Origini dell’enochismo e apocalittica

A fundamental element in Sacchi’s work is that we must distinguish between the apocalyptic form, and consequentially the literary genre, and the contents of thought of the apocalypses. In order to retrace the history of Jewish thought the contents are what counts, not the literary form. The apocalyptic form existed long before the oldest Jewish apocalypse that we know of, the Book of Watchers. Drawing on an article by Collins referring to an apocalyptic «Worldview», as the basis of all apocalypses from any and all currents of thought, Sacchi points out that the very fact that the author of the Book of Watchers chose the apocalyptic form in order to express his thoughts demonstrates that in some way the apocalyptic form is a part of apocalyptic thought. The fact remains, however, that apocalyptic thought can express an extremely wide variety of theologies. Sacchi concludes, then, that there is such a thing as an apocalyptic spirituality and he attempts to provide a definition that is neither so narrow that it precludes comprehension of this diversity, nor so broad as to be useless. Apocalyptic spirituality would seem to derive from a religiosity in which the world of God is perceived as a spiritual world in which man participates in.