Enoch and the Mosaic Torah- The Evidence of Jubilees

John S. Bergsma

Qumran Document Paleographic Dating Contents

4QEna (4Q201) ca. 200-150 B.C.E. Parts of 1 En 1-12

4QEnb (4Q202) ca. 150 B.C.E. Parts of 1 En 5-14

4 QEnc (4Q204) ca. 50-1 B.C.E. Parts of 1 En 1-36; 89; 104-107

4 QEnd (4Q205) ca. 50-1 B.C.E. Parts of 1 En 22-27;^89

4QEne (4Q206) ca. 100-50 B.C.E. Parts of 1 En 22; 28-34; 88-89

The most important manuscript for our purposes is the first and oldest,
4QEna, dating to the first half of the second century B.C.E. This probably
pushes the terminus ad quern of the composition of the book into the late
third century.

2. Internal Evidence. BW shows the influence of Hellenistic culture, but
   no clear allusions to Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabean revolt.^11 The
   most convincing example of Hellenistic influence in BW is the similarity in
   career profile between the angel Asael (or Azaz'el) and the Greek titan Pro­
   metheus.^12 There are also similarities, although less specific, between the de­
   scription of the Watchers' offspring and the Greek legends of the giants.^13
   Some have argued that the portrayal of the Watchers' rapacious off­
   spring — the giants — is a veiled criticism of the diadochoi, who claimed di­
   vine descent and whose governing policies impoverished and oppressed their
   subjects.^14 Bartelmus argues that BW was composed during the reign of the
   most notorious of the diadochoi, Antiochus IV Epiphanes.^15 However, there is
   no clear allusion to Antiochus Epiphanes in BW. Furthermore, it is not neces­
   sary to see the giants as literary reflections of the diadochoi, since the descrip-


3. See discussion in VanderKam, Enoch, 111-12; Milik, The Books of Enoch, 22-41;
   Knibb, Ethiopic Book of Enoch, 8-11.


4. On the Hellenistic influence on BW generally, see G. H. Van Kooten, "Enoch, the
   'Watchers,' Seth's Descendants and Abraham as Astronomers: Jewish Applications of the
   Greek Motif of the First Inventor (300 BCE-CE 100)," in Recycling Biblical Figures, ed.
   A. Brenner and J. W. van Henten, STAR 1 (Leiden: Deo, 1999), 292-316.


5. See R. Bartelmus, Heroentum in Israel und seinem Umwelt, ATANT 65 (Zurich:
   Theologischer, 1979), 161-66; VanderKam, Enoch, 126-28.


6. VanderKam, Enoch, 127.


7. Discussed in VanderKam, Enoch, 128.


8. Bartelmus, Heroentum, 179-83.

l. Manuscript Evidence. The earliest Qumran manuscript of BW dates to
circa 175 B.C.E. The Qumran Aramaic fragments of BW are summarized in
the following table:^10