Named by the Name?: Christian Categories Causing Non-problems in the Academic Study of Religion. The Parables of Enoch as a Case Study

Updated by: 
Shlomo Brand
Research notes: 
SB/not checked/18/05/2023
Reference type: 
Journal Article
Author(s): 
Clay Mock III, Theron
year: 
2022
Full title: 

Named by the Name?: Christian Categories Causing Non-problems in the Academic Study of Religion. The Parables of Enoch as a Case Study

Journal / Book Title || Series Title: 
Advances in Ancient, Biblical and Near Eastern Research
Volume: 
2
Issue / Series Volume: 
2
Pages: 
137–159
Work type: 
Essay/Monograph
Abstract: 

In this article, the author argues that the Anointed One in 1 En 48:2–3 is not given the divine name. Scholars relying upon an ambiguous footnote and a Christian category (“divine identity Christology”) argue the opposite. Both the footnote and category are investigated. Whereas the footnote misrepresents the source language, the category serves Christian interests and not those of the academic study of religion. Two results follow from this analysis. First, 1 En 48:2–3 is likely not a naming scene but a summoning one. Second, attention is paid to academic categories with a personal rhetoric. Working with Jonathan Z. Smith’s claim that self-knowledge is the utmost concern of the scholar, the author tracks his own story and more to make explicit our shared, academic craft.

Hebrew bible: 
Primary Texts: Judean Desert Documents: 
Primary Texts: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: 
Composition / Author: 
1 Enoch
Passage: 
48:2-3
URL: 
https://aabner.org/ojs/index.php/beabs/article/view/1005
Label: 
29/05/2023
Record number: 
111 560