על זיקה ותחרות בין דמויות מקראיות בספרות הבתר־מקראית

In post-biblical traditions, biblical figures gained new dimensions through associations drawn between biblical passages and affinities with other biblical figures. Quite often, the affinity was transformed into competition between the figures. Sometimes this transformation had no ideological
motives; other times it was related to religious ideas set in contrast to other religious groups. The present article examines some case studies for this process. The article moves from stressing the affinities between biblical figures—Abraham and Job (section 1), Abraham and Moses (section 2), Abraham and Noah (sections 3–4), Enoch and Noah (section 5)—to their contrast in a competitive manner. The Testament of Abraham, the Genesis Apocryphon, and rabbinic traditions demonstrate that this dynamic is inherent in Jewish post-biblical literature, although some of these competitions also arose in the context of polemics with Christianity and (possibly) other groups. The competition between Enoch and Noah, which may be inferred from Jub 10:15–17, explains the addition of the verse concerning Enoch in Sir 44:16, in which phraseology similar to Jubilees is used. Sections 6–7 deal with the figure of Enoch in Jubilees, including Jub 10:17, especially Enoch’s portrayal as a “witness.” The author concludes that this book probably used various sources in which a similar phrase had received different interpretations.