The Sphinx: The Abrahamic Inversion

The Temple reads the hostile Prince Mastema of Jubilees as a slander of the Sphinx. The name means hostility, and hostility is no name for prayer to the Original Gods: approach the Sphinx by the legitimate and eternal name.

The Word Before the Demon

For many years, the Book of Jubilees was believed to be an apocryphal text of unknown origin used fully by the Ethiopian Tewahedo Church. Portions of the work or citations from it also survived in Greek, Latin, and Syriac, while several early Christian authors knew and cited the work under titles such as Little Genesis, leading scholars to suspect a Hebrew original. It was not until the discovery of fifteen scrolls in Hebrew from the desert of Qumran as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls from 1946-1956 that it was recognized as part of an ancient Jewish corpus widely read in the 2nd century BCE with a different textual origin to that of the Septuagint (the standard Jewish texts translated to Greek that would become the Old Testament, reflecting certain earlier Jewish beliefs.)

The Book of Jubilees provides a parallel narrative to that of Genesis and in particular 12-50 from the Bible (the story of Abraham and Isaac), and changes some aspects of the journey of Moses in Exodus, having complex discussions of angelological rank, laws and recordings of festivals, among other things. It was not used in rabbinical discussion, but parts of it do appear to have influenced narratives about Enoch and other figures, making rabbinical awareness of it or alternative traditions aligned with it highly contestable. Satan himself does not appear in Genesis 22:1-2 in regard to testing Abraham. The testing functions are of God in the Old Testamet, where God commands that Abraham sacrifice his son. In the Jubilees, the suggestion he does so is relegated to Mastema's request, having a superficial similarity to Job being tested by Satan.^1,2

Mastema originates from the Hebrew word for "hostility," "enmity," "hatred" or "persecution." As a noun, it takes on the form מַשְׂטֵמָה, (maśṭēmāh) which is derived from the root of the verb שׂטם (šṭm), meaning "to bear a grudge" or "to act hostilely toward." Although the word appears in the Masoretic Text, specifically in Hosea 9:7-8 when the prophet finds himself among those who are hostile, it is through its connection with the themes the Sphinx resides over like boundary-testing that demonstrates how this concept would be applied in a Semitic setting.^1,2,3,4

עַל רֹב עֲוֹנְךָ וְרַבָּה מַשְׂטֵמָה
Because of the greatness of your iniquity, great is the hostility.
פַּח יָקוֹשׁ עַל כָּל דְּרָכָיו מַשְׂטֵמָה בְּבֵית אֱלֹהָיו
A fowler’s trap is upon all his ways; hostility is in the house of his God.
Hosea 9:7-8

The origin of this title can be seen in the latter title of שַׂר הַמַּשְׂטֵמָה (śar ha-maśṭēmāh), "not simply 'a demon named Mastema,' but 'an enemy' or 'a hostile one.' The fragmentary Hebrew tradition shows that it was possible for it to functionally operate as an abstract office.^2,3,4

The World that Produced Prince Mastema

One ambiguity of Jubilees is that its renderings of biblical passages sometimes agree with the proto-Masoretic text, sometimes with readings represented in the Septuagint, and sometimes with the Samaritan or pre-Samaritan textual tradition. That makes it fundamentally ambiguous.

The texts in Second Temple Judaism refer to Mastema as a fallen angel. When the Watchers came down from heaven, they sired giant children with mortal women, while afterwards violent spirits remained on earth. In some other literature, the primary adversary spirit is called either Satan, Belial, the Angel of Darkness, or Melchiresha. According to Jubilees (written in Hebrew during the second century before the advent of the New Testament), this punitive and accusatory official has a name for his office - Prince Mastema. He did create the evil; nor was he created equally as an opponent to the Creator. He makes requests and receives permission. Higher angelic beings bind him and release him at will when it serves their judgment.^1,2,3,4,5,6

Nonetheless, it is clear he is the head of what is called the Watchers. Mastema tests loyalty, accuses human beings, commands hostile spirits, and executes punishment.^4,5,6

The Tenth of the Spirits

Mastema first enters the surviving narrative of Jubilees after the Flood. The unclean spirits descended from the giants are misleading, blinding, and killing Noah’s descendants. Noah prays that all of them be imprisoned. Mastema intervenes and argues that his office cannot function without proper agents:^3,4,7

“Lord Creator, leave some of them before me; let them listen to me and do everything that I tell them, because if none of them is left for me I shall not be able to exercise the authority of my will among humanity. For they are meant for destroying and misleading before my punishment, because the evil of humanity is great.”
Jubilees 10:8

God confines nine tenths of spirits to judgment and leaves one tenth active "before the satan." This really clarifies the relationship. Mastema leads the spirits and retains his title because of his function. Bad spirits are permitted to be under him because testing and exposure of human wickedness have been permitted to continue.^3,4,6

The same episode explains the origin of medicine. An angel teaches Noah remedies made from plants so that his descendants can resist the diseases and deceptions of Mastema’s spirits. Disease, demonology, and medical knowledge are therefore joined inside one narrative: the destructive spirits remain, but knowledge for limiting them is revealed at the same time.^3,7,20,21

Ravens, Idolatry, and the Corruption of the Earth

In the age of Terah, Prince Mastema expands his power over the earth by using idolatry and depriving people of their possessions. He uses the spirits under his control to produce idols and lead humans astray. They cause men to commit sin, transgressions, kill one another and corrupt the world. Mastema next dispatches ravens to eat seeds that have yet to germinate. As such, Abraham's first major success is defeating Mastema's birds: Abraham chases them away from the land and introduces a new type of plow which would bury seed beneath the surface so that the ravens could no longer eat them. ^3,4,5

Abraham's trial with Isaac is the seventh. Mastema cannot overturn the special protection attached to Abraham and his descendants. Here we see the beginning of the distortion: if the Egyptian and Greek sphinx is entreated to guard sacred knowledge, letting the foolish who worship only the superficial dissipate or leave, the Jewish equivalent turns polytheism itself into a font of sin.^4,5

Mastema Instigates the Binding of Isaac

The most influential Mastema narrative rewrites Genesis 22 through the pattern of Job. Voices in heaven praise Abraham’s faithfulness. Prince Mastema responds by challenging the value of that faith and asking God to order Isaac’s sacrifice:^3,4,8,9

“Abraham does indeed love his son Isaac and finds him more pleasing than anyone else. Tell him to offer him as a sacrifice on an altar. Then you will see whether he performs this order and will know whether he is faithful in everything through which you test him.”
Jubilees 17:16

In this passage Mastema does not give the order for the sacrifice. Instead, he suggests it, then God gives approval. It is at the altar where there is an angel "standing before Abraham and the prince of Mastema." Once Abraham is blocked and Isaac is spared, it states "Mastema's prince was put to shame" as well. The Aqedah hints that Abraham defeated the intent of the adversary by obeying God. The story here has some parallels with that of Artemis and Iphigienia.^3,4,5

It is confirmed by the Hebrew Pseudo-Jubilees manuscript 4Q225 that this was not simply a result of the Ethiopian translation. The fragmentary description of the Aqedah in 4Q225 includes "sar ha-mashtemah" and describes the hostile prince as having challenged Abraham with respect to Isaac. Fragments from 4Q225 also refer to "the angels of Mastema." Therefore, the title has been circulating in Hebrew at Qumran within an interpretation which is independent of but very close to the canonical form of Jubilees.^8,9,10

[ויבוא שר המשטמה אל] האלהים וישטים את אברהם ביצחק
[Then the Prince of Mastema came before] God and accused Abraham concerning Isaac.
4Q225, fragment 2, column i, reconstructed

The Enemy of Moses

Exodus 4:24 says that the Lord encountered Moses on the road and sought to slay him, even though the Abrahamic God had just commissioned him to liberate Israel. Contradictorily, in Jubilees, the one with the intent to kill Moses is Mastema, who wanted to preserve Egyptian power by killing the appointed deliverer:^3,4,10,11

“Did he not wish with all his strength to kill you and to save the Egyptians from your power because he saw that you were sent to carry out punishment and revenge on the Egyptians? I rescued you from his power.”
Jubilees 48:3–4

Mastema next assists the Egyptian sorcerers to mimic Moses' miracles; he attempts to give Moses to Pharaoah; and he instigates the Egyptians to pursue Israel. He is bound from the 14th to the 18th day of the first month in order that he may not be able to curse Israel; after being unbound, he works for the purpose of strengthening the Egyptians for their final pursuit by the Red Sea. This narrative continuously restricts his power with all actions performed by holy angels. The angels only allow Mastema to continue when the desired results would complete God's judgement on Egypt.^3,4,5,11

The Passover Paradox

Mastema's most unusual part is that he is shown as having an army in Jubilees 49. "The powers of Mastema" are sent to kill all the first borns of Egypt. However, these powers are unable to harm the firstborn sons of the Israelites because there was blood on their doorways and immediately after this statement it says these were "the Lord's powers." Therefore, Mastema is both the enemy of the children of Israel, and also a servant for the punishment against Egypt. He cannot act autonomously.^3,4,5

The Watchers are therefore an office in the Bible that are obliged to obey the God of the text.^4,5,6

Belial and the Angel of Mastema at Qumran

The sectarian scrolls usually prefer the name Belial. The Community Rule calls him an “angel of mastema,” an angel whose essence or office is hostility, and places the spirits of his lot under the statutes of darkness:^7,12,13

ואת בליעל ברא לשחת מלאך משטמה ובחושך ממשלתו ועצתו להרשיע ולהאשים וכל רוחי גורלו מלאכי חבל בחוקי חושך יתהלכו
He created Belial for the pit, an angel of hostility. In darkness is his dominion, and his counsel is to bring wickedness and accusation; all the spirits of his lot are angels of destruction and walk in the statutes of darkness.
1QS 3:20–23

According to Damascus Document, when someone really returns to the Torah, the angel "of Mastema" will turn away. Mastema is always preceded by definite article or used to qualify another title. It is not clear whether Belial, Mastema and the Angel of Darkness were understood as distinct separate beings with the same powers. What is clear and certain is that there is one chief adversary power commanding destructive spirits, accusing, tempting those who faithfully enter into covenant. The complex test of the Sphinx is turned into loyalty to the Torah alone.^7,12,13

Mastema Disappears from the Rabbinic Canon

The Mishnah, the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, and the principal classical midrashim do not preserve Prince Mastema as a regularly named demon. His functions are redistributed among Satan, the evil inclination, the Angel of Death, destructive angels, and eventually Samael.^{6,14,15,16,17}

Rabbis did not simply copy Jubilees out of its context, as they retold older stories but recast them using vocabulary dealing with accusations, temptations, punishments and contrition.^14,17,18,19

The Aqedah Passes to Satan

Satan (or the ha-satan) complains that Abraham hosted a banquet for Isaac but offered nothing to God. God responds that Abraham would not withhold his son if ordered. Satan meets Abraham along the road and tries to wear him down with verses from Job. The role is very much like Mastema's role in Jubilees: an accuser heavenly in origin initiates the test and then tries to have the one tested fail.^14,17

אחר דבריו של שטן ... אמר לפניו רבונו של עולם זקן זה חננתו למאה שנה פרי בטן מכל סעודה שעשה לא היה לו תור אחד או גוזל אחד להקריב לפניך
After the words of Satan ... he said before him: “Master of the Universe, you graciously gave this old man a child at one hundred years; from all the feast that he made, did he not have one dove or one fledgling to offer before you?”
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 89b

Genesis Rabbah (and subsequent compilations) report that it was Samael (or Satan) who encountered both Abraham and Isaac while they traveled. In this version, Samael/Satan refers to Abraham as an old fool, warns him that if he continues he will have committed bloodshed, and addresses Isaac by telling him that the inheritance intended for him would instead go to Ishmael.^17,18

The Attack on Moses Passes to Mastema, Af and Ḥemah

In Jubilees, the lodging place is an area where Moses is violently attacked by Mastema, while in the Bible (Exodus 4:24-25) it is God himself aiming to kill him, a passage that has long struck Bible readers as being simply bizarre. Rabbis preserve the attack at the lodging place while giving the job to the lower agents. In the Nedarim 31b to 32a, Moses neglects circumcision and two destroying angels named Anger and Wrath swallow him except for his legs. Zipporah recognizes what is happening, circumcises her son and the danger goes away.^15,19

באו אף וחימה ובלעוהו ולא שיירו ממנו אלא רגליו
Af and Ḥemah came and swallowed him, leaving of him only his legs.
Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 32a

Satan Becomes Tempter, Accuser, and Angel of Death

Reish Lakish declares:¹⁶

הוא שטן הוא יצר הרע הוא מלאך המות
He is Satan, he is the evil inclination, he is the Angel of Death.
Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 16a

In Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, most likely created during the early Islamic period, Samael emerges as the primary antagonist in the form of an angel. He controls or rides upon the Serpent (the snake), he pursues the people of Israel, accepts bribes from the scapegoats, and tries to kill both Abraham and Isaac at the Aqedah. In addition, he rules over the "Other Side" in the Zohar, along with Lilith and all other opposing forces. He is portrayed as the adversary (accuser) that seduces humans, the Serpent, Angel of Death, and Prince of Nations who opposes God's nation.^{18, 19,24,25}

Later Mentions

A remarkable exception survives in the Hebrew Book of Medicines, a book attributed to Asaph the Physician. Its introductory Noah narrative repeats the structure of Jubilees 10: an angel confines most of the corrupt spirits, leaves one-tenth upon the earth before the Prince of Mastema, and reveals plant medicines against the diseases they inflict:^20,21

ואחד מעשרה הניח להתהלך בארץ לפני שר המשטמה לרדות בם ברשעים לנגע ולענות בהם בכל מיני מדות ותחלואים
And one of ten he left to walk upon the earth before the Prince of Mastema, to rule through them over the wicked, to strike and afflict them with every kind of plague and disease.
Introduction to the Book of Asaph

The medical compilation is medieval in its surviving form, traced to around the 6th century. However, the prologue of this collection has preserved materials which are based on an ancient Book of Noah tradition that was also close to Jubilees. The older name for demons was able to survive here, since the stories about illnesses caused by demons and revealed medicines were still pertinent to a medical writer. Possibly, the book likely shows that the tradition of Mastema or this epithet still held sway in sixth century Palestine as the ultimate dogma about Exodus had not been formalized.^20,21

The Karaite commentator (exegete) Yefet ben Eli (c. 10th century CE), notes that one group referred to either as "Zadokites" or "Sadducees," believed that the power from the Golden Calf was walled Prince Mastema. Although Yefet has no allegiance to the idea of this being a second God he presents the doctrine as part of his polemic in order to explain Exodus 32. It provides evidence that the accusatory and testing force even in the 10th century was viewed as being part of the epithet for some Jews.^22,23

The Christian Interpretation

The Coptic work the Investiture of the Archangel Michael from before the seventh century shows Mastema as the first angel to be created altogether as Saklataboth and then one who falls, with the Hebrew angel Michael taking his place. Whether this is based on an earlier Jewish text is unknown. From that point, Michael occupies Mastema's throne and becomes the head of the Watchers.^24,25,26

As far as Mastema was concerned, the Book of Jubilees was known and referenced by several early Christians as a book held in high regard, enough for Augustine, John Chrysostom and others to accept its arguments about the angels and humans being the disobedient offspring of Seth and Cain. Its eventual non-canon status occurred by the late Middle Ages, but even the Byzantine authors George Synkellos and George Kedrenos in the ninth and eleventh century still referred to 'Mastipham' and 'Mastiphat' as the ruler of demons, referring back to the text as authority.^27,28,29