Friday I leave for a two month trip to various locales.

I start at the Enoch Seminar in Naples, Italy (I know, someone has to do it). This group meets every other summer and brings together experts in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity and Rabbinics from around the world.

This year we are looking at 2 Enoch with special attention to figures like Enoch, Melchizedek and Adam. Enoch and Melchizedek in particular are exalted, heavenly figures in some key Jewish traditions as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are some fascinating overlaps with NT ideas. For example in 11QMel, the figure of Melchizedek is tied to themes of deliverance and Jubilee, much like in Luke 4:16-30. He is also seen an an angelic-like figure (if not more) who serves God (El) as one of the elohim (part of the heavenly entourage). There also is a tracing of how these traditions were passed on over the centuries and how stable or altered the stories aroudn them were. Most of this material is familiar to specialists in Slavonic (the language of 2 Enoch), so Eastern Europeans and Eastern Orthodox know about these traditions which were preserved in the East into and beyond the medieval period. The meetings go from Sunday to Thursday of next week. They should be fascinating (not my usual set of topics)