Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)
2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Jaap Dekker: A Szolga és a szolgák Ézsaiás próféta könyvében
Jacob J. T. Dof.dens In fact, a large section of 1 Enoch is a fairly expanded version of the narrative of Gen 6:1—4.3 The so called ‘Book ofWatchers’4 in 1 Enoch tells about 200 angels,5 the sons of heaven,6 who are attracted by the beauty of earthly women, and therefore descend7 on mount Hermon8 with the aim to seduce the fair girls they observed and to beget children with them. The women give birth to giants, who turn out to be very hungry. When the people refuse to feed them, the giants begin taking people for breakfast. In the end, God intervenes; the angels are imprisoned until the last judgment, the giants attack each other and perish. The souls of the killed giants become evil spirits on earth (/ En. 12-16).9 The ‘Book of Watchers’ is considered to be the oldest extant apocalyptic work,10 probably dating from pre-Maccabean times.11 Later pseudepigraphic works recount a similar story, based on Gen 6:1—4. So for example the Book of Jubilees, a ‘rewritten’12 Sea Scrolls Study Edition. (2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2000), 398-403, hereafter: DSSSE, 4Q202 11:2—5; IV:5—11 (DSSSE 1:404-407), 4Q204 VL5-13 (DSSSE 1:414-417); frag. 5 col. 11:16-19 (DSSSE 1:420-421). 3 English translations: R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English: With Introduction and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books (hereafter: APOT, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), vol. 2:163ff; E. Isaac, “1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch: A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (hereafter: OTP; James H. Charlesworth, ed.; 2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1983, 1985), vol. 1 l:5ff; Matthew Black, The Book of Enoch or I Enoch: A New English Edition with Commentary and Textual notes (SVTP vol. 7; Leiden: Brill, 1985); George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of I Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 81-108 (ed. Klaus Baltzer; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2001). 4 1 En. 6-36. 5 Some manuscripts call them the ‘Watchers’, a term C|'TB) also used in Dan 4:10.14.20, in parallel with ‘holy one(s)’, referring to a heavenly messenger. The Slavonic 2 En. 18 calls them ‘Grigori’, a transcription of the Greek word in Koine-pronunciation: ol eyPPYOP01-6 ulol oúpauoű, clearly a circumlocution ofn'n'Sitii in Gen 6:2.4. 7 Some manuscripts add ‘in the days of Jared’, cf. Gen 5:15, clearly a paronomasia of Jared and TP, ‘to descend’, see Black, The Book of Enoch, 117. 8 A deliberate paranomasia of Hermon and Din, ‘curse’. 9 Reference to evil spirits born from angels and women is also found in the magical text “Testament of Solomon” (1 st—3d century c.e.), 77 Sol. 5:3, cf. 6:2. (Translation: D. C. Duling, “Testament of Solomon”, OTP 1:965, 967). The author may have wanted to connect the existence of evil spirits in his own days to the tale about their coming into existence, cf. Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, Prophets of Old andtheDayoftheEnd:Zechariah, the Book ofWatchers, and Apocalyptic (OTS 35; Leiden: Brill, 1996), 204-211. 10 Cf. Paolo Sacchi, Jewish Apocalyptic and its History (JSPSup 20; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990), 61-62. Sacchi divides the Book ofWatchers into two parts of different authors. He dates 1 En. 6-11 to the early, 1 En. 12-36 to the late fourth century B.C.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 168, dates the nucleus of the work to the early Hellenistic period. 11 Cf. Isaac, OTP 1:7. See also James C. VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of an Apocalyptic Tradition (Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1984), 110-140. See further Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, Prophets of Old and The Day of the End: Zechariah, the Book ofWatchers, and Apocalyptic (OTS 35; Leiden: Brill, 1996), 153. 12 The term ‘rewritten Bible’ was coined by Géza Vermes, cf. JaqcuesT. A. G. M. van Ruiten, Primeval 48 SÁROS PA 1AK1 FÜZH' 1: K 2012,"3 4
