Jan N. Bremmer, Thomas R. Karmann, Tobias Nicklas. The Ascension of Isaiah. Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha 11. Leuven: Peeters, 2015.
This collection features the essay “‘A Door into an Alien World’: Reading the Ascension of Isaiah as a Jewish Mystical Text” by NASSCAL Board member Pierluigi Piovanelli.
From the publisher’s catalog entry:
This book is one of the first modern collections of studies on important aspects of the Ascension of Isaiah, which occupies a special place among the early Christian writings, due to its complicated origin and its relevance in regards of the early Christian self-understanding in respect of the Jews. The volume starts with an analysis of the place of the Ascension in the development of early Christian prophecy and continues with several chapters that discuss the problems of the date, provenance, genre and interpretation of the Ascension as well as its potential relationship to Marcion. The following chapters focus on various aspects of the Ascension, such as its mystical character, oracular nature, self-designation, Johannist constellation, religious experience, cosmology, the descent of Christ, eschatology and the Virgin birth. A final chapter looks at P.Amh. I 1, the Greek witness to the Ascension of Isaiah. The volume concludes, as has become customary, with a bibliography and index.
Table of Contents:
J.N. Bremmer, “The Domestication of Early Christian Prophecy and the Ascension of Isaiah.”
R. Bauckham, “How the Author of the Ascension of Isaiah Created its Cosmological Version of the Story of Jesus.”
J. Knight, “The Ascension of Isaiah: A New(er) Interpretation.”
M. Vinzent, “The Ascension of Isaiah as a Response to Marcion of Sinope.”
P. Piovanelli, “‘A Door into an Alien World’: Reading the Ascension of Isaiah as a Jewish Mystical Text.”
R.G. Hall, “Subtleties of Translation and Ancient Interpretation: Cues for Understanding the Ascension of Isaiah.”
M. Henning and T. Nicklas, “Questions of Self-Designation in the Ascension of Isaiah.”
A. Destro and M. Pesce, “The Ascension of Isaiah and the Johannist Constellation.”
I. Czachesz, “Religious Experience behind the Account of Isaiah’s Ascent to Heaven: Insights from Cognitive Science.”
L.R. Lanzillotta, “The Cosmology of the Ascension of Isaiah: Analysis and Re-Assessment of the Text’s Cosmological Framework.”
A.L.A. Hogeterp, “The Descent of Jesus Christ in the Ascension of Isaiah.”
J. Verheyden,“Pessimism in All Its Glory: the Ascension of Isaiah on the Church in the Last Days.”
T. Karmann, “Die Jungfrauengeburt in der Ascensio Isaiae und in anderen Texten des frühen Christentums.”
T.J. Kraus, “The P.Amh. I 1 (Ascension of Isaiah)–What a Manuscript Tells about a Text and its World.”
J.N. Bremmer, “Bibliography of the Ascension of Isaiah.”