Material Evidence for Animal Apocalypse(s) of Enoch

This chapter confirms the hypothesis that the Animal Apocalypse comprises two separable works, previously advanced on literary grounds, with reference to the material record. This chapter demonstrates that only one of these works—the Vision of the Beasts—is attested among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and likely belongs to the world of second-century bce Judaea. The Apocalypse of the Birds, comprising the portion of the text that brings the allegorical history into the post-exilic era and leads into the eschaton, is not attested at Qumran. In light of this conclusion, different compositional models are introduced, and it is tentatively advanced that the Apocalypse of the Birds represents a later addition to a previously-circulating Vision of the Beasts.