Someone sent me this link today, knowing I’ve spent a good deal of time studying 1 Enoch. The book of 1 Enoch is now the basis for an impending X-Box video game (there is a sample trailer at the link – Japanese version). Check it out. What I saw looks cool, but I’d say a more appropriate description would be “very loosely based” on 1 Enoch. For instance, it was *not* Enoch’s mission to bring the fallen angels back to heaven. In the story he was sent by God to tell them they were toast and would never be coming back — having been asked by the offending angels to try and soften up God on their behalf.
As far as the link goes, there’s also some paleobabble to that. The blog calls 1 Enoch “heretical.” I guess he’s unaware that the Qumran sect were very theologically conservative, that 1 Enoch was known and used in Judaism outside Qumran, and that the NT imbibes on its content in various ways. It was never considered canonical in the Church (though it had its defenders in the early church, namely Origen), but that does not mean it is heretical. The book was well-respected in early Judaism and Christianity, despite not being bumped up to the level of canon. It was only with Augustine (who knew neither Hebrew nor Greek, and so should not be considered a biblical theologian) that 1 Enoch fell into disrepute, no doubt due in part to Augustine’s own falling out with the Manicheans, who revered 1 Enoch.
I would suggest that blogger (and anyone else so interested) try to obtain the following for reading:
Studies in 1 Enoch and the New Testament: Proceedings of the Nineteenth Meeting of the New Testament Society of South Africa (Stellenbosch, 1983)
R. H. Charles’ commentary on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Charles notes OT and NT connections all the time).
Parables of Enoch, Early Judaism, Jesus, and Christian Origins, ed. Darrell Bock and James H. Charlesworth
“1 Enoch, Enochi Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christianity,” Chapter Two in The Jewish apocalyptic heritage in early Christianity, by James C. VanderKam
Actually, the blogger doesn’t call it heretical. I was quoting the press release. I personally find Enoch interesting – not heretical, not canonical, but a foundational document for communities around that time.
thanks for the correction!
No problem!
They found the Ark of the Covenant where Moses placed the 10 Commandments, in a cave under Golgotha.
http://arkofthecovenant2.blogspot.com/
THIS TIME!
this is the biggest hoax..
so the game isn’t real (i.e., it’s not an actual game you could buy and play)?
I assure you, the game is real. I played through about 85%. The basic characters are all there–You do battle with Azazel and co. as warrior/scribe of heaven Enoch. You are guided through a creative and often dazzling pre-flood world by an angel in black called Lucifel who is often on his cell phone talking directly to God.
It starts with the basic idea of 1 Enoch but QUICKLY deviates from the text, as Heiser pointed out. The goal of the game is to stop the flood by bringing the fallen Watchers back to heaven (that is, finding them and defeating them in battle). The game’s storyline plays fast and loose with time and space, I presume to give it a sense of taking place in eternity, outside the physical realm, and is pretty disorienting because of it.
Add in a subplot about resurrecting the lovely and benevolent Ishtar, Enoch falling into hell and turning into a demon warrior who is rescued by one of the fallen angels, Methuselah blasting an enormous worm-like Fire Nephilim away in a spaceship…plus LOTS of talk about humanity’s special power known as Free Will… it’s weird to say the least.
interesting … is it fun? 🙂