Joseph Verheyden

Index of Biblical References

This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on Solomon that was held at the University of Leuven in 2009 and discussed various aspects of this multifaced character as he appears in Jewish, early Christian, and Islamic tradition.

Orphic, Roman, Jewish And Christian Tours Of Hell: Observations On The Apocalypse Of Peter

From brief mentions in the patristic literature it was known that early Christianity not only had an Apocalypse of John and an Apocalypse of Paul (Visio Pauli), which survived the ravages of the Middle Ages in several manuscripts,1 but also an Apocalypse of Peter (henceforth: Apoc. Pet.). Greeks and Romans were much less concerned with blasphemy, and the Emperor Tiberius, who sometimes had a healthy view of life, tersely commented: deorum iniuriae dis curae (Tac. Ann. 1.73). Early Christianity, however, followed its Jewish roots in this respect. Inspired by the Orphic tradition, some Jews started to adapt the Greek crimes and penalties in the afterlife to their own tradition. This adaptation most likely took place in Egypt, probably in Alexandria. Keywords: Apocalypse; Christian; Jewish; Orphic; Peter; Roman

The Otherworld and This World in 2 Cor 12 : 1-10 in Light of Early Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition

The way Paul phrases the visionary experience and the obstacle to exaltation raises several questions. Why does Paul speak in the third person singular about his own visions and revelations? What is unutterable about the things heard in the rapture to the third heaven? How could the second half of the passage about the restraints which keep the apostle from being too elated be understood? In other words, why does Paul phrase revelation the way he does it in this passage? In other passages of his Letters, Paul is all the more versatile about revelations concerning, for instance, the expected coming of the Lord (1 Thess 4:13-18) and resurrection of the dead . This essay reconsiders Pauls formulation in this passage in light of the larger context of the letter and of Jewish apocalyptic literature contemporary to Paul, in search of the meaning of the very restrained terms. Keywords: Jewish apocalyptic; Paul; visionary experience