Mysteries and Revelations: Apocalyptic Studies Since the Uppsala Colloquium PDF
Preview Mysteries and Revelations: Apocalyptic Studies Since the Uppsala Colloquium
MYSTERIES AND REVELATIONS Apocalyptic Studies. since the Uppsala Colloquium Edited by John J. Collins & James H. Charlesworth Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series 9 Copyright© 1991 Sheffield Academic Press Published by JSOT Press JSOT Press is an imprint of Sheffield Academic Press Ltd The University of Sheffield 343 Fulwood Road Sheffield S10 3BP England Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain by Billing & Sons Ltd Worcester British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Mysteries and revelations: apocalyptic studies since the Uppsala colloqium.-(JSP supplement, ISSN 0951-8215; 9). I. Collins, John J. (John Joseph), 1946- 11. Charlesworth, James H. (James Hamilton), 1940-III. Series 228.015 ISBN 1-85075-299-0 CON1ENTS Preface 7 List of Contributors 9 1. GENRE, IDEOLOGY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN JEWISH APOCAL YPTICISM Appendix. A New Proposal on Apocalyptic Origins John J. Collins 11 2. JEWISH APoCALYPTIC TRADmON: THE CONTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN SCHOLARSHIP Gabriele Boccaccini 33 3. THE APoCALYPTIC CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY IN 1 ENOCH George W.E. Nickelsburg 51 4. ON READING AN APoCALYPSE Michael E. Stone 65 5. REVELATION AND RAPTURE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE VISIONARY IN THE ASCENT APoCALYPSES Martha Himmelfarb 79 6. FOLK TRADITIONS IN JEWISH APoCALYPTIC LITERATURE James H. Charlesworth 91 7. BAHMAN YASHT: A PERSIAN APOCALYPSE Anders HultgArd 114 8. METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON 1HE PROBLEM OF DEFINmON OF GENERIC TEXTS David Hellhohn 135 Index of Ancient References 165 Index of Authors 169 PREFACE This collection of essays had its origins in a symposium at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Anaheim on November 19, 1989, which marked the tenth anniversary of the Uppsala Colloquium on Apocalypticism, August 12-17, 1979. Four of the essays (those of Collins, Stone, Himmelfarb, Hultgllrd) were presented in Anaheim. They are complemented here by the essays of David Hellholm (who chaired the Anaheim meeting), George Nickelsburg, Gabriele Boccac cini and James Charlesworth. The Uppsala Colloquium attempted to address all aspects of apocalypticism in the ancient Mediterranean world and Near East. The objectives of the present collection are much more modest. The focus is primarily on Jewish apocalypticism, and six of the eight essays deal with Jewish materials. A seventh, by Anders Hultgllrd, deals with a Persian text that is of great potential importance for the emergence of Jewish apocalypticism. The eighth, by David Hellholm, is a methodological essay. The opening essay, by John Collins, is a survey of the study of apocalypticism in the decade after the Uppsala Colloquium. It is con cerned especially with the relation between the literary genre apocalypse and .the broader phenomenon of apocalypticism. The survey of recent work is supplemented by an appendix, which deals with the contribution of Helge Kvanvig on apocalyptic origins, and by the essay of Gabriele Boccaccini on the work of Paolo Sacchi and the Italian school. The essays of George Nickelsburg and Michael Stone each focus on a particular apocalyptic book, 1 Enoch and 4 Ezra respectively. Both scholars draw on two decades of research on these books in the preparation of commentaries in the Hermeneia series. Nickelsburg describes the world view of 1 Enoch. His essay comple ments the opening- article by illustrating what is meant by apocalypticism, or an apocalyptic world view, as distinct from the literary genre. Stone's essay marks one of the more exciting new directions in the study of apocalypticism to emerge since the Uppsala Colloquium, by inquiring into the religious experience of the author. This kind of question was not entertained under any of the categories of the Uppsala conference ('World of Concepts', 'Literary Genre', or 8 Mysteries and Revelations Sociological Phenomenon'). Yet Stone shows how it bears on the liter ary understanding of an apocalypse, since it determines the kind of coherence we can expect in a work of this sort. Martha Himmelfarb' s essay is in a similar vein. She also raises questions relating to the religious experience implied in visionary literature. This is surely one of the areas where we can hope for significant progress in the coming decade. Jim Charlesworth's essay points to another area that might profitably be explored in the future: the role of folk tradition in apoca lyptic literature. While the apocalypses were regarded as evidence for folk beliefs by scholars such as Bousset at the beginning of the century, recent scholarship has tended to view them as scribal phenomena. Without denying the scribal element in the composition of this litera ture, Charlesworth argues that there is also a significant component that is derived from folk tradition. Anders HultgArd has contributed an important study of a Persian apocalyptic text. Scholarly opinion has veered wildly on the relevance of Persian material for the study of apocalypticism. For the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, Persia was the fons et origo of apoca lypticism. More recent scholarship has tended to dismiss the Persian material as late. HultgArd presents a balanced perspective, which recognizes the difficulty of relating the Persian texts to the pre Christian period, but also shows that they cannot be dismissed as easily as some have tried to do. David Hellholm's essay stands apart from the others by reason of its methodological character. Hellholm is developing a new approach to apocalyptic texts through the methods of text linguistics. The difficult and abstract character of these methods have hitherto curtailed their impact on general biblical studies. Yet Hellholm's work is one of the most significant developments in the study of apocalypticism in the last decade, and it will undoubtedly demand increasing attention. In this volume, then, we hope to provide not only a retrospective survey of major developments and debates of the past decade, but also a sampling of new directions that will be important in the closing years of this millennium. John J. Collins CONTRffiUTORS John J. Collins Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA Gabriel Boccaccini Department of Oriental Studies, University of Turin, Italy George W.E. Nickelsburg School of Religion, University of Iowa, Iowa City, lA 52242, USA Michael E. Stone Department of the History of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University, POB 16174, Jerusalem 91161, Israel Martha Himmelfarb Department of Religion, Princeton University, 613 Seventy-Nine Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1006, USA James H. Charlesworth Princeton Theological Seminary, CN 821, Princeton, NJ 05842-0803, USA Anders HultgArd Uppsala Universiteit, Teologiska Institutionen, Box 1604, 751 46 Uppsala, Sweden David Hellholm Institut for Bibelvitenskap, University of Oslo, POB 1023, Oslo 3, Norway
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