Wednesday, June 13, 2012

New book: Hanneken, The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees

NEW BOOK from the Society of Biblical Literature:
The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees
Todd R. Hanneken

ISBN 1589836421
Status Available
Price: $42.95
Binding Paperback
Publication Date June, 2012

In spite of some scholars' inclination to include the book of Jubilees as another witness to “Enochic Judaism,” the relationship of Jubilees to the apocalyptic writings and events surrounding the Maccabean revolt has never been adequately clarified. This book builds on scholarship on genre to establish a clear pattern among the ways Jubilees resembles and differs from other apocalypses. Jubilees matches the apocalypses of its day in overall structure and literary morphology. Jubilees also uses the literary genre to raise the issues typical of the apocalypses—including revelation, angels and demons, judgment, and eschatology—but rejects what the apocalypses typically say about those issues, subverting reader expectations with a corrected view. In addition to the main argument concerning Jubilees, this volume's survey of what is fundamentally apocalyptic about apocalyptic literature advances the understanding of early Jewish apocalyptic literature and, in turn, of later apocalypses and comparable perspectives, including those of Paul and the Qumran sectarians.

Todd R. Hanneken is Assistant Professor of Theology at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Hardback edition available from Brill Academic Publishers (www.brill.nl)