The episode is now live.
The book we know as 1 Enoch was well known to early Christians. This isn’t surprising given three transparent facts: (1) 1 Enoch is a substantially pre-Christian literary work that enjoyed readership among Jews in the Second Temple Period; (2) Christianity was born out of Second Temple Judaism; and (3) New Testament writers either presuppose or utilize its content in portions of their own writing. This heritage contributed to an understandable question among some influential early Christian writers and, one may presume, Christians in general: Should 1 Enoch be considered inspired and thus “Scripture” in the manner of other books in the Old Testament? Ultimately, Christianity at large answered this question negatively, save for the Church in Ethiopia. But the discussion is nonetheless of interest today. This episode offers a brief survey of how select Second Temple Jews and early Christian books and writers assessed the scriptural status of 1 Enoch.
Very thorough overview of Enoch related materials. One caveat I might add: The New Testament writers may have been responding to the use of Enoch by the false teachers of the time. I don’t think that takes anything away from what Dr. Heiser said though, since New Testament writers seem to hold Enoch in high regard regardless of who initiated the Enoch conversation. Some may be interested in my theory on the original authorial intent of Enoch: http://www.mirrorreading.com/blog/2015/9/11/book-of-enoch-was-enoch-in-cahoots-with-the-fallen-angels
I know you already have YouTube channels for your video content and a website just for podcasts but have you thought about posting these podcasts on YouTube as well?
Trey is in the process of doing that now. Never occurred to me, so thanks!
Youtube would be great as my husband and I listen at the same time.
It’s proven to be more work than anticipated (every file has to be re-rendered), but we’ve started the process.
could be, depending on dating of the citations (in any book).
I have this overwhelming sense that this material is going to be a crack in traditional Christian scholarship that is going to widen into a canyon eventually. Amen
We actually take the long look here. I think it will make a difference in the future. That is part of the vision for Miqlat.