Q. Why do you think it is that the writer(s) of the Parables of Enoch chose Enoch to be the figure represented in Dan. 7.13-14 as the Son of Man? Is it because he was taken up into heaven presumably as a righteous person, like Elijah was later?
A. I think that would certainly be one reason. Elijah already had an eschatological role assigned to him (by Malachi) and so was not available. Enoch was an obvious alternative. But I think the author also thinks Enoch a supremely important person, as emerges already in the Book of Watchers.
Q. If I’m reading you right, you think the author of the parables takes the Danielic phrase about the Son of the Man coming on the clouds as a descent from heaven to earth. Right?
A. He never uses that phrase, so we don’t know. On that particular point, I have shown that there are examples in Jewish exegesis of both interpretations: from heaven to earth, or from one part of heaven to God’s throne. But not from earth to heaven.
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