The Apocalypse of the Birds: 1 Enoch and the Jewish Revolt Against Rome

This book provides a new approach to the study of the Jewish Revolt and the Animal Apocalypse,focusing on the literary and historical contexts of these texts. It argues that the Apocalypse of the Birds is a key source for understanding the hopes and aspirations of the revolutionaries,and the evolving nature of the Animal Apocalyptic tradition.

Format: Hardback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

This book is a groundbreaking contribution to the study of the Animal Apocalypse, a rich and complex text that dates to the dawn of the First Jewish Revolt. It identifies a new source for the study of this important movement, establishing the high hopes of the revolutionaries before their ultimate collapse. Pursuing a unified and cross-disciplinary study of the apocalyptic and historiographic literature of Jews and Christians (or Jesus-followers) in the first-century CE, the book advances a methodology for the study of ancient fragments, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that privileges our extant material evidence in the construction of literary wholes. Reimagining the Animal Apocalypse of Enoch as a lively literary tradition with multiple identifiable sites of growth, including the Vision of the Beasts and the Apocalypse of the Birds, the book explores the potential and pitfalls of historical-apocalyptic texts in guiding methodological discussions of dating. This book is a must-read for scholars of the Bible, early Christianity, and the history of the Jewish Revolt, and will undoubtedly inspire new research and interpretations of these important texts.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399508650