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By Enoch Circles scholars denotes the community or communities behind the composition of the Enoch literature. There is some consensus today among specialists that the Enoch texts testify to the existence of a "distinctive" variety of apocalyptic Judaism (Sacchi 1996; Boccaccini 1998; Jackson 2004; Collins 2007b, 2011). 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 place, by real human people" (Nickelsburg 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). It is therefore appropriate 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).

The texts themselves, through the repeated use of collective terms, seem to indicate a growing consciousness of community. The Book of the Watchers refers to "the plant of righteousness" (1 En 10:16); the Apocalypse of Weeks to “the chosen righteous from the chosen plant of righteousness” (93:10). In the Animal Apocalypse there are "lambs, whose eyes were opened" (90:6). In the Parables it is said that "(the kings and the mighty) persecute the houses of his congregation and the faithful who depend on the Lord of the Spirits" (1 En 46:8). The self-identification of these communities with "the poor" and the oppressed is consistent with the deprecatory references to the well-to-do and the landowners in the later Enoch literature, confirming that this was indeed among the most distinctive identity marks of those circles. More difficult is to speculate about the origins of these groups and in particular about a possible priestly origins of these circles as suggested by some scholars (Boccaccini 2002; Macaskill 2007).

Enoch circles interacted with other groups. A close relationship between the Essenes and the Enochic circles is widely recognized, yet has been variedly interpreted (Boccaccini 2005). While any identification between the community of Qumran and the Enoch circles should be 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, 2007a). Even closer appears the contiguity between the Enoch circles and the earliest Jesus movement, as it is apparent that (at least) some of early followers of Jesus were familiar with Enochic texts and ideas (Nickelsburg 2012, 70-75; Stuckenbruck-Boccaccini 2016).

The only explicit geographical reference in the Enoch literature other than to Jerusalem is to the Upper Galilee in the Book of the Watchers. This reference in itself is not conclusive as to link the presence of the Enoch circles to that specific territory in the land of Israel (Nickelsburg, 2012, 66). There are however numerous elements that points to a possible Galilean setting of the movement (Aviam 2013), which would be highly suggestive especially for its implication for Christian origins (Nickelsburg 1981; Charlesworth 2013),

In sum, the existence of Enoch circles promoting Enochic Judaism as a distinctive form of apocalyptic Judaism in the Second Temple period seems to be firmly established as well as the identity of their members as a Jewish sect who felt marginalized and oppressed and was driven by eschatological expectations. The sociological structure and the geographical setting of these circles, however, still remain largely elusive.

Bibliography:

• Aviam, Mordechai (2013). "The Book of Enoch and the Galilean Archaeology and Landscape," in James H. Charlesworth and Darrell Bock, eds. Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift (London and New York: Bloomsbury), pp. 159-170.
• Boccaccini, Gabriele (1998). Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans)
• Boccaccini, Gabriele (2002). Roots of Rabbinic Judaism: An Intellectual History, from Ezekiel to Daniel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans).
• Boccaccini, Gabriele (2007). "Enochians, Urban Essenes, Qumranites: Three Social Groups,One Intellectual Movement," in Gabriele Boccaccini, and John J. Collins, eds. (2007), The Early Enoch Literature (Leiden Brill), pp. 301-27.
• Boccaccini, Gabriele, ed. (2005). Enoch and Qumran Origins (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans).
• Boccaccini, Gabriele and John J. Collins, eds. (2005). The Early Enoch Literature (Leiden: Brill)
• Charlesworth, James H. (2013). "Did Jesus Know the Traditions in the Parables of Enoch?," in James H. Charlesworth and Darrell Bock, eds. Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift (London and New York: Bloomsbury), pp. 173-217.
• Collins, John J. (2007a). "Enochic Judaism and the Sect of the Dead Sea Scrolls," in Gabriele Boccaccini, and John J. Collins, eds. (2007), The Early Enoch Literature (Leiden Brill), pp.283-299.
• Collins, John J. (2007b). "How Distinctive was Enochic Judaism?", in: Meghillot - Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls V-VI, pp. 17-34
• Collins, John J. (2011). "Enochic Judaism: An Assessment," in AThe Dead Sea Scrolls and Contemporary Culture: Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (July 6-8, 2008). Edited by Adolfo D. Roitman, Lawrence H. Schiffman, and Shani Tzoref (Leiden: Brill)
• Goodman, Martin (2000). "Josephus and Variety in First-Century Judaism," Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities 7.6, pp. 201-213.
• Jackson, David (2004). Enochic Judaism: Three Defining Paradigm Exemplars (London: T&T Clark International).
• Kvanvig, Helge S. (2005). "Jubilees-Read as Narrative," in Boccaccini, ed. (2005), pp. 75-83.
• Macaskill, Grant (2007). "Priestly Purity, Mosaic Torah and the Emergence of Enochic Judaism", Henoch 29.1, pp. 67-89
• Nickelsburg, George W.E. (1981). "Enoch, Levi, and Peter: Recipients of Revelation in Upper Galilee," Journal of Biblical Literature, 100.4, pp. 575-600
• Nickelsburg, George W.E. (2001). First Enoch 1 (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress)
• Nickelsburg, George W.E. and James C. VanderKam (2012). First Enoch 2 (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress)
• Sacchi, Paolo (1996). Jewish Apocalyptic and Its History (Sheffield: Academic Press)
• Stuckenbruck, Loren T. and Gabriele Boccaccini, eds. (2016). Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels: Reminiscences, Allusions, Intertextuality (Atlanta: SBL Press)

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