Persepolis and Jerusalem

Iranian Influence on the Apocalyptic Hermeneutic

Jason M. Silverman

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780567173836
• eBook ISBN:
  9780567244468
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

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, Jason M. Silverman 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

• CONTENTS
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• PROLEGOMENA
• Introit
• Brief History of Iranian Influence on Judaism
• Apocalyptic Studies
• Types of Influence and Transmission
• Chapter 1. THE IRANIAN SOURCES: RELIGION AND ROYAL IDEOLOGY
• Introduction to Iranian Religion in the Achaemenid Period
• Evidence from Classical Authors
• Religious Situation in Iran
• Persian Archaeology and Royal Ideology
• Summary
• Chapter 2. THE ACHAEMENID CONTEXT
• Babylonia
• Media and Iranian Lands
• Egypt
• Palestine
• The Royal Road and Royal Mail
• Summary
• Excursus: Elamites and Iranians in Anšan and Darius’s Coup
• General Theological and Sociological Affinities Between Jews and Persians
• Chapter 3. THE MEDIA OF INFLUENCE: ORALITY, LITERACY, AND CULTURAL INTERACTION
• The Importance of Orality and Its Role in Influence
• Importance of Interiorization for the Context of the Apocalypses
• Implications for Investigation of Influence
• Chapter 4. TEXTUAL ANALYSES: BIBLICAL LITERATURE
• Ezekiel 37:1–14 (The Valley of the Bones)
• Ezekiel 38–39 (Gog of Magog)
• Daniel and the Four Kingdoms
• Excursus: On the Watchers
• Chapter 5. TEXTUAL ANALYSES: ENOCHIC LITERATURE
• The Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36)
• Excursus: The Šemihazah Myth
• Book of Parables/Book of Similitudes (1 Enoch 37–71)
• The Birth of Noah Fragment (1 Enoch 106–107)
• Conclusion
• Chapter 6. AN APOCALYPTIC HERMENEUTIC
• Introit: The Proposal
• Hermeneutics: The Re-interpretation and Application of Tradition
• The Apocalyptic Hermeneutic’s Blueprint
• (Re-)Constructing the Apocalyptic Hermeneutic (With an Eye Towards Iran)
• Conclusions
• METALEGOMENA
• APPENDIX I: SOURCES
• APPENDIX II: GLOSSARY OF IRANIAN TERMS
• APPENDIX III: ANNOTATED DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
• Bibliography
• Index of References
• Index of Authors