City of Ruins: Mourning the Destruction of Jerusalem Through Jewish Apocalypse (Biblical Interpretation Series)

242 Pages·2010·2.47 MB·English

by  Dereck Daschke

City of Ruins
Biblical Interpretation Series
Editors
R. Alan Culpepper
Ellen van Wolde
Associate Editors
David E. Orton
Rolf Rendtorff
Editorial Advisory Board
Janice Capel Anderson – Phyllis A. Bird
Erhard Blum – Werner H. Kelber
Ekkehard W. Stegemann – Vincent L. Wimbush
Jean Zumstein
VOLUME 99
City of Ruins
Mourning the Destruction of Jerusalem
Through Jewish Apocalypse
By
Dereck Daschke
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Daschke, Dereck.
City of ruins : mourning the destruction of Jerusalem through Jewish apocalypse / by
Dereck Daschke.
p. cm. — (Biblical interpretation series, ISSN 0928-0731 ; v. 99)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18181-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Apocalyptic literature—History and
criticism. 2. Temple of Jerusalem (Jerusalem) 3. Judaism—History—Post-exilic period,
586 B.C.–210 A.D. 4. Eschatology, Jewish. 5. Bible. O.T. Ezekiel—Criticism, interpretation,
etc. 6. Bible. O.T. Ezra—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 7. Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch—
Criticism, interpretation, etc. 8. Greek Apocalypse of Baruch—Criticism, interpretation,
etc. I. Title. II. Series.
BS1705.D37 2010
221’.046—dc22
2009049039
ISSN 0928-0731
ISBN 978 90 04 18181 6
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ............................................................................. vii
Acknowledgments .............................................................................. ix
Introduction “If I Forget You, O Jerusalem”: Traumatic
Memory and the Fall of Zion ...................................................... 1
Chapter One Apocalyptic Melancholia and the Trauma of
History ............................................................................................. 29
Chapter Two Ezekiel: “Desolate Among Them” ........................ 61
Chapter Three 4 Ezra: “Because of My Grief I Have Spoken” ... 103
Chapter Four 2 and 3 Baruch: “Cease Irritating God” ............. 141
Conclusion The Apocalyptic Cure: Recovering the Future by
Working-through the Past ........................................................... 187
Epilogue Apocalyptic Melancholia and 9/11 .............................. 199
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 211
Index .................................................................................................... 223

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1: “The People Mourning over the Ruins of
Jerusalem.” From the Doré Illustrated Bible, Gustave Doré,
1866 ................................................................................................... 3
Figure 2: “Melencholia I.” Albrecht Dürer, 1514 .......................... 43
Figure 3: “Ezekiel Prophesying.” From the Doré Illustrated
Bible, Gustave Doré, 1866 ............................................................. 76
Figure 4: “Ezra in Prayer.” From the Doré Illustrated Bible,
Gustave Doré, 1866 ........................................................................ 115
Figure 5: “Baruch.” From the Doré Illustrated Bible, Gustave
Doré, 1866 ....................................................................................... 153

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book represents a revision of my 2000 doctoral dissertation for
the University of Chicago Divinity School. As such, there are several
important faculty and mentors without whom I would have never
developed the skills or the insights necessary to see this study through.
Most important among these are my dissertation co-advisors, Peter
Homans and John J. Collins, two scholars from very different fields
who, together, were exactly the professional guides I needed for my
time in graduate studies. It is to them that I dedicate this book. Other
faculty who made important contributions to the development of this
thesis were Adela Yarbro Collins, Martin Riesebrodt, Don Browning,
and Charles Elder, who is responsible for teaching me the key meaning
of the word ‘critique.’ I would also like to acknowledge the support of
the National Endowment for the Humanities and the participants and
leaders of the 2007 Summer Seminar “The Middle East Between Rome
and Persia: Early Christianity on the Path to Islam” held at Notre Dame
University, where I was able to revise substantial portions of the dis-
sertation, paving the way for the publication of the current volume.
Portions of this volume have been published, in a revised form,
in other collections. A greatly condensed version of the Introduc-
tion through Chapter Three appeared as “Mourning the End of Time:
Apocalypses as Texts of Cultural Loss,” pages 159–80 in Studies in
Jewish Civilization, Volume 12: Millennialism from the Hebrew Bible
to the Present, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon and Ronald A. Sim-
kins (Omaha: Creighton University Press, 2002) and is reprinted with
the permission of the editors. A version of Chapter Two appeared as
“Desolate Among Them: Loss, Fantasy, and Recovery in the Book of
Ezekiel,” American Imago 56 (1999): 105–132. A version of Chapter
Three appeared as “Because of My Grief I Have Spoken”: The Psychol-
ogy of Loss in 4 Ezra,” pages 295–315 in Psychology and the Bible: A
New Way to Read the Scriptures. Volume 2: From Genesis to Apocalyptic
Vision, edited by J. Harold Ellens and Wayne G. Rollins. Copyright ©
2004 by J. Harold Ellens and Wayne G. Rollins. Reproduced by permis-
sion of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
The images included throughout the book are for evocative rather
than informative purposes. The Introduction and Chapters Two