Sefer Elijah

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Sefer Elijah (also known as Sefer Eliahu, Sefer Elias, or the Apocalypse of Elijah) is an ancient apocalyptic text which was written in Hebrew to a Jewish audience as early as the 3rd century and as late as the 7th century. This text is presented in a fashion that closely matches the classical definition of the apocalyptic genre[1] as a revelation coming to Elijah from an angelic being about judgment, the coming of a messiah, and the destiny of the Jewish temple and of Jerusalem.[2]

This text is not to be confused with the Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah, which is an early Christian Apocalyptic text.[3] Although the relationship between Sefer Elijah and the Coptic version is still being studied, there are very few similarities and a multitude of stylistic and content differences that suggest the two texts do not share an origin.[4]

The Sefer Elijah was published by Adolf Jellinek[5] in 1855 and Moses Buttenwieser in 1897. Theodor Zahn assigns this apocalypse to the 2nd century AD[6] but other scholars reject such an early date.[7][8] It is more often dated as early as the 3rd century and as late as the 7th century.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Collins, John (2016). "The Apocalyptic Imagination" Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. pp. 5.
  2. ^ Reeves, John C. (24 April 2013). "Sefer Elijah". www.charlotte.edu. UNC Charlotte.
  3. ^ Wintermute, O.S. "Apocalypse of Elijah: A New Translation and Introduction." The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, edited by James H. Charlesworth, Doubleday & Company (1983). pp. 721-753. ISBN 0-385-09630-5.
  4. ^ Frankfurter, David (1993). "Elijah in Upper Egypt: The Apocalypse of Elijah and Early Egyptian Christianity" (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity). Minneapolis: Fortress Press. pp. 50. ISBN 0-8006-3106-4.
  5. ^ Bet ha-Midrasch, 1855, iii. 65-68.
  6. ^ See Emil Schürer, iii. 267-271[clarification needed]
  7. ^ Zahn, Theodor. Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons (in German). Vol. 2. p. 801-810.
  8. ^ "Apocalypse of Elijah".
  9. ^ Buttenwieser, Moses (1901). "Outline of the Neo-Hebraic Apocalyptic Literature." Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye. p. 30.