Il Levitico come universo mentale e la sua riconfigurazione nella letteratura visionaria giudaica e nell’Apocalisse di Giovanni

This essay aims at reading the norms exposed in Leviticus as mirrors of a “mental universe” that is subject to both possible replacements and manipulations. More particularly, this study tries to analyze the elements that are variously linked to or derive from the biblical text in later Jewish texts, as well as the ways through which those same elements are reinvented in particular socio-cultural contexts. Particular attention it is paid to the Jewish visionary texts of the Hellenistic-Roman period and, within this scenario, to the Apocalypse of John. The essay emphasizes the way the seer of Patmos rereads and re-assesses the mental universe of Leviticus, as well as the specific polemic reasons why this seems to happen, even perhaps in function of contextual frameworks in which Jews (believers in Jesus and not) live together with other groups, in strongly urbanized environments where the role of the Greek-Roman hegemony has assumed the role of towing for both people and collectivities coming from both other cultural-religious contexts.