General Editors ASTRID Β. BECK DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN Editorial Board HAROLD W. ATTRIDGE, History and Literature of Early Christianity JOI IN HUEHNERGARD, Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures PETER MACHINIST, Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures SHALOM M. PAUL, Hebrew Bible JOHN P. MEIER, New Testament STANLEY E. PORTER, New Testament Language and Literature JAMES C. VANDERKAM, Histoiy and Literature of Early Judaism ADELA YARBRO COLLINS, New Testament Available John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination, Second Edition John J. Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora, Second Edition Frank Moore Cross, Jr., and David Noel Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew and Some Other Syntactical Questions Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S..T., The Semitic Background of the New Testament (combined edition of Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament and A Wandering Aramean) Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., To Advance the Gospel, Second Edition Birger Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript with Tradition and Transmission in Early Christianity Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions The Apocalyptic Imagination An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature SECOND EDITION John J. Collins WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K. DOVE BOOKSELLERS LIVONIA, MICHIGAN © 1984, 1998 John J. Collins All rights reserved First edition published 1984 by Crossroad Second edition published jointly 1998 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids. Michigan 49503 / P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K. and by Dove Booksellers 30633 Schoolcraft Road. Suite C, Livonia, Michigan 48150 Printed in the United States of America 09 08 07 06 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Collins. John Joseph. 1946- The apocalyptic imagination: an introduction to Jewish apocalyptic literature / John J. Collins. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-10 0-8028-4371-9/ ISBN-13 978-0-8028-4371-5 (paper: alk. paper) 1. Apocalyptic literature — History and criticism. I. Title. BS646.C656 1998 229'.913 — dc21 97-49578 CIP www.eerdmans.com For Jesse Yarbro Sean Ryan and Aidan Michael Contents Preface ix Preface to the Second Edition χ Abbreviations xi 1. The Apocalyptic Genre 1 2. The Early Enoch Literature 43 3. Daniel 85 4. Related Genres: Oracles and Testaments 116 5. Qumran 145 6. The Similitudes of Enoch 177 7. After the Fall: 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and the Apocalypse of Abraham 194 8. Apocalyptic Literature from the Diaspora in the Roman Period 233 9. Apocalypticism in Early Christianity 256 Epilogue 280 Bibliography 284 Indexes 318 Preface This volume is the product of more than a decade of study, begun when I was a graduate student at Harvard University. Along the way numerous mentors and friends have informed and corrected my work. Three groups deserve special mention: my teachers at Harvard (Frank M. Cross, Paul D. Hanson, and John Strugnell), the task-force on Forms and Genres of Religious Litera- ture in Late Antiquity, and my colleagues in the Pseudepigrapha Group of the Society of Biblical Literature. Above all my thanks are due to my most constant collaborator, Adela Yarbro Collins. The book is dedicated to our children, who show us how fantastic imagination can be. I also wish to thank the editors of: Catholic Biblical Quarterly for permission to adapt my article "The Apocalyptic Technique: Setting and Function in the Book of the Watchers" (CBQ 44 [1982] 91-111); Journal for the Study of the Old Testament for permission to adapt my article "Apocalyptic Genre and Mythic Allusions in Daniel" (JSOT21 [1981] 83-100); Eisenbrauns Publishing Co. for permission to adapt my article "Patterns of Eschatology at Qumran" (Traditions in Transformation, edited by B. Halpcrn and J. D. Levenson); Scholars Press for permission to adapt my article "The Heavenly Representative: The 'Son of Man' in the Similitudes of Enoch" (from Ideal Figures in Ancient Judaism, edited by G. W. E. Nickelsburg and J. J. Collins) and to use material from Semeia 14; J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen, for permission to adapt my article "The Genre Apocalypse in Hellenistic Judaism" (from Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, edited by D. Hellholm).