Two gods in heaven : Jewish concepts of God in antiquity / Peter Schäfer ; translated by Allison Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schäfer, Peter, 1943- Author.

Contributor:

Brown, Allison (Translator), translator.

Standardized Title:

Zwei Götter im Himmel. English.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

God (Judaism)--History of doctrines.

God (Judaism).

Son of God (Judaism).

Monotheism.

Christianity and other religions--Judaism.

Christianity and other religions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A book that challenges our most basic assumptions about Judeo-Christian monotheismContrary to popular belief, Judaism was not always strictly monotheistic. Two Gods in Heaven reveals the long and little-known history of a second, junior god in Judaism, showing how this idea was embraced by rabbis and Jewish mystics in the early centuries of the common era and casting Judaism's relationship with Christianity in an entirely different light.Drawing on an in-depth analysis of ancient sources that have received little attention until now, Peter Schäfer demonstrates how the Jews of the pre-Christian Second Temple period had various names for a second heavenly power-such as Son of Man, Son of the Most High, and Firstborn before All Creation. He traces the development of the concept from the Son of Man vision in the biblical book of Daniel to the Qumran literature, the Ethiopic book of Enoch, and the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the picture changes drastically. While the early Christians of the New Testament took up the idea and developed it further, their Jewish contemporaries were divided. Most rejected the second god, but some-particularly the Jews of Babylonia and the writers of early Jewish mysticism-revived the ancient Jewish notion of two gods in heaven.Describing how early Christianity and certain strands of rabbinic Judaism competed for ownership of a second god to the creator, this boldly argued and elegantly written book radically transforms our understanding of Judeo-Christian monotheism.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: One God?

1. The Son of Man in the Vision of Daniel

2. The Personified Wisdom in the Wisdom Literature

3. The Divinized Human in the Self-Glorification Hymn from Qumran

4. The Son of God and Son of the Most High in the Daniel Apocryphon from Qumran

5. The Son of Man-Enoch in the Similitudes of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch

6. The Son of Man-Messiah in the Fourth Book of Ezra

7. The Firstborn in the Prayer of Joseph

8. The Logos according to Philo of Alexandria

Transition: From Pre-Christian to Post-Christian Judaism

9. The Son of Man in the Midrash

10. The Son of Man-Messiah David

11. From the Human Enoch to the Lesser God Metatron

Conclusion: Two Gods

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780691199894

0691199892

OCLC:

1113328600