Salta al menu principale di navigazione Salta al contenuto principale Salta al piè di pagina del sito
##common.pageHeaderLogo.altText##

V. 32 (2025)

Artykuły

A Critical Analysis of the Ethiopic Manuscript of 1 Enoch (Kebrān 9) and the Theological Implications of Textual Variants in 1 Enoch 1:9, 14:2, and 15:11

  • Rev. Adrian Mętel
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52097/rs.2025.249-272  [Google Scholar]
Pubblicato: 2026-08-17

Abstract

The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) is a key document in Second Temple Jewish literature and early Christianity, but it has survived in a complete form only through an Ethiopic translation in the Geʿez language. This article addresses the research problem of reconstructing the original text of 1 Enoch and analyzing the religious ideas contained in it. The study employs classical methods of textual criticism, and the analysis focused on three selected pericopes (1 Enoch 1:9; 14:2; 15:11). The results indicate substantial stability in the textual tradition: no significant interpolations or omissions were found, only minor scribal variants. The oldest known manuscript, Kebrān 9 (dated to the 14th–15th centuries), preserves an exceptionally faithful version of the 1 Enoch text, which makes it especially significant for philological and theological research on this book. In conclusion, the main findings of the variant analysis are summarized, the importance of the manuscript K-9 is emphasized, and the need for a further critical edition of the Book of Enoch using the Ethiopic witnesses is highlighted.

Riferimenti bibliografici

  1. Abegg, Martin G., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, eds. 1999. The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 1: Rule of the Community and Related Documents. Leiden: Brill. [Google Scholar]
  2. Black, Matthew. 1985. The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch: A New English Edition with Commentary and Textual Notes. Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha 7. Leiden: Brill. [Google Scholar]
  3. Boccaccini, Gabriele. 2005. Enoch and Qumran Origins: New Light on a Forgotten Connection. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. [Google Scholar]
  4. ———. 2018. “James Bruce’s ‘Fourth’ Manuscript: Solving the Mystery of the Provenance of the Roman Enoch Manuscript (Vat. et. 71).” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 27: 237–263. [Google Scholar]
  5. Bokhorst, Mirjam J. 2021. Henoch und der Tempel des Todes: 1 Henoch 14–16 zwischen Schriftauslegung und Traditionsverarbeitung. Berlin: De Gruyter. [Google Scholar]
  6. Charles, Robert H. 1893. The Book of Enoch: Translated from the Editor’s Ethiopic Text and Edited with the Introduction, Notes and Indices. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]
  7. ———. 1906. The Ethiopic Version of the Book of Enoch, Edited from Twenty-Three MSS Together with the Fragmentary Greek and Latin Versions. Anecdota Oxoniensia. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]
  8. ———. 1913. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]
  9. ———. 1917. The Book of Enoch. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. [Google Scholar]
  10. Coblentz Bautch, Kelley. 2006. “What Becomes of the Angels’ ‘Wives’? A Text-Critical Study of 1 Enoch 19:2.” Journal of Biblical Literature 125 (4): 766–780. [Google Scholar]
  11. Collins, John J. 2016. The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. [Google Scholar]
  12. Danker, Frederick W., ed. 2001. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Based on Walter Bauer’s lexicon, revised and edited by Frederick W. Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]
  13. Dillmann, August. 1853. Das Buch Henoch: Übersetzt und erklärt. Leipzig: Vogel. [Google Scholar]
  14. ———. 1865. Lexicon linguae aethiopicae. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel. Repr. with supplement: Supplement: Latin-English Index (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907). [Google Scholar]
  15. Drawnel, Henryk. 2014. “The Mesopotamian Background of the Enochic Giants and Evil Spirits.” Dead Sea Discoveries 21 (1): 14–38. [Google Scholar]
  16. ———. 2019. “An Introductory Bibliography for the Study of 1 Enoch.” The Biblical Annals 9 (1): 101–130. [Google Scholar]
  17. Hiers, Richard H. 1992. “Day of the Lord.” In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, vol. 2, edited by David Noel Freedman, 83. New York: Doubleday. [Google Scholar]
  18. Isaac, Ephraim. 1983. “1 Enoch (the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch).” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, vol. 1, edited by James H. Charlesworth, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. [Google Scholar]
  19. Knibb, Michael A. 1978. The Ethiopic Book of Enoch: A New Edition in the Light of the Aramaic Dead Sea Fragments, vol. 1–2. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]
  20. Koehler, Ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner. 1994. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vol. 1. Translated and edited by M. E. J. Richardson. Leiden: Brill. [Google Scholar]
  21. Lambdin, Thomas O. 1978. Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (Geʿez). Harvard Semitic Studies 24. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press. [Google Scholar]
  22. Laurence, Richard. 1883. The Book of Enoch the Prophet. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. [Google Scholar]
  23. Leslau, Wolf. 2006. Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. [Google Scholar]
  24. Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. 1940. A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Henry Stuart Jones, with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]
  25. McDonald, Lee Martin. 2013. “The Parables of Enoch in Early Christianity.” In Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift, ed. James H. Charlesworth and Darrell L. Bock, 329–363. London: Bloomsbury. [Google Scholar]
  26. Miller, Adam. 2020. The Book of Enoch: Second Edition: A Greek-English Interlinear of the Akhmim Fragments, Keyed to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. Independently published. Chicago. [Google Scholar]
  27. Nickelsburg, George W.E. 2001. 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1–36; 81–108. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. [Google Scholar]
  28. Nickelsburg, George W.E., and James C. VanderKam. 2004. 1 Enoch: A New Translation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. [Google Scholar]
  29. Pseudo-Cyprian. 1871. Ad Novatianum. Edited by W. Hartel. Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 3/3. Vienna: Tempsky. [Google Scholar]
  30. Pseudo-Vigilius Thapsensis. 1961. Contra Varimadum Arianum. Edited by Benedikt Schwank. Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 90. Turnhout: Brepols. [Google Scholar]
  31. Reed, Annette Y. 2005. Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  32. Sacchi, Paolo. 2010. Tra giudaismo e cristianesimo: riflessioni sul giudaismo antico e medio. Brescia: Morcelliana. [Google Scholar]
  33. Stuckenbruck, Loren T. 2004. “The Origins of Evil in Jewish Apocalyptic Tradition: The Interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4 in the Second and Third Centuries B.C.E.” In The Fall of the Angels, edited by Christoph Auffarth and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, 87–118. Leiden: Brill. [Google Scholar]
  34. ———. 2007. 1 Enoch 91–108. Berlin: De Gruyter. [Google Scholar]
  35. ———. 2017. The Myth of the Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. [Google Scholar]
  36. Stuckenbruck, Loren T., and Ted M. Erho. 2022. “The Significance of Ethiopic Witnesses for the Text Tradition of 1 Enoch: Problems and Prospects.” In Congress Volume Aberdeen 2019, edited by Grant Macaskill, Ch.M. Maier, and Joachim Schaper. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, vol. 192, 416–434. Leiden: Brill. [Google Scholar]
  37. Szałanda, Tomasz. 2011. “Zarys demonologii międzytestamentowej, rabinackiej i qumrańskiej.” Studia Redemptorystowskie 9 (1): 223–239. [Google Scholar]
  38. VanderKam, James C. 2010. “Enoch, Books of.” In Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, ed. John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow, 543–546. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. [Google Scholar]

Downloads

I dati di download non sono ancora disponibili.