New Heaven and New Earth: Prophecy and the Millennium : Essays in Honour of Anthony Gelston (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum)

347 Pages·1999·21.66 MB·English

by  P. J. Harland

NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH
PROPHECY AND THE MILLENNIUM
SUPPLEMENTS
το
VETUS TESTAMENTUM
EDITED BY
THE BOARD OF THE QUARTERLY
H.M. BARSTAD - PHYLLIS A. BIRD - R.P. GORDON
A. HURVITZ - A. VAN DER KOOIJ - A. LEMAIRE
R. SMEND - J. TREBOLLE BARRERA
J.C. VANDERKAM - H.G.M. WILLIAMSON
VOLUME LXXVII
י י 6 8 י> י

NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH
PROPHECY AND THE MILLENNIUM
ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF ANTHONY GELSTON
EDITED BY
P.J. HARLAND
AND
C.T.R. HAYWARD
NtC
׳6 8
BRILL
LEIDEN · BOSTON · KÖLN
1999
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
New heaven and new earth-prophecy and the millennium : essays in
honour of Anthony Gelston / edited by P.J. Harland and C.T.R.
Hayward.
p. cm. — (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, ISSN 0083-5889 ;
v. 77)
"Publications of Anthony Gelston" : p.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004108416 (cl. : alk. paper)
1. Bible—Prophecies. 2. Millennialism. I. Gelston, A.
II. Harland, P.J. III. Hayward, Robert, 1948- . IV. Series.
BS410.V452 vol. 77
[BS647.2]
210.1 '5—dc21 99-30452
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
New heaven and new earth - prophecy and the millennium:
essays in honour of Anthony Gelston / ed. by Ρ J. Harland and C.T.R.
Hayward. Leiden : Boston ; Köln : Brill, 1999
(Supplements to Vetus testamentum ; Vol. 77)
ISBN 90-04-10841-6
[Vetus testamentum / Supplements]
Supplements to Vetus testamentum. - Leiden ; Boston ; Köln :
Brill
Früher Schriftenreihe
Reihe Supplements zu: Vetus Testamentum
ISSN 0083-5889
Vol. 77. New heaven and new earth - prophecy and the millennium.-
1999
Photograph by David Antony, Sunderland
ISSN 0083-5889
ISBN 90 04 10841 6
© Copyright 1999 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Abbreviations χ
R.W.L. MOBERLY, On Learning to be a True Prophet:
the Story of Balaam and his Ass 1
C.T.R. HAYWARD, Balaam !s Prophecies as Interpreted by
Philo and the Aramaic Targums of the Pentateuch 19
P.B. DIRKSEN, The Future in the Book of Chronicles 37
J. GIBSON, I Know that My Redeemer Liveth 53
M.A. VINCENT, The Shape of the Psalter: an Eschatological
Dimension? 61
R E. CLEMENTS, The Wolf Shall Live with the Lamb:
Reading Isaiah 11:6-9 Today 83
H.G.M. WILLIAM SON, Gnats, Glosses and Eternity:
Isaiah 51:6 Reconsidered 101
P.J. HARLAND, A Land Full of Violence: The Value f
ß
Human Life in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 1 13
G. DAVIES, Three Christian Commentators on Hosea 129
S. WEEKS, Whose Words? Qoheleth, Hosea and
Attribution in Biblical Literature 151
J.W. ROGERSON, The S cia1 Background of the Book of
Ū
Malachi 171
J.K. AITKEN, Apocalyptic, Revelation and Early Jewish
Wisdom Literature 181
A. MILLARD, Judith, Tobit, Ahiqar and History 195
J.F. HEALEY, "Death is Swallowed up in Victory"
(1 Corinthians 15:54): Canaanite Mot in Prophecy and
Apocalypse 205
M. BARKER, Enthronement and Apotheosis: the Vision in
Revelation 4-5 217
DJ. LANE, Of Wars and Rumours of Peace: Apocalyptic
Material in Aphrahat and Subhalmaran 229
L. STUCKENBRUCK, The "Demonstration on Love" by
Aphrahat the Sage: a Translation with Introduction 247
L. MÜNK, The Three Jewish Children at Berlin: Cotton
Mather's Obsession 271
S.W. GILLEY, George Stanley Faber: No Popery and
Prophecy 287
Appreciation of the Reverend Dr. Anthony Gelston 305
Publications of Anthony Gelston 307
Index 311
FOREWORD
This collection of essays is offered to Tony Gelston with the respect,
affection, and gratitude of his many friends, who have appreciated
and benefited both from his gifts as a fine tutor and supervisor, as
well as from his many meticulous scholarly writings, which span a
period of some forty years. He will celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday
in the year 2000, and this Festschrift therefore represents a birthday
tribute to a fine scholar. That same year, however, has been desig-
nated by British, European, and North American governments as the
beginning of the third Millennium, despite protests from mathemati-
cians and purists that the new century properly begins with the year
2001. The editors of this volume have bowed to the apparently in-
evitable: the year 2000 will celebrate the new Millennium, purists
notwithstanding; and the Festschrift for Tony Gelston should, they
felt, in some measure share public concern with the future, the new
century, and the ultimate destiny of the planet. It soon became clear
that the themes of the future and "the end", which have long occu-
pied students of the Hebrew Bible, were entirely appropriate for a
book honouring Tony Gelston, and for a number of different reasons.
First, Tony's scholarly work is perhaps best known for its scrupu-
lous accuracy and attention to detail. Such accuracy in and of itself
is the mark of the true scholar down the ages. It is of some partie-
ular interest for this volume, however, since in years gone by it was
often the hallmark of those who searched the Bible for detailed infor-
mation about God's plan for the future of the world, for weal or
woe. A number of the essays in this collection remind the reader
that both ancient and early modern interpreters of the Hebrew Bible
have found therein a code which (so they understood) might be accu-
rately deciphered to yield hard facts about the future of the cosmos.
This is a matter of enduring significance touched upon in the essays
by Graham Davies, David Lane, Loren Stuckenbruck, Linda Münk,
and finally by Sheridan Gilley, who offers a serious yet gently humor-
ous critique of this old, yet seemingly ever new tendency on the part
of certain exegetes to find the future written down to the smallest
details in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Secondly, precise knowledge of the exact words of the Biblical text
is a prerequisite for those who would elucidate its message about