Source: Margaret Barker, The Hidden Tradition of the Kingdom of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007), 29–53.
Enoch - The First Temple Christian Origin.pdf
This topic, "The Enoch Traditions," explores the profound significance of the biblical figure Enoch, arguing that his story represents an ancient priestly tradition crucial for understanding both early Judaism and Christian origins. Despite Enoch's minimal appearance in the Hebrew Scriptures, the source reveals that the Enochic literature (1, 2, and 3 Enoch) describes his ascent to heaven to learn the divine secrets of the Kingdom of God, transforming him into an angel or a high priest figure who brings this knowledge back to earth. The author proposes a new paradigm suggesting that the Enoch tradition was the original myth of the Jerusalem temple, predating the centrality of Moses and the Exodus narrative, and its themes—such as the fallen angels, the Day of Atonement, and the concept of the high priest becoming divine (theosis)—are essential for interpreting obscure passages in the Old Testament and key concepts in the New Testament, like the identity of the Righteous One (the Servant/Messiah). Ultimately, the text asserts that the shared Enochic heritage, with its focus on heavenly knowledge and the high priest as the Angel of the LORD, was a defining characteristic of early faith that was later suppressed by Deuteronomistic reforms.
In the genealogies of Genesis, one figure stands out by his sudden, elliptical exit. Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, is granted only a few cryptic lines: he lived 365 years, "walked with the gods," and then "was no more" because God took him (Gen. 5:21–24). For centuries, this passage was treated as a curiosity, a minor footnote to the sweeping sagas of Moses and the Exodus. Yet, to the sophisticated minds of the Second Temple period, Enoch was no footnote. He was the "first and the last" of famous men, cited by Ben Sira as a "sign of knowledge for the generations."
The disappearance of Enoch from the canonical record was not an accident of history; it was a strategic excision. Modern research suggests a disruptive new paradigm: Enochic tradition is not a "fringe" development of late Judaism, but rather the original "taproot" of the first Jerusalem Temple. Before the history of Israel was redefined by the desert wanderings of Moses, it was rooted in the visionary, angelic priesthood of Enoch.
Before Moses, There Was the Kingdom
The Enochic traditions preserve a "pre-Mosaic" worldview that the later editors of the Pentateuch—the Deuteronomists—viewed with open hostility. During the seventh-century reforms of King Josiah, a massive purge was enacted to "drive out" the older traditions, including the veneration of the Queen of Heaven and the Asherah. This was not merely a moral cleanup; it was a theological coup.
The reformers sought to replace the ancient "LORD of Hosts" theology—which filled the Temple with a hierarchy of angels—with a more abstract "Name" theology. This shift is most visible in the rewriting of the Sabbath. In the older Temple tradition (Exodus 20), the Sabbath is observed to maintain harmony with the cosmic plan of Creation. However, in the Deuteronomic revision (Deuteronomy 5), the reason is shifted to a historical one: gratitude for the release from slavery in Egypt. By replacing a cosmic, Temple-based concept with a history-based, Mosaic one, the reformers attempted to bury the older "secrets of the Kingdom."
"I saw all the secrets of the heavens, and how the Kingdom is divided, and how the actions of men are weighed in the balance." (1 Enoch 41.1)
The Forbidden Technology of the Fallen Angels