556 Luca Mazzinghi In connection with the historical context in which Qoheleth is writing, we may recall that the third century is, in fact, the period in which the Enochic tradition was beginning to develop in an ever more expansive way. In this perspective, Qoheleth’s emphasis on the transcendence and absolute freedom of God is to be understood as the attempt by Qoheleth to give a polemical reply to a new vision of reality, that of Enoch, in which what happens on earth is the reflection of what happens in heaven. For Qoheleth, instead, there is no kind of relationship between the two worlds (cf. again the text of Qoh 5,2). In the Enochic tradition, the theme of violence is particularly present; cf., for example, 1Hen 91,18: “and now I will tell you, my children, and I show you the paths of righteousness and the paths of violence, and I shall show you them again, that you may know what is coming (...) Do not walk in the paths of violence, for they will perish forever (...)” (43). First of all, there is the “historical” violence actually undergone by the community to which the authors of these works belong. Then there is a metahistorical violence which is the real cause of the historical violence, or else the fallen angels who have taught humanity the ways of violence. The account in Book of Watchers (1 Hen 8,1; 9,1) tells us about the angels who instruct men in war. Finally, there is an eschatological, divine violence which will eliminate the first two forms of violence root and branch and re-establish peace; cf., for example, 1 Hen 91,8-9: “and in these days violence will be cut off from its roots and the roots of iniquity together with deceit; and they will be destroyed from under the heaven (...)”. The re-establishment of justice can come only from God; every human solution is impracticable (44). Qoheleth also observes bitterly the existence of an “historical” violence, of the oppressed and their oppressors, but refuses to search for its possible metahistorical causes. For him, neither the intermediate worlds nor the fallen angels exist. His observations are confined to what is “under the sun”. The absence of a divine comforter can therefore also be better understood in the context of an anti-Enochic polemic which is actually typical of the entire book of Qoheleth. Both Qoheleth and Enochism (43) For the text of 1 Hen cf. G.W.E. NICKELSBURG, 1 Enoch (Minneapolis, MN 2000) I, 409. (44) For all this, cf. S. CHIALÀ, “Violenza e giudizio divino nella letteratura enochica”, La violenza nella Bibbia, 111-122; as far as I am aware, this is the only study devoted to this specific theme.