Jewish Apocalypticism in the Hellenistic Levant

Lehrveranstaltung im Frühjahrssemester 2024, jeweils montags 10.15–12.00 Uhr
(Link zum Vorlesungsverzeichnis; Rückfragen an Dr. Maria Lissek)

Prof. Dr. Jonathan Ben Dov

Jewish Literary creation in Second Temple times before the Hasmoneans was quite different from the classical Jewish tradition known mainly from rabbinic literature. One of the most productive fields for writing was apocalyptic literature: books in which an ancient seer like Daniel or Enoch (or Moses or Adam) receives revelations about secrets of the world and discloses them to the readers. The seers reveal secrets in Time (the end of the world, past hidden acts) and in Space (the geography of heaven, hell, and the ends of the earth). These texts create a lively Jewish mythology, revolving mainly around the story of the Fallen Angels. In this course we will this Jewish mythology in the Books of Daniel, 1 Enoch and related literature, and will explain it as part of the mythology of the region around Judea in the last centuries BCE.