The Apocalypse of the Birds

Identifies and contextualises a new work within the Animal Apocalypse, dated to the dawn of the First Jewish RevoltIdentifies a new source for the study of the Jewish Revolt, establishing the high hopes of the revolutionaries before the ultimate collapse of the movementPursues a unified and cross-disciplinary study of the apocalyptic and historiographic literature of Jews and Christians (or Jesus-followers) in the first-century CEAdvances a methodology for the study of ancient fragments, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that privileges our extant material evidence in the construction of literary wholesReimagines the Animal Apocalypse of Enoch as a lively literary tradition with multiple identifiable sites of growth: including the Vision of the Beasts, and the Apocalypse of the BirdsExplores the potential and pitfalls of historical-apocalyptic texts in guiding methodological discussions of datingThis book identifies a new apocalyptic work the Apocalypse of the Birds contained in the Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 85-90), and argues that it is born of the chaotic Jewish-Christian world of the first-century CE. Through close analysis of texts and manuscripts in Ge'ez, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew, alongside historical and numismatic evidence, the book situates the Apocalypse of the Birds alongside literature and historiography of the first-century CE. It argues that the Apocalypse of the Birds belongs to the heady early days of the First Jewish Revolt, and represents crucial evidence for the early optimism of the revolutionaries, the dynamic and progressive evolution of the Animal Apocalyptic tradition, and the blurred and porous boundaries between Jew and Jesus-follower in the first-century CE.