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This chapter examines why the Astronomical Book of Enoch was presented in the Levant as a set of mystical visions in an incipient Jewish apocalyptic literature by placing the book in the cultural context of Hellenistic Judea. In particular, it analyzes an Aramaic phrase for “to see,” which is used in the Astronomical Book to denote the essential formula of revealed knowledge and introduces formulae for calculating the hours of light, along with cosmic geography in the Enochic Book of Watchers. It also explores ancient Jewish knowledge of the physical world in a “revealed science” that helps explain how astronomy could function as part of an apocalypse.

This chapter examines the scientific teaching and key scientific concepts of the Astronomical Book of Enoch. In particular, it considers whether the material in the Astronomical Book should be viewed as ancient science. It also discusses broader issues in connection with ancient Jewish science, including the Astronomical Book. The chapter first traces the history of transmission of Enochic wisdom before turning to Enoch's astronomical teaching in the Aramaic and Ethiopic traditions. It then considers whether the concept of a regular, legalized cosmos as promoted in most of the Astronomical Book is compatible with the threat posed by the apocalypse to this order, as well as evidential grammar in early Enochic literature.

This chapter comments on papers by Seth L. Sanders and James VanderKam, both of whom identify and problematize our understanding of the Astronomical Book of Enoch as a product of emerging Jewish tradition that drew upon and departed from received traditions found in the Bible, Ancient Near East, and Hellenistic ideas. It considers the degree to which the Astronomical Book relates to ancient “science”, and whether revelation is always understood as essentially passive or whether there was a role for observation. It also examines the question of the practical role of the Astronomical Book in time-keeping and ritual and finally, whether this cosmic order was interpreted as eternal or itself a temporary part of a larger historical structure.

This book explores the relationship between science and early Judaism. Drawing on the foundations of an established discipline, which has studied the role of Jews in the formation of medieval and early modern science, the book highlights the tension between the universality of scientific knowledge and the uniqueness of local traditions. It considers questions such as how a type of science emerged in early Judaism, why this new Jewish science appears in such complex forms, who were the early searchers after knowledge, and what we can learn from the distribution of the earliest evidence. The book charts the rise of this new kind of ancient knowledge and describes the parameters of ancient Jewish science. This chapter introduces the reader to a few of the most interesting problems that the scientific elements in Ancient Judaism present, with particular emphasis on the debate over the nature of ancient science, the Astronomical Book of Enoch, and lessons that can be learned from the early history of science and Judaism.