Daniel's Spiel: Apocalyptic Literacy in the Book of Daniel

by Jin Hee Han

Overview

The hostile regime that set out to annihilate the Jewish religion and culture forms the background of the Book of Daniel. Jin Hee Han's book, Daniel's Spiel: Apocalyptic Literacy in the Book of Daniel, identifies the main agenda behind the creation of the book of Daniel, explaining how Daniel promotes an alternative discourse in opposition to the Hellenistic regime in the second century B.C.E. The word "Spiel" in the title refers to Daniel's strategy of using apocalyptic language to give the people hope, as he offered them a discourse of resistance meant to keep alive their anticipation of God's inevitable triumph over the evil regime that tormented them. Author Jin Hee Han provides modern readers with useful insights into why the Book of Daniel was created and offers clues of how it might be interpreted today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761839132
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	11/05/2007
Pages:	134
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.13(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Jin Hee Han is Professor of Biblical Studies at New York Theological Seminary, where he has taught the Bible and Hebrew for the past fifteen years. An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), he has written many articles in biblical studies and has spoken at numerous conferences and workshops.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Preface
Part 2 Abbreviations
Chapter 3 Introduction
Chapter 4 "What is Daniel up to?"
Chapter 5 Apocalyptic as a Constructive Language
Chapter 6 Apocalyptic and the Hellenistic Colonialism
Chapter 7 Hellenistic Paideia and the Book of Daniel
Chapter 8 Antiochus Epiphanes and the Tale of Tyranny
Chapter 9 The Book of Daniel as Resistance Literature
Chapter 10 A Reading Community of Daniel
Chapter 11 Writing and Reading within the Book of Daniel
Chapter 12 The Revealing Design of the Book of Daniel
Chapter 13 Apocalyptic Paideia
Part 14 Conclusion
Part 15 Bibliography
Part 16 Index

Editorial Reviews

A brief summary of the main thrust of Han's work does not do justice to the sophistication and broad range of the interdisciplinary scholarship that Han brings to bear on his basic argument.

Catholic Biblical Quarterly

Han's book probes the complexities of Daniel and its larger apocalyptic environment with great acumen and presents his results in compelling fashion. Readers will find that reading and writing are topics of large significance in understanding apocalyptic. Both an introduction to apocalyptic and an exploration of Daniel as an example, this book is written in a "language" that opens up both subjects with clarity and depth. The result for the reader is a new literacy in things and language apocalyptic. The book is powerfully theological and in touch with the issues of contemporary life about how we may think and believe in situations of hopeless adversity.

Patrick D. Miller

In this important and groundbreaking book Jin Han expounds the significance of the social function of apocalyptic language as pedagogy for an oppressed people. He demonstrates the central place which the apocalyptic texts have in Second Temple Judaism as epistemological transforming texts, in which dreams of another world are crucial for maintaining hope, by forming an alternative outlook on the world.

Christopher Rowland

A brief summary of the main thrust of Han's work does not do justice to the sophistication and broad range of the interdisciplinary scholarship that Han brings to bear on his basic argument.

Spring 2009 Catholic Biblical Quarterly

In this important and groundbreaking book Jin Han expounds the significance of the social function of apocalyptic language as pedagogy for an oppressed people. He demonstrates the central place which the apocalyptic texts have in Second Temple Judaism as epistemological transforming texts, in which dreams of another world are crucial for maintaining hope, by forming an alternative outlook on the world.--Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford

Han's book probes the complexities of Daniel and its larger apocalyptic environment with great acumen and presents his results in compelling fashion. Readers will find that reading and writing are topics of large significance in understanding apocalyptic. Both an introduction to apocalyptic and an exploration of Daniel as an example, this book is written in a "language" that opens up both subjects with clarity and depth. The result for the reader is a new literacy in things and language apocalyptic. The book is powerfully theological and in touch with the issues of contemporary life about how we may think and believe in situations of hopeless adversity.--Patrick D. Miller, Professor of Old Testament Theology Emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary

A brief summary of the main thrust of Han's work does not do justice to the sophistication and broad range of the interdisciplinary scholarship that Han brings to bear on his basic argument.--Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Spring 2009

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