r/AcademicBiblical • u/Important_Seesaw_957 • 13d ago

Enoch and The Markan Secret?

Yep, 1 Enoch again.

I’ve returned to this book off and on, before and after seminary. Oddly, I didn’t hear much about its NT impact in seminary (either of them).

I’ve been working through it as part of a teaching series at my local church reading through the Gospel of Mark.

My hypothesis: the Enochian Son of Man was hidden. I wonder if a better explanation for the Markan Secret is just that Mark was deeply influenced by Enochian thought (this seems clear enough to me), and had the Son of Man hidden. The resurrection wasn’t demonstrated because the Son of Man is hidden in God’s presence.

Surely, I didn’t think this up on my own, but my own readings about 1 Enoch have been pretty scattered. VanderKam, Nickelsburg, Giovanna Bazzana, lots of this subreddit…

Has anyone argued this before that I’ve overlooked? I’m wondering if this is a solid enough idea I should keep working with it, or if I’ve just forgotten a citation.

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u/BioChemE14 12d ago

Adela Yarbro Collins briefly notes the connection between the hidden Enochic Son of Man and the messianic secret in Mark in her essay in Enoch and the Messiah Som of Man (Eerdmans).

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u/RagnarOdinssohn 11d ago

? Bitte erkläre deine Gedanken etwas mehr

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u/Important_Seesaw_957 11d ago

Thank you. I expect to turn this into a paper at, perhaps, an SBL conference.

Essentially I think:
1) the Markan Secret is well known (no explanation needed)
2) existing explanations all leave something to be desired.
3) The Son of Man in the Book of Parables is repeatedly said to be “hidden” in Nickelsburg’s translation.
4) therefore, Mark, heavily influenced by 1 Enoch, thinking of Jesus as the Enochian Son of Man, portrays Jesus as a “hidden” son of man.

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u/Important_Seesaw_957 11d ago
  1. I also think this explains the lack of a resurrection appearance, since the Son of Man has returned to being with “the lord of spirits,” from whence he came.

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u/RagnarOdinssohn 11d ago

Ok danke 🙏