The Apocryphal Apocalypse
The Reception of the Second Book of Esdras (4 Ezra) from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:16th Sep '99
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This is the first study of the reception of the apocryphal Second Book of Esdras (4 Ezra) from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Professor Hamilton discusses the concepts of biblical apocrypha and canonicity in connection with the increasingly critical attitude to religious authority which developed with the humanists and intensified with the Reformation. The Book owed its initial success to Hebraists such as Pico della Mirandola and Bibliander. It was used to account for the origins of Jewish Kabbalah and to prophesy political and religious events: the fall of the Ottoman empire, or the destruction of the papacy. Anabaptists, dissident Protestants of various persuasions, Rosicrucians and Paracelsians consulted it not only as a work of prophecy but, it is argued, as an emblem of dissent, rejected by the official Churches. At the same time more sober scholars, both Protestants and Catholics, scrutinized 2 Esdras with greater objectivity, endeavouring to date it correctly and establish its authorship. This study also investigates the interaction between their views and those of the Book's enthusiastic supporters.
This is a fascinating account of the reception history of Second Esdras that superbly highlights the complex relationship between texts and their interpreters ... Hamilton's study will be welcomed by all kinds of specialists, not least because of his impressive command of the relevant sources and their historical settings. His lucid summaries are always accompanied by pertinent quotations in their original languages - no mean feat, given the range of languages involved! * The Catholic Biblical Quarterly *
A fascinating account * Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *
Hamilton's discussions reflect solid and often insightful scholarship, and at several points add significant new dimensions to our understanding; in general his work fills a notable void in the available literature. The volume helpfully includes the AV text of 2 Esdras as an appendix * Sixteenth Century Journal *
The bibliography is full, the scholarship impeccable. This is scholarly writing of the highest level * Ecclesiastical History *
Hamilton's survey casts light on issues in a broad variety of fields * Sixteenth Century Journal *
Hamilton's erudition, grasp on an immense range of problems and intimate knowledge of an impressive number of past micro-cultures of exegis and prophecy inform every page of The Apocryphal Apocalypse * Anthony Grafton, Times Literary Supplement *
Alastair Hamilton ... has now devoted a learned and lucid book to the reception of 2 Esdras in the Renaissance and after * Anthony Grafton, Times Literary Supplement *
The work reads like a good novel, but is a very scholarly production, evidence of immense research ... we have reason to be grateful to this author for putting his tremendous erudition at our disposal in this volume * The Heythrop Journal *
ISBN: 9780198175216
Dimensions: 223mm x 146mm x 27mm
Weight: 637g
408 pages