The Enoch Seminar is an academic group of international specialists in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins who share information about their work in the field and biennially meet to discuss topics of common interest. Supported by the Department of Near Eastern Studies of the University of Michigan and the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies, the group gathers about 200 university professors from more than fifteen countries.
The Enoch Seminar focuses on the period of Jewish history, culture and literature from the Babylonian Exile (6th cent. BC) to the Bar-Kochba revolt (2nd cent. AD) —the period in which both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism have their roots. It is a neutral forum where scholars who are specialized in different sub-fields (OT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, Philo, New Testament) and are committed to different methodologies, have the opportunity to meet, talk and listen to one another without being bound to adhere to any sort of preliminary agreement or reach any sort of preordained consensus.
The Enoch Seminar was founded in 2000 by Gabriele Boccaccini (University of Michigan), who has chaired it ever since. Boccaccini is professor of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins at the University of Michigan (USA) and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Henoch from 2005 to 2012. Vice-Directors from 2000 to 2011 were the late Hanan Eshel (Bar-Ilan University, Israel) and Loren Stuckenbruck (University of Durham, UK).
The current Board of Directors of the Enoch Seminar includes: Gabriele Boccaccini (chair), Kelley Coblentz Bautch (St. Edwards University, USA), Esther Eshel (Bar-Ilan University, Israel), Matthias Henze (Rice University, USA), Pierluigi Piovanelli (University of Ottawa, Canada), Carlos A. Segovia (Camilo José Cela University, Spain), and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Princeton Theological Seminary, USA).
Participation at the meetings of the Enoch Seminar is by invitation only and is restricted to University professors and specialists in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins who have completed their PhD. Papers circulate in advance among the participants and the entire time at the meetings is devoted to discussion in plenary sessions or small groups. Since 2006, to graduate students, PhD candidates and post-doctorate fellows, the Enoch Seminar has offered a separate biennial conference (the Enoch Graduate Seminar).
Veterans and leaders of the Enoch Seminar are Daniel Assefa (Ethiopia), Albert Baumgarten (Israel), Kelley Coblentz Bautch (USA), Andreas Bedenbender (Germany), Gabriele Boccaccini (USA), Daniel Boyarin (USA), James H. Charlesworth (USA), Sabino Chialà (Italy), John J. Collins (USA), Michael Daise (USA), Marcello Del Verme (Italy), Torleif Elgvin (Norway), Yaron Eliav (USA), Esther and Hanan Eshel (Israel), Florentino García Martínez (Belgium), Ida Fröhlich (Hungary), Claudio Gianotto (Italy), Charles A. Gieschen (USA), Lester L. Grabbe (England), Ithamar Gruenwald (Israel), Matthias Henze (USA), Martha Himmelfarb (USA), Michael Knibb (England), Klaus Koch (Germany), Robert Kraft (USA), Helge Kvanvig (Norway), Erik Larson (USA), Luca Mazzinghi (Italy), Hindy Najman (Canada), George W.E. Nickelsburg (USA), Andrei Orlov (USA), Pierluigi Piovanelli (Canada), Annette Yoshiko Reed (USA), Jacques van Ruiten (the Netherlands), Paolo Sacchi (Italy), Lawrence Schiffman (USA), Loren Stuckenbruck (England), Shemaryahu Talmon (Israel), Eibert Tigchelaar (USA), David Suter (USA), James Vanderkam (USA), Pieter Venter (South Africa), Ralph Williams (USA), Benjamin Wright (USA), and Adela Yarbro Collins (USA). Secretary of the group is J. Harold Ellens (USA).
The Enoch Seminar website, edited by Pierpaolo Bertalotto (PhD University of Bari, Italy), provides not only detailed information about the meetings of the Enoch Seminar (and of the Enoch Graduate Seminar) but also a general picture of the status of studies in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins and of the history of research in the field.
Read more about Enoch Seminar: First Enoch Seminar (Florence 2001): “The Origins of Enochic Judaism”, Second Enoch Seminar (Venice 2003): “Enoch and Qumran Origins”, Third Enoch Seminar (Camaldoli 2005): “Enoch and The Messiah Son of Man: Revisiting The Book of Para, Fourth Enoch Seminar (Camaldoli-Ravenna 2007): “Enoch and The Mosaic Torah: The Evidence of Jubilees, Fifth Enoch Seminar (Naples 2009): “Enoch, Adam, Melchisedek: Mediatorial Figures in 2 Enoch and Sec
Famous quotes containing the words enoch and/or seminar:
“It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.... As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see “the River Tiber foaming with much blood.””
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