Project Details
Projekt
Antikes Judentum: Henochs Reisen durch die Sphären der himmlischen und irdischen Welt: Stratifikation von Schriftauslegung und mythischem Stoff in der Henochliteratur
Applicant
Professor Dr. Reinhard Gregor Kratz
Subject Area
Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
Term
from 2015 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235014259
The topic of the planned sub-project will be the relationship between scriptural interpretation and mythical material in 1 Enoch especially in the Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1¿36) and the Parables (1 Enoch 37¿71). In a brief note in the book of Genesis (Gen 5:24), the Hebrew Bible reports that the antediluvian ancestor Enoch ¿walked with God¿ and, therefore, ¿was taken¿ by God subsequently. This verse serves as the point of departure for the description of the cosmic journeys in the Book of Watchers. Here, Enoch ¿ in a vision ¿ traverses the heavens and the most remote realms of the earth. In the Parables Enoch discloses his cosmic knowledge to the inhabitants of the earth. Finally he is exalted and identified with the Son of Man. Both parts of 1 Enoch heavily depend on the biblical Vorlage, i. e. on literary works that were regarded as authoritative and are thus quoted, reformulated, supplemented and interpreted. At the same time, both parts present a series of mythical material that can only remotely ¿ if at all ¿ be correlated with the biblical text. Here it is sensible to assume the influence of other (oral or written) traditions that were incorporated into the presentation of the Book of Enoch. As a result we have to investigate the stratification and origin of the material and presuppose three layers: a) the biblical Vorlage, b) the mythical tradition, and c) the creativity and contemporaryhistorical context of the author.Consequently, the aims of the sub-project consist of a methodologically guided differentiation of the mythical materials in the Book of Watchers and the Parables of 1 Enoch for the purpose of a comparison and stratification of the material in light of the three layers: a) the Hebrew Bible, b) the extrabiblical Jewish or non-Jewish (i. e. Ancient Near Eastern and Greek) traditions, and c) contemporary and religion-historical context of 1 Enoch, its manuscript traditions as well as possible literary precursors. In this way we will establish a historical understanding of mythical traditions in ancient Judaism of the Greco-Roman period as well as pave the way for comparative work on ancient myth. Finally it is the aim of the sub-project ¿ especially in regard to the field of Hebrew Bible studies, but also in comparative regard ¿ to clarify the relationship between tradition-history, literary- and textual-history using 1 Enoch as an example. This will help to arrive at a better understanding of the origin and impact of Jewish apocalypticism. The sub-project sees itself as significant contribution to the preparation of an interdisciplinary source base for the research into myth and for the digital cartography of mythemes and motifs for a change of spheres in antiquity.
DFG Programme
Research Units
