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Enochic Judaism

Enoch Circles denotes the community or communities behind the composition of the Enoch literature. Many scholars agree that the Enoch texts testify to the existence of a "distinctive" variety of apocalyptic Judaism (Collins 2007). More controversial is to identify the sociological group (or groups) who produced such literature. On one hand, it is "unwarranted and misleading" to treat texts as if they correspond to separate groups (Goodman 2000). On the other hand, "texts are historical artifacts, created in time and pace, by real human people" (Nickesburg 2001). Since texts attributed to Enoch were composed during the entire Second Temple Period (from the end of the 4th century BCE to the 1st century CE) and each of them refers to the previous ones, it seems reasonable to infer that where there is "a family of books" there was also a "family of people" (Kvanvig 2005). Although providing very little information about an Enochic community, the repeated use of collective terms, like the righteous, the chosen, seems to indicate a consciousness of community. It is therefore appropriate - concludes Nickelsburg - to speak of a "community or communities who believed that their possession of the divinely given wisdom contained in the Enochic texts, constituted them as the eschatological community of the chosen, who are awaiting the judgment and the consummation of the end time" (Nickelsburg 2001, 64).

Some hints to the sociological composition of the Enoch circles is given by their self-identification with "the poor" and the oppressed and their deprecatory references to the well-to-do and the landowners.

Priestly element

The contiguity between the Essene and the Enochic thought has been variedly interpreted. While an identification between the community of Qumran and the Enoch circles has been excluded, some see evidence of a particularly close connection between Enoch circles with the urban Essenes (Boccaccini, 2007), some prefer to talk of the Enoch circles as completely autonomous apocalyptic groups which were among those who influenced the development of the Essene movement (Collins, 2007). Even closer appears the contiguity between the Enoch circles and the earliest Jesus circles, even though it seems difficult to

Even more

The hypothesis Location in Galilee (Suter, Nickelsburg, Charlesworth)

If then the existence of Enoch circles very little can be said about their sociological, geografical

Overview

References (articles)

• "The Enochic Pentateuch" / G.H. Dix / In: JTS 27 (1926) 29-42

• "Enochism, Qumranism and apocalyptic: Some Thoughts on a Recent book / Paolo Sacchi / In: Henoch 20.3 (1998) 357-365

• "Qumran Origins: Some Remarks on the Enochic/Essene Hypothesis" / Wido Th. van Peursen / In: Revue de Qumran 20.2 (2001) 241-253

• "Enoch e le origini qumraniche: dibattito attorno a un libro" / Claudio Gianotto (ed.) / In: Rivista Biblica 52.2 (2004) 183-194 // A conversation among William Adler, James C. Vanderkam, and Benjamin G. Wright, with a response by Gabriele Boccaccini

• "Qumran and the Enoch Groups: Revisiting the Enochic-Essene Hypothesis" / Gabriele Boccaccini / In: The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2006 Charlesworth), edited volume 37-66

• "Priestly Purity, Mosaic Torah and the Emergence of Enochic Judaism" / Grant Macaskill / In: Henoch 29.1 (2007) 67-89 // Macaskill argues that Enochic Judaism emerged (in the 4th or 3rd cent. BCE) in response to the intermarriage of priests and did not view the Mosaic Torah as a competing tradition.

• "How Distinctive was Enochic Judaism?" / John J. Collins / In: Meghillot - Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls V-VI (2007) 17-34

• "Zadokite Judaism, Enochic Judaism und Qumran: zur aktuellen Diskussion um G. Boccaccinis Beyond the Essene Hypothesis / Matthias Albani / In: Apokalyptik und Qumran (2007) 85-101

• "1 Enoch--Complementary or Alternative to Mosaic Torah?" / Paul Heger / In: JSJ 41 (2010) 29-62

External links