Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (review)

Book Reviews 81 complexities, manifest in male-authored texts, of a culture which was strongly patriarchal and androcentric and at the same time departed in its conception of the female from other contemporary attitudes, and, further, was free of the primitive, atavistic fear of the female that characterized prevalent interpretations of existence. Nehama Aschkenasy Judaic Studies and Middle Eastern Mfairs University of Connecticut at Stamford Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, by Martha Himmelfarb. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. 171 pp. £25.00. In her first book Martha Himmelfarb explored the structure and themes of ancient accounts of journeys to Hell (Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985]). In her second book she explores the structure and themes of ancient accounts of ascents to heaven. Because of the profound influence her earlier work has had on the study of the "tours of hell," the scholarly community receives this new work with eager anticipation. In the first chapter Himmelfarb shows how the early Jewish understanding of heaven as a temple developed from biblical to Graeco-Roman times. Here we learn that the texts depict God as living in a temple in heaven attended by a host of angels. The descriptions ofGod, the heavenly Temple where God resides, the Temple's furnishings, and the attending angels all draw on the imagery of the earthly Temple and priesthood. The second chapter recounts how the ascent apocalypses use the terminology and motifs of an ancient Israelite priestly investiture ceremony to depict the process ofentering into God's presence in heaven. In the third chapter Himmelfarb recounts how those who enter into heaven are transformed and made fit to reside in heaven. Chapter four treats several themes (nature, Creation, and the structure and order of the cosmos) that appear in the apocalypses and that all serve to manifest God's power, majesty, and control over the universe. The book closes with Himmelfarb's explanation of the origin of these ascent texts: they are not accounts of personal experiences, but are literary creations plain and simple. No visionary experience stands behind these accounts of ascent to heaven. 82 SHOFAR Spring 1995 Vol. 13, No.3 The community's expectations of a learned and informative study have not been disappointed. Himmelfarb has written an intellectually nimble but admirably clear treatment of the several early Jewish and Christian ascent texts. Her accounts of how heaven came to be depicted as a temple and the inhabitants of heaven as priestly characters are persuasive. The final chapter on the composition of the apocalypses will serve as a reference point for all future discussions of the real versus fictional character of these texts. Two minor criticisms arise from this insightful book. First, given the prominence of several royal or military themes (throne, judgment, angelic "hosts"), it appears that Himmelfarb's treatment has obscured some of the motifs of God as king, a motif that has ancient roots and seems to persist into the apocalypses treated here (see Marc Z. Brettler, God is King: Understanding an AncientIsraelite Metaphor, JSOT Supplement Series 76 [Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, Ltd., 1989]). The priestly and temple motifs Himmelfarb highlights are indeed important, but one wonders whether or not Himmelfarb has allowed her inSight on these themes to obscure the other components of the complex of ideas ancient Jews and Christians used to imagine God and heaven. Second, Himmelfarb's presentation of the triCky issue of whether or not these texts reflect the actual experiences of their authors may also be too one-sided. She believes that these texts ". . . are best understood not as mystical diaries, however reworked, but as literary creations" (p. 5). She is surely correct to maintain that some of these texts are simply "literary creations." The clearest case is the ascent text that is the backbone of her study, the ascent narrated in the Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 14-16). On the other side of this issue are scholars who think that a real visionary experience may stand behind some of these accounts. A recent argument for such an approach can be found in Michael E. Stone, Fourth Ezra: A Commentary on...