Document Type
Contribution to Book
Publication Date
2026
Publisher
Brill
Source Publication
From Moscow to Baghdad: Studies on Middle Eastern Christianity in Memory of Nikolai Seleznyov
Source ISSN
9789004749719
Abstract
In recent years one can see increased scholarly attention to the epistemological dimension of early Jewish apocalyptic writings and, in particular, to the ways by which divine knowledge was harvested and cultivated by the protagonists and antagonists of those early Jewish accounts. The early Enochic booklets have traditionally played a central role in these epistemological probes since they contain the earliest descriptions of the transmission and acquisition of divine knowledge in Jewish apocalypticism. These accounts deal both with revelations unveiled by God and angels to the patriarch Enoch and with illicit transmission of divine knowledge by the rogue group of the fallen angels, known as the Watchers. Two major early witnesses to the development of the Enochic tradition include 1 Enoch and 2 Enoch. 1 Enoch is a collection of Jewish apocalyptic materials that were composed between the fourth century BCE and the first century CE. The collection is extant in its entirety only in an Ethiopic translation, although the large portions of its Greek translation and some fragments of its Aramaic original have also survived. The collection is traditionally divided into the five sections which comprise the following chapters of 1 Enoch: the Book of the Watchers (chapters 1-36), the Book of the Similitudes (37-71), the Astronomical Book (72-82), the Dream Visions (83-90), and the Epistle of Enoch (91-107).
Recommended Citation
Orlov, Andrei, "Enoch’s Measuring, Counting, Weighing, and Balancing Creation in 2 Enoch" (2026). Theology Faculty Research and Publications. 924.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theo_fac/924
ADA Accessible Version
Comments
Accepted version. "Enoch’s Measuring, Counting, Weighing, and Balancing Creation in 2 Enoch," in From Moscow to Baghdad: Studies on Middle Eastern Christianity in Memory of Nikolai Seleznyov, eds. A. Treiger at al.; Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity, 42. Leiden: Brill, 2026: 3-28. DOI. © 2026 Brill. Used with permission.