The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature

565 Pages·2014·2.48 MB·English

by  John J. Collins

The OxfO rd h andbOOk Of
A p o cAly p t i c
li t e r At u r e

The OxfOrd handbOOk Of
ApocAlyptic
liter Ature
Edited by
JOhn J. COllins
1
3
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library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
The Oxford handbook of apocalyptic literature / edited by John J. Collins.
pages cm. — (Oxford handbooks)

includes index.
isbn 978–0–19–985649–7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. apocalyptic literature.
i. Collins, John J. (John Joseph), 1946– editor of compilation.
bs646.O94 2014
220ʹ.046—dc23
2013033083

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United states of america
on acid-free paper
Contents
Preface ix
List of Contributors xi
1. What is apocalyptic literature? 1
John J. Collins
pArt i. the liter Ary And
phenomenologicAl c ontext
2. apocalyptic Prophecy 19
stephen l. Cook
3. The inheritance of Prophecy in apocalypse 36
hindy najman
4. Wisdom and apocalypticism 52
Matthew Goff
5. scriptural interpretation in early Jewish apocalypses 69
alex P. Jassen
6. apocalyptic literature and the study of early Jewish Mysticism 85
ra‘anan boustan and Patrick G. McCullough
7. dreams and Visions in early Jewish and early Christian
apocalypses and apocalypticism 104
frances flannery
pArt ii. the SociAl Function oF
ApocAlyptic liter Ature
8. social-scientific approaches to apocalyptic literature 123
Philip f. esler
vi Contents
9. Jewish apocalyptic literature as resistance literature 145
anathea Portier-Young
10. apocalypse and empire 163

steven J. friesen
11. a Postcolonial reading of apocalyptic literature 180
daniel l. smith-Christopher

pArt iii. liter Ary FeA tureS oF
ApocAlyptic liter Ature
12. The rhetoric of Jewish apocalyptic literature 201
Carol a. newsom

13. early Christian apocalyptic rhetoric 218
Greg Carey

14. deconstructing apocalyptic literalist allegory 235
erin runions

pArt iV. ApocAlyptic theology
15. apocalyptic determinism 255
Mladen Popović
16. apocalyptic dualism 271
Jörg frey

17. apocalyptic ethics and behavior 295
dale C. allison, Jr.
18. apocalypse and Torah in ancient Judaism 312

Matthias henze

19. apocalypticism and Christian Origins 326
adela Yarbro Collins
20. descents to hell and ascents to heaven in apocalyptic literature 340
Jan n. bremmer
Contents vii
21. apocalypses among Gnostics and Manichaeans 358
dylan M. burns
22. The imagined World of the apocalypses 373
stefan beyerle
pArt V. ApocAlypS e now
23. Messianism as a Political Power in Contemporary Judaism 391
Motti inbari
24. apocalypticism and radicalism 407
Christopher rowland
25. apocalypse and Violence 422
Catherine Wessinger
26. apocalypticism in Contemporary Christianity 441
amy Johnson frykholm
27. apocalypse and Trauma 457
dereck daschke
28. apocalypticism and Popular Culture 473
lorenzo diTommaso
Scriptural and Ancient Texts 511
Subject Index 533

Preface
apocalyptic literature takes its name from the book of revelation in the new
Testament. “apocalypse” means “revelation,” but the name is reserved for revelations
that deal either with eschatology (the end of history and the fate of the dead) or the
heavenly and infernal regions, or both.
This kind of literature first appears in Judaism at the end of the Old Testament
period, in the book of daniel. The main corpus of Jewish apocalypses (books of
enoch, 4 ezra, 2 baruch, etc.) was not included in the hebrew bible and was mainly
preserved by Christians in translation in various languages (latin, syriac, Old Church
slavonic, ethiopic). The view of the world that is characteristic of apocalypses, how-
ever, was also found more broadly in other genres. The dead sea scrolls, for example
are to a great degree informed by an apocalyptic worldview. This worldview is charac-
terized by eschatological expectation and by the prominence of supernatural agents.
it is also often characterized by dualism and determinism, and by the use of mytho-
logical symbolism. The genre died out in Judaism after the failure of the Jewish revolts
in the late first and early second centuries bCe, but it was revived to some degree in
the Middle ages.
The new Testament is also informed by an apocalyptic worldview, although
revelation is the only new Testament book in the form of an apocalypse. it has even
been claimed that “apocalyptic is the mother of Christian theology.” again, the main
body of Christian apocalypses is found outside the canon, in the apocryphal and
pseudepigraphic literature of the early centuries of the common era. The genre con-
tinued to flourish in Christianity down through the Middle ages. The apocalyptic
worldview, however, has been adapted and adopted by conservative Christians in the
modern world, especially in north america.
apocalyptic literature has been studied extensively. There was a spate of confer-
ences around the turn of the millennium, which produced volumes of essays on the
topic. Most of these volumes, however, were not systematic treatments of the topic,
but somewhat random collections of essays. The exception was the Encyclopedia of
Apocalypticism, in three volumes, edited by John J. Collins, bernard McGinn, and
stephen stein (Continuum, 1998), which described the entire history of apocalyptic
thought in the Western world, from ancient iran to modern fundamentalism, with
some attention also to the islamic tradition.
The present proposal differs from the encyclopedia in two ways. first, in scope, the
handbook will be restricted to ancient Judaism and Christianity, down to approxi-
mately 500 Ce, and will attend to other traditions (near eastern, hellenistic, iranian)