Difference between revisions of "Category:Enochic Studies--1950s"

Józef T. Milik

Erling Hammershaimb

In 1951 a dramatic announcement shook the world of Enochic Studies. Józef T. Milik confirmed the presence at Qumran of Aramaic fragments from all Enoch booklets except the Parables. The rediscovery of significant portions of the original text was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of research even though in the immediate it resulted into a major setback. Twenty-five years would pass from that dramatic announcement to the actual publication of the Aramaic Enoch fragments. For all those years, 1 Enoch was in limbo. A few new translations appeared in the 1950s, one in Danish (1956), and two in Hebrew (1956, 1958). Waiting for the actual publication of the Aramaic texts was necessary—it was simply a matter of good sense.

On the other hand, the study of 2 Enoch had a major development with the publication in 1952 of the edition by Vaillant.

In popular culture, ancient esoteric traditions about the existence of a primeval (Enochic) wisdom were combined with the new "science" of ufology reviving the genre of "Fantastic Archaeology" and pushing it to unprecedented levels of popularity.