Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [166]
The report of this Biblical Enoch is contained within the genealogy leading up to the flood. Enoch often occupies the same position in this genealogy as Enmeduranki (sometimes Enmeduranna) does in the Babylonian King List, arguing that there is a much longer ancient Near Eastern background to the Biblical story. For instance, Enoch’s 365-year life is paralleled by Enmeduranki’s association with the sun god. Enmeduranki was also summoned to the divine council chamber. Enmeduranki was also given heavenly and underworld secrets and enthroned by the gods and finally given secret techniques of divination.23 These themes are prominent in the Enoch material; the most likely explanation is that they were borrowed into it because they were so well known and this short puzzling statement provided a way to make Enoch part of Hebrew prehistory as well. It is the same kind of borrowing we saw in the flood narrative and other events of Biblical prehistory-details from the Wisdom tradition of the known world, which were blended into Israel’s story after having received a distinctive Israelite stamp.
There are several other anomalous parts to the Biblical story. First and most importantly for any study of immortality in the Bible, Enoch’s story is notable in that he alone, of all the members of this genealogy, has no death notice. Instead, the text twice says that Enoch “walked with God,” (Gen 5:22; 5:24) and, at the end of the second, the text states “he was not, for God took him.” This gives the writer the ability to talk about Enoch’s heavenly journey and also about his final disposition in heaven. In doing so, he brought into the narrative all the various notions of translation, heavenly transformation, angelification, and even Messianic redemption. And along the way he describes the mechanisms of solar regularity and weather.
If the terse report in the Bible was a way of “burying” Enoch in the heavens, as it were, it did not work. This surprising violation of the conventional genealogical story stimulates an enormous explanatory novelistic literature. It is likely responsible for the earliest known, extra-canonical Hebrew literature. The Enoch literature assumes that Enoch was transported to heaven at the end of his relatively short, earthly life (his immediate relatives live far longer), presumably cutting his life short for the ultimate reward: astral transformation and enthronement in heaven.
Enoch’s journey to heaven and his transformation there validates the ecstatic and mystical experience of those who stay on earth. It quite nicely fills in the Hebrew Bible’s otherwise puzzling reference to those who in the psalms dwell “with God.” It also confirms by eyewitness report that God intends to reward the righteous after their suffering and punish the oppressors. Furthermore, Enoch’s heavenly journey represents the human transcendence of our material situation to the deathless realm. All of these aspects of the Enoch story become part of the story of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension as well.
Enoch is supposed by this literature to have been commissioned specially by God as a “court-appointed” defense attorney for the rebellious angels. Though he “lost his first case” because the sin of the rebellious angels was so great, Enoch tried his level best and is rewarded for his efforts. The divine edict was that the evil angels must be punished by damnation yet God rewards Enoch for his righteous efforts. The narrative has obvious correlatives with those righteous sufferers on earth who stay true to God’s word. One may pray for the sinners but God will punish them anyway.
Enmeduranki’s relationship to the ecstatic baru priests and Babylon is significant. The Enoch material too is deeply related to the wisdom of the priestly tradition as we find it among the Dead Sea Scroll sectarians who were disenfranchised priests. They boasted of secret wisdom which allowed them knowledge