Demonstratio et veritas. Priestly oracles in Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum

Abstract

Although shrouded in mystery, the oracles of the high priest (Urim and Thummim) have often been the subject of curious interest in the literature of the Second Temple, as well as in the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (L.A.B.). The present research studies the mentions of this device in Pseudo-Philo’s narrative to shed new light on its configuration, role, and function. Despite the attempts made by recent scholarship to distinguish and separate them from the priestly attire, the most plausible hypothesis is to consider Pseudo-Philo’s understanding of Urim and Thummim as light-giving stones, closely related to the ephod, used by the high priest especially when he has to exercise judgment. Thus, such objects gain importance in reconstructing the peculiar significance of priesthood in L.A.B. In this framework, the strange narrative of L.A.B. 25–26 about the idolatrous stones replaced by new luminous ones becomes more intelligible.