As the various parts of the book[4] clearly belong to different dates,
diversity of authorship is what one is naturally led to expect; and of
this there can, indeed, be no shadow of doubt. The author of the
earliest portions was a Jew who lived, as Burkitt has shown, in northern
Palestine, in the land of Dan, south-west of the Hermon range, near the
head-waters of the Jordan. This is important, as it tends to show that
the book, or books, is really Palestinian, and one which, therefore,
circulated among Jews in Palestine. “If, moreover, the author came from
the north, that helps to explain the influence the book had upon the
Religion that was cradled in Galilee.”[5] Of the authors of the other
three books of which “Enoch” is made up (viz. “The Dream-Visions,” “The
Book of the Heavenly Luminaries,” and “The Similitudes”) we know nothing
save what can be gathered from their writings as to their religious
standpoint.
Charles holds that though there is not unity of authorship there is,
none the less, uniformity; for, according to him, all the books were
written by _Chassidim_,[6] or by their successors, the Pharisees. This
contention has been strongly assailed and much weakened by Leszynsky in
a recent work on the Sadducees.[7] While frankly recognizing the
composite character of the book, Leszynsky holds that the original
portions of it[8] emanated from Sadducæan circles; and that the special
object of the book originally was the bringing about of a reform of the
calendar. He points to the ascription of the book to _Enoch_ as
supporting his contention, for Enoch lived 365 years,[9] _i. e._ his
years correspond to the number of days in the _solar_ year; the basis of
reckoning time was one of the fundamental points of difference between
the Pharisees and Sadducees, for whereas the former reckoned time by the
_lunar_ year (360 days), the latter did so by the _solar_ year. Here a
significant remark of Burkitt’s is worth recalling; in writing about the
false titles given to all the Apocalyptic books, he says: “There is
another aspect of pseudonymous authorship to which I venture to think
sufficient attention has not been given. It is this, that the names were
not chosen out of mere caprice; they indicated to a certain extent what
subjects would be treated and the point of view of the writer.”[10]
Further, the fact that “Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God
took him,”[11] _i. e._ that he ascended into the heavens, is also
significant; for he would thereby be just the one to know all about the
heavenly luminaries; he was just the most appropriate author of a book
which was to deal with astronomical questions. “The Sadducæan character
of the original work,” says Leszynsky, “is seen most clearly in the
discussion regarding the calendar; chapters lxxii.—lxxxii. are rightly
called the Book of Astronomy:[12] ‘the book of the courses of the
luminaries of the heaven, the relations of each, according to their
classes, their dominion and their seasons, according to their names and
places of origin, and according to their months ... with regard to all
the years of the world and unto eternity, till the new creation is
accomplished which endureth till all eternity’ (lxxii. 1). That sounds
almost as though the author of the Book of Jubilees had written it. That
it is not a merely scientific interest which impels the writer to give
expression to his astronomical theories may be seen from the words at
the conclusion of the section: ‘Blessed are all the righteous, blessed
are all those who walk in the way of righteousness, and sin not as the
sinners in the reckoning of all their days, in which the sun traverseth
the heaven, entering into and departing from the portals for thirty
days...’ (lxxxii. 4-7). Herein one can discern quite clearly the
tendency of the writer. He desires the adoption of the solar year, while
his contemporaries wrongly followed a different reckoning, and therefore
celebrated the feasts at the wrong time. The ‘sinners who sin in the
reckoning of the year’ are the Pharisees; and the righteous ones who are
blessed, the _Zaddîkim_,[13] who walk upon the paths of righteousness
(_Zedek_) as the name is made to imply, are the Sadducees.”[14] The
point may appear small to us, but we may compare with it the
Quartodeciman controversy in the Church during the second century. It
is, at any rate, a strong point in favour of the Sadducæan authorship of
“The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries.”
The pre-Maccabæan portions (assuming that some portions of it _are_
pre-Maccabæan) of the book of Enoch must certainly be ascribed to the
_Chassidim_; but it is not on that account necessary to ascribe _all_
the later portions to the Pharisees. Three points especially militate
against this: some of the teaching concerning the Messiah; the,
generally speaking, universalistic spirit, which is quite un-Pharisaic;
and the attitude towards the Law, which is not that of the Pharisees. It
is not to be denied that some portions (_e. g._ cii. 6 ff.) are from the
hands of Pharisees; nor can it be doubted that the whole collection in
its present form has been worked over by a Pharisee, or Pharisees; but
that all the post-Maccabæan portions in their original form emanated
from Pharisaic circles does not appear to have been proved. It seems
more likely that, with the exceptions already referred to, the various
component parts of the book were written by Apocalyptists who belonged
neither to Pharisaic nor yet to Sadducæan circles.