1 Enoch 1. By George W. E.
Nickelsburg.
This is the first, full-length,
critical commentary on the crucial, lengthy, and daunting book of Enoch. Nickelsburg, a long-time professor at the
Enoch was composed in several editions over four centuries (3rd century BCE to 1st century CE), probably originally in Aramaic, but its best text is in an Ethiopic translation of a Greek translation of that original. It has five major divisions: 1. the Book of the Watchers (chs. 1-36); 2. the Book of Parables (chs. 37-71); 3. The Book of the Luminaries (chs. 72-82); 4. The Dream Visions (chs. 83-90); and 5. The Epistle of Enoch (chs. 92-105). Chapters 106-108 are an appendix. Books 1, 4, and 5 are covered in this volume; a second volume by Nickelsburg will treat books 2 and 3, with the latter section written by James VanderKam. The Book of Parables is particularly important for students of the New Testament because of its speculations about the Son of Man, although the relationship of this section of Enoch to the New Testament is uncertain.
Enoch is a blend of prophetic and sapiential streams, with far less attention to the Sinai covenant and Torah. Salvation is linked to possession of, and conduct in accord with, right knowledge, knowledge which had been revealed to Enoch (the pseudonym behind which the community of authors stands). Nickelsburg summarizes the book’s message as follows: “The authors’ revelations are the salvific means by which the readers bridge and overcome the dualisms that are the very nature of reality as they understand and experience it.
Book 1 tells the story of the watchers who revolted (cf. Gen 6:1-4) and it foretells God’s judgment at the end of time. Chapters 17-19 and 20-36 describe Enoch’s cosmic journeys in which he visits the places of judgment. In Book 4 Enoch tells his son Methusaleh about the coming deluge and the history of the world from Adam to the final judgment. The present form of Book 4 is contemporary with the book of Daniel. Book 5 is an epistle written by Enoch for his descendants, especially the righteous at the end of days, urging them to stand fast.
Nickelsburg treats thoroughly and authoritatively questions like God and humanity in Enoch, the relationship of Enoch to Israelite and non-Israelite thought, the social contexts of the various editions of the book, and its relationship to subsequent literature, including the New Testament and the Fathers, and modern study of Enoch since the book’s rediscovery in the west in the late 18th century.
This commentary is a monument to the career of its author, written over a thirty year period, and drawing on more than twenty of his own earlier publications. Nickelsburg deserves our deep thanks and congratulations, to which we add a prayer for strength and Godspeed in completing volume 2.
Ralph W. Klein