Faculty of Theology
Department of Old Testament Studies
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The aim of this research project was to study the common roots of Judaism and Christianity in the diverse world of the Second Temple period. During its third season this project focused on the section of the Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71) in the pseudepigraphical book of Enoch written between the third to first century BCE. In this section reference is made to a mysterious figure called Messiah and Son of Man. As the same titles are used for Jesus of Nazareth in the later New Testament writings, it is obvious that a study into these terms will throw important light on the development of the religious ideas found in Christianity and Judaism. As contribution to this project the researcher studied the concept of Spatiality in the Second Parable of Enoch. The results of this study along with 33 other studies on the Parables were published in Gabriele Boccaccini (ed) during 2007 as Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man. Revisiting the Book of Parables (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, MI). For the purpose of his investigation into the function of spatiality in the Book of the Parables the researcher used the discipline of Critical Spatiality. This discipline investigates the spatial aspect of texts and relates the constructed space in the texts to the socio-historic context in which it originated. It understands space in the framework of the social experience and ancient conceptualization of the physical space in which people lived. In apocalyptic literature like that of Daniel and Enoch the ideologically created spaces in these texts reflect the ideas of the apocalyptic groups who formed these apocalypses. As the concept Son of Man is found in both Daniel 7:9-14 and 1 Enoch 46:1-51:5 the space constructed in these passages can be studied and related to the ideologies of the two groups responsible for this literature. In Daniel 7:1-28 a scene of judgement is depicted being conceptualised in earthly terms of a throne surrounded by several beings. In the scene power is transferred from figures symbolised by mythic animal images who use this power to devour and demolish, to one like a human being (Son of Man) having everlasting dominion. These events are facilitated by an ancient of days, served by innumerable multitudes of people, who acts as supreme judge in this narrative. In this ideologically created space the idea that God’s holy ones are to be dominated by overwhelming world powers is resisted and replaced by a heterotopian lived out space in which the faithful can already live and be protected from the dangers they experience from the world powers in everyday life. In 1 Enoch 46:1-51:5 a similar throne scene is depicted, but this time conceptualised in terms of celestial phenomena. A senior person with hair like white wool, called the Before-Time and the Antecedent of Time sits upon a throne and executes judgement. Next to him his prototype is found, one with a face like a human being, born of human beings, called “the Son of Man”, the Chosen One, the Elect One, the Messiah of the Lord of the Spirits. He deposes kings from their thrones and kingdoms and simultaneously vindicates the blood of the righteous that had been shed. The findings of this comparative spatial analysis are that we are dealing here with two totally different apocalyptic groups. The Daniel group is concerned with world powers, while the group of the Parables is concerned with local groups. The Daniel group works with terrestrial space in which universal powers are in conflict with each other. Their concern is power politics on a universal scale. The “world” in Parables is much more concerned with local groups and powers. They are troubled by oppressors, unrighteous landowners, wealthy individuals, people pretending to be believers but denying God. The liberator of this group, however, is more celestial than terrestrial. In Parables the Son of Man shares much more in the identity of the Lord of Spirits than Daniel’s Son of Man with the Ancient One. The space of Parables is much more heaven orientated than the politically orientated space in Daniel. The Enoch group finds their answer in a supernatural world with heavenly liberators. The view in Enoch represents a development in apocalyptic thinking of the ideas found in Daniel and paved the way for the messianic conceptualisation of Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament. The christological theology of the New Testament is more related to the ideology of the Son of Man in Enoch than to its conceptualisation in Daniel.
Contact person: Prof PM Venter.
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