Pub Date : 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1177/09518207231217202
John Granger Cook
The scholarly community has generally concluded that Jub. 23:29–31 does not envision a resurrection of the dead. There are those who doubt the consensus, however. The question has implications for the debate over the existence of a so-called spiritual (non-bodily) resurrection in Second Temple Judaism. There is a fundamental distinction in the text between the Lord’s servants (ʾagbertihu) who have long lives on the earth and the righteous (s.ādeqān) whose bones rest in the earth while their spirits observe the servants. Consequently, any attempt to isolate a spiritual resurrection in Jub. 23:29–31 fails.
{"title":"The question of an alleged resurrection in Jubilees 23:29–31","authors":"John Granger Cook","doi":"10.1177/09518207231217202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207231217202","url":null,"abstract":"The scholarly community has generally concluded that Jub. 23:29–31 does not envision a resurrection of the dead. There are those who doubt the consensus, however. The question has implications for the debate over the existence of a so-called spiritual (non-bodily) resurrection in Second Temple Judaism. There is a fundamental distinction in the text between the Lord’s servants (ʾagbertihu) who have long lives on the earth and the righteous (s.ādeqān) whose bones rest in the earth while their spirits observe the servants. Consequently, any attempt to isolate a spiritual resurrection in Jub. 23:29–31 fails.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141392796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1177/09518207231217243
Magnus Rabel
Food plays an important role in the Joseph story. Although other themes offer valuable insights as well, the theme of table fellowship is at the heart of the story’s main theme because sharing a table and what is on it shows mutual recognition and signifies thus much more than the mere consumption of food. In the Joseph story, we have two occurrences of joint meals: Gen 37:25 and Gen 43:31–34. Whereas the first is a clear sign of Joseph’s isolation and the rupture of the brothers’ relationship, the second meal cannot be understood as an actual meal of reconciliation as some do. In order to make table fellowship a coherent theme from isolation to inclusion, the Joseph story in Genesis lacks a third meal of peace and reconciliation at which the brothers are reunited. However, if we look across canonical boundaries, we find that Jubilees as well as Josephus’s Antiquities incorporate this third meal into the story. In this way, the biblical story is continued productively, and the theme of table fellowship, which is anticipated in Genesis, is expanded into a comprehensive motif.
{"title":"A missing meal of reconciliation: The consumption of food as deficient motif in the Joseph story and its resolution in Jubilees and Josephus","authors":"Magnus Rabel","doi":"10.1177/09518207231217243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207231217243","url":null,"abstract":"Food plays an important role in the Joseph story. Although other themes offer valuable insights as well, the theme of table fellowship is at the heart of the story’s main theme because sharing a table and what is on it shows mutual recognition and signifies thus much more than the mere consumption of food. In the Joseph story, we have two occurrences of joint meals: Gen 37:25 and Gen 43:31–34. Whereas the first is a clear sign of Joseph’s isolation and the rupture of the brothers’ relationship, the second meal cannot be understood as an actual meal of reconciliation as some do. In order to make table fellowship a coherent theme from isolation to inclusion, the Joseph story in Genesis lacks a third meal of peace and reconciliation at which the brothers are reunited. However, if we look across canonical boundaries, we find that Jubilees as well as Josephus’s Antiquities incorporate this third meal into the story. In this way, the biblical story is continued productively, and the theme of table fellowship, which is anticipated in Genesis, is expanded into a comprehensive motif.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141410911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1177/09518207231217204
David R. Edwards
King David is the ideal Jewish monarch for Josephus no less than in the Hebrew Bible. Yet, the scriptural stories of David’s life are punctuated by dark episodes which subsequent writers and readers have struggled to integrate with their elevated vision of a noble king. In this study, I argue that the difficulties of persuading Josephus’ readers in Antiquities that the famed dynastic founder was noble, virtuous, and an ideal leader were even more exacerbated. Reading Josephus’ David against the grain of his authorial cues reveals the danger that lay beneath the apologetic veneer: a figure that a Greco-Roman audience could potentially identify as a tyrant. I analyze Josephus’ account of King David under the rubric of four common Greco-Roman typologies of the stock tyrant, showing that several stories of David conform in many respects to the tyrannical stereotype. Even Josephus’ own alterations, omissions, and additions to the scriptural accounts of David could, at times, have unintentionally worked counter to his apologetic agenda and reinforced a reading of David as a tyrannical figure. Survey of tyrants in Greco-Roman literature confirms my reading as a real possibility, while parallels between David and Herod in Antiquities cement the threat of Josephus’ readers parting ways with his apologetic efforts to present David as the most admirable of kings.
{"title":"The dilemma of King David: Reading Josephus’ Antiquities against the grain through the lens of Greco-Roman tyrant typologies","authors":"David R. Edwards","doi":"10.1177/09518207231217204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207231217204","url":null,"abstract":"King David is the ideal Jewish monarch for Josephus no less than in the Hebrew Bible. Yet, the scriptural stories of David’s life are punctuated by dark episodes which subsequent writers and readers have struggled to integrate with their elevated vision of a noble king. In this study, I argue that the difficulties of persuading Josephus’ readers in Antiquities that the famed dynastic founder was noble, virtuous, and an ideal leader were even more exacerbated. Reading Josephus’ David against the grain of his authorial cues reveals the danger that lay beneath the apologetic veneer: a figure that a Greco-Roman audience could potentially identify as a tyrant. I analyze Josephus’ account of King David under the rubric of four common Greco-Roman typologies of the stock tyrant, showing that several stories of David conform in many respects to the tyrannical stereotype. Even Josephus’ own alterations, omissions, and additions to the scriptural accounts of David could, at times, have unintentionally worked counter to his apologetic agenda and reinforced a reading of David as a tyrannical figure. Survey of tyrants in Greco-Roman literature confirms my reading as a real possibility, while parallels between David and Herod in Antiquities cement the threat of Josephus’ readers parting ways with his apologetic efforts to present David as the most admirable of kings.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141400177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1177/09518207241254681
Kelley Coblentz Bautch, Matthew Goff
{"title":"From the new editors: Pseudepigrapha in the 2020s","authors":"Kelley Coblentz Bautch, Matthew Goff","doi":"10.1177/09518207241254681","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207241254681","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141402522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1177/09518207231217215
Vicente Dobroruka
The title “King from the Sun”—in the sense of a deliverance royal figure that will come from the Sun—appears repeatedly within apocalyptic literature throughout varied historic periods, albeit in slightly different depictions. We shall consider for this analysis how coming “from the Sun” and “from the East” are not synonymous and how the personalities, so to speak, of these anointed kings in the sources differ from one another. The present article examines and compares the usage and significance of the title in the Sibylline Oracles (Sib. Or. 3.652-656 and Sib. Or. 13.147-171) and in other oracular texts from the Hellenistic and the Roman periods (the Oracle of the Potter, which is Egyptian and Apoc. El. (C) 2.44-46, which is not a Sib. Or. passage). This parallel is drawn not only due to the fact that we are dealing with different primary materials, but also because in each case a different referent is intended—the “King from the Sun” is a different savior in each of the texts examined.
{"title":"Kings from the Sun: Usages of an Eastern title in the Sibylline Oracles and related material","authors":"Vicente Dobroruka","doi":"10.1177/09518207231217215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207231217215","url":null,"abstract":"The title “King from the Sun”—in the sense of a deliverance royal figure that will come from the Sun—appears repeatedly within apocalyptic literature throughout varied historic periods, albeit in slightly different depictions. We shall consider for this analysis how coming “from the Sun” and “from the East” are not synonymous and how the personalities, so to speak, of these anointed kings in the sources differ from one another. The present article examines and compares the usage and significance of the title in the Sibylline Oracles (Sib. Or. 3.652-656 and Sib. Or. 13.147-171) and in other oracular texts from the Hellenistic and the Roman periods (the Oracle of the Potter, which is Egyptian and Apoc. El. (C) 2.44-46, which is not a Sib. Or. passage). This parallel is drawn not only due to the fact that we are dealing with different primary materials, but also because in each case a different referent is intended—the “King from the Sun” is a different savior in each of the texts examined.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141407959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-01DOI: 10.1177/09518207241252540
Angela Standhartinger
In pulcherrimum Ioseph (IpJ), a retelling of the life of “the most beautiful Joseph,” appears among the Greek writings of the Syriac Church Father Ephraem and is preserved in at least seven languages: Greek, Latin, Coptic, Armenian, Arabic, Slavonic, and Georgian. Most scholars agree that The Life of Joseph/In pulcherrimum Ioseph was neither written by Ephraem nor in Syriac but was originally written in Greek. Some find, however, a substantial overlap with the Syriac Joseph traditions. A Greek papyrus from the sixth to seventh century provides the earliest material evidence. Beyond the first 120 lines of the Joseph-Christ typology, the retelling of the Joseph story contains no unambiguous Christian features. This article argues that the text is likely a composition of three different parts. After introducing IpJ and its characteristics, I present an overview of manuscripts and editions to illustrate its extraordinary popularity and several Sitz im Leben of this particular Joseph story. Finally, I will return to the question of provenance and place this specific retelling of Gen 37–46 within Jewish and Christian debates on the biblical Joseph.
{"title":"Recent research on the so-called Life of Joseph also known as In pulcherrimum Ioseph","authors":"Angela Standhartinger","doi":"10.1177/09518207241252540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207241252540","url":null,"abstract":"In pulcherrimum Ioseph (IpJ), a retelling of the life of “the most beautiful Joseph,” appears among the Greek writings of the Syriac Church Father Ephraem and is preserved in at least seven languages: Greek, Latin, Coptic, Armenian, Arabic, Slavonic, and Georgian. Most scholars agree that The Life of Joseph/In pulcherrimum Ioseph was neither written by Ephraem nor in Syriac but was originally written in Greek. Some find, however, a substantial overlap with the Syriac Joseph traditions. A Greek papyrus from the sixth to seventh century provides the earliest material evidence. Beyond the first 120 lines of the Joseph-Christ typology, the retelling of the Joseph story contains no unambiguous Christian features. This article argues that the text is likely a composition of three different parts. After introducing IpJ and its characteristics, I present an overview of manuscripts and editions to illustrate its extraordinary popularity and several Sitz im Leben of this particular Joseph story. Finally, I will return to the question of provenance and place this specific retelling of Gen 37–46 within Jewish and Christian debates on the biblical Joseph.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141403812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-20DOI: 10.1177/09518207241227671
Emily Olsen
Over the past several decades since Frank Snowden published his seminal monograph Blacks in Antiquity, scholars have become increasingly interested in understanding the ethnic and racial frameworks deployed by ancient peoples. The intersections of race, color, and ethnicity in classical literature have long been debated, but ancient Jewish texts tend to be left out of these discussions. In this article, I first analyze 1 Enoch’s Animal Apocalypse against the backdrop of Hellenistic-era environmental theory to show that it displays early forms of race-making through its differentiation of colored bulls. Although leading commentaries offered by Nickelsburg and Tiller reject racial readings of the Animal Apocalypse’s colored bulls, Matthew Black’s commentary from the 1980s does not. I show that ancient Hellenistic conceptions of peoples’ color, ethnicity, and behaviors shaped by environmental determinism support Matthew Black’s framework for understanding the Animal Apocalypse’s use of color, namely his equating of Chapter 89’s black bull with Ham, contra Nickelsburg and Tiller. Second, I stress that the Animal Apocalypse’s schema of colored bulls reflects the view that all of humanity derives from white, red, and black ancestors and that this ordering of the three colors constitutes a hierarchal sequencing of humankind, classified into three different types of people in descending order.
{"title":"The three colors of humanity: Early Jewish race-making in 1 Enoch’s Animal Apocalypse","authors":"Emily Olsen","doi":"10.1177/09518207241227671","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207241227671","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past several decades since Frank Snowden published his seminal monograph Blacks in Antiquity, scholars have become increasingly interested in understanding the ethnic and racial frameworks deployed by ancient peoples. The intersections of race, color, and ethnicity in classical literature have long been debated, but ancient Jewish texts tend to be left out of these discussions. In this article, I first analyze 1 Enoch’s Animal Apocalypse against the backdrop of Hellenistic-era environmental theory to show that it displays early forms of race-making through its differentiation of colored bulls. Although leading commentaries offered by Nickelsburg and Tiller reject racial readings of the Animal Apocalypse’s colored bulls, Matthew Black’s commentary from the 1980s does not. I show that ancient Hellenistic conceptions of peoples’ color, ethnicity, and behaviors shaped by environmental determinism support Matthew Black’s framework for understanding the Animal Apocalypse’s use of color, namely his equating of Chapter 89’s black bull with Ham, contra Nickelsburg and Tiller. Second, I stress that the Animal Apocalypse’s schema of colored bulls reflects the view that all of humanity derives from white, red, and black ancestors and that this ordering of the three colors constitutes a hierarchal sequencing of humankind, classified into three different types of people in descending order.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140197262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-20DOI: 10.1177/09518207231217237
Benjamin E. Reynolds
The Semeia 14 definition of apocalypse defined apocalypses as a constellation of form, temporal content, and spatial content, but temporal content (particularly eschatological features) remains the dominant lens through which the genre of apocalypse and related texts are understood. Defining apocalypses primarily in terms of eschatology, however, narrows the definition of apocalypse and dismisses some texts that reflect non-eschatological features of apocalypses. Form and spatial content are often neglected in the examination of apocalypses and “apocalyptic” texts. When we pay attention to form and spatial content, along with temporal content, new horizons open for considering what may be considered apocalypse-like. Jubilees and the Gospel of John are presented as two examples of revelatory texts that reflect the form and spatial content of apocalypses.
{"title":"The necessity of form and spatial content for defining “apocalypse” and “apocalyptic”","authors":"Benjamin E. Reynolds","doi":"10.1177/09518207231217237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207231217237","url":null,"abstract":"The Semeia 14 definition of apocalypse defined apocalypses as a constellation of form, temporal content, and spatial content, but temporal content (particularly eschatological features) remains the dominant lens through which the genre of apocalypse and related texts are understood. Defining apocalypses primarily in terms of eschatology, however, narrows the definition of apocalypse and dismisses some texts that reflect non-eschatological features of apocalypses. Form and spatial content are often neglected in the examination of apocalypses and “apocalyptic” texts. When we pay attention to form and spatial content, along with temporal content, new horizons open for considering what may be considered apocalypse-like. Jubilees and the Gospel of John are presented as two examples of revelatory texts that reflect the form and spatial content of apocalypses.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140197163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-20DOI: 10.1177/09518207231169034
Fabrizio Marcello
Although shrouded in mystery, the oracles of the high priest (Urim and Thummim) have often been the subject of curious interest in the literature of the Second Temple, as well as in the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (L.A.B.). The present research studies the mentions of this device in Pseudo-Philo’s narrative to shed new light on its configuration, role, and function. Despite the attempts made by recent scholarship to distinguish and separate them from the priestly attire, the most plausible hypothesis is to consider Pseudo-Philo’s understanding of Urim and Thummim as light-giving stones, closely related to the ephod, used by the high priest especially when he has to exercise judgment. Thus, such objects gain importance in reconstructing the peculiar significance of priesthood in L.A.B. In this framework, the strange narrative of L.A.B. 25–26 about the idolatrous stones replaced by new luminous ones becomes more intelligible.
大祭司的神谕（Urim and Thummim）虽然被蒙上了一层神秘的面纱，但在第二圣殿的文献以及《圣经古籍》（Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum，L.A.B.）中却常常引起人们好奇的兴趣。本研究对伪菲罗叙述中提到的这一装置进行了研究，以揭示其构造、作用和功能。尽管最近的学术研究试图将它们与祭司的服饰区分开来，但最合理的假设是将伪毗罗对乌陵和图们密的理解视为与以弗得密切相关的发光石，尤其是在大祭司需要做出判断时使用。因此，这些物品在重构《圣经》中神职的特殊意义方面具有重要意义。在这一框架下，《圣经》第 25-26 章中关于偶像崇拜的石头被新的发光石头取代的奇怪叙述就变得更加容易理解了。
{"title":"Demonstratio et veritas. Priestly oracles in Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum","authors":"Fabrizio Marcello","doi":"10.1177/09518207231169034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207231169034","url":null,"abstract":"Although shrouded in mystery, the oracles of the high priest (Urim and Thummim) have often been the subject of curious interest in the literature of the Second Temple, as well as in the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum (L.A.B.). The present research studies the mentions of this device in Pseudo-Philo’s narrative to shed new light on its configuration, role, and function. Despite the attempts made by recent scholarship to distinguish and separate them from the priestly attire, the most plausible hypothesis is to consider Pseudo-Philo’s understanding of Urim and Thummim as light-giving stones, closely related to the ephod, used by the high priest especially when he has to exercise judgment. Thus, such objects gain importance in reconstructing the peculiar significance of priesthood in L.A.B. In this framework, the strange narrative of L.A.B. 25–26 about the idolatrous stones replaced by new luminous ones becomes more intelligible.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140197263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-20DOI: 10.1177/09518207231190609
Randall E. Otto
The common assertions that Enoch in 2 Enoch is transformed into an angel, if not something more, are shown to lack support from the key bases on which this assertion is made, namely, his standing in the divine presence, the “sounding out” or testing of the angels to his entry into the divine presence, and his change of clothing for priestly service. Moreover, scholarly assertions of Enoch’s “angelic transformation” do not cohere with the clear emphases he later makes to his family of his shared humanity with them. Much of this misreading of the portrayal of Enoch in this book may owe to retrojections of later Hekhalot mysticism back into the book in an effort to discern a “line of development” or trajectory from 1 Enoch to 3 Enoch. Such a trajectory can be warranted only on the basis of a coherent portrayal of Enoch as he is presented in 2 Enoch. There he is clearly depicted as a man who is glorified among the angels but who remains a human being. While Enoch may be “angelomorphic” in having some of the various forms and functions of an angel, even though not explicitly called an “angel” or considered to have the created nature of an angel, this terminology should be used with caution, since it may tend to blur distinctions between the function and ontology of created heavenly and created earthly beings.
{"title":"“Like one of the glorious ones”: The transformation of Enoch in 2 Enoch 22","authors":"Randall E. Otto","doi":"10.1177/09518207231190609","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09518207231190609","url":null,"abstract":"The common assertions that Enoch in 2 Enoch is transformed into an angel, if not something more, are shown to lack support from the key bases on which this assertion is made, namely, his standing in the divine presence, the “sounding out” or testing of the angels to his entry into the divine presence, and his change of clothing for priestly service. Moreover, scholarly assertions of Enoch’s “angelic transformation” do not cohere with the clear emphases he later makes to his family of his shared humanity with them. Much of this misreading of the portrayal of Enoch in this book may owe to retrojections of later Hekhalot mysticism back into the book in an effort to discern a “line of development” or trajectory from 1 Enoch to 3 Enoch. Such a trajectory can be warranted only on the basis of a coherent portrayal of Enoch as he is presented in 2 Enoch. There he is clearly depicted as a man who is glorified among the angels but who remains a human being. While Enoch may be “angelomorphic” in having some of the various forms and functions of an angel, even though not explicitly called an “angel” or considered to have the created nature of an angel, this terminology should be used with caution, since it may tend to blur distinctions between the function and ontology of created heavenly and created earthly beings.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140197495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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