Endnote 7 – Heavens Torn Open

For additional references to the heavenly temple, see Psalm 150:1–2; Revelation 14:17, 15:5; Hebrews 8:1–2, 9:24; The Testament of Levi 3:4, 5:1; Philo, On the Creation 18.55, On the Special Laws 1.12.66–67; Cicero, Dream of Scipio 6.17. The concept of the heavenly temple is pervasive in Jewish apocalyptic literature. As Martha Himmelfarb notes, “All me later ascent apocalypses (2 Enoch, The Similitudes of Enoch, the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Testament of Levi, the Ascension of Isaiah, 3 Baruch, the of Apocalypse of Zephaniah) understand heaven as a temple either explicitly or implicitly” (“Apocalyptic Ascent and the Heavenly Temple,” Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers 1987 [Atlanta: Scholars Press], p. 212).