I would like to introduce you to some new books that have just recently been published by my former professor and advisor at Marquette University, Associate Professor of Christian Origins, Andrei A. Orlov.
From his bio:
Andrei A. Orlov, Ph.D. (1990) in Sociology, Russian Academy of Science, and Ph.D. (2003) in Theology, Marquette University, is an Assistant Professor of Christian Origins at Marquette University (Milwaukee). He has published extensively on the Old Testament pseudepigrapha including The Enoch-Metatron Tradition (2005) and From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha (2007).
Dr. Orlov is one of the world’s top scholars on the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha–ancient extra-biblical texts that were preserved in Old Church Slavonic, an early Slavic language that was used as a liturgical language in the Byzantine Christian Church. Many early Christian, as well as Jewish, documents were translated from Greek into Slavonic early on. Dr. Orlov is a highly prolific writer and has produced many works on several Slavonic texts, most notably 2 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Abraham, among many others. Both of these documents are highly important and very interesting to read.
Much of Dr. Orlov’s work would be very insightful for readers of this blog. He has written extensively on the themes of ascent to heaven, enthronement, theophanies and divine manifestations, the heavenly temple, deification, and more. I have written a number of posts about his work in the past:
- Dr. Andrei Orlov Provides New Resources on Important Pseudepigraphal Texts
- Religous Scholars on the Web
- Moses, Enoch and the Heavenly Ascent
- New Materials to Explore
- Engraved on the Throne of Glory
- Links to Dr. Orlov’s Writings About Enoch
- Plus many others based on notes taken in his classes
For more info on Dr. Andrei Orlov, please see his website at www.andreiorlov.com
Selected Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha
As I mentioned, Dr. Orlov has recently produced three new titles. The most recent is a forthcoming monograph from Brill entitled Selected Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha (STVP; Leiden: Brill, 2009). This book is so new that I can’t even find it yet on the Brill website (www.brill.nl). However, I have seen the book cover and can provide the brief synopsis from the back cover in order to give you an idea of what it is about.
This volume is a study of two of the most important Slavonic apocalypses, the Apocalypse of Abraham and 2 Enoch, as crucial conceptual links between the symbolic universes of Second Temple apocalypticism and early Jewish mysticism. The study seeks to understand the mediating role of these Slavonic pseudepigraphical texts in the devolpment of Jewish angelological and theophanic traditions from Second Temple apocalypticism to later Jewish Merkabah mysticism attested in the Hekhalot and Shiur Qomah materials. The study shows that mediatorial traditions of the principal angels and the exalted patriarchs and prophets played an important role in facilitating the transition from apocalypticism to early Jewish mysticism.
This work is extremely valuable to anyone interested in Enochic and/or Abrahamic literature (which should be most anyone reading this blog)! To me, the book of 2 Enoch is probably the most exciting of the known books of Enoch–it recounts Enoch’s journey through the various heavens to the throne of God (where he sees God face to face) and his subsequent clothing and anointing, transformation into an angelic being, and enthronement at the side of God. The Apocalypse of Abraham is no less important and intriguing as it is tells of Abraham’s ascent to heaven and the vision that God gave him of the cosmos and of the history of the world–very similar to the material that Latter-day Saints cherish in our books of Moses and Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price.
Divine Manifestations in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha
The next book, Divine Manifestations in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, was just released by Gorgias Press last month. Dr. Orlov has published extensively on themes related to visions and theophanies as described in Jewish apocalyptic and mystical texts. This work looks to be a thorough treatment of these themes as they appear in the Slavonic texts, with an analysis of the different strands of tradition that can be identified within them–namely the visual tradition (emphasizing that the visionary would see the divine Form) contrasted with the aural tradition (that the voice of the divine Name would be heard). I am very anxious to get my hands on a copy of this book. Below is an brief synopsis of the book along with a link to Gorgias Press’ page on it.
This volume explores the formative theophanic patterns found in such pseudepigraphical writings as 2 Enoch, Apocalypse of Abraham, and the Ladder of Jacob where the visual tradition of the divine Form and the aural tradition of the divine Name undergo their creative conflation and thus provide the rich conceptual soil for the subsequent elaborations prominent in later patristic and rabbinic developments. The visionary and aural traditions found in the Slavonic pseudepigrapha are especially important for understanding the evolution of the theophanic trends inside the eastern Christian environment where these Jewish apocalyptic materials were copied and transmitted for centuries by generations of monks.
***Very shortly, by permission of Dr. Orlov, I will be posting the introduction to Divine Manifestations in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha. I am reading it now and it is very insightful and informative. I can’t wait to share it with you.
L’eglise des deux Alliances
The following is a recent book co-edited by Andrei Orlov with Basil Lourié and Madeleine Petit. Although the title is French, the book is a collection of various articles — many of them in English. The articles were written in memory of the late Annie Jaubert, a great French biblical scholar who offered many outstanding theories regarding early Jewish and Christian calendars and chronologies, including those used at Qumran and during the Second Temple period.
From Gorgias Press:
The book represents a collection of articles devoted to the memory of Annie Jaubert (1912-1980), a French scholar known for her research on the calendrical teachings of the Hebrew Bible, the Second Temple pseudepigrapha (1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees), and Qumran literature. The articles discuss various aspects of Jaubert’s pioneering work on early Christian and Jewish calendars, including her solution to an old problem of the conflicting chronologies for the Passion Week in the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John. The volume also contains the complete bibliography of Jaubert’s scholarly works and a biographical sketch of her life.
Also, I would like to mention another book that Orlov edited that Gorgias has recently reprinted from the Scrinium periodical. It is a collection of articles by the Theophaneia School, a research group started at Marquette University with the goal of recovering the theophanic language of early Christian traditions. This volume looks at the Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian mysticism, including writings by figures such as Clement of Alexandria, Jacob of Serug, Symeon the New Theologian, and Ps.-Dionysius, and also texts such as the Book of Revelation and the Shepherd of Hermas. A very interesting collection indeed.
For more on this volume, please see the Gorgias Press page here: http://www.gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/p-56302-louri-basil-and-andrei-orlov-the-theophaneia-school.aspx
See also here: http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/TheophaneiaSchool.pdf
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