The Survivors of Israel: A Reconsideration of the Theology of Pre-Christian Judaism

by ELLIOTT MARK ADAM

• ISBN13: 9780802844835
• ISBN10: 0802844839
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

This study challenges the conventional view by scholars like E. P. Sanders that Late Second Temple Judaism was theologically nationalistic, offering in its place a theory that the intertestamental writings did not anticipate the salvation of all Jews but only of a faithful remnant within Israel. Working carefully with the major books of the pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Mark Elliott not only confronts accepted perspectives on Late Second Temple Judaism but also suggests important implications for our reading of the New Testament.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	x
Abbreviations	xi
Why Another Book on Judaism?	1	(26)
Some Necessary Remarks on Method and Approach	2	(11)
A Word about Sources and Critical Presuppositions	13	(14)
Conventional Nationalistic Views of Election in Judaism	27	(30)
The Prevalence and Persistence of Nationalistic Theology in Treatments of Judaism	33	(7)
Latent Tensions in the Conventional View of National Election	40	(12)
The Present State of the Question	52	(5)
The Judgment-of-Israel Theme	57	(58)
At Qumran	58	(15)
The Widespread Currency of the Theme in Other Intertestamental Writings	73	(35)
Apostasy in Israel	108	(7)
Limits on the Community of Salvation	115	(72)
Exclusivist Soteriology in the Dead Sea Scrolls	115	(3)
Exclusivist Soteriology in the Pseudepigrapha	118	(60)
Divine Mercy toward Israel?	178	(9)
Reform and Dissent---The Sociohistorical Context	187	(58)
How Does One Account for the Exclusivist Attitude toward Israel?	202	(33)
The Origins and Identity of a Movement	235	(10)
Dualistic Covenantal Theology	245	(64)
Dynamic and Dualistic Views of Covenant	249	(1)
Dynamic View of Covenant	250	(23)
Dualistic Covenantal Formulations	273	(36)
Soteriological Dualism	309	(46)
Seed Theology	314	(15)
Plant Metaphors	329	(15)
Some Important Implications of Soteriological Dualism	344	(11)
A New Approach to Apocalyptic Forms	355	(38)
Historical Rehearsals---Legacy of Israel's Past Performance	356	(26)
Testaments---Final Words of Revered Patriarchs	382	(11)
The Dualistic Trajectory of Pneumatology	393	(40)
Jubilees---Israel Abandoned to Evil Spirits	396	(4)
The Dead Sea Scrolls---Dualistic Pneumatology Defines the Metaphysical Universe	400	(19)
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs---Choosing between God and Beliar	419	(5)
The All-Important Flood Paradigm	424	(9)
The Messiah-for-the-Elect	433	(82)
Approach and Presuppositions	434	(3)
The Messianic Context: Progenitors, Paradigms, and Mystical and Revelatory Figures	437	(32)
The Messiah-for-the-Elect	469	(46)
Eschatology in a Dualistic Context	515	(60)
The Dialectic of Restoration in the Zoomorphic History	521	(6)
Judgment and Vindication in the Book of Watchers	527	(1)
A Conditional Restoration in the Apocalypse of Weeks and the ``Epistle'' of Enoch (Book 5)	528	(5)
Restoration as Conversion in Jubilees	533	(7)
Instruments of Restoration: The Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls	540	(12)
Requisites for Israel's Future Salvation in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs	552	(3)
Seeking Israel's Promised Restoration in the Psalms of Solomon	555	(6)
Eschatological Urgency in 4 Ezra	561	(8)
Warning and Consolation in the Eschatology of 2 Baruch	569	(6)
``Destruction-Preservation Soteriology''	575	(64)
Paradigms for Salvation	576	(19)
Destruction-Preservation (D-P) Soteriology	595	(39)
The Ultimate Goal --- Vindication of the Remnant by the Rest of Israel	634	(5)
Conclusion: Implications of the Theology of the Movement of Dissent for New Testament Study	639	(26)
Theological	639	(1)
Social	640	(1)
Formal	641	(1)
Comparative	641	(22)
A Pause for Misgivings	663	(2)
General Bibliography	665	(42)
Index of Subjects	707	(9)
Index of Modern Authors	716	(12)
Index of Biblical and Extrabiblical Texts	728