Apocryphal books (Old Testament); Enoch (Biblical figure); Ethiopic book of Enoch -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
This is a subject which cannot be thoroughly appreciated without
studying the book in detail, especially from its doctrinal standpoint,
and seeing in how many aspects it represents the doctrine and the
popular conceptions of the Jews during the two last pre-Christian
centuries. To do this here would involve a far too extended
investigation; it must suffice to indicate a few of the many points
which should be studied; from these it will be seen how important the
book is for the study of Christian origins. Charles says that “the
influence of 1 Enoch on the New Testament has been greater than that of
all the other apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books put together”; and
he gives a formidable list of passages in the New Testament which
“either in phraseology or idea directly depend on, or are illustrative
of, passages in 1 Enoch,” as well as a further list showing that various
doctrines in 1 Enoch had “an undoubted share in moulding the
corresponding New Testament doctrines.” These passages should be
studied—and they will be found to be a most interesting study—in
Charles’s work already referred to several times, pp. xcv.-ciii.; and
with these should be read the section on the Theology of the Book of
Enoch, pp. ciii-cx. Another book of great value and interest—also
already quoted—is Burkitt’s _Jewish and Christian Apocalypses_. In
dealing with the subject of 1 Enoch and the Gospels, this writer points
out that the former “contains a serious attempt to account for the
presence of Evil in human history, and this attempt claims our
attention, because it is in essentials the view presupposed in the
Gospels, especially in the Synoptic Gospels. It is when you study
Matthew, Mark, and Luke against the background of the Books of Enoch
that you see them in their true perspective. In saying this I have no
intention of detracting from the importance of what the Gospels report
to us. On the contrary, it puts familiar words into their proper
setting. Indeed, it seems to me that some of the best-known Sayings of
Jesus only appear in their true light if regarded as _Midrash_ upon
words and concepts that were familiar to those who heard the Prophet of
Galilee, though now they have been forgotten by Jew and Christian alike”
(p. 21). He then gives an illustration of this from Matt. xii. 43-45,
Luke xi. 24-26. Of still greater interest are his remarks upon the
relationship between 1 Enoch lxii. and Matt. xxv. 31-46; he believes
that “the Similitudes of Enoch are presupposed in the scene from
Matthew.” The whole of the discussion which follows should be read.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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