Project:About

Following the recommendations of the general assembly of the Enoch Seminar at Naples in June 2009, Gabriele Boccaccini agreed to share the results of 20 years of work on the history of research on Second Temple Judaism in scholarship and the arts, so that the information he collected could become the core of an Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism.

The name 4 Enoch was chosen as a tribute to the ancient patriarch who has become the symbol of our common goal to tear down the canonical, linguistic and religious walls of separation that in the past have largely divided our field of research. The wish is to provide common ground for scholars all around the world to share the results of their research and listen to each other and to the voices from the past and make it easier to specialists and students to navigate in a field that is becoming more and more complex and fragmented in different subfields of specialization.

The Encyclopedia includes information not only about scholarship but also about fiction. As the period of both Christian and Rabbinic Origins, Second Temple Judaism has attracted the attention not only of scholars but also of artists, who have created works of art that have profoundly affected our understanding of the period and have often anticipated, or interacted with, scholarly developments.

At first, hundreds and hundreds of entries are being created for each scholar or author who wrote about the period, and for each scholarly or fictional work dealing with the period. Entries will be then added about ancient documents from Second Temple Judaism, historical or fictional characters, historical events, archeological sites, etc. Finally, articles will be written about major topics in the study of Second Temple Jewish thought.

The choice of the wiki program signals the willingness to pursue a truly collective enterprise, to which scholars and students from all around the world could contribute. While there are no limitations in the consultation of the Encyclopedia, the writing is restricted to international scholars, PhD students and members of the Enoch Seminar (who are invited to register under their own name and adhere to the instructions and editing rules). Major articles will be signed by their author(s).