the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
QUMRAN AND THE DATING OF
THE PARABLES OF ENOCH 1
Paolo Sacchi
1. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DATEOFTHEBOOK OF PARABLES
TO UNDERSTANDING THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY
The central figure of the Book of Parables (also called the Book of Similitudes;
hereafter abbreviated as BP) is a character with no name. He is identified
with Enoch at the end of the book, in 71:14 according to the translation:
“You are the Son of Man born for justice and justice has dwelt in you.”
However, not all scholars interpret this passage in the same way. 2 In any
case, it is clear that this work belongs to the current of Judaism, which
considered its religious beliefs to be revelations of Enoch, who is the
revealer of BP too. This current of Judaism was born around the fourth
century B.C.E. and in my opinion, which is shared by Boccaccini, in the
late Persian era, while other scholars such as Collins and Nickelsburg
locate its origin at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period.
1. This article reproduces the text I handed over to Prof. James H. Charlesworth
in the meeting at Princeton University in 1997, the papers from which constitute the
substance of the present work, with only a few modifications concerning the form of
my argument and posterior bibliography.
2. Cf. Ephraim Isaac, who translates “You, son of man” and explains in a footnote
that he has written “son of man” with small letters because the Ethiopic expression is
different from the expression referring to the “Son of Man,” in OTP 1:50 Robert H.
Charles originally (APOT [1893 ed.]) translated, “This is the Son of Man,” but twenty
years later in the translation of 1913 (APOT) he rendered it: “You are the Son of
Man,” which has remained the common interpretation of this passage. At any rate,
Charles (APOT [1913] 2:175) had already remarked this difference between the two
phrases indicating the Son of Man, but he explained it as being synonymous. Cf. F.
Martin, Le livre d’Hénoch (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1906), 161: “Toi, tu es le fils de
l’homme;” Sabino Chialà, Il libro delle Parabole di Enoc (Studi Biblici 117; Brescia:
Paideia, 1997), 288–91: “Tu sei il Figlio dell’Uomo.”
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