Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 75:1 (NA 2024)
Article: Another ‘I Have Come’ Saying From Ancient Judaism A Note On "De Sampsone" 13
Author: Simon Gathercole

TynBull 75:1 (2024) p. 101

Another ‘I Have Come’ Saying From Ancient Judaism
A Note On De Sampsone 13

Simon Gathercole

Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity
University of Cambridge
[email protected]

Abstract

This article adds a further early example of the ‘I have come’ + purpose formula, as used frequently in early Jewish literature by angelic visitors to earth. This case and other instances already known are relevant to the question of whether pre-existence Christology is implied in the parallel statements of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels.

1. Introduction

In The Preexistent Son (2006), I sought to make the argument that the closest and most numerous parallels to Jesus’s ‘I have come’ sayings in the Synoptic Gospels were statements made by angels in ancient Judaism.1 Frequently in Jewish literature, angels declare ‘I have come’ + purpose, thereby implying that they have come from somewhere to fulfil a particular mission, which is the reason for their earthly visit. Similarly, when Jesus announced his presence with ‘I have come’ + purpose, he was stating that he had come from somewhere to fulfil the goals of his earthly ministry. In these statements, Jesus was not referring to quotidian local comings (e.g. to Capernaum or to Nazareth); these sayings were about his whole mission, as is clear in e.g. ‘I have come to cast fire on the earth’, or ‘I have not come to abolish [the Law and the Prophets] but to fulfil them’ (Luke 12:49; Matt 5:17). I discussed in The Preexistent Son a

TynBull 75:1 (2024) p. 102

number of such angelic passages from ancient Judaism, beginning with the various instances in the book of Daniel.

I have recently discovered another early instance, in the Pseudo-Philonic sermon On Samson (De Sampsone). This is a homily on the life of Samson, surviving only in Armenian.2 In line with its transmission in the Armenian Philonic corpus, the first editor of this text assigned the work to Philo, thus putting it in the first century.3 Although now no longer attributed to Philo of Alexandria, the sermon On Samson (along with the similar On Jonah) is still regarded as an early Jewish production. Folker Siegert, who has worked most on these texts, offers variously a broader timeframe (‘im 1. vorchristlichen bis 2. christlichen Jahrhundert’),4 and ...