Prayer as Divine Experience and Empathetic Identification in 2 Baruch: 2 Baruch 48:1–25 as a Test case

Abstract

First, in this essay I will summarize research in the field of neuroscience, which describe the cognitive processes that allow a person to empathize with another person’s emotional experience. Second, I will provide evidence that implies the author of the late first-century Jewish Apocalypse, 2 Baruch, wished to portray that the seer, Baruch, was in God’s presence as he prayed. Finally, I will discuss the emotions potentially aroused by the language of one the seer’s prayers (2 Baruch 48:2–24). Reverence for God, hope, confidence, and humility all are expressed by the words of his prayer. I will propose that reading or hearing these emotions could have allowed an ancient reader or listener to share and understand Baruch’s emotional states that are reflected in his prayer. Consequently, this process may have provided the reader or listener with a sense of the tangible presence of God that is consistent with the experience described as occurring to Baruch while offering his prayer in the divine presence.