Two powers in heaven : early rabbinic reports about christianity and gnosticism
In this study of the rabbinic heretics who believed in Two Powers in Heaven, Alan Segal explores some relationships between rabbinic Judaism, Merkabah mysticism, and early Christianity. Two Powers in Heaven was a very early category of heresy. It was one of the basic categories by which the rabbis perceived the new phenomenon of Christianity and one of the central issues over which Judaism and Christianity separated. Segal reconstructs the development of the heresy through prudent dating of the stages of the rabbinic traditions. The basic heresy involved interpreting scripture to say that a principal angelic or hypostatic manifestation in heaven was equivalent to God. The earliest heretics believed in two complementary powers in heaven, while later heretics believed in two opposing powers in heaven. Segal stresses the importance of perceiving the relevance of rabbinic material for solving traditional problems of New Testament and gnostic scholarship, and at the same time maintains the necessity of reading those literatures for dating rabbinic material
Criticism, interpretation, etc
XXIV, 313 p. ; 23 cm.
9780391041721, 039104172X
1047926714
1. Introduction
Two powers in heaven: The history and importance of the problem
2. The early rabbinic evidence
Conflicting appearances of God
Aher, Metatron, Merkabah, and the angel of YHWH
A controversy between Ishmaeil and Akiba
Midrashic warnings against "two powers"
Mishnaic warnings against unorthodox prayer
"Many powers in heaven" and Miscellaneous reports
How many powers created the world?
Divine powers and angels
Summary of Rabbinic findings
3. Philo
Jewish Sectarian texts: Apocalypticism and mysticism; New Testament Christianity
The Church fathers
Marcion
Gnosticism