Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses This page intentionally left blank Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses MARTHA HIMMELFARB New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1993 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland Madrid and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1993 by Martha Himmelfarb Published by Oxford Unversity Press Inc. 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrival system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, with the prior permission of Oxford Universiy Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Himmelfarb, Martha, 1952- Ascent to heaven in Jewish and Christian apocalypses/ Martha Himmelfarb. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-508203-6 1. Apocalyptic literature. 2. Voyages to the otherworld. 3. Heaven. 4. Angels in literature. I. Title. BS1705.H56 1993 229'.913—dc20 92-35748 Scriptural quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used with permission. The quotation from "Revelation and Rapture" by Martha Himmelfarb, which appeared in the is- sue of the Journal for the Study of Pseudefigrapha entitled Mysteries and Revelations^ is reprinted by permission of the publisher. The quotation from The Book of Enoch by Matthew Black (1985) is reprinted by permission of the publisher, E. J. Brill, the Netherlands. 246897531 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my pa-rents, Judith and Milton Himmelfarb This page intentionally left blank Preface This book is a study of the early Jewish and Christian apocalypses involving ascent to heaven: the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36), the Testament of Levi, 2 Enoch, the Similitudes of Enoch (1 Enoch 37- 71), the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Ascension of Isaiah, and 3 Baruch. These works, which span the third century B.C.E. to the second century C.E., have recently assumed a more prominent role in scholarly discussion because of the early dates of the Qumran fragments of the Book of the Watchers, on the one hand, and the interest in questions of genre, on the other. Beginning with the Book of the Watchers, these works envision heaven as a temple, and I argue that this conception determines the way they describe ascent. The most striking example is the depiction of the visionary's achievement of equality with the angels through the language of priestly investiture. Some of the ascent apocalypses make secrets of nature an important part of the revelation to the visionary in the course of the ascent, with implications for the origins of evil in the universe and God's accessibility in this world. The final chapter of this book considers the nature of authorship in these pseudepigraphic apocalypses and the related problem of the status of the visions and ascents. Did the authors themselves experience some- thing like the ascents they describe? Why did they use ancient heroes to put forward their messages? I argue that the apocalypses are best under- stood not as literary adaptations of personal experiences but as imagina- tive literature. The ascent apocalypses are deeply indebted to the later prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible, especially Ezekiel, which had a profound influence on the Book of the Watchers and, through it, on the other ascent apocalypses. But they must also be understood as part of Greco-Roman thought about ascent and divinization. I try to place them in both contexts. I believe that careful attention to the ascent apocalypses will enlarge our understanding of ancient Judaism and Chris- tianity. viii Preface Since the manuscript for this book was completed in November 1991, I was unable to take into account literature published after that date except occasionally to note its existence. I am delighted to thank those colleagues and friends who helped me in the preparation of this book. I have tried to acknowledge debts for spe- cific points in the notes, but there are several people to whom I owe thanks of a more general kind. George W. E. Nickelsburg offered many helpful comments, especially on chapter 1. John Gager, my colleague at Princeton, read drafts of several chapters and encouraged me through- out. My teacher Michael Stone, whose work has had a lasting influence on my own, graciously commented at some length on chapter 5, where I chose to disagree with him. His criticism helped me sharpen and, I hope, improve my arguments. I am grateful to several students who served as research assistants on this project. Three former Princeton graduate students—A. G. Miller, Judith Weisenfeld, and Timothy Fulop—provided able assistance (despite the fact that their own field is American religious history), as did Charles Bott, formerly an undergraduate in the department and now embarked on graduate studies in the area of early Christianity. My student Gideon Bohak, still at Princeton, served as an assistant toward the end of the project and made many helpful suggestions. Jennifer Herdt, a depart- mental graduate student in the field of religion, ethics, and politics, pre- pared the bibliography with great efficiency. None of these assistants would have come my way without the guiding hand of Lorraine Fuhr- mann, the department administrator. I thank her and the department's secretaries, Harriet Stuart and Lynn Maselli, for help at so many moments along the way. My husband, Steven L. Weiss, read the whole manuscript and of- fered help at many points. That is only the smallest part of my debt to him. My father, Milton Himmelfarb, came out of retirement to advise me on editorial matters. I am grateful for his advice about style and for his comments on many issues of substance. I dedicate the book to him and to my mother, Judith Himmelfarb, with love. Princeton, N.J. M.H. November 1992 Contents Abbreviations, xi Introduction, 3 1. From Ezekiel to the Book of the Watchers, 9 2. Heavenly Ascent and Priestly Investiture, 29 3. Transformation and the Righteous Dead, 47 4. The Secrets of Nature, Primeval History, and the Order of the Cosmos, 72 5. The Apocalypses as Writing, 95 Notes, 115 Bibliography, 151 Index, 163