Enochic Judaism — a Judaism without the Torah and the Temple?Watchers are cast in the role of impure priests, as a parallel to the impure peo
ple in Ezra, the Enochic text is utterly critical to the legitimacy of the cult in
the second temple. If Enoch and Ezra stand parallel as intercessors in plots
with similar traits, we note that the outcome of the intercession is opposite.
The story of Ezra is a story of penitence like Neh 8-10, where also the purity
of the people is concerned. In both stories the outcome is forgiveness. The
stories create a point of demarcation in history where the positive outcome
serves to legitimize the practices of the future. The story in 1 En 12-16 works
in the opposite direction. There is no forgiveness for the Watchers/priests.
They are still under condemnation. In this sense the Watcher Story functions
as a counterstory to stories of penitence and forgiveness related to the second
temple. It turns the plot in the opposite direction; the petition is denied.
This implied polemic against the temple in Jerusalem seems also to be
reflected in the geographical setting of 1 En 12-16. Enoch went to the Waters
of Dan, south of Mount Hermon, to receive his revelation (13:7). And from
there he ascended to the heavenly temple, which is more connected to
Mount Hermon than to Zion.^23 The vision itself shows that Enoch as a pa
tron of the Enochians was not deprived access to the temple, but it was in
heaven, not in Jerusalem.
Since 1 En 1-5 frequently alludes to writings in the Hebrew Bible, it is tempt
ing to use traditions present in these texts as a key to interpret the section.
Hartman claimed that the covenant constituted the referential background.
He found three specific markers in the text that pointed toward the cove
nant: the theophany and judgment connected to Sinai (1:4, 9), the terminol
ogy of the denouncement speech, and the curses and blessings, spread all
over 1 En 2-5, which both reflected the pattern of a covenantal ritual.^24 I
think the markers are too vague to point to a specific covenantal ritual, if
such a ritual ever existed. The closest we come in the postexilic period is the
ceremony in Neh 8-10, which shows no links to 1 En 1-5.
Hoffmann follows a more general approach. He suggests that the no
tion of the Mosaic Torah underlies the wisdom terminology of the Enochic
writings and that this notion has to be seen as the context at places where the
Mosaic Torah is not directly addressed.^25 Thus he claims that "die Nennung
- Cf. Nickelsburg, "Enoch, Levi and Peter," 582-87.
- L. Hartman, Asking for a Meaning: A Study of Enoch 1-5, ConBNT 12 (Lund:
Gleerup, 1975), I23f. - H. Hoffmann, Das Gesetz in der fruhjiidischen Apokalyptik (Gottingen: Vanden-
hoeck, 1999), I26f.