Enochic Judaism — a Judaism
without the Torah and the Temple?
Helge S. Kvanvig
Master Narrative and Counterstory
The biblical image of history is above all created through the addition of the
Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic Work of History. By this combination
there was created an image of history reaching from creation to exile with
clear accents on foundational events that determined the fate of the people:
election through Abraham, exodus, the Torah on Sinai, conquest, temple,
apostasy, and exile. By ending in the exile, the narrative ends with a question
mark provoking an answer to all subsequent readers: What is the next turn
of history? What are the traces left in the narrative design of history that
point toward a new future?
To present this biblical image of history in compressed form, I have
chosen the covenantal renewal in Neh 8-10 as a representative text. There for
the first time the basic elements of the biblical image of history are woven
together in one coherent picture in order to advocate a specific religious
identity where the law and the temple play a major role. Neh 8-10 is accord
ingly a micronarrative within the biblical macronarrative, and there is a clear
interplay between the origin of the forceful macronarrative and the compos
ing of Neh 8-10. We consider Neh 8-10 as representative for a distinct piety
in Judaism. We treat the narrative in its basic configuration as exemplary; we
do not claim that there is direct genetic relationship between this particular
text and the Enochic writings.
In comparing narratives we need a reflection on how narratives inter-
