Revelatory Experience and Pseudepigraphical Attribution in Early Jewish Apocalypses

Abstract

Abstract Early Jewish apocalypses claimed to contain the content of revelatory experiences. These revelatory claims were widely perceived by ancient readers of apocalyptic texts. As far as ancient evidence and modern analogies go, at least some authors of pseudepigraphical apocalypses may have been honestly convinced that they were actually presenting more than human dreams and messages. The plausible assumption that at least some apocalyptic texts originated from genuine ecstatic experiences does not, however, offer any reason to suppose that their literary attributions were not measured against the generally accepted ancient standards of authenticity. If an author who was honestly convinced that he had received much of his book's content from an angel published his apocalyptic text under the name of an ancient prophet, this attribution was, according to ancient standards, deceptive, because there was no justification for tracing its content back to the biblical prophet. By attributing not only the content but also the recording of their apocalyptic books to ancient seers and by explicitly claiming that their books had been carefully transmitted from the remote times of the biblical prophets to the present, the apocalyptic authors clearly intended to deceive their readers about the true origin of their books.