The Tongues of Angels: The Concept of Angelic Languages in Classical Jewish and Christian Texts

by John C Poirier

Overview

The Apostle Paul's reference to the tongues of angels (1 Cor 13.1) has always aroused curiosity, but it has rarely been the object of a history-of-traditions investigation. Few readers of Paul's words are aware of the numerous references and allusions to angelic languages in Jewish and Christian texts. John C. Poirier presents the first full-length study of the concept of angelic languages, and the most exhaustive attempt to assemble the evidence for that concept in ancient Jewish and early Christian texts. He discusses possible references to angelic languages in the New Testament, pseudepigraphic writings (both Jewish and Christian), the Dead Sea scrolls, rabbinic texts, patristic references, magical writings, and epigraphy. The discussion is divided between those witnesses that understand angels to speak Hebrew, and those that understand angels to speak an esoteric heavenly language.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783161505690
Publisher:	Mohr Siebeck
Publication date:	12/31/2010
Series:	Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2.Reihe , #287
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

John C. Poirier, Born 1963; 1993 Th M in New Testament at Duke University; 2005 Doctor of Hebrew Letters in Ancient Judaism at the Jewish Theological Seminary (NY); named Chair of Biblical Studies at the newly forming Kingswell Theological Seminary (OH).