The Temple of God and Crises in Isaiah 65–66 and 1 Enoch

Stefan Green suggests in "Temple of God and Crises in Isaiah 65–66 and 1 Enoch" that Isa. 65–66 could be seen as a bridge between the critique of the cult and the temple in the prophetic books and later apocalyptic literature. To substantiate this claim, Green compares motifs like God's presence and the temple in the book of Isaiah and in 1 Enoch, arguing that such a comparison uncovers traces of how the shift from the prophetic to the apocalyptic literature could have come about. He then proposes that the situation displayed in Isa. 65–66 was a temple crisis that eventually became regarded as a second distinct crisis out of four temple crisis. This, he holds, is supported by a close reading of the Animal Apocalypse in 1 Enoch, since it conveys such a comprehension of the temple crises. Green's line of reasoning modifies and expands John J. Collins' notion of three crises. His proposal that there were four temple crises leads to the conclusion that Isa. 65–66 is an important pre-stage of Jewish apocalyptic literature.