Review | Apocalypse as Holy War: Divine Politics and Polemics in the Letters of Paul

Emma Wasserman. Apocalypse as Holy War: Divine Politics and Polemics in the Letters of Paul. Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.

In Apocalypse as Holy War, Wasserman argues that the dominant scholarly approach to Jewish apocalypticism is uncritical and unsupported by our ancient Jewish sources, including Paul’s (undisputed) letters. In particular, she questions the existence of a common apocalyptic worldview often understood as two age dualism marked by rebellion against the God of Israel. According to this assumption, apocalyptic literature reflects the authors belief that Jews of the first century lived in an evil age under the dominion of Satan and demons which will end with God’s direct intervention and the establishment of the new age. Instead, Wasserman posits that Jewish apocalyptic works are better understood as myths about relationships in the divine realm. These writings do not share a common worldview (especially two age dualism) or theological system, but rather premises about the structure of the world. Namely, these authors assume that “a single, unified political hierarchy” exists and that countless divine beings “organize, shape, and rule it” (3). What is more, Jewish apocalyptic texts do not focus on the rebellion of divine beings against the God of Israel. Rather, they suppress any hint of it. Within the introduction she provides a short survey of the interpretation of Jewish apocalyptic in scholarship on early Judaism and earliest Christianity, especially as articulated by Hermann Gunkel, Johannes Weiss, Albert Schweitzer, and Ernst Käsemann.

She lays the foundation of her argument within the first chapter, “Creation, Battle, and Cosmic Intrigue” (18-58), examining ancient Near Eastern and early Greek texts—Enuma Elish, the Baal Cycle, the Epic of Anzu, Hesiod’s Theogony, and selected texts in the Hebrew Bible—focusing on their portrayal of war and divine hierarchies. Wasserman concludes that these diverse texts do not share a common Chaoskampf. However, they share common assumptions and premises about the cosmic order. For example, these writings imagine a world which functions like a human polity and where wars in the divine realm legitimate the ruling god’s power. The biblical texts in particular, e.g., Exodus 15; Deuteronomy 32-33, suppress any rivalry between the God of Israel and other divine beings, making any conflict with God impossible. In the process, the authors and editors of biblical texts remove references to divine beings or reclassify them as servants of the God of Israel. Biblical writers focus on the God of Israel’s past or future military victories or they interpret defeat as righteous judgment. On the other hand, the (other) ancient Near Eastern and Greek texts highlight the power of the opponents of the head deity, which underscores his might when overcoming them and also serves to legitimate his rule of the pantheon (e.g., Marduk or Zeus).

Wasserman extends her exploration of divine councils and war to early Jewish texts, 1 Enoch, Jubilees, Daniel 7-12, and the sectarian writings among the Dead Sea Scrolls such as the Community Rule and the War Scroll. She points out that scholars tend to interpret these texts in light of an apocalyptic dualism where evil rebels against God. Wasserman concludes that these texts, like their biblical counterparts, suppress any hint of rivalry between the God of Israel and divine beings, highlighting the power and might of the former. The writers of these texts work with a conceptual framework of one polity ruled by the God of Israel and where other lesser divine beings are his agents, messengers, generals, devotees and even disobedient, insubordinate, and overzealous managers. These lesser divine beings are depicted as foils for God’s irresistible will.

The third chapter, “Conflict, Competition, and Paul’s ‘Principalities and Powers’ Reconsidered” (108-40), brings Wasserman’s findings from chapters 1-2 to bear on Paul’s undisputed letters. She considers Paul’s language about Jesus Christ in light of the latter being a general conducting holy war against the gods. This final battle will result in the revealing of the God of Israel’s divine rule of the cosmic order, which will purify and perfect the already existing cosmic polity. In the process, Wasserman contends that the divine beings mentioned in 1 Cor 15:23-28 and Phil 2:6-9 are not evil and rebellious, but the gods of the pagan nations whom Paul reclassifies as lesser deities and servants of God. Thus, like other Second Temple Jews, Paul envisioned a one polity cosmos with the God of Israel as its ultimate ruler and Jesus the general through whom he conquers.

In the fourth chapter, “Idols and Other Gods in 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans” (141-72), Wasserman posits that the stocheia tou cosmou and the daimonia to which Paul refers (1 Cor 8:1-11:1; Gal 4:3-10) are not nefarious divine beings, but an ambiguous group. On the one hand, they exist and are the object of ignorant and mistaken worship by the nations. On the other, Paul recategorizes these divine beings as powerless and lesser divinities who are subordinate to God.

The fifth chapter, “Victimization, Alienation, and Privilege Among the Christ-Elect” (173-202), which seems somewhat out of place in the book, examines the Christ-confessors in Paul’s churches whom Wasserman calls the Christ-Elect. She concludes that while Paul’s converts have access to heavenly powers through Christ, they are still beset by external and internal threats. To mollify these Christ-confessors, Paul adopts Platonic traditions to argue that such inner conflict must be overcome by self-mastery and Stoic traditions to suggest how to do this: through the ethical choices of Christ-confessors.

In the “Conclusion” (203-10), Wasserman rearticulates her thesis that cosmic dualism and the rebellion of evil forces against the God of Israel are not foundational for Paul’s apocalyptic thought. On the contrary, Paul focuses on God’s just and incontestable reign over the cosmos, including a variegated lot of divine beings (not just angels and demons) with differing ranks. Paul’s vision of the end is not a replacement of the current cosmic polity but its purification and perfection.

The breadth of Wasserman’s study, from ancient Near Eastern texts to Paul’s letters and much in between, is impressive. Her work is laudable for advancing the conversation about early Jewish apocalyptic from predominately Jewish texts to the premises about the structure of the world in which early Jews lived. As a result of this shift, Wasserman draws on a broader range of sources. Moreover, the stress on the political connotations of ancient cults, pagan, Jewish, and Christian, is commendable. In sum, Apocalypse as Holy War is a fascinating and welcomed conversation partner in current discussions of early Jewish apocalyptic and Paul the apostle.

D. Clint Burnett (Ph.D. Boston College) is an independent scholar who specializes in interpreting Paul’s letters in light of the material culture in the cities in which he established the earliest Christian communities. You can follow him on Twitter.