Ritual, Order and the Construction of an Audience in 1 Enoch 1–36
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Drawing on performance theory and ritual theory, this essay argues that the authors of 1 En. 1–36 artfully draw the audience into their imagined world. In chs. 1–5, the text employs a variety of ritualized speech forms from the audience’s habitus in order to tap into and form the members’ dispositions. Once the narrative of the Fall of the Watchers commences, the audience can find its place within the narrative through the ritual actions reported in the text. Thereby, the experience of encountering the text also gives shape to the audience’s lived experiences.
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3
G. W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 129–34 suggests the following divisions: Superscription (1:1); Introduction (1:2–3b); Theophany for Judgment (1:3c–9; Accusation (2:1–5:5); Consequences of the Judgment (5:5–9).
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4
M. E. F. Bloch, Ritual, History and Power: Selected Papers in Anthropology (London: Athlone Press, 1989); T. Asad, Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993); R. A. Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); C. M. Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York, n.y.: Oxford University Press, 1992); idem, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York, n.y.: Oxford University Press, 1997). So, Bell (Ritual Theory, 195) claims, “[R]itual does not disguise the exercise of power, nor does it refer, express, or symbolize anything outside itself. In other words, rituals do not refer to politics . . . they are politics. Ritual is the thing itself. It is power; it acts and it actuates.” N. D. Mitchell, Liturgy and the Social Sciences (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical, 1999).
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5
D. Holland et al., Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), 19–65.
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8
See J. T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumrân Cave 4 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 139–40. Milik notices that the script is archaic and may resemble scripts from the third and second centuries bce.
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16
J. L. Austin, How to do Things with Words (ed. J. O. Urmonson and M. Sbisà; 2d ed.; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975).
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21
Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity, 52–106.
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22
E.g., P. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (trans. R. Nice; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 82–84.
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29
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 147; Hartman, Asking for a Meaning, 5, 32–38, 44–48, 132–36.
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31
Ibid., 237–8 (quote, p. 237).
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32
Ibid., 244. Further, Levine notices that later Jewish texts, e.g., Sifre on Numbers and Deuteronomy, tie the blessing to “the wish for well-being in the after-life,” an interesting feature given that 1 Enoch here speaks of the dawn of a new era. The Aaronic Blessing even appears inscribed on two amulets found in a fifth-century bce burial cave at Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. See J. Naveh, “Fragments of an Aramaic Magic Book from Qumran,” iej 48 (1998): 252–61 (252–53); J. Naveh and S. Shaked, Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Hebrew University Press / Leiden: Brill, 1985); A. Yardeni, “Remarks on the Priestly Blessing on Two Ancient Amulets from Jerusalem,” vt 41 (1991): 176–85.
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33
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 161. He suggests that the blessing of “joy” may come from Isa 65:17–19.
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34
See G. W. E. Nickelsburg, Resurrection, Immortality and Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism and Early Christianity (2d ed.; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006), 33–35.
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36
See A. Kirk, “Social and Cultural Memory,” in Memory, Tradition and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity (ed. A. Kirk and T. Thatcher; Atlanta, Ga.: sbl, 2005), 1–24. B. Schwartz, “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire: Social Memory and History,” in Memory and Identity in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: A Conversation with Barry Schwartz (ed. T. Thatcher; Atlanta, Ga.: sbl, 2014), 7–37.
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38
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 148. He lists the following texts: Josh 9:15; 1 Macc 6:49, 58; T. Jud 7:7; Ant. 15.5.2.124; cf. Job 25:2; Isa 27:5.
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40
Rappaport, Religion and Ritual in the Making of Humanity, 114–17.
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44
R. A. Werline, “The Curses of the Covenant Renewal Ceremony in 1QS 1:16–2:19 and the Prayer of the Condemned,” in For a Later Generation: The Transformation of Tradition in Israel, Early Judaism and Early Christianity (ed. R. A. Argall, B. A. Bow, and R. A. Werline; Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity, 2000), 280–88.
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45
Hartman, Asking for a Meaning, 66–71, 81–95. Hartman thoroughly investigates the place of the command “to consider,” along with creation themes within the rîb pattern and covenant.
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47
Cf. L. T. Stuckenbruck, “Overlapping Ages at Qumran and ‘Apocalyptic’ in Pauline Theology,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls and Pauline Literature (ed. J.-S. Rey; Leiden: Brill, 2014), 310–26.
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Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity, 119–24.
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51
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 187. 208. See also P. D. Miller, The Cried to the Lord: The Form and Theology of Biblical Prayer (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994), 38.
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Ritual, Order and the Construction of an Audience in 1 Enoch 1–36
In: Dead Sea DiscoveriesSearch for other papers by Rodney A. Werline in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Drawing on performance theory and ritual theory, this essay argues that the authors of 1 En. 1–36 artfully draw the audience into their imagined world. In chs. 1–5, the text employs a variety of ritualized speech forms from the audience’s habitus in order to tap into and form the members’ dispositions. Once the narrative of the Fall of the Watchers commences, the audience can find its place within the narrative through the ritual actions reported in the text. Thereby, the experience of encountering the text also gives shape to the audience’s lived experiences.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 189 | 23 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 203 | 5 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 62 | 10 | 1 |