mountainman

Biblical "historians" may not like ancient historians giving
Eusebius of Caesarea a serving in the "integrity stakes"
but ancient "historians" do this for a very good reason.

mountainman

If you were to conduct a string search on the word within the
article "Pagan and Christian Historiography in the Fourth Century"
by Momigliano, you will unconver some useful citations.

This article has been produced here in full earlier, and I have "archived"
a temporary version here.

Just as Eusebius invented ecclesiastical history, Athanasius
is credited by M. as the inventor of hagiography, perhaps
around 360 CE, with his "Life of St. Anthony".

Steven Avery

This looks like a misreading of Tertullian.
From Roger's site.

http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf04/...htm#P292_58954
Chapter III. ----Concerning the Genuineness of "The Prophecy of Enoch."

Tertullian defends the authenticity of Enoch despite its not being in the Jewish canon. And he explains why he believes it could be preserved through the flood, giving his response to one objection to Enoch.

eg. "Noah therefore, no doubt, might have succeeded in the trusteeship of (his) preaching"

Tertullian also uses Enoch in his discourse. I see no place where he ascribes the genuineness of the Book of Enoch to the fact that Enoch lived before the flood. On the other hand he does mention the Jude reference as a factor in his viewpoint, and there are doctrinal considerations.

So a criticism of Tertullian for an uncritical perspective on the Book of Enoch is legitimate, but claiming that he considered Enoch as scripture because Enoch lived before the flood simply doesn't match what Tertullian actually said.

Incidentally, can anyone give the date of the earliest extant Enoch manuscript that has the words that are close to what Jude wrote? Is there a good article that discusses the extant Enoch manuscripts and their transmissional history with special emphasis on the Jude "Enoch .. prophesied" verse ? And that helps evaluate whether there could have been a later Ethiopic scribal 'smoothing' similar to the Greek OT changing Psalm 14 to match NT Romans ?

Thanks.

Shalom,
Steven Avery