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377 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN QUMRAN AND THE DATING OF THE PARABLES OF ENOCH1 Paolo Sacchi 1. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DATE OF THE BOOK OF PARABLES TO UNDERSTANDING THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY The central figure of the Book of Parables (also called the Book of Similitudes; hereafter abbreviated as BP) is a character with no name. He is identified with Enoch at the end of the book, in 71:14 according to the translation: “You are the Son of Man born for justice and justice has dwelt in you.” However, not all scholars interpret this passage in the same way.2 In any case, it is clear that this work belongs to the current of Judaism, which considered its religious beliefs to be revelations of Enoch, who is the revealer of BP too. This current of Judaism was born around the fourth century B.C.E. and in my opinion, which is shared by Boccaccini, in the late Persian era, while other scholars such as Collins and Nickelsburg locate its origin at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. 1. This article reproduces the text I handed over to Prof. James H. Charlesworth in the meeting at Princeton University in 1997, the papers from which constitute the substance of the present work, with only a few modifications concerning the form of my argument and posterior bibliography. 2. Cf. Ephraim Isaac, who translates “You, son of man” and explains in a footnote that he has written “son of man” with small letters because the Ethiopic expression is different from the expression referring to the “Son of Man,” in OTP 1:50 Robert H. Charles originally (APOT [1893 ed.]) translated, “This is the Son of Man,” but twenty years later in the translation of 1913 (APOT) he rendered it: “You are the Son of Man,” which has remained the common interpretation of this passage. At any rate, Charles (APOT [1913] 2:175) had already remarked this difference between the two phrases indicating the Son of Man, but he explained it as being synonymous. Cf. F. Martin, Le livre d’Hénoch (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1906), 161: “Toi, tu es le fils de l’homme;” Sabino Chialà, Il libro delle Parabole di Enoc (Studi Biblici 117; Brescia: Paideia, 1997), 288–91: “Tu sei il Figlio dell’Uomo.” 378 QUMRAN AND THE DATING OF THE PARABLES OF ENOCH BP’s place within the Enochic current is based on an ideological continuity that is independent of the identification of the book’s anonymous protagonist with Enoch. I will consider in this article the protagonist as a mysterious character, created before the beginning of time (48:3), who has been assigned the task of carrying out the final judgment. This judgment will be merciless only toward those to whom the author refers as “those who possess the earth, who will neither be rulers nor princes.” They above all have the sin of pride; they are those who have any kind of power on earth. The others can be forgiven, on condition that they recognize their sins even at the moment of judgment before this mysterious character. He has some angelic characteristics, but he is superior to the angels. He is referred to by three different names: the Righteous One, the Chosen One, the Son of Man. It is no matter for the purpose of this article if the three phrases indicate a title or only an appellative, or if the mysterious character is Enoch or a heavenly figure without name. Since Jesus refers to himself with the last of these three terms, as the Son of Man, and since his functions are in some way comparable to those of the Son of Man in BP, the date assigned to this book is extremely important, because BP will have bearing on the history of the origins of Christianity in a very different manner depending on its dating. There are three possibilities: 1. BP was written after the formation of the New Testament (i.e., later than 100 C.E.). 2. BP was contemporary to the formative period of the New Testament. 3. BP was written before the New Testament and before Jesus himself. In the first case, BP has no value for understanding the period of Christian origins. It has received some influences from New Testament texts and its history belongs to the aftermath of the Christian origins. The second and third cases are not so different as it may seem at first view. We must consider...

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