Sefer Elijah

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Sefer Elijah (also known as Sefer Eliahu, Sefer Elias, or the Apocalypse of Elijah) is an ancient apocalyptic text which was written in Hebrew to a Jewish audience as early as the 3rd century and as late as the 7th century. [1] This text is presented in fashion that closely matches the classical definition of the apocalyptic genre [2] as a revelation coming to Elijah from an angelic being about judgment, the coming of a messiah, and the destiny of the Jewish temple and of Jerusalem. [3]

This text is not to be confused with the Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah, which is an early Christian Apocalyptic text. [4] Although the relationship between Sefer Elijah and the Coptic version is still being studied, there are very few similarities and a multitude of stylistic and content differences that suggest the two texts do not share an origin. [5]

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References

  1. Buttenwieser, Moses (1901). "Outline of the Neo-Hebraic Apocalyptic Literature." Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye. pp. 30.
  2. Collins, John (2016). "The Apocalyptic Imagination" Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. pp. 5.
  3. Reeves, John C. "Sefer Elijah". www.charlotte.edu. UNC Charlotte.
  4. Wintermute, O.S. "Apocalypse of Elijah: A New Translation and Introduction." The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, edited by James H. Charlesworth, Doubleday & Company (1983). pp. 721-753. ISBN 0-385-09630-5.
  5. Frankfurter, David (1993). "Elijah in Upper Egypt: The Apocalypse of Elijah and Early Egyptian Christianity" (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity). Minneapolis: Fortress Press. pp. 50. ISBN 0-8006-3106-4.