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Rechabites
A branch of the Kenites.
They are sometimes viewed as forerunners of
monastics. (Because of the ascetical associations, their name
was taken by a XIX Century Protestant temperance society.)
Jewish and Christian folk tradition asserts that some
Rechabites continue to live in an invisible but earthly
"Land of the Blessed". Occasionally this land was said to be in Asia,
and the Rechabites are confusedly
refered to in some mediæval texts
as "Brahmins".
Norman Hugh Redington
Under construction --- far from complete! Read with caution.
- ABOUT:
-
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
-
From the Jewish Encyclopedia: Rechabites
-
1912 Catholic Encyclopedia: (Read with caution)
- Jeremiah 35 (Masor.)
- Ancestry:
1 Paralipomenon (Chronicles) 2
- St. Jerome, Ep. 58, v.
- Z. Avalov:
Géographie et légende dans un récit
apocryphe de saint Basile,
(1927).
Paris: A. Picard,, 1929.
- L. Bronner:
The Rechabites --
a sect in Biblical times, (1971).
From
De Fructu Oris Sui -- Essays in Honour of Adrianus
van Selms
edited by I. H. Eybers,
(Leiden: Brill, 1971).
- R. A. J. Gagnon:
The Rechabites of Jer. 35 -- forerunners
of the Essenes? (1992).
From
Qumran Questions edited by J. H. Charlesworth,
(Sheffield Academic, 1995).
- C. H. Knights:
The Rechabites in the Bible and in Jewish
Tradition to the Time of Rabbi David Kimhi, (1988).
University of Durham, 1988.
- B. Krondorfer:
The Kenites, the Midianites, and the Rechabites as
marginal mediators in ancient Israelite tradition, (1995).
From
Transformations, Passages, and Processes
edited by Mark McVann and Bruce J. Malina,
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995).
- The Story of Zosimus and the Rechabites:
An ancient narrative preserved in many languages
describes the journey of an hermit named Zosimus
who finds a lost community
of Rechabites living in an earthly paradise.
READ WITH CAUTION: the existing
text shows strong Gnostic influence, and was
declared
unreliable by Patriarch Nicephorus in 850.
- De Vita Beatorum.
-
The History of the Rechabites.
Greek text with translation by James H. Charlesworth.
Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1982.
-
The Narrative of Zosimus concerning the Life of the Blessed.
Translated by W. A. Craig.
--- SPL
- J. Derrett and J. Duncan:
Jewish Brahmins and the Tale of the Rechabites, (1983).
Classica et Mediævalia (34): 75.
- Ronit Nikolsky:
The Adam and Eve Traditions in The Journey of Zosimos,
(2004).
From
Things Revealed,
edited by E. G. Chazon et al.,
(Leiden: Brill, 2004): 345.
- Kasten Ronnow:
Some Remarks on Svetadvipa, (1929).
Bull. School Oriental Studies,
Univ. Lond. (5/2): 253.
Svetadvipa or the "White Island" is an Hindu
utopia mentioned in the Mahabharata.
In the XIX Century, the story was frequently cited as
an
example of Christian influence on
Hinduism, possibly as an Indian version of
the legend of the Rechabites, although few
modern scholars would accept this.
-
Alan Turnbull:
The Story of Zosimus.
Argues that the part about Zosimus is a Christian addition
to an older Hellenised Jewish apocryphon.
--- University of St. Andrews
- Zosimus and Mormonism:
The first chapters of the
story bear a striking (but superficial) resemblance
to the Book of Mormon, and therefore have been picked up
by Mormon apologists.
Demonstrates convincingly that the similarities
to the Book of Mormon are coincidental.
--- Tektonics
Rechabites in Fiction:
- Menahem Wolfkowski:
Yirmeyahu u-vet ha-Rekhavim, (1968).
Tel Aviv: 'Am 'oved, 1968. A novel
about Jeremiah.
2005/12
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