RELS 2000
Out of This World: Fantastic Journeys to Heaven, Hell, and the Ends of the Earth
MWF 11:15-12:05
Dr. John C. Reeves
Macy 204B
Office hours: MW 1:30-2:30; or by appointment
jcreeves@uncc.edu
https://pages.charlotte.edu/john-reeves/
‘This is the way of truth, this is the stairway that leads to the height, that will lead us up to the light.’ — Manichaean Psalm-Book
Course Description
This course provides an overview of a wide range of early visionary accounts that feature ascents to and tours of heaven, descents to and tours of hell, and journeys to utopias and fabulous lands positioned in regions located at the ends of or on the other side of ‘our’ world. All of the materials studied in this course stem from ancient and medieval Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Muslim literature.
Required Textbooks
Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (rev ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Richard Stoneman, The Greek Alexander Romance (London & New York: Penguin Books, 1991).
Sir John Mandeville, The Book of Marvels and Travels (trans. Anthony Bale; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Numerous supplementary readings and/or exercises will be assigned or distributed by the instructor as needed.
Course Requirements
a. Readings. The nature of this course entails a significant amount of close reading and reflection both within and outside of class. Students are responsible for completing the reading assignments (outlined below or assigned in class) in a timely manner. Every student must read and critically engage substantial portions of Bible, other scriptural and parascriptural works, commentaries, testimonia, folktales, myths, legends, and travel narratives which have been englished from texts originally written in Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Mandaic, Greek, Latin, Coptic, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, and various medieval European vernaculars. Critical engagement with a select set of secondary readings authored by modern theorists, analysts, and historians is also required.
b. Written examinations. Three (3) in-class written examinations to take place September 21, October 19, and November 14. These exams are subjective in format, comprehensive in content, and will draw equally upon assigned readings and class discussion for their content. The numerical average of these three exam grades will comprise 50% of the final course grade.
c. Final take-home essay. Instead of an in-class three-hour final examination, you will prepare a final essay wherein you will be expected to synthesize many of the major issues and themes discussed in class and in the required readings, as well as to demonstrate your knowledge of the specific source materials and facts which pertain to those issues and themes. Once its topic is assigned (on the final class meeting day), this essay will be delivered to the instructor before 12:00 PM (i.e., noon) on Wednesday, December 12. The final essay is worth 25% of the course grade.
d. Individual involvement. Almost perfect attendance (see below) is an essential requirement for this course. Each class meeting builds upon the knowledge gained during previous meetings. Moreover, in-class discussion and analysis comprises a significant portion of every class meeting. Preparation for every class usually involves the completion of a series of assigned readings and/or written assignment(s). Students are expected to contribute in an informed manner to the public analysis and discussion of any assigned topic, and the instructor reserves the right to administer occasional unannounced ‘pop-quizzes’ should he deem the situation so warrants. The instructor’s assessment of one’s attendance, apparent class preparation, oral and written contributions, and performance on pop-quizzes will constitute 25% of the final course grade.
e. Zakhor (Remember!): Mastery of the assigned readings and diligent class attendance are necessary prerequisites for the successful completion of this course. Each student is responsible for all lectures, class discussions, assignments, and announcements, whether or not he/she is present when they occur. N.B.: there will be no class on Monday, September 10 (Rosh Hashanah) and Wednesday, September 19 (Yom Kippur).
Miscellaneous information
a. The grading scale used in this course is as follows:
91-100 A
81-90 B
71-80 C
61-70 D
0-60 F
b. One of the requirements of this course is to complete the work of the course on time. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for late work—an illness or other emergency. ‘Emergency,’ however, does not include your social involvements, travel plans, job schedule, disk, wi-fi, and/or printer failures, the state of your love life, your obligations to other courses, or general malaise over the state of the world. The world has been in a mess as long as anyone can remember, and most of the world’s work is done by people whose lives are a mass of futility and discontent. If you haven’t learned yet, you had better learn now to work under the conditions of the world as it is. Therefore:
1) All examinations will take place only upon their announced dates and times. In other words (and please note well!), there will be NO MAKEUP EXAMS scheduled. This of course includes unannounced ‘pop-quizzes.’ All missed exams, quizzes, and homework assignments are tallied as a 0 in the computation of the course grade. No exceptions will be considered or granted.
2) All papers and written exercises are due on the dates scheduled in the syllabus, or on the date announced by the instructor in class (usually, the next class meeting). ‘Late’ submissions of papers (not homework exercises—see below) bear the following penalties: one day late/one letter grade; two days late/two letter grades; three or more days late/F. Please note: these ‘days’ are calendar days, not class meeting days. For accounting purposes, letter grades bear the following values: A=95; A-=92; B=85; C+=78; C=75; D=65; F=30. A paper or written exercise that is not typed automatically receives the grade F, as do those typed papers which violate the required parameters or which the instructor deems physically unacceptable and/or grammatically incomprehensible.
3) Homework exercises are due on the date announced by the instructor in class. Since we will normally discuss these exercises together in class on that date, it would clearly be unfair to those who submitted their work on time for me to accept ‘late’ work from those who were privy to our in-class discussion. Hence I will not accept ‘late’ homework submissions (even from those of you who may be physically absent during our discussion); however, ‘early’ submissions (i.e., before the start of class) are always welcome and will receive full credit.
4) Attendance at class meetings will be monitored by the instructor. Please note that the instructor does not distinguish ‘excused’ from ‘unexcused’ absences. Unsanctioned late arrivals and early departures will be tallied as absences and graded accordingly. Seven (7) or more absences over the span of the semester will generate an automatic F for the 40% of your course grade that is dependent upon attendance and class participation.
5) Policy regarding Audits: the instructor expects auditors (whether formally enrolled as such or not) to meet the same attendance, preparation, and oral participation standards as those students who are taking the course for credit. The instructor does not expect auditors to prepare and submit any written assignments.
c. Assistance and solicitation of criticism is your right as a member of the class. It is not a privilege to be granted or withheld. Do not hesitate to request it nor wait too late in the course for it to be of help.
Rough Course Outline
1. Very brief introduction to ancient cosmologies
2. Touring ‘Heaven’
Adapa (Dalley, 182-88)
1 En. 14:1-16:4 (Sparks, AOT, 200-205)
2 En. 3:1-10:7 (short version); cf. 13:27 (Sparks, AOT, 330-38, 345)
Apoc. Peter 4-20 (Akhmim fragment)//Ethiopic version (James, ANT, 518-19)
Apoc. Paul 19-31a (James, ANT, 535-42)
‘Kerdīr’s Vision’ (Skjærvø, 181-85)
Ardā Wirāz Namag 2-15 (Boyce, 84-87)
Ibn Hishām, Sīrat al-nabī (Guillaume, 184-87)
Ma‘aseh R. Joshua b. Levi (Reeves)
Wahb b. Munabbih apud Tha‘labī, ‘Arā’is (Reeves)
Kisā’ī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’ (Reeves)
Excursus: avoiding customs officials and guards while traveling to Heaven
Ma‘ayan Ḥokmah (Reeves)
3. Touring ‘Hell’
Gilgamesh Tablet XII (Dalley, 120-25)
Descent of Inanna/Isis (Dalley, 154-62)
1 En. 22:1-14 (Sparks, AOT, 210-12)
2 En. 13:23-26 (short version) (Sparks, AOT, 344-45)
Apoc. Peter 21-34 (Akhmim fragment)//Ethiopic version (James, ANT, 514-18)
Apoc. Paul 31b-42 (James, ANT, 542-47)
Ibn Hishām, Sīrat al-nabī (Guillaume, 184-87)
Ma‘aseh R. Joshua b. Levi (Reeves)
Wahb b. Munabbih apud Tha‘labī, ‘Arā’is (Reeves)
Kisā’ī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā’ (Reeves)
Isaiah’s vision(s) of hell (Reeves)
Ardā Wirāz Namag 53-101 (Boyce, 87-89)
4. Bridging ‘Tours’ and Formal Cosmologies
Asclepius (Corpus Hermeticum) §28 (Copenhaver, 84)
Re’uyyot Yeḥezq’el (Reeves)
Midrash Konen (selections) (Reeves)
Seder Rabbah de-Bereshit (selections) (Reeves)
5. Utopian dreams
Essenes (Philo and Josephus in Dupont-Sommer, 21-37)
The ‘naked philosophers’ (Stoneman, 131-33)
‘Sons of Moses’ and Eldad ha-Dani (Reeves)
Prester John (Mandeville, 106-24)
6. Quest leading to the Ends of the Earth
Gilgamesh Tablet XI (Dalley, 109-20)
1 En. 106:1-107:3//1QapGen 2 (Sparks, AOT, 314-17//Reeves)
Syriac Cave of Treasures §27 (Reeves)
7. Touring the Ends of the Earth
1 En. 17-36 (Sparks, AOT, 205-21)
Greek Alexander Romance (Stoneman)
Syriac Alexander Legend (Budge, 144-58)
Monstrous races (Mandeville)
Supplemental Bibliography for RELS 2000
In response to student requests for recommendations regarding useful and enlightening discussions of certain topics, themes, and personalities that are presented in class and/or readings, I offer the following suggestions for further study at the student’s leisure. I confine myself to materials which I myself have used with profit. Not all of these may be currently available at Atkins Library.
It is often helpful for the student to begin with appropriate articles in the standard Bible dictionaries. The most up to date are The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.; ed. Katherine Doob Sakenfeld; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006-09) and The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1992). Dated but still reliable are The Interpreters’ Dictionary of the Bible (4 vols.) and its Supplementary Volume (ed. George A. Buttrick; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962 & 1976), and the Harper’s Bible Dictionary (ed. Paul J. Achtemeier; San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985). Highly recommended are the relevant articles in the new Encyclopaedia Judaica (22 vols.; Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA/Thomson Gale, 2007), the Encyclopaedia of Islam (2d ed.; 11 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1954-2002), the Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān (6 vols.; ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe; Leiden: Brill, 2001-06), and The Qur’ān: An Encyclopedia (ed. Oliver Leaman; London and New York: Routledge, 2006).
In addition, you can consult the following more specialized studies:
Richard Bauckham, “Early Jewish Visions of Hell,” Journal of Theological Studies 41 (1990): 355-85.
Mary Boyce, ed., Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984).
Jan N. Bremmer, “Christian Hell: From the Apocalypse of Peter to the Apocalypse of Paul,” Numen 56 (2009): 298-325.
Scott G. Bruce, ed., The Penguin Book of Hell (New York: Penguin, 2018).
Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The History of Alexander the Great, Being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1889).
John J. Collins and Michael Fishbane, eds., Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995).
Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Jean Delumeau, History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition (trans. Matthew O’Connell; New York, 1995; repr., Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000).
André Dupont-Sommer, The Essene Writings from Qumran (trans. G. Vermes; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1961).
Moses Gaster, “Hebrew Visions of Hell and Paradise,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 23 (1893): 571-611.
Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Isḥāq’s Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955).
Aaron Gurevich, “The Divine Comedy Before Dante,” in idem, Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Perception and Belief (trans. János M. Bak and Paul A. Hollingsworth; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 104-52.
______, “Perceptions of the Individual and the Hereafter in the Middle Ages,” in idem, Historical Anthropology of the Middle Ages (ed. Jana Howlett; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 65-89.
Martha Himmelfarb, Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983).
Montague Rhodes James, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924).
______, “The Recovery of the Apocalypse of Peter,” Church Quarterly Review 80 (1915): 1-36.
Christian Lange, Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory (trans. Arthur Goldhammer; Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984), esp. 17-127.
______, The Medieval Imagination (trans. Arthur Goldhammer; Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988), esp. 27-44, 67-77.
Howard Rollin Patch, The Other World, According to Descriptions in Medieval Literature (Cambridge, Mass., 1950; repr., New York: Octagon Books, 1970).
John C. Reeves, Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005).
John C. Reeves and Annette Yoshiko Reed, Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Volume I: Sources from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Alessandro Scafi, ed., The Cosmography of Paradise: The Other World from Ancient Mesopotamia to Medieval Europe (Warburg Institute Colloquia 27; London: The Warburg Institute, 2016).
Prods Oktor Skjærvø, The Spirit of Zoroastrianism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011).
H. F. D. Sparks, ed., The Apocryphal Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984).