Thursday, December 9, 2021

Notes on 1 Enoch 46 and 48 and the Ancient of Days and Son of Man

In 1 Enoch 46, there is a differentiation between the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man:

 

At that place, I saw the One to whom belongs the time before time. And his head was white like wool, and there was with him another individual, whose face was like that of a human being. His countenance was full of grace like that of one among the holy angels. (1 Enoch 46:1)

 

Some other translations render “one who had a head of days.” On this translation (as well as “the time before time”), Daniel Boyarin noted that

 

It is not clear to me how the Aramaic ‎עתיק יומין, something like Ancient of Days, yields "head of days" . . .(Daniel Boyarin, "The Parables of Enoch and the Foundation of the Rabbinic Sect: A Hypothesis," in Mauro Perani, ed., "The Words of a Wise Man's Mouth are Gracious" (Qoh 10, 12): Festschrift For Günter Stremberger on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday [Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2005]: 57 n. 11)

 

However, in 1 Enoch 48, the Son of Man is given a name, “the Before Time”:

 

At that hour, that Son of Man was given a name, in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits, the Before Time; even before the creation of the sun and the moon, before the creation of the stars, he was given a name in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits. (1 Enoch 48:2-3)

 

The translations of 1 Enoch are taken from E. Issac, "1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch," in James H. Charlesworth, ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2 vols. [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983] 1:34, 35)