Apocalypse against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism

by Anathea Portier-Young

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2011

Overview

The year 167 BC marked the beginning of a period of intense persecution for the people of Judea, as Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted—forcibly and brutally—to eradicate traditional Jewish religious practices. In Apocalypse against Empire Anathea Portier-Young reconstructs the historical events and key players in this traumatic episode in Jewish history and provides a sophisticated treatment of resistance in early Judaism.

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Contents

Top Highlights

“The tradents of the Enochic corpus did not reject wholesale the forms of knowledge they encountered in this colonial meeting of cultures. But they sought to bring each form of knowledge within the purview of knowledge revealed to Enoch by the one God. In so doing they could position all claims to knowledge, including those that underwrote the power claims of the empires, in relation to authoritative revelation from the highest ruler, God.” (Pages 306–307)

“challenging not only the physical means of coercion, but also empire’s claims about knowledge and the world” (Page xxii)

“manipulated and co-opted hegemonic social institutions to express and reinforce its values and cosmology” (Page xxii)

“sees Daniel and his friends leading a double life, simultaneously resisting and conforming” (Page 226)

“authoritative in this period, nor were the forms of authoritative texts yet fixed” (Page 221)

Product Details

• Title: Apocalypse against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early Judaism
• Author: Anathea E. Portier-Young
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 486

About Anathea Portier-Young

Scholarship combines literary and theological approaches to the Old Testament with an interest in hermeneutics, history of interpretation, and the relationship between the Old Testament and Christian theology. She has focused in particular on theological themes of God’s mercy and justice, the alleviation of suffering, and traditions of violent and non-violent action. Her forthcoming book, Theologies of Resistance: Jewish Responses to the Antiochian Persecution (Brill), examines Daniel, 1 and 2 Maccabees, portions of 1 Enoch, and the Testament of Moses to understand the variety of ways Jews resisted the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes. The book calls for a new appreciation of the dynamic interrelationship between ethics, theology, and the interpretation and writing of scripture in this pivotal period of Jewish history. Her second book, entitled The Theology of the Book of Daniel, will appear in the series Old Testament Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2009). Portier-Young has published articles on Tobit, Joseph and Aseneth, and 1 Corinthians. Her other research interests include Genesis, Job, and intersections of gender, ethnicity, and violence in the Old Testament.