In an era marked by profound upheaval and transformation, the Baruch Apocalypses emerged as powerful expressions of Jewish faith and enduring hope. Echoes of the End invites readers into the captivating world of apocalyptic literature, where the search for divine justice, the struggle with suffering, and the longing for redemption are central themes. Amos C. Miles offers a comprehensive analysis of the Baruch Apocalypses, exploring their origins, historical contexts, and rich symbolic meanings, as well as their lasting influence on Jewish theology. He examines the cultural and religious forces that shaped these texts and reveals how they articulated a response to the challenges and uncertainties of their time. This work is an essential read for theologians, historians, and anyone interested in the development of Jewish eschatology. Through keen insights into the significance of these apocalyptic visions and their messages, Echoes of the End offers new perspectives on the enduring impact of the Baruch Apocalypses—not only within Jewish tradition but also as a source of universal themes of hope, resilience, and faith in times of trial.

The Day of Atonement was a day of rest, penitence, and purification for Israelites of loyal character. On this day, sins and impurities that had accumulated throughout the year were removed from the tabernacle by the application of sacrificial blood to its altars and compartments and transferred by the high priest's confession onto the goat for Azazel, which carried them to the desert. Israel was thus rendered "clean" before the Lord, ensuring that he would continue to dwell in their midst. As it became ingrained in the veil of Jewish consciousness, the Day of Atonement underwent a process of reflection and reimagination as shown in Second Temple literature, where Azazel plays a significant eschatological role. Arriving in New Testament times, the day's imagery and typology presented irresistible motifs which its authors used to proclaim Jesus Christ's atoning death and heavenly intercession on behalf of believers. By utilizing a coherent intertextual approach, this book explores how John wove the Day of Atonement into the colorful literary tapestry of Revelation.

This study addresses the chief critical issues in the interpretation of 3 Baruch -- including text, genre, setting, function, literary integrity, and original authorship -- and offers a reading of the document as both a Jewish and a Christian text.

In recent years, scholars from both Christian and Jewish backgrounds have tried to rethink the relationship between earliest Christianity and its Jewish milieu; and Paul has emerged as a central figure in this debate. Francis Watson contributes to this scholarly discussion by seeing Paul and his Jewish contemporaries as, above all, readers of scripture. However different the conclusions they draw, they all endeavour to make sense of the same normative scriptural texts - in the belief that, as they interpret the scriptural texts, the texts will themselves interpret and illuminate the world of contemporary experience. In that sense, Paul and his contemporaries are standing on common ground. Far from relativizing their differences, however, it is this common ground that makes such differences possible. In this new edition Watson provides a comprehensive new introduction entitled 'A Response to My Critics' in which he directly engages with the critics of the previous edition. There is a substantial new Preface and two new Appendices, and the text has been fully revised throughout.

In this study, John R. Markley argues that the generic portrayal of apocalyptic seers, which he reconstructs through an analysis of fourteen Jewish and Christian apocalypses, shaped Matthew's portrayal of Peter. This influence of the apocalypse genre has come to bear on the Matthean Peter indirectly, through Matthew's appropriation of Markan and Q source material, and directly, through Matthew's redaction and special material. This suggests that Matthew has portrayed Peter, in part, as an apocalyptic seer who was an exclusive recipient of mysteries about Jesus and mysteries mediated by Jesus. In other words, Matthew primarily conceived of Peter as a recipient of revelation, analogously to the venerated seers portrayed in the apocalypses of the Second Temple period. Markley states that these conclusions require substantial revision to the predominant scholarly estimations of the Matthean Peter, which mainly hold him to be a typical or exemplary disciple.

Breaking with common views on Jewish proto-apocalyptic literature, in a postmodern manner, this work approaches one particular proto-apocalyptic text, Isaiah 24-27, the so-called "Isaiah Apocalypse", intertextually. This reading finds that the Isaiah Apocalypse redeploys and controls other texts, helping secure the authority of those texts as well as its own vision of the end. The first chapter surveys approaches to late Israelite prophecy and presents a new "intertextual" way of viewing this material. The chapters that follow investigate the "eternal covenant" and its role in intertextual space; Isaiah 25's construal of Israel's relationship to other nations; the central role of the "righteous" in Isaiah 26; and Isaiah 27, which points towards the victory of YHWH’s order over chaos. Readers interested in the development of Jewish apocalyptic literature, the social arrangements of second-Temple Judaism, and postmodern treatments of biblical texts will find this volume useful.

The Gospel of John has long been recognized as being distinct from the Synoptic Gospels. John among the Apocalypses explains John's distinctive narrative of Jesus's life by comparing it to Jewish apocalypses and highlighting the central place of revelation in the Gospel. While some scholars have noted a connection between the Gospel of John and Jewish apocalypses, Reynolds makes the first extensive comparison of the Gospel with the standard definition of the apocalypse genre. Engaging with modern genre theory, this comparison indicates surprising similarities of form, content, and function between John's Gospel and Jewish apocalypses. Even though the Gospel of John reflects similarities with the genre of apocalypse, John is not an apocalypse, but in genre theory terms, John may be described as a gospel in kind and an apocalypse in mode. John's narrative of Jesus's life has been qualified and shaped by the genre of apocalypse, such that it may be called an 'apocalyptic' gospel. In the final two chapters, Reynolds explores the implications of this conclusion for Johannine Studies and New Testament scholarship more broadly. John among the Apocalypses considers how viewing the Fourth Gospel as apocalyptic Gospel aids in the interpretation of John's appeal to Israel's Scriptures and Mosaic authority, and examines the Gospel's relationship with the book of Revelation and the history of reception concerning their writing. An examination of Byzantine iconographic traditions highlights how reception history may offer a possible explanation for reading John as apocalyptic Gospel.

The relationship between the Church and the Scriptures of Israel is fraught with complexities, particularly about how the first Christians read Scripture alongside the Gospel of Christ. Patrick T. Egan examines the text of 1 Peter in the light of its numerous quotations of Scripture and demonstrates how the epistle sets forth a scriptural narrative that explains the nature and purpose of the Church. Egan argues that 1 Peter sets forth an ecclesiology based in a participatory Christology, in which the Church endures suffering in imitation of Jesus's role as the suffering servant. The epistle admonishes the Church to a high moral standard in response to Christ's atoning work while also encouraging the Church to place hope in God's final vindication of his people. Addressing the churches of Asia Minor, 1 Peter applies the Scriptural narrative to the Church in unexpected ways.

Since the advent of formal biblical criticism, many have come to see the crucifixion as merely one event in the process of religious development. Yet for the New Testament writers it was so much more, representing a radical break that forever affected their perception of God and the world. In this book Roy Harrisville examines the thought worlds of the New Testament writers, showing how the cross fractured their previously held ideas, causing a profound reorientation centered on the story of the cross. Focusing chronologically on Paul, the Synoptic writers, John, and the authors of Hebrews and 1 Peter, Harrisville demonstrates changes in the writers' understanding of sacrifice, law, Hellenism, apocalyptic, and other areas -- changes that created the new values of the radically different Christian community. An insightful work of careful critical scholarship, Harrisville's "Fracture" will appeal to anyone interested in reviewing the New Testament's witness to that which lies at the heart of earliest Christian confession and which has provoked such bitter conflict in history.