Chapter Nine. Philosophical Contemplation And Revelatory Inspiration In Ancient Judean Traditions

Abstract

This chapter considers Jewish communities in late antiquity, speaking Greek on one side of the divide and Aramaic or Hebrew on the other. It explores the conceptions of the revelatory in the writings of Philo of Alexandria and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It then argues that there is significant overlap between these corpora. The chapter first addresses the question of whether persistent prophecy can be spoken in late Second Temple Judaism. Although prophecy, as a dominant aspect of revelation, is often said to have been removed from the Second Temple Jewish community in mid-to-late Second Temple Judaism, it is clear from the texts from this period that the communities did not understand themselves to be without ongoing revelation. It sheds light on the claim that revelation did not cease in the Second Temple period, but was understood to persist even outside of the space of Jerusalem and temple practice.Keywords: Dead Sea Scrolls; Jerusalem; Jewish communities; Judean tradition; Philo of Alexandria; prophecy; revelation; Second Temple Judaism