Seeking to recover the sense of form criticism as understood by Gunkel, Reid compares three historical apocalypses of the second century BCE found in the books of Enoch and Daniel and inquires into their sociological setting. Reid’s investigation indicates that not only was Judaism of that period heterogeneous, but that even within Jewish apocalypticism there were different responses to the existing political and religious environment.
An earlier version of this study was submitted as a doctoral dissertation at Emory University, written under the direction of Professor Gene M. Tucker.