Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use: Qumran

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT UseQumran Christopher T. Begg, William J. Urbrock, Thomas Hieke, and Brian J. Meldrum ________ 1381. [Aramaica Qumranica Apocalyptica and the Book of Revelation] Garrick V. Allen, "Aramaica Qumranica Apocalyptica and the Book of Revelation," Reimagining Apocalypticism, 403–28 [see #1489]. In the above essay, A. interrogates the Book of Revelation in relation to two Aramaic texts from Qumran, i.e., the Visions of Amram (4Q543–548) and the Son of God text (4Q246). Comparing Revelation with the Visions of Amram shows, according to A., how Revelation subverts traditions by minimalizing the seer's interpretive agency, in that it presents the figure of John as simply a scribe who records a divine vision rather than as a authoritative figure from the past. A. also details how 4Q246 and Revelation appropriate in various ways the vision of the Ancient of Days and the "one like the son of man" of Daniel 7. Such dependency illustrates not only that this material was important in ancient Judaism but also that it could be interpreted in different ways. Finally, A. reviews the identification of Revelation's genre as an apocalypse, which has long been a topic of debate. The book's affinities with the older Aramaic apocalyptic texts from Qumran suggest that such compositions should be compared, not solely in light of the definition of the genre, but also in terms of how they utilize traditions, in particular with regard to their appropriation of scriptural texts. [Adapted from editors' introduction, p. 23—C.T.B.] 1382. [Divine Kingdom: Between the Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice and the Synoptic Gospels] Giovanni B. Bazzana, "Divine Kingdom: Between the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Synoptic Gospels," Reimagining Apocalypticism, 377–402 [see #1489]. In his essay, B. explores how the theme of the kingdom of God in the Synoptic Gospels can be better understood through comparison with the DSS. Whether the kingdom should be understood in a spatial sense as a territory or in more abstract terms as "sovereignty" is disputed in NT scholarship. There is also lack of agreement about the extent to which the kingdom is manifest in the present time or in the eschatological future. B. argues that the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice in the DSS corpus show that the kingdom of God in the NT should be understood as participating in a common discourse about the kingdom (malkut, basileia) as something that can be entered. But this does not mean that the kingdom was viewed as a static or passive entity. Rather, the recognition that the term involves agency and human participation is important for understanding its sovereignty. A comparison with the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice also suggests that texts mentioning the Kingdom of God in the NT, some of which suggest that it should be understood primarily in relation to the present and others the future, are not contradictory. Together, the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the NT Synoptic Gospels illustrate the point that concepts of temporality from the period of their origin should be rethought in a way that acknowledges that the present and the future could overlap. [Adapted from editors' introduction, pp. 21–22—C.T.B.] 1383. [Revelation Mediated by an Otherworldly Being in the DSS] Stefan Beyerle, "Revelatory Literature, in Which a Revelation Is Mediated by an Otherworldly Being: Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls," Reimagining Apocalypticism, 111–28 [see #1489]. B.'s contribution focuses on the eschatological dimension of early Jewish apocalypses. In this connection, B. notes while the Scrolls do not contain any new apocalypses (with the possible exception of the New Jerusalem text and the Son of God text [4Q246]), such sectarian works as the Hodayot and the Community Rule evidence the overall apocalyptic worldview of the sectarians and confirms J. J. Collins's definition of the apocalypse genre as relevant for the investigation of the DSS. For B., the apocalyptic worldview and the sectarian perspective found common ground in the concept of revelation, this leading him to regard the community's eschatology as apocalyptic. He further distinguishes between two types of eschatology, i.e., spatial and temporal (or "realized" and "future"), the former...