| Contents |
Multiplicity, monotheism, and memory in Ancient Israel -- Rethinking scribalism and change in Second Temple Judaism -- Writing angels, astronomy, and Aramaic in the early Hellenistic age -- Textualizing demonology as Jewish knowledge and scribal expertise -- Rewriting angels, demons, and the ancestral archive of Jewish knowledge. |
| Abstract |
"What did ancient Jews believe about demon and angels? This question has long been puzzling, not least because the Hebrew Bible says relatively little about such transmundane powers. In the centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great, however, we find an explosion of explicit and systematic interest in, and detailed discussions of, demons and angels. In this book, Annette Reed considers the third century BCE as a critical moment for the beginnings of Jewish angelology and demonology. Drawing on early "pseudepigrapha" and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls, she reconstructs the scribal settings in which transmundane powers became a topic of concerted Jewish interest. Reed also situates this development in relation to shifting ideas about scribes and writing across the Hellenistic Near East. Her book opens a window onto a forgotten era of Jewish literary creativity that nevertheless deeply shaped the discussion of angels and demons in Judaism and Christianity"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Reed, Annette Yoshiko, 1973- Demons, angels, and writing in ancient Judaism 1. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2020. 9781139030847 |
| Genre/form | History. |
| LCCN | 2019038889 |
| ISBN | 9780521119436 hardcover |
| ISBN | 052111943X hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic publication |
| ISBN | electronic book |
