Semeia 36: Early Christian Apocalypticism: Genre and Social Setting

by Adela Yarbro Collins

Publisher:

Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)

, 1986

Overview

Semeia is an experimental journal devoted to the exploration of new and emergent areas and methods of biblical criticism. Studies employing the methods, models, and findings of linguistics, folklore studies, contemporary literary criticism, structuralism, social anthropology, and other such disciplines and approaches, are invited. Although experimental in both form and content, Semeia proposes to publish work that reflects a well defined methodology that is appropriate to the material being interpreted.

Key Features

• Key perspectives on biblical criticism
• Includes bibliographies and index

Contents

Top Highlights

“In light of the suggestions made by Hellholm and Aune, the following addition to the definition of ‘apocalypse’ in Semeia 14 may be made: intended to interpret present, earthly circumstances in light of the supernatural world and of the future, and to influence both the understanding and the behavior of the audience by means of divine authority.” (Page 7)

“The definition proposed by the Apocalypse Group is the following: ‘Apocalypse’ is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world (Collins, 1979: 9).” (Page 2)

“David Hellholm has proposed that the definition in Semeia 14 be expanded to include function: ‘intended for a group in crisis with the purpose of exhortation and/or consolation by means of divine authority’” (Page 6)

“‘intended for a group in crisis with the purpose of exhortation and/or consolation by means of divine authority.’^{27” (Page 27)}

“Some questions arise, however, about Hellholm’s proposed addition.” (Page 6)

Contributors

• David E. Aune
• Adela Yarbro Collins
• Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
• David Hellholm
• Martha Himmelfarb
• Carolyn Osiek
• Leonard Thompson

Product Details

• Title: Semeia 36: Early Christian Apocalypticism: Genre and Social Setting
• Editor: Adela Yarbro Collins
• Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature
• Publication Date: 1986
• Pages: 174

About Adela Yarbro Collins

Professor Yarbro Collins joined the Yale Divinity School in 2000 after teaching at the University of Chicago Divinity School for nine years. Prior to that, she was a professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. She was a member of the executive committee of the Society of New Testament Studies from 2002 to 2003. She was president of the New England Region of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2004-2005. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology by the University of Oslo, Norway, in 1994 and a Fellowship for University Teachers by the National Endowment for the Humanities for 1995-96. Her most recent book is a commentary on the Gospel of Mark for the Hermeneia commentary series. Among her other publications are Cosmology and Eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism; The Beginning of the Gospel: Probings of Mark in Context; Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse; The Apocalypse (New Testament Message series); and The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation. She served as the editor of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Monograph Series from 1985 to 1990. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Biblical Interpretation, and the Catholic Biblical Quarterly.