1 Enoch 1: 1–36, 81–108

This book is the author’s life achievement and the definite commentary on 1 Enoch 1–36; 81–108 for the years to come. After an introduction (1–125), the commentary (129–560) forms the main body of the text, whereas “Referential Codes” (xxvii–xxxviii), a bibliography (561–71), an index on passages and names (573–616), and in total twenty-two excursuses pre- and conclude the work. The following review will give an impression of both the introduction and the commentary parts of the book. The introduction gives a general overview of scholarship on 1 Enoch (0.) and a short account of the contents of 1 En. 1–36; 81–108 (1.), of the available texts and manuscripts (2.), of 1 Enoch as a literary composition (3.), of the worldview and religious though in it (4.), of 1 Enoch in its historical, religious and social contexts (5.), and of the reception history of the chapters 1–36 and 81–108 of the book (6.), before it concludes with currents in the modern study of 1 Enoch (7.) and an agenda for future study (8.). Given the overall character of the introduction, it can only be of a general nature and merely list the issues, which are more thoroughly treated in specialized monographs. Furthermore, the complexity of the Enochic literature cannot be accounted fully in any introductory work. The more the author has to be praised for providing us with a systematic overview and summary of all relevant aspects of 1 Enoch without going too much into details. The latter are given much more attention in the author’s thirty-three publications so far on 1 Enoch (see the bibliography on 567–69). [Full Review]

This book, a welcome addition to the Hermeneia commentary series, is a critical and historical commentary on books 1, 4, and 5 of 1 Enoch, which provides a careful use of philological, historical, textual, and literary methods. Nickelsburg brings together the results of a lifetime of study on what is probably the most important of the Jewish pseudepigrapha of the postbiblical period. Accordingly, most of Nickelsburgs major contributions are not presented here for the first time, but they are presented in a comprehensive and integrated way, possible only in a full-length commentary. Not the least of its virtues is that it contains the most authoritative and readable English translation currently available. It is to be hoped that it will soon be possible to purchase this translation separately in the form of an inexpensive paperback [editors note: see now http://www.bookreviews.org/BookDetail.asp?TitleId=4561]. The introduction consists of a short discussion of methodology and Some Hermeneutical and Theological Observations, a review of the Enochic corpus, textual and literary notes, a long theological discussion of worldview, the place of 1 Enoch in the history of ideas and social contexts, followed by a treatment of 1 Enoch in ongoing Jewish and Christian tradition and in modern scholarship. The commentary itself consists of introductions to each major section, translation, extensive textual notes, and detailed notes. The book also includes a useful bibliography and index. Nickelsburg has contributed greatly to the study of the text of 1 Enoch, although, as he himself says, A major desideratum is a new critical edition of 1 Enoch (125). [Full Review]

The appearance of Nickelsburgs learned commentary on 1 Enoch, here as the first of two volumes, is welcome. Whereas the second volume, which still awaits publication, will be devoted to the Similitudes or Parables (chs. 3771) and to the ma in part of Astronomical Book (chs. 7282), this first volume covers the rest: (1) the Book of Watchers (chs. 136: comprised of separate traditions in chs. 15; 611; 1216; 1719; and 2036), (2) the testamentary end of the Astronomical Book or Book of the Luminaries (81:182:4ab), (3) the Book of Dreams (chs. 8384 and 8590, the Animal Apocalypse), (4) a summons by Enoch of his children in testamentary form (91:110, 1819), (5) the Apocalypse of Weeks (93:110; 91:1117), (6) the Epistle of Enoch (92:15; 93:11105:2) , (7) the Birth of Noah (chs. 106107), and (8) a final eschatol ogical book attributed to Enoch (ch. 108). The commentary proper is lengthy: it extends to over four hundred pages (129560) that, except for the English translation of the texts, are organized in two columns. Interspersed within the commentary are no less than twenty-two excursuses on various topics that offer discussions of topics and motifs that locate 1 Enoch within wider streams of tradition history. The detailed discussion of the commentary is preceded by a lengthy introduction (1125). This prolegomenon to the rest of the volume consists of several areas. First, it provides Nickelsburgs linguistic, textual, literary, an d historicalwith respect to composition and reception of the materialsframework for the commentary (170). [Full Review]