Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, vol. 1: Sources from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

• Author: Scott, Joshua

Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, vol. 1: Sources from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. By JOHN C. REEVES and ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED. New York: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2018. Pp. vii + 403. $150.

While the texts associated with the antediluvian character Enoch have become more well known in recent scholarship, John C. Reeves and Annette Yoshiko Reed have done the field a great service by creating a source book. Volume one of a proposed two-volume project to assemble the "Enochic Library," it draws together mentions of the primordial character in works from the third century BCE through the fourteenth century CE, across all canonical, religious, and linguistic barriers (p. v). This volume's seven chapters organize the "narratological career" of Enoch thematically, which includes epithets and cross-cultural cognomens applied to Enoch, Enoch as cultural purveyor, his roles in human society and interactions with angels, tales of the hero's escape from death, his associations and equation with other figures, and Enoch's ongoing reputation (pp. v, vii). Each text has been translated from its original language, with copious footnotes specifying which editions were selected and significant works for further research.

Throughout, Reeves and Reed describe Enoch as an avatar, a representation of the prediluvian character that is adapted through literary creativity for various narratival purposes. This layout illuminates the significant intellectual crossover between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, as well those sources relating to Hermeticism, and provides historians of religion with visual representation of the complex literary history of Enoch. Below is a summary of two chapters and two excurses.

Chapter one outlines common epithets associated with Enoch, including the Seventh, Scribe of Righteousness, the Lord's Messiah, and Portraits of Enoch. The epithet "righteous" shows the breadth of Enoch's status. "The adjective "righteous' (Greek [phrase omitted] ... Hebrew [phrase omitted] or Aramaic [phrase omitted] is the epithet that is more popularly associated with the figure of Enoch and is one that is well attested throughout all strata of literature" (p. 27).

Reeves and Reed offer readers a brief introduction to how some sources ("Hellenistic," "early rabbinic interpretations," "Jewish" and "Muslim" circles, "Manichean") interact with the epithet "righteous." which frames the presented texts without entering into the quagmire of the criteria...