About the Author

Philip F. Esler is the Portland Chair in New Testament Studies in the University of Gloucestershire. He is the author and editor of many books, including Babatha's Orchard (2017) and Sex, Wives, and Warriors (Cascade Books, 2011).

Reviews

"Esler has offered an obvious, yet much overlooked framework within which to understand the influential rebellious angel's myth in the Book of Watchers of 1 Enoch. This book should become necessary reading for anyone exploring how it is that evil could be thought to have emerged in proximity to God."
--Loren Stuckenbruck, Chair of New Testament, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

"Philip Esler has written a fresh and important study of the early Enoch literature, informed by a sociological perspective. His fundamental insight is that the model for heaven is not the temple but the royal court, and that the group behind this literature consisted of scribes who were not priests. This potentially groundbreaking study will reinvigorate the study of the oldest Jewish apocalyptic literature."
-- John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism & Interpretation, Yale Divinity School