Jubilees and Enochic JudaismOut of this paradigm we observe the development of a special vocabu
lary that expressed an absolute level of approval or disapproval. These terms
(e.g., "going astray"), in another system, might be passed over as incidental
conventional labels. Within the Enochic paradigm, they expressed the ulti
mate level of categorization.
In the Active scenario of l En 1-5, Enoch is given a vision and told
what will happen in the future. God's created order would be violated, es
tablishing the need for God to come down to Mount Sinai and restore it.
The blame for this deviation here falls upon humanity. It is significant that
the phenomena cited have relevance for the calendar. Enoch's tours of the
heavens as stated in 12:1-2, 33:3-4 involved having access to the blueprints of
God's design for cosmic order and regularity. This constituted a significant
body of Enoch's teachings when he returned to his family (1 En 8i:6ff.; Jub
4:21-23).
Nevertheless, the Enochic paradigm was never constructed on the ba
sis of observed reality. Rather, it was an a priori logical construct based upon
an intensified understanding of God's character. As such, to be both defensi
ble and useful, the Enochic paradigm had to resolve the connection between
God's character, his commitments to his chosen people, and the realities of
the Jewish experience up to and including the author's generation, and so
predict and interpret the resolution of these experiences. This was accom
plished by means of the formulation of three paradigm exemplars^11 based
on the events described in Gen 6:1-4, which I have termed, respectively, the
Shemikhazah, 'Aza'el, and cosmic exemplars.
Identifying Gen 6:1-4 as the point in history where the created order
(not just humanity) went astray, these three exemplars served to view and
interpret that event (and its initial resolution climaxing in the Noachic
flood) from three interlocking perspectives. Herein lies the benefit of see
ing these as paradigm exemplars rather than in terms of the etiology of
evil or as typologies. Reed notes the lack of etiology between pre- and
postdiluvian events in Jubilees but terms it a "reconceptualizing" of the
angelic descent. Understood within the Enochic paradigm, they would be
entirely predictable replications demonstrating the validity of the para-
Genizah Testament of Levi). See E. Eshel's discussion in this volume, "The Aramaic Levi
Document, the Genesis Apocryphon, and Jubilees: A Study of Shared Traditions."
- Paradigm exemplars are ways of demonstrating that the paradigm works. They
serve both to establish the theory and to suggest applications in which the theory might be
replicated or applied. See Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 186-91.