---

The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch or Second Baruch is a Jewish work written in the aftermath of the Jewish War against Rome, a generation or two after the fall of Jerusalem. It is part of a larger body of Jewish Nachkriegsliteratur books written in response to the lost war. The author of Second Baruch composed a highly original work intended for the post-70 C.E. Jewish community at large. Second Baruch has much in common with other Jewish texts of the time, including the Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, and early rabbinic literature. The purpose of Matthias Henze´s study is to offer a close reading of some of the central passages in Second Baruch, to expose the book s main themes, to explain the apocalyptic program it advocates, to draw some parallels with other texts, Jewish and Christian, and to locate its place in the rugged terrain of post-70 C.E. Jewish literature and thought.

---