The Rise of the Mediator in Late Antiquity

John Collins: I think you've given us quite a wonderful introduction to this literature. We're talking about something that may have roots going way, way back in the Near East, but comes about in the Hellenistic period. There's these mediators and in some of your written work, you've emphasized these as really a key defining aspect of the apocalyptic genre. They're very interesting from a perspective of Western esotericism.