New Book on Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels

[Secret Alias]

https://www.amazon.com/Enoch-Synoptic-G ... 0884141179

"The Jesus movement was not an Enochic movement but an outgrowth of the Enochic movement. The Synoptics are not Enochic texts but an answer to an Enochic problem" (Boccaccini, p.167).

[toejam]

Oohhh... Looks good. I like Boccaccini.

[MrMacSon]

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It's a collection of essays: papers given at the 2013 Enoch Seminar conference.

Commentary here - http://www.patheos.com/blogs/atheology/ ... l-gospels/ -

This is the first volume to collect some of the papers given at the 2013 Enoch Seminar conference, and is to be followed next year by the volume The Early Enoch Tradition and the Synoptic Gospels. The focus of these volumes is, as the titles suggest, the influence of the book of Enoch (aka 1 Enoch) on the gospels of the New Testament—particularly the first three; the Synoptic gospels ...


...But we know for certain that 1 Enoch was well-known, for example, among the various groups represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls; and more importantly that it also influenced the individuals and authors of the New Testament.

It’s explicitly quoted in the New Testament epistle of Jude, (1:14-15); and there’s also a non-explicit quotation, or quasi-quotation, in Matthew 22:13 (on this, see my recent comment here, which heavily draws on Joseph Verheyden’s essay “Evidence of 1 Enoch 10:4 in Matthew 22:13?”). Further, there are various other clear references in the NT to traditions known primarily or exclusively from the Enochic literature—as my friend Paul Davidson has written about over at Is That in the Bible? ...


As the editors of Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels write in their introductory essay,

• We know in principle that traditions in 1 Enoch shaped the thought world of a number of Second Temple writings in relation to matters such as the provenance and effects of evil, the structure of the cosmos, poverty and wealth, the bifurcation of humanity along the lines of “the righteous” and “the wicked,” the partition of time and eschatology, postmortem existence, the notion of “revealed” knowledge, and early “biblical” interpretation. We also know that most of 1 Enoch was composed before the turn of the Common Era. (Loren Stuckenbruck and Gabriele Boccaccini, “1 Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels,” 5)

In light of this, it’s hard to overestimate the importance of 1 Enoch for understanding early Christianity and the New Testament, as many if not all of these themes are found within the latter, too ...


More specifically, a few elements of the Synoptic gospels in particular that are elucidated by an Enochic background include

• their heavy focus on evil/demonic spirits (which, in the book of Enoch, are given a sort of “origins story” involving the Watchers, more commonly known as the fallen angels—a motif that would have a long life in Christianity)

• its peculiar eschatology and the eschatological coming/judging of the “Son of Man” (a figure previously known from the middle section of the book of Enoch), and the connection here to the disparity of the poor and wealthy, the righteous and wicked

• the exalted status of the figure of Enoch himself, and his “biography” (or hagiography), vis-à-vis that of Jesus.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/atheology/ ... l-gospels/

There are links to some of the papers via that web-page.

[andrewcriddle]

.
It's a collection of essays: papers given at the 2013 Enoch Seminar conference.

Commentary here - http://www.patheos.com/blogs/atheology/ ... l-gospels/ -

This is the first volume to collect some of the papers given at the 2013 Enoch Seminar conference, and is to be followed next year by the volume The Early Enoch Tradition and the Synoptic Gospels. The focus of these volumes is, as the titles suggest, the influence of the book of Enoch (aka 1 Enoch) on the gospels of the New Testament—particularly the first three; the Synoptic gospels ...


...But we know for certain that 1 Enoch was well-known, for example, among the various groups represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls; and more importantly that it also influenced the individuals and authors of the New Testament.

It’s explicitly quoted in the New Testament epistle of Jude, (1:14-15); and there’s also a non-explicit quotation, or quasi-quotation, in Matthew 22:13 (on this, see my recent comment here, which heavily draws on Joseph Verheyden’s essay “Evidence of 1 Enoch 10:4 in Matthew 22:13?”). Further, there are various other clear references in the NT to traditions known primarily or exclusively from the Enochic literature—as my friend Paul Davidson has written about over at Is That in the Bible? ...


As the editors of Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels write in their introductory essay,

• We know in principle that traditions in 1 Enoch shaped the thought world of a number of Second Temple writings in relation to matters such as the provenance and effects of evil, the structure of the cosmos, poverty and wealth, the bifurcation of humanity along the lines of “the righteous” and “the wicked,” the partition of time and eschatology, postmortem existence, the notion of “revealed” knowledge, and early “biblical” interpretation. We also know that most of 1 Enoch was composed before the turn of the Common Era. (Loren Stuckenbruck and Gabriele Boccaccini, “1 Enoch and the Synoptic Gospels,” 5)

In light of this, it’s hard to overestimate the importance of 1 Enoch for understanding early Christianity and the New Testament, as many if not all of these themes are found within the latter, too ...


More specifically, a few elements of the Synoptic gospels in particular that are elucidated by an Enochic background include

• their heavy focus on evil/demonic spirits (which, in the book of Enoch, are given a sort of “origins story” involving the Watchers, more commonly known as the fallen angels—a motif that would have a long life in Christianity)

• its peculiar eschatology and the eschatological coming/judging of the “Son of Man” (a figure previously known from the middle section of the book of Enoch), and the connection here to the disparity of the poor and wealthy, the righteous and wicked

• the exalted status of the figure of Enoch himself, and his “biography” (or hagiography), vis-à-vis that of Jesus.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/atheology/ ... l-gospels/

There are links to some of the papers via that web-page.

One issue is that the 'son of man' material and the exalted status of Enoch comes from the middle section (the Similitudes) the dating of which is very unclear. It may be post-Christian.

Andrew Criddle