Twelfth Enoch Seminar (2023 online), conference

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TITLE (tentative): "Enoch Studies in the 2020s"

FORMAT: online

DATE: June 19-22, 2023

DESCRIPTION: The conference will focus on the work of scholars who have done new work on 1 Enoch. In other words, after an opening session in which we should grant a second round of "Enoch Seminar Life Achievement Awards", we will devote one hour to the work of each scholars, witha 15-20 min presentation followed by a panel of 2-3 respondents plenty of time for discussion. At the end we conclude with a wrap-up session.

Schedule (EST Time)

Day 1

9am-11am Opening Session

11:30am-1:30pm

2:30-4:30pm

or 9:15-10:30 -- 10:45-12 // 2:00-3:15 -- 3:30-4:45

Day 2

9am-11am

11:30am-1:30pm

2:30-4:30pm

Day 3

9am-11am

11:30am-1:30pm

2:30-4:30pm -- Wrap-up session

Participants

Confirmed speakers

  • 1. Loren Stuckenbruck, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany (*)
  • 2. Kelley Coblentz Bautch, St. Edward's University, USA (*)
  • 4. Arjen Bakker, University of Groningen, NL (*)
  • 5. Daniel Schumann, University of Tuebingen, Germany -- "Making Sense of Silence: How to Read the Lack of Covenantal Terminology in Enochic Literature in a 3rd and 2nd Century BCE Judean Context" (Schumann) -- "In my paper, I will investigate the intertwined concepts of covenant and election in Deutero-Isaiah (Is 65), the Enochic corpus (1 En 1:3.8; 93:2), and the Damascus Document (CD A 3:1–20). I will show that the lack of any mention of the covenant of God with his people in 1 Enoch reflects inner-Jewish tensions between different priestly and apocalyptic-oriented groups in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. As a result, the authors of the Book of Watchers (1 En 1-36) and the Epistle of Enoch (92-105) separate Israel into a small remnant of righteous people on the one hand, and a majority of sinners on the other, thus focusing on the election of a small group and its individuals instead of Israel as a covenantal people."
  • 6. Logan Williams, University of Exeter, UK (*)
  • 7. Fiodar Litvinau, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany -- "Reception of Hellenistic Traditions in Jewish Pseudepigrapha: Examples from 1 Enoch 69:8 and Apocalypse of Abraham 5" (Litvinau) -- The paper will explore the reception of the Greek mythological traditions in the Jewish pseudepigraphic compositions using the examples of 1 En. 69:8 and Apoc. Ab. 5. The first example, 1 En. 69:8 contains a tradition according to which the angel Penemue taught humans how to write. The composition, surprisingly, regards it critically, similarly to the negative attitude to the invention of the alphabet in the myth preserved in Plato, Phaedrus 274c–275b. The second example is found in the story of burning of the image of god Barisat in Apoc. Ab. 5, which appears to be reworked version of the Greek anecdote, connected with the figure of Diagoras (and other philosophers), who burned the image of Heracles in order to cook a meal. The paper will explore the process of appropriation and application of the Hellenistic traditions in a new context, focusing on the transformations and theological interests of the Jewish writers of the Second Temple Period.
  • 8. Mark Leuchter, Temple University, PA, USA -- "Breaking Ground: Reconstituting Geomythology in the Earliest Enochian Discourses" (Leuchter) -- While there is broad scholarly agreement that the majority of material in 1 Enoch 1-36 formed against the background of Greek imperialism, an increasing number of researchers have proposed that the Shemihaza-Asael narrative in 1 Enoch 6-11 derives from the Achaemenid Era. These chapters contain a variety of challenges to Achaemenid conventions, including a reaction to the crumbling of imperial geographic hierarchies as the Achaemenid empire met its sudden death. The Shemihaza-Asael narrative addresses the implications of a disrupted Achaemenid geomythology, with its closing chapter/s taking up motifs from a much earlier Israelite mythology of landscape/netherworld long pre-dating the rise of Persia. This carries implications for discerning some additional points of contact between 1 Enoch 1-36 and the Pentateuch. But it also points to developing understandings of landscapes, the netherworld, and mantic scribalism standing at the nexus between them.
  • 9. Henryk Drawnel, University of Lublin, Poland (*) hdrawnel@yahoo.com
  • 10. Jonathan Ben-Dov, Tel-Aviv University, Israel (*)
  • 11. Joshua Scott


  • 13. Jolyon Pruszinski, Princeton University, USA (*) <jolyonp@princeton.edu> <jolyon.pruszinski@gmail.com>
  • 14. Alexander McCarron (*)
  • 15. Dan Machiela, University of Notre Dame, USA -- "Enoch versus Moses or Enoch plus Moses? A view from the developing corpus of early Jewish Aramaic literature" (Machiela) -- "The relationship of Enoch and Moses has grown into a lively topic of discussion in reconstructions of ancient Jewish thought, with opinions ranging from significant friction between the two figures and their respective "judaisms" (Enochic and Mosaic) to the absence of any opposition at all. In this paper, I take up the question of how Enoch and Moses might relate in early Judaism from the perspective of a developing corpus of Jewish Aramaic literature dating to the late Persian and Hellenistic periods, of which the Enochic writings were part. Drawing on a number of interrelated works from this corpus, I suggest that Enoch and Moses are understood to be complementary figures, with Moses and the Torah he received at Sinai contributing to a stream of revealed wisdom that begins with Enoch."
  • 16. Mjriam Bokhorst, University of Halle, Germany (*)
  • 17. Elena Dugan, Phillips Academy Andover, USA -- "New Philology and the Discovery of New Works: Enoch in the First-Century CE" (Dugan) -- Scholars working on fragmentary, damaged, or incomplete manuscripts are often bound to perform some degree of restoration—but how much? And to which imagined ‘whole’ do we affix our fragments? This talk will explore 1 Enoch as an exploration into how New/Material Philology can illuminate negative space in our archive of ancient literature. New Philology can guide scholars towards new clarity in describing and accounting for what is present in our manuscripts, and even more crucially, what is not. By not assuming an absolute presence of a certain work in every document, we can let attention to the phenomenon of absence open the way to newly dynamic stories of the evolution and development of ancient literature. In this case, new recognition of patterns of absence from our earliest manuscripts will clear the way for a new hypothesis: the re-dating of a crucial part of 1 Enoch to the heady early days of the first Jewish Revolt, and the tumultuous environs of the first-century CE.
  • 18. Philip Esler, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK (pesler@gos.ac.uk) -- "Heaven in 1 Enoch 1-36 as a Royal Court" -- The standard interpretation of heaven in 1 Enoch 1-36 is that it is presented as a temple with the Watchers as priests. This paper will argue for an alternative view, that the source domain for the metaphorical structure that is the Enochic heaven is the royal court and courtiers of ancient near eastern and hellenistic kingdoms. Having highlighted problems with the current view, I will propose Norbert Elias’ The Court Society as offering pertinent sociological perspectives on the nature of royal courts that are readily comparable with the ancient phenomena (as classicists have argued). The paper will then explore significant points of comparison between this sociology of courts and courtiers and the picture of heaven in 1 Enoch 1-36. Central issues addressed will be the the picture of God in splendid seclusion, the widespread use of the language of petition, the secession of the Watchers as rebellion by courtiers against their king, the architecture of heaven (noting the parallels with the Achaemenid capital at Pasargadae) and the depiction of Enoch as a sage in a royal court. The result of this analysis is to suggest tension existed between the Enochic scribes and the temple and to situate them as working within Israelite tradition while being familiar, possibly through personal experience, with the functioning of ancient near eastern and hellenistic monarchies, especially the courts and courtiers at their heart."
  • 19. Ariel Hessayon, University of London, UK (*)
  • 20. Helen Jacobus, University of Manchester, UK (*) -- “The Books of Enoch as vehicles of the circulation of the zodiac between Hellenistic and Byzantine Egypt and Late Roman and Byzantine Palestine” (Jacobus) -- This paper argues that the Greek fragments of the Book of Enoch, known from Akhmim (Panopolis), and Oxyrhynchus, which includes part of the Book of Luminaries and the Aramaic Astronomical Book, may reflect a long-term process of circulation of astronomical knowledge between Egypt and Palestine. The suggestion follows this author’s research in progress that the depictions of the zodiac on some mosaic floors of Late Roman and Byzantine-period synagogues in Palestine are paralleled in zodiacal iconography in a number of private Roman tomb ceilings and coffin lids from first and second century CE Roman Egypt. Some mosaic artists from Egypt worked in Palestine and there were strong connections between the countries. However, similarities between the Egyptian zodiacs executed in the Greco-Roman style, including iconography in tombs from Akhmim, and several zodiac wheels on the floors of Late Roman and Byzantine synagogues centuries apart have not been explained. There is also a connection between an early Ptolemaic zodiacal calendar and the “synchronistic calendar” in the Aramaic Astronomical Book. Intellectual links with the different Books of Enoch, common origins in Mesopotamian astronomy, and the diachronic standardization of Greco-Roman-Egyptian zodiacal art probably account for this close connection.
  • 21. Daniele Minisini, University of Rome, Italy (*)
  • 22. Ariel Feldman, Brite Divinity School. -- “Cleanse the Earth from All Impurity (1 En. 10:20, 22)”: Restoring Earth’s Purity in Early Jewish Traditions on the Flood" -- "Taking 1 En. 10:20, 22 as its point of departure, this paper considers Early Jewish texts depicting Noah’s Flood as earth’s purification. It next seeks to place this view of the Flood vis-à-vis a tradition embedded in Jubilees and Genesis Apocryphon wherein Noah atones for the earth after the Flood by means of a sacrifice. The paper further suggests that Genesis Apocryphon, being aware of both traditions, implicitly argues for the priority of the latter view."
  • 23. Michael Langlois
  • 24. Daniel Assefa
  • 25. Ida Fröhlich, PPCU Budapest, Hungary -- THE STORY OF THE WATCHERS (1EN 6-11): A NEW APPROACH -- "The narrative of 1En 6-11 is an aetiological myth of physical evil coming upon man in the form of evil spirits. The tradition of the Watchers is referred to in several Qumran texts intended to provide protection against evil spirits. Scholarly explanations claimed to discover social phenomena behind the tradition. The story can be best explained in the context of the Enochic collection. The Introduction (1En 1-5) claims the Fallen Watchers as a negative example of those "who change their works." A positive example is given the Astronomical book (1En 72-82) in the figure of the Holy Watchers who do not change their works and represent the system of a 364-day ideal solar calendar, with equinoxes and solstices as corner points. This calendar is consistent with that used by other Qumran texts (Jubilees, the Temple Scroll, and 4QMMT). It is generally accepted that the basis of this system is a 360-day zodiac calendar, represented by the Mesopotamian compendium MUL.APIN. This calendar served as a basis for the practice of astral magic, a paradigm shift and scientific revolution in Mesopotamia at the end of the 7th century. Astral magic was the basis of the sciences, above all healing practice (melothesia). Some Qumran Aramaic astronomical texts (4Q208-209) are related to Babylonian magico-hemerological texts (Helen Jacobus). It can be assumed that their authors and their environment were also familiar with the ideas of astral magic about the properties of the stars. The presentation aims at discussing the narrative of 1En 6-11 as a myth on the origin of physical evil shaped in metaphors related to the concepts of astral magic. In this way, the 364-day year can be interpreted as a counter-tradition to the zodiac calendar, and the basis of a different world interpretation and healing practice."


  • 26. Matthew Goff
  • 27. Archie Wright


ENOCH AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

  • 3. Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan, USA -- "Paul and Enoch: A Direct Connection?" (Boccaccini)
  • 12. Ruben Bühner, University of Tuebingen, Germany (*) <r.buehner@uni-tuebingen.de> -- “Divine Essence and Divine Relations. The Relation Between the Messiah and other Divine Beings in the Parables of Enoch and in Revelation 4-5" (Bühner) -- The Early Jewish worldview considered that there were many different heavenly beings besides the one God. In the past, scholars have often struggled to find criteriological features or a clear terminology by which to rank among those various heavenly beings. Especially when comparing New Testament views on Jesus with other and earlier messianic hopes scholars have focused on categories like „human,“ „angel“ or „divine.“ Yet, such approaches fail, since they do not account for the different concepts of „divinity“ between early Judaism and later Christianity especially in the Western world. With respect to the elect son of man in the Parables of Enoch as well as the portrayal of Christ in Revelation 4-5 it can be demonstrated, that what makes a heavenly being „divine“ depends less on specific features or his essence, i.e. being an angel, human or something in between. Rather, what matters is how a figure is portrayed in relation to other celestial beings.”


Reception History

  • 28. Ralph Lee -- "Christian Commentary on 1Enoch: The Gunda Gunde Commentary" -- This paper seeks to develop our understanding of 1Enoch and its Christian commentary developed in Ethiopia. Although there no known sources of great antiquity, the manuscript evidence shows that reflection on 1Enoch had developed well by the 16th century, although the commentary focusses on certain portions of the book: the Book of Watchers, sections from the Book of Parables, the Astronomical Book, some sections of the Book of Dreams, and the Apocalypse of Weeks. Very significant in the extant Gǝʿǝz commentary is that found in the monastery of Gunda Gunde in two 16th century manuscripts. This commentary again only comments on portions of the text, very briefly and in four sections, which match well the commentary found throughout the extant literature. As the only known commentary on 1Enoch as a whole this commentary represents an important summary of how 1Enoch was used as part of the corpus of books in the EOTC. This paper seeks to explore in detail aspects of this commentary on the four ‘visions’ that are in , 1Enoch 1:3-11:2; 39:3-53:1; 70:1-70:3; and 82:4-91:16, seeking to understand the way in which 1Enoch is used in relation to other literature in Ethiopia’s biblical corpus.
  • 29. Anne Kreps, University of California-Santa Cruz, USA -- The “Lost” Book of Enoch and Christian Vernacular Fundamentalism -- Robert Glenn Howard coined the phrase “Christian Vernacular Fundamentalism” to describe a cultural discourse emerging with the dawn of the internet that focused on linking end time prophecy to specific historical events. Such discussions occurred on early internet message boards and apart from the mainstream evangelical churches, who avoid literal predictions of the end times in the wake of past failures. Without institutional support, the discussions themselves become sacred acts, which Howard called “ritual deliberation.” This paper examines current digital ritual deliberations about the end of days. It studies social media platforms devoted to such discussions. Unlike the apocalyptic message boards of the nineties, these groups reach for the Book of Enoch to discern the schedule of the end times and identify the major players of the apocalypse. For instance, ritual deliberation about the identity of the beast and its mark is mediated by 1 Enoch’s narrative of the fallen angels. The beast and mark are not linked to a specific person or visible sign. Instead, the beast comes to symbolize a spiritual movement at large, and the mark invisible—a vaccine, a microchip, or perhaps even a microchip delivered by vaccine. Such a reading is a collision of hermeneutics—ancient and modern—and conspiratorial fantasies about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Influenced by the idea of 1 Enoch as a ‘lost’ book of the Bible, modern readers study the text as a suppressed of hidden wisdom that solves biblical mysteries once and for all. For some, the ancient sectarian community associated with the DSS even offers a model for modern sectarian action. Their readings of 1 Enoch thus offer a glimpse into political discord in the United States. At the same time, by spiritualizing the beast and his mark, these readers can maintain an eschatological discourse of literal predictions without being beholden to a timeline and the possibility of prophetic failure.



Confirmed participants

  • Daniel Assefa
  • Kenneth Atkinson
  • Al Baumgarten
  • Gabriele Boccaccini
  • Kelly Coblentz Bautch
  • John Collins
  • Paula Fredriksen
  • David Hamidovic
  • Angela Harkins
  • Michael Langlois
  • Jim McGrath
  • Hindy Najman
  • Adele Reinhartz
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