Essays on the Book of Enoch and Other Early Jewish Texts and Traditions

469 Pages·2008·2.73 MB·English

by  Michael A. Knibb

Essays on the Book of Enoch and Other
Early Jewish Texts and Traditions
Studia in Veteris
Testamenti Pseudepigrapha
Series Editors
H. J. de Jonge
M. A. Knibb
J.-C. Haelewyck
J. Tromp
VOLUME 22
Essays on the Book of Enoch
and Other Early Jewish
Texts and Traditions
By
Michael A. Knibb
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Knibb, Michael A. (Michael Anthony), 1938–
Essays on the Book of Enoch and other early Jewish texts and traditions / by
Michael A. Knibb.
p. cm. — (Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha ; v. 22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-16725-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Ethiopic book of Enoch—
Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Apocryphal books (Old Testament)—Criticism,
interpretation, etc. 3. Dead Sea scrolls. I. Title. II. Series.
BS1830.E7K55 2008
229’.913—dc22
2008042418
ISSN 0169-8125
ISBN 978 90 04 16725 4
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printed in the netherlands
For
Christine

CONTENTS
Preface ......................................................................................... ix
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... xi
Abbreviations .............................................................................. xv
Introduction ................................................................................ 1
PART ONE
ESSAYS ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH
I. The Ethiopic Book of Enoch in Recent Research ................ 17
II. The Book of Enoch or Books of Enoch? The Textual
Evidence for 1 Enoch ......................................................... 36
III. Christian Adoption and Transmission of Jewish
Pseudepigrapha: The Case of 1 Enoch ............................. 56
IV. Interpreting the Book of Enoch: Refl ections on a
Recently Published Commentary ..................................... 77
V. The Book of Enoch in the Light of the Qumran
Wisdom Literature ............................................................ 91
VI. The Use of Scripture in 1 Enoch 17–19 .......................... 111
VII. The Structure and Composition of the Parables
of Enoch .............................................................................. 124
VIII. The Date of the Parables of Enoch: A Critical Review ..... 143
IX. The Translation of 1 Enoch 70:1: Some Methodological
Issues ................................................................................. 161
X. The Text-Critical Value of the Quotations from
1 Enoch in Ethiopic Writings ............................................ 176
PART TWO
ESSAYS ON EARLY JEWISH TEXTS AND TRADITIONS
XI. The Exile in the Literature of the Intertestamental
Period ................................................................................ 191
XII. Exile in the Damascus Document ......................................... 213
viii contents
XIII. Jubilees and the Origins of the Qumran Community .... 232
XIV. Perspectives on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha:
The Levi Traditions ....................................................... 255
XV. Apocalyptic and Wisdom in 4 Ezra .............................. 271
XVI. Isaianic Traditions in the Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha .............................................................. 289
XVII. Messianism in the Pseudepigrapha in the Light
of the Scrolls .................................................................. 307
XVIII. Eschatology and Messianism in the Dead
Sea Scrolls ...................................................................... 327
XIX. The Septuagint and Messianism: Problems and
Issues .............................................................................. 349
XX. Temple and Cult in Apocryphal and
Pseudepigraphal Writings from before the
Common Era ................................................................. 367
XXI. Temple and Cult in the Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha: Future Perspectives ............................ 388
Bibliography of Publications by Michael A. Knibb .................. 407
Reference Index .......................................................................... 413
Author Index ............................................................................... 444
PREFACE
The twenty-one essays that have been brought together in this collec-
tion date from the period 1976 to 2007 and were originally published
in a wide range of journals, Festschriften, conference proceedings and
thematic collections. They have been copy-edited so that they now follow
a consistent style, but otherwise have been reprinted without change
apart from the correction of one or two misprints. In the Introduction
I have attempted to put each essay in its context, and in the case of
some of the essays I have referred to more recent publications that
seemed to be of particular relevance to the subject. But I have not
done this for all the essays, and on the whole I have thought it best to
leave the essays as they stood.
I would like to express my warm thanks to Henk Jan de Jonge,
Jean-Claude Haelewyck and Johannes Tromp, my fellow editors in the
series Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha, for encouraging
me to publish this collection and for very willingly accepting it into
the series; to Dr Trudi Darby, Deputy Head of Administration (Arts &
Sciences) and Deputy College Secretary, King’s College London, who
very kindly gave up her leisure to copy-edit the essays for me; and to
Loes Schouten, Ivo Romein and Ellen Girmscheid at Brill for much
advice and help.
The essays included in this volume refl ect the benefi t of conversations
with friends and colleagues over many years. They are too numer-
ous to mention them all by name here, but I would like to take this
opportunity to acknowledge the debt I owe to Rien de Jonge and to
the late Peter Ackroyd and Adam van der Woude from whom I have
learnt so much.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife Christine for all she has done
to make possible the writing of these as of other studies.
King’s College London
May 2008 Michael Knibb