The Treatise of the Vessels (Massekhet Kelim) and traditions concerning Eden and the gold of Parvaim

Introduction

The Treatise of the Vessels (Massekhet Kelim) is a treasure map purporting to list the various places in which the treasures of Solomon’s Temple were buried when Jerusalem fell to Babylon. ¹ Yet, for the modern researcher, it is a map that leads to riddles of tradition and interpretation. It exists in two meagerly attested recensions, one that appears in R. Naftali Hertz Bachrach’s Emek Hamelech from 1648 and is reproduced by Adolph Jellinek in Bet ha-Midrasch 2, and a second on marble plaques in Beirut of which J.T. Milik provides a single photograph in an article from 1959. ² The document has yet to receive much scholarly attention, and its provenance remains unknown. ³

Among the interpretive riddles of the Treatise of the Vessels is its identification of the source of gold for the Temple and its vessels as the Garden of Eden. James R. Davila, the one scholar to write an essay on scriptural exegesis in this text, says of the vessels,

their gold is connected in some not entirely clear way to a place beneath the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, a motif not associated with the trees of the gold of Parvaim elsewhere as far as I have been able to ascertain. ⁴

A combination of intertextual scriptural exegesis and related traditions (including those concerning the meaning of the word “Parvaim” itself), however, may have contributed to associating the gold in the Temple with the Garden of Eden in the Treatise of the Vessels: (1) the description of gold as “good” in Gen 2 and 2 Chr 3, (2) the brothers Ophir and Havilah in the Table of Nations, (3) the fruit in Eden and traditions concerning golden fruit, and (4) the tradition of other precious stones from Eden used in the Temple and its service. While much concerning the Treatise of the Vessels remains unclear, this proposal offers a contribution to increasing discussion of this obscure text and, through observing a clustering of similar traditions in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, may provide a step forward in suggesting a context for its composition.

The source of gold in the Treatise of the Vessels

In its listing of temple treasures and the places where they are hidden, the Treatise of the Vessels associates the gold of the temple with the Garden of Eden three times. First, the list of treasures in a cistern in the fifth section begins,

שלחנות של זהב ע״ז וזהבם מקירות של גן עדן שנתגלה לשלמה ומזהירין כזהר חמה ולבנה שמזהירין ברום עולם‎

Seventy-seven tables of gold, and their gold was from the walls of the Garden of Eden that was revealed to Solomon, and they radiated like the radiance of the sun and moon, which radiate at the height of the world.

Second, the list of treasures hidden in Borsif in the seventh section states,

אבנים טובות ומרגליות וכסף וזהב שהקדיש דוד המלך לבית הגדול אלף אלפי׳ ככרי כסף ומאת אלפים ככרי זהב ואילנות של זהב פרויים שהיו עושין פירות שש מאות וששים ושש רבוא ככרי זהב טוב שהיה מתחת עץ החיים בגן הקודש‎

The fine stones and pearls and silver and gold that King David set aside for the great House were a thousand thousand talents of silver. And (there were) the trees of the gold of Parvaim which used to produce fruit of six hundred and sixty-six myriad talents of fine gold that was underneath the Tree of Life in the Holy Garden. ⁵

Third, the list of vessels at Ein Kotel in section 10 includes

ושלחנות של זהב טוב מתחת העץ החיים העומד בגן הקודש ע‛ שהיו עליהם לחם הפנים‎

seventy tables of fine gold from beneath the Tree of Life that stands in the Garden of Holiness, upon which was the bread of the presence.

In the first instance, the gold comes from the Garden of Eden’s walls. In the second instance, trees of “the gold of Parvaim” are present that used to provide gold underneath the Tree of Life. The third mention of the gold states that it comes from underneath the Tree of Life. This gold, in view of the second quotation above, would also be “gold of Parvaim.”

While Davila expresses his uncertainty concerning how the gold became associated with the place beneath the Tree of Life in Eden, he reasons,

Very ancient Jewish tradition associates the Temple with the Garden of Eden, which in turn is associated with Parvaim. And in the Bible, one of the four rivers that flow out of Eden is associated with a land of fine gold (Gen 2:11). Moreover, the description of Eden in Ezek 28 describes it as full of precious stones and gold (Ezek 28:13), and this may have clinched the identification of Solomon’s magical trees with the Garden of Eden. ⁶

As Davila notes, association of the Temple with the Garden of Eden appears in earlier texts. The lament for the king of Tyre in Ezek 28:12–19 says the king was in Eden, listing its precious stones and gold, and continues by speaking of his removal from the mountain of God because he profaned the sanctuary (esp. 28:13, 14, 16, 18). ⁷ The Garden of Eden also appears as one of a series of holy places of God’s dwelling, along with the temple, in Jub. 8:19, although clearly distinguished from Mount Zion and Mount Sinai as other such holy places. ⁸ The listing of precious stones in Gen 2:12 further invites association with the Temple through the longer list of stones on the high priest’s ephod, used by the high priest in Temple service, in Exod 28:17–20, an association that Anderson observes in Ephrem, Hymns on Paradise 7.4. ⁹

Although the Treatise of the Vessels is not alone in mentioning Eden and the gold of Parvaim together (on which see further below), it is nevertheless unique in directly identifying Eden as the source of this gold. The following suggestions for linking the gold and Eden provide greater specificity to the scriptural exegesis that may have led to this association of the gold of the Temple with the Garden of Eden and the place beneath the Tree of Life.

Good gold

The simplest link between the gold of the Temple and the Garden of Eden is through the description of the Temple’s gold as זהב טוב‎ (“good gold”) in 2 Chr 3:5 and 8. The only other place in the Hebrew Bible where טוב‎ (“good”) modifies זהב‎ (“gold”) is Gen 2:12. The description of Eden in Gen 2 includes a list of four rivers branching out from the river of Eden, including the Pishon, which flows around Havilah. Genesis 2:12 says of the gold in Havilah, וזהב הארץ ההוא טוב‎ (“and the gold of that land is good”). As stated above, Davila notes the possible link from the Temple to the gold of Havilah, although he does not note the uniqueness of gold described as “good” in the Hebrew Bible. This link is simple, but it is not direct, and the specific labeling of the gold as gold of Parvaim suggests another set of links, as I discuss below.

Sons of Joktan

A string of names and texts about Temple construction also connect the gold in the Temple to the Garden of Eden: 2 Chr 3:6, 1 Kgs 10:11, Gen 10:29 or 1 Chr 1:23, and Gen 2:11. פרוים‎ (“Parvaim”) occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible, in 2 Chr 3:6, which says of the gold that Solomon used to overlay parts of the Temple, והזהב זהב פרוים‎ (“The gold was gold from Parvaim”). ¹⁰ In 1 Kgs 10:11, however, Hiram provides gold for the temple from Ophir: וגם אני חירם אשר־נשא זהב מאופיר הביא מאפיר עצי אלמגים הרבה מאד ואבן יקרה‎ (“Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a great quantity of almug wood and precious stones”). ¹¹ That the author of the Treatise of the Vessels, or the tradition that it transmits, connected 2 Chr 3:6 with 1 Kgs 10 when considering Solomon’s gold is evident from the 666 myriad talents of gold that it says the trees produced. This number comes from 1 Kgs 10:14, which says ויהי משקל הזהב אשר־בא לשלמה בשנה אחת שש מאות ששים ושש ככר זהב‎ (“The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold”). ¹² The identification of this gold in 1 Kgs 10:11 as gold of Ophir follows only shortly afterward. The gold of Parvaim in the temple in 2 Chr 3:6 could thus easily link to the gold of Ophir from 1 Kgs 10:14.

The next link in the string of texts associates this gold of Parvaim / gold from Ophir with Eden. The gold near Eden in Genesis is in Havilah. Genesis 2:11–12 speaks of the quality of the gold in Havilah, around which one of the four rivers of Eden flows:שם האחד פישון הוא הסבב את כל־ארץ החוילה אשר־שם הזהב׃ וזהב הארץ ההוא טוב‎ (“The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good”). Note that זהב טוב‎ (“good gold”) appears as a descriptor in the second and third quotations from the Treatise of the Vessels above, showing the use of the exact phrase in Gen 2.

A fraternal relationship appears between Ophir and Havilah in Genesis. The name אופיר‎/אופר‎ (“Ophir”) occurs thirteen times in the Hebrew Bible, most often in the phrase זהב אופיר‎ or כתם אופיר‎ (“gold of Ophir,” 1 Kgs 10:11 [זהב מאופיר‎]; 1 Chr 29:4; 2 Chr 9:10 [זהב מאופיר‎]; Job 28:16; Ps 45:10; Isa 13:12) or otherwise as a location producing gold (1 Kgs 9:28; 10:11 [second occurrence]; 22:49; 2 Chr 8:18; Job 22:24). The only other places the word occurs are in Gen 10:29 and 1 Chr 1:23, both of which provide the necessary link to Havilah. In the Table of Nations in Genesis, Ophir and Havilah are brothers, together sons of Joktan: ואת־אופר ואת־חוילה ואת־יובב כל־אלה בני יקטן‎ (“Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the descendants of Joktan,” Gen 10:29), and the Chronicler reproduces the same record of Joktan’s family. Finally, Ezek 28:13, which Davila notes may have assisted the association of gold from the trees in the Temple with Eden by locating gold in Eden, ¹³ could suggest that the gold was not only at a place around which a river from Eden flowed, but also in the Garden itself.

Appearance of two of the rivers of Eden in the final section of the Treatise of the Vessels, section 12, demonstrates that its author remembered the rivers when writing about the Temple and could have made such a connection. In speaking of the revelation of the vessels hidden by the angels at the time of David, son of David, it says that a river named Gihon will go out from the Temple (ובת ההיא יצא נהר גדול מבית קודש הקדשי.מ ששמו גיחון‎, “And at that time a great river shall go forth from the most holy House, whose name is Gihon”) and that this river will join the Euphrates (ויתערב בנהר פרת‎, “and shall mingle with the Euphrates River”). By mentioning the second and fourth rivers from Gen 2:11–14, the text shows the possibility of connecting the first river, Pishon, and the gold of Havilah, around which the river flowed, with the Temple and Havilah’s brother Ophir.

How early the association of Parvaim with the Garden of Eden originated without specific identification of the Temple’s gold as from Eden is unclear, but it appears in other medieval Jewish texts, and much earlier tradition may have already been moving along that trajectory. In 1Qap Genar ii 23, Methuselah goes to פרוין‎ “Parvain” to consult Enoch about the birth of his grandson Noah. ¹⁴ On the basis of the Treatise of the Vessels and through harmonizing the location of Enoch in 1Qap Genar, Enoch’s location in the similar story in 1 En. 106–107, and the garden of the righteous in 1 En. 32:3; 60:23, P. Grelot proposes the simple identification of Parvaim and the Garden of Eden. ¹⁵ That Parvaim was, in some traditions, simply a name for the Garden of Eden from an early time is possible, although Grelot’s harmonization across 1Qap Genar, the Book of the Watchers, the Similitudes of Enoch, and the Epistle of Enoch problematizes how firmly his conclusion can be established. ¹⁶ In any case, even if Grelot’s observation suggests the antiquity of a tradition that associates Parvaim and the Garden of Eden, it does not explain how this tradition may have arisen. The chain of texts I have noted may have contributed to the formation of this tradition.

In the medieval period, the presence of the gold of Parvaim in Eden in a story about Joshua ben Levi appearing in the Yalkut Shimoni (thirteenth century) and the Avodah of Moses Ibn Ezra (twelfth century) describes the high priest by comparing his appearance to both Eden and the gold of Parvaim in close proximity. ¹⁷ I have been unable to locate earlier attestation of this story that mentions the gold of Parvaim in Eden in the Yalkut Shimoni, but the composite nature of the Yalkut Shimoni suggests that the tradition dates somewhat earlier.

Gold-bearing trees and the fruit of the garden

Why, however, does the Treatise of the Vessels place the gold specifically underneath the Tree of Life? How scriptural exegesis could have led to this idea is less clear, but I may offer some suggestions. First, the description of the rivers in Gen 2:10–14, along with the gold in Havilah, immediately follows mention of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Gen 2:9.

Second, gold, fruit, and the Temple appear together in an interpretive tradition in the Midrash and the Talmud. As mentioned above, Davila notes the uniqueness of the connection between the trees of the gold of Parvaim and the Tree of Life. ¹⁸ In his discussion of the gold of Parvaim and the Temple, he cites the comments on 2 Chr 3:6 in Num. Rab. 12.4, in which a play on פרוים‎ (“Parvaim”) and פרי‎ (“fruit”) provides a picture of trees in the Temple that produce golden fruit for Temple maintenance. ¹⁹ The tradition of trees with golden fruit in the Temple also appears in b. Yoma 21b and 39b. This wordplay may provide a second set of links tying the gold of the Temple with trees bearing fruit in Eden. While in b. Yoma 45a’s list of kinds of gold R. Hisa and R. Ashi explain the word Parvaim as due to the gold’s reddish color resembling a bull’s blood, y. Yoma 41d,19–27 notes both the explanations that gold of Parvaim is red like bull’s blood and that it bears fruit.

Exodus Rabbah contains an extended discussion of gold, linking Eden, Lebanon, and the Temple. Exodus Rabbah 35.1 first links וזהב הארץ ההוא טוב‎ (“and the gold of that land is good”) in Gen 2:12 with ההר הטוב הזה והלבנון‎ (“that good hill country and the Lebanon”) in Deut 3:25 to say that God created gold for the Tabernacle and Temple. Leviticus Rabbah 1.2 also interprets Deut 3:25 as a reference to the Temple. ²⁰ Genesis Rabbah 16.2 on Gen 2:12 likewise cites Deut 3:25 to present gold’s purpose to be for the Temple. Exodus Rabbah 35.1 continues by listing various kinds of gold and then addressing the question of the gold of Parvaim. As in y. Yoma 41d,19–27, two explanations appear: first, that it is like the blood of bulls, and second, that it bears fruit. The latter explanation also appears in Num. Rab. 11.3. Although Davila notes Exod. Rab. 35.1 and Num. Rab. 11.3 as having the tradition of gold-bearing trees, he does not note the connection with Gen 2:12 that precedes in the former. ²¹ Numbers Rabbah 13.18 explains gold of Parvaim having the color of blood, so it seems to assume the explanation of Parvaim with פר‎ (“bull”).

Numbers Rabbah 12.4, mentioned above, appears to reflect a collection of similar traditions. Although the precise date of Numbers Rabbah is uncertain, a general consensus places it around the twelfth century. ²² Proceeding from a discussion of gold in the Temple, it explains the existence of seven species of gold. The first is זהב טוב‎ (“good gold”), for which it cites Gen 2:12. The seventh species is the gold of Parvaim, for which it offers the bull blood and fruit-bearing explanations. Numbers Rabbah 12.4 also contains a play on רפידתו‎ (“its back” [of a chair]?) in Song 3:10 and פרות‎ (“fruit”) to connect רפידת‎ with fruit that looks like gold. Canticum Rabbah 3.10 applies this verse to the Temple, continuing with the list of seven species of gold. Again, the first is זהב טוב‎ (“good gold”) from Gen 2:12, and the last is gold of Parvaim, with the bull blood and fruit-bearing explanations. When these various observations are taken together, they show an interpretive tradition across texts associating the temple, gold, and fruit.

When the explanation of the gold of Parvaim bearing fruit in the Temple appears, these Midrash sometimes mention its fruit falling and then serving for Temple maintenance. This may explain the location of the gold underneath the Tree of Life in the Treatise of the Vessels. The fruit has fallen off the tree, resulting in gold underneath the tree. Since these texts also attest association of this gold with Gen 2:12, it may have only been a short jump to associate these gold-bearing trees and their good gold with the most famous of trees in the Garden, the Tree of Life.

Finally, the simple suitability of a gold-bearing tree in Eden, where every good tree was to be found, could contribute to the tradition. פרי‎ (“fruit”) occurs repeatedly in Gen 1–3. The creation account of Gen 1 emphasizes the function of trees to produce fruit in 1:11, 12, and 29, as also the story of the woman and the serpent in Gen 3:2, 3, and 6. Of particular note is Gen 2:9, immediately before mention of the rivers from Eden: ויצמח יהוה אלהים מן־האדמה כל־עץ נחמד למראה וטוב למאכל ועץ החיים בתוך נגן ועץ הדעת טוב ורע‎ (“Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”). Since Gen 2:9 mentions that every tree pleasant to the sight was in the garden, if gold-bearing trees existed, interpreters could reason, “every tree” must include such trees.

Other precious stones from Eden

One further tradition worth mentioning in relation to the use of gold from Eden in the Temple concerns the use of other precious stones in Eden by the Israelites. There is no attempt in the Treatise of the Vessels to explain how the Israelites could have obtained gold from Eden. In the collective cultural thinking from which the Treatise of the Vessels originates, however, this may have been another contributing tradition to viewing the gold in the Temple as gold from Eden since it provides a way of overcoming the problem of how gold from the Garden of Eden could be obtained without access to the garden itself.

Ezekiel 28:13 lists nine of the twelve precious stones on the ephod from Exod 28:17–20. Although the order of stones differs, the correspondence of groups of stones within the different order seems to reflect deliberate use of the Exodus text. The list in Ezek 28:13 appears as follows: אדם פטדה יהלם תרשיש שהם ישפה ספיר נפך ברקת זהב‎ (“carnelian, chrysolite, and moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald”). The verse in Ezekiel lists the stones from the first, second, and fourth rows of the Ephod, omitting those in the third, and adding gold at the end. That is, three of the four groups of three stones from Exodus appear in Ezekiel. The stones appear in the order 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 5, 4, 3, leaving the three groups intact aside from substituting stone 3 and stone 6 across the first and second groups. ²³

In both Exodus and Ezekiel, gold immediately follows the lists of stones. In Ezek 28:13, gold appears as the last item in the list of precious materials at the end of a line. ²⁴ A final bicolon in the verse makes its association with the ephod clear: מלאכת תפיך ונקביך בך ביום הבראך כוננו‎ (“your settings and your engravings, on the day that you were created, were prepared”). ²⁵ This may correspond to משבצים זהב יהיו במלואתם‎ (“they shall be set in gold filigree”) which immediately follows the list of precious stones in Exod 28:20. The tradition that the stones of the ephod were in Eden also appears in LAB 26:6–13, and the pairing אבנים טובות ומרגליות‎ (“good stones and pearls,” on which see below), shortly followed by זהב פרוים‎ (“gold of Parvaim”), occurs in Seder Gan Eden. ²⁶

Further to this association of the precious stones in Eden with the Temple, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan attests a tradition that could answer how the Israelites could obtain the gold and precious stones from the Garden of Eden without entering the garden itself. If this question stimulated the formation of the tradition, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan may provide a hint to how they could have answered it. In Tg. Ps.-J. Exod 14:9, the Israelites collect מרגליין ואבין טבן‎ (“pearls and good stones”) from the Garden of Eden, which the river Pishon has carried from Eden to the Red Sea via the Gihon. This is the same river that runs around Havilah in Gen 2:11, and notably Gen 2:12 mentions precious stones immediately after its evaluation of the gold as good: וזהב הארץ ההוא טוב שם הבדלח ואבן השהם‎ (“and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there”). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, although not mentioning onyx, provides the language of “good stones:” ודהבא דארעא ההיא בחיר תמן בידלחא ואבנין טבין דבורלין‎ (“and the gold of that land was choice [gold]. Bdellium and good stones of beryl were there”). This tradition appears again in Tg. Ps.-J. Num 33:8, which says the Israelites collected אונכין ומרגלין‎ (“onyx stones and pearls”) when they passed through the Red Sea. ²⁷ The specific mention of onyx here further indicates use of Gen 2:11–12. Finally, the same link of good land and the treasures of Havilah in Gen 2:11 appears in Tg. Ps.-J. Deut 33:21, which says in the blessing on Gad, וחמא ארעא טבתא . . . ארום תמן אתר מקבע אבנין טבין ומרגליין דביה‎ (“and he saw the land was good . . . that was a place in which were good stones and pearls”). טב‎ (“good”) only modifies אבן‎ (“stone”) in Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 2:12, 50:1; Exod 14:9; and Deut 33:21, and thus the two words form a distinctive pair.

Onyx does not appear again in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. Pearls do appear several times, however, in connection with the Tabernacle. The next occurrence of מרגלי‎ is in Tg. Ps.-J. Exod. 25:7, where it appears in the list of offerings for the Tabernacle and accompanying objects, in this case the ephod of the high priest. The word similarly appears in Tg. Ps.-J. Exod 28:9 (2×), 10, 11, 12, 17, 21; 31:5, 9, 33; 39:6, 10 (2×), 14; and Num 2:3, 10, 18, and 25. The only other occurrences of the word in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan are those in Gen 33:19; Exod 14:9; Num 33:8; and Deut 33:21, which I have already discussed.

Repeated mention of pearls in connection with the Tabernacle, which preceded the Temple, is particularly notable in view of the second time the gold of Parvaim appears in the Treatise of the Vessels. As may be seen in the quotation above, the section in which the gold of Parvaim appears the second time begins with אבנים טובות ומרגליות וכסף וזהב‎ (“good stones, and pearls, and silver, and gold”). After the first quotation above, the section includes אבנים טובות‎ (“good stones,” 2×), אבני יקר‎ (“precious stones”), אבן טובה‎ (“good stone”), and מרגלית‎ (“pearls”), displaying a set of vocabulary as that in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. The same words continue to appear in the continuation in the following two sections of the Treatise of the Vessels, and the phrase אבנים טובות‎ (“good stones”) appears in the seventh section following the part quoted above.

Conclusion

Where do these comparisons with traditions attested in other texts lead us? Not as far as we might like, but they do take us a step forward in the study of the Treatise of the Vessels. First, they provide examples of the kind of scriptural exegesis that may have contributed to the traditions in the Treatise of the Vessels. Second, they reveal exegetical similarities to more widely attested traditions concerning the gold of Parvaim, the Garden of Eden, and the Temple in the Midrash and Talmud.

Notable is that the three texts attesting traditions that appear most similar to those concerning Eden and the gold of the temple in the Treatise of the Vessels, specifically Numbers Rabbah, Yalkut Shimoni, and the Avodah of Moses Ibn Ezra, date to around the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, with the one thirteenth-century text, Yalkut Shimoni, being a composite text with material likely dating at least slightly earlier. Recognizing these traditions apparently related to the identification of the gold of the temple with gold from Eden in the Treatise of the Vessels does not clearly place the document in a particular provenance. It does suggest, however, texts from the eleventh and twelfth centuries for further comparative research to see whether we may observe further unique and particular similarities between them and the Treatise of the Vessels. If such similarities are observable, they may take us a further step in the direction of suggesting a possible date or provenance. In any case, this discussion has at least increased discussion of this obscure yet intriguing document about which so little is known.