The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ENOCH AND THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL
Ephraim Isaac
One of the most insignificant figures mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is
the seventh descendant of Adam, a man called Enoch, the son of
Yared, the father of Methuselah, the longest living man (Gen 5:22–24).
Despite the short and enigmatic description in Genesis of the life and
end of this man, he appears in postbiblical Jewish thought and
literature, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as in early Christian
writings. How such a minor figure became one of the most central personalities
in postbiblical Judaism and at Qumran reveals the power of
ancient biblical texts. In this paper I shall discuss the many legends
about the life and exaltation of Enoch recorded in the postbiblical
period, and in particular how he became identified with the archangel
Michael and the angel Metatron.
In the Hebrew Bible, Enoch is not a figure whose importance ranks
with that of the patriarchs, the kings, or the prophets. There is only one
reference to him in the whole Bible, that of Gen 5:18–24 (although
Halevy unconvincingly suggested reading “Danel” in Ezek 14:14, 20;
28:3 as “Enoch”). 1 In the apocryphal-pseudepigraphic works attributed
to him, Enoch is a spiritual hero with supernatural knowledge. He tours
the heavens and earth with angels and has apocalyptic visions, he learns
of the fate of the fallen angels who, according to Gen 6:1–4, had
descended to earth and sinned with mortal women, and instructs his family
about the history of the world and the eschatological era.
The name “Enoch” has an obscure etymology. It has been variously
suggested to be a derivative of the West Semitic root h[nk, “to introduce,
initiate, dedicate” 2 like the Hebrew word “Hanukkah.” Other nonetymological
meanings have been suggested: “your gift,” by Philo (Abr. 17);
“founder,” by the biblical author on the basis of Enoch’s association with
the founding of the first city by his namesake, the descendant of the evil
1. Joseph Halevy, “Cainites et Sethites,” REJ 14 (1887): 20–25.
2. Stefan C. Reif, “Dedicated to h[nk,”VT 22 (1972): 495–501; Werner Dommershausen,
“h[anak,” in TDOT 5:19–21.
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