Peter Bolt: Enochide Perspectives and the Early Jesus Movement

Peter G. Bolt, “Breathing in Enoch to Breathe out Jesus. Two Examples of Luke’s Apocalypticism,” in The Future of Gospels and Acts Research, edited by Peter G. Bolt (SCD Press, 2021), 160-161.

1 Enoch is a composite work with ancient roots, put together over a long period, with the latest section being the Parables [Similitudes] of Enoch (37-71). The similarities between the Parables and the Gospels are such that, after it was discovered that this section was not amongst the Enoch material at Qumran, Milik argued that it was a Christian work influenced by the Gospels. Even by 1977, however, his theory was largely rejected and by 2013 the consensus had emerged that it was originally written during the last days of Herod the Great or in the early decades of the 1st century, in Aramaic, probably in Galilee and, if so, likely at Mandala. This dating and provenance means that Enochide perspectives were simply part of the air that Jesus and his followers breathed.