Helge S. Kvanvig"history" up to the tenth week as real predictions. This has the curious effect
that the author and his circle are placed within the narrated events, and not
at the end of them as is normal in narrative recalls of history.
In the recall of past history from the first to the seventh week, narrative
history as we know it from the Hebrew Bible clearly forms the backbone.
There are some significant parallels to the recall of history in Neh 9. First,
with the distinguished place of Abraham: in both Neh 9:7-8 and in the Apoc
alypse, third week, 93:5, future Israel rests on the election of Abraham. Sec
ond, in the distinguished place of the Torah: in Neh 9:13-14 the revelation of
the Torah on Sinai forms the center of the gracious acts of God, constituting
the people. In the Apocalypse the Torah is the second founding event after
the election of Abraham (fourth week, 1 En 93:6). One can discuss whether
Ethiopic ser'athere and in 93:4 should mean "law" or "covenant."^36 I am in
clined to translate "law," since there is no reception of a covenantal terminol
ogy.^37 In any case, this is not crucial, because the Sinaitic covenant would in
clude the Torah.
Third, in both Nehemiah and the Apocalypse there is the notion of
apostasy as the people respond to the founding acts of God. In Nehemiah
this starts immediately after the gift of the Torah and increases during the
life in the land (Neh 9:26-29). In the Apocalypse this is concentrated in the
life in the land (the sixth week, 1 En 93:8). Fourth, in both cases the apostasy
led to a severe disaster as God's punishment (Neh 9:32; 1 En 93:8). Fifth, in
both cases the people recounting past history are placed in a situation of
transition: in Nehemiah making a vow to the Torah as the basis for a new fu
ture in the covenant with Abraham; in the Apocalypse, the seventh week,
1 En 93:10, the people reappear as the chosen through Abraham.
There are some differences between Neh 9 and the Apocalypse. Neh 9
starts with creation (9:6), which is not told in the Apocalypse. The Apoca
lypse recounts the flood and Noah (93:4), which is not told in Neh 9. More
noteworthy, however, the Apocalypse lists the first temple as the third
founding event constituting Israel (fifth week, 93:7), while the first temple is
passed in silence in Neh 9 — although the cult of the second temple is
rooted in the Torah in Neh 10:32-40. The structure of the story in Neh 9 is
to list the founding acts of God as told in the classical credos, adding Sinai,
and to contrast these acts with the apostasy of the people in the land. There
they stress the negative statements known from the Deuteronomists. In this
- Cf. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 444, 446.
- Berner, Jahre, i36f.