ENGLISH

Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses

By Martha Himmelfarb

Book information

Publisher
Oxford University Press, USA
Year
1993
ISBN
0195082036, 9780195082036
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
12 MB (12328503 bytes)
Edition
NULL
Pages
184\184
Topic
Religion
Time added
2012-07-11 14:01:34

Description

This is a study of the ancient Jewish and Christian apocalypses involving ascent into heaven, which have received little scholarly attention in comparison to apocalypses concerned primarily with the end of the world. Recent developments like the publication of the Aramaic Enoch fragments from Qumran and interest in questions of genre in the study of the apocalypses make this a particularly appropriate time to undertake this study. Martha Himmelfarb places the apocalypses in relation to both their biblical antecedents and their context in the Greco-Roman world. Her analysis emphasizes the emergence of the understanding of heaven as temple in the Book of the Watchers, the earliest of these apocalypses, and the way in which this understanding affects the depiction of the culmination of ascent, the hero's achievement of a place among the angels, in the ascent apocalypses generally. It also considers the place of secrets of nature and primeval history in these works. Finally, it offers an interpretation of the pseudepigraphy of the apocalypses and their function.

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