The Entangled Enoch: 2 Enoch and the Cultures of Late Antiquity

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-69508-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 28, 385 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 676 g

Reihe: Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha

This study reframes and reorients the study of 2 Enoch, moving beyond debates about Christian or Jewish authorship and considering the work in the context of eclectic and erudite cultures in late antiquity, particularly Syria. The study compares the work with the Parables of Enoch and then with a variety of writings associated with late antique Syrian theology, demonstrating the distinctively eclectic character of 2 Enoch. It offers new paradigms for research into the pseudepigrapha.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Macaskill, Grant

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Grant Macaskill

1 The Entangled Enoch

Introduction

1 Renewing the Imagination and Reconsidering Metaphors: on Trees, Rhizomes and the Ecology of Concepts

2 Relocating and Refiguring Groups and Networks in the Rhizome of Antiquity

3 On Frontiers, Colonialism and Orientalism (with Some Insights from Nissology)

4 The Distinctive Significance of Syria as Provenance

Conclusions and Prospects: towards the Entangled Enoch

Postscript: a Note on Translations and Transliteration

2 Reviewing the Provenance of 2 Enoch

1 An Overview of Manuscripts and Recensions

2 The First Stages of Academic Research into 2 Enoch: Modern Slavic Scholarship

3 Reviewing the Debates in Non-Slavic Scholarship

4 Further Contributions: Pines, Himmelfarb, Reed and Alexander

5 The 5th Enoch Seminar: Naples 2009. No Longer Slavonic Only?

6 Conclusions

A Postscript to Chapter 2: Samaritan Contexts for 2 Enoch?

3 Reviewing the Date, Provenance and Composition History of the Parables of Enoch

Reviewing the Dating and Provenance of the Parables of Enoch

1 The Absence of the Parables from Qumran and the Lack of Early External (i.e., Manuscript and Citation) Evidence

2 The Similarities and Differences with Demonstrably Early Enoch Material

3 The Presence of Imagery and Language That Is Similar to That Encountered in the New Testament

4 The Possibility That the Parables Contains Allusions to Specific Historical Events

5 The Distinctive Representation of Social and Economic Factors, including the Identification of the Kings and the Mighty Ones

6 The Composition of the Parables of Enoch

Conclusions

4 Storehouses and Measures

Parallel Patterns in Metrology and Meteorology in the Parables of Enoch and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch

1 Storehouses, Treasuries and Measures: Documenting Parallels in the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch

2 Biblical Backgrounds

3 Parallels in the Dead Sea Scrolls

4 A Rabbinic Parallel in b.Hagigah 12b

5 Parallels in Sefer Hekhalot (3 Enoch) and the Hekhalot Literature

6 Parallels in Other “Pseudepigrapha”

7 Concluding Synthesis

5 God, Enoch and the Secrets

Theology, Cosmology, Cosmogony, Eschatology

Introduction

1 The Distribution of “Secrets” in the Parables of Enoch and 1 Enoch

2 God in the Parables of Enoch

3 The Book of the Secrets of Enoch

4 God and Cosmos in 2 Enoch: Eclectic Philosophy and Elements of Platonism

5 Comparing the Parables and 2 Enoch to Sefer Hekhalot

Conclusions

6 God, Wisdom and Humanity in the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch

1 Wisdom and Creation outside the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch: Some Framing Considerations

2 Wisdom in the Parables of Enoch

3 God, Wisdom and the Creation of Man in 2 Enoch

Conclusions

7 Bodily Ascents and Ontological Transformations

Introduction

1 Problematizing “Monotheism” as a Context for “Deification”

2 Visionary Ascent in the Aramaic Enoch Literature and Other Apocalypses

2 Ascent and Ontological Transformation in the Parables of Enoch: an Embodied Turn?

4 Bodily Ascent and Ontological Transformation in 2 Enoch

5 Parallels between 2 Enoch and Manichaean or Mandaean Apocalypses

Conclusions

8 Practical and Symbolic Liturgy, Votive Offerings, and the Cult of the One God in 2 Enoch

Introduction

1 2 Enoch and Practical Worship

2 Votive Offerings and Reciprocity: 2 Enoch 61:4&5

Conclusions

9 Animal Offerings and Ritual Theorizing in 2 Enoch

1 Sacrificial Practice and Theorizing in Antiquity: Framing 2 Enoch in Its Potential Contexts

2 Philo of Alexandria

3 2 Enoch: the Head of the Altar and the Sacrificial Knife

4 Binding the Sacrifice by Four Legs

5 Theorizing Sacrifice in 2 Enoch: on Divine Sufficiency and the Human Condition

Conclusions: Reconsidering 2 Enoch in the Contours of Antiquity

10 Concluding Synthesis: the Entangled Enoch

1 Complicating Models and Culturing Rhizomes

2 The Significance of Groups within the Cultural Rhizome

3 Reviewing the Provenance of the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch

4 Common Patterns in the Parables of Enoch and 2 Enoch

5 Coloration and Context, Cultures and Fashions

6 Devotional Practices, Divine Reciprocity and the Logics of Sacrifice in 2 Enoch and Late Antiquity

7 Towards an Account of Transmission

8 The Pseudepigrapha and the Literate Liminal: Programmatic Implications

Concluding Comments

Bibliography

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Ancient Sources

Über Autor(innen)

Grant Macaskill (PhD, University of St Andrews, 2005) is the Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen. His numerous publications include a scholarly edition of The Slavonic Manuscripts of 2 Enoch (Brill, 2013