Acknowledgements
This study is a revision of my doctoral dissertation which was completed in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford from Michaelmas term in 2017 until its successful defense in Hilary term in early 2022. This dissertation was then revised during 2023 and the first half of 2024 in preparation for publication.
Over the course of this journey, I benefited from the guidance, wisdom and support of countless scholars, friends and family. The doctoral dissertation was completed under the supervision of Hindy Najman who provided guidance and insight that ensured that this project stayed on track in its final stages. This support and mentorship helped me to produce a dissertation that was more methodologically and conceptually robust, and more responsive to developments in other arenas in scholarship, than would otherwise have been the case. I thank Hindy for all her help and support, and for every time she went above and beyond to help this dissertation and book come into fruition.
I am grateful to those who read and critiqued chapters of the dissertation during my time at Oxford including Alison Salvesen and David G.K. Taylor, whose feedback during the Transfer and Confirmation of Doctoral Status helped improve the final submission. In addition, I would like to thank Loren T. Stuckenbruck and James C. VanderKam who served as the final examiners. Their questions, recommendations, and suggestions pushed me to sharpen and hone my methodology and analysis of the materials.
During this project’s formative period, papers based on aspects of the research were presented at conferences including the SBL International meeting in Rome and the SBL Annual meeting in San Diego in 2019, and at a series of workshops and seminars hosted by the Faculty of Theology in Oxford and as part of the Groningen-Leuven-Oxford network. Whilst the dissertation was being revised for publication, papers were also presented at a Fellowship for Biblical Studies meeting in Sydney and as part of the Enoch Seminar’s Enoch Studies in the 2020s online conference organized by Gabriele Boccaccini and Joshua Scott. I thank those whose questions and feedback helped guide my thinking and consequently contributed to the improvement of the dissertation and book including Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, Arjen Bakker, Daniel Schumann, Yael Fisch, Jeremiah Coogan, Ralph Lee, Ian Young, amongst many others. Furthermore, I am grateful to Alessandro Bausi and the organizers of the Fourth Hiob Ludolf Centre Summer School in Ethiopian and Eritrean Manuscript Studies held in Addis Ababa in 2019 for the opportunity to participate and learn in their program.
The Covid-19 pandemic provided many challenges and restrictions during my doctoral research. I am thankful to those who provided support that minimalized this disruption to my studies and research including Hindy Najman, my fellow doctoral candidates, and the broader Old Testament/Hebrew Bible academic community in Oxford. Moreover, I am grateful to the staff at the Bodleian Library, British Library, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library who answered many questions and assisted with their physical and/or digital manuscript collections.
This project is indebted to the work of countless Enochic scholars from the past and present. Some aspects of this project would not have been possible without the ongoing work of Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Ted M. Erho, amongst many others involved in the study and digitalization of the manuscripts of Ethiopic Enoch, and I particularly thank them for their dedicated work. Loren provided additional information on several manuscripts of Ethiopic Enoch, and confirmed the manuscript attestation of several readings, for which I am grateful. In addition, I am thankful to Ian Young and John Barton who supervised earlier projects focused on the Enochic Book of the Watchers, during an Honours year at the University of Sydney, and a MPhil in Theology at Oxford respectively. Their critical and gentle guidance helped shape my approach to the Enochic literature.
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers who read and critiqued my initial manuscript. Their feedback highlighted areas for further thinking that not only improved the book, but also helped me to turn the work into a book rather than a dissertation. A special thanks goes to Karina Martin Hogan and René Bloch for accepting this study for publication in the Brill Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism series, and to Karina for her detailed proofreading and feedback during the revision process. Moreover, I would like to thank those at Brill who helped during the production of this book.
My time at Oxford, the dissertation, and this book would never have materialized without the love, support and infinite patience of my wife Bethany. Bethany provided constant and abundant encouragement amidst all the challenges of completing the dissertation whilst resident in Oxford and during Covid lockdowns in Sydney, and throughout the relentless rewriting and revision of this project, as it morphed and developed into what it became. The love and joy provided by our two young children, Emily and Judah, motivated me throughout the revision. This book is dedicated to them in gratitude for everything.