Even more mountains, even more trees…and the Paradise of Righteousness
And from there I went to the midst of the mountain range of the desert. And I saw it desolate, and it alone was full of trees .
From there I went to another place in the desert, and I departed to the east of this mountain range. I saw trees breathing fragrances…
And I saw other mountains, and also on them I saw trees…
Beyond these mountains I was shown another mountain, and on it were aloe trees.
Beyond these mountains, approximately to their northeastern side I saw other mountains…
various, from 1En 28:1 – 32:1 Nick
From Jerusalem, center of the world, we journey eastwards. We cross over mountain ranges, fertile with flora, surrounded by barren deserts. Milik detects a knowledge of the ancient Nabatean spice trade routes but here as before we are in a fantastical divine world, above and beyond the fields we know.
As before with the jeweled mountains I had a little fun looking up the various kinds of trees mentioned in this passage. Frankincense is the resin extracted from a species of Boswellia tree found in Asia and India. Its use can be traced back at least five thousand years. Sad to find out the tree populations are declining because of overharvesting and loss of habitat. Myrrh is a gum/resin derived from a small thorny tree with a long Latin name. It’s been used for medicinal purposes as far back as ancient Egypt. Of course frankincense and myrrh are famous as two of the three gifts of the Magi in the gospel of Matthew.
Storax is a resin derived from the Turkish Sweetgum. Galbanum grows in the mountains of Iran. In the ancient world it was prized as a perfume. Nard, or spikenard, is derived from a flowering plant related to the honeysuckle, native to the Himalayas and central China. Alas, now also endangered. Cardamom was used as a fragrance and to flavor tea. Lastly there are more familiar examples like almond, aloe and cinnamon.
Nice image in 29:2 of the trees “breathing out” the fragrances.
From there I proceeded to the east of all these mountains, far from them to the east of the earth. And I passed over the Red Sea and departed far from it. And I crossed over the darkness, far from it. I passed by the paradise of righteousness, and I saw from afar trees more plentiful and larger than these trees, differing from those—very large beautiful and glorious and magnificent—and the tree of wisdom, whose fruit the holy ones eat and learn great wisdom. That tree is in height like the fir, and its leaves, like (those of) the carob, and its fruit like the clusters of the vine—very cheerful; and its fragrance penetrates far beyond the tree.
Then I said, “How beautiful is the tree and how pleasing in appearance.”
Then , the holy angel who was with me, answered, “This is the tree of wisdom from which your father of old and your mother of old, who were before you, ate and learned wisdom. And their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they were driven from the garden.” – 1En 32:2-6 Nick
Now at last Enoch arrives at the farthest east, the east of the east. Enoch passes over the “Red Sea”, not to be identified strictly with the modern Red Sea but with the ancient and semi-mythical Erythraean Sea, for the author of the Book of Enoch, quite literally the “ends of the earth”. (More about the nature of the “ends of the earth” and the darkness beyond next time.)
But the highlight of this part of the journey is the sight of the “Paradise of Righteousness”, as becomes clear, the Garden of Eden. Note that Enoch is allowed to see Eden only from afar, and to pass by. Not to enter! Of all the wondrous gardens (paradises) he has so far beheld, this is the most magnificent. The trees larger. More fruitful. The fragrances sweeter. And finally, in the center of the garden, most magnificent of all, the “Tree of Wisdom”.
We’ve met the “Tree of Wisdom” before of course. We know it as the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” in Genesis.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Gen 2,15-17 NRSV
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Gen 3,6-7 NRSV
Now we know the source of Eve’s delight. The Tree of Wisdom is tall as the earthly fir, known for its great height. Its leaves are like those of the Carob tree, known to reach a height of fifty feet. (The Carob produced a legume known all over the ancient world as a sweetener in food and drink.) The fruit of the Tree of Wisdom is like grapes. (No apples, sorry.) The “Holy Ones”, the Watchers, the “elohim” eat of the fruit and learn “great wisdom”.
As if there were any doubt Gabriel explains that this is the very tree from which Adam and Eve picked and ate, “learned wisdom”, opened their eyes, knew their nakedness and were driven from the garden.
What are we to make of all this?
Why such a long description of various mountains and fragrant trees leading up to the final vision of the Edenic Tree? Nickelsburg makes the important point that whatever the visions that come of the Heavenlies, this narrative testifies to the importance of the earthly land in the Kingdom. Enoch is lifted up to the very Throne Room of Yahweh but this author knows nothing of a spiritual Heaven where immaterial spirits dwell in bliss. God’s kingdom will be idealized and utopian, but it will be a terrestrial existence. God will come down to earth, his throne a paradise, a garden peaked mountain.
And most interesting of all, we have here another version of the events recorded in Genesis 2/3 (and Ezekiel 28). Nickelsburg is largely content to find a correspondence between these accounts but I’m not so sure. It seems to me there’s a different valence to the Enochian account quite in keeping with the themes already developed in the book.
What is the “sin” committed by Adam & Eve?
In Genesis it is disobedience. I told you not to do that! Now you’ll be punished. Righteousness consists of obeying the commands of God. Wickedness comes when one disobeys one of those commands. It’s almost as if the effects of eating the fruit, being made aware of one’s nakedness and knowing good and evil, are tangential. Eating wasn’t the problem. Doing something you were told not to do was the problem.
But look closely at the account in 1 Enoch. First note the change in names. In 1Enoch not the ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’, but the ‘Tree of Wisdom’. It is said that the Holy Ones ate – and learned. Nothing about that part in Genesis. (And note Who is missing from the Enoch account. sssssss.) In Enoch Adam & Eve ate – and learned. The implication is that they were driven from the garden because they learned.
So what’s the takeaway? For the ethicists of Genesis, the passage from innocence to experience consisted of learning the difference between good and evil. Torah is fundamentally about morality, guiding behavior through laws that emphasize right conduct. It provides the proverbial moral compass. In 1Enoch wisdom consists of understanding the divinely established cosmic order. Righteousness consists of living in accordance with that cosmic order. Wickedness consists of violating that cosmic order.
As we’ve seen the sin of the Watchers was a Boundary Violation. They abandoned their assigned roles and crossed a line that should never have been crossed. I suggest that something similar is taking place here in he Enochian story of Adam and Eve.
Eden was the garden of God. Adam and Eve were created to tend the garden. When they ate of the Tree of Wisdom, reserved remember for Divine Beings, they committed a Boundary Violation and that is why they were driven from the garden. (Also remember that one of the “sins” of the Watchers was to teach knowledge to humans. God intended for humans to know their place. The Watchers tried to descend. Humans tried to ascend.)
So, in 1En humans being driven from the garden mirrors the Watchers being driven from Heaven. Both tragedies occur because of the violation of the order established by God. We are provided a glimpse of the difference in attitudes between the tradition that produced Genesis and the Enochian outlook. Both counseled against disobedience. The difference is where wisdom lies.
And so at along last the journey of Enoch in the Book of the Watchers (cpts 1-36) comes to its conclusion with a vision of the “Ends of the Earth”. As I noted I have been following the journey thematically rather than sequentially. Enoch has journeyed in all the cardinal directions and seen wondrous sites. But what has he found at the very edge of the earth, Jerusalem at the center of a disk supported by foundations and capped by the firmament and the heavenlies? Where do you go when the earth runs out? And what do you see?
Note: I’m not going to spend a lot of time here specifically on the cosmology at play because that is the subject of the later Book of the Luminaries, which discusses the nuts and bolts of Enoch’s universe in detail. Here I will describe the sights to be seen recorded in this part of the text.
The Treasuries of the Winds
I saw the treasuries of all the winds. I saw how through them He ordered all created things. I saw the foundations of the earth and I saw the cornerstone of the earth. I saw the four winds which bear the earth and the firmament of the heaven. And I saw how the winds stretch out the vaults of heaven. They stand between heaven and earth: they are the pillars of the heaven. I saw the winds of heaven which turn and bring to their setting the disk of the sun and all the stars . I saw the winds on the earth bearing the clouds. I saw the paths of the angels. I saw at the ends of the earth the firmament of heaven above. 1EN 18:1-5 Nick
The image of the Ruach (רוּחַ) and its Greek equivalent Pneuma (πνεῦμα) is as potent as any in the Bible. In English we’re forced to choose equivalents according to context but it can mean “wind”, “breath”, or “spirit”, and in some cases some or all of those at once. It is a subject of frequent wordplay on the part of these ancient writers and translation can’t help but diminish some of its potency.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. RSV
Or, the rather more clunky NRSVUE,
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
(The NSVRUE gets the opening clause right, creation was a temporal process of fashioning pre-existent chaos, but after that sheesh! It’s not wrong but it’s not quite “right” either, aesthetically, if you know what I mean.)
God’s “spirit” is hovering over the primordial waters, or God is breathing over the waters, or a Divine Wind is blowing over the waters. The one word can mean each of those or, as is more likely , all at once!
Then, a much later example, John 3:8, Luke’s description of Jesus’ interview with Nicodemus. Here the NRSVUE gets it right.
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Commentors inevitably point out the earlier “born anew/born from above” pun but here is equally nice wordplay as well.
But I think the key to understand the sense of 1 Enoch is the reference in Genesis 2:7.
…then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. NRSVUE
The wind described in 1 Enoch is the breath of the universe. As God’s breath gave life to mankind so God’s breath gives life to the universe. Here God’s breath is the animating spirit of the cosmos. The wind supports the foundations and cornerstone of the earth. The wind supports the firmament, the raqia, above the earth. And as we’ll see in the Book of the Luminaries, it is the ruach that guides the movement of the sun and the stars! There is a hint that the winds support the travel of the angels. Remember back in 14:8 when Enoch begins his cosmic journey.
…and the winds in the vision caused me to fly and lifted me upward, and bore me into heaven.
The ancients associated movement with intelligence and here it is almost best to think of the winds as living beings. As we will see there are different winds for different functions. And the “treasuries”? Well, where did you think the winds rested when they weren’t active?
We are far away here from the world of physics. And I’m sorry to keep harping on the subject but this is not to be understood only as metaphor or poetic image. It is that of course but it also has substance. A material aspect. In the ancient world metaphors weren’t just parts of speech. They described reality itself.
Next, where the bad stars dwell.
*I couldn’t help but think of this.
That’s a cool building. I love those fundamental geometric shapes. There was an old octagonal building in DC that preservers fought over in court for years trying to save but eventually the developers won and down it came.
The winds of Enoch specialize as well. There are hot winds and cold winds. Storm winds and calm breezes. Fast and slow.
What sorts of creatures dwell out at the Ends of the Earth?
Beyond this chasm I saw a place where there was neither firmament of heaven above, nor firmly founded earth beneath it. Neither was there water on it, nor bird; but the place was desolate and fearful. There I saw seven stars like great burning mountains. To me, when I inquired about them, the angel said, “This place is the end of heaven and earth; this has become a prison for the stars and the hosts of heaven. The stars that are rolling over in the fire, these are they that transgressed the command of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, for they did not come out in their appointed times. And he was angry with them and bound them until the time of the consummation of their sins—ten thousand years.” 1En 18:12-16 Nick
We have a matching account not much later in the book.
I traveled to where it was chaotic. And there I saw a terrible thing; I saw neither heaven above, nor firmly founded earth, but a chaotic and terrible place. And there I saw seven of the stars of heaven, bound and thrown in it together, like great mountains, and burning in fire. Then I said, “For what reason have they been bound, and for what reason have they been thrown here?” Then Uriel said to me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and he was their leader, he said to me, “Enoch, why do you inquire, and why are you eager for the truth? These are the stars of heaven that transgressed the command of the Lord; they have been bound here until ten thousand years are fulfilled—the time of their sins.” 1En 21:1-6 Nick
At first blush it’s easy to assume that this is simply another way of describing the sin and punishment of the Watchers. But none of the actual details match. Different sins, different places of punishment.
Astronomy is the oldest of all the sciences. For untold millennia humans studied the skies, wondering, interpreting what they saw. They detected order and eventually came to see wisdom in aligning their earthly life with that cosmic order. Astrology was born.
But this order was far from static and mechanical. It was full of agency and purpose.
So how terrible it must have been for Enoch to step outside this universe! Past earth. Past heaven. For us moderns even when we reach Outer Space we have the stars and planets before us. But for Enoch this is past all that is. No floor. No ceiling. No horizons.
This void is a prison for the disobedient stars. We are reminded once again of the Enochic view of creation. God has established a Divine Order and sin comes a result of the violation of that divine order.
What is the sin of the stars? They didn’t come out at their appointed times! The implication is that they failed to do so deliberately. But no actual motivation is given. (Were they on strike?) Note the tacit assumption that the stars have agency and are responsible for their actions.
Note that this punishment has a purgatorial function. This is not their ultimate fate. (No hint that they will be destroyed on judgement day.) They pissed Yahweh off and he cast them out for “ten thousand years”. In biblical Hebrew the word for “ten thousand”, רְבָבָה (revavah), can mean a specific number but is more often used abstractly as an incomprehensibly large but nevertheless finite amount. Given timekeeping though recorded genealogies, to an ancient Hebrew this would have been longer than the existence of his universe.
One aspect of ancient astronomy may give some perspective on this concept of disobedient stars. The Ancients observed that while most stars remained in fixed constellations, there were seven celestial bodies that moved against the fixed stars. These were the “seven luminaries”, the “wanderers”, namely the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In the cosmology of 1 Enoch, with its emphasis on a fixed Divine Order, the motion of the planets could have been interpreted as disobedience. And see the reference in Jude 1:13, ..wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever. The next two verses, 14-15, are a direct reference to 1 Enoch.
Scholars have often pondered the fact that the planets get short shrift in Hebrew writings. We will see in the Book of the Luminaries much discussion about the Moon and the Sun and the Stars and their relation to timekeeping and calendars but no specific mention of Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter or Saturn. It’s not immediately obvious why this should be so. Especially Venus! Was this because of their association with paganism? An interesting mystery.
So we’ve journeyed with Enoch from the Throne Room of Yahweh to the Ends of the Earth. We’ve spiraled up and out from earth’s center, Jerusalem, in all the cardinal directions, lingering over Yahweh’s Holy Mountains and the Garden of Eden. We’ve heard the story of the Watchers and seen their fate. If you’re hoping for a description of the journey home you will be disappointed. We leave Enoch contemplating the whole of his cosmos, praising God. But of course this is by no means the end of the First Book of Enoch.
I think the Book of the Watchers (chpts 1-36) provides us its own conspectus in 19:3-
I, Enoch, alone saw the visions, the extremities of all things.
And no one among humans has seen what I saw.
Enoch is the great scribe of the elohim, the walker between the worlds, in later tradition destined to be divinized as Metatron, the “Second Yahweh”. I gave some thought to discussing the book chronologically since it was the oldest strata, the Book of the Luminaries, that first piqued my interest. But I think it’s best to follow the book as it has come down to us.
So next we’ll get into the Book of Parables, chpts 37-71. It is the longest and latest of the sections that make up the larger First Book of Enoch. It is also distinguished by being the only part of the Enochian text not present at Qumran. There are interesting dating issues. Like the Book of Daniel there is internal evidence that can be traced to known events that allow us to have a pretty good idea of its dating. We will also encounter concepts like the “Son of Man” for the first time in the Enochian literature.
But I don’t want to get burned out on all this so I’m going to take a bit of a break. I have a road trip coming up. In the meantime I will probably post some standalone stuff. But I’m not done.
So far I still don’t know what I’m doing. I had no intention of this thread being some sort of commentary or review. I intended it to be more of a personal response. It does augment your own reading experience to write about it. So I’m getting something out of it. Others on this forum are doing this. If somebody out there reading this has a favorite book of the Bible don’t hesitate. There’s no grade or test. Just the fun of it. Any thoughtful response is useful.
At the very least I hope to pique interest in this cool old book. Especially when you can read it in Nickelsburg’s terrific translation for $20 – or less. My only advice would be to read it like a fantasy novel. Don’t worry about what it means. Turn your logical brain off and just get into the story. Let it come alive in your imagination and make of it what you will. Then dive into a commentary if you want to pursue it further.
So how terrible it must have been for Enoch to step outside this universe! Past earth. Past heaven. For us moderns even when we reach Outer Space we have the stars and planets before us. But for Enoch this is past all that is. No floor. No ceiling. No horizons.
Wow.
Given timekeeping though recorded genealogies, to an ancient Hebrew this would have been longer than the existence of his universe.
Indeed.
I think one of the hardest things in reading the Bible is trying not to bring our knowledge of the world into it.
It’s not immediately obvious why this should be so. Especially Venus! Was this because of their association with paganism? An interesting mystery.
No kidding. The one easiest to see.
Ok, as I said, before I plunge ahead with the next part of the Book of Enoch – the Parables of Enoch – I’m going to do a few one-off type posts. This was delayed a bit by the recent big goings-on hereabouts but we seem to have passed a hurdle, so on we go…
THE BOOK OF GIANTS
The BoGs is one of those “lost” texts that do not seem to have been directly attached to the Enoch material but were definitely associated with it and, like Enoch, enormously influential for hundreds of years before vanishing through neglect. Fragmentary copies were found at Qumran but it would probably not even be known at all if it had not been added to the canon of a fascinating sect known as the Manicheans.
What survives are the Aramaic fragments from Qumran and fragments from several old Iranian languages (Persian, Parthian, Sogdian) and a language known as Old Turkic. This latter was a Siberian language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It flourished from the 8th to the 13th century. Needless to say we have entered super-specialist territory here and it really increases your respect for the scholars and translators who spend their lives doing the meticulous (and doubtless often frustrating) work on such texts.
Fortunately we have Manichean, Christian and Arabic sources that refer to and in some cases summarize the narrative details of the original. So, even with such fragmentation we have a pretty good idea of what the point of the story was. In the same way that the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36) expands on the narrative in Genesis 6, the BoGs expands on the fate of the offspring of the unholy union between the Watchers and the comely women of earth. As we’ve seen already, these offspring, variously referred to as the nephilim, gibborim, or rephaim, are the Giants.
The original Aramaic version seems almost as old as the Book of the Watchers. It opened with an account of the Watchers’ descent to earth and their interbreeding with human women, and the birth of the Giants. (The Manichean versions open with a prologue that includes the story of Adam & Eve filtered through Manichean cosmology.) In the BoGs we have added details. We learn that the Watcher Shemihazah fathered two sons, Ohyah and Ahyah, and the Watcher Baraq’el had a son named Mahaway. Here as before the Giants went mad and began to slaughter the human race. Humans called on God for help. This is where the story expands.
Ohyah & Ahyah have dreams. Mahaway travels to the realm where Enoch lives and asks him for interpretations. Once again Enoch is the mediator between the human and the divine and between the divine and the fallen ones. In the story there are references to two other giants, Gilgamesh! & Hobabish. What’s fascinating here is that Hobabish is probably a corruption of the name Humbaba, the divine spirit of the forest in the Epic of Gilgamesh. If this is true, that these names refer to Gilgamesh and Humbaba, then this is the only known mention of these epic characters outside of cuneiform writings! (Another interesting factoid is that in some of the original Gilgamesh stories he was described as a giant himself, being the result of a union of a divine mother and human father.) Cunieform had been in decline for almost a millennium and the last writing of which we are aware was in the 1st century CE. But somewhere somehow the memory of Gilgamesh slipped from cuneiform to Aramaic only to be then lost for two thousand years! What else have we lost?
Apparently the book ended with a big battle between angels and Watchers although the true judgement on the Giants appears to be the Flood. Interestingly however there are glimmers of hope. There are obscure references to cities of refuge for the Giants! Manichean versions ended with epilogues that preached their doctrines.
Sooo…if you’re interested in all this stuff, where do you go? I’m glad you asked! What piqued my own interest was the publication earlier this year of ** you do not have permission to see this link ** edited by James Davila and Richard Bauckham. Like volume 1 it’s full of weird and obscure texts that, not being part of the canon, nevertheless float about it through the millennia. Now, given my interests, I pretty much had to get a copy of this here tome. Based on my description I know some others will already know they have to get it. But for those who simply need to know it exists and those who are interested but aren’t sure you need to make the investment, let me describe what you get.
New translations of all the surviving texts accompanied by nice long introductions written by first rate scholars. James Davila writes a introduction to the entire corpus, followed by his own attempt at a reconstructed synopsis. Each translator writes an introduction to his own text. This as close to a critical commentary there will ever be until there is another astonishing find in the desert somewhere.
HOWEVER! When I say the texts are fragmentary I’m not kidding. Representative sample from one of the best preserved fragments of the Aramaic version:
Fragment 1 column i (page 75 in the book)
1. ].[ ].[ ]..[
2. for] a curse and sorrow. I am the one who confessed
3. ]. and the whole house of refuge that I go to him
4. the souls of]ones[ki]lled complaining against their killers and crying out
5. ].t’ that we shall die together and be put to an end
6. ]sp much, and I will sleep, and bread
7. ]ways to my dwelling. The vision and also
8. ]he entered the assembly of the giants
There is obscurity punctuated occasionally by glimpses of sense. The scholars help (a lot!) but just be prepped for what is actually to be had. If you click on the link you can see that a copy of the book is available at a pretty good price as these types of tomes go (and you can find used copies) but I don’t want anyone to be disappointed. You may find the commentary alone worth the price but that’s up to you.
I should end here but I can’t help just a few comments on Manichaeism. Before this I knew of it but not a lot about it. The more I find out the more interesting it gets. The events of the past look so inevitable from a distance but how easily all could have been otherwise! Christians in the west considered it a heresy and when the church was politically able it was forcibly suppressed. It lasted a few centuries longer in the east. But consider this. At the height of its influence from the fifth to the eighth centuries it numbered adherents from Britain to China. It was a major world religion that early on outnumbered Christians and for centuries was a powerful competitor. It combined enthusiastic evangelism and a thoroughgoing syncretism. The best way to illustrate the latter is to contemplate the image of the ** you do not have permission to see this link **. And then ask yourself, what if these folks had won the war of ideas?
Very pleased you’ve begun posting again in this wonderful thread.
HOWEVER! When I say the texts are fragmentary I’m not kidding. Representative sample from one of the best preserved fragments of the Aramaic version:
Fragments are not for the faint of heart.
My only real experience of them is in reading Anne Carson’s ** you do not have permission to see this link **
What has been lost to us through time is immeasurable.
Yeah that Sappho book is heartbreaking. There is just enough left to give you an idea of her brilliance. The other factoid that gives me pause is to be reminded that Sophocles, considered the “Shakespeare” of classical Greece, produced upwards of 200 plays over the course of his lifetime, of which, gulp!, seven, count’em, seven, survive. Think about all those centuries when the Book of Hebrews and the Pastoral Epistles were carefully copied while the work of Sappho and Sophocles was allowed to rot on the shelves.
There is just enough left to give you an idea of her brilliance.
It sparkles and shines. Some of her lines are perhaps the most beautiful I’ve ever read. Of course, a great translator helps – e.g. Poe into French.
Think about all those centuries when the Book of Hebrews and the Pastoral Epistles were carefully copied while the work of Sappho and Sophocles was allowed to rot on the shelves.
Even in my most fervent Bible School days, it was difficult for me to appreciate Hebrews and the Pastoral Epistles, despite being repeatedly told how important they were. I prefer stories over sermons I guess.
Such a shame. All that’s been lost.
one-off type post #2
In this one I discuss the work of scholar Rachel Elior, professor of Jewish Philosophy and Jewish Mystical Thought at Hebrew University, where she is head of the Department of Jewish Thought. So, a biggie in her field! Interestingly, she holds what mainstream scholarship would consider some, well, idiosyncratic views. (One of the few advantages of being a layman is that I am not required to have an opinion on many of these questions. I’m always drawn to interesting ideas so I content myself with trying to understand the arguments. Occasionally I succeed.)
Book in question: ** you do not have permission to see this link **
Ok, the first thing you’ll notice is that this book seems to concern itself with early Jewish mysticism, the Merkabah, and it does! But it is also relevant to the Book of Enoch and the communities that produced it and who made use of it.
In Prof Elior’s view the Essenes, traditionally considered the authors and collectors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose community is supposed to have inhabited Qumran, simply never existed. (She is not alone on this particular point. This has been a fascinating minority view for a while.) Elior suggests that the inhabitants of Qumran were a splinter group of renegade Zadokite priests, banished from management of the Jerusalem Temple.
Now if you know your biblical history (and who doesn’t?) Zadok was the first High Priest of the Temple of Jerusalem after Solomon completed it. Zadok had been an ally of David during Absalom’s revolt and a loyal supporter of Solomon’s ascent to the throne. Zadok claimed direct descent from Eleazar, son of Aaron (you know, brother of Moses, golden calf, etc). According to the Hebrew scriptures Aaron was bestowed an exclusive, perpetual covenant by which only his descendants could function as priests.
But nothing ever goes quite as planned, right? The Zadokites maintained the high priesthood continuously until the Hasmonean revolt of the 160s, BCE. The Hasmoneans rebelled against the Hellenization of Israel at sword-point by the Seleucid Greeks. They “liberated” the land and “purified” the Temple, and wouldn’t you know, decided to supply their own chosen priests to manage it. Prof Elior’s view is that the Qumran community originated with a group of dissident Zadokite priests, who escaped Jerusalem with their extensive library. The Hasmoneans were simply considered usurpers and the Qumran community expected the eventual restoration of the Zadokites to their rightful position.
So what does this have to do with the Book of Enoch, or the Merkabah movement for that matter? Prof Elior interprets the controversies we’ve seen between the composers of the Book of Enoch and the “official” Temple cult as reflective of the argument between the Zadokites and the Hasmonaeans. (It does provide a ready explanation for the obvious popularity of the Book of Enoch at Qumran.)
Merkabah? Well the Hekhalot literature and Merkabah movement originated as a response to the Zadokite’s lack of success in restoration of their power. They turned to an inner mystical Temple and sought fulfillment of the priestly promises in mystical transcendence. Final fulfilment would come in the Kingdom with the descent of the Heavenly Temple to earth.
This is without a doubt an absorbing account, but should we take it seriously? All I can report is, while Prof Elior has her supporters, she has also drawn a veritable sh…, uh, bucketload of criticism from other other equally well-known scholars. Her view is definitely a minority opinion, as I said.
Anyway if any of this stuff strikes your fancy, add this book to your list. It all tends to make modern fantasy and science fiction novels seem an awfully thin porridge.
one-off post #3
Did Mt Arbel once house an Essene community?
Many scholars locate the composition of the (1st) Book of Enoch in Galilee. The narrative constantly refers to areas and sites known to history located in both Upper and Lower Galilee. The foundational text, the Book of the Watchers, is set around Mt Hermon and the waters of Dan (Tel Dan). Holy sites like Mt Hermon and Mt Arbel are presented as alternatives to the temple Cult in Jerusalem for access to divine realms. Angels descended there, Enoch received visions there, and these places served as embarkation points for Enoch’s cosmic journeys.
I’ve been reading a series of papers by scholar John Ben-Daniel, who suggests that there was a community of Essenes or Essene-like groups who lived at various times in caves at Mt Arbel in the Lower Galilee. A sort of Galilean Qumran. The implications are fascinating. And certain questions naturally spring to mind. Could this situation have influenced the ideas and ministry of a certain fairly well-known itinerant apocalyptic prophet?
We’ve known about the caves of Mt Arbel for a long while. Josephus mentions them. The caves were considered places of refuge, used to escape in times of war. However, archeologists have discovered evidence that they were occupied continuously over various periods of time in their history. At these times somebody didn’t just hide there. They lived there. Archeologists have found evidence of mikva’ot and cisterns consistent with Essene practice. What is lacking are any textual remains like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also, it doesn’t help that the area was used as a Muslim fortress and much of the original structure was destroyed.
Ok, while absorbed by the idea, obviously I’m not competent to have an opinion, so I am just going to include some links for anyone who is interested in digging a bit deeper. (I already warned you folks about the puns.)
** you do not have permission to see this link **
** you do not have permission to see this link **
** you do not have permission to see this link **
** you do not have permission to see this link **
and here is Ben-Daniel’s book from 2023 available for free download online with his permission –
** you do not have permission to see this link **
This is such a neat idea that it’s tempting to go all in but other hypothetical Essene type sites have been identified over the years and have come under scrutiny and skepticism by scholars. So, I need to see some critical response to this idea before I’m convinced. Jodi Magness, who has posted at this very site, a staunch defender of the Qumran-Essene connection against folks like Rachel Elior (see above), has been one of the skeptics but I haven’t seen her take on this specific claim.
one off post #4
Who was Cain’s Wife?
One of the cliched skeptical arguments against interpreting the Bible literally has always been the question of Cain’s wife in Genesis chapter 4. If the only humans alive at the time were Adam, Eve, and their murderous son, where the heck did Cain’s wife come from? As usual with these texts there’s a much more interesting story hiding behind the surface narrative.
In the narrative after Cain kills Abel, he is exiled to the land of Nod, famously to the East of Eden. There he takes a wife and has descendants, nomads and farmers, musicians, and workers of metal, who survive to thrive unto the author’s present day. But then there is an interesting and somewhat perplexing verse.
Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, because Cain killed him.” To Seth also a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to invoke the name of the Lord. -4, 26-27.
I am reliably informed that the clear implication of the Hebrew is that Seth was Adam and Eve’s next son after the death of Abel. Seth is Abel’s replacement. Apparently there were no other children after Abel’s death until the birth of Seth. One of the explanations usually offered for the identity of Cain’s wife is that she was a previously unnamed sister, born of Eve. (Apparently incest is sometimes necessary, ouch!) But this contradicts the tenor of the narrative. So, where did Cain’s wife come from?
There is another problem. As I said the implication is that Cain’s ancestors survive in the author’s own day. But, if the Flood narrated in Genesis 6–9 wiped out all humanity except Noah and his family (descendants of Seth remember!), wouldn’t Cain’s line have been completely wiped out?
And there other strange hints. I have discussed before how the descendants of the Nephilim, the Giants, appear much later in the Conquest narrative. How did they survive the Flood?
Originally in the account of the fall of the Watchers in the Book of Enoch humans were victims of the errant divine beings. Only later were the human women blamed for their wiles in attracting their notice. But the Flood is ultimately blamed on the sins of humans. Why would you wipe out the entre human race for the sins of the Watchers?
It is a scholarly commonplace that chapters one and two of Genesis were written at different times and places and edited together in the full composed narrative of Genesis. But it also appears that chapters four and five came from a different source than chapters 6-9.
Sooo…what we seem to have here is an older narrative tradition that did not know of a Flood. Scholars posit an “original” primeval history that focused on human frailty and cultural expansion rather than on a calamitous divine judgment. The Flood story was added later under the influence of popular Mesopotamian epics like Atrahasis and Gilgamesh and the Genesis narrative absorbed the pre-existing creation-rebellion-flood template. And sure enough, if you pull out chapters 6-9 the narrative still flows rather smoothly.
And the most impressive Flood that the eastern shore of the Mediterranean would have experienced would have been before there were Homo Sapiens to witness to it, when the Mediterranean reflooded after the time that it dried out … while the most impressive flood in lower Mesopotamia would have been the flooding of the Persian Gulf which was during prehistory but was occurring during the development of agriculture in Mesopotamia, allowing for the passage of a Flood narrative both from the handing down of evolving traditions, but also the physical evidence of flooded ruins of early towns and cities.
And of course there are multiple attestations to flood narratives from lower Mesopotamia.
So a flood narrative coming from lower Mesopotamia into the coastal and hill country of the Eastern Mediterranean would not be all that surprising.
one off post #5
I have mentioned the ** you do not have permission to see this link ** briefly before. It is an annual conclave of scholars and specialists devoted to issues surrounding the study of the Enochian material. It’s been going since 2001. Fortunately for those of us who are interested but not scholars there is an ever expanding output of materials associated with the seminar. This now includes videos on YouTube! Here are some representative examples –
** you do not have permission to see this link ** At the end is a brief but interesting discussion of genre issues.
The theme of the meeting this past June was “Reading the New Testament Within Judaism”.
** you do not have permission to see this link **
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Aside from hearing current scholars discussing current issues it’s also at the least very interesting to see what these folks actually look like. Once I’ve properly digested (translation: multiple viewings) the Mark video I might start a separate thread.
one off post #6
The interesting case of Prof Michael Heiser (1963 – 2023).
I first became aware of Prof Heiser’s work several years ago through his vigorous online critique of pseudoscientific Ancient Astronaut claims, especially the still popular (alas) work of Zechariah Sitchin. It became clear that Heiser had the academic credentials and knew the ancient languages (achievements denied poor, clueless Sitchin). What also became clear is that for someone so trained, he retained some idiosyncratic views of his own.
Back in 2015 Heiser published a book, ** you do not have permission to see this link **, aimed at an evangelical popular audience, designed to explain the Ancient Near Eastern context of the stories in the Old Testament. He used his academic expertise to introduce such concepts as the Divine Council and the Elohim. The book was and remains quite controversial among evangelicals although much of it would be considered old hat in a historical/critical context.
What’s unusual is that Heiser was virtually a fundamentalist himself. Now there is nothing new about Christian scholars who make use of historical/critical methodology. But Heiser rejected the clear consensus of mainstream scholarship that Hebrew religion sprang from a wider culture of polytheism. And even though the stories in the OT of the Watchers and Noah’s Flood had ancient literary precursors, he believed they described historic events.
So at times Heiser caught it from both ends. He alienated himself from mainstream scholarship as a result of his religious commitments but the evangelical community often rejected his recourse to the results of academic historical/critical study. (“Liberal” scholarship!)
I was sorry to hear that he succumbed to pancreatic cancer back in 2023. Heiser remains an interesting figure. His use of scholarship to devastate the claims of the “Annunaki” alien goofball community is excellent. But it is sad that his religious commitments prevented him from following the evidence of scholarship to its logical conclusions.
If anyone is interested enough to pursue the matter, by all means read the book. It’s been updated recently to include some of the critical apparatus available at his website, ** you do not have permission to see this link **. The descriptor paleobabble is well worth stealing.
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