The Sources of Authority in Second Baruch BALÁZS TAMÁSI Introduction Since 1855, when Antonio M. Ceriani discovered a Syriac witness to 2 Baruch in the Ambrosian Library, different assumptions and hypothe‐ ses have appeared in the scholarship regarding the date, provenance, transmission and structure of the composition. I do not intend to go into details regarding these more or less unresolved questions in con‐ nection with 2 Baruch; I will only briefly touch upon them to the extent that they relate to the topic of my article. First I will discuss the manu‐ scripts which have preserved parts or the entire text of the composition of 2 Baruch. Then I will turn to the main issue of this study, namely, what kind of self‐authorization strategy can be detected in the composi‐ tion, and what the sources of authority for the early Jewish readers of the time may have been. 1 The Codex Ambrosianus (7a1 or B. 21 Inf.), which dates from the sixth or seventh century CE represents the oldest complete text‐witness to the Syriac Old Testament and includes the earliest complete text extant of 2 Baruch as well (fols. 257 recto – 267 recto). The manuscript, containing Estrangela handwriting, was published by its discoverer in transcription in 1868, and later it was edited in facsimile in 1876. 2 The Codex Ambrosianus has also preserved the Epistle of Baruch in two different versions. One of them constitutes an integral part of 2 Baruch (chapters 78‐87) and the other, placed between the Epistle of Jeremiah and the Book of Baruch, appears as a separate text. 3 According to the recently prevailing opinion, scholars consider the two parts (Apoca‐ lypse of and the Epistle of Baruch) in unity. 4 In accordance with this 1 See POPOVIĆ, Introducing Authoritative Scriptures, 1‐17. 2 See CERIANI, Monumenta Sacra, 113‐180, and CERIANI, Translatio Syra Pescitto, 533‐553. 3 The position of the two letters in the Codex Ambrosianus is fols. 265 verso – 267 recto and fols. 176 verso – 177 verso, see CERIANI, Translatio Syra Pescitto, 550‐553 and 364‐366. 4 See HENZE, Jewish Apocalypticism, 43; LIED, Other Lands, 24‐25 and WHITTERS, Epistle, 34, 65, 114, 126.