford, Cathedral Library, O. III. 2; and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 391; see Gneuss, H., ‘A Preliminary List of Manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1100’, ASE 9 (1981), 1–60 (nos. 179, 263 and 576).Google Scholar

20 Commentarius in xiii. epistulas Paulinas, ed. Vogels, H., 3 vols., Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 81 (Vienna, 1966–1969) III, 313:Google Scholar ‘this example is from the apocrypha’. A manuscript of this work may survive in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 765; see Gneuss, ‘Preliminary List’, no. 595.

21 Commentarius, ed. Vogels, III, 313:Google Scholar ‘indeed the brothers Iamnes and Mambres were Egyptian magicians or sorcerers who thought they would oppose with their magic art by false emulation the strength of God, which he performed by Moses. But when in Moses the strength grew in his works, humbled they confessed the sores (wounds) God brought about through Moses. Thus it is said that they will not profit in the ungodliness of their assertions because their ignorance and seduction will be well known, and although unwilling, nevertheless they will confess their ignorance in the end.’ Atto of Vercelli repeats this remark (PL 134, col. 695).

22 Martin McNamara does not include a separate entry on the work in his Apocrypha in the Irish Church (Dublin, 1975).Google Scholar

23 The text and translation are from the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus, ed. Stokes, W. and Strachan, J., 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1901) I, 695Google Scholar: ‘i.e. two Egyptian wizards who had been contending with Moses; and the Law records them not, but his own tradition, for he was skilled in the whole Old Testament’. The gloss has been assigned to the eighth century; see Kenney, J. F., The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical (New York, 1929), pp. 635–6.Google Scholar

24 For these definitions, see the Dictionary of the Irish language … Compact Edition (Dublin, 1983)Google Scholar; and Kelly, F., A Guide to Early Irish Law (Dublin, 1988), pp. 319–20.Google Scholar

25 PL 103, col. 241: ‘these are the magicians who performed signs in Egypt against the signs of Moses. And these names are not to be found in the books of the law, but Paul brought them forth either through the spirit or through other lost scriptures.’ see Lapidge, M. and Sharpe, R., A Bibliography of Celtic-Latin Literature, 400–1200 (Dublin, 1985), p. 177 (no. 680).Google Scholar

26 PL 112, col. 648: ‘for what some ask – from where blessed Paul was able to know the names of those who resisted Moses – is worthy of ridicule. For indeed is it ridiculous: Moses certainly – he is seen to have made known those deeds so great that happened before him, which were obscure to many and also to remember such great men, whom no one at that time could have known; but to wonder at Paul if he was able to say the names of two men who lived before.’

27 PL 117, cols. 806–7: ‘the hatred of heretics is always restless. The magicians of Pharaoh, whom the Apostle describes, had that tendency. Jannes and Mambres, two brothers, were magicians, whose names the Apostle did not find in sacred books, but in apocryphal, that is secret ones, which are not to be read by all because among the truth is contained much untruth. These two magicians opposed Moses when they turned their rods into snakes as Moses had his, and water into blood. But when it came to the third sign, that is to the lice, they failed, saying: “This is the finger of God.”’ Haymo relies here in part on a passage from Augustine, Ep. lv; ed. Goldbacher, A., Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 34 (Vienna, 1895), 203–4.Google Scholar

28 In both the interlinear and marginal gloss, the Glossa ordinaria follows the Ambrosiaster, identifying the names as taken from the apocrypha. Early in the fourteenth century, Nicholas of Lyre reveals that he has neither direct nor indirect knowledge of it: ‘Nomina uero istorum magorum non habuit Apostolus ex sacra scriptura, sed ex aliis libris Hebraeorum, ut dicit hie Glo[ssa]. Sed quia losephus et Rab[bi] Sa[lomon] de hac materia loquentes nihil dicunt de istis nominibus, ideo uidetur melius dicendum, quod habuit per reuelationem, sicut et Moyses mundi creationem’ (‘the Aposde did not take these names from Holy Scripture, but from the Hebrew books, as the Glossa says here. But because Josephus and Rabbi Salomon [Rashi] speaking of this material say nothing about these two, it seems better to say that he received them through revelation, as Moses received the creation of the world’); see the Biblia Sacra cum glossis interlineari, et ordinaria, Nicolai Lyrani postilla, ac moralitatibus …, 6 vols. (Venice, 1588) VI, 127r.Google Scholar

29 the facsimile is The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch: British Museum Cotton Claudius B. IV, ed. Dodwell, C. R. and Clemoes, P., EEMF 18 (Copenhagen, 1974).Google Scholar

30 The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, ed. Crawford, S. J., EETS os 160 (London, 1922), 232: ‘then the magicians said to Pharaoh: “This is the power of God”’.Google Scholar

31 see Ohlgren, T. H., Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts. An Iconographic Catalogue c. 625–1100 (New York, 1986), nos. 191, 252 and 258. Ohlgren has derived his descriptions from those in the facsimile, in which the two are simply referred to as ‘magicians’.Google Scholar

32 See the passage from Isidore cited below. Two pseudo-Bede commentaries on Exodus use the verse from Timothy in the context of this passage from Exodus (PL 91, col. 302 and 93, col. 368), as does the Glossa ordinaria I, 104v.

33 Old English Illustrated Hexateuch, ed. Dodwell, and Clemoes, , p. 61.Google Scholar

34 ‘And the magicians Jamnes and Mambres dug wells and said that the water was brought from the land of Gessen which the Lord did not afflict with plagues because of the Children of Israel who lived there.’

35 Old English Version of the Hexateuch, ed. Crawford, , p. 229: ‘then Pharaoh gathered all the men most skilful in magic, and they performed another such thing through their magic and through their incantations. And they threw down all their rods, and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod devoured all their rods.’Google Scholar

36 ‘And they every one cast down their rods, and they were turned nto serpents; but Aaron's rod devoured their rods.’

37 Old English Illustrated Hexateuch, ed. Dodwell, and Clemoes, , p. 61.Google Scholar

38 Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, II, 438.Google Scholar

39 Eusebius Werke. VIII Band. Die Praeparatio Evangelica, ed. Mras, K., 2 vols., Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte 43 (Berlin, 1956) I, 494Google Scholar. The translation is by Gifford, E. H., Eussbius: Preparation for the Gospel (Oxford, 1903), p. 443Google Scholar: ‘And next in order came Jannes and Jambres, Egyptian sacred scribes, men judged to have no superiors in the practice of magic, at the time when the Jews were being driven out of Egypt. So then these were the men chosen by the people of Egypt as fit to stand beside Musaeus, who led forth the Jews, a man who was most powerful in prayer to God; and of the plagues which Musaeus brought upon Egypt, these men showed themselves able to disperse the most violent.’

40 Charlesworth, , Old Testament Pseudepigrapha II, 428.Google Scholar

41 In addition to the works discussed below, several others mention the deaths of Jamnes and Mambres; all appear too vague to indicate a common tradition. The Gospel of Nicodemus V.1 mentions that the magicians were not able to perform all the plagues, and concludes, ‘et quoniam signa quae fecerunt non erant ex Deo, perierunt ipsi et qui crediderunt eis’; see the edition by Kim, H. C. (Toronto, 1973), p. 21Google Scholar: ‘and whereas the signs which they did were not of God, they perished and those also that believed on them’; trans. James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament (1924; corrected ed., Oxford, 1953), p. 101Google Scholar. This passage does not appear in the Old English translations; see the entry by Morey, J. in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, ed. Biggs, , Hill, and Szarmach, , pp. 45–8Google Scholar. In the section on Simon and Jude in the pseudo-Abdias Apostolical historiae, the two apostles pray to God: ‘Deus Israel, qui exinanisti magica figmenta Jamnes et Mambres, et dedisti eos in confusionem et ulcera, et perire eos jussisti; sic faciat et hic manus tua super hos magos Zaroen et Arfaxat’; Codex Apocryphus Novi Testament, ed. Fabricius, J. A., 2 vols. (Hamburg, 1719) I, 622Google Scholar: ‘God of Israel, who emptied the magical figments of Jamnes and Mambres, and sent them into confusion and torment, and commanded them to die; may your hand here do likewise on the magicians Zaroen and Arfaxat.’ Another passage that might perhaps imply that Jamnes and Mambres died with Pharaoh at the Red Sea appears in Quodvultdeus's De promissionibus et praedictionibus Dei: ‘Contra Pharaonem duo testes Dei missi sunt, Moyses et Aaron: et duo magi Pharaonis, Jamnes et Mambres resistentes Moysi, qui simul cum suo rege perierunt’ (PL 51, col. 848: ‘against Pharaoh two witnesses of God were sent, Moses and Aaron, and the two magicians of Pharaoh resisted Moses, who with his kingdom perished’). A search of the names in CETEDOC, the database of Christian Latin authors made available by Brepols in conjunction with the Corpus Christianorum (CCSL), produced no other relevant examples; we would like to thank Bob Scott, Electronic Text Librarian at the Columbia University Libraries, for his help. Here too may be mentioned the ‘Testament of Solomon’ (XXV.1–7), in which a demon from the Red Sea takes credit for aiding the magicians, and describes how he was trapped by the Sea; see Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, I, 985–6.Google Scholar

42 see the entry in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, ed. Biggs, , Hill, and Szarmach, , pp. 59–60.Google Scholar

43 Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones I, ed. Morin, G., CCSL 103 (Turnhout, 1953), 235–40Google Scholar. This source was identified by Förster, M., ‘Altenglische Predigtquellen. I.’, ASNSL 116 (1906), 301–14, at 307–8Google Scholar; see also Raynes, E. M., ‘MS. Boulogne-sur-Mer 63 and Ælfric’, MÆ 26 (1957), 65–73, at 71Google Scholar; and Meaney, A. L., ‘Ælfrics Use of his Sources in his Homily on Auguries’, ES 66 (1985), 477–95. Meaney quotes two passages from Hrabanus's De magicis artibus, but neither explains the passage.Google Scholar

44 Ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, W. W., 4 vols., EETS os 76, 82, 94 and 114 (London, 1881–1900; repr. as 2 vols., 1966) I, 372: ‘the magicians Jamnes and Mambres said many things through the devil's craft, as Moyses wrote, and they led astray Pharaoh with their tricks until he drowned in the deep sea’.Google Scholar

45 Acta Apostolorum apocrypha, ed. Lipsius, R. A. and Bonnet, M., 2 vols. in 3 (Leipzig, 1891–1903) I, 149Google Scholar. Our translation is adapted from that of Walker, A., Apocryphal Gospels, Acts and Revelations, Ante-Nicene Christian Library 16 (Edinburgh, 1873), 268Google Scholar: ‘Do you suppose that I ought to speak against a false man, a desperate, wicked magician, who has given his soul up to death, whose destruction and perdition will come speedily? Who pretends to be what he is not, and ruins men by magic art? If you consent to hear his words, and to shield him, you will destroy your soul and your kingdom. Indeed, he is a most base man, and like the Egyptians Jamnes and Mambres who led Pharaoh and his army astray until they drowned in the sea: so also he, through the instruction of his father the devil, persuades men, and does much evil through magic and other means, if any are among men, and thus deceives many innocent people of your kingdom.’

46 Ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, I, 373Google Scholar: ‘So likewise Simon, the wily sorcerer, strove so long with Saint Peter, until he was cast down, when he desired to fly to heaven, so that he burst into four parts, and so that impious man departed in torment to hell. Many others have perished who followed sorcery, even as we read in books, but their story is tedious.’

47 ‘Zu den Blickling Homilies’, ASNSL, 91 (1893), 185–93.Google Scholar

48 ‘The Literate Anglo-Saxon – on Sources and Disseminations’, PBA 58 (1972), 67–100, at 90–2. and 97–100.Google Scholar

49 The Old English Orosius, ed, Bately, J., EETS ss 6 (London, 1980), 26Google Scholar: ‘when the Egyptians saw that, their magicians Jamnes and Mambres incited and inspired them with their magic so they might travel the same path. When they then were within the passage of the sea, then they all perished and drowned.’ In her notes on these lines, Bately comments: ‘I have found no source for this detail’ (p. 216). She does, however, refer to the relevant passage in Isidore's Etymologiæ in her ‘Glossary of Proper Names’ (p. 418).

50 Pauli Orosii historiarum aduersum paganos libri vii, ed. Zangemeister, K., Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 5 (Vienna, 1894), 54–9.Google Scholar

51 The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century, ed. Morris, R., EETS os 58, 63, 73 (London, 1874–1880; repr. as 1 vol., 1967), 182–5Google Scholar: ‘weenest thou that I shall speak to this faithless man and to this unbelieving sorcerer, who hath encompassed the death of his own soul, whereby ruin, leasing, and deception very quickly cometh upon him, because he makes himself to be what he is not? And he deludes people with his sorcery, so that they believe his words. If thou wilt hear his words and fulfil his behests, thou shah lose thy kingdom and thy own soul. This is the worst of men, who through the devil's wisdom deceiveth many unwary men with his temptations.’

52 There are other places where the translation omits material. Most notably, the Old English includes only a single sentence from the Latin §§ 40–50.

53 ‘Cynewulf's Traditions about the Aposdes in Fates of the Apostles’, ASE 8 (1979), 163–75, at 170.Google Scholar

54 The Prayerbook of Aedeluald the Bishop, commonly called The Book of Cerne, ed. Kuypers, A. B. (Cambridge, 1902), p. 158; for the identification, see p. 233.Google Scholar

55 The Latin translation is from that of Buxtorf, J., lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum et Rabbinicum… (Basel, 1639), col. 947Google Scholar; see also Novum Testamentum Graecum, ed. Wettstein, J., 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1751–1752) II, 362Google Scholar. The Hebrew appears in Bet ha-Midrash: Sammlung kleiner Midraschim, ed. Jellinek, A., vols. 1–4 (Leipzig, 1853–1857) and vols. 5–6 (Vienna, 1873–1877) I, 52Google Scholar. The work was composed at the end of the eleventh century; see Strack, H. L. and Stemberger, G., Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, trans. Bockmuehl, M. (Edinburgh, 1991), pp. 367–8Google Scholar. see also Strack, H. L. and Billerbeck, P., Kammentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, 3rd ed., 6 vols. in 7 (Munich, 1961) III, 663–4.Google Scholar

56 The Latin translation is that of Schoettgen, C., Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae…, 2, vols. (Dresden, 1733–1742) I, 896Google Scholar; see also Novum Testamentum Graecum, ed. Wettstein, II, 362Google Scholar. The Hebrew appears in Yalqut Shim'oni al ba-Torah le Rebbenu Shim'on ha-Darshan, ed. Hyman, D., Lerrer, D. N. and Shiloni, I., 5 vols. in 9 (Jerusalem, 1973–1991) II.1, 293–4Google Scholar. See Strack, and Stemberger, , Introduction, p. 341Google Scholar; and Strack and Billerbeck, Kommentar III, 663. M. D. Herr dates the work to the beginning of the eleventh century; see ‘Midrashim, smaller’, Encyclopaedia Judaica, ed. Roth, C. et al. , 16 vols. (Jerusalem, 1971) XVI, 1516.Google Scholar

57 Ginzberg, L., The legends of the Jews, trans. Szold, H. and Radin, P., 7 vols. (Philadelphia, 1909–1938) III, 28–9.Google Scholar

58 On the date and authorship of this work, see Dan, J., ‘Jerahmell ben Solomon’, in the Encyclopedia Judaica, ed. Roth, et al. IX, 1345.Google Scholar

59 The Chronicles of Jerahmeel: or, The Hebrew Bible Historiale, trans. Gaster, M., Oriental Translation Fund ns 11 (London, 1899), 159–60Google Scholar. The Hebrew text of this passage is printed by Schechter, S., Fragments of a Zadokite Work, Documents of Jewish Sectaries 1 (Cambridge, 1910), lix–lx.Google Scholar

60 See Cook, A. S., ‘Old English Literature and Jewish Learning’, MLN 6 (1891), 71–7Google Scholar; The Poetical Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn, ed. Manner, R. J. (New York, 1941), esp. p. 70Google Scholar; and Mirsky, A., ‘On the Sources of the Anglo-Saxon Genesis and Exodus’, ES 48 (1967), 385–97Google Scholar, who proposes Talmudic and Midrashic ‘sources’ for some twenty passages in Genesis A and B, and Exodus. Tellingly, Mirsky's article is nowhere cited in Doane's, A. N. edition, The Saxon Genesis: an Edition of the West Saxon ‘Genesis B’ and the Old Saxon Vatican ‘Genesis’ (Madison, WI, 1991).Google Scholar

61 ‘The Lion Standard in Exodus: Jewish Legend, Germanic Tradition, and Christian Typology’, ASNSL 227 (1990), 138–45, at 140Google Scholar. For another example of rabbinic lore made known to Anglo-Saxons through Christian intermediaries, see Hall, T. N., ‘The Twelvefold Division of the Red Sea in Two Old English Prose Texts’, MÆ; 58 (1989), 298–304Google Scholar. The knowledge of Hebrew in the early medieval West is most fully treated by Thiel, M., Grundlagen und Gestalt der Hebräischkenntnisse des frühen Mittelalters, Biblioteca degli Studi Medievali 4 (Spoleto, 1973)Google Scholar, who finds no credible evidence for the study of Hebrew in pre-Conquest England. On the difficulties of asserting Midrashic influence on early Irish (including Hiberno-Latin) literature, see McNamara, M., ‘The Bird Hiruath of the “Ever-New Tongue” and Hirodius of Gloss on Ps. 103:17 in Vatican Codex Pal. Lat. 68’, Eriu 39 (1988), 87–94.Google Scholar

62 S. Hieronymi presbyteri Opera. Pars I. Opera exegetica, ed. de Lagarde, P., CCSL 72 (Turnhout, 1959), 157Google Scholar: ‘marine, or where there is a sign’ and ‘sea made of skins or the sea in its source’. At least one manuscript of this work known in Anglo-Saxon England survives, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Marshall 19 (SC 5265); see Gneuss, ‘Preliminary List’, no. 659. The work is apparently mentioned in Æthelwold's donation of books to the monastery at Peterborough; see Lapidge, M., ‘Surviving Booklists from Anglo-Saxon England’, in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. Lapidge, M. and Gneuss, H. (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 33–89, at 53–4Google Scholar. For a discussion of uses by Bede and Aldhelm, see Ogilvy, J. D. A., Books Known to the English, 597–1066 (Cambridge, MA, 1967), p. 179Google Scholar. P. Meyvaert has recently called attention to an abbreviated list for the gospels that circulated in Insular gospel books; see ‘The Book of Kells and Iona’, Art Bull. 71 (1989), 6–19, at 8, n. 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 For some additional comment on the names, see Marshall, J. T., ‘Jannes and Jambres’, in A Dictionary of the Bible, ed. Hastings, J., 5 vols. (Edinburgh, 1898–1904) II, 548–9Google Scholar; the articlein the 2nd ed. (Edinburgh, 1963) omits this material. See also Grabbe, , /Jambres Tradition’, pp. 397–8Google Scholar. In correspondence (7 July 1989), Fr M. McNamara writes, ‘With regard to Jerome and Jannes and Mambres, I believe that Jerome really gives the ‘etymology’ of Yambres or Yamres, even though he says he is giving that of Mambres. His etymology is yam = sea-(Hebrew) and res – head (res is actually Aramaic; Hebrew would be ros [rosh]). The form Yam(b)res Jerome would have had from Greek tradition (II Tim III.8); the fact that the Latin form was Mambres, not Yam-, does not seem to have worried him!’

64 Etymologiarum sive Originum libri xx, ed. Lindsay, W. M. (Oxford, 1911)Google Scholar: ‘Jannes the sea or where there is a sign. His sign ceased and failed before the sign of Moses, when the magicians said, “this is the finger of God”.’ This work appears six times in Gneuss's ‘Preliminary List’ (nos. 176, 469, 561, 682, 719 and 888); and is mentioned in the list of books that Leofric procured for the church of Exeter (see Lapidge, , ‘Booklists’, pp. 65–8)Google Scholar. For further discussion, see Ogilvy, , Books Known to the English, p. 167.Google Scholar

65 On the use of etymologies in Old English, see in particular Robinson, F. C., ‘The Significance of Names in Old English Literature’, Anglia 86 (1968), 14–58, esp. 19–20.Google Scholar

66 The grammatical constructions are not identical since ‘sæs’ is a genitive; see Biggs, F. M., ‘The End of the Sea: the Old English Exodus, lines 466a–7b’, N&Q ns 32 (1985), 290–1.Google Scholar

67 Clayton, M. and Magennis, H., The Old English lives of St Margaret, CSASE 9 (Cambridge, 1994), 166Google Scholar: ‘the Lord drove Satan, our king, from the mirth of Paradise, and gave him two lands: one is Jamne, the other Mambre, and he brings there all whom he may seize of mankind’.

68 At 28r–v: ‘Satan is our king, who was cast out of Paradise. Look and see. In the books Iamne and Mambre you will find our lineage.’ Clayton and Magennis edit and translate this version; the passage occurs in Old English Lives, pp. 208–9Google Scholar, but they omit ‘inuenies’; see further, F. M. Biggs's review forthcoming in JEGP. see also Assmann, B., Angelsächsische Homilien und Heiligenleben, Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 3 (Kassel, 1889), 216Google Scholar, which differs in the placement of the phrase ‘scruta et uide’; and Gerould, G. H., ‘A New Text of the Passio S. Margaritae with some Account of its Latin and English Relations’, PMLA 39 (1924), 525–56, at 533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69 PL 74, col. 271: ‘the magicians … under Pharoah’. see Geerard, Clavis Patrum Graecorum III, no. 6036; and the entry by Jackson, P. in Sources of Anglo-Saxon literary Culture, ed. Biggs, , Hill, and Szarmach, , pp. 162–5. We refer to the earlier version, PL 74, cols. 243–342; the relevant passage in the other occurs in PL 74, cols. 360–1.Google Scholar

70 The Lausiac History of Palladius, ed. Butler, C., 2 vols., Texts and Studies 6 (Cambridge, 1898–1904) II, 50Google Scholar; trans. Meyer, R. T., Palladius: the Lausiac History, Ancient Christian Writers 34 (London, 1965), 60: ‘why did you come to our place?’Google Scholar

71 PL 74, col. 271: ‘the makers left this their place to us to cultivate’.

72 see Price, J., ‘The Virgin and the Dragon: the Demonology of Seinte Margarete’, in Sources and Relations: Studies in Honour of J. E. Cross, ed. Collins, M., Price, J. and Hamer, A., Leeds Stud. in Eng. 16 (1985), 337–57, at 356, n. 28.Google Scholar Mambre is also mentioned in Gen. XIII.18, XIV.13, XIV.24, XXIII. 17, XXIII. 19, XXV.9, XXXV.27, XLIX.30 and L.13.

73 see Leclercq, H., ‘Mambre’, in the Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. Cabrol, F. and Leclercq, H., 15 vols. in 30 (Paris, 1907–1953) X.1, cols. 1347–8; and the description in the ‘Itinerarium Antonini Placentini’ ed. P. Geyer, CCSL 175 (Turnhout, 1965), 144.Google Scholar

74 For another example, see Biggs, F. M., ‘Ælfric as Historian: his Use of Alcuin's Laudationes and Sulpicius’ Dialogues in his two Lives of Martin’, in Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints’ Lives and Their Contexts, ed. Szarmach, P. E. (forthcoming).Google Scholar