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Faced with the theological problems of delayed deliverance and historical theodicy, Jewish religious thought in the Hellenistic period necessarily became engaged in a close reassessment of the received tradition and of the channels of revelation. Drawing on this re-reading of their Biblical heritage, and somewhat stimulated by the increasing secrecy of the surrounding popular pagan religions, many Jews found in the notion of revealed divine mysteries the key to a renewed understanding of God's sovereignty in history and the cosmos, being offered as it were an "insider's look" at God's dealings in heaven.-pg. [1].