Category Books

The Survivors of Israel: A Reconsideration of the Theology of Pre-Christian Judaism »

Authors: Mark Adam Elliott
ISBN-13: 9780802844835, ISBN-10: 0802844839
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Date Published: March 2000
Edition: (Non-applicable)

Author Biography: Mark Adam Elliott

Book Synopsis

This study challenges the conventional view of scholars like E. P. Sanders that Late Second Temple Judaism was theologically nationalistic, offering in its place a theory which argues that the intertestamental writings do not anticipate the salvation of all Jews but only of a faithful remnant within Israel. Working carefully with the major books of the pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Mark Adam Elliott shows that the authors of such works anticipated an imminent -- and scathing -- judgment of Israel that would exclude many, or even most, Israelites from the saved community. This provocative finding not only confronts accepted perspectives on Late Second Temple Judaism but also suggests important implications for our reading of Paul and the New Testament.

	Acknowledgments	x
	Abbreviations	xi
1.	Why Another Book on Judaism?	1
	Some Necessary Remarks on Method and Approach	2
	A Word about Sources and Critical Presuppositions	13
2.	Conventional Nationalistic Views of Election in Judaism	27
	The Prevalence and Persistence of Nationalistic Theology in Treatments of Judaism	33
	Latent Tensions in the Conventional View of National Election	40
	The Present State of the Question	52
3.	The Judgment-of-Israel Theme	57
	At Qumran	58
	The Widespread Currency of the Theme in Other Intertestamental Writings	73
	Apostasy in Israel	108
4.	Limits on the Community of Salvation	115
	Exclusivist Soteriology in the Dead Sea Scrolls	115
	Exclusivist Soteriology in the Pseudepigrapha	118
	Divine Mercy toward Israel?	178
5.	Reform and Dissent--The Sociohistorical Context	187
	How Does One Account for the Exclusivist Attitude toward Israel?	202
	The Origins and Identity of a Movement	235
6.	Dualistic Covenantal Theology	245
	Dynamic and Dualistic Views of Covenant	249
	Dynamic View of Covenant	250
	Dualistic Covenantal Formulations	273
7.	Soteriological Dualism	309
	Seed Theology	314
	Plant Metaphors	329
	Some Important Implications of Soteriological Dualism	344
8.	A New Approach to Apocalyptic Forms	355
	Historical Rehearsals--Legacy of Israel's Past Performance	356
	Testaments--Final Words of Revered Patriarchs	382
9.	The Dualistic Trajectory of Pneumatology	393
	Jubilees--Israel Abandoned to Evil Spirits	396
	The Dead Sea Scrolls--Dualistic Pneumatology Defines the Metaphysical Universe	400
	Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs--Choosing between God and Beliar	419
	The All-Important Flood Paradigm	424
10.	The Messiah-for-the-Elect	433
	Approach and Presuppositions	434
	The Messianic Context: Progenitors, Paradigms, and Mystical and Revelatory Figures	437
	The Messiah-for-the-Elect	469
11.	Eschatology in a Dualistic Context	515
	The Dialectic of Restoration in the Zoomorphic History	521
	Judgment and Vindication in the Book of Watchers	527
	A Conditional Restoration in the Apocalypse of Weeks and the "Epistle" of Enoch (Book 5)	528
	Restoration as Conversion in Jubilees	533
	Instruments of Restoration: The Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls	540
	Requisites for Israel's Future Salvation in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs	552
	Seeking Israel's Promised Restoration in the Psalms of Solomon	555
	Eschatological Urgency in 4 Ezra	561
	Warning and Consolation in the Eschatology of 2 Baruch	569
12.	"Destruction-Preservation Soteriology"	575
	Paradigms for Salvation	576
	Destruction-Preservation (D-P) Soteriology	595
	The Ultimate Goal--Vindication of the Remnant by the Rest of Israel	634
	Conclusion: Implications of the Theology of the Movement of Dissent for New Testament Study	639
	Theological	639
	Social	640
	Formal	641
	Comparative	641
	A Pause for Misgivings	663
	General Bibliography	665
	Index of Subjects	707
	Index of Modern Authors	716
	Index of Biblical and Extrabiblical Texts	728