Persepolis and Jerusalem Iranian Influence on the Apocalyptic Hermeneutic

by Silverman, Jason M.

• ISBN13: 9780567205513
• ISBN10: 0567205517
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-23
• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark

Summary

Persepolis and Jerusalem reconsiders Iranian influence upon Jewish apocalyptic, and offers grounds upon which such study may proceed. After describing the history of scholarship on the question of Iranian influence and on Jewish apocalyptic, the author reformulates the methodology for understanding apocalyptic and influence. Two chapters set the discussion firmly in the Achaemenid Empire, describing the sources for Iranian religion, the issues involved in attempting a historical reconstruction, the methodology by which one can date the various texts and ideas, and the potential loci for Iranian-Judaean interaction. The historical context is expanded through media-contextualization, particularly Oral Theory, and critiques the standard text-centric method of current Biblical Scholarship. With this background, pericopes from Ezekiel, Daniel, and 1 Enoch are analyzed for Iranian influence. The study then brings together the contexts and analyses to argue for an 'Apocalyptic Hermeneutic' which relates the phenomena of apocalypticism, apocalypse, and millenarianism-seeing the hermeneutic as a dialectical thread holding them all together as well as apart- and posits this as the best place to understand Iranian influences. >

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xv
Prolegomena	p. 1
Introit	p. 1
Brief History of Iranian Influence on Judaism	p. 2
Apocalyptic Studies	p. 8
Types of Influence and Transmission	p. 29
The Iranian Sources: Religion and Royal Ideology	p. 39
Introduction to Iranian Religion in the Achaemenid Period	p. 39
Evidence from Classical Authors	p. 48
Religious Situation in Iran	p. 61
Persian Archaeology and Royal Ideology	p. 70
Summary	p. 75
The Achaemenid Context	p. 76
Babylonia	p. 76
Media and Iranian Lands	p. 80
Egypt	p. 83
Palestine	p. 85
The Royal Road and Royal Mail	p. 88
Summary	p. 89
Excursus: Elamites and Iranians in An¿an and Darius's Coup	p. 90
General Theological and Sociological Affinities Between Jews and Persians	p. 92
The Media of Influence: Orality, Literacy, and Cultural Interaction	p. 98
The Importance of Orality and Its Role in Influence	p. 99
Importance of Interiorization for the Context of the Apocalypses	p. 119
Implications for Investigation of Influence	p. 128
Textual Analyses: Biblical Literature	p. 130
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (The Valley of the Bones)	p. 130
Ezekiel 38-39 (Gog of Magog)	p. 136
Daniel and the Four Kingdoms	p. 149
Excursus: On the Watchers	p. 171
Textual Analyses: Enochic Literature	p. 175
The Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)	p. 175
Excursus: The ¿emihazah Myth	p. 185
Book of Parables/Book of Similitudes (1 Enoch 37-71)	p. 195
The Birth of Noah Fragment (1 Enoch 106-107)	p. 199
Conclusion	p. 204
An Apocalyptic Hermeneutic	p. 206
Introit: The Proposal	p. 206
Hermeneutics: The Re-interpretation and Application of Tradition	p. 209
The Apocalyptic Hermeneutic's Blueprint	p. 211
(Re-)Constructing the Apocalyptic Hermeneutic (With an Eye Towards Iran)	p. 219
Conclusions	p. 227
Metalegomena	p. 228
Sources	p. 231
Glossary of Iranian Terms	p. 234
Annotated Definitions of Terms	p. 237
Bibliography	p. 240
Index of References	p. 287
Index of Authors	p. 295
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