Monday, July 11, 2022

Daniel C. Olson on 1 Enoch 47 as a Midrash of Deuteronomy 32:43

  

(3) Chapter 47:

 

47:1. In those days, the prayer of the righteous, and the blood of the Righteous One, will have ascended from the earth into the presence of the Lord of Spirits. 2. In those days, all the holy ones who dwell above in the heavens will supplicate and pray with one voice—glorifying, giving thanks, and praising the name of the Lord of Spirits—on behalf of the blood of the righteous which has been shed, and that the prayer of the righteous may not come to nothing before the Lord of Spirits, and that there might be judgment on their behalf, and that their long-suffering may not be endless.

3. In those days I saw the Antecedent of Days as he sat down on the throne of his glory, and the Books of the Living were opened before him. All of his powers, which are in heaven above, and his council stood before him. 4. Then were the hearts of the holy ones filled with joy; for the sum total of righteousness had approached completion, the prayer of the righteous had been heard, and the blood of the Righteous One had been found fully acceptable before the Lord of Spirits.

 

This short chapter is a midrash on Deut 32:43, a verse which in turn can be interpreted as referring to an ultimate Yom Kippur ritual performed by the Lord himself:

 

Praise, O heavens, his people;

worship him, all you gods!

For he will avenge the blood of his children,

and take vengeance on his adversaries;

he will repay those who hate him,

and cleanse the land for his people.

 

(So the NRSV; but the first line can as easily be rendered, “Rejoice, O heavens, with him,” while the last line is more literally, “and he will make atonement [wekipper] for the land of his people”). The PE author’s motivation in providing a midrash on Deut 32:43 becomes clear only a few chapters later when we are told that the Chosen One will sit in judgment on Azazel (55:4; cf. comments on “Asael” in 10:4–8 above). Since the climax of the Day of Atonement is precisely the Azazel goat ritual (Lev 16:8–26), it would be natural for an Enochic author to see the final judgment of Azazel/Asael in the eschatological Yom Kippur of Deut 32:43.

 

Enoch 47 seems to envision the “the blood of the Righteous One” as the instrument of this ultimate atonement. Such an interpretation, if acceptable, would have obvious relevance for NT studies, although the imprecise dating of the PE casts its usual shadow here. Most Enoch scholars insist, however, that although the PE draws heavily on Isaiah’s Servant Songs, it does not portray a suffering Messiah. The phrase “the blood of the righteous one,” appearing twice in this passage (47:1 and 4), is taken as a collective singular (i.e., “every righteous one”) in view of the explicit plurals in v. 2 (and, we may add, in Deut 32:43). But this does not explain why an author would oscillate confusingly between explicit plurals and collective singulars, nor does it do justice to the fact that “the Righteous One” is originally taken from the Isaianic Servant’s grimmest song (Isa 53:11). Besides, if it is a question of possible influence on NT messianology, it is irrelevant whether the author of the PE intended an individual or a group in “the blood of the Righteous One”; early Christian authors interpreted Scripture with no more concern for authorial intent—in the modern sense—than the Qumran commentators or the later rabbis.

 

As Matthew Black notes, it seems most natural to read in ch. 47 a deliberate inclusion of the Righteous One in the sufferings of every righteous one (Black 1985: 209). “The blood of the Righteous One” would then refer only to a vicarious suffering with the righteous martyrs, just as the stricken Righteous One of Isaiah 52–53 can be interpreted as a cipher for the suffering Remnant of Israel. In that case, Enoch 47 is like Enoch 62 in the third parable (see below), and both passages anticipate the point made by the parable of the sheep and goats in Matt 25:31–46. It happens that this is the one Gospel passage widely conceded by even the more cautious Enoch scholars to be dependent on the PE. Furthermore, if we allow that the first Evangelist knew the PE, it may be relevant to our discussion of ch. 47 that some good NT manuscripts have Pilate washing his hands of “the blood of this righteous one” at Jesus’ crucifixion (Matt 27:24). (Daniel C. Olson, "1 Enoch," in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, ed. James D. G. Dunn and John W. Rogerson [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003], 918-19)