Ethiopian Book of Enoch

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The Ethiopian Book of Enoch (referred to in biblical studies as "1 Hen" or "ethHen") is one of the so-called pseudepigraphs of the Old Testament . It includes an extensive collection of apocalyptic Enoch traditions with different origins. The oldest parts of the Book of Enoch are believed to be from the 3rd century BC. Come from BC. In the Book of Enoch there are apocalyptic descriptions, as in the Revelation of John and in the Book of Daniel , but they are much older than these. The revelation is usually dated to around 95 AD, Daniel to 167 BC. The Book of Enoch is thus the oldest known apocalyptic script.

Fragments of the text are in Aramaic , Hebrew , Greek , Syriac, and Coptic . The work has only survived in its entirety in the old Ethiopian version. This is thanks to the fact that the book is part of the biblical canon of the Ethiopian Church . The Ethiopian translation is based on the Greek and Aramaic Enoch writings. The work was not included in the Jewish canons or those of other Christian churches.

Discovery of the original language version in Qumran

Large parts of the Book of Enoch, written in the Aramaic original language, were found along with other works in the Qumran caves in 1948 . Parts of the Book of Enoch are contained in the Qumran texts 4Q201 to 4Q202, 4Q204 to 4Q212 and 1Q19.

The (partial) book of figurative speeches is not included in the Qumran finds. It has always been assumed that this part of the Book of Enoch was only created in Christian times. The Qumran finds further support this assumption. One can therefore assume that the Essenes in the 1st century BC Knew the work to a large extent.

The connection between the so-called Book of Giants , an Enoch apocalypse known only from the Manichaean tradition before the Qumran finds , to the Ethiopian Book of Enoch remains unclear. One of the fragments of the Book of Giants (4Q203) and the Book of Enoch were apparently part of the same collective publication.

Biblical references

Enoch, the seventh descendant of Adam ( 1 Mos 5.18 to 23  ELB ), was according to the Bible alive in the sky caught ( 1 Mos 5:24  NIV ). There it says:

“And Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Metuschelach 300 years and had other sons and daughters. And all of Enoch's days were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was no longer there because God took him away. "

- 1 Mos 5,22-24  ELB

Apart from Enoch, only the prophet Elijah was raptured of the persons of the Old Testament ( 2 Kings 2.11  ELB ). Enoch is said to have received various revelations from angels and God himself on the way to heaven. The Book of Enoch is quoted in the New Testament letter of Jude (Jude 14–15 ELB ).

The guardian book shows parallels to Tobit GNB , which indicates the processing of a common tradition. Furthermore, references to the content of the introductory part (especially 1 Hen 1) to Moses' blessing speech in Deut 33 ELB were assumed.

content

The book is about Enoch on the one hand, who was caught up in heaven during his earthly existence and to whom all heavenly and divine secrets were revealed, and on the other hand about the fall of the angels.

It is usually structured as follows:

  • Introduction (Chapters 1–5)
  • Book of Guardians (Chapters 6-36)
  • Figurative speeches (Chapters 37-71)
  • Astronomical Book (Chapters 72-82)
  • History book / Book of dream visions (Chapters 83-90)
  • Book of edification / dunning speeches (Chapters 91-108)

In the introduction, Enoch is presented as a prophet who receives a vision of the coming judgment. This part of the Book of Enoch (I, 9) is quoted in the letter of Jude.

In the book of the guardians it is first told how some angels around their leader Semjasa decided to take women on earth (cf. 1 Mos 6: 1-4  ELB ). As elsewhere in mythology, such a mixture between the heavenly and earthly spheres cannot end well. After the angels on earth had taken any women they wanted, they gave birth to giants who devastated the earth. This triggers the wrath of God , so that he banishes the angels from heaven and wants to cast them into a lake of fire on Judgment Day . God will cause a flood over the earth to fight the giants. The angels ask Enoch to petition God for mercy on their behalf. However, this wish is rejected by God. Enoch then has to act again as a messenger and communicate this to the fallen angels . During Enoch's subsequent heavenly journey , the heavens and its surroundings are described in detail, where Enoch was raptured. References to a lake of fire are also shown - a motif that is then included in the Revelation of John .

Much is said about the Son of Man in the figurative speeches that were probably added later , but it remains unclear whether this refers to the future Messiah , whom he sees on the right side of God's throne, or Enoch himself.

The so-called astronomical book speaks of a flat earth that rests on pillars, the moon and the sun are suspended from threads and circle around the earth. Two giant animals, the behemoth and the leviathan , are described as male and female monsters that live in the desert and in the sea.

Enoch returns to earth one more time and experiences in a dream what will happen to his great-grandson Noah and how he will be saved from the flood. In the so-called animal apocalypse, God shows the dismayed Enoch what will happen to the world and the people of Israel up to Judah's exile to Babylon , all of this symbolically with images of animals, with sheep symbolizing the people of Israel. He tells the dream to his son Methuselah as a warning. Eventually he will be finally taken up in heaven.

Literary genre

There is no research consensus on the question of which literary genre the watchman's book is to be assigned to.

However, everyone agrees that 1 Enoch can be described as an apocalyptic book as a whole .

reception

In the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, a detailed description of heaven and the realm of the dead, which should not be confused with hell, appears for the first time in the Jewish cultural area . Rather, Enoch passes terrible places on his heavenly journey where the fallen angels are held captive (1 Hen 21). These descriptions presumably influenced the doctrine of heaven and hell in both Christianity and Islam and in this case were further embellished. The Tanakh does not know this form of hell.

See also

Text editions and translations

in chronological order in descending order

  • George WE Nickelsburg, James C. VanderKam: 1 Enoch: A New Translation. Fortress, Minneapolis 2004, ISBN 0-8006-3694-5 (English translation).
  • Daniel C. Olson. Enoch: A New Translation. TX: Bibal, North Richland Hills 2004, ISBN 0-941037-89-4 .
  • Matthew Black (with James C. VanderKam ): The Book of Enoch; or, 1 Enoch. A new English edition with commentary and textual notes. With an appendix on the 'astronomical' chapters by O. Neugebauer. SVTP 7, Brill, Leiden 1985, ISBN 90-04-07100-8 (English translation and commentary).
  • Siegbert Uhlig: The Ethiopian Book of Enoch. In: Werner Georg Kümmel, Hermann Lichtenberger (Ed.): Jewish writings from the Hellenistic Roman period. Vol. 5: Apocalypsen, L. 6, Gütersloh 1984, pp. 461-780, ISBN 3-579-03956-3 . (with introduction, German translation and commentary)
  • Ephraim Isaac: 1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch , Charlesworth, James Hamilton (eds.): The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Vol. 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, Garden City, New York: Doubleday 1983, pp. 5–89, ISBN 0-385-09630-5 (English translation, introduction)
  • Michael A. Knibb. The Ethiopic Book Of Enoch. , 2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon 1978 / ND 1982. (Vol. 1: Text and Apparat, Vol. 2: English translation and commentary)
  • Paul Riessler: Old Jewish literature outside the Bible. Kerle, Freiburg & Heidelberg 6 1988, pp. 353–451 (German translation)
  • RH Charles, WOE Oesterley: The Book of Enoch. London 1917, ISBN 0-281-05821-0
  • Francois Martin: Le livre d'Hénnoch. Traduit sur le texte Ethiopia. Edition Letouzey, Paris 1906.
  • Andreas Gottlieb Hoffmann: The book Enoch in full translation with continuous commentary, detailed introduction and explanatory excursions. Jena 1833.

literature

  • Matthias Albani: Astronomy and Faith in Creation. Studies on the astronomical Book of Enoch (= scientific monographs on the Old and New Testament. Vol. 68). Neukirchen-Vluyn 1994, ISBN 3-78-871482-4 .
  • Veronika Bachmann: The world in a state of emergency. An investigation into the content and theology of the guardian book (1 Hen 1–36). Dissertation. Also as: Journal for Old Testament Science , Supplements 409. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-022429-0 .
  • Klaus Berger : Art. Henoch. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Vol. 14, Stuttgart 1988, Col. 473-545.
  • Matthew Black: A Bibliography on 1 Enoch in the Eighties. In: JSPE 5 (1989), pp. 3-16.
  • Gabriele Boccaccini / John J. Collins (eds.). The Early Enoch Literature. Brill, Leiden 2007, ISBN 90-04-16154-6 .
  • Gabriele Boccaccini: Beyond the Essene Hypothesis. The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 1998, ISBN 0-8028-4360-3 .
  • John J. Collins: The Apocalyptic Imagination. An Introduction to the Jewish Matrix of Christianity. New York 1984, pp. 33-67, 142-154.
  • James H. Charlesworth : The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament , CUP Archives: 1985, ISBN 1-56338-257-1 .
  • Helge S. Kvanvig: Roots of Apocalyptic: The Mesopotamian Background of the Enoch Figure and of the Son of Man , Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener 1988, ISBN 3-7887-1248-1 .
  • Byung Hak Lee: Liberation experiences from the reign of terror of death in the Ethiopian Book of Enoch ; Dissertation Bochum 1998.
  • George WE Nickelsburg: 1 Enoch: A Commentary , Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2001, ISBN 0-8006-6074-9 .
  • Andrei A. Orlov: The Enoch-Metatron Tradition , Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2005, ISBN 3-16-148544-0 .
  • Eckhard Rau: Cosmology, eschatology and the teaching authority of Enoch . Traditional and formal historical studies on the Eth. Enoch Book and related writings, Diss. Hamburg 1974.
  • Annette Yoshiko Reed: Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005, ISBN 0-521-85378-8 .
  • Paolo Sacchi: Art. Henoch form / Enoch literature. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Vol. 15, 1986, pp. 42-54.
  • Paolo Sacchi / William J. Short: Jewish Apocalyptic and Its History , Sheffield: Academic 1996, ISBN 1-85075-585-X .
  • Erik Sjöberg: The Son of Man in the Ethiopian Hennochbuch , Gleerup, Lund 1946.
  • Michael E. Stone: The Book of Enoch and Judaism in the Third Century BCE In: Catholic Biblical Quarterly. No. 40, 1978, pp. 479-492.
  • Johannes Theisohn: The chosen judge. Investigations into the traditional-historical place of the figure of the son of man of the picture speeches of the Ethiopian Enoch. Göttingen 1975.
  • James C. VanderKam: Enoch: A Man for All Generations , Columbia, SC; University of South Carolina 1995, ISBN 1-57003-060-X .
  • James C. VanderKam: Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition , Washington: Catholic Biblical Association of America 1984, ISBN 0-915170-15-9 .
  • Marie-Theres Wacker : World Order and Judgment. Studies on 1 Henoch 22. Dissertation Tübingen 1981/82. Also as: Research on the Bible 45. Echter, Würzburg 1982, ISBN 3-429-00794-1 .

Web links

Text editions and translations
Information on the Book of Enoch

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Stegemann: Essener , Freiburg 9 1999, p. 137.
  2. ↑ George WE Nickelsburg: Tobit and Enoch: Distant Cousins ​​with a Recognizable Resemblance. In: Jacob Neusner, Alan J. Avery-Peck (eds.): George WE Nickelsburg in perspective: an ongoing dialogue of learning , Vol. 1, Brill, Leiden / Boston 2003 (= Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 80/1; ISBN 90-04-12985-5 ), pp. 217-239, p. 236.
  3. ↑ Lars Hartman: Asking for a Meaning: A Study of 1 Enoch 1-5 , Gleerup, Lund 1979 (= Coniectanea biblica, New Testament series, 12; ISBN 91-40-04701-6 ), pp. 22-26.
  4. ↑ Veronika Bachmann: The world in a state of emergency - an investigation into the message content and theology of the guardian book (1 Hen 1–36) , de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2009, pp. 47-62 (Chapter 3: The guardian book as a blessing speech: reflections on the literary genre doi : 10.1515 / 9783110224306.47 ).
  5. ↑ George WE Nickelsburg: The nature and function of revelation (1997): “That 1 Enoch is properly called an apocalyptic writing is widely agreed. The Society of Biblical Literature taskforce on genres includes large sections of this work in its typology of apocalypses ”.
  6. ^ John J. Collins: The Jewish Apocalypses. In: Semeia 14: 21-59 (1979).
  7. ↑ Georges Minois: Die Hölle , Munich 1996, p. 98.