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ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). Pp. xiv + 318. $75.
In this revised Princeton University dissertation (2002), Reed investigates the reception history of the Enochic Book of the Watchers (I Enoch 1-36), especially its distinctive traditions about the Watchers, or fallen angels, of Gen 6: 1-4. After analyzing the traditions about the angelic Watchers in the literary and social setting of the Book of the Watchers itself (chap. 1), R. explores the afterlife of these traditions in pre-rabbinic Judaism, including other Enochic pseudepigrapha, the Qumran community, and the early Jesus movement (chaps. 2-3). She then traces the popular appropriation of the Enochic myth of angelic descent in proto-Orthodox Christianity and the abandonment of the myth in rabbinic Judaism (chaps. 4-5). Finally, she investigates the marginalization and eventual rejection of the Enochic traditions in Western Christian orthodoxy in late antiquity (chap. 6) and the resurgence of interest in these traditions in early medieval Judaism (chap. 7).
Reed walks sure-footedly among a daunting complex of texts and traditions that span more than a thousand years. Her work is as impressive for its methodological...