1 Enoch: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch: Chapters 1-36; 81-108, by George W. E. Nickelsburg. Edited by Klaus Baltzer. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001. Pp. xxxviii + 618. $58.00 (cloth). This book, a welcome addition to the Hermeneia commentary series, is a critical and historical commentary on books 1, 4, and 5 of 1 Enoch, which provides a careful use of philological, historical, textual, and literary methods. Nickelsburg brings together the results of a lifetime of study on what is probably the most important of the Jewish "pseudepigrapha" of the postbiblical period. Accordingly, most of Nickelsburg's major contributions are not presented here for the first time, but they are presented in a comprehensive and integrated way, possible only in a full-length commentary. Not the least of its virtues is that it contains the most authoritative and readable English translation currently available. It is to be hoped that it will soon be possible to purchase this translation separately in the form of an inexpensive paperback.
