24 armin d. baum
Diogenes Laertius 10.3
according to diogenes laertius, occasionally ancient authors published
damaging texts under the names of their personal enemies.23
diotimus the stoic, who is hostile to him (i.e., epicurus), has assailed him
with bitter slanders, adducing fifty scandalous letters as written by epicurus;
and so too did the author who ascribed to epicurus the epistles commonly
attributed to Chrysippus.
1 enoch 1:1–2
the First Book of Enoch (fourth to first century bce) opens with words
consciously phrased in allusion to the introductory formulas of prophetic
statements in the holy scriptures of Judaism. the first verses of First Enoch
(1:1–2) imitated the words that introduced a prophetic utterance made by
Moses in deut 33:1 and an oracle pronounced by Balaam in num 24:15–16. By
alluding to the introductory formulas of biblical prophecy the author(s) of
First Enoch claimed to speak with the same prophetic authority as Moses
and other biblical figures like Balaam.24
the blessing of enoch: with which he blessed the elect and the righteous
who would be present on the day of tribulation at (the time of ) the removal
of all the ungodly ones.
2 and enoch, the blessed and righteous man of the lord, took up (his
parable) while his eyes were open and he saw, and said,
“(this is) a holy vision from the heavens which the angels showed me:
and I heard from them everything and I understood. I look not for this gen-
eration but for the distant one that is coming.”
1 enoch 82:1
one passage in the pseudepigraphical First Book of Enoch stated quite
clearly that enoch was the author of the texts in question. It claimed that
the teaching of enoch survived through several millennia down to the hel-
lenistic period because enoch himself wrote it down for future generations
thousands of years ago. enoch himself tells his son Methuselah that he will
record the content of his visions and enjoins Methuselah to pass his book
on to the next generations for further transmission. such claims about
23 trans. by hicks, lCl 185:531.
24 trans. by e. Isaak, OTP 1.13.
