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Cursed Creation in the Book of Job and the Book of the Watchers
Series: - Vetus Testamentum, Supplements, Volume: 205
Author:
This study constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of the connections between the Book of Job and Jewish apocalypticism. It examines the motifs of creation’s corruption through curses and its restoration through the revelation of cosmological knowledge, as depicted in one of the earliest Jewish apocalyptic texts, the Book of the Watchers, and their thematic parallels in the Book of Job. The study demonstrates that both the Book of Job and the Book of the Watchers exhibit striking similarities in their portrayals of the corruption and restoration of God’s creation.
Andrei A. Orlov is Professor of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at Marquette University. A leading authority on Jewish and Christian apocalypticism and mysticism, he has authored more than twenty monographs and edited volumes.
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: Watchers’ Shadows: the Book of Job and Jewish Apocalypticism
1 Cursed Creation in the Book of Job
1.1 Description of Perfect Creation in the Book of Job’s Prologue
1.2 Symbolism of the Curse in the Book of Job
1.3 Job’s Attack on Creation
1.4 Job’s Curse as the Counterpart of the Divine Name
1.5 Job’s Lament about the Fence and Boundaries of God’s Creation
1.6 Job’s Attack on Procreation
1.7 Conclusion
2 Cursed Creation in the Book of the Watchers
2.1 Watchers as Cosmic Functionaries Representing Various Elements of God’s Creation
2.2 Watchers’ Duties and the Design of God’s Creation
2.3 Watchers as the Pillars of God’s Creation
2.4 The Law of the Stars
2.5 Watchers’ Curses and Their Attack on Creation
2.6 Watchers’ Forbidden Unions and Their Corruption of Procreation
2.7 Conclusion
3 Divine Revelations to Enoch
3.1 Symmetry of Cosmological Secrets
3.2 Soteriological Secrets of Creation in the Book of the Watchers
3.3 Soteriological Secrets of Creation in the Astronomical Book
3.4 Soteriological Secrets for the Mitigation of the Watchers’ Corruption of Procreation
4 Divine Revelations to Job
4.1 Theophanic Settings of God’s Revelations
4.2 Restoration of Creation through Revelation of Cosmological Secrets
4.3 Demiurgic Secrets
4.4 Calendrical Secrets
4.5 Meteorological Secrets
4.6 Astronomical Secrets
4.7 Secrets of Leviathan
4.8 Secrets of Procreation
4.9 Place of Humankind in Creation
4.10 God’s Cosmological Revelations and the Lists of Revealed Things
4.11 Job’s Epistemological Profile and the Watchers’ “Worthless Mysteries”
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Abbreviations
Introduction: Watchers’ Shadows: the Book of Job and Jewish Apocalypticism
1 Cursed Creation in the Book of Job
1.1 Description of Perfect Creation in the Book of Job’s Prologue
1.2 Symbolism of the Curse in the Book of Job
1.3 Job’s Attack on Creation
1.4 Job’s Curse as the Counterpart of the Divine Name
1.5 Job’s Lament about the Fence and Boundaries of God’s Creation
1.6 Job’s Attack on Procreation
1.7 Conclusion
2 Cursed Creation in the Book of the Watchers
2.1 Watchers as Cosmic Functionaries Representing Various Elements of God’s Creation
2.2 Watchers’ Duties and the Design of God’s Creation
2.3 Watchers as the Pillars of God’s Creation
2.4 The Law of the Stars
2.5 Watchers’ Curses and Their Attack on Creation
2.6 Watchers’ Forbidden Unions and Their Corruption of Procreation
2.7 Conclusion
3 Divine Revelations to Enoch
3.1 Symmetry of Cosmological Secrets
3.2 Soteriological Secrets of Creation in the Book of the Watchers
3.3 Soteriological Secrets of Creation in the Astronomical Book
3.4 Soteriological Secrets for the Mitigation of the Watchers’ Corruption of Procreation
4 Divine Revelations to Job
4.1 Theophanic Settings of God’s Revelations
4.2 Restoration of Creation through Revelation of Cosmological Secrets
4.3 Demiurgic Secrets
4.4 Calendrical Secrets
4.5 Meteorological Secrets
4.6 Astronomical Secrets
4.7 Secrets of Leviathan
4.8 Secrets of Procreation
4.9 Place of Humankind in Creation
4.10 God’s Cosmological Revelations and the Lists of Revealed Things
4.11 Job’s Epistemological Profile and the Watchers’ “Worthless Mysteries”
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
This study will interest diverse scholarly communities as well as various Jewish and Christian confessional settings.