With Letters of Light ─ Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism: In Honor of Rachel Elior

This festschrift will be of interest to scholars of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic and mystical texts. After two essays on the life and work of Rachel Elior (Jewish philosophy and Jewish mystical thought, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem), 19 contributed essays by colleagues and students offer scholarship in some of the many areas of Elior's interest and influence during her 35-year career. Arrangement is in three sections on exegesis, ritual and transformation. A sampling of topics: cultivating visions through exegetical meditations, earthly and heavenly Jerusalem in Philo and Paul, the study of magic in rabbinic literature, mystical motifs in a Greek synagogal prayer, Eve's vision of the chariot in the Greek life of Adam and Eve, the dynamics of early Christian mysticism, and multiple divine beings in late antique Jewish theology. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Daphna V. Arbel, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada;Andrei A. Orlov, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA.