George W. E. Nickelsburg - 1 Enoch

1 Enoch divides into five major sections, which are followed by two short appendices: The Book of the Watchers (chaps. 136); The Book of Parables (chaps. 3771); The Book of the Luminaries (chaps. 72 82); The Dream Visions (chaps. 8390); The Epistle of Enoch (chaps. 91105); The Birth of Noah (chaps. 106107); Another Book by Enoch (chap. 108). The sections represent developing stages of the Enochic tradition, each one building on the earlier onesthough not in the order in which they presently stand in the collection. Overall they express a common worldview that characterizes this present world and age as evil and unjust and in need of divine adjudication and renewal. With the possible exception of the Book of the Luminaries, they focus on the common concern and expectation that a coming divine judgment will eradicate evil and injustice from the earth and will return the world to Gods created intention. Their authority lies in their claim that they transmit divine revelation, which the patriarch Enoch received in primordial times (Gen 5:21-24) and which is made public in the last times to constitute the eschatological community of the chosen.

Chapters 15 were composed as an introduction to chapters 136, but now set the keynote for the entire work. They constitute a tripartite prophetic oracle, in which Enoch announces the coming theophany, when God and the heavenly entourage will render judgment against the rebel angels who introduced evil into the world and against sinful humans, who perpetrate it. The first section (1:1-9) paraphrases part of Moses final blessing on Israel (Deuteronomy 33) and an oracle of Balaam (Numbers 24) and bases Enochs authority on visions received in heaven and interpreted by angels. The second section (2:15:4), cast in the language of Israelite wisdom traditions, expands the indictment of all flesh (1:9) by contrasting the obedience of the heavenly bodies and the earthly seasons with humanitys disobedience. The final section (5:5-9) employs language from Isaiah 5666 to describe the blessings and curses that await the righteous chosen and the sinners.

Chapters 611 are an interpretation of Genesis 69 that identifies events of the primordial past with those of the authors time. The sons of God (Gen 6:2), identified as angels (watchers), led by their chieftain Shemihazah, rebel against God by mating with mortal women and begetting giants, who devastate the earth. The giants can be interpreted as stand-ins for the warriors of the authors own time (the Hellenistic kings). The Genesis description of the Flood flows into a scenario that is appropriate for Gods eschatological judgment and the inception of the new age. Interwoven with the myth of the watchers and the women is a second pair of myths, which identify the sin of the watchers as the revelation of forbidden secrets (metallurgy and mining, magic and the mantic arts) that promote violence and promiscuity. Here the rebel chieftain is Asael, a figure who resembles Prometheus, the rebellious divine figure of Greek myth. Humanitys plea, heard by the four high angels, triggers the judgment. With the sinful principals annihilated, a new age ensues with blessings for the chosen and those of humanity who have converted to the worship of God.