'Ex Oriente Lux' in Second Temple Texts

This volume presents fresh scholarly insights into numerous Second Temple texts, encompassing apocalyptic themes and text-critical challenges. Contributions from renowned scholars illuminate the intricate dynamics of Second Temple literature and their potential historical and theological implications for the development of Christianity and Judaism in the first century.

The contributors first consider the revelatory dimensions of texts, including an examination of Moses’s transformation in the Animal Apocalypse, which presents a provocative rejoinder to the notion of Enochian opposition to covenantal theology. Further essays engage the divine polemic against Apollo found within the Sibylline Oracles, as well as an exploration of prophetic declarations regarding the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. The role of Deuteronomic theology in shaping Second Temple Jewish eschatology is also examined, as well as the role of the Messiah in bringing salvation to both Jews and gentiles in the Psalms of Solomon, culminating in an engagement with the historical and textual complexities of Luke 3:23 and the baptism of Jesus.