Between Akkadian tupšarr ū tu and Aramaic rps : Some Notes on the Social Context of the Early Enochic Literature

During the Persian and Hellenistic periods in Babylonia the cuneiform culture moved into the temple precincts to stay there until the extinction of cuneiform writing. The priestly groups of ā šipu, or incantation priests, and kal û, or lamentation priests, became main bearers of cuneiform writing and culture, astronomy, astrology and mathematics included. The influence of Late Babylonian culture on Jewish tradition is palpable in the Enochic texts and in the Visions of Levi (= VLev, the so-called Aramaic Levi) in the following texts: Aramaic versions of the lexical lists (VLev 32a–36), lunar visibility periods (4Q208 and 4Q209), general characterization of Babylonian magic and divination (1 En. 8:3; 4Q201 frg. 1 iv; 4Q202 frg. 1 iii). The list of sciences taught by the Watchers in 1 En. 8:3 closely corresponds to what we know today about the profession of the Babylonian ā šipu. Such an influence together with the critical attitude towards the ā šipu disguised as Watchers is most probably due to the Jewish appropriation of the Aramaic version of Babylonian scholarship; it is not certain how the appropriation occurred, although the intermediary of the Aramaic scribes, sep ī ru, might be assumed. There are no historical accounts to prove that the Jewish scribes in Babylonia were trained in the highly sophisticated and profoundly specialized areas of cuneiform scholarly literature.