The Book of Giants from Qumran (review)

Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 319 Reviews THE BOOK OF GIANTS FROM QUMRAN. By Loren T. Stuckenbruck. Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 63. pp. xvi + 289. TUbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997. Cloth, DM 198.00. Loren Stuckenbruck has provided the scholarly world with a most welcome edition of the Qumran fragments of the Enochic Book of Giants (the Book of Giants). The book opens with a short history of research (pp. 1-10). The author acknowledges his debt to his predecessors: Milik, Starcky, Beyer, Reeves and Garcia Martinez. Thereafter he reviews the proposed reconstructions (by the three latter authors) of the sequence of the fragments and outline of the book as a whole, before presenting his own reconstruction (pp. 11-23), for which he argues later in the book. Then follows a discussion of the book's character: its relation to the Book of Watchers, date, provenance and purpose (pp. 24-40). The main part of the book is an edition of all Qumran fragments assigned by the author to the Book of Giants ("certainly, probably and plausibly"; pp. 41-213). Photographs of the fragments are not included, neither is there a detailed discussion of paleography and orthography. The book closes with a discussion of manuscripts whose suggested identification with the Book of Giants is rejected by the author (pp. 214-242). Text and translation of these fragments are provided, but no commentary. Finally follows a concordant glossary of the fragments assigned to the Book of Giants (pp. 243-254). While we still wait for the editio major of some Enochic scrolls in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (by Puech and Stuckenbruck in vols. 31 and 36, to appear by mid-2000?), this book fills in "the white sections of the map." And it will certainly not be outdated by the DJD editions, as it embraces nearly all fragments which have been related to the Book of Giants. The author has worked intensively with the microfiche edition of the scrolls, but not with the more recent CD editions of the material. Stuckenbruck evaluates the proposals of previous scholars as to the combination of fragments and their meaning. The Qumran material is carefully discussed and compared with the Manichean fragments of the Book of Giants. The commentary is well argued, and the conclusions are carefully formulated. Some typographical errors spread throughout the book betray two layers in the traditio-historical process behind the final work.... The author dates the book between the Book of Watchers and Daniel, that is, between the late third century and 164 B.C.E. (pp. 28-31). While Milik and Garcia Martinez suggested the dependence of a theophanic judgment scene in 4QEnGiantsb- (4Q530) ii 16-20 upon Dan 7:9-10, Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 320 Reviews Stuckenbruck sees in these two texts different versions of the same theophany tradition, with Daniel 7 as the more developed one (pp. 119-123). He takes issue with Milik, who dates the Book of Giants after Jubilees with reference to Jubilees' lack of reference to the tradition of the giants. This reviewer would further point to the similarities between the judgment scene of 4Q530 and 1 Enoch 1:3-4 (compare 1 Enoch's "the Great Holy One shall come forth from His dwelling, and the everlasting God shall descend to the earth, and tread on Mount Sinai" with 4Q530ii 16-17 "Be]hold, the ruler of the heavens descended to the earth, and thrones were erected, and the Great Holy One slat down"). The introduction to the Book of Watchers, 1 Enoch 1-5, has been dated by Nickelsburg to the midsecond century, by Hartman to the early second century (while Milik sees it as an integral part of the third-century Book of Watchers). If this theophany scene of the Book of Giants borrows terminology from the introduction to the Book of Watchers, a date for the Book of Giants much earlier than Daniel would be difficult to defend. On provenance the author concludes as following (pp. 31-40): the Book of Giants drew upon the Book of Watchers as a main source. It supplements the narrative of the Book of Watchers and elaborates the progeny of the...