Description: A wide-ranging analysis of heavenly twin imagery in early Jewish extrabiblical texts.
Brief description: Andrei A. Orlov is Professor of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at Marquette University. His previous books include The Greatest Mirror: Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha; Divine Scapegoats: Demonic Mimesis in Early Jewish Mysticism; Dark Mirrors: Azazel and Satanael in Early Jewish Demonology; and Demons of Change: Antagonism and Apotheosis in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism, all published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"...[a] fascinating and rewarding new book ... [it] is extremely well-written, the topic is endlessly interesting, the evidence is exhaustively covered, and its author has put forward his thesis in the best manner possible." - Reading Religion
"This book fills a lacuna in the understanding of a fascinating yet enigmatic collection of writings of an obscure genre of Jewish pseudepigrapha dealing with heavenly counterparts of human beings." - CHOICE
"This book is the first complete effort to show how some pseudepigraphical works develop several unique traditions about heavenly counterparts. It is particularly important for many scholars who do not have control of the Slavonic originals of the Ladder of Jacob and 2 Enoch. Orlov also draws on a broad range of unfamiliar sources, including Manichaean and Mandaean materials, which were often neglected by experts who previously investigated the heavenly counterpart imagery." - Alexander Kulik, coauthor of Biblical Pseudepigrapha in Slavonic Tradition