Antiquitopia

I am participating in a conference at Union Theological Seminary this Thursday on "See the God." I am speaking on ancient, with an emphasis on late ancient Judaism. Here is a talk-teaser: There is an uncritical assumption that often circulates in scholarship and popular belief that Judaism is a religion of hearing to the exclusion or ignoring of seeing. This assumption operates by pointing to Jewish aniconism and reducing Jewish encounters with the divine to the Deuteronomistic emphasis on audition. Did not God say that humans could not see God—or literally God’s face—and live (Exod. 33:20)? Nonetheless, this reductive maneuver ignores the rich ambivalences of the Bible and later Jewish views concerning whether and how one can see God and live. Some follow Exod. 33:20 and categorically claim its impossibility. In this case, numerous intermediary figures fill the ocular gap, allowing appearances of aspects of God—like God’s Memra, Shekhinah, Glory, or even God’s tefilli...

Last month, I posted on the similar imagery used in 1 Enoch 62:2 and Heb. 4:12-13: that of the word with a sharp sword for the purpose of judgment. In the comments, Ken Schenck noted the similar imagery in Wisdom of Solomon 18:15-16, while Brian Small noted some very important differences between the function of 1 Enoch and Hebrews in this regard. In his Carnival of Hebrews posts this month, he reiterates these differences, and, in the comments of that post, Tony Siew pointed out another striking usage of the sword-in-mouth in Rev. 19:15, coming from the word of God (19:13). Here they all are: 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. (1 Enoch 62:2) The all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of they a...

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 ...

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 Parab...

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 Sirac...

For my chapter on the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice , I am revisiting other texts that discuss, depict, or allude to heavenly hymns. Most apocalyptic texts refer to heavenly liturgies sung by heavenly, divine beings (most people call them "angels"), but very rarely tell us what these heavenly beings actually say. When they do report the content of such hymns, they tend to be highly indebted to, or in fact are verbatim quotations of Isaiah 6:1-4: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the hose filled with smoke. 2 Enoch 21:1 (J) repeats this ...