Preface

Abstract

This book is a revision of my dissertation, which was written in the Department of Religion at Princeton University under the supervision of Martha Himmelfarb, Peter Schäfer, and John G. Gager. I cannot imagine a more stimulating intellectual environment in which to study, nor kinder people with whom to work. I offer them my warmest thanks for their support and inspiration, academic and otherwise. The dissertation and book also benefited much from feedback from, and conversations with, Adam H. Becker, Ra'anan Boustan, Peter Brown, Patricia Crone, Fritz Graf, Elaine Pagels, John C. Reeves, and Burt Visotzky. For their comments and advice, I am grateful to Kirsti Copeland, David Frankfurter, Paula Fredriksen, Bob Kraft, Eileen Schuller, Michael E. Stone, and Peter Widdicombe. Funding for the dissertation on which this book is based was provided by the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. Earlier versions of several chapters were presented at the Center's Religion and Culture workshop as well as at the conference In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Imagined Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions and in the Early Jewish–Christian Relations and Pseudepigrapha sections of the Society of Biblical Literature's annual meetings. Extended versions of some of the arguments in Chapters 1, 2, 5, and 7 have been published in different forms in earlier articles: “From Asael and Šemiḥazah to Uzzah, Azzah, and Azael: 3 Enoch 5 (§§7–8) and the Jewish Reception-History of 1 Enoch” (Jewish Studies Quarterly 8 [2001]: 1–32); “The Textual Identity, Literary History, and Social Setting of 1 Enoch: Reflections on George Nickelsburg's Commentary on 1 Enoch 1–36; 81–108.”