Cover | 1 |
Title Page | 4 |
Copyright | 5 |
Table of Contents | 8 |
Body | 14 |
List of Tables | 13 |
Abbreviations | 14 |
Books, Series, and Journals | 14 |
Sigla Used in Dead Sea Scrolls Transcriptions and Citations | 15 |
Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Aramaic Compositions and Manuscripts | 15 |
Acknowledgments | 18 |
Foreword | 20 |
Chapter One: Mapping the World of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls | 24 |
Introduction | 24 |
A Corpus or Collection? Dream-Visions and the (Dis)Unity of the Aramaic Texts | 31 |
The Direction of This Study | 38 |
Part One: Shared Compositional Patterns | 40 |
Chapter Two: A Prospectus of Aramaic Dreams and Dreamers | 42 |
Introduction | 42 |
Compositions Featuring Dream-Visions | 43 |
1 Enoch | 43 |
Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36) | 44 |
Astronomical Enoch (1 Enoch 72–82) | 45 |
Book of Dreams (1 Enoch 83–91) | 47 |
Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 92–105) | 48 |
Birth of Noah (1 Enoch 106–107) | 48 |
Book of Giants | 49 |
Words of Michael | 52 |
Genesis Apocryphon | 53 |
Testament of Jacob | 58 |
New Jerusalem | 59 |
Aramaic Levi Document | 62 |
Apocryphon of Levi | 66 |
Visions of Amram | 68 |
Daniel 2–7 | 71 |
Aramaic Apocalypse | 73 |
Four Kingdoms | 74 |
Fragmentary Texts Exhibiting Dream-Vision Features | 75 |
Prayer of Nabonidus | 75 |
4QVision. | 77 |
4QpapVision. | 77 |
4QVision. | 78 |
4QpapApocalypse | 79 |
Excursus: Dreaming in Aramaic before and beyond the Dead Sea Scrolls | 79 |
Texts Mistakenly Associated with Dream-Vision Revelation | 83 |
Tobit | 83 |
4QPseudo Daniel.-. | 84 |
4QExorcism | 85 |
Jews in the Persian Court | 86 |
4QVision.? | 87 |
Summary of Findings | 87 |
Table 1: The Dream-Visions of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls at a Glance I: Prominent Literary Themes, Images, and Motifs | 89 |
Chapter Three: Writing Dream-Visions in Aramaic: Common Forms, Structures, Idioms, and Phrases | 92 |
Introduction | 92 |
Overlapping Terminology for Dreams and Visions | 93 |
Table 2: Etymological Survey of Dream Terms in Some Languages of the Ancient Near East | 95 |
Formulae Introducing Dream-Visions | 97 |
Table 3: A Cross-Section of Dream-Vision Introductory and Concluding Formulae | 98 |
Phrases and Idioms Marking Narrative Movement | 103 |
Oneirocritical Terminology and Methods | 107 |
Awakening Formulae and Responses Elicited by Dream-Visions | 111 |
Summary of Findings | 115 |
Table 4: The Dream-Visions of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls at a Glance II: Prominent Formal and Philological Features (continued on next page) | 119 |
Part Two: Shared Applications of Dream-Visions | 122 |
Chapter Four: The Exegetical Underpinnings of Some Pre-Diluvian and Patriarchal Dreamers | 124 |
Introduction | 124 |
An Enochic Example: Philological Flexibility in Gen 5:22 and 24 and the Root of 1 Enoch’s Expansive Revelatory Tradition | 126 |
Uncovering Scripture’s Intimations of Dream-Visions in Genesis Apocryphon | 129 |
A Threefold Combination of Verbs Alluding to Revelation in Gen 9:21 and 24: “to reveal (...),” “to awake (...),” and “to know (...)” | 130 |
Informing Abram of the Plan behind the Sister-Wife Ruse in Gen 12:11 | 134 |
From Theophany to Dream-Vision: Harmonizing Gen 12:7, 13:14, and 15:1 | 136 |
An Underlying Interest in Casting the Patriarchs as Prophetic Dreamers: Are Noah and Abram also among the Prophets? | 140 |
Excursus: Curiosities of Composition and Exegesis in Mordecai’s Dream-Vision in Greek Esther Addition A | 145 |
Levi’s Visionary Installment as a Priest in Aramaic Levi Document | 150 |
The Suggestiveness of Mal 2:5–6: Levi “descended (...)” after “walking with (... ...)” God | 153 |
A Complementary Clue in 1 Sam 2:27: The Lord “revealed (...)” Himself to Levi | 155 |
Summary of Findings | 157 |
Chapter Five: Dreaming of the Temple and Priesthood in This World, the Otherworld, and the World to Come | 159 |
Introduction | 159 |
An Enochic Example: Revealing the Calendar of the Heavens and Endorsing its Earthly Application in Astronomical Enoch | 161 |
Visions of Amram on the Genetics of the Priesthood | 163 |
Grafting Amram and Aaron into (Aramaic) Levi’s Priestly Family Tree | 163 |
Table 5: Priestly Terminology for Levitical and Aaronide Priesthoods in Aramaic Levi Document and Visions of Amram | 166 |
An Otherworldly Endorsement from the Celestial Melchizedek | 167 |
Interpreting the Cult: Displaying Sacerdotal Halakhah in New Jerusalem | 172 |
Excursus: Temple Authorization Dream-Visions from the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Hebrew Scriptures, and Graeco-Roman Antiquity | 179 |
Additional Glimpses of Priestly Dreams and Dreamers | 184 |
Testament of Jacob: A Partial View of Priestly Precincts, Praxis, and Promises | 184 |
Apocryphon of Levi: Envisioning an Eschatological Priest-Saviour | 186 |
Summary of Findings | 189 |
Chapter Six: (P)Reviewing the Course and Configuration of History through Dream-Vision Revelation | 191 |
Introduction | 191 |
An Enochic Example: The Scope and Structure of Human History in the “Apocalypse of Weeks” | 194 |
The Flood in Historical Retrospect and Prospect | 198 |
Urzeit und Endzeit as a Historiographical Principle in Book of Giants | 198 |
The Deluge, Lay of the Land, and Eschatology in Noah’s Dream-Vision in Genesis Apocryphon | 202 |
The Eras of Empires: Four Kingdom Chronologies from the Exile to the Eschaton | 211 |
Daniel 2 and 7: The God of Israel’s Direction of Pagan Dominions | 211 |
World History Redux: Retrofitting Rome into the Scheme in Four Kingdoms | 213 |
Table 6: Proposed Referents for the Historical Scheme of Four Kingdoms | 215 |
Other Views of Geopolitical Upheaval or Succession | 219 |
The Culmination of Israelite History in New Jerusalem | 219 |
Another Monarch Learns His Place in World History in Aramaic Apocalypse | 222 |
Summary of Findings | 226 |
Chapter Seven: Overview and Outcomes | 228 |
Toward a Description of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls as a Constellation of Texts | 228 |
An Enlivened Encounter with the Scriptural Past: Pseudepigraphy, Epistemology, and Dream-Vision Discourses | 234 |
The Quest for the Ancient Jewish Apocalypse: Four Prescriptions from the Aramaic Texts | 239 |
Table 7: Lists of Apocalypses and Apocalyptically Oriented Texts among the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls (continued on next page) | 241 |
Closing Thoughts | 247 |
Bibliography | 249 |
Ancient Sources Index | 285 |
Author Index | 308 |