Pub Date : 2020-03-03DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691181325.003.0010
P. Schäfer
THIS ESSENTIALLY OUTLINES the binitarian ideas that developed in pre-Christian Judaism and can be viewed as the pool of ideas from which New Testament Christianity drew. Summarizing the range of the texts, it becomes apparent how many of them view the enigmatic godlike or semi-godlike figure alongside God to be an angel. This starts with the angel Michael in Daniel 7, the source of almost all further developments, and climaxes in the Qumran texts. This is hardly surprising, because the angels in Qumran are not by chance referred to as ...
{"title":"Transition","authors":"P. Schäfer","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691181325.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691181325.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"THIS ESSENTIALLY OUTLINES the binitarian ideas that developed in pre-Christian Judaism and can be viewed as the pool of ideas from which New Testament Christianity drew. Summarizing the range of the texts, it becomes apparent how many of them view the enigmatic godlike or semi-godlike figure alongside God to be an angel. This starts with the angel Michael in Daniel 7, the source of almost all further developments, and climaxes in the Qumran texts. This is hardly surprising, because the angels in Qumran are not by chance referred to as ...","PeriodicalId":422161,"journal":{"name":"Two Gods in Heaven","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114957702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter discusses the enigmatic text of the so-called Prayer of Joseph. Only fragments have survived and the most important of them is a quotation from Origen's Commentary on John. It is uncertain whether the original language was Aramaic or Greek, if it originated in Egypt or Palestine, and when it was written, although one possibility is the first century CE. The hero of the text is the patriarch Jacob, who is equated with Israel as an angel of God. The chapter also explains the conflict between the angel Jacob/Israel and Uriel, which brings to mind Enoch entering the celestial hierarchy as the highest angel Metatron, and the opposition to this from established angels in the Third Book of Enoch.
{"title":"The Firstborn in the Prayer of Joseph","authors":"P. Schäfer","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.11","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the enigmatic text of the so-called Prayer of Joseph. Only fragments have survived and the most important of them is a quotation from Origen's Commentary on John. It is uncertain whether the original language was Aramaic or Greek, if it originated in Egypt or Palestine, and when it was written, although one possibility is the first century CE. The hero of the text is the patriarch Jacob, who is equated with Israel as an angel of God. The chapter also explains the conflict between the angel Jacob/Israel and Uriel, which brings to mind Enoch entering the celestial hierarchy as the highest angel Metatron, and the opposition to this from established angels in the Third Book of Enoch.","PeriodicalId":422161,"journal":{"name":"Two Gods in Heaven","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121280102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter focuses on the Self-Glorification Hymn from Qumran, which is among the many writings of the community that had withdrawn from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and dedicated itself to apocalyptic fantasies of the end of days. The Hymn was written in the late Hasmonaean or early Herodian period, which is, the second half of the first century BCE. In it, an unidentified hero boasts that he was elevated among and even above the angels in heaven. The chapter describes the two parallel fragments of the hymn that take the superior, angel-like status of its author yet further. It analyzes the line, “Who is like me among the divine beings?” which is a rhetorical question that evidently means, “Who else is like me among the angels? Is there anyone else who is as elevated as I am among the angels or above them?”
{"title":"3. The Divinized Human in the Self-Glorification Hymn from Qumran","authors":"P. Schäfer","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.7","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on the Self-Glorification Hymn from Qumran, which is among the many writings of the community that had withdrawn from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and dedicated itself to apocalyptic fantasies of the end of days. The Hymn was written in the late Hasmonaean or early Herodian period, which is, the second half of the first century BCE. In it, an unidentified hero boasts that he was elevated among and even above the angels in heaven. The chapter describes the two parallel fragments of the hymn that take the superior, angel-like status of its author yet further. It analyzes the line, “Who is like me among the divine beings?” which is a rhetorical question that evidently means, “Who else is like me among the angels? Is there anyone else who is as elevated as I am among the angels or above them?”","PeriodicalId":422161,"journal":{"name":"Two Gods in Heaven","volume":"263 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125979114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-03-03DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691181325.003.0014
P. Schäfer
This chapter talks about how Judaism has continuously wrestled with finding a way of expressing its notion of God with ever-greater precision over the course of its long history. The chapter explains how Judaism's expression applies to its founding document, the Hebrew Bible, as well as to all postbiblical literature. It emphasizes that monotheism is nothing more than an ideal that was pursued again and again, yet seldom achieved. Whereas YHWH, the tribal God of Israel, was never able to assert himself unchallenged even in the Hebrew Bible, the sources discussed in the chapter prove that for postbiblical Judaism until far into late antiquity, the idea of one single God is an ideal that does not stand up to an unbiased review. The Jewish heaven was by no means always content with one God, but, despite all trends to the contrary and manifold attempts to keep these trends at bay, was often populated with two gods or a number of divine powers.
{"title":"Two Gods","authors":"P. Schäfer","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691181325.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691181325.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter talks about how Judaism has continuously wrestled with finding a way of expressing its notion of God with ever-greater precision over the course of its long history. The chapter explains how Judaism's expression applies to its founding document, the Hebrew Bible, as well as to all postbiblical literature. It emphasizes that monotheism is nothing more than an ideal that was pursued again and again, yet seldom achieved. Whereas YHWH, the tribal God of Israel, was never able to assert himself unchallenged even in the Hebrew Bible, the sources discussed in the chapter prove that for postbiblical Judaism until far into late antiquity, the idea of one single God is an ideal that does not stand up to an unbiased review. The Jewish heaven was by no means always content with one God, but, despite all trends to the contrary and manifold attempts to keep these trends at bay, was often populated with two gods or a number of divine powers.","PeriodicalId":422161,"journal":{"name":"Two Gods in Heaven","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123553060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter talks about how Palestinian Judaism is different from the situation in the Babylonian Talmud or the Bavli, the main document of Judaism from the region between the Euphrates and Tigris that belonged to the Sasanian Empire and was still referred to by Jews as Babylonia. It discusses the Bavli, in which it provides a central and well-known interpretation of Daniel 7:9 that is put into the mouth of no one less than Rabbi Aqiva. The interpretation appears in two versions with different contextualizations, but the essence of both is identical. The chapter provides two examples of ostensibly contradictory bible verses that are reconciled in a Bavli-typical argumentation. Similar to the Mekhilta, the first example refers to two different manifestations of God. The second example refers to an apparent contradiction in Daniel 7:9 where God is described as an old man with white hair.
{"title":"The Son of Man–Messiah David","authors":"P. Schäfer","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.15","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter talks about how Palestinian Judaism is different from the situation in the Babylonian Talmud or the Bavli, the main document of Judaism from the region between the Euphrates and Tigris that belonged to the Sasanian Empire and was still referred to by Jews as Babylonia. It discusses the Bavli, in which it provides a central and well-known interpretation of Daniel 7:9 that is put into the mouth of no one less than Rabbi Aqiva. The interpretation appears in two versions with different contextualizations, but the essence of both is identical. The chapter provides two examples of ostensibly contradictory bible verses that are reconciled in a Bavli-typical argumentation. Similar to the Mekhilta, the first example refers to two different manifestations of God. The second example refers to an apparent contradiction in Daniel 7:9 where God is described as an old man with white hair.","PeriodicalId":422161,"journal":{"name":"Two Gods in Heaven","volume":"144 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123241098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter highlights the next prominent focal point of the Son of Man concept that originates from Daniel, the so-called Similitudes. The Similitudes are part of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch and are dated by most scholars at around the turn of the first century BCE to the first century CE. One of its main features is the interest in a messianic redeemer figure called the “Son of Man,” which is referred back to Daniel 7, or “the chosen one.” The chapter analyzes the “Head of Days” as the “Ancient of Days” or the “Ancient One” from Daniel, and the “one with the appearance of a man” as the “one like a human being” or “Son of Man” in Daniel. Enoch's question as to the identity and origin of this son of man is not directly answered, but the answer came somewhat later.
{"title":"5. The Son of Man–Enoch in the Similitudes of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch","authors":"P. Schäfer","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.9","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter highlights the next prominent focal point of the Son of Man concept that originates from Daniel, the so-called Similitudes. The Similitudes are part of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch and are dated by most scholars at around the turn of the first century BCE to the first century CE. One of its main features is the interest in a messianic redeemer figure called the “Son of Man,” which is referred back to Daniel 7, or “the chosen one.” The chapter analyzes the “Head of Days” as the “Ancient of Days” or the “Ancient One” from Daniel, and the “one with the appearance of a man” as the “one like a human being” or “Son of Man” in Daniel. Enoch's question as to the identity and origin of this son of man is not directly answered, but the answer came somewhat later.","PeriodicalId":422161,"journal":{"name":"Two Gods in Heaven","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134277053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter talks about the eschatological connotation of the Son of Man established in Daniel, which came to light with particular clarity in the pseudepigraphic Fourth Book of Ezra. It originated after 70 CE, or more precisely around 100 CE, and is significant in its context because it refers back to the idea of the Son of Man in Daniel 7. It focuses on the line, “like the figure of a man” that is undoubtedly the same as “like a human being” in Daniel 7, although the man mentioned does not come with the clouds of heaven but at first comes up from the depths of the sea and then flies on the clouds of heaven. In contrast to Daniel, the man is not brought to God to receive dominion but instead fights for this dominion and brings final redemption to the people of Israel. With the man's appearance, a multitude gathered from the four corners of the world in order to “make war against the man who came up out of the sea.”
{"title":"6. The Son of Man–Messiah in the Fourth Book of Ezra","authors":"P. Schäfer","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.10","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter talks about the eschatological connotation of the Son of Man established in Daniel, which came to light with particular clarity in the pseudepigraphic Fourth Book of Ezra. It originated after 70 CE, or more precisely around 100 CE, and is significant in its context because it refers back to the idea of the Son of Man in Daniel 7. It focuses on the line, “like the figure of a man” that is undoubtedly the same as “like a human being” in Daniel 7, although the man mentioned does not come with the clouds of heaven but at first comes up from the depths of the sea and then flies on the clouds of heaven. In contrast to Daniel, the man is not brought to God to receive dominion but instead fights for this dominion and brings final redemption to the people of Israel. With the man's appearance, a multitude gathered from the four corners of the world in order to “make war against the man who came up out of the sea.”","PeriodicalId":422161,"journal":{"name":"Two Gods in Heaven","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121080853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：