[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

orion I Enoch Chapter 108



A few questions and comments on 1 Enoch 108, sometimes considered also
either a Book of Noah or part of an Apocalypse of Enoch.
	J. T. Milik's dating of Apocalypse of Enoch is not clear from his
1976 Enoch book. Apparently (from his index), he includes 1 Enoch 108 and
the Apocalypse excerpted in the Cologne Mani Codex as part of the same
work, though they do not overlap. (John C. Reeves, in his Heralds of That
Good Realm: Syro-Mesopotamian Gnosis and Jewish Traditions [Leiden, 1996],
compares these two, on heavenly light.) Milik called it "very early
Christian" (p.98 n.6) and Greek. Yet he wrote (p. 106-7) that it dated to
after the Chester Beatty-Michigan papyrus with parts of 1 Enoch, including
ch. 106-107 [found also in Qumran Cave 7 according to E. Puech?].
Therefore, he seems to date it later than fourth century, yet before the
Mani ms, paleographically assigned as a late fourth/early fifth century
copy of a text, a text with editorial layers. But, if so, the Apocalypse of
Enoch would not be "very early." Apparently, Milik has not published his
announced article on this. (Does his Enoch book preclude a DJD edition of
4QEnoch?)
	I Enoch 108 might be originally Semitic, not Greek. 1 Enoch 108:2,
I suggested, is related to the name Essene and its origin from Hebrew
'asah, and R.H. Charles (1913, p.280) and D. Flusser (IEJ 3 [1953] 30-47,
here 30 and 38 and in his collected essays) proposed that this chapter was
Essene.
	If it were a Christian composition, it would have to be a
Jewish-Christian composition, as it focuses on torah-observance, which
would also suggest an early date. The Cologne Mani Codex associates Mani's
family with the Elchasaites, a group Epiphanius wrote was much influenced
by Essenes and Ossenes. If it were a Christian composition, it apparently
was not well-known to Christians: James VanderKam's long and learned essay
on Enoch in early Christian writers (in The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in
Early Christianity [CRINT 3.4; Assen/Minneapolis, 1996, eds. J.C. VanderKam
and Wm. Adler) does not mention chapter 108.
	Comments and relevant bibliography welcomed.
regards,
Stephen Goranson
goranson@duke.edu


For private reply, e-mail to stephen goranson <goranson@duke.edu>
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to majordomo@panda.mscc.huji.ac.il with
the message: "unsubscribe Orion." For more information on the Orion Center
or for Orion archives, visit our web site http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.