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 ...