The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts.

• Author: Ahuvia, Mika
• Position: Book review

The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts. By LOREN T STUCKENBRUCK. Grand Rapids, MI: WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO., 2017. Pp. xx + 427. $50 (paper).

This volume brings together fourteen articles by Loren Stuckenbruck, thirteen published over the last two decades and previously scattered in other volumes of collected papers and one new article. This paperback edition (a reprint of a 2014 hard copy) updates Stuckenbruck's work and makes it more affordable to a wider audience. As the title suggests, all of these articles draw on Stuckenbruck's expertise in the Enochic corpus, serving as an excellent reference volume for scholars working on almost any topic in the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

Articles in this volume answer such questions as: What is the origin of evil according to apocalyptic Jewish sources (ch. 1)? Why were ancient learned circles of Jews interested in lingering on stories about the giants, the offspring of the fallen angels, and what might this interest tell us about Jewish reception of Near Eastern myths (ch. 2)? What kinds of stories were ancient Jews circulating about biblical heroes like Noah or Daniel (chs. 3 and 5)? How did ancient Jews understand demonic beings, their origins, names, and level of threat to humankind (ch. 4)? How do the different recensions of the Book of Tobit show us a debate about medicine and magic (pharmaka) among Jews in antiquity (ch. 6)? Did Philo know apocalyptic texts like the Enochic corpus or other Dead Sea texts (ch. 1)1

Chapter 8 is the only previously unpublished piece and uncovers why tradents came to insist on Jesus's origin "from the Holy Spirit," a most unusual description as Stuckenbruck points out. Chapter 9, discussed in greater detail below, investigates how ancient Jews or followers of Jesus understood demonic possession and exorcisms. Chapter 10 demonstrates how texts preserved in Qumran contextualize the way evil is conceptualized and combatted in the Gospel of John. Chapter 11 explores where the author of The Acts of the Apostles might have gotten "the idea of cleansing the Gentiles' hearts" and how the gentiles are treated in biblical and ancient Jewish texts more generally (p. 217; ch. 11). Chapter 12 inquires as to what extent the apocalyptic ideas of Paul were paradigm-shifting in his own time. Chapter 13 examines Paul's puzzling insistence that women should cover their hair "because of the angels" (1...