What is now the first section of the Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch, comprised of the first 36 chapters, is known as the Book of the Watchers. There is not only internal evidence that this and the other portions of what is now 1 Enoch were originally separate documents recording internal traditions, but there is clear manuscript evidence that the Book of the Watchers circulated independently in Greek. The text of this portion of the Book of Enoch is known in Ethiopic, as the rest of the book, as well as through Greek fragments. Additionally, the text was found in both Greek and Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. This variety of textual evidence allows us to…
Within the varied literature of the Second Temple period, easily the most well-known subset of that literature is the Enochic literature. Likewise, within the Enochic literature, the Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch is by far the most well-known document. This is true at least in terms of awareness, though not necessarily reflecting actual familiarity with the contents of that text. The Enochic literature is actually made up of a number of texts. Sometimes these are numbered, i.e. 1, 2, 3 Enoch. Other times they are recognized by the language in which the church has preserved them for us, as in Slavonic Enoch. Some texts, such as Jubilees, do not actually have Enoch’s name in the title, but nonetheless, reflect…
One figure from Christian tradition who has certainly entered into contemporary popular culture is that of the antichrist. Though this has primarily been through the medium of horror fiction, even that fiction represents a newer iteration of themes in art and popular speculation that go back through the medieval period in the West in particular. In addition to this imagery, there have been, since before even the Protestant Reformation, again primarily in the West, continuous attempts to try to match information derived from passages in the Scriptures which speak of the last days and current events. These include attempts to identify some living person as the antichrist. There are three primary passages within the New Testament which speak of this…
Easily one of the most contentious issues among newcomers to the Orthodox faith, in particular on the internet, is the concept of “aerial tollhouses.” Though variously elaborated, the core idea is that when the human soul departs the body at death, as it journeys toward the intermediate state where it will await the resurrection, either Paradise or Hades, it passes through metaphorical ‘toll booths’ staffed by demonic spirits who in some way test the soul for various sins. Among devotees, matters of fine dispute such as the number of these tollhouses and the nature of each become subject to further discussion and debate. This sort of literalization of the metaphor would be an example of one extreme. The opposite extreme,…
