At the origin of the Watchers tradition is the single enigmatic reference in Genesis 6 to the "sons of God" who had intercourse with human women, producing a race of giants upon the earth. That verse sparked a wealth of cosmological and theological speculation in early Judaism. Here leading scholars explore the contours of the Watchers traditions through history, tracing their development through the Enoch literature, Jubilees, and other early Jewish and Christian writings. This volume provides a lucid survey of current knowledge and interpretation of one of the most intriguing theological motifs of the Second Temple period.

The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions

Religion & Spirituality

Bautch, Kelley Coblentz

Endres S.J., John C.

Harkins, Angela Kim

Christian Books & Bibles

Fortress Press

This collection presents new research in angelology, giving special attention to the otherworldly beings known as the Watchers who are able to move between heaven and earth. According to the pseudepigraphic Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36), these angels descend to mate with women. The collection begins by examining Watchers traditions in biblical and non-biblical writings (e.g., Gen 6:1-4, the Qumran Hodayot, Book of Jubilees, and Book of Revelation). The collection also surveys Watchers traditions among late antique writings, including the Apocryphon of John, Manichean and Islamic writings, testamentary literature, the Pseudo-Clementines, and medieval Scholastic texts.

The Fallen Angels Traditions: Second Temple Developments and Reception History (Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series)

Endres SJ, John C.

Coblentz Bautch, Kelley

Pickwick Publications

An Embodied Reading of The Shepherd of Hermas: The Book of Visions and its Role in Moral Formation (Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture)

The Shepherd of Hermas (70-150 CE) is one of the oldest Christian works from a major urban center. While the majority of manuscript evidence of the Shepherd is concentrated in North Africa, the work has long-standing association with the city of Rome. It consists of three major sections: the Book of Visions, the Mandates, and the Similitudes. The Shepherd was enormously popular during the early centuries as a catechetical text used for moral formation. Its manuscript evidence during the early centuries far exceeded that of the Gospels. This book uses cognitive literary theory, specifically the approach known as enactive reading, to investigate why a work that was exceedingly popular among elite readers in antiquity has failed to receive the same reception by modern scholars. The study focuses on the first section of the Shepherd known as the Book of Visions, which narrates Hermas's visionary experiences in first-person voice. The book argues that enactive reading can help to generate immersive experiences of Hermas's visions and explain the success and appeal of the Book of Visions among ancient readers. Cognitive approaches also highlight how modern scholars trained to read apocalypses 'against the grain' to search for historical or theological information fail to notice and appreciate the very things that made apocalypses engaging and entertaining to a broad range of ancient readers and hearers.

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Equinox Publishing

This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns). The thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports describing visionary experiences written in the first person “I” had the potential to create within the ancient reader the subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a religious experience. The author offers new interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a religious practice for transformation in antiquity.

Reading with an "I" to the Heavens: Looking at the Qumran Hodayot through the Lens of Visionary Traditions (Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, 3)

History

World

Walter de Gruyter

This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran Hodayot (= Thanksgiving Hymns) in light of ancient visionary traditions, new developments in neuropsychology, and post-structuralist understandings of the embodied subject. The thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports describing visionary experiences written in the first person "I" had the potential to create within the ancient reader the subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a religious experience. This study examines how references to the body and the strategic arousal of emotions could have functioned within a practice of performative reading to engender a religious experience of ascent. In so doing, this book offers new interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a religious practice for transformation in antiquity.

Reading with an "I" to the Heavens: Looking at the Qumran Hodayot through the Lens of Visionary Traditions (Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

de Gruyter

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Books by Harkins, Angela Kim