© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15700631-12340380 Journal for the Study of Judaism 44 (2013) 301-338 brill.com/jsj Journal for the Study of Judaism Judaean Apocalypticism and the Unmasking of Ideology: Foreign and National Rulers in the Testament of Moses1 G. Anthony Keddie Department of Religious Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 2505 University Ave., Mailcode A3700, Austin, TX 78712-1086, USA g.a.keddie@gmail.com Abstract The current study attempts to move beyond the fashionable scholarly opinion that apocalyptic literature is essentially posed “against empire” by critically analyzing the ideologies evaluated and advanced by the Testament of Moses. The author employs a theoretical framework derived from the work of the Marxist philoso- pher Louis Althusser to argue that the schematization of history in the Testament of Moses exposes and criticizes the domination of national rulers and foreign rul- ers, but for different reasons. While ideology is depicted as a strategy of domination used by both types of rulers, repressive physical violence is typically only associ- ated with foreign domination. Yet, the text is not simply “against empire.” Rather, the ideology of the Testament of Moses is primarily opposed to the priestly ruling class of Judaea, the group thought to be responsible for the socioeconomic hard- ships experienced by the Judaean masses in the early first century C.E. Keywords Testament of Moses, apocalypticism, ideology, rulers, empire Although the modern study of apocalypticism in Biblical Studies and related fields has been characterized mainly by formalist literary approaches to ancient texts, there is also a lengthy tradition of sociohistorical analysis 1) I would like to thank Steven Friesen for his exceedingly helpful comments and sugges- tions on several versions of this paper. I also thank Bradley King and Brett Maiden for their feedback on earlier drafts and John Collins for his timely encouragement. All errors and shortcomings are my own.