Conflicted Boundaries in Wisdom and Apocalypticism

by Benjamin G. Wright III (Editor), Lawrence M. Wills (Editor)

The notion that wisdom and apocalypticism represent fundamentally different and mutually exclusive categories of genre and worldview in early Jewish and Christian literature persists in current scholarship. The essays in this volume, the work of the Wisdom and Apocalypticism Group of the Society of Biblical Literature, challenge that generally held view as they explore the social locations and scholarly constructions of these literatures and discover an ancient reality of more porous categories and complex interrelationships. The volume draws on a broad range of Jewish and Christian texts, including 1 Enoch, Sirach, 4Qinstruction, Psalms of Solomon, James, Revelation, and Barnabas. The contributors are Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, Patrick J. Hartin, Richard A. Horsley, Matthew J. Goff, George W.E. Nickelsburg, Barbara R. Rossing, Sarah J. Tanzer, Patrick A. Tiller, Rodney A. Werline, Lawrence M. Wills and Benjamin G. Wright III.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Alan Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern scholarship separates wisdom and apocalyptic into different categories. Recent study shows that this division is somewhat artificial. Things unseen can be understood by things visible, such as the cosmos and the temple. Conflicted Boundaries examines the relation between wisdom and apocalyptic to see find out what the difference is, and what the connection is that brings the two genres together.