The Book of Enoch
The Book of Enoch obviously describes an undifferentiated society living in the age of wonders as orchard farmers coming into contact with a differentiated society ruled by a warrior class living in the age of watch - actually, watchers is what it calls the warriors.
This fits with my assertion that the time before Noah in the bible refers to the age of wonders. It is however curious that a text literally demonising the age of watch should have been written in 300 BC, by which time Jewish society had long become differentiated itself, and it is doubly so considering that Plato gave an account of the daimonic origins of differentiated societies only 52 years earlier in the Nomoi.
Of course, whereas in Plato's account the daimons are the basis of the golden age, in the Book of Enoch they wreck it, but since a polytheistic pantheon is linked to the differentiation of society and the division of labour and daimons are its forerunners or conceptual underpinnings it seems that the Jews of the time were willing to interpret their own understanding of angels within the Greek framework, only that they were blaming the daimons for the excesses of contemporary society, which means that there'd really be no reason at all to seek information about the nature of demons in Jewish texts.
Also, this idealisation of the age of wonders comes near the end of the age of watch and is as such foreshadowing the age of works which lies on the path that returns to the former.
On the other hand, putting all that aside and considering the Book of Enoch simply as Ethiopian literature, the correspondence with the Yoruba religion is striking: Whereas the Yoruba accepted modern technology and the orisha Ogun who brought it, the Ethiopians rejected it and its mythical progenitors and both after contacts with people from the Levant, the Phoenicians in case of the Yoruba and the Jews in case of the Ethiopians, who where living at the time in the age of watch, whereas they themselves were still living in the age wonders, well, at least the Yoruba were, considering the connection between Egypt and Punt I can't be sure in the case of Ethiopia, but it appears to me that the Book of Enoch became canonical there, because it was understood as a contemporary political message.
To say that the idealisation of the age of wonders in the Book of Enoch informed the New Testament might well be true, although similar ideas were expressed by Jesaja. In any case there is no equivalency between the seals, trumpets and vials in the Revelation and the works of the watchers. However, if someone would've known both texts in the first century, he'd surely've been tempted to agree with the so called gospel of Judas in interpreting the visions of the future that Christ's disciples had as premonitions of the results of their ambition to make the world a better place by overcoming τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, for according to the Book of Enoch we're supposed to stay on our paths like the sun and the moon in another apparent borrowing from Plato's Nomoi.
The pitfalls are legion. When man learned to leave orchards for his children, he had learned an important lesson and after he had accepted it it became a metaphor for civilisational innocence and bliss. And yet, other lessons continue to having to be learned. on man's path through the ages.
This fits with my assertion that the time before Noah in the bible refers to the age of wonders. It is however curious that a text literally demonising the age of watch should have been written in 300 BC, by which time Jewish society had long become differentiated itself, and it is doubly so considering that Plato gave an account of the daimonic origins of differentiated societies only 52 years earlier in the Nomoi.
Of course, whereas in Plato's account the daimons are the basis of the golden age, in the Book of Enoch they wreck it, but since a polytheistic pantheon is linked to the differentiation of society and the division of labour and daimons are its forerunners or conceptual underpinnings it seems that the Jews of the time were willing to interpret their own understanding of angels within the Greek framework, only that they were blaming the daimons for the excesses of contemporary society, which means that there'd really be no reason at all to seek information about the nature of demons in Jewish texts.
Also, this idealisation of the age of wonders comes near the end of the age of watch and is as such foreshadowing the age of works which lies on the path that returns to the former.
On the other hand, putting all that aside and considering the Book of Enoch simply as Ethiopian literature, the correspondence with the Yoruba religion is striking: Whereas the Yoruba accepted modern technology and the orisha Ogun who brought it, the Ethiopians rejected it and its mythical progenitors and both after contacts with people from the Levant, the Phoenicians in case of the Yoruba and the Jews in case of the Ethiopians, who where living at the time in the age of watch, whereas they themselves were still living in the age wonders, well, at least the Yoruba were, considering the connection between Egypt and Punt I can't be sure in the case of Ethiopia, but it appears to me that the Book of Enoch became canonical there, because it was understood as a contemporary political message.
To say that the idealisation of the age of wonders in the Book of Enoch informed the New Testament might well be true, although similar ideas were expressed by Jesaja. In any case there is no equivalency between the seals, trumpets and vials in the Revelation and the works of the watchers. However, if someone would've known both texts in the first century, he'd surely've been tempted to agree with the so called gospel of Judas in interpreting the visions of the future that Christ's disciples had as premonitions of the results of their ambition to make the world a better place by overcoming τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, for according to the Book of Enoch we're supposed to stay on our paths like the sun and the moon in another apparent borrowing from Plato's Nomoi.
The pitfalls are legion. When man learned to leave orchards for his children, he had learned an important lesson and after he had accepted it it became a metaphor for civilisational innocence and bliss. And yet, other lessons continue to having to be learned. on man's path through the ages.
Labels: 42, formalisierung, geschichte, gesellschaftsentwurf, gesetze, kommentar, präsentation, rezension, sehhilfen, vorgeschichte, wahrnehmungen, ἰδέα, φιλοσοφία
Eingetragen Am/um
20:57
