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Ancient Jewish Mystical Motifs in Hebrews' Theology of Access and Entry Exhortations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2011

Scott D. Mackie
Scott D. Mackie
Affiliation:
51 Rose Ave. #17, Venice, CA 90291, USA. email: [email protected]
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Abstract

A number of motifs found in ancient Jewish accounts of the heavenly throne room appear in the Epistle to the Hebrews. These elements include the throne of God, the temple veil, the glory of God, and participation in angelic worship. Though in ancient Jewish texts they are all depicted as presenting nearly insurmountable obstacles to the presence of God, the author of Hebrews transforms these conceptions, and instead depicts them as encouraging, facilitating, and even ensuring access to a welcoming God. This is especially apparent in the passages promoting the author's ultimate hortatory goal: the community's entry into the heavenly sanctuary (2.5–10; 4.14–16; 6.18–20; 10.19–23; 12.22–24).

Keywords

angelic worshipheavenly ascentheavenly sanctuaryHebrewsmysticismthrone of Godtemple veil
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 88 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 The formative, and even determinative, roles played by religious traditions and socio-historical environments in mystical thought and practice have been a recurring topic of discussion. See particularly Katz, Steven T., ‘The “Conservative” Character of Mystical Experience’, Mysticism and Religious Traditions (ed. Katz, S. T.; Oxford: Oxford University, 1983) 3–60Google Scholar. Elsewhere, Katz (‘Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism’, Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis [ed. Katz, S. T.; New York: Oxford University, 1978] 22–74, here 33, 35Google Scholar) notes that ‘the entire life’ of a mystic is ‘permeated from childhood by images, concepts, symbols, ideological values, and ritual behavior’. These factors ‘shape the imaginative and experiential capacity’ of the mystic, ‘pre-forming’ their ‘perceptual schema’, thus ‘defining in advance’ both the mystic's desire for an experience and its actual outcome.

2 Notable exceptions include Marie Isaacs (Sacred Space: An Approach to the Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews [JSNTSup 73; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1992] 67), who characterizes Hebrews as offering ‘a new and powerful theology of access’; and Hans-Friedrich Weiss (Der Brief an die Hebräer: Übersetzt und Erklärt [KEK; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991] 52), who deems 4.14–16 and 10.19–23 ‘entsheidenden Schaltstellen’ (‘decisive control centers’) within the author's hortatory effort. Also adequately appraising the nature of the entry exhortations is Mathias Rissi (Die Theologie des Hebräerbriefs: ihre Verankerung in der Situation des Verfassers und seiner Leser [WUNT 41; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1987] 97): ‘Mit dem “Nahen zu Gott” stehen wir vor der erstaunlichsten Deutung der Heilsaneignung im Neuen Testament’.

3 The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology (ed. Bauckham, Richard, Driver, Daniel R., Hart, Trevor A., and MacDonald, Nathan; Grand Rapids/Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2009)Google Scholar. A companion volume, originating from the same conference held at the University of St. Andrews in July 2006, A Cloud of Witnesses: The Theology of Hebrews in its Ancient Contexts (ed. Bauckham, Richard, Driver, Daniel, Hart, Trevor, and MacDonald, Nathan; LNTS 387; London/New York: T&T Clark, 2008)Google Scholar, fares only slightly better in this regard. Of the sixteen essays, just five mention the themes of access and entry, and only one develops them at length (i.e., Ardel B. Caneday, ‘The Eschatological World Already Subjected to the Son: The Οἰκουμένη of Hebrews 1:6 and the Son's Enthronement’, 28–39). See also the recent essay of Jipp, Joshua W., ‘The Son's Entrance into the Heavenly World: The Soteriological Necessity of the Scriptural Catena in Hebrews 1.5–14’, NTS 56.4 (2010) 557–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Jipp focuses on the ‘soteriological necessity’ of Jesus' entry into heaven in 1.5–13, as the exalted Son of God, which affords the ‘entrance of many more sons into heaven’ (568). Though he cites 12.22–24 and very briefly discusses that text's description of the ‘proleptic’ entry of humanity into heaven, Jipp fails to include the most important entry exhortations, 4.14–16 and 10.19–23, in his assessment.

4 In my monograph, Eschatology and Exhortation in the Epistle to the Hebrews (WUNT 2/223; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007) 195–211, 223–30Google Scholar, and essay, ‘Heavenly Sanctuary Mysticism in the Epistle to the Hebrews’, JTS 62.1 (2011) 77–117CrossRefGoogle Scholar, I have offered analyses of the author's ‘theology of access’ and entry exhortations that emphasize their mystical intent, as commending the community's presence in the heavenly sanctuary. This present essay's focus on the role and function of the ancient Jewish mystical motifs in Hebrews' ‘theology of access’ and entry exhortations attempts to strengthen and extend the scope of those previous efforts.

5 This of course derives from the author's exegetical orientation to Ps 110. See Hay, David M., Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm 110 in Early Christianity (SBLMS 18; Nashville: Abingdon, 1973) 85–9, 143–52Google Scholar. Eskola, Timo, Messiah and Throne: Jewish Merkabah Mysticism and Early Christian Discourse (WUNT 2/142; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001) 202Google Scholar, notes: ‘Exaltation Christology appears to be the backbone of the theology’ of Hebrews.

6 Other notable accounts of the divine throne in the Hebrew Bible include: 1 Kings 22.19; Pss 11.4; 47.8; 89.14; 93.2; 97.2; Isa 66.1; Jer 14.21; 17.12.

7 Though typically translated, ‘I am lost/undone’, both the MT (כי־נדמתי) and the LXX (κατανύσσομαι) of Isa 6.5 allow for a more ironic exclamation: ‘I am silenced’.

8 On the influence of Ezek 1 in Dan 7, 1 En. 14, and Rabbinic traditions, see Rowland, Christopher, The Open Heaven: A Study of Apocalyptic in Judaism and Early Christianity (New York: Crossroad; London: SPCK, 1982) 55, 218–22, 226–7, 276–7, 280Google Scholar. Even the account of Moses' enthronement in Ezek. Trag. 68–82 is ultimately characterized by fear. When the vision concluded, Moses reports, ‘I awoke in terror from the dream!’ (82). The divine throne occupies center stage in Revelation (4–5; 7; 14.3; 19.4; 20.11–12; 21.3, 5; 22.1, 3). Although heavenly characters, such as angels, the ‘twenty-four elders’, and the ‘four living creatures’ ‘fall down before the throne’ (4.10; 7.11; 19.4), the visionary fails to follow suit.

9 Concerning 14.13, Nickelsburg, George W. E. (1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of Enoch Chapters 1–36; 81–108 [Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001] 263)Google Scholar remarks: ‘To ascend to the heavenly temple is a cause for sheer terror rather than joy. This is no visit to the paradise of delight’.

10 Though Ezek 1.26 and Dan 7.9 describe God anthropomorphically, the visionary of 1 En. 14 follows Isa 6 in limiting his description to God's garments. In later tradition, perhaps beginning with Qumran's Sabbath Songs, the throne itself becomes the object and/or limit of the vision. See Schäfer, Peter, The Hidden and Manifest God: Some Major Themes in Early Jewish Mysticism (Albany: State University of New York, 1992) 14Google Scholar.

11 In 15.1 God again tells Enoch to ‘draw near to me’, possibly allowing Enoch to enter the throne room. However, Nickelsburg (1 Enoch 1, 270) believes it represents a repetition of the earlier command to ‘draw near’ (14.24), repeated in 15.1 for the ‘sake of emphasis’. Nickelsburg (265) also notes that textual variants of 14.23 afford some angels, ‘the holy ones of the Watchers’, more immediate access to God.

12 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 265.

13 Weiss, Hebräer, 53, considers παρρησία the ‘Schlüsselbegriff’ of the author's exhortation. On παρρησία in Hebrews, see Heb 3.6; 10.19, and Weiss, Hebräer, 251–3; Mitchell, Alan C., ‘Holding on to Confidence: ΠΑΡΡΗΣΙΑ in Hebrews’, Friendship, Flattery, and Frankness of Speech: Studies on Friendship in the New Testament World (ed. Fitzgerald, John T.; NovTSup 82; Leiden: Brill, 1996) 203–26Google Scholar; Gray, Patrick, Godly Fear: The Epistle to the Hebrews and Greco-Roman Critiques of Superstition (Academia Biblica 16; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003) 138–55Google Scholar. In Her. 19–29 Philo discusses at length the παρρησία enjoyed by those who are ‘friends of God’.

14 The author also appears to diminish the significance of, and possibly even deny Enoch's ascent. His brief account of Enoch's ‘taking up’/‘transformation’ (μετατίθημι and μετάθεσις) in 11.5 is severely qualified by the assertion that he, along with Abel, Noah, and Abraham, ‘died in faith without receiving the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them’ (11.13). That Enoch (along with these other ‘heroes of faith’) is said to have ‘desired a better country, a heavenly one’ (11.16), would seem to reflect an outright denial of his heavenly ascent.

15 On this text, see Gurtner, Daniel M., ‘The “House of the Veil” in Sirach 50’, JSP 14.3 (2005) 187–200Google Scholar.

16 Alexander, Philip S., ‘3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch’, in OTP 1.269, 240Google Scholar.

17 The definitive treatment of the veil in Hebrews remains Otfried Hofius, Der Vorhang vor dem Thron Gottes: Eine exegetisch-religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zu Hebräer 6,19 f. und 10,19f (WUNT 14; Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 1972)Google Scholar.

18 In addition to the six explicit references to Jesus' suffering, his ‘blood’ and ‘death’ are each mentioned seven times (αἷμα, 9.12, 14; 10.19, 29; 12.24; 13.12, 20; θάνατος, 2.9, 14; 5.7; 9.15–16; νεκρός, 13.20).

19 So Attridge, Harold W., A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989) 287Google Scholar. On the veil as a symbolic boundary in ancient Jewish and early Christian mystical texts, see Barker, Margaret, The Great High Priest: The Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2003) 202–28Google Scholar.

20 On this text, see Schäfer, Peter, The Origins of Jewish Mysticism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009) 43–50Google Scholar.

21 The recurring use of דמות, ‘something like’, and כמראה, ‘the appearance of’, in 1.26–28, is probably intended to reflect the ineffability of the vision. On attempts to ‘express the inexpressible’ in mystical literature, see Smart, Ninian (‘Understanding Religious Experience’, Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, 10–21)Google Scholar, who contends that much of the language of ineffability is hyperbolic. Thus, ‘To say God is incomprehensible’ is not really a claim that he is ‘utterly incomprehensible’, rather, it is stating that God is ‘not totally comprehensible’ (17). On the development of the Priestly ‘Kabod theology’, in which the ‘Glory’ begins to represent an almost independent hypostasis of God, see Mettinger, Tryggve N. D., The Dethronement of Sabaoth: Studies on the Shem and Kabod Theologies (ConBOT 18; Lund: Gleerup, 1982)Google Scholar.

22 Himmelfarb, Contra Martha (Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses [Oxford: Oxford University, 1993] 16)Google Scholar, who contends that Ezekiel's repeated prostrations before God (1.28; 3.23; 9.8; 11.13; 43.3; 44.4) are ‘never attributed to fear; they are reported each time in the same words, without any mention of emotion, as almost ritual acknowledgements of the majesty of God’.

23 Non-threatening accounts of human encounters with God's glory may be found in Exod 16.7, 10; Num 14.10; Isa 40.5; 60.1–2; 66.18–19; Hab 2.14; and throughout Ezekiel and the Psalms. Newman, Carey C., Paul's Glory-Christology: Tradition and Rhetoric (NovTSup 69; Leiden: Brill, 1992) 23–4Google Scholar, draws attention to the unique visual dimensions of the expression כבוד־יהוה. Unlike other divine attributes (e.g., anger, wrath, mercy, faithfulness, righteousness), the phrase almost always expresses both ‘movement’ and ‘appearance’.

24 Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 264. The danger of beholding God's glory is a major theme in the Hekhalot literature. On this, see Wolfson, Elliot R., Through a Speculum that Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Princeton: Princeton University, 1994) 91–4Google Scholar.

25 Alexander, Philip, The Mystical Texts: Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and Related Manuscripts (Library of Second Temple Studies 61; London/New York: T&T Clark, 2006) 39Google Scholar, believes this passage constitutes ‘a climactic revelation of the glory in the form of “a voice”, which is so powerful that the angels cannot bear it and are forced to recoil’. ‘Glory’, כבוד, is undoubtedly the favorite descriptive word of the Sabbath Songs, as almost everything related to the heavenly temple is deemed ‘glorious’.

26 On the textual and transmission issues of T. Levi 2, see Jonge, Marinus de, Studies on the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Text and Interpretation (SVTP 3; Leiden: Brill, 1975) 253Google Scholar.

27 Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, 32.

28 Koester, Craig R., ‘Hebrews, Rhetoric, and the Future of Humanity’, CBQ 64.1 (2002) 103–23Google Scholar, here 100, considers 2.5–9 the propositio (‘proposition’) of Hebrews, which ‘identifies the principal issue to be addressed in the speech’. See also Craig R. Koester, , Hebrews: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 36; New York: Doubleday, 2001) 219–20Google Scholar.

29 The word ἀπαύγασμα can be translated either passively, representing a ‘reflection’ emanating from an illuminated surface, or actively, as the ‘radiance’, or ‘effulgence’ ‘beaming from a luminous body’ (LSJ, 181). See also Wis 7.26, which perhaps uses both active and passive imagery in asserting that Wisdom ‘is the ἀπαύγασμα of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God’.

30 The entry exhortations, 4.14–16 and 10.19–23, then reinforce this promise of access and entry, and 12.22–24 (which will be discussed below in section 5) announces its realization.

31 The close relationship of the author's theology to his hortatory effort has been best expressed by Dunnill, John (Covenant and Sacrifice in the Letter to the Hebrews [SNTSMS 75; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1992] 46)Google Scholar: ‘The hortatory passages [are] so fully involved with the theological thought as to seem to create it’. For a detailed discussion, see Mackie, Eschatology and Exhortation, 9–26.

32 The emphasis on suffering throughout Hebrews (2.9–10, 18; 5.8; 9.26; 10.32–34; 11.24–27, 34–38; 12.1–11; 13.3, 12–13) indicates the community was encountering, or had encountered, a substantial threat to their existence, possibly causing them to question their commitment.

33 I discuss Hebrews' mystical visuality at length in ‘Heavenly Sanctuary Mysticism in the Epistle to the Hebrews’, 99–116, and briefly in Eschatology and Exhortation, 98–9, 102. In the former work I highlight the author's use of visually oriented rhetorical/literary practices, particularly ekphrasis and enargeia. The use of these techniques is intended to engender a visual encounter with Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary. The primary aims and means of this visual program are: (1) the author dramatizes the narrative, with speaking actors, and carefully drawn characters, settings, and circumstances all serving to increase the production of visual imagery in the community's imagination, and so encourage their substantive entry into the dramatic narrative. (2) Community is reinforced visually, as cues and commands to ‘behold’ and ‘look closely at one another’ are repeatedly issued (2.13; 3.12; 10.24; 12.23), solidifying their sense of family mutuality and belonging. (3) The most important aspect of this program pertains to the mystical function of the vivid descriptions. The mental imagery they evoke recurringly functions as a springboard for an actual visual encounter, ‘setting the stage’ for the community's visual apprehension of the enthroned Son and his high priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. The visual encounter is either provoked by an explicit command to ‘look at/gaze upon’ the exalted Jesus (3.1; 12.2), or signaled by the observation that he is ‘now’ visible (2.9, 12–13; 9.24, 26). It is also effected by means of the exhortations to ‘draw near’ and ‘enter’ the heavenly sanctuary (4.14–16; 10.19–25; 12.22–24).

34 As I have argued at length elsewhere, the author's ultimate hortatory goal is only reached with the community's participation in this divine adoption ceremony, which begins with a dramatic enactment of the Son's exaltation (chs. 1 and 2), prominently features mutual confessions of familial relatedness exchanged between the Father (1.5) and the Son (2.12–13), and which depicts the Son conferring family membership on the community (2.12–13). In response to this conferral, the community is exhorted to ‘draw near’ and ‘enter’ the heavenly sanctuary, where they will offer a sacral confession of Jesus as the Son of God (4.14–16; 10.19–25), and thereby realize and solidify their identity as the family of God, the ‘siblings of the Son’. See Eschatology and Exhortation, 216–30; ‘Confession of the Son of God in Hebrews’, NTS 53.1 (2007) 114–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Confession of the Son of God in the Exordium of Hebrews’, JSNT 30.4 (2008) 437–53Google Scholar; ‘Heavenly Sanctuary Mysticism in the Epistle to the Hebrews’, 96–9, 104–6, 108, 115–17.

35 The relationship of heaven and earth in the Sabbath Songs has been the subject of some debate. For a recent survey, see Angel, Joseph, Otherworldy and Eschatological Priesthood in the Dead Sea Scrolls (STDJ 86; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2010) 97–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Newsom, , The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition (HSS; Atlanta: Scholars, 1985) 17Google Scholar; see also 18–19, 59, 64, 71–2. See also Nitzan, Bilhah, Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry (STDJ 12; Leiden: Brill, 1994) 273–318Google Scholar; Alexander, Mystical Texts, 30–1, 44–50, 72, 96, 110–12, 115, 118; Lieber, Andrea, ‘Voice and Vision: Song as a Vehicle for Ecstatic Experience in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice’, Of Scribes and Sages: Early Jewish Interpretation and Transmission of Scripture: Volume 2: Later Versions and Traditions (ed. Evans, Craig A.; Library of Second Temple Studies 51; London/New York: T&T Clark, 2004) 51–8Google Scholar; Morray-Jones, Christopher R. A., ‘The Temple Within’, Paradise Now: Essays on Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism (ed. DeConick, April D.; SBLSymS 11; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006) 145–78Google Scholar. This theory has not been embraced by everyone; dissenters include: Schiffmann, Lawrence H., ‘Merkavah Speculation at Qumran: The 4Q Serek Shirot ‘Olat ha-Shabbat’, Mystics, Philosophers, and Politicians: Essays in Jewish Intellectual History in Honor of Alexander Altmann (ed. Reinharz, Jehuda and Swetschinki, Daniel; Durham: Duke University, 1982) 15–47Google Scholar; Wolfson, Elliot R., ‘Mysticism and the Poetic-Liturgical Compositions from Qumran’, JQR 85.1–2 (1994) 185–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schäfer, The Origins of Jewish Mysticism, 144–5.

37 A tenth manuscript, Mas1k, was found at Masada, possibly indicating that the Songs were used outside the community.

38 This is especially likely given the importance of ‘knowledge’ for the community's identity, and the fact that angels were viewed as the revealers of heavenly knowledge. Alexander, Mystical Texts, 60–1, notes: ‘Again and again the Songs declare that heaven is a place of “knowledge”. God is the ultimate source of knowledge, and the priestly angels, as the beings closest to him, are constantly referred to as the “Elohim/Elim of knowledge”, who are able to instruct humankind and to pass on to them the divine knowledge they have received’. Thus, in the Sabbath Songs, ‘the ultimate goal of mystical experience’ is to ‘acquire this heavenly knowledge, to rise to the level of divine illumination enjoyed by the angels’ (61). In a recent essay, Alexander, (‘Qumran and the Genealogy of Western Mysticism’, New Perspectives on Old Texts: Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 9–11 January, 2005 [ed. Chazon, Esther G. and Halpern-Amaru, Betsy; STDJ 88; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2010] 215–35, here 225)CrossRefGoogle Scholar defines this illumination as the ‘knowledge of personal election, of being predestined to stand among God's holy ones before his face’. On knowledge as the primary constituent of the community's identity, see Newsom, Carol A., Self as Symbolic Space: Constructing Identity and Community at Qumran (STDJ 52; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 74Google Scholar; Newsom, , ‘Apocalyptic Subjects: Social Construction of the Self in the Qumran Hodayot’, JSP 12.1 (2001) 3–35, here 16–17Google Scholar. Elior, Rachel, The Three Temples: On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism (Oxford/Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004) 171Google Scholar, contends that belief in angelic communion was the source of the self-designation, יחד, as it reflects the ‘assumed “togetherness”’ of the community and angels.

39 See Alexander, Mystical Texts, 20: ‘From a mystical perspective the language could be seen to express a sense of unworthiness, even fear, at approaching the heavenly realms’. Contrary to most scholars, who read 4Q400 2.6–8 as an expression of amazement and praise offered in response to the community's undeserved inclusion in the heavenly sanctuary, Abusch, Ra'anan (‘Sevenfold Hymns in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Hekhalot Literature: Formalism, Hierarchy and the Limits of Human Participation’, The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity [ed. Davila, James R.; STDJ 64; Leiden: Brill, 2003] 220–47, here 237)Google Scholar believes the text reflects the community's ‘explicit polemical rejection of the possibility of full human participation in the angelic sphere’.

40 Chazon, , ‘Liturgical Communion with the Angels at Qumran’, Sapiential, Liturgical and Poetical Texts from Qumran (ed. Falk, Daniel K., Martínez, Florentino García, and Schuller, Eileen M.; STDJ 35; Leiden: Brill, 2000) 95–105, here 101Google Scholar.

41 In this regard only Matthew, Luke, Acts, and Revelation surpass Hebrews.

42 Georg Gäbel, , ‘Rivals in Heaven: Angels in the Epistle to the Hebrews’, Angels: The Concept of Celestial Beings—Origins, Development and Reception (ed. Reiterer, Friedrich V., Nicklas, Tobias, and Schöpflin, Karen; Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook 2007; Berlin/New York: W. de Gruyter, 2007) 357–76Google Scholar, contends that this passage deliberately modifies a traditional Jewish ‘motif of rivalry between humans and angels’ (362). In texts espousing this tradition, angels are depicted as quoting Ps 8, ‘what are humans that God is concerned about them?’ to express their contempt for humanity (363). The author modifies the tradition with the claim that Jesus' exaltation represents a proleptic realization of the divine promise to reign over these contemptuous angels (364).

43 The ‘cloud of witnesses’ that ‘surrounds’ the community may be angelic (12.1), though it is most likely a reference to the ‘heroes of faith’ enumerated in ch. 11.

44 Gäbel inexplicably overlooks this passage in his essay, ‘Rivals in Heaven’.

45 Jewett, Robert, Letter to Pilgrims: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (New York: Pilgrim, 1981) 223Google Scholar, contends that the perfect tense verb προσεληλύθατε in 12.22 represents ‘one of the most dramatic and radical statements of realized eschatology in the NT’. With his careful delineation of four separate ‘species’ at this heavenly celebration (God and his Son, angels, ‘the spirits of just men made perfect’ [i.e., the righteous dead], and the community), Hebrews rejects any notion of an angelomorphic transformation of the community. On this topic, see Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, 44–71; Fletcher-Louis, Crispin, ‘Jewish Mysticism, the New Testament and Rabbinic-Period Mysticism’, The New Testament and Rabbinic Literature (ed. Bieringer, Reimund, Martínez, Florentino García, Pollefeyt, Didier, and Tomson, Peter J.; JSJSup 136; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2010) 429–70, here 442–5, 463–4Google Scholar.

46 See Mackie, , Eschatology and Exhortation, 185–208Google Scholar.

47 In his otherwise excellent comparison of Hebrews and the literature of Qumran, Attridge, Harold W. (‘How the Scrolls Impacted Scholarship on Hebrews’, The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Volume 3: The Scrolls and Christian Origins [ed. Charlesworth, James H.; Waco: Baylor University, 2006] 203–30)Google Scholar fails to contrast their respective cultic soteriologies and disparate attitudes towards the presence of angels.

48 On the mysticism of Philo's Therapeutae/Therapeutrides, see Taylor, Joan E., Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria: Philo's ‘Therapeutae’ Reconsidered (Oxford: Oxford University, 2003) 311–40Google Scholar; and my forthcoming essay, ‘Seeing God in Philo of Alexandria: Means, Methods, and Mysticism’, JSJ 43 (2012)Google Scholar.