“DIVINE NATURE” IN 2 PET 1,4 WITHIN ITS ESCHATOLOGICAL CONTEXT 89 of his day illustrates how an active view of φύσις as the source of human activity can be associated with God’s own nature as ex- pressed in divine activity, both of which find expression in the law of created nature and in the laws of Moses. The same active use of “nature” exhibited by Philo, being repre- sentative of Hellenistic Judaism 33, is consistently attested both in the LXX and in post-biblical Jewish literature. Fύσις occurs 12x in LXX, eight of which are in 4 Maccabees; θεῖος occurs 34x in LXX (or 35 if 4 Macc 12,12 is included), 24 of which (or 25 if 4 Macc 12,12 is in- cluded) are in 4 Maccabees, though the exact phrase θεία φύσις never occurs in the LXX. Since different “natures” entail distinct identities, one reads in 3 Macc 3,29 of “human nature” (qnhth. φύσις), in 4 Macc 1,20 of two “natures of emotions” (paqw/n φύσeiς), pleasure and pain, which “grow” (pefu,ken), and in Wis 7,20 of the “natures of animals” (φύσeiς zwwn). In Wis 13,1, all men who are ignorant of God are ,| “foolish by nature” (ma,taioi fu,sei) in that they are not able to see or to know him from his creation. In Wis 19,20, the nature of water is defined as its ability to quench fire (τη/ς σβεστικης φύσεως). Even in / the strongly Hellenized tradition of 4 Maccabees, φύσις is usually de- fined according to its actions as an expression of its identity. Thus, in 4 Macc 5,25, God shows sympathy in giving the law to us according to God’s nature (κατὰ φύσιν) as the one who acts in the best interest of his people (cf. 4 Macc 5,8.9; 13,27, 15,13; 16,3). The non-fragmentary Greek Pseudepigrapha contain 18 refer- ences to φύσις. In L.A.E. 11.2, φύσις is used of the animals being changed (h`mw/n fu,seij methlla,gesan) due to the fall of Eve, from once submitting to humanity as the image of God to now attacking Seth. The change in the animals’ φύσις is expressed in their changed actions, since their “nature” is not static but dynamic. In T. Dan 3.5, φύσις refers to what a person can normally accomplish without the added power and influence of anger. In T. Naph. 3.4-5, the readers are admonished not to become like Sodom, who, through her ac- tions, departed from the order of her nature (ἵνα µὴ γένησθε ὡς Σόδοµα ἥτις ἐνήλλαξε τάξιν φύσεως αὐτῆς), or like the Watchers, who likewise changed the order of their nature (καὶ οἱ ἐγρήγοροι ἐνήλλαξαν τάξιν φύσεως αὐτῶν) and were cursed at the flood. For this same definition of one’s φύσις in terms of one’s actions, see T. Cf., e.g., Josephus A.J. 8.107, where God’s omnipresent nature is em- 33 phasized, the expression of which is that God sees and hears all things. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati