George W. E. Nickelsburg
University of Iowa
0.1. Introduction
A conference on the pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls naturally invites a discussion of the issue of revelation-for several reasons that create something of a conundrum. 1) Revelation is central and critical in some of the pseudepigrapha, an d the Qumran caves have yielded multiple copies of several such apocalyptic writings: parts of 1 Enoch; the Book of Jubilees; Daniel; the Aramaic Levi Document. 2) This interest in the apocalyptic writings notwithstanding, there is no clear evidence that the Qumranites themselves authored pseudepigraphic apocalypses.1 3) Nonetheless, some Qumranic sectarian documents make significant and substantial claims to revelation.
This paper does not address the question of genre: Did the Qumranites compose apocalypses or didn't they? Nor does it discuss the function of the pseudepigraphic apocalypses at Qumran. Rather, it compares the content, form, function, and social setting of revelation in two pseudepigraphic revelatory texts found at Qumran (1 Enoch and Jubilees) and a selection of Qumran "sectarian" documents. I shall argue that, although there are significant differences in the forms in which revelation is presented, the content of revelation is similar comprising ethical or legal matters, eschatology, and sometimes cosmology. Moreover, I shall argue that revelation functions to constitute and shape what is considered to be the eschatological; "community" of the chosen and that it often serves polemically to distinguish this community from others that are perceived to be unenlightened or the purveyors of bogus and deceptive revelation. Finally, I shall suggest that these findings indicate important points of continuity and discontinuity between these various types of revelation and their predecessors in the Israelite prophetic and sapiential traditions, and their successors in early Christian communities.
1.0.1 Enoch
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:2 the Book of the Watchers (1-36); the Book of Parables (37-71); the Book of Luminaries (72-82); and the Dream Visions (85-90). In addition, I have argued that the Epistle of Enoch (92-105) bases its message on the revelations recorded in the Book of the Watchers,3 and indeed that 1 Enoch as a whole reflects an apocalyptic world view.4
1.1 Revealed Torah
1.1.1. The Calendar
1.1.1.1. The Book of the Luminaries (72-82)
Central to 1 Enoch's revelation is the Book of the Luminaries (72-82), an extensive compilation of texts about the structure of the cosmos and the functioning of the celestial bodies. Although much of the information in this text comports well with empirical observation, its author claims that Enoch obtained its contents while he was on a tour of the heavens in the company of Uriel the angel. This claim documents the validity of a solar, or luni-solar calendar of 364 days. The importance of this calendar is evident in a passage that polemicizes against "sinners," who employ a different calendar and thus get the seasons out of line with cosmic reality (80:4-8; cf. 75:2).
1.1.1.2. The Introductory Oracle (1-5)
The introduction to the Enochic corpus (1-5) seems to allude to wrong calendrical teaching. Sandwiched between two pieces of poetry that imitate biblical prophetic oracles (1:1-9 and 5:4-9) is a piece of prose sapiential teaching about the structure of the universe. In heaven the luminaries do not change their orbits or transgress their appointed order, and on earth the seasons proceed in order, and the trees shed, or do not shed their leaves as God has commanded them (2:1-5:3). This orderly obedience is contrasted with humans, who have turned aside from the right path and spoken harsh words against God's majesty. The contrasting metaphors of change and stability, obedience to the path and turning aside, suggest that, in part, the calendar is at issue.
1.1.2. Other Issues Relating to Torah
1.1.2.1. The Epistle of Enoch (92-105)
The imagery of sin as perversion returns in the Epistle of Enoch, in a section directed against certain false teachers, whom the author threatens with damnation (98:9-99:10).5 Central are three Woes.
Woe to you who annul the words of the righteous; you will have no hope of salvation. (98:14)
Here the author criticizes his opponents for nullifying (akuroun) the halakhah of the righteous. They will not be saved.
Woe to those who write lying words and words of error; they write and lead many astray with their lies when they hear them.
You yourselves err; and you will have peace, but will quickly perish. (98:15-16)
The opponents write down their false teaching, which is read publicly and "leads many astray." These teachers will perish in the coming judgment. Woe to you who change the true words and pervert the eternal covenant and consider themselves to be without sin;6 they will be swallowed up in the earth. (99:2)
This teaching perverts the "the eternal covenant." The fact that these people do not think they are sinning indicates that they are not callous sinners, but persons who interpret the law differently from the Enochic writer. This difference is sufficient to damn them.
This section of the Epistle is framed by an antithetical Woe and Beatitude, which make the same point:
Woe to you, fools; for you will be destroyed because of your folly; And you do not listen to the wise; and good things will not happen to you, but evils will surround you. ( 98:9)
Then blessed will be all who listen to the words of the wise, and learn to do the commandments of the Most High;
and walk in the paths of his righteousness, and do not err with the erring; for they will be saved. (99:10)
In opposition to the false teachers are "the wise," who also read out their teaching, which is, by definition, the commandments of the Most High that constitute the path of righteousness. One's salvation or damnation depends upon whether or not one listens to "the words of the wise."
Precisely what Torah is comprised by the words of the wise and the commandments of the Most High is not explicit. Surely, it includes Enoch's astronomical Torah.7 In one other passage the author accuses his opponents of consuming blood: Woe to you, stiff-necked and hard of heart, who do evil and consume blood. Whence do you have good things to eat and drink and be satisfied? from all the good things that the Lord, the Most High, has abundantly provided upon the earth.
You will have no peace. (98:11)
The author may be criticizing the wrong slaughtering of meat, or he may be advocating vegetarianism.8 In either case, the violation of God's commandment is the issue.
In summary: the author of the Epistle criticizes his opponents for teaching and practicing wrong Torah and threatens them with damnation. As we shall see later, his authority is the revelation received by Enoch.
1.1.2.2. The Animal Vision (85-90)
This comprehensive vision summarizes the historical content of the Bible from Genesis to Ezra-Nehemiah and then carries the story up to the author's time in the early second century B.C.E. The account of Israel's history has two emphases: Israel's victimization by the nations, recounted in the metaphor of the sheep and wild beasts found in Ezekiel 34; and Israel's apostasy, described as the blindness of the sheep. Especially noteworthy is the claim that when Israel returned from Exile,
They began again to build as before, and they raised up that tower [sc. the temple] and it was called the high tower. And they began again to place a table before the tower, but all the bread on it was polluted and not pure. And besides all these things, the eyes of the sheep were blind, and they did not see... (89:73-74).
The allusion to Mal 1:7 is clear. What is striking is the author's view that the apostate blindness of the sheep continues into the Hellenistic period, until some of the lambs born of the sheep began to open their eyes and rebuke their elders, who , however, remain deaf and blind (90:6).
In summary, this author believes that the temple cult is polluted and claims that this insight is the result of a revelation granted in his own time, which stands on the brink of the eschaton.
1.1.2.3. The Apocalypse of Weeks (93:1-10 + 91:11-17)
This analysis of Israel's situation is more radical than the Animal Vision. The Exile and the burning of the Temple in the sixth week are God's punishment on a people who have become blind and have strayed from wisdom (93:8). However, the post Exilic seventh week is marked by the rise of a totally perverse generation, and although the sanctuary is in focus throughout that Apocalypse (the tabernacle, 93:6; the construction and burning of the Temple, 93:7, 8; the eschatological temple, 91:13), the building of the Second Temple is ignored (unless 91:11 alludes to it metaphorically). Before the eschatological temple can be built, the elect of the end-time must be chosen and invested with seven- fold wisdom (93:10). While this appears to be a comprehensive wisdom that includes eschatology and cosmology, its function as an antidote to Israel's blindness and perversity, as well as their violence and deceit, indicates that this wisdom includes revealed instruction about the right life, i.e., Torah and ethics.
1.1.3. Summary
Although the Enochic corpus is generally recognized to comprise revelations about the end-time and the structure of the cosmos, the Book of the Watchers, the Book of the Luminaries, the Animal Vision, and the Epistle (including the Apocalypse of Weeks) are all concerned with right conduct and practice, and they posit revelation, traced back to Enoch, as the authority for this viewpoint.
1.2. Eschatological Revelations
1 Enoch's eschatological revelations are tied to the book's concern with Torah and right conduct. The coming judgment, which is the collection's central focus, is the event by which God will reward or punish human obedience or disobedience of the divine law, as this is spelled out in the Enochic corpus or presumed by it. The imminence of this judgment is clear from the timetables in the Animal Vision and the Apocalypse of Weeks. Although the Book of the Watchers contains no such timetables, the claim that this text is a revelation about the judgment intended for the chosen of the end-time (1:1-3; cf. 37:2-3) indicates that, in the view of this author, the final judgment is near. Even the Book of the Luminaries provides an eschatological perspective for its detailed account of celestial mechanics; this cosmology will be in place "until the new creation is accomplished, which endures until eternity" (72:1).
The revealed character of 1 Enoch's eschatology is evident in several ways. The Animal Vision is a revelatory dream through which God made known all the deeds of humanity until eternity (90:39- 41). The Apocalypse of Weeks purports to summarize the deeds of humanity, which Enoch had read in the heavenly tablets (93:2; cf. 81:1-4). The Book of the Watchers, with its variegated eschatological message, is based on Enoch's cosmic journeys in the company of interpreting angels (1:2), and the eschatological message of the Epistle is based on the visions recounted in the Book of the Watchers. A claim to revelation is also implicit in the forms in which Enoch presents his message: a prophetic oracle (1-5); an account of a prophetic call (14-16);9 the long strings of Woes in the Epistle; and the use of dream visions. 10
1.3. Cosmological Revelations
An important feature of 1 Enoch-virtually unique among the apocalypses-is the heavy preponderance of cosmological lore. The Book of the Luminaries is an obvious case in point, and we have already noted its revelatory form. In addition, the second half of the Book of the Watchers is a detailed account of the seer's journeys through the cosmos. Other blocks of cosmological material appear in the Book of Parables (41:3-44:1; 52:1-56:4; 59:1-60:16), and the Epistle occasionally refers to it (93:11- 14; 100:10-101:9) As Stone has observed, these authors were familiar with a broad range of "scientific" knowledge that was the possession of contemporary sages.11
This preponderance of cosmological material is not presented for its own sake, however. The Book of the Luminaries supports calendrical practice. In the Book of the Watchers and the Book of Parables, cosmology undergirds eschatology. Enoch's first journey, to the west, climaxes in his visions of the places of punishment, and chapter 17 logs the landmarks that document his journey to these places. In his second journey, from the far West to the East, several new places of eschatological import for human beings are added, and again, chapters 32-34 document his journey to paradise.12 Important parts of the cosmology in the Book of Parables also include visions of the places of punishment.
The revealed nature of Enoch's cosmology is indicated by the angelic interpretations of the phenomena that he sees on his journeys.
1.4. Enoch's Primordial Wisdom: Constitutive of the Eschatological Community
1 Enoch purports to present, or imply, a comprehensive system of wisdom revealed to the patriarch in primordial antiquity and committed to writing by him before his translation to heaven. Its character as the written deposit of heavenly wisdom is emphasized in 81:5-10,13 where the angels who have escorted him through the cosmos command him to write down his commands and teaching and to transmit these as a testimony to his sons, notably Methuselah. Methuselah, in turn, is to preserve these writings and to see to it that this life-giving wisdom is transmitted to "the generations of eternity" (82:1-5). A further step in this process of transmission will occur in the end-time, when Enoch's books are given to the righteous and pious and wise, to instruct them in the paths of truth (104:12- 13). They, in turn, will testify to/against the sons of earth (105:1-2).14
Additional references to the eschatological proliferation of Enoch's wisdom are scattered throughout the book.
Then wisdom will be given to all the chosen; and they will all live,
And they will sin no more through godlessness or pride. In the enlightened man there will be light,
and in the wise man, understanding, and they will transgress no more, nor will they sin all the days of their life. (5:8)15
And at its (the seventh week's) conclusion, the elect will be chosen, as witnesses of righteousness from the eternal plant of righteousness, to whom will be given sevenfold wisdom and knowledge. And they will uproot the foundations of violence, and the structure of deceit in it, to execute judgment. (93:10; 91:11) And after this there will be a ninth week, in which righteous law16 will be revealed to all the sons of the whole earth; and all the 17 of wickedness will vanish from the whole earth and descend to the eternal pit, and all humanity will look to the path of eternal righteousness. (91:14)
And the wise among men will see the truth,
and the sons of men will contemplate these words of this epistle,
and they will recognize that their wealth cannot save them when iniquity collapses. (100:6)
Finally, we note again the Animal Vision's reference to revelation in the end-time. The younger generation in the Hellenistic period have their eyes opened to the apostasy that has pervaded the operation of the temple cult, and they exhort the ir elders to turn from their apostasy.
The Enochic corpus, then, is the sacred scripture that constitutes the eschatological community of he chosen.18 It does so in two ways. Its Tor ah instructs them in the path of righteousness. Its announcement of the judgment admonishes them to remain on the right path and encourages them in the midst of persecution to remain confident of God's ultimate vindication of their righteousness. This corpus of revealed wisdom has a secondary function. The community of the righteous is to testify to outsiders-the sons of the whole earth admonishing them to turn to the right path in order that they can be saved from the judgment.
To what extent it is appropriate to refer to an identifiable Enochic community, with structure and organization, is difficult to say. 1 Enoch is not a Rule of the Community. Nonetheless, the distinctive Torah explicit in the Book of Luminaries and implicit in the Epistle's criticism of false teachers who pervert the eternal covenant seems to reflect a distinctive community ethos that encourages and facilitates progress along the paths of righteousness.
1.5. Social Setting: Roles and the Forms and Processes of Revelation
Within this community there existed the latter day, real-life counterparts of primordial Enoch. The existence of such leaders and teachers is implied by the existence of the corpus itself. Someone wrote it. The identity of these leaders and teachers is explicit in the Epistle's references to "the wise." Their words, written down and read aloud, express the commandments of the Most High and constitute the path of righteousness. The term "the wise" may be the counterpart of the title "maskil(im)," which refers in Daniel 12:3 to those "who cause many to be righteous" and in 1 QS 3:13 to the one who instructs in the two ways. The title "Scribe," applied three times to Enoch (12:4; 15:1; 92:1) may also point to a concrete social role, and the title "Scribe of Righteousness / Truth" is also reminiscent of the Qumran sobriquet, qdch hrwm. The implications of the title "scribe" are further attested in the content of 1 Enoch. Taken together, the authors of the Enochic corpus knew virtually every book of the Tanakh and could speak the idiom of prophecy and the sapiential tradition.19 They were concerned with the commandments of the Torah. In addition, they were learned in the cosmological sciences and could employ and transform motifs in pagan mythology. In short, they did all the things that ben Sira ascribes to the scribes of his time (Sir 39:1-4).
The identification of the figure of Enoch with leaders and teachers in the Hellenistic period requires us to think about the forms of revelation. Much of the content of 1 Enoch is said to have been gotten through dream visions. This is true not only of the symbolic dreams in chapters 83-84 and 85-90. To judge from 13:4-10, Enoch's ascent to the heavenly throne room, as well as his journeys through the cosmos all took place in a dream vision.20 His admonitions and Woes in the Epistle are based on these visions, in turn.
Should we think of all of this as literary fiction? The thorough-going literary character and sophisticated prosody of the material seem to indicate artifice and a contrived poetic process.21 Be this as it may, it need not exclude the possibility that an unnamed figure in the Hellenistic period had a genuine experience of a throne vision-however he may have elaborated his expression of it in traditional language. Thus 1 Enoch may well attest the ongoing life of the visionary tradition familiar from the pre-Exilic, Exilic, and post-Exilic prophets. Similarly, however elaborated they may be, the reports of dream visions like 1 Enoch 83-84 and 85 -90 may attest the kind of mantic wisdom described in the Joseph cycle of Genesis and the early chapters of Daniel.
Why the authors of Enoch, and Daniel for that matter, chose to adopt a pseudepigraphic manner of presentation is a complex question. With respect to 1 Enoch, I make a couple of observations. First, one should not confuse two things: 1) the likelihood that many of the contemporaries of the Enochic authors did not accept the prophetic credentials and genuine religious experience of these authors; 2) the prophetic self-consciousness that is expressed in the texts. To judge from the canonical texts, Michaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and others also experienced opposition to their prophetic self- consciousness.
Secondly, there may well be something to Russell's theory that pseudepigraphy implies an identification between the writer and his ancient patron and counterpart.22 The figure of Enoch can be connected-albeit loosely-with the time of the Deluge, or can be seen as living before the terrible evils that polluted the earth and required the cleansing of the Flood (cf. 1 Enoch 93:3). Thus, he can inter act with Noah and speak about a judgment that will have a latter day, final counterpart. Moreover, because he preceded Abraham and the division of humanity into Israel and the nations, his message has universal relevance. Whether, in addition, some of the Enochic authors spoke out of a mystic experience that brought them, they thought, into the orbit of the glorified Enoch (much as Christian prophets spoke in the name of the glorified Lord) is a question that may be worth posing.23
Thirdly, it is noteworthy, that the authors of 1 Enoch do not simply attribute their writings to a pre-Mosaic author. They also present them in a manner that devalues the Mosaic Pentateuch. The initial oracle in chapters 1-5 is a paraphrase o f part of Deuteronomy 33,24 and some of the content and testamentary language is chapter 91 is reminiscent of Moses' farewell discourse in Deuteronomy 29-32 .25 In effect, this casts Moses into the role of a "me-too." In addition, the account of the events at Mount Sinai in the Animal Vision, while i t allows Moses an important role as a leader of Israel and even grants him a vision of the Deity, never states that he received the Torah on Mount Sinai (89:29- 34). Revelation came to Israel at Marah (89:28; cf. Exod 15:25-26). Thus, 1 Enoch leapfrogs the Mosaic Torah and assumes for itself a prophetic authority that precedes Moses.
Finally, 1 Enoch claims revelatory authority for material that may well have been created through more "normal" processes. The Book of the Luminaries seems to reflect empirical observation. Similarly, the decisive interpretations of the Torah that are implied in the Epistle may well have developed through the kind of exegesis suggested by ben Sira. That the Enochic authors knew most of the Tanakh is clear. Of course, their use of biblical material, not through citation, but by appeal to ancient (really new) revelation is a corollary of the fictitious date of the writing. However, it also makes a theological point. This is revelation.
2.0. The Book of Jubilees
Although the Book of Jubilees is not generally classified as an apocalypse,26 it contains all the features that have led scholars to define large par ts of 1 Enoch as apocalyptic. It is a text with a narrative framework in which an otherworldly being transmits secret information to a human agent who is identified as a figure of the past. To make the comparison with 1 Enoch more precise, the author of Jubilees claims for his writing the same status that 1 Enoch 81:5-82:4 claims for the Enochic corpus; it is the transcript of a heavenly revelation that provides the instruction that will grant to those who heed it the reward of eternal life. Like 1 Enoch the instruction in Jubilees relates to both Torah and eschatology and takes for granted the Enochic cosmology that underlies a solar calendar.
2.1. Literary Structure
Taken as a whole, Jubilees is a rewritten version of Genesis and the first half of Exodus, presented as a transcript of the divine account of the events from Creation to the Exodus. It is set at the foot of Mount Sinai, and it begins as God summon s Moses in order to give him the two tablets of the Torah (1:1). He then commands Moses to write what he is told by the angel of presence who is reading from the heavenly tablets (1:26-29). The angelic account (2:1ff.) follows the order and general content of the narrative in Genesis and Exodus, albeit with significant additions and revisions and some omissions.27 The additions and revisions are of three kinds. First, the whole narrative is set within an explicit chronological framework that dates events according to the solar calendar that God revealed to Enoch. Secondly, some parts of the account are elaborated with narrative detail, substantial haggadic additions, and even the insertion of new episodes. Finally, and especially, the author uses the patriarchal narratives as a source from which to derive specific laws and halakhot, and he presents these as immutable laws, which are often said to be inscribed on the heavenly tablets (3:31; 4:32; 16:29).
2.2. Content
Jubilees' modifications of its Genesis-Exodus prototype include material that corresponds roughly to the emphases in 1 Enoch mentioned above, although each has its own nuances and emphases.
2.2.1. Law and Ethics
Most clearly and emphatically, Jubilees is a book of law. This is most obvious in the many halakhic additions to the biblical narrative, which are usually introduced with formulae that delineate their status as eternal law and underscore the dire consequences for those who do not observe these laws (15:25-34; 16:30; 30:22; 33:10-14). Notable examples of the author's concerns include the solar calendar, the rite of circumcision, always performed on the eighth day (15:25-34), idolatry (22:16-18), t he consuming of blood (7:27-33), nakedness (3:31), intermarriage with gentiles (chap. 30), incest (chap. 33), and the proper performing of sacrificial rituals (32:1-16). Although some of these issues are of concern to the Enochic authors, Jubilees is noteworthy for its formal articulation of laws and commandments. Conversely, it uses only sparingly the wisdom metaphor of the two ways that recurs frequently in the Epistle of Enoch.
Nonetheless, a counterpart to the sapiential viewpoint and its expression occurs in the haggadic elaborations that demonstrate right conduct through narrative example. In particular, the stories about Abraham depict him as a gentile who seeks the true God and then rejects idolatry and astrological prognostication (chaps. 11-12). The account of the Akedah, moreover, epitomizes his faithfulness to God, which is exemplified in his right response to a series of ten trials (17:15 19:9). These stories, and others like them, focus less on specific commandments though some are mentioned-and more on exemplary or non-exemplary behavior and its consequences.
2.2.2. Eschatology
A second, less prominent feature of Jubilees' narrative is its interest in eschatology. The chronological framework of the text stretches from creation to the new creation and is calculated in terms of solar jubilees (1:29). The events that are a bout to occur at Mount Sinai and the book's account of Israel's past history are prefaced by a look toward the future (chap. 1). Employing the scheme of Deuteronomy 30-32, the divine revelation given at another mountain, God predicts that Israel will violate his Torah and suffer the consequences until they repent. A more finely tuned version of this eschatological scenario appears in 23:12-31, where it is an integral part of Abraham's testament to Isaac. Another brief allusion to eschatology appears in the summary of Enoch's revelations in the Animal Vision and the Apocalypse of Weeks (4:18-19).
2.2.3. Cosmology
This author is much less interested in emphasizing cosmology than the Enochic authors. This is doubtless because he presupposes the Enochic revelations. They are presupposed, first, in his reference to Enoch's Book of the Luminaries, which forms the foundation for his chronological structures based on a solar calendar (4:17). They also appear in the interpolations into the Flood account, which are the springboard for his dualistic view of the universe. According to this world view, human sins a nd the experience of evil are functions of a demonic realm that was generated through the sin of the watchers (chap. 5; 7:21-24; 10:4-12).
2.3. Jubilees as a Revelatory Text
The revelatory character of the Jubilees narrative is indicated by several factors. First, different from the anonymous narrative of Genesis and Exodus, this account is ascribed to the prophet Moses, and in the idiom of apocalyptic writings, Moses ' source of information is explicitly a revealer figure-first God (1:26), but then the angel of the presence (1:27-2:1), whose voice recurs at various points throughout the narrative (23:32; 18:9; 48:4, 11-19). Secondly, the angel states that the narrative he rehearses and the laws that he recites are derived from the heavenly tablets, which also contain the names of the righteous (19:9). Thirdly, this angelic narrator also refers to hidden things, namely, the origin, existence, and activity, and punishment of the demonic offspring of the watchers (see above). Finally, the narrator appeals to the revelations that Enoch had received from his angelic informants and cites them as authentic testimony to the human race (4:17-19).
Thus, Jubilees as a whole purports to be special revelation received and written down in ancient times and now presented for the edification and salvation of Israel, which stands on the threshold of the eschaton.
2.4. Revelation as Constitutive of the Community of the End-Time
This eschatological focus is especially evident in 23:12-31. Moreover, these verses provide a window into the real-life processes that generated the revelation which is the substance of the book. Employing the Deuteronomic scheme of sin punishment-repentance-salvation, the author spells out the desperate situation of contemporary Israel, whose disobedience has brought on the curses of the covenant, described as gentile oppression, short lives, and the failure of crops. The solution to this problem is similar to the passages quoted above from the Animal Vision and the Apocalypse of Weeks. There is a bitter dispute in which the younger generation accuse their elders of sin. The process by which this judgment is made and its consequences are spelled in detail.
As human lives are severely shortened,
In those days the children will begin to study the laws
and seek the commandments
and return to the path of righteousness.
And the days will begin to grow many and increase among those children of men, till their days approach one thousand years, and to a greater number of years than (before) was the number of days (23:26-27).
The return of blessing is catalyzed by the study of the Torah, the identification of right halakhah, which facilitates true obedience and leads to diving blessing-the salvation of Israel from its enemies and, ultimately, the ascent of the spirits o f the righteous into the joy of God's presence (23:31).
This eschatological vignette reveals the process by which the author of Jubilees has arrived at the Torah that permeates his account. The study of Torah, the study of the laws and searching of the commandments (Eth. hasasa = #rd and perhaps #qb) leads to revelation, the right understanding of the commandments and laws that are inscribed on the heavenly tablets. Different from 1 Enoch, which emphasized revelation through dream visions, this author focuses on the painstaking process of searching the scriptures for the less than obvious expression of God's will.28 T he claim of revelation is a theological judgment about the character and results of this human process.
As with 1 Enoch, it is impossible to state whether and to what extent the author of this text was a member of a defined, organized community. However, the narrative suggests that the author depicts a group of "exegetes," who come to certain conclusions about the right interpretation of the Torah and present them, in this text, as the true understanding of the Torah revealed at Sinai, exhorting Israel to obey them and find its salvation.29 Strikingly different from 1 Enoch, the author emphasizes Israel's status as the covenantal people and proscribes interaction with the gentiles and certainly the preaching of an eschatological kerygma that might lead to the salvation of the gentiles.
2.5. Revelation as a Polemical Category
As in 1 Enoch, the notion of revelation in Jubilees has polemical overtones. In the most general sense, Jubilees' revelations about the right interpretation and practice of the Torah are directed against a nation that has violated the Torah. In p art this may refer to outright rejection of the Torah, not least some forms of Hellenization.30 In other instances, however, revelations of the right interpretation of the Torah imply the existence of differing interpretations. Preeminently, this involves the observance of a different calendar. In other cases, the authors present halakhot contrary to currently accepted practice.31 The Sabbath laws are a case in point (50:6-13). Thus, even if the text of Jubilees does not explicitly refer to opposing teachers, who "lead many astray with their lies,&quo t; as does the Epistle of Enoch, it indicates disputes about the Torah and undergirds its own interpretation with the claim of revealed truth.
2.6. Enoch and Enochic Revelations in the Book of Jubilees
I have noted earlier that the Enochic corpus presents itself as primordial revelation that long preceded the Mosaic Torah, and that, by and large, it ignores the Mosaic Torah. It is striking, therefore, that the pseudo-Mosaic Jubilees gives the Enochic revelations special mention, and that the figure of Enoch has pride of place. Indeed, the author of Jubilees casts Moses as a figure like Enoch.32 Enoch's case is special; he appears prior to Abraham and Moses and thus his message is directed to all humanity. Moses is the preeminently prophet to Israel, the mediator of the covenant that constitutes Israel as God's chosen people and the mediator of t he Torah that is a constitutive part of that covenant. Nonetheless, the book may also attest an ambivalence about the figure of Moses that is not at odds with the viewpoint of the Enochic authors. The predictions of Deuteronomy are uttered in a speech t hat God directs to Moses, rather than as a part of Moses' testament to Israel. The content of the Pentateuch is placed in the mouth of an angel, who speaks to Moses. Of course, this verifies that the Pentateuch, written by Moses, is God's word; however, the explication of the revelatory process may be a way of undergirding Moses' authority in circumstances that require this. Such a hypothesis provides some continuity between 1 Enoch's ambivalence about the authority of the Mosaic Torah and the fact that Jubilees both embraces Enochic revelation and strongly affirms Mosaic authority.
3.0 The Nature and Function of Revelation in Some Qumranic Documents
In this section I shall discuss passages from that are generally considered to have been authored at Qumran or in a community closely related or ancestral to it. My purpose is not to investigate the possible historical connections between the auth ors of these texts and the authors of 1 Enoch and Jubilees, or, indeed, between the authors of the sectarian texts. My concern is the forms, functions, and social settings of their notions of revelation.
3.1. The Damascus Document
3.1.1. Column 1: An Account of the Formation of the Community of the End-Time
The prologue to the Damascus Document recounts the origins of the community in which it was generated. The setting is post-Exilic and is said to be 390 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, i.e., ca. 197 BCE. This is roughly contemporaneous with the time indicated for the reforming activities described in the Animal Vision and, probably, the Apocalypse of Weeks.33 The dominating factor in Israel's post Exilic life is the nation's guilt and the ongoing presence of the covenantal curses. This is paralleled in the Animal Vision, which describes the ongoing pollution of the cult and nation's continued oppression by the gentiles. CD 1 and the Apocalypse of Weeks both ignore the sixth century return from exile and the rebuilding of the Temple, but emphasize the continuity in Israel's state of sin. In the Apocalypse of Weeks this is described as the rise of a thoroughly perverse generation (1 Enoch 93:9). The construal of this community as the remnant of Israel and as the sprouting of a plant (CD 1:4, 7) parallels the notion of the chosen and the language of the plant in the Apocalypse of Weeks (93:10), and its character as the community of the end -time is evident (CD 1:11-12).34
For the author of CD 1:9, the Animal Vision (1 Enoch 89:94; 90:7), and the Apocalypse of Weeks, Israel's predicament is a function of its blindness. The corresponding remedy is revelation. In the Animal Vision this involves the opening of the eyes of the younger generation (1 Enoch 90:6). In the Apocalypse of Weeks (1 Enoch 93:10) it is the giving of sevenfold wisdom and knowledge. The author of CD 1 employs a string of expressions that construe the constituting events for this community as revelatory. God raises (Mwq) a Teacher of Righteousness to make them walk in the path of his heart, and he makes known ((dy) what he has done to the wicked, who have strayed fr om the path (1:11-13). The process leading to revelation is described as seeking (#rd, 1:11), as it is in Jub. 23:26.. The title "Teacher of Righteousness" parallels Enoch's title "Scribe of Righteous ness," and the metaphor of the two ways and the construal of obedience as "the path of righteousness" (1:16) have many counterparts in the Epistle of Enoch and appear in Jubilees 23:17, 18, 21, 26.
The opponents of the eschatological, enlightened community are those who seek slippery things (twqlxb w#rd), facile interpreters of the law (halakhot), who perpetrate lies. They are the counterparts of Enoch's deceitful teachers, who lead many astray with their lies (98:15) and whose activity builds a structure of deceit on foundations of violence (93:11; cf. CD 1:20- 21).35
3.1.2. CD 5:20-6:11: Revelation as the Interpretation of the Torah
This passage presents a scenario much like that in CD 1, albeit with a more detailed focus on the interpretation of the Torah. In the post-Exilic period, certain individuals prophesied deceit and caused Israel to stray from God's commandments. In response to this God raised up (Mwq) knowledgeable and wise men, who went to Damascus to probe the well of the Torah, under the leadership of the Searcher, i.e., Interpreter of the Torah (hrwth #rwd). All this happens with a view toward the end of time and the appearance of the one who teaches righteousness. The detailed focus on the interpretation of the Torah and the language of searching is most closely paralleled by the process in Jubilees 23 and the language in which it is described
In summary: these two passages in the Damascus Document depict Israel in a state of apostasy, marked by the activity of false teachers of the Torah. In this situation, the eschatological community of the righteous arises, constituted by the reveal ed, right interpretation of the law. The explicit references to a single individual figure differentiates these passages from their counterparts in 1 Enoch and Jubilees, although the plurality of persons, first mentioned in CD 1:8-10 and 5:2-7, corresponds to the plurality in the other texts.
3.2. The Community Rule
3.2.1. 1QS 8:1-15
Here we have another account of origins, with parallels to the previous texts, but important nuances of its own. It is a time of uncleanness. The council of the community is formed with a view toward atoning for the land and exacting judgment on the wicked, so that iniquity will be removed. The judicial functions of the council and the disappearance of wickedness is paralleled in the Apocalypses of Weeks (1 Enoch 93:10, 14).36 The description of the council as an everlasting planting, picks up a metaphor found in both CD 1 and 1 Enoch 93:10. The dominant metaphor of (the council of) the community as a building depicts its function as a kind of temple-implying the dysfunction of the Jerusalem sanctuary (cf. 1 Enoch 89:73; CD 4:15-5:15). Although it is rooted in a exegesis of Isaiah 28, with its counter-position of two structures, it finds a parallel in 1 Enoch
93:10 and its portrayal of a structure of deceit built on a foundation of violence. An important function of the community is the ongoing searching of the Torah (hrwth #rdm, 8:15 16). This interpretation is not explicitly construed as revelation, although it is connected with previous revelations. The eschatological character of the community is indicated by its judicial function, which is connected with the extirpation of iniquity.
Although this passage contains no reference to a cadre of opposing, false interpreters of the Torah, the notion appears in 1QS 9:3-11. A literary association between these two passages is indicated by the identical introductory words in 8:4 an d 9:3 (l)#ryb hl) twyhb) and by the common depicting of the community as a temple with atoning functions.37 Those out side the community are "men of a lie," who stray from the right path (9:8-10). The eschatological orientation of the community is evident in 9:11.
3.2.2. 1QS 5:1-13: The Revealed Interpretation of the Torah
This passage, which has a number of verbal parallels with 1QS 8 (cf. esp. 5:3-6 with
8:1-7), describes some of the regulations pertaining to persons who enter the covenant of the Community. A critical factor-perhaps the critical factor-in one's communal existence is the obligation "to return to the Torah of Moses in accordance with all that it commands with all his heart and all his soul, to everything that has been revealed (hlg) concerning it to the Sons of Zadok, the priests who observe the covenant and interpret (#rd) his will..." What distinguishes the members of the community and sustains their covenantal status is their proper observance of the Torah, which has been rightly interpreted through divine revelation. The outsiders, by contras t, have not sought (bqs) nor studied (#rd) the decrees of the covenant in order to learn ((dy) the hidden things (rts) in which they stray (h(t). Here revealed interpretation of the Torah is opposed not to false interpretation, but to a lack of enlightenment with respect to its interpretation and observance.
3.3. The Hodayot
The Hodayot, and especially the hymns of the teacher, are an important source for studying Qumranic notions of revelation. Here I can discuss only one of them.
3.3.1. 1QH 12(4):5-13(5):4: The Enlightened Teacher, his Disciples, and his Opponents
This text does not speak about revelation and revealed interpreters of the Torah; it is the first person account of one who claims to be such a recipient and dispenser of revelation. The reason for this hymn of thanksgiving is that fact that the Lord has brightened his face with his covenant. has enlightened him like the perfect dawn (12:1-6), and has made known to him ((dy) the wondrous divine mysteries (12:27). The author, in turn, has enlightened the face of the many (12:27) and poured the drink of knowledge (12:11). The content of revelation is, first of all, the interpretation of the Torah. God has engraved his Torah in the teacher's heart (12:10). Those "who walk in the path of your heart" have listened to him (12:24), and they will stand forever in God's presence and will be established forever (12:27-28). The author may also allude to other kinds of revelation. The "vision of knowledge" (t(d Nwz x) may refer to eschatological revelation, and God's "wondrous mysteries" (hk)lp yzr) may refer to the same or imply cosmological secrets.
Much of the hymn is taken up with criticism of the author's opponents, who ridicule and belittle him (12:8, 22). They change (rwm) the Torah, giving vinegar rather than the drink of knowledge (12:10-11). In addition, they claim to have their own visions (12:20). Overall, the text is marked by a number of references to their lies and deception (12:7, 9-10, 16, 20), employing a vocabulary now familiar from the Epistle of Enoch, CD 1, and 4QpNah (cf. n. 22).
Especially noteworthy is this author's use of language from Isaiah 52-53 to describe his rejection by his opponents (12:8, 22-23). These passages, with their pairing of persecution and vindication, and exaltation to judgment, are reminiscent o f Wisdom of Solomon 2 and 5, where the suffering and eschatological exaltation of the righteous sage are depicted in the language of Isaiah 52-53.38 Another application of Second Isaiah's servant material (chap. 50:4) to the inspired teacher appears in 1QH 15(7):10; 16(8):36.
The eschatological character of the teacher's revelations may be indicated by the reference to "the vision of knowledge" and the use of an eschatological interpretation of Isaiah 52-53 which attributed judicial functions to the teacher.
3.4. The Habakkuk Pesher
The early columns of this text feature the opposition between the Man of Lies and his followers and the Teacher of Righteousness. The point of contention on which the counter-position of truth and lies turns relates both to the interpretation of the Torah (5:9-12) and the Teacher's inspired interpretation of prophetic eschatology (2:5-10). The issue of revealed eschatology returns in the celebrated passage in 7:4-9. What is striking here, in 2:5- -10, and, indeed, in the genre of the text itself is the distinction between the revealed prophetic word (God spoke [rbd] to Habakkuk) and the revealed eschatological interpretation granted to the Teacher (God made known [(dy] to the Teacher). Different from 1 Enoch, who knows Scripture, but pretends that its allusions to it came through direct revelation, here one assumes the existence of the ancient inspired texts, but then moves on to claim secondary revelation as the basis f or its correct interpretation. What is not clear is the precise "mechanics" of this revelation-the manner and form in which it was received. The association of Torah and eschatology is explicit in 7:10-11; 8:1-3. It is those "men of trut h," who observe the Torah, in accordance with the interpretation of the Teacher who will endure in the last age and past muster in the coming judgment.
3.5. Revelation and Apocalypse in the Qumranic Texts
It remains to comment briefly on the genre apocalypse as it applies to texts authored at Qumran or in its immediate orbit.39 The topic is complex, an d I confine my comments (and, more often, questions) to two issues. Both relate to matters familiar from apocalypses, but found in texts that are not generically apocalypses.
3.5.1. Eschatology without Apocalypse
One category we need to examine is "apocalyptic eschatology." Should the term be used only for eschatology actually found in apocalypses, or can it refer to dualistic, mythic eschatologies like those found in apocalypses, even when these occur in texts that are not apocalypses? Two texts from Qumran provide examples. The eschatological scenario in 1QS 4:19-26 has many parallels with 1 Enoch 10:20 22. In fact, neither of these texts is formally an apocalypse. Should we refer to their eschatology as "apocalyptic," because it is similar to the eschatology found in apocalyptic sections of 1 Enoch and in other apocalypses? Three other questions come to mind. 1) Should we reserve the term "apocalyptic" for texts that c learly posit or presume revelation? 2) Should the term be applied more narrowly to texts whose revelatory base is an apocalypse? 3) Does the mythic, dualistic eschatology derive from a revelatory text, or more narrowly, an apocalypse, and does the author of this text find authority in such revelation?
We might address the same questions to three other examples which are found on fragmentary Qumran MSS.: 4QPseudo-Daniela (4Q243), 4QMessianic Apocalypse (4Q521), the so-called son of God text,40 and the text which Milik has identified as part of a Testament of Naphtali (4Q215), though it contains no verbal parallels to the Greek and medieval Hebrew testaments of Naphtali.41
3.5.2. Allusions to Heavenly Realia Described in Apocalyptic Texts
Two Qumran texts employ vocabulary found in the apocalypses and refer to heavenly entities described in the apocalypses. The first is 1QS 11:5-7: From the spring of his justice is my judgment, and from the wonderful mystery is the light in my heart. My eyes have observed what always is, wisdom that has been (hidden) from the sons of men, fountain of justice and well of strength, and spring of glory (hidden) from the assembly of flesh (Trans. García Martínez).
These words could have been spoken by an apocalypticist about the apocalyptic experience. Does the text attest the author's apocalyptic experience, or has the apocalyptic vocabulary been transformed to other ends, albeit with reference to heavenly realia? The same question about apocalyptic vocabulary can be applied to 1QH 12 (4):5-6, 18.
A second text is 1QH 9(1):20-27.42 Does it refer to the heavenly tablets described in 1 Enoch 81:1-4? Does the author presuppose and draw on su ch a text, and/or is he using the language metaphorically? The cosmological reference in the preceding lines (10-19), which are also reminiscent of some wisdom texts, should also be considered in an answer to the question.
As we address ourselves to these and similar texts and to the questions I have suggested, it will be worth considering what difference it makes when material at home in apocalypses occurs in non-apocalypses. Or vice versa. What difference doe s it make when one embodies references to hidden things-the eschatological future and cosmological realia-in texts of apocalyptic genre? To what extent does a discussion of these hidden things and the dualism presupposed by them take place prior to the rise of the apocalyptic genre? If it does, why, and to what end does the genre develop as an important staple in sectors of Second Temple Judaism? And why, given the existence of such apocalypse, is the material cited outside the genre?
I raise these questions to help us see more clearly the variegated character of notions of revelation and sharpen our use of the term apocalyptic.
3.6. Summary
The Qumranic sectarian writings make many claims to revelation and posit revealed interpretations of the Torah and prophetic eschatology as constitutive of their origins and status as the eschatological community of the righteous.43 At the same time, they criticize their opponents for being unenlightened and promulgating false and deceptive revelations. The choice between these two options is the difference between life and death, salvation and damnation.
4.0. Conclusions and Synthesis
4.1. The Content and Function of Revelation
4.1.1. Interpretation of the Torah
A revealed interpretation of Torah is central to all these texts and functions as the catalyst for the founding of the respective communities. The precise nature of the Torah varies, however. The authors of 1 Enoch deprecate, or at least ignore, the centrality of the Mosaic Torah and speak much more in the idiom of the Israelite sapiential tradition. Explicit Torah in these texts is limited to instruction about the solar calendar. Other explicit instruction about right behavior focuses on ethical rather than halakhic issues and takes the form of prophetic Woes hurled against the wicked who oppress the righteous. Jubilees celebrates the Mosaic Torah, presenting it with explicit halakhic concerns and making little use of sapiential vocabulary.
Nonetheless, it celebrates Enoch as the recipient of astronomical and calendrical revelation.
For the Qumranic authors, the Mosaic Torah is central, critical, and constitutive of the status as the true Israel. The solar calendar is also crucial. More than in Jubilees, they employ the sapiential metaphor of the two ways to describe obedience and disobedience to the Torah.
4.1.2. Eschatology
Eschatological instruction is more prominent in 1 Enoch than is legal and ethical instruction, and therefore one finds major parts of this text expressed in prophetic forms and idiom. The precipitating cause for the writing of this literature is t he conviction that the judgment is imminent, and that conviction is expressed in almost every major section of 1 Enoch. These eschatological revelations, though they speak the biblical idiom, are presented not as interpretations of the prophets, but as direct revelation. Of course, the pseudo-Enochic identity of the author precludes reference to the prophets. But the point is that these authors chose not to write commentaries on the prophets, but rather to present claims of direct revelation.
In Jubilees, eschatological revelations are attributed, first, to the ancient testimony of Enoch. Secondarily, they are attributed to Moses, albeit in a way that clearly presupposes the text of Deuteronomy. For this author, the Pentateuch is a text to be interpreted, even if he does so by positing a Mosaic revelation parallel to the Pentateuch. Thus scriptural authority and pseudonymity go hand-in-hand.
In the Qumranic sectarian writings we are drawn into the life of an identifiable community with a high eschatological consciousness. Doubtless this was fed by the revelations found in the Enochic and Danielic texts in their possession, and the y may have composed interpretations of these texts (cf. 4Q180-181). Nonetheless, their eschatology is explicitly tied to an interpretation of the prophetic texts, which is given expression in the pesharim. Specific references to the Teacher of Righteous ness state that his eschatological consciousness was fed by an interpretation of the sacred prophetic texts. The evident waning of interest in the Enoch texts suggested by the dating of the MSS. is perhaps the other side of the coin.44 Perhaps both attest the more general fact that the prophetic texts are gaining/have gained effective canonical status in Israel.
These facts notwithstanding, we should not isolate into watertight compartments immediate apocalyptic eschatological revelation and revealed interpretation of prophetic eschatology. Two texts that we have not discussed point in this direction and may provide a bridge between the two approaches. The author of Daniel 9 claims to have had an epiphany of the angel Gabriel, who bases his eschatological prediction on an interpretation of Jeremiah. In a different form with parallel function, the author of the Testament of Moses presents a full- blown pseudepigraphic eschatological revelation that is, in effect a rewriting of the last chapters of Deuteronomy.45 It claims to be a secret, final revelation granted to Moses on the eve of his departure, but its eschatology is presented with the structure and in the vocabulary of Deuteronomy 29-33. Here, different from Daniel 9, pseudepigraphic revelation shapes the text and the interpretation of scripture is implicit rather than explicit.
4.1.3. The Forms and Means of Revelation
These previous considerations warn us not to make genre the driving factor in a discussion of revelation in the Israelite texts of the Greco-Roman period. Claims of direct, apocalyptic revelation are compatible with explicit reference to prophetic interpretation or its de facto presence. The same applies to the interpretation of the Torah. Jubilees has it both ways, claiming to be a revelation given by an angel and, at the same time, alluding to the process of "searching" the commandments and the laws, a process of which we hear more in the Damascus Document.
Once we grant the coincidence or co-existence of direct pseudepigraphic revelation and revealed interpretation of authoritative texts, it becomes important to ask: why the different forms. If people like the Searcher of the Torah and the Teach er of Righteousness were claiming revelation for their interpretations of the Torah and the prophets, what were the necessity, specific function, and setting of pseudepigraphic revelations about the Torah and the Prophets?
4.1.4. Function and Historical and Social Setting
The authors of both the apocalyptic writings and the Qumranic texts claim revelation in order to authenticate their self-understanding as leaders of the eschatological community of the chosen, which stands in contradistinction to the rest of unenlightened Israel and, in some cases, to other groups who also authenticated their self-understanding with claims of revelation. Thus claims to revelation undergird the authority of the leaders and support community identity.
The precise historical realities behind these texts remain a mystery that we strain to discern darkly through a glass. Do the accounts of the Animal Vision, the Apocalypse of Weeks, CD 1 and 5, and 1QS 8 all point to the same event, or have old traditions about the foundation of an eschatological community been reused to describe the formation of a new community?46 What are the historical points of continuity between the communities that generated the Enochic texts and the Qumranic sectarian documents.47 Common Enochic authorship of texts that successively interpret one another indicates historical channels of transmission. The centrality of Enochic revelation in the Book of Jubilees again reflects historical continuity, and the presence of the Enoch materials and Jubilees at Qumran requires a historical explanation. Happily, our situation is different from so much biblical scholarship. We are not working with texts gotten from various places which have striking similarities that suggest historical continuity. Here is one of the significant aspects of the Qumran discoveries. All of this material was found together, in one place. Now we need to ask: what was the historical road that brought the Enochic and Jubilees materials to Qumran? Recent refinements in the discussion of the history of t he Qumran community and its relationship to the Essenes known from other sources add another part of the broader picture. As we address ourselves to these questions, we shall flesh out a more detailed picture of the history of Second Temple Judaism.
In addition to the history of specific groups in Judaism, our texts offer a better understanding of the institutions that ordered it. I think that behind 1 Enoch we can see people called scribes and "the wise." We need to relate the se to the maskilim of Daniel, who also wrote pseudepigraphic apocalypses and "led many to righteousness" through their instruction in the Torah or, at least, their religious exhortations. And what of Qumran? How does the maskil of 1QS 3 relate to the Danielic maskilim, and is the Teacher of Righteousness similar to pseudo-Enoch, the Scribe of Righteousness. Which of these people were priests, or how did they function in other roles related to the priesthood?48
4.2. Implications for Broader Studies
The conclusions of this paper have implications for the broader study of Judaism and our understanding of the rise of Christianity. Here it is possible only to present a few comments and to pose some questions.
4.2.1. Judaism in the Greco-Roman Period
It will be useful to probe the texts contemporary to 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Qumran documents with a view toward their expressed attitudes about revelation whether these be positive or negative.
The Wisdom of ben Sira is an interesting case in point. His description of the activity of the scribe (chap. 39) indicates important parallels to some of our texts. For him the Torah and the Prophets are scripture, which he "searches"; (39:1, 3, 5) However, his interpretation of the Torah, cast in sapiential form, looks very different from Jubilees. His attitude toward the prophets and prophecies is complex. Though their writings are effectively canonical, he speaks of his own interpretation as pouring forth wisdom like prophecy and sees himself as a mediator of the life giving power of the Torah (24:32-33; 39:6). How does this relate to our texts?
4.2.2. Continuity and Discontinuity with the Persian Period
Seeking out the continuities and discontinuities between the texts of the Greco Roman period and the biblical books of the Persian period is one of the most important agendas to have developed from the discovery and interpretation of the Scrolls an d the related study of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. Yet the surface has scarcely been scratched. Such study has important ramifications for an understanding of the ongoing history of Israel and its religion. It also has a practical aspect. Clarification of these continuities and discontinuities will help us to lay to a deservedly uneasy rest the Christian specter of a legalistic Judaism.
What are the similarities and dissimilarities between the notions of revelation we have been studying and those found in the post-Exilic prophets? Some of our authors act and talk like prophets. How does this tally with their "prophetic"; predecessors? What are the connections between the scribes of the Hellenistic period and Ezra the scribe? Who were the people who collected, assembled, and began to interpret the texts were would become scripture, and what are the implications of the activity?
Careful study of these and related issues will probably reveal more continuity from the late Persian to the Hellenistic period than common scholarly wisdom, expressed in the handbooks, has allowed.
4.2.3. Early Christianity
All of this impinges in a fundamental way on the study of early Christianity. Into what kind of categories did John and Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, Paul, and the authors of the gospel material fit? In what respects can we discover continuity with Judaism of the Greco-Roman period? In what ways does the spectrum of early Christian attitudes about the Torah relate to the matters we have been discussing? Can we find counterparts in our texts to the New Testament's propensity to quote and cite scripture, on the one hand, and to argue and proclaim authoritatively without reference to Scripture, on the other hand? What do we make of the parallel between: a) the revealed Enochic wisdom that constitutes the eschatological community of the chosen and i s to be proclaimed to all the sons of the whole earth; and b) the early Christian self-understanding and its proclamation of the gospel to all the nations? These issues touch the heart of much that has been written about the discontinuity between Judaism of the Greco-Roman period and its Israelite predecessors, one the one hand, and its Christian successors, on the other hand.
NOTES
1. See, however, Florentino García Martínez, Qumran and Apocalyptic: Studies on the Aramaic Texts from Qumran (STDJ 9; Leiden: Brill, 1992).
2. John J. Collins, "The Jewish Apocalypses," Semeia 14 (1979) 21-59.
3. George W. E. Nickelsburg, "The Apocalyptic Message of 1 Enoch 92-105," CBQ 39 (1977) 309-28.
4. Ibid., "The Apocalyptic Construction of Reality of 1 Enoch," in Mysteries and Revelations: Apocalyptic Studies since the Uppsala Colloquium, ed. John J. Collins and James H. Charlesworth (JSP Supp. 9; Sheffiel d: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991) 51-64.
5. George W. E. Nickelsburg, "The Epistle of Enoch and the Qumran Literature," JJS 33 (1982 = Essays in Honour of Yigael Yadin) 334-43. My translations presume comparative textual criticism between the Gr eek and Ethiopic texts, on which see George W. E. Nickelsburg, "Enoch 97-104: A Study of the Greek and Ethiopic Texts," in Armenian and Biblical Studies, ed. Michael E. Stone (Suppl. Vol. to Sion 1; Jerusalem: St. James, 1976) 90- 156.
6. Ibid., 94, n. 23.
7. Such an application of 99:10 appears in 82:4.
8. For a passage that may suggest the notion of vegetarianism here, cf. Ps 104:10ff.
9. On the form of this text, see H. Ludin Jansen, Die Henochgestalt: Eine vergleichende religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung (Oslo: Dybwad, 1939) 114 17.
10. See Nickelsburg, "Apocalyptic Message," 315-18.
11. Michael E. Stone, "The Book of Enoch and Judaism in the Third Century B.C.E.," CBQ 40 (1978) 479-92.
12. Here the Paradise of Righteousness is the place of the tree of wisdom.
13. On the relation of this passage to other parts of 1 Enoch, see George W. E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature Between the Bible and the Mishnah (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981) 150-51; and Randal A. Argall, 1 Enoch and S irach: A Comparative Literary and Conceptual Analysis of the Themes of Revelation, Creation, and Judgment (SBLEJL 8; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995) 257-65.
14. Nickelsburg, The Epistle of Enoch, 343-45.
15. Translation is based on the Greek text of 5:8.
16. See Ferdinand Dexinger, Henochs Zehnwochenapokalypse und offene Probleme der Apokalyptikforschung (SPB 29; Leiden: Brill, 1977) 141.
17. J.T. Milik (The Books of Enoch [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976] 266, 269) fills the lacuna in 4QEng 1 4:20 to read "doers." I follow the Ethiopic text, albeit reading plural rather than singular.
18. On 1 Enoch as scripture, see George W. E. Nickelsburg, "Scripture in 1 Enoch and 1 Enoch as Scripture," Texts and Contexts: Biblical Texts in their Textual and Situational Contexts, Essays in Honor of Lars Hartma n, ed. Tord Fornberg and David Hellholm (Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1995) 333-54. On 1 Enoch as revealed, saving wisdom, see George W. E. Nickelsburg, "Revealed Wisdom as a Criterion for Inclusion and Exclusion: From Jewish Sectarianis m to Early Christianity," in To See Ourselves as Others See Us, ed., Jacob Neusner and Ernest S. Frerichs (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985) 73-91.
19. Nickelsburg, "Scripture in 1 Enoch, " 335-42.
20. At the end of chapter 16, Enoch is in the presence of the angels in the heavenly throne room, where he has ascended in a dream vision. The beginning of Enoch's journeys in 17:1 indicates that he journeys began at that point. Cf., however 81:5, which suggests a physical return to his house.
21. On this issue, see Martha Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) 110-14.
22. D. S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964) 132-39.
23. On the possible connection between Enoch's account of his ascent and the later mystical texts, see briefly George W. E. Nickelsburg, "Enoch, Levi, and Peter, Recipients of Revelation in Upper Galilee," JBL 10 0 (1981) 581-82.
24. Lars Hartman, Asking for a Meaning: A Study of 1 Enoch 1-5 (ConBib NT Series 12; Lund: Gleerup, 1979) 22-26.
25. Cf. esp. 91:1 with Deut 31:28; 91:3 with Deut 31:19, 21, 26; and 32:1; 91:8, 11 with Deut 29:18, 20.
26. Only Jubilees 23 is included in Collins, "Jewish Apocalypses," 32-33.
27. George W. E. Nickelsburg, "The Bible Rewritten and Expanded," in Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period, Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum 2:2, ed., Michael E. Stone (Assen: Van Gorcum / Ph iladelphia: Fortress, 1983) 97-101.
28. I read the use of the verb "seek" or "search" to refer to a process of looking for something that is not obvious. The verb is used frequently with reference to books and texts.
29. In his paper in this volume, "Pseudepigraphy and Group Formation in Second Temple Judaism," John Collins is skeptical as to whether this text refers to a specific group. I use the term in lower case, presuming a pl urality of students of the Torah rather than the effort of a single person.
30. Nickelsburg, "The Bible Rewritten and Expanded," 102-03.
31. Ibid., 99-100.
32. Enoch learned his history, astronomy, and cosmology under the tutelage of angels, just as Moses was learning the chronology and course of history and the eternal Torah from the angel of the presence; and Enoch wrote down ever ything as a testimony (Jub. 4:18, 19, 24; 7:39; 10:17) just as Moses was writing his account as a testimony (1:1;, 4, 9; 2:33; 3:14).
33. On the problems of the chronology of CD 1, see Collins, "Pseudepigraphy," nn. 11 and 12.
34. On the imagery of the planting in these texts, see Patrick Tiller, "The 'Eternal Planting' in the Dead Sea Scrolls," Dead Sea Discoveries (forthcoming).
35. Similar language appears in 4QpNahum and 4QpPsa; see Nickelsburg, "Epistle of Enoch," 337.
36. For the notion of eschatological cleansing, albeit by a divine agent, cf. 1 Enoch 10:20-22, a passage with significant parallels to 1QS 4:17-22.
37. The parallel between the two passages does not appear in 4QSd 2 2.
38. George W. E. Nickelsburg, Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism (HTS 26; Cambridge: Harvard University; London: Oxford University, 1972) 58-66. 1QH 12:8-12 parallels scene 1 in the story (Wis Sol 2). 1QH 12:21-23 parallels scene two (Wis Sol 5). Cf. also 1QH 12:23-25 with Wis Sol 5:5-7.
39. On the issue of apocalypses at Qumran, see Collins, "Pseudepigraphy."
40. On these two texts, see García Martínez, 137-49; 162-79.
41. On this text, see Esther G. Chazon, "A Case of Mistaken Identity: Testament of Naphtali (4Q215) and Time of Righteousness (4Q215)," in the Provo volume.
42. George W. E. Nickelsburg, "1 Enoch and Qumran Origins: The State of the Question and Some Prospects for Answers, "in Society of Biblical Literature 1986 Seminar Papers, ed. Kent Harold Richards (Atlanta: Schol ars Press, 1986) 347.
43. For another aspect of Qumranic claims to revelation, see the paper by Paul Mandel in this volume.
44. On the dating of the MSS., see Milik, Books of Enoch, 5-6.
45. On the Testament of Moses as a rewritten form of the last chapters of Deuteronomy, see George W. E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature, 80-81.
46. See Tiller, "'Eternal Planting'."
47. For some helpful distinctions, see Collins, "Pseudepigraphy."
48. On the possible priestly identity of the Enochic writers, see Benjamin G. Wright, "Putting the Puzzle Together: Some Suggestions Concerning the Social Location of the Wisdom of Ben Sira," Society of Biblical Lite rature 1996 Seminar Papers (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996) 133-49.
Please send comments or inquiries to the Orion Center at
msdss@mscc.huji.ac.il
