Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic PDF Download

Author: John C. Reeves
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 1589831020
Category : Apocalyptic literature
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Author: John J. Collins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199856508
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
Apocalypticism arose in ancient Judaism in the last centuries BCE and played a crucial role in the rise of Christianity. It is not only of historical interest: there has been a growing awareness, especially since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, of the prevalence of apocalyptic beliefs in the contemporary world. To understand these beliefs, it is necessary to appreciate their complex roots in the ancient world, and the multi-faceted character of the phenomenon of apocalypticism. The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature is a thematic and phenomenological exploration of apocalypticism in the Judaic and Christian traditions. Most of the volume is devoted to the apocalyptic literature of antiquity. Essays explore the relationship between apocalypticism and prophecy, wisdom and mysticism; the social function of apocalypticism and its role as resistance literature; apocalyptic rhetoric from both historical and postmodern perspectives; and apocalyptic theology, focusing on phenomena of determinism and dualism and exploring apocalyptic theology's role in ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. The final chapters of the volume are devoted to the appropriation of apocalypticism in the modern world, reviewing the role of apocalypticism in contemporary Judaism and Christianity, and more broadly in popular culture, addressing the increasingly studied relation between apocalypticism and violence, and discussing the relationship between apocalypticism and trauma, which speaks to the underlying causes of the popularity of apocalyptic beliefs. This volume will further the understanding of a vital religious phenomenon too often dismissed as alien and irrational by secular western society.

Author: Carol Bakhos
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674419952
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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The term “Abrahamic religions” has gained considerable currency in both scholarly and ecumenical circles as a way of referring to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In The Family of Abraham, Carol Bakhos steps back from this convention to ask a frequently overlooked question: What, in fact, is Abrahamic about these three faiths? Exploring diverse stories and interpretations relating to the portrayal of Abraham, she reveals how he is venerated in these different scriptural traditions and how scriptural narratives have been pressed into service for nonreligious purposes. Grounding her study in a close examination of ancient Jewish textual practices, primarily midrash, as well as medieval Muslim Stories of the Prophets and the writings of the early Church Fathers, Bakhos demonstrates that ancient and early-medieval readers often embellished the image of Abraham and his family—Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac. Her analysis dismantles pernicious misrepresentations of Abraham’s firstborn son, Ishmael, and provocatively challenges contemporary references to Judaism and Islam as sibling religions. As Bakhos points out, an uncritical adoption of the term “Abrahamic religions” not only blinds us to the diverse interpretations and traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam but also artificially separates these faiths from their historical contexts. In correcting mistaken assumptions about the narrative and theological significance of Abraham, The Family of Abraham sheds new light on key figures of three world religions.

Author: John Joseph Collins
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
ISBN: 0199856494
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
Apocalypticism arose in ancient Judaism in the last centuries BCE and played a crucial role in the rise of Christianity. It is not only of historical interest: there has been a growing awareness, especially since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, of the prevalence of apocalyptic beliefs in the contemporary world. To understand these beliefs, it is necessary to appreciate their complex roots in the ancient world, and the multi-faceted character of the phenomenon of apocalypticism. The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature is a thematic and phenomenological exploration of apocalypticism in the Judaic and Christian traditions. Most of the volume is devoted to the apocalyptic literature of antiquity. Essays explore the relationship between apocalypticism and prophecy, wisdom and mysticism; the social function of apocalypticism and its role as resistance literature; apocalyptic rhetoric from both historical and postmodern perspectives; and apocalyptic theology, focusing on phenomena of determinism and dualism and exploring apocalyptic theology's role in ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. The final chapters of the volume are devoted to the appropriation of apocalypticism in the modern world, reviewing the role of apocalypticism in contemporary Judaism and Christianity, and more broadly in popular culture, addressing the increasingly studied relation between apocalypticism and violence, and discussing the relationship between apocalypticism and trauma, which speaks to the underlying causes of the popularity of apocalyptic beliefs. This volume will further the understanding of a vital religious phenomenon too often dismissed as alien and irrational by secular western society.

Author: Michael A. Ryan
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004307664
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
The final book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse, has been controversial since its initial appearance during the first century A.D. For centuries after, theologians, exegetes, scholars, and preachers have grappled with the imagery and symbolism behind this fascinating and terrifying book. Their thoughts and ideas regarding the apocalypse—and its trials and tribulations—were received within both elite and popular culture in the medieval and early modern eras. Therefore, one may rightly call the Apocalypse, and its accompanying hopes and fears, a foundational pillar of Western Civilization. The interest in the Apocalypse, and apocalyptic movements, continues apace in modern scholarship and society alike. This present volume, A Companion to the Premodern Apocalypse, collates essays from specialists in the study of premodern apocalyptic subjects. It is designed to orient undergraduate and graduate students, as well as more established scholars, to the state of the field of premodern apocalyptic studies as well as to point them in future directions for their scholarship and/or pedagogy. Contributors are: Roland Betancourt, Robert Boenig, Richard K. Emmerson, Ernst Hintz, László Hubbes, Hiram Kümper, Natalie Latteri, Thomas Long, Katherine Olson, Kevin Poole, Matthias Riedl, Michael A. Ryan

Author: Kevork Bardakjian
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004270264
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 817

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The Armenian Apocalyptic Tradition: A Comparative Perspective comprises a collection of essays on apocalyptic literature in the Armenian tradition. This collection is unprecedented in its subject and scope and employs a comparative approach that situates the Armenian apocalyptic tradition within a broader context. The topics in this volume include the role of apocalyptic literature and apocalypticism in the conversion of the Armenians to Christianity, apocalyptic ideology and holy war, the significance of the Book of Daniel in Armenian thought, the reception of the Apocalypse of Ps.-Methodius in Armenian, the role of apocalyptic literature in political ideologies, and the expression of apocalypticism in the visual arts.

Author: Jan Age Sigvartsen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567689255
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Jan A. Sigvartsen seeks to examine the immense interest in life after death, and speculation about the fates awaiting both the righteous and the wicked, that proliferated in the Second Temple period. In this volume Sigvartsen explores the Apocrypha and the apocalyptic writings in the Pseudepigrapha. He identifies the numerous afterlife and resurrection beliefs and presents an analysis that enables readers to easily understand and compare the wide-ranging beliefs regarding the afterlife that these texts hold. A careful reading of these resurrection passages, including passages appearing in Sirach, Maccabees, the Sibylline Oracles and the Ezra texts, reveals that most of the distinct views on life-after-death, regardless of their complexity, show little evidence of systematic development relational to one another, and are often supported by several key passages or shared motifs from texts that later became a part of the TaNaKh. Sigvartsen also highlights the factors that may have influenced the development of so many different resurrection beliefs; including anthropology, the nature of the soul, the scope of the resurrection, the number and function of judgments, and the final destination of the righteous and the wicked. Sigvartsen's study provides a deeper understanding of how the “TaNaKh” was read by different communities during this important period, and the role it played in the development of the resurrection belief – a central article of faith in both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.

Author: Martha Himmelfarb
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444318225
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This accessible and enlightening history provides insights into thefascinating genre of apocalyptic literature, showing how theapocalypse encompasses far more than popular views of the lastjudgment and violent end of the world might suggest. An accessible and enlightening history of the"apocalypses"--ancient Jewish and Christian works -- providingfresh insights into the fascinating genre of literature Shows how the apocalypses were concerned not only with popularviews of the last judgment and violent end of the world, but withreward and punishment after death, the heavenly temple, and therevelation of astronomical phenomena and other secrets ofnature Traces the tradition of apocalyptic writing through the MiddleAges, through to the modern era, when social movements stillprophesise the world’s imminent demise

Author: John C. Reeves
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198718411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Across the ancient and medieval literature of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, one finds references to the antediluvian sage Enoch. Both the Book of the Watchers and the Astronomical Book were long known from their Ethiopic versions, which are preserved as part of Mashafa Henok Nabiy ('Book of Enoch the Prophet')--an Enochic compendium known in the West as 1 Enoch. Since the discovery of Aramaic fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls, these books have attracted renewed attention as important sources for ancient Judaism. Among the results has been the recognition of the surprisingly long and varied tradition surrounding Enoch. Within 1 Enoch alone, for instance, we find evidence for intensive literary creativity. This volume provides a comprehensive set of core references for easy and accessible consultation. It shows that the rich afterlives of Enochic texts and traditions can be studied more thoroughly by scholars of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity as well as by scholars of late antique and medieval religions. Specialists in the Second Temple period-the era in which Enochic literature first appears-will be able to trace (or discount) the survival of Enochic motifs and mythemes within Jewish literary circles from late antiquity into the Middle Ages, thereby shedding light on the trajectories of Jewish apocalypticism and its possible intersections with Jewish mysticism. Students of Near Eastern esotericism and Hellenistic philosophies will have further data for exploring the origins of 'gnosticism' and its possible impact upon sectarian currents in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Those interested in the intellectual symbiosis among Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Middle Ages-and especially in the transmission of the ancient sciences associated with Hermeticism (e.g., astrology, theurgy, divinatory techniques, alchemy, angelology, demonology)-will be able to view a chain of tradition reconstructed in its entirety for the first time in textual form. In the process, we hope to provide historians of religion with a new tool for assessing the intertextual relationships between different religious corpora and for understanding the intertwined histories of the major religious communities of the ancient and medieval Near East.

Author: Martha Himmelfarb
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674057627
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Text and context -- The mother of the messiah -- The messiah son of David and the suffering servant -- The servant messiah beyond Sefer Zerubbabel -- The dying messiah son of Joseph -- Sefer Zerubbabel after Islam