The Sharp Word in 1 Enoch and Hebrews

I recall, but cannot pinpoint at the moment, Bauckham dismissing the importance of the Enochic corpus for early Christology (he was speaking of the famous scene of the enthronement of the Chosen One (later revealed as Enoch himself; 71:14) who will judge as "the exception who proves the rule" that no one other figure than God is enthroned and has rulership fo the cosmos. I tend to think the Enochic literature had a much further readership (or hearership), however. Clearly early Christians were reading Enochic books and considered it authoritative (see Jude), and, before the discovery of Aramaic fragments at Qumran, we only knew of 1 and 2 Enoch through Christian preservation, through the Ethiopic and Slavonic Churches respectively.

There is a passage in this very same Book of Parables in 1 Enoch, where the Chosen One is enthroned the reminds me of Hebrews.

First let's take a look at 1 Enoch 62:2:

And the Lord of Spirits upon the throne of his glory,

and the spirit of righteousness was poured upon him.

And the word of his mouth will slay all sinners,

and all the unrighteous will perish from his presence.

So we have the enthronement of the Chosen One, who is an exalted human figure, and his "word" slaying sinners and the unrighteous.

If you take this in reverse order, you might have Hebrews 4:12-16:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (RSV)

The passage then continues with the confidence a follower of Jesus has, since Jesus is the great high priest enthroned at the right hand of God. Enthronement is a preoccupation of Hebrews, and, in fact, the famous prologue commences this entire homily with Jesus' enthronement as Son. In chapter 4's enthronement passage coming on the heels of an extended meditation on unfaithfulness, the language of this sharp sword of the word of God, a scene of judgment in which Jesus' followers have hope while the unfaithful do not, sounds like an embellished expression of the slaying word of God of the enthroned Chosen One in 1 Enoch. Do we explain this similarity by the author of Hebrews appropriating an Enochic idea and elaborating it with great literary skill, claiming that this Chosen One is not Enoch, but Jesus? Or does everyone just think that the word of God in a scene of judgment in which a secondary figure exacts that judgment is sword-like and can slay? It is possible, but all of those elements only occur in these two passages so far as I know (although I would love for others to point out others for me). Whether independently expressing the same idea or not, when seeing these passages side by side, I must make an aesthetic judgment and note the much greater literary quality of Hebrews--this author was truly a gifted writer. Very few could express sword division more beautifully.

And Enoch Peed His Pants

As I am rereading 1 Enoch in George Nickelsburg's translation (since I cannot read Ge'ez), one thing I am noticing (and something I had noticed before on a more limited basis) is when Enoch is seized with fear and falls on his face. The first time this happens he ascends through the "houses" of the heavenly temple and comes into the inner chamber. At that point:

Fear enveloped me, and trembling seized me,

and I was quaking and trembling, and I fell upon my face

(1 Enoch 14:13-14)

This passage in the Book of Watchers, in fact, follows an important part of the typical prophetic call narrative, where a prophet is called, has a vision, or something, and acts in some way to express unworthiness. Like Enoch here, for example, Ezekiel constantly falls on his face and is even picked back up by his hair! But one thing I do not recall ever seeing before in the typical scene of unworthiness or humiliation of the prophetic figure is what happens to Enoch in the Book of Parables:

And great trembling stook hold of me, and fear seized me,

and my loins were crushed, and my kidneys were loosened,

and I fell on my face.

(1 Enoch 60:3)

For the most part, this follows the previous prophetic call humiliation. Enoch again experiences fear and trembling and falls on his face. But, unlike before, his "loins were crushed" and his "kidneys were loosened." I don't know if I should speculate on the crushing of the loins, but perhaps we should assume and hope that he had already begat Methusaleh before this vision! I am unaware of another prophetic/visionary figure who claims his loins were crushed. Ouch! In addition, I am unaware of any other visionary claiming his kidneys were loosened. If we were doing a "dynamic equivalent" translation, we could say that Enoch peed his pants. How embarrassing it must be to come before the "Head of Days" (60:2) with a sharp pain in a wet crotch!

Where Wisdom Dwells (NOT!)

Wisdom did not find a place where she might dwell,

so her dwelling was in heaven.

Wisdom went forth to dwell among the sons of men,

but she did not find a dwelling.

Wisdom returned to her place,

and sat down among the angels.

Iniquity went forth from her chambers,

those whom she did not seek she found,

and she dwelt among them

like rain in a desert

and dew in a thirsty land.

(1 Enoch 42:1-3; trans. Nickelsburg).

What a burn for Sirach 24! In fact, George Nickelsburg calls this passage a parody of Sir. 24, where Wisdom searches the whole earth for a place sto stay and lodges in Israel on Zion:

"And he [the Creator] said, "Make your dwelling in Jacob,

and in Israel receive your inheritance." (Sir. 24:8)

Once Wisdom returns to heaven, Iniquity goes out. Iniquity clearly offers some sort of consolation as "rain" and "dew," but supposedly these would be temporary salves, pleasures that lead away from the eternal Wisdom, who, unlike in Sirach, can only be found in heaven. But who are those Inquiry found but did not seek? Is it that Iniquity seeks no one, but people seek her? Or, if the first part is a parody of Sir. 24, is this taking its lead from Prov. 9:13-18? Perhaps teh entire structure of this brief passage resembles all of Proverbs 9, since it too begins with Wisdom's place and ends with the "foolish woman," the counterrepresentation to Wisdom as Iniquity is here.

Yay for Codex Sinaiticus!

As nearly every other biblioblogger has noted already, the Codex Sinaiticus is now fully online (it seems). It originally went online last July 24 (2008), showing Mark (and I think one or two other biblical books). It has taken this long to get it fully in operation. Now you can read the entire thing.

Here is a snippet from the homepage:

Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book.

It is really a fantastic site and gives you much important information (in addition to the digitized photographs of the codex itself).

The Church of Twitter

The NYTimes is running a short article on religion and technology: how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups have embraced facebook, twitter, etc., but with some tensions.

It is fairly well-known that evangelical Christian groups are more technologically savvy with other religious groups lagging behind. Rick Warren and Joel Olsteen were some of the first (well-known) religious figures to be found on these social networking sites. Last year, the Pope started a facebook page.

I liked how the article opened on a passion play:

Things went smoothly for the first hour of the Twitter experiment at Trinity Church in Manhattan on Good Friday in April.

While hundreds of worshipers watched the traditional dramatization of the Crucifixion from pews in the church, one of New York’s oldest, thousands more around the world followed along on smartphones and computers as a staff member tweeted short bursts of dialogue and setting (“Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”).

The trouble began in the second hour.

Twitter’s interactivity — its essence — made it easy for an anonymous text-messager to insert an unscripted character into the Passion play: a Roman guard who breezily claimed, “I’ve got dibs on his robe.” When another texter introduced a rogue Mary Magdalene, the intrusion only confirmed the obvious: Twitter’s trademark limit of 140 characters per message is no bar against crudity.

The question is: are these social networking sites somehow organizationally and intrinsically anti-authoritarian and, in fact, anti-traditional. Moreover, while they bring people together, they also keep people apart, alone with their computers. As such, are they intrinsically anti-community? Or if "anti-" is too strong a term for any of these questions, at least resistant to them?

In online debates and private discussions, leaders of all faiths have been weighing pros and cons and diagramming the boundaries of acceptable interactions: Should the congregation have a Facebook page, or should it be the imam’s or priest’s? Should there be limited access? Censoring? Is it appropriate for a clergy member to “friend” a minor?

Some recoil at the informality and unpredictability of the crowds marshaled by social media, and at their seeming immunity — even hostility — to the authority of established institutions. More deeply, some in the clergy see a basic tension between the anonymous world of online life and the meaning of religious community.

“In Judaism, we believe that God resides in the community — among people in the same room at the same time, hearing each other’s voices and looking in each other’s eyes,” said Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, who also wanted it known that he carries an iPhone and a laptop and is talking with his congregation about a Facebook page.

“But can you tweet a minyan?” he asked, referring to the quorum of 10 people required for most Jewish devotions. “I don’t think so.”

....

“If total control is what you want, social media will frustrate you,” he said, reprising his advice to the clergy. “But the trade-off is the ability to hear and learn, reach out in new directions.” Many clerics, desperate to connect with young people, have been like radio dispatchers using the wrong bandwidth, he said. “The young don’t do e-mail anymore,” he said. “They do Facebook.”

....

The anxieties are different for every group. Some Muslim clerics have told followers to avoid making statements on social networking sites that antiterrorist investigators might misinterpret as suspicious.

It is assumed to be an irresistible listening post, said Farid Senzai, research director for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Middle East policy group. Some imams advise people to avoid discussing politics, and especially to avoid mentioning Afghanistan or Pakistan, even if they have relatives there, he said.

For Roman Catholics, whose tradition requires every church in the world to follow the same liturgical script on any given Sunday, the main issue is message control. “It gets messy,” said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York. “When people can post comments on your site, things can degenerate unless you are constantly monitoring.”

The trade-off is that for more access to the faithful, you give up some control and you give up privacy--indeed, you may not ever know who is reading and listening and misinterpreting. You lose context. I am on a particular social networking site myself, but I tend to just keep my "friends" my friends.

What do you think?

The Vatican to Investigate U.S. Nuns

According to the NYTimes:

The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, a development that has startled and dismayed nuns who fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition.

Nuns were the often-unsung workers who helped build the Roman Catholic Church in this country, planting schools and hospitals and keeping parishes humming. But for the last three decades, their numbers have been declining — to 60,000 today from 180,000 in 1965.

While some nuns say they are grateful that the Vatican is finally paying attention to their dwindling communities, many fear that the real motivation is to reel in American nuns who have reinterpreted their calling for the modern world.

In the last four decades since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, many American nuns stopped wearing religious habits, left convents to live independently and went into new lines of work: academia and other professions, social and political advocacy and grass-roots organizations that serve the poor or promote spirituality. A few nuns have also been active in organizations that advocate changes in the church like ordaining women and married men as priests.

Some sisters surmise that the Vatican and even some American bishops are trying to shift them back into living in convents, wearing habits or at least identifiable religious garb, ordering their schedules around daily prayers and working primarily in Roman Catholic institutions, like schools and hospitals.

“They think of us as an ecclesiastical work force,” said Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, professor emerita of New Testament and spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, in California. “Whereas we are religious, we’re living the life of total dedication to Christ, and out of that flows a profound concern for the good of all humanity. So our vision of our lives, and their vision of us as a work force, are just not on the same planet.”

....

The investigation was ordered by Cardinal Franc Rodé, head of the Vatican office that deals with religious orders. In a speech in Massachusetts last year, Cardinal Rodé offered barbed criticism of some American nuns “who have opted for ways that take them outside” the church.

Given this backdrop, Sister Schneiders, the professor in Berkeley, urged her fellow sisters not to cooperate with the visitation, saying the investigators should be treated as “uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house.” She wrote this in a private e-mail message to a few friends, but it became public and was widely circulated.

NT scholars may recognize Saunders from her book on John: Written that You May Believe. Although I admit I haven't read it.

Check out the rest of the article from the link above. Many of the nuns feel that there is not precipitating or justifying cause for an intervention at this time.

One of my committee members is a NT scholar nun.

Biblical Studies Carnival XLIII

The forty-third biblical studies carnival is up. Pat McCullough has translated The Apocalypse of Eve, which predicted two of my postings this past month: one on Augustinian farting and the other as part of the meme on the five most influential books that have affected the way I read ancient literature, particularly biblical literature.

I am not immediately sure why I am "Jared the Pebble."

The Costs of Higher Education

In the NYTimes "Room for Debate," there is a discussion on the worth of a master's degree in the current economic crisis. Again, my department chair has joined the discussion, offering his currently characteristically pessimistic perspective. He is right, however, that the M.A. is often a cash cow for a university and that its importance and worth will vary on a case by case basis on what you are getting it for, etc. Anyway, take a look, especially if you are going back to school because of the difficulties of current job market.

A Sabbath Poem

Because I read a lot on the Sabbath, I am largely drawn to places in literature and poetry where the Sabbath pops up. It shows up, for example, in a few Paul Celan poems. It is rumored that toward the end of his life, he kept a copy of Abraham Joshua Heschel's amazing meditation on the Sabbath on his nightstand. I just ran across a Dickinson poem that also speaks of the Sabbath, differentiating between the Sabbath of church and the Sabbath of creation/nature (or perhaps Nature):

Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.

Some keep the Sabbath in surplice;
I just wear my wings,
And instead of tolling the bell for church,
Our little sexton sings.

God preaches,-a noted clergyman,-
And the sermon is never long;
So instead of getting to heaven at last,
I'm going all along!

She presents this nature's Sabbath as a more direct link to God (God is, indeed, the clergyman!) than to any organized religious service.

I personally do some things differently for the Sabbath--for example, I never do research on the Sabbath. I do think it is important to have one day set aside, although I don't think it matters what day you choose.

How do you, my dearest readers, keep the Sabbath?

a poem absolutely unrelated to antiquity or religion

I just found the following Dickinson poem striking, although it is not directly related to the general issues of this blog:

We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies.

The heroism we recite
Would be a daily thing,
Did not ourselves the cubits warp
For fear to be a king.

Forbidden Fruit and Paradise

Two poems, again by Dickinson, which I think go well when read together:

Forbidden fruit a flavor has
That lawful orchards mocks;
How luscious lies the pea within
The pod that duty locks!

I love the lolling, alluring alliteration in these lines. The seductive sounds themselves become forbidden fruit. But I wonder how to interpret with the next poem (which also comes next in the volume of collected poems):

Heaven is what I cannot reach!
The apple on the tree,
Provided it do hopeless hang,
That "heaven" is, to me.

The color on the cruising cloud,
The interdicted ground
Behind the hill, the house behind,-
There paradise is found!

Reading this poem directly after the other, the forbidden fruit itself becomes the emblem of paradise rather than paradise lost. The apple is "heaven." But it remains just out of reach, as the first line announces, and hidden just out of sight--in the clouds, on interdicted ground, and doubly "behind."

Faith a Fine Invention But...

A few days ago, I posted on definitions of faith from the NYTimes from Hebrews to the most skeptical to everything in the middle.

Here is a reflection on faith by Emily Dickinson:

Faith is a fine invention
For gentlemen who see;
But microscopes are prudent
In an emergency.

This is the entirety of a very short (four-lined!) poem. Like all of her poems, it is atitular. It is a nice rhythm and rhyme, making, like a great many of her poems, only the second and fourth lines rhyme. I thought the term "invention" striking here. Invented suggests constructed, created, perhaps even contrived, but nonetheless "fine." But it is only fine within certain bounds, fenced in by "gentlemen who see" and "emergency." The first is inclusive and the second exclusive: it is fine for those who see, but not in an emergency. Who are "those who see"? Are they the "pure in heart" (for they shall see God)? Perhaps an allusion to the (false) etymology of Israel as "the [gentle]man who sees God" (ish roeh el)? The second and third lines, moreover, have centripetal and centrifugal forces. Bringing them together is the emphasis on sight ("see" and "microscope"), but pushing them apart is the type of sight: the nebulous faith of those who see versus the practical or "prudent," specific sight of the physician using a microscope in what seems to be a medical emergency. Reading backwards, then, is the nebulous faith beforehand become more specific in the concept of a "faith healing" that was becoming more popular in nineteenth century in the wake of the second great awakening and following in religious circles in what became known as evangelical and perhaps "holiness" circles? A lot can happen in four lines.

Sanity and Madness: A Matter of Perspective

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
'T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,-you're straightaway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

~Emily Dickinson

The Pleasure of a Book

A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty,
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true:
He lived where dreams were born.

His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

~Emily Dickinson

Defining "Faith"

The NYTimes has asked readers to submit a short, pithy definition of "faith."

It begins with the famous definition from Hebrews 11, moves to a skeptical view, and then ends with sort of a middle-of-the-road definition. Read, and, if you are interested enough, respond:

June 26, 2009, 11:00 AM
Weekend Competition: Define Faith
Hundreds of co-vocabularists offered their definitions of “Money” in April, and “America” in May. This weekend, Schott’s Vocab is soliciting definitions of faith.

Faith is described in the Bible as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

H. L. Mencken called faith “an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.”

And, Samuel Butler said of faith, “You can do very little with it, but you can do nothing without it.”

Co-vocabularists are invited to submit their own definitions of faith, the pithier the better, by appending a comment to this post.

Respond here.

Of if you would like to respond on this blog, that might be interesting as well.

The Voices of the Past

Voices

Imagined voices, and beloved, too,
of those who died, or of those who are
lost unto us like the dead.

Sometimes in our dreams they speak to us;
sometimes in its thought the mind will hear them.

And with their sound for a moment there return
sounds from the first poetry of our life--
like music, in the night, far off, that fades away.

(C.P. Cavafy; trans. Mendelsohn)

I kind of see what I do as a historian/historicist/literary critic of antiquity as speaking with the lost voices of the past. Their literary traces are like ghosts that haunt the present.

Long Live the Hobbit!

I just saw in the Times (London Times, that is) that a two-film version of the Hobbit is in production in New Zealand! I am a HUGE LOTR fan! So, I am very excited to see these new films. Alas, they will not be released until 2010 and 2011 respectively.

It is being directed by Guillermo del Toro, who co-wrote the script with LOTR's Peter Jackson, who is also the executive producer.

See a video interview with del Toro here.

Miraculous?

Do you believe in miracles? People in Colwich Kansas do. A boy survives a potentially fatal pole vaulting accident. In the process, the community prayed to the soul of a potentially martyred army chaplain in the Korean War, and the boy recovered.

The Vatican has taken notice and is going to investigate whether or not this is, indeed, a miracle to be attributed to this chaplain, who is being investigated for sainthood.

I know this is way outside of the land of antiquity, but it does raise interest (not just as a human interest story) since martyrdom, miracles, sainthood, and the intermediation of those saints is an important characteristic of early Christianity that persists today in nearly every Christian tradition (except Protestant ones).