Prophetic and Apocalyptic Divination: What Makes the Difference?

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Prophetic and Apocalyptic Divination:
What Makes the Difference?
Martti Nissinen
Enoch Seminar, May 24, 2021
Teologinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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Prophecy and Apocalypticism:
status quaestionis
▪ Prophecy or wisdom?
▪ Break or continuity?
▪ SBL Denver 2001
▪ Grabbe: A is a subdivision of P; both are forms of
divination
▪ Collins: distinction between P and A is necessary;
divination is not a helpful category
▪ Current models:
▪ Overlap between late P and early A (Cook)
▪ A secondary transformation of P (Hendel)
▪ A as inheritance and continuation of P (Najman,
Høgenhaven)
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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Comparative Asymmetry
▪ What is being compared
▪ Texts can be compared with texts
▪ How to compare phenomena with phenomena?
▪ Apocalypticism: literary definition (genre-based)
▪ Prophecy: social definition (prophet-based)
▪ Can the map include both?
Teologinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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Prophecies and Apocalypses as
Divination
▪ Apocalypticism: a phenomenon of the Hellenistic world
▪ Greek, Mesopotamian, Persian, Egyptian rootage
▪ Influence: a network of ideas and practices
▪ Divination: the art of acquiring superhuman knowledge
▪ Inductive/technical: extispicy, astrology, augury, exorcism, etc.
▪ Non-inductive/inspired: prophecy, dreams, visions, etc.
Teologinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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Teologinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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Changes in Divinatory Culture
▪ Yehud
▪ Decline of oral prophetic performance
▪ Rise of scribal interpretation of existing prophecies
▪ Creation of a new type of literature: the prophetic book
▪ Mesopotamia:
▪ Decline of oral prophetic performance and extispicy (bārûtu )
▪ Rise of exorcism (āšipūtu) and interpretation of intellectual
tradition
▪ Scholarly agency: intellectual leadership
Teologinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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Apocalypticism:
A New Type of Divination
▪ Apocalypse: a mix of inductive and non-inductive divination
▪ Direct divine revelation – prophetic process of transmission
▪ Learned interpretation of textual material and its appropriation in
a new setting
▪ Diverse roots: not either/or but both/and
▪ Prophetic books and other authoritative texts
▪ Mesopotamian astronomy and āšipūtu
▪ Persian motifs
Teologinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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Apocalypticism and Magic
▪ Cosmic dualism
▪ Persian cosmology
▪ Mesopotamian magic (good and evil spirits) and omen
interpretation (good and bad omens)
▪ Āšipu: physician, witch, priest, scholar
▪ Magic elements in apocalypses
▪ Rivalry of good and evil
▪ Cosmological strategy: warding off the cosmic evil
▪ Deritualized and scribalized magic?
Teologinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi
www.helsinki.fi/university
24.5.2021
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