Divine Scapegoats

Divine Scapegoats is a wide-ranging exploration of the parallels between the heavenly and the demonic in early Jewish apocalyptical accounts. In these materials, antagonists often mirror features of angelic figures, and even those of the Deity himself, an inverse correspondence that implies a belief that the demonic realm is maintained by imitating divine reality. Andrei A. Orlov examines the sacerdotal, messianic, and creational aspects of this mimetic imagery, focusing primarily on two texts from the Slavonic pseudepigrapha:2 Enoch and theApocalypse of Abraham. These two works are part of a very special cluster of Jewish apocalyptic texts that exhibit features not only of the apocalyptic worldview but also of the symbolic universe of early Jewish mysticism. The Yom Kippur ritual in theApocalypse of Abraham, the divine light and darkness of2 Enoch, and the similarity of mimetic motifs to later developments in theZohar are of particular importance in Orlov's consideration.

Preface
Abbreviations

Introduction–The Right in the Left: The Divine and the Demonic in theApocalypse of Abraham and2 Enoch

Part I. Studies in the Apocalypse of Abraham

The Curses of Azazel
The Cosmological Temple in theApocalypse of Abraham
The Demise of the Antagonist in the Apocalyptic Scapegoat Tradition
The Nourishment of Azazel
The Messianic Scapegoat in theApocalypse of Abraham

Part II. Studies in 2 Enoch

Adoil Outside the Cosmos: God Before and After Creation of Enochic Tradition
The Veneration Motif in the Temptation Narrative of the Gospel of Matthew: Lessons from the Enochic Tradition
Primordial Lights: The Logos and Adoil in the Johannine Prologue and2 Enoch

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index