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132 SHOFAR Summer 2000 Vol. 18, No.4 peace settlements. Knesset votes are grossly overstated more than once, giving a total of552 for Rabin's accession to the prime ministry in 1974 (p. 130), and 612 in 1978 in the diplomatic prelude to Camp David (p. 180). Hohenberg also refers several times to an alleged history ofmore than 2,000 years ofhostility between Arabs and Jews; so far as is known, Arabs have only resided in the area around the present State of Israel since perhaps the sixth century CE, and if there was hostility between them and JeWs, it was far less severe than that of European Christendom towards western Jewry. Hohenberg writes in a breezy style, painting broad brush strokes and glossing over many details. Such details as are provided tend to take the form of personalized anecdotes, with little or no analytical context. This is especially true of the 50-page description ofthe difficult Camp David negotiations between Egypt, Israel, andthe U.S. in 1978, and the account of the painful Oslo negotiations between Israel and the PLO in 1993, which consumes another 27 pages. The tragic assassination ofYitzhak Rabin is depicted in agonizing detail as well. In short, this account is superficial and lacks substance. There is nothing new in this book. Readers seeking explanation andunderstanding ofthe remarkable 50-yearhistory of the State of Israel fortunately can refer to an abundance ofbetter books. Frank Tachau Department of Political Science University of Illinois at Chicago Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls, by John J. Collins. New York: Routledge, 1997. 187pp. $17.99 (p). This book appears as part of a six-volume series (The Literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls) which is designed to introduce the principal literary genres of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The series editor, George Brooke, writes in a preface that while scholars in the field are aware of the various issues arising from the scrolls, "little of the overall significance ofthe whole literary corpus has been put in the public domain.... Students ofall kinds need straightforward guides to the literature to enable them to trace a secure path through the mass of material" (pp. vi-vii). Collins' text on apocalypticism succeeds admirably in this endeavor. Though it is concise it is thorough, and it is written in a clear fashion. Collins provides lucid introductory material (not only at the beginning ofthe book, but at pertinent later stages as well), and the text is filled with his balanced interactions with up-to-date scholarly treatments. The latter discussions do not get out of hand for the lay audience and are presented in a non-intrusive way. Collins, Professor ofHebrew Bible and Post-Biblical Judaism at the University of Chicago, is well suited to his task. He is a recognized authority on both the scrolls and apocalypticism, and he has written several articles andbooks which pave the ground for Book Reviews 133 Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ofmost relevance is The Scepter and the Star (AnchorBibleReference Library; New York: Doubleday, 1995), which is a comprehensive treatment of Jewish messianism during the period in which many of the scrolls were written. (For a succinct introduction to the scrolls, see David S. Williams, "Teaching the Dead Sea Scrolls," Shofar 14 [1996]: 76-95.) Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls is well organized. In his helpful opening chapters Collins discusses the literary geme, apocalypse, and its relations to biblical prophecy, and sketches an overall apocalyptic worldview, which we find articulated in several works as a distinctive view ofthe world within Judaism ofthe last two centuries before the common era. (It is important for the lay audience ofthe book to note that, in one of its rare typos, on page 7 Collins mistakenly has "last two centuries of the common era" rather than "lasttwo centuries before the common era.") Apocalypses are presented as supernatural revelations, typically mediated by an angel, which invariably· focus on the final end oflife and history. Earthly life is shaped by supernatural forces, which are both good and bad. The course of history is predetermined, although individuals still have some choice as to where they stand. There will be a divine judgment, and the...

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