Enoch In Jewish And Early Christian Tradition
In: The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New TestamentSearch for other papers by Christopher Rowland in
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Abstract
The enigmatic reference to Enoch in Gen 5:24 produced a welter of speculation about his person and a range of literature attributed to him. The reference in Genesis already suggests that at the time of the redaction of this chapter during the Exilic period speculation about Enoch was well established. The discovery of the Enoch fragments from Qumran have improved our insight in the wide range of speculation about the figure of Enoch in ancient Judaism. Enoch appears on the boundary between angels and humans, with access to divine secrets which enable him to have an authentic perspective on the world and God's purposes for it. The links between the Enoch corpus and the New Testament are perhaps most apparent in the accounts of Jesus' ascension in Luke- Acts. John of Patmos's role as scribe to the angels of the churches parallels Paul's career as a writer of epistles.